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A horror film that it is 100% on RT (at least currently). That never happens. A horror film written and directed by Jordan Peele, someone mostly known for comedies. Consider me interested.
Synopsis: Now that Chris and his girlfriend, Rose, have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy and Dean. At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined. (Rotten Tomatoes)
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, and Bradley Whitford
Writer: Jordan Peele
Director: Jordan Peele
Rating: R
Running Time: 103mins
Trailer:
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The subject of race was going to come up in any film dealing with an interracial couple. It could have been pretentious about this but it didn’t make it the main focus of the film. The film served as more of a social commentary about the subtle racism that still exists today, playing with each group’s’ perceptions of the other to sometimes hilarious but mostly sad results. It wasn’t too difficult to accomplish, dealing with the awkwardness from either side trying to adapt to the other.
This film is about an interracial couple named Chris (Kaluuya) and Rose (Williams) who head to the suburbs for the weekend to meet Rose’s parents Dean (Whitford) and Missy Armitage (Catherine Keener). Thing just didn’t seem right to Chris from the start, from the behavior of Rose’s parents to their strange servants, Georgina (Betty Gabriel) and Walter (Marcus Henderson). They did not get better from there as Chris got introduced to the Armitage family history and lifestyle. Seeing the trailers, we already had an idea of where the plot was going but it was a little slow in getting there which would probably be the only complaint. There was still a great sense of tension from this but this got even better later on.
Thing ramped up once the Armitages had their annual get together where droves of affluent white families came to their estate (which was conveniently secluded). These “rich white people” were uncomfortably interested in Chris but this and seemingly seeing another servant for who Chris was familiar, a man named Logan (Lakeith Stanfield), was the final straw. Learning the truth about the Armitages and what they were really doing did not come as too much of a surprise but it still made it exciting to watch and ratcheting the stakes up even higher.
To break apart some of the film’s darker moments and to keep it interesting, it also offered a comic relief in the form of Chris’ TSA friend Rod (LilRel Howery). He was the other main black character that helped to put things into perspective, so to speak, providing a black counterpoint to what was happening and being the voice of the audience. Instead of being a gratuitous character, he actually played a role in the plot and often stealing scenes which was nice to see. He will change the way you look at the TSA from now on.
The acting here was excellent with Kaluuya being the standout. He was extremely likable and relatable as Chris, his awkwardness from being the only black man in a mostly white environment felt genuine. He was very compelling to watch and was easy to root for during the film’s darker second half. Williams was good as Rose, for the most part, serving as a support figure for Chris. She and Kaluuya were okay to watch together but their chemistry could have been better. Dean and Missy were the villains but they were not portrayed unfavorably (because of their different race). They were great at being both sinister and menacing while still likable.
Overall, this was an amazing horror film with a deeper message. While not particularly scary, it still managed to be both gripping and occasionally funny thanks to its well-written script, offering an exciting story along with likable characters.
Score: 9.5/10
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As has been my tradition, every sermon that I preach will be posted here. This sermon, Moving outside the private faith, was given at The Salvation Army Rochester on Sunday May 21, 2017. The Reading was John 14:12-24.
The Joy of being an Introvert
A couple of years ago, I was able to go and do a study unit that involved spending a week at a Monastery over in Perth. And part of what that unit involved was taking part in the Monk’s daily routine, which included their six daily prayer sessions, and maintaining silence between their final prayers of the day at 8.15pm and their first prayers of the morning, at 5.15am.
Now I’m sure that some of you might wonder why anyone would subject themselves to such a life for even a week, let alone commit their whole lives to it. But I found myself bubbling with energy after just a couple of days. You might even say that I was overflowing with energy.
You see, I am an introvert, and that means I get energy from being by myself.
I love running… by myself.
I love reading… by myself.
I love having coffee… by myself.
I love going to the movies… by myself.
Now it’s not to say that I don’t love doing these things with other people.
I enjoy running with large groups of people.
I relish reading to my kids.
I savour having coffee with others.
I revel in going to the movies with my wife.
And while I cherish the effect that these activities have on me when done in a group, its not the same as the effect they have on me when I do them by myself.
I am an introvert, and being by myself is where I get my energy. But, being an introvert has its challenges. For example, I am terrible at chit chat. I can be shy in situations where I don’t know many people, and often revert to hanging by the wall being by myself – which makes me terrible at networking. And while I can be extroverted when I have to, it will drain my energy levels and if I do it for too long, then I can get snappy.
I also have a tendency to internalise everything. And that is a huge problem. I’m getting better at it – I’m getting better at talking to Liesl when I’m feeling down. She’s also getting better at reading me and telling me when I just need to go and have some alone time. But all the same, it’s something that I have to be wary of, because if I internalise too much, then I can end up in a bad place, lacking motivation, and possibly even depressed.
We Internalise our faith
It’s a problem that isn’t just contained to introverts however. Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, or you shift between the two, we can all be at risk of internalising our faith too much.
I’m all for exploring the contemplative side of our faith – through things like prayer, spiritual disciplines, bible study, and meditation. However, we can’t allow these things to be the sole basis of our faith.
If we focus on our internal faith too much, then we risk getting into a bad place – just as I risk getting into a bad place if I don’t share what’s going on with someone. If we are too internal with our faith, our spiritual life starts to lack motivation. If we are too internal with our faith, our faith can get depressed.
Jesus’ cyclical command
Jesus realised this was a risk for his disciples. In the reading we heard today, Jesus is giving his disciples a passage of extended teaching which is called the Farewell Discourse. This passage is just a part of it, but Jesus is preparing his disciples for what will happen after his crucifixion. He is preparing for them to know how to continue on without him.
Jesus realises that without someone to guide the disciples, they might just retreat back into their own world – and we see that happen. After the crucifixion, the disciples retreat to a locked room. After the ascension, they retreat back to a room to work out what to do next. They need some guidance.
Jesus provides this guidance in the form of a cyclical command. In verse 15, Jesus says:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
John 14:15 NRSV
But he also says,
They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
John 14:21 NRSV
So we have this cyclical idea – if you love Jesus, then you will keep his commandments. And if you keep Jesus’ commandments, then you love Jesus.
We show Jesus that we love him through spending time with him – spending time in prayer, telling him that we love him. But it’s not enough to just tell someone that you love them.
One day, a child came running into the house to their mother, exclaiming: “Mamma, I love you!”
The mother replied: “I am so glad you love me. I have had a hard day, and I am so tired. If you love me so much, will you wash the dishes for me?”
The child replied: “I do love you, mother, but not in that way.”
We need to be sure we’re not like that little child. We can’t just allow our love for God to be just words. We need to keep Christ’s commandments, and to continue Christ’s work in the world.
We continue Christ’s work in the world, guided by the Paraclete
In verse 12, Jesus says
Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
John 14:12 NRSV
He invites us to continue his work in the world. And what is that work? In many ways, it’s summed up in Matthew 25:
for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
Matthew 25:35–36 NRSV
Or in Jesus’ own proclamation at the beginning of his ministry in Luke 4:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luke 4:18–19 NRSV
Now this is a difficult thing for us to do. I mean, sure, it’s easy for Jesus to do that, he is the Son of God after all. But, for us?
Thankfully, Jesus knew that this was a difficult thing. So he says, “I will not leave you orphaned.” This was a word that was used for disciples who had been left without a master, or someone to guide them. Jesus promises them that he will leave them an Advocate, or a Counsellor which the NIV translates it as. The Greek word used is Paracleytos, and is often transliterated as Paraclete. It has a range of meanings, such as “the one who exhorts,” “the one who comforts,” “the one who helps,” and “the one who makes appeals on one’s behalf.” And John draws on all of these meanings when he uses this word through the rest of the Gospel.
So, Jesus left us with someone to help us do his work, someone to encourage us, someone to appeal to God for us, and someone to comfort us. Jesus knew that if we were to do his work in the world, then we would need to have all of those things to help us. So we received the Paraclete, or the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Truth.
There’s a quote attributed to Pope Francis which says, “First you pray for the hungry, and then you go and feed them. That’s how prayer works.” See, we can’t internalise our faith and rely solely on our inward actions. In James 2:17 we read:
So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
James 2:17 NRSV
We need to have our faith, yes. We need to have those inward actions of prayer, study, and meditation. But those actions should drive us out into the world, to do the work of Christ. To feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and reveal the love of Christ to all people.
Reveal Christ in all that you do
In everything that we do, we should aim to reveal Christ to all people. We need to be open to what the Paraclete is exhorting us to do – to share about Jesus, to care, to love, to feed, to clothe. Yes, we do that through prayer, but that prayer drives us out into the world, and when we see what is happening in the world, it drives us back to prayer. This cyclical nature of our faith is essential. We love God, and so we talk to God and pray to God. But because we love God, we keep God’s commands and head out into the world and reveal God’s love to all. And because we are keeping God’s commands, we return to God in prayer, sharing with God our love, and our desire to see God’s kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven.
So let us go out into the world, having been fuelled by prayer, and study, and meditation, and go and be used and guided by the Paraclete who Jesus has left for us.
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Op-Ed Science and religion: God didn't make man; man made gods
In recent years scientists specializing in the mind have begun to unravel religion's "DNA."
Like our physiological DNA, the psychological mechanisms behind faith evolved over the eons through natural selection. They helped our ancestors work effectively in small groups and survive and reproduce, traits developed long before recorded history, from foundations deep in our mammalian, primate and African hunter-gatherer past.
In recent years scientists specializing in the mind have begun to unravel religion's "DNA." They have produced robust theories, backed by empirical evidence (including "imaging" studies of the brain at work), that support the conclusion that it was humans who created God, not the other way around. And the better we understand the science, the closer we can come to "no heaven … no hell … and no religion too."
No religion: What was Lennon summoning? For starters, a world without "divine" messengers, like Osama bin Laden, sparking violence. A world where mistakes, like the avoidable loss of life in Hurricane Katrina, would be rectified rather than chalked up to "God's will." Where politicians no longer compete to prove who believes more strongly in the irrational and untenable. Where critical thinking is an ideal. In short, a world that makes sense.
For example, we are born with a powerful need for attachment, identified as long ago as the 1940s by psychiatrist John Bowlby and expanded on by psychologist Mary Ainsworth. Individual survival was enhanced by protectors, beginning with our mothers. Attachment is reinforced physiologically through brain chemistry, and we evolved and retain neural networks completely dedicated to it. We easily expand that inborn need for protectors to authority figures of any sort, including religious leaders and, more saliently, gods. God becomes a super parent, able to protect us and care for us even when our more corporeal support systems disappear, through death or distance.
Scientists have so far identified about 20 hard-wired, evolved "adaptations" as the building blocks of religion. Like attachment, they are mechanisms that underlie human interactions: Brain-imaging studies at the National Institutes of Health showed that when test subjects were read statements about religion and asked to agree or disagree, the same brain networks that process human social behavior — our ability to negotiate relationships with others — were engaged.
Among the psychological adaptations related to religion are our need for reciprocity, our tendency to attribute unknown events to human agency, our capacity for romantic love, our fierce "out-group" hatreds and just as fierce loyalties to the in groups of kin and allies. Religion hijacks these traits. The rivalry between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, for example, or the doctrinal battles between Protestant and Catholic reflect our "groupish" tendencies.
In addition to these adaptations, humans have developed the remarkable ability to think about what goes on in other people's minds and create and rehearse complex interactions with an unseen other. In our minds we can de-couple cognition from time, place and circumstance. We consider what someone else might do in our place; we project future scenarios; we replay past events. It's an easy jump to say, conversing with the dead or to conjuring gods and praying to them.
Morality, which some see as imposed by gods or religion on savage humans, science sees as yet another adaptive strategy handed down to us by natural selection.
Yale psychology professor Paul Bloom notes that "it is often beneficial for humans to work together … which means it would have been adaptive to evaluate the niceness and nastiness of other individuals." In groundbreaking research, he and his team found that infants in their first year of life demonstrate aspects of an innate sense of right and wrong, good and bad, even fair and unfair. When shown a puppet climbing a mountain, either helped or hindered by a second puppet, the babies oriented toward the helpful puppet. They were able to make an evaluative social judgment, in a sense a moral response.
Michael Tomasello, a developmental psychologist who co-directs the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, has also done work related to morality and very young children. He and his colleagues have produced a wealth of research that demonstrates children's capacities for altruism. He argues that we are born altruists who then have to learn strategic self-interest. |
Cover art detail from 'TimeSplitters: Future Perfect'
I don't remember much of my second year of university. I just remember my room. Days bleeding into one another as I listened at my door to make sure my housemates weren't around before I crept out to get food.
At the start of the year I had tried to kill myself for the first time. Thankfully I didn't do my research and woke up in hospital, but the angst I felt for trying and failing, and the stigma around it, crushed me. My Asperger syndrome hopped into the party and convinced me that everyone would judge me. The result of this ultra combo of neurosis was that when I was released from hospital, I retreated to my room and stayed there.
The situation was dire. After a few weeks, my friends had stopped trying to get in touch and while I was keen to socialise again, I felt too drained to leave my room. My housemates often had parties, but jumping straight in was overwhelming. I was welcome, but couldn't really connect. I felt isolated and the situation seemed hopeless.
I wasn't expecting respite to come from a lurid arcade shooter. One night, I was washing up in the small kitchen next to the living room as a TimeSplitters: Future Perfect tournament rocked the lounge. It'd been months since I'd played a video game; my own Xbox 360 sat under a thick layer of dust. I watched for a while before shyness overcame me and sent me scurrying back to my room.
TimeSplitters is a multiplayer FPS from the makers of N64 classic GoldenEye 007. There was something about the mess of watermelons, monkeys and explosions that kept drawing me back in. The game takes every cliché it can get and smashes them together: the average game could see you shooting everything from '70s cops to intergalactic space robots.
Over the next couple of weeks I ducked in and out quietly with nothing more than a polite nod. A series of unofficial house rules had created a code of honour for the players and spectators. Thanks to drunken spectators turning into commentators, I started to learn these ad-hoc rules: any sort of mine was frowned upon and it wasn't how many but who you killed, and how, that gave you prestige.
Past midnight one night, a knock came on the bedroom door. My housemate looked sheepish: "We're just about to play some TimeSplitters, fancy it?" My heart hopped up in my throat. Besides a brief smile and nod to the cashier at Tesco or the harried-looking guy that delivered from the Chinese place down the road, this was the first human contact I'd had in weeks.
Turns out I'm the fucking best at TimeSplitters. We laughed, we cried, we did that whooping thing that guys in their early 20s seem to do. We got really stoned. For the first time in months, I went to bed in a good mood.
Around midday the next day, another knock. Less apprehensive now, my housemate yelled through: " TimeSplitters in five!" I ended up playing the game a lot over the following month: it was easier to curl up in my living room than leave the house. Whenever I was worn out I could sneak back to my room.
'TimeSplitters: Future Perfect' trailer
The crowd of stoners that rocked up at my house night after night were always happy to play. Their mixture of acceptance and indifference helped me slowly drag myself out of my shell. Conversation stuck to easy topics with a rotating cast and nobody ever really asked any awkward questions about why I was always wandering the house in a pair of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle pyjamas that were a tiny bit too small for me.
Behind the inane characters and explosive weapons, TimeSplitters was an incredibly varied game. The time travelling plot device allowed designers to mix and match their tropes for level and weapon design, while the multiplayer aspect that made GoldenEye such a timeless classic had been revised and improved upon. A variety of competitive and silly game modes, and a map-maker, meant there could be hundreds of hours of content.
A few weeks later, three months after my attempt, I started to venture outside again. Little things like tagging along to the pub, or coming out to get a takeaway. Small adventures. Shortly after that I started to appear at the back of lectures, batting away the more awkward questions with a smile rather than feeling the urge to retreat.
A screen shot from 'TimeSplitters: Future Perfect'
I'll always have a soft spot for Future Perfect for giving me a way to interact with others when I didn't feel able. It was instrumental in my recovery. When playing TimeSplitters, motives are pretty clear and socialising is easy. I didn't have to second-guess how someone was reacting to me, or whether they were judging: they were just screaming at me for killing them with a brick.
TimeSplitters helped me communicate. Games gave me that space. As many people with depression will tell you, it's easy to slip into a tailspin: nothing is good, nothing will ever be good. You feel like a prisoner in your own head. For me, that was stopped by one very good shooter and a group of people who were tactful enough not to make a big deal of things while I re-learnt the ropes. While much is made of the incredibly toxic communities surrounding many of our most popular online games, the communities and friendships that form around local multiplayer games can be exceptional for helping people to deal with a range of issues.
@_JakeTucker
More 'The Game That Made Me' articles on VICE Gaming:
'Metroid Prime' Is the Game That Made Me Want to See the World
'Castlevania' Is the Game That Made Me an eBay Addict
'Max Payne' Was the Game That Understood My Depression |
When it comes to film scoring, so many indie directors leave it to the last minute. Time is spent in pre-production, then casting, shooting and editing, that many forget to enlist a compose until their film is well into post… If they do at all.
By Nathaniel Smith (with Nicole Boyd)
So, you’ve finished the final edit, the sound designer has done the dialogue/foley edit and is now demanding the score for the final mix – they have another job to start and your project is holding that up. Unfortunately, you’ve put off organising the music for so long now, that its too late to get an original score.
Inevitably, this leads to a weekend of panicked online searches for royalty free tunes.
For two full days your ears (and that of your film’s producer) will be assaulted, with row upon row of ridiculous trance/techno mixes of Gaga and Macklemore or Michael Jackson and One Direction – none of which is labelled correctly.
It becomes so overwhelming that all of those endless beats, and their senseless glitchy repetition, begin to wind their way deep into your subconscious. So that even your sleep, now feels like a drug-laden Hunter S. Thompson ‘Lizardman’ nightmare.
Moans of – “It didn’t have to be like this… If only we’d gotten a composer earlier, ” are heard, as you hit ‘play’ on yet another mislabeled Queen and 50 Cent mash-up.
Both you, and your producer – now resembling a Gonzo lawyer on the dark side of bad speed – swear by the Gods of Good Cinema, that you will never, never ever let this happen again .
Next time you make sure you find a composer before shooting. You’re fresh faced and bushy eyed and busy at work on your new project; secure in the knowledge that this time, you’ve enlisted a professional.
But how do you define the indefinable? How do you explain to your composer exactly the way you want your film’s score to sound? Or even what kind of music styles will work with each scene?
This is where LA composer, Nathaniel Smith comes in.
His work in Hollywood (47 Ronin – music production assistant), television (The Tudors – assistant to composer) and numerous indie projects, has given him a unique insight – into how directors get it so wrong when choosing music for their films.
Nathaniel has compiled his best advice into a list of 6 tips, to help you get the sound you want for your next film.
“I’ve been working as a composer in LA for the past three years. I’m not at the top of the game by any means but I have been working on a lot of projects with both well seasoned directors & fresh out of school directors. It seems to me that even the best schools in the country (USC, AFI, NYU) only teach you the very basics of music and how synch music works.
Here are a few guidelines and opinions you might find helpful. If you’d like more info on any of this drop me a note. I’m always happy to talk music with filmmakers.”
STEP 1 – Deciding on your Music.
“There are a lot of options, licensed music from bands, library (aka production) music, or a composer. You’re probably going to want to use licensed music. I know this because of all the projects I get temped with Radiohead, The Black Eyed Peas, Aviici, and the like but in reality you can’t afford this. Seriously, unless Trent Reznor is your cousin you should really not even put the social network soundtrack against your picture even as a joke. Because you’ll love it and then you’ll be all “let’s just leave it in for now.”– terrible idea. It will only end in tears. If you’re going to license music go find it on soundcloud and contact the artist before you temp their music to picture. This way you don’t end up working with a primadonna who wants thousands because they’re awesome like that. Have a contract at the ready, and get them to sign it as soon as they agree to let you have their music for no money.
Library music is generally OK and you can sift through piles of crap to find something that works. Then you pay a modest fee (anywhere from $20 – tens of thousands depending on your project and the library you’re negotiating with) and you get the rights to use that music in your film.
A composer will write music to picture and is the best thing for any film, but they come in all kinds and you have to wait to hear what they come up with. You have to tell them what you do and do not like and then hope that their feelings aren’t going to be too hurt. Good composers don’t give a shit. New/young composers can get really attached to their work and be a little put out if you don’t like it too.
You need to decide early on how you want to handle music and prepare accordingly. If you’re going to use bands get contracts ready. If you’re going to use library do your research and budget appropriately. If you’re going to use a composer find them as early in the process as you can. There is NOTHING more frustrating than finding out that a director has “no money left” for the music but spent a couple grand on sandwiches for the crew on set. If you hire them earlier you’ll budget for their fee. Please budget for their fee.
This is so important I need to state it again. BUDGET FOR MUSIC. I have been approached with countless projects which budgeted correctly for food, transportation, and on set security but not for music. Music can make a good project legendary or a fantastic film unwatchable. When you don’t budget for music properly you’re far more likely to slip into the latter category. If you need a rule-of-thumb figure then you can ballpark 10% – 15% of your total budget to music. For something that can carry 50% of the emotional weight of your film that’s some good value – don’t cheapen it.”
STEP 2 – Temping your Film.
“If you temp your film before sending it to your composer you should temp it with the most god awful crap you can find that still carries the emotional quality that you’re looking for. Trust me on this. If you temp with the Social Network soundtrack or the Inception soundtrack and then hand it to your young composer YOU WILL HATE WHAT THEY GIVE YOU. Why? Because you temped your picture with Oscar winning music that was recorded and mixed and mastered professionally and if your composer could write like that already then they sure as shit wouldn’t be working on your “indie short.” You want to give them something that they’re going to be better than. Something that you’re going to be glad to get rid of. Tell your composer what about that crappy temp you think works (the rhythm, the strings, the build, the synth idea, the “darkness”).
Before you send picture to your composer ask them what they need in the video. SMPTE timecode? Two pop? I prefer dialog & SFX to be panned hard left and temp music to be panned hard right so that I can split them out. Make sure that you put a card before the 2 pop that says “film title, composer’s name, frame rate & audio rate” (eg. “Short Film, Jim Dandy composer cut, 24 FPS, 48k audio”) Trust me, this is SUPER important information and if anything doesn’t get delivered to you in proper format you can point to that card and say “dude, you got this all in the video I sent you.”
Also, make sure that the assistant editor’s intern’s intern that you get to burn timecode into the composer’s video gets their work checked by someone who knows what the fuck they’re doing. Wrong timecode is most-common-problem #2 on the composer list of every project’s bullshit problems (#1 is click. Composers/Engineers know what I’m talking about.)
Lastly, when you send that timecode burned, 2-pop included, awesome info card added, temp/dialog correctly panned video please make sure you’re not sending a 4K video. Make it small. Turn off that little nit-picky voice inside of you that whines about sub-optimal quality. I’m just going to have to take that much more time to download your giant ass file and then convert it to something small so my computer’s resources aren’t bogged down. Just make it small for me. Crush that fucker down to ipod size. I need to see what’s going on, not screen it for the Academy.”
STEP 3 – Notes.
“So you just got version 1 of the music back and WOW did Mr. Composer man (or woman) miss the boat. First, wait as long as you can to write your notes to them. Live with it for at least 24 hours. You might find that something works really well while other things might not. Maybe it’s just TOO LOUD (composers always mix the music too loud against dialog. expect it.)
But after living with it and mulling it over you’re sure that there’s a lot that’s not working. If you can, write everything down. Make sure that you give two positive responses for every negative. This can be hard if your composer missed the mark completely but try. “I really like the strings but I hate that synth sound.” that can work.
Never, ever, ever say “what the temp does really well is…” because your composer will hear “why can’t you be the temp!?” Instead, say something like “your cue needs a little more…” because then they feel like you’re actually listening to the music and talking about what they did, not someone else’s work. Think how it would feel if someone said to you “you know, what Spielberg does really well is…” You’d be like, “Why are you comparing me to him!? That’s insane!”
Talk in emotional terms. Use emotion words. Don’t try and talk music. Odds are you’re going to use a term wrong and confuse your composer. Unless you have some kind of degree in music avoid musical terms. Speak to your composer like you would to your actors. Emotions, elements of story, dramatic intent… stuff like that. Your composer is telling a story though a different medium. Give them the tools to tell that story. Tell them what emotional content the music needs to have and give SPECIFIC TIMECODE if you want certain hits or moment accentuated.”
STEP 4 – Revisions
“Try to limit yourself to two revisions, no more than three. Unless you’re paying them a load of money. Then check the contract to make sure there aren’t revision limits (mine says two revisions per cue or you pay more money but I’m not a total jackass about it,) and if not then go for it.
But in general most of you are going to be working with someone who’s working for free or almost free so try and get what you need from them in two revisions. If they’re not giving you what you want by the 2nd revision you might have to examine your communication skills or expectations. This is, of course, assuming that you’re not asking for rock and getting jazz.
If they’re sucking a giant nut then get a new composer. If they’re revising and revising and giving you what you ask for and you’re still not happy try and find out where the communication is breaking down.”
STEP 5 – Delivery
“Spell out to them what you want as a deliverable. Do you want one long stereo audio file (for anything 15 minutes or less do this. It’s easier on you.) Do you want stems? (unless you’ve got a really professional dub engineer don’t ask for stems) Tell them specifically file format, bit depth, sample rate. (example: gimme .wav files, 24 bit 48k.) If they are using ProTools then audio will spot directly to timecode in your avid session. BUT just to be sure you should ask them to title each audio file with the SMPTE code that it starts on. (example “1m02_title_01111513.wav”) This way your mixing engineer can spot the audio to the correct TC or check it if it spots automatically.
BTW, if you don’t know exactly what to ask for a deliverable ask your editor. In fact, at this point your composer and editor should already have been put into contact with each other and have already developed a deep and lasting bond of friendship. You want the Editor and Composer to start a dialog as early as possible in this process. You want them to be best friends.”
STEP 6 – Credit
“Always ask as early as possible how your composer wants to be credited. Make sure to ask if they have any “additional music by…” credits or musicians to credit.
Since the vast majority of you are small indie types, you should tell your composer to create and submit their own cue sheets. But if you’re amazingly awesome you will get a cue sheet from them and submit it to ASCAP and BMI for them. This is so that if your film gets any play on TV or in theaters or whatever then your composer will get some performance royalties.
If they’re not registered with ASCAP or BMI ask them why they don’t like money. Then tell them to get their shit together and register.”
About The Author
Nathaniel Smith is an award winning composer, arranger & producer based out of Los Angeles. His work has been seen on Starz, CBS, and at a long list of film festivals including SXSW and the Park City Film Music Festival. His most recent credits include the feature film Park City and assisting composer Ilan Eshkeri on the score for 47 Ronin. When not writing music, he can often be found DJing Chicago flavored house music at his regular night ‘HomeRoom’.
For more information on Nathaniel, check his website: nathanielmusic.com |
In 2010, Obama returned to his signature phrase. Insisting that “We can't afford another so-called economic ‘expansion’ like the one from the last decade … where the income of the average American household declined,” he promised to “lay a new foundation for long-term economic growth, and finally address the problems that America's families have confronted for years.” He talked about a second stimulus, about new spending on energy infrastructure and community colleges and he pushed healthcare reform. But by 2010, Obama’s popularity was down and Republicans were apoplectic about the rising government debt, and so Obama’s “new foundation” found itself competing with a new emphasis on deficit reduction. “Families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. The federal government should do the same,” he declared, even though Keynesian economics would suggest doing exactly the opposite. Despite acknowledging that the economic “devastation” from the Great Recession “remains,” Obama proposed freezing government spending for three years and proposed a bipartisan commission to suggest longer-term cuts.
By Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address, Republicans had taken the House and the phrase “new foundation” had disappeared. Obama proposed new government money for biomedical research, transportation infrastructure and 100,000 new science and math teachers. But this time, he also promised to freeze federal spending for five years, thus even more thoroughly subordinating his “new foundation” agenda to deficit reduction. “Now that the worst of the recession is over,” he declared, “we have to confront the fact that our government spends more than it takes in,” even though government spending more than it took in was the only thing keeping many Americans from experiencing the “worst of the recession” yet again.
In 2012, Obama shifted from the need for deficit reduction to his favored method of deficit reduction: spending cuts paired with tax hikes for the wealthy. And with his eye firmly on that fall’s reelection campaign, he contrasted his strategy for deficit reduction with the less equitable version favored by the GOP.
Then, in 2013, with reelection safely behind him, and mandatory sequester cuts beginning to bite, Obama offered a deficit compromise: He’d cut “entitlements” like Medicare and Social Security if Republicans accepted “tax reform” that secured more money from the rich. Having beaten Mitt Romney, Obama could now discuss the terms of a deficit reduction package from a position of greater strength. But that didn’t change the fact that, for the fourth year in a row, he was emphasizing fiscal austerity during an economic slowdown that, according to progressive, Keynesian analysis, required the opposite.
Not anymore. Last night, instead of devoting paragraph after paragraph to America’s debt, Obama quickly doffed his cap to the importance of “bringing down our deficit in a balanced way,” and then pivoted hard. Now that congress had “finally produced a budget,” he declared, politicians were “freer to focus on creating new jobs.” And that’s exactly what Obama did. He didn’t just devote more time to subjects he had touched in on years past: making pre-K universal, raising the minimum wage, supporting manufacturing, building an infrastructure for clean energy. More importantly, he didn’t undermine those calls, either rhetorically or substantively, by also promising to freeze or slash government spending. It was as if the politics of austerity had suddenly ceased to exist. |
11th March, 2014
Statement of Chairperson, Mr. Justice Sean Ryan on news of the death of Ms. Christine Buckley, institutional abuse campaigner and co-founder of the Aislinn Centre “I am greatly saddened to learn of the death of Ms Christine Buckley. Her contribution to the understanding of institutional abuse of children going back for so many years cannot be overestimated. At considerable personal cost she brought to public attention some of the most painful and disreputable wrongs that happened to children with the authority of the State. She was an indefatigable champion of those who were abused as children and disbelieved as adults. Ms Buckley worked tirelessly over many years to achieve justice and she leaves a legacy of achievement. The nation owes her an enormous debt of gratitude and respect.
On a personal level, Ms Buckley was a pleasure to meet and to deal with. In difficult and sensitive circumstances in the Child Abuse Commission, she always behaved in a most courteous and professional manner.
My deepest sympathies go to Ms Buckley’s family on their loss.”
23rd August, 2012
Vaccine Trials records dismantlement The Commission has commenced the administrative process that will lead to its eventual closure. One of the initial stages of this process is the dismantlement of the records of the Vaccine Trials Division of the Commission whose work ceased in 2003 following a High Court ruling that the work of the Division was ultra vires the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse Act 2000. A key element of this dismantlement process is the return of records supplied to the Vaccine Trials Division to their original sources. The Commission has commenced this process.
13th July, 2011
Settlement of 3rd Party Legal Representation Costs The Commission wishes to notify all parties who may be entitled to legal representation costs, for matters which were the subject of inquiry by its Investigation Committee, that the deadline for submission of fees, from their legal representatives, is Friday, 28 October, 2011. After this time, no costs will be considered or processed by the Commission, which is the statutory body with sole authority in these matters. The Commission has taken this decision in order to facilitate the timely completion of its work and so it can plan, accordingly, for adequate resources to meet any outstanding liabilities. The Costs Team will write this week to all solicitors on record with it, if costs have not yet been settled, to advise of this decision. The Commission published its report in May 2009 and before and since then, has settled legal costs as it went along. As such, ample time has been allowed to all parties to formulate their reasonable costs.
22nd June, 2010
Commission Report in Irish Sign Language Extracts from the Commission's Report, as well as the Executive Summary, are now available in Irish Sign Language. The Report is on DVD and a copy of same can be obtained from the "Catholic Institute for Deaf People", or from the "Irish Deaf Society". This version of the Report contains the Commission's findings in relation to the following institutions:
Mary Immaculate School for Deaf Children, Beechpark
St. Mary's School for Deaf Girls, Cabra
St. Joseph's School for Deaf Boys, Cabra
To obtain a copy, please contact Mr. Liam O'Dwyer of the Catholic Institute for Deaf People, at (01) 8300 522 or via their website - www.cidp.ie, or Ms. Pauline McMahon of Deaf Communications Ltd., at (086) 257 3366, or via their website - www.deafcommunications.net.
4th December, 2009
The Commission has been advised by the Catholic Institute for Deaf People that due to unforeseen difficulties, the proposed extract of the Commission's Report, in Irish Sign Language, will not be completed until end-December or early-January of next year. Any further updates on this will be posted to our website but queries should be addressed to the Institute.
1st October, 2009
To request copies of the Commission's Report, please send an e-mail, using the webmaster address on our website, or phone the Commission at Dublin (+01) 662 4444. In the alternative, "Government Publications" in Dublin has copies available and can be contacted at Dublin (+01) 647 6879.
9th September, 2009
COMMISSION REPORT IN IRISH SIGN LANGUAGE The Commission is working with the “Catholic Institute for Deaf People” to produce relevant extracts from its report, as well as the Executive Summary, in Irish Sign Language. The purpose is to assist the deaf community access information about the Commission’s findings in relation to children who were hearing impaired and in residential institutions during the relevant period. It is expected that this version of the Report, on disk, will be available from end-November 2009. All queries in relation to this should be directed to Mr. Liam O’Dwyer at the Institute.
Contact details for the Institute are: Ph: (01) 8300 522 Email: [email protected] Web: www.cidp.ie
12th June, 2009
The Commission is now closed. There will be no further inquiries into the allegations already made or into new allegations that might have fallen within the Commission's remit. A small quota of staff remain to deal with outstanding administrative issues only.
29th May, 2009
The Commission has been inundated with requests for its report. Extra copies have been ordered to meet the demand and as soon as they become available, we will deal with those requests. Copies are available from the Government Publications Office, in Dublin. In the meantime, if you feel you need support, or need to talk to someone about issues within the report, you can call one of the following numbers. All, other than the UK number, are freephone: 1800 234 110 Dublin North
1800 234 111 Dublin South, Wicklow
1800 234 112 Dublin South West
1800 234 113 Midlands
1800 234 115 Clare, Limerick, North Tipperary
1800 234 119 Donegal/North
1800 234 118 Waterford, Kilkenny, Tipperary South
1800 234 114 West
1800 234 116 Cork, Kerry
1800 234 117 Border area
0044 207 2727906 U.K.
20th May 2009
Commission Report
20th May 2009
Commission Report
There will be limited copies of the Commission's Report, in both hard and soft copy, available from the Ballroom on the ground floor of the Conrad Hotel, on Earlsfort Terrace, from 3 - 4pm on Wednesday 20th May. As there is a limited number of Reports available, they will be given out on a first come first served basis. Charges may apply.
16th May 2009
Commission Report
The Commission’s Report will be published at 2.30pm on Wednesday, 20th May, 2009. The Report and Executive Summary will be posted to our website at that time. The Report, in hard copy, will consist of 5 volumes and will also be available on a single disk. Any further updates will be posted to our website. For those who require it, the Executive Summary, in audio format, will be available on request from Wednesday 20th May. The Commission will make the Report and the Executive Summary available on its website in a format for the visually impared. This format will be compatable with screen reading software and adaptive technology following the W3C guidelines. The Commission’s offices will close to the public from 2.30pm on 20th May 2009. If you are interested in receiving a copy of the Report please click the link below. If you are an applicant to either the Commission’s Investigation or Confidential Committee a copy of the Report will be provided free of charge. Witnesses to the Confidential Committee who previously expressed an interest in receiving a copy of the Confidential Committee report, are still entitled to copies of the rest of the report. Please use the link below to register your interest. If you are not an applicant a charge may apply. The Report, in both formats, will be available for purchase, from the date of publication, at Government Publications Sale Office, Sun Alliance House, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2. Applicants to the Confidential Committee may choose between a hard copy of the Confidential Committee volume only or the complete Commission Report in disk format. Please indicate in your email which you would prefer. Due to its size it will only be possible to post copies of the Report in disk format. If a hard copy is requested, a member of staff will contact you to make arrangements for collection, as the Commission’s offices will be closed. To request a copy of the Commission’s Report please click here: Email link to request the Report
29th April 2009
PUBLICATION OF THE COMMISSION'S REPORT
The Investigation Committee and Confidential Committee of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse have prepared their reports and presented them to the Commission. Consequently, the Commission expects to publish its report on Wednesday, 20th May. Any changes regarding the proposed date of publication will be posted to the Commission's website. Please click hereif you require some general information about the Commission.
Brenda McVeigh
Secretary to the Commission
21st January 2009
FINAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSION
The Commission is finalising its report which is expected to consist of five volumes plus appendices and which will be published, somewhat later than the Commissioners hoped, in mid to late May, 2009. The work of the Commission has taken longer than expected. The Commission has asked the Government to extend the time for publishing the report to the 31st May 2009 and is confident that this deadline will be met. If it is possible to bring the publication date forward, that will be done but it would be unrealistic to expect much earlier availability. The Commission was not able until now to make accurate predictions about printing and publication. The Commissioners are very conscious of the importance and urgency of the report and they appreciate the patience shown by participants and by the public and their understanding of the difficulty and complexity of the Commission's undertaking. There will be no significant extra cost because of the extension of time.
29th May 2008
*If interested in reviewing transcripts from public hearings of the Commission's Investigation Committee, please note that these have been moved to the "public hearings" tab above.
NOTICE FOR WEBSITE RE 3rd PARTY LEGAL COSTS
Section 20A(2) of the “Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse Act 2000” (as amended), provides that “the Commission may pay such reasonable costs arising out of the [3 rd party legal] representation…to the person so represented, as are agreed between the Commission and that person…”. It is the Commission’s position that the Act of 2000 only allows for settlement of 3 rd party legal representation costs that accrued since the establishment date of the Commission. Currently, the Commission is engaged in settling the legal representation costs of the persons referred to in section 20A of the Act.
The Commission considers costs submitted by solicitors and counsel who have acted for complainants or respondents, including
those of the witnesses who attended at the Commission’s “Investigation Committee” proceedings. There are no legal
representation costs for witnesses who have attended the Commission’s “Confidential Committee”. However, it is open to the Chairperson of the Commission to hold further hearings if it is deemed necessary in order to complete
the work of the Investigation Committee. Therefore, the Commission reserves the right to settle 3 rd party legal representation
costs, only at the point it considers a matter “closed”. With reference to Section 20A of the 2000 Act, once the Commission has decided, in principle, to pay a particular set of fees,
it is statutorily bound to pay only what is reasonable in relation to the legal representation of a person. Full and final settlement
of the fees will be agreed with a client’s solicitor (or be subject to taxation), after the Commission’s Costs Team, including its
Legal Costs Accountant, has extensively scrutinized the work undertaken by the legal representatives. As such, but without
interfering in the solicitor/client relationship, the Commission considers that once those fees have been accepted by the solicitor,
no further costs should accrue to the person. Any questions on the subject of the 3 rd party legal representation costs should be addressed, via your solicitor, to the
Secretary of the Commission.
29th November 2006
Investigation Committee Public Hearing
23rd November 2006
The Investigation Committee of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, proposes to hold a public hearing, on Wednesday 29 November, 2006, in relation to production, by the Christian Brothers, of documents referred to in "Phase III" of the Investigation Comittee's hearings. However, this date/time is subject to last minute change. The venue for the hearing is the Mezzanine Suite, Herbert Park Hotel, Embassy House, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. The hearing will commence at 10am and further details of the location can be obtained at www.herbertparkhotel.ie/location. Brother Seamus Nolan of the Christian Brothers has been called to give evidence at the hearing. Transcripts from the hearing will be posted to the Commission's website, as soon as available. If you have any further queries in relation to this matter, I can be contacted by e-mail.
Brenda McVeigh
Secretary to the Commission
20th June 2006
19th June 2006
Investigation Committee Public Hearing: Department of Justice, Equality and Law reform/Department of Health and Children Morning Transcript Session (pdf): Plain Text
This transcript has been edited by order of the Chairperson of the Commission. Afternoon Transcript Session (pdf): Plain Text
13th June 2006
Investigation Committee Public Hearing: Department of Education and Science Single Transcript of daily Session (pdf): Plain Text
12th June 2006
Investigation Committee Public Hearing: Department of Education and Science Single Transcript of daily Session (pdf): Plain Text
9th June 2006
Phase III public hearings of the Investigation Committee of the Commission will continue from MONDAY 12th JUNE with the Department of Education and Science.
6th June 2006
1st June 2006
1st June 2006 |
The protesters started their march at Data Darbar and then staged a sit-in at Chairing Cross
LAHORE: Religious activists staged a protest on the Mall Road on Wednesday against the possible release of jailed blasphemy convict Aasia Bibi.
Speakers at the protest categorically demanded the Supreme Court to immediately reject her appeal and order her execution, warning of unrest in the country if the apex court did not do so.
Lal Masjid warns government against release of Aasia Bibi
The protesters started their march at Data Darbar and then staged a sit-in at Chairing Cross, where they offered Asr and Maghrib prayers. Protesters at the demonstration shouted slogans against the convict, the Supreme Court and the federal government, and in favour of Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, who was hanged for the murder of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer.
SC delays Aasia Bibi blasphemy appeal after judge steps down
Religious groups have organised regular protests ever since the Supreme Court began hearing Aasia’s appeal against her death sentence.
Published in The Express Tribune , October 19th, 2016.
Read full story |
Charlie Daniels isn’t yet convinced that the man-made climate change alarmists are fully focused on “science” and instead might have a different kind of “green” in mind:
When all is said-done and the dust settles the world will find global warming is about political power not climate change
Follow the money — Charlie Daniels (@CharlieDaniels) September 16, 2017
As a result, Daniels has issued the following challenge to Al Gore (that hopefully will be accepted by other jet-set celebs sounding the climate change alarm):
If Al Gore will give up his big private jet I'll speak to my cows about being less flatulent. — Charlie Daniels (@CharlieDaniels) September 16, 2017
Ha! What say you, Al? … AL!?
Hey @GitRDoneLarry do you follow @CharlieDaniels on here? Now This is FUNNY I don't care who ya are!!! https://t.co/0K7kuThD0k — Texas Patriot (@DevinePatriot) September 17, 2017
lol, Charlie, I tell you, this one is funny as it gets !! https://t.co/gWWZwearBP — Rhett O. Millsaps (@RhettMillsaps) September 17, 2017
I'm thinking the cows have nothing to worry about. https://t.co/dda3csNLC1 — Rick Shaver (@Shaver1949) September 16, 2017
That’s probably a really safe bet.
***
Related:
BAM! Charlie Daniels HAMMERS activists setting sights on Dolly Parton business |
CLOSE Saturday's match between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur FC could have an impact on Nashville's bid for a MLS expansion team. Wochit
Zygi Wlf, left, and Mark Wilf, right, are in their 13th season as majority owners of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings. They've now joined the Nashville group looking to bring Major League Soccer to Nashville that is led by Nashville businessman John Ingram. (Photo: David Goldman, AP)
Owners of the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings are joining the Nashville ownership group trying to bring a Major League Soccer expansion franchise to Music City.
Mark Wilf, his brother Zygi, and cousin Leonard, in their 13th season as majority owners and of the Minnesota Vikings, have signed on as a minority owner of Nashville Soccer Holdings, the business enterprise led by billionaire Nashville businessman John Ingram.
Though terms of the arrangement, including financial details, are not being disclosed, Ingram will remain the lead owner of Nashville's MLS expansion team. Ingram's holdings company recently bought the rights of Nashville SC, a United Soccer League franchise vying for an MLS expansion franchise.
The addition of the Wilfs, who each reside in the New York/New Jersey area, brings the first out-of-state ownership stake to the local effort, while also adding cachet and professional sports expertise to Nashville's MLS pursuit.
John Ingram (Photo: submitted)
Ingram said the Wilfs' involvement demonstrates growing momentum for Nashville's MLS push as 12 cities vie for four spots that the league wants to fill.
He noted how the Wilf family has experience running a sports franchise — including overseeing fan experience, marketing, communications and ticket sales — and leading the development and construction of a new professional sports stadium.
"Those are both areas that will be very helpful to us, and we're really thrilled to have them as part of our efforts," Ingram said.
"This is a sophisticated family that could invest its money in a lot of places," Ingram said. "It's an endorsement for both soccer in the country and Nashville as a market that has a bright future with this sport."
Wilfs attracted to Nashville's 'vibrant, growing market'
The Wilfs, the sons of Holocasust survivors who immigrated to the United States, made their fortunes primarily in real estate development. The Wilf family, whose net worth is billions, purchased the Vikings in 2005 for a reported $600 million. Today, the team is worth an estimated $1.6 billion.
Mark Wilf (Photo: Submitted)
In 2015, the Wilfs had applied to be the majority owners of a new MLS expansion team in the Twin Cities, Minnesota United FC, which began play this year. But their bid lost out when the league instead awarded the franchise to Bill McGuire. MLS, which preferred an outdoor stadium, didn't support the Wilfs' vision for MLS soccer being played in a fixed-roof stadium.
"We appreciate John Ingram and the Nashville passion for soccer, and we believe in how they're approaching it," Mark Wilf said in a phone interview with The Tennessean. "I've known John for several years and we're excited to be part of their team.
"We've gotten to know how Nashville is a vibrant, growing market, and I think it will be incredible — MLS in Nashville," he said, pointing to large crowds at a pair of high-profile soccer matches this summer in Nashville. "It's an exciting challenge and we think a great opportunity.
"All in all, there were a lot of factors that came together."
Family has connection to Nashville's Ingram
CLOSE John Ingram, owner of Nashville SC, talking about Nashville's hopes for an MLS team. Logan Murdock
Mark Wilf is president of the Vikings; Zygi Wilf is the team's chairman; and Leonard Wilf is vice chairman. Each is considered a co-owner.
In recent years, the Wilfs led the construction and 2016 opening of the $1.1 billion U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, home of the Vikings. The new stadium enabled Minnesota to win the bid to play host for the upcoming Super Bowl LII in February 2018 and the 2019 NCAA's Men's Basketball Final Four.
The family's main connection to Nashville is Mark Wilf, whose son attended Vanderbilt University and who serves on Vanderbilt University's Board a Trustees, where Ingram also serves.
More: Nashville one of four cities energized for MLS expansion, commissioner says
More: Nashville MLS effort boosted by another record soccer crowd
The two started discussing the Wilfs' experience with MLS and operating the Vikings after Ingram emerged as controlling owner of Nashville's MLS ownership group.
"The more we talked, the more we said, 'You know, maybe it makes sense for us to do this together,' Ingram said. "I'm really pleased that if we should be successful in garnering one of these expansion teams, it's going to be really helpful for us to have their knowledge and resources to call upon."
As part of a possible stadium plan for MLS in Nashville, Ingram and Vanderbilt are exploring the idea of a pro soccer stadium that would also be an off-campus home for Vanderbilt football.
More: MLS commissioner: Nashville has risen 'high on the list' for expansion team
This year, Minnesota United FC, began play as the league's 22nd team. The team is temporarily playing in the Minnesota Golden Gophers' football stadium and plan to move into a newly constructed stadium in 2019.
"We support that group," Mark Wilf said of the MLS club in Minnesota. "But we as a family and a business looked to the Nashville market and MLS, and have a lot of confidence that it will hopefully be awarded a franchise with the ownership group that John has put together and the great package that John has put together."
Ownership group now a 'blend of local and non-local'
MLS plans to announce the first group of two cities chosen for expansion at their board of directors meeting in December.
Ingram rejected any suggestion that the involvement of the Wilf family undercuts the local roots of Nashville's MLS effort. He said the group is "a blend of both local and non-local" that has retained a majority local status.
"I'll be the base of it, if you will, from an ownership perspective," Ingram said, adding that there will be other local minority owners as well.
More: Q&A: MLS commissioner sees 'can-do attitude' in Nashville
More: Vanderbilt football, MLS share off-campus stadium? Commodore fans say no way
MLS commissioner Don Garber, who visited Nashville last month, has glowed about the city's economic growth and said the city has risen "pretty high on the list" of potential expansion contenders.
Last week, during the league's all-start game in Chicago, he singled out Nashville, as well as Sacramento, Cincinnati and Detroit as four cites where energy for pro soccer has been "off the charts."
Nashville's soccer community has impressed in recent weeks with more than 100,000 people collectively attending a recent CONCACAF U.S. Gold Cup match and English Premier League match at Nissan Stadium.
Meeting on stadium vision set for next week
Mark Wilf cited those strong turnouts as well as the city's enthusiasm during the Nashville Predators' NHL Stanley Cup Final run as major appeals for his family.
"We know about the (Tennessee) Titans, and we know about the Predators, and I think Nashville — a successful, thriving community — can support MLS soccer," he said.
More: Metro Council to get update, early details on fairgrounds soccer stadium pitch
The Ingram-led ownership group has been in talks with Nashville Mayor Megan Barry's administration about a public-private deal for a new soccer stadium at the Metro-owned Fairgrounds Nashville.
The Nashville MLS Steering Committee had been scheduled last Monday to unveil their stadium vision for the fairgrounds at a Metro Council committee meeting. That meeting was postponed to accommodate a visitation following the death last week of Barry's son. It has been tentatively rescheduled to Aug. 14.
MLS, which has teams planned for Los Angles and Miami to bring its total number of teams to 24, would increase to 28 teams following the planned wave of four more teams.
Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236, [email protected] and on Twitter @joeygarrison.
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This post was originally made back on April 7, 2016. Since then I’ve found a ton of other amazing dinosaur skeleton models. It’s not quite enough for a new post so I’ve gone back to this one and added in another bunch of incredible photos.
The original post is below with the new models mixed in so enjoy!
I’ve been wanting to make a post about origami dinosaur skeletons for a while because these models are absolutely amazing.
Almost all of these models except for one which I’ll mention later are folded from multiple sheets of paper but that doesn’t make them any less amazing.
We’ll start off with some Tyrannosaurus Rex models because you can’t make a post about dinosaurs without T-Rexs.
With this model Mariano Zavala B. took Issei Yoshino’s T-Rex design and modified it to make it look much more ferocious and awesome.
T-Rex, Designed by Issei Yoshino, Modified and Folded by Mariano Zavala B.
Instructions not available
Mariano Zavala B. photoshopped his T-Rex skeleton into the Jurassic World logo which is pretty cute and an awesome idea.
Jurassic World, by Mariano Zavala B.
Here’s Issei Yoshino’s T-Rex again but this time it’s not modified and folded by Matthieu Georger. The original design uses 21 sheets of paper to fold the various parts of the skeleton and then lock them all together.
T-Rex, Designed by Issei Yoshino and folded by Matthieu Georger
Diagrams available in Origami Skeleton of Tyrannosaurus Rex
Follow Matthieu Georger on Flickr
Here’s an excellent photo of the original T-Rex model folded by Al3bbasi on a dark background so you can see the details well.
T-Rex, Designed by Issei Yoshino and folded by Al3bbasi
Diagrams available in Origami Skeleton of Tyrannosaurus Rex
Here’s the T-Rex model again folded by Gonzalo but modified slightly to have more teeth. I quite like how it looks with that newspaper or whatever paper is being used here.
T-Rex, Designed by Issei Yoshino and folded by Gonzalo
Diagrams available in Origami Skeleton of Tyrannosaurus Rex
I really like the contrast here between the blue paper and the yellow background. It really helps you see the details in the model.
T-Rex, Designed by Issei Yoshino and Folded by Phillip Curl
Diagrams available in Origami Skeleton of Tyrannosaurus Rex
Here’s the T-Rex skeleton one more time. It’s always neat to see how different artists fold models like this slightly differently.
T-Rex, Designed by Issei Yoshino and Folded by Carla Godoy
Diagrams available in Origami Skeleton of Tyrannosaurus Rex
Issei Yoshino also designed this amazing Triceratops skeleton! I really like that hook on the beak/mouth, whatever it’s called and the lines of teeth.
Triceratops Skeleton, Designed by Issei Yoshino and Folded by Hyun Seok Kang
Diagrams available in Issei Super Complex Origami
Next we have a photo of an excellent looking origami Stegosaurus taken at an origami exhibit.
Retrace, Designed and Folded by Hayato Yoshitake
Instructions not available
This Stegosaurus design is somehow based on Fumiaki Kawahata’s Brachiosaurus design. I’m not quite sure how that works since both dinosaurs look very different. It’s folded using 52 squares of paper.
Stegosaurus Skeleton, Designed by Bill Bankwitz and Folded by rhplus
Instructions not available
Next we have a Brachiosaurus design by Fumiaki Kawahata which like the T-Rex design above takes on a different personality depending on who folded it.
Brachiosaurus, Designed by Fumiaki Kawahata and Folded by Mariano Zavala B.
Diagrams available in Origami Dinosaurs 2
Brachiosaurus, Designed by Fumiaki Kawahata and Folded by Kunsulu
Diagrams available in Origami Dinosaurs 2
Here’s a much smaller Brachiosaurus which couldn’t have been easy to fold.
Brachiosaurus, Designed by Fumiaki Kawahata and Folded by Xu Daniel
Diagrams available in Origami Dinosaurs 2
I really like the pose of this next Brachiosaurus. It almost looks playful like a baby dinosaur or something.
Brachiosaurus, Designed by Fumiaki Kawahata and Folded by Adriano Davanzo
Diagrams available in Origami Dinosaurs 2
I also really love the pose of this next one with the raised foot and head looking back.
Brachiosaurus, Designed by Fumiaki Kawahata and Folded by rhplus
Diagrams available in Origami Dinosaurs 2
Tran Trung Hieu designed this excellent and somewhat cute looking Pterosaur skeleton.
Pterosaur, Designed and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu
Instructions not available
Follow Tran Trung Hieu on Flickr or Facebook
I can’t believe how tiny this next Pterosaur is. Keep in mind that this is a modular model so all the individual parts are actually folded from even tinier paper!
Pterosaur Skeleton, Designed by Andres Duque Laverde and Folded by Xu Daniel
Instructions not available
Yoshihide Momotani designed an excellent Apatosaurus skeleton, here it is expertly folded by Tran Trung Hieu.
Apatosaurus, Designed by Yoshihide Momotani and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu
Instructions not available
Follow Tran Trung Hieu on Flickr or Facebook
This next model designed by Nguyen Minh Duc is one of my favourites. The entire skeleton and wall is folded from just one sheet of paper!
Dinosaur Skeleton, Designed by Nguyen Minh Duc and Folded by 簡單的度過-2
Crease Pattern available in #7 VOG 2: Origami.vn
Dinosaur Skeleton, Designed by Nguyen Minh Duc and Folded by sakuryu(╯3╰)
Crease Pattern available in #7 VOG 2: Origami.vn
Dinosaur Skeleton, Designed by Nguyen Minh Duc and Folded by Shuki Kato
Crease Pattern available in #7 VOG 2: Origami.vn
This 2D dinosaur skull is also folded from a single square of paper. It would make a perfect logo.
Dinosaur Head Skeleton, Designed by Kikuchi Masato and Folded by Mariano Zavala B.
Video instructions available from Mariano Zavala B.’s YouTube channel
Here’s an excellent 3D version of a Tyrannosaurus skull. This one is folded from 4 pieces of paper.
Tyrannosaurus Skull, Designed by Fumiaki Kawahata and Folded by Hiroaki Kobayashi
Diagrams available in Origami Dinosaurs 3
A post on origami dinosaurs definitely needs some velociraptors and here are two excellent velociraptor skeleton designs.
Velociraptor Skeleton, Designed and Folded by Thong Nguyen Nguyen
Instructions not available
Tran Trung Hieu’s Velociraptor design is folded from 54 pieces of paper!
Velociraptor Skeleton, Designed and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu
Instructions not available
Follow Tran Trung Hieu on Flickr or Facebook
Here’s this model again photographed at a convention. Tran Trung Hieu is really good at folding his models into great action poses. I like the sneaky sort of look on the face here too.
Velociraptor Skeleton, Designed and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu (Photo by Jon Tucker)
Instructions not available
Here’s a close up on this velociraptor skull that really shows off the details.
Velociraptor Skull, Designed and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu
Instructions not available
Follow Tran Trung Hieu on Flickr or Facebook
This fantastic Plesiosaur skeleton was photographed at the 22nd Tanteidan Convention in 2016.
Futabasaurus Suzuki, Designed and Folded by Fukuroi Kazuki (Photo by Michelle Fung)
Instructions not available
Here’s an aweomse looking Sarcosuchus design by Linny Young. This model uses 44 individual sheets of paper to fold all the various parts. The designer has broken down how many pieces of paper are used for each little section at the Flickr link below the image.
Sarcosuchus, Designed and Folded by Linny Young
Instructions not available
Our final model for this post is this absolutely incredible Sarcosuchus design by Tran Trung Hieu.
Sarcosuchus, Designed and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu
Instructions not available
Follow Tran Trung Hieu on Flickr or Facebook
Here’s a photo of the model from above so you can see the back.
Sarcosuchus, Designed and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu
Instructions not available
Follow Tran Trung Hieu on Flickr or Facebook
And here’s one more photo from the side. I absolutely love the teeth and all the little bone segments along the back. It looks so much like real life!
Sarcosuchus, Designed and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu
Instructions not available
Follow Tran Trung Hieu on Flickr or Facebook
That’s it for origami dinosaur skeletons! If you enjoyed these let me know in the comments and be sure to check out and follow all these excellent origami artists on Flickr! |
Local leaders have concerned themselves with limiting or banning seemingly innocuous goods and services. Do these measures really benefit local residents?
The past decade has seen a growing trend of regulatory overreach at the local level. Mayors and city councils already have broad control over many aspects of urban and suburban life: public safety, education systems, sales and property taxes, public amenities, and land regulations. Nevertheless, local leaders have concerned themselves with limiting or banning seemingly innocuous goods and services, often in the name of health, safety and social/environmental concerns. But do these measures really benefit local residents?
Let’s look at four things cities ban and find out.
1. Plastic Bags
Environmentalists have advocated banning plastic grocery bags for a long time, arguing they excessively litter landfills and oceans. Many cities have followed suit:
More than 260 city and county governments have passed some kind of ban on plastic bags and require retailers to charge customers for the purchase of both paper and reusable shopping bags.
Of these bans, more than 50 percent were passed in California alone. (These have now been replaced by a statewide ban voters passed last year.)
Another 13 cities tax plastic bags.
In 2012, a study from the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) found that stores affected by the plastic bag ban in Los Angeles County saw a 6 percent average decrease in sales, on average, and an average employment reduction of 10 percent. Additionally, the Beacon Hill Institute found that the District of Columbia’s plastic bag tax reduced overall disposable income by $5.6 million in the first nine months of 2010.
Like most consumption taxes, these hit lower-income families the hardest. Since 2015, eight states have passed laws that prevent cities from banning or taxing plastic bags. Three other states are currently weighing similar measures.
2. Restaurants
In 2008, the Los Angeles City Council waged a war on fast food by banning new fast food restaurants opening in South Los Angeles, one of the poorest areas in the city. The measure was meant to combat obesity and attract healthier restaurants and grocers to the area.
Seven years after the ban was passed, a study from the RAND Corporation found that it failed to reduce obesity or increase the availability of healthier food options in the area. In fact, obesity rates rose by 12 percentage points and 17 more fast food restaurants were opened due to a loophole in the law. Despite its failure and ineffectiveness, the ban remains today.
In another case, New York City banned trans fats in food purchased outside of grocery stores, such as at restaurants, bakeries, and street vendors. However, unlike the fast food restaurant ban in Los Angeles, a recent study from Yale University found this ban was effective for the public’s health. Hospitals in New York counties with a trans fat ban saw 6 percent fewer patients with heart attack or stroke than counties without a ban.
3. Ridesharing
Since their inception, ridesharing companies such as Uber and Lyft have faced many attempts by city government to regulate them like typical taxi companies. According to an analysis by Business Insider, Uber is cheaper than taxis in every major U.S. city but one.
But government officials are motivated by dubious claims about passenger safety, even though there is no evidence to suggest ridesharing is more dangerous than traditional taxis. At the behest of taxi companies, local governments have imposed fingerprinting requirements and fines that have delayed or stopped Uber and Lyft operations in cities like Las Vegas, Portland, Fort Lauderdale, and San Antonio.
Austin, Texas, is perhaps the most famous example of ridesharing regulations gone awry. The city council required fingerprint-based background checks for ridesharing contractors in late 2015. After failing to overhaul those rules, both Uber and Lyft responded by suspending operations in Austin. In the following months, consumer demand for ridesharing was so strong that black market alternatives emerged on Facebook and Craigslist.
Finally, after a year without ridesharing, the Texas state legislature stepped in and passed a statewide regulatory framework to override the local government, allowing Uber and Lyft to return to Austin. At least four other states have taken similar actions, while three more are considering statewide legislation of their own.
4. Home Sharing
Home sharing has also come under local scrutiny and regulatory efforts. Companies like Airbnb allow owners to rent out their rooms, apartments, or homes short-term, often providing affordable alternatives to hotels. After the hotel industry expressed concerns about “unfair” competition and neighbors complained about unknown guests, cities have begun regulating home sharing.
Fort Lauderdale has levied hundreds of dollars’ worth of fees on owners listing units on Airbnb. Santa Monica has banned owners from renting out units for fewer than 30 days, resulting in a lawsuit from Airbnb. Chicago even tried to force owners to keep lists of renters’ personal information and make them available for city inspection without a warrant.
Although these regulatory battles are recent, state governments have already begun passing legislation in response. Arizona has limited the regulations local governments can impose on home sharing and preempted their authority to impose outright bans. Florida and Texas are also considering laws that prohibit cities from banning Airbnb and similar services. Earlier this year, Tennessee state legislation to limit Nashville regulations on home sharing was delayed until 2018 due to a lack of support.
Why City Officials Overreach
The increase in local overreach can be traced to geographic sorting. In “The Big Sort,” authors Bill Bishop and Robert Cushing explain that cities are becoming more uniformly liberal while rural areas are becoming more uniformly conservative. The conservative uniformity in rural counties has led to more conservative state control, as evidenced by the record number of Republican-controlled state legislatures. This ideological difference at the state and local level further pushes cities to pass progressive regulations and state officials to step in to curb burdensome restrictions.
Cities and counties only hurt their residents when pursuing restrictive regulations that limit consumer choice. In many cases, these policies are leveraged to benefit competitors (such as the taxi and hotel industries) and limit consumer access to affordable alternatives. Other times, the stated benefits are dubious, as in the case of limiting fast food restaurants.
Although decentralized governance often yields positive results, states have felt the need to correct onerous local restrictions in the consumer sphere. If residents of a city are truly passionate about not using a good or service, consumers would act and markets would respond without the consequences of excessive regulation. |
One of my most familiar childhood religious memories is waking up at the end of the General Conference broadcast, sprawled full-length on the floor with the marks of the carpet in my cheek. “This has been the [ordinal number] conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” the familiar voice intoned over the postlude. As the camera panned around the trees at Temple Square, I would pan around the living room to get the lay of the land. My father was asleep. My mother was asleep. My four brothers lay comatose amidst scattered colored pencils and scratch paper.
(To be fair to my parents, especially my mother, they were probably awake for most of the session, but as we all know, even the most faithful and committed Saints may succumb to sleep during Conference. That’s why the talks are printed in the Ensign afterward.)
Perhaps this is why I don’t have a very clear memory of very many General Conference talks that I watched as a kid. And yet I do remember the familiarity of that music, those images, the way that the leaves waved in the wind and the bright sunshine, the people bustling back and forth across Temple Square. I knew that this was the time when members of the church came together to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, to listen to the Prophet speak, to fall asleep, and to watch the beautiful leaves at Temple Square flutter in the breeze. These were my people, and this was my church.
I’ve had the opportunity to spend time in a variety of Mormon communities around the world, each of them with its own distinct character. If I had to sort them in my mind by giving them “Best in Class” awards, I might begin with something like this:
The Blondest Church: Spanish Fork, Utah.
The Brunette-est Church: Vashon, Washington.
Church with Best Potlucks: Anywhere in Taiwan, where potlucks are not for amateurs.
The Smallest Church: Xiamen, China.
(Church in Xiamen was a mere 5 inches long. It was a cell phone. Expatriates scattered across the whole country called in to a single conference call. They took turns to unmute the phone in order to fulfill singing, prayer, talk, or lesson assignments.)
Church with the Best Relief Society Room: Beijing, China
(a huge corporate boardroom with giant leather seats around a huge glass-topped table and a stunning high-rise view)
The Most Church, Ever: Hong Kong, China.
(Church services held on every day of the week in order to accommodate domestic workers whose day off falls on a day other than Sunday).
In all of these places, no matter where I’ve been, I’ve had opportunities to teach people, their children, and their friends. People have taught me, my children, and my friends. They have jiggled my fussing babies and captured my escaping toddlers. I’ve renewed sacred covenants with them, partaking of the sacramental symbols of Christ’s body and blood. I feel comfortable in the chapels and homes of members of the Church wherever I go. These are my people, and this is my church.
Once again this weekend, General Conference will come to Latter-day Saints around the world. Just in the course of the past thirty years since I was a little child, Mormonism has experienced a tremendous expansion in terms of overall numbers and worldwide reach. General Conference will be broadcast in 90 different languages, from Malagasy to Mandarin Chinese.
And yet Mormonism, despite its oft-touted status as one of the fastest growing religions in the world, is still a long way off from becoming a world religion on the order of Islam or Catholicism. Recent scholarship suggests that the presence of Latter-day Saints around the world is substantially smaller than what official membership records indicate, with retention often hovering between 20% to 50% in many countries.
Terryl Givens recently invoked the image of the Church as “a leaven in the world, suggesting an impact far out of proportion to size.”(1) This is not only a beautiful Biblical image, but, speaking as a breadmaker, it’s spot-on when you consider that in an bread recipe, yeast comprises about .3 percent (three one-thousandths) of the dough’s total weight. This is the same percentage of Mormons in many national populations around the globe.
For example, take Taiwan, my old missionfield. Everyone knows that Mormons have been in Taiwan for “a long time.” That’s where John Huntsman learned his Mandarin, right? Taiwan is a pillar of the Church, a familiar presence from church magazines. And yet the official number of Mormons in Taiwan, 55,805, puts them at .2 percent of the population, and .4 percent of total Mormons. According to one estimate, the number of actively practicing Mormons in Taiwan is even lower: just about 11,000.
Living abroad does not deliver a vision of Mormonism’s ever-expanding dominions. Instead, it makes one realize that the Church is tiny, its position is precarious, and helping hands are few. This is our church, and we are its people.
At this particular moment in time, as Mormons worldwide prepare to hear from their leaders at General Conference in April, members of the Church are engaging in exchanges, online and in person, to share sharp disagreements in their points of view about church practices and doctrine. The Church’s Public Affairs department has also entered the fray.
Particularly harsh words have been reserved for members organizing within the Ordain Women group, whom many church members view as angry, disaffected women trying to destroy the church by rejecting prophetic authority. One commenter wrote:
“The issue can go away just as fast as the Brethren can sign their excommunication papers. . . . 🙂 ”
I have also seen similar rhetoric leveled at Mormon feminists generally, suggesting that they are a bunch of nearly-inactive malcontents out to harm the Church and that “if they don’t like how things are now, they should just leave.”
When we use such harshly judgmental rhetoric to suggest that active, contributing members of the Church should be excommunicated or otherwise expelled from our fellowship because we deeply disagree with their interpretation of church doctrine, we are forgetting two things.
In the first place, we are forgetting that a group of people that comprises at very most .002 percent of the world’s population cannot afford to excise entire sections of its membership in a fit of temper. A recent study shows that the Mormon feminist blog Feminist Mormon Housewives receives around 25,000-30,000 unique visitors per month. (2) Of course not all unique visitors to Feminist Mormon Housewives are Mormon feminists, and an even smaller number of Mormon feminists are part of Ordain Women. However, just for the sake of getting some perspective, if you assumed that just half of these unique visitors were Mormon feminists (around 12,500-15,000), you still have more Mormon feminists than all the active Mormons in Taiwan.
Just as we would never consider simply excising all Mormons in Taiwan from the membership rolls if they all petitioned Salt Lake City to include Daoist liturgy in the baptismal rite, we cannot afford to dismiss Ordain Women supporters, or more generally Mormon feminists, as being anti-Mormon (I consider myself a Mormon feminist but I do not personally seek women’s ordination). (3) In the profiles on the Ordain Women website, we see talented, accomplished Latter-day Saints who pay tithing, nurture their families, and serve in the Church. During the Mormon Moment, when reporters were hungry to talk to someone fluent in both the language of faith and the language of critical analysis, many of these Mormon feminist men and women were on the front lines of media coverage, loyally representing the Church with insight and aplomb.
The other side of the coin is that liberal and progressive Mormons can be just as sharp and dismissive of those who disapprove of their proposals or feel that feminist interpretations of doctrine are deeply misguided. There’s no website to represent people who wish that Mormon feminists would discuss women’s issues in less confrontational ways, or people who don’t see any “issues” for Mormon women at all, but I know and love many of them among my friends and family. They, too, are talented, accomplished Latter-day Saints who pay tithing, nurture their families, and serve in the Church. They are eager to answer the call to service and grateful for the restored gospel.
The harvest is great, and the laborers are few. As someone who has been part of many small, struggling units around the world, anyone who is willing to show up and share the load should be most welcome.
In the second place, when we reject Latter-day Saints as unfit for fellowship on the grounds that we disagree with them, we are forgetting that we have bound ourselves to each other through sacred covenants. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:21, people who come to Christ are “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” “Fellowcitizen” and “household” are words that powerfully illustrate parity and familiarity, in contrast to “strangers” and “foreigners.”
At General Conference two years ago, April 2012, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a talk entitled, “The Merciful Obtain Mercy.” He wrote:
“I imagine that every person on earth has been affected in some way by the destructive spirit of contention, resentment, and revenge. Perhaps there are even times when we recognize this spirit in ourselves . . .
“This topic of judging others could actually be taught in a two-word sermon.
“When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, please apply the following: Stop it!”
We within this Church cannot afford to not treat each other like enemies, or opponents, or people who wish to do each other harm.
Of course we all know this. We all “want” to treat brothers and sisters like brothers and sisters. When being “nice” doesn’t work, however, then often we resort to angry and hurtful words. We justify this to ourselves by explaining that it is necessary to jar people out of their wrongdoing, to pull them from their narrow range of vision into the full scope of possibilities.
This is when things get acrimonious.
There has to be an alternative way to change the ordinary dynamic of things, to show where you stand, without creating an opponent and trying to destroy him or her.
What’s the way?
I think that we need to find new ways to be vulnerable to each other. Vulnerability not only breaks down social barriers, it also breaks down barriers to the Spirit. Here I’ll give two examples of this in my own life.
* About six years ago, all my hair fell out. It was hard. I felt as if everyone were staring at me. I felt so sad for my husband because, I felt, I would never be beautiful again. At the same time, this new vulnerability—being the bald Asian woman in the room—was also a blessing because it helped me be aware of others’ vulnerabilities that I couldn’t see. I also found that my feeling of “justification” for being snotty about people had evaporated. When you’re the bald lady in the room, what right do you have to be snotty about anyone?
* Our family babysitter’s name is Tang Jianhua (we call her Tang Jiemei 汤姐妹, or Sister Tang, because she is a member of our LDS Mandarin branch). She is a wonderful, kind, cheerful lady and an amazing blessing in our lives. In two years of working for us she has never once been late. She has only not come to work once, when she was sick. On this occasion, she sent a text to say that she was sick and that she would not be able to come that day. I made a pot of soup and brought it over to her apartment, a fifth-floor walk-up. When she answered the door, she looked different. She wasn’t dressed as she usually was for the day, but was wearing some cotton pajamas. Her hair was tousled. She invited us in cheerily, but we wanted to let her rest. We gave her the soup, walked back down the stairs and mounted our bike. I looked up and saw her waving to us from her balcony above, watching us go. As I rode away I had the strangest feeling. It was the feeling that you get when you have fallen in love with someone. It reminded me of the story in the Gospel of Mark of Jesus’s encounter with the rich young man. When the rich young man spoke to Jesus, Jesus, beholding him, loved him. As a missionary I always wondered how that was possible. When I “beheld” people, I saw them. When Jesus beheld people, he loved them. But now, riding away from Sister Tang’s house, I think I understood how it was possible. Sister Tang’s vulnerability on this day had somehow made me open to the Spirit, who showed me how Christ sees her.
In the first of these examples, I felt my own vulnerability; in the second, I felt the vulnerability of the other. When we accept our mutual weakness and yet strive to serve each other, the Spirit will open us to new sight.
This is what I love about my church—our church, our people. Jesus commanded all people to love one another, and we all try, but it’s hard to do. In order to help us with this difficulty, in restoring The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Christ has given us a system whereby we are conscripted into binding relationships with people who make us uncomfortable, people whom we might not automatically love or even respect. I am so thankful for this.
May we all find ways to seek out someone whose views are not only different from, but contradict our own. At this moment when we begin to realize how division, judgment, and detached strategizing within the Church could be so devastating to our unity, I challenge Latter-day Saints to find these others and to reach out to them, extending ourselves in a way that makes us vulnerable. I challenge all of us to see others in their vulnerability and, as suggested by the title of Elder Uchtdorf’s talk, to be merciful to them. This mercy will be a great blessing. It will save us from the divisions that threaten to destroy our unity, our integrity as members of the body of Christ. It will open us more fully to the saving grace of the Christ’s atonement.
At this moment in our church’s history, on many fronts, we are undergoing a period of development, growth, and new awareness of who we are and what we can become.
We realize that continuing revelation is not just one-sided, not simply a matter of getting marching orders from the top. Nor is it simply a matter of learning things about God. We must be open to continuing revelation about each other, our brothers and sisters, so that we will be able to see each other as Christ does. Nothing, not even being right, is more important than this. The last verses of Moroni 7 say it best:
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren [and sisters], if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—
“But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ . . .”
You are my people. This is our church.
(1) Terryl Givens, Keynote Address given at the BYU Symposium on Global Mormonism, March 7.
(2) https://www.academia.edu/5319841/_Im_a_Mormon_Feminist_How_Social_Media_Revitalized_and_Enlarged_a_Movement
(3) In contrast to some existing portrayals of Mormon feminists as a bunch of angry, disaffected, inactive women at the margins of the Church, a forthcoming survey of Mormon feminists found, among other things, that 79% of them hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. 81% percent of respondents attend church at least two or three times per month, 71% percent currently hold a calling, a job or position of responsibility in the Church organization, and 97% have held a calling in the last ten years. 42% of respondents work full-time and 16% work part-time. 62% are parents. 19% are stay-at-home parents, of whom 98% are stay at home mothers and 2% are stay at home fathers. 65% have been married and sealed in the temple. |
A lot has changed at Manchester United since Louis Van Gaal took over as manager. Big names have come, big names have gone, as have some absolute chancers and fan favourites as well.
When the Champions League group stage draw was made, Man United looked to have yet another straightforward group ahead of them until they pulled dangerous German side Wolfsburg out of the pot as bottom seeds. Then the loss in their opening group game in Eindhoven came about and fans started to worry.
The ship has been steadied somewhat since then and now it's time for the tie that looked likely to be the trickiest one of the group stage. Wolfsburg away. While United are still expected to progress, Lord Bendtner and his friends will be a tough test.
This isn't the first time these two clubs have met in the group stages, but the last time was in 2009, and just look at the team that Sir Alex Ferguson put out...
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Madness.
Park at right back? Fletcher and Carrick as a CB pairing? The Pole In Goal? Darron Gibson and Michael Owen?
Of course, that United team did win 3-1 thanks to a Michael Owen hat-trick and a sensational substitute appearance from Gabriel Obertan, so that's further proof that Fergie could get the best from his players.
It's mad to think how different the squad looks now, with Michael Carrick the sole survivor from that historically weird team. |
Guild Wars 2’s year-long living story initiative, which ended with the death of antagonist Scarlet Briar just this week, has ensured the lion’s share of each bi-weekly update has belonged to new story content rather than features.
Consider April 15’s update an all-out features blowout, then: a “sweeping range” of new systems and enhancements – and in particular, traits – where previously we’ve become accustomed to a slow trickle.
On April 15, ArenaNet will “set the stage” for quality of life improvements across the game. They’ll begin with improvements to the trait system: beyond 40 brand new traits, there’ll be a simplified UI and newly “horizontal” progression.
The April 2014 Feature Pack is mammoth enough that ArenaNet will be rolling out the pertinent details across a series of videos, live streams, blogs and articles between now and April 15.
But we know enough to be excited: new players will no longer need to visit a profession trainer and purchase an expensive training manual to access adept, master and grandmaster trait tiers. Instead, each tier will be unlocked for free once players reach the appropriate level.
What’s more, the new traits will be more impactful – at a cost to their acquisition rate.
Players used to gain one trait point for every level up past level 10. Instead, from level 30 they’ll acquire points at a steady rate of one per six levels, until level 66: when they’ll start earning two at a time (baby).
By level 80, you can expect to have 14 points to assign instead of the customary 70. But ArenaNet reckon the payoff – those 40 new traits – will be worth it.
What do you lot reckon? |
A recent electronic and chemical analysis of a metal plate (one of six original plates) brought in 1843 to the Prophet Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois, appears to solve a previously unanswered question in Church history, helping to further evidence that the plate is what its producers later said it was—a nineteenth-century attempt to lure Joseph Smith into making a translation of ancient-looking characters that had been etched into the plates.
Joseph Smith did not make the hoped-for translation. In fact, no evidence exists that he manifested any further interest in the plates after early examination of them, although some members of the Church hoped that they would prove to be significant. But the plates never did.
The complex yet fascinating story behind this little-known event in Church history follows:
Historical Background
In Nauvoo, Illinois, during the first week in May 1843, the Church publication Times and Seasons printed an article entitled “Ancient Records” which reported the alleged discovery of six ancient brass plates in an Indian mound near the town of Kinderhook, fifty-five miles south of Nauvoo in Pike County, Illinois.
“On the 16th of April last a respectable merchant by the name of Robert Wiley, commenced digging in a large mound near this place: he excavated to the depth of 10 feet and came to rock; about that time the rain began to fall, and he abandoned the work. On the 23d he and quite a number of the citizens with myself, repaired to the mound, and after making ample opening, we found plenty of rock, the most of which appeared as though it had been strongly burned; and after removing full two feet of said rock, we found plenty of charcoal and ashes; also human bones that appeared as though they had been burned; and near the eciphalon [correctly spelled “encephalon,” or head] a bundle was found that consisted of six plates of brass, of a bell shape, each having a hole near the small end, and a ring through them all, and clasped with two clasps, the ring and clasps appeared to be of iron very much oxidated, the plates appeared first to be copper, and had the appearance of being covered with characters. It was agreed by the company that I should cleanse the plates: accordingly I took them to my house, washed them with soap and water, and a woolen cloth; but finding them not yet cleansed I treated them with dilute sulphuric acid which made them perfectly clean, on which it appeared that they were completely covered with hieroglyphics that none as yet have been able to read.” |
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June 23, 2015, 4:39 PM GMT / Updated June 23, 2015, 4:12 PM GMT By Halimah Abdullah
Virginia will start phasing out license plates with the Confederate flag — a move that follows a shooting massacre in South Carolina and the ensuing debate over a lingering symbol which for many is associated with painful memories of slavery.
The decision, announced during an event Tuesday by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, also comes on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that Texas cannot be required to allow the Confederate flag on car license plates. McAuliffe called the symbolism of the flag “unnecessarily divisive and hurtful.”
Related: Ban Backlash: Confederate Flag Backers Ready to Rebel
"Although the battle flag is not flown here on Capitol Square, it has been the subject of considerable controversy, and it divides many of our people," McAuliffe said in a statement. "Even its display on state issued license tags is, in my view, unnecessarily divisive and hurtful to too many of our people. As you all know, I have spent the past 17 months working to build a new Virginia economy that is more open and welcoming to everyone. Removing this symbol from our state-issued license plates will be another step toward realizing that goal."
While Virginia was under court order to offer specialty plates with the Confederate emblem to the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, in the recent 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court , the court said "just as Texas cannot require (Sons of Confederate Veterans) to convey 'the state's ideological message...(the Sons of Confederate Veterans) cannot force Texas to include a Confederate battle flag on its specialty license plates." |
Shearon Suds: Midwest Beer Blogging
Welcome to my website! If you’re visiting on a mobile device, use the menu above to help navigate the content.
This photo was taken at the Surly Brewing building located halfway in St. Paul and halfway in Minneapolis. I’m a proud Twin Cities native. Learn more about Shearon Suds on the About page.
On this website, you can:
Read reviews of my brewery tour experiences
View a map to find the all the breweries and bars so far
Specify a state to help you narrow your search for breweries or bars
Watch me (in defeat and triumph) as I try to brew my first few batches on my own
Learn about local festivals and other beer-related events
And for more exclusive news and information, consider following our Twitter or Instagram accounts as well. I stay more updated on Instagram. For any comments or concerns, please fill out a Contact form. Welcome to my site! |
Tesla's stock just had its worst day in more than a year.
Shares fell 9% on Monday -- their biggest loss since September, 2014.
Several analysts have recently issued lukewarm reports on the electric car maker, and Tesla's stock is down 38% so far this year.
The electric carmaker is slated to release its quarterly earnings update Wednesday afternoon.
Analysts at Stifel gave investors more to worry about with a note issued Monday. While Stifel is bullish on Tesla in the long-term, analysts warn that the company may not be able to do enough to stave off short-term bears. Barron's writer Ben Levinsohn wrote about the report in a blog post.
Related: Tesla's worst nightmare ... cheap gas
"At the end of the day, we think Tesla shares may be at risk simply because management remains long-term focused," a quote from the report in Barron's reads.
In order to compete in the car market, Tesla has to scale up its car production. But there's a great deal of uncertainty about how quickly it can do that.
Stifel's analysts predicted that the company may lower its car production guidance for 2016 on Wednesday, "which could drive further sell-off in shares."
Tesla did open its massive "Gigafactory" last year, and it has been touting plans to launch a more affordable vehicle, the Model 3. That could be the key for Tesla to unlock mass market sales -- and finally turn a profit.
But the Model 3 has an uncertain timeline. And the two cars that Tesla currently has in its portfolio -- the Model S sedan and the new Model X SUV -- were both plagued by delays and manufacturing hangups.
Stifel's report warns that with only two models, the company "cannot afford major defects, recalls, or further interruptions (bringing previously delivered vehicles in for service)." |
Steven Wilson – To The Bone
Article by: Roger Trenwith
Having sailed H.M.S. Prog as far out from the shore as it could go, the only options were to either turn amidships and repeat himself forever and a day… hmmm, sounds familiar… or abandon the fast sinking lumbering hulk and ride a sprightly dolphin to the next shore. As you will know if you have followed the career of Steven Wilson for more than the last five years or so, he is always evolving, always changing, so it is really no surprise that the dolphin left him on the farthest flung beach of a vast continent labelled POP, a place he’d last visited at the dead of Gothic night for the Insurgentes album. This time it is daylight, and the subject matter is truth, how we twist it, perceive it, and turn it into anything we damn well please in this wonderful post-fact world.
If the fans have been paying attention, and judging from some comments it would appear that many have not, Mr Wilson’s love of certain strains of pop is well known, and their influence can be heard at various points throughout his career. If you check out this short list of five albums he says have been highly influential on him, you’ll see what I mean.
OK, this is pop, as a rather good band from Swindon once said, and indeed, a certain Mr Partridge has writing credits on the title track. Paul Draper, currently enjoying a solo resurgence many years after his stint with indie pop-proggers Mansun, plays on the title track, the dulcet tones of Ninet Tayeb are present and more than correct on a lot of this record, and guesting on guitar somewhere or maybe everywhere is boundary-pushing Slovakian plank spanker David Kollar of KoMaRa fame. Sorry if that sounded vague, but the bereft PR blurb us mere amateurs have been graced with contains less factual info than you will find in your average speech by the current occupant of the White House.
Perhaps the most obvious radio friendly song on the record is the charmingly poptastic Permanating, one of four songs previewed on YouTube prior to release, and three and half minutes of the frothiest choon I can ever recall our man in the no doubt expensive retro-NHS specs writing. You would have to be a deathly cynical beast not to at least smile to yourself as Permanating bounces by, but judging by the wailing and gnashing of teeth from predictable quarters, there does indeed seem to be plenty of joyless souls around. Everyone needs to give their furrowed brow a rest now and then or the creases become permanent. However, some do get it… “just a…song with good vibrations” said one enlightened soul, which is exactly right.
To be fair, Permanating is a throwaway tune that were it by anyone else the likes of you and me probably wouldn’t even notice it. Steven is obviously proud of it as he says “In my mind this is what ABBA and Electric Light Orchestra would sound like as produced by Daft Punk!”, a somewhat over-effusive description if you ask me, but then again it is his baby. Permanating is also rather the exception than the rule, and it sits in the middle of the album like a bridge and as such works just fine. Overall, To The Bone has an intelligent take on pop that Bowie, Prince, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Abba, XTC, etc., would recognise, and if the musically myopic would give it a chance, there is actually quite enough here to satisfy those who demand more than the basics, and for those who blanche at the very idea of dancing. Hey! One song is over nine minutes long, doncha know, and despite all the gossip, it ain’t THAT different to what has gone before.
We have now chewed right through to the bone of contention, so on with the job in hand. The album is bookended by two songs that could easily be Porcupine Tree numbers from just before they discovered riffing. Elsewhere the entry of massed Mellotrons on the back of Ninet Tayeb’s emoting three and a half minutes into Pariah is guaranteed to make the hairs on the back of your neck get all priapic.
As for guitar solos, Refuge goes all Prince on us, and even the proglodyte dwelling in the deepest cave would have to admit that David Kollar’s delightfully scripted flurry in Detonation, the nine-minute wonder I referred to above, is something to write home about. Simply by using David Kollar on the album, Wilson shows that he is still searching out those at the cutting edge to give added heft to his stylistically very readily identifiable songwriting style.
All in all, To The Bone is a decent album with all the expected outstanding production values. It won’t tip the world off its axis, but it will no doubt keep the fans debating whether or not it is “Prog” enough for weeks. As we know, “fan” is an abbreviation of fanatic, so you can leave me well out of that one.
Now signed to Caroline International, a branch of Caroline Music which is ultimately owned by the ubiquitous Universal Music Group, it is either a coincidence or Wilson’s apparently shrewd business acumen that his new and potentially more commercial direction will have the backing of one of, if not the biggest musical conglomerate on the planet. I will leave you to make your own mind up on that one. Whatever, the man has worked hard for his success and the music he’s added to my creaking shelves by the barrow load over the last couple of decades and more means that as far as I’m concerned he deserves it, even if once more I appear to be losing interest in his journey. However, knowing me I’ll probably still buy the album. It’s a hard habit to break!
TRACK LISTING
01. To The Bone (6:42)
02. Nowhere Now (4:04)
03. Pariah (4:47)
04. The Same Asylum As Before (5:15)
05. Refuge (6:45)
06. Permanating (3:35)
07. Blank Tapes (2:09)
08. People Who Eat Darkness (6:03)
09. Song Of I (5:22)
10. Detonation (9:20)
11. Song of Unborn (5:56)
Total Time – 59:58
MUSICIANS
Steven Wilson – Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Vocals, Programming, Mellotron M4000, Choir Arrangement (track 11) – sung by Synergy Vocals
Jeremy Stacey – Drums
Pete Eckford – Percussion
Adam Holzman – Piano, Hammond Organ, Clavinet, Wurlitzer Piano, Solina Strings, Fender Rhodes, Mini Moog
Mark Feltham – Harmonica
Ninet Tayeb – Vocals & Backing Vocals
Dave Kilminster – Backing Vocals
Dave Stewart – String Arrangements, performed by The London Session Orchestra
Jasmine Walkes – Voice (track 1)
Paul Draper – Oberheim Sequencer (track 1)
Craig Blundell – Drums (tracks 3,8 & 11)
Robin Mullarkey – Bass (tracks 4 & 9)
Necro Deathmort (I’ll bet that’s not on his birth certificate!) – Programming, Vocal Treatments (track 5)
Paul Stacey – Guitar solo (track 5)
Nick Beggs – Bass (track 6)
Sophie Hunger – Vocals (track 9)
David Kollar – Guitars (track 9), Guitar solo (track 10)
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Caroline International
Catalogue#: CAROL016CD
Date of Release: 18th August 2017
LINKS
Steven Wilson – Website | Facebook |
Heavy Metal magazine has announced the one year anniversary of the death of RONNIE JAMES DIO (BLACK SABBATH, DIO, HEAVEN & HELL, RAINBOW, ELF), that it will release the official soundtrack to its first web comic Gates later this summer and all net proceeds will benefit the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund.
Ronnie James Dio appeared on the 1981 soundtrack for the Heavy Metal film while a member of Black Sabbath.
Heavy Metal Presents: Gates has worked with a handful of artists to create a new soundtrack for the comic, the first from Heavy Metal in over ten years. Readers of the web comic can stream music produced specifically for the comic while on the site. The latest song, 'Is This Over Now?' by hard rock band Inside The Black, was posted on the comic's site today and is available to be streamed at Heavymetal.com.
The full soundtrack will be released for sale digitally on July 19th. All net proceeds from the sale of the soundtrack will be donated to the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund.
“The Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund continues to work to raise money to fight cancer in Ronnie James Dio's name and working with Heavy Metal makes perfect sense," said Dean Schachtel, General Manager for Niji Entertainment Group.
The creator of Gates, Hal Hefner, adds, “The 1981 soundtrack, and the music of Ronnie James Dio in particular, had a significant impact on me as a young artist, and I am happy to not only be a part of paying tribute to Dio, but to contribute donations to his cancer fund. Ronnie and I are from the same area in New York and I also lost my dad to cancer, so this is very personal for me in many ways.”
Additionally, Hal Hefner and Heavy Metal are conducting a search for up and coming artists to have a song included on the soundtrack. Artists can submit their songs here. Submissions from a variety of genres is encouraged and will be accepted until June 10th.
For further news and information, please visit Heavymetal.com. |
It doesn't look like we're going to be getting any canonical information, but some interesting WHAT IF mapping of the Natsuki family tree seems to be getting developed between Re:ZERO's new light novel 9, and the upcoming volume 10, out October 25th.
In the case of the former, the series editor has gone onto Twitter to reveal the hair colors of Natsuki Rigel and Natsuki Spica (it's worth noting, Subaru is the japanese name for the constellation Pleiades, so there's a naming scheming going on there.)
And, completing the color version of the WHAT IF designs
Also, goods and pin-ups have been playing with the idea of what if Emilia was a girl from a magical world summoned into the real one. Looking ahead to volume 10, preview illustrations have shown Subaru's encounter with a mysterious silver haired transfer student... and his home life meeting with a strange man putting him in what the caption is calling a pro-wrestling move, with a mystery woman watching on...
-----
Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime. |
And speaking of cheese, the Interior Ministry this week released footage of a bust of what it called a “major cheese-smuggling ring.” Some 470 tons of forbidden cheese was found and six members of the alleged cheese mafia were arrested.
And why stop with food? The head of the Russian Association of Textile Manufacturers says contraband foreign clothing should also be destroyed. Russian authorities have also begun removing household products manufactured by Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, and other leading Western companies from stores, claiming health risks.
It’s hard to wrap your head around all this craziness. At first glance, the Kremlin’s jihad against all things Western looks like the post-imperial temper tantrum of a regime that is truly losing the plot. And perhaps it is. Russia’s leaders want their empire back, dammit, and if they can’t have it they’re going to smash their dinner plate on the floor and trash their room.
“All the falling regimes share an interesting pattern. Before a fall they start acting crazy, they are struck by the epidemic of mass idiocy,” political analyst Valery Solovei wrote on Facebook. “This is exactly what’s going on right now in Russia. From the public destruction of food, to the attempt to ban Wikipedia, to the prohibition of importing household goods and all the other idiocy large and small.”
Or perhaps there is a method to the madness. Perhaps Putin’s Kremlin is preparing society for what is coming in an era of low oil prices, a weak ruble, sanctions, and a long-term confrontation with the West. Consider it reverse shock therapy.
In a recent article, economist Vladislav Inozemtsev, the director of the Moscow-based Center for Post-Industrial Studies, wrote that the Russian economy was heading for an era of austerity and autarky, with thousands of private businesses going under and the state sector expanding.
“The real consequence will be Russia’s retreat from the global market and its economy’s transformation into one which is much more closed,” Inozemtsev wrote. “This way leads us towards a quasi-Soviet economy detached from the world and, at the same time, proud of its autarky; towards a deteriorating economy which compensates for the drop in living standards with pervasive propaganda.”
Is it working? If the public reaction to the destruction of contraband foreign food is any indication, the results are mixed.
A survey by the state-run All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research (VTsIOM) showed that 46 percent favored the destruction of banned food and 44 percent opposed. A poll by the independent Levada Center showed just 40 percent supporting it and 48 percent opposing.
“Can Russia ‘opt out’ of contemporary globalization? I do not see any reasons which would prevent this,” Inozemtsev wrote. “How long will it remain stable under the new conditions? I believe much longer than the majority of today’s analysts are prepared to admit.” |
Is this the end for Aquarius? Today, series creator John McNamara announced NBC is moving the rest of season two to Saturday night.
Set in the 1960s, the crime drama centers on a experienced LA homicide detective ((David Duchovny) and his younger colleague (Grey Damon) as they investigate Charles Manson (Gethin Anthony) and his cult of followers.
On Twitter, McNamara said the rest of season two will now air on Saturdays, starting on August 27th:
#Aquarius update. Being moved to Saturdays; rest of Season 2 will air starting 8/27. We've survived this once… and will again. Semper Fi. — John McNamara (@johnthemcnamara) August 1, 2016
This could be an indication that NBC is ready to cancel Aquarius. During season one, the network moved the series to Saturdays. And so far, season two ratings have been low, with the show earning an average of only .41 in the 18-49 demo and 2.178 million viewers.
What do you think? Are you a fan of Aquarius? Do you think the show will be cancelled? |
Launcher is coming back to the App Store, after a fracas with Apple late last year over the rules regarding widgets in the Today view of Notification Center. According to the developer, Greg Gardner, Apple has changed its mind on how widgets in Notification can function—something we’ve seen before. Launcher will be back in the App Store tomorrow.
It’s worth noting that the app was originally pulled because Apple said apps were not allowed to have widgets that launched other applications. Apple has seemingly had a change of heart, because the application is returning with the exact same features as six months ago. Read on for the full rundown on what happened.
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According to Gardner, upon removal from the store he began working on variants of the program that would comply with Apple’s seemingly arbitrary guidelines and allow him to get some version of Launcher back listed in the App Store.
Gardner submitted versions of the app every month with different feature sets. “Most were rejected”. However, in January, he managed to appeal a review of Music Launcher. This was finally approved for release and is still available today. Note that Music Launcher does not actually launch any apps so there was no real reason for it to get rejected.
Anyway, spurred on by that ‘victory’, Gardner then tried to get ‘Contact Launcher’ approved. It uses URL schemes to perform actions like ‘call’, ’email’ and ‘FaceTime’. It was initially rejected but appeal overturned it once more.
As this did open other apps through URL schemes, Gardner was frustrated at how this was somehow allowed but the full Launcher wasn’t — despite being functionally identical. He contacted Apple for clarification. Apple told him they were going to re-review Launcher, and it eventually got approved, with no direct communication externally to developers that such functions are now allowed in Today view widgets.
According to Gardner, since the original removal, Apple has been very clear in saying that they may loosen the restrictions placed on Today widgets over time. Six months since the original set of rejections, Launcher will be available in the App Store tomorrow. You’ll be able to download it here when it becomes available. |
Kyle Williams’ regular workday consists of building gear boxes for the mining industry, but last week he tried his hand at firefighting.
The Queensborough resident had dropped off his son at middle school after an orthodontist’s appointment, when he passed by a house and noticed smoke and flames.
article continues below
“I never take that route. For some reason I went that way. I drove past this house and noticed some smoke,” said Williams, who pulled over and ran toward the house. “I started yelling and banging on the windows.”
As Williams ran toward the house, he saw two upstairs residents who were unaware of what was happening below and alerted them to the fire.
“They saw me park and run toward the house. I was yelling at them, ‘Get out of the house!’” he said. “It is a bit of a blur. It’s a lot to take in.”
They told him there was a family sleeping downstairs and he continued to bang on windows to awaken them.
“The fire was out of hand. I grabbed the garden hose. It didn’t work,” he said. “I booted in the garage carport door.”
The family heard the commotion and got out of the house. Another man joined Williams in getting a hose from a neighbour’s house and spraying water on the fire, but they stepped back as it was getting too much for a garden hose.
“Once the van started catching on fire, the smoke was starting to get very thick,” he said, noting firefighters soon arrived. “It was probably about five minutes, but it felt like forever.”
Deputy Fire Chief John Hatch said the fire occurred in a home on Howes Street just after 11 a.m. on Wednesday, April 22. He said the home’s occupants had gone outside by the time firefighters arrived so they did an “aggressive fire attack” and quickly had the fire under control.
“It was extensively damaged on the carport exterior side and then the lower basement area adjacent to the carport was extensively damaged inside the house,” Hatch said. “There were no injuries reported at the time.”
According to Hatch, fire damaged about 20 per cent of the house, but the entire house suffered smok, and water damage.
“The fire was venting out the lower living area windows on the front of the house, as well as the carport and the van, which was located in the carport. It was also involved in the fire,” he said. “They had to combat the fuels that were in the vehicle, as well as a storage (unit) in the carport that contained gasoline fuels, as well as the fire that was inside the structure itself.”
The city’s emergency support services team attended the fire scene to assist families displaced by the blaze.
Williams said he later learned that one of the occupants was a good friend of his son. He said all of the residents were appreciative of his efforts to get them out of the house.
New Westminster police and fire departments are currently investigating the cause of the structure fire.
“It appears to have started in the rear carport area vicinity of the house,” Hatch said. “We are not sure of the cause yet. Everybody got out safe – that’s the main thing.” |
Doug Giles – Here’s a response regarding our morning’s Gwyneth Paltrow post from my good buddy and Green Beret bad-ass Bryan Sikes:
By Bryan Sikes, SFC, USA
Clash Daily Guest Columnist
To Miss Paltrow,
I’d first like to start out by saying how terrible I feel for you and all your friends that on a daily basis have to endure mean words written by people you don’t know. I can only imagine the difficulty of waking up in a 12,000 square foot Hollywood home and having your assistant retrieve your iPhone, only to see that the battery is low and someone on twitter (the social media concept that you and all of your friends contribute to on an hourly basis to feed your ego and narcissistic ways), has written a mean word or 2 about you. You’ve hit the nail on the head, war is exactly like that. You should receive a medal for the burden you have carried on your shoulders due to these meanies on social media.
Trending: WATCH: ‘How Jussie Smollett REHEARSED His Attack’ Is HILARIOUS
You said, “Its almost like, how in war, you go through this bloody dehumanizing thing and then something is defined out of it.” I could see how you, and others like you in “the biz”, could be so insecure and mentally weak that you could pair the difficulty of your life on twitter to my brothers who have had their limbs ripped off and seen their friends shot, blown up, burned and disfigured, or wake up every morning in pain – while just starting the day is a challenge. How about our wives? The ones that sign on to be there for us through thick and thin, that help us to shake the hardships of war upon our return? And do all this while being mothers to our kids, keeping bills in order because we are always gone, and keeping our lives glued together. They do all this, by the way, without a team of accountants, nanny’s, personal assistants, and life coaches. Yeah, reading a mean tweet is just like all that.
You know what is really “dehumanizing”, Miss Paltrow? The fact that you’d even consider that your life as an “A-list” celebrity reading internet comments could even compare to war and what is endured on the battlefield. You and the other “A-listers” that think like you are laughable. You all have actually convinced yourselves that you in some way face difficulty on a regular basis. Let me be the first to burst your bubble: a long line at Starbucks, your driver being 3 minutes late, a scuff mark on your $1200 shoes and a mean tweet do not constitute difficulty in the eyes of a soldier.
Understand me when I say this: war does not define me. It is a chapter in my life that helped shaped me. Being a husband and father is what defines me. Remember, sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never…be close to what war is. |
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THE most advanced firefighting helmets in Australia are being rolled out to the state’s 6800 firefighters.
Reminiscent of jet fighter pilot helmets, the revolutionary headgear allows firefighters to keep hands free by providing light and radio communication and by protecting the face from heat and falling debris.
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media_camera The new high-tech fire fighting helmets at the City of Sydney Fire Station, Castlereagh St, Sydney, today. Picture: Justin Lloyd
Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner Greg Mullins said the jet-style design and features had been developed based on the frontline experience of their personnel.
“Firefighters deal with life-threatening situations on a daily basis and know exactly what equipment they need to battle complex firefighting and rescue operations,” Mr Mullins said.
“We considered what we needed in our ideal firefighting helmet and then took it to industry so they could work with us on developing a solution.”
They will replace the fibreglass helmets rolled out in 1993, of which the only change in design had come with a shift to carbon fibre in recent years.
Superintendent Tom Cooper said the helmets would help firefighters feel more confident performing their duties.
The helmets cover the head, and provide better balance than earlier designs, which sat on top of the head and could move about.
“The way they differ from the existing helmets is they offer side protection to a firefighter’s head, face and neck whereas the old ones don’t do that, they only have a neck flap,’’ he said. “They have two plastic visors, one is for your eyes so if you use a power tool at a rescue you pull it down and you can get double protection from pulling the face shield down.”
An earpiece and microphone, which plugs into a walkie-talkie, will allow firefighters to communicate with their commanders while wearing a breathing apparatus.
The helmets cover the head, and provide better balance than earlier designs, which sat on top of the head and could move about.
Emergency Services Minister David Elliott presented the first of the helmets to fireys in Sydney yesterday. |
Lexicon
Likewise,
Ὡσαύτως
(Hōsautōs)
Adverb
In like manner, likewise, just so. From hos and an adverb from autos; as thus, i.e. In the same way.
[I want]
καὶ
(kai)
Conjunction
And, even, also, namely.
[the] women
γυναῖκας
(gynaikas)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Plural
A woman, wife, my lady. Probably from the base of ginomai; a woman; specially, a wife.
to adorn
κοσμεῖν
(kosmein)
Verb - Present Infinitive Active
To put into order; I decorate, deck, adorn. From kosmos; to put in proper order, i.e. Decorate; specially, to snuff.
themselves
ἑαυτάς
(heautas)
Reflexive Pronoun - Accusative Feminine 3rd Person Plural
Himself, herself, itself.
with
ἐν
(en)
Preposition
In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.
respectable
κοσμίῳ
(kosmiō)
Adjective - Dative Feminine Singular
Orderly, virtuous, decent, modest, well-ordered. From kosmos; orderly, i.e. Decorous.
apparel,
καταστολῇ
(katastolē)
Noun - Dative Feminine Singular
Garb, clothing, dress, attire. From katastello; a deposit, i.e. costume.
with
μετὰ
(meta)
Preposition
(a) gen: with, in company with, (b) acc: (1) behind, beyond, after, of place, (2) after, of time, with nouns, neut. of adjectives.
modesty,
αἰδοῦς
(aidous)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Shame, modesty. Perhaps from a and eido; bashfulness, i.e., modesty or awe.
and
καὶ
(kai)
Conjunction
And, even, also, namely.
[with] self-control,
σωφροσύνης
(sōphrosynēs)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Soundness of mind, sanity; self-control, sobriety. From sophron; soundness of mind, i.e. sanity or self-control.
not
μὴ
(mē)
Adverb
Not, lest. A primary particle of qualified negation; not, lest; also (whereas ou expects an affirmative one) whether.
with
ἐν
(en)
Preposition
In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.
braided hair
πλέγμασιν
(plegmasin)
Noun - Dative Neuter Plural
Braided hair, anything interwoven. From pleko; a plait.
or
καὶ
(kai)
Conjunction
And, even, also, namely.
gold
χρυσίῳ
(chrysiō)
Noun - Dative Neuter Singular
A piece of gold, golden ornament. Diminutive of chrusos; a golden article, i.e. Gold plating, ornament, or coin.
or
ἢ
(ē)
Conjunction
Or, than. A primary particle of distinction between two connected terms; disjunctive, or; comparative, than.
pearls
μαργαρίταις
(margaritais)
Noun - Dative Masculine Plural
A pearl. From margaros; a pearl.
or
ἢ
(ē)
Conjunction
Or, than. A primary particle of distinction between two connected terms; disjunctive, or; comparative, than.
expensive
πολυτελεῖ
(polytelei)
Adjective - Dative Masculine Singular
Very costly, very precious, of great value. From polus and telos; extremely expensive.
clothes,
ἱματισμῷ
(himatismō)
Noun - Dative Masculine Singular
A collective word: raiment, clothing. From himatizo; clothing.
In like manner also, that women.
(9)--The Apostle continues his official injunctions in reference to public prayer. "Likewise," he goes on to say, "I desire that women, when they pray"--women also in the congregation had their duties as well as the men--while the latter were directed to conduct and lead the public prayer, the women who worshipped with them were enjoined, as their part of the solemn service, to be present, adorned with neatness of apparel and modesty of demeanour, and the holy reputation of kind deeds.
Adorn themselves in modest apparel.--This direction to Christian women was not intended to apply to their ordinary dress in the world, but simply explained to the sisters of the Ephesian flock that their place in public worship was one of quiet attention--that their reverence and adoration must be shown not by thrusting themselves forward with a view to public teaching or public praying, but by being present and taking part silently--avoiding especially in these services anything like a conspicuous dress or showy ornaments--anything, in fact, which would be likely to arouse attention, or distract the thoughts of others.
With shamefacedness and sobriety.--These expressions denote the inward feelings with which the Apostle desires the devout Christian women to come to divine service; the first signifies "the innate shrinking from anything unbecoming." The second, sobriety, includes the idea of self-restraint--the conquest over all wanton thought and desire.
Not with broided hair.--Comp. 1Peter 3:3; Isaiah 3:24. "Broided:" the modern form is "braided." Some modern editions give "broidered," apparently by mistake.
Or gold.--Probably, the "gold" is supposed to be twined among the plaits of the hair. These elaborate adornments, so likely to catch the eye at divine worship, were quite inconsistent with Christian simplicity, besides being calculated to distract the attention of their fellow worshippers, male as well as female. On this question of seemly, quiet apparel, in an assembly gathered for divine worship, see the difficult verse, 1Corinthians 11:10, where another and a still graver reason for modest demeanour and apparel of women is alleged--"because of the angels."
Pearls, or costly array.--Ear-rings, necklaces, bracelets, are included here; these costly ornaments were worn by the ladies of the luxurious age in which St. Paul lived, in great profusion.
Verse 9.
In like manner
in like manner also
braided
broided
and gold
gold
raiment
array
Adorn themselves in modest apparel.
κοσμεῖν
βούλομαι
καταστολή
μετά
Modest
κόσμιος
Shamefastness
αἰδώς
σωφροσύνη
q
v
Απὸ τοῦ σώας τὰς φρένας ἔχειν
Braided hair
πλέγμασιν
πλεκείς ορ
πλακείς
צְפִירָה
πλέγματα
ἐμπλοκὴ τριχῶν
Costly raiment
ἱματισμῷ πολυτελεῖ
ἱματισμὸς
κατ ἐξοχήν
Πολυτελής
ἐμπλοκή χρύσιον κόσμος ἱμάτιον
πολυτελής ἀγαθοποιοῦσαι
δι
ἔργων ἀγαθῶν
ἡσυχία ὑποταγή
ὑποτασσόμεναι
ἁγαίαι γυναῖκες κ.τ.λ
ἐπαγγελλόμεναις θεοσέβειαν
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for, A.V. and T.R.;for, A.V.;for or, A.V.;for, A.V. The apostle here passes on to the duties of women as members of the congregation, and he places first modesty of demeanor and dress, the contrary to these being likely to prove a hurt and a hindrance to their fellow-worshippers.This is obviously the true construction,depending upon. There is a little doubt as to the exact meaning ofhere, the only place where it occurs in the New Testament. Alford argues strongly in favor of the meaning "apparel." But it may also mean "steadiness" or "quietness" of demeanor; and then the phrase will be exactly parallel to 1 Peter 3:5 , "The incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit." And the meaning will be, "Let Christian women adorn themselves with a decent and well-ordered quietness of demeanor, in strict accordance with [or, 'together with'] shame-fastness and sobriety [, 'in strict accord with,' or 'together with'] not with braided hair," etc. A woman's true ornament is not the finery which sire gets from the milliner, but the chaste discretion which she has from the Spirit of God.); only found in the New Testament here and in 1 Timothy 3:2 , where it is rendered" of good behavior" in the A.V., and "modest" in the margin, "orderly" in the R.V. It is common in classical Greek in the sense of "welt-ordered," "welt-behaved.", bashfulness). So the edition of 1611; "shamefacedness" in the later editions is a corruption. Archbishop Trench compares "stead fast," "soothfast," "root fast," "master-fast," "footfast," "bedfast," with their substantives ('Synonyms of New Test.,' § 20.). Sobriety (, as in ver. 15,.); soundness, health, purity, and integrity of mind. '(Chrysostom, 'Ap. Trench.').); found only here in the New Testament, but used in Aquila and Theodotion, instead of theof the LXX., in Isaiah 28:5 , for, a "diadem," or "twined garland." In classical Greekare anything twined, tendrils of the vine, wickerwork, chaplets, etc. The corresponding word in 1 Peter 3:3 is, "plaiting the hair."). For, comp. Luke 7:25 Psalm 45:10 , LXX.; etc., which show tinct the word is usedof any splendid garment (Schleusuer)., costly (see Mark 14:3 1 Peter 3:4 , and frequently in the LXX.). St. Peter manifestly had this passage before him from the marked verbal coincidences, as well as close similarity of thought ((compared with),, (compared with),. (compared with). (See reference to St. Paul's Epistles in 2 Peter 3:15 .)2:8-15 Under the gospel, prayer is not to be confined to any one particular house of prayer, but men must pray every where. We must pray in our closets, pray in our families, pray at our meals, pray when we are on journeys, and pray in the solemn assemblies, whether more public or private. We must pray in charity; without wrath, or malice, or anger at any person. We must pray in faith, without doubting, and without disputing. Women who profess the Christian religion, must be modest in apparel, not affecting gaudiness, gaiety, or costliness. Good works are the best ornament; these are, in the sight of God, of great price. Modesty and neatness are more to be consulted in garments than elegance and fashion. And it would be well if the professors of serious godliness were wholly free from vanity in dress. They should spend more time and money in relieving the sick and distressed, than in decorating themselves and their children. To do this in a manner unsuitable to their rank in life, and their profession of godliness, is sinful. These are not trifles, but Divine commands. The best ornaments for professors of godliness, are good works. According to St. Paul, women are not allowed to be public teachers in the church; for teaching is an office of authority. But good women may and ought to teach their children at home the principles of true religion. Also, women must not think themselves excused from learning what is necessary to salvation, though they must not usurp authority. As woman was last in the creation, which is one reason for her subjection, so she was first in the transgression. But there is a word of comfort; that those who continue in sobriety, shall be saved in child-bearing, or with child-bearing, by the Messiah, who was born of a woman. And the especial sorrow to which the female sex is subject, should cause men to exercise their authority with much gentleness, tenderness, and affection.Alphabetical: adorn also and braided clothes clothing costly decency discreetly dress expensive garments gold hair I Likewise modestly not or pearls proper propriety themselves to want with women |
After two days of talks in Colombo between Sri Lanka, India, Kenya, Indonesia, Malawi and Rwanda, which account for more than 50pc of global production, the nations announced the formation of the International Tea Producers' Forum.
Sri Lanka's Plantations Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said exporting nations had been trying to establish a forum for 80 years. "In that context, what we have just achieved is a historic land mark in the tea industry," he said on Wednesday.
Efforts will initially focus on sharing knowledge and boosting demand for tea to raise prices, but he suggested more sophisticated - and controversial - methods such as supply controls would be raised in the future.
Production quotas "are not part of the objectives listed in the constitution, but I am sure these are matters which will be discussed some time in the future," he added.
In 1994, Colombo proposed a tea cartel on the lines of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the crude oil cartel dominated by Saudi Arabia, but there was no unity among producing nations at the time.
"Price stability is one of the objectives to improve the livelihoods of tea small holders (farmers owning small plots of tea)," he said. "Another objective is to ensure high quality standards."
Mr Samarasinghe explained that unity among producers was "very important from a variety of aspects like foreign exchange earnings, income generation, employment opportunities and several other very useful aspects."
Global tea prices are around $2.5 (£1.57) per kilo, down from about $2.84 a year earlier, while world-wide consumption is set to rise marginally over one percent this year, Sri Lanka tea officials said.
Sri Lanka's tea promotion chief Janaki Kuruppu said prices were much lower compared to other beverages and noted there was room to increase the price of a cup of tea.
"People can pay a little more for tea," Mr Kuruppu said. "In Sri Lanka, tea is cheaper than bottled water."
China and Iran, two of the big consumer nations, have been invited to be observers to the Forum. China is also the world's biggest producer of green tea.
Source: AFP |
Ruth's Chris in Baton Rouge among 100 best in country, OpenTable says
Ruth's Chris Steak House in Baton Rouge made the list of the top 100 restaurants in the country, according to OpenTable. OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation service, released its list of the 100 Best Restaurants in America for 2016. Company leaders said the list is generated through the more than 10 million diner reviews between Nov. 1, 2015, and Oct. 31, 2016. While some states had several restaurants that made the list, Ruth's Chris Steak House was the only restaurant selected in Louisiana. The restaurant in Baton Rouge describes its cuisine as "New Orleans-inspired" in an "elegant, yet comfortable atmosphere." Ruth's Chris has a 5.0 rating on OpenTable. "The common thread running through this list of winning restaurants is excellence in hospitality," said Caroline Potter, OpenTable chief dining officer. OpenTable said qualifying restaurants were sorted according to a score calculated from each restaurant's average rating in the overall category and their rating relative to others in the same metro area. States like Mississippi, Missouri and Rhode Island did not have a restaurant make the list. Learn more about the list online. Keep up with local news, weather and current events with the WDSU app here. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news right in your inbox. Click here to sign up!
Ruth's Chris Steak House in Baton Rouge made the list of the top 100 restaurants in the country, according to OpenTable.
OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation service, released its list of the 100 Best Restaurants in America for 2016. Company leaders said the list is generated through the more than 10 million diner reviews between Nov. 1, 2015, and Oct. 31, 2016.
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While some states had several restaurants that made the list, Ruth's Chris Steak House was the only restaurant selected in Louisiana.
The restaurant in Baton Rouge describes its cuisine as "New Orleans-inspired" in an "elegant, yet comfortable atmosphere." Ruth's Chris has a 5.0 rating on OpenTable.
"The common thread running through this list of winning restaurants is excellence in hospitality," said Caroline Potter, OpenTable chief dining officer.
OpenTable said qualifying restaurants were sorted according to a score calculated from each restaurant's average rating in the overall category and their rating relative to others in the same metro area.
States like Mississippi, Missouri and Rhode Island did not have a restaurant make the list. Learn more about the list online.
Keep up with local news, weather and current events with the WDSU app here. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news right in your inbox. Click here to sign up!
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At 3 A.M., Lhakpa Gyalgen’s alarm went off at Base Camp, but he dozed until 3:07, when Tenzing Chottar rattled his tent fly. “He had been reading holy books and prayers,” said Lhakpa Gyalgen, who is from Thame, in Nepal, and was a lama at Kathmandu’s Kopan monastery before becoming a climber. Tenzing Chottar, 27, grew up in Ylajung, a mile up the Bhote Kosi River from Thame, and had a wife and a four-month-old boy. Lhakpa Gyalgen, 30, also had a young son, a two-year-old born blind. He and Tenzing Chottar lived near each other for most of the year in Kathmandu’s Sambala neighborhood.
Lhakpa Gyalgen, who is five foot nine, with closely set eyes that have trouble focusing, had worked on Mount Everest for several years, but this was Tenzing Chottar’s first expedition. Physically, he was just right—short, strong, and energetic—but in the Himalayas, there’s no substitute for experience.
“He’d climbed trekking peaks, but he’d never been to the big mountains,” said Lakpa Rita, the longtime sirdar, or Sherpa foreman, for Seattle-based Alpine Ascents International, one of the top guiding companies working the south side of Everest.
The plan was for the two men to stay close on the way up. “Tenzing Chottar was new, but I was new, too,” said Lhakpa Gyalgen. “I have been three or four times, but the first day is always difficult for me. I couldn’t walk well, so we walked together.”
On that morning, April 18, Lakpa Rita had 27 Sherpas gearing up to carry loads through the Khumbu Icefall, most of them from his home village of Thame—or from one of several other small villages, consisting of a few dozen houses each, that hug the plunging downward path of the Bhote Kosi. For the 2014 climbing season, Alpine Ascents had been hired by the Discovery Channel to provide logistical support for its live broadcast of BASE jumper Joby Ogwyn’s attempt to do a wingsuit flight off Everest’s summit. (Ogwyn himself was to be guided by Madison Mountaineering, launched this year by Alpine Ascents’ former head guide Garrett Madison.) Lakpa Rita also had 12 paying clients trying to reach the top.'
Lakpa Rita—who is 48 and has the small, wiry frame of an endurance athlete—and his younger brother Kami Rita, his chief lieutenant, had long since earned the right to sleep until sunrise: between them, they had 37 Everest summits. Among the men working for them that day was Ang Tshering, who at 56 was the oldest of the crew. He’d been the Camp II cook for more than 20 years and had just completed construction on a teahouse in the village of Thamo for his retirement.
I’d met Ang Tshering on a reporting trip to Thame in the fall of 2012. He’d spoken proudly about the famous Lakpa Rita—“the great sirdar,” he called him, who “rescues on all expeditions, always.” He’d told me how Lakpa Rita had dug out and saved his younger son Mingma that summer, after an avalanche on Manaslu that killed 11 people. For 2014, Ang Tshering’s last season, he had to make just one lap through the treacherous Icefall at the start—up to Camp II at 21,300 feet—and a return trip at the end.
Ang Tshering started out with his son Pemba Tenzing, who is 36, and the younger man quickly moved ahead. Then, from the other outfits in camp, came more than a hundred bobbing headlamps, almost all of them Sherpas converging on the route.
The Khumbu Icefall is the first major obstacle to climbing Everest and one of the mountain’s most relentless killers. Over time, as it migrates downhill from Camp I (19,900 feet) to Base Camp (17,600) at a rate of a few feet per day, the Khumbu Glacier fractures into towering columns, crumbling ice ledges, and deep crevasses that are constantly moving and whose walls are prone to collapsing. Each year, a group of Sherpas known as the Icefall Doctors are hired by Nepal’s government, through the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee. The Doctors are responsible for a single, dangerous job: snaking a route through the Icefall, stringing ropes and placing aluminum ladders over the crevasses and up the cliffs.
Rising directly above the Icefall is Everest’s west shoulder, a mile-high face that supports a giant hanging glacier. As that glacier creeps downward, it regularly calves, sending ice blocks rocketing toward the route. In recent years, the route to Camp I has run up the left side of the Icefall, directly under the overhang, because of unstable conditions through the middle.
Around 6:30 A.M., Tenzing Chottar and Lhakpa Gyalgen reached the top of a series of flat benches, at about 19,200 feet, known as the football field, where the terrain begins to roll. A triple ladder, laced together with the ubiquitous cheap Korean rope that lines much of the route, led up an ice cliff to a knoll. On the other side was a descent to two more ladder crossings balanced on narrow ice pillars, where the glacier flaked apart over a 100-foot chasm. Pemba Tenzing was in the first group to reach these ladders, one of which had been damaged by falling ice. The lead Sherpas put down their packs and set about repairing the ladder while a queue of people formed behind them.
“When I reached the spot, people were saying, ‘In the mountains, you have to stand in line, just like in Kathmandu for petrol,’ ” Lhakpa Gyalgen recalled. “They were taking photographs.”
Things were soon moving again, but the backup would take time to clear. There were more than 100 Sherpas strung through the top half of the Icefall, with the majority having already passed the bottleneck. Lhakpa Gyalgen crossed the ladders and looked back. Ang Tshering was on top of the rise, among a cluster of a dozen people, waiting his turn to cross. He waved. Nima, a Sherpa working for Alpine Ascents, was on a ladder taking a photo with his cell phone, and Tenzing Chottar had just stepped off.
At that moment, a quarter of the way up the west shoulder, an ice chunk the size of a ten-story apartment building peeled off and fell. In Madison Mountaineering’s communications tent, Base Camp manager Kurt Hunter was on the radio with his sirdar, Dorjee Khatri. He heard the rumble from above, then a scream over the air, then nothing.
What came crashing down on the men that day was an avalanche only in the sense that it involved frozen water. Beyond that, it more closely resembled a comet.
When the serac calved off, it initially fell as a mostly solid chunk of blue ice. A Chinese client with the outfitter Jagged Globe later analyzed before and after photos of the missing piece of glacier and estimated its size to be 130 feet wide, long, and tall—nearly 2.3 million cubic feet, weighing 64,000 tons. The ice block was roughly 1,300 feet above the route, and by the time it had finished crashing down Everest’s west shoulder, it hadn’t just pulverized—it had detonated, blasting loose scree and even bedrock as it roared over the slope with unimaginable fury.
For the men in the Icefall, there would have been a soul-chilling gap between the sound of the ice block’s release—a solid kerchink, like railroad cars uncoupling—and a brief moment when it actually sailed through the air. Then all hell broke loose as the serac exploded and re-exploded, vaporizing the ice into fine, aerosolized crystals, recruiting new projectiles from the slope below until it resembled a thrumming white cloud of boulders and grapeshot.
As the April 18 disaster unfolded, many of the men—both the survivors and the 16 who died—probably heard a sound like a rolling thunderclap. Others who survived said they heard nothing, but everybody surely felt what was coming. From a distance, a big avalanche on Everest can be mistaken for an earthquake: the low waves produced by the tumbling mass aren’t just audible but palpable. Between the first sound and the final impact, those below had about ten seconds to react.
Lhakpa Gyalgen said he ran uphill “very fast” and grabbed onto Pasang Dorje, another Alpine Ascents Sherpa. The two turned sideways behind a narrow fin of ice that offered some degree of protection. Lhakpa Gyalgen’s chest was sticking out just a bit, and a fist-size piece of ice whizzing past pierced his down jacket and poofed feathers into the air, as if from a shotgunned game bird. The Chinese thermos that Pasang Dorje carried in his pack was crushed by the impact from an ice chunk, but he was unhurt.
“I don’t know how my back was saved,” Lhakpa Gyalgen said later, when I interviewed him in Namche Bazaar. “I had a big bag, inside which I had cashews and rice that I’d offered at the puja,” a religious ceremony held by each team before the beginning of a climb. Four other men who’d cleared the worst of the blast zone—Wongdi, Mingma, Mingma Tshering, and a lowlander named Rakesh—were bruised and lacerated but otherwise all right.
On the mountain, amid the scrum of porters, was a Sherpa named Dawa Tashi, who was working for UK-based Jagged Globe. When everyone else turned away and crouched, Dawa Tashi stood his ground. As he later described it from a hospital bed in Kathmandu, he counterintuitively aimed his chest directly toward the avalanche, taking blows to the torso and head. “I remembered my wife in Kathmandu,” he said. “I remembered my parents. Then I was knocked out.”
At the time of the avalanche, two Adventure Consultants Sherpas, Kaji and another young man named Chhewang, were also getting ready to cross the ladder, behind Nima and Tenzing Chottar. They saw a small overhang next to them, and Chhewang pulled Kaji behind it.
“There was a little hill-like structure that broke off and fell straight down and broke into pieces,” said Kaji, who is from Taksindu, below Lukla, the town where most people fly into the Khumbu region. In the next moments, he likely witnessed the death of either Nima or Tenzing Chottar. “One person ahead of me was blown off the top and thrashed below,” he said. “It was like a thunderbolt. I realized what it was, but there wasn’t a way out. It knocked me unconscious.”
Just below them was Madison Mountaineering’s sirdar, Dorjee Khatri, who was standing at the top of the triple ladder, talking into his radio. The main avalanche hit and buried him boots up. It also knocked loose more ice that killed one of Madison’s Sherpas, Phur Temba, at the bottom of the triple ladder.
In Base Camp, Alpine Ascents’ Michael Horst, a veteran American guide living in British Columbia, had just woken up when he heard the crash and rumble. “I opened the tent door, looked toward the south to the moon, and then heard the initial fall of the avalanche and watched it sweep across the route,” he said. “I realized right away that there was almost no way people weren’t involved.”
Horst ran to Lakpa Rita’s tent and shook the nylon to wake him. Lakpa Rita kept a handheld radio nearby at all times, and he switched it on. When he made contact with Lhakpa Gyalgen, he said, he was quickly told that “a terrible thing has happened up here.”
Horst next roused his Base Camp manager, Joe Kluberton, who would coordinate radio traffic, and U.S.–based guides Andy Tyson and Ben Jones. From there, news spread to a few guides from other camps who frequently assist on rescues, like Argentine Damian Benegas, of Benegas Brothers Expeditions, Rainier Mountaineering’s Dave Hahn, and the crew at International Mountain Guides (IMG), who had several clients and Sherpas on the football field when the avalanche hit. By the time these men had gathered, Lakpa Rita and Kami Rita were already on the trail. Getting from Base Camp to the impact zone involved a hike of 1,600 vertical feet, which at that altitude took Lakpa Rita and his brother 90 minutes to cover.
Up in the Icefall, the surviving Sherpas were in shock but were making rational emergency assessments. The wave of pulverized ice swept over them with a blast of wind, coating every man in ghostly white. The powder cloud stretched across the entire width of the Icefall and dampened any sound waves, producing an eerie blizzard of silence.
“I was holding on to Pasang Dorje’s bag, so we shook it off and found the radio,” said Lhakpa Gyalgen. “Both of us had turned white with the ice.” They told Lakpa Rita that a disaster had taken place. Their gear had been destroyed, and they needed help.
“I said, ‘Don’t worry about all the gear,’” Lakpa Rita said. “‘Just take care of yourself. If it’s not safe to stay there, move away.’”
The towers that had braced the two upper ladders were now filled in with avalanche debris, but they still contained dangerous gaps. Tenzing Chottar had been swept away, as had Nima, and there was no telling how many others were dead. They moved downhill, over the debris, and back up onto the hill where Ang Tshering had waved at them.
“I saw someone whose body was half in the ice, and vapor was coming from his mouth,” said Lhakpa Gyalgen. Pasang Dorje shouted, “There’s Tenzing!” but it was Dawa Tashi, who was alive and unconscious. They kept moving. Twenty or thirty yards farther down, Lhakpa Gyalgen and Pasang Dorje came to the edge of the cliff that had been served by the triple ladder. “I peeked down and saw the ropes cut. I saw a leg hanging,” he said. This was Madison’s sirdar, Dorjee Khatri.
Dawa Tashi came to on the hill after a few minutes. “There were about ten of us, but when I regained consciousness I was the only one there—with half my body in the snow,” he said. “No one was crying. Everyone was buried.” He was encased in ice and could see in only one direction.
“I cried and shouted, but after no one came soon, I started to dig myself out,” Dawa Tashi continued. “I used my right hand to dig out my left hand.” He tried to stand, but his harness was still clipped into the fixed line, which was buried in debris. He had suffered four broken ribs and a broken scapula.
The area quickly filled with people who had descended from Camp I and from higher up in the Icefall to help. Madison Mountaineering’s Jangbu Sherpa, a 32-year-old who divides his time between Nepal, the U.S., and South America, began to assist Dawa Tashi. “We started digging him out, and he was conscious,” said Jangbu. “He recognized us.”
Lhakpa Gyalgen, Pasang Dorje, and several others still needed to climb down the triple ladder on the back side of the hill, which had also been damaged. A Sherpa named Wongdi, who worked for Jagged Globe and was bleeding from his right ear, slid down the fixed line with his gloved hands and then leaped for the bottom. “When he came down, it created a big sound, and I was very scared,” said Lhakpa Gyalgen. “Some people jumped off, but I couldn’t jump.” Eventually, though, he did.
Kaji regained consciousness higher up, near where the pillar ladders had been, and radioed Base Camp. “I was buried in the snow, hit by the hump, but I wasn’t fully buried like those who died,” he said. His friend Chhewang was panicked but alive. (In a cruel twist, ten days later, Chhewang was killed by lightning back in his home village of Nunthala.) “One guy who was strong carried me on his back,” said Kaji. “It hurt even more.” His rescuer laid him down near the top of the hill, above the triple ladder, where most of the others had been buried. He’d suffered two broken ribs.
As other rescuers arrived, Lhakpa Gyalgen and Pasang Dorje retreated. “I wanted to stay, but I couldn’t, as I was shivering badly,” Lhakpa Gyalgen said. “Others were taking out the dead bodies.”
Within minutes, more rescuers who’d been above the avalanche started to arrive, but as of 7:36 A.M. the trail up to the accident site was still inaccessible from below. Justin Merle and Max Bunce, both from IMG, had been in Camp I when the avalanche hit, and they quickly mobilized and headed down. Lakpa Rita called Ang Tshering’s son Pemba Tenzing and Tenzing Chottar’s brother, Fura Tenzing. He asked them to grab the heavy landscaping shovels from Camp I and hurry down to the avalanche field.
Pemba Tenzing remembers being struck by the sight of abandoned backpacks along the trail. “I only saw bags, a lot of bags, but nobody was there with the bags,” he said. Then he rounded the corner to the impact zone, which was 100 feet wide where it crossed the route. He saw Jangbu Sherpa and several others working to free Dawa Tashi.
By 8:12, Merle, Bunce, and Austin Shannon, another IMG guide, had reached the three most seriously injured survivors. Bunce took charge of the effort to rescue Kaji; Dawa Tashi, who was the worst off, was aided by Merle; another Sherpa, Ang Kami, who worked for IMG and was able to walk to the football field before collapsing, was looked after by Shannon. Kluberton had radioed at 7:57 to let the rescuers know that helicopter pilot Jason Laing, a gruff New Zealander who works for Nepal’s Simrik Airlines, was en route with a long-line-equipped heli but would take two hours to reach them.
“An IMG guide had come with a doctor, and another group brought me oxygen and a stretcher,” said Kaji, referring to Dr. Rob Casserley, who was attached to the expedition led by Henry Todd, a longtime outfitter from the UK. “They put me on the stretcher,” Kaji said. “Some of them were making the helipad”—marking a big H in the snow by pouring out lines of red sports drink—“while some stayed by my side. They gave me warm water to drink. I was shivering, my hands and legs had turned blue. They massaged my hands and feet and gave me new gloves to wear. My body gradually began to warm.”
Just below them, Jangbu Pemba Tenzing and Fura Tenzing finished digging out Dawa Tashi. Beneath him, in the hole he’d just been pulled from, they saw something horrifying and unforgettable: another set of legs. As they uncovered that man, there was another below him, then another, then another. Ten Sherpas who had been standing near Dawa Tashi had all been clipped to the same line he was. They had received fatal, bone-crushing blows, and the avalanche piled them into a stack that became their communal grave. Only Dawa Tashi, who was beaten up but stayed at the surface, survived.
In Base Camp, Kluberton and the radio operators at Adventure Consultants and Jagged Globe were struggling to figure out who was missing. By 8:25, Alpine Ascents knew that five of its Sherpas were unaccounted for: Nima, Tenzing Chottar, Ang Tshering, Mingma Nuru, and Dorji. Adventure Consultants soon reported that it had lost three men (Phurba Ongel, Chhiring Ongchu, and Lhakpa Tenjing) and that one—Kaji—was unable to walk. But it took several more hours for the full scale of the tragedy to become apparent.
When Lakpa Rita arrived at the scene with Kami Rita at about 8:45, Jangbu Sherpa, Pemba Tenzing, and eight or nine others had already found four bodies. The men had only had time to cover their faces with jackets and neck gaiters before they were killed.
Pemba Tenzing began the grim task of identifying his father, Ang Tshering, who was the seventh body found in the hole. “I recognized him by his shoes,” he said later. Once he was certain his father was gone, he decided to leave the scene. “I came back to camp quickly, phoned my mother, and left with money for the monks from Thame.” Sherpas believe that an elaborate funeral, with many displays of devotion, will help lead to a better rebirth for their loved one. Pujas, which are also held after deaths, often cost several thousand dollars.
At 9:09, Damian Benegas, who reached the accident site just ahead of Lakpa Rita, reported that he’d counted ten dead. Before day’s end, the total would rise to 13 confirmed dead, with Pem Tenji, Gurung Ashbadur, and Tenzing Chottar still missing. The others who perished were Ang Kaji, a second Sherpa named Dorjee, Phur Temba, Pasang Karma, and a second lowlander, Asman Tamang. All the men died from either blunt-force trauma or suffocation.
In the slide zone, Horst joined Merle in the task of caring for Dawa Tashi. They packaged him into a stretcher and, on the advice of a doctor in Base Camp, gave him eight milliliters of dexamethasone, a fast-acting steroid that can help trauma patients overcome shock.
At 10:05, after landing in Base Camp and picking up American climber Melissa Arnot, a paramedic, and Adventure Consultants guide Dean Staples, Laing set his heli down in the football field. He retrieved IMG’s Ang Kami, then Adventure Consultants’ Kaji, returning each man to Base Camp helipads before equipping the craft for the long-line rescue of Dawa Tashi, whose perch between two steep walls didn’t allow for a landing.
Once he was in Base Camp, Dawa Tashi received rapid and effective emergency treatment. “The anesthetist began looking after his airway and the head and facial injuries and we cut him out of his wet down suit, got a drip in, gave morphine and performed an abdominal ultrasound,” wrote Adventure Consultants doctor Sophie Wallace on the website Adventure Medic. “He had bruising all across his lower abdomen from where the harness had stopped his fall, just like a seat belt injury in a car crash.”
By 10:49, the three severely injured survivors had been evacuated and were en route first to Pheriche, then to Lukla, then, by low-altitude heli, to Kathmandu for treatment.
The Rescue mission now switched to body-recovery mode, a dangerous proposition since the glacier wasn’t any less likely to calve. Dave Hahn arrived from Base Camp at about 11. He and Andy Tyson had heard a report that there may have been a pair of legs sticking up through the snow.
“We got to the lowest extent of the debris, and we could see a glove on the snow and a backpack attached to someone,” said Tyson. While Hahn and his crew went off to investigate, Tyson climbed the triple ladder, now repaired, and found a lone boot, the leg inside it fractured badly, sticking out of the ice. It was Dorjee Khatri. His body heat had melted the snow around him, which then refroze.
Tyson, Garrett Madison, and Ben Jones chipped carefully around Dorjee Khatri’s body with the adzes of their ice axes, but by 2:30 P.M. they still hadn’t freed him, so they had to come back the next day. The weather was deteriorating, and New Zealander Russell Brice—founder of Himalayan Experience, who was coordinating heli flights from Base Camp—told them they should stop for the day if they wanted to fly down.
Below them, Hahn guided in the last body-recovery flight of the day, raising his arms in a Y signal to bring the long line down to him. Watching from Base Camp, Dr. Wallace reflected on the horror of the flights. “The lifeless bodies hanging from below the chopper, still with their helmets and crampons broke my heart,” she wrote. “We initially thought that confirming death in profoundly hypothermic patients might pose some problems, but the extent of some of their injuries made it depressingly easy.”
Once he’d done all he could, Lakpa Rita walked wearily down to Base Camp. “When I got to the lower helipad,” he said, “all the boys were lined out and they had badges”—pieces of duct tape, with names written on them, identifying the corpses.
To reach the Khumbu region of Nepal, climbers typically fly the 85 miles from Kathmandu to the mountainside airstrip at Lukla. Below Lukla, which sits at 9,000 feet on the Dudh Kosi River, are foothills and lowlands. Above it, the trail to Everest slants upward along the Dudh Kosi, past Namche Bazaar (12,000 feet), the monastery at Tengboche (12,700 feet), Pangboche (13,000 feet), and Pheriche (14,000 feet), before leaving the river and climbing onto the Khumbu Glacier just below the tiny seasonal outposts of Lobuche (16,000 feet) and Gorak Shep (16,900 feet). The Thame Valley follows the Bhote Kosi River northward from Namche Bazaar toward Tibet, passing the towns of Phurte, Thamo, Thame, Ylajung, and Taranga, before the landscape gets too high for permanent settlement.
At Base Camp on the afternoon of April 18, Lakpa Rita jumped into a heli with Laing and made the five-minute flight to Pheriche. There, he was horrified to discover that a Nepalese army officer had confiscated ten of the bodies that had been recovered and that most of them had already been flown in the military’s Super Puma helicopter to Lukla, where they were laid out on the tarmac in full view of tourists landing there to begin their trekking vacations.
“I was so upset,” said Lakpa Rita. “My people did not need to go to Lukla.” So he flew there and negotiated with an officer to let him take three of his four dead back up to their families in Thame. Lakpa Rita signed over the fourth, Nima, to his uncle and brother, who wanted to fly him to Kathmandu for his series of pujas. The other six Sherpas were flown to Kathmandu and given to their families.
Tenzing Chottar’s body was never found, causing serious distress to his family in Ylajung, since that meant his soul might be wandering lost. After Lakpa Rita signed for his three men—Ang Tshering, Mingma Nuru, and Dorji—he flew back to Namche Bazaar, the Sherpa commercial capital, to meet Todd Burleson, co-owner of Alpine Ascents.
Burleson stood waiting on the helipad in Namche Bazaar. He’s big—six foot three—and graying now at 54. Like his employees, he constantly wears the logoed baseball cap of the guiding company he launched in 1986.
The hundred-foot-wide landing platform in Namche Bazaar, at 12,000 feet, is constructed without mortar, using granite hunks. When Lakpa Rita choppered into view, the pre-monsoon mists were already rolling across Thamserku and Kongde Ri, the 20,000-foot peaks above town, and a group of monks were on their way down the Bhote Kosi River trail from the monastery above Thame. The helicopter touched down, its rotors still spinning, and Lakpa Rita stepped out.
“I started to unload the dead bodies, and I got a hug from Todd,” said Lakpa Rita. “We were crying.”
“We hadn’t seen each other since all this,” said Burleson, who’d been in Kathmandu when the avalanche hit. Burleson’s regard for Lakpa Rita, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives most of the year in Seattle, is boundless. He calls the years they’ve spent guiding together “the best partnership I’ve ever had.”
They laid out the bodies, and the heli took off. Ang Tshering, Mingma Nuru, and Dorji were bundled in their sleeping bags, which were wrapped in blue tarps laced shut with Korean rope.
“The police were asking us to take off their harnesses,” said Lakpa Rita. “I undid all the harnesses so the police could take pictures.” The officers inspected the bodies for wounds, to determine a cause of death that could be given to Kathmandu-based Shikhar Insurance as proof that each of the men had died in a climbing accident, qualifying his stated beneficiary for payment. During this two-hour process, the monks, in their red and saffron robes topped with polar-fleece jackets, began to arrive from Thame.
“Pemba Tenzing decided to take his father home that night,” said Lakpa Rita. “A bunch of monks came for Mingma Nuru and Ang Tshering. They had a stretcher, and they carried them to their houses.” Mingma Nuru lived a half-hour to the west, at a bend in the trail past Phurte. Ang Tshering lived in Thamo, 30 minutes farther on.
"There were a lot of people, maybe 18 or 19," said Pemba Tenzing, “carrying turn by turn."
That left the body of Dorji, who lived on the rocky flats of Taranga, half a day’s walk up the Bhote Kosi River from Namche Bazaar. “I didn’t know whether his wife had even heard the message or not,” said Lakpa Rita. “So we brought him to the police station here.”
Some locals carried the body to a set of barracks. Lakpa Rita went to the monastery, where Lakpa Doma, who with her husband, Sherap, runs an inn called the Panorama Lodge, helped him melt the fat and fill the brass cups and set and spark the wicks of 100 tea lights.
“There was a lot going on in my head,” said Lakpa Rita. “How to deal with the families, how to support them in the future.”
He and Burleson had dinner that night at the Panorama. They drank cans of Tuborg beer and sat in silence. “Then I took a shower,” said Lakpa Rita. “I really needed it.”
That same afternoon in Taranga, a barren huddle of 25 stone houses, Dorji’s wife, Ang Nimi, pack-saddled her yaks and drove them down to Thame to summon the monks and collect birch and juniper for the cremation of her husband. When she heard the news, she’d been brewing rice beer to give to the family of her uncle, Lakpa Dorje, who’d just died of gastritis.
“If I had received the message earlier, it would have been easier, since there were monks in my neighborhood who did the cremation of my neighbor” who had also died, Ang Nimi said. “The message came after all the monks were gone.”
Taranga sits at 13,200 feet on the road to Nangpa La, the 19,000-foot pass into Tibet that’s been used by traders and refugees since the 1500s. Two miles south, the Thame monastery is perched high on a cliffside above town, in the shadow of 21,000-foot Teng Kangpoche. But when Ang Nimi, who is 39, reached the monastery, it was empty.
“They were already taken to other villages,” she said. The disaster’s toll was large enough to cause a shortage of monks.
The fact that so many of the men who died were from this single drainage is not surprising. The Thame Valley is home to some of the most famous climbers in Everest history, including the late Tenzing Norgay—the first man to summit Everest, with Edmund Hillary in 1953. He lived with his grandmother in Thame before moving to Darjeeling, India, to find expedition work. Another notable local is Apa Sherpa, who is 55 now and lives in Salt Lake City. Apa is tied for the record number of Everest summits, with 21.
Thame’s finest climbers hold a geographic dominance not unlike the Kalenjin tribe of distance runners in Kenya, and it seems logical that it’s rooted in genetics. But Lhakpa Gyalgen, along with several other Sherpas from the area, offered a simpler explanation: “People are less educated here, that’s why.”
Since the commercialization of Everest climbing took off in the late 1990s, the Thame area’s economy has been dependent on Alpine Ascents and steered mainly by Lakpa Rita, who caught the climbing bug early. “I went to school in Khumjung and always wanted to be a climber,” he said. “Every year, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary used to visit us. We used to sing a song called ‘Our Tenzing Sherpa Has Climbed Everest.’ ”
Burleson met Lakpa Rita on the mountain’s north side in 1990, when the Sherpa was 24, carrying loads during an attempt of the direct route up the Japanese Couloir. That was the year American climber Jim Whittaker led the International Peace Climb that supported Ed Viesturs’s first Everest ascent. While Lakpa Rita didn’t stand on the top that spring, he made his first of 17 summits the following fall while working for a Yugoslavian team.
“He had an amazing pace and was able to manage people and do accounting,” Burleson told me, then recalled a story from the Yugoslavian expedition. “He carried a load to the South Col so quickly that, when he came back, they accused him of not making it.”
Two years later, and every year since, Burleson has hired Lakpa Rita to be his sirdar, a Hindi word for a local military leader, used during the height of British rule in India, between 1858 and 1947, when most of the early siege-style Himalayan expeditions were launched. Lakpa Rita marshals an army of local muscle to help Alpine Ascents’ clients reach the summit. Of the roughly 400 people who live in Thamo, Thame, and their outlying villages, most families have at least one person who has worked for Alpine Ascents, either directly or indirectly.
“This season I had almost 40 Sherpas working for me, most of them from Thame,” Lakpa Rita said. And that’s just on the mountain. Lakpa Rita also had to move 26,445 pounds of gear and food to support the Discovery Channel’s plans for a complicated live broadcast from the summit, which was quickly scuttled after the avalanche. He arrived in Kathmandu from Seattle on March 29. There he retrieved 98 cardboard boxes, each packed with 50 pounds of food that he and guide Eric Murphy had bought from Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Fred Meyer and then shipped to Nepal via Korean Airlines, at a cost of $120 per box, not including duty.
At the three-story Kathmandu warehouse of Alpine Ascents’ in-country trekking agent, Jiban Ghimire, Lakpa Rita and 30 of his 40 climbing Sherpas packed tents, gear, food, and oxygen into a large truck that was driven 16 hours to the end of the road in Jiri. It was met by a Russian heavy-lift helicopter capable of shuttling all that tonnage, in ten loads, to the Syangboche airstrip above Namche Bazaar.
“It’s not cheaper, but it gets there faster,” Lakpa Rita said. From the airstrip, porters and yaks can make what is usually a five-day walk to Base Camp in three days. “I don’t know the exact number,” said Lakpa Rita, “but we had at least 400 yak loads going to Base Camp and 300 porter loads.”
At Base Camp, each porter trades his load for a chit, a note with a signature that says what was carried—either a 66-pound single load or a 132-pound double load—and over how many one-day trail segments. A single load carried over the five segments between Namche Bazaar and Base Camp is worth a little more than $50 in wages.
On the mountain, the pay structure for Sherpas is similar. As is common at many companies, Alpine Ascents’ workers get a gear allowance of roughly $2,000 to $3,000 at the start of the season. Then they make $15 per day as a base rate and earn $20 per load to Camp II, $30 to Camp III, and $50 to the South Col, with a $500 to $800 bonus for summiting the mountain, a purse that roughly 200 Sherpas will claim each year. The best porters can make up to $6,000 per season, which is comparable to what a Kathmandu college graduate might make in a year. Sherpas who don’t make as many carries or who work for smaller local outfitters might make $2,000 to $3,000.
“Each sirdar hires people from his own town,” says Lakpa Rita. “One of the reasons is I know them better. The other is I want my neighbors to have the opportunity. I know climbing mountains is one of the best ways to make a living, especially in Nepal. I’m trying to keep the money in my neighborhood. Pretty much all, I hire from my hometown.”
For Dorji, Ang Nimi, and their four kids—two boys and two girls, ages six to twelve—Lakpa Rita and Alpine Ascents represented an escape. They lived in a single-story stone house no bigger than a garden shed. In the winter, when their neighbors moved to lower elevations with their yaks, they had nowhere to go. So they brought the animals inside the cramped space, with people and beasts eating the same potatoes grown in a few small patches of arable land. “There are maybe four other families that stay in the winter,” Ang Nimi explained to me.
The hope was that Dorji would work on Everest for a few more seasons and they would save enough money to build a winter house in Thame or Ylajung. But each year something would come up to delay the dream—including several family deaths prior to 2014.
“They all died in the past five years: his father, his mother, I think hers,” said Burleson. “All the money he made went toward pujas. He died broke, and they have no money.”
The next morning, as Ang Nimi was returning to Taranga from Thame, Burleson and Lakpa Rita followed a procession of Namche youth who carried Dorji’s body from the police station back to the helipad. There, around 8:30, they met Pemba Tenzing, who’d walked back to Namche Bazaar to help bring Dorji home. They flew west and then northwest, toward Cho Oyu, the world’s sixth-highest mountain, passing over Ang Nimi and her yaks before landing in a potato patch in Taranga. Lakpa Rita convinced the pilot to shut down the helicopter and give them 20 minutes to spend with the family, in hopes that Ang Nimi would arrive.
Burleson and the two Sherpas entered and set Dorji’s body down on the floor. “They had butter lamps lit, and they were doing their puja. The neighbors offered us tea,” said Lakpa Rita. “It was just too hard to drink tea. As we were bringing Dorji in, his four little kids were crying, crying, crying. And it broke our hearts. Todd and myself said, ‘We’re sorry, but we are going to help you guys.’ ” In all, the avalanche had left behind 28 fatherless, dependent children.
Burleson and Lakpa Rita told Ang Nimi’s neighbors that they would return to pay her Dorji’s salary and put the kids in school in Namche Bazaar. The pilot started up the helicopter. Then the three men climbed in and were gone.
For Burleson, the avalanche brought to mind an earlier episode, in 1995, when a Sherpa had failed to clip into a safety rope on Everest’s Lhotse Face and fell to his death. “Lakpa Rita and I carried the body down through the Icefall and then dragged it to Lobuche,” he said. “The mother and sister and brother, who was crippled, met us below Lobuche. She kept kissing my hand and thanking me for bringing him down. The brother wanted to drag the body himself.”
For the 1995 cremation, they chose a flat spot among a garden of chortens below the outpost of Lobuche. The memorial spot, on the Khumbu Glacier’s terminal moraine, now also includes engraved cairns for Scott Fischer, Alex Lowe, and other notable climbers who’ve since died in the Himalayas.
“When you’re burning bodies, it’s real,” said Burleson, wearily describing the gruesome practicalities of ritual body disposal in a cold, barren world. “It takes a lot of wood. You have to crush the skull and puncture the stomach, or else you just get a glowing bubble in the fire.”
In the Buddhist religion, the spirit undergoes bardo, a transitional period after death that lasts 49 days. During bardo, the soul gradually moves away from the body and toward reincarnation in one of the realms inhabited by gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and devils.
The body lies in the home for three days before cremation. The entire village gathers at the deceased person’s house, where a kitchen tent is built and neighbors bring food and cash to help out. The family distributes gewa on behalf of the dead, handing out rice, butter, and money to anybody—even a reporter—who shows up. The gifts aren’t meant to please the receiver but to improve the rebirth prospects of the dead.
On April 29, at Mingma Nuru’s house in Phurte, I witnessed the gravity of the ceremony. Thirteen monks filled the house, meditating and praying during an event that was held under a new moon, to amplify goodwill. The belief is that the spirit lingers close to the body for three weeks. Any Sherpa climber lost in a crevasse is thought to have a restless ghost loitering nearby.
“The family has to talk near the body,” said Pemba Tenzing. “Before it we placed his favorite food, tsampa”—roasted flour mixed with broth to create a dumpling-like ball.
Mingma Nuru’s young wife, Dawa Jangmu, from Ylajung, sat in stunned silence on the floor of the kitchen, amid the commotion of monks and relatives. Widows describe this state in a way that’s always been translated to me as “paralysis.” She and Mingma Nuru hadn’t been formally married, and his mother was listed as the beneficiary on his insurance form.
“I don’t know what I’ll do,” Dawa Jangmu said quietly. She had also lost her brother Tenzing Chottar.
Lakpa Rita helicoptered back to Everest Base Camp in the early afternoon of Saturday, April 19. The last of the body-recovery efforts had just concluded. Three men hadn’t been found and likely won’t be for a long time. Like most victims of the Icefall, their bodies will gradually be moved, churned, and broken down by the currents of ice. Body parts and gear will rise up and melt out eventually, a femur emerging from the snow here, a glove there.
“I got a call from Jagged Globe’s sirdar, Pasang Tenzing, and he said we needed to make a report about the missing Sherpas,” Lakpa Rita said. “If you say ‘missing,’ sometimes it’s hard to get insurance.” They had to gather eyewitness reports saying that the men weren’t lost but entombed.
That afternoon, Lakpa Rita met the other sirdars at the camp of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee. This was the first in a series of encounters that gradually spelled the end of the 2014 climbing season on Everest’s south side. It started with people giving statements to a government liaison officer about the lost men.
“Then the meeting turned to a different subject,” Lakpa Rita said. “A lot of other Sherpas and sirdars were bringing their own points, saying, We need to do this. We have to do that.” Specifically, the mood in the room was that everybody needed to go home.
“They decided to have a meeting the next morning at nine with the expedition operators,” Lakpa Rita said. “They asked me to present, but I said I can’t, because a lot of them were saying we should go home. I told them it was a big loss for me but I couldn’t tell people to go home. Everybody should make their own decision. I’m pretty sure I’d already made my decision, but I didn’t tell my climbers”—meaning the Discovery crew and 12 Alpine Ascents clients. “But I told my Sherpas, ‘This is it. We’re not going back up.’ ”
What followed was a historic rift in Base Camp that was soon being debated around the world. On every media platform, people weighed in about the fraught business of hiring porters to help Westerners reach the summit, with a clear majority deciding that it was fundamentally wrong for Sherpas to shoulder so much of the risk on behalf of guided clients who would never make it without massive human support.
“Sad day with Sherpas’ deaths in #EverestAvalanche; died prepping the route for rich Western climbers,” read a typical tweet in the days following the disaster. In a syndicated op-ed cowritten by one of Tenzing Norgay’s sons, Dhamey Tenzing Norgay, the avalanche was compared to last year’s Rana Plaza garment-factory collapse in Bangladesh, which killed more than 1,100 workers. “The loss underscores a growing divide,” the piece said, “between expedition members, who pay top dollar to reach the summit, and their highly skilled Sherpa guides, who are paid a relative pittance and too often are taken for granted.”
Others pointed out that everybody who sets foot on Everest is taking a gamble—and that, if the avalanche had happened later in the season, all the victims might have been guided clients. “They know the risks,” wrote climber Mark Jenkins on National Geographic’s website, noting that “Sherpas are not dragooned onto Everest.” IMG guide Mike Hamill, writing in The Wall Street Journal, sought to explain Everest’s labor problems as a private matter by blaming them on “media sensationalism… perpetrated by persons outside the Everest mountaineering community.”
Hamill’s take, that the climbers and Sherpas share a mutual destiny defined by the “brotherhood of the rope,” is what many Western guides feel in their hearts, but it falls short of reality when you consider how much more time Sherpas spend roped to their actual brothers than to Westerners and how many more trips they make through the Icefall.
Looking back on it now, the events of the week following the avalanche are probably best described as a complicated mix of posturing and political theater that reflected how much was at stake, for the Western climbers who’d paid their outfitters $18,000 to $90,000 (nonrefundable) to attempt the climb, for their guides, and for the Sherpas whose lives and livelihoods were in jeopardy.
Among the first to find themselves struggling with the explosive politics of Base Camp were the Discovery Channel and 39-year-old Joby Ogwyn, the Louisiana-bred adventurer who had done a months-long national media blitz leading up to what was supposed to be a live, televised wingsuit jump expected to attract tens of millions of viewers.
The Discovery Channel had invested heavily in the stunt, and because the prime-time broadcast was going to be live and would use multiple cameras, it required an enormous amount of satellite equipment and manpower. Broadcast crews were to be positioned at the summit of 27,940-foot Lhotse, at Everest’s Camp II, and also on the summit itself, at 29,035 feet. For these tasks, Discovery had hired AAI guides Ben Jones and Andy Tyson to assist the high-altitude cameramen, which included Scottish climbers Ed Wardle and Joe French and Jackson Hole’s John Griber.
But by the evening of Friday, April 18—the day of the avalanche—members of the Discovery crew began to send conflicting messages about what would or should be done next. “For something like this to happen makes the whole thing seem pointless to me,” Wardle told the UK’s Channel 4 News that night. “The agreement here among everybody at Base Camp is that the mountain is closed for now. Nobody will be climbing.”
That same night in Base Camp, Madison Mountaineering’s Jangbu spoke with Ogwyn, who told him the wingsuit stunt wasn’t important compared with the loss of life. “Whatever you guys decide,” Jangbu recalled Ogwyn telling him, “I will support that decision.”
The next morning, though, Ogwyn seemed to reverse field, posting a note on Facebook saying, in part, that he was not giving up. “Today is a brighter day,” he wrote. “We are staying on the mountain to honor our friends and complete our project.”
Behind the scenes, his cameramen were furious, as I learned after I arrived in Kathmandu on April 22. “He’s going to fly off the summit to honor his dead Sherpas? That’s pathetic,” Griber told me when I ran into him at a rooftop restaurant. “How many people have to die on Everest for you not to jump?” Wardle insisted that Ogwyn cancel his project, a call that Ogwyn claimed wasn’t his to make. “That’s a decision that’s going to get made in New York,” he told me when I talked to him in June.
On the 19th, a threat arrived via Base Camp’s oldest, most resilient communication system: the rumor mill. “It was basically that if Joby didn’t leave, something like what happened last year might happen again,” said Ogwyn’s guide, Garrett Madison. He was referring to a fight that took place at Camp II in 2013 between several Sherpas and three professional European climbers, who’d angered the Sherpas by climbing above them while they were fixing line on the Lhotse Face.
“It wasn’t like I was being run out of Base Camp, though I took it seriously,” Ogwyn said of the threat. He and Madison left Base Camp that day and walked to Gorak Shep. In a sign of the rising discord, a crew member from NBC changed the name of their local wireless network to “He ran away!”
The broadcast’s executive producer, Howard Swartz, had just arrived at Kathmandu’s Hotel Yak and Yeti, and on April 20, Ogwyn flew from Gorak Shep to Kathmandu to meet him. The decision that emerged from their talk was clear: no go. That day, Discovery released a two-sentence statement saying that, in light of the tragedy and out of respect for the dead, the jump was off.
“His heart was in the right place,” Swartz told me on April 23, of Ogwyn’s short-lived attempt to keep the project alive. “But, really, it was an easy decision.” Then his tone softened, and it was clear how shocked he was by what had happened to the Sherpas. “I had a binder of contingencies this thick,” he said, opening his hand wide enough to grip a pint glass. “This wasn’t in it.”
Discovery Channel, which had already secured airtime for its special, shifted gears. NBC crew members still in Base Camp shot a 90-minute documentary about the avalanche, which aired on May 4. Ogwyn set up a fund for the families of the 16 dead that eventually raised about $100,000. He left Nepal on April 24 and went on a media tour, giving a series of interviews—alternately informative, heartfelt, and tone deaf—that made it obvious he intends to go back. In New York, at the end of April, he told a blogger that Sherpas “are far from slaves” and that he would return to Nepal in the spring of 2015 to make his jump. “I have done a lot more producing and setting up lecture[s], and a lot is based on this,” he said. “Next spring will be my opportunity.”
When I spoke with Ogwyn, he confirmed that he’s going back next year, and he probably won’t have any trouble finding an outfitter to support his effort. Meanwhile, he was still angry with Wardle: “Ed Wardle, my cameraman, just couldn’t keep his damn mouth shut, which is incredible, because he’s a cameraman and has no business being on TV, much less challenging me in my expertise.”
“The show’s about me,” he continued. “The show was about a guy named Joby Ogwyn jumping off the tallest mountain in the world. Simple as that.”
The purpose of the gathering at Base Camp on Sunday, April 20, was never in doubt. It was an organizing meeting for a labor force, many of whom felt aggrieved. The 21-person group assembled inside the tent of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee were mostly Sherpas, along with two low-level government liaison officers. A few Westerners were also present, including Dave Hahn, Canadian Tim Rippel of Peak Freaks, Russell Brice, and Greg Vernovage of IMG. A Nepali outfitter named Dawa Steven, who co-owns Asian Trekking, helped translate for the Westerners.
“The Sherpas were angry but peaceful,” said Lakpa Rita. The government had offered to pay the families of the dead an additional $400 on top of their $10,000 insurance payments, which was taken as an insult. “The money wouldn’t meet the cremation expenses,” said Pasang Bhote, a Sherpa from the Sankhuwasabha district, near Makalu, who was working for a small local outfitter called Seven Brothers.
Not everybody found the meeting so cordial. In an account written after the season ended, Brice recalled that “a brawl almost broke out between the liaison officers and some of the fired-up Sherpas, and it took the efforts of the Western members present to calm things down.”
The obvious leader for the workers would have been Dorjee Khatri, Garrett Madison’s late sirdar. He was vice president of the Union of Trekking Travels Rafting Workers Nepal and a member of the middle-left United Marxist-Leninist Party, which in 2005 had formed a coalition with the center-left Nepali Congress party and several hard-left Maoist parties to form the CPN-UML and replace Nepal’s monarchy with its current Constituent Assembly. Dorjee Khatri’s death politicized the tragedy almost by default. The following day, union leaders and Nepal’s CPN-UML prime minister from 2009 to 2011, Madhav Kumar Nepal, attended Dorjee Khatri’s funeral in Kathmandu. Party and union members draped his body in the flags of their respective organizations.
With Dorjee Khatri dead and the government paying attention, the Sherpas decided to air some grievances—about the dangers they face and about the modest money they make relative to the $3.4 million the government of Nepal collects from the climbing companies each year. Pasang Bhote, who had worked with Dorjee Khatri at Adventure Consultants for three Everest seasons, became the most prominent voice of the Sherpas, though he bristles at being called the leader of a movement or a Maoist, as several local news outlets dubbed him in the weeks after the avalanche.
“We were not affiliated to any parties,” he said. “Our sole understanding was we were laborers and the government had insulted us, and it was wrong.” Pasang Bhote came to the meeting with a list of demands for the government. After he read them off, others began adding to the list, and a liaison officer dutifully scribed the results into what became known as the 13-point charter.
Sumit Joshi, who co-owns Himalayan Ascent and has lived in Australia for the past 15 years, explained the demands to the Western guides present. The charter called, in part, for a second doubling of accidental-death insurance payouts—coverage was increased in the spring of 2013—to about $22,000. The Sherpas wanted $10,000 in disability coverage for workers permanently injured in the mountains, a $1,000 funeral stipend, a permanent relief-and-education fund carved from 30 percent of the government’s permit royalties, a plot of land in Kathmandu to build a memorial to the 16 dead, and official recognition of the cursed season as a lo nak (“black year”), by making April 18 a national holiday. Most important to the Westerners present, the charter stated that no team should be prevented from climbing.
“One of the points was that each expedition would decide on its own whether to continue, and that nobody would be pressured by those not continuing,” Dave Hahn told me. “That was one of the things we were agreeing to. And I think by the following day I heard that list read out to a chanting crowd, and it had been changed to: ‘And none of us will climb this season.’ ”
Almost everybody inside the tent signed the original 13-point charter. Outside, a crowd of Western guides and Sherpas had gathered. Pasang Bhote stood and read out the list. He and Sumit Joshi became the town criers, with Pasang orating and Sumit translating. “There was no microphone,” Pasang said. “I had to shout.”
“Obviously, because it’s political and everything, Pasang Bhote also said to people, ‘Do you want to continue or not continue?’ ” Sumit Joshi later explained. “And everybody yelled, ‘Yeah, we don’t want to continue!’ ”
Sherpas from outside began filing into the tent to add their names to the document. An additional 274 signed the paper, which threatened protests if the demands weren’t met. Pasang Tenzing, the secretary of the Nepal National Mountain Guide Association, delivered a copy of the charter to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation in Kathmandu.
The document stipulated that any expeditions whose Sherpas wanted to continue could continue, but that’s not how things played out. “After the avalanche, people were really scared,” Sumit Joshi said. “Underneath, I don’t think there was one single Nepali in Base Camp who wanted to go up again. Whatever these Western leaders are saying, that’s all false, I think.”
Initially, his assessment was probably right. “Their relatives were telling them, Don’t go up there,” Hahn said. “Two days afterward, my guys didn’t feel like climbing—quite understandably—but that changed a few days later, to the point where my Sherpas wanted to climb again.”
This matched a pattern that several other Western outfitters described to me. But the movement to keep going was outweighed by stronger pressures to go home.
On April 22, with the body-recovery effort officially called off, everybody in Base Camp gathered for a memorial puja. Between 400 and 500 people were on hand. Many Sherpas had returned to their villages, but many were still there. By all accounts, the service went smoothly. Juniper was burned, tears fell, black tea was offered, and prayers were made.
Afterward, the crowd lingered. “People were angry more because there hadn’t been any response from the government,” said Sumit Joshi. Fist-pumping and chants calling for the season to end started up. Then came the source of the Base Camp talk about threats: somebody in the crowd shouted, “If anybody goes up, we might break their leg with an ice ax!”
IMG’s head guide, Greg Vernovage, was there with his company’s longtime sirdar, Ang Jangbu. “Jangbu and I were together near the end of the puja,” he said, “and someone said that if there’s climbing, they would go down to Kathmandu and burn the offices and homes of the local operators.”
By Wednesday, April 23, things had gotten worse. Base Camp was awash in gossip that Nepalese troops would soon arrive to restore order. After some backroom haggling that involved Brice and Altitude Junkies' Phil Crampton, the government finally announced that it would send tourism minister Bhim Prasad Acharya by helicopter to Base Camp to try and ease tensions.
That evening, a group of local and Western guides, most of them certified by the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations (IFMGA), met at the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee camp to discuss conditions on the mountain and how they might keep the season alive.
“As we went round the circle expressing our safety concerns,” Alpenglow Expeditions owner Adrian Ballinger told me in a text message sent shortly after the meeting, “much less was about Icefall dangers and much more was about Sherpas.”
The meeting broke up, and that night several expeditions announced that they were pulling the plug. Canadian Tim Rippel, owner of Peak Freaks, canceled his climb, writing on his blog: “There is talk of retaliation on Sherpas who want to continue, and I’m not about to be part of this or put any of my staff or clients in danger.”
After interviewing numerous outfitters, sirdars, and other Sherpas, I was unable to find any specific threats beyond those shouted at the April 22 puja. But the environment was still hostile. “No one came to me directly to challenge me or threaten me to my face,” Asian Trekking’s Dawa Steven wrote in an e-mail. “I only heard through second-hand sources.”
IMG client Ellen Gallant, a cardiologist from Salt Lake City who trained and saved for 12 years and recently quit her job to climb the mountain, said she saw the effect that the chanting had on her sirdar. “Jangbu was clearly upset and crying about this,” said Gallant, who like most Western clients found herself out roughly $50,000 that her insurer, Travelex, was unwilling to cover. “Ang Jangbu, if you know him, is a stoic man. Nothing upsets him.”
As for herself, she’s still coming to grips with the collapse of a goal she’d worked toward for years. “I know it’s a small thing in the midst of the rest of the tragedy, but I feel like there’s a hole in my heart,” said Gallant, who turned 48 on May 12. “For a decade, I imagined standing on the summit of that mountain on my birthday.”
Without exception, each of the Western outfitters that wanted to stay and climb believed that they had a special relationship with their Sherpas. “We have a full complement of loyal Sherpas who we have worked with for years,” British outfitter Tim Mosedale wrote on his blog. “They have all returned after the tragedy and even the ones who have lost brothers who were working for other teams are willing to continue.”
But some Sherpas obviously were frightened. In recent years, a new crop of local, Kathmandu-based outfitters has grown up with a goal of owning the entire Everest production rather than just the load-carrying part. The rift in 2014, which is the same one that arose during last year’s Camp II fight, is between younger Sherpas who are training to be independent mountain guides and older Sherpas who have done well by making a career working for the top Western outfitters.
Sherpas from the local outfitters who were at the center of this year’s uproar—ones who were willing to speak at all, that is—claimed to have no idea that any of this was happening. When I asked Tashi Sherpa, the director of Seven Summits, whether there was some sort of Sherpa-enforced climbing moratorium, he said, “I don’t know about that, man. That is a personal decision if you want to climb up. But the route is not fixed.”
Ultimately, what was going on was both mind-numbingly complicated and also pretty simple. There was no blanket Sherpa or Western position, but rather a messy soup of grief, labor politics, service-industry customer relations, and government posturing that caught many experienced guides by surprise. While mountain climbers tend to be both liberal and freedom loving by nature, the realities of collective bargaining, especially done informally and without clear leadership, must have come as a shock.
Another factor was a famous Sherpa tendency to avoid conflict—even if conflict is what they desired. “Most of them are scared of dying but also of losing their jobs,” explained Nyima, a climber who owns Cafe de 8848 in Namche Bazaar. “You’re brought up in a culture where you treat Westerners with great hospitality.” Some of those men were willing to simply say that they didn’t want to climb or that their families were terrified for their safety. But more of them probably needed a way to save face about not wanting to go up. Blaming the threats of others, real or exaggerated, provided that.
“Some of the sirdars used it as an excuse. There was no renegade Sherpa group going camp to camp threatening people,” said Sumit Joshi. “If anyone can prove that, you know, that person should be in jail.”
Even as the 2014 season headed toward final collapse, there were undoubtedly plenty of Sherpas willing to climb. But there’s no such thing as a partial labor strike. “It’s absolutely real, the social pressure that’s going on not to cross the line,” said David Morton, a cameraman and former Alpine Ascents guide who was in Base Camp working on the forthcoming feature film Everest. It’s just that some Western outfitters didn’t recognize what they were dealing with. That’s because their workers told them it wasn’t a strike, a semantic feint in a country famous for relentless deference.
So rather than appeal to their employers for better compensation and benefits, the Sherpas stopped working and aimed their protest at the government—a dysfunctional body that has seen six different prime ministers since its democratic reform in 2008.
And perhaps owing to those close relationships with their own employees, many outfitters believed what they were being told. “The Sherpas state that the situation is between them and the government,” Mosedale wrote on his blog. “The government are stating that the mountain is open for business. We are going round and round in circles.”
The loop finally closed on Thursday, April 24, when I hitched a ride to Base Camp to witness the day’s events. I ran into Madhu Sudan Burlakoti, joint secretary of Nepal’s Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation. As he waited to board his helicopter, he assured me that the Sherpas were “ready to climb.… They are going to climb.”
My main takeaway from this was that nobody wanted to be seen as responsible for shutting down the mountain. For the government, doing so might have led to calls to refund the permit fees it had collected. The Sherpas, meanwhile, worked in one of the highest-paying industries in Nepal, though the cost of living in the Khumbu region has also risen sharply as a result of tourism’s success there.
When Minister Bhim Prasad Acharya and his entourage arrived in Base Camp around 10 a.m., a crowd had already gathered and was in a heckling mood. He addressed them while taking in oxygen through a nose tube and looking frail. “Please sit, please sit,” a handler said.
“Put some more chile in his soup!” somebody shouted.
“Turn off his oxygen and see if he notices!” somebody else yelled, to much laughter.
The minister spoke for an hour, saying that the government had agreed to let the expeditions roll their $10,000 permits into another year, a step that would make the shutdown a little less costly for clients. He told them he would put their 13-point charter in front of the cabinet. It was hardly a capitulation, but he’d shown up, and that was something.
After Acharya left, the expeditions began packing up. In an ironic turn, the lone group of Sherpas actually employed by the government, the Icefall Doctors, were the only ones required to stay, though they stopped maintaining the route. Climbing ceased almost entirely, but not quite. An American woman named Cleo Weidlich vowed to complete her solo climb of Lhotse, which shares the route up to Camp III with Everest.
“I refuse to give in to the pressures of the Everest mafia,” she proclaimed on her Facebook page at the end of April. During the second week of May, she and Wang Jing, owner and director of a large Chinese outdoor-gear retail chain, choppered to Camp II to begin their climbs. Jing made it to the top of Everest in late May, but Weidlich abandoned her Lhotse attempt, deciding that you can’t truly say you’ve climbed a mountain if you’ve flown halfway up it.
After the helicopter assists to Camp II, the government launched an investigation into the lawfulness of the flights. As the politics of Base Camp played out in April, several outfitters, especially HimEx’s Russell Brice, made their case that helicopters should be used to ferry gear over the Khumbu Icefall. It’s a move that could lead to fewer Sherpa deaths. But such a policy might also result in less work for them, more helicopter crashes, and widespread condemnation from climbing purists who think the mountain has already been brought low for the sake of commercial clients.
In the aftermath of the avalanche, half a dozen organizations raised nearly a million dollars to benefit the families of the 16 Sherpas who died. In addition to Ogwyn’s $100,000, a group of photographers from National Geographic and Outside raised $450,000, and there were major efforts by the American Alpine Club, the Juniper Fund, the American Himalayan Foundation, and a Japanese climbing team.
Most of the charities have pledged that all of the funds will directly benefit the families of the men who died. I was involved with the photographers’ effort, and half of that will go to families who lost climbers—either this year or in years past. The rest will pay for programs at the Khumbu Climbing Center, which trains Sherpas in safety and mountain rescue.
In the wake of past accidents, like those in 1996 and in 2012—when six clients and guides died over a two-day period—climbing Everest has only got more popular, since risk is part of the allure. But the impact of 2014 may be different, in part because of the political fault lines revealed so starkly in Base Camp. People who are saving up for the experience of a lifetime may have second thoughts about forking over upwards of $100,000, after airfare and gear purchases, when there’s no guarantee they’ll even set foot on the mountain.
So far, very few climbers have gotten any money back. The outfitters had already spent most of it moving equipment onto the mountain and paying guides and workers. And while it’s true that climbers may have a second chance to use their permits in the next five years, they’ll also have to pay the other Everest bills again.
And make no mistake: some climbers are angry. “We have been screwed by the Sherpas,” said Damien Francois, a 49-year-old Belgian who paid $28,000 to climb with an outfitter called Ever Quest Expeditions. “We are the hand that feeds the whole business, so without us, no operators. Without operators, no jobs for the Sherpas or their workers. But then we’re told, ‘Go home and come back next year.’ ” Francois, who says he’s writing a book about the 2014 “mess,” said he tried to speak out about all this at Base Camp but was told to shut up.
Among outfitters, the talk has already begun to shift from how to care for the families of the fallen to how to prevent more Sherpa deaths in the future. Besides using helicopters to shuttle gear to Camp II, it has been suggested that Camp II become a lot less luxurious, so there’s less stuff to haul back and forth. Many of the dead men in this year’s tragedy were carrying tents whose poles were big enough to be fashioned into makeshift stretchers. Adding helicopters to haul gear could change the equation, but whether that happens is still being debated.
Another way to reduce the number of Sherpas on the route is to restrict the number of permitted climbers. American alpinist Conrad Anker has suggested raising the bar by making a successful climb of another big peak in Nepal—like Makalu or Baruntse—a prerequisite for attempting Everest. That move might actually make money for the government, but it would put Everest even further out of reach for all but the wealthiest clients.
Meanwhile, the quality of maintenance in the Icefall route has come into question. Several guides I spoke with, including Hahn and Burleson, want to see some accounting for the $500 per person—or roughly $175,000—that outfitters annually pay the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee to fix the route. Hahn believes the level of route fixing and maintenance has not kept pace with increased traffic on the mountain. And the committee readily acknowledges that it uses a lot of that money for maintenance elsewhere in the national park that contains Everest.
As for the 13-point charter, the government has announced that it will require $15,000 in life-insurance coverage for climbing Sherpas (up from the current $11,000), but outfitters could elevate that to $20,000 at a cost of only about $200 per worker. Beyond that, it’s unlikely the government will forgo any of its royalties for the sake of a Sherpa relief fund. In the end, Everest’s economic ecosystem is as fragile as its natural one. Unless people are suddenly willing to pay half a million dollars to climb it, the steady pull of gravity will be toward the status quo.
Last January, before any of this had happened, Lakpa Rita tried to quit climbing. The spring of 2013 was also a bad year on Everest, mostly because of the fight that took place at Camp II. “After that incident, I told a lot of people I wasn’t going to climb anymore,” he said. The mood had changed. He didn’t understand what was driving some of the younger Sherpas anymore. In the initial aftermath of that fight, many people rushed to the defense of the Sherpas, who’d been shamed when the Europeans climbed past them on their home turf. But in the year since then, many people have begun to suspect that there is something more going on.
The great sirdars of the nineties and early aughts—men like Lakpa Rita, IMG’s Ang Jangbu, Adventure Consultants’ Ang Dorjee, Rainier Mountaineering’s Lam Babu, and HimEx’s Phurba Tashi—have lost some of the authority they once had to dictate decisions in Base Camp. Many young Sherpas are not mere porters anymore. A dozen have earned their IFMGA certifications (a long, expensive process that gives a guide the ability to work anywhere in the world and command a higher wage) and work for local outfitters based in Kathmandu’s touristy Thamel neighborhood. They have their own cliques and hierarchies.
It’s a rift that’s likely to deepen. Local outfitters and ascendant young Sherpas will continue to assert themselves as the government pretends that it has everything under control. And established Western outfitters, who still bring the best logistics, most qualified clients, and most experienced guides into the country each year, will struggle to compete with those local outfitters, who want a bigger piece of the pie but are also consistently the worst at taking care of their workers and their families after an accident. Many local companies charge their clients less than $30,000 for an Everest trip.
For Lakpa Rita, these shifts finally prompted an attempt, earlier this year, to find another way to make a living. The man whose image covers an area the size of a handball court on the side of the Sherpa Adventure Gear headquarters building in Kathmandu, began looking for work in Seattle.
“I drove an Uber,” he said. “I also tried landscaping.” He applied for a job as a mail carrier. “They hired me, but the next day I said I’m not going to do it.”
And so he didn’t. Instead, he returned to Everest in 2014. “I mean, this is what I know. This is what I’m good at. And this is what I enjoy doing,” he said. Plus, his neighbors in Thame count on him for work.
On that black Friday morning in the Icefall, as Lakpa Rita raced to the aid of the boys he’d watched grow up, his cell phone rang. He stopped and answered it. News of the avalanche had already reached Seattle, and his wife, Fur Dikee Sherpa, was on the line in tears.
She said, “No more Everest. No more K2. We can survive without climbing. You don’t need to climb. I don’t want to lose you.”
“I told her yes, I won’t climb anymore,” Lakpa Rita said. But then he hedged, as Everest climbers always do. “I will come back just to manage the Base Camp.” |
Last time Jerry Seinfeld was in a Super Bowl ad was 1999, during his heydays as an American Express spokesperson. Throughout the 1990s, he appeared in Super Bowl ads for the brand. This year he's back but for Honda Acura. Take a trip down memory lane...
American Express - Jerry Seinfeld - Road Trip (1999) - 0:60 (USA)
American Express - Jerry Seinfeld - Lost At Sea (1995) - 0:60 (USA)
American Express - Jerry Seinfeld - Secret Little Place (1994) - 0:60 (USA)
American Express - Jerry Seinfeld - Panel (1993) - 0:30 (USA)
This year we'll see him in a 60-second spot by RPA and Arcade Edit for Honda Acura called "Transactions" along with characters from "Seinfeld" like the Soup Nazi and car-aficionado Jay Leno. This will be Acura’s first showing in a Super Bowl.
Watch the extended ad: |
Fox News co-host Gretchen Carlson is outraged at Vice President Joe Biden’s aggressive debate performance and says that Republican vice presidential candidate should ‘just deck’ President Barack Obama’s running mate.
Following Thursday night’s debate in Danville, Kentucky, conservatives had two major complaints: Biden was too rude and he laughed too much.
On Friday morning’s Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy reviewed a few minutes of what he called Biden’s “interruptathon.”
“Have you ever felt that way where you just want to deck somebody?” Carlson wondered. “I’m sorry! I think if you’re Paul Ryan last night that that’s how you feel.”
“You could tell that he didn’t want to come across as being overly aggressive and he knew he was going to be the young guy there and he should show respect the the elder statesmen, but my goodness,” she added.
Watch this video from Fox News’ Fox & Friends via Media Matters, broadcast Oct. 12, 2012. |
Johannesburg - A group of school girls from Pretoria was among those who survived a devastating earthquake in Nepal on Saturday
''Earthquake in Nepal. Please keep our travelling World Challenge Team girls in your prayers. We have heard from the one team and expect to hear from the other soon. Will keep you posted,'' read a worried message on the St Mary's Diocesan School for Girls Facebook page on Saturday as news spread that more than 1 400 people had been killed in the destruction that followed the natural disasters.
This was followed by a relieved update which said: ''All teams have been accounted for and are safe''.
On Friday morning , the day before the quake, photographs of the eight girls showed them enjoying ''The Beautiful Himalayas''.
But by Saturday morning there were frantic efforts to make contact with them as parts of the country lay in ruins.
Cape Town-based Adventure Global, a company which specialises in expeditions, said it had an expedition in the region when the quake and avalanche struck, but had managed to locate its team, led by South African Ronnie Muhl.
When news of the disaster spread, the company posted: ''Hi all, this is from Cape Town. I’m sure you've all heard about the earthquake in Nepal by now.
The best we can do is wait to hear from the team. I’m certain Ronnie will contact us as soon as possible. It could well be that communication is problematic as a result of damage caused by the earthquake. We hope for the best and are thinking of them.''
Their team consisted of Muhl, Donna McTaggart from South Africa, Alyssa Azar from Australia, Anshu Jamsenpa from India and Chhurim Sherpa from Nepal.
McTaggart had hoped to be the fourth South African woman to summit Everest.
An update later said: ''Chelsea from Cape Town again... I have been able to speak to Alyssa Azar's admin in Australia and word is that Ronnie, Alyssa, Donna and the Sherpas who were with them are safe in Gorak Shep.
Department of international relations and co-operation spokesperson Clayson Monyela said all South Africans there had been accounted for and President Jacob Zuma had sent a message of condolences to Nepal.
''The president issued a message of condolences to the government and people of Nepal following this devastating earthquake which has claimed hundreds and hundreds of lives," said Monyela.
Meanwhile, South African humanitarian group Gift of the Givers was scrambling to send 20 search and rescue volunteers and 20 medical trauma specialists to Nepal to help.
''The devastating earthquake in Nepal necessitates a worldwide response given the magnitude of the destruction and the large loss of life in this poor Himalayan country,'' said Gift of the Givers head Imtiaz Sooliman.
They will leave as soon as their visa and other logistics are finalised and will take R5m worth of search and rescue and medical equipment, and medical supplies on the mission.
''Tents, food, bottled water and other essential supplies for affected victims will be purchased from India,'' he said.
Search and rescue and medical personnel can forward their names and speciality to [email protected] in case they send more volunteers.
They would bolster efforts by other organisations such as International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) who are also mobilising to help.
"We do not yet know the scope of the damage, but this could be one of the deadliest and most devastating earthquakes since the 1934 tremor which devastated Nepal and Bihar," said Jagan Chapagain, Asia/Pacific director of the IFRC, according to Agence France Presse. |
We hear the writer speak; but he expresses no opinion and makes no comment. His role is limited to selecting the events and translating them into language; and this is done in the conviction that every event, if one is able to express it purely and completely, interprets itself and the persons involved in it far better and more completely than any opinion or judgment appended to it could do. Upon this conviction—that is, upon a profound faith in the truth of language responsibly, candidly, and carefully employed—Flaubert’s artistic practice rests.
As noble and romantic a way to describe Flaubert’s technique as this is, the truth is far less grand but more commendable. It is not Flaubert’s “faith” in language but his skill with it. Auerbach fails to fully understand the deliberate nature of free indirect discourse, an approach Flaubert innovated in Madame Bovary. Rather than merely “selecting the events and translating them into language,” Flaubert, instead, was exploiting an affect of third-person narration that transfers the feelings and opinions inherent in the prose onto the character from whose perspective the prose is revolved.
A quick way to show this: If the beginning of a story read, “JoAnna looked around her apartment. What a shithole,” how would you interpret that second sentence? Clearly it’s JoAnna’s opinion of her own place, not the opinion of some God-like storyteller. Most readers, no matter what their education, will pick up on this. They’ll understand it implicitly, and continue to view all the language through the lens of JoAnna, but if a writer doesn’t understand why and how this all works explicitly, breaks in POV will accumulate and the prose will become messy, confusing, and clunky. Clark, however, doesn’t clarify the nuances, nor does he mention at all that what Auerbach’s describing actually has a name and has been studied with intensity by numerous literary theorists. For Clark, such terms and distinctions are stuffy and pedantic, not in keeping with his straightforward voice.
This is not to discount the intelligence and perceptiveness of Clark’s analyses. His readings are smart and succinct, if a little light, and the “Writing Lessons” that conclude each chapter are wise, and could arguably inspire someone to give a few of the exercises a try, or at the very least instill some desire to explore the ideas further. Especially interesting are Clark’s sections on (relatively) less covered works like M. F. K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf (1946), John Hersey’s Hiroshima (1946), or Rachel Carson’s The Sea Around Us (1950), unlikely nonfiction classics that nonetheless provide unique and vital lessons for fiction writers.
Most people would prefer to think they’re learning from Dante and Fitzgerald, and Woolf and not from a selection of contemporary writers they might never have heard of.
Note, though, the publication years. Most of Clark’s examples represent a conventional canon: Shakespeare, Nabokov, Joyce, Plath, O’Connor, Flaubert, Melville, and so on. The only recent texts here are Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Good Squad (2010), Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit (2001), and Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch (2013), but the rest are the usual suspects. A more relevant collection of texts might have better assisted in appealing to (and, as a result, reaching) young writers trying to wrestle with such a daunting and compelling demon. Even James Wood—so rarely accused of being hip—spends considerable pages on Philip Roth, David Foster Wallace, Ricky Moody, Ian McEwan, and Zadie Smith, and his book only promises to explain how fiction works, whereas Clark’s flat-out states that it will (for real, it’s underlined on the cover) improve your writing. The use of canonical authors, here and elsewhere, is less about their skillfulness and more about the authority their names bring. After all, most people would prefer to think they’re learning from Dante and Fitzgerald and Woolf, and not from a selection of contemporary writers they might never have heard of.
In truth, the education of an artist is a mess of clumsy attempts, prolonged ignorance, rare persistence, and intuited lessons, but mostly it’s a lot of reading and writing, with passionate abandon and often without grand intention. Most quit. Some never develop past the ersatz and the derivative. A few do, but somehow still aren’t very good. This makes it virtually impossible to prescribe this or that technique, or to merely show how this or that writer made their novel work, because young writers who stick around will, for better or worse, develop those skills on their own. Clark’s intent is admirable, his skills as a critic considerable, and the book he’s produced is not without its merits. Although Clark believes, in narrative terms, in the importance of “showing,” he fails to see how young writers—about to step into a vast landscape with centuries of history—would be enormously grateful to simply be told.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled John Hersey’s last name. |
The independent investigation into the NFL's pursuit and handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence incident began Thursday, NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported according to a source involved in the process.
The league announced Wednesday night that former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III will conduct the investigation. The full statement released by the league is below:
"Former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III will conduct an independent investigation into the NFL's pursuit and handling of evidence in the Ray Rice domestic violence incident, Commissioner Roger Goodell announced tonight. Director Mueller's investigation will be overseen by NFL owners John Mara of the New York Giants and Art Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the final report will be made public.
"Mara and Rooney are both attorneys. Commissioner Goodell pledged that Director Mueller will have the full cooperation of NFL personnel and access to all NFL records. Mueller served as director of the FBI for 12 years (2001-2013) under two presidents. He is currently a partner in the law firm of WilmerHale and is based in Washington, DC."
The news comes after a tumultuous week which has included the release of a video that shows Rice punching his then-fiancee Janay Palmer in an Atlantic City casino elevator. Rice was suspended indefinitely by the NFL on Monday shortly after being released by the Baltimore Ravens. Rice was previously suspended two games on July 24 for violating the league's personal conduct policy for the same incident.
Mara and Rooney released a joint statement Thursday, saying they would support and assist Mueller.
"No timeline was established and we stressed that he should take as much time as necessary to complete a thorough investigation," the statement read. "We agreed that the scope of the investigation should be aimed at getting answers to specific questions, including what efforts were made by league staff to obtain the video of what took place inside the elevator and to determine whether, in fact, the video was ever delivered to someone at the league office, and if so, what happened to the video after it was delivered. ...
"Our sole motive here is to get the truth and then share Mr. Mueller's findings with the public."
According to The Associated Press, a law enforcement official says he sent a video of Rice punching Palmer to an NFL executive in April.
"We have no knowledge of this," the NFL said in a statement Wednesday. "We are not aware of anyone in our office who possessed or saw the video before it was made public on Monday. We will look into it." |
Inside Wall Street's most secret society: The billionaire banker fraternity where cross-dressing new members make jokes about Hillary Clinton and drunkenly mock the financial crisis
Kappa Beta Phi was founded in 1929 and has remained secret for more than eight decades
One reporter managed to sneak into their January 2012 induction for new members
Witnessed them dressed in drag, telling jokes in bad taste and mocking Main Street and the bailout
Leader: This is billionaire financier, Wilbur Ross and his wife Hilary Geary - Ross is the Grand Swipe or chief of Kappa Beta Phi, a secret society for elite Wall Street bankers
A journalist who gate-crashed a secret fraternity of billionaire bankers has laid bare the booze fueled, cross dressing antics of its members as they openly mocked the 99 percent and made light of the enormous government bailouts of 2009.
Sneaking into the swanky St Regis Hotel ballroom in January 2012, where he was assumed to be a waiter, Kevin Roose became the first outsider to witness the Monty-Python-esque induction ceremony for Kappa Beta Phi.
New members, known as neophytes, traipsed around other masters of the universe dressed in leotards and gold-sequined skirts and wigs - to then perform vaudeville-style acts that included homophobic and sexist jokes and even a parody of ABBA's 'Dancing Queen', called 'Bailout King'.
Over 200 multi-millionaire and billionaire bankers and financiers were in attendance at the annual event so chock-full of power and money that Roose felt that 'if you had dropped a bomb on the roof, global finance as we know it might have ceased to exist'.
Older hands at the fraternity, which has existed since the end of the Great Depression, walk around the well-lubricated dinner wearing 'purple velvet moccasins embroidered with the fraternity’s Greek letters'.
Lavish: This is the ballroom of the St.. Regis Hotel in Manhattan - where Kappa Beta Phi met in January 2012 and were infiltrated by reporter Kevin Roose
Served up a luxury meal of lamb and foie gras, executives from 'nearly every too-big-to-fail bank, private equity megafirm, and major hedge fund' were in attendance at the prestigious and secretive event.
Each new member, who has to cross-dress at the start of the evening, is required to perform for the benefit of the other guests in their costume wigs - believing they are safe under the mantra of 'what happens in the Regis, stays in the Regis.'
Written up for a piece in New York Magazine, Roose describes how Millionaire, Paul Queally, who works with Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe performed a skit with Ted Virtue, who works with MidOcean Partners.
Roose heard them reel off a particularly unfunny joke about a former first lady: 'Q: 'What’s the biggest difference between Hillary Clinton and a catfish?' A: 'One has whiskers and stinks, and the other is a fish'
The rich pair even threw in a homophobic jibe for good measure: 'Q: 'What’s the biggest difference between Barney Frank and a Fenway Frank?' A: 'Barney Frank comes in different-size buns'
Some of the performances seemed to skirt the edge of taste, as Warren Stephens, an investment banking CEO, went on stage in a Confederate flag hat and sang a song referencing the financial crisis, to the tune of 'Dixie'.
Club: Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is listed as a member of Kappa Beta Phi - although Roose did not witness him at the January 2012 induction of new members
The lyrics included, 'In Wall Street land we’ll take our stand, said Morgan and Goldman. But first we better get some loans, so quick, get to the Fed, man.'
REVEALED: MEMBERS OF WALL STREET's SECRET SOCIETY
Wilbur Ross: Grand Swipe - American Investor estimated by Forbes in 2011 to be worth $1.9 billion
Alexandra Lebenthal: Grand Swipe from 2003 - 2004 - President and CEO of the municipal bond franchise Lebenthal & Company
Peter Kellogg: Grand Swipe from 1999-200: Businessman and philanthropist with a net worth estimated by Forbes at around $2.3 billion
Michael R. Bloomberg: Former Mayor of New York City and business magnate worth who is the 13th richest man in the world with a fortune of $31 billion
Laurence Fink: chairman and chief executive officer of BlackRock - the largest money-management firm in the world with assets of $3.5 trillion
Paul Tudor Jones: The founder of Tudor Investment Corporation estimated to have a net worth of USD 3.6 billion
Another two financiers, Bill Mulrow, who is an executive at the Blackstone Group and Emil Henry, who is a hedge fund manager with Tiger Infrastructure Partners and former assistant secretary of the Treasury did a two man comedy sketch.
In it, Mulrow played the role of a liberal radical while Henry played the part of a wealthy baron.
Roose said that it looked like a debate between the 99 percent and the 1 percent.
At one point, Henry said, 'Bill, look at you! You're pathetic, you liberal! You need a bath!'
To which Henry shouted, 'My God, you callow, insensitive Republican! Don't you know what we need to do? We need to create jobs.'
Past and current neophytes include former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and members of the wealthy Rockefeller family.
The fraternity was started in 1929 by 'four C+ William and Mary students' and its crest is described as depicting a 'macho right hand in a proper Savile Row suit and a Turnbull and Asser shirtsleeve.'
The clandestine groups motto is 'Dum vivamus edimus et biberimus', or Latin for 'While we live, we eat and drink.'
The current head of Kappa Beta Phi, or Grand Swipe, is Wilbur Ross, 76, known for restructuring failed companies in hard industries and who is conservatively estimated to be worth $1.9 billion.
Other members include AIG CEO Bob Benmosche, Alan 'Ace' Greenberg, the former chairman of Bear Stearns and President Obama donor Marc Lasry.
Roose describes that membership is not just for the successful in banking. There are also wildly unsuccessful members such as former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld and former Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne.
Exalted company: Alan "Ace" Greenberg, former Bear Stearns Chairman and CEO in 2008 - was still attending Kappa Beta Phi, a secret society for elite Wall Street financiers in 2012 as was Marc Lasry - who has donated to President Barack Obama
Describing the consummate ease with which he entered the party, Roose details how he witnessed Ross induct 21 new members in January 2012.
'Good evening, Exalted High Council, former Grand Swipes, Grand Swipes-in-waiting, fellow Wall Street Kappas, Kappas from the Spring Street and Montgomery Street chapters, and worthless neophytes!' Ross exclaimed at the beginning of his introductory remarks.
The first outside to infiltrate Kappa Beta Phi in its eight decade life-span, Roose calls the fraternity so exclusive it is akin to a one-percenter's club.
Sneaking in as part of his research for his book, 'Young Money', Roose was interested to see why so many eager young men work ridiculously long hours when they start banking - but seem to have a drastic personality changes as they age and become so successful.
Staying long enough to record skits and speeches given by new inductees and to take a few pictures, Roose was exposed when he tried to video a parody version of 'I Believe', the big number from musical, The Book of Mormon - for which the neophytes had dressed as missionaries.
Indeed, the lyrics were changed to include the line, 'I believe that God has a plan for all of us. I believe my plan involves a seven-figure bonus.'
Busted: Michael Novogratz, (left) principal of Fortress Investment Group LLC, and co-chief investment officer of the Fortress Macro Fund caught Kevin Roose in the act while Ted Virtue (right) told some off-color jokes as he was inducted
Billionaire investor Michael Novogratz, a former Army helicopter pilot, rumbled Roose and tried to take his phone off him.
Roose described Novogratz as having the impression of having consumed alcohol that evening.
The fight attracted the attention of Wilbur Ross and a former Grand Swipe called Alexandra Lebenthal who ran over and escorted Roose outside with his pictures and audio recording intact.
Roose alleges that Ross tried to bribe him to keep quiet with the lure of exclusive stories, saying, 'I'll pick up the phone anytime, get you any help you need.'
'Yeah, the people in this group could be very helpful,' Lebenthal chimed in. 'If you could just keep their privacy in mind.'
However, Roose was not swayed and printed his story in New York Magazine as part of the promotion for his new book.
He drew the conclusion that 'the upper ranks of finance are composed of people who have completely divorced themselves from reality.
'No self-aware and socially conscious Wall Street executive would have agreed to be part of a group whose tacit mission is to make light of the financial sector’s foibles. |
CLOSE Alfredo Simon talks about giving up a season-high eight runs in a 8-7 loss to the Angels on Tuesday night. Video by George Sipple/DFP
Tigers catcher James McCann hits a two-run home run in the sixth inning Tuesday at Comerica Park. (Photo: Julian H. Gonzalez DFP)
Alfredo Simon followed his best pitching performance of the season with his worst.
The Detroit Tigers right-hander allowed a season-high eight runs in an 8-7 loss to the Angels on Tuesday night at Comerica Park. Simon threw three run-scoring wild pitches. He threw 102 pitches over 4 1/3 innings.
"Had trouble throwing strikes, had trouble getting ahead of guys," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said of Simon. "It was kind of a 180 from the last outing."
Simon pitched a one-hitter for the first complete game shutout of his career in his last start, a 4-0 win over the Rangers at Comerica Park onThursday.
Simon allowed nine hits, four walks, three wild pitches and hit one batter against the Angels.
The Angels took a 4-0 lead in the first inning on three hits and one walk. Simon allowed each of the first four batters to reach base. He gave up a leadoff walk to Kole Calhoun, a single to Trout, then a three-run home run to left by Pujols. David Murphy followed with a double to center. Murphy advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Aybar, then came home on a Simon's first wild pitch of the game.
Simon said he tried to throw a two-seamer inside on the home run ball "and it was in the middle."
"I don't think I had the rhythm that I had last time," Simon said. "I think that was my problem tonight."
The Tigers scored four runs in the third inning, but trailed again by four after the Angels scored twice in the fourth and twice in the fifth.
James McCann hit a two-out, two-run home run in the sixth to the cut the Angels' lead to 8-6.
With runners on first and third, Jose Iglesias ended the threat in the sixth by grounding out to the pitcher.
The Tigers pulled to within a run, 8-7, on an RBI single by Nick Castellanos in the seventh. With the tying run on second with two outs, Albert Pujols made a diving stop on a grounder by McCann.
With runners on first and third with two outs in the eighth, Angels closer Huston Street got Victor Martinez to ground out to first.
Street went on to complete the four-out save for his 30th save of the season.
Miguel Cabrera went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored to lead the Tigers offensively.
McCann went 2-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored. J.D. Martinez (RBI, run scored) and Castellanos each had two hits.
The Tigers lost their fifth game in a row and are now seven games under .500 (59-66).
"Very tough, man," Cabrera said. "You don't want to be in this position, especially when you fight for something. This season is not over. We know what we can do."
The Tigers are 0-5 this season against the Angels.
Aybar scored from third on a wild pitch to give the Angels a 5-4 lead in fourth. They Angels ahead 6-4 after pinch hitter David Green hit a soft pop up that went off the glove of Tigers shortstop Jose Iglesias. Green was credited with a single, scoring C.J. Cron.
In the fifth, Aybar hit an RBI double and came home on a wild pitch for a second time in the game to give the Angels a four-run cushion.
The Tigers tied the game in the third on a three-run double by Cabrera and an RBI single by J.D. Martinez.
Jered Weaver gave up a leadoff single to McCann. With one out, Anthony Gose was credited with a double as Angels outfielders Mike Trout and Calhoun deferred to each other and allowed the ball top drop between them in right-center. Weaver then hit Iglesias in the back to load the bases.
Cabrera extended his hitting streak to 10 games with his bases-clearing double.
J.D. Martinez knocked in his 85th RBI with his line drive single to left.
Jered Weaver allowed six runs on seven hits with no walks over 5 2/3 innings with one strikeout for the Angels.
"He's got some movement, he still does change speeds quite a bit," Ausmus said. "He's throwing 81, 82, but he's also got a 67-mile per hour curveball, so there's a big disparity between the velocities of some of the pitches. And he runs it in and cuts it a little bit."
The bullpen was one bright spot for the Tigers. Drew VerHagen allowed one hit and one walk in 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief. Blain Hardy allowed one hit in two-thirds of an inning and Alex Wilson didn't allow a hit or run in 1 1/3 innings, including a strikeout of Trout.
"The bullpen did a nice job tonight," Ausmus said. "You'd like to put it all in the same day though, where the starter does a good job, the bullpen has a good night and we hit. And right now none of those are syncing up."
Contact George Sipple: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @georgesipple. Download our Tigers Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices! Join us for a a live blog of the Tigers vs. Angels game on Thursday afternoon at freep.com/sports. Also check out our latest Tigers podcast at freep.com/tigerspodcast or on iTunes. |
Snow in Brazil, below zero Celsius in the River Plate and tropical fish frozen
5th Thursday, August 2010 - 05:00 UTC Full article
Brazilians associated to sun and beaches enjoy the unexpected snow
For a second day running it snowed Wednesday in Southern Brazil and in twelve of Argentina’s 24 provinces including parts of Buenos Aires as a consequence of the polar front covering most of the continent’s southern cone with zero and below zero temperatures.
Light snow storms in Brazil were concentrated in areas of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. O Globo network aired snow flakes falling in early morning, cars covered with a thin white coating and some roads dangerously slippery because of ice.
In Argentina the phenomenon extended to Northern provinces, geographically sub-tropical while in the Patagonia and along the Andes snow reached over a metre deep, isolating villages and causing yet undisclosed losses to crops and livestock.
The extreme cold weather is expected to peak Thursday dawn with below zero temperatures and even lower with the wind chill factor.
After a harsh weekend, Argentina’s National Weather Forecast Service announced the cold weather is expected to stay until Thursday although it could again reach a freezing peak over the coming week-end.
On Wednesday a northbound cold front hit the Patagonia and central Argentine regions. In Patagonia, minimum temperatures went as low as minus 10 Celsius with even lower numbers in snowy regions, while maximum temps were in the range of zero to 7 Celsius.
Because of the freezing temperatures power consumption set new records both in Argentina and Uruguay. According to Argentina’s Planning ministry, electricity demand reached 20.669 MW at 20:15 hours when most Argentine families are home back from work. Although residential demand was satisfied, hundreds of industries suffered an anticipated blackout.
In Uruguay the power record consumption was reached on Wednesday at 20:45. The lowest temperatures were registered in the north and west of the country: minus 7 Celsius.
In related news, reports from landlocked Bolivia indicate that to the east of the country in tropical areas temperatures plummeted to zero causing “millions of dead fish” in rivers that normally flow in an environment of 20 Celsius.
Santa Cruz governor Ruben Costas said the province was suffering a “major environmental catastrophe” and warned the population not to make use of water from rivers (because of the dead fauna and flora) promising to send drinking water in municipal trucks.
“The last time something of this magnitude happened was 47 years ago”, said governor Costas. |
writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (February 21, 1903 – January 14, 1977), known professionally as Anaïs Nin (,[1] French: [ana.is nin]) was a French-American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the daughter of composer Joaquín Nin and Rosa Culmell, a classically trained singer. Nin spent her early years in Spain and Cuba, about sixteen years in Paris (1924–1940), and the remaining half of her life in the United States, where she became an established author.
Beginning at age eleven, Nin wrote journals prolifically for six decades and even up until her death. Her journals, many of which were published during her lifetime, detail her private thoughts and personal relationships. Her journals also describe her marriage to Hugh Parker Guiler and marriage to Rupert Pole, in addition to her numerous affairs, including those with psychoanalyst Otto Rank and writer Henry Miller, both of whom profoundly influenced Nin and her writing.
In addition to her journals, Nin wrote several novels, critical studies, essays, short stories, and volumes of erotica. Much of her work, including the collections of erotica Delta of Venus and Little Birds, was published posthumously amid renewed critical interest in her life and work. Nin spent her later life in Los Angeles, California, where she died of cervical cancer in 1977.
Early life [ edit ]
Anaïs Nin was born in Neuilly, France, to Joaquín Nin, a Cuban pianist and composer of Catalan Spanish descent, and Rosa Culmell,[2] a classically trained Cuban singer of French and Danish descent.[3] Her father's grandfather had fled France during the Revolution, going first to Saint-Domingue, then New Orleans, and finally to Cuba where he helped build that country's first railway.
Nin was raised a Roman Catholic[5] but left the church when she was 16 years old. She spent her childhood and early life in Europe. Her parents separated when she was two; her mother then moved Anaïs and her two brothers, Thorvald Nin and Joaquín Nin-Culmell, to Barcelona, and then to New York City, where she attended high school. Nin would drop out of high school in 1919 at age sixteen, and according to her diaries, Volume One, 1931–1934, later began working as an artist's model. After being in the United States for several years, Nin had forgotten how to speak Spanish, but retained her French and became fluent in English.
On March 3, 1923, in Havana, Cuba, Nin married her first husband, Hugh Parker Guiler (1898–1985), a banker and artist, later known as "Ian Hugo" when he became a maker of experimental films in the late 1940s. The couple moved to Paris the following year, where Guiler pursued his banking career and Nin began to pursue her interest in writing; in her diaries she also mentions having trained as a flamenco dancer in Paris in the mid-to-late 1920s with Francisco Miralles Arnau. Her first published work was a critical evaluation of D. H. Lawrence called D. H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study, which she wrote in sixteen days.[2]
Nin became profoundly interested in psychoanalysis and would study it extensively, first with René Allendy in 1932 and then with Otto Rank.[9] Both men eventually became her lovers, as she recounts in her Journal.[10] On her second visit to Rank, Nin reflects on her desire to be "re-born" as a woman and artist. Rank, she observes, helped her move back and forth between what she could verbalize in her journals and what remained unarticulated. She discovered the quality and depth of her feelings in the wordless transitions between what she could say and what she could not say. "As he talked, I thought of my difficulties with writing, my struggles to articulate feelings not easily expressed. Of my struggles to find a language for intuition, feeling, instincts which are, in themselves, elusive, subtle, and wordless."
In the late summer of 1939, when residents from overseas were urged to leave France due to the approaching war, Nin left Paris and returned to New York City with her husband. (Guiler was, according to his own wishes, edited out of the diaries published during Nin's lifetime; his role in her life is therefore difficult to gauge.)[12] During the war, Nin sent her books to Frances Steloff of the Gotham Book Mart in New York for safekeeping.[13]
In New York, Anaïs rejoined Otto Rank, who had previously moved there, and moved into his apartment. She actually began to act as a psychoanalyst herself, seeing patients in the room next to Rank's, and having sex with her patients on the psychoanalytic couch. She quit after several months, however, stating: "I found that I wasn't good because I wasn't objective. I was haunted by my patients. I wanted to intercede."[15] It was in New York that she met the Japanese-American modernist photographer Soichi Sunami, who went on to photograph her for many of her books.
Literary career [ edit ]
Journals [ edit ]
Anaïs Nin's most studied works are her diaries or journals, which she began writing in her adolescence. The published journals, which span several decades from 1933 onward, provide a deeply explorative insight into her personal life and relationships. Nin was acquainted, often quite intimately, with a number of prominent authors, artists, psychoanalysts, and other figures, and wrote of them often, especially Otto Rank. Moreover, as a female author describing a primarily masculine constellation of celebrities, Nin's journals have acquired importance as a counterbalancing perspective.
In the third volume of her unexpurgated journal, Incest, she wrote about her father candidly and graphically (207–15), detailing his sexual abuse of her at age nine.[16]
Previously unpublished works are coming to light in A Café in Space, the Anaïs Nin Literary Journal, which includes "Anaïs Nin and Joaquín Nin y Castellanos: Prelude to a Symphony—Letters between a father and daughter."
So far sixteen volumes of her journals have been published. All but the last five of her adult journals are in expurgated form.
Erotic writings [ edit ]
Nin is hailed by many critics as one of the finest writers of female erotica. She was one of the first women known to explore fully the realm of erotic writing, and certainly the first prominent woman in the modern West known to write erotica. Before her, erotica acknowledged to be written by women was rare, with a few notable exceptions, such as the work of Kate Chopin. Nin often cited authors Djuna Barnes and D. H. Lawrence as inspirations, and she states in Volume One of her diaries that she drew inspiration from Marcel Proust, André Gide, Jean Cocteau, Paul Valéry, and Arthur Rimbaud.
According to Volume One of her diaries, 1931–1934, published in 1966, Nin first came across erotica when she returned to Paris with her husband, mother and two brothers in her late teens. They rented the apartment of an American man who was away for the summer, and Nin came across a number of French paperbacks: "One by one, I read these books, which were completely new to me. I had never read erotic literature in America... They overwhelmed me. I was innocent before I read them, but by the time I had read them all, there was nothing I did not know about sexual exploits... I had my degree in erotic lore."
Faced with a desperate need for money, Nin, Henry Miller and some of their friends began in the 1940s to write erotic and pornographic narratives for an anonymous "collector" for a dollar a page, somewhat as a joke.[23] (It is not clear whether Miller actually wrote these stories or merely allowed his name to be used.[24]) Nin considered the characters in her erotica to be extreme caricatures and never intended the work to be published, but changed her mind in the early 1970s and allowed them to be published as Delta of Venus[25][26] and Little Birds. In 2016, a previously-undiscovered collection of erotica, Auletris, was published for the first time.[27]
Nin was a friend, and in some cases lover, of many literary figures, including Henry Miller, John Steinbeck, Antonin Artaud, Edmund Wilson, Gore Vidal, James Agee, James Leo Herlihy, and Lawrence Durrell. Her passionate love affair and friendship with Miller strongly influenced her both sexually and as an author. Claims that Nin was bisexual were given added circulation by the Philip Kaufman film Henry & June about Henry Miller and his second wife June Miller. The first unexpurgated portion of Nin's journal to be published, Henry and June, makes it clear that Nin was stirred by June to the point of saying (paraphrasing), "I have become June," though it is unclear whether she consummated her feelings for her sexually. To both Anaïs and Henry, June was a femme fatale—irresistible, cunning, erotic. Nin gave June money, jewelry, clothes, often leaving herself broke.
Novels and other publications [ edit ]
In addition to her journals and collections of erotica, Nin wrote several novels, which were frequently associated by critics with surrealism.[28] Her first book of fiction, House of Incest (1936), contains heavily veiled allusions to a brief sexual relationship Nin had with her father in 1933: While visiting her estranged father in France, the then-thirty-year-old Nin had a brief incestual sexual relationship with him.[29] In 1944, she published a collection of short stories titled Under a Glass Bell, which were reviewed by Edmund Wilson.[15]
Nin was also the author of several works of non-fiction: Her first publication, written during her years studying psychoanalysis, was D. H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study (1932), an assessment of the works of D.H. Lawrence. In 1968, she published The Novel of the Future, which elaborated on her approach to writing and the writing process.
Personal life [ edit ]
According to her diaries, Vol.1, 1931–1934, Nin shared a bohemian lifestyle with Henry Miller during her time in Paris. Her husband Guiler is not mentioned anywhere in the published edition of the 1930s parts of her diary (Vol. 1–2) although the opening of Vol. 1 makes it clear that she is married, and the introduction suggests her husband refused to be included in the published diaries. The diaries edited by her second husband, after her death, tell that her union with Henry Miller was very passionate and physical, and that she believed that it was a pregnancy by him that she aborted in 1934.
In 1947, at the age of 44, she met former actor Rupert Pole in a Manhattan elevator on her way to a party.[32][33] The two ended up dating and traveled to California together; Pole was sixteen years her junior. On March 17, 1955, while still married to Guiler, she married Pole at Quartzsite, Arizona, returning with him to live in California.[34] Guiler remained in New York City and was unaware of Nin's second marriage until after her death in 1977, though biographer Deirdre Bair alleges that Guiler knew what was happening while Nin was in California, but consciously "chose not to know".[33]
Nin referred to her simultaneous marriages as her "bicoastal trapeze".[33] According to Deidre Bair:
[Anaïs] would set up these elaborate façades in Los Angeles and in New York, but it became so complicated that she had to create something she called the lie box. She had this absolutely enormous purse and in the purse she had two sets of checkbooks. One said Anaïs Guiler for New York and another said Anaïs Pole for Los Angeles. She had prescription bottles from California doctors and New York doctors with the two different names. And she had a collection of file cards. And she said, "I tell so many lies I have to write them down and keep them in the lie box so I can keep them straight."[33]
In 1966, Nin had her marriage with Pole annulled, due to the legal issues arising from both Guiler and Pole trying to claim her as a dependent on their federal tax returns.[35] Though the marriage was annulled, Nin and Pole continued to live together as if they were married, up until her death in 1977. According to Barbara Kraft, prior to her death Anaïs had written to Hugh Guiler asking for his forgiveness. He responded by writing how meaningful his life had been because of her.[36]
After Guiler's death in 1985, the unexpurgated versions of her journals were commissioned by Pole.[37] Six volumes have appeared (Henry and June, Fire, Incest, Nearer the Moon, Mirages, and Trapeze). Pole died in July 2006.[38]
Nin once worked at Lawrence R. Maxwell Books, located at 45 Christopher Street in New York City. In addition to her work as a writer, Nin appeared in the Kenneth Anger film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954) as Astarte; in the Maya Deren film Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946); and in Bells of Atlantis (1952), a film directed by Guiler under the name "Ian Hugo" with a soundtrack of electronic music by Louis and Bebe Barron. In her later life, Nin worked as a tutor at the International College in Los Angeles.[40]
Death [ edit ]
Nin was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1974. She battled the cancer for several years as it metastasized, and underwent numerous surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapy.[40] Nin died of the cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California on January 14, 1977.[42][43][15]
Her body was cremated, and her ashes were scattered over Santa Monica Bay in Mermaid Cove. Her first husband, Hugh Guiler, died in 1985, and his ashes were scattered in the cove as well.[33] Rupert Pole was named Nin's literary executor, and he arranged to have new, unexpurgated editions of Nin's books and diaries published between 1985 and his death in 2006. Large portions of the diaries are still available only in the expurgated form. The originals are located in the UCLA library.
Legacy [ edit ]
Portrait of Anaïs Nin in the 1970s by Elsa Dorfman
The explosion of the feminist movement in the 1960s gave feminist perspectives on Nin's writings of the past twenty years, which made Nin a popular lecturer at various universities; contrarily, Nin disassociated herself from the political activism of the movement.[2] In 1973, prior to her death, Nin received an honorary doctorate from the Philadelphia College of Art. She was also elected to the United States National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1974, and in 1976 was presented with a Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year award.[44]
Philip Kaufman directed the 1990 film Henry & June based on Nin's diaries published as Henry and June: From the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin. She was portrayed in the film by actress Maria de Medeiros.
In February 2008, poet Steven Reigns organized Anaïs Nin at 105 at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, Los Angeles.[45] Reigns said: "Nin bonded and formed very deep friendships with women and men decades younger than her. Some of them are still living in Los Angeles and I thought it'd be wonderful to have them share their experiences with [Nin]."[46] Bebe Barron, electronic music pioneer and longtime friend of Nin, made her last public appearance at the event.[47] Reigns also published an essay refuting Bern Porter's claims of a sexual relationship with Nin in the 1930s.[48]
The Cuban poet and novelist Wendy Guerra, long fascinated with Nin's life and works, published a fictional diary in Nin's voice, Posar desnuda en la Habana (Posing Nude in Havana) in 2012. She explained that "[Nin's] Cuban Diary has very few pages and my delirium was always to write an apocryphal novel; literary conjecture about what might have happened".[49]
On September 27, 2013, screenwriter and author Kim Krizan published an article in The Huffington Post[50] revealing she had found a previously unpublished love letter written by Gore Vidal to Nin. This letter contradicts Gore Vidal's previous characterization of his relationship with Nin, showing that Vidal did have feelings for Nin that he later heavily disavowed in his autobiography, Palimpsest. Krizan did this research in the run up to the release of the fifth volume of Anaïs Nin's uncensored diary, Mirages, for which Krizan provided the foreword.[50]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Journals and letters [ edit ]
Fiction [ edit ]
Novels [ edit ]
Short stories [ edit ]
Filmography [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Works cited [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ] |
The official site
John Travolta has been honored twice with Academy Award nominations, the latest for his riveting portrayal of a philosophical hit-man in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.” He also received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for this highly acclaimed role and was named Best Actor by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, among other distinguished awards.
Travolta garnered further praise as a Mafioso-turned-movie producer in the comedy sensation “Get Shorty,” winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy. In 1998, Travolta was honored by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts with the Britanna Award: and in that same year he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Chicago Film Festival. Travolta also won the prestigious Alan J. Pakula Award from the US Broadcast Critics Association for his performance in “A Civil Action,” based on the best-selling book and directed by Read More >> |
Kangaroo, found mostly in Australia, is the largest living marsupial. You must have read about this animal in science books but did you know that there are as many as 47 species of kangaroo, known to mankind. An adult, large kangaroo can hop up to 5 meters i.e., nearly 16 feet in a single leap. You will be further surprised to know that kangaroo makes balance on its tail and use its forelimbs to grab the rival, while fighting. If these facts have boggled your mind, then read on to get much more interesting information about kangaroo.
Class: Mammalia
Order: Marsupialia
Family: Macropodidae
Genus: Macropus
Range: Australia, New Guinea, Tasmania
Life Span: About 12 to 18 years
Names:
Young Kangaroo: Joey
Group of Kangaroos: Mob
Adult Male: Buck, Jack
Adult Female: Doe, Flyer or Jill
Dominant Male in Mob: Boomer
Size: Largest: Red Kangaroos (grow about 1.5 m and weigh up to 90 kg)
Smallest: Rat kangaroos (grow about 25 cm and weigh just 18 oz)
Habitat: Depend on the species, could be different habitats, including woodlands, arid grasslands, shrub steppe, salt pans, and rocky areas.
Eating Habits: Most kangaroos are herbivores; they generally eat grass and other plants. Some are omnivores, and they eat plants, insects, and small animals.
Offspring: Usually a female kangaroo have one baby annually. After a gestation period of 33 days, the kangaroo give birth to one baby. The newborn crawls into the mother’s pouch to develop completely. The Joey comes out after 5-9 months.
More Interesting Facts About Kangaroo |
Don’t miss your chance to watch these five incredible movies and TV shows before they leave the Netflix UK library this weekend:
A Bug’s Life
It ain’t Pixar’s best – we’re going to save that praise for Wall-E – but the fact that it’s still better than most other animated movies produced in Hollywood speaks volumes about the studio’s creativity and imagination. A Bugs Life, a sort of Seven Samurai for the insect world, was their second movie after Toy Story and is a perfect family viewing that delivers thrills, emotion and huge laughs. House Of Cards fans should also listen out for a terrifying Kevin Spacey voicing the movie’s villain.
Not Another Teen Movie
The Time Out and Little White Lies journalist David Ehrlich recently hailed Not Another Teen Movie, as a “f**king masterpiece” in a lengthy essay about the movie’s legacy. Riffing on everything from iconic John Hughes movies to the American Pie series, the film is a hilarious send-up of the genre’s cliches. It also features an early performance by the now Captain America Chris Evans.
Ghost World
And speaking of ‘not another teen movie’, Ghost World is a terrific example of a high school drama that attempts to do something wholly new. Starring a young Scarlett Jonansson and Thora Birch, this 2001 indie film is about two despondent graduates who, in their boredom, respond to a newspaper advert from a lonely guy looking to reacquaint with a woman he met. What ensues is a painful, awkward and very comic insight into the complex period when one leaves school.
Passion
Brian De Palma was one of the seminal directors of the 1970s and 1980s, creating movies such as Carrie, Scarface and Blow Out. His most recent movie (and first since 2006’s The Black Dahlia) is a return to the sumptuous and suspenseful territory he explored with all of those aforementioned classics. It stars Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace as a pair of advertising agency gurus whose professional rivalry escalates in a dark and twisted way. You’ll never know where it takes you from one scene to the next.
Nurse Jackie
The Sopranos star Edie Falco has been Golden Globe nominated for her performance in Nurse Jackie four times. It is worth checking out her great work – playing the eponymous Nurse Jackie, a New York City hospital worker struggling with a drug addiction – before it leaves Netflix this weekend. Fellow Sopranos alumni Paul Schulze also stars.
Everything Else Leaving Netflix This Weekend: |
Bill Cosby’s criminal trial has yet to complete its first week in a Pennsylvania courtroom, but the comedian has already taken a heavy financial hit from a flood of allegations of sexual assault over the past few years.
Cosby, 79, is best known for playing the head of the Huxtable family in the The Cosby Show. The family sitcom, which ran from 1984 to 1992, was at one time such a huge success that it commanded $4 million an episode when sold into syndication, with reruns generating over $1.5 billion in the last two decades. Cosby became a household name and friendly face touting Jell-O Pops, and other products, that were the epitome of all things pure and family-friendly. Via his commercials, Jello-O sales skyrocketed to nearly $100 million the first year. He also served as the spokesman for other major brands including Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods.
Cosby continues to deny allegations from dozens of women that he drugged and then sexually assaulted them.
Accuser Andrea Constand testified in court this week about a 2004 incident at Cosby’s Philadelphia-area home during which she says she accepted three blue pills that Cosby said would help her to relax. She alleges he raped her; he claims it was consensual. She’s among 50-plus women that have accused Cosby of sexually assaulting them, with claims dating back to the 1960s. This occurrence is the only one recent enough to support criminal charges.
To say this has cost him an exorbitant amount of money is an understatement. Cosby has already lost millions from earnings from his once-lucrative career. Until these allegations surfaced, Cosby continued to make millions through syndication for reruns of The Cosby Show, specials, various TV deals he was working on, appearances and touring.
The syndication dollars quickly came to an end by the end of 2014. The Cosby Show, which was airing on BET and TV Land, both owned by Viacom, was quickly dropped by both networks. During that time, a planned Netflix special, Bill Cosby 77, was indefinitely postponed just days before its air date and there was the cessation of an NBC family sitcom that was in development with Cosby as both producer and star. The network made a seven-figure deal with Cosby without even seeing a script. It was reported at the time that Cosby’s deal with NBC for the proposed show included a penalty fee awarding him more than $1 million should nothing materialize. Though he presumably received that money, his relationship with the network was ruined and NBC Chairman Bob Greenblatt said at the time that the network would never pursue another deal with Cosby ever again.
His lucrative touring career also came to a halt the following year. His 2015 “Far From Finished” stand-up comedy tour ended in May of that year with many of his shows being cancelled or protested. The shows that did take place did so with smaller audiences and low ticket sales. Ticketmaster, Pollstar and Cosby’s personal website no longer list tour dates or tickets for sale. A far cry from when Pollstar Editor-in-Chief Gary Bongiovanni told CNN that for the calendar year of 2014, Cosby's tour performed up to expectations with the comedian selling $10.8 million in ticket sales to over 100 shows; approximately 2,200 tickets per venue at roughly $57 a ticket.
Streaming platforms have followed suit. “It really seems that the largest video streaming services have wanted to distance themselves from the disgraced comedian,” said Ville Salminen, owner of streaming news site Cordcutting.com and Netflix tracking site Allflicks. "There are no Cosby shows or movies on Netflix in the U.S. currently," he said, adding that Hulu also dropped The Cosby Show, which left the sitcom without a regular linear or subscription-based video-on-demand home. Based on Google Trends data, Salminen believes people would be interested in streaming Cosby-related content if given the chance. “From that chart showing searches for the keyword 'Bill Cosby Netflix' for the past 12 months, we can see that the number of searches is peaking currently.” |
Saying dhanyavaad, or “thank you” in Hindi, would almost be sarcastic. It seems inadequate. When I thank anyone in Hindi, I make sure to look the person in the eye. Saying dhanyavaad to someone without looking at him or her is just as good as not saying it at all. As a kid, I never heard anyone my age say thank you in Hindi. I did hear my father say dhanyavaad to people his age, but he did it as sincerely as possible, with his hands joined in front of his chest in the solemn gesture of namaste. He wasn’t just thanking someone for something, but asking for an opportunity to return the favor. That’s how I came to understand expressions of gratitude.
In America, by contrast, saying thank you often marks an end to the transaction, an end to the conversation, an end to the interaction. It is like a period at the end of a sentence. Only in the United States have people offered thanks for coming to their homes or parties. Initially I was surprised when people thanked me for visiting their house when they were the ones who’d invited me, but then I learned that, “Thank you for coming to my home” actually meant, “It’s time for you to get out of my house.”
Saying thank you in Hindi is more like joining a cycle of exchange, creating the possibility of a new relationship.
After moving to America, it took me several years to say thanks to people without actually meaning it. Putting “thank you” on the tip of my tongue, ready to escape at a moment’s notice, rather than extracting it from the depths of my heart, was one of the hardest language lessons I had to learn in the United States.
Now, when I travel to India, I often offend people by saying thank you to them. On a recent trip home, I was invited to my uncle’s house for dinner. He’s been a father figure to me, teaching me many things and advising me at every step of my life. As a kid, I spent more time at his home, and ate more lunches there, than at my parents’ place. That day, I made the mistake of telling him, in English, “Thank you for inviting me” before leaving his house, realizing the import of my words only after they had left my mouth. He didn’t respond, but I saw his expression turn sour. He was filled with disgust. I couldn’t even apologize for thanking him. The damage was done.
In India, people—especially when they are your elders, relatives, or close friends—tend to feel that by thanking them, you’re violating your intimacy with them and creating formality and distance that shouldn’t exist. They may think that you’re closing off the possibility of relying on each other in the future. Saying dhanyavaad to strangers helps initiate a cycle of exchange and familiarity. But with family and friends, dhanyavaad can instead chill relations because you are already intimate and in a cycle of exchange. And few things can be more painful than ending a relationship.
Thank you for reading this essay. Let me assure you that I really mean it, but also that I mean no offense. Dhanyavaad.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected]. |
A Western Hills High School parent filed the bullying complaint against Aledo High School coaches after their team defeated the Fort Worth school 91-0 on Friday. (Published Monday, Oct. 21, 2013)
The parent of a North Texas high school football player has filed a bullying complaint against a rival team's coaching staff after a 91-0 loss.
The undefeated Aledo Bearcats have made a habit of soundly defeating their opponents this season. After seven games, the team is outscoring the opposition 485-47.
A Western Hills High School parent filed the bullying complaint after Bearcats defeated the Fort Worth school 91-0 on Friday.
"Never; I've never heard of a bullying report in a football game," Aledo coach Tim Buchanan said Monday.
Buchanan said he started substituting players in the first quarter. He also said the game clock ran continuously starting toward the end of the third quarter.
But when asked why the team did not simply start kneeling the ball -- in effect, stop trying to play the game -- Buchanan was clear in his answer.
"To go out and tell your kids, 'No, I don't want you to play hard, because we're ahead,' that's against every fundamental coaching strategy that you have," Buchanan said.
Western Hills head coach John Naylor told NBC DFW after Monday's practice that he disagrees with the parent who claimed that the Aledo coaching staff bullied his players.
The Texas Education Agency defines bullying as:
"Bullying occurs when a person is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons, and he or she has difficulty defending himself or herself. Bullying is aggressive behavior that involves unwanted, negative actions. Bullying involves a pattern of behavior repeated over time. Bullying involves an imbalance of power or strength."
The Aledo Independent School District will investigate the complaint against its football coaching staff.
Under state law, Aledo's principal must investigate the complaint and prepare a report. The complaint was filed with the school district, which the law requires to provide bullying complaint forms on its websites.
Superintendent Derek Citty said his district will take the complaint just as seriously as it would a complaint that a group of students within the district is picking on a classmate.
The University Interscholastic League, the governing body for high school sports in Texas, only has a mercy rule for six-man football that ends a game when one team gets ahead by 45 points by halftime or later. There is no mercy rule for 11-man football, though coaches can agree to end a game early, UIL spokeswoman Kate Hector said.
Buchanan said Tuesday he wasn't aware of that option.
There were about 1,500 fans still in the stands at the end of the game, most of them Aledo's, he said. About 5,000 were at the Bearcats' stadium in Aledo at the beginning because it was a recognition night for band members' parents. A cold front that brought rain added another reason to leave when the game started to get out of hand, Buchanan said.
While blowouts are not uncommon in Texas high school football, Aledo has racked up several of them this season, due in part to being placed in a new district that has not been as strong in football. The Bearcats' average victory margin in four district games is 77 points.
Buchanan's team, which is averaging 69.3 points a game with a 7-0 record, ran just 32 plays but scored on about every third one during Friday's game. Aledo rushed for 391 yards. It scored eight touchdowns on the ground, two each on passes and punt returns, and one on a fumble recovery.
Western Hills had 79 yards rushing and 67 yards passing.
The UIL follows NCAA rules, but most other states follow guidelines of the National Federation of State High School Associations, said Bob Colgate, the federation's director of sports and sports medicine.
Colgate said many of the federation's 48 member states and the District of Columbia have adopted a mercy rule in 11-man football. He noted that a survey published in February found that 16 states reported using a mercy rule with point margins, which are set by individual states, ranging from 30 points to 50 points.
Aledo Principal Dan Peterson said his report on the bullying complaint should be completed this week. It will be given to the father who filed the complaint and the staff at Western Hills.
Several parents of Western Hills players who attended Friday night's game described the loss as embarrassing. One parent, who declined to speak on the record, said that the Aledo coaches could have made more of an effort to keep the score down.
Buchanan insisted he and his fellow coaches did exactly that.
"In actuality, we probably could have scored a lot more," he said. "We did try to keep it down. I was really fearful that we were going to score 100."
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth |
A ménage a trois went wrong for prison buddies Ashley Hunter, 33, and Orlando DeWitt, 37, in Fargo, North Dakota last week. According to court records obtained by The Smoking Gun, Hunter pulled a butcher knife from his couch and stabbed DeWitt in the arm after DeWitt refused to switch positions and let Hunter have sex with the female participant.
DeWitt and Hunter were were partying with several female acquaintances Friday night at a bar in Fargo, when they went to Hunter’s home to continue the party with a woman named Leticia. Once there, DeWitt had sex with the woman while she performed oral sex on Hunter.
According to court documents obtained by The Smoking Gun, DeWitt was having sex with a woman named Leticia while she was performing oral sex on Hunter. “Hunter then asked to switch places with Orlando,” the Fargo Police Department report stated. “Orlando told him no and Hunter became upset.”
An argument followed, with DeWitt allegedly calling Hunter a “f----- retard.” DeWitt said Hunter threatened to kill him and said Hunter reached for a 12-inch butcher knife. DeWitt and Leticia fled to a bathroom naked while Hunter ran after them while holding the knife.
“Orlando said he decided to run for the front door,” the police report continues. DeWitt tried to escape and was able to get through the first door, but when he “went to open the exterior door he felt the knife cutting the back of his left arm.”
DeWitt was not seriously injured in the stabbing, and he used Leticia’s phone to call 911. Hunter is scheduled to appear in court March 13 to answer charges related to the stabbing.
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Posted by Vic Ketchman, packers.com editor on September 17, 2014 – 1:53 pm
GREEN BAY–Mike McCarthy’s memory of his team’s previous trip to Detroit was fresh.
“It was a bad day. We lost the game. Bad day,” McCarthy said on Wednesday of his team’s 40-10 loss on Thanksgiving Day last year.
Aaron Rodgers didn’t play in that game. It’s expected he’ll be under center this Sunday when the Packers and Lions meet at Ford Field in an early-season NFC North showdown.
“I think they’re all important. This is a division game, so it’s of high importance. These games are never easy. We know it’s a tough place to play in, the way that stadium is constructed. It’s a big challenge,” McCarthy said.
Tackle Bryan Bulaga (knee) and safety Micah Hyde (knee) were limited participants in Wednesday’s practice.
“He looked good,” McCarthy said of Bulaga.
Linebacker Brad Jones (quad) and cornerback Casey Hayward (glute) did not participate.
“They’re still big-play potential and their productivity is very unique,” McCarthy said of the Lions’ offense. “We improved from Week 1 to Week 2 on defense. We’re looking to improve this week.”
Click here for Packers.com’s full report following locker room interviews.
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Twenty years ago a law professor wrote that the death penalty in America was handed down not “for the worst crime, but for the worst lawyer.” Is that still true?
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photo by Image Source/Thinkstock and Arizona Department of Corrections via Reuters.
“He looks like a killer, not a retard,” Nathaniel Carr, a lawyer in Maricopa County, Arizona, wrote about his client, Israel Naranjo, who is now on death row. Naranjo has a standardized IQ score of 72, but Carr badly botched the introduction of this evidence at trial. The trial judge found that Carr “violated the rules of criminal procedure” and admonished him for both lacking candor and filing “offensive” and “incomprehensible” motions. The Arizona Supreme Court said Carr’s behavior could be described as “willful misconduct.” Carr has represented four of the men who currently occupy Arizona’s death row.
One of Carr’s capital clients, Daniel Garcia-Saenz, sent the trial judge a handwritten letter asking for Carr and his co-counsel to be removed from his case because he had “lost all trust and faith in my attorneys.” Saenz explained that his lawyers had visited him only a few times in 15 months and that he became concerned after hearing that Carr had been removed from two of his cases for failing to show up in court on his clients’ behalf.
Carr might not visit his capital clients very often, but he does seem to be dedicated to his job—his other job as a high school football coach. People who knew Carr at the county courthouse told Paul Rubin of the Phoenix New Times that “coaching seems Carr’s true passion.” Indeed, Carr “often was unavailable to clients and co-counsel on most weekday afternoons during football season—and always on game days.” This dual career did not stop Carr from billing the county an average of $370,000 per year for his services—even though some the hours he billed were for team meetings and prison visits that appear to be fictitious. (Carr did not respond to requests for comment.)
Last year marked the lowest number of new death sentences in modern American history. Nationwide, in the five-year period from 2010 through 2014, only 13 counties imposed five or more death sentences. Maricopa County is one of those 13. With 24 new death sentences between 2010 and 2014, Maricopa is the nation’s second highest producer of death sentences, after Los Angeles County, which is twice as populous.
One explanation for why counties like Maricopa hang on to capital punishment is that the prosecutors in these places are outliers who continue to pursue death sentences with abandon, mitigating circumstances and flaws in the system be damned. But prisoners sentenced to death in these counties often suffer a double whammy—they get both the deadliest prosecutors in America and some of the country’s worst capital defense lawyers. Nathanial Carr makes that list of awful lawyers, but he is not the only one from Maricopa who deserves to be included.
Herman Alcantar has been called, by a lawyer intervening on behalf of one of his former clients, “arguably the busiest capital defense attorney in the entire United States.” That’s not a compliment. Capital cases are notoriously complex and time-consuming. One trial-level capital case can be a full caseload for a defense attorney, and almost no one considers it a good idea to handle more than two active death penalty cases at a time. During the winter of 2009, Alcantar represented five pretrial capital defendants at once. He was so busy, in fact, that one month before the trial of Fabio Gomez was set to begin, Alcantar had neither filed a single substantive motion nor visited his client in more than a year. Six of Alcantar’s former clients are on death row.
After a person is found guilty of capital murder, he or she has the right to present mitigating circumstances to the jury in an effort to persuade jurors not to impose a death sentence. This second phase of a capital trial often lasts weeks or months. Alcantar has a reputation for efficiency in these proceedings—the mitigation case that he put on for one of his clients, David Anthony, lasted less than a day.
In another case, State v. Garcia, Alcantar presented the mitigation case in less than two days—one morning, one afternoon. In a third case, Alcantar’s client, Brian Womble, decided not to present any mitigation evidence. Womble’s new lawyers allege that Alcantar is the one who pushed Womble to forgo mitigation in the absence of a thorough investigation.
In post-conviction proceedings, Womble’s new lawyers have discovered that he was born addicted to the heroin that his mother abused while she was pregnant. As a child, he was thrown down flights of stairs, beaten with a broomstick, and had his head slammed into a wooden fence. He stuttered and suffered from head injuries, neuropsychological impairment, and symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome. He also had a difficult time in school despite trying hard. Instead of supporting his efforts, his mother, herself addicted to heroin and mentally ill, called him a “fucking retard” and beat him. Womble developed severe depression, tried to kill himself, and had a paranoid delusion that a religious organization controlled his life. He also had hallucinations that demons were living in his furniture. Hours before the crime that landed him on death row, Womble voluntarily entered a mental health treatment facility, saying that he wanted to kill himself and possibly others, and yet was permitted to leave. He then broke into an apartment and shot two people while they were sleeping.
Alcantar discovered almost none of this mitigating evidence; therefore, the jury did not know of any reason to spare Brian Womble’s life. When one of Womble’s jurors later heard about the new evidence in the case, he said, “Knowing all of that, I would have voted for life, no doubt about it.”
Alcantar says he genuinely tried to serve his clients, but he was overwhelmed with the caseload. He blames the state of Arizona for trying so many death penalty cases at once during that period.
* * *
Like Maricopa, Duval County, Florida, is among the few counties in America that continue to regularly impose death sentences. Since 2010, it is the second highest producer of death sentences per capita, after Caddo Parish, Louisiana.
Matt Shirk, the elected public defender for Duval, campaigned on a promise to be “less confrontational when dealing with police in court, ensuring his employees would never call a cop a liar.”
When Shirk took over, he fired 10 lawyers, including senior capital litigators Ann Finnell and Pat McGuinness, whose stellar representation of a wrongfully arrested 15-year-old, Brenton Butler, was the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary film, Murder on a Sunday Morning. With his experienced capital litigators gone, Shirk hired Refik Eler to be his deputy chief and the head of homicide prosecutions. Since 2008, Eler has been a defense lawyer on at least eight cases that resulted in a death sentence. That’s more than any other lawyer in Florida. (Eler declined to comment.)
This month, a Florida judge overturned the conviction and death sentence of a man named Raymond Morrison after finding that Eler failed to conduct a basic factual investigation of the circumstances of the crime, failed to secure the testimony of alibi witnesses, and also failed to investigate evidence of Morrison’s “organic brain damage and intellectual disability.” “It was like he had no attorney,” Marty McClain, Morrison’s new lawyer, told the Florida Times-Union.
In 2013, the Florida Supreme Court reversed death sentence of Michael Shellito on the grounds that he had ineffective assistance of counsel. Eler was his lawyer, too. Eler did not conduct a “true follow-up on the matters indicated in the various reports” of his mental health expert, the court found, and he only “made a marginal attempt to present organic brain damage and other impairment as mitigation.” Shellito’s new lawyers discovered that he has bipolar disorder, “a mental age of fourteen or fifteen years, an emotional age of twelve or thirteen years, an IQ in the low-average range, the presence of organic brain damage,” “a prior head injury,” and that he endured “verified physical and sexual abuse.” In State v. Douglas, the Florida Supreme Court found that Eler provided a third capital client with ineffective assistance. A fourth claim is pending before the Florida Supreme Court, and pointed questioning from the justices during argument last month suggests that Eler might be found ineffective once again.
* * *
Twenty years ago, law professor Stephen Bright wrote that the death penalty in America was handed down not “for the worst crime, but for the worst lawyer.” Nathanial Carr, Herman Alcantar, and Refik Eler make it seem like nothing has changed. But that is not the case. The quality of defense representation in capital cases has substantially improved in many places across the country.
Virginia used to lead the nation in per capita executions, but no one has been sentenced to death in the state since 2011. Law professor Brandon Garrett, who authored a study on the decline of the death penalty in Virginia, credits defense lawyers. In 2004, the state Legislature created a system of regional defender offices to handle trial-level capital cases. “The impact of improved lawyering is striking,” Garrett said. It “does not take the ‘best of the best’ or some kind of ‘dream team’,” but it does require “a team of specialist capital defense lawyers and investigators, preferably working in an office, that understand the very different way that a death penalty case must be litigated from its inception.”
Louisiana is another example of a state that has improved the quality of its defense lawyering in capital cases. In 2007, the Louisiana Legislature created a statewide public defender board, which included an experienced lawyer to serve as the capital case coordinator. More recently, Louisiana enacted statewide standards—establishing minimum experience and training requirements and governing the performance of defense representation in capital cases—that are worthy of national emulation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the Virginia study, death sentences have declined throughout Louisiana in recent years.
But not in Caddo Parish. Like Maricopa and Duval counties, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, is one of the few districts that continue to regularly impose the death penalty. Indeed, Caddo has become the leading per capita death-sentencing machine in America. Of the death sentences imposed in Caddo Parish since 2005, 75 percent of the cases involved at least one defense lawyer who, under the new case representation standards, is no longer certified to try capital cases in Louisiana.
Daryl Gold, who represented nearly 1 in 5 of the people sent to death row in the entire state of Louisiana between 2005 and 2014, is one of those lawyers. He has been suspended from the practice of law three times. Additionally, as the Louisiana Supreme Court explained in his latest disciplinary action, Gold has “received fourteen private reprimands or admonitions for neglecting legal matters, failing to communicate with clients, failing to refund unearned fees, and failing to cooperate in a disciplinary investigation.” Here’s what is amazing: Though prohibited from taking on private clients, Gold was allowed to continue his “public service employment at the Capital Assistance Project” representing poor defendants in capital cases.
His most recent death sentence came in State v. Rodricus Crawford, which involved a father convicted of murdering his infant son despite the fact that the state’s own medical examiner could not be certain that the death was a homicide. This is the case in which the prosecutor, Dale Cox, ignored doubt as to Crawford’s guilt and told the jury to return a death sentence because “when it comes to a person who harms a child, Jesus demands his disciples kill the abuser by placing a millstone around his neck and throwing him into the sea.”
Despite the fact that Caddo juries have returned eight death sentences since 2005, Gold says he expected his client to be acquitted, and he seems not to have adequately prepared for the possibility that his client would be convicted of murder and a penalty phase would ensue. When the case ultimately did move to the penalty phase, Gold put on less than a day’s worth of mitigation evidence.
Capital defense representation in Louisiana, then, mirrors the national landscape. Mostly, it is vastly improved from the days when tax lawyers with no relevant experience represented people facing the death penalty. As states adopt standards that attempt to protect against wrongful convictions and ensure adequate representation, though, there is resistance to this change—not just from lawyers like Daryl Gold, but also from prosecutors who would prefer to practice against the same old defense lawyers that they have steamrolled over for years.
In the counties with the most death sentences, prosecutors and defense lawyers, often abetted by judges and other local officials, fight to maintain the status quo that Stephen Bright wrote about 20 years ago. In these places, the death penalty is still a punishment reserved mostly for the people with the worst lawyers. Disproportionate numbers of death sentences in these few counties do not result from a high number of murders, or even the unique fervor of the residents who reside there, but instead from the operation of death’s double whammy—bloodthirsty, overreaching prosecutors and woefully inadequate defense lawyers. |
Dubai is building a massive temperature-controlled “city” that will house an 8 million square foot shopping complex called the “Mall of The World,” the United Arab Emirates’ ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, announced Saturday, according to Khaleej Times.
The entire project will be 48 million square feet, including approximately 100 hotels, a theme park, numerous theaters, and medical tourism facilties that will be connected to create the world’s first temperature-controlled city, according to Reuters.
YouTube/DubaiHolding Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’s announcement did not include the total cost of the project nor the estimated date of completion.
The massive complex, which can host an estimated 180 million visitors annually, is the UAE’s latest retail and leisure-based development project aimed at improving investor sentiment towards the rapid appreciation of property prices.
Dubai — the most populated city in the UAE — continues to recover from its 2009 debt crisis as well as criticisms from the IMF that new and ambitious real estate projects may cause another boom-bust cycle. |
Chris here! This is just a video looking at a variety of the ships in AI War 2, or at least the graphics for them. These are in the version 0.124, which will come out early next week. It’s presently late alpha for the game (in the pre-Early-Access sense), and so these are coming up to a much more polished status now.
As part of our testing thus far, one thing that we’ve discovered is the need to use GPU Instancing. That was something that I hadn’t been sure if we’d need or not, and I’ve mentioned it since our first kickstarter for the game. I wanted to try to get away with dynamic batching, which is compatible with OpenGL 3.x and DirectX 9 and DirectX 10. However, the performance just wasn’t good enough, even in battles with only something like 5000 ships versus maybe 2000.
A few passing bugs aside, the performance was still better than AI War Classic with that scale of battle on the simulation side in particular, but GPU instancing became a clear need. So now the game is going to use that, which requires DirectX 11 or OpenGL 4.1, and basically hardware from 2010 or 2011, depending on your exact hardware and OS.
Realistically you needed hardware from that era at the oldest anyway in order to handle the CPU processing, so this really should be a moot point, but it was a bridge I hadn’t wanted to cross unless it really became clear it was needed. Well — now it’s clear. :)
A bug in the GUI sidebar aside, I was getting about 30fps in the aforementioned battle using dynamic batching. This is on a latest-gen i7 with a GTX 1070. Now with most of the stuff working with GPU Instancing, I get around 80 fps. There are still thousands of wasted draw calls because of some of how I’m handling my custom sprite system at the moment, and I expect to get my machine running that same scene at 120 or 140 fps by sometime next week. Knock on wood. :) But it definitely seems like that will be what happens on my rig, based on all my tests thus far.
Anyway, so we get to the question of how big battles will be able to be, and to that I still have the answer: I really don’t know. For a variety of reasons, we can do larger battles than AI War Classic if you’re running them on modern machines. On a machine past a certain age (maybe from 2012 or before?), then the battles of Classic might be larger in terms of what your machine can handle. I’m not sure. The newer your machine gets, though, and that’s looking to the future as well, AI War 2 starts pulling further and further ahead. This switching to GPU Instancing is a huge amount of future-proofing in and of itself.
Overall we just have a ton of performance optimizations and multithreading in the game already, and it’s built around a variety of design concepts that lend themselves to larger battles than the original. We still do hit the occasional hiccup, like the sidebar thing, though, which makes performance absolutely grind to a halt for a bit. That’s one reason why we do the alpha, though; so we can fix things like that, and they never last long. :)
All in all, we’re looking good! I’m excited about the recent changes, even if I am apprehensive about any potential backlash by someone angry about the system requirements change.
Thanks for watching!
Chris |
Washington (CNN) -- The defense bill that just passed the House of Representatives includes a back-door fund that lets individual members of Congress funnel millions of dollars into projects of their choosing.
This is happening despite a congressional ban on earmarks -- special, discretionary spending that has funded Congress' pet projects back home in years past, but now has fallen out of favor among budget-conscious deficit hawks.
Under the cloak of a mysteriously-named "Mission Force Enhancement Transfer Fund," Congress has been squirreling away money -- like $9 million for "future undersea capabilities development," $19 million for "Navy ship preliminary design and feasibility studies," and more than $30 million for a "corrosion prevention program."
So in a year dominated by demands for spending cuts, where did all the money come from?
Roughly $1 billion was quietly transferred from projects listed in the president's defense budget and placed into the "transfer fund." This fund, which wasn't in previous year's defense budgets (when earmarks were permitted), served as a piggy bank from which committee members were able to take money to cover the cost of programs introduced by their amendments.
And take they did.
More than $600 million went to a wide number of projects, many of which appear to directly benefit some congressional districts over others.
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For example, that $9 million for "future undersea capabilities development" was requested by Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Connecticut, whose district happens to be home to General Dynamics Electric Boat, a major supplier of submarines and other technologies to the U.S. Navy.
And the $19 million for "Navy ship preliminary design and feasibility studies"? Rep. Steve Palazzo, R-Mississippi, asked for that. His district's largest employer is Ingalls Shipbuilding -- a major producer of surface combat ships for the Navy.
Nothing in these expenditures appears to be illegal, but critics say they still may violate the spirit, if not the language, of the earmark ban.
"These amendments may very likely duck the House's specific definition of what constitutes an earmark, but that doesn't mean they aren't pork," says Leslie Paige of Citizens Against Government Waste, a government-spending watchdog group. The group believes if modification of the National Defense Authorization Act generated savings, that money should have been put toward paying down the deficit.
In their defense, supporters say the amendments offered by various members may very well represent good governance. The $30 million Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Ohio, set aside for corrosion prevention could go far to help tackle the Defense Department's corrosion problem, estimated to cost the military more than $15 billion a year.
However, there are two things worth considering: Sutton's request comes on top of the $10 million already included in the bill for corrosion related programs, and Sutton's district is home to The University of Akron, which created the country's first bachelor's degree program for corrosive engineering in 2008.
Then, on May 9, two days before the defense bill mark-up, it was announced that the Defense Department had given the University of Akron $11 million to build its new "National Center for Education and Research in Corrosion and Materials Performance."
Sutton was the biggest supporter of that new spending.
CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash contributed to this report. |
Trump Hates Free Trade, but His VP Pick Backed NAFTA
For months, Donald Trump has singled out one company in Indiana when unleashing attacks on corporations shipping American manufacturing jobs overseas.
And now he’s tapped as his running mate the state’s governor, Mike Pence, who has a long history of backing precisely the sorts of free trade deals Trump insists allow companies like Carrier Corp. to move those jobs out of the country.
In February, Carrier announced it was shutting down its air-conditioner factories in the state and moving 1,400 jobs to Mexico. Trump pounced on the news as evidence of the damage done by free trade deals, vowing to get tough with U.S. firms outsourcing jobs and to impose tariffs on goods coming from Mexico, China, and other competitors.
But Pence, Trump’s vice presidential pick, does not blame Carrier’s move on free trade. And his selection as Trump’s wingman calls into question how two men with such opposing views on trade — and issues like Trump’s calls to ban Muslims from entering the United States — will reconcile their differences on the campaign trail.
As a congressman from Indiana from 2001 to 2013, Pence, 57, established himself as a mainstream conservative, taking establishment positions on the U.S. invasion of Iraq, free trade, and hot-button social issues like abortion and gay marriage.
For more than a decade, Pence repeatedly backed trade deals with partners in every corner of the globe. In 2001, Pence heaped praise on the North American Free Trade Agreement — which Trump has said “destroyed” the U.S. economy and is a “disaster” — on the floor of the House.
Pence also voted for the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement and has voiced support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the massive trade deal with 12 Pacific nations that Trump says benefits China and has likened to “rape.”
“Trade means jobs, but trade also means security,” Pence tweeted in 2014. “The time has come for all of us to urge the swift adoption of the Trans Pacific Partnership.”
Pence also has strongly endorsed the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a free trade deal between the United States and European Union. As Indiana’s governor, Pence led trade missions to both China and Japan, and in a 2015 letter to Indiana’s congressional delegation, he wrote that Congress must reduce “tariffs and other trade barriers” so that Indiana businesses can compete globally. He also used the letter to urge the lawmakers to support “any other trade-related measures when they are brought before the Congress for consideration.”
China has long been the ultimate villain in Trump’s campaign speeches, with the real estate mogul accusing Beijing of currency manipulation and unfair trade tactics. But Pence has staked out a much different view, voting twice in favor of trade agreements with Beijing.
By tapping Pence, Trump bypasses a pair of other Republicans who seem much closer to the mogul’s views on Islam and the war on terror. Echoing similar remarks from Trump, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has criticized American Muslims, saying they “have an obligation to help clear out the mosques that are radical.” And another Republican on the short list for Trump’s running mate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, spent years as a federal prosecutor, giving him at least a measure of credibility when discussing how best to fight terrorism.
Despite their differences on trade, though, Trump and Pence are fairly closely aligned on immigration. While Pence denounced Trump’s calls to ban Muslim immigrants as “offensive and unconstitutional” in December, just a month earlier he issued an order to state agencies telling them not to assist Syrian refugees trying to resettle in Indiana. The directive was slapped down by a federal judge in February.
Pence, however, will face some awkward questions trying to explain how he reconciles Trump’s unorthodox and often isolationist stances on foreign policy with his own conventional conservative views.
Unlike Trump, who has portrayed America’s foreign wars as costly quagmires and slammed the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a mistake, the Indiana governor has been a consistent Republican hawk and warned of the dangers of turning away from the world.
“It is imperative that conservatives again embrace America’s role as leader of the free world and the arsenal of democracy,” Pence said in a speech last year.
While in Congress, Pence voted for the 2002 Iraq War authorization and delivered a speech shortly before the invasion, asking: “How could any decent human being, knowing the official barbarism of the regime of Saddam Hussein, ever deign to defend it?”
He also backed then-President George W. Bush’s handling of Afghanistan and the broader war on terror.
Trump, by sharp contrast, has blasted Bush for having the 9/11 terrorist attacks occur on his watch and expressed praise and admiration for Saddam, Vladimir Putin, and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The mogul’s latest dictator-related controversy flared this month when he said Saddam had been “so good” at killing terrorists.
Pence, who also has some experience as a talk radio host, can help craft a bit of political theater when needed.
In an effort to show how the security situation in Baghdad had purportedly improved during the U.S. troop surge there, Pence and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) flew to Baghdad in April 2007 to tour the Shorja market, which had been the scene of a devastating suicide bombing just two months earlier that killed at least 60 people.
“It was just like any open-air market in Indiana in the summertime,” Pence wrote later. “Lots of people, lots of booths and a friendly, relaxed atmosphere.”
In the days following the visit, interviews with locals proved the visit was anything but a stroll through an open-air market. The U.S. military had shut down the market and surrounding streets for the visit, which was overseen by the then-commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus. And the lawmakers were guarded by more than 100 U.S. troops and a protective bubble of armored vehicles, as attack helicopters buzzed overhead.
This post has been updated.
Photo credit: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call |
NATO summit: Australia strengthens ties with Atlantic alliance, but strains of global policing starting to show
Updated
"In Service of Peace and Freedom," says the inscription on the NATO medal now worn by thousands of Australians. Since 2003 the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has commanded the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. NATO's war was also Australia's.
That Australians who fought in this South Asia conflict wear a campaign medal awarded by an organisation that was initially tasked with defending Western Europe, is indicative of just how far NATO has evolved from its original role.
Australians have also served on NATO-led missions in Bosnia, and with NATO's counter-piracy task force patrolling off the coast of Somalia.
Today NATO has 28 member nations and Australia is one of the organisation's 41 "partner" countries.
It's a long way from the shores of Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin to the North Atlantic, but there has been strong support from both sides of Australian politics to strengthen diplomatic and military ties with the alliance.
Labor prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard both attended NATO summits. In 2012 former Coalition defence minister Brendan Nelson was appointed by Labor to be Australia's first ambassador to NATO.
Even before this week's summit in Wales, Canberra already had a formal intelligence-sharing agreement with NATO.
At the luxury Celtic Manor Resort in Cardiff Bay, Australia is in the process of receiving an upgrade to "enhanced Partnership" status, giving greater diplomatic and military access to NATO operations.
Australia is represented by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Defence Minister David Johnston, who have Russian president Vladimir Putin firmly in their sights.
Ministers Bishop and Johnston had earlier announced their intention to lobby NATO nations to ban Mr Putin from attending the G20 leaders' summit in Brisbane later this year.
But with a peace deal in Ukraine now on the table, Ms Bishop said there was still a chance Mr Putin would be welcomed.
"His actions will be judged. Words are one thing, but actions are another, and unless there is a complete resolution of the conflict in Ukraine, I fear that it will escalate," she said.
"That's why it is the subject of considerable discussion here, and I expect that we will see more steps towards trying to contain Russia's aggression through the imposition of sanctions.
"I believe that's under active consideration."
Meanwhile, the Defence Force is considering allowing some members of Ukraine's military to attend an ADF training college in Canberra.
The Government this week announced it was opening an embassy in Kiev and would provide supplies to Ukraine's military as it battled separatists.
Australia's Chief of Defence, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, told News Corp those supplies would include jackets, thermals and boots to help the Ukrainians survive winter.
He said there was also a proposal for a small number of Ukrainians to attend the ADF's Command and Staff College for professional training.
The global policeman
NATO has morphed into a 21st century, heavily-armed global policeman: imposing a no-fly zone over Libya 2011 that was instrumental in the downfall of Colonel Moamar Gaddafi's regime, but unable to influence the chaos that’s followed; deploying peacekeepers on the ground in Kosovo; sending training teams into Iraq; and running anti-piracy missions off the Horn of Africa.
But the economic strain of global policing has been showing.
A US Congressional study released last week reported that in 2013 only four NATO members - Estonia, Greece, the UK, and the United States - met a NATO commitment to spend at least 2 per cent of GDP on defence. The report noted that the US was bearing a greater share of NATO's financial burden, increasing from 63 per cent in 2001 to 72 per cent last year.
The Americans are reportedly keen on getting their European allies to pay more of the military bills.
Within NATO ranks there has also been a growing weariness with mission creep.
The Wales summit was initially intended as a relatively low-key affair to mark the end of NATO's 12 years commanding forces in Afghanistan – the organisation's largest ever combat operation. A smaller NATO-led training team remains in place.
In 2013 NATO deputy assistant secretary for emerging security challenges, Jamie Shea, acknowledged there was a growing reluctance to send more European soldiers to war on the other side of the world.
"It's also raised the debate in NATO about whether these expeditionary missions might undermine our core function of ... defence of the territory of our member states," he said.
"In other words, is the threat from Afghanistan so great that it justifies the diversion of resources from homeland defence?"
Mr Shea answered yes. But with NATO now withdrawing from the messy and inconclusive Afghanistan conflict, the "what next?" question about the organisation's future was being asked in Europe's capitals.
But in crisis lies opportunity.
With the Russians annexing Crimea, arming separatist militants, and now sending tanks into eastern Ukraine, NATO may once more become an alliance with a cause.
The UK Guardian has declared that Vladimir Putin and the Ukraine crisis will force a moribund NATO to reinvent itself.
The worsening security crisis in Iraq and Syria is also on the agenda, but NATO involvement in that cross-border conflagration is unlikely to extend beyond conversation and communiqués.
The Economist argued that this could be the most important NATO summit since the end of the Cold War.
And with the leaders of 60 nations gathered in Wales, is the world a step closer to the emergence of the concept of a "Global NATO", detailed in a 2006 Foreign Affairs essay co-authored by former US ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder and foreign policy academic James Goldgeier.
The essay made the case for an alliance redefined by "...deepening relations with countries beyond the transatlantic community, starting with partners such as Australia, Japan, and New Zealand. A key part of this effort is the proposal by the United States and the United Kingdom to forge a "global partnership".
"NATO's next move must be to open its membership to any democratic state in the world that is willing and able to contribute to the fulfilment of NATO's new responsibilities. Only a truly global alliance can address the global challenges of the day."
It's a heady ambition for an organisation that has also suffered from tragic failures and political paralysis triggered by the competing national interests of member states.
If the current membership can't agree on a course of action, how would a "Global NATO" function?
Russia already has NATO on its borders. The Baltic states are now all members, as is Poland, and NATO intends conducting "exercises" in an increasingly volatile Ukraine.
Russia is not the only major power unenthused by the concept of an expanded "Global NATO". In 2010 The Diplomat noted China's lingering distrust of potential NATO expansion.
"The reality is that many Asian governments see the United Nations as uniquely capable of conferring legitimacy on collective military action and they oppose efforts by regional security organisations to try to displace the world body."
While the NATO-led operation in Afghanistan had UN backing, other military expeditions by NATO, or NATO members did not.
"Specifically, critics in Russia and China have indicated that they want to avoid any more episodes like the 1999 Kosovo War or the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when NATO countries waged war at their own discretion after failing to gain explicit Security Council authorisation."
"In Service of Peace and Freedom," is the motto on the NATO campaign medal, but it is not clear that Beijing – or Moscow – will share this sentiment as Australia signs up for NATO's Enhanced Partnership status.
Topics: world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, treaties-and-alliances, wales, australia
First posted |
Fox’s revival of “Prison Break” suffered a noticeable decline in the Tuesday overnight ratings this week, according to Nielsen data.
In the second episode of its new season, the thriller series fell to a 1.1 rating in adults 18-49 and 3.2 million viewers, compared to a 1.5 and 3.8 million for last week’s premiere. However, it should be noted that the series has seen significant lift in delayed viewing already. The first episode gained a 40% lift in the demo and a 45% lift in total viewers in the L3 ratings.
Elsewhere on Fox, the spring premiere of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (0.7, 1.9 million) at 8 p.m. was down significantly in both key measures from the last original episode on Jan 1. “The Mick” (0.8, 2.2 million) followed at 8:30 p.m.
On NBC, “The Voice” (1.6, 7.7 million) was down from last week, but was still the top-rated broadcast show of the night. “Trial & Error” was up in both measures for the new episode at 9 (0.9, 3.8 million), but was down during the episode that aired at 9:30 (0.8, 3 million). It was followed by a repeat of “Chicago Fire.”
New episodes of “The Middle” (1.2, 5.2 million) and “American Housewife” (1.1, 4.2 million) dipped in the demo from last week. “Fresh Off the Boat” (1.1, 3.7 million) was steady, while “Imaginary Mary” (0.8, 3.1 million) was down in both measures. “Agents of SHIELD” (0.7, 2.3 million) closed out the night.
On The CW, a repeat of “The Flash” led into a new episode of “iZombie” (0.3, 900,000), which was down again in both measures from last week.
CBS aired only repeats.
NBC won the night in the key demo with a 1.0 but was second in total viewers with 4.7 million. ABC and Fox tied for second in the demo with a 0.9, while ABC placed third in total viewers with 3.5 million and Fox took fourth with 2.6 million. CBS finished fourth in the demo with a 0.8 but first in total viewers with 7.7 million. The CW averaged a 0.3 and 856,000 viewers. |
Tomorrow, Korn will release The Paradigm Shit, their first album with guitarist Brian “Head” Welch in however many years it’s been since their last album with guitarist Brian “Head” Welch. I only just got my promo copy, which, alas, does not really leave us enough time to get a proper review ready by tomorrow. So I thought I’d just suffer through this thing now and give you a kind of stream-of-consciousness review, sort of how I did for Korn III back in 2010.
I suspect many Korn fans will dismiss this evaluation outright, but Korn fans are, themselves, unqualified to engage in any sort of rational intellectual discourse, on account of somehow thinking Korn are a good band.
And so:
“Prey for Me” — Although the bass is initially lower in the mix than it would have been thirteen years ago, this opens with what sounds like basically every Korn riff you’ve ever heard, and by the time the verse begins, the bass is back at the front. Like first single “Never Never,” the chorus is surprisingly poppy — in fact, very little of this sounds like a metal song. Jonathan Davis also seems to be going out of his way to set up jokes for assholes like me: “I’m just a shell of what I used to be!” he whines. Yeah, no shit. “Love & Meth” — This actually sounds like a bad ripoff of Korn, in no small part due to the overwhelming number of electronic elements — it’s like one of those late-90s bands that were trying to be both nu-metal and industrial. The chorus, once again, sounds like, with some very slight modifications, it could be a pop song that appears in the trailer for some terrible romantic drama based on some terrible Nicholas Sparks novel. I can just see Channing Gosling or whomever running through the rain and Rachel McHough or whatever her name is leaping into his arms and if I close my eyes and really concentrate, I can practically smell the vomit I just expelled onto the head of the person sitting in front of me. “What We Do” — I’m starting to think Edsel Dope wrote this whole album. There are some orchestral synths, which (I think) is new for Korn. There’s a part just after the two-minute mark where it sounds like the song is hiccuping — the band keeps playing one note over and over again while Davis cries out, in his highest falsetto, “WE DO! WE DO! WE DO!” It’s totally ridiculous, but it leads to this kinda slow, epic section that really doesn’t sound very much like Korn at all, and I actually — gasp! — like. Single horn earned! “Spike in My Veins” — I take it back, Edsel Dope only wrote half the album — the other half was written by Flyleaf. Really, this does not sound like Korn circa-1998 — maybe it’s the poppy nature of it, but I actually find this more tolerable (if not outright good) than the Korn of yore. And speaking of enjoyment: there’s a section about three minutes into this track where Davis starting making what I can only describe as the sounds of a scared goat. It’s easily the funniest part of the album thus far. “Mass Hysteria” — I keep spacing out during this song. I’ve actually made an effort to listen to it three times now, and I can’t not begin to daydream as it plays. I think that may be my psyche’s defense mechanism against a potentially traumatic experience. “Paranoid and Aroused” — Something about vocal melody Davis has created for this song makes it sound like a show tune with Korn music over it. “Never Never” — Oh right, this song. Y’know, if you pretend it’s, like, Pink or Katy Perry singing instead of Davis, it actually seems perfectly harmless (save for the Skrillex section, which is just totally horrible and ridiculous). That’s actually the kindest thing I can say about this record: it’s a perfectly harmless pop album. That may make it the crowning artistic achievement of Korn’s career. “Punishment Time” –In case you’re wondering, yes, Davis does utter the phrase “It’s punishment time!” in this song, so, y’know, poetry, y’all. The chorus once again sounds like it originated in a show tune. Do you think this album will inspire droves of Korn fans to go see The Phantom of the Opera? “Lullaby for a Sadist” — OH MY GOD IT’S A POWER BALLAD. KORN WROTE A POWER BALLAD. I’m rather heart broken to realize, however, that there’s no guitar solo. Instead, they build to the part where a guitar solo would go, and then Davis starts making those scared goat noises again. “Victimized” — See “Mass Hysteria.” “It’s All Wrong” — I feel like I’ve already heard this song, so I check my iTunes to see if I somehow backtracked by accident. Nope. It is entirely feasible that Korn only wrote half of one song and then their producer put it into whatever program and turned it into twelve songs. “Tell Me What You Want” –– Easily the worst song on the album; my mind can’t even rebel by starting to compile a grocery list, instead just screaming “DEAR CHRIST PLEASE TURN IT OFF WHATEVER I DID TO YOU I PROMISE I’LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN!!!” It still only kinda sounds like Korn, but the general tone of it — adolescent drop-out upset that his girlfriend dumped him and started blowing the manager at Burger King “because he has a real future” — is totally reminiscent of the band in their heyday. It’s only three minutes long, but it’s an excruciating three minutes. I was contemplating giving this album another half-a-horn but based on this song alone I am now denying it that honor.
So that wasn’t as bad as I feared it would be, but it certainly wasn’t good. Buy it at your own peril. |
Each Of Past Three Years Has Been Deadliest On Record For Transgender People, Advocates Say
Although it's difficult to get an accurate death toll, violence against transgender people is on the rise. In other public health news: tobacco use, fidget spinners, clean water, hospital-acquired infections, and more.
The New York Times: Violence Against Transgender People Is On The Rise, Advocates Say
On Oct. 21, a body was found off a county road west of Corpus Christi, Tex., with bullet wounds to the chest, abdomen and shoulders. The victim was Stephanie Montez, a transgender woman. But because the police misidentified her as a man, it was not until last week that Ms. Montez, 47, was known to be among the more than two dozen transgender Americans killed this year. (Astor, 11/9)
Reuters: 1 In 5 U.S. Adults Used Tobacco In 2015: Government Study
One in five adults in the United States was using some form of tobacco in 2015, according to national survey data released on Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report, conducted in conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration, found 21 percent of U.S. adults, or 49 million people, were tobacco users. Of them, about 87 percent reported smoking cigarettes, cigars or some form of pipe. (Steenhuysen, 11/9)
Los Angeles Times: Fidget Spinners Sold At Target Contain Dangerous Levels Of Lead, Advocacy Group Says
Fidget spinners — the multipronged, whirling gadgets that became so popular this year that some schools banned them as a distraction — have been marketed as playful diversions meant to help people calm down and focus. But now a consumer advocacy group says that two types of fidget spinners being sold at Target could be dangerous. The items — Fidget Wild Premium Spinner Brass and Fidget Wild Premium Spinner Metal — were found to contain as much as 330 times the federal legal limit for lead in children's products, according to lab tests conducted for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, or U.S. PIRG, Education Fund. (Bhattarai, 11/9)
Kaiser Health News: Experts Explain Why Lead Found In Fidget Spinners Is No Idle Threat
That fidget spinner your kid can’t put down? It turns out it may be putting children at risk for lead exposure. That’s according to a report out Thursday from a consumer advocacy group, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund. The organization tested the toys — which represent the latest iteration of a long line of skill-based amusements that include yo-yos and spinning tops — for lead. (Luthra, 11/10)
Reveal: Trump’s Budget Kills Funds For Clean Tap Water In Struggling Small Towns
St. Joseph, population 1,029, is one of thousands of small towns across the country that have no access to safe, clean drinking water. ...Trump wants to eliminate the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service, which awards water and sewer loans and grants to towns with 10,000 or fewer people. (Loftis, 11/9)
Minnesota Public Radio: How To Protect Yourself From Infection When You Go To The Hospital
Despite advances in modern medicine, it's still a reality in America that you can go to the hospital for treatment, and end up sicker with a nasty hospital-acquired infection. How do these infections spread in our healthcare facilities, and what can patients do to protect themselves? (Miller, 11/9)
NPR: Algae Toxins In Drinking Water Sickened People In 2 Outbreaks
The city of Toledo and nearby communities have earned the dubious distinction of being the first to report outbreaks of human illness due to algae toxins in municipal drinking water, according to a report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both areas take their drinking water from Lake Erie. Blue-green algae are common there and in many other in freshwater lakes, were they can multiply in the heat of summer and produce toxins, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. (Jochem, 11/9)
Dallas Morning News: Caring Through The Hurt: Experts Tell How To Cope When Elderly Parents' Behavior Worsens
People with Alzheimer's or dementia are plagued by more than just memory loss. A mother who was always calm may become agitated; an unfailingly kind father may turn aggressive or belligerent. Dementia affects brain tissue, and that can cause personality changes, says Dr. Diana Kerwin, chief of geriatrics at Texas Health Dallas and founder of Texas Alzheimer's and Memory Disorders. Restlessness, wandering, even delusions are common behaviors associated with dementia. Sometimes memory loss can also trigger paranoia. If Mom can't remember where she left her purse, she may accuse family members of stealing it. (Jacobs, 11/9)
This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription |
The United States is experiencing an unprecedented, nationwide student debt crisis that rivals the subprime mortgage crisis in size, and is clearly larger in scope. Ten years ago, the nation owed less than $400 billion in student loan debt and average undergraduate borrowers left school owing roughly $14,000. Today, the nation holds well over $1 trillion in student loan debt, average undergraduate borrowers leave school owing $33,000, and a whopping 42 percent of those holding this debt are unable to make payments on their loans—their loans are in deferment, forbearance, or default.
Ten years ago, the proposition of full-on forgiveness of student loan debt would have been dismissed out of hand. Today, however, the concept is increasingly relevant. This debt burden has become a national threat. Debt is leading some to increasingly desperate measures such as expatriation while Congress—beholden to the lending system and its lobbyists—avoids addressing the problem.
Is it time for a student debt Jubilee?
In order to understand and solve the student loan crisis, it is critical to understand the unique fiscal dynamics that govern the student lending system, and the institutional and political behaviors that result.
The Predatory Nature of Student Loans
The lending system supporting our higher education system is structurally predatory. In the absence of fundamental, free-market consumer protections like bankruptcy, statutes of limitations, and refinancing rights, and in the presence of unprecedented collection powers that, as Elizabeth Warren says, would make “mobsters envious,” we have a student loan system where the big lenders (including the federal government) can and do make significantly more money on defaulted loans than healthy loans.
Imagine if it turned out that JP Morgan Chase, Fannie Mae, and even the Housing Department were making more money on defaulted subprime home mortgages than those which remained in good stead. This is the reality for student loans—a reality that demands careful consideration. We must ask ourselves a few common-sense questions: Would you want to take a loan from someone who wanted you to fail in your endeavor? Doesn’t this put the lending system in a position of bad faith? Is this not a defining characteristic of a predatory lending system? Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and every other western economist would answer yes on all counts.
Lenders’ financial motivations explain a wide and deep array of systemic defects, conflicts, and corruptions in the student loan system. For example, Sallie Mae and other lenders defaulted student loans en masse without even attempting to contact the borrowers. And colleges routinely mislead students about the true default rates of the loans they are about to take out—they instead doggedly promote their reasonable-sounding “cohort default rates” (the percentage of a school’s borrowers who enter repayment on certain loans during a federal fiscal year and then default prior to the end of the next one or two fiscal years), and the Department of Education never does anything to correct this false impression. The true default rate across all schools is roughly one in three, and has been for years, whereas the cohort default rate typically lies between 4 percent and 8 percent.
Similarly, students usually aren’t made aware that consumer protections such as bankruptcy, statutes of limitations, and refinancing rights don’t exist for student loans. These are only a few examples of the deceptive behaviors that have resulted from the anti-borrower financial motivations that have taken hold of this lending system, and more than likely they will find these to be happening, in fact, on the ground.
Those who claim that the new “Direct Loan Program” cures the student loan system of these predatory underpinnings are wrong. Defaulted loans still carry all the same penalties and fees as before, and Sallie Mae is still servicing healthy loans and collecting on defaulted loans in the same conflicted manner as before. The collection frenzy around massively inflated, defaulted loans may even be exacerbated under the new system, where interest income is no longer a possibility for these contractors. In any event, the new system clearly doesn’t curb the predatory nature of the debt instrument.
The most troubling outcome resulting from this lending environment, however, is the massive tuition inflation that the schools are imposing at will upon the students. Congress enables this, year after year, by repeatedly increasing the lending limits. The Department of Education allows this to happen without protest, despite having known about the astonishingly high default rates for years. And of course this affects all students, not just those who borrow. Wealthy and moderately wealthy families who must pay out of pocket for kids to go to college feel this, and feel it more sharply, arguably, than those who borrow.
Federal Inaction
Why is the Education Department not treating the exponentially increasing student loan debt and astonishingly high default rates as a national crisis? When we were looking at a trillion dollars in national student loan indebtedness, and the default rate was north of one in four, why wasn’t the Department of Education sounding the alarm? It’s time for Congress to pose these questions to top officials at the Department of Education. Department staff, who should have warned Congress and the public but didn’t.
So the question now is how to “fix what is broken,” to borrow a phrase from President Obama, Secretary Geithner, and others following the 2012 State of the Union Address. Gainful employment rules, dickering around with the Pell Grant, and similar activities do nothing here. Neither do the various repayment programs that are being marketed by the higher education crowd as viable substitutes for the consumer protections that were stripped from the system. Some policy analysts in fact, are pointing to these untested, unproven programs as a basis for dramatically increasing the federal loan limits! This is not the direction we want to go. We cannot afford it, and to claim otherwise is hugely irresponsible.
Restoring Bankruptcy Protections
Congress created this problem by removing fundamental, free-market consumer protections from student loans. Congress can and must fix it by essentially undoing what it did. Quite simply, it begins by returning, at a minimum, the bankruptcy protections that were removed without rational basis (when bankruptcy was the same for student loans as all other loans, far less than 1 percent of federal loans were discharged this way). With this fundamental, free-market mechanism returned, the Department of Education will have a vested interest in compelling the schools to provide a high quality product at a low cost, and at reasonable debt levels. This is an obvious solution.
Ten years ago, when activists began making this argument, we were met with fierce resistance from the banks, the schools, the Department of Education, and even many student advocacy groups. Year after year, we keep hearing that “now is not the time” to fix this obvious problem by restoring the protections that should never have been taken away. Many of the stakeholders in this broken system continue to extract huge sums of unearned wealth due to the absence of bankruptcy protections, so of course they are not eager to restore them. And Congress does not have the courage to disagree with them.
As a distressed borrower myself, I know that if I call strongly for a student debt Jubilee some may accuse me of speaking out of self-interest. But as a fair-minded analyst, and given the current state of affairs vís-a-vís Congress, I am certain that public confidence in the lending system is going to evaporate in the foreseeable future, and the real consequences of this could be dire. As such, Jubilee becomes not only a viable solution, but a necessary one.
(This web-only article is part of a special series associated with Tikkun’s Winter 2015 print issue: Jubilee and Debt Abolition. Subscribe now to read these subscriber-only articles online, and sign up for our free email newsletter to receive links to future web-only articles on this topic, as well! Visit tikkun.org/jubilee to read the other web-only articles associated with this issue.) |
“What I am hearing in Washington, including from people in Hillary Clinton’s campaign, is that the first person on their lists is Julián Castro, the ... Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, who use[d] to be the Mayor of San Antonio,” he said in an interview with Univision’s “Al Punto.”
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“They don’t have a second option, because he is the superior candidate considering his record, personality, demeanor and Latin heritage.”
“I think there is a very high possibility that Hillary Clinton may choose Julián Castro,” he said.”
The once-rising star ultimately left the Clinton administration in the shadow of a scandal about payments he had made to a former mistress.
He later pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI and was pardoned by Clinton. |
Just a quick post on something I just discovered and found neat (I always find obscure C syntax interesting). I was trying to figure out how to use a C designated initializer, where a member was a pointer to another designated initializer. At this point, you need a compound literal. Just a quick background on C initialization:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 // verbosely create an array with a known size int arr [ 3 ]; arr [ 0 ] = 1 ; arr [ 1 ] = 2 ; arr [ 2 ] = 3 ; // => [1, 2, 3] // concisely create an array with a known size int arr [ 3 ] = { 1 , 2 , 3 }; // => [1, 2, 3] // creates an array with unspecified values initialized to 0 int arr [ 4 ] = { 1 , 2 , 3 }; // => [1, 2, 3, 0] // truncates declaration int arr [ 1 ] = { 1 , 2 , 3 }; // => [1] // based on number of initializers int arr [] = { 1 , 2 , 3 }; // => [1, 2, 3]
Let’s look at how we might have initialized a struct in C89. In C89, you are required to declare local variables at the top of a block. A previous initialization of a point struct might have looked like:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 struct point { int x , y ; }; { struct point a ; a . x = 2 ; a . y = 3 ; }
Just as we can define array literals in C using the initializer list syntax, we can use the same concise syntax for initializing structs!
1 2 // point a is located at (2, 3) struct point a = { 2 , 3 };
Well, this can be bad. Where would point a be located if say a fellow team mate came along and modified the definition of the point struct to:
1 2 3 struct point { int y , x ; // used to be `int x, y;` };
Suddenly point a points to (3, 2), not (2, 3). It’s better if you use designated initializers to declare the values for members of your struct. It’s up to the compiler to decide on the order of initialization, but it wont mess up where the data is intended to go.
1 2 // point b is located at (2, 3) struct point b = { . y = 3 , . x = 2 };
So now we have designated initializers, cool. What about if we want to use the same syntax to reassign point b?
1 2 3 b = { . x = 5 , . y = 6 }; // ^ // error: expected expression
While you are being explicit about the shape of the struct that you are trying to assign to b, the compiler cannot figure out that you’re trying to assign a point struct to another point struct. A C cast would probably help here and that’s what the concept of compound literals are.
1 b = ( struct point ) { . x = 5 , . y = 6 }; // works!
Notice: I just combined a compound literal with a designated initializer. A compound literal on its own would look like:
1 b = ( struct point ) { 5 , 6 }; // works!
To recap we can define points like so:
1 2 3 4 5 6 struct point a ; a . x = 1 ; a . y = 2 ; // C89 (too verbose) struct point b = { 3 , 4 }; // initializer list (struct member order specific) struct point c = { . x = 5 , . y = 6 }; // designated initializer (non struct member order specific) struct point d = ( struct point ) { . x = 7 , . y = 8 }; // compound literal (cast + designated initialization)
My favorite part of compound literals is that you can define values inline of an argument list. Say you have a function prototype like:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 int distance ( struct point , struct point ); // instead of calling it like this // (creating temp objects just to pass in) struct point a = { . x = 1 , . y = 2 }; struct point b = { . x = 5 , . y = 6 }; distance ( a , b ); // we can use compound literals distance (( struct point ) { . x = 1 , . y = 2 }, ( struct point ) { . x = 5 , . y = 6 });
So compound literals help with reassignment of structs, and not storing temporary variables just to pass as function arguments. What happens though when one of your members is a pointer? C strings are easy because they already have a literal value:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 struct node { char * value ; struct node * next ; }; // just using designated initialization struct node a = { . value = “ hello world ” , . next = NULL };
But what happens if we want to initialize node.next? We could do:
1 2 3 4 5 struct node b = { . value = “ foo ” , . next = NULL }; a . next = & b ;
Again, we have to define b before assigning it to a.next. That’s worthwhile if you need to reference b later in that scope, but sometimes you don’t (just like how compound literals can help with function arguments)! But that’s where I was stumped. How do you nest designated initializers when the a member is a pointer to another designated initializer? A first naïve attempt was:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 struct node c = { . value = “ bar ” , . next = { . value = “ baz ” , // ^ // error: designator in initializer for scalar type 'struct node *' . next = NULL } };
WTF? Well, if you go back to the example with nodes a and b, we don’t assign the value of b to a.next, we assign it a pointer to b. So how can we use designated initializers to define, say, the first two nodes of a linked list? Compound literals. Remember, a compound literal is essentially a designated initialization + cast.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 struct node d = { . value = “ qux ” , . next = & (( struct node ) { . value = “ fred ” , . next = NULL }) };
And that works, but why? d.next is assigned an address of a compound literal. Granted, you probably don’t want to be declaring your entire linked list like this, as nesting gets out of control fast. I really like this style because it reminds me of JavaScript’s syntax for declaring object literals. It would look nicer if all of your nested structs were values and not references though; then you could just use designated initializers and wouldn’t need compound literals or address of operators.
What’s your favorite or most interesting part of C syntax?
Acknowledgements: |
After 31-year-old Miami resident Derek Medina allegedly murdered his wife earlier this morning, he snapped a photograph of her bloody body and uploaded it to Facebook. That was followed by a full confession—again, posted directly to his Facebook page (since removed).
I’m going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife love you guys miss you guys take care Facebook people you will see me in the news my wife was punching me and I am not going to stand anymore with the abuse so I did what I did I hope you understand me.
His Facebook friends are shocked:
South Miami Police arrested Medina early this morning. He’d told cops in a separate confession he shot his wife during a heated argument. CBS Miami confirmed with police that the body they found inside Medina’s townhome was indeed his wife’s.
The photograph, now removed from Facebook, showed Jennifer Alonso bent over backward, covered in blood, in what appeared to be their kitchen.
Their 10-year-old daughter was home at the time.
Medina appears to be the author of several self-help e-books. Predictably, Amazon reviewers are flooding them with murder jokes.
He also claims to have been an extra on the show Burn Notice. We found a clip uploaded by a YouTuber with his name:
H/T NYMag | Photo via Derek Medina/Facebook |
It seems a repeated question or point of interest people have regarding religious life is about what a typical day is life for us.
In today’s gospel, we hear about Andrew and Peter spending the day with Jesus. Actually, this would be the first of many. This passage, in which John the Baptist points out “the Lamb of God” to these Apostles reminds me, too, of a verse which is often alluded to in regard to religious life: Revelation 14:4 refers to those who “follow the Lamb wherever He goes.”
Like the early Apostles, we as Christians, and especially as religious Sisters, are to follow Jesus on a daily basis.
So, back to a typical day, right?
For me, there is no real ‘typical’ day. Each day is different. I work different shifts and different things come up. Nonetheless, I’ll try to illustrate what one typical day might look like. I hope you don’t get bored with details…
Regardless of the work schedule, I usually start the day in chapel. It is important for me to spend that time beholding the Lamb, as the Baptist instructs.
The Constitutions for our Congregation direct us to daily spend one half hour in meditation and another half hour in other private prayer. I try to start off my day with this, although sometimes I run out of time and have to finish up later. Such was the case this morning. We take turns leading prayer and picking songs for Mass, so this week I had to get a breviary ready for a visitor who would be praying with us. After morning prayer, I needed to make preparations in chapel for Mass before grabbing breakfast and coming to work at the front desk.
Today, my reception desk shift lasts until noon. During this time, I’ve done some more office work and also worked on embroidering a dish towel for sale.
After lunch, I will have a chance to finish up on my curtailed prayers from this morning before “Reading Hour.” Twice a week, I read a story book aloud to our residents. At present, we are enjoying Christmas stories.
I’m not quite sure what the rest of the afternoon will hold. I hope to take some residents around on an “indoor walk” later. Then, at 5 p.m., I will give the receptionist her supper break.
We eat supper at 5:30 p.m., followed by evening prayer together in chapel. This will be my first night off since last Thursday from doing aide work.
Hopefully, this evening, we’ll be able to get together for our semi-weekly spiritual book discussion.
Usually, there are some complications that work their way in too, as I spend my day striving to “follow the Lamb wherever He goes.”
I can only pray that I follow Him a little more closely and faithfully with each passing day…be it typical or not.
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Social media users claim the photo was taken at an unspecified mall in the UAE, and shows Barcelona players Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Luis Suarez on an advertisement billboard with the club's former sponsor censored.
In 2011, Barcelona made history when they signed a deal with Qatar Sports Investment, agreeing to put a paid sponsor's logo on their shirts for the first time in 111 years.
Last year, however, the club announced a new sponsorship deal with Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten, and the team will wear their logo for the 2017-2018 season instead of Qatar Airways.
Read more: Even the beautiful game gets drawn into Saudi-Qatar spat
The photo of the censored shirt logo sparked speculation online, with some questioning if wearing the former Barcelona shirt in public could result in getting trouble with the law.
The UAE announced this week that anyone making social media posts symathetic to Qatar could result in between three and 15 years in jail.
On Thursday, the UAE closed its airspace to all flights coming to and from Doha, escalating the diplomatic crisis between Gulf states.
The move came after Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt, along with other Arab and Muslim-majority countries, cut off diplomatic ties and transport links to Qatar on Monday.
FC Barcelona enjoys huge support in the Middle East, leading some to question whether the football team's current kit could be dragged into the diplomatic spat.
The veracity of the photo has not been confirmed, but it does appear to be genuine. Whether or not it is, the fact that it has spread so far online shows the depth of feeling over the latest diplomatic crisis to hit the Gulf. |
HOUSTON - A former Houston firefighter pulled a gun on two robbery suspects, killing one of them, investigators said.
Houston police said the homeowner pulled into his driveway on Glenhurst Drive near Southbank in southeast Houston about 10 p.m. Wednesday. Two armed men walked up to him and demanded cash, officials said.
"The two males held him at gunpoint and told him that they wanted money, demanded that they go inside and, once inside, proceeded to search the house," said Mark Coleman of the Houston Police Department.
Police said the two masked gunmen forced the homeowner, his sister and her teenaged niece to the ground. What the attackers didn't know was that the 58-year old husband and father was also a legal concealed handgun carrier.
Investigators said the homeowner decided to turn the tables on the crooks.
"They were in the process of searching the residence when the homeowner proceeded to use a weapon he had to shoot one of the would-be robbery suspects and exchanged gunfire with the other," said Coleman.
The homeowner, who didn't want to be identified, said he did what he had to do to protect his family.
"They made us lay down in the dining room. My niece laid on the end, my sister was in the middle and I was on the end. When we were laying there, he was ransacking the bookcase and the dining room, and I figured it was now or never. So when I got my chance, I had to take it," said the homeowner.
One of the suspects was fatally wounded, detectives said. His name has not been released.
"If I had any regrets, I wouldn't be here talking to you," the homeowner said.
Police said the second man took off. Investigators said they don't have a good description of that man because his face was covered with a mask.
Shots were fired outside the home, too. One of the bullets hit a home across the street.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
Copyright 2012 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
the one, the only
A populist wave is sweeping the nation.
Same as the public elected FDR and his New Deal after the ‘29 Crash, the ‘07 Crash has inflamed Occupy Wall Street and the presidential candidacy of (another) democratic socialist. People are sick and tired (yet again) of the inequality and injustice that Washington has allowed to fester for decades; in response, we’re empowering firecrackers like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, leaders of a kind not seen in years.
The Revolution is being stoked.
And the other politicians know it.
It’s why, on both sides of the aisle, they’re adapting.
When Republicans say raising the minimum wage would be terrible, it’s not because “it’d be bad for rich corporations.” No, it’s because “it’d be bad for the people” —
Ben Carson: “Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases... How do we allow people to ascend the ladder of opportunity, rather than how do we give them everything and keep them dependent? … I would not raise it.” Ted Cruz: “Every time you raise the minimum wage, the people who are hurt the most is the most vulnerable.” Marco Rubio: “If I thought that raising the minimum wage was the best way to help people increase their pay, I would be all for it, but it isn’t. In the 20th century, it’s a disaster.”
The “I want to help you” shtick is a shroud for their evil idea that paying workers more for their labor would somehow be bad for the poor, lower-, and middle-class people of this country. It is disgustingly dishonest.
When Donald Trump speaks about the middle-class being crushed and denounces the rich, it’s not because he truly believes it—
From Washington Times,
Middle-income people are being decimated, they’re being decimated,” Mr. Trump said Monday at his rally in Dallas. “We have a group of 200 [wealthy] guys, but the middle income in this country is being decimated, and we’re going to change it.”
—but because it’s what the people want. He’s not going to hurt the rich, he’s one of them.
When Ted Cruz talks revolution and says we need to destroy “corporate welfare,” it’s not because he’s actually going to do it — the guy has four Super PACS massing up millions and a tax plan that would throw scads of money to the rich — but because he recognizes the power in Bernie Sanders’ message.
When Hillary Clinton says her Wall Street plan is “tougher, more effective and more comprehensive,” it’s not because it actually is, but because being un-tough on the banks is political suicide. After empty promises and continued struggle, the American people are fed-up with letting Wall Street run amuck, and ready for real change.
Across the board, we’re in a populist sort of mood.
And we’re standing up.
Bernie Sanders is being funded on the proletariat’s dime more than any other candidate in history, drawing tens of thousands of people to his rallies, and gaining an impassioned, involved following. It’s we, the people who’re propelling him forward, not the millionaires and billionaires of Wall Street. Our grassroots support is actually strong enough for him to seriously compete monetarily with the likes of Super PAC candidate Hillary Clinton.
The Revolution has already begun, and it’s coming from the people. We’re buoying Bernie Sanders up, choosing him, a man of honesty, authenticity, and fierce anger on the behalf of the people, to lead us. He’s our standard-bearer, but it’s the people who are spreading the Revolutionary word. It’s proof that when the citizens unite, we carry immense power. Whatever we want en masse, those in power have to respond to. We’re their employers, the ones who hire, fire, and pay them. When we rise up together, we can bend the political system.
And that scares the living hell out of them.
To keep their power, politicians superficially respond to our outrage, adopting populist tones and doling out meaningless reassurances they’re on our side.
Don’t let them fool you with fake, calculated promises.
Even conservative Americans like Bernie, and his “socialist” ideas, and that’s made the Republican candidates change what they’re selling.
From Bloomberg Politics,
“During the first two debates, GOP candidates used words like ‘inequality,’ ‘disparity,’ ‘rich,’ ‘poor,’ and ‘middle class’ just 0.06 percent of the time, according to an analysis by the communications and consulting firm Logos Consulting Group. That rate tripled in the Oct. 28 debate, the first one after the Democratic debate that featured more discussion of inequality. It rose again to 0.20 percent in Tuesday night's GOP debate.”
The GOP and Hillary are talking populist because Bernie Sanders is gathering steam. They don’t really care about us, they’re just responding to our outrage at the 1% and the government in order to get power, pretending they’re not a part of either.
The people are waking up, supporting a leader who’s building a movement of humans compassionate for each other and angry at the power structure. We’re being stirred from our deep slumber, and Bernie’s freedom-truth-liberty message is speeding up the process.
And the elite are growing afraid, because, when you and I unite, we are all powerful. When we stand together, we can threaten the ruling class’s stranglehold on wealth and prosperity.
That power makes the establishment’s knees knock.
And they’re trying to squash us. They’re co-opting our Revolution— Both sides masking their corporate loyalties in democratic-sounding ideas designed to nab our vote.
From The Wall Street Journal,
The latest [GOP] presidential debate vividly captured how the 2008 financial crisis has reshaped the Republican Party by unleashing a potent populist strain that could further scramble an already unpredictable primary contest. Candidates vying for the 2016 GOP nomination have grown distinctly more leery of big banks, corporations and international trade deals, and outright hostile toward the Federal Reserve.
From Slate,
From Washington Times,
Mrs. Clinton has already adopted many of Mr. Sanders‘ liberal positions, including announcing support Sunday for raising the federal minimum wage to a $15 per hour “living wage”... Mrs. Clinton declared herself the living-wage candidate when she spoke by telephone to a convention of about 1,300 fast-food workers in Detroit. “I want to be your champion. I want to fight [for] you every day,” she said. “No one who works an honest job in America should have to live in poverty.”
This election season she’s morphed from saying “all lives matter,” talking about the “truckers” she “saw on I-80,” and calling us “everyday Americans,” to selling herself as a hang-loose hippie, saying she “come[s] from the ‘60s,” goofing around on Saturday Night Live, and dancing on Ellen.
It’s the new, populist, relaxed Hillary, concocted by specialists for your enjoyment. Please like her.
But, if you look closely, you can see a glimmer of truth behind the facade: she’s still not promising to break up the big financial institutions or raise taxes on “middle-class” people making up to a quarter of a million dollars a year. She’s got Super PACS instead of small donations. She still can’t explain why Wall Street won’t influence her.
And, having picked up a bit of headway in the last month, she’s even gone back to the right and called for a $12 wage instead of what she told those Detroit fast-food workers.
On Hillary’s campaign, Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi says —
The campaign season is a time of promises. Election and subsequent rule, we are to understand, are a time of disappointments, coupled with the behind-the-scenes repayment in favors for financial support – usually described to us using more gentle names like "pragmatism" or "reality."
On the GOP side, from the Wall Street Journal,
Candidates voiced concerns about the power of big banks, even as they promised to sweep away new regulations.
They’re spouting for-the-people rhetoric, but, if you peep the game carefully, you’ll see they’re actually promising to hurt us: $12 instead of $15, or no raise at all; minimal reforms on Wall Street or the further destruction of economic regulation; taking millions from the rich in exchange for taking care of them once in office; escalation in Syria and Iraq; slowly, incrementally advancing a progressive agenda or dismantling the one Obama tried to create.
Both Hillary and the Republicans are not actually proposing policies that would re-organize this country and this society FOR THE PEOPLE.
We say we have a democracy, but we do not.
Our elections are bought. Our people are poor. Our children go hungry and uneducated. Majority rule doesn’t elect the president, and only half of us vote. Voter turn-out is even less in the non-presidential elections, and the rich are only becoming richer, while the poor suffer.
Our leaders do not care for us, but calculate the bare minimum they can get away with feeding us (Hillary’s team literally held focus groups).
And we just eat it right up as what’s “necessary.”
All of these candidates, save Bernie, change what they say based on what the public wants. It’s happening right now. More and more, in response to the crowds and attention they’re seeing the democratic socialist Bernie Sanders attract, the other candidates are mirroring his talking points, stealing the message while ridiculing the messenger.
The for-the-rich politicians are working on getting elected by mimicking the words of the guy drawing tens of thousands to his rallies, running back to their wealthy handlers for more money, gleeful with the good news that it’s working, and then attacking the hell out of the candidate who’s been speaking this way for decades.
I am so sad. I am so afraid. I am so deeply worried.
I’m 22 years old. I need a country vastly different from the one we have right now, and Bernie’s our one shot for who knows how long. I’m tired of waiting. I’m tired of the people who are supposed to be on our side, the establishment Democrats, saying that we can’t have a country of true justice. I’m tired of choosing the lesser of two evils. I’m tired of my fellow Americans living in poverty and struggle while the rich hoard mountains of gold.
This is about real life, real people, and the future of the laws that will govern my and my fellow young people’s lives for decades to come.
It’s about how we will live together on this chunk of land — in equality and freedom, or oppression and injustice?
If the GOP or Hillary succeeds, we will not have a country where you can work full-time and get out of poverty, always have health care, or receive a good education for free. Things will stay the same, and the people will suffer.
WE CANNOT DO THIS ANYMORE.
People’s lives depend on this election— children growing up in poverty, poor white Americans are dying, unarmed people of color being shot dead on the street by those assigned to protect them.
It is not a circus, it is not entertainment, it is not a game — it is deathly serious.
My fellow human beings on this earth, I rally you! Do not let them take our chance for true democracy and justice! Do not let their lies born of greed corrupt you! Peel back the populist shroud and uncover the aristocracy!
Every one of them is trying to sell themselves as the prophet of the people.
But there’s only one.
Here, I’ll give you a hint— his initials are what every other candidate is full of. |
(Reuters Health) - As more and more sick patients are going online and using social media to search for answers about their health, it’s raising a lot of thorny ethical questions for doctors.
“The internet and ready access to vast amounts of information are now permanent aspects of how we live our lives, including how we think about and deal with our health problems,” Dr. Chris Feudtner, director of medical ethics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said by email.
Social media in particular can affect how patients interact with doctors and what type of care they expect, Feudtner and colleagues write in an article about ethics in the journal Pediatrics.
“Clinicians should ask about what patients and families have read on the Internet, and then work through that information thoughtfully, as sometimes Internet information is not helpful and sometimes it is helpful,” Feudtner said. “Doing this takes time and effort, yet trust is built with time and effort.”
To explore the ethical challenges posed by patients’ virtual lives, Feudtner and examined a fictional case blending elements of several recent real-life situations.
In this hypothetical case, the parents of a 10-year-old boy hospitalized with cancer started a blog. Doctors, nurses and other hospital staff were among the 1,000 subscribers to his blog.
A year after his hospital stay ended, the boy relapsed, and his parents launched an online petition seeking access to an experimental cancer treatment that was only available through clinical trials. No trials were accepting new patients.
The petition draws 60,000 supporters in just 48 hours, and news crews descend on the hospital.
Aside from the obvious pressure this puts on one team of clinicians at one hospital to help one very sick child, this situation raises broader ethical issues about how treatment decisions should be made.
Fairness issues arise because not all families have the same access to social media or skill at using online communities to advocate for the care they want to receive, doctors argue in the article.
Hospitals and other healthcare institutions need to have policies in place to handle situations when patients’ social media posts go viral and take steps to respond proactively. Clinicians need to know they will be supported for providing appropriate care even when this clashes with what patients and families advocate for on social medial.
The case also serves as a reminder that doctors need to work with patients to keep the lines of communication open, said Dr. Robert Macauley, medical director of clinical ethics at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
“More and more often, patients are not only exploring potential treatment options on the Internet, but using web-based resources for determining diagnosis and prognosis,” Macauley, who wasn’t involved in the ethics article, said by email.
Especially when doctors know there’s a lot of inaccurate information online, they should be pro-active about asking patients and families what they’ve learned from the web, Macauley said.
“Open-ended questions designed to identify alternate (and potentially misleading) information that the patient has received—whether through the internet, social media, old-fashioned reading, or conversation with others—will help dispel misperceptions and ensure that both physician and patient are starting with the same set of facts,” Macauley added.
SOURCE: bit.ly/2b1unlx Pediatrics, online August 5, 2016. |
Tempers flared last September at a House hearing on cost overruns and construction delays in the Homeland Security Department’s near-decade-long push to consolidate its headquarters on the Southeast Washington campus of the old St. Elizabeths mental hospital.
But early this month, in documents accompanying President Obama’s fiscal 2016 budget request, the General Services Administration described an “enhanced,” or scaled-back plan, on which it has been working with Homeland Security for a year.
The problems with the massive project of moving 50 subunits emerged in a Government Accountability Office report, which criticized GSA and DHS for adding $1 billion to the price tag since 2006 and lengthening the time frame by 10 years. Some in Congress derided the project for overly-opulent architecture and threatened to pull the plug. So far only the Coast Guard has moved to the new location.
The rethought plan “proposes to save money by reducing overall construction at St. Elizabeths and the space requirements at other locations,” said GSA spokeswoman Kamara Jones, in a statement. “Improved space standards and flexible workplace strategies mean DHS will be able to accommodate 17,000 employees in a space originally planned for 14,000.”
GSA’s new request for nearly $380 million this year would save $800 million over the existing plan and complete the job in 2021 rather than 2026. That would bring to the total cost to $3.7 billion between the two agencies, with GSA assuming two-thirds of the cost. Besides going through the congressional budget process, the Enhanced Plan would also have to be reviewed and approved by the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts.
"The Enhanced Plan developed by DHS and GSA proposes to save money by reducing overall construction at St. Elizabeths and the space requirements at other locations," said DHS spokeswoman Ginette Magana. "As dependent upon funding, DHS anticipates being able to accommodate additional employees beyond our original estimate."
One key provision in the new strategy would be moving the Federal Emergency Management Agency from its current headquarters on C Street Southwest in Washington to a different part of St. Elizabeths than originally planned. “Increasing the campus population on West Campus would allow for additional government entities to be housed on the site, one of which would be FEMA,” the GSA said. “If the Enhanced Plan is executed as proposed, further planning will occur for the use of the FEMA site on East Campus.”
GSA arrived at its proposed savings by shrinking space needs, “working with DHS to adopt improved space standards and implement flexible workplace strategies,” the spokeswoman said. “The Enhanced Plan proposes a utilization rate of 155 or fewer usable square feet per person, down from 230 usable square feet per person in the original plan.”
With a new construction prospectus, GSA and DHS are continuing work at St. Elizabeths that includes perimeter security, construction of an access road and new interchange, design of future phases and historical preservation requirements for the West Campus, a 176–acre National Historic Landmark that includes 61 existing buildings.
Reaction to the enhanced plan by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, was positive, according to a statement he gave The Washington Post.
A more skeptical response came from Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., chairman of the Homeland Security Oversight and Management Efficiency Subcommittee. In a statement to Government Executive, Duncan cited a January 2014 House majority staff report stating that a comprehensive reassessment of the plan at St. Elizabeths was needed. “Mismanagement and inefficiency at DHS’ headquarters project has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars,” he said. “I am pleased to see that the department has a new plan to utilize the space at St. Elizabeths and cut wasteful spending, all in a timely fashion, but how this plan is implemented will be the true test. I will continue to monitor this process closely and work with my colleagues in ensuring that more taxpayer dollars are not wasted.”
Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., a longtime critic who serves on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, went further. “I remain strongly opposed to spending any federal funds on construction of a DHS Taj Mahal,” he told Government Executive. “Congress should be downsizing this dysfunctional agency and correcting the big mistake we made after 9/11. Republicans need to reshape this monstrous agency, leasing as little space, some of it outside Washington, as possible or occupying vacant federal property.” |
Aroldis Chapman is headed to The Bronx, and the former Cincinnati Reds closer will bring with him a 100 mile per hour fastball and significant baggage as an accused domestic abuser.
The Cuban defector, acquired by the Yankees on Monday in a bombshell trade, was involved in an alleged domestic violence incident in October that scuttled a previous trade agreement between the Reds and Dodgers when it surfaced in early December.
General manager Brian Cashman said the Yankees looked into the incident and are awaiting the outcomes of investigations by law enforcement and Major League Baseball. Chapman could face a suspension.
“To the best of our abilities, we have researched as much as we can,” Cashman said Monday afternoon on a conference call. “We’re not a law enforcement agency… We have completed the transaction based on a lot of due diligence, so we know there’s a process that’s playing out. It will continue to play out and the results will be whatever they will be.”
The price for the 27-year-old was four non-elite prospects: infielders Eric Jagielo and Tony Renda, and right-handed pitchers Caleb Cotham and Rookie Davis.
The addition of Chapman gives the Yankees the game’s top bullpen with fellow flame-throwers Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances.
Trading Miller remains a possibility as the Yankees look to get younger this offseason, but Cashman insisted he acquired Chapman with the hopes of teaming all three relievers — though he wouldn’t say whether Miller would remain the closer.
“How it shakes out in the closer role going forward, that’s all for another day,” Cashman said. “We’ll just have to wait and see how it shakes out.”
Including the rest of the offseason.
“I’m sure we’ll get a lot of interesting calls between now and whenever, but in terms of roster construction, cost of acquisition and all my conversations with people above, the full intent was to retain all three high-caliber arms,” said Cashman, who added he called Miller after completing the trade for Chapman to assure Miller that Cashman wasn’t looking to move him.
Miller might be needed if Chapman is suspended, which remains on the table following the alleged abuse.
As reported by Yahoo Sports, Chapman’s girlfriend told police he “choked” her and pushed her against a wall during an argument. Chapman also allegedly fired eight gunshots in his garage following the dispute at his Miami-area home.
Chapman was not arrested, though more than a dozen officers were dispatched to the scene. The police report indicates the argument stemmed from something the woman found on Chapman’s cellphone, and she fled from Chapman to hide in the bushes.
Under the guidelines of the league’s new domestic violence policy, Chapman could be shelved. He is eligible to become a free agent following the 2016 season, but a suspension may delay his service time clock.
Cashman, who had inquired about Chapman’s availability before — including before the last season’s trade deadline — acknowledged the serious nature of the allegations. Still, he felt comfortable moving forward with the trade after continued talks with Reds general manager Walt Jocketty.
“There was a lot of research that needed to be done, but the legitimate opportunity for acquisition became more realistic as the winter played out,” Cashman said. “I had a lot of dialogue with people within the [Reds] organization and outside the organization to try get a better feel on what would be dealing with.’’
Cashman added: “It’s a situation where there’s a process in play. If there’s anything actionable or not, both from a sport and law side of it … I think we’ll understand when baseball goes through its investigation. There’s a number of different things at play that are out of our hands. We’ll deal with those ultimate outcomes — if there are any — and go from there.” |
Pink Sheets printed in 1984 by the National Quotation Bureau, listing all the over-the-counter stocks and their market makers, along with prices. AntiqueStocks.com
July 2014 may go down as a defining month of this bull market, since it brought us the overnight sensation known as Cynk, an internet penny stock that had been floating under the radar until it got pumped up more than 24,000% then just as soon suspended by the SEC.
How did this happen?
Cynk was traded on OTC Markets Group Inc., a 101-year-old company now headquartered in Soho. It is the 21st century iteration of the company that invented pink sheets, the National Quotation Bureau. Pink sheets were where your broker use to call other brokers for trades in companies that had publicly available shares but which weren't listed on a major exchange. You can see what they used to look like above.
Some of these would have been shares in large overseas companies that for whatever reason weren't interested in U.S. liquidity. Many more were smaller U.S. firms that couldn't afford it. And some would have been Cynk-like.
It was going to trade at some ludicrous level for some amount of time the SEC was going to halt it, and everyone involved in that stock are going wish they weren't involved
That is mostly how the more-than-18,000 securities OTCM quotes breaks down. A third of its total listings, and two-thirds of its dollar volume, are in international ADRs (American Depository Receipts) like Roche, Heineken, and Walmart de Mexico. The rest are smaller companies that were looking for a scaled-down version of going public.
Things can get a little dicey in that second group. So OTCM divides its securities into multiple sections depending on a firm's level of reporting and verifiable information, ranging from companies — 354 in total — that are listed as totally current in their disclosure and that have received third party advisory ("OTCQX"), to another set — numbering 8,656 — that the broker-dealers OTCM pulls quotes from have not or are no longer willing or able to publicly quote due to the absence of investor interest ("Grey Market"), company information availability or regulatory compliance. 9,543 fall somewhere in between ("OTCQB" and "OTC Pink").
Despite their variable reporting, most are legitimate. A company called EME Reorganization Trust saw volume this weekend of 115 million shares, which are worth $0.13. That might sound sketchy, but they're simply a corporate entity created after two big energy companies merged. Or Pleasant Kids, which sells children's water bottles. Its shares are worth $0.0009. Last year it entered into a share-exchange agreement with New York Bagel Deli where Pleasant gained all of NYBD's capital but got stuck with its old ticker symbol. The company has been consistently filing reports with the SEC since 2008, though it continues to operate at a major loss.
But some aren't right. OTCM keeps a list of "Caveat Emptor" securities that the firm, or one of its feeder brokers, has flagged as being outside the bounds of any modicum of reporting standard.
There are more than 1,200 of them. They come with a skull-and-crossbones.
"Caveat Emptor" stocks OTCM
OTCM CEO Cromwell Coulson explained the role his marketplace plays, despite the presence of these stocks, and those that, while they haven't been blacklisted, still trade at ultra-low levels. Stock pickers he said, can still derive a lot of value from sniffing out a small firm with great potential.
Cromwell Coulson OTCM "Small company markets are not about the weeds, they're about what grows out of them," he told us at OTCM's headquarters. "They're about companies giving information so that someone intelligent can go allocate capital."
He also explained why these kinds of companies even bother going public.
"There are a lot complex regulations you have to pay for to be on an exchange that smaller and global companies don't need," he said. "Major exchanges work really well for the Cokes and Pepsis, for the S&P500, but they're very costly and complex for the smallest companies."
As an SEC registered alternative trading system for regulated broker-dealers to provide investors the best price all types of securities, OTCM does not have the broader regulatory authority of an exchange or a Self-Regulatory Organization ("SRO"). Only FINRA or the SEC can legally halt all brokers from trading in a public company's shares. OTCM has a system of tiered marketplaces - OTCQX, OTCQB and OTC Pink - that incentivize disclosure and categorize companies based on the quality of their operations and availability of information so investors and brokers have information to make good choices and regulators can bring strong consequences.
As an alternative trading system, OTCM is not obligated to vet any of the stocks they quote. And only FINRA and the SEC can legally halt all brokers from trading in a company's shares.
In Cynk's case, OTCM flagged the stock with a "caveat emptor" skull and crossbones symbol on July 9, after Cynk's shares had more than doubled. Cynk shares thus traded another day, rising as high as $21.50; they'd traded as low as $0.08 last year. The SEC issued its halt order July 11.
"I Tweeted on Thursday saying it was not a question of if the SEC halts this, it's when," Coulson said. "It was going to trade at some ludicrous level for some amount of time — which was a day — the SEC was going to halt it, and everyone involved in that stock are going wish they weren't involved."
Yet some people find the urge to trade companies like Cynk irresistible.
"If you point to the people who were buying Cynk and told them, You really should buy [a community bank], this great bank that pays dividends, that's close to you, you might even be a depositor there — they'd tell you that's boring."
Year-to-date, OTCM has seen slightly above average overall dollar volumes, and well above average flows into stocks worth less than $5, though as a percentage of YTD flows they're relatively low. Coulson does not believe there's not much to extrapolate about the broader state of markets from what happened with Cynk.
OTCM
OTCM
He does think it's a sign greater baseline transparency is needed among listing securities, and has testified to Congress on this point recently. OTCM is also beefing up its own information standards for SEC reporting companies on its OTCQB venture-stage marketplace. They already have a list of banned lawyers.
"With SEC reporting, you have complete disclosure about a company's finances, but you don't have full disclosure about the people — who their advisors and associates and affiliates are, and the number of shares outstanding. Our new standards for OTCQB will help change that.""
But as long as there are free markets, there are going to be people trying to game stocks like Cynk.
"There's a subset of investors who don't actually want to invest, who just want prove that they're better than other people," Coulson said. "They want to prove they can trade better, and speculate more, and I don't think you can get rid of them." |
Arthur Hernique Ramos is having a big impact on Brazilian football. The young midfielder, 21, is shining for Gremio, who have qualified for the final of the Copa Libertadores, where they will meet Lanus. Gremio are fighting for their third title and hope to reach the Club World Cup, where they could meet Real Madrid.
FC Barcelona are following the player and have him in high consideration. He is one of the players that they have on their agenda due to his massive potential. The club feel he could be an interesting bet for the future. However, they know negotiations with Gremio would be complicated given he's a player they're not ready to sell at any price.
Arthur is a player with the qualities to fit in to Barça's midfield. He has good vision and great technique. His role in the Copa Libertadores run has put him on the international map and he has already been called into the Brazil squad by Tite. |
WASHINGTON - Senator John McCain has retreated from his longtime commitment to public financing of campaigns since he started planning his 2008 bid for the presidency, according to nonpartisan advocates who had hoped McCain would be a strong voice for reform during the most expensive presidential campaign in history.
McCain, who angered conservatives when he coauthored a bipartisan law aimed at taking big money out of politics, in 2003 cosponsored legislation to expand the federal matching system to help fund presidential campaigns, but failed to add his name to similar measures in 2006 and 2007. And while McCain once supported a law in his home state of Arizona providing full public financing of campaigns, he now says he opposes that idea at the federal level.
McCain's campaign said the presumptive Republican nominee, who completed a fund-raising swing through western states Friday, has "a clear and long record" of supporting campaign finance reform, and has not recently advocated an expansion of public financing because it would be inappropriate for him to take a lead role in increasing funding for a program from which he could benefit.
But campaign finance reform advocates say they are distressed at what they see as McCain's abandonment of the issue at a time when supporters of reform most need bipartisan backing of efforts to control the influence of money in campaigns.
"Clearly, McCain has worked hard for a number of reforms, most notably BCRA" - the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act that bans big-money donations by labor unions, corporations, and wealthy individuals, said Arn Pearson, vice president for programs at Common Cause, an advocacy group. But "since he's decided to be a presidential candidate, he has backed off on taking public positions on those issues," imperiling reform efforts on Capitol Hill, Pearson said.
David Donnelly, national campaigns director for the Public Campaign Action Fund, added, "It's a legitimate question to ask the reformer, John McCain, why hasn't he made public financing the policy he will pursue if he becomes president?"
McCain is a hero to many campaign finance reform advocates, but has come under criticism recently for his wavering on accepting public financing this year. During the Republican primaries, McCain took out a $4 million line of credit for his then-flagging campaign, using the promise of federal matching funds as collateral. But after his candidacy rebounded, he never actually accepted the federal funds, allowing him to raise and spend more private money.
Both Democratic contenders, who have vastly out-raised McCain so far, have declined federal matching funds for the primaries. Senator Hillary Clinton has said she will not accept public funds for the general election. Senator Barack Obama, who earlier pledged to accept public financing for the fall campaign if the Republican nominee did, has been less clear, saying he would negotiate with McCain in deciding whether to accept the money and spending limits of the federal matching funds system. It would provide about $85 million to each major-party candidate, but would bar them from raising private money. |
These documentaries were both shot during Welles’ later — some might say — less productive and, well, less relevant years. That being said, I believe these are two of his most interesting works. They may not be as universally groundbreaking as Citizen Kane or serve as an omni-generational bridge between young and old classic story aficionados as many of his adaptations of Shakespeare. But, they are nonetheless genius and incredibly relevant today.
Filmed in 1972, Future Shock was just a year before one of Welles’ most borderline madcap, yet intriguing films, the documentary, F for Fake.
F for Fake is Welles’ weirdly directed, oddly shot, and at times a somewhat scatterbrained documentary which catalogs Welles’ relationship with a seemingly unattainable woman, the life of artist Elmyr De Hory as well as other peripheral characters. The most interesting parts of the documentary deal with De Hory who is one of the finest — and most lucrative — art forgers in contemporary history, perhaps of all time. His proclivity towards homosexual indiscretions and flamboyant public behavior are as engaging as the fact that he can draw a perfect Picasso in about five minutes. The documentary also features cameo appearances by other luminaries of the time like The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon director, Peter Bogdanovich and even a brief mention of the legendary Howard Hughes.
In the book “Future Shock,” the author Alvin Toffler thought that, “too much change in too short a period of time” would prove detrimental to society as a whole. Toffler’s basic theory of societal destruction is perhaps applicable more now today than ever. We are inundated every day with the “best,” “newest,” “fastest” and “coolest” gadgets that technology has to offer. Or we are so engaged with social media and forget other things around us.
At the time, it seems, Future Shock was overshadowed by F for Fake, as well as other things happening in both Welles’ professional and personal life. But it could have also been because the main theory embedded in Future Shock sounded ludicrous to most people at the time. Whereas today, with “End-Days” TV, documentaries and apocalyptic reality shows abound, I’m sure he’d reach a greater audience and greet a much better reception.
Whether I agree with Toffler or whether I feel this fast-paced life is a good thing, or bad thing is irrelevant to the basis of this post. Although, I will admit it’s hard for me to pick a side.
Either way, I think Future Shock does need to be re-visited by enthusiastic fans of Welles’ work, as well as those not too familiar with one of the best writer/directors of all-time.
If you haven’t seen F for Fake, you can watch it below. Which do you feel is more noteworthy in these current times? What are your thoughts on Toffler’s “too much change in too short a period of time” theory? Does it apply today? Does it apply this VERY SECOND?
Let me know what you guys think in the comments.
Recommended Reading
Future Shock by Alvin Toffler examines the effects of rapid industrial and technological changes upon the individual, the family, and society. |
“I’ll never change my last name. Not because of any feminist reason, just because I like it, it suits me, and it’s mine. I think Beyoncé’s officially made it ‘okay’ for feminists to desire marriage.”
What?? Ok so for starters, you can change your last name if you feel like it, but know that that choice is not just about you making a personal choice for yourself outside of the context and history of patriarchy and that it is actually representative of something more. When you take on your husband’s name in marriage that is symbolic — the practice of doing this comes from a tradition wherein women were treated as chattel. Like, they were literally the property of men and so when women got married they changed their names in order to signify that they were no longer the property of their fathers, but were now the property of their husbands. They didn’t have a choice in the matter. There is absolutely no reason why women need to take on their husbands’ names in marriage anymore because they are no longer chattel (right? I hope?). That women continue to do this baffles me, but hey, so much of what we understand to be “romantic” is rooted in notions of female subordination and male domination, so I guess it’s not all that surprising.
Also, as mentioned earlier, what Beyoncé does does not necessarily equal “feminism.” Things that Beyoncé does might indeed be “feminist” if they are, in fact, “feminist,” but to say that anything she does is automatically feminist is ridiculous. Every single thing anyone does is not necessarily feminist. Ugh. This argument just makes me think Americans are stupid (sorry American readers, I know there are some good’uns out there, I just wish you were better represented is all…).
Letting a man pay for you
I’m fine with this, actually. If a man makes more money than me (which pretty much all of the men I date do, because my income is a joke and rent in Vancouver is too damn high), he is free to pay. In general, I pay for my own shit when I can, and sometimes when me and my boyfriend go out, he pays if he can afford to. I don’t expect him to, but he’s a nice guy and he knows when I’m broke and when I’m not. I think of it as communism more than anything else. I tell him he is supporting the movement by buying me shots of Jameson at the bar. This is how feminism works, right guys?
That said, being totally financially dependent on a man is a bad plan because it impacts your autonomy. Women often can’t — or feel they can’t — leave abusive relationships because they are financially dependent on their husbands or boyfriends. Also, men who are controlling assholes will use financial dependance to hurt or control women. Sometimes men who pay think they are owed certain things in return (sex, a slave, babies, etc.). This is a bad thing and this is why we talk about men paying for women within the context of patriarchy and male power.
Caring about your looks
Ugh. Please oversimplify more.
The author writes:
“Being a feminist is about choice. If you choose to exercise, follow fashion, have you hair and nails done, shave/wax, and care about what you eat, you can STILL fight for/believe in/advocate/scream about feminism. You are still a feminist, so long as you’re choosing to do those things because you want to. I remember once watching Germaine Greer tell Cheryl Cole that she couldn’t be a feminist because she was ‘too thin’ and screaming at the television set. You don’t have to be a hairy, unwashed vegan in order to promote feminist belief. That’s the wonderful thing about feminism: Anyone can do it! And if you ask me, the most un-feminist thing a “feminist” can do is exclude another woman from being a feminist based on her looks. That’s in complete opposition to what feminism actually represents.”
No. No no no no nope no. Being a feminist is not about choice. It is about, 1) believing that patriarchy is a thing that exists, 2) desiring and working towards an end to patriarchy. You can be a feminist and “care about your looks,” like, obviously. But that is beside the point. The point is that women in a patriarchal society (i.e. our society) learn that their primary value is in their looks and their ability to attract men. “Choosing to do” things like “exercise, follow fashion, have you hair and nails done, shave/wax, and care about what you eat” happens within a particular context — capitalism and patriarchy. I seriously doubt any feminist would argue that you shouldn’t “care about your looks” because, at the end of the day, most people “care about [their] looks.” It’s just that there is inordinate pressure on women to be young, thin, and objectifiable and we are sent the message that our only source of power comes from our attractiveness or sexualization. Care about your looks as much as you want but know that there is a reason women are expected to be hairless and men aren’t and that there is a reason why so many women and girls suffer from eating disorders. Dieting isn’t “feminist” but, at the same time, we aren’t going to take away your feminist card just because you diet — just please don’t go around promoting diets to women and girls (and I’d personally recommend you cut it out for yourself as well because diets are a waste of your time and energy).
Listening to rap music
Please stop. Just stop. Rap music is not the only genre of music that contains misogyny. I have been a huge hip hop fan for 20 odd years now and go to tons of rap shows. And guess what! Still a feminist. I try not to support virulent misogynists and mostly am into underground hip hop as opposed to mainstream hip hop, and would never go to a Tyler the Creator show or, like, a Diplo show, but no feminist is expected to stop listening to hip hop point-blank because some of it is sexist. Like, then stop listening to rock or punk or metal or any pop music. Also stop watching movies and TV.
Enjoying domestic chores
Here is a true fact and anyone who disagrees with me is wrong and bad: chores suck and I think that people who like cleaning are nuts.
That said, there is a history to this whole women doing domestic chores thing that is completely ignored by the author in order to, again, oversimplify the conversation because it is convenient for her. She writes:
“I love cleaning. I love cleaning. I love cleaning. I just love it. I am Monica Geller. Cleaning. I love just typing the word. Clean. Cleaner. Cleaning. I love cooking too. I love making delicious meals. I love the process, I love the outcome, I love the way people feel when they eat food I’ve made for them. I work from home and I love having dinner ready when my boyfriend gets back from work. I love his excitement. I love that I was the cause of his excitement. I love caring for him and putting in effort to make our tiny apartment a lovely, warm, comfortable place to be. It makes me so happy. I also believe women should have equal pay, be free from the fear of rape, and have easy and free access to birth control. THESE THINGS ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.
Homemaking and caring for the person you’re making that home with and feminism are not only allowed to co-exist, they easily go hand-in-hand. You’re allowed to be a domestic Goddess living in co-habitated bliss while still fighting the good fight. You’re just fighting it from the luxury of a freshly bleached bathroom floor and a lovingly prepared 8-hour stew. In fact, part of independence is being able to take care of yourself and your environment. A career woman who can roast a perfect chicken too? Now you’re talking. If you ask me, that makes you even better equipped to deal with gender-based challenges when out in the world.”
Ok you like cleaning. Good for you. I hate it. My mom hates it too. When I was a kid my dad did all the cooking and cleaning. No one’s telling you you can’t be a feminist and enjoy cooking and cleaning, though. What we’re saying is that cooking and cleaning for your husband and kids has traditionally been expected of women and that women are still doing double-duty: going to work, then coming home and doing the bulk of the childcare, cooking, and cleaning. You don’t have to stop enjoying cooking in order to understand and acknowledge that there is a bigger conversation here than simply “I happen to like ______.”
Disagreeing with something “feminist” someone said
The author writes:
“This actually makes you a better feminist. Thinking critically and investigating ideas serves to make you better at having any opinion. Just because you have strong philosophical ideals doesn’t mean you have to adhere dogmatically to each and every other person in that school’s take on it. If you believe in equality between the sexes, you are a feminist. Whatever you attach to that is up to you, and can be as nuanced as suits you. For instance, if someone tells you ‘all heterosexual sex is rape’ (an actual feminist theory), you’re allowed to disagree with that. It doesn’t diminish your feminism, it just means that you have different opinions on some of the details, and that’s just fine.”
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP REPEATING THE DEBUNKED-100-TIMES-OVER MYTH THAT ANYONE EVER SAID “ALL HETEROSEXUAL SEX IS RAPE.”
No one said that. Not Andrea Dworkin. Not anyone. Learn to read, then read the works you’re misrepresenting. If you are completely opposed to reading, learn Google. Also don’t link to anti-feminist, libertarian websites as “proof” that the thing you just made up about feminism is real.
Like, holy shit. If you want to disagree with Andrea Dworkin then read Andrea Dworkin. You are free to disagree with whoever you like, in fact! But you have to disagree with the actual words they said and arguments they actually made, instead of something you made up because you are lazy.
Ok, I’m dead now. I died of stupid. Thanks America. |
It all started to go wrong when Web applications started to replace internal desktop applications in many companies around the globe and one manager proposed: "We should authenticate access to this application using our Active Directory!" and after some minutes a developer wrote a piece of code that looked like:
String ldap_search_query = "(&(user=" username ")(password=" pwd "))";
LDAPCursor ldap_result_cursor = ldapQuery( ldap_search_query );
The idea of having a centralized location for authenticating users is actually very good; but as usual the problem lies within the implementation. For LDAP injections - which are very similar in nature to SQL injections - the issue is that the developer is creating an LDAP query by concatenating user controlled variables like "username" and "pwd" with fixed strings like "(&(user=". This results in the user being able to partially control the LDAP query that's being executed on the backend server, thus controlling the result, and finally (in some cases) the application's execution flow.
Let's see what happens when a regular user logs in to the Web application:
User browses to http://web-app/login.aspx
http://web-app/login.aspx User enters his credentials, username: andres / password: foobar
/ password: The web application concatenates the input variables with the fixed strings and sends (&(user=andres)(password=foobar)) to the LDAP server
LDAP server will return the expected info and execution continues as the developer intended
But not all users are that kind, some will try the following:
Intruder browses to http://web-app/login.aspx
http://web-app/login.aspx Intruder wants to impersonate "andres", so he enters the following information, username: andres)(&) / password: notimportant
/ password: The web application concatenates the input variables with the fixed strings and sends (& (user=andres)(&) )(password=notimportant))
The LDAP server is now going to execute a completely different query, which will allow the intruder to bypass the login and impersonate the user
Worried that these types of vulnerabilities might be affecting your Web applications? NeXpose allows you to scan for these and many other types of Web application vulnerabilities. The following is an example of what's shown in NeXpose's web user interface when an LDAP injection is found, including the vulnerable script and parameter:
A couple of important notes to keep in mind are that this type of vulnerability can affect any Web application, disregarding which language it was written in and which LDAP backend it uses. Our detection engine provides coverage for all combinations of ASP.NET, PHP, Python, Ruby, Java and OpenLDAP, ActiveDirectory, OpenDS and many others.
Start increasing the security of your Web applications, request a NeXpose Enterprise Edition trial! |
I hope these scans are high quality, because in the process of making them, I got my knee tangled in the cable and knocked the scanner off the shelf and onto the floor. It still seems to function normally, but who knows? Every piece of digital equipment I own seems to be malfunctioning lately. I’ve got a phone with a shattered screen, a laptop with an almost useless battery and a frayed power cable and very limited memory, and suddenly I can’t get any decent macro images out of my camera. At least my brand new Wacom tablet is still under warranty.
Anyway, I’ve been pretty focused on finishing up the book, but it seemed more or less done so of course I spent 2 hours drawing abstract rainbow designs. Tomorrow I can prepare the files to be printer and probably get them sent off. It could be printed this week. I may have to take a break from using the tablet for a little while so my hand doesn’t fall off. Maybe some photography is in order. That camera will do my bidding.
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Wow! So this is my first Elsanna fanfic but is sure not to be my last! (; by far my most favorite ship! They're so damn cute together! Well anyways I haven't written for a while so I'm a bit rusty but I would definitely appreciate any sort of feedback you can all give me! That would be most appreciated indeed! Thanks for your time guys! Enjoy dat fluff. *Winks at you all and runs off*
Warning: contains sexual content and slight abrasive language. Don't like don't read.
Arendelle University.
That's where it had all started. In that claustrophobic classroom that made Anna feel like she was in the center of a molten fire. Scorching with the intensity of the sun. Anna felt her stomach flip when she thought of the epicenter of her problems, the single place on her college campus that had fire licking at her ears and a deceivingly pleasant flame shoot down her spine and into even more… secluded areas of her person.
The lecture of her balding science teacher had ended. Now Anna had to worry about that insistent fire that just won't seem to leave her alone. She slowly places her books into her bag, dreading walking to her next class. Dreading having to face her. Another flame licked its way down her spine as she thought of the woman she's soon to see, she set out to leave her ordinary classroom. She makes it half way down the half when a mop of golden blonde hair pops, what seems like, out of nowhere.
Probably due to her head being in the clouds.
More like in the flames.
"Hey there." A warm smile and chocolate eyes meet hers.
Kristoff
"H-hey." She tries to return his enthusiasm but she's lost in herself, somewhere far away where Kristoff just can't exactly reach.
"Can I walk you to your class?"
No.
"Yes." Anna unconsciously clutches her bag closer to her as Kristoff swings a meaty arm across her shoulders. He stared at her strangely for a minute, probably wondering why in God's name Anna wasn't making much of a peep. Anna always had something to say, but he shrugged it off as mid-term jitters.
Ironically, her next class wasn't just figuratively the epicenter it was. Smack dab in the middle of everything. Anna reached a shaky hand to open the door leading to her classroom, with each step she could feel the heat intensify. Each step felt like another step into the furnace, even though outside it was frigid and dry, she suddenly felt hot and wet. Kristoff glance down at her again, shooting her a questioning look that Anna couldn't see due to her eyes burrowing into the door that seemed to be strategically placed in the way of the fire.
Anna put an unsteady hand to rest upon the door handle and let it sit there for a moment, as if she were considering turning and bolting in the other direction. Kristoff grabbed Anna's hand that was rested on the door and forced it open.
Anna's eyes went large, scared. Turquoise stared up at Kristoff questioningly he just leans down, kisses her, and tells her to have a good lecture.
Good lecture, right.
When she looked away from her boyfriend her eyes immediately met icy blues. It's her. Anna's breath catches in her throat as she takes in the sight of her history teacher.
And what a sight she was.
Ms. Arendelle had on a soft gray suit that tapered perfectly to her sinfully curvy body, an ice blue blouse under her gray jacket that matched her bright, beautiful eyes, and matching heels. Her hair was in a loose braid, platinum tresses resting at one side while the rest of her hair was left perfectly styled in a disheveled sort of way that made it look as if all she did was run her hand through her hair to perfect the look. Pouty, rosy lips quirked into a sly smirk and dark, full lashes fluttered at Anna in an oh so attractive way.
Anna, you're staring. Anna reprimanded herself as a blush snaked its way onto her face.
She's looking back at you. She probably thinks you're some kind of pervert staring at her like you are. Like a dog in heat just waiting to pounce on the beautiful body before you. Keep it together Anna!
Anna chewed on her bottom lip still stuck near the doorway, unsure of how to use her legs that suddenly felt like soft jello.
"Hello, Miss Wolff." That voice floated to the red head's burning ears and caressed her skin on its path to Anna's nearly unresponsive brain.
"H-hi? Oh? Hi me?" Anna points to herself incredulously as if Ms. Arendelle was speaking to someone else. She obviously wasn't. "Hi.."
Anna internally screamed at herself, willing her body to move to find a seat, any seat, at this point instead of standing in front of her glorious teacher like a love sick fool. The rest of the students mercifully started to shuffle in and Ms. Arendelle thankfully turned from Anna to focus on some paperwork that she seemed to be getting ready for her class. Anna watched her nearly without blinking, those milky, soft looking hands sifting through papers so refined, so delicate, as if it was the most important task in the world. The heat started to smolder Anna's body again.
Stupid paper… Anna thought to herself. Wait, really? You're jealous of paper right now? Is your brain even turned on right now? Hellooooo! Yoooooo hoooo! Earth to Anna, get your mind off of your teacher and into your books!
Anna felt like she was really losing it. Having arguments with herself? In her head? Did normal people do that? She didn't think so. Anna wished she had a chocolate bar to munch on in stressful times like this, at least then she had something that she could focus on for a moment aside from-
Aside from….
Aside from the swaying of her teacher's hips and the clacking of her heels against the floors as she hands out papers to each row of students to pass back. She stared mesmerized by the soft, supple movement, couldn't take her eyes anywhere else, unless maybe it was another part of Ms. Arendelle's obviously… well-endowed physique. Anna had luckily, or maybe it was foolishly, picked the seat closest to her.
Meaning in the front.
Meaning where Ms. Arendelle would be handing out papers yet.
Meaning she would be within arm's length of her.
Oh GOD.
Much too suddenly Ms. Arendelle was in front of her, reaching to give her a stack of papers. Anna stared at her teacher for a moment with a look in her eyes that reminded Ms. Arendelle of a lost puppy. Anna closed her eyes for a moment, let out a shaky breath and reached out a sweaty hand to take the papers from the blonde.
Anna's hand brushed lightly against the Blonde's.
It was electric.
Absolutely earth shattering.
And all too suddenly Anna let out a soft, almost inaudible little mewl. And all to suddenly the red head's eyes snapped up to her teachers, a dark hooded look was leering down at her.
She heard.
She heard, and with a noticeably shaky hand Anna took the papers, and attempted to pass them back to her classmates with the utmost care. She didn't need anything more embarrassing to happen that could draw attention to herself. What seemed like an hour long exchange between the two must have only been seconds because no one else seemed to notice much of a difference between the beautiful women. Or at least, they didn't act like there was anything amiss.
Ms. Arendelle's eyes lingered on Anna for a moment before moving on, Anna however, didn't see the look she was receiving, too busy glowering down at the piece of paper as if all of her past transgressions were caused by the offending item. Anna didn't do anything for the rest of class except stare down at the paper in front of her.
Class went by agonizingly slow.
When they were all finally dismissed Anna rushed to gather her things in a quick, precise fashion so she could run from the smoldering room with her tail between her legs. However before she could get more than two steps Ms. Arendelle's voice called out to her.
"Anna, could I have a word with you?"
Anna almost moaned, almost. The way that her named rolled off of the tip of her teachers tongue was beautiful, and delicate, and oh so very, very Sexy. With a capital S.
"W-what can I do for you Elsa?" Anna trudged towards the blonde with as much apprehension as her little body could take. She was wound oh so terribly tight like a well-oiled machine. Anna and Elsa were on a first name basis normally but kept up appearances when in class. The blonde leaned against the front of her desk and crossed her arms under her ample chest, making it that much more apparent to the red head. She stared. Eyes flickering downward and staying there for much longer than what was anywhere near polite.
"You've been avoiding me, Anna." She heard the whimsical voice beckoning to her, momentarily distracting Anna from her open ogling. A faux look of insult crossed Anna's face.
"Elsa- What- N-no I haven't!" Her gaze settled on the floor then, she sucked her bottom lip into her mouth. One of her many nervous habits. "I've just been busy studying for mid-terms."
"Oh, come off it, Anna. You and I both know that's a lie." Elsa scoffed lightly and left her perch against the desk to move just a little closer to her favorite student. "You haven't come to visit me since Kristoff and you started dating." She stared determined at Anna then. Anna couldn't take the burning feeling of her eyes on her and finally, she rose her head to meet her teacher's gaze.
A flicker of hurt crossed over Elsa's eyes then. "Now that Kristoff is more apparent in your life you don't have much time for me, huh?" It was meant to be said in a teasing fashion but Elsa's crystal blue eyes told a much different tale than the words that fell so easily from the older woman's lips.
"N-No! That's not true! I totally have time for you, all the time in the world even! Okay, maybe not all the time in the world I mean I do have to study for midterms; but if midterms weren't coming up I-I would totally be able to see you. I mean it's not like I'm avoiding you or anything. That would be silly!" A nervous laugh escaped the red heads lips.
"I mean, it's not like I have any reason to be avoiding you! None whatsoever! We're right as rain. Like two peas in a pod!"
For the love of God, SHUT UP, ANNA!
Anna felt like with each word spoken the flames grew hotter and hotter. She was so stupid sometimes! That mouth of hers is going to get her killed. Or at the very least, in a whole lot of trouble. Anna sucked in a shaky breath as her eyes darted to and fro until they landed back on Elsa's flawless face.
Elsa tilted her head slightly as if to consider the red heads words for a moment. She seemed to be analyzing something on the red head's face and it made Anna nervous. Like she was the prey of some domineering, hungry lioness. It sent a jolt of heat waves crashing into her nether regions.
The fire wasn't licking up her spine anymore.
Elsa seemed to accept something in that moment and opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again. Reevaluating whatever it was she was originally going to say.
"You seem under the weather today, Anna. Are you alright?" Elsa takes another step towards her and presses her cool fingers to Anna's overheated forehead.
It felt so good.
Anna let out a soft squeak in response and stared at Elsa as if she were mad. "I-I'm fine!" She tried to assure the older woman while melting away from the blonde, since her legs were once again turned to jello. Elsa took a step forward as Anna moved back. Then another, and another, it was as if the two were preforming some strange dance with one another. Soon, they were so close that Anna could inspect every soft supple curve of Elsa's face, and she did. Staring unabashed at Elsa's brightly painted lips.
Elsa's voice was soft now, a husky whisper near Anna's ear that set her whole body ablaze. "I saw how you looked at me earlier. Did you think I wouldn't notice?" Anna felt scared, she raised her hands to Elsa's shoulders and weakly attempted to push her away. Elsa stood firm.
"I-I don't know what you mean." Anna diverted her eyes to anywhere but Elsa, trying so hard to distract herself from the exquisite woman in front of her.
"I think you very well know what look I'm talking about," Elsa tucked a stray copper locks behind Anna's ear and whispered in a wonderfully, dare Anna think it, animalistic tone.
Anna was hot everywhere, her breath was coming out in soft pants, one hand lay rested still on Elsa's shoulder while the other clenched the hoodie she wore that felt much too constricting under the current circumstances. Suddenly, practically out of nowhere, Anna felt angry. Playing dumb wasn't going to work this time. Not like it had in the past. They were too far, Elsa and Anna couldn't simply laugh this off and go about their days. Continue their platonic friendship, teasing, comfortable.
No, it was past that point.
"Why are you doing this now?!" Anna felt her strength return in her arms as she pushed Elsa away from her form. "I have Kristoff. Why now?" Anna was staring, demanding an answer from Elsa now.
Elsa was surprised by the outburst, taken aback. She stared at Anna with wide eyes and that was all it took for the carefully constructed ignorance to fade from Anna's person. She was mad now.
"What gives you the right to question me now? Now when-! When…" Anna bit her lip and looked away.
Elsa knew what she was going to say. When I have Kristoff. It stung, like an open wound that was left to fester over time. Never quite healing, never moving forward, it still felt fresh. Elsa knew Kristoff had been important to Anna, he was her best friend. Anna threw a balled up fist at Elsa's shoulder.
"How-how can you act so calmly now?" Tears were forming at the edge of Anna's beautiful turquoise eyes, now colored a gray blue from her current distress. Elsa gripped Anna's shoulders but Anna just continued to pound on Elsa like a drum.
"How can you-when-when I have someone?" she's sniffling now, tears nearly falling. "It's not simple anymore!" Anna choked out the words like they burnt coming out. Her shoulders shook and the dam broke. The tears were flowing.
"Talk to me Elsa?! Let me in!" Anna's head that was previously cast downward, ashamed of her tears, pivoted up to meet Elsa's eyes. The storm raged on. But the pounding Anna was giving Elsa had subsided for the moment. "Why can't you give me an answer? Why can't-"
"Because I was scared!" Elsa's eyes looked frantic, scared like Anna had look minutes before.
"I was scared to mess things up! I was scared to let you know how I felt! That-" Elsa looked to the side and held her tongue before meeting Anna's eyes with vigor once more. "That I love you! I want you. I need you. My body craves you my mind can't go a night without thinking of you! I-I'm weak. This is wrong. But I feel like I'm suffocated when I'm not around you. You're the air in my lungs, Anna!"
Anna took a step back and shrugged Elsa's hands off of her, now flush with the wall, it was a welcome coolness to her hyperactive skin. The red head grit her teeth, "That's not fair, Elsa!" She pushed the blonde back.
"You can't say that now! You don't get to! You-you can't…." Anna's voice quieted a bit and more tears fell. "This isn't some fucking game! You can't play with me like one of your little toys!" Elsa visibly flinched at Anna's use of profanity. She had scarcely heard the girl curse wanted to wrap the girl in her arms and never let go. She wanted to dry those tears, kiss them away. Assure her it wasn't a game.
She couldn't.
She can't.
Elsa is frozen, taken back. She did this to Anna, she broke this sweet girl's heart, played with her as if it was nothing and for what? Because she was too insecure to admit to her feelings soon enough? Now she wanted to claim the girl now that she was in the arms of another? How selfish. Elsa felt disgusted with herself.
She stared at Anna for a moment longer, shell shocked.
"Anna, I-"
"NO! Don't try to sugar coat this for me! Don't you dare belittle how I feel! Don't you! Just don't!" Anna put a hand up as if to silence the woman.
Elsa felt like her world was crumbling.
No, no I'm not running away.
"Anna, just listen to me a minute!" Elsa entered Anna's personal space once again putting her hands on either side of Anna's head, effectively trapping her for the moment and Anna visibly flinched.
"I-I know I'm selfish. I know I have no right to tell you these things now, but I can't help it." Elsa searched for turquoise and when she finally found it she continued, "I'm not perfect, I'm scared, I'm a coward, but I'm not running anymore. I can't. You don't understand how much you mean to me. You're NOT-" She snarled. "a toy! I was wrong to ignore our feelings before, but I'm willing to show you now. Let me show you. Let me love you." Anna's breath caught in her throat, her tears stopped momentarily and she was still as ice. Frozen and rooted to the ground.
Elsa took the opportunity when she saw it. She'll be damned if she'll let Anna walk away just yet. Anna stared dumbstruck in place, eyes locked, bodies close. The tension was thick, grueling. The room felt hot, constrained. Just like Anna and Elsa had been, always greeting each other with tight lipped smiles. Never saying all the words that were meant to be said, never touching quite the way that was intended. They both shied away. Hid from one another.
Not right now though. Elsa wouldn't have it, Anna was hers, and she was going to make Anna hers.
Elsa kissed Anna.
Really kissed her.
Anna's heart instantly hammered in her chest, unable to control its frantic beating, betraying her mind. Betraying Kristoff. Elsa curled one arm around Anna's waist while the other one found the nape of her neck.
It was electric.
It was real.
It was frantic and messy, it wasn't perfect, it wasn't how either of the girls imagined how they'd kiss for the first time. But it was real, they were here, pressed close against one another like some long time lovers you'd see in a beautifully tragic romance movie.
Anna was on fire, scorching again and the only thing that could possibly sate her was Elsa lips, her hands, everywhere, touching, feeling, caressing, in the most loving manor. Anna felt overwhelmed. She pushed Elsa away, "What are you-" Elsa cut her off by attacking the red head's neck in the most agonizingly pleasant fashion. A not so ladylike moan released its way out of Anna's throat. "We can't-" A soft bite to distract the red head. Elsa ran her nose along her counterpart's neck, lips pressed tenderly against an ear. "We can, and we will." She spoke hotly in her soon-to-be-lover's ear and sucked the lobe into her mouth tenderly before purring in Anna's ear once more. "Tell me you don't want this. Tell me you don't want me, and we'll stop."
Anna felt another flame licking at her core and God she was so wet already. She was so ready for Elsa to take her there against the wall. She didn't care that it was undignified, she didn't care that it was her teacher pressed firmly against her. "I-we can't." Anna tried again.
Elsa pushed her hips into Anna's and was rewarded with a desperate mewl from the red head. "You want this. I know you do. Tell me otherwise." Elsa was practically daring Anna.
Say it.
She couldn't.
Elsa felt Anna circle her arms around her neck and pulled her impossibly close and mashed their mouths together in a mess of passion and desire. Elsa forced her tongue into the younger girl's mouth and both of them were set ablaze. Anna moaned desperately into Elsa's mouth, soaking up anything the older woman would give her. Anna became painfully aware of how drenched her panties were and she pressed her thighs together to try to find any form of relief. Elsa tangled the hand into Anna's hair, which was uncharacteristically freed from its usual braids. Elsa rolled her hips into Anna's again, this time frantic, searching for friction. Anna threw her head back against the hard, cool wall and cried out.
"Aaah-Elsa-I-I can't…Say.. God, I want this! I want you!"
Anna's hips begin a rhythm with Elsa's but it wasn't enough, Anna felt hot everywhere. She knew Elsa was feeling it to, the older woman was whimpering against her neck while peppering it with light nips and kisses. Anna couldn't take this fire. She could cry in frustration, this was too much but not enough. She wanted more but was oh so scared to deal with the consequences after.
To hell with it.
She couldn't fight Elsa anymore, not with her beautiful face or urgent touches, her loving gaze or… or… utterly Godly sexy body. They both became hyper aware of their still clothed forms and Anna is the first to attempt to find a solution. She slides her arms up to Elsa's shoulders and helps the blonde out of her stuffy jacket which she is oh so happy to assist the red head with. Anna pushes Elsa back, moving away from the wall, and attaches her mouth to the blonde's like it is her lifeboat, like kissing the blonde into oblivion will elevate every problem she ever had and ever will have.
And in this moment, they pressed flushed together wanting, needing, and clinging to one another. She didn't care about anything else.
Elsa hastily pulled Anna's hoodie over her head, only parting for a slight moment to remove it before reattaching herself to Anna's lips. The two left a trail of their clothes in their wake, making a b-line for Elsa's cluttered desk. Once Elsa was pressed up against her work station she pulled away from Anna for only a moment, a painful moment, took both arms and pushed every single item on her desk to the floor as if it were nothing. Elsa was sure she had broken her favorite coffee cup in the process but she didn't care. The only thing she could care for at this moment was Anna's over heated skin and how it should be pressed deliciously against her own.
Anna watched her in fascination and she felt her lower stomach churn with want.
"Elsa, that was so fucking hot." Elsa looks up at her with such want it causes both girls to moan and continue to claw at one another's clothing. Soon they were left in nothing at all. Just how it should be. Anna pushes the blonde onto the desk and climbs on top of her, thankfully Elsa's desk was more than enough space for the two ladies to do all sorts of… entertaining things to one another.
Elsa starred up at Anna like she saw her for the first time, in a whole new light, gloriously naked. Anna's cheeks were flushed, her lips were bruised and swollen from their insistent kissing, and her brows were scrunched up in a look of desire. Her hair was wonderfully messy from how Elsa's fingers had woven through it earlier. She was panting. She was hot. She was ready. And her eyes made that painfully obvious. Elsa was the only thing Anna could see right now, Anna's mother could have walked in right now and she would have just ravished Elsa in front of her without a second thought. Elsa's eyes trailed down, running over Anna's petite frame, her slight shoulders that curled in to get closer to the older woman, and her breasts that were perky with rosy nipples that made Elsa's mouth water, she wanted her tongue to play with the little buds and twist it in her fingertips experimentally. Her stomach was toned and flat which Elsa couldn't help but touch as she continued downward, Anna shivered. When Elsa's eyes dropped to Anna's sex it was dripping, oh so wet, begging to be touched, loved, licked, sucked, all for her. Anna was wet for her. Her and no one else.
Elsa couldn't take it, with a strength that was surely powered by adrenaline she flipped the smaller girl onto her back, knee rested snugly against Anna's overheated sex. Her body was so hot. So sensitive. Anna's back arched, nipples pert, head thrown back, eyes tightly shut. She felt Elsa's knee against her and it drove her crazy. So crazy with want and desire she was shaking for it, craving it so much more than the most decadent chocolate, the sweetest of indulgences. If Elsa didn't touch her, she was going to go mad, so mad she would go spiraling downward and she wasn't quite sure where she'd end up.
Elsa just continued to stare, absorbed in taking in all of Anna's essence via sight, and smell, the room was filled with both Anna's and Elsa's aroma and it was enough to make the older girl moan in the most lascivious of ways. Anna stared at Elsa, eyes blazing body shaking, lips parted slightly.
"Elsa, fuck me."
And that was all it took. It was like a switch was turned in Elsa and she was no longer the observer, she was no longer the starry eyed admirer she was the lover, and she would fuck Anna so good, so right, that Anna will never even be able to look at anyone else but her. She quivered with anticipation and slammed their mouths together again, it wasn't gentle. Their teeth clattered together but they didn't care, Anna wrapped her arms around Elsa's shoulders as Elsa grind their entire bodies together. Breast against breast, stomach to stomach thighs wedged tightly between both girls' legs, it was the most beautiful sense of torture and neither of them could get enough. When their bodies connected fully for the first time both girls whimpered in an almost pitiful cry for one another. So much lust swirled around one another it was suffocating, it was overpowering.
Elsa supports herself by keeping a forearm pressed near Anna's head while her other hand finally finds a new home upon Anna's swelling breast, nipples still pert and waiting oh so patiently for Elsa's slim diligent fingers.
Anna wasn't so jealous of the paper anymore.
Elsa pinched Anna's nipple between her thumb and forefinger and Anna groaned into Elsa's mouth, fueling the blonde onward. The pulsing sensation in-between Elsa's legs was getting more unbearable by the second so she took this opportunity to grind shamelessly against Anna's leg. She pulled her head back momentarily to drown out a moan by biting Anna's neck which made the other girl cry out with the blonde. Elsa lowered her head then to the red head's other breast flicking her nipple experimentally with her tongue and the action was… Exquisite, exciting, sexy, it nearly brought Elsa to tears how much she wanted. God she wanted.
Anna's back arched her hips bucked against Elsa causing friction between both of their throbbing centers, Elsa responded by sucking Anna's nipple into her mouth and massaging Anna's other breast aggressively. "Oh-oh Elsa! Nnnnmmmhh… Yes! God Elsa it feels so good! Ah, ah, ah!" Each 'ah' was accompanied by another thrust of the younger girl's hips.
Anna felt like she was on fire and Elsa's hands and mouth were only a temporary balm for the want that was building deliciously inside her, Elsa would trail her hand one way and it would feel good. Oh so good Anna could cry. However the second the trail was left the flames would return with such vigor that her want nearly crippled her, leaving her an incapable ball of mush that only Elsa can mold into whatever she sees fit.
Elsa soon grows anxious to explore more of Anna's body and before moving lower she showers Anna's other breast the same affection her mouth had shown the previous one. As Elsa moved down Anna's lithe body the pressure from both of their thighs was released and both girls whimpered in protest, but it would be worth the slight agitation and lack of feeling. Elsa left a trail of hot, wet, open mouthed kissed down Anna's stomach and lower, to her thighs, causing Anna to cry out in an almost hysteria. She bit down not to softly and Anna bucked her hips and dug her nails into the slick mahogany of Elsa's desk. When Elsa finally, finally met her intended destination she enthusiastically buried her face into Anna, inhaling deeply and let out a shaky moan just as Anna had done the same. She wanted to keep Anna's scent in her memory for as long as she could but they were both growing impatient. Elsa slowly readied her mouth and finally… finally… her mouth made contact with Anna's oh so deliciously sweet folds.
And it was oh so worth it.
White hot heat shot all over Anna's body and she was sure her moans had at least doubled in volume, she saw stars behind her tightly clenched eyes. Her hands automatically rushed down to grab two handfuls of Elsa's beautiful mane and holding her head there as if to keep her there forever. Her body was taut and ready like a newly strung guitar and Elsa was the guitarist, ready to pluck and play her as she saw fit; and oh, did she sing for her when she plucked the right chords…
Elsa eagerly swirled her tongue through every part of Anna's folds, seeing which made her contort in which way and what made her absolutely shriek with excitement and pleasure. When Elsa finally swirled around Anna's sensitive, swollen clit she was a puddle of incoherent mush.
"Oh Elsa, oh Elsa, uh, uuhh, aaaaaghhh, Oh GOD!"
Her hips bucked without any sort of rhythm against Elsa's face, Elsa's eyes rolled to the back of her head while she listened to the beautiful music her lover was making, serenading her needy ears. Elsa swirled and sucked at Anna's clit and soon an eager finger joined her mouth on her lover's sex and it almost sounded like Anna was about to cry in her need. Her moans turned animalistic in their need and Elsa couldn't take it anymore. She pushed another finger into Anna while continuing her assault on her clit while simultaneously pushing her own hand between her legs to fuck herself senseless just like she was doing to Anna.
They weren't close enough, not yet.
Anna tugged painfully at Elsa's hair but it only fueled the blonde more, her own burning in her lower region setting a fire to her entire body as was Anna's. Elsa hiked both of Anna's legs over her shoulders and ate her out mercilessly, bringing them so dangerously close to climaxing.
"uuuuh, aaah, D-deep! Deeper!" Anna managed to mewl out and Elsa was more than happy to oblige, tilting Anna's hips up higher, closer to a ninety degree angle and plunged her fingers both inside the red head and herself.
They're both moaning, so loud, so animalistic, the heat is coming, it's smoldering, snuffing ever other feeling out in its wake. It's white hot.
So hot.
So hot.
So hot.
Both of their hips buck frantically, they're starting to question where one starts and the other begins, limps intertwined, sweat glistening beautiful supple bodies, backs arch, head thrown back.
And they come.
They come together, and its white hot, it's prickling in their stomachs and releases in a spasming burst that causes colorful explosions behind their tightly clamped eyes. Mouth open wide, letting out final cries, arching into one another. Their bodies convulse, they contort, jerking frantically to ride out the ecstasy, ride it out in beautiful full filing waves. It's beautiful, it's intense, and they're as one.
For the first time.
This is their first time.
And it was so much better than either of them imagined, so much better than the timid caresses and the soft giggles and comforters that would caress their silken flesh as they made love.
Because this was real.
They were here, and they were one, and nothing was taking that back.
"I love you too… Elsa.. Ever since the first day I set foot in your classroom." Anna somehow finds the ability to speak, Elsa joins her on the desk fully and Anna cuddles into the older woman's side.
Elsa smiles contently, eyes sparkling with so much love, so much total adoration for the younger girl in front of her but her answer was simple.
"I know."
And to them, that simple phrase meant more than all the thoughts that had been left unspoken. |
Demons? In your Cabbage Patch Kids? (According to Bill Gothard, it's more common than you think)
Bill Gothard has been all too familiar on these pages. From his promotion of the bizarre concepts that Cabbage Patch Kids are possessed by demons, to his Joel's Army paramilitary camp, to his Joel's Army gulag he formerly ran in Indianapolis--you could say ol' Bill has been quite the regular here.
Today's post is not going to be the exception here, either. As it turns out, Bill Gothard is also big on handing out advice to parents, especially in the "Quiverfull" movement--including to none other than the very poster-children of "Quiverfull", the Duggar clan--already up to seventeen little God Warrior sproglets.
For those unfamiliar with the whole Quiverfull thing, here's a mini-primer. In essence, "Quiverfull" promotes women doing without any form of birth control or regulation of the number of kids one has at all (not even by the rhythm method) and even promotes quite explicitly having as many future God Warriors as is possible.
The "Quiverfull" movement is very closely connected to the scarier parts of the Joel's Army movement--which teaches explicitly that the generations of kids growing up nowadays are a "Joshua Generation" meant to establish a dominionist reign of terror over the rest of us to "Secure God's blessing" before the Rapture occurs--and, after the Tribulation, to come back down from heaven and throw the lot of us into the Lake of Fire.
In other words, the view is not dissimilar to that stated by the King of England in the movie "Braveheart" to justify "first night" (the rape of women on their wedding night by the English): "If we can't burn them out, we'll breed them out."
Anyways, back to Gothard--and why I fear for the Duggar kids and anyone else who is using his writings to raise their kids.
Now, we've covered the "deliverance ministry" stuff and the Joel's Army paramilitary training and the gulag he ran. What I've not quite noted is that Gothard has a very, very extensive history of promotion of religious abuse and specifically religiously-motivated child abuse in general.
Gothard is known to have set up an extensive system of control that rivals the cultic systems in Scientology or the Moonies for levels of coercion; in addition, he claims that illnesses are caused by "generational curses" (in "deliverance ministry" circles, caused by something as simple as your mom having worn a peace sign in the 60's or your great-grandmother having had her fortune read at Coney Island--or your great-great-great-great-grandmother having been a Cherokee or being brought across the oceans from Africa in a slave ship and not having been Christian in the first place), has promoted involuntary exorcisms on the unwilling (which is not only incredibly abusive and capable of causing permanent psychiatric injury but is actually fatal to a known ten to fifteen people a year in the US), is known to use abusive "shepherding" tactics (of the sort that are now widely recognised as highly abusive), runs front groups to try to market dominionism in public schools as "character education" programs, will in general not discuss his tactics unless you have been recruited into his programs (a dead giveaway we are dealing with a frank cult here), and promotes "Quiverfull" stuff in his own way by claiming in essence that "God will provide" for women having extreme amounts of kids and that parents shouldn't have Caesarian sections (and again attributes infertility to having Cabbage Patch Kids in the house)...among other things.
In addition to all the other fun stuff I've mentioned, Gothard is also very explicitly dominionist (as if you hadn't yet guessed this), has encouraged others to set up incredibly abusive "Bible boot camps" not unlike his Indianapolis misadventure, and attempted to suppress publication of a guide critical of his tactics.
In other words, if you know someone involved in the whole "Quiverfull" thing--they've been very likely getting a whole earfull of Gothard stuff.
Gothard's teachings have in fact been described as those of a Bible-based cult--which I am inclined to agree with, having grown up in a coercive group where Gothard's writing was heavily promoted and having written on the subject of abusive dominionist groups throughout most of my diary entries on DailyKos. My experiences aren't unique--apparently Gothard's stuff is heavily promoted within the Assemblies of God in particular (which is the denomination I am a walkaway from); disturbingly, Gothard is also heavily promoted within the dominionist "home education" movement.
And knowing this, it is probably not going to come as too much of a shock to find that Bill Gothard is also one of the major promoters of religiously motivated child abuse.
One of the earliest documented reports of religiously motivated child abuse in neopente dominionist groups is in a "Working Together" article from February 1983. (Yes, you are reading that right--nearly 25 years ago.) Even at this early date, Gothard gets prominent press:
Not all child abusers are Christians, and not all Christians are child abusers. But a surprisingly high number of reported child abuse cases occur in Christian families. Moreover, the abuser often bases the justification for their behavior on Christianity. A father, when confronted by state child abuse prevention workers, resisted their assistance and said: "What do you mean I can't beat my child? I'm a Christian." This Christian father who had paddled his son with such force that he caused injury, had not been confronted by his church, had not repented, had not sought help to control his anger and violence. He had been taught that his responsibility as a parent involves the regular use of corporal punishment and used it to the extent that it was abusive. Herein lies the problem. The Christian community must face these facts and determine why circumstances of severe child abuse are occurring in Christian contexts. We must challenge the teachings (that children need corporal punishment) which have been adhered to so long that they have come to be associated with orthodox Christian belief. This mistaken belief leads, in too many cases, to child abuse. There are two sources of the theological justification for the use of corporal punishment. First, the belief held by some conservative Christians that children are evil, i.e., that because of Original Sin children are by their very nature evil beings. Thus, beatings are regarded as a way of chastising a child so as to bring him/her to righteousness. Related to this theological underpinning is the "spare the rod and spoil the child" theology frequently invoked by Christian child abusers. The most common understanding of this scripture is that all children need to be hit with a rod in order not to be spoiled. Both these theological assertions are distortions of the Biblical tradition. The quasi-religious teaching which reinforces Christian child abuse is the hierarchy of power relationships in families. One of its most famous contemporary proponents is Bill Gothard, developer of the Basic Youth Conflict Seminars. Gothard teaches that women and children should submit to the authority of the father. Ironically, he offers as an image of appropriate parental roles the father as hammer and the mother as chisel. The child is to be shaped by parental tools. That this imbalance of power and perpetuation of male supremacy in the family is part of the problem is undeniable. An imbalance of power creates the conditions for abuse of power and authority which can lead to the abuse and exploitation of children.
Another site highly critical of Gothard notes that he may have been among the earliest promoters of religiously motivated child abuse, dating all the way back the the 60's:
In the late ’60s most seminars were small enough to fit into school gymnasiums, and the audience could ask questions. During one Q-and-A session, a mother of two from Gothard’s home church disagreed with his insistence that children always be spanked when they disobey. She argued that all children are different, should be treated as individuals, and presented examples from her own family. But the never-married, childless Gothard was sure the Bible taught otherwise. Fortunately for him, seminar attendance would soon become so large that Q-and-A sessions would be impossible.
The same site notes that Gothard has been an early promoter of isolating kids from a major source of mandatory reporters--teachers in public and private schools--and having kids taught within the dominionist home-education industry:
This must have been a very unpleasant experience for someone who has since proven himself to be a very driven, goal-oriented individual. Perhaps it also (at least partially) accounts for Bill Gothard’s antipathy for traditional formal education. While he himself has the benefit of a Masters degree, he now openly discourages families from sending their children to school, promoting his own home-schooling curriculum instead.
In a pattern that would be repeated by James Dobson (and most other books promoting religiously motivated child abuse), Gothard promoted his works as dominionist alternatives to the works of Dr. Benjamin Spock (who is pretty much seen as a godless "hippie" among dominionists):
To understand the tremendous popularity and growth Gothard’s seminar enjoyed in the late 1960s and early ’70s, you have to know something about the social turmoil of those years. Gothard titled his seminar, "Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts," and it would have been difficult to find a more marketable name for many parents who felt helpless to deal with strange new influences over their children. Conflict between youths and the over-30 generation dominated American society, and even caused problems in other countries. By 1967 the United States looked as though it was about to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Baby Boom Generation. Fully 50% of all Americans were 21 or younger. By the end of 1968 the ability of this age-group and those who influenced them to turn the socio-political landscape upside-down and change the direction of governments had been dramatically demonstrated on the streets, in newspapers, and on TV screens. In 1968 it seemed as though "Murphy’s Law" was operating in full force. Everything that could go wrong did, and at the worst possible moments. As the year began, "The Baby Book Doctor," Dr. Benjamin Spock was indicted with four others on January 5 for conspiring to encourage draft law violations. For older Americans Spock became a symbol of the problem of "permisiveness" in society. Perhaps the real problem, many speculated, was that millions of youngsters were simply spoiled by Spock’s methods, and current expressions of civil disobedience were merely mass post-adolescent temper tantrums.
. . .
For all too many people, long after the images of violence in Viet Nam faded away, the images of hippies and yippies brawling with police lingered in the minds of the older generation. After all, they would encounter these kids in America’s cities and suburbs on a daily basis, and had been warned that many of them were drug-crazed. Violent scenes from both inside and outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago did little to change anyone’s mind. People in the anti-war camp tried to use those events as evidence that the American government had become an out-of-control authoritarian regime, while those who were convinced that the war was right saw the protesters as an unruly band of trouble-makers who had no respect for authority. Bill Gothard basically took the status quo’s propaganda and gave it pseudo-biblical underpinnings. Millions of American Christians seized upon it as a kind of "Anti-Hippie Insurance" and began sending their kids to the Basic Seminar in droves.
. . .
Gothard’s magic cure for all the problems that ailed the youth of the late ’60s and early ’70s could be summed up in one word: "Authority." Everything he taught flowed into or out of the central principle of submitting to authority. Gothard made authority such a basic principle to all of life that even faith itself — considered by evangelical Christians to be the most basic life pricinple — was based on it. And Gothard wasn’t talking simply about submitting to God’s authority as the basis of faith. Rather, he was talking about submitting to human authority — i.e., "those in authority" that God has placed over us. Gothard told his audience that the secret for achieving "great faith," spiritual growth, protection from temptation and guidance in life, was complete, loyal submission to the following human authority figures: parents, government leaders, church leaders, and employers.
. . .
Gothard’s system is based on the assumption that human authority structures are a central moral and spiritual principle. His corrective measures for dealing with abusive authority is a system for "making a proper appeal" that discourages disobedience to corrupt authority with its complexity and burdensome introspective requirements.
(Interestingly, you see the whole obsession with "Authority" also in the neopente "cell church" movement and within dominion theology in general and its Joel's Army variant in particular. The whole obsession with authority, in fact, pretty much is at its core the central dogma of the Assemblies and its daughter churches, far more than the Bible.)
At least one expert has expressed grave concern that this could lead to coverups of child abuse and spousal abuse, among other grave concerns:
Gothard has been accused by fellow Christians of everything from misinterpreting the Bible to ignoring spousal abuse to being a borderline cult leader. According to materials Gothard has published, his more radical ideas come from his belief in a "chain of command," which holds that authority figures -- from preachers to politicians to middle managers -- are put in their elevated positions by God. Mess with your boss, you're messing with Christ. Women are taught to be submissive and obedient to their husbands. He teaches his followers that political leaders are ordained by God and therefore to be obeyed. Gothard doesn't focus on the Ten Commandments -- he teaches his seven "universal, nonoptional Principles of Life," and he extends those principles to what food to eat and what clothes to wear. Breaking any of Gothard's principles leads to the highway to Hell, quite literally. Another path to Satan is the drums. The "backbeat" common in rock music is evil, according to his teachings, as are chords played in the minor key, which is a subversion of God's harmony. Follow the rules, go to Heaven. Break them, and Satan will get a foothold on your soul. Gothard disdains "knowledge," which he says only "puffs up a man," in favor of the more abstract "wisdom." "The reasoning of man will bring destruction," he tells people during seminars. To guard his followers from the evils of public schools, Gothard sells his own brand of Bible-based home-schooling. He also has his own unaccredited law school and college where his unique brand of Christianity is taught.
. . .
When asked about Bill Gothard, both Stafford and Forman are stumped. Neither did his homework on the curriculum -- they've never heard of Gothard and weren't aware that the man behind Character First! is an evangelical minister. When told about Gothard's emphasis on the "chain of command," Stafford immediately recognizes the danger in such teachings. "I can see how that could lead to a continuation of child abuse," he says.
. . .
According to IBLP pamphlets, Gothard, who has a habit of unconditionally labeling things either right or wrong, began ministering in high school in reaction to his classmates' "wrong decisions." He spent years ministering to youth gangs before developing the seminar in 1964. Gothard has never been married and has lived most of his life with his parents. His institute was rocked by scandal back in 1980 when it was discovered that his brother, who helped create IBLP, was having sex with a half-dozen of Gothard's female employees, according to news accounts. Both Gothard and his brother resigned, but Gothard soon came back to his ministry, and it has since grown enormously. Gothard's seminar is focused on his seven principles: design, authority, responsibility, suffering, ownership, freedom, and success. Violating the rules will lead, he says, to a "life of continuous failure." But if the rules are followed, wealth will likely follow (he teaches "20 Aspects of Financial Freedom"), and bad habits will be broken. Several times throughout the seminar he mentions "wrong clothes," and says that when a teenager is wearing them it means he or she has deep spiritual problems. Same with rock music. Teens are told not to date but instead to "court," a process by which "two fathers agree to work with a qualified young man to win the daughter for marriage." Gothard teaches in his seminars that obedience brings godliness. Authority figures -- the father, the politician, the minister, and the boss -- are to be obeyed as if Christ were giving the orders. Gothard's ideas of family life are rigid, as wives are taught to be submissive and men are encouraged to be the absolute head of the household. Quotes from the Bible are used as backup to his assertions. The biblical justification for always being subservient to the boss comes from 1 Peter 2:18: "Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear." Authority figures, according to Gothard, are on a higher spiritual plain than ordinary folk, and obeying them will help one get closer to God. He tells his followers that they are to obey everything, except orders to do "evil." If your boss is dead wrong, Gothard says it's OK to make a "Godly appeal" to him, but if the appeal is refused, the worker must live with it. "Suppose Jesus Christ Himself was the manager of that store," Gothard asks a teen in one of the stories he tells. "Would that make a difference in the quality of your work?" "It sure would!" answers the teenager.
"Do you realize that God expects you to consider that you are actually working for Jesus Christ on your job?" As far as "wrathful" parents, Gothard teaches that they serve to develop character in children: "God even works through the wrath of parents to reveal character deficiencies in the son or daughter to develop additional character strengths or to reflect healing." A number of ministers and theologians have found defects in Gothard's teachings. Christian scholar and psychologist James Alsdurf wrote a book in the late '80s about domestic violence among churchgoers and came to a conclusion: Bill Gothard's teachings can lead to a continuation of domestic violence. Gothard is "a good example of how a segment of the church deals with this issue," Alsdurf told the Washington Post. "What he does is totally dismiss it as an issue by saying there are no victims."
. . .
Baptist pastor G. Richard Fisher wrote in a published article called "The Cultic Leanings of Bill Gothard's Teachings" that Gothard has a habit of "legislating, directing, and regulating just about every phase of life." Some of Gothard's rules that Fisher, a former enthusiastic follower of Gothard, and others have noted: *Married couples are never to divorce for any reason, including adultery. *Adult children are told not to leave home or get married without parental consent. *Married couples must abstain from sex during the following times: during the wife's menstrual cycle; seven days after the cycle; 40 days after the birth of a son; 80 days after the birth of a daughter; and the evening prior to worship. Gothard claims that periodic abstinence will help produce healthier children, can cure infections, and decrease "the danger of genetic abnormalities." *Listening to rock music, even Christian rock, is forbidden. *Borrowing money or buying on credit is forbidden. *Married women aren't to work outside the home. Gothard even has rules on selecting makeup, preparing shopping lists, planning meals, picking dental plans, and choosing hairstyles, clothes, and vacation spots. Followers have said in published reports that he bans televisions in homes that buy his home-schooling program and that his ministry denounces almost every book but the Bible. Adopted children, Gothard teaches, carry the sins of their biological parents with them. According to Fisher, Gothard wrote a letter to his followers in 1986 warning them of the evils of Cabbage Patch Dolls, which were very popular then. The dolls, which are "adopted" by their buyers in a written contract, caused strange, destructive behavior, according to the letter. "It gets very, very weird," Fisher says. "And these people who follow him are frightened to death that they might break one of his rules."
In fact, it is hard to overstate the level of coercion in Gothard's programs:
For those who want to opt out as far as possible from participation in the world around them Gothard has constructed his own cradle-to-grave (or womb-to-tomb) spiritual environment — an alternate reality with its own jargon, customs and institutions. In his culturally monastic Christian utopian vision, large homeschooling families abstain from television, midwives are more important than doctors, traditional dating is forbidden, unmarried adults are "under the authority of their parents" and live with them, divorced people can’t remarry under any circumstance, and music has hardly changed at all since the late 19th century.
Among other things, Gothard's empire now extends to a bogus medical academy which is in fact a fraternal organisation of doctors who push his bogosity, he pushes the dominionist "parallel economy" even moreso than most (even "Christian Contemporary" music is seen as Satanic), and (in a move that is designed to even further isolate kids with the misfortune to be born into a "Gothard household") even promotes the use of home births as a method of avoiding the medical system altogether:
Bill Gothard also pushes the evils of hospital births. One should give birth at home with a midwife. Gothard wants to train future doctors by watching other doctors, not by going to medical school which is wrong.
And now you know why I mortally fear for kids like the Duggars.
"The Facts Of Life" never covered Tabasco abuse (though don't put it past Lisa Welchel)
Lisa Welchel is probably best known (in the non-dominionist world, anyways) for her role as Blair Warner in the television show "The Facts Of Life".
In the dominionist parenting community, though, she's also known for her book "Creative Correction".
That book--also featured on Stop The Rod--could be better described as "101 Ways To Torment The Living Hell Out Of Your Kids".
Whilst some of the suggestions aren't as extreme as those promoted by the likes of the Tripps or Pearls or Gothard (or even James Dobson), she does incorporate some pretty bizarre things in her books:
a)"Dear God, Thank you that my parents love me and that because they love me, they correct me when I sin. Thank you that the spankings drive out the foolishness in my heart." (p. 265, from a sample prayer for kids)
b) "Having a struggle at bedtime? Try this: Next time you’re dealing with the usual bathroom trips, cups of water, giggling, and talking, call off bedtime. Declare, ‘Nobody has to go to bed tonight!’ Inform them that they may stay up as long as they like—the operative words being stay up. Then have each child stand still in the middle of a separate room of the house." (pp. 143-144. Of note, sleep deprivation and forced standing in one position are two common torture tactics that are outlawed in most civilised countries--and which are noted to have been used at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo.)
c) "As we walk along together shopping, I will suddenly give them silly commands that they must obey without arguing, such as ‘Walk backward,’ or ‘Stop and touch your toes,’ or ‘Give me a kiss.’ Occasionally I’ll throw in a real command, like ‘Don’t touch that,’ or ‘No, you may not have an Icee.’ My favorite curve, however, is to say no to some reasonable request, like ‘May I go to the bathroom?’" (p. 138. Not allowing kids to use the bathroom when needed is abusive.)
d) "Two summers ago I drove with the kids, my mother, and my grandmother in a camper from California to Texas. My grandmother, ‘Nanny,’ asked me not to spank the children while on the trip because it upset her." (p. 157. This is rather telling; corporal punishment tended to be rather accepted by the "Greatest Generation" and earlier as a rite of passage, so it must have been a real "whuppin'" to upset 'Nanny'.)
Welchel is probably best known for her promotion of "hot saucing"--placing hot sauce on the tongue of a young child (often as young as two years old) for cursing, "sassing", lying, or "backtalking". In essence, it's a modern version of the practice of making kids eat hot peppers for these things (which has been promoted in the southeast US for some time) but with far stronger pepper extracts and targeted at far younger kids.
Hot-saucing is itself considered abusive by many CPS agencies, both Tabasco and Texas Pete have issued formal statements condemning the use of their products as "chastening aids" (with McIlhenny, the makers of Tabasco, describing it as "strange and scary"), and most child experts outside the dominionist community also find it cruel and potentially dangerous due to both swelling from the "heat" and the risk of a possible allergic reaction.
The Washington Post has more:
Hot sauce adds a kick to salsa, barbeque, falafel and hundreds of other foods. But some parents use it in a different recipe, one they think will yield better-behaved children: They put a drop of the fiery liquid on a child's tongue as punishment for lying, biting, hitting or other offenses. "Hot saucing," or "hot tongue," has roots in Southern culture, according to some advocates of the controversial disciplinary method, but it has spread throughout the country. Nobody keeps track of how many parents do it, but most experts contacted for this story, including pediatricians, psychologists and child welfare professionals, were familiar with it. The use of hot sauce has been advocated in a popular book, in a magazine for Christian women and on Internet sites. Web-based discussions on parenting carry intense, often emotional exchanges on the topic. But parents aren't the only ones asking "to sauce or not to sauce?" Several state governments have gotten involved in the debate. In Michigan in 2002, a child care center was sanctioned for using hot sauce to discipline a child. The mother of the 18-month-old boy reportedly gave the child care workers permission to use the sauce to help dissuade her son from biting other children. Virginia's child protective services agency lists hot saucing among disciplinary tactics it calls "bizarre behaviors." The list includes such methods as forcing a child to kneel on sharp gravel, and locking him in a closet.
. . .
Lisa Whelchel, actress and author of "Creative Correction: Extraordinary Ideas for Everyday Discipline" (Focus On the Family/Tyndale House), defends the practice. "A correction has to hurt a little," she said. "An effective deterrent has to touch the child in some way. I don't think Tabasco is such a bad thing." Her book suggests a "tiny" bit of hot sauce be used, and offers alternatives such as lemon juice and vinegar. Discipline involves "drawing a line to protect the child," Whelchel said, "and if they cross that line, there will be pain." Whelchel said she believes that disciplinary methods should be left up to parents -- who know their child best, are devoted to the child's well-being and can administer punishment with love. But Betty Jo Zarris, manager of Virginia's child protective services program, said: "We have to have some community standards for what's appropriate to do to children. Common sense would tell you [hot sauce] is not appropriate for a child. The common man on the street would know this is offensive."
. . .
Carleton Kendrick, a family therapist in Boston, fielded occasional questions about hot sauce when he was resident therapist for the Web site Family Education Network. "Tabasco is the most mainstream iconic punishment in our culture," he said. Like many people, Kendrick uses the brand name "Tabasco" as a shorthand. Tabasco is the proprietary name of a single brand of sauce, made by the McIlhenny Co. of Avery Island, La. The owners of the company condemn the use of their products for child discipline. In an interview, company president Paul McIlhenny called the practice "strange and scary" and "abusive." Kendrick says parents who use the technique are "at the very least . . . ill-informed." He pointed out that many parents are not aware that hot sauce can burn a child's esophagus and cause the tongue to swell -- a potential choking hazard. "There are many different kinds of hot sauce on the market, and parents who say they know the dilution to use so it won't sting, or say they only use one drop, are wrong," Kendrick said. "It's done because it hurts. It stings. It burns. It makes you nauseous." Capsaicin, the substance that makes peppers hot, inflames membranes in the eyes, nose and mouth. While many adults find this feeling pleasurable, capsaicin can cause negative reactions even in the third of the adult population that has no tolerance for ingesting it, according to Joel Gregory, publisher of Chile Pepper magazine. There are additional risks for children. Giorgio Kulp, a pediatrician in Montgomery County, said that the risk of swelling as well as the possibility of unknown allergies make the use of hot sauce on children dangerous.
And rest assured, parents have been charged with abuse even for following the relatively mild (well, mild in comparison to some authors) suggestions by Welchel, as demonstrated in Tacoma, Washington in 2005:
Police found the children, a 9-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy, tied to a water heater in their family's garage after a neighbor reported hearing "muffled screams." Court documents obtained by KIRO 7 Eyewitness News described other allegations of mistreatment by the children's father and stepmother, Brad and Rachel Lambert. Bonney Lake police said Rachel Lambert claimed the children's behavior had gotten progressively worse over the past month and that she disciplined the children by feeding them jalapeño peppers, the documents indicated. The 10-year-old boy said "he had a hot pepper placed in his mouth and then had his mouth taped shut," the documents indicated. He told police "he swallowed the pepper so it would not be in his mouth anymore."
And sadly, they are far from alone
I wish I could say it was just these authors promoting this type of abuse.
I really wish I could say it was just these authors promoting this type of abuse.
Unfortunately, I'd be lying.
An example of the kind of childrearing abuse rife in the dominionist community--and not published in specific books--is Raising Godly Tomatoes, a website aimed for the "Quiverfull" set. (It is explicitly promoted on the Livejournal "Trainupachild" community, among other places.)
The advice on this page is a hodgepodge of not only advice from the Pearls and Gothard, but also some pretty horrifying homegrown advice as well. Among other things, the page uses the charming example of the rape, pillage, murder and enslavement of Israel's people as an example of how discipline should be done in the home:
(after a long segment of scripture-twisting of passages relating to the punishment of Israel for turning away from Judaism)
COMMENT: When the Lord punished a nation, it was severe, disobedience was not taken lightly. When a nation was defeated, they were murdered, raped, pillaged, and enslaved.
(after scripture-twisting involving the sons of Eli, who were specifically being punished by God for attempting to take a temple offering to eat it before the fat had been burnt off of it in specific violation of religious law (temple offerings were traditionally consumed by the priests after having been offered in fire and the fat melted off as God's portion)):
COMMENT:
Eli warned his sons of their shameful ways, but he did not rebuke them with the severity their deeds merited. Instead, Eli mildly reasoned with his sons, saying, "Why do you do such things?" But the sons no longer heeded their father, and he didn’t restrain them. Consequently, his entire family was judged, including his descendants, forever.
Much like the other sites, it promotes whacking kids for tantrums as well as "retaliation whackings" for kids who complain about "chastenings"; punishing kids for being in bad moods (this is disturbingly common); promoting literal thought reform techniques directed at kids to "change emotions" about situations; promotes outright religious coercion of kids that is more likely to make her kids walk away as adults; and finally also promotes hiding kids from potential reporters before whacking them.
The page also promotes a concept known as "tomato staking"--in essence, not allowing a child "not to be trusted" to have any privacy whatsoever and requiring them to be within a three-foot radius of the parent. Among other things, the site does not specify an upper age limit for this; among other things, the page describes the "tomato staking" of a ten-year-old child, and also promotes tactics used in "discipling and shepherding" cell-groups for raising kids. (Yes, we're talking the same tactics now known to change basic personality types in grownups--and may well permanently warp little kids exposed to this.)
And last but not least...James "Dogfighter" Dobson
I am not going to write too extensively here, partly because I've done a post dedicated to James Dobson's promotion of religiously motivated child abuse before (and thus I risk repeating myself)--the scary thing is, he's actually a relative lightweight compared to some of the stuff promoted in dominionist childrearing circles.
This is, of course, not to say he's all that warm and friendly either.
This is a man who (in the intro to his most famous childrearing guide, The New Strong-Willed Child) literally used animal abuse as an example of how children's wills should be broken (featuring him literally beating the hell out of poor Siggie, the family Dachshund, in a manner that should make anyone who's so much as watched "Animal Cops" on Animal Planet recoil in horror) and also reminisced fondly on how his mother used to flog him with a girdle on a fairly regular basis. (If anything, Dobson is a veritable walking study in multigenerational child abuse--only in his case, he's transmitting it through a publishing empire that pulls in close to $140 million a year.)
Much of the advice is rather similar to the advice given in the other books--the claims that infants and children are "manipulative", the advice to start whacking kids well into the early toddler stages with "chastening rods", the deliberate humiliation of kids and making them think they have wronged God as well as Mom when they misbehave, and so on.
For example, after describing the incident that I refer to as the "Scourging of Siggie", Dobson quips:
"But this is not a book about the discipline of dogs; there is an important moral to my story that is highly relevant to the world of children. JUST AS SURELY AS A DOG WILL OCCASIONALLY CHALLENGE THE AUTHORITY OF HIS LEADERS, SO WILL A LITTLE CHILD -- ONLY MORE SO." "[I]t is possible to create a fussy, demanding baby by rushing to pick him up every time he utters a whimper or sigh. Infants are fully capable of learning to manipulate their parents through a process called reinforcement, whereby any behavior that produces a pleasant result will tend to recur. Thus, a healthy baby can keep his mother hopping around his nursery twelve hours a day (or night) by simply forcing air past his sandpaper larynx."
And yes, this pretty much is a summary of the tone of Dobson's works. One expects to see this sort of thing in "hardcore childfree" columns; one does not expect to see it in the writings of someone described as "Dr. Spock for the dominionist set", a guy who has a syndicated newspaper column in many papers across the US promoting this stuff.
One of Dobson's favourite tactics is something that is very common in the dominionist community--namely, making the kid get their own "chastening rod" to be beat with:
My mother always used a small switch, which could not do any permanent damage. But it stung enough to send a very clear message. One day when I had pushed her to the limit, she actually sent me to the backyard to cut my own instrument of punishment. I brought back a tiny little twig about seven inches long. She could not have generated anything more than a tickle with it. Mom never sent me on that fool's errand again.
(I myself attempted to get out of one of these "beatings" by bringing in a log--figuring in my four-year-old wisdom that if my mother couldn't lift it with one hand she couldn't beat me with it. I got two beatings for that one--one for the original misbehaviour (the usual sibling rivalry), and the second for bringing in a log in an attempt to avoid a "switching" until I cried. And yes, Dobson does rather explicitly promote whacking kids to the point of tears on page 36 of "The New Dare To Discipline".)
Dobson also believes in retaliatory spankings for kids crying after a spanking beyond a certain time limit:
Q: How long do you think a child should be allowed to cry after being punished or spanked? Is there a limit? A: Yes, I believe there should be a limit. As long as the tears represent a genuine release of emotion, they should be permitted to fall. But crying can quickly change from inner sobbing to an expression of protest aimed at punishing the enemy. Real crying usually lasts two minutes or less but may continue for five. After that point, the child is merely complaining, and the change can be recognized in the tone and intensity of his voice. I would require him to stop the protest crying, usually by offering him a little more of whatever caused the original tears.
(p. 135, The New Strong-Willed Child)
One of his other books (The New Dare To Discipline) is not any better:
a) Three-year-olds who aren't tired are seen as "brazenly defying" their parents.
b) Dobson literally attributes the decline and fall of Western civilisation to the failure to whack kids. An example:
From Genesis to Revelation, there is consistent foundation on which to build an effective philosophy of parent-child relationships. It is my belief that we have departed from the standard which was clearly outlined in both the Old and New Testaments, and that deviation is costing us a heavy toll in the form of social turmoil. Self-control, human kindness, respect, and peacefulness can again be manifest in America if we will dare to discipline in our homes and schools.
(p. 250, The New Dare To Discpiline)
c) On page 28, he recommends forcefully shaking a child for spitting. (Hello? Shaken Child Syndrome, anyone?)
d) Page 36 describes giving "Vulcan death grips" as a method of chastening (squeezing the trapezius muscle of the neck can incapacitate ADULTS much less kids--it is extremely painful)
e) Page 65 recommends to start beating kids at 15-18 months of age (yes, admittedly, not as extreme as the Pearls or Tripps, but not good either). This includes whacking for incidents of toddler "defiance" which are generally recognised by child development experts as the first signs of children establishing their own autonomy and identity as individuals (yes, it's actually a good thing when your toddler says "No!"--it means she's developing as a person).
f) Incredulously, Dobson claims that bedwetting can be an "act of defiance" and recommends whacking kids for wetting the bed "if an act of defiance". (Last I checked, most every legit pediatrician agreed that bedwetting was the result of physiological issues--the kid's nervous system and bladder aren't mature enough to maintain nighttime continence. Late bedwetting tends to be the result of physiological problems like nerve issues, small bladders, or antidiuretic hormone deficiency. All are able to be treated or mitigated and are not the fault of the kid.)
g) In a manner almost identical to that of the Pearls, Dobson promotes the dominionist myth of "Tyrant babies":
A child's resistant behavior always contains a message to his parents, which they must decode before responding. That message is often phrased in the form of a question: `Are you in charge or am I?' A distinct reply is appropriate to discourage future attempts to overthrow constituted government in the home.
(p. 29, The New Dare to Discipline)
h) Dobson advocates tough-love from the time Junior exits the womb:
If discipline begins on the second day of life, you're one day too late.
(p. 28, ibid.)
i) Like every other promoter of religiously motivated child abuse, Dobson promotes his abusive tactics as a religious mandate:
My primary purpose...has been to record for posterity my understanding of the Judeo-Christian concept of parenting that has guided millions of mothers and fathers for centuries.
(p. 18, ibid.)
j) Disturbingly, he uses his own history of rather extreme child abuse as an example (in the same manner that he used the Scourging of Siggie in The New Strong-Willed Child). He begins a rather wistful recollection of his own beatings by his own mother:
I learned very early that if I was going to launch a flippant attack on her, I had better be standing at least twelve feet away. This distance was necessary to avoid an instantaneous response--usually aimed at my backside.
(p. 23, The New Dare to Discpipline)
On pages 23-24 Dobson recounts being flogged on a regular basis with a girdle "with a multitude of straps and buckles" by his own mother; at the end, he states "Believe it or not, it made me feel loved."
Tomorrow (unfortunately, there's no room for it in today's discussion) we go into just why the religiously motivated child abuse industry has not been shut down. |
Christine Wade, a registered nurse at the University of Texas Medical Branch, greets Carnival Magic cruise ship passengers disembarking in Galveston, Tex., on Oct. 19, 2014. Nurses met passengers with Ebola virus fact sheets and to answer any questions after a Dallas health-care worker was in voluntary isolation in her cabin aboard the cruise ship because of her potential contact with the Ebola virus. (AP Photo/The Galveston County Daily News, Jennifer Reynolds)
The Texas hospital worker isolated on a Carnival Cruise ship after possible exposure to Ebola has tested negative for the disease. However, after the vessel returned Sunday to Galveston, Tex., an Oklahoma school district asked several employees and students who had been aboard not to return to school until she “has been ‘cleared’ and there is no medical threat.”
Moore School District, about 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, sent out automated calls and letters to parents, teachers and students, saying administrators “are in the process of identifying students who may have been on the cruise. Once identified, those students will also be required to stay out of school and will not be allowed to attend any school activities.” School officials said they hope to have the “all-clear” by Tuesday.
It’s in response to news that a lab technician at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital may have come in contact with specimens from Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. The woman, who has not been named, did not have direct contact with Duncan, who died Oct. 8, but quarantined herself in a cabin aboard.
The woman and her partner boarded the ship, Carnival Magic, on Oct. 12 in Galveston before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated the requirement for active monitoring, the U.S. State Department said Friday morning in a statement. At that time, CDC protocol called for “self-monitoring,” including daily temperature checks, which she was doing. After she left the country, health officials updated the monitoring protocol.
The woman was not allowed to leave the ship when it docked Thursday in Belize, nor would Belize allow her to be brought to shore for evacuation, according to a statement from the government. The boat was barred from port in Cozumel, Mexico, the next day, according to news reports. On Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard flew out to the vessel to retrieve a blood sample from the woman, Vicky Dey, vice president for guest services at Carnival, told Reuters. That sample tested negative.
A health-care worker who kept herself in isolation while onboard a cruise ship tests negative for Ebola. (Reuters)
When the ship docked Sunday morning in Galveston, officials boarded and conducted a final health screening on the hospital worker before she departed. State Department spokesman Jen Psaki said Friday it had been 19 days since the woman may have processed Duncan’s samples. Sunday would have been day 21, the final day of the incubation period.
“The Galveston County Health Authority has made the assessment that there is no evidence of a public health threat to cruise passengers or to Galveston County. The passenger and her travel partner have been allowed to disembark without restrictions,” county officials said in a statement.
The woman and her travel partner returned home on their own, according to a statement from Carnival Cruise Lines.
“No special cleaning requirements of the vessel have been requested by health authorities,” it said. “Nonetheless, to provide added assurance for our guests, we are undertaking a very comprehensive and aggressive cleaning and sanitizing initiative prior to guests boarding for the next voyage.”
Still, the Moore School District said it is “erring on the side of caution,” and at least some parents agree. One wrote on the school district’s Facebook page she is taking precautions of her own.
“On behalf of the parents of MPS students, we would like to know which schools have staff, faculty and/or students that are being told to not come to school following potential exposure to the Ebola virus whilst on board the Carnival cruise ship on October 17-18th?” she wrote. “Many parents, including myself, intend to keep our children (as a health precaution) home until we receive full disclosure, as aforementioned, preventing any individual decisions to not heed the advice of MPS to stay home.” |
When he was five, the skydiving daredevil drew a picture of himself parachuting down to earth while his family watched. And he's not the only child to predict their achievements in a drawing
When he was five years old, Felix Baumgartner drew a picture for his mum. Twelve years later, when the first man to break the sound barrier unaided had just made his first ever skydive, Baumgartner's mother gave the picture back to him: it showed him floating down to earth, suspended – horizontally, but you can't have everything – from a large parachute. There's a happy, smiling sun beaming down on the scene, and what looks like his family standing on the ground, with drinks, waiting for him to land.
Tom Daley, who became a world diving champion at the age of 15 and has represented Great Britain at the last two Olympics, similarly prefigured his achievement, drawing a picture of himself aged nine. Titled My Ambition, the drawing, which he tweeted after winning a bronze medal in the individual competition this summer, shows him in a handstand on a diving board, with the Olympic rings and the words "London 2012" on either side (London was, at the time, just one among several candidate cities).
Psychologists have long known that art created by children can be an accurate reflection of their inner worlds. Children create art for the same reasons as anyone: to express thoughts or emotions. Art can provide them with a safe environment to delve into their memories and negotiate present-day realities, telling a story that that can capture a moment – or a sequence of moments – in their physical, emotional or psychological life.
Much of the attention paid to the interpretation of children's art in recent years has tended to concentrate on its role in "understanding negative events", says Dr Esther Burkitt, reader in developmental psychology at the University of Chichester, a specialist in the field who has published widely on many aspects of children's drawings. Painting and drawing can help children in psychological distress to confront issues such as trauma, depression or abuse, and allow therapists to help them externalise and discuss problems.
Children's terrifyingly simple, brutally clear drawings of war and atrocity have been extensively used to help young victims recover from the traumatic experiences they have lived through with their families, and even have been accepted by the International Criminal Court as supporting evidence of violations of the rules of war.
It is rarer, says Burkitt, to see a more positive representation of images created by children. "But children's drawings of themselves can, certainly, be representative of their hopes and dreams," she says. "And the act of focusing and visualising can help them to realise their dreams. The act of drawing can be about ambition and value clarification: helping children to crystallise a particular goal, to really focus and go on to achieve what they want to become."
While we should be wary of predicting on the basis of a drawing, "it's pretty amazing that we can make these links back," Burkitt adds. From where we are now, drawings such as Baumgartner's and Daley's seem to "show incredible foresight, but also the sacrifices they might have made. They can certainly be seen as representations of vision and motivation". |
"Some think legalization will reduce the violence," Kerlikowske said. "It will not. If drugs were to become legal, I doubt very seriously that (the criminals) would take up jobs at Microsoft or Intel. Criminals are not going to change." [El Paso Times]
Opponents of legalizing drugs often argue that you can’t really eliminate the cartels because they'll just move on to other crimes. Here's the drug czar's version of that argument:It's an interesting debate in light of today's news that Mexican drug cartels have been tapping into oil pipelines, stealing astronomical amounts of oil, and then selling it to corrupt American businessmen. It's easy enough to assume that many of these diabolical criminal masterminds will look for ways to stay in business even if we take away their drug profits through legalization and regulation. There's some truth to this and it's pretty creepy to think about what these horrible thugs will do when their primary funding source suddenly vanishes. But that's not an argument against legalization.Selling drugs is what made them greedy and evil. It's how they learned to launder money. It's how they paid for their weapons and armies. It's where they got the capital to fund other criminal enterprises like stealing oil from the Mexican government. All their power comes from selling drugs, and anyone who supports the drug war shares responsibility for what the cartels do next.Maybe legalization won't crush them overnight, but it will close down the massive criminal college that the drug war has become. It will stop future generations of potential super-criminals from ever becoming indoctrinated into a life of crime, because there will be far fewer jobs in the crime industry. In the meantime, those criminals that remain won't have any more drug money to line the pockets of public servants and pervert justice at every turn.They can attempt other criminal endeavors, but it will never be the same because selling drugs is the easiest most-profitable crime on the planet and it can never be replaced. More than a few drug war idiots have suggested that the drug lords will simply switch to human trafficking, as though you could just start selling slaves to the people who used to buy marijuana and cocaine. One could write a very long book about how stupid that is, but it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.What would really happen to the cartels if drugs were legal? There's only one way to find out. |
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Back in 2005, Apple added Spotlight to Mac OS X 10.4 for finding files. Rather than merely searching through filenames, Spotlight could also find files based on metadata, and it could even look inside common file types, like PDF. Although often a source of frustration (thanks to spotty results and performance-eating indexing), Spotlight has improved with every version of OS X to provide better results with fewer performance hits. iOS even gained a simplified version of Spotlight, capable of finding apps, contacts, events, and email messages.
New in iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite is Spotlight Suggestions, a new feature that extends Spotlight to the Internet, enabling it to search common information sources like Wikipedia and even the Web at large, via Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Welcome as this is for providing a single search interface for finding whatever you need, it’s not new — independent search applications have offered similar features for years.
However, building such a feature into iOS and OS X opens it up to added scrutiny, and on 20 October 2014, the Washington Post reported that Spotlight Suggestions was a major privacy concern, leaking your information to Apple and potentially other sources. Unfortunately, the article contained multiple factual errors, many of which could have been avoided had the authors read Apple’s iOS 8 security documentation and Apple’s privacy page, which includes a section on Spotlight Suggestions.
Semi-Anonymous Search — To save you the time of reading those documents, and to add some details provided by other Apple sources, here’s how Spotlight Suggestions works, and how it manages your privacy.
The primary concern most people likely have is the possibility of a local file search revealing private information to Apple, but various privacy mechanisms prevent that.
When you open Spotlight and start typing a search string, Spotlight uses predictive search to start generating results. This is the same technique used by nearly every modern Web browser and search engine. Spotlight simultaneously searches its index of your local files while checking with multiple Internet sources via a connection to Apple’s own servers. The requests go to Apple first, not directly to Internet sources like Wikipedia.
To manage your session, Apple uses a one-time session ID that lasts for 15 minutes. Neither the session ID nor the search query contain your IP address or any other device identifier. Session IDs also aren’t coordinated or correlated, so there is no way for Apple to track historical usage by chaining session IDs together. In short, your query exists within a 15-minute bubble that isn’t tied to you directly. This is different from Siri, which uses a more persistent device identifier since it requires more context over time (due in large part to the overhead of voice recognition).
Queries do include location information, but Apple added a “fuzzing” feature to mask your exact location. The degree of fuzzing varies based on the density of the area you are in. In a city, it will likely be relatively precise, down to the block, in order to direct you to the closest coffee shop (really, what else matters?). In a suburban or rural area, it might be no more specific than the town. Fuzzing happens on your device, not Apple’s servers, so they never see your exact location.
You can disable Spotlight Suggestions location tracking on your Mac in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Location Services > System Services. Click the Details button, then deselect Spotlight Suggestions. Even if you do this, your IP address will still be used for higher-level location tracking, since Apple needs to know at least what country you are in. In iOS 8 the setting is under Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services (scroll all the way to the bottom to find it).
It’s important to remember that Spotlight Suggestions and Siri use different search mechanisms, with different privacy settings.
To provide Bing search engine results in the Spotlight window, Apple keeps track of “common queries.” Apple does not pass every search query to Bing, merely those identified as common. For example, I search for “US Airways” a lot due to constant work travel. That query pops up the airline’s Web site (and Wikipedia entry) since it’s relatively common. But when I search for the title of a Keynote presentation that I need to edit on my upcoming flight, I don’t get any Web results, even though I would if I searched for it directly in Bing (since I’ve used that presentation at conferences and in blog posts).
When these queries are sent to Bing, they come from Apple’s servers, not your computer, so Bing can’t track them. If location is sent (e.g. you are performing a search for local movies) it is provided to Bing only at the level of the city you are in, not even the fuzzed location Apple uses. Lastly, Apple’s contract with Microsoft prevents Microsoft from retaining queries and results.
Keeping It Local — Apple doesn’t view or share your local device index, but the queries themselves will always hit their servers. Apple does track what you select in Spotlight search results. If it’s a local file, Apple tracks only the file type, not the filename or other specifics (the company may track a little more; we don’t have an exact list, but names, contents, and other personalized metadata are explicitly excluded). This is still tracked only to the session ID level.
If you don’t like any of this, you can disable Spotlight Suggestions completely via System Preferences > Spotlight in Yosemite, or Settings > Spotlight Search in iOS 8. Spotlight searches will then be limited to the contents of your local device’s index.
Apple doesn’t always get security and privacy right as it continues to tighten the links between Apple devices, software, and services, as I recently highlighted in “You Are Apple’s Greatest Security Challenge” (14 October 2014). But aside from Tim Cook’s privacy message, it’s clear that Apple not only sees privacy as a competitive advantage, but is doubling down on the engineering to support it.
As a security analyst, I worry constantly about becoming biased, especially with a company like Apple whose products are so deep a part of my life. To avoid this, I spend a tremendous amount of time researching and validating my findings before publishing them. While this may be pie-in-the-sky thinking, I believe journalists and publications should make similar efforts to avoid bias, and tamp down the desire for explosive headlines that leads to inaccurate reporting, particularly when such articles increase paranoia unnecessarily.
While Apple has made, and continues to make, security and privacy mistakes worthy of criticism, the original Washington Post story in this particular case was not only factually wrong, but incorrect in ways even basic research would have revealed. On the upside, we all now have a better understanding of how Spotlight Suggestions works, and it’s certainly important to continually evaluate how — and if! — Apple is keeping its privacy promises. |
Darkness comes early to the streets of this ancient city, once a symbol of Syria’s richly storied past and now at the heart of the deepening nightmare that the country’s revolution has become.
By 5 p.m., people are scurrying home, down streets potholed by artillery, past piles of rubble and mountains of garbage that hasn’t been collected in months, to spend the evenings huddled in the cold without heat, light or, increasingly, food.
“We just lie under blankets because it is so cold. We have no work, no money and no life,” said Omar Abu Mohammed, 55, one of the few remaining residents of his badly bombed neighborhood, as he prepared to head indoors for the night.
“It is time to go now because soon there will be snipers,” he added, as a shell boomed softly in the distance.
Shells are exploding somewhere in Aleppo most of the time, but after five months of fighting, people have become inured to the ever-present threat. Rain and cloudy skies have deterred warplanes, providing some relief from the airstrikes that can wipe out whole apartment buildings, along with their inhabitants, in an instant.
But the onset of this second winter since Syrians rose up against their government 22 months ago is bringing new calamity to a people already ground down by violence and war. Hunger, cold and disease are emerging as equally profound challenges in the desperate daily struggle that life has become for millions, not only in Aleppo but across Syria, where the quest for greater freedoms sparked by the Arab Spring has gone badly, horribly wrong.
“You can hide from the shelling, but if your child is hungry and there is no bread, what can you do?” asked Abdullah Awuf, 29, a driver who struggles to feed his infant son amid sky-high prices for fuel and food.
Aleppo is not the only place in Syria where conditions are dire. Across the country, reports are emerging of people foraging for food in garbage, stripping buildings for firewood and queuing for hours for scarce bread as the government-run distribution network breaks down.
The United Nations appealed last week for $1.5 billion to help 4.5 million needy Syrians, a record amount for an emergency, said Panos Moumtzis, the regional relief coordinator for the U.N. refugee agency. This one is unfolding almost entirely out of sight because most places are too dangerous or inaccessible for aid workers or journalists to visit.
Most of the relief money, $1 billion, will be spent to help the 500,000 refugees who have fled to neighboring countries. An additional 4 million people inside Syria are estimated to be in need of food and medical assistance.
But because the government restricts U.N. access to areas controlled by the regime, those living in rebel-held territory can expect to see little help.
A city of battle lines
In the parts of Aleppo under rebel control, the misery is manifest. Fighters with the Free Syrian Army surged into the city in July hoping for a quick victory after ejecting government forces from much of the surrounding countryside. But their offensive was ill-planned and premature, and it quickly stalled, leaving the city carved into a patchwork of front lines across which the two sides shoot and shell one another, along with any civilians in the way.
Government forces control the downtown area and the wealthier neighborhoods to the west, while the rebels hold sway in the traditionally poorer northern, eastern and southern areas. The historic center, a World Heritage site renowned for its ancient citadel and bazaar, is a battleground.
As the fighting ripples and spreads, the infrastructure that had sustained the city of 3 million is crumbling. Government warplanes target facilities that fall into rebel hands, including hospitals and bakeries. Electricity, which had been intermittent for months, has been cut off since the rebels launched an offensive to capture the main power plant a little more than two weeks ago.
An Aleppo Transitional Revolutionary Council is being formed to perform the functions of local government. It has managed to ease, though not resolve, an acute shortage of bread that had people standing in line for up to 16 hours. There are still queues, but they have shortened, and people say they now have to wait no more than an hour to purchase bread.
But the length of the lines is only a partial measure of the crisis. Factories and businesses have ground to a halt. Jobs are almost nonexistent. Fresh meat and produce are available, but at prices far beyond the means of people who haven’t worked in months. For many, flat, thin loaves of pita bread, at 10 times the prewar price, are all they can afford. For some, even that is too much.
“On some days, we don’t eat at all,” said Nadia Labhan, 25, whose husband, a brickmaker, was killed two months ago by a sniper on his way home from buying bread, leaving her with no means to support her two children, Baraa, 7, and Fatme, 5. She has joined the growing number of beggars on the street. “It is so difficult,” she said, hugging her flimsy robe against the driving wind and rain.
Sickness is spreading
Inevitably, disease is spreading among people whose immune systems have been weakened by hunger, in a city where sanitation has broken down. Tuberculosis is ravaging some neighborhoods, and there have been hundreds of cases of leishmaniasis, a skin disease transmitted by sand flies, which are multiplying amid the heaps of uncollected trash, said Saad Wafai, who serves on the crisis committee of the Aleppo council.
At a small clinic in an abandoned shopping arcade — set up by doctors driven out of a hospital destroyed in an airstrike — the number of patients has surged recently, to about 150 a day. For the first time, physician Izzat al-Mizyad said, most show up not with injuries from the war but infectious diseases, including hepatitis, respiratory infections and scabies.
In addition, he said, two or three people are brought in every day after collapsing from hunger in the bread lines. “This is going to become a huge problem,” he said. “It is already a problem, and it is increasing day by day. I expect people to start to die.”
Embittered Aleppans don’t see an end in sight.
“It started with words, then went to bullets, then bombs and rockets and airstrikes. And now we are expecting chemical weapons,” said Awuf, the driver, referring to the trajectory of the revolt, which began with peaceful demonstrations in March 2011, then mutated into a raging civil war.
Civilians feel ‘trapped’
Some blame the Free Syrian Army for starting a fight it couldn’t finish. Others blame the government for steadily escalating the use of force to try to crush the rebels. Many, like Awuf, blame both. “We are civilians trapped between the two sides, and they are using us like wood on a fire,” he said. “Both sides are wrong.”
Even the uprising’s staunchest protagonists are beginning to despair. Teacher Amal Ulabi, 35, joined the earliest protests, and her husband volunteered for the Free Syrian Army as soon as the rebellion reached the city. A month later he was dead, killed fighting on the front line. Her home in the embattled Old City was hit by artillery fire, and she has moved to her parents’ house with her five children. They suffer from asthma, and all have respiratory infections, but there is no medicine available to treat them.
“The revolution was the right thing to do, but the timing was wrong,” Ulabi said at a clinic established by a group called People in Need, sighing as she waited for a nurse to check on her 18-month-old son. “We should have started gradually, asking about corruption and other issues like that, because the regime couldn’t accept that we suddenly wanted freedom, and they shot at us.
“The regime will fall, but I fear it will take time,” she added. “At least as long as we have endured already. I see no hope of anything good.” |
Thousands more German Catholics have left their church this year than in 2009, with the recent string of sexual abuse revelations and other public scandals apparently motivating many people's decisions.
Recent studies by the Frankfurter Rundschau daily and the dpa news agency concur that the country's Catholic churches have lost considerably more members in 2010 than in recent years.
The Bavarian diocese of Augsburg, where Bishop Walter Mixa was forced to stand down in April over physical abuse and embezzlement accusations, recorded some of the worst figures: As of mid-December, 11,351 believers had left the church, compared to 6,953 in 2009.
In the south-western Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese, 17,169 Catholics had left the church as of mid-November, almost seven thousand more than in 2009.
Trier, Wuerzburg, Osnabrueck and Bamberg all recorded significant increases in departures in 2010, with many disgruntled Catholics apparently seeking new homes with other Christian denominations.
Membership means money
Early indications suggest that the prime mover for people leaving their congregation was the series of sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church, and the church's handling of them.
The scandal over pedophile priests appears to be driving more away from the church
In April and May, with the public outcry at its peak, most church leavers cited this as the reason, and particularly high departure numbers in the more scandal-hit diocese of Augsburg, for instance, would seem to suggest a correlation.
"Every single departure is one too many," Wuerzburg Bishop Friedhelm Hofmann said in an interview where he suggested that the pedophile priest problems had a hand in the exodus.
"I hope that some people will come back to us, once the anger at current events subsides, and when people once again focus on all the good things the church does every day," he added.
Germany's Catholic Church has been taking steps to try to prevent future abuse cases and shed light on past ones in recent months, but critics argue that the response has been slow and that Catholic leaders still intend to prevent past perpetrators from ever facing justice.
Meanwhile, some Catholic leaders are not convinced that the declining size of the German flock in 2010 is linked to the negative headlines that dominated the year.
"As a rule, an official departure from the church is the culmination of a longer process of estrangement," Osnabrueck Bishop Hermann Haarmann said.
In Germany, officially becoming a member of a religion has financial significance, not just a symbolic one.
German citizens who are members of a religious group officially recognized by the government in Berlin automatically pay a "church tax" deducted from their monthly paychecks.
Author: Mark Hallam (dpa, AFP)
Editor: Kyle James |
CLOSE John Di Mondi, a candidate for New Castle City Council President and current council member, has no plans to change what he has to say despite protests over his posts. Demonstrators say his views are unacceptable from a city leader. William Bretzger/The News Journal
Controversial candidate makes for strange election cycle in New Castle
Buy Photo New Castle City Councilman John Di Mondi discusses his political philosophy in his tax prep office in New Castle on Tuesday afternoon. (Photo: KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo
He fat-shames women. He lobs insults on social media. He thinks government is too quick to welcome outsiders as new residents. And he blasts negative press about him as "fake news."
This isn't President Donald Trump, but John Di Mondi, a New Castle tax accountant and sitting councilman, whose brand of New Castle-first populism and controversial social media posts have roiled voters heading into the Saturday ,April 8 election.
Di Mondi, 74, who was born less than a mile from his current home on the southern side of New Castle, is challenging incumbent City Council President Linda Ratchford in a campaign that has brought protesters to recent city meetings holding signs that call him a racist, a misogynist and a teacher hater.
Happy to toss political correctness into the Delaware River, Di Mondi calls the comparison to Trump "an honor" – but rejects the notion that he is following Trump.
CLOSE John Di Mondi shares his goals in running for New Castle City Council President. Kyle Grantham/The News Journal
"I haven't styled myself like him," Di Mondi said. "I've been this way all my life. I think he is styled after me."
Paul Brewer, research director at the Center for Political Communication at the University of Delaware, said Di Mondi’s controversial disposition and rhetoric is likely part of a larger wave of politicians who will seek to emulate Trump's unlikely rise.
“In races going forward, I'd expect to see some people try to reproduce that lightning in a bottle,” Brewer said. “Trump did have some extra things going on that not every candidate can produce."
Di Mondi's main campaign platforms are blocking new apartment complexes in the city of 5,400, stopping a discussed parking lot adjoining Battery Park that would afford more visitors an opportunity to stroll along the Delaware River, and upsetting what he sees as a group of public officials too cozy with each other for the public good. His combative demeanor stands in stark contrast to Ratchford, whose "professional" disposition is lauded even by her detractors.
Buy Photo New Castle City Council President Linda Ratchford stands in the council chambers on Tuesday afternoon. (Photo: KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
Ratchford moved to New Castle 35 years ago and has retired from a career in customer service management and marketing for companies such as Delmarva Power and Corporation Services Co. Her campaign literature is a catalog of measured promises about making "the city more vibrant and appealing" and keeping "our streets safe and clean."
She says she will bring "better collaboration" than her opponent.
"I'm not going to comment on his temperament or comments," said Ratchford, who was first appointed as City Council president in 2013 before being elected in 2015. "But I will say the ability to work together is extremely important, and that is a skill I bring to the table."
CLOSE Incumbent New Castle City Council President Linda Ratchford gives her pitch for re-election. Kyle Grantham/The News Journal
Di Mondi and Ratchford have been at odds on a number of issues. The most personal conflict came when Ratchford put up successful legislation in July to publicly censure Di Mondi for "vulgar and racially charged language" after an argument he had with an African-American constituent.
Di Mondi said the reprimand was a disingenuous effort to hobble his power on the council.
"She is a nice lady on the surface, but she is not very nice underneath — like Hillary (Clinton)," Di Mondi said. "She represents the elitist Republicans. They are Trump's worst enemies."
The heated rhetoric from Delaware's Donald Trump has attracted interest from outside the city.
Rebecca Keen, who lives north of Wilmington, came to New Castle in late March to protest outside a City Council meeting. She held a sign that read, "A racist, misogynist, teacher-hater and homophobe walked into a bar. The bartender said, 'What'll it be, Johnny?'"
Keen said she discovered Di Mondi's online postings after he criticized a proposed tax increase for Colonial School District.
"He needs to be fired," Keen said.
Buy Photo Rebecca Keen holds up a sign she brought to a recent City Council meeting to protest City Council presidential candidate and sitting Councilman John Di Mondi. (Photo: XERXES WILSON/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
Di Mondi sees protesters as "groupies" of Colonial School District and the current city government leadership, which he describes as a "swamp" too focused on catering to visitors and those who live along the cobblestone streets and fabled 200-year-old homes downtown.
"We are losing the feel of our neighborhoods," Di Mondi said. "We had an influx of transient people coming in here, especially downtown, with wealthier people that tried to change New Castle to fit what they thought it should be."
Ratchford had not held political office before her time on the council, though her husband, Mike, was Delaware's secretary of state and chief of staff to then-Republican Gov. Mike Castle. She believes city leadership can continue to strike a balance between its historic assets and less-wealthy outskirts.
"I am concerned about every neighborhood – and every neighborhood needs different things," Ratchford said.
As local elections go, this one is as important as it is strange for the city.
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The City Council president, elected to a four-year term, literally controls what the council does and does not discuss and can block legislative efforts by others on the five-member panel. This election cycle is important because, in addition, to council president, three of the four other council seats are being contested by 11 different candidates.
New Castle is different from other small towns in Delaware. It's the state's first settlement, and its 200-year-old homes are nestled alongside a more vibrant, tourist-catering business base than other Delaware River towns. Recently, the city's historic courthouse, built in 1732, was named as one of several historic sights throughout Delaware as the First State National Park.
Surrounded by poorer and more crime-ridden neighborhoods, residents and government officials fiercely protect the historic vibe. Just changing shutters on one of the town's historic homes requires the blessing of a local board, and some residents decried the construction of a state-funded pier onto the Delaware River, fearing it would make the city a fun-and-sun destination for unruly boaters.
So in a city where Pokémon Go-hunting visitors are Public Enemy No. 1 to many residents, Di Mondi believes his message – less emphasis of coddling visitors and "transient" renters – is resonating.
"I think Linda tries to do a good job, but she is led by people in this town who have an opinion of what they want the town to be," said Bob Thomas, who lives in Dobbinsville, a relatively poor neighborhood on the city's southern edge. "They live in a golden, storybook downtown, but that is not where everybody lives."
‘Snowflakes’ and ‘cupcakes’
While Trump throws Twitter barbs, Di Mondi's bully pulpit is his public Facebook profile. His rhetoric has been fodder for letters to the editor in the city's local paper, The Weekly, which he derides as "fake news."
Some of his most controversial posts are riffs on politics elsewhere, like when he commented on the Wilmington City Council's approval in March of a new nondenominational prayer to be spoken before meetings.
Buy Photo Protesters demonstrate against New Castle City Council presidential candidate John Di Mondi and his outspoken Facebook postings before a forum for City Council and council president candidates Thursday. (Photo: William Bretzger, The News Journal)
"You have to love and laugh at Wilmington City Council, they are adopting a pagan prayer by a pagan priestess, to open their sessions led by Muslim Hanifa Shabazz," read a post from March 4. "Take a look at them, it seems rational. Who will they burn at the stake 1st?"
He regularly engages in comment wars, deriding opponents as "snowflakes." He attacked one commenter saying: "She seeks attention she probably cant get anywhere. Even at weight watchers."
The 200 residents entering a candidate forum held at New Castle Elementary School on Thursday were greeted by a dozen Di Mondi protesters wielding signs with enlarged copies of his most offensive online posts.
“He seems to single out those who are overweight, who are teachers, who are homosexual, who are pro-abortion, who are liberals," said Kylie Hall, a city resident and part of the group. "Someone that is running for president of a city should not be that way.”
Di Mondi argued that “political correctness is akin to mental cowardice.”
"I think my rhetoric goes too far, too, but it is used to shock," he said. "Donald Trump used it to shock, too. It is to take the complacency out."
Di Mondi also had a Trumpian response to Keen's sign labeling him a racist.
Buy Photo New Castle City Councilman John Di Mondi stands in his tax prep office in New Castle on Tuesday afternoon. (Photo: KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
"I will sue her anyways. I don't care," he said. "I have a lawyer I have to spend so much a year on or else he will leave me."
Hall said her motivation is seeing the office respected.
“All politics aside, you should be able to respect your president, or at least like accept them as your president,” Hall said.
Branded a racist
Di Mondi’s controversial rhetoric became City Council business with the vote to censure him last year. He labeled the reprimand a "witch hunt" perpetuated by Ratchford to silence him acting as her only counterbalance on the council.
"It was not a witch hunt," Ratchford said. "We have said publicly that we don't condone those types of statements, and we don't support them."
Buy Photo New Castle City Council meets downtown in March. (Photo: XERXES WILSON/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
The argument that resulted in the censure was the subject of a ‘he said, she said’ retelling to the council. Di Mondi was accused of telling the constituent something along the lines of: "You black people, you don't vote for me. You never have."
He doesn't deny this.
"In fact, they don't vote for anyone, and they are the ones that make all the demands," Di Mondi told The News Journal after being reprimanded.
“Every citizen deserves to be treated with fairness and respect,” Ratchford told the crowd at Thursday's forum. "If I am re-elected that will be one of my top priorities to institute a charter change that includes a code of conduct."
Di Mondi said he does not care about the censure but feels it has been unfairly used to brand him as a racist. He insists he is against the elevation of any race above another.
"I'm not white supremacist. I'm not Black Lives Matter,” Di Mondi said. “I'm neutral."
Di Mondi said he "probably" has more black clients than white clients at his tax service, and he proudly pointed to a Christmas card with a picture of his son and daughter-in-law, who is Korean.
"How racist is that?" Di Mondi asked.
Yet Di Mondi believes the disparities minorities face in areas like incarceration rates, educational achievement and employment boils down to a lack of willpower.
He described himself as "color blind" and said government and society should be as well — dismissing the need for things like affirmative action or minority hiring efforts in government as "reparation bull–."
It’s a “shortsighted” viewpoint that ignores the effects of historic discrimination and how "lethal and insidious" structural racism is today, said Yasser Payne, an associate professor of black American studies at the University of Delaware.
"It is statistically impossible for a people who have been locked historically and presently into economic poverty to break out of that poverty through sheer will," Payne said.
STORY: Accusations of racism infect New Castle city politics
STORY: Colonial School District referendum fails
And Leland Ware, a professor of law at the University of Delaware and one of the state's top civil rights experts, said Di Mondi’s viewpoint isn't supported by data. He said polling has shown such sentiments of "racial resentment" is common among those who voted Trump into office.
Ware said minorities are still hindered by discrimination that is less overt but nonetheless can be measured.
A recent example is a 2012 settlement agreement between the Christina School District and the U.S. Department of Education that resulted from an analysis of data that showed black students were subjected to more severe and higher rates of punishment than white students though their offenses were the same.
Payne said people's choices are often affected by circumstance they can't control.
“It is a shame that we can't understand how the choices that many people are making because of the access to quality opportunities is closed off,” Payne said. “Nobody wants to be a drug dealer, nobody wants to go to prison, and nobody wants to do poorly in school. It is basic human nature for people to want to do better.”
Buy Photo Roger Bungy, a candidate for New Castle City Council, disagrees with City Council president candidate John Di Mondi's views on race but said the controversial candidate has the best interests of the city at heart. (Photo: XERXES WILSON/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
Roger Bungy, a black, lifelong New Castle resident running for one of the at-large City Council seats, has a Di Mondi sign on his house, and Di Mondi's views on city politics resonate with him — though his perspectives on race do not.
"It is an inappropriate view. The playing field isn't level. He's from the old school. I can't change that," Bungy said. "I do believe he wants what is best for everyone in town. He just has a strange way of doing it."
Make New Castle great again
Underlying the controversy is a real sentiment by some in the city that local government doesn't do much.
Some feel that when something is accomplished, it is usually for the betterment of downtown, not what Di Mondi describes as the "milltown ghettos" where the city's poor reside.
"There are a lot of people concerned that council just doesn't seem to get much done," said Dorsey Fiske, a regular commenter at the local City Council meetings.
She said she is completely at odds with Di Mondi's views on national politics, but agrees with him on local matters.
"He is gruff but he knows his stuff," Fiske said. "He does care about the entire town."
Buy Photo Dorsey Fiske (front left) questions protesters who were demonstrating against New Castle City Council presidential candidate John Di Mondi and his outspoken Facebook postings before a forum for City Council and council presidential candidates Thursday. Fiske is a supporter of Di Mondi. (Photo: William Bretzger, The News Journal)
Ratchford denied the council has focused too heavily on downtown during her tenure. She said she has spent time working on issues throughout the city — from streamlining rules that formerly required a local board approve home modifications like roof replacements in the historic district to drainage and code enforcement issues outside of downtown.
"I get the same complaint everywhere I go," Ratchford said. "That is just a natural feeling that 'I want more attention,' but we try to give every neighborhood as much attention as we can."
If elected, Ratchford said she'd spend time in each neighborhood to better understand their problems and place a greater emphasis on community policing. She also wants to study the potential for resident parking permits.
"Linda is very big on the wellness of the city. She is intelligent and has dealt with the council very well," downtown resident Fred Tarburton said. "She listens to council but doesn't promise things she can't deliver."
Buy Photo A portion of land adjoining Battery Park in New Castle has been eyed for a parking lot and become an issue in the upcoming City Council elections. (Photo: XERXES WILSON/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
Di Mondi also criticizes Ratchford for blocking a council conversation on a planned parking lot adjoining Battery Park. Because no application had been filed to build the lot, Ratchford said it was not the council's place to get involved and declined to comment on whether she supports it.
Di Mondi countered saying the city should be proactive in discussing the issue that could affect the quality of life of nearby residents.
Di Mondi rails against zoning changes that took place before either he or his opponent was on the council. He feels developers have "carte blanche" to build apartment high-rises in the gateways to the city.
His property was one that was rezoned by the change, and he feels a series of new apartment buildings, the first of which is going up on Del. 9 down the street from his office, will make New Castle into something more akin to Middletown.
Buy Photo New Castle City Council President Linda Ratchford speaks before a forum for City Council and council president candidates Thursday. (Photo: William Bretzger, The News Journal)
Ratchford said the city will thrive with new residents, though she is eyeing changes to that gateway zoning regime.
"You want a vibrant city with diversity in your population," Ratchford said. "I welcome new people to our city, and I think it is a good thing."
Bob Short, a lifetime resident of downtown, said the city has become less neighborly in recent years. Di Mondi's comments about preserving the character of the city resonate, but he still plans to vote for Ratchford.
"Di Mondi has a lot of great ideas," Short said. "It is just how he goes about it."
Even if he loses the election, Di Mondi has two more years in his current, at-large council seat. It's a relief to some.
"He is sort of a contrarian, and I like that. He keeps the other people in line," said Bill Burton, a New Castle resident while out for his afternoon walk. "Donald Trump was the same way, and he became president."
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or [email protected]. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.
Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/2nF3j0V |
So how does this little detour tie into the LV clause that they be suspended if a path is found that modern clients will accept, and that no software change will correct? Well, as mentioned, the way virtually every certificate validation library works is that you’re limited on what you can tell it — you can no more tell it to avoid Las Vegas than you can tell it to disable SHA-1. Worse still, if you disable SHA-1, these certificate validation libraries will act like they’ve encountered a one-way street — they’ll simply give up, even if there’s another route to the destination. So, in practice, it’s impossible to guarantee a modern client won’t trust an LV cert.
Which gets to the second part of the clause — whether or not it can be fixed with a change to software. Software is, ultimately, infinitely malleable — it does exactly what we tell it to, regardless of whether or not that is what we intend. So it is always possible to argue that a change can be made to fix this, just like it is always possible to argue that if you want to get to New York from Los Angeles, and avoid Las Vegas, you could construct a highway that follows a straight line, building bridges over every river, tunnels through every mountain, and buying every bit of land necessary to accomplish this. Is it economical? Absolutely not. Is it possible? Surely so.
As it stands, none of these policy controls are very effective — they’re largely there because they fit the pattern of how certificates are issued, serving no particular purpose other than making the proposal look more robust and detailed than it is, and hiding the scarcity and ineffectiveness of the technical controls.
Technical Controls
The real heart of LV rests on its technical controls, which the proponents argue are sufficient for the risks posed.
The one easiest to show as inadequate is the validity period requirement. This does nothing to prevent the attacker from obtaining a collision, it just limits the harm that they can do to the Internet to being a little more than three years. The idea that it would be acceptable to leave billions of users at risk for three years is not at all viable. This requirement doesn’t try to prevent damage, just limit it, but the limit is so unreasonably high that it’s effectively unlimited. Even if the validity period was reduced to a day, if an attacker was able to successfully mount one attack, they could presumably repeat it indefinitely until detected; it may slow the attack, but it does not stop it.
The next technical control is in requiring a distinct intermediate to be used for LV certificates. Similar to the validity period, this doesn’t attempt to thwart the attack at all; rather, by requiring a distinct intermediate, it makes it easier for software to distrust that intermediate, should an evil cert be detected. It’s as if the only time you would ever drive through Las Vegas is to get to New York — if you want to stop people getting to New York from Los Angeles, you could close all roads in to and out of Las Vegas, and your “problem” would be solved. What the metaphor here hides is that this control relies on detecting the problem first, which is both difficult and unreliable, especially for the users in the war-torn and repressive regimes that Matthew Prince wrote about — or those affected by targeted interception attacks revealed by nation-state adversaries like the NSA and GCHQ.
This leaves the only technically effective control being the requirement of entropy in the serial number. The twenty bits that LV proposes has no academic or technical background to its selection; it was merely inherited from the existing Baseline Requirements, which itself was the result of unfortunate compromise necessary to appease CA members of the CA/Browser Forum. It’s not known whether or not twenty bits is enough, and that’s largely a question of the work-factor of the attacks, in that it is assumed an attacker would need to mount 2²⁰ parallel attacks to guarantee success.
Even if twenty bits is acceptable, it’s a proposal that is entirely incumbent upon CAs to implement properly. As the previous post considered, CAs routinely and comprehensively fail to implement the necessary security protections, which leads to them misissuing certificates. It’s not something that can be detected by a client who validates the certificate, as there is no way to know whether or not the entropy was random. It doesn’t set standards for what the entropy source is either, such that a CA that actively wanted to collude with a nation-state attacker could, for example, chose to use something like DUAL_EC_DRBG as the entropy source. If they did, they would be creating a cryptographic back door that would allow some parties to determine the state of the random number generator, and thus predict what the chosen-prefix would be. The attacker — or anyone else who found or discovered the backdoor — could then intercept secure communication for large portions of the Internet, practically (though not technically) undetectably.
Conclusion
This really gets to the crux of the problem with LV — its only security control relies entirely on CAs properly implementing it, as soon as possible so as to minimize disruption, and fails to acknowledge that CAs routinely fail to implement the necessary security controls, or that when such controls fails, billions of users are put at risk.
Stamos and Prince present it as a matter of finding a solution for the extremely old and outdated clients, and that leaving behind the fraction of users is an unacceptable trade-off, but in doing so, they propose a solution that presents risk to the billions of users. While the topic of path building was only lightly addressed, due to its technical complexity and nuance, it is perhaps the core of the problem: LV presupposes clients, whether they be users’ browsers or the backend systems that servers communicate with, can safely disable SHA-1, without any risk or consequence to compatibility or operation. They fail to understand or acknowledge the path building problem, or the fact that billions of users still trust MD5 signatures in certificates because of it. The only thing protecting these billions of users is that no CA is permitted to issue them — in effect, relying on hopes, prayers, and the good nature and technical abilities of CAs.
Further, the proposal introduces procedural barriers that accomplish no security benefits. These procedural barriers no doubt appeal to CAs, which can use them to justify a high premium, much like SGC certificates. While Prince and Stamos propose LV as a type of certificate intended to help the downtrodden, they ignore the years of context for which CAs are clamoring to sell such certificates not to mainstream sites, but to enterprises and internal customers, whose implementation and controls are unquestionably woefully inadequate for the risk presented.
The entirety of the proposed mitigation hinges on entropy in serial, which is one of those things that was painfully obvious as necessary in 2010, but for which CAs were still struggling to implement in 2015. If that fails, whether to be implemented at all or implemented securely, attackers can mount successful attacks, against any domain, and with more or less total impunity.
While CloudFlare, Facebook, and Twitter have tried to present this as a battle between serving the impractically ideological needs of modern users buying new phones and new computers every year versus that of the economic and social underdog, the proposal is effectively asking the 97% to bear the risks of the 3%, and with the only mitigation being a belief that this time, despite over a decade of failure, CAs won’t screw up.
Worse still, the argument is made without supporting data or review; that is, the presumed conclusion is that there is nothing to be done for these users but to accept the risk, without exploring why the problem exists in the first place. CloudFlare presents the problem as old Android devices and feature phones, yet Android supported SHA-256 since the first public release. What issues existed were not a matter of algorithm, but of path building — yet the two are lumped in the same. The only data that’s been publicly shared has not been from the proponents of LV, but from those opposed; Peter Bowen of Amazon Trust Services notes that, from data he’s both seen and shared, many users who had trouble with SHA-256 were not because the client device didn’t support it, but because there were one or more network-level intermediates disrupting the connection. This could be anything from antivirus to corporate firewall to state-level attack, but such data radically changes the conclusions, in that it suggests rather than needing to update millions of users of devices, we may be talking on the order of hundreds or thousands of targeted enterprises. The arguments from CloudFlare, Twitter, and Facebook don’t provide the data necessary to support the conclusions they make — for example, it’s unclear whether the 3%–7% quoted are completely unable to access these sites, or only partially unable due to situational and environmental factors: like being unable to access while at work, but having no problems at home.
When evaluating Legacy Verified certificates, it’s necessary to keep in mind that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof” — and so too should calls for extraordinary risk. LV, as a whole, fails to mitigate against this risk by ignoring the historic context surrounding it, understates the risk posed, and underestimates the serious technical complexity faced by any and all applications that wish to validate certificates and avoid LV’s risks. While understandably it comes from an earnest desire to find a solution, it fails to explore the alternatives and fails to mitigate the incredible risks, and so ultimately needs to be rejected as unsafe at any speed.
Perhaps the saddest part of this proposal is that it was necessary for CloudFlare, Facebook, and Twitter to make it. That is, in the beginning of the Web PKI, the CA ecosystem wasn’t the profit driven sales and marketing machines they have become, but actually had solid engineering and were concerned about designing solutions that actually enhanced security, rather than giving the appearance of it. It is CAs that should have the technical knowledge and expertise to recognize not only the flaws in this proposal, but also the ways in which it could be bolstered, limiting the risks and potential negative impact. Unfortunately, today’s CAs are largely a shadow of themselves; only a few invest in solid engineering and have the technical know-how to design a solution that balances these tradeoffs.
In the next post, I hope to explore what steps can be taken in order to find a solution, as well as examine the other solutions and why they too fail. While it’s easy to throw an idea out and say “something should be done,” with little more thought than an idea sketched on the back of a napkin, it requires much more discipline, care, understanding, and data to actually find a path that balances the risks and encourages, rather than undermines, security. I also hope to look at what’s needed of Facebook, CloudFlare, and Twitter — more than just grandstanding and press releases, the actual data necessary to make informed and calculated assessments of the risks and trade-offs, and that can help find a solution that doesn’t just foist all risk and cost onto the 97%.
Thanks again to the invaluable feedback and editing for those that reviewed this post, especially over the holiday period. |
All right, *campers*, there’s some new news lurking on the horizon for Star Control fans eager to find a new *happy town*. This morning, Stardock founder Brad Wardell announced the official name of the company’s upcoming Star Control prequel: Star Control: Origins. Wardell has also offered up the first public gameplay video:
Today’s announcement also gives us a tentative release date and an early price: the game will be coming to Windows and consoles, and the PC release will be in the second half of 2017. For $35 (£30), players can join the studio’s “Founder’s Program” and get access to the closed beta and some additional developer goodies.
A milieu of new sentients
The announcement has been a long time coming. Ars first spoke with Wardell about Star Control in the beginning of 2014 , about six months after the company acquired the naming rights to the Star Control series from Atari’s bankruptcy fire sale . Since then, Stardock has formed a new studio arm in Maryland and is producing the game in partnership with Oxide Games and Mohawk Games . Wardell is acting as executive producer.
Star Control: Origins, as its name suggests, will explore the time period around the founding of Earth’s “Star Control” organization. The game starts off 69 years before the events in Star Control 2, shortly after the Androsynth Rebellion. Stardock’s press release explains a bit more of the game’s opening:
The game starts in the year 2086 with the unaware humans receiving a distress call from an alien ship that has crashed on the moon of Triton leading to the formation of Star Control, an international space agency dedicated to protecting the Earth. The player takes on the role of The Captain of Earth’s first interstellar ship whose first mission is to investigate the distress signal.
The decision to go with a prequel rather than a sequel seems at first an odd choice, but it’s the result of the complexities of the Star Control franchise intellectual property. Even though Stardock has the naming and publishing rights to the Star Control franchise, it does not have the rights to use any of the Star Control aliens or story material in the first two games. All of that remains the property of original Star Control creators Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III. Ars reached out to Ford and Reiche for some elaboration, and Reiche responded with this clarifying statement:
Fred and I retain the copyright to all material in Star Control I & II, but we do not own the name "Star Control," which is why our open source project is called, "The Ur-Quan Masters." Stardock purchased the trademark for Star Control as well as the original material in Star Control III, which Fred and I also did not create. Super space-cows? What were they thinking?!
While it’s gratifying to see that Ford and Reiche hated Star Control 3 as much as the rest of us, this means that we won’t see the return of any familiar alien faces in Star Control: Origins—no Chenjesu, no Arilou, and no menacing green Ur-Quan. The company is spinning up all new aliens and an all new story to fill in the gap after the Androsynth rebellion but before the Ur-Quan wars.
As for an in-universe explanation on why those new aliens aren't in the follow-up games, Wardell explains that Star Control might get a little metaphysical. "One of the things we've done with Origins is make it clear that Star Control 1/2, 3, and Origins each exist in their own game universe. Have you ever read the book Ready Player One?" he asked. "We'd like to build Star Control up to being a multiverse where you start the game and can choose which universe you want to go into. A significant part of our budget has been put into developing tools so that after Origins is released, fans will be able to share their own universes with their own stories, aliens, etc."
And where are Fred and Paul?
On the subject of multiverses and the original Star Control creators, they haven’t had any official involvement in Stardock’s project. For the past several years, they’ve been involved in making Skylanders, the combo video game/collectible figure property that continues to almost literally print money. Though the two haven’t ruled out a return to Star Control one day, Stardock’s project isn’t their project.
I’ve passed e-mails back and forth with the pair a few times over the past couple of years, and I can report that trading e-mails with Paul Reiche III is exactly like talking to a slightly unstable Star Control alien—perhaps a Spathi who’s off his meds or an Umgah in the middle of an awesome joke. Unfortunately, it sounds like we’ll have to keep waiting for a resolution to Star Control 2’s notorious cliffhanger ending. Maybe someday we’ll find out what happened next.
Music, passion, and the real sport of kings
But let’s set aside thoughts of a sequel we don’t have and focus on the prequel we’re getting. Star Control: Origins is by all accounts a passion project for Wardell and Stardock, and the developers are going to great pains to ensure that the title works not just as a good game but as a good Star Control game. Of particular interest is the involvement of Finnish composer Riku Nuottajärvi, who was responsible for much of Star Control 2’s iconic .MOD music score. The music in the above embedded video was written by Nuottajärvi, and he’ll be contributing more music to the finished game.
More to the point, Wardell also assures me that the gameplay and storytelling style of Star Control 2 will be respected and mirrored in the new game—something that was sorely absent in Star Control 3. The old Star Control 2 is one of the finest examples of a “space exploration-adventure” sim, a genre that has been tragically underserved for more than two decades. Although modern titles like the Mass Effect series take some of their inspiration from the genre, the holy gaming trinity of Starflight, Starflight 2, and Star Control 2 stands alone, with no modern games quite managing to emulate that same mixture of beautifully crafted storytelling in a massive, open-space universe.
Star Control: Origins aims squarely at that place, but it also includes another Star Control staple: space melee combat. Arguably one of the most memorable features of the series, the previous games’ melee and “super melee” functions let players pick ships and face off against each other in heads-up combat on the same computer, with one player occupying the left half of the keyboard and the other player on the right. Although Star Control 2 veterans might remember Frungy as the sport of kings, the series' melee mode sucked down hours and hours of my life. Competitive Star Control melee let me imagine myself as a world-class video game athlete years before pro gaming was a thing.
Origins will continue the grand Star Control melee tradition and will also add netplay. "We intend to make Super Melee a pretty big part of the game from a multiplayer point of view," Wardell told Ars. "It'll be an expansion on what was in Star Control 2, except we would like to support more sophisticated battle arenas and up to 8 players. We picture there being a lot of different modes for Super Melee, ranging from classic to Dota-style super melee."
Release dates and early access
As mentioned above, Wardell is targeting the second half of 2017 for the PC release of the game, with a console release to follow. A final price hasn’t been announced, but for $35 (£30), interested gamers can join phase two of Stardock’s Founder’s program, which gets early access to the game’s beta, along with “mod tools, private journals and more.”
The first thing members of the Founder’s program will have access to is the multiplayer version of Super Melee, the head-to-head space combat portion of the game. Wardell indicated that Super Melee is planned for the fall of 2016, and more early access pieces will follow after that.
"This will be, by far, the biggest game we've ever done," said Wardell. "It has been a challenge to make sure this feels like a Star Control game. If it weren't for Paul and Fred, I probably wouldn't have become a game developer in the first place," he continued. "So it means a great deal to me personally that we make something that lives up to their standards. A lot of people forget that Paul and Fred didn't just do Star Control 1/2. They also made Archon, Mail Order Monsters, and of course Skylanders. They may be the greatest game designers in history."
Update: This evening, I received a note from Paul Reiche III via carrier pigeon, which I assume was written in a secure bunker paid for by mad Skylanders cash. The note contains a few corrections on games that were and weren't written by Toys For Bob. Rather than posting just an excerpt, I feel like it needs to be reproduced in full, so you all can see with your eyes what I've seen with mine.
Hi Lee, I wanted to say how much I enjoyed your article, but how do I actually write an email to you now? The standards you have set for my amusing incoherence are so high that I don’t know if I can hit this target reliably under such pressure. Now, every email I send, whether to you, the head of Activision or to my local Comcast knuckleheads, will be scrutinized for babbling genius. All is lost. Now I must return to moving irrigation pipe in Ogallala, Nebraska… and I am fairly famous there for how poorly I once did that job, just so you know. But with that preamble, let me move on the ‘full amble’ – a couple of clarifications relating to your article and some of the comments from your kind and clever readers (I also think they are generous, but I we’ll just have to see what I get in the mail). Fred and I did form Toys For Bob almost 28 years ago to create Star Control I & II, but not III. After that we made other cool games which either: a. Included lots of young Japanese ‘witch girls’ several of whom had magical make-up kits.
b. Employed Kirk Cameron. We are still working off the karma points.
c. Allowed you to fight a roaring, farting, angry, magical rhinoceros against a jet-powered, bomb-dropping ‘Killcycle’.
d. All of the above. Choose this answer. Archon and Archon II: Adept were created by Jon Freeman, Anne Westfall and Paul Reiche III (that’s me). Murder on the Zinderneuf, which no one has mentioned until now, was created by Jon Freeman, Robert Leyland and yours truly. Mail Order Monsters and World Tour Golf were created by Evan Robinson, Nicky Robinson, and again, me. Adios! -Paul
And...there you have it. |
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) was the first president to be elected based on popular sentiment. He was a war hero who gained popularity with the War of 1812. Nicknamed "Old Hickory," he was elected more for his personality than for the issues of the day. He was a very strong president who used his veto power more than all the previous presidents combined.
Following are some fast facts and basic information about Andrew Jackson.
For more in-depth information, you can also read the Andrew Jackson Biography.
Fast Facts: Andrew Jackson Birth : March 15, 1767
: March 15, 1767 Death : June 8, 1845
: June 8, 1845 Known for : President of the U.S.
: President of the U.S. Term of Office : March 4, 1829 to March 3, 1837
: March 4, 1829 to March 3, 1837 Number of Terms Elected : 2 Terms
: 2 Terms Spouse : Rachel Donelson Robards, died in 1828.
: Rachel Donelson Robards, died in 1828. Also known as : "Old Hickory"; "King Andrew"
: "Old Hickory"; "King Andrew" Quote: "Perpetuity is stamped upon the Constitution by the blood of our Fathers." Additional Andrew Jackson Quotes.
Major Events While in Office
Peggy Eaton Affair (1828-1831)
Veto of Maysville Road Bill (1830)
Indian Removal Act of 1830 (1830)
Ordinance of Nullification (1832)
Veto of Recharter of Second Bank of the United States (1832)
Black Hawk War (1832)
Assassination Attempt (1835)
Texas Revolution (1836)
States Entering Union While in Office
Arkansas (1836)
Michigan (1837)
Related Andrew Jackson Resources
These additional resources on Andrew Jackson can provide you with further information about the president and his times.
Andrew Jackson Biography: Learn about Andrew Jackson childhood, family, early career, and the major events of his administration.
Jacksonian Era: Learn about this period of great political upheaval and the events that would lead to more party involvement and a greater democratic sense.
War of 1812 Resources: Read about the people, places, battles and events of the War of 1812 that proved to the world America was here to stay.
War of 1812 Timeline: This timeline focuses on the events of the War of 1812.
Top 10 Significant Presidential Elections
Andrew Jackson was involved in two of the top ten significant elections in American History. In 1824, John Quincy Adams beat him for the presidency when it was put into the House of Representatives through what has been called the Corrupt Bargain. Jackson then went on to win the Election of 1828. |
The biggest change with the Puritan spoon was its handle, which was entirely unadorned. It had no decorative "knop" on the end. Over the previous few centuries, silversmiths lavished great artistry on a part of the spoon we would now consider almost irrelevant, adding little sculptures called knops on the end point of the handle. Pre-1649 knop "finials" included diamonds and acorns, owls and bunches of grapes, naked women and sitting lions. Some knops were flat-ended abstract shapes, such as a stamp or a seal. Others depicted Christ and his apostles in ornate finials.
None of these decorative spoons found favor during the Commonwealth, when excessive decoration of any kind, particularly religious, was disapproved of. The Roundheads lopped the heads off spoons just as they lopped off the king's head. The new republican eating utensils were entirely devoid of pattern, just plain, dense lumps of silver. It has been suggested that one reason Puritan spoons were made so heavy was that citizens used them to hoard silver against the frequent proclamations that came through to give up your personal silver to pay for the defense of the town. If your silver was tied up in cutlery, you could claim it was essential and prevent its being confiscated.
In any case, it wouldn't be long before the Puritan spoon was itself swept away by the spoon of the Restoration, the trifid, which traveled with the newly crowned Charles II from his court of exile on the Continent. It is the earliest spoon in its modern form; most spoons today, however cheaply made, still owe something to the trifid. No British person had ever eaten from such a spoon before in Britain -- the first trifids are hallmarked 1660. Yet by 1680, they had spread through the entirety of Charles's kingdom and remained the dominant spoon type for 40 years, killing off both the Puritan spoon and the fig-shaped spoons that went before. The base metal spoons of the masses made from pewter and latten also changed shape from Puritan to trifid. The change was not gradual, but sudden. Politically, no one wanted to be seen eating dinner with a Roundhead spoon.
The bowl of the trifid was a deep oval rather than a shallow fig. Like the Puritan, the trifid had a flat handle, but it now swelled toward the end, with a distinctive cleft shape (hence the name, which means "three-cleft"). The design is French; the trefoil is an echo of the fleur-de-lis, the stylized lily associated with French kingship. On the reverse side, the hammered stem continued up onto the back of the bowl, finishing in a dart-shaped groove sometimes called a "rat tail." Over the decades, these new spoons also seem to have gone along with changes in the way they were held. Certain shapes invite you to hold them in certain ways. Because of the knobbly part at the end, medieval spoons are easiest to hold with the stem under the thumb at a right angle. The trifid, by contrast, could be held in the polite English way, with the handle resting in the palm of the hand, parallel with the thumb. With a regal trifid in your hand, poised to plunge it into an apple pie, you might forget that a reigning monarch had ever been executed or that England had ever done without its king. This was kitchenware as political propaganda. |
The inventor of the ground-breaking gTar – an iPhone-enabled guitar that makes learning the instrument more fun and intuitive – says the next wave of innovation in Silicon Valley is destined to be in hardware.
Idan Beck, a 27-year-old former Microsoft employee and Cornell electrical computer engineering graduate, invented the gTar three years ago and has spent the intervening time preparing it for market. Last month, he and co-founders Josh Stansfield and Franco Cedano demonstrated the product at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York, nabbing second place in the competition. It was remarkable achievement for a hardware start-up competing in an industry that has in recent years been totally dominated by software.
For many in Silicon Valley, hardware is a no-go zone. The costs are too high, the risks too large, and the consequences of failure more extreme than for software, which can be repurposed, spun off, or simply shut down without scorching the books. But Beck thinks that is about to change.
“There are so many ways for tech to integrate into people's lives that haven't been explored because of the cost associated with it,” he says, over a call from Santa Clara, where his startup, Incident Technologies, is based. Those costs, however, are now diminishing. It’s no longer necessary for hardware start-ups to have their own factories or manufacturing chains, Beck says, because that can be affordably done in other countries, such as China.
“It's just as easy as it was to do this maybe 10 years ago, but the costs have gone down drastically, information's gone up drastically, and people's mentalities have changed,” says Beck.
He doesn’t support reflexive outsourcing of manufacturing. Indeed, before turning to China, he tried to get the gTar made in the US. He visited factories in the East Bay, but in a year and a half of trying, he got no bids. His business didn’t provide high-enough margins for the factories to justify taking on the job. In China, however, he was met with open arms. He says not only do the factories in China offer generous prices, but the teams he works with are highly professional and qualified. Some of his colleagues there have become close friends.
Beck argues that conditions are thus ripe to take tech to the next level in Silicon Valley. After all, he asks, "How much better is the iPhone really going to get?” Innovation in software and traditional devices is starting to plateau, which means we’re ready to move into a phase of “transparent technology,” in which technology becomes more integrated into our daily lives.
Beck moved to the US from Israel as a boy and is the son of parents who have spent their careers in the innovation industry. He remembers programming in QBasic as a five-year-old, and spending long hours throughout his childhood on a computer. While at Cornell, he developed a stabilization system for an autonomous helicopter, against the advice of his professor, who wanted Beck to work on something more attainable.
Now Beck speaks of a world in which we have intelligent jugs that alert us when the milk has gone bad, or shampoo bottles that tell Amazon when they’re running low, so Amazon can automatically fire off an order for more supplies. He sees huge potential for connected hardware in the medical field, where biometric devices could gather data and help implement remedies for difficult-to-solve ailments, and envisages a time in which we all carry a device the size of a Tic Tac box that acts as a de facto hard drive, turning itself into a computer whenever we walk close to a monitor.
It was this philosophy of transparent technology that drove his development of the gTar. By focusing on solving problems within music education, he could prove the potential of such an approach while building on the platforms laid down by the Guitar Hero and Rock Band console games. The gTar is a fully functioning guitar that comes with a dock for an iPhone. A gTar app activates an array of interactive LEDs along the guitar's fretboard that demonstrate how to play particular songs.
“The success of Guitar Hero and Rock Band demonstrated the tip-of-the-iceberg effect of that,” says Beck, “although those were very much aspirational sort of experiences. What we’re trying to do is create a truly immersive interactive experience that over the long term does have a positive effect and maybe an educational effect in giving people both a vocabulary, an understanding of music, as well as the dexterity and motor skills required to do those things."
Despite the early promise of his vision, however, the gTar was anything but a default success. Beck spent a lot of time pitching the idea to potential investors and other industry players who didn’t share his excitement and thought hardware was a fruitless tangent.
“It was like when you ask out that really hot girl in high school to go on a date, and you don't realize that she doesn’t know you,” Beck says. “And she’s like, ‘Oh yeah, you betcha.' It wasn’t like getting a door slammed in my face. It was, ‘Wow, you did something really impressive that is completely irrelevant and not interesting for us to talk about or even consider as something serious.’”
The gTar’s impact at Disrupt, however, might just be the catalyst for changing those attitudes. Incident has raised about $325,000 for the project on Kickstarter, and a further $745,000 in an angel round, which includes investments from Dropbox's Drew Houston, Keith Teare of Archimedes Labs, and Naval Ravikant of AngelList.
While he was disappointed to miss out on Disrupt’s top prize – won by pure-play software company Uberconference – it was more important that the gTar got taken seriously. Beck is now convinced that hardware in Silicon Valley will soon at least be taken as seriously as software.
“I don’t really care about winning,” he says. “What we really won that day is that we broke down that barrier that we've been fighting against for three years: That hardware is not impossible to do in Silicon Valley.” |
britain's got talent
Train your dog to become a BGT winner
Dog expert Emma Lock, from north London doggy day care company Klub K9 Ltd, explains how you can transform your idle pooch into a star attraction
Does your dog have star attraction? All dogs have the potential to learn tricks, but some dogs and breeds are naturally faster learners, such as collies and poodles. Breeds which like to use their noses - beagles and spaniels for example - can take a little longer.
Lay the foundations Having a good grasp of obedience training (sit, stay, come, leave, etc.) is a great platform from which to learn about how your dog picks up new skills and what sort of tricks they would enjoy learning.
Start with a high five I find that 'high five' and 'spin' are a great place to start when it comes to learning tricks, and as you both learn how to work together, you can begin to learn and teach more complicated tricks. It's important to break a trick down into manageable steps. You can also employ the use of a 'clicker' to cue your dog that they have done a great behaviour. With a clicker, timing is everything and this can take some practice.
It could take ten minutes, two days, or forever The most recent dog I taught how to give a high-five was an eight-month-old cocker spaniel puppy who picked up the high-five trick in under 10 minutes. Some dogs will pick up the trick even faster, but others may take a day or two to grasp the concept. Perseverance is key, but ultimately not all dogs will take to certain tricks. If you're both struggling with a high-five, move on to another trick, such as jumping through a hoop, speaking or rolling over.
Be patient Little and often works best, especially in a setting where there aren't many distractions or other dogs and when it's quiet. Your dog shouldn't get tired if you make the learning sessions positive and fun. If you find yourself getting impatient or fed up when a trick is taking a long time to learn, stop on a positive command which is easy for your dog, such as 'sit' and then come back to the trick later.
Bribery works The key to teaching your dog any trick is to find out what motivates them to learn. Some dogs love food rewards, others will perform a trick for affection or the toss of a ball or a game of tug-of-war. It's all about experimentation and finding out what works for you and your dog, and ultimately having lots of fun. |
The Flare Path turns five this week. Here in the UK that means it can no longer travel for free on funiculars, steam tinkers, or Bounding Billies, and risks prosecution if found in possession of an imaginary dog or an impish grin. Growing up sucks. Thank goodness there are occasional distractions like this compendium of word and picture puzzles. In the dappled glade beyond the break five unusually approachable foxers lounge. Tackle these solo brainteasers (co-op defoxing will return next week) within the next 48 hours and you’ve a chance of winning various top-notch wargames and sim add-ons . (Competitions now closed)
This year’s twenty-four prizes, all of which come in the form of Steam activation codes, have been provided by the good eggs at Slitherine, Graviteam, Killerfish Games and Polychop Simulations/Eagle Dynamics. As usual they are games and add-ons held in high regard by Flare Path rather than random tat that happened to be tossed in our direction.
Anyone who fancies a spot of sublime panzer persecuting, samurai superintending, wolfpack walloping, Hitler humouring, or Gazelle taming, will need to send me (timfstone at gmail dot com) their answers before 12.00 UTC Sunday. The prize draws will take place an hour or two after the deadline. Not received a congratulatory email by Monday morning? Hard cheese, old bean. That jezebel Lady Luck has obviously chosen to haystack-romp with someone else on this occasion.
The ‘Stuff Worth Bearing In Mind Before You Get Started’ Section
You may not need to completely solve a puzzle to qualify for its draw. See individual puzzle instructions for details.
NO ANSWERS IN THE COMMENTS! The last person to spoil an FP birthday special by sharing answers awoke the next morning to find that he’d been blackballed by my very literal Chief Foxer Setter, Roman. Horribly sticky stuff, bitumen.
The last person to spoil an FP birthday special by sharing answers awoke the next morning to find that he’d been blackballed by my very literal Chief Foxer Setter, Roman. Horribly sticky stuff, bitumen. While you’re welcome to enter all five competitions, there’s a strict one-entry-per-person-per-competition rule. Anyone thinking of surreptitiously submitting multiple entries for a particular foxer should stand under a cold shower muttering “What have I become?” until they come to their senses.
I understand that a couple of last year’s Steam codes were never redeemed. If you’re not interested in playing Thugs in StuGs 2, Combat War Front Battle Tactics VII, or whatever, please make that clear in any submissions.
Smith had Wesson, Blohm had Voss, I have my lovely readers. Thank you for all the thoughtful observations, helpful suggestions, and morale-boosting words of encouragement scrawled beneath FPs during the past year. Thanks for tolerating my numerous thematic blindspots and grotesque overuse of the words ‘plausible’ and ‘grotesque’.
Best of luck!
* * * * *
Missing Vowels foxer
(Five copies of Atlantic Fleet up for grabs)
Atlantic Fleet is as absorbing as it is accessible, as fetching as it is fresh. A dual-layer delight, its briny battlespaces are rarely debris-free for long. Every play session deposits a few eviscerated freighters, ruptured U-boats, and charred Condors in Davy Jones’ locker. Below is a list of a dozen things you might find in the real Atlantic Ocean. Though the salt water has eaten away vowels and currents have moved spaces (for example, RMS Titanic might appear as RMSTT NC, Sperm Whale as SPR MWHL) peer and ponder for long enough and the eleven correct answers required for prize draw eligibility should appear.
1. CBRG (ICEBERG)
2. SRG SSS (SARGASSO SEA)
3. R GWV (ROGUE WAVE)
4. SCN SNSLND (ASCENSION ISLAND)
5. GNTS QD (GIANT SQUID)
6. GL FSTRM (GULF STREAM)
7. TLGR PHCBL (TELEGRAPH CABLE)
8. SSSCR PN (USS SCORPION)
9. SNTH LN (SAINT HELENA)
10. NNT CKTSHLS (NANTUCKET SHOALS)
11. NR THRNGNNT (NORTHERN GANNET)
12. RDCT VWST (RADIOACTIVE WASTE)
* * * * *
Rivers foxer
(Five copies of Graviteam Tactics: Mius-Front up for grabs)
Graviteam’s latest Eastern Front opus scatters riveting war stories like an S-mine scatters lethal ball bearings. The combination of high-quality ballistics, detailed damage modelling, solid AI and sophisticated physics, means situations that would be drab and predictable in other wargames often surprise and mesmerise in the marvellous Mius-Front. Any GTMF player able to monitor scraps exclusively from a sensible high-altitude vantage point is a very odd fish indeed.
In honour of the game’s title, Chief Foxer Setter Roman has put together a riverine collage foxer. Send me the names of nine of the ten rivers suggested by the ten picture clues and your name will be tossed into the hat for Sunday’s draw.
Volga, Hudson, Mississippi, Amazon, Nile, Jordan, Tuul, Colorado, Thames, Orange.
Roman also accepted some other interpretations including Bug (Colorado), Yellow (Orange), and Onon (Tuul).
* * * * *
‘Where am I?’ foxer
(Five copies of Sengoku Jidai: Shadow of the Shogun Collector’s Edition up for grabs)
The automatic pursuit mechanism in Pike & Shot and its unmissable Japanese offshoot Sengoku Jidai is worthy of an Alex Wiltshire piece. With one simple, beautifully executed design flourish Richard Bodley Scott explains why pre-rifle pitched battles rarely resembled chess games, and ensures most P&S and SJ rivals feel horribly stilted. Combine auto pursuits with randomly generated countryside, a simple dynamic strat layer, and smart opponents, and you’ve got a recipe for endlessly entertaining engagements. As you’ll discover if you’re lucky enough to win a copy of Sengoku Jidai Collector’s Edition by correctly answering the following question:
Where am I? (city and street name required)
I can see a sculpture of a woman holding two children.
The street I’m on is named after a national hero.
I’m in a country that has land borders with five countries.
I’m a stone’s throw from a ruined factory.
The city I’m in was once part of the Ottoman Empire.
I’m 1000 miles from the location of a famous WW2 German defeat.
I’m at the same longitude as a soldier sim venue.
I’m surrounded by punchlines.
Directly below me is a Danube tributary.
I’m in a country that has yet to win any medals at the 2016 Olympics.
I was standing on the bridge at the end of ‘Hristo Botev’ in Gabrovo, Bulgaria.
* * * * *
Anagrams foxer
(Five copies of Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa up for grabs)
Grognardia would be a much more interesting place if Cameron Harris‘ fascination with command structure politics was more widespread. In the deliciously human Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa you aren’t a faceless counter pusher – an anonymous combination of multiple military bigwigs – you’re a real person with bosses to placate, underlings to chivvy, and colleagues to coerce.
VR Designs’ stimulating combination of hex conquering and relationship nurturing will, I believe, be best appreciated by gamers already steeped in Eastern Front gaming, hence the following foxer. Decipher at least nine of the ten anagrammed Ost Front wargame shortcuts to put yourself in the running for a Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa Steam code (Sadly, the slab of fab that is the hardback manual isn’t included in the prize, but you can upgrade for £13 via matrixgames.com).
Top row: Unity of Command, Battle Academy 2: Eastern Front, Close Combat III: The Russian Front, Graviteam Tactics: Operation Star, World War 2: Europe
Bottom row: Korsun Pocket, Battles of Kursk – Southern Flank, Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin, Decisive Campaigns: Case Blue, Gary Grigsby’s War in the East
* * * * *
Manuals foxer
(Four copies of the DCS World SA342 Gazelle add-on up for grabs)
There was a time not so very long ago when the skies above Flare Path HQ were regularly enhanced by Aérospatiale elegance. Nowadays ugly olive-green robber flies are almost the only Army Air Corps hoverers you see. Polychop’s first add-on for DCS World helps fill the void, and, via an extensive livery library, serves as a reminder of the type’s surprisingly diverse and long combat career (Gazelles have been accosting AFVs and importuning infantry for over thirty years).
Standing between you and a peerless SA342 facsimile with a hang-on-to-your-hat flight model and alarmingly entertaining wire-guided weaponry, are a dozen flight sim manual fragments. Work-out the sources of at least eleven of the page portions shown below (this bigger version might prove useful) and one of the four available Gazelles could be yours.
a) MiG Alley
b) Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2
c) Tornado
d) Eurofighter Typhoon
e) Hind
f) Falcon 4.0
g) Flanker 2.0
h) Jane’s Longbow 2
i) F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0
j) B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th
k) Rise of Flight
l) 1942: The Pacific Air War
(As some passages and images feature in the manuals of more than one version of a sim, Roman accepted alternative answers for some fragments) |
There was definitely some nervous apprehension on my part before meeting Winona Ryder -- which, having done this sort of thing hundreds of times before, doesn't happen often. This most likely stems from my preexisting notion that she's shy or reserved -- or, at the very least, media shy and reserved in front of the press. Soon after meeting the petite actor -- who still doesn't look all that different from the person who danced to Harry Belafonte's "Jump in the Line" at the end of "Beetlejuice" -- I discovered something that would have put my nervous mind at ease: Winona Ryder is, well ... a bit of a nerd.
Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but she is a fan of the original "Star Trek" television series and used to have a life-size poster of Ellen Ripley on her wall.
Ryder's new movie is "The Iceman," the latest in a string of recent higher profile roles for the actress, following films as diverse as "Black Swan" and "Star Trek" (yes we'll get to "Star Trek"). In "The Iceman," Ryder plays Deborah Kuklinski, who is married to notorious mob killer Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon) -- only she's not aware of that whole "mob killer" part.
In a conversation that lasted longer than planned, Ryder dove deep into her filmography to discuss everything from the 25th anniversary of "Beetlejuice" to two of her (somewhat surprising) favorite movie experiences: "Alien Resurrection" and, especially, Richard Linklater's "A Scanner Darkly" (Ryder's return to acting after a time spent more in tabloids, not movies). If you take one thing away from this interview, it's that Ryder really loves "A Scanner Darkly."
I feel like you've been getting a lot of good roles lately, like the one in "The Iceman."
Yeah ...
Are you picky?
Well, I mean, who knows, really? I think there was a time when -- and every actor will tell you -- there's a time when you're sort of at the height of everything and people will tell you that you're offered everything. You're kind of under that impression. And then, years later, you find out maybe not. Or that they offered you something that you never even got told about.
What's an example of that?
Let me think. ... I remember running into a really amazing legendary actor.
Can you say who?
I can't. ... This is like 10 years ago. And he was like, "Hey, you didn't like the script?" And I was like, "What? What script? What are you talking about?" Now I'm in a better situation. I think it happens to every actor when they reach a certain level, if they're around certain people, they just assume there has got to be egos.
For example, after "Reality Bites," were you getting inundated with offers to play that type of character again?
And you know what? I may not know!
Do you feel in more control now?
Well, I think I feel ... I don't want this to come across the wrong way, but I do feel like a bit more selective. I'm not saying that I'm being flooded with offers all of the time. The way the industry is now, where if you decide you want to take some time off and go to something else, it's not as easy. Back then, I was able to do that. I was able to do it a few different times in my life. I was able to slow down -- I was able to do other things I was interested it. But, now, with the Internet and this sort of instant access -- which is a whole other conversation.
Oh?
I have been misquoted, even just in the last week when I was doing the junket in LA, someone asked me something -- and it was very sort of casual -- and they were talking about me and the '90s and they said something about "take its toll," and I'm like, "Oh, yeah, you know." And then I see this headline, "It Took Its Toll." So, you never know. The other one that was my favorite, my dad sent it to me because I never go on the Internet that much, "Winona Ryder Wants To Be In a Philip Roth Movie" ... and I wasn't talking about an adaptation. And I actually maybe shouldn't have said that because they were asking me about films.
It's like asking if someone wants to be in the next "Star Wars" movie, which becomes a headline.
I've been asked this a lot, but I didn't realize there was another "Star Trek."
Oh, yeah, it comes out in two weeks.
Well, I've been working and I heard, but ...
What appealed to you about doing "Star Trek"?
Well, I was a fan of the show. Did you ever see that great documentary, "Trekkies?"
Yes.
It's such a good documentary. And the woman who was in "Star Trek" [Denise Crosby], I thought she was so gracious in the way she was talking to these people. She was so present and interested and gracious.
It's not there to make fun of anyone.
Exactly. And I have to say, I was a fan of the original show -- I didn't see "The Next Generation." And it was a couple of days, you know. I remember I was dressed in some like outfit and we were way out in the desert. And they came and they knocked -- they had these PAs with umbrellas -- and I thought they were for me. And I was like, "Oh, I can just walk." And they were like, "No, because if you get photographed ..." It was so funny because I thought they were for me and I was like "Oh, you guys, don't be silly." My God. I had no idea you had to sign your life away.
Do you like doing sci-fi? Was "Alien Resurrection" a good experience?
Yeah.
Not everyone loves that installment.
I know. But it was one of the greatest times. It was so fun and, you know, I know how certain people feel. But, it's kind of like a really cool art film. It's not scary, but it's Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who was actually my idea. Because they were a few directors who were going to do it -- Danny Boyle was going to do it -- and it didn't work out.
And David Fincher had just done the one before.
Yeah, and I was obsessed with "Delicatessen" and "City of Lost Children." And, so, I was thrilled. And our first assistant director had done "Rosemary's Baby," so it's this amazing French crew. And the cast was amazing and I'm still really close to all of them. It was just a great, great time. It really was. When I was a kid, I had a wall-size poster of Ripley -- she was the first female action hero. You think it's going to be Dallas, you don't think it's going to be her -- you think it's going to be Tom Skerritt. And, of course, back then you didn't have all the secrecy. I guess now there's all of the spoilers. I'm very nostalgic for the old days because of that mystery and not knowing.
Which is why J.J. Abrams made people come to your door with umbrellas. He wants it all to come out in the movie.
It has changed. The business has changed. I do wonder if I would have gotten into it if I were starting out now -- if I were younger and starting out now. Because, back then when I started out, it was just different.
And now it's been 25 years since "Beetlejuice."
I know. I know. That is crazy. And it's weird because I still feel, weirdly, very close to it. I just got an email from Tim [Burton]. I think there's a nostalgia going on for that era, or something. But I do feel like Lydia, that character, really, if I hadn't done that role, I don't think I would have ended up an actress.
Why not?
I didn't have that look at that time. So, doing that and then "Heathers" right afterwards ... yeah, yeah, it's interesting.
I saw a study that the name Heather lost a lot of popularity as a baby name after that movie?
Wow. That is funny! That is funny. But you do want to be more selective because it's like John Lennon said, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." And when you are cranking out, suddenly two years go by. And you're like, "Where did that go?" And then it's also "all about you." And then, meanwhile, your friend is going through some horrible time and you're like, "Oh, I just have to finish this." And I don't want to be that person. I want to be a good friend, a good sister, a good person and a good actress. And, also, I started so young and it's the only thing I've ever done. I think it's important to have as much as a normal life and take the time to get perspective because it only helps your work in the long run.
You alluded to that time period in which you were doing other things. How important to you was "A Scanner Darkly"? Did it have to be a movie that was really interesting and weird to come back to making movies?
Well, gosh, it thrills me to no end that you brought up that movie. That makes me so happy because I think that's such a great, brilliant movie. And you're absolutely right. I was like not ... I was in San Francisco, I was doing work with City Lights -- doing a whole thing. And I wasn't wanting to -- and I got that call. It was kind of a no-brainer and it was [Richard] Linklater.
Well, not really if you weren't wanting to be in movies.
Yeah, but it was also Robert Downey Jr. and Keanu [Reeves], who I had known since I was 16. And I worked with both of them and I had known Woody Harrelson. But, Richard Linklater -- who I think is so great -- and then Philip K. Dick who I'm a huge fan of and who had been roommates with my godfather. I am so happy that you brought that up because people don't bring that up a lot. That is a movie that I'm so proud of and I really hope that, in time, that movie has an audience. "Heathers," people didn't catch -- it took awhile. But that one is a real special one.
I've heard it discussed by movie writers.
Oh, good. That makes me so happy.
I feel it was a good comeback role.
Well, I really appreciate that ... I don't want it to come across that no one ever asks about it, if that's mean to the movie. It just means so much to me. It's such a special movie.
Mike Ryan is senior writer for Huffington Post Entertainment. You can contact him directly on Twitter. |
Crews on Monday were working on salvaging a 40-foot sailboat that sank in Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor, according to authorities.
The boat was completely underwater when it was discovered by maintenance crews before 9 a.m. Monday, Long Beach Fire Department Capt. Pete Kusel said.
The boat sank near Dock Four in Rainbow Harbor, which is by the Grand Romance Riverboat, which hosts events and cruises, according to Kusel.
A salvage crew secures a 40 foot wooden sailing ship that sank at a dock in Rainbow Harbor. Long Beach Calif., Monday, November 13, 2017. ( Photo by Stephen Carr, Daily Breeze / SCNG )
A salvage crew secures a 40 foot wooden sailing ship that sank at a dock in Rainbow Harbor. Long Beach Calif., Monday, November 13, 2017. ( Photo by Stephen Carr, Daily Breeze / SCNG )
A salvage crew secures a 40 foot wooden sailing ship that sank at a dock in Rainbow Harbor. Long Beach Calif., Monday, November 13, 2017. ( Photo by Stephen Carr, Daily Breeze / SCNG )
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A salvage crew secures a 40 foot wooden sailing ship that sank at a dock in Rainbow Harbor. Long Beach Calif., Monday, November 13, 2017. ( Photo by Stephen Carr, Daily Breeze / SCNG )
A 40 foot wooden sailing ship that sank at a dock in Rainbow Harbor. Long Beach Calif., Monday, November 13, 2017. ( Photo by Stephen Carr, Daily Breeze / SCNG )
A salvage crew secures a 40 foot wooden sailing ship that sank at a dock in Rainbow Harbor. Long Beach Calif., Monday, November 13, 2017. ( Photo by Stephen Carr, Daily Breeze / SCNG )
A salvage crew secures a 40 foot wooden sailing ship that sank at a dock in Rainbow Harbor. Long Beach Calif., Monday, November 13, 2017. ( Photo by Stephen Carr, Daily Breeze / SCNG )
A salvage crew secures a 40 foot wooden sailing ship that sank at a dock in Rainbow Harbor. Long Beach Calif., Monday, November 13, 2017. ( Photo by Stephen Carr, Daily Breeze / SCNG )
Bill Barker, who owns the Grand Romance, said the sail boat also belongs to him.
“I guess it got a leak in it and it sunk,” he said.
Barker described it as a replica wooden pirate ship that was built in 1968.
He said people often stopped by to take pictures of it.
Barker said he’s making arrangements to float the boat back to the surface so he can get it repaired.
“It’s just a wood boat so it won’t hurt nothing,” he said.
Kusel said the boat also leaked some oil into the water as it sank, but fire crews responded and set up booms in the water to contain the spill. |
(This story appears in today’s edition of USA TODAY.)
Paige VanZant says age has been her best friend and biggest enemy over the past year.
The UFC introduced the women’s strawweight division (115 pounds) earlier this year and launched “The Ultimate Fighter 20” to crown an inaugural champion.
VanZant, 20, originally was announced as a cast member on the FOX Sports 1-broadcast show, but later was ruled ineligible because alcohol is allowed in the fighter house on the reality series.
As a result, VanZant (4-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) had her first UFC appearance delayed to this past weekend’s UFC Fight Night 57 event in Austin, Texas.
With more than 200 UFC debuts this year, VanZant’s first octagon appearance was initially viewed as any other. However, even outside the confines of “TUF 20,” she helped put the division on the map by beating Kailin Curran with a third-round TKO for “Fight of the Night” honors.
Her $50,000 bonus win created a buzz around her name that might have been difficult to capture on a reality show with 15 other women.
“Not being on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ was a blessing in disguise,” VanZant tells USA TODAY Sports and MMAjunkie. “It would have been an awesome experience, but now that I’ve had my fight and got my win, I wouldn’t have done it any other way.”
VanZant admits she once was frustrated it was her age that kept her off the show, but she now sees the silver lining. She believes the fight-night bonus and recognition from the win was more valuable than the alternative of 12 weeks on reality TV.
“It was perfect,” VanZant says. “I had 18 months of downtime without the show. It allowed me to focus on getting better and focus on my skills.”
VanZant’s finish of Curran was just the second women’s “Fight of the Night” in UFC history. The other was a fight won by women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, whom VanZant sees as a role model.
“Women’s MMA wouldn’t be as developed as it is right now without Ronda,” VanZant says. “She built the women’s 135(-pound) division so we could have the 115 division. I have to be thankful for her for being such a good role model. It’s been able to open the division for me.”
Jeff Meyers, VanZant’s manager and CEO of MMA Inc., has seen many faces come and go. But with VanZant, he sees a talent he believes is here for the long haul.
“Paige fits right into that caliber of fighter that has crossover potential, not only with her fighting skills, but also star power,” Meyers says. “She’s an excellent fighter, an attractive person, very smart and well-spoken. She’s got a really bright future in the UFC.”
VanZant believes she’ll be right in the mix to challenge for the strawweight title after it’s crowned on Dec. 12 in Las Vegas.
She also believes she could become the Rousey of her division.
“I can be the star of this weight class,” VanZant says. “I have the potential to win every fight the UFC offers me. I want the belt and I definitely have the mindset of a champion.”
For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 57, check out the UFC Events section of the site. |
As expected, the Apple Store has gone down ahead of Apple’s Hey Siri event later today at 10 AM PST. Although we don’t expect the iPhone, iPad Pro or Apple TV to be available to buy today, the site will return with information about the new products after the presentation is over. There is a chance that Apple’s updates to Apple Watch — new band colors and a new gold Sport watch — may be available immediately.
Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
With the recent redesign of Apple.com, integrating the shop directly into the store, some had expected the icon Apple Store is down trope to change. However, it seems like Apple has decided to preserve this tradition as is, with the same ‘We’ll be back’ message. You can see the announcement as soon as you navigate to one of Apple’s ‘shop’ pages. The homepage, and some other product info pages, remain as normal.
Catch all the announcements from the event live on 9to5Mac, starting at 10 AM PT. |
UPDATE: New firmware with JTAG and more
We’re always excited to get a new chip or SIM card to interface, but our enthusiasm is often dampened by the prototyping process. Interfacing any chip usually means breadboarding a circuit, writing code, and hauling out the programmer; maybe even a prototyping PCB.
A few years ago we built the first ‘Bus Pirate’, a universal bus interface that talks to most chips from a PC serial terminal. Several standard serial protocols are supported at 3.3-5volts, including I2C, SPI, and asynchronous serial. Additional ‘raw’ 2- and 3- wire libraries can interface almost any proprietary serial protocols. Since this has been such a useful tool for us, we cleaned up the code, documented the design, and released it here with specs, schematic, and source code.
Concept Overview
The Bus Pirate is a serial terminal bridge to multiple IC interface protocols. We type commands into a serial terminal on the computer. The commands go to the Bus Pirate through the PC serial port. The Bus Pirate talks to a microchip in the proper protocol, and returns the results to the PC.
All pins output 3.3volts, but are 5volt tolerant. On-board 3.3volt and 5volt power supplies are available to power the connected chip. Software configurable I2C pull-up resistors complete the package.
The serial terminal interface works with any system: PC, Mac, Linux, Palm Pilots, WinCE devices, etc; no crapware required. We considered a USB device, but USB isn’t compatible with the huge number of hand-held devices that have a serial port. We also wanted a 3.3volt device with 5volt tolerant inputs, but most popular through-hole USB microcontollers were 5volt parts (e.g. the PIC18Fx550).
The Bus Pirate currently ‘speaks’ three hardware protocols for high-speed interfacing, and has two software protocol libraries for easy bus manipulation. The theory and specification of each protocol is beyond what we can cover here, but check out some of these tutorials:
I2C
A slow 2 wire bus. Wikipedia is a great place to start for I2C background. I2C-Bus.org, Robot Electronics, Embedded Systems Academy, and Embedded.com have decent I2C tutorials.
SPI
A simple 3 wire bus. Wikipedia has background; Embedded.com has a great tutorial and comparison to I2C.
Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART or serial)
A clock and timing dependent serial protocol best known for its appearance as the PC serial port protocol. Wikipedia has background on asynchronous serial protocols.
Raw 2 wire
This is a generic 2 wire protocol library, similar to I2C but without an ACK bit. I2C and many proprietary 2 wire protocols can be formed using the bus manipulations available in this mode. Use this library to work with non-I2C 2 wire devices, like smartcards or Sensirion SHT11 temperature/humidity sensors.
Raw 3 wire
This is a generic 3 wire protocol library, similar to SPI but without the constraints of a hardware module. Use this library to work with devices that use non-8bit compatible 3-wire protocols, like the Sparkfun Nokia 6100 LCD knock-off. Many 3 wire protocols can be formed using the bus manipulations available in this mode.
Hardware
Click for a full size PCB placement image (PNG). Screw terminals connect to the power supplies. A row of seven pin headers connect to the IO pins. Despite the label, only 7volts DC is required.
PIN SPI I2C RS232 B9 MOSI SDA – B8 CLK SCL – B7 MISO – RX B6 CS – TX B5 AUX AUX AUX Ground GND GND GND
This table shows the pin connections for each bus mode. Raw 2 wire mode uses the same pin configuration as I2C. Raw 3 wire mode uses the same pin configuration as SPI.
Click for a full size circuit image (PNG). The circuit and PCB are designed using the freeware version of Cadsoft Eagle. Download the project archive (ZIP).
PIC 24FJ64GA002
We used a PIC24FJ64GA002 microcontroller in the Bus Pirate; this is the same chip we used in our mini-server project. It’s fast enough to do everything we want (16MIPS), and the peripheral pin select feature allows the hardware SPI, UART, and I2C modules to share output pins. Each power pin needs a decoupling capacitor(C12,13), and the MCLR function requires a resistor (R7) between pin 1 and 3.3volts. The PIC has an internal voltage regulator that requires a 10uF tantalum capacitor (C3), though we used a plain electrolytic capacitor without issue. Read about programming and working with this chip in our PIC24F tutorial. If you don’t have a PIC debugger, several readers recommend the under-$40 ICD2 clones on eBay.
The PIC runs at 3.3volts, but the digital-only pins are 5volt tolerant for interfacing 5volt logic. Pins 14,15,16,17,18,21, and 22, are digital only, which we determined by looking through the datasheet and eliminating any pins with an analog connection type (table 1-2, pages 11-16). According to the datasheet, I2C pins are also 5volt tolerant. There’s a bunch of conflicting information on the web, but datasheet page 230, parameter DI28, clearly states that the max input for a 24FJ64GA002 I2C pin without analog circuitry is 5.5volts.
Pins 21 and 22 (RB10/11) can pull-up SDA/SCL through resistors R4 and R5.
MAX3223CPP
This chip converts 3.3volt serial output to +/-10volt RS232 signals compatible with a PC serial port. The MAX3223CPP is a 3-5volt version of the MAX202, with extra power saving features. MAX RS232 transceivers require four 0.1uF capacitors for a charge pump (C4,5,7,8), and one decoupling capacitor (C17). We used the same capacitors for everything.
We used a MAX3223CPP, which doesn’t seem to be available anymore. MAX3223EEPP+ is a pin-compatible newer version, available at Digikey for $7. Ouch! None of the 3223’s power saving features are used, so a cheaper, simpler 3.3volt RS232 transceiver should be substituted if at all possible.
Power supplies
Most chips can be powered from the Bus Pirate’s on-board 3.3volt and 5volt supplies. 5volts is supplied by a common 7805 regulator (VR2) and two decoupling capacitors (C9,10). An LM317 adjustable regulator (VR1) is set to 3.3volts using two resistors (R2,3), and requires two decoupling capacitors (C6,7). The circuit requires a 7-10volt DC supply (J1).
Part list
Firmware
The firmware is written in C using the free demonstration version of the PIC C30 compiler. Learn all about working with this PIC in our introduction to the PIC 24F series. Download the project archive (ZIP).
main.c – Handles the user terminal interface.
busPirate.c – Abstraction routines that convert syntax to actions on the proper bus.
uartIO.c – IO routines for both hardware UARTs.
m_i2c_1.c – Software I2C routines by [Michael Pearce]. We couldn’t get the PIC hardware I2C to work, so we used this helpful library. The software doesn’t take into account the I2C speed setting, and seems to work at about 5KHz.
SPI.c – Routines that drive the hardware SPI module.
raw2wire.c – Software 2-wire interface library.
raw3wire.c – Software 3-wire (SPI) interface library.
User input is held in a 4000 byte buffer until a newline character (enter) is detected. If the first character of the input is a menu option (see below), the menu dialog is shown, otherwise the string is parsed for data to send over the bus (see syntax). The code consists of an embarrassing number of switch statements and spaghetti code.
Terminal interface
Rather than write a junk piece of software to control the device, we gave it a serial command line interface that will work with any ASCII terminal. The bus pirate responds to commands with three digit result codes and a short message. The codes are designed with PC automation in mind. We’ve included a table of result codes in the project archive (zip).
Menu options
Menu options are single character commands that don’t involve data transfers. Enter the character, followed by <enter>, to access the menu.
? – Show a help menu with commands and syntax.
M – Set the bus mode (SPI, I2C, UART, raw 2 wire, raw 3 wire). Followed immediately by a prompt for speed, polarity, and output state (mode dependent).
Bus speeds: SPI:30, 125, 250, 1000KHz. I2C:100, 400, 1000KHz. UART: 300, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200bps. Raw modes: 1, 10, 50KHz.
Inverse clock setting sets the idle state opposite of normal (normal SPI:idle low; normal UART:idle high): SPI:idle high; UART:idle low.
Some modes have optional high-z output modes for use with pull-up resistors (Low=ground, High=input).
L – Toggle bit transmit/receive order: most/least significant bit first.
P – SDA/SCL pin pull-up resistor toggle (3.3volts). Only valid in I2C and raw 2 wire modes.
O – Set number output display format. The terminal can display numbers as decimal, hexadecimal, and binary ASCII values. A fourth format sends the raw, unprocessed byte for reading ASCII formatted text.
Syntax
A simple syntax is used to communicate with chips over a bus. Syntax commands have generic functions that generally apply to all bus types.
A/a/@ – Toggle auxiliary pin. Capital “A” sets AUX high, small “a” sets to ground. @ sets aux to input (high impedance mode) and reads the pin value.
[ – Start data write. SPI/raw 3 wire: chip select enabled. I2C/raw 2 wire: start condition. RS232: open UART, discard received bytes.
{ – Start data write with reads. Same as [, except: SPI/raw 3 wire: show the read byte for each write. RS232: display data as it arrives asynchronously.
] or } – End data write. SPI/raw 3 wire: chip select disabled. I2C/raw 2 wire: stop condition. RS232: close UART.
R/r – Read byte. SPI/raw 3 wire: send dummy byte, return read. I2C: read byte with ACK. Raw 2 wire: read 8 bits. RS232: check UART for byte and return, or fail if empty. Use 0r1…255 for bulk reads up to 255 bytes.
0b – Write this binary value. Format is 0b00000000 for a byte, but partial bytes are also fine: 0b1001.
0h or 0x – Write this HEX value. Format is 0h01 or 0x01. Partial bytes are fine: 0xA. A-F can be lower-case or capital letters.
0-255 – Write this decimal value. Any number not preceded by 0x, 0h, or 0b is interpreted as a decimal value.
, or space – Value delimiter. Use a coma or space to separate numbers. Any combination is fine, no delimiter is required between non-number values: {0xa6,0, 0 16 5 0b111 0haF}.
Direct bus manipulation commands for raw 2 wire mode and raw 3 wire mode.
^ – Send one clock tick. Use 0^1…255 for multiple clock ticks.
/ and \ – Toggle clock level high (/) and low (\). Includes clock delay (100uS).
-/_ – Toggle data state high (-) and low (_). Includes data setup delay (20uS).
! – Read one bit with clock.
. – Read data pin state (no clock).
& – Delay 1uS. Use 0&1…255 for multiple delays.
Using it
Here are two examples that show the Bus Pirate in action. Terminals should be set to ASCII mode with local echo, we used the Windows serial terminal. The PC-side serial connection is 115200bps, 8N1. The Bus Pirate should respond to any single line feed type (0x0a, 0x0d), or both (Windows style).
.I2C/SPI – Flash 24LC1025 EEPROM
Microchip’s EEPROMS are popular permanent-storage memory chips, the 24LC1025 has 128Kbytes of storage with an I2C interface. We can test this chip without bread-boarding a big circuit or writing code.
The picture shows an 24LC1025 connected to the Bus Pirate. The EEPROM works from 2.7 to 5volts, so we used the 3.3volt supply from the Bus Pirate to power the circuit. The on-board SDA/SCL pull-up resistors hold the I2C bus high, and eliminate the need for external resistors. A single 0.1uF capacitor decouples the EEPROM from the power supply.
Setup I2C mode
First, we setup the Bus Pirate for I2C mode and enable the pull-up resistors. Since the Bus Pirate currently uses a software I2C library, the speed setting doesn’t really have an effect.
SPI>m <–enter m for mode select
1. SPI
2. I2C
3. UART
4. RAW 2 WIRE
5. RAW 3 WIRE
MODE>2 <–enter 2 for I2C
900 MODE SET
Set speed:
1. 100KHz (Standard)
2. 400KHz (Fast Mode)
3. 1MHz (High Speed)
SPEED>1 <–speed doesn’t really do anything…
901 SPEED SET
202 I2C READY, P/p FOR PULLUPS
I2C>P <–enable the I2C pull-up resistors
205 I2C PULLUP ON
I2C>
Write to EEPROM (I2C)
All I2C operations begin with a start condition { or [, and end with a stop condition } or ]. A write begins by addressing the device (1 byte) and looking for an acknowledgment bit (ACK). If the EEPROM responds, we can send the data location to write (2 bytes) and data payload (n bytes). The Bus Pirate automatically checks for an ACK at the end of each write, and ACKs each read.
The 24LC1025 base address is 1010xxy, where xx is determined by the state of pins 2 and 3, and y is read (1) or write (0) mode. We tied pins 2 and 3 high, making the full write address 1010110. We’ll start writing to the device at the first data location (0 0), and write one to thirteen using a mix of data input formats (1…13).
I2C>{0b10100110 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0xb 0xc 13} <–I2C command
210 I2C START CONDITION <–bus start
220 I2C WRITE: 0xA6 GOT ACK: YES <–address sent and ACK received
220 I2C WRITE: 0x00 GOT ACK: YES <–write address
220 I2C WRITE: 0x00 GOT ACK: YES <–write address
220 I2C WRITE: 0x01 GOT ACK: YES <–data
…
220 I2C WRITE: 0x0D GOT ACK: YES
240 I2C STOP CONDITION
I2C>
Read from EEPROM (I2C)
Reading the 24LC1025 takes two steps. First, a write command with no data sets the address pointer. Second, a read command outputs data starting at the location set in step 1.
The first command is a write command, we use the hexadecimal equivalent of the write address (0b10100110 = 0xa6) to save a bit of typing. The address pointer is set to the location where we wrote our data (0 0).
I2C>{0xa6 0 0} <–set write pointer command
210 I2C START CONDITION
220 I2C WRITE: 0xA6 GOT ACK: YES
220 I2C WRITE: 0x00 GOT ACK: YES
220 I2C WRITE: 0x00 GOT ACK: YES
240 I2C STOP CONDITION
With the pointer set, we can start reading data. The read address is the device address, with the last bit set to 1 ( 0b10100111 or 0xa7). We used thirteen r commands to read the data, but we could have used the shorthand version: 0r13.
I2C>{0b10100111 rrrrrrrrrrrrr} <–read command
210 I2C START CONDITION
220 I2C WRITE: 0xA7 GOT ACK: YES <–chip ACKed the read address
230 I2C READ: 0x01 <–data byte 1
230 I2C READ: 0x02 <–data byte 2
…
230 I2C READ: 0x0D <–data byte 13
240 I2C STOP CONDITION
I2C>
We know the operation was a success because the output matches the data we wrote earlier.
UART – EM406 SurfIII GPS
The EM406 is a tiny 5volt GPS module that tracks up to 20 satellites. By default, it outputs NMEA formatted data from a serial port at 4800bps, 8N1. The output format is standard serial, but at 2.8volts it’s incompatible with PC serial ports. The Bus Pirate can interface this GPS without the need for a separate RS232 transceiver or 5volt power supply.
Setup the UART
First, we setup the Bus Pirate UART to receive serial data at 4800bps.
I2C>m <–setup mode
1. SPI
2. I2C
3. UART
4. RAW 2 WIRE
5. RAW 3 WIRE
MODE>3 <–UART
900 MODE SET
Set speed:
(bps)
1. 300
2. 1200
3. 2400
4. 4800
…
9. 115200
SPEED>4 <–4800bps
901 SPEED SET
302 UART READY
UART>
Enable UART and data reads
An important thing to remember about UARTs is that the data arrives asynchronously. Unlike SPI and I2C, where data transfer is controlled by the master, serial data can arrive at the UART at any time. The GPS is a great example of this because it spits out location data continuously, without user intervention.
We developed two read modes to cope with asynchronous data . { echos all incoming data as it arrives. New data will displace and garble data entry, but all input is still accepted normally. [ opens the UART in a send only mode that discards incoming bytes. } or ] closes the UART, regardless of the mode.
UART>{ <–open UART with async reads
310 UART OPEN, } TO CLOSE
330 UART READ: 0x80 <–GPS data
330 UART READ: 0x78
Write to the UART
Type in values to send out the UART. Even if the input is broken up by incoming data, it will be processed on <enter>. We sent 0x40 as an example, but this has no particular meaning to the GPS module.
330 UART READ: 0x80 0x40<–random byte to write
320 UART WRITE: 0x40 <–byte written
Close the UART
“}” followed by <enter> closes the UART.
330 UART READ: 0x78
303 UART READ: 0x60 } <–close UART command
330 UART READ: 0xE6
340 UART CLOSED
UART>
Don’t think you can use this GPS data to track us, we don’t actually get satellite reception down here in mom’s basement.
Taking it further
The Bus Pirate is an important development tool in our lab. We keep updating it as we use it, and we’ll release new firmware as we add protocols and features. Expect to see the Bus Pirate in future articles.
These improvements are at the top of our list. Do you have any suggestions?
New protocols: One Wire, CAN, ???
Controls for polarity and other settings
Adjustable instruction delay
Get hardware I2C module working.
Enable protocol speed settings.
Cheaper, easier to get RS232 transceiver
The project archive (ZIP) has everything you need to build your own Bus Pirate. |
Even in the age of the search engine, Mr. Harris-Moore seemed untraceable and unknowable, part high-tech Huck Finn, part cunning criminal.
An examination of his early life and troubles suggests a picture far less cinematic. According to court and public documents and dozens of interviews, Mr. Harris-Moore was nobody’s hero, not even his own. On the contrary, whether he was hiding in the Kostelyks’ tree house, watching for delivery of the high-powered flashlight the police believe he ordered with a stolen credit card, or flying solo to the Bahamas in a stolen Cessna this month, isolated in the tiny cockpit for more than a thousand miles — Colton Harris-Moore, for much of his life, was alone and hungry.
That was true even as he was being celebrated by thousands of fans on Facebook .
“He says he’s not into any of that,” said Monique Gomez, a lawyer who briefly represented Mr. Harris-Moore in the Bahamas. “He just wants to get this behind him.”
Ms. Gomez added, “I think if he had proper direction, he wouldn’t have done what he did.”
Mr. Harris-Moore had a volatile childhood and was often in conflict with his mother, Pam Kohler. His father appears to have been absent. According to public documents, child protection officials had been referred to the family at least a dozen times by the time Mr. Harris-Moore was 15.
A social worker’s report from the time he was first arrested, at 12, drew a succinct conclusion, at least from the boy’s point of view. “Colton wants Mom to stop drinking and smoking, get a job and have food in the house,” the report said. “Mom refuses.”
When Mr. Harris-Moore was 4, someone reported Ms. Kohler after seeing “a woman grab a small child by the hair and beat his head severely,” according to a psychiatric summary 12 years later. By the time he was 10, an investigation involving “negligent treatment or maltreatment” had been initiated.
Ms. Kohler does not appear to have been prosecuted for a crime related to the complaints.
Ms. Kohler, 59, declined to be interviewed. A lawyer she has hired to handle news media inquiries and film and book proposals based on her son’s story said he had not seen allegations of abuse against Ms. Kohler in public records.
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Several neighbors on Haven Place, the gravel road on the southern end of Camano Island where Mr. Harris-Moore grew up and his mother still lives, recalled often hearing mother and son screaming at each other into the night. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they feared Ms. Kohler.
A hand-painted sign at the end of her wooded driveway warns: “If you go past this sign you will be shot.”
Photo
Asked whether it was an empty threat, one neighbor said, “She shoots.”
The neighbor recalled a land surveyor telling how he had heard gunshots fired in his direction when he was surveying the property next door.
According to records and interviews, Mr. Harris-Moore was disciplined frequently in school. One fifth-grade classmate, Mariah Campbell, recalled other students making fun of Mr. Harris-Moore’s dirty clothing and said he could be mean to classmates.
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“Because he never did his homework,” Ms. Campbell said, “he never got to go to recess or anything.”
About age 12, Mr. Harris-Moore was determined to have several psychiatric conditions, including depression , attention deficit disorder and intermittent explosive disorder, according to a later psychiatric report. He was prescribed antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs.
He dropped out of school after ninth grade.
“He never wanted to go home,” said Christa Postma, who added that she became friends with Mr. Harris-Moore in middle school “because we both got in trouble all the time.”
The crimes for which Mr. Harris-Moore has been convicted or is suspected of show an increasing focus on technology and transportation, involving the theft of laptops and mountain bikes , GPS devices and power boats. But it is hard to find anything in his past that suggests he would soon be capable of commandeering airplanes and flying them out of the country without any cockpit training, much less without getting caught.
He is suspected of taking at least five planes — including once during the Vancouver Olympics — and crash landing all of them. He walked away each time.
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The skies above Puget Sound rumble with small planes going to and from its islands. Ms. Kohler has told reporters that her son could identify different models as they flew overhead. The Internet is filled with speculation that Mr. Harris-Moore taught himself to fly using simulation software on the laptops he is suspected of stealing. But there is little hard evidence of how he really learned.
“That will be the question that everybody will want to ask him when he talks, if he talks,” said Ed Wallace, a detective with the Island County sheriff’s office.
The “Barefoot Bandit” label is a relatively new nickname here, too, stemming from real footprints found at some crime scenes last year and drawings of footprints that the police believe Mr. Harris-Moore made at other scenes.
“He took the mantle and was wearing it proudly,” said Sheriff Bill Cumming of San Juan County.
Neighbors say they do have memories of Mr. Harris-Moore going barefoot at times when he was a boy. Back then, he complained to caseworkers that his mother did not press him to be more responsible. Caseworkers noted more than once that Ms. Kohler declined to follow up on the various counseling and treatment programs that were prescribed for her son.
Ms. Postma, the friend from eighth grade, who now works in quality control at a fish processor in Alaska , said that she had been in counseling, and “that really helped me.”
Several people in Mr. Harris-Moore’s neighborhood said he seemed to be on a search for parental substitutes as a boy — asking people to make him peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or watching them do basic chores, then stealing their mailboxes or computers. Some noted that even as his efforts to avoid capture escalated into spectacle, cheered on by virtual friends on the Internet, he stayed in contact with his mother.
Mr. Harris-Moore arrived back in Washington on Wednesday and was due in court Thursday. He faces one federal charge of stealing an airplane and transporting it across state lines and potentially faces dozens more charges, including burglary, theft and credit card fraud.
At the end, his mother publicly encouraged him to escape to a country that does not extradite to the United States . Instead Mr. Harris-Moore ended up in the Bahamas. |
BBC online forums were today flooded with support for the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, in the wake of his controversial appearance on last night's Question Time.
The Have Your Say pages of Question Time were filled with comments supporting Griffin and attacking the BBC, the other panellists and the anti-fascist demonstrators outside Television Centre yesterday.
However, there were also comments supporting the BBC for its decision to invite Griffin on to the Question Time panel.
Richard from Norwich said: "My wife and I think Nick Griffin is the most courageous man in UK politics. He was very brave to go on this show to speak in what was always going to be a hostile environment. We are English, hard working people who can see that this country has an unsustainable population rise and a crippling level of debt. We also see many imigrant arriving to exploit our generosity yet not respecting our culture. Nick Griffin speaks sense. We are being invaded whilst our boys are dying abroad, its wrong."
Mary Scott from West Yorkshire added: "The whole programme was a farce! it actually made Nick Griffen [sic] look calm and intelligent! the rest of the panal were just bullies. I am sick to death of being told what I should think and do. I am a nurse and I feel like I am walking on egg shells if I even ask a question about mass immigration How DARE the rest of the panel tell the likes of me what I should think!! I work with drug misuse and the huge numbers of immigrants who arrive here needing treatment is a joke! whoops I should be quiet."
Mrs Smith from Hull said: "I dont vote BNP but i must agree with him. The three main parties must get their act together other wise we could well be going down a very dark road."
Among posters praising the BBC decision to invite Griffin on to the flagship BBC1 current affairs discussion programme, Fred Webb, from Cambridge, said: "I like many thousands of people in this country do not support the BNP but are interested in what they have to say. The BBC were right to have Nic Griffin on the show and he was treated, just like other members of the panel in the way they deserve to be, after all if you are going to be a politician for what ever party then you must expect the criticism as well as the accolade. After watching the show I have not changed my opinion of the BNP."
There was also some criticism of Griffin. "Nick Griffin came across like the majority of politicians - a liar. Unlike most politicians he was also exposed as a holocaust denier, an admirer of Hitler and the Klu Klux Klan," said jpmonty of Dorchester
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.
• If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". |
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