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by Erik Altieri, NORML Executive Director
Last week, state Senator from Montgomery County Daylin Leach announced his intentions to file legislation that would legalize the adult use of marijuana, in a way similar to the laws recently approved in Colorado and Washington.
“I acknowledge that it may take a while, but like same-sex marriage,” stated Sen. Leach, “this will inevitably happen. Demographics and exposure will in time defeat irrational fears, old wives tales and bad science. This bill furthers the discussion, which hastens the day.”
This legislation, if approved, would help halt the arrest of thousands of Pennsylvanians annually. Since 2006, 24,685 arrests were made for just marijuana possession at a cost of over 300 million dollars to the state’s taxpayers.
“It is time for Pennsylvania to be a leader in jettisoning this modern-day prohibition, and ending a policy that has been so destructive, costly, and anti-scientific,” Sen. Leach declared.
Pennsylvania has long been considered a bellwether state, so to see the issue at least being entertained in the state legislature can only be a positive sign of things to come. Let’s hope other elected officials in Pennsylvania join with state Senator Leach to support these sensible reforms.
If NORML’s Take Action Center is anything to go by, the citizens of the Keystone State want it. In just the first 24 hours of going live, Pennsylvanians sent over 900 emails and letters to their elected officials urging them to support this legislation.
If you live in Pennsylvania and want to join in the call for marijuana legalization, simply click here and you can easily send a prewritten email or letter to your elected officials telling them it is time to support legislation to legalize and regulate marijuana, not criminalize it.
PENNSYLVANIANS: Click here to contact your representatives in favor of this bill today!
Don’t live in Pennsylvania? There is already marijuana reform legislation filed in ten other states, with many more sure to follow in the coming days. Be sure to keep checking NORML’s Take Action Center to see if your state is one of them and to contact your officials!
Together, we can NORMLIZE CONGRESS. Together, we will legalize marijuana. |
Status on the stretch release
To: [email protected]
Subject: Status on the stretch release
From: Niels Thykier <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2017 07:28:00 +0000
Message-id: <[🔎] [email protected]>
Reply-to: debian-devel <[email protected]>, debian-release <[email protected]>
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 Hi, * A brief status [status] * Extended description of selected topics * How can you help? [help] * RC bugs in general [general-RC] * Highlighted RC bugs [highlight-RC] A brief status: [status] ======================== First off, a list of items with progress: * Secure boot support: We got a signature from Microsoft on our shim bootloader * OpenSSL transition: Done * MySQL -> MariaDB transition: Done * gcc-5 removal: Done * RC bugs (key packages): We went from 150 to 40 RC bugs (since 2017-02-04) * The stretch-backports suite now exists * DSA have successfully upgraded several servers including one buildd for all architectures except for arm{el,hf}. * We are almost done with the "Before the freeze" part of the release checklist (just missing some buildds being upgraded to stretch). Then we got some items that are WIP or where we are stalled: * DSA have upgraded a arm{el,hf} buildd to stretch, but it fails to boot. At the current time, the cause is not known. * Secure boot: We are still waiting for the FTP-masters to add signing support in DAK (#821051). * We still got 40 RC bugs in key packages and we are getting further and further between fixes. * We got some pending reviews of the release-notes from the kernel team and d-i. * We have done some of the binNMUs for updating "Built-Using" headers, but we are not done with all of them yet. * We still have some pending bugs about issues for upgrades from jessie to stretch. Extended description of selected topics: ======================================== How can you help? [help] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The "rule of thumb" order for best ways to help: * If you(r team) got a request from the release team asking you to do something (e.g. review documentation), please carry that out. - If you are blocked (e.g. by a bug), please ensure that we are aware of that issue. * If you (team-)maintain a package with an "stretch-is-blocker" bug, please fix that. - Please note that new "stretch-is-blocker" tags can appear at any time as we review the bug list. * If you receive / see an RC bug about issues with the upgrade path (often titled "<pkgA>: please add Breaks: <pkgB>"), please fix these so we can verify that upgrade path works after that. - Sometimes we need multiple fixes to fix an upgrade path. * Assist people/teams that are affected by one of the above e.g. by triaging bugs, preparing patches, or otherwise handle some of their workload. * Test upgrades, test packages, test patches. * Blog/microblog about what excites you about the upcoming stretch release. Maybe it's the improved hardening, new software that is included or reproducible builds... Whatever it is, remember to share it with us, e.g.: - via planet.debian.org - microblogging a link to your post in micronews.debian.org (see how to in the "Contribute" page in that site) - contributing a post to bits.debian.org (for example, for team posts) RC bugs in general: [general-RC] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- We are approaching the final phase of the freeze. Among other that means that we are left with a lot of RC bugs that are less trivial to solve. Even so we ask you to put an extra effort into helping us triaging and solving these last bugs. If you have multiple RC bugs on your radar, please prioritise fixing upgrade paths, regressions from jessie and bugs that block other people from working on their bugs/release tasks (see the "How can you help?" above). The current list of unfixed RC bugs in key packages affecting both unstable and testing can be found in [UDD-QUERY] In the absence of a fix, we will eventually have to defer the fix to buster (or a point release) save for a select few bugs. We would prefer not having to do that excessively but on the flip side, nobody wants the freeze to last for ever. Highlighted RC bugs: [highlight-RC] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= These are some RC bugs where we would like to add a few words: * #849099/#849098/#848368 (llvm-toolchain-*): Sylvestre is working on these, but unfortunately we are hit by a FTBFS issue on some architectures. * #665199 (openldap): We have two patches posted (one for stretch and one for jessie) to the maintainer scripts. Additional reviews very welcome. * #831007 (tar): Bdale is working on a debdiff pulling upstream commits to close this bug. * #859262 (synaptic): Accessibility issue where the screen reader (orca) freezes and appears to be a regression since jessie. * #852622/#839314 (xcffib): One bug fixed in unstable, but cannot migrate due to another bug in unstable (that does not affect testing). Either a tpu fix for #852622 or a patch for #839314 would help us resolve this. * #781155 (openbsd-inetd): If not resolved soon, we are considering a removal from testing. For the Release Team, Niels [UDD-QUERY] https://udd.debian.org/bugs/?release=stretch_and_sid&merged=ign&keypacka ges=only&fnewerval=7&flastmodval=7&rc=1&chints=1&ctags=1&cdeferred=1&crt tags=1&sortby=id&sorto=asc&format=html#results -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIzBAEBCgAdFiEEsxMaRR2/33ygW0GXBUu7n32AZEIFAljxy5oACgkQBUu7n32A ZELWYBAAoOJa36rxa/AIWEqRpdW3/dbyGMb7Uqi+9U5MnvuHxOMhRDl2Eb7qldoC BVDNSvnofAqA17cmX0T1he227qwj6gE+YfDGlHtAiFtYRD5y2zvQglE7aZmYgmmh BcYc1Ksz4C8HUJxygs72G6JzEbQk6jrBykJX9gHiP6hZkwNs6Ive2MgGMO/96EWa GRcn0vpeOICWnYxg7GDuWY84BTgsE1zeqZ+ent2+jOC7uDuIkyYmwOkM2DaTZ/Lm 7lEO/kJ8Ewbjtu+tlM3UcmNlxyikT5Lx3U4P2PLgQcX/P8nA0iCTfH4e/YtV14N7 KkCBuz6MM0GVb2hMSonOeh1N83rbTorDxvVsgF6fZTHzs98DzdfTi/icNmjsHNdI oRMX+ZcAWFOQkrzqxcRQcsBxVpig7RwGv4mUzG4rVb0j3FP2nivop4eZ6u6pohiN 4OQaUwVGanJSXusFQoAvQePguuqOm3As1alSTaLXlJqsBYvQU4E7/ebVZvJ5qRAe r0/3EV2r+hPUF2pzbUQQ82kqfBTvFD/LXfazumMQKF0NdSxNDbOgAiaCCBSjCgci EKXVVLgscAizb8lXz/5JazpZEb9zWQjY1yOnnUpxVwSrzth+/YWqe7KXCrI7j9Od bJig9StXo6kVvCQb2FedaJKVKeC7ECOHtqa4leS1ewMJAqUaKlE= =erTr -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- |
NASCAR fans love a good upset.
They love to see drivers win their first race. They love to see underdog teams produce a Cinderella story with a shocking victory. And they love to see struggling stars rise from the ashes, bouncing back from injury or shaking off a long drought to return to victory lane.
MORE: NASCAR's biggest upsets | Slover: Like it or not, Buescher earned Chase spot
And nothing is more special than watching a rookie do the unthinkable, winning a race when no one gave him a chance. That's what Chris Buescher did on Monday, producing one of the biggest upsets in NASCAR history at Pocono Raceway. It doesn't matter that Buescher won under unusual circumstances, just as it didn't matter when young rookie Joey Logano won a rain-shortened race as a rookie in 2009 or when Aric Almirola won the rain-hampered race at Daytona in 2014.
A win is a win.
But that doesn't mean it's all good. This one was good for Buescher and good for his Front Row Motorsports team. But it's not necessarily good for the sport.
Or maybe it's NASCAR's rules that aren't good for the sport.
Buescher, who scuffled all season and drives for a struggling, underfunded team, is now in position to make the Chase. On the heels of a single, upset victory, he has a great chance to be one of 16 drivers competing for NASCAR's Sprint Cup championship, and that just doesn't seem right.
MORE: Earnhardt out two more races | Junior concerned about balance, vision
While Buescher might have earned a spot in the Chase by meeting a requirement — he still must crack the top 30 in points — it exposes a great flaw in NASCAR's Chase format. A flaw many feared when the rules were tweaked three years ago.
What happens when a driver outside the top 30 produces a huge upset — a fluke win, if you will — and makes the Chase? That was the concern when these new Chase rules were unveiled.
And now we might find out.
This is in no way meant to disparage Buescher, the 2015 Xfinity Series champion and a talented young driver who could be a star one day. He's a development driver for Roush Fenway Racing and likely will land one of that team's rides at some point, giving him a chance to win again and possibly contend on a consistent basis. If Roush ever returns to form, Buescher might become a driver we talk about week to week.
Chris Buescher (Getty Images)
But right now, he's driving for Front Row Motorsports, a team that doesn't have the sponsorship and resources to be competitive. Front Row scored two upset victories in the past three years — David Ragan won at Talladega in 2013 — but it is not a top-25 team. It's barely a top-30 team.
Before Monday's fog-induced win, Buescher's best finish was 14th the previous week at Indy. Before that, he finished outside the top 25 in 14 of 19 races. He finished on the lead lap just three times. He was 33rd or worse in points until the past two weeks, when he climbed to 31st. His team is 32nd in owner points among the 39 full-time teams that have run every race, trailing even teammate Landon Cassill's team.
That doesn't sound like a Chase-caliber team. It sounds like a team that got lucky and beat the system.
Is that what NASCAR wants in the Chase?
If Buescher cracks the top 30 — he will drive at Watkins Glen six points back — and makes the Chase, it will knock a more deserving driver out of the playoffs.
MORE: Who's on the Chase bubble?
Right now, that driver would be Kyle Larson, who sits 15th in points and has come on strong of late to put himself into Chase contention. Or it could be Kasey Kahne, Trevor Bayne, Ryan Blaney or Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who are all racing hard for the final spot.
It could be Austin Dillon, Ryan Newman, Chase Elliott or Jamie McMurray, who have not won but are each in position to make the Chase on points.
Or, heaven forbid, it could be Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will miss at least five races but could race his way back to the brink of the Chase when he returns, only to get bumped by Buescher.
If any of those scenarios occur, it will be a black eye on the Chase and bring criticism from fans and competitors alike. That's a narrative NASCAR doesn't want during its playoff season. It faced enough controversy in 2014 when Ryan Newman made the championship race without a win and just four top-five finishes.
The simplest solution would be to tweak the Chase rules to require a driver to be in the top 20 or top 25 to become eligible for the Chase (except for drivers granted a medical waiver). That, of course, wouldn't prevent a driver from becoming eligible with an improbable win, but it would at least make them a bit more Chase-worthy.
Buescher's win was a beautiful thing. It was exciting, inspiring and fun to watch. But that doesn't mean he belongs in the Chase. |
We all know that movies don't always do such a great job of accurately representing real life, but that has never been more obvious than when you're watching an on-screen sex scene.
In film, women often seem to orgasm at the drop of a hat -- or an orchid petal in the case of "40 Days and 40 Nights" -- and do all sorts of yodeling while they're at it. Most of us know that in reality, a woman's body usually doesn't work that way.
To capture just how absurd some of these performances are, we've rounded up some of the least believable movie orgasms into one epic mashup. From Kristen Bell's aerobic climax in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," to the pleasure machine in "Barbarella," to Katherine Heigl's dinner table orgasm in "The Ugly Truth," we hope these scenes will make you glad that your real sex life is nothing like the movies. |
Over 40 unique units with many upgrades
Optimised multi-core engine easily handles battles of 1000's of units.
Experimental units for the big late-game battles
Zoom out to view and issue commands across the whole battlefield
Create your own battles in the sandbox editor then play them in multiplayer
Quote Very cool to see my game here, I'm the developer of the game so let me know if you have any questions. The game was built entirely in Linux so you will likely find it runs slightly better on Linux than it does windows.
Rusted Warfare [ Steam ], a 2D RTS from Corroding Games is now on Linux. It reminds me a little of Total Annihilation & Red Alert and it was originally an Android game that's made it to PC.In my youth I discovered Total Annihilation, a strategy game from Cavedog and it quite literally changed my life. I put entire days and nights into it and it was pure joy. Sending hundreds of units at my enemy and later playing it online when we discovered the wonders of the internet. Rusted Warfare reminds me of it a lot, as it has a lot of the same basic ideas, but with a much more colourful look and a few more up to date features.I actually personally found it on Android quite some time ago and I was impressed at how there was a proper RTS on Android. It has tactical zoom, lots of units, resource collection, different tech levels and so on. Now I'm even happier as it has released on Steam with day-1 Linux support. Rusted Warfare is a proper, traditional real time strategy game. I had no idea it was coming to PC, let alone Linux too!It has single-player missions, skirmishes against the AI, an endless build and survive mode and proper online multiplayer too. You can host your own game through Steam, or play it on dedicated servers. The multiplayer is cross-platform between Windows, Linux and Android!I managed to give it a go earlier and I'm pleased to say I haven't encountered a single issue. If you see less activity on the website from me, you can probably start blaming this game. The AI is reasonably competent too, I battled against the Medium AI (there's three difficulty levels higher) and was quite surprised to see it see off my attacks for a while, that was until I upgraded to get the huge experimental units that leave a path of destruction behind them.The AI will actually expand around resource nodes, build up defences, repair their base when you attack and generally act as you would expect. I've been quite impressed with it for sure! This could be a little hit, with proper traditional strategy games not really made much any more, especially not with Linux support.It's a very surprising little strategy game and I highly recommend checking it out if you're in need of a proper one. This could happily be a regular game we play! Don't knock it due to the graphics, it will surprise you. It's not an Early Access game either, this is a complete and fully functional strategy game.You can find Rusted Warfare on Steam for £3.99, with 10% off until 21st July.: After posting this to reddit, the developer commented and it turns out it's built on Linux! |
The Washington Post reports that “terrorism trend lines are ‘worse than at any other point in history.’” But what is terrorism? It has frequently been pointed out that “terrorism” is a tactic, not an actual physical adversary, but it is less often noted that a simple definition of what constitutes terrorism is hardly universally accepted, while the designation itself is essentially political. The glib assertion that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter fails to capture the distinction’s consequences as the terror label itself increasingly comes with a number of legal and practical liabilities attached. Describing an organization as terroristic in order to discredit it has itself become a tactic, and one that sometimes has only limited connections to what the group in question actually believes or does.
The bone of contention in defining terrorism is where to draw the line in terms of the use of violence in furtherance of a political objective. In practice, it is generally accepted that state players who employ violence do so within a social framework that confers legitimacy, while nonstate players who use political violence are ipso facto terrorists, or at least susceptible to being tagged with that label, which confers upon them both illegitimacy and a particularly abhorrent criminality. But some on the receiving end of such a Manichean distinction object, noting that the laws defining terror are themselves drawn up by the governments and international organizations, which inevitably give themselves a pass in terms of their own potential liability. They would argue that established regimes will inevitably conspire to label their enemies terrorists to marginalize both resistance movements and internal dissent in such a way as to diminish the credibility of the groups that are so targeted. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently been doing precisely that, and one might reasonably argue that government use of violence is often in practice indistinguishable from the actions of nonstate players.
Some common dictionary definitions of terrorism include engaging in “the systematic use of terror,” surely an indication of the inscrutability of an issue when the word must be used to define itself. The United Nations has been unsuccessfully negotiating a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism since 2002 that would define terror as causing death or serious injury or destroying or damaging public or private property “to intimidate a population, or to compel a Government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act.” The United States Federal criminal code uses similar language, as does the Patriot Act, with the key elements being the use of violence or physical destruction to “intimidate or coerce” a civilian population or an existing government.
Governments are aware of what can be accomplished by invoking the word “terrorism.” The diplomacy-averse United States frequently hides behind the label, as it is prohibited by law from negotiating with groups so-labeled, and thereby avoids having to confront the possible legitimacy of what they represent. And it also justifies a uniformly violent response, which is invariably described as self-defense.
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Fourteen years ago the “global war on terror” was used to justify wholesale American intervention in predominantly Muslim countries. A number of European countries, including France and Britain, have followed the example of the two Patriot Acts by introducing antiterrorism legislation that provides special police and intelligence service authorities that limit normal legal protections in terrorism cases. The broadly written laws have largely rendered the authorities immune from either regulation or prosecution, and governments in the West have generally been reluctant to allow any third-party inquiries into the related behavior of military and police forces. In the United States the state secret privilege, originally intended to prohibit the exposure of classified information in court, has been used to completely derail judicial proceedings relating to offenses allegedly committed by the government in terrorism cases.
And critics of the essentially hypocritical double standard used in defining terrorism certainly have a point. One might reasonably argue that the use of drones, in which “signature” targets are killed because they match a profile, fits comfortably within the definition of terrorism. During 2003-4, American Army and Marine forces in Fallujah sometimes shelled and bombed targets in the city indiscriminately and were certainly responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths. The Israeli Defense Forces killed thousands of civilians in two incursions into Gaza as well as several attacks on Lebanon. There was no declaration of war to justify the use of armed force in either case, and independent observers noted that many of the civilian casualties could have been avoided, normally a defining factor that makes an incident terror. Both Israel and the United States turned the tables on the situation by referring to their opponents and victims as “terrorists.” There has been no accountability for the deaths because it was two governments that carried out the killing.
In a world seemingly obsessed with terrorism it was inevitable that something like an anti-terrorism industry would grow dramatically. Every television and radio network has its own stable of pundits who pontificate on every violent incident, and there also are well-compensated freelancers, who describe themselves as experts, such as Evan Kohlmann and Steve Emerson. Emerson recently had to apologize after claiming that Birmingham, England had a number of no-go areas controlled by local Muslim extremists.
It should be no surprise that lawyers have now also gotten into the game. In 1996 Congress passed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which allows victims of terrorism to file civil suits in federal and state courts against sponsors or supporters of terrorism. Once you have a group or individual labeled as terrorist, or providing assistance to terrorists, there are a number of options you can pursue. The burgeoning antiterrorism industry appears to be in some ways linked to the increasing employment of Lawfare, which uses the legal system to wage war by alternative means, making it possible to obtain a favorable judgment and damages from the assets of a recognized terrorist organization. Such litigation benefits from favorable legislation in the United States that makes terrorism a worldwide crime subject to U.S. judicial review.
Recent court cases have involved both states that allegedly sponsor terrorism or actual organizations that are now parts of governments that either currently or at one time were perceived to be terrorists. Many of the groups targeted are enemies of Israel, and the Israeli Lawfare center Shurat HaDin is most active in pursuing such litigation. In a recent case in New York City, the Palestinian Authority was successfully sued by a group of Israelis and Americans over terrorist attacks that took place in Israel in 2002-4. If the appeal fails, the Palestinian Authority will be required to pay $1 billion in damages and will be bankrupted, with negative consequences for the United States, which has been seeking to create a viable government on the West Bank.
The U.S. Department of State identifies four countries as state sponsors of terrorism, making them prime targets for sanctions and other legal action. They are Cuba, Sudan, Syria and Iran. Cuba is an anomaly as it has not threatened anyone in decades but remains on the list due to the deep passions within America’s politically powerful Cuban Lobby. Sudan likewise should not be so designated, as even the U.S. government admits that it is cooperative on terrorism issues.
This leaves Syria and Iran, both of which are regarded as state sponsors of terrorism even though both are themselves victims of terrorist attacks carried out by groups supported by the United States. They are on the list because they harbor or cooperate with Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. All three groups consider themselves to be resistance movements against the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine, but Israel regards all three as terrorists, a view shared by the United States on the state department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list. That viewpoint is not necessarily shared by many European governments, which regard the organizations as having evolved into legitimate political parties. There are also thousands of individuals and groups considered to be terroristic or criminal, collected by the U.S. Department of Justice on its Special Designated Nationals List. Individuals and organizations on the list have their assets blocked and are subject to other punitive action by the United States government.
Being designated by the Department of the Treasury or state does not necessarily mean that someone or some organization was actually involved in terrorism. The Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, an Islamic charity, was declared a terrorist organization in 2001. Its officers were convicted and imprisoned in a 2008 trial because the Treasury Department determined ex post facto that it had given money to Hamas before that group was itself named as a terrorist organization.
Inclusion on the State or Treasury lists can mean that there is solid evidence of wrongdoing, but it can also represent mere insinuations or a strong desire to see a group singled out for punishment. In any event, once a group or person is designated for a list, it is difficult to get off. Organizations that have not engaged in terrorist activity for many years remain on the list while other groups that are active escape censure. Recently, the Mujaheddin e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian terrorist group that killed six Americans in the 1970s, was removed from the list under political pressure from Congress and the media. Again, Israel was involved. MEK is an enemy of the current government in Tehran and is itself an important component of the Israeli intelligence effort against Iran, having been involved in the fabrication of information suggesting that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program as well as participating in the assassinations of Tehran’s scientists.
So what terrorism actually consists of very much depends on one’s perspective, rendering the word itself largely meaningless. But those who are listed as terrorists experience real consequences even accepting that the designation is both selectively applied and politicized. The United States and Israel in particular use the terrorism label to demonize opponents, drum up fear, and generate popular support for security policies that might otherwise be unpalatable. They also justify their own behavior by asserting that they occupy the moral high ground in the defense of the world against terror, a claim that certainly should be regarded with considerable skepticism.
Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is executive director of the Council for the National Interest. |
The government must rethink its decision to impose a pay cut on NHS staff in England. On 13 October 2014, NHS workers who are members of several health unions, including members of the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists (GHP), started a campaign of industrial action over pay for the first time in more than 30 years.
The reason for the action was that, for NHS staff working in England, the government decided to ignore the independent NHS Pay Review Body’s (PRB) recommendation of a 1% pay rise for all staff. Instead, it said only those staff at the top of the payscale will receive any uplift to their salary in the form of a 1% non-consolidated payment. All other staff will receive no pay award. The Scottish Government has implemented the PRB recommendation for all NHS employees. The government’s justification for not awarding a pay rise to a large number of staff in England is that they will receive an incremental rise instead.
The NHS’s ‘Agenda for change’ payscale is made up of 12 bands and each band has a number of increments within it. Staff start at the bottom of the pay band and have an annual incremental rise until they reach the top of the pay band, which represents the true value of the role. It is disingenuous of the government to say members in receipt of an incremental rise are getting a pay rise. Increments are a way of keeping the pay bill down. A band 6 pharmacist post has a salary of £34,530 but it takes nine years to reach this level of pay. To not give the 1% pay rise to these employees is, in essence, giving them a pay cut in real terms.
The industrial action led by Unite, which the GHP is part of, is in two forms. The first was a four-hour strike from 7am to 11am on 13 October 2014. Managers were advised by Unite to plan for a bank holiday level of service to avoid any compromise to patient safety. It is difficult to gauge the level of participation by GHP members in this strike action. However, I have had a number of reports from around the country of members taking part.
The second part of the action was a ‘work to rule’ until 9 November 2014, during which members were advised not to work any unpaid overtime. The NHS relies heavily on the goodwill of its staff to ensure services are delivered. This often means staff work through their lunch breaks or longer than their contracted hours to get the basic job done. In some departments, staff receive pay or lieu time for the extra work they do and, as long as the lieu time can be taken, this is acceptable. What is not acceptable is for staff to be expected to work extra hours for no remuneration.
Goodwill is a two-way process and the government has certainly damaged the goodwill held by NHS staff in England with this latest pay insult. A second wave of action will take place on 24 November 2014 with another four-hour strike and a work to rule from 24 November 2014 to 18 January 2015. The GHP fully supports the action Unite has called.
Dave Thornton is the president of the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists, which defends the interests of individual employed pharmacists working in hospitals, primary care and other healthcare institutions for both the NHS and commercial healthcare providers throughout the UK. |
click image Photo via Gage Skidmore on Flickr.
Happy #Florida & #WPB home to #WinterWhiteHouse But need to deal burden with burden it's imposing on local govt https://t.co/20WLK72Xlv — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 9, 2017
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is not happy about how much President Donald Trump's visits to his Mar-a-Lago Club are costing Florida taxpayers.Rubio took to Twitter Thursday to express his concerns about the burden the president's frequent "winter White House" visits are imposing on the Sunshine State.According to the, which Rubio linked to, Trump's visit last weekend to his Mar-a-Lago resort cost Palm Beach airports nearly $215,000. The number includes $217,000 in lost revenue for one fixed base operator at Palm Beach International Airport and $30,000 in lost business at the nearby Lantana airport.The head of the Lantana airport, the 10th busiest "general aviation" airport in the country, says that if Trump continues to visit, he will " kill this airport ," causing tenants to lose $1 million in just his first year in office.Back in November, Trump's five-day Florida visit forced the country to shell out $248,000 in overtime to Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies.But it looks like Rubio's whining is falling on deaf ears. This weekend, Trump will again return to Florida to play a round of golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. |
Everything you need to know about the BlackBerry Bold 9900 in 10 minutes! Check out CrackBerry Kevin's walkthrough of the best BlackBerry ever to come out of Waterloo.
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 Review
Five new BlackBerry 7 Smartphones in three distinct form factors:
BlackBerry Torch 9810 (slider), BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 (full keyboard), BlackBerry Torch 9850/9860 (touch only)
After months of anticipation, we're now witnessing the largest global launch of BlackBerry smartphones, with Research In Motion rolling out five models of BlackBerry 7 Smartphones to some 225 carrier and distribution partners around the world. With the new phones all based off the same hardware and software platforms and delivering mainly similar features and performance, perhaps the most critical decision to be made by would be purchases is determining which design form factor is right for you.
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and BlackBerry Bold 9930 are of the iconic BlackBerry design, showcasing a front-facing physical keyboard. The Bold 9900 is the GSM version of the phone (ie. AT&T, T-Mobile), while the Bold 9930 will be heading to CDMA carriers (ie. Verizon, Sprint). The Bold 9900 reviewed here is from Rogers in Canada, which was the first carrier to start selling it. From a hardware design and software standpoint, the Bold 9900 and Bold 9930 are the same device, so this review is representative of both. That said, we've also done a separate mini-review of the CDMA 9930. Be sure to read our BlackBerry Bold 9930 Review and check out our BlackBery Bold 9900 / 9930 Carrier Pricing and Release Date for more info on the Bold of your choice.
BlackBerry Bold 9900 Hardware Impressions
The Bold 9900 brings back the wide body of the original Bold (left), in a much sleeker design The Bold 9900 brings back the wide body of the original Bold (left), in a much sleeker design
Having used and reviewed a LOT of BlackBerry Smartphones over the years, it only took a few minutes with the Bold 9900 in hand to realize this is the best BlackBerry RIM has built. Within the BlackBerry family of smartphones, the Bold brand is positioned as the premium offering, representing the best of everything BlackBerry, and more than any Bold before it, the 9900 lives up to its name.
While the Bold 9000 definitely made a bold statement with its sizeable dimensions and big keyboard, the abundance of plastic-chrome and faux-leather trimmings yielded an image of a BlackBerry that was blinged up in cheap jewelry. Don't get me wrong, it was still eye-catching and probably my favorite-designed BlackBerry up until the 9900, but it felt more like feigned luxury. With the next generation BlackBerry Bold 9700/9780 (and Tour 9630/Bold 9650 for that matter), RIM took a more conservative approach - downsizing the Bold to be more Curve-like in stature, and going with styling that while tasteful, was maybe a bit too understated to be considered Bold.
From top: Bold 9000, 9900 and 9780. The Bold 9900 is the thinnest BlackBerry ever! From top: Bold 9000, 9900 and 9780. The Bold 9900 is the thinnest BlackBerry ever!
The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 exemplifies what the Bold brand is about - luxury by design. The 9900 makes a welcome return to the wide-body design of the original 9000, but in a much sleeker package that makes use of premium materials throughout. Goodbye plastic-chrome, hello metal! With the addition of a touchscreen on the outside and hardware platform upgrades on the inside that deliver more performance than we've ever seen from a BlackBerry Smartphone, this is the BlackBerry Bold we've been waiting for.
Appearance, Form Factor, Build Quality
The iconic BlackBerry design, updated with a touchscreen. Notice how the phone looks like its smiling? The iconic BlackBerry design, updated with a touchscreen. Notice how the phone looks like its smiling?
At BlackBerry World I attended a media briefing conducted by RIM's senior VP of Industrial Design, Todd Wood, who walked us through the creative process and design philosophy behind the BlackBerry Bold 9900. It was interesting to learn that before the designers get to the fun part of modeling, it all begins with the "product inspiration board." The inspiration board Todd showed us for the 9900 targeted a fictitious urban male in his 30s and the other kinds of products he owned. On the board and inspiring the design team for the 9900 were other classically luxurious products including a BMW sedan, a Panerai watch (the exact same model that appears in a few of the photos in this review actually!) and Prada leather boots. By infusing that inspiration with a respect for BlackBerry's own lineage, many iterations of design later the BlackBerry Bold 9900 were born.
Knowing the inspiration behind the Bold 9900, its readily apparent that RIM succeeded in their design goals. The Bold 9900 oozes luxury and feels more like a quality product than an electronic gadget. At 10.5mm, it's the thinnest BlackBerry to date, and also the most solid. A big part of the reason for this solid feeling is the brushed stainless steel band that surrounds the perimeter of the phone, adding a touch of class (and no, I didn't see an iPhone 4 on RIM's design inspiration board!). In the hand, the Bold 9900 feels great. At 4.59oz (130g), it weighs less than you expect it to, and the width is perfect for a phone with a full physical keyboard. With its "PopTart" like shape, the overall footprint of the phone is fairly large, even when compared to the Bold 9780, but thanks to its thinness I've found the 9900 to still be easily pocketable in the front of my jeans.
At a glance, from the front the Bold 9900 actually looks a lot like the original Bold 9000, with the update from the trackball to trackpad being the most immediately noticeable difference. Closer inspection reveals many other subtle changes. Below the display, now gone is the color from all buttons. The keypad buttons went all white on the Bold 9700, and now the Send/End keys have lost their green and red coloring. Aesthetically, I love the change.
The glass composite door looks high tech. It's a bit easy to smudge, but we're digging it. The glass composite door looks high tech. It's a bit easy to smudge, but we're digging it.
Above the keyboard (which we'll talk about more in a bit) is the expected row of BlackBerry controls, which allow for the one-handed navigation experience BlackBerry owners like myself value so much. Instead of individual buttons, the Send, Menu, Back and End keys are all part of the same piece, with the trackpad centered in the middle.
The trackpad on the Bold 9900 has received an awesome update - it now lights up in the dark! Taking things to a new level, RIM's designers worked with the engineering team to even design the power-off sequence of the Bold 9900. When the backlighting times out, first the keyboard dims off, followed by the display, then the BlackBerry navigation buttons and finally the trackpad. It's an awesome effect. One less-awesome thing about the trackpad to be mindful of is its close proximity to the display. Now that there's a touchscreen, if you're sloppy with your trackpad up scroll you could find yourself accidentally swiping on the screen without wanting to. I wouldn't call this a problem by any means, but it might take some re-adjustment if you've been using a non-touchscreen BlackBerry and have been swiping onto the display all this time. Above the navigation is the new touchscreen display, and above that on the top right is the good ol' crack light - the blinking LED. The LED on the Bold 9900 is now circular in design, vs. the more rectangular design on previous Bolds.
The back of the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is stylish yet functional. The outer perimeter receives soft-touch rubber treatment, which aids in gripping the phone. The battery door has a high-tech carbon fiber look to it, and is made of a composite glass material RIM developed that is friendly to RF transmission (actual carbon fiber is not). I like the look of the battery door a lot. My only complaint is that it's easy to smudge and can make the phone a little bit slippery if you're holding it in such a way that you're not making contact with the soft touch rubber. The battery door holds on tight and is pried off from the bottom where there's a little gap, which also serves as the audio port where sounds emerge from the phone.
Brushed stainless steel looks great and makes the Bold 9900 feel solid. Even the buttons are metal. Brushed stainless steel looks great and makes the Bold 9900 feel solid. Even the buttons are metal.
The usual buttons and ports surround the perimeter of the BlackBerry Bold 9900. The right side of the phone has the standard volume up and down keys, with the mute key relocated from the top of the phone to be in between the volume keys. They serve double duty as media keys when playing music as well, for skipping tracks and play/pause. At the bottom right is the programmable convenience key.
The left side of the Bold 9900 is kept clean, with just the 3.5mm audio jack and microUSB port present. The left side of the Bold 9900 is kept clean, with just the 3.5mm audio jack and microUSB port present.
The left side of the Bold 9900 features two ports. At the top is the 3.5mm headset jack, and below that is the microUSB port for syncing and/or charging. Because the port is cut into the stainless housing, it makes for a nice snug fit on the connector, eliminating the sloppiness we've noticed in the past on some models.
At the top of the phone is a single button, for locking/unlocking the screen. At the top of the phone is a single button, for locking/unlocking the screen.
Centered at the top of the phone is a single button for locking and/or unlocking the screen. At the bottom are two contact points for the BlackBerry Charging Pod, which are mounted on a thin plastic strip which spans across the bottom. The brushed-plastic here is done so well I just assumed it was also metal.
The two circles are charging contacts for the always-popular The two circles are charging contacts for the always-popular BlackBerry Charging Pod
Under the battery door, RIM has engineered things to fit nice and tight, with room left for the removable battery, microSD memory card and SIM card. My only gripe here is that unlike the Bold 9700/9780, you can't insert or remove the memory card while the battery is in the phone. If you try and remove the microSD card while the battery is in place, you'll find yourself wedging the card into the battery, which puts you in a difficult situation (watch this video to see what happens!).
Things are kept tidy under the battery door, with room for the battery, memory card and SIM card. Things are kept tidy under the battery door, with room for the battery, memory card and SIM card.
This really is an exceptional BlackBerry from RIM. I love the design and style direction they've taken with the Bold 9900. From a hardware and manufacturing standpoint, it's the best I've seen. Over the years I've had a habit of ensuring my BlackBerrys are Made in Canada units, but the four Bold 9900s I bought and unboxed were all Made in Mexico and seem pretty perfect. As for durability, I think the Bold 9900 should be able to stand up pretty well. During the filming and videoing for this review I managed to drop it a couple times -- once from chest height onto a hardwood floor - and the 9900 emerged unscathed.
Processor / Chipset / Performance
All of the newly-announced BlackBerry 7 Smartphones, including the BlackBerry Bold 9900, are running the Qualcomm Scorpion MSM 8655 processor clocked at 1.2GHz on the Snapdragon chipset. An Adreno 205 GPU (graphics processing unit) is also onboard, powering BlackBerry 7's hardware-accelerated graphics, which RIM has dubbed "liquid graphics." At 1.2GHz, the processing power is roughly double the speed of previous generation BlackBerry Bolds. In addition to more speed, this hardware platform upgrade addresses a lot of the other nagging wants we've had for a while now, including 3D graphics support (has been lacking to date on GSM BlackBerrys), HD video recording and more.
While there may be faster processors and even dual-core phones on the market already on other platforms, when it comes to the BlackBerry OS I don't think what matters is the exact spec -- be it 1GHz, 1.2Ghz 1.4Ghz, etc. - but rather the experience it delivers. And 1.2Ghz on the BlackBerry OS is like injecting it with steroids. It actually took some getting used to the overall snappiness of phone and responsiveness of touchscreen. Honestly, it almost felt too fast at first, until I adjusted. Basic OS tasks like opening and closing apps are instant for the most part, and in five days of use I really haven't experienced any sort of hiccups or slow downs. The only time I've really seen the evil hourglass is while installing apps from App World, but even then I've been able to continue to use the phone.
It honestly has been a night and day difference compared to my Bold 9780, which even on the most recent OS builds has been running slow and hourglassing like crazy as of late. Some things still take some time on the Bold 9900, like booting up the phone after a battery pull, but so far I have yet to experience the need to be forced to pull the battery. Between the hardware and BlackBerry 7 software, everything seems to be running smooth so far. I hope this speed holds up as I get out of review mode and into even more real world use (I'm curious to see how it performs after I turn the wireless connection back on after being on a four flight - an action which normally makes my 9780 unusable for a few minutes). I'm thinking it also might be time for another BlackBerry Stress Test! Stay tuned for that.
Keyboard / Typing
The best keyboard ever put on a smartphone. The best keyboard ever put on a smartphone.
Best. Keyboard. EVER. Seriously. The previous holder of this title was the keyboard on the original Bold 9000, which I thought was unbeatable, yet RIM managed to improve upon it. The Bold 9900's keyboard is actually 5% wider than the 9000's keyboard, and the keystroke itself has improved. It takes very little pressure to press a key down, yet the rebound is still extremely fast. The keys make that definite click action and sound, which help you get into a great typing rhythm. If you want to experience something magical, try typing on the BlackBerry Bold 9900's keyboard.
BlackBerry Bold Keyboards. From top: Bold 9900, Bold 9780, Bold 9000. BlackBerry Bold Keyboards. From top: Bold 9900, Bold 9780, Bold 9000.
I actually upgraded Miss CrackBerry from her Bold 9700 to the Bold 9900, and having never having experienced the original Bold 9000's keyboard she was absolutely blown away the ease and speed of typing on the 9900. Her exact words were, "It's like typing on air... or clouds, yeah, it's like typing on puffy clouds." Not exactly the most technical reaction, but she made me realize a good point. The keyboard on the Bold 9900 isn't exhausting. I've pounded out some super long emails on the Bold 9900 now, and by the end my fingers don't feel like they've put out any effort, which hasn't been the case for me on previous BlackBerry keyboards.
If you spend any significant amount of time each day on your phone sending emails, texts, tweets, Facebook messages, BBMs, etc., do yourself a favor and try out the keyboard on the Bold 9900. Your thumbs will thank you.
Touchscreen Display
Adding a touchscreen to the iconic BlackBerry design adds to the overall user experience Adding a touchscreen to the iconic BlackBerry design adds to the overall user experience
Finally! It's almost comical to think about how long it took RIM to get a touchscreen into the traditional BlackBerry form factor, but it's finally here. It's responsive, it's smooth and it really adds to the overall usability of the device. After a few days on the 9900 I picked up my Bold 9780 again, and literally within seconds found myself tapping the screen and cursing that it didn't have a touchscreen. Oh, how the times have changed!
In addition to touch functionality, the display itself received a nice bump in physical size, color and resolution, from the previous generation of Bold. The BlackBerry Bold 9900's 2.8-inch (diagonal) 24-bit display runs VGA at 640 x 480 pixels, for 287ppi. By comparison, the Bold 9780's 2.44-inch display delivers half VGA at 480 x 360. The BlackBerry Bold 9900's display really is nice. Colors are crisp and vivid, and the display is bright - even at the default 70 percent setting. RIM tells us the display is made of "extra hardened glass," so there's no plastic here.
Now that we have a touchscreen on the iconic BlackBerry form factor, I have two new missions for RIM's designers and engineers for the next BlackBerry Bold:
Find a way to increase the height of the display by 25 percent or so. While I'm a huge fan of the pinch to zoom functionality in the web browser, I think a little additional height would make the display that much better for a touchscreen. Let's take that empty space currently above the display (and below the speaker/LED) and stretch that that screen out. Find a way to work the BlackBerry PlayBook's bezel gestures in here. As a PlayBook owner, on more than a few occasions now I've found myself swiping down from the top of the 9900's display in anticipation of an option menu popping out. I'm hoping/assuming this functionality will come with a future BlackBerry/QNX SuperPhone, but I sure wish I could do it on my Bold 9900 instead of having to tap the menu key. Side note, if you're a keyboard kind of person and on the fence between getting the BlackBerry Bold 9900 or waiting for the first QNX SuperPhone, the rumored BlackBerry ‘colt' is going to be a full touchscreen device (no keyboard). So don't wait. Get the Bold 9900 now and upgrade later when the time is right.
Overall, the Bold 9900 sports a great display and I'm loving the touchscreen experience!
Memory
Application Memory after five days of use and a handful of apps installed. Application Memory after five days of use and a handful of apps installed.
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 ships with 768MB of RAM and has an additional 8GB of onboard memory for media storage. Additionally, there is an expansion slot that supports up to 32GB microSD cards (whether or not a microSD card comes in the box will be carrier dependent - the Rogers unit reviewed here did not ship with a microSD card).
The 768MB of RAM is up from the 512MB found on current in-market BlackBerry Smartphones, but unfortunately the user in terms of additional Application Storage doesn't realize this increased capacity. We found Application Storage Free Space out of the box to be 229.9MB (with unused languages removed), which is actually less free space than my Bold 9780 had on it when I made the switch to the 9900 (it was sitting at 242MB of free space). I reached out to RIM here to see what was eating up all this additional memory and received the following response: |
Labour MP Simon Danczuk has added to calls for the party's leadership race to be halted amid claims non-Labour supporters are infiltrating the vote.
His comments echo those of fellow MPs John Mann, Graham Stringer and Barry Sheerman, who have all criticised the voting process.
Labour supporters have until midday to sign up as a member and vote for the next leader.
The party rejects that false supporters are joining just to back Jeremy Corbyn.
Rochdale MP Mr Danczuk said Labour's interim leader Harriet Harman should halt the leadership contest and call an emergency meeting to take stock of the "infiltration" by those he said were not genuine party supporters.
He said he believed the process may have to be rerun and warned that if Mr Corbyn wins he would not be able to command discipline amongst Labour MPs - many of whom would not vote for "crazy left-wing stuff".
A total of 1,200 people have so far had their applications rejected because of their support for other groups or parties.
Mr Danczuk said he believed at least a quarter of those who had applied to join his local Labour party should not be entitled to take part in the leadership vote.
'Robust system'
But in a statement, Mr Corbyn said his vision was of a more inclusive, honest and de-personalised form of politics.
A Labour spokeswoman previously rejected calls to suspend the leadership contest.
She said there was a "very robust" system in place to prevent fraudulent and malicious applications and additional checks were being carried out to make sure the rules are upheld.
Backbench MP Diane Abbott, who stood as a candidate in the 2010 leadership election, has also defended the process saying criticism was coming from people "who think their side will lose".
She added: "This election is being fought under rules that were agreed by the whole party last year."
Labour leadership contest
Image caption Labour leadership candidates (l-r): Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn, Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham
Who are the candidates? Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn, Liz Kendall
Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn, Liz Kendall Dates: Ballot papers will be sent out on 14 August; voting can take place by post or online. They must be returned by 10 September. The result is announced on 12 September
Ballot papers will be sent out on 14 August; voting can take place by post or online. They must be returned by 10 September. The result is announced on 12 September Who can vote? All party members, registered supporters and affiliated supporters - including those joining via a union
All party members, registered supporters and affiliated supporters - including those joining via a union What is the voting system? The Alternative Vote system is being used so voters are asked to rank candidates in order of preference
The Alternative Vote system is being used so voters are asked to rank candidates in order of preference How does it work? If no candidate gets 50% of all votes cast, the candidate in fourth place is eliminated. Their second preference votes are then redistributed among the remaining three. If there is still no winner, the third place candidate is eliminated with their second preferences (or third in the case of votes transferred from the fourth place candidates) redistributed. It is then a head-to-head between the last two candidates
At-a-glance profiles of the four contenders |
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), excessive gaming may now be a mental disorder. In the new draft of the WHO’s 11th International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), which will be released next year, gaming disorder will now be listed. The symptoms include “impaired control over gaming,” as well as playing video games over “other life interests and daily activities,” resulting in “the occurrence of negative consequences.” Here’s the WHO draft:
The behavior pattern is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. The gaming behavior and other features are normally evident over a period of at least 12 months in order for a diagnosis to be assigned, although the required duration may be shortened if all diagnostic requirements are met and symptoms are severe.
So the very condition of gaming excessively is now a disorder, according to the WHO. But don’t worry — if you’re a transgender gamer, you only have one mental disorder: gaming. By 2018, the WHO is expected to declassify transgenderism as a mental disorder, as The Washington Post reported last year:
The proposals to declassify transgender identity as a mental disorder have been approved by each committee that has considered it so far. … Transgender activist groups have been working toward this for years, said Mauro Cabral, one of the program directors of the Global Action for Trans Equality.
Yes, you’re reading this correctly: gaming to the extent that you prioritize playing video games over “other life interests and daily activities” will be internationally recognized as a diagnosable mental illness, but believing that you are a member of the opposite sex isn’t a mental disorder at all — the only reason you’d be impaired by that condition is if society is mean to you, despite a lifetime suicide attempt rate of four in ten among transgender people.
And then the scientific community wonders why laypeople don’t take their completely anti-scientific redefinition of mental illness seriously? |
Following nearly 5 years of exploration in mountainous areas of the southern Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, a team of researchers has uncovered seven new species of a highly miniaturized, brightly colored frog genus known as Brachycephalus. Each species is remarkably endemic, being restricted to cloud forests in one or a few adjacent mountaintops, thus making them highly vulnerable to extinction, particularly due to shifts in the distribution of cloud forest due to climate change.
The Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil harbors a highly unique group of frogs that have intrigued naturalists for over a century. Known as Brachycephalus, these frogs are among the smallest terrestrial vertebrates, with adult sizes often not exceeding 1 cm in length, leading to a variety of changes in their body structure, such as reduction in the number of toes and fingers. In addition, many species of Brachycephalus are brightly colored, possibly as a warning to the presence of a highly potent neurotoxin in their skin known as tetrodotoxin.
Most species of Brachycephalus are highly endemic, being found exclusively on one, or a few, adjacent mountaintops. Such high levels of endemism is caused by their adaptation to a specific kind of habitat - the cloud forests - which simultaneously prevents them from migrating across valleys and promotes the formation of new species.
The first species of Brachycephalus was described in 1842 by the famous German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix, yet most species in the genus have been discovered only in the past decade, particularly due to their highly endemic nature and the difficulty in reaching remote montane sites. Over the course of five years of fieldwork, a team of researchers has provided the largest addition to the known diversity of Brachycephalus, with seven new species.
"Although getting to many of the field sites is exhausting, there was always the feeling of anticipation and curiosity about what new species could look like", said Marcio Pie, a professor at the Universidade Federal do Paraná, who led the project.
Luiz Ribeiro, a research associate to the Mater Natura Institute for Environmental Studies, is optimistic about the prospects for future studies "This is only the beginning, especially given the fact that we have already found additional species that we are in the process of formally describing."
A major concern regarding the new species is that the same factors that led to their endemism might also be a ticket to their extinction. Cloud forests are highly sensitive to climatic changes, and the long-term preservation of these species might involve not only the protection of their habitats but also more direct management efforts, such as rearing in captivity.
###
The study, titled "Seven new microendemic species of Brachycephalus (Anura: Brachycephalidae) from southern Brazil", was published today in PeerJ, a peer-reviewed open access journal in which all articles are freely available to everyone.
PDF of this Press Release: http://static. peerj. com/ pressReleases/ 2015/ PressReleasePeerJ_Ribeiro. pdf
Citation to the article: Robeiro, L F et. al. (2015) Seven new microendemic species of Brachycephalus (Anura: Brachycephalidae) from southern Brazil. PeerJ 3:e1011 https:/ / dx. doi. org/ 10. 7717/ peerj. 1011
PeerJ is an Open Access publisher of peer reviewed articles, which offers researchers a lifetime publication plan, for a single low price, providing them with the ability to openly publish all future articles for free. PeerJ is based in San Francisco, CA and London, UK and can be accessed at https:/ / peerj. com/ . PeerJ's mission is to help the world efficiently publish its knowledge.
All works published in PeerJ are Open Access and published using a Creative Commons license (CC-BY 4.0). Everything is immediately available--to read, download, redistribute, include in databases and otherwise use--without cost to anyone, anywhere, subject only to the condition that the original authors and source are properly attributed.
PeerJ has an Editorial Board of over 1,000 respected academics, including 5 Nobel Laureates. PeerJ was the recipient of the 2013 ALPSP Award for Publishing Innovation.
PeerJ Media Resources (including logos) can be found at: https:/ / peerj. com/ about/ press/
Media Contacts:
For the authors: Marcio Pie, [email protected], Phone:+55(41) 3361-1558 (Brazil)
For PeerJ: email: [email protected] , https:/ / peerj. com/ about/ press/
Note: If you would like to join the PeerJ Press Release list, visit: http://bit. ly/ PressList
Abstract (from the article):
Brachycephalus (Anura: Brachycephalidae) is a remarkable genus of miniaturized frogs of the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest. Many of its species are highly endemic to cloud forests, being found only on one or a few mountaintops. Such level of microendemism might be caused by their climatic tolerance to a narrow set of environmental conditions found only in montane regions. This restriction severely limits the chance of discovery of new species, given the difficulty of exploring these inaccessible habitats. Following extensive fieldwork in montane areas of the southern portion of the Atlantic Rainforest, in this study we describe seven new species of Brachycephalus from the states of Paraná and Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. These species can be distinguished from one another based on coloration and the level of rugosity of the skin in different parts of their body. These discoveries increase considerably the number of described species of Brachycephalus in southern Brazil. |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The tip about a backyard marijuana-growing operation set the Pecos Valley Drug Task Force in motion.
Police showed up at the suspect’s door in southern New Mexico, ready to make a bust, only to discover he was a patient under the state’s medical cannabis program — the first inkling that officers had about legal pot in the area, task force commander David Edmondson said.
“He showed us his permit to grow it, and we left him alone,” he said.
But law enforcement agencies in New Mexico and other states with privacy provisions in their medical marijuana laws worry such situations drain their resources unnecessarily and could have a different ending — one in which guns are drawn and someone gets hurt.
Boulder, Colo., police complained last year about their state’s grower confidentiality provisions, saying officers spent considerable time investigating operations that turned out to have legal permission to have pot. Providence, R.I., police secretly monitored a suspected dealer, only to find out he was allowed to have marijuana, too.
New Mexico police complain that the state Department of Health, which runs the state’s program, should make it easier for them to find out who’s licensed to produce medical marijuana in their jurisdiction.
Edmondson said a legitimate grower may not understand who’s at the door, and “you could get into a firefight, an officer could get hurt.”
Cibola County Sheriff Johnny Valdez agrees. He and other law enforcement officers consider any narcotics report a high-risk situation because illegal producers can be armed or might have booby-trapped the area.
“As far as we are concerned … we are going into a possible volatile situation. It can go south very quickly,” Valdez said.
State Health Secretary Dr. Alfredo Vigil said names of patients and licensed growers are secret from everyone for privacy and safety reasons. Some growers and users in states without confidentiality clauses have been targets of robberies that have resulted in injuries and even deaths.
“Generally speaking, things that are private and confidential in the world are private and confidential from law enforcement as well unless they go through due process,” Vigil said.
New Mexico’s program, which kicked off in 2008, still is in its infancy, with “many, many unanswered issues and questions we are slowly working our way through,” he said. “The relationship with law enforcement is one of those.”
The state licensed its first marijuana grower last year; it now has 11 after six were approved in July. In addition, about 1,000 of New Mexico’s 2,250 active patients are licensed to grow their own supply.
The Health Department has a 24-hour line police can call to verify someone is legitimately part of the program. It says officers can provide just an address and don’t need a name.
The department receives eight to 10 calls a month to verify patients, but has not received any about legal producers, agency spokeswoman Deborah Busemeyer said.
But Darren White, head of the Albuquerque Department of Public Safety, said it’s not practical to expect police to call every time they hear about marijuana.
“If we get a tip that there’s a marijuana grow, I don’t think agents are going to feel comfortable calling someone who’s not even law enforcement and asking if they’re legit,” said White, a former Bernalillo County sheriff and former state Department of Public Safety secretary. |
Analysis by market research firm IDC shows that Mac sales growth in the last fiscal quarter was nearly seven times that of the overall PC market with Apple outgrowing overall PCs for 19 consecutive quarters, or nearly five years running. But the Mac's biggest gains aren't in the education, home, or small business segments, where the Mac has traditionally thrived—they come from large businesses and government sales.
For the quarter ending December 2010, IDC recorded an overall 3.4 percent year-over-year growth for the PC market. Mac sales, on the other hand, grew 23.5 percent. Enterprise sales were a big part of the Mac's success; while overall PC sales to business grew 9.7 percent for the quarter, Macs were up 65.4 percent. Mac sales saw big gains in every business category, surpassing overall PC sales by large margins. And while sales to small businesses and home offices grew handsomely, the biggest growth area for the Mac was "very large business," where Mac sales doubled over the same quarter last year.
While government sales are a very small part of Mac sales—about 1 percent—growth in this segment is nearly 600 percent compared to the PC industry's 8.4 percent overall growth. That's a big jump over the 200 percent government sales growth the Mac enjoyed just two quarters ago.
Needham analyst Charlie Wolf is still citing a halo effect from Apple’s iOS devices for fueling the increased growth in the enterprise. In particular, he fingered the iPad as driving Mac adoption even more than the iPhone.
"The surge in Mac sales in the business market coincided with the introduction of the iPad in the second quarter of 2010," Wolf noted. While it's hard to show a direct cause-and-effect between the two events, Apple has highlighted the fact that 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies are working iPads into their IT infrastructure. "It's likely, then, that the halo effect emanating from the iPad will be far stronger than the iPhone halo effect in the business market if only because the iPad is a kissing cousin of Apple's family of notebook computers," according to Wolf.
Oddly, Apple posted a slight decline in education sales while the overall PC sales grew 3 percent in the same segment. Education has always been a traditionally strong market for Apple, though it has suffered overall declining sales in the segment for several years.
Apple's consumer focus is still apparent in sales growth in the "home" market segment, however, from which a majority of Mac sales come. While the overall industry saw a 0.6 percent decline in year-over-year sales, Apple managed to increase sales to consumers by 17.1 percent.
The recent increases in business sales have led to Apple creating a business sales specialist position at its retail stores. Apple has also made continual improvements to iOS to attract more enterprise customers. However, the company doesn't directly target enterprises with Macs or Mac OS X. In the last few years, Apple has discontinued its two major enterprise hardware products: the Xserve RAID and, more recently, the Xserve itself. |
Not to be confused with Mithraism
Mithridatism is the practice of protecting oneself against a poison by gradually self-administering non-lethal amounts. The word is derived from Mithridates VI, the King of Pontus, who so feared being poisoned that he regularly ingested small doses, aiming to develop immunity.
Background [ edit ]
Mithridates VI's father, Mithridates V, was assassinated by poisoning, said to be at his mother's orders. After this, Mithridates VI's mother held regency over Pontus until a male heir came of age. Mithridates was in competition with his brother for the throne and his mother began to favor his brother.[1]:68 Supposedly, during his youth, he began to suspect plots against him at his own mother's orders and was aware of her possible connection with his father's death. He then began to notice pains in his stomach during his meals and suspected his mother had ordered small amounts of poison to be added to his food to slowly kill him off. With other assassination attempts, he fled into the wild.[1]:69
While in the wild, it is said that he began ingesting non-lethal amounts of poisons and mixing many into a universal remedy to make him immune to all known poisons.
After Mithridates' death, many Roman physicians claimed to possess and improve the formula. In keeping with most medical practices of his era, Mithridates' anti-poison routines included a religious component, supervised by the Agari; a group of Scythian shamans derived from Indian Aghoris who never left him.[3]
It has been suggested that Russian mystic Rasputin's survival of a poisoning attempt was due to mithridatism, but this has not been proven.[4]
Indian epics talk about this practice too. It has been said that, during the rule of the king Chandragupta Maurya (320–298 BC), there was a practice of selecting beautiful girls and administering poison in small amounts until they grew up, thus making them insensitive to poison. These maidens were called vishakanyas (visha = poison, kanya = maiden). It was believed that making love with vishakanyas could result in the death of their partners, hence they were employed to kill enemies.
The emperor Bindusara was the son of the first Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya and his queen Durdhara. According to the Rajavalikatha, a Jain work, the original name of this emperor was Simhasena. According to a legend mentioned in the Jain texts, Chandragupta's Guru and advisor Chanakya used to feed the emperor with small doses of poison to build his immunity against possible poisoning attempts by the enemies.[5] One day, Chandragupta, not knowing about the poison, shared his food with his pregnant wife, Queen Durdhara, who was seven days away from delivery. The queen not immune to the poison collapsed and died within a few minutes. Chanakya entered the room the very time she collapsed, and in order to save the child in the womb, he immediately cut open the dead queen's belly and took the baby out, by that time a drop of poison had already reached the baby and touched its head due to which the child got a permanent blueish spot (a "bindu") on his forehead. Thus, the newborn was named "Bindusara".[6]
In practice [ edit ]
It is important to note that mithridatism is not effective against all types of poison (immunity generally is only possible with biologically complex types which the immune system can respond to) and, depending on the toxin, the practice can lead to the lethal accumulation of a poison in the body. Results depend on how each poison is processed by the body, ie, on how the toxic compound is metabolized or passed out of the body. In some cases, it is possible to build up tolerance against specific non-biological poisons. This involves conditioning the liver to produce more of the particular enzymes that metabolize these poisons (for example alcohol).[7] However, this method (metabolic tolerance) isn't very reliable as too much generally causes accumulation of the reduced toxicity compound that the original poison was metabolized into, slowly damaging the liver. With alcohol this generally leads to conditions such as alcoholic fatty liver disease.[8]
These methods do not work for all non-biological poisons. Exposure to certain toxic substances, such as hydrofluoric acid and heavy metals, is either lethal or has little to no effect, and thus cannot be used in this way at all. Arsenic is a notable exception with some people actually having a genetic adaptation granting them higher resistance which can be replicated with mithridatism.[9]
In addition, simple toxins that work through chemical processes that bypass the immune system generally cannot be dealt with. One interesting minor subversion is cyanide, which bypasses the immune system, but can be metabolized by the liver. The enzyme rhodanese converts the cyanide into the much less toxic thiocyanate.[10] This process allows humans to intake small amounts of cyanide in food like apple seeds and survive small amounts of cyanide gas from fires and cigarettes. However, unlike alcohol, you cannot effectively condition your liver against cyanide. Relatively larger amounts of cyanide are still highly lethal because while the body can produce more rhodanese the process also requires large amounts of sulfur-containing substrates.[11]
Due to all these reasons, there are only a few, if any, practical uses of mithridatism. Venomous snake handler Bill Haast used this method. Snake handlers from Burma are said to tattoo themselves with snake venom for the same reason.[12]
In fiction [ edit ]
Mithridatism has been used as a plot device in novels, films, video games, and television shows, including Nirja Guleri's Shiv Dutt in Chandrakanta, Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo, Holly Black's "The Cruel Prince", Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter", Yoshiaki Kawajiri's Ninja Scroll, Dorothy Sayers's Strong Poison, Agatha Christie's Curtain, William Goldman's The Princess Bride (and the film of the same name), The Borgias, Babylon 5, Riddick, a Japanese manga called Dokuhime (Poison Princess) by Mihara Mitsukazu, Ekta Kapoor's Jodha Akbar, and the Zoldyck family in Hunter X Hunter.
In Michael Curtis Ford's novel The Last King, on the life and conquests of Mithridates VI, the author clearly depicts Mithridates' efforts to use this technique to protect himself and ensure his safety.
In poetry [ edit ]
A.E. Housman's "Terence, this is stupid stuff" (originally published in A Shropshire Lad) invokes mithridatism as a metaphor for the benefit that serious poetry brings to the reader. The final section is a poetic rendition of the Mithridates legend.
See also [ edit ]
Arsenikesser ("arsenic eater"; German Wikipedia)
Hormesis
Mithridate
Vaccination |
Seen at Saturday's Tax March (Scott Lynch / Gothamist)
While Saturday's Tax March may not have convinced President Trump to release his returns, the post-election pressure continues with another nationwide rally coming up this weekend, this one in support of public funding for science. And in the days leading up to that, members of congress will be returning to their districts for the start of a two-week recess, during which many of them will likely face blowback from constituents. Below, check out our round-up of town halls, workers' rallies, resistance sing-alongs, ass-kicking workshops and more.
Pay Your Fair Share, Goldman Sachs!
On Tax Day, a group of activists will convene at Goldman Sachs to demand that the bank pay its fair share in taxes. Organized by Resist Here, Government Sachs, and New York Communities For Change, the event will, according to organizers, raise awareness about Goldman Sachs's role in destroying jobs, evicting families, and profiting from incarceration.
FREE, Tuesday, April 18th, 6 p.m. | Goldman Sachs 200 West Street, Manhattan
Make Your Voice Heard—District-Wide Town Hall
Last month, we spoke with some constituents of Rep. Dan Donovan, the city's only GOP Congressman, who were furious at the congressman's continued refusal to hold a town hall. This week, advocates with Fight Back Bay Ridge plan to take matters into their own hands by inviting the congressman to his own town hall—an invitation, we're told, he's refused. Whether Donovan joins or not, residents of Staten Island and South Brooklyn are encouraged to come out for discussions of education, environmental sustainability, equality, health care, housing and immigration.
FREE, Wednesday, April 19th, 7 p.m. | Bay Ridge Manor 476 76th Street, Brooklyn
Queens March Against Gentrification
The Queens Anti-Gentrification Project will be marching to Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer's office to demand that he oppose three current proposals that, according to the project, represent an assault on the neighborhood's longterm residents: the BQX street car, the development of Sunnyside Yards, and the rezoning of Long Island City. Instead, the activists will call on the councilmember to support a city-wide rent freeze and moratorium on upzonings, and for his unconditional opposition to the privatization of the New York City Housing Authority. The group has circulated a petition with more detail about their demands.
FREE, Thursday April 20th, 6 p.m. | 46th Street & Queens Boulevard, Sunnyside
Rise Up With Tom Cat Workers: Fight ICE's Anti-Immigrant Audit
Brandworkers, a non-profit advocacy group for retail and food employees, is organizing on behalf of local restaurant workers who feel threatened by the administration's growing deportation effort. On Friday, the group will stand in solidarity with employees of Tom Cat, a Long Island City bakery that, according to Brandworkers, is "not safeguarding workers' rights, and setting a bad precedent for how companies should respond to anti-immigrant actions across the country."
FREE, Friday, April 21st, 6 a.m. | 4502 23rd Street 2nd Floor, Long Island City
Back In The USSR—Live Karaoke For the Resistance
In the third installment of Live Karaoke for the Resistance, the Occasionalist band will take Littlefield with a medley of scream-along worthy tunes from the Talking Heads, Violent Femmes, Cee Lo Green and more. All proceeds will benefit 350.org, the Immigration Defense Project, and the Safe Passage Project. See the full setlist here.
$10 advanced, $12 day of, Friday, April 21st, 7:30 p.m. | Littlefield, 622 Degraw Street, Brooklyn
Feminist Self-Defense Workshop
According to a UN World's Women Report, one in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives. In the hopes of combating this disturbing trend, and in observance of Sexual Assault Prevention Month, the Young Feminists & Allies organization will be offering a free self-defense workshop in midtown. Hosting the event is Rachel Piazza, a martial artist experienced in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a pioneer in the field of feminist self-defense.
FREE with registration, Friday, April 21st, 6:30 p.m. | Recreational Center 54, 348 East 54th Street, Manhattan
March For Science
Anyone can Fucking Love Science on Facebook, but it takes a true enthusiast to take that appreciation to the streets. Saturday's highly-anticipated march will bring together scientists and advocates for publicly funded science in a show of solidarity that organizers hope will "feel more like a parade" than a protest. If previous science-based rallies are any indication, expect a whole lot of adorably nerdy signage. RSVP here to join a marching group.
FREE, Saturday, April 22nd, 10:30 a.m. | Central Park West at 62nd Street
Close Rikers Rally At City Hall
One year after the #CloseRikers campaign launched on the steps of City Hall, the prison reform group will return to lower Manhattan to continue to demand elected officials reduce incarceration in New York City. They'll take a moment to celebrate some recent victories—like the mayor's recent support for shutting down Rikers—but, as the organizers note, "the work is far from done."
FREE, Monday, April 24th, 10:30 a.m. | New York City Hall, 43 Park Row |
The Senate on Wednesday confirmed David Zatezalo, President Trump’s choice to run the Mine Safety and Health Administration, despite the former coal executive’s record of clashing with government regulators over safety violations at his companies.
The Senate voted 52 to 46 – along party lines – to confirm Zatezalo, a West Virginia native, to run the federal agency that oversees safety in the country’s mines, including coal, metal and other materials.
Zatezalo retired in 2014 as the head of Rhino Resources, which came under scrutiny by federal regulators for safety violations at his mines.
At his confirmation hearing, Zatezalo, who has worked in the coal industry for 40 years, said he wasn’t proud of Rhino’s safety record.
“I did not try to lawyer up and stop anything from happening. I felt if you haven’t done your job we should be big kids and deal with it as such,” he said last month.
Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, opposed Zatezalo’s nomination.
“After reviewing his qualifications and record of safety during his time in the coal industry, I am not convinced that Mr. Zatezalo is suited to oversee the federal agency that implements and enforces mine safety laws and standards,” he said in a statement in September.
With Post wires |
PHOENIX (AP) – America's self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff" has been dealt another setback to his immigration enforcement efforts by a federal judge's ruling that bars deputies from detaining people based solely on the suspicion that they're in the country illegally.
The ruling issued Friday sets the stage for a possible trial in a lawsuit that alleges racial profiling in the patrols in Arizona's Maricopa County, and would further limit Sheriff Joe Arpaio's immigration authority after Washington yanked his federal powers earlier this month.
Lawyers pushing the lawsuit on behalf of five Latino clients also won class-action status that lets other Hispanics join the case if they have been detained and questioned by Arpaio's deputies as either a driver or passenger in a vehicle since January 2007.
U.S. District Judge Murray Snow hasn't yet ruled on the ultimate question of racial profiling, but notes the case's evidence could lead a judge or jury to conclude that Arpaio's office racially profiles Latinos.
"Sheriff Arpaio has made public statements that a fact-finder could interpret as endorsing racial profiling," Snow said.
The judge noted that the sheriff has said that even without authority to enforce federal immigration laws, his officers can detain people based upon their speech or they appear to be from another country.
The 40-page ruling marked a qualified victory for the lawyers who pushed the lawsuit. They didn't get the case decided without going to trial, as they had hoped, but it came closer to the result they were looking for.
"We are encouraged by the Court's recognition of the strong evidence showing the (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office's) pattern and practice of racial profiling and its conducting of operations for reasons that are racially biased," Stan Young, lead attorney for those who filed the lawsuit, said in a written statement.
Arpaio won a small victory when the judge dismissed part of a claim by a Hispanic couple who are among the five people who filed the lawsuit.
Snow ruled that one of Arpaio's deputies had probable cause to pull over the couple on a closed roadway. The couple's illegal search claim was thrown out, but the judge didn't dismiss their racial profiling claim.
Messages left for Arpaio's lawyers weren't immediately returned late Friday.
The lawsuit alleges that Maricopa County officers made some traffic stops solely because Hispanics were driving. The plaintiffs say authorities had no probable cause to pull them over and made the stops only to question their immigration status.
Arpaio has denied the racial profiling allegations, saying people pulled over in the patrols were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes and that it was only afterward that deputies found many were illegal immigrants.
During the patrols known as "sweeps," deputies flood an area of a city — in some cases, heavily Latino areas — over several days to seek out traffic violators and arrest other offenders. Illegal immigrants accounted for 57 percent of the roughly 1,500 people arrested in the 20 sweeps conducted by his office in earnest since January 2008.
Separate from the lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a Dec. 15 report that accused Arpaio's office of having a pattern of racially profiling Latinos, basing immigration enforcement on racially-charged citizen complaints and punishing Hispanic jail inmates for speaking Spanish.
Arpaio faces a Jan. 4 deadline for saying whether he wants to work out an agreement to settle the civil rights allegations. The Justice Department has said it's prepared to sue Arpaio and let a judge decide the matter if no agreement can be worked out.
The Justice Department report prompted U.S. Department of Homeland Security to strip Arpaio's office of its federal powers to verify the immigration status of jail inmates. The severing of those ties came after an October 2009 decision by Homeland Security to take away the federal immigration arrest powers from 100 of Arpaio's deputies.
Arpaio is left with only state immigration laws to carry out his patrols — and those powers were limited by the judge Friday.
Apart from the lawsuit and civil rights report against the sheriff's office, a federal grand jury also has been investigating Arpaio's office on criminal abuse-of-power allegations since at least December 2009.
Grand jurors are examining the investigative work of the sheriff's anti-public corruption squad. |
I went to the slaughterhouse to see what happened to the animals, yes, but even more, to see what happened to myself. I wanted to test my expectations against reality, and I wondered how the experience would affect me.
When I told the UC Davis geneticist and cattle enthusiast Alison Van Eenennaam that I was planning on writing about meat, she said she could set up a visit to the university slaughterhouse for me to see steers being processed. Huh, I thought, that could be interesting. I felt as if I’d already watched a slaughter because I’ve seen so many videos and read so many accounts — journalistic descriptions, hot-to-the-touch activist screeds, fictional scenes, combinations of the three — that I had to search my memory to determine if I’d ever been present myself.
I’d cracked trout on the head, and put trapped mice out of their misery. But, no, upon reflection, I had never seen the killing of livestock.
The UC Davis slaughterhouse is across from the animal sciences building where Van Eenennaam works. It’s a small teaching facility, designed to handle just a few animals at a time. We walked over in the morning — it was still cool, with occasional breaths of midsummer heat. From the front it’s just a nondescript brown building.
We strolled around behind the building, stopping to say hello to the horses and an old sway-backed donkey penned there. Van Eenennaam pointed out the chute where the animals would step out of the truck and into a narrow path between tubular steel fences. As we came around the corner of the building I noticed fresh dung in the path, and Van Eenennaam exclaimed, “Oh, they’re already here.” I looked up and met the big liquid eyes of a black steer, craning his neck to look back at us. Ahead of that steer was another — white with brown spots — also looking back at me.
I thought I understood the hard reality of agriculture and expected to be unfazed by this experience. But something about those steers fazed me. These animals have only a few minutes left to live, I thought. It was frightening to know that — to realize that I was standing right there at the intersection of life and death, and that my actions could affect that transition.
We went through a gate, up past the animals. At the end of the path was a panel that could be lifted straight up on a pulley. On the other side of that panel the path continued for the length of a cow, then ended, forming a rectangular box.
“This is the knock box,” Van Eenennaam said. Here, a steer will walk in, a worker will position a bolt gun precisely between the eyes, and a charge of gunpowder will knock a bolt against the steer’s head hard enough to render him insensible. The knock box has concrete walls with a little window in the front and a wide stainless steel panel on one side. When the steer falls, that stainless steel panel will rotate, allowing it to slide into the slaughterhouse.
A few feet away there was a door for the living. We entered a high-ceilinged room clad in stainless steel. There were no conveyor belts, as I’d seen in videos of commercial slaughterhouses. One steer was already dead, its skinless head resting on a countertop while four workers methodically broke down the carcass. An inspector in a white frock and USDA helmet stood watching. The man in charge curtly directed us to the locker rooms. I put on a white frock, a red helmet, and brown rubber boots.
Van Eenennaam introduced me to the fellow in charge, Caleb Sehnert, a burly man with a thick black mustache and goatee. He and the other workers wore black waterproof aprons and worked with silent intensity. It was clear that everyone knew precisely what needed to be done and stepped to the tasks without any need to talk. Sehnert was the one who did the knocking, and he motioned for me to follow him when he went outside for the next steer.
“Did you want to see this?” he asked.
I nodded.
“You can watch through the window, but go down there a ways back. I don’t want anything unusual that might spook him.”
I stood a dozen paces off, in the gravel, watching through the little window in the knock box. Sehnert hauled on the chain to lift the panel, and the white and brown steer ambled into the knock box. I could feel myself growing nervous, my heart speeding up, my breaths coming shorter and faster, and I was wildly projecting my anxiety onto the steer. Surely it must have some sense that something is wrong I thought; surely, the way it lifted its head to look up at Sehnert, then lowered it to sniff the ground and peer at me through the window, indicated growing dread. But of course I’d seen cattle make the same movements when entering a stall and scoping it out for food.
Sehnert gently urged the second steer — which was also pushing into the knock box — far enough back to lower the panel. He crouched behind the wall, stealthy, then stood and positioned the bolt gun just so.
Bang. I walked inside quickly and there was the steer, kicking and thrashing. The animal was out, it was clear — a round wound was positioned precisely between its eyes — but misfiring signals were sending spasms through its muscles. My lungs still felt as if they’d been tied in half, but my pulse was already slowing. The critical moment had passed.
The workers looped a chain around the steer’s hind hooves and hoisted it up until it hung, head down. Sehnert made a deft, vertical cut at the throat and deep red blood cascaded out. Before, the steer had just been knocked out; now it was dead. The workers moved unhurriedly, but made quick work of the carcass. Within a few minutes they had lowered it down to its back on a sort of rolling steel cradle, washed it, removed the head, and cut away the hide. The exposed muscle twitched.
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“There’s a lot of muscle movements,” Van Eenennaam said. “That’s something that might bother someone who doesn’t understand what’s going on. But it’s parasympathetic. Obviously it’s not conscious — I mean, the head is off.”
The inspector — he would not give his name, saying the USDA frowns on individual inspectors identifying themselves — shook his head at the growing ignorance of food production. “Kids don’t ever see what happens. I’ve run into people who tell me bacon comes from a cow.”
“Do you think seeing something like this is an experience all school children should have?” I asked.
“Not very very young children — if they are too young it might be traumatic. But high school students, yes.”
With a short burst of energy from an electric “brisket saw,” the workers split the steer’s breastbone. With delicate, stroking knife movements, they separated more of the hide from the body.
“If you watch, they are so careful about not spreading contamination,” the inspector told me. “See how they are always washing down, and dipping their knives?” There were several hot water baths around the room for sterilizing knives.
The workers hoisted the carcass up again, spilling the inner organs out into a container.
“It’s kind of scary how easily it all comes out,” Van Eenennaam said, wryly. She pulled on a pair or blue latex gloves and pulled out the lungs — she has a professional interest in lungs, because she has studied bovine pneumonia. “They have remarkably small lungs for such a big animal. They really weren’t made for running, like a horse. So any loss of lung capacity really affects them.”
Meanwhile, Sehnert was preparing to split the first carcass in two. He picked up what looked like a six-foot-long chainsaw — something Arnold Schwarzenegger might wield in an action movie.
“This is the hardest job in the plant,” Van Eenennaam said. “He’s got to cut right down the middle of the backbone without cutting the spinal cord.”
Sehnert rose up into the air on a rising platform, bearing his mother-of-all-chainsaws. He put it in place and it whined through the bone. The platform, controlled by a foot lever, descended as he cut until he reached the bottom and the two sides of beef swung apart.
Once the second steer was out of the way, Sehnert went back outside to knock the last one. I stayed inside and watched through the gap beneath the stainless steel panel, and could see its hooves as it plodded into the box, a glimpse of its nose as it sniffed the ground, a strand of saliva trailing from its mouth.
Once again, I began to tense up in anticipation. It reminded me a little of the way I felt when my first child was born. That too, had been a critical transition — the beginning, rather than the end of life. In both situations I’d been scared that something would go terribly wrong, and wanted intensely to do my part to prevent suffering — which gave me a stiff, self-conscious awkwardness as I tried to stay out of the way.
Again: bang. I jumped, and the steer’s hooves also left the ground. Then the panel rotated and the black and white Angus-Hereford-cross rolled into the room. Once more, the disassembly progressed with smooth professionalism. I tried to make sense of what I was feeling, but “I certainly don’t feel totally OK right now” was all that ended up in my notebook.
I had been feeling sorry for the workers — students or recent grads, all of them. It just seemed like a physically and emotionally taxing job. But when I spoke to them, they were incredibly enthusiastic. One of the workers, Lauren Eis, wore funky blue cat-eye glasses and a tank top under her smock. Her arms were bare and blood was drying on her chest. “It’s a really great job,” she told me. “It’s really fulfilling.”
“Really?” I asked. “What makes it fulfilling?”
“There just aren’t many places like this,” she said. “You get to see the whole process, not just your little part. I mean, an animal walks in here, and you get to move it all the way through until it’s food for people. It’s really fulfilling to provide food for people. Most people we get working here stay until they have to leave.”
The other two workers were similarly upbeat — even the guy washing stinky, fermenting grass out of a rumen. Then I approached Sehnert and asked him if he thought the anxiety I’d felt in watching those steers die would disappear if I saw it enough.
“Even I still get a little nervous,” he said. “It’s my least favorite part of the job. I don’t enjoy killing things. But cattle are creatures of utility, you have to remind yourself — this is why they were born and raised.”
Some nervousness is only natural, he said, “And it’s good to have that little bit of nerves — to keep you sharp. You don’t want to get relaxed about it.”
I explained that I was there, in part, to try to close the gap between people and their food, and asked what myths or misperceptions he bumped up against.
“When people find out what I do they often say, ‘Oh that’s nice, you’ve got this small facility, you must treat those animals so much better.’ But I really don’t think that large-scale plants get away with anything more than we do.”
They may be bigger, with more workers and more animals, but being big doesn’t make a slaughterhouse any less humane, he said. The reason Sehnert likes working in the small, college facility is that he gets to help educate people. “That’s my favorite part,” he said. “Talking to people like you. When students come through here to learn about digestive anatomy, it’s just a privilege to be able to show them the real thing. That’s something they are going to think about every day.”
Since all the animals for the day had been killed, Van Eenennaam and I shook hands with Sehnert and the inspector and took our leave. We walked out through the front, where there’s a small shop. Every Thursday people from around Davis come to buy meat and eggs and the various foods that the students make with the meat as part of their training.
I got a bag of pepperoni with parmesan and sundried tomatoes. It was spicy and delicious. I was still a little shaken from watching those steers die, but that didn’t translate into any reluctance to eat meat.
I left with a renewed sense that any death, including the death of an animal, was a perilous event that must be handled with great care. Most of all, I felt a new sense of respect for the people who did this difficult work so well. The way Sehnert’s team had moved, quickly, but without hurry, in sync, but without speaking — it was impressive. Anyone who eats meat, I think, would do well to give a moment to think with grateful respect of the animal that died, and the people who skillfully handle that fraught transition between life and death. |
DUNNES STORES ARE reported to have let some employees go, among other actions, in the wake of last Thursday’s long-anticipated countrywide industrial action.
The workers’ trade union, Mandate, has received reports that some of its members who took part on the picket on 2 April have been summarily dismissed.
Others have had their hours cut, their roles changed (in some cases after more than 20 years in the same back office role), and their shift patterns altered, all in the six days since the industrial action.
One of the reported dismissals took place less than 24 hours after the worker in question participated on the strike.
It seems the employee in question was made permanent some weeks ago but then let go last Friday, the day after the strike, and told there ‘simply wasn’t the business’ to warrant his continued employment.
Since that time the worker’s role has been made available to other employees who didn’t take part in the strike action.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Mandate’s Assistant General Secretary Gerry Light described Dunnes’ behaviour as ‘deplorable’ and something that should be ‘condemned by everybody’.
“For the life of me I can’t understand what they think they’re doing. All that can come of this is a hardening of both sides’ positions,” he said.
You’re talking about a strike that clearly had the support across a huge number of bodies in Irish society.
Logic would tell you to move towards a resolution, not engage in more provocative behaviour.
The only thing that will be damaged by behaviour like this is their own (Dunnes’) business.
Because this is an unprecedented situation and unprecedented behaviour on any employer’s behalf, certainly in my experience.
Mandate's Gerry Light Source: Photocall
Light is of the opinion that Dunnes’ actions are entirely premeditated, and indeed had been planned for some time prior to the strike.
“The only resolution I can see to this, other than further escalation of our industrial action, is when the government’s collective bargaining legislation goes live in July,” he said.
That will give the workers more teeth and may make Dunnes sit up and take notice.
TheJournal.ie requested comment from Dunnes Stores but has received no response.
Last week’s strike came after many months of workers’ unrest. With at least three quarters of Dunnes’ staff on flexible short-term contracts, its workers were campaigning on a number of fronts:
A demand for the implementation of banded-hour contracts
Fair pay for workers
A review of the use of temporary contracts of employment
The right to union representation for Dunnes’ workers
The company’s approach throughout the saga has been consistently uncompromising.
In October last year Dunnes failed to show up for a Labour Court hearing with Mandate, while the company offered a 20% discount on all online purchases on the day of last week’s strike, a move that was almost universally condemned. |
The Australian institution known for its friendly staff and ‘sausage sizzles’ is ready to challenge B&Q as it seals the takeover for £340m
Homebase will disappear from the UK market and be replaced by the Australian brand Bunnings after Home Retail Group accepted a £340m bid for the troubled DIY chain.
Bunnings, an Australian institution, is the country’s number one hardware retailer and will be hoping to bring its winning combination of low prices, huge range and excellent customer service to the UK market.
The acquisition of 265 Homebase stores will make it the second largest home improvement and garden retailer in the UK and Ireland and give it a position to challenge B&Q.
Watch out Wickes and B&Q: Bunnings is coming for your DIY customers Read more
“Bunnings is well placed to unlock value from the Homebase business and has a proven track record in delivering growth, both organically and through acquisition,” said Richard Goyder, managing director of Bunnings owner Wesfarmers, which also owns the leading Australian supermarket, Coles.
“The £38bn UK home improvement and garden market is a large and growing market with strong fundamentals.”
Bunnings, which uses staff to front its television adverts, is also known for its “sausage sizzles” outside stores where local sports or community groups are allowed to set up stalls and sell food to customers.
Goyder sought to reassure investors over a move that comes with the Australian dollar having declined about 30% against the British pound over the past three years.
“The opportunity to enter this attractive market through the acquisition of Homebase has been comprehensively researched and carefully considered by Wesfarmers and Bunnings,” Goyder said.
“The Bunnings team has done a lot of work to make sure it understands the market and the opportunity, including having visited hundreds of stores, spending significant time researching the market and closely studying international retail expansions into the UK and other markets.”
The cost of overhauling the stores means the acquisition from the UK’s Home Retail Group is expected to have an immaterial effect on Wesfarmers’ earnings per share and return on equity for three years, after which it is projected to contribute positively. |
In which I collect all the examples of this strange mental defect that have caught my attention in the months of October and September in the seventeenth (and final?) year of The New American Century.
PUTIN, PUTIN EVERYWHERE!
PUTIN OF THE EVIL SCARY DEATH EYES
The Economist, one of the reliable goto sources for anti-Russian extrusions, sums up evil-eyed Putin:
Every week Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, finds new ways to scare the world. Recently he moved nuclear-capable missiles close to Poland and Lithuania. This week he sent an aircraft-carrier group down the North Sea and the English Channel. He has threatened to shoot down any American plane that attacks the forces of Syria’s despot, Bashar al-Assad. Russia’s UN envoy has said that relations with America are at their tensest in 40 years. Russian television news is full of ballistic missiles and bomb shelters. ‘Impudent behaviour’ might have ‘nuclear consequences’, warns Dmitry Kiselev, Mr Putin’s propagandist-in-chief—who goes on to cite Mr Putin’s words that ‘If a fight is inevitable, you have to strike first.’
(Editors note: shouldn’t you mention that he used to be in the KGB?). Even its readers don’t buy it – look at the most recommended comments. Soon The Economist will excrete a piece arguing that, for the sake of free speech and other Western values, those who disagree with Big Brother (aka purveyors or dupes of Putin’s “hacking and disinformation campaign“) should be silenced.
PUTIN AND THE AMERICAN ELECTION
The big story before the election, as Clinton was floundering, even in the polls that overstated her numbers, was that Putin was interfering in the US election. The Administration “officially accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the 2016 elections, including by hacking the computers of the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations” and counter attacks were promised. Newsweek, a few days before the election, explained “Why Vladimir Putin’s Russia Is Backing Donald Trump” (no doubt a teaser for its Madame President edition). The Washington Post again hammered away at the meme: “Putin’s hope to ignite a Eurasia-style protest in the United States“. (Top comment “we need to deliver trump such a blow on november 8 the whole world will see the sane and reasonable are really still in charge here.”) Although more sober voices argued that there was no serious evidence of Russian involvement and the FBI found “no link between Trump and Russia”, the story had wide coverage: 6 million Google hits. Wikileaks was part of Putin’s conspiracy: by publishing revelations of malfeasance (and the author doesn’t doubt their truth) the media was forced to, well, how else to put it, reveal the malfeasance. That mental incoherence somehow proves “why Putin’s plan is so devilish: He’s undermining the credibility of two key American institutions in one go.“
There was, of course, a giant logical problem with these Putin-is-trying-to-get-Trump-elected conspiracy theories using fake news (if I may emphasise): it put into peoples’ minds the idea that the election could be rigged – into 41% of American voters’ minds, to be exact. And Trump himself started saying that the election might be rigged and that he would reserve judgement on the results. This was not the purpose of the fake news, and the purveyors of these conspiracy theories had to try and walk the story back: the WaPo ran a piece to reassure the punters, “Reminder: There’s almost no chance our election can get hacked by the Russians“. The NYT incoherently squared the circle by saying it won’t be “rigged” but it could be “hacked”.
So as the election began early on 8 November the story was that Putin had but couldn’t and you should either be scared that he had or reassured that he couldn’t; in any case he wanted you to vote for Trump.
The election happened but the expected result did not. Leaving the readers of the WaPo, NYT at al concluding that Putin had indeed finagled the result. Now what? Nuke Russia? Declare the election null and void? Or fess up that the whole story was an invention to divert attention from the Clinton machine’s corruption of the process? The cover story had dangerous implications.
Fortunately, the White House has been responsible and acted to reverse the Russia-did-it meme. Not only did President Obama personally begin the transition by meeting with Trump but the White House stated that the results “accurately reflect the will of the American people” (of course, having got out on the limb in the first place, it couldn’t avoid mentioning “Russian attempts to undermine the presidential election”). But the next day a spokesman walked the story back even farther: he repeated that the results reflected the will of the people and added “The federal government did not observe any increased level of malicious cyber activity aimed at disrupting our electoral process on election day… We believe our elections were free and fair from a cybersecurity perspective.” I suppose that’s as close as we will get to an official admission that the Russia hacking story was fake news. To nail the coffin lid tighter, Five Thirty Eight had an analytic piece showing that “Demographics, Not Hacking, Explain The Election Results“.
As a final gasp we have this (WaPo of course): “If you’re even asking if Russia hacked the election, Russia got what it wanted: It’s all about sowing confusion and doubt”. So, even if the whole conspiracy theory was assembled out of fake news it’s really true.
“So we’re just going to forget WikiLeaks and Russia helped Trump?” Well, if the story is bunkum – and most of the readers seem to think so – then maybe we should just forget about it.
FAKE NEWS
Because the WaPo was one of the principal purveyors of the fake news based conspiracy theory about Putin hacking the US election it is fitting that it should be the principal purveyor of the next chapter in the Putin Derangement Syndrome saga. (I have italicised these expressions to make the point that the real fake news is produced in locations rather closer to Washington than the Kremlin.)
Here’s the ur-source, the Washington Post 24 November 2016:
The flood of ‘fake news’ this election season got support from a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton, helping Republican Donald Trump and undermining faith in American democracy, say independent researchers who tracked the operation.
The authority for much of this is an outfit called PropOrNot (website) whose criterion is absurdly widespread: “it does not matter whether the sites listed here are being knowingly directed and paid by Russian intelligence officers, or whether they even knew they were echoing Russian propaganda at any particular point“. In short, anyone who disagrees with the site. People like Ron Paul, Drudge or ZeroHedge. I won’t bother to criticise this latest fake news based conspiracy theory because Matt Taibbi has done it better than I could. “The ‘Washington Post’ ‘Blacklist’ Story Is Shameful and Disgusting“. The story is collapsing: when even The New Yorker trashes it (“a close look at the report showed that it was a mess“) it’s gone. Or, at least, this version is; I don’t think we’ve heard the last.
I can’t resist referring to a piece I wrote a couple of years ago on the motivation for this stuff: “The Western Spinners are Losing and They Know It“. The whole idea of Putintrolls writing content for our news outlets is preposterous:
Has your Local News Outlet mentioned the evidence that the Malaysian airliner was shot down by a Ukrainian aircraft? How about evidence that the “Heavenly Hundred” were actually killed by “elements of the Maidan opposition, including its extremist far right wing”? Any questioning of NATO’s commercially-obtained satellite photos? Mention of atrocities by “volunteer battalions” in the east? No, of course it hasn’t. You can only read about MH17 on sites like globalresearch.ca, the Maidan killers in academic journals, NATO’s evidence is only criticised on websites, only Russian news sites report atrocities. These are easily dismissed as, in order: crazy conspiracy sites, probably not peer-reviewed, pro-Russian websites and Kremlin funded so-called news organisations. None of it is “real journalism” and therefore none of it is worthy of inclusion in your LNO.
They’re losing and they’re trying to stop criticism and alternate points of view. It tells you where the truth lies: in the Old Days the Soviets jammed our broadcasts; we didn’t worry about theirs.
PUTIN’S WORLDWIDE MIND CONTROL
And its not just the spinning that’s coming apart: Brexit, politicians open to Russia winning in Bulgaria and Moldova, the Trumpquake, the Italian referendum and many many other signs of dissent. In a few years, the assertion that all these disparate but linked events were a Kremlin conspiracy will be seen as entirely laughable. But not (quite) yet. Russia is “brainwashing” Europeans says Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius: “In conventional warfare there was artillery attack before the real battle… Now there is no need to use artillery. You can brainwash.” As a former high official in the Communist Youth League of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (Google it), he should have insider knowledge about brainwashing. A German newspaper worries that Russian “cyber attacks” may affect Germany. Putin is about to win the French presidential election: “France’s next president is likely to be part of a new, hardline Moscow-Paris-Washington axis: supporting Russia’s Vladimir Putin, appeasing Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, and turning geopolitics away from liberalism and human rights”. Amazing how influential RT and Sputnik are isn’t it? And on such a modest budget too.
Disclaimer. I confess to relying on a lot of sites on PropOrNot’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Why? Because after years – not years, just the last 12 months will do – of Putin’s gunslinger walk, secret love children, billions stashed in Panama, Russian submarines in Sweden, “last hospital in Aleppo” destroyed over and over again, Putin “probably” dunnit, verdicts based on social media, “moderate rebels”, “Crimea’s ‘new normal’ of repression”, Russian sports cheating and “barrel bombs” I have come to a simple conclusion:
“Fake news” from these sites is more reliable than “real news” from the WaPo and its tribe.
MISCELLANEOUS SCARY THINGS
“Putin tells budding geography students that ‘Russia’s borders don’t end anywhere’ amid growing tensions with the West and NATO“. Actually he said граница (singular) and he’s pedantically correct – the border – the edge – of Russia (or any other country) is continuous. The kid answered the question “where does the Russia-US border end?” correctly but it was not the question Putin asked.
“THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING Vladimir Putin’s nuclear warships pictured steaming towards the English Channel as Royal Navy prepares to scramble fleet“. Well, they didn’t invade the UK after all.
From The Guardian, another evergreen source of all things scary: “Aleppo, Ukraine, cyber attacks, Baltic threats: what should we do about Putin?“. “Putin, like a marauding Red Army tank, has no reverse gear”. “Assuming Trump loses, a Clinton administration has three possible courses of action….”. But he didn’t lose and other possibilities appear.
As an entry in the Putin Derangement Syndrome Scary Headlines that Have Nothing to do with the Content Category we have “Vladimir Putin’s secret CLONE ARMY of designer attack dogs taught to sniff out explosives.” Not so scary and not so secret either: the three dogs were cloned by a South Korean professor who presented them to the police in Yakutia where he is doing research.
And finally, the clear winner in the Putin Derangement Syndrome Return of Cthulhu Category from the UK’s Daily Express: “Is 14-legged killer squid found TWO MILES beneath Antarctica being weaponised by Putin? A KILLER giant squid that can hypnotise its prey and paralyse humans at a distance of 150 feet using poisonous venom is being developed as a secret weapon by Vladimir.” The short answer is “no”. Note to editors: research Lake Vostok and the plot of The Thing in Wikipedia. Mercifully, not even the WaPo or The Economist have seen fit to repeat this piece of fake news.
THE FUTURE
Will this be the last of my Putin Derangement Syndrome series? I don’t think so, the illness is too strongly held but I do hope that it will diminish. In the meantime, I leave you with this quote so easily applicable to the Putin Derangement Syndrome condition. |
McDonald's Australia
McDonald's is introducing tater tots to its menu — officially named Hash Brown Bites — and of course, they're not available in the United Sates.
The Hash Brown Bites are at McDonald's Australia, and they're described as "crunchy and golden on the outside and steaming, fluffy potato on the inside." ~FlUfFy PoTaTo~.
McDonald's Australia
The HBB's are being introduced with the McDonald's Australia Summer Side Box — a lunch menu item designed for, you guessed it, sharing. The box includes 18 Hash Brown Bites, eight Chicken McNuggets, 12 Chicken McBites, and three dipping sauces.
Like the McDonald's waffle fries you can only get in Canada, the Hash Brown Bites are definitely something I will dream about. It's fried food that's mini. Come on.
FoodBeast reports that Americans consume upward of 70 million pounds of tater tots a year so these should make their way here eventually. Exciting!
For more food news and magical recipes, follow Cosmo Bites on Facebook!
Follow Danielle on Instagram and Twitter. |
With the recent return of CISPA, I purchased an anonymous VPN account with PrivateInternetAccess. This system suited me fine for browsing, and had pretty good throughput, but soon caused some common problems.
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I have seven systems in my internal network. Some of them need to be accessible remotely (not possible through the VPN), some need to be anonymous only some of the time, and some need to be totally anonymized. I could have set up openVPN on each system, and configured each with an extremely complicated iptable, but it seemed like overkill.
Then, by complete accident, I found the perfect solution:
The PogoPlug E02
Adorama had these little linux-based NAS systems on sale for an amazingly low $15, so I bought 3 just on a whim.
When I got them in the mail, the first project to spring to mind was what I’m calling: The AnonyBox. It is a stand-alone VPN client and SOCKS/HTTP Proxy host for my network. With it, I can simply set any machine or program that needs anonymity to use it as a proxy, and everything else runs as expected.
I’ll detail the steps necessary to set up this stand-alone anonymizer in my next post. |
President Trump signed an executive order on June 30 to reinstate the National Space Council to coordinate his administration's space policy. Flanked by astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Vice President Mike Pence, he said space would unite people. "I thought politics would do that," he said. (The Washington Post)
President Trump's ceremony Friday to bring back the National Space Council began to confuse people even before it took place.
It was, Trump would say, a big deal: an executive order to resurrect an advisory council that kick-started the first moon missions 60 years ago, went dormant in the 1990s, and could now lead astronauts into deep space — even Mars.
“At some point in the future, we’re going to look back and say how did we do it without space?” is how the president put it.
Yet the signing surprised many: The White House had not listed the ceremony on the president's calendar, no one from NASA headquarters came, and the only female astronaut in attendance was left off the thank-you list.
Not to mention the president's sometimes baffling remarks about the cosmos.
This is a bit of Trump's remarks about space today during his E.O. signing. Just listen (and watch Buzz Aldrin's face). pic.twitter.com/hrUFAUpptX — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 30, 2017
Praise for the (male) astronauts
Vice President Pence, who will chair the new space council, introduced the president and others gathered in the Roosevelt Room.
“Especially the three American astronauts,” he said, listing NASA's Alvin Drew, former astronaut David Wolf, and “the second man on the moon: the legendary Buzz Aldrin.”
“Welcome to the White House,” Pence said.
But he didn't mention the former astronaut standing about five feet away — Sandy Magnus.
Trump would also name the three male astronauts without mentioning Magnus — an omission quickly noticed in the wider space community.
Pence and Trump talked about the "3" astronauts in the room: Wolf, Drew & Aldrin. But there were 4 - Sandy Magnus, standing right there. — Marcia Smith (@SpcPlcyOnline) June 30, 2017
Magnus didn't seem put out, though. The next morning she wrote she had attended the ceremony as executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and hadn't been wearing a NASA uniform like two of the men.
Hey everyone-I appreciate your comments, but I was attending as the AIAA Exec Dir not as an "Astro" so no worries! (No blue jacket) — Sandy Magnus (@Astro_Sandy) July 1, 2017
“Can you believe that space is going to do that?”
After Pence finished his introduction, it was on to the president — a known space aficionado who once phoned astronauts in orbit and asked them to hurry up and get to Mars.
“Our travels beyond the Earth propel scientific discoveries that improve our lives in countless ways here,” Trump said, listing new industry, technology and “space security” among the benefits.
“At some point in the future, we’re going to look back and say how did we do it without space?” Trump then said, causing Buzz Aldrin's eyebrows to shoot up.
Eyebrows across the Internet would do likewise as Trump proceeded through his speech, a mix of eloquence and questionable ad-libs.
pic.twitter.com/5bwrSAOnZq "One day we will look back and say how did we do it without space?"
-Donald Trump #makespacegreatagain? ♂️ — Danny McGinnis (@Ginnis20) July 1, 2017
“The human soul yearns for discovery,” Trump said, for example. “Our journey into space will not only make us stronger and more prosperous, but will unite us behind grand ambitions and bring us all closer together.
“Wouldn’t that be nice? Can you believe that space is going to do that?”
“Mike is very much into space.”
Vice President Pence, as mentioned, will chair the new council.
Some who learned this remembered that when Pence was a congressman, he once chaired a Republican study group that recommended canceling NASA's space exploration program — no moon or Mars trips — to save money.
But Pence's 2005 plan didn't go anywhere, and on Friday, he said he was “honored and frankly enthusiastic” about leading the National Space Council.
Trump assured those gathered that “Mike is very much into space.”
I’m honored and frankly enthusiastic about the role @POTUS has asked me to play in renewing our nation’s commitment to space. pic.twitter.com/deAukbZzh7 — Vice President Pence (@VP) June 30, 2017
The advisory group will also include Cabinet secretaries, the head of NASA and other administrators — almost none of whom were at the ceremony.
“The only member of the Council other than Pence who was there was Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross,” Space Policy Online reported.
And as Sarah Kaplan noted for The Washington Post, Trump has not even named a NASA administrator, who will sit on the council. Likewise for the director of Office of Science and Technology Policy, which was entirely unstaffed as of Friday, according to CBS News.
Heavyweights of the “new space” industry such as Elon Musk of SpaceX and Jeffrey P. Bezos of Blue Origin (who also owns The Post) were nowhere to be seen, either, Kaplan wrote.
Bezos and Musk had been invited, Ars Technica reported, but couldn't make it on short notice.
Infinity, or something.
“This is going to launch a whole new chapter for our great country,” Trump said near the end of his speech.
Then he sat down at a table and opened the executive order.
“I know what this is,” he said. “Space!”
Beside him, Aldrin chimed in with a quote from the astronaut character Buzz Lightyear from the movie “Toy Story.”
“Infinity and beyond!” Aldrin said.
Everyone laughed.
Then Trump added some lines of his own.
“This is infinity here,” he said. “It could be infinity. We don’t really don’t know. But it could be. It has to be something — but it could be infinity, right?”
Trump then signed the order and revived the National Space Council, leaving his final words on the subject a mystery.
Trump explaining the nature of the universe after creating National Space Council: "It could be infinity, right?" pic.twitter.com/YadiisXP5E — Thomas G Phippen (@ThomasPhippen) June 30, 2017
My brain is having a hard time with this, I'm convinced this is completely factual and that it's surely farce at the same time. — Jami Hudson (@jami737) June 30, 2017
This is infinity here. It could be infinity. We don’t really don’t know. But it could be. It has to be something — but it could be infinity. pic.twitter.com/kBeXMru0Qq — Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) July 1, 2017
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Trump, with NASA, has a new rocket and spaceship. Where’s he going to go?
Trump budget seeks huge cuts to science and medical research, disease prevention |
But Mr. Duda responded late Friday by scheduling a meeting with her for Monday morning — hinting that he would not make a decision on the proposed laws before then.
By late afternoon, Mr. Duda had not yet indicated how he would decide — though, as a former Law and Justice member of Parliament himself, he is widely expected to approve the legislation. In the meantime, he had retreated to a presidential vacation house on the Hel Peninsula in northern Poland, inspiring protesters outside the presidential palace in Warsaw to sing repeated choruses of “Highway to Hell.”
Under Polish law, he has 21 days to make his decision, though since the government moved so rapidly — introducing the measure just a week ago and holding no hearings, voting as quickly as possible and turning aside hundreds of proposed amendments from opponents — he is also expected to move swiftly.
The members of the National Council of the Judiciary issued a statement Friday thanking protesters for rallying to the judges’ cause and asking supporters to light candles in front of the court’s headquarters at 9 p.m. every day, creating “chains of light” to lead Poland back toward Western values.
Frans Timmermans, the second-most powerful official in the European Commission, said Wednesday that if Mr. Duda signs these bills into law as written, the consequences could be swift and potentially devastating.
He said Poland was drawing perilously close to the implementation of Article 7 of the European Union treaty, formally chastising it for violating the bloc’s democratic standards and potentially leading to stiffer penalties. Such a step has never been taken against a member nation, and it could mean economic sanctions and perhaps even the loss of all voting rights in the union, although that is considered improbable.
In the meantime, the union may begin legal proceedings against Poland as early as next week before the Court of Justice of the European Union, the bloc’s highest tribunal. Invoking so-called infringement procedures, in which a member nation stands accused of violating standards of democracy and the rule of law, is a long, complicated process, sometimes lasting years. |
Fullbright’s Tacoma is one of the best games that I’ve played this year. It’s also the most compelling narrative, in a year that has seen the likes of Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Injustice 2, and Persona 5. While the gameplay is minimal in Tacoma (players will just walk through the space station’s corridors and decipher video logs), the story is what makes the experience flow.
Tacoma follows Amy Ferrier, as she’s sent to investigate what happened to the crew aboard the titular space station, the Tacoma. While not a horror game in the slightest, Tacoma’s abandoned hallways and limited use of a score make the two-hour journey unsettling, to say the least. What makes Fullbright’s latest game shine above the competition is the fact that the story is so unique in its delivery.
Amy can uncover video logs by walking into specific areas of the vessel. During these sections, players become acquainted with the crew, which includes medic, Sareh Hasmadi, operations specialist, Clive Siddiqi, botanist, Andrew Dagyab, network specialist, Natali Kuroshenko, mechanical engineer, Roberta Williams, and station administrator, E.V. St. James. Although the game is short, Fullbright fleshed out the narrative by creating a cast of excellent and relatable characters.
Each character has an interesting backstory, told in a nonlinear way. While traversing through the Tacoma, players will discover video fragments that will provide more context as to what happened before you arrived. What kept me glued to the TV screen was the fact that the time stamps on each video logs revealed something shocking. Some events transpired mere hours before Amy landed on the Tacoma, while others occurred half a year before the game began.
These instances caught me off guard because they required me to put all of the pieces together. With a notepad in hand, I started writing down when each video log took place, to come up with a timeline of events to have as a reference point. While not necessary to enjoy the game, this practice helped alleviate some of the confusion I was having at the start of the adventure. If you decide to write down notes as I did, I would suggest using them after completing Tacoma a first time. Enjoying the game as Fullbright intended to is the best course of action, but if you like the game as much as me, playing through it a second time will be a satisfying experience.
The nonlinear storytelling compliments Tacoma because it causes the player to be attentive to what is going on. There are plenty of video games that try to tell an intricate story, but the delivery falls flat. Tacoma features an extraordinary narrative that excels because of the method in which it’s told. If Amy just entered the ship and plot elements were delivered generically, the game would be another dull, forgettable experience. Instead, Tacoma encourages players to venture off the straightened path. In my first playthrough, I ended up missing a video log. After discovering it on my second time during the game, it added more context to the relationship between two of the characters. While it didn’t have much to do with the overall narrative, I liked these characters so much that any additional information enriched my experience with the game.
The most interesting mechanic in Tacoma is Amy’s ability to manipulate video logs. This skill means that she can rewind and fast forward each clip that she deciphers. Normally, this gimmick wouldn’t be something to gush over, but in Tacoma, so many things are happening at the same time. Amy can freely walk around the room once a log is deciphered, observing how each of the characters react to specific situations.
Early on in the game, the crew is getting ready to celebrate Obsolescence Day, a holiday in the future. Clive Siddiqi and Andrew Dagyab are prepping a cake with Odin, the ship’s artificial intelligence, and E.V. St. James is in the conference room recording a video update for their employers. Elsewhere, Sareh Hasmadi is having a meaningful conversation with Odin, while Roberta Williams and Natali Kuroshenko are gossiping and planning their lives together after the job on the Tacoma comes to an end. Although each of these characters meet up at one point during the video log, each of them is doing their own thing before that gathering.
Every video record follows the same format, where players can hover over which ever character they’d like. The option to rewind and fast forward clips allow players to uncover different narrative elements as well as flesh out the various back stories for the crew members. It’s a unique style of storytelling that I wish other developers would take inspiration from. Sure, I love open world games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Fallout 4, and Mass Effect 2, but the massive scale of the narrative often takes me out of the experience. For example, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has countless books full of lore, tall tales, and information regarding the world within the game. In the same vein, Mass Effect 2 has a massive codex that often becomes overwhelming at times.
Tacoma took a unique approach to the “Walking Simulator” genre. While I’m a fan of games like the brilliant Firewatch, and The Park, the narratives in those games are straightforward and provide no replay value. Despite Tacoma’s short length, Fullbright delivered a masterful video game with a story that has been stuck with me long after the credits rolled. It’s weird to think that I know more about the six crew members from the Tacoma, more than I do about characters from games where I put in 60-70 hours.
This unusual style of storytelling was a huge gamble, but in the end, the risk paid off. All the best games and movies have fans talking about the experience for years to come, and I think Tacoma will be one of those games. There is such a rich world set up by the studio that doesn’t come into play, but I wonder if Fullbright is planting the seeds for a game set in a much larger universe. One thing is for sure, Fullbright is one of the best development teams in the business right now when it comes to memorable narrative adventures. Tacoma is an excellent follow-up to Gone Home, and I can’t wait to see what the team has in store for gamers next. One thing is for sure, Fullbright seems fully intent on revolutionizing narratives in video games. |
Stamp duty changes, high prices and Brexit worries see sales to end of April drop 29% on same period in 2016, says Your Move
The number of homes changing hands in London slumped by almost a third year on year in the spring, as changes to stamp duty rates, high prices and Brexit uncertainty slowed the market.
The latest monthly index from estate agents Your Move found that in the three months to the end of April, sales in Greater London were down 29% on the same period in 2016.
Much of the decline follows a government overhaul of property taxes that spurred landlords and other second-home buyers to rush through deals in March.
Figures from HMRC showed a huge spike in sales during March, while mortgage lenders reported a surge in activity after a new stamp duty surcharge came into force on 1 April 2016.
But while a sharp fall from that peak may have been expected, transactions in the capital were down markedly when compared with 2015’s figures, Your Move said, showing a drop of 19%.
The Your Move index, which is put together by property consultancy Acadata and based on data from the Land Registry and other indices, showed a sharp slowdown for sales in London, the south-east and east of England, but increases in other, less expensive areas when compared with 2015. In Wales, sales were down by 7% year on year but 13% higher over two years, while in north-east England they had fallen 4% on 2016 but were up 10% on the previous year.
Within London, there was also a divide along price lines, the report said, with transaction numbers falling least in Havering, Newham and Bexley: three of the four cheapest boroughs.
According to most reports, average prices across the country have remained stable, with some studies showing price falls in recent months and others small increases.
Your Move’s report showed that England and Wales saw a 0.3% increase in the average cost for buyers. It said average house prices had risen to a new peak of £303,200, a year-on-year increase of 4.8%.
Acadata said there was little sign that the general election had dampened the market in May, but there had been a long-term shift in activity. It said: “Many households are deterred from moving not just because there is a shortage of suitable options to buy, but also because of the costs of moving and not least the rate of stamp duty now being levied on higher value homes.”
Oliver Blake, the managing director of Your Move, said: “The market remains resilient and there’s encouraging activity in the north, but we need to urgently address the serious blockages in housebuilding holding back labour mobility and economic competitiveness in too many areas of the country.” |
Since Bethesda and its Creation Club won’t put big mods that hold merit on the spotlight and inform people about these grander mods, this post will summarize four Fallout 4 overhaul mods that take players to Miami, The Capital Wasteland, New Vegas, and Seattle.
Thanks to YouTuber JuiceHead, four new significant mods that a lot of people are in agreement that are something to look forward to have been compiled into one video. Detailed and showcased comes Fallout 4 overhaul mods: Miami, The Capital Wasteland, Fallout 4 New Vegas, and Cascadia.
The first mod up comes in by and crew and brings Fallout Miami to the nuclear part of the world. Adding new factions, locations and story missions, the mod alters the Eastern-part of North America (Fallout 4’s Boston) and turns it into the southern part of Miami, Florida.
You can keep up with this mod by hitting up falloutmiami.blogspot.com.
The second overhaul mod takes the world of Fallout 3 and places it in Fallout 4. The mod by Unoctium and Truevoidwalker or Road to Liberty team is titled Fallout 4: The Capital Wasteland.
More information on this gigantic mod can be found over on the team’s Imgur page or Twitter account.
The third mod on this list that changes Fallout 4 has been featured quite a bit on this very site and that is the Fallout New Vegas mod. The mod aims to bring Obsidian’s Fallout into the latest version in the series for gamers to rediscover.
Places containing additional information on this overhaul mod include NexusMods, Facebook, and Twitter.
The last overhaul mod on this list comes Fallout Cascadia. The team behind this mod aims to bring the Pacific Northwest and let you explore the massive ruins of Seattle. New enemies, factions, and a protagonist will be featured in Fallout Cascadia.
Additional information on this mod can be found over on Twitter or falloutcascadia.com.
All the mods featured above can be thoroughly looked over in JuiceHead’s video as seen below. |
BUY BOOK HERE
“Although we have seen this work before, what a pleasure to see how this selfpublished project, so cleverly combines the photos of the passing open plan trucks with their passengers laid out flat, but also the skies and scenes that can be viewed from the truck itself” — MARTIN PARR for Time Magazine Best Photobooks 2014
“Carpoolers is a deceptively powerful photobook, so well constructed that we’re suddenly eager to see more of something we had previously ignored”. — LORING KNOBLAUCH for Collector Daily
“It’s useless to comment now on the impact that this series by Alejandro had last year and how effective his neutral approach to the subject was. In the book (brilliantly designed by him, by the way) he leaves some room to certain aspects that might have gotten lost in the transition from the camera to the wall, and that is why this book is great! The hypnotic repetitive beginning, respectful to the series as we’ve known it so far, slowly gets more and more interrupted by frames and pieces of frames that drive you into a new kind of hypnotic state but this time almost as if you were inside the car yourself looking at and experiencing the road not from above anymore”. —CRISTINA DE MIDDLE for Best Books of 2014 Photoeye
2nd Edtion of 470 + poster. $45 plus $20 for donkey shipping anywhere in the world. |
- TNA and Mexico's AAA promotion have been in talks about TNA possibly sending a three-man team to the Lucha Libre World Cup trios tournament in late May, which would re-open relations between the two companies.
AAA and TNA resuming their relationship could hurt Jeff Jarrett as Jarrett has been talking about using AAA talents in his Global Force Wrestling promotion.
Regarding AAA's World Cup trios tournament, there will be just two teams from AAA and one will be made up of Alberto El Paton, Rey Myterio and Myzteziz, the original Sin Cara in WWE.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Subscribe to The Wrestling Observer by clicking here. Each issue has coverage and analysis of all the major news, plus history pieces. New subscribers can also receive free classic issues. |
Columbus water officials are baffled by lingering foul odors and flavors that have some residents apologizing to out-of-town guests and area restaurants warning customers.
Columbus water officials are baffled by lingering foul odors and flavors that have some residents apologizing to out-of-town guests and area restaurants warning customers.
Officials blame algae and organic materials stirred up when seasonal temperature changes roiled Hoover Reservoir. The reservoir serves about 500,000 city and suburban water customers north of I-70 through the Hap Cremean Water Plant.
The water is not harmful, city utilities spokeswoman Laura Young Mohr said yesterday. The city has received about 1,000 complaints since mid-November, she said.
�It smells like creek water and tastes so bad that you have to spit it out immediately,� said Jane Starcher, a North Linden resident. �Who wants to shower with water that is smelly?�
Restaurants in Clintonville and at Easton are notifying customers about the water or trying to mask it with lemon slices or in-house filtration systems.
Bret Lewis of Clintonville said he talked to a manager at Northstar Cafe at Easton on Monday after he noticed the same �earthy taste� he has noticed in the water at his home for weeks.
Customers at Beechwold Diner and Cup o� Joe in Clintonville have reported similar experiences. Owners there were not available for comment yesterday.
�The (Northstar) manager, who was very nice, said they triple-filter their water, and you can still taste that earthy flavor,� Lewis said. �And it�s not difficult to take a shower as long as you breathe through your mouth, but if you left your bathroom door open, your entire house would smell like putrid mold.�
Darren Malhame, co-owner of Northstar, said the restaurant filters its water, eliminating much of the bad odor and taste. He said he has not contacted the city because Columbus isn�t to blame and he believes that officials are doing all they can.
�Certainly if we thought there was any sort of health issue, we would deal with that immediately,� Malhame said. �The taste and smells are just symptoms of the bigger issue, that this is what is coming downstream toward us that is beyond the city�s control.�
Mohr said engineers are trying to solve the problem. She said it�s difficult to explain why some homes or businesses are having issues while others are not. Some people might be more sensitive to the smell or taste, some homes have better filters, or some city water pipes have more chlorine than others, she said.
�We are still adding powder-activated carbon, and we have also been experimenting with pulling water from different levels of the reservoir to see if that makes a difference,� Mohr said. �Our consultant under contract, Arcadis, looked into the taste and odor issue recently and found that we were doing all we could at this time.�
Mohr said the rain that soaked the area last weekend also could help improve the water.
Customers with questions can call the city�s water laboratory at 614-645-7691. |
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Denver Broncos quarterback Trevor Siemian knows he has to turn the page on turnovers -- because the team's current pace will likely keep them out of the postseason.
The Broncos have six turnovers in three games -- two in each game, putting them among the league leaders -- a pace that would put them at 32 for the season. That would be five more than they had in their 4-12 finish in 2010.
"It's a billion dollar football back there," Siemian said after Wednesday's practice. "For us to win we've got to take care of the ball. And we're going to be in the game every week if we're about even in the turnover ratio."
"Again, it happened," said Broncos coach Vance Joseph. "We can't do it. He understands that. Moving forward, he'll play better from this."
What you need to know in the NFL
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Opponents have now turned five of the Broncos' six turnovers into points. While they survived the first two games of the season, their mistakes in Week 1 quickly turned what was a 24-7 rout into a 24-21 game. The Broncos won only after blocking a Los Angeles Chargers field goal attempt in the final seconds.
This past Sunday, Siemian's two interceptions were prominent on a list of things that went wrong in a road loss to the Buffalo Bills. Denver has surrendered 64 points overall this season and 31 of them have come as a result of turnovers.
Four of those turnovers have been interceptions thrown by Siemian, a trend he's looking to curb as quickly as possible.
"It's a lot easier when you watch the tape and you can press pause," Siemian said. "I know I've got to take care of the football and how important it is for us not to turn the ball over. I'm responsible for every ball that comes my way, whether it's hand off or a throw. It doesn't matter how it gets turned over, the fact that it got turned over, that's on me."
In Sunday's loss both of Siemian's picks had field position costs. On the first one, with just over five minutes remaining in the third quarter and the Broncos trailing 20-16, the Broncos started the play at their own 12-yard line. Siemian was intercepted at the Broncos' 32-yard line. The Broncos defense held after, forcing a Bills' punt, but putting an opponent at their 32-yard line is not something that's going to work very often.
Siemian's second interception of the game came with just under 11 minutes remaining and the Broncos trailing, 23-16. That time the Broncos had moved to the Bills' 24-yard line and Siemian was intercepted on a play when he simply tried to throw the ball away.
"I've made worse throws, or [had] worse intent behind throws, I think the worst throw I made all year was when I made that throw to [Chargers cornerback] Casey Hayward in Week 1," Siemian said. "I know I can't do that to our team, because we're going to be in every game if we take care of the football." |
Chapter 5 of David Maurer’s “The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man” (TBC) consists of a discussion of “The Mob”. This chapter describes the internal organization (such as it was) of a big-con mob in the early 1900’s. It includes some interesting information on the financial arrangements of such a mob, as well as some insights into the highly specialized nature of con men.
Personnel
Con men organize themselves into teams; the core of the mob is an insideman and a roper. Usually one insideman works with many ropers; this arrangement is driven by the fact that it takes a good roper months to find a mark, but the insideman only a few days to con him. When the con is played against a big store, the insideman will arrange for the services of a number of ancillary personnel: a store manager, clerks and board-markers, shills, and tailers. Of these latter, only the manager will typically maintain a long-term relationship with the insideman.
A large con mob will therefore include:
1 insideman
40 to 50 ropers
1 manager
and will add, when running a con:
10 to 15 shills
2 to 4 clerks, board-markers, etc.
1 to 2 tailers
additionally, the insideman will deal with:
1 banker
1 fixer
Just as a quick review of everyone’s responsibilities:
The insideman performs the actual con, and persuades the victim to hand over his money
The ropers find likely marks, and bring them to the insideman
The manager co-ordinates the operation of the big store, manages the shills, and handles the money that persuades the mark that he is surrounded by heavy wagering
Shills pretend to gain and lose large amounts of money
Clerks pretend to operate the bookmaker’s or brokerage that the shills are supposedly dealing with
Tailers follow the mark, and see that he does not contact the police, and (when he is carrying money) that he is not robbed before he can be swindled
Bankers are otherwise legitimate men who know what the insideman is doing, and who agree to allow the mark to make use of their bank without alerting him that anything is suspicious
Fixers are politically connected men who, for a fee, arrange for the local police to take little interest in the insideman’s activities
Money
Usually, the roper takes 45% of the score, and the insideman 55%. From his end the roper must pay the 10% (gross) “put-up” fee, if the mark was referred to him by someone else. (If two ropers worked as a team, as is commonplace, they must split the 45% – or 35% – between them.) The insideman, for his part, must pay everyone else:
10% (gross) to the manager
7.5% (gross) to the banker
1% (gross) to each of the shills, etc.
50% (net) to his fixer
This means that an insideman might pay out between 30.5% and 38.5% in expenses, leaving only 24.5% to 16.5% to split with the fixer. His payoff of 8% to 12% might seem small compared to the roper’s, but he works with many of them, and might fleece as many as 50 times the number of victims per year as any one roper. It is also not to be overlooked that the insideman is often the only one who knows the exact value of a score, and one might suppose him to be less than scrupulously honest at all times.
A final note on the subject of money: Ropers must cope with rather high living expenses. In addition to the cost of maintaining a home for their family, they must support themselves in their continual travels and apparently prosperous lifestyle. A roper usually seeks his marks out on the road, and he almost always presents himself as a prosperous and important man, the better to gain the mark’s confidence and put his mind at ease. The cost of this activity, coupled with the relatively low number of marks found by even a good roper (2-4 per year) means that a roper’s 45% dissipates rather quickly.
Specialization
Maurer reports a striking fact: Very few con men can work as either ropers or insidemen. Good insidemen are rarer, but often even the best of them “could not steer a hungry man into a restaurant”. This seems to me to be a significant detail: These men have dedicated their professional lives to lying, cheating, and swindling and still must specialize due to the limits of their abilities. This suggests that one should not expect too much when one seeks to persuade or influence others; you can, indeed, persuade some people of some things, but not anyone of anything, no matter your skills or the circumstances.
Advice from Two Ropers
Maurer reports that he once asked two ropers what qualified a man for their line of work. He says that their answers were “not entirely serious” but that they “contain[ed] a measure of truth beneath a broad burlesque of the platitudinous style of Dale Carnegie”.
One spoke of the importance of will-power and discipline to a grifter who wishes to progress to larger and more profitable rackets. Of those who would disagree with him, he said:
Of course, there are grifters who will object to any talk of training the will. They will talk wisely of the need for self-expression and the inhibiting effects of any kind of discipline. But you will find that grifters who do this do so because of their inordinate desire for self-indulgence.
The other offered somewhat more practical advice:
“Never permit yourself to be bored. … [S]ome heel-grifters think it is smartly sophisticated to appear languid or condescendingly wise. That is really stupid.”
“Never ask a mark embarrassing questions.”
“Never advance political views unless the fink asks you to do so.”
“It is good to ‘yes’ him.”
“Never give detailed accounts of a trip, accident, or personal ailment unless your mark evinces an avid interest in all the details.”
“Never interrupt a fink while he is talking. Be a good listener and he will immediately conclude that you are a young man of some note.”
More generally, Maurer observes that a good roper (or insideman, for that matter) must have “grift sense”: A mixture of instinct and judgement that, among other things, tells the roper how best to present himself to a particular mark in order to gain his trust.
Cells
Mobs are organized along the cellular or compartmentalized lines one might expect of any modern secretive organization. Typically only the insideman knows how to contact any of the other members of his mob, and is also responsible for such bookkeeping as may be required.
Members of the mob may arrange to contact a friend or family member at regular intervals. A missed call means that the con man has likely been arrested, and needs assistance. Such an arrangement renders unnecessary an explicit call for help from the con man, which might enable the police to more easily unravel his connections and associations.
When not working, con men tend to congregate in establishments (be they “cigar stores, hotels, restaurants, bar rooms, or brothels”) which cater to their kind, and which exclude the general public. Every town with any number of con men in it has such establishments, and they allow visiting con men to keep in touch with one another in a general way. It is from such hangouts that insidemen will recruit the shills needed for a play against the big store.
Honor
If a con man is arrested, his bail money will usually be raised by his insideman; the insideman will go to the places where con men congregate, and pass around a sheet of paper asking for donations. (The paper will be given to the arrested man along with the money, and he will understandably make every effort to repay his debts as quickly as possible.)
What is interesting about this arrangement is the following remark from Maurer:
Every con man who is thus approached, and has or can get money, is honor bound to subscribe … [I]f [the arrested man’s] name is good, even his personal enemies feel obliged to contribute … |
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) rejected the National Rifle Association's view that federal government should review regulations for bump stocks "regulations aren't going to do it," she said." | Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images No law would have stopped Las Vegas shooter, Feinstein says
No law would have prevented last week's Las Vegas shooting, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Sunday.
Feinstein, a California Democrat and staunch gun control advocate, made the comments on "Face the Nation" on CBS. In an interview, host John Dickerson asked if there could "have been any law passed that would've stopped" Stephen Paddock, who killed 58 people in last Sunday's massacre.
Story Continued Below
"No," Feinstein responded. "He passed background checks registering for handguns and other weapons on multiple occasions."
But Feinstein also advocated legislation to ban so-called bump stocks, a modification used by the Las Vegas shooter that allows semi-automatic rifles to fire like fully automatic weapons. Pressed by Dickerson whether any Republicans have signed on to support the proposed ban, Feinstein said there is only "interest" from GOP senators so far.
"We have Republican interest. I have nobody lined up, we have 38 cosponsors, they're all Democratic," Feinstein said. "We've had individuals that have indicated an interest and particularly for a hearing."
The National Rifle Association last week called on the federal government to review regulations for bump stocks. Feinstein called the move by the powerful gun group "a step forward," but contended legislation is needed instead to ensure limits are permanent.
"Regulations aren't going to do it. We need a law," Feinstein said. "It can't be changed by another president. ... And I hope that Americans will step up and say, 'Enough is enough. Congress, do something.'" |
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo presided over the groundbreaking of Mama Mama Papua Market in Jayapura in Papua, which is aimed speed up economic growth in the area.
"I have asked all my Ministers to speed up the process and the construction, because the ladies of Papua have been waiting for this moment for a very long time," said the President to the Yotefa ladies on Saturday, March 30, 2016.
The Ministers the President referred to, was State-owned Minister Rini Soemarno and Trade Minister Thomas Lembong. The President - who is commonly referred to as Jokowi - has asked both ministers to complete the market within 10 months.
Jokowi has also called for future market operators to ensure that they keep the market clean and comfortable, so consumers would be drawn to the market - which will increase its' competitiveness to modern malls and markets.
"I know it's a wet market - but there's nothing wrong with wearing uniforms, for example, pretty aprons to increase the appeal of the market," said Jokowi, who also asked merchants and vendors to be friendly to all visitors, so perhaps even more tourists will be attracted to come to Jayapura.
Jokowi also reminded the government to quickly build the market, but still respect local regulations and customs in the area. "Up until three weeks ago, I didn't really want to know how the market will come to be constructed - but now, I want all regulations to be respected, and what's for sure, is that the construction will immediately begin," he said.
The Mama Mama Papua Cultural Market is built to house traders and vendors who had to be relocated from their old stalls to a lot owned by state-transport operator, Perum Damri, which has a total area of 4,490 square metres, and the construction will be supervised by the State-owned Enterprises Ministry.
The vendors had called on the government to relocate their stalls to the middle of Jayapura, which will make it easier for local vendors and traders - which ranges from batik-craftsmen, basic goods vendor, and other local residents - to ply their trade and increase their profile, in he middle of the city, where land rental and purchase prices were way too high for them to afford.
ANTARA |
By Michael Stavola
The Hutchinson News, Kan.
STAFFORD, Kan. — Stafford police officer Kano chewed on his ball after the red nose pit bull assisted in his first drug bust on Monday — finding more than $7,500 worth of marijuana.
It's the 55-pound puppy's favorite toy and what he thinks he is searching for. The 1-year-old is unique: saved from the animal shelter and possible euthanasia, has one blue and yellow eye (a trait known in as little as 3.5 percent of dogs) and is the first K-9 pit bull in Kansas.
He also has an uncanny love for his orange and blue squeaky Chuckit! ball that only another dog would understand. Kano — named after a Mortal Kombat character who also has two different colored eyes — can barely be distracted once he spots his ball.
He sits poised, his muscles showing from his brown and white head down to his paws, watching the ball with his mismatched eyes. With pinned ears, Kano is a menacing sight for any bad guy.
But he's not a biter, nor is any other pit bull that comes from Universal K-9, a nonprofit organization that trains dogs in San Antonio.
"If they were this vicious great bite dogs wouldn't the police want them on the force?" Operations Director Brad Croft said. "They are no good at it. They are no good at taking people down. But I will tell you what they are damn good at, (drug) detection."
Since 2010, Croft said they have trained thousands of K-9s. The organization started as a for-profit but changed to a nonprofit a few years ago to rescue pit bulls that awaited adoption or euthanasia in a shelter.
Instead, Croft and Universal K-9 began to train them for police work. Croft said they look for pit bulls between 12 to 32 months old so departments would get a longer career out of the dog.
To make the adventure possible, Universal K-9 partnered with Animal Farm Foundation. The foundation advocates for pit bulls and agreed to cover the cost of a handler course. That two-week course costs $2,900 for drug detection or $5,900 for drug detection and tracking.
A trained German Shepherd or Belgian Malinois — the more popular K-9s — can go for over $13,000. But with shelters filling with pit bulls and the foundation paying the fee for the handler course, Universal K-9's began offering trained pit bulls to departments that couldn't otherwise afford a K-9.
There are now 52 Universal K-9 pit bulls out on the streets.
"They are there kicking butts and taking names," Croft said, adding pit bulls usually outwork most other breeds during the training course — as did Kano.
An arrest was made in the Great Bend marijuana bust, and more are expected. No name was released by the Barton County Sheriff's Office, which called Stafford officer and Kano's handler, Mason Paden, to assist with the drug bust.
The two have been nearly inseparable since they met at Universal K-9's handler course from Oct. 16-27. Paden applied to and was accepted for the course supported by the Animal Farm Foundation. The only cost to the Stafford Police Department was travel and lodging.
Paden knew he was getting a pit bull that had been trained by the Universal K-9. But he didn't know which one. Kano made the decision when he ran out of the cage and at Paden's feet and became the first certified pit bull K-9 in Kansas' history, according to the Kansas Police Dog Association and the Heart of America Police Dog Association.
Paden fell in love with the breed after he got Bailee, a brown pit bull mix, seven years ago.
He and Kano usually work the night shift from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in the town of fewer than 1,000 residents, making the same laps around the town that "shuts down after midnight."
Then, they go home to Paden's girlfriend, Ashley Freidenberger, and about a dozen pit bulls or pit bull mixes. There are five puppies that will go to a home when they mature.
Paden's father, David Paden, is a detective with the Barton County Sheriff's Office and a former K-9 handler. Paden had worked with his father's dogs and grew up around rottweilers. Paden first worked at the department in his hometown of Great Bend where shifts were busy.
"I wish there was more action," he said. "I still treat it the same."
Kano is certified to detect marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and ecstasy. In the future, Paden hopes to have Kano trained in tracking as well.
Stafford police chief Doug Brown said the town has had an increase in drugs, mostly marijuana and methamphetamine. He knows Kano will be an asset to the department.
"I am a firm believer of being in the schools. That's where you will find (the drugs) the fastest in a small town," Brown said, adding drugs have come in waves in his decades as police chief. "I think there is a major influx right now."
©2017 The Hutchinson News (Hutchinson, Kan.) |
It was evident from the very beginning.
The first time Calvin Ridley caught a slant at Monarch (Fla.) High School, he hauled in the pass in between a linebacker, a safety and a corner. The speedy wideout split the trio of defenders and outran all three for a touchdown. That was the moment former Monarch head coach Calvin Davis knew he had a special player on his hands in the now-Alabama receiver.
“He can be in a small space and just get out,” Davis told BamaOnLine. “Those are the type of things that are on another level that remind you of him every time you think about him and what he did in high school.”
Alabama’s 2015 season was a breakout year for Ridley. As a true freshman, he cemented his name in the Crimson Tide record book and became one of the most-electrifying players in all of college football during Alabama’s march to a national championship. But his ascent came as no surprise to those that watched him blossom into a five-star prospect in south Florida.
As his sophomore season is set to begin tomorrow, Ridley will look to duplicate his numbers from a year ago. The 6-foot-1, 188-pound receiver led the Tide in receptions (89), receiving yards (1,045) and receiving touchdowns (7) in 2015 after replacing Robert Foster in the starting lineup in Week 4 and becoming Lane Kiffin’s favorite weapon by way of the deep ball.
He will attempt to do that with a new quarterback, a new approach to run blocking and with an added responsibility on the field this fall. But Ridley has shown no signs of slowing down, even in the eyes of head coach Nick Saban.
"He’s one of those guys that we talk about mature competitors, young guys, he showed that last year and was very, very productive,” Saban said. “Made great improvement throughout the season and ended up having great production. Made a lot of big plays. He’s a hard guy to cover. He’s gotten a little bigger and stronger and he certainly has big-play potential.
“I have not seen any sort of attitude out of him that he’s not still working hard, still trying to get better, and he’s doing all the things that he needs to do to be a dominant player at his position. And hopefully we’ll be able to see great production from him this year.”
THE MORE TOUCHES THE BETTER
Ridley caught the ninth-most passes in the country a season ago, but the amount of times he touches the ball could increase in 2016. When Alabama released its depth chart Monday, Ridley was listed as the first-team punt returner, replacing Cyrus Jones. But his new responsibility as a return man will be new territory, as he did not field punts in his high school career.
“I wouldn’t let him do it in high school,” Davis said. “No, he didn’t do it in high school. He returned kickoffs but not punts. It’ll be new to him, but I’m sure he’s learned all that because he wants to be great. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
Ridley watched Jones in practice last year as he developed into an electrifying return man for the Tide and led the nation with four punts returned for touchdowns a season ago. He observed how Jones, who will return punts for the New England Patriots this year, caught the ball and maneuvered through the opposing coverage at practice and has used that this fall.
“When I first got here, I wasn’t too good at catching it,” Ridley said. “And then Cyrus, I used to see what he did to square up on the ball and stuff. And Coach Saban gave me a few pointers, so I’m pretty confident.”
While he does not have any game experience returning punts, Ridley quickly added kickoff return specialist to his resume in Coconut Creek, Fla. Just like his tenure at receiver, the Florida native did not wait to take a kickoff to the house.
“The first one he ever caught for us,” Davis said. “When I knew he was good player but I didn’t know he was a great player, the first one he touched, he took it back 95 yards in his first high school game for us.”
With a productive season at both receiver and punt returner, Ridley could make a case for the Heisman Trophy. Former Alabama wideout Amari Cooper finished as a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2014 in Kiffin’s offense, but he only saw the field on the offensive side of the football. More touches could help Ridley earn an invitation to New York, if he produces at both positions.
The last receiver to win the Heisman was Michigan’s Desmond Howard, who won the award in 1991. The now-ESPN analyst caught 61 passes for 960 yards and 19 touchdowns, rushed for 165 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries and averaged 15.3 yards on punt returns and 31 yards on kickoff returns with a touchdown in each respective return category.
Saban’s reasoning may not be to have another player represent the Tide at the Heisman ceremony, but the decision to place Ridley back deep to return punts shows he is not afraid to play his best players on special teams.
“He’s a very talented guy. He’s got great quickness,” Saban said of Ridley. “I think the most important thing about punt return is putting a guy back there that has really good judgment, especially in this day and age when people rugby punt and the balls can be difficult to field. He does a really good job of that. He’s got good judgment, he’s got some experience, he’s explosive as a returner. We’re excited to see how he does in that role.”
MARQUEE MATCHUP IN SEASON OPENER
No one is questioning Ridley’s ability to duplicate his numbers from last year, even with the Tide boasting one of the best and deepest receiving corps in the nation. But he will be tested in the very first game of the season.
USC could try to shadow Ridley with preseason All-America cornerback Adoree’ Jackson in Saturday’s season opener in Arlington, matching Alabama’s top receiver from a season ago with its top cover corner. According to the Los Angeles Times, Jackson is “not scared” by the task of covering Ridley. He’s even lobbied to follow him. “I'm not backing down from anybody.”
Ridley, a quiet guy when he steps on the gridiron, took a less direct approach when asked about the possibility of facing Jackson on every play. “I know that he’s a very, very good corner, one of the best in the country.”
“They have a lot of good corners on their team. Obviously he’s one of the best,” Ridley said of Jackson. “But it doesn’t really do too much to me. I’m just going to stick with what our coaches have as far as the game plan. I’m excited for whoever’s gonna cover me, but I’m just going to stick to the game plan that our coaches have for us.”
In high school, Ridley did not face many marquee matchups like the Alabama-USC game could present with Jackson. “He pretty much dominated the way you think a five-star would dominate in high school. It wasn’t even close,” Davis said. His biggest test came against Miramar (Fla.) High School’s Tyrek Cole, who was a one-time West Virginia Mountaineer.
Outside of that, the toughest challenge Ridley faced in his prep career was on the practice field in teammate and South Florida cornerback Ronnie Hoggins. That’s why Ridley versus Jackson could be the key matchup in Saturday’s game.
“I love it,” Davis said. “It gets me excited just hearing that because I wouldn’t think he would back down because he’s one of the top corners in the country. You want to go against the best. So I think it’s gonna be a great matchup. Of course, I’m rooting for Calvin, but I think it’ll be a great matchup. I think they’ll both bring everything they’ve got.”
COMPARED TO FORMER USC ALL-AMERICAN
Because of the season he put together last year as a true freshman, Ridley drew comparisons to former Alabama star Amari Cooper. And as much as Saban dislikes comparisons, this one actually holds some merit.
Making his way through the route tree, Ridley moves like the now-Oakland Raider. While both of them stand at 6-foot-1, Cooper obviously outweighs the sophomore by a few pounds, and their UA careers started off as mirror images.
Cooper’s breakout game as a true freshman came in the fifth game of the 2012 season. He hauled in eight catches for 84 yards and two touchdowns against Ole Miss and saw his playing time and targets increase following an injury to the older and more experienced DeAndrew White. That season made him the top receiving target the next two years.
Ridley’s fifth game occurred against Georgia, where he recorded 120 yards and a touchdown on five receptions. His playing time and targets also increased because of an injury to an older teammate in Foster.
“I don’t really see much of a comparison,” cornerback Marlon Humphrey said, echoing Saban’s sentiment on comparing players. “I think, to me, every person’s their own person. Coop was a great player, and so is Calvin.”
But the latest comparison makes just as much sense as the similarities between Ridley and Cooper. USC head coach Clay Helton compared the sophomore wideout to a former USC star that flourished under Kiffin’s tutelage.
“He’s beyond dangerous,” Helton said of Ridley. “He reminds me so much of Marqise Lee when Marqise was here because of his ability, not just to make the deep-ball plays, but also his ability to catch short and run long. He’s so dangerous with yards after the catch. He’s got that unique quality of being able to do both.”
Lee, who stands at 6-foot, registered 191 catches for 2,864 yards and 18 touchdowns in his two seasons with Kiffin as his head coach, including 118 catches for 1,721 yards and 13 scores as a sophomore in 2012 for the Trojans.
They are both the go-to players in Kiffin’s early-touchdown-celebration offense, and when they get their hands on the football, people pay attention. And that could be the case more often in 2016 for the Crimson Tide star, now that his plate will be filled with even more chances to touch the football. “You hold your breath every time he touches it,” Helton said of Ridley.
“Any time he touches it, he can go the distance or he can get over the top of pretty much any defense,” Davis said. “At any time during the game, yeah, you hold your breath because he can change the game.”
(What's the latest with the Tide? Make sure you know by signing up for our FREE Alabama newsletter!) |
Mexican authorities said Friday they found alive 21 men who had been kidnapped by armed groups in the crime-plagued south of the country.
"They are alive, very tired and with injuries to their feet, but they are alright," the governor of the state of Guerrero, Hector Astudillo, said on television.
The men were found near the municipality of Arcelia with foot injuries that indicated they had walked a long way.
They were taken to report their ordeal to prosecutors who would investigate their abduction.
Officials said gunmen seized 16 of the men on December 9 after stopping a convoy of families in cars heading to a wedding.
Security officials said at least two men were killed during the abduction.
The other five men located on Friday were teachers who were dragged from their school by armed men in a separate incident on Monday.
Guerrero has been plagued by violence and multiple cases of missing people, including the notorious disappearance and presumed massacre of 43 students in September 2014.
Opium poppies are grown in the mountains and drug cartels, such as the Guerreros Unidos and Los Rojos, are fighting fierce turf wars in several towns.
Witnesses told police the abductors who attacked the wedding party identified themselves as members of "a new group".
The men said they were taking away the men because they suspected them of belonging to a rival cartel.
The mayor of Arcelia, Adolfo Torales, rejected that claim.
"They are working people, humble people who have to go out to work every day," he said.
(AFP) |
WASHINGTON — President Trump has a message for down-on-their-luck blue-collar workers all across upstate New York:
Move.
And don't look back on the house you left behind.
In a Wall Street Journal interview published Wednesday, the president said that people in New York and some other states are going to have to move to states such as Wisconsin, Iowa and Colorado, which, he said, are adding manufacturing jobs.
“You’re going to need people to work in these massive plants,” Trump said. "I’m going to start explaining to people: When you have an area that just isn’t working like upper New York state, where people are getting very badly hurt, and then you’ll have another area 500 miles away where you can’t get people, I’m going to explain, you can leave.”
Not surprisingly, Trump's comments drew a strongly negative reaction from Dottie Gallagher-Cohen, president of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, as well as from Democrats.
"First of all, his assertion is wrong," said Gallagher-Cohen, who added: "In Buffalo, we're doing better than we've done in decades."
Trump's chief congressional defender — Republican Rep. Chris Collins of Clarence — and the Business Council of New York State noted that there are reasons for the president to perceive his home state as an economic laggard.
"We would never encourage anyone to leave New York State, but if we don't enact more polices that encourage economic growth they may leave on their own," said Zack Hutchins, director of communications for the Business Council.
Trump appeared to make his comments about "upper New York state" in passing, in an interview in which he said Apple Inc. had committed to build “three big plants, beautiful plants" in the United States.
He also said Foxconn, a Taiwanese manufacturer of video screens, was planning a U.S. facility, which will be in Wisconsin.
That appeared to be what prompted Trump — who won election in part by appealing to blue-collar workers — to recommend that such folks in "upper New York" ought to pull up stakes and move elsewhere.
"It's OK," the president said in the Wall Street Journal interview. "Don't worry about your house."
Asked by The Buffalo News for further details on what the President meant, a White House spokesman who asked not to be identified by name said: “High taxes, an unfriendly business climate, and a lack of skills-focused education have hurt many communities...As companies return from overseas and look to invest in American workers, the administration encourages every state and local government to compete for that investment.”
Gallagher-Cohen said the president's comments were off base in several ways.
First, there's Buffalo's turnaround. Federal figures showed the region saw a 2.1 percent increase in manufacturing jobs between January and June — not quite the the 2.8 percent rise in Milwaukee, but not exactly a bad sign about the Buffalo economy.
Secondly, Gallagher-Cohen said, a lack of jobs is not the main problem these days.
"Our problem is finding the right people to fill those jobs," she said.
Buffalo, like many areas, is suffering from a "skills gap" that means companies are having trouble finding qualified people to take the jobs that are available, Gallagher-Cohen said.
The Obama administration had promoted apprenticeships and training programs to try to close that skills gap. But asked what the Trump has had to say about addressing the skills gap, Gallagher-Cohen said the new administration has been "well, you know, silent."
The White House spokesman disagreed, saying: “President Trump also recognizes the value and need for skills-focused education. The administration has and will continue to take steps to expand apprenticeships and improve job-training programs to create an American workforce that will thrive in a 21st century economy.”
Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat, dismissed Trump's comments as yet another example of presidential babble.
"It's more empty rhetoric from him," Higgins said. "It's incoherent and lacking of a factual base."
A longtime advocate of a major investment in highways, bridges, the power grid and the like, Higgins noted that Trump's budget called for only $200 billion over a decade in infrastructure spending — which he said, is hardly the grand jobs-producing infrastructure plan the president had promised.
"He really should stop tweeting and get to work," Higgins added.
Trump is right about one thing. Upstate New York has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs over the last several decades, as have Rust Belt states such as Wisconsin, as many factories have automated and others have closed or moved overseas.
"Unfortunately, current state policies, especially in taxation, energy infrastructure and the overall regulatory environment, have impeded overall growth," Hutchins, the Business Council spokesman, said.
Collins — one of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's most persistent critics — turned the president's comment into criticism of the governor.
“The President is delivering on his promises to put America First, oppose bad trade deals like TPP and to bring our manufacturing jobs home, yet Upstate New York will continue to lag behind because of downstate politicians like Andrew Cuomo," Collins said. "Instead of managing the decline of the Empire State with gimmicks like Start-Up New York, Governor Cuomo has made us the least friendly business state in the nation and should focus on real relief for small businesses and taxpayers.”
Richard Azzopardi, a Cuomo spokesman, offered a vastly different take on Trump's comments. He noted that unemployment in the state fell from 8.4 percent in December 2010 to 4.5 percent in June, and that the state has gained nearly 1 million jobs since Cuomo took office in January 2011.
“We deal in facts — not fake news," Azzopardi said. "The facts are unemployment has been cut nearly in half and private sector jobs are at an all-time high in New York — a change deeply felt in Buffalo and across Western New York."
Asked by The Buffalo News for further details on what the president meant, a White House spokesman who asked not to be identified by name said: “High taxes, an unfriendly business climate, and a lack of skills-focused education have hurt many communities...As companies return from overseas and look to invest in American workers, the administration encourages every state and local government to compete for that investment.” |
The 15th volume of Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan manga is announcing on Tuesday that Kodansha will launch a Monthly Attack on Titan Official Figure Collection magazine next April. Each of the 12 monthly 1,800-yen (about US$15) sets will come with a magazine issue and a newly sculpted figure.
The first three figures will be Eren, Levi, and Mikasa, and the Eren figure will be about 10 centimeters (4 inches) tall. Kodansha teases that one figure will be the first ever figure of "that character." Each figure will come with a stand and a part of a wall. The wall parts from all 12 sets will form a "heartrending" diorama.
The ongoing Attack on Titan exhibition will show the prototypes for the first three figures. The magazine teases that the other figures include Armin, Jean, and Sasha. The magazine will feature an exclusive illustration of each figure's character by the anime's Wit Studio.
The magazine will cover all 25 episodes of the first anime series with full-color images of notable scenes. It will also publish profiles of every character. |
It’s always risky making predictions, yet risk is what we love. This weekend the 2016 NASL season gets underway. The Spring portion will be ten matches with the winner securing a spot in the postseason. Starting out strong matters in this league, but it isn’t the be-all or end-all for a team. Here are my predictions for this coming weekend.
Saturday, April 2nd, 2016
Carolina Railhawks v Minnesota United
3:00 PM EST
ESPN 3
WakeMed Soccer Park
Cary, North Carolina
A lot is expected out of Minnesota United this season, as it will likely be the team’s swan song in the NASL. Next season, Minnesota United will join MLS, so all of its players as well as new manager Carl Craig will be auditioning to stay with the organization when it moves. It’s a great story, Minnesota’s rise to MLS from being league owned in danger of folding. But that story is meaningless to the task at hand—winning the championship. Carolina has long been a superb team and while there isn’t a rivalry per se between the Railhawks and United, each organization craves putting one over on the other.
Returning to Carolina is striker Brian Shriver, who won the Golden Boot with the Railhawks before transferring to Tampa where things never quite worked out. Back at WakeMed Park, Shriver will be backed by one of the most competent and proven midfields in the league. Marvin Ceballos arrives from Indy Eleven a proven creative threat, James Marcelin comes up from Ft. Lauderdale after quietly being one of the best holding midfielders in the league, and the healthy trio of Austin Da Luz, Tiyi Shipalane, and Nazmi Albadawi will not only create chances but finish their fair share. Carolina’s defense features two stars from the now defunct Atlanta Silverbacks (centerback Simon Mensing and fullback Paul Black) joining centerback Conor Tobin and longtime Carolina fullback Kupono Low. This foursome will face a Minnesota attack that has yet to gel or really be all that convincing over the preseason but features the league’s most dangerous players—strikers Christian Ramirez and Stefano, winger Lance Laing, and central midfielder Ibson.
If Carolina draw first blood and stay on the front foot, Minnesota could very well open its final season with a hard loss. However, I believe Minnesota United will pulling out a win, something it hasn’t done since September of 2011.
Ft. Lauderdale Strikers v Miami FC
7:00 PM EST
BeIn Sports
Lockhart Stadium
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
It’s taken David Beckham nearly a decade to get himself to the point where he can seriously say he hopes to put a MLS team in Miami. Meanwhile, Paolo Maldini has landed his team in Miami giving the reigns to Alessandro Nesta for his first stint as a manager. Nesta has assembled a team that looks to be quite competitive in the NASL. Every expansion team is its own story. It’s unfair to compare the efforts of the former AC Milan teammates and world superstars; but we do, and we will. While Beckham wrestles with the Miami real estate market, Nesta will be leading the team he’s crafted in its first derby. To open its inaugural season against its natural, geographical rival is no small thing. This will be the first battle for Florida bragging rights with many, many more to come.
Nesta’s side sports a cadre of serious talent such as NASL all-time leading scorer Pablo Campos, former Tottenham Hotspurs midfielder Wilson Palacios, and ex-New York Red Bull winger Dane Richards. Facing off against the Strikers will be a serious challenge for the expansion side. Over the offseason, Ft. Lauderdale toured China and completely overhauled its team. The Brazilian owners have gone all in on making the Strikers a top Brasileiro…err, NASL team. Hard-edged midfielders (Neil Hlavaty and Jean Alexandre) will complement the creativity of Adrianinho and PC. Hopefully, the glut of midfielders will bring out the best in forward Matheus Carvalho, who could be a beast of a goal scorer. But, Ft. Lauderdale might just as easily become a team that ends up only able to pass the ball into the back of the net.
It’s entirely possible there will be more flair and passion in the stands between rival supporters than on the pitch. Apart from a golazo, I can’t see this match as ending in anything other than a draw.
Tampa Bay Rowdies v Indy Eleven
7:30 PM EST
Al Lang Stadium
St. Petersburg, Florida
Tampa always makes major off-season moves. This year was no different. From within the league came standouts like striker Tom Heinemann from Ottawa, winger Kalif Alhassan from Minnesota, and winger Walter Ramirez from Ft. Lauderdale. New-ish manager Stuart Campbell decided to pack his squad with midfielders adding former Major League Soccer prospects Michael Nachoff and Eric Avila. Then there’s the rumored signing of English midfielder Joe Cole, a player that inspires as much admiration as derision among soccer fans. If Cole does join the Rowdies, he’ll be alongside American prodigal son Freddy Adu. It makes Tampa Bay a glorious mess and one that will face a completely revamped Indy Eleven. With new manager Tim Hankinson at the helm, Indianapolis is poised to have its best season yet in its young life. Indy was able to pick up from Ottawa one of the league’s best centerbacks (Colin Falvey), one the best defenders from the third division, Sacramento Republic’s Nemanja Vukovic, and veteran MLS defender Lovel Palmer. A team that has always been rather leaky in defense now appears to be shored up, which will finally allow Indy’s attack to be solely focused on moving forward. That attack will be spearheaded by Eamon Zayed and buttressed by rising talent Dylan Mares and stalwart midfielder Sinisa Ubiparipovic.
This match-up between a hungry Tampa Bay with something to prove and an eager, hopeful Indianapolis should be exciting. Indy Eleven have only ever lost to Tampa Bay Rowdies once in the dying minutes of the match. I suspect they will open 2016 with three points on the road.
Rayo OKC v FC Edmonton
8:00 PM EST
ESPN 3
Miller Stadium
Yukon, Oklahoma
This, perhaps, will be the most secretly loved match of the NASL’s opening weekend. There has been a lot of blather about Spanish side Rayo Vallecano buying into the US and Canada’s second division. Frankly, the only people who took the expansion team seriously were its owners, and it looks like all of us are going to be eating crow. Manager Alen Marcina knows the league top to bottom, literally he’s lead a team to the championship and to last place, and is clearly a player’s coach. He has finally been given the resources to put together a team that is wholly his own. Marcina has brought up with him to Oklahoma the best players from San Antonio (left winger Billy Forbes, center-right midfielder Marvin Chavez, goalkeeper Daniel Fernandes, and defensive midfielders Richard Menjivar and Tyler Gibson). Add to this mix league all-star centerback Erick Norales (formerly of Indy Eleven) and several attack-minded MLS journeymen (Michel, Sebastian Velasquez, Ryan Johnson, and Robbie Findley), and we see that Marcina doesn’t just have a deep roster but one that’s more than competent. The icing on all this is the international talent brought in by Rayo OKC. If he stays healthy, then Greek international star striker George Samaras could be lightning in a bottle, and with Ghanaian midfielder Derek Boateng buttressing him, Rayo OKC will be fielding an expansion side that looks on paper to be one of the most experienced and dangerous assembled. Fans and pundits want to see just what this team can do. It will come down to just how astute of a tactician Marcina is and how well this assembly gels on the pitch.
An opening day against the perennially middling-to-poor FC Edmonton certainly bodes well for Rayo OKC’s debut. I think they’ll give their new home supporters a win.
Sunday, April 3rd, 2016
New York Cosmos v Ottawa Fury
6:00 PM EST
James Shuart Stadium
Hempstead, NY
The last match of the opening weekend of the 2016 season will be a replay of the last match of the 2015 season, the championship between the New York Cosmos and Ottawa Fury. However, the only members of the Fury who will really remember this will be goalkeeper Romauld Peiser, centerback Rafael Alves, and midfielder Mauro Eustaquio as the rest of the Ottawa team that lost the final 3-2 to New York are now gone. Gone too is the architect of Ottawa’s run to the final, Marc Dos Santos, replaced by the talented Paul Dalglish. The whole new Fury will be facing a Cosmos side that is, arguably, the strongest yet fielded. New to the defending champions are strikers Yasmani Duk and MLS veteran Jairo Arrieta, world renowned central attacking midfielders Juan Arango and Niko Kranjcar, and defensive midfielder Michael Lahoud formerly of the Philadelphia Uniton. With an impressive backline still intact it’s highly unlikely that the Cosmos will falter much this season.
Ottawa is deploying a new system under a new regime facing a team that has been the best in the league since its inception. It will be no small feat for Dalglish’s new look Fury to come out of this road match with a respectable loss or even a point. Will winger Jonny Steele’s attitude finally be adjusted? Will midfielders Marcel de Jong and James Bailey find the NASL caters to their style of play? Who out of the forgettable attacking core that Dalglish has assembled will step up to be the goal scorer? Will the defense, which was the best in the league last season, merely be a shadow of itself?
There are more questions than answers for Ottawa, so it’s clear (baring a shocking collapse) the Cosmos will will this one. |
After a successful first collaboration on Mordheim: City of the Damned, released on PC and consoles, Focus Home Interactive and Rogue Factor today proudly announce a new partnership with Games Workshop to begin development of Necromunda: Underhive Wars, the adaptation of cult classic tabletop game Necromunda, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Necromunda: Underhive Wars is a turn-based tactical RPG. Rival gangs of ruthless warriors are locked in an endless war for control of the Underhive, a gigantic warren of derelict factories, rusted metal husks, and forgotten technologies. Anarchy, violence, betrayal and death rule this hellish place, long forsaken by any semblance of civilization.
“Rogue Factor’s collaboration with Focus and Games Workshop is a story of trust, hard work, and true passion for the Warhammer Universe. Our adventure began by building the foundations of Mordheim: City of the Damned Early Access. Regarded as a highly successful and well-executed endeavour, the Early Access of Mordheim: City of the Damned gathered a vast number of passionate gamers that helped foster an amazing community and improved many aspects of the game. After a strong launch on PC and consoles, and an incredible experience with many lessons learned, the way was paved for our next step in conquering the tactical RPG genre: Necromunda: Underhive Wars.”
- Yves Bordeleau, General Manager at Rogue Factor.
“We are delighted to welcome Necromuda: Underhive Wars to the catalogue of great games based on our worlds and settings. Rogue Factor and Focus Home Interactive made a wonderful Mordheim: City of the Damned game and having done such a great job they're clearly the right people to realize the nightmarish world of Necromunda. Now fans of this unique and highly influential IP will at last be able to pick up their stubber and search for cool archaeotech whilst wiping out rival gangs throughout the Underhive.”
- Jon Gillard, Head of Licensing at Games Workshop.
More info will be unveiled at Focus’ What’s Next event in Paris, on February 1st and 2nd. |
It seems he is the poster boy for one-year contracts. Is that the motivation for his conditioning?
“I offered the Red Sox a chance to sign me for two years at no raise. I just wanted the two years.’’
“I never want to come off as greedy,’’ said Ortiz, who grew up in a middle-class family, the son of an auto parts dealer. “I have never asked for one penny more than what I thought I should get.
Ortiz will earn a $14.5 million salary this season. He said he offered to play on a two-year deal for $25 million in the offseason, but the Red Sox came in “far below’’ that on a two-year offer.
“I love that part of the game and I’m able to do that now. That’s why it’s fun. When you’re carrying 25 extra pounds on you, it’s hard to do those things. But this is the way I want to play the game.’’
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say to me how much they appreciate that I run hard down the line, or I go from first to third or try to stretch a single into a double.
“I’m having so much fun playing the game again,’’ he said. “I love to be able to do things on the field that I couldn’t do before. I’m running the bases better and harder, hitting lefthanded pitchers and going the other way. Everything I’ve tried to get better with, I’m getting better with.
His two-run blast in the third off Nick Blackburn went 429 feet.
Ortiz went 2 for 4 with a homer and three RBIs in the Sox’ 11-2 win over Minnesota. He’s hitting .444 with three homers and 15 RBIs, and his 28 hits through 16 games are the most ever by a Red Sox lefthanded hitter.
“People expect me to be a game-changer, and when it reaches the point where I can’t do that anymore, I’m getting out,’’ said the Red Sox DH before Tuesday night’s game against the Twins. “When I swing the bat and nothing happens anymore, then that’s it. For as long as I play, I want to make a difference.’’
Ortiz said he will play two more years after this season, then call it a career. But he wants them to be productive years.
Ortiz was motivated to lower his cholesterol by eating better and working out more in the offseason. He lost 25 pounds, down to 250, and is motoring around the bases about as well as he ever has in his career.
MINNEAPOLIS - A determination not to go on medication to reduce his cholesterol may be the reason David Ortiz has found a new gear.
“I played hard when I had a long-term deal,’’ he said. “I have given everything I have every minute I’ve played for the Boston Red Sox because I love the name. I love wearing that uniform.
“That means so much to me to wear it, and wear it for the rest of my career. I remember John Henry once told me that I was the only player he’s ever known who really is able to play in Boston. And he’s right.
“I know how to handle everything in Boston.’’
Which is why ownership has talked to Ortiz about working for the organization after his playing days.
“They have mentioned that to me,’’ Ortiz said. “That’s something I would like to do, because I’d like to help this organization in any way I can, whether it’s talking to younger kids or whatever.’’
The Red Sox, however, have not offered Ortiz that “lifetime contract,’’ and under the new basic agreement, it appears they won’t be able to, as personal services-type deals have been eliminated.
But Ortiz would love to have security for the rest of his career.
“I told them last year, ‘You should sign me now because I’m going to have a great year, and it’s going to cost you money,’ ’’ he said. “I told them the same thing this year.’’
In addition to his American League-leading average, the 36-year-old Ortiz entered Tuesday night’s game with a 1.155 OPS and a .477 on-base percentage. His career OPS was .924.
With his homer off Blackburn, he has hit 381 in his career - 336 as a DH, most in history - and has 1,281 RBIs.
When the final chapter is written on his career, he and Edgar Martinez likely will be considered the two best DHs ever - and Ortiz will have (at least) two World Series championships.
Terry Ryan, the Twins GM who let Ortiz go on waivers after the 2002 season, still kicks himself for that decision.
Perhaps the 40- and 50-homer years are gone.
“I just try to hit it where the pitcher throws it,’’ he said.
That has resulted in more opposite-field hits, and now opponents are wondering whether they should abandon the usual shift against Ortiz and just play him straight away.
“I don’t even care about the shift anymore,’’ Ortiz said. “When they do it, they’re going to pitch me a certain way, but I know they’re going to give me one pitch on the outside part of the plate, and that I try to drive to the opposite field. And if I keep doing that, they’re going to pitch me in, in, and more in, and that’s fine with me, too.’’
Asked if he feels he’s a better hitter than he’s ever been, Ortiz said, “I think when you’re younger, you have more quickness in your bat. I know that I know more about it now than I ever did. I know what the pitchers are trying to do with me.
“So that part, I guess, I’m going the other way more and I think that’s helped me contribute more. I still have my power, but what’s important for me is to get on base and drive in runs.’’
After he hit .222 against lefties in 2010, Ortiz was determined to improve on that. He entered Tuesday’s game hitting .474 (9 for 19) vs. lefties. In 2011, he hit .329 against them with a .989 OPS.
“A lot of my at-bats are going to be against lefties late in the game,’’ he said. “Some of these teams have two or three lefties in the bullpen, so I know I’m going to face them.’’
“I think I can do this for the next three years until I retire,’’ he said. “I love to compete. I know I have a good time with the guys before the game, but once I get on the field, I want to win.
“Some friends of mine gave me a plaque that I have at my house. It says, ‘October is the Big Papi Show.’
“That’s so true. I looked at that last offseason and it made me so mad what happened to us last year and that we weren’t able to get back to the playoffs. I miss being in the playoffs. I want to get there this year. I’m going to do everything I can to help us do that.’’
He will go down as one of the great people who ever have donned a Boston uniform.
Even Tuesday, he met with the Red Sox to set up a new charitable arm to his foundation, to collect toys from Red Sox fans in exchange for an autograph.
“When I go back to the Dominican and see those kids . . . they’re so poor, they have nothing,’’ he said. “I want to be able to give them something and see them smile.’’
Nick Cafardo can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.
© Copyright 2012 Globe Newspaper Company. |
The inside design change of the Kevo smart lock
“Kwikset listened to homeowners’ everyday experience with Kevo 1st Gen and put their feedback at the center of the Kevo 2nd Gen development strategy,” said Keith Brandon, Kwikset Vice President of Residential Access Solutions, Spectrum Brands, Inc. – Hardware and Home Improvement Division. “I truly believe the time to buy Kevo is now for any consumer waiting for technology to evolve before purchasing a smart lock.”
The outside design of the Kevo lock remains unchanged
Kevo is not currently Apple HomeKit-compatible. Kevo requires a longer development process to become compatible with HomeKit due to the custom nature of the Kevo platform. Kwikset truly believes in the secure smart home technology offered by Apple HomeKit and specifically developed Premis, which launched at CES this year, to be compatible with the HomeKit platform.
That said, Kwikset is investing in the Kevo platform and continuously updating its products. Kwikset introduced its first HomeKit compatible smart lock at CES and will continue to prioritize HomeKit on our product roadmap.
Lock manufacturing company Kwikset today released the second generation of its Kevo smart lock, keeping the same aesthetic of the original Kevo but bringing in a "refined user experience," more compact interior design, and improved security. Like the original Kevo, the second generation of the smart lock lets user easily gain entry into their home thanks to Kevo's ability to register a paired smartphone within a certain distance, subsequently unlocking itself when a user taps on the outside part of the lock.The first major addition to Kevo is a new in-app installation process (found within the Kevo app on the App Store [ Direct Link ] and Google Play Store), which streamlines the steps it takes to add the smart lock into your door with an "interactive installation experience." In terms of design change, the company only altered the look and size of the interior module of the Kevo, making it sleeker and smaller, while keeping the circular outside part the same as the first generation.The biggest change comes in the form of improved security on the smart lock, which has the latest version of Kwikset's patented SmartKey security to provide "strong resistance" against attempts at forced entry. According to the company, the updated Kevo also passes "the most stringent lock-picking standards" and uses a feature called "BumpGuard" in order to prevent lock bumping.Kwikset is selling the second generation Kevo on Amazon for $229.00 in polished brass, satin nickel, and venetian bronze. The new Kevo is also expected to be available to purchase across the United States in brick and mortar stores, but Kwikset didn't specifically mention when the second generation smart lock would begin making its way to retailers following today's online launch.Regarding HomeKit compatibility, Kwikset told MacRumors that while Kevo is currently unable to support Apple's connected-home platform, the company "will continue to prioritize HomeKit on our product roadmap." |
So I saw The Wolf of Wall Street last night. And it was a pretty good movie! The rest of this post is going to be full of spoilers, so if that bothers you, stop reading.
I'll wait.
Okay.
Can we talk about the rape scene for a second?
By the end of the movie, things are not going well for Jordan Belfort. He's pretty unambiguously the worst. He's greedy and mean and reckless and selfish and addicted to drugs. He's arrogant. He has basically no sense of human decency. It's not hard to hate this guy.
And then he rapes his wife.
He's standing there in the bedroom talking to his wife about the ongoing criminal investigation against him, and then he decides he'd like to have sex with her. And she says no, she'd rather not. And he forces himself on her. She pretty clearly tells him to stop. She tells him no. And he keeps going.
Eventually, she decides to take a little control of the situation and says, "Okay, you want to fuck me? Cum for me baby, fuck me like it's the last time," so he does, and she tells him she wants a divorce. (And then he does a bunch of drugs, punches his wife, and nearly kills his daughter. Because, in case it wasn't clear, this guy is a huge asshole.)
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I'm not surprised that he raped his wife, honestly. Belfort has literally no respect for women whatsoever, and he's used to getting everything he wants all the time. He isn't above rape. It's totally the kind of thing he would do.
What surprises me is that no one is talking about it. I mean, when I google "wolf of wall street rape," this is what comes up:
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At first I thought perhaps the first article was actually going to talk about the rape scene, but the sentence actually goes on to say "Wolf of Wall Street could've shown Jordan Belfort raping his own mother and some people would still think he's a hero because he had a yacht." Is it ironic that even the writers of this article don't seem to have noticed Belfort actually raping his own wife?
The rest of the search results are just incidentally related to sex somehow. Whatever, google.
So why isn't anyone talking about the time Jordan Belfort raped his wife?
Is it because she's his wife? Because marital rape has been illegal in the United States since the sixties.
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Is it because eventually she kind of agrees to it? Because that's not what consent is. Consent is not saying "Well, your penis is already inside me, so I guess this is just going to happen, so… fine."
The fact that there was a rape in this movie doesn't really bother me. Really. It bothers me that there are people who watched this movie and didn't see it as rape. It bothers me that so many people still don't understand what rape is. It bothers me that anyone could have sympathy for this guy after watching all of this (and some people definitely did).
But I guess nothing can change unless we talk about it.
Thoughts?
(Originally published at my blog, That Girl Magazine — thought Groupthink would have some opinions over here) |
...so first, my Santa sent me a message before they shipped and let me know it was on the way. And when I asked if they could include a little piece of German chocolate, they included a bar <3 can't wait to try it!
Onto the goodies! First, the envelope back has a hidden polar bear, how cute is that?? And the note included has a snoopy on it! I really like it :D except his nose is missing...but he's still cute!
A little stationery included so I can write back if I want to...which I do!
A beautiful notebook with a cute whale on it, and some teardrops in the back cover with sully expressions haha
Last but not least, a beautiful new washi tape to add to my collection! I have too many, but I can never have enough!
Thank you so much Santa K! I'll be writing you soon! :) |
Adnan Durak, 48, received a phone call from the local family health center early Monday. The voice on the other side of the line told him to bring over his 3-month-old son for vaccination. He immediately took his son Bünyamin to the center, only to be the victim of a heinous terror attack on his birthday.
Security sources said that the chief village guard was killed in front of the clinic he was invited to by the PKK terrorist posing as a doctor.
Sources also stated that his wife, Peyruze Durak, his 3-year-old daughter Armin and his son Bünyamin were with him as the PKK terrorists opened fire on the chief village guard. Peyruze Durak was also wounded in the attack. Adnan Durak succumbed to his wounds while his wife was saved by the medical staff in Nusaybin State Hospital in the southeastern Mardin province.
On the same day, separate PKK attacks in the district also claimed the life of a Turkish soldier and left two others wounded.
Formed in 1978, the PKK has been fighting the Turkish government for an independent state. The group then shifted its goal in the early 2000's to autonomy in predominately Kurdish inhabited regions of Turkey.
Turkish security forces have arrested hundreds of people with suspected links to Daesh, the PKK, and leftist groups, detaining over 1,300 people across the country, according to a recent statement released by the Prime Minister's Office.
The Turkish Air Force has also been carrying out airstrikes against the PKK in northern Iraq and the PYD, YPG and Daesh terrorists in northern Syria. |
LOS ANGELES -- An eyewitness to the killing of Ezell Ford told The Huffington Post on Wednesday that he heard an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department shout "shoot him" before three bullets were unloaded into the unarmed, 25-year-old black man, who was on the ground.
"It is unknown if the suspect has any gang affiliations," the LAPD said in a statement after the killing.
But people in Ford's neighborhood said the young man was not remotely involved in gang activity. Leroy Hill said he was an eyewitness to the shooting Monday night, and confirmed that he heard three shots.
"He wasn't a gang banger at all," Hill said. "I was sitting across the street when it happened. So as he was walking down the street, the police approached him, whatever was said I couldn't hear it, but the cops jumped out of the car and rushed him over here into this corner. They had him in the corner and were beating him, busted him up, for what reason I don't know he didn't do nothing. The next thing I know I hear a 'pow!' while he's on the ground. They got the knee on him. And then I hear another 'pow!' No hesitation. And then I hear another 'pow!' Three times."
At one point while the police had Ford on the ground, but before the shooting took place, Hill said, he heard an officer yell, "Shoot him."
Leroy Hill, far left, and two other neighbors, gather in front of a memorial for Ezell Ford on West 65th Street in South LA Wednesday morning.
Monday around 8:20 p.m., police conducted an "investigative stop" in the 200 block of West 65th Street in the Newton area of South LA, according to an LAPD news release. "During the stop a struggle ensued, which resulted in an officer-involved-shooting," the release says. "The suspect was transported to a local hospital and after lifesaving efforts he succumbed to his injuries."
A woman who identified herself as the deceased man's mother called KTLA and identified the man as Ezell Ford. However, as of Wednesday afternoon, the LAPD had not confirmed the identity of the "suspect." Tritobia Ford said her son was lying on the ground and complying with officers when he was shot three times.
The shooting comes just days after the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown was fatally shot by a police officer in the St. Louis suburb on Saturday. He was unarmed. Dorian Johnson, who was walking with Brown before the shooting occurred, said Brown was retreating from the officer with his hands up when he was shot, CNN reported. Ferguson police, however, say a "physical confrontation" occurred before that.
Unrest has rocked the suburb in the days following Brown's death. At least four people, including two police officers, have been hurt and 47 arrested in the aftermath of the shooting, according to St. Louis' KMOV.
A sign at the memorial for Ezell Ford in South LA.
On Wednesday morning in South LA, a group of about 10 young and middle-aged men gathered at a makeshift sidewalk memorial lined with candles and signs that read "Police brutality must stop."
The men at the memorial near the sight of the shooting were visibly shaken by the events that had unfolded there Monday night. They expressed anger toward the LAPD. They said that Ford wasn't a gang member at all -- that he was a "good guy," a local man who was born and raised in the neighborhood, one whom everyone knew and liked, who routinely played basketball and who also suffered from some form of mental illness.
While all of the men said Ford suffered from some mental illness, they couldn't confirm what it was. One young neighbor, who requested to not be identified, said that while "he wasn't all there, he was there enough to follow orders and know to stop when the police tell him to stop. He did nothing wrong."
Another eyewitness told KTLA that Ford's mental state was well-known in the neighborhood and to the police.
"They laid him out and for whatever reason, they shot him in the back, knowing mentally, he has complications. Every officer in this area, from the Newton Division, knows that -- that this child has mental problems," the man said in an interview with the local network. "The excessive force ... there was no purpose for it. The multiple shootings in the back while he's laying down? No. Then when the mom comes, they don't try to console her ... they pull the billy clubs out."
The young neighbor described the incident as "racial bullshit." All of the men at the memorial told HuffPost that police routinely patrol their neighborhood, a gesture that, they said, feels aggressive as opposed to an act of peace-keeping. During the brief 10 minutes HuffPost was at the scene, two squad cars were observed driving by the main intersection of South Broadway and West 65th Street.
A sign in memory of Ezell Ford.
A middle-aged neighbor took the allegations of aggressive police officers a step further, saying that the same officers who were involved in the incident on Monday night had come through the neighborhood the day before and harassed Ford. He also alleged that wasn't the first time the police had "targeted" Ford and harassed him while he walked down the street.
"The day before they were messing with him and they came back the next day and made good on it," the neighbor said.
No officers were injured during the incident, according to the LAPD. The Force Investigation Division is set to investigate.
When reached by HuffPost, the LAPD declined to comment on the allegations because there is an ongoing and active investigation. "When new information becomes available, it will be released," Officer Bruce Borihanh told HuffPost.
UPDATE: 8 p.m. -- LAPD issued a statement that describes what happened: |
Square Enix has updated the Ikenie to Yuki no Setsuna official website with new details and screenshots about the game’s battle system and characters.
If you missed our preview at the Tokyo Game Show, catch up here.
Get the information below.
■ An RPG from Years Past
Traveling to the farthest ends of the earth, the escort group progresses onward visiting various towns, preparing equipment, and defeating wild monsters along the way. We are pursuing the fundamental enjoyment of an RPG where the progress is truly felt.
■ System
Active Time Battle
The Active Time Battle (ATB) system is a common characteristic of Square Enix-developed RPGs. Ikenie to Yuki no Setsuna‘s battle system is based on Chrono Trigger‘s ATB 2.0 battle system. It is a choose your command-based battle system full of tension.
When your ATB gauge is filled, you can take action. Also, if several characters’ ATB gauges are filled, you can select their actions in the order you prefer.
Depending on where you’re located compared to the enemy, you can deal ranged damage, or damage enemies with the trails of a projectile weapon. By properly devising the timing of your actions, it’s possible to fight more advantageously.
Setsuna System
The Setsuna System, or “Moment System,” is a system that expands the effectiveness of techniques through timed button reactions in battle.
When you do something like perform an action, receive damage, or let time pass after the ATB gauge reaches its MAX state, the circular Setsuna gauge will accumulate.
When the Setsuna gauge is filled up, additional effects are triggered when you time the button reactions of the performed technique accordingly. Additional damage will occur as part of standard attacks and some attack techniques.
Depending on the technique, there are a variety of results you can expect, such as unleashing the same technique multiple times, attain a recovery effect, or deal a critical hit.
■ Characters
Kuon
Before Setsuna became the “sacrifice,” Kuon was a traveler of many mysteries who visited the village. Now, as a soldier representing the escort group, she has the faithful trust of the villagers, and is adored as a sister by Setsuna. She is invested in the journey more than anyone else and due to her strong sense of responsibility, she absolutely cannot fail her duty. She often has at it with the silent hero, whose mind she can’t read.
Yomi
An experienced swordsman who was part of the escort group on the journey of a previous “sacrifice.” He is usually more cheery than necessary, and is thought to be a fool by everyone in the “Garrison.” Taking advantage of his previous experience, he’s the man to go to for advice in the escort group. Considering Setsuna’s safety his number one priority just as he did about Tsukushi, he turns sides and joins the party. |
Staying plant-strong while you’re traveling via planes, trains, and automobiles is a piece of cake (or even better, a piece of kale). I’ve been traveling a ton lately. In fact, in February I was on the road 22 out of 29 days! I was plant-strong and ripping it up day after day after day.
Here are some of my tips for staying fabulously plant-strong—no matter where you are. You can remember these with the acronym F.A.B.:
1. Figure out what you can eat.
Use the menu as a list of ingredients. A 100 percent plant-strong meal might not be listed on the menu, but maybe the restaurant uses some ingredients in other meals that are completely plant-strong. For instance, you might notice steamed vegetables and potatoes in one dish, and black beans in another. Well, the three together make for a great plate! Sometimes it is helpful to call ahead. You’d be surprised how many chefs will rise to the occasion and love making you a fabulous plant-strong meal. They may even come out to your table and let you know how much they enjoyed getting creative with your meal.
2. Ask for what you want.
Ask your waiter or waitress if a dish can be prepared with veggie broth instead of oil. Ask if they have whole-grain options. I’ve been told that the Pei Wei chain of restaurants is very accommodating with requests for plant-strong meals. You can ask for almost any dish to be made with brown rice and to have steamed vegetables and tofu instead of the meat. And get this: They will cook your meal using vegetable stock instead of oil! They call it “stock-velveted.” Sounds cool! Incidentally, their parent restaurant, PF Chang’s, will do the same thing.
3. Bring your own food.
I always pack a solid amount of food to take with me whenever I travel so that I have options on the plane or afterward when renting a car, driving to my next destination, etc. You can pack things such as the Rip’s Big Bowl or oatmeal and raisins for a quick breakfast in a hotel room. You can also pack soups, and there is even vacuumed-sealed cooked brown rice available for sale at most stores, so all you have to do is reheat it. You can make plant-strong burritos and sandwiches and pack them in a cooler for road trips as well.
More Tips on Eating Out
Technology is your friend when it comes to finding vegan meals on the go. Check out the Vanilla Bean app and the HappyCow app or website (happycow.net) to find all the vegan-friendly restaurants near you. Yelp is another great tool for finding nearby restaurants with vegan options.
Here are some tips for other restaurants:
Asian restaurants: Ask for brown rice, steamed vegetables, steamed edamame, or tofu, hold the extra sauces, and use low-sodium soy sauce sparingly. Another good option is brown rice vegetable sushi.
Italian: Go for whole-grain pasta and tomato sauce (with no cheese added), and ask them to throw in as many grilled/steamed vegetables as they can find!
Steakhouse/American: Believe it or not, you can get a great meal at a steakhouse. Ask for potatoes, sweet potatoes, and lots of steamed vegetables. You can also ask for a huge salad. Ask your waiter for a salad with every fresh vegetable they have on hand (and even fruit), with a side of balsamic vinegar (or sneak in your own plant-strong dressing).
Breakfast spots: Ask for oatmeal made with water or plant-based milk, fruit, and some nuts. You can also ask if they have whole-grain bread, a little nut butter, and some fruit.
Coffee shops: Hot herbal tea is always a great option. Most coffee shops carry plant-based milk now as well instead of using dairy creamer. If you are having a snack, go for something like oatmeal. You can also get a little bit of dried fruit and nuts at many places. I’m a frequent flyer and go for the Starbucks oatmeal, which is available in almost all airports.
Gas stations: If you are on the road, you can find fruit at most convenience stores, and sometimes whole-grain pretzels or unsalted nuts as well.
Grocery stores: Don’t forget local grocery stores! You can get items such as oil-free hummus, whole-grain crackers or bread, cut-up vegetables/fruit, and low-sodium cans of beans (just be sure to pick up a cheap can-opener). You can even buy potatoes and frozen vegetables to microwave later in the hotel room. Or, you can make a great trail mix with whole-grain cereal, raisins, and a few nuts. Many grocery stores also have salad bars where you can make a great plant-strong meal. Go to wholefoods.com and find the closest Whole Foods Market and look for the Health Starts Here logo in the prepared foods section for oil-free, plant-strong options.
The bottom line is that no matter where you are, there are plant-based options to be found.
Stay plant strong anywhere! |
We chatted with Dan Pinchbeck, creative director for thechineseroom, about the studio's next two titles, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. He talks about what we can expect from both games, what's changed this time around, and how far the developer has come since Dear Esther.
GameZone: What's your role at the company?
Dan Pinchbeck: I'm Creative Director for both games, which basically translates as Writer, Producer, Lead Designer.
GZ: Let’s start with Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture — described as the natural follow-up to Dear Esther. In what ways, and how is it similar/different?
DP: It's a pure story game, like Esther, so it's driven by exploration of both a world and a fiction. This takes prominence over traditional goal or skill-based gameplay. The big difference is that it's open-world, so it's much more non-linear than Esther. You have a single, very large environment, and the choice of how you explore it is completely up to you and has a real impact on the way the story gets delivered and what versions of events you might find. The world is also much more dynamic than Esther's island — it responds to you, your actions, and your explorations, and that affects the narrative delivery, as well. So you're much more grounded in the world for this game. Your actions have a real impact.
GZ: The game is based around six characters. Why six, and can you tell us about their roles?
DP: That's one of those organic decisions that actually hard to answer! Six fitted the world and the story quite naturally. Once we had the basic scale-testing done, Andrew (Crawshawm our game designer) and I spent a lot of time in the world, getting a sense of scale, travel-times, etc. I started writing concept fiction around this as well, and we ended up with six characters. They are represented in the world, so you can interact with them, but not in a traditional NPC sense, and they also have their own journeys, which you can be part of or not. You'll have to make choices about whom you engage with, and that will limit your choices in other directions. It's still pretty early. We're still working through the options here. But they are actively part of the storytelling experience — not absent like the characters in Esther.
GZ: You’re working with CryEngine 3, whereas Dear Esther used Source, correct? What possibilities has the engine opened up for you, and what was the transition like from one to the other?
DP: Oh, we're big fans of CryEngine — and Crytek have been fantastically supportive. Basically, when I was doing early work on the game, I checked out a lot of engines, and CE3 was the only one that really gave us everything we needed, particularly in the relationship between how big the game world is and the level of presentational finish I wanted the game to achieve. I've wanted to use CryEngine since the first Far Cry game. It's really powerful and open — you can do huge amounts with scripting before you get anywhere near the code, which is brilliant. It's a new art team on Rapture — Ian Maude and Dan Cordell — so they've come at the engine completely fresh and are doing amazing things with it.
GZ: Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is set in a post-apocalyptic, open world. Can you describe it more for us? How open-world are we talking?
DP: Completely open. It's one giant environment. I was in it yesterday doing some more writing, and it keeps taking me aback at just how bloody big it is. That's a great challenge for a writer — there's so much time and space to fill with content. It's set in rural England, so expect rolling hills, farmland, a lake, a river bed, a railway line, and station. Under normal circumstances, a sleepy, peaceful little village nestled away in obscurity out in the countryside. Only something catastrophic has occurred. Or is occurring. Or is about to happen.
GZ: Will there be voice-acting in the game, or is it text-based?
DP: Oh yeah, there will be voice-acting. Getting top quality voice-work is really important to me. But we're heavily investing in environmental storytelling, as well. And music will be central to the experience, of course. Jessica Curry, who composed Dear Esther, is co-director of thechineseroom, so music is always at the core of what we do. The early soundtrack for Rapture is sounding brilliant. And it's all dynamically generated according to your explorations and the history of what you've done, without descending into naff ambient muzak. Which is testament to Jess's skill as a composer.
GZ: What can players expect, gameplay-wise?
DP: It's first-person exploration, but this time you have much more impact on the world and options for exploring. So you get the standard set of FPS controls now — jump, sprint, crawl. You can interact with objects and will be expected to engage with objects and characters to push the story forward. And the world is responding to you all the time.
GZ: Let’s talk about Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. First off, that opening quote: "This world is a machine. A machine for pigs. Fit only for the slaughtering of pigs." What does it mean, and where did it come from?
DP: That comes from my sick, sick head. It just popped in and had to be used. I'm not telling you what it means. You can worry about that yourself.
GZ: You’re collaborating with Frictional Games, who started the very popular, very scary Amnesia series. How did you become involved with the sequel?
DP: So Frictional are working on a new game but wanted to get another Amnesia out and didn't have time to do it, so they were looking for a studio to take it on. We know each other anyway, mutual fans, and we just got talking. It cemented over a few beers at GDCE last year, and we got cracking. Frictional are executive producers for the project, and we're making the game. It's a lot of fun.
GZ: Are you still aiming for a Halloween release?
DP: No, it's just slid back to early 2013. The quality of the game is the absolute first, last, and always with this development, and we felt it could do with a few more months' work to make sure that's really going to happen.
GZ: A Machine for Pigs isn’t a direct sequel — but it does take place in the universe, 60 years or so later. What’s changed?
DP: We're in the thick of Victoriana — empire, invention, social revolution, spiritualism. Rampant industrialization along with the attendant issues of dehumanization, poverty, disease, racism. It's right at the turn of the century, so there's that panic of what's coming next, and then there are these powerful industrialists pushing society forward, without any real thought to consequences. A really exciting but very dark age. So the central question for us is how does the universe of Amnesia fit within that brave new world.
GZ: Who is Oswald Mandus, exactly?
DP: He's a wealthy industrialist who made his fortune in the livestock industry but suffered a horrendous family tragedy and has been struck down with a terrible disease while exploring the ruins of the Aztecs and Maya in Mesoamerica. He wakes up from disturbing dreams at the start of the game and begins to try and piece his life back together, to understand what has happened to him.
GZ: You’ve said before that the game will be true to its predecessor, only pushed in new and interesting directions. What’s this new vision like, and does that extend to story, gameplay — everything? Can you talk at all about what’s in store?
DP: The central thing about Amnesia: The Dark Descent is that the player's experience is at the core. It takes precedence of mechanics, over more formal gameplay features as such. So we're preserving that emotional journey — that rollercoaster of fear, awe, desperation, loneliness, sadness, disgust, and terror. There are some changes of course, to keep things fresh, but it will very much feel like an Amnesia game. But what we're hoping for is a very different experience at the same time. I'm not going to say anymore about that yet, though …
GZ: How has working on these two games been a growing and learning experience for you and the studio?
DP: Oh yeah, if you are not growing and learning with every title then you're getting something very wrong. I'd hate to be churning out the same thing over and over. It was really important for us to make a clear break from Esther, do some different things. I'd hate to be pigeonholed.
GZ: What are you excited for players to discover?
DP: That Esther was just the start. We've got a whole lot more on the way.
Follow @wita on Twitter for tales of superheroes, plumbers in overalls, and literary adventures. |
Martin Shkreli appeared in a New York federal court Monday for the start of his securities fraud trial—and was quickly declared guilty of price gouging by potential jurors.
Shkreli is facing eight counts of securities and wire fraud in connection to an alleged Ponzi-like scheme involving one of his old pharmaceutical companies, Retrophin . But the ex-CEO is infamous for something completely different: raising the price of a life-saving medication given to infants and people with HIV/AIDS by more than 5,000 percent overnight as CEO and founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals. Outrage over that unrelated move spilled into the courtroom today and stands to slow progress of the fraud trial.
In interviews with Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, potential jurors called Shkreli “ evil” and “the face of corporate greed in America ,” CNBC reports. One potential juror said, “He’s a snake.” Another admitted, “I have total disdain for the man." One potential juror blamed Shkreli for the skyrocketing price of EpiPens, which are made by Mylan, a pharmaceutical company that has no connection with Shkreli.
All the admittedly biased potential jurors were excused, as were many others who simply had scheduling conflicts. By lunchtime, no jurors had been seated.
The colorful first day in court and the hampered progress may offer a glimpse of what is to come with the attention-seeking defendant. The trial is expected to take about four to six weeks. But as Shkreli’s defense attorney Benjamin Brafman noted at an earlier pre-trial hearing, Shkreli “travels to the beat of a very unique drummer.”
Brafman had advised Shkreli to keep quiet as he awaited the trial—he was charged and released on $5 million bail in December 2015. However, Shkreli has continued to talk with reporters and be active on social media. Earlier this year, he was banned from Twitter for harassing a journalist. In a recent live stream, Shkreli said that he was “so innocent, the jury, judge, and the prosecution are gonna give me an apology.”
Shkreli and his former counsel Evan Greebel are charged with allegedly defrauding investors of hedge funds that Shkreli formerly managed. They are also charged with siphoning $11 million in assets from Shkreli’s former pharmaceutical company, Retrophin. Brafman intends to argue in court that Shkreli lacked the requisite criminal intent to defraud investors and relied on his trusted counsel, Greebel. |
Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista, right, congratulates Josh Donaldson after hitting a home run. (Photo: Gregory Fisher, USA TODAY Sports)
NEW YORK -- After Friday night's Toronto Blue Jays-New York Yankees series opener in the Bronx, one car of a downtown No.4 subway train to Manhattan carried a majority of Toronto fans, who loudly congratulated each other upon entrance. There was a conviviality among those clad in royal blue while, uncharacteristically, the pinstriped locals slunk quietly in their seats.
The scene was prophetic — and unfamiliar. As recently as July 2014, the Blue Jays had lost 17 straight games at Yankee Stadium. Less than an hour earlier on Friday night, however, Toronto right fielder Jose Bautista had slugged a game-winning home run in the 10th inning to pull the Blue Jays as close to the division-leading Yankees as they had been in four weeks and then talked about "making a statement."
"I don't think they feel good right now going home," Bautista said.
By the ninth inning Sunday, the visiting vocal minority chanted "Let's go Blue Jays" loud enough to be heard on the television broadcast and for good reason, as Toronto swept the Yankees to lengthen their winning streak to eight games and shorten New York's hold on first place to 1½ games. The Blue Jays — propelled by a pair of blockbuster deadline trades — are brimming with swagger, not to mention a +129 run differential, the best in baseball.
"We're a very confident group," said left-handed starter David Price, who was one of the major trade acquisitions. "This group does not lack confidence. And that's what you have to have."
Blue Jays pitchers allowed just one run in 28 innings; the games Saturday and Sunday were the first time the Yankees had been shutout in back-to-back games since 1999, which had been the longest such streak in baseball history. Toronto's lineup slugged six home runs, including two each from Bautista and third baseman Josh Donaldson.
Toronto manager Gibbons called the series "the most meaningful" the Blue Jays had played in the Bronx for two decades — hardly hyperbole for a franchise that hasn't made the postseason since its back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993. In only one of those interceding years did they even finish fewer than 10 games back of the AL East winner.
Toronto was in fourth place and eight games back July 28, which was also the day the club traded for Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and reliever LaTroy Hawkins.
"We're still gunning for the division," Gibbons said.
The Blue Jays have won each of Tulowitzki's first 11 starts, losing only his day off. ("I learned a lesson," Gibbons quipped. "I'm a quick learner.") In those starts, Tulowitzki has slugged three homers and scored 12 runs. Price won each of his first two starts, including Saturday when he hurled seven shutout innings. Hawkins has thrown five scoreless innings in his new uniform.
Some of the players praised general manager Alex Anthopolous for capitalizing on this summer's opportunity and the vulnerability in the American League.
"This time last year we were in good shape but we felt like we were descending," said starter R.A. Dickey, who allowed one run in seven innings on Friday. "Now we're not even in as good a shape as we might have been then, and we feel like we're ascending."
Toronto was a mere 1 1/2 games out of first at the 2014 trade deadline but then lost six of its next eight series and, a month later, was 10 1/2 out.
Suddenly, trips to New York have transformed from inhospitable struggles to welcome opportunities. This weekend began Toronto's 52-game stretch run, of which a full quarter (13) would be played against New York. The Blue Jays host the Yankees for three games next weekend; return to the Bronx for four games in mid-September; and then receive another Yankees visit for three in late September.
At this rate, the Blue Jays may yet pry the AL East away from the Yankees. Should they fall short, Toronto can likely fall back on a wild card berth. The Blue Jays swept the Minnesota Twins to overtake them for the second wild card spot and then kept winning to surge past the Los Angeles Angels for the first wild-card position.
An already dynamic offense — a majors-leading 597 runs scored, which is on pace for baseball's most since 2011 — was bolstered further by the addition of Tulowitzki, who has moved into the leadoff spot, typically batting ahead of Donaldson, Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, a barrage of right-handed power. Those four have mashed a total of 93 home runs this year. Donaldson alone has hit seven in his last 11 games.
Add in catcher Russell Martin, who usually often bats sixth, and the Blue Jays have five righty bats who have already hit 15 or more home runs.
"Everybody knows what our offense is capable of doing," Bautista said.
But what the casual observer may not have realized is just how well the Blue Jays have pitched in the second half. Early on, Dickey admitted that pitchers just needed to "hang on" and wait "for the bomb to drop" — the offensive support would inevitably come.
Now, it's appreciated but less necessary. The rotation's season statistics continue to be weighed down by a poor first half, in which they collectively had a 4.46 ERA. Since the All-Star break, however, the Blue Jays' starters have a 2.69 ERA, the AL's best mark. Price's dominant outings account for just two of those 22 starts. Dickey (0.99 ERA), Marco Estrada (2.35) and Mark Buehrle (3.38) are a combined 9-1.
"I think it's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit," Dickey said.
GALLERY: TRADE TRACKER |
Watch 'Local' A Beautifully Shot Skateboarding Film Set In Utah By Sean Slobodan
LOCAL.Inspired by the photography of my good friend Weston Colton (www.westoncolton.com @westoncolton), and featuring local skaters from the Salt Lake and Utah Valleys, this film was only made possible with the help of countless friends and the support of a beautiful wife. Thank you Weston Colton, Luke Jackson, Wayne Nilsson, Davis Ngarupe, Steve Aaron, Kurt Hale, Andrew Hair, Connor Prady, Zac Eskelsen, Jacob and Katie Schwarz, James Winegar, Grant Davis, Olivia Crellin, Brian Grow, Brenan Klain and everyone else who volunteered their time and advice. The music was written and performed by my good friend Micah Andersen specifically for this project. You can check out his talents here www.micahdahl.com Major thanks to the skaters who took the time to come out and believed in the project. Specifically Daniel Roman, Alex Washington, Logan Summers, Chandler Siepert, Matt Winskowski, Matt Bergmann, Levi Faust, and Tyson Bowerbank. Cameras - Sony F55, Phantom Flex 4K Aerial Photography – Helivate Films A little info on the Moon shot - We filmed in Western Utah. I used the Sony F55 and a Canon 800mm lens with a 2x converter, so effectively it turned it into a 1600mm lens. With the 2x converter the widest you can go is an F/11 so light became a bit of an issue. I found the hill we shot our moon skater Daniel on through Google Earth. Luckily it was only about an hour drive from my house so it allowed us to scout the location multiple times over the course of about a month. I had seen a similar shot here https://vimeo.com/56298775 and kinda took the info I could find on it to piece together what we wanted. I was shooting from a little over a mile away in massive field. Because this was on the top of a dirt hill, we had to build a 100-foot track made out of plywood for Daniel to skate on. The main difficulties at that point were lining up the moon, the skater, and the camera, and then just finding the moon in the sky, which, when you're focused on such a small area and there's nothing to visually reference, because it's pitch black, can be very difficult. We had guys up on the hill with flashlights trying to marl edge of frame, which helped. We ultimately ended up shooting three nights in a row. This was from the third night. First night we got it pretty well, but it was dusky and not totally dark. The second night was a total bust. We ended up being wrong in our camera positioning by about 300 feet each night. So when the moon first started to peak we had to grab everything and run until it was lined up, set down the camera, find the moon again, refocus, etc. Slightly stressful :) From the time the moon first touches the horizon line to when it's already fully above it is a little under 2 minutes. Ultimately there were probably 20 people who helped make this shot possible.
It's not often you get to describe a skateboarding film as scenic, but that's exactly what this short film by Sean Slobodan is, featuring stunning shots featuring local skaters from the Salt Lake and Utah Valleys skating about in the high-elevation of Utah.
The yellow light in such a high altitude gives the film a dreamy quality, and Slobodan notes the film was inspired by the photography "of my good friend Weston Colton."
Sean Slobodan says of the shooting schedule:
"The main difficulties at that point were lining up the moon, the skater, and the camera, and then just finding the moon in the sky, which, when you're focused on such a small area and there's nothing to visually reference because it's dark, can be very difficult. We had guys up on the hill with flashlights trying to marl edge of frame, which helped. We ultimately ended up shooting three nights in a row. This was from the third night. First night we got it pretty well, but it was dusky and not totally dark. The second night was a total bust cause I had messed with some settings and by the time I fixed it the moon was up. We ended up being wrong in our camera positioning by about 300 feet each night. So when the moon first started to peak we had to grab everything and run until it was lined up, set down the camera, find the moon again, refocus, etc. Slightly stressful. From the time the moon first touches the horizon line to when it's already fully above it is a little under 2 minutes."
It's wonderfully done and the last shot of the skater backdropped against the moon is incredible. And possibly a cheeky nod to the famous shot from E.T., but swapping a bike for a skateboard. |
South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, has suggested North Korea could be part of a bid to co-host the 2030 World Cup. In a meeting with the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, Moon said that several countries in north-east Asia – including the isolated North Korea – could form a bloc to share hosting duties for the tournament.
According to the president’s spokesperson Park Su-hyun, Moon said: “If the neighbouring countries in north-east Asia, including North and South Korea, can host the World Cup together, it would help to create peace in North and South Korea as well as north-east Asia. I would like President Infantino to have interests on this matter.”
The liberal South Korean president has been open to more dialogue with the North since he was elected last month. North Korea has so far shown no sign of responding, however, instead conducting missile tests at an unprecedented pace in defiance of global sanctions imposed on it. Last week the prospect for Moon’s push to expand cross-border exchanges was thrown into doubt as the North rejected a Seoul civic group’s offer to provide relief items.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in, right, raised the possibility of a shared bid for the 2030 World Cup in a meeting with Fifa’s president Gianni Infantino, left. Photograph: Bae Jae-man/AP
Infantino’s visit to South Korea took in the Under-20 World Cup, the final of which England won 1-0 against Venezuela. It marked England’s first global title since the senior side won the 1966 World Cup final. Fifa’s president said he would relay Moon’s suggestions to China’s president Xi Jinping, who he is scheduled to visit this week.
South Korea co-hosted the World Cup in 2002 with Japan, and the organisers of next year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang hope North Korea will take part. The North boycotted the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Olympics, both held in Seoul, but it has since attended other major international sports events held in the South. |
GNS3 WorkBench 8.6 8.7 is out
The next version of GNS3 WorkBench is out. You can download it several forms:
An entire Virtual Machine as a single blob (although split into two files 2.5G-3G in size)
The same Virtual Machine as individual files (in case you can’t get the big files)
A “self-serve” script to allow you to install everything you need to create your own Appliance on whatever flavour of Linux you like (so long it is Mint 16.0 17.0 32bit or Ubuntu 14.04 32bit. Mint 16.0 won’t upgrade to GNS3 0.8.7)
17.0 32bit or Ubuntu 14.04 32bit. Mint 16.0 won’t upgrade to GNS3 0.8.7) Just the WorkBench labs and exercises along with their instruction files. These can be added to your existing Windows or OS X install of GNS3 to give you the essential elements of the WorkBench in the comfort of your own favourite Operating System. This version is only possible because of the great work Jeremy did in fixing the Snapshot function and Instructions features in GNS3 v8.6.
The Latest Features in a Nutshell
V8.7 New Features
New ICND1 Readiness Test lab
Improved Instructions – relates better to the GNS3 snapshot system
Rewritten the script file that allows you to change the image that is used in the WorkBench and GNS3 Vault exercises. (/home/user/GNS3/WorkBench/Scripts/changeFirmwareImage.sh). The new script gives you a menu of images you can use to replace the one used in the WorkBench exercises. The menu is created from the list of images you have already added via Edit | IOS images and hypervisors
Existing V8.6 Features
Labs are now based on GNS3 Snapshots – so you don’t need to run a script to load the appropriate exercise, you can open exercises/labs from within GNS3
The help system is now html based, and is integrated into the Help | Instructions feature that was introduced into GNS3 v0.8.5
based, and is integrated into the feature that was introduced into GNS3 v0.8.5 Since GNS3 now has VPCS incorporated into the Tools | VPCS menu, there is no need to load VPCS via a startup script to run labs/exercises.
menu, there is no need to load VPCS via a startup script to run labs/exercises. The above three features have removed now make it possible to deliver a Windows/OS X version of GNS3 WorkBench.
version of GNS3 WorkBench. Labs have been updated to more closely reflect the September 2013 changes to the CCNA exams.
Over 20 new labs/extensions to labs. Mostly troubleshooting exercises added to tried and true labs.
Total of 50 different Labs/Scenarios
Total of approx 140 different exercises/solutions (Snapshots) shared between these labs.
Ability to add your own exercises – just save your own snapshots and add your own instructions.
So what is GNS3 WorkBench anyway?
GNS3 WorkBench is a VMware image Appliance running Linux Mint with (almost) everything you need to make GNS3 run already installed, including: GNS3; Wireshark; Qemu; Oracle VirtualBox; Virtual PC Simulator (VPCS); Konsole; Putty and Xterm. It also has a collection of public domain images (Microcore Linux and Vyatta routers) installed and ready to go. As well as a comprehensive collection of over 140 exercises/labs. (The Winows/OS X version is just the collection of exercises and public domain images).
To run the Appliance, you will to add VMware and a Cisco IOS for an instant GNS3 WorkBench environment.
To run GNS3 WorkBench Windows/OS X version, you will need GNS3 already installed on your Windows/OS X computer, and you will need to supply your own Cisco IOS Image.
Lean more about GNS3 at http://www.gns3.net
You can download VMware Player at http://vmware.com/download/player
Download GNS3 WorkBench – from sourceforge.net. The latest version is version 8.6, uploaded on 2014-04-10.
Read this blog post for more details about GNS3 WorkBench v8.6
Read this page for details about installing the “Self-Serve” version
Want to say “Thanks”?
Well – the best way of course is to buy my book!
I used to ask people to sign up for DropBox – so they would get more space and so would I. Thanks to all those who clicked my link and signed up I’m maxed out – but if you sign up to DropBox by clicking this link, that you will get an additional 500MB of free storage.
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Traffic stopped on H-1 Freeway during vice president's visit to Honolulu Copyright by KHON - All rights reserved Video
Traffic was brought to a standstill on the H-1 Freeway Monday as Vice President Mike Pence traveled through Honolulu.
Unfortunately for drivers, there's no advance notice of the vice president's travel routes for security purposes.
Pence and his family arrived on Oahu late Sunday evening, and he spent most of his short visit Monday with military personnel.
Air Force Two touched down at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam shortly before midnight after flying several hours from Pago Pago, American Samoa.
Pence was greeted by Gov. David Ige and was welcomed with a lei, according to pool media reports. The family stayed on Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe.
According to the White House, the vice president is only spending a little more than half a day in Hawaii.
Pence had lunch with U.S. troops at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam shortly after noon.
Inside the Hale Aina Dining Facility, about 110 personnel from all five services dined at long tables.
The vice president sat down at an empty spot opposite Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., U.S. Pacific Command, to eat, then moved from table to table, chatting with troops and posing for photos, according to pool reports.
Prior to his departure, Pence addressed the crowd, saying he was "humbled" to be there and passed along a message from President Donald Trump: "Just tell them I'm proud of them."
Pence then traveled to Camp H.M. Smith in Aiea to participate in an arrival ceremony and a U.S. Pacific Command briefing.
The vice president and his family departed Hawaii for Washington, D.C. at around 3:15 p.m. so he could return to work on Tuesday.
The brief stay in Hawaii was cut short one night from earlier plans, which means Pence will no longer visit the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Reports say he will visit the site at another time.
According to an aide, the vice president will be busy facing several issues on deck in Washington, D.C. this week, including health care and tax reform.
The aide also said the vice president did not want to shut down the memorial.
This comes as President Trump and his administration will reach their 100-day mark on Saturday, April 29. |
- The latest Pro Wrestling 101 video from Justin Credible features audio of his recent interview with Scott Hall, as seen above.
- Friday's episode of WWE SmackDown did 2,729,000 viewers, down from last week's 2,831,000 viewers. The final rating will be out later.
- The Marketing Arm's Celebrity DBI released new data on Hulk Hogan's popularity today:
"Hulk Hogan has a 96% awareness among a general population in the US This is one of the highest awareness levels of any athlete/celebrity in the US. Michael Jordan (98%); George Forman (96%); Lance Armstrong (96%). For additional context, Kobe has a 91% awareness, Peyton Manning 88%. Sylvester Stallone and Clint Eastwood also have 96% awareness in the US.
* He has become more Trustworthy since 2008
* Of the 96% of people that know Hulk, 56% think he's an effective product spokesperson.
* He's considered as appealing as Kobe Bryant and Tony Romo." |
Members of a student rugby club at one of Britain's most prestigious universities have been suspended for stripping on the London Underground.
The Imperial College students played a stripping game as they travelled from Wimbledon to the Royal Albert Hall on the District Line.
Passengers on the rush hour train tweeted their frustration after the train was taken out of service following the team's antics.
The game involved players leaving the carriage, striping on the platform and jumping back on the train before it departed.
The student rugby players were travelling to a social at their student union, before the train stopped at Stamford Brook and passengers, including the players, were told to get off the train.
One Imperial College student said: "I heard a rumour they planned to come [to the union] as Spartans. All the union teams had a theme.
"I heard they did a naked calendar once too."
One girl reacted with shock to the college's announcement of their suspension.
She said: "I don't think its fair if they were suspended from the team. We don't want them to get in trouble even if they were misbehaving. They're nice guys."
However passengers expressed their irritation at the delay on Twitter.
Samuel Weatherstone tweeted: "Naked rugby initiations on the tube. Standard Wednesday in Gunnersbury."
He added: "@Tfl take @districtline out of service owing to naked London college rugby initiations. Only in England."
Jordan Cornish tweeted: "Tube is delayed due to a naked guy being on the train.
"My luck man gonna be home even later than usual cos someone thought it was a good idea to undress on the train during rush hour what is life."
A spokesman for Imperial College said: "We've suspended the members pending further investigation." |
WASHINGTON - One day after he came in last in three out of four nominating contests and pundits pondered a race between Sen. Ted Cruz and billionaire Donald Trump, Ohio Gov. John Kasich appeared on two Sunday talk shows send a message: It isn't over yet.
WASHINGTON - One day after he came in last in three out of four nominating contests and pundits pondered a race between Sen. Ted Cruz and billionaire Donald Trump, Ohio Gov. John Kasich appeared on two Sunday talk shows send a message: It isn�t over yet.
�We continue to pick up delegates,� Kasich insisted on �This Week with George Stephanopoulos� on ABC. �We�ve now moved more to my territory.�
Kasich, who has currently amassed 35 delegates, is banking on two quickly approaching dates: March 8, when Michigan and other states will collectively distribute 150 GOP delegates, and March 15, when Ohio and Florida have winner-take-all contests and in all, 367 delegates are at stake. The GOP nominee will need 1,237 delegates to win.
>> John Kasich: Complete coverage of his presidential campaign
After that, Kasich is predicting something that hasn�t happened for Republicans since 1948 – a brokered convention. Gerald Ford entered 1976 without enough delegates to secure the nomination, but ultimately prevailed on the first ballot.
Kasich said such a convention �will be very cool,� and assured Stephanopoulos that a brokered convention would not, in fact, split the Republican Party apart.
�I think at the end of the day, the Republican Party is a reflection of the nominee,� he said. � We�ll bring the party together. I really don�t worry about that.�
In the meantime, there are two more election days to prepare for. Kasich has devoted significant time and campaign resources to Michigan, and he was encouraged by a recent American Research Group poll that found him leading Trump 33 percent to 31 percent. But that poll is far from universal. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Sunday morning had Trump at 41, Cruz at 22, Rubio at 17 and Kasich at 13. �You�re not closing the gap,� said Stephanopoulos.
�We�re going to have a good result out of Michigan,� said Kasich, comparing the Midwestern contests to �March Madness.� �I will win Ohio, and it�ll be a whole new ballgame and I�ll be able to compete in a lot of these states.�
Currently, Trump has 382 delegates, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has 300 and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has 128, according to the Associated Press.
Kasich virtually guaranteed a victory in Ohio, where 66 delegates are at stake, calling the state �the gravitational center of the political universe.�
Appearing on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo on Fox, Kasich said he was prepared to campaign hard in the meantime, but predicted �I think it�s going be an interesting time in Cleveland.�
He said he had a �home court advantage� in Ohio, and insisted he would also do well in other later-voting states, such as Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
�We�re just going to keep plugging,� he said, �and hopefully get to Cleveland in a good strong position.�
On ABC, Kasich disputed Stephanopoulos� theory that Kasich�s strategy was as a �spoiler� for Trump, saying he was running because he has �the record and the vision to run the United States of America.�
�We�re not running for class president,� he said. �This is not Valentine�s Day, where we stuff the ballot box, okay?�
[email protected]
@JessicaWehrman |
Terri Lynn Rote (Polk County Jail)
A woman in Iowa was arrested this week on suspicion of voting twice in the general election, court and police records show.
Terri Lynn Rote, a 55-year-old Des Moines resident, was booked Thursday on a first-degree charge of election misconduct, according to Polk County Jail records. The charge is considered a Class D felony under Iowa state law.
Rote was released Friday after posting $5,000 bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 7.
The Des Moines Register reported that Rote is a registered Republican who cast two ballots in the general election: an early-voting ballot at the Polk County Election Office and another at a county satellite voting location, according to police records.
Rote hadn’t planned on voting twice but said it was “a spur-of-the-moment thing” when she walked by the satellite voting location, she told The Washington Post in a phone interview Saturday.
“I don’t know what came over me,” Rote said.
She added she has been a supporter of Donald Trump since early in his campaign, after Republican candidate Mike Huckabee dropped out of the primary race.
Rote told Iowa Public Radio that she cast her first ballot for Trump but feared it would be changed to a vote for Hillary Clinton.
“The polls are rigged,” Rote told the radio station.
Leigh Munsil, an editor for the Blaze, noted on Twitter that Rote was the same woman who had caucused for Trump earlier this year.
Terri Rote plans to caucus tonight for @realDonaldTrump down on the east side of Des Moines pic.twitter.com/dMdeH7sX0V — Leigh Munsil (@leighmunsil) February 1, 2016
In addition to Rote, the Polk County Auditor’s Office reported two other people to police last Wednesday on suspicions of voter fraud, the Des Moines Register reported. In the other two cases, those people cast mail-in ballots and also voted in person at one of the state’s early-voting locations, according to the paper.
[Once again, Donald Trump embraces conspiracy theories to undercut the results of the election]
No arrests were made in the two other cases, the paper reported.
Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald told the Register that it was the first time in 12 years he could remember having to report possible voter fraud.
“I think it shows that our voting system works in Iowa, that we’re able to catch it,” Fitzgerald told the paper, adding that the reported instances could have been honest mistakes but “that’s not for me to decide.”
Polk County is the most populous county in Iowa with 430,640 residents, and it includes Des Moines, the state’s capital. Early voting in Polk County began Sept. 29. Fitzgerald’s office has been posting regular updates on Twitter about the progress of early voting in the county.
While railing against voter fraud during a rally in Cleveland, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that maybe people registered in more than one state will vote for him and he's "okay" with that. (The Washington Post)
Polls show an extremely close race between Clinton and Trump in Iowa, a traditional swing state. According to a Quinnipiac University poll released two days ago, Clinton and Trump are now tied in Iowa with 44 percent of the vote each. In September, the same poll had showed Trump leading Clinton, 44 percent to 37 percent.
Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2016
In the closing weeks of the 2016 presidential race, Trump has repeatedly claimed — in speeches and on Twitter — that the election process is “rigged,” presumably against him.
The Republican candidate’s surrogates, too, have amplified those allegations. Two weeks ago, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani insisted that Democrats overwhelmingly engage in voter fraud because they “control the inner cities.”
Last week, Eric Trump said on ABC’s “This Week” that his father would accept election results, but only if it was a “fair” election. He backed his statement up with statistics that the Trump campaign has often used to claim that there is “widespread voter fraud.” Numerous outlets, including The Washington Post’s Fact Checker, have debunked such claims.
[Here’s how rare in-person voter fraud is]
Though there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud occurring in U.S. elections, nearly half of Americans believe that voter fraud occurs at least somewhat often, according to a Post-ABC News poll released in September.
Both candidates made appearances Friday in Iowa in an effort to gain crucial votes in the battleground state. After two campaign rallies, Clinton held a brief news conference in which she criticized FBI Director James B. Comey for not disclosing more details about why the agency was making a new inquiry into her private email server.
“We are 11 days out from perhaps the most important national election of our lifetimes,” Clinton said in Des Moines. “The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately.”
Later Friday, Trump held a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he cheered the FBI’s decision.
The system “might not be as rigged as I thought,” Trump told the crowd.
Election Day is Nov. 8.
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Read more:
Man who registered voters for progressive Virginia group charged with fraud
He wore a Trump hat and ‘deplorables’ shirt to vote. Texas police arrested him.
Militia group calls on members to patrol polls on Election Day |
Famous photographer Ansel Adams shot this picture of Grand Teton National Park and the Snake River in 1941. (U.S. National Archives and Records)
The audacious plan was hatched in secret. In the 1920s, John D. Rockefeller Jr. — son of the Standard Oil founder, ardent conservationist and one of America’s richest men — agreed to surreptitiously acquire thousands of acres of breathtaking scenery around Jackson Hole, Wyo., and donate them to the federal government for a national park.
At the behest of Horace Albright, the future director of the National Park Service, Rockefeller formed a company called the Snake River Land Co. to buy up property around the Snake River. Rockefeller knew that if word got out that he was interested in acreage there, the price would skyrocket.
“He was willing to pay fair-market prices for the land, but not Rockefeller prices,” said Park Service spokesman Andrew White. The federal government had created several national parks in the early 20th century, White said, and the philanthropist “didn’t want the optics that this was the federal government coming in and taking more land.”
The agents Rockefeller hired to do the buying told landowners only that they were representing someone who wanted the land for conservation purposes. It left locals thinking that perhaps the buyer was interested in expanding an elk preserve that had been created in 1913, said Robert Righter, a professor emeritus at the University of Texas at El Paso and the author of “Crucible for Conservation: The Struggle for Grand Teton National Park.”
But by 1930, a year after Congress had established Grand Teton National Park, word had gotten out about the purchases, and Wyoming residents were furious.
On Monday, President Trump traveled to another conservation battle zone — this one in Utah — to announce his plans to shrink two national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, by almost 2 million acres. If it survives court challenges by Native Americans and environmental groups, it will be the largest reduction in federally protected land in U.S. history.
[Trump shrinks two huge national monuments in Utah, drawing praise and protests]
The controversy surrounding Trump’s decision shows that the fight over the size of national parks and monuments, which reached its apex in the fight over Jackson Hole, continues to this day.
John D. Rockefeller Jr., left, with his wife, Abby Rockefeller, at Jackson Hole in the Grand Teton National Park in 1931. (Rockefeller Archive Center)
Rockefeller came up with the idea of the purchases after visiting Jackson Hole and the Teton range in 1926. Albright, then the superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, personally escorted Rockefeller on that trip, and he had an agenda: In 1923, Albright and a group of preservation-minded dude-ranch operators in Jackson Hole, concerned by the creeping commercialism of the area, had met to discuss how to protect the Tetons and Jackson Hole. They cooked up the idea of persuading a rich investor to buy up land around the Snake River and donate it to the government for a national park. Albright outlined the idea to Rockefeller as they toured Jackson Hole.
Rockefeller, stunned by the splendor of the area, was captivated by Albright’s pitch. When he returned home to New York, he asked Albright to send him maps of the area that showed all the privately held land, and the men created the Snake River land-buying scheme.
After residents in 1930 discovered what Rockefeller was up to, a few founded a weekly newspaper, the Grand Teton, to oppose the expansion. Landowners said they had been manipulated into selling. According to the Wyoming State Historical Society, Jackson Hole naturalist Olaus Murie said the park was a “burning topic. … Card parties, dinner parties had their embarrassments if certain ones prominent on ‘the other side’ were present. … There was no such thing as getting together and talking it over.”
Sen. Robert Carey, a Wyoming Republican, told Rockefeller’s lawyer that “we are not willing to see this section of Wyoming exploited or its citizens driven out to gratify Mr. Albright’s ambition or to establish a monopoly for the benefit if Mr. Rockefeller’s agents.”
The purchases eventually totaled 33,000 acres and cost $1.5 million — a huge sum at the time. After they were completed, nothing happened. Wyoming’s congressional delegation blocked attempts to expand Grand Teton National Park to include the Jackson Hole area, and the philanthropist grew increasingly irritated. After all, he had acquired the land to donate to a good cause, and the government wouldn’t take it.
Finally, in 1942, Rockefeller wrote Interior Secretary Harold Ickes with a veiled threat to sell his holdings to the highest bidder if the federal government didn’t act. That got the attention of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in 1943 used the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create the Jackson Hole National Monument.
President Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea ride on the Rockefeller family’s J.Y. Ranch in Grand Teton National Park in 1995. (AP/White House)
A massive protest followed. At the height of World War II, Sen. Edward Robertson, a Wyoming Republican, declared it a “foul, sneaking Pearl Harbor blow.” A newspaper columnist compared Roosevelt’s action to Hitler’s annexation of Austria, according to the Wyoming Historical Society.
In May 1943, local ranchers — led by Academy Award-winning actor Wallace Beery, a summer resident of the area — drove 550 cattle across the monument, challenging the National Park Service to stop them. They were allowed to proceed, but the incident got national attention. Congress passed a law abolishing the monument, but Roosevelt vetoed it. The state of Wyoming filed a lawsuit challenging the president’s use of the Antiquities Act, but it was dismissed.
In 1950, officials in Wyoming and Washington reached a compromise: Grand Teton National Park would be expanded to include the Jackson Hole National Monument. President Harry S. Truman made it official that September. But in exchange, Wyoming would no longer be subject to the Antiquities Act — meaning no future U.S. president could create a national monument in Wyoming without the approval of Congress.
Read more Retropolis:
Britain’s black queen: Will Meghan Markle really be the first mixed-race royal?
The ‘War on Christmas’ predates Trump and Fox News by almost 400 years
Andrew Jackson was called ‘Indian killer.’ Trump honored Navajos in front of his portrait.
Jane Wyman as the anti-Ivana Trump: Why Ronald Reagan’s ex-wife refused to dish about him
JFK’s last birthday: Gifts, champagne and wandering hands on the presidential yacht |
On Wednesday, Boston brothers Scott and Steven Leader allegedly beat a homeless Hispanic man outside of a public transit stop, reports the Globe. The 58-year-old victim suffered a broken nose and injuries to his chest. The attackers apparently also urinated on his face. And there's this:
Police said Scott Leader, 38, told them it was OK to assault the man because he was Hispanic and homeless. “Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported,” he allegedly told the police.
That is truly awful, but it doesn't indict Trump, however inflammatory his anti-immigrant language might be. And recall that during the press conference at which he announced his presidency, he said that Mexican immigrants are “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists" before admitting, "some, I assume, are good people.”
But here's how Trump responded at a press conference after being told about the attack:
"I haven't heard about that. I think that would be a shame, but I haven't heard about that. I will say the people that are following me are very passionate. They love this country, they want this country to be great again, and they are very passionate. I will say that."
Nothing says national greatness like pissing in a homeless man's face. Except maybe breaking his nose.
Trump is not responsible for the actions of the Leader brothers, but his response—and his general deportment during this bizarre press conference—leaves much to be desired. I'm guessing that virtually every conservative who is tripping balls over Trump blew his stack when Obama saluted with latte in hand or otherwise demeaned the office of the presidency. Because you know, propriety is a conservative value, unless it gets in the way of someone you kinda like who is really doing well in the polls and will make America great again while bullying people and showing zero empathy for people who have no right to be in this country in the first place, right?
Footage below of Trump's presser, in which he also engages questions about Heidi Klum and Megyn Kelly, too, and tells people to trust him on women's issues (because he will be "great") and the relative paucity of failure in his life. The question comes at 8.30 in. |
The Detroit Lions obviously saw something in Chris Greenwood when they moved up ten spots in the 5th round of the 2012 draft to get him. Greenwood was extremely raw coming out of Albion College, but he was also full of potential. This is a make or break season for Greenwood. He’s coming into his third season and as Martin Mayhew said in his pre-draft press conference, referring to cornerbacks, “If you don’t have it in three years, you don’t have it.”
Overview
Profile
#33
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 196 lbs.
Arms: 31 5/8”
Speed: 4.38
2013 Stats*
Targets: 8
Completions Allowed: 6
Catch Percentage: 75%
Opposing QB Rating: 128.6
Yards/Completion: 7.8
Size & Speed
Chris Greenwood is a tall, physical freak of an athlete. What the Lions need to do is take those raw abilities and hone them into a freak football player, not just an athlete. Greenwood took some big steps last season, particularly after spending time with the Dallas Cowboys. Jeff Risdon of DetroitLionsDraft.com had some insights on this earlier this offseason:
I talked to a Cowboys staffer about Greenwood and what his impression of the strapping corner was during his brief time in Dallas. He told me they could see the light bulb start to come on for Greenwood. He was very receptive to their coaching staff and style, which was a lot more user-friendly and supportive than what Greenwood got in Detroit.
Greenwood has excellent straight line speed. If the Lions are planning on playing more press coverage this season, Chris Greenwood has a chance to absolutely flourish with his ability to turn and run with receivers down the field.
Here, he does a great job of jamming the receiver at the line of scrimmage, turning, and running with the receiver. Eli Manning is clearly trying to test Greenwood deep on this play, but he does an excellent job of staying step for step with Rueben Randle, and forcing a tough catch attempt.
Instincts
This is clearly Greenwood’s weakest attribute. His inexperience and low level college competition are currently working against him. He has to be able to read and react to what’s happening around him rather think while he’s on the field. At times last season you could clearly see Greenwood was over his head.
Greenwood tries to do too much. He’s in man coverage on the outside. His responsibility should be to follow the receiver as he runs the deep in route, but he gets baited into following the underneath receiver. The result is a big gain late in the game. These are the types of mental mistakes Chris Greenwood needs to eliminate to be an effective player in the NFL.
He does a good job here of recognizing the play and reacting well to what he’s seeing. The Giants try to set up essentially a wide receiver screen in the middle of the field. Greenwood recognizes the route and makes a nice play to bring up fourth down.
Agility & Technique
Greenwood has actually gotten better with his technique since entering the NFL. That’s to be expected, and I fully believe he’ll continue to improve his technique as he gets better coaching with the new coaching staff. It’s no secret I blame the previous coaching regime for failing to develop their young talent at cornerback.
Greenwood is excellent at flipping his hips and sticking with the receiver in coverage. He also has pretty good technique when jamming receivers and being physical on the line of scrimmage.
Chris Greenwood won’t get the sack on the stat sheet, but he helped Ezekiel Ansah get his eighth sack of the season on this play. Eli Manning once again wants to test Greenwood deep, but his turn and run ability is picture perfect on this play. Greenwood takes away Manning’s one read, and the play results in a sack.
His technique still needs refinement though, and he has to get more consistent in his play if he want to earn more playing time.
Here Greenwood gets sloppy in his technique. He tries to jam Jerome Simpson at the line of scrimmage but gets abused early in the route. He fails to get into Simpson and disrupt the route. Thankfully for Greenwood, Matt Cassel was slow to pull the trigger and the play ended up being a sack rather than a huge gain down the field.
Tackling
His size alone makes him an imposing defender on the edge. He’s a willing tackler who breaks down and makes plays on the sideline, effectively coming up to make a plays on swing passes or quick slants without getting burnt.
*Stats provided by Pro Football Focus (subscription required) |
Breakthrough discovery in cause, treatment and prevention of hypertension
One in three Australian adults suffer from hypertension, placing them at greater risk of heart attack, stroke and kidney failure. Surprisingly, despite years of research it is still unknown what causes hypertension in the majority of people. And while there are medications to treat hypertension, in 15 to 20 per cent of people with high blood pressure, these medications don’t work leaving their condition uncontrolled.
Results of the study conducted by Associate Professor Grant Drummond, from Monash’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute, together with his colleagues Mr Christopher Chan and Prof Chris Sobey, have been published in the prestigious journal, Hypertension.
The scientists have discovered that, in animal models, stimulating the immune system can cause hypertension, while dampening down this immune response can restore blood pressure back to normal levels.
According to Associate Professor Drummond, certain types of immune cells (called B cells) produce an excess of antibodies in response to factors such as high salt intake or stress. These antibodies then lodge in the blood vessels causing them to become scarred and stiffened, which is a hallmark of hypertension.
The researchers found that mice which that had been bred without mature B cells were protected against developing hypertension. Furthermore, blocking the activity of B cells in normal mice led to a return to normal blood pressure, effectively curing the mice of hypertension.
The discovery could revolutionise the way hypertension is treated. Drugs already exist that can treat autoimmune diseases which are characterized by an overactive immune system – opening the way for these treatments to be used to prevent hypertension.
Associate Professor Drummond said that their discovery could help the 15 to 20 per cent of people with hypertension who are resistant to conventional drug therapies.
“These patients could benefit from strategies that target the immune system. Drugs such as Rituximab that target B cells are already used clinically for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. We think that these drugs could also be used to treat hypertension in the most serious of cases,” Professor Drummond said.
Monash University |
~ LOFOTEN ISLANDS RAID ~ OPERATION CLAYMORE - 3/4 MAR 1941 Operation Claymore was the 1st Commando raid on the Lofoten Islands off the Norwegian coast, just north of the Arctic Circle. The Commandos destroyed German ships and factories producing fish oil and they gave free passage to the UK to over 300 Norwegian volunteers, a few Germans and quislings. It was, however, most notable for boosting flagging morale within the ranks of the Commandos and the country, as news of its success was made public. [Photo; Rear Admiral L H K Hamilton, DSO, who was in command of the naval operations. © IWM (A 6822).] Background The primary targets were Norwegian fish oil factories, whose product was used in the manufacture of Glycerine, which was useful to the German munitions industry. [Map courtesy of Google Map Data 2017.] Plans & Preparations The Lofoten Islands lie off the Norwegian coast, about 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle. In appearance and size they resemble the rugged Scottish islands of the Outer Hebrides. They were targeted in accordance with Churchill's directive to harass German forces in occupied Europe and because they contributed to the German war effort in processing herring oil into glycerin for munitions. On 21 February, with land forces under the command of Brigadier J C Haydon, a flotilla comprising HMS Queen Emma, HMS Princess Beatrix and a naval escort of 5 destroyers, left Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands for the Faroe Islands. There they completed final training. It was here that the No 3 and 4 Special Services Battalion Company designations reverted to No 4 and No 3 Commando respectively - the former under the command of Lt. Colonel Lister and the latter under Lt Colonel Durnford-Slater. This was part of a much wider re-organisation of Special Forces, which was completed by mid March 1941. On the 1st of March, around 500 commandos, some sappers for demolition work and 50 Norwegian sailors, departed for the Norwegian coast. Action The weather was foul on the three-day voyage and the cramped living conditions made all the worse by the seasickness suffered by most on board. With 24 hours to go before their arrival, a German aircraft spotted them and reported to German Air force HQ. There was, fortunately, no visible response from German forces. The flotilla arrived off the Lofoten Islands in the early hours of 4 March. As they boarded the landing craft for four separate destinations, lights were twinkling in the distance, a good indication that the possibility of a raid was not on the minds of the German command. The intense cold and sea spray caused ice to form on the Commandos' protective clothing and the landings were more abrupt than usual, as the craft lowered their ramps onto solid ice. [Map courtesy of Google Map Data 2017.] The surprise was complete. Even some locals going to work assumed that the activity was a German training exercise! German soldiers, officials and collaborators were rounded up and before long fish oil factories, buildings used for military purposes and ships in the harbour, were systematically blown up. The Norwegians provided hot ersatz coffee for the Commandos. Lieutenant R L Wills sent a telegram to one, A Hitler of Berlin, from the telegraph office at Stamsund. "You said in your last speech, German troops would meet the British wherever they landed. Where are your troops?" Equally cheeky was a bus ride taken by Lord Lovat and some of his men to a nearby seaplane base. The commander of the base later complained about the "unwarlike" behaviour of the Commandos and undertook to report accordingly to the Fuhrer! Outcome By midday, the demolition work was complete and re-embarkation commenced. There had been no significant resistance which, for some Commandos, was frustrating, considering the special training effort undertaken for the raid. They also had hoped to contribute to the wider objective of denuding German forces. [Photo; The pom-poms of one of HM Ships silhouetted against the snow covered mountains as she lies in Kirke Fjord. © IWM (A 6799).] However, it was not a wasted trip by any means. They had destroyed 11 factories, 800,000 gallons of oil and five ships. They also gave free passage to 314 volunteers (including 8 women) for the Norwegian forces and took into custody 60 quislings, 225 German prisoners. The English manager of Messrs Allen & Hanbury, chemists, who had been caught there when the Germans occupied the country was liberated. The cost to the Allies was an accidental self-inflicted wound to an officer's thigh! Not reported at the time, was the recovery from the trawler Krebs of a set of spare rotors for a German Enigma coding machine. They were dispatched to Bletchley Park, the top secret code breaking establishment near MIlton Keynes in southern England, where they would be minutely studied in the hope of gaining some advantage in the battle to intercept German military communications. The months prior to this raid had been a frustrating time for the Commandos/Special Services. They had been encouraged to volunteer for hazardous duties by the military authorities but were left with little to do. There was even disagreement about how these forces should be organised and deployed. Morale was understandably at a low ebb and although this raid was virtually unopposed, it demonstrated what could be achieved by a relatively small, well trained unit, with the element of surprise. The success of the raid was a fillip to morale but some Commandos were disappointed that the hazardous duties they had volunteered and trained for, had not been utilised on this operation. Further Reading There are around 300 books listed on our 'Combined Operations Books' page. They, or any other books you know about, can be purchased on-line from the Advanced Book Exchange (ABE). Their search banner link, on our 'Books' page, checks the shelves of thousands of book shops world-wide. Just type in, or copy and paste the title of your choice, or use the 'keyword' box for book suggestions. There's no obligation to buy, no registration and no passwords. The Epic of Lofoten by Dr G Miles published by Hutchinson in 1941. Secret German Documents Seized during the Raid on the Lofoten Islands on 4th March 1941 HMSO's Command 6270 Norway No 1 (1941) Raid on Military and Economic Objectives in the Lofoten Islands published 22 June 1948 Supplement to The London Gazette. A 6.75 minute film about the raid produced by the Ministry of Information and the War Office and released in 1941 that included footage of 3 Commando ashore at Stamsund. Lofoten Letter by Evan John, published in 1941 by Heinemann, is a diary of the raid written by a member of No 4 Commando. His real name was Evan John Simpson, the author and playwright. HMS Bedouin and the Long March Home by Percy Hagger, published by Navigator Books. The content about Operation Claymore is not extensive but it does cover the involvement of HMS Bedouin in the raid, including the sinking of the MS Mira and the picking up of survivors. Commandos and Rangers of World War 2 by James D. Ladd. Published in 1978 by MacDonald & Jane's. ISBN 0 356 08432 9 Commandos 1940 - 1946 by Charles Messenger. Pub by William Kimber, London 1985. ISBN 0 7183 0553 1 Commando by Dunford-Slater. Published by Kimber 1953 - from the pen of one of the major players. ENIGMA - The Battle of the Code by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore. A paperback published in 2001 (pages 132 onwards). |
Some changes to the Sony Rewards programs mean those who earn trophies in PlayStation games can earn points that are good toward discounts on the PlayStation Store.
Under the terms, earning 100 silver trophies is worth 100 points, 25 gold trophies net 250 points and 10 platinum trophies — which are awarded for earning every trophy a game offers — gets 1,000 points. (This offer is good for U.S. gamers only).
Currently, 1,000 points in the Sony Rewards program gets a user a $10 discount voucher on PlayStation Network. The other catch is that a user must be signed up for the Sony Rewards program and have their PlayStation Network account linked to it prior to earning these trophies. Sony isn’t awarding points for someone’s prior work, in other words.
For those looking to grind their way to discounts, this still represents a lot of work. Getting a platinum trophy is no small accomplishment and usually involves several lesser trophies for specific achievements.
If it’s an older game, and the trophy is for an online event, it may not even be possible to collect that trophy if online support is turned off.
The Sony Rewards program also offers discount codes, or points for things like signing up for trial programs (four in all), subscribing to PlayStation Network services or buying and renting movies. This page has all of the details. But again, none of this accrues until the user links their account to the service (so if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber and haven’t yet, that won’t count). And it’s only good in the United States. |
Indiana's secretary of state has been talking all loose and angry about voter fraud. She's outraged. 'Tis the season.
Plus, protecting the vote for Hoosiers is her only significant constitutional job.
But to trust Connie Lawson's accusations, you also must accept there now are 1,485 Hoosier voters on official rolls who were first registered to vote before 1910. That would make them over 124 years of age as of April 2016.
We can say with presumptive authority that Lawson might be wrong about having certified those 1,485.
They're not going to vote in the Nov. 8 election because they are dead. But they're eligible.
Evidence suggests that Lawson is not only erroneous in her views about Democratic Party plots to register black voters but so wrong as to be a ninnyhammer.
We don't use the archaic word "ninnyhammer" anymore, which is a shame because it sounds just like what its definition describes: "An insistently foolish person; a simpleton."
Too insulting?
You decide.
After voter-enrolling nonprofit Patriot Majority USA was called out as a "nefarious operator" by Lawson, the organization pivoted to TargetSmart Inc., a big-data company that gathers, correlates and compares massive sets of public records, especially voting records nationwide.
TargetSmart then audited Indiana and Lawson and found the 1,485 dead voters.
What TargetSmart's scientific data filters also found is a state voter registration system so filled with errors, gaffes and unexplained inconsistencies as to be unofficially the most inept in the entire country.
What did TargetSmart find beside the 1,485 clearly-dead-but-Lawson-approved voters?
Buckle your parachute a little tighter.
•837,163 voters updated their addresses with the Postal Service, but Lawson's staff had not updated their addresses as of the October 2016 file.
•4,556 duplicate records for 2,278 individual voters as of October 2016.
•3,478 voters whose dates of birth make them older than 106, and 2,552 voters older than 110.
But there are no Census records of any supercentenarians living in Indiana as of May 3, 2016, when Mrs. Ollie Roberts, of Columbia City, died.
Supercentenarians are folks who have lived to 110, and there are only 52 in the world.
• More than 3,000 records with no date of birth.
•2,856 voters do not have a voter registration date.
•31 records with dates of birth that would signify the voters were under the age of 17.
As you'd probably expect, this news was met with unfiltered rancor by Patriot Majority USA.
Said Bill Buck, spokesman for Patriot Majority USA: "Lawson's incompetence in managing the Indiana voter file is a disservice to the citizens of Indiana."
He wasn't done.
"Connie Lawson caused a statewide panic one month ago based on 10 registration applications that contained omissions and inaccuracies, when in fact her voter file has hundreds of thousands of problems. These inaccuracies are her responsibility after four years in office, and they make Indiana's voter file one of the very worst in the country."
On Tuesday, Lawson stuck to her story about how efficient her office was and how crooked Patriot Majority is, though she did not dispute the TargetSmart numbers.
She then wrapped herself in the state flag with a stirring rendition of "Onward Christian Soldier."
She issued a seething website rebuttal saying the Democratic Party and Patriot Majority are lowdown skunks for suggesting she was incompetent, unfair, mean, racist and stupid. By Wednesday morning, the post had been removed.
TargetSmart's analysis, according to Patriot Majority, identified unusual patterns of changes between file dates, including "alterations of formatting and inclusions of names, dates of birth, and other data elements. For example, middle names between voter file versions move from blank to populated, or populated to blank, or initials to full middle names, or full middle names to initials. Similarly, date of birth may go from blank to populated or vice-versa. This points to poor file management over time and illustrates a lack of consistent application of business rules."
But these weren't shenanigans committed by "nefarious operators." This was the office handiwork of the secretary of state, who now seems dubiously qualified to question anyone's credibility.
If Lawson was right about the 10 "suspicious" cases she uncovered, that revelation might help cleanse the ugly smudge of her Republican predecessor, Charlie White, who was convicted in 2012 of his own personal voter fraud.
But Hoosiers have to figure out whether the secretary of state and her office are unlucky, incompetent, misunderstood or something even less pleasant.
They might be "nefarious operators."
David Rutter was an editor for 40 years at six newspapers.
[email protected] |
Yes, you read that title correctly.
Unfortunately some of you were born white. Guilty. All that money you’re making? If you’re white, you didn’t earn that. Somebody else made that happen.
So here’s what you should do. Take that extra savings you have, or money you were saving for a family trip to Disney World, and give it away. Not to starving children or to the Red Cross, though. You’re supposed to find a black person, any black person, and deposit that money directly into their bank account. Solely because they are black. Does that sound racist in and of itself?
Your white privilege is showing.
Now, lest ye think we deserve a boatload of hatemail for suggesting such a thing, we direct you to the source of this utter lunacy: Lawrence Brown. Mr. Brown is an assistant professor in the Public Health Department at Morgan State University in Baltimore. This leftist activist teaches that black Americans require reparations, that America is still segregated, and black Americans continue to suffer from the historical trauma of white supremacist America.
His solution to these perceived problems? Take your white privilege money (which he defines as “unearned” if you are white), and give it to a black person. Because you’re personally responsible for slavery and need to pay. Or something. Seriously. See below.
https://twitter.com/BmoreDoc/status/605165320299532288
Again, for someone who claims to fight against racism, I don’t think I’ve quite seen anyone speak in such sweeping generalities. What say you? When you head to the bank this evening, will you be making a withdrawal of your unearned money to deposit in a black person’s account… because, privilege? |
Learn about T-Mobile network upgrades from U1900 to LTE and how it impacts certain customers.
Network upgrades to LTE
With the latest updates to the T-Mobile® network, we’re expanding our 4G LTE coverage in your area. This upgrade will improve data speeds and voice experience for the majority of our customers who use 4G LTE.
Some customers without 4G LTE capable devices may need to upgrade for optimal network performance. After the network upgrade occurs, customers still using certain handsets, tablets, and wearable devices (that are not capable of 4G LTE) will only be able to connect to 2G data speeds, and in some cases, they may experience dropped calls.
But don’t worry! Eligible customers get exclusive offers to upgrade to a new device.
Affected locations and customers
The customers affected have been notified and were offered discounts to purchase new devices, which could use the new LTE network. There have been no recent U1900 to LTE upgrades, so there are no new locations affected or current offers.
Buying a non-T-Mobile device
Some customers may wish to find their own device outside of T-Mobile. If you do this, there are some things to look for to ensure network compatibility.
First, look for devices that are 4G LTE capable. T-Mobile currently transmits three different LTE signals. You’ll get the best experience on T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network from devices that support all three – Band IV (also called AWS or 2100/1700 MHz), Band II (also called PCS or 1900 MHz) and Band 12 (also called 700 MHz). |
Why is Northern Ireland/Ireland (NI/IRL) such a huge sticking point in the Brexit negotiations? It boils down to the implications of three things: leaving the Single Market, leaving the Customs Union, and upholding the 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement, writes Katy Hayward (Queen’s University Belfast).
It is worth noting that NI/IRL is a Phase 1 matter precisely because the EU is taking the UK’s intention to leave the Single Market and Customs Union seriously. There are huge ramifications of this for Northern Ireland (and as a consequence, the implementation of the 1998 Agreement). These need to be shored up and anchored at this early stage, so that they cannot be buffeted around on the as-yet uncharted seas of the future trading relationships of the UK.
So what shape could a future border take? First, the Customs Union relations to import/export of goods to/from third countries. Any border between members of the Customs Union and those outside it will require customs controls. Those controls relate to applying tariffs and quotas to goods, and ensuring that they are permitted to enter.
All goods crossing a customs border need to be declared and cleared for Exit and Entry. Electronic and pre-clearance systems can work (e.g. for Authorised Economic Operators) as means of speeding up this process, but they still entail resources, infrastructure and [the capacity for] physical inspections. In sum, a customs border is a hard border and it requires infrastructure to enforce.
For any state to say that it will not enforce a customs border – or to say that customs control is merely the choice of the other side of that border – is a derogation of basic responsibility as a trading nation. In real terms, it means exposing (and pointing to) a huge flank for criminal activity, i.e. smuggling of counterfeit or dangerous goods. That means not only a blow to the Exchequer, it is a blow to legal businesses and to communities living in the border region. This holds particular dangers in the border region of Ireland/Northern Ireland, and ones that are closely connected to the stability of the peace process. Suffice to say, a particular customs arrangements are needed here in order to avoid either a hard border or a smugglers’ paradise, with all that means for Northern Ireland.
What about the Single Market? The whole rationale for a Single Market is about creating an enormous ‘domestic’ level playing field, gaining the economic advantage of size and minimising the disadvantages of differing standards and rules within it. Any border between members of the Single Market and those outside it will thus mean friction of movement for goods, services, people and capital. By ‘friction’ I mean difficulty in crossing that border. This may come in the form of not being allowed to sell your product, work, set up a business, or reside there long term. Again, all these things have been taken for granted in Northern Ireland/Ireland.
In terms of trade within the Single Market, obstacles to the movement of goods essentially boil down to different standards. Some of these standards are harmonised across the market, others are based on mutual recognition (i.e. there can be some national differences). As the UK and EU look set to venture along on different regulatory trajectories after Brexit, the critical question is how EU member-states can be reassured that this doesn’t mean that the Irish border becomes a gaping hole in the side of the Single Market. The most comprehensive answer entails specific solution for the region (or economic zone) of Northern Ireland.
Regulatory convergence between NI and the rest of the EU would not have to mean new barriers to trade between NI and Great Britain. It is not unusual for products to meet the criteria of more than one regulatory regime; what is of critical importance is the ability to prove to traders/consumers/agencies in the receiving country that the necessary standards have been complied with. The need for mechanisms to ensure compliance, prevent divergence, and resolve disputes would have to at least be touched on at this stage in order to reassure the EU that the promise of ‘regulatory convergence’ isn’t just more ‘magical thinking’.
Finally, the 1998 Agreement isn’t about trade, but it was written with the assumption that UK and Ireland would always be partners in the EU. Aside from the complex matter of rights and equality in NI, the implementation of the Agreement after Brexit depends on the effective operation of the institutions of the Agreement and with it the continuation of cross-border cooperation (and with it the avoidance of a hard border).
To meet these, the EU needs much more than vague assurances; it needs principles (if not detailed answers) from the UK government on the following matters: How regulatory convergence with the EU will be secured, controlled and maintained in NI. And how EU rules could continue to apply in certain areas (e.g. those necessary for continued sharing of specialised health services) and how these would be protected and enforced.
The Irish government has continually said that the most simple way for this to be achieved is for the UK as a whole to stay in the Single Market and Customs Union. If the UK wishes to leave the two and if it wants to avoid a hard border, then specific arrangements need to be made for Northern Ireland. All of this centres on devolved competence to Northern Ireland, securing the institutions of the Agreement, strengthening the capacity of Northern Ireland sea/air entry ports for customs checks, and allowing the jurisdiction, say, of the EFTA court. No such arrangements would have any effect at all on the ‘constitutional integrity’ of the United Kingdom.
Without any specific arrangement for Northern Ireland as it leaves the EU, talk about ‘avoiding a hard border’ and ‘upholding the Belfast Agreement’ is either empty rhetoric or dangerous delusion.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Brexit blog, nor the LSE.
Dr Katy Hayward is Reader in Sociology & Senior Research Fellow, Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University Belfast. |
New Delhi: The National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) would work upon certain courses about history of India's tradition and culture, human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar said on Monday.
He was speaking while inaugurating a lecture series on Bharat Bodh (Idea of India) organised by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in association with Bhartiya Shikshan Mandal (BSM).
"Bharat's (India's) education system became such that we kept on forgetting Bharat's culture and insisted on remembering the rest of the world's.
"It is necessary to know and remember the world but this does not imply that we can forget Bharat. It is necessary to understand the Bharat and its glorious past," Javadekar said.
"We will replicate such courses with NCERT because we think our true identity begins with the identity of our nation. Without knowing it, we will not be able to decipher the truth about the world. We are open to discussions about the value of our past," he said.
The minister said all philosophy and Indology students should attend this lecture series and added that people did not know about India and they should know the true identity of their country.
"We will soon launch a new formal academic programme called certificate course in Bharat Bodh. This will talk about the cultural wealth of India and will also take a critical look at it," IGNOU vice chancellor Ravindra Kumar said.
Kumar said everything would not be taken for granted but critically examined and whatever was valuable would be retained.
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Phantasy Star IV, released in Japan as Phantasy Star: The End of the Millennium (ファンタシースター 千年紀の終りに), is a role-playing video game released for the Mega Drive/Genesis in Japan in 1993 and Europe and North America in 1995. It is the fourth and final game in the original Phantasy Star series, concluding the story of the Algol Star System. It was the last Phantasy Star game until Phantasy Star Online (2000), which has a mainly unrelated story.[1]
The game was also made available on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on June 24, 2008, in the PAL regions on November 14, 2008, and in North America on December 22, 2008, for the price of 800 Wii Points.[2] Phantasy Star IV is also part of the Sega Genesis Collection on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable and on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Phantasy Star IV kept many of the gameplay elements of the previous game, including turn-based battles, overhead exploration, and magic spells. It received mixed reviews upon its release, but has been subject to positive critical retrospectives.
Gameplay [ edit ]
Phantasy Star IV is an archetypal role-playing video game, featuring the staples of exploration, NPC interaction, and turn-based combat. Like the previous games in the Phantasy Star series, individual characters each have their own statistics and equipment that determine the character's performance in combat, improving their statistics by gaining experience levels (achieved through victory in combat). Additionally, non-android characters have access to "Techniques," i.e. magic spells, the use of which draw upon a character's pool of "Technique Points" (TP), with new techniques being learned as a character gains levels.
Phantasy Star IV has a number of features new to the series, including combination techniques, manga-style panel illustrations that accompany the narrative, and an expanded script.
The instruction manual for the American version states that there are 15 possible combination attacks. However, only 14 were ever discovered.[3][4][5] Occasionally, the "secret technique" Feeve, a useless technique accessible through hacking, is mistaken for the "lost 15th combo."[6]
Plot [ edit ]
Chaz and Alys explore the town of Piata
Phantasy Star IV takes place 1,000 years after the events of Phantasy Star II. After an event called the Great Collapse, much of the once-thriving planet Motavia has been reduced to desert, and life has become progressively more difficult for the planet's inhabitants. To make matters worse, there has been a marked increase in the numbers of the "biomonsters," a catch-all term for the strange and violent aberrations of Motavia's flora and fauna.
Keeping these creatures under control is the job of "hunters". During an investigation into such an outbreak, Chaz Ashley, a young hunter, learns of the relationship between the biomonster problem and the planet's ecological crisis. The planet is in the process of returning to its original desert state as the climate and biosphere-controlling devices installed over a thousand years previous begin to fail. The reasons behind the malfunctions are clarified as the plot unfolds, relating directly to the events of Phantasy Star II.
Chaz and his allies connect the world's troubles to a cult leader called Zio, "The Black Magician," whose aims appear to be total annihilation, not only of Motavia, but of the whole Algol solar system. The heroes stop Zio in order to restore the computer systems maintaining Motavia. However, it soon becomes clear that Zio is merely the vanguard to a much larger enemy, long buried in the past. The secrets of the Algol star system are revealed as Chaz and company discover both the nature of the threat to their worlds as well as the safeguards placed in a time long forgotten.
Release [ edit ]
The game was released in Japan in December 1993, North America in February 1995 and the United Kingdom and Europe in December, 1995.[7] End of the Millennium was the first Phantasy Star title not to be localized to Brazil by Tec Toy.[citation needed] Sega initially stated that they would not publish the game in Europe.[8]
In the United States, the game retailed for just under $100.[9]
The cover art for the American and European releases was done by Boris Vallejo. Both covers depict Chaz, Rika, and Rune, but the American/European box art deviates from their appearance in-game.
In Japan, the game was initially announced as Phantasy Star IV,[10] but by the time of release it had been renamed Phantasy Star: The End of the Millennium. At the time, this renaming was seen by the gaming press as an attempt to make it clear that the game was a followup to Phantasy Star II.[11] The American and European releases took the title Phantasy Star IV, though the title screen of all versions of the game reads Phantasy Star: The End of the Millennium. The titles are combined to Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium in the Sega Genesis Collection compilation.
Phantasy Star IV was the last Phantasy Star game until Phantasy Star Online (2000), which has a mainly unrelated story.[1]
Ports and remakes [ edit ]
The game was ported as part of Phantasy Star Collection for the Sega Saturn, released only in Japan. There was a Windows port released in 2004, as well as the Sega Genesis Collection for the PlayStation 2 and PSP. It was included in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles.
The Sega Ages project planned a remake for the PlayStation 2 console,[12] having revamped the first two games: Phantasy Star Generation 1 and Phantasy Star Generation 2. However, the Sega Ages website confirmed that a port of Phantasy Star Collection for the PlayStation 2 featuring all four of the original games would be released, leaving the previously announced remake in development limbo.[citation needed]
Reception [ edit ]
Phantasy Star IV: End of the Millennium received generally positive reviews, with critics typically approving of the gameplay elements but disapproving of the story and graphics. GamePro praised the ability to inspect background objects, the convenience of the macros and talk option, and the translation. However, they commented that the inability to purchase multiple items at once is irritating, and were especially critical of the story, describing it as routine, frequently incoherent, and derogatory towards women.[25] Next Generation remarked that Phantasy Star IV, "while still a good game, is years behind." They elaborated that while other RPGs were making major innovations to the genre in both graphics and gameplay, Phantasy Star IV still fundamentally looked and played the same as Phantasy Star II from five years before.[19] The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly commented that the graphics are mediocre, the music is irritating, and the story is too slow paced, but that the magic/technique system, equipment, and general gameplay are all highly involving and enjoyable.[9] Sega Saturn Magazine (previously Sega Magazine) said that the graphics are outdated even compared to other Mega Drive/Genesis games and that the game is incomprehensible to newcomers to the series, but that "the game succeeds by creating cinematic moments, introducing new characters and powers, and taking many weird and wonderful plot turns."[24] Mean Machines criticized the graphics, animation, and effects, but praised the playability, story, and lastability, calling it the "best pure RPG for the Megadrive."[8] GameFan criticized the translation, but said the "graphics are beautiful, the music is powerful, and the non-stop original ideas make this cartridge an absolute must-own for the RPG enthusiast".[16]
Retrospective reviews have been very positive. In RPGamer, Sepherstein praised the title as one of the greatest RPGs he'd ever played, with "magnificent graphics, sensational soundtrack, gripping story and incredible battle system".[20] Parn of RPGFan also called it one of "the best RPGs ever made".[21] Reviews for the Virtual Console release were also very positive. Nintendo Life's Corbie Dillard said that one couldn't have asked for a better end to the 16-bit series.[18] IGN called it one of the definitive 16-bit role-playing games, stating the "storyline and characters are deep and engaging," the "attractive anime-style cutscenes steal the show visually," and the gameplay is both "classic and unique at the same time."[17] Tor.com described it as "an ambitious JRPG that is the perfect end to the series, taking the best elements of each of the previous games and weaving together a 'phantastic' journey."[26] Eurogamer stated that it is "epic in scope" and recommended that "anyone with a fondness for JRPGs should investigate this at once."[15]
In 2007, IGN ranked Phantasy Star IV as the 61st best game ever made.[27] In 2012, IGN placed Phantasy Star IV at number 59 in their Top 100 RPGs of all time, citing the elegantly simple mechanics and the game's influence on Phantasy Star Online (which they ranked as number 23 on the list).[28] In 2009 Nintendo Power labelled the title, along with Phantasy Star II, as one of the greatest RPGs of all time.[29] Complex Magazine ranked the game number 2, behind only Gunstar Heroes, in its list of the best Sega Genesis games.[30]
References [ edit ] |
Rarely will Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin be on the ice together during the fourth annual NHL Winter Classic. They will hardly be on the ice at all—about forty-five seconds out of every three minutes. Hockey is mostly craft, and the overwhelming majority of NHL players are craftsmen, so for two-thirds of the game Crosby and Ovechkin will watch from the bench as their teammates ply their trades: checking and harrying, physical debilitation, defense. At work with and against each other on the ice, these pluggers and muckers will generate the play, interlocked and rotating, a sort of living engine impenetrable to both its constituent parts and the uninitiated. Momentum is created when one line of players is more productive than their rivals, and the next line is as well, and so on, the mechanism of the game shifting with them from one end of the ice to the other. A good hockey game develops a rhythm out of its shifts in momentum. When their coaches sense this rhythm allows it, Crosby and Ovechkin will join the game. They will spend much of their ice time along the boards or away from the puck, working within the play as others do. But every fourth shift or so, Crosby and Ovechkin will find chances to play in opposition to the game, as ghosts in the machine, with fugitive grace that outside of hockey’s scheme would be impossible to imagine, much less appreciate.
The surface of ice is slippery because its molecules have unfilled bonds that fasten, shear, and roll like ball bearings underneath anything that touches them. As they roll they reveal a new, softer layer, which has still more loose layers below it. Even at absolute zero, ice slides this way. Laboratorians at Berkeley once used an atomic microscope to see past the 0.000008mm-thick semi-fluid surface, and they found that under it ice has a friction coefficient as hard and rough as rubber.
The friction coefficient of tonight’s ice, to be skated on in a regular season game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals, is significant. Rain pushed back the start time to 8, and now five probes in the ice are relaying information about its poor condition to the team of experts who have tended to it for the past week. Their sheet is 20,350 gallons of paint and water sprayed two inches deep over freezing pipes coursing with 3,000 gallons of coolant. It must be kept at 22 degrees Fahrenheit for its friction coefficient to remain 0.005. A rise of one degree in its temperature will increase the coefficient by .023 percent. The ice will become what hockey players call slow, or soft, and their skating will be labored and the puck out of true. Their passes will stick and their shots, already teased by the wind blowing through the open south end of the stadium, will bounce. The current temperature in Pittsburgh is 51 degrees, with humidity percentage in the mid-80s. The forecast calls for rain.
Both Crosby and Ovechkin were tasked with reviving financially moribund franchises when they entered the NHL following its 2005 lockout. A lopsided antagonism between their franchises was already in place—in the previous two decades Pittsburgh had beaten Washington in six of seven playoff meetings, two of them en route to championships. Along with their franchises Crosby and Ovechkin became the faces of the NHL, a league never able to market star power besides Wayne Gretzky. Many hoped that their careers would prove a rivalrous boon for the sport, akin to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
Neither has disappointed so far. In his first season, Ovechkin scored 106 points to Crosby’s 102 and was named rookie of the year. In his second season, Crosby scored 120 points and became the first teenager to win a scoring title in any North American major league. In his third season, Ovechkin scored sixty-five goals, more than any other left wing in the history of the league. Each has been named captain of his team. Crosby was judged most outstanding player by his peers in 2007, and Ovechkin in 2008, 2009, and 2010. Crosby was the league’s most valuable player in 2007, and Ovechkin in 2008 and 2009. Ovechkin has been voted the best Russian NHLer by his countrymen every year he has played. Crosby has been awarded the Order of Nova Scotia.
They first competed against each another in the final of the 2005 World Junior Championship. Crosby separated Ovechkin’s shoulder with a body check, and Canada won 6-1. In their NHL meetings, Crosby has scored forty-eight points to Ovechkin’s forty-two, and Pittsburgh leads the series 16-11. Crosby assisted on the game-winning goal in the seventh game of their one playoff match-up in 2009; Pittsburgh went on to win the Stanley Cup. They met again in the 2010 Winter Olympics; Team Canada bodied Ovechkin relentlessly and won 7-3. Later, Crosby scored the gold medal winning goal.
Crosby is the NHL’s active leader in assists per game with 0.87. That average has been falling since 2008, a season in which he tallied twice as many assists as goals but still lost the Stanley Cup Final. The next season he scored the most goals in the league. He leads it now with thirty-two. Twenty-one percent of his shots have gone into the net this year. He is second in assists with thirty-three. Over his career he has averaged 1.4 points per game, more than any active player. He has 571 total points.
Ovechkin is second in career points per game among active players (1.31). He is the leader for goals per game (0.65). In every year of his career he has led the league in shots taken, and this one is no exception (174 thus far). He shoots about five-and-a-half times per game. He is on pace for only twenty-nine goals, by far his worst statistical season. He has twice as many assists, most coming from goals scored off of shots he has missed, which this year has been 92 percent. He has 571 total points.
On his first shift, Ovechkin chases a puck dumped in deep by his centerman. He crosses the blue line on a crescent and circles behind his right wing, who unknowingly skates interference on a defender. Ovechkin dummies a route to the puck as Pittsburgh’s goaltender moves behind the net to retrieve it and hand it off to the right defenseman. When both Penguins turn their backs, Ovechkin effortlessly alters his glide, then he accelerates with a couple of clipped, bowlegged strides. The defenseman is swinging behind the net with his head down when his left side partner spots Ovechkin and screams “REVERSE!” The right defenseman backhands the puck to his partner and in the same motion pivots away from Ovechkin, who has leaned so far forward in his glide that he has left his feet, his cocked fists exploding away from his chest in a kangaroo punch. Ovechkin catches the defenseman’s left shoulder and spins him. His partner hurriedly clears the puck, but it is turned over at the blue line and brought against the net in a scoring chance. Play is then whistled dead, the support staff given time to replace the board stanchions that were broken by Ovechkin’s check.
The Winter Classic was an instant tradition, an outdoor game begun on New Year’s Day 2008 by John Collins, the NHL’s chief operating officer. Collins joined the NHL in 2006 after fifteen years at the NFL, where he was the league’s senior vice president of marketing and sales. Collins began in that league during Commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s reign, when the NFL became less a league than a branded media conglomerate. The revolutionary thinking of the time, which turned the NFL into the most profitable sports league in the world, was that the game of football could no longer sell itself, at least not to the extent that the NFL desired. So Collins and the league turned each game into a stand alone, packaged entertainment experience to be marketed to casual fans. Under Collins, NFL sponsorships increased by $1.9 billion and pro football’s audience grew leaps and bounds. He was named one of America’s top fifty marketers in 2003.
At the NHL, Collins has overseen a 66 percent rise in advertising and sponsorship revenue. He won a “Stevie” as 2010 Executive of the Year. The Winter Classic won the 2009 Sports Business Award for “Sports Event of the Year.” Four of the five most-watched NHL regular-season broadcasts have been Winter Classic games. More people will watch the 2011 iteration than have watched any hockey game since 1975. Forbes called the Winter Classic the “Best New Sporting Event Brand.” According to the magazine, the Winter Classic follows to a tee the modern formula for sports entertainment success. To achieve the highest return on investment, the game should be held on a single day, lending it gravitas and giving casual viewers a reason to tune in. And it should be marketed as an event steeped in the brand’s core equities, in this case the history of America’s second-oldest professional league, the authenticity of the only sport bound to nature in a meaningful way, and a very particular, mythopoetic nostalgia.
Canadians did not invent ice hockey. In 1749 British soldiers watched Mi’kmaq Indians play something like it on the frozen Dartmouth Lakes, and it was during the inclemencies that stun all of their land for half the calendar year that Canadians refined their form of it. Ice hockey is now a Canadian’s birthright; their literature calls it “The Game of Our Lives.” Winter is celebrated there because it brings hockey, and hockey is the means by which Canada, forever dominated by other nations, proves its uniqueness: here sprouts kinetic beauty when nothing else can flourish. Canadians’ implicit belief is that hockey separated from climate and geography in arenas is unnatural, a concession to commerce and the rest of the world. The national ideal is shinny on frozen ponds, stunned rivers or hoarfrosted lakes, skate strides zippering the ice, crunch and sibilance.
The National Hockey League was founded in 1917 out of the newly defunct National Hockey Association. The NHA had disintegrated after its most popular team, the Toronto 228th Battalion, was called to fight in World War I. Canadian armed forces entered that war under British command but fought so well that they won their own authority. At the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force captured the escarped town of Thelus, something the French and the English had failed to do. Conn Smythe, a forward with the 40th (Sportsmen’s) Battery of Hamilton, won a Military Cross when he alone charged a German position with his service revolver. “I put the pistol in his stomach and fired, and he cursed me all the way down to the ground,” Smythe said. He later founded the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs. The trophy for the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup playoffs is named in his honor.
Washington is setting pace when Ovechkin’s fourth shift and Crosby’s fifth coincide. There is a face-off in Pittsburgh’s defensive zone, and the Penguins’ coach sends out Crosby, a center, because he has won more face-offs this season than any other player. Ovechkin is a left wing and does not take face-offs. Instead, he lines up behind his centerman and coils for a direct shot.
Crosby wins the draw cleanly and accelerates out of the zone. His defenseman passes the puck to the left wing, who passes it to the right wing near center ice. Ovechkin is the only Capital forward in the neutral zone. His job is to keep the puck from reaching Crosby. Crosby knows that Ovechkin is a transitional player, predatory, his foil. Rather than skate away from him, Crosby skates toward him. Ovechkin wants to steal the pass, so he leaves Crosby and turns to the right winger. Crosby undercuts. Washington’s left defenseman, traded to the Capitals from the opposite conference a few months ago, takes Ovechkin’s defensive support for granted and skates high up in the middle of the ice. The Penguin puckcarrier looks to where any other center would be, lazing along the boards in support, and sees nothing. Only Crosby knows how open he is. He shouts “Dupey!” at his linemate and receives a startled pass that he chips into the offensive third. The last Capitals defender turns to race him for it. The puck skitters across the pulpy ice like dropped change and settles in front and to the left of the Capital. He strides off of his inside edge, pushing his 208 pounds into Crosby and away from the puck.
The blade of a hockey skate isn’t quite a blade but a groove. It has two edges, and the depth of the hollow between them differs according to players’ preferences. Most NHLers today skate on shallow, wide hollows; Crosby prefers narrow edges that pinch the ice, for bursts of acceleration and sharp turns. Normally he skates on a 7/16-inch hollow, but tonight the ice is so soft that he’s opted for an 11/16. Grace is a warmer word for efficiency, and Sidney Crosby is by far the most efficient skater in the NHL. He keeps his feet close to or in contact with the ice at all times. He seems to rock rather than stride. A player’s acceleration, his first step, is crucial, because typically he strokes only three or four times before turning, breaking, or gliding. Crosby’s skating isn’t the fastest in the league, but his first step is the quickest. Forty-five percent of skating power comes from the hip, 40 percent from the knee, and 15 from the ankle. Crosby has ropy hamstrings and thighs shingled with muscle. His gluteals are the league’s most massive, and his quadriceps puff off of the bone. He is nautically stern on and off the ice; it is impossible to imagine him losing his equilibrium. In wide-waisted hockey pads he is shaped like a weather buoy.
The Capitals defender has forced him a yard wide of the puck when Crosby pitches. He wedges his right leg into the ice and makes a keel of his perpendicular left. Dug in, he’s as imperturbable as anything clamped in an engineer’s angle vise. Then, striding once, he’s past, and the defenseman must armlock him, a penalty.
Ice hockey wasn’t played in Russia until 1946, when the decision was made on high that the Soviet Union was to become the world’s greatest nation at the Olympic sport of hockey.
The father of Soviet hockey, Anatoli Tarasov, had never seen Canadians play the game and didn’t care to. At a time when European nations were starting hockey programs with imported Canadian coaches and advisors, Tarasov envisioned ice hockey played according to the strengths of the Soviet character. “Sport is destined to improve people, cultivate them morally, and that’s why the Canadian style of hockey is absolutely unacceptable to us,” he wrote.
For centuries before Canada had its first prime minister, Russians played bandy, a hobbling form of stick soccer set on frozen lakes. They had already developed outstanding passing and skating skills when Tarasov implemented the teachings of Lloyd Percival, a Canadian trainer shunned by the NHL for the rationalism he imposed upon the game. Percival had determined that pro hockey players skated 22.3 miles per hour without the puck and 21.1 miles per hour with it. Those speeds dropped during games to between 16.9 and 18.8 miles per hour. Percival recommended a larger ice surface, proper skating technique, better conditioning, and less physical play for a faster, more skillful game.
Not a single artificial ice rink existed in Soviet Russia or its vassal states, so Tarasov’s teams practiced in the winter on natural ice. In the early spring they skated through the night, when the ice was still hard. To close the gap between the USSR and other hockey-playing nations, Tarasov had his players train year-round. They swam, rowed, lifted weights, performed gymnastics, and jogged in sand to build ankle strength. They played games of soccer and basketball by hockey rules in order to learn tactics and proper positioning. Eventually, the Soviets built an open-air rink in Moscow for promising junior figure skaters. It was one-tenth the size of a regulation rink. Tarasov’s teams booked it for practice between 2 and 6 AM In the summer they would erect a tent to keep the sun off of the ice before practicing in shorts.
The first regulation-size, artificial ice rink in the Soviet Union was the Palace of Sports of the Central Lenin Stadium built in 1957. Until then, Russian league games were played on temporary rinks in the middle of soccer pitches in front of 20,000 to 50,000 spectators.
There is a Tarasov Division in the Kontinental Hockey League, the newest iteration of what remains of the Soviet League. Its twenty-three teams play out of Russia, Belarus, Latvia, and Kazakhstan. Its commissioner is Alexander Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Russian energy corporation Gazprom. It is the second-best hockey league in the world.
Salaries in the KHL are tax-free. The average capacity of league arenas is 7,660. Of its 721 players, 514 are Russian. None of its teams can sign more than five foreign players. About 3,000 fans watched the 2009 KHL all-star game played on a temporary rink in Red Square.
The NHL currently lacks a transfer agreement with the Russian International Hockey Federation. There is no standardized fee structure that allows players to leave Russian teams to join NHL clubs and vice versa.
In the 1990-1991 season, there were fifteen NHL players from Russia and the now-former Soviet republics. In 2000-2001, there were eighty-seven. In 2009-2010, thirty-eight. Forty Russians, one Lithuanian, two Latvians, two Belarusians, one Ukrainian, and one Uzbekistani were drafted by NHL teams in 1992. Thirty-nine Russians, six Kazakhstanis, two Latvians, and one Ukrainian were drafted in 2000. Eight Russians and one Latvian were drafted in 2010.
Mark Kelley, director of amateur scouting for the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks, has said: “I think it’s fair to say that there is a Russian factor. It’s because the KHL is such a viable alternative for the players that you have to weigh it in.”
Of the Russians drafted in the first round since 2000, eleven are playing in the NHL, fourteen are playing in the KHL, two are playing in minor leagues, one has retired, and one has died. (Alexei Cherepanov, at the time the greatest rookie scorer in Soviet/Russian league history, collapsed on the bench during a KHL game and was taken to a hospital thirty-five minutes later in an ambulance that lacked a defibrillator.)
The Centennial All-Star Team, as voted by the International Ice Hockey Federation:
Goaltender: Vladislav Tretiak (Soviet Union)
First defenseman: Vyacheslav Fetisov (Soviet Union)
Second defenseman: Börje Salming (Sweden)
First winger: Valeri Kharlamov (Soviet Union)
Second winger: Sergei Makarov (Soviet Union)
Center: Wayne Gretzky (Canada)
Washington’s fourth line forces the puck into Pittsburgh’s defensive zone at the end of the first shift of the second period. Then they go off for a change. This fourth line has been hurriedly thrown over the boards by Washington’s coach whenever Crosby hits the ice. Pittsburgh is the home team, allowed to alter its lines after the opponent, but the coach will not have his rolling personnel changes upset by Washington. Still, the fourth line is winning its shifts against Crosby.
Crosby is the last man from his line escaping the ice when Ovechkin floats by. Unlike Crosby, whose position demands that he follow the puck all over the ice, Ovechkin on a shift is more often still than sprinting. In moments such as this one, when Ovechkin lurks apart from the other players on the ice, the game hums uncomfortably. While Crosby hurries to the bench, two Penguins forecheck the Washington defenseman with the puck. Ovechkin, on the far side of the ice and lost to everyone, fins his stick to call for a pass. The puck comes to him and he attacks the net on a breakaway.
There is rain falling on the ice and it wakes behind Ovechkin, who has his head up and trained on the Penguins lanky goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury. Ovechkin is pulling the puck on his backhand to his forehand just as he reaches the slot twenty feet in front of goal. Fleury’s is one of the best glove hands in hockey, which he flashes in old-school saves when he drops into a full split, doubling over at the waist to shoot out his stalky left arm and snatch the puck from the top corner. Ovechkin knows this but thinks his shot is better. He glides ahead of the puck, readying his wrist shot, but in his periphery sees a Penguin defenseman, so he pushes the puck ahead to his backhand just before the defenseman misses with a diving sweep. Fleury is trying to mirror Ovechkin’s stickwork with his legs while skating backwards into his net, but Ovechkin’s speed overwhelms him. Fleury’s glove hand falls from 1 o’clock to 3 o’clock, and the net is unlocked. With flashbulbs twinkling, Ovechkin forehands. But the puck skiis up a frozen rain drop, and his shot is dubbed into Fleury’s split left pad.
Alexander Mikhailovich Ovechkin first skated at age 8, not long after the Soviet Union collapsed, at Hockey Club Dinamo Moscow. Dinamo was the KGB’s team and the great rival to CSKA, the team of the Red Army. Dinamo and CSKA were at the top of a pyramid of sports schools instituted in 1960 that for decades manufactured the athletic heroes of the Soviet Union. These schools admitted any 8-year-old boy who showed promise at try outs and trained him every day, six days a week, before and after in-house schooling, as long as his promise held out. When the boy turned 12, he concentrated on his strongest sport. If there was doubt as to which sport that was, a muscle biopsy analysis was performed. A cork of brawn, often screwed out of the boy’s thigh, was tested for its prevalence of either fast-twitch or slow-twitch muscle fiber. A child with more slow-twitch muscle fiber would train in an aerobic sport—distance running or swimming—while one with more fast-twitch muscle fiber would train in hockey. Once singled out as a hockey player, the 12-year-old boy played for the same coach until he turned 18, or until he burned out. If the boy was exceptionally good, he would make it to his school’s senior Soviet League team. If he wasn’t, he would be dropped from the program and, by extension, organized ice hockey in the Soviet Union. The boy’s coach wielded this power over him; he had no choice but to impassively absorb all criticism and abuse if he wished to continue playing hockey. Even after the collapse, players brought up in the Soviet system remained emotionless and inscrutable on the ice. They had been, in the words of Tarasov, “tempered from day to day, like steel is tempered.”
Young Ovechkin, known to family and friends as Sasha, had a prized collection of trading cards that included the first wave of Russians to play in the NHL—Makarov, Fetisov, Kasatonov, Larionov. He would fan them on the floor of his family’s two-bedroom apartment after having struggled to stay upright on his skates at practice. His mother, Tatiana Ovechckina, reluctantly paid $10 per session for private skating lessons from the coaches at Dinamo, who taught him to lower his center of gravity by halving the shaft of his hockey stick. Ovechkin was playing hockey against his mother’s wishes. She had wanted him to play basketball, as she had. Ovechkina was point guard and captain of the Soviet women’s teams that won gold at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics. She was also an executive within Dinamo, where she had played club basketball. Her influence kept Ovechkin in the hockey school but not in games. His coach wouldn’t play him, and he hid on the bench.
Ovechkin wears #8 in honor of his mother but plays ice hockey because of his older brother, Sergei. Sergei disregarded their parents and enrolled Ovechkin in Dinamo’s hockey school. When Ovechkin was 10, Sergei died from complications following a car accident. Since then, after every goal he scores, Ovechkin points to the sky. Sergei’s name, and the names of Ovechkin’s grandfathers, are written in Cyrillic on the inside cuffs of his hockey gloves. On the ribs under his left arm he has tattooed in English “Sergei you are always in my heart.” Sergei’s nickname for him was “Toad.”
Later on the same long shift, Ovechkin takes a breakout pass and lopes through the neutral zone. He backs up the defenseman before him, who like anyone defending Ovechkin is counting on help from the backchecker closing from behind. Ovechkin is a left wing who shoots right-handed; he plays what is called the off-wing. Because of his handedness, an off-winger isn’t helpful along the boards in his own zone, and can’t pass safely in the attacking third. But carrying the puck up the left side of the ice on his forehand, Ovechkin can shoot quickly along more acute angles to the net. He shades toward the boards as he enters the offensive zone. The defenseman wants to stay within one stick length of him, so he slides nearer. If this defenseman were weaker, Ovechkin would lower his right shoulder and push past him, tracking the same hooked path to the net as a hurricane-making landfall. Instead, Ovechkin slows, waiting for the backchecker behind him to hurry and fill the lane the defenseman vacated when he approached the boards and lined up his right shoulder with Ovechkin’s left. Ovechkin feels that the defenseman now wants to close the gap between them, so he offers the puck out in front of himself. The defender shifts his balance to turn and reach for it. Ovechkin’s play is now in motion. He will backhand the puck lightly, almost accidentally, but hard enough that the defender’s first grope will miss and the puck will slide between his skates. Ovechkin will then jump around the defender, collect the puck, and brake hard so the backchecker skates past him. Then he will move to the middle of the ice, dallying, until the backchecker ticks in line with the puck.
Alex Ovechkin is the best and hardest shooter in the NHL. But even he will be stopped about 90 percent of the time if a goaltender is able to monitor his shot. Hockey netkeeping for the most part developed as an unconsidered form, with goalies reacting to shots only after they had been fired and stopping them with their extremities, making “saves.” But in the past twenty years, goaltending has been quantified, and “blocking” has become technique. Goalies today have two stances—the one they show the shooter, which is upright and imposing, and the one they fall into as soon as the shooter releases the puck. They anticipate the puck’s path while in their first stance and move to intercept it with the center of their bodies in their second. Saving a puck is now considered a reflexive fluke a goaltender should have been positioned to block. Still, Ovechkin shoots more pucks past goaltenders than anyone else. He uses a lightweight composite stick made primarily of graphite. Composite sticks flex much farther than wood sticks, directly transferring more power from a player’s torquing body through the stick to the puck. Using this kind of stick, the heel and illegal crook of its blade like a golf wedge with a banana curve, Ovechkin has wired wrist shots past goaltenders from a standstill at the blue line.
Almost always, though, he shoots same-foot snap shots on the rush. Canadian NHLers were introduced to this technique at the 1972 Summit Series, when an announcer saw it and said that the Soviets “didn’t even know which foot to shoot off.” Ovechkin will keep his skates pointed at the net, his head up, and his hands close to his body. He will hold the puck near him, in a position from which he can shoot, pass, or deke. Suddenly, imperceptibly, he will transfer all of his weight onto his right skate. He will lean into his stick and focus this weight onto the heel of his right hand, which will have slid down to the middle of his shaft. The composite stick will flex and load with torque, a shallow J. Then he will roll his wrists over, back, and over, his blade closing, opening, and closing as the puck is guided along its contour. Sometimes, to transfer even more power to the puck, he will lift his left leg off the ice and kick it out violently.
Ovechkin will wait to shoot this way until the man defending him gets into correct defensive position, putting his body between the puck and the net. In the meantime, Ovechkin will toe the puck with his blade, changing its position at his side so that the goalie must shift continuously, minutely, to stay square with it. When the defender has fronted him, Ovechkin will then deliberately shoot the puck through his legs. There is no windup, and the puck is obscured by his defenseman, so instead of anticipating this shot the modern goaltender can only follow technique, which demands that he play percentages and drop into a blocking posture on his knees. Ovechkin will have aimed for a corner of the net that had been covered by the goaltender before he went down. Nearly all of his goals come in this way; he doesn’t scavenge the goalmouth. What he does in the course of his shot—attack with speed, keep the goaltender from setting, change the angle of attack, shoot unannounced—is what five players are coached to do on offense together. Considering what must align in sequence on the rush for him to score, and how often it all does, the mind and body at work in Alex Ovechkin seem almost occult, able as they are to conjure syzygy at will.
Tonight the ice doesn’t cooperate. The puck kicks up like a flint spark and hits the defenseman’s skates. Ovechkin takes a frustrated shot from the distance that misses.
At the Olympics, in the playoffs, and again now tonight, teams have exerted selective pressure on him. Defensemen attack him as soon as he enters the offensive zone and keep their sticks between their feet. Backcheckers dog him so he can neither stop short nor cut to the middle. Together they engage him with stick and body, a sprung jaw trap. In response, Ovechkin has behaved like a beast made mad by captivity, following his same route up and down the ice over and over again. His numbers have disappeared with his time and space. As a goal scorer, Ovechkin must evolve. Should he not, he’ll most likely still have a hall-of-fame career. But to posterity he’ll seem an aberration.
Seconds later the puck is in the back of Washington’s net, a breakaway goal scored on a perfectly executed counter attack.
Alex Ovechkin was already the consensus #1 pick in the 2004 NHL draft when he came over to the US. Nevertheless, he participated in a battery of evaluative strength and endurance tests for draft-ready prospects. In the maximal oxygen consumption test, Ovechkin scored the highest of the 300 prospects. He generated 680 watts in a power test in which the average was 552. In recovery tests, his body was the quickest to recuperate.
In the course of his first brief meeting with the owner of the Washington Capitals, 20-year-old Ovechkin ate an entire cantaloupe because he’d never seen one before. He first threw a baseball on the mound of RFK Stadium, delivering a perfect strike to start a Washington Nationals game. He first swung a golf club on a 160-yard par three, stroking a hole in one with a borrowed 4-iron.
He collects sports cars, and when he was given the key to Washington, D.C., he made a half-serious decree abolishing speed limits for the rest of the day. His last off-season was split between his Russian dacha, his Miami Beach penthouse, and the television studios in which he shot commercials for CCM and ESPN. He has never relied on an interpreter and seems to delight in practicing his halting English. Of himself he has said, “Russian machine never breaks.” His linemate who played with Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, and Peter Forsberg once said, “Mash them all together in a bigger body and that’s Alex.”
Ovechkin has used his 6’2″, 220-pound person to end the career of one player and fracture the ribs and clavicle of another. He has been suspended twice for being overly physical. His coach believes his style of play can be “pretty reckless.” He has blue eyes set wide in a heavy brow, and the hair on his head and face looks as if it’s never been cultivated. When he smiles, a square of tongue fills in for his missing front tooth. He celebrates goals with vehemence, flings his body into the boards or pretends his stick is aflame. Last year in a game against Pittsburgh, he knocked Crosby’s helmet off his head and flapped his arms at him like chicken wings.
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The Rebecca Black saga in brief: Parents hire company to produce two cheesy pop songs and one cheesy video for 13-year-old daughter. Self-described “music factory” writes song including explanation of order of days of week. Daughter sings song. Producers auto-tune the bejesus out of it. “Music factory” unleashes song and promo on unsuspecting world. Video goes viral when critics trash it as “the most appalling thing on the Internet.” Girl complains of “cyber-bullying.” Then comes vindication. Gaga says she is a genius. Forbes declares her a millionaire.
In all this, it is that last fact that seems most unlikely. Can a 13-year-old singing sensation, laughingstock or not, really make a cool million with a crummy pop song and a boatload of YouTube clicks? The answer, alas, is no. Rebecca Black might yet be vindicated musically or culturally. But not financially: At least for now, she’s probably no more than a thousandaire.
Forbes’ back-of-the-envelope accounting went like this. First, it tallied up revenue from all of those millions of YouTube views. YouTube, owned by Google, grants artists 68 percent of the proceeds earned from advertising on the site through its Partner Program. Forbes figured YouTube makes about $1 per 1,000 page views. Thus, “Friday’s” 30 million page views (at the time: It’s now up to 43 million) implied $30,000 in revenue, with a cut of $20,000 or so for Black. Then, it added in the earnings from downloads of the new hit single. Forbes initially reported that the song racked up 2 million purchases on iTunes. If iTunes pays out 70 cents per download, and Black keeps all of the proceeds, it makes her a tween millionaire.
But there are a few problems with this accounting. First, the numbers. As for downloads, Billboard reports that “Friday” has sold just 37,000 copies, meaning the song has earned about $26,000. And as for YouTube plays, the number could be lower. Rates depend not just on page views, but also on how many people click on the advertisements. Thus, the song and video have earned perhaps $40,000 and counting—hardly chump change, but hardly $1 million either.
Then comes the all-important question of who is benefiting from such frothy pop nonsense. Specifically, how big of a cut is the Ark Music Factory, which wrote the song and made the video, taking?
Let’s pretend that Rebecca Black is not Rebecca Black, but someone like Katy Perry, working not with an out-of-nowhere vanity label like Ark, but a legacy label. She might have signed a contract requiring no payment up front: The company would write her songs, help her record them, and perhaps make a video or set up a website for free. If she did not look like a moneymaker, the label would have dropped her, leaving her with nothing but a few recordings, a video or two and perhaps some scant royalty rights to songs nobody would ever hear. (Fewer than one in 20 signed artists ever produce a hit.) But if she looked promising, her label would have spent thousands of dollars promoting her—getting her on the air, setting her up to tour with a bigger artist, and so on. If “Friday” hit, Black would have in essence worked to pay off her debt to the label.
This resource-intensive model is now under threat. Record sales are plummeting, and digital music sales are not yet making up the difference. Viral stars come out of nowhere. Labels are increasingly worried about pouring resources into unknown artists. With her—how to put it?— imperfect delivery, Black might never have gotten a shot.
Enter leaner, cheaper, more web-savvy new business models, exemplified by Ark, a business more like Barbizon than Atlantic Records. Ark runs casting calls for tweens and teenagers, handpicks a few, then has their parents pony up cash to offset or perhaps even fully pay for the cost of writing the song, recording the track, and making the video. It then acts as a promoter, manager, and record label, hyping the songs on the Internet and getting its young artists in front of industry representatives.
I contacted Ark to ask more about its business and its contracts, but got no response. (Tomorrow the company is scheduled to release a video called “The Truth About Ark.”) It could be breaking even or making money on song-writing and video production, charging parents hefty sums to make vanity videos for their kids. But my guess is that it is also taking a serious cut of whatever Rebecca Black is making on downloads and YouTube views. That means of that $40,000 Black might be taking home half or less.
Of course, viral videos never end up making their producers millions all by themselves, no matter how viral they go. For instance, the famed “Charlie Bit My Finger” YouTube video, the fifth most-viewed clip on the site, with 295 million views, apparently earned the family that made it in the tens of thousands of British pounds—plenty of money, but not millions. The advertising rates simply are not high enough to push into seven figures.
The value lies in the exposure: You don’t make money from a video, but because of it. If you have a hit video, chances are you can make plenty of money elsewhere—by winning a traditional-label contract, touring, making ringtones, selling merchandise, gaining endorsement deals, and so on. If Black is going to become a tween millionaire, the money will come from somewhere like T.G.I. Friday’s, rather than “Friday,” directly.
And Ark did make that happen for Black. So while there may be no valid defense of her song, there is certainly a defense of the lighter, leaner business model that produced it. Ark might make awful music. But it does give its artists a shot at the limelight for a reasonable fee. Reportedly, Black’s parents paid just $2,000 for the whole shebang. |
Mark Allen, right, guided Manchester City's academy for the past seven years. Manchester City
Mark Allen is to leave his role as Manchester City academy director to become Rangers' director of football.
The 54-year-old has been at the Etihad Stadium for more than seven years, and revolutionised the Premier League club's youth set-up, but feels the time is right to move on and is looking forward to taking up his new post next month.
Allen, who has a full UEFA coaching A licence, told Rangers' website: "I loved every minute of my time with Manchester City. They are a club with fantastic people and fantastic supporters, but the time was right for me to look for a fresh challenge and I am joining one of the world's truly great football clubs.
"Steeped in history and tradition, I am honoured to join Rangers and work with the board of directors, [manager] Pedro Caixinha, his management team and the staff at the club."
Academy Director, Mark Allen has accepted a role with Scottish Premier League side @RangersFC as Director of Football from July 7th. #mcfc pic.twitter.com/wN4sPpSI89 — Manchester City (@ManCity) June 20, 2017
Allen started his career as a youth player with Swindon before moving to San Diego to take up a football scholarship and business and accounting degree.
He returned to the UK at the age of 24 and forged a successful business career, rising to managing director of MTV's broadcast division in London during a 13-year spell with the global music corporation.
Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson said: "We are delighted Mark has agreed to move to Glasgow and become our new director of football.
"He is a man of vision who has achieved great success with Manchester City's academy. He has excellent contacts in football but also the business world and he will be a great asset to Rangers.
"We said we would not rush into an appointment as we wanted the right candidate, and we feel Mark is the best man for the job. We look forward to working with him closely in the years ahead in what will be an important role at the club." |
While the US Treasury's semi-annual report on the foreign-exchange policies of major U.S. trading partners has traditionally been, pardon the pun, a paper tiger, as the US has not named a single country as a currency manipulator since it did so to China in 1994, and it didn't go so far as to blame any country as an outright manipulator in the just released April edition, there was a new addition to the latest report.
In an inaugural "monitoring list", the US put five economies including China, Japan and Germany (as well as South Korea and Taiwan) on a new currency watch list, saying that their foreign-exchange practices bear close monitoring to gauge if they provide an unfair trade advantage over America.
This is what it said:
In determining the appropriate factors to assess these criteria, Treasury took a thorough approach, analyzing data spanning 15 years across dozens of economies, including all economies that have had a trade surplus with the United States during that period, and which in the aggregate represent about 80 percent of global GDP. The thresholds are relatively robust in that reasonable changes to the thresholds do not materially change the Report’s conclusions. Treasury will also continue to review the factors it uses to assess these criteria to ensure that the new reporting and monitoring tools provided under the Act meet the objective of indicating where unfair currency practices may be emerging. Pursuant to the Act, Treasury finds that no economy currently satisfies all three criteria, however, five major trading partners of the United States met two of the three criteria for enhanced analysis. Treasury is creating a new “Monitoring List” that includes these economies: China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Germany. China, Japan, Germany, and Korea are identified as a result of a material current account surplus combined with a significant bilateral trade surplus with the United States. Taiwan is identified as a result of its material current account surplus and its persistent, one-sided intervention in foreign exchange markets. Treasury will closely monitor and assess the economic trends and foreign exchange policies of these economies. As noted above, Treasury is creating a new “Monitoring List” that cites major trading partners that have met two of the three criteria specified in the Act. In this first Report, the Monitoring List includes China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Germany.
This is about as direct a threat to the 3+2 nations not to engage in major currency devaluation whether through QE, NIRP or major interest rate changes as Jack Lew could come up with, and in some ways was to be expected in the aftermath of the G-20 meeting which as we found out this week, precluded any additional QE by the BOJ.
Recall that as part of the most recent G-20 accords, which many believe is what unleashed the steep slide in the dollar, the member nations agreed to refrain from FX intervention absent "disordely markets." It also made clear what could push a country from merely the watch list to full blown manipulator status:
While no economy met all three of the criteria, this result is a reflection, in part, of the dynamics of the global economy during the past year, in which capital outflows from emerging markets have led a number of economies to engage in foreign exchange intervention to resist further depreciation of their currency (rather than appreciation). The extent of these flows was unusually high by historical standards, which underscores the possibility that more economies may trigger these thresholds going forward.
It added that "the Administration shares strongly the objective of taking aggressive and effective actions to ensure a level playing field for our workers and companies. The President has been clear that no economy should grow its exports based on a persistently undervalued exchange rate, and Treasury has been working aggressively to address exchange rate issues bilaterally, including through the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, and multilaterally through the G-7, G-20, and the International Monetary Fund."
And specifically referring to the G-20 meeting, the Treasury notes the following:
The United States has secured commitments from the G-20 member countries to move more rapidly to more marketdetermined exchange rates, avoid persistent exchange rate misalignments, refrain from competitive exchange rate devaluations, and not target exchange rates for competitive purposes. Through Treasury’s leadership, the G-7 member countries, including Japan, have publicly affirmed that their fiscal and monetary policies will be oriented toward domestic objectives using domestic instruments. Treasury has also pushed for stronger IMF surveillance of the exchange rate policy obligations of its members. The IMF now publishes an exchange rate assessment for 29 economies, and is improving its exchange rate analysis in its Article IV reports on member countries. And through U.S. leadership, the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries have adopted—for the first time in the context of a trade agreement—provisions that address unfair currency practices by explicitly adopting G-20 exchange rate commitments and by promoting transparency and accountability.
In other words, the next country that dares to engage in wholesale currency devaluation with the US' express prior permission gets it, although it is not quite clear what "it" is (we will have more thoughts on that tomorrow).
Finally, there was no comment by the US Treasury on the biggest FX manipulator of all, the US Treasury itself which courtesy of the Fed can move the value of the Dollar higher or lower by orders of magnitude in seconds. Why? Because for now the US "reserve currency" privilege allows it to do whatever it wants, plus as a reminder, the world remains synthetically short trillions of dollars. If the US wants to punish everyone else, all it needs to do is to increase the value of the dollar by 10-15% in a short period of time, and we will again witness the same events that led to the market swoon in late 2015 and early 2016. |
Author(s):Jennifer Leader,Sunil Thacker
Decree Number 21 of 2013 – One Year Later
We’re all familiar with the story. Mr. A buys property off-plan. Developer advises property completion will occur by 201X. Mr. A awaits handover with anticipation. 201X comes and goes, with no news on the property. Developer or sales agent contact Mr. A to advise that construction status and the delay in completion. Some years pass, and Mr. A sees no further development. Developer and sales agent are unforthcoming. Mr. A decides to take legal action. Mr. A contacts one international law firm, famed for providing bespoke legal advice and seamless, high-quality counsel…
Incomplete construction projects are by no means a new phenomenon in Dubai. Indeed, one year ago our legal newsstands were heavy with articles relating to this topic owing to Decree 21 of 2013 (the Decree). Issued on 23 July 2013, the Decree proposed a system for the management of litigation cases filed as a result of cancelled construction projects. In summary, it provided for the formation of a special judicial committee (the Committee) to rule on cases in which the developer of an officially-cancelled construction project has failed to refund the purchasers’ money. Although Article 11 (5) of Law Number 13 of 2008 (Law 13) gave the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) the authority to annul delayed construction projects, and Executive Council Resolution 6 of 2010 (the Council Resolution) laid out the circumstances, conditions and procedures for such cancellation, further attention was needed to ensure the streamlined settlement of all outstanding dues and enforcement of the parties’ rights. Article 27 of the Council Resolution states that should a developer fail to reimburse a purchaser within a timeframe established pursuant to the same Resolution then RERA shall take all measures to ensure that the rights of the purchaser are upheld – an obligation which may necessitate RERA referring the matter to the “competent judicial authorities”. The Decree goes further to name the “competent judicial authority” as the Committee.
We know what you’re thinking –“this is a newsletter, not a history letter.” So why are we writing an article on an arguably stale, old topic? The reason is this: although July – September 2013 brought to us the promise of a reformed litigation system for the relevant cases and a plethora of publications on the subject, we have seen no practical changes to date. Article 9 of the Decree makes clear that the provisions shall have effect from the date of publication in the Official Gazette, which occurred on 10 September 2013. Clear guidelines were in place regarding the constitution of the Committee – namely that each panel should consist of at least three (3) judges from the Dubai Courts under Article 1 – and Articles 3 and 5 take measures to ensure that the Committee has exclusive and undisputable jurisdiction over the specified matters. Although such concise provisions govern the actual working of the Decree, there is yet, no fixed date for the diversion of cases into the new system. This element is despite the fact that Article 3 states that all judgments issued before the commencement of the Committee’s work must (not “may”) be referred to the Committee for consideration nonetheless.
It may therefore seem as though the workload of the Committee is already building up and, as we are all aware, the cancellation of construction projects is no rare occurrence in Dubai. However purchasers wishing to refer their relevant disputes to the appropriate authority remain without the guidance of precedent or knowledge of the way in which decisions will be made by the Committee, and several questions remain unanswered. What would happen, for example, if a developer claims that it intends to recommence works on a project? Or what if the developer wishes to sell the land?
In answering these questions, we should remember the purpose of the Committee. As per Article 2A of the Decree, this is “to consider and decide such issues, demands, and claims that may arise between real estate developers and purchasers, whose subject matter or cause is CANCELLED real estate projects”. Cancelled. Not delayed, stalled or suffering a setback, but officially and permanently cancelled. And the authority to enforce cancellation is not the power of the Committee but the power of RERA as per Law 13 and the Council Resolution. If cancellation is imposed by RERA under the conditions prescribed by Article 23 of the Council Resolution then under Article 24 the developer shall have seven (7) days to appeal against the decision to RERA. RERA shall then have a further seven (7) days to consider the same and deliver a final verdict. If the decision remains the same and the project is cancelled RERA must meet the provisions of Article 25 – namely appoint an auditor (and the cost of the developer) and ensure that any monies in the escrow account get refunded to purchasers within 14 days. If the account contains insufficient funds to reimburse a purchaser fully the developer shall be afforded 60 days (and any such extension permitted by RERA) to provide purchasers with their money.
We have already established that Article 27 of the Council Resolution provides that should a developer fail to reimburse a purchaser then RERA must refer the case to the appropriate judicial authorities (namely the Committee) for the enforcement of the same. We have further clarified that, under Article 2A of the Decree, the Committee’s field of focus shall be disputes arising between the developer and purchaser as a result of the cancelled project. It, therefore, follows that the Committee has no jurisdiction in cases whereby the developer is challenging the cancellation of the project. These are matters for RERA, who have exclusive authority over whether or not a project is to be cancelled. So to revert to our earlier questions – what would happen if a developer wished to recommence development on a project or wanted to sell the land? If the escrow account proved to be sufficient to reimburse purchasers and other outstanding dues can be settled without the sale of the land, then post-settlement the developer shall surely be free to dispose of the land, however, he so choses. And if RERA has ruled that a project is to be cancelled the developer has no other authority to whom to appeal. His only other option regarding re-commencement of the project shall be to apply afresh to RERA at a later date.
So if RERA are the sole body with the power to cancel a project and the Committee shall not have the authority to overturn the decision, what are the duties of the Committee? Article 2A of the Decree further clarifies that the Committee shall have the power to liquidate projects cancelled by RERA. Therefore if a purchaser approaches the Committee with the grievance that the developer has not refunded his money in accordance with Articles 25 and 26 of the Council Resolution the Committee may consider the following: should liquidation be effected and, if so, how should the funds be allocated? In addition to taking into consideration the purchaser’s right to a refund the Committee shall also need to consider contractors, sub-contractors, suppliers, service providers and any other party with a claim to interest.
Let us revisit Mr A. In the instance that the construction of his property has been cancelled by RERA and the developer has not refunded his money, what will happen? When the Committee becomes operational it shall have the authority to order the developer to reimburse him. And if the developer isn’t sufficiently solvent to do so, it may order liquidation and allocate the resulting funds in the appropriate proportions – which may or may not involve the payment of Mr A. The obvious question here is “ but what if Mr A receives nothing ”? Unfortunately for Mr A he will have no further options. Pursuant to Article 5 of the Decree the Committee’s decision is final and binding there shall be no further right to appeal.
So what are the advantages of this new system? In the happier circumstance that the Committee is able to allocate Mr A his dues then under Article 5 the decision may be enforced by the Execution Section of the Dubai Courts, and to Mr A’s relief Article 9 states that any matters handled by the Committee shall be exempt from any court fee.
Of course, Mr. A will still need to pay his representatives’ professional fees – but fortunately for him, the aforementioned international law firm with expert property lawyers in Dubai approached offer excellent competitive rates… |
MANILA, Philippines — The Presidential Commission on Good Government on Thursday expressed surprise over the statement of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno that the agency is irrelevant and should be abolished.
“PCGG is surprised at the recent questions regarding its performance, relevance, and efficiency,” said the agency created in 1986 to run after the ill-gotten wealth of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, his family and cronies.
The PCGG noted that it was awarded as the best performing agency under the Department of Justice, and has effectively raised non-tax revenue significantly higher than its annual budget.
An infographic released by the commission showed that it recovered P57.1 billion in 2012, P631 million in 2013, P1.57 billion in 2014, P14.01 billion in 2015 and P481.95 billion in 2016.
In comparison, the annual budget of the agency were P93 million in 2012, P102 million in 2013, P106 million in 2014, P101 million in 2015, and P104 million in 2016.
“Why is there a question on its budget and relevance when PCGG's cost to recovery ratio is exemplary as shown by these numbers? Of all agencies?” said the PCGG.
Diokno on Wednesday alleged that the PCGG “ don’t do anything ” and should be abolished.
He said its functions maybe absorbed by the DOJ. |
Image copyright AP Image caption Republicans such as Congressman Darrell Issa have held repeated hearings on the Benghazi attacks
There's new evidence, obtained by ABC, that the Obama administration did deliberately purge references to "terrorism" from accounts of the attack on the Benghazi diplomatic mission, which killed four people including the US ambassador to Libya.
Conservatives have long maintained that the administration deliberately suppressed the truth about the attacks.
This is the first hard evidence that the state department did ask for changes to the CIA's original assessment.
Specifically, they wanted references to previous warnings deleted and this sentence removed: "We do know that Islamic extremists with ties to al-Qa'ida participated in the attack."
There's little doubt in my mind that this will haunt Hillary Clinton if she decides to run for president, unless she executes some pretty fancy footwork.
State department spokesperson Victoria Nuland is directly implicated, and the fingerprints of senior White House aides Ben Rhodes and Jay Carney are there as well.
Black and white
Image copyright AP Image caption Republicans are certain to use the Benghazi affair against Clinton should she run in 2016
In the interests of full disclosure I have to say I have not in the past been persuaded that allegations of a cover-up were a big deal. It seemed to me a partisan attack based on very little.
I remember listening to reports from the BBC and others at the time that did suggest the attack in Benghazi was a spontaneous reaction to a rather puerile anti-Islamic video.
I understand President Barack Obama's careful use of the word "terrorism" when it actually means something, rather than as a knee-jerk description of any violence by foreigners against Americans, often in order to justify a "war on terror".
But the evidence is there in black and white, unless we doubt the documents obtained by ABC, which I don't.
Mr Obama's critics are often not very clear what is behind their allegations. I presume they think that the White House wanted to avoid claims the murders were the result of terrorism because this would undermine his claim that al-Qaeda was seriously "degraded". There's also a vague sense he's "soft on terror".
Butt-guarding
The new documents contain two rationales for the changes in language. The first is that it would prejudice the FBI investigation.
Perhaps, but I am not at all persuaded.
The other reason given, old-fashioned butt-guarding, is more credible.
As Ms Nuland puts it, such a report "could be abused by members [of Congress] to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to warnings, so why would we want to feed that either?"
However you read the motives, the state department and apparently the White House did get the CIA to change its story.
This is now very serious, and I suspect heads will roll. The White House will be on the defensive for a while. |
Imagine if Kobe Bryant decided to go back to the Olympics, but instead of representing the US, he played hoops for Italy.
That'd be weird.
But that is kind of what's happening now in Sochi, with Korean speed skater Ahn Hyun-Soo. He just won a bronze medal at the Games. But he didn’t win for his home country of South Korea. He's representing Russia now, as Viktor Ahn.
Which makes him a so-called "passport Olympian."
That's a phrase I learned from Jim Caple, a senior writer for ESPN who is covering the games in Russia. He says passport Olympians can be found at the Summer Olympics, too, but they're easier to notice at the Winter Games.
“You hear, ‘Oh, there’s somebody from the Virgin Islands who’s a skier?’ And you think, ‘Wow.’ That gets your attention,” he says. The US Virgin Islands has two athletes competing in Sochi, both in skiing events.
So what are the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules for athletes with dual nationalities? Can you turn that smidgen of, say, Honduran ancestry into curling gold?
Caple says it depends on the sport.
For example, some sports don’t allow an athlete to change countries if they already competed in an Olympics for a particular nation. Other events, like speed skating, don’t have that rule. It’s also a matter of ancestry. Are your parents or grandparents from a particular country? If so, you’ve got a shot.
It all comes down to the country being okay with you participating under its flag. If the country is cool with it — more often than not, you’re in.
That’s how Ahn started skating for Russia. But he’s an outlier among the passport Olympians. Most don’t medal. Among passport Olympians, the opening and closing ceremonies are one of the few times they’ll even be on television or in the news — unless, of course, you dress up in a skin-tight Mariachi suit.
For the moment, everyone seems to be OK with some countries turning to other countries' athletes to help fill out their Olympic rosters. But Caple thinks that could change if money comes into play. If countries start to bid for competitors on the open market, he thinks the IOC will crack down on it.
But Caple says, usually, passport Olympians are just athletes trying to fulfill an Olympic dream with the help of countries trying to do the same.
“Nobody loses, everybody wins,” he says. “Although, they probably don’t win a medal.” |
Posted on: October 2, 2017 11:46 AM
A new state of the art media centre for the Anglican Diocese of Egypt has been officially opened by Pope Tawadros II, leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church. The diocese is one of four in the province of Jerusalem and the Middle East.
The new studio contains a range of media technology, including cameras and recording devices. It will be used to “serve God’s kingdom in the Arab world through media”, the diocese said.
The media centre was opened last month during the fourth annual meeting of the Egypt Council of Churches. In addition to Pope Tawadros, the leaders of five other Christian churches in Egypt were present for the opening ceremony, including Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac, of the Catholic Church in Egypt; Andrea Zaki, of the Presbyterian Church in Egypt; Theodorus II, of the Greek Orthodox Church, and Bishop Mouneer Anis of the Anglican Church in Egypt.
The Council of Churches Meeting began with a closed session during which the leaders evaluated last year’s strategy and discussed modifications for the future. Afterwards, the secretary general read a report to an audience, which detailed the achievements of the previous year, including the formation of a woman’s ministry committee from different churches, a choir with members from a variety of churches, and the completion of the translation of the gospel of Mark into Egyptian Sign Language.
The project was a joint initiative of the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Anglican Church in Egypt. Six church leaders worked together on the project, including Deacon Clement Clément Alfous, who was ordained this year to serve the Jesus light of the World Episcopal Church for the Deaf in Old Cairo.
Alfous, who is the first deaf person to be ordained in the Middle East, is a former lay reader who “contributed greatly to the stability and growth of the ministry in the deaf church.”
There are approximately three million deaf people in Egypt who understand Egyptian Sign Language, which is also understood by many deaf people from other Middle Eastern countries.
This translation of the gospel of Mark is “the first and only one of its kind in the Arab world,” the diocese said.
The four-year project began with discussion to ensure the team understood the text of the Bible; before a translation of the text was produced by both hearing- and deaf-members of the team that could be signed in a way that the deaf could understand.
“After that, the translated gospel was sent to other deaf people abroad in order to ensure that the language transferred the proper meaning,” the diocese said. “Finally, the translation was evaluated, and modified as needed. Much of the work was performed by the deaf, keeping in line with the vision of the deaf discipling the deaf.”
At the end of the Council of Churches meeting, the members of the council added a fifth building block to a symbolic church together, representing the building of relationships over the past year. |
Motorola had announced a list of all the devices that will get the Android 7.0 Nougat update by the end of this year. Now, some Moto G4 and G4 Plus owners have started receiving Nougat update in India.
A Moto G series owner received a notification for OTA and confirmed with Motorola’s live chat if it was an update and not a soak test. It looks like the update is rolling out for small number of Moto G4 and G4 Plus users as of now.
Android Nougat brings several new features such as Multi-window support, Notification enhancements, Data Saver, Background optimizations, Direct boot, partial support for more than 100 new languages, and 25 locales and more. Moto is also adding a new Moto action with Nougat that lets you swipe to shrink the screen, and a new setting to disable and enable locking the screen when the screen is on and you touch the fingerprint sensor (for Moto G4 Plus). You can check out the complete list of feature here.
[Update: Nougat update for the Moto G4 Plus is not available for all the users yet, but you can flash it manually using the guide here.]
Via |
Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
The Palestinian Authority will formally join the International Criminal Court on April 1, but – following Israel’s decision on Friday to release frozen tax revenues – is not expected at this time to take steps against Israel in the ICC regarding settlement construction.
In addition, The Jerusalem Post has learned that while the ICC prosecutor has – at the PA’s request – opened a preliminary examination on alleged Israeli war crimes during Operation Protective Edge over the summer, the PA is not expected at this time to take additional legal steps in the ICC regarding the Gaza operation.
As a result of Israel’s decision to free up the funds, the PA also does not intend now to stop its security cooperation with Israel, the Post also learned.It was the PA’s steps to join the ICC at the end of December that led Israel to freeze the monthly tax transfers in the first place.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Friday that, at the recommendation of the security establishment, the money that has accrued since then, some $500 million, will be freed up, though the PA’s electric, water and hospital bills to Israel will be subtracted from those funds.Since January Israel has held up the monthly tax transfers and custom duties it passes on to Ramallah.The Israeli statement on Friday about the release of the funds referred only to revenues that have been held up until now, but made no mention about whether from now on the payments will be renewed.One government official said that no decision has yet been made regarding whether March’s revenues will be transferred, an indication that this will depend on whether the PA does indeed not pursue other moves at this time at the ICC, and whether it maintains its security cooperation with Israel.With the security establishment recommending for weeks the transfer of the frozen funds in order to reduce tension in the West Bank, it was expected for some time that this move would take place relatively soon after the March 17 election.PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki is expected to visit the Hague on April 1 to mark the PA’s formally joining the ICC. That same day Maliki is also expected to meet Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders.Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte raised the tax revenue issue in his post-election congratulatory conversation with Netanyahu last week, and the Netherlands has been one of the countries raising this issue consistently in recent weeks both at the ministerial level and in meetings with top advisers and policy advisers in Jerusalem.
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>> |
Close
Despite repeated refusals by federal courts from allowing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from moving forward on "fast lanes" that give large corporations the opportunity to purchase faster Internet uploading and video streaming speeds, the FCC apparently is going forward with its plans. The agency attempted to rebut a number of reports that have said the fast lanes would hurt consumers and allow companies with the money to drive up prices.
If the FCC does follow through with its plans, the entire concept of net neutrality - meaning the government would not give added weight to companies who could pay - would be a historical moment that may affect the pricing of Internet usage. Experts say it would lead to user frustration and an increase in the number of paywalls on websites, eliminating what has been an open source institution for years.
But on April 25, the FCC fought back with a blog post attempting to outline what it is trying to do and allay fears among average citizens and industry experts who are fearing the worst.
"There has been a great deal of misinformation that has recently surfaced regarding the draft Open Internet Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that we will today circulate to the Commission," the FCC wrote.
In the post it argues that there are no plans to change the transparency of the Internet and "no unreasonable discrimination among users established."
It argues that there is a "roadmap" that was established by the court as to how to enforce rules to "protect an Open Internet and asks for further comments on the approach."
Comments have been pouring in, with the vast majority of experts believing that if the FCC moves on its idea of "fast lanes" the Internet as we know it today could come to an end, with users facing the brunt, financially, for the ending of net neutrality.
The FCC has repeatedly stated publicly that it has no plans of ending net neutrality and said it would maintain previous rulings.
The questions being raised in the current debate surround the notion of one unified Internet, as if it runs as a large corporation or partnership of companies. But this is not the case. Instead, there is no international law governing the Internet, although for years the United States has largely been the de facto governor of the Internet. This has led to concerns that the White House and other government agencies could do exactly what the FCC is planning by monetizing Internet services.
Overall, despite the FCC's attempt to downplay its course of action on net neutrality, it has left many believing they are attempting to create an Internet marketplace where only the highest bidders will be able to compete.
ⓒ 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. |
And so it begins (again)...
When Ben Carson got a little to close to him in the polls, Donald Trump compared him to a child molester, and when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) began to get close to him before the Iowa caucuses, Trump, the GOP leader in the presidential race, started suggesting that Cruz was not a natural born citizen. And, now that Marco Rubio seems to have picked up some momentum with a second place finish in South Carolina, Donald Trump has started to direct his ad hominem venom at the Florida senator.
It started with a tweet the morning of the S.C. primary:
The link is to a 12-minute video in which a woman makes the unusual claim that the 14th Amendment is not valid because it wasn't in the original text of the Constitution:
...an unidentified woman who is purported to be a litigation attorney describe what it means to be a natural born citizen. She argues that both Rubio and Cruz are citizens, but not "natural born citizens" according to the Constitution, which says only natural born citizens may become president. Rubio was born in Miami. That makes him a natural born U.S. citizen under the Constitution. But the unnamed woman in the video Trump posted says he is not a "naturalized citizen," because his citizenship is defined under Section 1 of the 14th Amendment. If not for this "man-made law," she says Rubio would have been born a "resident alien," the same status of his parents, both of whom were Cuban nationals.
What makes this woman's argument ridiculous is that Article V of the Constitution does make provisions for amending the Constitution, and the 14th Amendment like all the other amendments enacted since the constitution became the law of the land in 1788 followed those Article V provisions to the letter.
But that didn't stop Donald Trump from perpetuating the falsehood on Sunday while being interviewed by George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week (video of conversation is below). Instead of disputing something obviously ridiculous (that the 14th Amendment isn't law), he took a neutral position when the host asked him if he believed the charge to be true.
I think the lawyers have to determine that that -- and not -- it was a retweet, not so much with Marco. I'm not really that familiar with Marco's circumstances --
And when asked why here retweeted it, Trump responded with:
(...) because I'm not sure. I mean, let people make their own determination. I know Ted is being now -- I think he's being sued by somebody having nothing to do with me, by the way. Is being sued by somebody. Maybe it's in New York, having to do with eligibility (...) I don't know. I really -- I've never looked at it [the issue of whether Rubio is eligible], George. I honestly have never looked at it. As somebody said, he's not. And I retweeted it. I have 14 million people between Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and I retweet things and we start dialogue and it's very interesting. And maybe that's why I have 14 million people.
Later in the show, when Marco Rubio was asked about the Trump statement, he responded:
Well, this is -- look, this is a pattern. This is a game he plays. He says something that's edgy and outrageous and then the media flocks and covers that and then no one else can get any coverage on anything else. And that worked when there were 15 people running for president. It's not going to work anymore. I'm going to spend zero time on his interpretation of the Constitution with regards to eligibility.
Rubio is correct: rather than take responsibility for his actions, Mr. Trump practices plausible deniability. Whenever he gets major flack for an outlandish tweet, he says that all he did was retweet what someone else said. For example, Trump never actually called Fox's Megyn Kelly a "bimbo," he simply retweeted:
When asked about the above tweet, Trump insisted that he had not used the word himself. He told CNN
"That's a retweet. That's different. That's different," he said.
Doesn't it seem a bit strange that a man who promises to personally take responsibility for making America great again won't take responsibility for the messages he tweets out? |
In the wake of his speech at Howard University, Rand Paul (R-KY) is justifiably getting a lot of heat for his denial that he ever questioned or opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1965.
He clearly questioned it and has been reluctant to support it.
He’s also getting grief for trying to teach black history to black people — especially a crowd of students who are required to study African-American history.
But people are just mostly smirking at how the junior senator from Kentucky took pains to point out that his party was the party of Lincoln. This has become the go-to move for conservatives, as if people are unaware of the fact and it will lead the 90 percent of African-Americans who voted for the party of Barack Obama to suddenly switch sides.
“How did the Republican Party, the party of the Great Emancipator, lose the trust and faith of an entire race?” Paul asked the crowd, rhetorically.
His answer wasn’t particularly satisfying, and it also neglected that much of his party’s problem when it comes to race can summed up by many conservatives’ persistent antipathy toward Abraham Lincoln.
It’s true that Rand has never gone as far as his father Ron, who called the Civil War a “senseless” bloodbath that was the result of Lincoln’s desire to “enhance and get rid of the original intent of the republic.”
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Adventure Time Presents:
Come Along with Me
Don’t miss the Ultimate Adventure! Adventure Time’s Series Finale, the conclusion, can be downloaded below! Previous episodes before the finale including the Minecraft Special can also be found below!
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.13 – Come Along with Me
FHD (1080p): S10E13 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E13 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E13 [MEGA/HD] // S10E13 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E13 [MEGA/SD] // S10E13 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
Download The Latest Episodes here or scroll down to season’s section/secondary links below:
Please support the official release if you can! Read here to learn how: https://pastebin.com/MpF65qKg (May not apply to all in different regions)
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.09-12
+ Minecraft Crossover Special:
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.9 – Blenanas
FHD (1080p): S10E09 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E09 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E09 [MEGA/HD] // S10E09 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E09 [MEGA/SD] // S10E09 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
______________________________________________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.10 – Jake the Starchild
FHD (1080p): S10E10 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E10 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E10 [MEGA/HD] // S10E10 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E10 [MEGA/SD] // S10E10 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
______________________________________________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.11 – Temple of Mars
FHD (1080p): S10E11 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E11 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E11 [MEGA/HD] // S10E11 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E11 [MEGA/SD] // S10E11 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
______________________________________________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.12 – Gumbaldia
FHD (1080p): S10E12 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E12 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E12 [MEGA/HD] // S10E12[Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E12 [MEGA/SD] // S10E12 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
______________________________________________
Adventure Time x Minecraft Special – Diamonds and Lemons
FHD (1080p): ATxM [MEGA/FHD] // ATxM [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD
________________________________________________________________________
MIRROR LINK TO ALL EPISODES ON MEGA, SPLIT UP IN SEASONS!
Adventure Time – Seasons 1-5
+++
Adventure Time – Seasons 6-10
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Next new episode: Blenanas – TBA
Come Along with Me – TBA —
If I forget to update this, then feel free to tell me!
In case I do forget and you’re wondering what the next episode is,
then here’s a link to the list of adventure time episodes on Wikipedia
that will show every episode including the next, upcoming new ones!
List of Adventure Time episodes
The Many Awesome Voice Actors (and guests) behind the many characters of The Land of Ooo!
THIS IS SO AWESOME!!! /)^3^(\
______
What Time is it?
It’s Adventure Time with Finn & Jake
This blog will be updated automatically when new episodes are aired(hopefully). Download Episodes:
Pilot – http://www.mediafire.com/?rlwwd8lrb41uhv9
alt #1: AT – Pilot
Business Time(Sneak peek ep.1)
http://www.mediafire.com/?udkoaaz56x621xs
alt #1 (recommended): AT – SP01
Evicted (Sneak peek ep.2)
http://www.mediafire.com/?t8o1511sob1s10o
alt #1 (recommended): AT – SP02
–
Season 1:
–
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.1 – Slumber Party Panic and Trouble in Lumpy Space
http://www.mediafire.com/?28ppxqn2j3b563a
alt: AT – 101
Ep.1A – Slumber Party Panic:
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?cai1iiekoixnm3u [alt: AT – 101a (MKV)]
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?htgk23xj8ar91i6 [alt: AT – 101a (MP4)]
SD: http://www.mediafire.com/?af9souzg5r4q7zm [alt: AT – 101a]
Ep.1B – Trouble in Lumpy Space:
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?v7ua50f1iys2g14 [alt: AT – 101b (MKV)]
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?5a2j8u9pgtcuu9u [alt: AT – 101b (MP4)]
SD: http://www.mediafire.com/?sn6sd6jldk8ng34 [alt: AT – 101b]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.2 – Prisoners of Love and Tree Trunks
http://www.mediafire.com/?msewef6e5xz4r4u
Ep.2A – Prisoners of Love:
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?4erruijh95riiyg
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?v69s164muk3a68r
SD: http://www.mediafire.com/?w0eiad02vugiw59
Ep.2B – Tree Trunks:
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?xg3yc39waykomg5
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?djgzxgf4ifcpjag
SD: http://www.mediafire.com/?acmtea0a5ca1c4b
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.3 – The Enchiridion and The Jiggler
http://www.mediafire.com/?0i1zyq22w64x8ho
Ep.3A – The Enchiridion:
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?1qbjkcu7birs3tr
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?vtzj1ztd96ohllg
SD: http://www.mediafire.com/?rqzqbi5hf975ck7
Ep.3B – The Jiggler:
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?fm12rcyqk0kleuc
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?k4snk2npyqbbsqd
SD: http://www.mediafire.com/?3zx095zojz396t9
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.4 – Ricardio The Heart Guy and Business Time
http://www.mediafire.com/?37g7k1loverkw2q
Ep.4A – Ricardio The Heart Guy
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?y3ad2pv3d85i5ba
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?07btko1s4ke8v23
SD: http://www.mediafire.com/?a5t7m9kdzzdm5f5
Ep.4B – Business Time
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?ue15mi7zcu17cec
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?qd00a4bull9z7x0
SD: http://www.mediafire.com/?3vaing29in0tm6i
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.5 – My Two Favorite People and
Memories of Boom Boom Mountain – http://www.mediafire.com/?6447drbh6weee7k
Ep.5A – My Two Favorite People
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?n8anzmln5xr0k2a
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?evfd3h5sfnfelsi
SD: http://www.mediafire.com/?yfbu3cy3x9uybx4
Ep.5B – Memories of Boom Boom Mountain
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?vveoyn5lyy97m5s
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?r6one09rydta8cj
SD: http://www.mediafire.com/?j2js6tn6j1aaxsk
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.6A – Wizard
http://www.mediafire.com/?tbkjud6dy6m2ar6
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?zghucgvsckic4id
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?lag33yjq6jagg0b
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.6B – Evicted
http://www.mediafire.com/?93qqlu5tudyzpce
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?51q8qbry40546cb
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?dmc3d8d1onqugzw
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.7A – City of Thieves
http://www.mediafire.com/?5p0eodwu3d1y34t
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?p5lrp1d7p4i4uad
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?ipb2y0jc4ou1kqz
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.7B – The Witch’s Garden
http://www.mediafire.com/?z4u7l8g34ggmqla
alt: AT – 107B
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?o5u8i8qw72q5p7q
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?99y42as5ox4brpl
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.8A – What is Life?
http://www.mediafire.com/?37sestqpzddxnrr
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?8117lb8sipylvg7
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?7q2x77uq8vdwim8
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.8B – Ocean of Fear
http://www.mediafire.com/?uvkxsmzg1ai6brm
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?ydnl76gel75gdey
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?q63gjlavlejp4lv
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.9A – When Wedding Bells Thaw
http://www.mediafire.com/?0e7p3hvqw155qlv
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?jd2fmij9m2u3u8d
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?zagr16ywdwn5ovc
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.9B – Dungeon
http://www.mediafire.com/?rus9dvabu3l884c
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?y14hpyrn8gdcss8
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?1ixapin8fvuoy23
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.10A – The Duke
http://www.mediafire.com/?m334anod22wa5ao
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?xff9vifnl535f5v
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?t3jpzw8fjkcoov4
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.10B – Freak City
http://www.mediafire.com/?t66bl4n825qu9ul
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?ckymtam6w8y5p2x
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?3wenh9ccbs9ac2d
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.11A – Donny
http://www.mediafire.com/?jx6861eu3aoa8qw
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?1ouovb6vu67mj6r
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?84144y7s84g3r7h
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.11B – Henchman
http://www.mediafire.com/?g9wn61bq24qd298
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?76xcvb1bd7b6olb
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?3qx6bsr96kt010t
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.12A – Rainy Day Daydream
http://www.mediafire.com/?qe0s7ano6ddkowi
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?9g89y5gggjaal35
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?dq77puo0rg2dd1o
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.12B – What Have You Done?
http://www.mediafire.com/?11wzm96cd6cmz6c
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?304ej1jr1iiavg6
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?44nslxo19knllqq
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.13A – His Hero
http://www.mediafire.com/?n0uizmp4233627p
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?5dn32op5a6a9s64
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?16q6fqi6s2ca30k
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 1 Ep.13B – Gut Grinder
http://www.mediafire.com/?599lgs870ar3d4i
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?n6hrf7r41ut4o45
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?91s39w2na3uvaq1
–
Season 2:
–
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.1A – It Came from the NightOsphere
http://www.mediafire.com/?9l92xtr5axw86st
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.1B – The Eyes
http://www.mediafire.com/?x2exa0uuihn6ge7
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.2A – Loyalty to the King
http://www.mediafire.com/?0y664i7ximfhc7m
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.2B – Blood under the Skin
http://www.mediafire.com/?8w8gj4e25cbeaje
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.3A – Storytelling
http://www.mediafire.com/?4toe4n5hilq0iw6
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.3B – Slow Love
http://www.mediafire.com/?3t0urcjpc74aosy
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.4A – Power Animal
http://www.mediafire.com/?adh6qjfq1f52dq8
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.4B – Crystals Have Power
http://www.mediafire.com/?x529n8idk3nkxga
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.5A – The Other Tarts
http://www.mediafire.com/?udr9621o7kou8y4
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.5B – To Cut a Woman’s Hair
http://www.mediafire.com/?o3hbn8xv9rdhoan
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.6A – The Chamber of Frozen Blades
http://www.mediafire.com/?wqhm37a3wq7vh9m
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.6B – Her Parents
http://www.mediafire.com/?82psgwvqiyg5mym
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.7A – The Pods
http://www.mediafire.com/?8cwwy64vdw1kmw1
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.7B – The Silent King
http://www.mediafire.com/?1ep8t789jieainv
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.8A – The Real You
http://www.mediafire.com/?kllfdl8h188aztk
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.8B – Guardians of Sunshine
http://www.mediafire.com/?rla28uer97oaw3e
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.9A – Death in Bloom
http://www.mediafire.com/?4qxsssnwf4ywolr
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.9B – Susan Strong
http://www.mediafire.com/?yus30md6041pi3x
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.10A – Mystery Train
http://www.mediafire.com/?pjcdwb7fcntjheu
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.10B – Go With Me
http://www.mediafire.com/?lagba97o5wsau9p
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.11A – Belly of the Beast
http://www.mediafire.com/?pacno6kz0cdm3l9
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.11B – The Limit
http://www.mediafire.com/?p5xyw983oo9rcc7
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.12A – Video Makers
http://www.mediafire.com/?jec2yjxm03qbmal
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.12B – Heat Signature [Actually 13B]
http://www.mediafire.com/?xld3r06p1da4y1y
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.13A – Mortal Folly [Actually 12B]
http://www.mediafire.com/?pfocv6sgbldab16
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 2 Ep.13B – Mortal Recoil [Actually 13A]
http://www.mediafire.com/?hcqacgyilk49mh8
–
Season 3:
–
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.1A – Conquest of Cuteness
http://www.mediafire.com/?yuiabu19ha9cs5q
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.1B – Morituri Te Salutamus
http://www.mediafire.com/?fpjljcyormrqbt1
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.2A – Memory of a Memory
http://www.mediafire.com/?ys9bthqzp5lozzk
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.2B – Hitman
http://www.mediafire.com/?nqqdt7n59advb24
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.3A – Too Young
http://www.mediafire.com/?xa3sd84ydktqzy9
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.3B – The Monster
http://www.mediafire.com/?3m8ds7dmcntffbk
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.4A – Still
http://www.mediafire.com/?73vb15077tww3to
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.4B – Wizard Battle
http://www.mediafire.com/?5159v15j5sdl6ef
Adventure Time with Fionna with Cake
Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake – Season 3 Ep.5A
http://www.mediafire.com/?2csh0es1bakwti9
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.5B – What was Missing
http://www.mediafire.com/?qfqcgb36e851mfn
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.6A – Apple Thief
http://www.mediafire.com/?49hcjswjhweswk9
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.6B – The Creeps
http://www.mediafire.com/?0d2c8d2kaaft2ay
alt: AT – 306b
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.7A – From Bad to Worse
http://www.mediafire.com/?hslc2x40bprgc4c
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.7B – Beautopia
http://www.mediafire.com/?1l781xgc8qv7q1u
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.8A – No One Can Hear You
http://www.mediafire.com/?wfzqnhs0j030x16
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.8B – Jake vs. Me-Mow
http://www.mediafire.com/?35sc1mxyn8qe05t
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.9A – Thank You
http://www.mediafire.com/?mpem02oi5xouj1t
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.9B – The New Frontier
http://www.mediafire.com/?s116zrjzz0bn2ia
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.10 – Holly Jolly Secrets Pt I & Pt II
http://www.mediafire.com/?ck77ekmz79bn3ko
alt: AT – 310
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.11a – Marceline’s Closet
http://www.mediafire.com/?o83aom1o3h8n4l1
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.11b – Paper Pete
http://www.mediafire.com/?xf1r472b4c8uuuu
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.12a – Another Way
http://www.mediafire.com/?5mtgbmjbukkmg97
HQ (MKV):http://www.mediafire.com/?bd8nsocnqkb8swi
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.12b – Ghost Princess
http://www.mediafire.com/?506zarm9hlyttzv
SD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?298d9y6dl0y62om
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.13a – Dad’s Dungeon
LQ (AVI): http://www.mediafire.com/?16117smrmuoj6vd
SD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?wosyonvz6ka5cig
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?aqzhs641g427c4u
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 3 Ep.13b – Incendium
http://www.mediafire.com/?6r802j3xj18y00e
HD (MKV): MEGA – AT-313b(HD)
–
Season 4:
–
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.1a – Hot to the Touch
SD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?2mi4cq2izzi46sv
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?m9easx1xca55khn
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.1b – Five Short Graybles
SD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?1zi3da0j4z7q5xn
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?m9easx1xca55khn
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.2a – Web Weirdos
SD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?09d8kduuczy2by1
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?m9easx1xca55khn
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.2b – Dream of Love
SD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?7hhzobzdmxsp45q
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?m9easx1xca55khn
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.3a – Return to the Nightosphere
http://www.mediafire.com/?0f2nyever50qz2q
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.3b – Daddy’s Little Monster
http://www.mediafire.com/?pwmb8d1icp09fqn
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.4a – In Your Footsteps
http://www.mediafire.com/?qm5d350xbhn930e
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.4b – Hug Wolf
http://www.mediafire.com/?oi19j2odoo8c8lj
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.5a – Princess Monster Wife
http://www.mediafire.com/?q3bm5kxv3ai7syw
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.5b – Goliad
http://www.mediafire.com/?v25exuxp9qiguir
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.6a – Beyond this Earthly Realm
http://www.mediafire.com/?zmx54042a7a9xcv
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.6b – Gotcha
http://www.mediafire.com/?i4d9nbk77rwtj38
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.7a – Princess Cookie
http://www.mediafire.com/?97gbnx6m489ou8a
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.7b – Card Wars
http://www.mediafire.com/?j7cf6vt4m5ga770
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.8a – Sons of Mars
http://www.mediafire.com/?7a56ukno0vwoow6
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.8b – Burning Low
http://www.mediafire.com/?unli5a8yz57uncx
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.9a – BMO Noire
http://www.mediafire.com/?y6a3113m5xk5bof
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.9b – King Worm
http://www.mediafire.com/?37nlkokfs7olrkl
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.10a – Lady & Peebles
http://www.mediafire.com/?7oow0jrh37bl29u
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.10b – You Made Me
http://www.mediafire.com/?bxx92bd7eeujipa
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.11a – Who Would Win
http://www.mediafire.com/?6d0a5etsv70g6uf
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.11b – Ignition Point
http://www.mediafire.com/?111qx4dp18ga9dl
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.12a – The Hard Easy
http://www.mediafire.com/?08faf2530xz0ofn
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.12b – Reign of Gunthers
http://www.mediafire.com/?oepcu3ngx9g35w4
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.13a – I Remember You
http://www.mediafire.com/?eb33c28ldc56dye
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 4 Ep.13b – The Lich
http://www.mediafire.com/?iax3cb0kdak0nwb
–
Season 5:
–
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.1 – Finn the Human and Jake the Dog
http://www.mediafire.com/?jwgixhgu8o9g3is
HD (MKV):
501A – http://www.mediafire.com/?jngt65fcf732y30
501B – http://www.mediafire.com/?hxhae3vy95a8pim
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.2a – Five More Short Graybles
http://www.mediafire.com/?wmwrmd263419u6u
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?j7agj7y9emt57n4
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.2b – Up a Tree
http://www.mediafire.com/?6g1syceas8p8r13
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?05ko92e6urkb36e
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.3a – All the Little People
http://www.mediafire.com/?0cbr0j66i91db1s
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?aeh8ieq0srkrt1k
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.3b – Jake the Dad
http://www.mediafire.com/?g3u8cqm7qa5ysma
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?y4c56btk86b7ow8
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.4a – Davey
http://www.mediafire.com/?digkmkfl8df643v
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?su4otsithoobmeg
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.4b – Mystery Dungeon
http://www.mediafire.com/?2wiw2mq7peftia3
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?wqgp02i2b69cqvj
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.5a – All Your Fault
http://www.mediafire.com/?80kbcl5xs12vmlw
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?ccc7sy7axb5zzoy
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.5b – Little Dude
http://www.mediafire.com/?96xn4kyvalsb9xi
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?h8s3511hu1q97dd
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.6a – Bad Little Boy
http://www.mediafire.com/?0d68iqtzm0lb588
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?byu9hjtupugylum
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.6b – Vault of Bones
http://www.mediafire.com/?uqcsb41a9oujp27
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?wokbtr5j44b2ho5
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.7a – The Great Birdman
http://www.mediafire.com/?48lrz5lim290bfd
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?hb7bvfdvsw316fb
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.7b – Simon & Marcy
http://www.mediafire.com/?oaci331divmem1v
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?od1oo2hqzzdcon8
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.8a – A Glitch Is a Glitch
http://www.mediafire.com/?9hb91057nb8xz98
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?fjcu27fg7kgjnps
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.8b – Puhoy
http://www.mediafire.com/?ca8uqleaimans1d
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?fai8dq5fhgx0sn3
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.9a – BMO Lost
http://www.mediafire.com/?6i36eg08kdvq6x3
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?7lv77zyi7e17l16
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.9b – Princess Potluck
http://www.mediafire.com/?fj545a47xwh8a1k
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?wi8isngtvjordod
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.10a – James Baxter the Horse
http://www.mediafire.com/?wf2k7fb21yfw6i4
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?env3bilvbvejbl0
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.10b – Shh!
http://www.mediafire.com/?k7c9tdarp67tc2x
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?dqh7iy862ip9flh
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.11a – The Suitor
http://www.mediafire.com/?qk870m1y757lmue
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?sai773v5qz6oobb
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.11b – The Party’s Over, Isla de Señorita
http://www.mediafire.com/?8vvj2368ox9gwsu
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?1tk0td329pxb22b
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.12a – One Last Job
http://www.mediafire.com/?kdo4bv8gxj55fc1/a>
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?f9o91at9np50quw
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.12b – Another Five More Short Graybles
http://www.mediafire.com/?7ovaah3zfn7kcee
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?5ubcxqt9tqx1g5j
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.13a – Candy Streets
http://www.mediafire.com/?5biie04d1irruuj
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?10f2gfbs0r36a01
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.13b – Wizards Only, Fools
http://www.mediafire.com/?xv7lkdbk6o739zn
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?jn4g0dndayi37qb [alt: AT-513b(HD)- MEGA]
______________
Advenuture Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.14a – Jake Suit
http://www.mediafire.com/?9bdxmnrd12k9b7s
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?57ksmokah3uj0as
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.14b – Be More
http://www.mediafire.com/?hoh324l4mb335pa
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?v18t8ciszzbitnn
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 – Ep.15a – Sky Witch
http://www.mediafire.com/?5zbxkexemi3cvg5
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?o3wkudvry434yz8
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 – Ep.15b – Frost & Fire
http://www.mediafire.com/?gds6mm2i2hv64zx
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?851i6gzw4og95h4
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 – Ep.16a – Too Old
http://www.mediafire.com/?fqxc7c08lpbh899
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?mram4sg9ydqs7ki
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 – Ep.16b – Earth & Water
http://www.mediafire.com/?734wwufk8z23tc4
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?rrttste401sl461
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 – Ep.17a – Time Sandwich
http://www.mediafire.com/?tsg7dg4wjx5xids
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?kn23uefqnd2sdn5
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.17b – The Vault
http://www.mediafire.com/?lvq8cibdt5fzdhj
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?jio1gizg6uv0p1m
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.18a – Love Games
http://www.mediafire.com/?l13liai9yjb1ksv
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?7577fepsvo00q94
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.18b – Dungeon Train
http://www.mediafire.com/?ta9oc74ruc1p5xj
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?wkdccoml6t0bc7z [alt: AT-518b(HD) – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.19a – Box Prince
http://www.mediafire.com/?7tuaah45nxp2hnt
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?tfbcf9ddiq5zq6u
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.19b – Red Starved
http://www.mediafire.com/?65k45oe7af8xbt1
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?bl5n4yy95bpabke
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.20a – We Fixed a Truck
http://www.mediafire.com/?zd09nj2wwqzuvo1
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?pnnw1dzgnhcxp2h
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.20b – Play Date
http://www.mediafire.com/?mibv1gn0n16enmb
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?c5mbnx8356k562q
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.21a – The Pit
http://www.mediafire.com/?qnfkcthmmsbwoz8
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?qud0te372e50alq
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.21b – James
http://www.mediafire.com/?8lcp81t9jp6fj0z
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?uyrd11mlvd93uh3
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.22a – Root Beer Guy
http://www.mediafire.com/?d1d4aypi2in4fva
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?sjmbqfmpm08y2cr
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.22b – Apple Wedding
http://www.mediafire.com/?ib6rlh0h3ggi2fd
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?w6ur32s8b0rwwsx
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.23a – Blade of Grass
http://www.mediafire.com/?6wxfhbp3vwb499v
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?58ke9h9d6w3yrpp
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.23b – Rattleballs
http://www.mediafire.com/?nn83b0cee3jrt79
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?75et1crtnzm9d4p
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.24a – The Red Throne
http://www.mediafire.com/?f8j15ddeiljtqda
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?l0qjahjea6yzccs
—
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.24b – Betty
http://www.mediafire.com/?97z80269ym2zamd
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?p66a615g5d57bd0
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.25a – Bad Timing
http://www.mediafire.com/?25l1p2jerj49vla
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?8d89xbm8wo4o7ao
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.25b/26a – Lemonhope Pt.1 and Pt.2
http://www.mediafire.com/?jvk8az2b1u7eyv0
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?u3515h6xrc4wrkt
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 5 Ep.26b – Billy’s Bucket List
http://www.mediafire.com/?h4jcb5sn04497io
alt: AT – 526b (Update: Audio desync fixed on 7/16/14)
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?4wii292q9ot1gh4
–
Season 6:
–
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.1 – Wake Up and Escape from the Citadel
http://www.mediafire.com/?2jfp84pmoyjr9ot
alt: AT – 601 [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?w6v02qayuoo27by
alt: AT-601 [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.2a – James II
http://www.mediafire.com/?k2eimgvg7qvxg61
alt: AT – 602a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?7oz9ohb2w2hi4k5
alt: AT-602a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.2b – The Tower
http://www.mediafire.com/?2r8c29h1vkbc2dm
alt: AT – 602b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?01l968cc4rhit88
alt: AT-602b [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.3a – Sad Face
http://www.mediafire.com/?5j98yhp22fj8h03
alt: AT – 603a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?lubgf3wdcuu4erg
alt: AT-603a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.3b – Breezy
http://www.mediafire.com/?bgtb2n4q3hazmq8
alt: AT – 603b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?3jam9s9wm2aigja
alt: AT-603b [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.4a – Food Chain
http://www.mediafire.com/?d9pb9hdczjyzuc8
alt: AT – 604a [MEGA]
HD (MP4): http://www.mediafire.com/?2a3ey735ru3qjb5
alt: AT-604a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.4b – Furniture & Meat
http://www.mediafire.com/?6bhm024w0ztu50v
alt: AT – 604b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?j3283zy7x6gjfbh
alt: AT-604b [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.5a – The Prince Who Wanted Everything
http://www.mediafire.com/?cdvbit8rtsdfmom
alt: AT – 605a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?pggs1ri98op26p7
alt: AT-605a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.5b – Something Big
http://www.mediafire.com/?ydi6hh4zcndmwyqx
alt: AT – 605b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?m1cns31ay8laq9c
alt: AT-605b [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.6a – Little Brother
http://www.mediafire.com/?c2yyhgeanh163z5
alt: AT – 606a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?22b55inrt4i04iq
alt: AT-606a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.6b – Ocarina
http://www.mediafire.com/?3xce5agpv5bx52h
alt: AT – 606b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?aw6p10rdaq18eh8
alt: AT-606b [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.7a – Thanks for the Crabapples, Giuseppe!
http://www.mediafire.com/?uz1nskaxo2a11pz
alt: AT – 607a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?igl9rv34gsd4809
alt: AT-607a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.7b – Princess Day
http://www.mediafire.com/?4ug32fexcfc24s7
alt: AT – 607b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?pfgwjy1xzefde8u
alt: AT-607b [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.8a – Nemesis
http://www.mediafire.com/?28nrscmtg6ddz7n
alt: AT – 608a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?ya1s87a775xa8bo
alt: AT-608a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.8b – Joshua and Margaret Investigations
http://www.mediafire.com/?xuud6g0zmr83gns
alt: AT – 608b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?xds45s93znxb7xi
alt: AT-608b [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.9a – Ghost Fly
http://www.mediafire.com/?g3bpeu1m90mfgfs
alt: AT – 609a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?p2g4a4kdp8n79f7
alt: AT-609a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.9b – Everything’s Jake
http://www.mediafire.com/?xf64636y39t6oaz
alt: AT – 609b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?s1xim9jg2vavs6j
alt: AT-609b [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.10a – Is That You?
http://www.mediafire.com/?r731uhd5bb4gvfn
alt: AT – 610a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?aq90bb1hn0ue75a
alt: AT-610a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.10b – Jake the Brick
http://www.mediafire.com/?w49bqbl13jljr5f
alt: AT – 610b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?yagjdmq665vs75y
alt: AT-610b [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.11a – Dentist
http://www.mediafire.com/?dgizot44g6kxz3d
alt: AT – 611a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?a35oynzb9idj26w
alt: AT-611a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.11b – The Cooler
http://www.mediafire.com/?nei0hl6a7c3lpba
alt: AT – 611b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?j5iqajihumqj57d
alt: AT-611b [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.12a – The Pajama War
http://www.mediafire.com/?nona0x1bwgl3dsw
alt: AT – 612a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?4tio1558v3yaf84
alt: AT-612a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.12b – Evergreen
http://www.mediafire.com/?7njgd27bjsw9gd4
alt: AT – 612b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?avpyrjjbhcveyv3
alt: AT-612b [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.13a – Astral Plane
http://www.mediafire.com/?9qp2gcu491o2vb8
alt: AT – 613a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?2w2u2pw0967t4wd
alt: AT-613a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.13b – Gold Stars
http://www.mediafire.com/?3d97auucmtbbx7a
alt: AT – 613b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?c65rj1lbv33o6s6
alt: AT-613b [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.14a – The Visitor
http://www.mediafire.com/?3eaiek5o3pdx9ed
alt: AT – 614a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?ydrhpd98b364uy4
alt: AT-614a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.14b – The Mountain
http://www.mediafire.com/?sj5rb9s39s43ukm
alt: AT – 614b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?idqat92ltj5d5rh
alt: AT-614b [HD – MEGA]
______________
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.15a – Dark Purple
http://www.mediafire.com/?zn4wkn6fdwqudwv
alt: AT – 615a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?kdy1fb57j6k6xty
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.15b – The Diary
http://www.mediafire.com/?tl6lmw1p8vw61mp
alt: AT – 615b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?xi2xp631314hfdn
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.16a – Walnuts & Rain
http://www.mediafire.com/?8qn2s87kd5u42gk
alt: AT – 616a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?p6985e0bylci4my
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.16b – Friends Forever
http://www.mediafire.com/?ynt2wq91ycvm7jd
alt: AT – 616b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?61ir15e3cnsn751
alt: AT-616b [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.17a – Jermaine
http://www.mediafire.com/?1hmsdck59b7wkyk
alt: AT – 617a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?73h2qa1803t8f9k
alt: AT-617a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.17b – Chips and Ice Cream
http://www.mediafire.com/?af0pvprkp29vwqs
alt: AT – 617b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?cb9j38ohz1mt486
alt: AT-617b [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.18a – Graybles 1000+
http://www.mediafire.com/?m58izi1unsa0mtn
alt: AT – 618a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?twyyy3bfi7dfe88
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.18b – Hoots
http://www.mediafire.com/?4dyosmupubmbd2s
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HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?dfimln4ol8wuq5w
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.19a – Water Park Prank
http://www.mediafire.com/?5457yzusqh2yq0k
alt: AT – 619a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?956lp40hl2l1f61
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.19b – You Forgot Your Floaties
http://www.mediafire.com/?gv1l7lbseqc9sdg
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HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?aycm0kdo6r1sw51
alt: AT-619b [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.20a – Be Sweet
http://www.mediafire.com/?m5tr5r58mctu14v
alt: AT – 620a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?kbuks0jrwcslidi
alt: AT-620a [HD – MEGA]
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.20b – Orgalorg
http://www.mediafire.com/?qi4xhzef7fi444g
alt: AT – 620b [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?676uovoy8dceb2h
alt: AT-620b [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.21a – On the Lam
http://www.mediafire.com/?bz4ushcy68zrkcn
alt: AT – 621a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?3ev77qocd81vk0w
alt: AT-621a [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 6 Ep.21b/22a – Hot Diggity Doom and The Comet
http://www.mediafire.com/?7f6s7k9kfog5y34
alt: AT – 621b/622a [MEGA]
HD (MKV): http://www.mediafire.com/?ly014bpy8z4ny22
alt: AT-621b/622a [HD – MEGA]
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Season 7:
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.1 – Bonnie and Neddy
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alt: AT – S07E01 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E01 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E01 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.2 – Varmints
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alt: AT – S07E02 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E02 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E02 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.3 – Cherry Cream Soda
AT – S07E03 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E03 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E03 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E03 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.4 – Mama Said
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alt: AT – S07E04 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E04 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E04 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.5 – Football
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alt: AT – S07E05 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E05 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E05 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time Presents: STAKES – Special Mini-series
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.6 – Marceline the Vampire Queen (Stakes Pt. 1)
AT – S07E06 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E06 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E06 [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.7 – Everything Stays (Stakes Pt. 2)
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alt: AT – S07E07 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E07 [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.8 – Vamps About (Stakes Pt. 3)
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alt: AT – S07E08 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E08 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E08 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.9 – The Empress Eyes (Stakes Pt. 4)
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alt: AT – S07E09 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E09 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E09 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.10 – May I Come In (Stakes Pt.5)
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alt: AT – S07E10 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E10 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E10 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.11 – Take Her Back (Stakes Pt.6)
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alt: AT – S07E11 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E11 [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.12 – Checkmate (Stakes Pt.7)
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alt: AT – S07E12 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E12 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E12 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.13 – The Dark Cloud (Stakes Pt.8 – Final)
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HD (MKV): AT-S07E13 [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.14-15 – The More You Moe, The Moe You Know
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alt: AT – S07E14-E15 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E14-E15 [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.16 – Summer Showers
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alt: AT – S07E16 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E16 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E16 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.17 – Angel Face
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alt: AT – S07E17 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E17 [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.18 – President Porpoise is Missing!
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alt: AT – S07E18 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E18 [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.19 – Blank-Eyed Girl
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alt: AT – S07E19 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E19 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E19 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.20 – Bad Jubies
AT – S07E20 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E20 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E20 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E20 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.21 – King’s Ransom
AT – S07E21 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E21 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E21 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E21 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.22 – Scamps
AT – S07E22 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E22 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E22 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E22 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.23 – Crossover
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HD (MKV): AT-S07E23 [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.24 – The Hall of Egress
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alt: AT – S07E24 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E24 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E24 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.25 – Flute Spell
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alt: AT – S07E25 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E25 [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.26 – The Thin Yellow Line
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alt: AT – S07E26 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E26 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E26 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.27 – Broke His Crown
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alt: AT – S07E27 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E27 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E27 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.28 – Don’t Look
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alt: AT – S07E28 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E28 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E28 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.29 – Beyond The Grotto
AT – S07E29 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E29 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E29 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E29 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.30 – Lady Rainicorn of the Crystal Dimension
AT – S07E30 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E30 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E30 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E30 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.31 – I Am A Sword (*Updated with WEB-DL!)
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alt: AT – S07E31 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E31 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E31 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.32 – Bun Bun
AT – S07E32 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E32 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E32 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E32 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.33 – Normal Man
AT – S07E33 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E33 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E33 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E33 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.34 – Elemental
AT – S07E34 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E34 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E34 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E34 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.35 – Five Short Tables
AT – S07E35 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E35 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E35 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E35 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.36 – The Music Hole
AT – S07E36 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E36 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E36 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E36 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.37 – Daddy-Daughter Card Wars
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alt: AT – S07E37 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E37 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E37 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.38 – Preboot
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alt: AT – S07E38 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E38 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E38 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 7 Ep.39 – Reboot
AT – S07E39 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E39 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S07E39 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S07E39 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Season 8:
–
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 8 Ep.1 – Two Swords
AT – S08E01 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S08E01 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S08E01 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S08E01 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 8 Ep.2 – Do No Harm
AT – S08E02 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S08E02 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S08E02 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S08E02 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 8 Ep.3 – Wheels
AT – S08E03 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S08E03 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S08E03 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S08E03 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 8 Ep.4 – High Strangeness
AT – S08E04 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S08E04 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S08E04 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S08E04 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 8 Ep.5 – Horse and Ball
AT – S08E05 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S08E05 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S08E05 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S08E05 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 8 Ep.6 – Jelly Beans Have Power
AT – S08E06 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S08E06 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S08E06 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S08E06 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time Presents: Islands – Mini-series #2
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 8 Ep.7-14 – Islands Miniseries Pt.1-8
AT – Islands Pt.1-8 [MEGA]
alt: AT – Islands Pt.1-8 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT – Islands Pt.1-8
alt: AT – Islands Pt.1-8 [HD – Mail.ru]
–
Season 9:
–
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 9 Ep.1 – Orb
AT – S09E01 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S09E01 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S09E01 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S09E01 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 9 Ep.2-9 – Elements Miniseries Pt.1-8
AT – Elements Pt.1-8 [MEGA]
alt: AT – Elements Pt.1-8 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT – Elements Pt.1-8
alt: AT – Elements Pt.1-8 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 9 Ep.10 – Abstract
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alt: AT – S09E10 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S09E10 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S09E10 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 9 Ep.11 – Ketchup
AT – S09E11 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S09E11 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S09E11 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S09E11 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 9 Ep.12 – Fionna and cake and Fionna
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alt: AT – S09E12 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S09E12 [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 9 Ep.13 – Whispers
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alt: AT – S09E13 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S09E13 [HD – MEGA]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 9 Ep.14 – Three Buckets
AT – S09E14 [MEGA]
alt: AT – S09E14 [Mail.ru]
HD (MKV): AT-S09E14 [HD – MEGA]
alt: AT – S09E14 [HD – Mail.ru]
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Season 10:
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.1 – The Wild Hunt
FHD (1080p): S10E01 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E01 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E01 [MEGA/HD] // S10E01 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E01 [MEGA/SD] // S10E01 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.2 – Always BMO Closing
FHD (1080p): S10E02 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E02 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E02 [MEGA/HD] // S10E02 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E02 [MEGA/SD] // S10E02 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.3 – Son of Rap Bear [FHD]
FHD (1080p): S10E03 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E03 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E03 [MEGA/HD] // S10E03 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E03 [MEGA/SD] // S10E03 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.4 – Bonnibel Bubblegum [FHD]
FHD (1080p): S10E04 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E04 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E04 [MEGA/HD] // S10E04 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E04 [MEGA/SD] // S10E04 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.5 – Seventeen
FHD (1080p): S10E05 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E05 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E05 [MEGA/HD] // S10E05 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E05 [MEGA/SD] // S10E05 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.6 – Ring of Fire
FHD (1080p): S10E06 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E06 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E06 [MEGA/HD] // S10E06 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E06 [MEGA/SD] // S10E06 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.7 – Marcy & Hudson
FHD (1080p): S10E07 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E07 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E07 [MEGA/HD] // S10E07 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E07 [MEGA/SD] // S10E07 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.8 – First Investigation
FHD (1080p): S10E08 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E08 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E08 [MEGA/HD] // S10E08 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E08 [MEGA/SD] // S10E08 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.9 – Blenanas
FHD (1080p): S10E09 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E09 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
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SD (480p): S10E09 [MEGA/SD] // S10E09 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.10 – Jake the Starchild
FHD (1080p): S10E10 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E10 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E10 [MEGA/HD] // S10E10 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E10 [MEGA/SD] // S10E10 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.11 – Temple of Mars
FHD (1080p): S10E11 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E11 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E11 [MEGA/HD] // S10E11 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E11 [MEGA/SD] // S10E11 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
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Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.12 – Gumbaldia
FHD (1080p): S10E12 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E12 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E12 [MEGA/HD] // S10E12[Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E12 [MEGA/SD] // S10E12 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD]
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Adventure Time x Minecraft Special – Diamonds and Lemons
FHD (1080p): ATxM [MEGA/FHD] // ATxM [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD
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Adventure Time Presents: Come Along with Me – Series Finale
Adventure Time with Finn and Jake – Season 10 Ep.13 – Come Along with Me
FHD (1080p): S10E13 [MEGA/FHD] // S10E13 [Cloud.Mail.ru/FHD]
HD (720p): S10E13 [MEGA/HD] // S10E13 [Cloud.Mail.ru/HD]
SD (480p): S10E13 [MEGA/SD] // S10E13 [Cloud.Mail.ru/SD] |
Been meaning to check out this Brandon Sanderson guy? Now’s your chance!
On November 22, Arcanum Unbounded arrives on shelves, collecting short stories from the many worlds of epic fantasy author Brandon Sanderson. What is a “mistborn”? And why do your friends light up with excitement at the thought of another glimpse into the Stormlight Archive? And…what are these secretive whispers that it’s all connected?
The ARCANUM can tell you. Just open its pages. Every story functions as an introduction to that world, with no need to study up beforehand.
You can begin right now with THE EMPEROR’S SOUL, Brandon Sanderson’s Hugo Award-winning novella. On the world of Sel, Shai is given an impossible task: create—Forge—a new soul for the emperor in less than one hundred days….
Prologue
Gaotona ran his fingers across the thick canvas, inspecting one of the greatest works of art he had ever seen. Unfortunately, it was a lie.
“The woman is a danger.” Hissed voices came from behind him. “What she does is an abomination.”
Gaotona tipped the canvas toward the hearth’s orange-red light, squinting. In his old age, his eyes weren’t what they had once been. Such precision, he thought, inspecting the brush strokes, feeling the layers of thick oils. Exactly like those in the original.
He would never have spotted the mistakes on his own. A blossom slightly out of position. A moon that was just a sliver too low in the sky. It had taken their experts days of detailed inspection to find the errors.
“She is one of the best Forgers alive.” The voices belonged to Gaotona’s fellow arbiters, the empire’s most important bureaucrats. “She has a reputation as wide as the empire. We need to execute her as an example.”
“No.” Frava, leader of the arbiters, had a sharp, nasal voice. “She is a valuable tool. This woman can save us. We must use her.”
Why?Gaotona thought again. Why would someone capable of this artistry, this majesty, turn to forgery? Why not create original paintings? Why not be a true artist?
I must understand.
“Yes,” Frava continued, “the woman is a thief, and she practices a horrid art. But I can control her, and with her talents we can fix this mess we have found ourselves in.”
The others murmured worried objections. The woman they spoke of, Wan ShaiLu, was more than a simple con artist. So much more. She could change the nature of reality itself. That raised another question. Why would she bother learning to paint? Wasn’t ordinary art mundane compared to her mystical talents?
So many questions. Gaotona looked up from his seat beside the hearth. The others stood in a conspiratorial clump around Frava’s desk, their long, colorful robes shimmering in the firelight. “I agree with Frava,” Gaotona said.
The others glanced at him. Their scowls indicated they cared little for what he said, but their postures told a different tale. Their respect for him was buried deep, but it was remembered.
“Send for the Forger,” Gaotona said, rising. “I would hear what she has to say. I suspect she will be more difficult to control than Frava claims, but we have no choice. We either use this woman’s skill, or we give up control of the empire.”
The murmurs ceased. How many years had it been since Frava and Gaotona had agreed on anything at all, let alone on something so divisive as making use of the Forger?
One by one, the other three arbiters nodded.
“Let it be done,” Frava said softly.
Day Two
Shai pressed her fingernail into one of the stone blocks of her prison cell. The rock gave way slightly. She rubbed the dust between her fingers. Limestone. An odd material for use in a prison wall, but the whole wall wasn’t of limestone, merely that single vein within the block.
She smiled. Limestone. That little vein had been easy to miss, but if she was right about it, she had finally identified all forty-four types of rock in the wall of her circular pit of a prison cell. Shai knelt down beside her bunk, using a fork—she’d bent back all of the tines but one—to carve notes into the wood of one bed leg. Without her spectacles, she had to squint as she wrote.
To Forge something, you had to know its past, its nature. She was almost ready. Her pleasure quickly slipped away, however, as she noticed another set of markings on the bed leg, lit by her flickering candle. Those kept track of her days of imprisonment.
So little time, she thought. If her count was right, only a day remained before the date set for her public execution.
Deep inside, her nerves were drawn as tight as strings on an instrument. One day. One day remaining to create a soulstamp and escape. But she had no soulstone, only a crude piece of wood, and her only tool for carving was a fork.
It would be incredibly difficult. That was the point. This cell was meant for one of her kind, built of stones with many different veins of rock in them to make them difficult to Forge. They would come from different quarries and each have unique histories. Knowing as little as she did, Forging them would be nearly impossible. And even if she did transform the rock, there was probably some other failsafe to stop her.
Nights! What a mess she’d gotten herself into.
Notes finished, she found herself looking at her bent fork. She’d begun carving the wooden handle, after prying off the metal portion, as a crude soulstamp. You’re not going to get out this way, Shai, she told herself. You need another method.
She’d waited six days, searching for another way out. Guards to exploit, someone to bribe, a hint about the nature of her cell. So far, nothing had—
Far above, the door to the dungeons opened.
Shai leaped to her feet, tucking the fork handle into her waistband at the small of her back. Had they moved up her execution?
Heavy boots sounded on the steps leading into the dungeon, and she squinted at the newcomers who appeared above her cell. Four were guards, accompanying a man with long features and fingers. A Grand, the race who led the empire. That robe of blue and green indicated a minor functionary who had passed the tests for government service, but not risen high in its ranks.
Shai waited, tense.
The Grand leaned down to look at her through the grate. He paused for just a moment, then waved for the guards to unlock it. “The arbiters wish to interrogate you, Forger.”
Shai stood back as they opened her cell’s ceiling, then lowered a ladder. She climbed, wary. If she were going to take someone to an early execution, she’d have let the prisoner think something else was happening, so she wouldn’t resist. However, they didn’t lock Shai in manacles as they marched her out of the dungeons.
Judging by their route, they did indeed seem to be taking her toward the arbiters’ study. Shai composed herself. A new challenge, then. Dared she hope for an opportunity? She shouldn’t have been caught, but she could do nothing about that now. She had been bested, betrayed by the Imperial Fool when she’d assumed she could trust him. He had taken her copy of the Moon Scepter and swapped it for the original, then run off.
Shai’s Uncle Won had taught her that being bested was a rule of life. No matter how good you were, someone was better. Live by that knowledge, and you would never grow so confident that you became sloppy.
Last time she had lost. This time she would win. She abandoned all sense of frustration at being captured and became the person who could deal with this new chance, whatever it was. She would seize it and thrive.
This time, she played not for riches, but for her life.
The guards were Strikers—or, well, that was the Grand name for them. They had once called themselves Mulla’dil, but their nation had been folded into the empire so long ago that few used the name. Strikers were a tall people with a lean musculature and pale skin. They had hair almost as dark as Shai’s, though theirs curled while hers lay straight and long. She tried with some success not to feel dwarfed by them. Her people, the MaiPon, were not known for their stature.
“You,” she said to the lead Striker as she walked at the front of the group. “I remember you.” Judging by that styled hair, the youthful captain did not often wear a helmet. Strikers were well regarded by the Grands, and their Elevation was not unheard of. This one had a look of eagerness to him. That polished armor, that crisp air. Yes, he fancied himself bound for important things in the future.
“The horse,” Shai said. “You threw me over the back of your horse after I was captured. Tall animal, Gurish descent, pure white. Good animal. You know your horseflesh.”
The Striker kept his eyes forward, but whispered under his breath, “I’m going to enjoy killing you, woman.”
Lovely, Shai thought as they entered the Imperial Wing of the palace. The stonework here was marvelous, after the ancient Lamio style, with tall pillars of marble inlaid with reliefs. Those large urns between the pillars had been created to mimic Lamio pottery from long ago.
Actually, she reminded herself, the Heritage Faction still rules, so…
The emperor would be from that faction, as would the council of five arbiters who did much of the actual ruling. Their faction lauded the glory and learning of past cultures, even going so far as to rebuild their wing of the palace as an imitation of an ancient building. Shai suspected that on the bottoms of those “ancient” urns would be soulstamps that had transformed them into perfect imitations of famous pieces.
Yes, the Grands called Shai’s powers an abomination, but the only aspect of it that was technically illegal was creating a Forgery to change a person. Quiet Forgery of objects was allowed, even exploited, in the empire so long as the Forger was carefully controlled. If someone were to turn over one of those urns and remove the stamp on the bottom, the piece would become simple unornamented pottery.
The Strikers led her to a door with gold inlay. As it opened, she managed to catch a glimpse of the red soulstamp on the bottom inside edge, transforming the door into an imitation of some work from the past. The guards ushered her into a homey room with a crackling hearth, deep rugs, and stained wood furnishings. Fifth century hunting lodge, she guessed.
All five arbiters of the Heritage Faction waited inside. Three—two women, one man—sat in tall-backed chairs at the hearth. One other woman occupied the desk just inside the doors: Frava, senior among the arbiters of the Heritage Faction, was probably the most powerful person in the empire other than Emperor Ashravan himself. Her greying hair was woven into a long braid with gold and red ribbons; it draped a robe of matching gold. Shai had long pondered how to rob this woman, as—among her duties—Frava oversaw the Imperial Gallery and had offices adjacent to it.
Frava had obviously been arguing with Gaotona, the elderly male Grand standing beside the desk. He stood up straight and clasped his hands behind his back in a thoughtful pose. Gaotona was eldest of the ruling arbiters. He was said to be the least influential among them, out of favor with the emperor.
Both fell silent as Shai entered. They eyed her as if she were a cat that had just knocked over a fine vase. Shai missed her spectacles, but took care not to squint as she stepped up to face these people; she needed to look as strong as possible.
“Wan ShaiLu,” Frava said, reaching to pick up a sheet of paper from the desk. “You have quite the list of crimes credited to your name.”
The way you say that… What game was this woman playing? She wants something of me, Shai decided. That is the only reason to bring me in like this.
The opportunity began to unfold.
“Impersonating a noblewoman of rank,” Frava continued, “breaking into the palace’s Imperial Gallery, reForging your soul, and of course the attempted theft of the Moon Scepter. Did you really assume that we would fail to recognize a simple forgery of such an important imperial possession?”
Apparently, Shai thought, you have done just that, assuming that the Fool escaped with the original. It gave Shai a little thrill of satisfaction to know that her forgery now occupied the Moon Scepter’s position of honor in the Imperial Gallery.
“And what of this?” Frava said, waving long fingers for one of the Strikers to bring something from the side of the room. A painting, which the guard placed on the desk. Han ShuXen’s masterpiece Lily of the Spring Pond.
“We found this in your room at the inn,” Frava said, tapping her fingers on the painting. “It is a copy of a painting I myself own, one of the most famous in the empire. We gave it to our assessors, and they judge that your forgery was amateur at best.”
Shai met the woman’s eyes.
“Tell me why you have created this forgery,” Frava said, leaning forward. “You were obviously planning to swap this for the painting in my office by the Imperial Gallery. And yet, you were striving for the Moon Scepter itself. Why plan to steal the painting too? Greed?”
“My uncle Won,” Shai said, “told me to always have a backup plan. I couldn’t be certain the scepter would even be on display.”
“Ah…” Frava said. She adopted an almost maternal expression, though it was laden with loathing—hidden poorly—and condescension. “You requested arbiter intervention in your execution, as most prisoners do. I decided on a whim to agree to your request because I was curious why you had created this painting.” She shook her head. “But child, you can’t honestly believe we’d let you free. With sins like this? You are in a monumentally bad predicament, and our mercy can only be extended so far…”
Shai glanced toward the other arbiters. The ones seated near the fireplace seemed to be paying no heed, but they did not speak to one another. They were listening. Something is wrong, Shai thought. They’re worried.
Gaotona still stood just to the side. He inspected Shai with eyes that betrayed no emotion.
Frava’s manner had the air of one scolding a small child. The lingering end of her comment was intended to make Shai hope for release. Together, that was meant to make her pliable, willing to agree to anything in the hope that she’d be freed.
An opportunity indeed…
It was time to take control of this conversation.
“You want something from me,” Shai said. “I’m ready to discuss my payment.”
“Your payment?” Frava asked. “Girl, you are to be executed on the morrow! If we did wish something of you, the payment would be your life.”
“My life is my own,” Shai said. “And it has been for days now.”
“Please,” Frava said. “You were locked in the Forger’s cell, with thirty different kinds of stone in the wall.”
“Forty-four kinds, actually.”
Gaotona raised an appreciative eyebrow.
Nights! I’m glad I got that right…
Shai glanced at Gaotona. “You thought I wouldn’t recognize the grindstone, didn’t you? Please. I’m a Forger. I learned stone classification during my first year of training. That block was obviously from the Laio quarry.”
Frava opened her mouth to speak, a slight smile to her lips.
“Yes, I know about the plates of ralkalest, the unForgeable metal, hidden behind the rock wall of my cell,” Shai guessed. “The wall was a puzzle, meant to distract me. You wouldn’t actually make a cell out of rocks like limestone, just in case a prisoner gave up on Forgery and tried to chip their way free. You built the wall, but secured it with a plate of ralkalest at the back to cut off escape.”
Frava snapped her mouth shut.
“The problem with ralkalest,” Shai said, “is that it’s not a very strong metal. Oh, the grate at the top of my cell was solid enough, and I couldn’t have gotten through that. But a thin plate? Really. Have you heard of anthracite?”
Frava frowned.
“It is a rock that burns,” Gaotona said.
“You gave me a candle,” Shai said, reaching into the small of her back. She tossed her makeshift wooden soulstamp onto the desk. “All I had to do was Forge the wall and persuade the stones that they’re anthracite—not a difficult task, once I knew the forty-four types of rock. I could burn them, and they’d melt that plate behind the wall.”
Shai pulled over a chair, seating herself before the desk. She leaned back. Behind her, the captain of the Strikers growled softly, but Frava drew her lips to a line and said nothing. Shai let her muscles relax, and she breathed a quiet prayer to the Unknown God.
Nights! It looked like they’d actually bought it. She’d worried they’d know enough of Forgery to see through her lie.
“I was going to escape tonight,” Shai said, “but whatever it is you want me to do must be important, as you’re willing to involve a miscreant like myself. And so we come to my payment.”
“I could still have you executed,” Frava said. “Right now. Here.”
“But you won’t, will you?”
Frava set her jaw.
“I warned you that she would be difficult to manipulate,” Gaotona said to Frava. Shai could tell she’d impressed him, but at the same time, his eyes seemed… sorrowful? Was that the right emotion? She found this aged man as difficult to read as a book in Svordish.
Frava raised a finger, then swiped it to the side. A servant approached with a small, cloth-wrapped box. Shai’s heart leaped upon seeing it.
The man clicked the latches open on the front and raised the top. The case was lined with soft cloth and inset with five depressions made to hold soulstamps. Each cylindrical stone stamp was as long as a finger and as wide as a large man’s thumb. The leather-bound notebook set in the case atop them was worn by long use; Shai breathed in a hint of its familiar scent.
They were called Essence Marks, the most powerful kind of soulstamp. Each Essence Mark had to be attuned to a specific individual, and was intended to rewrite their history, personality, and soul for a short time. These five were attuned to Shai.
“Five stamps to rewrite a soul,” Frava said. “Each is an abomination, illegal to possess. These Essence Marks were to be destroyed this afternoon. Even if you had escaped, you’d have lost these. How long does it take to create one?”
“Years,” Shai whispered.
There were no other copies. Notes and diagrams were too dangerous to leave, even in secret, as such things gave others too much insight to one’s soul. She never let these Essence Marks out of her sight, except on the rare occasion they were taken from her.
“You will accept these as payment?” Frava asked, lips turned down, as if discussing a meal of slime and rotted meat.
“Yes.”
Frava nodded, and the servant snapped the case closed. “Then let me show you what you are to do.”
Shai had never met an emperor before, let alone poked one in the face.
Emperor Ashravan of the Eighty Suns—forty-ninth ruler of the Rose Empire—did not respond as Shai prodded him. He stared ahead blankly, his round cheeks rosy and hale, but his expression completely lifeless.
“What happened?” Shai asked, straightening from beside the emperor’s bed. It was in the style of the ancient Lamio people, with a headboard shaped like a phoenix rising toward heaven. She’d seen a sketch of such a headboard in a book; likely the Forgery had been drawn from that source.
“Assassins,” Arbiter Gaotona said. He stood on the other side of the bed, alongside two surgeons. Of the Strikers, only their captain—Zu—had been allowed to enter. “The murderers broke in two nights ago, attacking the emperor and his wife. She was slain. The emperor received a crossbow bolt to the head.”
“That considered,” Shai noted, “he’s looking remarkable.”
“You are familiar with resealing?” Gaotona asked.
“Vaguely,” Shai said. Her people called it Flesh Forgery. Using it, a surgeon of great skill could Forge a body to remove its wounds and scars. It required great specialization. The Forger had to know each and every sinew, each vein and muscle, in order to accurately heal.
Resealing was one of the few branches of Forgery that Shai hadn’t studied in depth. Get an ordinary forgery wrong, and you created a work of poor artistic merit. Get a Flesh Forgery wrong, and people died.
“Our resealers are the best in the world,” Frava said, walking around the foot of the bed, hands behind her back. “The emperor was attended to quickly following the assassination attempt. The wound to his head was healed, but…”
“But his mind was not?” Shai asked, waving her hand in front of the man’s face again. “It doesn’t sound like they did a very good job at all.”
One of the surgeons cleared his throat. The diminutive man had ears like window shutters that had been thrown open wide on a sunny day. “Resealing repairs a body and makes it anew. That, however, is much like rebinding a book with fresh paper following a fire. Yes, it may look exactly the same, and it may be whole all the way through. The words, though… the words are gone. We have given the emperor a new brain. It is merely empty.”
“Huh,” Shai said. “Did you find out who tried to kill him?”
The five arbiters exchanged glances. Yes, they knew.
“We are not certain,” Gaotona said.
“Meaning,” Shai added, “you know, but you couldn’t prove it well enough to make an accusation. One of the other factions in court, then?”
Gaotona sighed. “The Glory Faction.”
Shai whistled softly, but it did make sense. If the emperor died, there was a good chance that the Glory Faction would win a bid to elevate his successor. At forty, Emperor Ashravan was young still, by Grand standards. He had been expected to rule another fifty years.
If he were replaced, the five arbiters in this room would lose their positions—which, by imperial politics, would be a huge blow to their status. They’d drop from being the most powerful people in the world to being among the lowest of the empire’s eighty factions.
“The assassins did not survive their attack,” Frava said. “The Glory Faction does not yet know whether their ploy succeeded. You are going to replace the emperor’s soul with…” She took a deep breath. “With a Forgery.”
They’re crazy, Shai thought. Forging one’s own soul was difficult enough, and you didn’t have to rebuild it from the ground up.
The arbiters had no idea what they were asking. But of course they didn’t. They hated Forgery, or so they claimed. They walked on imitation floor tiles past copies of ancient vases, they let their surgeons repair a body, but they didn’t call any of these things “Forgery” in their own tongue.
The Forgery of the soul, that was what they considered an abomination. Which meant Shai really was their only choice. No one in their own government would be capable of this. She probably wasn’t either.
“Can you do it?” Gaotona asked.
I have no idea, Shai thought. “Yes,” she said.
“It will need to be an exact Forgery,” Frava said sternly. “If the Glory Faction has any inkling of what we’ve done, they will pounce. The emperor must not act erratically.”
“I said I could do it,” Shai replied. “But it will be difficult. I will need information about Ashravan and his life, everything we can get. Official histories will be a start, but they’ll be too sterile. I will need extensive interviews and writings about him from those who knew him best. Servants, friends, family members. Did he have a journal?”
“Yes,” Gaotona said.
“Excellent.”
“Those documents are sealed,” said one of the other arbiters. “He wanted them destroyed…”
Everyone in the room looked toward the man. He swallowed, then looked down.
“You shall have everything you request,” Frava said.
“I’ll need a test subject as well,” Shai said. “Someone to test my Forgeries on. A Grand, male, someone who was around the emperor a lot and who knew him. That will let me see if I have the personality right.” Nights! Getting the personality right would be secondary. Getting a stamp that actually took… that would be the first step. She wasn’t certain she could manage even that much. “And I’ll need soulstone, of course.”
Frava regarded Shai, arms folded.
“You can’t possibly expect me to do this without soulstone,” Shai said drily. “I could carve a stamp out of wood, if I had to, but your goal will be difficult enough as it is. Soulstone. Lots of it.”
“Fine,” Frava said. “But you will be watched these three months. Closely.”
“Three months?” Shai said. “I’m planning for this to take at least two years.”
“You have a hundred days,” Frava said. “Actually, ninety-eight, now.”
Impossible.
“The official explanation for why the emperor hasn’t been seen these last two days,” said one of the other arbiters, “is that he’s been in mourning for the death of his wife. The Glory Faction will assume we are scrambling to buy time following the emperor’s death. Once the hundred days of isolation are finished, they will demand that Ashravan present himself to the court. If he does not, we are finished.”
And so are you, the woman’s tone implied.
“I will need gold for this,” Shai said. “Take what you’re thinking I’ll demand and double it. I will walk out of this country rich.”
“Done,” Frava said.
Too easy, Shai thought. Delightful. They were planning to kill her once this was done.
Well, that gave her ninety-eight days to find a way out. “Get me those records,” she said. “I’ll need a place to work, plenty of supplies, and my things back.” She held up a finger before they could complain. “Not my Essence Marks, but everything else. I’m not going to work for three months in the same clothing I’ve been wearing while in prison. And, as I consider it, have someone draw me a bath immediately.”
Day Three
The next day—bathed, well fed, and well rested for the first time since her capture—Shai received a knock at her door. They’d given her a room. It was tiny, probably the most drab in the entire palace, and it smelled faintly of mildew. They had still posted guards to watch her all night, of course, and—from her memory of the layout of the vast palace—she was in one of the least frequented wings, one used mostly for storage.
Still, it was better than a cell. Barely.
At the knock, Shai looked up from her inspection of the room’s old cedar table. It probably hadn’t seen an oiling cloth in longer than Shaihad been alive. One of her guards opened the door, letting in the elderly Arbiter Gaotona. He carried a box two handspans wide and a couple of inches deep.
Shai rushed over, drawing a glare from Captain Zu, who stood beside the arbiter. “Keep your distance from His Grace,” Zu growled.
“Or what?” Shai asked, taking the box. “You’ll stab me?”
“Someday, I will enjoy—”
“Yes, yes,” Shai said, walking back to her table and flipping open the box’s lid. Inside were eighteen soulstamps, their heads smooth and
unetched. She felt a thrill and picked one up, holding it out and inspecting it.
She had her spectacles back now, so no more squinting. She also wore clothing far more fitting than that dingy dress. A flat, red, calf-length skirt and buttoned blouse. Th e Grands would consider it unfashionable, as among them, ancient-looking robes or wraps were the current style. Shai found those dreary. Under the blouse she wore a tight cotton shirt, and under the skirt she wore leggings. A lady never knew when she might need to ditch her outer layer of clothing to effect a disguise.
“This is good stone,” Shai said of the stamp in her fingers. She took out one of her chisels, which had a tip almost as fine as a pinhead, and began to scrape at the rock. It was good soulstone. The rock came away easily and precisely. Soulstone was almost as soft as chalk, but did not chip when scraped. You could carve it with high precision, and then set it with a flame and a mark on the top, which would harden it to a strength closer to quartz. The only way to get a better stamp was to carve one from crystal itself, which was incredibly difficult.
For ink, they had provided bright red squid’s ink, mixed with a small percentage of wax. Any fresh organic ink would work, though inks from animals were better than inks from plants.
“Did you… steal a vase from the hallway outside?” Gaotona asked,frowning toward an object sitting at the side of her small room. She’d snatched one of the vases on the way back from the bath. One of her guards had tried to interfere, but Shai had talked her way past the objection. That guard was now blushing.
“I was curious about the skills of your Forgers,” Shai said, setting down her tools and hauling the vase up onto the table. She turned it on its side, showing the bottom and the red seal imprinted into the clay there.
A Forger’s seal was easy to spot. It didn’t just imprint onto the object’s surface, it actually sank into the material, creating a depressed pattern of red troughs. The rim of the round seal was red as well, but raised, like an embossing.
You could tell a lot about a person from the way they designed their seals. This one, for example, had a sterile feel to it. No real art, which was a contrast to the minutely detailed and delicate beauty of the vase itself. Shai had heard that the Heritage Faction kept lines of half-trained Forgers working by rote, creating these pieces like rows of men making shoes in a factory.
“Our workers are not Forgers,” Gaotona said. “We don’t use that word. They are Rememberers.”
“It’s the same thing.”
“They don’t touch souls,” Gaotona said sternly. “Beyond that, what we do is in appreciation of the past, rather than with the aim of fooling or scamming people. Our reminders bring people to a greater understanding of their heritage.”
Shai raised an eyebrow. She took her mallet and chisel, then brought them down at an angle on the embossed rim of the vase’s seal. The seal resisted— there was a force to it, trying to stay in place—but the blow broke through. The rest of the seal popped up, troughs vanishing, the seal becoming simple ink and losing its powers.
The colors of the vase faded immediately, bleeding to plain grey, and its shape warped. A soulstamp didn’t just make visual changes, but rewrote an object’s history. Without the stamp, the vase was a horrid piece. Whoever had thrown it hadn’t cared about the end product. Perhaps they’d known it would be part of a Forgery. Shai shook her head and turned back to her work on the unfinished soulstamp. Th is wasn’t for the emperor—she wasn’t nearly ready for that yet—but carving helped her think.
Gaotona gestured for the guards to leave, all but Zu, who remained by his side. “You present a puzzle, Forger,” Gaotona said once the other two guards were gone, the door closed. He settled down in one of the two rickety wooden chairs. They—along with the splintery bed, the ancient table, and the trunk with her things—made up the room’s entire array of furniture. The single window had a warped frame that let in the breeze, and even the walls had cracks in them.
“A puzzle?” Shai asked, holding up the stamp before her, peering closely at her work. “What kind of puzzle?”
“You are a Forger. Therefore, you cannot be trusted without supervision. You will try to run the moment you think of a practicable escape.”
“So leave guards with me,” Shai said, carving some more.
“Pardon,” Gaotona said, “but I doubt it would take you long to bully, bribe, or blackmail them.”
Nearby, Zu stiffened.
“I meant no offense, Captain,” Gaotona said. “I have great confidence in your people, but what we have before us is a master trickster, liar, and thief. Your best guards would eventually become clay in her hands.”
“Thank you,” Shai said.
“It was not a compliment. What your type touches, it corrupts. I worried about leaving you alone even for one day under the supervision of mortal eyes. From what I know of you, you could nearly charm the gods themselves.”
She continued working.
“I cannot trust in manacles to hold you,” Gaotona said softly, “as we are required to give you soulstone so that you can work on our… problem. You would turn your manacles to soap, then escape in the night laughing.”
That statement, of course, betrayed a complete lack of understanding in how Forgery worked. A Forgery had to be likely—believable—otherwise it wouldn’t take. Who would make a chain out of soap? It would be ridiculous.
What she could do, however, was discover the chain’s origins and composition, then rewrite one or the other. She could Forge the chain’s past so that one of the links had been cast incorrectly, which would give her a flaw to exploit. Even if she could not find the chain’s exact history, she might be able to escape—an imperfect stamp would not take for long, but she’d only need a few moments to shatter the link with a mallet.
They could make a chain out of ralkalest, the unForgeable metal, but that would only delay her escape. With enough time, and soulstone, she would find a solution. Forging the wall to have a weak crack in it, so she could pull the chain free. Forging the ceiling to have a loose block,which she could let drop and shatter the weak ralkalest links.
She didn’t want to do something so extreme if she didn’t have to. “I don’t see that you need to worry about me,” Shai said, still working. “I am intrigued by what we are doing, and I’ve been promised wealth. Th at is enough to keep me here. Don’t forget, I could have escaped my previous cell at any time.”
“Ah yes,” Gaotona said. “The cell in which you would have used Forgery to get through the wall. Tell me, out of curiosity, have you studied anthracite? That rock you said you’d turn the wall into? I seem to recall that it is very difficult to make burn.”
This one is more clever than people give him credit for being.
A candle’s flame would have trouble igniting anthracite—on paper, the rock burned at the correct temperature, but getting an entire sample hot enough was very difficult. “I was fully capable of creating a proper kindling environment with some wood from my bunk and a few rocks turned into coal.”
“Without a kiln?” Gaotona said, sounding faintly amused. “With no bellows? But that is beside the point. Tell me, how were you planning to survive inside a cell where the wall was aflame at over two thousand degrees? Would not that kind of fire suck away all of the breathable air?Ah, but of course. You could have used your bed linens and transformed them into a poor conductor, perhaps glass, and made a shell for yourself to hide in.”
Shai continued her carving, uncomfortable. The way he said that… Yes, he knew that she could not have done what he described. Most Grands were ignorant about the ways of Forgery, and this man certainly still was, but he did know enough to realize she couldn’t have escaped as she said. No more than bed linens could become glass.
Beyond that, making the entire wall into another type of rock would have been difficult. She would have had to change too many things—rewritten history so that the quarries for each type of stone were near deposits of anthracite, and so that in each case, a block of the burnable rock was quarried by mistake. That was a huge stretch, an almost impossible one, particularly without specific knowledge of the quarries in question.
Plausibility was key to any forgery, magical or not. People whispered of Forgers turning lead into gold, never realizing that the reverse was far, far easier. Inventing a history for a bar of gold where somewhere along the line, someone had adulterated it with lead… well, that was a plausible lie. The reverse would be so unlikely that a stamp to make that transformation would not take for long.
“You impress me, Your Grace,” Shai finally said. “You think like a Forger.”
Gaotona’s expression soured.
“That,” she noted, “was meant as a compliment.”
“I value truth, young woman. Not Forgery.” He regarded her with the expression of a disappointed grand father. “I have seen the work of your hands. That copied painting you did… it was remarkable. Yet it was accomplished in the name of lies. What great works could you create if you focused on industry and beauty instead of wealth and deception?”
“What I do is great art.”
“No. You copy other people’s great art. What you do is technically marvelous, yet completely lacking in spirit.”
She almost slipped in her carving, hands growing tense. How dare he? Threatening to execute her was one thing, but insulting her art? He made her sound like… like one of those assembly-line Forgers, churning out vase after vase!
She calmed herself with difficulty, then plastered on a smile. Her aunt Sol had once told Shai to smile at the worst insults and snap at the minor ones. That way, no man would know your heart.
“So how am I to be kept in line?” she asked. “We have established that I am among the most vile wretches to slither through the halls of this palace. You cannot bind me and you cannot trust your own soldiers to guard me.”
“Well,” Gaotona said, “whenever possible, I personally will observe your work.”
She would have preferred Frava— that one seemed as if she’d be easier to manipulate—but this was workable. “If you wish,” Shai said. “Much of it will be boring to one who does not understand Forgery.”
“I am not interested in being entertained,” Gaotona said, waving one hand to Captain Zu. “Whenever I am here, Captain Zu will guard me. He is the only one of our Strikers to know the extent of the emperor’s injury, and only he knows of our plan with you. Other guards will watch you during the rest of the day, and you are not to speak to them of your task. Th ere will be no rumors of what we do.”
“You don’t need to worry about me talking,” Shai said, truthfully for once. “The more people who know of a Forgery, the more likely it is to fail.” Besides, she thought, if I told the guards, you’d undoubtedly execute them to preserve your secrets. She didn’t like Strikers, but she liked the empire less, and the guards were really just another kind of slave. Shai wasn’t in the business of getting people killed for no reason.
“Excellent,” Gaotona said. “The second method of insuring your… attention to your project waits outside. If you would, good Captain?”
Zu opened the door. A cloaked figure stood with the guards. Th e figure stepped into the room; his walk was lithe, but somehow unnatural. After Zu closed the door, the figure removed his hood, revealing a face with milky white skin and red eyes.
Shai hissed softly through her teeth. “And you call what I do an abomination?”
Gaotona ignored her, standing up from his chair to regard the newcomer. “Tell her.”
The newcomer rested long white fingers on her door, inspecting it. “I will place the rune here,” he said in an accented voice. “If she leaves this room for any reason, or if she alters the rune or the door, I will know. My pets will come for her.”
Shai shivered. She glared at Gaotona. “A Bloodsealer. You invited a Bloodsealer into your palace?”
“This one has proven himself an asset recently,” Gaotona said. “He is loyal and he is discreet. He is also very effective. There are… times when one must accept the aid of darkness in order to contain a greater darkness.”
Shai hissed softly again as the Bloodsealer removed something from within his robes. A crude soulstamp created from a bone. His “pets” would also be bone, Forgeries of human life crafted from the skeletons of the dead.
The Bloodsealer looked to her.
Shai backed away. “Surely you don’t expect—”
Zu took her by the arms. Nights, but he was strong. She panicked. Her Essence Marks! She needed her Essence Marks! With those, she could fight, escape, run…
Zu cut her along the back of her arm. She barely felt the shallow wound, but she struggled anyway. The Bloodsealer stepped up and inked his horrid tool in Shai’s blood. He then turned and pressed the stamp against the center of her door.
When he withdrew his hand, he left a glowing red seal in the wood. It was shaped like an eye. The moment he marked the seal, Shai felt a sharp pain in her arm, where she’d been cut.
Shai gasped, eyes wide. Never had any person dared do such a thing to her. Almost better that she had been executed! Almost better that—
Control yourself, she told herself forcibly. Become someone who can deal with this.
She took a deep breath and let herself become someone else. An imitation of herself who was calm, even in a situation like this. It was a crude forgery, just a trick of the mind, but it worked.
She shook herself free from Zu, then accepted the kerchief Gaotona handed her. She glared at the Bloodsealer as the pain in her arm faded. He smiled at her with lips that were white and faintly translucent, like the skin of a maggot. He nodded to Gaotona before replacing his hood and stepping out of the room, closing the door after.
Shai forced herself to breathe evenly, calming herself. There was no subtlety to what the Bloodsealer did; they didn’t traffic in subtlety. Instead of skill or artistry, they used tricks and blood. However, their craft was effective. The man would know if Shai left the room, and he had her fresh blood on his stamp, which was attuned to her. With that, his undead pets would be able to hunt her no matter where she ran.
Gaotona settled back down in his chair. “You know what will happen if you flee?”
Shai glared at Gaotona.
“You now realize how desperate we are,” he said softly, lacing his fingers before him. “If you do run, we will give you to the Bloodsealer. Your bones will become his next pet. This promise was all he requested in payment. You may begin your work, Forger. Do it well, and you will escape this fate.”
Day Five
Work she did.
Shai began digging through accounts of the emperor’s life. Few people understood how much Forgery was about study and research. It was an art any man or woman could learn; it required only a steady hand and an eye for detail.
That and a willingness to spend weeks, months, even years preparing the ideal soulstamp.
Shai didn’t have years. She felt rushed as she read biography after biography, often staying up well into the night taking notes. She did not believe that she could do what they asked of her. Creating a believable Forgery of another man’s soul, particularly in such a short time, just wasn’t possible. Unfortunately, she had to make a good show of it while she planned her escape.
They didn’t let her leave the room. She used a chamber pot when nature called, and for baths she was allowed a tub of warm water and cloths. She was under supervision at all times, even when bathing.
That Bloodsealer came each morning to renew his mark on the door. Each time, the act required a little blood from Shai. Her arms were soon laced with shallow cuts.
All the while, Gaotona visited. The ancient arbiter studied her as she read, watching with those eyes that judged… but also did not hate.
As she formulated her plans, she decided one thing: Getting free would probably require manipulating this man in some way. |
Image caption The protesters were angered by a report that the mis-selling of coalfields cost India $33bn (£20bn)
Police in the Indian capital Delhi have baton-charged hundreds of anti-corruption protesters angered by the government's sale of coalfields without open bidding.
An auditors' report last week said the mis-selling cost India $33bn (£20bn).
Police also used water cannon and tear gas to turn back protesters trying to reach the house of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Opposition calls for Mr Singh to resign have deadlocked parliament.
In the report last week, government auditors said private companies had made "windfall gains" by the allocation of coal mining rights from 2005-9 in a process that "lacked transparency". India is one of the largest producers of coal in the world.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) says Mr Singh should quit because he was head of the coal ministry at the time of the sales.
The call has left parliament deadlocked since Tuesday. The Congress-led government insists there was no wrongdoing.
'Hand-in-glove'
The demonstrators, who belong to a group led by prominent anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare, said both Congress and the BJP are to blame for endemic corruption in Indian politics.
"Our protest today was to tell the country how the Congress and the BJP are hand-in-glove in looting the country," protest leader Arvind Kejriwal, of the India Against Corruption group, told demonstrators.
"We are ready to take blows from the police. We are ready to sacrifice our lives for the sake of our country," Mr Kejriwal was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
Mr Kejriwal and several others were briefly detained by police at the protest. A demonstration was also held at the residence of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.
The scandal - dubbed "coalgate" - is the latest in a series of corruption allegations to hit the Congress-led government, and the revelations have caused widespread anger.
Anna Hazare's campaign for stronger anti-corruption laws came to prominence after he entered a 12-day protest hunger strike a year ago that almost brought the government to its knees.
Earlier his month, he called off his latest protest fast after announcing plans to enter politics. The next general election in India is due by the summer of 2014. |
Now that the Rockets have Dwight Howard, the goal is to surround him and the rest of the team’s core with enough talent and depth to build a contending team.
With that goal in mind, the Rockets have officially added two perimeter threats that should be able to take advantage of the space Howard creates when bullying his way in the post.
Per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, the team has inked point guard Aaron Brooks and swingman Reggie Williams to contracts:
Rockets signings of Reggie Williams, Aaron Brooks now official. Brooks one year; Williams two with the second at a team option. — Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) July 19, 2013
The Rockets are quite familiar with Brooks who was brought back to the team for his second stint last season at the trade deadline. Brooks gave the Rockets some depth at point guard behind Jeremy Lin and Patrick Beverly, offering a change of pace to both players by using his quickness and scoring instincts to create offensively.
Heading into next year, Brooks will likely retain that role as the 3rd point guard, but offers insurance in the back court should the Rockets end up moving Jeremy Lin in a trade for the third star that can complement both Howard and James Harden.
Williams, meanwhile, offers the Rockets some needed depth on the wing behind Harden, Chandler Parsons, and Francisco Garcia. Williams has languished in Charlotte, only appearing in 73 games over the past two seasons and saw his minutes and points per game dip to 9.5 and 3.7 respectively. That said, if he can recapture some of the explosive offensive ability he flashed in Golden State, he can be a serviceable pick up.
And, really, that’s the point of what the Rockets are doing at this point. They landed their big fish in Howard and it’s now about finding the right pieces to fill in the gaps and make the team as strong as possible. In Brooks and, potentially, Williams they’ve done just that. |
MIDI to Audio with frozen tracks – No Flatten
Have you ever wanted to turn your MIDI track to Audio but keep the MIDI? Well, I use this quick tip all the time. I discovered it by mistake when editing years back, and find myself doing it all the time. What you need to do is first Freeze your MIDI track. Once it is frozen you can select the MIDI Clip and drag it into an Audio Track by holding Ctrl or CMD while you move it. This will create a copy of the “frozen” audio in the Audio Track, but the MIDI will still be there. You can then Unfreeze the MIDI track.
Copy and Paste Time
When you are writing a track there are times that you want to copy a whole section of the music or move the Verse after the Chorus, or you name it. This can be really tedious without knowing this workflow hack. The key is the Cut Time, Paste Time, and Duplicate Time option in Ableton Live.
All you need to do is select an area in Arrangement View. This will be the area that will be duplicated or cut. Then navigate up to the Edit –> Duplicate Time. This will duplicate everything during that time period of the track. I will usually then pick, Edit –> Cut Time, select where I want this section to go and then, Edit –> Paste Time. This way I can duplicate the whole verse or chorus and place it later on in the track as I am building the composition.
Drag in Older Versions
Let’s say you are working on a track. You save multiple versions as you go, this is just a damn good idea. You had a baseline and started to rewrite it. After a while, you realize that you liked the old baseline, but have done a lot of other things along the way. You can actually drag a track from one of the older versions. This makes it easy to revert back to a past part.
To do this I usually navigate to the Current Project in my Browser. This shows all other versions you have saved if it is in the same project folder. If not, or you want to bring in another track from another song you can just navigate there with your browser. Next up you click the triangle next to the Live Set to open it up. You will then see all the tracks in the Live Set. Click the track you want and drag it into Live.
This lets you easily revert to older versions and save a lot of time.
Copy Value to Sibling
When you are tweaking a Drum Rack or Instrument Rack, it can be annoying to go in and adjust all the chains by hand. Sometimes you decided that you want all the one shots to have more sustain or not and doing this by hand can take forever. There is a little-known feature called Copy Value to Sibling that will save you this headache.
To do this all you need to do is right click the parameter you want copied to all other Chains in the Rack. You will get a menu like the one below. Pick the Copy Value to Siblings. The number in parentheses is how many other parameters are similar that will be changed when you do this.
Here is a GIF Example of copying the Sustain of the Kick 606 to all other Samplers in the Drum Rack.
Arrangement View to Session View
If you like triggering with the APC or Launchpad, it can be annoying to work in the Arrangement View and try and get it back in Session View. The upgrade from Live 8 to 9 gave us an elegant solution. You can now use Consolidate Time to New Scene. To do this just select an area in Arrangement View and right click. Then select Consolidate Time to New Scene in the drop down menu.
Here is a video on going from Session View to Arrangement View and back. It should start half way through on the Arrangement View to Session View part. This video is one of 90 in my Ableton Live Breakthrough course. That course has 6 hours of videos to get any beginner rocking Ableton Live as an instrument in no time.
Select Multiple Tracks
This last trick is a simple one, but if you don’t know it you will love it. Ableton Live has been pretty helpful with adding little intuitive features to help with editing multiple tracks. The simplest of these is selected multiple tracks to affect all of them at the same time. Point being… If you selected all the tracks, or groups and then move the Volume Fader, all the volume faders will move up and down. Same with Pan and many other parameters. This is a godsend for quick adjustments across the board.
These hacks and workflow tips can greatly speed up your production and help you stay in the creative flow. I use these tricks all the time and am happy to share them. If you know of some workflow tips, please share them in the comments. |
Malcolm Ritter, The Associated Press
NEW YORK -- You may be more similar to your friends than you think: A study suggests that the DNA code tends to be more alike between friends than between strangers.
That's beyond the effect of shared ethnicity, researchers say. And it could be important for theories about human evolution, says James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego.
He and Yale researcher Nicholas Christakis present their results in a paper released Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
How much more alike are friends than strangers? Not much. Imagine the small similarity between fourth cousins, people who share a set of great-great-great grandparents.
The study included 1,932 participants in a long-running health study in Framingham, Massachusetts. Researchers knew who was close friends with whom from the 1970s to the early 2000s because of information gathered for the study.
From this group they identified 1,367 pairs of close friends and about 1.2 million pairs of strangers. Then they examined information about nearly 467,000 locations in the DNA code of each participant. They looked for how similar the friend pairs were, and compared that to how similar the stranger pairs were.
The researchers found that genes affecting sense of smell were especially likely to be similar in friends.
Why would friends have more DNA similarities than strangers? Fowler said it's not clear. One possibility is that similar genes nudge people toward similar environments, which then gives them a chance to meet. Another possibility is that people who share certain genes also share skills that become more valuable when the people work together, he said. This could have been important over evolutionary time, and so set up a pattern that people still follow, he said.
Fowler also said it's not clear whether the finding pertains to groups outside of the Framingham study group, which is overwhelmingly Irish and Italian.
In any case, findings of DNA similarities between friends could help explain how behaviours like altruism developed over evolutionary time, he said.
Francisco Ayala, who studies evolutionary genetics at the University of California, Irvine, said the study's results surprised him. But "the statistics are there" to back up the conclusions, he said.
Ben Domingue, a researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, called the results intriguing. "I am fairly convinced that they are onto something," he wrote in an email. |
The 25-year-old man shot to death with his infant son inside a car on the Crescent City Connection was a doting father, but had gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd, his father said Thursday.
Harvey resident Terry Smith, 48, recalled his son Deshawn Butler as a loving father of his 7-month-old son, Deshawn Kinard, but said that last night was not the first time that Butler had been the target of a shooting.
Story by
Henrick Karoliszyn
and Helen Freund
Staff writers
He was shot at outside a Chevron gas station this past July, Smith said.
"He was a good guy but he got into the wrong crowd," Smith said. "I don't know why anyone would do this. I'm destroyed."
Butler and his son were riding in the back of a black Honda sedan in the 2100 block of General de Gaulle Drive shortly before 9 p.m. when a dark-colored car drove up beside them, police said. The Honda stopped along the Crescent City Connection, where New Orleans Police Department detectives worked the scene late into Wednesday evening.
A person inside the car opened fired on them, and Butler was shot multiple times and died on the scene, police said. The baby, who was fastened in a blue and plaid car seat, was struck once in the left side of the head and rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
He was the youngest murder victim in New Orleans in 2013.
"He loved his son," Smith said of Butler. "It was his only child. He'd do anything for the kid," he said.
Butler had six other siblings - three brothers and three sisters - Smith said. He said his son was riding in a car along with Deshawn's mother, Amy Kinard, and another woman at the time. The two women were not harmed by the gunfire, police said.
When asked about his grandson Smith got visibly distressed when he recalled that he had been planning on babysitting the little boy Thursday.
"He'll never get to see his first Christmas, his first Thanksgiving -- nothing," Smith said.
"It just breaks your heart. How can you kill a baby like that?"
No suspects or motive have been named in the case. Authorities ask anyone with information about the fatal shooting to call Crimestoppers at 504.821.1111 or toll-free at 1.877.903.7867. |
Wherein everybody flip-flops, Coleman makes a successful argument, but may have blown it with a 'phony' website crash and an horrendous argument for Internet voting...
Brad Friedman Byon 1/30/2009, 3:41pm PT
This afternoon, Day 5 of the U.S. Senate election contest between former Sen. Norm Coleman (R) and apparent winner of the '08 election Al Franken (D), Coleman offered another reason, just in case you needed one, to oppose his return to the Senate:
In a press conference outside the courtroom held just a short while ago, Norm Coleman announced that if he gets back into the Senate, he'll work on ways to make it easier for young people to vote online.
While we're in favor of "young people," and as many other legal voters who wish to vote, actually getting to cast their votes and have them accurately counted, if you like our currently unreliable electronic vote counting systems, which employ untested, unsecured, hackable garbage, then you'll love seeing that system opened up to the Internet!
All that said, however, where Coleman's case began on Monday as little more than a comedy of one error after another, as we explained in some detail earlier this week, over Days 4 (yesterday) and 5 (today), his legal team seems to have found a bit of footing, even if they've had to counter most of their own legal arguments that they'd made previously to keep ballots from being counted during the post-election hand-counting of ballots.
At the end of that process, Franken was found, by the state canvassing board, to have defeated Coleman by 225 votes, out of 2.9 million cast, even though Coleman was slightly ahead in the vote count during most of that time, and thus, argued adamantly against including as many previously rejected absentee ballots as he could.
But that was then, when he thought he was winning, and this is now, when he seems to be losing...
The Slow-Motion Comedy Show
Many of these details are distilled from the excellent coverage by TPM's Eric Kleefeld, who has been reporting, since the start of the trial, from the courtroom in MN, where he's been filing a number of small, as-they-occur items. As previously, we'll try to both tie together key points of that reportage, from him and others, as well as contextualize the whole mess a bit for you, from what Kleefeld smartly described yesterday as "The slow-motion comedy show that is the Minnesota Senate trial."
Coleman's new-found support for Internet voting came following the testimony of his witness, Peter DeMuth, a college student who goes to school in Fargo, ND, who "drove several hours to St. Paul" on Thursday "just so that he could get his vote counted," according to Kleefeld's description of the testimony.
But like several of the six witness called by Coleman earlier this week to testify that their absentee ballot shouldn't have been rejected --- one of whom admitted that his girlfriend forged his signature on his absentee ballot application --- DeMuth's ballot was rejected because the signature on it did not match his application.
In DeMuth's case, rather than printing out the absentee ballot application he received online, and simply signing it before mailing it in, he converted the PDF, as available from the state website, into a graphic JPG file, used his mouse to initialize (rather than sign) the application, and then emailed it back and received his absentee ballot by mail in return. The signature on the ballot he sent back in then failed to match the moused initials on the application, and his ballot was rejected, as per state law.
The case was another one where procedural failures resulted in a legitimately cast vote being rejected, and Coleman is now outraged by it, despite the fact that both Coleman and Republicans across the land have long argued for the rejection of such ballots on equally flimsy grounds, often arguing --- loudly in the media and lawfully in courtrooms --- that such ballots amount to "voter fraud."
But, as we said, that was then and this now.
As we pointed out yet again earlier this week, ballots like DeMuth's, and some of the others who took the stand on Coleman's behalf earlier this week, are often too easily rejected by election officials. Though much of that is directly due to arguments from the GOP --- who generally benefit from as few votes as possible being counted --- that such ballots constitute "voter fraud."
The onus in such cases, we've argued, should be on election officials to prove that those ballots are, indeed, fraudulent, rather than relying on judgment calls by election officials that signatures don't match. Voters ought to be notified when that happens, and given the right to prove that their votes were legitimately cast or not. Otherwise, if ballots are rejected on the basis they are fraudulent, then voter fraud charges should be brought where possible.
It's nice --- if amusing, and extraordinarily hypocritical --- that Republicans, at least in this cherry-picked case, suddenly agree with the premise that votes shouldn't be so easily tossed on the basis of such technicalities. Even if they have to counter their own arguments, even during the course of this very election in MN, in order to do it.
Along those same lines yesterday, when Joe Friedberg, an attorney for Coleman, was trying to make the case that their witness --- the one whose girlfriend forged his signature on the absentee application, which then didn't match the real signature on the ballot --- the following extraordinary admission was made during the questioning of MN Deputy SoS Jim Gelbmann:
Friedberg: In point of fact, even though I did something I wasn't supposed to do with the application, my ballot should still count because my signature is genuine. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann: Not according to the procedures we use to determine whether the signature is genuine. Friedberg: I don't care about your procedures. (Franken lawyer calls an objection, is sustained.) Friedberg: Okay, I do care...
Oy.
And Speaking of Cherry Picking
Franken's team has been making the case that Coleman has been individually selecting, for political reasons, many of the witnesses they've been calling to the stand. They've carefully brought only the voters whose ballots were rejected that they wanted to bring in, because those voters happened to support Coleman, while avoiding bringing others whose absentee ballots were rejected by Coleman himself during the hand-count phase, after the MN Supreme Court's controversial decision to allow the campaigns to agree which previously rejected ballots should or shouldn't be counted.
As Kleefeld describes...
Upon cross-examination by Franken attorney Kevin Hamilton, DeMuth said he was contacted by the Republican Party and told about the problem. "They asked me if I knew my absentee ballot had been rejected. I said no," said DeMuth. "They asked me if I was a supporter of Norm Coleman, and I said yes, and they proceeded to ask me if I would like to go further." Let's think about this for a moment: Over the last several days, the Coleman camp has said repeatedly that they are not cherry-picking who they're helping out, that they don't know who the people they're advocating for actually supported, and for all they know they're helping out Franken-voters. So much for that argument.
Flip-Flop, Flip-Flop, Flip-Flop
On Wednesday, we quoted Coleman's attorney, Ben Ginsberg --- he of the successful Bush v. Gore FL 2000 strategy of fighting to not count votes, due to cherry-picked Equal Protection arguments --- as admitting that "both campaigns have taken positions in the past that are not entirely consistent with what they are now."
He claimed, at the time, "that is frankly irrelevant." But Franken's team argued yesterday that it isn't.
His attorneys have been arguing that the Coleman team has been arguing in favor of inclusion of ballots now, during the contest phase, based on reasoning that they are on record as having previously rejected them during the hand-count phase. They can't, Franken's team argued, have it both ways, according to the legal doctrines of estoppel and invited error which, essentially say (we welcome attorneys who wish to explain it better in comments) that if they did not make the argument previously, they can't now do so now that they've discovered such an argument might benefit them.
Franken's team details some of the Coleman team's flip-flops on ballots that they'd previously rejected during the hand-count phase, as summarized by Kleefeld thusly:
• A ballot was rejected [by Coleman, during the hand-count phase] because the witness failed to fill in their address. This past Monday, Coleman attorney Joe Friedberg was arguing that a lighter standard should be used to include ballots such as these. • A ballot was affirmed by the Coleman camp as being properly rejected because the voter failed to sign their absentee application, but were given the ballot anyway. Yesterday, Friedberg was saying this sort of state negligence wasn't a specific legal reason to throw out a vote. • The voter included their registration card inside the special secrecy envelope for the ballot, rather than outside that envelope. Friedberg was arguing yesterday that these ballots should be included. • The signature on the ballot envelope didn't match the one on the application. The Coleman team now believes extra leniency should be applied in matching up signatures --- even going so far as to advocate for a man who admits that someone else forged his signature on the application.
Yesterday, however, Coleman's lawyers seem to have effectively made a similar case against Franken, arguing that his team is now doing the exact same thing, and arguing against the inclusion of certain ballots, rejected due to technical procedural failures by voters, that they had previously argued should not disqualify such ballots from being counted.
Coleman Finally Gains Some Ground
In regards the Equal Protection strategy now being applied by Coleman's camp to argue that more ballots should be counted now (in contradiction to Ginsberg's 2000 argument, which contended that was reasoning for counting none of them), Keefeld notes that today they may finally be making some headway in that regard, as an election official has admitted on the stand that there may be some ballots out there which were rejected in some counties due to a procedural problem, while in other counties, such ballots were eventually accepted and counted.
As well, there is one other area where Coleman may be finding some purchase, according to Kleefeld's late afternoon report, following the close of Day 5 today.
"After a week of one comedic misstep after another, the Coleman legal team seems to have finally gotten its act together and managed to score some points," he reports. He's referring to the other key element, beyond the rejected ballots, in Coleman's legal case. That is, the claim that several hundred ballots from Election Night were improperly counted twice during the post-election hand-count, "thanks to a duplication process for damaged ballots and a failure to label them properly."
We'll try to offer more details on that issue in the future, though while Coleman may have made some headway in his case on that point, it is, as Kleefeld notes, a potentially risky strategy for him to take, given the number of votes involved, and given that Franken may be able to toss it right back at them.
"Listen," Coleman is quoted as having said at a presser, stating the obvious, "there's a lot of irony in this process."
Calling All Rejected Voters
Finally, for the moment, on the heels of the "cherry-picked voters" allegations from Franken, Coleman has launched a new strategy which may --- as with several of his witnesses earlier this week --- end up backfiring on him, eventually.
He has now posted the name, and in many cases, the precise city, of every voter in MN whose ballot was rejected, online at his Coleman for Senate website.
That new strategy, however, has also opened up several new cans of worms.
The webpage claims that Coleman is fighting to ensure "that no voter is disenfranchised in the process or has their vote improperly rejected."
It further says, in full, unabashed hypocrisy mode: "Unfortunately, the Franken campaign continues their efforts to block any additional votes from being counted. In fact, the Franken campaign has now filed a legal motion asking that no additional absentee votes be reviewed, opened or counted. This from a campaign that used to make 'count every vote' their mantra–at least until it was no longer politically convenient for them."
But that strategy may backfire, as Kleefeld explains:
By including every last rejected ballot, regardless of backstory or merit, they are including ballots they themselves earlier objected to counting, under the state Supreme Court's controversial decision that gave the candidates a veto power over improperly-rejected absentees --- and they're now saying it's the Franken campaign who is disenfranchising these people.
...
And remember, the Coleman campaign's position until the last few weeks was that none of these ballots should ever be counted
But that's not the only way the strategy may have backfired...
Crashed, Burned and Hacked
A controversy --- several of them actually --- erupted earlier this week, following the publishing of Coleman's new database of rejected voters which he claimed, was "inundated by tens of thousands of hits today – temporarily crashing the website."
But the site didn't crash, according to Aaron Landry at MN Publius. "The stunt is a completely fabricated lie," meant only to raise attention to his list of rejected voters, said Landry, who offered evidence that Coleman's IT specifically set the site in order to make it appear that it had crashed.
Paul Schmelzer at Minnesota Independent has more technical details on the allegedly phony website crash.
Ironically enough --- in consideration of where today's report began, with Coleman's assertion that he was eager to get back to the Senate to "work on ways to make it easier for young people to vote online," the brouhaha over the supposed crash has also revealed how stupid that would likely be.
According to another Minnesota Independent article, investigation into the website crash, has revealed "a database of campaign donors (complete with names, email addresses, phone numbers and donation amounts) in a publicly accessible, unprotected directory."
Moreover, "the database included the usernames of registered site users, along with their unencrypted passwords, a potentially serious security concern for users who, like many of us, have a master password for various online accounts," according to Schmelzer.
Heckuva job, Normie! Let's get those voters casting ballots online as soon as possible! You think this election contest is a mess?! Let's go to the Internet! What could possibly go wrong?!! |
UPDATED 3/8/17 — Trump supporters who gathered across the country over the weekend to show support for the president were met by violent anti-Trump demonstrators armed with Tasers, pepper spray and bad attitudes.
About 400 Trump supporters converged on Minnesota’s Capitol in St. Paul Saturday – decked out in Make America Great Again gear and toting American flags – to hear from Republican lawmakers and show support for the new Republican administration.
But things turned ugly when about 50 anti-Trump agitators showed up to counter-protest and attack their political foes.
The groups initially traded chants like “Black Lives Matter” and “Blue Lives Matter,” and “get a job” and “F*** white supremacy” inside the rotunda before the anti-Trump group took things to another level, Alpha News MN reports.
According to the site:
Police created a human barrier between the groups on the main floor. Pro-Trump supporters stood behind the police occasionally chanting “Blue Lives Matter,” while protesters faced the cops who pushed them back onto a staircase leading to the floor of the rotunda.
The protesters came prepared for a fight with pro-Trump supporters. In the crowd, protesters put in orange earplugs to block the sound of noisemakers. One young African-American man wore lab safety goggles, and several young men and women wore bandannas to cover their faces.
At least a half dozen altercations broke out between the groups. Protesters released several canisters of mace into the crowd. Protesters also set off smoke bombs and firecrackers in the newly remodeled Capitol building.
The anti-Trump group also attacked at least one security guard, and shocked some with Tasers.
One was caught on video:
A Trump supporter identified only as Steve, 59, was hit multiple times with a Taser as he rescued a security guard who was under attack by anti-Trump agitators.
St. Paul arrested a total of six people Saturday, all from the anti-Trump crowd.
Among those was 24-year-old Linwood Michael Kaine, son of failed vice presidential candidate and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.
The Duluth News Tribune reports:
Linwood Michael Kaine, 24, and four others were arrested on suspicion of second-degree riot after the “March 4 Trump” rally in St. Paul; a sixth person was cited for disorderly conduct. Counter-protesters clashed with Trump supporters in the Capitol rotunda after they attempted to disrupt the proceedings with air horns, whistles and chants. At one point, someone set off a smoke bomb.
Linwood Kaine, a Carleton College graduate who lives in Minneapolis and goes by “Woody,” was released from the Ramsey County jail on Tuesday morning pending further investigation, law enforcement officials said.
“We love that our three children have their own views and concerns about current political issues,” Tim Kaine said. “They fully understand the responsibility to express those concerns peacefully.”
It was a similar situation at the Trump rally in Berkeley, Calif., The Washington Post reports.
A planned “March 4 Trump” event at the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park quickly turned violent when counter-protesters showed up with metal pipes, baseball bats, two-by-four blocks and bricks, police told the news site.
“These people just want to fight,” Nancy Chase, a Trump supporter, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “They are anarchists in black, and it’s not what we are about. I just want to stand up for liberty.”
Fighting is spreading to the streets in Berkeley. This isn’t a Trump rally anymore. It’s the anarchists. pic.twitter.com/cFIu7akCSX — Lizzie Johnson (@lizziejohnsonnn) March 4, 2017
“It got pretty heated. There were a few brawls,” 27-year-old Trump supporter Jared Malan said. “When we went for the march we were followed. A lot of people were attacked.”
Police said a total of 10 people were arrested in Berkeley, five for battery, four for assault with a deadly weapon (including one with a dagger) and one for resisting arrest, according to the Post.
Seven people were injured, though none badly enough to go to the hospital.
The Associated Press reports Trump supporters near Mar-a-Largo, Ohio, Michigan, and other areas were also confronted by lunatic liberals.
“In Nashville, two people were arrested as protesters clashed with Trump supporters at the Tennessee Capitol,” the AP reports. “And in Olympia, Wash., the state patrol said four demonstrators were arrested.”
Trump supporters also came out in force in New York, Washington, D.C., Denver, Pennsylvania, Maine, Miami, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Virginia Beach, and numerous other locales to support the 45th President amid continuous attacks from leftist agitators and the media.
“Agree with President Trump or not, he is our president, and I think what I see happening in D.C. and with the Democrats — it can’t stand,” 60-year-old Michigander Gary Taylor told the news service. |
Example of shōnen-ai artwork, originally published at Animexx
Yaoi (; Japanese: やおい [ja.o.i]), also known as boys' love (ボーイズ ラブ, bōizu rabu) or BL (ビーエル, bīeru), is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters.[1] It is typically created by women for women and is distinct from homoerotic media marketed to gay male audiences, such as bara, but it also attracts male readers. It spans a wide range of media, including manga, anime, drama CDs, novels, games, and fan production. Boys love and its abbreviation BL are the generic terms for this kind of media in Japan and have, in recent years, become more commonly used in English as well. However, yaoi remains more generally prevalent in English.
A defining characteristic of yaoi is the practice of pairing characters in relationships according to the roles of seme, the sexual top or active pursuer, and uke, the sexual bottom or passive pursuant. Common themes in yaoi include forbidden relationships, depictions of non-consensual sex, tragedy, and humor. Yaoi and BL stories cover a diverse range of genres such as high school love comedy, period drama, science fiction and fantasy, detective fiction and include sub-genres such as omegaverse and shotacon.
Yaoi finds its origins in both fan culture and commercial publishing. As James Welker has summarized, the term yaoi dates back to dōjinshi culture of the late 1970s to early 1980s where, as a portmanteau of "yamanashi ochinashi iminashi" (no climax, no point, no meaning), it was a self-deprecating way to refer to amateur fan works that parodied mainstream manga and anime by depicting the male characters from popular series in vaguely or explicitly sexual situations.[2] The use of yaoi to refer to parody dōjinshi is still predominant in Japan. In commercial publishing, the genre can be traced back to shōnen'ai, a genre of beautiful boy manga that began to appear in shōjo manga magazines in the early 1970s. From the 1970s to 1980s, other terms such as tanbi and June emerged to refer to specific developments in the genre. In the early 1990s, however, these terms were largely eclipsed with the commercialization of male-male homoerotic media under the label of boys love.
Yaoi currently has a robust global presence. Yaoi works are available across the continents in various languages both through international licensing and distribution and through circulation by fans. Yaoi works, culture, and fandom have also been studied and discussed by scholars and journalists worldwide.
History and general terminology [ edit ]
The genre currently known as Boy's Love, BL, or yaoi derives from two sources. Female authors writing for shōjo (girl's) manga magazines in the early 1970s published stories featuring platonic relationships between young boys, which were known as tanbi (aesthetic) or shōnen ai (boy love). In the late 1970s[citation needed] going into the 1980s, women and girls in the dōjinshi (fan fiction) markets of Japan started to produce sexualized parodies of popular shōnen (boy's) anime and manga stories in which the male characters were recast as gay lovers.[nb 1] By the end of the 1970s, magazines devoted to the nascent genre started to appear, and in the 1990s the term boys' love or BL would be invented and would become the dominant term used for the genre in Japan. Although yaoi derives from girl's and women's manga and still targets the shōjo and josei demographics, it is currently considered a separate category.[4][5]
Keiko Takemiya's manga serial Kaze to Ki no Uta,[nb 2] first published in 1976, was groundbreaking in its depictions of "openly sexual relationships" between men, spurring the development of the boys' love genre in shōjo manga,[6] as well as the development of sexually explicit amateur comics.[9] Another noted female manga author, Kaoru Kurimoto, wrote shōnen ai mono stories in the late 1970s that have been described as "the precursors of yaoi".[10]
The term yaoi is an acronym created in the late 1970s[3] by Yasuko Sakata and Akiko Hatsu[10] from the words Yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi (山[場]なし、落ちなし、意味なし) "No peak (climax), no fall (punch line/denouement), no meaning". This phrase was first used as a "euphemism for the content"[11] and refers to how yaoi, as opposed to the "difficult to understand" shōnen-ai being produced by the Year 24 Group female manga authors,[12] focused on "the yummy parts".[8] The phrase also parodies a classical style of plot structure.[13] Kubota Mitsuyoshi says that Osamu Tezuka used yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi to dismiss poor quality manga, and this was appropriated by the early yaoi authors.[11] As of 1998, the term yaoi was considered "common knowledge to manga fans".[14] A joking alternative yaoi acronym among fujoshi (female yaoi fans) is Yamete, oshiri ga itai (やめて お尻が 痛い, "Stop, my ass hurts!").[15][16] In the 1980s, the genre was presented in an anime format for the first time, including the works Patalliro! (1982) which showed a romance between two supporting characters, an adaptation of Kaze to Ki no Uta (1987) and Earthian (1989), released in the original video animation (home video) format.[17]
Prior to the popularization of the term yaoi, material in the nascent genre was called juné (ジュネ),[4] a name derived from Juné, a magazine that published male/male tanbi (耽美, "aesthetic") romances which took its name from the homoerotic stories of the French writer Jean Genet.[4][18] In China, the term danmei is used, which is derived from tanbi.[19] The term bishōnen manga was used in the 1970s, but fell from favor in the 1990s when manga in this genre began to feature a broader range of protagonists beyond the traditional adolescent boys.[20] In Japan, the term juné would die out in favor of boys' love, which remains the most common name in Japan.[4] Mizoguchi suggests that publishers wishing to get a foothold in the juné market coined "boys' love" to disassociate the genre from the publisher of Juné.[20]
While yaoi has become an umbrella term in the West for women's manga or Japanese-influenced comics with male-male relationships,[4] and it is the term preferentially used by American manga publishers for works of this kind,[21] Japan uses the term yaoi to denote dōjinshi and works that focus on sex scenes.[4] In both usages, yaoi / boy's love excludes gei comi (bara), a genre which also depicts gay male sexual relationships but is written for and mostly by gay men.[4][13] In the West, the term hentai yaoi is sometimes used to denote the most explicit titles.[22] The use of yaoi to denote those works with explicit scenes sometimes clashes with use of the word to describe the genre as a whole, creating confusion between Japanese and Western writers or between Western fans who insist on proper usage of the Japanese terms and those who use the Westernized versions. Yaoi can also be used by Western fans as a label for anime or manga-based slash fiction.[23] In Japan, the term yaoi is occasionally written as 801,[24] which can be read as yaoi through Japanese wordplay:[11] the short reading of the number eight is "ya", zero can be read as "o" (a western influence), while the short reading for one is "i".[25]
Concepts [ edit ]
The term shōnen-ai (boy love) originally connoted ephebophilia or pederasty in Japan, but from the early 1970s to the late 1980s, was used to describe a new genre of shōjo manga, primarily produced by the Year 24 Group of women authors, about beautiful boys in love. Characteristics of shōnen-ai include exoticism, often taking place in Europe,[26] and idealism.[27] Jeffrey Angles particularly notes Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas (1974) and Keiko Takemiya's Kaze to Ki no Uta (1976–1984) as being groundbreaking, noting their portrayal of intense friendship between males, including jealousy and desire.[28]
The origin of shonen-ai is thought to come through two pathways. Mizoguchi traces the tales back to the tanbi romances of Mori Mari.[29] The term tanbi was used for stories written for and about the worship of beauty,[4] and romance between older men and beautiful youths[30] using particularly flowery language and unusual kanji (Chinese characters appropriated into Japanese script).[4] Mori Mari in Koibito tachi no mori (恋人たちの森, A Lovers' Forest), considered "the first work of [yaoi]",[31] used such unusual kanji for her characters' names that she converted to spelling their names in katakana, a script used to transcribe foreign words.[30] The word was originally used to describe an author's distinctive style, for example, the styles of Yukio Mishima and Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. Akiko Mizoguchi describes its application to male-male stories as "misleading", but notes "it was the most commonly used term in the early 1990s."[20] According to James Welker, Minori Ishida shows that "early boys love narratives" were inspired by European fiction about "beautiful boys", and the writing of the male author Taruho Inagaki.[29] Carola Bauer cites the bildungsroman genre as having influenced shonen-ai.[32]
Kazuko Suzuki describes shōnen-ai as being "pedantic" and "difficult to understand",[12] saying that they required "knowledge of classic literature, history and science"[27] and were replete with "philosophical and abstract musings". Shōnen-ai challenged young readers, who were often only able to understand the references and deeper themes as they grew older and instead were initially drawn to the figure of the male protagonist.[33] Galbraith defines shōnen ai as "original content that can approach serious literature in tone and theme", as opposed to a more light-hearted yaoi.[3] By the late 1980s, the popularity of professionally published shōnen-ai was declining, and dōjinshi (self-published) yaoi was becoming more popular.[8]
The terms yaoi and shōnen-ai are sometimes used by Western fans to differentiate between two variants of the genre. In this case, yaoi is used to describe titles that primarily feature sexually explicit themes and sex scenes, while shōnen-ai is used to describe titles that focus primarily on romance and omit explicit sexual content, although sexual acts may be implied.[34][35][36] According to this use of the terms, Gravitation would be considered shōnen-ai due to its focus on the characters' careers rather than their love life.[22]
Seme and uke [ edit ]
Artwork depicting a seme (left) and uke (right) couple
The two participants in a yaoi relationship (and to a lesser extent in yuri)[37] are often referred to as seme ("top") and uke ("bottom"). These terms originated in martial arts:[38] seme derives from the ichidan verb "to attack", while uke is taken from the verb "to receive"[14] and is used in Japanese gay slang to mean the receptive partner ("bottom") in anal sex. Aleardo Zanghellini suggests that the martial arts terms have special significance to a Japanese audience, as an archetype of the gay male relationship in Japan includes same-sex love between samurai and their companions.[38] The seme and uke are often drawn in the bishōnen style and are "highly idealised", blending both masculine and feminine qualities.[14]
Zanghellini suggests that the samurai archetype is responsible for "the 'hierarchical' structure and age difference" of some relationships portrayed in yaoi and boys' love.[38] The seme is often depicted as the stereotypical male of anime and manga culture: restrained, physically powerful, and protective. The seme is generally older and taller,[39] with a stronger chin, shorter hair, smaller eyes, and a more stereotypically masculine, and "macho"[40] demeanour than the uke. The seme usually pursues the uke, who often has softer, androgynous, feminine features with bigger eyes and a smaller build, and is often physically weaker than the seme.[21] Another way the seme and uke characters are shown is through who is dominant in the relationship - a character can take the uke role even if he is not presented as feminine, simply by being juxtaposed against and pursued by a more dominant, more masculine, character.[41]
Although not the same, a yaoi construct similar to seme and uke is the concept of tachi and neko. This archetypal pairing is referenced more often in older yaoi volumes - in modern yaoi, this pairing is often seen as already encompassed by seme and uke or simply unnecessary to address. The tachi partner is conceptualized as the member of the relationship who pursues the more passive partner, the latter of whom is referred to as the neko. Seme and uke is similar but not identical to tachi and neko because the former refers primarily to sexual roles, whereas the latter describes personality.[citation needed] Although seme and uke roles are already used in some manga to describe which member of the relationship is more dominant and which member is more passive, there are just as many manga novels which subtly or overtly differentiate between the two.[citation needed] A gay male who asks out another male can initiate the relationship but also enjoy the sensation of being a bottom in anal sex.
Anal sex is a prevalent theme in yaoi, as nearly all stories feature it in some way. The storyline where an uke is reluctant to have anal sex with a seme is considered to be similar to the reader's reluctance to have sexual contact with someone for the first time.[42] Zanghellini notes that illustrations of anal sex almost always position the characters to face each other, rather than in the 'doggy style.' Zanghellini also notes that the uke rarely fellates the seme, but instead receives the sexual and romantic attentions of the seme.[38]
Though these tropes are common in yaoi, not all works adhere to them.[43][44] Carola Bauer states that the "butch-femme" couple dynamic discussed above became essential in the commercially published fiction of the 1990s.[45] McLelland says that authors are "interested in exploring, not repudiating" the dynamics between the seme and uke.[46] The possibility of switching roles is often a source of playful teasing and sexual excitement for the characters, indicating an interest among many genre authors in exploring the "performative nature" of the roles.[36] Sometimes the bottom character will be the aggressor in the relationship,[nb 3] or the pair will switch their sexual roles.[48] Riba, リバ (a contraction of the English word "reversible") is used to describe a couple that yaoi fans think is still plausible when the partners switch their seme and uke roles.[47] In another common mode of characters, the author will forgo the stylisations of the seme and uke, and will portray both lovers as "equally attractive handsome men." In this case, whichever of the two who is ordinarily in charge will take the passive role during sex.[40]
Bara [ edit ]
Although sometimes conflated with yaoi by Western commentators, gay men's manga or gei comi, also called Men's Love (ML) in English and bara in Japan, caters to a gay male audience rather than a female one and tends to be produced primarily by gay and bisexual male artists (such as Gengoroh Tagame) and serialized in gay men's magazines.[49] Bara is an even smaller niche genre in Japan than yaoi manga.[50] Considered a subgenre of seijin (men's erotica) for gay males, bara more closely resembles comics for men (seinen) rather than comics written for female readers (shōjo/josei).[citation needed] Few titles have been licensed or scanlated for English-language markets.[50]
Bara does not aim to recreate the heteronormative gender roles between the masculine seme and feminine uke types prominent in yaoi that is generally for a female audience. Gay men's manga is unlikely to contain scenes of "uncontrollable weeping or long introspective pauses",[51] and is less likely than yaoi to "build up a strong sense of character" before sex scenes occur.[52] The men in bara comics are more likely to be stereotypically masculine in behaviour and are illustrated as "hairy, very muscular, or [having] a few excess pounds"[51] akin to beefcakes or bears in gay culture.[citation needed] While bara usually features gay romanticism and adult content, sometimes of a violent or exploitative nature, it often explores real-world or autobiographical themes and acknowledges the taboo nature of homosexuality in Japan.[citation needed]
The gachi muchi ("muscley-chubby") subgenre of boys' love, also termed bara among English-speaking fans,[53] represents a crossover between bara and yaoi, with considerable overlap of writers, artists and art styles. This emergent boys' love subgenre, while still marketed primarily to women, depicts more masculine body types and is more likely to be written by gay male authors and artists; it is also thought to attract a large crossover gay male audience.[54] Prior to the development of gachi muchi, the greatest overlap between yaoi and bara authors was in BDSM-themed publications[53] such as Zettai Reido, a yaoi anthology magazine which had a number of openly male contributors.[15] Several female yaoi authors who have done BDSM-themed yaoi have been recruited to contribute stories to BDSM-themed bara anthologies or special issues.[53]
Thematic elements [ edit ]
Diminished female characters [ edit ]
Female characters often have very minor roles in yaoi, or are absent altogether.[55][56] Suzuki notes that mothers in particular are portrayed in a negative light, as in Zetsuai 1989 when the main character as a child witnesses his mother murdering his father. Suzuki suggests this is because the character and reader alike are seeking to substitute the absence of unconditional maternal love with the "forbidden" all-consuming love presented in yaoi.[57] Nariko Enomoto, a yaoi author, states that when women are depicted in yaoi, "it can't help but become weirdly real".[58] When fans produce yaoi from series that contain female characters, such as Gundam Wing,[59] the female's role is typically either minimized or the character is killed off.[56] Yukari Fujimoto states of shōnen manga series used as inspiration for yaoi that "it seems that yaoi readings and likeable female characters are mutually exclusive."[60]
Early shōnen-ai and yaoi have been regarded as misogynistic, but Lunsing notes a decrease in misogynistic comments from characters and regards the development of the yuri genre as reflecting a reduction of internal misogyny.[15] Alternatively, yaoi fandom is also viewed as a "refuge" from mainstream culture, which in this paradigm is viewed as inherently misogynistic.[61] In recent years, it has become more popular to have a female character supporting the couple.[62] Yaoi author Fumi Yoshinaga usually includes at least one sympathetic female character in her works.[63] There are many female characters in Yaoi who are Fujoshi themselves.[citation needed]
Gay equality [ edit ]
Yaoi stories are often strongly homosocial, which gives the men freedom to bond with each other and to pursue shared goals together, as in dojinshi representations of Captain Tsubasa, or to rival each other, as in Haru wo Daiteita. This spiritual bond and equal partnership overcomes the male-female power hierarchy.[64] To be together, many couples depicted in conventional yaoi stories must overcome obstacles that are often emotional or psychological rather than physical. The theme of the protagonists' victory in yaoi has been compared favourably to Western fairy tales, as the latter intends to enforce the status quo, but yaoi is "about desire" and seeks "to explore, not circumscribe, possibilities."[65] Akiko Mizoguchi noted that while homosexuality is sometimes still depicted as "shameful" to heighten dramatic tension, yaoi has increasingly featured stories of coming out and the characters' gradual acceptance within the wider community, such as Brilliant Blue. Mizoguchi remarked that yaoi presents a far more gay-friendly depiction of Japanese society, which she contends is a form of activism among yaoi authors.[66] Some longer-form stories, such as FAKE and Kizuna, depict the couple moving in together and adopting.[67]
Although gay male characters are empowered in yaoi manga, yaoi manga rarely explicitly addresses the reality of homophobia in Japanese society. According to Hisako Miyoshi, vice editor-in-chief for Libre Publishing, while earlier yaoi focused "more on the homosexual way of life from a realistic perspective", over time the genre has become less realistic and more comedic, and the stories are "simply for entertainment".[68] Yaoi manga often have fantastical, historical or futuristic settings, and many fans consider the genre to be an "escapist fantasy".[69] Homophobia, when it is presented as an issue at all,[43] is used as a plot device to "heighten the drama",[70] or to show the purity of the leads' love. Matt Thorn has suggested that readers of the yaoi genre, which primarily features romantic narratives, may be turned off by strong political themes such as homophobia.[8] Makoto Tateno stated her scepticism that a focus on real gay issues will "[become] a trend, because girls like fiction more than realism."[71] Alan Williams argues that the lack of a gay identity in yaoi is due to yaoi being postmodernist.[72]
Rape [ edit ]
Rape fantasy is a theme commonly found in yaoi manga.[64] Anal intercourse is understood as a means of expressing commitment to a partner, and in yaoi, the "apparent violence" of rape is transformed into a "measure of passion". While Japanese society often shuns or looks down upon women who are raped in reality, the yaoi genre depicts men who are raped as still "imbued with innocence" and are typically still loved by their rapists after the act, a trope that may have originated with Kaze to Ki no Uta.[73] Rape scenes in yaoi are rarely presented as crimes with an assaulter and a victim: scenes where a seme rapes an uke are not depicted as symptomatic of the "disruptive sexual/violent desires" of the seme, but instead are a signifier of the "uncontrollable love" felt by a seme for an uke. Such scenes are often a plot device used to make the uke see the seme as more than just a good friend and typically result in the uke falling in love with the seme.[64] Rape fantasy themes explore the protagonist's lack of responsibility in sex, leading to the narrative climax of the story, where "the protagonist takes responsibility for his own sexuality".[74]
The 2003–2005 Under Grand Hotel, set in a men's prison, has been praised for showing a more realistic depiction of rape.[75] Authors such as Fusanosuke Inariya (of Maiden Rose fame) utilize rape not as the traditional romantic catalyst, but as a tragic dramatic plot element, rendering her stories a subversion of contemporary tropes that reinforce and reflect older tropes such as the prevalence of romantic tragedy themes. Other yaoi tend to depict a relationship that begins as non-consensual and evolves into a consensual relationship. However, Fusanosuke's stories are ones where the characters' relationship begins as consensual and devolves into non-consensual, often due to external societal pressures that label the character's gay relationship as deviant. Her stories are still characterized by fantasy, yet they do brutally and realistically illustrate scenes of sexual assault between characters.[76]
Tragedy [ edit ]
Juné stories with suicide endings were popular,[77] as was "watching men suffer".[78] Matt Thorn theorizes that depicting abuse in yaoi is a way for some readers of yaoi to "come to terms with their own experiences of abuse".[8] By the mid-1990s the fashion was for happy endings.[77] When tragic endings are shown, the cause is not infidelity, but "the cruel and intrusive demands of an uncompromising outside world."[79]
Publishing [ edit ]
Books on display at a San Francisco Kinokuniya bookstore
Japan [ edit ]
As of 1990, seven Japanese publishers included BL content in their offerings - which kickstarted the commercial publishing market of the genre.[45] By 2003, 3.8% of weekly manga magazines were dedicated to BL.[3] A 2008 assessment estimated that the Japanese commercial yaoi market grossed approximately 12 billion yen annually, with novel sales generating 250 million yen per month, manga generating 400 million yen per month, CDs generating 180 million yen per month, and video games generating 160 million yen per month. As of this time, magazines for BL included BE-BOY, GUSH, CHARA and CIEL.[80] A 2010 report estimated that the yaoi market was worth approximately 21.3 billion yen in both 2009 and 2010.[81]
Besides manga and anime, there are also Boys' Love (BL) games (also known as yaoi games), usually consisting of visual novels or H games oriented around male homosexual couples for the female market. The defining factor is that both the playable character(s) and possible objects of affection are male. As with yaoi manga, the major market is assumed to be female. Games aimed at a homosexual male audience may be referred to as bara. A 2006 breakdown of the Japanese commercial BL market estimated it grosses approximately 12 billion yen annually, with video games generating 160 million yen per month.[80]
English-speaking countries [ edit ]
Yaoi manga are sold to English-speaking countries by companies that translate and print them in English. Companies such as Digital Manga Publishing with their imprints 801 Media (for explicit yaoi) and Juné (for "romantic and sweet" yaoi),[34] as well as Kitty Media, and Viz Media under their imprint SuBLime. Companies that formerly published yaoi manga but are now defunct include DramaQueen, Central Park Media's Be Beautiful,[21] Tokyopop under their imprint BLU, Broccoli under their Boysenberry imprint, and Aurora Publishing under their imprint Deux Press. Yaoi Press, based in Las Vegas and specializing in yaoi that is not of Japanese origin, remains active.[citation needed] According to McLelland, the earliest officially translated English-language yaoi manga was printed in 2003, and as of 2006 there were about 130 English-translated works commercially available.[82] In March 2007, Media Blasters stopped selling shōnen manga and increased their yaoi lines in anticipation of publishing one or two titles per month that year.[83]
Among the 135 yaoi manga published in North America between 2003 and 2006, 14% were rated for readers aged 13 years or over, 39% were rated for readers aged 15 or older, and 47% were rated for readers age 18 and up.[84] Although American booksellers were increasingly stocking yaoi titles in 2008, their restrictions led publishers to label books conservatively, often rating books originally intended for a mid-teen readership as 18+ and distributing them in shrinkwrap.[31] Diamond Comic Distributors valued the sales of yaoi manga in the United States at approximately $US six million in 2007.[85] By December 2007, there were over 10 publishers in North America offering yaoi materials.[86]
Only a select few yaoi games have been officially translated into English. In 2006, JAST USA announced they would be releasing Enzai as Enzai: Falsely Accused, the first license of a yaoi game in English translation.[87] Some fan communities have criticized the choice of such a dark and unromantic game as the US market's first exposure to the genre. JAST USA subsequently licensed Zettai Fukujuu Meirei under the title Absolute Obedience,[88] while Hirameki International licensed Animamundi; the later game, although already nonexplicit, was censored for US release to achieve a 'mature' rather than 'adults only' rating, removing some of both the sexual and the violent content.[89] The lack of interest by publishers in licensing further titles has been attributed to widespread copyright infringement of both licensed and unlicensed games.[90]
Marketing was significant in the transnational travel of yaoi from Japan to United States. Due to earlier marketing efforts by distributors, yaoi has attracted a following of gay male fans in the United States. Kizuna (1994) was described by Phoenix-based distributor Ariztical Entertainment that specializes in LGBT films as “the first gay male Anime to be released on DVD in the US” to market it to the gay male audience.[91] Furthermore, a review of Kizuna was ran in an issue of the prominent American LGBT magazine The Advocate, released on February 4, 1997. The review, written by Cathay Che, noted that Kizuna was “the first shounen-ai animated series... distributed by mail order through the gay-owned company Phoenix Distributors.”[92] Che also described the two-episode OVA series to be “as accessible as the usual gay art house film is eccentric and experimental,” tying the animated series to the larger gay media library.[92]
Fan fiction [ edit ]
The Japanese fan fiction (dōjinshi) subculture emerged contemporaneously with its English equivalent in the 1970s.[34][61] Characteristic similarities of fan fiction in both countries include non-adherence to a standard "narrative structure" and a particular popularity of science fiction themes.[14] The early yaoi dōjinshi were amateur publications not controlled by media restrictions. The stories were written by teenagers for an adolescent audience and were generally based on manga or anime characters who were likewise in their teens or early twenties.[61] Most dōjinshi are created by amateurs who often work in "circles".[93] The group CLAMP began as an amateur dōjinshi circle who worked together to create Saint Seiya parodies.[94] Certain professional artists such as Kodaka Kazuma also create dōjinshi.[95] Some publishing companies reviewed dōjinshi manga published in the 1980s to identify talented amateurs,[34] leading to the discovery of Youka Nitta and numerous other artists.[96] This practice lessened in the 1990s, but was still used to find Shungiku Nakamura.[17]
Typical yaoi dōjinshi features male-male pairings from non-romantic manga and anime. Much of the material derives from male-oriented shōnen and seinen works which contain close male-male friendships and are perceived by fans to imply elements of homoeroticism,[8] such as with Captain Tsubasa[13] and Saint Seiya, two titles which popularized yaoi in the 1980s.[61] Weekly Shonen Jump is known to have a large female readership who engage in yaoi readings.[97] Publishers of shōnen manga may create "homoerotic-themed" merchandise as fan service to their BL fans.[98] Comiket's co-founder Yoshihiro Yonezawa described dōjinshi as akin to "girls playing with dolls";[42] yaoi fans may ship any male-male pairing, sometimes pairing off a favourite character, or creating a story about two original male characters and incorporating established characters into the story.[13] Any male character may become the subject of a yaoi dōjinshi, including characters from non-manga titles such as Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings,[99] video games such as Kingdom Hearts Overwatch and Final Fantasy,[100][101] or real people such as politicians. Amateur authors may also create characters out of personifications of abstract concepts (such as the personification of countries in Hetalia: Axis Powers) or complementary objects like salt and pepper.[102] In Japan, the labelling of dōjinshi yaoi manga is typically composed of the two lead characters' names, separated by a multiplication sign, with the seme being first and the uke being second.[103]
While Gundam Wing does not have explicit gay romance content, its first airing in the North America via Cartoon Network in 2000, five years after its initial broadcast in Japan, was crucial to Western fan creation of yaoi fictions, as noted by McHarry in his article that performs a reading of “Western yaoi story” with ideas of gender theorists such as Judith Butler and Eve Sedgewick.[104] As yaoi fanfiction has so often been compared to the Western fan practice of slash, it is important to understand the subtle differences between them. Levi notes that “the youthful teen look that so easily translates into androgyny in boy’s love manga, and allows for so many layered interpretations of sex and gender, is much harder for slash writers to achieve.”[105] Regardless, the similarities and connections between yaoi and slash fan fictions should not be overlooked given the profound intersections between the two fan subcultures, as revealed by the multitude of Harry Potter-inspired slash fictions and dojinshi.
Yaoi-inspired works outside Japan [ edit ]
As yaoi gained popularity in the United States, a few American artists began creating original English-language manga for female readers featuring male-male couples referred to as "American yaoi." The first known original English-language yaoi comic is Sexual Espionage #1 by Daria McGrain, published in May 2002.[106] Since approximately 2004, what started as a small subculture in North America has become a burgeoning market, as new publishers began producing female-oriented male/male erotic comics and manga from creators outside Japan.[107] Because creators from all parts of the globe are published in these works, the term American yaoi fell out of use and were replaced by terms like "Original English Language yaoi"[108] and "Global Yaoi".[109]
The term global yaoi was coined by creators and newsgroups that wanted to distinguish the Asian specific content known as yaoi, from the original English content.[110][111] Global BL was shortened by comics author Tina Anderson in interviews and on her blog to the acronym GloBL.[112] High-Volume North American publishers of 'Global BL' are Yaoi Press,[113] which continues to release illustrated fiction written by the companies CEO, Yamila Abraham under the imprint Yaoi Prose.[114] Prior publishers include DramaQueen, which debuted its 'Global BL' quarterly anthology RUSH in 2006,[115] and Iris Print,[116] both ceased publishing due to financial issues.[117] In 2015, "Tweek x Craig", a season 19 episode of the American animation series South Park, centered upon the eponymous characters objecting to being depicted by their female schoolmates in Yaoi-themed illustrations.[citation needed]
In 2009, Germany saw a period of GloBL releases, with a handful of original German titles gaining popularity for being set in Asia.[118] Some publishers of German GloBL were traditional manga publishers like Carlsen Manga,[119] and small press publishers specializing in GloBL like The Wild Side[120] and Fireangels Verlag.[121]
Other successful series in GloBL include web comics Teahouse, Starfighter, Purpurea Noxa, and In These Words from artist Jo Chen's studio Guilt Pleasure, all three of which are also being promoted by Digital Manga Publishing.[122]
Yaoi is known as danmei (耽美), which is the Mandarin reading of the Japanese term tanbi, in Sinophone contexts. The first appearance of danmei in China could be traced back to 1998 under the influence of yaoi culture.[123] However, state regulations in China make it difficult for danmei writers to publish their works online. In January 2009, the National Publishing Administration of China updated its third list of banned online fiction, most of which was danmei fiction.[124] In 2014, Anhui TV reported that at least 20 young female authors writing danmei novels on an online novel website were arrested.[125] In 2018, a female author received a ten-year and six month prison sentence for breaking obscenity laws in China by selling her danmei novel Gongzhan (攻占) onTaobao, China's largest online shopping website.[126]
Demographics [ edit ]
Most yaoi fans are either teenage girls or young women. In Thailand, female readership of yaoi works is estimated at 80%,[127] and the membership of Yaoi-Con, a yaoi convention in San Francisco, is 85% female. It is usually assumed that all female fans are heterosexual, but in Japan there is a presence of lesbian manga authors[15] and lesbian, bisexual or questioning female readers.[128] Recent online surveys of English-speaking readers of yaoi indicate that 50-60% of female readers self-identify as heterosexual.[129]
Although the genre is marketed at girls and women, there is a gay,[82] bisexual,[130] and heterosexual male[131][132][133] readership as well. A survey of yaoi readers among patrons of a United States library found about one quarter of respondents were male;[134] two online surveys found approximately ten percent of the broader Anglophone yaoi readership were male.[31][129]
Lunsing suggests that younger Japanese gay men who are offended by "pornographic" content in gay men's magazines may prefer to read yaoi instead.[135] Some gay men, however, are put off by the feminine art style or unrealistic depictions of LGBT culture in Japan and instead prefer gei comi,[15] which some perceive to be more realistic.[13] Lunsing notes that some of the yaoi narrative elements criticized by homosexual men, such as rape fantasies, misogyny, and characters' non-identification as gay, are also present in gei comi.[15]
In the mid-1990s, estimates of the size of the Japanese yaoi fandom ranged from 100,000 to 500,000 people.[15] At around that time, Juné magazine had a circulation of between 80,000 and 100,000, twice the circulation of the best selling gay lifestyle magazine Badi. As of April 2005, a search for non-Japanese websites resulted in 785,000 English, 49,000 Spanish, 22,400 Korean, 11,900 Italian and 6,900 Chinese sites.[46] In January 2007, there were approximately five million hits for yaoi.[136]
A large portion of Western fans choose to pirate yaoi material because they are unable or unwilling to obtain it through sanctioned methods. For example, fans may lack a credit card for payment, or they may want to keep their yaoi private because of the dual stigma of seeking sexually explicit material which is also gay. Scanlations and other fan translation efforts are common.[137] In addition to commercially published Japanese works, amateur dojinshi may be scanlated into English.[138]
Critical reception [ edit ]
General [ edit ]
Boys' love manga has received considerable critical attention, especially after translations of BL became commercially available outside Japan in the 21st century.[8] Different critics and commentators have had very different views of BL. In 1983, Frederik L. Schodt, an American manga writer and translator, has observed that portrayals of gay male relationships had used and further developed bisexual themes already in existence in shoujo manga to appeal to their female audience.[139] Japanese critics have viewed boys' love as a genre that permits their audience to avoid adult female sexuality by distancing sex from their own bodies,[140] as well as to create fluidity in perceptions of gender and sexuality and rejects "socially mandated" gender roles as a "first step toward feminism."[141] Kazuko Suzuki, for example, believes that the audience's aversion to or contempt for masculine heterosexism is something which has consciously emerged as a result of the genre's popularity.[142]
Mizoguchi, writing in 2003, feels that BL is a "female-gendered space," as the writers, readers, artists and most of the editors of BL are female.[20] BL has been compared to romance novels by English-speaking librarians.[39][70] Parallels have also been noted in the popularity of lesbianism in pornography,[42][82] and yaoi has been called a form of "female fetishism".[143] Mariko Ōhara, a science fiction writer, has said that she wrote yaoi Kirk/Spock fiction as a teen because she could not enjoy "conventional pornography, which had been made for men", and that she had found a "limitless freedom" in yaoi, much like in science fiction.[144]
Other commentators have suggested that more radical gender-political issues underlie BL. In 1998, Shihomi Sakakibara argued that yaoi fans, including himself, were gay female-to-male transsexuals.[145] Sandra Buckley believes that bishounen narratives champion "the imagined potentialities of alternative [gender] differentiations",[146] while James Welker described the bishounen character as "queer", commenting that manga critic Akiko Mizoguchi saw shōnen-ai as playing a role in how she herself had become a lesbian.[147] Dru Pagliassotti sees this and the yaoi ronsō as indicating that for Japanese gay and lesbian readers, BL is not as far removed from reality as heterosexual female readers like to claim.[31] Welker has also written that boys love titles liberate the female audience "not just from patriarchy, but from gender dualism and heteronormativity."[147]
Criticism [ edit ]
Some gay and lesbian commentators have criticized how gay identity is portrayed in BL, most notably in the yaoi ronsō or "yaoi debate" of 1992–1997.[15][30] A trope of yaoi that has attracted criticism is male protagonists who do not identify as gay, but are rather simply in love with each other. This is said to heighten the theme of all-conquering love,[55] but is also condemned for avoiding the need to address prejudices against people who state that they were born gay, lesbian or bisexual.[148] Yaoi stories (such as 1987's Tomoi[15] and 1996-1998's[149] New York, New York (ja)) have increasingly featured characters that identify as gay.[15] Criticism of the stereotypically "girly" behaviour of the uke has also been prominent.[44]
Japanese gay activist Satou Masaki criticized yaoi fans and artists in an open letter to the feminist zine Choisir in May 1992, writing that the genre was lacking in any accurate information about gay men and conveniently avoided the very real prejudice and discrimination that gay men faced as a part of society. More significantly, its portrayal of gay men as wealthy, handsome and well-educated was simply a vehicle for heterosexual female masturbation fantasies.[15][30] An extensive debate ensued, with yaoi fans and artists arguing that yaoi is entertainment for women, not education for gay men, and that yaoi characters are not meant to represent "real gay men."[30] As internet resources for gay men developed in the 1990s, the yaoi debate waned[150] but occasionally resurfaced; for example, when Mizoguchi in 2003 characterized stereotypes in modern BL as being "unrealistic and homophobic".[151]
There has been similar criticism to the Japanese yaoi debate in the English-speaking fandom.[43][152][153][154] In 1993 and 2004, Matt Thorn pointed to the complexity of these phenomena, and suggested that yaoi and slash fiction fans are discontented with "the standards of femininity to which they are expected to adhere and a social environment that does not validate or sympathize with that discontent."[8][155]
In China, BL became very popular in the late 1990s, attracting media attention, which became negative, focusing on the challenge it posed to "heterosexual hegemony." Publishing and distributing BL is illegal in mainland China.[156] Zanghellini notes that due to the "characteristics of the yaoi/BL genre" of showing characters who are often underage engaging in romantic and sexual situations, child pornography laws in Australia and Canada "may lend themselves to targeting yaoi/BL work". He notes that in the UK, cartoons are exempt from child pornography laws unless they are used for child grooming.[38]
In 2001, a controversy erupted in Thailand regarding gay male comics. Television reports labelled the comics as negative influences, while a newspaper falsely stated that most of the comics were not copyrighted as the publishers feared arrest for posting the content; in reality most of the titles were likely illegally published without permission from the original Japanese publishers. The shōnen ai comics provided profits for the comic shops, which sold between 30 and 50 such comics per day. The moral panic regarding the gay male comics subsided. The Thai girls felt too embarrassed to read heterosexual stories, so they read gay male-themed josei and shōjo stories, which they saw as "unthreatening."[157]
Youka Nitta has said that "even in Japan, reading boys' love isn't something that parents encourage" and encouraged any parents who had concerns about her works to read them.[158] Although in Japan, concern about manga has been mostly directed to shōnen manga, in 2006, an email campaign was launched against the availability of BL manga in Sakai City's public library. In August 2008, the library decided to stop buying more BL, and to keep its existing BL in a collection restricted to adult readers. That November, the library was contacted by people who protested against the removal, regarding it as "a form of sexual discrimination". The Japanese media ran stories on how much BL was in public libraries, and emphasised that this sexual material had been loaned out to minors. Debate ensued on Mixi, a Japanese social networking site, and the library would return its BL to the public collection. Mark McLelland suggests that BL may become "a major battlefront for proponents and detractors of 'gender free' policies in employment, education and elsewhere."[159]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ aniparo, this term covered both male fans' work about female characters and female fans' work about male characters, but yaoi would be surpassed by aniparo as referring to women's fictions.[3] Initially called, this term covered both male fans' work about female characters and female fans' work about male characters, butwould be surpassed byas referring to women's fictions. ^ Shōjo Comic in January 1976, Kaze has been called "the first commercially published boys' love story",[6] but this claim has been challenged, as the first male-male kiss was in the 1970 manga In the Sunroom, also by Takemiya.[7] Matt Thorn says that Kaze was "the first shōjo manga to portray romantic and sexual relationships between boys", and that Takemiya first thought of Kaze nine years before it was approved for publication. Takemiya attributes the gap between the idea and its publication to the sexual elements of the story.[8] First serialized inin January 1976,has been called "the first commercially published boys' love story",but this claim has been challenged, as the first male-male kiss was in the 1970 manga, also by Takemiya.Matt Thorn says thatwas "the first shōjo manga to portray romantic and sexual relationships between boys", and that Takemiya first thought ofnine years before it was approved for publication. Takemiya attributes the gap between the idea and its publication to the sexual elements of the story. ^ osoi uke ("attacking uke"). He is usually paired with a hetare seme ("wimpy seme").[47] This character has been called an("attacking uke"). He is usually paired with a("wimpy seme").
References [ edit ] |
INTRODUCTION
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ENHANCEMENTS
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No Audio Fix Fixes a rare issue that could occur with devices that are encrypted and require that you enter a PIN code to boot up. If you make an emergency call before entering the PIN and booting up, this issue could prevent two-way audio in the call.
INSTRUCTIONS
For a successful installation, we recommend installing this update when the battery in your phone is at least 50% charged and you are connected to a Wi-Fi network.
If you have received a notification message for this update:
Select "Yes, I’m in". After the software is downloaded, select "Install now". After the software is installed, your phone will re-start automatically. Your phone is now updated with 21.111.2
If you have not received a notification message for this update, follow the steps below to manually update your phone:
Select the Settings icon in the apps menu. Select "About phone". Select "System updates". Select "Yes, I’m in". After the software is downloaded, select "Install now". After the software is installed, your phone will re-start automatically. Your phone is now updated to 21.111.2
Additional Information
If you have difficulty with this upgrade, visit us at www.motorola.com/mymotox. |
On Saturday, Sept. 19, the Indonesian National Police announced that a DNA test has positively identified a man killed Sept. 17 as Noordin Mohammad Top. Noordin was killed in a raid on a safe-house in the outskirts of Solo, Central Java, that resulted in a prolonged firefight between Indonesian authorities and militants. Police said four militants were killed in the incident and three more were taken into custody. (Two of them were arrested before the raid.) Authorities also recovered a large quantity of explosives during the raid that they believe the militant group was preparing to use in an attack on Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Indonesian National Police had reported Sept. 17 that the dead man's fingerprints matched Noordin's. But given several inaccurate reports of Noordin's demise in the past, combined with reports that the body believed to be Noordin's was headless — perhaps due to the explosion of a suicide belt — most observers were waiting for DNA confirmation before removing Noordin's name from the pinnacle of the organizational chart of Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad. Now that Noordin's name officially has been scratched off the list, big questions emerge: Can Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad continue without him? Can the group be effective as a militant organization? And who will step up to fill the void left by Noordin? The Importance of Leadership All three of these questions touch on the issue of leadership. Without leadership, militant groups wither and/or disintegrate. Without skilled leadership, militant groups lose their ability to conduct effective attacks. Quite simply, leadership, skill and professionalism make the difference between a militant group wanting to attack something — i.e., possessing intent — and the group's ability to successfully carry out its intended attack — i.e., its capability. Although on the surface it might seem like a simple task to find a leader for a militant group, in practice, effective militant leaders are hard to come by. This is because militant leadership requires a rather broad skill set. In addition to personal attributes such as ruthlessness, aggressiveness and fearlessness, militant leaders also must be charismatic, intuitive, clever and inspiring. This last attribute is especially important in an organization that seeks to recruit operatives to conduct suicide attacks. Additionally, an effective militant leader must be able to recruit and train operatives, enforce operational security, raise funds, plan operations, and then methodically execute the plan while avoiding the security forces constantly hunting the militants down. The importance of leadership to a militant organization has been wonderfully illustrated by the trajectory of al Qaeda's franchise in Saudi Arabia. Under the leadership of Abdel Aziz al-Muqrin the Saudi al Qaeda franchise was extremely busy in 2003 and 2004. It carried out a number of high-profile attacks inside the kingdom and put everyone from the Saudi monarchy to multinational oil companies in a general state of panic. With bombings, ambushes and beheadings, it seemed as if Saudi Arabia was on its way to becoming the next Iraq. Following the June 2004 death of al-Muqrin, however, the organization began to flounder. The succession of leaders appointed to replace al-Muqrin lacked his operational savvy, and each one proved ineffective at best. (Saudi security forces quickly killed several of them.) Following the February 2006 attack against the oil facility at Abqaiq, the group atrophied even further, succeeding in carrying out one more attack, an amateurish small-arms assault in February 2007 against a group of French tourists. The disorganized remaining jihadist militants in Saudi Arabia ultimately grew frustrated at their inability to operate on their own. Many of them traveled to places like Iraq or Pakistan to train and fight. In January 2009, many of the militants who remained in the Arabian Peninsula joined with al Qaeda's franchise in Yemen to form a new group called al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) under the leadership of Nasir al-Wahayshi, the leader of al Qaeda in Yemen who served under Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan before being arrested in Iran. Al-Wahayshi was returned to Yemen in 2003 through an extradition deal between the Yemeni and Iranian governments and subsequently escaped from a high-security prison outside Sanaa in 2006. Al Qaeda in Yemen's operational capability improved under al-Wahayshi's leadership, and its operational tempo increased (even though those operations were not terribly effective.) In the wake of this momentum, it is not surprising that the frustrated members of the all-but-defunct Saudi franchise agreed to swear loyalty to him. The first real fruit of this merger was seen inside Saudi Arabia in the Aug. 28 attempted assassination of Saudi Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. That the plot had to be planned and launched from Yemen reveals AQAP's weakness inside the kingdom, and the plot's failure demonstrates that, overall, AQAP is far from an effective organization. Like the Saudi node, the fortunes of other al Qaeda regional franchises have risen or fallen based upon the ability of the franchise's leadership. For example, in August 2006 al Qaeda announced with great fanfare that a splinter of the Egyptian jihadist group Gamaah al-Islamiyah had become al Qaeda's franchise in Egypt. Likewise, in November 2007 al Qaeda announced that the Libyan Islamic Fighting group (LIFG) had joined its constellation of regional groups. But neither of these new franchise groups ever really got off the ground. While a great degree of the groups' lack of success may have resulted from the oppressive natures of the Egyptian and Libyan governments — and the aggressive efforts those governments undertook to control the new al Qaeda franchises following the announcements of their creation — we believe the groups' near total lack of success also stems in large part from the lack of dynamic leadership. Recently, LIFG leaders have issued statements speaking out against al Qaeda's operational principles and general methodology. Dynamic leaders are indeed hard to find. Even though Indonesia has an estimated population of more than 240 million, Noordin — considered the most dangerous and most wanted man in Indonesia before his death — hailed from Malaysia, not Indonesia. He was an outsider like the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who brought al Qaeda in Iraq into the global spotlight. Of course, not every leadership change is disastrous to a militant group. Sometimes a new leader breathes new life and energy into a group (like al-Wahayshi in Yemen), or the group has competent lieutenants able to continue to operate effectively after the death of the leader (like al Qaeda in Iraq after the death of al-Zarqawi). Noordin's replacement, and how the leadership transition affects the group, must therefore be closely monitored. Topping Top Noordin was an accomplished operational commander. He was responsible for a number of terrorist attacks in Indonesia, including the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, the 2003 JW Marriott bombing in Jakarta, the 2004 attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, and most recently, the July 17 bombings of the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton in Jakarta. Because of these attacks, Noordin and his militant colleagues were under extreme pressure from the Indonesian authorities, who were aided by the Australian and American intelligence services. Many of Noordin's closest associates, like Ridhwan Isam al-Deen al-Hanbali and Azahari bin Husin, were arrested or killed, and operations launched by Indonesian authorities thwarted several of the group's planned attacks between 2005 and 2009. But external pressure was not the only challenge facing Noordin. He was also forced to deal with mounting ideological opposition to high-profile terror attacks from within Jemaah Islamiyah itself, a difference of opinion that led to Noordin's split with Jemaah Islamiyah and his decision to form the new group Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad in early 2006. Yet in spite of all this external and internal pressure, Noordin was still able to recruit new operatives, secure funding and maintain tight operational security. Noordin's penchant for security even sparked rumors that he had some sort of mystical protection, rumors fanned by the many false reports of his capture or death. The ability to operate under such trying circumstances is the mark of a seasoned leader. In a further challenge to Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad, two of Noordin's key lieutenants also died in the Sept. 17 operation. These were Maruto Jati Sulistyo, thought to have been one of Noordin's main bombmakers; and Bagus Budi Pranoto, who had previously served a three-and-one-half-year prison sentence for hiding Noordin and Azahari. (Pranoto, aka Urwah, was thought to have been a polished recruiter.) Despite the deaths of Maruto and Pranoto, there are a number of potential successors to Noordin. Among these are Reno, aka Teddy, the reported deputy of Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad; Saifuddin Jaelani, who reportedly recruited the suicide bombers responsible for the July hotel attacks in Jakarta; and Jaleni's brother, Muhammad Syahrir. Of course, someone outside Noordin's immediate circle could take up the fallen militant leader's mantle. Scores of Jemmah Islamiyah militants have been released from prison in recent years, and several skilled militants like Dulmatin and Umar Patek, who have fled to the Philippines, could return. And senior Jemmah Islamiyah militants like Zulkarnaen, who enjoy respect within the group, also remain at large. No matter who replaces Noordin, the follow-on investigation to the operation that resulted in the death of Noordin will surely prove challenging to the future leadership of Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad. Operations like the one that resulted in Noordin's death offer not only the opportunity for capturing or killing militants but also the potential for a huge harvest of intelligence. Indonesian authorities (aided by their allies) are surely attempting to exploit any information gained in the raid in an effort to locate other operatives, safe-houses and weapons caches. Indeed, Noordin himself was found due to intelligence gathered from the arrest of an associate named Rohmat on the same day as the raid in which Noordin died. Because of this intelligence windfall, we can anticipate a string of raids by the Indonesian government in the following days and weeks. And while Noordin was able to weather such operations in the past, now that he is gone, it remains to be seen if his replacement is capable of withstanding the pressure and keeping the group together and operationally effective. |
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