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Cosmo Wright knows The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker better than anyone – maybe even the people who made it.
The 23-year-old from Chicago is the world's fastest player of the GameCube adventure game, which came out in 2003. He's spent thousands of hours obsessively playing this one game over and over, shaving seconds off his time until he completed it in less than four and a half hours. About a month ago, Wright embarked on a new challenge: The high-definition remake of the game that Nintendo just released on its new Wii U platform. He's gunning to get the record in that, too, and broadcasting all of his practicing on Twitch, a streaming video website.
On September 22, 6,000 people were watching Wright play.
Link, the protagonist of the Zelda series, is down to his last little bit of health. Wright plants a bomb at his own feet. It's a seemingly suicidal move: The bomb explodes and Link loses his last bit of health. But it's not game over, not yet. Instead, Link flies into the sky. Wright pounds on his controller, averaging an insane 13 button inputs per second as Link's nearly-dead corpus rises off the ground, twitching in the air and emitting a series of truncated, staccato yelps. He floats all the way up to the top of a tower, a tower that Link is not yet meant to access.
Wright is speedrunning the new version of Wind Waker, attempting to exploit every single loophole in the gameplay, including bugs that Nintendo never fixed, in an attempt to finish the adventure in the fastest time possible. Speedrunning is something akin to setting high scores in games that don't have a scoring system, a way for top-tier players to rank themselves. With a few exceptions, speedrunning is usually not something for which these videogames reward you: You get the same ending in Super Mario 64 whether you finish it in 3 hours or 30 hours. But top speedrunners can become Internet famous, thanks to the popularity of streaming sites like Twitch.
"With a lot of these viewers, they're pretty much living with these speedrunners," says Twitch community manager Jared Rea. "It's very authentic. They're watching them do it live and they're watching them physically perform it. They're watching them face challenges and meet new obstacles and have these really great runs that end in heartbreak."
Heartbreak about sums it up. For as fast as these players are whipping through the games they have set out to master, speedruns can actually take many hours for each attempt. Wright's Wind Waker record is 4:27:53. That means speedrunners can play, and the audience can watch, for the better part of an evening only to make one tiny mistake and have to junk the whole thing. The agony of defeat comes much more often than the thrill of victory.
Many speedrun fans remember the time that Mike "Siglemic" Sigler, the record holder for Nintendo's 1996 game Super Mario 64, was tracking ahead of his own record but blew it by missing an easy jump. It was like watching Tiger Woods whiff a tee shot. 8,000 people watched in horror. "There goes the [world record]," one wrote. "Please kill me," added another.
Sigler didn't let that flop get him down. He wound up setting the world record the following day, and since January has held the number one slot with a run that's a full three minutes faster than his previous personal best.
"Speedruns are not inherently important by themselves," says Wright. "They become important when an audience is paying attention and is captivated."
The practice of recording and posting one's videogame completion times to the internet has roots that stretch all the way back into the early 1990s with games like Doom and Quake. But Nathan Jahnke, a staff member at Speed Demos Archive, says that speedrunning "was not yet a thing" until about 2003, shortly after the release of Nintendo's GameCube game Metroid Prime.
Unlike Zelda, the Metroid series actually did reward players for finishing the first-person space adventure more speedily. It inspired a growing group of players, mostly posting on message boards like GameFAQs, to begin capturing and posting videos of their full playthroughs. Back then in the days of dial-up, it could take days to download one of the hours-long video files.
Despite the limitations, the ability to share video footage of runs allowed speedrunners to collaborate and learn from each other.
"People were watching one another's every move," says Jahnke, "and the effect was [that] information about time-saving tricks [built] up more and more rapidly."
Watch: 7 Tricks of the Speedrunning Trade —————————————–
Wright successfully performs the Zombie Hover glitch in Wind Waker HD, but it doesn't work the way he expected it to in the end. Video credit: Cosmo Wright Quake was one of the first games to inspire a serious speedrunning community. Over the years some players have gotten... well... a little too good at the game. Video credit: Youtube user wusseh The endless staircases that separate floors of the castle in Mario 64 aren't so endless after all, if you can move quickly enough. Youtuber PsychoSpeedGame has been kind enough to record a tutorial showing anybody how to pull off the Backwards Long Jump glitch. Video credit: Youtube user PsychoSpeedGame At the 17:30 mark in this video, we see a complicated glitch that allows players to exit the boundaries of Mirror's Edge's world. By skipping massive level segments, speedrunners of ME are able to beat it in less than 40 minutes. Video credit: Youtube user VafflaN8 Most people, given unlimited time, would find it pretty difficult to beat Super Meat Boy. This guy does it in less than 20 minutes, and reveals a handful of useful tricks in doing so. Video credit: Youtube user ExoSDA This video would be impressive enough if the runner only beat Portal in fewer than 10 minutes, but he also uses a bizarre series of exploits to reach the cake room shown at the end of the game. Video credit: Youtube user Michael Yanni Here Cosmo Wright and some fellow speedrunners demonstrate and explain the warp glitch in Ocarina of Time that changed everything. Video credit: Youtube user SwordlessLink
Soon, the speedrunners found that they'd wrung Metroid Prime dry of secrets – at least, as far as they knew. Hungry for something else, the Metroid players began to branch out to new games. Speed Demos Archive began to accept and post runs for almost any game, quickly becoming the de facto hub of speedrunning leaderboards. Today, speedrunning is so popular that some players like Cosmo Wright can make a decent income off the advertising that runs over their streams.
The most popular speedrunners understand that, if they want to make money, they are first and foremost in the entertainment business.
Daniel "GoronGuy" Sword, a 17-year-old high school student from Stockholm, Sweden, has become the most popular speedrunner of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, even though he isn't necessarily the best player of the game.
The World's Fastest Gamers
The current world record times for some popular games.- The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker – Cosmo Wright (4:27:53)
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD – gymnast86 (4:35:03)
– gymnast86 (4:35:03) Super Mario 64 (120 stars) – Mike "Siglemic" Sigler (1:48:05)
(120 stars) – Mike "Siglemic" Sigler (1:48:05) Portal – Sourceruns Team (0:09:12)
– Sourceruns Team (0:09:12) Metroid Prime – Paul "Bartendorsparky" Evans (1:01:00)
– Paul "Bartendorsparky" Evans (1:01:00) Chrono Trigger – Kari "Essentia" Johnson (5:40:00)
– Kari "Essentia" Johnson (5:40:00) Super Mario Bros. – Andrew Gardikis (0:04:58)
When Sword does his runs of the 2000 Nintendo 64 game he jokes around, laughing and replying to things posted in the chat channel by his viewers. Whenever he finds himself with downtime – waiting for the game to catch up to him, basically – Sword entertains his viewers by showboating, performing complicated stunts using master-level glitches and exploits.
Sword estimates that he's spent over 1,800 hours practicing and attempting speedrun records in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. This is normal for a serious player.
"I'd say it takes about 100 hours to learn a game," says Wright. "That's about the point you know if you actually enjoy speedrunning it or not. From there, assuming the game is mildly complex, you could spend thousands of hours both practicing or attempting runs if you really wanted to."
Because of the high level of precision needed to pull off even basic maneuvers at a speedrun-worthy level, players can spend years improving their top times.
"Getting the 'perfect run' is basically an impossibility," says Wright. "There is always room for improvement. This is where it becomes interesting to see who can hold out and actually improve it, and who gives up."
Sigler is well-known for spending entire days in front of his Twitch stream, repeatedly trying and re-trying to top his own records in Super Mario 64. Once, after collecting the 90th of the game's 120 collectible stars, he sighed deeply and declared: "I've been playing for seven hours. I haven't eaten yet today." (Sigler did not respond to repeated requests from WIRED to participate in this story.)
At this level of play, the act of moving characters around in a game world becomes second nature for speedrunners. At some point, they say, it all becomes instinctual, and they're no longer actively thinking about the inputs needed to perform basic actions. That's why speedruns are so fascinating to watch, especially if you're already familiar with the game.
Super Mario 64 is not a forgiving game, especially by today's standards. It's nearly 20 years old. Nintendo's designers were still coming to grips with how to create a 3-D world and the result is rough around the edges. You have to fight with the virtual camera and strain your wrists on the uncomfortable controller. Some of the levels are deviously designed. And yet Siglemic runs through them like he's playing hopscotch, stringing together death-defying leaps with perfect timing, one after the other after the other. It's mesmerizing, like watching a magic show.
Unless speedrunners find a new glitch to exploit in the Wii U version of Wind Waker, crossing the ocean will be a time-consuming activity. Image: Nintendo
When thousands of hours of practice come down to shaving a few seconds, it's no wonder that speedrunners can get a touch competitive if their thrones are threatened.
Wright briefly lost his Wind Waker title earlier this year when a player going by the handle Demoon9 entered the final showdown with the game's big bad guy a full two and a half minutes faster than Wright had ever done it. Five thousand people watched Demoon9 as he neared victory, spamming the livestream's chat window with memes, profanity and full-blown essays expressing their love or hatred for him.
The fight was over only seven seconds after it began. The clock stopped at 4:34:09, and the crowd went wild.
"That was the run," Demoon9 said, breathing heavily into his headset, exhausted. "That was the damn run."
Wright has held, and lost, records in plenty of other games: The PC shareware game Commander Keen IV, Sega's Super Monkey Ball, Konami's Castlevania for N64. But Wind Waker was different. That was his game. Wright sent Deemon9 a congratulatory message on Twitter, then got to work.
The two spent the next few months taking turns one-upping each other, but eventually Wright established a new record – 4:27:53 – that no one other than Demoon9 has been able to get close to.
Now, with Wind Waker HD finally out in the wild, a new group of speedrunners has emerged, and Wright is nowhere to be found on the leaderboard. Nintendo didn't just upgrade the visuals when they built the Wii U edition of Wind Waker. It also dug into the code a bit and made several tweaks to the gameplay. And that changes the game for speedrunners.
Taking advantages of glitches and bugs left in a game's code is an accepted and even encouraged way to beat games quickly and set new records. Sometimes, new glitches are discovered years after old records are set in stone.
Earlier this year, one player discovered an incredibly useful glitch in another popular Zelda game, Ocarina of Time. The glitch allowed players to teleport from a point very close to the beginning of the game, straight to the final battle at the end.
As one writer put it, the glitch "skipped over 12 years of Zelda speedrunning discoveries, a rich tapestry of glitches and exploits destroyed in the single instant of this trick’s discovery." Suddenly, the vast majority of the little tricks and exploits that speedrunners had painstakingly unearthed to get their Ocarina times down were useless, since that 99 percent of the game could now be skipped.
Today, the current world record for Ocarina of Time is held by... Cosmo Wright, at 19 minutes and 35 seconds.
Wright wants to get the world record on both versions of Wind Waker, and that rests on discovering and memorizing every tiny difference between the two. That's why there's a document on his hard drive that lists and details exactly 48 glitches and exploits between the two games, complete with notes that explain how things have changed between the two versions.
"Zombie hovering" – the speedrunner's term for the bizarre thing that Wright was doing to Link's corpse – is still in the Wii U version, but it doesn't seem like it will be as useful. When Wright landed after his ascent, Link died, rendering the whole flight a waste of time. ("They patched it," he screamed at the camera. "Oh my god, they patched it!")
Even more useful glitches are gone in the new version. One is called the "Storage Glitch." If you climbed Link up to a ledge and pulled out his magic wand at the moment that you dropped off the cliff, something weird would go wrong with the game's collision detection. You'd be able to move around while opening a treasure chest, slip through tiny cracks, walk straight up certain walls or – most usefully – rocket at top speed across the game's massive open-world ocean.
"Most people wouldn't be able to tell whether it worked or not, but it lets you do crazy stuff," Wright says.
Some of the glitches remain. One – named "Cosmohopping," after Wright, by his fans – lets you leap sideways alongside a tiny ledge to save 20 seconds on a particular puzzle. It's still in the Wii U version, but Wright is having trouble with the technique he pioneered. He uses the GameCube version's on-screen interface as a guide to line up his jumps perfectly, but the heads-up display on the widescreen Wii U version is totally different.
Wright isn't posting times for Wind Waker HD yet. He's practicing. But he has been keeping tabs on the leaderboards, and admits that he's a little worried about strong competition from the current record holder, a 15-year-old from Los Angeles who uses the handle gymnast86.
Carl Wernicke is gymnast86's real name, and he's one of only 12 people in the world with the ability to beat the original Wind Waker in fewer than five hours. Wernicke says that he'll hold onto his record in Wind Waker HD for as long as he can, but that marching band practice might get in the way of his training regimen.
Wernicke told WIRED via Skype that he thinks he has some advantages over Wright, but that he knows that Wright "is going to learn Wind Waker HD faster than I will."
Wright is just as confident that he will take the crown from Wernicke.
"It's definitely going to happen before the end of this year," he says. "I've just got to practice a little bit." |
To a certain kind of L.A. music fan, they are the "Holy Trinity" of bands: Depeche Mode, The Cure and The Smiths. If you grew up here in the ’80s, you heard them on KROQ every day and traded their tracks with fellow fans via cassettes and mixtapes. And this Friday, all three bands will be performing together. OK, not really — but it might feel that way.
The annual ’80s Holiday Hangover show, once held at the now-shuttered House of Blues Sunset and now making its debut at the Saban in Beverly Hills, is a showcase for ’80s-era tribute bands — those acts built around playing the songs of a single artist, often with such visual and sonic devotion to the original that it feels like you're watching the real thing. Friday's lineup will feature Strangelove, a Depeche Mode tribute; The Cured, whose source band you probably can figure out; Smiths/Morrissey tribute These Handsome Devils; and Electric Duke, a tribute to the late, great David Bowie — because, as Electric Duke's Bowie-channeling frontman Julian Shah-Tayler puts it, “He’s the spiritual godfather of those three bands."
The company behind the ’80s Holiday Hangover is Music Zirconia, a San Diego–based agency that manages, books and packages tributes. When I interviewed the company's co-founder Brent Meyer earlier this year for a feature on tribute bands, Music Zirconia had a database of around 1,300 bands; today, Meyer says that number is closer to 1,500. The tribute phenomenon was once most popular on the coasts, Meyer says, but “there’s this growing proliferation of local and regional tributes in any densely populated area in the States now." With that in mind, he recently moved to Austin to set up a second Music Zirconia office there, hoping to form stronger relationships with the best tributes in Texas, the South and Midwest, as well as create more opportunities for his existing tribute acts to book national tours. |
In practical terms, Paul is proposing a multi-trillion-dollar tax overhaul that the country couldn’t possibly afford. But in ideological terms, the GOP senator’s vision on tax policy is arguably even more outrageous.
BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski reported today on remarks Paul delivered last week in Cedar Rapids, Iowa:
Paul said he believes that “you have to give up some of your liberty to have government,” saying he was “for some government.” “I’m for paying some taxes,” continued Paul. “But if we tax you at 100% then you’ve got zero percent liberty. If we tax you at 50% you are half slave, half free. I frankly would like to see you a little freer and a little more money remaining in your communities so you can create jobs. It’s a debate we need to have.”
Well, maybe. We can have a debate, for example, about the correlation between income-tax cuts and job creation – which Rand Paul may not understand quite as well as he thinks he does. The senator might want to talk to Sam Brownback in Kansas about whether one leads to the other.
But once presidential candidates start equating taxpayers and slaves, there’s a more serious problem.
This may just have been a clumsy, unfortunate choice of words, but the idea that someone’s top rate is proportional to their slave status is, well, stark raving mad.
Slavery comparisons are always problematic – it is a singular, unique crime against humanity that does not lend itself to convenient parallels – but the idea that American taxpayers are enslaving themselves by financing the operations of their government is plainly wrong.
What’s more, it doesn’t even fit well into Paul’s framing. The GOP senator is prepared to impose a 14.5% flat tax. By his reasoning, would that make Americans one-seventh slave and six-sevenths free? |
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Within insurance giant American International Group, but known to only a few people, is something irreverently called the "kill list."
It was created by AIG's controller, David Herzog, on Tuesday, Sept. 16, the wild day when the company plunged toward bankruptcy only to be bailed out instead by the U.S. government. Very late that night, Herzog, then 48, sat in the company's New York City headquarters, brooding about the day's events.
Robert Willumstad, CEO for only three months, had learned from the Federal Reserve that he was out, on the theory no doubt that the government can't extend an $85 billion credit line to a company and leave things in the hands of existing management.
The AIG board had been told that the new CEO was to be Edward Liddy, who had decades before overseen a Sears Roebuck restructuring and then become head of a Sears spin-off, Allstate Insurance. More important to the crisis at hand, Liddy's career had made him a business friend of Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson and a member of the Goldman Sachs board.
Minutes before midnight, at 11:54 p.m., Herzog - called by one former AIG officer "a prince, a straight shooter" - wrote a short e-mail to the deposed Willumstad, first thanking him for having stepped up months earlier to the "difficult challenge" of running the company.
Then Herzog flung his e-mail grenade: "Before you leave, I ask only one thing. Please clean the slate for Mr. Liddy. I urge the following dismissals immediately." Herzog next listed the names of one vice chairman, two executive vice presidents, five senior vice presidents, and one vice president. AIG's general counsel was in the pack, and so were the heads of finance, investments, strategic planning, risk, credit, and human resources.
These executives, according to Herzog, "have shown ... a clear pattern of ineptness that contributed to the destruction of one of America's greatest companies. Please, don't make Mr. Liddy figure this out on his own." Herzog thought AIG's 120,000 employees deserved better than that and also "some sense of accountability" for what had happened. "We need leadership," he said, "and these individuals are simply not leaders."
In the one day before Liddy took over, the authority-shorn Willumstad did not fire any of Herzog's designees. In Liddy's regime, two have left. One was Richard Scott, a senior vice president, and the other - the highest-ranking executive on the list - was vice chairman and chief financial officer Steven Bensinger, to whose CFO job Liddy promoted Herzog. The remaining seven executives on his list still work for AIG, as five of them did in fact for longtime chairman Maurice "Hank" Greenberg (who was forced out by the board in early 2005) and his successor, Martin Sullivan (ousted last June).
Asked in mid-December about the midnight blast of David Herzog, new CEO Liddy says it was "one of many information points" he had looked at on his way to making his own decisions about people. Herzog himself recants. "At midnight," he tells Fortune, "after watching a great company crumble, and along with it nine years of my life's work, I sent an emotional and rash e-mail that I deeply regret. It was a product of frustration and fatigue. I disavow it completely, and I have apologized to my colleagues."
That e-mail was given to Fortune by someone who knows AIG well and thought that any article about its present and future should take note of management's long-running contribution to its extraordinary problems.
Deciding to publish the e-mail, we sought reactions from the nine people Herzog named. One person, Brian Schreiber, head of strategic planning, accepted our invitation to comment. He says angrily that after learning of the e-mail, he asked Herzog to give an example of anything Schreiber had done that had harmed AIG. "He thought a long time and he could not think of a single example," Schreiber says. "He then emphasized that he views me as important to the success of AIG's restructuring effort."
Wounded gladiator
At the least, the e-mail episode is a vivid illustration of the extreme stress racking the company. Vastly global, spread out indeed over 130 countries, AIG is today a sorely wounded gladiator, with a market value that has crashed from $180 billion in 2007 to $5 billion. Competitors sensing a kill are attacking the company however they can, trying to poach its best people and customers.
These aren't just AIG's problems, they're ours. September's $85 billion from the government - Plan A, let's call it - proved to be too little, and the terms of the deal were more than AIG could handle.
So in November the feds moved to Plan B , whose complex parts add up to a mind-bending bailout of about $150 billion (which, to supply some perspective, is more than the assets of Procter & Gamble). This deal includes a $60 billion credit line from the Federal Reserve; $40 billion of preferred stock that makes the Treasury a 79.9% owner of AIG; and two Fed-sponsored financing vehicles that magically rid AIG's financial statements of about $50 billion of trouble. The aim of the package, as management sees it anyway, is to keep AIG afloat while it works toward reemerging as a standalone private company and getting Washington out of its life.
The theoretical cost here - $150 billion - may be reduced by amounts the government derives from owning AIG. Most of all the feds are set to be the beneficiary of a big plan, mapped out originally by Willumstad and unfolded by Liddy, for AIG to sell major assets. These are to include the bulk of both AIG's noninsurance properties and life insurance companies, for a total of perhaps 20 to 25 different sales. Completion of the plan, says CEO Liddy, would reduce AIG's annual revenues from around $100 billion to perhaps $40 billion and return the company to its roots, property-and-casualty insurance. Some estimates say the proposed sales could bring in $60 billion, an amount equal to the loan portion of the bailout.
Both AIG and the government are burning to make these sales. But unfortunately, prospective buyers for AIG's properties - which Liddy calls "our incredibly world-class assets" - are scarce right now. Many insurance companies that might normally bid have been crippled by investment losses, and acquirers in general can't rustle up financing. Were it forced to unload quickly, says Liddy, AIG would be looking at fire-sale prices that would benefit no one on the selling side. So AIG needs breathing room, and Plan B accommodated, extending the term of the government's main credit line to AIG from two years to five. Two side parts of the deal even have a term of six years and are "subject to extension." |
UPDATE: Sorry all keys have been given out.
ArcheAge – pronounced Arr-chee-ahh-jee, probably – is chasing the one thing MMOs lack: a sense of permanence. In a genre where quests can be reset and progress undone in seconds, ArcheAge is about ownership: sailing the seas in a ship you’ve built yourself, or renting out land to other players.
Like the sound of that? Go on, then: grab a key for the beta beginning tomorrow.
Bash your details into the widget below, if you don’t mind – and make sure you’ve created and signed into a PCGamesN account before you do so. We’ll keep you updated on this and future giveaways via Twitter and Facebook.
It’s important to note that these aren’t Steam codes – like proud allotment owners, MMO developers always make their own everything. You’ll need to visit the ArcheAge account pageto redeem yours.
ArcheAge is exciting in the way Star Wars: Galaxies once was. That ship? You can captain a crew of friends from its wheel. But beware a life of piracy: your crimes could see you held to account in front of a player-run court and banished to an island for thieves. Or maybe you’ll use some of your booty to bribe the jury into a ‘not guilty’ verdict.
What was the last MMO you played that gave you that sort of freedom to make your (cross-shaped) mark on the map? |
This weekend I went on a magical flavor journey across the Pacific, to a land where what Americans deem worthy of snackhood is laughably tame. This weekend I tasted 15 different varieties of Japanese Kit Kats, and I am forever changed by the experience.
Snacktaku fans will remember the Japanese Kit Kats as one of five items on my 2013 must-eat list, an accounting of foods exotic and familiar that I would have in my mouth before the year turns once more. I'd been trying for years to get Kotaku's embedded Japanese editor, Brian Ashcraft, to bring me a batch of Nestlé's Nipponese chocolate-dipped wafers during his infrequent trips stateside, but I never manage to remind him before he's hopped the plan for the estimate week-long around-the-world flight.
In my desperation I turned to the import specialists at JBox, where they offered a special gift pack of regional Japanese Kit Kat flavors for $68 plus shipping. I immediately made the purchase, scraping together what meager funds I could, and two weeks later my package arrived.
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I might have ordered a few more things as well. I might have spent more than $150 altogether, but that would be silly and completely out of character for me.
Setting aside the unrelated snacks for a later date, I tore into that brilliant red box, where the untold mysteries lurked behind 15 cardboard cutouts. The Kit Kat is one of Japan's most popular chocolate snacks, due in no small part to the name, which sounds like kitto katsu, or "you'll surely win" (thanks again, JBox!)
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Opening the first window in this treasure trove was a special moment for me, the realization of a dream that's probably not as life-long as I made it out to be in the opening paragraph, but still pretty lengthy.
What did I discover inside? Such wonders, my friends—such wonders.
Fruits
The Japanese do not f*** around with fruit. When they put a picture of a piece of colorful produce on a package, you can bet your ass that whatever is inside the package tastes like the picture in a way that similarly-wrapped American foods hardly ever do.
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Strawberry
When it comes to fruits the Japanese do not f*** around with, Strawberry is the most unf***-aroundable. The strawberry is a symbol of innocence and sweetness to Japan, largely due to the fact that it looks incredibly cute when you give it arms and googly eyes. They put them on cakes. They put them on clothing. They create robots to pick the best strawberries. It's their jam. Also, it's in their jam.
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Unwrapping the strawberry Kit Kat is like opening the doors to an oddly indoor strawberry orchard. The sweet scent washes over you, a Beatles song starts playing, and the pink sticks leap from your hand into your mouth unheeded.
At first the taste is like any American strawberry/white chocolate mixture, overwhelmingly sweet and cloying. Then a mildly surprising fruit tang hits you. Then it all fades, leaving a fleeting memory of taste and a slightly gritty feeling in your mouth. It's like love.
Citrus Golden Blend
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Ever had a lemon cooler cookie, the kind with the powdered sugar? The Citrus Golden Blend Kit Kat starts off exactly like one of those. There's a cool, fresh feeling to the orange-coated wafers that carries me back to better days, when I could sit with a box of cookies in front of the television and convince myself that their association with fruit somehow makes them healthier.
And then there's the kick. The flavor goes from cooling cookie to sharp citrus gum. It's quite unexpected, like being stabbed in the mouth with a shiv carved out of an orange peel. Surprise, there is more citrus in this candy than there is in a glass of orange juice, without all those nasty health benefits.
Pear
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Pear is a subtle taste. You bite into a pear and the cool, sweet taste teases but never quite fulfills. It's a tantalizing dance that the Jelly Belly people failed to grasp in creating the Juicy Pear jelly bean—the pear flavor in those is so abrupt and concentrated it's almost vulgar.
The pear Kit Kat does an amazing job of capturing the subtlety of the fruit. The trick is the white chocolate base, which serves as a fleeting messenger from pear-ville. The hint comes and then is lost, leaving you hungry for more. One of my favorites of the bunch.
Shinshu Apple
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I love apples. Fresh apples, baked apples, apples with cinnamon, apples with caramel. I'm not a drinker, but I love apple-flavored alcohol. I use apple-scented body wash. The only apple product I cannot stand is apple-scented hair spray, the kind all the cute girls were crazy for back in the late 80s.
The Shinshu apple Kit Kat tastes exactly like that hair spray.
The dark chocolate base does an admirably job of holding back the chemical taste, but in the end it falls to the pungent power. Were this a hard candy it might taste like an apply Jolly Rancher, but it's not and it doesn't. Very disappointed.
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Veggies
Edamame Soybean
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My wife describes the Edamame Soybean Kit Kat, a grisly green affair that would never make the cut in North America for the visual alone, as "refreshing." She's not right.
I love edamame as much as the next mildly hip guy, but this piece of candy doesn't quite capture the taste of an immature pod of soybeans. It smells nutty—not a pleasant nutty, but an overwhelming nutty. I feel like I should be allergic to this, and I am not allergic to anything.
The taste is reminiscent of white chocolate-covered almonds, which isn't a bad taste. I think the color is just ruining it for me.
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Purple Sweet Potato
I have absolutely no frame of reference here, having never tasted either a purple sweet potato or whatever the pile of purple goo is on the wrapper of the purple sweet potato Kit Kat.
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My mind gave me hints of blueberry as I chewed this light purple sliver of coated wafer, though I'm certain that was just my imagination compensating for color again. The unimagined portion of the taste was light and incredibly sweet—too sweet for my tastes.
Here's an excerpt from the notes I took while eating. "Too sweet. Lingers far too long. Must drink to cleanse palate.
WILL NOT GO AWAY." That doesn't sound good.
Hot Japanese Chili
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Hot peppers and chocolate are one of the modern world's finest snacking combinations. Here in America we regularly use chipotle or ancho chilies with dark chocolate, resulting in a mild burn largely muted by the sinful bitter sweetness.
I don't know what kind of chili the Japanese are using, but the burn is absolutely exquisite. There's an expert balance of dark chocolate to chili here. At first you don't think the sensation is going to come. Then you feel a slight tickle. Finally it ignites your mouth, not so much that you reach for a glass of water—just enough to make you remember that you brought this on yourself.
Baked Goods
What better way to accent a baked wafer than making it taste like other baked things?
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Cinnamon Cookie
This one's almost unfair. Cinnamon is another favorite of mine, right up there with apple, and it's incredibly easy to work with, especially where white chocolate is involved.
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The scent is intoxicating, wafting from the candy like a warm wave. The taste isn't overwhelming, just a perfect little bite of cinnamon cookie, comforting and delicious.
I'd declare it the winner, but it's cheating and there is no real winner here, except for my mouth.
Strawberry Cheesecake
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This is definitely cheating. By altering the mix of strawberry flavor to white chocolate from the proper strawberry Kit Kat, Nestlé hopes to achieve a flavor akin to strawberry-covered cheesecake. My mouth is not fooled so easily, Nestlé.
It's a pleasant piece of candy with a muffled strawberry taste. On the plus side it loses the grittiness of its full-fruit counterpart. On the minus side, it comes off a tease. The other Kit Kats talk behind this one's back.
Blueberry Cheesecake
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Without tasting a proper blueberry Kit Kat I cannot tell you if this is the same experience as the strawberry cheesecake is to its fruity offspring.
What I can say is I probably wouldn't enjoy a full blueberry Kit Kat as much as I do this muffled version. It's exactly the amount of blueberry I can stand—no more, no less.
Beverages
Here in America tea is for drinking or tossing into the bay to protest unfair taxation. It's not something we look to when we want to flavor ice cream, candy or chocolate. I'm have it on completely-imagined good authority that the Japanese regularly bathe in tea.
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Matcha-Green Tea
The Matcha-Green Tea tastes like grass. Sweetened grass with a slightly bitter aftertaste, but grass nonetheless.
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My wife, who works at Starbucks, tells me this is exactly what Matcha-Green Tea is supposed to taste like. She even named it in a blind taste test. That's good for fans of green tea, I suppose. I do not count myself among their numbers.
Hojicha Roasted Tea
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There is some sort of magic going on here. The Hojicha Roasted Tea Kit Kat does not merely taste like a dark tea—it tastes roasted. You can taste smoke and heat—not burning pepper heat, just general warmth. It's quite disconcerting.
What's also disconcerting is the smell. These smell like dry flake fish food. That is not a first impression you want a food product to make.
Brown Sugar Syrup
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So much sweetness. So much maple flavor. Can't go on.
I don't know what the Japanese use brown sugar syrup for. I assume it goes into beverage or on desserts, so I placed it in the drink section. I would not drink it. I would not eat this.
Some flavors are better left to the Japanese. This is one of them.
The Weird Stuff
Weird stuff? From Japan? I'm just as shocked as you guys are.
Red Bean Sandwich
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This is absolutely the worst-tasting candy bar I have ever had the misfortune to insert in my mouth-hole.
I'm am down with red bean paste. I quite enjoy it in a warm steamed bun. There's a playful sweetness to it that really appeals to me. If you gave me a jar of it I'd probably make a red bean sandwich right here, without even thanking you for it.
The Red Bean Sandwich Kit Kat carries hints of that sweetness, but it's hidden behind a smoky flavor that I can only describe as well-used ashtray. It tastes like I put out a cigarette on my tongue and then ate a proper American chocolate Kit Kat. There is no combination of those things that would ever taste good.
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Wasabi
Being hot like wasabi when I bust rhymes (and big like LeAnne Rimes), I had high hopes for this gorgeous green piece of candy, and the wasabi Kit Kat did not disappoint.
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It smells of horseradish, which is not a smell I would traditionally enjoy from a chocolate-covered confection. If this were any other candy I would assume this was some sort of cruel joke. It is no joke.
It's wasabi plus sweetness, which would not work at all if not an amazing bit of chocolate engineering on Nestlé's part. That trademark burn has been transformed from feeling to flavor. You do not feel the heat. You taste the heat.
This is almost impossible to explain, so I won't try. I'll just say that the wasabi Kit Kat is an experience every chocolate candy connoisseur should have before they are melted away by the sun.
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And so my adventure comes to a close, and one of five items on my 2013 must-eat list is marked off.
This assortment of regional Japanese Kit Kats turned out to be everything I'd imagined and more. In that expensive box I found joy, pain, love, innocence, freedom and not a little fear—a lifetime of emotions in 15 pieces of candy. There were highs and there were lows, but in the end my life is better for having had the experience.
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At least that's what I keep telling myself. Makes the $68 plus shipping sting a whole lot less.
Snacktaku is Kotaku's take on the wild and wonderful world of eating things, but not eating meals. Eating meals is for those with too much time on their hands. Past critiques can be found at the Snacktaku review archive. |
Andrew Martin Scott wants to encourage creativity and self-expression in the form of zines, something he’s been doing since he was a teen in suburban Chicago.
Zines, types of self-published, small-circulation magazines, have a long and colorful past dating back to the sci-fi fanzines of the 1930s or the poetry-laced productions of the 1960s.
“Then it sort of morphed into the zine associated with skateboarding,” explained Scott. “What they are today is a way to get your voice out there. They’re pre-Internet. I’d say they’re like today’s blogs, but they’re tangible things you handle. They still provide a voice, but most have become simple works of art, collectibles, that are put together with more love and care than say 15 years ago when many were made with a marker and a copier.”
Scott, 40, is more than a fan. He’s owned the art space Needles & Pens in San Francisco and now operates & Pens Press in Los Angeles.
“I moved here about 1 1/2 years ago because there’s an excitement about self-publishing here which seems to be enjoying a renaissance,” he said.
Together with friends — photographer Jai Tanju of Film Por Vida, a print exchange program, and art gallery/shop Seeing Things Gallery as well as Dan Drehobl of Krooked Skateboards Pro, Scott plans to share his love of zine as part of Converse CONS Project: Los Angeles’ Zine Making & Printing workshop slated for 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at The Holding Co. in Los Angeles. The workshop is for participants ages 13 to 24. (Register at consproject.com.)
It is the latest in a series of free community projects presented by Converse, the American sneaker brand, which previously offered a skate deck furniture making workshop as well as how-to workshops on making a skate video and DIY band merchandise.
Saturday’s zine workshop is the fourth in a plannedfive-part series that strives to motivate and inspire would-be zine publishers.
“Zines are self-published, make-your-own products that have small print runs. Although small in size, they have a strong fan base and following. I want to see that keep going and growing,” Scott said. “The immediacy is gone because today if you want to let people know about stuff you turn to social media, but they remain beautiful tangible objects that people still want.”
During the workshop, Scott, Tanju and Drehobl will discuss the history of zines and its progression throughout the years by showing examples. Styles, sizings, folding methods and even the various ways of printing them also will be covered.
“And then we’re going to let the kids loose to create their own. We want them to maybe make 10 of their own copies so they can take them home and exchange them with friends,” said Scott, who recently participated in the Printed Matter’s L.A. Art Book Fair.
Similar Converse CONS Project workshops are also being conducted in New York, Boston and Toronto. The free programs focus on bringing together up-and-coming skaters and artists with legends known in their respective fields. The final Los Angeles workshop is expected in April. |
A question for the history subject of Hong Kong’s secondary school public exam has raised eyebrows as it asked students to comment on the Chinese Communist Party’s praise for democracy in the 1940s and the “drastic change” after it came to power.
Another question in the same paper also attracted attention as it cited a 1982 poll in which only four per cent of Hong Kong people supported the handover to China.
The CCP question, which was the second question on the exam, supplied students with material from two sources. The first was an article published by a CCP newspaper on July 4, 1943, US Independence Day.
“The US has made an example to the underdeveloped China in democratic politics; as we learn to build a democratic and free China, we need to be bold, fair, honest,” it read. “Let democracy and science be the bond between the Chinese and American nations.”
The second was an excerpt from Mao Zedong’s speech at the seventh national congress of the CCP in 1945, near the end of the Second World War.
“To completely crush Japanese invaders, democratic reform must be conducted nationwide,” he said. “It is impossible to do that if we do not abolish the one-party rule of the Kuomintang and build a democratic coalition government.”
“There is no one in China who dares to say there is any advantage in one-party rule,” he added. Mao also said that freedom came from the struggle of the people and was not given by anyone.
The exam then asked three questions. Firstly, students had to refer to the first source and analyse the author’s attitude towards the US.
It then asked students to refer to the second source and answer: “If you were a Chinese intellectual living in 1945, would you support the Chinese Communist Party?”
The third question asked students to comment on the statement: “The Chinese Communist Party’s ruling principle has changed drastically after it came to power in 1949,” by referring to both materials and their knowledge of China’s development until 1978.
In 1978 the party decided it would implement reforms and open up the country after the Cultural Revolution ended with Mao’s death in 1976.
After the exam, which took place this morning, the question on the CCP was widely shared on social media.
“I am certain that the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority is the bravest government institution,” one commenter said. “Real national education,” said another.
But some also warned that people should see the marking scheme, to be published later, before getting excited. “Maybe if you do not answer that you support the Chinese Communist Party, you will fail,” one said.
Majority wished for status quo
Another question on the handover was shared later on social media and surprised even more people.
It cited a poll by the Reform Club of Hong Kong conducted in 1982, in which 70 per cent of 998 surveyed said they wished Hong Kong would maintain its status quo after 1997.
As the second most popular option, 15 per cent said Hong Kong should become a trust territory under the United Nations.
Only four per cent said Hong Kong should be taken back by China and be ruled under Chinese administration.
The exam paper asked students to analyse Hongkongers’ concerns over the city’s future based on the poll.
The paper also contained part of the lyrics of the 1990 song by Sam Hui which urged Hong Kong people not to move to foreign countries. It asked students to discuss whether the concerns they found after analysing the poll still existed in 1990 by referring to the song.
Finally, it asked students to comment on the statement: “The question of Hong Kong’s future raised Hongkongers’ political consciousness” by referring to the materials and their knowledge of Hong Kong development until 1997. |
Much of medicine is based on what is considered the strongest possible evidence: The placebo-controlled trial. A paper published in the October 19 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine -- entitled "What's In Placebos: Who Knows?" calls into question this foundation upon which much of medicine rests, by showing that there is no standard behind the standard -- no standard for the placebo.
The thinking behind relying on placebo-controlled trials is this: to be sure a treatment itself is effective, one needs to compare people whose only difference is whether or not they are taking the drug. Both groups should equally think they are on the drug -- to protect against effects of factors like expectation. So study participants are allocated "randomly" to the drug or a "placebo" -- a pill that might be mistaken for the active drug but is inert.
But, according to the paper's author, Beatrice Golomb, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, this standard has a fundamental problem, "there isn't anything actually known to be physiologically inert. On top of that, there are no regulations about what goes into placebos, and what is in them is often determined by the makers of the drug being studied, who have a vested interest in the outcome. And there has been no expectation that placebos' composition be disclosed. At least then readers of the study might make up their own mind about whether the ingredients in the placebo might affect the interpretation of the study."
Golomb pointed out these limitations to the placebo in a pair of letters to the journal Nature 15 years ago.
"A positive or negative effect of the placebo can lead to the misleading appearance of a negative or positive effect of the drug," she said. "And an effect in the same direction as the drug can lead a true effect of the drug to be lost. These concerns aren't just theoretical. Where the composition has been disclosed, the ingredients of the placebo have in some instances had a likely impact on the result of the study -- in either direction (obscuring a real effect, or creating a spurious one). In the cases we know about, this is not because of any willful manipulation, but because it can in fact be difficult to come up with a placebo that does not have some kind of problem."
Since 15 years have elapsed, the situation might have improved. Therefore, Golomb and her colleagues analyzed just how often randomized trials published in the past two years in each of the top four general medical journals actually disclosed the makeup of placebos.
The answer is not reassuring, according to the researchers, who found that the placebo ingredients for pills were disclosed in fewer than 10 percent of cases. (The nature of the "control" was significantly more likely to be stated for other types of treatments -- like injections, acupuncture, or surgery -- where people are more likely to question what "placebo" actually means.)
"How often study results are affected by what's in the placebo is hard to say -- because, as this study showed, most of the time we have no idea what the placebo is," Golomb concluded.
Additional contributors to the study included Laura C. Erickson, BS, Sabrina Koperski, BS, Deanna Sack, BS, and UCSD Department of Medicine; Murray Enkin, MD, Departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada; and Jeremy Howick, PhD, Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, University of Oxford, England. |
After struggling to hit top form this term due to injury, the midfielder is keen to make amends for Juventus as the season draws to a close
Juventus midfielder Arturo Vidal thinks his injury issues last year left him "cursed" and he is desperate to prove himself now he is back fit again.
Vidal underwent an operation on a knee injury towards the end of last season after playing through the pain barrier to help Juve on their way to winning Serie A.
He was a fitness concern for the World Cup but returned in time to feature for Chile - who were knocked out by Brazil in the round of 16.
The former Bayer Leverkusen man believes that returning so quickly threatened to leave him with long-term damage, but he stated that his love for Juve meant he had to play on.
"The end of last season was cursed, my performance went down a lot," Vidal told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "On a personal level with Juve and the Chilean team it ended badly. Now there is a great opportunity for redemption.
"I know that Juventus expect a lot from me, but it always has been that way and is not a problem.
"Unfortunately having to recover so fast from surgery, it seriously threatened to irreparably hurt me. Mine was a choice of love for Juve. I could not leave the team before the semi-final of the Europa League against Benfica.
"I played the World Cup and also a good part of the season, but I decided with my heart, I love Juve. And I must say thanks to Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli who waited, another coach would not have done so.
"I played in dire physical condition, only myself and my doctors knew this. But I always gave 1,000 per cent in the field, regardless of how I bad I was injured." |
Quote: studentff Originally Posted by Looks like an ETD alarm that led to a forced private-room grope ("resolution patdown") with the door required to be closed and multiple TSA employees in the room.
TSA still refuses to publish that this procedure (forced into a private room) is even possible, so it's absurd to think passengers have made an informed consent to this procedure.
Hopefully she gets some press traction with her story.
Quote: TSA may use technology to test for traces of explosive material. If explosive material is detected, the passenger will have to undergo additional screening.
People should be aware. After all, it is on the web site. It is known as "additional screening."Good golly gosh,knows whatmeans. I mean, how could you not know? Gee.It is particularly important for people in wheelchairs and others with physical conditions that allow dangerous items that can be used to hide stuff get checked thoroughly. Don't you know how much explosive can be hidden in a wheelchair? Even worse, if you are sitting in a wheelchair you can hold a lot more stuff in the crack of your butt than if you are standing. Gotta check ALL those hiding places.After all, it is what we have to do to prevent even more of these attacks in which nearly every day, someone sneaks explosives on a plane in an assistive device or uses the ruse of sitting in one to hide more stuff in their butt crack.If not nearly every day, it has got to be quite often. Monthly? Once a year? OK, never, but we still have to look because ithappen.Andknows that the machines at the CP are infallible and never false alarm. Noooo. Doesn't happen. If it dings, there has to be explosive material and it has to be found. Even if it is in the butt crack of someone in a wheelchair.Especially them. |
People often reason egocentrically about others' beliefs, using their own beliefs as an inductive guide. Correlational, experimental, and neuroimaging evidence suggests that people may be even more egocentric when reasoning about a religious agent's beliefs (e.g., God). In both nationally representative and more local samples, people's own beliefs on important social and ethical issues were consistently correlated more strongly with estimates of God's beliefs than with estimates of other people's beliefs (Studies 1–4). Manipulating people's beliefs similarly influenced estimates of God's beliefs but did not as consistently influence estimates of other people's beliefs (Studies 5 and 6). A final neuroimaging study demonstrated a clear convergence in neural activity when reasoning about one's own beliefs and God's beliefs, but clear divergences when reasoning about another person's beliefs (Study 7). In particular, reasoning about God's beliefs activated areas associated with self-referential thinking more so than did reasoning about another person's beliefs. Believers commonly use inferences about God's beliefs as a moral compass, but that compass appears especially dependent on one's own existing beliefs.
Religion appears to serve as a moral compass for the vast majority of people around the world. It informs whether same-sex marriage is love or sin, whether war is an act of security or of terror, and whether abortion rights represent personal liberty or permission to murder. Many religions are centered on a god (or gods) that has beliefs and intentions, with adherents encouraged to follow “God's will” on everything from martyrdom to career planning to voting. Within these religious systems, how do people know what their god wills?
When people try to infer other people's attitudes and beliefs, they often do so egocentrically by using their own beliefs as an inductive guide (1). This research examines the extent to which people might also reason egocentrically about God's beliefs. We predicted that people would be consistently more egocentric when reasoning about God's beliefs than when reasoning about other people's beliefs. Intuiting God's beliefs on important issues may not produce an independent guide, but may instead serve as an echo chamber that reverberates one's own beliefs.
The Jewish and Christian traditions state explicitly that God created man in his own image, but believers and nonbelievers alike have long argued that people seem to create God in their own image as well (2–5). Xenophanes (sixth century B.C.E.), for instance, coined the term anthropomorphsim when noting the similarity between religious believers and representations of their gods, with Greek gods being fair skinned and African gods being dark skinned (6). Voltaire reports a Pope as saying, “If God made us in His own image, we have certainly returned the favor” (7). And Bob Dylan (8) sang of the ease with which groups come to believe that God is “on our side.” Egocentric representations of God are frequently discussed in public discourse, but are rarely the topic of scientific inquiry. This research examines the strength of such egocentric representations by measuring the extent to which people's own beliefs guide their predictions about God's beliefs. This research does not in any way, however, deny the possibility that the inverse process of reflection (using God's presumed beliefs as a guide to one's own) may operate in contexts where people's own beliefs are uncertain or unknown.
Although religious agents are attributed many unique properties, people nevertheless conceive of them in surprisingly humanlike ways (4, 9, 10). Inferences about a religious agent's beliefs may therefore be guided by the same two sources of information used to reason about other people's beliefs (11–15). The first source is one's own beliefs. Conservatives, for instance, tend to assume that the average person is more conservative than do liberals (16–18). Inferences about other people's beliefs are often based at least partly on one's own beliefs (1, 14). The second source is semantic or episodic knowledge about the target. This knowledge may come from group-based stereotypes (e.g., Texans are conservative; Californians are liberal), from observations of behavior, or from third-person reports. It is easy to guess that Barack Obama has relatively liberal beliefs, for instance, because he is a Democrat, because he expresses liberal beliefs, and because his colleagues say he is liberal.
Religious believers can use both sources of information when reasoning about a religious agent. People can readily recall or construct their own beliefs on an issue and can also consult texts (e.g., the Koran, Torah, or Bible) or presumed experts (e.g., an Imam or Priest) that report on God's beliefs. Like inferences about people, inferences about God's beliefs are therefore likely to reflect a mixture of egocentric and nonegocentric information.
Unlike inferences about people, however, inferences about God's beliefs cannot rely as readily on information directly from the judgment target. One can quiz neighbors on their beliefs, read editorials about celebrities' positions, or observe public opinion polls. Religious agents do not lend themselves to public opinion polling. Even within Christianity, for example, groups differ quite dramatically in their interpretation of God's attitudes toward such topics as same-sex marriage, the death penalty, and abortion. The inherent ambiguity of God's beliefs on major issues and the extent to which religious texts may be open to interpretation and subjective evaluation, suggests not only strong egocentric biases when reasoning about God, but also that people may be consistently more egocentric when reasoning about God's beliefs than when reasoning about other people's beliefs. When the beliefs of a positively evaluated target are relatively ambiguous, a person may construct them by relying on his or her own beliefs (19). Indeed, it may seem particularly logical to use egocentric information when reasoning about God, because religious agents are generally presumed to hold true beliefs, and people generally presume that their own beliefs are true as well (20).
We tested this basic hypothesis that people would be especially egocentric when reasoning about God's beliefs using correlational, experimental, and neuroimaging methods. We investigate important social and moral beliefs on which believers are likely to consider God's beliefs more consistently, rather than more minor and idiosyncratic beliefs. Although our theoretical predictions apply to any religious or supernatural agent presumed to have beliefs (4), our experimental participants are drawn primarily from the United States and therefore cannot represent the entire corpus of world religions. The vast majority of participants from these samples also report believing in God. We exclude nonbelievers from analyses, except where we have a sufficiently large sample for independent analysis (Study 4), primarily because our hypotheses are relevant only to believers. Including the relatively small number of nonbelievers in the other studies, however, does not meaningfully alter any conclusions suggested by the following analyses. |
The recently announced decision of Robert Turner to resign as director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, after three years in the post, is a blow to the people he worked so hard to help. Yet his parting message highlights the remarkable spirit of those same people, for whom he has pledged to continue fighting.
Turner, who intends to leave his job in mid-July, assumed the job in May 2012. Since then, he has witnessed two major Israeli assaults against the tiny besieged Palestinian Strip, a place that he described as “indomitable”.
As Turner put it, “Gaza is a place where the human spirit has shown its indomitability time and time again,” and where, one might add, its people, largely refugees of 1948 and their descendants, have proved their ingenuity and resilience time and time again.
Turner did not give reasons for his resignation. A UN source has said it resulted from frustration and a loss of hope that conditions in the Gaza Strip will improve. The same source said the UN agency was “disappointed” that the necessary radical solutions had yet to be found regarding the need to rebuild the Strip.
The UNRWA was established by resolution 302 (IV) of the UN General Assembly on 8 December, 1949. It was created as a temporary measure designed to respond to the plight of approximately three-quarters of a million Palestinian refugees, pending achievement of a political settlement.
Sixty-six years after its establishment, in the continuing absence of a solution to the Palestine refugee problem, the agency – sometimes described as the Cinderella of UN organisations – continues to exist and function.
Its mandate, repeatedly renewed by the UN General Assembly, was recently extended again until 30 June, 2017. This extension and the agency’s very existence are due, as UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon said recently, to “political failure” and the inability of the international community to bring about a durable solution to the problem of the Palestinian refugees, whether Gazan or others, millions of whom are scattered all over the globe.
Perhaps no other place portrays this ongoing political failure as well as in Gaza. Yet, striking as the situation in Gaza is, it – as with the actual territory – has been deliberately disconnected from circumstances in rest of the Occupied Territories and across the regional and global landscape.
In order to truly understand the failure leading people such as Turner, Peter Hansen (the former UNRWA Commissioner General), Jon Gings (the former director of UNRWA in Gaza), Chris Guniss (UNRWA spokesman) and Nickolay Mladenov (the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process) to despair, one needs to look beyond the consequences of the drastic eight-year blockade crippling Gazans’ lives and the Strip’s economy.
Typically, the findings of most international organisations, including UN agencies, and expert opinions on Gaza point to the blockade as a main cause of Gaza’s dependency on aid, the high rate of unemployment, the growing poverty and the slow pace of reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed by Israel last summer.
Ending the misery of Gaza, reports indicate, requires lifting the blockade.
In a letter to The Guardian published 9 September 9, 2012, Turner demanded an end to this disastrous blockade.
He wrote: We continue to demand a lifting of the blockade, which is costing the international community hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Allow the people of Gaza to enjoy the standards of development and economic prosperity for which they yearn. They are capable of self-sufficiency. They do not want the current levels of 80% aid dependency to continue and neither do the world’s taxpayers who fund the international aid agencies.
There is little difference between Turner’s assessment of two-and-a-half years ago and a report by Mladenov last month. Addressing the UN Security Council, Mladenov emphasised the urgent need to lift the blockade, stating that “the importance of free movement of goods and people as well as the eventual reopening of the crossings” are needed “for the alleviation of the suffering in Gaza”.
This exact conclusion has been reached and presented by countless other UN and non-UN experts.
While the blockade itself is one of the major factors denying Palestinians in Gaza a normal dignified life, the core issue surfaces in the very last sentence of Turner’s letter. Turner carefully concluded his 2012 letter saying: “Let us address the root causes of this looming disaster rather than expecting the international community to foot the bill to mitigate their disastrous consequences.”
Turner, like all the other numerous, frustrated UN employees, is well aware that the root causes of the Palestinian problem have not only remained unaddressed, they have been swept and kept under the UN rug and by the so-called “international community” for over 67 years.
Both the UN and the “international community” have utterly failed the Palestinians inside and outside the currently besieged Gaza Strip. The largest and most protracted of the world’s refugee problems, it remains stubbornly off the table and unresolved.
Consistent with this systematic obfuscation of the root cause of Gaza’s plight, this group of refugees and the agency created to serve them, UNRWA, are forced to wage a chronic struggle to foot the bill of that failure.
This political failure – a policy choice made and upheld by the leading world powers – has perpetuated and imposed continuous Palestinian suffering over four generations. It is no coincidence that it has brought Gaza to the brink of a humanitarian disaster.
It is also no coincidence that this policy has hindered the operations of the UN and other organisations, creating extreme frustration among UNRWA staff, both local and foreign.
The policy manifests itself in different forms, only one of which is the inability of the international community and the UN to lift the siege on Gaza.
Israel continues to carry out systemic discrimination, military occupation and a lethal blockade with the unequivocal support from the very powers – both Western and regional – that fund the agencies working in vain to alleviate the consequences.
The policy repeatedly shields the occupying power from responsibility of any kind for its many illegal actions, its decades of violating Palestinians’ most basic rights, of its devious bureaucratic practices of ethnic cleansing and direct army-imposed oppression.
Turner’s resignation may mean both good and bad news for the people of Gaza. The good news is that the Palestinians and their cause have been spoken for decisively, this at a time when the legitimacy of their struggle seems to be gaining momentum and global support.
Turner’s parting statement makes a commitment that he will continue advocating for the rights of Gaza and its large refugee population. A voice such as Turner’s should be able to reach many ears and, possibly, to inspire political bravery, lending confidence to world decision-makers and statesmen; and to act, at long last, against the injustice done to Palestine.
The bad news is that, the people of Gaza, unlike Turner, can’t submit their resignation, swallow their frustration, and leave or move on after a short press conference. They are forced to go on dealing with the horrible daily details resulting from siege, occupation and apartheid.
At this point in time, when so many others have failed them profoundly and despair is the norm in Gaza, it is particularly painful for Palestinians to see Turner leaving. He is widely admired for his credibility, fairness and frankness. And yet, Palestinians in Gaza will surely remember Robert Turner as a man who, in face of world of deceit, found the courage to tell the truth.
Whether good news or bad, the great significance of Turner’s parting words not only lies in his moving description of Gaza’s spirit, ingenuity and persistence. It arises from his political framing of the Palestinian refusal to submit.
Until world policy is changed to repair the political failure cited by Ban Ki Moon, referred to by Turner and paid for in lives and deaths by Gazans and Palestinians at large, Gaza will remain “a place where the human spirit has shown its indomitability time and time again”.
– Ghada Ageel is a visiting professor at the University of Alberta Political Science Department (Edmonton, Canada), an independent scholar, and active in the Faculty4Palestine-Alberta. Her new book “Apartheid in Palestine: Hard Laws and Harder Experiences” is forthcoming with the University of Alberta Press – Canada.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Photo: A Palestinian artist draws a mural on the rubble of a building following a march to mark the 67th anniversary of the “Nakba,” in the east of Gaza City on 16 May (AFP)
– See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/unrwa-s-turner-quits-spotlights-gazans-spirit-744185091#sthash.dm5O18z0.dpuf |
Woody Harrelson has joined Tom Hardy in Sony’s “Venom” movie.
Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams, and Jenny Slate are also on board, with Ruben Fleischer directing.
Although character details are sparse, sources say Harrelson will play a henchman of sorts. Sony had no comment on the casting.
Scott Rosenberg (“Jumanji”) and Jeff Pinkner (“The Dark Tower”) will write the script for “Venom,” with Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach producing the movie, along with Amy Pascal. Palak Patel are overseeing the project for Columbia Pictures.
Since his inception in 1988, Venom has been one of “Spider-Man’s” most popular characters, making it a top priority for the studio to get the movie off the ground. Venom made his big-screen debut in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 3,” where he was portrayed by Topher Grace.
Throughout the history of Marvel Comics, Venom has appeared alongside Spider-Man, Iron Man, Deadpool, Hulk, and other major characters.
Harrelson has kept busy over the past couple of years appearing in “LBJ,” “The Edge of Seventeen,” “The Glass Castle,” and “War for the Planet of the Apes.”
He most recently wrapped production on “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and has been earning rave reviews for his role in “Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri.” He is repped by CAA.
“Venom” hits theaters on Oct. 5, 2018. |
The White House is brimming with aides, lawyers and communications gurus who are begging President Donald Trump to stop tweeting. The lone exception is Dan Scavino, the president’s former golf caddy who now oversees the White House’s messaging on social media.
Scavino is in many ways the president’s mini-me, a man whose bombast, impulse control and instinct for a good punch match those of his boss.
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After Trump last weekend blasted London Mayor Sadiq Khan after a terror attack that killed eight people, Scavino posted a message citing Khan’s own 2016 criticism of Trump’s rhetoric on Muslims and terrorism — complete with a Trumpian, all-caps “WAKE UP!!!!”
And like his boss, Scavino has ignored warnings from high-level White House officials to tone down his tweets. Scavino was reprimanded on Friday for violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits senior executive branch officials from using their authority to interfere with elections, by calling in April for the ouster of Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash.
Steve Schmidt, a former George W. Bush administration official who served as campaign manager for John McCain in 2008, said Scavino’s remarks demonstrated “no sense of probity or dignity.”
But Scavino’s purpose in the White House is to give Trump an outlet, not to lend him restraint. When the president goes quiet, as he did during and shortly after the testimony of fired FBI Director James Comey, Scavino ensures there is a field marshal leading the pro-Trump Twitter army online. “Sorry Dems- nothing here,” he tweeted on his own account as Comey’s testimony got underway before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. “POTUS or team NEVER asked to stop election investigation.”
Scavino, whose title is director of social media, is omnipresent in the West Wing, constantly recording content for online videos. He has said that he often taps out tweets for the president’s account as Trump dictates them, and he has a knack for mimicking his boss on Twitter. “Scavino channels Trump, not the other way around,” said a senior White House aide.
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“Dan Scavino is a true team player and an invaluable asset. He is a person who works incredibly hard, is totally selfless and extremely humble,” said White House strategic communications manager Hope Hicks. “Dan’s contributions to both the campaign and now the White House are immeasurable and beyond that, he is a really wonderful person.”
Scavino first connected with Trump decades ago after caddying for him at a Westchester, New York, golf club. He’s now one of the president’s most loyal lieutenants, carrying on his tweeting even as other aides increasingly resist stepping up to spin the latest controversies.
After several Republican congressmen refused to back the initial version of an Obamacare repeal bill, Scavino in early April launched the broadside against Amash, urging voters to “defeat him in primary,” which resulted in a warning from the Office of Special Counsel.
He’s served as the president’s alter ego to congratulate Fox News hosts on their successes, lambaste journalists from other networks or bestow derogatory monikers on the president’s critics.
He has frequently derided Bill Kristol, a frequent Trump critic and editor emeritus of the conservative Weekly Standard, as #LoserBilly. Former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice is “Lyin’ Leakin’ Susan Rice.”
“Congratulations to Lyin’ Leakin’ Susan Rice on receiving FOUR PINOCCHIOS from the Washington Post,” Scavino wrote in early April regarding Rice’s claim that the Obama administration was able to force the removal of chemical weapons from Syria.
After CNN host Anderson Cooper said he was disgusted by comedian Kathy Griffin’s decision to conduct a mock beheading of Trump, Scavino tweeted, “If you are so appalled, you would make it clear to everyone that you will never have that piece of trash (@kathygriffin) on your show again.”
That has endeared him to the president, who ensconced him in the West Wing just a few doors down from chief strategist Steve Bannon. Scavino was among the staffers Trump invited to join him at the Vatican to meet the pope when he visited in May — even though Scavino tweeted sarcastically during the 2016 campaign about the Vatican being surrounded by walls after Francis criticized Trump’s plan to build a border wall with Mexico.
As a college freshman, Scavino caddied for Trump’s group at what was then Briar Hall Country Club Trump made Scavino the general manager of Trump National Golf Club in Westchester after he purchased the property. His improbable rise made him one of Westchester magazine’s “inspiring tales of unexpected success” long before he landed at the White House.
Throughout the campaign, Scavino was a constant presence at Trump’s side, traveling with him to rallies, debates and other stops. He became known as the keeper of Trump’s social media profile, overseeing his Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts.
Scavino is among the few Trump originalists, along with Hicks and director of Oval Office operations Keith Schiller, who accompanied the president from his campaign launch in June 2015 all the way to his election in November 2016 — despite multiple management changes and high turnover. After Paul Manafort was brought in to run the campaign and Trump’s first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was ousted, it was widely speculated that Scavino would be pushed aside or let go.
He came under fire after tweeting a picture of Hillary Clinton next to a Star of David-shaped figure within which appeared the words “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!” In the background was a sea of cash. Critics blasted the image as anti-Semitic. Scavino later tweeted, “For the MSM to suggest that I am antisemite is AWFUL. I proudly celebrate holidays w/ my wife's amazing Jewish family for the past 16 years.”
One senior White House aide said the continuing Twitter controversies in which the White House finds itself embroiled are a permanent feature of the landscape in the Trump era. “I don’t blame the president for that, I blame everybody else around him," the aide said. " Factor it into your jobs.”
Alex Isenstadt contributed to this report. |
LAS VEGAS, Sept. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientific Games Corporation (NASDAQ: SGMS) ("Scientific Games" or the "Company") will showcase its vast collection of casino, lottery and interactive solutions to empower the player experience at the Global Gaming Expo ("G2E") October 2-5 at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas.
Scientific Games Chief Executive Officer and President Kevin Sheehan said, "Every year we raise the bar at G2E, and this year our innovation teams have elevated the game significantly, with a huge portfolio of new game content, stunning new slot cabinets, and the industry's most advanced lottery and interactive B2B solutions. And what truly sets our booth apart is our exclusive JAMES BOND showcase, where we will debut our first products based on the incredible BOND franchise. We are excited to bring our customers the most innovative products in the industry."
The centerpiece of Scientific Games' G2E exhibit this year is the immersive JAMES BOND Experience, made possible through the exclusive agreement with EON Productions Limited, Danjaq, LLC and MGM Interactive Inc., a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., which gives Scientific Games the rights to leverage all past and future iconic JAMES BOND films, as well as the film's talent portraying JAMES BOND.
Scientific Games reveals its first JAMES BOND experiences – bringing to life the action, excitement, thrills, sophistication, and intrigue synonymous with one of the highest-grossing film franchises of all time. Scientific Games will unveil JAMES BOND CASINO ROYALE on the new Gamefield 2.0™ platform, JAMES BOND GOLDFINGER , featured on the TwinStar J43™ with iReels platform and JAMES BOND DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER on the Blade™ with Wheel cabinet.
Known for its innovation in cabinet design and engaging content, Scientific Games debuts innovative technology and hot new content on sophisticated, sleek new platforms at G2E:
The towering TwinStar® V75 , featuring a bold 75-inch curved Ultra HD monitor, emotive lighting with holographic LEDs; dual re-spin bet buttons, an oversized 24-inch iDeck and a patent-pending simple assembly design. This showstopper debuts with MONOPOLY™ Hot Shot® , which combines the iconic MONOPOLY brand with player-favorite Hot Shot Game-in features.
, featuring a bold 75-inch curved Ultra HD monitor, emotive lighting with holographic LEDs; dual re-spin bet buttons, an oversized 24-inch and a patent-pending simple assembly design. This showstopper debuts with , which combines the iconic brand with player-favorite Game-in features. The new sensational TwinStar J43 amazes with a spectacular 43-inch curved display that is impressive sleek technology and innovation. Featuring industry-leading hardware and thrilling multimedia lighting and sound, the J43 will feature the next generation Zeus Unleashed™ and showcase the iconic WONDER WOMAN games based on the beloved 1970s live-action TV show.
amazes with a spectacular 43-inch curved display that is impressive sleek technology and innovation. Featuring industry-leading hardware and thrilling multimedia lighting and sound, the will feature the next generation and showcase the iconic games based on the beloved 1970s live-action TV show. The new TwinStar J43 with iReels features the best of all worlds, integrating the traditional feel of a stepper cabinet, the dynamic graphic capabilities of a contemporary HD display, and an engaging transmissive LCD panel that provides a dramatic effect by allowing video to be displayed over the reels. This new cabinet debuts with JAMES BOND GOLDFINGER , THE LORD OF THE RINGS™ RULE THEM ALL and Cash Spin Deluxe .
with features the best of all worlds, integrating the traditional feel of a stepper cabinet, the dynamic graphic capabilities of a contemporary HD display, and an engaging transmissive LCD panel that provides a dramatic effect by allowing video to be displayed over the reels. This new cabinet debuts with , and . Capturing fan-favorites, Bally® Classic High-Denomination Steppers are being released on the popular TwinStar cabinet. Some of the most beloved classic games from the Bally library include Blazing 7s®, Bonus Times, Black & White® 5x Pay, and Double Jackpot Triple Blazing 7s.
Leveraging its international game content, Scientific Games is introducing its successful global games to the US.
Scientific Games highlights new Lock It Link® titles Cats, Hats, And More Bats™ and Eureka Reel Blast™, following on the phenomenal international success of this Near Area Progressive series.
titles and following on the phenomenal international success of this Near Area Progressive series. Also on display will be the fabulous Fortunes 3™ game. This title takes three amazing Duo Fu Duo Cai® games and places them on a multi-game platform. The games include Echo Fortunes™, Fu Daddy Fortunes™ and the original 88 Fortunes®.
In its expansive Bally Systems area, Scientific Games highlights its award-winning casino and slot management systems solutions, with a focus on:
Mobile / Cloud-Based Solutions developed to empower operators to stay connected to their customers and to their business. With Scientific Games mobile solutions, players can receive promotional offers, check their loyalty points and even play casino games on their mobile device. The cloud-based and mobile solutions enable casino management to stay close to their business, even when they are not on the floor.
developed to empower operators to stay connected to their customers and to their business. With Scientific Games mobile solutions, players can receive promotional offers, check their loyalty points and even play casino games on their mobile device. The cloud-based and mobile solutions enable casino management to stay close to their business, even when they are not on the floor. iVIEW 4 , the Company's next generation of on-device messaging technology, features a cutting-edge web content management solution and supports HTML5 content for more effective marketing at the point of play, while empowering a new level of player engagement with analytics, rules and scheduling features.
, the Company's next generation of on-device messaging technology, features a cutting-edge web content management solution and supports HTML5 content for more effective marketing at the point of play, while empowering a new level of player engagement with analytics, rules and scheduling features. Praxis Analytics™, a groundbreaking solution that leverages predictive analytics and machine-learning external data sources to develop intelligence on casino players, and then converts the analytics into action, providing recommendations to maximize revenues from the player base.
Scientific Games' electronic table games and its proprietary table games promote player excitement and operator profitability.
An electronic table games G2E highlight, Fusion Hybrid, provides concurrent betting on live Baccarat, Roulette Sic Bo, and three new games: Stadium Blackjack™ , Stadium Three Card Poker™ and Casino War® games. Via a one-touch tab, Fusion Hybrid enables players to access gameplay on up to four different live table games, without leaving their seats. Available with five to 300 seats for stadium-type environments, configurations are endless.
highlight, provides concurrent betting on live Baccarat, Roulette Sic Bo, and three new games: , and games. Via a one-touch tab, enables players to access gameplay on up to four different live table games, without leaving their seats. Available with five to 300 seats for stadium-type environments, configurations are endless. EZ Baccarat®, the most popular baccarat brand in the US and Canada will also be showcased. EZ Baccarat is played exactly as the traditional game but takes no commission and features the fantastical Dragon 7® and Panda 8® side bets. EZ Baccarat tables are available in over 180 casinos and card rooms worldwide.
SG Interactive empowers mobile player engagement with personalized offers, consumer-favorite social casino games, and portrait mode RGS content.
SG Interactive will offer live demonstrations of the enhanced SG Universe® , a comprehensive, proprietary product suite featuring the Mobile Concierge platform, Play4Fun Network™ social casino, and Core Systems Integration technology. The next generation of SG Universe includes an intuitive interface, and exciting, never before seen customization options.
, a comprehensive, proprietary product suite featuring the platform, social casino, and technology. The next generation of includes an intuitive interface, and exciting, never before seen customization options. Scientific Games will highlight its proven Remote Game Server ("RGS") game library with high-performing recent launches, new portrait mode content and highly popular titles such as Fu Dao Le®, MONOPOLY Bring the House Down, Zeus® God of Thunder, THE WIZARD OF OZ™ ROAD TO EMERALD CITY, and more.
Scientific Games brings exciting sports-betting action to G2E with SG Sports™, an enhanced omni-channel solution for online and retail fixed odds sports betting.
Developed for secure integration with land-based casino gaming systems, lottery central gaming systems, and licensed interactive-only operators, SG Sports will be demonstrated on the PlayCentral® EX and new small-form self-service terminals for payment, redemption, and verification.
PlayCentral EX delivers an expansive betting program in real time, including unlimited sports, events and markets. Designed to work well in a variety of bet shops and retail locations, this easy-to-navigate terminal can be used as an end-to-end sports betting solution or as an integral part of the omni-channel SG Sports platform to deliver pre-game and in-play excitement.
delivers an expansive betting program in real time, including unlimited sports, events and markets. Designed to work well in a variety of bet shops and retail locations, this easy-to-navigate terminal can be used as an end-to-end sports betting solution or as an integral part of the omni-channel platform to deliver pre-game and in-play excitement. Scientific Games' new, small-form self-service betting terminal featuring a 15" touchscreen allows players to place sports bets, receive a printed bet slip, and check status through a barcode reader.
The 007 Gun Logo and related James Bond Trademarks © 1962-2017 Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation. The 007 Gun Logo and related James Bond Trademarks are trademarks of Danjaq, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
MONOPOLY is a trademark of Hasbro. Used with permission. ©2017 Hasbro. All rights reserved.
The Lord of the Rings © 2017 New Line Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and the names of the characters, items, events and places therein are trademarks of The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Middle-earth Enterprises under license to New Line Productions, Inc.
THE WIZARD OF OZ and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © Turner Entertainment Co. (s17) Judy Garland as Dorothy from THE WIZARD OF OZ. (s17)
WONDER WOMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC Comics. (s17)
© 2017 Scientific Games Corporation. All Rights Reserved. All ® notices signify marks registered in the United States.
About Scientific Games
Scientific Games Corporation (NASDAQ: SGMS) is the global leader in technology-based gaming systems, table games, table products and instant ticket games and a leader in products, services and content for gaming, lottery and interactive markets. Scientific Games delivers what customers and players value most: trusted security, creative content, operating efficiencies and innovative technology. Today, we offer customers a fully integrated portfolio of technology platforms, robust systems, engaging content and unrivaled professional services. For more information, please visit ScientificGames.com.
About EON Productions
EON Productions Limited and Danjaq LLC are wholly owned and controlled by the Wilson/Broccoli family. Danjaq is the US based company that co-owns, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, the copyright in the existing James Bond films and controls the right to produce future James Bond films. EON Productions, an affiliate of Danjaq, is the UK based production company that makes the James Bond films and together with Danjaq controls all worldwide merchandising. The 007 franchise has produced twenty-four films since 1962.
About Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is a leading entertainment company focused on the production and global distribution of film and television content across all platforms. The company owns one of the world's deepest libraries of premium film and television content. In addition, MGM has investments in numerous television channels. For more information, visit www.mgm.com.
COMPANY CONTACTS:
Investor Relations:
Scientific Games: Bill Pfund +1 702-532-7663
Vice President, Investor Relations
[email protected]
Media Relations:
Scientific Games: Susan Cartwright +1 702-532-7981
Vice President of Corporate Communications
[email protected]
Forward-Looking Statements
In this press release, Scientific Games makes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "will," "may," and "should." These statements are based upon management's current expectations, assumptions and estimates and are not guarantees of timing, future results or performance. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated in these statements due to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors, including those factors described in our filings with the SEC, including the Company's current reports on Form 8-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and its latest annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 3, 2017 (including under the headings "Forward Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors"). Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and, except for Scientific Games' ongoing obligations under the U.S. federal securities laws, Scientific Games undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
SOURCE Scientific Games Corporation
Related Links
http://www.scientificgames.com |
Chris Stewart saw a bunch of familiar faces on Monday morning looking around the locker room after a 90-minute workout at Braemar Arena. After arriving back in Minnesota on Sunday night, he couldn’t wait to get back out on the ice.
“It’s pretty much the exact same team,” said Stewart, who played 20 games for the Wild near the end of the 2014-15 season. “It was good to get back in the locker room and get the chirps going again. There’s a lot of testosterone in that locker room. It’s fun to be around.”
Stewart, who signed a two-year, $2.3 million contract this offseason, wasn’t shy about saying he wanted to re-sign with the Wild last offseason. The Wild couldn’t afford him, though, and he ended up playing for the Anaheim Ducks on a one-year deal.
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Wild players happy to hit ‘refresh button’ with new coach Bruce Boudreau “I wanted to come back (to Minnesota), and the business side never worked out,” Stewart said. “So I had a chance to come back here and I couldn’t wait.”
Stewart said there weren’t any hard feelings, but a call from new Wild coach Bruce Boudreau this offseason helped in his decision to return.
“I talked to him a couple days before July 1 and as soon as I had that conversation I knew right away that this was the spot for me,” said Stewart, who played for Boudreau with the Ducks last season. “He’s the fastest coach ever to 400 wins, and there’s a reason for that. He’s going to bring that sense of swagger that’s going to rub off on the team.”
Stewart’s numbers have steadily declined since a 64-point breakout season with the Colorado Avalanche in 2009-10. Now viewed as more of a grinder than a playmaker, Stewart finished with eight goals and 12 assists in 56 games under Boudreau last season. He also racked up 73 penalty minutes — something that’s become a calling card of sorts for the 28-year-old veteran.
“The one thing I was impressed with him last year was how good of a team guy he was,” Boudreau said in July. “He stood up for everybody. Anybody that was picked on, he would go right up to them, and he knew how to handle it for us. He can play.”
Stewart, who likely will start on the Wild’s fourth line, hinted that other teams can expect much of the same from him this season.
“I’m not really worried about lines or anything like that,” he said. “I’m a veteran guy, and no matter where I’m at, I’m going to work hard. … I’m a big body, too, so I play that dirty game of going hard to the net and trying to get pucks back and creating space for my linemates. Those little things like sticking up for my teammates, too. That’s always come natural for me.”
Stewart spent time training in California this offseason before returning home to Toronto and “trying to get the body ready for a long season.” He hasn’t played since late April, when the Ducks lost to the Nashville Predators in Game 7 of the first round of the playoffs.
“You always think it’s going to be a quick offseason,” Stewart said. “Then a month later I’m still sitting at home watching the playoffs and I start getting pissed off a little bit.”
“This offseason has been way too long for everyone,” Stewart added. ” You’re at home. You’re bored. So as soon as September hits — I’ve been watching the World Cup of Hockey the last couple days seeing that high-tempo style of play — I can’t wait.”
Needless to say, Stewart can’t wait for the Wild to open training camp on Sept. 23.
“I thought the pace was pretty good out there,” Stewart said of Monday’s workout. “I’m ready to drop the puck for real and start playing for real.” |
THE INTERNET
FTC wants Google to retain home WiFi data
The Federal Trade Commission has asked Google not to destroy any documents related to the data it collected from unsecured home wireless networks as it gathered images for its Street View photo-map archive, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The company has not complied with a request from Germany to turn over Internet data and e-mail it collected from the networks as its roving Street View cars collected images, citing legal issues. It also has not turned over information to Hong Kong.
Google has said that its cars inadvertently collected 600 gigabytes of "fragmentary data" from WiFi networks in 33 countries and Hong Kong. It has not described the information in detail. It blamed the collection on a programming error.
-- Los Angeles Times
COPYRIGHTS
Dismissal of YouTube suit sought
Yahoo, IAC/InterActive, eBay and Facebook urged a judge to dismiss Viacom's copyright-infringement lawsuit against Google's YouTube video-sharing Web site.
The four Internet companies filed friend-of-the-court legal briefs on behalf of YouTube Thursday in Manhattan federal court, where a judge is weighing YouTube's and Viacom's legal motions in the 2007 lawsuit.
"Plaintiffs' legal arguments, if accepted, would retard the development of the Internet and electronic commerce," Asim Bhansali, a lawyer representing the four companies, said in the brief. |
A live-action mini-series adaptation of Gengoroh Tagame's My Brother's Husband has been green-lit. The mini-series will have three episodes, and will premiere on BS Premium on March 4 at 10:00 p.m. The cast includes:
Ryuta Sato as Yaichi
Former sumo wrestler Baruto Kaito as Mike
Other cast members include Yuri Nakamura as Yaichi's ex-wife Natsuki, and Maharu Nemoto as Yaichi's daughter Kana.
Teruyuki Yoshida and Yukihiro Toda are directing the mini-series, with Toda also penning scripts.
Pantheon Books is releasing the manga in two-in-one omnibus volumes, and it describes the story:
My Brother's Husband is a family drama that begins with the auspicious arrival of Mike, a Canadian who has come to pay respects to the family of his recently deceased Japanese husband Ryoji, whose only remaining immediate family member is Yaichi—an identical twin brother. As Mike gets accustomed to Japanese morays and the surprising idiosyncrasies of living with Yaichi and his daughter Kana, the sleepy Japanese suburb also learns the true meaning of family.
Tagame launched the manga in Futabasha's Monthly Action magazine in November 2014 and ended it this past May. Futabasha published the manga's fourth compiled volume in July. Pantheon Books shipped the first two-in-one English omnibus volume in June. The manga was nominated for Best Comic at this year's 44th annual Angoulême International Comics Festival. The manga also won an Excellence Award at the 19th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in 2015. Amazon named the book as one of 20 books in the "Comics & Graphic Novels" category of its Best Books of 2017 list.
Tagame is best known for his gay erotic manga. German publisher Bruno Gmünder Verlag has published Tagame's Gunji, Fisherman's Lodge, Endless Game, and The Contracts of the Fall manga in English, and Fantagraphics' Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It anthology featured work by Tagame.
Source: Comic Natalie |
With my previous post dedicated to compilers, I recieved a lot of interesting comments. First, I would like to make everyone remember that my test is one scenario and the conclusions doesn't extend the scenarios illustrated in the post and I don't attempt to generalize these bound results as a universal truth about compilers.
Thanks to feedbacks, I also learn that GCC 4.5 now support some link time optimizations with the -lto and -whole_program flags. In this new post, I would like to show the performances benefit that such options provide in GCC but also in Visual C++.
Finally, I ran the test using 32 bits programs and I think it is about time to switch to 64 bits build that why we are also comparing 32 bits and 64 bits performances.
The test have been done with SSE2 optimizations enabled, fast math (/fp:fast, -fast-math), Ox or O3 and link time optimization as specified. With these settings, we are looking for maximum performance and we are willing to lose some accuracy. Mesurements have been done on a Phenom II X6 1055T and a Core 2 Q6600 running Windows 7 64.
The tests are based on Ovt'sa, a pure C++ program, not especially effective for what it does or optimized for anything. It uses GLM and GLI but no other dependency. Despite using SSE optimizations, the program isn't especially design to take advantage of them and only run on a single thread. No disk access is included in the mesurements.
Like we could see in my previous post, Visual C++ 2005 and 2008 were pretty inneficient at generating SSE2 code in 32 bits leaving them behide GCC 4.5 in term of performances. Visual C++ 2010 fixed this issue and provide the same level of performance between the 32 and 64 bits build on the Phenom II but better on the Core 2, the 64 bits build is more efficient. GCC remains behide Visual C++ 2010 in both cases, but GCC 4.5 provides more performance in 64 bits.
The Phenom II is giving a nice looking graph to the compiler results where Visual C++ with LTO is making progress for each version. However, GCC provides the same level of performance with or without LTO. When LTO is disabled, Visual C++ is losing the lead on GCC. I don't think it means that GCC would become more efficient with proper LTO optimizations, it's probably more that optimizations are placed at different places between GCC and Visual C++. The results on the Core 2 are surprizingly quite fuzzy with the best performance for Visual C++ 2005 and Visual C++ 2008 finishing last.
Optimizing a code for a platform is somewhat ok proper mesurements but generalizing optimizing for all platforms is pretty challenging. Accoring to this test, building in 64 bits mode only provide performance benefits. Link time optimizations are pretty mature in Visual C++ but seems to be disabled on GCC 4.5 with such scenario. I am looking forward GCC 4.6 where I expect more benefits for them. |
Harvesting sunlight for energy isn’t just for plants anymore. Scientists in Israel and the UK have discovered that the Oriental Hornet (Vespa orientalis) has a special ‘solar panel’ that it uses to convert light into usable energy. The extra boost of energy the hornet receives may be why the insect correlates its nest-building activities with the intensity of the sun. A study of the hornet, and its solar panel, was recently published in the journal Naturwissenschaften. Researchers now have a new understanding of the special pigment, xanthopterin, the hornet contains in the yellow solar panel part of its body. This opens new possibilities in energy collection – there’s another biological option for solar power besides chlorophyll and photosynthesis. Oriental Hornets and xanthopterin are extraordinary examples of the surprises that nature has yet to show us in energy, genetics, and zoology.
There’s little doubt that the hornet has evolved to take advantage of solar power. The yellow stripe on its abdomen not has a different primary pigment than the rest of its body (xanthopterin vs melanin), and the cuticle (external layer) of the insect has a light affecting structure as well. Remarkably, some layers in the cuticle display the properties as a diffraction grating, helping to trap and contain light! By reflecting some colors of light and trapping others, the solar cuticle helps to provide as much light energy to the xanthopterin particles as possible. This animal’s body is nature’s equivalent of a well designed solar cell.
Why it needs that design isn’t exactly clear. It’s still very early in the research process, and the study in Naturwissenschaften isn’t able to explain the exact biochemical process that transforms sunlight into energy the hornet can use. It does look like a good part of the insect’s metabolic functions are centered around the solar panel section of its body. Authors of the study hypothesize that the xanthopterin could be assisting or accelerating the metabolic process in the hornet’s cells. No matter how the insect uses it, the very fact that there is an animal that harnesses sunlight is rather astonishing. Sure, many creatures use solar heating to help them control their body heat. Oriental Hornets, however, are actually translating light energy into usable electrical/chemical energy. That’s in a league of its own.
While the structure of the insect’s cuticle in the yellow solar panel section is probably not very useful to us, xanthopterin could be. The scientists studying the Oriental Hornet constructed a dye-sensitized solar cell to demonstrate the effectiveness of the insect’s conversion of light to electrical energy. In the words of the authors, the xanthopterin powered solar cells “provide a technically and economically credible alternative concept to crystalline silicon-based p–n junction photovoltaic devices.” That is to say, we could use xanthopterin as an alternate way of building solar panels for humans.
So there’s at least the possibility that xanthopterin could provide new avenues of attack for solar energy. It could also have implications in bioengineering. If the genes for xanthopterin production can be found it would give biologists another tool to help them engineer microorganisms that can convert solar power into chemical or electrical energy. That could have a big impact in biofuels, cybernetic implants, and many other fields.
Clearly it will be many years before scientists would be able to turn this discovery towards practical applications. Still, knowing that nature has probably provided another means of converting light into chemical or electrical energy is pretty exciting. Unexpected finds like this one are why science is so addictive. I can’t wait to see what other secrets are out there, waiting for us to stumble upon in the years ahead.
[image credit: Kreta via WikiCommons]
[sources: BBC News, Plotkin et al 2010 Naturwissenschaften] |
Cincinnati's signing of Cuban right-hander Raciel Iglesias on Friday got me thinking about another Cuban in the news lately, Odrisamer Despaigne of the San Diego Padres. If you remember, he made his major league debut against the San Francisco Giants last week, throwing seven shutout innings, allowing just four hits and zero walks, though he struck out just one guy. Despaigne makes his second big league start today against Arizona.
Despaigne is older than Iglesias, already 27 with eight years of Serie Nacional experience under his belt before he left Cuba. He showcased for big league clubs this past February, but nobody bit on him at the time, with his stuff described as "average". His best attributes were control and a diverse arsenal of junkball pitches.
Eventually the Padres signed him for $1,000,000 in early May. He made two starts for Double-A San Antonio after signing, fanning 12 in 7.2 innings but walking five and allowing four hits, but just one run. Moved up to Triple-A El Paso on May 27th, he made five Pacific Coast League starts, resulting in an ugly 7.61 ERA, giving up 36 hits and 20 runs in 23.2 innings with 29/13 K/BB.
That's not the kind of performance that screams "major league success upcoming" but small sample size and all, and he did post a 13/2 K/BB in his last 10 innings of work before his promotion. At age 27 his skills are what they are, so Double-A and Triple-A were more a matter of getting him back into pitching shape and adjusted to North America than typical developmental considerations.
His fastest pitch against the Giants was 93 MPH, with his sinker averaging 91. His secondary pitches ranged from 64 MPH into the mid-80s: curves, changes, some sliders, all from different arm angles. It's interesting that this worked much better in the majors than it did in the Pacific Coast League, though he was probably working some rust off in the minors. Certainly his control has been much better in his last three outings compared to earlier in the year, so I wouldn't dismiss him just because of the initial rough starts for El Paso.
Here's some video from his first start back at San Antonio, which gives you some idea about his style.
He takes the mound again today against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It will be interesting to see if they get a better read on him than the Giants did. I don't know if Despaigne will have consistent long-term success once the league gets a look at him, but he has some unusual tricks up his sleeve and could well have a useful run as a fifth starter or long reliever. |
Forever And Two More Just Got Cancelled At ABC By Jessica Rawden Random Article Blend Forever along with the comedy Cristela--a primetime comedy that highlighted a Mexican-American family in their home. Forever just wrapped up its series on Tuesday night, while Cristela finished out its run in the middle of April.In addition, the Season 2 drama Resurrection will not be returning for Season 3.
Regarding the two freshman programs, ABC’s big announcement was not a huge surprise, as neither show was performing super well in the ratings. On the flip side of the coin, neither show was performing horribly, either, so there was a chance that one or both could be renewed. Instead, ABC Galavant. The two cancelled programs join the recently axed Revenge on the cancellation block; that drama will finish out its run this Sunday.
Of the two shows, Forever’s supernatural bent, following an immortal individual who used his historic insight to help the NYPD solve cases made the procedural standout, and it’s finale was one of the best I’ve personally caught all season, wrapping up enough storylines, but leaving enough information to continue on to Season 2 should ABC have wished it. Despite the clever ending, we probably should have seen it coming when lead Ioan Gruffudd thanked fans for sticking with the show, telling
It's pretty extraordinary — people who have seen the show are are huge fans of the show, and [everyone else] has never heard of the show. We're very much on the bubble because we weren't a runaway hit, but if you ask anybody that's seen the show they can't believe that it's not a big hit. People are so passionate about it.
As it turns out, it was the end. Forever that the show was not owned by ABC; Warner Bros. TV produced the drama. Cristela suffered because it couldn’t keep up with Last Man Standing’s ratings on Friday nights. It could be worse, I suppose. Both shows
Regarding Resurrection, it's been a much harder fall. The drama hit ABC's schedule at midseason last year and drew Resurrection premiered as part of the fall season this year, but man have the numbers fallen on that show. Ratings dropped during the season and the show ended its run way back in January. This one seemed as if it wouldn't need to be revived next fall.
If you’d like to see what else has been cancelled and renewed this season, especially today by ABC, you can check out our handy ABC has made some tough decisions today in terms of cancellations and renewals. After deliberating, the network ultimately decided to cancel freshman programalong with the comedy--a primetime comedy that highlighted a Mexican-American family in their home.just wrapped up its series on Tuesday night, whilefinished out its run in the middle of April.In addition, the Season 2 dramawill not be returning for Season 3.Regarding the two freshman programs, ABC’s big announcement was not a huge surprise, as neither show was performing super well in the ratings. On the flip side of the coin, neither show was performing horribly, either, so there was a chance that one or both could be renewed. Instead, ABC opted to take a chance with second seasons of other bubble shows Agent Carter and. The two cancelled programs join the recently axedon the cancellation block; that drama will finish out its run this Sunday.Of the two shows, Forever had the more avid fanbase on social media and seemed to be generally well-liked by audiences—at least the audiences who had discovered the show.’s supernatural bent, following an immortal individual who used his historic insight to help the NYPD solve cases made the procedural standout, and it’s finale was one of the best I’ve personally caught all season, wrapping up enough storylines, but leaving enough information to continue on to Season 2 should ABC have wished it. Despite the clever ending, we probably should have seen it coming when lead Ioan Gruffudd thanked fans for sticking with the show, telling US Weekly it could be the end of the road.As it turns out, it was the end. Deadline reports it probably didn’t helpthat the show was not owned by ABC; Warner Bros. TV produced the drama.suffered because it couldn’t keep up with’s ratings on Friday nights. It could be worse, I suppose. Both shows earned full 22-episode orders and kept audiences watching until the very end. That’s way better than ABC’s comedy Selfie got earlier this season. It's also better than ABC's Manhattan Love Story , which aired for a paltry four episodes before getting shoved off the schedule.Regarding, it's been a much harder fall. The drama hit ABC's schedule at midseason last year and drew huge numbers for the premiere. It's no shock thatpremiered as part of the fall season this year, but man have the numbers fallen on that show. Ratings dropped during the season and the show ended its run way back in January. This one seemed as if it wouldn't need to be revived next fall.If you’d like to see what else has been cancelled and renewed this season, especially today by ABC, you can check out our handy cancellation and renewal list Blended From Around The Web Facebook
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There are a couple of new papers out on how utterly fucked-up Neanderthals must have been, The Genetic Cost of Neanderthal Introgression by Kelley Harris and Rasmus Nielsen, and The Strength of Selection Against Neanderthal Introgression, by Ivan Juric, Simon Aeschbacher, and Graham Coop. The basic idea is the same in both: the effective population size of Neanderthals was considerably lower than that of anatomically modern humans (which makes sense, considering glaciation), and this had negative consequences. Theory says that selection is less effective in small populations: mutations with small negative effects (s < 1/2N) are not much noticed by selection and accumulate. Judging from the Neanderthal genomes we have sequenced, their effective (neutral) population size was about a tenth of modern humans. The first paper concludes that Neanderthals must have had much lower fitness than AMH: They say "Under an additive model, a recessive model, or anything in between, the severe reduction in fitness of Neanderthals would have doomed them to quick extinction if they had been competing for the same niche with humans under conditions of reproductive isolation. " Of course, one problem with this conclusion is that we know it is not correct. The projected Neanderthal excess genetic load would have accumulated over several hundred thousand years: it wouldn't have been much smaller 120,000 years ago (the Eemian) than it was ~50,000 years ago, when we displaced them. Modern humans in the Levant (Qafzeh/Shkul) ran into Neanderthals back in the Eemian – but they didn't win then : later Neanderthals seem to have reoccupied that area, and moderns don't seem to have developed the ability to displace Neanderthals until much later, some 50-60,000 years after their original contact with Neanderthals. Like they imply, if Neanderthals were that genetically screwed up, something like Florida panthers, we could have knocked them over with a feather – but it didn't happen. Presumably we would also see skeletal abnormalities, lots of them, in later Neanderthals – but I don't think we do.
Part of the problem is that the model is probably too simple. There is an argument, which makes sense to me, that suggest that small-N populations do better than you would think, because as the average population fitness gets farther from the optimum, strongly beneficial compensatory mutations become more and more possible. And the effective population size for generating those beneficial compensatory mutations is not the same as the neutral effective population size, which is dominated by the low points (probably glacial maxima) – it's much larger, closer to the average population size, instead of the harmonic mean.
In addition, I don't have much confidence in our models of the distribution of mutational effects, or our models of the way in which the effects of deleterious mutations add up.
Both papers talk about the likely genetic burden that Eurasians picked up from that Neanderthal admixture. Since East Asians have a somewhat higher level of Neanderthal admixture than people in Europe or the Middle East (~20% more) then they must have even more toxic Neanderthal genes, and Africans the least. This echoes earlier papers that have argued that population history (out-of-Africa bottleneck, Neanderthal admixture, etc) must have increased genetic load in Eurasians.
Evidently extra genetic load has anti-intuitive effects.
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Washington (CNN) Donald Trump continues to lead the Republican race in New Hampshire on the eve of the vote, the final CNN/WMUR tracking poll finds .
On the Democratic side of the race, it remains Bernie Sanders' primary to lose, with the Vermont senator holding a 26-point lead over Hillary Clinton.
The field of candidates vying for a second place finish behind him is finally beginning to separate, according to the survey.
Trump holds 31%, down two points from the February 3-6 release, but within the poll's margin of sampling error.
Behind him, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio earned 17% support -- within the margin of sampling error of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 14%, but significantly ahead of the fourth and fifth place candidates in the poll, Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 10% and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 7%.
Behind Bush, Carly Fiorina stands at 5%, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 4% and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 3%.
Aside from Trump, none of the Republican candidates moved more than 1 point in either direction compared with the previous CNN/WMUR tracking poll.
About three-quarters of the interviews conducted for this poll were completed before the Republican candidates debated Saturday night, their final such match-up before Tuesday's election.
Although the post-debate sample size is too small to produce a separate estimate of the vote, interviews conducted Sunday and Monday found no drop in support for Rubio, and actually showed a slimmer margin between Trump and Rubio.
There has been little movement in the last two days in the other metrics tested in the survey, with about two-thirds still saying they expect to see Trump win on Tuesday (64%), and about a third saying they would never vote for Trump (32%).
Over the full course of the tracking poll, there have been some shifts on the "never support" question, however, with the share saying they would not vote for Bush climbing from 7% in the first wave of data to 13% now. And the share saying they would never back Trump dipping from 37% in the first wave to 32% now. The rest of the field is within 1 or 2 points of where they started on that measure.
In the Democratic race, Sanders tops Clinton 61% to 35%, an uptick for Sanders since the last update to the tracking poll, while Clinton holds steady. Just 15% of those who say they are likely to participate in the Democratic primary say they're still undecided about whom to support, 64% say their choice is locked in.
And now, fully 60% of likely Democratic primary voters say that either Sanders or Clinton would be OK, up from 52% at the start of the tracking poll.
Still, most expect Sanders to win on Tuesday, 65% say they think he will win compared with 20% who say they think Clinton will win. That's a shift in Sanders' favor since the start of the poll, when the split was 61% Sanders to 25% Clinton.
Voters in New Hampshire who are registered as undeclared, or without any party affiliation, can choose whether to participate in the Democratic or Republican primary.
The poll indicates that undeclared voters who do want to participate in Tuesday's elections are about evenly split on which party's contest they'd rather participate in, with 47% choosing the Democrats, 46% the Republicans and 7% still not sure.
The CNN/WMUR poll was conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center by telephone from February 4-8. The poll includes interviews with a random sample of 887 adult residents of New Hampshire, including 362 who plan to vote in the Republican presidential primary and 363 who say they plan to participate in the Democratic primary. For results among the sample of likely Republican primary voters, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 5.2 percentage points, it is 5.1 points for Democrats. |
Cliffy B: 'Games have become more linear and easier' Expanding the gaming audience has come at the cost of making games simpler and easier, Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski has said. And it just so happens that a game of his, the prequel Gears of War: Judgement, is hoping to present a challenge for players.
Expanding the gaming audience has come at the cost of making games simpler and easier, Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski has said. And it just so happens that a game of his, the prequel Gears of War: Judgement, is hoping to present a challenge for players.
"It feels like in this current console generation that we've taken a lot of steps to grow the audience and what I think's happened is that the games have become more linear and easier, so it feels like a lot of quick-time-events," Bleszinski told Xbox360Achievements.
"The more I play games like that the more I turned off to them and just want to get back to systems interacting with systems, and get back to a game that, you know, when was the last time a game really challenged you and asked something of you, right? There's a reason why Demon's Souls and Dark Souls have taken off lately. It's because they really require you actually try."
Gears of War: Judgement, he says, will be difficult enough to allow those memorable moments of glorious deaths and miraculous recoveries, which we do all so enjoy.
"Casual mode will still be casual, whatever, if you just want to see graphics and you don't want to die," Bleszinski said. "But every other mode will be hard in this game and you will die." |
Format [ edit ]
King of the Hill 2 sets of 11 maps The winner continues to defend until defeated.
Prize Pool [ edit ]
Up to ₩1,700,000 (approximately $1,428 USD ) are distributed, with ₩50,000 (approximately $42 USD ) going to every map winner and an additional ₩300,000 (approximately $252 USD ) awarded for an 11-0 victory.
A map was skipped during Maru and Dear's series: as a result, the organizers decided to pay out ₩50,000 to both players.
Participants [ edit ]
1 Despite winning Week 2, INnoVation could not participate due to a scheduling conflict with StarCraft II: NationWars IV but will return in Week 4 facing the winner of this week's tournament.[1]
Bracket [ edit ]
Round 1 Maru 9 Dear 0 Round 2 ByuL 2 Maru 9 |
UPDATE, 7:30 PM: Fox News Channel issued a correction on tonight’s Fox Report for on-air errors made on Justice With Judge Jeanine last weekend by a so-called terrorism expert during discussions of the Muslim population in Europe. Steve Emerson erroneously described Birmingham, England as a “No-Go-Zone” where non-Muslims are not allowed. In an extensive statement, Fox Report anchor Julie Banderas said the network regretted the error and apologized to any “who may have taken offense”. Judge Jeanine Piro also issued an apology on her show. You can watch the Fox Report video below:
RelatedNBC News Blames Sources For Wrong Report On Killing Of Paris Attack Suspect
PREVIOUS, Friday 4:05 PM: The people of Birmingham, England, will see their true demographics articulated on the top-rated cable news network this weekend. Fox News Channel plans to issue a correction on Saturday’s edition of Justice With Judge Jeanine, sources confirm. The correction is a consequence of unchallenged comments that a so-called terrorism expert made on air January 10 about the UK city. After his FNC appearance and incredulous response to the remarks in the UK, Steve Emerson apologized in an interview with the BBC for his claim that Birmingham was one of of several cities that is “totally Muslim” where “non-Muslims just simply don’t go in.”
According to ITV, British Prime Minister David Cameron said he “choked on his porridge” when he heard Emerson’s obviously incorrect remarks, telling the network, “This guy is clearly a complete idiot.” With a population of just over 1.09 million, Birmingham is the second-most populous city in the UK after London. According to a 2011 census, the Muslim population of Birmingham is approximately 22%.
Emerson told the BBC it was an “inexcusable error”. You can watch the video below. |
A hotel investment advisor is calling on councils and the Government to offer rates relief to developers, saying the shortage of hotel rooms has reached critical levels in summer.
Photo: 123rf
Colliers International's head of hotels Dean Humphries said the number of rooms was growing by one percent compared with five percent annual growth in demand, due to record tourist numbers.
He said Auckland was actually losing hotel rooms with 40 percent being converted to apartments.
Mr Humphries said Tourism New Zealand's new strategy to encourage visitors to come during the off-peak seasons was a good idea but it would not stop the growth in visitors in summer.
He said the Government and councils should also look at offering incentives to developers.
"I think the Government and local councils may need to look at some other initiatives as have been implemented in place like Brisbane in the past where they provide developers and investors some form of rating relief or incentives to develop," he said.
Queenstown's tourism head said the town would need hundreds more hotel rooms in the next few years but no development plans were in place to fill the demand.
Tourism numbers hit new records last summer with more than 900,000 guest nights from January to March.
The town was also expecting a bumper ski season, launched on Friday with its annual winter festival.
Head of Destination Queenstown Graham Budd said the town's 33 hotels were full on the busiest days of summer and winter when the population swelled from 20,000 to 80,000.
He said 500 more rooms would be needed in the next few years to cope with the expected growth but only one 40-room hotel was being built.
"I think another 500 odd rooms is probably the sort of number we're going to need over the next few years, not necessarily right today because people need to make money right throughout the year not just at peak time of course but I think that's the sort of number we're going to need," he said.
An Auckland tourism manager said high building and land costs were hampering new hotel investment.
Auckland's tourism agency ATEED said proposed new developments in the next five years could add up to 1300 rooms to the city but some were not confirmed.
The five-star hotels included Beijing-owned Fu Wah Group's $200 million 200-room project in Wynyard Quarter due to be finished in 2018, SkyCity's 300-room development expected to open by the end of 2019, and a Chinese-funded Ritz Carlton is also proposed for the CBD.
ATEED's tourism manager Jason Hill said Auckland's hotels were full in summer but at other times their occupancy and room rates were still low, holding back new developments.
He said land and building costs in the city were high and developers couldn't make money until room rates rose.
"There's challenges at the moment around building costs in the CBD, the cost of land obviously is increasing so its really hard for the hotel companies to make money in the current environment until those rates and occupancy rates continue to go higher for them," he said.
Mr Hill said the hotel room shortage would last at least four years. |
It’s well known that the drug war is one of the main sources of our country’s overpopulated prisons. However, there is another negative aspect of the drug war that is often not addressed.
Drug laws allow police to routinely conduct searches based on expansive interpretations of probable cause. In turn, any evidence of a crime unrelated to drugs is admissible in court, as long as it was discovered within the “plain view” of the officer.
Unfortunately, the standard for probable cause seemingly continues to diminish, and the drug war indirectly provides law enforcement with a blanket justification for violating the 4th Amendment.
A 6-to-1-ruling this month by the Kansas Supreme Court, State v. Howard, highlighted this issue.
The court upheld Cameron Howard’s conviction from 2013 for the possession of a firearm by a felon. Howard was driving in a Kansas City suburb in 2011, when he was pulled over after he drove through a gas station to avoid a traffic light. Soon after, Howard was placed under arrest due to an outstanding arrest warrant.
The officer found a gun under a floor mat, but his search was based upon two unusual factors for probable cause. The passenger, a pregnant woman, reclined her seat after the officer signaled for them to pull over. Also, there was a plastic bag in which the corner was torn off. This officer later explained that illegal drugs are sometimes packaged from tearing off the corner of a plastic bag.
A Legal Search?
Howard’s attorneys contested that the officer didn’t have probable cause to make a warrantless search. As a matter of fact, there was even controversy about where the gun was discovered because the officer contradicted himself with his testimony. He claimed that the gun was beneath the driver’s side rear floor mat. He also said that it was under the front passenger side floor mat.
On the other hand, Howard admitted that there had been marijuana in the torn plastic bag. Consequently, this is the type of case that most “law and order” conservatives cast aside with a belief that the ends justify the means. However, the multiple constitutional and civil rights issues associated with State v. Howard deserve more attention.
First of all, Howard purchased and owned the gun legally. He was convicted in Missouri in 2006 for a felony burglary charge. However, his convicted felon status was reversed by the state after successfully completing a diversion program. That’s why he passed a federal background check when he made the purchase. Regardless, Kansas state law still recognizes him as a convicted felon.
Secondly, this is the kind of case that establishes a dangerous precedent. In this instance, the officer’s instincts, in regard to the plastic bag, were accurate. However, this precedent will certainly be abused in the future, thus adding to the continual degradation of our constitutional rights. Arguably, any object or behavior can be listed to justify a warrantless search.
That may sound far-fetched, but it’s the truth.
For example, the Rutherford Institute recently published an article criticizing the State v. Howard ruling. It mentioned numerous “suspicious” behaviors that courts have upheld for warrantless searches, including having acne scars, driving with stiff upright posture, air fresheners hanging from the rearview mirror, among many more.
Clearly, these dubious searches add to our mass incarceration problem by adding more drug arrests and unrelated criminal charges.
However, the deterioration of the standard of probable cause also affects civil asset forfeiture. After all, probable cause is the standard necessary for police to seize your property with civil asset forfeiture.
And that’s no minor issue. There was $4.5 billion seized through civil asset forfeiture in 2014, which was more than collectively burglarized in the same year ($3.9 billion) by all of America’s actual criminals. Keep that in mind the next time that you travel with a plastic bag or air freshener in the car.
Unfortunately, there will be no calls for reform from the federal government.
We have a “law and order” president who is unfamiliar with civil asset forfeiture. Nevertheless, he joked about ruining the career of an official who talked about reforming those laws.
All in all, it is a constant battle to uphold our Constitutional rights. |
In a case study that illustrates the need for people with diabetes to be cautious of foot injuries and to protect themselves from pets, a woman with numbness in her feet caused by diabetic neuropathy slept through a traumatic episode in which her Jack Russell terrier chewed off part of her slightly infected big toe, according to an article published in this month's issue of the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association.
The patient's wound required surgery, and it ultimately led the amputation of her leg, leaving her a double amputee.
The case study, co-authored by Valley Presbyterian Hospital specialist Lee C. Rogers, D.P.M., is only the second of its kind to be published in the medical literature, although more cases like it have been reported in the media. This case highlights the need for diabetic patients with neuropathy to avoid having their feet or wounds exposed when sleeping with their pets.
"Pets have a tendency to lick wounds, and that simple lick can turn into a bite, if there is no response from the owner. There have also been reports of dogs' saliva infecting diabetic patients with the antibiotic-resistant Superbug, MRSA, which can be deadly," Dr. Rogers said. "This case illustrates the perils of pet ownership in diabetic patients who have numbness in their hands or feet caused by neuropathy."
The Centers for Disease Control estimate diabetes affects 25.8 million Americans -- or 8.3 percent of the population -- and report that it is the leading cause of non-traumatic amputations. In this case, the 48-year-old woman didn't feel any pain and only realized part of her toe was missing when she awakened in the morning and found blood in her bed and on the floor.
She was sleeping with her 2-year-old Jack Russell terrier and realized it must have chewed off part of the toe during the night because the dog had blood in its facial fur. Doctors amputated part of her toe and, later, the lower portion of her leg because she developed other infections and neuropathic ulcerations, skin lesions that are common in diabetics who suffer from numbness.
"People with diabetes and neuropathy must take special precautions to protect their feet from infections to avoid amputations and other complications," said Dr. Rogers.
Dr. Rogers is the associate director of Valley Presbyterian Hospital's Amputation Prevention Center, an integrated limb-preservation center that is one of the nation's only facilities of its kind. Since its January 2010 opening, the Amputation Prevention Center's specialized multidisciplinary team of highly skilled professionals has treated more than 350 patients with leading-edge technology and achieved a limb salvage rate of 96 percent.
"With its exemplary record of success, the Amputation Prevention Center is truly a community asset and an extraordinary benefit to patients in danger of losing a limb," said Gustavo Valdespino, President and CEO of Valley Presbyterian Hospital. "The Center is leading the way in patient care and treatment with its cutting-edge technology and innovative team approach pairing podiatrists with vascular surgeons."
George Andros, M.D., the Center's Medical Director, notes the center recorded an average wound-healing rate of 52 days -- less than half the national average of 120 days, in its first year.
"At Valley Presbyterian Hospital, we are proud to be part of this pioneering effort to employ new technology to bring expertise to patients wherever they may be," he said. "The Amputation Prevention Center is on the leading edge of advancing the pace of medicine and improving the care of patients." |
What's Bharara next move?
Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s conviction on Monday was a huge blow against Albany’s culture of corruption, but it was also a major personal victory for Preet Bharara, the crusading U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. From the beginning of his tenure in 2009, Bharara has vowed to make cleaning up New York politics a top priority, and after taking on two of the most powerful men in Albany — Silver and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos — earlier this year, he has to deliver.
“The aura he wants to create is as a corruption fighter, someone who is going to root out the cancer plaguing New York State for so long. If he loses even one of these cases, people are going to wonder whether the big talk is consistent with the results,” Pace Law professor Bennett Gershman, a former state prosecutor, told the New York Daily News.
Scoring a conviction against Skelos, who is currently on trial, in addition to Silver, would solidify Bharara’s legacy, but taking on shady Albany politicians is just one feather in his cap. Bharara’s office has gone after a slew of notable targets, from international terrorists to Wall Street criminals — and the list is expected to keep growing.
For years there’s been speculation that like former U.S. attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie, Bharara might transition into politics. But the bigger question right now is who he’ll go after next. Recently Bharara’s office has been looking into Governor Andrew Cuomo’s meddling in the activities of the anti-corruption Moreland Commission, and the Buffalo Billion economic-development initiative. There’s no sign that Cuomo has done anything criminal, but as New York’s Chris Smith put it, Bharara seems frustrated at “not being able to make the biggest Albany case of all.” Plus, he wants everyone from gang leaders to top politicians to know that he’s watching. Here are some of the memorable figures who learned that the hard way:
Faisal Shahzad, the attempted Times Square bomber
In 2010, Faisal Shahzad, who was captured at JFK Airport en route to Dubai after a failed attempt to set off a car bomb in the heart of Manhattan, pleaded guilty to multiple terrorism charges and was sentenced to life in prison.
“He decided on a Saturday evening in 2010 that he wanted to blow up as many people as possible in Times Square. We stayed up for the next 53 hours until he was in custody, and there was a lot of anxiety about that because he was on the loose,” Bharara recalled in a 2013 interview with the New York Times. “We learned afterwards that his plan was to keep blowing up people and kill as many Americans as he possibly could … If he hadn’t been caught when he was, who knows what kind of damage he would have done.”
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, adviser to Osama bin Laden
The Kuwaiti-born cleric was sentenced to life in prison in 2014 after being found guilty of serving as al-Qaeda’s main mouthpiece and recruiter, and conspiring to kill Americans. He sat with bin Laden, his father-in-law, after the September 11 attacks, and was the most senior bin Laden adviser tried in civilian court in the U.S.“He was more than just Osama bin Laden’s propaganda minister,” Bharara said after his conviction. “Within hours after the devastating 9/11 attacks, Abu Ghayth was using his position in al Qaeda’s homicidal hierarchy to persuade others to pledge themselves to al Qaeda in the cause of murdering more Americans.”
Photo: 0851/2011 Gamma-Rapho
Viktor Bout, Russian arms dealer
Bharara’s office extradited and prosecuted the notorious Russian arms trafficker known as the “merchant of death.” In 2012 he was sentenced to 25 years in jail for conspiring to kill Americans and provide support to a terrorist organization after agreeing to sell arms to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration informants posing as members of a a Colombian rebel group.
Raj Rajaratnam, billionaire hedge-fund manager
In his first two years on the job, Bharara charged 46 people with insider trading and secured 30 guilty pleas, which earned him a Time magazine cover with the headline "This Man Is Busting Wall Street." His biggest victory was the conviction of Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire co-founder of the Galleon Group, a massive hedge fund, on 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, the longest sentence ever for insider trading. Rajat Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs director convicted of passing confidential information to Rajaratnam, was sentenced to two years in federal prison.
Raj Rajaratnam at his sentencing hearing on October 13, 2011. Photo: Mario Tama/2011 Getty Images
J.P. Morgan and Bernie Madoff’s associates
In 2014, Bharara reached an agreement with JPMorgan Chase requiring the bank to pay $2.6 billion to resolve allegations that it turned a blind eye to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The money, which set a record for penalties stemming from violations of the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, went to Madoff’s victims. Bharara’s office also successfully prosecuted several of Madoff’s associates, including his brother Peter Madoff, who was sentenced to ten years in prison for his role in the investment fraud.
Toyota and General Motors
Last year, Toyota agreed to pay a $1.2 billion fine to settle criminal charges for concealing acceleration problems linked to at least five deaths. "In its zeal to stanch bad publicity in 2009 and 2010, Toyota misled regulators, misled customers, and even misstated the facts to Congress," Bharara said while announcing the settlement, which is the largest ever against an auto company.
In September, General Motors agreed to pay a $900 million fine for hiding an ignition-switch defect linked to at least 174 deaths. Critics complained that the figure is only a fraction of the company’s annual revenue, and no individuals will be held responsible. Bharara defended the deal, saying it was a challenging case for prosecutors. “I met personally with families who lost loved ones in tragic accidents involving the switch and, I’ll tell you, those were among the most searing moments I’ve ever spent in my six-plus years as United States attorney,” he said.
Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos
Seventeen Albany politicians have been indicted or convicted since Bharara took office. He used tactics usually employed against terrorists and mobsters, such as stings, wiretaps, and undercover agents, to take down various lawmakers, including State Senator Malcolm Smith, former State Senator Hiram Monserrate, and former Deputy Senate Majority Leader Tom Libous.
Of course, his two biggest "gets" were Silver and Skelos, who started off 2015 as two-thirds of the "three men in a room" who decide what gets done in Albany (Cuomo is the third). Both resigned their leadership positions following their arrests, and with his conviction on federal corruption charges — including bribery, extortion, and money laundering — Assemblyman Silver is facing 130 years in prison. Skelos and his son Adam have been accused of conspiracy, extortion, wire fraud, and bribery, and their trial should go to a jury in the next few weeks.
“These charges in our view go to the very core of what ails Albany: lack of transparency, lack of accountability, and lack of principle — joined with overabundance of greed, cronyism, and self-dealing. But we will keep at it,” Bharara said when announcing the charges against Silver in January. “As our unfinished fight against public corruption continues, you should stay tuned.” |
Building Accurate Visual Diffs Justin Tulloss Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 31, 2016 At Spotbot, we’re all about helping software teams ship faster. A great way to do this is by using visual diffs. Visual diffs show you the difference between how a page used to look and how it looks now. When they work well, they draw your eye to exactly what changed so engineers, designers, and PMs can all work together to make sure that the product is up to their standards. The thing is, they have to work well. If they don’t, they’re just another distraction. Since distractions only hurt a teams cadence, we knew that to build a helpful tool, we had to make them work well. Pixel Diffs Are Brittle Most tools that manage visual diffs for teams use pixel diffing. Unfortunately pixel diffing has a lot of issues, summed up with the example below. A “sea of red” pixel diff All that changed in that page is a banner at the top and the dates. But because the banner at the top pushed everything down 20px, it looks like everything changed. Luckily there’s a better way. Structural Diffing is Sturdy By using the structure of the page instead of the raw pixels, we can generate a much more accurate diff. Create a tree that represents the page. The tree looks like a DOM tree, but it includes information like the bounding rectangle of the node and all the calculated styles. Diff the new tree with the old tree. This is unfortunately NP-hard, but we can fake it (details below). Circle the nodes that have changed (if the user hasn’t previously indicated that they don’t care about those changes). Simple and effective. We can now point out things that moved and figure out what got inserted where when the rest of the document stayed the same.
Heavybit fixed one of their pages at lower resolutions. This would have been a “sea of red” if it was a pixel diff.
The Gory Details of Creating a Structural Diff The goal of a tree diff is to describe the minimal set of operations (add, remove, move, and modify) to transform tree A into tree B. There has been a lot of work done on diffing trees, and it’s not a trivial problem. The crux of the difficulty is that a node somewhere in tree A may be anywhere in tree B, and the only way to verify that it’s not is to check all of them (that is waaaay oversimplified, read the papers for the details).
Source: Grégory Cobéna, Serge Abiteboul, and Amélie Marian, Detecting Changes in XML Documents. |
Buried in the fine print of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed 2018 budget are higher costs for restaurant permits, bigger fines for violating city environmental regulations and stiffer penalties for building code violations.
To date, the focus has been on Emanuel’s planned $1.10 increase in monthly 911 emergency fees for phones and a 4-percentage-point boost in the amusement tax for concerts at big venues — both of which are designed to help keep the city books balanced.
There’s also been some attention to changes in regulations for taxis and Uber vehicles, which Emanuel says are designed to level the playing field between the two competing industries. And the mayor wants a 15-cent ride-share fee increase, but that’s earmarked for CTA improvements.
But as a Nov. 21 vote nears on Emanuel’s $8.6 billion spending plan, other more targeted hikes designed to pay for more specific services or increase compliance with city regulations were detailed this week, when the mayor’s office released 157 pages of changes to city code that require City Council approval to make the budget a reality.
The document shows higher fees for restaurant permits, which Emanuel spokeswoman Molly Poppe said would cover the cost of hiring 22 more food inspectors over the next two years. The fees for two-year licenses currently run from $660 to $1,100. The low end would remain the same, but only apply to the smallest of eateries, while fees would increase to $1,650 on the high end for restaurants of more than 10,000 square feet.
Emanuel is seeking to double the fines for failing to get environmental work permits to $10,000, and all work that creates construction and demolition debris would trigger fees of 50 cents per cubic yard of waste. The money generated from that would pay for hiring 10 more environmental inspectors, Poppe said.
The biggest daily fines for many types of building code violations would double to $1,000, and those for failure to obey a stop-work order would increase tenfold to a maximum of $5,000 for a third or subsequent offense. The administration hopes that will increase compliance with city codes, Poppe said.
Some taxicab fines and fees are decreasing as part of Emanuel’s effort to level the playing field, and valet parking firms would have to file monthly city tax reports instead of annual ones, another measure designed to increase compliance.
Also in the budget documents are changes to the authority of the Animal Care & Control Department’s executive director. She would have more discretion, based on the circumstances of an attack, to decide when an animal should be euthanized. But under the changes, any animal declared dangerous because it has caused the death of a person would have to be put down.
hdardick@chicagotribune
Twitter @ReporterHal
Cubs, Blackhawks push back against Emanuel's concert ticket tax hike »
Emanuel: Allow taxis to charge surge prices, require same background checks as Uber, Lyft drivers »
Emanuel budget: 15 cents more per Uber, Lyft ride; $1.10 increase in monthly phone fees » |
The Reserve Bank could increase interest rates eight times in the next two years, former board member John Edwards said.
The RBA is probably already considering a program of rate increases given its forecasts for inflation returning to target and economic growth to accelerate to 3 per cent against a stronger global backdrop, Edwards said in a column on the website of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, where he is a non-resident fellow.
Theorising that the long-term cash rate is about 3.5 per cent -- lower than the 5.2 per cent average over the past two decades -- and the RBA wants to start tightening in 2018 and reach its goal within two years, that would require four quarter-point increases each year, he said. Rates have been on hold at 1.5 per cent since last August.
"It seems to me that something like eight quarter percentage point tightenings over 2018 and 2019 are distinctly possible, if the RBA's economic forecasts prove correct," said Edwards, who was on the bank's board until July last year. |
In his Washington Post column, Fox News contributor George Will downplayed the explicitly racist, segregationist presidential campaigns of Strom Thurmond and George Wallace, referring to them as merely focused on the "burning issues" of "regional grievances relating to race" and "venting class and cultural resentments," respectfully. In the context of lauding Robert Sarvis, the Libertarian Party's candidate for governor in Virginia, Will made note of several third party candidates who ran at the national level, writing: At the national level, the most potent third-party candidates have had vivid personalities and burning issues: Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, taming corporations; Strom Thurmond in 1948, asserting regional grievances relating to race; George Wallace in 1968, venting class and cultural resentments; Ross Perot in 1992, shrinking the federal deficit. Sarvis is more bemused than burning. By describing the motivations behind Thurmond and Wallace's campaign in this manner, Will severely minimizes the racial animus at the heart of both campaigns.
Thurmond, at the time governor of South Carolina, ran for President in 1948 on an explicitly pro-segregation platform. Thurmond split from the Democratic Party after the party's convention approved a platform with a strong civil rights position, and was the candidate of the "States' Rights Democratic Party," commonly known as the Dixiecrats.
The Dixiecrat platform called for "the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race" and declared that they "oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statutes."
In one campaign speech, Thurmond told supporters that "there's not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches."
Later elected a U.S. Senator as a Democrat, Thurmond still holds the record for the longest filibuster in U.S. history, speaking for 24 hours and 18 minutes in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957. He switched to the Republican Party in 1964 to support Sen. Barry Goldwater's run for president because Goldwater opposed federal civil rights legislation.
Gov. George Wallace of Alabama is probably best known for his 1963 inaugural speech where he declared "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever." Several months later, Wallace stood in a doorway at the University of Alabama in opposition to federal efforts to integrate the school.
In 1968, Wallace ran for President on the American Independent Party ticket (he had run in 1964 on a pro-segregation platform within the Democratic primary). The American Independent Party platform expressed its explicit opposition to what it described as the "so-called Civil Rights Acts," pledging to make "our best efforts to restore to state governments those powers which rightfully belong to the respective states, and which have been illegally and unlawfully seized by the Federal Government."
In an interview for a PBS documentary, Wallace '68 staffer Tom Turnipseed explained that "race and being opposed to the civil rights movement and all it meant was the very heart and soul of the Wallace campaign. I mean, that's what it was all about." According to his 1998 Washington Post obituary, Wallace's campaign "vilified blacks."
Will has previously promoted Wallace as a candidate who gave "an aggrieved minority a voice." |
In August, the New Republic, the New York Times and others warned that the 2010 campaign would feature a new Republican bogeyman. The Times announced, "There's a class war coming to the world of government pensions," while TNR's Jonathan Cohn explained the latest GOP hatefest in "Why Public Employees are the New Welfare Queens." Of course, there's only one problem with Rush Limbaugh's claim that public sector employees are "freeloaders" and the charge from Indiana Governor and GOP White House hopeful Mitch Daniels that they are a "new privileged class in America."
Like so much else conservative mythmaking, it's simply not true.
That's the conclusion of a new study by the Economic Policy Institute. Just one of many recent analyses debunking Republican charges about government workers and their unions, EPI found that "on average, state and local government workers are compensated 3.75% less than workers in the private sector." The report by Labor and Employment Relations Professor Jeffrey Keefe of Rutgers University revealed that public employees are undercompensated compared to similarly skilled private sector counterparts:
The study analyzes workers with similar human capital. It controls for education, experience, hours of work, organizational size, gender, race, ethnicity and disability and finds that, compared to workers in the private sector, state government employees are undercompensated by 7.55% and local government employees are undercompensated by 1.84%. The study also finds that the benefits that state and local government workers receive do not offset the lower wages they are paid.
The public/private earnings differential is greatest for doctors, lawyers and professional employees, the study finds. High school-educated public workers, on the other hand, are more highly compensated than private sector employees, because the public sector sets a floor on compensation. The earnings floor has collapsed in the private sector.
Those findings echoed the results of another new study of the public worker wage penalty in New England. That joint research by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts upended tired union bashing claims from the likes of Tim Pawlenty ("they are over-benefited and overpaid compared to their private-sector counterparts"), Chris Christie ("There are two classes of people in New Jersey: public employees who receive rich benefits, and those who pay for them") and Mitt Romney ("Average government workers are now making $30,000 a year more than the average private-sector worker"):
In this study, "The Wage Penalty for State and Local Government Employees in New England," PERI's Jeffrey Thompson and John Schmitt of the Center for Economic Policy Research demonstrate that in New England the reality is the opposite. While the average state or local government worker does earn higher wages than in the private sector, this is because they are, on average, older and substantially better educated. In reality, there is a wage penalty for public workers in New England of close to 3%.
To be sure, the attack on public employees heated up this summer, when Republicans in Congress pulled out all the stops to block a new federal aid package to state and local governments. Despite studies showing that cash-strapped states could shed as many as 900,000 teachers, policemen, firefighters and other workers, the Senate Republican Policy Committee insisted: "No state bailouts should be contemplated until the wages and pensions of public sector employees are brought into line." As the United Steelworkers' Fred Redmond wrote in The Hill last month:
The National Institute for Retirement Security (NIRS) and the Council on State and Local Government Excellence (COS & LGE) released a jointly-funded study on this topic just as the Republican sound machine revved up this spring. On the facts, they found that every one of the Republican assertions is false.
Analyzing data from the U.S. Government's National Compensation Survey, their economists found that when factors such as education and work experience are taken into account, state and local employees earn less than their counterparts in the private sector. To be exact, state employees earn 11 percent less than comparable private sector workers. Employees of city and county governments earn 12 percent less than their private sector counterparts.
Pensions and health insurance coverage make up a slightly greater share of public employees' overall compensation than those benefits do for private sector employees, but when those costs are included, state and local employees still wind up with less total compensation - 6.8 and 7.4 per cent less, respectively.
There is no question that states and localities face a crisis in meeting their future pension benefit obligations. But as Dean Baker of CEPR noted, many public employees don't get Social Security, adding "most public sector pensions do not provide retirees with an especially high standard of living." That public employees find themselves in the GOP's crosshairs has less to do with their compensation than being what Sarah Palin decried as "union thugs." As TNR's Cohn pointed out, "Unions represent around 37 percent of public sector workers, compared to 7 percent of private sector workers." He then got to the heart of the matter:
"But ask yourself the same question you should have been asking then: To what extent is the problem that the retirement benefits for unionized public sector workers have become too generous? And to what extent is the problem that retirement benefits for everybody else have become too stingy?
I would suggest it's more the latter than the former."
Right now, Republicans have bigger fish to fry. At a time of record income inequality, rising poverty and massive budget deficits, the GOP is focused on its $700 billion, 10-year tax cut windfall for the wealthy. As for public servants around the nation, they are, in the words of Rush Limbaugh, "a bunch of leftist, socialists, neo-communist union people asking their brothers in government to raise taxes."
No, they're just the Republicans' latest scapegoats. Scapegoats, it turns out, whose compensation is less, not more, than their private sector colleagues.
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives.) |
Jahrelang war Jan in der militanten Antifa aktiv. Mittlerweile ist er ausgestiegen, weil viele dort das seiner Ansicht nach wichtigste Ziel aus den Augen verloren hätten: Nazis zu bekämpfen.
Es war der erste kalte Tag nach einem langen Sommer. Am 5. September 2015 machte die Nachricht die Runde, dass einer der Züge mit Flüchtlingen von Ungarn aus auch nach Dortmund kommen würde. Jan hatte im Fernsehen gesehen, wie die Flüchtlinge in München empfangen worden waren, wie Menschen mit Decken, Lebensmitteln und Kinderspielzeug sie freundlich begrüßten. In Dortmund, das war am frühen Abend klar, würde das auch so sein. Auf Facebook gab es Aufrufe zum Bahnhof zu kommen und auch Spielzeug, Getränke und Kleidung mitzubringen und den Menschen zu helfen, die nach einer lebensgefährlichen Flucht nun endlich an einem Ort ankommen würde, an dem sie Sicherheit wären. Aber eines war anders in Dortmund: Hier hatten Mitglieder der Nazi-Partei Die Rechte zu einer nächtlichen Demonstration gegen die ankommenden Flüchtlinge aufgerufen. Sie wollten sie mit Hass, nicht mit Menschlichkeit empfangen. Und schon früh am Abend hörte man von einzelnen Überfällen auf Helfer und Nazigegner in der Dortmunder Innenstadt.
Als es dunkel wurde zog sich Jan eine dicke Jacke an, gab seiner Freundin einen Kuss und machte sich von Recklinghausen aus auf den Weg nach Dortmund. Er hatte keinen Schlafsack dabei, um ihn einem Flüchtling zu geben und auch keine Süßigkeiten für die Kinder. Er hatte eine leere Flasche Bier in der Jackentasche um mit ihr zuschlagen zu können und ein Ziel: Er wollte Nazis jagen. „Das war das letzte Mal, dass ich auf Tour ging. Ich lief den Abend durch Dortmund und suchte Nazis. Wenn ich einen oder zwei gefunden hätte, hätte ich sie zusammengeschlagen. Bei Dreien wäre es mir zu gefährlich gewesen, die hätte ich ziehen lassen.“
In dieser Samstagnacht endete, was über zehn Jahre zuvor begonnen hatte. Mit sechszehn Jahren schloss sich Jan der militanten Antifa an. “Ich hatte viel über die Nazizeit von meinen Großeltern gehört und auch in der Schule war das ja ein wichtiges Thema.“ Dazu kam die Musik. „Ich hörte die Ärzte, Slime und die Toten Hosen. In vielen Stücken ging es gegen Nazis.“ Die aggressive Stimmung der Musik vermischte sich mit dem Wissen um die Verbrechen der Nazis zu Hass. „Für mich war klar, ich will was gegen Nazis machen. Und machen hieß für mich: Wenn ich einen Nazi sehe, haue ich ihn um.“
Jan suchte und fand Verbündete. Junge Männer wie er, die keine Lust auf Theorien hatten und nicht diskutieren wollten. „Ich mochte von Anfang den ganzen Lifestyle nicht, den es in der Antifa-Szene gibt. Ein schwarzer Anorak muss billig sein und dafür sorgen, dass man in der Masse eines schwarzen Blocks als Einzelner auf den Filmen und Fotos der Polizei nicht mehr zu erkennen war. Es ist ein praktisches Kleidungsstück, nichts, was man am Abend im Club oder in der Kneipe anzieht ,um sich als cooler Autonomer am Tresen zu zeigen.“
Jans Gruppe war klein. Die älteren Nazi-Gegner vor Ort wollten mit ihnen erst nichts zu tun haben. In einige der Szene-Treffpunkte ließ man sie nicht hinein. „Wir wurden nicht agitiert. Das haben wir selbst erledigt. Unser einziges Ziel war es, Nazis zu verprügeln. Bei jeder denkbaren Gelegenheit.“ Dennis Giemsch, später einer der Gründer der Nazi-Partei Die Rechte, floh vor ihnen in Witten. NPD-Kandidaten erlebten unangenehme Überraschungen, wenn sie Nachts alleine in den Städten des Ruhrgebiets unterwegs waren. Und in mehr als einer Fußgängerzone gingen Stände rechter Gruppen zu Bruch, wenn Jan und seine Freunde in der Nähe waren. Sie sahen sich nicht als eine Elite an. Die Debatten und Streitereien der anderen linken Gruppen interessierten sie nicht. Ihr Ethos war der Kampf. „Später hatten wir ja immer mehr Kontakte zu größeren autonomen Gruppen und kannten auch die verschiedenen Bündnisse wie „Ums ganze“ oder die Rote-Antifa. Mit einzelnen von denen kamen wir auch immer mal persönlich gut klar. Wir gingen ja auch zusammen auf Demonstrationen.“
Es waren Demos gegen Nazis und das Ziel von Jan war, Nazi-Demos zu verhindern. „Es gibt in dem Spektrum der Nazi-Gegner viele, die für schöne Bilder von Protesten gegen Rechts sorgen wollen. Denen reichte es, wenn sie hunderte Meter entfernt von einem Nazi-Aufmarsch Plakate mit „Bunt statt braun“ in eine Kamera halten konnten. Ich finde das bis heute albern und glaube auch nicht, dass es etwas bringt. Nazis sind menschenverachtend und gewalttätig. Und das einzige, was sie davon abhält, Flüchtlinge zu jagen oder irgendwann wieder Juden zu vergasen, ist Gewalt. Ich weiß, das klingt nicht schön, aber Gewalt ist die einzige Sprache die sie verstehen. Der Preis, den man als Nazi dafür zahlt, Nazi zu sein, muss so hoch sein, dass keiner ihn mehr zahlen will.“
Jan und seine Freunde schwenkten keine Plakate, sie wollten Nazi-Aufmärsche stören. Entweder, indem sie versuchten, Polizeisperren zu durchbrechen und die Kundgebung der Rechtsradikalen anzugreifen oder aber, in dem sie Nazis auf dem Weg zum Sammelpunkt der Demonstration oder danach auf dem Rückweg überfielen.
Sowas kann man eine Zeit lang machen, aber es bleibt nicht ohne Konsequenzen: Jan stand schon vor seiner Volljährigkeit mehrfach wegen Körperverletzung vor Gericht. Er begann, Vorstrafen zu sammeln.
Gleichzeitig störte ihn, wie sich die Szene mit den Jahren veränderte: „Es ging immer weniger darum, Nazis zu bekämpfen. Doch das war, was mich interessierte. Die Antifa-Gruppen die ich kannte, zerstritten sich.“ Der Nahost-Konflikt war der Anlass, die Frage, wie man zu Israel steht, entschied zunehmend darüber, wer als Genosse, Kampfgefährte und Freund angesehen wurde oder wer als Feind. „Ich habe keine Ahnung vom Nahen-Osten und es interessiert mich auch nicht. Das sind nicht meine Probleme. Mein Problem sind Nazis in Deutschland. Aber für das Problem interessierten sich immer weniger aus der Szene. Sie kämpften nicht mehr gegen Nazis, sondern gegen sich selbst.“
Die Gruppen, mit denen Jan zu tun hatte, spalteten sich auf. Antiimperialisten gegen Antideutsche. Anhänger eines strengen, marxistisch-leninistischen Weltbildes stellten sich auf die Seite der Palästinenser, die ebenfalls kommunistischen Antideutschen solidarisierten sich mit Israel und waren jeden Antisemitismus, auch wenn er als Kritik an Israel daherkam.
„Mir waren diese Diskussionen fremd. Und mir waren sie auch zu abgehoben. Ich habe nicht studiert. Ich habe eine Berufsausbildung gemacht und wollte etwas gegen Nazis tun und nicht das ganze Internet mit Texten vollschreiben, die sowieso keiner liest.“
Die Strafen, die ihn irgendwann einmal in den Knast gebracht hätten, die Freunde aus der Antifa, die ihm immer Fremder wurden und seine Freundin, mit der er seit einem Jahr ein gemeinsames Kind hat: Jan stieg aus, ging nicht mehr auf Nazi-Jagd und auch nicht mehr auf Demonstrationen.
Als Linker sieht er sich noch, weil links sein für ihn vor allem bedeutet, gegen Nazis zu sein. Und er kennt immer noch Freunde, die Nachts mit dem Auto durch das Ruhrgebiet fahren und Nazis jagen. Nur Jan ist nicht mehr dabei. |
High school students from around the country have called on Kiwis to stand up to racism.
Hundreds of young people took part in this year’s Race Unity Speech competition, with just a handful making it to the national finals at Te Mahurehure Marae in Auckland on Saturday.
Palmerston North Boys' High School's Te Ariki Te Puni took out first place with his speech that questioned whether New Zealanders really stood by the words of their national anthem.
“We proudly stand hand on heart and recite the words ‘God of Nations at thy feet, in the bonds of love we meet’," he said, "yet, only last year, a professional Fijian rugby player left the field in tears after being racially taunted and verbally abused by a New Zealand spectator.”
Te Ariki asked the audience if they laughed at racist jokes or stood by while Muslims were insulted.
“I will not stand here and pretend I have all the answers, but what I do know is that it all begins with speech – we all value the freedom that comes with democracy, that which gives us the ability to speak up and openly share our opinions, but what use is free speech if we don’t use it.”
Photo: Tom Mackintosh
Runner up Polaiu’amea Kirifi of Francis Douglas Memorial College in New Plymouth spoke about creating strength through unity.
“See the true strength that holds the whole fale together? That’s the ‘afa – plaited together coconut fibres, that when woven tightly can hold together something as large as a fale.
“In my lifetime I would like to see an ‘afa being woven tightly around our differences, holding us together with love, forgiveness and belief, in unity.”
The Race Unity Speech Awards were started by the New Zealand Bahá’í community in 2001, following the murder of race relations activist Hedi Moani several years earlier.
The 2016 finalists:
Te Ariki Te Puni, Palmerston North Boys' High School
Polaiu’amea Kirifi, Francis Douglas Memorial College, New Plymouth
Mira Karunanidhi, Queen Margaret, Wellington
Dikshya Parajuli, Morrinsville College, Waikato
Rytasha Sekhon, Hastings Girls' High, Hawkes Bay
Elizabeth Fa’amamafa, Lynfield College, Auckland
The winning speech:
I stand up today for racial unity, this is my choice
I chose to convey my thoughts through the power of my voice
To those who sit and silently watch the hatred in our society
I urge you now to take a stand, shake off that anxiety
Freedom of speech is our right - race unity is the cause we fight
I stand here defiant against racial adversity
and ask you to join me - support cultural diversity
The time has come for New Zealand to turn and face itself to look deep within its soul and consider - What kind of country we are and what we stand for?
But before we move forward we should take a look back….For it is our own heroes (past and present) that embody the true meaning of courage and unity: Kate Sheppard was motivated by humanitarian principles when guiding civic freedom for woman. Dame Whina Cooper marched courageously uniting people for cultural freedom and rights, and for me personally and more recently - Pa Dawson Tamatea from Palmerston North Boys High school dreamt of students standing together united in haka, and in July 2015 1500 students performed as one…a riveting haka as we sadly bid farewell to the man himself - united we found strength! Ki te kotahi te kakaho ka whati, Ki te kapuia e kore e whati - Alone we can be broken. Standing together, we are invincible.
My perception of NZ is a country of colourful culture and distinctive diversity we appreciate exotic food, mystical melodies and dramatic dance forms from around the world… and from a young age we are taught the principles of partnership, participation and protection. The Treaty of Waitangi was the beginning of an inter-ethnic journey and has since taught us a valuable lesson on the importance of communication. As youth we learn values and what it means to be a Kiwi and we swell with pride when we hear the spine tingling All Black Haka or a rendition of the national anthem echoing around the world.
We proudly stand hand on heart and recite the words: 'God of Nations at thy feet, in the bonds of love we meet', yet, only last year, a professional Fijian rugby player left the field in tears after being racially taunted and verbally abused by a NZ spectator.
Hear our voices we entreat!
Would you have the courage to intervene? In the words of Albert Einstein “the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch and don’t do anything about it” Silence is a form of consent and acceptance – while the power of our voice is a force to be reckoned with! Why are we so concerned with social acceptance, it’s not cool to oppose arrogance or disapprove of our peers. Moral courage requires that we rise above the apathy, complacency and hatred in our society – are you up for it?
God defend our FREE land.
If a friend makes a racist joke, do you laugh? A Muslim woman is insulted in the middle of town, do you pretend you didn’t hear? An overweight student is bullied at school, how do you react?
I will not stand here and pretend I have all the answers, but what I do know is that it all begins with speech – we all value the freedom that comes with democracy, that which gives us the ability to speak up and openly share our opinions, but what use is free speech if we don’t use it!
Men of every creed and race, gather here before thy face.
New Zealand migration statistics are at all time high but heads up unemployment rates are dropping, there is minimal impact on the housing market and increased spending is obviously boosting the economy, so I say Nau mai haere mai whakatau mai ra, welcome to New Zealand.
The best pathway forward is accepting that we are all equal because we are all different, we are all the same in that we will never be the same, we are all connected to earth by the same force of gravity, but most importantly - we all share this country Aotearoa – the choice is ours, do we stand up for racial unity and build a country of rich diversity or sit by silently and watch it dissipate?
Let our cause be just and right, God defend New Zealand! So the next time you proudly stand hand on heart for the National anthem, just remember:
We have no right to judge race or ethnicity
Let’s take it all back to basic simplicity
A drop in the ocean one leaf on a tree
I am you - you are me
Individuality is what we should recognize
Character, humanity not colour or size
United we will rise, divided we will fall
Together we march, alone you will crawl
If we want to move ahead we need to take a stand
Take responsibility – protect the mana of this land!
Tuturu Whakamaua Ki a tina.
Cover photo by Tom Mackintosh |
A close friend of mine was asking me about Burning Man. She’s a black woman from Brooklyn. “Nope,” she said eventually, with some frustration. “I don’t think I’ll be going to Burning Man!”
“Why not?” I asked. She should. She’s magnificent.
“It’s a white people thing!”
Whoa. I asked her to tell me more about that.
It’s not the first time I’ve heard that phrase applied to Burning Man. My very first burn I was astonished to realize that an event that draws so heavily from the diverse San Francisco Bay would produce a population so colorless. From camp to camp, end to end, it was a long block of white as far as the eye could see, with only occasional dots of diversity … rare enough to raise comment. Where were the Asians? Where were the Hispanics? Where were the black people?
Shortly after I first asked myself that question I met a black man tending bar at a camp with a slip-n-slide. I sat down, he gave me a drink, and I said “can I ask you a potentially difficult question?” He said sure. In hindsight, I’m pretty sure he was expecting me to hit on him.
“I notice there are almost no minorities here,” I told him. “You’re the first black person I’ve seen. Any idea why that is?”
The term “white people thing” came up in his answer.
Since that time I’ve met more minorities on the playa – but not nearly as many as I’d expect. There’s a reason for that: according to the 2010 Black Rock Census only 13% of event attendees consider themselves to be a person of color – noticeably lower than the national population of 28% (according to 2010 census data – although it’s not entirely comparing apples to apples).
And that doesn’t take into account the fact that Burning Man draws heavily from far more diverse areas like the San Francisco Bay (where only 49% of the population considers itself white) and New York City (45%): if Burning Man were pulling people in proportionately its level of racial diversity would be higher, not lower.
So what’s the deal?
As I’ve met more minority burners over the years, I’ve made a point of asking some of them (when I remember) about this issue, as well as the diverse friends of mine … like my friend in Brooklyn … who I think would make great burners but who say it’s not for them. Their surprisingly unanimous conclusion: Burning Man, while it may be great … “I love Burning Man, and I love Burners,” said one minority burner I’ve grown close to, “but these are some crazy ass white people, and this is their thing.”
At the risk of sounding like a Twitter tag: Why is Burning Man a white people thing
Generally speaking, I’ve been told, there are four reasons:
1) Burning Man requires a sense of security that is not common in American minority communities.
White people in America have a working assumption that they can go anywhere and be reasonably safe. Historically, that has not been a realistic assumption for minorities. For too many of them, for too many generations, it has been essential that they avoid dangerous environments and heed warning signs.
“White people expect that they’re going to be okay,” I was told. “Black people think that they need to be prepared for something extremely bad to happen. That means differences in behavior.”
For people who don’t assume everything is going to turn out fine, the idea of going out to the middle of the desert and surrounding yourself with naked people playing with fire has plenty of red flags.
Indeed, the very name “Burning Man” might say “neo-pagan festival” to white people, but not to everyone else. “Hey, I have relatives from Louisiana to whom the words ‘burning man’ says something very different. We don’t talk about it much, but they make sure we’re all aware. That’s not a good image.”
This emphasis on security as a concern is also an issue with Asian American culture, I’ve been told. “My parents came to this country and worked their whole adult lives to create a secure environment. That’s always the emphasis they gave to us too: find security,” one Asian burner told me. “I love Burning Man, but this is not the kind of environment you go to if you’re determined to find security. It’s an environment you go to when you’re not worried about it.”
2) The sexual mores of minority cultures tend to be significantly more conservative than those of Burners
Hispanic, Asian, and Black communities in America are often tied tightly to community churches, and those churches tend to be more conservative. The result, I was told, was that even among minority non-believers and liberals of faith, the sexual mores can be habitually more buttoned down.
“Are you seriously telling me your friend’s girlfriend kissed you?” I was asked in one conversation with a non-burner I consider a close friend. “On the lips? Oh no. You see … we don’t share.” This wasn’t a conversation about polyandry … just social norms. “Somebody says hello like that to my boyfriend? We’re not okay, and he’d better not be okay either.”
The nudity at Burning Man likewise comes up as an issue – not something that is condemned so much as something that people “just aren’t comfortable with.”
There’s also the disturbing legacy of what happens when minorities get sexually involved with white people (see “security” above). Historically, it has been wise for minorities to avoid any sexually charged situations involving white men and women. “It’s something we watch out for that you don’t so much,” I was told.
A black male friend of mine referred to it as “The Emmett Till effect,” after the black man who was abducted and lynched in 1955 – and whose killers were acquitted. That history’s hard to shake.
“Black men, in particular, are not going to feel comfortable in a sexually charged, public environment with flirty white women and overhyped, anarchic white guys,” he told me. “If somebody’s white girlfriend starts being affectionate with me in public, I’m immediately on my guard and watching him to see if he took offence, and checking the eyes of every white male around to see if he got pissed. They may be super liberal at Burning Man, but there are racist liberals too, they just hide it better.”
3) It would be difficult to get acceptance from one’s family and community
“I don’t really talk to my family about what happens out here,” one minority burner told me. “It’s easier that way. The reaction is always ‘that’s a white people thing.’ I’m used to doing things my family doesn’t understand or approve of. It’s harder for other people.”
“There’s really no support for going from my friends,” another said.
This eventually leads to a self-selection phenomenon: minorities don’t go to Burning Man because they don’t go to Burning Man.
“My relatives, down to my third cousins or whatever, are not part of the route that news of an event of this kind will take,” said a Hispanic friend of mine who would do really, really, really well at Burning Man if I can ever get him to come. “I’m easily the closest they would come to having access to knowledge of Burning Man, but we are mutually culturally alien enough that this transmission wouldn’t even happen in the first place, say, at family party during the course of hanging out.”
4) A different history with counter-culture movements
“To me, Burning Man is a flower-power thing,” I was told by a minority non-burner. “That comes from white history. In the 60s blacks did civil rights, whites did flower-power. So Burning Man seems like freedom to you, but nothing about Burning Man seems like freedom to us.” This is obviously an overgeneralization, but one with a lot of truth to it.
“Minority rebellion in the 60s saw itself as engaged in a project of claiming and reclaiming recognition as persons and as a People,” another minority non-burner said. “White rebellion didn’t need to do that: whites already had that recognition. They were concerned with expressing their individuality. It’s completely different.”
You can see it in the slogans. A civil rights slogan of the 60s: “I am a Man.”
The flower power slogan of the 60s: “Let your freak flag fly!”
It’s obvious how Burning Man resembles the second one; it’s not clear to me how it descends from the first.
Another issue: without the kind of social safety net many whites take for granted (see “security” above … yet again) the legacy of counter-culture sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll was far more devastating to minority communities. “You can romanticize getting wild and getting high and not having any limits, but we saw all the people like us who had this kind of lifestyle destroyed in the 70s. They died or they burned out or they were targeted by the police and the FBI.”
Are these perspectives true? I have no idea: but it’s what I’ve been told over the past few years. I don’t pretend to have any answers. I also know that these are crass generalizations that don’t necessarily speak to any individual’s experience.
But Burning Man prizes diversity in so many ways – it strikes me as worth trying to understand the ways in which that message fails to come across. I also think it’s an interesting lens through which to look at American culture as a whole. I know I’ve learned something.
Finally, I don’t pretend to speak for burners of color. I hope they’ll speak for themselves in the comments section.
Caveat is the Volunteer Coordinator for Media Mecca at Burning Man. Contact him at Caveat (at) Burningman.com |
French President Emmanuel Macron, left, welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Sunday, July 16, 2017. French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet for bilateral talks after they honored victims of a mass deportation of French Jews to Nazi camps 75 years ago. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PARIS (AP) — The Latest on the Israeli prime minister’s visit to France (all times local):
3:30 p.m.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called for new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to create two independent states.
After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Paris, Macron said that “everything should be done so that negotiations restart” with the aim of reaching a two-state solution, as the international community has long sought.
Macron also condemned an attack last week that killed two Israeli police officers at a Jerusalem shrine revered by Jews and Muslims.
Macron’s office said he is concerned about Israel’s security but also about growing Jewish settlement building, and worried that Netanyahu is backing away from commitment to a two-state solution.
The two leaders also discussed fighting extremism in Syria and elsewhere, and improving economic cooperation.
___
1:40 p.m.
French President Emmanuel Macron has denounced his country’s collaboration in the Holocaust, lashing out at those who still downplay the French role in sending tens of thousands of Jews to death.
Commemorating 75 years since a mass roundup of French Jews outside of Paris, Macron insisted that “it was indeed France that organized this.” He said “not a single German” was directly involved, but French police collaborating with the Nazis.
Macron dismissed arguments by French far-right leaders that the collaborationist Vichy regime did not represent the French state, saying that is “convenient, but it is false.”
At a ceremony Sunday attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Macron also pledged to fight continued anti-Semitism. He called for thorough investigation into the recent killing of a Parisian woman believed linked to anti-Jewish sentiment.
___
11:50 p.m.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are honoring the victims of a mass deportation of French Jews to Nazi camps 75 years ago.
French Jewish leaders are giving speeches at an emotional ceremony at the Vel d’Hiv stadium outside Paris, where French police rounded up some 13,000 people on July 16-17, 1942, before they were sent on to camps. Fewer than 100 survived.
Pro-Palestinian and other activists protested Netanyahu’s appearance, criticizing Jewish settlement policy and the blockade of Gaza.
Macron called it a “natural gesture” to invite Netanyahu but insisted in an interview Sunday in the Journal du dimanche newspaper he is “not trying to confuse the subject of the commemoration and Franco-Israeli relations.”
Macron is holding separate talks with Netanyahu later Sunday. |
Public defenders who work for Cook County, which includes Chicago, are dealing with what can only be described as nightmare levels of sexual assault and harassment, according to a lawsuit filed in Illinois federal court on Wednesday by six female lawyers.
Male inmates in courtroom lockups and Cook County Jail, one of the country’s largest, repeatedly exposed themselves and masturbated in front of lawyers, law clerks and interns, making it nearly impossible for them to do their jobs, according to the lawsuit and other public complaints and reports.
The situation was widely known, but authorities did little to stop the behavior, the plaintiffs claimed.
The women filed the suit against their boss, Public Defender Amy Campanelli, and against Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart, charging that Campanelli and Dart failed to take adequate measures to fix some of the most egregious examples of a hostile work environment.
“It is difficult to communicate with clients when other inmates are exposing their genitals, erect or flaccid, masturbating, while either staring at us or yelling at us to get us to look,” wrote Crystal Brown, one of the defenders who filed the lawsuit, in a separate complaint lodged at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last month. “This conduct is offensive, degrading and unwelcome.”
In the first 10 months of the year, 222 detainees in Cook County were charged with indecent exposure, and in more than half of those cases, the victims worked at the jail. Twenty-nine of the victims were public defenders. Many did not file complaints out of fear of retaliation, according to the lawsuit. A similar number of incidents were logged last year.
The suit comes at a moment when women across the country in a range of professions are opening up about sexual harassment and are increasingly unwilling to tolerate this behavior. Complaints from female lawyers and corrections officers have similarly been growing as more women take on jobs in formerly male-dominated fields.
The public defender’s office did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment on the lawsuit. But in a March letter to Dart, who is widely considered a progressive sheriff, Campanelli characterized the situation as a crisis.
“Our attorneys are being forced to work in an environment that is traumatizing and debilitating,” Campanelli wrote. “These attacks have also affected the safety of the workplace. Attorneys are reluctant to talk to clients for fear of being sexually or physically assaulted.”
“It’s just become pervasive. We’ve tried everything,” wrote Campanelli, who became public defender in 2015.
She asked the sheriff for more guards to be present at lockups and other pressurized times. The sheriff did bring in more guards in the spring, but Campanelli said they were pulled in August, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Our attorneys are being forced to work in an environment that is traumatizing and debilitating. Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli
Campanelli’s letter highlighted a key reason that this situation has been allowed to fester for at least two years, according the lawsuit. The public defender’s office has an interest in both protecting the victims here ― the assistant public defenders ― but also in protecting the inmates, their clients.
The sheriff’s office, which runs the jail and the lock-up rooms at the courthouse, has proposed more punitive measures to handle inmates who commit sexual assault and harassment, but the defender’s office has been hesitant to go along.
For example, after an inmate exposed himself while in lockup ahead of a courtroom appearance, the sheriff’s office wanted to prevent him from then appearing in court. However, in her letter to Dart, Campanelli said that this wasn’t a viable solution since it compromises inmate’s rights and would delay cases.
“It’s frustrating to say the least, that when we put forth creative solutions, to have them thwarted by the public defender’s office,” Cara Smith, chief policy officer for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, told HuffPost on Thursday.
“We have to put aside for a moment the fact that these individuals are their clients,” she said. “No one should have to work in an environment that’s uncomfortable or harassing. Our commitment to solving it goes back years.”
Smith said that issues with exposure and public masturbation are not unique to the Cook County system. However, the Illinois Public Defender Association and the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association recently told the Chicago Sun-Times that no other jail has a problem on a similar scale.
The Cook County Jail houses about 7,500 inmates and is notorious for being a so-called dumping ground for the mentally ill. According to a 2015 report in the The Atlantic, 1 in 3 inmates are suffering from some kind of mental illness.
Frank Polich / Reuters Cook County correctional officers enter the maximum security part of the jail in Chicago on Feb. 12, 2006.
The jailhouse behavior is particularly bad in the divisions housing inmates who are classified as requiring maximum security facilities, according to the complaint, which emphasizes that the exposure and masturbation is intended to threaten female defenders and law clerks.
One of the plaintiffs, Samantha Slonim, pressed criminal charges against a detainee who masturbated at her while in the courthouse lockup in 2016. After that, she was placed in the same lockup with him three more times, according to the complaint. At those times, he yelled that he would “beat the shit out of” her and “motherfucking kill” her, according to the complaint.
Another plaintiff, Erika Knierim, asked Dart to say something to the detainees who were repeatedly exposing themselves. According to the suit, Dart told her “that she could file a charge but nothing would happen; at the end of the day it is not going to stop; and she should just do her job.”
Smith, from the sheriff’s office, said there is absolutely no truth to this claim. She also said that the sheriff’s office had not yet received a copy of the complaint.
The female public defenders also allege that inmates have grabbed them by the legs or buttocks. And at least one male inmate reportedly ejaculated on a public defender.
Male attorneys are not subject to the harassment, but they’re in the minority. More than 60 percent of the public defenders in Cook County are women, according to the complaint.
The plaintiffs say that little has been done to stop the behavior, despite much outcry, conference calls, memos and meetings.
If an assistant public defender files a complaint, detainees are charged with misdemeanor public indecency. But that’s done little to deter the behavior, since these men are facing serious felony charges, according to the lawsuit.
The women also fear reprisals, according to the suit. One assistant defender who did file a complaint was bad-mouthed by her superiors and throughout the court system for doing so, the lawsuit says.
Brown and the other women who filed the suit with employment law firm Potter Balanos say they are seeking class action certification on behalf of at least 200 female lawyers and interns in the public defender’s office who are likely subject to this harassment. |
BREAKING: Julian Assange Will Agree To US Extradition Under One Condition
Obama Must Grant Clemency To Manning
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, will agree to be extradited to the United States if President Barack Obama grants clemency to the former US soldier Chelsea Manning, jailed for leaking documents, the whistle-blowing organization said on Thursday.
The message was sent out in a tweet sent out by WikiLeaks on Wednesday “If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ (US Department of Justice) case.”
If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case https://t.co/MZU30SlfGK — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 12, 2017
From Yahoo:
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will agree to be extradited to the United States if President Barack Obama grants clemency to the former US soldier Chelsea Manning, jailed for leaking documents, the company said on Thursday. “If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ (US Department of Justice) case,” WikiLeaks wrote on Twitter. Assange has been living in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations [Which have been proven false]. The Australian former computer hacker said he fears Stockholm will in turn extradite him to the US, where he angered Washington over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of US military and diplomatic documents leaked by former US soldier Manning. Manning is currently serving a 35-year sentence in solitary confinement for handing over the 700,000 sensitive documents from the US State Department.
Manning is reportedly on the short list of persons who will be pardoned by Obama.
NBC says that Manning is on the “shortlist” persons who should have their sentenced commuted by Obama. But will he? https://t.co/uc59fGuReM — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 11, 2017 |
A $900-million equity offering, or for that matter a $900-million corporate debt raising is not quite a ho-hum affair but it is still a fairly de rigeur occurrence in the capital markets.
On the other hand, a $900-million first mortgage bond is a very rare event, so rare in fact that a deal of that size based on a single building, has never been seen before in Canada. Now West Edmonton Mall Property Inc., a giant shopping entertainment complex that used to be a major tourist attraction in the Alberta’s capital, holds the record.
At $900-million, the financing is $100-million larger than that done on the Bow, a Calgary-based building that’s owned by H&R REIT. But that financing, also on a single building, in that case 59 storeys, was done in three tranches at two different times: $500-million in June 2012 and $300-million last June.
“It was the largest first mortgage bond ever rated by DBRS,” said Mark Newman, a DBRS vice-president, that incorporated “strong legal features, strong covenants and a high quality asset.”
“The market ate it up,” is how one participant described the WEM transaction on which RBC Capital Markets was the sole lead manager and book-runner. Scotia Capital and TD Securities were also in the syndicate.
WEM placed two bonds: $350-million of 10-year interest only securities that pay 4.309%; and $550-million of 10-year amortizing securities that pay 4.056%. The amortization term is 30 years resulting in a weighted average amortization term of 23.2 years.
Both bonds were secured by the issuer’s interest in the WEM, a 12-storey monster (4.2 million square feet) that’s home to 475 retail stores (that pay a collective $157-million in rent) and the second largest hotel in Edmonton.
Both classes of bonds were rated A by DBRS, in part because the issuer, a “bankruptcy-remote single-purpose entity,” has a so-called debt-service ratio of 1.55 times. As such, according to DBRS “recourse for the bondholders is limited to the issuer’s ownership in the project.”
The Ghermezian family owns the mall.
That A rating, which came with a stable trend, was helped by its “view of the quality and location of the project, the diversified tenant profile and favourable economic conditions in Alberta and Edmonton,” noted DBRS in a ratings report. Weighing against those positives is that most of the leases (82%) will expire before the bonds’ maturity date and that “generally current-in-place rents are modestly below market.”
The bonds issued by WEM this time round are actually the second first mortgage bonds it has issued. Earlier it placed $600-million of 10-year bonds that come due Sept. 11 2016. Those bonds came with a 5.66% coupon were unrated by DBRS. Indeed the proceeds from that current financing will be used to defease the earlier financing, meaning that the amount owing ($554.6 million) will be invested in AAA-rated government bonds. The rest of the proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.
Of late, the other large single building first mortgage bond was done for Scotia Plaza in downtown Toronto. On that deal, done in May 2012, the borrower raised $650-million at 3.45% for seven years at a cap rate of 5.2% cap rate. On WEM’s financing, DBRS used a cap rate of 8.05%. |
Science fiction is full of fanciful devices that allow light to interact forcefully with matter, from light sabers to photon-drive rockets. In recent years, science has begun to catch up; some results hint at interesting real-world interactions between light and matter at atomic scales, and researchers have produced devices such as optical tractor beams, tweezers, and vortex beams.
Now, a team at MIT and elsewhere has pushed through another boundary in the quest for such exotic contraptions, by creating in simulations the first system in which particles — ranging from roughly molecule- to bacteria-sized — can be manipulated by a beam of ordinary light rather than the expensive specialized light sources required by other systems. The findings are reported today in the journal Science Advances, by MIT postdocs Ognjen Ilic PhD ’15, Ido Kaminer, and Bo Zhen; professor of physics Marin Soljačić; and two others.
Most research that attempts to manipulate matter with light, whether by pushing away individual atoms or small particles, attracting them, or spinning them around, involves the use of sophisticated laser beams or other specialized equipment that severely limits the kinds of uses of such systems can be applied to. “Our approach is to look at whether we can get all these interesting mechanical effects, but with very simple light,” Ilic says.
The team decided to work on engineering the particles themselves, rather than the light beams, to get them to respond to ordinary light in particular ways. As their initial test, the researchers created simulated asymmetrical particles, called Janus (two-faced) particles, just a micrometer in diameter — one-hundredth the width of a human hair. These tiny spheres were composed of a silica core coated on side with a thin layer of gold.
When exposed to a beam of light, the two-sided configuration of these particles causes an interaction that shifts their axes of symmetry relative to the orientation of the beam, the researchers found. At the same time, this interaction creates forces that set the particles spinning uniformly. Multiple particles can all be affected at once by the same beam. And the rate of spin can be changed by just changing the color of the light.
The same kind of system, the researchers, say, could be applied to producing different kinds of manipulations, such as moving the positions of the particles. Ultimately, this new principle might be applied to moving particles around inside a body, using light to control their position and activity, for new medical treatments. It might also find uses in optically based nanomachinery.
About the growing number of approaches to controlling interactions between light and material objects, Kaminer says, “I think about this as a new tool in the arsenal, and a very significant one.”
Ilic says the study “enables dynamics that may not be achieved by the conventional approach of shaping the beam of light,” and could make possible a wide range of applications that are hard to foresee at this point. For example, in many potential applications, such as biological uses, nanoparticles may be moving in an incredibly complex, changing environment that would distort and scatter the beams needed for other kinds of particle manipulation. But these conditions would not matter to the simple light beams needed to activate the team’s asymmetric particles.
“Because our approach does not require shaping of the light field, a single beam of light can simultaneously actuate a large number of particles,” Ilic says. “Achieving this type of behavior would be of considerable interest to the community of scientists studying optical manipulation of nanoparticles and molecular machines.” Kaminer adds, “There’s an advantage in controlling large numbers of particles at once. It’s a unique opportunity we have here.”
Soljačić says this work fits into the area of topological physics, a burgeoning area of research that also led to last year’s Nobel Prize in physics. Most such work, though, has been focused on fairly specialized conditions that can exist in certain exotic materials called periodic media. “In contrast, our work investigates topological phenomena in particles,” he says.
And this is just the start, the team suggests. This initial set of simulations only addressed the effects with a very simple two-sided particle. “I think the most exciting thing for us,” Kaminer says, “is there’s an enormous field of opportunities here. With such a simple particle showing such complex dynamics,” he says, it’s hard to imagine what will be possible “with an enormous range of particles and shapes and structures we can explore.”
“Topology has been found to be a powerful tool in describing a select few physical systems,” says Mikael Rechtsman, an assistant professor of physics at Penn State who was not involved in this work. “Whenever a system can be described by a topological number, it is necessarily highly insensitive to imperfections that are present under realistic conditions. Soljačić's group has managed to find yet another important physical system in which this topological robustness can play a role, namely the control and manipulation of nanoparticles with light. Specifically, they have found that certain particles’ rotational states can be ‘topologically protected’ to be highly stable in the presence of a laser beam propagating through the system. This could potentially have importance for trapping and probing individual viruses and DNA, for example.”
The team also included Owen Miller at Yale University and Hrvoje Buljan at the University of Zagreb, in Croatia. The work was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office through the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, the National Science Foundation, and the European Research Council. |
A Pentecostal bishop on Sunday told a rabbi and an imam that the U.S. was a “Christian nation” that was bridging religious divisions because Christians would “let” other faiths worship and “we’re not going to persecute you.”
Speaking to a interfaith panel on CBS News, Hope Christian Church Pastor Harry R. Jackson responded to Rabbi David Wolpe, who said that the Americans should “celebrate difference” because “God is greater than any religious tradition.”
“In deference to the Christian foundation of this nation, it is that foundation that allows us freedom,” Jackson explained. “I don’t see this diversity in other places. So to the credit of our Christian foundation of this nation, this freedom we’re experiencing is because folks came and said, ‘We believe this is to be a Christian nation. We feel like we’ve been persecuted in the places we came from, and we’re going to intentionally let this nation be founded in a way that if you come here and you’re Islamic and you come here and you’re Jewish, we’re not going to persecute you.'”
“Although we don’t worship as Jewish people, we’re going to let this country be guided in a place where there’s going to be liberty and freedom or worship. I feel we’d be remiss if we act like some other set of countries has operated in this way.”
Imam Suhaib Webb, however, reminded Jackson that Christians persecuted Christians during the early days of the United States, while Jews and Muslims lived together in Harmony in Spain.
“You’re saying I’m wrong that — that foundation doesn’t bring us to this point?” Jackson asked.
“I don’t know if that was foundational or negotiated would be a better word for it,” Webb pointed out.
“Negotiated by who?” Jackson replied. “Negotiated with Christians by Christians.”
“Or by deists as well,” Webb added. “I mean, I think we need to be really careful.”
“We have strong disagreements,” Jackson grumbled.
“But we still love each other,” Webb said.
Watch this video from CBS’ Face the Nation, broadcast March 31, 2013. |
Something Special to Help Palladium
New! Megaverse® Insider Opportunities
Help us print Rifts® Lemuria and get special products in return
Everything is moving along well at Palladium Books on the creative front.
Our biggest concern has been funding. We need capital to print new releases, reprint out of stock titles, and advertise.
A number of people have been pointing to the success of something called “crowdsource funding” or “crowdfunding” popularized by websites such as Kickstarter, but the concept is being used all over the world in many different ways.
The basic idea goes something like this: You make a presentation for the project you want to fund, you provide a variety of levels of participation from a few dollars to hundreds, even thousands of dollars, each level provides a benefit or product(s), you set a realistic target goal, and you let the public know about it. If you get a couple hundred to several hundred people contributing, you can meet or exceed – sometimes vastly exceed – your goal. It’s called crowdfunding because rather than get one or a few investors, you raise much smaller amounts of money from hundreds of people who get a quick and tangible reward for their participation.
We’ve decided to try crowdsource funding right here, on our website, with you on upcoming releases starting with Rifts® Lemuria. We think we have come up with some very cool, fun and different (at least for Palladium Books) ideas for products and opportunities that are affordable, fun and exciting. I’m calling it the Megaverse® Insider Program.
You are a Megaverse® Insider by just being you and purchasing any of the items or “opportunities” being offered below.
● ALL of these items are only available during the short TWO WEEKS that we are offering them. Most will NEVER BE OFFERED AGAIN for that product. THIS IS YOUR ONLY CHANCE TO GET THEM.
● Why limited availability? Because I want to make these “opportunities” truly special, rare, valuable and AVAILABLE ONLY TO YOU, our Palladium Insiders. That includes super-limited and rare, one-time-only products for you.
● The window of opportunity is small. Miss it now and you are out of luck.
● Remember, the purpose is “crowdfunding” – to raise working capital to produce and print a particular book. That means while there are many fun, cool things to purchase, they are not at discounted prices. Ah, but most will never be offered again (none anytime soon). They are exclusive to Megaverse® Insiders. That’s what makes you an “Insider.”
● Many of the higher priced items, like the hardcover editions, should become instant collectibles worth more than what you paid for them. Why? Because if we sell 230 copies, or 115, or even as few as 35 copies, then that (plus a few dozen for staff, friends and special promotions) is all we are printing. There are no more to sell in the months to come. There are no reprints planned. This is it. And ONLY those of you who buy one or two (+ a few dozen extra for Palladium’s own use) have a copy of that super-rare, super-limited, first printing of the book.
How cool is that?! It does not get more “limited” than print to order and no more. Only Megaverse Insiders have one, making you a true “insider” and the item special. That also means the “real value” of the book is whatever someone will pay for it. Since there are so few, the resale market value should be instantly more than what you paid for it. The Palladium RPG® Crimson Hardcover and the original Rifts® Gold Hardcover sell for $300-$500 on the collectors market, and they had press runs of 500 and 600 copies. (FYI: The Rifts® Ultimate Gold Edition had a press run of 1,500 copies and it still regularly commands more than the original selling price.)
● You make a difference by giving Palladium Books a shot in the arm, and you benefit with unique items and opportunities, acknowledgment in print and knowing you helped make it possible for us to make more of the books you love! That’s the cool thing about “crowdsource funding,” it’s a win-win situation and everyone benefits from it.
Our Insider Goal for Rifts® Lemuria
We want to raise at least $12,000 to help cover the cost of printing, production, shipping and advertising. FYI: That should be very doable with the unique Megaverse® Insider items below.
Our hope is to exceed our goal amount. If we should be so fortunate, that money could cover all costs to make Rifts® Lemuria and any amount left over will go toward the development, production and promotion of other Palladium products. There are a number of out of print titles, for example, we would love to get back in your hands as soon as possible.
Daily Progress Updates: At least once or twice a day, we will countdown and let you know the current number of Insiders (people who have made a purchase), the amount to date (including sales that exceed our goal of $12,000) and the time you have left to make your purchase.
The Megaverse Insider crowdfunding is an experiment. This is all an experiment. If it does well and you want to see us do this with more upcoming titles, let us know and we’ll do it again. As an experiment, it also means there may be some bumps and glitches, so please bear with us. I hope you will find this to be something fun and worthwhile and many of you become active Megaverse® Insiders to help Palladium grow.
For more insight and background about the Megaverse® Insider program/offer, see my Murmur from the Megaverse® on the subject.
One last thing, please spread the word to your gaming friends and post about it online wherever you can think of. We are only advertising this to YOU – our Palladium fans and insider – and the offer is for a very short time: February 9-24, 2012. I’m excited. Are you excited about this?
– Kevin Siembieda, Publisher and Your Inside Man
Megaverse® Insider Opportunities for Rifts® World Book 32: Lemuria
Available only February 9-24, 2012
Project Title: “First Printing” of Rifts® World Book 32: Lemuria
Target Goal: $12,000.00 or more.
Current Insider Sales: $30,841.31 and counting.
Number of Megaverse® Insiders: 352 (that’s every purchase, large or small).
Goal Achieved: 257%. Fantastic!
Time Remaining: The Megaverse Insider offer has ended.
Project Title Description: By now, all of you know all about Rifts® Lemuria. It is near completion and should go to the printer in a week or two, and ship a few weeks after that. If you are not familiar with this title, you can find the description in the Palladium store and in Weekly Updates. So without further ado, let’s get right into it.
ORDERING
You can order items offered by the Rifts® Lemuria Megaverse Insider exactly the same way you would place an online order for a game or sourcebook from our store. Each item has its own catalog number, price and page in the store. Telephone orders call 734-721-2903 (order line only).
You can order as many different items as you’d like, and you can place multiple orders for the same item.
PLEASE NOTE these Important Details:
1. The regular softcover edition of Rifts® Lemuria is NOT one of the items available in the Rifts® Lemuria Megaverse Insider Offer, because it has been and will continue to be offered all the time at cover price. Only Megaverse® Insider items are available through this limited time offer. If you want the softcover, place your order as usual.
2. Rifts® Lemuria “Softcover” Pre-Orders: Many of you have already pre-ordered a copy of the mass market, softcover edition of Rifts® Lemuria. That is awesome and we are counting on those sales. If your purchase of an Insider Item means you intend to cancel your pre-order (and we hope you don’t), PLEASE contact us by email or telephone to let us know before February 20, 2012. Otherwise, ALL pre-orders will be processed and charged to the credit card on file as usual when the book is ready to ship in a few weeks. Thank you.
3. Credit Card Processing. As this is a fund-raiser, all purchases will be charged to your card as soon as the order is placed. HOWEVER, it may be several weeks before your purchase arrives.
4. Product Shipping. Many items, such as the limited edition hardcover editions, may not ship until a few weeks (2-4) after the regular, mass market, softcover edition ships. (It takes longer to print and “bind” hardcover books.)
Insider items purchased as a “package” – meaning they include several items for the price – will not ship until ALL items are available.
We will ship everything as quickly as possible. With this being our first time doing something like this, we are hesitant to provide a definitive time frame. Note: The regular softcover edition is not part of the Megaverse Insider offer and it will ship as soon as it arrives in the Palladium warehouse.
5. Shipping Costs: As usual, the purchaser pays shipping. Cost varies per the method you choose.
6. Items Lost in the mail is YOUR risk. Since many of the items are being made to order, there are few additional copies to replace any that might be lost in the mail or damaged. Use a reliable shipping method. Likewise, original art and other one-of-a-kind items, or few-of-a-kind-items, may be impossible to replace. Note: Palladium Books will NOT refund any order nor replace any product lost or damaged when shipped via “Media Mail” – the purchaser assumes ALL risk. Media Mail is the least expensive method of shipping but is also the least reliable, it cannot be traced, and it takes the longest time to arrive (5-15 days).
Palladium has found UPS Ground to be the most reliable method of shipping. It is automatically insured for $100, takes 2-5 days to arrive (does not include weekends) and can be traced every step of the way. For customers in the United States, it is worth the extra few dollars. Parcel Post and First Class Mail are also reasonably reliable.
Insider Opportunities for Rifts® Lemuria
Inside Help: $5
Cat. No. 12001
Inside Help gets your name listed under “Inside Help” in the Insider Acknowledgment section of the book. The Purchaser can list his or her own name or submit the name of a fellow player, Game Master, friend, child, sibling, spouse, parent, or loved one he or she would like to acknowledge. EACH name is a separate purchase and costs $5. Real names only, and it must be the first and last name, e.g. Joe Gamer. Note: You do not get a copy of the book with this purchase. The book is a separate purchase. All listings of Insider names shall remain in print for the life of the book, including reprints, for at least as long as Kevin Siembieda is the owner and publisher of Palladium Books. (Which we anticipate to be decades.) There is no shipping cost for this item.
In Memoriam: $5
Cat. No. 12002
You can list the name of a loved one who has passed away recently or long ago, but whom you’d like to acknowledge. This can be a fallen friend, Game Master, player, parent, sibling or other loved one. Their name gets listed under “In Memoriam” in the Insider Acknowledgment section of the book.
As an Insider, we trust that you will respect the sanctity of this category and not list “the living” nor “submit the name of fictitious characters” as a practical joke. It is impossible for Palladium to verify the truth of this submission, so we are trusting the sincerity and truthfulness of the purchaser. Do not list the name of characters you wish were dead. Offenders will be banned from future purchases of ANY Insider Opportunities. Note: You do not get a copy of the book with this purchase. The book is a separate purchase. There is no shipping cost for this item.
A “Real” Character Tribute: $10
Cat. No. 12003
The name says it all. You can list the name of one of YOUR favorite fictional RPG characters (not a literary character from a book, comic or film – but a fictional game character) you have played or one of your fellow gamers has played that you’d like acknowledged. Your character’s name will get listed under “A Real Character Tribute” in the Insider Acknowledgment section of the book. Note: You do not get a copy of the book with this purchase. The book is a separate purchase.
There is no shipping cost for this item.
Cyber-Insider (PDF of book only): $18.71
Cat. No. 12004
You get your name listed under “Cyber-Insider” in the Insider Acknowledgment section of the book and a PDF copy (not the print copy) 10-14 days after the physical book has shipped from the Palladium warehouse. There is no shipping cost for this item, as it will be delivered electronically.
ONLY INSIDERS have the opportunity to get the PDF of this book. It is not being made available as a PDF by any other means, nor elsewhere, anytime soon. This is the only way to get a PDF of this new release from Palladium Books, and the offer is only available for a limited period of time as part of the Megaverse Insider fund-raising offer. After that point, the PDF is no longer available. Note: This is one of the things that makes you an “Insider” – you have the opportunity to get stuff not available to the average gamer, during a limited window of time while we are raising funds.
Please, we ask that you do NOT share, distribute or post the Insider PDF anywhere, as it defeats the whole purpose of being a Megaverse® Insider and it can hurt, rather than help, Palladium. Thank you.
Remember, ONE: This PDF is only available for a limited time during this Insider fund-raising opportunity. TWO: The whole idea is to help Palladium raise money to produce, publish and promote the item being offered. Thank you, so much for your support!
Palladium Insider: $50 (Hardcover Edition)
Cat. No. 12005
You get your name listed under “Palladium Insider” in the Insider Acknowledgment section of the book and you get this limited edition hardcover of Rifts® Lemuria.
The $50 hardcover edition has the same, color cover art as the soft cover and same interior. It is likely to ship 2-4 weeks after the softcover as it takes longer to get hardcover editions printed.
Collector’s Item/Super-Limited Edition: What makes this hardcover edition truly special, is that we print only what you order (plus a few dozen extra for staff and promotion). That means if we get 218 orders, we only print 218 copies of this book (plus as many as 48 additional for Palladium staff, friends and special promotions). If the number is 135 we print 135 (plus a few dozen extra). It’s hard to get much more LIMITED and special than this. And you own one of the very few in existence, because you’re a Palladium Insider. This book is only available via this Megaverse Insider offer. When the offer ends after February 24, 2012, no new ones will be printed. Note: This book is not numbered or signed.
Emerald Insider: $75 (Emerald Collector’s Hardcover Edition)
Cat. No. 12006
You get the following:
Your name listed under “Emerald Insider” in the Insider Acknowledgment section of the book. The limited edition “Emerald” hardcover of the book.
The Emerald Collector’s Hardcover Edition has a different cover. It is black leatherette with “green” foil printing on the front cover and spine (think gold edition printed in green foil instead of gold). Otherwise, the book has the exact same interior as the softcover. It is likely to ship 2-4 weeks after the softcover as it takes longer to get hardcover editions printed.
Rare and Super-Limited Edition: First, only Insiders who pay $75 or more get this book, which should keep the number printed low. Second, we print only what you order (plus two dozen extra for staff and promotions). That means if we get 70 orders, we only print 70 copies of this book (+24 for Palladium staff, friends and special promotions). If the number is 35 we print 35 (+24 extra). It doesn’t get more LIMITED than this. And you own one of the very, very few Emerald Editions in existence because you’re a Megaverse Insider. This book is available only via this Megaverse Insider offer. When the offer ends after February 24, 2012, no new ones will be printed. Note: This book is not numbered or signed.
Emerald-Plus Insider: $90 (Emerald Edition + PDF)
Cat. No. 12007
You get the following:
Your name listed under “Emerald-Plus Insider” in the Insider Acknowledgment section of the book. The Limited Edition “Emerald” Hardcover. The PDF version of Rifts® Lemuria. The book is autographed by Kevin Siembieda and available Palladium staff (and possibly a few freelancers).
The Emerald Collector’s Hardcover Edition has a different cover. It is black leatherette with “green” foil printing on the front cover and spine (think gold edition printed in green foil instead of gold). Otherwise, the book has the exact same interior as the softcover. It is likely to ship 2-4 weeks after the softcover as it takes longer to get hardcover editions printed.
Rare and Super-Limited Edition: First, only Insiders who pay $75 or more get this book, keeping the number printed low. Second, we print only what you order (+24 extra for staff, etc.). That means if we get 70 orders, we only print 70 copies of this book (+24 for Palladium staff, friends and special promotions). If the number is 35 we print 35 (+24 extra). And you own one of the very, very few in existence because you’re a Megaverse Insider. This book is available only via this Megaverse Insider offer. When the offer ends after February 24, 2012, no new ones will be printed. Note: The Emerald Edition for the “Emerald-Plus” purchase is signed by Siembieda and others, but is not numbered.
Top Insider: $145
Cat. No. 12008
You get the following:
Your name listed under “Top Insider” in the Insider Acknowledgment section of the book. The PDF version of Rifts® Lemuria. The $50 hardcover edition with the color cover. The $75 Limited Edition “Emerald” Collector’s Hardcover. Both hardcover books autographed by Kevin Siembieda and available Palladium staff (and possibly a few freelancers). Kevin Siembieda will draw a small, dragon head sketch inside the Emerald Edition. A signed and numbered, limited edition print by artist Chuck Walton, signed by Chuck Walton and Kevin Siembieda; 8½ x 11 inch size.
The Emerald Collector’s Hardcover Edition: See description under Emerald-Plus.
Rare and Super-Limited Edition: See description under Emerald Plus. Note: The Emerald Edition and the other hardcover edition are signed by Siembieda and others, but neither are numbered.
Ultimate Insider: $250
Cat. No. 12009
You get the following:
Your name listed under “Ultimate Insider” in the Insider Acknowledgment section of the book. The PDF version of Rifts® Lemuria. The hardcover edition with the color cover. The Limited Edition “Emerald” Collector’s Hardcover. Both hardcover books are autographed by Kevin Siembieda and available Palladium staff (and possibly a few freelancers). Kevin Siembieda will draw a large dragon head sketch (black and white) on a separate sheet of 8½ x 11 inch paper. A signed and numbered, limited edition print by artist Chuck Walton, signed by Chuck Walton and Kevin Siembieda; 8½ x 11 inch size. 8. Four prints of as yet “unseen” artwork from an upcoming Palladium release signed by Publisher Kevin Siembieda. May be reproductions of finished illustrations or concept art. A brief telephone call from Kevin Siembieda to chat about whatever you would like.
Benefactor: $500 (Limited to a total of 3 Benefactors)
Cat. No. 12010
You get the following: |
WASHINGTON -- In a looming vote that already has stirred passions on California campuses, a labor union representing graduate students in the state university system will decide this week whether to formally endorse a boycott of Israel.
The University of California Student-Workers Union, a local union of the United Auto Workers covering 12,000 teaching assistants, tutors and other students, will vote Thursday on a ballot initiative in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, the pro-Palestinian campaign that calls for a boycott of Israel. The ballot text proposes supporting the boycott until Israel "has complied with international law and respected the rights of Palestinians."
In the event of an aye vote, the union will call on both the University of California system and the UAW international union to divest from companies that the pro-BDS caucus deems "complicit in Israeli occupation of Palestine and its apartheid policies." The initiative also invites graduate students to take a personal vow declining participation in research or conferences sponsored by Israeli schools that BDS backers consider similarly accountable.
As with nearly anything touching on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the union's boycott vote presents some thorny politics. For one, the measure effectively would call for a boycott of companies that employ other UAW workers, such as Lockheed Martin. The California Teamsters, which also represent workers at companies that fall under the boycott, have called the BDS measure "hostile" and said they would "find it difficult" to defend the union in solidarity in the future.
The UAW, which narrowly lost a union vote at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee that drew national attention earlier this year, doesn't appear eager to wade into such a feverish debate, though Thursday's vote may force it to. A union spokeswoman didn't respond to repeated requests for comment from HuffPost.
Last week, however, one of the international union's regional directors sent a letter to the local, reiterating the union's earlier opposition to a boycott of Israel. Organized labor in the U.S. has supported the Jewish Labor Committee in its condemnation of a boycott. Unions overseas, such as the Teachers' Union of Ireland, have proven more willing to do so. (The Chicago-based Industrial Workers of the World, a union with radical roots that remains well to the left of mainstream U.S. organized labor, endorsed BDS in 2010.)
The BDS ballot measure enjoys the majority support of the UAW local union's joint council, a body of elected officers from nine California campuses. The council agreed this summer to put the measure on the ballot for a union-wide vote.
But a group called "Informed Grads" has launched a counter campaign aimed at defeating the BDS initiative, which it says will "hurt our union, stifle academic freedom, and hinder peace." Members of the group describe the ballot measure as divisive and distracting.
"Most of the students I speak to are just astounded that our union would endorse an academic boycott," said Josh Saidoff, a graduate student in political science at UCLA. "It's in direct contradiction of freedom of expression and a free exchange of ideas."
Saidoff said the initiative came as "very much a surprise" when it was announced, and he accused the union council of being dismissive of critics' concerns.
Erik Green, financial secretary for the local and a graduate student at the University of California at Santa Cruz, said that the union has tried to "make sure all voices have a chance to express their views."
"We had pretty significant grassroots organizing in support of this. That's why it was brought up to the joint council," said Green. "We want the membership to be the one to make the decision."
The BDS movement notched a victory last year when two academic groups -- the American Studies Association and the Association for Asian American Studies -- threw their support behind the boycott. The move by the ASA, which represents college professors, sparked a heated debate and drew criticism that it was undermining academic freedom. (A larger professors' group, the American Association of University Professors, said it opposed the boycott.)
Alborz Ghandehari, a graduate student at University of California at San Diego and a member of the pro-BDS caucus in the union, said he viewed the vote as a show of support for Palestinian unions.
"We felt in our role as students and workers that we should respond to this call for solidarity from our Palestinian counterparts," he said.
But Karra Greenberg, a doctoral student in sociology at UCLA, said a vote in favor of BDS would undermine the union's own solidarity with other UAW locals in which members are employed by companies under the boycott. In her view, the union has more pressing parochial issues to address than conflict in the Middle East. She pointed to the prospect of a UC tuition increase now being debated by California lawmakers.
"Their focus is on BDS, and there are way more serious things we need our union membership focusing on," Greenberg said. "That just doesn't appear to be the case right now." |
The Daily Beast’s Lloyd Grove reports on the demoralized workforce at Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, with one episode highlighting a round of mass layoffs while Beck allegedly purchased luxury items for his own use.
From The Daily Beast:
“We’ve got to course-change, and if we don’t, we’re either going to go out of business or we’re going to be a crappy, soul-sucking business,” a frantic Beck, looking pudgy and exhausted in distressed jeans and a pumpkin-colored cardigan, warned Blaze employees during an in-house session last February at the company’s New York studios—a video of which was obtained by The Daily Beast.
“You’ve seen this company start to slide into that crappy zone. No! I’ll shut the damn thing down before we become everything we despise.”
The majority owner harangued his minions: “We are three million dollars in the hole! That means we are three million dollars from profit. That means I have to take three million dollars out of my wallet, and I have done this now for several years. I don’t have money left. I’m out… I need three million dollars [in savings] by the end of the year. If we wait, it’s gonna be massive, bloody cuts.”
Massive, bloody cuts soon followed, as the debt ballooned to at least $5 million and as much as $10 million, according to current and former Blaze employees.
On May 11, 2015—a day Beck staffers have dubbed “Black Monday”—dozens were laid off in New York and the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas. There, Beck had purchased a 72,000-square-foot studio complex and corporate headquarters in the Las Colinas neighborhood, and built his fake Oval Office.
The fired employees (one of whom, a big, bluff Irishman who supervised the lighting for the New York studios, broke down sobbing at the news) received their notice not from Beck, who had personally recruited many of them, but in antiseptic phone calls from the corporate HR department.
Beck, meanwhile, showed up at Las Colinas driving his brand new Maybach, proudly showing off the nearly-$200,000 sleek black sedan that he’d just purchased to add to his fleet of luxury vehicles, including an armored, bulletproof Mercedes limo and a similarly outfitted Chevy Suburban. |
This pokemon wasn't in the final team, but she made a great impact to us when we first got her.During the dark era of Day 1 in Twitch Plays Pokemon: Omega Ruby after our first team (and Scarface Mafia theme lore) was released, 2 Pokemon joined the team that made a influential impact. The first was a Zubat named 66666r, and was given the TPP name Satanbat. The other, was the gifted Pikachu you earn at the contest named !, and was given the nickname Exclamachu (which I suggested in the chat. Others also call her Rockachu). It was these 2 Pokemon the chat wanted which caused our team to their demise when they were all released by the PC, and withdrawn Satanbat for a new age known as the hardcore era. When Exclamachu joined, she was the second big power that can also been seen as the leader of the second team. Or the right hand woman to Satanbat's power. Their final hours of glory came to an end the moment they beat Wattson's gym. Exclamachu and the voices knowing the situation, both ganged up against Satanbat and ultimately released him to his death. The sacrifice was extreme as our first Whismur Yukki was released, and Exclamachu her self chosen to be the one locked away in the PC to assure Satanbat's death will go through, thus given the title " Grave Haunted Hero". With the 2 biggest name of the satanic era of the run gone, a new revolution began when T4 was caught and Feminun The Minun decided to take charge of the team beginning the amazingly fun loving "Bunny Mafia" Theme in lore.Exclamachu personality is being hardcore to the core. Working under Satanbat at a time, she is neither good nor bad but a intense neutral character who does what she pleases. The more she learned about Satanbat, the more she became in the neutral good boarder lines. Her hobby is to create rock and electronic/techno music with her trusty keytar "The Soul Riser". This being named after the metaphor "you can't touch the music, but the music can touch you". Watching her new friend being placed in the Hall Of Fame, she pursue her original career going on tour and rocking it out in concerts. Rumor has it she meet TPP Signing legends Rick Gastly & Zorro The Zoroark.Sprite details:Before I start going into detailed mode, the design was based off my 2 ideas of Exclamachu from:The new video I recently made start of the run for Exclamachu: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zohpy… The crossover generations concert picture: i.imgur.com/w3DnoKo.png Ok so here we go.~ For a Pikachu sprite, Exclamachu was actually very tricky and difficult to pull off. To start things off was the body being based off the Black and White games. Easily working on the head with her grin and face paint, then down to the more harder task: her body. The reason why she has face paint instead of those 2 things on her eyes is because I don't like them and find it very annoying to draw. Plus what's a rock star without good make up? The body I had to make it fixed up and more laid back to a chill pose. If you also look closely, I fixed her body up to look more on the female body type being fit and curvy. Then started with the fluff collar then on to the jacket. Once that was finished I can get on to the fun part which is the arm gestures, the Soul Riser Keytar, and her little pants and shoes. The shirt took me awhile to get right cause I had to use the official rocker Pikachu picture as reference. When all that was done, I finally edited the piece of resistance: The heart marked tail. I must say, I'm actually proud of how this came out and is actually my most favorite TPP sprite I've done so far.Enjoy~Sprite (c) Pokemon (c) Game Freak & Nintendo |
And now for Thursday's dose of sad irony.
Ryan Leaf -- the No. 2 overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft -- has two warrants out for his arrest and has been declared a fugitive from justice by the state of Texas, according to The Associated Press.
The Texas prosecutor who brokered a 10-year probationary sentence for Leaf two years ago on drug and burglary charges filed a motion to revoke Leaf's probation earlier this month. The warrants were issued Monday with the total bond now set at $126,000.
Leaf's situation is made more complicated because he has ongoing legal matters in two different states. He was arrested on March 30 and again on April 2 in Montana for breaking into homes to steal oxycodone. Leaf is jailed without bond on a 30-day hold to allow prosecutors in Montana and Texas to sort through the separate cases.
It's been a sudden descent back into the darkness for Leaf, who hit the media circuit at the Super Bowl in February peddling a book and presenting himself as a man in recovery. Fourteen years after he and Peyton Manning were considered the princes of the NFL, Leaf has shown that being a draft bust was just the beginning of his problems. |
Judge John Sutula was conducting his usual screening session with prospective jurors last week when he asked a question everyone in the jury pool must handle: "Has anyone you know ever been convicted of a crime?"
After some routine answers about relatively minor crimes, the question was put to John Backderf, better known as Derf, the cartoonist and graphic novelist who draws "The City" for a number of alternative newspapers, including Cleveland Scene.
"I had a close friend in high school who killed 17 people," he said.
Lawyers dropped their pens. The judge froze his stare. Everyone in the jury box turned their heads on Derf all at once.
"Who?" asked Sutula.
"Jeffrey Dahmer," answered Derf, who wrote and illustrated a collection of short stories, soon to be published as a graphic novel, called "My Friend Dahmer." Dahmer, a native of Bath, went on to become a notorious mass murderer. He died in prison after suffering a beating at the hands of another inmate in 1994.
Derf was dismissed from the jury list.
"I could just see the wheels turning in the prosecutor's head: Anti-government conspiracy theorist? Check. Once drew (Cuyahoga County Prosecutor) Bill Mason in diapers? Check. Gave Jeff Dahmer rides home from school? Check.
"We would like to thank and dismiss Juror Number 8."
Clean it up: A the American Pride Car Wash on Bellaire Road on Cleveland's west side has this enticement for passing motorists: "Come wash the Dimora off." It's a reference to the corruption charges against Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, who maintains his innocence while others, as they plead guilty to bribing him, splash his reputation like so many rain-filled potholes.
At the car wash known as the polls, it took 141,419 bristled voters Tuesday to scrub Bridget McCafferty – also indicted in the corruption probe and awaiting trial – off of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas bench. She said being indicted would make her a better judge. Some would argue it now has.
Lakewood's next leader: As Lakewood Mayor Ed FitzGerald moves on to become the first Cuyahoga County administrator, who will replace him in Lakewood?
The line of succession goes Law director, Finance director, Public Works director, City Council president.
And the odds-on favorite to take the helm?
Councilman Mike Summers, who holds none of those positions, but does want to become mayor.
"I want what's in the best interest of Lakewood," said Summers, who owns Summers Rubber Co. in Cleveland.
Summers said he's had discussion for more than a year with FitzGerald about his desire to take the post should the mayor win the countywide post. Council President Kevin Butler is on record not wanting to move to the executive side of City Hall and it does not appear to observers that any of the directors appointed by FitzGerald want to take the post for a year and run for re-election next November.
That means City Council will decide. And while 8 residents also applied for the post, Summers, a former school board president, is held in high regard for his smarts and business sense. And, he says, it would make the transition from FitzGerald smoother.
"We don't want to have three mayors in a year and a half," said Summers.
Voters, of course, will have the final say on that.
What parade?: The press release from the city of Akron seeking parade units and volunteers was breathless: "Parades don't march themselves! We need volunteers from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m."
Parades don't identify themselves, either, which is why a second release followed the first, this time including such key information as which parade the city was talking about and when.
The 24th annual "Welcome Santa" holiday parade, scheduled for noon Nov. 27 in downtown Akron, needs volunteers to work as parade marshals and for check in. Call the Akron department of recreation at 330-375-2835.
Laughing in heaven: The folksy local comedian who was a friend to all who laughed and made others laugh, Mike Veneman, died last week. It is a huge loss for the local comedy community. He was 54.
Known as "The Professor" for his Comedy 101 workshops on how to do stand-up and his constant mentoring, the Stow comic became ill with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, last year.
Fellow comics held a benefit for him in January at the Funny Stop Comedy Club in Cuyahoga Falls, where Veneman appeared regularly, and buoyed his spirits with visits, emails and Facebook messages. In addition to performing his own act and mentoring others, Veneman wrote jokes for "Blue Collar" comedians like Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall.
"You were a great friend to the comedy community, a hell of a stand up, and an all around good guy," reads the tribute on the home page of clevelandyucks.com, where local comics usually needle each other.
Comedian Barry Crimmins, who spent some time in Cleveland, shared this final e-mail he got from Veneman shortly before his death: "Well, lungs too weak for trach. Coming off Saturday. Loved each and every moment with you. I see The light LOL. Remember the laughter and the joke. That's my time. Mike V."
Sound of Ideas: Last week on the program, we hashed out the election and learned about how technology is changing the way educators teach our kids. Today, tune in for a discussion on the science behind event data recorders in cars, which measure things like whether you were speeding or wearing your seatbelt before a crash. Is it valuable information, or an invitation to invade your privacy? The program airs at 9 a.m. weekdays on WCPN 90.3 FM. |
Joshua Boyle condemns ‘stupidity’ of kidnappers and says he hopes to build sanctuary for family after five-year ordeal
A Canadian man who was held hostage with his family for five years has said that the Taliban-linked militants who abducted him and his wife in Afghanistan raped her and killed an infant daughter born in captivity.
Giving new details of the family’s ordeal after arriving at Toronto airport following a rescue operation mounted on Wednesday by the Pakistani military, Joshua Boyle said they had been kidnapped while trying to deliver aid to villagers in a part of a Taliban-controlled region that “no NGO, no aid worker and no government” had been able to reach.
Parents of freed US hostage furious with son-in-law for Afghanistan trip Read more
There has, however, been some confusion and questions about events following his release along with Caitlan Coleman and their three children, and Coleman’s father decried Boyle’s decision to visit Afghanistan.
“What I can say is taking your pregnant wife to a very dangerous place is to me and the kind of person I am, is unconscionable,” Jim Coleman told ABC News during an interview in which he also expressed puzzlement at reports that Boyle had refused to board a US military plane after the release.
US authorities have said Boyle was not wanted, but a CNN report quoted a senior US official as saying he had balked at boarding the plane because he feared possible detention on US soil. Reports have also focused on his previous marriage to the sister of Omar Khadr, a Canadian who spent 10 years at Guantánamo Bay after being captured at an al-Qaida compound in Afghanistan.
Boyle denied that he had refused to make the return trip aboard a US military aircraft and had chosen to fly back from Islamabad to Canada on commercial airlines via London. “Obviously, it will be of incredible importance to my family that we are able to build a secure sanctuary for our three surviving children to call a home,” Boyle told reporters after arriving at Toronto’s Pearson international airport, wearing a black sweatshirt and sporting a beard.
Reading out a statement to journalists from a small notebook, he used much of it to hit out at the family’s abductors, the Haqqani network, a group deemed a terrorist organisation by the US.
“The stupidity and the evil of the Haqqani network in the kidnapping of a pilgrim ... was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorising the murder of my infant daughter,” Boyle said, in a calm voice which cracked at the mention of the child.
“And the stupidity and evil of the subsequent rape of my wife, not as a lone action, but by one guard, but assisted by the captain of the guard and supervised by the commandant.”
He did not elaborate on what he meant by “pilgrim”, or on the murder or rape. Coleman, who was not at the news conference, was preparing to travel to Boyle’s family home in Smiths Falls, 50 miles (80km) south-west of Ottawa, with their three children, all of whom were born in captivity.
He said the Taliban, whom he referred to by their official name – the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan – had carried out an investigation last year and conceded that the crimes against his family were perpetrated by the Haqqani network.
He called on the Taliban “to provide my family with the justice we are owed”. “God willing, this litany of stupidity will be the epitaph of the Haqqani network,” said Boyle.
Boyle also revealed that one of their children – called Jonah, Noah and Grace – was in poor health and had to be force-fed by the Pakistani military after their liberation in an operation that was carried out on the back of a tipoff by US intelligence.
“In the last three days I have actually only seen one US soldier and we had to speak very briefly and very cordially about the medical attention that the Pakistani medical team was providing to the injured child,” he said.
Boyle had reportedly told his parents on Thursday that he had been in the boot of the car with his wife and children when shooting began and that he was hit by shrapnel. The last words he said he heard his captors shout were: “Kill the hostages.”
Play Video 0:59 'There are good Muslims, there are bad Muslims and then there are pagans,' says Joshua Boyle - video
Fresh footage of the family following their release emerged on Saturday after it was released at a press conference held by the Pakistani military’s media wing.
Speaking to a camera, Boyle praised the role of the Pakistani army in the family’s release, comparing the rescue operation favourably to ones in the US and Canada which he said had not been handled professionally.
“The truth was that the car was riddled with bullets the ISI [Pakistani intelligence] and the army got between the criminals and the car to make sure that the prisoners were safe and that my family was safe,” he said.
Of the kidnappers, he said: “There are good Muslims and there are bad Muslims and there are those who are not Muslim … they are pagan. The criminals who held us, they were not good Muslims. They were not even bad Muslims. They were pagan.”
The Pakistan military’s spokesperson, Major Gen Asif Ghafoor, said that the rescue operation was launched after information provided by US intelligence indicated that the family was being moved to Pakistan from Afghanistan. Three armed men and a driver who were in the vehicle fled to a nearby Afghan refugee camp, he said.
In a separate interview with the Toronto Star on Thursday, Boyle said his family looked forward to rebuilding their lives even though they were “psychologically and physically shattered by the betrayals and the criminality of what has happened over the past five years”.
“But we’re looking forward to a new lease on life, to use an overused idiom, and restarting and being able to build a sanctuary for our children and our family in north America,” he said.
“I have discovered there is little that cannot be overcome by enough Sufi patience, Irish irreverence and Canadian sanctimony.”
Their release took place nearly five years to the day after the couple lost touch with their families while traveling in a mountainous region near the Afghan capital of Kabul after embarking in 2012 on a trip that took them to Russia and the former Soviet states of central Asia.
Separately, in a statement and brief words to the Associated Press news agency, Boyle appeared to express disagreement with US foreign policy.
“God has given me and my family unparalleled resilience and determination, and to allow that to stagnate, to pursue personal pleasure or comfort while there is still deliberate and organised injustice in the world would be a betrayal of all I believe, and tantamount to sacrilege,” he wrote.
Nodding to one of two US state department officials on the flight from London he added. “Their interests are not my interests.” |
Update: The Lone Survivor PS3 and Vita port's release date has been narrowed down to July, according to a post on the EU PlayStation Blog.
Creator Jasper Byrne also details the new content further on his Superflat Games blog. It will contain "more than twenty new items, new dialogue with all NPC's, two extensive new side quests, two new locations, and a brand new 'Yellow' ending, featuring a new piece of music."
He further noted that most of the new content would only be available in the brand new New Game+ mode.
"This version really will be enhanced in every way, smoother, nicer to control, with a lot of little extras that don't change the game itself, just add to it," Byrne explained.
Original story: Last year Lone Survivor creator Jasper Byrne announced that his cult classic 2D survival horror game was being ported to PS3 and Vita and now we have a rough launch window of summer, developer/publisher Curve has announced.
Previously only available on PC, Mac and Linux, this console port of Lone Survivor will add new locations, sidequests, items and an additional ending. It will also support Cross Save functionality meaning players can toggle their save data between both Sony platforms.
"Lone Survivor's release on PlayStation consoles is a dream come true for me," said Byrne. "I've been a big fan of Sony's hardware all my life. I really hope PS3 and Vita owners enjoy the game and its new content."
EG contributor Lewis Denby called Lone Survivor an "intricate and unique game that takes the best of old-style survival horror and warps it into something all of its own" in his 8/10 review.
Lone Survivor is another in a long line of indie games flocking to Sony platforms. Previously we saw Retro City Rampage sell like gangbusters on the Vita, while Ed McMillen's The Binding of Isaac demake and abstract, narrative-heavy platformer Thomas Was Alone are also making the leap to Vita and PS3. |
3D PRINTED CHRISTMAS COOKIES from Ralf Holleis on Vimeo.
With 3D printing the possibilities seem endless. We’ve already seen 3D-guns, 3D-dildos, and a slew of 3D-printed statuettes. But today, because everyone is getting into the holiday spirit, we bring you 3D-holiday-cookies.
That’s right, those delicious sugar cookies don’t need to be rolled out into bland shapes like snowmen and reindeer. Who wants to mess around with all that flouring and rolling out and cutting? Ralf Holleis’ 3D printer will take the dough in its material dispenser and create intricate cookie-patterns to be baked up into beautiful wreath and star shapes. You could probably program it to make a cookie that looks like your Great Aunt Edna or your house.
Unfortunately, the 3D printer doesn’t then turn into an oven, but you’ll still likely be the hit of your local cookie swap.
It otherwise shows that 3D printing is jumping into a bunch of new industries, creating some really cool products. Take the gaming industry, for example. A 3D printer recently created the “X-Cube” — probably the world’s hardest Rubik’s cube.
Check out the video and prepare to get hungry.
hat tip Gizmodo |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Jim Murphy says he will stand down as leader in June
Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy is to resign next month, he has announced.
It comes despite Mr Murphy narrowly surviving a vote of no confidence at a meeting of the party's national executive in Glasgow.
Mr Murphy said he would tender his resignation alongside a plan to reform the party.
He lost his seat in last week's general election as the SNP won 56 of the 59 Scottish seats, leaving Labour with a single MP in Scotland.
Mr Murphy said he wanted to have a successor as leader in place by the summer, and confirmed he would not be standing for a seat at the Scottish Parliament in next year's election.
Instead, he said it was time to "do something else" and that he believed the party would continue to be divided if he remained as leader.
His deputy, Kezia Dugdale MSP, will become acting leader until a permanent successor is found.
'Divide the party'
Mr Murphy had faced calls to resign from several MSPs, trade unions and former MPs in the wake of his party's near wipeout at the general election.
He insisted he had decided to stand down ahead of the national executive voting by 17-14 in favour of him staying in the job.
Speaking at a media conference after the national executive meeting, he said: "It is clear that a small minority who didn't accept my election as leader of the Scottish Labour Party just five months ago won't accept the vote of the executive today and that will continue to divide the party.
"Today I received more support in the executive vote than I did from members of the executive when I stood for election five months ago."
He said it would be up to the executive whether to accept the reforms he would be proposing before he left the post.
But he warned: "A party in such urgent need of reform blocks those changes at its peril."
Image copyright PA Image caption Mr Murphy was met by protestors as he arrived for the Scottish Labour national executive meeting in Glasgow
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Murphy lost his East Renfrewshire seat to the SNP's Kirsten Oswald in the general election
The former East Renfrewshire MP said Labour had been crushed between "two nationalisms" in Scotland and England.
Mr Murphy said he left no legacy of bitterness for anyone in the Labour Party, and the only person he was angry at was the person who blamed Scottish Labour for the party's UK-wide general election defeat - a reference to Unite leader Len McCluskey.
And he said that in many ways Scottish Labour was the "least modernised part of the Labour movement" and that he wanted his successor to be elected under a one member, one vote system.
Mr Murphy added: "The Labour Party's problem is not the link with trade unions, or even the relationship with Unite members - far from it. It is the destructive behaviour of one high profile trade unionist.
"The leader of the Scottish Labour Party doesn't serve at the grace of Len McCluskey, and the next leader of the UK Labour Party should not be picked by Len McCluskey."
Mr McCluskey has been a vocal critic of Mr Murphy's leadership and opposed his appointment in December when Mr Murphy won the contest to replace Johann Lamont.
Analysis by Andrew Kerr, BBC Scotland political correspondent
Jim Murphy laughed and joked with Scottish Labour's sole MP as he made his way down the hotel corridor to announce his resignation.
He certainly brought energy and dynamism to his election campaign - but all that achieved was Ian Murray in Edinburgh South.
So as Mr Murphy bows out, who could replace him?
The deputy leader Kezia Dugdale may want to step up or Neil Findlay could try again after challenging last time. Maybe the party's finance spokeswoman Jackie Baillie thinks her steady hand could steer the ship.
Jenny Marra is also often talked about as future face of the party.
Whoever steps into Jim Murphy's red shoes he or she will have to face a difficult 2016 Holyrood election, to put it mildly.
There are also more fundamental questions about how the party can possibly move on as it faces a surging SNP.
Mr Murphy was very much a creature of "New Labour" - but to today's generation that's old Labour.
Party members may start looking for someone with no links to the past, neither a Brownite nor a Blairite. A 'cleanskin' - as the politicos put it - may well help re-connect with voters.
That's a long way from now though - even some of the party's opponents may view this latest train wreck with a modicum of sympathy.
Ms Lamont had resigned after claiming Scottish Labour was treated like a "branch office" by the London-based party leadership.
Mr Murphy concluded his speech by saying: "Scotland needs a strong Labour party; Scotland needs a united Labour party. We have been the greatest force for change in our nation's remarkable history.
"The Scottish Labour party will rise again. It will be under someone else's leadership and I am confident about my party's future."
Harriet Harman MP, acting leader of the UK Labour Party, said it would be for Scottish Labour to choose a new leader.
She added: "As a cabinet minister and leader of his party in Scotland, Jim has been a hugely important figure in the Labour Party. He leaves with the best wishes and thanks of our movement."
Labour peer Lord McConnell, a former Scottish first minister, said the party's problems were "much deeper than one individual and one affiliate".
'Fresh approach'
He said: "We have a disconnect locally and nationally with wider Scottish society.
"We have a problem with our political positioning in the post devolution age where the party particularly at the UK level has never been comfortable with success in the Scottish parliament and has always tried to see things through a UK prism rather than a Scottish prism.
"We need to find a new generation, a new leader, new generation, new ideas, a fresh approach."
In a tweet, Scottish first minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said: "I wish Jim Murphy all the very best for the future. Leadership is not easy and he deserves credit for standing up for what he believes in."
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson also reacted on Twitter, saying: "Jim Murphy announces a managed exit in order to help the party, which is to his credit. But leaves a tough gig for whoever comes next."
The meeting of Scottish Labour's executive was disrupted by protesters who entered the party's headquarters.
Police were called and the protesters, who included persistent anti-austerity activists Sean Clerkin and Piers Doughty-Brown, left the building to protest further from the street outside.
The protesters were calling for Mr Murphy to remain as leader to "finish the job of destroying Scottish Labour".
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said officers had been called and found two protestors on the third floor of the building.
She added: "Both left on police arrival. Advice and assistance was given." |
The Union Leader is reporting that in the name of the children, Keene police and prosecutors plan to make arrests in Keene’s Central Square, a piece of “public” property. Will tomorrow’s Pumpkin Fest event be a tragedy of the commons? “Public” property is allegedly owned by everyone, which also means it’s owned by no one. While ideally all property should be owned, as long as the concept of “public” property exists, any peaceful individuals should be allowed there. Because of the children though, Keene’s armed gang has decided that smokers of cannabis will be kidnapped while smokers of tobacco will be left alone. Sure, this is completely arbitrary, but that’s how they roll.
What will happen tomorrow afternoon at 4:20pm is anyone’s guess. Remember, no one is in charge. Will the tokers stay away that one day? Will they show up and be arrested? (If they are arrested, will they take jail time and cost the gang, or will they pay the gang?) Are the cops bluffing? If both sides show up, how many will there be?
“What about the children?”
Why not tell your kids the truth about cannabis? You do know the truth, right?
Child: “What are those people doing over there?” (Points to people standing in a circle, passing a joint.)
Parent: “Well, those are cannabis users. They are altering their state of conciousness. It’s a time-honored tradition and a very social occasion. Many people look down on them for it, but that’s because they’ve been lied to about what cannabis is.”
Child: “What is it?”
Parent: “It’s a plant with special properties. For some people it helps them cope with illness, for others it makes them feel different than they normally do.”
Child: “You said before that smoking is bad”
Parent: “It’s true that smoking is a poor way to deliver a chemical, but there are better, healthier ways to consume cannabis.”
Child: “What are those policemen doing to them?” (Points in alarm at police handcuffing the peaceful smokers.)
Parent: “They are arresting them because they’ve been lied to about cannabis. They think it’s okay to kidnap people who use or sell it.”
Child: “Is it OK?”
Parent: “No way – it’s never appropriate to kidnap someone who hasn’t hurt anyone. Many cannabis users are upstanding members of society, but they are frightened of being hurt and put in a cage. So they hide their use of it. Can you imagine what it would be like if your mom/dad and I were taken away and couldn’t take care of you guys?”
Child: “That would be awful!”
Parent: “You’re right. They call it the “Drug War”, but it’s really a war against our family and friends.”
Here’s the Union Leader article about the crackdown, thanks to Melanie Plenda:
Thousands of lighted, frightful-looking jack-o-lanterns will be crowding Central Square and Main Street tomorrow. Police are worried about something else that may be lit up. For more than a month, dozens of people have gathered daily at Central Square to light marijuana joints and pipes at 4:20 p.m. to protest drug laws. They do so at the spot where organizers of the Keene Pumpkin Festival locate their signature tower of pumpkins, which casts a goblin-like glow over the entire festival. Up until now, police have held off on making any drug arrests during the smoke-ins. But an estimated 40,000 people, many of them children, are expected for tomorrow’s event, which earns the quiet Monadnock Regional city its 15 minutes of nationwide fame. So what will happen if the smell of a pot party wafts over tables of pumpkin treats and hot apple cider? Lt. Steve Russo said police have discussed how they will respond, but he would not divulge details. “We wouldn’t want (plans) in print,” he said. “But we’ve considered the issue; it’s been discussed with staff and prosecutors.” Russo said police talked with prosecutors in the event there are arrests. “If there are arrests, then you want to make sure that everyone is on the same page for the initial arrest, post arrest and for the investigation and eventual prosecution,” he said. County Attorney Peter Heed said his office has been talking with police. “They obviously are aware of the potential of whatever could happen,” Heed said. “Anytime you have a lot of people in one place and then the potential for pot protester or other protesters there are lots of things that could happen . . . Anytime you have a big crowd you look at all the eventualities.” Heed said that in past years there have been problems with parties and drinking, which the police have been able to handle. Suzanne Woodward, director of Center Stage, the nonprofit putting on the Pumpkin Festival, said she’s not worried about protesters affecting the festival. “If they try to protest in the square they won’t be able to because it will be filled up with pumpkins,” Woodward said. “I mean, they may try to integrate into the crowd, and there’s nothing we can do about that. But it will be completely filled.” Rich Paul, one of the regular 4:20 protesters who apparently started the rallies, did not immediately return a call for comment. Russo said police aren’t sure if protesters will even show up. “I would just hope that they would realize that this is a family event, there will be people with their kids out there,” Russo said. “I would just hope they would show some respect to that. Whatever their beliefs are, they need to respect the fact that there are people out there who have other beliefs. And like a lot of small towns, people are getting unhappy with what (the protesters) have been doing.” |
Midway through the school year, parents and teachers are starting to plan (and fundraise) for winter and spring field trips. Among the most popular destinations is the science museum.
The Association of Science-Technology Centers estimates that 12.1 million children in the United States visited science museums as part of a school group in 2013, accounting for approximately 22 percent of K–12 schoolchildren. Most everyone is happy to go, despite the nearly hundred year political fight over what science to teach in schools. ASTC reports that Americans trust science museums more than any other source to provide honest and accurate information.
Museums are both providers of scientific information and a public service. For a museum to attract visitors, they must enjoy their visit and leave happy. Sometimes when exhibits contradict patrons’ strong beliefs, confrontations arise that leave some people unhappy.
Last June, an article in the Dallas Morning News by Anna Kuchment (who writes the Scientific American blog Budding Scientist) about climate change exhibits in museums around the country revealed how hard it can be to maintain scientific integrity when the biases of donors are known. The temptation for organizational self-censorship in the face of millions of dollars is strong.
But donors are not the only reason for self-censorship. The temptation also arises from the very people who place so much faith in museums: the visitors.
Face-to-face
About 12 years ago at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, I was in charge of high school volunteers for the biggest special exhibit of the year, SuperCroc. This enormous, remarkably complete crocodilian fossil was a recent find, and was on display with another new dinosaur from the same habitat. The volunteers’ job was to engage visitors with exciting facts about the creatures and answer questions. Those I directed were part of Project Exploration, a club devoted to inspiring low-income students from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue higher education and science.
They proved to be fun and friendly teachers, eagerly offering a 110 million-year-old SuperCroc tooth to kids to hold, describing a crocodile-like animal the size of three city buses attacking dinosaurs on the banks of enormous rivers. As an idealistic college freshman, I assumed everyone would be charmed by their enthusiasm and expertise.
Then one day I heard yelling coming from across the exhibit. Weaving between clumps of people towards the noise, I sincerely hoped no student (or fossil) had been damaged. Coming around the two story tall skeleton of Suchomimus, I saw a middle-aged man with a preschooler in a stroller, who was yelling at a 14-year-old volunteer in my group. The student, who didn’t even come up to the man’s shoulder, was one of the most poised and mature of the volunteers and I didn’t believe he could have said something rude. The man saw me coming, shoved the umbrella stroller so hard his child nearly tumbled out, and stomped away. The student was so embarrassed he wouldn’t tell me what had happened until the end of the shift. The man had become angry when he had offered the child the “110-million-year-old tooth.”
No sooner had he walking away fuming than I heard a high, shrill voice speaking angrily around the corner. This time I caught what the woman was saying—nearly shouting—at a cowering sophomore volunteer. She was angry that the student had described the SuperCroc fossils as millions of years old and mentioned evolution to her daughter.
I had never met anyone who sincerely disbelieved in evolution or the scientifically determined age of the Earth. I had no idea what to say, but it was my job to diffuse the situation. After I said simply that we were presenting the best scientific evidence available, the woman huffed and stormed off with her daughter.
I called a huddle and told all my volunteers that if anyone else got angry with them to send them to me, their supervisor. I was terrified of the effect the belligerent patrons would have on their self-confidence as potential scientists.
After our shift was over, I spoke with a few full-time museum employees about the incidents. It turned out there was a tour bus from a community that believes the Earth is only 6,000 years old. The staff told me this occasionally leads to heated interactions in exhibits that contradict the community’s beliefs.
During the three months I worked there, I was astonished to meet, on a weekly basis, patrons who disbelieved the science at our exhibit. The fact that the vast majority of them were perfectly pleasant did not assuage the anxiety raised by the confrontational few.
Arguments are Futile
I recently swapped museum stories with Dr. Matthew Francis, a physicist who was director of his college’s planetarium for a few years. He told me that students in his area were sometimes taught a “creationist checklist” to use at school and museums: “These are questions they were taught to ask in various Sunday school or religious curricula, including ‘Isn't all this just a theory?’ and ‘Doesn't the Big Bang contradict the second law of thermodynamics?’”
Questions based on such enormous misconceptions are immensely frustrating. It is tempting to launch into a technical explanation of the word “theory” in scientific usage, and so on. Responses like this, however, tend to come across as attacks. Research on “motivated reasoning” suggests recounting facts often makes listeners adhere more strongly to their preconceived ideas.
With my student volunteers at the museum, we were able to turn the confrontations into teaching moments by coming up with carefully scripted responses. Usually these involved a brief statement of the scientific reasoning combined with directions to another section of the museum: “Well, this fossil was found in a layer full of organisms dated to 110 million years ago, you can read more about it over there.”
These responses were fairly effective because they were impersonal and aimed to end the conversation if it was getting uncomfortable. When respectful responses don’t work, people are unhappy. Unhappy visitors seem like a failure, especially for volunteers. It is easy to want to avoid any possibility of conflict so that everyone has fun—in other words, it’s tempting to self-censor—but there are better ways to deal with the biases of museum visitors.
Practice is Power
In November, YouTube provided an example of the attitudes and opinions that can flame into confrontation when a fundamentalist Christian filmed herself walking through the Field Museum’s Evolving Planet exhibit and “auditing” it for bias:
The woman who made the video kept her remarks between herself and the camera, but during my time at the museum I saw student volunteers confronted with at least as much vitriol. She makes it clear that no argument is going to win her over. Museum employees need training so they can respond effectively to such highly charged encounters.
According to the ASTC there are no industry-wide guidelines on training for confrontations, although the topic comes up at conferences. Given the dual role of museums to both inform and serve the public, it is important to consider how not to alienate the visitor. If museums are to keep their reputation for scientific integrity, volunteer and employee training is essential to develop the skills that prevent self-censorship. Staff must be master diplomats for science, insisting on the investigative process while respecting those who won’t be convinced. |
Ravel Morrison has been included in the Hammers 22-man squad for the e July tour of New Zealand.
And interestingly Modibo Maiga is also included but it apparently there is no place for Alou Diarra on the exciting pre-season trip.
The squad has been published by a Kiwi newspaper and appears to confirm co-chairman David Gold’s often mentioned view t hat Morrison will enjoy a full pre-season with the Hammers.
Things can change – and ClaretandHugh is aware of a meeting between the board and Ravel ahead of the tour – but that the midfielder has been named will be seen as a big positive for those who hope he has a future at the club.
We understand the party to be as follows:
Andy Carroll, Leo Chambers, Carlton Cole, James Collins, Guy Demel, Mohamed Diame, Stewart Downing, Jussi Jaaskelainen, Matthew Jarvis, Modibo Maiga, Ravel Morrison, Mark Noble, Kevin Nolan, Joey O’Brien, Winston Reid, Adrian, Raphael Spiegel, James Tomkins, Ricardo Vaz Te, Mauro Zarate, Danny Whitehead.
We understand the squad was named ahead of Cheikhou Kouyaté signing for the club and the midfielder/defender is likely to be added to the squad. |
Complicating the picture is the fact that just because a meeting was scheduled and Shulman was cleared to attend it does not mean that he actually went. Routine events like the biweekly health-care deputies meeting would have had a standing list of people cleared to attend, people whose White House appointments would have been logged and forwarded to the check-in gate. But there is no time of arrival information in the records to confirm that Shulman actually signed in and went to these standing meetings.
Indeed, of the 157 events Shulman was cleared to attend, White House records only provide time of arrival information -- confirming that he actually went to them -- for 11 events over the 2009-2012 period, and time of departure information for only six appointments. According to the White House records, Shulman signed in twice in 2009, five times in 2010, twice in 2011, and twice in 2012. That does not mean that he did not go to other meetings, only that the White House records do not show he went to the 157 meetings he was granted Secret Service clearance to attend.
Also, at least one event Shulman says he attended is not part of the visitor's access records. From a Ways and Means Committee IRS hearing, as reported by the Daily Caller:
"What would be some of the reasons you might be at the White House?" Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly asked Shulman during a congressional hearing last week. "Um, the Easter Egg Roll with my kids," Shulman replied. "Questions about the administrability of tax policy they were thinking of; our budget; us helping the Department of Education streamline application processes for financial aid."
But there is no record that Shulman attended a White House Easter Egg Roll under Obama, most likely because large events organized by the East Wing, like that one, don't always show up in the visitor's access records. Neither do visits by staffers, journalists covering large events, or people who enter the White House grounds in their pre-cleared cars, like Cabinet members, who do not wait for badge swipes at the gate with the policymaking hoi polloi.
The Daily Caller breathlessly reported: "An analysis by The Daily Caller of the White House's public 'visitor access records' showed that every current and former member of President Obama's Cabinet would have had to rack up at least 60 more public visits to the president's home to catch up with 'Douglas Shulman'" before conceding by the end of the article, "it is probable that the vast majority of visits by major Cabinet members do not end up in the public record." Indeed.
The real problem with combing through the White House visitor logs is that they were a system designed for Secret Service clearance and White House security, not as comprehensive means of documenting every visitor to the White House, high to low. They miss the top end and some of the social end of people visiting the White House -- people who are cleared through separate processes designed to protect presidential security other than getting swiped in at the front gate for an appointment. |
What remedies are available for copyright infringement?
In a copyright infringement case, you may get actual damages (the amount of money from lost business), the amount the infringer gained (what he or she made from your work), or the statutory amounts and attorneys fees if you registered the copyright within 90 days of publication.
Actual Damages in Copyright Infringement Cases
If the infringement has caused substantial damage to you as the copyright holder, then you are entitled to collect your actual damages. Examples of damages that can be caused by someone infringing on your copyright could include loss in sales, loss of business contracts, and additional harm such as emotional distress due to discovering your copyright has been infringed upon. In order to show actual damages, you have the burden of presenting evidence of exact figures. For instance, if you had a loss of sales beginning on the day the copyright infringement happened, you must present the actual percentage and monetary drop amounts to the judge.
Unjust Enrichment in Copyright Infringement Cases
One of the original goals of the court system was to prevent others from gaining wealth at the expense of another. This is modernly known as unjust enrichment. In the case of copyright infringement, this could mean the amount of money made from posting your copyrighted work on their website, the amount in sales from them selling your book as their own, or even the amount made through business contracts that the infringer gained claiming your work as their own.
Statutory Damages in Copyright Infringement Cases
If you filed your copyright with the United States Copyright Office within 90 days of it being published, then you can simply seek the statutory damages for the infringement. The current statutory damages include between $750 up to $30,000 per infringed upon work without proof of intent. If you can prove intent, then you can get up to $150,000 per infringed upon work. If the defendant can prove they acted unknowingly when he or she violated copyright laws, then the damages are reduced to $200. Attorney’s fees in copyright infringement cases may be awarded upon request. |
In life, we are all faced with many obstacles that may get in the way of our hopes and dreams. For some, those obstacles can be very minimal and easily overcome. Then there are some that face the daunting task of making life choices that can either be a game changer or a devastating blow to their respective career.
Bojan Velickovic finds himself in the latter situation.
Born and raised in Serbia, the mixed martial artist made the decision to leave his family and his home country in pursuit of his dream to become one of the top fighters in the world. MMA is not as established in Serbia as it is in the United States, so the move made sense from a career perspective. Home to some of the world’s best fighters, coaches and gyms, the United States offers so much for a growing fighter, and the move is almost necessary for some young men to reach that elusive goal.
Some fighters are hesitant to make the move, and understandably so. Just put yourself in their shoes. You leave the place you have known all your life. You leave behind your family and life-long friends who have been there with you every step of the way. Add in the fact that you are coming over essentially to get beat up by some of the top fighters in the world on a daily basis and the idea becomes even more absurd.
However, Velickovic felt it was the right decision for him and his future. He jumped at the opportunity.
“So far, it’s been amazing,” the 26-year-old told Combat Press. “The only reason why I moved to the States was to get better in MMA, and I think I’ve made that progress so far. If you take a look at my last couple of fights, I think I am making a huge progress. I am very happy that I am here and I have the opportunity to work with so many good coaches and such a good team.”
Though things have gone well thus far for the Serbian fighter, there are still things he misses about his native land.
“I miss my family, first of all, then friends and always the food,” he said. “I miss the feeling of when you are around family and friends with a little bit of music and having a good time. The culture, I also miss, because Europe is completely different than the States. In Europe, we have a lot of historical places, and the United States don’t really have that part, but it has a lot of other things that attract people from around the world to achieve their dream.”
Another not-so-publicized aspect to the level of training and knowledge in the United States compared to other parts of the world is the nutrition side of things. Weight cutting has been a staple in the wrestling culture, and the United States wrestling roots grow deep. Velickovic, who has struggled to make 170 pounds in the past, has benefited greatly from that practice.
“Now, it’s a piece of cake,” he said. “The first weight cut was real hard because I didn’t know if I was going to make it, because some people were questioning me. They said I had this and that and I had a lot of muscle and I need to lose a lot, and that created pressure on me. But I think I handled that pressure well.
“My first weight cut was for a fight in Europe against a Russian guy for the title, and I won that fight in the second round via choke — and, at that point in the fight, I felt really great. My cardio was better and I was moving faster, punching faster. My reaction was a lot better than before and I loved it. From that point, I knew 170 was going to be my weight class.”
When the UFC announced the new season of The Ultimate Fighter would pit super camps American Top Team and the Blackzilians against each other, many people thought it would be a no-brainer that a talent like Velickovic would make it on to the show. When the names of the cast members were released, though, his name was not on the list. It came as a shock to many fans and other fighters.
“I’m not really the person that can give you that kind of answer,” he said when asked about the show. “I was training for that show. It was 15 of us, and just eight guys get into the house — and I wasn’t one of those guys. I was a little bit surprised because some coaches told me that I needed to stop working because they wanted me to be 100 percent in the gym because they want me on the team. Then, the coaches said it wasn’t their decision — that the UFC was choosing the team — and then the UFC people told me they had nothing to do with it and it was all the coaches’ decision.
“I really don’t care, because I am really happy how things worked out for me. I tried out for the show in 2013 and I didn’t make it to the show. I was training for this particular show and I didn’t make it to the show, and there is obviously a reason.”
Though things haven’t panned out the way he would have liked, Velickovic is still certain he will be where he set out to be when he left his home. Of course, that final destination is the UFC. He will just have to take the longer route to get there, but given how much he’s already sacrificed to get to this point, that is nothing he can’t handle.
“I know that I am going to make it to the UFC. I think The Ultimate Fighter show is a shortcut for some fighters. I don’t think I need any shortcuts. I’m going to grind my way there and earning it through my fights and that’s it. I know my potential and I just needed this kind of environment of a team that supports me and believes in me, and I have that right now. I’m super happy to be with these people and these coaches that I have right now. I found great people in ATT and in Denver, and I am looking forward to putting on a great performance this Friday night. It’s only a matter of time till my full potential comes out and you will see.” |
File photo: Jared Kushner, senior advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, arrives with Trump for a meeting at the White House in Washington on February 23, 2017.
Amid breaking reports of an investigation into Jared Kushner’s contacts with Russians during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, Alan Dershowitz, a legal expert and Harvard Law professor, said the allegations against Kushner are “simply not crimes.”
skip - Alan Dershowitz says that coordinated efforts with Russians are “simply not crimes” in MSNBC interview on May 26, 2017.
“I have no idea what crime is being investigated here,” Dershowitz told MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle over the weekend, “it is not a crime for a political campaign to coordinate with a foreign government.”
“Perhaps it should be,” he added. “It’s a terrible thing to do, but it’s not a crime.”
Dershowitz criticized the investigators looking into the Kushner-Russia ties, saying “I think this investigation is determined to find something criminal on the part of the Trump campaign, but we have no idea what it is!”
Dershowitz is best known for his work on the defense team of O.J. Simpson during the trials in 1995. In 2003 he wrote the New York Times bestseller "The Case for Israel." |
IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is an online chat protocol that has existed since 1988. IRC is a network of large chat rooms. Each room lets members of a community talk with each other from all corners of the world. Those new to IRC may have used a web chat interface. Many users have an IRC client to connect to their favorite IRC networks and channels. After a while, you may notice some groups of users seem to always be in the channel, each time you connect. Are they really sitting in front of their computers with their IRC clients all day?
The simple answer to that is usually no. Many avid IRC users use an IRC bouncer, a proxy service that remains persistently connected to your preferred IRC networks and channels. Instead of connecting directly to an IRC network such as irc.example.com, you connect to a machine like bouncer.mysite.com which runs the bouncer software. The bouncer, in turn, is connected to the IRC network. When you log into your bouncer, it shows messages in your channels you may have missed while offline, as well as private messages from other users.
What is ZNC?
ZNC is a bouncer application that provides this awesome set of features. ZNC is readily available in the Fedora software repositories for you to install wherever you like. Fortunately, using ZNC is quick and easy. In little time, you too can have your own ZNC bouncer up and running. You’ll never have to leave an IRC channel again!
Installing and Using ZNC
Installation
Before getting started, make sure your server is publicly accessible on the Internet, and that the port you’ll use for your bouncer is open. Usually, this is port 6667 for unencrypted or 6697 for encrypted SSL traffic. If you’re unsure how to configure your firewall, run the following commands to open the desired port on your server:
$ sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=<port number>/tcp $ sudo firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent
Afterwards, run the following command to install ZNC:
$ sudo dnf install znc
Initial configuration at the command line
Once installation finishes, you’re ready to jump into configuration. To do so, run the configuration generator as the znc user. Use the following command:
$ sudo -u znc znc --makeconf
You’ll be prompted through a series of configuration options for ZNC. An example of my configuration is below. Password entries have been omitted, and for some options like Nick, I’ve hit Enter to accept a default.
-- Global settings -- Listen on port (1025 to 65534): 6697 Listen using SSL (yes/no) [no]: yes Listen using both IPv4 and IPv6 (yes/no) [yes]: # you can default this to yes unless you have a reason to prevent IPv6 traffic -- Admin user settings -- Username (alphanumeric): jflory7 Enter password: Confirm password: Nick [jflory7]: Alternate nick [jflory7_]: Ident [jflory7]: Real name [Got ZNC?]: Justin W. Flory Bind host (optional):
If you wish to set up a network inside of your terminal, you can. If not, you can do this later on in your web administration portal.
Launch ZNC now? (yes/no) [yes]:
Congratulations, your ZNC server is now running! If everything’s set up correctly, you should be able to log into your web panel.
To get to your web panel, open your web browser and enter the location http(s)://<server_ip>:<your_port>. You should now see the ZNC panel. If you opted to use SSL earlier, your browser will likely warn you about insecure SSL certificates. That’s okay for now, since we generated them on our own to use for the server. You can safely ignore the warning.
Finishing configuration in the web panel
Once you log into your web panel, you’re greeted by plenty of different options. Find the user account that you set up in the web panel and edit the user, so you can add a network. For the scope of this article, we’ll add a popular IRC network, freenode.
The information for freenode is listed below for you to add to ZNC. If you wish to connect to a different IRC network, please refer to the server information provided by that network.
Network Name : freenode
: freenode Nickname, alt. nickname, ident, and real name can be left blank. They will be inherited from your user’s global settings that we set earlier.
Servers of this IRC network : chat.freenode.net +6697
: chat.freenode.net +6697 Modules : Modules are convenient “extras” that can make your IRC experience more customized or smoother. The full list can be found on the ZNC wiki, but experiment with ones you think you would find useful! Some of my favorites are: crypt, keepnick, kickrejoin, simple_away.
:
Once you finish, select Save and return.
The last step is to add some channels. You can do this in the network configuration page for the network you just configured. This is the easiest part! Look for the section on the page that mentions channels and select Add. You’ll be greeted by a few different options, but for our purposes, only two are relevant.
Channel Name is the name of a channel you want to join, such as #fedora. The other setting you may find useful is Buffer Count. The buffer count is how many messages will be stored in the history for a particular channel when you log into IRC after being away. For most channels, 50 lines is probably plenty. But if you’re in a particularly chatty channel and don’t want to miss any messages, you can bump this setting to 200 or even 500 lines.
Final Steps
Now that ZNC is fully configured, start the service and make sure it automatically starts itself if the server ever reboots. To do that, run the following commands:
$ sudo systemctl start znc $ sudo systemctl enable znc
ZNC is now up and running on your server, and you can use your IRC client to connect.
Setting Up Your IRC Client
Now that the hard work is done, you should configure your IRC client to use your ZNC bouncer service. A popular IRC client available in Fedora is the HexChat client. But there are plenty of options for you to find what works best for you.
Instead of adding the settings for an IRC network to your client, you’ll add information for your bouncer. The screenshot shows an example of how this might look for you.
The server password is how you authenticate to your bouncer. Instructions for how to connect are at the top of the ZNC page for your user. They’re generally formatted as username/network_name:password. You can refer to the ZNC wiki for more information about connecting with your IRC client.
Once you’re finished adding the network, you can connect to the network. Now you never have to worry about missing another message in an IRC channel again! |
Congratulations Washington State vape community, the Child Safety First Bill was born into law today. During the 2015 - 2016, Washington State Legislature sessions, 3701 bills were introduced; less than 400 of them passed. We should all be proud parents as it takes a village to raise a bill to become a law. Now, we must continue to parent this industry.
This is what we can expect:
Statewide Uniformity on rules that regulate Washington State’s vapor industry.
Mandates child-resistant caps for e-liquid.
Guarantees labeling that indicates general contents and nicotine levels.
Helps safeguard youth prevention by outlawing vending machines in Washington State.
Adds protection from youth access from vapor products through online sales.
Solidifies penalties and fines for selling or giving a minor a vapor product.
Bans vaping from all public places where minors may be present.
Creates a licensure and enforcement policy to help ensure compliance in youth prevention.
Implements a separate vape chapter; this is a significant step in decoupling vape and tobacco, not only in law but also in how vapor products are seen.
2016 is not only Washington’s Year of Vape it is also an election year. Although vapor products are no longer considered to be tobacco products under the eyes of Washington State law, Pink Lung Brigade, its members, and supporters will continue the movement by educating our community. We have a unique opportunity to educate our incumbent legislators and new candidates alike.
In the days to come we will highlight the Washington State law makers & legislators who were instrumental in seeing this common sense law come to pass.
Please stay supportive, engaged, and tuned in to notifications for meetings, rallies, fundraisers, and calls-to-action throughout the rest of the year leading up to a new legislative session.
For a more detailed review of the law for vapor products in WA State click here!
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Nero was the Roman emperor from 54 to 68 AD. He is remembered most for his perverse mind and his persecution of Christians.
Nero was born in Antium in 37 AD to Agrippina the Younger and Gnaeus Domitius Anenobarbus, a great-grandson of Augustus. He experienced a very unstable childhood. The emperor Caius Galigula banished his family around 39 AD, seizing the entire family's fortune, and his father died when he was only three years old. He was raised by his mother and they were poor, but that changed when Agrippina married her uncle, the emperor Claudius. At this time, Nero was being tutored by the famous philosopher Seneca the elder. Agrippina convinced Claudius to adopt Nero and in 50 AD he became the probable heir to the throne, even ahead of Claudius's own son! In 54 AD Agrippina murdered Claudius and Nero became ruler at the age of 17.
Return to "Roman Empire" Chronology
At first Nero's mother had a great deal of authority within his reign. However, Nero grew resentful of her power and Agrippina was removed from the palace in 55. At this time, two of Nero's men, the Praetorian Prefect Burrus and his tutor Seneca, took over and ruled the empire successfully. Biographers cite that up until 59 Nero was known for his generosity and mildness. [1] During this period he forbade capital punishment and contests involving bloodshed in the circus. He even reduced taxes. This side of the emperor disappeared when he ordered the murder of his mother, who was accused of treason in 59. In 62 Burrus died, reportedly from a throat tumor, although he believed that Nero had poisoned him.
One of the most famous events of his reign was the fire of Rome in 64 AD Nero was in Antium when the fire started in the Circus Maximus. The fire spread and raged furiously over Rome for nine days. When Nero returned he started to rebuild the city, which caused some to suspect Nero of planning the fire in order to make room for a new city built in his honor. Nero, needing a scapegoat for the fire, chose to put the blame on the Christians. His brutality was exhibited through the persecution of these early Christians. This persecution took on different forms for the Christians, as some were torn to death by dogs while others were used as torches to light Nero's gardens and parties. [2]
His reign began disintegrating when the senate became unimpressed with him and his unfulfilled promises and turned against him. A group of these senators banded together in 65 to form the Pisonian Conspiracy, whose aim was to murder Nero and replace him with C. Calpurnius Piso. Eventually they were discovered and punished severely with the number of executions increasing daily. One of these victims was Seneca.
Nero was obsessed with Greece and Greek culture, frequently traveling there and participating in poetry, singing, and games as well as orgies and parties. In 68, after an extensive time there, a food shortage and unrest brought him back to Rome. After his return there were many uprisings against him. One was lead by Vindex, the governor of Gallia Lugaunensis, and this spurred on many others who wanted to see the tyrannical Nero removed. Rome was as a whole tired of Nero, as he was more interested in his own self-seeking life of pleasure than in ruling the most powerful empire in the world. |
What happens when you mix Christmas, politics, Twitter and the ongoing emotional meltdown on the cultural left in the wake of the 2016 presidential race?
Trust me, the answer to that question is a bit crazy.
So was anyone else on Twitter enough in the past day or so to catch the latest mini-media storm about Christians in the Republican Party and the ugliness of their love affair with Citizen Donald Trump?
That's one way to spin this crazy mess. You could also simply note that we are dealing with another case of a major newsroom -- wait, is BuzzFeed a major newsroom? -- failing to contain even one or two people who have any idea how ordinary Christians out in Middle America use language when talking about matters of faith?
For those out of the digital feedback loop, here is the dramatic double-decker headline atop the BuzzFeed "story" that is in the middle of all this:
A Republican spokesman said Christians view only Jesus as king and to ask otherwise was “frankly offensive.”
What does it mean to say that "people are arguing about" something? Does that mean a few activists on the left served up a bunch of wisecracks and then people responded by noting that they were out of their minds?
If you want to look at this as a journalism case study, then the former GetReligionista Mark Hemingway put it best in this tweet: |
[np_storybar title=”Splatoon” link=””]
Score: 8.0/10
Platform: Wii U
May 29, 2015[/np_storybar]
Nintendo has a lot riding on Splatoon’s success. With Zelda Wii U pushed back to a release date likely sometime next year, and with very few other big games coming out on the console over the next few months (other than Star Fox and Yoshi’s Woolly World), Splatoon sits alone as one of the only upcoming announced Wii U titles that looks promising.
Refreshingly, Splatoon is also one of the only Nintendo games released in the last 15 years to feature original characters. And it’s a third-person shooter — albeit not a traditional one — which is completely new territory for the company. The game is the answer to what Nintendo naysayers have been complaining about on Internet forums for years: “Why doesn’t Nintendo do something different?” and “Nintendo needs to evolve.”
So will Nintendo’s ink-filled shooter satisfy the unquenchable thirst of angry former Nintendo fans and hardcore fanatics? It just might. The game hits a similar level of perfection as some of the company’s other first-party developed titles, such as Super Mario 3D World. But underneath the colourful paint of Splatoon’s charms, the game is also rife with significant issues, some that might be game-ruining for shooter fans.
With this said though, Splatoon is different, inventive, and the most fun I’ve had with a Nintendo-developed title since the Wii U launched. If you’re a Wii U owner there is very little reason not to buy this game.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Splatoon is that it isn’t about racking up kills. Instead, it’s focused on pitting two teams of four against one another as they try to spray as much paint as possible across the game’s various multiplayer arenas. The premise really is as simple as that. Whatever team has covered a higher percentage of the level at the end of the match is the victor. In an industry full of shooting games that copy each others’ gametypes, a new way to play that isn’t focused on killing your opponents is a nice change of pace.
Players are also awarded an individual score at the end of each game that’s added to their overall point statistics, which then levels up their online profile and unlocks new weapons and clothing for their character. This is all standard shooter fare, but there’s a level of simplicity to Splatoon’s progression system that isn’t present in other shooting games such as the Call of Duty series. Splatoon might be a shooter, but it’s very much the kind of shooter only Nintendo could create.
Specific weapons perform better in different situations, and depending on your play-style, you’ll likely find some guns relatively useless.
The Splat Roller also feels overpowered at first, since it plasters a level with paint relatively easily. But after spending a few hours with the game I realized this wasn’t actually the case. Inventive players will quickly find ways to take down opponents who gravitate towards the close quarters-focussed Roller.
But as someone who’s fond of the Splat Roller, there are also obvious strategies to take down players using projectile weapons like the Splattershot, long-range Splat Charger or Jet Squelcher. The moment I saw anyone from the opposing team, I’d instantly dive down into the ink and swim to an area my enemy might not think I would be. I’d then pop out of the ink and smash the Splat Roller on top of my foe. The weapon also shoots out a small amount of ink when it’s smashed to the ground, taking out any enemies directly in front of you.
Additionally, each weapon has its own special power-ups. For example, the Killer Wail can take out multiple enemies at once with its tornado of paint. While I’m still getting the hang of timing when to appropriately use power-ups, I’ve seen a number of high-level players turn the tide of a match with only seconds remaining on the clock by busting out an Inkzooka at the right time.
In short, Splatoon is an expertly balanced game and it’s easy to tell Nintendo painstakingly play-tested the experience to ensure the finished product was as balanced as possible. Matches often boil down to wars of attrition, with each team pushing forward slightly with their brightly coloured paint until one squad eventually breaks through the barrier of colour, opening the floodgates.
This brings me to perhaps Splatoon’s most unique mechanic beyond the wall-covering ink-spraying. Your “kid” character has the ability to turn into a squid and can dive into surrounding ink. This allows you to hide from your enemies and move around the map much quicker than when in kid mode. The ability to dive over objects while playing as a squid, and the visceral speed that comes from the transformation, makes Splatoon’s combat feel extremely fluid and, in some ways, almost rhythmic.
There are downsides to Splatoon’s multiplayer, though. For a game where teamwork is so integral to its core experience, it’s a shame Splatoon doesn’t feature voice chat. Since this is a Nintendo title, I expected this issue ahead of time considering there are only a handful of Wii U titles that support the feature, but this doesn’t excuse voice chat’s absence.
Having the ability to communicate with your team would add a lot to Splatoon. For some players, the game’s lack of voice communication will be a deal breaker, especially those who have played other shooter games or even online multiplayer titles in general.
Splatoon is also different, inventive, and the most fun I’ve had with a Nintendo-developed game since the Wii U launched
While Splatoon’s matchmaking system is great and does a commendable job of putting together two teams of similarly levelled players relatively quickly, there is no simple way to play with friends. The only way to join someone on your friends list is to select “join a friend” and then wait until there is space in their game for you to jump in.
The lobby or party systems many online console players will be familiar with from other titles are not part of Splatoon (there’s also no way to leave Splatoon’s matchmaking once it has started). Nintendo has stated they have plans to add custom game lobbies as well as a party system via an update set to release in August, but as the game stands right now, it’s a chore to play with even just one other friend.
Map selection and gametypes are also limited, although Nintendo has plans to add additional free maps and new gametypes over the course of the summer. Competitive ranked lobbies unlock once you reach level 10 (which will take quite a bit of time), giving players access to a surprisingly fun king of the hill-style gametype called Splat Zone. Splatoon’s standard ink-spraying gametype is called Turf Wars.
Offline multiplayer is also confined to just two players, and while this game mode is fun, Splatoon’s lack of four player offline mode seems like a missed opportunity.
On the bright side, while Splatoon is a decidedly multiplayer-focused experience, the game does offer an extensive singleplayer mode clocking in at approximately five to six hours. Players traverse through a variety of Mario-esque levels, painting platforms, exploding balloons, and taking on emo octopus enemies. Yes, you read that correctly.
What’s unfortunate about Splatoon’s singleplayer is parts of it don’t feel fleshed out enough. The game slowly introduces a great concept such as bouncing between guisers, only to have it disappear in the following level. Mechanics that are part of Splatoon’s singleplayer early on in the game are also rarely brought back again later.
Another drawback are Splatoon’s graphics. While the game’s look is interesting and reminiscent of Dreamcast classic Jet Grind Radio, its bright and inventive visuals don’t feature the same level of polish as other internally developed Wii U titles. Characters and objects often feature distracting jagged edges. On the plus side, plastering a level with colourful ink looks great and the game’s frame rate is solid.
Despite its shortcomings, Splatoon is one of the best Wii U titles and is exactly the kind of game Nintendo needs to release right – a game that’s different, unique and, most importantly, features the charm people have come to expect from the company’s titles.
I saw something special in Splatoon last year when I played the game at E3 and it seems I was right.
@Patrick_ORourke |
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“We did it! We put the flag on the moon!” Skepta had a point: the journey from the streets of Tottenham to selling out a venue where “I used to come and ice-skate, feed the ducks and roll down the hill” is more than the geographical three miles.
Having won this year’s Mercury prize with his fourth album Konnichiwa, albeit courtesy of a baffling decision from the judges to avoid honouring David Bowie, the former Joseph Junior Adenuga is big news in his hometown, even if Konnichiwa struggled to 160 in the American chart. The imposing screens;the giant clutter-free, band-free stage and the pyrotechnics were all heavily influenced by Kanye West’s 2008 arena shows.
West, though, was a defiantly solo operation. In contrast, Skepta’s homecoming was as much a generous celebration of British grime as its leader, so a posse of collaborators included Wretch 32, Lethal Bizzle and, most thrillingly, the massed ranks of Section Boyz on The Worst.
The fierceness of Nasty and Crime Riddim were exhilarating, but there was precious little sign of progression and evolution. At just over an encore-free hour, the audience sloped home unsatisfied. But, when Skepta stood on a burning car like James Cagney in White Heat, during the grand finale Man, the marriage of hardcore sound and searing imagery was complete.
The Standard apologises for an error in the original version of this review, which has since been edited for clarity. The author acknowledges it should have read ‘reload’ rather than ‘restart’ and shouldn't have suggested technical malfunction.
Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout |
NETWORK FINALS: SVU gained 0.1 in final numbers. (Note, the chart below has a mistake: DESIGNATED SURVIVOR aired a new episode.)
Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart
CABLE HIGHLIGHTS: Perhaps for the first time, MLB Network had the top show on cable Wednesday with the WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC finals at 0.83. VH1’s BLACK INK CREW dropped 0.05 to 0.72. TBS’s FULL FRONTAL declined 0.07 to 0.50. Presumably due to the healthcare bill and Russia hearings, MSNBC and Fox News were each in the Top 10, MSNBC represented by THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW at 0.43 (with 3M total viewers) and Fox News topped by THE O’REILLY FACTOR at 0.41 (4.1M total viewers). On TLC, MY 600-LB LIFE lost 0.07 to 0.41, and SKIN TIGHT was down 0.02 to 0.35. ESPN’s NBA doubleheader featured Atlanta vs. Washington at 0.39, and Knicks vs. Utah at 0.37. FX’s LEGION rose 0.04 to 0.38. OWN’s GREENLEAF dropped a tenth to 0.38. On MTV, CATFISH dipped 0.02 to 0.35. On Lifetime, LITTLE WOMEN: ATLANTA lost 0.03 to 0.35, and BRINGING UP BALLERS remained at 0.15. ID’s SEE NO EVIL was at 0.33, and MURDER CHOSE ME was down 0.03 to 0.26. On A&E, DUCK DYNASTY edged up 0.02 to 0.33, and JEP & JESSICA was at 0.25/0.22, compared to last week’s 0.21. On Discovery, BERING SEA GOLD fell 0.06 to 0.31, and THE LAST ALASKANS premiered at 0.28. BET’s THE QUAD ticked up to 0.28. Food Network’s COOKS VS CONS returned at 0.26, and CHOPPED JR was down 0.02 to 0.23. On Syfy, THE MAGICIANS dropped 0.04 to 0.25, and THE EXPANSE was down 0.02 to 0.11. TNT’s MAJOR CRIMES dipped 0.02 to 0.25. WGN’s UNDERGROUND kept falling, down 0.04 to 0.19. Tru’s THE CARBONARO EFFECT was at 0.17/0.16. Spike’s TIME was at 0.17/0.15, compared to last week’s 0.13. Comedy Central’s THE COMEDY JAM premiered at 0.15. E!’s SO COSMO tumbled 0.06 to 0.07. POP’s SCHITT’S CREEK remained at 0.06. Sundance’s HAP & LEONARD had an ugly 0.05 drop off the chart, to 0.02/109K.
Top 50 Original Cable Telecasts with Demographic Detail
Top 150 Original Cable Telecasts
To search for a show: type Ctrl-F and type your show title in the search box.
Top 150 Original Cable Telecasts: Wednesday March 22, 2017 P18-49 P2+ Rank Program Net Start Mins Rating (000s) 1 WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: USA VS. PUERTO RICO MLB NETWORK 9:22 PM 212 0.83 2,290 2 BLACK INK CREW 5 VH1 8:00 PM 60 0.72 1,358 3 WBC PREGAME SHOW MLB NETWORK 9:00 PM 22 0.51 1,490 4 FULL FRONTAL W/ SAM BEE TBS NETWORK 10:30 PM 30 0.50 1,419 5 RACHEL MADDOW SHOW MSNBC 9:00 PM 60 0.43 2,960 6 THE OREILLY FACTOR FOX NEWS CHANNEL 8:00 PM 60 0.41 4,070 7 MY 600-LB LIFE: N/A TLC 8:00 PM 120 0.41 1,334 8 TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT FOX NEWS CHANNEL 9:00 PM 60 0.41 3,419 9 NBA REGULAR SEASON L: ATLANTA/WASHINGTON ESPN 8:01 PM 162 0.39 1,027 10 LEGION FX 10:00 PM 63 0.38 716 11 HANNITY FOX NEWS CHANNEL 10:00 PM 60 0.38 2,978 12 GREENLEAF OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK 10:00 PM 60 0.38 1,349 13 NBA REGULAR SEASON L: NEW YORK/UTAH ESPN 10:43 PM 138 0.37 903 14 CATFISH: THE TV SHOW SSN6 MTV 8:00 PM 61 0.35 650 15 LITTLE WOMEN ATL LIFETIME TELEVISION 9:00 PM 62 0.35 910 16 SKIN TIGHT TLC 10:00 PM 60 0.35 1,060 17 SPECIAL RPT W/BRET BAIER FOX NEWS CHANNEL 6:00 PM 60 0.34 2,823 18 SEE NO EVIL INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY 9:00 PM 60 0.33 1,101 19 DUCK DYNASTY A&E NETWORK 9:00 PM 31 0.33 1,004 20 FIVE, THE FOX NEWS CHANNEL 5:00 PM 60 0.32 2,964 21 BERING SEA GOLD DISCOVERY CHANNEL 10:00 PM 60 0.31 1,132 22 LAST WORD W/ L. ODONNELL MSNBC 10:00 PM 60 0.30 2,384 23 SHEPARD SMITH REPORTING FOX NEWS CHANNEL 7:00 PM 60 0.30 2,191 24 CNN TONIGHT CNN 10:00 PM 60 0.29 1,356 25 ANDERSON COOPER 360 CNN 9:00 PM 60 0.29 1,366 26 MLB TONIGHT MLB NETWORK 12:54 AM 88 0.28 702 27 DAILY SHOW COMEDY CENTRAL 11:00 PM 31 0.28 918 28 SPORTSCENTER 1AM L ESPN 1:01 AM 59 0.28 646 29 PARDON THE INTERRUPTION ESPN 5:30 PM 30 0.28 719 30 ANDERSON COOPER 360 CNN 8:00 PM 60 0.28 1,501 31 AMERICAN PICKERS: BEST OF HISTORY 9:00 PM 63 0.28 1,642 32 LAST ALASKANS, THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL 9:00 PM 60 0.28 1,455 33 QUAD, THE BLACK ENTERTAINMENT TV 10:00 PM 60 0.28 691 34 HUNTER STREET NICKELODEON 7:00 PM 30 0.27 1,329 35 EXPEDITION UNKNOWN TRAVEL CHANNEL 9:00 PM 60 0.27 915 36 MURDER CHOSE ME INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY 10:00 PM 60 0.26 1,014 37 CNN NEWSROOM CNN 2:00 PM 60 0.26 1,353 38 COOKS VS. 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Colleges need to adapt so that university education doesn't become too expensive for all.
University life. (Photo: M. Spencer Green, AP) Story Highlights Administrative bloat at American colleges and universities is out of hand.
One calculation shows college tuition increased from 1978 to 2011 at an annual rate of 7.45%.
Now colleges and universities are actually facing declining enrollments, and even credit downgrades.
"Why am I paying so much tuition to people whose job seems to be telling me to call someone else?"
That was my daughter's lament last week as she tried to pry an essential form out of her college's labyrinthine bureaucracy, but it's a question that many Americans should be asking. Administrative bloat at American colleges and universities is out of hand, and it's probably the biggest cause of the skyrocketing tuitions that afflict students and parents today.
Everyone knows that tuitions have skyrocketed, though many may not appreciate the full extent of the problem. As University of Michigan economics and finance professor Mark Perry has calculated, college tuition increased from 1978 to 2011 at an annual rate of 7.45%. That far outpaced health-care costs, which increased by 5.8%, and housing, which, notwithstanding the bubble, increased at 4.3%. Family incomes, on the other hand, barely kept up with the Consumer Price Index, which grew at an annual rate of 3.8%.
That has led many students (and sometimes their co-signing parents) into a nightmare of debt, as student loans have been used to fill the gap. Now colleges and universities are actually facing declining enrollments, and in some cases even credit downgrades as their ability to endlessly raise tuition comes into question. But why has tuition risen so fast?
Some commentators blame lazy, overpaid faculty. But while faculty teaching loads are somewhat lower than they were decades ago, faculty-student ratios have been quite stable over the past several decades, while the ratio of administrators and staff to students has become much less favorable. In his book on administrative bloat, The Fall Of The Faculty, Johns Hopkins professor Benjamin Ginsberg reports that although student-faculty ratios fell slightly between 1975 and 2005, from 16-to-1 to 15-to-1, the student-to-administrator ratio fell from 84-to-1 to 68-to-1, and the student-to-professional-staff ratio fell from 50-to-1 to 21-to-1. Ginsberg concludes: "Apparently, when colleges and universities had more money to spend, they chose not to spend it on expanding their instructional resources, i.e. faculty. They chose, instead, to enhance their administrative and staff resources."
And when they had less money to spend, they did the same thing. Ginsberg comments that even during the recession, "Colleges reined in spending on instruction and faculty salaries, hired more part-time adjunct faculty and fewer full-time professors and, yet, found the money to employ more and more administrators and staffers. "
A simple stroll through most campuses will underscore this change. The number of buildings devoted to administration is much greater than in past years. Priorities show in other ways, too: While more and more actual teaching is outsourced to low-paid adjuncts who lack job security or, often, benefits, the work of administration never seems to be outsourced this way. Who ever heard of an "adjunct administrator?"
At many schools, administrators now outnumber teaching faculty, often by significant margins. According to the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, "Part-time faculty and teaching assistants now account for half of instructional staffs at colleges and universities, up from one-third in 1987, the figures show. During the same period, the number of administrators and professional staff has more than doubled. That's a rate of increase more than twice as fast as the growth in the number of students."
And according to a 2010 study by the Goldwater Institute, administrative bloat is the largest driver of high tuition costs. Using Department of Education figures, the study found administration growing more than twice as fast as instruction: "In terms of growth, the number of full-time administrators per 100 students at America's leading universities increased by 39.3% between 1993 and 2007, while the number of employees engaged in teaching research or service only increased by 17.6%."
Colleges and universities are nonprofits. When extra money comes in — as, until recently, has been the pattern — they can't pay out excess profits to shareholders. Instead, the money goes to their effective owners, the administrators who hold the reins. As the Goldwater study notes, they get their "dividends" in the form of higher pay and benefits, and "more fellow administrators who can reduce their own workload or expand their empires."
But with higher education now facing leaner years, and with students and parents unable to keep up with increasing tuition, what should be done? In short, colleges will have to rein in costs.
When asked what single step would do the most good, I've often responded semi-jokingly that U.S. News and World Report should adjust its college-ranking formula to reward schools with low costs and lean administrator-to-student ratios. But that's not really a joke. Given schools' exquisite sensitivity to the U.S. News rankings, that step would probably have more impact than most imaginable government regulations.
But government regulation is probably coming, too. President Obama has already spoken out against high college costs, and in his 2012 State of the Union speech he threatened to withhold federal funding from schools that fail to control tuition, though that hasn't happened so far.
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., among others, are promoting legislation to claw back financial aid from schools that have too many graduates who are unable to pay their student loans, which would provide some incentive to keep tuition, and student indebtedness down. (I have proposed something similar, making student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy after a number of years, as they used to be, but leaving the schools on the hook for a percentage of the discharged debt. That would provide a greater incentive.)
But the biggest challenges facing overpriced and bloated institutions will come from technology and the market. With lower-priced alternatives appearing online just as buyer resistance to increased tuition is taking off, colleges must adapt. Purdue University President Mitchell Daniels remarked recently, "Why, in 10 or 15 years, will students still find it wise to pay lots of money to go and live somewhere for four or more years, when a host of competitors are offering to bring them excellent teachers and instruction in the inexpensive comfort of their own homes?" Daniels went on to note that many other industries have seen sudden declines when consumers found better alternatives.
He's right. Smart higher education leaders around the nation will be asking his question, and looking at ways to cut administration and costs, before it's too late.
Glenn Harlan Reynolds is professor of law at the University of Tennessee and the author of The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself. He blogs at InstaPundit.com.
In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns like this, go to the opinion front page or follow us on twitter @USATopinion or Facebook.
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LaMarcus Aldridge has said that he wants to re-sign with the Portland Trail Blazers this summer. But as his free agency approaches, that transaction is looking like less and less of a sure thing.
The Oregonian reported earlier this month that one of Aldridge’s teammates thinks there is a “50/50” chance that Aldridge leaves Portland.
To that end, Marc Stein reported on Thursday that the Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs will chase Aldridge in free agency this summer. The Knicks will have at least $25 million in cap space.
General manager Steve Mills said a few weeks ago that the team wouldn’t chase after big names just to make a splash. Instead, it would pursue players who fit into the Knicks’ system.
Aldridge fits both criteria.
He’s widely seen as a player who can thrive in the triangle offense. The 29-year-old is effective in the post and can knock down a perimeter shot. Those skills, of course, are valuable in any offense. But they have significant value in the triangle, which can produce plenty of post touches and midrange shots.
When Aldridge told The Oregonian in July that he wanted to sign a five-year contract to remain in Portland, most league observers assumed that the Knicks had no chance to land Aldridge.
But last month, two opposing executives said the belief in some league circles was that San Antonio and New York would be on Aldridge’s radar and that Aldridge wasn't as committed to re-signing in Portland as he'd been months earlier. The Blazers currently trail their first-round series with Memphis 2-0.
It's worth noting here that Aldridge would have to leave money on the table if he signed with another team. Opposing teams can only sign Aldridge to a four-year max contract.
But Aldridge can also choose to sign a one-year contract this summer and then sign a maximum contract in 2016 that is much more lucrative due to the increased salary cap.
One other thing to note on Aldridge: inking him to a maximum salary this summer would leave the Knicks with roughly $7 million to pursue other free agents. That’s not much money, but it’s a problem that Phil Jackson would welcome if it meant bringing one of the NBA's top big men to New York.
Question: Do you think LaMarcus Aldridge would succeed in New York? Should the Knicks make him a priority? |
Like many British kids—particularly those who loved to disappear into books—I have a deeply harbored attachment to the work of writer Roald Dahl and illustrator Quentin Blake. So much so that the dark-humored children’s author (and sometime eroticist) and the scrappy artist are inseparable in my mind. In the Blake-illustrated editions of Dahl’s books that I pored over as a child, his scrawls often worked as punchlines in the narrative rather than simple decoration. Sometimes they were terrifying, often they were crude and funny.
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James Blake was also a British kid, and I suspect one who also liked to disappear into books. For him to choose the now 83-year-old Quentin Blake to illustrate his surprise-released album, The Colour In Anything, is a peculiarly intimate choice; and, frankly, a not especially cool one. It’s not the done thing for boundary-pushing electronic musicians to choose to have their work illustrated by octogenarian national treasures. The cover’s connection to children’s fiction is disarming—and the cover itself retains a Dahl-ish humor, with its naked woman hiding in the branches of the tree, the smirk on Blake’s face, and its notably muted colors despite the album’s name. Its unapologetically off-trend style might make some balk, but it cements the album, from the first glance, as what it is: an unabashedly sincere piece of work.
Some lines from James Blake profiles published overnight sound themselves like Roald Dahl outtakes with their surreal, barbed humor. Devon Maloney, for Pitchfork, notes with tongue in cheek that Blake “looks like a man who is perfectly comfortable out in the open, among humans.” Dorian Lynskey for The Guardian observes, “he is no longer lonely, no longer defensive, no longer a little bit of a prick.” What’s interesting about both of these descriptions is that they seem to suggest Blake was once a two-dimensional storybook villain, now grown into a fully fledged human being. Perhaps it would be truer to note that his artistic scope has outgrown the two-dimensional media narrative that existed of his character (that is: the perpetually moody sad boy). |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has the unenviable task of exploring U.S.-Russian cooperation following Washington’s latest sanctions on Russia and Moscow’s expulsion of U.S. diplomats.
Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meet this weekend at a regional forum in Manila, their first face-to-face talks since President Donald Trump reluctantly signed into law sanctions that Russia said amounted to a full-scale trade war and ended hopes for better ties.
The sanctions, which passed both houses of Congress by overwhelming majorities despite Trump’s objections, in part target the Russian energy sector, with new limits on U.S. investment in Russian companies.
In retaliation, Moscow has ordered Washington to cut 755 of its 1,200 embassy and consulate staff in Russia and is seizing two U.S. diplomatic properties there.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Tillerson held out hope for better ties.
“There’s been no belligerence,” he said of his dealings with Lavrov. “I think he is as committed as I am to trying to find ways that can bring this relationship back.”
Analysts and former U.S. officials were skeptical that much progress is likely any time soon on areas such as reducing the violence in Syria’s civil war or calming the conflict in eastern Ukraine, let alone reversing Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
“The backdrop for that is obviously horrible given the Russian anger over the sanctions bill and the continued day-to-day revelations in the Russia probe,” said Carnegie Endowment analyst Andrew Weiss, referring to investigations into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Russia has denied seeking to sway the U.S. election and Trump has denied any collusion.
“The Russians are probably in no mood to even allow us to show progress because if they (did) they would be saying you can go ahead and sanction us without consequences,” said a former U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There is an incentive for them to have a lousy meeting.”
Tillerson and Lavrov are likely to discuss the “de-escalation zone” the nations agreed to establish in southwestern Syria. Russia and Iran are the main outside backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while Washington supports some of the rebel groups seeking to topple him in a six-year civil war.
A second former senior U.S. official said he thought the best the two might achieve would be to prevent further deterioration.
“Do no harm is the other side of the coin,” said the former official who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he would expect the two men to review those areas such as the arctic, space and arms control where U.S.-Russian cooperation continues.
One of the few areas where Washington and Moscow could make progress is on nuclear and conventional arms control, something they have achieved throughout their long history of tensions.
Slideshow (2 Images)
Tillerson and Lavrov agreed in principle in April to resume so-called strategic stability talks on disputes ranging from nuclear arms and missile defense to conventional military deployments in Europe. The last formal talks were held in 2012.
Last month, the sides agreed to “exchange scheduling proposals in the near future” for that dialogue and for talks on extending New START, a 2010 accord that requires them to cut deployed strategic nuclear forces to 1,550 warheads and 700 delivery systems by Feb. 5 2018. It expires in 2021, but can be extended by five years if the U.S. and Russian presidents agree. |
( tl;dr – wrote a short story, you can download it here)
I’ve lived both in the Far and Middle East. Both experiences left strong memories, traces, impressions. And I noticed very early that if I wanted to convey any of my experiences to others in writing, an autobiographical account wouldn’t cut it.
Short Fiction Instead of Travelogues
It lies in the nature of subjective experience that what to one person is life-changing, to another may be trivial. In other words, the things that leave a strong impression on us are not just very different, they are often intangible, as well.
This is why at the moment I’m working on a series of short stories (and not travelogues!) about the Middle East. On top of that the Middle East as depicted in these writings (you’ll find the first short story below) is completely fictional in order to avoid the straight-jacket of preconceived notions and opinions.
Individual Publications For Individual Readers
These writings will be published independently, that is without the help of publishing houses. It is an experimental process and whether I’ll follow through with the rest of the short stories in this series will depend (to some extent) on how people respond to this idea of a fictionalized Middle East that still contains all its defining characteristics of conflict and contradiction.
What You Get For Downloading This Story
This first short story is completely free. You’ll find the download link at the end of this article.
A few notes:
I arranged it in such a way that by downloading it, you’ll get the story in what we call here an “Indie Publishing Pack”, meaning a zip file containing a styled PDF, .MOBI file optimized for Kindle and an .EPUB for Sony and other e-readers.
The idea is that if someone downloads an ebook (or short story) he or she should be able to decide on what device and in which way to read it. So, in order to take out the guesswork, you’ll get three versions at once.
(If you need help with transferring the files to your device, see also here)
Support Independent Publishing
If you like the story and want more, here’s how you can help and support this project by one (or more) of the following ways:
Leave a review on Amazon or Smashwords Purchase a $0.99 copy on Amazon or Smashwords to help this story reach more readers Leave a comment on this article. Share this article or the story with your friends
Your responses will determine when the next story comes out and if it published in the same way like this one.
And now *drumroll*, the Download Link
Here it is, the first short story about a fictional Middle East, titled: “Don’t Call Me Naomi”
—> click here to go to the download page <—
A Short Story About The Middle East Has this been helpful? |
Folks griping about a lack of summer vacation time may want to run for a seat in the House of Representatives.
Lawmakers are out of town on a week-long recess (sorry, “district work period,” as GOP leaders call them). It’s their seventh full-week absence from Washington so far this calendar year.
In fairness, the Senate has spent taken five full week breaks away from Washington in 2012, but isn’t scheduled to break again until the week of July 4th — the same week that the House is scheduled for its 8th week-long break of the year.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who sets the schedule, has noted that the break/recesses/work periods are meant for lawmakers “to gain valuable input from their constituents at home.” The schedule of course also permits them ample time to raise money and campaign for reelection. (During the last recess, for example, many lawmakers of both chambers spent time in New York raising campaign cash.)
In an ultimately fruitless attempt to keep lawmakers in town, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last week asked House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to cancel this week’s recess in order to vote on a bill to extend middle-income tax cuts and work on other economic issues. By week’s end, House Democrats circulated a mock iPod playlist with songs that suggested Republicans were “shuffling the middle class” by leaving town. The list included “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by John Denver, “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars, “Summer Wind” by Frank Sinatra and “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson.
A mock playlist circulated by House Democrats titled "House GOP Heads Home, Saving their Plans & Shuffling the Middle Class" (Dem Leader Press Office)
Republicans dismissed Pelosi’s request and reminded reporters that dozens of GOP-sponsored economic-themed bills already have passed the House this year — only to be ignored by the Senate.
Back home on the campaign trail, expect House Republicans to highlight Obama’s gaffe last week that the “private sector is doing fine.” (As The Post’s Chris Cillizza writes today, the comment will surely factor into Mitt Romney’s campaign strategy — and the message of GOP congressional candidates.) Expect House Democrats to focus instead on Romney's disparaging comments Friday of public sector workers and that the GOP is shirking their responsibilities by refusing to meet this week in Washington.
Student loans, farm bill in the Senate
This week could be a remarkably productive, bipartisan week for senators, or just the latest example of the partisan rancor hampering the legislative process.
Senate Republicans are reviewing a proposal by President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) to extend federally-subsidized college student loans before a June 30 deadline. Reid last week suggested that Congress pay for the extension by using two items already agreed to in the Senate’s one-year bipartisan highway funding bill: A change in how companies calculate pension liabilities, and increasing the premiums that businesses pay for federal pension insurance.
Obama supports the plans, but hasn’t discussed them specifically, only offering last week that “My message to Congress is: Let’s get to work.”
We should learn what Republicans think of Reid’s proposal at some point this week — and with less than 20 days left before the expiration date, both sides remain hopeful a deal can be reached.
Also this week, senators are scheduled to continue debating the new five-year farm bill, a bipartisan measure that would trim $23 billion in spending mostly by ending about $15 billion in direct subsidies to farmers.
Aides say Reid is expected to release a list of amendments to be voted on early in the week, and whichever proposals he opens up for a vote could determine how easily the measure passes.
Expect the farm bill debate to break down along regional, not partisan divides, similar to how things went in late April during debate on a bill to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service:
But GOP Senate aides caution that they will complain and possibly filibuster the farm bill if Reid attempts to control the amendments process, as he did five years ago.
Positive reviews for leak investigation ... so far
Leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees gave early endorsements Sunday to the Justice Department’s appointment of two special prosecutors to investigate recent national security leaks to news organizations.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.). (Rich Clement/BLOOMBERG)
“We need to find out if they will have that independence,” Rogers said of the special prosecutors. “Can you have a U.S. Attorney assigned... through the Attorney General, investigate something that is clearly going to the most senior levels of all of the security, the DOD, Attorney General’s office and even the president?”
But Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) sounded more supportive, saying that “Hopefully it’s enough to get to a relatively quick disposition.”
Asked by CBS whether she thought the White House was behind the news leaks, Feinstein said, “I have no idea. No, I do not believe that.”
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced the appointment of the two special prosecutors late Friday, tasking them to lead criminal investigations into “possible unauthorized” leaks to reporters for several recent news articles and books. The FBI is conducting a separate probe and prosecutors from the Justice Department’s National Security Division will be involved in both inquiries, according to law enforcement officials.
Support for the new special prosecutors will prove critical, and any wavering by Rogers and Feinstein and their counterparts — especially Feinstein — could lead to more congressional or outside investigations and assure that the storyline continues up to and beyond the November elections.
Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Follow Ed O’Keefe on Twitter: @edatpost
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OPEN LETTER TO THE EU LCS COMMUNITY (NUMBER 2)
When the current owners and management of H2K acquired a controlling interest in December of 2015, the objectives were to build a successful esports franchise while, together with RIOT and the other teams, also helping to shape the values and emotional growth of young players and making a positive impact in the European community. We believe H2K has made a good start in achieving its objectives by consistently fielding a competitive team while nurturing players who understand and respect H2K’s values. We have also produced high-quality community engaging content which favourably impacts the image of H2K, RIOT, and the EU LCS. However, for this effort to broaden and become inclusive, we believe the EU LCS requires an open and transparent collaborative effort among RIOT, the teams and the players based on their mutual best interests.
Today, that doesn’t exist with four of the major teams seeking to leave Europe and H2K concluding that the financial and operating structure of the EU LCS requires it to withdraw from the League. Clearly, something is wrong with this picture; the reset button must be hit. Rather than an open and transparent ecosystem, we have confidentiality and lack of information. Rather than having a collaborative effort, we have RIOT making all significant decisions, while largely ignoring the informed views of the teams and players. Rather than the ecosystem providing for the mutual best interests of all the participants, the teams are forced into financially weak positions while creating player instability and uncertainty.
By contrast, were RIOT to shift direction, a strong and vibrant EU LCS ecosystem would emerge for the benefit of RIOT, the teams, the players and the European community. With European teams able to compete for top talent and enthusiastically engage in significant branding activities on behalf of themselves, the players and RIOT, fan interest in the European community would blossom. Based on a relatively level playing field, a natural and strong rivalry between Europe and the NA would drive significant broadcasting, advertising, sponsorship, and other revenues. Working together – RIOT, the team owners and player representatives – would develop cooperative strategic approaches to generate excitement and success throughout Europe.
Sound familiar? It’s the NA franchising system without franchising. A unique regional model designed for Europe. To make it succeed, with the existing teams (“legacy teams”) no longer subsidizing RIOT, and to have their committed involvement in Europe, it merely requires RIOT to provide the legacy teams collectively with a guaranteed yearly increase of approximately €6.5 million. The legacy teams should be the beneficiaries of such guaranteed support because of their prior multi-million dollar investments in the EU LCS, their continuing branding and promotion of League of Legends, and the commitment of many thousands of hours of management and owner time to the success of the teams, players and the EU LCS. Of course, should it occur, all 24 teams in the restructured league will participate in revenue sharing.
A small price to pay for future harmony, cooperation, and EU LCS prosperity when the sale of 1 skin and 1 icon during Worlds for only 6 weeks generates revenues of approximately €18 – €20 million. These funds can be generated yearly by RIOT permitting the European fans to design and purchase one skin for each Spring and Summer split. The support of European fans will determine the success of this program. This funding approach has the benefit of leaving untouched the approximate $2 billion in annual in – game sales made by RIOT while allowing European fans to directly support the EU LCS. So let’s hit the reset button and move ahead with a clear and sensible plan!
Richard Lippe, Board Co-Chairman, H2K
Susan Tully, CEO, H2K
September 28, 2017 |
× Oklahoma City makes ‘Most Gang Infested Cities in America’ list
OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City has made its mark on a national list but it is not something that makes residents proud.
According to TheRichest, Oklahoma City is one of the six most ‘Gang Infested Cities in America.’
The article estimates that over 1.5 million people are members of 35,000 different gangs in the U.S.
After analyzing data from the FBI and municipal law enforcement agencies, the website came up with the following list of the ‘Most Gang Infested Cities in America.’
Chicago, IL Los Angeles, CA Detroit, MI Camden, N.J. Oklahoma City, OK East St. Louis, IL
The article states that the majority of gangs in Oklahoma City are street gangs and prison gangs.
It says shootings over rival territory and the drug trade result in drive-by shootings, which make up the majority of the gang violence in the city. |
Nowadays, we take for granted the idea that if you go travel back in time and interact with your own past, you can create a huge crazy time paradox. But who first came up with this idea?
Who created the first time paradox? And can we go back and prevent him or her from doing it? We were curious, so we went and looked back into the mists of time. Here's our complete history of time paradoxes.
Top image: "Sound of Thunder" video game concept art.
Most experts seem to agree that Tourmalin's Time Cheques by Thomas Antsey Guthrie (under the pseudonym, F. Antsey) is considered to be the first novel to ever explore the idea of temporal paradoxes. In the 1891 story, Peter Tourmalin is having a difficult time adjusting to the shift in time zone on his voyage to Australia, but gets the opportunity to open an account at a "Time Bank" which, by presenting a special check to any clock, allows him to deposit spare time he can later withdraw at any point. Things get complicated, however, when he discovers that time withdrawn is not in consecutive installments, but actually mixed up at different points, often leaving him in the middle of conversations with multiple beautiful women – and never at the same time. The book has been out of print for ages, but it seems to have more in common with ribald modern-day SF comedies like The Change-Up, or Hot Tub Time Machine than the makings of a mind-bending subgenre. Heres a fan trailer from Youtube.
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And then it was a long time until the next story about time tampering: 1933's Berkley Square, about a time traveler meeting his own ancestors at the time of the American Revolution. The film, which was based on a stage play, inspired H.P. Lovecraft to write "The Shadow Out of Time," about time travel via mind projection.
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1937's Time and the Conways by J.B. Priestly played with multiple timelines in a roundabout way — by bringing up the idea that the passage of time is an illusion and all moments are happening simultaneously.
And then there's the first example of a "Groundhog Day" story: "Doubled and Redoubled", a short story by Malcolm Jameson that appeared in the February, 1941 issue of Unknown. Accidentally cursed by a witch, the protagonist endlessly repeats a "perfect" day, including a lucky bet, a promotion, a heroically foiled bank robbery, and a successful wedding proposal.
But for the most part, the time travel genre didn't really explore the idea of tampering with the past for the first fifty years, with most stories being more adventure-minded narratives such as H.G. Wells' The Time Machine and Armageddon 2419 A.D.. Or more Faustian representations, like Enoch Soames by Max Beerbohm, in which an obscure writer makes a deal with the Devil to be able to visit 1997 and read what history has written about him — which turns out not to be much.
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And then, at last, Robert Henlein's story "By His Bootstraps" was published in 1941. It involves a man who meets various future versions of himself, only to find that he is inevitably playing out the future that led to those versions coming back and meeting him.
And then there seems to have been another long period of radio silence, until 1952's A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury popularized the butterfly effect — step on a butterfly and change the past totally — and things took off from there.
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The following year saw the release of Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee, in which a time traveller from an alternate history manipulates the events of the Battle of Gettysburg to transform our future into his, and the year after saw Fredric Brown's quarter-of-a-page-long classic short story, "Experiment," which can be read in full here.
1955 saw the release of Asimov's The End of Eternity, which deals with a group of "Eternals" who travel through time making changes and safeguarding the future of humanity — except that there are centuries in the future where they can't visit, and after those centuries humanity appears to have been wiped out. The Eternals are traveling back to the past, to try and make sure history happens in the right way to ensure their existence — but it turns out that other time-travelers have other ideas.
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1955 also yielded William Tenn's The Discovery of Morniel Mathaway, about a historian who returns to the mid-20th century to study a fictitious artist, only to discover the he himself is forced to become that artist, and the future is a result of its interest in the past. Michael Moorcock repeated this premise with Jesus Christ in 1969's better-remembered Behold the Man. In 1956, Damon Knight published his short story "Extempore," about a New York dishwasher who learns to travel through time, only to discover that at a certain point, the universe loops back in on itself and repeats indefinitely.
Also in 1956, John Wyndham wrote the novella "Consider Her Ways," in which a woman wakes up in a dystopian future, 100 years after her time, thanks to a weird drug — and then she manages to find her way back to her own time. She vows to prevent the future she visited, but it's implied her actions may actually cause that future to come to pass. (And a similar notion, of a woman visiting a dystopian future through mysterious means, comes up in Marge Piercy's later novel Woman on the Edge of Time, although Piercy's protagonist also visits a utopian future.)
Fascinatingly, though somewhat unrelatedly, around this time, the Canadian incarnation of Howdy Doody introduced a character named Mr. X who travelled through time and space in his "Whatsis Box" to teach children about science and history. Sound familiar? The character was short-lived, however: The CBC received too many complaints from parents that he was frightening their children.
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In 1957, Robert Heinlein wrote The Door Into Summer, where a man travels back in time to get revenge, thus altering his future. And that led directly to 1959's All You Zombies, the first story to incorporate the idea that tampering with the past could cause someone to become their own mother and father.
In Walter Tevis' The Other End of the Line, from 1963, a time traveller mistakenly calls his own phone number, causing him to talk to himself. 1966's The Man from When by Dannie Plachta involves a man accidentally destroying the planet when he travels backward eighteen minutes.
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And then in 1973, Heinlein returned once again in Time Enough for Love to tell the story of man falling in love with his own mother. The same year, David Gerrold released The Man Who Folded Himself, about a man who uses a time belt for his own gain — and gets to know himself a lot better.
James P. Hogan's Thrice Upon a Time from 1980 wrote about the possibility of messages from the future deleting the timelines of the intended recipients – and 1981's classic X-Men story arc Days of Future's Past told the story of Rachel Summers, the biological daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey from another timeline who travels to the past to save her future, only to discover she cannot – the best she can do is create a new time line (a storyline repeated several years later on Dragon Ball Z).
This seems to be the end of trailblazing new concepts, at least in written fiction.
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But starting in the 1960s, television started to explore more weird concepts of time travel, some of them written by great prose science fiction authors. In the Twilight Zone episode "No Time Like the Past," Dana Andrews realizes he is unable to change the past, with disastrous results.
Harlan Ellison gave us the Outer Limits episode "Soldier" about a fighter from a dystopian future — which he claimed helped inspire the movie Terminator. And he also gave us Star Trek's time travel classic "City on the Edge of Forever," in which saving the life of a woman whose pacifism delays the United States' entry into World War II results in Starfleet not existing in the future.
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In Dark Shadows, there was a "warp in time" inside Collinwood's west wing, which would let you access one, or possibly many, parallel timelines.
In 1977's Fantastic Journey television show, which is essentially Lost, a mysterious island gathers people from the past, present and future with no escape.
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On television, there was also The Time Tunnel, and of course several Doctor Who stories featured people meeting themselves or changing the past somehow. Land of the Lost also dealt with changing the past a lot –- especially the season one finale and this episode.
And of course, every single episode of Voyagers! involved the characters altering timelines. And 1972's The Amazing Mr. Blunden involved children changing the past. 1975's Picnic at Hanging Rock heavily implies a time slip was involved, but it's ambiguous.
The series finale of Mighty Max, the tie-in animated series to the boys' version of Polly Pocket, ended with Max realizing he'd never be able to defeat Tim Curry's Skullmaster, and so he causes a time anomaly that locks the show into a continuous moebius strip — ending the series with its pilot episode, forever repeating itself.
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As for movies, this subgenre seemed largely untouched until the 1980's, which may be why the decade produced so many popular films that dealt with the subject. |
The full nuclear fuel cycle shows that nuclear is a renewable energy source, because the spent fuel can be reprocessed to recover unburned uranium and plutonium that can be fabricated into new reactor fuel. At present, the U.S. nuclear is once through, going from spent fuel to interim storage and then longer-term storage.
It would take 2 million grams of oil or 3 million grams of coal to equal the power contained in 1 gram of uranium fuel.2 Unlike oil and coal, nuclear fuel is recyclable and, in a breeder reactor, can actually produce more fuel than is used up! For these reasons, nuclear energy is by far the best means now available to power a modern industrial economy.
Nuclear power is a gift to humanity, and only the propaganda of Malthusian extremists, dedicated to stopping human progress and reducing the worlds population, has created public fear and skepticism.
The best way to overcome irrational fear is through knowledge. To this end, reviewed here is the process by which natural uranium ore is turned into fuel for a nuclear reactor, how it is used, and how it can be recycled, such that the reader will come to understand that there is really no such thing as nuclear waste.
The Nuclear Fuel Cycle
DOE
An overhead view of rows of centrifuge units at a U.S. enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio.
To understand the renewability of nuclear fission fuel, we have to look at the complete fuel cycle. At the beginning of the nuclear age, it was assumed that nations would complete the fuel cycleincluding the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel from reactors, to get as near to 100% use of the uranium fuel as possible. Here we very briefly review the seven steps of this cycle. Keep in mind that the brevity of description leaves out details of the complex chemical processes, which were initiated during the Manhattan Project and are still being improved on.
1. First, natural uranium is mined. There are enough sources of uranium worldwide for todays immediate needs, but once we begin an ambitious nuclear development program (to build 6,000 nuclear reactors in order to provide enough electricity to bring the entire world population up to a decent living standard), we would have to accelerate the development of fast breeder nuclear reactors, which produce more fuel than they consume in operation.
2. Next, the uranium is processed and milled into uranium oxide (U 3 O 8 ), called yellowcake, which is the raw material for fission fuel. Yellowcake became infamous in the political fabrication that Saddam Husseins Iraq was trying to import yellowcake from Niger, in order to use it for bomb-making.
It is basically natural uranium ore, which is crushed and processed by leaching (with acid or carbonate) to dissolve the uranium, which can then be extracted and concentrated to 75% uranium, in combination with ammonium or sodium-magnesium.
3. The concentrated uranium is then converted into uranium hexafluoride (UF 6 ), which is heated into a gas form suitable for enrichment.
Uranium Enrichment
4. Natural uranium has one primary isotope, U-238, which is not fissionable, and a much smaller amount of U-235, which fissions. Because most uranium (99.276%) is U-238, the uranium fuel must go through a process of enrichment, to increase the ratio of fissionable U-235 to the non-fissionable U-238 from about 0.7% to 3 to 4%. (Weapons uranium is enriched to about 93% U-235.)
The technology of enrichment was developed during the World War II Manhattan Project, when the object was to create highly enriched uranium (HEU) to be used in the atomic bomb. Civilian power reactors use mostly low-enriched uranium (LEU). (Canada has developed a type of reactor, the CANDU, which uses unenriched, natural uranium in combination with a heavy water moderator to produce fission.)
Frank Hoffman/DOE
The huge Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the first such facility in the world. The U-shaped building, constructed during the Manhattaan Project, began operation in 1945. Later, the facility was expanded to produce enriched uranium for plants around the world.
The gaseous diffusion method of enrichment, which is still used by the United States, was developed under the Manhattan Project. Uranium hexafluoride gas is pumped through a vast series of porous membranesthousands of miles of them. The molecules of the lighter isotope (U-235) pass through the membrane walls slightly faster than do the heavier isotope (U-238). When extracted, the gas has an increased content of U-235, which is fed into the next membrane-sieve, and the process is repeated until the desired enrichment is reached. Because the molecular speeds of the two uranium isotopes differ by only about 0.4%, each diffusion operation must be repeated 1,200 times.
The Manhattan Project devised this method of gaseous diffusion with incredible speed and secrecy. It was not finished in time to produce all the uranium for the uranium bomb dropped on Japan, but it produced most of the enriched uranium for the civilian and military programs in subsequent years. Although a successful method, it required a tremendous amount of energy and a huge physical structure to house the cascades of separate membranes. Four power plants were built in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to power the process, producing as much electric power as the consumption of the entire Soviet Union in 1939! Almost all the power consumed in the diffusion process is used to circulate and compress the uranium gas.
Technological pessimists take note: At the time the gaseous diffusion plant was being built, scientists had not yet figured out how to make a membrane to be used in the processbut they did it in time to make it work!
The centrifuge system, used in Europe and Japan, is 10 times as energy efficient. The strong centrifugal field of a rotating cylinder sends the heavier isotope in uranium hexafluoride to the outside of the cylinder, where it can be drawn off, while the U-235 diffuses to the inside of the cylinder. Because of the limitations of size of the centrifuge, many thousands of identical centrifuges, connected in a series called a cascade, are necessary to produce the required amounts of enriched uranium.
A centrifuge plant requires only about 4% of the power needed for a gaseous diffusion plant, and less water is needed for cooling.
Other methods of enrichment are possibleelectromagnetic separation, laser isotope separation, and biological methods.
Fabrication Into Fuel Rods
U.S. AEC
A cylinder of uranium hexaflouride enriched in U-235 is readied for shipment to a conversion facility, where it will be converted to uranium dioxide for use in fuel rods. The cylinder weighs 2.5 tons. Westinghouse Photo
A partially completed nuclear fuel assembly. The long tubes guide the control rods in the reactor, which regulated its operation. The grids that hold the guide sheaths also align the fuel rods containing uranium pettets. When the fuel rods are inserted through the grids, parallel to the guide sheath, the fuel assembly will be completed.
5. Once the enriched uranium is separated from the depleted uranium, it is converted from UF 6 into uranium dioxide and fabricated into uniform pellets. The pellets are loaded into long tubes made out of a zirconium alloy, which captures very few neutrons. This cladding prevents the release of fission products and also transfers the heat produced by the nuclear fission process in the fuel. The fuel is then transported to the reactor site.
Different types of reactors require different designs of fuel rods and fuel bundles. In a light water reactor, the fuel rods are inserted into the reactor to produce fission, which creates steam, which turns a turbine that creates electricity.
The fuel for the next-generation high-temperature gas-cooled reactors is different: The enriched uranium is formed into tiny pebbles which are coated with graphite and special ceramics that serve as individual containment buildings for the fuel pebbles.
6. Fuel rods are used for about four and a half years before replacement, and usually a reactor replaces about a third of its fuel at one time. The fuel is considered spent when the concentration of fissile uranium-235 becomes less than 1%. When removed from the reactor, the spent fuel is put into cooling pools, which shield it as its short-lived nuclides decay. Within a year, the total radioactivity level is only about 12% of what it was when the fuel rod came out of the reactor.
At present, the United States does not reprocess spent fuel, and so the spent fuel rods sit in cooling pools at the reactor. After the spent fuel has cooled, it is stored in dry casks, waitingfor burial or reprocessing. |
Here Are All the Hallmark Channel Christmas Movies You Need to Watch This Year
Look, we know it’s still fall. We’re still working on our Halloween costumes and milking every last bit of pumpkin spice errthing (well, mostly errthing) out of these comfortably cool months. But before you know it, it’ll be Gilmore Girls premiere weekend, aka Thanksgiving, and after that, of course, comes the most wonderful time of the year: Christmas.
The Hallmark Channel has outdone itself with over 20 (!) original Christmas flicks this year, bringing on some heavy hitters like Fuller House faves Candace Cameron Bure and Lori Loughlin, Lacey Chabert, Kristen Davis and many more.
Starting this Saturday, October 29 (yep, before Halloween!), with the premiere of A Wish for Christmas, the Hallmark Channel turns into a full-fledged all-day, all-night Christmas movie channel, so if you’re someone who’s not fond of seasons being celebrated earlier than they maybe should, this is not for you. But if you’re like us and can’t wait to embrace all things Christmas, read on for highlights from the massive movie lineup, and have your calendar ready for some serious couch-time scheduling!
1. October 29 — A Wish for Christmas: Lacey Chabert plays Sara Shaw, a woman who needs some help from Santa to have more bravery and speak her mind at work — but the wish only lasts for 48 hours. Will Sara learn to stand up for herself even without the help of magic? We have a feeling that might be a “yes.”
2. November 5 — The Mistletoe Promise: Jaime King and Luke Macfarlane play strangers who meet serendipitously and who have one thing in common: They’re both Scrooges about Christmas. As they enter a pact to help each other through the season, their fake coupledom might end up being more than business.
3. November 12 — Every Christmas Has a Story: Lori Loughlin ALSO plays a Christmas cynic who, while on air as a broadcaster, slips up and shares her feelings with viewers. As she gets forced on assignment to try to rebuild her image, she might just end up loving the season after all.
4. November 13 — Christmas Cookies: This one centers on the classic story line of a giant corporate company trying to shut down a mom-and-pop shop (in this case a cookie company), and all the changes of heart that happen within.
5. November 19 — My Christmas Dream: Danica McKellar plays a retail manager with dreams to be promoted to the Paris store. She has to impress her boss with a store display first, and ends up falling for her old co-worker who she enlists to help. Will she stay or will she go?!
6. November 20 — A December Bride: Jessica Lowndes plays aspiring interior designer Layla who is dreading her cousin’s upcoming wedding to her own ex-fiancé. When she ends up begrudgingly going to the wedding with the guy who introduced the bride and groom, sparks fly.
7. November 23 — Christmas in Homestead: Taylor Cole plays a famous actress who, while on location in the Christmas-obsessed town of Homestead, Iowa, finds an unlikely romance with the local inn keeper and single dad, Matt. The small-town life might end up being more fulfilling than she thought.
8. November 24 — Christmas List: Alicia Witt plays Isobel, a woman obsessed with creating the picture-perfect Christmas. But when her boyfriend bails and she’s tempted by a new romance, she learns to embrace the unexpected.
9. November 25 — Journey Back to Christmas: Candace Cameron Bure plays Hannah, a WWII-era nurse who finds herself transported to the year 2016. In her journeys she learns that the true meaning of Christmas is timeless.
10. November 26 — A Heavenly Christmas: Kristen Davis plays a workaholic who meets an untimely end and finds herself learning to become a Christmas angel in Heaven. She’s not great at it off the bat, but over time, she learns she’s actually pretty good at helping other people.
11. November 27 — Broadcasting Christmas: As two reporters (Melissa Joan Hart and Dean Cain!) duke it out for a coveted hosting job, they must spend the two weeks leading up to Christmas outdoing each other by finding the best Christmas stories to report on. But in so doing, the people they meet and the stories they hear give them some perspective on what’s really important — and it isn’t just a job.
12. December 3 — A Dream of Christmas: Nikki DeLoach plays Penny, a woman who isn’t content with her life. When she wakes up one morning in an alternate reality and with everything she THOUGHT she wanted, she quickly learns to appreciate what she had — and now she’s got to get it back.
13. December 4 — Looks Like Christmas: Two single parents duke it out over who will run their children’s school’s Christmas play, only to have to learn to work together and maybe — JUST MAYBE — fall in love. We know you didn’t see that one coming.
14. December 10 — A Nutcracker Christmas: Lilly’s biggest dream comes true when she lands the lead in The Nutcracker. But when she receives the tragic news that her sister has died, her world falls apart.
15. December 11 — Meant to Be: Maddie is an all-business marketing exec whose car troubles lead her to the holiday-obsessed town of Christmas Valley. While there she meets strangers who feel like family and starts questioning what it really is she wants from life.
16. December 17 — My Christmas Love: Okay, this one sounds super fun. When a hopeless romantic starts anonymously receiving the gifts from 12 Days of Christmas at her door, she and her squad set out to find the mystery suitor and see if it’s too good to be true.
17. December 18 — Sleigh Bells Ring: The woman in charge of her town’s Christmas parade gets a chance to use Santa’s REAL LIFE SLEIGH in the parade. Obviously, this sleigh has special powers and it leads her to all sorts of magic, like the Christmas spirit and also a handsome man.
18. December 25 — When the Heart Calls Christmas: This Christmas-day flick tells the heartwarming story of a town coming together to give those less fortunate a happy holiday.
19. January 1 — A Rose for Christmas: Rachel Boston plays Andy, who needs to take the reigns from her sick dad and finish his client’s float for the Rose Parade. She’s stuck working with a stodgy businessman, but, spoiler alert: Maybe they’re more compatible than it seems.
Which Christmas movie are you most excited about? Let us know over @BritandCo!
(Photos via Hallmark Channel) |
History, Structure, and Literary Form of Deuteronomy
The book of Deuteronomy, like many of the Bible’s books, was composed in stages and by different authors living in different historical eras. Despite this fact, Deuteronomy displays a remarkable unity in its style, theology, and message. This is largely because the various revisions and additions that the book of Deuteronomy underwent were done by a specific scribal school, which we shall label as the Deuteronomic school, and its authors the Deuteronomists. This scribal guild was active during a lengthy period of time, from the late monarchal period of the 7th century BC, through the exilic period of the 6th century BC, and into the Persian period of the 5th century BC. Thus the making of the book of Deuteronomy was an accumulative process of increasing redactional activity that transpired over three centuries. Because these three centuries witnessed radically different historical crises, the Deuteronomic scribes freely amended the text in various ways so that it reflected the current concerns, beliefs, and needs of the communities for which they wrote. By far the most visible of the editorial changes made to the text are those done by the exilic Deuteronomist, who had to adjust the views of the pre-exilic or monarchal Deuteronomist in order to have the text now reflect and be answerable to the current historical reality that plagued the exilic community— that Jerusalem was destroyed, the land of Judah was no longer their possession, and its people were living in exile.
The book of Deuteronomy was composed around a core or base text which now makes up the content of chapters 12-26. This textual composition, identified as “the scroll of the covenant,” was allegedly found during renovations to the temple under the reign of Josiah, Judah’s king from 640-609 BC. As we shall see, this text has striking affinities with the religious and political policies implemented by Josiah as depicted in 2 Kings 22-23, and was most likely used and/or written to legitimate and endorse those policies.
There is still scholarly debate as to when this scroll was written. Some trace its roots back to a Levite circle in the north, at Shiloh, who expressed deep concerns about Israel’s lack of loyalty to Yahweh and its cultic practices worshiping other deities of Canaan. If this is the case then this scroll would have made its way to Jerusalem after the destruction of Israel in 722 BC and there it would have received additional reworking and editing by the scribes of Hezekiah in the late 8th century BC as well as those of Josiah’s court in the last quarter of the 7th century BC. Others, however, see Deuteronomy 12-26 as a product of Jerusalem scribes who reused the material of the north to create a composition that buttressed the religious beliefs and ideology of Judah under king Josiah. In any case, to this base text, Deuteronomy 12-26, later editorial revisions and additions were appended to have the text reflect the changing concerns and needs of the community it addressed or merely those of the scribal school it represented.
In its present form, the book of Deuteronomy reveals that its core text once had two different introductions, each of which is still present in the text as we have it (Deut 1:1-3:28 and 4:44-11:32). Each of these introductions was most likely penned as prologues to the core text, “the scroll of the covenant,” to give it a narrative and historical frame—that is, to place the stipulations enumerated in Deuteronomy 12-26 in the context of Moses’s final speech on the plains of Moab just prior to his death and Israel’s invasion and occupation of the promised land. The present form of the book of Deuteronomy also has two blessings and curses sections (Deut 27:11-28:14 and 28:15-68), each one intended as a separate conclusion to the laws stipulated in the core text. As we will see, these once independent conclusions were written in two drastically different historical eras that left their imprints on the text—a pre-exlic and post-exilic version. By far the most notable textual revisions to the text are those added after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC, where “history” had to be rewritten in order to reflect and explain this catastrophic event which left Jerusalem desolate, Yahweh’s temple destroyed, and the Israelites in exile. Various appendixes were also added to produce the form of the book of Deuteronomy as we now posses it. Both the Song of Moses (Deut 32) and the Blessing of Moses (Deut 33) are non-Deuteronomic traditions that were later worked into the book.
The editing and rewriting of the book of Deuteronomy ended sometime in the 5th century BC and most likely in Babylon where many of the royal aristocracy, scribes, and priests lived during and even after the exile of 587 BC. There, the Deuteronomic scribes reworked the traditions that were handed down to them and updated them to reflect their current exilic condition and to express their hopes of returning to the land. A tradition now preserved in the book of Nehemiah, which was written in the 4th century BC, states that Ezra, a Levitical scribe of the mid 5th century BC, brought with him from Babylon “the scroll of the torah of Moses” (Neh 8:1). This scroll was most probably an earlier edition of what is now the book of Deuteronomy. The 5th and 4th centuries BC also witnessed the compilation of the Pentateuch, or the five scrolls of which Deuteronomy is the last “book.” Thus at some point in time the Deuteronomic scroll was annexed to another edited collection of scrolls, the JEP text, which was placed as a prologue to the Deuteronomic scroll.
These 5 scrolls, the Pentateuch, were kept in the temple precinct and when in the mid 3rd century BC they were translated into Greek, the title “Deuteronomy” was giving to the last of these scrolls. We should bear in mind that this title reflects how this “book” was viewed within its now larger context—that is the 4 “books” that preceded it. Deuteronomy in Greek means “the second law” and its Greek translators perceived Moses’ speech on the plains of Moab—Deuteronomy’s narrative context—as a second giving of the laws. In other words, the story spanning the five scrolls—the byproduct of the redactional activity of the 5th and 4th centuries BC that brought together the textual sources J, E, P, and D—told of two givings of the law: the Horeb event preserved in the Elohist source, now parts of Exodus 19-24 and 32-33, and the giving of the law on the plains of Moab in the Deuteronomic source. Thus the Greek translators logically named the last scroll “Deuteronomy,” the second law. As we shall see, however, from the Deuteronomist’s perspective this would have been utterly inaccurate; for there was only one giving of the laws and commandments of Yahweh, and that happened on the plains of Moab as our author repeatedly insists (#270). In other words, when this Hebrew scroll, originally named after its first word, “debarim” (“these words”), was translated to Greek and placed 5th in a sequence of edited and reworked scrolls, this new narrative framework and storyline demanded that this last “book” be understood and interpreted as a second giving of the laws, that is “Deuteronomy.” The combined narrative now presents the giving of the law as happening twice, well actually three times if we include the Priestly writers reworking of this tradition (#252). Thus in a bizarre irony of literary invention, the title of this book, “Deuteronomy” or the second giving of the law, contradicts the Deuteronomist’s own narrative construct which adamantly stipulated that there was only one giving of the law. In fact, the title “Deuteronomy” subverts the very message of the Deuteronomist—that the law was not delivered at Horeb but on the plains of Moab (#204). But wait a minute, Exodus does relate the giving of the law at Horeb/Sinai. How does the Deuteronomist refute this? As we shall see on numerous occasions, this is merely one way that the Deuteronomist himself subverts his earlier sources. And in fact, this is exactly what the Bible is—a series of textual rewritings or later interpretive frameworks that continually reinterpret and subvert earlier texts and traditions, both of which were collected together, codified, and labeled the Bible by later generations of scribes and readers.
Concerning its literary form, Deuteronomy presents itself as a set of orations or farewell speeches delivered by Moses on the plans of Moab shortly before he dies. In other words, the speech form is the Deuteronomist’s mode of communication; he uses speeches as a literary device to disseminate, and even authorize, his message. In the ancient world, historiography, like that of the Deuteronomist, largely entailed crafting speeches and placing them in the mouths of great personalities and ancestors of the past. This literary technique was used to lend authority to the particular ideology and aims of an author by placing that ideology on the lips of a heroic ancestor, even a deity. The speech form thus allowed the Deuteronomist to express his own ideology and beliefs by making Moses the mouthpiece for them. Indeed, the Deuteronomist presents Moses as authoring the very text he is writing. We will see the Priestly writer do the same thing when he sets out to change the texts that are his sources. This was typical practice in antiquity and can be seen in other ancient Near Eastern texts, Greek historiography, the writings of Josephus, and even Acts and the Gospels. The ancestral figure is used as an authoritative mouthpiece to promote the views and beliefs of a particular author or scribal school. In fact, this sort of literary technique does not stop with using Moses as a mouthpiece to express the particular theological positions and ideologies of our various biblical authors, but extends to the use of Yahweh as well. Many of the contradictions below and in the following chapters were created when later writers or editors changed, altered, or outright contradicted something Moses or Yahweh said in an earlier literary source. By forces then unseen to these authors, a later generation of scribes who sought to preserve both textual traditions compiled these once separate texts together to make the Torah, and left behind, as it were, the contradictions that are currently in the final form of what has come to be labeled as the Bible.
The speech form also allowed the Deuteronomist to subvert his earlier sources without raising an alarm. In their presentation, Moses’ introductory speeches (Deut 1-11) appear to re-narrate past events, the stories found in the JE tradition, as if to bring the audience up to the current point in the narrative, the encampment on the plains of Moab. But these speeches do more than simply retell material found in the Deuteronomist’s older sources. The literary device of having Moses re-narrate the past allows the Deuteronomist to shape, alter, and even contradict his sources in an unperceivable manner. This enables the Deuteronomist to re-tell “history,” or rather the historical narrative, in drastically different manners so that Moses now becomes the mouthpiece for the Deuteronomist’s own views, beliefs, and ideology, while nonetheless presenting this modified re-telling as just that—a re-telling! In other words, the Deuteronomist interjects new and contradictory material into the traditional narratives of the Elohist and Yahwist texts but in presenting this new material as a re-telling of previous events from Moses’ own mouth, he presents his innovations under the guise of re-narrated tradition. In fact, in the Deuteronomist’s earlier sources, Moses’ death has already occurred! Yet to substantiate his own views, the Deuteronomist must have Moses deliver a final speech on the plains of Moab. This is done by inserting the content that now makes up the book of Deuteronomy before the narration of Moses’ death (see #300).
Style, Vocabulary, and Message
Anyone who has ever read through the Pentateuch immediately notices that the book of Deuteronomy’s tone, style, vocabulary, theological message, and the mode of delivering that message are completely unique and different from what precedes it. Hebraists have remarked that the Deuteronomic style is not found in any biblical literature prior to the 7th century BC, and, apart from the Priestly literature of the post-exilic period, it is abundantly found in texts written after the 7th century BC. In fact, one might confidently claim that the voice and message of the Hebrew Bible in general can be boiled down to that of the Deuteronomist. It is the Deuteronomist’s voice that speaks the loudest out of the cacophony of voices represented in the Hebrew canon. This style displays itself through a unique set of phrases, theological emphases, and rhetorical devices. Phrases that are unique to the Deuteronomic literature include: “Yahweh your god”; “the place where Yahweh sets his name”; “listen O Israel!”; “listen to the laws and the judgements”; “listen to the voice of Yahweh”; “be watchful so that you’ll live”; be watchful to do the commandments that I command”; “be watchful that you do not forget Yahweh”; “lest you forget Yahweh”; “to go after other gods”; “to turn to other gods”; “to worship other gods”; “so that you may keep the land”; “so that you may live”; “that your days may long endure”; “that you may fare well upon the land”; “that you may prolong your days in the land”; “so that you days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land”; and “love Yahweh your god with all your heart and with all your soul.”1 As can be seen from this brief example, the law, the land, and sole allegiance to Yahweh are central concerns for the Deuteronomist.
Other themes and phraseology unique to the Deuteronomic corpus include its unyielding commandment to destroy every cultic altar, statue, or pillar throughout the land (Deut 7:5, 25; 12:2). There is only one altar and that is located at “the place where Yahweh sets his name,” Jerusalem. Along with the destruction of altars, the Deuteronomist advocates a pitiless annihilation of all the indigenous peoples of Canaan (Deut 2:34; 3:6; 7:2, 16, 24). This theology, more idealistic than historical, was created because according to the Deuteronomist the reasons behind why Israel lost its land to the Assyrians in 722 BC was because it worshiped, alongside Yahweh, other deities of Canaan at unsanctioned places (see below). This is the backdrop to the Deuteronomist’s exhortation to “be watchful lest you forget Yahweh” and his incessant use of such phrases as “to go after other gods,” “to turn to other gods,” and “to worship other gods.” Conversely, to love Yahweh your god with all your heart and soul is also a theme unique to Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic literature. In fact, Deuteronomy is the only text of the Bible that commands loving Yahweh. It is an expression of religious loyalty in the face of the immanent threat imposed by the presence of other Canaanite deities. In addition to this very specific vocabulary and theology, Deuteronomy’s style often includes the use of repetition, redundant infinitives, and other forms of parallelism. Common expressions include: “my commandment which I am commanding”; “inherit the land you are passing over to inherit”; “the work which Yahweh worked”; “keep what is to be kept”; “commanding you to do”; and “his charge and his statues, and his judgments.”
Deuteronomy’s unique theological message and emphases—that Yahweh alone should be worshiped and at Jerusalem only, that one should maintain a strict allegiance to Yahweh alone expressed as love for Yahweh with all one’s heart and soul, an unyielding observance of Yahweh’s laws and commandments, especially those prohibiting graven or sculpted images and the worship of any deity at unsanctioned altars, and exhortations to completely destroy the indigenous population of Canaan—are intimately attached to what we might label as a theology of the land. Over and over again the Deuteronomic scribe has Moses or Yahweh express the importance of observing the laws, commandments, and precepts so that the Israelites may live and keep the land or prolong their days on the land. Failure to do so, the Deuteronomist claims, will unhesitatingly result in death and the loss of their land. Even though the Deuteronomist creates a narrative where such warnings transpire, narratively speaking, in the archaic past, this theology of the land was actually shaped by the historical events of the late 8th century BC. When the Assyrians came in and annihilated the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC, but left the southern kingdom of Judah untouched (at least for a time being), a theological interpretation of history was needed to make sense of these events. It must be borne in mind that the biblical scribes were not recording historical events per se, but rather creating a powerful historicized theology. And that historicized theology was written by the Deuteronomic scribes of the South. Moreover, the Deuteronomist used this occasion—the fall of Israel—to write an immensely influential piece of propaganda, which in short stated that Yahweh destroyed the northern kingdom because they forsook his laws and commandments, and conversely had chosen the southern kingdom to rule. As we will see below, Josiah used this theology to legitimate his ideological program of reconquering the northern territories lost when the Assyrians retreated from the region, and to assert political and religious domination through the centralization of the cult at Jerusalem. So the theological interpretation of the fall and destruction of Israel was that this was Yahweh’s doing. And therefore, theologically speaking, it must have been the direct result of not obeying Yahweh’s laws and commandments. Needless to say, this same theological lense which the southern Deuteronomists used to condemn the northern Israelites and to furthermore proclaim that Yahweh had as a result chosen them to rule, since the empirical evidence was Judah still possessed its land, was turned around and applied to Judah by the exilic Deuteronomist just two decades later when the southern kingdom fell to the Babylonians in 587 BC.
Lastly, the book of Deuteronomy is the first book of the Bible to make reference to its own textuality. In other words, and excluding the later work of the Priestly writer, the rest of the Pentateuch’s literature most likely had its roots in oral tradition. And even though the book of Deuteronomy’s narrative context is a speech given to the Israelites by Moses on the plains of Moab, it nevertheless refers to the legal content of this speech (Deut 12-26) as a written text, “the scroll of the law (torah).” As such Deuteronomy is the only book of the Pentateuch to use and to refer to its own textuality as “this torah,” this law, this instruction. In fact, Deuteronomy 31:9-12 claims that “this torah” was written by Moses himself. As we shall see however this is the work of an author living in the 7th century BC and writing to address the concerns and historical circumstances of the people of that time period. Although the Hebrew torah means “teaching” or “instruction,” it is quite possible that Deuteronomy 31:9-12 refers not to a specific teaching or instruction, but rather to all the teachings or laws now contained in Deuteronomy 12-26. Still, a later author or editor of Deuteronomy may have penned this verse to assert that the entire scroll of “this torah” was penned by Moses. And indeed this was exactly how later tradition was to understand these verses. Moreover, when the Pentateuch was formed in the 4th century BC, all the five scrolls were then referred to as the Torah of Moses, through this Deuteronomic influence.
The Yahweh alone movement
The Deuteronomic literature advocates a unique theological position that has often been referred to as the ‘Yahweh alone movement.’ Textual expressions of this ideology include: “Know that Yahweh alone is god; there is none beside him” (4:35); “Yahweh alone is god in heaven and on earth below; there is none beside him” (4:39); and “Yahweh our god is one, Yahweh alone” (6:4). It is here in this movement that scholars identify the origins of Israelite monotheism, or monolatry as some critics prefer, that is the sole worship of one god. In other words, Israelite monotheism had its roots in the 7th century BC at the tail end of Israel’s monarchy, and not in some archaic Mosaic past as portrayed by the biblical sources. It is, rather, the sole creation of the Deuteronomist. How do scholars arrive at this conclusion?
Contrary to the book of Deuteronomy’s divine proclamation “to exterminate,” “devour,” “put an end to,” and “utterly destroy” all the peoples of Canaan and their shrines and altars, the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings present a different picture: the Israelites are portrayed as repeatedly practicing Canaanite ritual practices and worshiping Yahweh and the gods of Canaan interchangeably at the high places, and even in the temple. This in itself, we must recall, is completely contradictory to Deuteronomy’s strict legislation of a single altar and place of worship at Jerusalem (#322). More specifically, the books of Kings openly recognize that the worship of Yahweh along with other Canaanite deities at local altars and high places was a common and repeated occurrence in both the northern and the southern kingdoms from Solomon to Josiah. These types of cultic practices were labeled as apostasy by the Deuteronomist. Even the good kings of Judah, those “who did good in the eyes of Yahweh,” left the altars of the high places with their Canaanite, and Yahwistic, cultic practices undisturbed. All this was to change however with Josiah’s religious reforms in the last third of the 7th century BC. Josiah, we are informed, was the only king of Judah to have destroyed the high places and to have centralized the cult of Yahweh in Jerusalem as part of a systematic religious reform (see below). The ideology behind this religious reform may be identified as the Yahweh alone movement.
It is not surprising that these two programs are the two essential features of the book of Deuteronomy. That is, part and parcel to this new Yahweh alone movement were the systematic destruction of all local shrines and altars where Yahweh and the other gods of Canaan were worshiped and the implementation of one authoritative cultic center at Jerusalem. These two religious innovations are only spoken of for one king in the monarchic period, king Josiah. It is true that Hezekiah, his scribes, and other court officials may have ushered in the Yahweh alone movement at the end of the 8th century BC and implemented a program to centralize the cult of Yahweh at Jerusalem as well, but only Josiah is accredited by the Deuteronomist with destroying the high places. In other words, before Josiah’s religious reforms of the late 7th century BC—legitimated by the text that expressed that ideological program, Deuteronomy—local shrines and altars, rooftop shrines, and cultic practices at the so-called high places to both Yahweh and other Canaanite deities were all part of the popular religious landscape of Israel and Judah. Yet the biblical authors, the Deuteronomists in particular, label this old popular tradition as apostasy. And we, its readers, have unknowingly bought into the Deuteronomist’s propagandistic views.
It is important to remember that the religious program propounded in the book of Deuteronomy to worship Yahweh alone and furthermore at Jerusalem alone was the product of an elite religious guild, educated Levites who may have been far removed from the religious practices of the people on a local level. Indeed, as some scholars have suggested, they may even have misunderstood local religious practices all together.2 In either case, the portrait they paint in the biblical literature is not a pretty one. Furthermore, according to the theological interpretive lens through which these elite scribes viewed history, it was these popularistic cultic practices that incurred Yahweh’s wrath which led to the people’s destruction by foreign superpowers in the region; two historical events were particularly interpreted through this theological lens: the destruction of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BC, and the destruction of Judah, Jerusalem, and the temple by the Babylonians in 587 BC. It is no wonder that the Deuteronomist labeled these popularistic practices as apostasy—an apostasy created by the Deuteronomist as a means to scapegoat the real historical causes of each one of these destructions and, as the theology dictated, to accredit them to Yahweh himself. It was in all intents and purposes a way, a theological way, of making sense of the destruction and loss of land occasioned by the Assyrians and Babylonians, whose real and historical reasons for their brutal invasion and annihilation of both Israel and Judah respectively were that each of the kings decided to stop paying tribute to their foreign overlords.3
Yet contrary to the Deuteronomist’s derogatory and damning view of these sorts of popularistic religious practices, there is evidence from the Bible itself, archaeology, and inscriptions dug up throughout the whole monarchal period that make a rather strong case for understanding such practices as normative religious practices. It was how religion was practiced by the Israelites up to the religious reforms prompted by Hezekiah’s scribes and the Josianic Deuteronomists, who propounded a new religious movement, the Yahweh alone movement, and legitimated that movement by textually retrojecting it into the past as the ideal and pure state of Israelite religion as it was intended and as it had been practiced in the archaic past. Archaeologists Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman have written extensively on this topic:
The existence of high places and other forms of ancestral and household god worship was not—as the books of Kings imply—apostasy from an earlier, purer faith. It was part of the timeless tradition of the hill country settlers of Judah who worshipped Yahweh along with a variety of gods and goddesses known or adapted from the cults of neighboring peoples. Yahweh, in short, was worshipped in a wide variety of ways—and sometime pictured as having a heavenly entourage.4
The archaeological as well as biblical evidence for this widely accepted claim among archaeologists are first: numerous bull figurines and fertility goddesses have been unearthed at every late monarchic site in Judah, indicating a widespread and normative syncretic cultic practice across Israel. Second, there have been a number of inscriptions found in sites from the 8th century BC archaeological layer with the formulaic expression, “Yahweh of Sameria and his Asherah.” In Canaanite religious lore, Asherah was the consort of the high god El. Yahweh eventually came to be described in similar terms as El, and even apparently adopted his consort Asherah.5 Other inscriptions have additionally been unearthed that mention Yahweh along side of El and Baal. In the cultic sphere, the worship of El, Baal, and Yahweh were indistinguishable. Bull iconography was likewise associated with El, Baal, and Yahweh. Third, there is even biblical evidence that some sort of syncretic cult of Yahweh and other Canaanite deities flourished in the monarchal period in Jerusalem. The prophetic literature, although advocating a Yahweh alone policy, clearly suggests that Yahweh was being worshiped at Jerusalem together with Baal, Asherah, and even the deities of Israel’s neighbors (see 1 Kings 11:5; 2 Kings 23:13; Jer 11:13; Ezek 8). Noteworthy as well, we are told that Josiah removed many of these deities’ cultic figures from Yahweh’s temple when he started his religious reforms in the late 7th century BC (2 Kgs 23:4-5). The point is that none of the earlier sources preserved in the biblical literature criticize or deem these practices as inappropriate until the Deuteronomist writes his history in the second half of the 7th century BC. Given this evidence, together with the Deuteronomist’s strong polemic against such religious practices, scholars have come to conclude that this syncretic form of worship was an older normative tradition prior to the elitist Yahweh alone movement of the Deuteronomists. With the emergence of the Yahweh alone movement in the late 8th century BC, however, this age-old religious practice was condemned as apostasy by 7th century BC Deuteronomic authors. To cite Finkelstein once more: “What can only be called an extraordinary outpouring of retrospective theology, the new centralized kingdom of Judah and the Jerusalem-centered worship of Yahweh was read back into Israelite history as the way things should always have been.”6 In short, this was the intention of the book of Deuteronomy.
The exclusive allegiance to Yahweh, and Yahweh alone, is best voiced throughout Deuteronomy in terms of the covenant. In fact the book of Deuteronomy is the covenantal document par excellence that defines this allegiance and stipulates the conditions of the allegiance as well as its punishments (curses) if the covenantal demands are broken. On the flip side of this demand for sole loyalty to Yahweh and his covenant is the systematic program to utterly destroy the Canaanites. “You shall doom them to destruction. You shall grant them no terms and you shall not spare them” (7:2); “you shall devour all the peoples whom Yahweh your god delivers to you. You shall show them no pity” (7:16). This utter extermination of all the peoples of Canaan coincides with Josiah’s 7th century BC religious reform of destroying all local altars and other non-Yahwistic altars, as defined by the Deuteronomic ideology promulgated from Jerusalem. This is merely one way in which the text of Deuteronomy supported and legitimated the ideological program of Josiah in centralizing the cult of Yahweh around one shrine located in Jerusalem and exterminating all other Yahwistic and non-Yahwistic cultic sites. In reality the holy war against the Canannites and the divine decree to utterly exterminate them never happened. It was an idealistic program meant, theoretically, to eradicate the root or causes of apostasy: Canaanite cultic altars and statues. In practice, however, this never happened. Indeed many scholars have wondered if it ever happened under Josiah’s reign since once again the archaeological record indicates uninterrupted layers of cultic figurines and graven images throughout the monarchal period, even through Josiah’s 7th century BC reforms.
The Deuteronomic Covenant as Loyalty Oath between Sovereign and Vassal
A prominent feature of the book of Deuteronomy that has supported its 8th to 7th century BC date of composition is its similarities with Assyrian vassal treaties of the same period. Professor Moshe Weinfeld, who devoted much of his career to the book of Deuteronomy, has convincingly noted several similarities between the Deuteronomist’s presentation of the covenant and the Assyrian vassal treaties of the 8th and 7th centuries BC. In fact, it would seem that the Deuteronomist modeled his covenant between Yahweh and his people in both form and content on the Assyrian vassal treaty, which would have been familiar to court scribes of this time period, since indeed both Israel and Judah were vassal states to their Assyrian overlords. Thus, according to Weinfeld and other biblical scholars, Deuteronomy is basically a loyalty oath between its sovereign, Yahweh, and his vassal, Israel. It transfers the strictly political Assyrian loyalty oath articulated in the vassal treaties of the 8th and 7th centuries BC into a religious oath expressing complete devotion and loyalty to one god.
In form the presentation of the Deuteronomic covenant and the Assyrian vassal treaties display remarkable similarity. The vassal treaty is a pact, covenant, or loyalty oath between a foreign overlord and the petty states that he has conquered. It stipulates the conditions of the treaty or pact between sovereign and his tributary state or vassal, as well as what may befall the vassal state if it breaks the loyalty oath. Conversely, the vassal state is under the protection and administration of its sovereign provided that the stipulations of the treaty are kept. This basic outline is followed by the Deuteronomist in presenting the covenantal oath between Yahweh and his people. For example, both documents commence with a historical prologue that reiterates a previous generations or ancestors commitment to the oath. Both recall whether its ancestors were loyal or rebellious, and if loyal attempt to reiterate the terms of the oath on the precedent of the ancestors. Next is a list of the actual stipulations or commandments of the treaty; this is equivalent to Deuteronomy 12-26. Then both documents invoke witnesses: the gods, earth and heaven, or even the ancestors. Following the invocation of witnesses, whose sole role is to bear witness to the vassal’s assent to the covenant/treaty stipulations, comes the listing of blessings and curses. The blessings are those beneficial things accorded to the vassal by the sovereign on account of its allegiance, the most primary being keeping the land; while the curses are the threats of what will happen if the covenant or treaty stipulations are forsaken. There are even striking similarities between the Deuteronomist’s curses, placed on the lips of his god, and the those uttered by the Assyrian overlord in the vassal treaties. Finally, both treaty and Deuteronomic covenant end with a decree to place the document in the sanctuary at the god’s feet and to have it periodically read and assented to by the people. Thus in both cases, the emphasis is placed on the perpetual validity of the treaty/covenant through subsequent generations.
The Deuteronomic literature is the only literature of the Hebrew Bible that commands the people to love their god “with all their heart and soul.” Love, as critics have noticed, is the language of loyalty in the ancient Near Eastern political arena. Thus when a sovereign demands loyalty, the vassal often responds claiming that he will love the king as himself. Weinfeld has argued that the Deuteronomic expression to love Yahweh “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” corresponds to the way political loyalty is depicted in the vassal treaties.7 The stipulation demanding exclusive loyalty to one king in political treaties is strikingly similar to the stipulation demanding exclusive loyalty to one god as portrayed by the Deuteronomist. The Deuteronomic scribe merely transfers that love from the political to the religious sphere.
This exclusive loyalty and the negative outcome for those who breech this exclusivity is pronounced the clearest in Deuteronomy 13, where a citizen who even utters the name of other deities and suggests that they too should be propitiated is to be immediately stoned to death. In this context, the political undertones of exclusive loyalty come through; it is an act of sedition to breech that exclusivity. This is precisely the manner by which the Deuteronomist judged the earlier monarchs of Judah and Israel. Those who due to geopolitical forces beyond their control were coerced into signing vassal treaties with Egypt, Assyria, or Babylon were viewed by the Deuteronomist as unloyal to Yahweh, who, according to our author, demanded exclusive allegiance. Indeed that meant no treaty or covenantal relationship with any other nation or sovereign other than Yahweh himself. Look, for example, how the Deuteronomist presents Hezekiah, Josiah, and their contrary, Manasseh, in 2 Kings 18-23. This exclusivity is indicative of the Yahweh alone movement in general, and even spurs martyrdom movements in later time periods (see Daniel).
Another common feature found between the vassal treaty and the biblical covenant is the reason ascribed for evils befalling a city. If evil, a catastrophe, or even annihilation by a foreign regional power, befalls your city, in a theology of retrospection this is accredited to the violation of the covenantal/treaty stipulations. “Why is it that such evil has befallen Arabia? Because we did not observe the solemn treaty of the god Ashur” states one ancient source. A Babylonian cylinder seal of the 6th century BC also expresses this same theological interpretation. The destruction of Babylon by the Persians in 539 BC is attributed by the scribe to the providence and will of Marduk, who raised up Cyrus to destroy the Babylonians because they had forsaken his will and commandments. This retrospective theology can be found throughout the ancient Near East. The biblical scribes were no different; they shaped their own literary traditions from this larger ancient Near Eastern cultural perspective. Both the fall of Israel in 722 BC and that of Judah in 587 BC were attributed to Yahweh’s doing because the people forsook the stipulations in the covenant. This theology is most apparent in the book of Deuteronomy and other Deuteronomistic literature, including the books of Kings and Jeremiah. Thus even when a nation was utterly destroyed by a more powerful foe, the vanquished nation, whether Israel, Moab, Babylon, or Egypt, theologically explained the catastrophe as a willful act implemented by their own god because the people had forsaken the deity’s laws.
Finally, both the Assyrian vassal treaties and the Deuteronomic covenant express similar curses for disobeying the stipulations of the document (#331). Some of these include: incurring the wrath of the deity if the stipulations are broken; curses of diseases and leprosy; famine, and eating one’s offspring as punishment brought by the deity; and promises by the deity to utterly destroy and cause to perish the people and their seed. By large, however, exile and the loss of land were common punishments for breaking a treaty throughout the ancient Near East, and the Deuteronomist certainly shared these ideas. Some scholars have additionally demonstrated that many of the curses in Deuteronomy 28 which do not seem to be presented in any specific order are in fact modeled after the order of curses found in the 7th century Assyrian vassal treaties of Esarhaddon.
The Deuteronomist and Josiah’s religious reforms of the 7th century BC
Since de Wette’s study on Deuteronomy, subsequent biblical scholars have independently confirmed the thesis that the core of Deuteronomy was written under the reign of Josiah (640-609 BC) and used to legitimate the king’s religious reform. Indeed, the core covenantal law code of Deuteronomy (Deut 12-26), the “scroll of the covenant” allegedly found during renovations on the temple during Josiah’s reign, may actually be a literary creation under Josiah. Regardless of the date one assigns to the Deuteronomic law code, the larger literary work called the Deuteronomistic History (the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) was most certainly written during Josiah’s reign and was an expression of the sheer optimism which permeated under his rule, most likely a result of Assyria’s retreat from the region and the reassertion of the southern kingdom’s independence. Deuteronomy was thus composed as propaganda to legitimate Josiah’s religious reforms, re-conquest of the former territory of the northern kingdom, and centralization of the cult—events that could have only happened with the withdrawal of Assyrian forces from the region in the mid 7th century BC. This power vacuum was the catalyst behind Josiah’s assertion of religious and political independence.
The core text, Deuteronomy 12-26, reflects the religious and political policies endorsed by Josiah in the 7th century BC. Josiah’s reign was unique in the period of the monarchy because other than the hyperbolic presentation of the glorious and independent kingdom of Israel under Solomon, it was the only period in time when Israel and/or Judah were not vassals to their larger and more politically powerful neighbors, Egypt and Mesopotamia. Both biblical and extra-biblical sources confirm that the kingdoms of Israel, Judah, Moab, Aram, etc. were all vassal states to the mighty Assyrian empire variously between the 9th and early 7th centuries BC. In other words they were vassal states paying tribute to their Assyrian overlords. But in the 7th century BC, with the rise of Babylon, the Assyrians were forced to withdraw their presence from Palestine. This in and of itself ushered in a new optimism and claimants of independence, which ultimately found their expression in the literary production of this time period, and notably by the Josianic Deuteronomists. Furthermore, the literature produced in the southern kingdom of Judah in the 7th century BC and the message it proclaimed were a direct result of the destruction, and for the most part disappearance, of Israel in 722 BC and the withdrawal of Assyrian political power and sovereignty from the whole region in the mid 7th century BC. With Assyrian lordship gone, and Israel no more, the Judahite scribes of the south were able to produce a powerful literary masterpiece of political and religious propaganda.8
To unify his political reach Josiah also advocated a new innovative religious practice— centralization of the cult of Yahweh in Jerusalem. No longer were people allowed to worship Yahweh at local altars, of which the archaeological record attests there were many. No longer could judicial hearings be practiced at these local altars as well; now they must be brought before Yahweh in Jerusalem. No longer could Passover be celebrated at home or at local shrines; now a pilgrimage to Jerusalem was required. No longer could alternative forms of worship to Yahweh be practiced as was common in the north. Now all sacrifices and festivals were to be carried out at Jerusalem —the new political and religious capital of a reunified Israel. In addition to these Deuteronomic laws, the Deuteronomist’s stern claim, placed on the lips of Yahweh himself, that all Canaanite and Israelite cultic shrines and altars were to be utterly destroyed and burned (Deut 7 & 12) is no where paralleled in any of the accounts of the kings of Judah except for Josiah, and Josiah alone.
The king [Josiah] commanded the high priest Hilkiah, the priests of the second order, and the guardians of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of Yahweh all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron. . . He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun at the entrance to the house of Yahweh. . . The altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Yahweh, he pulled down from there and broke in pieces, and threw the rubble into the wadi Kidron. The king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of Destruction, which king Solomon of Israel had built for Astarte the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. He broke down the pillars in pieces, cut down the sacred poles, and covered the sites with human bones. Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, he pulled down that altar along with the high place. He burned the high place, crushing it to dust; he also burned the sacred pole. . . Moreover, Josiah removed all the shrines of the high places that were in Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made, provoking Yahweh to anger; he did to them just as he had done at Bethel. (2 Kgs 23:4-5, 11, 12-14, 19)
All these syncretic cultic practices, and the worship of Yahweh and other gods and goddesses from the Canaanite landscape, was regular and normal cultic activity practiced by the kings and people of Israel and Judah until Josiah and the Deuteronomist labeled this as apostasy in the 7th century BC!
Apart from parallels between the Deuteronomist’s religious program and Josiah’s policies, both religiously and politically, there are other parallels that have buttressed the claims of scholars that Deuteronomy was written for, or in support of, Josiah and his religious reforms. For example, Josiah is accredited with performing the only public reading of the law in the whole history of the monarchy (2 Kgs 23:1-2) as indeed commanded by the Deuteronomist through the lips of Moses himself (Deut 31:9-11). And Josiah is the only king to have celebrated the Passover—”for no such Passover had been kept since the days of the Judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah” (2 Kgs 23:22)—as is decreed in Deuteronomy 16:1-8. Professor Richard Friedman has noted even more striking parallels between Deuteronomy and Josiah:9 1) the phrase “and there arose none like him” is only applied to two people in the Hebrew Bible—Moses and Josiah—and apparently by the pen of the same author, the Deuteronomist; 2) only one person in the Hebrew Bible is cited as fulfilling the Deuteronomist’s commandment “to love Yahweh with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might”—Josiah; 3) Josiah subordinates himself to the Levite priests in matters of the law, as decreed in Deuteronomy; 4) Josiah does “what was right in the eyes of Yahweh; he did not turn aside to the right or to the left” as also decreed by the Deuteronomist in respect to the following of its commandments; 5) the “scroll of the torah” is only mentioned in two places: the torah that Moses writes and the torah that Josiah finds—both penned by the Deuteronomist; 6) the public reading of the torah exacted through the phrase “read it in their ears” only occurs in Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic account of Josiah’s ordering of the reading of the scroll of the torah; and 7) in relation to the smashing and burning of pillars and other cultic statues, only Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic account of Josiah’s eradication of Israel’s cultic centers uses the phrase “smash it thin as dust.”
These connections help buttress the claim that the core text of Deuteronomy, chapters 12-26, was written to support Josiah’s centralization of the cult and judiciary at Jerusalem, the eradication of all other cultic sites in Israel, his military campaign to repossess lost northern territory, and in general to proclaim optimistically Israel’s new state of independence and loyalty to Yahweh and his laws as exemplified in Josiah himself. Thus the original scroll, “the scroll of the covenant” (Deut 12-26), was used to legitimate and promulgate Josiah’s religious innovations—now no longer seen as innovations but as tradition harkening back to Moses! This is how political and religious programs are authenticated and legitimated in the ancient Near East—by means of texts that retroject these policies into the archaic or mythic past. In sum, the Deuteronomic text was optimistic and culminated in Josiah’s religious and political leadership (whether real or merely a literary construct) that unified, or attempted to reunify, northern and southern kingdoms.
However to this base text were added other and later material that reflected a different tenor. Merely two decades after Josiah’s death Judah was to suffer the same fate as her northern brethren did in 722 BC, only now at the hands of the Babylonians. The scroll that the Josianic Deuteronomist wrote, glorifying Judah, had now to be rewritten in order to reflect the new historical conditions: loss, exile, despair, and the longing for return. These sentiments were interjected into the text in the exilic curses section (Deut 28), which, unlike its pre-exilic counterpoint that presented Israel as still having a choice between life on the land or death and exile, presented this reality in prophetic guise as unconditionally prescribed (#331). The Israelites were destined to loss their land and end up in exile, “as it is this day” as the exilic Deuteronomist laments (Deut 29:27). The point is that the celebatory and optimistic tenor of Josiah’s Deuteronomic reforms hailing in a new and righteous era of Jewish Torah, sole loyalty to Yahweh, and social and ethical reform was short lived primarily because Judah’s existence as an independent state was short lived. The Babylonians not only soon exerted their control, both politically and to a lesser degree religiously, but when the Judaen state under Zedekiah refused to honor this vassalage by refusing to send tribute, the Babylonians marched into Judah and burnt it down, burnt down the city of Jerusalem, Yahweh’s temple, and took many of the aristocracy and priesthood into captivity in Babylon. There, scribes, elites, and priests had to contend with the new historical circumstance: they were exiled from their land, which now lay desolate, and their cult and temple, which were also utterly destroyed.
To the Josianic Deuteronomic pre-exilic text, new exilic additions were now added that explained why and how they ended up as exiles in Babylon. Thus the Josianic exuberance and optimism in the core text was interjected with new prophetic passages that ominously foretold of the ensuing doom that was the all too real reality of the scribes who actually penned these passages from their exiled condition in Babylon. The ending chapters of Deuteronomy (28-30) are a harsh description, presented in the guise of prophecy from Moses’ mouth, of the exilic Deuteronomists’ current plight. In sum the destruction of Jerusalem and the people’s loss of their land necessitated a whole new reinterpretation of history so that the Josianic Deuteronomic text now took into account where history actually did end: in captivity in Babylon, exiled from land, the temple, and their god.
The Deuteronomist and his sources
The book of Deuteronomy is a composite text, created from a scribal guild that was active during the 7th to 5th centuries BC. Yet these various authors, editors, and compilers shaped their compositions from earlier texts and traditions. We know this because the biblical text itself in its final form informs us of this very fact. Formal study of the Torah, for example, has revealed that it is in fact a compilation of at least four distinguishable sources, each of which were written and composed independently and underwent long complex compositional histories. In many cases, biblical scholars are able to see that later texts actually engaged with and made use of earlier sources, both of which were later collected together, preserved, and authenticated as scripture. The Priestly writer, who we will look at in the next chapter, writes his composition as a direct ‘corrective’ of the JE narrative, going so far as to even weave his composition into the JE text in order to give it the message and direction that the Priestly authors deemed necessary. Although the Deuteronomist was also compelled to change the JE text so that it conformed to his own ideology and religious beliefs, his mode of editorial revision actually amounted to the composition of a completely new text that in all likelihood was meant to replace the JE (or parts of the JE) narrative. The list of contradictions in this chapter are the result of having both the JE text and the Deuteronomic text preserved together when the Torah was formed.
It is important to realize the differences between modern ideas of authorship and those of the ancient Near East. Ancient scribes were rather collectors and compilers of earlier traditions, and saw their compositions as expanding on or presenting anew an already existing tradition. None of these texts were signed by their scribes, and authorship, that is the text’s authority, was associated with an already existing authoritative textual tradition or accredited to an ancestral hero or deity. Additionally, older texts were often rewritten when historical circumstances changed and dictated a re-telling of the tradition or, as is the case with Deuteronomy, a new political direction or regime came to power. It is clear from the text itself that the Deuteronomist made use of earlier textual traditions at his disposal. These earlier traditions are namely what are now identified as the Yahwist and Elohist sources. The Deuteronomist at times cites his sources verbatim, but at other times uses them to shape his own version of the tradition. However, as we shall see through the numerous contradictions in this chapter, in his re-presentation of Elohist and Yahwist material now found in the books of Exodus and Numbers, the Deuteronomist modifies, alters, and even contradicts the JE material in order to have it now express and come into line with his own religious and ideological aims. In other words, the Deuteronomist presents his composition as a reiteration of an already existing and authoritative tradition. But the Deuteronomist’s re-narration, as we shall see, is fraught with subversive literary techniques that actually negate and contradict the very traditions he claims to re-present. Professor Bernard Levinson has discussed this hermeneutic technique in his book Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation. He explains that
retelling ‘history’ then becomes a process of setting forth a new, contemporary and innovative reading of the past for religious and/or political agendas contemporaneous with the author, but indeed this is presented and packaged as not authoring a new story but retelling the authoritative tradition. Thus innovation is clothed with the subversiveness of denying innovation, authorship, and originality10
In re-presenting the narrative of his sources, the Deuteronomist re-tells it to suit his own agenda and needs, changing the traditional version, but nevertheless presents the new telling as part of the tradition that has already become authoritative for the community. Thus, in putting forth completely new and innovative religious practices and beliefs, the Deuteronomist actually subverts the tradition that he is using as his source by presenting these innovations as original to his source. One literary technique that aids in this is to present this new composition, the book of Deuteronomy, as authored by the earlier source, traditionally accredited to Moses. “Later innovative traditions present their innovation on prior textual authoritative traditions thereby subverting the previous authoritative tradition while nevertheless claiming the innovation as the ‘real’ authoritative tradition.”11 What may even be more surprising to the modern reader is that the Deuteronomist’s free re-presentation and alteration of his source, which now exists along side the Deuteronomist’s text in the Bible, is not the only example of this to be found in the Bible. There are numerous other examples. The Bible is a compilation of texts that sought to rewrite and replace earlier textual traditions, both of which were then later preserved.
We will look at these alterations and contradictions in a moment, but presently the very fact that an author can modify, change, and even misrepresent an earlier textual tradition may seem alarming to modern readers who often harbor misconceptions about these texts being unalterable. Certainly that happens at a later date, when Israel’s many textual traditions are collected together and authenticated as scripture. But at this stage in the game, texts were constantly being rewritten and changed to agree with the agendas of its authors or editors. Indeed, words were even written and placed in Yahweh’s and Moses’ mouth which contradicted earlier texts and traditions. We shall see that the Deuteronomist was not the only writer to misrepresent earlier texts and traditions. The Priestly writer also reinterprets, modifies, and contradicts his earlier sources. All three of these traditions narrating the giving of the law—Exodus 20-24 (E), Deuteronomy 5-30 (D), and the book of Leviticus (P)—have both Moses and Yahweh saying various and contradictory laws and commandments. Even the place where these laws were revealed is narrated differently in these three sources (#204, 356). So what were these ancient authors doing when they used earlier authoritative traditions in their own compositions, but consciously changed or misrepresented them?
We might acknowledge that ancient texts were written not only to address the needs and concerns of specific historical communities, and since these communities changed with the changing geopolitical world so too must texts be rewritten to address a communities’ changing needs and concerns, but they were also written to advocate and legitimate a particular elite group’s agenda, whether that be of the monarchal court or a priestly guild. We will see that it is no coincidence that in the Priestly composition of the book of Leviticus for example both Yahweh and Moses command laws which in fact represent the very position and beliefs of the Aaronid priestly guild that is authoring this very composition, and conversely Moses and Yahweh often command things that denounce the views and beliefs of an earlier and different secular composition written by a group of Levites, now known as the Deuteronomic source. Likewise, when the Levite author of Deuteronomy uses his earlier Elohist source for his composition, he alters both the commandments and laws given by Yahweh to Moses in the Elohist source to reflect, legitimate, and propagate his own beliefs and concerns. So we find that in Deuteronomy, although our author presents Moses as re-narrating the events found in the earlier Elohist source, the Deuteronomist actually has Moses make different claims, and even pronounce completely contradictory commandments.
We may preliminarily conclude that the Deuteronomist saw himself rewriting, reshaping, and altering the stories narrated in his earlier sources so that they reflected and reinforced his own theological and ideological program, even to the point of altering what Moses and Yahweh were claimed to have said in those earlier sources. He may even have seen his own composition as one that would replace his earlier sources, the textual traditions of the Yahwist and Elohist. Indeed, presenting Moses as the author of his text goes a long way in accomplishing just that. If this were the case, namely that the Deuteronomist was re-presenting tradition and crafting a new story in order to replace the earlier JE text with his version, a second edition if you like, then it is only due to an irony of literary history that we now find his text and the text he meant to replace existing side-by-side in a book created by a later generation of scribes in an effort to authenticate Israel’s literary traditions. |
New York and London are battling to be the home of FinTech REUTERS/Mark Blinch New York is doing its best to become the home of bitcoin, launching the first fully regulated national bitcoin exchange in the US.
it Bit has become the first Government approved digital currency exchange in the US, after regulators gave the New York based start-up Trust status.
San Francisco start-up Coinbase earlier this year launched an exchange platform regulated in 23 states but itBit is the first with a national remit to operate.
Regulation through the New York State Department of Financial Services means the start-up must meet the same regulatory requirements as banks and the company hopes this will help attract institutional investors to bitcoin.
CEO and co-founder Charles Cascarilla said: "Our mission at itBit has always been to create a trusted, institutional-grade exchange and regulatory compliance is an important pillar of that mission."
Institutions have up until now avoided bitcoin, seeing it as too much of a financial wild west due to the collapse of high profile exchange MtGox and digital heists at other bitcoin business like Bitstamp.
The US beating the UK to the first regulated exchange might seem like a blow for London. The Government said in a white paper earlier this year that it wants digital currency businesses to "flourish" here and has been vocal in support for FinTech.
Tom Robinson, head of the UK Digital Currency Association doesn't think it will hurt London in the long run though. He told Business Insider: "While London has not regulated the sector to date, New York is establishing considerable regulatory barriers to entry.
"It's still too early to know which approach will be most successful, but heavy regulation is likely to stifle innovation and the environment in London should make it more attractive to startups that don't have millions of dollars to spend on compliance."
Robinson has been working closely with The Treasury and regulator the Financial Conduct Authority on a drawing up an appropriate regulatory framework for bitcoin and digital currency businesses.
But while London may be a light touch on regulation compared to the US, the biggest bitcoin exchange in the world is in China, followed by four in the US. London needs to make sure it doesn't miss out.
Guy Levin, head of the UK tech pressure group the Coalition for Digital Economy, told Business Insider: "We need to make sure that the UK continues to lead the world on FinTech, including digital currencies. It's great that George Osborne has previously shown his support for the sector, and we hope the new government will keep up the momentum." |
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Despite some minor objections, all US territories appear to have begun allowing same-sex couples to marry – all except one.
American Samoa remains the only territory of the US to still be holding out against the recent Supreme Court ruling that all couples, straight or gay, have a constitutional right to marry.
Despite many saying the change should go into effect immediately, the attorney general of the Pacific island Talauega Eleasalo Ale, says the decision is still being reviewed.
“We’re still reviewing the decision to determine its applicability to American Samoa, and I have no specific comments at this time,” he said.
Going on, he said he did not know whether the law would effect the territory.
One university professor, Rose Cuilson Villazor, of California Davis’ law school, told the AP that the implementation of same-sex marriage should be “unquestioned”.
Although US territories have some self-governance rights, marriage is not included in that.
No same-sex couples have applied for a marriage licence yet in American Samoa.
Others, such as Puerto Rico and Guam have already implemented the change. |
Select Page 1 - Introduction 2 - Test Setup 3 - Overclocking 4 - Battlefield 3 5 - Battlefield 3 Multiplayer 6 - Batman: Arkham City 7 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 8 - Deus Ex: Human Revolution 9 - Power and Temperature 10 - Conclusion
Date: Thursday , April 26, 2012 Author: Grady McKinney Editor: Kyle Bennett
Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition Video Card Review With a factory overclock providing increased performance the Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition looks to be a competitive buy for those on a budget. We will be using Battlefield 3 Multiplayer as well as a few other games to see how well this video card performs against a Radeon HD 6970 and GeForce GTX 570.
Introduction
Sapphire Technology is a well-known company based in Hong Kong, China, and is recognized as the single largest supplier of AMD-based video cards. Since ATI began funneling graphics processors to AiBs in 2001, Sapphire has been at the head of the red-team pack. In addition to video cards , Sapphire also offers a series of motherboards, workstation class video cards, multimedia products such as TV tuners and Digital Photo frames, and mini PCs like the EDGE HD2.
On our test bench today is the Sapphire HD 7870 Overclocked Edition video card.
AMD Radeon HD 7870
AMD introduced its new Radeon HD 7870, code-named "Pitcairn," on March 4th, 2012. Pitcairn follows Tahiti architecture which represents a departure from previous architectures for AMD. It calls the new architecture "Graphics Core Next," or GCN. The Radeon HD 6000 series used AMD's VLIW 4 and 5 architectures. GCN features a smaller die at 28nm, compared to the 40nm process used for the previous generation.
Aside from the process shrink, GCN offers a number of features over previous generation GPUs. One particularly noteworthy feature is "ZeroCore Power." This feature disables unused GPUs (or portions of them) during long idle periods to save power and increase efficiency. This can save energy not only in terms of power consumed by the video card, but it can also lead to decreased heat generation, which can save money in terms of cooling costs.
The Radeon HD 7870 GPU itself is comprised of 2.8 billion transistors packed into 1280 stream processors with a clock speed of 1GHz. There are 80 texture units, 128 Z/stencil units, and 32 ROPs. That is a 14.3% increase in stream processors and 42.9% increase in texture units compared to the Radeon HD 6870. Compared to a Radeon HD 6970 this is 256 stream processors and 16 texture units less, but with the same number of ROP, increased clock speeds, and other optimizations it should still result in more efficient rasterization.
The Radeon HD 7870 is designed to be paired with 2GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, running at 1200MHz for a 5.0Gbps data rate and a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 153.6GB per second. The typical board power is only 175 Watts which will provide more efficient and lower overall power consumption.
Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition
The Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition comes with effective base clock speed of 1050MHz and the memory set to run at 1250MHz. This is a small factory overclock compared to the reference Radeon HD 7870 design of 1GHz core and 1200MHz memory. The overall increase of 50MHz on the GPU's operating speed and 50MHz increase on the memory should provide improved performance Out-of-Box without the user having to change anything. The Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition is readily available at Newegg for $359.99, and currently has a coupon that comes with it to download Dirt 3 for free, a value of $50.
The Dual-X or Dual Extractor cooling system on the Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition is very similar to the Dual-X cooling system outfitted on the Sapphire HD 7970 OC Edition but with a few minor changes. The biggest difference is that the Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition has four copper heat pipes instead of five. The four copper heat pipes are positioned directly over the GPU to absorb heat which is then transferred evenly across the heat sink. The heat sink has several fins on it which increases the surface area that the copper heat pipes can spread heat to. The heat sink is also elevated off the PCB which helps keep heat off of the board, and allows air to flow freely through the heatsink and off the video card. There is also a small black heat spreader directly touching the PCB around the GPU and the memory to reduce heat in one location. The Dual-X cooling system also features two thin, lightweight fans.
You can read more about the Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition's specifications here.
Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition Pictures
The Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition video card arrived in a black and green box with a female soldier motiffe. The front of the box also mentions that the video card has 2GB GDDR5 memory and a factory overclock. The back of the box talks more about features relating to a Radeon HD 7870 and what it supports. There is no mention of Sapphire's TriXX overclocking utility or the video cards operating speed. The Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition came in a bubble wrapped anti-static bag which fits snug in the box which will keep it from bouncing around and being damaged while being transported.
The software bundle was relatively simplistic and contained a quick start guide, and a flyer for registering your product. The box and the website both say that a Driver CD comes with the video card, but we did not have one in this package.
Sapphire usually does an outstanding job of including several accessories that can save users money and did with the Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition bundle as well. There is a CrossFireX Bridge, two 6-pin PCIe to Molex power connectors, a DVI to VGA Adapter, and a Mini-DP to DP connector. There is also an HDMI to SL-DVI Adapter and a 1.8 meter high speed HDMI cable.
The design of the Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition is relatively simple but elegant. The components are mounted on a blue custom PCB which goes well with the plastic cover. The black cover is somewhat thick but also very light, but despite the light weight it feels very durable and does not flex much under pressure. The top of the video card has a sticker written in silver with the model of the video card "Sapphire HD 7870." You can also see the top of the heat spreader on top of the PCB extending from the GPU. The black cover also houses the two thin fans. On the bottom of the video card are the four copper heat pipes that come off the GPU and extend to different sections of the heat sink.
The rear I/O panel houses a Dual-Link DVI connector, and an HDMI connector. There are also two mini-Display Port adapters and a vent that runs the height of the card where hot air can be exhausted. On the top of the Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition are the two 6-pin PCIe power connectors which "require" a 500 watt power supply to run correctly. The Sapphire HD 7870 OC Edition measures 10 inches in length, 1.5 inches wide, and 4 and 1/8th inches in height. |
Abstract There is a well-established connection between smoking and depression, with depressed individuals over-represented among smokers and ex-smokers often experiencing increased depressive symptoms immediately after quitting. Nicotine in tobacco binds, activates and desensitizes nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), but it is not known whether activation or desensitization is more important for nicotine’s effects on depressive symptoms. In this article, we review the hypothesis that blockade rather than activation of neuronal nAChRs might be important for the effects of nicotinic agents on depressive symptoms based on clinical and preclinical studies of nicotinic drugs. The endogenous neurotransmitter for nAChRs is acetylcholine, and the effects of nicotine on depression-like behaviors support the idea that dysregulation of the cholinergic system might contribute to the etiology of major depressive disorder. Thus, pharmacological agents that limit acetylcholine signaling through neuronal nAChRs might be promising for the development of novel antidepressant medications. Keywords: nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, smoking, major depressive disorder, antidepressant medications, mecamylamine, varenicline, cytisine
The hypercholinergic hypothesis of depression The hypothesis that too much acetylcholine might lead to depression was put forward more than three decades ago by Janowsky and colleagues, who suggested that depression is associated with hyperactivation of the cholinergic system and decreased activity of the noradrenergic system 14. This hypothesis is consistent with early observations that organophosphate poisoning (which leads to profound inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and therefore elevates acetylcholine levels throughout the brain and body) in humans leads to depression-like symptoms, and that orchardists who work with these compounds appeared to have higher rates of depression 15. Following up on these observations, Janowsky and colleagues showed that human subjects with an underlying affective disorder treated with the blood-brain penetrant AChE inhibitor physostigmine (but not the peripherally active AChE inhibitor neostigmine) showed decreased mania and increased depressive symptoms 16. Similarly, when physostigmine was infused at high doses in patients with no apparent neuropsychiatric illness, subjects reported symptoms of depression, although with great variability 17. Preclinical studies provide further support for the idea that alterations of the cholinergic system can lead to depressive symptoms. The Flinders Sensitive Line (FSL) of rats was selectively bred for increased sensitivity to the centrally active AChE inhibitor diisopropylfluorophosphonate, resulting in increased acetylcholine levels in the brains of these animals 18. These rats also show increased numbers and function of high affinity nAChRs 19, 20. In addition, FSL rats exhibit several depression-like endophenotypes, including reduced locomotor activity, reduced body weight, increased REM sleep and cognitive deficits 21. By contrast, rats of the control Flinders Resistant Line (FRL) do not show these behavioral responses. FSL rats were tested in models of depression-like behavior and showed increased anhedonia in the chronic mild stress model of depression, and increased immobility in the forced swim model of antidepressant efficacy 22–24. These experiments illustrate that manipulations of the cholinergic system can lead to depression-like behavior. Other studies have shown the converse relationship as well: the induction of depression-like behavior by chronic inescapable footshock and swim stress in rodents induces hypersensitivity of the cholinergic system 25. Taken together, these observations in human subjects and in animal models strongly suggest that hyperactivity of the cholinergic system can contribute to the pathophysiology of depression. More recently, however, fewer studies have investigated the potential link between acetylcholine and mood disorders, probably because most efforts have focused on studies of monoamine neurotransmission, which has become the dominant hypothesis since the development of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to treat depression. Though SSRIs are safe and are effective for a significant subset of depressed patients, up to 50% of patients are unresponsive to all available treatments 26 and new treatments are critically needed. Thus, it seems important to revisit the cholinergic hypothesis of depression.
Signaling through cholinergic receptors modulates affective state The receptors for acetylcholine can be divided into two broad classes: nAChRs and muscarinic (mAChRs). If alterations of acetylcholine levels lead to depressive symptoms, a change in the activity of nAChRs and mAChRs is likely to be the mechanism transducing the altered acetylcholine signal. Authors have proposed that mAChRs are involved in mood control because scopolamine is able to induce rapid-onset antidepressant effects in clinical trials 27, 28. In addition, mAChRs were believed to be the crucial downstream effectors of AChE-induced depressive behavior 14. To date, however, only a few reports have explored the role of these receptors in mood regulation (reviewed in 29, 30) and further data are needed. We will focus in this review on the other major subclass of acetylcholine receptors: the nAChRs. As mentioned above, nAChRs are the primary target for smoked nicotine in the brain. A self-medication hypothesis has been proposed to explain the high co-morbidity between smoking and depression 31; however, smoked nicotine is not a highly effective antidepressant, because if it were, the prevalence of depressive symptoms would be expected to be lower in smokers than in non-smokers. Though smokers report that they are more likely to smoke when they experience depressive symptoms 32, immediate negative affect symptoms do not predict relapse during smoking cessation 33 and overall, smoking cessation leads to reduced stress 34. Similarly, a higher rate of suicide has been observed in smokers, with heavier smokers more likely to attempt suicide than lighter smokers 35–37. It has been proposed that withdrawal symptoms induce cycles of stress and negative affect that are alleviated by smoking a cigarette 34, and that reports of depression in recently abstinent smokers are due to withdrawal symptoms 38. Although it is possible that activation of nAChRs can be antidepressant, another possibility that is consistent with all these observations is that smokers self-medicate depressive symptoms by desensitizing their nAChRs. It has been reported that one puff of a cigarette is enough to saturate the high affinity nAChRs (those containing the β2 nAChR subunit) in the human brain 39 and it is known that after nicotine binding there is a long-term decrease in nAChR activity due to desensitization 10, 40. Thus, the brief activation caused by smoking a cigarette can lead to immediate increase in nAChR activity. Although it is still controversial, it is possible that this increase could lead to affective symptoms. Conversely, the long-term decrease in nAChR activity as a result of desensitization might result in the alleviation of depressive symptoms. Finally, nAChRs are upregulated as a result of smoking, and this increase in nAChR number is maintained for at least 2 weeks following smoking cessation 41 and may contribute to depressive symptoms following abstinence. Consistent with the possibility that decreased activity of nAChRs might be an antidepressant in human smokers, knockout mice lacking the high affinity subclass of nAChRs (those lacking the β2 subunit) show decreased baseline immobility in the tail suspension and forced swims tests 42, suggesting that decreased signaling through nAChRs may result in an antidepressant-like phenotype. These studies have also shown that mice lacking high-affinity nAChRs are insensitive to the tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline, suggesting that alterations of nicotinic signaling can play a role in the response to classical antidepressants. Interestingly, chronic nicotine administration, which increases the number of high-affinity (α4/β2) nAChRs results in increased response to classical antidepressants 43.
Nicotinic blockers and partial agonists have antidepressant-like effects in animal models If smoking relieves depressive symptoms due to desensitization of nAChRs, then it should be possible to test this pharmacologically by determining whether drugs that decrease nAChR function or interfere with acetylcholine signaling through these receptors have antidepressant effects. In support of this hypothesis, preclinical studies have demonstrated that the non-selective, non-competitive nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine (see for structure) has antidepressant-like effects in mice in several common tests of antidepressant efficacy, including the tail suspension and forced swim tests 42, 44, 45. The effects of mecamylamine depend on the expression of nAChRs because they are not observed in knockout mice lacking either the high-affinity (those lacking the β2 subunit) or the homomeric (those lacking the α7 subunit) nAChRs 44. In addition, antidepressant-like effects are also seen with a competitive antagonist of high-affinity nAChRs (dihydro-β-erythroidine), but are not seen with a competitive antagonist that does not cross the blood-brain barrier (hexamethonium) 44. In addition to studies with full antagonists of nAChRs such as mecamylamine and dihydro-β-erythroidine, studies with partial agonists of nAChRs have also demonstrated antidepressant-like effects in mice. Partial agonists are complex because they increase activity of nAChRs submaximally on their own, but they limit the ability of acetylcholine to activate nAChRs. Thus, if elevated acetylcholine contributes to depression-like symptoms, the effect of a nicotinic partial agonist might be to act as an antidepressant in individuals with high acetylcholine levels but to increase depression-like symptoms in individuals with low acetylcholine levels. Cytisine (see for structure) is a nicotinic partial agonist that has low efficacy at high-affinity (α4/β2) nAChRs but which is a full agonist at ganglionic (α3/β4) and homomeric (α7) nAChRs 46, 47. Cytisine has been used in Eastern Europe as a smoking cessation aid since the 1960s with limited but significant effects 48. Similarly, varenicline (Chantix ®; see for structure) is a partial agonist at high-affinity (α4/β2) nAChRs with higher efficacy than cytisine 49, and also an agonist at ganglionic (α3/β4) and homomeric (α7) 50 nAChRs that is currently used for smoking cessation in the US and several other countries. Both medications are thought to aid in smoking cessation by activating nAChRs enough to prevent withdrawal while limiting the rewarding effect of nicotine 51. Both cytisine 52 and varenicline 53 have antidepressant-like effects in mice that are similar to the effects of the full nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine. Because both cytisine and varenicline are agonists of ganglionic (α3/β4) and homomeric (α7) nAChRs, it is possible that these agonist properties are involved in the antidepressant-like properties of these compounds; however, novel derivatives of cytisine such as 3-pyridylyl cytisine and 5-bromo-cytisine (see for structures) that are low-efficacy partial agonists of high-affinity (α4/β2) nAChRs but which have little or no agonist effects at ganglionic (α3/β4) and homomeric (α7) nAChRs also have antidepressant-like effects in mice 54. Similarly, sazetidine-A, a partial agonist of α4β2 nAChRs with high affinity for non-resting conformations of the receptor which can potently desensitize the α4β2 nAChR subtype 55, and the nicotinic partial agonist isopronicline 56 (see for structures), have antidepressant-like properties in mice 57, suggesting that it may be the ability of these compounds to interfere with acetylcholine signaling, rather than their ability to act as agonists at nAChRs, that is most important for their antidepressant properties.
Antidepressant effects of nicotinic blockers and partial agonists in human subjects Mecamylamine (Inversine®) is approved for use in human subjects and was originally used to treat hypertension. Interest in mecamylamine as a potential therapy for affective disorders was first raised when it was used in subjects with Tourette’s disorder and showed significant ability to decrease depression-like symptoms in these patients 58, 59. There are now several published clinical trials of nicotinic blockers or partial agonists in human subjects with major depressive disorder. In Tourette’s patients with co-morbid bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder, mecamylamine alone was effective in reducing depressive symptoms 60, 61. The other clinical trials have involved patients already on an SSRI and have added mecamylamine 62–64; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/{"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT00593879","term_id":"NCT00593879"}}NCT00593879 ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT00593879","term_id":"NCT00593879"}}NCT00593879; http://www.targacept.com/wt/page/tc_5214) or varenicline 65 as a second medication. These trials have shown that nicotinic compounds are effective antidepressants in patients who have been unresponsive to an SSRI. Thus, the evidence suggests that limiting acetylcholine signaling through nAChRs is a reasonable strategy for developing novel antidepressant medications.
Varenicline and suicidality Numerous recent reports have suggested that some smokers taking varenicline experience an increase in suicidal ideation. This has lead to a black box warning by the FDA and has resulted in considerable concern by patients and physicians. This seems paradoxical if varenicline also has antidepressant effects 65. A recent report on patients in primary care in the UK suggests that there was no increase in suicidal ideation in a cohort of more than 80,000 smokers taking varenicline as compared with smokers using nicotine replacement or other medications to quit smoking 66; however, this study was not sufficiently powered to detect a change of twofold, so it could easily miss individuals with particular sensitivity to cholinergic modulation who experience an increase in suicidal ideation. Indeed, this study found that subjects taking varenicline actually had a decrease in antidepressants prescribed during the follow up period, which might suggest that there was an overall decrease in depression symptoms in this sample. It has also been suggested that smoking cessation itself could cause the increase in suicidal ideation, which would be consistent with findings that quitting smoking can provoke an episode of depression 67. Further, several studies have suggested that common genetic factors link smoking and depression 68, which would result in more depressed individuals using smoking cessation aids in comparison to non-smokers, resulting in a false correlation between medication use and suicidality. Alternatively, genetic factors could make smokers prone to pro-depressant effects of varenicline. Because varenicline is a high-efficacy partial agonist, if increased nAChR signaling can result in depressive symptoms, a subset of individuals might achieve sufficient agonism of nAChRs on the medication to result in the type of depressive symptoms observed in individuals given the AChE antagonist physostigmine. As noted above, the results of physostigmine treatment are variable and are most obvious in patients with affective disorders 16; therefore, patients with sensitivity to cholinergic modulation might experience depressive symptoms from taking varenicline due to its agonist properties. Another possibility is that the ability of varenicline to activate a number of nAChRs results in increased psychiatric symptoms. For example, agonism of ganglionic (α3β4) nAChRs could lead to increased anxiety 69 as has been seen with cytisine 52. Clinical trials are underway in populations with psychiatric disorders that will clarify the relationship between varenicline and affective disorders. Future clinical trials should use a well-validated and treatment sensitive measure of suicide tracking to provide accurate data to assess the effects of novel nicotinic drugs on suicidality 70, 71.
Augmentation strategies and future clinical practice Both rodent 42, 53 and human 62, 65 studies show that mecamylamine and varenicline can induce antidepressant-like effects in subjects administered an ineffective dose of a classical antidepressant such as an SSRI. Indeed, in a review in 1986, Dilsaver noted that the cholinergic hypothesis should more accurately be termed the cholinergic-monoaminergic interaction theory, because any manipulation of one neurotransmitter system in the brain has extensive consequences on a large number of other systems as well 72. Therefore, the future of antidepressant treatment might be the use of augmentation strategies in patients who are non-responsive to monotherapy. These data further suggest that mood and antidepressant modulation by nicotinic compounds is not simply unidirectional, that both inhibition and activation of nAChRs may result in antidepressant effects under different circumstances, and that the effects of nicotinic compounds on different receptors, brain areas and neurotransmitter systems will result in differing outcomes in individuals with different levels of stress or depressive symptoms63. As noted above, both preclinical 42, 53 and clinical 62–64 studies have shown that the antidepressant effects of subthreshold or ineffective doses of SSRIs can be enhanced by nicotinic antagonists or partial agonists; however the nature of the interaction between SSRIs and nicotinic drugs is still not entirely clear and several non-exclusive mechanisms for this interaction are conceivable. First, as mentioned previously, most antidepressants have been shown to act as nicotinic antagonists in the nanomolar range 13 and therefore the interaction between classical antidepressants and nicotinic drugs could occur at the receptor level as a result of both compounds blocking nAChR. This might also explain why several classes of antidepressants can aid in smoking cessation and can potentiate the effects of other smoking cessation therapies 73. Another interaction probably also occurs at the system level, because both mecamylamine and nicotine can potentiate serotonin neurotransmission in the hippocampus, and therefore might improve the efficacy of SSRIs 74. Further clinical trials are necessary to determine whether nicotinic agents will be useful antidepressant compounds on their own, or whether combination with SSRIs or other monoamine-based therapies will be more clinically efficacious.
Activation or desensitization? An ongoing controversy in modulation of mood by smoking Although the primary hypothesis explored in this review is that decreasing endogenous acetylcholine signaling through nAChRs can be antidepressant, there is still controversy as to whether inhibition or activation (or both) of nAChRs results in antidepressant effects. For example, it should be noted that mecamylamine does not show antidepressant-like properties in FSL rats and that it can block the antidepressant-like effects of nicotine in the forced swim test in rats 19. In addition, mecamylamine is used to induce withdrawal following chronic nicotine exposure and the resulting withdrawal syndrome is characterized by an elevated reward thresholds in rats 75. With respect to interactions with monoamine systems, in one study nicotine, but not mecamylamine, could potentiate the effects of citalopram and reboxetine, two monoamine-reuptake inhibitor drugs acting on serotonin and norepinephrine, respectively 76. Furthermore, because partial agonists can, by definition, partially activate nAChRs directly, as well as decreasing signaling of acetylcholine in vivo, studies showing antidepressant-like effects of nicotinic partial agonists could result from either activation or inhibition of nicotinic signaling. Although it is not yet possible to reconcile these disparate findings, it is possible that rats, like human subjects without affective disorders 16, are not as sensitive, or have a highly variable response, to manipulations using cholinergic agents. In addition, it is possible that the depression-like symptoms experienced during acute abstinence from nicotine and measured with the intracranial self-stimulation paradigm are not the same as those measured in tests of antidepressant-efficacy such as the forced swim and tail suspension tests. Further, both activation and inhibition of nAChRs may have antidepressant effects through distinct mechanisms 77 or through disctinct nAChR subtypes. We have focused in this review on the high affinity α4β2 nAChRs, but the nicotinic partial agonist varenicline is also a full agonist at α7 nAChRs 50, the α7 agonist PNU-282987 (see for structure) has antidepressant-like properties 45 and α7 knockout mice are not responsive to the antidepressant-like effects of mecamylamine 44. Thus, activation of α7 nAChRs but inhibition of α4β2 nAChRs may contribute to the antidepressant effects of nicotine. Further, varenicline is also a full agonist at 5-HT3 receptors 78, which are implicated in mood regulation 79, so the effects of varenicline in human depressed patients are likely to be complex. It seems probable that interfering with acetylcholine signaling will have multiple effects on brain systems involved in affective behavior, with blockade or desensitization of nAChRs on neurons in some pathways improving mood, while activation of nAChRs on different subsets of neurons contributes to mood regulation, adding complexity to the cholinergic hypothesis of depression. Thus, it is clearly simplistic to state that inhibition or activation of nAChRs is antidepressant in all circumstances, and further work is necessary to determine which patients might benefit from treatment with nicotinic antagonists or very low efficacy partial agonists, and whether other patients might benefit from nicotinic agonists.
Conclusion Numerous clinical and preclinical studies have now established that decreasing acetylcholine transmission at specific nAChRs can positively affect mood, although the data also suggest that a fine balance between receptor activation and desensitization is required to yield relevant antidepressant-like effects 10. Though the exact neurobiological basis for the antidepressant-like effects of nicotinic agents remains to be clarified, alteration of nAChR function alone or in combination with other monoamine-based antidepressants represents a new avenue for treatment of affective disorders. Nicotinic antagonists and partial agonists have already been developed with pharmacological profiles that make them potential candidates to improve depression-like symptoms, and some are already used for other indications including smoking cessation. If the side effects are acceptable, the results from preclinical studies and current ongoing clinical trials further suggest that currently approved nicotinic compounds could provide new alternatives in patients showing poor response to more classical antidepressants.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by the State of Connecticut, Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and NIH grants MH77681 and DA00436. |
The jugaad is a rural transportation vehicle usually built around the engine of a water pump (or motor). Its body is anything that can be found lying around farms—wooden beams and planks, trailer- and tractor-parts. Found predominantly in the northern parts of India, it has become a synonym for Indian ingenuity. Over the years, the term has also acquired some respectability, with Jaideep Prabhu, Navi Radjou, and Simone Ahuja authoring Jugaad Innovation, a book that prescribes this wholly Indian hack as a way of creating breakthrough ideas and products.
Radjou, as it turns out, is an Indian, and his surname is the French way of writing Raju. You still encounter such names in Pondicherry. One of my friends in B-school was Coumarane (the French way of writing Kumaran). I guess there’s a bit of jugaad in that too.
As someone who has shared the road with a jugaad on more than one occasion, I don’t think the term is particularly flattering. And India is capable of birthing proper innovations, not jugaads. Indeed, over the past 70 years—yes, this is my contribution to the veritable rash of listicles that everyone is churning out to mark 70 years of Independence—the country has engendered several fundamental innovations, some of which have found global acceptance.
On top of my list is the sachet revolution in packaged consumer products.
The now ubiquitous sachet was most probably the invention of a school teacher-turned-entrepreneur named Chinni Krishnan. Krishnan himself didn’t achieve any great success with his innovations but his sons did. One of them, C.K. Rajkumar, launched the first shampoo in a sachet (Velvette) in the 1980s. Another, C.K. Ranganathan, went on to start a company (now CavinKare) that once gave managers at Hindustan Unilever Ltd sleepless nights. It wasn’t till the late 1980s/early 1990s that multinational packaged consumer goods companies realized the true potential of the sachet (it made expensive products accessible by offering them in single-use packs, although most Indian consumers ended up either sharing sachets across members of a family or increasing their life to at least two uses). As the late, great C.K. Prahalad used to say, this was a classic BoP (or bottom of the pyramid) strategy. Management guru Prahalad came up with the theory that there was a “fortune waiting to be made at the bottom of the pyramid" (within quotation marks because I can almost hear him saying this) for companies that knew how.
In 2007, at an event held to mark India’s 60th year of independence, Prahalad made a presentation titled India@75 on what India could be in 2022. It’s a presentation today’s policymakers would do well to look up.
Indian software’s global delivery model (a term popularized by Infosys Ltd) has to be on the list too. This innovation’s most faithful biographer was Thomas Friedman (and Nandan Nilekani, in turn, was his muse). The global delivery model was brought about by data (and knowledge) becoming central to business processes, and inexpensive and efficient communication networks that make the transmission of such data to countries such as India, where they could be analysed, processed and manipulated, by armies of engineers. It is a model whose contemporary relevance is being challenged by Artificial Intelligence and automation but the global delivery model remains an innovation, and it did originate in India.
For my third choice, I am going to pick frugal, or low-cost manufacturing.
Some people may find this difficult to believe, but India has always had significant strengths in manufacturing, albeit in pockets. For evidence, one only need look at the long list of Indian companies, starting with Sundaram Clayton Ltd, that have won the Deming Prize (for quality). In the late 2000s, Tata Motors Ltd parlayed this, in combination with the typical Indian company’s expertise in value engineering, to launch a Rs1 lakh car, the Tata Nano. Irrespective of the fate of the car, that remains a defining moment in the history of manufacturing innovations. Carlos Ghosn, perhaps the world’s most respected automobile company CEO, says it opened his mind to the limits of possibility.
There are more interesting business innovations that originated in India, including Bharti Airtel Ltd’s decision to outsource information technology, networks, and network management—something no telecom firm anywhere in the world had done before, although some of these became standard practices after—but for me, the three listed above stand out. |
Jefferson Davis stole a bunch of states and waged war on the other ones for four years, and even he wasn't convicted of treason! (U.S. Senate Historical Office)
"I don't look at this as being a whistleblower. I think it's an act of treason." — Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
"An act of treason." — Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.).
"He's a traitor." - House Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh.).
Asked whether he agreed with Nelson’s description of Snowden’s leak as an act of treason, [Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby] Chambliss replied: “If it’s not, it’s pretty damn close.”
"This guy thinks he has a higher morality, that he can see clearer than other 299,999,999 of us, and therefore he can do what he wants. I say that is the worst form of treason." — former U.N. ambassador John Bolton.
That's just a handful of the accusations of treason that have been leveled against NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden since his identity became public Sunday. Basically all of them misunderstand what the word "treason" means.
As Scott Bomboy of the National Constitution Center — a nonpartisan organization and museum in Philadelphia — notes, Article Three, Section Three of the Constitution defines treason as follows:
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted."
Carlton Larson, a law professor at UC-Davis, explains that this sets up two avenues for treason prosecutions. One is the "aid and comfort" path, wherein somebody aiding a country waging war on the U.S. can be charged, and the other is the "levying war" path, wherein one is charged for actively waging war against the United States, or an individual state.
For example, John Brown, the abolitionist revolutionary who staged the raid on Harpers Ferry, was convicted of treason against the state of Virginia, not against the United States. Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson's first vice president, was later prosecuted by the Jefferson administration for treason for allegedly assembling forces to create an independent country in the center of North America, encompassing some Western states as well as Mexican territory. Both of those were "levying war" prosecutions.
It seems obvious that Snowden's actions don't qualify as levying war against the U.S. "All the levying war cases require an assemblage of men and force," Larson explains. "I've never heard of a levying war prosecution that was just about releasing some documents."
Julius Rosenberg was a spy but he wasn't a traitor. (AP)
But that still leaves open the "aid and comfort" provision. Even that, however, has its limits. For example, you have to be aiding and abetting a country or entity with whom the U.S. is actively at war. That's why Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, when charged with passing state secrets relating to the design of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union, couldn't be charged with treason. "They couldn't be charged for treason, because the Soviet Union wasn't an enemy for the purposes of treason law, because we weren't at war with them," Larson explains. "So they were charged under espionage provisions, which would probably be the easier prosecution, for leaking classified documents."
Same goes for Aldrich Ames, a former CIA officer convicted of selling secrets to the Soviets, whose actions resulted in the execution of at least 10 Soviet officials who had been working for the U.S. government, as well as Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent whose spying for the Soviets also led to at least three U.S. assets dying.
So the government would have to demonstrate that Snowden was actively trying to provide aid and comfort to a specific entity, such as al-Qaeda, with which the U.S. is at war. What's more, all treason cases require two witnesses to the "overt act" in question. So the federal government would also need two witnesses who observed Snowden leaking the information.
And the act of releasing the information itself would have to be treasonous. Anthony Cramer was charged with treason for associating with Nazi agents who had been sent to the United States for the purposes of sabotage, but the Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that just meeting with the foreign operatives didn't amount to treason. He had to actively help the German cause for it to count as treason."If it was done in concert, say, with al-Qaeda, there's an argument that al-Qaeda is an enemy for the purposes of the treason clause," Larson says.
But short of that, it's most likely not treason. "My initial instinct is that it's not treason, right?" Larson explains. "Because the provision is aiding the enemy, giving them aid and comfort. That requires some enemy, usually in particular, that you're aiding. Whereas right here he has just leaked material to the whole world."
"The question is whether he adhered to the enemy," says Eugene Kontorovich, a law professor at Northwestern. That standard — adherence to the enemy — both appears in the Constitution and was explicated in the Cramer case. "A citizen may take actions, which do aid and comfort the enemy — making a speech critical of the government or opposing its measures, profiteering, striking in defense plants or essential work, and the hundred other things which impair our cohesion and diminish our strength," Justice Robert Jackson wrote. "But if there is no adherence to the enemy in this, if there is no intent to betray, there is no treason."
It seems hard to argue that Snowden's intent was to betray. By his own account, his "sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."
There are limits to what you can say about treason law, just because cases are so rare. Fewer than three dozen Americans have been charged with the offense, and none have been since the aftermath of World War II, in which a few citizens who allegedly helped the Japanese or German causes. And that includes cases like Cramer's or that of "Tokyo Rose," where the defendant was later exonerated.
So there isn't really a lot of case law about what is and isn't treason. Kontorovich notes, further, that technological developments have raised questions that our decades-old case law on this is ill-equipped to answer. "What if someone wants to spy for a foreign country?" he writes in an email. "The enemy spymaster tells him, 'Don't bother with dead-drops and all these James Bond tricks; just post the information on your blog, which we will be reading, and you'll be a whistleblower, not a traitor.'"
That, Kontorovich, ought to count as treason, though presumably we'd have to be at war with the country in question. And contra the Supreme Court's decision in Cramer, he doesn't even think coordination with the enemy country is strictly necessary. "A reckless disregard could be enough," he writes. "I'm not saying the law reflects this distinction, I'm just saying it is an open and unsettled area." But he concedes that this is a broader definition than the conventional understanding. "'Leaking' or "whistleblowing' is usually seen as distinct from treason because it's unaccompanied by the particular intention the help the enemy," he writes.
Of course, Snowden could always be charged under the Espionage Act or another, less sexy law than the treason provision of the Constitution. But if Julius Rosenberg, who almost certainly spied for the Soviets, couldn't be tried for treason, it's hard to see how Edward Snowden could be, or why federal prosecutors would want to introduce a charge that would be so difficult to prove.
Related:
-- Scott Bomboy's piece on treason law and Snowden is worth a full read.
-- So too is the New York Times' editorial today which, regardless of whether or not you agree with its conclusions, includes a lot of valuable information about the relevant legal standards. |
With all of the services that Amazon has to offer, it can sometimes be difficult to manage your cloud environment. Face it, you need to manage multiple regions, users, storage buckets, accounts, instances and the list just keeps going on. Well the fact that the environment can be so vast might make it difficult to notice if something nefarious is going on in your cloud. Think of it this way, if a new EC2 instance was deployed in one of your most used regions, you might see it and wonder what it was, but if that instance (or 50 instances) was deployed in a region that you never login to, would you notice that?
To mitigate against issues like this we use the AWS CloudTrail service which can log any console or API request and store those logs in S3. It can also push these logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs which allows us to do some filtering on those logs for specific events.
This post assumes that you’ve already setup CloudTrail to push new log entries to CloudWatch Logs. Once that’s setup we’re going to go through an example to alert us whenever a new IAM user account is created by someone other than our administrator.
Create a Metric Filter on the CloudTrail Logs
Login to the AWS console and navigate to the CloudWatch Service. Once you’re in the CloudWatch console go to Logs in the menu and then highlight the CloudTrail log group. After that you can click the “Create Metric Filter” button.
In the “Filter Pattern” box we’ll select a pattern that we’re looking for. In my case I want to filter out any events where a new user account is created and the user who did it is not “ithollow”. To do that we need to use the Filter and Pattern Syntax found below.
{($.eventName = "CreateUser") && ($.userIdentity.userName != "ithollow")} 1 { ( $ . eventName = "CreateUser" ) && ( $ . userIdentity . userName != "ithollow" ) }
You can test the results of your filter pattern agains some of your existing logs to see what is returned. In my case I got no results because I don’t have any events like that yet in my logs. When you’re ready click the “Assign Metric” button.
Now you can leave the filter name as is, or use your own custom naming. Under the Metric Details a namespace will be added for use in the event that multiple logs have filters on them. And you can give the metric a name there as well. I’ve left the rest of the values as defaults. Click the “Create Filter” button.
You should be taken back to the CloudWatch Console and see that a new filter has been created.
Create an Alarm
Now that we’ve created a way to filter our logs. Lets add an alarm to notify us when these events have occurred. On the logs screen from above, click the “Create Alarm” link next to your filter. Give the alarm a name and description for easy identification later. Then set the threshold values. I’ve said, anytime this event happens more than or equal to 1 time for a single period, trigger the alarm. I also changed the setting to treat missing data as good, otherwise I will have an alarm with “insufficient data” in it all the time until one of these weird accounts shows up. So, no news is good news, in my scenario.
Lastly, under the actions section, I’ve selected my “NotifyMe” SNS topic so that it will email me when this happens.
Testing
Now that our alarms are created and metric filters configured, lets test it. I logged into the AWS account with a user that had Admin permissions that wasn’t me and created a new user. Shortly after creating the user the CloudWatch console showed an alarm and the “StrangeUserAccounts” alarm went off.
My SNS notification came through email and you can see that email in the screenshot below with the details.
Summary
This was a pretty basic example, but using CloudWatch Logs with metric filters and alarms can really help you keep you a close eye on your environment. Think of all the ways you can use CloudWatch Logs to send alerts about things in your environment that you care about. |
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I am putting together my rumor chart (which will launch on Monday) and having many conversations with sources around the league and one player who keeps coming up is unrestricted free agent to be Loui Eriksson. I have talked to three sources who tell me the Philadelphia Flyers are the team to beat on this one, as the Flyers don't want to rush their young forward talent, and really see Eriksson as some proven secondary scoring they lack.The Detroit Red Wings always come up in conversation regarding Eriksson, but I firmly believe their main target is Steven Stamkos.However, as of yesterday I began hearing the New York Islanders, who appear willing to let Kyle Okposo walk, are very much keeping Eriksson "on a short list of impact UFAs."In saying that I can also tell you the Islanders are not too far away from becoming a major player for Stamkos as well. Some sources tell me John Tavares is quietly pushing for the addition of Stamkos.We will discuss this and of course the Stanley Cup Playoffs on the Buzzcast today at 1. |
Abstract
Objective This exploratory analysis examines the relationship between childhood and adolescent fish consumption and adult neuropsychological performance.
Design Data from a retrospective cohort study that assessed fish consumption from age 7 to 18 years via questionnaire were analyzed. A subset of the population underwent domain-specific neuropsychological assessment. Functions evaluated included omnibus intelligence, academic achievement, language, visuospatial skills, learning and memory, attention and executive function, fine motor coordination, mood, and motivation to perform.
Setting Eight towns in the Cape Cod region of Massachusetts, USA, an area characterized by high fish consumption and an active seafood industry.
Subjects A cohort of 1245 subjects was recruited based on Massachusetts birth records from 1969 to 1983. Sixty-five participants from the original cohort underwent neuropsychological testing in adulthood (average age = 30 years).
Results Participant report of consuming fish at least twice per month was associated with better performance on tests of visual learning, memory, and attentional abilities. However, self-report of consuming fish at rates higher than twice per month was not associated with improved abilities. No statistically significant associations were observed between type of fish consumed (e.g., species known to be high in methylmercury content) and test outcomes. |
Anti-Trump protesters shut down yet another right-wing sponsored lecture on a university campus amid growing tension across the US. During the ensuing chaos, a liberal professor, who claimed to be from a New York-based university, shouted at "proud-boy" police officers who were failing at their jobs. She hit out at conservative commentator, Gavin McInnes, who was due to speak to a group of College Republicans at NYU, and branded him a "Nazi". Her impassioned tirade went viral, as she condemned the police for arresting students rather than "kicking Neo-Nazi a**"."
YOUTUBE Protests against the Trump administration have spread and become increasingly violent
The UK Protests Against President Trump Tue, February 21, 2017 President Trump signed an executive order banning immigration to the USA from seven 'muslim' countries. This led to protests across America and, now, the UK. Play slideshow Adam Gray SWNS.com 1 of 18 People gather at the Houses of Parliament in preparation for the Stop Trump protest. 20 February 2017.
Eleven young anti-Trump students were arrested after they attempted to stop the Fox News contributor when he arrived on campus. Mr McInnes was hit with pepper spray as he entered the university, while his lecture was later cancelled just half-way through, following the real threat of violence outside. This comes after riots broke out on a California university campus in an attempt to shut down a controversial speaker who was also due to praise Donald Trump. Following the violence at the New York protest, the professor went into full-scale meltdown as she hit out at the New York Police Department for "protecting Nazis".
YOUTUBE The woman announced herself as a New York professor
Why are you here? You’re not here to protect these students from Nazis? No, you’re not! Furious professor
She continued her rant: "You are f****** assholes! You're protecting the Nazis! "You should kick their a**! You should! These are kids who are trying to learn about humanity! "They're trying to learn about human rights and against racism and xenophobia, and LGBTQ rights, and you're letting these f****** Neo-Nazis near here! "It's not up to these students to kick the a** of a Neo-Nazi! They don't have to raise their fist! They were taught to be peaceful! F*** you!" It remains unclear which university the woman in the video was an employee of.
GETTY Many fear the divisive atmosphere in America
GETTY Protests against Trump in Berkeley turned violent |
Declaratively Provision Docker Images Using Nix
Zef Hemel Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 7, 2013
I like Docker. If you don’t understand why, read the 3.5k word epic that I wrote about it at InfoQ. In this post I’ll assume
you’ve read my InfoQ article, or are at least somewhat familiar with Docker and its features.
Here’s two features that I care about in particular:
It makes applications _portable_ to any cloud provider that supports Ubuntu
12.04+ (and in the upcoming 0.7 release CentOS too), which is basically every
cloud provider in existence (although I hear that Google’s doesn’t yet support it. FAIL).
12.04+ (and in the upcoming 0.7 release CentOS too), which is basically every cloud provider in existence (although I hear that Google’s doesn’t yet support it. FAIL). It makes trying out applications super simple: you no longer have to set up a
hundred libraries and services that the applications to be able to run,
everything comes in a single package, ready to run and ditch if it doesn’t
work.
After playing with Docker a while and deploying some apps with
it, one thing that I feel could some help is the provisioning aspect of it: how
do get your application and its dependencies into a container image?
The standard way of provisioning a Docker image is using a Dockerfile, which is basically
a simple imperative script that builds up an image from a base image step by
step. A typical `Dockerfile` looks starts like this:
FROM ubuntu
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get upgrade -y
RUN apt-get install -y openssh-server python curl
I like Docker. If you don’t understand why, read the 3.5k word epic that I wrote about it at InfoQ. In this post I’ll assume you’ve read my InfoQ article, or are at least somewhat familiar with Docker and its features. Here’s two features that I care about in particular:
It makes applications portable to any cloud provider that supports Ubuntu 12.04+ (and in the upcoming 0.7 release CentOS too), which is basically every cloud provider in existence (although I hear that Google’s doesn’t yet support it. FAIL).
It makes trying out applications super simple: you no longer have to set up a hundred libraries and services that the applications to be able to run, everything comes in a single package, ready to run and ditch if it doesn’t work.
After playing with Docker a while and deploying some apps with it, one thing that I feel could some help is the provisioning aspect of it: how do get your application and its dependencies into a container image?
The standard way of provisioning a Docker image is using a Dockerfile, which is basically a simple imperative script that builds up an image from a base image step by step. A typical Dockerfile looks starts like this:
FROM ubuntu
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get upgrade -y
RUN apt-get install -y openssh-server python curl
Every command that you run is committed, resulting in an aufs layer. This can be helpful, because Docker can now do basic caching. For instance, if your build fails at the last line, and you fix it and rerun the build, it can use the image resulting from the first succeeding lines and start from there. However, a few problems follow from this approach:
Can those first initial lines really be cached, or may their result be dependent on the time of being run? Answer: yes, running these lines tomorrow may yield different results than running them today, but Docker will naively assume they will always result in the same thing. AuFS can only handle a few dozen layers, if your Dockerfile has too many commands the build will simply fail. So, you better make them count. The result is ugly stuff like this. There’s very little support for reuse. There’s no include files or configuration language. The only form of reuse is using base images where you create a base image with software common to all other images, and then you use FROM to base future images on. Yet, you’re still limited by (2), the layers all add up.
There are other tools out that you can use to provision a Docker container, like Chef. But I find these tools rather heavy weight and I really don’t want to add extra weight to my container by including a deployment tool.
At the same time I was playing with Docker, I also did a fair bit of deployment work with Nix. For instance, the developer site we launched, as well as the load-balanced REPL servers are all deployed using Nix andNixOps onto EC2 machines running NixOS. The developer site, releases site and soon the main website all run on separate wordpress installs that in principle share a lot of parts (plug-ins, themes). Nix makes it reallyeasy to implement this reuse. It’s really a joy to work with. Ask my colleagues: every day that I used Nix I praised it in our company chatroom. It’s that cool, once you get over the initial learning curve.
However, NixOps and NixOS are pretty all-or-nothing solutions. To use it you need machines that run NixOS, which can run on “real” hardware, EC2 and Hetzner, but most other cloud providers (e.g. DigitalOcean, which I really like — especially its prices) don’t support it and may not for a while, or ever. Therefore, at this time it’s difficult to deploy applications onto random cloud providers using Nix technology. Its portability is limited.
So, for the past weeks I’ve been thinking: how can the portability of Docker and the general provisioning awesomeness of Nix be combined?
But let’s first take a brief step back and reiterate why Nix is and why I like it (and you will too, once you invest some time in learning it).
What Nix brings to the table
Nix is a relatively new package manager for Unix systems, it’s not specific to Linux, it works on any Unix system, in principle. This tweet sums it up pretty succinctly:
With Nix:
Packages and sytems are built using the Nix functional language, which is a full-blown, dynamically typed functional language designed specifically for deploying simple and complex systems.
Dependencies of an application are guaranteed to be complete, and do not have to be constructed by hand (as is the case with dpkg and RPM).
Since the dependency closure of an application is complete, you can copy a closure for an application to something as bare as BusyBox and it’ll run. The closure contains everything required to run the application and nothing more, which makes it a great fit for Docker where you’d like to keep images small.
Rather than scattering files all over the disk (configuration files in /etc, binaries in /usr/bin or/usr/local/bin or is it /bin), components are stored in isolation in the Nix store (/nix/store) not interfering with each other. This may seem less relevant in the context of Docker, but wait for the “one more thing” at the very end.
Nix has excellent support for modularization.
While Nix itself is “just” a package manager, there are tools built on top of it, including the NixOS Linux distribution called. Based on a single Nix configuration file, Nix can derive and entire system, which can be deployed locally, or remotely via NixOps.
In NixOS, all services run using systemd, kernels are deployed and a bunch of utility processes are running at all times. As a result, a minimal NixOS closure quickly becomes hundreds of megabytes big and too heavy-weight for a Docker container.
Regardless, NixOS configurations are kind of nice and clean and would make a great way of provisioning Docker images as well. For instance, here’s how to run a simple Apache server serving static files from./www directory:
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
services.httpd = {
enable = true;
documentRoot = ./www;
adminAddr = "[email protected]";
};
}
The ./www there refers to the path ./www local to the system configuration file. When the system configuration is built, the contents of ./www is automatically copied into the Nix store and becomes part of the dependencies of the system configuration. So this idea of “first I copy all my web files to /var/www, and then I point Apache to it” goes away.
To bring this awesomeness to Docker, I’ve been hacking on a project called nix-docker, which allows you to quickly and efficiently build Docker images using NixOS modules. In fact, the example I just gave can be built into a Docker image just great.
Rather than using systemd to run services inside the container (which is tricky to get to work inside of a Docker container and has a slew of dependencies of its own), I opted for using supervisord, which appears to be the de-facto standard for running multiple services at once in a Docker container. A simple application running a node.js server can be defined as follows:
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
supervisord.services.nodeApp = {
command = "${pkgs.nodejs}/bin/node ${./app}/server.js";
};
docker.ports = [ 8080 ];
}
This assumes you have an app/ directory in the same directory as the configuration file with a server.jsin it that runs a server on port 8080. The docker.ports configuration ensures that port 8080 is exposed to the outside world (the equivalent of EXPOSE in a Dockerfile).
Now let’s say you named this file configuration.nix. You can now build it into a Docker image as follows:
# nix-docker -b -t zefhemel/myapp configuration.nix
We’ll get to the -b at the very end, the -t option is used to name the image (zefhemel/myapp in this case) and configuration.nix is the file name of the config to build.
And that’s it. In case you need Redis for your application, that can be enabled easily, because there’s a reusable Redis module already available:
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
supervisord.services.nodeApp = {
command = "${pkgs.nodejs}/bin/node ${./app}/server.js";
};
services.redis.enable = true;
docker.ports = [ 8080 ];
}
The first thing nix-docker will do is build the system configuration and all its dependencies, in this case including:
supervisord to run the services
node.js
Redis
The configuration file for supervisord
The configuration file for redis
A build script to be run during the docker build
A run script that executes when you boot the container
and various other things. Note that building may sound heavier than it is. Nix can fetch prebuilt binaries for most packages, and only ever rebuilds something if it’s both not already available in the local nix store, or downloadable from a binary cache. So generally the process when iterating is very quick.
Once the build completes, it copies the closure to a bare busybox-based Docker image, sets some meta information (like the exposed ports, volumes etc.) and it’s done. You can now push your image to a Docker registry and run it anywhere where Docker runs.
To reduce the per-image size even more, it’s possible to use base images, nix-docker is clever enough to check what /nix/store paths are available in the base image already and not to copy those again for the new image thereby greatly reducing image sizes. For instance, to base it on my zefhemel/base-nix image:
# nix-docker -b -t zefhemel/myapp --from zefhemel/base-nix configuration.nix
And the resulting image will be much smaller, because it won’t have to copy many of the common things (like supervisord etc.).
One more thing
While nix-docker is a pragmatic solution, many Nix hackers won’t like the way I just described it to work. They’ll say “hey, Nix already has perfect support for isolated installations of software, why would you need to copy all that stuff into a container and ship it around?” And they’d be kind of right. A more Nix-native thing to do would be to ship a Nix closure for the application you want to run to the server where you want to run it, run that in an essentially empty Docker container where you bind-mount the host’s Nix store into the container. And guess what…
nix-docker supports this too!
This feature enables a second way of distributing Docker containers without the use of Docker registries. All it requires is to have Nix installed on the host machine.
To use this feature, simply leave out the -b option (note: in this mode you can even use nix-dockerwithout having Docker installed on the building machine):
$ nix-docker -t my-app configuration.nix
This will not build a Docker container. Instead, it’ll build a Nix package that you can ship to the target server via SSH (using nix-copy-closure) and then run the docker-run script that it comes with. What this script will do is build a very minimal Docker image on-demand containing only some meta data (like EXPOSEand VOLUME, RUN commands in a Dockerfile) and mounting in the host’s Nix store into the container via -v /nix/store:/nix/store.
There’s a few reasons you would do this:
This allows you to avoid Docker registries altogether. It enables you to distribute a Docker application to any server via SSH. It’s more disk-space efficient. No Nix store paths are every duplicated on the same machine. Build times are much faster, since Nix builds are fully incremental, only things that have not been build before will be built.
The only drawback is that Nix (not NixOS) needs to be installed on the target machine, thereby reducing portability somewhat. In practice I often use this mode during development and then use the -b option to build a “proper” Docker image when all is set up right.
How to try it out
For convenience, the nix-docker repo includes a Vagrantfile. Which makes it easy to get started if you have Vagrant installed, and also allows you to play when you’re on Mac OS X or even Windows. Vagrant will automatically install Docker, Nix and nix-docker so you can get started immediately. The repo contains some sample configurations for you to try.
To learn more, have a look at the code and learn more about Nix in general. In the end, it’s just Nix all the way down. In fact, the only part of nix-docker that’s not written in Nix is the 85 line nix-docker Python script that ties everything together.
Current state
It’s still early days for nix-docker. Currently I’ve built and enabled only a few modules including:
Many more existing NixOS modules should work but have to be tested first.
Update: Here’s a post describing how to provision a Docker container with Wordpress using nix-docker. |
Muslim Pop Star Yuna Climbs The U.S. Charts
Enlarge this image toggle caption Autumn de Wilde Autumn de Wilde
Award-winning singer Yuna is already a star in her native Malaysia, where she has been on the rise since her debut in 2008. She's also an observant Muslim and an entrepreneur. Yuna runs a fashion boutique that sells funky but modest clothes that meet the requirements of her faith. And while she's climbing the American charts with her new album, Nocturnal, she's not compromising her style or her religion. "I'm a Muslim. I don't try to hide it," Yuna says. "I'm also a girl who loves music."
Yuna spoke with Tell Me More host Michel Martin about her music, her heritage and her faith.
Interview Highlights
On life as a Muslim "pop star"
When I first started playing music, I was already covered ... wearing headscarves. And, like, normally, people would expect you to change, toss this part of your life away so that you could be a pop star. But I just wanted to make music, not really be a "pop star" pop star. And there's always people who wouldn't necessarily agree with what I'm doing right now. But ... I'm really happy with where I am right now, you know. I'm a Muslim. I don't try to hide it. I'm also a girl who loves music. And I don't try to hide that as well.
On the risk of reaching to the U.S.
I was doing quite well in Malaysia. ... Everyone was so excited about my music, and they started accepting me as an artist. And coming out here was like taking a risk. But it's something that I really wanted to do for a very long time. Like, I need to do something with my English music. ... Coming out here kind of enabled me to experiment with a lot of different music, and I really wanted to come up with music that the whole world could relate to.
YouTube
On writing songs in English instead of Malay
I kind of always struggled writing in Malay, because Malay is such a beautiful language. And it gets really hard, you know, if you want to make it into a song. It's kind of tricky. You have to make it sound beautiful, use the right words. And with English, you can be direct, like writing a letter to someone.
On "stay true to yourself," the message behind her song "Lights and Camera"
Being in the spotlight, you know, you tend to kind of forget who you are. And being an artist ... it could be a very superficial job. It could be very pretentious as well. People just ... see the surface of it, and not really getting into, like, who this person really is. And ... they don't know what's going on with this person. As that person, sometimes you kind of lose track of who you are. And usually everything is moving so fast, and, you know, you kind of get lost in everything. So I just wanted to write a strong song about knowing who you are and being yourself no matter what. |
The Arctic’s frozen ground contains large stores of organic carbon that have been locked in the permafrost for thousands of years. As global temperatures rise, that permafrost is starting to melt, raising concerns about the impact on the climate as organic carbon becomes exposed. A new study is shedding light on what that could mean for the future by providing the first direct physical evidence of a massive release of carbon from permafrost during a warming spike at the end of the last glacial period.
The study, published this week in the journal Nature Communications, documents how Siberian soil once locked in permafrost was carried into the Arctic Ocean during that period at a rate about seven times higher than today.
“We know the Arctic today is under threat because of growing climate warming, but we don’t know to what extent permafrost will respond to this warming. The Arctic carbon reservoir locked in the Siberian permafrost has the potential to lead to massive emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere,” said study co-author Francesco Muschitiello, a post-doctoral research fellow at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
To understand how melting permafrost influenced the carbon cycle in the past, the scientists examined the carbon levels in sediment that accumulated on the seafloor near the mouth of the Lena River about 11,650 years ago, when the last glacial period was ending and temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere spiked by several degrees.
Evidence from ice cores suggests that atmospheric carbon dioxide rose from about 190 parts per million to about 270 ppm during this period. What remains unclear is how much of that increase can be attributed to greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere as the permafrost melted and its once-frozen plant material thawed and decayed.
The new study looks at a parallel process, estimating the change in the amount of carbon released from permafrost by examining the amount of organic carbon that was washed from destabilized permafrost into the Lena River and out toward the Arctic Ocean. When permafrost starts to melt, its top “active layer” deepens and the soil loosens, allowing water to flow through it more easily, releasing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and washing away stored carbon.
“The results indicate severe deepening of the active-layer permafrost in the watershed and release of previously frozen-lock soil carbon, which also implies enhanced microbial respiration of CO 2 with important implications for carbon-climate feedback during climate warming,” said lead author Tommaso Tesi, a researcher at the Italian National Research Council. Oceans also release CO 2 from organic carbon.
The Lena River has the second-largest drainage basin in the Arctic region, with about 2.5 million square kilometers of land draining into it. Water runoff in the basin washes soil and its organic materials into the river, which carries it downstream to the Laptev Sea on the Arctic Ocean, where some of it settles to the seafloor and is buried by new sediment washing in. By drilling a core through the sediment layers and analyzing the layers’ chemistry, scientists could extract a picture of changes in river-borne soil – including its carbon content – over thousands of years.
The scientists used molecular compounds, including lignin phenols that are specific to land-based plants and a waxy polymer derived from plant cuticles, to fingerprint specific sources of organic carbon in the sediment core.
“The climate warming during the last deglacial period offers an extraordinary benchmark against which the stability of permafrost carbon can be evaluated,” Tesi said. “Therefore, this study can also provide insights to assess the vulnerability of high-latitude soils in response to future climate changes and understand the expected feedback from permafrost soils.”
Today’s Arctic warming is already affecting the chemistry of freshwater rivers in Alaska, recent research suggests. An unrelated study published last month in Geophysical Research Letters tracked the chemistry of the Yukon River over 30 years and found significant increases in calcium, magnesium and sulfate, likely from runoff of water that had flowed through newly thawed soil and weathered newly accessible rock.
The Lena River study stemmed from fieldwork conducted during the multinational SWERUS-C3 Arctic expedition in 2014. The other co-authors of the study are Rienk Smittenberg, August Andersson, Nina Kirchner and Örjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University; Martin Jakobsson of Stockholm University and University Centre in Svalbard; Jorien E. Vonk of the University Amsterdam; Peter Hill and Riko Noormets of the University Centre in Svalbard; Oleg Victorovich Dudarev of Pacific Oceanological Institute FEB RAS and Tomsk Polytechnic University; and Igor Semiletov of Pacific Oceanological Institute FEB RAS, Tomsk Polytechnic University, and University of Alaska Fairbanks. |
While Hillary Clinton hunkers down under a nonstop barrage of email releases, avoiding press conferences while doing a desperate distaff impression of Richard Nixon ("I am not a crook!"), Donald Trump won the daily double on Wednesday, appearing presidential in his visit with President Nieto in Mexico City and then coming back to deliver a substantive speech (almost dizzyingly so) on immigration in Phoenix.
Indeed, I can't remember a more highly detailed speech on one subject area by a presidential candidate in my lifetime. And we thought Trump was weak on policy. He's out-wonking the wonks with his ten-point plan on immigration, no matter how you fall out on them.
You could almost call it "Birth of a Policy Wonk" with the onetime gambling plutocrat taking off his gold lamé tuxedo to reveal the tweedy duds of a Johns Hopkins poli sci prof. Well, not quite. Donald will always be Donald and he did roam off prompter a few times, though not far. Still, credit where it's due. He had a lot to say. (Critics immediately got on the air to ask him to explain more, even though the speech was already an hour and fifteen minutes long. If he had spoken for fifteen hours, they would have asked for thirty. And that's before George Stephanopoulos gets into it.)
But before examining those ten points, let's take a step backwards and tip the hat further to Donald for his overall theme—the rule of law. Most of all, Trump wants us to enforce our existing immigration laws. Who'd a thunk it? Certainly, not Clinton. Enforcing the law is not her long suit. But we know that, so on to the ten points.
ONE—THE WALL: He wants to build the promised wall with the best technology and protection against underground tunnels. No surprise here. And he still, despite his morning visit south of the border, wants Mexico to pay for it. (Shrieks from the media, but actually this is a giant canard. Illegal aliens send some $25 billion a year in remittances back to Mexico. Start taxing that and Mexico has paid for the wall in no time—without having to say one word to their government.)
TWO—END CATCH-AND-RELEASE: This alone could change everything. Why did it ever exist in the first place? The Obama (and undoubtedly Hillary) endorsed catch-and-release always seemed something out of Orwell. Scratch that—Lewis Carroll. ("I caught you sneaking across," said the Mad Hatter. "Now you're released... Here's a hundred dollars and a house. And would you like a cup of tea?") Bravo to Trump for ending it.
THREE—ZERO TOLERANCE FOR CRIMINAL ALIENS: Did you know there were two million of them inside this country? Are we crazy? Trump wants to pass Kate's Law—named for Kate Steinle, the young San Franciscan who was murdered by one of these characters —which imposes severe punishment on illegal alien recidivists. The idea was first proposed by Bill O'Reilly. Trump can count on some positive coverage there to make up for Megyn Kelly.
FOUR—SANCTUARY CITIES ARE OUT: And good riddance too. Their funds will be blocked if they don't comply. But will San Francisco have the cash to clean up its poop problem? Trump didn't say. (Just kidding, of course, but it is a problem.)
FIVE—UNCONSTITUTIONAL EXECUTIVE ORDERS CANCELED: These are by you-know-who. This is where Trump also said he would enforce all existing immigration laws and add to ICE personnel, etc. to make sure they can be enforced.
SIX—SUSPEND THE ISSUING OF VISAS FROM PLACES WHERE ADEQUATE SCREENING CANNOT OCCUR: aka the Islamic Middle East. This is the "extreme vetting" proposal made by Trump in his recent foreign policy speech. It makes sense but he has not addressed the more complicated issue of Western Europe, where second-generation Muslims are shooting up nightclubs and slicing the necks of priests. Do we withhold visas from France, Belgium, etc.? Something has to be figured out.
SEVEN—OTHER COUNTRIES MUST TAKE THEIR PEOPLE BACK WHEN WE ORDER THEM DEPORTED: Donald, the enforcer. He might even be able to make this work.
EIGHT—BIOMETRIC ENTRY-EXIT VISA TRACKING: This one's extremely important since half our illegal aliens come in by overstaying their visas, including many of the most dangerous jihadi-types. High time we did this. Maybe Apple or Google could help. (Yeah, right.)
NINE—TURN OFF THE JOBS AND BENEFITS MAGNET: This is self-explanatory.
TEN—REFORM LEGAL IMMIGRATION TO SERVE THE BEST INTERESTS OF AMERICA AND ITS WORKERS: ditto.
In all there's nothing in Trump's ten proposals with which I disagree. Notably missing is what to do with the eleven million (or whatever the real number is) existing illegal aliens, other than the criminal element that would be immediately sent out. No mass deportations in evidence despite much of the post-speech media coverage, even on the increasingly confused Fox News, focusing on Trump supposedly not softening on immigration.
Trump said we should deal with that population after everyone felt the border was genuinely secure. He implied that could take a while. Again, I concur. This the humane way to do it. Seal the border tight. Get rid of the unsavory. (People who come here illegally and then commit crimes are definitely unsavory.) Then see what our country looks like. Everyone may feel generous at that point. Ann Coulter may be freaking out, but so what? She'll still sell more books than ninety-nine percent of authors. (Yes, I'm jealous.) Trump's approach is just fine. Cross your fingers (and mark your ballots) so he has a chance to put it into action.
The full text of Trump's speech is here.
Roger L. Simon is a prize-winning novelist, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and co-founder of PJ Media. His most recent book is—I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn't Already. You can read an excerpt here. You can see a brief interview about the book with the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal here. You can hear an interview about the book with Mark Levin here. You can order the book here.
(Artwork created using multiple Shutterstock.com elements.) |
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In the ever-changing world of ransomware, there are two animals that are always leading the pack. According to new research from security company Malwarebytes, the Locky and Cerber ransomware families are neck and neck with hackers constantly developing new strains of the malware.
The report, which tracked ransomware activity between July and October, first found that Cerber was in a dominant position before being overtaken by Locky.
We’ve seen both families adapt to the times recently, trying to stay fresh and dangerous by adding new features and tactics. In November, Check Point revealed how cybercriminals were exploiting holes in Facebook and LinkedIn to download Locky onto victims’ computers via an image file. Also last month, Trend Micro published findings that showed how Cerber was encrypting users’ database files.
Malwarebytes noted that the United States was by far the most infected country when it came to ransomware, with more strains avoiding detection by traditional antivirus software.
The company is looking at Russia as the most likely source of Locky and Cerber ransomware, either from Russian criminals or those with some affiliation with Russia.
Adam Kujawa, director of malware intelligence at Malwarebytes, pointed to the evidence that these forms of ransomware rarely infect Russian computers, using built-in functionality to detect if a user is based in Russia.
“They both recognize certain Russian IP addresses and say, ‘alright, we’re not going to infect you’ if you’re likely coming from Russia,” he said.
“I believe that is because if Russian law enforcement were to identify Russian people being hit by them, they’ll go after the attackers and take them down. If it’s going toward Western countries and the United States, they’re less likely to do anything about it.”
Of course, attribution is always hard when it comes to cybercrime. The Russia angle could very well be a smokescreen to deflect attention.
What is certain though is that ransomware is becoming increasingly sophisticated and surreptitious, avoiding detection and trying new tricks. Ordinary antivirus which still relies on signature detection to identify threats isn’t up to scratch.
One of the latest incarnations of ransomware has been so-called “doxware”, which as its name may suggest merges malicious encryption methods with doxing, the publishing of personal data online.
“It’s basically ‘we’re going to take your files, we’ll encrypt them, we’re demanding you pay us and if you don’t we’re going to throw it up on the internet’,” Kujawa said. “For an individual person that might not be a bad problem but for a company that could be huge.”
This is a devious but interesting workaround for the cases where a victim has a backup of their data and is unfazed by not paying. This all fuels the arms race between cybercriminals and security software vendors and regular people.
“There’s light at the end of the tunnel and this is a double-edged sword. The need for malware to develop further comes from the security community and the public at large ability to defend against these attacks,” explained Kujawa but every time we get better at security, cybercriminals change their tactics.
This isn’t likely to change in 2017. “They’re going to change their methods, I promise you that.” |
Simon DempseyThursday 31 March 2011 12.37pmDavid ThorneNo SubjectDid you draw Justin Biebers face on all the images in my stock images folder and save them over my files?David ThorneThursday 31 March 2011 12.44pmSimon DempseyRe: No SubjectYes.Simon DempseyThursday 31 March 2011 12.49pmDavid ThorneRe: Re: No SubjectWhat the fuck for? What are you even doing in my files?David ThorneThursday 31 March 2011 12.56pmSimon DempseyRe: Re: Re: No SubjectI didn't think you would notice. I'm meant to be laying out a business card for a client so was looking for a distraction and realised I can open and save files from your computer over the network.Simon DempseyThursday 31 March 2011 1.05pmDavid ThorneRe: Re: Re: Re: No SubjectBut what did you put Justin Biebers face on them for dickhead? I was going to use them for something.David ThorneThursday 31 March 2011 1.12pmSimon DempseyRe: Re: Re: Re: Re: ArtworkYou can still use them. Justin Bieber is very popular.Simon DempseyThursday 31 March 2011 1.27pmDavid ThorneRe: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: ArtworkStay off my computer and you better have a backup of the original images. Do you have a backup?David ThorneThursday 31 March 2011 1.31pmSimon DempseyRe: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: ArtworkNo.Simon DempseyThursday 31 March 2011 1.43pmDavid ThorneRe: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: ArtworkRight dickhead. I'm making a formal complaint. |
The £25m pop payout - Phil Collins in a mega-divorce (again)
Having already paid out an estimated £17million to one former wife, you could say Phil Collins should have seen his latest divorce settlement, er, coming in the air.
The 57-year-old singer and drummer has been forced to hand over an astonishing £25million to his third wife in what is believed to be the largest divorce payment by a British show business star.
The generous payout to Swiss-born Orianne Cevey, 35, follows seven years of marriage.
Phil Collins has been forced to fork out £25m to his third wife Orianne Cevey in the largest ever divorce settlement by a British showbusiness star
The couple, who were together for 12 years in total, have two children, Nicolas, eight, and Matthew, four.
It means that, after taking into account the millions he paid to second wife Jill Tavelman - whom he famously dumped by fax - he has now paid out more than £42million to his ex partners.
That equates to almost a third of his £140million fortune.
The settlement only came to light following the release of accounts for Collins's personal management company, Philip Collins Ltd.
It is greater than the £24.3million Paul McCartney recently handed over to Heather Mills.
However it is dwarfed by Britain's biggest ever divorce payout - the £48million handed over by stockbroker John Chapman to his wife Beverley.
Collins met Miss Cevey on tour in 1994 when she was just 22 and was working as a translator.
Collins, then 43, was still married to his second wife at the time.
The couple set up home in Geneva and were together for five years before their lavish three- day wedding costing £300,000 which hosted guests including Elton John and Eric Clapton.
They bought racing driver Jackie Stewart's old house in Bugnins, near Geneva, for an estimated £20million before announcing their split in 2006.
Miss Cevey has remained in the mansion while Mr Collins moved into another home nearby to be close to his sons.
He now divides his time between Switzerland, New York and a home in Norfolk.
Collins was the drummer in Genesis until he stepped up to replace original singer Peter Gabriel.
He has also has a successful solo career.
Orianne has recently set up a luxury jewellery business called The Right Label.
Collins has two children with his first wife actress Andrea Bertorelli, Joely, 33, and Simon, 28.
That relationship ended when she ran off with their decorator.
Collins famously appeared on Top Of The Pops singing his 1981 solo hit In The Air Tonight with a pot of paint and paintbrush perched on his piano as a bitter coded message to his wife.
It is not known how much his divorce settlement was that time but is not thought to match the huge sums he has paid out since.
Collins, who also has a daughter, Lily, with second wife Jill, recently suffered hearing loss due to an ear infection.
Earlier this year he announced he was giving up touring for good.
A person who returned the Daily Mail's call to the office of Tony Smith, Collins' agent, said: 'I am not going to comment. It's not worthy of a comment. Their separation is an old story.' |
The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Cleveland Browns 23-17 on Sunday. The Chiefs didn’t play especially well, but were still able to hold off a mediocre team, lead by a below average QB and win by six points in Arrowhead. It was a “meh” performance against a “meh” team. While every win counts the same in the win column, this game did nothing to silence the doubters out there that think the Chiefs’ undefeated record is more the product of an easy schedule than an elite team.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Falcons dropped to an incredibly disappointing 2-5 on the season. This is a team that was the #1 seed in the NFC last season. This team was one win away from playing in a Super Bowl. They were so close last season, that despite his intent to retire, Hall of Fame TE Tony Gonzalez was talked into coming back for one more chance at a Super Bowl. Now their season appears to be over.
Tuesday is the NFL trade deadline.
Do I need to connect the dots any more than that?
There is simply NO good reason for this trade not to happen. Here’s why:
1. The Chiefs Need Gonzalez
The Chiefs offense isn’t bad, it’s average. They are 16th in the NFL in yards per game and 13th in the NFL in points per game. For all the grief that the offense has taken you’d think they were at the bottom of the league. If they are average without Gonzalez, he could be the piece that put’s them over the top. Alex Smith loves to throw safe passes to the TE. Vernon Davis was his run away favorite target in San Francisco. Andy Reid’s West Coast Offense features the TE, that’s why they signed Anthony Fasano and spent a high draft pick on Travis Kelce. With Kelce injured, they could easily fit Gonzalez into the TE rotation. While Fasano is a nice safety valve and Sean McGrath has been a solid find, neither of them are players that defenses have to game plan for. Gonzalez would take some attention away from Jamaal Charles and Dwayne Bowe and allow them more freedom to make plays.
2. The Falcons Don’t Have Anything To Gain From Keeping Gonzalez
The Falcons are done. Some will say they still have nine games to go and anything can happen, but if you look at their remaining schedule there are just too many tough games remaining. The Falcons still have to play Carolina twice, the Seahawks, the Saints, the Packers, and the 49ers. That’s six challenging games remaining for a team with a bad defense, bad offensive line, and injured skill position players. Even if they split those six games (unlikely), just those three loses would give them eight on the season. 8-8 isn’t making the playoffs in the NFC. Gonzalez isn’t coming back for another season. Of course the Falcons have said they aren’t trading Gonzalez. Of course Gonzalez has said he doesn’t want to go anywhere. What else are they going to say? Atlanta actually has an intriguing rookie TE that they could give extended playing time with Gonzalez gone in Levine Toilolo. The 6’8″ 265 lbs rookie from Stanford already has 2 TDs in limited playing time this season. They also have another pass catching option at TE in former Mizzou TE Chase Coffman. At this point, the Falcons are playing for next year and Gonzalez will not be there next year. The players that would get playing time in his absence will be. So will the player that they would draft with the pick they acquire for Gonzalez.
3. The Price Tag For Gonzalez Will Not Be Too High
I understand that KC shouldn’t sell the farm to get a 37 year old TE for 8 games. Atlanta knows that. They aren’t going to ask for a 3rd rounder for a player that is retiring from the NFL in 8 games. I truly believe that Gonzalez could be had for a 6th round draft pick, 5th rounder tops. The Chiefs drafted a FB that didn’t even make the roster in the 6th round this year. Late round draft picks are crap shoots. Gonzalez is a proven commodity.
4. Salary Cap Space Can Be Found
I’ve heard a lot of people say this trade can’t happen because KC doesn’t have the cap space. I’ll admit that I’m not an expert “capoligist”, but it seems to me this could be resolved by cutting ties with Dunta Robinson. I like Dunta. He seems to have a good attitude and work ethic, but with the rise of Marcus Cooper I don’t see anyway they keep Robinson and his salary around next season. I know it will cost KC some dead money, but if he’s going to be gone next season anyway, I’d rather have 8 games of Tony Gonzalez than 8 games of Dunta Robinson cheering on Marcus Cooper from the sidelines.
5. The Timing Is Right
The Chiefs head to Buffalo next week and could work in a handful of plays to get Gonzalez a little action while Fasano and McGrath continue to get most of the snaps. Then KC has their bye week which is the absolute PERFECT time to get Gonzalez up to speed. Gonzalez has been around for SO long that I guarantee there isn’t anything in Reid’s playbook that he hasn’t seen before. He just needs to get on the same page with the terminology. After the bye week the Chiefs have their biggest game of the year to that point when they go to Denver. How perfect would it be for Denver to have to game plan for Gonzalez when they haven’t had a chance to see how KC is going to use him yet? Denver’s defense has struggled already and having to defend Charles, Bowe, and Gonzalez should give them fits.
6. Seasons Like This Don’t Come Along Very Often
As much as we all like to think that this season is just the beginning of many winning years in the Andy Reid / John Dorsey era, there simply aren’t any guarantees that the Chiefs will be in this good of position again. The Chiefs are on pace for the #1 seed and homefield advantage in the playoffs. Easy schedule or not, the Chiefs need to do EVERYTHING in their power to capitalize on this opportunity. KC has found ways to win and that is commendable, but they must continue to find ways to improve if they want to win a Super Bowl. Gonzalez makes them better. No 8-0 team should be focused solely on the future. An 8-0 team should be focused on trying to win it all.
7. It’s Just Too Poetic To Pass Up
Tony Gonzalez is the greatest tight end to ever play the game. He spent the bulk of his career in Kansas City. There are still hundreds of 88 jerseys at Arrowhead every Sunday. Yes, he decided he didn’t want to deal with Scott Pioli and Todd Haley. Based on what we now know, can you blame him for wanting to go to a contender instead of dealing with those two? I know some KC fans are still holding a grudge, but I have a hard time believing that if 88 came running out of the tunnel back in KC red and gold that there would be a single fan in Arrowhead that wouldn’t go nuts. Anyone want to actually say that if Tony Gonzalez was dunking that ball over the goalpost after a TD against the Broncos, you would say “I still don’t forgive him for leaving!” This is the ultimate hollywood ending. Gonzalez returning to the team he played with for years to make one last Super Bowl run, what could be better than that?
Pick up the phone John Dorsey. Get this done. There just is no reason for it not to. KC players have actually gone on record saying that they’d love to have him back. This is a special team having a special season and bringing in Tony Gonzalez could be the thing that puts this team over the top. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by Mr. Dorsey.
Bring Tony G Back Home To KC Where He Belongs!
As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Follow me on Twitter: @LyleGraversen |
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