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We’re not mugs: the future of Australian Rugby, if there is one
In recent years Aussie rugby supporters have had to get used to disappointment when it comes to on-field performance. It’s not been pleasant, but there’s usually been something around the corner that’s made us feel that things could get better; often a ‘backs to the wall’ performance. What we won’t stomach being treated as though, are mugs – which has become a disturbing default in recent years, and surely has reached new lows in 2014.
When the ARU board renewed John O’Neill’s contract and then paid him out two million dollars when he became too busy with the duties of other boards, they surely thought we were fools. Stupid enough we wouldn’t notice that after a ‘global search’ to find the next CEO, he turns out to be the Chairman’s old private school buddy with absolutely zero sports administration experience.
Some may say that these indiscretions border on old news. I’d say the mind-boggling turn of events we saw in 2014 were largely the result of a woefully naive ARU executive team being eaten alive.
Unfortunately it wasn’t just our own national body who saw us as mugs. Of the many, many aspects of the Beale debacle that debased the game of rugby in Australia this year, most insulting must surely have been the way in which the majority of the media colluded with the Beale camp to produce a one-eyed character assassination of both Patston and McKenzie. These two careers and private lives were thrown under a bus purely as last ditch effort to bolster the earning potential of a player we knew to be guilty as charged.
It’s now laughable when you recall some of the arguments they spruiked to muddy the waters – like the line that yes, Beale sent one offensive message, but not two. While I might not be able to tell the difference between the two images, I can tell that the damage Beale’s gutter defence caused the victim was far worse than both of those two images combined ever did.
But what of the damage to Australian Rugby?
At the beginning of the Beale fiasco, Bill Pulver stood up and said that the ARU could not countenance bullying in the workplace and so Beale must go. The strength of that ‘decision’ lasted all of five minutes and we are now in the situation where Kurtley Beale looks likely to be re-signed by the ARU, having sailed through a stacked tribunal and now being under the protection of Michael Cheika as Wallaby coach.
There are so many wrong messages given by this outcome, it’s hard to know which one to pick. The core is this though – that when it comes to certain players versus coaches, the ARU, or Rugby – the latter are dead meat. This would be a problem in any sporting code, but in a code verging on bankruptcy – both in terms financial and good will with the supporter base – it’s a death sentence.
Let’s imagine (it’s not very hard) that Bill Pulver’s attempt to pull a rabbit out of a hat with a 2016 TV deal fails. In its current form Aussie rugby goes bust. Finally, we get a cost base re-set; player salaries are smashed into line with other well paid professionals and extravagant (albeit well-meaning) investments like the Rebels are ‘efficiency dividended’. Stars leave, the code contracts. Australian rugby is in the wilderness.
With a healthy grass roots supporter base, we can fight our way back. Sure, the Wallabies will probably lose for a while (what’s new?) but for the average rugby punter who pays the bills (you and me), there’s still the game we love. Talent will come forward. We’ll find a way through because there’s still that special code we can put our sons and daughters through so that they too can enjoy the special bond it forms between us.
But will that supporter base be there? The ARU’s double-down bet on the tip of the talent pyramid pulling the whole lot through has failed. It seems that every conceivable strategy has had a go – new super franchises, league converts, sevens tournaments – anything other than serious investment at the base of the pyramid. Meanwhile my son comes home with NRL balls after a free week’s league clinic at school and AFL makes headway into GPS schools.
Indeed, far from investment, in 2014 we see a mixture of taxation, funding withdrawal and administrative burden heaped onto club rugby. Into these open wounds comes the salt of the Beale fiasco. How much abuse and misrepresentation of their code can a supporter base take?
From the feedback I receive from the G&GR community – many at the coal face of the Aussie Rugby – for many it’s already too much. In some, a thread has been broken. In many others, right now they’re just ‘over it’. We can only hope a new year and an overindulgence in cricket through the summer somehow recharges the batteries enough to re-kindle a flame at least at super rugby level.
What I do know though is that 2014 signalled Australian rugby is no longer in a battle against AFL, League and even the A-League to be at the top table of Australian sport. That battle has been lost. The battle now is to survive as a code with our fundamentals intact. For that to happen, players, administrators and the media need to stop treating supporters as mugs and as the lifeblood of this sport that they are. The future of Australian rugby depends on no-one else, but them. |
The following article covers in-depth plot points from the game, Outlast 2.
In 2013, Developer Red Barrels released the breakout game, Outlast. Immediately well received for its intense focus on running from constant threats and mature themes, the plot of the game was a relatively straightforward narrative that detailed an evil corporation’s insane experiments and the violence that ensued. Outlast 2 could have taken the easy approach of simply building on its predecessor’s story, but instead opted for a far more complex narrative involving flashbacks and multiple, overlapping religious themes. It’s a difficult story to understand, but one whose depth is better appreciated with analysis.
The Temple Gate Plot
It should first be understood that there are two concurrent plots running throughout the course of the game, though they both influence the actions of the protagonist. There is first the immediate plot into which the protagonist is thrust into. In this first story arc, the protagonist’s wife, Lynn Langermann, is captured by an organization named the Testament of New Ezekiel. The protagonist, Blake Langermann, and his wife are investigating the murder of a young woman. They find themselves at Temple Gate, where a cult of religious fanatics assaults them. This cult believes Lynn carries the antichrist in her womb and hopes to kill it at the moment of its birth to prevent the apocalypse. A quarter into the narrative, she’s captured by a splinter faction known as the Heretics, who hope to allow its birth so that the world can be destroyed.
The overt conflict between these two groups is relatively straightforward. The Testament of New Ezekiel, led by Sullivan Knoth, wants to prevent the rise of the apocalypse. The Heretics, led by Val, hope to allow it. In the end, Lynn ends up giving birth to the child, while the followers of both Temple Gate and the Heretics slaughter one another in a final bloodbath. This leaves Blake Langermann and his child the lone survivors.
The Jessica Abuse Plot
Simultaneously, there is another storyline occurring through flashbacks Blake has to navigate. The story actually begins with this plot line. In it, Blake finds himself continuously wandering the halls of the Catholic school he, Lynn, and their old friend Jessica used to attend together. In fact, the game starts off not during the investigation of Temple Gate, but in a dream Blake is having about Jessica. In this image-less intro sequence, a young girl asks for Blake and begs for his help. This immediately suggests that prior to the start of the game, Blake is already haunted by the horrors of hi past.
During the course of the flashbacks Blake experiences, we see more and more about who this person was. Jessica once attended school with Blake and Lynn. Blake is pursued by a multi-armed monster in these visions. Close inspection reveals the creature to be balding and with a noticeable birth mark on his forehead. In one of the final visions Blake sees, we are introduced to a priest, Loutermilch, with identical features. The final series of visions reveal that Blake and Lynn were the lead roles in Beauty and the Beast at their school. Jessica asked Blake to stay late one day, where they discussed whether he liked Lynn.
After wrestling with Jessica, they attempted to leave, only to be stopped by Loutermilch. Loutermilch dismissed Blake to stay alone with Jessica, but Jessica practically begged Blake to stay with her. In this scene, Loutermilch acts uncomfortably intimate with Jessica, asking her to pray with him for forgiveness and brushing her cheek. In combination with her desperation for Blake to stay, it’s strongly implied that Loutermilch has had inappropriate contact with Jessica in the past. Loutermilch says something to Blake that could very well apply to himself: “Shame is a gift from God . . . To let you know right from wrong. And what you want is very wrong.”
That Loutermilch abused Jessica is further validated if the player takes a series of recordings during these dream sequences. The recordings produce only static, but there’s a backward voice in the audio. When played in reverse, the voice is revealed to be Loutermilch. In these recordings, the priest thanks God for killing Jessica, thereby removing temptation from his life. He also thanks God for something quite disturbing. Specifically, he says he shared in these childrens’ paths to adulthood, when children learn “those things everybody else already knows, but doesn’t talk about.” He then says Jessica was smiley and flirty. The pairing of these lines suggest that what’s not talked about is sex.
Did Jessica Kill Herself, or Was She Murdered?
Throughout the game’s flashbacks, Blake sees images of Jessica hanged from the ceiling. However, Blake’s final vision of her shows Jessica at the bottom of a stairwell, bloodied, with her neck at an awkward angle. On closer inspection, the right side of her neck demonstrates extreme redness to a degree that it looks like a massive internal wound has occurred. At the top of the stairs stands Father Loutermilch, who says, “I don’t know what . . . you think you saw.” This implies Loutermilch is already trying to convince Blake this was an accident. So, did she hang herself, or was she murdered?
The evidence favors Jessica having her neck broken and then the murder being covered up by Father Loutermilch, who hung her as a way of explaining the break in her neck. Further evidence of this is found in the final backward recording, in which he says, “You killer her, but I never told a soul.” Here, as throughout the backwards recordings, Loutermilch is referring to God when he says “you.” He then says he kept the secret between himself and God, thanking God a final time. Finally, he says that God let the “smaller sorrow of her suicide wash over the unacceptable tragedy of her murder.” From his perspective, suicide was the smaller of the two outcomes. Although we can only speculate as to the moral justifications of why, Loutermilch comes across as selfish and concerned about how it would appear if a priest was found to have murdered a student.
Is the Child Real?
Returning to the first plot line, the people of Temple Gate fear that Lynn will birth the antichrist. She does, indeed, give birth to the baby, but is it real? Images from the beginning of the game do not seem to indicate Lynn Langermann is pregnant, and she has a distinctly different physical appearance from what she looks like in the end sequence. What follows are two images from the beginning sequence of the game:
Lynn is not pregnant at the start of the game. Lynn is not pregnant at the start of the game.
The next time the player sees Lynn, she looks like this:
In both instances, she has a relatively flat stomach. In the final encounter with her, Lynn looks like this:
A woman does not develop a pregnancy stomach of that size in the course of a single night, unless the developers would have us disregard all science. Additionally, at multiple instances throughout the game, Blake denies being a father, expresses disbelief that Lynn can be pregnant, and indicates it’s been months since they had sex. Finally, when Blake is holding the child in his hands, it doesn’t clearly seem that the baby casts any shadow, further indicating that the baby isn’t real:
However, the shadow is rather vague and blurry, making it difficult to make any conclusions on the basis of that image alone. When taken against all the rest of the evidence presented in the game however, it seems to indicate far more that there was never a real pregnancy occurring. So, was Lynn hallucinating the pregnancy? It would be supported from a document in the original Outlast, which suggests the Morphogenic Engine, which was used during experimentation on patients, caused female employees to have psychosomatic pregnancies. In other words, they believed they were pregnant, but they never really were. The author of that document concluded that these pregnancies were more often fatal than not. If Lynn was exposed to anything like the Morphogenic Engine, her entire pregnancy could have been one of these false pregnancies, ending in death.
The only reason Blake, and Sullivan Knoth, see a baby is because that’s a manifestation of their own hallucinations. Lynn doesn’t see the baby, however, we know not everyone has the same hallucinations. When Blake’s hallucinations occur, they’re of the school. When the cultists’ hallucinations occur, they’re of religious terror. Hallucinations manifest in different ways, and Knoth and Blake merely share the same hallucination of a baby, although they interpret the meaning of that hallucination in different ways. For Blake, it’s a symbol of future hope, while for Knoth it’s a symbol of the apocalypse.
“There’s Nothing There”
Lynn’s final words have been debated as either meaning there isn’t a baby there, or there isn’t a heaven she can see as she’s dying. However, the phrase does not need to mean either/or, and can actually be used to indicate both truths. While I’ll leave this point for a larger thematic analysis in the future, much of the underpinnings of Outlast 2 revolve around deceptions. There’s the deception of what happened to Jessica, the deception the Temple Gate fanatics are following in their hunt for the antichrist, and a larger thematic point about how religion plays a role in deception. Again, this is a point for a future piece that focuses more specifically on themes, but Lynn’s final statement can be a reference to both the lack of a baby and lack of anything to find after death.
Murkoff, the Morphogenic Engine, and Psychosomatic Responses
The specific role of psychosomatic disorders in the original Outlast was to dispose patients toward being capable of controlling a nanoswarm, tiny robots that could act as a violent weapon through psychic control. Psychosomatic responses made individuals more receptive to controlling the nanoswarm. Could the events of Outlast 2 have been attempts to expand these psychosomatic experiments to entire populations? It’s difficult to say with absolute certainty. However, a series of comics meant to bridge the original Outlast seems to indicate this may have been the case. In these comics, a character involved with revealing what was going on at Mount Massive Asylum suggests that Temple Gate is a larger scale attempt to replicate the procedure. Specifically, he says, “Mount Massive was a pebble in a pond, an experiment on individuals. This (Temple Gate) is where the real sickness spreads.”
Finally, the psychosomatic states induced by the Morphogenic Engines were produced by creating extreme terror in subjects. The residents of Temple Gate possess this in abundance, with their perpetual fear of the antichrist, paranoia, and willingness to murder their own children. When combined with Lynn’s psychosomatic pregnancy and the quote about Temple Gate, it seems Murkoff was attempting to induce the kind of psychosomatic responses it had at Mount Massive Asylum. In fact, we have documented evidence that Jenny Roland, a pathologist working at Mount Massive Asylum, was affiliated with an unknown individual monitoring Temple Gate. The document, “Old Traveler,” records that this unknown observer owes Roland a dinner. His duties included monitoring the religious believers at Temple Gate in relation to microwave discharges being emitted from a nearby radio tower.
The Flashing Light
The radio tower emitting the microwaves is what knocks the helicopter off course. Almost every time that it flashes, Blake finds himself thrown back into his vision of the past, when he was a child and friends with Jessica. These are the moments he’s hunted by the horrific manifestation of Loutermilch and, more importantly, the horror of what he witnessed and his own guilt surrounding it. The flashes increase in frequency throughout the game, as do Blake’s visions. These flashes produce different hallucinations. Blake’s flights through the school of his past are different from the religious terrors the local residents see. Although there isn’t enough evidence to support this next assertion, it may be that the increasing frequency of the surges indicate something is wrong with the tower. This may be proven by the final words of Sullivan Knoth, who says at the end of the game that “God is silent.” Perhaps the increasing frequency was a sign of the tower going out of control, until it finally ‘overheated’ and shut down entirely.
The Closing Moments
There are several confusing elements to the finale. First, the town is obviously destroyed, not only by the cultists slaughtering each other but by a very real storm that tears the village apart, including killing the stalker, Marta, by impaling her with a cross. The storm was real, but if it was related to the game’s larger plot, then it must have been related to the microwave flashes. From the “Old Traveler” document, we know that there’s a feedback loop close to temple gate that amplifies microwave signals beyond the initial power of the broadcast. With continuous feedback, perhaps this could create powerful environmental effects. However, the same document also notes that electrical storms occur in the region naturally. In either case, a storm did occur that destroyed Temple Gate.
Editor’s Note: It seems more likely that the feedback loop refers to everyone in the town constantly projecting their hallucinations off of one another. However, the storm remains a real phenomenon, implying it’s tied to the storms noted in the “Old Traveler” document.
Second, we see a final vision of Jessica asking Blake to sit and pray with her, saying “I’ll never let you go. You never let me go.” The second half of that statement is quite right. Blake never let go of his guilt surrounding what happened to Jessica, and perhaps now he never will escape this last hallucination of being with her, much like the cultists were trapped in permanent, horrific religious visions. The final prayer they speak is a Lutheran hymn asking to be watched over during sleep. This reflects that Blake’s horrific day is over. However, the hymn goes on to pray for Christ to wash away everything that went wrong that day. At the time, Blake is clutching a non-existent baby and claiming it will grow up to accomplish everything it should. Blake may be having some sort of psychological breakdown in which he believes the wrongs of the past can now be made up for with the future of the (nonexistent) baby.
It should be noted that just prior to this last vision of Jessica, what looks like another microwave surge emanates that envelopes him. It actually comes from the direction of the sun and doesn’t possess the white light of the radio tower’s activities. It’s difficult to say what this final light emanation is. When it occurs, it sends him into the final hallucination, and Blake lifts his hand in reaction to it in the same way he does when the microwave surges occur. However, we also know Blake doesn’t need to see a surge for him to hallucinate, at least not after the first surge. For example, at one moment during the game, he peers over the side of a well and is swallowed up by a tongue that takes him into a flashback.
Based on the fact that Blake doesn’t need to experience a surge to hallucinate, in combination with the final prayer that Jessica speaks, it may be that Blake experienced a final culminating hallucination, one indicating that he is forever trapped within this unreal world. He is now too far gone, and now Jessica (or rather his hallucinations) will never let him go. Blake will forever experience a world in which caring for the imagined child in his arms is akin to caring for Jessica, with his only future being in pursuing another falsehood not so different from the same way the residents of Temple Gate pursued their own falsehood.
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Jason Luthor is the author of the science fiction and dystopian horror, FLOOR 21. |
The abandoned Schlitz brewhouse in late 2012, just months before it was demolished in 2013. Credit: Paul Bialas Photography
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Living In Shadows
Beginning in the mid-19th century – up until the iron fist of prohibition came down – Milwaukee, Wisconsin – fueled by German immigrants – had built itself into one of the most powerful brewing cities in the world, thus earning its nickname, “Brew City.” After the 13-year American beer drought, only the biggest and richest breweries survived in Milwaukee. Then, slowly over the next half century, one by one their doors closed. They were either sold, or they outright folded until the city lived under the shadow of one mega brewery.
Although many of us still refer to Milwaukee as “Brew City” out of habit, it feels a little unearned in recent years, since the title mostly refers to ghosts of the past. In the mid-1980s, Sprecher Brewing and Lakefront Brewing opened in Milwaukee serving as an overture to the America-wide craft beer movement that would commence for the following 30 years. In spite of the success of Sprecher and Lakefront, Milwaukee was slow to fully embrace the craft beer boom. While similar sized cities like San Diego, Portland, and Denver were opening breweries faster than you can count. They were the emerging scenes that now dominate nationally when it comes to production and national distribution of craft beer. Milwaukee virtually sat on its hands, seemingly resting on the idea that being home to a huge macro brewery would continue to keep the city relevant in the beer market as a brewing powerhouse.
It’s been difficult to put a finger on the reason why Milwaukee hasn’t blown up into a craft brewery haven like the new beer meccas. The Lake Michigan water and Wisconsin climate makes this part of the country an ideal place to brew beer. After all, German brewers settled here and successfully brewed for more than 150 years. And the good people of Wisconsin certainly haven’t lost any of their passion for drinking beer – that’s for damn sure. So what gives? Perhaps it’s just habit, a certain hometown big brand choice that was passed down to new drinkers, generation after generation. Or maybe it’s the part of this city’s identity that values just about everything old school. Whatever the reason, it’s about to come to an end.
Here Tomorrow, Gone Today.
Over the past few years, a fast growing number of talented and savvy craft brewers have begun to tap into the potential of Milwaukee, with an understanding that it is an under-served market compared to cities similar in size, in other parts of the country. In fact, the area is bracing for the openings of at least 10 new breweries, which will nearly double the existing brewery count. Things have gotten so serious around here that 2016 has also seen the formation of the Milwaukee Craft Brewery League. Boasting membership of most of the Milwaukee area’s craft breweries, the new guild will help strengthen the city’s position as an attractive place to open future breweries.
My prediction is that by the close of 2016, we’ll see Milwaukee’s beer resurgence in full swing and the city once again being regarded nationally and internationally as a beer destination. That’s something I’m sure many in the local craft beer community have been longing for throughout the duration of our slump here. As Sprecher, Lakefront and Milwaukee Brewing anchor the beer scene with their critically acclaimed beers and tours, districts housing multiple brewpubs within walking distance of each other, great restaurants and entertainment will round it out.
Milwaukee doesn’t need to acquire an obscene number of craft breweries to be considered a top notch beer town, either. It will always have an ace up its sleeve that none of the new-age beer cities can ever have, our aforementioned rich brewing history. The Beer Barons of yesteryear are long gone, but the people of Milwaukee have not forgotten them. Their stories are well-documented and have been preserved by our museums and buildings, keeping beer at the forefront of what people think of when they think of Milwaukee. Miller Brewery’s famous caves and the Pabst Mansion are among the many historical windows that provide impressive looks into the past of not only this area but looks into the history of American brewing at large.
Couple the rich history with the city’s new brewing excellence, and Milwaukee arguably becomes THE most well rounded and complete beer destination in America. Any beer lover who wants to entrench his or herself in everything beer, new and old, including an understanding of the evolution of beer in America will find that Milwaukee may be justified in – once again – calling itself Brew City.
I had a chance to correspond with each of the ten breweries planning to open in Milwaukee in 2016, and I compliled a list with their most up to date information. Here’s to the success of each and every one of them.
Urban Harvest Brewing Company: 1024 South 5th Street, Milwaukee
Urban Harvest opened April 8th and is the kind of craft brewpub I love. After a two year search, Steve Pribek (Head Brewer) and Mark Kaminski settled on a location in the old but vibrant neighborhood known as Walker’s Point. They beautifully refurbished a generous sized space in a 100+ year old building and have started brewing with a two barrel system.
Pribek stated his approach was to start brewing mainstream styles, but they have quickly gotten resourceful and creative with methods such as adding oak spirals to the post fermentation instead using the more costly whole barrel. Popcorn and pretzels are available on site, but the pub is all about the beer, serving pints, flights and growlers. After sampling a well done flight, it was the unique Espresso Amber that really caught my attention.
Good City Brewing: 2108 N Farwell Ave, Milwaukee
Targeting a June opening, Co-founders David Dupee and Dan Katt and Co-founder/Brew Master Andy Jones decided to root down in Milwaukee and put together a well-designed, ambitious brewpub with a team of well-educated and experienced craftsmen. The list includes: Jones, a UC Davis Master Brewers Program graduate and former plant manager of Lakefront Brewery; Ray Sachs, an experienced Head Brewer (to assist Jones); and Chef Guy Davies, former Exec Chef of Bartalotta’s Rumpus Room. The menu will be craft beer driven, including premium beer dinners. The tap room will offer a nice mix of beer styles on 7-9 handles, brewed on a 17 bbl system, targeting 1500 bbls brewed a year. Milwaukee should expect great things from Good City.
Westallion Brewing Company: 1825 S 72nd Street, West Allis
Even though it shares the same streets as Milwaukee, the city of West Allis has a personality all its own, and the Husband and wife team of Kim and Erik Dorfner hope to shape its personality further with the addition of Westallion as the city’s first micro-brewery. Erik, a Marine Corp Vet, will be brewing in a 5 bbl brew house, serving a 1000 sq ft tap room. Westallion’s initial goals will be to secure tap handles in West Allis bars, which have already showed interest.
“People from West Allis are proud to live here” Eric said. “I was hoping to get one handle in a bar but when they found out I was brewing in West Allis they wanted more.”
The Dorfner’s are targeting the opening for November 10th, that being the Marine Corp’s birthday. What could be more appropriate?
City Lights Brewing Co.: 2200 W Vernon Street, Milwaukee
Formally of 4 Brothers Blended Beer Company out of neighboring Waukesha, City Lights Brewing Company co-founders Robin Gohsman and son Jimmy Gohsman (also the brew master) have reorganized and moved to the heart of Milwaukee: The Menomonee Valley. There, the Gohsmans will run their own microbrewery out of former Milwaukee Gas Light Company’s red brick water tower, beautifully visible from I-94, which cuts Milwaukee in half.
City Lights will strictly can (and keg) their beer, which should set them apart in bottle-dominated Wisconsin. Brewing will be done on a 30 bbl system with 60 & 90 bbl fermentation tanks. There will be a heavy focus on distribution in the Milwaukee area through Minnesota based independent distributor, Johnson Brothers Beverages. A taproom and riverside beer garden are planned, with great views of the valley and Menomonee River. Located just down the road from Miller Park, City Lights Brewing is planning on providing a shuttle bus to and from Brewers games, a popular practice with local establishments for years. Opening in late summer, there should still be plenty of opportunities to sample some tasty beers and catch a ball game and sample more tasty beers for a perfect evening.
Black Husky Brewing: 2872 N Brenmen Street, Milwaukee
Black Husky is the first of two Wisconsin breweries relocating to Milwaukee this year. Tim and Toni Eichinger started Black Husky Brewing in 1999 in Pembine, Wisconsin (appx 200 miles north of Milwaukee) brewing in a tiny 135 sq ft log building a half barrel at a time, topping out at their current 3 bbl system. All the while they were building a strong Milwaukee following that accounts for 80% of their beer sales.
They now will make the move South to be closer to family and open a slightly upgraded 7000 sq ft brewery and tap room in the NE Milwaukee neighborhood known as Riverwest. The move will expand production to a 10 bbl system and will help Tim and Toni to connect with their already loyal Milwaukee fan base, as well as create many more. Tim will continue all the brewing at the new location, ensuring his beers are done his way – and who can blame him for that? Considering the tap room and great new location, Black Husky can expect to brew a hell of lot more than the 300 bbls of last year. They should expect the people of Milwaukee to drink it up. I can’t wait.
Bavarian Bierhaus: 700 W Lexington Blvd, Glendale
The Milwaukee beer scene would not be complete without at least one brewpub dripping with German culture. Enter
The Bavarian Bierhaus. Opened on April 26th, the Bavarian Bierhaus includes a traditional German Hall that can seat 350 or more with live music every night and a separate dining room for another 150 as needed. To boot, they serve food from a 95% German menu. A separate tasting room is also open, seating another 31 people at the bar. Nate Bahr (another Lakefront alum) will serve as Brewmaster, creating traditional German Lagers, as well as seasonal beers in the openly visible brew house.
Third Space Brewing: 1506 W St Paul Ave, Milwaukee
Don’t tell Kevin Wright and Andy Gehl you can’t come home again. The longtime friends and co-founders of Third Space Brewing both grew up in the Milwaukee area and are UW-Madison Alumni. Gehl went on to practice law in Chicago, and Wright acquired a graduate degree in the Master Brewer program at the University of California-Davis and went on to brew award winning beers at Hanger 24 Craft Brewery in Redlands, Ca. for the past six years.
The two are back together in their hometown, this time to create a West Coast-Midwest blend of beer styles for the people of Milwaukee, on a 30 bbl system. The Milwaukee Valley brewery will include a tasting room and beer garden with a goal of about 1500 bbls brewed in year one, which should continue to increase as their customer base grows. Wright and Gehl hope for a mid-to-late summer opening, so keep your eyes peeled. Good luck guys!
MobCraft: 505 S 5th Street, Milwaukee
First, if you’re not familiar with what MobCraft does, go to mobcraftbeer.com and then come back….
It’s been quite a year for co-founders Henry Schwartz (President) and Andrew Gierczak (VP & Head Brewer) at MobCraft
Brewing. First, they appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank and now they’re making a big move to Milwaukee. MobCraft has been brewing in Madison, WI since 2013, sharing equipment at another craft brewery, House of Brews, to whom the co-founders say they are eternally grateful.
After researching endless facilities in multiple cities, Schwartz and Gierczak settled on Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point area, giving them their own 30 bbl brewhouse and a 4000 sq ft tap room. The hopes are to have their taproom doors open in early July, with room for a kitchen, preferring to serve wood fire pizzas. The addition of Mobcraft and newcomer Urban Harvest to the already established Milwaukee Brewing and Brenner Brewing, Walker’s Point will become a powerful destination for the Milwaukee (or any) craft beer lover. Schwartz understands the importance of mutual support among fellow breweries. The communities of both Milwaukee and Madison continue to play a key role in Mobcraft’s success. Welcome to Milwaukee guys!
Milwaukee Brewing Company: 1131 N 8th Street, Milwaukee
Milwaukee Brewing has been a city staple since the mid-90s and has turned into a statewide powerhouse. It’s no
surprise MKE is expanding their operation, but the new location is poetic. See, MKE started brewing around the same time Pabst closed its doors (a devastating time for Milwaukee) and even acquired some of Pabst’s equipment. So, it seems appropriate that they’ll be opening an expanded brewery, tap house and roof top bar on the very spot of the old Pabst brewery. They’ll also be using the old Pabst distribution center, and that sounds pretty kick-ass to me.
The whole former Pabst site has been revitalized, and the new Milwaukee Bucks Arena will be within walking distance of Milwaukee Brewing’s new facility. The significant expansion is also good news for MKE’s current facility on 5th Street. It will allow expanded tours during the week, which are currently offered only on weekends. Coming as no surprise, MKE is yet another hometown brewery eager to support the Milwaukee brewing community, and they’re proud to be a part of the newly formed Milwaukee Craft Brewery League. Mike Christensen, V.P. of sales, sees the explosion of area breweries as a way to get Milwaukee’s swagger back as a significant beer city. Cheers to that, Mike.
Pabst Brewing Company: W Juneau Ave & N 11th Street
After a 20 year absence, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote, Pabst Brewing Company will be coming back to
Milwaukee, where they brewed beer for more than 140 years. This time it will be on a much smaller scale but back at the same location, joining Milwaukee Brewing Co. Pabst will occupy one of its old buildings (once a church) as a microbrewery and tasting room, brewing up archived, long-forgotten recipes on a small scale. The decision to open the brewpub was made by new Pabst chairman and chief executive officer, Eugene Kashper, in hopes of reconnecting with Pabst’s Milwaukee roots.
Like Minds Brewing Company: 823 E Hamilton Street, Milwaukee
Owners Justin Aprahamian and John Lavelle should be considered very forgiving This isn’t their first run at opening a brewery in Milwaukee. They were rejected by Wisconsin’s antiquated & overreaching statute or law or whatever you want to call it prohibiting a restaurant owner, that being Aprahamian, chef of the popular upscale restaurant Sanford, to also own a brewery. So naturally our two would be brewers went somewhere they could brew, Chicago, where they now operate Like Minds Brewing Company.
Well, once Wisconsin realized Illinoispossessed one of Milwaukee’s most talented chefs and missed out on an original local business opportunity, they quickly “took a closer look”at the law don’t cha know, and are now welcoming Like Minds back with open arms and so are the residents of Milwaukee. Aprahamian and Lavelle, still molding their current brewery, could have said “no thanks we’re good” but Milwaukee is where they want to be and Milwaukee wants them to be here.
This June Milwaukee should be able to experience Like Minds for ourselves. Food will play a key role in the beer making and beer pairing process. Cooking and Brewing will be closely related in the culinary style that Aprahanian is known for. Naturally Like Minds will have a full kitchen and taproom tucked in a lower East side neighborhood of Milwaukee walking distance from Sanford. Aprhamian and Lavelle hold no ill feelings about how things went down last year and maybe things happen for a reason because they now will join in on and epic year of Milwaukee’s beer resurgence while bringing their own unique take on beer to the dinner table. |
Outspoken Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has blamed Saturday's uncertain election result on Malcolm Turnbull's shift away from the party's conservative base.
"We had our chief pollster say conservatives don't matter, we've had a leader say Pauline Hanson isn't welcome in our parliament, which is a direct insult to all those who may share her concerns," Senator Bernardi told the Adelaide Advertiser.
He said people must be held to account for Saturday's result, saying the Liberal brand had been damaged and the signs had been "very, very clear for a long time".
Jamie Briggs, who lost his formerly safe Adelaide seat of Mayo to the Nick Xenophon Team, backed the prime minister who dumped him from the front bench in December over an inappropriate incident.
"I do think Malcolm has got the capacity to be an incredible prime minister," he's told The Australian.
He said he was concerned about the uncertainty caused by the success of minor parties and the prospect of another hung parliament.
"In that sense, I am very fearful about where politics is going. I hope we can find a model and I hope we can work through this," he said. |
Tomorrow is Independence Day, a day in which we celebrate America’s freedom by indulging in what that freedom affords us: The right to eat ourselves sick, get sh*tfaced, and pass out while taxpayer money is spent blowing up crap in the sky. AMERICA. But before you start grilling your next heart attack, drinking your next black out, and blowing your hand off in celebration of our country’s independence, here’s an inspiring selection of videos, GIFs, and images from one of our greatest fictional patriots. He’s also one of my favorite characters in television history: President Bartlet. Let this be a reminder of the America we love, and the America we aspire to be.
Happy Fourth of July, folks.
The Streets of Heaven Are Too Crowded with Angels Tonight
Charlie, Get Me the Number for the Butterball Hotline
I’m Going to Blow them Off the Face of the Earth with the Fury of God’s Own Thunder
Can We Have It Back Please
Cruciatus in Crucem
In this Building, When the President Stands, Nobody Sits
I Don’t Care If My Approval Ratings Drop into the Single Digits, I am the President of the United States
In the future, when you’re wonderin, “Crime, Boy. I don’t know,” is when I decided to kick your ass |
The electronic billboard is on the Command Transportation building near Niles Center Road.
Friday's epic USA versus Canada Winter Olympic hockey matchup highlighted another spat between the two countries involving pop star Justin Bieber.
A new electronic scoreboard in a Chicago suburb shows Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane -- who plays for the USA -- and Team Canada's Jonathan Toews in between a picture of Bieber. The caption says "Loser Keeps Biebs."
Bieber, who's Canadian, lives in Los Angeles, but after several high-profile incidents, many Americans have called for the singer to be deported.
Best of the Sochi Olympics: Day 13
Bieber is also infamous among Chicagoans for a controversy he ignited after the Hawks won the Stanley Cup championship last year.
While the singer was in the Blackhawks' locker room at the United Center taking pictures of the trophy, he was photographed standing on the Indian head logo, prompting a huge outcry of anger from fans of the team.
After Canada won the Olympic gold medal game in Sochi, 1-0, the company immediately followed up with a new billboard below.
Hey Canada, best 2 out of 3… errr… best 3 out of 5? pic.twitter.com/n7tLp8qyu0 — Command Sign (@CommandSign) February 21, 2014 |
Edie Windsor, with the ACLU's help, fought to have her marriage to her partner of 44 years respected by the federal government. And she won! It's hard to believe it's been a year since the Supreme Court struck down the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act.
Edie's victory was a victory for us all – a victory for love and equality in a more perfect union. It inspired change all over the country from lawmakers, courts, and even public opinion. Thanks in part to Edie's win, the movement for LGBT equality, once a distant dream, seems like a foregone conclusion.
On the occasion of the one year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that took down DOMA, we sat down with Edie in her New York City apartment to talk about marriage, equality, the changes she's seen in the LGBT community since the decision and her thoughts on another ACLU icon- Ed Snowden.
What does marriage mean to you, Edie? You and Thea were partners for so long before you two tied the knot in 2007. How does saying "I do" change even a fiercely committed relationship?
When Thea and I first contemplated marriage we said to ourselves after 40 years of living and loving together what could be different? It turns out marriage could be different. Marriage is a single word. It's got a lot of magic. It represents the ultimate expression of love and commitment between two people. And everyone understands that in the whole world, which is why the name "civil union" doesn't cut it. When our wedding announcement ran in the New York Times we heard from literally hundreds of people, including a guy who lived up the street from me and moved when I was 10. It was amazing what happened. And everyone I worked with at IBM wrote wonderful congratulations. And people called up and said "Edie, you lied to us!" [laughs], because I was in the closet the whole time I worked there.
What changes have you seen in the LGBT community over the last year?
The changes in the LGBT community are enormous. The very content of the Supreme Court's decision in my case and its use of the word "respect" led to a resounding rise in self-esteem. It really did. And this self-esteem led to coming out. And the more people who came out, the more we saw each other. You start out with internalized homophobia, you believe everything you hear – "You're a creep. You're a queer." I never felt like that but I knew, maybe not correctly, that if the people I worked with knew I was gay things would be different. I believe I wouldn't have gotten a promotion. That I believe.
But after the decision you really saw a rise in self-esteem and self-respect?
I cannot tell you! I walk down the street and I'm like a rock star. Kids stop me and sometimes they say "Are you Edie?" I say "yes." And they ask: "Can I hug you?" And they thank me, and I thank them for all the support. It's endless. It's amazing what has happened.
When I was talking to gay groups people used to ask me what I think could happen if we won. On the top of my list were teenagers falling in love for the first time because they know they have a future and possibilities. Suicide would no longer haunt them. But when I read through the whole list, it was clear: a win would be the beginning of the end of stigma. I mean 50 years ago I said "I don't want to be identified with those queens," and then those queens turned over a police car at Stonewall and they changed my life. That was the beginning of my sense of community.
The only bad thing that has happened is with teenagers and kids still living at home and who have the courage to come out. A lot of them get thrown out and are on the streets. I think it's one of the worst problems that we face.
I sense from you that you're incredibly hopeful that an overwhelming majority of people, even many conservatives, are going to come around and support marriage equality?
Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio was a staunch guy against marriage equality, and then he learned his son was gay and he changed his position. And that's what will happen. That's a big part of the incredible amount of people who are coming out. And I believe that's where it's at. Now somebody says "Oh my god my sister is gay," whereas before they didn't know what we look like. I remember talking to my sister about poets and writers who were gay, and she was like "No they're not. Gays can't do that."
We start to come out and then they know what we look like. We don't have horns, and we live and love like they do.
You fought against legal discrimination and you won. Other than marriage equality, what other forms of discrimination need to be fought?
Almost every form. I was recently going to speak at the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund and they did a study of discrimination against transgender people and it's astounding and so terrible and widespread. The study looked at white trans people and black trans people and the amount of discrimination is just unbelievable. I spoke to them in Baltimore and the Maryland governor had just declared that discrimination against transgender people was also against the law. It's happening: They were the 18th state which did that. It's an incredibly encouraging sign of the times.
How important was President Obama's change of heart on marriage equality to the LGBT movement?
Extraordinarily important. I thought his use of the bully pulpit had been enormously successful. There was this total change in the whole country in certain areas. I was on a cruise with 1,900 lesbians and they were from every state and you would get people telling me that the ministers from some little town had changed their position because of what the president had said. It had an enormous effect. It was amazing. It's like the pope saying, "Who am I to judge." I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of Catholic mothers said, "The Pope said it's ok, so okay."
Edie, you made a living at IBM as a software engineer. What do you think about the Edward Snowden's disclosures and the NSA stuff?
I think he's an earnest whistleblower.
Edie, do you consider yourself a civil libertarian?
I don't really know what that means, but I believe in the Constitution. I believe that Americans are fair and they like justice. I believe in the end things work their way through to justice
A big thank you to Edie for agreeing to do this interview. She would like to give a shout out and her gratitude to her legal team including: James Esseks from the ACLU, Roberta Kaplan, litigation partner at Paul, Weiss, et al, Pamela Karlan of the Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union. |
Thomas Drance, Special To The Sun, writes from Pittsburgh:
Many expected fireworks from the Canucks and General Manager Mike Gillis on the first day of the NHL draft, but as the dust settled on Friday night – the Canucks didn’t move up or down in the first round and, more importantly, Roberto Luongo remained on Vancouver’s roster. The Canucks held onto their first round pick, the twenty-sixth overall selection, and chose hulking center Brendan Gaunce, a 6’1 207 pound forward from the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League.
Gaunce is already extremely large for his age, but he could get even bigger. “I had my big growth spurt after bantam, when I was about 10” he says, “but I don’t really have very much hair on my face or my chest, so I’m hoping I have another growth spurt in me.” The Canucks are probably hoping for the same, as they’ve actively tried to acquire bigger forwards over the past twelve months – adding the likes of Zack Kassian and David Booth to the roster, while drafting two-hundred pounders like Nicklas Jensen, Joseph Labate, Alexandre Grenier and now Gaunce.
Gaunce described his game as “honest” and assured the media that he takes a lot of pride in the defensive side of the game. He was the third Canadian forward drafted on Friday night, and the highest ranked Canadian forward going into Pittsburgh this weekend. While the Canucks were conservative on Friday night, it looks like they may have picked up a steal in Brendan Gaunce. Certainly he represents excellent value that late in the first round.
Much has been made of Gillis’ inability to find an “impact NHL player” on day one of the draft, but his performance on day two has been much more promising. While Gillis’ day two selections – and he’s made twenty-two of them in four previous drafts – have played in only a combined three NHL games over the past five seasons, all of them by Yan Sauve in 2010-11, several of his players have flashed upside well beyond their draft slot. Three in particular are Sudbury defenseman Frank Corrado, Merrimack Warriors goaltender Joe Cannata and former Halifax Mooseheads forward Alexandre Grenier.
Grenier, the 90th overall pick in last years draft, is a “classic late bloomer” from Laval Quebec. The Canucks picked the massive winger after only a half season of Major Junior Hockey, and he’s improved his game immensely since. ESPN’s Corey Pronman describes him as “a big man who can skate and handle the puck,” and praises his growth over the past season: “last year, Q scouts I talked too didn’t call him a skill guy… Now there’s little doubt among anyone I talk to whose seen him recently: he’s a skilled player.” Pronman projects Grenier as having an outside shot at developing into a bulky, top-six winger – not bad for a guy picked in the third round.
Another late pick on day two of the draft last year was Frank Corrado, who the Canucks tapped with the 150th pick in the 2011 Entry Draft. Corrado is a somewhat under-sized defenseman who has gone from playing limited minutes on Sudbury’s third pairing to a nominee for OHL defenseman of the year in a span of 15 months. Pronman describes Corrado’s “skating and hockey sense” as NHL level already, and predicts that Corrado could play tough minutes in an NHL top-four if he can add strength, though not necessarily bulk. “Size isn’t an issue, strength is though.”
Perhaps Gillis’ most promising second day selection, however, is goaltender Joe Cannata. Cannata was picked in the 6th round, 173rd overall in 2009 and is expected to start for Vancouver’s AHL affiliate the Chicago Wolves next season. The Wakefield Massachusetts native nearly carried an otherwise woeful Merrimack team to the Frozen Four playoffs this past season, and his stock is extremely high among scouts and goaltending coaches around the league.
Cannata’s goaltending coach is Brian Daccord of Stop it Goaltending, who has also worked with Vancouver’s Cory Schneider. Daccord describes Cannata as a goaltender with tremendous “girth” whose “ability to fill the net” sets him apart from most goaltenders his age. Cannata has improved his puck handling, and earns praise for his technique, but it’s his personality that gives him a chance to be an impact player at the NHL level. Says Daccord via e-mail: “If Cannata was in a house on fire, he would probably stop in the kitchen to make himself a sandwich on his way out.”
Between the three of them – Cannata, Corrado and Grenier all have a better than average shot at significantly outperforming their draft slot for the Canucks. In a salary capped league where parity rules, that could prove extremely valuable down the line. On Saturday morning in Pittsburgh, Mike Gillis and the Canucks will look to find a few more “draft day steals” to add to the Canucks subtly impressive pool of talent.
Thomas Drance regularly contributes to thePass It To Bulis blog on vancouversun.com |
Criticism is especially telling when it comes from someone who should be close to you. Sarah Palin is already the most famous Alaskan ever, as well as the powerful governor of a proud state, which makes last Saturday's editorial in her local paper endorsing Barack Obama all the more commendable. The Anchorage Daily News could have been forgiven had it put aside its doubts to back the Republican ticket and the local girl. After all, were she ever to become vice president, Ms Palin would no doubt shower on Alaska all the pork-barrel goodies her running mate John McCain has been promising to abolish. It takes guts to show editorial independence in such circumstances. But Alaska's only big paper has managed to do it. Its reporting has been bold and informed ever since Mr McCain made his surprise pick at the end of the summer. While the big papers were recovering from the shock, and trying to work out how to reach her hometown of Wasilla, the Anchorage Daily News was ready with facts about her less-than-wholesome record as state governor. In its editorial at the weekend the paper was explicit about the dangers of what it called "an improbable and highly memorable event". "Despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth," the editorial concluded. The Anchorage Daily News may not swing many votes in Alaska. But America should give thanks for the warning. |
The Maritime poppy campaign is well underway, but some veterans feel the meaning behind Remembrance Day is getting lost with the pre-Christmas rush.
“As remembrance to the veterans I think that it would be a good idea not to put Christmas decorations [out] until after November 11th,” said Moncton veteran Michael Lirette.
Moncton resident Gerald Poirier agrees. Every year at this time he gets a poppy pinned over his heart in honour of his father.
“My father was a second world war veteran,” he said.
Poirier feels it’s wrong that some retailers put out their Christmas decorations and stock before Remembrance Day.
“A lack of respect, that is what I feel it is.”
Out of respect to veterans, he said retailers should hold off on Christmas commercialism to honour those who fought for our freedom.
The chairman of Moncton’s poppy campaign and member of Moncton’s Royal Canadian Legion Branch, Gislain LaPierre, said the legions have no control over retailers’ marketing choices.
“I wouldn’t call it disrespect, but in the past it’s always been after Remembrance Day. But times have changed.”
He said in the end, it could be a good thing for poppy sales because early Christmas sales get people out and about.
“It does help a lot because we get exposure and there is a lot of traffic in the mall.”
He said donations have been steadily climbing in the last few years.
Last year $17 million from the poppy fund was distributed across Canada to help veterans and their families. |
It’s 1988. Daniel Clowes’s Lloyd Llewellyn series has come to an abrupt end, canceled by the publisher. And Clowes is relieved. Freed from churning out short comedic adventures featuring the same cast of characters, he’ll finally be able to develop a more personal and wide-ranging approach to comics. In the ’80s, prevailing wisdom held that a series needed to focus on a single character and maintain a consistent look. “The thought was,” Clowes recently observed,
that if you did stories in . . . different styles — if you combined the serious stuff with humorous stuff — that the result would be kind of discordant. But I also had the theory that if it was all by the same artist, and the artist was trying to be truthful or willing to let his unconscious or his intuition decide what was going to happen on the pages, then it would all kind of come together in a cohesive way. At least that was the theory.
His subversive theory was right. And the proof was Eightball, perhaps the most important American alternative comic to emerge from the twentieth century.
During its first decade, Eightball was a Mad magazine-esque free-wheeling anthology. A typical issue included five to seven short stories drawn in diverse styles, just as each Mad issue contained work by several artists with distinctive styles. Clowes moved effortlessly among genres such as autobiography, gag cartoon, and rant as well as fairy tale, short fiction, and cultural satire.
Eightball #11 (1993), for instance, includes “The Party,” a satire about a hipster get-together; “Velvet Glove,” a comedy about what would happen if Clowes’s Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron received the Hollywood treatment; “The Happy Fisherman,” an obscene “pantsless naïf meets sinister hobo” tale; “Why I Hate Christians,” a look at Clowes’s beliefs about religion; “Ghost World,” a coming of age story about the friendship of two teenage girls during their post-high school graduation summer; “The Fairy Frog,” a haunting adaptation of an Irish fairytale; and “Ectomorph,” a strip about skinny men that apes the famous Charles Atlas muscle-building ads.
Eightball delivered Clowes’s sardonic take on American culture, celebrating outsiders, freaks, and misfits while skewering nearly every All-American type: the macho creep, the sports fan, the fashion plate, the slick televangelist, the nostalgia hound, the mindless herd-following consumer, the ironic slacker, etc., etc. As always, Clowes reserved a little venom for himself.
The series more than lived up to its billing on Eightball #1’s masthead: “An Orgy of Spite, Vengeance, Hopelessness, Despair and Sexual Perversion.” Yet it slowly morphed into something else. The anger and vengeance never left, but went underground, as the cartoonist’s stories became character-driven explorations, both unforgiving and tender, of life in these United States.
When conceiving the series, Clowes worried that readers would be indifferent to Eightball’s eccentric approach. But they weren’t. On the comic’s hand-lettered letters pages, a pre-Internet nerd agora, they praised Clowes as “brilliant,” “weird,” “twisted,” and “genius.” Apparently at a loss for words, one fan sent an envelope filled only with shredded candy wrappers. Meanwhile, critics and the comics industry lavished the series with acclaim and several major awards. By the late 1990s, Clowes was widely recognized as one of the most important American cartoonists. Yet when an interviewer called him a “famous cartoonist,” he responded, “that’s like being the most famous badminton player.”
In what follows, we take a trip through Clowes’s career and survey the contents of the soon-to-be-released Complete Eightball #1-18. Along the way, we’ll sample random highlights, mysteries, and fun-facts about that heady time historians have christened “The Eightball Era of Comics.”
*
1989
Appearing late in the year, Eightball #1 features the first episode of Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Clowes’s surreal quest narrative about conspiracy theories, snuff films, and loneliness. It also includes the first chapter of his second graphic novel: Pussey! Clowes’s last original work for Cracked magazine appears in Cracked Monster Party #5. Written and drawn by Clowes, it stars the Uggly Family, an Addams family-inspired cast of characters he created with cartoonist and editor Mort Todd. (Clowes had sporadically graced the pages of Cracked — which he called a “second-rate Mad” — since 1985).
Eightball #1
“Smoke” (Like a Velvet Glove ch. 1)
“Devil Doll?”
“The Laffin’ Spittin’ Man”
“What Is the Most Important Invention of the 20th Century?”
“Young Dan Pussey” (Pussey! ch. 1)
Highlight: “Devil Doll?” parodies the infamous line of Jack Chick tracts, small religious comics that promise eternal bliss for the believer and everlasting torture for everybody else. Perhaps more than any other American cartoonist, Clowes has gone deep into the history of American comic-strips and comic-books, imitating and parodying countless styles, genres, and formats.
Fun Fact: In his 1994 LP Beyond the Valley of the Gift Police, Jello Biafra (of the Dead Kennedys) included a version of “Devil Doll?” reformatted to mimic a Chick tract. (The tract makes a cameo on The Complete Eightball’s cover.)
Mystery: The LL initials and double Ls of Clowes’s character Lloyd Llewellyn were inspired by the names of the “Superman Family” characters Clowes read as a child: Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Lana Lang, etc. Is the LL that ends Eightball (recalling the LL that begins Lloyd Llewellyn) a further homage to this tradition, or just a random, meaningless coincidence?
1990
Eightball #2, #3, and #4 appear. Clowes wins Harvey Awards for Best New Series and Best Single Issue or Story for Eightball #1. He produces the first of several illustrations for Seattle-based record company Sub Pop, such as the cover art for Thee Headcoats’s Heavens to Murgatroyd, Even! It's Thee Headcoats! (Already):
Eightball #2
“The Truth”
“Harum Scarum” (Like a Velvet Glove ch. 2)
“I Hate You Deeply”
“What Do You Think George Washington's Voice Sounded Like?”
Eightball #3
“The Eightball Profile: Pastor Robert Tilton”
“Mister?” (Like a Velvet Glove ch. 3)
“The Stroll”
“The Young Manhood of Dan Pussey or: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Pussey” (Pussey! ch.2)
“What Can Robots Do?”
Eightball #4
“What Do You Do for a Cold?”
“Sale” (Like a Velvet Glove ch. 4)
“I Love You Tenderly”
“Dan Pussey's Masturbation Fantasy” (Pussey! ch. 3)
“The Future”
“Sexual Frustration”
Highlight: The first of Clowes’s Chicago stories, “The Stroll” is one of two comics by the cartoonist to employ a subjective first-person cartoonist visual narration in which readers see only what a grumpy Clowes sees as he walks around his neighborhood. (The other is “The Party,” from #13.) Although Clowes’s post-Y2K comics are widely regarded as his most formally innovative, he’s been exploring the medium’s storytelling possibilities since his earliest work.
Highlight: In Eightball #4’s “I Love You Tenderly,” Clowes’s stand-in Lloyd Llewellyn talks about things that move him, including a terrifying 1964 Topps baseball card. People often describe the faces of Clowes’s characters as “distorted” or “deformed,” but as a comparison of the drawing and card shows, his approach can be uncannily photo-realistic. “Look carefully at the world around you,” his comics seem to counsel their readers. “You’ll realize it’s a genuinely strange place full of strangely expressive, odd, and disturbing faces.” Like a documentary filmmaker, Clowes merely preserves this reality.
1991
Eightball #5, #6, and #7 are released. Clowes creates art for the Sub Pop Video Network Program 1, which includes the first image of “Punky,” the company’s Clowes-designed mascot, a "grinning idiot" in the tradition of Mad's mascot Alfred E. Neuman:
Six full-page strips (most of which feature the characters Zubrick and Pogeybait) appear throughout the year in the humor magazine National Lampoon. At Chicago’s Earwax Cafe, Clowes begins an ongoing informal ‘jam’ with a rotating cast of cartoonists that includes Terry LaBan, Gary Leib, Doug Allen, Archer Prewitt, Chris Ware, and others that results in over a hundred improvised minicomics, less than half of which were xeroxed and distributed. Lout Rampage!, which collects material from Eightball and elsewhere, appears. Clowes wins Harvey Awards for Best Letterer, Best Continuing or Limited Series, and Best Single Issue or Story for Eightball #3. He is nominated for Eisner Awards for Best Continuing Series and Best Black and White Series for Eightball.
Eightball #5
“Why Do People Spit?”
“Shit Happens When You Party Naked” (Like a Velvet Glove ch. 5)
“Daniel G. Clowes in Just Another Day . . .”
“Playful Obsession”
“Paranoid”
Eightball #6
“Where Do Wiseguys Come From?”
“A House Is Burning Out of Control” (Like a Velvet Glove ch. 6)
“The Doctor Infinity Story” (Pussey! ch. 4)
“Marooned on a Desert Island with the People on the Subway . . .”
Eightball #7
“Needledick the Bug-Fucker”
“When Grand-Dad Shaved from the Rain Barrel” (Like a Velvet Glove ch. 7)
“Art School Confidential”
“Chicago”
Highlight: “Playful Obsession” exaggerates the manic libidinal logic of Harvey Comics’ characters such as Richie Rich, Little Lotta, and Casper. While Harvey’s Little Dot, for example, gets excited when she spots a dot, Clowes’s Little Octagon engages in a torrent of sexual ‘self-abuse’ upon seeing an octagon. It may appear that Clowes is simply mocking these comics and their one-dimensional characters. Yet he has often described himself as “an obsessive compulsive type.” When it comes to cartooning, Clowes insists on creating every mark on the page by himself by hand. In a way, he’s not all that different from Little Dot.
Fun Facts: The female protagonist of Clowes’s film Art School Confidential is named Audrey by her parents, after Harvey’s “Playful Little Audrey.”
Fun Facts: The names of Clowes’s Zubrick and Pogeybait are slang! — Zubrick (idiot, penis), Pogeybait (candy; relates to jailbait).
Facts: At Earwax, Clowes traded drawings for sandwiches. Cartooning is not lucrative.
1992
Eightball #8 and #9 are published. Clowes moves from Chicago to Berkeley, California after a brief stint in LA. The Supersuckers’s LP The Smoke of Hell appears. He wins a Harvey Award for Best Continuing or Limited Series for Eightball.
Eightball #8
“Screeech” (Like a Velvet Glove ch. 8)
“Ugly Girls”
“Grist for the Mill”
“Dan Pussey Presents: Komic Kollector's Korner” (Pussey! ch. 5)
“Nature Boy”
“Give It Up!”
“The Headlamp”
“My Suicide”
Eightball #9
“Ink Studs”
“Smile!” (Like a Velvet Glove ch. 9)
“Fuckface”
“Dan Pussey in The Artist's Life” (Pussey! ch. 6)
“Zubrick and Pogeybait”
“Eightball”
Highlight: In “Nature Boy,” Clowes continues his exploration of the disturbing and revelatory power of dreams, a subject that drives the uncanny plot of Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, which Clowes will conclude in ’93. The Death-Ray (2004/2011) features a distressing dream about “nothingness” that echoes Clay Loudermilk’s mystical dream in Like a Velvet Glove. Clowes’s “The Gold Mommy” (Eightball #14, 1994), though not explicitly a dream, relies on dream-like random associations for its outré narrative about an aimless and passive Clay Loudermilk type. The lassitudinous title character of David Boring (2000) is plagued by dreams of an “eerie boy,” the ghost offspring of his intimacy with the oddly-named Wanda Kraml. Perhaps “Saint Sebastian,” the patron saint of passivity, could be considered the muse of some of Clowes’s dreamy male protagonists.
Fun Facts: “The Headlamp” is the last Eightball comic to adapt the work of David Greenberger, who asked questions of nursing home residents and transcribed their answers in his zine The Duplex Planet. (Other Duplex Planet-inspired comics appear in #1-6: each story’s title is the question Greenberger asked, e.g., “Where Do Wiseguys Come From?” [EB #6].) Though Eightball includes adaptations, Clowes avoids full-fledged collaborations. In Modern Cartoonist (1997), he agrees with his hero Nabokov, who said “there is nothing in the world I loathe more than group activity, that communal bath where the hairy and slippery mix in a multiplication of mediocrity.”
1993
Eightball #10, #11, and #12 are released. The first Ghost World chapter appears in #11. Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, which collects episodes from Eightball #1-10, is released. Clowes’s first New Yorker illustration appears. He is nominated for Eisner Awards for Best Short Story for “The Artist's Life” from Eightball #9, Best Penciller/Inker Black & White Publication, Best Humor Publication, and Best Writer/Artist.
Eightball #10
“Grip Glutz and Shamrock Squid”
“Shutupshutupshutup” (Like a Velvet Glove ch. 10)
“Dickie: Disgusting Old Acne Fetishist”
“Young Dan Pussey's Glamour Date”
“Zubrick's Pal Pogeybait”
“A Message to the People of the Future”
Eightball #11
“The Party in Color”
“Velvet Glove”
“The Fairy Frog”
“The Happy Fisherman”
“Why I Hate Christians”
“Ghost World” (Ghost World ch. 1)
“Ectomorph”
Eightball #12
“Glue Destiny”
“Hippypants and Peace Bear in Question Authority”
“King Ego”
“The Origin of Dan Pussey” (Pussey! ch. 7)
“Garage Sale” (Ghost World ch. 2)
Fun Facts: The Complete Eightball includes the first English language reprinting of “Glue Destiny,” the only Eightball short-story comic not included in a Clowes anthology. (It was reprinted in German and Spanish translations in 2000.)
Fun Facts: The ever-randy Grip Glutz is a ‘blue’ version of TV’s wholesome adventurer Clutch Cargo (whose cartoon Clowes watched as a child), just as Clowes’s Blue Bunny (from Ice Haven) is a ‘blue’ version of Bugs Bunny.
Did You Know?: Glutz is slang for slut.
1994
Eightball #13 and #14 are released. Clowes’s “The Party” is reprinted in Douglas Rushkoff’s The GenX Reader. His art adorns Coca-Cola’s OK Soda cans, merchandise, and promotional materials; the soda is test marketed in numerous US cities and, a commercial failure, is discontinued shortly thereafter.
A collection of every Lloyd Llewellyn story, The Manly World of Lloyd Llewellyn: A Golden Treasury of His Complete Works is published. Clowes’s first work for Hustler magazine appears. He is nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Short Story for “The Origin of Dan Pussey” from Eightball #12.
Eightball #13
“Buddy Bradley in Who Would You Rather Fuck: Ginger or Mary Ann?”
“Blue Italian Shit”
“Cool Your Jets”
“Punk Day” (Ghost World ch. 3)
“Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine”
Eightball #14
“The Gold Mommy”
“On Sports”
“The First Time” (Ghost World ch. 4)
“The Death of Dan Pussey” (Pussey! ch. 8)
“The Sensual Santa”
Highlight: “Blue Italian Shit” introduces Clowes’s Rodger Young, who returns in “Like a Weed, Joe” in Eightball #16. Clowes has described these stories as “emotional autobiography,” narratives that, while not literally true, capture the emotive force of the cartoonist’s adolescence. Many critics see the Rodger Young stories as marking an important shift in Eightball, away from comedy toward introspective, character-focused narrative. While this is generally true, I think we can see this approach in earlier works such as Velvet Glove and the final Lloyd Llewellyn comics.
Fun Facts: In 1999, the San Antonio Express reprinted Clowes’s graphic (as in ‘dirty pictures’) Freudian take-down “On Sports” to protest the building of a sports arena.
Fun Facts: The title-page design of Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine (1896) inspired the first panel of Clowes’s one-page “Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine.” This comic about people with extra eyes is the last adaptation to appear in Eightball.
Fun-Facts: In the pre-Eightball years, Clowes created two short adaptations of writing by comicdom’s greatest real-world villain: 1950s anti-comics crusader Fredric Wertham. Clowes was one of the first ‘comics industry figures’ to say that the man was wrongly demonized by fanboys. Like Jack Chick, Wertham realized the potentially life-changing power — for good or ill — of the humble comic book, a cheap concoction of ink, newsprint, staples, and cartoony pictures.
1995
Eightball #15 and #16 are released. Pussey!, a satire of the superhero comics industry, appears. Clowes changes his wedding plans so he’ll have time to create art for the Ramones animated/live-action video, “I Don’t Want to Grow Up”:
Eightball #15
“Caricature”
“Hubba Hubba” (Ghost World ch. 5)
“Feldman”
Eightball #16
“Squirrel Girl and Candy-Pants”
“Like a Weed, Joe”
“MCMLXVI”
“The Norman Square” (Ghost World ch. 6)
“Immortal, Invisible”
Highlight and a Mystery: “Caricature” is widely regarded as a classic of the modern short-story comics form. It features Mal Rosen, a down-trodden, travelling caricaturist who, like many contemporary cartoonists, struggles to ‘make it’ in a world blind to the beauty and possibility of cartoony lines on paper. Given Clowes’s interest in word games, we might ask: is “Mal Rosen” an anagram for “Loser Man?”
Did You Know?: Clowes’s Halloween story “Immortal, Invisible” takes its name from the Bible!: “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Timothy 1:17 — KJV.) (Perhaps Clowes knew the phrase from the Christian hymn “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise”).
Highlight: Above I said that “Pussey! is a satire of the superhero comics industry.” Though this is true true, it’s more complicated. Many forget that the graphic novel also lampoons the world of art/alternative comics, singling out the “Comics as Art” pretentions of Fantagraphics founder Gary Groth and Maus cartoonist-RAW editor Art Spiegelman:
1996
Eightball #17 appears. Orgy Bound, a collection of material from Eightball, is released. Clowes is nominated for Eisner Awards for Best Short Story for “Caricature” from Eightball #15, Best Single Issue for Eightball #16, Best Graphic Album: Reprint for Pussey!, Best Humor Publication, Best Writer/Artist Humor, and Best Lettering.
Eightball #17
“Gynecology”
“A Smile and a Ribbon” (Ghost World ch. 7)
Highlight: Like many Eightball comics, “Gynecology” owes a debt to classic American pulp fictions, especially the purple-prose narration found in comic books, smut paperbacks, and 1960s TV mystery/horror shows. In particular, its opening recalls the type of narration often found at the start of a Rod Serling Twilight Zone or Boris Karloff Thriller episode.
1997
The graphic novel Ghost World, which collects stories from Eightball #11-18, is published. Clowes wins Harvey Awards for Best Writer and Best Letterer, both for Eightball. He begins a script for the Ghost World movie with Crumb director Terry Zwigoff (the movie was released in 2001 and nominated for an Academy Award).
Eightball #18
“October” (Ghost World ch. 8)
“Black Nylon”
Modern Cartoonist [a 10-page pamphlet insert]
Did You Know?: Clowes’s slice-of-life masterpiece Ghost World was almost a science fiction tale! If you don’t believe me, check out the cartoonist’s initial notes: “Doric columns, under-populated public plazas, space-aged togas, a Creation of the Humanoids atmosphere.” Clowes’s upcoming Patience may be his first graphic novel-length foray into sci-fi, but we shouldn’t forget his 2009 “The Christian Astronauts,” a disturbing cartoony riff on a Lost in Space-esque intergalactic family of adventurers.
Highlight: A dense and cryptic Freudian superhero tale, “Black Nylon” can be read as a sequel to Clowes’s early comic, “The Battlin’ American” and as a precursor to his graphic novel The Death-Ray (2004/2011), which also theorizes the disturbed psyche of the male caped crusader. Freud (or someone who looks an awful lot like him) appears throughout later issues of Eightball. The “Father of Psychoanalysis” could be considered the series’ mascot and philosophical guiding light.
(Is that Freud — or a Freudian impostor — peeking through the cover of Eightball #18? Could he be holding a Magic Eightball toy?!)
*
In 1998, Clowes’s Eightball underwent a radical transformation. No longer an anthology, issues #19-21 (1998, 1999, 2000) serialized the graphic novel David Boring. Leaving black and white comics behind him, his post-Y2K issues were devoted to full-color single stories: Ice Haven in #22 (2001) and The Death-Ray in #23 (2004), the series’ last hurrah.
As the home of Clowes’s first six award-winning graphic novels — comics that helped garner him a 2011 Pen Center Award for Outstanding Body of Work in Graphic Literature — Eightball earned a place in the pantheon of Great American Comics. In this new millennium, thanks to artists like Clowes, cartoonists finally have a little more cultural cachet than badminton players. Or so we non-badminton-playing comic-book readers hope.
____________________________________________________________
Ken Parille is editor of The Daniel Clowes Reader: A Critical Edition of Ghost World and Other Stories. He teaches at East Carolina University and his writing has appeared in The Best American Comics Criticism, The Believer, Nathaniel Hawthorne Review, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, Comic Art, Boston Review, and elsewhere. |
The Zone of Interest, set in Auschwitz, is declined by the author's publishers in Germany and France, although alternative French house picks up novel
In the UK, some critics have hailed it as the "best book in 25 years" by one of Britain's greatest living writers. But The Zone of Interest, Martin Amis's "brutish comedy" set in a fictionalised Auschwitz, may struggle to find readers overseas after the author confirmed on Thursday that both his German and French publishers had declined to publish the novel.
The book, which is narrated from the points of view of three concentration camp commanders and is interspersed with German vocabulary, was officially rejected by German publisher Hanser on the grounds that the manuscript wasn't "sufficiently convincing", Amis told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. But his interviewer, Thomas David, wrote that in German literary circles the widely shared view was that Amis's book had been "too frivolous" for Hanser.
The reputable Munich-based publishing house had translated Amis's past five books to appear in German. So far, no other publisher has bought the German-language rights for The Zone of Interest.
The French publisher Gallimard, which would not comment on Thursday, has previously published Amis's novels. However, The Zone of Interest will be published in French in September next year by Calmann-Lévy, a publisher that rejected The Kindly Ones, a novel on the Holocaust by the American author Jonathan Littell. It was Gallimard which published that bestselling 1,408-page debut novel.
Deborah Kaufmann, Amis's new editor with Calmann-Lévy, said that "if Gaillimard are kicking themselves for letting him go, that's their problem". She added: "And they already are."
Calmann-Lévy had picked up the novel "because it's a good book, and there's nothing like it. And it's not a comedy." She said the publisher was "delighted to be starting a long relationship with Martin Amis, who is one of the top intellectual writers in Britain".
In his interview, Amis stated he believed that his German publishers had rejected the book on literary merit, rather than because of an unease with the subject matter.
"Germany has reached a stage where younger people are eager to talk about the past, and the country has developed a sober perspective on that criminal period in its history. That's why I was surprised when the publisher rejected the book," the author said.
According to Amis, Hanser had "not understood" one of the key characters in the book, the SS officer Angelus "Golo" Thomsen. "The publisher seemed to think that Thomsen stood on the side of the regime and shared its ideology. But in actual fact, Thomsen knows that the national socialists' ideology is counter-productive and self-destructive. He supports this self-destruction because he wants Germany to lose the war."
He said that it was his understanding that Gallimard's rejection was due to the publishing house taking a new editorial direction, rather than because of specific problems with the novel's subject matter.
While Amis is seen by many in Britain as one of the most influential living writers in the English language, his commercial success and literary appreciation in Germany has never matched that of his contemporaries Ian McEwan or Julian Barnes.
While 1995's The Information was a success, his other books have failed to generate similar enthusiasm amongst German readers. Money, published in 1984 and translated as Gierig, has been out of print since 1993.
Thomas David said he was puzzled by Hanser's rejection, but didn't think it had anything to do with heightened sensitivity about the subject matter. Only this week, he pointed out, the weekly Der Spiegel was carrying an Auschwitz cover story.
"It means that one of the best books by one of the most important writers of his generation doesn't have a German publisher. But then again, Miley Cyrus is banned from performing in the Dominican Republic ..." |
In a sometimes bizarre court hearing that eventually boiled down to an interpretation of the century-old writings of novelist Franz Kafka, a Fredericton hospital employee who disappeared from work without notice for several weeks has once again won the right to keep his job.
Paul Lynch, an environmental services worker or cleaner at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital initially won reinstatement to that position last winter after a labour adjudicator ruled his absence and firing had been the result of a "Kafka-like" situation he had fallen into.
That triggered an appeal from the local health authority, in part questioning the adjudicator's understanding of Kafka, the Prague-born author whose works include The Castle, The Trial and The Metamorphosis, a literary dispute then taken up by Court of Queen's Bench Justice Hugh McLellan.
"I am not persuaded that the adjudicator's expression 'Kafka-like' indicates error in his perspective or unreasonableness in his decision," McLellan concluded.
Lynch had worked for the hospital for 12 years but failed to show up for his regular shift on November 13, 2015. He was eventually fired after five weeks of unexplained absences.
It was later learned Lynch had been in jail the whole time and was unable to call the hospital.
Guilty plea, then custody
Three hours before his shift was to start he had attended court to face an impaired driving charge. He entered a guilty plea and although he expected to return later for sentencing, it was his seventh conviction and he was instead taken into custody on the spot.
Internationally renowned Kafka expert Stanley Corngold says he would advise against anyone using references to Kafka in a court ruling. (Submitted) Inmates are not permitted personal calls and Lynch was unable to make direct contact with the hospital during his 97 day stay in jail.
That, according to adjudicator John McAvoy, was right out of a Franz Kafka novel.
"No one who is convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for a limited term in New Brunswick should face the Kafka-like situation faced by Lynch in respect of his inability to contact his employer," wrote McAvoy in ordering the hospital to reinstate Lynch.
"Here, citizens taken into custody by police and Corrections staff do not seemingly 'disappear' as did Lynch."
Hospital lawyer disagrees
In appealing that decision to the courts, hospital lawyer Andrea Folster said McAvoy's decision lacked "intelligibility" and especially panned his reference to Kafka.
"These extreme comments reflect the lens through which the Arbitrator deliberated this grievance and the overall unreasonableness of the Decision," she argued.
It's an almost one to one correlation. They don't know what they're talking about. - Stanley Corngold
A "Kafkaesque" situation more accurately describes something nightmarish … strongly surreal … with an ethereal, evil, omnipotent power floating just beyond the senses … marked by surreal distortion and often a sense of impending danger," Folster said citing the Urban Dictionary's definition of the term.
But Justice McLellan had his own view of the literature.
"Kafka characters struggle against rules and forces that cannot be understood," he said and ruled he saw enough oddities in Lynch's situation to conclude the Kafka reference was not unreasonable.
"The result falls in the range of possible outcomes," he said of Lynch's reinstatement by the adjudicator.
Expert weighs in
Princeton scholar and internationally renowned Kafka expert Stanley Corngold says he's not surprised to hear the novelist became an issue in a New Brunswick court case — it happens frequently in the US — but advises against relying on any courthouse critiques of the writer.
"I wrote a paper not long ago in which I said 'it's a 100 per cent guarantee that anyone who uses the word Kafkaesque has not read Kafka,'" said Corngold.
"It's an almost one to one correlation. They don't know what they're talking about." |
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Dec. 8, 2017, 9:14 AM GMT / Updated Dec. 8, 2017, 9:14 AM GMT By Bandy X. Lee, Forensic psychiatrist, Yale School of Medicine
President Donald Trump’s temperament has always been a big part of his political brand. Depending on who you ask, he is either refreshingly frank or shockingly unpresidential. But increasingly, critics of the president have gone from criticizing his rhetoric to worrying about his mental fitness for office. His critics now include mental health professionals after several news stories, as well as the president’s own tweets, revealed Trump continues to believe in several thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories.
At no other time in U.S. history has a group of mental health professionals been so collectively concerned about a sitting president. This is not because he is an unusual person — his presentation is almost typical for a forensic psychiatrist like myself whose patients are mostly violence offenders — but it is highly unusual to find such a person in the office of presidency. For the U.S., it may be unprecedented; for many parts of the world where this has happened before, the outcome has been uniformly devastating.
A group of us put our concerns into a book, "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President." That book became an instant New York Times bestseller. Within days, it was out of stock at the big outlets and sold out in bookstores around the country. One of the nation’s largest publishers could not keep up with the demand for weeks. Clearly, our concerns were resonating with the public.
Diagnosing Donald. Thomas Dunne Books
One way or another, the consequences of Trump’s presidency are affecting pretty much all of us. Much of this has to do with his effects on our own mental health.
For one, Americans are exhausted. The 24/7 news cycle may be part of the reason why, but there’s potentially another explanation. Pathology is confusing to the healthy. There is a reason why staying in close quarters with a person suffering from mental illness usually induces what is called a “shared psychosis.” Vulnerable or weakened individuals are more likely to succumb, and when their own mental health is compromised, they may develop an irresistible attraction to pathology, destruction, and even death (of self or others). The resulting harm is how we tell illness from health.
Politics has nothing to do with medicine, which is why a liberal health professional would not ignore a kidney stone in a patient just because he is Republican. Similarly, health professionals would not call liver cancer something else because it is afflicting the president. When signs of illness become apparent, it is natural for the physician to recommend an exam. But when the ailment goes so far as to affect an individuals ability to perform his duty, and in some cases risks harm to the public as a result, then the health professional has a duty to sound the alarm.
Human beings are an enviably adaptable species. However, when mechanisms go awry and reach a state of disorder, the capacity for variety and diversity diminishes and behavior becomes very predictable. This diminishing of flexibility is as consistent in the failing heart as it is in the cancer cell or the disordered human mind.
It is in this context that we should view Trump’s latest exploits. Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is not just a matter of criminal indictments; as Trump feels increasingly walled in, his mental stability is likely to suffer and hence also public safety. Mental impairment and criminal-mindedness are not mutually exclusive; not only can they happen at the same time, when combined, these two characteristics become particularly dangerous. Trump has shown marked signs of impairment and psychological disability under ordinary circumstances, hardly able to cope with basic criticism or unflattering news. Presumably, additional stressors will make his condition worse. So far the signs have been almost too predictable.
It does not take a mental health professional to see that a person of Trump's impairments, in the office of the presidency, is a danger to us all. What mental health experts can offer is affirmation that these signs are real, that they may be worse than the public suspects, and that the patterns indicate the need for an urgent evaluation (simply trying to “contain” him or asking him to “get over” them will not work).
Simply put, Trump has already exceeded our usual threshold for evaluation. Just some of the signs that have raised red flags include: verbal aggressiveness, boasting about sexual assaults, inciting violence in others, an attraction to violence and powerful weapons and the taunting of hostile nations with nuclear power. Specific traits that are highly associated with violence include: impulsivity, recklessness, paranoia, a loose grip on reality and poor understanding of consequences, a lack of empathy and belligerence toward others, rage reactions and a constant need to demonstrate power. Such traits interfere with the ability to think rationally, to take in needed information or advice, to weigh consequences and to make sound, logical decisions based on reality. |
Swedish masters of melancholy KATATONIA have announced a new concert film, "Sanctitude", to be released in North America on March 31 via Kscope.
"Sanctitude" will be released in four formats:
* Blu-ray/DVD in 5.1 Surround Sound plus "Beyond The Chapel" documentary, including brand new interviews with Anders Nyström and Jonas Renkse.
* CD/DVD package - audio / visual set including "Beyond The Chapel" documentary.
* Double LP (incl. download code)
* Digital download (audio)
"Sanctitude" can be pre-ordered in physical formats via the Kscope webstore.
"Sanctitude" was filmed and recorded in the stunning, candle-lit setting of London's Union Chapel during KATATONIA's May 2014 "Unplugged & Reworked" tour — an intimate acoustic evening performing tracks from the "Dethroned & Uncrowned" album alongside atmospheric classics from the band's entire career, stripped and reworked. The 80-minute set features 17 songs across the albums "The Great Cold Distance", "Viva Emptiness", "Brave Murder Day", "Last Fair Deal Gone Down", "Dead End Kings" and "Dethroned & Uncrowned", including fan favorite "Teargas". The show closes with the sublime "The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here" and a special guest appearance by Norwegian vocalist Silje Wergeland of Dutch rockers THE GATHERING. The band was also joined on guitar and vocals by THE PINEAPPLE THIEF frontman and songwriter Bruce Soord.
"As a band we set out on uncharted waters, but while apprehensive about the journey ahead, our intentions couldn't have been more genuine to undertake this beautiful experience," commented guitarist Anders Nyström. "Sailing this project into harbor turned out to be bliss and has ultimately enriched all the members of KATATONIA."
All audio on "Sanctitude" has been mixed and mastered by Bruce Soord, with artwork once more supplied by longtime visual collaborator Travis Smith.
Disc 1:
01. In The White
02. Ambitions
03. Teargas
04. Gone
05. A Darkness Coming
06. One Year From Now
07. The Racing Heart
08. Tonight's Music
09. Sleeper
10. Undo You
11. Lethean
12. Day
13. Idle Blood
14. Unfurl
15. Omerta
16. Evidence
17. The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here
Disc 2:
* Concert Film (80 minutes)
* Documentary "Beyond The Chapel" (66 minutes) |
Syria's Assad says 'no option' but to expel rebels from Aleppo
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday warned rebels in Aleppo that unless they agreed to a deal with the government, his forces would have "no option" but to expel them from the city.
The Syrian leader made the comments in an interview with Danish broadcaster TV2 aired two weeks after his forces announced an all-out offensive for second city Aleppo.
UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura warned on Thursday that eastern parts of Aleppo could be "totally destroyed" before the year's end.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaking during an interview with Denmark's TV2 channel ©- (SANA/AFP)
In his interview, Assad said the "best option" for Aleppo would be "reconciliations (like) in other areas," referring to towns and districts where opposition groups had agreed to local truces with the regime.
Otherwise, he said, he would "continue the fight with the rebels till they leave Aleppo.... There's no other option."
Syria's armed forces announced a large-scale assault on rebel territory in eastern parts of Aleppo on September 22.
Since then, government troops backed by Syrian and Russian warplanes have chipped away at opposition territory inside the city and on its outskirts.
The Syrian military said late Wednesday it would "reduce" air strikes on rebel territory to allow civilians in the city to flee.
The aerial component of Assad's campaign had come under fierce international scrutiny in recent days, particularly after a series of air strikes on hospitals in opposition-held quarters.
On Monday, the largest hospital in Aleppo's east was completely destroyed in bombardment.
But Assad denied his forces deliberately target medical infrastructure or restricted aid to civilians in the city.
"We never prevented any medical supply or food supply or any other thing from entering east Aleppo. There's no embargo, if that's what you mean," he said in the interview.
"As a government, we don't have a policy to destroy hospitals or schools or any such facility," he said, adding that such an attack would be "like shooting ourselves in the foot" because it would boost support for anti-regime groups.
But Assad also denied any non-jihadist rebel groups even existed in Syria.
"Do you know the unicorn, the animal that's like a horse, has a long horn? It's a myth. And the moderate opposition is a myth." |
A new patch has hit the official servers! This one is pretty much the same as the most recent test server patch, including the new theme dungeon Kerning Tower, Hard Von Leon, and a lot of QoL updates, along with some new events.
Here is the world select screen for this patch.
And here’s the update info centre video!
Kerning Tower
The new theme dungeon Kerning Tower has been added.
On the stage of the high-rise shopping center Kerning Tower, producer Blake’s new challenge unfolds.
Users level 145 or higher can receive an invitation to Kerning Tower from the Kerning City Subway Worker Jake.
can receive an invitation to Kerning Tower from the Kerning City Subway Worker Jake. Help the changed producer Blake prepare the debut of his new group, and create memories at Kerning Tower.
New maps have been added.
Kerning Tower Lobby
Blake’s Office
Rehearsal Room
Sky Garden
Penthouse
Underground 1st Floor Electronics Store <1>
Underground 1st Floor Electronics Store <2>
2nd Floor Cafe <1>
2nd Floor Cafe <2>
3rd Floor Fancy Shop <1>
3rd Floor Fancy Shop <2>
4th Floor Record Store <1>
4th Floor Record Store <2>
5th Floor Cosmetics Store <1>
5th Floor Cosmetics Store <2>
6th Floor Hair Shop <1>
6th Floor Hair Shop <2>
Kerning Square Lobby
7th Floor 8th Floor Area A
New quests have been added.
Kerning Tower Open
Kerning Tower’s Lower Floor
Kerning Square’s Superstar
Irresistible Delightful Melody
Be the Casting Manager Please!
Casting Manager Activities Begin!
Rewarded with Good Music
Speaker Cables Required
Star’s Gemstone Discovered <1>
Gather Drink Materials
… Casting, Failure!?
Star’s Gemstone Discovered <2>
Please Take Care of the Scattered Notes
Runaway Train, Peri!?
Star’s Gemstone Discovered <3>
Find a Tape Recorder
Ame’s Heart
Star’s Gemstone Discovered <4>
Who is the Writer of this Song?
Find Dia
Star’s Gemstone Discovered <5>
Catch the Debut Broadcast
Prepare for a Perfect Debut
Makeup Artist Negotiations
Hair Artist Negotiations
The Day of the Debut
The Rock Spirit in the Guitar
Brilliant Debut
Jackpot Enterprises Co-President?!
New items have been added.
Equip: Medal <Jackpot Enterprises Co-President> (Lv. 150)
Use: Unknown Owner’s Recorder
Use: Kerning Tower Open Celebration Package
Etc: Warm Support
Etc: Speaker Wire
Etc: Drink Capsule
Etc: Note’s Sheet
Etc: Ami’s Recorder
Etc: High-End Cosmetics
Etc: High-End Pharma
Etc: Blake’s New Album
New monsters have been added.
Greatest Oldies (Lv. 145)
Latest Hits Compilation (Lv. 145)
Latest Speaker (Lv. 146)
Soda-Flavoured Jelly Juice (Lv. 147)
Grape-Flavoured Jelly Juice (Lv. 148)
Steaming Coffee Machine (Lv. 149)
Green Note (Lv. 150)
Blue Note (Lv. 151)
Yellow Headphones (Lv. 152)
Red Headphones (Lv. 153)
Wild Makeup (Lv. 154)
Wild Dresser (Lv. 155)
Annoyed Hair Roller (Lv. 155)
Annoyed Hair Dryer (Lv. 155)
Rock Spirit (Lv. 155)
New NPCs have been added.
Office TV
Blake
Dia
Ruby
Sapphi
Peri
Ami
Ricotta
Paneer
Rehearsal Room’s Guitar
As you complete more quests, you’ll gather more members of the new group!
Here are the NPC illustrations for Kerning Tower~
Spring! Spring! Project!
Based on requests from users on the Voice of Mapler! page on the MapleStory website, more things have been added to the Spring! Spring! Project!
The kinds of potions that regular monsters drop will now scale based on the monster’s level.
Potential Stamps, Additional Potential Stamps, and Golden Hammers will now allow you to click the equipment you want to use them on after double clicking them, just like Cube items.
If you complete content from the Maple Tutorial and receive a stamp, you can now use the Maple Tutorial to teleport to that content regardless of your level.
Monsters’ buff and debuff icons will now be displayed all at once.
The maximum distance before a pet will teleport to you has been increased. In addition, the speed at which pets move towards items when picking them up has been increased greatly.
All jobs’ maximum down jump height has been increased. However, this does not apply to Mechanics.
You can now purchase more than one item at a time when using coins at coin shops. However, certain items will be excluded.
When Demon Avengers receive the Hero’s Gloves, Mu Gong’s Gloves, So Gong’s Gloves, Teacher’s Gloves, or Student’s Gloves from the Mu Lung Dojo, their all stats option will be changed to HP.
Mechanics can now choose which colour they would like to change to instead of it being random.
Angelic Buster’s cosmetics specifics have been relaxed.
You can now wear Cash overalls, tops, bottoms, eye accessories, earrings, shoes, and capes. Weapon and ring Cash equipment will apply to both your transformed/non-transformed looks.
You can now see both your before and after transformation equipment at the same time on the existing Angelic Buster-only Coordi and the Cash tabs.
You can change your transformed equipment freely through the Cash tab on the equipment window. The existing Coordinate skill has been deleted.
In the Cash Shop’s preview area, you can transform using the Dress Up button and freely change your outfits before and after transforming.
On multi-level terrain, to make acquiring items easier, the location where items are dropped after a monster is defeated has been changed.
The duration of Soul Skills will now be displayed on the right side of the screen.
Items received from the MVP Daily Pack will now be shown in the chatting window after exiting the Cash Shop.
Items that have an expiry date have been changed to be easier to see in the inventory.
The readability of NPC names in maps has been improved.
The Cross Hunter UI‘s shop tab has been changed to match the items sold by the Cross Hunter Hideout’s NPC shop. You can now buy Scroll Traces and other items through the Cross Hunter UI.
If you choose to return a character to normal if it was previously deleted and is in the ‘ghost’ state, you will now receive a confirmation message before it is returned to normal.
When you exit the game, you will now receive any rewards that you did not receive. This includes items from PC Room Connection rewards, Daily Gifts, and MVP rewards.
The icons of Epic Potential Scrolls and Unique Potential Scrolls have been changed to make them easier to distinguish from regular Potential Scrolls.
You can now right click character names in the chatting window to receive the following options:
Save Name
Whisper
Add as Buddy
Party Invite
Guild Invite
Report
In the chatting window, meso and experience numbers will now display separators for every thousand, to make it easier to know how many units you have received.
Pet buff skills’ activation/deactivation messages will now be shown in the Battle tab.
You can now place the Screenshot and Settings shortcuts on other keys instead of them being locked to ESC/Scroll Lock. Consequently, you can now use the ESC/Scroll Lock keys for other shortcuts.
Game Related
Boss Von Leon’s Hard mode has been added.
You can enter 1 time per day (not shared with Easy/Normal mode).
Hard mode Von Leon is level 150, and has 10,500,000,000 HP with 90% PDR.
Hard mode Von Leon can drop Royal Von Leon equipment and the Ifia accessories.
Easy/Normal mode drop will now drop Lion King’s Royal Medals instead of Lion King’s Medals.
Lion King’s Medals no longer require Purification Totems to be changed to Lion King’s Royal Medals. When used, you can now trade 2 Lion King’s Medals for 1 Lion King’s Royal Medal.
In all profession-related recipes, any required Lion King’s Medals/Purification Totems have been changed to Lion King’s Royal Medals.
The [Von Leon] Knight’s Scroll quest can now be completed 2 times per day.
After completing the Rose Garden quests and collecting Ifia’s Ring, Ifia’s Earrings, and Ifia’s Necklace, you can exchange 10 of the accessories for the Noble Ifia’s Ring (5 all stats, 200 HP/MP, 2 attack/magic attack, 2 slots). It is also part of the Boss Accessory set.
The personality trait experience given by Royal Von Leon equipment, Ifia’s Ring, Ifia’s Earrings, and Ifia’s Necklace have been adjusted.
Every evening from 8pm to 9m, clearing Urus will now give 2x the mesos.
After changing channels, you will now be invincible to attacks for 3 seconds. You can now change channels after being hit by a monster’s attack.
The Rare Reward Box after defeating an Elite Boss will no longer give Accelerators.
A button that allows you to change your Quick Slots has been added to the Keyboard Settings menu. You can now change your Quick Slots through both the Options menu and the Keyboard Settings menu.
Maple Admin’s SP Reset menu has been removed.
Boss monsters who did not award Charisma experience upon being defeated will now do so, and existing boss monsters’ Charisma experience has been adjusted.
Skill Related
The following errors have been fixed.
An error where certain buff skill’s durations would sometimes display incorrectly has been fixed.
An error where Dual Blades would repeatedly perform the casting action if affected by a status effect while using Asura has been fixed.
An error where Kinesis’ Psychic Grab would not damage certain monsters has been fixed.
Quest Related
An error where Demon Slayers and Demon Avengers could not complete their level 200 quests after completing the 5th job advancement has been fixed.
Certain quests in the Temple of Time have had their beginning levels changed to level 140.
The One Who Walks Down the Road of Regrets 1
The One Who Walks Down the Road of Regrets 2
The One Who Walks Down the Road of Regrets 3
The One Who Walks Down the Road of Regrets 4
The One Who Walks Down the Road of Regrets 5
Frozen Emotions
The Sorceror Who Sells Emotions
The One Who Walks Down the Road to Oblivion 1
Adventurers’ 2nd job advancement quest’s difficulty has been decreased.
The Sorceror Who Sells Emotions quest has been modified.
You can no longer drop the Sorceror’s Potion.
You can no longer use the Wheel of Destiny after using the Sorceror’s Potion.
You will now complete the quest even if you heal your HP after using the Sorceror’s Potion.
Cash Shop
In this month’s Royal coupon rotation, you can get the same hair and eyes as Lucid!
Her outfit has also been added to the Royal Style Coupon prizes, along with the new Shadow set (I want that sword!!).
Events
Kerning Tower Open Celebration
The Kerning Tower Open Celebration event has begun and will run until October 26.
To celebrate the opening of the new theme dungeon, everyone who completes the quest line at Kerning Tower will receive the Open Celebration Package which can opened to receive the following prizes:
Finding Your Roots medal (2 all stats, 150 HP/MP)
medal (2 all stats, 150 HP/MP) Note Earrings (2 all stats, 5 slots)
(2 all stats, 5 slots) Free Spirit Piercing (1 all stats, 4 slots)
(1 all stats, 4 slots) Kerning Tower’s Memory Chair
Here’s what the chair looks like 🙂
Clear Fall Hangul Day
The Clear Fall Hangul Day event has begun and will run until October 12. This event celebrates the invention of of Hangul, the Korean alphabet.
Help Cassandra find the missing characters 가, 을, 꽃, 가, 람 by collecting 100 Hangul Bags from monsters around your level. Each time you complete the quest, you’ll get 1 character so you need to finish it 5 times for the entire phrase.
For completing this quest, you will receive 10 Hangul Bags, which can be opened for przies. This quest can be completed up to 5 times per day per character.
10 Power Elixirs
10 Reindeer Milk
10 Sunset Dew
Intermediate Hunter’s Medal of Honor
Advanced Hunter’s Medal of Honor
Strange Cube
20 Scroll Traces
Personality trait items
In addition, based on the total number of times you have completed Cassandra’s phase (i.e. complete the quest 5 times), you’ll receive bonus prizes! They can be claimed only once per world.
2 times: 2 10% Clean Slate Scrolls
2 10% Clean Slate Scrolls 4 times: Scattered Hangul! Riding Voucher (90 days)
Scattered Hangul! Riding Voucher (90 days) 6 times: 2 Craftsman’s Cubes
2 Craftsman’s Cubes 7 times: 2 Powerful Rebirth Flames
2 Powerful Rebirth Flames 8 times: Hunminjeongeum Chair
Hunminjeongeum Chair 11 times: 2 Meister Cubes
2 Meister Cubes 12 times: 2 Eternal Rebirth Flames
From October 7 to October 9, you’ll receive a quest from Cassandra. Meet her in town and talk to Delly beside her, who wants your help in fixing their spelling. If you can do so correctly, you’ll get the Hangul Day Protector Box which can be opened for the following prizes:
Hangul’s Protector title (10 all stats, 10 attack/magic attack, 10% boss damage, 10% defense ignore, 400 HP/MP, stats expire in 14 days)
title (10 all stats, 10 attack/magic attack, 10% boss damage, 10% defense ignore, 400 HP/MP, stats expire in 14 days) 3 2x Exp Coupons (1 hour)
Serious Nametag Ring Voucher
Serious Chat Bubble Ring Voucher
Finally, from October 8 to October 10, everyone’s damage skill will be changed to the Hangul Damage Skin!
Hunting Boost <Haste>
The Hunting Boost! Haste event will begin on October 13 and run until October 26. During this event, there will be a few extra benefits to encourage hunting.
Elite Monsters’ appearance rate will be increased
Daily limit on Mileage Packages dropped by Elite Monsters will be increased to 10
Runes will spawn more frequently and their cooldowns will be decreased
Runes’ experience buff effect will be increased
Sudden Missions’ daily limit will be increased to 6
Polo & Fritto’s appearance rate will be increased
Flame Wolf’s experience reward will be increased by 100%
Boss Party UI’s buff effect will be increased
Every day, you’ll have a total of 9 misions that you can complete. When you complete each one, you’ll get experience based on your level and a Haste Box (based on the number of missions you’ve done).
Hunt 999 monsters around your level
Hunt 20 Elite Monsters
Hunt 1 Elite Boss
Clear Polo & Fritto 3 times
Clear Flame Wolf 1 time
Activate 5 Runes
Clear 3 Sudden Missions
Achieve 500 Combo Kills
Achieve 100 Multi Kills
The Basic Haste Box will be given for your 1st/2nd/3rd missions. It can be opened to get some experience and a random item.
100 Scroll Traces
Strange Cube
10 Power Elixirs
Basic Hunter’s Medal of Honor
Silver Potential Stamp
100% Chaos Scroll
5% Clean Slate Scroll
The Medium Haste Box will be given for your 4th/5th/6th missions. It can be opened to get some experience and a random item.
200 Scroll Traces
5 Strange Cubes
20 Power Elixirs
Medium Hunter’s Medal of Honor
Gold Potential Stamp
100% Chaos Scroll
50% Golden Hammer
10% Clean Slate Scroll
The Advanced Haste Box will be given for your 7th/8th missions. It can be opened to get some experience and a random item.
500 Scroll Traces
10 Strange Cubes
Medium Hunter’s Medal of Honor
50% Golden Hammer
50% Epic Potential Scroll
10% Clean Slate Scroll
50% Innocent Scroll
Strong Rebirth Flame
The Ultimate Haste Box will be given for your 9th mission. It can opened to get some experience, a 1 hour 2x Experience Coupon, and a random item.
800 Scroll Traces
20 Strange Cubes
Advanced Hunter’s Medal of Honor
10% Clean Slate Scroll
Strong Rebirth Flame
Eternal Rebirth Flame
Craftsman’s Cube
Meister’s Cube
Each week of the event, if you can complete all 9 daily missions in a single day, you’ll unlock the weekly hidden mission. By completing these hidden missions, you can receive extra prizes!
1st week (October 13 ~ 19): kill 44,444 monsters Experience based on your level Powerful Rebirth Flame Autumn Lake Chair
2nd week (October 20 ~ 26): kill 88,888 monsters (55,555 if you completed the first week) Experience based on your level Eternal Rebirth Flame Maidenhair Tree Damage Skin
(55,555 if you completed the first week)
Here’s what the chair looks like!
If you complete both weeks’ hidden missions, you’ll be given the I’m Completely Hasted title which gives 50 all stats, 20 attack/magic attack, 30% boss damage, 30% defense ignore, and 2000 HP/MP. However, the stats will expire in 30 days.
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© Provided by CBS Interactive Inc. Comedian and producer Judd Apatow, not exercising with correspondent Tracy Smith.
Hollywood filmmaker, comic and writer Judd Apatow, an outspoken advocate for victims of sexual harassment, believes ongoing revelations will eventually involve an "enormous" amount of people, he tells Tracy Smith in an interview for CBS ' "Sunday Morning," to be broadcast Dec. 10.
Apatow, the force behind such box office hits as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up" and "Trainwreck," tells Smith he's hopeful there will be better workplaces in the future because of the current wave of people coming forward.
"I think it's gonna be an enormous amount of people for a long time, because women have been completely silenced forever," Apatow tells Smith. "So, now there's going to be this tidal wave of people saying, 'I can't hold my secrets anymore.' And it's going to hopefully create, you know, a new environment where people think, 'How do we protect people?'"
In a wide-ranging interview, Apatow also talks about his career in entertainment, starting with his early visits to comedy clubs, and his recent return to the stage; his cluttered office; how he deals with movies that bomb; and his new Netflix special.
Also watch: Judd Apatow on the process of relearning stand-up (Provided by Wochit Entertainment)
Apatow, who quit performing in comedy clubs in 1992, is now back doing standup. "This is the thing I wanted to do always," he told Smith. "This is the dream before I had any other dream, and I stopped it because I was young and my writing was going well and paying well.
"And part of me thought, 'You're not as good as Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler. Maybe you should listen to the universe and just write jokes.'"
Now that he's older, Apatow explained, "I have more to say, and I have opinions and stories and stuff like that. Now it feels like the right time to do it."
Also watch: Judd Apatow Plays ‘A-hole Producer’ In ‘The Disaster Artist’ (Provided by Wochit Entertainment)
The Emmy Award-winning "CBS Sunday Morning," hosted by Jane Pauley, is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. Executive producer is Rand Morrison.
Be sure to follow the program on Twitter (@CBSSunday), Facebook, Instagram (#CBSSundayMorning) and at cbssundaymorning.com. "Sunday Morning" also streams on CBSN beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET, and is available on cbs.com, CBS All Access, and On Demand. You can also listen to "Sunday Morning" audio podcasts at Play.it.
For more info:
Follow @JuddApatow on Twitter His standup comedy special, "Judd Apatow: The Return," debuts on Netflix December 12Apatow currently appears in the Netflix series "Lady Dynamite" |
Costco is offering $25 off coupon flyers in-stores, so check your local Costco to get yours! Coupon is valid at Costco.com only.
Costco’s members, you must be doubting whether you read that right. We agree it is too good to be true! But it’s here, this is your ultimate chance to save big on your big holiday purchases.
For a limited time, Costco is offering these flyers for $25 off $250 your Costco.com purchase. Each flyer contains a unique 7-character coupon code. All you have to do is enter the code at checkout to redeem offer. This is a very rare offer from Costco.
>> SEE ALSO: Costco Black Friday 2016 Ad
How do I get the Costco coupon?
RUN!
Hurry and head to your nearest Costco location to grab one of these flyers. If no one is passing them out at the door, all you have to do is visit the customer service counter and ask a Costco team member for it. Also, if you use your Chase Freedom credit card you can get 5% cash back for all of your purchases through the end of 2016. For even more ways to save, keep an eye out for discounted pre-owned Costco gift cards from CardCash and Raise . Costco gift cards may not always be available from both gift card retailers but nevertheless, they offer a wide range of gift card discounts that can help you save in other holiday shopping areas.
Don't know what to shop for? It's almost the holiday season, so it's definitely a good time to stock up on groceries, snacks, decorations and even do some gift shopping! Check out Costco’s October Coupon Offers for more than $1,300 in warehouse savings and more than $6,900 in savings at Costco.com.
Costco $25 off $250 for online shoppers. Head into your local warehouse and ask for a flyer coupon from a Costco customer service team member now!
Coupon Fine Prints:
Only valid on Costco.com. Not valid in warehouse. One coupon code per Costco member. Ineligible purchases include: new Costco memberships, Costco membership renewal, gift of membership, tires, online gift certificates, Costco Cash cards, custom installation services and online-digital printed orders. Not valid for orders at the online Pharmacy, Costco Travel or Costco Business Delivery. The merchandise total in your cart must equal $250 or more before tax and shipping to receive the $25 off. The coupon code must be entered in the promo code box at checkout to be valid. This offer may not be combined with any other offer or promotion. Offer expires 12/31/2016.
Can I shop on Black Friday?
Since offer expires on 12/31/2016, the coupon is likely valid on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and throughout the holidays.
Not a Costco Member? Costco memberships can be quite pricey.
They start from $55 (per household) to $110 (for the executive plan). The good thing is, non-members can shop on Costo.com, but keep in mind that there is 5 percent surcharge on some orders.
Read on: How to Shop at Costco Without a Membership
Keep up to date with us as many retailers roll out their 2016 Black Friday ads! Read on for Black Friday 2016 trends and forecasts, Black Friday ad scan releases, retailer holiday promotions and much more. Just visit Black Friday news page or sign up for BlackFriday.fm email updates! |
*I received a free copy of this book via the author in exchange for an honest review*
Real life really got in the way of reading this book which is a shame because at another point in life I think I would have flown through this! I've read a few of Jesse Teller's books now and I think this is my favourite so far.
It's another strong opening in Liefdom as we are introduced to a royal child fighting for life as it is born. The book is a little bit of a departure from generic fantasy in that the sett
*I received a free copy of this book via the author in exchange for an honest review*
Real life really got in the way of reading this book which is a shame because at another point in life I think I would have flown through this! I've read a few of Jesse Teller's books now and I think this is my favourite so far.
It's another strong opening in Liefdom as we are introduced to a royal child fighting for life as it is born. The book is a little bit of a departure from generic fantasy in that the setting is both Perilisc - the setting for Teller's other books and the land of the fey. A realm where fairies and other mythical creatures exist. There is a relationship between the two worlds in that each fairy has a human child and the fate of the fairy is inextricably linked to the fate of the child. If a fairy is injured the child is lamed. If a human is wicked the fairy changes to. The story takes place in the two worlds where events in one world have significant consequences in another.
The (anti) hero of the fey is Gentry Mandrake - a fairy who is depicted as fearsome and ugly, cast aside by other fairies. He is rage and aggression itself. In Perilisc itself lives an evil wizard, Vrice. He feels very much like a 'classic' Teller character. He is sickness, cruelty and evil. Vrice is summoning the son of the devil to release the terrors of Hell. The scene were he completes his ritual is wickedness exemplified. Vrice, and his fairy's degeneration are wonderful. I think Teller does 'sickness of the soul' very well.
This may sound a bit weird but I think this book is a little 'tamer' than the other Perilisc books, sure there is rape, torture and violence but it isn't incessant and as such I think a stronger story comes out of it. One area which I think definitely could do with development is the supporting cast of characters - they are introduced, one or two crop up in other books but we don't know much about them. We just have to accept them as they are. This isn't a book of boring info dumps but I think I would appreciate Teller expounding a little on the characters back story and motivations when they crop up. It's a little disconcerting as you feel the author knows more than is let on. The story is pretty fast paced - it does feel a little 'railroady' towards the end, especially when Mandrake is on the mission to find out how to stop an imp but it's plenty of fun.
Mandrake is also a character of love. He is born how he is, for a purpose, not for beauty but for war. And yet, he is selfless in his love. His love for his family, his kind, his home, his love but most of all his child. Even when he could unleash hell on his home after being banished he still treats it with love. It's also a story of romance and seeing beauty 'within'. The tenderness between Pea and Mandrake is beautiful and I really liked the contrast of the 'stink' of Mandrake and the beautiful world he lives in.
I also want to give a mention to Trevonne - a trainee wizard who I have now seen in three books now. I think I am quite captivated by her. Her motives aren't always inherently 'good', she is torn between power and friendship, lust and love. I wonder who the author sees when he thinks of Trevonne? She's certainly interesting.
This is a solid, imaginative story showing a creative mind and the ability to maintain two distinct worlds and stories together. It's still gritty and violent, it's still 'heroic bloodshed' but there is space for love, tenderness and beauty. I think there is plenty of scope for more work in the land of the fey. Recommended and I think I'm becoming a bit of a fan. |
Experts warn that toilet paper does little to remove feces and the United States is one country that hasn't improved its sanitation when wiping.
While countries such as Japan, Italy and Greece use bidets in the toilets as a way to keep the anus clean, the US has mostly relied on toilet paper as the norm to keep that area clean.
But doctors say excessive wiping could cause health problems such as anal fissures and urinary tract infections.
Though the suggestion may sound absurd, celebrities such as will.i.am, Will Smith and Terrence Howard have been vouching for baby wipes instead of tissue for years - with Smith even hailing the habit as 'special and incredible'.
Scroll down for video
Using dry toilet paper to wipe can actually leave behind feces and cause health problems. People who excessively wipe the rectum increase their risk of developing fissures or hemorrhoids (file photo)
Toilet bidets are one sanitation device that countries such as Italy, Spain and Greece have implemented in most bathrooms to clean the anus after using the bathroom.
According to Tonic, 90 percent of households in Italy, Spain and Greece have a bidet installed in their bathroom for cleaning.
This device squirts water into the area to make cleaning with toilet paper easier.
But it is not as easy to find one of these in a restroom in the United States.
Bidet suppliers have reported that moving into the American market has been more difficult because most people are satisfied with just using toilet paper.
Rose George, author of The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters, told Tonic why using toilet paper doesn't remove feces like it should.
'I find it rather baffling that millions of people are walking around with dirty anuses while thinking they are clean,' George said. 'Toilet paper moves sh*t, but it doesn't remove it.'
Will.i.am said in a past interview with Elle Magazine that baby wipes are what most people should consider using in terms of wiping.
'Here's proof on why people should have baby wipes. Get some chocolate, wipe it on a wooden floor, and then try to get it up with some dry towels. You're going to get chocolate in the cracks. That's why you gotta get them baby wipes,' will.i.am said.
Actor Terrence Howard went as far as to say in an Elle Magazine interview that he didn't trust women who used toilet paper.
‘If they’re using dry paper, they aren’t washing all of themselves. It’s just unclean. So if I go in a woman’s house and see the toilet paper there, I’ll explain this,' Howard said.
Actor and director Will Smith echoed a similar appreciation for baby wipes during a BBC 1 Radio interview.
‘I'm the type of person that it's important for me to share. When I experience something that's special and incredible, I like to share it with people. Anyone who's using dry toilet paper, you're really not doing yourself the true service,' Smith said.
Gwyneth Paltrow, on the the other hand, goes for a more expensive option in terms of sanitation.
She released her Goop gift ideas in 2015 and one of them was a recommendation for toilet paper worth $100.
But if that toilet paper cleaned better than the store brand kind remains unknown.
Terrence Howard (left), Will Smith (middle) and will.i.am (right) have all previously said that the prefer to use baby wipes instead of toilet paper
Cleanliness is not the only reason why people should consider bidets or baby wipes instead.
Aggressive wiping has been known to cause health problems such as anal fissures and hemorrhoids.
An anal fissure is a tear in the lining of the rectum and can cause bleeding or pain for the person when they are pooping.
Most fissures heal at home after eight to 12 weeks, but it is important to be careful when wiping because it can irritate the area.
Hemorrhoids are swollen veins and tissue in the lower rectum and anus. They are more serious than fissures and sometimes can be harder to treat.
External hemorrhoids happen around the rim and are the ones that are typically irritated from excessive wiping, but they can be treated with cream or medication.
Also, bidets can prevent people from developing a urinary tract infection.
If people wipe from back-to-front, they are pulling bacteria from the anus towards the front of the body.
This can impact women especially and cause them to develop at UTI from the bacteria getting into the urethra.
By using a bidet or wet wipe instead, it kills the bacteria and prevents it from infecting the urinary tract. |
Tory Leader Tim Hudak is facing an open revolt within his party. Hudak heads into a policy convention next month with a potentially embarrassing attempt to dethrone him hanging over his head.
PC Leader Tim Hudak, left, arrives with Doug Holyday at the reception in Etobicoke after Holyday's byelection win last week. That single win, out of five byelections, isn't enough for some Tories, who are unhappy with Hudak's leadership. ( Chris So / Toronto Star file photo ) Vic Fedeli says Tory malcontents should instead be celebrating the party's breakthrough in Toronto. ( Rene Johnston / Toronto Star file photo )
Ten Progressive Conservatives from London, Ont. submitted a motion Tuesday to the Ontario PC Party asking for the constitution to be amended to allow for a leadership review. Among those who signed is former London-Fanshawe candidate Cheryl Miller, who ran for the Tories in 2011. The effort to dump the 45-year-old Hudak builds on a growing undercurrent of dismay with his leadership since the party’s poor performance in the 2011 provincial vote and after losing Kitchener-Waterloo to the NDP in a byelection last year. The motion, which is on the heels of Tories losing four out of five byelections on Aug. 1 including London West, could be presented at the party convention in London from Sept. 20-22. But a party spokesman dismissed its chances of going anywhere. The party constitution now requires a leadership review only after failing to win a provincial election.
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“It’s an internal stunt, a small group of individuals are showing their disappointment in the outcome of the London byelection specifically,” Alan Sakach told the Star. Sakach explained the party’s constitutional committee will determine if the motion even goes to convention. And if its does, a constitutional change like this requires two-thirds delegate support. “What is disappointing is that these folks are letting their own self-interest get in the way . . . they are really just being patsies in helping the Liberals,” Sakach said, adding that he has not heard of this kind of motion being presented before. “This is the behaviour that has kept us out of power for three elections.” When asked the chances of this revolt getting off the ground, Sakach said, “absolutely none.”
There is lingering anger in London that the Hudak Conservatives misread the byelection there, which saw NDP candidate Peggy Sattler win while the Tories finished second. Tory MPP Vic Fedeli said these same malcontents should be celebrating that the party had a breakthrough in the Liberals' Toronto stronghold by winning the Etobicoke-Lakeshore byelection with outgoing Toronto deputy mayor Doug Holyday and increased the vote percentage in London West and Ottawa South.
Article Continued Below
“We are the party on a roll and we have great momentum and those 10 individuals should be celebrating our victory, getting behind our leader Tim Hudak and supporting the party, not throwing a gift to the government,” he said. Others are not so sure that Hudak, who breezed through a review a year ago, is the man to lead the party to victory. “They say the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. A year and a half ago Hudak faced down his angry membership. He promised he had learned and that he would change. As the losses continue to accumulate it's unclear whether Hudak can convince the members of that again in September,” Nick Kouvalis, former campaign manager and chief of staff to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, said in a column for Queen’s Park Briefing, a subscription newsletter. One party insider, who didn’t want to be identified, said the victory in Etobicoke-Lakeshore was “Holyday’s not Hudak’s” and that the party should have captured more seats. “We had 450 volunteers across the province, so we had a full-court press in play,” the source complained after last week’s byelection. The source said there should have been more of a “focus” on London West. Tory MPP Peter Shurman (Thornhill) called the revolt “not much of a story” adding that Hudak’s leadership is “intact.” In the London West byelection, third place finisher Liberal Ken Coran’s campaign virtually “shut down” days before voting day, which saw votes “bleed” to Sattler, Shurman said. Veteran MPP Jim Wilson (Simcoe-Grey) said he has seen this backlash before when Tory leaders didn’t win their first time out. “It happened after John Tory (didn’t win in 2007) and when Mike Harris didn’t become premier the first time around, there was a small pocket of discontent,” Wilson said. |
Is Being Fat in Japan Really Illegal?
(I’ve been informed that it’s not a law to get measured once a year – please scroll this forum to learn more – below is the original article)
So what exactly is this fat tax everyone is talking about from Japan? Is it real? Is it really illegal to be fat in Japan? Well, first off, yes it is real, there is a sort of ‘fat’ tax that is applied for those over a certain BMI/waistline in Japan (85 cm for men and 90 cm for women). But you’ll never see anyone actually arrested for being fat… Fined, absolutely, but not the individual themselves, companies are the ones who take the hit. Japan requires it’s citizens between 40 and 74 years of age to get their BMI/waistlines measured once a year, and if need be seek medical attention and counseling.
The law is actually called (get ready for it):
“Standard Concerning Implementation Special Health Examination
and …
Special Public Health Guidance”
Otherwise known as ‘Metabo’ law, started in 2008 to combat ‘metabolic syndrome” and to curb the country’s overweight population by at least 25% by 2015. So with that said, has it worked? It has actually, it’s dropped the obese rate of Japanese people by 1% since it started. So Japan put out all the stops to help curb any excess fat that they can from society.
But already Japan has a few things going for them that Americans simply don’t. First Japanese people already eat a diet full of fish, vegetables and rice, whereas Americans literally are loading up on ultra-processed foods 50% of the time! Second is that Japanese people by default end up having to walk much more then Americans, and are encouraged to do so. Americans simply for the most part do not have the ability to leave their house and walk into a city as many Americans live on the out skirts of cities.
Then third the Japanese now have the Metabo law to help reinforce and help curb what they consider an epidemic of fatness! Americans, have nothing of the sort, and honestly it would be unconstitutional to do so. Instead America would be best to keep teaching individuals how to eat and what to avoid, because half of their food being eaten is absolutely trash.
So what do the stats looks like for overweight people in Japan, and did they really need to implement this law? Well the answer shouldn’t surprise you, but here are some numbers and a few facts regarding overweight people Japan vs America.
Only 3.6 percent of Japanese people have a body mass index (BMI) over 30 (which I now believe is 3.1 percent), which is the international standard for obesity, whereas 35.7 percent of Americans do. A total of 33.1 percent of Americans have a BMI over 25 (discounting those in the obese category), making them overweight, but only 21.1 percent of Japanese make the grade to be considered overweight (discounting those in the obese category)!
Lets look at this in the raw numbers to see how absolutely insane this really is:
Obese Japanese People: 4,500,000
Obese American People: 101,000,000!
Overweight Japanese People: 31,000,000
Overweight American People: 105,250,000
Total overweight and obese:
Total in Japan: 31,100,000
Total in America: 218,750,000
So I’d say Japan is doing something right when you compare it to America right? But let’s be fair and look at the numbers if they were to have the same amount of people, but let’s look at it if America had as many people as Japan.
Total in Japan: 31,100,000
Total in America (same pop. as Japan): 86,668,000
In this made up chart America would still have over 50,000,000 more people that are overweight. This would also mean that out of the 126,000,000 people only about 45,000,000 would be healthy which is about 1/3 of the population.
Japanese Population: 126,000,000
American Population: 318,000,000 – (Feb 9th 2017)
So as you know the law is not coming to take you to jail if you’re too fat in Japan, they’re not going to come slap handcuffs on you or force you into fat camp. Although you will be required to see a counselor and a dietician to help you curve that hefty waistline, that is if you even show up for your appointment.
So, is that it? You pretty much just get a slap on the wrist and a bit of mandatory counseling? Well, yes and no. The biggest effects from this law stem from companies who employee bigger people. The big punishments are really being felt by the companies of Japan. If they find ANY of their employees are big boned and over the limit they can be fined a fair sum of money until everyone has a come to Jesus meeting and gets a grip and slims down. Companies actually hand out ‘Metabo’ towels that have a measurement stitched into the towel so you can see if you’re gaining weight or if you’re losing it. Otherwise to basically help you remember that if you’re overweight your a burden on the companies well-being.
One fine a company was said to pay was upwards of $19,000,000 dollars! This is why you will see companies doing a set of work outs in the morning before they start work. 30 minutes of stretching they say help keep everyone a bit more fit, and they also found that it keeps their employees more focused on their tasks. But not everything is as it seems, this program that seems to have well intentions (which I agree to a point), doesn’t have everyone’s best interests. Because of this, people that are bigger are shunned and made fun of and verbally abused, and this attitude also leeches into the public and private lives as well, but besides the emotional and societal backlash, did Japan really need to enact this law?
A professor at Tokai college School of Medicine, Yoichi Ogushi said that there really is no need for Japanese people to lose weight. Yoichi Ogushi was noted saying that he does not think it will have any positive long lasting effect. He also said something like the Metabo law would work best in areas like the USA or Australia and other places that actually HAVE a weight problem. At this moment he said the Japanese people are too slender and they can’t afford to lose weight.
But on the other hand the president of the Health Policy Institute of Japan, James Kondo, believes that this law is a positive thing. He claims that the check up every years increases the public’s awareness of the health challenges that come with obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Okay well if you agree with it or not it’s something that Japan is really doing. But there are a few criticisms and flaws of this policy that should be pointed out:
The measurements done around the waist do not always give an accurate measurement of persons body fat. The law totally avoids childhood obesity, which is where most weight challenges occur in life. Companies discriminate against people who are a tiny bit overweight or not overweight at all, thinking they could become over weight Less than 50% of the people attend the required checkups Of those who do that are found to go and have a weight issue, only about 12% of the people who received counseling even took the advice or even acted on it.
So, there’s that…
But the more I researched this subject the more I ran into a lot of research showing that men, women but mostly girls are taking this to the next level and basically starving themselves. More and more eating disorders are taking place in Japan and Metabo law has certainly not helped curb this growing challenge that is taking place in Japan. There is even stories I’m reading about where children are indoctrinated into believing eating too much can turn you into a pig, and it’s seen as heroic to not eat!
Well, perhaps at one point in Japanese history when food was a scarce thing, these kind of stories came up, and then they just got pass on down from generation to generation. But these children stories are not doing anyone any good. So there could be much more research into how deep this really goes, because as already mentioned, why not tackle childhood obesity too? Well many believe and I tend to also bend towards the idea that big pharmaceutical companies have a play in this role in this Metabo law decision. Japan has the 2nd largest pharmaceutical market in the world.
With that said the profits between 2008 a year before Metabo and 2012 show a drastic increase.
To end this endless rabbit hole of questions and points of view about this Metabo law, there was a question I had about this. What about sumo wrestlers? Are they stuck with the same law as everyone else? And the answer is, YES! They are stuck with having to give up the gut as there time arrives when they turn 40. But it’s also interesting to note that the oldest wrestler to win a top division sumo championship was 37 years of age (Kyokutenho Masaru). So the vast majority of these wrestlers will never have to worry about it. But, I wonder though about those who have to work hard to get themselves below the thresholds of the Metabo law in time, when for most of their lives they’ve been commended for being a big fat wrestler.
-NihonScope
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/Pages/overweight-obesity-statistics.aspx
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/03/less-than-3-percent-of-americans-live-a-healthy-lifestyle/475065/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_tax
http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/metabolaw.asp
https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/why-eating-disorders-are-on-the-rise-in-japan
lol -エルオーエル- / bye bye
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Today we’re going to learn how to install a bathtub and then tile the surrounding shower wall, okey-dokie? I’ve got an awesome, professionally done
video here put together by The Home Depot, plus some extra tips and common mistakes. Pipes that you will need will include the hot and cold supply lines, as well as a pipe that will lead to the shower head. You will also need a mixing valve and shower head. Also, this isn’t as hard as it might initially seem: you can have this done in a single morning, I swear.
Common Mistakes
Some of the most common mistakes including violating local code restrictions (check these before you do or buy anything), attaching copper pipe to galvanized without utilizing a dielectric or brass fitting between the two (copper and zinc will react and severely corrode each other very quickly), not leveling your fixtures as you’re installing them, and forgetting to install air gaps where necessary (pay attention to the video!). That’s all I can think of off the top of my head that I’ve seen people do before, if anyone has any extra tips they’re welcome to leave them in the comments below. Now, have a look at this:
Additional Bathtub Installation Resources
An excellent book that I recommend anyone interested in learning how to do home improvement projects like this properly is: Black & Decker The Complete Photo Guide to Home Improvement: More Than 200 Value-adding Remodeling Projects .
This guy’s got a nice detailed article on how to go about installing a bathtub.
The Rustic Girls are here to help you with your bathtub installation (lol, like the name) |
Info
Welcome back everyone! ozfortress season 19 is here, the flagship competitive TF2 event for the Oceanic region returns for the second season of 2017! Just like previous seasons, the league is using the highly successful league system: Citadel. As always, we encourage teams of every skill level to sign up and play; the more the merrier!
OZF 19 will feature 3 brackets: Premier, Intermediate and Open. Premier will have a round robin group stage while the lower two brackets will consist of a Swiss group stage. All brackets will now be using the Page Playoffs format.
As with Season 18, all server booking will be done through ozfortress discord. Simply join the #bookings channel in the ozfortress Discord and type /book and details of your server booking will be PM'd to you. To view more commands, type /help in the #bookings channel.
There have been minor changes to the Global Whitelist. View those changes here.
Grand Finals of Premier will be played as a no-advantage best of 5, but Open and Intermediate Grand Finals remain a best of 3. Premier will have 8 teams while Intermediate's bracket size is pending signups. Open will have an unrestricted number of teams.
In Citadel, Captains can create Teams using the "Start Team" button on the Teams page. Once created, Captains can invite players to the Team. Team invites are shown on a player's profile, which can be accessed by clicking on your name next to the bell on the top right hand corner of your screen. Teams provide a bucket of players that can be signed up for a tournament. Players may be on multiple teams but only one Roster for any given tournament. Captains may sign up a Roster for tournaments under the League page.
If you are using an existing team, you do not have to recreate your team again! Simply sign up your OZF 19 roster using your existing team.
If you're new and not sure how to get started, don't fret! Check out the #recruitment section of the ozfortress Discord where you can express your interest in joining a team, or peruse potential players to form a team of your own. Teams are normally comprised of 1 Medic, 1 Demoman, 2 Soldiers and 2 Scouts. Please ensure you have enough backups to last you the season.
TFLIVE will once again be returning this season. Boasting an experienced lineup of casters and the highest quality TF2 production, TFLIVE is the home of Premier Oceanic TF2 coverage. If you're looking for past matches to get a feel for the game, they can be found on the TFLIVE YouTube. However, the best way to learn the game is usually to just start playing. Whether you're a veteran or new to the scene, get on a team and come play!
You can sign up Wednesday the 10th up until Friday the 19th of May at 11:59 PM, with the season starting on Sunday the 21st of May 2017.
[Signup on Citadel now!]
[Unlocks] [Map Pool] [Key Dates] [Rules]
[Transfers] [Server Configuration] [Administrators] |
For those who do not know it, social media is big business: it gets links into search engines, which in theory delivers profit. (It is probably wise not to tell them that most of the people using social media are simply wasting time at their jobs or schools because these are horribly boring, and have no intention of buying anything).
For this reason, a cabal of people on Reddit -- the moderators who occupy the default subs, apparently with the blessings of the admins -- have begun to attack the competitor that has emerged, Voat.co. First, there was a prolonged and intense DDOS attack on the Voat.co servers, the type that is organized on IRC -- as I have always felt the SJWs are organizing -- that took it offline for several days.
Then, a surge of complaints prompting the provider to remove the account:
Our hosting provider, hosteurope.de has terminated all our contracts and shut down all our servers without issuing a warning or trying to talk to us. This includes my private server which was only used to host my girlfriends blog. She is a scientist. She published her research papers on that blog (pre-formatted papers to which she owns the copyright). That server contained no other data whatsoever. The reason they gave us when they notified us that they have cancelled our contract is "...we have received significant information that the content on your server includes political incorrect parts that are unacceptable for us." and "Due to the fact that we cannot keep bond of trust to you as our customer...". Luckily, we have managed to move our databases to a cloud platform mere hours before they shut down our servers. Ladies and gentlemen, my eyes have been opened by this. I don't know about you, but we are living in a weird world. We will have to carefully evaluate our long term options of providing a platform of free speech if we are to stay online. Your donations are what keeps us afloat. Also, I am back in Sweden from my post-graduation vacation, currently packing my things and I will be driving (moving) to Switzerland tomorrow or day after tomorrow. Edit: just to clarify, I have been a hosteurope.de customer for well over 5 years, always paying my bills and never hosting any illegal content. Edit 2: thank you all who donated. I removed info on how to donate as I feel we have received enough to help us survive for quite some time. We will publish a detailed report about how much money we have received through donations (all bitcoin transactions are already public) and what the money will be used for. I can already say that we have received around 8000 USD since our call for donation went up a few days ago. This money will most likely have to be taxed, but a detailed report will be published asap. I have received interview requests from several major news agencies but responding to these agencies will have to wait. A voat which runs smoothly and satisfied users is my #1 priority. It would feel wrong for me to be spending time appearing in the media while there are plenty other more pressing issues to deal with right here.
Then, as if this were not enough, Reddit mods from /r/SRS -- the heart of the cabal that controls Reddit with the blessings of the admins -- infiltrated /r/oppression, and set into action their new method of subverting Voat.co: ban links to Voat.co from Reddit unless those links go to a sub on Voat.co that is controlled by the Reddit cabal. This coincides with the seizure of a number of high-profile Voat subs by accounts linked to Reddit /r/SRS mod accounts.
Here is how this was announced:
/r/Oppression has grown and become a thorn in the side of SRS, the Admins and the power moderator clique. However, the scale of this sub and the rule of Pao has created new challenges that we moderators have no choice but to address. Accordingly, we have audited the content and moderator practices of the popular website "voat.co" . Our conclusion is that voat's freedom is incompatible with our own freedom (as defined by reddits's rules). Therefore, it is with great regret that we are going to have to have to remove all posts and comments featuring voat.co . This is due to our safety concerns corresponding with reddit rules. Because we fight censorship, we have established a loophole whereby we can allow direct links to some subverses. As a result of negotiations, we are pleased to announce that subverses where a "trusted" reddit moderator is in control and actively curating content are safe enough to be posted to this subreddit.
This coincides with a discovery by other mods that many subs are already filtering Voat.co links:
I also just discovered that /r/JusticePorn is auto-filtering any links to Voat. My comments linking to an article discussing it on Voat never showed up. All additional comments I tried to make in that thread also didn't show up. As this is the first time I commented there, I can only conclude that they ban users who link to Voat.
While this behavior is not uncommon, it fits within a new framework offered by Reddit mod-cabal SJWs: they are no longer trying to ban opposing thought, but to remove all who are not ideologically obedient to their agenda. When Reddit was banning links to articles about Ellen Pao's $276k judgment in favor of Kleiner Perkins, they were not trying to hide the article, which could be found by anyone. The point was to stamp out those who think it is a good idea to post such an article, and affirm the SJW principle that facts do not matter, but ideological obedience does, so anyone who is anti-Paoism is an enemy of the state. That, apparently, includes Voat.co for no greater crime than being a slow, unreliable alternative to speech-filtered Reddit. |
Around 40 people camped at Glen Cove overnight.Despite efforts by Sacred Sites Protection and Rights of Indigenous Tribes (SSP&RIT) to negotiate a preservation agreement, the Greater Vallejo Recreation District has so far refused to abandon efforts to develop Glen Cove, a sacred Native American burial site also known as Sogorea Te in the Ohlone language. With bulldozing slated to get under way as soon as Friday, April 15th, SSP&RIT has called for an assembly to gather at 5pm on April 14th at Glen Cove, in preparation for a ceremony to honor the ancestors buried at the site at 8am the following morning.Sogorea Te is a sacred gathering place and burial ground that has been utilized by numerous Native American tribes since at least 1,500 BC. Today, Sogorea Te continues to be spiritually important to local Native communities. It is located just south of Vallejo, California along the Carquinez Strait, a natural channel that connects the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to the San Francisco Bay. A large abandoned building known as the Stremmel Mansion dominates the middle of the site. The Stremmel Mansion is literally built on top of grave sites, and intact shellmounds lie just adjacent to the main building.The Greater Vallejo Recreational District (GVRD) and the City of Vallejo claim that their plans to develop a park on the site take the Native community into consideration and will "protect" Glen Cove's "sensitive cultural resources." SSP&RIT, however, says that no real effort has been made to involve the local native community in decision-making. Despite years of phone calls, letters, and even demonstrations ending at GVRD headquarters to deliver stacks of petitions, the agency claims that the wishes of Native Americans regarding Glen Cove are "unclear." SSP&RIT asserts that the local Native community should rightfully be the lead decision-makers who hold authority in matters related to Sogorea Te, one of the few surviving remnants of native history in the Bay Area, so much of which has already been destroyed or paved over. |
Dear 9/11 Truth Community,
As many in the 9/11 truth community know, David Ray Griffin has been in the hospital. He is recovering from major back surgery and serious complications from it. He will recover completely and be able to return to the cause, but his recovery will require a rather long time. At present he needs rest and therapy and he is not able to do the many things that he would be doing were he well.
One of his main concerns right now is that his new book, Cognitive Infiltration: an Obama Appointee’s Plan to Undermine the 9/11 Conspiracy Theory, successfully make the impact that it should. As many in our community already know, it is a response to legal scholar (and now Obama appointee) Cass Sunstein’s highly deceptive argument for a new Cointelpro-like operation to be directed against the 9/11 truth movement. Griffin utilizes all his own remarkable capabilities to thoroughly deconstruct and expose the fraudulent nature of this prominent legal scholar’s call for an illegal operation. Griffin’s book was just published, at the beginning of September, and there hasn’t yet been time for many to have
read it.
Griffin feels the book is especially important and laments that he is not able to promote it as he would normally do. But there is a way that we can step in and fill his shoes — write and post reviews of the book, so that prospective readers can see how important it is. Reviews posted at Amazon.com would be especially effective in making the book successful. Here is the link to the book at Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Infiltration-Appointees-Undermine-Conspiracy/dp/1566568218
Although Amazon maintains a length limit on reviews of 1,000 words, they don’t adhere to the rule strictly. However, it’s likely that longer reviews would be better directed at the many other sites that are open to our arguments. Please buy, read and then review Cognitive Infiltration as soon as you can. There cannot be too many reviews!
Thanks for doing everything you do for the truth,
Tod Fletcher
Letter from Tod Fletcher posted September 15, 2010
911Truth.org |
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are continuing their strategy of having a lot of competition at punter: the team just re-signed Jacob Schum to compete with Karl Schmitz and Michael Koenen at that position. Neither punter has looked better than the other so far this offseason, which is not a good thing given that Koenen's been a disappointment for years on end.
Schum was on the Bucs' practice squad last year, but the Bucs cut him at the start of the offseason. He's since been with the New York Jets, punting four times for 205 yards -- which is significantly better than both Schmitz and Koenen, albeit over a very small number of punts. And the Jets apparently didn't think he was good enough, cutting him on August 18.
It's pretty clear that the Bucs want to find a replacement for Koenen, who's set to earn an obscene $3.25 million this year if the team decides to retain him. That's not going to happen.
To make room for Schum, the team released safety Derrick Wells. |
Team stolen base totals can be fluky since one player can have such a large impact on them. For example, The Cincinnati Reds led the majors in steals last year but probably wouldn’t have done so without Billy Hamilton’s 57 thefts. However, some teams just run more than others.
It’s in their philosophy, and the Houston Astros are one of those teams. They’ve finished third in stolen bases each of the past two seasons and through eight games this year have already stolen nine, which is three more than the next closest team. Leading this brigade is diminutive second baseman Jose Altuve, who may have been undervalued as a late first-round fantasy pick.
Get free start/sit and waiver wire advice for your fantasy team >>
The 26-year-old has been a fantasy force for the past two seasons. In 2014, Altuve led the American League with 225 hits, 56 stolen bases and a .341 average. Last year he once again led the league in hits and steals but this time with just 200 hits and 38 thefts. His batting average dropped to .313, but fantasy owners were delighted to see his home run total increase from seven to 15.
There were two legitimate concerns for Altuve entering 2016, which were whether or not he was going to become a consistent double-digit home run bat and whether his 56 steal season was just an outlier. His stolen base totals the past four seasons have fluctuated from 33 to 35 to 56 to 38. If Altuve can get back to the 50 steal range AND keep his newfound power, the potential is there for him to be fantasy baseball’s most valuable asset.
Altuve’s start to the season hasn’t been headline-grabbing the way Trevor Story’s has. Through eight games he is hitting just .250 with one home run, two RBI, six stolen bases and nine runs scored. What we know about Altuve is that assuming he stays healthy he is relatively safe.
As Houston’s leadoff hitter Altuve is in good position to score runs and receive plenty of at-bats to drive those counting stats. His lowest batting average in four full seasons is .283, and he’s been over .300 each of the past two so owners shouldn’t be worried about his .250 start. Also, the Astros have a proven two-year track record of being aggressive on the base paths and already have the most steals in 2016, which gives Altuve’s stolen base total a solid floor.
Now that we have established Altuve’s floor we can look at his upside to answer the initial question, “should Jose Altuve have been the number one fantasy pick?” The most glaring difference between Altuve and the top picks like Mike Trout, Paul Goldschmidt and Bryce Harper is power. The opportunity to draft power, which is so valuable because it contributes to home runs, RBI, average and runs scored, really dries up after the first few rounds.
Similar to running backs in fantasy football, there just isn’t enough power to go around. While drafting a stolen base king like Dee Gordon can single-handedly win you a category, the opportunity cost of drafting him is considerable.
So while Altuve’s early stolen base pace looks like it could approach his career high of 56, he would also need to at least even his 15 home run total from last year to be considered among Trout, Goldschmidt and Harper. While this is possible, it does not appear probable. Therefore, fantasy owners should look to “buy low” on Altuve based off upside alone, just don’t sacrifice too much power in the process.
Brendan Tuma is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Brendan, follow him @toomuchtuma. |
Ready to go back to school? Zatanna sure is, as she and a host of other magic characters in the DCU enroll in the new YA mini-series Mystik U. Written by Alisa Kwitney and illustrated by Mike Norton, Mystik U follows Zee, Sebastian Faust, Enchantress, Sargon the Sorceror, and new character Pia as they investigate a new menace hitting campus. Kwitney is on hand to share some thoughts on each character and how the world of YA is intersecting with the darker side of DC Comics.
Matt Santori: Alisa, congratulations on launching Mystik U for DC Comics! It seems like the book was long in coming. Can you share a bit about how the project evolved into what we’re seeing in solicitation?
Alisa Kwitney: Thanks! I’m incredibly excited that this book is coming out after its long gestation. It’s been through quite a few changes. When this all began, about three years ago, I met Bobbie Chase and she talked with me about pitching some ideas. She mentioned this one idea that involved cosplay, and I thought that sounded really intriguing.
As I began to work on it, it morphed into a university and the focus shifted to watching students discover and grow their powers. As for who those students were, that was another change—originally, my mandate was to use mostly obscure and new characters. That changed, obviously!
What has remained the same is my take on college as a kind of theater where people go to improvise themselves.
MS: The idea of taking some of DC’s most prominent magic-users and rewinding back to their early college years is a ton of fun! How are you thinking about that kind of transition period in their lives — and how does magic complicate that?
AK: Well, in the real world, you might go into college thinking that you want to major in music and discover that what really excites you is environmental studies. Or you could start freshman year with a passion for theoretical math, and then find yourself challenged by the material for the first time in your life.
At Mystik U, these kinds of discoveries are complicated by the fact that magick isn’t as contained as math. If you mess up an equation in class, it won’t send ripples through reality.
The other complication is that using magick is like being in the mafia. If you’re not in the mafia, mafia rules tend not to apply to you. But once you’re in, you are bound by mafia laws. Once you start studying magick, the magickal world sees you and responds to you—whether you know how to handle it yet, or not.
MS: Of course, the highest profile of the group is Zatanna, and to some degree, very long time fans have seen her path from teenager to wizened mage. Are you jumping off of old stories at all or re-envisioning Zee from scratch?
AK: I always approach characters from the inside out, so my Zatanna is going to be a bit different, but I’m also a longtime Zatanna fan, and part of the fun of writing her is honoring her history. So I’m sort of combining old stories and re-envisioning Zatanna.
MS: We also see Sargon the Sorceror, the Enchantress, and Sebastian Faust as central to the story. All three characters have a bit of a darker past, although a bit of the light as well. How does that play up at this age and stage in their development?
AK: I think college is a time when people can be incredibly serious and see things through a glass darkly one minute, and then switch gears and see the absurd aspect of things. It’s a time when you can feel like Cassandra, seeing a terrible fate and not getting anyone to listen to you, and then feel entirely preoccuppied with the unexpected connection between you and someone you just met. I try to convey that dichotomy with Enchantress, of course, but also with Sargon and Faust.
MS: You’re also creating a brand-new character with artist Mike Norton: Pia Morales. What can you tell us about her and what role she will play in the story (and maybe the future of the DCU)?
AK: Pia is smart and snarky and pretty self-sufficient. Her mother is a surgeon and her father is a lawyer, and she sees herself as a healer—but as we’ll see, she’s inherited some of her father’s talents as well. (In a magickal context, of course.) I should also add that her power manifests in kind of a gross way.
MS: How is the collaboration with Mike going, and what about his work is surprising or exciting you as you move along in the book series?
AK: Mike continuously surprises and excites me. One minute, he is drawing a hell creature dripping with foulness, and the next, he is capturing the nuances of the dynamics between Sargon and Faust, or between Pia and Zatanna. He draws the most amazing sets—you can just feel how much he loves getting into the feel of this ancient, magickal place.
But the biggest surprise has to be the way that he caught on that Faust is the beefcake of this book. I particularly love how he found a way to suggest Zatanna’s iconic costume while keeping her looking like a legit college student. Faust, on the other hand, has his shirt off twice in the scripts I wrote—and Mike just threw in a third time.
MS: It strikes me that Mystik U is very similar in some ways to the recent prestige series, Supergirl: Being Super by Mariko Tamaki and Joelle Jones — taking some of the DCU’s characters and looking back at formative years, maybe even for a teen audience?
How much of the aim of the title is looking for that YA or teen flavor?
AK: I read and write YA (I wrote Token for the Minx line, and my first YA novel Cadaver & Queen, is coming out this February), and for me it’s less about aiming for a teen audience than being aware of what makes YA work. In my opinion, YA’s special sauce is that it combines a lot of focus on the psychology of characters and their interactions, while still sending those characters on adventures that take them out of their routines.
MS: What else can you tell me about the school itself — it’s actually a fairly rare setting for the DC Universe, outside of the recent Gotham Academy series?
AK: Mystik University is located at a nexus of ley lines in Mystik, New York, which is somewhere between Poughkeepsie and Red Hook. The dean is Rose Psychic, who shares a body with Dr. Occult, and a lot of old DC magickal folks teach there. You can spot Vanessa Van Helsing and Donovan Caine, for example. And the Three Witches.
MS: Any final thoughts or special teases for the Comicosity audience pending the arrival of Mystik U?
AK: There’s a new character introduced in the first issue that is a bit of an homage to a weird DC horror title from the seventies. It was also influenced by a short story Joe Staton drew around the same time. The fact that Joe is drawing even better now than he did then is making me think he may have made a pact with Nebiros, though.
Check out the prelude pages here, all illustrated by Mike Norton, Jordie Bellaire, and Deron Bennett:
DC Comics’ newest YA title, Mystik U #1 hits comic shops and online tomorrow, Wednesday, November 29. Don’t sleep on this book! |
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26.02.2019 Auch Unsere Talente aus der U17, bzw. U19 Bundesliga hatten ein erfolgreiches Wochenende ������������ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ @emreaydinel...
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14.02.2019 #throwback zum 06.08.2011 und damit zum ersten Bundesliga Spiel von @kfortou7 ������ Die #rogonfamily wünscht Dir...
13.02.2019 Happy Birthday @flo_kr9 ������ ������ Lieber Flo, die gesamte #rogonfamily wünscht dir alles Gute und Liebe...
11.02.2019 Die #rogonmoments des vergangenen Wochenendes findet Ihr hier ������������ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 1. Eine tolle Moral zeigte die...
09.02.2019 Happy Birthday to @otaviomonteiroo ������ ������ Dear Otávio we wish you all the best to your...
07.02.2019 #Throwback zum 19.10.2013 und dem damit verbundenen Bundesliga Debüt von @antonio_colak ������ Wir wünschen dir weiter...
06.02.2019 Auch Unsere Talente aus der U19 Bundesliga hatten ein erfolgreiches Wochenende ������������ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ @lucas_hermes00 trifft für...
05.02.2019 Parabéns aos 3 brasileiros da Rogon convocados ao Sulamericano U17, a ser realizado no Perú, em...
05.02.2019 Happy Birthday @robertzulj & @vesadmk ������������������ Lieber Robert, Lieber Vesel, die gesamte #rogonfamily wünscht Euch alles...
04.02.2019 Die #rogonmoments des vergangenen Wochenendes findet Ihr hier ������������ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 1. Beim souveränen 3:0-Auswärtserfolg von @rbleipzig...
03.02.2019 Happy Birthday @nilsseu ������ ������ Lieber Nils, die gesamte #rogonfamily wünscht dir Alles Gute und Liebe...
01.02.2019 Die #rogonmoments der englischen Woche (29.01. – 31.01.) findet Ihr hier ������������ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 1.) Ein wichtiger...
01.02.2019 Freudige Nachrichten aus der #rogonfamily ������ @patrickfinger_ unterschreibt bei @eintrachtfrankfurt seinen ersten Profivertrag bis 2020 ✍️...
31.01.2019 #Throwback zum 24.11.2014 und damit zum Doppelpack ⚽️⚽️ von @robertzulj mit @kleeblatt_fuerth_official gegen @f95 ������������ Mit... |
The gurgling hum of the inflatable boat comes to a stop as we glide along the turbid waters. Rob Knaggs lifts his electric cello off the floor of our zodiac and slowly begins to play. The instrument, which looks more like a Picasso rendering of a cello than the actual thing, is plugged into a hydrophone that gently broadcasts his melodies below the waves.
He arcs his bow back and forth, like a saw felling a tree. At first his rhythms are melodic — mathematical, even — then he changes the course of his bow to mimic the call of a whale.
Dozens of large white bumps suddenly emerge from the deep: Curious belugas coming to check out the music and play in our zodiac’s wake. It’s here, at the outlet of the Churchill River, where its silty waters meet the Hudson Bay, that more than 3,000 beluga whales congregate each summer to birth their young. But Knaggs is a long way from home.
Born in the U.K. and raised in Brisbane, Australia, Knaggs’ journey to the Canadian sub-arctic rivals the migration of his cetacean friends. “I had always been into the environment and arctic wildlife,” he explained, taking a break from his strumming. But it was a university lecture about site-specific performances that was the clincher for the young musician. During the presentation he watched a short video of American professor David Rothenberg play the clarinet for humpback whales, and Knaggs was hooked.
It would be several years before he’d find himself up in Churchill, a town in northern Canada. He took an extended gap year to travel the world and work odd jobs while crashing on strangers’ couches, eventually receiving a message that led to finding his life’s passion.
“Sound is as important to belugas as vision is to humans.” — Valeria Vergara, research scientist at the Vancouver Aquarium Tweet
“Belinda [Fitzpatrick], this crazy Australian, emailed me telling me that she needed a musician and server and suddenly I had a one-way ticket up to Northern Manitoba,” Knaggs said. He quickly witnessed locals and visitors eliciting the belugas’ attention through soft singing and hums, and it wasn’t long before Knaggs started writing his own orchestrations for his new whale friends.
Rob Knaggs playing cello — with several beluga bumps behind him. Brandon Presser/Mic
“Belugas are one of the most vocal mammals on the planet, along with humans,” Valeria Vergara, a research scientist, said in an interview. Vergara discovered that while whales use contact calls to communicate in turbid waters. They broadcast their own identity, or “signature,” to remain close to their family. “Sound is as important to belugas as vision is to humans,” she continued.
Vergara, who works at the Vancouver Aquarium, has spent the last 17 years studying the communication patterns of beluga whales. Although she’s unaffiliated with beluga tourism in Churchill, Vergara has visited the area as part of her research surveys of the Hudson Bay and Canadian sub-arctic where nearly 60,000 whales congregate every summer.
A group of belugas enjoying the tunes of Knaggs’ cello. Brandon Presser
Earlier this year while completing his bachelor’s degree back in Brisbane, Knaggs released his debut album, Up the Middle, which was directly inspired by his time in Churchill. “I wrote my version of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as a tribute to that tiny town on the edge of the Hudson Bay,” he said, citing Sigur Rós, Ólafur Arnalds and several other Icelandic artists as major influences, all of whom have spent a great deal of time in the North as well.
After finishing his album, Knaggs immediately found his way back to Canada, taking Fitzpatrick up on another job offer at the Tundra Inn.
I’m lucky to catch Knaggs out on the water; he doesn’t play for the whales as often as he’d like. We’re aboard Explore.org’s research vessel, which broadcasts daily live footage both above and below the water during the months of July and August. In addition to the hundreds of circling whales, Knaggs also plays for thousands of armchair travelers at home who regularly tune in on their laptops to watch the animals swish through the bay with their adorable smiles and perked necks that crane in the most human of ways. Viewers can even participate in Beluga Bits, a volunteer research initiative that uses the screen grabs of Explore.org’s underwater camera to help identify the age, sex and group size of the whales that return to Churchill each summer.
Belugas caught on Explore.org’s Live Beluga Whale camera Explore.org
Currently, almost all of the studies being funded in the Canadian North deal only with the empirical elements of whale behavior — how they live and act together, without the introduced human element. But as the belugas crane their necks above the water’s surface and ring their sonars in response to Knaggs’ playing, it’s impossible not to acknowledge the compelling link between man and animal.
“No one has had time to conduct this experiment yet, but it’d be incredible to know for certain if the belugas actively pursue my music,” Knaggs said. “From my experiences out on the Churchill River, with numerous pods crowding the zodiac as I play, I get the impression that these whales truly enjoy what I do.” The musician hopes to use his music to grow awareness about arctic wildlife. “I want to be an active part of bridging the lines of interaction and communication between man and non-human animals, while proving that these creatures share some of our own emotions.”
How to have your own beluga experience
Regular flight service connects the windswept corners of northern Manitoba to the rest of Canada. Frontiers North offers a connection from Winnipeg, Manitoba’s capital, up to Churchill and plans activities. The company’s highly regarded Belugas, Bears and Blooms itinerary has two versions, ranging from $3,000 to $5,000, flights included. The Enthusiast level is an all-inclusive package, while the Adventurer level allows for more free time to tack on snorkeling, kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding excursions on the water, in addition to the pre-planned boat and zodiac tours. You won’t be able to hear Knaggs play on these trips, so follow him on Explore.org’s live cam instead. |
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and the GOP establishment have always had a shaky relationship — and in the face of increased party tension, Republican power brokers may be pressuring Trump to quit.
As first reported by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Republican officials are planning for ” what would be unthinkable in a normal election year” — how to handle their party’s nominee dropping out of the race.
The report, from an anonymous GOP source, stated that senior party insiders are so upset and baffled by Trump’s erratic behavior that they are preparing a back-up plan for replacing him on the ballot before the November general election.
The fact that the plan is being crafted and was leaked to the press may indicate that the GOP is sending Trump an ultimatum — get your act together fast, or get out.
According to the ABC report, Trump would need to exit the race by early September in order for the Republicans to have enough time to replace him with another candidate on all 50 state ballots.
The news comes right as tensions between Trump and GOP leaders like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Arizona Sen. John McCain have reached a boiling point.
“This is absolutely unprecedented,” Karl said on “Good Morning America” Wednesday. “I am told that RNC chairman Reince Priebus is furious. He has had multiple discussions with Trump telling him he needs to drastically change course … They are so unable to control his message that they just don’t know and clearly think it is a possibility which is why they’re looking at these rules.”
But if his history is any guide, Trump isn’t going anywhere quietly… and certainly not without a fight. He earned his nomination and appears intent on seeing it through.
What do you think of the GOP’s back-up plan? Share your comment below. |
Way back in March, we looked at the expected goals value of each lacrosse play, broken down by quarter. It was a follow on analysis to another post, which examined how the sequence of plays in a game can be used to estimate the number of goals that would be scored by both teams over the next minute of play. Now, it’s time for a refresh: our Updated Quarter Breakdown of Expected Goals by Play.
The intent here is to more or less refresh our data from the beginning of this season. But we’ve also added 2014 games to our plays database, so this post will also incorporate those games as well. By refreshing, we can come to some conclusions about how the 2017 differed from previous years.
2017 was a high water mark for offense under the shot clock
Each season since the shot clock was introduced, the offenses have scored more goals after the timer was put on. 2017 was no exception. In fact, it was the high water mark so far.
This trend is best exemplified if you look at the first quarter number in 2017: .294 expected goals. Essentially, this number means that within 60 seconds of a shot clock being put on, the offense is expected to score a goal on 29.4 out of 100 possessions. Remember also, that historically, success rates after a timer is assessed are higher in the second half.
What was interesting about 2017 is that the first quarter expected goals number (remember, 1st quarters are traditionally worst in this metric), was higher than any quarter in 2014. While we did see a dip in 4th quarter expected goals relative to last year, 2017 set the record for expected goals scored after a timer on: .306 goals per instance. For reference, a 30% efficiency rate is roughly equivalent to a top 20 offense.
As we’ve discussed before, the simple answer here is that offenses are adjusting to playing within the time constraint. And they are doing it at a faster rate than defenses can figure out how to use it to their advantage. For those interested in a permanent shot clock, it’s a useful data point when trying to understand how it would affect offenses and defenses.
2017: The make-it-take-it year?
For the first time, 2017 saw a Tewaaraton finalist come from the FOGO ranks. Trevor Baptiste was the poster child for the position, and he played a huge role in getting the Pios to championship weekend. We also had the rise of TD Ierlan at Albany. And who could forget the out-of-nowhere performance of Jon Garino in Boston?
Aside from these individual performances, this analysis points out another interesting trend that is heavily influenced by face-off dominance: the likelihood that a team who just scored will score again. In 2017, we saw an unprecedented rate of teams who had just scored putting another one in the back of the net.
Whether you want to look at assisted goals or unassisted goals, the trend is clear. In 2017, for probably a variety of reasons, teams who had just scored were much more likely to score again within 60 seconds. For unassisted goals, the scoring team was 33% more likely to score within 60 seconds than in 2016 (.176 exp. goals vs .132 exp. goals). The increase for assisted goals was less dramatic but no less clear.
You never want to put too much stock on anecdotal evidence. But remember all the highlights of Jake Withers and Trevor Baptiste winning faceoffs and either scoring or assisting a goal? I suspect that this trend is reflective of a broader trend in the FOGO position. This year, perhaps you had more players with the attitude: “I’m going to win this face-off, and I’m going to set our team up with a great scoring chance.”
If you are looking for evidence of the “fast-revolution”, maybe this is one.
2017: Not the year of the goalie
Apologies to the net-minders in our audience, but we have spent almost no time talking about keepers on this site. It’s not intentional, it’s just that it’s hard to do much with the old goal-to-save ratio. Perhaps next year, we can do more to highlight advanced goalie analytics!
But as I was going through the play value charts for this post, the “Goalie Change” charts jumped out at me. I’ll be honest, I don’t think much about goalie changes. Generally, they happen when things are out-of-hand for the team making the switch. But the data shows that 2017 was an especially bad year for the strategy.
The crux of it is that within the first 60 seconds after a change of keepers, teams gave up more goals this year than ever. And the shift was especially pronounced in the 2nd half.
In previous years, a keeper brought on fresh to start the second half only gave up around .13 goals in their first minute of play. In 2017, that jumped all the way up to .20. For some reason, the 2nd half warm-up routine for new keepers didn’t help much. Not sure why that would be.
And the trend persisted into the 4th quarter as well. 2017 was the worst year for backups goalies in the first 60 seconds of their appearance. Why this year would be any different than the previous 3 is a mystery.
Did we have a dearth of quality backup goalies? Were teams not doing enough to keep their second net-minders fresh and ready to go? Is there a strategic change that they can make to ensure that their second option isn’t as much of a drop-off next year?
As I mentioned, we don’t generally think much about goalie changes. And it’s very likely that the final outcome of many games where they occur was no longer in doubt. But we always strive to highlight any sort of statistical anomaly, and this definitely qualifies. |
LANSING, Mich., March 18 (UPI) -- A new study suggests common additives in plastics advertised as biodegradable don't actually help products break down any faster than their non-biodegradable counterparts.
With human populations growing and landfills rising and expanding, plastic waste is a growing problem all over the world. Unlike many other types of waste, plastics take decades to break down. Some companies have claimed to solve this problem with so-called 'biodegradable' plastic. These plastics feature various additives that are said to bolster the products' chemical dissolution.
The plastics that don't end up crowding landfills often end up littering city streets, and accumulating in rivers, oceans and drinking water.
Recently, a team of Michigan State University researchers headed by Susan Selke and Rafael Auras tested the biodegradability of plastics featuring five different compounds said to promote chemical breakdown.
The research team, part of Michigan State's Center for Packaging Innovation and Sustainability, tested plastics under landfill conditions simulated in the lab, and also buried plastics in soil for three years. The results showed that none of compounds enhance biodegradability.
The study was published this week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
The results are similar to findings published in 2013 by researchers at Ohio State.
"I was skeptical about it from the beginning because those materials don't usually biodegrade," Fred Michel, a waste-management expert and professor at Ohio State University, told KQED last summer. "It's difficult to imagine a material you could add to them that would magically make them biodegradable."
Michel and and his colleagues also found the biodegradable claims of plastics manufacturers to be largely unreliable.
"I wasn't surprised," Michel said, "but it's just interesting that there are materials in the market like that, that have claims that don't seem to be justified in our testing." |
Man starved of oxygen dies in manhole Worker killed at Houston manhole
Another hurt in same accident; third worker injured elsewhere
Rescuers respond to a worker that plunged headfirst into a 12-foot deep manhole on the corner of Ella and Rankin this morning, where he was trapped for about an hour before firefighters hoisted him to the surface. The worker was airlifted to Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center for treatment. less Rescuers respond to a worker that plunged headfirst into a 12-foot deep manhole on the corner of Ella and Rankin this morning, where he was trapped for about an hour before firefighters hoisted him to the ... more Photo: Johnny Hanson, Chronicle Photo: Johnny Hanson, Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Man starved of oxygen dies in manhole 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
One worker was killed and two others injured in separate manhole accidents Friday as they prepared to test a new 54-inch waterline adjacent to Rankin Road in north Houston.
The accidents occurred just hours and blocks apart.
The victims were identified as contract workers for the North Harris County Regional Water Authority.
District Fire Chief Richard Pattison said rescue crews were called to a Rankin Road location just east of Northborough Drive at 1:30 p.m. for a medical emergency involving two men in an “oxygen deficient atmosphere” at the bottom of a manhole.
One man was declared dead at the scene; the second was transported by helicopter to Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.
The Harris County Medical Examiner’s office has identified the worker killed in the manhole incident as 51-year-old Gary Lee Brown.
CenterPoint spokeswoman Alicia Dixon said the company was not involved in the underground work, but was called to test the site Friday and found no natural gas leaks.
"We were not involved in the initial project, but we responded to the fire department request to do some testing," she said. "We tested Friday and determined there was no natural gas."
Pattison said the atmosphere in the manhole contained 13 percent oxygen, which is 3 percentage points less than the amount needed to sustain human life.
“They were down there quite a while,” Pattison said. “Maybe 15 minutes. You lose consciousness with your first breath of that air. After four or five minutes, you run the risk of brain damage.”
The first accident occurred at 9 a.m. when a worker fell into an open manhole at Rankin and Ella.
Pattison said details of that accident were uncertain, but it is believed that the worker tumbled into the 12-foot pit while he was peering into it.
The injured man, who was wearing a hard hat at the time of the accident, was trapped for an hour before rescuers succeeded in rendering him immobile with straps and hoisting him to the surface in a sling.
Pattison said the man lapsed in and out of consciousness. The rescue operation was complicated by the man’s inability to speak English and, when conscious, his combativeness. Pattison said the worker may have been spooked by his rescuers’ uniforms.
Oxygen levels in the first manhole — a 4-foot-wide water valve chamber — were normal and no poisonous gases were detected, Pattison said.
The victim was taken by helicopter to Memorial Hermann.
Water authority spokeswoman Barbara Payne said the workers were employees of E.P. Brady Ltd. Phone calls to the contractor office late Friday were not answered.
Richard Jessup, a Houston training specialist who teaches workers Occupational Safety and Health Administration-mandated procedures, said workers are required to test the atmosphere before entering vertical confined spaces such as manholes. If the oxygen content is too low, they must be equipped with supplemental breathing devices.
A second worker must be stationed at the opening to constantly monitor air quality in the hole, Jessup said.
Additionally, he said, workers in such instances must wear harnesses attached to cables so that they can be pulled from manholes should an emergency occur.
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DPA The explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki (pictured) were devastating. The resulting radiation illnesses, though, weren't as bad as expected.
Wearing mosquito helmets on their heads and radiation dosimeters on their belts, Clemens Woda and his three Russian colleagues drive past a bored-looking guard leaning nonchalantly against a meter-high fence. The truck moves past a yellow warning sign reading "radioactivity" and into the restricted zone. Inside, the streets and fields show the effects of years of abandonment and are overgrown with tall reeds. The area hugging the swampy banks of the Techa River has been unpopulated for decades.
The group reaches Metlino, a ghost town that was evacuated in 1956. A weather-beaten grain silo protrudes into the sky. The scientists take soil samples and, wearing rubber boots, wade through the mud over to a Russian Orthodox church in a depressing state of disrepair. One of them climbs the bell tower, hammers at the wall and slides a brick into his bag. The brick will be used as evidence.
Woda, who works for the GSF Research Center for Health and the Environment, located in the town of Neuherberg near Munich -- Europe's largest radiation protection institute -- is currently involved in an exciting investigation. As part of the EU's "SOUL" (Southern Urals Radiation Risk Research) project, Woda and his team are exploring the region where the Soviets once manufactured the explosive material for their first atomic bomb.
The Siberian factory was called Mayak ("beacon"). Workers from the gulags laid railroad track and built a "closed city" for 17,000 people, cooling towers and a radiochemical plant. The first nuclear reactor went online in 1948 and was soon producing weapons-grade plutonium for Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. The giant weapons laboratory did not appear on any map.
A consensus in the West has been reached about what happened next. Soviet nuclear scientists stand accused of having irradiated the environment and of otherwise poisoning the surrounding area. The result, it is said, has been thousands of cancer deaths and myriads of deformed children. Indeed, this autumn, Mayak (of which not a single historic photo exists to this day) celebrated a gruesome anniversary. In the fall of 1957, a tank filled with 80 tons of nuclear waste exploded. According to an eyewitness, a "strange, bright red fog" rose several thousand meters into the air. "In the winter," says the eyewitness, "I would have terrible headaches and nosebleeds, and I almost went blind."
The consequences of the 1957 nuclear accident in Siberia were "far more serious" than Chernobyl, the German television network ARD recently reported. "Most of the pupils in my class died of cancer," says Gulchara Ismagilova, who was 11 at the time.
But what really happened? That's what the team of Bavarian physicists have traveled to Siberia to find out, and that's why they are taking soil samples and packing bricks into their bags. They are also looking at other important pieces of evidence from the secret nuclear complex. "The employees there were examined with a dosimeter, sometimes once a week, and required to provide urine samples," says GSF researcher Peter Jacob. The results of the tests were documented in more than 7,000 health records encased in gray cardboard folders. "An invaluable archive," says Jacob.
There are even kidneys and livers of workers who died at the site. Preserved in paraffin, they are kept stored next to frozen vials of blood at the Biophysical Institute of Osyorsk. Russian doctors are also collecting hair samples from those workers still alive today along with teeth that have fallen out. The samples are then sent to Germany; 200 teeth are already on file. Once analyzed by the GSF's state-of-the-art laboratories, the scientists will have radiation profiles for each person who worked at the nuclear plant. The project receives 6.8 million in grant money from the EU.
Despite this wealth of material, the task is a difficult one. Mistrust of the operators of Mayak runs deep. According to environment organization Greenpeace, 272,000 people were harmed at the facility and in the surrounding area. Even in the town of Muslyumovo, 80 kilometers (50 miles) away, "one in two adults are infertile, and one in three infants are born with deformities," a Greenpeace report says.
As deeply disturbing as these claims are, the tests in no way bear them out. Indeed, a number of project groups at the GSF center near Munich are doing their best to determine just how many people fell victim to the radiation pollution at Mayak. Their conclusions? The horrors of Mayak are much less extensive than believed.
There is no doubt that the workers at this plant east of the Ural Mountains performed dangerous work. Enveloped in a permanent atmosphere of fear -- with intelligence agents in black coats constantly hurrying through the hallways -- about 150 men would lift the warm, spent fuel elements from the reactors and carry them to the radiochemical plant.
There, in a long brick building, workers, including many women, sat in a dimly lit environment and placed the encrusted rods into nitric acid, triggering a process that allowed them to remove the weapons-grade plutonium. While the same work was performed with remote-controlled robotic arms in the West, the Soviet workers were not even given masks to wear. There was nothing to stop plutonium gases from entering their lungs.
And yet the amount of health damage sustained by these workers was astonishingly low. The GSF study has examined 6,293 men who worked at the chemical plant between 1948 and 1972. "So far 301 have died of lung cancer," says Jacob. "But only 100 cases were caused by radiation. The others were attributed to cigarettes."
The second large, but as yet unpublished study by the GSF scientists also offers surprisingly low mortality figures. The subjects in this study were farmers who lived downstream from the nuclear reactors, in 41 small towns and villages along the Techa River. From 1949 to 1951, waste material from the plutonium production -- a bubbling toxic soup -- was simply poured into the river untreated. As a result, highly radioactive elements such as cesium 137 and strontium 90 were deposited in the river's sediments. The riverbanks became radioactive. |
Courtesy of First Access Entertainment
On the first day of December at Harlem Shake, a retro diner on 124th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard, Charles Hamilton is reminiscing about hip-hop and how he’s used it to get himself out of difficult situations. “My first freestyle was in fourth grade,” he says. “I had gotten in trouble with my teacher, Ms. Claire, and she said that the only way I could get out of trouble was if I write a poem. And I ain’t write no poem, so I freestyled it.” Hamilton got out of trouble — and found his calling. “After I did that, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s ill. I want to do that forever.'”
Two decades later — having already laid claim to one of the most compelling and fragmentary careers in recent hip-hop history — Hamilton is still trying to use rap to get out of trouble, and to make sense of a life marked by trauma, gifted with talent, blessed with success, and plagued by misfortune. A new Fred Scott-directed documentary, Faultlines, paints an alternately devastating and hopeful portrait of Hamilton’s struggles; a new album, Hamilton, Charles, heralds his return. For years he was out of the spotlight, under the influence, and in the minds of listeners and industry peers alike. Both the film and the album seek to answer the same question: What happened to Charles Hamilton?
The start of his career was more than promising. He grew up in the thick of Harlem’s rich musical legacy, surrounded by like-minded hip-hop obsessives and nurtured by his late mother, Talise Moorer, a former entertainment journalist who filled her young son’s life with music. Hamilton’s path was clear. In 2008, the Los Angeles Times hailed him “one of the most important new rappers to emerge in years.” He scored a million-dollar record deal with Interscope, had hip-hop heavyweights like Pharrell and Eminem working by his side, and won a coveted spot on 2009’s XXL Freshman Class cover — the annual who’s-who that’s helped push new acts such as Kendrick Lamar, Future, and Chance the Rapper out of the underground and into the mainstream.
“I was part of that team that got signed to Interscope,” says Hamilton’s longtime friend and former engineer Sha-Leik Martin. “I think a lot of it was overwhelming. Giving nineteen-, twenty-year-olds a lot of money, I just think there was a lot of pressure.”
Hamilton lost it all in one of the most spectacular flameouts in rap history. Within a year, he was dropped from Interscope and fell from the graces of social media — the arena where he’d earned his fan base. A clip of his then-girlfriend punching him in the face transformed him from a pioneer in web stardom into an internet laughingstock. A bout of erratic behavior, escalating drug use, embarrassing public appearances, and legal controversies followed him. In 2010, Hamilton was arrested for punching an officer and institutionalized at a series of psychiatric wards. The drugs (heroin, pills, psychedelics); the mental breakdowns; the talk of suicide, all of it was symptomatic of a longstanding battle with what would later be diagnosed as bipolar disorder. He disappeared.
“I got very reckless,” he says of his years in the wilderness. “I lashed out at a lot of artists. Just straight-up ‘F you’s ’cause they chose the business over the potential friendship we could’ve developed. I may have bit the lion’s tongue when my head was in its mouth. Thankfully, the lion was forgiving.”
Today, music is once again his top priority. “I want to be the Harlem Dr. Dre,” says Hamilton, his signature oversize headphones hanging around his neck. “If I can make a living for myself doing what I love to do, I’ll be happy. The feasibility of that seems to be getting shorter and shorter. But I pray, and I think there’ll be a way made for me.”
Hamilton, Charles opens with a dreamy beat and a familiar voice saying, “For the record… it’s Charles Hamilton.” Throughout, there’s a strange juxtaposition of carefully crafted instrumentals and loosely freestyled verses. Hamilton doesn’t pen rhymes anymore. Instead, he marries extemporaneous, stream-of-consciousness flows to his signature soul beats. Super-simplified lyrics atop J Dilla-inspired backing tracks. No features, just Charles and his demons.
There’s certainly a history of hip-hop artists grappling with these issues — from Scarface’s unbridled dejection throughout the majority of his two-decade-plus career to DMX’s dark, prayer-laden lyrics and public battle with bipolar disorder to Lil Wayne rapping about his failed suicide attempt on Solange’s A Seat at the Table this year. Similarly, Kendrick Lamar and Vince Staples have both rapped about being alone in a hotel room, contemplating suicide. And some artists’ afflictions have gone beyond their lyrics. In 2012, Pro Era rapper Capital Steez jumped off the top of his record label’s building, taking his life at nineteen. Twenty-year-old newcomer Kehlani was hospitalized earlier this year following her own attempt at suicide; she survived, only to be met with the online masses’ ridiculing and mocking her experience. In October, Kid Cudi penned an open letter to fans announcing his decision to enter rehab, writing, “My anxiety and depression have ruled my life for as long as I can remember.”
Generally, artists have presented their internal struggles in hushed tones or through hard verses. But Hamilton’s voice never wavered. He’s spoken candidly on the ills of the nation’s mental health system — from flawed facilities to misdiagnoses and dangerous overmedicating. He is one of the few artists to tackle mental health so publicly, and with such transparency.
When artists suffer from addiction and other mental disorders, fans either pray for their recovery or prey on the prospects for “good,” “raw” art. In 2011, when Cudi announced his transition to sobriety, fans wondered whether the change would alter the art that connected them to the self-proclaimed lonely stoner. When Gucci Mane came back to the scene after years in prison, he transitioned into what he calls “a sober, more conscious Gucci.” “People probably ain’t used to it,” he told the Fader. “I guess that people ain’t used to me being healthy and taking care of myself and being happy.”
“A lot of artists mask their suicidal tendencies,” says Hamilton
For Hamilton, music is “the quintessential element of life,” and he’s steadfast in using his music as a tool for self-healing. “No song was easy to write,” Hamilton says. “It was almost like carving. I used to love carving my arm. And to find peace of mind without [self-mutilation] was a very difficult task. So I started mutilating myself musically. Very self-deprecative records.” Faultlines sees him discussing the abuse he sustained as a kid and attempting to cope, through music, with the death of his mother. But to Hamilton, the medium through which that music might reach the masses doesn’t always help. Record labels are failing at developing their artists’ careers and well-being. For major labels in a cutthroat industry, the mental health of their artists is not a priority. And since disenfranchised groups face greater mental health risks than the general population, this affects Black artists directly.
“I think there should be more grooming of each artist as they enter the game,” Hamilton says. “At the same time, if you’re killing everyone on your record, doing every drug, spending up your entire budget on every drug and every other weapon, male or female — though I understand it, that doesn’t make it acceptable — the label’s gonna figure you know how to hold your own. [They should] interview the artist. Have a questionnaire to see where their mental standpoint is. Also, they can stop investing in what’s hot and start investing in what’s real. There’s a lot of artists out there who mask their suicidal tendencies with the trap game. Shout-outs to A$AP Ferg. He’s not exactly a happy individual, but he’s hustling and he’s making his money. He’s also from Harlem. We ain’t happy out here.”
Le’Roy Benros, vice president of a&r at First Access Entertainment and Hamilton’s first manager, doesn’t place the onus on record labels. “As sad as it sounds, it’s not really the job of the labels to be concerned,” he says. “To some people, it’s a job; they clock in, they clock out. For some people, it’s a passion project where they care about the well-being of the artist. Every team is different.”
“I’ve been in communication with Pharrell and my management team,” Hamilton says. “They instruct me to go to bed at a certain hour so I don’t stay up late making beats. They don’t want me associating with certain people. I’ve stopped taking hard drugs. But no. No one’s really reached out. No one’s been able to find me. Numbers change, address change.”
Clinical psychologist and Touched With Fire author Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison says that environmental influences like lack of sleep and high-energy lifestyles can trigger manic episodes in bipolar patients, and that forging support systems in response can be a daunting task. “It’s terribly difficult to support,” she says. “I think there’s a tendency to get very judgmental around how supportive people should be or are or are capable of being, or [to] get very judgmental over when someone gets manic, when in fact, people don’t have control over what they’re doing, often. So it’s an illness that is not only complicated, but it brings out very complicated reactions in other people and society.”
Last month, Kanye West was hospitalized for exhaustion and deviation from prescription medication. What some have deemed a public mental breakdown onstage has been followed by confusion as West recovers in the public eye and onlookers try to decode his every word and action, whether they’re related to his current mental state or not, like his recent meeting with Donald Trump. But he’s still received an outpouring of support from fans and industry peers like 9th Wonder, who tweeted, “Mental healing is a serious thing, no matter what.”
There’s a pervasive habit critics and fans practice when an artist’s actions, behavior, or voiced thoughts begin to stray from their norm: The public projects a diagnosis. Dr. Jamison says armchair psychiatry is common. “Some people have more experience clinically than others. But even so, you don’t have medical records in the room. We all want to make sense out of patterns and out of really interesting and intriguing and brilliant people, but it doesn’t really necessarily make it a great thing to do.” Common mental disorders are colloquialized into crutches for artists, who are then pegged as “crazy,” “psycho,” or bipolar, oftentimes before an official diagnosis has been made, or before there’s anything to diagnose at all. It’s a habit that can be grounded in the sincere intent to sympathize with troubled artists, but it can derail accountability for those whose motives aren’t so noble.
“Around the time I got back in the mainstream, Empire was showing a character who suffered from bipolar [disorder],” Hamilton says. “It softened the blow a little bit, but it also kind of was a catalyst for another excuse for Black men. In 2008, the excuse was the recession. Now the excuse is mental health.”
This is the result of a misinformed public, for most of whom mental health continues to represent terra incognita. There is no easy fix to the laissez-faire culture of the music industry, but Hamilton urges record labels to do more.
“Doctors need to know that yes, it’s a horrible illness and it’s destructive and ruins your life, but there is this part of it that, in some people, can be of enormous emotional, psychological, and creative impact,” says Jamison. “It’s going to be hard, but when you come to the other side of that, you can use it: to help people, to have compassion, to use it in your creative work, your intellectual work, scientific work. There’s these great things that you can do with it.”
“Charles was doing a lot better when he first got the new deal and he was with his mother,” says Martin. “She helped him a lot with keeping negative people from around him and keeping him focused on what he had to do. And since she’s passed… every now and then you’ll see him stray… He believes in magic, still. He’s still a little different.”
The struggle, of course, is ongoing. A day before his new album’s release, Hamilton was nowhere to be found. He’d missed two photo shoots for this story, with no word to his management. But if he can keep his demons in check, his presence on the scene could mean more than a mere shot at vindication. For Benros, the rapper still has something to offer.
“Charles is definitely a genius,” Benros says. “He was one of the most talented musicians — artists — that I’ve ever met. An authentic voice. He’s not someone who’s just trying to make music just to make a pop hit. He makes music because that’s his best way of expressing himself. He needs to make music. Music can always use someone like that.” |
ASHBURN, Va. -- As if the record didn't suggest it already, the statistics back it up: Carolina is pretty good. There's a reason the Panthers are 9-0 and it can be found in the numbers. They're not infallible; they are very good, especially on defense.
Here's a look at the Panthers through the statistics, courtesy of ESPN Stats and Information:
Opposing quarterbacks have a 69.1 passer rating, the lowest total by any defense. (Last week’s opponent, the Saints, remains the NFL’s worst team in this category.) Only two quarterbacks, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers and Seattle’s Russell Wilson, have finished with a rating of 96 or better -- and neither was above 96.7. They’re also the only two who finished with more touchdown passes than interceptions. In fact, the Panthers have intercepted 14 passes and allowed only 11 touchdown throws.
The Panthers are tied for sixth with 26 sacks, and their pressure results in a lot of short passes -- they’re second in the NFL in net yards per pass attempt allowed at only 5.94. The Panthers have allowed only eight pass plays for 30 yards or more (sixth-fewest in the NFL).
Those eight didn’t just come on catch-and-runs, as six occurred on passes that traveled at least 25 yards. So there are gaps. But this also happens to be an area the Redskins have struggled in this season: Kirk Cousins has completed just three of 16 passes that have traveled 25 yards or more. But know this: Carolina has allowed 13.43 yards per catch to tight ends, second-most in the NFL.
Carolina quarterback Cam Newton ranks 21st in passer rating at 84.8. But don’t be fooled: It’s low in part because of his completion percentage of 56.3. And that’s a result of this: Newton leads the NFL in air yards per pass attempt at 10.68. And his yards per completion of 13.31 ranks third.
Newton ranks third in red-zone passing with a 106.8 passer rating, thanks to 10 touchdowns and no interceptions. Newton’s ability to run in the red zone helps quite a bit; he’s carried the ball 18 times inside the 20-yard line with six touchdowns. He has run the ball at least twice in the red zone in every game but two.
The Panthers are strongly committed to the run game. They can do that in part because of a stout defense and a passing game that gains big chunks of yards. It’s not as if Carolina has the NFL’s best run game: Jonathan Stewart ranks second in the NFL in carries, but his 3.92 yards per carry rank him 32nd. Stewart is most effective in the red zone, ranking seventh at 3.23 yards per carry as well as 1.55 yards after contact (Redskins running back Alfred Morris is 35th and 28th in those categories, respectively and Matt Jones is 27th and 15th).
Carolina’s defense ranks second in yards per play allowed at 4.68. But the Panthers are only tied for 17th in yards per carry at 4.07. So the Redskins must move the ball on the ground with consistency in order to have a chance at an upset. New England’s run defense has skewed numbers, with teams having far less success in the first half than the second, when teams might hit on draws, etc. The Panthers allow 4.08 yards per carry on first-half runs, so it hasn’t been a strength. However, a big key is that they only allow 3.68 yards on first-down runs (sixth-best).
Carolina ranks sixth in scoring defense at 19.4 and -- this one surprised me -- third in scoring offense at 28.3. The Redskins have played five of the top nine teams in scoring offense (also including the Patriots, Giants, Saints and Falcons). And this is their fifth game against a defense ranked in the top 10 in this category as well (also including Patriots, Rams, Jets and Eagles).
Carolina’s defense also ranks in the top 10 in third downs and red zone (eighth in both categories). The Panthers’ offense ranks 20th on third down and 11th in the red zone. |
In a 2011 interview on the Joy Behar Show, Andrew Breitbart offered up this assessment of Donald Trump, describing him as a self-interested master manipulator of the media.
"I think Donald Trump — and I don't say this in the negative sense — is for Donald Trump, and right now he's doing an amazing job of promoting his brand. He's utterly entertaining. He's winning, a la, you know, Charlie Sheen, playing the media for what it is. It's obvious," Breitbart told Behar.
In recent weeks, a series of staffers have quit Breitbart News, the company that was founded by the late Breitbart and has become known in the last year or so for its pro-Trump coverage. Ben Shapiro, one of the longtime editors who resigned, wrote in a statement that "Andrew's life mission has been betrayed. Indeed, Breitbart News, under the chairmanship of Steve Bannon, has put a stake through the heart of Andrew's legacy."
In 2011, Breitbart seemed keenly aware of Trump's power over the media, telling Behar, "Well, the other candidates are starting to realize what they should have realized, I don't know, 40, 50 years ago when Ed Sullivan got on the air, is that media is everything, and that these guys don't understand that a Donald Trump can go out there, know how to play the media and rise through the ranks when two years ago he was supporting Nancy Pelosi."
He compared the Trump show to a circus.
"Look, entertainment uber alles," he said. "He's very entertaining. You're enjoying it, I'm enjoying it, and I didn't like it when I would hear people on the right doing it. But now that it's become sort of like the center ring at the circus, I'm sitting back and I am enjoying it." |
WASHINGTON — More than one-fourth of calls to the Veterans Crisis Line end up being redirected to other emergency response services because of ongoing problems with the services' operations, according to a new report released Monday.
Those problems persist despite leadership changes and promised reforms at the crisis hotline in the last year, and a years-long emphasis on suicide prevention efforts from Department of Veterans Affairs officials.
"Staff did not respond adequately to a veteran's urgent needs during multiple calls to the (crisis line) and its backup call centers," officials from the VA Inspector General's office said in the report. "Supervisory staff did not identify the deficiencies in their internal review of the matter."
Last spring, a similar report by the office found at least 23 callers to the crisis line were transferred to voicemail systems instead of reaching emergency help. That revelation prompted harsh criticism from lawmakers, who said the mistakes literally could kill unstable veterans trying to get help.
The new analysis of crisis line operations for the last six months of 2016 found that more than 28 percent of calls to the hotline were redirected to backup centers that might not have the same training and resources to help veterans in crisis.
VA has set a goal of no more than 10 percent for "rollover" calls to the crisis line.
The report also found "deficiencies in governance and oversight" of the program’s operations, including poor record keeping to detect and correct problems with missed calls.
In a statement, VA’s acting Under Secretary for Health Poonam Alaigh said the crisis line "is the strongest it’s ever been since its inception in 2007" but acknowledged that further improvements are needed in the system.
Veterans Crisis Line
The department opened a new Atlanta satellite office for the New York-based crisis line in October — midway through the inspector general’s review — and "has implemented a comprehensive workforce management system and optimized staffing patterns" to "provide callers with immediate service" in the future.
But officials critiquing the system say that’s not enough. The Inspector General’s office has recommended better staff education, technology support, performance reviews and call monitoring to better the system.
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Calls which go unanswered by the line are mandated to be directed to backup crisis centers, so veterans seeking help aren’t left without help. But the inspector general notes that those backups may not have the same training in military-specific issues and services, limiting some of the assistance they can provide.
In a statement, House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Phil Roe, R-Tenn., called the ongoing problems "unacceptable" and asked for immediate fixes.
"The Veterans Crisis Line is intended to be the first line of defense against veteran suicide, and we must ensure calls are being answered by a trained professional in a timely manner," he said. "I am extremely frustrated by the findings and will continue to conduct oversight so the men and women who answered the call to serve have their calls answered when they need help the most."
The Veterans Crisis Line, launched in 2007, has fielded 2.5 million calls in the last decade and dispatched emergency services more than 66,000 times to callers in need of emergency help.
In fiscal 2016 alone, staffers answered more than 510,000 calls, 53,000 chat requests and 15,000 texts.
VA statistics show roughly 20 veterans a day nationwide commit suicide. Of those, only six are active users of VA services.
To contact the Veteran Crisis Line, callers can dial 1-800-273-8255 and select option 1 for a VA staffer. Veterans, troops or their families members can also text 838255 or visit VeteransCrisisLine.net for assistance.
The full report is available on the inspector general’s web site. |
An increase in aridity due to global warming will disturb the balance of nutrients in the soil and reduce productivity of the world’s drylands, which support millions of people, a landmark study predicts.
A dryland site in Peru that was sampled. Credit: D.Eldridge et al
An increase in aridity due to global warming will disturb the balance of nutrients in the soil and reduce productivity of the world’s drylands, which support millions of people, a landmark study predicts.
The research was conducted by a global collaboration of scientists who carried out the same studies of 224 dryland sites in 16 countries on every continent except Antarctica.
In Australia, woodland sites in NSW near Mildura were studied by UNSW’s Adjunct Professor David Eldridge, of the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, who is a member of the international research team.
Other sites included areas of the Negev Desert in Israel, the Pampas lowlands in Argentina and the Altiplano highlands of Peru. Rainfall at the sites ranged from 100 to 800 mm per year, and all soil samples were analysed in the same laboratory in Spain.
The research shows that increasing aridity is associated with a reduction in carbon and nitrogen in the soil and an increase in phosphorus.
The results are published in the journal Nature.
“Drylands cover about 41 per cent of Earth’s land surface and support more than 38 per cent of the world’s population,” says Professor Eldridge, who also works for the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage.
“As the world’s population grows, people will increasingly rely on marginal lands – particularly drylands - for production of food, wood and biofuels. But these ecosystems will be severely affected by imbalances in the cycle of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus.”
A worldwide decrease in soil moisture ranging from 5-15 per cent has been predicted for the 2080-2099 period.
Phosphorus in rocks and sediments is released into the soil by weathering, and levels are expected to increase as soils become drier and erode more.
This increase in phosphorus will be accompanied by reductions in carbon and nitrogen, which are more dependent on biological processes such as litter decomposition, photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation. Reduced plant cover will also exacerbate this effect.
“Plants need all of these elements, in the correct amounts and at the right times, but increasing aridity will upset this balance, leading to a breakdown in essential soil processes,” says Professor Eldridge.
The study was led by Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, of Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Spain.
Media Contacts:
Professor David Eldridge: 9385 2194, [email protected]
UNSW Science media: Deborah Smith: 9385 7307, 0478 492 060, [email protected] |
× Former Univision Arkansas Host Faces Rape Charge
FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) — A former Univision Arkansas host is accused of raping a 7-year-old girl, according to Washington County Circuit Court documents.
Victor Hugo Alvarez-Real, 35, of Springdale faces one charge of rape. Formal charges were filed May 15 and a warrant for his arrest was issued Thursday (May 25), according to the Washington County prosecutor’s office.
The victim said Alvarez-Real molested her multiple times in 2016, according to court documents.
Alvarez-Real denied any wrongdoing in January when he was contacted by the Children’s Safety Center of Washington County. Springdale police hadn’t reached Alvarez-Real for an interview as of May 3, according to court documents.
A number listed for Alvarez-Real didn’t ring and the voicemail was full when a reporter called Monday (May 30).
In a statement released Saturday (May 27), Pinnacle Media LLC / Univision said Alvarez-Real left the company in January.
“Pinnacle Media does not take any responsibility for personal actions of former employees,” company president Gregory Fess said in the release. “Pinnacle Media is proud to continue serving the communities in Arkansas as it has done for almost eight years.”
Springdale police did not immediately respond Tuesday (May 30) to messages seeking comment. |
Dear Sen. Jinggoy: I have covered many politicians in the course of my journalism career and I thought nothing will shock me about what politicians are capable of doing.
But I was wrong. I was shocked and angered by this pork barrel scam. I know you are as jaded as I am about how things are done in this country. But this one is of such shocking proportion, its brazenness and the tens of billions of pesos lost, that one can’t help being scandalized and incensed.
Last Saturday, you added insult to injury… poured vinegar into an open and festering wound. ABS-CBN’s Ryan Chua reported that you, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said you are not obliged to check NGOs getting pork.
Excuse me, Sen. Jinggoy. You gave away P396.25 million of the taxpayers money to bogus NGOs … you are one of five senators to have done so and you are saying you are not responsible for it?
I ask you, Mr. Senator, if that was your money rather than ours, the taxpayers, would you have been more careful? I bet you would. You would have done real due diligence… checked out if the NGOs are real or not… followed up the use of the money to see if it accomplished what it was supposed to have done.
You are also right, Mr. Senator to say that the Department of Agriculture has a responsibility to check NGOs receiving pork barrel funds. Indeed, it seems they failed to do their job.
But DA’s failure does not excuse you from your responsibility, as an elected public official to treat money from taxpayers with a lot more respect. The people trusted you to do the right thing when they elected you and you failed the Filipino people big time.
‘KAHINDIK-HINDIK’ or absolutely shocking was how one newspaper reported COA Chair Grace Pulido-Tan’s description of her reaction on learning how members of the two Houses of Congress abused their pork fund. “Pag sinabi nating labis-labis... hindi lang po P1 million o P5 million, ang labis hundreds of millions and at least one lawmaker got almost P3-billion allocation for PDAF.â€
She said the irregularities became possible because of a combination of corruption and the failure of national government agencies, lawmakers’ offices, and lapses by the Department of Budget and Management itself, which did not follow its own rules in some cases.
Thus, Mr. Senator, your reaction to this boiling issue is pathetic. It came at a bad time for me because I had just written a check for a substantial amount of money (for me, that is, it may be peanuts for you) to pay for my quarterly tax. That was hard earned money I gladly parted with because it is my duty to do so as a citizen.
Indeed, I have become more conscious of the money I pay out as taxes ever since I retired from corporate employment. Now, everything this senior citizen earns including that from writing this column I must report every month and pay VAT on. That’s aside from the quarterly income tax.
And since retirees don’t earn as much nor enjoy fringe benefits like health care, I resent any misuse of whatever little I contribute towards the financial health of this republic. Your cavalier attitude towards my money, Mr. Senator, is despicable, to say the least. Nakakasuklam!
Ryan Chua reported that you told reporters, “It is not up to the senators to determine whether an NGO is bogus or not. Alangan naman na kami pa ang magsasabi na, ‘Uy, bogus ‘yan.’ How will we know?†Estrada added that lawmakers only endorse NGOs, and that they do so in good faith.
Naman… naman… Sen. Jinggoy. When you endorse an NGO to partake of our scarce resources in the Treasury, you are vouching for it. The final executive branch agency that releases the money, under your pork barrel system, can hardly go against the wishes of a powerful senator that you are.
Would it be too much to ask the Senator to assign one of his many staff members to check on an NGO before endorsing it for funding? Find out at the very least if the address is valid?
COA Chair Pulido-Tan said “many of the NGOs were of dubious existence. They were either unknown or could not be found at their given addresses, or have given nonexistent addresses, or were traced to mere shanties or high-end residences which turned out to be residences of their owners/officers.â€
Your fellow showbiz senator, Bong Revilla, is also washing his hands by refusing to answer the charges and instead, issues a counter charge that it is black propaganda against him. I don’t know how it is in showbiz but in the real world, you answer a charge directly if you are innocent. You don’t change the topic or obfuscate.
Sayang, Sen. Jinggoy. My only personal encounter with you showed you to be a public servant ready to serve. It was pleasant and I really want to keep that memory. But your reported reaction to this pork scam was a big personal disappointment for me. I want to believe you are better than that.
I believe you can redeem yourself. Work to abolish the pork fund or drastically curtail its application. Follow the example of Sen. Ping Lacson who survived his tenure without touching his pork fund. If he can do it, so can you unless you want to concede Ping is made of better stuff than you.
Maybe we can start with a pork-free Senate. Anyway, senators are supposed to have a national constituency. Having an influence on the National Budget should be enough.
I heard that Sen. Ralph Recto, for instance, poured most of his pork on Batangas. That’s not right because he is supposed to be senator for all Filipinos, not just Batangueños.
One good advantage of a pork-free Senate is that we will discourage those who are only after the funds from running. As a result, brilliant people with true public service motivations but with modest financial means can run and win. We may yet have statesmen in the Senate rather than what we have as its current composition.
Let us ban all NGOs from partaking of pork. I know this will affect some good NGOs who use pork funding to render good community services. But let NGOs remain non-government. Let NGOs raise funds from private sources or foreign foundations. NGOs should not be coddled the way Ate Glue coddled the NGOs behind the Peace Bonds... and the really fake ones who were given money out of the Malampaya Fund.
Pass a law that bans the present treatment of special funds like the Malampaya Fund. It seems that this has become a big pork fund for the Executive Department and that’s not right too. Ate Glue was seen to have massively misused the Malampaya Fund because there are not enough checks on it.
No more Malampaya Fund. No more Pagcor Social Fund. Everything must go to the General Fund and let Congress appropriate the money. If something is good enough, Congress should see it as its duty to appropriate funds for it.
Finally, lead the investigation of this scam. If, as you say you are clueless about the Napoles NGOs, maybe someone in your staff is in it. Let’s find out so that the taxpayers can get justice in this horrible rape of the Treasury. It is your duty as an elected public official to see to it that those who misappropriated pork funds are punished and proper restitution made.
Interestingly, in Japan officials know what personal honor is all about. BBC reported over the weekend that Japan’s Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka committed suicide. Mr. Matsuoka was embroiled in two political scandals, though he denied any wrong-doing.
The Japanese minister had allegedly claimed more than ¥28 million ($236,600) in utility fees at his parliamentary office, where utility costs are free. It was also alleged that he had received electoral campaign donations from a businessman linked to a bid-rigging scandal.
You will agree, Sen. Jinggoy that the politicians here do worse. But I don’t expect any of you to hang yourselves the way Mr. Matsuoka did. It is not in our culture to do hara kiri.
But is corruption so ingrained in our culture we just have to accept practices like pork funding? Don’t wash your hands of responsibility over the money lost through your endorsed NGO. Help punish the guilty.
My plea to you, Sen. Jinggoy… Please be careful with my tax money.
Promises, promises
Atty Sonny Pulgar sent this one.
Misis: “Darling, akala ko ba, mahal mo ako?â€
Mister: “Oo nga! Handa akong mamatay alang-alang sayo.â€
Misis: “Sus! Puro ka naman satsat, hindi mo naman ginagawa!â€
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco |
The Key to Time is the umbrella title of the sixteenth season of Doctor Who. The arc was originally conceived by producer Graham Williams, who had proposed it as part of his application for the producer's job in 1976.[1] The name refers to the powerful artefact, the segments of which are what the Fourth Doctor and his companions, Romana and K9 search during the season.
Synopsis [ edit ]
A figure calling himself the White Guardian commissions the Doctor and K9, assisted by a new companion, the Time Lady Romana, to find the six segments of the Key to Time, a cosmic artifact resembling a perfect cube that maintains the equilibrium of the universe. Since it is too powerful for any single being to possess, it has been split into six different segments and scattered across space and time, disguised by the raw elemental power within them into any shape or size. However, since the forces balancing the universe are so upset, the White Guardian needs to recover the segments of the Key to stop the universe so that he can restore the balance. The White Guardian also warns the Doctor of the Black Guardian, who also wishes to obtain the Key to Time for his own purposes. In the final episode, the Black Guardian, disguised as the White Guardian, attempts to take the Key from the Doctor. However, the Doctor sees through the figure's charade and orders the segments of the Key to Time to once again become scattered across all of time and space, bar the sixth, which he reinstates as Princess Astra. Afterward, the Doctor decides to install a device called a randomiser into the TARDIS' navigation system for a period of time to make his following voyages unpredictable to evade the Black Guardian.
The six segments [ edit ]
The first segment is disguised as a lump of Jethrik on the planet Ribos. The second is the planet Calufrax, shrunk to miniature size by the space-hopping pirate planet Zanak. The third is the Great Seal of Diplos, which has been stolen by a criminal of that planet. The fourth is part of a statue on the planet Tara. The fifth has been consumed by the squid Kroll, causing it to turn into a gigantic monster. The final segment is a female humanoid – Princess Astra.
Casting [ edit ]
Main cast [ edit ]
Guest Cast [ edit ]
Tom Baker continued his role as The Fourth Doctor, and saw the introduction of Romana played by Mary Tamm. This season was the only one to feature Tamm as the first incarnation of Romana, as the second incarnation, played by Lalla Ward, began her run in the first serial of the next season (Destiny of the Daleks).
Serials [ edit ]
Douglas Adams took over as script editor from Anthony Read for The Armageddon Factor. Season 16 consists of one long story arc encompassing six separate, linked stories.
Broadcast [ edit ]
The Key to Time was broadcast from 2 September 1978 to 24 February 1979.
DVD Releases [ edit ]
This entire season was released on 1 October 2002 with minimal restoration and commentaries and pop-up production notes in region 1, both as a box set as well as being available individually. A limited edition box set of 15,000 copies with full restoration, expanded extras and a fold out box design was released in region 2 on 24 September 2007. This limited edition version was later issued in a standard box for the 7 November 2007 region 4 release and the 3 March 2009 region 1 "Special Edition" release (region 1 serials were also available individually), and the 16 November 2009 non-limited region 2 re-release in a slipcase box.[3] There is also a region 4 version with the same fold out box design as the UK limited edition.
In print [ edit ]
References [ edit ] |
Advocates of the anti-government group called Freeman-on-the-Land or the so-called “sovereign citizen” movement have been gaining more media attention for their cause. The Ontario Provincial Police is watching with great interest as members such as Brian Alexander and others go on a media campaign with their cause.
Brian Alexander, of Kamloops, B.C., is seen after an interview with The Canadian Press in White Rock, B.C., on Monday August 26, 2013. Alexander is a self-proclaimed Freeman-on-the-Land and one of a growing number of Canadian followers of the so-called "sovereign citizen" or "Natural Persons" movement. ( Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press )
Following is an edited, emailed question-and-answer session with OPP Sgt. Pierre Chamberland. What is this group about and how many members do they have in Canada and in Ontario? Individuals who adhere to the Freeman philosophy attempt to sever all ties with government in their daily lives using the process they call “de-registration” from birth certificates, driver’s licenses, health cards, social insurance numbers and the like. They support unobstructed travel and property rights, including the right to grow, harvest and sell crops like marijuana, and unrestricted access to and use of firearms to sustain their respective lifestyles. There are approximately 500 known members (and many more supporters) in many areas across Ontario.
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How do their beliefs run afoul of the law? Police believe those involved with implementing Freeman or sovereign citizen beliefs and rights, especially the hard-core believers, appear to advocate activities such as trespassing or “squatting” on private property or crown land, unobstructed travel, and unrestricted access to and use of firearms to sustain their respective lifestyles. They further believe that police are corrupt and that they have the claim of right to their properties that they can protect at any cost. Have you charged any members in Ontario and if so how many and what would be the range of those charges? Police services throughout Ontario, including the OPP, have conducted investigations where individuals who follow the Freeman philosophy have been charged with offences under provincial statutes such as the Highway Traffic Act arising out of traffic stops. When grounds exist these individuals have also been charged with offences contained within the Criminal Code of Canada. Are they loosely organized or are they getting more organized?
Historically, the Freeman movement has presented itself as loosely organized, with no real identified leader. Police have not witnessed this group organizing itself into a traditional hierarchal structure. What are the chief safety concerns?
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Obviously, public and officer safety could be compromised should a dispute arise in those circumstances where law enforcement attempt to seize or remove property or people when they believe they have claim of right to it. In the United States, at least 28 officers have been killed since 2001 during encounters with anti-government extremists or “sovereign citizens.” Police in Ontario have had frequent interactions with so-called “Freemen,” including at the roadside and in court over the past several years. Do you have any of the members or the group as a whole on a watch list? Can’t answer operational questions, but the OPP Hate Crimes/Extremism Unit continues to monitor activities and interactions with those who claim Freeman or sovereign citizen status. Are you aware that Dean Clifford, one of the members, is speaking in Toronto in November? What do you know about him and this event, and will you be monitoring this? Can’t answer operational questions, but the OPP Hate Crimes/Extremism Unit continues to monitor activities and interactions with those who claim Freeman or sovereign citizen status. The OPP and other law enforcement and regulatory agencies are aware of this movement’s philosophies and their activities. What other police units are you working with in investigating this? The OPP continues to work closely with all law levels of enforcement agencies both in and outside of Ontario to monitor their activities including municipal and aboriginal police services and the RCMP and CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) to name a few. Are you aware they carry guns? Do they do so legally or illegally? We are aware that there are members in this movement who have firearms. Anyone in Canada who possesses a firearm who abides with the legislation that governs firearms can own them legally. Anyone who does not is in illegal possession of a firearm and is subject to the consequences. What is the OPP role in this area? We respect the rights of everyone to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The OPP has no role to play in the philosophies or ideological beliefs and will enforce the law as we are mandated to do. Our role is to keep the peace and ensure public safety. What should the public do? From a public safety perspective, concerned citizens should contact their local police service and describe the activities underway. The OPP Hate Crimes/Extremism Unit continues to monitor the activities of and interactions with those who claim “Freeman” or “sovereign citizen” status and will advise its officers and law enforcement partners accordingly. |
I'm new to Halo. The Xbox One is my first Xbox after 20 years of playing Playstation almost exclusively (I snuck a Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo N64 in there along the way#. I won't lie. I've always wanted to try Halo but I think it would have been better if I tried it back when it was at its peak and definitely before playing Destiny. Destiny absolutely reveals the differences in the feel of Halo between the Bungie and 343 versions. I'll go over each version in the MCC and what I liked and disliked about each. Halo CE Anniversary: While I can certainly see how this could hold a certain nostalgic factor for long-time Halo devotees, and it is certainly fun in a retro-type way, the age and infancy of the modern FPS is painfully evident. Most of the maps are almost identical. The textures are so bland at times, I got lost because the rooms looked so generic, you could easily lose track of what direction you were traveling if you get turned around during a battle. The maps start to take on more individual personalities toward the end but the majority of the game will have you asking yourself "wasn't I just in a room like this?" As for vehicles, the warthog handles like a shopping cart with a busted wheel and a turret attached. Unfortunately, the warthog plays a vital role in the game and there are times where you absolutely must drive it to perfection under trying circumstances. So, it pays to try to get somewhat goo dat driving it. I won't necessarily call these flaws because they're more indicative of the game's age than shortcomings. Despite being long in the tooth, I nonetheless found the game to be engaging and fun. Halo 2: Halo 2 was more of the same as Halo 1, just with a few extras thrown in. For one, you can play as the covenant during certain sections of the game. It felt a little disjointed and definitely interupts the flow but I see what they were trying to do. I found it to be an interesting change of pace. A couple new weapons are introduced as well as new enemies. Although the graphics improved somewhat, there are still too many maps that look way too much alike. You'll continually pass through doors and enter a room that looks just like the one you just left. Overall, Halo 2 was also enjoyable and fun to play. I'd rate it slightly lower than Halo CE. My reason for doing so is the ending. Play it to the end and you will undoubtedly see exactly what I mean. Halo 3: This was far and away my favorite of the bunch. Being the first in the series on the 360, it has beautiful graphics, a nice tight story, excellent vehicle mechanics and lush diverse environments. None of the things that bugged me about the first two are present. Maps are unique and believe it or not, despite being a much more visually appealing and advanced game, the frame rate and overall performance of the game even seems better than the first two. I would notice pretty obvious frame rate dips on several occassions in Halo CE and Halo 2 but not in Halo 3. The one and only complaint I have with Halo 3 is that one of the later levels is a little too melodramatic and pretty difficult to boot. Nevertheless, I can easily see myself replaying Halo 3 in the near future whereas I don't feel compelled to play any of the others again, at least not now. Halo 4: The final campaign in the MCC is Halo 4. This is the most viusually appealing and complex of the four. It is also the only version in this collection that was not originally developed by Bungie and it shows. I may be in the minority but I'm not crazy about some of the changes the subsequent developer, 343, introduced. My biggest complaint is the neutering of the weapons. In the first three Halo's, the weapons were neither absurdly overpowered nor underpowered. They were just right. There was a certain feel to the battles that made you feel confident, even on the hardest levels. In Halo 4, grenades are all but useless and enemies eat bullets like Skittles. Even grunts who were fun picking off with well-placed rounds in the first three campaigns, take a ridiculous amount of rounds to drop. And this is with both human and alien weaponry. As if reducing your weapons to the power of a pea shooter weren't bad enough, the toughest enemies now have these little guardians that provide shields and respawns. So after you've wasted all of your ammo putting a huge knight down, get ready to fight him again if you failed to first eliminate the annoying mechanical misquito buzzing above his head. And thye game can be cheap to no end. AI enemies will roll out of the way or take cover before you aim or throw a grenade. They also must have built-in bullet counters because they magically know whenever you will run out of rounds and will materialize next to you just as you fire your last round. Lastly, 343 saw fit to weaken the Master Chief's weapons while making enemy weapons ten times stronger. They have multiple weapons capable of obliterating #And I do mean that literally# the Master Chief with one shot. However, you never seem to have this same awesom epower if you pick up the weapon. Their grenades are ten times stronger. Comparing the MC grenades to the enemy's is like comparing the power of a sparkler to that of an M80. My last complaint with Halo 4 is Cortana. Her voice is more present in this version than all three prior versions combined. It got so annoying she actually beat out Peter Dinklage as most annoying video game voice of al ltime for me. It's enough to make me vow never to buy a Windows phone mainly because I couldn't bear hearing that voice every day. So that's it. Halo CE and Halo 2 were fun but disappointing at times, especially 2. Halo 3 was far and away the most enjoyable and my runaway fave from the pack. Halo 4. is the most visually stunning, most advanced and hhas the most content but it's lacking the fun factor of the prior three and Cortana starts to grate on you after a while. I didn't get into the multiplayer because it's been busted since.. well... forever. This isn't unique to Xbox because Little Big Planet 3 us in the exact same boat on the PS4, which I also own. If, like me, you're new to Xbox and want to see what all the fuss is about, I think Haalo MCC is definitely worth buying. Old or not, four campaigns on one disk, two of which are fairly modern, is pretty darn impressive. Just keep your expectations realistic and remember, none of these games were created after 2012.
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An armed policeman stands guard outside the Estcourt Magistrate’s Court on Monday while residents crowd the area in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the four men arrested for eating human flesh. The men face charges of murder and conspiracy. It has been alleged that the men raped, killed and cut up the body of a woman, which they then consumed. (Chelsea Pieterse)
Pietermaritzburg - A community meeting following the arrest of four Estcourt men for allegedly killing a person and eating human flesh saw hundreds of residents allegedly confess to having eaten human body parts procured from one of the accused.
The four men, Nino Mbatha (32), Sthembiso Sithole (31), Lindokuhle Masondo (32) and Lungisani Magubane (30), appeared in the Estcourt Magistrate’s Court on Monday on charges of murder and conspiracy.
This after one of the four men allegedly walked into the Estcourt police station on Friday, holding human body parts and confessed to being “tired of eating human flesh”. When he was questioned, he produced part of a human leg and a hand. Further investigation led police to a house in the Rensburgdrift area in Estcourt where they were met with a foul smell, and more human remains were found.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele said on Friday that one of the accused, also an nyanga (traditional healer), was arrested in Amangwe area where more body parts were found.
It has been alleged that the men raped, killed and cut up the body of a woman, which they then consumed.
- Read more: 'I'm tired of eating humans
Hundreds of outraged Estcourt locals gathered outside the magistrate’s court on Monday morning, armed with cameras and cellphones in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the four men.
With police guarding the entrance to the court, residents were warned to stay back as the men were loaded into a police van after their court appearance and taken into police custody until their formal bail application on August 28.
Later, ward councillor Mthembeni Majola, who held a meeting at the Esigodlweni community hall on Monday morning, said that around 300 residents had confessed to visiting Mbatha, an nyanga, and knowingly eating human flesh that he gave to them.
He said that there were around 700 people at the meeting where about 300 residents confessed to allegedly knowing Mbatha had human flesh and allegedly confessed to eating it.
He said a community member, who had been very close to Mbatha, had had a falling out with the nyanga.
Majola alleged that the matter was not just limited to Estcourt and that the nyanga had links across the Uthukela area.
Majola alleged that Mbatha had been a practising nyanga in Ladysmith before he fled to Rensburgdrift earlier this year as the Ladysmith community had allegedly attacked and killed another nyanga in the area, however, this could not be confirmed.
“We don’t know what to do or who to trust,” said Majola.
'People we know and live with have now confessed to eating this woman'
“This has happened within our community. Families, people we know and live with have now confessed to eating this woman,” he said.
He added that community members had also allegedly confessed to digging up graves under Mbatha’s orders, and giving Mbatha the bones.
Majola said the community had said at the meeting that the nyanga had told them that digging up the graves would make them strong and protect them from harm and that bringing him the bones would bring them wealth in the future.
Colonel Mbhele said that the provincial Occult-Related Crime Unit was investigating the matter.
She said police could not comment further on the matter, due to the sensitivity of the case. |
By By Andrew Moran Jan 2, 2010 in Politics On "Larry King Live" this past week, Economist Ben Stein called Congressman Ron Paul's foreign policy arguments "anti-Semitic" and now the Republican Representative is challenging Stein and others like him to a public foreign policy debate. The former 2008 Republican Presidential candidate said that the United States foreign policy in the Middle East, including Yemen, was the contributing factor for 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab’s attempt to blow up the airplane and continues to be for terrorists around the world. Stein disagreed with the notion and told viewers that Dr. Paul was actually instead stating that “we are doing something wrong by defending ourselves. Look, if these terrorists are trying to kill the government of Yemen, we've got to help defend them. They are our friends.” Paul continued to ask why are the terrorists targeting the US and its allies and Stein responded because “they are psychos.” The OB/GYN said because the US is an occupying force and Stein immediately took offence to that and vehemently stated, “No we’re not occupies that’s the same anti-Semitic argument we hear over and over again.” Both men were perturbed and called on each other for an apology. Several days later, in an interview with Campaign for Liberty, Paul challenged Stein, and other neo-conservatives who believe in an interventionist foreign policy and pre-emptive war strategy, to a public debate, according to “I like to see a real debate; as a matter of fact I’d be really pleased to debate Ben Stein. I like to see if he really would. That way we can have a good moderator and to seriously discuss the issue. I think someone like Bob Schaeffer would be a real good moderator to do something like that or some school so somebody can do it.” Paul further stated it would be a great challenge to his ideas and also to the people like Stein who believe in a great US presence around the globe in the name of national defence. Paul concluded, “I hereby challenge Ben Stein. Would you like to debate? If you do, I’ll meet you.” Digital Journal reported on Tuesday that Republican Congressman Ron Paul, Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and Economist and former Presidential speechwriter Ben Stein were on “Larry King Live” to discuss the recent attempted terrorist attack on the Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit and the recent bombings in Yemen The former 2008 Republican Presidential candidate said that the United States foreign policy in the Middle East, including Yemen, was the contributing factor for 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab’s attempt to blow up the airplane and continues to be for terrorists around the world.Stein disagreed with the notion and told viewers that Dr. Paul was actually instead stating that “we are doing something wrong by defending ourselves. Look, if these terrorists are trying to kill the government of Yemen, we've got to help defend them. They are our friends.” Paul continued to ask why are the terrorists targeting the US and its allies and Stein responded because “they are psychos.”The OB/GYN said because the US is an occupying force and Stein immediately took offence to that and vehemently stated, “No we’re not occupies that’s the same anti-Semitic argument we hear over and over again.” Both men were perturbed and called on each other for an apology.Several days later, in an interview with Campaign for Liberty, Paul challenged Stein, and other neo-conservatives who believe in an interventionist foreign policy and pre-emptive war strategy, to a public debate, according to Liberty Maven “I like to see a real debate; as a matter of fact I’d be really pleased to debate Ben Stein. I like to see if he really would. That way we can have a good moderator and to seriously discuss the issue. I think someone like Bob Schaeffer would be a real good moderator to do something like that or some school so somebody can do it.” Paul further stated it would be a great challenge to his ideas and also to the people like Stein who believe in a great US presence around the globe in the name of national defence.Paul concluded, “I hereby challenge Ben Stein. Would you like to debate? If you do, I’ll meet you.” More about Ron paul, Ben stein, Foreign policy More news from ron paul ben stein foreign policy |
Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer has named J.T. Barrett the starting quarterback for the team's game against Rutgers on Saturday.
Barrett has served as Cardale Jones' back-up for the first seven weeks of the season.
In Saturday's 38–10 victory over Penn State, Barrett had 11 carries for 102 yards and two touchdowns while also completing four passes for 30 yards and two touchdowns in the air. In the last two weeks, Jones has gone 30 for 43 with 375 yards and two touchdowns.
Last season, Barrett started the most of the regular season but missed the last three games due to an ankle injury. Jones assumed the starting quarterback duties to defeat Wisconsin in the Big 10 championship game and then Alabama and Oregon en route to hoisting the national championship trophy in the first College Football Playoff.
Barrett finished fifth in last year's Heisman Trophy voting after completing 64.7% of his passes for 2,834 yards, 34 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He also rushed 171 times for 938 yards and 11 touchdowns.
The Buckeyes have been ranked No. 1 for the eighth consecutive week in the latest Associated Press poll.
• Week 7 takeaways: Three biggest things we learned from the week
- Christopher Chavez |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a tense phone call on Monday that Moscow would face further costs for its actions in Ukraine and should use its influence to get separatists in the country to stand down.
U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks during an Easter prayer breakfast in the East Room of the White House in Washington April 14, 2014. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Armed pro-Russian separatists seized more buildings in eastern Ukraine earlier in the day, expanding their control after the government failed to follow through on a threatened military crackdown.
In a call that the White House said Moscow requested, Obama told Putin that those forces were threatening to undermine and destabilize the government in Kiev.
“The president emphasized that all irregular forces in the country need to lay down their arms, and he urged President Putin to use his influence with these armed, pro-Russian groups to convince them to depart the buildings they have seized,” the White House said in a statement.
Obama said Russian troops needed to withdraw from Ukraine’s border to defuse tensions and made a point of praising Kiev for its “remarkable restraint” and efforts to unify the country with elections, constitutional reform and proposals to decentralize power to local governments.
“The president noted Russia’s growing political and economic isolation as a result of its actions in Ukraine and made clear that the costs Russia already has incurred will increase if those actions persist,” the White House said.
“(He) said that while he continues to believe that a diplomatic solution is still possible, it cannot succeed in an environment of Russian military intimidation on Ukraine’s borders, armed provocation within Ukraine, and escalatory rhetoric by Kremlin officials.”
The Kremlin said Putin told Obama during the call that Russia was not interfering in Ukraine and urged Washington to use its influence to prevent bloodshed.
Earlier, U.S. officials stopped short of announcing a new set of sanctions against Russia but said they were in consultations with European partners about the prospect.
The European Union agreed on Monday to step up sanctions against Moscow by expanding a list of people subjected to asset freezes and visa bans.
A senior administration official described the call between Obama and Putin as “frank and direct,” a diplomatic construction that usually means tense.
MORE COSTS
The next round of U.S. sanctions, which would be the fourth imposed since the Ukraine crisis began, is likely to target Russians close to Putin as well as Russian entities, three sources familiar with the discussions said on Sunday.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki noted that the United States was prepared to impose sanctions on individuals and entities in the financial services, energy, metals, mining, engineering and defense sectors.
The sanctions have been the most visible sign of U.S. anger at Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region in southern Ukraine last month, reflecting the deepest plunge in U.S.-Russian relations since the Cold War.
U.S. officials declined to identify a timeline on Monday for further sanctions.
“I can assure you that Russia’s provocations - further transgressions and provocations will come with a cost. And I’m not here to specify what cost will come from which specific action, but there have already been costs imposed on Russia; there will be further costs imposed on Russia,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
Obama spoke to French President Francois Hollande about the crisis on Monday and, as he did later with Putin, praised Ukraine’s government for showing restraint, a sign Washington hopes Kiev will hold that course.
Related Coverage Obama warns Putin of further costs over Ukraine: White House
Carney also confirmed that the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, had been in Kiev over the weekend and decried what he called “false claims” leveled at the CIA by Russian authorities.
“U.S. and Russian intelligence officials have met over the years. To imply that U.S. officials meeting with their counterparts (in Kiev) is anything other than in the same spirit is absurd,” he said.
According to media reports, Russia had urged Washington to explain what Brennan was doing in Ukraine. |
(Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) is expected to cut about 2,000 jobs when it completes its $4.48 billion acquisition of Yahoo Inc’s YHOO.O core assets next week, a person briefed on the matter said.
The Verizon logo is seen on the side of a truck in New York City, U.S., October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The cuts are expected to come from Verizon’s AOL and Yahoo units and represent about 15 percent of the staff at the two units. About 14,000 people work at AOL and Yahoo.
Many of the jobs are in California and some are outside the United States, according to the source, who asked not to be identified because the matter is not yet public.
Yahoo shareholders on Thursday approved the company’s sale, according to preliminary results from a shareholder meeting, and it is expected to be completed on Tuesday.
The No. 1 U.S. wireless operator is combining Yahoo’s search, email and messenger assets as well as advertising technology tools with its AOL unit, which it bought in 2015 for $4.4 billion. Verizon expects mobile video and advertising to be new sources of revenue outside the oversaturated wireless market.
Verizon shares are down 15 percent this year.
The acquisition marks the end of the line for Yahoo as a standalone company, a storied Web pioneer once valued at more than $100 billion.
Verizon is rebranding AOL and Yahoo as part of a new venture called Oath, led by AOL Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong.
Verizon is betting it can use data from more than 200 million unique monthly visitors to Yahoo sites and combine it with data on 150 million unique monthly AOL users and its own user base of over 100 million wireless subscribers to offer more targeted services for advertisers.
The Yahoo deal came after activist investors led by Starboard Value LP lost faith in Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer, who was hired in 2012, and forced the sale of the company’s core assets. Mayer is not expected to remain at Yahoo after the sale is completed.
Yahoo is still one of the largest properties on the internet, with hundreds of millions of customers using its email, finance and sports offerings, and a heavily trafficked home page. In February 2016, Yahoo announced it was cutting 1,600 employees, or 15 percent of its staff.
The deal’s closing was delayed as the companies assessed the fallout from two Yahoo data breaches.
Yahoo disclosed in December that data from more than 1 billion user accounts was compromised in August 2013, making it the largest breach in history. This followed a separate disclosure that at least 500 million accounts were affected in a 2014 breach. |
Harry Reid Strips Obamacare Defunding, Senate Votes Party Lines, Now Back To The House
The charade that Ted Cruz described played out exactly that way: A handful of GOP Senators voted against cloture. The rest voted for it with the united Democrats, which meant that Harry Reid would strip the Obamacare defund effort. Which he did. And then, the full Senate would vote for the funding bill and the vote split on party lines.
Willfully obtuse writers claimed that the only reason Ted Cruz and his band of defund zealots pushed forward with their strategy was to make the old-guard GOP look bad. Nope. Sorry. Those folks do that to themselves. This vote just highlighted how most GOP-ers in the Senate feel that all efforts are futile (or worse, how they feel that Obamacare is a good thing). To the extent that the old timers have a strategy, it seems to be to keep a low profile, make no waves, and wait til the midterms when they recapture a majority and then …what? Barack Obama will still be president and surely veto any legislation that undoes his “signature achievement”. Why fight then? Isn’t it still hopeless?
Ted Cruz doesn’t believe defeat is inevitable. However, he knows that undoing Obamacare funding isn’t likely, especially given that his own party won’t support the idea. And for those wondering, the grassroots Republicans are not ignorant rubes stirred up by an ideologue. They actually understand what Cruz is up to: Ted Cruz and Mike Lee want to make sure everyone in every corner of the country know that it was the Democrats not the Republicans who came up with this abhorrent, evil legislation that is on its way to ruin the lives of countless Americans. They also want to go down fighting. Doing nothing guarantees an outcome.
Cruz, Lee and the rest know this: the press won’t highlight the evils of Obamacare, but they will cover a dramatic action in the Senate and House about Obamacare.
If the GOP leadership weren’t so busy trying to realign their put out noses, they’d see what Cruz and Lee were doing and be glad. They’d also see the sentiment of the American people and feel empathy for them by expressing their outrage at how the people are being mistreated by this law.
As it stands, Obamacare is going forward.
What will the House do? It is hoped that they’ll shift tactics and ask for a year-long delay. The Senate leadership is unlikely to embrace that either, but it’s another chance to point out the Democrats hypocrisy. The only ones who will survive, better off after Obamacare are the rich and powerful.
In the past, the Senate Republicans took turns triangulating with the Democrats to work against the planks of their own party. The conservative wing now has enough power to not allow that to happen and the GOP better get used to it. The old ways won’t work anymore. The Gang of 14 is a thing of the past.
Americans by a large margin feel that the government is too big. As they get to know Obamacare, they hate it. The GOP would be wise to not look like they’re helping the people who created this hated legislation. The best way to do that is up for discussion.
Doing nothing? Well, that’s not really worked, has it? If the Republicans want to regain power, acting scared and running to the Democrats for cover won’t help them. |
While the original SHIELD Tablet review hit most of the critical points in the review, there wasn't enough time to investigate everything. One of the areas where there wasn't enough data was gaming battery life. While the two hour figure gave a good idea of what to expect in terms of the lower bound for battery life, it didn't give a realistic amount of time for battery life
One of the first issues that I attempted to tackle after the review was battery life performance in our T-Rex rundown when capping FPS to ~30, which was still enough to exceed the competition in performance, and avoid any chance of throttling. This also gives a much better idea of real world battery life, as most games shouldn't come close to stressing the Kepler GPU in Tegra K1.
By capping T-Rex to 30 FPS, the SHIELD Tablet actually comes quite close to the battery life delivered by SHIELD Portable with significantly more performance. The SHIELD Portable also needed a larger 28.8 WHr battery and a smaller, lower power 5" display in order to achieve its extra runtime. It's clear that the new Kepler GPU architecture, improved CPU, and 28HPm process are enabling much better experiences compared to what we see on SHIELD Portable with Tegra 4.
The other aspect that I wanted to revisit were temperatures, I mentioned that I noticed skin temperatures were high, but I didn't know what they really were. In order to get a better idea temperatures in the device, Andrei managed to make a tool to log such data from on-device temperature sensors. Of course, the most interesting data is always generated at the extremes, so we'll look at an uncapped T-Rex rundown first.
In order to understand the results I'm about to show, this graph is critical. As ambient temperatures were lower (15-18C vs 20-24C) when I ran this variant of the test, we don't see much throttling until the end of the test where there's a dramatic drop to 46 FPS.
As we can see, the GPU clock graph almost perfectly mirrors the downward trend that is presented in the FPS graph. It's also notable that relatively little time is spent at the full 852 MHz that the graphics processor is capable of. The vast majority of the time is spent at around 750 MHz, which suggests that this test isn't pushing the GPU to the limit, although looking at the FPS graph would also confirm this as it's sitting quite close to 60 FPS throughout the run.
While I was unable to quantify skin temperature measurements in the initial review, battery temperature is often quite close to skin temperature. Here, we can see that battery temperatures (which is usually the charger IC temperature) hit a maximum of around 45C as I predicted. While this is perfectly acceptable to the touch, I was definitely concerned about how hot the SoC would get under such conditions.
Internally, it seems that the temperatures are much higher than the 45C battery temperature might suggest. We see max temperatures of around 85C, which is edging quite close to the maximum safe temperature for most CMOS logic. The RAM is also quite close to maximum safe temperatures. It definitely seems that NVIDIA is pushing their SoC to the limit here, and such temperatures would be seriously concerning in a desktop PC, although not out of line for a laptop.
On the other hand, it's a bit unrealistic for games not developed for Tegra K1 to push the GPU to the limit like this. Keeping this in mind, I did another run with the maximum frame rate capped to 30 FPS. As even the end of run FPS is over 30 FPS, showing the FPS vs time graph would be rather boring as it's a completely flat line pegged at 30 FPS. Therefore, it'll be much more interesting to start with the other data I've gathered.
As one can see, despite performance near that of the Adreno 330, the GPU in Tegra K1 sits at around 450 MHz for the majority of this test. There is a bit of a bump towards the end, but that may be due to the low battery overlay as this test was unattended until the end.
In addition to the low GPU clocks, we see that the skin temperatures never exceed 34C, which is completely acceptable. This bodes especially well for the internals, which should be much cooler in comparison to previous runs.
Here, we see surprisingly low temperatures. Peak temperatures are around 50C and no higher, with no real chance of throttling. Overall, this seems to bode quite well for Tegra K1, even if the peak temperatures are a bit concerning. After all, Tegra K1 delivers immense amounts of performance when necessary, but manages to sustain low temperatures and long battery life when it it isn't. More importantly, it's important to keep in mind that the Kepler GPU in Tegra K1 was designed for desktop and laptop use first. The Maxwell GPU in NVIDIA's Erista SoC is the first to be designed to target mobile devices first. That's when things get really interesting. |
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 28-year-old Northfield man who was driving under the influence of heroin when he struck a car driven by a 61-year-old woman was sentenced in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to four years in prison Wednesday for causing her death.
Cynthia Incorvia, of Maple Heights, suffered a broken leg from the accident but died later from complications following surgery, said assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor Jeffrey Schnatter.
"She would have never needed surgery had it not been for him driving under the influence of heroin," Schnatter said.
The accident occurred at 1:50 p.m. December 8, 2013, at Dunham and Rockside roads in Maple Heights, near Incorvia's home.
Steven Mormile, who had his four-year-old son in the back seat, crossed the center line and struck Incorvia's vehicle. Mormile stopped in a parking lot on Rockside Road. He suffered minor injuries, Schnatter said. He tested above the legal limit for heroin.
Incorvia, who worked at the Cleveland Clinic, died December 18.
Mormile had pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide, driving while under the influence and endangering children.
Incorvia's husband, Angelo Jr., asked Judge John Sutula to impose the maximum five-year sentence, Schnatter said.
"He said Mormile took from him his wife and best friend," Schnatter said. "And nothing the judge can do can ever bring her back." |
Eleven years and counting: EFF scores a major victory in its NSA mass surveillance suit
In 2005, a former AT&T engineer named Mark Klein walked into the Electronic Frontier Foundation's offices and revealed that he had helped the phone company build a secret NSA surveillance outpost at the Folsom Street switching station, through which AT&T was helping the US government conduct mass, warrantless, domestic surveillance.
EFF has been in court with the US government ever since, fighting round after round of attempts by DoJ lawyers to get the case thrown out, usually on the basis that since all the evidence of NSA wrongdoing was secret, EFF couldn't proceed. The Snowden revelations helped some, but it's been touch and go for more than a decade.
Now, Judge Jeffrey White has ruled in Jewel, a case that's been underway since 2008, and given EFF leave to conduct discovery on the NSA, forcing the agency to produce documents that will answer key questions about their program of mass domestic spying.
This marks the first time a party has been allowed to gather factual evidence from the NSA in a case involving the agency’s warrantless surveillance. The government had fought all our requests to proceed with this lawsuit, arguing that the state secrets privilege protects it against both discovery and liability. Judge White previously rejected that argument for our statutory claims under the Wiretap Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and the Stored Communications Act. This ruling affirms Judge White’s previous decision and opens the door for discovery. This is an important step forward to lifting the cloak of secrecy that has thus far shielded the NSA from judicial scrutiny, and EFF looks forward to finally getting to the nuts and bolts of this extraordinarily important lawsuit.
Big Victory: Judge Pushes Jewel v. NSA Forward
[David Greene/EFF] |
Last night’s episode was really The Vampire Diaries at its best. We had Katherine, Elijah, Rebekah, and brother bonding — what more could we ask for? Steroline, obviously, but we’re not really in the mood to split hairs. Katherine’s backstory continues to intrigue, as do the complicated dynamics of the Original Family. And for the first time in a long time, we can honestly say we want to know who is going to get this cure. Also, Shane didn’t show up — plus 100 right there.
Let’s debate, shall we?
Stefan Is Going to Ride Off Into the Sunset Alone But Would Be Down If Damon Joined
Stefan giving Damon crap for letting Elena and Rebekah take off was awesome. How long has he waited to be the one who doesn’t screw up the plan? Plus 5.
“Your little sister decided to join Team Good Guys.” Team Good Guys. Yeah, right. Plus 4, though. It was a cute line.
though. It was a cute line. Seeing Stefan and Damon’s faces as they watched Rebekah take the cure was really devastating. Stefan especially. We continue to resent the assumption that Elena would go running back to Stefan if she were human again, but he does, it seems, have the most to lose from her staying a vampire. Plus 6.
“How do you feel?” Stefan asked Rebekah, right after she had taken the cure, essentially ruining his shot at One True Love. The selflessness this man exhibits knows no bounds. Plus 12.
“I’m getting her out of my life and I’m getting a life of my own.” Okay. We’re gonna break it down right now. So a part of us also wants Stefan to get a life and get on with it and continue as he has this season. It has been awesome to watch him on his own, banging Rebekah, flirting with Caroline, making moves, bro-ing down with Damon, etc., but we have a confession to make, and it’s no small one: We miss the central love story of this show. When The Vampire Diaries began it was about a human girl who fell deeply, madly in love with an incredibly flawed vampire. Their love was tumultuous and often misguided. It was complicated and fraught. But it was also real. And it was the heart of this show. It was the reason we began watching, and the reason we continued. There are many things to love about TVD, and Ian’s eye thing is high on that list, but their love story was always No. 1. No points, but we’ve said our piece.
Total: 27
Damon Had a Moment of Weakness. It’s His Thing.
“Elena without her humanity is a stone-cold bitch.” Damon was so irritated this episode. Ian Somerhalder was really at his best. Plus 4.
Damon and Stefan wandering around Fake Stars Hallow was ridiculous. “This guy is royally pissed off.” Right, guys. You look super menacing in all that leather. Minus 7.
Damon’s face when Katherine said she and Elijah were “friends” was hilarious. That whole moment was amazing. The entire table reacted like they had just drank spoiled milk. Also? Not really buying that they’d be that repulsed. Nina Dobrev and Daniel Giles are, like, super hot. But plus 7.
“Wow, a quilt and a fish aquarium. Who are you?” Damon was really on tonight. Plus 3.
“Sorry it’s Rebekah I didn’t have a pony to distract her, Stefan.” Zing! Plus 4 .
. The scene with Damon and Stefan where Damon confessed to letting Rebekah take the cure was wonderful. We love these two when they’re open and honest with each other, and right now, despite everything, they are the strongest we have ever seen them. When Damon said: “And then Rebekah took it and I realized how badly I screwed up,” we sighed out loud. He wants to do right by his brother. He’s really proven that. In fact, last week when Damon said, “and that, brother, is why you are the better boyfriend,” we realized something. Stefan might be the better boyfriend but Damon is the better brother. Plus 20.
Total: 31
Bonus Points:
Caroline! We thought our girl had gotten her revenge on but turns out she was just Silas! Plus 4 because Candice Accola.
because Candice Accola. “So sad for the boys, though. Their special snowflake of human frailty gone.” How long has she been waiting to call Stefan and Damon “the boys” with Elena? Because we have been waiting, like, four years. Plus 8.
Plus 6 for the acknowledgment that Katherine and Rebekah knew each other, although we sorta wish they had a more complicated history. Related: Why have neither Rebekah nor Katherine tried to compel and marry a prince? If I had been alive for 500 years, I’d kinda like to rule a country for a while. Plus, jewelry.
for the acknowledgment that Katherine and Rebekah knew each other, although we sorta wish they had a more complicated history. Related: Why have neither Rebekah nor Katherine tried to compel and marry a prince? If I had been alive for 500 years, I’d kinda like to rule a country for a while. Plus, jewelry. “People change. I’m not the girl you think I am.” Can we just say that we understand why every male we’ve met on this show has been in love with Katherine? Because we are totally bewildered by her. It was impossible to tell when she was telling the truth and when she was just manipulating. We have more to say about this below, but for the first half of the episode, plus 7 .
. “Okay, I don’t know if this is some new way of flirting, but it sucks.” Plus 10 because honestly? We feel that way about 90 percent of the romantic antics on this show.
because honestly? We feel that way about 90 percent of the romantic antics on this show. Rebekah looked so proud of Elena during that scene in the diner with Katherine. And when they started imitating her it made our hearts tingle. Claire Holt’s smile could make anyone’s day. Plus 6.
“Your shoes. I want your shoes.” That hurt Katherine the most, you could tell. Plus 2.
Plus 20 for the return of Elijah. And for him locking lips with Elena. We have been wanting to see that for a while. True story: When there were all those rumors about whom Elena was going to sleep with at the beginning of this season, we totally thought it was going to be Elijah. We’re not that good at plot.
for the return of Elijah. And for him locking lips with Elena. We have been wanting to see that for a while. True story: When there were all those rumors about whom Elena was going to sleep with at the beginning of this season, we totally thought it was going to be Elijah. We’re not that good at plot. “I should have turned my back on you ages ago.” I see you, Klaroline people, but let me just say this: Klaus’s redemption story is not going to be told in the next four episodes (particularly since he is about to get an entire show dedicated to exactly that). While Joseph Morgan and Candice Accola are super hot together, Caroline falling for Klaus is just not believable to us given the current climate. He’s not worthy of her — sorry, we said it. Plus 8 , though, because we’re not monsters.
, though, because we’re not monsters. “You can’t blame them for having hope, Elena. It would be a shame if the world lost a soul as compassionate as yours.” We love Elijah. He kinda makes Stefan and Damon seem like boys. Elenja? We’d ship it. Plus 10.
The moment Rebekah realized she was still a vampire made us feel fairly devastated. The power of Claire Holt, you guys. Plus 9.
That scene with Katherine and Elijah was great, but we have some questions. Did she always love him even when she was loving Stefan and/or Damon? In which case, did she ever even love them? We just really need to understand more about the way Katherine feels. Do you think she would come over and share a bottle of wine with us and tell us who has the softest skin? I mean obviously it’s Stefan, but we’d still like the opportunity to discuss specifics. Plus 10.
Elena, man. We don’t even know what to say about her threat except to hypothesize. And we’d rather focus on the promo of Stefan and Damon throwing a football together. Because yeah, that’s happening. Plus 12 in advance.
Total: 112
This episode goes to neither brother — we can’t let one of them win when they were such partners tonight! And Elijah claimed this thing the moment he stepped into that suit and onto our screens.
Meet you back here on April 18? In the meantime, if you want to ask me to prom, I’m here: @RebeccaASerle |
ERBIL — Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani called on Kurdistan Region's political parties to meet and reach a consensus through negotiations over the current political and economic crises in the region. Following Barzani's call, the political parties and politicians welcomed the call and saw it as a breakthrough for the political deadlock in Kurdistan Region.
“To solve the current crisis, the political parties have to restart the negotiations to re-activate the parliament and elect a new presidency,” Barzani said in his statement late on Sunday.
Commenting on Barzani's call, Mahmoud Osman, a Kurdish political figure and former Iraqi MP, told BasNews that all political circles need to take Barzani's initiative into serious consideration and start negotiations to express their solid views over the crises befalling the Kurdistan Region.
Osman explained that Barzani calls for a new presidency for the Kurdistan Region and parliament as well as a new government cabinet, therefore, all parties are accountable to respond to this initiative and find a solution to the crises.
Speaking to BasNews, Mohammed Haji Mahmoud, the leader of the Kurdish Socialist Party, also welcomed Barzani's call and stated that it will encourage the politcal parties to meet and reach an agreement on the political and economical issues.
He believes that the crises will be solved if the factions have the willingness to act towards finding the solutions.
In his statement, President Barzani also asked the political parties to agree on the formation of a new cabinet and decide on a candidate for the Kurdistan Region Presidency until the Presidential Election will be held.
“With my full ability, I will help towards the success of this process,” President Barzani’s statement reads. |
And here we thought that saving lives and rebuilding a devastated area should be the focus . . . Proving that when you wield an anti-racism hammer, everything looks like a nail, a guest on Al Sharpton’s MSNBC show this morning declared that “race and class . . are the most significant aspects of this particular hurricane.”
The guest in question, Charles D. Ellison, is the Washington correspondent of The Philadelphia Tribune, and hosts a show on WURD, an African-American owned radio station in Philly.
Ellison began by lamenting the failure of the mainstream narrative about the hurricane to note the “intersecting” issues of race and class. Bonus “woke” points for alluding to intersectionality!
AL SHARPTON: Lots of talk this past week about getting billions of dollars of aid to hurricane victims, but are resources and donations getting to the communities most in need. And do race and class play a role in the storm’s aftermath? Want to bring in Charles D. Ellison, radio host of “Reality Check” on WURD and and Brentin Mock, staff writer with City Lab. Charles, we’ve seen situations too often where a lot of reaction, billions raised, and then we hear not long after it did not get to the people that need it. Where are these concerns in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and how do we safeguard against what we’ve seen, at least alleged, in other locations. CHARLES D. ELLISON: Thanks for having me on, Reverend, good morning. The intersecting issues of race and class aren’t really being discussed that much, really if at all, in the mainstream narrative. And so, right now the focus is obviously one of recovery. Primarily that conversation centers on the assumption that everyone in the Houston area is a middle-class home owner, and that’s just not the case. We have a city that has a 30% poverty rate. Over 40% of the population actually rents. It doesn’t own a home. And that population is disproportionately black, and also brown. So we’re going to have to have a difficult, very uncomfortable, but very necessary conversation about race and class, which are the most significant aspects of this particular hurricane, particularly in the aftermath of it and as we head into recovery.
Note: you can view the longer version of segment, as transcribed above, here. |
A historical perspective on estradiol's enhancement of cognitive function is presented, and research, primarily in animals, but also in humans, is reviewed. Data regarding the mechanisms underlying the enhancements are discussed. Newer studies showing rapid effects of estradiol on consolidation of memory through membrane interactions and activation of inter-cellular signaling pathways are reviewed as well as studies focused on traditional genomic mechanisms. Recent demonstrations of intra-neuronal estradiol synthesis and possible actions as a neurosteroid to promote memory are discussed. This information is applied to the critical issue of the current lack of effective hormonal (or other) treatments for cognitive decline associated with menopause and aging. Finally, the critical period hypothesis for estradiol effects is discussed along with novel strategies for hormone/drug development. Overall, the historical record documents that estradiol positively impacts some aspects of cognitive function, but effective therapeutic interventions using this hormone have yet to be realized. |
UPDATE: New Post Learn about the upcoming B2B marketing trends for 2019
This year, the Asian consumer culture changed rapidly making it important for B2Bs to adapt to such changes. And with the current marketing trends, it’s more than necessary to plan ahead so that everything is ready in the upcoming year. Also, businesses need to understand how to keep up to date with all the transformations going on in the market in order to meet the needs and demands of the consumers in 2017. Check out the expected business to business marketing trends in Asia below.
Daily Use of Messaging Platforms
The continuous growth of messaging applications today make it more relevant to use messaging platforms on a daily basis. Millions of active users each month rely on WeChat and LINE; the widely used messaging apps in Asia. As a result, businesses take advantage of these go-to channels when it comes to reaching their targeted customers online.
Related: Callbox Visits The Lion City of Asia to Bring more Investments
Fast Fashion
Due to the continued rise in Asian households today, the standard yearly outlay growth on footwear and clothing has significantly increased to 9.5 percent. Across Asia, fast fashion stores expand as the average spending on clothes also continue to increase by 10 percent every year. In fact, China is expected to be accountable for the 1/3 portion of clothing demand in 2018.
According to us.fashionnetwork.com, Asian apparel consumption should reach 920 billion dollars in 2018, as compared to 625 billion last year, placing it on the same level as North America and Western Europe.
In Asia, fast fashion stores expand as the average spending on clothes also continue to increase by 10 percent every year. tweet!
E-commerce Growth moves to Asia
After the introduction of e-commerce, the United States was the main influencer of its growth. And now that it has become a worldwide phenomenon, Asia is gaining huge growth particularly in China. In fact, the growth is expected to increase twice in 2019 with over one trillion dollars as additional sales. But in order to benefit from this trend, businesses need to expand globally through e-commerce marketing strategies. Here’s how to move your multi-national company expand their business in Asia.
Shoppable Personalized Videos
In 2015, shoppable videos were introduced in the market. And now, it has been amassing momentum among consumers in the Asian continent. This 2017, video creation will drastically change making YouTube and other provider more important than ever. It will help businesses in producing programmatically-generated personalized videos for consumers to use. As a result, e-commerce marketers can place their products on video-based ads on customer preferred platforms.
Here are just some fine examples of short clips we did:
Bottom Line
Business to business marketing rapidly grows along with various trends not just in Asia, but also to other parts of the globe. The quick accessibility and vast options available to consumers make it harder for providers to keep up with all the changes happening in the global market. Hence, it’s important to understand these trends in order to create a successful marketing plan for next year.
Are you ready to dominate 2017 with new B2B marketing strategies?
Start the year with a Bang! Learn more how we help businesses expand in Asia
Dial +65 6248.5023 or +65 3159.1112 |
Animal diseases cost cash-strapped African farmers about $300 billion a year in lost income and veterinary bills. Now scientists are proactively breeding livestock with defenses against these pests before they strike.
Scientists from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) consortium are setting up a “preemptive breeding” program to develop livestock with resistance to potential widespread outbreaks of currently localized diseases to help reduce some of the losses that would occur.
Most of the world's 38 billion livestock are kept in Africa where they face threats from diseases, reduced grazing land and a lack of vaccines. Livestock in Europe or the U.S., by contrast, are rarely lacking in food and medicine, says Okeyo Mwai, a livestock geneticist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya. “Most of the problems are in Africa where the costs of treating diseases are huge. As climate change makes diseases spread to new areas, that figure will rise astronomically,” Mwai says.
CGIAR scientists presented their preemptive breeding strategy and new evidence of threats from climate change to the science advisory body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on June 4.
Current breeding strategies are inadequate because they are too slow to respond to disease outbreaks and climate challenges, the CGIAR researchers told the UNFCCC science advisory body. “The level of losses can be reduced if we proactively breed animals that are resistant and don't require direct treatment,” Mwai says.
As part of their proactive breeding program, the CGIAR researchers are drawing up a map of African livestock that are resilient to pests and environmental stresses such as heat. They use predictions of climatic changes and disease threats to focus their search for these desirable traits. When threats arise in new areas, the scientists will be able to easily locate resistant animals and then quickly breed them with varieties that are local to the areas at risk. “We need to be proactive. If those future cases arise, we will know where to go to get the livestock,” Mwai says.
For example, the Maasai tribe in Kenya have over many years bred sheep that are resistant to a deadly parasitic worm. The scientists are now working with these farmers to help introduce this breed to new areas that are suffering with high levels of the parasite.
Resistant livestock should not be introduced into areas that are disease-free because they still carry the pest and could cause an outbreak, Mwai says. He suggests that resistant breeds be brought in when predictions indicate the imminent arrival of an infection.
The scientists also hope to use new high-tech tools to develop tougher livestock. They are planning a research program that will use genome editing to take genetic material from resistant breeds and paste it into susceptible ones. This technology will allow a much more “precise” approach to creating animals with desirable traits.
In contrast, traditional breeding methods “mix and match” genes by mating individuals “in the hope” of producing individuals beneficial traits, Mwai says. But sexual reproduction offers no guarantees that offspring will exhibit the desired traits of the parents. “We need precision, not shotgun breeding,” he says.
The CGIAR team hopes to use genome editing to breed new populations of cattle that are resistant to trypanosomiasis. The scientists are studying N'Dama cattle from west Africa, which have a natural resistance to the disease, and have located the genetic material responsible for the breed’s protection. Next they will put that material into populations with other desirable traits such as increased milk and meat production.
Toughening agriculture for a worsening climate
Preventative breeding is becoming increasingly urgent as livestock diseases continue to march across Africa, the CGIAR researchers say. New research they presented to the science advisory body shows that 44 percent of all major livestock diseases they studied are increasing in prevalence continent-wide. The researchers also found that farmers will lose up to half of suitable grazing land over the next century, placing livestock under further pressure from already limited feed supplies.
The CGIAR scientists also want to use breeding to develop tougher crops. “We find that for many staple crops in the regions, climatically suitable areas are projected to decrease in countries that are most dependent on them,” says Julian Ramirez-Villegas, who studies climate impacts on agriculture at the University of Leeds in England.
The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia has already begun work to develop heat tolerant beans that it hopes to roll out to areas that might need them now and in future.
Focusing agricultural research efforts on building resilience against future climatic and disease threats will help vulnerable farmers produce food even under the most difficult conditions, says Ramirez-Villegas, formerly of the CIAT. “Pushing the biophysical limits of the crop, we would be able to carry on cropping beans everywhere where beans are currently grown even under the most pessimistic climate scenarios by mid-century,” he says. By the end of the century, only in the high-end warming scenarios heat-adapted beans would be affected. |
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The whole "fiscal cliff negotiation" theme is driving me crazy. Ever since Jonathan Chait and Ezra Klein started acting like there were serious negotiations underway, everyone has gone wild on both sides.
I realize it was only ten days ago, but you know there was a time where we were banging the drum for the White House to hold fast, and you know who was losing that battle? John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and the entire Republican party. We were winning. They were losing. And they knew it.
Representative Tom Cole said the votes were there to pass the middle class tax cuts without any deal, without any bargain, without anything but bringing the bill to the floor. That was on December 12th.
All of a sudden, Boehner started playing "Let's Make a Deal" and the Villagers went crazy with it. But we don't have to. I don't understand why we're letting them muck this up with all manner of stupidity, which is only bolstering Republicans' images at the expense of Democrats.
All anyone has to do is start with what we know: Republicans do not negotiate in good faith ever, and they only negotiate at all when they are pressed to the wall. Therefore, we can all assume this is a lot of smoke with lots of mirrors and absolutely no sincerity.
I am of the belief that absolute clarity is needed in order to get this done in an orderly fashion. That means no muddling up the issues. It is absolutely driving me crazy to see the narrative driven by media that Medicare, Social Security, tax reform and the debt ceiling MUST be wrapped up in a tiny little neat package by December 31st.
No. Nothing need be wrapped up by December 31st. Absolutely nothing. I've heard arguments for why they should be, and so I'll take them one by one:
Unemployment extensions expire 12/29: These are urgent. I am not minimizing that. But they are separate from any discussion about tax reform, tax rates, and tax cuts. There is no relationship between them and they should be addressed separately from the other issues. If the extensions are renewed in the first weeks of January, it will not do harm to recipients, and can retroactively be corrected.
These are urgent. I am not minimizing that. But they are separate from any discussion about tax reform, tax rates, and tax cuts. There is no relationship between them and they should be addressed separately from the other issues. If the extensions are renewed in the first weeks of January, it will not do harm to recipients, and can retroactively be corrected. But the debt ceiling. ZOMG, the debt ceiling : President Obama needs to have us clamoring and echoing him on this: the debt ceiling is UNRELATED to the tax revenue question now and forevermore, and we should be prepared to have Republicans shut down government over it. Let them take the hit for their folly. Never before 2011 was the debt ceiling a serious hostage, and it shouldn't be one now.
: President Obama needs to have us clamoring and echoing him on this: the debt ceiling is UNRELATED to the tax revenue question now and forevermore, and we should be prepared to have Republicans shut down government over it. Let them take the hit for their folly. Never before 2011 was the debt ceiling a serious hostage, and it shouldn't be one now. More stimulus! - The stimulus package the President is suggesting won't even cover Hurricane Sandy relief, which the sick GOP cheapos in Congress have already delayed and dithered about for weeks now. Seriously. President Obama is asking for $56 billion in stimulus. Sandy relief is expected to cost around $60 billion. It's just math.
- The stimulus package the President is suggesting won't even cover Hurricane Sandy relief, which the sick GOP cheapos in Congress have already delayed and dithered about for weeks now. Seriously. President Obama is asking for $56 billion in stimulus. Sandy relief is expected to cost around $60 billion. It's just math. Better a Democrat shore up Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, right? Sure. But certainly not in the name of deficit reduction or tax reform. Again, these are issues that are being intentionally smashed together to muddy up what is a simple, straightforward process.
Sure. But certainly not in the name of deficit reduction or tax reform. Again, these are issues that are being intentionally smashed together to muddy up what is a simple, straightforward process. The payroll tax expires! Uh oh. Good. It should expire. It was always dangerous territory. If they want to extend it, they can extend it in the form of a refundable tax credit for 2013, which doesn't cause money from the General Fund to be transferred to the Social Security trust fund. Withholding can be adjusted to account for the credit, and the economy will be saved from ruin.
The only time Republicans care about the deficit is when they are not in the White House. This is a game, an act, an obscene dance of political gamesmanship, but it is NOT a negotiation.
What we should be doing:
Ignore the Villagers' hand-wringing
Stop accepting what they say as truth.
Stop reacting to everything.
Start saying out loud that the only thing that should happen before January 1st is an up or down vote in the House on the Senate extension of middle class tax cuts.
Stomp your feet, call your Congressman, shout it out: ONLY an up or down vote on the middle class tax cuts is warranted, and that means one vote on the Senate bill, not some stupidly crafted package of nonsensical, arcane, ridiculously meaningless "cuts".
Ten days ago we were winning this by not budging at all. Yes, President Obama, that means YOU too. Now suddenly we're engaging in the farce Republicans call "negotiations?" Give me a break. This has been an exercise in how to turn media narratives around for the Republicans' benefit, but it is nothing like a negotiation.
If we really want to win, we simply stop acknowledging all of the stupid GOP party trial balloons floating around us and start pushing for one vote. One vote before December 31st. Just one. No amendments, no extras. One vote on the Senate bill to extend the middle class tax cuts.
Then make them sit at OUR table next year, when the upper rates are set and not going back down. That's how it's done. Our way, not theirs. |
A Woman's Place in 19th Century Victorian History
The Victorian era seems like another world to us. Yet the late Victorians were very familiar with many of the things we use everyday. The one thing that was different was the place of women in society. There were of course perceptive women of independent original thought, but for the huge majority life was easier if they accepted that a woman's place was in the home. To lump all women of the Victorian era as one body would be wrong. The era spanned 64 years and changes in attitudes were gradually shifting as the century closed.
Above in the heading we see a picture of the young Queen Victoria at 18. If you look at her in the top page of the Victorian Era you will see how she changed with the years.
Whether or not you agree with the facts today, the attitude of men toward women in the Victorian age was highlighted by Tennyson who wrote of women staying by the hearth with their needles whilst men wielded their swords.
The accepted reasoning was that the career for women was marriage. To get ready for courtship and marriage a girl was groomed like a racehorse. In addition to being able to sing, play an instrument and speak a little French or Italian, the qualities a young Victorian gentlewoman needed, were to be innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful and be ignorant of intellectual opinion.
Right - Taking tea wearing lavish Victorian gowns in 1854. Fashion history images we see today are usually of beautifully gowned women, yet many working women as opposed to ladies such as these wore rags.
The dresses show typical excessive style elements such as V waists, layering of trims, bell sleeves and engageantes.
Whether married or single all Victorian women were expected to be weak and helpless, a fragile delicate flower incapable of making decisions beyond selecting the menu and ensuring her many children were taught moral values. A gentlewoman ensured that the home was a place of comfort for her husband and family from the stresses of Industrial Britain.
Right Beeton's Book of Household Management edited by Mrs. Isabella Beeton.
A woman's prime use was to bear a large family and maintain a smooth family atmosphere where a man need not bother himself about domestic matters. He assumed his house would run smoothly so he could get on with making money.
In his book The Cut of his Coat published in 2006 Brent Shannon argues that middle-class men also participated vigorously in fashion and you can read the book review of The Cut of His Coat here.
Even in high places Victorian men kept mistresses, but they still expected their wives or mistresses to be faithful whatever their own misdemeanours. If a women took a lover it was not made public. If it did become public knowledge she would be cut by society. But men could amble along to one of their gentleman's clubs and always find a warm welcome.
It was a hypocritical period when relationships were quite artificial. Until late in the century in 1887 a married woman could own no property. Then in 1887 the Married Woman's Property Act gave women rights to own her own property. Previously her property, frequently inherited from her family, belonged to her husband on marriage. She became the chattel of the man. During this era if a wife separated from her husband she had no rights of access to see her children. A divorced woman had no chance of acceptance in society again.
A wealthy wife was supposed to spend her time reading, sewing, receiving guests, going visiting, letter writing, seeing to the servants and dressing for the part as her husband's social representative.
For the very poor of Britain things were quite different. Fifth hand clothes were usual. Servants ate the pickings left over in a rich household. The average poor mill worker could only afford the very inferior stuff, for example rancid bacon, tired vegetables, green potatoes, tough old stringy meat, tainted bread, porridge, cheese, herrings or kippers.
By the end of the Queen Victoria's reign there were great differences between members of society, but the most instantly apparent difference was through the garments worn.
The Victorian head of household dressed his women to show off family wealth. As the 19th century progressed dress became more and more lavish until clothing dripped with lace and beading as the new century dawned.
A wealthy woman's day was governed by etiquette rules that encumbered her with up to six wardrobe changes a day and the needs varied over three seasons a year. A lady changed through a wide range of clothing as occasion dictated.
Fashion history and photographic records clearly illustrate there was morning and mourning dress, walking dress, town dress, visiting dress, receiving visitors dress, travelling dress, shooting dress, golf dress, seaside dress, races dress, concert dress, opera dress, dinner and ball dress.
Left - Fashion plate of wealthy women in an open carriage which enabled them to display their clothes and elevated position in society.
Fashion plates were hugely successful in this era giving ladies supposed to women visual clues on how to dress for their new found status.
Yet change was happening everywhere. Many women adopted the tailor made garment that showed their more serious concern to be recognised as thinking beings with much to offer society beyond being a social asset for a husband.
By 1900 the railway, the typewriter, telephones, the post, the camera, the sewing machine, artificial rayon fibres and the bicycle became normal for many. For some gas, water, electricity and even the motor car were already in use. New inventions and how to use them led to new thinking and women of all classes felt the dynamic atmosphere of change as much as men.
Right -A Victorian woman using a Singer sewing machine C1850.
Reform was in the air as intellectual female thinkers began to state their case. Many joined the Fabian Society, a group of non revolutionary thinking socialists. Others sought reform for more practical dress, better education, the right to take up paid work if they wished and better employment prospects if they were poorly paid women. Most importantly brave women campaigned for votes for women and birth control information even though many never lived to see the changes they fought for.
You can read how to find out more about some very informed material about occupations of ordinary women on my book review page of Helena Wojtczak's publication called WOMEN OF VICTORIAN SUSSEX - Their Status, Occupations and Dealings with the Law, 1830 ~ 1870. Helena Wojtczak's latest publication. I also have some information on women seamstresses in my Edwardian section. |
I took this today..... pic.twitter.com/7UOIeWpWZB — Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) May 5, 2015
See the little man next to the left of the gold tablecloth? The photograph is too small to figure if he’s the actual Hamster we all know and love, but blimey! Even though Top Gear is no longer the trio’s bread & butter, it’s very heartwarming that the guys are still good ole buddies.Moving on to the next detail in terms of importance, we can see two cameramen in the adjacent picture posted by Clarkson on Twitter. Other than them, we’re certain that the place of filming isn’t Top Gear’s Dunsfold track. From my opinion, that looks like the Thruxton Motorsport Centre in Andover. And what about the four individuals sitting at the table?A lot of questions are being raised by this picture, but only time what will come to fruition from it. Is Jeremy reviewing the car for The Sunday Times, working on a YouTube-only show or his new DVD or did he sign a contract with a BBC-rivaling television network? It’s mum’s guess at the present moment...As a Top Gear fan myself, I am glad that Jezza moved on from the whole fracas fiasco without giving up on his passion of choice: POWEEEEER! Whatever he and the other two blokes are working on, no matter what name it will be known as, I have this gut feeling it’ll be at least as entertaining as Top Gear.I’ll miss The Stig and his ABBA records though...
UPDATE: Former Stig Ben Collins was at Thruxton as well. |
Arsène Wenger to write the Foreword for the next Untold Arsenal book
By Tony Attwood
If you are a regular reader of Untold you’ll know that a little while ago I got rather excited when we announced that Bob Wilson had agreed to write the foreword to our book Arsenal: The Long Sleep 1953-1970.
That book, as you may know, has now been published, and we’re moving ahead at full speed towards the publication of our next volume The Arsenal Yankee By Danny Karbassiyoon.
And we have just had it confirmed that Mr Wenger has agreed to write the foreword for the book.
As you may know Danny Karbassiyoon has written several articles for Untold, and indeed we have another from him coming up next on the site.
Danny was spotted by Arsenal as a highly talented youngster, played for us in the League Cup, went out on loan, and then got an injury from which he was unable to recover.
We all know the stories of the great heroes of Arsenal – the magnificent players who carved out a career with the club and gained national and international fame. But part of football – in fact a large part of football – concerns the players who were on the edge of such greatness but then were unable to follow it through.
But Danny, as you’ll probably know, did not let it all turn sour, having his dreams and ambitions wrecked at such an early stage in his career, for he went on to become Arsenal’s scout in North and Central America, and is credited with the discoveries of Joel Campbell, now a regular in the first team, and Gedion Zelalem who has already played for Arsenal’s first team and at the start of this season moved to Rangers on loan. That loan period was extended in January.
Since then, despite being only 19 years old, Gedion is already playing for the United States under 23 side.
We’re currently working on the final preparations for Danny’s book which will appear both as a paperback and as a Kindle edition via Amazon. I think it is a mark of the great respect that I believe Arsène Wenger has for Danny Karbassiyoon that he has agreed to write the Foreword for the volume.
As for Untold, if you read my piece at the time when we announced that Bob Wilson had written the foreword for The Long Sleep, you will have realised how delighted I was that Untold was publishing such a book. Now with Mr Wenger contributing also, as you can imagine, I am feeling rather chuffed.
This is the fifth book in our series of Arsenal volumes which have arisen out of Untold Arsenal, and the AISA Arsenal History Society blog , and we already have several more at the planning stage, so I am hopeful that over time we will become seen as something of a serious long-term player in the world of Arsenal books, as well as in terms of the blog.
Danny has written four articles for Untold Arsenal so far…
… and as I say the fifth piece by Danny will be published next.
In the meanwhile, a thank you from me, both to Danny for entrusting Untold with his autobiography, and of course, to Arsène Wenger for joining the Untold Arsenal team!!!
————-
The Untold Books
The latest Untold book is Arsenal: The Long Sleep 1953-1970 with an introduction by Bob Wilson, available both as a paperback and as a Kindle book from Amazon. Our previous three titles are all still available:
Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Paperback edition. In the early 1890s a huge schism appeared within Woolwich Arsenal FC, which led to the club being kicked out of its stadium, with a rival team being installed in the ground in its place. This story was completely lost to history until the Arsenal History Society re-discovered it through a detailed investigation of the newspapers of the time. This is the story of how Arsenal survived the split, and rose from the ashes to become the team we know today.
Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Kindle edition
Making the Arsenal – The story of how the Arsenal came to be within minutes of total disintegration, but was then re-born in 1910, as told through the diary of a fictional young Fleet Street journalist given the task by his editor of covering Woolwich Arsenal, and the activities of Henry Norris, at the time.
The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal – who went to the games, how did they behave, what was the away support like… This original research reveals much that was previously lost about the early days of supporting your local team.
Details of all these books and how you can buy them can be found at Arsenal Books on this site. |
Telecommunications company Eir is to 'retire' its Meteor mobile phone brand this September. The Meteor brand has been in existence since 2001 and has over 750,000 customers.
Telecommunications company Eir is to 'retire' its Meteor mobile phone brand this September. The Meteor brand has been in existence since 2001 and has over 750,000 customers.
The mobile phone network will be re-branded 'Eir', joining an existing mobile phone service provided by the company under the Eir name. Between them, Meteor and Eir have 1.1 million mobile customers.
A group statement said that Meteor customers will benefit from the rebrand - and that the transition in September will be seamless.
"Meteor customers will continue using their mobiles exactly as before - with the added benefit of a world of possibilities," eir CEO Richard Moat said.
"By focusing on a single mobile brand and reducing the duplication of supporting two brands, we can offer better value and increased innovation."
Meteor customers have been advised that there will be no change to contracts and plans in the rebrand. Customer care lines will also remain the same.
Significant investment has been made in marketing and advertising Meteor since it was acquired by Eir, formerly Eircom, in 2005. It has sponsored a number of events, including the Meteor Choice Awards.
The company is currently spending between €3m and €4m on its 'Let's make possible' campaign and believes that the mobile phone business would be better served by benefiting from the lift provided by this campaign than separate marketing investment in Meteor.
The company will start to communicate the change to customers from tomorrow. The group has 84 retail outlets which is comprised of Eir stores, Meteor stores and dual branded stores and all will become Eir stores in the coming weeks and months.
Paul Bradley, a spokesman for Eir, said: "We have adopted a single brand strategy. You can get your bundle from Eir, your broadband from Eir, your TV from Eir and mobile from Eir."
Meteor had traditionally been seen as a younger brand, while Eir's mobile phone service was seen as targeting older customers of the group, many of whom had a landline with the company.
"What it reflects is our growing confidence in the Eir brand. We are almost two years in from when the company launched the brand," he added.
"There has been work to evolve the Meteor brand over the last couple of years because initially it was a youth brand and a pre-pay focused brand. But now it is a much healthier mix of prepay and bill pay."
Sunday Indo Business |
NEW DELHI: Massive gains indicated for BJP in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh, BJP along with its existing allies seems poised to get past the psychologically crucial 200 Lok Sabha seats.The CSDS- CNN-IBN opinion election tracker indicated that at the lower end, the party will win 152 of 450-odd seats spread over 13 states including Delhi. Congress may get 55-113 seats in these states.The poll did not give seat projections for Punjab, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand, but indicated a clear edge for BJP.It also did not give seat shares for Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and Haryana where Congress has incumbency to deal with.The CSDS predicted a 41-49 total for BJP in UP. Although anther survey, conducted by Nielsen for ABP News channel, put the party's share at 32 in UP, the overall trend reflected in the two exercises suggest that the BJP may pull off its best performance since its power run in the politically crucially state in the 90s.As per the CSDS survey, Congress which had surprised itself by winning 21 seats UP in 2009, is likely to come down to 4-10 .The election tracker also predicted a saffron sweep of Rajasthan. The soundings suggest that the BJP which won a landslide in the assembly polls can hope to win 20-24 of the 25 seats in the state. The estimated tally for Congress in the state is 0-2.It predicted that BSP and SP which have dominated UP between them will also suffer reverses. The survey forecast 10- 16 seats for Mayawati 's party, while predicting a much lower 8-14 for Mulayam Singh Yadav . Others are expected to win 2-6 seats.The opinion poll conducted by Nielsen for ABP News channel also indicated huge losses for Congress whose tally may shrink to 8. The pollster said that Congress will not be able to take its tally beyond 12 even if continues its alliance with Ajit Singh's RLD.Like CSDS, it also predicted setbacks both BSP and SP, with estimated totals of 15 and 14, respectively.Signficantly, the Nielsen polls suggest that AAP could win two seats with 6% support on its maiden foray into UP.The findings of the CSDS, which had forecast 4-6 seats for AAP and I-3 for for BJP in Delhi, suggest that Arvind Kejriwal's government enjoys the support of 74% of the people. CM's personal popularity stands even higher, at 76%. Kejriwal is also marginally ahead of BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi as the most preferred PM nominee. The Delhi CM was endorsed by 34% against 32% who signaled their support to Modi.The Gujarat CM comes across as more popular than BJP which, according to CSDS, is favoured by 30% of Delhi population.With 8% support, Rahul Gandhi has emerged as the distant third.It was UP which helped BJP emerge as the second largest party and the principal opposition at the Centre by electing 51 of its nominees in the 1991 election at the height of the pro-Ram mandir sentiments. The state also helped BJP emerge as the single largest formation at the Centre in the 1996 by contributing 52 seats. Its share had jumped to 58, excluding two Independents who won on its symbol, in 1998 when the party formed the government.Although its returns from the state dipped to 25 in 1999, party managed to retain power after the mid-term polls in 1999 because of the combination of Atal Bihari Vajpayee's appeal and because of its success in cashing in on the nationalist sentiments triggered by Pakistan's aggression in Kargil.With no similar wind at its back, party crashed to a shock defeat in 2004 when its tally slumped to 10 in 2004 elections. Failure in UP in 2009 was a major factor in party's defeat in 2009.The CSDS poll also suggested that BJP's decision to project Modi as its PM candidate has paid off. In UP 35% backed him as their preference for the top job, while in Rajasthan 27% of the BJP supporters gave him the credit for party's massive win in the assembly elections. As against this, 12% identified CM Vasundhara Raje as the main factor.Even in Delhi the 2% gap that separates him from Kejriwal can provide comfort to BJP, considering that the party's support stands at 30% in the city-state. |
No oil experts on Obama spill panel, GOP complains GOP: Obama's panel is biased
Critics contend spill inquiry panel has no oil experts, only drilling foes
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., charged the Obama administration with keeping oil and gas drilling experts off its seven-member commission in favor of people who philosophically oppose offshore exploration.
And Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, said there was a huge conflict of interest in putting environmental advocates on a panel responsible for investigating the spill and recommending new safety mandates for offshore drilling.
Obama launched the commission last month and tasked it with conducting a six-month probe of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and a rigorous review of drilling safety. Its findings could dictate the future of offshore drilling and lead to major changes in the way the government polices oil and gas production along the nation's coasts.
Scientists, engineers
The roster of members includes science and engineering experts, as well as a renewable energy advocate who has complained about America's oil addiction and a marine science professor who recently appeared to endorse a delay of planned drilling along the East Coast.
There are no representatives with deep ties to the oil and gas industry, although one of the co-chairmen, William Reilly, was administrator of the EPA under President George H.W. Bush and a director of ConocoPhillips before temporarily stepping down to serve on the commission.
The other co-chairman is Bob Graham, a Democratic former Florida governor and U.S. senator who has opposed offshore drilling near the Sunshine State.
The panel's just-appointed executive director, Richard Lazarus, is a legal expert at Georgetown University who has represented environmental groups in arguments before the Supreme Court.
The commission's makeup already has drawn criticism from oil and gas industry boosters and in some newspaper editorials.
In a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Thursday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar defended the commission's members, saying they were "very distinguished people ... who will transcend partisan politics and ideology" in investigating what caused the Deepwater Horizon rig to explode April 20.
Barrasso and Bennett targeted Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of several environmental groups that unsuccessfully defended the Obama administration's deep-water drilling ban against a legal challenge in a court hearing Monday.
Bennett called Beinecke's appointment troubling because she "has an ideological position with respect to drilling and, indeed, heads an organization that's filed a lawsuit on this area."
In a blog entry on NRDC's website Thursday, the group's New York City-based litigation director, Mitch Bernard, defended Beinecke as an independent and said she had been excluded from all decision making and communications about the council's legal work since her appointment.
Barrasso said the panel's makeup defied Obama's assertion that he wants an independent review of the oil spill.
"The commission's background and expertise doesn't really include an oil or drilling expert, so … people across the country are wondering about the administration's goals," Barrasso said. "Is it really about making offshore energy exploration safer? Or is it about shutting down our offshore and American oil and gas?"
Promises fairness
Salazar dismissed the senators' criticism.
"What is wrong is the playing of politics with this issue," Salazar said. "This is an issue of a national crisis."
Salazar likened the group to the commissions that have investigated other disasters, including the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle and the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.
The panel members are elder statesmen and stateswomen, Salazar said, adding that he was confident the commission would be thorough and even-handed. When studying areas where it doesn't have expertise, he said, the panel will interview professionals who do.
[email protected] |
Police in Wildwood, New Jersey have opened an investigation after an officer was involved in an incident that was caught on camera.Video of the incident appears to show a Wildwood police officer punch a man in the face. The question is: was it justified?It happened this past Sunday evening near the intersection of New Jersey Avenue and Roberts Avenue.In the video, the Wildwood police officer and a man appear to be having some kind of confrontation.The man is not cuffed, his hands are free. Then for a reason unknown at this point, the officer strikes the man in the face.Action News spoke with the Wildwood police chief on Tuesday. He says that the man who was punched was involved in a disorderly persons complaint.He also tells us the officer involved will not be named at this point, nor will the man who was hit.The chief did say that the officer involved in the incident will remain on duty while the investigation is ongoing.The investigation is being conducted by the Cape May County Prosecutor's Office.---------- |
(Reuters) - Western Digital Corp (WDC.O), the world’s largest storage-drive maker, cut its current-quarter revenue forecast as demand for hard disk drives (HDD) was muted, sending down its shares as much as 3 percent in after-hours trading.
Western Digital, which along with Seagate Technology Plc (STX.O) commands over 90 percent of the HDD market, said it expects industry demand of 140 million hard drives in the September quarter, down from its earlier forecast of 157 million units.
Shares of both companies fell 3 percent in extended trading.
Western Digital said its board of directors has given the go ahead for an additional $1.5 billion share buyback.
The company also said it will start a quarterly dividend of 25 cents per share payable on October 15.
Western Digital expects revenue of $3.9 billion to $4.0 billion for its first quarter ending September 28, down from its prior forecast of $4.2 billion to $4.3 billion.
Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $4.29 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company expects adjusted gross margin of about 30 percent in its first quarter. |
IDEAS Kay S. Hymowitz is the William E. Simon Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. She is the author of four books, including Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age and Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Is Turning Men Into Boys.
Americans would rather talk about almost anything other than class. Even today as income inequality and racial and gender disparities dominate the headlines, even among the tell-all Millennials, class is quarantined from the arena of respectable conversation.
The latest example of this stubborn truism emerged after a video showing the catcalling torment young women face on city streets was posted on YouTube. Many viewers noticed that in the two-minute video by the activist group Hollaback!, condensed from a single woman’s 10 hour walk around New York City, all of the offending men were black and Hispanic. They chastised the creators for creating the appearance that white men don’t do this sort of thing, which led ultimately to an apology from Rob Bliss the video producer.
To say that Bliss was being disingenuous is putting it mildly. In a little noticed item on the website of the alternative magazine Mass Appeal Chris Moore did a little sleuthing and found that more than half of the shots used in the film appeared to be shot on 125th Street in Harlem, a predominately poor, black neighborhood. Much of the rest were shot near Times Square and Canal Street, neither area what anyone would call genteel. You have to give Bliss this much credit: He knew what he and very few other people are willing to admit. Street harassment is largely a class thing. In New York, at any rate, that means it’s also a race thing.
Now before anyone tweets about the pasty skinned guys from Morgan Stanley who whisper nasty somethings in her ear when she’s on line at the Financial District Starbucks, let’s get the obvious on the table: Street harassers can come in all colors and sport all kinds of pedigrees. Without a doubt, there are white guys in Brooks Brothers or Zegna who will ruin a girl’s morning with an unwelcome suggestion for where on her body he would like to deposit his bodily fluids.
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Still. These bespoke brutes may not be a rare breed, but they’re just not common enough to spoil a good 10 hour walk along the Upper East Side. Young women who tense up as they approach a construction site know full well that walking past the guys who drive the fork lift will almost surely result in some unwanted attention; walking past the architects who are pouring over the blueprints probably won’t.
The catcalling gap will make sense to anyone who has noticed that middle class men and women tend to have a different physical and sexual presentation than their less privileged peers. Psychologists have long known that there are marked class differences in child rearing that can explain this. Preparing their children for office and stable domestic life, middle class parents have always nudged their children to display what was once known as “bourgeois propriety.” The term doesn’t seem to fit an America where, as the “Advice Goddess” Amy Alkon has said, even “nice people say f–k.” But middle class homes continue to encourage their children to use their “inside voices,” to demonstrate bodily self-discipline (one reason obesity has become a class marker), to play nice, and to soften the rough edges of male physicality. They ban toy guns from their homes and petition schools to prohibit dodgeball and other “human target” games.
Lower income parents tend to be less “proper” in their childrearing, dispensing more physical punishment and shrugging off rough and tumble play. The difference shows up in school where lower income kids, particularly boys, have more trouble sitting still, paying attention, and keeping quiet; educators consistently report they have more behavior problems. It should come as no surprise that these same boys grow up to become men who are more blatantly, and for middle class women especially, more obnoxiously, interested in every passing young thing. In rare but important instances this goes well beyond obnoxious; lower income men (and women) are also more likely than middle class to be involved in domestic violence disputes.
The catcalling gap creates some cognitive dissonance for promoters of the idea of “white male privilege.” If men of color and working class dudes are the biggest offenders, then middle class (mostly white) are the good — or at least the less bad — guys. Middle class men may no longer open doors for women or help them carry heavy suitcases, but most of them would be mortified to hear a friend shout “Hey baby; shake that thing!” to passing strangers as they rush to take their poli-sci class or make their 10 a.m. project meeting.
That raises the question of how the disproportionately white campus has become the site where so many men behave badly. That’s easy to answer. Put middle class men in a frat house with flowing kegs, and their manners melt into a boozy puddle. That’s exactly the point of the whole exercise. People —men and women — drink because it feels good to shed their inhibitions, to say the sorts of things of which their parents might not approve and do things their daytime, classroom selves may wonder at.
Ironically, then, Hollaback!’s video suggests that privilege belongs to white middle class women as much as their male classmates. For all of the myriad problems they face in a college sex scene drenched in alcohol, women students can walk the ivy paths with minimum of hassle (unless they pass by the guys building the new student center with yoga studio and state of the art fitness center). When they move to a chaotic, multicultural city, however, especially if they venture into Harlem and Times Square, they find themselves bumping up against all types — blue collar and poor men, immigrants and children of immigrants, men whose parents may not have raised them to treat women with the sort of restraint their own brothers and fathers do. And they don’t like it one bit.
Even Rob Bliss — especially Rob Bliss! — has to know there’s not much anyone can do about it. Unless they’re willing to see a lot more minority men hassled by the police.
Kay S. Hymowitz is the William E. Simon Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. She is the author of four books, including Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age and Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Is Turning Men Into Boys.
Contact us at [email protected]. |
There's just something about heroes.
Soaring through the sky or charging across the earth, brows furrowed, ready for action. Halting the spread of evil, or simply offering assistance where they can. Pursuing an ideal of justice, carrying the hopes of the people on their back. Aspiring to something greater, something simultaneously deeply human and beyond our unsteady hands.
My Hero Academia absolutely loves heroes. It loves their spirit, it loves their style, it loves their grounded reality and their highest ambitions. Its protagonist Midoriya has idolized heroes from a young age, and the show shares his enthusiasm. In a world where superheroes aren't just government-sanctioned and regulated, but also commercialized brands, he still sees something pure and inspiring in their actions. The path to heroism may be rocky, but Midoriya never doubts the beauty of his pursuit.
The show is actually somewhat noteworthy for its positive view of heroes. In the modern world, we often challenge heroic ideals, and the motivations of the people who pursue them. In American media, the bright-eyed optimism of the silver age gave way to post-Watchmen ambiguity, and now our on-screen heroes battle their personal demons as often they do their enemies. In Japan, modern revisions of classic shows like Yatterman and Gatchaman don't just challenge unquestioned heroism, they often prioritize the hypocrisy and potential tragedy that can erupt when a hero is too certain that their justice is correct.
This spirit of self-reflection and revision is important. The world is too complicated to embrace an unchallenged sense of righteousness - there are few things more dangerous than unquestionably believing your view of right and wrong are absolutely correct. And so we need shows like Gatchaman Crowds , which question the significance of heroes in the internet age, or Concrete Revolutio , which put the coopting of heroic ideals in a clear historic context. Self-reflection is always good - but that doesn't make My Hero Academia any less great. There are reasons we love heroes; clear, important reasons, reasons that inspire us to be greater, achieve more, be more charitable and strong. In challenging the simplicity of some views of heroism, we must not abandon or forget the reasons we collectively find heroes inspiring, and the true lessons we can draw from their actions.
My Hero Academia opens with a fairly routine shounen premise. Midoriya starts out without a superpower, a “Quirkless,” but through dedication and lucky circumstance, he ends up inheriting the strength of All Might, the greatest superhero. Of course, this power doesn't just fall into his hands; as All Might says, Midoriya embodies the “heroic spirit” even before he has the strength to back it up, and his journey to earn All Might's power involves grueling training and constant exertion. So far in the anime, Midoriya's ability to use his power has been pretty suspect; he generally destroys his own body every time he employs it, and most of the time simply gets by through optimism, clever application of his hero knowledge, and a dash of luck. More than anything else, Midoriya's “power,” and the power of the heroes who fight beside him, is their confidence in their eventual ability to succeed.
This fits nicely into Shounen Jump 's “friendship, training, victory” wheelhouse, but it's also a kind of optimism that digs at the nature of what makes heroes rightly inspiring. My Hero Academia 's heroes aren't just egotistical powerhouses or wild-eyed dreamers - they're passionate and dedicated individuals with clear goals. They work hard, set high but achievable expectations for themselves, and consistently move towards the place they want to be. Midoriya's childhood bully Bakugo is actually noteworthy because he's the one character who doesn't embody this dedicated spirit - he's angry and unstable, and the show does not try to apologize for this. Bakugo's behavior isolates him, while in contrast, his classmates are quick to acknowledge the efforts of their peers, expressing all the maturity you'd expect from high-achieving students at an elite academy. In a world that often distrusts heroes, My Hero Academia dares to imply that these heroes-in-training are not tortured or delusional, but simply people doing exactly what they think is best in the way they feel is most effective.
Of course, if My Hero Academia 's stars felt they could actually save the world themselves, they really would be unhinged dreamers. To think you can save the world requires not just a dangerous faith in your own idea of justice, but also a wild, absurd arrogance regarding the scale of your power. Heroes are single individuals - single individuals are not going to end poverty or solve systemic bigotry, regardless of how many villains they beat up. And some issues cannot be solved through force or effort whatsoever; some issues just come down to intractable differences of human priorities. No matter how hard you try, there is a limit to how much good any one individual can do.
In an era where “gritty reboots” have become common enough to be a cliche, many modern hero narratives simply end their message there, reveling in the dark contradictions of attempted heroism in a broken world. This kind of cynicism can be appealing, but it does not truly reflect either the nature of the world or the true value of heroic ideals. My Hero Academia 's optimism is not simply an ignorance of these ambiguities - heroes may not be able to save the world themselves, but what heroes can do is inspire belief in a better one. My Hero Academia 's stars look straight-on at the world and see a place full of violence and discord, and their response is neither “this is unfixable” nor “I can solve this.” Their response is “I can be better than this. And if I or anyone else can be better than this, than maybe we can help someone else to find that path.”
All Might articulates this directly, when he explains why Midoriya was allowed to pass the school exam. Midoriya's actions didn't conform to the challenges set before him, and ultimately almost got him killed - but through expressing the spirit of self-sacrifice and saving another, Midoriya inspired one more person to action. All Might's power “One for All” embodies this instinct - the power he uses, and the power that he passes on to My Hero Academia 's protagonist, is built on many generations of new heroes being inspired by old heroes' courageous actions. We need the optimism of shows like My Hero Academia precisely because the world is a dark place. We need faith in our ability to create a better world, and it is heroes that inspire that faith.
The opposite of heroism isn't villainy - it's terrorism. Terrorism generally isn't intended to actually “defeat” an enemy - it's designed to sow fear and discord, making people lose faith in their security and respond with violent actions themselves. In contrast, great heroes know they will not themselves fix the world, but believe that their actions can inspire optimism, confidence, and self-sacrifice in others. Great heroes lift us up and help us work to embrace our own better instincts. By sacrificing of themselves, heroes are able to go beyond human frailty and become an ideal.
Why is why it's so important that My Hero Academia 's heroes are, well, heroic. Not in that they are strong and have cool powers, but that they embody the tenets of classic heroism. Always putting on a strong face to inspire others, even when it's painful or they're not confident. Embracing a spirit of charity, even when it's not glamorous and won't win you fans. Demonstrating humility and grace in victory, and renewed determination in defeat.
By consciously struggling to embody these virtues, My Hero Academia 's heroes become something we can actually relate to. There's an element of performance in classic heroism, something that makes them more like rock stars or pop idols than police officers. Heroes must always be strong because they must represent strength - they must be our confidence, and show us how great we can be. And that “we can be” is a bit of a sticking point - heroes can't just inspire complacency, they must inspire people to heroism themselves. My Hero Academia 's stars aren't just strong - they embody a strength we believe we could make our own.
It's a form of aspirational identity you see in a lot of anime, from idol shows like Cinderella Girls to something like Madoka Magica . The work of becoming an ideal always means sacrificing of yourself, of being stronger than you think you can be. There's a tragedy in that, to the point where many would say this performative strength is not worth doing, or a lie. But belief in that “lie” is what helps us communally rise above and lift each other up. Saying things will be okay when you're not sure they will is an act of faith and compassion; becoming a symbol of that belief is the purest expression of self-sacrifice, is what being a hero truly means. |
From the released report.
Ask how many MQ-9 Reaper drones the US needs for pilot training, and the Air Force budget hawks charged with making that call have an exact figure at the ready: 52 unmanned aircraft, each at a sticker price north of $10 million and total operating cost upwards of $100 million over its lifetime.
But a freshly declassified October 2014 audit obtained by MuckRock via Freedom of Information request finds that the Air Force has few hard numbers to cement such seemingly precise estimates in its budget.
Two officials with the Air Combat Command, which heads up MQ-9 Reaper deployments for the Air Force, told the Defense Department inspector general that "they performed no analyses to justify the specified number of necessary training aircraft."
None.
From the released report.
Pentagon auditors struggled to divine precisely where the Air Force pulled its estimate of 52 MQ-9s required for training purposes, and found that some official documents contained "math errors" that put the number at 51, instead. The report concluded that the figure apparently had no basis in standard metrics, such as the "annual number of students to train, the number of training flights necessary to train each student, and the sustainable aircraft use rate."
Analysts were similarly puzzled to discover that the Air Combat Command "could not provide any support data" for its estimate that the Air National Guard would need 70 MQ-9 Reapers to operate across its 11 units.
Whether for actual missions or for testing and evaluation, the inspector general team found that the Air Force simply had not done its homework on how many MQ-9s it needs. When auditors requested documentation to back up inventory projections, Air Force officials "provided informal aircraft quantity determinations" and "verbally explained the basis of the planned quantity."
From the released report.
The Air Force contested the audit's findings, which were initially classified as "For Official Use Only" when announced in September, but released in full without redaction this past week in response to MuckRock's FOIA request. In a press release posted online in early October, top Air Force and Pentagon brass classified the Reaper drone as "a success story" and the audit as incomplete.
"The MQ-9 has played a vital role in combat operations and has resulted in saving American and coalition lives overseas," said Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael Vickers in the press release. "This is a capability that is in high demand."
"We're working hard to make more, as directed by the Secretary of Defense," echoed Lt. Gen. Robert Otto, Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
Image: US Air Force / Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt
Larger and more powerful than the MQ-1 Predator, per Air Force specs, the MQ-9 Reaper has a wingspan of 66 feet and a range of more than 1,000 miles without the need to refuel. The MQ-9 was introduced in 2001 as a multi-use platform—thus the "M", while the "Q" indicates that the unit is remotely piloted—outfitted to conduct intelligence missions, tactical missile strikes and "irregular warfare operations," to use military jargon.
The Reaper is also a rather expensive piece of hardware, and Pentagon watchdogs worry that cutting corners on budget paperwork risks wasting as much as $8.8 billion on aircraft the Air Force may not actually need.
In last year's budget request, the Air Force sought funds to purchase a total of 83 Reapers through 2019, including 12 over the coming year. Congress authorized more than $800 million in spending on the MQ-9 program in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015, a bill which President Obama signed into law in mid-December.
The last by-the-book budget document that auditors could dig up for the MQ-9 was signed in January 2007. At that time, the Air Force made a detailed accounting of its need for a total of 60 units, and passed that document around for vetting by all the right people.
Since then, the Air Force officials that oversee MQ-9 procurement and planning have expanded their estimate considerably, to 401 aircraft, per the report. The Air Force rebuttal contends that the most current figure is actually 346 Reapers, but it's a substantial expansion all the same.
Standard procedure, the report chides, dictates reupping budget approval for any deviation greater than 10 percent in cost or quantity. The audit calculated a staggering cost increase of 936 percent and an inventory projection increase of 568 percent, but found no documentation to support such ballooning.
Moving forward, overseers of the Air Force drone program "non-concur" with many of the inspector general's conclusions and calculations, but have agreed to update the necessary budget documents. One such meeting was slated to take place in December, with a target date of April 2016 to complete analysis. |
This volume deals with the religious practices of the family in the ancient Babylonian, Syrian, and Israelite civilizations. On the basis of a wealth of documents from both the private and the literary realm, the book gives an exhaustive description and analysis of the rites of the ancestor cult and the devotion to local gods. The author demonstrates the role of these two aspects of family religion in the identity construction of its followers. The section dealing with Israel pays particular attention to the relationship between family religion and state religion. The emergence of the state religion under King Saul marked the beginning of a competition between civil and private religion. Though the two had great influence upon each other, the tension between them was never resolved. A study of their interaction proves to be a key for the understanding of the development of Israelite religion during the monarchic period.
The book is of particular importance to biblical scholars, Assyriologists, and all those interested in the history of ancient Near Eastern religion. |
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Late last week, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction blocking attempts by Kansas, Alabama, and Georgia to require proof of citizenship to register to vote for the upcoming election. The order was the latest in a long-running battle between those who demand strict and often onerous requirements to casting a ballot in order to combat voter fraud, and those who consider these measures as nothing more than thinly veiled attempts to suppress minority voting.
The Supreme Court ruled three years ago that Arizona could not require proof of citizenship from people registering to vote using a federal registration form. But that didn’t stop anti-immigrant groups and conservative states from continuing to try. And those efforts, which resulted in the federal lawsuit that prompted last week’s injunction, have already created havoc and may have disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters in the run-up to the hotly contested presidential election this year.
Lloyd Leonard, the senior director for advocacy for the League of Women Voters, one of the plaintiffs in the case, says the stakes are high. He considers the number of citizens disenfranchised because they failed to produce citizenship documents, as they already have been in Kansas, potentially “outcome determinative” in an election. A loss would likely result in “a state-by-state fight in the battle over voter suppression,” which “we’re trying to nip that in the bud,” he says.
The lawsuit, League of Women Voters v. Newby, features a cast of characters who’ve been behind some of the nation’s most aggressive state anti-immigration legislation as well as restrictive voter ID laws. The litigation reveals how, despite multiple legal setbacks, they’ve found creative new targets and avenues to continue their fight for voting restrictions that could affect elections across the country. One of the leaders in that fight is Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has been on the front lines of the country’s anti-immigration battles for the past decade, and he has said he is an immigration adviser to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Kobach did not respond to a request for comment after Friday’s court decision, but he told the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal that “there is a huge potential for aliens’ votes to swing a close election. Even if it’s just a handful of votes, it’s still a huge injustice. Every time an alien votes, it effectively cancels out a vote of a U.S. citizen.”
“There is a huge potential for aliens’ votes to swing a close election. Even if it’s just a handful of votes, it’s still a huge injustice. Every time an alien votes, it effectively cancels out a vote of a U.S. citizen.”
The lawsuit involves an obscure federal agency called the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). In the wake of the controversial presidential election in 2000, Congress created the agency in 2002 as part of the Help America Vote Act, a law specifically designed to make voting easier. With two Republican and two Democratic commissioners, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, the commission has authority over the federal mail-in voter registration form. In January this year, the executive director of the EAC signed off on a request from Kobach to change that form used in Kansas to require proof of citizenship.
Kobach is no ordinary government official, and this was no ordinary request. The Harvard-Yale-Oxford lawyer has drafted some of the most extreme state anti-immigrant legislation, including the Arizona law the Supreme Court shot down in 2013, and he’s advised some of the nation’s most prominent nativists. Even though he was one of the losers in the 2013 Supreme Court case from Arizona, Kobach saw a road map to victory in the decision. In his majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia suggested that even though Arizona had violated the law by asking for citizenship papers without approval from the EAC, the agency had the power to authorize the state to add such a requirement to the federal registration form. Since 2006, several states, led by Arizona, have repeatedly and unsuccessfully asked the commission just that. After the 2013 Supreme Court decision, Kobach again asked the commission to allow Kansas to require citizenship papers to register to vote, arguing that it was essential to prevent voter fraud by “aliens.”
Again, in 2014, the commission said no, declaring that the states had presented virtually no evidence of the sort of voter fraud that would justify such a move. Kobach sued the commission, lost in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court rejected his appeal. But like all good lawyers, Kobach found another opening: the disarray at the EAC.
Justice Alito quipped, “The EAC currently has no members, and there is no reason to believe that it will be restored to life in the near future.”
The agency had gone many years without the requisite three members needed to make an official decision. (In a dissent in the 2013 Arizona case, Justice Samuel Alito quipped, “The EAC currently has no members, and there is no reason to believe that it will be restored to life in the near future.”) But in 2014, the Senate finally confirmed three commissioners, two Republicans and a Democrat—enough for a quorum.
In November 2015, the commissioners appointed Brian Newby as the EAC’s new executive director. Newby just happened to work for Kobach as a county election commissioner in Kansas. His former boss had lobbied the GOP members of the commission to hire his protegé—even as Kobach’s own office was investigating problems with Newby’s job performance. (Newby said that because of the ongoing litigation, he was unable to answer questions for this story.) In March this year, a state audit alleged that Newby had wasted state money, improperly purchasing goodies like Google glasses, taking limos to the airport even though he had a $300 monthly car allowance, and misusing government credit cards.
Emails obtained by the Associated Press showed that Newby was especially grateful for Kobach’s help getting the EAC job, for which he was saying “repeated prayers of thanksgiving.” Newby’s gratitude seemed to extend beyond prayers. According to the AP, Newby gushed in an email to Kobach that “I wanted you in the loop, in part because of other issues in the past with the EAC. I also don’t want you thinking that you can’t count on me in an upcoming period that will tax our resources.”
It didn’t take long for these assurances to become action. Just two months after taking the EAC job, Newby approved Kobach’s fifth request to allow Kansas to require proof of citizenship on its federal voter registration form. He also unilaterally granted similar requests from Alabama and Georgia that had been made roughly two and three years earlier—even though the EAC had previously denied the one from Georgia—without a vote from the commissioners.
Voting rights advocates, including the League of Women Voters and the American Civil Liberties Union, filed suit against Newby and the EAC in February, asking a DC federal judge to immediately block the change in the registration forms before the upcoming primary elections. US District Court Judge Richard Leon, appointed by President George W. Bush, refused. The hotly ideological legal battle has waged on ever since.
Kobach was not a party to the original suit, but he successfully petitioned the court to allow him to intervene. He argued that the Obama Justice Department was deeply opposed to proof-of-citizenship requirements and couldn’t be relied on to vigorously defend the agency. (He was right; the Department of Justice ultimately refused to defend Newby, arguing that his actions were blatantly illegal.)
“Both the courts and Congress recognize the right to vote as the cornerstone of our democratic system. One hopes that this latest court loss will prompt Mr. Kobach to move on and just let the people vote. Sadly, I’m not going to hold my breath.”
Representing Kobach were lawyers from the Immigration Reform Law Institute, an organization well known for its harsh anti-immigration advocacy. The Public Interest Legal Foundation also intervened on Newby’s behalf to advocate “voting integrity.” The foundation is made up of some former members of the George W. Bush administration who helped promote discredited claims of widespread voter fraud as a way of supporting voter suppression legislation in the states. One of the Republican EAC commissioners has also tried to join Kobach’s crusade independently, represented by lawyers from Judicial Watch, the group famous for its litigiousness against the Clinton and Obama administrations.
The lawsuit dragged on for more than six months, leaving the status of thousands of potential voters in limbo even as registration deadlines were fast approaching. Finally, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Judge Leon’s decision and issued an injunction requiring Kansas, Georgia, and Alabama to immediately remove the proof-of-citizenship language from their registration forms and to allow people who’d already tried to register without the citizenship paperwork to join the voter rolls. Orion Danjuma, a lawyer from the ACLU involved in the case, says, “Both the courts and Congress recognize the right to vote as the cornerstone of our democratic system. One hopes that this latest court loss will prompt Mr. Kobach to move on and just let the people vote. Sadly, I’m not going to hold my breath.”
Many citizens have already been affected. Alabama and Georgia claimed not to be enforcing the citizenship requirement during the litigation, but Kansas has been, even before the EAC authorized it. In a court hearing last week, Kobach said the state has put more than 17,000 people on what they refer to as a “suspense list” for failing to include citizenship proof with their federal registration forms; at times it has had as many as 35,000. Voting rights advocates believe most are citizens eligible to vote. They’re folks like Marvin Brown, who became an EAC plaintiff. He’s a 90-year-old World War II veteran who tried to register to vote in Kansas without proof of citizenship and was turned down.
Harder to quantify is how many eligible people the citizenship language deterred from registering at all. In legal filings, the League of Women Voters described some of the logistical difficulties the requirement has created. A League official in Kansas said in 2014, volunteers spent 32 hours visiting the homes of 115 people on the suspense list, in an outreach that netted only 30 completed voter registrations.
Litigation on the merits of the League’s lawsuit continues before Judge Leon in the trial court, meaning Kobach could still ultimately prevail, just not for this year’s election. Kobach plans to keep up the fight, all the way to the Supreme Court again if necessary. “This [is] about the rule of law,” Kobach told the Signal. “We have law-breaking when it comes to elections, and solving the problem is not difficult.” |
Would you travel over 14,000 miles every other weekend for an MBA? These hardy souls do it and don’t have too many qualms about the payback either.
(poetsandquants.com) — George Clooney, step aside.
You’re a piker next to Harsh Gupta, the quintessential “Up in the Air” road warrior (referring to the 2009 movie starring Clooney, who plays a consultant that travels over 300 days a year on business).
Every other weekend, Gupta flies 7,261 miles through 10 time zones from Dubai to Chicago simply to get an executive MBA degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Ill. All told, the roundtrip travel costs $4,800 a pop, consumes 30 hours in the air, and adds 14,522 miles to his frequent flyer account.
“I meet people and they ask, ‘So, where do you come from?’ When I say, ‘Dubai,” I see their jaws drop to their chests,” says Gupta, the chief executive of his own consumer electronics company. “It’s an expression that’s impossible to describe, but it is worth seeing.”
By the time he graduates with his executive MBA at year-end, Gupta will have spent 1,140 hours in the air — not including the inevitable flight delays and cancellations — traveling a total of over 500,000 miles just to get the degree. And he will have spent more money on business class airplane tickets — $182,400 — than the $153,900 cost of tuition. “But if I capitalize the expense over my life span,” he says, like a true MBA, “I am sure the returns will be far greater.”
An army of B-school globetrotters
Believe it or not, Gupta is hardly alone. Almost all of the premier business schools boast about full-time executives willing to endure the proverbial commute from hell to earn a prestige piece of parchment. These MBA road warriors make huge sacrifices in money and time to get an elite graduate business education, putting considerable strain on both their work lives and their families.
Indeed, even school administrators are bemused by these execs’ willingness to travel thousands of miles every other week to attend class. One executive MBA at IE Business School endures an eight-hour flight from his home country of India to the school in Madrid, Spain, every other week. “Can you imagine that?” says Dean Santiago Iniguez de Onzono. “It’s heroic.”
Consider Christopher Min, an American-born consultant for Accenture who lives in Seoul, South Korea: Every other Friday and Saturday, he sits in a San Francisco class, studying for an executive MBA at The Wharton School’s West Coast campus. Nearly one in every five students in the program comes from outside of California, but mostly from nearby states such as Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
Min clearly has the longest commute in his class — a 12-hour flight. “On Thursday, I board a flight to San Francisco, study eight hours on the plane, and arrive in California early afternoon on Thursday, rest and prepare for classes on Friday morning,” he says. “I then fly back to Seoul on Monday and arrive there on Tuesday evening.”
The schedule eventually got so grueling that Min decided to rent an apartment next to the Wharton building in San Francisco so he could occasionally spend two weeks working from the U.S. “You learn to adjust and make time out of seemingly full schedules to get school work done,” says Min.
Why does Min spend an extra $3,000 a month on airfare and put himself through the extra pressure of travel when he could have gotten a degree closer to home?
“I would be lying if I said I didn’t choose Wharton for the influence and prestige that comes with the Wharton brand,” he says. “In Korea, the name of the school one attends is a big deal.”
Making time for class, work, and, err, family?
Executive MBA programs are highly challenging experiences. In addition to holding down demanding full-time jobs, students typically spend 20 hours a week studying, alternating weekends in class and occasional residential weeks in far flung locales. Tacking on hours navigating airports across multiple time zones onto an already frenetic schedule can take its toll — particularly on those who have families.
Arun Sasikumar Nair commutes from Singapore to Toronto’s Rotman global executive MBA program — along with immersion weeks in Brazil, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Budapest. He got engaged a year and a half ago. “This experience has definitely tested our relationship and the strength of it,” he says. “Traveling every two or three months for extended periods of time is not easy on your partner or your family, for sure. They don’t get to see you…I think it would be extremely hard if someone didn’t have their partner’s undying support like I have.”
Some even gain comfort from the compartmentalization the traveling provides. Stephanie Carlton, a health policy adviser for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, doesn’t mind the 3,000-mile roundtrip commute to the University of Texas in Austin from Washington every other Thursday evening. “Traveling to Texas helps me separate work from school. When I’m in Washington, I focus on reforming Medicare and Medicaid. When I’m in Austin, I focus on Dr. Rao’s next corporate finance exam.”
Carlton is also going to Texas in part because the program is about $20,000 less expensive than Georgetown University’s offering, even after accounting for the travel costs. “There’s some economic logic to my commuting decision,” she says.
Recession makes a harsh commute even harsher
These already hellish commutes have grown even more tortuous because of cutbacks in both flight schedules and corporate support for executive education.
When Christopher Bouck initially signed up for Cornell University’s executive MBA program, airlines offered many direct flights to New York from the Cayman Islands, where he lives and works as an accounting manager for ABN AMRO. The Dutch bank also had a tuition reimbursement program.
“I thought I’d have it relatively easy,” Bouck says. “But as the economy unraveled, many airlines cut down the flights so now I have to fly using connections.” His job also closed the window on tuition reimbursement, forcing him to foot the entire $145,380 cost of the 22-month program. “A number of my classmates had their anticipated corporate funding dry up during this time as well,” he adds.
Despite the setbacks, Bouck went ahead, making the 3,000-mile roundtrip nearly every other weekend. Typically, he’ll work half a day on Friday and head to the airport for a 2 p.m. flight to Miami and arriving at Cornell by midnight for Saturday morning class. By Sunday afternoon, he’s heading home.
The experience has made him a “very efficient traveler, sort of like George Clooney in ‘Up in the Air,’” he says. “I travel in economy, but I get the best seats (reclining exit row window seats), go through the shortest lines, and I have everything ready ahead of time. I can move through an airport with lightning efficiency. That is a skill which will be with me for life.”
Those skills will be further tested when Bouck and his wife have their first child at the end of this month. “Having gone through this hectic schedule for about 20 months now, I feel a bit shell-shocked,” he admits. “Once it’s all over with, I’m sure I will look back and realize that all the travel, expense, and time away from home was a small price to pay for the experience, the friends that I have made, and my Ivy League degree.”
“Is it worth it?” he asks aloud. “Absolutely.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Harsh Gupta would need to travel over 20 million miles to complete his executive MBA degree. We have corrected this sentence with the proper mileage estimate, which is over 500,000 miles.
More from Poets&Quants:
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You Can’t Fire Everyone – Job jumping:
Are you a job hopper yourself or dealing with staffers who can’t fight the itch to switch? Tell us your stories. Email us at [email protected]. We’ll highlight the most interesting and instructional ones. |
China’s foreign minister warned his North Korean counterpart that the situation on the Korean Peninsula was close to “crisis point”, a day after the UN unanimously voted for its strongest economic sanctions yet against Pyongyang.
The vote, which gained approval from both China and Russia and aimed at depriving North Korea of $1bn in revenues, marked a victory for a US-led effort to form an international coalition to halt the country’s nuclear programme.
At a meeting on Sunday in the Philippine capital Manila, China’s Wang Yi told Ri Yong-ho of North Korea that the measures were “necessary, but not the end goal”, and that the aim was to bring the nuclear aspirant back to the table for talks.
He emphasised that the situation was “approaching a crisis point, and at the same time had become a turning point for returning to negotiations,” according to an account from China’s foreign affairs ministry.
The US resolution introduces an export ban on key products in retaliation for two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month — the first in North Korea’s history — although it stopped short of a ban on oil imports and air travel.
After talks with Mr Wang, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said President Vladimir Putin and China’s leader Xi Jinping would “pay special attention to the North Korea issue” at their next meeting in September.
In a meeting with Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, Mr Lavrov called any further escalation of tensions “inadmissible”, but said US military preparations around the Korean Peninsula were contributing to such escalation.
Mr Lavrov and Mr Tillerson were meeting for the first time since Washington broadened anti-Russian sanctions and enshrined them in law. Mr Lavrov told his US counterpart that the US sanctions law dealt “a powerful blow to the prospects for bilateral co-operation,” but Russia was “ready to normalise dialogue if Washington steps back from its confrontational line”.
On North Korea sanctions, Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN, said the UN vote had taken the penalties on Kim Jong Un’s regime “to a whole new level” and “put the North Korean dictator on notice”.
The sanctions impose a ban on coal — North Korea’s leading export, worth an estimated $400m a year — as well as seafood products, worth an additional $300m, plus iron ore, lead and lead ore, amounting to a shortfall of a third of annual revenues.
The US and its allies have sought for months to squeeze the Kim regime in an effort to bring it to the negotiating table and convince it to give up its rapidly developing nuclear programme. Mr Tillerson at the UN in April called for “ painful sanctions ” on North Korea.
US president Donald Trump made mention of China and Russia in a statement released over the weekend, saying he “appreciates” their co-operation in securing the resolution. He said he would work with allies and partners to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on the country.
Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, said his country supported the resolution because North Korea’s ballistic and nuclear programme was “inadmissible”, although he cautioned that sanctions alone were inadequate and called for talks.
Matthew Rycroft, UK ambassador to the UN, said the sanctions “ratchet up pressure” on North Korea. “Now they have a choice,” he said.
North Korea has topped Mr Trump’s foreign policy agenda since the beginning of his presidency. The ICBM tests have worried experts who fear they could put US territory in range of the nuclear weapons that Pyongyang is developing.
The Trump administration had been hoping to increase pressure on Pyongyang and cut off its economic umbilical cord. But China has often sought to steer a softer approach, advocating direct talks instead, although it has repeatedly said sanctions were appropriate in the case of nuclear or ICBM tests. More than 90 per cent of North Korean trade takes place with China.
The UN resolution, which also prohibits countries from increasing numbers of North Korean “guest” labourers and caps joint investments in the country, calls for the resumption of six-party talks. Mr Tillerson recently expressed a desire to open negotiations with North Korea in remarks likely to reassure China.
Although the US has said it would require North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions as a precondition for talks, South Korea has recently floated the idea of immediate face-to-face talks. |
Intel isn't the only company out there trying to play catch-up with ARMS and Qualcomm in rolling out processors suited for mobile devices. In the shadow of Intel's announcement of its next-gen Sandy Bridge processor at IDF, AMD is eagerly pointing at its own forthcoming contribution to smartphones and tablets: its series of Fusion APUs (accelerated processing units).
Like Intel, AMD faces the challenge of coming up with chips that are small enough to fit in the new breed of mobile devices, energy-efficient enough to keep machines running for hours on end, and powerful enough to meet the increasing computing demands of mobile users.
[ Keep up on the latest in mobile developments with InfoWorld's Mobile Patrol blog and Mobilize newsletter. ]
Those are hefty demands indeed: Mobile users will expect their portable mobile devices to more or less do what their desktop computers or laptops can, such as playing Internet-streamed music while the user jumps between email, Web browser, and other cloud-connected apps.
Chipmakers know that they can't rely on the server to do all the heavy lifting in the always-on world of cloud computing. Rather, data and processes are continually flowing between device and server, meaning both sides have a significant load to bear.
Lo, Intel and AMD are taking similar approaches to tackling the challenge: combining CPU and GPU cores on a single unit.
AMD's solution its Fusion APUs, which combines the company's dual low-power CPU cores, code-named Bobcat, with GPU cores derived from its Radeon line. AMD has added a Unified Video Decoder to the die as well. AMD has announced two flavors of Fusion: an 18-watt TDP APU code-named "Zacate" for notebooks, desktops, and all-in-ones, and a 9-watt model dubbed "Ontario" for netbooks and small-form-factor desktops and devices.
Intel, meanwhile, announced a processor of its own aimed at the demanding mobile-device space. Dubbed Sandy Bridge, it too combines processor core and the graphics on the same die. This differs from the approach the company took on its current Core i Series, where the graphics and processor are in a multichip. Intel's Turbo Boost technology, which turns cores on and off as needed, comes along for the ride on the Sandy Bridge and works for both graphics and processing.
Notably, AMD appears to be a step ahead of Intel in prepping a processor for tablets and similar lightweight computing devices. The company demonstrated its Fusion chips earlier this year at IFA in Berlin and says devices running the chips will emerge in the first quarter of 2011. Whether that applies to both Zacate and Ontario remains to be seen.
On the other hand, Intel has said that the first set of Sandy Bridge chips, also due out in Q1, will come out on laptops and desktops. Server and workstation chips will follow. As for smaller-form-factor devices, well, that's not clear. Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, told Computerworld that "the lessons they learn ... will help them scale the technology down to fit into other devices like slates and smartphones down the road."
This article, "Intel, AMD have similar designs on mobile devices," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. |
Louis Braille (1809-1852)
Six dots. Six bumps. Six bumps in different patterns, like constellations, spreading out over the page. What are they? Numbers, letters, words. Who made this code? None other than Louis Braille, a French 12-year-old, who was also blind. And his work changed the world of reading and writing, forever.
Louis was from a small town called Coupvray, near Paris—he was born on January 4 in 1809. Louis became blind by accident, when he was 3 years old. Deep in his Dad's harness workshop, Louis tried to be like his Dad, but it went very wrong; he grabbed an awl, a sharp tool for making holes, and the tool slid and hurt his eye. The wound got infected, and the infection spread, and soon, Louis was blind in both eyes.
All of a sudden, Louis needed a new way to learn. He stayed at his old school for two more years, but he couldn't learn everything just by listening. Things were looking up when Louis got a scholarship to the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris, when he was 10. But even there, most of the teachers just talked at the students. The library had 14 huge books with raised letters that were very hard to read. Louis was impatient.
Then in 1821, a former soldier named Charles Barbier visited the school. Barbier shared his invention called "night writing," a code of 12 raised dots that let soldiers share top-secret information on the battlefield without even having to speak. Unfortunately, the code was too hard for the soldiers, but not for 12-year-old Louis!
Louis trimmed Barbier's 12 dots into 6, ironed out the system by the time he was 15, then published the first-ever braille book in 1829. But did he stop there? No way! In 1837, he added symbols for math and music. But since the public was skeptical, blind students had to study braille on their own. Even at the Royal Institution, where Louis taught after he graduated, braille wasn't taught until after his death. Braille began to spread worldwide in 1868, when a group of British men, now known as the Royal National Institute for the Blind, took up the cause.
Now practically every country in the world uses braille. Braille books have double-sided pages, which saves a lot of space. Braille signs help blind people get around in public spaces. And, most important, blind people can communicate independently, without needing print.
Louis proved that if you have the motivation, you can do incredible things.
Where Can I Find a Picture of Louis Braille?
Learn more in the Louis Braille Online Museum—200 Years: The Life and Legacy of Louis Braille
Return to What is Braille? | Return to Home Page |
Coal seam gas explorer Metgasco will press for a multi-million dollar compensation payment from the NSW government after the Supreme Court overturned a ministerial decision to ban it from drilling in the politically sensitive Northern Rivers region.
The NSW Supreme Court on Friday struck down a decision last May by NSW Energy Minister Anthony Roberts to suspend Metgasco's drilling permit for the Rosella well near Lismore. The well was opposed by strong local protests and a campaign by radio presenter Alan Jones.
Metgasco managing director Peter Henderson said he was relieved at the court's decision and "It's an important decision for the resources industry. Had it gone against us it would have scared investors off from coming to NSW," Mr Henderson said.
Protesters at the Metgasco drill site near Lismore, NSW last year. The Supreme Court has overturned a moratorium on drilling in the Northern Rivers region.
only for the $3 million cost of abandoning drilling last May but also for the 40 per cent drop in share price Metgasco after Mr Robert's announcement. "The government's decision did us a lot of damage," he said.
Mr Henderson said the government needed to take control of the energy debate, which had been hijacked by the Greens. Mr Henderson said the court ruling showed that while companies were obligated to conduct community consultation this did not mean waiting until all the locals agreed. |
When Emperor Island was first discovered off the coast of Antarctica back in 1948, it was so named for the thriving colony of around 300 penguins that met there each year to breed. Just over sixty years later, however, there's not a single penguin in sight -- and researchers suspect that melting off from global warming may be to blame for the colony's disappearance. Emperor penguins typically return to breed and nest in the same place that they themselves were born, but this is the first time biologists have recorded a complete collapse of a once healthy colony -- though it's not entirely unexpected given recent changes in sea ice levels. The breeding colony on Emperor Island, off the West Antarctic Peninsula, was first observed to be declining in the late 1970s, until a aerial survey conducted in 2009 revealed that no birds were there at all.
Researchers aren't entirely certain what is behind the unprecedented disappearance of the Emperor penguin colony, though a team of scientists studying the phenomenon theorize that rising temperatures in the region may have made the island a less-than ideal breeding ground. "The one site in Antarctica where we have seen really big changes is the West Antarctic Peninsula," says Philip Trathan of the British Antarctic Survey.
A report from LiveScience offers more details on the team's findings:
Data collected from a station about 25 miles (40 kilometers) away shows a marked increase in air temperature; meanwhile, the local sea ice in the area has been forming later and melting earlier. One study published in 2007 in the Journal of Geophysical Research found that between 1979 and 2004 in this region, sea ice began advancing about 54 days later and retreating 31 days earlier. (This trend does not hold for all of Antarctic waters, but, ultimately, Antarctic sea ice is expected to shrink significantly.) In addition to destroying colony habitat, warming and the loss of sea ice could indirectly affect the penguins by reducing the availability of the fish, krill and squid they eat, or by increasing the presence of predators, such as giant petrels, the authors write.
Because this is the first time such a disappearance has been observed, the research team is reluctant to say that changes in sea ice levels ultimately caused the penguin colony to die-off entirely, or if they simply relocated. "That's one of the big unknowns," says Trathan.
While penguins living in the Antarctic may be the first to be impacted by rising global temperatures and melting polar ice, they certainly won't be the last. Experts predict that sea levels could rise by over four feet by the end of the next century alone. Worse still, if the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt entirely, the sea levels could rise some 20 more feet, rendering coastal communities across the globe as virtually unrecognizable, devoid of its previous inhabitants -- a bit like Emperor Island nowadays, perhaps.
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More on Melting in Antartica
Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier Detached From Underwater Ridge
Melting Polar Ice Will Raise Sea Levels Over 4.5 ft by 2100
25% Higher Sea Level Rise Than Predicted If West Antarctic Ice Sheet Melts |
Living together seems to be a great financial move so far. With four adults splitting the mortgage and other costs, it is easier for each of us to save more of our income, which will give us the financial freedom to pay for childcare or reduce our work hours later, when we need more time and money for our families. We can also more easily afford investments in the house itself, like installing solar panels or weather proofing the attic, which will reduce our carbon footprint and save us more money in the long run.
What if something goes wrong and one couple breaks up or some or all of decide we can’t stand to be crowded together in one house with growing families? We’ve started a series of discussions and are drafting a four-way contract now—when times are good and our relations with each other are strong—for these kind of contingencies. Our legal agreement, almost like a pre-nup, has provisions for if one of us dies, or falls behind on our payments, or if one couple moves out but the remaining couple needs to buy their equity gradually over several years so financial strain won’t force them to sell the house and move.
But beyond all these practical and financial aspects of the arrangement, the real advantage of co-housing is how living together curbs feelings of isolation. People talk a lot about how important it is to have privacy, but I’ve noticed that my own desire for privacy is sometimes more of an excuse not to take social risks. What I’ve learned from a decade of living with other people is that it is actually really good to have people in my life who see me in moments when I’m openly struggling—not just when I’m doing well. The times I would never post about on Facebook. But it’s usually those moments, when I probably most need to connect with friends, that I’m least likely to make plans to see them. Particularly for introverts like me, it’s easy if I’m feeling tired or discouraged to want to just escape by sitting at home and watching Netflix.
For many people, their romantic partner is the one person with whom they feel comfortable showing their struggles or weaknesses. While Rebecca and I certainly support each other in that way, it has actually been great for our relationship that we don’t try to be each other’s only source of support and amateur therapy.
Good housemates can help share that load and can also come in pretty handy as counselors or mediators when there are challenges with the relationship itself. This happened not that long ago, when, like most engaged couples, the stress of the final weeks of “wedding-planning jail” was bringing out the worst in us. Rebecca and I were on the road to spending a whole evening fighting about when and how we could possibly get everything done (instead of actually doing anything of course). Luckily, we realized we were stuck and decided to reach out to our smart and caring housemate who was just one room away. She helped us work through the jumble of stress and raw feelings that our fight was surfacing and we both left the conversation feeling a whole lot better.
I certainly still have fears. I worry that one day, maybe we’ll stop getting along, or we’ll decide that the house isn’t big enough for the increasing number of people, or that our careers will pull us toward living in different cities. Our house family may break apart. But just like with my marriage, my hopes for how much richer our lives can be together are stronger than my fears about what could go wrong. |
In this photo taken Jan. 26, 2016, the empty playground at Trinity Lutheran Church in Columbia, Mo. Justice Neil Gorsuch's first week hearing Supreme Court arguments features a case that's giving school choice advocates hope for an easier use of public money for private, religious schools in dozens of states. The long-delayed argument Wednesday, April 19, 2017, deals with whether Missouri should pay for a soft surface at the church playground. (Annaliese Nurnberg/Missourian via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court signaled Wednesday that it will decide an important case on the separation of church and state in favor of a Missouri church that wants state money to put a soft surface on its preschool playground.
The case is being closely watched by proponents of school vouchers, who hope a broad ruling would remove obstacles to voucher programs in some states.
Liberal and conservative justices alike seemed troubled by Missouri’s decision to exclude the church from a grant program that pays for playground surfaces made of recycled tires.
The court did not appear ready to scuttle the case, even after Gov. Eric Greitens, R-Mo., announced last week that he was changing the policy that said churches couldn’t participate in the program.
The justices posed a stream of hypothetical questions to both sides that were aimed at finding the right line between the improper mixing of government and religion on the one hand and discrimination against religious institution on the other.
“This church-state divide, it’s a fraught issue. It’s a hard issue,” Justice Elena Kagan said.
The case grows out of a lawsuit filed by Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri, after it lost out on a grant for its playground in 2012 despite being ranked fifth out of 44 applicants.
The state said its decision not to give the church any money was based on a provision of the Missouri Constitution that explicitly prohibits using public money to aid a religious institution. Roughly three dozen states have similarly worded provisions.
“All we’re talking about is a safer surface on the playground for when kids plays,” David Cortman, the church’s lawyer, told the court.
James Layton, representing Missouri’s director of natural resources, faced considerably tougher questions from the justices.
In response to a question from Justice Stephen Breyer, Layton said the state could not deprive the church of police, fire and public health protection without violating the U.S. Constitution.
That concession prompted Justice Stephen Breyer to ask how the state could prohibit money from going to the same place “for helping children not fall in the playground, get tetanus, break a leg, whatever.”
Layton suggested one difference is that the playground program involves a direct payment to the church.
“Writing a check that says payable to Trinity Lutheran Church ought to be on the other side of the line,” Layton said.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor sounded most skeptical of the church’s position.
“This church is not going to close its religious practices or its doors because its playground doesn’t have these tires. So I’m not sure how this is a free-exercise question, because there is no effect on the religious beliefs. No one is asking the church to change its beliefs,” Sotomayor said.
Cortman replied that the church is, in effect, being coerced into a choice. “You can’t ... operate this day care as a religious organization and receive the public benefit,” he said.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, hearing the highest-profile case in his first days on the court, was quiet until almost the end of the hourlong argument. When he spoke, he indicated he was likely to rule for the church.
Gorsuch laid out a broad conception of religious liberty in a decade as a federal appeals court judge. On Wednesday, he suggested it might be easier for the court to draw a bright line in favor of religion.
“Well, discrimination on the basis of status of religion, there’s no line-drawing problem there. We know that’s happened in this case, right?” Gorsuch said.
A decision in Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, 15-577, is expected by late June. |
The death of the NFL as a television ratings juggernaut narrative is aging about as well as those "Aaron Rodgers is as good as Brian Hoyer now" pieces from a couple months back.
After a regular season in which ratings dipped for some wretched primetime tilts, the postseason sees the NFL back in its customary place of peerless dominance.
According to Variety, the Packers' insta-classic win over the Cowboys drew a massive 28.2 overnight household rating, a figure that surpasses even Game 7 of the Cubs-Indians World Series, which drew 40 million viewers in November.
FOX, which also aired that Cubs Game 7 triumph, announced that the Packers-Cowboys set a new bar in the business.
The numbers for Sunday's late game weren't quite as huge, but they were historic. The Steelers' 18-16 win over the Chiefs drew a 21.9 overnight household rating, the highest number ever for a primetime playoff game.
Steelers-Chiefs was moved to primetime when a phantom ice storm prompted the NFL to shift the game out of its early afternoon time slot. One wonders if this primetime ratings success will have NFL officials considering making the primetime spot permanent in the future.
The only negative for the league? The Cowboys' crushing loss moves them off the grid until next September, ending any dreams of a Cowboys-Patriots Super Bowl matchup that would garner enough ratings to shatter the space-time continuum.
We imagine the league will find the courage to fight on. |
Police are looking for a car driver who abused a group of cyclists before hitting one of them with the car and driving off in Melbourne's bayside area.
Police have been told a silver sedan was driving north along Marine Parade near Dickens Street in Elwood when the driver had an argument with the group of cyclists just before 1pm.
The vehicle then turned left into St Kilda Marina car park when it collided with a 32-year-old male cyclist.
Police said the cyclist received bruising to his leg and his bike was badly damaged.
The silver sedan did not stop at the scene and a subsequent search of the area by police failed to find the vehicle.
Police are appealing for witnesses and anyone with information about the collision is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit www.crimestoppers.com.au. |
SYDNEY backman Jeremy Laidler has retired after a 10-year career and will become a development coach at the club.
Laidler, 28, played 87 matches for Geelong, Carton and the Swans.
He was selected by the Cats with pick No. 32 in the 2007 rookie draft and played two games in three years before being traded to the Blues at the end of 2010.
The defender played 19 games in his first season at Carlton but just a combined five in the next two years, prompting a move to Sydney at the end of 2013 as a delisted free agent.
He lined up in 58 matches over the next three years, including last year's Grand Final loss to the Western Bulldogs.
Laidler managed just three games this season.
He told sydneyswans.com.au of his gratitude to the club.
"Coming into the AFL system, I wasn't sure if my career would last two years, so I feel really fortunate to have played for 10. Although it was a rollercoaster along the way, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at all three clubs," Laidler said.
"This year I did some work with the Sydney Swans Academy and I loved my time there, so to be given this opportunity by the Swans I am very grateful and excited by the challenge."
Football manager Tom Harley said Laidler was a welcome addition to the club's coaching panel.
"Jeremy has always displayed a tremendous work ethic and mature outlook, and we look forward to him continuing to work with our younger players," Harley said. |
For more than a decade, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority has treated the Atlantic as its very own graveyard , tossing thousands of old subway cars off a barge to rust away on the ocean floor. An environmental crime? Hardly . The program creates habitats for marine life from Georgia to Jersey and gives New York’s aging subway cars a vibrant (and free!) retirement home.
Now, New York photographer Stephen Mallon has captured the MTA’s artificial reef program in a gobstopping collection of stills that look like what you’d get if you combined an Ed Burtynsky series with the freeze frames of The Matrix and the train porn of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (without the agro hostage situation). We’ve got lots of details on the program and a selection of Mallon’s photographs above. |
I’ve been thinking about reviewing garments from The Real McCoy’s for some years now, but given I already own a few Buzz Rickson jackets and way too many Japanese jeans, a proper McCoy’s review kept being pushed back.
Now that The Real McCoy’s are in Australia, there’s no excuse any longer. So, here it is finally, a McCoy’s review – a pair of their Joe McCoy boots no less!
Overview
The boots we’re looking at today is a pair of ’10 Mile’ monkey boots under the Joe McCoy (work & sports-wear reproduction) sub-brand.
These ’10 Mile’ boots are based on American roofer boots from the middle of the twentieth century, so the styling here is a little more old-school and rugged compared with modern day monkey boots, e.g. the Tricker’s monkey boots reviewed on this blog some months ago.
This particular style of shoe is not often reproduced, the only widely sold version being Thorogood’s portage boots, which are reproductions of their own styles from decades ago – notice, though, the original version were constructed using the stitch-down method (as is this Joe McCoy boot), whereas modern Thorogood boots are Goodyear welted.
Joe McCoy’s monkey boots are offered in all black horsehide, all brown horsehide, or the multi-leather version you see here.
Shape & Fit
The ’10 Mile’ boot is D-width and laced-to-toe. The toe box is fairly tall and reasonably wide – this is a work boot after all – the fit being immediately comfortable.
The boot tapers inward after the toe box, though the instep, ankle and heel are not too tight at all. I suspect the very soft steerhide suede adds to the comfort too. The fit throughout is a bit more snug compared with most Pacific Northwestern stitch-down boots from the USA, which tend to fit generously, as they are true work boots.
Given this is a roofer style boot, the tightness of the shaft is very easily adjusted by changing the tension in the lacing. The overall shape from any angle is not clunky, but is in fact quite sleek from the vamp to the top edge.
Apart from the horsehide used on the vamp/toe and the back-stay, the leathers used in the rest of the upper are very soft, so comfort levels should be very high unless your feet width is above E.
The sizing is similar to Pacific Northwestern stitch-down boots, e.g. White’s, Nick’s, Wesco, etc. Take your true Brannock’s US size if you want to wear these boots with thick work-socks, or size down half to pair with casual socks.
Leather
The leathers on the ’10 Mile’ boots are Japanese vegetable tanned horsehide, though on the multi-leather version vegetable tanned steerhide suede and oil-tanned cattlehide also feature.
The horsehide used for the toe and the backstay is very nice quality indeed, the colour being more purple than brown under natural sunlight. It is fairly oily for a vegetable tanned leather, and the grain is very much alive and not over-corrected.
The steerhide suede is high quality, with a fine and dense nap. The temper of the suede is much softer compared with the horsehide.
Finally, the tongue is made with a remarkably soft white leather, which I think is oil tanned. All in all, the materials here are retro, but top-class.
Construction
The first aspect of these boots that caught my attention was the precision of the stitch-down! Hands down the cleanest and most consistent double stitch-down I’ve seen, trumping everything that I’ve personally handled from North America in recent years. (Check out my American boot reviews to see where the standard lies nowadays.)
Not only is the stitching precise, but how the edges have been cut and burnished is also remarkable. There are two layers of natural vegetable tanned leather as mid-soles, so, adding the uppers, there are three to four layers of leather at the front of the boot – all seamlessly combined. The mid-sole construct on this pair puts my recently reviewed Nick’s oxford shoes to shame, really.
Two thread colours are used on the uppers, in single and double row configurations. The stitching is dense, neat and very consistent. Some of the nicest stitch-work I’ve seen on a work boot.
The edge burnishing is also very nicely done on the sole unit.
There is nothing I could find to complain about really. All the pieces of leather on the upper fit together nicely, and the mid-sole and edges are remarkably clean.
The top edge, with the addition of a stitched collar, is cut very precisely.
Sole Unit & Misc.
Steel eyelets and speedhooks are used – sturdy and well placed.
The waxed laces are great quality too, tying and draping nicely.
A woven tag features inside the tongue.
The inside of the boots are fully lined with leather.
The unit crepe sole is customised.
All in all, excellent specs.
Opinion
Overall? Fantastic boots!
These ’10 Mile’ monkey boots from The Real McCoy’s is the most well made pair of stitch-down work boots I’ve come across in person just yet.
Generally speaking, most North American stitch-down makers are producing work that is less precise compared with Japanese makers nowadays; these monkey boots are a good reminder of the level of neatness that one could expect on a nice pair of stitch-downs.
As far as reproduction roofer boots go, these are the best stock boots that money can buy. At 108, 000 yen, you could buy 3 pairs of Thorogood’s version of the roofer boot for the same cost, but the quality of these McCoy boots simply cannot be beat.
McCoy’s boots occupy a fairly small niche though: The Real McCoy’s boots are fairly expensive as far as work-wear footwear goes, and I know that for many readers, paying the same money for a customised or even bespoke pair of shoes would prove to be the better proposition (value wise).
Ultimately, McCoy’s leather products are made for hobbyists with genuine passion in work-wear and military-wear reproduction and folks for whom money is no consideration. The Real McCoy’s sit in the top tier of Japanese heritage brands, alongside The Flat Head, etc, so if you like vintage inspired clothing, McCoy’s boots are a must see!
These ’10 Mile’ monkey boots, along with other Joe McCoy boots and Buco engineer boots can be ordered through Godspeed Store. Simply send Marty an e-mail.
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Jon Taylor has signed a three-year deal after agreeing terms on a move to Rotherham
Rotherham have broken their transfer record to sign Peterborough winger Jon Taylor on a three-year deal.
The transfer, which is subject to EFL and FA ratification, sees the player end a two-year stay at the ABAX Stadium to step up a division into the Championship with Alan Stubbs' side.
Taylor, 24, had a medical with Rotherham on Wednesday morning before he moved for an undisclosed fee to the Yorkshire team.
Manager Stubbs told the club's official website: "The fact that we have broken our club record transfer fee just shows you what we think of Jon and what he can bring to the football club.
"He is a very dynamic footballer who has got an eye for a goal. He is also a creative player and I think that he will be an excellent addition to the squad.
"He fits the profile of the players that we are looking to bring here. His role within the team will be to be dynamic.
"He is very quick, he looks like he enjoys taking defenders on which is great to see. I think he will be a very exciting player."
Alan Stubbs (right) has paid a club record fee to bring Taylor to Rotherham from Peterborough
Taylor was a regular for Peterborough during his two seasons there and scored 13 goals in 51 appearances last term.
He is Rotherham's sixth summer signing ahead of their Championship opener this weekend at home to Wolves.
Anthony Forde, Lewis Price, Jake Forster-Caskey, Will Vaulks and Kelvin Wilson have also penned deals at the New York Stadium. |
Image caption The diplomat had been serving in Brasilia for two years
The Iranian government says it has sacked a diplomat accused of molesting at least four girls at a swimming pool in Brazil.
The official, Hekmatollah Ghorbani, was arrested last month following the alleged incident at a sports club.
He was freed later after invoking diplomatic immunity, but was recalled to Teheran.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry says an investigation found that his behaviour was contrary to "Islamic moralities".
The incident led to official protests by the Brazilian government, which has good political and trade relations with Iran.
Brazil's Foreign Minister, Antonio Patriota, said the allegations were "very worrying" and asked Iran to investigate.
The diplomat, who had been in his post for two years, was accused of inappropriately touching at least four girls aged between nine and 15 at a private swimming pool in the capital, Brasilia, last month.
In a statement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry explained why Hekmatollah Ghorbani, who is 51 and married with children, was sacked from the diplomatic service.
"Following an investigation into the violations by the Iranian employee of the Iranian embassy in Brazil, it was confirmed that he had failed to comply with administrative regulations and professional and Islamic moralities."
Cultural clash
The Iranian government initially defended the diplomat.
Speaking on Iranian state TV, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the allegations were a result of a "cultural misunderstanding".
He said the Western media's reporting of the alleged incident was being used for "political gain" against Iran.
But Mr Mehmanparast said being at a mixed-sex swimming pool was considered "a disciplinary violation" and that Mr Ghorbani had been "summoned home at once".
Under Iranian law, men and women of any age are not allowed to share a swimming pool.
A number of Iranian MPs have called on the diplomat to issue an apology.
The Islamic Republic is keen to build an alliance with Brazil - a rising world power that may act as a counterweight to the influence of the West, says the BBC's Iran correspondent James Reynolds. |
With no label, manager or radio play, the DIY collective’s punk principles made them the stuff of legend. Now, with a little help from Stormzy, they’re back
Last December, the bookies were worried. For a moment it looked like a grime track might cause a Corbyn-sized upset and nick the Christmas No 1. Stormzy’s Shut Up had raced 99 chart places to No 8 in a week, carried on a wave of social media love. It featured the MC rapping over a synthetic ballad with snares as crisp as the melody was misty-eyed.
The track sounded like break-up music from the far future, but in reality the instrumental had been written by underground grime greats Ruff Sqwad well over a decade before. Never signed to a record deal, and with much of their work only available as dodgy pirate radio rips, Ruff Sqwad have remained obscure to all but the grime hardcore for years. But thanks in part to Stormzy’s endorsement these innovators are stepping back into the light.
A loose collective of DJs and MCs drawn from the estates of Bow in east London, Ruff Sqwad were DIY grime stars back when a career could be sustained by record sales alone. They self-released over 20 singles between 2003 and 2006, and kept 100% of the profits. While they never had witless A&R men on their backs, they also never had the blanket advertising and radio pluggers that major labels bring. As a result, their music was huge on pirate radio but non-existent in the mainstream. This punkish mix of integrity and obscurity has made their catalogue the stuff of legend: Ruff Sqwad records change hands for triple figures online.
“Our sound was very futuristic,” reminisces Ruff Sqwad MC Slix, trying to pinpoint why it’s taken until now for the crew to get their dues. “A lot of people appreciated it, but a lot of people just didn’t understand it…”
A history of grime, by the people who created it Read more
A compilation of the group’s instrumentals was reissued in 2012, finally making their thrilling futurism available to a new generation. Now, with Ruff Sqwad’s sound seeping into the mainstream, fans are getting a rare chance to see the originals in action. The group are reuniting for a one off show in Brixton this week. It will see core members Slix, Rapid and Dirty Danger reunited with Tinchy Strider, the MC who left the crew to achieve chart-topping success, securing a place in the history books for grime’s weirdest collab: a duet with the Chuckle Brothers.
The others don’t begrudge Tinchy his success: they’re happy with their status as underground greats. As Slix puts it: “Ruff Sqwad were the Arsenal of grime. We were always top four, but in terms of silverware, in terms of a big record deal, we never really got there. But like Arsenal are more about the football, we were more about the art.”
Ruff Sqwad will appear at Just Jam, Electric Brixton, SW2, Friday 29 April |
Flaws in software run by a range of microprocessors could be widespread in embedded systems, security experts and the Department of Homeland Security are warning.
A serious security hole in software that runs millions of embedded systems could leave them open to remote hacking, the Department of Homeland Security warns.
The MQX real time operating system (or RTOS) from the firm NXP Semiconductors has a serious and remotely exploitable hole that could allow an attacker to take control over a wide range of embedded devices using a trivial software based attack, the Department of Homeland Security Industrial Control System Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) warned in an Advisory issued October 12.
MQX is a common operating system on embedded systems that use a wide range of micro controllers by the firm NXP. They include a wide range of industrial control equipment. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities may allow a remote attacker to cause a buffer overflow condition that may, in turn, cause remote code execution or out-of-bounds read conditions, resulting in a denial of service.
Flaws in the NXP ColdFire Microprocessor could be widespread in embedded systems, security experts warn.
MQX is used by NXP ColdFire micro controllers, a common component of embedded devices including industrial control systems used in power plants and water treatment facilities, according to Billy Rios, the founder and CEO of the firm Whitescope. It is also the operating system used by a wide range of other micro controllers including Kinetis, i.MX processors, and Vybrid model processors.
The devices are the brains of a wide range of embedded devices – from small to mid range routers and switches to more specialized products and Internet of Things devices said Deral Heiland, the research lead for Internet of Things technology at the firm Rapid 7. Heiland said he has come across both ColdFire and iMX processors in his research on Internet of Things devices.
The vulnerabilities in MQX were discovered by the security researcher Scott Gayou, a security engineer at the firm Garmin. They include a buffer overflow vulnerability in MQX’s DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol) client. That could allow a malicious DHCP packet to allow memory on the device to be overwritten with – for example – malicious code or commands. That flaw affects devices running MQX Version 5.0 and earlier. A second vulnerability in the DNS (domain name system) client for MQX could allow attacker to use a specially crafted DNS packet to cause memory to be read out of bounds, causing the device to crash. That flaw affects devices running MQX Version 4.1 and prior.
Heiland said the DNS vulnerability is the less dangerous of the two, as it would only be used for a so-called “denial of service” attack against vulnerable devices. The DHCP vulnerability is much more serious, especially since embedded devices typically have fewer built in protections than modern operating systems against buffer overflow attacks. “You’d have to dig into the specifics of each processor to see if they have any protections like address space randomization, but they often don’t exist in embedded devices,” he said. That makes buffer overflows – an older class of attacks – quite potent on those devices.
Devices running vulnerable versions of MQX could only be remotely hacked if they were reachable by the public Internet and were listening for DHCP communications – a dangerous scenario, but not out of the question, Heiland said. MQX includes a web server client and a search of the Internet reveals about 1,600 MQX devices that are publicly accessible. The bigger danger, said Heiland, may be devices that are not publicly addressable, but that can serve as stepping stones or staging platforms for attackers who already have access to a sensitive corporate environment.
“If you’re an attacker who has gained a foothold on a network, you know they’re monitoring Windows and Mac and Linux. But you can be pretty sure they’re not monitoring their embedded devices,” Heiland said. “So these devices are potential entry and exit points someone can leverage.”
NXP is planning to release a fix for MQX (Version 5.1) by January, 2018, ICS CERT said. The company recommends applying a “code modification” to devices running version 5.0. That modification can be obtained from the company. Users of Version 4.1 of MQX can upgrade to version 4.2 or 5.0 of MQX to remove the out-of-bounds read vulnerability that leaves devices vulnerable to the denial of service attacks.
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de Red. Stiri
Marţi, 31 martie 2015, 13:03
HotNews.ro a transmis LIVE TEXT conferinta
Klaus Iohannis a afirmat ca cea mai mare nemultumire a sa in primele o suta de zile de mandat este legate de "modul in care Parlamentul continua sa trateze cererile justitiei"."Dar si faptul ca promisiunea de a face mai transparente si mai simple procedurile care privesc incuviintarea cererilor justitiei nu a fost onorata inca de partide. Fiecare episod in care justitia este blocata in Parlament inseamna un pas inapoi in recastigarea increderii publice si o sursa de pierdere a legitimitatii. Iar efectele depasesc momentul unui vot", a spus acesta.
Reamintim ca Iohannis a marcat implinirea celor o suta de zile si printr-un clip video postat pe contul sau de Facebook .
Iata mai jos declaratiile facute de Klaus Iohannis (sursa - Administratia Prezidentiala):
Dragi romani, au trecut primele 100 de zile din mandatul meu de Presedinte. Unii se intreaba de ce nu am vorbit mai mult in aceasta perioada. De ce nu am eu prima reactie la fiecare breaking news. De ce nu admonestez public alte institutii. De ce nu critic zilnic alti politicieni. Foarte simplu. Pentru ca nu acesta este rolul unui Presedinte. Si pentru ca aceasta a fost prima mea promisiune: alt mod de a face politica, fara galagie si spectacol; mai putine vorbe de dragul vorbelor si mai multa constructie; cu ratiune si rabdare.
Aceste 100 de zile, dincolo de actiunile concrete, au fost despre valori si despre modul in care ele pot sa ne transforme viata. A fost important, pentru mine, sa reafirm increderea in niste principii pe care comportamentul altor oameni politici in exercitiul puterii le-au golit de continut. Romania lucrului bine facut este posibila: o tara care stie ce vrea si care poate ceea ce vrea. Acesta este un proiect de vindecare pentru tara , care cere o conditie simpla pentru a functiona: sa ne vedem fiecare de treaba, cu toata responsabilitatea.
, care cere o conditie simpla pentru a functiona: sa ne vedem fiecare de treaba, cu toata responsabilitatea. Am spus ca voi fi un presedinte mediator si integrator. Dupa ani de zile de conflict permanent, am asezat la masa dialogului partidele politice, reprezentanti ai institutiilor, societatea civila, pe diferite teme. Unul dintre rezultate a fost semnarea acordului pentru cresterea bugetului Apararii. In aceasta perioada am trimis la reexaminare cateva legi. Va spun foarte limpede. Eu nu ma joc cu legile tarii noastre. Eu nu folosesc aceasta prerogativa a Presedintelui nici ca sa ma rafuiesc cu cineva, nici ca sa raspund la vreun interes particular. Pur si simplu nu promulg legi care nu respecta principii constitutionale sau obligatii ale statului roman.
Un alt lucru despre care am vorbit a fost refacerea increderii intre stat si cetatean, dar si aplicarea legii pentru toti. Participarea mea la momente de bilant ale unor institutii din sfera justitiei, apararii si securitatii nationale a fost un semn de recunoastere a activitatii lor. Dar am dorit sa subliniez si faptul ca toate institutiile statului sunt in serviciul cetateanului si sunt chemate sa apere democratia.
Am auzit si intrebarea de ce face Presedintele atatea vizite externe, de ce nu sta acasa cu ochii pe televizor sau pe partide . Pentru ca politica externa este un atribut fundamental al Presedintelui. Si mai ales pentru ca o politica externa puternica si eficienta inseamna un stat puternic si eficient pentru cetatenii sai. Nu cred ca gresesc daca afirm ca in aceste 100 de zile Romania a reinceput sa-si dobandeasca respectul si credibilitatea in marile capitale europene si din lume. In acest scurt interval am avut marea bucurie sa ma intalnesc cu o parte dintre reprezentantii comunitatilor de romani de peste granita, sa le multumesc personal pentru patriotismul lor. Regret ca n-am reusit sa-i cunosc decat pe foarte putini dintre ei. Iar promisiunea mea este ca voi merge in lunile urmatoare in cat mai multe locuri unde traiesc comunitatile mari de romani.
. Pentru ca politica externa este un atribut fundamental al Presedintelui. Si mai ales pentru ca o politica externa puternica si eficienta inseamna un stat puternic si eficient pentru cetatenii sai. Nu cred ca gresesc daca afirm ca in aceste 100 de zile Romania a reinceput sa-si dobandeasca respectul si credibilitatea in marile capitale europene si din lume. In acest scurt interval am avut marea bucurie sa ma intalnesc cu o parte dintre reprezentantii comunitatilor de romani de peste granita, sa le multumesc personal pentru patriotismul lor. Regret ca n-am reusit sa-i cunosc decat pe foarte putini dintre ei. Iar promisiunea mea este ca voi merge in lunile urmatoare in cat mai multe locuri unde traiesc comunitatile mari de romani. In fine, recuperarea memoriei istorice, pretuirea culturii nationale si redescoperirea valorilor fac parte din misiunea unui presedinte. O misiune care nu trebuie scrisa formal intr-un text de lege, ci simtita. Sunt evenimente la care am participat, locuri pe care le-am vizitat si oameni pe care am tinut sa-i cunosc tocmai din acest motiv. Stiu ca exista asteptari mari si pentru alte zone. Stiu ca oamenii isi doresc ca lucrurile sa se schimbe cat mai repede. Nu toate proiectele au putut incepe concomitent. Ma refer in special la organizarea Consiliului Consultativ pentru Diaspora si la structurarea unui mecanism de dezbatere pe educatie si pe sanatate. Inainte de ridica o constructie este insa nevoie de o fundatie solida, la care am lucrat in aceste prime 100 de zile.
Dragi romani, acestea sunt directiile de principiu si actiune pe care le voi pastra in perioada urmatoare. Finalizarea proiectelor de reforma a institutiilor politice ramane prioritara pana la sfarsitul actualei sesiuni parlamentare. Voi urmari cu atentie solutia legislativa pentru a asigura votul romanilor din diaspora, dar si celelalte proiecte. Voi continua seria intalnirilor externe, in spiritul aceleiasi politici la baza careia stau parteneriatul strategic cu Statele Unite ale Americii, apartenenta la NATO si la Uniunea Europeana. In lunile urmatoare voi finaliza, de asemenea, Strategia Nationala de Aparare pe care o voi prezenta Parlamentului.
Voi urmari cu atentie solutia legislativa pentru a asigura votul romanilor din diaspora, dar si celelalte proiecte. Voi continua seria intalnirilor externe, in spiritul aceleiasi politici la baza careia stau parteneriatul strategic cu Statele Unite ale Americii, apartenenta la NATO si la Uniunea Europeana. In lunile urmatoare voi finaliza, de asemenea, Strategia Nationala de Aparare pe care o voi prezenta Parlamentului. Cea mai mare nemultumire a mea in aceasta perioada si, trebuie sa recunoastem, cea mai mare restanta ramane modul in care Parlamentul continua sa trateze cererile justitiei. Dar si faptul ca promisiunea de a face mai transparente si mai simple procedurile care privesc incuviintarea cererilor justitiei nu a fost onorata inca de partide. Fiecare episod in care justitia este blocata in Parlament inseamna un pas inapoi in recastigarea increderii publice si o sursa de pierdere a legitimitatii. Iar efectele depasesc momentul unui vot. Despre politicienii suspectati de coruptie si fuga de justitie, vreau sa subliniez ca exista o proba pe care daca nu o treci, nimic si nimeni nu te poate ajuta. Aceasta proba se refera la integritatea personala. Ea nu se poate mima, oricate incercari ai face. In politica, daca ai gresit grav, demisionezi. Acesta este un alt mod de a face politica.
Dar si faptul ca promisiunea de a face mai transparente si mai simple procedurile care privesc incuviintarea cererilor justitiei nu a fost onorata inca de partide. Fiecare episod in care justitia este blocata in Parlament inseamna un pas inapoi in recastigarea increderii publice si o sursa de pierdere a legitimitatii. Iar efectele depasesc momentul unui vot. Despre politicienii suspectati de coruptie si fuga de justitie, vreau sa subliniez ca exista o proba pe care daca nu o treci, nimic si nimeni nu te poate ajuta. Aceasta proba se refera la integritatea personala. Ea nu se poate mima, oricate incercari ai face. In politica, daca ai gresit grav, demisionezi. Acesta este un alt mod de a face politica. Asa cum a aratat si votul din 16 noiembrie 2014, oamenii asteapta de la cei alesi alta conduita. Am certitudinea ca mai exista politicieni care gandesc la fel, cand vine vorba de integritate. Fie ca ei inteleg acum sau mai tarziu, electoratul va evalua si sanctiona aceste lucruri la vot. Inteleg si impartasesc supararea oamenilor care s-au saturat sa vada ca multi dintre cei alesi sa-i reprezinte in Parlament au uitat in slujba cui sunt si le sfideaza asteptarile. Inteleg si dorinta unora de actiuni rapide si radicale pe termen scurt. In democratie insa nu poti rezolva un abuz prin alt abuz, nu poti opri un conflict printr-unul si mai mare si nu poti schimba comportamente cu forta. S-au mai incercat aceste lucruri in Romania ultimilor ani, de catre toate partile. Stim cu totii ce-a iesit, un razboi al tuturor impotriva tuturor.
Cine nu invata din lectiile istoriei e condamnat sa repete trecutul si nu poate construi un alt viitor. Eu nu am de gand sa-l repet. Schimbarea clasei politice si a mentalitatilor este un proces de durata. Dar este un proces care acum cateva luni parea imposibil, in timp ce astazi e deja inceput . Rezistenta la schimbare este primul semn ca aceasta se intampla. Daca ramai consecvent unor principii, chiar si atunci cand circumstantele te imping a le incalca, in cele din urma vor prevala principiile. Daca ramai ferm in respectarea Constitutiei, chiar si atunci cand a merge la limita ei pare o solutie mai rapida, Constitutia va prevala. Acestea sunt crezurile mele.
. Rezistenta la schimbare este primul semn ca aceasta se intampla. Daca ramai consecvent unor principii, chiar si atunci cand circumstantele te imping a le incalca, in cele din urma vor prevala principiile. Daca ramai ferm in respectarea Constitutiei, chiar si atunci cand a merge la limita ei pare o solutie mai rapida, Constitutia va prevala. Acestea sunt crezurile mele. Romanii trebuie sa stie ca reperul meu este litera si mai ales spiritul Constitutiei, preocuparea mea este sa fac ce am spus ca fac, conduita mea este cea pe care deja o cunoasteti si singura directie este viitorul pe care il cream impreuna. Al unei Romanii in care isi regasesc locul increderea, calmul si aprecierea valorii. Al unei Romanii cu adevarat democratice si puternice.
Intrebari
26478 de afisari
Buna seara, domnule Presedinte. Ati enumerat realizarile din primele 100 de zile din mandat. As vrea sa va intreb daca in aceasta perioada au existat obiective pe care nu le-ati atins in afara de nemultumirile legate de modul in care Parlamentul trateaza cererile justitiei? Va multumesc.Faptul ca partidele si Parlamentul inca nu au realizat ceea ce au promis consider ca este, daca putem sa tratam asa, inca o nerealizare. Multumesc.: Buna seara, domnule Presedinte. Fostul presedinte al Romaniei v-a solicitat zilele trecute sa nu validati numirea noului ministru al Finantelor, pentru ca a votat impotriva arestarii domnului Sova in Parlament. Va intreb, domnule Presedinte, in ce relatii sunteti dumneavoastra acum cu fostul presedinte al Romaniei, daca macar v-ati gandit, ati luat in calcul acea solicitare, daca dumneavoastra i-ati cerut domniei sale sa paraseasca Vila Lac III mai devreme si daca macar v-a anuntat ca se muta la Scrovistea? Multumesc.Astea au fost patru intrebari, nu?Erau punctele unei singure intrebari.Nu m-am intalnit cu fostul presedinte, nu i-am solicitat absolut nimic, nu am discutat nici despre resedinta, nici despre politica. In rest inca, insa daca e vorba de sfaturi, constatam ca fostului presedinte ii prieste pensia. Este foarte vocal si postac. Ii doresc sa fie sanatos.Domnule presedinte ce legaturi aveti cu compania Holzindustrie Schweighofer?Nu am absolut nicio legatura si nu pot sa va dau niciun detaliu. Stiu ca au existat anumite scenarii create in anumite talk-show-uri. Pot sa va spun, asa cum am spus si in alocutiunea mea, nu exista la mine notiunea de lobby sau interventie pentru a rezolva o problema. Iar in cazul acesta nu a existat, nici in cazul acesta nu a existat. Nici macar nu au incercat sa ajunga la mine, ca puteau sa incerce si sa-i refuz.: Daca imi permiteti, intr-o scrisoare deschisa, fostul ministru al Apelor si Padurilor spunea ca ati fi fost dezinformat tocmai de reprezentantii acestei companii in momentul in care ati decis sa retrimiteti in Parlament Codul Silvic.Este o speculatie facuta de fostul ministru pe care, probabil, ar fi bine sa o explice fosta doamna ministru, nu are insa absolut nimic de-a face cu mine si cu administratia mea.I-ati raspuns doamnei ministru la aceasta scrisoare?Tocmai.Dar, domnule Presedinte, s-a vorbit totodata de o apropiere fata de...Putem sa luam si intrebari de la alti jurnalisti?Sigur ca da. Daca imi permiteti...O ultima intrebare.: Au fost mai multe critici pe o retea de socializare, chiar reteaua pe care ati strans peste un milion de like-uri la inceput...Un milion si jumatate.: As vrea sa va intreb, domnule Presedinte, cum credeti ca s-a ajuns la aceste critici, pana la urma, pentru ca jurnalisti importanti, dar si toti romanii au criticat pana la urma mai multe actiuni ale dumneavoastra?Orice om este supus greselii si, daca fanii mei ma critica si au dreptate, incerc sa ma indrept. Dar in privinta lobby-ului nu are nimeni dreptate. Multumesc.: In ce masura considerati intemeiate temerile unor politicieni ca se face in acest moment abuz de arestari, de justitie la televizor, si de scurgeri de informatii din dosare, temeri care au dus si la respingerea unor solicitari ale justitiei si care i-au facut pe parlamentari sa se gandeasca sa modifice acum Codul Penal.Putem sa constatam cu totii ca Romania se afla intr-o faza foarte intensa de combatere a coruptiei, actiuni foarte vizibile, foarte multe ale parchetelor care se ocupa de aceste lucruri. Consider ca este un lucru bun. Vedem - si dumneavoastra, si eu - aproape zilnic noi si noi politicieni acuzati de diferite lucruri, ceea ce ne duce cu gandul la o intrebare: cum de au stat atatia ani in spatiul public si nu a venit nimeni sa verifice aceste chestiuni? Bine ca se intampla si acum, in ceasul al doisprezecelea. Trebuie sa va spun foarte clar: aceasta faza intensa de lupta anticoruptie este urata, este foarte urata; iese la suprafata tot ce a fost si tot ce este mai rau si mai urat in politica romaneasca. Insa va asigur ca fara aceasta faza nu putem sa ne facem bine.Domnule Presedinte, cum explicati faptul ca, pe de o parte, Parlamentul este criticat pentru ca blocheaza unele solicitari din justitie, dar, in acelasi timp, un senator este numit ministru si vorbim despre un senator care a fost filmat votand impotriva unei astfel de solicitari? Si v-as mai intreba daca aveti de gand sa mai faceti consultari cu partidele pe aceasta tema in ceea ce priveste solicitarile din justitie si felul in care se trateaza ele.Faptul ca Parlamentul este criticat si cu faptul ca un senator este propus ministru de catre prim-ministru eu cred ca aceste lucruri nu au mare lucru in comun. Trebuie sa vedem care este rolul Parlamentului, unde se considera ca putea sa actioneze altfel si pentru ce este criticat. Si este criticat si de societatea civila, pana si de mine, pentru lipsa unei reactii adecvate in fata solicitarilor venite din justitie. Membrii Guvernului sunt propusi de catre prim-ministru, care isi insuseste suta la suta politic aceasta propunere.Aveati dreptul la o respingere.Presedintele Romaniei, domnul Klaus Iohannis: Fara indoiala. Dar eu nu vad ce sens ar avea o respingere daca nu exista motive temeinice care tin de mine. Daca cel propus nu convine politic, atunci acest lucru si-l insuseste prim-ministrul, nu Presedintele. Deci raspunderea politica pentru Guvern este la prim-ministru.: Consultari...Consultari voi mai avea, cu siguranta. Dupa sarbatori o sa propun partidelor o noua runda de consultari, sa vedem pana unde s-a ajuns cu modificarea legislatiei, care sunt urmatorii pasi, ce se mai poate face in aceasta sesiune parlamentara.Poate fi gasita, daca imi permiteti, si o alta solutie decat cea a promisiunilor? Pentru ca dupa prezidentiale toti liderii politici au promis ca nu se vor mai bloca solicitarile din Parlament. A mers o bucata de vreme, destul de scurta, iar apoi s-a revenit la vechile obiceiuri.Nu cred ca isi imagineaza cineva ca acum, de azi pe maine, schimbam totul. Nu se schimba asa repede lucrurile. Tuturor, cel putin celor din aceasta sala, ne-ar placea daca de pe o zi pe alta s-ar putea schimba lucrurile, sa schimbam legile care s-au dovedit ca nu dau rezultate bune si sa mergem inainte. Lucrurile nu merg asa simplu. Exact din acest motiv am avut mai multe runde de discutii cu reprezentantii partidelor, voi avea in continuare runde de discutii si, pana la urma, lucrurile se vor corecta. Sunt destul de optimist.Pe plan extern ati stabilit pentru Romania ca deziderat politic aderarea noastra la Schengen. Concret, dupa vizitele pe care le-ati avut in strainatate ce sanse are Romania sa fie primita in Schengen anul acesta?Acest deziderat si l-a stabilit Romania de mai multa vreme, doar ca nu s-a realizat din varii motive, legate de MCV si alte lucruri. Am discutat aceste chestiuni cu liderii importanti pe care i-am intalnit in aceste 100 de zile si pot sa spun ca am un optimism moderat. Exista sanse, insa nu certitudini, ca in viitorul apropiat aceste chestiuni se pot rezolva, insa - trebuie sa va spun si un insa - ultimele evolutii din Parlament, in care anumite solicitari au fost respinse, nu ne ajuta absolut deloc.Sustineti ridicarea MCV pentru Romania?Eu am sustinut si sustin in continuare ridicarea MCV pentru Romania. Am discutat aceste lucruri si la Bruxelles exista deja la foarte multe personalitati relevante convingerea ca MCV trebuie sa se finalizeze in acest mandat al Comisiei Europene. Se va renunta gradual. Ei numesc acest proces "phasing out", adica sa se termine, nu dintr-o data, ci in mai multe etape, si sunt destul de optimist in aceasta privinta, ca asa se va intampla.Domnule Presedinte, cand va veti muta in Vila Lac III si daca ati grabit acest proces prin realocarea fostului presedinte in complexul de la Scrovistea si va intreb acest lucru in contextul in care, cel putin neoficial, acela este un complex destinat presedintilor in functie si exista o cutuma prin care presedintii in functie isi dadeau acordul pentru folosirea acelui complex.Nu am fost nici intrebat, nici nu mi-am spus parerea cu vreo mutare, cum am spus si inainte, a fost o intrebare similara. Nu ma intereseaza. Este problema altora sa vada cum se repartizeaza aceste imobile. Eu pot sa spun ca au trecut primele 100 de zile din mandatul meu si statul roman nu mi-a pus la dispozitie resedinta oficiala a presedintelui Romaniei. Ce se va intampla in continuare, vom urmari cu totii cu mare atentie.: Si inca o intrebare, daca imi permiteti. Ati spus ca in politica cine greseste demisioneaza. Cu ce au gresit George Maior si George Scutaru?Acuma trebuie sa facem o deosebire intre greseala politica si demisie politica si demisia din motive personale. Si domnul George Maior si domnul George Scutaru au demisionat din motive personale. Mi-au inaintat demisiile, le-am acceptat, drept pentru care s-a incheiat orice discutie. O demisie din motive personale nu cred ca se poate discuta, decat daca respectivul doreste sa dea lamuriri publice. Daca nu doreste, cred ca este bine sa lasam lucrurile asa cum sunt.: Buna seara, domnule Presedinte. Cand vom avea un nou sef al SIE sau mai bine zis cand veti face o propunere in acest sens?Cu siguranta, in urmatoarele luni voi face o propunere pentru SIE.: Buna seara. La inceputul mandatului spuneati ca sunteti nevoit sa lucrati cu un guvern ineficient. Dupa 100 de zile impreuna la putere va pastrati aceasta idee? cu ce argumente si cat de departe vedeti ziua in care veti avea propriul guvern, asa cum spuneati chiar de la inceput ca vi-l doriti?Guvernul nu s-a schimbat in esenta, decat in anumite pozitii care s-au eliberat datorita unor proceduri care nu au pus guvernul in niciun fel de lumina buna, si ma refer, de exemplu, la fostul ministru de finante, care este cercetat de procurori. Din acest motiv, a trebuit sa plece si a venit alta persoana in loc. Nu astept de la acest guvern sa devina mai eficient. Cand va veni insa alt guvern este o intrebare care trebuie pusa in esenta partidelor politice si trebuie pusa in Parlament. Eu nu am de gand sa preiau rolul opozitiei. Eu raman si ma rezum la rolul de presedinte. Daca opozitia va reusi sa adune suficiente voturi pentru a trece o motiune de cenzura vom avea alt guvern. Daca nu va reusi, atunci vom avea alt guvern dupa alegerile parlamentare din 2016.: Multumesc. Vroiam sa va mai intreb, apropo de acel minus major pe care l-ati mentionat dumneavoastra, aveti de gand sa... Sau aveti mai bine zis parghii sa contribuiti la remedierea situatiei? Aveti de gand sa faceti ceva in acest sens, mai ales ca spuneati ca incurajati lupta anticoruptie? Cum puteti face in mod concret acest lucru?Un pic mai exact, ce anume doriti sa va spun?: Spuneati de faptul... de acel minus major din Parlament, da.Ca Parlamentul inca nu a modificat. Da, vorbesc cu reprezentantii partidelor pana cand se rezolva si se va rezolva.: Buna ziua domnule Pesedinte. Ati spus in alocutiunea dumneavoastra ca institutiile statului sunt in slujba cetateanului. Din aceasta perspectiva, vi se pare adecvata reactia statului, a institutiilor statului roman in cazul declaratiilor ambasadorului Rusiei referitoare la o parte a presei si la unii publicisti?Da.Dumneavoastra de ce nu ati avut o pozitie publica?O sa va detaliez un pic. Ambasadorii nu sunt un fel de politicieni veniti in Romania ca sa-i luam la gramada. Ambasadorii reprezinta state. Exista in diplomatie cutume. Ce e bine sa spuna un ambasador, ce nu e bine sa spuna un ambasador. De exemplu, in ultima vreme a fost acea luare de pozitie a ambasadorului pe care l-ati mentionat. Nu este niciodata si in nicio circumstanta rolul presedintelui sau al primului ministru sa raspunda in public unui ambasador, indiferent ce spune acel ambasador. Daca afirmatiile ambasadorului se considera a fi nepotrivite, atunci cel mai puternic instrument si cutuma care se respecta este ca ambasadorul este chemat la Ministerul de Externe, unde are o discutie fie cu secretarul de stat, fie in anumite cazuri chiar cu ministrul de Externe si i se atrage atentia ca aceste lucruri nu se pot spune in public. Orice altceva va asigur ca nu se poarta si nu se face.: Multumesc. Cu ingaduinta dumneavoastra, as mai avea o intrebare.Poftiti.: Sunteti si seful CSAT, ati avut recent vizite in Ucraina, in Republica Moldova, state aflate in imediata vecinatate a Romaniei si in proximitatea Rusiei. Din aceasta perspectiva as vrea sa va intreb daca exista, daca aveti informatii, daca exista in momentul acesta incercari din partea Rusiei de a influenta sau de a destabiliza decizii politice sau economice majore in Romania?Nu am informatii ca ar exista incercari de destabilizare in Romania. Nici din partea Rusiei, nici din partea altor state, dar pe de alta parte trebuie sa fim foarte constienti ca statele care doresc sa-si extinda influenta gasesc intotdeauna agenti prin care incearca sa influenteze lucrurile, ori aceste incercari in Romania acum nu au succes.: Si, pentru ca vorbim de relatia cu Rusia, ati avut astazi o intalnire cu generalul Philip Breedlove. Ati discutat despre pozitionarea de armament greu al NATO pe teritoriul Romaniei?Am discutat cu generalul Breedlove chestiuni mai generale legate de pozitionarea NATO, de perspectiva NATO, de comandamentul de divizie, de NFIU, care se va realiza in putin timp, insa nu am dorit sa intru in discutii detaliate tehnice, lasand acestea intre militari si intre tehnicieni.: Buna ziua, domnule Presedinte. Vreau sa va intreb: la fiecare interviu pentru presa straina, si in tara la anumite interviuri, ati declarat ca vreti un guvern "al meu", al dumneavoastra. Va mai doriti un guvern al dumneavoastra?Cred ca orice presedinte isi doreste un guvern al lui. Dar dati-mi voie sa detaliez ce inseamna "al meu" sau "al lui". Este un guvern cu care poate sa lucreze efectiv, si formal, si informal, in toate problemele care privesc statul. De exemplu, ca sa nu ramanem doar in zona foarte teoretica, eu mi-as fi imaginat ca un guvern care vrea sa lucreze cu mine, inainte sa prezinte modificari semnificative la Codul Fiscal, vine la mine, mi le prezinta, le discutam si vedem cum se pot pune in practica. Or acest lucru nu s-a intamplat, cum si in alte chestiune Guvernul a considerat ca poate sa mearga mai departe fara sa se consulte cu presedintele. Nu doresc sa fac treaba Guvernului, cum nici nu doresc - poate ati observat - sa vad de treaba altuia, dar cred ca un guvern care doreste sa lucreze cu presedintele informeaza sau il consulta, de la caz la caz, pe presedinte in chestiuni care sunt importante pentru tara.Am inteles, dar in acest context imi permit sa va intreb: ce discutati cu premierul cand va intalniti, daca nu va consulta?In afara de aceste chestiuni, sunt totusi lucruri despre care ma informeaza, ma consulta si discutam.A venit cineva direct sau prin intermediari, vorbesc de decidenti politic, sa va propuna targuri politice?Niciodata. Nici acum, nici inainte.Ce parere aveti despre situatia care este in aceste zile prin tara cu inchiderea firmelor? Este o isterie intreaga. Sigur ati primit informari si stiti.Romania este o tara in plina reformare. Tot timpul facem o reforma, ba in invatamant, ba in sanatate, pe urma la fisc, pe urma la ANAF, pe urma la Codul Fiscal si, din pacate, trebuie sa constat ca exista tendinta de a lucra ca pendulul, dintr-o extrema in cealalta. Ba avem situatii in care fiscul nu se ocupa de aceste chestiuni, ba avem situatii in care fiscul se ocupa cateodata de detalii care chiar nu cred ca merita foarte multa atentie. Banuiesc ca aceste chestiuni, odata cu schimbarile care sunt acum in curs la ANAF, odata ce se termina, sa se ajunga la o normalitate.: O ultima intrebare, daca imi permiteti...Va permit.: Sotia dumneavoastra va insoteste adesea si in vizitele externe. Se vorbeste in presa, se vorbeste de institutia Primei Doamne. Cum o vedeti si ce ar insemna acest lucru?Cred ca institutia Primei Doamne inca nu-si gaseste loc in Romania. Ar trebui sa existe poate o dezbatere publica pe aceasta tema, ar trebui sa existe probabil cateva studii care ne spun daca romanii isi doresc asa ceva sau daca nu-si doresc. Dar Prima Doamna a mea, sotia mea, imi face onoarea sa ma insoteasca peste tot unde este posibil si cred ca este un prim pas spre a induce in spatiul public o discutie despre Prima Doamna. Dar de acolo pana la institutia Primei Doamne cred ca mai este cale lunga.: Domnule Presedinte, ati spus ca nu veti gratia nici un politician corupt. Stiu asta. Cu toate astea va intreb: daca Tiberiu Ridzi va va trimite o cerere de gratiere, ii veti gratia sotia, avand in vedere faptul ca lumea spune ca este pe moarte in puscarie?Raspunsul generic l-ati citat chiar dumneavoastra. Raspunsuri punctuale nu pot sa va dau acolo unde nu exista solicitari. Este un procedeu birocratic mai complex, care implica Ministerul Justitiei, juristii si specialistii din Administratia Prezidentiala, atunci cand se analizeaza.: Multumesc. Si cu Avram Iancu cum facem? Il declaram erou?Ei, iata o tema interesanta. Personal, fiind ardelean eu sunt pro-Avram Iancu. Mie imi place personajul si as fi foarte de acord si chiar mi-ar placea mie sa decernez post-mortem acest titlu. Este o initiativa foarte laudabila si initiatorii, pe care-i cunosc si ii cunoasteti, au vrut cu siguranta sa faca un lucru bun, doar ca nu s-a potrivit legea cu procedura. Nu am trimis legea inapoi fiindca nu as vrea cu Avram Iancu. Vreau. Mi se pare o idee buna si sper sa se rezolve intr-un final, dar procedura legislativa n-a fost respectata intrutotul si, cum niciunul nu ne dorim sa avem o lege care este atacabila peste un an sau doi, am trimis-o inapoi, ca parlamentarii s-o ia, s-o puna in acord cu procedura legislativa si sa-l declaram pe Avram Iancu erou national, cum probabil si alte personalitati din istoria noastra merita sa fie declarate eroi nationali.Buna seara. Domnule Presedinte, dupa cum stiti, in ultima perioada Directia Antifrauda a ANAF a inchis numeroase localuri si magazine, inclusiv pentru sume derizorii. Considerati ca acesta este drumul pe care trebuie sa mergem pentru diminuarea evaziunii fiscale?Este un pic dificil sa comentez spete foarte concrete daca nu ai date foarte concrete, dar, dupa parerea mea, este bine sa cautam proceduri care incurajeaza investitorii si chiar pe micii investitori sa-si duca afacerea mai departe si nu sa gasim metode prin care sa inchidem firme, asta la modul general. La modul concret, cred ca e foarte bine sa intrebati chiar la ANAF cum vad ei chestiunea si daca dumnealor cred ca o tara fara firme poate sa functioneze.Buna seara, domnule Presedinte. In seara in care ati castigat alegerile le-ati transmis romanilor ca si-au luat tara inapoi, in special celor care v-au votat. Ce mesaj aveti pentru romanii care in aceste 100 de zile poate ca si-au pierdut putin din speranta? Multumesc.Nu am avut impresia ca si-au pierdut speranta. Eu cred ca, cel putin asa citesc eu sondajele, ca sunt alaturi de mine si, impreuna, nu numai ca nutrim speranta, incercam sa facem pasii pentru a o pune in practica.A ramas o chestiune nelamurita dupa aceste 100 de zile.Atunci s-o lamurim.Primarul Sectorului 5, Marian Vanghelie, le-a spus martorilor in dosarul pe care dumnealui il are la DNA ca avea acces la dumneavoastra prin intermediul realizatorului TV Rares Bogdan. Va intreb care este relatia dumneavoastra, daca ati discutat cu Marian Vanghelie, cu Rares Bogdan, la fel, care este relatia dumneavoastra, si daca credeti ca PNL ar trebuie sa faca o majoritate inclusiv cu acesti parlamentari, racolati de Marian Vanghelie si Mircea Geoana?Incepem cu ultima parte. E treaba PNL daca face alianta cu unii sau cu altii. Sper sa fie bine inspirati cand fac aliantele, iar in ce priveste pe primarul Sectorului 5, va spun ceva ce poate va surprinde: eu nu l-am intalnit niciodata pe domnul Vanghelie, nu are nicio cunostinta comuna cu mine prin care ar ajunge la mine si toata povestea eu am vazut-o ca pe o chestiune hilara. Daca vreti sa va dau un raspuns ultrasec: nici vorba!Va multumesc si va doresc o seara buna! |
They might be allies on paper, but that hasn’t stopped the leader of the BC Green Party from lashing out against the NDP’s grizzly bear trophy hunt ban.
“It’s all political spin. There’s no ban. Let’s be very clear, there’s no ban on grizzly hunting in B.C. What there is is some loose language, promises that it will be made illegal to possess the hide or head or hair of grizzlies,” Andrew Weaver told guest host Drex on CKNW’s the Jon McComb Show.
LISTEN: BC Green leader says NDP trophy hunt ban is inadequate
Under the NDP’s new rules, hunting for grizzlies will be completely banned in the Great Bear Rainforest, and hunters elsewhere will only be allowed to keep bear meat, not trophy parts. The regulations would take place on November 30.
But Weaver said under the NDP’s proposed rules, foreign trophy hunters could still come to B.C., shoot a grizzly, and pose for a trophy photo — regardless of whether they take the head or hide.
READ MORE: B.C. NDP government stopping contentious grizzly bear trophy hunt
He added that leaving those parts behind would actually be offensive to many B.C. hunters as wasteful.
“It’s just trying to have your cake and eat it too.”
WATCH: B.C.’s grizzly hunt ban
Instead, Weaver said he wants to see legislation, along the lines of the Greens’ own 2017 bill, which would remove preferential treatment for foreign hunters, and require that all usable meat be taken in any hunt.
WATCH: The B.C. government made a big announcement today, ending the grizzly bear trophy hunt in this province. Keith Baldrey has more.
He also called for a province-wide reassessment of the way the province manages wildlife, which would include a study of how forestry, mining, and natural gas are affecting habitat.
“The science is not on anyone’s side because to be perfectly blunt the science is woeful,” he said.
READ MORE: NHL player pleads guilty to killing grizzly bear in B.C. without a proper licence
As for whether his public split from the governing party on the policy would affect the NDP-Green alliance, Weaver said it won’t change anything.
“It’s very clear that we will disagree on things, and it’s okay to disagree. It doesn’t mean you can’t work together.” |
As Oskar Groening, the so-called Accountant of Auschwitz , goes on trial at the age of 93 for his complicity in war crimes, the 86-year-old Labour peer Greville Janner is excused prosecution for 22 alleged sexual offences against nine boys in his Leicestershire constituency, from the 1960s to the 1980s, because he is suffering from “severe dementia”.
How terribly convenient. Powerful elderly men have form when it comes to losing their memory when there are things it would not be helpful to remember. Think of Ernest Saunders . In 1991, a consultant psychiatrist told the Court of Appeal that Saunders, formerly the chief executive of Guinness, was unable to recall three numbers backwards or use a door.
Saunders had been jailed for five years in 1990 for financial wrongdoing. His lawyers contested the sentence, saying that a term of incarceration would only exacerbate the pre-senile dementia of which poor Ernest was displaying the early symptoms.
Saunders shuffled about looking like the simpleton played by Peter Sellers in Being There. His sentence was duly cut in half and he served only 10 months.
One evening, not long afterwards, Himself and I were wandering down St James’s when who should we see, across the street, but one Ernest Saunders. Dressed in a smart suit, he was getting money out of a cashpoint. With that public spiritedness for which your columnist is renowned, I shouted: “Having any problems remembering your pin number, Ernest?”
Evidently not. Saunders, it seemed, had made a remarkable, nay unprecedented, recovery from Alzheimer’s. Within four months of his release, he was charging £16,000 a month for consultancy services. Not bad for a fellow who couldn’t recall three numbers backwards, eh?
So please forgive my cynicism at the timely onset of Lord Janner’s “dementia” in 2009. It hasn’t prevented the peer from attending the House of Lords, and he has sufficient marbles left to have claimed more than £100,000 in Parliamentary allowances and expenses during that period. Janner even signed a letter saying he wished to remain a peer just a week before he was ruled unfit to face the child sex charges.
Ernest Saunders (Paul Grover)
If a man who is non compos mentis can vote in the House of Lords, how can he not be fit enough to stand trial and at least give his alleged victims some chance of catharsis?
The Crown Prosecution Service actually admits it should have prosecuted Janner on three previous occasions, but the investigations were “botched”. Leicestershire Police has led the chorus of disbelief having handed over video evidence to the CPS apparently showing Janner taking part in “some of the worst crimes imaginable”.
Yesterday, 11 leading figures from seven political parties reflected general outrage, signing an open letter saying that Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, is “damaging public confidence” with her ruling.
Other people argue that it would be unfair and inhumane to drag a vulnerable, elderly man before a court.
What, as unfair and inhumane as letting powerful men pick off small boys in a children’s home for their own delectation and then allegedly covering up that wickedness because the poor and defenceless shall have no voice and the Establishment will take care of its own?
NOW READ THIS: Double standards over Lord Janner
The allegations were first made against Lord Janner many years ago, when he was perfectly compos mentis; so why weren’t charges brought against him then, or subsequently?
When similar accusations were levelled against Conservative politicians, such as the late Lord Brittan, Labour MPs such as Tom Watson were quick to accuse past Tory governments of a cover-up.
Yesterday, when one of their own was in the spotlight, little could be heard by way of reproach from the usual group of self-styled paedophile hunters. No one asked, for instance, why Lord Janner was ennobled by Tony Blair, given that in 1991 he was named as an abuser in the trial of a predatory children’s home owner, Frank Beck. |
American Pro-Life Hero, Karen Gaffney, Inspires Huge Crowds at All-Ireland Rally For Life
Down Syndrome advocate and TED Talk star, Karen Gaffney, addressed a huge crowd at a pro-life rally in Dublin this weekend, taking to the stage to deliver the message that all human life has value and should be protected.
As battle lines are drawn ahead of the Irish government’s initiative to dismantle the country’s pro-life 8th amendment, organizers hailed the massive turn-out as a success and pledged an all-out mobilization between now and next year’s referendum to defend Ireland’s pro-life culture.
Saturday’s colorful march, estimated at 60,000 – 80,000 strong, took two hours to cross the capital, before rousing speeches were heard at leafy Merrion Square, near government buildings.
Karen, 39, who hails from Portland, Oregon, is an accomplished speaker, travelling in the US and internationally to advocate for the inclusion and advancement of those with Down Syndrome.
“I am very proud to be here today to stand up for life, for all life, for the life of the unborn child even if that child will be born with Down Syndrome’’, Karen began to rapturous applause from the tens of thousands who had marched across the city in defiance of government plans to remove Ireland’s constitutional protection for the unborn.
‘’I am from the US’’, Karen continued, ‘’and in my country, and in many countries all around the world, babies who may have Down Syndrome are being wiped out, even before they take their first breath. But not here. Not today. Not in your country. Not in Ireland!’’
Referencing the protection afforded to the unborn child by the 8th amendment, inserted into the Irish Constitution by referendum in 1983, Ms. Gaffney implored of Ireland and beyond;
‘’Give us the chance to be born and we will live up to the promise of the life you have protected for us!’’
Earlier in the march, the cortège had passed through a small but angry ‘Repeal the 8th’ counter protest of 200 abortion rights advocates, many of whom screamed abuse at pro-life marchers as they passed along the stretch of O’Connell Street where the opposing groups met.
Leftist flags, green and blue hair, and vulgarity typified the counter demonstration, which despite its small numbers has the ideological support of the country’s media establishment.
Speaking after the rally, long distance swimmer Karen, who has swum the English Channel, Lake Tahoe and the shark infested waters between Alcatraz and San Francisco, explained to the Gateway Pundit why she had traveled to the country of her ancestors to ‘’make a stand for life.’’
Faced with a pre-natal screening industry which now sees 90% of Down Syndrome babies destroyed before birth in the neighboring UK, and a similar pattern developing elsewhere, the internet sensation explained that rather than being a burden, a Down Syndrome child, like every child, is a blessing with much potential.
‘’Down Syndrome is a life worth saving. Down Syndrome is a life worth choosing….Down Syndrome is a life worth living’’, the charming 39-year-old, living proof of her own words, explained to the Gateway Pundit.
Photo Credits: Sean Feeney, Stephen McElligott, Paul Noble |
[tor-dev] The Tor Project is looking for a Pluggable Transport developer
We have funding initially for part-time work, and hopefully it will grow into full-time work. Please spread the word! This job is for the development and maintenance of the flash proxy circumvention system, with a focus on deployment and getting tools in the hands of users: https://crypto.stanford.edu/flashproxy/ https://gitweb.torproject.org/flashproxy.git/ If it goes well, we might have you branch out into improving usability and deployability of other Tor pluggable transports. Applicants must be familiar with Python, JavaScript, and web technologies, particularly WebSocket. You will do usability testing and be in charge of producing binary packages of client software for GNU/Linux, Windows, and OS X. The system's supporting infrastructure is already in place, but may require changes depending on the future development of the client programs. There also is the potential for the development and implementation of new covert rendezvous methods that may have broader use outside the flash proxy system. You will be assisted and mentored by David Fifield, the primary developer of the flash proxy software and co-author of its research paper, and all-around good guy. See the job posting for information on how to apply and what you need to send in with your application: https://www.torproject.org/about/jobs-pluggabletransport Thanks! --Roger |
Climate Reality/YouTube We all know that greenhouse gases are bad. And that climate change is bad and we need to stop emitting greenhouse gases by the end of the century or risk dire climate-related consequences, such as dramatic sea level rise, extreme weather events, and food shortages.
But what's the connection between emissions and these terrible scenarios? Bill Nye, The Science Guy, made the great video below a few years ago with Climate Reality that explains just that.
While greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane naturally exist in the earth's atmosphere, when their concentration gets to be too high, temperatures rise, Nye narrates. For those who are skeptical that emissions can play a role, Nye put together a simple demonstration.
All you need are two jars, two thermometers, two heat lamps, and a source of carbon dioxide — for example, a carbon dioxide cylinder used to pump gas bubbles into homemade soda. Here's how it works: First, you take two identical bottles or jars and place a thermometer inside each one.
Climate Reality/Youtube
Next, run a hose from a source of carbon dioxide into one of the jars. Place a heat lamp over each jar and let them sit.
Climate Reality/YouTube
Watch the two thermometers: The temperature in the jar with the carbon dioxide will shoot up faster.
Climate Reality/YouTube
This is because greenhouse gases traps the heat from the light — just like the additional greenhouse gasses in Earth's atmosphere trap heat from the sun.
Speaking of the sun, another common confusion about climate change is the Sun's role.
Solar radiation from the sun — illustrated below as the green balls — hits the Earth and is absorbed the planet's surface and atmosphere, which then radiate the energy back out in the form of heat.
Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — illustrated by the red balls — trap this heat and radiate it back down to the earth's surface. Climate Reality/YouTube
This is why all the gases humans are pumping into the atmosphere are causing temperatures to rise, Nye explains.
Scientists say it's still not too late to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. The latest UN climate report urges a global carbon emissions cut of 40-70% by midcentury and an entire elimination by 2100 — a move they say is the only move that will keep global temperatures within 2 degrees Celsius of their historic levels. Beyond this point, many scientists believe a series of catastrophic climate effects could be set in motion.
"We've set this chain in motion," Nye says in the video, "but the truly cataclysmic changes can be prevented if we act now."
Check out the complete video below: |
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