text
stringlengths 465
100k
|
|---|
Anybody paying attention to school reform in recent years knows the power that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has wielded with its ability to play a leading role in driving the reform agenda by distributing mountains of cash to every sector of the education world. Veteran educator Anthony Cody has been questioning the role of the foundation on a blog, Living in Dialogue, that he wrote for some time on Education Week, and now as an independent Web site. He even engaged in a discussion with the foundation about its role in school reform. Now Cody has written a book titled, “The Educator and the Oligarch: A Teacher Challenges Bill Gates,” in which he explores the foundation’s influence on education issues and whether that has been good or bad for the public school system.
Cody taught in high-poverty schools in Oakland, Calif., for 24 years, 18 of them as a middle school science teacher. He is the treasurer and a founding member of the nonprofit Network for Public Education.
Here’s a Q&A I did with Cody (over e-mail) about his new book:
Valerie Strauss: The title of your new book is intriguing, “The Educator and the Oligarch: A Teacher Challenges the Gates Foundation.” What is the challenge?
Anthony Cody: In my book, I share a series of challenges that I posed to the Gates Foundation, and to Bill Gates himself. The real challenge we face is that which the Gates Foundation states it has taken on — how to make our society, and our education system, more equitable. However, when I look at the approach they have taken, I see some basic problems. Their approach has been to pursue standardization and the metrics of test scores in order to put market forces in the driver’s seat in education. This has had very bad effects on students, who are not at all standard, and on teachers, as well. I challenge them with the understanding I gained in my 24 years working in Oakland, where I came to understand the sort of collaborative environment we need to foster growth among teachers.
One of the problems with the Gates Foundation is that they have had an almost unlimited source of funding over the past decade. And they are conducting a large-scale experiment with the children of the nation. Nobody voted for them to do this. They use the power of their money to pay for research, to pay organizations to support their agenda, and this undermines democratic decision-making, especially in communities that, due to poverty, lack effective political power.
I have no great wealth, no real access to political power. I am a retired science teacher with a blog. I saw the effects their agenda had on the schools in Oakland and across the country, and I challenge them to take a closer look and see what is happening. See what happens when you increase class sizes, as Bill Gates suggested. See what happens when you tie teacher evaluations to test scores. See what happens when your policies ignore the very real effects of poverty. See what happens when you attempt to “personalize” instruction by the use of computers instead of human beings. I am one teacher, but as more and more people realize the experiment we have all become unwilling subjects of, more will join me in challenging this oligarch. Because money may give you the power to do all this, but might does not make right.
Billionaire Bill Gates, chairman and founder of Microsoft Corp. ( By Scott Eells/Bloomberg)
V.S.: Can you be more specific about the “large-scale experiment” you say the foundation is conducting? What has Gates money paid for in recent years that has affected students and teachers?
A.C.: The term “experiment” comes from Bill Gates himself. In a 2008 interview, he spoke of how his foundation was investing in districts with strong mayoral control. [See video here.] Here is what he said:
There’s a lot of issues about governance, whether it’s school boards or unions, where you want to allow for experimentation, in terms of pay procedures, management procedures, to really prove out new things. As those things start working on behalf of the students, then I believe the majority of teachers and voters will be open-minded to these new approaches. And so, we have to take it a step at a time. They have to give us the opportunity for this experimentation [emphasis added]. The cities where our foundation has put the most money in, is where there’s a single person responsible – in New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., the mayor has responsibility for the school system, and so instead of having a committee of people, you have that one person. And that’s where we’ve seen the willingness to take on some of the older practices and try new things. And we’ve seen very good results in all three of those cities, so there are some lessons that have already been learned. We need to make more investments, and I do think the teachers will come along, because, after all, they’re there because they believe in helping the students, as well.
The policies that the Gates Foundation was promoting in these three cities were the same ones they were able to get turned into federal mandates through the Race to the Top and NCLB waivers. That is why the federal government now requires states to adopt “college and career ready” standards such as the Common Core, include test scores in teacher evaluations, and demands that limits on charter schools be lifted as a condition of funding.
Unfortunately, a report came out from the Broader and Bolder Initiative last year which shows that in the very cities the Gateses spoke of in such glowing terms, market-driven reform has failed to deliver any results, in spite of the full embrace of the Gateses’ vision. (See here.)
In scientific research, if one is conducting an experiment and clear negative effects are observed, the experiment is discontinued. I think this experiment has run its course and should be ended before more damage is done to our schools and children who attend them.
V.S.: There are a lot of foundations investing in education “reform.” Why write about Gates?
A.C.: There are certainly other books to be written about the roles other corporate foundations in education, but the Gates Foundation has become the elephant in our classrooms. Through their strategic investments in research, journalism and advocacy, the Gates Foundation has purchased a sort of consensus among the powerful in terms of what must be done to improve schools. Their agenda has become the agenda of the Department of Education, and many large school systems have embraced the direction they have set.
Take a look at the major trends in education reform. We have the Common Core, paid for by the Gates Foundation. We have charter schools rapidly expanding, with very little regulation, actively promoted by the Gates Foundation. We have a dramatic rise in the number of tests and the consequences for those tests, for both students and teachers, again, a high priority for the Gates Foundation. We have billions being spent on educational devices, which is being called “personalization.” Gates and his foundation are not the only ones promoting these trends, but the Gates Foundation has been particularly strategic and systematic with its investments and placement of key leaders.
I also found it fascinating to focus on the words and thinking of Bill Gates. Here is one of the wealthiest people in the history of the world, and he has more influence on education policy than anyone — perhaps even than the president. Why has he decided that test scores can serve to overcome inequity? How does he see market forces working to improve schools? How can he reconcile what is happening to the economy with his stated goal of improving the lives of the poor? I explored what he has said and written and found a window into his thinking. His model has worked well for him in business — but what are its limitations when brought into the field of education?
Lastly, I have found it remarkable that an education reform project built around the concept of “accountability” has no mechanism, no means by which we, the public, can hold its sponsors accountable. We have “bad teachers” who must be held accountable. Schools and students that must be held accountable. But Bill Gates himself? Who holds him and his employees accountable for the devastating effects their reforms have had? My dialogue with the Gates Foundation was an attempt to bring that responsibility to their attention — but it did not seem to get the point across.
The Gates Foundation came to our schools with money that had so many strings attached that nearly everyone has become their puppets. We need to cut those strings so that our schools and teachers can regain their autonomy.
V.S.: What was the most surprising thing you discovered while researching this book?
A.C.: I have been listening to what Bill Gates says and what he writes for a while. His discussions of education are strongly informed by the idea that market forces will generate competition and innovation, which will lead to better outcomes for students. But there is a sort of a box built around the education system that keeps everything contained within the realm of the school and defines student outcomes in terms of test scores. Gates’s education reform work rests on a huge assumption that increased test scores equals more learning, and sending more young people to college will expand the middle class. Therefore I was surprised when, in a moment of candor, in an interview last March at the American Enterprise Institute, Gates said this.
Well, technology in general will make capital more attractive than labor over time. Software substitution, you know, whether it’s for drivers or waiters or nurses… It’s progressing. And that’s going to force us to rethink how these tax structures work in order to maximize employment, you know, given that, you know, capitalism in general, over time, will create more inequality and technology, over time, will reduce demand for jobs particularly at the lower end of the skill set. And so, you know, we have to adjust, and these things are coming fast. Twenty years from now, labor demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower, and I don’t think people have that in their mental model.”
This corresponds with a study I saw this year that suggests that in the next 20 years, 45 percent of the jobs of today may be eliminated by technology.
When I see the remarkably low pass rates for the Common Core tests, which apparently are low by design, this makes me wonder if there is some sort of rationale being created for a two-tier society — those who have passed the tests and proven themselves “college and career ready” and the rest, who have proven themselves unworthy of such opportunities.
The surprising thing to me was that Gates acknowledged that capitalism is creating more inequality — and he seems to see this as an inexorable historic trend. And likewise the substitution of technology for human labor as time and technology move forward. I see corporate reform as creating a false meritocracy that attempts to cover up these trends, and to rationalize the stigmatization and economic marginalization of those unable to pass ever more “rigorous” tests. It is unlikely anyone will ever acknowledge this to be the case, but I think Gates’s comments about the growth of inequality and the replacement of drivers and nurses — perhaps teachers, as well — give us some indication of where we are headed in the absence of a strong social movement in a different direction. |
Yet another European leader summit in Brussels. These meetings now take place so regularly that it is now a substitute for cabinet government at an European Union (EU) level. This time, quite out of the blue, without any rumours or warning, comes an astonishing Turkey-EU migrant deal. This I believe verges on insanity
It is true to say that Turkey has had to bear a heavy burden for the ongoing civil war in Syria. There are something like two million displaced people who are living in Turkey and many of them have been there now for several years. This marks quite a contrast with countries like Saudi Arabia who have refused to lift a finger to help one of their fellow Muslims.
The EU plan is to give an extra €3 billion to Turkey to help with the treatment and facilities available to these displaced people.
And the UK contribution to this will be upwards of €300 million. There is of course no guarantee that because Turkey has more money to help these people that it will be able to prevent them from heading onwards to Europe. The EU policy has now clearly changed from welcoming anyone that sets foot on European soil to talking this week about a military wing to Frontex, the EU border agency. I can see why the EU thinks that this is the right thing to do. Personally, I think it will make little difference.
What is really amazing is that we have learnt overnight that the accession process for Turkey to become a full member of the European Union is to be speeded up. I have no doubt that David Cameron will be delighted. He has been for over ten years, along with George Osborne, the strongest cheerleader for Turkey to become an EU member.
The first step towards this is that from as early as next year, 75 million Turks, most of whom are even poorer than those that live in Romania and Bulgaria, will have visa-free access to the Schengen area. It is quite extraordinary that such a massive decision can have been made so suddenly.
Even if the €3 billion was to prevent the current migrant tide, visa-free access means that will be replaced if not surpassed by a new migrant tide. Perhaps the effect of all of this will be a doubling of the numbers getting into the EU from Turkey.
No doubt the UK government will use the defence that we are not in the Schengen area. But as we know the results of this will be an even bigger camp at Calais, the possibility of Turks getting EU passports, and ultimately when they become a full member, total free access to the United Kingdom. Those who’re thinking about voting for Britain to remain a member of the European Union had better think very hard about how many more schools, hospitals and houses they think its acceptable for us to build ahead of Turkish entry.
It would be irresponsible to wait and leave our public services so vulnerable. Over the last ten years net migration has averaged a quarter of million a year. I think on current trends and potential Turkish membership we can confidently expect a huge increase in what is already unacceptable.
The UK referendum campaign has taken a new twist today. From now on I intend to talk Turkey.
* * * * *
With the notable exception of Breitbart London, our national media have relegated to very junior pages of their publications the story of the six Afghans firing a couple of rounds at farmers checking their land during the night in Staffordshire.
Have I missed something? Or is this now normal and wholly acceptable? I really must learn to be more “tolerant”. |
13 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
For five years Republicans and their teabagger cohort have thrown around the word tyranny and dictator to ramp up opposition to President Obama for leading the Executive Branch of government while being Black. Leading up to the State of the Union address on Tuesday, there were indications by the White House that the President would announce his intent to use his authority to, among other measures, raise the minimum wage for government contractors to $10.10 per hour through the use of an executive order. Republicans are opposed to any American earning enough to stay out of poverty, and the paltry amount does little more than lift contractors from dire poverty to just poverty. Although President’s have been issuing executive orders for over 120 years, Republicans consider it the height of tyranny and dictatorial power because this President happens to be African American; a cardinal and impeachable sin in conservative circles.
The hypocritical outrage over an African American President issuing executive orders was swift and absurd from Republicans within minutes of the President’s State of the Union, and there were accusations that the President is shredding the Constitution and circumventing Congress, but what Congress? Do Republicans mean the Congress that cannot do its Constitutional job and work for the general welfare of the people, or do they mean congressional Republicans shredding the Constitution by passing a preponderance of biblical laws targeting women for being women and gays for expecting protections guaranteed in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment?
If Republicans had done their jobs and followed the will of the people on a rash of topics important to Americans such as equal pay for women (90%), repeal oil industry subsidies (74%), raising the minimum wage (71%), not shutting down the government (80%), or passing legislation to put more Americans to work in the tech manufacturing sector (90%), President Obama would not have to issue executive orders that admittedly cannot take up the slack from an obstruction-minded and do-nothing Republican caucus. What the President revealed in his State of the Union address was that he is concentrating on what can be done, by himself, instead of what Congress should do if they were not motivated by obstructionism to thwart economic recovery and grind governance to a halt. His effort drew a plethora of accusations of “dictator” from Republicans and conservative pundits alike.
Perennial dunce Michele Bachmann threatened the President with a frivolous lawsuit and stated conservatives in the House might sue him because, “He may think he’s a king, he may declare himself king, but that’s not what he is under our Constitution.” Conservative loudmouth Glenn Beck professed that the president is “America’s first dictator,” and Mark Levin proposed that Republicans in Congress pass a resolution nullifying executive orders as if such a measure would pass the Senate or earn the President’s signature.
Teabagger Ted Cruz said, “Over and over again this president has disregarded the law, has disregarded the Constitution and has asserted presidential power that simply doesn’t exist and that ought to worry regardless of whether you agree with his policies or not.” Libertarian Rand Paul sent out a message on social media outlet Twitter saying, “Mr. President we are a nation of laws & we are supposed to follow our Constitution. You do not get to ‘act alone.'” Texas Republican Steve Stockman actually stood up and walked out of the State of the Union address and said, “I could not bear to watch as he continued to cross the clearly-defined boundaries of the Constitutional separation of powers.” To listen to Republicans and conservative pundits, Barack Obama is the first President in history to issue an executive order, but Republicans know that is hardly the case.
President Obama has only signed 168 executive orders thus far in comparison to George W. Bush, a white president, who signed more executive orders, 173, in his first four years than President Obama, a Black President signed in just over five years. However, Republicans complain that the President is overstepping his constitutional authority by issuing executive orders that are out of the bounds of his purview that has led them to intimate they may have grounds to file articles of impeachment, but it is something they never considered when George W. Bush signed exactly the same orders.
For example, on December 23rd the President signed an order titled “Adjustments of Certain Rates of Pay” that mirrors an order Bush signed in December 2008 titled “Adjustments of Certain Rates of Pay.” On May 21, 2013 the President signed an order titled “Providing an Order of Succession within the Department of Agriculture” that Bush called “Amending the Order of Succession Within the Department of Agriculture” and signed it in January 2009 days before leaving office. President Obama signed an order titled “Continuance of Certain Federal Advisory Committees” on September 20, 2013, and Bush signed the “Continuance of Certain Federal Advisory Committees” on September 28, 2007. On December 7, 2012 President Obama signed an order titled “Establishing the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force” that Bush signed on November 1, 2005 only titled “Creation of the Gulf Coast Recovery and Rebuilding Council.” The executive orders are nearly identical, but when a Black President signs them he is a dictator, oversteps his authority, and thinks he is a king.
Regarding presidential executive orders making adjustments to implementing established laws, Bush signed “Further Amendments to Executive Orders 12139 and 12949 in Light of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008,” “Waiver Under the Trade Act of 1974 with Respect to Turkmenistan,” and “Delegation of Certain Authorities and Assignment of Certain Functions Under the Trade Act of 2002” among many others. When the Black man in the Oval Office signs executive orders dealing with implementation of established laws, he is “circumventing the legislative process” and shredding the Constitution that the previous white president signed with Republicans’ blessings.
As far as President Obama’s intent to sign an executive order dealing with federal government contractor pay that has Republicans threatening legal action, Bush issued, and signed four executive orders including one titled “Preservation of Open Competition and Government Neutrality Towards Government Contractors’ Labor Relations on Federal and Federally Funded Construction Projects,” and “Revocation of Executive Order on Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers under Certain Contracts” plus at least two others. No Republican accused white president Bush of tyranny, dictatorial overreach, circumventing Congress, or overstepping his constitutional authority. Obviously in Republican circles, whiteness has its privilege the current crop of Republican racists and conservative bigots do not extend to the Black man sitting in the Oval Office issuing nearly identical executive orders as the previous white president.
If Republicans are so adamantly averse to a president issuing and signing executive orders, they had 291 opportunities to assail George W. Bush for being a dictator, threaten him with lawsuits, and accuse him of overstepping his constitutional authority. If congressional Republicans had spent one-tenth the time working for the American people that they spent investigating the Affordable Care Act, Benghazi, the I.R.S., Benghazi, or voting 40 times to repeal the ACA, the President would not have to issue executive orders doing the work Republicans fail to do. However, this is not about this President doing everything in his power to address the income inequality crushing the economic life out of Americans and everything to do with his race. From the minute President Obama took the oath of office up until today, Republicans have sought any reason to lambaste him as a tyrant and dictator they claim is shredding the Constitution that in their racist minds is the crime of leading the Executive Branch while Black and nothing more.
Image: Democratic Underground
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human: |
Last summer, the editors of Car and Driver conducted a comparison test of three sports cars, the Lotus Evora, the Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, and the Porsche Cayman S. The cars were taken on an extended run through mountain passes in Southern California, and from there to a race track north of Los Angeles, for precise measurements of performance and handling. The results of the road tests were then tabulated according to a twenty-one-variable, two-hundred-and-thirty-five-point rating system, based on four categories: vehicle (driver comfort, styling, fit and finish, etc.); power train (transmission, engine, and fuel economy); chassis (steering, brakes, ride, and handling); and “fun to drive.” The magazine concluded, “The range of these three cars’ driving personalities is as various as the pajama sizes of Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear, but a clear winner emerged nonetheless.” This was the final tally: Porsche Cayman 193 Chevrolet Corvette 186 Lotus Evora 182 Car and Driver is one of the most influential editorial voices in the automotive world. When it says that it likes one car better than another, consumers and carmakers take notice. Yet when you inspect the magazine’s tabulations it is hard to figure out why Car and Driver was so sure that the Cayman is better than the Corvette and the Evora. The trouble starts with the fact that the ranking methodology Car and Driver used was essentially the same one it uses for all the vehicles it tests—from S.U.V.s to economy sedans. It’s not set up for sports cars. Exterior styling, for example, counts for four per cent of the total score. Has anyone buying a sports car ever placed so little value on how it looks? Similarly, the categories of “fun to drive” and “chassis”—which cover the subjective experience of driving the car—count for only eighty-five points out of the total of two hundred and thirty-five. That may make sense for S.U.V. buyers. But, for people interested in Porsches and Corvettes and Lotuses, the subjective experience of driving is surely what matters most. In other words, in trying to come up with a ranking that is heterogeneous—a methodology that is broad enough to cover all vehicles—Car and Driver ended up with a system that is absurdly ill-suited to some vehicles. Suppose that Car and Driver decided to tailor its grading system just to sports cars. Clearly, styling and the driving experience ought to count for much more. So let’s make exterior styling worth twenty-five per cent, the driving experience worth fifty per cent, and the balance of the criteria worth twenty-five per cent. The final tally now looks like this: Lotus Evora 205 Porsche Cayman 198 Chevrolet Corvette 192There’s another thing funny about the Car and Driver system. Price counts only for twenty points, less than ten per cent of the total. There’s no secret why: Car and Driver is edited by auto enthusiasts. To them, the choice of a car is as important as the choice of a home or a spouse, and only a philistine would let a few dollars stand between him and the car he wants. (They leave penny-pinching to their frumpy counterparts at Consumer Reports.) But for most of us price matters, especially in a case like this, where the Corvette, as tested, costs $67,565—thirteen thousand dollars less than the Porsche, and eighteen thousand dollars less than the Lotus. Even to a car nut, that’s a lot of money. So let’s imagine that Car and Driver revised its ranking system again, giving a third of the weight to price, a third to the driving experience, and a third split equally between exterior styling and vehicle characteristics. The tally would now be: Chevrolet Corvette 205 Lotus Evora 195 Porsche Cayman 195 So which is the best car? Car and Driver’s ambition to grade every car in the world according to the same methodology would be fine if it limited itself to a single dimension. A heterogeneous ranking system works if it focusses just on, say, how much fun a car is to drive, or how good-looking it is, or how beautifully it handles. The magazine’s ambition to create a comprehensive ranking system—one that considered cars along twenty-one variables, each weighted according to a secret sauce cooked up by the editors—would also be fine, as long as the cars being compared were truly similar. It’s only when one car is thirteen thousand dollars more than another that juggling twenty-one variables starts to break down, because you’re faced with the impossible task of deciding how much a difference of that degree ought to matter. A ranking can be heterogeneous, in other words, as long as it doesn’t try to be too comprehensive. And it can be comprehensive as long as it doesn’t try to measure things that are heterogeneous. But it’s an act of real audacity when a ranking system tries to be comprehensive and heterogeneous—which is the first thing to keep in mind in any consideration of U.S. News & World Report’s annual “Best Colleges” guide.
The U.S. News rankings are run by Robert Morse, whose six-person team operates out of a small red brick office building in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Morse is a middle-aged man with gray hair who looks like the prototypical Beltway wonk: rumpled, self-effacing, mildly preppy and sensibly shoed. His office is piled high with the statistical detritus of more than two decades of data collection. When he took on his current job, in the mid-nineteen-eighties, the college guide was little more than an item of service journalism tucked away inside U.S. News magazine. Now the weekly print magazine is defunct, but the rankings have taken on a life of their own. In the month that the 2011 rankings came out, the U.S. News Web site recorded more than ten million visitors. U.S. News has added rankings of graduate programs, law schools, business schools, medical schools, and hospitals—and Morse has become the dean of a burgeoning international rankings industry. “In the early years, the thing that’s happening now would not have been imaginable,” Morse says. “This idea of using the rankings as a benchmark, college presidents setting a goal of ‘We’re going to rise in the U.S. News ranking,’ as proof of their management, or as proof that they’re a better school, that they’re a good president. That wasn’t on anybody’s radar. It was just for consumers.”Over the years, Morse’s methodology has steadily evolved. In its current form, it relies on seven weighted variables: Undergraduate academic reputation, 22.5 per cent Graduation and freshman retention rates, 20 per cent Faculty resources, 20 per cent Student selectivity, 15 per cent Financial resources, 10 per cent Graduation rate performance, 7.5 per cent Alumni giving, 5 per centFrom these variables, U.S. News generates a score for each institution on a scale of 1 to 100, where Harvard is a 100 and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro is a 22. Here is a list of the schools that finished in positions forty-one through fifty in the 2011 “National University” category: Case Western Reserve, 60 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 60 University of California-Irvine, 60 University of Washington, 60 University of Texas-Austin, 59 University of Wisconsin-Madison, 59 Penn State University-University Park, 58 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 58 University of Miami, 58 Yeshiva University, 57 This ranking system looks a great deal like the Car and Driver methodology. It is heterogeneous. It doesn’t just compare U.C. Irvine, the University of Washington, the University of Texas-Austin, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Penn State, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign—all public institutions of roughly the same size. It aims to compare Penn State—a very large, public, land-grant university with a low tuition and an economically diverse student body, set in a rural valley in central Pennsylvania and famous for its football team—with Yeshiva University, a small, expensive, private Jewish university whose undergraduate program is set on two campuses in Manhattan (one in midtown, for the women, and one far uptown, for the men) and is definitely not famous for its football team. The system is also comprehensive. It doesn’t simply compare schools along one dimension—the test scores of incoming freshmen, say, or academic reputation. An algorithm takes a slate of statistics on each college and transforms them into a single score: it tells us that Penn State is a better school than Yeshiva by one point. It is easy to see why the U.S. News rankings are so popular. A single score allows us to judge between entities (like Yeshiva and Penn State) that otherwise would be impossible to compare. At no point, however, do the college guides acknowledge the extraordinary difficulty of the task they have set themselves. A comprehensive, heterogeneous ranking system was a stretch for Car and Driver—and all it did was rank inanimate objects operated by a single person. The Penn State campus at University Park is a complex institution with dozens of schools and departments, four thousand faculty members, and forty-five thousand students. How on earth does anyone propose to assign a number to something like that?The first difficulty with rankings is that it can be surprisingly hard to measure the variable you want to rank—even in cases where that variable seems perfectly objective. Consider an extreme example: suicide. Here is a ranking of suicides per hundred thousand people, by country: Belarus, 35.1 Lithuania, 31.5 South Korea, 31.0 Kazakhstan, 26.9 Russia, 26.5 Japan, 24.4 Guyana, 22.9 Ukraine, 22.6 Hungary, 21.8 Sri Lanka, 21.6 This list looks straightforward. Yet no self-respecting epidemiologist would look at it and conclude that Belarus has the worst suicide rate in the world, and that Hungary belongs in the top ten. Measuring suicide is just too tricky. It requires someone to make a surmise about the intentions of the deceased at the time of death. In some cases, that’s easy. Maybe the victim jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, or left a note. In most cases, though, there’s ambiguity, and different coroners and different cultures vary widely in the way they choose to interpret that ambiguity. In certain places, cause of death is determined by the police, who some believe are more likely to call an ambiguous suicide an accident. In other places, the decision is made by a physician, who may be less likely to do so. In some cultures, suicide is considered so shameful that coroners shy away from that determination, even when it’s obvious. A suicide might be called a suicide, a homicide, an accident, or left undetermined. David Phillips, a sociologist at the University of California-San Diego, has argued persuasively that a significant percentage of single-car crashes are probably suicides, and criminologists suggest that a good percentage of civilians killed by police officers are actually cases of “suicide by cop”—instances where someone deliberately provoked deadly force. The reported suicide rate, then, is almost certainly less than the actual suicide rate. But no one knows whether the relationship between those two numbers is the same in every country. And no one knows whether the proxies that we use to estimate the real suicide rate are any good. “Many, many people who commit suicide by poison have something else wrong with them—let’s say the person has cancer—and the death of this person might be listed as primarily associated with cancer, rather than with deliberate poisoning,” Phillips says. “Any suicides in that category would be undetectable. Or it is frequently noted that Orthodox Jews have a low recorded suicide rate, as do Catholics. Well, it could be because they have this very solid community and proscriptions against suicide, or because they are unusually embarrassed by suicide and more willing to hide it. The simple answer is nobody knows whether suicide rankings are real.” The U.S. News rankings suffer from a serious case of the suicide problem. There’s no direct way to measure the quality of an institution—how well a college manages to inform, inspire, and challenge its students. So the U.S. News algorithm relies instead on proxies for quality—and the proxies for educational quality turn out to be flimsy at best.Take the category of “faculty resources,” which counts for twenty per cent of an institution’s score. “Research shows that the more satisfied students are about their contact with professors,” the College Guide’s explanation of the category begins, “the more they will learn and the more likely it is they will graduate.” That’s true. According to educational researchers, arguably the most important variable in a successful college education is a vague but crucial concept called student “engagement”—that is, the extent to which students immerse themselves in the intellectual and social life of their college—and a major component of engagement is the quality of a student’s contacts with faculty. As with suicide, the disagreement isn’t about what we want to measure. So what proxies does U.S. News use to measure this elusive dimension of engagement? The explanation goes on: We use six factors from the 2009-10 academic year to assess a school’s commitment to instruction. Class size has two components, the proportion of classes with fewer than 20 students (30 percent of the faculty resources score) and the proportion with 50 or more students (10 percent of the score). Faculty salary (35 percent) is the average faculty pay, plus benefits, during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years, adjusted for regional differences in the cost of living. . . . We also weigh the proportion of professors with the highest degree in their fields (15 percent), the student-faculty ratio (5 percent), and the proportion of faculty who are full time (5 percent). This is a puzzling list. Do professors who get paid more money really take their teaching roles more seriously? And why does it matter whether a professor has the highest degree in his or her field? Salaries and degree attainment are known to be predictors of research productivity. But studies show that being oriented toward research has very little to do with being good at teaching. Almost none of the U.S. News variables, in fact, seem to be particularly effective proxies for engagement. As the educational researchers Patrick Terenzini and Ernest Pascarella concluded after analyzing twenty-six hundred reports on the effects of college on students:
After taking into account the characteristics, abilities, and backgrounds students bring with them to college, we found that how much students grow or change has only inconsistent and, perhaps in a practical sense, trivial relationships with such traditional measures of institutional “quality” as educational expenditures per student, student/faculty ratios, faculty salaries, percentage of faculty with the highest degree in their field, faculty research productivity, size of the library, [or] admissions selectivity. “But you can’t leave me—your name is Bride of Frankenstein.” The reputation score that serves as the most important variable in the U.S. News methodology—accounting for 22.5 per cent of a college’s final score—isn’t any better. Every year, the magazine sends a survey to the country’s university and college presidents, provosts, and admissions deans (along with a sampling of high-school guidance counsellors) asking them to grade all the schools in their category on a scale of one to five. Those at national universities, for example, are asked to rank all two hundred and sixty-one other national universities—and Morse says that the typical respondent grades about half of the schools in his or her category. But it’s far from clear how any one individual could have insight into that many institutions. In an article published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Ashwini Sehgal analyzed U.S. News’s “Best Hospitals” rankings, which also rely heavily on reputation ratings generated by professional peers. Sehgal put together a list of objective criteria of performance—such as a hospital’s mortality rates for various surgical procedures, patient-safety rates, nursing-staffing levels, and key technologies. Then he checked to see how well those measures of performance matched each hospital’s reputation rating. The answer, he discovered, was that they didn’t. Having good outcomes doesn’t translate into being admired by other doctors. Why, after all, should a gastroenterologist at the Ochsner Medical Center, in New Orleans, have any specific insight into the performance of the gastroenterology department at Mass General, in Boston, or even, for that matter, have anything more than an anecdotal impression of the gastroenterology department down the road at some hospital in Baton Rouge? Some years ago, similarly, a former chief justice of the Michigan supreme court, Thomas Brennan, sent a questionnaire to a hundred or so of his fellow-lawyers, asking them to rank a list of ten law schools in order of quality. “They included a good sample of the big names. Harvard. Yale. University of Michigan. And some lesser-known schools. John Marshall. Thomas Cooley,” Brennan wrote. “As I recall, they ranked Penn State’s law school right about in the middle of the pack. Maybe fifth among the ten schools listed. Of course, Penn State doesn’t have a law school.” Those lawyers put Penn State in the middle of the pack, even though every fact they thought they knew about Penn State’s law school was an illusion, because in their minds Penn State is a middle-of-the-pack brand. (Penn State does have a law school today, by the way.) Sound judgments of educational quality have to be based on specific, hard-to-observe features. But reputational ratings are simply inferences from broad, readily observable features of an institution’s identity, such as its history, its prominence in the media, or the elegance of its architecture. They are prejudices. And where do these kinds of reputational prejudices come from? According to Michael Bastedo, an educational sociologist at the University of Michigan who has published widely on the U.S. News methodology, “rankings drive reputation.” In other words, when U.S. News asks a university president to perform the impossible task of assessing the relative merits of dozens of institutions he knows nothing about, he relies on the only source of detailed information at his disposal that assesses the relative merits of dozens of institutions he knows nothing about: U.S. News. A school like Penn State, then, can do little to improve its position. To go higher than forty-seventh, it needs a better reputation score, and to get a better reputation score it needs to be higher than forty-seventh. The U.S. News ratings are a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bastedo, incidentally, says that reputation ratings can sometimes work very well. It makes sense, for example, to ask professors within a field to rate others in their field: they read one another’s work, attend the same conferences, and hire one another’s graduate students, so they have real knowledge on which to base an opinion. Reputation scores can work for one-dimensional rankings, created by people with specialized knowledge. For instance, the Wall Street Journal has ranked colleges according to the opinions of corporate recruiters. Those opinions are more than a proxy. To the extent that people chose one college over another to enhance their prospects in the corporate job markets, the reputation rankings of corporate recruiters are of direct relevance. The No. 1 school in the Wall Street Journal’s corporate recruiter’s ranking, by the way, is Penn State.
For several years, Jeffrey Stake, a professor at the Indiana University law school, has run a Web site called the Ranking Game. It contains a spreadsheet loaded with statistics on every law school in the country, and allows users to pick their own criteria, assign their own weights, and construct any ranking system they want. Stake’s intention is to demonstrate just how subjective rankings are, to show how determinations of “quality” turn on relatively arbitrary judgments about how much different variables should be weighted. For example, his site makes it easy to mimic the U.S. News rankings. All you have to do is give equal weight to “academic reputation,” “LSAT scores at the 75th percentile,” “student-faculty ratio,” and “faculty law-review publishing,” and you get a list of élite schools which looks similar to the U.S News law-school rankings: University of Chicago Yale University Harvard University Stanford University Columbia University Northwestern University Cornell University University of Pennsylvania New York University University of California, Berkeley There’s something missing from that list of variables, of course: it doesn’t include price. That is one of the most distinctive features of the U.S. News methodology. Both its college rankings and its law-school rankings reward schools for devoting lots of financial resources to educating their students, but not for being affordable. Why? Morse admitted that there was no formal reason for that position. It was just a feeling. “We’re not saying that we’re measuring educational outcomes,” he explained. “We’re not saying we’re social scientists, or we’re subjecting our rankings to some peer-review process. We’re just saying we’ve made this judgment. We’re saying we’ve interviewed a lot of experts, we’ve developed these academic indicators, and we think these measures measure quality schools.” As answers go, that’s up there with the parental “Because I said so.” But Morse is simply being honest. If we don’t understand what the right proxies for college quality are, let alone how to represent those proxies in a comprehensive, heterogeneous grading system, then our rankings are inherently arbitrary. All Morse was saying was that, on the question of price, he comes down on the Car and Driver side of things, not on the Consumer Reports side. U.S. News thinks that schools that spend a lot of money on their students are nicer than those that don’t, and that this niceness ought to be factored into the equation of desirability. Plenty of Americans agree: the campus of Vanderbilt University or Williams College is filled with students whose families are largely indifferent to the price their school charges but keenly interested in the flower beds and the spacious suites and the architecturally distinguished lecture halls those high prices make possible. Of course, given that the rising cost of college has become a significant social problem in the United States in recent years, you can make a strong case that a school ought to be rewarded for being affordable. So suppose we go back to Stake’s ranking game, and re-rank law schools based on student-faculty ratio, L.S.A.T. scores at the seventy-fifth percentile, faculty publishing, and price, all weighted equally. The list now looks like this: University of Chicago Yale University Harvard University Stanford University Northwestern University Brigham Young University Cornell University University of Colorado University of Pennsylvania Columbia UniversityThe revised ranking tells us that there are schools—like B.Y.U. and Colorado—that provide a good legal education at a decent price, and that, by choosing not to include tuition as a variable, U.S. News has effectively penalized those schools for trying to provide value for the tuition dollar. But that’s a very subtle tweak. Let’s say that value for the dollar is something we really care about. And so what we want is a three-factor ranking, counting value for the dollar at forty per cent, L.S.A.T. scores at forty per cent of the total, and faculty publishing at twenty per cent. Look at how the top ten changes: University of Chicago Brigham Young University Harvard University Yale University University of Texas University of Virginia University of Colorado University of Alabama Stanford University University of Pennsylvania Welcome to the big time, Alabama! |
NEW DELHI: Hyderabad for the third year in a row has emerged as the best city in terms of living standards among Indian cities, while Vienna has been ranked at the top globally in a list by consultancy firm Mercer.The National Capital for the second straight year hit the lowest score among Indian cities for living standards, as per the Mercer's Quality of Living rankings 2017.Both Hyderabad and Pune ranked higher for quality of living than the country's traditional business centres Mumbai and New Delhi, which have been ranked at 154 and 161, respectively, by the report.However, Hyderabad fell by five places to 144 in this year's rankings from 139th rank last year due to decreased power supply and water availability.While New Delhi scored well on account of its airport facility, availability of international schools and low probability of natural disasters, these positives were offset by a variety of negatives including a 'notorious' crime rate, air pollution and water availability, the report said."Delhi continues to be challenged with increasing air pollution, owing to growing traffic and industrialisation. Delhi's air is the worst among world megacities, even the World Health Organisation confirmed recently. Unfortunately, there has been no improvement in air quality," Ruchika Pal, Principal and India Practice Leader, Global Mobility, said.Over time, cities like Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai have emerged as cities of choice due to factors such as relatively lower crime rate, lesser air pollution and improved options for international and reputable English speaking schools.Pal noted that Indian cities that have been part of the survey have not made much progress on the quality of living scale since last year.The only exception is Chennai, whose score has marginally improved mainly on account of public transport, including buses and a recently expanded two-line metro system, and improved availability of expat housing.Globally, Vienna remained at the top for overall quality of living for the eighth year running, with the rest of the top-ten list mostly filled by European cities.European cities in the top ten list are: Zurich (2) Munich (4), Dusseldorf (6), Frankfurt (7), Geneva (8), Copenhagen (9) and Basel -- a newcomer -- at 10th place.The only non-European cities in the top ten are Auckland (3) and Vancouver (5).The highest ranking cities in Asia and Latin America are Singapore (25) and Montevideo (79), respectively, it said.Mercer's survey also includes a city infrastructure ranking that assesses each city's supply of electricity, drinking water, telephone and mail services, and public transportation as well as traffic congestion and the range of international flights available from local airports.Singapore topped the city infrastructure ranking, followed by Frankfurt and Munich both in 2nd place, while on the other hand Baghdad (230) and Port au Prince (231) ranked at the bottom for city infrastructure.Amongst Indian cities, Mumbai is ranked the highest at 141, followed by Kolkata (149) and Pune (151), while Bangalore was rated the lowest (177) by the report. |
Hastings has announced that they will be closing all of their stores.The company is expected to hold huge going out of business sales over the new few months. All of their locations are expected to be closed by October.New Mexico has 14 Hastings locations, many of those in Albuquerque. The closure means hundreds of people will lose their jobs.Hastings has been well known for their rental and buyback programs for books, movies and video games.They also sell pop-culture memorabilia.
Hastings has announced that they will be closing all of their stores.
The company is expected to hold huge going out of business sales over the new few months. All of their locations are expected to be closed by October.
Advertisement
New Mexico has 14 Hastings locations, many of those in Albuquerque. The closure means hundreds of people will lose their jobs.
Hastings has been well known for their rental and buyback programs for books, movies and video games.
They also sell pop-culture memorabilia.
AlertMe |
Let’s talk about inspiration now, because I don’t think it means what most people think it means.
There is such a thing as surface-level “how”/”hands” inspiration, certainly. That’s the kind you can look for. You see something beautiful, clever, or interesting, and you mentally bookmark it to use in your work later. This — and pretty much only this — you can get from Dribbble. It’s not useless, but it’s definitely not the whole story.
We forget that inspiration originally meant “to breathe”. It’s not always a conscious process, nor is it selective. Your brain is constantly collecting and cross-referencing all the information poured into it. Eventually it can be exhaled again into your work as a metaphor. All the seemingly unrelated stimulus your brain chews on during the day is grist for a creative mill. The more you’ve seen, the more ability your brain has to pattern match and look at problems in new ways.
One of my favorite examples of this phenomenon is in a video of Neven Mrgan designing a hiking trail app as an exercise. Neven’s an avid chef, so of course he comes up with the idea of using recipes as a metaphor for communicating trail directions. It’s a great approach that informs the design of the solution before the hands-work ever begins.
I’ve seen this kind of associative-metaphor design process in so many ways from so many great designers. I worked with a motion designer who constantly referenced old sci-fi movies and retro arcade games in the way things looked and moved. He would pull up YouTube to show me what he was talking about, and in the course of a six second clip I would suddenly understand with perfect clarity the details of his design. Other people I’ve worked with have used metaphors from aviation, comic books, and architecture.
Design is like language — a larger vocabulary of concepts gives you more and better ways to be understood. |
Game publishers, tournament organizers and teams are searching for the best way to maximize value, exposure.
Esports might appear confusing and tumultuous to newcomers, but investors’ rationale is straightforward: No one is yet making as much money as they could be on professional video gaming, considering the size and commercial appeal of its audience.
One part of the plan to unlock that value is basic blocking and tackling, like the marketing, sales and merchandising clout that buyers such as Delaware North Cos. and the Philadelphia 76ers are bringing to their newly acquired gaming assets.
But the real gold mine is media rights. Digital viewership numbers are prone to hyperbole, but it’s clear that some esports have a worldwide audience that ought to generate many times the revenue they currently do.
“The battle for media rights in esports has global ramifications, and billions are in the balance,” said Jason Lake, founder of compLexity Gaming, a franchise with teams in “Overwatch,” “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” and other titles. It’s hard to put a multiple on the value of a franchise in the current environment, but most experts think clarity will begin to emerge in the next 18 to 24 months, in turn causing team values to escalate.
“A lot of people are out there trying to solve this problem,” Lake continued. “Every astute observer knows that if you can rope in these eyeballs now while the getting in is cheap, you’ll be able to monetize that heavily in the future.”
With the stakes clear, game publishers, tournament organizers and teams themselves are experimenting with the best way to maximize value and exposure through online streaming. That, in turn, has created an opportunity for any company with advanced digital video streaming capacity.
So far, MLB Advanced Media’s BAMTech has grabbed the brass ring: A $300 million-plus exclusive development deal with Riot Games, an offering that drew intense interest from a range of broadcasters and streamers. Riot’s top game, “League of Legends,” is the most popular game in the world with 100 million monthly active players and viewership that peaked at 14.7 million concurrent fans during last year’s world finals.
But Facebook and YouTube have struck exclusive deals of their own in recent weeks. Those contracts pale in comparison to the Riot prize, but both Silicon Valley goliaths have the eyeballs and money to follow through on their ambitions.
In all of their targets sits Twitch, the Amazon subsidiary that enabled the rise of video games as spectator sport and still hosts a massive community of gamers, but now finds itself besieged by competitors that threaten to eclipse its technical abilities.
TBS’s telecast of ELeague’s Major finals on Jan. 29 drew 228,000 viewers, while Twitch saw concurrent viewership reach more than 1 million for the “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” game.
“Twitch’s monopoly is in jeopardy for the first time,” said Bryce Blum, executive vice president of esports for Catalyst Sports & Media and a lawyer who represents esports teams.
Traditional broadcasters are also interested, but they’ll have to prove their worth primarily as streamers. Few industry experts think linear broadcasts will ever be a major part of esports’ future, despite positive reviews for the WME-IMG/Turner Sports collaboration ELeague. Consider the ratings for the ELeague Major finals on Jan. 29: 228,000 viewers watched the “Counterstrike: Global Offensive” match on TBS, but concurrent viewership eclipsed 1 million on Twitch at one point. (Twitch data that allow for an exact apples-to-apples comparison to Nielsen ratings is not available, but experts are confident the online viewership far exceeded the TV program.)
Exclusivity brings risk
For esports rights holders, the conventional play would be to engineer a bidding war for exclusive rights to a high-demand tournament, game or even a star player’s practice time and sponsored videos. But exclusivity is problematic.
For starters, it would undermine most games and publishers’ ongoing search for new fans. Until publishers or their licensed tournament organizers can promise recurring, significant revenue sharing, team revenue relies on sponsorship and advertising. “In a world in which there’s not meaningful revenue sharing, the teams’ and players’ only benefit is reach,” Blum said.
But also, exclusivity runs afoul of powerful traditions in the gaming community, where enthusiasts started to follow the exploits of elite players 15 years before the C-suites noticed. Fans expect a wide-open, democratic approach to content and resist any whiff of corporate gamesmanship.
“There’s always an opportunity for someone to write a big check for that content and put it behind a paywall,” said Tobias Sherman, global head of esports for WME-IMG. “But I think it’s too soon to say that exclusivity is going to apply and work for everybody. There are too many platforms out there. People are figuring out what they like and there’s too much experimentation.”
James “Dash” Patterson and Aiden “Zirene” Moon discuss gameplay during the Summer 2015 “League of Legends” Championship.
As publisher of the world’s most popular game, Riot went to market in a better position than most to consider a single distribution strategy. But BAMTech is billed as its exclusive partner on tech development and sales. “It’s not exclusive on distribution,” said Riot Games co-head of esports Jarred Kennedy.
However, watch this space. There’s much still to decide about the long-term future within the six-year Riot-BAMTech contract, and the contract calls for the parties to develop future distribution strategy together. Deal adviser Alan Gold, head of media for Evolution Media Capital, CAA’s investment bank, declined to rule out a narrowing of options. “It’s a complicated arrangement,” he said, “but ultimately, ‘League of Legends,’ Riot and BAMTech are only going to do things that are in the best interest of fans.”
ESL, a Germany-based operator of dozens of esports tournaments under license from publishers, is also tinkering with its distribution strategy. It’s moved away from longtime partner Twitch for some competitions while also looking to develop noncompetition content, such as a deal with Lionsgate’s Pilgrim Media Group to create reality shows around esports.
“We’re figuring it all out,” said Craig Levine, CEO of ESL America. “Obviously, there are business decisions that ultimately weigh into this, but I don’t think we’d take pillar ESL content and put it on a niche player that didn’t have reach.”
Incidentally, Levine shared some numbers that highlight the gap between present-day financials and potential. Nielsen Sports has told ESL sponsors they’re getting upward of 50 times return on the cost of their buy. “Everybody needs a good return, but 50 times? We are delivering extraordinary reach compared to the dollars being spent.”
A third way
If not exclusive, but also not the low-return diversified approach of today, then what? A trend toward a tiered, semi-exclusive approach appears to be emerging.
Imagine if the NFL let several broadcasters air a basic, low-definition feed of games for free, but the league focused all of its technical and business energy on a single platform, either one it owned or chose via bidding. Or, more directly on point: Think of esports distribution like free-download video games that make money only off digital enhancements after you’ve already started playing.
Properties and streamers think that could be the ticket to making money off viewers who are willing to pay, while not shutting off growth and reach. It could also be a path toward eventual exclusivity, if fan reaction is positive.
Major League Gaming, the tournament operator and in-house video platform for parent company Activision Blizzard, has been tinkering with limits on where its competitions can be viewed. Fears of losing fans if you abandon Twitch might be overblown, if early results are an indicator, said President and CEO Pete Vlastelica.
At MLG’s Call of Duty World League stop in Atlanta on Feb. 10-12, the main stage action was available for the first day on the usual broad range of sites: MLG.tv, YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and inside the game itself. The final two days were only available on the MLG.tv and in-game viewers, though Twitch got a delayed feed of the action on the last day.
“We were very happy with the results of that experiment,” Vlastelica said. “We didn’t see nearly as much dip in audience as some people predicted we would by not being on Twitch. When the content is high quality, and you’ve done a good job of building hype around the event, people will seek out the content. Those are things we’re learning.”
A subscription product is not in the plans: “We believe in the accessibility of the product,” says Riot Games’ Jarred Kennedy.
MLG.tv launched its “enhanced viewing experience” product last year, and the MLG viewer is integrated into the game itself for Activision Blizzard-published games. Being owned by the publisher, MLG can keep whatever revenue is generated by that product in the future, even if its tournaments are still free to watch on Twitch.
Following the “freemium” software approach, monetization means charging consumers, and that might be big business. Dedicated enhanced viewing apps would be well-positioned to add micro-transactions for specific features, or for pay-per-view access to special events.
But the immediate concern is advertising and sponsorship sales, and that also will take great leaps if publishers can steer fans toward a preferred platform.
ELeague has been able to sell some sponsorships for $2 million a year, a price tag it can command partly because sponsors get total exclusivity for advertising breaks, as well as close cooperation from the league to develop in-game messages and sponsored content.
“We want to make sure our content and our audience are on a platform that we’re able to significantly monetize,” Vlastelica said. “But also, reach still matters to us.”
Riot’s Kennedy dismissed speculation that Riot and BAMTech are preparing a subscription product. “We are very confident we can build a business around sponsorship and advertising,” he said. As to the speculation: “That’s all valid because a lot of BAM’s deals are subscription-based, but our model has always been the same — we believe in the accessibility of the product.”
Growing demand
It’s still early, and the streamers are saying little about their specific ambitions and goals. But bidding for the Riot deal was fierce, and BAMTech will likely make “League of Legends” content a key part of its coming ESPN-branded over-the-top package.
Facebook’s push into live video appears tailor-made for esports, because its commenting system can facilitate real-time interaction between fans and players, which was one of Twitch’s original appeals. Also, with 1.86 billion monthly users, it mollifies concerns over sacrificing reach. (Twitch has far fewer users, about 100 million, but boasts a gaming-centric culture and far more time spent on-site than Facebook.)
Turnkey Sports Poll The following are results of the Turnkey Sports Poll taken in January. The survey covered more than 2,000 senior-level sports industry executives spanning professional and college sports. Which of the following statements about esports, if any, applies to you/your household? (Please select all that apply) Someone plays an esport at least weekly 10% Someone watches esports on TV or online at least weekly 9% Someone has attended a paid esports event in the last year 5% When compared to traditional sports properties on each of the following aspects, are esports … Inferior Comparable Superior Not Sure Sponsorship platform 43% 26% 11% 20% Growth potential 11% 12% 61% 16% Audience demographics 25% 29% 27% 19% Live media content 39% 27% 15% 19% Which of the following will best describe esports in five years? On same tier as minor league sports 59% Marginalized or nonexisting 17% On same tier as major sports leagues 7% Not sure / No response 17% Source: Turnkey Sports & Entertainment in conjunction with SportsBusiness Journal. Turnkey Intelligence specializes in research, measurement and lead generation for brands and properties. Visit www.turnkeyse.com.
Gaming is an “integral part of the Facebook experience and our video strategy,” said Guy Cross, Facebook’s head of North America games partnerships. Esports make up a large part of long-form video consumptions, Cross said, and engage large audiences because of the world-class game play and high production values.
Facebook recently won exclusive rights to stream Blizzard Entertainment’s Heroes of the Dorm college tournament in the title “Heroes of the Storm,” replacing ESPN. European esports franchise G2 signed a deal with Facebook to begin streaming on its site last month as well.
YouTube launched YouTube Gaming in 2015, and won exclusive English-language streaming rights to the ESL Pro League in 2017, which accounts for about 40 percent of total consumption of all ESL Pro league viewing worldwide.
While industry insiders are open to options other than Twitch, they know fans won’t leave the traditional home of gaming easily. “Credit goes to Twitch and partners around the world for helping us build the sport, and anything we do that joins the conversation around distribution needs to be great,” Riot’s Kennedy said.
Lake, the founder of the compLexity franchise, said Twitch is like ESPN. “There’s a lot of people who just go there, and see an event, and click,” He said. “Just like ESPN with sports. You might lose that built-in audience whenever you leave Twitch.”
Smartly, he said, Twitch has been pursuing sponsor and media partnerships at the team level. That lacks the big-dollar potential of rights to major competitions, but ensures a grassroots, day-to-day reason to keep viewers.
Twitch declined to comment for this article.
Facebook also sees potential in the lower tiers of gaming content, Cross said, and wants to offer something to “all parts of the gaming ecosystem,” he said. “People love watching the pros compete at the highest level,” he said. “But each tier of the gaming video pyramid, whether it’s gaming entertainers broadcasting walk-throughs, game publishers sharing their latest game trailers, or people sharing highlights and live streams from their own gameplay, is a unique constituency, each with its own needs, experiences and opportunities.”
Whether any given streamer ever overtakes Twitch as the esports leader, demand will keep coming. Just as esports properties salivate at the multiples of their investments, media companies are desperate for their viewers.
“It is very rare to find a relatively new content offering that has a built-in, massive audience on a global nature with a demographic that is extremely difficult to reach with normal sports offerings on a live basis,” Gold said of the Riot property. “That to me is what makes this unique: live, massive following, key demographics and global.” |
PHILADELPHIA ― Donald Trump bragged not long ago that he could shoot someone dead on New York’s Fifth Avenue and his supporters would still love him.
The boast was meant to illustrate the loyalty of his fans. But if the Republican nominee truly wants to know how such a charge can affect a political career, he could just ask Hillary Clinton.
Murdering someone with a gun is just one of the things Clinton has been accused of over the years by her political opponents, who have attacked her for such things as profiting from insider information in the commodities market, enabling husband and former president Bill Clinton’s infidelities, and, more recently, mishandling the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.
A quarter-century of drama involving the former first lady brings her to a remarkable threshold: on the doorstep of becoming the first female American president, despite being seen as a villain by a sizable segment of the population.
“There’s a narrative here, and it’s a real narrative, and she hasn’t dealt with it at all,” said David Winston, Republican pollster and former aide to Bill Clinton-era House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) “The challenge for her is the things that have happened recently that are feeding into an existing storyline.”
So ingrained is the anti-Hillary sentiment, crossing party and demographic lines, that even those too young to remember anything about Whitewater or “Troopergate” know it’s cool to dislike her -– even though they may not be quite sure why.
A private person by nature, Clinton responded through the years by throwing up even more barriers against outsiders, her supporters say, culminating in the decision that led her to use a private email server to handle her official communications as secretary of state. A November 2011 email to her top confidante stated it best: “I don’t want any risk of the personal being accessible.”
Winston said the email controversy has hurt Clinton because it gives critics an opening to re-litigate the headlines of the 1990s, making them seem relevant even for younger voters. “Does the entire 18-and-over universe remember the ‘90s?” Winston asked. “No. But the political discourse that is occurring in the news media does remember them.”
And that, in turn, has made distrust of Clinton permeate across the country and across the political spectrum ― from undergraduates at the University of Virginia just before the state’s March primary who said they couldn’t trust Clinton without really being to explain why, to the female 34-year-old Republican National Convention delegate in Cleveland last week who was not sold on Trump, but said Clinton was out of the question.
“Obviously I don’t think she’s trustworthy. I mean we saw what she did in Benghazi,” said Utah’s Kendra Seeley.
In Florida, meanwhile, a recent Quinnipiac University poll showed that Clinton had fallen behind Trump by double digits on the question of who was more honest and trustworthy.
Among those in the Sunshine State who don’t trust Clinton is the 19-year-old college sophomore son of Barbara Cady. “’No one likes her, Mom.’ So I’ve been told,” Cady said Monday as she walked Center City Philadelphia with fellow Clinton delegates from Florida. She added that her son could not really articulate his reasoning. “He has no idea. And he’s a political science major.”
Clinton’s weakness in the polls has led many Republicans to grouse that their party had managed to nominate the one candidate with an even worse public image than Clinton’s. Even a senior White House aide privately noted the irony, describing the coming contest as a battle between two unlikable 1970s sitcom characters: “It’s Maude versus Archie Bunker.”
Disliked From The Start
Being disliked is nothing new for Clinton. She entered public life as the wife of Arkansas attorney general Bill Clinton, not long afterward becoming that state’s first lady ― and immediately attracted criticism for keeping her maiden name, Hillary Rodham.
When husband Bill ran for president in 1992, her image problems continued. An irritated interview response justifying her decision to pursue a career ― “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas.” ― brought a quick backlash, followed by a cookie bakeoff with then-first lady Barbara Bush.
Republicans at first didn’t worry about the Clintons, believing that a draft-dodging womanizer had no chance of defeating a World War II Navy pilot who had successfully prosecuted the Gulf War against Iraq and had sky-high approval ratings.
When Clinton won anyway, conservatives in particular seethed, and quickly began working to keep various controversies that had surfaced during the campaign in the public eye.
Hillary Clinton eventually came to call it a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” but there was little conspiratorial about it. It was all out in the open. The well-funded “Arkansas Project” drummed up publicity about various misdeeds, which congressional Republicans, after they retook control of both chambers in the 1994 midterm elections, used as fodder for hearings and investigations.
“There arose a kind of cottage industry in the ‘90s. Kind of an Anti-Clinton Inc.,” said Mo Eillethee a former Hillary Clinton campaign aide and now the director of the Institute of Politics and Public Service at Georgetown University. “That can take a toll on somebody.”
The Clintons frequently did not help matters with their own actions. Hillary Clinton, for example, claimed to have misplaced billing records from her Little Rock law firm related to the Whitewater investigation. They turned up much later in the White House.
“There was enough smoke that got attention, rightly or wrongly, and it was a reflection of her not being able to tamp it down,” said Winston.
Clinton defenders, though, argue that Hillary Clinton reacted to the relentless attacks the way anyone would. “I think that’s blaming the victim,” said David Brock.
Brock, in fact, owns a unique perspective on the Clintons. For much of the 1990s, he was a cog in that right-wing conspiracy as a researcher and journalist for various conservative organizations. But in 2001, he published a book that renounced that work, and today he runs the pro-Clinton super PAC Correct the Record.
The accusation that the Clintons had Vince Foster murdered to cover up some other supposed misdeed is probably the best example of the abuse she has taken, Brock said. Foster was not merely a White House staffer. For years in Little Rock, he was Hillary Clinton’s colleague and among her closest friends. Investigations found he was suffering from depression and committed suicide, but the accusations continue to this day, now from supporters of Donald Trump.
That Hillary Clinton would decide to jealously guard her privacy after that experience should not be a surprise, Brock said. “That’s a normal response to 25 years of character assassination.”
Clinton Mistrust Is Now Part Of The Culture
Those 25 years are clearly prologue as Clinton heads toward the general election of 2016.
The Republican National Committee put together a handy poster of her “Scandal Tour” to display at its command post, two miles from the arena where Clinton will officially become the Democratic nominee. “Our mission is to expose the long and scandalous history of Hillary and Bill Clinton right here in the Democrats’ own backyard,” said RNC chairman Reince Priebus.
For Republicans looking to take back the White House after two terms on the outs, Clinton’s unpopularity is a godsend. “It was so easy to hate the Clintons because they were so successful,” said California RNC member Shawn Steel. But today, the new email scandal helps revive the older ones and, more optimistically, Hillary is nowhere near as good a politician as her husband, Steel said. On top of that, he said, there’s her voice: “She screeches. She can’t help it.”
With only 100 days left in the campaign, Clinton’s unpopularity is unlikely to go away, even her defenders admit.
“The feeling that she can’t be trusted is completely inchoate. And people can’t really articulate what it is that they can’t trust,” Brock said. “Unfortunately, it’s a mythology that’s part of the culture now.”
Georgetown’s Mo Elleithee, who was Clinton’s traveling press secretary for her 2008 presidential bid, said Clinton needs to avoid the “bunker mentality” she tends to adopt when she faces criticism ― which in turn continues a vicious cycle.
“It creates a mutual distrust. When she comes out of the bunker, and lets people see who she really is, she does well. Because she is a warm and engaging person,” Elleithee said. “I was planning my wedding while working on her campaign, and she would ask me every day, ‘Okay, what’s going on with the wedding planning?’”
Elleithee and others point out that Clinton has not always been so disliked. In fact, among her highest approval ratings came during her tenure as secretary of State. She traveled the globe, meeting with world leaders while also holding free-wheeling town hall meetings with everyday citizens. In 2012, the “texts from Hillary” internet meme briefly made her a pop icon, both hip and funny.
For Brock, that pattern offers the hope that, if she can win the election, she could enjoy a successful presidency. “When Hillary appears to be seeking a promotion and political power, her trust and approval numbers go down. When she gets the job, they go back up,” he said.
Between that possibility and today, of course, is the November election. And in that contest, Clinton is perhaps lucky that Republicans chose someone whose unpopularity matches or even exceeds her own.
Orlando’s Barbara Cady said that after only a little bit of persuasion, her Bernie Sanders-supporting son is ready to back Clinton. “Oh, he’ll vote for her,” Cady said. “He hates Trump.” |
Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed the measure to legalise gay marriage [GALLO/GETTY]
The New York State Senate has voted to allow gay marriage, leaving only what is expected to be a swift approval from the governor as the last step before the state becomes the sixth and largest in America to allow men and women to marry people of the same sex.
The senate chamber erupted in applause from a packed gallery during an initial 36-26 vote that approved an amendment to the bill that would protect religious institutions that do not want to grant gay marriages, and more cheers could be heard echoing outside for minutes afterward.
The amendment vote paved the way for approval of the bill, which followed after nearly an hour of at-times emotional speeches.
The 33-29 vote split almost entirely along party lines, reversing a 2009 vote that defeated a similar same-sex marriage measure.
Four Republicans joined 29 Democrats in approving the measure on Friday, while one Democrat voted against the bill.
First for Republicans
In approving the bill, which was passed to the senate after moving through the assembly, New York's legislature became the first controlled by Republicans to pass a bill allowing gay marriage.
Shortly before the vote, longtime Republican Senator Stephen Saland described the debate behind it and revealed that he would be voting in favour, though he had voted against the 2009 measure.
He said he had been raised to be tolerant of all people and that the only way to avoid "flying in the face" of his upbringing was to vote for marriage equality.
In 2009, the senate was controlled by Democrats, who in other states have usually viewed gay marriage more favourably than Republicans.
The current New York senate is controlled by Republicans, but Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo has pushed hard to persuade senators to vote in favour of what he has said is a priority of his administration.
Senate Republicans allowed the measure to come to a vote only after behind-the-scenes talks between them and Cuomo, the New York Times reported.
Republicans were concerned that the measure protect religious institutions that do not want to marry people of the same sex.
Some remained opposed. Senator Ruben Diaz said he was the only Democrat voting against the bill and wore the fact as a "badge of honour".
Referring to the capital of the state, Diaz said that "God, not Albany, has settled the definition of marriage a long time ago."
New York support
Five states in America currently allow gay marriages: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
No states in the traditionally conservative south allow it. Washington DC, the federal district, also allows gay marriage.
Legal and political battles over gay marriage have raged throughout the US for more than a decade, and the issue has often gone to court.
New York residents have supported gay marriage since 2009, according to polls conducted by Quinnipiac University.
That year, 51 per cent responded that they favoured it; in June, another poll found that group had grown to 58 per cent.
Support predictably split along party lines: 72 per cent of Democrats in the survey approved of gay marriage, while only 34 per cent of Republicans did.
Internationally, same-sex marriage is allowed in 10 countries, including Canada, Argentina, Sweden and South Africa. The Netherlands became the first country to allow it in 2001.
Many other countries provide for unions that grant same-sex couples all the legal rights of marriage without allowing the use of the name. |
Support my Patreon!
www.patreon.com/moggymawee Support my Patreon!
Hi guys!So, I finally got around to sewing my favourite CMC - Apple Bloom!!! ^-^ This is my first time testing out my filly pattern #1 and I'm overall pretty happy with it, but there are a few changes I'd like to make (including slightly longer legs). I love how Apple Bloom looks as a plushie(isn't she just the sweetest?!) and I can't wait to make another one with my updated filly pattern for myself! ^-^Hope you guys like her!*Materials: cuddle 3 minky by Shannon Fabrics*Minky colours: yellow, cherry, fuchsia*Stuffing: premium polyester fiberfill, craft foam and poly pellets in hooves*Thread: gutermann polyester sew-all thread, gutermann rayon embroidery thread, madeira polyneon embroidery thread*Eyes/Cutie marks: machine embroidered*Size: Approx 10.5" tall, 10" long*She has my signature embroidered into the bottom of his front left hoofApple Bloom is up for adoption - cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?… So is Dr Whooves - www.ebay.com/itm/321362918982?… And lastly, myMore info here: maryrilakkuma.wordpress.com/po… Thank you so much! And hope you have a great day today! ^o^ |
The official Big Finish Big 200 survey is live online now – and we're giving listeners the chance to vote and win!
After reaching the milestone of 200 releases in our Doctor Who Monthly Range with the release of Doctor Who: The Secret History, we wanted to poll our incredible fans to find out, definitively, which stories YOU think are the very best. From the completed entries, we will pick five lucky winners who will win five digital, main range releases of their choice.
But this is only the first part of the survey. From each batch of 20 releases we'll be looking for the best two which will leave us with 20 of the best releases across our 200. The second part of the survey, which will start after this one closes, will be to pick the best from the final 20. It's a bit like Eurovision, only more gripping and less political.
In that second survey we'll be dropping all 200 digital releases in the account of one lucky winner, chosen at random.
You can fill in your entries here via our questionnaire on Survey Monkey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/F9HNMGP
Good luck, and may the best release win! |
’Tis better to give than to receive. But if you give too much, you might receive contempt. Because a study finds that people shun group members who are overly generous.
Three-hundred-ten volunteers were each given points that they could contribute to the group or keep for themselves. They were also told that their final points tally would be converted to chances at winning a gift card.
After seeing the amounts contributed by five other group members—that were really computer simulations—participants had the option of punishing those that contributed the most. And they gladly gave up one of their own points to deduct 3 points from the most generous member.
Participants also rated how much they wanted other members to remain in the group. They went after those that gave too little and too much. The study is in the journal Social Science Research. [Kyle Irwin and Christine Horne, A normative explanation of antisocial punishment]
The researchers believe that a group’s members can find conformity within the group more important than the success of the group. As Ben Franklin may have put it, in some cases hanging together makes hanging separately more likely.
—Amy Kraft
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.] |
35User Rating: 3 out of 5
Review title of SteampunkPagan Good Game But Buyer Beware!
This game was a solid episode based story that had some physics issues. However after over a year the third eposode has not been released. The company A Crowd Of Monsters has given the people who bought Eps. 1 & 2 no information in their game HUB and have not replied to my or other customers e-mails. I believe this to be a dead game and do not think it will get completed. I also belive that the Eps. 1&2 bundle may still to some be worth the money. I will thanks to this experience never ever buy an eposode based ID game till it is completed and will from now on be more cautious of buying ID games on Xbox when they are new. ID games are some of the best games out but MS does not watch what becomes of them down the road. So, if they promise new content or bug fixes you may never see them. Thanks for reading and have a great time gaming! |
To test the latest developer features of Firefox,
install Firefox Developer EditionFirefox 44 was released on January 26, 2016. This article lists key changes that are useful not only for web developers, but also Firefox and Gecko developers as well as add-on developers.
Changes for Web developers
HTML
CSS
JavaScript
New APIs
Changes
Removals
Support for the non-standard let blocks has been dropped (bug 1167029.
blocks has been dropped (bug 1167029. The non-standard and deprecated property Object.prototype.__noSuchMethod__ has been removed (bug 683218).
Interfaces/APIs/DOM
DOM & HTML DOM
Canvas
A new experimental OffscreenCanvas API that allows rendering contexts (such as WebGL) to run in Web Workers has been implemented. To use this experimental API set gfx.offscreencanvas.enabled to true in about:config (bug 709490). This API includes: The OffscreenCanvas interface, HTMLCanvasElement.transferControlToOffscreen() , and WebGLRenderingContext.commit() . Several WebGL interfaces are now also available in a worker context when this API is enabled.
API that allows rendering contexts (such as WebGL) to run in Web Workers has been implemented. To use this experimental API set to in about:config (bug 709490). This API includes:
WebGL
Uniform Buffer Objects have been implemented (bug 1048747).
IndexedDB
The IDBIndex.getAll() and IDBIndex.getAllKeys() , and there counterparts on IDBObjectStore are now available by default (bug 1196841).
Service Workers
WebRTC
New APIs
An experimental implementation of the Canvas API in Workers has landed: OfflineCanvas and HTMLCanvasElement.transferControlToOffscreen() are available behind the gfx.offscreencanvas.enabled preference, currently disabled by default (bug 709490).
and are available behind the preference, currently disabled by default (bug 709490). The Text2Speech API, part of Web Speech API, has now an OS X backend. But this is disabled by default (bug 1003452).
Miscellaneous
MathML
No change.
SVG
No change.
Audio/Video
No change.
HTTP
Support for the Brotli algorithm has been added and both Accept-Encoding and Content-Encoding headers now support the br value (bug 366559 and bug 1211916).
and headers now support the value (bug 366559 and bug 1211916). Incorrect support of HTTP/2 headers containing line breaks ( '/n' ) have been removed as the spec doesn't allow it, unlike HTTP/1 (bug 1197847).
Networking
No change.
Security
RC4 is now also disabled by default on Beta and Release versions of the browser (bug 1201025) and the whitelist is now empty by default (bug 1215796).
Changes for add-on and Mozilla developers
Interfaces
No change
XUL
No change.
JavaScript code modules
XPCOM
The nsIDOMWindow interface is now empty. Its contents were either no longer used, had moved elsewhere, or were only used from C++. The items available from C++ code now reside in the nsPIDOMWindow interface (bug 1216401).
Other
Due to breaking changes in Firefox 44 (bug 1202902), add-ons packed with cfx will not work any longer. To make your add-on compatible again, please use jpm. You can find steps to migrate from cfx to jpm here.
See also
Older versions |
British officials say they've been unable to trace the rightful heirs to a trove of gold coins found stashed inside a piano and worth a "life-changing" amount of money.
The school that owns the piano and the tuner who found the gold are now in line for a windfall after a coroner investigating the find declared it treasure. But a couple who owned the piano for three decades before donating it to their local school will likely miss out.
Coroner John Ellery said Thursday that, despite a thorough investigation and a public appeal for information, "we simply do not know" who concealed the coins.
The hoard was discovered last year when the piano was sent for tuning in Shropshire, central England. Under the keyboard — neatly stacked in hand-stitched packages and pouches — were 913 gold sovereigns and half-sovereigns minted in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Piano tuner Martin Backhouse said when he found the pouches and slit open the stitching, he thought: "Ooh, it looks like there's rather a lot of gold in this."
The hoard, which weighs 6 kilograms (13 pounds), has not been formally valued. But Peter Reavill of the British Museum has said the trove is worth a "potentially life-changing" amount.
Revenue from items declared "treasure" is generally split between the owner — in this case, the Bishops Castle Community College — and the finder.
The piano was owned for 33 years by Graham and Meg Hemmings, who donated it last year to the school near their home. But Meg Hemmings said she's not bitter at missing out on treasure that was right under her nose.
"The sadness is, it's not a complete story," she said. "They've looked and searched for the people and they unfortunately haven't come forward.
"It's an incomplete story — but it's still an exciting story." |
Märchenwald Saalburg 30th October 2016 Day two of our trip began with an extra two hours in bed, one thanks to the end of Daylight Savings Time and the other thanks to some unapologetic laziness. Inefficiencies brought on by lingering fatigue from the previous evening meant that we were well behind our planned schedule by the time we left our hotel, but we were able to reclaim virtually all of the time by driving energetically along the almost empty A9. It was thirty minutes after opening when we arrived at Märchenwald Saalburg, but despite that the car park was completely empty and there was no sign of recent human activity. Nevertheless a large placard confirmed the opening hours I'd found online, and with that in mind we deposited €1 in the meter and followed an unassuming sign for Fußweg Märchenwald pointing towards a forest trail. The path followed a winding route that dropped a total of ten metres into a valley full of brightly coloured buildings that would no doubt feel like a magical world to the average five year old. There was a gate at its base that stood wide open next to an unattended ticket window, marking the second time this year that has happened to us. We stepped inside to have a look around, and quickly determined that the park had no power, indicated clearly by a collapsed bouncy castle and a variety of rigid animatronics. Our presence had been noticed, however; moments later a woman materialised from a building in the distance and began to walk in our direction. She made a brief stop at an electrical box, and with a flick of a switch the entire place abruptly came to life. The park name translates to Fairy Tale Forest, and perhaps unsurprisingly the main attractions are a collection of elaborate dioramas representing scenes from children's stories. Quite a number were recognisable from those this writer grew up with, but many more were not, relying instead on recorded explanations in the local patois that from my perspective might as well have been dictated in ancient Greek. There were at least fifty in total, most of them laid out along an upward-sloping footpath that terminated at a goat enclosure complete with a coin-operated futterautomat, demonstrating once again that Germans have words for everything. My personal favourite is backpfeifengesicht, though I digress. These days many obscure coasters are identified for the first time by enthusiasts browsing satellite imagery online, but Butterfly (#2303) was too well hidden to have been found that way. While composing this trip report I looked at Google Earth to double-check, and sure enough, the only thing visible at the exact ride location was trees. This made for a beautiful setting for our eleventh Heege tick of the year, and we enjoyed the experience so much that we promptly switched seats for a second go. The ride was running well enough that we might even have ridden a third time if we'd had another fifty cent piece available. The park was beautiful, and to be honest the only negative for me was the presence of a coin box outside the toilets with signage indicating that a deposit was expected from users. This struck me as a bit excessive really; while chargeable public toilets are common practice in Germany it is not usual to find them inside locations that charge for admission. I felt that I'd already made enough of a contribution to the day's takings and ignored the sign with a clear conscience.
WurzelRudi's ErlebnisWelt 30th October 2016 WurzelRudi's ErlebnisWelt is the trading name used for a small set of year-round attractions located at SkiArena Eibenstock, including a hedge maze, a tube slide, and an alpine coaster that, to be blunt, isn't one of Wiegand's finer efforts. Allwetterbobbahn has a monotonous and boring layout that consists of repeated left and right turns across a grass field with just two drops for punctuation, the second of which coming no more than five seconds before the track end. There was a moderately entertaining whirring sound from the sleds during the initial acceleration, but it was just noise, as the overall top speed wasn't close to what we managed on the model yesterday.
Gelenau 30th October 2016 The municipality of Gelenau is located in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in eastern Germany, roughly twenty kilometres from the border with the Czech Republic. The local authorities operate a wide variety of sport and leisure services for their citizens and tourists alike, including indoor and outdoor swimming pools, miniature golf, an observation tower, a nature park, a ski slope, a running track, and an alpine coaster. The Alpine-Coaster-Bahn was marginally better than the one earlier in the day at WurzelRudi's ErlebnisWelt, but still eminently forgettable. The lift hill and the first portion of the descent routed through thick forest which provided good visuals, and there was one particularly tight turn that delivered strong laterals as the sled came within a few feet of a tree. Aside from that however the layout did nothing of consequence, with the single worthwhile drop coming just metres before the end of the course.
Sonnenlandpark 30th October 2016 Sonnenlandpark is an enormous amusement park stretched across almost two hundred acres of land, making it more than four times the size of Blackpool Pleasure Beach and somewhat larger than Tayto Park. Despite the huge amount of space, however, the place has just two full sized mechanical rides, namely a Riesenrad (wheel) and a Wellenflieger (wave swinger) that stand on opposite corners of the site. Much of the remaining land is devoted to wide open green spaces, though there is also a flower garden, quad bikes, a boating lake, several playgrounds, mechanical diggers, and a small selection of Heege products. One of the inherent challenges in writing regular trip reports is how to remain interesting when describing something covered many times before. The challenge is amplified when discussing something like a Butterfly (#2304) as there's really only so much that can be said about a V-shaped piece of steel track that is traversed by a yellow-coloured bucket. One cannot use the standard catch-all of good laterals on a ride that doesn't turn corners, and similarly any discussion of airtime would no doubt be met with little more than a polite snigger. In the early nineties I managed to compose a four page long punishment essay discussing the inside of a ping-pong ball (courtesy of the late Eamon Agnew, may he rest in peace) by discussing a secret and previously unknown world, but it'd be tough to get away with that approach when reviewing a coaster. Instead, I thought I'd indulge in some gratuitous rambling about the provenance of the Heege Butterly, or to give it a completely fictional but authentic sounding Latin name, papilio heege. The first two examples of the species materialised at Potts Park in 1985, and both remain in operation over three decades later in their current homes of Bayern Park and Familienfreizeitpark Funny-World. A total of sixty-one original models were built over twenty-five years, culminating in the final installation at Mc-Play Kinderland in 2010. A mark two version premiered at Familypark in 2014, and seven more of those have opened since, including three this year. Megan, ever the nerd, decided to take a close-up of the manufacturer plate on this unit for her private collection. As we had plenty of spare time we decided it was worth doing a complete lap of the park, and that was how we discovered a set of coin operated mechanical diggers set in a circle around what is probably best described as a quarry. It took a bit of time to figure out how the controls worked, but after a while both of us mastered the technique well enough to systematically lift quantities of gravel into the air and dump them out in other locations. A fifty cent coin was sufficient for five whole minutes of entertainment, which felt like excellent value for money. There was a sign up on the path leading to the Riesenrad indicating that it would only operate today during visits by the park train, reflecting the relative dearth of visitors on a cold Sunday at the end of the season. We decided to stroll up to it anyway to have a look, and in so doing came across a herd of deer that were apparently well used to being ogled by park guests. We were able to take some beautiful close-up photographs that more than made up for the lack of aerial shots (which, in retrospect, would probably only feature treetops and fields anyway). |
When it comes to the security of our personal information, 2015 may be the worst year on record.
As of Dec. 15, according to a running tally kept by the Identity Theft Resource Center, the past year saw 750 data breaches at American corporations, government agencies, and nonprofits.
While not all of these breaches represented a definite case of nefarious activity, that number is an all-time high. Over 177 million individual personal records were exposed in one way or another. The ITRC only collects records for the United States, which has a population of around 319 million.
“Thieves know how to turn data into money, firms don’t.”
To top it off, these figures only include data breaches that organizations recognized and, in some manner, made public. They don’t account for all the sketchy, malware-filled attachments people opened in the privacy of their own homes.
Stop and think about that for a moment.
Some of these breaches you’ve likely heard about. When hackers publicly released the information of millions users of the adultery-themed dating site Ashley Madison, it made international news. However, it probably slipped under your radar when hackers compromised the data of customers who shopped at online at the American arm of the trendy, minimalist housewares company Muji. And you likely didn’t notice when the servers of the textile manufacturer Knit-Rite were infected with a virus designed to capture the personal and credit card information of an unknown number of users.
Of course, the main thing that makes data breaches matter is the data itself. As such, these data breaches, while often dangerous and damaging to Americans’ identities and finances, have sparked a surprising long-term effect— they will ultimately protect your privacy.
Inside the cybersecurity industry—that is to say, the people who periodically wake up in a cold sweat worrying about the consequences of the next Ashley Madison-style dataclysm happening on their watch—there’s been a growing realization: The big data revolution promised by the dual innovations of massive computing power and cheap, nearly unlimited storage capacity, has a dark side. Each piece of personal data collected from a user or employee and then stored for safekeeping also has the risk of eventually being stolen.
As Sam Pfeifle, publications director at the privacy organization International Association of Privacy Professionals notes, 2015 saw organizations accepting the conclusion that, in many ways, keeping 100 percent of their information safe 100 percent of the time is a losing battle. Instead, the way to manage the potential liability incurred from a data breach is not to collect the most dangerous pieces of data the first place.
“Privacy is this really hard thing to pin down,” Pfeifle told the Daily Dot. “It’s different culturally, it’s different from person to person. … Some people are exhibitionists, some people don’t care if the NSA is spying on them. But, for everybody, there is some thing that hits home. I think the nature of the breaches this year has started to make it hit home as a real issue for a lot more people.”
Not all personal information is created equal. When brick-and-mortar retailers Target and Home Depot were hacked last year, the attacks were major events that cost the companies both cash and reputation. Yet, for most customers affected by those breaches, the negative repercussions were minimal.
If an identity thief steals your credit card number, it’s probably not going to be an enormous inconvenience. The credit card company notices a suspicious purchase, sends you a message asking whether or not it was legitimate, and you tell them yes or no. Either way, the financial institution likely won’t require you to pay the cost of any fraudulent purchases because a certain level of losses from fraud are built into their business models.
The big data revolution promised by the the dual innovations of massive computing power and cheap, nearly unlimited storage capacity, has a dark side.
However, when hackers accessed the records of some 21.5 million current and former federal employees and government contractors by infiltrating the computer systems of the the Office of Personnel Management, which essentially functions as the federal government’s HR department, it was another story entirely.
Since OPM handles government background checks, much of the data it held was extremely intimate: names, current and former addresses, Social Security numbers, employment history, fingerprints, and much more.
The OPM hackers are believed to be from China, although Beijing officials have denied the attack was state-sponsored. Nevertheless, the CIA reportedly pulled its agents from the U.S. embassy in the Chinese capital as a precaution.
The OPM hack was a wake up call across the entire tech sector. In the hands of an identity thief, that level of detailed information is essentially a license to print money at someone else’s expense. Armed with the data from the OPM hack, a criminal could do everything from taking out fraudulent loans in the victim’s name to using their identity to obtain free medical care or prescription drugs to filing their tax return and stealing the refund.
“When storage first started to get cheap, everybody was gleeful. They could collect all this information, store it forever, and then figure out how to use it later,” said Pfeifle. “Now, you look at that OPM breach, some of that data was from employees who haven’t worked [for the federal government] in years and years and years. That should be been deleted unless it was absolutely necessary.”
The concept is here is called data minimization—organizations thinking critically about what data they absolutely need to collect and what carries a significant enough risk that having it on their servers may ultimately be more trouble than it’s worth.
“When you’re doing some marketing campaign or a hiring for a job, are you deleting all those resumes after the fact? Are you asking for their occupation for a good reason? You never know what data might start getting really personal and might make you subject to some sort of liability,” Pfeifle said. “This concept of data minimization is starting to become much more commonplace in corporate America. Whereas, it used to be, that big data was always viewed as an asset. Now, you better have a good reason for how you’re going to monetize that data, or else it’s going to bite you in the butt.”
A recent survey of 300 IT security professional commissioned by the cybersecurity firm SecureAuth found that 59 percent said their company had experienced a data breach in the past 12 months, and 62 percent felt that managing the consequences of data breaches is more costly than protecting against them in the first place.
Pfeifle notes this gradual shift from a “gather all the data” mindset to one more agnostic about universal collection is not yet a sea change affecting the entire tech industry. Amassing an enormous amount of data is still, in many ways, the norm. Even so, some industries have taken the concept to heart—the healthcare field, for example
In an interview with the Daily Dot earlier this year, Greg Virgin, the founder of cybersecurity consulting firm RedJack, recalled how he was recently talking with an executive at a small medical technology startup, and said something that made his client turn white. Virgin commented that the firm’s total liability was far greater than the startup’s total value. A significant data breach would, almost certainly, put them out of business immediately. “Compared to financial data, which is usually short-lived, the information in medical records tends to last a lot longer—it’s a lot more sticky,” Virgin said.
Changing your credit card number is a painless process that can be accomplished in a few minutes. Getting a new Social Security number is an epic ordeal, and the U.S. government only grants under a very rare and specific set of circumstances. Your blood type is forever.
All that information can be, in some way, valuable to thieves. On online black markets where stolen personal information is bought and sold, someone’s full medical records can go for as much as $4,700, whereas a stolen credit card number is only worth the equivalent of loose change.
Andy O’Hara, the founder of Austin, Texas-based telemedicine startup Chiron Health, told the Daily Dot earlier this year that his company takes great pains to only collect the bare minimum amount of personal information from its users as necessary in order to minimize the risk associated with holding it.
“Companies are really starting to think about there being a certain set of laws we need to comply with and they have a compliance department for that. But what do they want to do as a company?” said Pfeifle. “What do they believe in terms of privacy and how do they want to integrate that throughout the entire organization?”
As wave after wave of major hacking scandals break, the level of trust everyday people have in the institutions tasked with holding on to their data drops. A study by the Ponemon Institute found that 68 percent of respondents were not confident their healthcare provider was taking sufficient security measures to keep their medical records safe.
Charles Leonard is co-founder of the cybersecurity Cybernance, which provides tools for corporate leaders to better understand risk posed by their data stores. He argues that, while companies like Facebook and Twitter seem to be more valued for the data they’re able to extract from users more so than for their actual ability to generate revenue, converting that data into profit can often be nebulous. For identity thieves, turning data into dollars is considerably more direct.
“Thieves know how to turn data into money, firms don’t,” Leonard told the Daily Dot. “But firms who collect data will subsidize the cost of damages to their owners and customers.”
Even though companies can buy insurance against data breaches, Leonard added, the damage an organization suffers can be far greater than the costs associated with cleaning up the mess, from a forensic analysis to determine what went wrong to legal fees associated with potential class action litigation.
Your blood type is forever.
“At the peak of their breach disclosure [in February of 2014], Target had lost $2.2 billion in market value. You could think of this as the market’s appraisal of the collateral brand damage outside of the financial liability,” Leonard said. “This was the breach that brought cyber risk into the public imagination, and the watershed moment when people realized this isn’t something you can blame on ‘the IT guy.’”
If Target was collecting more information than just customer names and credit cards, that number would have likely been even bigger. That’s why it isn’t just scrappy startups like Chriron that are attempting to bake privacy into their DNA by keeping certain pieces of user information away from prying eyes—including their own.
“A lot of [big tech] companies are dedicated to privacy [and] I think Apple is the best example here,” Nate Cardozo, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the Daily Dot. Cardozo complies an annual report rating tech firms on their policies toward user data. “Apple is the biggest company that has ever existed in the history of the world, and their CEO, Tim Cook, has made it very clear to his customers and to the U.S. government that the security of their users is his number one priority.”
One of the ways Apple is selling itself as an organization that takes the privacy of its users seriously is though data minimization. In the iOS 9 mobile operating system released earlier this year, Apple boasted that users’ personalized data will be stored locally on their devices rather than in the cloud, where it could become vulnerable through an attack on the company’s servers.
At its core, Cardozo believes, Apple’s fight with the U.S. government over encryption—technology that makes user data unreadable to the company and, notably, police and spies—is largely about data minimization. Apple has set up its messaging systems so not even the company is able to decrypt messages sent from one user to another—even if ordered to by law enforcement or intelligence officials.
“[Cook has] made a stand there, and I absolutely don’t see him backing down on that.,” Cardozo said. “And, where Apple goes, so the industry will have to follow.”
Clarification: The International Association of Privacy Professionals identifies as a privacy organization, not a cybersecurity group.
Illustration via Max Fleishman |
Newsmax’s Steve Malzberg interviewed far-right radio host Jesse Lee Peterson yesterday about the unrest that is currently engulfing Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray, which Peterson predictably blamed on President Obama.
After Malzberg complained that America is being turned into a “criminal-friendly nation,” Peterson declared that Obama is intentionally fomenting civil unrest in Baltimore so that he can seize control of every police force in the country.
“Barack Obama believes in the redistribution of wealth,” he said, “he believes in the redistribution of power, so if he can keep these blacks angry and under his control by stroking them, they’re going to bring the chaos. And once the chaos comes, then Barack Obama, as he said in his speech, he can federalize the police departments around the country so that he can redistribute the power and wealth. That’s what this is all about. He is pulling their strings by stroking their egos and making the feel good about being wrong for his own personal gain”: |
GITF — Give The Gift Of Hodling
enclaves.io Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 22, 2017
I’ve spent the last 12 months telling anyone who will listen to me how Ethereum is going to change the world. I’ve received puzzled looks, skeptical shrugs and lectures on money laundering, but alongside these, scattered like gold dust, there have been sparks of interest, followed by engaging and thoughtful discussion.
Over this time I have also given out small gifts of Ether to friends and family. Whilst they often start by being most interested in the price (which is very exciting) I’ve found that for quite a few people this then transitions into a deeper interest. People start reading the Reddit threads, looking at YouTube videos and exploring Ethereum and cryptocurrency as a whole. They have their personal flippening moment and fall down the crypto-currency rabbit hole!
Since it is the season to be jolly, the team at Enclaves thought it would be fun to build a little dApp we called Gitf, which lets anyone with Ether quickly and easily create a smart contract that can be used to gift Ether to a lucky friend!
Give The Gift Of Hodling
This gift smart contract has the following features:
it can hold as little, or as much Ether as you want.
it has a lock time, before which the Ether cannot be withdrawn.
it has a text message which can be read using etherscan.io, myetherwallet.com or Mist.
there are no fees or commissions involved, other than the gas cost to create the gift contract (which can be quite high given the high transaction fees at the moment).
Once you’ve generated the gift smart contract, Gitf gives you the option to print out a voucher with all the details you need to give to your lucky recipient. This voucher includes a QR code for the recipient, a QR code for the gift contract, and a QR code that can be used to withdraw the Ether (using myetherwallet.com).
We think that this helps to demonstrate both the concept of a smart contract (their Ether is held by an autonomous entity on the blockchain governed by fixed and transparent rules) and get people interested in Ethereum as they now have skin in the game. How long you set the time lock for (or even whether you set a time lock at all) is of course up to you!
As an added bonus the gift message is stored in the gift smart contract along with the Ether, and will persist as long as the Ethereum blockchain is stored somewhere by somebody, which we think will be a very long time indeed!
The code works by calling the giftEth function of the GiftEthFactory contract on the blockchain (which we’ve deployed). This contract will create a new unique smart contract to hold the gift message and which is only redeemable by the specified recipient, after the lock time has passed.
From a security perspective we’ve taken the following steps:
code for the GiftEthFactory and dynamically created GiftEth contracts is super simple.
and dynamically created contracts is super simple. everyone gets their own unique GiftEth contract.
contract. we’ve registered an ENS name for the GiftEthFactory which is enclavesgitf.eth.
which is we created the GiftEthFactory contract on both the Ropsten TestNet, and the MainNet, so that you can test on Ropsten first if you want to.
contract on both the Ropsten TestNet, and the MainNet, so that you can test on Ropsten first if you want to. the code for GiftEthFactory is verified on etherscan.io and we’ve also verified code for an example GiftEth contract (which will be picked up by any other new GiftEth contracts as the byte code will be identical).
You can find the full code, deployment scripts and unit tests at:
https://github.com/enclavesio/gitf
Have fun using this, and let us know any thoughts or comments below. You can also sign up to receive the latest news from Enclaves and early access to future labs on our website enclaves.io.
Happy Holidays!
The Enclaves Team |
War games are becoming so realistic that it's time virtual soldiers started obeying the Geneva Convention, the Red Cross has argued.
The statement comes from a BBC News interview with Red Cross spokesperson Francois Senechaud. He argues that not only are games becoming more realistic, but they're also rewarding players for carrying out acts that in reality would be considered war crimes and subject to international prosecution. Targeting civilians, torturing prisoners of war and stealing dog tags are all illegal actions that have been used in games without penalty.
The torture scene from Splinter Cell: Blacklist was removed before the game launched.
"Video games that are representing battlefields... are very close to reality and actually it's very difficult to [tell] the difference between real footage and the footage you can get from video games," Senechaud said, as transcribed by Gamasutra. "We are arguing that we have to get even closer to reality and we also have to include the rules of... conflict [as well]."
Marek Spanel, CEO of Bohemia Interactive, publisher of the realistic ArmA series of battle simulators, is also interviewed in the report, and describes how they made such restrictions a part of their game world. "What we realised was that some players just went into the game...and fired at everything that moved," says Spanel. "We felt that this is just not right. We introduced a very simple but intricate mechanism that if you do this, and there are friendly troops around you, they will attack [you]."
Coincidentally, at the same time an interview with Infinity Ward producer Mark Rubin ran over at Game Informer, in which he insists that while Call of Duty aims to feel "authentic" and uses military advisors, it has no intention of being a realistic portrayal of a soldier's job. "We are trying to be a cinematic movie experience based on authentic equipment and authentic experience", Rubin says. "A lot of the stuff that we show in the game has been done by someone, but it's not a representation of what they do or it's not an equivalent in any way of what they do. We're just trying to make a fun movie." |
It’s pretty safe to assume that hate crime hoaxes — particularly regarding Muslims — will explode off the charts during the Trump administration. Varieties of faked hate have been roiling communities and college campuses for years with no let up. One count finds 100 hate crime hoaxes in the last decade , and the Trump presidency is sure to inspire even greater phony-baloney victimhood.
One memorable freakout occurred in 2012 when an Iraqi Muslim man residing in El Cajon murdered his wife and faked it as a hate crime: the town’s Muslims went nuts, hysterically blaming Islam critics like Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller for creating “Islamophobia” thereby causing the crime.
Kassim Alhimidi murdered his wife Shaima Alawadi (whose photo he holds) and blamed the crime on some hateful American. Alhimidi is now serving 26 years to life in state prison.
Speaking of Robert Spencer, he takes up the topic of fake hate in his most recent 5-minute explainer about several crimes that never happened as described by Muslim “victims.” Do police in Islamic nations not do detailed investigations of crime? Muslim immigrants seem to expect their word to be taken at face value by authorities, which does not happen here. |
When they reach Canadian soil, gay refugees fleeing repressive, homophobic regimes face a maddening challenge. Fearing being beaten, jailed, tortured or killed in their home countries, they hide their sexual orientation all their lives. In Canada, they face a 180: to secure status as a persecuted minority, they are asked to prove their sexuality on the spot.
This means furnishing refugee boards with detailed documentation of their same-sex relationships – intimate texts, letters, photographs and other romantic artifacts they may have erased, or never manufactured, for their own safety. Other gay refugees have no boyfriends or girlfriends to show at all, having remained single out of fear.
Without proof, gay refugee claimants' credibility is shot. How do they convince Canada to give them sanctuary?
Story continues below advertisement
On May 1, Canada will begin to address the unique circumstances that this highly vulnerable population faces with the country's first ever guidelines entirely devoted to LGBTQ refugee claimants. The guidelines set out best practices and expectations for decision makers sitting on refugee boards nationwide.
"Before this, we've had to rely on board members having good judgment, having good discretion," said Sharalyn Jordan, an organizer with Vancouver's Rainbow Refugee, which assists LGBTQ claimants. "This makes me very hopeful that we will start seeing more consistent, more just decisions."
The guidelines warn against stereotyping and against applying standards from Canada to claimants from other countries. They highlight the impact that trauma has on people's memories. And they urge decision makers to weigh evidence in the context of ongoing persecution: Would it be safe for a lesbian in a homophobic regime to walk back into the police station where she was jailed, without charge, to ask for her police records so Canadian officials could pore over them later?
"This is intended to promote a greater understanding of the diversity and complexity of the situation of sexual and gender minority individuals," Anna Pape, a spokesperson for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, said of the new guidelines, which involved consultations with LGBTQ advocates, researchers, refugee lawyers and social workers.
Around the world, sexual minorities face terrifying discrimination and threats to their lives. The latest horrific reports have come from Chechyna, where gay men have been rounded up in pogroms, tortured and killed, with Canada doing little so far to help them. Flouting human rights norms, approximately 73 countries and states worldwide outlaw gay sex, 13 of them with a death penalty, according to a 2016 report titled State-Sponsored Homophobia, authored by researcher Aengus Carroll and published by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).
"When someone comes to Canada and says, 'Don't send me back to my home country, I'm going to be persecuted, tortured or killed,' we need to take that very seriously. If we get the decisions wrong in these cases, we are not only breaching international law, we're exposing individuals to severe risk," said Sean Rehaag, a professor specializing in refugee law at Toronto's Osgoode Hall Law School.
Some 2,234 refugees claimed asylum in Canada on the basis of their sexual orientation between 2013 and 2015, according to Prof. Rehaag. Of those claims, 70.5 per cent were successful – a figure higher than the overall grant rate to all refugees of 62.5 per cent. Fraudelent claims remain extremely rare: just 2.2 per cent of all refugee claims were declared to have no credible basis or to be fraudulent in 2013, Prof. Rehaag said.
Story continues below advertisement
Canada's new guidelines are a step in the right direction. Still, it remains incredibly difficult to fairly determine a person's sexual orientation. In other cases, the homophobic attacks are so gruesome that Canadian decision makers find them implausible – and the claimant not credible as a result.
"It is not a case of board members being overtly homophobic or transphobic but … of ethnocentric criteria being applied," said Rainbow Refugee's Prof. Jordan, who teaches psychology at Simon Fraser University. "Assumptions that Canadians have about lesbian, gay, bi, or trans identities and the 'coming out' model – that people will be in relationships and seek out community as soon as they arrive – these myths and stereotypes don't fit for somebody who is fleeing persecution."
The Globe spoke with five gay refugees from all over the world about being exiled and finding their way to Canada.
“Chris”, a gay man from Jamaica, who has found safe haven in Vancouver and works as a bus driver, is photographed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Friday, April 28, 2017. Rafal Gerszak/The Globe and Mail
"They started beating me. I had to run for my life."
Chris, 31, Montego Bay, Jamaica
In Jamaica, same-sex sexual acts are illegal and anal intercourse (described as an “abominable crime” in The Offences Against the Person Act ) is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The Offences Against the Person Act Filed for refugee protection in January 2015 and was granted permanent resident status March 2017; settled in Vancouver.
"I had a different feeling toward men," Chris said, recalling his childhood. "In Jamaica, you have to speak like a man. You have to do things boys do: climb trees and play football, soccer and cricket. I, on the other hand, liked to chill with the girls and play with hair and dolls."
In high school, Chris's classmates bullied him, called him feminine names and pushed girls to ask him out on dates, as a test. Feeling unsafe, the young man stopped attending school. When Chris was 14, his father also grew suspicious, threatening to kill him if he found out he was gay. Chris moved out to his cousins' home, but eventually they began to harass him too. A high school teacher took him under her wing, inviting him home for dinner.
He had a particularly traumatizing encounter in 2006, when a group of men approached him at a bus stop on his commute home from work. "They said to me that 'I walk like a girl,'" Chris recalled. "They started beating me. I had to run for my life."
Story continues below advertisement
The same year, he lost his job at a chicken processing plant after his colleagues began intimidating him, suspecting he was gay. "It took a big toll on me," said Chris. "I loved that job so much I would get up and still put the uniform on every morning and just walk around the house. I was going crazy." He said he was unable to leave his home for two years.
A robbery at gunpoint in 2010 was the breaking point. Chris decided to move away, taking a job in the Cayman Islands. He began his first relationship with a man, only to face harassment here too: homophobic vandals smashed his windshield and carved "faggot" into his car.
Chris remained in the Cayman Islands for four years, though by 2014, the threats had intensified and his work permit was denied. Facing a forced return to Jamaica, Chris fled to Vancouver in Dec. 2014. Three months later, he got his refugee board hearing, which lasted 20 minutes: he secured permanent resident status last March.
The terrifying events he'd survived back home took hold in the form of severe depression. That's when Chris started to ride public transit buses. "I rode buses for eight hours a day and talked to bus drivers. I said, 'I want to be a bus driver.' I would ask questions about how to make the turns and what to expect."
In 2016, Chris got the job. "Even if I'm having a bad day, once I get my first passenger then I'm good," he said. "I'm a people person and for too long I've had my voice taken away from me. To see happiness on people's faces when I help them, that's what I want."
Bus driving in Canada hasn't been without incident. "I've been told by a passenger that I'm a monkey and that I should go back to Africa," Chris remembered through tears. Other passengers have spoken loudly about refugees being a burden on Canada. Chris's internal retort to this is, "You're being driven by a refugee right now."
With enough trauma in his life for several lifetimes, Chris has attempted suicide six times. Therapy and outreach groups in Canada have helped, though he is lonely. He still speaks to his mother, father and siblings, sending money back home. His sexuality is off the table: "If my mother finds out, it will break her heart really bad. But if my dad finds out, he'll swim here across the ocean and end it."
A small light flickered on when a cousin living in Canada reached out to Chris via Facebook recently. "He came to me and said, 'I know you're gay. It's our tendency to try and hide it. I know when you're lying.' My cousin and his wife are very accepting. He's been living here for 20 years."
People walk under a giant rainbow flag as they take part in the Gay Pride parade in Entebbe on August 8, 2015. Homosexuality remains illegal in Uganda, punishable by a jail sentence. ISAAC KASAMANI/AFP/Getty Images
Yvonne Niwahereza Jele, 30, Kabale, Uganda
While a 2013 “anti-homosexuality act” that proposed jailing gay Ugandans for life was annulled in 2014, the country’s penal code continues to criminalize same-sex sexual activity, which remains punishable by a prison sentence.
Refugee claim denied July 2016, granted a ministerial relief in October 2016. Now applying for asylum based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds; settled in Toronto.
Jele began a secret, lesbian relationship with her best friend when she was 13. "It was so not allowed," she said. "We were teenagers and we risked it anyway."
For years, the young women continued seeing each other furtively, until Jele was 20, when her father walked in on them kissing. He grew wild with rage. "He shoved me in one of the closets in the walkway of our house and left me there, bleeding and swollen," Jele said. There she would remain, starving and dehydrated, for six days.
After letting her out, her father delivered her to a man she'd never met before, a grocery store manager. The marriage was marked by brutality: "He would force himself on me, do whatever he wanted," she said.
Jele had two daughters, now 2 and 7. Against all odds, she continued seeing her girlfriend in clandestine meetings, often at hotels, never taking any receipts that would serve as a trail. "I just needed that little bit of me," Jele said. "I was scared but I thought we could pull it off."
Her husband discovered her affair in 2013 and called police. Jele was jailed for three days, stripped naked, beaten and doused in cold water to force her to stay awake. Having nowhere to go after being released, Yvonne returned to her husband, who grew more abusive. An escape route presented itself in March 2016: Jele worked in tourism and was asked to travel to Philadelphia. She decided to run.
Once in the United States, with $500 in hand, she took a cab to Baltimore and then a 15-hour Greyhound bus ride to a refugee centre she'd read about in Detroit. "The whole time I was on the bus I was like, 'Does this place exist? What if you get there and there's nothing? You're in America. Nobody knows you. You don't know anybody,'" Jele recalled. "I told myself, 'Be brave.'"
Behind a nondescript door, the refugee centre did in fact exist. Here, Jele slept, ate and got advice from other refugees. They told her to head north to Canada, to her brother who lives here. The Canadian refugee board ultimately did not support her claim, taking issue with a dearth of evidence for her lesbian relationship. "There's no way that you can document your life in a scary country where you're not allowed to be who you are," Jele explained.
As Jele faced deportation to Uganda, the immigration minister granted her a relief. She now has one year to prove she is employable, can pay taxes and is in fact a gay woman. A girlfriend (and an affidavit from such a girlfriend) would help her case, though love is the last thing on her mind. "The hardest part is getting board members who actually understand how life in places besides Canada actually works," Jele said. "Canada, especially Toronto, it's like a piece of heaven for me. When I describe things that happened to me back home, even to my friends, it's like a movie to them. They think it's unbelievable but it's reality."
Since November, she's been developing programs for at-risk youth at a community health centre. She hopes to follow up her undegraduate degree in community psychology with a Master's in clinical psychology. Permanent resident status would allow her to sponsor her young daughters.
"It takes forever to leave that place," Jele says of Uganda. "I feel like I've been fighting forever. I hope I'm close to the end."
Justin Negara is photographed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Friday, April 21, 2017. He is a gay, HIV positive man from Bali, who found haven in Canada after escaping persecution from family, school mates and employers. Rafal Gerszak/For The Globe and Mail
Justin Negara, 29, Bali, Indonesia
It’s legal to be gay in most parts of Indonesia, but local decrees criminalize same-sex sexual relations in South Sumatra and Aceh Province. As well, federal health regulations stigmatize gay people by stipulating that a “healthy sexual life” is free from “sexual orientation dysfunction or deviance,” and STDs.
Applied for permanent resident status in April 2015 and awaiting final outcome; settled in Vancouver.
Negara knew he was gay by the time he was 10 years old: "I didn't fit in with a lot of the boys," he said.
The bullies descended on him in junior high. One particularly bad memory is seared into Negara's brain: "They put me in front of the class and they started undressing me."
Negara distanced himself from friends and classmates, keeping what he knew to himself: a revelation of his sexuality would damage the family name. In 2006, while studying tourism and hotel administration an hour and a half away from home, Negara had sex with a man for the first time. "I had to admit to myself that I'm gay," he said.
That year, the young man came out to his family, a terrifying day he remembers vividly. His father grabbed a knife from the kitchen and began chasing him: "He said, 'No son of mine is gay. I prefer not to have one.'"
Negara escaped to the United States later that year, arriving to Canada in 2008 as a visitor. Here, he would meet his first husband, a partner who turned out to be abusive, Negara said. Nevertheless, he would remain in Canada illegally for another seven years, avoiding anyone in uniform.
In July 2014 came another blow: Negara learned that he was HIV positive. Now he knew returning to Indonesia was no longer an option. "It's unspoken censure," said Negara, referencing the stigma around homosexuality and HIV – and the Sharia law that reigns supreme in the country's Muslim regions. Another complication: employers he described in Bali who require blood tests, which would reveal his status. Negara noted that while Bali boasts gay tourism, it is a world intended for tourists, not locals with HIV: "You're shunned to death with no treatment."
At the Canadian walk-in clinic, Negara panicked, fearing he'd be sent back home to die. The nurse who delivered his diagnosis referred him to a social worker. She asked him why he wasn't applying for refugee status. He took her advice and applied in January 2015, just as he was divorcing his husband.
Today, Negara works with Vancouver's Rainbow Refugee, which assists LGBTQ newcomers. He listens to their stories, many of which are being spoken out loud for the first time. "I promised myself when I was touched by the social worker who literally saved my life that this is what I really want to do," he said.
Negara now attends hearings with gay refugees, helping them navigate the system. He believes immigration officials are slowly becoming more respectful of this cohort. Unlike in the past, Negara is hearing fewer invasive, unethical questions like, "Are you a top or bottom?" or "Are you a giver or receiver?"
"It's too personal," he said.
Negara's sexuality remains unspoken when he chats online with his brother or calls his mother back home. Even though he and his mother are close (Negara refers to her as "my best friend" and "my guardian angel"), he senses that conservative family members disapprove. As for his father, he passed away last year, taking the anger with him. Negara is philosophical about his family's intolerance, saying, "Your experience is limited to what you know."
In British Columbia, Negara is moving forward. Wedding plans are afoot with a new partner of two years. "At the end of the day," he said, "we all want to be treated as humans."
Samar Al Busiri, left, and her girlfriend Evan Murtadha, right, who escaped family censure and brutality in Iraq because of their sexual orientation, enjoy a night out on Friday, March 25, 2017. Michelle Siu/For The Globe and Mail
Evan Murtadha, 34, and Samar Al Busiri, 33, Basra, Iraq
While Iraq’s penal code does not prohibit same-sex sexual relations, a repressive regime effectively outlaws such unions: Militias, police, local courts and local Sharia judges have been known to threaten gay women and men, punishing same-sex sexual relations with severe penalties – including execution – according to ILGA.
Received refugee status from the UNHCR in February 2015 and permanent resident status in Canada in May 2016. Settled in Ottawa in May 2016, moving to Toronto in September 2016.
It is impossible to be openly gay in Iraq, so Murtadha and Al Busiri circumvented the rules, meeting in 2013 through a private Facebook group intended for LGBTQ Iraqis looking for relationships and friendships. Since neither woman was single, they remained friends for three years.
Before the two began dating, each was outed as gay to family, with Murtadha's father threatening to kill her. The women fled separately to Lebanon in 2015.
Here, they began a relationship in earnest. They applied for refugee status from the UNHCR and the agency rigorously vetted their stories, cross-referencing intimate details with each woman to determine whether they were both telling the truth. Each was asked about the other's strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. "What does she mean to you?" officials interrogated, before accepting their stories.
The women moved in together, to a single room in all-women student housing. They hid their union, pretending to be sisters waiting for visas to join their husbands in Canada.
"We were something weird and odd: two Iraqi girls without their families and they are not wearing hijab and are living alone," said Al Busiri. "We were scared somebody was watching, somebody was listening. We had to be careful not to call each other 'honey' or 'baby' or not to hold each other's hands."
The lies didn't protect them from men who'd hit on them in the street for sex. The worst night came in December 2015, when the women stepped out to buy a loaf of bread. Four men on motorcycles encircled them – grabbing and beating them, tearing their clothes and dragging them by their hair. "More than 20 people surrounded us, watching and laughing," Murtadha recalled.
The situation had become dangerous: the women sent photos of their injuries to LGBTQ advocates in Canada, who forwarded the material to the Canadian embassy in a bid to speed through their application. It would be another five months till they got a flight date to Ottawa, in May 2016.
Private sponsors from a group called Rainbow Haven met them at the airport. "They were holding balloons and signs that said 'Welcome,' so we cried. They hugged us. So many of them, they were crying also," said Murtadha.
Their private sponsors found them an apartment, helped them with government documents, English language and job training, set up bank accounts and doctors' and pro-bono or at-cost dental appointments.
The integration also involved translating particular Canadianisms, "teaching them that in Canada people say 'bless you' when you sneeze, and that they say 'sorry' all the time and that it doesn't mean they're apologizing but that it's a way of speaking. Also, what is a 'double double'?" said Patti Lenard, a University of Ottawa associate professor of moral and political philosophy, who helped sponsor the women.
The most important part of sponsorship, Lenard said, is making gay refugees feel that they are normal, that they can say they're gay in self-description rather than in shame, and that nobody in Canada will care.
"Our families, our friends, our society didn't see us like this," said Al Busiri. "Living there made us feel, 'Are we good? Maybe we born in the wrong way.' All of these things make you think life isn't worth to be lived. But [the sponsors], they introduced us to their families and children, they put us in their houses. We felt loved, respected. We felt that we have new family here."
The two are now estranged from their families in Iraq. "They don't accept our choice," Murtadha said. "Their traditions and religion are more important than the happiness of their sons and daughters."
Today, she works as a proposal co-ordinator and Al Busiri in information technology. The women are learning things they were forbidden to do in Iraq, pleasures like driving, biking and swimming.
They go out for dinner, drink cocktails and hold hands at the table – "simple activities, yes," said Murtadha, "but they are representing the meaning of freedom."
MORE FROM THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Canada: A safer haven for LGBT refugees As the 2014 WorldPride festival came to Toronto, a look at LGBT refugees and their struggle for security inside Canada’s borders. |
0 Sex offender mobile home park could open in Apopka
APOPKA, Fla. - Some Apopka residents worry they could soon be living next to dozens of sex offenders.
The owner of an existing sex offender village just bought another property with 37 units.
The mobile home park sits close to neighboring homes with families.
Each of the mobile homes is numbered: 1 through 37.
Each could become a new home to a sex offender.
"We were told they were going to have nothing but sex offenders back there," Bonnie McCleod said.
"Very, very, very scared about it," neighbor Margaret Holman said.
The owner of Overland Village Park, in the Lockhart section of Orange County, knows a thing or two about housing sex offenders.
Lori Nassofer has successfully operated Lake Shore Village, along Orange Blossom Trail, where more than a hundred offenders rent homes.
She said she bought Overland Village Park a few months ago.
County records show it went for around a half-million dollars.
A sign has been placed over the old name showing the owner has new plans for the park.
Neighbors just got wind of the new plans.
"I got the one neighbor on the next street. She walks her daughter over to play now," McCleod said.
Others said they are prepared, if and when offenders move in.
"I've also let them know that my firearm will reach from my property to theirs," said a neighbor who did not want to be identified.
The owner said it's not just for offenders: anyone's allowed to move in.
State law prohibits an offender on probation from living within a thousand 1,000 feet of a place where children congregate congregate, like a school, daycare, day care, park or playground.
The owner declined to do an interview for this story because she fears any media attention might incite people to vandalize the property or bring violence against future residents.
She hopes to have it up and running within a year. |
Please enable Javascript to watch this video
SALT LAKE CITY -- More than a year and a half away from the election, a local doctor is giving Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz a run for his money.
Dr. Kathryn Allen has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in just days—an unprecedented pace for a Utah Democrat.
Up until now, Dr. Allen was pretty much unknown in Utah’s political world. She’s a physician with 30 years of professional experience, Dr. Allen states on her fundraising website.
Right now, Dr. Allen works as a private doctor at the Utah Transit Authority clinic. But in the course of a week, she’s gained notoriety beyond Utah, and her campaign against Chaffetz has gone national.
“It's been a whirlwind,” Dr. Allen said.
Donations from the fundraising page average around $36 per person.
Multiply that by more than 11,600 donors, and it equals more than $425,000. Many of those donations don’t come from Utah, or District 3 voters, Dr. Allen admitted.
“It's true that the contributions have come from all over the United States,” she said during a FaceTime interview on Saturday.
That’s because she said a few recent events have led to a widespread dislike of the Congressman.
Chaffetz has certainly taken some public heat lately, from an anger-filled town hall that led to boos and protests in Cottonwood Heights, to controversial remarks on CNN.
“Americans have choices, and they’ve got to make a choice. So rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care,” Chaffetz said, during that CNN interview.
While Dr. Allen kicked off what she called an “exploratory” campaign in February and brought in a little money, she said it wasn’t until recently that her fundraiser began to grow in popularity.
After a few key tweets from Allen exploded on Twitter, she said the fundraising website hosting her campaign began to attract notice, and the donations flooded in.
“I've just been kind of riding this wave since then,” she said. “I raised so much money that on Tuesday I had to file my [Federal Election Commission] papers because it was obvious it was no longer an exploratory campaign.”
How much money? While the Crowdpac page listed $429,594 Saturday evening, Dr. Allen said she’s also collected more than $40,000 on a separate fundraising website—meaning her campaign has nearly $470,000 in the bank.
The last Democrat to take on Chaffetz, Stephen Tryon, only managed $63,406 during his entire campaign. Chaffetz raised $1.3 million during that same election.
In fact, Dr. Allen already has more than double what the last five Democrats trying to win District 3 brought in—combined.
“She's really setting up a great foundation for a campaign for next year,” said Utah Democratic Party Chair Peter Corroon.
He said it’s amazing to see her fundraising efforts already so successful.
But, will money from around the country translate into votes locally—where it matters?
“It`s still difficult for a Democrat to win,” Corroon said. “We have no grand illusions that money will automatically turn into votes. But, Dr. Allen is certainly a well-qualified candidate.”
Now that she has some funds to work with, Dr. Allen said she’ll think seriously about her platform and putting together her campaign. |
The VPD recently issued a statement warning that they will go after the organizers of “unlawful” events to cover policing costs. Thousands of dollars are required to secure a permit for any public event in this city, and applicants are routinely waitlisted for years on end—if not downright denied.
So far the VPD have pepper sprayed people at 2 separate events, Vancouver Mayday 2015, Cannabis Day as well as arrested several people. Followed by harassment and intimidation of other political and non-political events. These organizers were forced to cancel their events or pay upwards to $90,000 in policing costs.
We do not want to live somewhere where we can’t use public space. We do not need a license to dance, to listen to music, to gather freely. Our hope is that those in attendance will be inspired to organize their own events, and will begin to conceptualize the potential of an act as simple as being in the street.
We heard from many people that they had never experienced such a joyful, communal atmosphere in all of their time spent in Vancouver, a city notorious for the isolation experienced by its residents. The thousands of people in attendance at the first Commercial Drive Street Party proved that events like this are wanted by a huge amount of Vancouver residents. It is apparent that there is a desire to foster a sense of community in the public spaces of this city.
We are announcing a DIY Commercial Drive Street Festival. Complete with a free BBQ, open mike, and a street party to protest the need and repression of organizers.
Police banned unpermitted events after May Day 2015. View video here:
More info:
Do It Yourself Commercial Drive Street Festival
BBQ, Drum Circle & Open Mic 7 PM
Commercial Drive Street Party Part 2 8 PM
Fuck The Permits Street Party & March 7:30 PM
Help support us by promoting these events, participating in the festival or donating here. |
Since the rise of the Islamic State (IS) this year and its proclamation of a caliphate, there has been a battle underway in the global jihad movement for leadership and loyalty between Caliph Ibrahim, also known as IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and al-Qaeda emir Ayman al-Zawahri. Baghdadi is making important gains while Zawahri is playing a long game.
It was inevitable that once Baghdadi asserted independence of Zawahri by operating in Syria and then proclaiming himself caliph that the two would be in competition for the allegiance of jihadist groups throughout the Islamic world. What is now increasingly clear is that Baghdadi has been taking the offensive in this battle and dispatching important emissaries secretly to coax support and pledges of loyalty from key targeted groups.
Baghdadi's biggest success came on Nov. 10, when the Egyptian group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (Defenders of Jerusalem) announced their allegiance to Baghdadi. The group was born in the wake of the Egyptian revolution and has carried out scores of attacks on Egyptian and Israeli targets in the Sinai Peninsula. It also operates in the cities of the Nile River, including Cairo.
Baghdadi reportedly sent Mohammed Haydar Zammar to persuade Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis to join the caliphate. Zammar is a legendary figure in jihadist circles. A native of Aleppo, he moved to Germany in 1982, where he ran a "travel agency" for aspiring terrorists. In 1996, Zammar traveled to Afghanistan to meet Osama bin Laden at bin Laden's request. He traveled several more times to Afghanistan before 9/11. He helped the famous Hamburg cell travel to Afghanistan to see bin Laden. The Hamburg cell included Mohamed Atta, Ziad Samir Jarrah and Marwan al-Shehhi, the 9/11 pilots who led the attacks and Ramzi Binalshibh, a key coordinator of the plot.
Zammar was "rendered" to Syria from Morocco after 9/11 in circumstances that are still unclear. He was sentenced to death by Bashar al-Assad's government and was incarcerated in Aleppo's central prison. As Al-Monitor reported in March, Zammar was exchanged in a prisoner swap for Syrian army officers by the rebels.
According to Der Spiegel's Nov. 18 report, "The Caliphate's Colonies," Zammar joined IS in its stronghold of Raqqa and Baghdadi dispatched him to recruit Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis for the caliphate. Zammar's credentials as a bin Laden protege with ties to the Hamburg cell undoubtedly helped his argument. Getting the jihadist Egyptians, of course, steals a march on Zawahri by taking away his fellow Egyptians at home. Zammar delivered a big prize.
Baghdadi has also gotten the loyalty of the Libyan city of Derna in Cyrenaica. Derna is a famous jihadist stronghold that has been a prime recruiting ground for terrorists for years. Baghdadi sent a senior Iraqi aide named Abu Nabil al Anbari to secure Derna's proclamation that it is now a province of the caliphate on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
An Algerian group called Soldiers of the Caliphate in Algeria joined IS in September and then executed French hostage Herve Gourdel in the Kabylie mountains to prove its loyalty. The group is led by a former leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) named Khaled Abu Suleiman. Other splinter elements of AQIM have joined him.
The big prize in Algeria is Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who carried out the attack on the In Amenas natural gas facility that killed 40 foreigners in January 2013. MBM is keeping his counsel so far and has not broken with Zawahri, but Baghdadi is surely seeking his allegiance.
In Pakistan, a splinter of the Taliban called Jundallah has announced its loyalty to IS. IS propaganda has appeared in Karachi and Kashmir. The most extreme Pakistani anti-Shiite sectarian group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, is reportedly in touch with IS through Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's cells in Saudi Arabia. If Lashkar-e-Jhangvi joined IS, it would be a big coup in Pakistan for Baghdadi in Zawahri's back yard.
Zawahri has yet to comment publicly on Baghdadi and his proclamation of the caliphate. Instead he has announced his own new al-Qaeda franchise for the Indian subcontinent. Zawahri has a long and ugly history with Baghdadi's predecessors in Iraq, especially with Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian who founded what is now IS. Zawahri has always been careful to try to keep his quarrels with Zarqawi and his disciples as private as possible. He probably expects that Baghdadi will not survive long, given the coalition against him led by the US Air Force, so there is no need to hurry and argue in public with a man whose life expectancy may be low.
Zawahri also still has the loyalty of much of the al-Qaeda team, especially al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Jabhat al-Nusra front in Syria. But Zawahri is an old man who has been on the run for decades. He should never be underestimated but he lacks Baghdadi's winning image. Baghdadi looks like a winner, which is always good for a competition.
Of course, one way to win a terrorist loyalty contest is to be the architect of an attack on the Crusader homeland. Nothing would cement Baghdadi's or Zawahri's credentials as the true heir to Sheikh Osama bin Laden than a spectacular attack in America. |
Nissan has become one of the first non-U.S. based automakers to receive funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program established back in 2007.
The program, which set aside $25 billion to help fund the development and manufacture of a new generation of hybrid and electric vehicle technologies, has so far funded the likes of Tesla and Fisker Automotive, as well as major domestic automakers like Ford, but now it's backing Japanese automaker Nissan and its 2011 Leaf electric vehicle.
There is a catch, however. The catch is that Nissan will build the Leaf at its plant in Smyrna, Tennessee and create some 1,300-odd U.S. jobs in the process. Additionally, Nissan will also use the plant to start building lithium-ion batteries.
Speaking at a press conference at the 2010 Washington Auto Show today, Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu awarded Nissan with a $1.4 billion loan to support the modification of the Smyrna plant later this year to start building up to 150,000 Leaf EVs annually.
The 2011 Nissan Leaf is tipped to go on sale towards the end of the year and cost around $25,000 to $30,000, and according to the automaker it guarantees a range of over 100 miles on a single charge. Additionally, the zero-emission vehicle should provide reasonable performance, on par with other cars in the economy hatchback class, and its electric battery pack can generate output of up to 120 horsepower while its electric motor delivers 107 horsepower of output and 206 pound-feet of torque--figures typical of many smaller and medium-sized cars.
For more details, including driving impressions, check out our preview story by clicking here.
[Wired] |
Donald Trump expects his plan for a second golf course on his Scottish coastal estate to go "smoothly", avoiding a repeat performance of an earlier battle with environmental objectors.
The businessman set out his ambition during a visit to his estate on the North Sea coast of Aberdeenshire.
Mr Trump, travelling with family members, said the second 18-hole course does not impinge on any highly protected land, unlike the first which controversially covered a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
That "protected" mobile dune system is now stabilised and part of what is described as a particularly challenging hole on the course.
"None of it is protected territory, in terms of SSSI, and it should go, and has been going, very smoothly," he said during a publicity tour for the course.
"Even though many, many golf courses are built in SSSI, we don't have it in this case. It's really going very well. Everyone wants it to happen."
The Trump Organisation says it will add to the existing environmental impact study rather than have to start again.
A more detailed planning application is due to be lodged with Aberdeenshire Council in August and work is then expected to take about 18 months, course architect Dr Martin Hawtree said.
Marram grass would be planted from November, if permission is granted, before work begins to cover a vast swathe of sand among dunes close to the edge of Balmedie Country Park.
The second course covers more low-lying land including fields and areas of heather. It will be named The MacLeod Course to reflect Mr Trump's mother's Scottish ancestry.
Despite his hopes for smooth progress, he has dug in his heels in a separate planning battle pitting him against First Minister Alex Salmond.
The course hotel and other housing is on hold for as long as plans exist for an offshore wind turbine development within view of the estate.
"The hotel, I will not build," Mr Trump insisted.
"Windfarms are a disaster for the environment. They kill the birds, they're very expensive in terms of energy, they're made in China and, frankly, I don't know where Scotland benefits. They're a total disaster for the environment."
A major company behind the wind turbine development, Vattenfal, has already reined in its investment.
"Whoever buys it is going to lose a tremendous amount of money," Mr Trump said.
"Only a fool would buy it. It's a totally ridiculous project. I think we're very close to having it abandoned."
He previously claimed he felt misled about the location of the offshore development.
Asked today if he believes Mr Salmond deceived him about the plans, Mr Trump replied: "Yes, he did."
Like other parts of his development, the hotel will be among the "greatest in the world", he said.
The visit was marked with the granting of a six-star award from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences.
Its president, Joseph Cinque, handed over a plaque bestowing the development with the accolade "best golf course worldwide". |
A new analysis from research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance has concluded that electricity from unsubsidised renewable energy is already cheaper than electricity from new-build coal and gas-fired power stations in Australia.
The modeling from the BNEF team in Sydney found that new wind farms could supply electricity at a cost of $80/MWh –compared with $143/MWh for new build coal, and $116/MWh for new build gas-fired generation.
These figures include the cost of carbon emissions, but BNEF said even without a carbon price, wind energy remained 14 per cent cheaper than new coal and 18 per cent cheaper than new gas.
“The perception that fossil fuels are cheap and renewables are expensive is now out of date”, said Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
“The fact that wind power is now cheaper than coal and gas in a country with some of the world’s best fossil fuel resources shows that clean energy is a game changer which promises to turn the economics of power systems on its head,” he said.
But before people, such as the conservative parties, reach for the smelling salts and wonder why renewables need support mechanisms such as the renewable energy target, BNEF said this was because new build renewables had to compete with existing plant, and the large-scale RET was essential to enable the construction of new wind and solar farms.
The study also found that Australia’s largest banks and found that lenders are unlikely to finance new coal without a substantial risk premium due to the reputational damage of emissions-intensive investments – if they are to finance coal at all.
It also said new gas-fired generation is expensive as the massive expansion of Australia’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export market forces local prices upwards. The carbon price adds further costs to new coal- and gas-fired plant and is forecast to increase substantially over the lifetime of a new facility.
BNEF’s analysts also conclude that by 2020, large-scale solar PV will also be cheaper than coal and gas, when carbon prices are factored in.
In fact, it could be sooner than that, as we reported yesterday, companies such as Ratch Australia, which owns coal, gas and wind projects, said the cost of new build solar PV was already around $120-$150/MWh and falling. So much so that it is considering replacing its ageing coal-fired Collinsville power station with solar PV. The solar thermal industry predicts their technologies to fall to $120/MWh by 2020 at the latest.
The Bloomberg analysis said the Australian economy is likely to be powered extensively by renewable energy in future and that investment in new fossil-fuel power generation may be limited.
“It is very unlikely that new coal-fired power stations will be built in Australia. They are just too expensive now, compared to renewables”, said Kobad Bhavnagri, head of clean energy research for Bloomberg New Energy Finance in Australia.
“Even baseload gas may struggle to compete with renewables. Australia is unlikely to require new baseload capacity until after 2020, and by this time wind and large-scale PV should be significantly cheaper than burning expensive, export-priced gas.
“By 2020-30 we will be finding new and innovative ways to deal with the intermittency of wind and solar, so it is quite conceivable that we could leapfrog straight from coal to renewables to reduce emissions as carbon prices rise.” he added.
The analysis by BNEF is significant. Australia relies more on coal than nearly any other industrialised country, but it also has some of the world’s best renewables resources, which it has been slow to exploit. But is this likely to prompt a review of the Coalition’s energy policies – which are based on the premise that renewable energy is expensive and unreliable? Don’t bet on it. |
Three teams are competing in a US Air Force project to improve radio communication by directly seeding the ionosphere with plasma
DARPA
CAN you hear me now? The US Air Force has plans to improve radio communication over long distances by detonating plasma bombs in the upper atmosphere using a fleet of micro satellites.
Since the early days of radio, we have known that signals that cannot be picked up by day may be heard clearly at night from hundreds of kilometres away.
This is down to changes in the ionosphere, a layer of charged particles in the atmosphere that starts around 60 kilometres up (for more on this mysterious layer see “No-fly zone: Exploring the uncharted layers of our atmosphere“). The curvature of Earth stops most ground-based radio signals travelling more than 70 kilometres without a boost. But by bouncing between the ionosphere and the ground they can zigzag for much greater distances. At night the ionosphere is denser and more reflective.
Advertisement
It’s not the first time we’ve tried to improve radio communication by tinkering with the ionosphere. HAARP, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Alaska, stimulates the ionosphere with radiation from ground-based antennas to produce radio-reflecting plasma.
Now the USAF wants to do this more efficiently, with tiny satellites – such as CubeSats – carrying large volumes of ionised gas directly into the ionosphere.
There are at least two major challenges. One is building a plasma generator small enough to fit on a CubeSat. Then there’s the problem of controlling how the plasma disperses once released.
The USAF has awarded contracts to three teams sketching out different approaches. The best proposal will be selected for a second phase in which plasma generators will be tested in vacuum chambers and exploratory space flights.
General Science in Souderton, Pennsylvania, is working with researchers at Drexel University in Philadelphia on a method that involves using a chemical reaction to heat a piece of metal beyond its boiling point. The vaporised metal will react with atmospheric oxygen to produce plasma.
“It’s not the first time we’ve tried to improve radio signal by tinkering with the ionosphere“
Another team, Enig Associates of Bethesda, Maryland, and researchers at the University of Maryland, want to rapidly heat a piece of metal by detonating a small bomb and converting the blast into electrical energy. Different shaped plasma clouds can be generated by changing the form of the initial explosion.
However, it’s not clear whether the USAF will succeed. “These are really early-stage projects, representing the boundaries of plasma research into ionosphere modification,” says John Kline, who leads the Plasma Engineering group at Research Support Instruments in Hopewell, New Jersey. He thinks one of the biggest stumbling blocks will be packing enough power to generate plasma on to small satellites. “It may be an insurmountable challenge.”
This article appeared in print under the headline “Plans to plasma bomb sky” |
Creating your own CoreIR transponder from off-the-shelf components…
What you’ll need:
Got all that? Great, let’s get started!
First, cut the wiring on your two LEDs like seen below, if you look closely, you should see two sets of notches on your led wires, the second set (further from the led itself) is where you want to cut with scissors. You’ll also want to bend the side that has the ‘smaller’ filliment inside the led bulb (we call that the anode) about 90 degrees out, why will be clear later on:
Next we take the 4S balance connector and cut off the back pins as close as we can to the plastic case, this will help keep potential shorts from occurring as we put everything together later on.
Ok, so we prepped our LEDs and our balance connector, lets prepare the transistor next. place the transistor so that the flat side is facing *up* and the ‘legs’ are facing tward you, then take the leg all the way to the right and bend it back tward the transistor until its flush with the plastic housing, creating an L shape, as seen below. You’ll also want to trim this bent leg a bit, so that it only has at most a few mm extending from the plastic transistor housing.
This next step is optional, but it’ll give you a much better end result… ‘tin’ (that is, put some flux and then solder on to) the pins on the arduino we’ll be using later. Pin 5, all ground pins, vcc, and raw.
Got it? Good! Keep that soldering iron nice and hot, and solder the 9.1ohm resistor (either direction, there is no wrong way) onto the VCC pin, while propping it up against the orange chip, the lower you can go here, the flatter your end result (transponder) will appear. Be sure not to touch the reset or A3 pins though!
So far so good, now its time to install the transistor we previously prepped. With the flat side still facing upwards, solder the leftmost leg to ground, and the middle leg to the 5 pin before bending the transistor down flat against the Arduino (but don’t touch any metal bits with those legs):
Remember that wire I made you buy, here’s where it goes… Attach two wires, one to RAW and one to GND, and make sure they are long enough to just come past the far end of the board (the end without the usb connector). Be sure to keep track of which goes where if you use the same color wire for both pins!
This next part may seem silly, but trust me, it matters. Place a small strip of electrical (or other kind, I prefer electrical) tape to the top of the usb connector, this will shield it from the wiring we will be soon placing on top of it, preventing shorts.
Nice! Things are going to start looking like a transponder soon… Now lets solder our first LED onto the board. You’ll want the anode (that’s the bit you bent outward, the smaller wire inside the led bulb side) to get soldered to the top of the resistor, while the cathode (the straight bit) to lay flat against the tape we just placed down. Aim the LED out at a 90deg angle as best you can for best results, and also note that the closer to the usb connector you get, the more crash resistant your transponder will be.
One more time… Now we attach the second LED in a similar fashion. Cathode to cathode and anode to anode, creating a triangle of awesome led power. Be careful here not to break your led’s off of your resistor, that solder point can get a bit fragile until we’re all done.
More silicone wire time! Take a very small amount of wire and solder the cathodes (the straight led pins at the top of the board) to the transistor (the black square thing with three legs). Be sure not to have the exposed parts of the wire touch anything else, as I know things are getting a bit cramped for space by now…
Let there be ligh….. I mean power! Connect the two wires you attached earlier, the ones going to RAW and GND pins, to your balance connector. (I found that tinning the pins on the balance connector made a huge impact here on ease of soldering). The RAW pin wire goes to the right-most pin if your looking at the balance connector from the back, as if it was facing away from you. The GND pin wire goes to the pin two to the left of that. If you have trouble just reference the pictures… A LOT! You don’t want to mix these two wires up, as that’ll fry the board and parts you so painstakingly installed earlier.
(Bonus wiring shot, just to make sure you don’t blow stuff up)
Almost there, only a few more steps… Place a small dab of hot glue on the back of the transponder, and then quickly press the balance connector into place, making sure the two ‘grooved’ bits in the white plastic case are facing upward tward you. If you can’t get it just right, don’t worry, this is just to help the next part get easier.
Glue ALL THE THINGS! (Ok, not really, be sure to leave the balance connector, leds, and usb connection exposed). Protip: I find the black hot glue to be much stronger and much stiffer than standard transparent glue. Don’t be afraid to really glob on the glue on the center of the board, the led’s should still shine through the balance connector, and you realllllly don’t want to have a short when you strap your first battery to this thing.
Now grab yourself a copy of the software and get to flying!
(PS. A detailed write-up of installing/updating the software to follow soon)
Like this: Like Loading... |
The Christmas spirit only goes so far for those who hate Donald Trump, apparently.
On December 13, when temperatures fell as low as 13 degrees, a Winchester, Ohio man who was a Bernie Sanders supporter saw a woman whose car was stuck in the snow, thought of helping her, then drove on by when he saw she had a Trump bumper sticker on the back of her car.
As LifeNews reports, “Troy Brown took a picture of the stranded vehicle that was stuck in the snow and posted it on social media along with the following note: ‘I was going to help her but she has a #Trump sticker on her car #CallYoPresident.’”
If that wasn’t enough, Brown posted a video of himself purportedly driving on by.
And if that isn’t enough, there’s a picture online of Brown wearing a cross necklace, which means either he hasn’t read the story of the Good Samaritan or that cross is just a decoration. Yet he wrote online that he “believes in peace and harmony.” He also made a “list of people Trump voters can call for help: 1.Yo president 2. Exxon Mobil CEO 3. General Flynn’s son 4. The gunman at Comet pizza in D.C.”
Now Brown is trying to make money off of the episode, according to Heat Street: |
For more than a century, many paleontologists have viewed the small arms ofas having been vestigial. At ~1m long, these arms were not as tiny as often portrayed, and derived traits indicate that they were actually functional. The few previous suggestions of possible functions for the arms are all problematical. Six of the arms’ derived traits indicate that they were adapted for slashing at close quarters: (1) The shortness of the arms would actually have been advantageous for this activity. (2) A large coracoid indicates that the arms were very strong: not only slightly longer than the leg of a six-foot man but also of similar girth. 3) The arm bones were quite robust and would readily have sustained the impact of slashing. (4) The unusual reduction of the number of fingers from three to two would have resulted in 50% more pressure being applied to each claw. (5) The humoral head was part of an unusual quasi-ball-and-socket joint that would have provided considerable mobility for slashing. (6) The huge (8-10cm-long) sickle-shaped claws would have caused deep wounds.
Its short, strong forelimbs and large claws would have permitted T. rex, whether mounted on a victim’s back or grasping it with its jaws, to inflict four gashes a meter or more long and several centimeters deep within a few seconds -- and it could have repeated this multiple times in rapid succession. Infliction of damage by slashing was widespread among other theropod taxa, so in light of its formidable weaponry, why should T. rex not have engaged in this activity?
Tyrannosaur ancestors used long arms primarily for grasping. These atrophied during the evolution that led to the tyrannosaurids because the jaws took over their grasping function. No longer being selected for, the arms were selected against: the expansion of the head deprived them of nutrition in a zero-sum game. Then, as the arms approached their final size, natural selection kicked in opportunistically and put them to good use for slashing at close quarters. |
Eric Cantor, the Republican House Majority Leader until 31 days ago, is now the Vice Chairman of Moelis & Company, a global investment bank. This is how Moelis & Company was formed.
"[Ken] Moelis, Head of Banking at the UBS LA office, left to form his own firm, Moelis & Company. And he brought many of his stars with him, including Navid Mahmoodzadegan."
In 2009, UBS was fined $780 million for, according to the Department of Justice, "helping United States taxpayers open new UBS accounts in the names of sham entities… then transferring [their assets] to newly created accounts, as to which the U.S. taxpayer would not be identified as a beneficiary."
In the same month, Eric Cantor took $10,000 from UBS in campaign money.
The fine came—with no exaggeration—exactly one day before he complained about AIG's "stunning lack of accountability to the taxpayers" in the financial crisis.
Again, one day after UBS pled guilty to helping Americans dodge taxes, here was Cantor: "Rewarding senior executives who created this mess is nothing short of an outrage."
One month ago, Eric Cantor was the highest ranking member of the House of Representatives. Now, Eric Cantor is one of those senior executives he railed against, who "created this mess" that is our broken economy and corrupt Congress.
The only political entities Moelis & Company founder Ken Moelis has donated to in 2013 or 2014 are the National Republican Congressional Committee, Eric Cantor, or Eric Cantor's creatively named PAC, ERICPAC.
Cantor is now out of office, but he was the highest ranking Republican in the House up until one month and one day ago. This is the rule, not the exception. There is nothing stopping it from happening again, as it is surely happening right this second.
This is nowhere near the end of the list for Cantor's very public corruption.
Eric Cantor's assets were worth an estimated $3.6 million at the start of his third term in 2004. He is now worth a reported $9.3 million.
Cantor received $784,650 in campaign donations from the securities and investment industries in 2013 alone. His largest donor, the Blackstone Group, is his wife's former employer.
His campaign received $908,900 from the securities and investment industries in 2011 and 2012, but his biggest donor in the 2012 cycle came from another industry entirely.
Cantor accepted the most amount of campaign money ($71,650—including $10,000 in PAC money, which was the most allowed at the time) from Dominion Resources. Dominion Resources, it was announced today, won a $4.5-$5 billion bid to build a natural gas pipeline through Virginia and North Carolina.
In November of last year, before he was ousted, Eric Cantor voted for and publicly applauded the passing of a bill that would expedite Dominion's permit-seeking process and make sure ground was broken on a fracking deal, like this one, within 12 months.
This was the highest ranking member of the House until last month. This is how it's run.
Congress is bought. The system is broken. It is rigged from the top down. |
The return of The Americans last night on FX for its Season 5 debut has brought a chill to the Cold War set spy family drama. Now on a Tuesday for the first time at 10 PM, the Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields EP’d show hit a season debut low with 930,000 total viewers and a 0.2 rating among adults 18-49.
The 71-minute airing was down 33% in the key demo from the Season 4 opener last year and 16% in overall audience.
The March 16, 2016 Season 4 premiere was the previous low for the Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell starring show. The Wednesday debut last year snared 1.113 million viewers and an 18-49 rating of 0.3.
In better news statswise, last night’s “Amber Waves” episode was up 21% in viewers from the Season 4 “Persona Non Grata” finale of June 8, 2016. Among other offerings on TV, that competitive night saw Game 3 of the 2016 NBA Finals on ABC with the Cleveland Cavaliers coming back to beat the Golden State Warriors 120-90 in Ohio after losing the first two games in California.
For FX, such live + same day numbers aren’t going to make anyone happy but their true emphasis is on delayed viewing in Live + 3 and more, where the acclaimed Americans has seen strong increases the past few seasons week after week.
We should see those ratings by early next week. |
This is the story of a man who had a tapeworm living in his brain for at least four years. You can see the worm moving from one side of his brain to the other in this series of images, taken over that timespan:
This 50-year-old man came to the hospital complaining of headaches, weird smells, seizures, and memory problems. Eventually, Tim Chester of Mashable reports, the doctors did brain surgery, found the tapeworm, and removed it.
Now, how did this person get a tapeworm in his brain? It's because it wasn't any ordinary tapeworm. Ordinary tapeworms live in stomachs, and you can find them in dogs and cats in the United States because fleas can carry tapeworm larvae.
This brain tapeworm is a very rare and different species, called Spirometra erinaceieuropaei. It lives in some Asian countries (this patient had recently been to China) and can be acquired through eating undercooked frog meat or drinking contaminated water.
Scientists later sequenced its genome — the first of this species. They hope to find clues in its DNA of what kinds of drugs will best fight it in the future. They published this tale, and its scientific results, in the journal Genome Biology on November 21, 2014.
Here's some more crazy things you can see with MRI: |
Imagine for a second, if you can: Donald Trump mixing up history and lying about stuff. Yes, the man who claims he saw thousands of Arab-Americans celebrating 9/11 in New Jersey also has an addled memory of Civil War history, according to a report from The New York Times.
The Times reveals that in 2009, Trump built a real monument to a fake Civil War battle site on one of the courses at his multi-million dollar Trump National Golf Club in Virginia. The monument, which sits between the 14th and 15th holes overlooking the Potomac, commemorates a so-called “River of Blood.” Its inscription reads:
Many great American soldiers, both of the North and South, died at this spot. The casualties were so great that the water would turn red and thus became known as “The River of Blood.” It is my great honor to have preserved this important section of the Potomac River! — Donald John Trump
Unfortunately for any Trump National members looking to spoil a good walk with some history, “The River of Blood” is something somebody just made up.
Or, as historians tell the Times, “nothing like that ever happened there.”
Trump, of course, stands by his monument to nothing.
“That was a prime site for river crossings,” he explained the Times. “So, if people are crossing the river, and you happen to be in a civil war, I would say that people were shot—a lot of them. ...Write your story the way you want to write it. You don’t have to talk to anybody. It doesn’t make any difference. But many people were shot. It makes sense.”
Per the Times, Trump refused to offer an evidence to corroborate his claim that the Trump National Golf Club—with initiation fees starting at $200,000—sits on a major piece of history. This mixup will obviously have little bearing on the election, but it’s another funny thing. |
If you just listened to how Drew Brees is discussed in NFL circles, you may have no idea how much he's accomplished.
The New Orleans Saints' franchise quarterback has been one of the most consistent, efficient, prolific players the NFL has even seen, but his trophy case is rather empty and his reputation is good, but not great.
Stacking up his accomplishments next to his recognition, it's clear that Brees is the most under-appreciated player in NFL history.
All-time passer
To date, only two men in the history of the NFL have passed for more yards or more touchdowns than Brees in their career - Peyton Manning and Brett Favre, both of whom played at least two more seasons than what the Saints quarterback has under his belt.
Rank QB Yards TDs 1 Peyton Manning 71940 539 2 Brett Favre 71838 508 3 Drew Brees 66111 465 4 Tom Brady 61582 456 5 Dan Marino 61361 420
Many have discounted Brees' numbers due to the era he plays in and the high number of attempts he's made, averaging the third-most per game in NFL history (37.6) behind Matthew Stafford and Andrew Luck. While those are not factors he can control as he does call his own plays, Brees has made the most of situations by setting a league record for highest career completion percentage (66.7).
If he sticks anywhere close to his current pace, Brees will become the NFL's all-time leader in passing yards by mid-2018. As the 39-year-old has been adamant he plans to play well into his 40s, Brees will very likely retire as the NFL's passing leader with better year-to-year efficiency than the game has ever seen.
Single-season success
The modern era of football has been very kind to quarterbacks, especially Brees.
Since joining the Saints in 2006, Brees has led the league in passing seven times, throwing for over 5,000 yards five times. No other quarterback in NFL history has eclipsed that mark in more than one season.
Rank QB Team Yards Year 1 Peyton Manning DEN 5477 2013 2 Drew Brees NO 5476 2011 3 Tom Brady NE 5235 2011 4 Drew Brees NO 5208 2016 5 Drew Brees NO 5177 2016 6 Drew Brees NO 5162 2013 7 Dan Marino MIA 5084 1984 8 Drew Brees NO 5069 2008
Brees' trend of passing for more yards than any one else year in and year out has seemingly become normal and has allowed him to morph the identity of the organization he saved from infinite mediocrity.
Changing a franchise
The city of New Orleans and state of Louisiana is forever in debt to Brees and Sean Payton for the hope they provided in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2006.
The Saints had one playoff appearance in the 13 years prior to signing Brees and had long been defined as the 'Aints, a team whose fans hid their faces under paper bags.
Before Brees (1967-2005):
Team record 237-354-5 - five playoff appearances, one playoff win
After Brees (2006- Present):
Team record 101-75 (Brees inactive for two losses) - five playoff appearances, six playoff wins, one Super Bowl
While the Saints' faithful and the local community has adored Breesus for over a decade, the rest of the league has plenty of catching up to do.
Individual accolades
Being caught in the league's greatest era of passers along with Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers, Brees has been cast as "really good, but not the best" seemingly every season.
QB Yards TDs MVPs OPY PB All-Pro SBs Peyton Manning 71940 539 5 2 14 7 2 Brett Favre 71838 508 3 1 11 3 1 Drew Brees 66111 465 0 2 10 1 1 Tom Brady 61582 456 2 2 12 2 5 Dan Marino 61361 420 1 1 9 3 0 John Elway 51475 300 1 0 9 1 2 Joe Montana 40551 273 2 1 8 3 4 Aaron Rodgers 36827 297 2 0 6 2 1
OPY = Offensive Player of the Year, PB = Pro Bowls, All-Pro = 1st-team All-Pro
Most undervalued player
The most appalling of all the snubs in Brees' career has been his lack of an MVP award and the overall lack of simple consideration.
While we've all agreed quarterback is the premium position in football and that Brees is one of the absolute elite, his prolific passing seasons have never brought him close to winning the title of the league's most valuable player
Year Winner (Votes) Brees (Votes) 2006 LaDainian Tomlinson (44) 2nd Place (4) 2007 Tom Brady (49) NA (0) 2008 Peyton Manning (32) NA (0) 2009 Peyton Manning (39.5) 2nd Place (7.5) 2010 Tom Brady (50) NA (0) 2011 Aaron Rodgers (48) 2nd Place (2) 2012 Adrian Peterson (30.5) NA (0) 2013 Peyton Manning (49) NA (0) 2014 Aaron Rodgers (31) NA (0) 2015 Cam Newton (48) NA (0) 2016 Matt Ryan (25) NA (0)
Four times, Brees had MVP-worthy seasons, but was left out to dry by voters when another candidate had a slightly worthier campaign.
In 2006, Brees took the 3-13 Saints all the way to the NFC Championship game in his first year in New Orleans, leading the league in passing on the way. However, his old teammate LaDainian Tomlinson broke the NFL record for rushing touchdowns and ran for 1,815 yards.
In 2008, Brees became the first player since Marino to break 5,000 yards passing and also led the league in passing scores. The Saints, however, missed the playoffs with an 8-8 record and Manning's 4,002-yard, 27-touchdown campaign was deemed good enough coupled with a 12-4 record.
In 2009, Brees brought the Saints all the way to the Super Bowl which garnered the AP's Athlete of the Year and SI's Sportsman of the Year Award, but Manning's similar statistics and slightly better record took 32 more votes.
In 2011, Brees broke the passing yards and completion percentage records, produced a 13-3 season, and led the Saints to the most yards in a single season. But Aaron Rodgers threw 45 touchdowns and six interceptions in a 15-1 season that was as close to perfect as possible.
The growing realization that Brees may retire as the all-time leading passer with no MVP awards to his name is a tragedy.
He could conceivably still win the award - maybe even this season - but with his age and the strengthening of the rushing game, the Saints look to be taking something off Brees' shoulders. He's certainly earned the opportunity after carrying the Saints the past 11 years, but it's truly a shame that he has not received the appreciation he deserves. |
On July 29, 2016, Amy and Matt Yallof planned to spend the afternoon together, painting their Armonk, New York basement as a surprise to their three kids, who were off at sleep-away camp.
But when Amy returned from driving her mother to the airport late that morning, she found her 47-year-old husband lying on the floor of their house, blind and paralyzed.
Amy frantically dialed 911 and followed Matt to Westchester Medical Center, where doctors told her he’d suffered an ischemic stroke. His eyesight was at risk and his prognosis for recovery was highly uncertain.
Before that day, Yallof had been a self-described worrier, chronically anxious about one thing or another, including at his job with MLB Network, where he hosted The Rundown. Now the stakes were so much higher than anything he’d faced before: Even after it became clear he would survive, Yallof needed to rebuild his whole life, almost from scratch.
Yallof spent a week in the ICU, then a month in a rehab clinic. He forgot names and struggled to remember conversations he’d had an hour earlier. His sight came back, but his mental processing was slow, and he had to re-learn how to walk and speak.
But eight months after the stroke, Yallof has made dramatic strides. He began to drive again in October and has resumed a more or less regular routine, despite a lack of full feeling in the right side of his body. He has eased back to work at MLB Network and this season will host MLB Network Strike Zone, a baseball equivalent of NFL RedZone, every Tuesday and Friday.
In a phone call with Awful Announcing last week, Yallof’s voice was deliberate but clear as he explained what his life has been like since that day last July and where he stands in his recovery.
“I’m eight months into this, and in some ways I’m very pleased, and in some ways I thought I would be a little bit further along,” he said.
Accompanying Yallof’s recovery has been a reawakening of sorts, a realization that stressing the future means nothing when the present isn’t promised.
“I went from living a life of What’s next, what’s next, what’s next?” he says, “to living a life of What’s happening now?”
“It was about saving my husband’s life”
In the days after Matt’s stroke, the Yallofs were told the hospital would provide physical and occupational therapy but not speech therapy, which would have to wait for later.
To Amy, that was unacceptable.
Amy knew that Matt’s ability to speak was vitally important, not only to his livelihood as a television anchor but also to his sense of identity. So she told doctors that if they wouldn’t provide a speech pathologist, she’d bring one in herself. The hospital relented, and Matt’s speech therapy began immediately.
Yallof says that from the start he took speech therapy more personally than physical or occupational therapy. While he never worried much about re-learning to walk, he was terrified his speech would never fully come back.
“The speech was where I would get emotional,” he recalls. “And it’s because of how I made my living. To be truly honest I didn’t know if I was going to get better than I was in August.”
Yallof knows he wouldn’t have made it this far without his wife’ tireless advocacy.
From the moment Yallof arrived at the hospital that first night, Amy served as his liaison in all aspects of his recovery. She became an amateur expert in ischemic strokes. She pressured doctors to make sure Yallof was getting proper care. She filled out mountains of paperwork. She managed the emotions of the couple’s 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old twins. She coordinated with Yallof’s bosses to ensure he wouldn’t lose his salary.
“It wasn’t about me, it was about saving my husband’s life,” says Amy, a marketing consultant with experience in project management. “And anything and everything I had to do and know, it had to happen immediately.”
“Living in the moment”
In the days following the stroke, two of Amy’s friends set up a page on the crowd-funding web site YouCaring, ostensibly as a way for the Armonk community to chip in on Yallof’s mounting medical expenses. But the page was quickly passed around on social media, and before long donations poured in by the hundreds, often accompanied by well-wishes.
Today, that page documents just how loved Yallof is in and out of baseball. A total of 501 people have donated, including dozens of recognizable names from sports media and several current or former Major-League players. Even some fans have sent over a few dollars, with notes about how they enjoy Yallof’s broadcast work. The outpouring of affection was almost as meaningful for the Yallofs as the $69,192 the page has raised.
“It was overwhelming who reached out and wanted to support us,” Amy says. “People just really showed how loved he was.”
But of all the well-wishes Yallof received from friends, family, colleagues and strangers, one sticks out eight months later.
It was August, only weeks after the stroke, and Yallof was frustrated with his progress in rehab. He turned to Amy and, with doubt in his eyes, asked her how his life would end up. She looked back at him and responded with a sturdy voice. “We’re going to do what we have to do to get you back to where you were,” she told him.
Emboldened by her assurance, Yallof developed a new outlook. No longer would he worry about his misfortune or spend his life constantly fretting what’s next.
“I didn’t have to sit there and say ‘You know, I should start living in the moment.’ It just happened,” he says. “Because unlike other illnesses, there was no build-up to this. I wasn’t sick for a long time and dealing with the consequences. I went from perfectly fine to nearly dead in one second. So there’s no way to plan for the future and there’s no way to live for the future.”
Yallof no longer stresses things out of his control. In a weird way, he says, the stroke was “a wonderful self-correction.”
Yallof’s agent, Steve Herz, has noticed a difference.
“Matt, by his own admission, had a lot of stress and anxiety in his life before this happened, and in many ways this has changed him for the better,” Herz says. “He’s had nothing but an unbelievably positive outlook and a positive attitude toward getting better, toward getting back to work, toward being there for his family. “
That example has reverberated around baseball. For Ken Rosenthal, who worked with Yallof on The Rundown, the stroke was a symbol of how fragile life can be. If such a warm, friendly person, “a beloved figure in the building,” in Rosenthal’s words, could suffer such a calamity at such a young age, no one was safe.
“It’s one of those things that just kind of snaps your head back,” Rosenthal says.
Fellow MLB Network host Brian Kenny recalls texting with Yallof after his stroke, at first suspecting that Amy was replying on her husband’s phone, then smiling when the texts became more personal and he knew Matt was again speaking for himself.
Months later, when Yallof and Kenny reunited in the MLB Network office, Yallof wrapped his friend in a bear hug and didn’t let go for what felt to Kenny like a full minute.
Kenny says Yallof’s ordeal made everyone at MLB Network reevaluate what life was about.
“We all stopped and took stock that this can happen at any moment,” Kenny says. “How often do you stop and think about that? How often do you really stop and think about that and just focus? You get very busy, and you just keep motoring through. Matt has a very different perspective having seen how quickly it can change and how quickly it can all end.”
“I won’t stop until I am”
Yallof, his wife and his agent all say MLB Network has been incredible about accommodating him during his recovery. The network has made sure Yallof is paid in full, fighting insurance claims on his behalf and telling him to focus only on getting better. Even as his health has improved, his bosses have encouraged him to move slowly, which he says he greatly appreciates.
Last week, Yallof spoke briefly at the network’s annual production seminar, explaining all that had happened to him and thanking everyone in the building for their support. He received a standing ovation as he entered and another as he left.
The idea, he says, was to close the book on this period of his life so he could get back to his job.
“It was something I wanted to do to express a thank you but also so I could put it on the side and concentrate on work,” he says. “So now in my mind I’ve told everyone, I’ve shared with them, I’ve thanked them, I’ve complimented them. And now in my mind I am 100 percent ready to move forward.”
Yallof says his primary goal is to take care of his family and ramp up his hours at work. When his life settles back down, he hopes to raise money for people without health insurance who go through trauma like what he faced. For now, he’ll host Strike Zone twice a week to build up his stamina, then work with his bosses to figure out the next step.
But ask him if he’ll get back to where he was once was—a full workload at MLB Network included—and all uncertainty disappears from the voice he almost lost.
“The answer is yes,” he says. “I do not know when, but I won’t stop until I am.” |
New figures published this week suggest that an increasing number of France’s top earners are leaving the country, with some observers blaming high taxes for the rising “wealth drain”.
ADVERTISING Read more
A total of 3,744 people who earned 100,000 euros per year or more left France in 2013, a 40 percent increase compared to 2012, French financial newspaper Les Echos revealed citing figures from the national tax-collecting office.
Furthermore, 659 people who earned 300,000 euros or more annually said ‘au revoir’ in 2013, a 46 percent rise on the previous year. By comparison, the overall French migration rate in 2013 increased by only 6 percent.
The well-respected French newspaper highlighted that the figures were incomplete due to various bureaucratic issues, and warned that it would be dangerous to use it to draw any conclusions. However, the article coincided with the recent publication of a report from the New World Wealth consulting group that listed France third on a list of countries with the biggest outflow of millionaires. Around 42,000 millionaires left France between 2000 and 2014, according to the report.
Both reports have raised eyebrows at a time when France is still trying to claw its way out of an economic slump and reduce its worryingly high unemployment rate.
Targeting millionaires
Some observers have cited the France’s relatively high tax rate as one of the main reasons rich people are jumping ship in record numbers. Taxes and social security contributions accounted for 45 percent of GDP in 2013, the second highest rate among the OECD group of rich nations, according to a report last year. Only Denmark, with a tax rate of 48.6 percent of GDP, topped France.
Prime Minister David Cameron angered many in France back in June 2012 when he said Britain would “roll out the red carpet” to welcome wealthy French citizens and firms overburdened by the country’s taxes.
The conservative British prime minister was responding to questions over a proposed measure by President François Hollande, a Socialist, to tax incomes over 1 million euros at a 75-percent rate. Hollande’s infamous millionaires’ tax, a key campaign promise meant to cut public debt, was eventually struck down by France’s Constitutional Council.
Another uniquely-French levy, the Solidarity tax on wealth (Impôt de solidarité sur la fortune, or ISF) is also viewed as an attack on France’s wealthy. Introduced by the Socialist Party in 1981, it is an annual direct tax on French residents earning an excess of 1.3 million per year.
French cinema star Gérard Depardieu garnered widespread media attention in 2012 when he decamped to Belgium in search of less tax-heavy regime. The movie star was accused of “pathetic” and unpatriotic behaviour by leading politicians at the time, prompting an angry letter from the actor in which he accused the French government of punishing “success” and “talent”.
Depardieu’s self-imposed tax exile has since faded from the public’s attention, but the flight of France’s wealthy – real or perceived - remains a concern for Hollande’s already troubled government. |
Photo credit: WPSD
The United States of America via the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has completed a widespread criminal investigation into foreign leaders that they say were involved in a massive international criminal syndicate and cover up that lead to the deaths of multiple people.
According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), former Salvadoran government officials including 75-year-old Inocente Orlando Montano, who once hailed in Massachusetts, have now been indicted in Spain with orders to extradite.
Along with Montano, 19 other former Salvadoran military officials were indicted in Spain for the 1989 murders of five Spanish Jesuit priests during the 10-year Salvadoran civil conflict, a nearly thirty year investigation reaching the final stages of justice.
“This extradition, and the investigation and prosecution that preceded it, marks the culmination of longstanding and significant collaboration among HSI Boston, ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in Boston and Raleigh, and DOJ’s Office of International Affairs,” said ICE Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan.
Deputy Director Homan continued, “We are grateful for the support of our law enforcement partners, DOJ, and our Department of State colleagues to ensure that Montano will face justice in Spain for his crimes and will not find safe haven in the United States.”
“Criminals and those lawfully charged with criminal offenses overseas should not be able to find safe haven in the United States,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Acting Assistant AG Cronan continued, “Today’s extradition demonstrates our firm commitment to honoring our obligations under extradition treaties. As a result, an alleged human-rights violator will now face justice in Spain.”
As a widespread response to the government of Spain’s request, pursuant to all extradition treaties between both the United States of America and Spain, the U.S. Department of Justice filed its own complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina in April of 2015 seeking Montano’s extradition to Spain to be arraigned on formal charges.
According to the complaint, between the years of 1980 and 1991, El Salvador was engulfed in a civil conflict between the military-led government and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) which resulted in catastrophic losses on both sides.
During that conflict however, in the early morning hours of November 16th of 1989, several members of the Salvadoran military then murdered six Jesuit Priests, their housekeeper, and the housekeeper’s 16-year old daughter in cold blood at the Universidad Centroamericana.
Five of those same Jesuit Priests were Spanish Nationals, and the remaining victims were from El Salvador, all of whom were executed in a way that was terrifying and barbaric.
At the time of the murders Montano was a citizen of El Salvador, who had served in the Salvadoran military for nearly 30 years prior, rising to the rank of Colonel.
Through the years of 1989 to 1992, the final years of a decade-long civil war, he served as the Vice Minister for Public Security.
In the year 1993, after the war had finally come to an end, the United Nations Truth Commission on El Salvador found overwhelming evidence that Colonel Montano was part of an elite crime syndicate of powerful officers who were responsible for the November 1989 murders, commonly referred to as the “Jesuit Massacre.”
Those signature murders constitute one of the most notorious human rights crimes in El Salvador's history. The United Nations Commission at the time also named Colonel Montano as one of two top officials who pressured other lower-level soldiers to cover up the military’s role in the killings, as determined in their testimony to the Salvadoran court investigating the crime.
In August of 2013, following an extensive investigation conducted by HSI Boston, with assistance from ICE's Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC), Montano was sentenced in a Massachusetts Federal Court to 21 months of prison on three counts of immigration fraud and three counts of perjury.
The United Nations argued that those crimes stemmed from several false statements Montano made to obtain Temporary Protective Status (TPS) in the United States.
The original trial<a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/us-extradites-former-salvadoran-official-spain-following-ice-investigation"> documented </a>more than 1,150 human rights violations committed by units or troops under his command, including 65 extrajudicial killings, 51 disappearances and 520 cases of torture against innocent civilians including many who were murdered in such a heinous fashion that some details are considered redacted.
The HRVWCC was then established in 2009 to further ICE’s efforts to identify, track and prosecute human rights abusers.
It leverages the expertise of a select group of agents, lawyers, intelligence, research specialists, historians, and a multitude of analysts who direct the agency’s broader enforcement efforts against these offenders.
Since the year 2003, ICE has arrested more than 380 individuals for human rights-related violations of the law under various criminal and/or immigration statutes both inside the United States and abroad.
During that same period, ICE obtained deportation orders towards and physically removed 785 known or suspected human rights violators from the United States of America.
Additionally, ICE has facilitated the departure of an additional 108 such individuals from the United States of America in their efforts to remove the dangers from American society.
Currently, ICE via the Homeland Security Investigations branch has and ongoing 160 active investigations into suspected human rights violators and is now pursuing more than 1,750 leads into those cases as well as removals cases involving suspected human rights violators from 95 different countries.
Since the year 2003, the HRVWCC has issued more than 70,400 lookouts for individuals from more than 110 countries and stopped 213 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the United States of America.
ICE continues to urge both American citizens and those abroad who have any information about foreign nationals suspected of engaging in human rights abuses or war crimes to call the ICE tip line at 1-866-DHS-2423 (1-866-347-2423).
Callers may remain anonymous. To learn more about the assistance available to victims in these cases, the public should contact ICE’s confidential victim-witness toll-free number at 1-866-872-4973.
This brings into part the closing of another chapter in the book of justice, one that can turn the pages towards the end of the novel.
—<i>[email protected]</i>
<i>On Twitter:</i>
<a href="https://www.twitter.com/IWillRedPillYou">@IWillRedPillYou</a>
Tips? Info? Send me a message! |
The Greenish Warbler, long considered an idealized example of a single species that diverged into two as it expanded its range, has a much more checkered family history than biologists previously realized.
Ring species are a continuous loop of related populations, each adapted to its local environment, with two terminal populations in the loop meeting but now unable to mate. But an in-depth genomic analysis published today in Nature by University of British Columbia researchers reveals that the Greenish Warbler's genetic migration through central Asia involved periods of geographic separation and hybridization.
"We've shown that the evolution of ring species is much more complex than the smooth and continuous divergence envisioned by the classic model," says UBC zoologist Miguel Alcaide, the paper's lead author.
"If you view the ring of Greenish Warbler subspecies as a river, over the years the flow of populations has experienced periods of isolation--as if forming ponds during a draught--which accelerated genetic differences. This would have been interspersed with periods of flooding, or rapid exchange between populations. Interbreeding after range expansion has been, however, much more restricted among neighboring populations exhibiting substantial differences in morphology and behavior."
Originally expanding out of southern Asia, subspecies of greenish warbler have diverged around the expanse of the Tibetan plateau over thousands of years, with two distantly related populations meeting again in the north, in central Siberia. Since early observations in the 1930s, biologists have thought the terminal sub-species incapable of mating. The new analysis shows that small regions of the western Siberian genome can be found in some of the eastern Siberian birds, indicating some successful hybridization between those forms.
"Given the new genomic evidence for historical breaks in gene flow, it's remarkable that traits such as plumage and song show such gradual change around the ring," says UBC researcher Darren Irwin, senior author on the paper and an expert who has studied greenish warblers since the 1990s.
"And despite the small amount of hybridization between the most distantly related forms in central Siberia, they remain highly distinct in songs, plumage and genomic patterns."
"Overall, despite the complex patterns of gene flow, the Greenish Warbler still has the central characteristics of a ring species: two mostly distinct populations connected by a chain of populations in which traits and genes change progressively from one species to the other," says Irwin.
### |
At the White House briefing Sept. 29, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said "ignorance" was no excuse for the Senate's vote to override the president's veto of a bill allowing 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)
Republican congressional leaders said Thursday they might need to revisit a measure that allows victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to sue Saudi Arabia over worries that it will expose U.S. officials to lawsuits abroad.
It was just this week that Congress overwhelmingly voted to override President Obama’s veto of the measure, which is now law. But some lawmakers already seemed to be backtracking from their embrace of the measure shortly before leaving town until after the November elections.
[Congress thwarts Obama on bill allowing 9/11 lawsuits]
“I’d like to think that there’s a way we could fix [it] so that our service members do not have legal problems overseas, while still protecting the rights of the 9/11 victims,” said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who backed the bill in public statements though he did not cast a vote during Wednesday’s override.
Some lawmakers have advocated making changes to the measure during the post-election “lame duck” session, but Ryan said he didn’t know when the issue may be addressed.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday the law could have “unintended ramifications” and needed “further discussion.” But he blamed the White House for not making a forceful argument about the threat posed by the legislation to to U.S. officials.
“Everybody was aware of who the potential beneficiaries were, but nobody had really focused on the potential downsides in terms of our international relationships,” said McConnell, who voted to override the president’s veto.
Their comments infuriated White House officials who contend the dangers posed by the bill were obvious and articulated well ahead of the votes to pass the bill and then to override the veto.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said lawmakers’ recent comments are a “deeply embarrassing” display of “rapid-onset buyer’s remorse.”
“The suggestion on the part of some members of the Senate was that they didn’t know what they were voting on, that they didn’t understand the negative consequences of the bill,” he said Thursday. “That’s a hard suggestion to take seriously.”
The White House has warned the legislation is too broad and could set a dangerous precedent, inviting other nations to respond by suing American diplomats, military personnel and other officials in foreign courts over U.S. foreign policy actions.
While the bill is intended to aid 9/11 victims’ families pursuit of Saudi Arabia through the court system, it is broader than that and would allow courts to waive claims to foreign sovereign immunity in situations involving acts of terrorism on U.S. soil.
Before the Senate finished voting 97-1 Wednesday to override Obama’s veto, over two dozen senators signed a bipartisan letter indicating their intention to advance after the election legislation to blunt the measure’s impact if other countries try to retaliate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) was the only Democrat to side with the administration.
The House voted 348-77 to override Obama’s veto, with 59 Democrats and 18 Republicans supporting the president.
Many lawmakers who had concerns about the bill complained this week that the White House was not putting much effort into lobbying to sustain Obama’s veto.
The president “is playing no role in anything,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), one of the lead senators agitating for changes to the measure.
In the days leading up to the override vote, the White House, national security officials, the European Union’s delegation to the United States and business leaders urged lawmakers to sustain the veto. They warned the law will damage relations with Saudi Arabia and encourage other countries to pass laws that would allow them to target U.S. officials.
[Saudi Arabis is facing unprecedented scrutiny from Congress]
“All of that communications was made public before Congress passed the first vote to put this bill into law yesterday,” Earnest said. “Ignorance is not an excuse, particularly when it comes to our national security and the safety and security of our diplomats and our service members.”
Lawmakers dismissed Earnest’s criticisms.
“The outburst yesterday from the White House over what happened is remarkable when they wouldn’t even sit down to meet with the secretary of state and us, to try to create to a solution to a problem they felt was real,” Corker said.
Democrats, despite sharing frustration on the outcome of the vote, did not place the blame squarely in Obama’s lap.
“I share Senator Corker’s frustration on JASTA,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said, referring to the bill by its acronym. But he faulted “circumstances that neither he nor I could control, nor could the administration control – and that is the timing of JASTA required us to take the veto override before the recess.”
Cardin is one of many senators who wanted to see the veto override delayed until after the election, so lawmakers with concerns could have more opportunity to hash out a compromise with the White House.
Bill sponsors Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) have said they are open to reviewing proposals. So far, however, they have dismissed the chief alternative – a measure that would have limited the measure to allow suits related to 9/11 alone – as “unacceptable.”
Even Democratic leaders who supported the bill expressed regrets Thursday that more had not been done ahead of time to create an alternative.
“I do think perhaps it could have been written in a little bit of a different way,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), noting that about 60 Democrats voted to sustain the veto. “It’s a very sad situation.”
Mike DeBonis, Paul Kane, and Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.
Correction: This story has been updated to state that 59 Democrats and 18 Republicans supported the president by opposing his veto override on the 9/11 measure. |
1 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
The childish new president took to Twitter on Tuesday for his latest tirade, this time directing his anger at the flood of Americans attending Republican town halls urging the GOP not to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
In his tweet, Trump said the “so-called angry crowds” are full of “liberal activists.” This isn’t far off from earlier suggestions by the president that the avalanche of post-election protests is made up mostly of paid professionals.
Tweet:
The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 21, 2017
With all due disrespect to the president, the people flooding these town halls in GOP districts are angry. There is nothing “so-called” about it.
In many cases, these are people who rely on the Affordable Care Act for medication that, I don’t know, keeps them alive.
One gentleman in Iowa today explained it quite perfectly to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, telling the Obamacare opponent that he’s “going to create one big death panel in this country” if he repeals the health care law and pulls the rug out from under millions of Americans.
Video:
Did that man look like a savvy and well-connected political activist? No, he’s a farmer in rural Iowa hoping that the new president and his spineless Republican henchmen in Congress don’t make it harder for him to afford his medication – and to live.
Unfortunately, though, this is the type of childish lashing out we should expect from a thin-skinned president who has spent his first month in office demonstrating complete mental instability.
Instead of concentrating his anger on Americans worried about losing life-saving insurance coverage, the president should direct it toward, say, Russia for waging a cyberattack against the United States or perhaps the wave of post-election hate crimes blowing up from coast to coast – or maybe even at his own staff for running the most inept administration in modern history.
But this is Donald, after all, and he is only passionate about praising those who love him and attacking those who hate him.
There is no in between with our so-called president.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human: |
Little yellow birds called great tits are at war with smaller birds called blue tits. Great tits are stealing the nests of blue tits, and to retaliate, blue tits are sneaking their eggs into the nests of great tits, forcing them to raise chicks that aren’t their own. The two tits resort to these tactics when faced with nest shortages, according to new findings published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
Interspecific brood parasitism is when eggs from two species are incubated by a single female. To detail this phenomenon in blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus, pictured above) and great tits (Parus major, pictured below), a team led by Rafael Barrientos from Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha monitored 38 forest plots over a span of three years. Both species nest in the cavities of trees as well as in artificial nest boxes set out by the researchers.
The team found a total of 39 mixed-species clutches in 1,285 nests. That’s only 3% overall, but the proportion was as high as 7.2% in small woodlands. The higher the nest-box occupation rate, the greater the prevalence of mixed-species clutches.
The two species behaved very differently when they were faced with nest-hole shortages. In 17 of the mixed nests, blue tits had slipped one or two eggs into clutches incubated by great tits. In 17 other nests, great tits had invaded and laid eggs in blue tit nests. These hostile (and sometimes bloody) nest takeovers happened more often at the end of the season. These differences in strategies are likely due to one simple factor: Great tits are bigger, so they’re the usurpers.
“The blue tits are probably thinking: ‘If you take my holes to breed, at least you will rear my chicks,’” Barrientos told New Scientist. Although, he’s not sure if the sneaky blue tits are the same ones who were robbed of their nests in the first place. And while blue tits raised by great tits think of themselves as great tits for a while, they learn to recognize their own species’ songs after they leave the nest.
Their size difference might also explain why great tit chicks have higher hatching and fledging rates than their blue tit broodmates raised in the same nest. Blue tit chicks from pure broods had higher hatching and fledging rates as well. However, great tit chicks raised in pure broods didn’t seem to have any advantage over those raised in mixed ones.
According to the team, this is the first study to detail the egg-sneaking behavior of wild blue tits and the nest-robbing behavior of great tits. Mixed-species clutches appear to be a response to nest-hole shortage, a concept the researchers call the “last resort hypothesis.”
Image in text: Great tit (Parus major) in autumn. Victor Tyakht/shutterstock |
John Oates, 65, guitarist in Hall & Oates
We were teenagers in different bands waiting backstage to perform at a record hop – a teenage dance put on by disc jockeys. It was held in a bad neighbourhood in Philadelphia and a gang fight broke out in the crowd. Daryl and I both jumped into a freight elevator and went downstairs to leave and that's the first time we met. Neither of us performed that night.
Years later I moved in with Daryl. I had sublet my apartment to his sister and her boyfriend while I busked around Europe for four months. They didn't pay the rent and when I returned the apartment was padlocked and all my stuff was gone. I had nowhere to go. Daryl took pity on me and invited me to move in with him.
The early 70s was an amazing time to be in Philadelphia. We were living in this hippy ghetto with a lot of crazy freaks and cool people. All we did was walk around the city and play music in art galleries and coffee shops. Little by little we began to gel and write songs.
We first played London in 1975. I was 24. We didn't know it, but we had been discovered by the hip London underground. We'd just flown in and I wasn't used to the jetlag – in between songs I was turning my back to the audience and slapping myself in the face. We have the audio from that night – when I hear the band playing with that youthful energy I think: "Wow! Who are these kids with this fire?"
Daryl and I are more like brothers than actual friends. We're very different as people, but we have this incredibly strong musical bond. He is creatively unsatisfied and that drives him forward. He's very smart, and, in my opinion, has one of the greatest popular voices of all time.
Daryl Hall, 67, lead vocalist
People think John and I live in the same house and spend all our time together. It couldn't be further from the truth. When we are off stage he does what he does and I do it my way. We do spend a lot of time on planes together, though. We have a very familial relationship. We are more like brothers.
As Hall & Oates, we did a lot of things for the first time together and that was fun, like the first time we toured outside of Philadelphia.
We met 50 years ago promoting our own records – my band was called the Temptones and John was in the Masters. We were at Temple University, became friends and shared apartments, but it wasn't until later that we started making music together.
Usually when we write together John comes to me with an idea and wants me to work on it. For example, with "She's Gone", he wrote the chorus and I wrote the verses. If I have an idea, I'll work on it myself. We wrote more music together when we were young. Now we generally work separately.
The region that we both come from is what makes our music unique. John brought a lot of southern influences from his connections to country and bluegrass music. I have a background in gospel, church music and R&B. The combination of all of this is what makes our music what it is.
We get along just fine. We weren't – and aren't – very much alike: we have different interests. But the differences aren't important, what's important is what we share, – and that's music.
Hall & Oates play Latitude festival on Saturday 19 July (latitudefestival.com) |
If Chuck Hagel is nominated by President Obama to serve as Secretary of Defense, there will be at least three compelling arguments in his favor. He served with distinction in the military and would — like Secretary of State nominee John Kerry — bring a veteran’s perspective to his post. He has adopted and articulated a sane perspective on the grave foreign policy blunders whose consequences still haunt the nation, including the Iraq and Vietnam wars. And as we have learned ever since his nomination was first floated, he has made all the right (and right-wing) enemies.
Hagel is a former Republican senator from Nebraska, which means that his voting record was mostly conservative and that he has probably said many things that might offend liberal Democrats. (Already he has felt obliged to apologize for a nasty remark he once made in reaction to President Clinton’s nomination of James Hormel as the first openly gay U.S. ambassador.) He is a devout Catholic and an opponent of abortion rights, and he has received poor ratings in the past from the NAACP, the ACLU and other liberal organizations.
But as a potential nominee for Secretary of Defense, Hagel is coming under far heavier fire so far from the right — where he is being widely smeared as anti-Israel and anti-Semitic — than from the left. The neoconservatives and their allies on the religious right cannot forgive Hagel for turning against the Iraq war and the Bush administration — a stance that reflected his opposition to reckless warfare and his adoption of a realistic internationalism. They dislike Hagel as well for his refusal to endorse Israel’s expansion of West Bank settlements and other actions that undermine the Mideast peace process; for his reluctance to promote war with Iran; and for his critical eye on Pentagon misspending and waste.
In reality, those are all valid reasons to support him. It is hard to believe that the opinions of the same people who assured us that Iraq would be a free and easy “cakewalk” are today accorded any attention whatsoever, thousands of lives and trillions of dollars later.
Yet it is equally important to emphasize that the charge of anti-Semitism against Hagel is groundless and shames those who have uttered this canard. Among those who have forthrightly denounced it are Jon Soltz, a Jewish army veteran who served two tours in Iraq and now heads Vote Vets and Jeffrey Goldberg, the “Atlantic” magazine blogger on Mideast affairs who once served in the Israel Defense Forces. (They are unlike many of Hagel’s critics, who might fairly be characterized as “chickenhawks.”)
In a letter to the 200,000-plus members of Vote Vets, many of whom are, like him, Democratic-leaning Iraq and Afghan war veterans, Soltz writes: Chuck Hagel, as a Vietnam Veteran, would put troops first. He has a record of challenging neocon dreams of preemptive use of force — and winning that debate. He has a record of challenging wasteful Pentagon spending, taking on the military-industrial complex, to ensure our defense dollars are responsibly spent on equipment we actually need … So please, take a stand against this swiftboating of a man who has only served America with honor.
Goldberg favors Hagel’s appointment precisely because he believes the Nebraskan, who now teaches at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, would push back against Israeli policies that endanger the future of the Jewish state: I think Israel is heading down a dangerous path, toward its own eventual dissolution, because it refuses to contemplate even unilateral half-measures that could lay the groundwork for a Palestinian state … I’ve spoken to Chuck Hagel in the past. He is not a hater of Israel. On the other hand, he, like Bob Gates, the former secretary of defense, might be able to look (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) in the eye and demand an explanation for the Israeli government’s actions on the West Bank.
The “swiftboating” of Hagel is being mobilized by the likes of William Kristol, the “Weekly Standard” editor, who managed to avoid service in Vietnam but still believes that bloody tragedy was a great idea. Kristol and his ilk have been so wrong about every policy issue over the past four decades that their angry opposition to Hagel is a sterling endorsement of him.
Still, there may be valid reasons to oppose his candidacy, based on his temperament, experience or record. Before confirmation he should be questioned closely on his commitment to fair treatment of LGBT personnel and on any substantive issues, such as reproductive rights, where administration policy may conflict with his personal beliefs. He may run into problems among his former Republican Senate colleagues, not all of whom admire him, but their opinions should carry little weight. Indeed, their opposition too should serve to strengthen the case for Hagel’s confirmation. He has served his country with courage and principle over many years in public service — which is far more than can be said for most of his adversaries. |
Donovan McNabb believes the Cowboys should look to trade Tony Romo and Dez Bryant in order to build their future around their younger players Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott. (1:34)
Topics this week include Drew Bledsoe weighing in on the developing situation in Dallas -- which is similar to the end of his time in New England, Brock Osweiler's return to Denver, a look at the Packers' offensive issues, and more.
Bledsoe has seen Dallas' QB situation before
Before Dallas Cowboys veteran Tony Romo ever was confronted with the idea that he could be losing his starting quarterback job to rookie quarterback Dak Prescott, Drew Bledsoe lost his to Tom Brady with the New England Patriots. Back in 2001, Bledsoe suffered a sheared blood vessel in his chest that sidelined him almost two months. While Bledsoe was out, Tom Brady filled in, posting a 5-2 record until coach Bill Belichick was forced to make a decision.
Now, heading into Dallas' bye week, Prescott has led the Cowboys to a 5-1 record, while being every bit as impressive as Brady. This is not to say that Prescott is the next Brady, or their talents are comparable. But their situations are. A heralded, high-profile, well-paid starting quarterback in New England once lost his starting quarterback job to an impressive, up-and-coming quarterback. Now Romo is about to do the same.
"The similarities are obvious," admitted Bledsoe, who now owns the award-winning Doubleback winery in the Walla Walla Valley. "It's a situation where you've been a quarterback of a team for a long, long time, and you plan to be there forever. Then all of a sudden you get hurt, some young kid plays well, and it becomes a tough situation. Once I was healthy, I thought I was coming back to go back on the field again to play. I was healthy, and Bill Belichick said, 'That's good, we're going to stick with the other guy.' The hard part for me was coming to realizing that you're not irreplaceable. That was a tough realization. But you learn the world keeps turning without you."
Eventually Bledsoe was traded to Buffalo, then later surfaced to finish up his career in Dallas, where he was eventually replaced by Romo. The Cowboys would not entertain the notion of trading Romo now, but it is an idea that could pick up some momentum after this season if Romo decides he wants to continue his career. It seems surreal to even suggest, but it is a stone-cold reality.
Tony Romo is inching closer to a return for the Cowboys, who have gone 5-1 with Dak Prescott under center. Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
"Dak is playing really, really well," Bledsoe said. "The team is so good around him. There's also a similarity between those two situations, New England's with me and Dallas' with Tony. While Tommy was playing, our offensive line got right and the team started playing well around him. When that happens, sometimes there's some magic to a young kid being in there. The team steps up with the young kid in there. Once they do that, they keep playing that way.
"It's very, very similar to what's happening now in Dallas. That Cowboys team is set up to make a run, even with Dez [Bryant] on the sideline. That offensive line, that run game, they can make a real run here."
Romo has not reached out to Bledsoe for advice on how to handle this situation, but no one knows it any better.
"I don't know what decision they'll make, but it seems like they'll stick with Dak," Bledsoe said. "It seems like the obvious choice. Then Tony has to make some decisions. One will have to do with his long-term health. He has to decide how he wants to handle his long-term back issues, stuff that could affect you for a long time.
"But Tony has been an outstanding player, a good team guy, and if it comes to pass and they choose Dak, then you have to just go to work, play ball, get healthy, approach it like a job and do the right thing. Ultimately as long as you handle it the right way, you will have other opportunities, if that's what you want. I enjoyed those other opportunities. Ultimately, because I chose to be a team guy, I had the opportunity to move on to other places and have a great time.
"The unfortunate truth about the NFL is, it's a replacement business. You get hurt, and someone else comes in and plays well, particularly at a lower-salary cap number, and you end up finding yourself someplace else. It's not a fault of Tony's, just like it was no fault of mine."
-- Adam Schefter
Osweiler making return to Denver
Naturally, there is plenty of Brock Osweiler talk as the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos prepare for their Monday night game in Denver.
Osweiler and the Texans won't yet be able to get around criticism for the four-year, $72 million contract the quarterback received as a free agent. He will need more moments like he had when he rallied the Texans to an improbable comeback for an eventual overtime victory Sunday night against the Indianapolis Colts.
People still will never get why the Texans paid Osweiler the big money, but Broncos general manager John Elway did offer his former second-round pick a contract that would pay the quarterback $16 million per year, which was actually was $1 million more than he was willing to pay Peyton Manning in 2015. So clearly the Broncos saw value in retaining Osweiler.
Brock Osweiler has been inconsistent this season, and he ranks No. 29 in the league in Total QBR. AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith
How big is Osweiler's contract with the Texans? He's only 19th in salary among NFL starting quarterbacks. In 2016, he takes up just 7.9 percent of the team salary cap. He had some quality starts in 2015 when Manning was injured, including a gut-check win against the Patriots. That's a better look than teams got when top quarterback draft picks were getting the big bucks before the rookie wage scale, such as the $50 million guaranteed Sam Bradford received from the Rams in 2010.
The question that has been asked frequently is why Osweiler would choose the Texans over the defending Super Bowl champion Broncos, who have a defense that either is the best, or one of the best, in the NFL?
The answers that have been consistently offered: The Broncos dragged their feet on their offer before free agency, giving Osweiler a taste to test the market; he wanted to establish himself with a franchise that didn't already have quarterback legends such as Manning and Elway; he wanted an offense that would provide him with more control under center, as he had learned with offensive coordinator Adam Gase once Manning came aboard in 2012.
Jury still out? Yes, but the verdict is far from in.
-- Chris Mortensen
Behind Packers' offensive issues
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers looks surprisingly average during the first six weeks of the 2016 season. The Minnesota Vikings, who won the NFC North in 2015, are considered the team to beat in their own division -- and maybe the entire NFC.
The slip for the Packers, even if it's temporary, has resurrected some scrutiny of the general manager Ted Thompson for his lack of aggressiveness in building the team's roster.
When the Packers dealt for Chiefs running back Knile Davis this week, it was the first player trade executed by Thompson since 2010.
Thompson absolutely believes in building his team through the draft. Nothing wrong with that. The Packers have been highly successful under his tenure and have won a Super Bowl. Problem is, when you have Rodgers as your quarterback, multiple Super Bowls are the expectation.
Thompson has had a few golden opportunities that he passed on, dragging his feet on a trade to acquire Marshawn Lynch from Buffalo in 2010 a year after he missed on a chance to land future Chiefs All-Pro tight end Tony Gonzalez, who instead was traded to Atlanta.
It's worthwhile to mention the absence of a dynamic tight end, especially in a West Coast-based offensive scheme. Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young once said he preferred a Pro Bowl tight end like he had in Brent Jones over a Pro Bowl receiver, though he had a good laugh when he was reminded he played with Jerry Rice.
Thompson has tried to get Rodgers a tight end through the draft. He has selected Jermichael Finley (third round, 2008), D.J. Williams (second round, 2011) and Richard Rodgers (third round, 2014). This year, the Packers had to continue to stock their defensive line and, with the 27th pick, Thompson chose UCLA defensive tackle Kenny Clark, who has shown promise. But the Chargers took Arkansas tight end Hunter Henry with the 35th pick, and he looks special.
Said one veteran personnel man who admires Thompson: "When you watch them on film, you don't see anybody special, no speed on the outside, nobody special at tight end. But what does Bill Belichick really have at receiver? He has Gronk at tight end. It's not totally fair to criticize Ted. Belichick is head and shoulders above everyone else in this league. [Packers coach] Mike McCarthy is no Belichick, but then who is?"
-- Chris Mortensen
Adam Vinatieri has won four Super Bowls in his NFL career. AP Photo/AJ Mast
Vinatieri is still kicking -- and making history
Adam Vinatieri is making his case -- or maybe already has done it -- as the greatest kicker in NFL history.
When the Colts play the Titans on Sunday, Vinatieri will carry a streak of 41 consecutive made field goals with him into Tennessee. Should he make two more, Vinatieri will pass former Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt for the most consecutive made field goals in franchise and NFL history.
And it just is a validation of what most have come to realize, that Vinatieri will one day join the only full-time kicker currently in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Jan Stenerud, in Canton, Ohio. What's also interesting is that Vinatieri has been a free agent a couple of times in Indianapolis, and no other team has made a real competitive run at him. Others might have feared his age; Vinatieri turns 44 in December. But his age has turned into an asset, and Vinatieri has gotten better over time.
Before he signed with Indianapolis, Vinatieri kicked in New England, which has uncovered kickers like the Steelers have wide receivers. But this year, for one of the rare years, a Patriots kicker is struggling. Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski already has missed three field goals this season, as many as he has had in any full season since 2012. He also has missed an extra point this season, his first extra-point miss since 2006.
So while Gostkowski looks to get on track in a tough kicking venue in Pittsburgh, Vinatieri is on the verge of making even more kicking history.
-- Adam Schefter
Favre has been bad luck in Green Bay
Even though the two sides have repaired their relationship, forgive the Packers if they never invite Brett Favre back to Green Bay again. It seems like they do not react well to his presence -- at all.
Last season the Packers retired Favre's No. 4 on Thanksgiving night, only to later get upset at home to the Chicago Bears 17-13. Then Sunday, the Packers honored Favre for getting into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last summer, and Green Bay lost to Dallas 30-16. Maybe Green Bay's opponents -- at Atlanta on Oct. 30, at Tennessee on Nov. 13, at Washington Nov. 20, at Philly Nov. 28, at Chicago Dec. 18, at Detroit Jan. 1 -- should consider honoring Favre for this year's Hall of Fame induction.
Unlike when he played quarterback for the Packers, Green Bay seems to wilt when he shows up.
-- Adam Schefter
What Redskins' win means
Washington's victory over Philadelphia last weekend might have even greater ramifications than in the NFC East. Each of the previous nine times the Redskins won their final home game prior to the presidential election, the incumbent party won the election.
Redskins Win Final Home Game Before Election Year Incumbent Party Winning Party Rule Held? 2016 Democratic ? ? 1996 Democratic Democratic Yes 1988 Republican Republican Yes 1984 Republican Republican Yes 1972 Republican Republican Yes 1964 Democratic Democratic Yes 1956 Republican Republican Yes 1948 Democratic Democratic Yes 1944 Democratic Democratic Yes 1940 Democratic Democratic Yes Incumbent Party: 9-0 when Redskins win final home game before election
Emptying out the notebook |
Kickstarter campaigns helped bring new and innovative products to the market during these last years. However there often are failures that can happen at several stages. We’d like to hear your opinion about them and discover what you think could be done to foresee/prevent these kinds of bad experiences that damage the trust between individuals and funding platforms.
Post-funding failures
There are a few project teams that give up a few months after receiving the funds, like the people behind the iControlPad 2 recently (disclaimer: we’re not backers). Even if [Craig] stated that he would document the entire production process on film and be open about all the project life steps, that didn’t prevent the project from being dropped (oddly enough) exactly one year after they received the funds. The more the project was headed towards failure, less was the frequency of updates regarding the project’s current state. The official reasons for this decision were difficulties that arose with the chosen LEDs, we’ll let you make your own opinion by having a look at the updates section. Thanks [Nikropht] for the tipping us about it.
Pre-funding failures
What is happening even more often on kickstarter is (usually successful) campaigns being canceled by the website itself after a few people rang the alarm bell. This may be due to an unfeasible project idea, a fake demonstration video/photos or even an attempt to resell an existing item under a new name.
The best examples for the first category undeniably are free energy generators. Here is an indiegogo campaign which actually succeeded. The creators announced one month ago that the project is running a bit behind schedule (aha), that the machine will cost around $5000 and that they’ll “need the funds before they make the units”. What can be done to educate the public that such energy is not created out of thin air?
The second category includes the recently canceled LUCI advanced lucid dream inducer (thanks [Michael] for the tip), which ended 2 days before the deadline. Technical guys got skeptical when they saw that the electrode signals were amplified several feet from the brain with an audio amplifier. At first glance, this was the only sign that this project may have been a scam (let’s give them the benefit of the doubt). Further research indicated that GXP (the company behind the campaign) didn’t exist, and most of their pictures were photoshopped. Here is a link to a quick summary of the situation and if you want to be entertained we advise you to make some pop-corn and head to the comments section of the project. What’s terrible here is that backers started to turn against each other, as the company always had a ‘good’ explanation for all the backers’ questions.
At last, there are some persons that just make funding campaigns with already existing products. This is the case of the eye3 flying robot and the vybe vibrating bracelet (don’t order!). Note that all of them were successfully funded. The eye3 was created by the same persons that made LumenLab, a company that created the microcnc. You’ll find more details here. The vibrating bracelet was just this one, which would be made in different colors. We just discovered this website that covered both project in greater lengths as well as many others.
Kickstarter fraudsters
Scams can also happen on the backers’ side. Recently, a Kickstarter backer named “Encik Farhan” attempted to rip off many Kickstarter projects. A ‘credit card chargeback’ technique was used, were the backer would contribute to the campaign, receive his perk and later cancel his credit card transaction using diverse reasons. The money would later be taken from the campaign funding by the payment processor.
What can be done?
The examples cited in this article set precedents which may turn people away from crowdfunding. In your opinion, what could be done to prevent this? Another reason we ask is because Hackaday may launch a sponsored product soon, thanks to the new overlords. This hypothetical product would be designed with the Hackaday community in a completely transparent process.
In the meantime, if you find any perpetual motion machines on kicstarter or indiegogo, be sure to send them in. You may also want to checkout this website predicting the success probability of a given kickstarter campaign. |
DETROIT - A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday against the city of Detroit and two police officers in connection to a violent arrest that took place in May which was captured on video.
Officers Richard Billingslea and Hakeem Patterson, of the Detroit police 5th Precinct, and the city of Detroit are named as defendants in the suit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages in an amount to be determined by a jury.
Detroit residents D’Marco Craft and Michaele Jackson claim the officers were caught on camera assaulting and unlawfully arresting Jackson when they went to a gas station on Harper Avenue to buy cigarettes on May 31. The video, shot by Craft, shows officers throw Jackson to the ground as he is verbally abused. The officers appear to be making an arrest, but Jackson is released and they let him off the ground.
Jackson left the gas station and the officers followed him out to the gas pumps. Craft continued to record as Jackson circled the gas pumps and officers followed.
Jackson entered the gas station again. The video doesn’t show what happened initially, but it captured the officer breaking out his Mace. After Jackson was Maced, officers can be seen in the video kicking and punching him.
Watch the video here:
The lawsuit accuses the officers of:
Use of excessive force
Unlawful arrest
Unlawful seizure (against only Billingslea)
Unlawful search (against only Billingslea)
Unlawfully preventing a person from recording police in a public place
Conversion of plaintiff's cellphone
Assault and battery
Violation of civil rights (against the city of Detroit)
Officer's report indicates force needed to make arrest
The police report written by Billingslea indicates that he was attempting to place Jackson under arrest, but was unable to without the use of force.
Jackson was arrested while Craft was released at the scene. Jackson was not released from custody until June 2. He spent 63 hours in custody. Neither man was ever charged with a crime.
The suit also claims Billingslea took Craft's cellphone and slammed it on the gas station counter top, smashing the screen. Furthermore, the officer also threw the cellphone in a garbage container at the gas station, according to the lawsuit. A different police officer later retrieved the phone and placed it into evidence. Craft later retrieved the cellphone from police.
Craft and Jackson are being represented by Southfield-based attorneys Solomon M. Radner and Ari Kresch.
“The police report is clearly a fabrication and is in direct conflict with the footage from Mr. Craft’s cell phone. It’s outrageous that the officers who are supposed to protect the rights of their citizens behave in such an unwarranted, aggressive and cruel manner,” Radner said in a news release.
The news release from Radner and Kresch also alleges Billingslea and Patterson violated the Detroit Police Department's policy on pursuing suspects back in 2015. The officers allegedly were chasing a man who crashed June 24, 2015 and killed two young children.
Detroit police chief offers comment
Detroit Police James Craig held a news conference Thursday to discuss the video. Craig said the man threw a punch before he was Maced and that it was captured on store surveillance. The chief said the store surveillance video will not be released due to a pending criminal investigation.
"Force is only used to overcome resistance," Craig said. "In a perfect scenario, we would want to be able to take someone into custody without using any force."
READ: Chief Craig addresses video showing officers making violent arrest
Officer on restricted duty; prosecutor considers charges
The officer is on restricted duty as the Wayne County prosecutor considers handing down charges.
Here is the full lawsuit filed Aug. 22, 2017:
Copyright 2017 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved. |
Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of "The Lion's Roar," the new lyric video by progressive rock innovators Cynic.
The track is from the band's upcoming album, Kindly Bent to Free Us, which will be released February 18.
The album was produced by Cynic — guitarist/vocalist Paul Masvidal, drummer Sean Reinert and bassist Sean Malone — at L.A.'s Perfect Sound Studios. It was engineered by Jason Donaghy (Band of Horses, Feist, Rob Zombie), mixed by R. Walt Vincent (Peter Yorn, Liz Phair) and mastered by Maor Appelbaum (Sepultura, Cathedral).
"It's a bold new sound for Cynic and marks a gigantic leap in the band's progression," said Reinert about the new album.
"We've had a lot of time to let this material develop and gestate, and it finally feels ready to be unleashed on the world. I've been in trio mode with Malone and Masvidal flushing out a zillion and one details, and I couldn't be happier about what's happening with these songs. They are truly alive."
Kindly Bent to Free Us is available for pre-order HERE.
For more about Cynic, visit cyniconline.com and Facebook. |
TV star Chuck Norris on Monday made an endorsement in the Alabama Senate GOP primary, backing a controversial former judge who once was removed from his seat for refusing to take down a monument of the Ten Commandments.
The “Walker, Texas Ranger” star threw his support behind former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, saying Moore is “tough, tested and has a spine of steel," according to local CBS affiliate WKRG.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The Washington establishment knows they won’t be able to count on him, but Alabama voters can,” Norris said. “Judge Moore has never backed down from standing for what is right, and that’s exactly what he’ll do in the U.S Senate. That’s why the Washington establishment is spending millions trying to defeat Judge Moore.”
Norris, a longtime Republican who was born in Oklahoma and lives in Texas, has endorsed other Republican candidates in the past, including the presidential campaigns of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).
Moore is currently leading in the polls in Alabama, with 30 percent support in a new survey Monday. Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) trails him at 22 percent, followed by Rep. Mo Brooks Morris (Mo) Jackson BrooksCoulter slams Trump as 'lazy and incompetent,’ says he could face primary challenger Dems press Pentagon officials to explain why troops are still at border House Republicans call for moving State of the Union to Senate chamber MORE (R-Ala.) with 19 percent. The Aug. 15 primary is for a special election to serve out the remainder Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump says he hasn't spoken to Barr about Mueller report Ex-Trump aide: Can’t imagine Mueller not giving House a ‘roadmap’ to impeachment Rosenstein: My time at DOJ is 'coming to an end' MORE's term; Strange, Alabama's former attorney general, was appointed by then-Gov. Robert Bentley (R) upon Sessions's confirmation earlier this year.
In 2003, Moore was removed as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court when he refused to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from a judicial building despite a federal court's order. |
Various news outlets are now reporting that Mike Pence has cancelled a planned campaign appearance in Wisconsin, where he was to appear with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) in the place of Donald Trump, who was disinvited late Friday.
NEW: @NBCNews has learned Mike Pence is not going to the Wisconsin GOP event today. — Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) October 8, 2016
The cancellation comes in the wake of the Washington Post’s bombshell revelation of a 2005 video recording of Trump making crude and derogatory comments about women and describing his own predatory advances on women, including grabbing their genitals.
Trump was originally scheduled to appear with Ryan at the state GOP event in what would have been their first campaign appearance together. Ryan announced late Friday, after the video emerged, that Trump would no longer be attending. Coming from Ryan, rather the Trump campaign, the announcement was widely interpreted as Ryan disinviting his own nominee, with whom he has had a turbulent relationship.
A short time later, Trump announced that Pence would be attending in his place: “Governor Mike Pence will be representing me tomorrow in Wisconsin. I will be spending the day in New York in debate prep with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Jeff Sessions, and then flying to St. Louis on Sunday for the 2nd Presidential Debate.”
Pence was still scheduled to attend the event with Ryan until midday Saturday, when reports emerged Pence was scrapping the appearance. The reasons for Pence’s cancellation were not immediately clear. |
President Trump proposed an “IQ tests” faceoff with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after the nation's top diplomat reportedly called the president a “moron” and disparaged his grasp of foreign policy.
In an interview with Forbes magazine published Tuesday, Trump fired a shot at Tillerson over the “moron” revelation, first reported by NBC News and confirmed by several other news organizations, including The Washington Post.
“I think it's fake news,” Trump said, “but if he did that, I guess we'll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.”
Trump met for lunch Tuesday with Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in the president's private dining room at the White House. Shortly before the lunch, a reporter asked Trump whether he had undercut Tillerson with his comments to Forbes.
“No, I didn't undercut anybody. I don't believe in undercutting people,” Trump said during a brief media appearance in the Oval Office, as he sat beside former secretary of state Henry Kissinger during a meeting to discuss foreign affairs.
When a reporter asked Trump whether he has confidence in Tillerson as his secretary of state, the president replied, “Yes.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later said that Trump's “IQ tests” comment to Forbes was “a joke and nothing more than that.”
“The president certainly never implied that the secretary of state was not incredibly intelligent,” Sanders said in Tuesday afternoon's news briefing. She added that Trump has "100 percent confidence” in Tillerson, characterized their lunch as “a great visit” and admonished reporters for taking the president's comment so seriously. “Maybe you guys should get a sense of humor and try it sometime,” Sanders said.
Trump's “IQ tests” challenge is the latest evidence of what White House officials have described as a breach of trust between the president and the secretary of state.
[‘Death spiral’: Tillerson makes nice but may not last long with Trump]
Reporters asked Trump over the weekend about his relationship with Tillerson.
“We have a very good relationship,” Trump said Saturday. “We disagree on a couple of things. Sometimes I'd like him to be a little bit tougher. But other than that, we have a very good relationship.”
In the Forbes interview, for the magazine's cover story under the headline “Inside Trump's Head,” the president teases upcoming economic-development legislation “nobody knows about” that would penalize companies that move operations overseas, and offer incentives for those that stay in the United States.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, right, listens as President Trump speaks at a luncheon during the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 21 in New York. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Trump previewed what he called “an economic-development bill, which I think will be fantastic. Which nobody knows about. Which you are hearing about for the first time.” The president said the policy is “both a carrot and a stick.”
Trump also told Forbes that he has purposefully not filled many jobs throughout the federal government, including at the State Department, where many of the top positions remain vacant.
“I'm generally not going to make a lot of the appointments that would normally be — because you don't need them,” Trump said. “I mean, you look at some of these agencies, how massive they are, and it's totally unnecessary. They have hundreds of thousands of people.” |
That negativity appears to have fed a growing perception that the opposing party isn’t just misguided, but dangerous. In 2016, Pew reported that 45 percent of Republicans and 41 percent of Democrats felt that the other party’s policies posed a threat to the nation.
The fear of what harm the other party could cause appears to be a major motivator behind party affiliation. “It’s at least as much what I don’t like about the other side as what I like about my own party,” said Jocelyn Kiley, associate director of research at the Pew Research Center.
When asked why they identified as Republican, 68 percent of respondents told Pew that a major factor was the harm that Democratic policies posed, just surpassing the 64 percent who cited the good that could come of their own party’s policies. Among Democrats, 62 percent said fear of Republican policies was a major factor for their affiliation, while 68 percent cited the good of their own party’s policies.
Independents, who outnumber members of either party and yet often lean toward one or the other, are just as guided by fear. More than half who lean toward either party say a major reason for their preference is the damage the other party could cause. Only about a third reported being attracted by the good that could come from the policies of the party toward which they lean.
Opposing partisans are also likely to find each other harder to reason with. Last year, Pew found that 70 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans considered members of the opposing party to be more close-minded than other Americans. Significant shares also considered opposing partisans exceptionally immoral, lazy and dishonest, though Democrats held those views somewhat less. About a third of either party viewed the opposition as less intelligent than other Americans.
Past surveys show that such views have worsened with time. Americans in 1960 were more likely to allow that members of the other party were intelligent, and they were less likely to describe opposing partisans as selfish.
In 1960, just 5 percent of Republicans and 4 percent of Democrats said they would be unhappy if a son or daughter married someone from the other party. In a YouGov survey from 2008 that posed a similar question, 27 percent of Republicans and 20 percent of Democrats said they’d be “somewhat” or “very upset” by that prospect. By 2010, that share had jumped to half of Republicans and a third of Democrats. |
When we caught local Christmas band the Silver Bells last year, it wasn't in the setting you'd expect. No Christmas trees, no twinkling lights, and there wasn't a sweater in sight. Instead, there were tank tops, palm trees, and an ocean breeze — that's because we found ourselves at a kitschy mid-summer Christmas party at Jack of Cups Saloon on Folly Beach. Under normal circumstances, the thought of listening to holiday tunes outside of the season is enough to make even the jolliest of us feel a bit unwell, but the music of the Silver Bells is decidedly different.
Rather than attempting to regale the crowds with traditional holiday standards, founder and frontman Nicholas Doyle has written a collection of Christmas originals that tell real, personal stories. And they really rock — all year 'round. "There's no Jesus in there," Doyle says. "But it's all about the important stuff like making out and being sad and getting presents — all the important stuff about the holidays. It's still Christmas-specific but not at all religious."
The only track on the LP It's Christmas, Everybody! that didn't evolve somehow from a personal experience is "Letter from Mrs. Claus." As a result, many of the songs do take on a more somber tone, and the album runs the gamut of emotions one can experience during the holidays — all of which is evidenced in titles like the hooky and hopeful, "Can We Stay Together Through New Year's Eve?," the upbeat if malcontented track about an ex, "Santa Doesn't Care About You," and even the entirely fictional but melancholy "Letter from Mrs. Claus" ("You left me alone on Christmas Eve/ And you took all the presents, you never make for me/ You fill up the stockings all over the world/ But I still remember when you called me your girl/ Please come home for Christmas").
"Another New Year's Day" is Doyle's most recent composition and one that is still emotional for him. When performing it, he has to clear his head and try to think of nothing — or anything other than what the song's really about. "My wife's mother passed away last year, and I wrote that after that. So it's an actual song and not a novelty," he says.
Other tracks like "How Do You Forward Your Mail (From the North Pole)?," written by Doyle and his wife, Brooke Pennell, are rooted in truth but take on a silly and cheerful twist. "We wrote that one after we moved here," Doyle says. "It was just about moving to a new place and still wanting your stuff." The worry over whether Santa will somehow find them and deliver their presents is palpable in the chorus: "How will he know it? Will he care? Will he show up to my house when I'm not there? What does it matter — am I too old?"
There's also the relatable "Poor Excuse (Merry Christmas)" about being super broke during the holidays. And "Can We Stay Together Through New Year's Eve?," with its all-enveloping melodies, acknowledges the facts of life — getting older and losing close friends who move away.
In 2004, Doyle wrote "I Wanna Love You for Christmas." He had just started dating Pennell, but it's not merely the sentiment that stands out to him now. "I wrote it the week of the election, and the line, 'This has been a hell of a week,' is about Bush winning. I don't know what in the world possessed me to put that in a Christmas song," he laughs.
Though Doyle claims to be the only person on the planet who loves Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime," he admits he normally loathes Christmas music. "I don't like the cash-in Christmas music thing," he says. "You know, 'I don't know what to do right now, so let's just make a profit. We're Train — here's our Christmas record.'"
And at times, he can't bear to hear his own non-festive songs. "I've played non-Christmas songs in the past, and sometimes I can't stand the earnestness of some of my songs," Doyle says. "And then I'm like, well, if it's a Christmas band, whatever, that's easy — it's just a fun Christmas band. But then I realized it's actually about this thing that's happening, and I just kind of dressed it up in holiday wrapping paper."
After a successful Kickstarter campaign a year ago, It's Christmas, Everybody! was released on vinyl in April — yep, just in time for Easter — but it was in the making for about a decade. Back when Doyle lived in Virginia, a friend of his, Lee Harris, recorded original holiday songs with whoever wanted to stop by his home studio and make some noise. He'd then give out the mixed CD to friends for Christmas.
Doyle joined in for years and later copied the idea. "I would try to write a song a year, and it ended up being probably like every other year. We would just record them at my house or whatever," he says. "It was really about recording a single and sending it in an email to my friends, like, 'Here's this thing we did. Happy holidays.'"
But it wasn't until Doyle moved to Charleston that the Silver Bells, as the collaborative project it is today, began to take shape. He combined forces with the band's only other core member, guitarist Doug Thompson and, gradually, others joined in. Doyle says, "One of the cool things about Silver Bells is that it's always been an everybody's-invited kind of thing — anyone could join."
"It's a rotating cast of characters," Thompson adds.
In the beginning, that cast included Jump, Little Children's Evan and Matt Bivins. Once the Bivins moved to Chicago, drummer Stephen Young and bassist/vocalist Crystal Floyd got involved, and the Bells made their live debut at an old Cord & Pedal show. The band — in all its various forms — has performed at holiday shindigs ever since.
Though the spontaneity of the Silver Bells' lineup is what Doyle loves best about the band, when it came time to make It's Christmas, Everybody!, he envisioned something a little more consistent. "I kind of wanted to make a record because, A. I never had, and B. I sort of wanted to have a set band — and have other people add stuff — but I wanted the same person to play drums and I wanted to have the same person to play bass."
The album came together last year when Doyle met West Ashley's Ramshackle Studios producer Andy Dixon at a party and the two decided to collaborate. Six months later, they recorded with Burg on drums and Jonathan Gray (Jump Little Children) on upright bass. Bill Carson contributes banjo and guitar, Matt Bivins adds harmonica, Michael Flynn plays keys, and Nathan Kocci sent horn recordings from New York. And "drunken gang vocals" are thanks to Doyle, Thompson, J Chapa, Dixon and his wife, Julia Dixon, Lauren Jones, and Pennell.
As for a sophomore release, Doyle and Thompson reckon that — considering the pace of getting the first album out — they'll need to start now to have another record in 10 years. But that's OK. He's definitely going to keep writing.
For now, Doyle's having a good time performing these songs he's so proud of and that, despite the occasional grim undertone, bring local audiences so much joy every year. Despite the fact that he doesn't take himself too seriously, Doyle is still proud of what he's created. "I don't have any pretensions about any of it," he says. "It's a fun thing. It's a silly thing, and I'm completely on board with it being a silly and ridiculous thing."
Doyle's planned an intimate Silver Bells and Friends show at O'Hara & Flynn with Bill Carson and Evan Bivins sitting in. Carson will play a set of his favorite holiday music, and Rob Daniel will recite some Charles Dickens. Their "loud" show will be at the Tin Roof, where bassist Danny Infinger (Alswel) and drummer Ballard Lesemann (The Rock*A*Teens) will hold down the rhythm section. They'll also be joined by singer-songwriter Laura Jane Vincent and local five-piece, Meowy Catmas. |
I’m glad to be back bringing you good folks a preview of Thursday night’s matchup between Louisville City FC and the University of Louisville men’s soccer team. It’s the first chance we will have to see our team play in person in 2016, so make sure you’re there! As a UofL student and one of the biggest (and loudest) supporters of the Cards, I will try my best to turn the bias down to an acceptable level.
As we all know by now, Lou City started their preseason off in great form, beating SIU Edwardsville 4:0 thanks to goals from newcomer Chandler Hoffman (PK), Tarek Morad and a brace (!) for Connor Shanosky. As a Cards fan, I’d like to think that our boys will offer a bit more resistance, but nobody on Floyd Street is holding their breath.
Players
This is going to be a re-hash for those who read my preview for the SIUe game, but in a nutshell, look to see minutes spread around generously to some of the new guys like former Cardinal Paolo DelPiccolo, Andy Lubahn, Mark-Anthony Kaye, Junghyun Son, Ben Newnam and George Davis IV. Friendly matches like these offer unlimited subs, so expect to see these new faces for the first time, in person. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Ranjitsingh start between the posts, but now that I’ve made that prediction, Scotty is a lock to start.
UofL is coming off of a disappointing season where, despite having glimpses of class, they didn’t quite put it all together and failed to make the NCAA tournament. At any rate, UofL still has several players that could pose a threat to a yet-unsynchronized back line. A player in particular to watch is Borussia Dortmund and Schalke youth system product Tim Kubel, number 27. He plays Right Midfield/Right Back and is a goal threat as soon as he steps on the field. I can rattle off five or six other notable players for the cards, but this is an article about Louisville City, so I digress.
History
UofL hosted, and lost to, the Boys in Purple almost exactly a year ago (March 11) by a line of 0-3, which saw Ilija Ilic and Magnus Rasmussen score their first goals in purple, as well as a goal for a guy named “Matt Fondy.” If memory serves, it got particularly scrappy for a friendly and there was a LCFC red card in the second half, but that was forever ago. For some reason last year the match was in Cardinal Park, be it maintenance on the field at Lynn or something.
Either way, I’d like to welcome everyone to the foremost College Soccer facility in the country that is Lynn stadium. It may only seat around 3,500 but it’s a damn sight better than having to play in Slugger, I’ll tell you that much.
I don’t want to promise anyone an entertaining match because this is UofL’s first game since November 8th and technically City played a match last weekend. If the Coopers didn’t see it, did it really happen? Ultimately what we want to see out of these guys is learning and gaining experience that only in-game moments can give you, and this will definitely give us that.
Notes
Coach O’Connor has been spotted scouting at UofL games before, so don’t be surprised if LouCity signs one of these Cards you see Thursday. As a fan that follows UofL closely, don’t be surprised to see little turnout from fans of the Cards. As much as it pains me to say it, UofL has not touched the nerve that Louisville City FC has seemed to have found in supporters passion and interest. Don’t be too harsh on us. We’re just kids. If you think that the rules regarding drums, flags and banners are annoying, try running a supporters group there. |
Article features images courtesy of The Cahier Archive (www.f1-photo.com)
It’s that time of year when the F1 paddock seems to be brimming with optimism, with senior team members claiming that they’ve “made a big step forward” or declaring that the team are “ready to fight for wins”.
Sometimes, however, reality falls short of expectation once the cars hit the track. Here are a few quotes we found from past seasons, that made us think ‘Did they really say that?’.
1997 – TOM WALKINSHAW, ARROWS
Damon Hill’s arrival at the team was greeted by optimism from Team Principal Tom Walkinshaw, who said: “I think we have to aspire to have a car which is capable of finishing in the top three reasonably consistently in the second half of the year.”
Despite scoring just a single point the previous year, Tom was deadly serious: “I haven’t got stardust in my eyes or rose coloured glasses. I’m being very analytical.”
Unfortunately for Tom, Damon’s presence could not mask the fact that the Arrows car was a disappointment. There were no wins and just a single podium finish – a performance which prompted Hill to leave the team at the end of that year.
1999 – JACQUES VILLENEUVE, BAR
It’s been well documented that British American Racing’s first year in Formula 1 was a disaster. But what you might have forgotten is that the team genuinely considered themselves contenders for race wins heading into the ’99 season.
Jacques Villeneuve seemed overly confident, claiming “We can definitely be up there challenging for race wins; the plan is to be competitive at the first race in Melbourne, to qualify high up on the grid.”
Unfortunately for Jacques, there were no race wins, or podiums – or even points for that matter. BAR finished dead last in the constructors’ championship, and Jacques finished only four races all season.
2000 – ALAN JENKINS, PROST
After a frustrating 1999 season, Technical Director Alan Jenkins seemed confident that the Prost team had made a step forward with their new car, claiming that their 2000 challenger to be lighter, smaller, and with improved aerodynamics.
“This year will see far more than just an evolution,” said Jenkins. “The team is maturing and we feel that the whole package is coming together now.”
It wasn’t. In fact, the season was a disaster. Zero points and last place in the constructors’ championship. It was the beginning of the end for the Prost team as well, as they lasted just one more season in the sport.
2003 – EDDIE JORDAN, JORDAN
The 2003 season saw renewed optimism at Jordan Grand Prix with the team securing an engine deal with Ford, and a fresh driver pairing with Ralph Firman joining the team to partner Giancarlo Fisichella.
“I have a lot of confidence that [Ralph Firman] and Fisichella will be an awesome partnership on the track,” an excited Eddie Jordan predicted, “The news that Ralph has joined us, allied to other important developments, means that Jordan Ford is a force to be reckoned with in 2003.”
They weren’t. Yes, you may remember that they won the Brazilian Grand Prix that year, but even their former technical chief, Gary Anderson, admits it was one of the worst cars ever to win a race. Only two other points finishes followed all year, with new boy Ralph scoring just a single point.
2004 – FRANK WILLIAMS, WILLIAMS
When Williams unveiled their radical ‘walrus nose’ back in 2004, the Formula 1 world gasped in horror at what was, at the time, one of the ugliest cars in recent memory (this was way before the phallic noses of 2014-15).
“I don’t think it’s very pretty, but I shall certainly fall in love with it if it’s a winner” was the opinion of Team Principal Frank Williams. Unfortunately, the FW26 was neither a looker or a winner and was canned in favour of a B-spec chassis in the second half of the season.
2007 – RUBENS BARRICHELLO, HONDA
On the first day of testing, Rubens Barrichello was feeling optimistic about his new car’s potential: “I am impressed by how the car and the team have evolved during my first year here,” he explained, “It is clear that the RA107 is a step in the right direction.”
Unfortunately for his many Brazilian fans, Barrichello’s optimism was misplaced. The team struggled with a fundamentally slow car and a catastrophically bad livery (yep, this was the infamous ‘Earth Car’). Poor Rubens failed to score a single point all year.
2007 – JOHN HOWETT, TOYOTA
“We have addressed reliability this year,” said John Howett, Toyota’s team president. “We’re improving the car, flat out, all the time. So I think we have the potential to win this year.”
This was Toyota’s sixth year in Formula One, and not the first time they had suggested a win could be on the cards. The win never came, however, and 2007 was a frustrating backwards step for the Japanese marque. 13 points was a dismal return for a team employing former race winners Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli.
2009 – RON DENNIS, MCLAREN
“I believe this year’s World Championship is open, given the new rule changes and that’s a great prospect for every Formula 1 fan,” said Ron Dennis, “Personally, I’m hoping for another successful season and the chance to once again fight for the title.”
After such a successful season the year before, 2009 was a real wake-up call for McLaren. A disastrous start to the season saw Lewis Hamilton’s championship hopes all but ended after just a few rounds. By the mid-point of the season, McLaren had just 14 points on the board compared to leaders Brawn on 112.
A few late season podiums salvaged some respectability, but the season fell far short of expectations. A tough start for Martin Whitmarsh in his new role as Team Principal.
2010 – MICHAEL SCHUMACHER, MERCEDES
Michael Schumacher’s return to F1 in 2010 was not the triumphant one that many expected. Having agreed to race for Mercedes – essentially the same Brawn team that had won the previous year’s championship – Michael was full of optimism at the car’s launch.
“We have a World Champion team in every sense of the word and I cannot wait to get into the car for the first time in Valencia. I am convinced that Mercedes will be in a very good position to fight for the championships this season.”
Unfortunately, Michael’s own performance, and that of his new team, fell way short of expectations. Mercedes could only manage fourth in the championship with only three podium finishes to its name, while Michael was comprehensively beaten by new team-mate Nico Rosberg.
2011 – SAM MICHAEL, WILLIAMS
After finishing eighth, seventh, and sixth in the previous three seasons, the Williams team fancied its chances of repeating that performance heading into 2011.
Williams Technical Director Sam Michael was particularly optimistic, commenting at the car’s launch: ”Until you start testing, you’re never sure how you’re going to stack up against the opposition, but we’re optimistic – we think this is a good car.”
It wasn’t a good car. In fact, Williams fell to a new low, finishing ninth in the constructors’ championship with just five points on the board. A dismal performance for the once-great team.
2013 – JENSON BUTTON, MCLAREN
“We all know the regulations haven’t changed much since 2012, but they’ve changed enough to make a difference,” explained Jenson Button at the team’s 2013 car launch, “We go into this season aiming to win the world championship.”
After ending 2012 with arguably the quickest car on the grid, there were suggestions that 2013 could be McLaren’s year. Instead, the team suffered a shocking fall from grace as its new car was difficult to setup and lacked pace compared to its rivals.
New recruit Sergio Perez was dropped after a disappointing season, as for the first time since 1980, the team went a whole season without a single podium finish. Ouch.
2014 – LUCA DI MONTEZEMOLO, FERRARI
“We’re the only team in the world who, when we finish second, it’s considered a defeat. We’re fed up finishing runners-up”, declared Ferrari Chairman Luca di Montezemolo at the launch of their 2014 car.
Thankfully for Luca, Ferrari avoided the embarrassment of finishing second once again. Fourth place, however, was probably not what he had in mind.
The Ferrari F14T was a huge disappointment, scoring just 31% of Mercedes points total that year and never really coming close to winning a race. It was also to be Luca di Montezemolo’s last year as chairman of the team – most certainly not the way he would have wanted to bow out. |
OTTAWA — Canada’s recreational firearms lobby is telling the Harper government to avoid signing a landmark United Nations arms trade treaty, arguing it could lead to an insidious return of the federal long-gun registry.
That’s the message Canada’s National Firearms Association and the Canadian Shooting Sports Association are delivering to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird as he weighs whether Canada should follow the United States in signing the Arms Trade Treaty, which aims to regulate the multibillion dollar global arms trade.
Proponents of the treaty, including Secretary of State John Kerry who signed it last week on behalf of the U.S., say it would have no impact on domestic gun owners.
Not so, says Canada’s sports shooting lobby, which has been consulting with the government.
“We think that it has the potential to raise prices on firearms, firearms accessories, parts and ammunition,” Sheldon Clare, president of the National Firearms Association, said in interview.
“We rely heavily on imports.”
Clare said he doesn’t think Canada will follow the U.S. and sign the treaty, suggesting that the Conservatives realize this could affect them at the ballot box in 2015.
“I think they also recognize there would be some significant ramifications in their voting base were they to approve this,” he said.
The Harper government came to power in 2006 in part on a promise to scrap the long-gun registry, which was reviled by recreational shooting enthusiasts and rural gun owners. The registry was voted out existence in February 2012.
During that time, recreational firearms users have had greater access to weapons and accessories than in the previous years.
An analysis of Industry Canada data by The Canadian Press shows that imports of revolvers, pistols, rifles, shotguns, accessories and ammunition into Canada totalled $2.84 million between 2006 and 2012.
That’s almost double the nearly $1.56 million in similar imports to Canada during the previous seven years when the Liberal government was in power, from 1999 to 2005.
Total imports reached an all-time high at just over $507,000 in 2011 but then fell to $445,000 in 2012.
Tony Bernardo, head of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, said he’s been working hard to oppose UN gun control efforts since the mid 1990s.
He said the treaty could impose a burdensome bureaucracy on Canada not unlike the now-defunct gun registry.
“I think there’s lots of potential links to the gun registry,” said Bernardo.
“The problems we’ve had with the gun registry — unaccountability, the incredible cost, complete ineffective uselessness — those things are not only a potential scenario, they’re a likelihood” if Canada were to sign the treaty.
The groups say that if the federal government signs the treaty it will have to create a new bureaucracy of regulations, one that could potentially be less strict than the current rules that govern the arms imports and exports.
Bernardo said he didn’t think Baird was likely to follow the U.S. lead on adopting the treaty any time soon.
“Minister Baird has been very thoughtful and intelligent on the Arms Trade Treaty right from Day One,” said Bernardo.
“At the beginning of the process he asked the United Nations to remove civilian firearms from scope of the treaty. He’s seen the writing on the wall. He’s not a dumb man.”
Baird has said there is a potential link between signing on to the treaty and Canada’s now-abolished long gun registry. Baird’s spokesman said the government will take its time, and do its “homework” to ensure that the interests of Canadians are protected before deciding whether to sign on to the treaty.
“If properly done, an Arms Trade Treaty can help limit the worldwide trade in illicit arms,” said spokesman Rick Roth in an email.
“At the same time, it is important that such a treaty not affect lawful and responsible firearms owners nor discourage the transfer of firearms for recreational uses such as sport shooting and hunting.”
Baird’s office wouldn’t release the names of the individuals it is consulting.
According to an internal memo obtained by The Canadian Press, Clare and Bernardo are among 14 stakeholders that Foreign Affairs has consulted on the issue.
Four of those consulted are from the groups Oxfam, Project Ploughshares and Amnesty International, and have publicly urged Canada to follow the U.S. and more than 90 other countries and sign the treaty. They argue the pact would lead to a decline in violence against innocent civilians, including crimes against humanity.
But at least seven more on the list are from arms and ammunition suppliers, manufacturers, or the defence industry.
NDP foreign affair critic Paul Dewar accused the government of giving special interest groups preferential treatment in their consultations.
“It’s clear that the Conservatives are continuing to favour their friends in the gun lobby over good policy that will save lives.” |
In the United States, a governor serves as the chief executive officer and commander-in-chief in each of the fifty states and in the five permanently inhabited territories, functioning as both head of state and head of government therein.[nb 1] As such, governors are responsible for implementing state laws and overseeing the operation of the state executive branch. As state leaders, governors advance and pursue new and revised policies and programs using a variety of tools, among them executive orders, executive budgets, and legislative proposals and vetoes. Governors carry out their management and leadership responsibilities and objectives with the support and assistance of department and agency heads, many of whom they are empowered to appoint. A majority of governors have the authority to appoint state court judges as well, in most cases from a list of names submitted by a nominations committee.[1]
All but five states (Arizona, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Wyoming) have a lieutenant governor. The lieutenant governor succeeds to the gubernatorial office (the powers and duties but not the office, in Massachusetts and West Virginia), if vacated by the removal from office, death, or resignation of the previous governor. Lieutenant governors also serve as unofficial acting state governors in case the incumbent governors are unable to fulfill their duties, and they often serve as presiding officers of the upper houses of state legislatures. But in such cases, they cannot participate in political debates, and they have no vote whenever these houses are not equally divided.
Role and powers [ edit ]
States are the primary subdivisions of the United States, and possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, such as regulating intrastate commerce, running elections, creating local governments, and ratifying constitutional amendments. Each state has its own constitution, grounded in republican principles, and government, consisting of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.[2] Also, due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the federal government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside.[3]
The governor heads the government's executive branch in each state or territory and, depending on the individual jurisdiction, may have considerable control over government budgeting, the power of appointment of many officials (including many judges), and a considerable role in legislation. The governor may also have additional roles, such as that of commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard (when not federalized) and of that state's respective defense force (which is not subject to federalization). In many states and territories the governor also has partial or absolute power to commute or pardon a criminal sentence. All U.S. governors serve four-year terms except those in New Hampshire and Vermont, who serve two-year terms.
In all states, the governor is directly elected, and in most cases has considerable practical powers, though this may be moderated by the state legislature and in some cases by other elected executive officials. In the five extant U.S. territories, all governors are now directly elected as well, though in the past many territorial governors were historically appointed by the President of the United States. Governors can veto state bills, and in all but seven states they have the power of the line-item veto on appropriations bills (a power the President does not have). In some cases legislatures can override a gubernatorial veto by a two-thirds vote, in others by three-fifths.
In Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee, the governor's veto can be overridden by a simple majority vote, making it virtually useless. In Arkansas, a gubernatorial veto may be overridden by an absolute majority. The Governor of North Carolina had no veto power until a 1996 referendum. In 47 of the 50 states, whenever there is a vacancy of one of the state's U.S. Senate seats, that state's governor has the power to appoint someone to fill the vacancy until a special election is held; the governors of Oregon, Alaska, and Wisconsin do not have this power.[4]
A state governor may give an annual State of the State address in order to satisfy a constitutional stipulation that a governor must report annually (or in older constitutions described as being "from time to time") on the state or condition of the state. Governors of states may also perform ceremonial roles, such as greeting dignitaries, conferring state decorations, issuing symbolic proclamations or attending the state fair. The governor may also have an official residence (see Governor's Mansion).
In a ranking of the power of the governorship in all 50 states, University of North Carolina political scientist Thad Beyle makes the distinction between "personal powers" of governors, which are factors that vary from person to person, season to season - and the "institutional powers" that are set in place by law. Examples of measurable personal factors are how large a governor's margin of victory was on election day, and where he or she stands in public opinion polls. Whether a governor has strong budget controls, appointment authority, and veto powers are examples of institutional powers.[5]
History [ edit ]
In colonial North America, governors were chosen in a variety of ways, depending on how the colony was organized. In the crown colonies of Great Britain, France, and Spain, the governor was chosen by the ruling monarch of the colonizing power, or his designees; in British colonies, the Board of Trade was often the primary decision maker. Colonies based on a corporate charter, such as the Connecticut Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, elected their own governors based on rules spelled out in the charter or other colonial legislation. In proprietary colonies, such as the Province of Carolina before it became a crown colony (and was divided into North and South), governors were chosen by the Lords Proprietor who controlled the colony. In the early years of the American Revolutionary War, eleven of the Thirteen Colonies evicted (with varying levels of violence) royal and proprietary governors. The other two colonies (Connecticut and Rhode Island) had corporate charters; Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull was governor before and during the war period, while in Rhode Island, Governor Joseph Wanton was removed from office in 1775 for failing to support the rebel war effort.
Before achieving statehood, many of the 50 states were territories or parts of territories. Administered by the federal government, they had governors who were appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate rather than elected by the resident population. Election of territorial governors began in Puerto Rico in 1948. The last appointed territorial governor, Hyrum Rex Lee in American Samoa, left office in 1978.
Demographics [ edit ]
Party [ edit ]
Party affiliation of current United States Governors:
Democratic New Progressive/Democratic Republican
There are currently 27 Republicans and 23 Democrats. Four Democrats (including the mayor of DC), one Republican, and one New Progressive also occupy territorial governorships. No independent and other third parties hold a Governorship.
Tenure [ edit ]
No limit No limit, two-year terms One; re-eligible after 4 years Two; re-eligible after 4 years Two; eligible 8 out of 12 years Two; eligible 8 out of 16 years Two, absolute Governors' terms by state
For each term, governors serve four years in office. The exceptions are Vermont and New Hampshire where tenures are two years long.
The longest-serving governor is Gary Herbert of Utah, who was elected to his second full term in 2016, having ascended to the governorship in 2009 after Jon Huntsman, Jr. resigned after being appointed Ambassador to China.
The longest-serving governor of all time is Terry Branstad of Iowa, who was elected to his sixth non-consecutive term in 2014. On December 14, 2015, he became the longest serving governor in US history, breaking the record held by George Clinton of New York, who served 21 years from 1777 to 1795, and from 1801 to 1804. Governor Branstad resigned on May 24, 2017, to become the United States Ambassador to China.
In the majority of states, term limits cap a governor's tenure.
Age [ edit ]
The oldest current governor is Kay Ivey of Alabama, born on (1944-10-15) October 15, 1944 (age 74). The youngest current state Governor is Ron DeSantis who was born on (1978-09-14) September 14, 1978 (age 40). Among territorial governors, Ricardo Rosselló of Puerto Rico is youngest, born on (1979-03-07) March 7, 1979 (age 39).
The youngest person to ever serve as a governor in the United States was Stevens T. Mason of the Michigan Territory, elected in 1835 having just turned 24. Mason would later become the first governor of the state of Michigan when it was admitted to the Union in January 1837, when he was 25. Mason was re-elected in November 1837, then age 26.[6]
The second youngest governor ever elected was J. Neely Johnson of California, when he was elected in 1855 at the age of 30, and the third youngest governor was Harold Stassen of Minnesota, when he was elected in 1938 at age 31.[7] When future President Bill Clinton was elected Governor of Arkansas in 1978 at age 32, he became the youngest governor since Stassen.
In 35 states, the minimum age requirement of the governor is 30, though in some it is 25 (7), 21 (1), or 18 (5). Oklahoma is the only state with an older age, 31. Some states require the governor to be a qualified elector/voter, implying a minimum age of 18. Vermont requires candidates to be residents of the state for at least four years as of Election Day, which would preclude small children from running, but has no other implicit or explicit age limit.[8] Kansas has no explicit or implicit age or residency requirements whatsoever.
Gender [ edit ]
State and territorial governors by gender
There are currently 41 male state governors. There are 9 female governors: Kate Brown of Oregon, Kay Ivey of Alabama, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Laura Kelly of Kansas, Janet Mills of Maine, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island, and Kristi Noem of South Dakota. Of those, Ivey, Noem, and Reynolds are Republicans, while Brown, Kelly, Mills, Whitmer, Grisham, and Raimondo are Democrats.
Four territorial governors are male; one territorial governor and the mayor of Washington, D.C. are female.
Thirty-eight women have been or are currently serving as the governor, including two in an acting capacity.
The first female governor was Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming (widow of the late Wyoming Governor William B. Ross) who was elected on November 4, 1924 and sworn in on January 5, 1925 succeeding Frank Lucas. Also elected on November 4, 1924 was Miriam A. Ferguson of Texas (wife of former Texas Governor James E. Ferguson), succeeding Pat Morris Neff on January 21, 1925. The first female governor elected without being the wife or widow of a past state governor was Ella T. Grasso of Connecticut, elected in 1974 and sworn in on January 8, 1975.
Connecticut, Arizona and New Mexico are the only three states to have elected female governors from both major parties. New Hampshire has also had female governors from two parties, but Republican Vesta M. Roy served only in the acting capacity for a short time. Arizona was the first state where a woman followed another woman as governor (they were from different parties). Arizona also has had the most female governors with a total of four, and is the first state to have three women in a row serve as governor. Washington was the first state to have both a female governor and female U.S. Senators serving at the same time (Christine Gregoire; Patty Murray; Maria Cantwell, respectively). New Hampshire was the first and currently only state to have a female governor and entirely female Congressional delegation serving at the same time.
Nine women have been serving as chief executive of their states since January 5, 2019, when Kristi Noem was inaugurated as the first female governor of South Dakota. This ties the record previously set on two different occasions: first, between December 4, 2006, when Sarah Palin was inaugurated as the first female governor of Alaska, and January 14, 2008, when Kathleen Blanco left office as governor of Louisiana; and second, between January 10, 2009, when Beverly Perdue was inaugurated as governor of North Carolina, and January 20, 2009, when Ruth Ann Minner retired as governor of Delaware.
Race and ethnicity [ edit ]
Ethnic minority governors
Ethnic minorities as defined by the United States Census currently constitute around 37% of the total population of the U.S. as of 2012.[9] There are currently 47 state governors who are non-Hispanic whites of European American background. There are 3 minority governors: Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, who is of Hispanic descent; Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, who is of Lebanese, Palestinian, Latin American, Irish and British descent; and David Ige of Hawaii, who is of Japanese descent. Sununu is a Republican while Grisham and Ige are Democrats.
Among the five U.S. territories, one Hispanic (Ricardo Rosselló of Puerto Rico), one Black (Albert Bryan of the U.S. Virgin Islands), and two Pacific Islander Americans (Lou Leon Guerrero of Guam and Lolo Letalu Matalasi Moliga of American Samoa) currently serve as governor. African-American Muriel Bowser is the current Mayor of the District of Columbia, an office equivalent to a governor.
In 1990, Douglas Wilder of Virginia became the first African-American governor of any state since the Reconstruction era.
Birthplace [ edit ]
15 of the current state governors were born outside the state they are serving: Mike Dunleavy of Alaska (born in Pennsylvania), Doug Ducey of Arizona (born in Ohio), Ned Lamont of Connecticut (born in Washington, D.C.), J. B. Pritzker of Illinois (born in California), Laura Kelly of Kansas (born in New York), Matt Bevin of Kentucky (born in Colorado), Larry Hogan of Maryland (born in Washington, D.C.), Charlie Baker of Massachusetts (born in New York), Tim Walz of Minnesota (born in Nebraska), Steve Sisolak of Nevada (born in Wisconsin), Phil Murphy of New Jersey (born in Massachusetts), Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma (born in Florida), Kate Brown of Oregon (born in Spain), and Mark Gordon of Wyoming (born in New York).
State constitutions have varying requirements for the length of citizenship and residency of the governor but unlike the President, state governors do not need to be natural-born citizens. There is some ambiguity in some state constitutions if a governor must be a citizen or just a resident.
Physical disability [ edit ]
Two legally blind governors have served: Bob C. Riley, who was acting governor of Arkansas for eleven days in January 1975, and David Paterson, who was governor of New York from 2008 until 2010.
The current governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has been paraplegic since an accident in 1984; he has used a wheelchair ever since. Governor of New York Franklin D. Roosevelt was paraplegic; he later became the first wheelchair-using president.
Salary [ edit ]
The average salary of a state governor in 2009 was $124,398. The highest salary currently being accepted is that of California Governor Gavin Newsom at $202,000. The lowest salaries are those of Maine Governor Janet Mills and of Puerto Rico Ricardo Rosselló at $70,000.[10]
There have been several instances where the governor of a state has either refused their salary in its entirety or instead only taken $1.00 per year. Alabama Governor Robert J. Bentley refused his yearly salary of $119,950.00 until the state reached full employment. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder took a $1.00 yearly salary. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has returned his salary to the state during each year he has held office. During his tenure as Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger also did not accept his salary of $170,000.00 per year. However, several governors instead have decided to take a reduction in their salary instead of refusing it entirely. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took a 5 percent reduction in his salary in 2015, and Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear reduced his salary by 10 percent during the same year.
Only six states (California, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Virginia) currently offer their governors a higher salary than the $174,000 paid to members of Congress. In many states, the governor is not the highest-paid state employee; most often, that distinction is held by the head football or men's basketball coach at a major state university.
Gubernatorial election timeline schedule [ edit ]
All states except Louisiana hold gubernatorial elections on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November. The earliest possible date for the election is therefore November 2 (if that date falls on a Tuesday), and the latest possible date is November 8 (if November 1 falls on a Tuesday). Louisiana holds its gubernatorial primary on the third or fourth Saturday of October and the general election (commonly referred to as the runoff within the state) on the third Saturday of November, but the general election is cancelled if one candidate wins the primary outright (see primary section below).
Two states hold their gubernatorial elections every even numbered year. Recent years are 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018.
New Hampshire and Vermont
The other 48 states hold gubernatorial elections every four years.
Thirty-four states and three territories hold their gubernatorial elections during a midterm election year. Recent years are 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018.
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and the Virgin Island.
Nine states and two territories hold their gubernatorial elections during a presidential election year. (although Puerto Rico and American Samoa do not hold an election for President). Recent years are 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016.
Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and American Samoa, Puerto Rico.
Three states hold their gubernatorial elections the year before a presidential election year. Recent years are 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015.
Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi
Two states hold their gubernatorial elections the year after a presidential election year. Recent years are 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, and 2017.
New Jersey and Virginia
Gubernatorial primaries [ edit ]
All states, except for California, Louisiana, and Washington, hold primaries in which each political party holds a primary election, and the winner of the primary election moves on to compete in a general election. In California, Louisiana, and Washington, all the candidates run in a blanket primary against each other. Regardless of political party, the top two candidates move on to the general election. In Louisiana, the general election is cancelled if one of the candidates receives more than 50% of the votes cast. In California and Washington, the top two vote getters proceed to the general election regardless of how many votes the top vote getter received in the primary, and California prohibits write-in candidates from competing in the general election.
Term limits [ edit ]
Relationship with lieutenant governor [ edit ]
The type of relationship between the governor and the lieutenant governor greatly varies by state. In some states the governor and lieutenant governor are completely independent of each other, while in others the governor gets to choose (prior to the election) who would be his or her lieutenant governor.
Five states do not have a lieutenant governor . In those states, a different constitutional officer assumes the office of the governor should there be a vacancy in the office. Those states are Arizona (Sec. of State), Maine (Pres. of Senate), New Hampshire (Pres. of Senate), Oregon (Sec. of State), and Wyoming (Sec. of State).
. In those states, a different constitutional officer assumes the office of the governor should there be a vacancy in the office. Those states are Arizona (Sec. of State), Maine (Pres. of Senate), New Hampshire (Pres. of Senate), Oregon (Sec. of State), and Wyoming (Sec. of State). Seventeen states have separate elections for the governor and the lieutenant governor , which may lead to the governor and the lieutenant governor being from different parties. Those states are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
, which may lead to the governor and the lieutenant governor being from different parties. Those states are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. Two states have the State Senate appoint the lieutenant governor , which may mean that the governor and the lieutenant governor are from different parties. Those states are Tennessee and West Virginia.
, which may mean that the governor and the lieutenant governor are from different parties. Those states are Tennessee and West Virginia. Eight states have the governor and lieutenant governor run together on the same ticket, but the governor does not get to choose his/her running mate . In those states, the winners of the governor primaries and the winners of the lieutenant governor primaries run together as joint tickets in the general election. The governor and lieutenant governor would therefore be from the same party, but may not necessarily be political allies. Those states are Alaska, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Connecticut, and Wisconsin.
. In those states, the winners of the governor primaries and the winners of the lieutenant governor primaries run together as joint tickets in the general election. The governor and lieutenant governor would therefore be from the same party, but may not necessarily be political allies. Those states are Alaska, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Connecticut, and Wisconsin. Eighteen states have the governor and lieutenant governor run together on the same ticket similar to the President and Vice President of the United States. In those states, the governor gets to pick (prior to the elections) who would be the lieutenant governor. Those states are Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.
See also [ edit ] |
99-year-old killed in car wreck
Ernest H. Fennell, who lived in Eustis and would have turned 100 in July, was exiting the Eustis Village shopping center onto David Walker Drive and attempting to make a left hand turn in his 1985 Cadillac. That's when he was struck on the driver's side by a 1994 Chevrolet Suburban, according to Eustis police and a traffic crash report.
A 99-year-old Eustis man was killed Monday afternoon after his car was struck by another vehicle as he made a turn onto a busy Eustis road, police said.
The police officer at the scene said Fennell appeared to have "life threatening injuries" and was flown to the Orlando Regional Medical Center. Fennell later died.
The driver of the other vehicle, Samantha Hill, 19, of Tangerine, was brought to nearby Florida Hospital Waterman with non-life-threatening injuries, the report said. Her estimated speed was the 35 miles per hour posted on that stretch of road, according to the report.
The accident occurred at about 4:18 p.m. Monday.
Police continue to conduct a traffic homicide investigation. However, Eustis Police Sgt. Harold Hughes said a preliminary investigation indicates that Fennell turned out in front of the other vehicle and "violated the other vehicle's right of way." |
What’s better than sharing WiFi with others and getting paid for it? If you answered nothing, I have some good news for you. A company named Ammbr is trying to make that a reality. Not only will you possibly be able to make money, but you will also be sharing the wonders of the internet with people who may not be able to get it otherwise.
Ammbr is a blockchain-built wireless mesh network that will have its bandwidth traded throughout the day. This is a whole new business model when it comes to internet/wifi and they have put a lot of time and energy into this innovative idea and product. The ICO for Ammbr is taking place on September 1st at 1:00 UTC. The starting price will be USD $0.10c per AMMBR.
Ammbr will work by users having an Ammbr device in their home. This device will be full of innovative technology and will be able to simply connect you to the internet at any time. If you own an access point, you will be able to earn tokens while letting others connect to your access point for internet. Of course, those accessing the broadband will be able to purchase/use tokens to get internet access. The network will have secure “wallets” and identities for each user of their service. The billing will also be in real-time, as opposed to most packages from most ISPs (which are sent monthly).
Another very cool thing about Ammbr is that it isn’t restricted to home use. Wherever you are, you can connect your phone, laptop or other device to an Ammbr connection nearby. This new model and idea truly has the potential to change the way people access the internet throughout their day to day lives. It also makes the internet accessible to anyone.
Overall, their primary objective is to make Wifi easily accessible, simple to connect to, while also reducing the costs that often go along with connecting to the internet. They continually improve and expand their network and they will ensure to engage their users and make sure that the product and the way in which it works is top notch.
So that all sounds amazing, but what is the timeline for the future looking like and what can you expect from them? In 2016, Ammbr focused mainly on R&D and are now about to begin their token offering, near the end of 2017. The team hopes to have their product completely developed by 2018, have it to consumers in 2019 and to TELCOs in 2020.
The Ammbr Foundation was formed in Singapore and has development partners in a number of different countries from around the world such as Switzerland, Belgium and the United States. If you want to learn more about the company, their product or anything at all, be sure to visit their website at www.ammbr.com. |
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – T.J. House, the here today, gone tomorrow pitcher, is apparently going to stick around for a while.
Manager Terry Francona said House will remain as the Tribe's fifth start. For how long that lasts is anybody's guess.
When asked if House was in the rotation Tuesday, Francona said, "Yes, I told you that the other day. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be here. We're not going to keep a guy if he isn't pitching. We'd go get a reliever."
It's good news for House, but that's not exactly how it unfolded.
After House started and lost Sunday in Seattle, Francona was asked if House had done enough to earn a spot in the rotation. The Indians started this eight-game trip with a four-man rotation because of off days.
Francona replied that he wasn't ready to make that decision yet and with "Thursday's off day, we can do anything we want."
Apparently that meant House has been added to the rotation, but for how long remains a question.
The Indians optioned Zach McAllister to Class AAA Columbus at the start of this trip because they would only need four starters. When Justin Masterson couldn't start Sunday because of a sore right knee, House was recalled from Columbus to fill in. McAllister could not be recalled unless a player was placed on the disabled list because he hadn't been in the minors for 10 days.
While the Indians were on this western swing through Phoenix, Seattle and Los Angeles, McAllister and Danny Salazar have been pitching well for the Clippers. McAllister and Salazar both opened the season in the Tribe's rotation.
McAllister, who started Tuesday night, had won his two previous starts, forging a 1.26 ERA. He struck out 12, walked two and allowed two earned runs on 12 hits in 14 1/3 innings.
Salazar is 1-1 in his last two starts with 2.03 ERA. He's struck out 16, walked three and allowed 12 hits and three earned runs in 13 1/3 innings. Salazar has thrown over 70 percent of his pitches for strikes in his last two starts.
Asked if Salazar might get another chance to help the Tribe at the big league level this year, Francona said, "Oh, yeah. We like Zach, too. Right now we have five guys pitching. Things happen, they always do, so to have guys who can step in and hopefully win is important."
House is 0-2 with a 4.45 ERA in seven appearances, including six starts, for the Indians.
Where's the offense? The Indians are the first team since the 1916 Boston Braves to lose consecutive one-hit shutouts.
They were beaten 3-0 Sunday by Seattle's Felix Hernandez and Fernando Rodney and 1-0 Monday night by the Dodgers' Dan Haren, Brian Wilson and Kenley Jansen.
On Saturday, Tribe right-hander Josh Tomlin threw a one-hitter in a 5-0 victory over the Mariners.
It is the first time since 1914, according to baseball-reference.com, that the Indians have been held to one-hit in consecutive games.
The Tribe is only the fifth team in the "live ball era' (1920) to be held to one or zero hits in consecutive games. It happened to the Reds in 2013.
Starting point: The three one-hitters started with Tomlin on Saturday. Yan Gomes caught him.
"It's a lot of fun," said Gomes. "Whenever we needed to go in, he did it. He just went in and out the whole game.
"It was funny to watch because the next day the guy did the same thing and Tomlin had an even better outing. Then it happens again on Monday night."
Tomlin retired 27 of the 28 batters he faced.
"The thing with Tomlin is you know exactly what you're getting," said Gomes. "He's a solid guy. You know he's going to battle no matter what. It was one of those days where everything he had, had a little extra."
Finally: The Indians are making progress in negotiations with first baseman-outfielder Mike Papi from the University of Virginia. Papi was their third overall pick in the June draft with a slotting value is $1,495,400. |
“The circle is now complete.”
StarWars.com is excited to reveal Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years: a massive new omnibus set for release in January 2015 — the opening volume in a series reprinting the first Star Wars comics ever published. Read the official release below and get a sneak peek at the cover art of this historic collection!
In 1977 a phenomenon dawned. Marvel Comics published the very first Star Wars comic-book series. Now, the House of Ideas is re-presenting those original adventures in its over-sized Omnibus format — Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years collecting Star Wars (1977) #1-44 and Annual #1.
It’s the return of the Jedi to Marvel in an opening volume that begins with Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and ends with Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. In between, the Rebels face a wealth of new perils — from space pirate Crimson Jack to the bounty hunter Beilert Valance, as well as a surprisingly svelte Jabba the Hut (one “t”). Luke goes back to Tatooine, Leia battles alone, Han and Chewie play the deadly Big Game, and Darth Vader hunts for answers! Revisit all your old favorites and discover some new ones!
There’s no doubt, the Force is strong with this collection!
“With Star Wars poised to return to its comic book home, what better time to revisit the first adventures of Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, and, of course, Darth Vader?” says Marvel editor in chief, Axel Alonso. “I am extremely proud to present these original Star Wars stories, told as only Marvel can, in the first in a massive and glorious Omnibus series.”
Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years comes out of lightspeed in January 2015 and is written by Roy Thomas, Howard Chaykin, Archie Goodwin, Jo Duffy, and Chris Claremont, with pencils by Howard Chaykin, Carmine Infantino, Walter Simonson, Herb Trimpe, Michael Golden, Al Williamson, and Mike Vosburg. Each copy of Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years will also be wrapped in a glorious covers by Howard Chaykin and Greg Hilderbrandt.
STAR WARS OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC CHAYKIN COVER
WRITTEN BY ROY THOMAS, HOWARD CHAYKIN, ARCHIE GOODWIN, JO DUFFY & CHRIS CLAREMONT
PENCILED BY HOWARD CHAYKIN, CARMINE INFANTINO, WALTER SIMONSON, HERB TRIMPE,
MICHAEL GOLDEN, AL WILLIAMSON & MIKE VOSBURG
COVERS BY HOWARD CHAYKIN & GREG HILDEBRANDT
880 PGS./Rated T …$125.00
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9106-3
STAR WARS OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC HILDEBRANDT COVER (DM ONLY)
880 PGS./Rated T …$125
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9318-0
StarWars.com. All Star Wars, all the time. |
In 1857, 14 baseball clubs met at Smith’s Hotel on Broome Street in Manhattan to draft a new set of rules and regulations. In an effort to make the game more manly and scientific, members of the Knickerbocker Club, New York’s most influential team, proposed that “the ball must weigh not less than 6 nor more than 6¼ ounces avoirdupois” and that “no person shall be permitted to approach or to speak with the referee, umpires or players, or in any manner to interrupt or interfere during the progress of the game.” Most significant was the rule that changed the terms of victory. The winner was no longer the first team to score 21 runs, but the one that accrued the most runs after the end of nine innings. The reasoning behind the change was simple and logical: Fielding, which had been a stone-handed disaster during baseball’s earliest days, had improved rapidly, making it hard for any one team to reach 21 before the sun went down. The modern nine-inning game was one of the first official attempts to make baseball games go faster.
It may be time for another get-together at Smith’s Hotel. Baseball will always have its staunch traditionalists, but their usual grouchy reasons for resisting change — the sanctity of the record books; the game’s intergenerational history; the fact that Cubs and Red Sox fans wanted their teams to win a World Series played by roughly the same rules as when they last won championships, in the early 1900s — have all evaporated over the past two decades. In 2017, it’s hard to know what hallowed numbers like 61, 300, 714 or 755 (or idioms like the “Curse of the Bambino”) mean, and while some records might still matter — Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, possibly — the chatter generated by a great hitter approaching his 500th home run or 3,000th hit has become muted.
Baseball hasn’t quite figured out what will replace those conversations, but while their absence certainly strains the bonds connecting fans across generations, the game has never been freer from the sorts of tired pieties that hold progress at bay. It can’t be a coincidence that in the two years since Rob Manfred succeeded Bud Selig to become baseball’s 10th commissioner, bringing with him various new rules for all levels of the game, knee-jerk resistance to change seems to have softened a little. That isn’t to say that baseball needs to change; by many measures, whether TV deals, quality of postseason play or revenue, the sport is exceedingly healthy. But if baseball wants to evolve in the same way that basketball did by adding the shot clock and the 3-point line, there’s no time quite like the present. |
It definitely takes up a lot of our time and has been a huge adjustment. You have to love what you do when you make this kind of sacrifice. - Diane Kepley
This was supposed to be a story about an escape from the cold. "," was what I had planned to write as the long weekend at Mulberry Gap approached. The dreaded Polar Vortex had other plans and quickly put an end to my dreams of an extended indian summer. Surely, I reckoned, the mountain town of Ellijay, Georgia, is far enough south for me to avoid the icy grip of this nasty weather pattern. Well, it surely wasn't. But this trip had been a long time coming and I wasn't going to let unseasonably chilly temps dampen my spirit. Or the 13 hour drive.After a trek that began at 9:00 am and ended sometime after 10:00 pm, I pulled up the steep drive towards the office and dining lodge of the mountain bike getaway and found a note with the keys to my cabin and a map of the property's layout. It was late, dark and cold and I was eager to unload my gear and rest my eyes. I opened the door of the cabin to a warm, clean and well appointed space and felt the stress of the long journey begin to melt away. As I settled in, I rejoiced as I spotted the WiFi router in the cabin. 20 minutes later I was in bed, having just watched Remy burn Whistler for what may have been the 30th time before dozing off while visions of leg thrashing climbs and eye watering descents danced in my head.It must have taken all of three minutes for any lingering tension from the previous day's travel to melt completely away upon waking in the morning, and this was well before I took my first sip of coffee. Stepping outside I discovered that yes, it was indeed still chilly. But there was a brilliant sun burning through the canopy of tall, old growth trees and a bluebird sky there to greet the day as well. On either side of the cabin rose steep ridges, confirming our place in the highlands of northwest Georgia. Directly in front of the cabin a modest stream trickled down the mountainside, opening up into a small fishpond before resuming its journey downward to join forces with Holly Creek and eventually the Conasauga River near the Tennessee border. This place is stunning. A look down the drive towards the other cabins showed several other riders getting themselves and their things together throughout their various states of wakefulness. Breakfast would follow shortly and would not only present the opportunity to fuel up, but to also meet the people behind Mulberry Gap and to learn more about the history of this corner of the southeast.Thick, Belgian waffles, sausages, cheddar grits, scrambled eggs, bottomless cups of coffee and more are all a part of the welcoming committee to the riders who are calling this place "" for the weekend. Throughout the weekend, breakfasts included french toast, pancakes, fried potatoes, fresh fruit, biscuits, and, of course, bottomless cups of coffee. For most of the year, except when conditions prohibit, the home cooked food served at Mulberry Gap is farm-to-table and as organic as possible. Breakfast is where I would finally have the opportunity to meet the crew as well.As it turns out, Mulberry Gap is truly a family affair. "All of this was kind of an accident, to be brutally honest with you," said Kate Gates, one of the four full time employees here. "I think Ginni and Diane’s original plan involved a women’s wellness center. That was their first thought. I think that they had a lot of ideas in general, so they just kind of opened it up to anyone who wanted to spend time on the trail system. Over time, mountain bikers just became our clientele."The aforementioned Ginni and Diane are the mothers of Kate and her husband, Andrew Gates. Together, the couple along with their respective moms have been running Mulberry Gap for close to a decade. The Florida natives purchased what was at the time a family retreat belonging to the Mitchell family of Dalton, GA, and immediately set about the transformative processes. Ginni Taylor, the primary culprit for the amazing food found here, remembers originally searching for a small plot of land for her son and Kate, who were just teenagers at the time, to enjoy the outdoors and rip around on their ATV's. "We were actually looking for a tiny cabin so we could bring the kids up to ride their 4-wheelers. We found this place and fell in love with it."However, almost immediately after purchasing the property, the market crashed and the two families were left facing an uncertain future with their suddenly fragile investment. Consequently, what was originally planned as a retreat for their own families became the foundation for a unique business model. "We realized that if we were going to buy something this expensive and big, well then we needed to figure out a way to make some money here. We started out just opening it up for people who wanted to spend some time outdoors. We put in a bathhouse and some amenities and gradually it just seemed like the mountain bikers were the ones who spent the most amount of time here. So in year two we made it a 'mountain bike getaway' and we’ve never looked back. Some folks told us not to do it but we just loved the mountain bikers and decided to focus in on their needs."Over time those needs have turned into the construction and renovation of numerous bathhouses, rustic cabins and the conversion of what was once a horse and mule barn into the beautiful dining lodge the meals are served in. There are a number of other touches as well, from the bike wash and tool stand next to the cabins, to the unfinished hardwood floors in most of the buildings of the property so that no one has to worry when walking around in their mountain bike shoes. Of course, beer and wine is sold in the main office and shuttle services are available seven days a week. In fact, the US Forest Service has finally approved Mulberry Gap's application for guided mountain bike tours of the region, something that Andrew in particular is excited to develop. "I’m basically the only guy here, so anything that involves manual labor, construction, repair and stuff like that I’m responsible for. Whether it’s building a cabin or finishing out this place (dining hall), I pretty much do it all. We did just get approval from the Forest Service to start leading guided rides, so we’re going to start offering multi-day tours in the spring. That is going to be great because it gets me out of doing some of this stuff and allows for me spend more time on my bike."All four of them credit mountain biking for being the driving force behind this place. "Instead of us going after the market, the market just kind of chose us," Kate notes. "We just kind of built up a family around that. A lot of the people who were here from day one have continued to come back. We’ve seen them get married, have kids and are now bringingkids here. Over the past eight years it’s slowly evolved to where it is now. As we see the needs of our guests, we make the necessary changes to our property and the way we do business." Kate acknowledged one rider in particular who has been an integral part of the success they've seen here. "The Pinhoti trails were already here when we got started. Mike Palmeri, the owner of Cartacay Bike Shop, was a big advocate for this place from the start. He saw a lot of potential here. He did a lot of the original Pinhoti trail building 20 years ago."Mike Palmeri is a big man. When you shake his hand, bring your A-game. The BMX hall-of-famer is one of the most passionate, vocal and genuine guys you could ever hope to meet and as we spent time discussing the trails we were riding and the scene in and around Mulberry Gap, it was clear to me that his primary goal is to create as much access as is humanly possible for mountain bikers. "We’re always fighting to get more trails," Mike says. "Right now, the hikers have access to over 800 miles of trail in the 500,000 acre forest service area. Mountain bikers have about 120. The largest user group is the mountain bikers. So we want some damn trails. We show them our volunteer hours versus all of the other user groups and we’re doing 80% of the work around here." Mike's shop was recently named one of the top 100 bike shops in the country by the National Bicycle Dealers Association and in no small part due to tireless work of Mike and his fellow trail advocates."Without the trails, there’s nobody riding and we’re not in business," Mike says. When the dude is talking about his trails, you can't help but be simultaneously captivated and terrified of his passion. "So here’s where I get kind of serious with all of this. The advocates and volunteers who are building these trails work with the land managers - there are 4 different land managers up here - and we work with them all right up to the governor of Georgia. The governor’s office calls our bike shop. They call looking for my wife (newly appointed employee of IMBA) because we just got something written about us in the Mountain Bike Action magazine. So we sent them a copy of the magazine, because Ellijay is considered the mountain bike capital of Georgia. It took me two years to establish that. I had to have letters from different mountain bike clubs from a few different states. There’s 159 counties in the State of Georgia and they had to vote to approve that designation. We went down there and met with the speaker of the house, who happens to be from Ellijay. He lobbied to help us get that designation."But, Ellijay is also designated as the Apple Capital of Georgia. Well, we still don’t have a sign on the highway calling us the 'Mountain Bike Capital of Georgia' because the apple farmers don’t want to share a damn sign with us. This has been going on for 6 years. The local commissioners are good old boys and they wouldn’t help us out. Even though we’re bringing a lot of money into the community everyday. The vote came up this past year for the commissioners. Most of these guys are homegrown boys but this year all three of them got knocked out. Their replacements were out of state transplants who came into the bike shop needing votes. I told them, 'You want our vote? Let’s hear your plan.' The previous commissioners never had a plan, they just wanted to take care of themselves and their pals. These guys had a plan of action and they understand that tourism is an industry and it is going to have to be our biggest industry because there’s just nothing else going on here.'We have trout fishing, hunting, kayaking, hiking and of course, mountain biking. The three new guys got that. So I told them that we’d help them as much as possible and rally the troops, but when they get into office and they have their first big meeting in 2015, I’m going to be there saying to get our damn signs up. Well, they got in and right afterwards they all showed up at the bike shop saying that they were here to help. They want to help with trail maintenance to see what it takes to keep all of this up and to keep bringing people here. So they’ll be at the big trail day we do every March to really have an idea as to what we’re doing." Amen, brother.The next few days saw a mix of conditions; from sunny and cold with dry trails to warmer and rainy, with greasy, leaf covered singletrack. All of it was awesome and all of it took work. The hills in and around Mulberry Gap aren't as big as some of the others you'll find in the southern Appalachians, but they're big enough. From the front step of your cabin, you have immediate access to upwards of 80 miles of singletrack, 25 miles of which is the famed Pinhoti Trail. A point-to-point trail often broken down and ridden in sections, the Pinhoti climbs over 4700 feet and descends 7300 feet. While you won't find much in the way of drops, jumps and classically gnarly riding, the remoteness of the region along with the speed of the trails and repercussions of a mistake (see: falling several hundred feet down into ravine around most corners) makes for more than enough fun. Gnarly options do exist on the neighboring Fort Mountain and WIndy Gap trails, with plans to put quite a bit more in over the next 5 years.Despite the damp and cool conditions, I found myself grinning ear-to-ear when I wasn't grunting my way up an hour long climb. Hell, even then I was pretty stoked. During breaks, we'd discuss a number of topics; from the resurgence of the mountain lion in these parts, to the growing southeast enduro race scene, to even how awesome Sprinter vans are. There was such a relaxed and easy feel with this crew and the effect beguiled the fact that the rides we were partaking in were epic efforts. Several hours up and several hours down the mountains of the Chattahoochee National Forest; and the 10 acre parcel of Mulberry Gap sits squarely in the middle of it all.The beauty of a place like this and the people who have made it was it is today is that because mountain biking broughtin; there are no false pretenses when it comes to how they treat their clientele. There is an authenticity and genuine nature that gives this place its charm. There's no bro/bruh/brah talk to be found; just polite people with a great sense of humor and an earnest desire to make you feel at home when you're here. Diane Kepley puts it this way: "We used to travel quite a bit, but now we’re really committed to this. It definitely takes up a lot of our time and has been a huge adjustment. You have to love what you do when you make this kind of sacrifice. One of the cool things is that so many of the folks who come here to visit are already adventurous by nature and they share their stories with us. So we get to live vicariously through them sometimes. It’s hard to explain to people what they’re going to get here, so they just have to come experience it for themselves."That experience, for me, was eye opening. It was fantastic to witness people who were new to the sport meander down the trails, happy to pull off to the side as you ride by and even cheer when you pop off a small lip right in front of them. Or when you spend some time with three dads who were chomping at the bit to have a few days with their pals to ride some sweet trails and engage in some harmless shenanigans for a few nights. Maybe one of those dads decides to bring a bottle of Zacapa rum and things get a little fuzzy for everyone afterwards. Or maybe you're a young bike shop couple from Richmond, VA here to soak in and share as much stoke as possible for a weekend before heading home to do more of the same. Perhaps you're a sales consultant for a library and you've brought your son and his pal for a weekend of shuttle runs because sure, yourloves this stuff, but so do. When you are visiting a place that sees itself as a home away from home, the people you're there with become extended family, if only for a few days.For Kate and the others who do actually call Mulberry Gap home, the family affair goes beyond the four of them. "The sense of community here is awesome," she says. "With the holidays coming up, we have a lot of people who have family that are too far away. So instead of traveling, they just come here. We don’t get to spend Thanksgiving with our full families either, but we do get to spend it with a different kind of family here. It’s great to be your own boss and it can kind of feel like you're hanging out with your best friends every weekend. You might not know everyone, but you build connections here. It’s a community that just can’t be replaced."When I arrived at Mulberry Gap, I was tired and grumpy. When I left Mulberry Gap, I was refreshed, full and wanted to stay and keep playing. This family has done something pretty spectacular; they took a risk on a beautiful and rugged property in the mountains of northwest Georgia and when the mountain bike community extended its metaphorical hand for a shake, Ginni, Diane, Andrew and Kate went in for a big bear hug instead. Mountain bikers have loved this place from the beginning and as a result, Mulberry Gap has been working tirelessly to make it better for us on a daily basis. These guys certainly aren't getting rich catering to our crowd either; it's rather telling that the thing that keeps this operation moving forward, above all other factors, is the stoke and passion of the riders who pay them a visit. Do yourself a favor and plan a trip to Mulberry Gap. It's about more than just a slice of southern hospitality, some rad trails and being around like-minded folks who are seeking a departure from the norm. It's also about returning the favor. When you do make it down this northwest corner of the Peach State, bring your bike, your stoke, an empty stomach and, if you're feeling generous, a bottle of Zacapa. Bring it all. Just leave the bro/bruh/brah talk behind. You're most certainly not going to be needing it. |
As you leave your body — you realize something is happening. You hear a sound. . . getting louder and louder. . . screaming . . .weeping. . . wailing. Terror and fear beyond anything you could imagine overtakes you. "This can't be happening!" you scream. Your nostrils are filling with the awful stench of burning souls. Your face ignites from the heat. Flames are now blazing from your eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth — every opening in your body, flames are roaring out. Your body is sizzling and crackling from the flames.
Your body is now madly thrashing and convulsing from the horrible pain. "Why don't I die?", you scream. You begin weeping and gnashing your teeth with the millions. "When will this pain stop?" But you know it will never stop. . .
The darkness is so terrifying, it begins engulfing you. You feel something moving in the darkness. . . something horrible is happening. "No! No! This can't be happening" you scream!
You begin cursing the day you were born. You scream — "Oh God, why didn't you warn me?"— but you remember the tithing plate which you did not put money into, the TeleEvangelists calls for donations you did not listen to. You had a chance to leave your Synagogue or Mosque or temple, and join the one true religion, but you did not!
Now Jesus gets his revenge!
"Your mind recalls the games you played,
the movies you watched,
toying with the occult,
and thinking it was fun.
Now you know it was no game!!
The demons of sorcery are sceaming for their next prey.
Harry Potter does not seem so exciting and innocent ANYMORE."
Hell is real!
Your name written in the Book of Death.
Your worst nightmare comes true
"HELP ME" you cry |
The events of the closing laps of the Malaysian Grand Prix provoked huge debate and thousands of comments here.
Red Bull and Mercedes’ instructions to their drivers not to race each other during the final quarter of the race, and Sebastian Vettel’s refusal to comply, sparked fresh debate about when team orders should be issued.
Even one of the drivers who benefitted from the instructions given on Sunday had misgiving about them. Lewis Hamilton said after the race his team mate should have been on the podium instead of him.
He wasn’t the only person at Mercedes unhappy with the instruction: the team’s non-executive chairman Niki Lauda said Rosberg should have been allowed to race Hamilton.
Bernie Ecclestone also voiced his displeasure over the use of team orders by Red Bull and Mercedes. But they aren’t the only teams to have used them so far this year.
Were they right to do so on Sunday?
For
Red Bull did not want their drivers racing each other after their last pit stops as they were concerned about tyre wear.
Mercedes had similar concerns but a more pressing problem was the shortage of fuel on Hamilton’s car. He and Rosberg swapped places more than once after their last pit stops but as Hamilton was repeatedly told to save fuel, Rosberg was ordered to stay behind him.
Both teams felt allowing their drivers to race for position put their chances to score points at risk. In Red Bull’s case they were heading for a one-two, and Mercedes were on course for their largest points haul since returning to Formula One.
Against
Had it not been for Vettel’s act of defiance the last quarter of the Malaysian Grand Prix would have consisted of four drivers at the front of the field following each other around being forbidden to race each other. Is this the sporting spectacle F1 is spending billions of pounds to produce?
Both teams imposed an arbitrary cut-off point of the last pit stop as the point at which their drivers were not allowed to race each other. If teams are to impose ‘hold position’ orders at this point then one-stop races will be particularly dull.
But the objections of Rosberg – who told his team to “remember this one” after the race – and the disobedience of Vettel shows the orders given were inappropriate and ineffective.
I say
It will come as no surprise to long-time F1 Fanatic readers that, as a fan of motor racing, I’m not keen on drivers being told not to race each other. But what struck me most about the messages broadcast on Sunday was how little faith the teams have in their drivers.
Ross Brawn tried to placate Rosberg by telling him Hamilton could go faster – yet his repeated urging of Hamilton to go slower showed that was not the case. Christian Horner’s message to Vettel telling him not to be “silly” was as patronising as it was impotent.
The teams tried to remove the drivers’ ability to judge for themselves how to drive their cars, with varying degrees of success. But Lewis Hamilton does not need a dozen radio messages per race telling him to save fuel – he needs a fuel gauge.
Both Red Bull drivers finishing despite pushing beyond the boundaries imposed by their teams, racing each other hard for the lead and putting on another burst of pace in the middle of the stint when Webber tried to catch Vettel.
As in Korea last year, it proved the men in the cockpits are best placed to judge the state of their tyres, not the prat perch dwellers who think they know better. So let them race.
You say
Did Red Bull and Mercedes get it right in Malaysia? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.
Were Red Bull right to order Vettel not to pass Webber? Yes (49%)
No (46%)
No opinion (5%) Total Voters: 747
Loading ... Loading ...
Were Mercedes right to order Rosberg not to pass Hamilton? Yes (24%)
No (72%)
No opinion (4%) Total Voters: 737
Loading ... Loading ...
An F1 Fanatic account is required in order to vote. If you do not have one, register an account here or read more about registering here.
Related polls
Debates and polls
Image ?�?� Pirelli/LAT |
Image caption The sculpture has been described as a "domestic cockerel with a twist" Image caption Hundreds gathered in Trafalgar Square to see the artwork unveiled Image caption It was designed by German artist Katharina Fritsch Image caption Mayor Boris Johnson entertains the artist with his pithy bon mots previous slide next slide
The new artwork for the Fourth Plinth in London's Trafalgar Square, a bright blue cockerel symbolising regeneration and strength, has been unveiled.
Titled Hahn/Cock, the 4.72m high piece is by German artist Katharina Fritsch and will be on display for 18 months.
Saturated in intense ultramarine blue, the sculpture was unveiled by Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, on Thursday.
It replaces a 4.1m high bronze of a boy on a rocking horse that had been on the plinth since February 2012.
Analysis A big blue cock positively invites double entendres. And the opportunity was not lost on the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, as he unveiled the latest sculpture on the Fourth Plinth. Despite saying he wouldn't lapse into the art criticism of Viz character Finbarr Saunders, that didn't stop him wondering how long the "wonderful creature" was going to stay up. (The answer, by the way, is 18 months.) You certainly cannot miss it. Painted a deep, matt electric blue, it adds a spot of vibrant colour to Trafalgar Square. Surrounded by bronze statues of Kings and Generals, there is a kind of joyful aspect to it which will put a smile on many people's faces.
The public sculpture, said Mr Johnson, "doesn't just show that we're the sporting capital, but we are also the artistic and cultural capital of the world".
He also said he would try and avoid any double entendres when talking about the cockerel.
"It is a ginormous blue Hahn Cock, as it's called," he told BBC London.
"I think if you tried to Google it in the future, the Prime Minister would stop you from finding it" - a reference to David Cameron's proposals to have internet pornography blocked by internet providers.
One London-based conservation group had tried to stop the cockerel - a traditional emblem of France - from being displayed.
Trafalgar Square takes its name from the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, one of Britain's most significant naval victories in the Napoleonic Wars.
The Thorney Island Society wrote to Westminster Council in protest, branding the sculpture "totally inappropriate".
But Justine Simons, director of the Fourth Plinth programme, said she was confident it would be a popular addition.
"We really love the striking vivid blue colour and also the character is really interesting," she told BBC London.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption London Mayor Boris Johnson unveiled the latest artwork to adorn Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth.
"It's an everyday kind of object - this regular domestic cockerel with a twist. The artist has supersized it.
"It will be as big as a London bus and she's made it this striking blue colour, so it will be familiar but also quite surreal."
Many leading artists have bid to have their work displayed on the Fourth Plinth over the last seven years.
The first sculpture to occupy it was Mark Wallinger's Ecce Homo, a marble sculpture of a human-scale Jesus.
Others have included a statue of a naked, pregnant woman with no arms and Antony Gormley's One & Other, where members of the public occupied the plinth for an hour at a time. |
The Russian Hand in Syria
On July 31, at a meeting in Moscow, Bandar bin Sultan, director-general of the Saudi Intelligence Agency, offered Russian President Vladimir Putin a buyout for Russia’s backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: a Saudi promise to purchase $15 billion worth of Russian arms and an assist for Russia to play a larger role in the Middle East.
As Fyodor Lukyanov anticipated in his Al-Monitor article, before the details of Bandar’s offer became known, Putin listened politely and declined the Saudi offer. Lukyanov writes:
“As recently as six months ago, many analysts considered Russia’s approach stubborn and desperate. The impression is different today. The long-discarded Assad is still in power, the Shiite alliance of Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah are not retreating, while growing signs of disarray are appearing among ranks of regional opposition leaders. Tehran is confident, and the smooth transfer of power confirmed the stability of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime. … The hopes that Russia will at some point change its course are groundless. If Russia did not do so when everybody expected Assad to collapse, why would it now?”
Syria was on the agenda of the “2+2” summit on Aug. 9, when US Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel hosted their counterparts, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu, in Washington. That day, US President Barack Obama mentioned Syria as “one more in a number of emerging differences” with Moscow — the most prominent being the asylum granted by Russia to Edward Snowden — necessitating a “pause” and reassessment in US-Russia relations. On Aug. 7, the White House announced, “There is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a US-Russia summit in early September.”
Lavrov, in his remarks before the 2+2 meeting, said, “The most important task for the Geneva II [conference] would be to honor the commitment of all G-8 leaders made in Lough Erne, when they called upon both government and opposition to join efforts to fight terrorists and force them away from Syria.”
Following the meeting, US officials said that the United States and Russia “remain committed to holding a Geneva II conference as early as is practically possible, both stressing the belief that a political settlement is the only way to prevent sort of institutional collapse and further instability in Syria.”
The United States has still not agreed to Russia’s insistence that Iran participate in a Geneva II conference, and administration officials said that getting the Syrian government to come to Geneva, as Damascus has already agreed to do, is not enough. “The test is not whether the Syrian government will come to Geneva; it’s whether the Syrian government will come to Geneva prepared to negotiate the transition of full — the full executive powers to a transitioning governing body,” a US official said.
This statement is itself worth a "pause" for what it might say about the US approach to a "political settlement" in Syria. Is the United States deferring the decision on convening the Geneva conference to the Syrian opposition and its regional patrons, who like Iran seem otherwise willing to stomach a long and destructive regional and sectarian war? Is the United States expecting a shift in the balance of forces between Assad and the opposition? And can the United States choreograph a commitment by the Syrian government to negotiate itself out of power, as a precondition for Geneva, especially without a diplomatic channel to Iran?
If the answers to these questions are yes — either by design or default — then it is worth reflecting on the consequences: The war goes on, Syria becomes more divided, more killing, more refugees, more terrorism (including in Iraq and Lebanon as well as Syria); greater political instability in Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon; and perhaps the slippery slope for an even deeper US military engagement in Syria, since there is no victory for either side in sight.
Maybe the likely narrow window of opportunity with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will include an initiative on Syria as well as in the nuclear talks. A US official said after the 2+2 meeting that discussions about participants in Geneva II are “ongoing.” As we wrote in this column in December 2012, and many times since, Iran’s influence in Syria surpasses that of Russia, and Iran is the key to either a political solution or a seemingly endless bloodbath.
To get Geneva II on track, it may also be time for Washington to press its own leverage with its allies — including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey — to help shut down the flow of terrorists to Syria and to encourage the Syrian opposition to prepare for imminent negotiations in order to bring this war to an urgent close.
Egypt’s Sit-ins
Bassem Sabry writes from Cairo this week that the Egyptian government should contain, not break up, the sit-ins by supporters of deposed President Mohammed Morsi: “The most effective course of action is to contain the sit-ins — make sure no more bloodshed occurs while curbing any excesses and dealing decisively with transgressions. Additionally, the best way to create pressure for compromise on the pro-Morsi camp is to move briskly with the road map and the transition to civilian democracy. It would be important for them to realize that there are many at the sit-ins who are truly worried about exclusion, their own immediate safety or the return of the Mubarak police state under which many of them suffered. The signals that these individuals have been reading thus far have not been sufficiently encouraging or calming.”
Wael Nawara, also writing from Cairo, places the burden on the Muslim Brotherhood to reconsider its approach on Egyptian sovereignty, nationhood and identity, if there is to be a solution to the present crisis. He writes, “If the Brotherhood’s survival rests on its ability to evolve its doctrine so that it better adapts to the prevailing societal circumstances, will the new generation of Brotherhood leaders — or those of the Freedom and Justice Party — be able to achieve a quantum leap in thought, organizational style and level of transparency, that would transform the Brotherhood into a modern political organization whose existence is harmonious with that of Egypt — or any other nation-state for that matter?”
The Return of Iran’s Reformists and Islamic Chic
Al-Monitor’s Barbara Slavin was one of a very few Western reporters to cover the inauguration of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Aug. 4. She reports on the return of reformists to the public sphere, and on how “Iranian hijab has blossomed into a colorful array of hues and figure-hugging styles that satisfy the letter if not the spirit of Islamic law.” |
Blink and you might have missed it. The Bush brand is back in vogue on the campaign trail.
Former U.S. president George W. Bush watches before the start of the MLB American League baseball game between the Texas Rangers and the Chicago White Sox in Arlington, Texas April 30, 2013. REUTERS/Mike Stone
Five years and two months after George W. Bush left the White House scorned by most of the country and his own party, Bush administration alumni and family of the 43rd president are in high demand this midterm election year. Some leading Republican groups and candidates have eagerly solicited their help while others have embraced Bush's legacy with renewed enthusiasm. Even a vulnerable Democrat recently sought to align himself closer to Bush than to President Obama.
The renaissance is a result of an Obama malaise, Republicans say, as well as a fluid Republican Party without a clear leader in which there is a premium on experience.
"The Bush brand is making a comeback because the hope and change promises that President Obama made never came true," said Ron Bonjean, a veteran Republican strategist who worked in Commerce Department under Bush. "The feelings of many Americans that Obama has seriously bungled the economy, health care and foreign policy has created a yearning for something better."
The latest member of Bush's presidential orbit to make an entree into midterm politics is his former secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. Rice appears in a new ad for the conservative super PAC American Crossroads defending Alaska Senate candidate Dan Sullivan (R). Sullivan is a former Bush State Department official who has emerged as the leading Republican in the race to take on Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska).
Rice, who was Bush's national security adviser during his controversial decision to invade Iraq, has gradually begun to play a bigger role in politics after returning to academia in 2009. She is set to boost House Republicans by headlining a Wednesday National Republican Congressional Committee fundraiser.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R), brother of the 43rd president and potential 2016 contender, has also recently raised his 2014 profile. He appeared in a Chamber of Commerce commercial for now-Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.) earlier this year. The ad came at a crucial time when Jolly lacked the funds to mount a robust positive ad campaign of his own.
Jeb Bush is also a huge fundraising draw because of his deep donor network. He plans to raise money for New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) this week. Meanwhile, his son George P. Bush is the Republican nominee for land commissioner in Texas.
Elsewhere, congressional candidates have tied themselves to the Bush White House. Ed Gillespie, White House counsel under the 43rd president, is running for Senate in Virginia. His introductory video included photographs of the two together. Facing a tough race in a conservative West Virginia district, Rep. Nick Rahall (D) recently told The Hill newspaper, "I probably have supported George Bush more than I have Barack Obama."
Much of the public still blames the former president for the nation's economic troubles, polling shows. So he's still somewhat ripe for Democratic attacks in a presidential election. And Jeb Bush could face serious problems appealing to the broad electorate.
But in a more limited midterm electorate in which Obama is looking more and more like a liability at the moment and the GOP is increasingly bullish about strong turnout on their side, some Republicans say, the Bush legacy can be an asset.
"The Bush fatigue that is still prevalent in much of the Republican Party is really at the presidential campaign level; it doesn’t extend to mid-term endorsements. Candidates would be wise to seek out a Condi Rice especially with the foreign policy problems on our hands under Obama," said conservative strategist Keith Appell.
George W. Bush has yet to make a campaign appearance even as polls last year showed his image was on the mend. Since leaving office he has kept a deliberately low profile. He was mostly absent from the 2012 campaign trail and isn't expected to be a prominent figure in this year's campaign.
But being associated with the former president is not the political liability it was in the immediate wake of the Bush administration's closing chapter in 2009, when he wrapped up his presidency with a dismal approval rating against the backdrop of a troubled economy and an unpopular war in Iraq for which the public held him mostly responsible.
Obama ran in 2008 as the anti-Bush. A competent leader who could get the country moving again and turn the page on what many voters saw as a disastrous period in American history. In 2014, running as the anti-Obama has become the dominant Republican campaign strategy, given the incumbent's low approval rating.
There is clearly room now under that GOP tent for a name that was once banished. |
The Velvet Chair
C.P. Mandara
(Velvet Lies #1)
Publication date: February 6th 2017
Genres: Erotica, Romance
“Oh, darling. You’re going to be so easy to conquer.” His finger reached under my chin and pulled my face back to meet his. “I can’t wait to strip you out of that dress and watch you crawl around my home naked. I’m going to spank that delectable ass with every damn pervertible I can find. Hairbrushes, wooden spoons, spatulas, and I might even try a damn baking sheet. That ass of yours is always going to be prettily pink and perfectly swollen while you’re under my roof.” My name is Mark Matthews. I own half of London, and the part I don’t own, I’m working on. Life was all going swimmingly well until Michael Redcliff entered my life, demanding that I marry his daughter. Actually, swap demand for blackmail. He’s got goods on me that I want no one else to see, so for the time being I need to be his little lapdog. I’ll marry his daughter. I’ll give him all the status, money and power he can handle… for as long as it takes me to get a divorce. You see, I can’t renege on our little arrangement – but she can. I give her a week. One week and she’ll be screaming the place down for her legal counsel. I am never wrong.
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo / Smashwords
“Sir, how can I be of assistance?” Angel curtsied prettily, dressed in nothing more than fine, almost transparent silver mesh. Her petite frame looked stunning as usual, with her dark black hair dragged back into a high ponytail and bright orange lips to boot. It only added to her appeal. Usually I would be thinking of hauling her over the nearest piece of furniture and fucking her silly, but those thoughts were strangely and almost painfully absent. I now had eyes for only one woman. Get it together, Matthews, I berated myself.
“I want a tattoo, or rather Jennifer would like a tattoo.” I enunciated the word carefully, so she wouldn’t miss my meaning.
“Of course you do,” she said, without missing a beat. What design or wording would you like, Sir?”
I pretended to think about that for a moment, but in reality all the details of tonight’s thoroughly orchestrated performance were carefully filed away in my head.
“Words, I think. Hmm, let’s see.” My hand rubbed itself across my jaw and pulled at my lips. Finally, I clicked my fingers as the words apparently came to me. “Sir’s Slut.”
Jennifer immediately rocked on her knees, and she spluttered heavily for a moment, making me wonder if she was going to hold it together. It took her a few long seconds, but somehow she managed to calm herself. I have no idea how she did it. I’d have run half a mile had someone threatened to write something of that nature on my face. What was keeping her here? There was something I was missing. A really big something.
“And you’d like her fastened into the chair, Sir?”
“Yes. I think it will help with the pain if she is pleasured at the same time.”
The pain wasn’t something I was worried about. I knew Jennifer’s pain tolerance nearly outstripped mine, and that was saying something. The reason for the chair was to humiliate and torment her. Tonight I was going to find out what turned her on and use the information by exploiting it to the fullest.
Angel wheeled the chair behind Jennifer, and Dominic and Johanna helped her into it. The girl wore a dazed expression on her face, and I would have paid a large sum of money to have known what she was thinking.
“Spread your legs wide, darling. Don’t be shy.” She didn’t, but I’m not sure she was capable of much at the moment. It didn’t matter in any case, because the chair would take care of that.
Angel and Johanna took it upon themselves to fasten her limbs in place. They tucked her skirts up around her waist, and then swung the pivoted legs of the chair wide. A large split in Jennifer’s white drawers revealed a pretty pink cleft that was fairly dribbling with excitement, and so it should be. I’d put a lot of time and effort in today, making sure that she would be almost rabid for the slightest touch or caress.
Jennifer looked shocked for a moment, her eyes flaring wide, before her cheeks stained themselves a brilliant shade of crimson.
“You have no idea how adorable you look, my dear.” Unfortunately that was all too true. I couldn’t look at her. If I did, I would drop to my knees and feast between her legs until she squealed. As I’d invited guests along, it was only fair to let them go first.
Christina Mandara is a USA TODAY bestselling author and tends to write dark romance with lashings of kinky naughtiness. Her favourite pastime is travelling, and if it involves sun, sea and… sand then it’s all good. In her spare time she’s usually cuddled up with a good book, exploring the countryside or baking in the kitchen. In fact, she loves her kitchen so much she’s one of few woman who wouldn’t mind being tied to it! Her first and foremost love is writing, however, and more often than not you’ll find her on a laptop spinning tales of romance, erotica or dark, paranormal fantasies. She’s a big fan of BDSM in all of its glorious forms, and her favourite item in the toy closet (a box simply isn’t big enough) is her riding crop. C.P. Mandara’s Sexy Sizzler Newsletter Sign Up: http://bit.ly/1MVubkR Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Like this: Like Loading... |
'Just one more day,' state Democrats ask as they note the voter-registration deadline falls on the Columbus Day holiday.
In letters to all 15 county elections officials, Arizona Democratic Party officials are asking for a one-day voter-registration extension to Oct. 11. (Photo: Michael Meister/The Republic) Story Highlights Voter registration is set to close on Columbus Day, a state and federal holiday on Oct. 10
Democrats argue for a one-day extension so would-be voters aren't denied
Democrats are asking county elections officials to extend the voter-registration deadline so it doesn't fall on the Columbus Day holiday, when state and federal offices will be closed.
In letters to all 15 county elections officials, party officials are asking for a one-day extension, to Oct. 11. They cite a state law that allows the deadline to be moved when it falls on a holiday, and cite a 58-year-old attorney-general opinion that reinforced that practice.
In a practical sense, they said, not extending the deadline could deter would-be voters who attempt to register at state motor-vehicle offices or by mail. Those offices are closed Oct. 10, the published registration deadline.
"You can't get a piece of mail postmarked when the post office is closed," said Spencer Scharff, voter-protection director for the state Democratic Party.
County officials have been operating under direction from Secretary of State Michele Reagan's office that the Oct. 10 deadline holds firm. Her office relies on a court case that said a weekend deadline could not be bumped forward to the next business day.
But that case did not involve voter-registration deadlines, Scharff argued.
The Secretary of State's Office criticized the request as a political ploy and questioned why the issue was being raised now since the deadline was announced in February. The office stood by its Oct. 10 deadline.
“The truth is, we simply apply the law as it is written. Plus, 13 of Arizona’s 15 counties, including Maricopa, have decided to be open on Columbus Day. Not to mention, people can use www.ServiceArizona.com to register until midnight," said Matt Roberts, spokesman for the Secretary of State's Office. "If ... Democratic officials had bothered to ask before issuing a press release, they might have learned we came to that decision after consulting counsel....
"Next year we’ll push for changes to the election calendar to solve the problem once and for all.”
Eric Spencer, state elections director, defended the deadline in a directive to county elections officials. It is based on a state Supreme Court decision that says an election deadline could not be moved, he said.
Democrats note that case did not involve a voter registration deadline. Democrats say the closure of state and federal offices — where, they argue, nearly 40 percent of voters register — will impede voter access.
Democratic Party spokesman Enrique Gutierrez said the move would help all voters, but acknowledged Democratic-leaning voters tend to be the procrastinators who are motivated by a deadline.
NEWSLETTERS Get the AZ Memo newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Get the pulse of Arizona -- Local news, in-depth state coverage and what it all means for you Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Mon-Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for AZ Memo Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
The letters ask each of the counties to seek a legal opinion from their respective county attorneys.
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Eric Meyer, D-Paradise Valley, is seeking a legal opinion on the matter from Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
Reach the reporter at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @maryjpitzl
Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/2cANfXD |
By Lars Bevanger
BBC News Online in Gothenburg
A new take on emergency contraception
The result can be seen on the streets of three Swedish cities from this weekend: condom ambulances.
In Gothenburg, Stockholm and Malmo, several emergency vehicles will be on standby three days a week, waiting for calls from those caught in a promising situation, but without protection.
For only 50 kronas (£4) the cars (dubbed the "Cho-San Express" after a well-known make of condoms) will deliver 10 condoms to any address within the city boundaries.
Alarming rise
RFSU, the Swedish health trust and condom makers, came up with the idea because of the alarming rise in sexually transmitted diseases like chlamydia among young people.
It sounds like something you'd do if you were very drunk
Maria Anderson
"Surveys show that 50% of them wouldn't mind using condoms, but for some reason far fewer actually do."
Mr Osvald said he hoped the condom express would be a new step towards reaching those potential customers.
"We decided to take a humorous approach to this, and hopefully this will be seen as communicating with young people, not lecturing them."
Star director
Along with the emergency vehicles, there will also be a television campaign in the shape of a short film about the dangers of unprotected sex.
In the hope of hitting the target audience, RFSU hired Swedish star music video director Johan Renck, the man behind videos from Kylie Minogue, Madonna and Beyonce, to make the film.
So what do the Swedish youth make of the whole idea? Anders Mathew Wise from Stockholm said the express was not for him.
He said: "I think it's a good PR-stunt, but it won't solve the acute problems. I would not call the condom express if I was in a situation where I needed one. It wouldn't feel right. It would create too much attention."
Maria Anderson, also from Stockholm, agreed: "It sounds like something you'd do if you were very drunk. I don't think I would use it.
"I think the campaign might lead to an increase in the use of condoms, but I don't think the actual condom express cars will contribute to that."
Welcome campaign
At a sexual health clinic in Stockholm, doctors are understandably worried about the rise in cases of chlamydia among young people.
Clinic consultant Christina Rogala welcomed the condom express campaign, and said all initiatives to increase condom use were good.
"We don't know why we've had this increase, it is not hard to get hold of condoms in Sweden, and most young people know about the risks of unprotected sex.
"But many also know of someone who has had chlamydia, and who have been successfully treated for it. They might think it is not a big problem.
"What they might not realise is the very serious danger of female infertility as a result of the disease", Dr Rogala told News Online.
Althought the campaign is targeted at young people, Carl Osvald said anyone was welcome to call the condom express hotline.
"We won't look at someone's age and turn around! When it comes to sex, you're only as old as you feel." |
Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) on Wednesday defended FBI Director James Comey and pointed blame at Attorney General Loretta Lynch for the outcome of the investigation into Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE's personal email server.
ADVERTISEMENT
Collins, a Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE supporter, said he understands where Comey is coming from in his recommendation, but noted the Department of Justice, not the FBI, made the final call not to charge Clinton.
"As he presented it, I can understand where he's coming from," Collins said on CNN. "I think we have to separate the FBI from the Department of Justice. Director Comey did an extraordinary job.
"It was the Department of Justice's decision whether to prosecute or not. We have to remember Bill Clinton William (Bill) Jefferson ClintonInviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Howard Schultz must run as a Democrat for chance in 2020 Trump says he never told McCabe his wife was 'a loser' MORE was on the airplane with the attorney general just a week ago."
A 30-minute private meeting between Lynch and the former president sparked a political firestorm. Collins agrees with Trump's claim that Lynch was "intimidated" into not prosecuting Clinton.
"I think Loretta Lynch was intimidated by Bill Clinton on the airplane. Loretta Lynch does know that she would be more secure in her job if Hillary Clinton was President," Collins said, echoing comments Trump made Tuesday at a rally in Raleigh, N.C.
“She said today that we may consider the attorney general to go forward,” Trump said Tuesday, noting that Lynch headed the investigation into Clinton's use of a private email account and server while secretary of State. “That’s like a bribe isn’t it? Isn’t that sort of a bribe?”
“It’s a bribe, it’s a disgrace,” he added.
On Sunday, The New York Times cited unidentified Democrats who said Clinton would consider retaining Lynch if elected president, but the presumptive Democratic nominee has not publicly confirmed the report.
In a statement released hours after the FBI's decision, Trump said the investigation’s results were politically motivated, pointing to former Bill Clinton’s meeting with Lynch last week. |
New Delhi: Journalist Arnab Goswami’s soon-to-be-launched news channel Republic TV will be shown on Star India’s digital platform Hotstar, making it the first Indian news channel to be livestreamed on the platform.
Hotstar already has access to news content from global news brands like Fox News, Fox Business and Sky News.
The news channel is expected to go live on 6 May and will also launch its website republicworld.com on the same day.
ALSO READ: Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV rolls out ‘nation still wants to know’ campaign
“Hotstar is about to get a very interesting addition to its lineup. Starting 6 May, Arnab Goswami’s Republic will go live on Hotstar. We will have a brand new ‘News’ page hosting the live feed all day," read an internal memo of the company that’s been reviewed by Mint.
The livestream will be supported by advertising.
“Hotstar is a compelling destination for content cutting across genres and age groups. We are confident of breaking the digital barrier and believe this is the first step as news produced in India goes digital and then global. We believe the coming together of these two exciting brands and services will take news to the 90 million-plus viewers on Hotstar every month. You can now catch Republic on the move and on demand," said Goswami, editor-in-chief and founder of Republic TV.
ALSO READ: Times Group serves Arnab Goswami notice on using ‘nation wants to know’
The news channel is in the process of sealing multiple distribution tie-ups across the country. On Thursday, it tweeted about its latest distribution tie-up with direct-to-home (DTH) platform Tata Sky. “Republic TV is coming to your homes soon as a free-to-air channel. Check your cable/DTH operator now," the post read.
Earlier this month, Republic TV also announced a tie-up with Microsoft as its technology partner.
“Young India has embraced Hotstar. We believe that young, digitally savvy Indians are deeply interested in understanding their country and the world they live in. We are deeply committed to making sure that we continuously widen Hotstar’s offering, and the launch of Republic on Hotstar fills a big gap in our portfolio," said Uday Shankar, chairman and chief executive at Star India.
ALSO READ: Is there room for Republic TV?
Hotstar plans to introduce news as a distinct category on the platform, adding to its existing portfolio of popular TV shows, movies and sports. It clocked a viewership of 36.4 million for the ongoing T20 cricket tournament, the Indian Premier League, in its first two weeks. |
Duncan's life was obviously a tragic one, and what might have been her most difficult year — the period between the deaths of her first two children in a car accident and the birth of her third — form the basis of Amelia Gray's breathtaking new novel, Isadora. It's a stunning meditation on art and grief by one of America's most exciting young writers.
Gray is a gutsy, utterly original writer, and this is the finest work she's done so far. Isadora is a masterful portrait of one of America's greatest artists, and it's also a beautiful reflection on what it means to be suffocated by grief, but not quite willing to give up: "In order to understand the greatest joys of life, you must do more than open yourself to its greatest sorrows. You must invite it to join you in your home and beguile it to stay." --Michael Schaub, NPR |
castleconfessions:
This blog is going on an indefinite hiatus once the queue is gone through.
I’ve seen enough people bitching and moaning about this blog and it’s not worth the time anymore. I understand that I am contradictory with how things are done on this blog and I literally laugh out loud at people who have the gall to complain bc they seem to be the ones most active on the posts. So before you point fingers at me for being hypocritical, get off your imagined high horses and take a look at yourselves.
So since this blog fuels nothing but negativity, I’ll shut it down. The public has spoken and after all the complaints, for the first time I’m gonna listen to you all and take a break.
If I decide to start this up again, I’ll let you all know. If not, thanks for those who’ve stayed loyal. Your support has kept me going this long and it makes me grateful to see such a passionate fandom.
To those who don’t like me and hire I’ve run this blog, are you seriously getting your panties in a knot because of a blog? I used to be more understanding in replying to messages, but if you had to put up with 3 years of attacking messages, maybe you’d get where I’m coming from.
It was nice knowing you all. Until tomorrow (…maybe) |
Please help us open Fort Funston during the gov't shutdown! Right now it's dangerous with people parking on the highway. The GGNRA has agreed to open the parking lot if we remove the trash and clean the porta potties.
SFDOG has asked the GGNRA to open the parking lot at Fort Funston during the partial government shutdown. People are continuing to access and use Fort Funston despite the closed lot and are instead parking alongside the highway. The limited, narrow shoulder parking is routinely packed with parked cars that stretch from the park entrance to as far as the eye can see. Many people unload their young children and pets from the highway side of their car, further congesting traffic as they then walk along the shoulder or in the highway lane on their way to the beach. The current situation isn't safe for people or their pets. |
The family of the Noida gangrape victim plans to appeal in the Delhi High Court against the trial court verdict acquitting the nine accused in the eight-year-old case, saying it was “shattered” and “disappointed” by the judgement. A close relative of the woman, who was a 24-year-old at the time of the incident, said the trial court verdict letting off the accused would send a wrong message to the society and it will encourage criminals to commit more such heinous crimes, with the victim being still traumatised.
Advertising
The family of the woman, who shifted to London after the incident due to alleged threats from the accused, said they are “shattered” due to the judgement which went in favour of the accused and hopes to get justice from the superior court. “We are highly disappointed. We don’t know what to say as we still cannot believe that the accused have been acquitted despite strong evidence against them. Such a heinous crime was committed on a girl and she had identified all of them in the court. How can they be acquitted?
“If the accused are let off like this, it will send a wrong message to the society and will also encourage the criminals to commit such heinous offences,” one of the close family members of the woman said. The kin said they have not informed the woman about the judgement as she is still under trauma and has not come out of it but they will soon tell her. “We do not want this to happen with any other woman, we will continue our fight for justice and will file an appeal in the high court,” the family said.
The prosecution also plans to file an appeal challenging the trial court verdict and Special Public Prosecutor Neelam Narang, while respecting the court’s decision, said there was ample amount of evidence on record warranting conviction of all the nine accused. After going through the verdict, the prosecutor said she would recommend the case for filing an appeal before the Delhi High Court. The family said the woman cannot return home because the alleged perpetrators of the crime are roaming freely and earlier also they were threatened and asked to take back the case.
The incident took place in the evening of January 5, 2009, when the woman, along with her male friend, was returning from Great India Place Mall in their car which was forcibly stopped by several youths who were returning on motorcycles after a cricket match.
Brandishing cricket bats, four of these boys sat in the car and allegedly started beating the girl and her friend, pushed them to the back seat and drove the car to a secluded place near urban Noida village Garhi Chaukhandi, police had said. At the isolated place, their other associates also joined and 11 persons allegedly raped the girl and took away their valuables like mobile phones, wrist watch and ATM cards, it had said. The complaint was lodged with the Noida police by the victim’s friend.
Advertising
The trial of the case was shifted from a Noida court to Tis Hazari Court in Delhi on the Supreme Court’s order after the victim’s friend approached it, fearing threat to his life and pressure to withdraw the case. While acquitting the accused, the Delhi court had pulled up the Noida police for not following proper procedure of the law while investigating the matter and said no judicial Test Identification Parade (TIP) of the accused was conducted by the investigating officer (IO). Though the girl had “identified” all the accused before the court during the recording of her testimony, the judge said their identification by her was “doubtful” as the alleged crime was committed in the night in a forest area where there was no source of light. |
Is that cupcake an innocent indulgence? Or your next hit? We’re finding that a sweet tooth makes you just as much an addict as snorting cocaine
SETTLED on the sofa watching the usual rubbish on TV, I notice that predictable, uncontrollable, nightly craving. At first I sit there, fighting it. But the longer I fight, the worse it gets. After 20 minutes, I can’t concentrate on anything, I feel anxious, and start fidgeting like crazy. Finally, admitting my addiction, I break. I go to the freezer – to my stash of white stuff – and take a hit. Almost instantly, I relax, my brain in a state of bliss as the chemical courses through my veins. Isn’t it amazing what a few scoops of ice cream can do?
Before you dismiss my agitation as mere weakness, consider this: to my brain, sugar is akin to cocaine. There is now compelling evidence that foods high in sugar, fat and salt – as most junk foods are – can alter your brain chemistry in the same way as highly addictive drugs such as cocaine and heroin.
The idea, considered fringe just five years ago, is fast becoming a mainstream view among researchers as new studies in humans confirm initial animal findings, and the biological mechanisms that lead to “junk-food addiction” are being revealed. Some say there is now enough data to warrant government regulation of the fast food industry and public health warnings on products that have harmful levels of sugar and fat. One campaigning lawyer claims there could even be enough evidence to mount a legal fight against the fast food industry … |
Hillary Clinton drew in big bucks in June to pad her general election war chest, her campaign reported Friday.
The former secretary of state raised more than $68.5 million for her campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and various state parties.
About $40.5 million went directly into the Hillary for America fund, with the rest going to the Hillary Victory Fund, which splits its money between the DNC and state parties.
The average donation to Clinton's campaign in June was approximately $48.
Her campaign enters July with more than $44 million of cash on hand. At the end of May, Clinton had $42.5 million cash on hand.
A Bloomberg Politics analysis of the candidate's spending, published Friday, showed the campaign burned through about $500,000 per day on television advertising since entering the general election season.
In comparison, rival and Republican party's presumptive nominee Donald Trump, had just $1.29 million at the end of May.
Last month, defended his lackluster campaign finance report in an interview with NBC News, though the candidate later stepped up his fundraising game in June with a flurry of fundraising emails.
"I understand money better than anybody," Trump said. "I understand it far better than Hillary...But we have a party that, I mean, I'm having more difficulty, frankly, with some of the people in the party than I am with the Democrats because they're just, they don't want to come on."
The Bloomberg Politics analysis released Friday showed Trump spent zero dollars on television advertising. |
This is a slightly abridged transcript of a lecture delivered in Newcastle on 19th November, 1900, to the members of the Literary and Philosophical Society by Karl Pearson, F.R.S., Professor of Applied Mathematics at University College, London.
Karl Pearson was a polymath, born in Islington in 1857, he studied Mathematics at Cambridge University, later Physics at the University of Heidelberg, and at various other seats of learning; he studied metaphysics, physiology, Roman Law, 16th Century German Literature, English Law and Socialism and became a protégé of Sir Francis Galton.
Although influenced by the socialism of Karl Marx, Pearson was a racialist, a eugenicist and a strong advocate of scientific nationalism and is therefore arguably one of the founding fathers of National Socialism in Britain. He objected to Jewish immigration into Britain in the early 1900s and as late as 1925 continued to write critically on the subject.
-o0o-
National Life – From the Standpoint of Science
By Karl Pearson, F.R.S.
From the standpoint of science there are two questions we can, or, rather, we must, ask. First: What, from the scientific standpoint, is the function of a nation? What part from the natural history aspect does the national organization play in the universal struggle for existence? And, secondly, What has science to tell us of the best methods of fitting the nation for its task?
To answer at all effectually the latter question, we must first consider what is the proper answer to be given to the former. I shall therefore endeavour to lay in broad outlines before you what I hold to be the scientific view of a nation, and of the relationship of nations to each other. If at the very offset my statements strike you as harsh, cold, possibly immoral, I would ask you to be patient with me to the end, when some of you may perceive that the public conscience, the moral goodness which you value so highly, is established by science on a firmer and more definite, if a narrower foundation than you are wont to suppose.
I want you to look with me for a while on mankind as a product of Nature, and subject to the natural influences which form its environment. I will, first, notice a point which bears upon man as upon all forms of animal life. The characters of both parents their virtues, their vices, their capabilities, their tempers, and their diseases all devolve in due proportion upon their children. Some may say, ‘Oh yes ; but we know such things are inherited’. I fear that the great majority of the nation does not realize what inheritance means, or much that happens now would not be allowed to happen. Our knowledge of heredity has developed enormously in the last few years; it is no longer a vague factor of development, to be appealed to vaguely. Its intensity in a great variety of characters in a great many forms of life has been quantitatively determined, and we no longer stand even where we did ten years ago. The form of a man’s head, his stature, his eye-colour, his temper, the very length of his life, the coat colour of horses and dogs, the form of the capsule of the poppy, the spine of the water-flea these and other things are all inherited, and in approximately the same manner. Nay, if we extend the notion of like producing like, we shall find, as I have recently done, that the same laws are probably true for the mushroom and for the forest tree; that the principle of heredity runs with certainly no weakened intensity from the lowest to the highest organisms, and from their least to their most important characters.
Now let us try to understand exactly what this means. Of a definite child of A and B we can assert nothing with certainty, but of all the children of a definite class of parents like A and B we can assert a definite proportion will have a definite amount of any character of A and B with a certainty as great as that of any scientific prediction ever. I am not speaking from belief or from theory, but simply from facts, from thousands of instances recorded by my fellow workers or myself. Here is a great principle of life, something apparently controlling all life from its simplest to its most complex forms, and yet, though we too often see its relentless effects, we go on hoping that at any rate we and our offspring shall be the exceptions to its rules. For one of us as an individual this may be true, but for the average of us all, for the nation as a whole, it is an idle hope. You cannot change the leopard’s spots, and you cannot change bad stock to good ; you may dilute it, possibly spread it over a wider area, spoiling good stock, but until it ceases to multiply it will not cease to be. A physically and mentally well-ordered individual will arise as a variation in bad stock, or possibly may result from special nurture, but the old evils will in all probability reappear in a definite percentage of the offspring.
I know of the case of just such a good variation appearing in a certain bad stock as far back as 1680, and the offspring of which married in the early eighteenth century into a number of good stocks, several of which we can trace in the records of the religious community of which they were members for nearly 150 years. And what do we find? In each generation the same sort of proportion of cases of drunkenness, insanity, and physical breakdown arising to distress and perplex their kinsfolk.
Now, if we once realize that this law of inheritance is as inevitable as the law of gravity, we shall cease to struggle against it. This does not mean a fatal resignation to the presence of bad stock, but a conscious attempt to modify the percentage of it in our own community and in the world at large. Let me illustrate what I mean. A showman takes a wolf and, by aid of training and nurture, a more or less judicious administration of food and whip, makes it apparently docile and friendly as a dog. But one day, when the whip is not there, it is quite possible that the wolf will turn upon its keeper, or upon somebody else. Even if it does not, its offspring will not benefit by the parental education. I don’t believe that the showman’s way can be a permanent success; I believe, however, that you might completely domesticate the wolf, as the dog has been domesticated, by steadily selecting the more docile members of the community through several generations, and breeding only from these, rejecting the remainder. Now, if you have once realized the force of heredity, you will see in natural selection the choice of the physically and mentally fitter to be the parents of the next generation a most munificent provision for the progress of all forms of life. Nurture and education may immensely aid the social machine, but they must be repeated generation by generation; they will not in themselves reduce the tendency to the production of bad stock. Conscious or unconscious selection can alone bring that about.
What I have said about bad stock seems to me to hold for the lower races of man. How many centuries, how many thousand of years, have the Bantu* or the Negro held large districts in Africa undisturbed by the White man? Yet their intertribal struggles have not yet produced a civilization in the least comparable with the Aryan. Educate and nurture them as you will, I do not believe that you will succeed in modifying the stock. History shows me one way, and one way only, in which a high state of civilization has been produced, namely, the struggle of race with race, and the survival of the physically and mentally fitter race. If you want to know whether the lower races of man can evolve a higher type, I fear the only course is to leave them to fight it out among themselves, and even then the struggle for existence between individual and individual, between tribe and tribe, may not be supported by that physical selection due to a particular climate on which probably so much of the Aryan’s success depended.
If you bring the White man into contact with the Black, you too often suspend the very process of natural selection on which the evolution of a higher type depends. You get superior and inferior races living on the same soil, and that coexistence is demoralizing for both. They naturally sink into the position of master and servant, if not admittedly or covertly into that of slave-owner and slave. Frequently they intercross, and if the bad stock be raised the good is lowered. Even in the case of Eurasians, of whom I have met mentally and physically fine specimens, I have felt how much better they would have been had they been pure Asiatics or pure Europeans. Thus it comes about that when the struggle for existence between races is suspended, the solution of great problems may be unnaturally postponed ; instead of the slow, stern processes of evolution, cataclysmal solutions are prepared for the future. Such problems in suspense, it appears to me, are to be found in the negro population of the Southern States of America, in the large admixture of Indian blood in some of the South American races, but, above all, in the Bantu factor in South Africa.
You may possibly think that I am straying from my subject, but I want to justify natural selection to you. I want you to see selection as something which renders the inexorable law of heredity a source of progress which’ produces the good through suffering, an infinitely greater good which far outbalances the very obvious pain and evil. Let us suppose the alternative were possible. Let us suppose we could prevent the White man, if we liked, from going to lands of which the agricultural and mineral resources are not worked to the full ; then I should say a thousand times better for him that he should not go than that he should settle down and live alongside the inferior race. The only healthy alternative is that he should go and completely drive out the inferior race. That is practically what the White man has done in North America. We sometimes forget the light that chapter of history throws on more recent experiences. Some 250 years ago there was a man who fought in our country against taxation without representation, and another man who did not mind going to prison for the sake of his religious opinions. As Englishmen we are proud of them both, but we sometimes forget that they were both considerable capitalists for their age, and started chartered companies in another continent. Well, a good deal went on in the plantations they founded, if not with their knowledge, with that at least of their servants and of their successors, which would shock us all at the present day. But I venture to say that no man calmly judging will wish either that the Whites had never gone to America, or would desire that whites and Red Indians were to-day living alongside each other as Negro and White in the Southern States, as Bantu and European in South Africa, still less that they had mixed their blood as Spaniard and Indian in South America. The civilization of the White man is a civilization dependent upon free White labour, and when that element of stability is removed it will collapse like those of Greece and Rome. I venture to assert, then, that the struggle for existence between White and Red man, painful and even terrible as it was in its details, has given us a good far outbalancing its immediate evil. In place of the Red man, contributing practically nothing to the work and thought of the world, we have a great nation, mistress of many arts, and able, with its youthful imagination and fresh, untrammelled impulses, to contribute much to the common stock of civilized man. Against that we have only to put the romantic sympathy for the Red Indian generated by the novels of Cooper and the poems of Longfellow, and then — see how little it weighs in the balance !
But America is but one case in which we have to mark a masterful human progress following an inter-racial struggle. The Australian nation is another case of great civilization supplanting a lower race unable to work to the full the land and its resources. Further back in history you find the same tale with almost every European nation. Sometimes when the conquering race is not too diverse in civilization and in type of energy there is an amalgamation of races, as when Norman and Anglo-Saxon ultimately blended ; at other times the inferior race is driven out before the superior, as the Celt drove out the Iberian. The struggle means suffering, intense suffering, while it is in progress; but that struggle and that suffering have been the stages by which the White man has reached his present stage of development, and they account for the fact that he no longer lives in caves and feeds on roots and nuts. This dependence of progress on the survival of the fitter race, terribly black as it may seem to some of you, gives the struggle for existence its redeeming features; it is the fiery crucible out of which comes the finer metal. You may hope for a time when the sword shall be turned into the ploughshare, when American and German and English traders shall no longer compete in the markets of the world for their raw material and for their food supply, when the White man and the dark shall share the soil between them, and each till it as he lists. But, believe me, when that day come mankind will no longer progress ; there will be nothing to check the fertility of inferior stock ; the relentless law of heredity will not be controlled and guided by natural selection. Man will stagnate ; and unless he ceases to multiply, the catastrophe will come again ; famine and pestilence, as we see them in the East, physical selection instead of the struggle of race against race, will do the work more relentlessly, and, to judge from India and China, far less efficiently than of old.
Let us face this question of increasing population boldly. We cannot escape it. Sooner or later it must and will make itself felt in every progressive nation; for what I have said of the struggle of race against race makes itself again felt within every community. A nation like the French can largely limit the number of its offspring, but how shall we be sure that these offspring are from the better and not from the inferior stock? If they come equally from both stocks and there be no wastage, then the nation has ceased to progress; it stagnates. I feel sure that a certain amount of wastage is almost necessary for a progressive nation; you want definite evidence that the inferior stocks are not able to multiply at will, that a certain standard of physique and brains are needful to a man if he wishes to settle and have a family.
Mr. Francis Galton has suggested that we might progress far more rapidly than we at present do under this crude system of unconscious wastage if we turned our thoughts more consciously to the problem, if we emphasized the need of social action in this direction, and made men and women feel the importance of good parentage for the citizens of the future. But I fear our present economic and social conditions are hardly yet ripe for such a movement; the all-important question of parentage is still largely felt to be solely a matter of family, and not of national importance. Yet how antisocial such a view may be can be easily realized. From the standpoint of the nation we want to inculcate a feeling of shame in the parents of a weakling, whether it be mentally or physically unfit. We want parents to grasp that they have given birth to a new citizen, and that this involves, on the one hand, a duty towards the community in respect of his breed and nurture, and a claim, on the other hand, of the parents on the State that the latter shall make the conditions of life favourable to the rearing of healthy, mentally vigorous men and women. Bear in mind that one quarter only of the married people of this country say, a sixth to an eighth of the adult population produce 50 per cent, of the next generation. You will then see how essential it is for the maintenance of a physically and mentally fit race that this one-sixth to one-eighth of our population should be drawn from the best and not the worst stocks. A nation that begins to tamper with its fertility may unconsciously have changed its national characteristics before two generations have passed. France is becoming a land of Bretons because the Bretons alone have large families. And what about England ? The average net size of our families has been falling for perhaps fifty years. Who will venture to assert that this decreased fertility has occurred in the inferior stocks? On the contrary, is it not the feckless and improvident who have the largest families? The professional classes, the trading classes, the substantial and provident working classes shortly, the capable elements of the community with a certain standard of life have been marrying late, and have been having small families; they have been increasing their individual comfort. All this is at the expense of the nation’s future. We cannot suspend the struggle for existence in any class of the community without stopping progress; we cannot recruit the nation from its inferior stocks without deteriorating our national character.
Now, what have our economic conditions in England been during the last thirty years? The accumulation of wealth has been such at one end of society that no test of brains or of physique was needful before a man multiplied his type. Death duties and the inherent tendency of folly to squander its substance were only very inefficient, very partial, checks on the endowment in perpetuity of the brainless. At the other end of society we allowed a condition of affairs to exist in which no greater discomfort could well be produced by the introduction of additional human beings; there were always charity and the State ready to provide, more or less inefficiently, for the surplus population. There has been scarcely any check on the multiplication of inferior stock; only in the middle ranks, among the more substantial workers with the hand and the head, have men regarded the number of their offspring and made success in life’s struggle to some extent a condition of their multiplication.
Now, surely this is a very dangerous state of affairs for the nation at large. A crisis may come in which we may want all the brain and all the muscle we can possibly lay our hands on, and we may find that there is a dearth of ability and a dearth of physique, because we have allowed inferior stock to multiply at the expense of the better. There are occasions when a nation wants a reserve of strong men, and when it must draw brain and muscle from classes and from forms of work wherein they are not exercised to the full. And in that day woe to the nation which has recruited itself from the weaker and not from the stronger stocks! If you have not the means to start all your offspring in your own class, let them do the work of another; if you cannot make them into lawyers and engineers, let them be village school masters and mechanics. Or, if this suggestion raise an insurmountable, if utterly false shame, let them go to new lands even as miners, cowboys, and storekeepers; they will strengthen the nation’s reserve, and this is far better than that they should never have existed at all.
I will not say that we have a dearth of ability and of physique at this time, but I will venture to assert that there has, of recent years, been a want of them in the right places, and that last year, but for the reserve of strong men in our colonies, we should have been in far greater difficulties than we were. It is not only in warfare that is the crudest form of the modern struggle of nations but in manufacture and in commerce that there has been a want of brains in the right place. Leadership in trade is really no more than leadership in the army open to the man of brains; in both cases it becomes a question of wealth; the endowed but brainless get the start. Consider, again, how the led are, in many cases, not the mentally and physically best for the task: they are too often the surplus of the inferior stocks. What wonder when we put the one in competition with the brains and training of the German commercial and technical houses we meet defeat! What wonder that, when we take the other out of its environment, the leaders cannot lead, and the led fall an easy prey to sickness and disease? The regiment which has marched farthest and has marched quickest, which has suffered little from disease and fought as well as any in the Transvaal, is a volunteer regiment, drawn from that very reserve of strength in the better stocks to which I have referred.
In industry it is the same thing. We shall do no good against the American and the German by a mere multiplication of centres of technical instruction. What we want to do is to bring brains into our industry from top to bottom. Where the brains already exist, there training will work wonders ; but we shall not make the product of inferior stock capable men by merely teaching them the tricks of their trade. In one polytechnic I found lads learning how to fold cretonnes and polish mahogany ; that is to say, the manufacturers had thrust the cost of apprenticeship on the public purse, perhaps to some extent lowering the price of sofas and easy-chairs to those who care about them. The object of any technical education paid for by the State or the municipality should be the exercise of brain-power, mental gymnastics in the best sense; it should treat of the science, and not the art, of a trade. Such education remember, means literally a drawing out, not a cramming in, ought to act as a brain-stretcher and not attempt to communicate mere trade knowledge. Where it does the latter and in how many cases does it not, under our brand-new system of technical instruction, then it is merely relieving the manufacturers, and possibly the purchasers, of certain goods of such part of their cost as has hitherto been paid for apprenticeship. On the other hand, when technical education acts as a brain-stretcher, then this increased efficiency tells not only on the trade occupations, but on the social and civic life of the educated; the nation is thereby strengthening the reserve of trained brains upon which it can draw in a crisis for all sorts of other functions than those of a narrow trade. Brain-stretching fosters an adaptability to new environments. This is something very different to a more complete knowledge of trade processes or to proficiency in a special handicraft. This is a form of education for which the nation may legitimately pay ; it is that which is essential to it in the struggle for existence.
I am not speaking without some experience. I have been engaged for twenty-years in helping to train engineers, and those of my old pupils who are now coming to the front in life are not those who stuck to facts and formulae, and sought only for what they thought would be useful to them in their profession. On the contrary, the lads who paid attention to method, who thought more of proofs than of formulae, who accepted even the specialized branches of their training as a means of developing habits of observation rather than of collecting useful facts, these lads have developed into men who are succeeding in life. And the reason of this seems to me, when considering their individual cases, to be that they could adapt themselves to an environment more or less different from that of the existing profession; they could go beyond its processes, its formulae and its facts, and develop new ones. Their knowledge of method and their powers of observation enabled them to supply new needs, to answer to the call when there was a demand, not for old knowledge, but for trained brains.
Here, I think, is the point where we reach the second great function of science in national life. The first function is to show us what national life means, and how the nation is a vast organism subject as much to the great forces of evolution as any other gregarious type of life. There is a struggle of race against race and of nation against nation. In the early days of that struggle it was a blind, unconscious struggle of barbaric tribes. At the present day, in the case of the civilized White man, it has become more and more the conscious, carefully directed attempt of the nation to fit itself to a continuously changing environment. The nation has to foresee how and where the struggle will be carried on; the maintenance of national position is becoming more and more a conscious preparation for changing conditions, an insight into the needs of coming environments.
This is the second important duty of science in relation to national life. It has to develop our brain-power by providing a training in method, and by exercising our powers of cautious observation. It has to teach not only the leaders of our national life, but the people at large, to prepare for and meet the difficulties of new environments. This is the only sort of technical education the nation ought to trouble about, the teaching people to see and to think. It is not the art of a particular trade which we want to teach in the schools, but the power of observing and reasoning upon observation.
There is a most simple description of true science which is embraced in the words : Keep your eyes open and apply common-sense. That is the keynote to the conduct of the geologist who has roughly sketched the history of many thousand years as he walked across the downs with you, of the engineer who rapidly reports on a new country, of the doctor who forms rapid diagnoses as he paces the hospital ward; it is trained observation applied to physical and human nature. There is a very excellent little book which many of you may have read recently, Baden Powell’s ‘Aids to Scouting’; it is a capital introduction to the true scientific method. The man with a scientific training scouts through Nature, including under nature mankind itself. You may sum up his conduct just as I think Baden Powell’s booklet may be summed up. Keep your eyes open and apply common-sense. What we as a nation seem to want at the present time is precisely what its commander complained of our army needing in Natal scouting. I take it that the success of German technical instruction is just proportional to its efficiency in producing trained scouts. We have only just started our technical schools, but I sadly fear they are not putting sufficient stress on scouting, on teaching how to observe and how to reason on observation as distinct from a knowledge of facts, or from a training in art or handicraft. Mechanical skill, the trick of the trade, may be learnt best in the workshop ; facts and formulae may be found in books; processes followed in the foundry and the weaving-shed in a manner that can only be mimicked in the schools; but true scouting can be learnt only from the master-scout. And here arises the real value of a band of men trained to observe and reason. This is why we want scientific schools and men of science if the nation is to maintain its position.
If you turn in almost any direction, you will see this want of trained scouts. We want them in our diplomatic service to keep their hand on the pulse of other nations; we want them in new countries to tell us of new mineral and new food supplies; we want them, above all, in our trade, to tell us what to make and how and where to send it; we want them to see what competitive nations are doing, and to provide for our mercantile marine, our railways, our manufactures being maintained at the highest state of efficiency. Shortly, we want scouting in all branches of the national service; we need men who will observe what others are doing, who will seek for new supplies, and push the nation and prepare cautiously for its advance in every way.
I will not underrate the importance of the equipment of the scout. He undoubtedly profits by technical knowledge. You cannot send a man to push trade if he have no knowledge of the language of the people he has to deal with, or an engineer to discover mineral resources without an elementary acquaintance with geology. But I insist that the trained mind is the first thing, and for scouting a fool on horseback is worth less than a wise man on foot. We are a wealthy nation, and I fear we find it easier to provide the equipment than to discover the master-scout. I have yet to learn that the physicist with palatial laboratory and elaborate and costly implements will do more for his pupils than the man with no instrument-maker behind him. The biologist with his 80 microscopes and specimens drawn from the four quarters of the globe may teach less than the field naturalist with the hedgerow and the lens. One of the first lessons of scouting is independence of equipment, the doing of great things with small means; and magnificent equipment, the provision of elaborate instruments and highly-trained mechanicians, too often renders your man of science and his pupils helpless in a less palatial environment. We are not going to get technical education by merely paying for it. We may show wonderful buildings, dazzling equipments, a network of examinations, and a crowd of certificated examinees, but this will not insure the training the nation wants in observation and in reasoning on observation.
We must, above all, exercise the selective faculty and choose true master-scouts, giving them a free hand, and they will teach our lads to observe and think scientifically. That is the only form of technical education which will produce the scouting power the nation needs. Some may say that this is pure science, and not technical instruction at all. I am not prepared to say it is not. I don’t care a rap, and don’t believe anyone with educational interests at heart does care a rap, for the facts and formulae and results of science being crammed into all classes of the community; they may be useful enough to men of special trades and professions. But what the nation does want in order to strengthen its civil and commercial life is a great increase in its powers of observation in its knowledge of scientific method and of the nature of scientific reasoning. The rest, the greater efficiency in trade and handicraft, will follow surely enough on that. Make the man intellectually stronger, and he will be a better soldier, a better trader, and a better craftsman. Teach the man how to scout in the first place, and then he will know for himself the sort of equipment he wants and how it is to be provided. You furnish a charger and a sword, where per-adventure a pony and a hatchet are what the trained scout would select for himself. Knowledge is the equipment which the trained mind can find for itself, but the training is a thing you have got to provide for it, and the national value of science lies first in the training it can furnish, and only in the second place in its practical results.
There has been far too much talk about the national utility of science, and too little stress laid on its educational value. ‘I want my son to learn what will be useful to him in his profession in life’ is the statement I have heard from one parent after another. ‘I want my son to know how to observe and to think’ is the expression of a desire which I have not yet come across. This is the spirit which has ruled the movement for technical education; but if this spirit is to remain dominant, it will take a great deal to get the nation out of its present ruts. What we want are trained brains, scouts in all fields, and not a knowledge of facts and processes crammed into a wider range of untrained minds.
It may be as well now to sum up my position as far as I have yet developed it. I have asked you to look upon the nation as an organized whole in continual struggle with other nations whether by force of arms or by force of trade and economic processes. I have asked you to look upon this struggle of either kind as a not wholly bad thing; it is the source of human progress throughout the world’s history. But if a nation is to maintain its position in this struggle, it must be fully provided with trained brains in every department of national activity, from the government to the factory, and have, if possible, a reserve of brain and physique to fall back upon in times of national crisis. Recent events in our commercial as well as in our military experience have led some to doubt whether our supply of trained brains is sufficient, or, at any rate, whether it is available in the right place at the right moment.
Those presumably who hold that the brains are forthcoming have raised the cry of technical instruction, which is to be a remedy for our commercial difficulties. I have little doubt that when this war is finished the cry of military instruction will be raised for our army difficulties. In the latter as in the former case large sums of money will no doubt be demanded for equipment. But I have endeavoured to indicate that there are two preliminary matters to be considered. First, are we quite certain that we have a reserve of brain power ready to be trained? We have to remember that man is subject to the universal law of inheritance, and that a dearth of capacity may arise if we recruit our society from the inferior and not the better stock. If any social opinions or class prejudices tamper with the fertility of the better stocks, then the national character will take but a few generations, to be seriously modified. The pressure of population should always tend to push brains and physique into occupations where they are not a primary necessity, for in this way a reserve is formed for the times of national crisis. Such a reserve can always be formed by filling up with men of our own kith and kin the waste lands of the earth, even at the expense of an inferior race of inhabitants. Yet if we grant that our nation has a full supply of brains both in action and in reserve, it is not knowledge in the first place, but intellectual training, which is requisite. We want the master-scout to teach men to observe and reason on their observations, and the equipment of the scout, the actual knowledge of facts and processes, is a minor matter.
You will see that my view and I think it may be called the scientific view of a nation is that of an organized whole, kept up to a high pitch of internal efficiency by insuring that its numbers are substantially recruited from the better stocks, and kept up to a high pitch of external efficiency by contest, chiefly by way of war with inferior races, and with equal races by the struggle for trade-routes and for the sources of raw material and of food supply. This is the natural history view of mankind, and I do not think you can in its main features subvert it. Some of you may refuse to acknowledge it, but you cannot really study history and refuse to see its force. Some of you may realize it, and then despair of life ; you may decline to admit any glory in a world where the superior race must either eject the inferior, or, mixing with it, or even living alongside it, degenerate itself. What beauty can there be when the battle is to the stronger, and the weaker must suffer in the struggle of nations and in the struggle of individual men? You may say: Let us cease to struggle; let us leave the lands of the world to the races that cannot profit by them to the full; let us cease to compete in the markets of the world. Well, we could do it, if we were a small nation living on the produce of our own soil, and a soil so worthless that no other race envied it and sought to appropriate it. We should cease to advance; but then we should naturally give up progress as a good which comes through suffering. I say it is possible for a small rural community to stand apart from the world-contest and to stagnate, if no more powerful nation wants its possessions. But are we such a community?
Is it not a fact that the daily bread of our millions of workers depends on their having somebody to work for? That if we give up the contest for trade-routes and for free markets and for waste lands, we indirectly give up our food-supply? Is it not a fact that our strength depends on these and upon our colonies, and that our colonies have been won by the ejection of inferior races, and are maintained against equal races only by respect for the present power of our empire? If war or competition lessen the China trade, if a bad harvest or a flood check the import of Egyptian or American cotton, it is the Lancashire operative who feels the pinch. The day when we cease to hold our own among the nations will be the day of catastrophe for our workers at home. We could return to the condition of medieval England, to the condition of Norway or Denmark, but only by a process of intense selection, reducing our millions in a manner which the imagination refuses to contemplate. Being as we are, we cannot give up the struggle, and the moment dearth of ability, the want of brains and physique in the right place, leads to serious defeat, our catastrophe will come. That is the vision which depressed thoughtful men at the beginning of this year ; that is the dread which must be ever in the mind of the true statesman when he seeks, on the one hand, to curb the rash venture which may overstrain our power, and on the other hand, to maintain our right to work the unutilized resources of earth, be they in Africa or in Asia.
Struggle of race against race, and of man against man if this be the scientific view of life, the basis of human progress how have human love and sympathy come to play such a great part in the world? Here, again, I think science has something to say, although the earlier interpreters of evolution rather obscured it. They painted evolution as the survival of the fittest individual, and spoke of his struggle against his fellows.
But this is not the only form of selection at work; it is often quite the least effective phase of the contest. Consciously or unconsciously, one type of life is fighting against a second type, and all life is struggling with its physical environment. The safety of a gregarious animal and man is essentially such depends upon the intensity with which the social instinct has been developed. The stability of a race depends entirely on the extent to which the social feelings have got a real hold on it. The race which allows the physically or mentally stronger Tom to make the existence of the somewhat inferior Jack impossible will never succeed when it comes into contest with a second race. Jack has no interests in common with Tom; the oppressed will hardly get worse terms from a new master. That is why no strong and permanent civilization can be built upon slave labour, why an inferior race doing menial labour for a superior race can give no stable community; that is why we shall never have a healthy social state in South Africa until the White man replaces the dark in the fields and in the mines, and the Bantu is pushed back towards the equator. The nation organized for the struggle must be a homogeneous whole, not a mixture of superior and inferior races. For this reason every new land we colonize with White men is a source of strength; every land of coloured men we simply rule may be needful as a source of food and mineral wealth, but it is not an element of stability in our community, and must ever be regarded with grave anxiety by our statesmen.
This need for homogeneity in a nation may be pushed further. We must not have class differences and wealth differences and education differences so great within the community that we lose the sense of common interest, and feel only the pressure of the struggle of man against man. No tribe of men can work together unless the tribal interest dominates the personal and individual interest at all points where they come into conflict. The struggle among primitive men of tribe against tribe evolved the social instinct. The tribe with the greater social feeling survived; we have to thank the struggle for existence for first making man gregarious, and then intensifying, stage by stage, the social feeling. Such is the scientific account of the origin of our social instincts; and if you come to analyze it, such is the origin of what we term morality; morality is only the developed form of the tribal habit, the custom of acting in a certain way towards our fellows, upon which the very safety of the tribe originally depended. Philosophies may be invented, the supersensuous appealed to in order to increase the sanctions on social or moral conduct; but the natural history of morality begins with the kin-group, spreads to the tribe, to the nation, to allied races, and ultimately to inferior races and lower types of life, but ever with decreasing intensity. The demands upon the spirit of self-sacrifice which can be made by our kin, by our countrymen, by Europeans, by Chinamen, by Negroes and by Bantus, by animals, may not be clearly defined ; but, on the average, they admit of rough graduation, and we find in practice, whatever be our fine philosophies, that the instinct to self-sacrifice wanes as we go down in the scale.
The man who tells us that he feels to all men alike, that he has no sense of kinship, that he has no patriotic sentiment, that he loves the Bantu as he loves his brother, is probably deceiving himself. If he is not, then all we can say is that a nation of such men or even a nation with a large minority of such men, will not stand for many generations; it cannot survive in the struggle of the nations, it cannot be a factor in the contest upon which human progress ultimately depends. The national spirit is not a thing to be ashamed of, as the educated man seems occasionally to hold. If that spirit be the mere excrescence of the music-hall, or an ignorant assertion of superiority to the foreigner, it may be ridiculous, it may even be nationally dangerous; but if the national spirit takes the form of a strong feeling of the importance of organizing the nation as a whole, of making its social and economic conditions such that it is able to do its work in the world and meet its fellows without hesitation in the field and in the market, then it seems to me a wholly good spirit indeed, one of the highest forms of social, that is, moral instinct.
So far from our having too much of this spirit of patriotism, I doubt if we have anything like enough of it. We wait to improve the condition of some class of workers until they themselves cry out or even rebel against their economic condition. We do not better their state because we perceive its relation to the strength and stability of the nation as a whole. Too often it is done as the outcome of a blind class war. The coal-owners, the miners, the manufacturers, the mill-hands, the landlords, the farmers, the agricultural labourers, struggle by fair means, and occasionally by foul against each other, and in doing so, against the nation at large, and our statesmen as a rule look on. That was the correct attitude from the standpoint of the old political economy. It is not the correct attitude from the standpoint of science; for science realizes that the nation is an organized whole, in continual struggle with its competitors. You cannot get a strong and effective nation if many of its stomachs are half fed and many of its brains untrained. We, as a nation, cannot survive in the struggle for existence if we allow class distinctions to permanently endow the brainless and to push them into posts of national responsibility. The true statesman has to limit the internal struggle of the community in order to make it stronger for the external struggle. We must reward ability, we must pay for brains, we must give larger advantage to physique ; but we must not do this at a rate which renders the lot of the mediocre a wholly unhappy one. We must foster exceptional brains and physique for national purposes ; but, however useful prize-cattle may be, they are not bred for their own sake, but as a step towards the improvement of the whole herd.
If I have put my position at all clearly, you will see how the key to it lies in the gregarious nature of man. The older evolutionists overlooked several of the factors of the struggle for existence. They emphasized, in a way which now appears almost absurd, the struggle of individual with individual. They do not appear to have recognised that many of the characters which give man his foremost place in the animal kingdom were evoked in the struggle of tribe against tribe, of race against race, and even of man as a whole against other forms of life and against his physical environment. Like the other political economists, they thought all real progress depended upon an all-round fight within the community. They forgot that the herd exists owing to its social instincts, and that human sympathy and racial and national feelings are strong natural forces controlling individual conduct and economic theories based purely on questions of supply and demand. It is the herd, the tribe, or the nation which forms the fundamental unit in the evolution of man, and it is to the leaders of the herd, or nation, that we ought to look for conscious recognition of this fact.
If they are true statesmen, they ought not merely to advance in the direction they may be pushed by the immediate needs of one overburdened class, or by the overloud cry of another group dominant for the time being ; they ought to look upon the community as an organized whole, and treat class needs and group cries from the standpoint of the efficiency of the herd at large. Their duty is to lessen, if not to suspend, the internal struggle, that the nation may be strong externally. One point only is fundamental in that suspension of the internal struggle, and this holds for man as it holds for every gregarious animal: social sympathy and State aid must not be carried so far within the community that the intellectually and physically weaker stocks multiply at the same rate as the better stocks.
The dearth of brains and the dearth of physique are the worst misfortunes that can befall a nation, and yet how many of our rulers realize that brains and physique are not things scattered at random among the population, which they can lay their hands on whenever they need them ? Our legislators get wonderfully excited over laws relating to horses and cattle; they devote money and time to breeding purposes, and realize the strength of the laws of inheritance when they endow national studs and give prizes to encourage the maintenance of good stock, or when again they work for the establishment of selected herds. But which of them has considered domestic legislation from the natural history standpoint? What statesman has remembered that in the character of the national fertility of to-day is written the strength or weakness of the nation to-morrow? I fear we leave these things to chance, or to the caprice of individual selfishness. As long as the social conditions were such that the weak within the community were not protected by the State ; as long as there was no restriction on the fertility of the better stocks, we might in a rough-and-ready manner trust that our population would be recruited from its fitter members, But with the social movements of the present day, the reduction in infantile mortality, principally of the inferior stocks, the reduction in the birth-rate, principally of the superior stocks, science may well call the attention of our rulers to a possible famine a day when we shall want brains and want physique, and shall not find the necessary reserve of them.
Take the case of ability in particular. Francis Galton has shown us that it largely arises from special stocks ; but if those stocks decrease their output, then by so much does the rare chance of a man of marked ability appearing grow rarer. Again, I repeat, we may, after all, only want brains in the right place. But besides the need of them in South Africa, which was recently fairly manifest, look to any branch of national life, and may we not fear the dearth has already begun? Where are the young men in the political world who can stir even a small section of the community to united action? Where are the younger civil servants to replace our dying proconsuls, the men to whom the nation can commit with a feeling of security and confidence the future problems of South Africa itself? Where are the new writers to whom the nation listens as it did to Carlyle, Ruskin, and Browning? or for whose books it eagerly waits as it did for those of Thackeray and George Eliot ? Where are the leaders of science who will make the epoch that Darwin and Huxley made in biology, or Faraday and Clerk Maxwell in physics ? There may be steady average ability, but where is the fire of genius, the spirit of enthusiasm, which creates the leader of men either in thought or action? Alas! It is difficult to see any light on the horizon predicting the dawn of an intellectual renaissance, or heralding social and political reforms such as carried the nation through the difficult fifty years of the middle of last century. Possibly our strong men may have got into the wrong places. Ability may have drifted onto the Stock Exchange, the race-course, or the cricket-field, for aught I can say to the contrary; but I must confess to feeling sometimes that an actual dearth is upon us. And if this should be so, then the unchangeable law of heredity shows us only too clearly the chief source of the evil: we have multiplied from the inferior, and not from the superior stocks. I have laid special stress on this point, for I want to impress you with two aspects under which science is of national value. The one is as a great factor of education. On its facts and its formulae I lay no weight; you will find them appraised nay, overvalued by the modern apostles of technical instruction. But education is not a communication of knowledge; it is a drawing out and an exercising of brain power. Here science, true science, in the hands of the master-scout can teach us to observe and infer from observation more readily and more effectively than perhaps any other form of mental discipline. It is the trained scout in all fields of our national activity that we need so badly.
The other aspect from which science claims national value is from the interpretation it puts upon the functions and the historical development of the community. It teaches us to examine the efficiency of the nation from the natural history standpoint. We find that the law of the survival of the fitter is true of mankind, but that the struggle is that of the gregarious animal. A community not knit together by strong social instincts, by sympathy between man and man, and class and class, cannot face the external contest, the competition with other nations, by peace or by war, for the raw material of production and for its food supply. This struggle of tribe with tribe, and nation with nation, may have its mournful side ; but we see as a result of it the gradual progress of mankind to higher intellectual and physical efficiency. It is idle to condemm it; we can only see that it exists and recognise what we have gained by it civilization and social sympathy. But while the statesman has to watch this external struggle, to see that the nation is really an organized whole, not a loose agglomeration of hostile groups of men seeking primarily their own profit and pleasure at the national expense; while he has to check the internal struggle of man with man, he must be very cautious that the nation is not silently rotting at its core. He must insure that the fertility of the inferior stocks is checked, and that of the superior stocks encouraged; he must regard with suspicion anything that tempts the physically and mentally fitter men and women to remain childless. He must see to it that a reserve of brain and muscle is pushed down into occupations which have little apparent need of them, or forced into new lands even at the expense of inferior races. For upon this reserve we shall surely have to fall back in times of crisis and such crises will come in our lifetime, to judge by economic and political history, which may far surpass in magnitude even that of this year. Shortly, the statesman has to hold the balance between the strong social feelings upon which are based the external success of the nation and the crude natural check to the unlimited multiplication of the unfit upon which the internal soundness of the nation depends. That is the great lesson we must learn from natural selection and the law of inheritance as applied to human communities.
I have endeavoured to place before you a few of the problems which, it seems to me, arise from a consideration of some of our recent difficulties in war and in trade. Science is not a dogma; it has no infallible popes to pronounce authoritatively what its teaching is. I can only say how it seems to one individual scientific worker that the doctrine of evolution applies to the history of nations. My interpretation way be wrong, but of the true method I am sure: a community of men is as subject as a community of ants or as a herd of buffaloes to the laws which rule all organic nature. We cannot escape from them; it serves no purpose to protest at what some term their cruelty and their bloodthirstiness. We can only study these laws, recognise what of gain they have brought to man, and urge the statesman and the thinker to regard and use them, as the engineer and inventor regard and then turn to human profit the equally unchangeable laws of physical nature. The origin of the world and the purport of life are mysteries alike to the poet, the theologian, and the man of science. One who has stood somewhat as the mediator between the three admitted the mystery, saw the cruelty of natural processes when judged from the relative standpoint of man, but found therein an undefinable tendency towards righteousness. If by righteousness he meant wider human sympathies, intenser social instincts, keener pity, and clearer principles of conduct, then I believe that tendency, that continual progress of mankind, is the scarcely recognised outcome of the bitter struggle of race with race, the result of man, like all other life, being subject to the stern law of the survival of the fitter, to the victory of the physically and mentally better organized. Mankind as a whole, like the individual man, advances through pain and suffering only. The path of progress is strewn with the wreck of nations; traces are everywhere to be seen of the hecatombs of inferior races, and of victims who found not the narrow way to the greater perfection. Yet these dead peoples are, in very truth, the stepping-stones on which mankind has arisen to the higher intellectual and deeper emotional life of to-day.
By Karl Pearson, F.R.S., 1900
# # # #
* Note: The author used the term ‘Kaffir’ in the original text, a term that has come to be regarded as derogatory and so as not to cause unnecessary offense, the more anthropologically correct term ‘Bantu’ has been used above, in it’s place.
# # # # |
They can't put a ring on it, but when these animals find a mate, they're ready to commit.
1. Gibbons
The furry, tree-swinging gibbon doesn't monkey around with a lot of partners in its 35- to 40-year lifespan. Males and females form strong bonds and exhibit a surprising amount of relationship equality as they raise a family. They care for their young together, groom each other, and spend quality time vocalizing and hanging out. But not every relationship is perfect. Cheating, breakups, and remarriage all occur within the gibbon community. Sexting and online dating, however, do not. Yet.
2. Schistosoma mansoni worms
What's a nice girl like you doing in a human like this? There's nothing romantic about Schistosoma Mansoni, a parasitic flatworm that uses freshwater snails to get to humans. Once it attaches to human skin, it usually penetrates the epidermis through a hair follicle and deposits larvae that feed on blood in the lymphatic system and lungs. When the larvae migrate to the heart, they start looking for The One. Male and female larvae monogamously pair off and eventually travel to the mesenteric veins that drain blood from the intestines. Together, they reach sexual maturity and produce about 300 eggs per day. Postively heartwarming.
3. Wolves
It's usually "'til death do us part" for wolves. In the wild, they start breeding by the age of two. Mated pairs build their wolf pack by having a new litter every year. (Most wolves don't experience reproductive senescence, either, and can have babies until they die.) So when you see a lone wolf, have some sympathy. He's single and looking for love, mourning his dead partner, or, in extreme cases, nursing a breakup with the pack.
4. Beavers
Only about 3 percent of mammals are socially monogamous, but leave it to beavers to show us how it's done. After mating, the rodents spend as much time maintaining their relationships as they do their dams and lodges. The males and females co-parent their young and stay together until one partner dies. Attached beavers occasionally philander, but it's not enough to break up the family.
5. Shingleback skinks
Unlike most reptiles, the shingleback skink of Australia only has eyes for one mate. Males make a series of moves—including caressing and licking females—before copulating. Courtship takes months, but partnered bliss can last over 20 years.
6. Barn owls
Some 90 percent of birds are socially monogamous, but that doesn't mean they're completely faithful to one mate. Barn owls, however, put all their eggs in one basket. Males woo females with screeches and gifts of dead mice. If the female responds with croaking sounds, she's basically saying, "I do."
7. Bald eagles
iStock
Long-distance relationships aren't easy, but bald eagles thrive in them. The birds fly solo during winter and migration, reconnecting with their mates each breeding season. Most eagles pair off by the age of five and stay together at least 20 years.
8. French angelfish
iStock
Don't let the name fool you. These lovers are aggressive fighters that do almost everything as a pair—hunting, hanging out in the reef, and defending their territory. And you thought your ex was clingy.
9. Octopods
The brainiest invertebrate of them all usually keeps others at eight arms' length. But when it's time to mate, they dedicate their lives to one partner. Well, sort of. Octopuses only live one or two years, so they spawn once and then die shortly after. But the Pacific striped octopus is an exception, with the ability to lay multiple clutches of eggs. Instead of mating once at a distance to avoid being eaten, these creatures mate face to face a number of times and even appear to kiss and fondle each other's suckers. Get a room, you two!
10. Swans
iStock
We've already established that birds of a feather like to flock together, but the commitment of the male swan really stands out. In addition to helping their mates build nests, they're one of only two male birds in the Anatidae family that share egg incubation duties. |
by
On April 19, 2016, thousands of scientists and researchers marched from Maidan Square in central Kyiv – the cradle of the Ukrainian ‘revolutions’ of 2004 and 2014 – to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s Parliament). They were protesting the dire situation of Ukrainian science and demanding increases to the state financing of Ukrainian scientific and research institutions, including the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU) and specialized academies of sciences, including the National Academy of Pedagogic Sciences, Academy of Medical Sciences and the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Ukraine. [1]
The protest was organized by the Trade Union of Employees of NASU. It was the largest such protest of scientists since 1994. Earlier this year, protest actions by Ukrainian scientists took place in the cities of Lviv, Kharkiv, and Odessa.
During this latest action in Kyiv, the head of the union at NASU, Anatoliy Shyrokov, declared that Ukrainian science has never been in such a catastrophic situation. In 2015, state expenses on science were already at an abysmally low 0.3 per cent of GDP; the corresponding figure in 2016 is around 0.2 per cent.
The overall budgetary expenditures of Ukraine for 2016 were increased by 14.2 per cent compared to 2015, but the financing of academies of science was cut by 19 per cent. Meager financing of NASU for 2016 (2.1 billion hryvnia – app. 83 million USD) does not cover even the payroll expenditures of the NASU (2.3 billion hryvnia – app. 91 million USD) or the indexation of salaries against Ukraine’s very high rate of inflation. There are also expenses for power supply, other utilities, maintenance and development of infrastructure and equipment, and research proper, explains the message of the NASU union to party leaders in the Rada.
Under such unfavorable conditions, researchers, especially talented youth, are quitting the Academy. In 2015, 2,830 employees left NASU. They were not fired due to cuts but just quit, explained Anatoliy Shyrokov. Those who left include more than 90 doctors of science and 511 PhDs.[2]
Shyrokov in his speech to the protest action in Kiev declared that young researchers are enrolling massively into English language courses to “at least enrich science in Europe and in North America” because the Ukrainian state does not respect and does not value the homegrown intellect.
In an address of the NASU union to Ukrainian politicians, the organization states that the ratio of researchers to the working population in Ukraine has regressed to the level of Moldova and Albania. The Ukrainian indicator is five to six times lower than the average of countries of the European Union.
Every research institution in Ukraine has to reduce its hours of paid employment because there is not enough money to pay entire salaries. Many employees are forced to take unpaid leaves.
At a press-conference at the UNIAN press agency, held under a banner with a telling title ‘No to destruction of science’, Shyrokov said that NASU is short of at least 725 million hryvnia for its 2016 budget. He also explained that scientists organized several protests in 2015 demanding budget increases but their demands fell on deaf ears. At the same time, during the past five years, the government has increased budget expenditures of the Prosecutor General office by 240 per cent, of the Security Service by 164 per cent and of the Ministry of Interior (police) by 506 per cent. Financing of NASU increased by 11 per cent during the same period.
Another academician at NASU, Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics A. Zahorodniy, told the press conference at UNIAN that in the last five years, the number of researchers at NASU has decreased from 21,000 to 17,000. The state budget of Ukraine for 2016 directs NASU to “optimize” its institutions, including cutting of the personnel.
Zahorodniy believes that if the brain drain from Ukraine increases, it will be impossible to ensure high quality research and replenish the personnel of NASU with talented youth. Ukraine’s strong scientific tradition could be broken in one or two years, he fears, saying it takes decades to create a good school of science. Moreover, in Ukraine, only NASU has the means for scientists to study important, fundamental problems, such as the origin and evolution of the universe, dark matter and dark energy. The institution also provides scientific support for the basic industries of Ukraine.
State financing of Ukrainian science started dropping after independence in 1991. The ‘brain drain’ started then as well. For instance, the number of researchers in post-Soviet Ukraine decreased three times from 1991 to 2013.
Expenditures for research and development have been steadily declining in Ukraine: in 1991 they constituted 2.44 per cent of GDP. In 2011, they reached 0.74 per cent and slightly increased to 0.76 per cent in 2013, under then-president Yanukovych. Compare it to 0.2% of the GDP in 2016, under president Poroshenko, who wowed to bring Ukraine to Europe and make of Ukraine a developed country.
How much do developed countries spend on research and development? In 2014, Germany spent 2.8% of its GDP; France spent 2.3 per cent; Sweden, 3.2 per cent; Austria, 3 per cent. In the European Union overall, the expenditures on research and development constituted 1.94 per cent. Ukraine regressed from the level of developed countries in 1991 with 2.4 per cent to the level of a Third World country in 2016 with 0.2 per cent.
Photos of the Ukrainian scientists’ protest demonstration on April 19 show banners expressing their multiple concerns. They read, ‘A country without science is a country without a future’, ‘Ukraine without science is a Third World country’, and ‘Without science there is no European future for Ukraine’.
An older gentleman at the rally held a banner saying ‘Fund the salaries of scientists with taxes on the rich’.
I feel some pity as well as compassion for this older gentleman. He probably still lives mentally in Soviet Ukraine, where science and research were prestigious professions and where Ukrainians together with Russians were building spaceships and atomic reactors, where fundamental research was funded by the state, and where thinking about dark matter and dark energy was possible because however small one’s salary and apartment may have been, the vast majority of people of Ukraine lived in some form of equality.
Since Ukraine became independent in 1991, the country’s scientific institutions have found themselves in the dark hole of dire financial circumstances, like every other institution relying on the state budget. And that’s also when the brain drain from Ukraine began.
I remember those difficult times in the early 1990s when I lived in Kyiv and was studying as a doctoral student at the Institute of Linguistics of NASU. I remember the high-ceilinged offices in the NASU building on Hrushevskoho Street, with their aesthetic simplicity, complete with bookshelves, desks and old rotary phones. An old Soviet-style canteen was on the first floor.
There was a stark contrast at NASU between the shabby, leatherette covered doors of our department of Slavic and Baltic languages and the shiny doors of another room on the same floor, upholstered in brand-new leather. This was a space which the Institute was renting to a private firm. NASU’s building is located in downtown Kyiv, so it was convenient for firms looking to rent an office and scientific or educational institutes, in dire need of money, were renting many rooms to various firms.
Soon our canteen on the first floor was transformed into a Thai restaurant. I remember our first visit there after having received our monthly bursary. We were curious to try out the exotic food. I will never forget a friend’s enthusiasm over pineapple chicken, whereas I was rather puzzled – the taste was foreign and strange compared to my Ukrainian culinary habits. And the price of that Thai treat was rather steep for our modest means. But it was so cool, so Western!
Today’s youth in Ukraine are fascinated by the West as well. To be with the West is a “big Ukrainian dream”, as President Poroshenko recently declared. Obtaining visa free entry to the European Union is the ultimate goal of Euromaidan Ukraine. It is a symbol of success, of European recognition that Ukrainians are equal to ‘civilized’ Europeans. It doesn’t matter that today, the majority of Ukrainians cannot even dream of a tourist trip to Prague or Paris because, quite simply, they are in survival mode.
Thank the current regime in Kyiv for that. It is slavishly, blindly following the neoliberal advice of the West, which is designed to ‘open’ Ukraine to Western business interests. Ukrainian political and business elites are trying so hard to be admitted to the ‘elite’ club of Western countries that they do not notice that nobody wants them there – they are perceived as something akin to the kinglets of colonial times, offering their lands and people to the white man in exchange for glass beads.
These new, ‘European’ elites of Ukraine do not understand a simple, fundamental truth – the West never helps out others from sheer altruism or love for democracy and human rights. There are always strings attached to credits provided by the IMF and other Western financial institutions, designed to ensure the interests of Western capital. ‘Reform – and we will give you money,’ they say. Then comes, ‘You are not reforming your economy fast enough – sorry no money for you.’ Or, ‘ You are not fighting corruption resolutely enough – no money.’ And so on. Then Ukraine’s politicians start making declarations even faster, swearing to the West that they are fighting corruption, accusing each other, suing each other in courts whose impartiality and fairness have been tarnished even more in post-Maidan Ukraine.
The ousted Ukrainian President Yanukovych used to say: “We must build Europe here, in Ukraine.” These are wise words, whoever authored them. Any country aspiring to build a true democracy in which differences are respected and an economy in which nobody begs in the streets should not follow the road of Western neoliberal capitalism. That road leads to colonization – the loss of national sovereignty and the subordination to the dictate of transnational corporations.
In the case of Ukraine, with its industry and science developed during the years of the Soviet Union, the Western model means the destruction of both. For one simple reason – Ukrainian industry and science cannot compete with the advanced industry and science in the West. In order to encourage the development of national research and industry, the Ukrainian government needs to finance and invest in science. Money for research and the impulse to develop new technologies typically come from industry. Since 1991, Ukraine’s industrial ties have been with Russia.
One of the few world-scale enterprises in Ukraine was the Motorsich plant in Zaporizzhia, manufacturing engines for airplanes and helicopters. Motorsich was the main supplier of shaft-turbine engines for Russian helicopters, and Russia was the main market for the company. For instance, in 2013, 52 per cent of the revenues of Motorsich were generated by exports to the Russian Federation.
The gas turbine research and production complex ‘Zorya-Mashproekt’ in Mykolayiv in southern Ukraine used to supply gas turbine engines to almost all Russian military ships.
Kharkiv TurboAtom, a designer and manufacturer of steam turbines, sold turbines for nuclear power plants and hydro-electric and thermal power plants in Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. In 2014, 60 per cent of its exports went to these countries.
I could provide many other examples of Ukrainian advanced technology products being exported to Russia. The whole infrastructure of Ukrainian industry and science was designed and built in the Soviet Union. The system of standards and norms of Ukrainian industry was developed in the Soviet Union. It is different than the standards used in Europe and North America. It cannot be changed overnight without provoking a technological catastrophe.
Here is an example. Ukrainians took a political decision to replace the Russia-produced fuel for Ukrainian nuclear reactors with fuel produced by the U.S. conglomerate Westinghouse. Former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk trumpeted this as yet another successful step in the diversification of the nuclear fuel supply in Ukraine and the reduction of its dependence on Russia.
The Czech Republic could have warned Mr. Yatseniuk not to shout prematurely. Czechs have been down this road. In January of 2007, the entire first unit of the Soviet-designed Temelin nuclear plant in the Czech Republic required an emergency shutdown caused by problems associated with fuel supplied by Westinghouse. The problem was that when burning, the Westinghouse-supplied fuel deformed the reactor, causing disruptions to the power plant’s operation. Temelin is the Czech Republic’s largest nuclear power plant. In 2010, it had to resume the use of Russia-manufactured fuel.
Ukraine had its own, earlier unsuccessful experience with Westinghouse nuclear fuel. In April of 2012, Westinghouse fuel assemblies (cartridges) were tested in the third power generating unit of the nuclear power plant in Mykolaiv. The tests were stopped because the cartridges became bent and deformed, making it difficult to remove them from the reactor as needed. Enerhoatom, the Ukrainian state company operating all nuclear plants in Ukraine, lost at least 175 million dollars as the result of this test.
Ukrainian politicians’ desire to break all ties with Russia goes against common sense. It is so obvious as to hardly need spelling out. Since the summer of 2014, when the Ukrainian leadership declared that Ukraine would stop trade relations with Russia, Ukrainian industrial production has dropped precipitously. The decline between January-March of 2015 was 20.5 per cent compared to the same period of 2014, while in general, industrial production in Ukraine fell by 13.4 per cent in 2015 compared to 10.1 per cent in 2014. (The optimistic note is that it increased by 4.6 per cent in March 2016.)
Ukraine is also reverting to being primarily an agricultural country. In January-February of 2016 the first two positions in Ukrainian export were occupied by corn and sunflower oil, while the mechanical engineering production export is being pushed at the bottom of the lists.
The West does not need Ukrainian technologies or Ukrainian industry. The West needs open markets where it can sell its own products. The Ukrainian political leadership does not seem to understand this simple reality. Or quite possibly, they understand exactly what they are doing and accept it.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian scientists and researchers see one obvious thing – Ukraine is rapidly becoming a Third World country, if it is not already there. A Third World country does not need science.
I sincerely hope that the ‘big’ Ukrainian dream will be realized one day and Ukraine can find a productive and respectful relationship with the countries of the European Union. But today, this dream seems so distant that it is rather a utopia than a realizable dream. Ukraine is losing its chance of becoming an independent, neutral country that could develop its economy by continuing cooperation with Russia while simultaneously developing ties with the European Union.
Ukrainians wanted so desperately their own share of the European paradise that there was no way of stopping them. They had to try. I hope they have realized by now that nobody in Europe really wants another lodger at the table.
The good news is that Ukrainian scientists are actively voicing their concerns. On the same date of April 19 following the protest actions of scientists, the government of Ukraine organized a meeting to discuss increasing state funding of science. On April 20, the Science and Education Committee of the Verkhovna Rada held hearings on the subject. As a result, several deputies brought in a bill to increase the budget expenditures for Ukrainian science (by 622 million hryvnia – app. 25 million USD).
Notes: [1] The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine was founded on November 27, 1918 in Kyiv by Vladimir Vernadsky, prominent mineralogist and geochemist. NASU is a self-governing, state institute of high research. NASU conducts fundamental and applied research on the most important issues of natural, technical, social and humanities sciences. It has 168 affiliated academic research institutions and 46 affiliated industrial research organizations. It has five regional research centers of in association with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region; Lviv in western Ukraine; Odessa in southern Ukraine, Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine and Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine.
[2] The Ukrainian system of attaining academic/research degrees remains the same as it was in the Soviet Union. The Soviet system was inspired by the German and Austrian classifications. In this classification, the degree of a Doctor of Science is the highest research degree in a given field. It requires writing a dissertation and a monograph. In Germany, this qualification is called Habilitation. North American PhD degrees are equivalent to a candidate of sciences title in Ukraine and Russia, which is one level lower than a doctor of science. |
Fans of DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS have already seen characters such as Deadman, The Challengers of the Unknown, Vandal Savage, Kid Flash, and Black Lightning and Blue Devil take center stage in this anthology-style series. Today, we’re pleased to announce that joining the ranks of these characters is RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS’ Arsenal!
Roy Harper is all too familiar with the road to hell being paved with good intentions, so he’s not totally surprised when an attempt to help Killer Croc leaves him running for his life on the streets of Japan. Also guest-starring Red Hood and Starfire, DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS #17 is a special one-shot that comes to you from writer Joe Keatinge and artist Ricken.
Below, take an exclusive first look at DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS #17 by checking out Ryan Sook’s cover for the issue, which hits store on February 20th. |
Expect traffic hell in Manhattan this weekend.
About 120 blocks around the borough are scheduled for street closures Saturday.
Car Free Earth Day will take more than 30 blocks of Broadway between 17th and 47th streets and nine blocks of St. Nicholas Avenue between 181st and 190th streets, while the March for Science will shut down Broadway from 47th Street to Columbus Circle and Central Park West from Columbus Circle to 86th Street, as well as chunks of 61st, 62nd, 64th, 71st and 72nd streets.
There’s also the Sikh Cultural Society annual parade and festival, the Chelsea Jewish Center’s Sixth Avenue Festival and the 27th Annual Upper Broadway Spring Festival.
Marchers will take up Madison Avenue from 24th to 38th streets, along with adjacent blocks on 36th, 37th, and 38th streets.
The Chelsea Jewish Center will be using Sixth Avenue between 23rd and 32nd streets.
Things won’t be much better on Sunday, when Manhattan will host an immigrants’ rights march, the West Side Spring Festival and the 911 Memorial 5K. |
Mars Panorama - Next Best Thing to Being There
PASADENA, Calif. -- From fresh rover tracks to an impact crater blasted billions of years ago, a newly completed view from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the ruddy terrain around the outcrop where the long-lived explorer spent its most recent Martian winter.
This scene recorded from the mast-mounted color camera includes the rover's own solar arrays and deck in the foreground, providing a sense of sitting on top of the rover and taking in the view. Its release this week coincides with two milestones: Opportunity completing its 3,000th Martian day on July 2, and NASA continuing past 15 years of robotic presence at Mars. Mars Pathfinder landed July 4, 1997. NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter reached the planet while Pathfinder was still active, and Global Surveyor overlapped the active missions of the Mars Odyssey orbiter and Opportunity, both still in service.
The new panorama is online at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15689. It is presented in false color to emphasize differences between materials in the scene. It was assembled from 817 component images taken between Dec. 21, 2011, and May 8, 2012, while Opportunity was stationed on an outcrop informally named "Greeley Haven," on a segment of the rim of ancient Endeavour Crater.
"The view provides rich geologic context for the detailed chemical and mineral work that the team did at Greeley Haven over the rover's fifth Martian winter, as well as a spectacularly detailed view of the largest impact crater that we've driven to yet with either rover over the course of the mission," said Jim Bell of Arizona State University, Tempe, Pancam lead scientist.
Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, landed on Mars in January 2004 for missions originally planned to last for three months. NASA's next-generation Mars rover, Curiosity, is on course for landing on Mars next month.
Opportunity's science team chose to call the winter campaign site Greeley Haven in tribute to Ronald Greeley (1939-2011), a team member who taught generations of planetary science students at Arizona State University.
"Ron Greeley was a valued colleague and friend, and this scene, with its beautiful wind-blown drifts and dunes, captures much of what Ron loved about Mars," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for Opportunity and Spirit.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
More information about Opportunity is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov . You can follow the project on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MarsRovers and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers .
Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
[email protected]
2012-196 |
Dear JAMF Nation,
I am pleased to announce that on April 6, 2016, the registration site will launch for the 2016 JAMF Nation User Conference (JNUC). For the sixth consecutive year, we will host JNUC at the historic Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 18-20, 2016.
Prior to the registration site opening and issuing our public press release, I wanted to first write a personal message to you, JAMF Nation, informing you of several changes to this year’s event — and more importantly, the reasons why.
Back in 2010, JAMF founders, Zach Halmstad and Chip Pearson, had a vision to bring together a community of JAMF customers for the sole purpose of connecting with and learning from each other. Zach and Chip did not want a ‘marketing event.’ They wanted a gathering for JAMF customers, where the content came from JAMF customers. For those of you who have attended frequently, you know JNUC has become a lot like a reunion, where friends gather to hear stories — some related to our profession, and some not. In short, JAMF Nation has truly become a community.
As JAMF's new CEO, the 2015 JNUC was my very first. I never experienced the intimate gathering of only 100 people back in 2010. I have only known JNUC as the largest gathering of Apple administrators in the world, with more than 1,000 attendees last year. Despite it’s size, it still had a community appeal.
For those who joined us last year, you had an opportunity to meet several new members of the JAMF leadership team, connect with over one hundred new JAMF team members, and witness many informative presentations from JAMF Nation members, including the amazing IBM story of 30,000 Macs deployed in less than four months (having now grown to over 50,000 Macs, as documented in this IBM paper.
During JNUC 2015, you also witnessed first hand, after six years, we have now hit capacity in our current venue at the Guthrie Theatre. Yet JAMF is adding more than two thousand new customers every year. To accommodate this growth, and your desire for even more educational sessions, JNUC requires additional space — which of course requires more investment. The unfortunate reality is that all investments in the JNUC event comes directly out of JAMF’s capacity to invest in your product and support. Thus, we are at a crossroads.
After months of consideration, JAMF has decided it is necessary to share the cost of JNUC with its attendees in order to improve the quality and scope while protecting investment into your product. To be clear, JAMF has no intention of profiting from JNUC. We are not morphing it into a marketing event. Our intent is only to charge enough to help cover the costs of hosting this large gathering. This year’s JNUC prices will encourage early registration, allowing JAMF to plan the best possible event for attendees. The prices will be as follows, based on registration deadlines:
$499 if registered before May 4th
$599 if registered between May 5th and July 12th
$799 if registered between July 13th and October 11th
$999 for those registering after October 11th
JAMF’s desire has always been to keep attendee cost as low as possible. At $499 for early registrants, it continues to be one of the most affordable conferences in the industry. However, we understand that, for over half a decade, it has been one of the very few free technology events. The hard truth is that, with its size and scope, continuing to provide a free event has proven an immense challenge. That challenge is exacerbated when combined with JAMF’s desire to maximize our spending on your product development and support.
When I joined JAMF nearly one year ago, the first improvement I wanted to make was to maximize our investment in product development. In fact, at JNUC 2015, I promised you that JAMF would grow its research and development organization by 60% year-over-year by March 2016. Now that March 2016 has come and gone, I am pleased to report that we have surpassed this goal and grown our product development by 100% since the same time last year.
The result of this growth will be directed toward more new product capabilities delivered with higher levels of quality in 2016 than any year in JAMF history. I can tell you now that in 2016, JAMF will deliver substantial improvements in cloud computing, enterprise integration, scalability and performance, patch management, classroom and school management, usability — for both IT admins and self-service users, and of course, support for the latest Apple releases on the day they become generally available. And you will be able to see and touch all of this new functionality at JNUC 2016.
Proof of our increased product development is already visible with the release of Casper Suite 9.9 on March 31st. As you know, Apple recently announced iOS 9.3, which includes many new features like Managed Home Screen Layout and Managed Lost Mode, as well as substantial functionality to serve the education market like Classroom app and Shared iPad. I am pleased to tell you, with Casper Suite 9.9, JAMF is first in the market to support all of this new functionality, as well as adding iOS and OS X capabilities independent of iOS 9.3. Casper Suite 9.9 represents the first of several feature-packed releases we have planned for 2016, which is possible because of our increased investment in research and development.
With all of this development, rest assured, I still stand firm in the commitment I made to you at last year’s JNUC: At JAMF, quality is more important than time. To support this commitment, our development processes have been bolstered to make sure that products are truly ready when we make them available to you.
Now, back to the topic of JNUC. Last year, I enjoyed meeting and speaking with many of you. In each discussion, I asked, “What about JNUC is valuable to you?” Predominately, you told me relationships and content from customers. However, you also told me you’d like more content from JAMF. You wanted topics to go deeper. Some of you long-time Casper Suite experts felt you had seen everything, and wanted a deeper technical understanding and visibility not only into what Casper Suite does, but what it will do in the future.
Considering this, we are committed to provide you greater information, training, and value than ever before. At JNUC 2016, in addition to customer presentations, JAMF employees will offer tracks that provide education on:
All new functionality offered in 2016
All functionality in planning and development for 2017
Deep dive technical sessions delivered by JAMF’s team of experts
In addition, JAMF will offer shuttle services to visit our new headquarters in Minneapolis and participate in our new usability lab — where you will have an opportunity to direct the user experience for future product. And we will offer simultaneous Casper Suite certification courses through JAMF Education Services, giving course attendees the opportunity to attend JNUC keynotes and social events at no cost. Our registration site will contain details regarding all of these plans. In short, JNUC 2016 will be the best single week of Casper Suite training available anywhere.
We understand the JNUC fee may cause some past participants to miss the 2016 event. We deeply regret this. While the size and scope for JNUC may cause a short-term logistics problem, we are excited about turning the challenge into an opportunity to improve your experience. Our JAMF team plans to over-deliver on the promise of content and experience I'm making in this post. In addition, we will offer complimentary passes to customers providing presentations at JAMF. This incentive will attract case studies on the best and most innovative Casper Suite implementations in the world.
Regardless of whether JNUC is free or for fee, only a small subset of JAMF Nation is able to attend each year. At JAMF, our first investment priority is development and support of product that impacts 100% of JAMF Nation. With the new changes, we will be able to grow JNUC in the future without limitation and deliver you the best event and product experience possible.
In closing, for those able to attend JNUC 2016, my hope and plan is that you'll say, other than purchasing Casper Suite, it was the best JAMF investment you ever made.
Thank you,
Dean |
A private college in Arizona is charging students a fee to fund a scholarship for illegal immigrants, a controversial move supporters say gives a hand to those who need it but anti-illegal immigration advocates call irresponsible.
Prescott College is tacking a $30 annual fee onto its $28,000 annual tuition to establish an annual scholarship for “undocumented” students, as part of a policy first proposed by students and faculty from the undergraduate and Social Justice and Human Rights Master of Arts divisions. While students can opt out of paying the fee, if they do nothing it will be automatically imposed. Backers say it helps reverse what they call Arizona’s reputation as a “national example of discriminatory politics.”
“I am proud that our students take on the role of scholar activists,” said school President John Flicker, adding that the university is committed to “broaden access to higher education for a diverse group of students” and “mobilize its resources towards social justice.”
Supporters note that illegal immigrants are allowed to attend state and private colleges in Arizona, but in most cases cannot legally work or receive government grants or loans. Making legal residents enrolled at the school pay for illegal immigrants’ education is a slap in the face to a generation already facing its post-college years saddled with enormous debt, said Andrew Kloster, legal Fellow for the Center for Legal & Judicial Studies at Heritage Foundation.
“At a time when student loan debt is over $1 trillion it is irresponsible for Prescott College to offer this privilege at the expense of other students,” Kloster said. “While the dollar amount seems small per student, the fee does send a message to potential donors to Prescott College that the administration is less concerned with sound financial management than it is with making a political statement,” Kloster added.
Read More @ FOX News |
Aarhus, Denmark - An innovative rehabilitation programme is offering Danish Muslims in Syria an escape route from the conflict zone and help getting their lives back on track without the threat of prosecution.
The programme, a collaboration between welfare services and police in Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city, offers treatment for shrapnel and gunshot wounds and psychological trauma to returning fighters and humanitarian volunteers as well as assisting them with finding work or resuming their education.
The programme also provides support to the families of those already in Syria, ranging from helping them stay in touch via Skype to liaising with government officials, consulates and intelligence agencies to help get their relatives home when they decide they want to leave.
The scheme offers an alternative approach to the latest tough measures unveiled this week in the UK, where returning Britons already faced likely arrest and the threat of prosecution on terrorism charges.
David Cameron, the British prime minister, on Monday gave police additional powers to confiscate passports and place restrictions on suspected extremists, as well as announcing moves to ban British citizens deemed to pose a threat to national security from returning to the UK.
Last month Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, said returnees from Iraq and Syria should be presumed guilty of involvement in terrorism unless they could prove otherwise.
'Soft hands approach'
Unlike in England, where maybe you're interned for a week while they figure out who you are, we say 'Do you need any help?' - Steffen Nielsen, crime prevention advisor
But Steffen Nielsen, a crime prevention advisor and part of a multi-agency task force tackling radicalisation and discrimination in Aarhus, said authorities there have instead adopted a "soft-hands approach" and were providing help to about 10 out of 15 people who had returned from Syria.
"We are actually embracing them when they come home. Unlike in England, where maybe you're interned for a week while they figure out who you are, we say 'Do you need any help?'" Nielsen told Al Jazeera.
While accepting that some returnees did pose a threat that would require security services to "kick down doors", Nielsen said most needed support to recover from an often terrifying and demoralising ordeal.
"A lot of guys who come home have experienced a loss of innocence and some sort of loss of moral belief. They thought they were going down there for a good cause. And what they found was thugs who are decapitating women and children and raping and killing people, and everything smells and you've got diarrhoea from drinking the water and it's not the great cosmic battle for al-Sham that you'd imagined."
Denmark's PET intelligence agency estimates that more than 100 people have gone to Syria since the war began in 2011, and that at least 15 have died. It said in June that a "significant number" of Danes had acquired "specific military skills as a result of training and participation in combat operations" which could be used to carry out terror attacks.
Police in Aarhus believe they include about 30 people from the city. Danish media reported in July on the death of a local teenager alleged to have been fighting with Islamic State while another local man, a 21-year-old white Danish convert, is believed to have carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq earlier this year.
But Nielsen remains sceptical about how many have been involved in serious fighting and said most who had returned appeared to have travelled to participate in humanitarian work.
He is wary of pictures posted on social media of supposed foreign fighters posing with weapons, suspecting that few graduate to the frontline. Those that did were not the ones coming home, he added.
"The intelligence service says more than 100 people have gone to Syria and their definition is always that they have gone there to fight. But we don't know if they are fighting, and we suspect that the intelligence service doesn't know either."
Nielsen said the programme's separation from the work of the security services and police investigators was critical to its credibility and ability to build relationships in Aarhus' Muslim communities.
"We are very upfront. If we have very clear information that you have fertiliser in the basement then we will pass that on. Otherwise we have a principle that no information goes to the secret service because we can't work with people if they think we are passing on information."
Comfort is key
This is also our approach. Don't make them feel that they have done something wrong. - Oussama El Saadi, Grimhojvej mosque
The programme has also proved effective in stemming the flow of volunteers to Syria by reaching out to leaders of a controversial local mosque linked in the Danish media to 22 people who travelled there last year. Since then, just one person is believed to have followed them.
"They had to decide whether they wanted to talk to us or reject us and they chose to talk. Kudos to them," said Nielsen. "We said, we think it should be handled like this. Young people without any training shouldn't be going to Syria. People from Denmark are not equipped to handle themselves in a conflict zone."
Oussama El Saadi, chairman of the Grimhojvej mosque, said leaders of the mosque were supportive of the approach taken by the local authorities.
"We think this is the right way," El Saadi told Al Jazeera. "Not blaming them and making them feel that they have done a terrible thing and losing contact with them. This is also our approach. Don't make them feel that they have done something wrong. Give them an opportunity to come back and tell what they have experienced."
While the UK's latest package of counter-terrorism measures includes compulsory participation in a de-radicalisation programme for those deemed to hold radical beliefs, Nielsen said Aarhus' scheme was voluntary and did not address issues of ideology.
"We don't spend a lot of energy fighting ideology. We don't try to take away your jihadist beliefs. You are welcome to dream of the Caliphate. But there are some means that you cannot use according to the penal code here. You can be al-Shabab all you like, as long as you don't actually do al-Shabab."
'Trial and error'
Mehdi Mozaffari, an expert on Islamism and radicalisation at Aarhus University, said he welcomed efforts to help young Muslims in the city at risk of being drawn into violence.
But he said work was needed more widely in Denmark to promote democratic values in marginalised communities and to integrate young Muslims and called for a coherent European Union-wide strategy to tackle the threat posed by Islamic extremism.
"It is positive. Every attempt to keep them out of terrorism and war is welcome," Mozaffari told Al Jazeera. "There is a need for decisive initiatives but I don't think this kind of small project will radically change the situation and nothing guarantees that it will be a success."
Nielsen accepts that much of the work being done in Aarhus is "trial and error", describing the city as a "petri dish" for new methods. He said much of the programme had been developed when Jabhat al-Nusra was still the dominant rebel faction, with the rapid rise of Islamic State posing new dangers and greater uncertainty for Danes involved in the conflict.
"It has made communication easier. Islamic State is so openly violent that it has made it easier for us to say, look, these guys are crazy, these guys do outrageous stuff. You are the one who risk being maimed and used in fighting against other rebels instead of Assad's forces. But at the same time, their success makes them more appealing to some young people."
Danish authorities are also coming under increasing political pressure to take a tougher approach, with police on Wednesday arresting the head of an aid charity accused of raising money for Islamic State, and leaders of right-wing parties calling on the government to create powers to strip Danes who travel to Syria of their citizenship.
"We are experiencing more political pressure to do something more like the British stuff," said Nielsen. "The entire political debate is rife with simplifications. You can choose to shut them out and say okay, you chose to be a jihadist, we can't use you anymore. Or you can take the inclusive way and say, okay, there is always a door if you want to be a contributing member to society. Not because we are nice people, but because we think that is what works."
Follow Simon Hooper on Twitter: @simonbhooper |
Process leading to the late-1991 breakup of the USSR
The dissolution of the Soviet Union[a] occurred on 26 December 1991, officially granting self-governing independence to the Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). It was a result of the declaration number 142-Н of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.[1] The declaration acknowledged the independence of the former Soviet republics and created the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), although five of the signatories ratified it much later or did not do so at all. On the previous day, 25 December, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and final leader of the USSR, resigned, declared his office extinct and handed over its powers—including control of the Soviet nuclear missile launching codes—to Russian President Boris Yeltsin. That evening at 7:32 p.m., the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian flag.[2]
Previously, from August to December all the individual republics, including Russia itself, had either seceded from the union or at the very least denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR. The week before formal dissolution, eleven republics signed the Alma-Ata Protocol formally establishing the CIS and declaring that the USSR had ceased to exist.[3][4] Both the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the USSR also marked the end of the Cold War.
Several of the former Soviet republics have retained close links with the Russian Federation and formed multilateral organizations such as the Commonwealth of Independent States, Eurasian Economic Community, the Union State, the Eurasian Customs Union and the Eurasian Economic Union to enhance economic and security cooperation. On the other hand, the Baltic states have joined NATO and the European Union.
1985 [ edit ]
Moscow: Mikhail Gorbachev elected General Secretary [ edit ]
Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by the Politburo on March 11, 1985, three hours after predecessor Konstantin Chernenko's death at age 73. Gorbachev, aged 54, was the youngest member of the Politburo. His initial goal as general secretary was to revive the Soviet economy, and he realized that doing so would require reforming underlying political and social structures.[5] The reforms began with personnel changes of senior Brezhnev-era officials who would impede political and economic change.[6] On April 23, 1985, Gorbachev brought two protégés, Yegor Ligachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov, into the Politburo as full members. He kept the "power" ministries happy by promoting KGB Head Viktor Chebrikov from candidate to full member and appointing Minister of Defence Marshal Sergei Sokolov as a Politburo candidate.
This liberalization, however, fostered nationalist movements and ethnic disputes within the Soviet Union.[7] It also led indirectly to the revolutions of 1989, in which Soviet-imposed socialist regimes of the Warsaw Pact were toppled peacefully (with the notable exception of Romania),[8] which in turn increased pressure on Gorbachev to introduce greater democracy and autonomy for the Soviet Union's constituent republics. Under Gorbachev's leadership, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1989 introduced limited competitive elections to a new central legislature, the Congress of People's Deputies[9] (although the ban on other political parties was not lifted until 1990).[10]
In May 1985, Gorbachev delivered a speech in Leningrad advocating reforms and an anti-alcohol campaign to tackle widespread alcoholism. Prices of vodka, wine, and beer were raised, which was intended to discourage drinking by increasing the cost of liquor. A rationing program was also introduced, where citizens were assigned punch cards detailing how much liquor they could buy in a certain time frame. Unlike most forms of rationing, which is typically adopted as a strategy to conserve scarce goods, this was done to restrict sales with the overt goal of curtailing drunkenness.[11] Gorbachev's plan also included billboards promoting sobriety, increased penalties for public drunkenness, and censorship of drinking scenes from old movies. This mirrored Tsar Nicholas II's program during the First World War, which was intended to eradicate drunkenness in order to bolster the war effort. However, that earlier effort was also intended to preserve grain for only the most essential purposes, which did not appear to be a goal in Gorbachev's program. Gorbachev soon faced the same adverse economic reaction to his prohibition as did the last Tsar. The disincentivization of alcohol consumption was a serious blow to the state budget according to Alexander Yakovlev, who noted annual collections of alcohol taxes decreased by 100 billion rubles. Alcohol sales migrated to the black market and moonshining became more prevalent as some made "bathtub vodka" with homegrown potatoes. Poorer, less educated Soviets resorted to drinking unhealthy substitutes such as nail-polish remover, rubbing alcohol, or men's cologne, resulting in an additional burden on Russia's healthcare sector due to the increased poisoning cases.[11] The underlying purpose of these reforms was to prop up the existing command economy, in contrast to later reforms, which tended toward market socialism.
On July 1, 1985, Gorbachev promoted Eduard Shevardnadze, First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party, to full member of the Politburo, and the following day appointed him minister of foreign affairs, replacing longtime Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. The latter, disparaged as "Mr Nyet" in the West, had served for 28 years as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Gromyko was relegated to the largely ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (officially Soviet Head of State), as he was considered an "old thinker". Also on July 1, Gorbachev sidelined his main rival by removing Grigory Romanov from the Politburo and he brought Boris Yeltsin and Lev Zaikov into the CPSU Central Committee Secretariat.
In the fall of 1985, Gorbachev continued to bring younger and more energetic men into government. On September 27, 55-year-old Nikolai Ryzhkov replaced 79-year-old Nikolai Tikhonov as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, effectively the Soviet prime minister, and on October 14, Nikolai Talyzin replaced Nikolai Baibakov as chairman of the State Planning Committee (GOSPLAN). At the next Central Committee meeting on October 15, Tikhonov retired from the Politburo and Talyzin became a candidate. On December 23, 1985, Gorbachev appointed Yeltsin First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party replacing Viktor Grishin.
1986 [ edit ]
Sakharov [ edit ]
Gorbachev continued to press for greater liberalization. On December 23, 1986, the most prominent Soviet dissident, Andrei Sakharov, returned to Moscow shortly after receiving a personal telephone call from Gorbachev telling him that after almost seven years his internal exile for defying the authorities was over.[12]
Baltic republics [ edit ]
The Baltic republics, forcibly reincorporated into the Soviet Union in 1944,[13] pressed for independence, beginning with Estonia in November 1988 when the Estonian legislature passed laws resisting the control of the central government.[14] While Gorbachev had loosened Soviet control over Eastern Europe, he had made it known that Baltic separatism would not be tolerated and be met with embargoes and force if need be, as there was a tacit agreement in the Politboro of the infeasibility of using force to keep Poland and Czechoslovakia communist, but said loss of power would not extend into the USSR itself.[15]
Figure of Liberty on the Freedom Monument in Riga, focus of 1986 Latvian demonstrations
The CTAG (Latvian: Cilvēktiesību aizstāvības grupa, Human Rights Defense Group) Helsinki-86 was founded in July 1986 in the Latvian port town of Liepāja by three workers: Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mārtiņš Bariss. Its name refers to the human-rights statements of the Helsinki Accords. Helsinki-86 was the first openly anti-Communist organization in the U.S.S.R., and the first openly organized opposition to the Soviet regime, setting an example for other ethnic minorities' pro-independence movements.[citation needed]
On December 26, 1986, in the early morning hours after a rock concert, 300 working-class Latvian youths gathered in Riga's Cathedral Square and marched down Lenin Avenue toward the Freedom Monument, shouting, "Soviet Russia out! Free Latvia!" Security forces confronted the marchers, and several police vehicles were overturned.[16]
Central Asia [ edit ]
Kazakhstan: Jeltoqsan riots [ edit ]
The "Jeltoqsan" (Kazakh for "December") of 1986 were riots in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, sparked by Gorbachev's dismissal of Dinmukhamed Konayev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and an ethnic Kazakh, who was replaced with Gennady Kolbin, an outsider from the Russian SFSR.[17] Demonstrations started in the morning of December 17, 1986, with 200 to 300 students in front of the Central Committee building on Brezhnev Square protesting Konayev's dismissal and replacement by a Russian. Protesters swelled to 1,000 then to 5,000 as other students joined the crowd. The CPK Central Committee ordered troops from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, druzhiniki (volunteers), cadets, policemen, and the KGB to cordon the square and videotape the participants. The situation escalated around 5 p.m., as troops were ordered to disperse the protesters. Clashes between the security forces and the demonstrators continued throughout the night in Almaty.
On the next day, December 18, protests turned into civil unrest as clashes between troops, volunteers, militia units, and Kazakh students turned into a wide-scale confrontation. The clashes could only be controlled on the third day. The Alma-Ata events were followed by smaller protests and demonstrations in Shymkent, Pavlodar, Karaganda, and Taldykorgan. Reports from Kazakh SSR authorities estimated that the riots drew 3,000 people.[18] Other estimates are of at least 30,000 to 40,000 protestors with 5,000 arrested and jailed, and an unknown number of casualties.[19] Jeltoqsan leaders say over 60,000 Kazakhs participated in the protests.[19][20] According to the Kazakh SSR government, there were two deaths during the riots, including a volunteer police worker and a student. Both of them had died due to blows to the head. About 100 others were detained and several others were sentenced to terms in labor camps.[21] Sources cited by the Library of Congress claimed that at least 200 people died or were summarily executed soon thereafter; some accounts estimate casualties at more than 1,000. The writer Mukhtar Shakhanov claimed that a KGB officer testified that 168 protesters were killed, but that figure remains unconfirmed.
1987 [ edit ]
Moscow: one-party democracy [ edit ]
At the January 28–30, 1987, Central Committee plenum, Gorbachev suggested a new policy of demokratizatsiya throughout Soviet society. He proposed that future Communist Party elections should offer a choice between multiple candidates, elected by secret ballot. However, the CPSU delegates at the Plenum watered down Gorbachev's proposal, and democratic choice within the Communist Party was never significantly implemented.
Gorbachev also radically expanded the scope of Glasnost, stating that no subject was off-limits for open discussion in the media. Even so, the cautious Soviet intelligentsia took almost a year to begin pushing the boundaries to see if he meant what he said. For the first time, the Communist Party leader had appealed over the heads of Central Committee members for the people's support in exchange for expansion of liberties. The tactic proved successful: Within two years political reform could no longer be sidetracked by party conservatives. An unintended consequence was that having saved reform, Gorbachev's move ultimately killed the very system it was designed to save.[22]
On February 7, 1987, dozens of political prisoners were freed in the first group release since Khrushchev Thaw in the mid-1950s.[23] On May 6, 1987, Pamyat, a Russian nationalist group, held an unsanctioned demonstration in Moscow. The authorities did not break up the demonstration and even kept traffic out of the demonstrators' way while they marched to an impromptu meeting with Boris Yeltsin, head of the Moscow Communist Party and at the time one of Gorbachev's closest allies.[24] On July 25, 1987, 300 Crimean Tatars staged a noisy demonstration near the Kremlin Wall for several hours, calling for the right to return to their homeland, from which they were deported in 1944; police and soldiers merely looked on.[25]
On September 10, 1987, after a lecture from hardliner Yegor Ligachev at the Politburo for allowing these two unsanctioned demonstrations in Moscow, Boris Yeltsin wrote a letter of resignation to Gorbachev, who had been holidaying on the Black Sea.[26] Gorbachev was stunned – no one had ever voluntarily resigned from the Politburo. At the October 27, 1987 plenary meeting of the Central Committee, Yeltsin, frustrated that Gorbachev had not addressed any of the issues outlined in his resignation letter, criticized the slow pace of reform, servility to the general secretary, and opposition from Ligachev that had led to his (Yeltsin's) resignation.[27] No one had ever addressed the Party leader so brazenly in front of the Central Committee since Leon Trotsky in the 1920s.[27] In his reply, Gorbachev accused Yeltsin of "political immaturity" and "absolute irresponsibility". No one backed Yeltsin.
Nevertheless, news of Yeltsin's insubordination and "secret speech" spread, and soon samizdat versions began to circulate. This marked the beginning of Yeltsin's rebranding as a rebel and rise in popularity as an anti-establishment figure. The following four years of political struggle between Yeltsin and Gorbachev played a large role in the dissolution of the USSR.[28] On November 11, 1987, Yeltsin was fired from the post of First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party.
Baltic republics: Molotov–Ribbentrop protests [ edit ]
On August 23, 1987, the 48th anniversary of the secret protocols of the 1939 Molotov Pact between Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin that ultimately turned the then-independent Baltic states over to the Soviet Union, thousands of demonstrators marked the occasion in the three Baltic capitals to sing independence songs and attend speeches commemorating Stalin's victims. The gatherings were sharply denounced in the official press and closely watched by the police, but were not interrupted.[29]
Latvia leads [ edit ]
On June 14, 1987, about 5,000 people gathered again at Freedom Monument in Riga, and laid flowers to commemorate the anniversary of Stalin's mass deportation of Latvians in 1941. This was the first large demonstration in the Baltic republics to commemorate the anniversary of an event contrary to official Soviet history. The authorities did not crack down on demonstrators, which encouraged more and larger demonstrations throughout the Baltic States. The next major anniversary after the August 23 Molotov Pact demonstration was on November 18, the date of Latvia's independence in 1918. On November 18, 1987, hundreds of police and civilian militiamen cordoned off the central square to prevent any demonstration at Freedom Monument, but thousands lined the streets of Riga in silent protest regardless.[30]
Estonia's first protests [ edit ]
In spring 1987, a protest movement arose against new phosphate mines in Estonia. Signatures were collected in Tartu, and students assembled in the university's main hall to express lack of confidence in the government. At a demonstration on May 1, 1987, young people showed up with banners and slogans despite an official ban. On August 15, 1987, former political prisoners formed the MRP-AEG group (Estonians for the Public Disclosure of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), which was headed by Tiit Madisson [et]. In September 1987, the Edasi newspaper published a proposal by Edgar Savisaar, Siim Kallas, Tiit Made, and Mikk Titma calling for Estonia's transition to autonomy. Initially geared toward economic independence, then toward a certain amount of political autonomy, the project, Isemajandav Eesti ("A Self-Managing Estonia") became known according to its Estonian acronym, IME, which means "miracle". On October 21, a demonstration dedicated to those who gave their lives in the 1918–1920 Estonian War of Independence took place in Võru, which culminated in a conflict with the militia. For the first time in years, the blue, black, and white national tricolor was publicly displayed.[31]
Lithuania's first protests [ edit ]
First anti-Soviet protests in Lithuania took place on August 23, 1987. The meeting intended to condemn Soviet occupation of Lithuania was organised by Lithuanian Liberty League (Lietuvos laisvės lyga) took place at the monument to Adomas Mickevičius (Adam Mickewicz) in Vilnius and gathered around 2,000 participants.
Caucasus [ edit ]
Armenia: environmental concerns and Nagorno–Karabakh [ edit ]
On October 17, 1987, about 3,000 Armenians demonstrated in Yerevan complaining about the condition of Lake Sevan, the Nairit chemicals plant, and the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, and air pollution in Yerevan. Police tried to prevent the protest but took no action to stop it once the march was underway. The demonstration was led by Armenian writers such as Silva Kaputikian, Zori Balayan, and Maro Margarian and leaders from the National Survival organization. The march originated at the Opera Plaza after speakers, mainly intellectuals, addressed the crowd.[32]
The following day 1,000 Armenians participated in another demonstration calling for Armenian national rights in Karabagh. The demonstrators demanded the annexation of Nakhchivan and Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, and carried placards to that effect. The police tried to physically prevent the march and after a few incidents, dispersed the demonstrators. Nagorno-Karabakh would break out in violence the following year.[32]
1988 [ edit ]
Moscow loses control [ edit ]
In 1988, Gorbachev started to lose control of two regions of the Soviet Union, as the Baltic republics were now leaning towards independence, and the Caucasus descended into violence and civil war.
On July 1, 1988, the fourth and last day of a bruising 19th Party Conference, Gorbachev won the backing of the tired delegates for his last-minute proposal to create a new supreme legislative body called the Congress of People's Deputies. Frustrated by the old guard's resistance, Gorbachev embarked on a set of constitutional changes to try to separate party and state, and thereby isolate his conservative Party opponents. Detailed proposals for the new Congress of People's Deputies were published on October 2, 1988,[33] and to enable the creation of the new legislature. The Supreme Soviet, during its November 29 – December 1, 1988, session, implemented amendments to the 1977 Soviet Constitution, enacted a law on electoral reform, and set the date of the election for March 26, 1989.[34]
On November 29, 1988, the Soviet Union ceased to jam all foreign radio stations, allowing Soviet citizens for the first time since a brief period in the 1960s to have unrestricted access to news sources beyond Communist Party control.[35]
Baltic Republics [ edit ]
In 1986 and 1987, Latvia had been in the vanguard of the Baltic states in pressing for reform. In 1988 Estonia took over the lead role with the foundation of the Soviet Union's first popular front and starting to influence state policy.
Estonian Popular Front [ edit ]
The Estonian Popular Front was founded in April 1988. On June 16, 1988, Gorbachev replaced Karl Vaino, the "old guard" leader of the Communist Party of Estonia, with the comparatively liberal Vaino Väljas.[36] In late June 1988, Väljas bowed to pressure from the Estonian Popular Front and legalized the flying of the old blue-black-white flag of Estonia, and agreed to a new state language law that made Estonian the official language of the Republic.[16]
On October 2, the Popular Front formally launched its political platform at a two-day congress. Väljas attended, gambling that the front could help Estonia become a model of economic and political revival, while moderating separatist and other radical tendencies.[37] On November 16, 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR adopted a declaration of national sovereignty under which Estonian laws would take precedence over those of the Soviet Union.[38] Estonia's parliament also laid claim to the republic's natural resources including land, inland waters, forests, mineral deposits, and to the means of industrial production, agriculture, construction, state banks, transportation, and municipal services within the territory of Estonia's borders.[39] At the same time the Estonian Citizens' Committees started registration of citizens of the Republic of Estonia to carry out the elections of the Congress of Estonia.
Latvian Popular Front [ edit ]
The Latvian Popular Front was founded in June 1988. On October 4, Gorbachev replaced Boris Pugo, the "old guard" leader of the Communist Party of Latvia, with the more liberal Jānis Vagris. In October 1988 Vagris bowed to pressure from the Latvian Popular Front and legalized flying the former carmine red-and-white flag of independent Latvia, and on October 6 he passed a law making Latvian the country's official language.[16]
Lithuania’s Sąjūdis [ edit ]
The Popular Front of Lithuania, called Sąjūdis ("Movement"), was founded in May 1988. On October 19, 1988, Gorbachev replaced Ringaudas Songaila, the "old guard" leader of the Communist Party of Lithuania, with the relatively liberal Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas. In October 1988 Brazauskas bowed to pressure from Sąjūdis and legalized the flying of the historic yellow-green-red flag of independent Lithuania, and in November 1988 passed a law making Lithuanian the country's official language and the former national anthem Tautiška giesmė was later reinstated.[16]
Rebellion in the Caucasus [ edit ]
Azerbaijan: violence [ edit ]
On February 20, 1988, after a week of growing demonstrations in Stepanakert, capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (the Armenian majority area within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic), the Regional Soviet voted to secede and join with the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia.[40] This local vote in a small, remote part of the Soviet Union made headlines around the world; it was an unprecedented defiance of republican and national authorities. On February 22, 1988, in what became known as the "Askeran clash", thousands of Azerbaijanis marched towards Nagorno-Karabakh, demanding information about rumors of an Azerbaijani having been killed in Stepanakert. They were informed that no such incident had occurred, but refused to believe it. Dissatisfied with what they were told, thousands began marching toward Nagorno-Karabakh, massacring 50 Armenian villagers in the process.[41][42] Karabakh authorities mobilised over a thousand police to stop the march, with the resulting clashes leaving two Azerbaijanis dead. These deaths, announced on state radio, led to the Sumgait Pogrom. Between February 26 and March 1, the city of Sumgait (Azerbaijan) saw violent anti-Armenian rioting during which 32 people were killed. The authorities totally lost control and occupied the city with paratroopers and tanks; nearly all of the 14,000 Armenian residents of Sumgait fled.[43]
Gorbachev refused to make any changes to the status of Nagorno Karabakh, which remained part of Azerbaijan. He instead sacked the Communist Party Leaders in both Republics – on May 21, 1988, Kamran Baghirov was replaced by Abdulrahman Vezirov as First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party. From July 23 to September 1988, a group of Azerbaijani intellectuals began working for a new organization called the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, loosely based on the Estonian Popular Front.[44] On September 17, when gun battles broke out between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis near Stepanakert, two soldiers were killed and more than two dozen injured.[45] This led to almost tit-for-tat ethnic polarization in Nagorno-Karabakh's two main towns: The Azerbaijani minority was expelled from Stepanakert, and the Armenian minority was expelled from Shusha.[46] On November 17, 1988, in response to the exodus of tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis from Armenia, a series of mass demonstrations began in Baku's Lenin Square, lasting 18 days and attracting half a million demonstrators. On December 5, 1988, the Soviet militia moved in, cleared the square by force, and imposed a curfew that lasted ten months.[47]
Armenia: uprising [ edit ]
The rebellion of fellow Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh had an immediate effect in Armenia itself. Daily demonstrations, which began in the Armenian capital Yerevan on February 18, initially attracted few people, but each day the Nagorno-Karabakh issue became increasingly prominent and numbers swelled. On February 20, a 30,000-strong crowd demonstrated in the Theater Square, by February 22, there were 100,000, the next day 300,000, and a transport strike was declared, by February 25, there were close to 1 million demonstrators—more than a quarter of Armenia's population.[48] This was the first of the large, peaceful public demonstrations that would become a feature of communism's overthrow in Prague, Berlin, and, ultimately, Moscow. Leading Armenian intellectuals and nationalists, including future first president of independent Armenia Levon Ter-Petrossian, formed the eleven-member Karabakh Committee to lead and organize the new movement.
Gorbachev again refused to make any changes to the status of Nagorno Karabakh, which remained part of Azerbaijan. Instead he sacked both Republics' Communist Party Leaders: On May 21, 1988, Karen Demirchian was replaced by Suren Harutyunyan as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia. However, Harutyunyan quickly decided to run before the nationalist wind and on May 28, allowed Armenians to unfurl the red-blue-orange First Armenian Republic flag for the first time in almost 70 years.[49] On June 15, 1988, the Armenian Supreme Soviet adopted a resolution formally approving the idea of Nagorno Karabakh joining Armenia.[50] Armenia, formerly one of the most loyal Republics, had suddenly turned into the leading rebel republic. On July 5, 1988, when a contingent of troops was sent in to remove demonstrators by force from Yerevan's Zvartnots International Airport, shots were fired and one student protester was killed.[51] In September, further large demonstrations in Yerevan led to the deployment of armored vehicles.[52] In the autumn of 1988 almost all of the 200,000 Azerbaijani minority in Armenia was expelled by Armenian Nationalists, with over 100 killed in the process[53] – this, after the Sumgait pogrom earlier that year carried out by Azerbaijanis against ethnic Armenians and subsequent expulsion of all Armenians from Azerbaijan. On November 25, 1988, a military commandant took control of Yerevan as the Soviet government moved to prevent further ethnic violence.[54]
On December 7, 1988, the Spitak earthquake struck, killing an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 people. When Gorbachev rushed back from a visit to the United States, he was so angered to be confronted by protesters calling for Nagorno-Karabakh to be made part of the Armenian Republic during a natural disaster that on December 11, 1988 ordered the entire Karabakh Committee to be arrested.[55]
Georgia: first demonstrations [ edit ]
In Tbilisi, capital of Soviet Georgia, many demonstrators camped out in front of the republic's legislature in November 1988 calling for Georgia's independence and in support of Estonia's declaration of sovereignty.[56]
Western republics [ edit ]
Democratic Movement of Moldova [ edit ]
Beginning in February 1988, the Democratic Movement of Moldova (formerly Moldavia) organized public meetings, demonstrations, and song festivals, which gradually grew in size and intensity. In the streets, the center of public manifestations was the Stephen the Great Monument in Chişinău, and the adjacent park harboring Aleea Clasicilor (The "Alee of the Classics [of the Literature]"). On January 15, 1988, in a tribute to Mihai Eminescu at his bust on the Aleea Clasicilor, Anatol Şalaru submitted a proposal to continue the meetings. In the public discourse, the movement called for national awakening, freedom of speech, revival of Moldavian traditions, and for attainment of official status for the Romanian language and return to the Latin alphabet. The transition from "movement" (an informal association) to "front" (a formal association) was seen as a natural "upgrade" once a movement gained momentum with the public, and the Soviet authorities no longer dared to crack down on it.
Demonstrations in Lviv, Ukraine [ edit ]
On April 26, 1988, about 500 people participated in a march organized by the Ukrainian Cultural Club on Kiev's Khreschatyk Street to mark the second anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, carrying placards with slogans like "Openness and Democracy to the End." Between May and June 1988, Ukrainian Catholics in western Ukraine celebrated the Millennium of Christianity in Kievan Rus' in secret by holding services in the forests of Buniv, Kalush, Hoshiv, and Zarvanytsia. On June 5, 1988, as the official celebrations of the Millennium were held in Moscow, the Ukrainian Cultural Club hosted its own observances in Kiev at the monument to St. Volodymyr the Great, the grand prince of Kievan Rus'.
On June 16, 1988, 6,000 to 8,000 people gathered in Lviv to hear speakers declare no confidence in the local list of delegates to the 19th Communist Party conference, to begin on June 29. On June 21, a rally in Lviv attracted 50,000 people who had heard about a revised delegate list. Authorities attempted to disperse the rally in front of Druzhba Stadium. On July 7, 10,000 to 20,000 people witnessed the launch of the Democratic Front to Promote Perestroika. On July 17, a group of 10,000 gathered in the village Zarvanytsia for Millennium services celebrated by Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk. The militia tried to disperse attendees, but it turned out to be the largest gathering of Ukrainian Catholics since Stalin outlawed the Church in 1946. On August 4, which came to be known as "Bloody Thursday", local authorities violently suppressed a demonstration organized by the Democratic Front to Promote Perestroika. Forty-one people were detained, fined, or sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest. On September 1, local authorities violently displaced 5,000 students at a public meeting lacking official permission at Ivan Franko State University.
On November 13, 1988, approximately 10,000 people attended an officially sanctioned meeting organized by the cultural heritage organization Spadschyna, the Kyiv University student club Hromada, and the environmental groups Zelenyi Svit ("Green World") and Noosfera, to focus on ecological issues. From November 14–18, 15 Ukrainian activists were among the 100 human-, national- and religious-rights advocates invited to discuss human rights with Soviet officials and a visiting delegation of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (also known as the Helsinki Commission). On December 10, hundreds gathered in Kiev to observe International Human Rights Day at a rally organized by the Democratic Union. The unauthorized gathering resulted in the detention of local activists.[57]
Kurapaty, Belarus [ edit ]
The Partyja BPF (Belarusian Popular Front) was established in 1988 as a political party and cultural movement for democracy and independence, à la the Baltic republics’ popular fronts. The discovery of mass graves in Kurapaty outside Minsk by historian Zianon Pazniak, the Belarusian Popular Front's first leader, gave additional momentum to the pro-democracy and pro-independence movement in Belarus.[58] It claimed that the NKVD performed secret killings in Kurapaty.[59] Initially the Front had significant visibility because its numerous public actions almost always ended in clashes with the police and the KGB.
1989 [ edit ]
Moscow: limited democratization [ edit ]
Spring 1989 saw the people of the Soviet Union exercising a democratic choice, albeit limited, for the first time since 1917, when they elected the new Congress of People's Deputies. Just as important was the uncensored live TV coverage of the legislature's deliberations, where people witnessed the previously feared Communist leadership being questioned and held accountable. This example fueled a limited experiment with democracy in Poland, which quickly led to the toppling of the Communist government in Warsaw that summer – which in turn sparked uprisings that overthrew communism in the other five Warsaw Pact countries before the end of 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell. These events showed that the people of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union did not support Gorbachev's drive to modernize Communism; rather, they preferred to abandon it altogether.[citation needed]
This was also the year that CNN became the first non-Soviet broadcaster allowed to beam its TV news programs to Moscow. Officially, CNN was available only to foreign guests in the Savoy Hotel, but Muscovites quickly learned how to pick up signals on their home televisions. That had a major impact on how Soviets saw events in their country, and made censorship almost impossible.[60]
Congress of People’s Deputies of the Soviet Union [ edit ]
The month-long nomination period for candidates for the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR lasted until January 24, 1989. For the next month, selection among the 7,531 district nominees took place at meetings organized by constituency-level electoral commissions. On March 7, a final list of 5,074 candidates was published; about 85% were Party members.
In the two weeks prior to the 1,500 district polls, elections to fill 750 reserved seats of public organizations, contested by 880 candidates, were held. Of these seats, 100 were allocated to the CPSU, 100 to the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, 75 to the Communist Youth Union (Komsomol), 75 to the Committee of Soviet Women, 75 to the War and Labour Veterans' Organization, and 325 to other organizations such as the Academy of Sciences. The selection process was done in April.
In the March 26 general elections, voter participation was an impressive 89.8%, and 1,958 (including 1,225 district seats) of the 2,250 CPD seats were filled. In district races, run-off elections were held in 76 constituencies on April 2 and 9 and fresh elections were organized on April 20 and 14 to May 23,[61] in the 199 remaining constituencies where the required absolute majority was not attained.[34] While most CPSU-endorsed candidates were elected, more than 300 lost to independent candidates such as Yeltsin, physicist Andrei Sakharov and lawyer Anatoly Sobchak.
In the first session of the new Congress of People's Deputies, from May 25 to June 9, hardliners retained control but reformers used the legislature as a platform for debate and criticism – which was broadcast live and uncensored. This transfixed the population; nothing like this freewheeling debate had ever been witnessed in the U.S.S.R. On May 29, Yeltsin managed to secure a seat on the Supreme Soviet,[62] and in the summer he formed the first opposition, the Inter-Regional Deputies Group, composed of Russian nationalists and liberals. Composing the final legislative group in the Soviet Union, those elected in 1989 played a vital part in reforms and the eventual breakup of the Soviet Union during the next two years.
On May 30, 1989, Gorbachev proposed that nationwide local elections, scheduled for November 1989, be postponed until early 1990 because there were still no laws governing the conduct of such elections. This was seen by some as a concession to local Party officials, who feared they would be swept from power in a wave of anti-establishment sentiment.[63]
On October 25, 1989, the Supreme Soviet voted to eliminate special seats for the Communist Party and other official organizations in national and local elections, responding to sharp popular criticism that such reserved slots were undemocratic. After vigorous debate, the 542-member Supreme Soviet passed the measure 254-85 (with 36 abstentions). The decision required a constitutional amendment, ratified by the full congress, which met December 12–25. It also passed measures that would allow direct elections for presidents of each of the 15 constituent republics. Gorbachev strongly opposed such a move during debate but was defeated.
The vote expanded the power of republics in local elections, enabling them to decide for themselves how to organize voting. Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia had already proposed laws for direct presidential elections. Local elections in all the republics had already been scheduled to take place between December and March 1990.[64]
Loss of satellite states [ edit ]
The six Warsaw Pact countries of Eastern Europe, while nominally independent, were widely recognized in the international community as the Soviet satellite states. All had been occupied by the Soviet Red Army in 1945, had Soviet-style socialist states imposed upon them, and had very restricted freedom of action in either domestic or international affairs. Any moves towards real independence were suppressed by military force – in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring in 1968. Gorbachev abandoned the oppressive and expensive Brezhnev Doctrine, which mandated intervention in the Warsaw Pact states, in favor of non-intervention in the internal affairs of allies – jokingly termed the Sinatra Doctrine in a reference to the Frank Sinatra song "My Way".
Baltic Chain of Freedom [ edit ]
Baltic Way 1989 demonstration in Šiauliai , Lithuania showing coffins decorated with national flags of the three Baltic republics placed symbolically beneath Soviet and Nazi flags
The Baltic Way or Baltic Chain (also Chain of Freedom Estonian: Balti kett, Latvian: Baltijas ceļš, Lithuanian: Baltijos kelias, Russian: Балтийский путь) was a peaceful political demonstration on August 23, 1989.[65] An estimated 2 million people joined hands to form a human chain extending 600 kilometres (370 mi) across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which had been forcibly reincorporated into the Soviet Union in 1944. The colossal demonstration marked the 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact that divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence and led to the occupation of the Baltic states in 1940.
Just months after the Baltic Way protests, on December 1989, the Congress of People's Deputies accepted—and Gorbachev signed—the report by the Yakovlev Commission condemning the secret protocols of the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact which led to the annexations of the three Baltic republics.[66]
Lithuania's Communist Party splits [ edit ]
In the March 1989 elections to the Congress of Peoples Deputies, 36 of the 42 deputies from Lithuania were candidates from the independent national movement Sąjūdis. This was the greatest victory for any national organization within the USSR and was a devastating revelation to the Lithuanian Communist Party of its growing unpopularity.[67]
On December 7, 1989, the Communist Party of Lithuania under the leadership of Algirdas Brazauskas, split from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and abandoned its claim to have a constitutional "leading role" in politics. A smaller loyalist faction of the Communist Party, headed by hardliner Mykolas Burokevičius, was established and remained affiliated with the CPSU. However, Lithuania's governing Communist Party was formally independent from Moscow's control – a first for Soviet Republics and a political earthquake that prompted Gorbachev to arrange a visit to Lithuania the following month in a futile attempt to bring the local party back under control.[68] The following year, the Communist Party lost power altogether in multiparty parliamentary elections which had caused Vytautas Landsbergis to become the first non-Communist president of Lithuania since its forced incorporation into the USSR.
Caucasus [ edit ]
Azerbaijan's blockade [ edit ]
On July 16, 1989, the Popular Front of Azerbaijan held its first congress and elected Abulfaz Elchibey, who would become President, as its chairman.[69] On August 19, 600,000 protesters jammed Baku's Lenin Square (now Azadliq Square) to demand the release of political prisoners.[70] In the second half of 1989, weapons were handed out in Nagorno-Karabakh. When Karabakhis got hold of small arms to replace hunting rifles and crossbows, casualties began to mount; bridges were blown up, roads were blockaded, and hostages were taken.[71]
In a new and effective tactic, the Popular Front launched a rail blockade of Armenia,[72] which caused petrol and food shortages because 85 percent of Armenia's freight came from Azerbaijan.[73] Under pressure from the Popular Front the Communist authorities in Azerbaijan started making concessions. On September 25, they passed a sovereignty law that gave precedence to Azerbaijani law, and on October 4, the Popular Front was permitted to register as a legal organization as long as it lifted the blockade. Transport communications between Azerbaijan and Armenia never fully recovered.[73] Tensions continued to escalate and on December 29, Popular Front activists seized local party offices in Jalilabad, wounding dozens.
Armenia's Karabakh Committee released [ edit ]
On May 31, 1989, the 11 members of the Karabakh Committee, who had been imprisoned without trial in Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina prison, were released, and returned home to a hero's welcome.[74] Soon after his release, Levon Ter-Petrossian, an academic, was elected chairman of the anti-communist opposition Pan-Armenian National Movement, and later stated that it was in 1989 that he first began considering full independence as his goal.[75]
Massacre in Tbilisi, Georgia [ edit ]
On April 7, 1989, Soviet troops and armored personnel carriers were sent to Tbilisi after more than 100,000 people protested in front of Communist Party headquarters with banners calling for Georgia to secede from the Soviet Union and for Abkhazia to be fully integrated into Georgia.[76] On April 9, 1989, troops attacked the demonstrators; some 20 people were killed and more than 200 wounded.[77][78] This event radicalized Georgian politics, prompting many to conclude that independence was preferable to continued Soviet rule. On April 14, Gorbachev removed Jumber Patiashvili as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party and replaced him with former Georgian KGB chief Givi Gumbaridze.
On July 16, 1989, in Abkhazia's capital Sukhumi, a protest against the opening of a Georgian university branch in the town led to violence that quickly degenerated into a large-scale inter-ethnic confrontation in which 18 died and hundreds were injured before Soviet troops restored order.[79] This riot marked the start of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict.
Western republics [ edit ]
Popular Front of Moldova [ edit ]
In the March 26, 1989, elections to the Congress of People's Deputies, 15 of the 46 Moldavian deputies sent to Moscow were supporters of the Nationalist/Democratic movement.[80] The Popular Front of Moldova founding congress took place two months later, on May 20, 1989. During its second congress (June 30 – July 1, 1989), Ion Hadârcă was elected its president.
A series of demonstrations that became known as the Grand National Assembly (Romanian: Marea Adunare Naţională) was the Front's first major achievement. Such mass demonstrations, including one attended by 300,000 people on August 27,[81] convinced the Moldavian Supreme Soviet on August 31 to adopt the language law making Romanian the official language, and replacing the Cyrillic alphabet with Latin characters.[82]
Ukraine's Rukh [ edit ]
In Ukraine, Lviv and Kiev celebrated Ukrainian Independence Day on January 22, 1989. Thousands gathered in Lviv for an unauthorized moleben (religious service) in front of St. George's Cathedral. In Kiev, 60 activists met in a Kiev apartment to commemorate the proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918. On February 11–12, 1989, the Ukrainian Language Society held its founding congress. On February 15, 1989, the formation of the Initiative Committee for the Renewal of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was announced. The program and statutes of the movement were proposed by the Writers Union of Ukraine and were published in the journal Literaturna Ukraina on February 16, 1989. The organization heralded Ukrainian dissidents such as Vyacheslav Chornovil.
In late February, large public rallies took place in Kiev to protest the election laws, on the eve of the March 26 elections to the USSR Congress of People's Deputies, and to call for the resignation of the first secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, lampooned as "the mastodon of stagnation". The demonstrations coincided with a visit to Ukraine by Soviet President Gorbachev. On February 26, 1989, between 20,000 and 30,000 people participated in an unsanctioned ecumenical memorial service in Lviv, marking the anniversary of the death of 19th-century Ukrainian artist and nationalist Taras Shevchenko.
On March 4, 1989, the Memorial Society, committed to honoring the victims of Stalinism and cleansing society of Soviet practices, was founded in Kiev. A public rally was held the next day. On March 12, A pre-election meeting organized in Lviv by the Ukrainian Helsinki Union and the Marian Society Myloserdia (Compassion) was violently dispersed, and nearly 300 people were detained. On March 26, elections were held to the union Congress of People's Deputies; by-elections were held on April 9, May 14, and May 21. Among the 225 Ukrainian deputies, most were conservatives, though a handful of progressives made the cut.
From April 20–23, 1989, pre-election meetings were held in Lviv for four consecutive days, drawing crowds of up to 25,000. The action included a one-hour warning strike at eight local factories and institutions. It was the first labor strike in Lviv since 1944. On May 3, a pre-election rally attracted 30,000 in Lviv. On May 7, The Memorial Society organized a mass meeting at Bykivnia, site of a mass grave of Ukrainian and Polish victims of Stalinist terror. After a march from Kiev to the site, a memorial service was staged.
From mid-May to September 1989, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic hunger strikers staged protests on Moscow's Arbat to call attention to the plight of their Church. They were especially active during the July session of the World Council of Churches held in Moscow. The protest ended with the arrests of the group on September 18. On May 27, 1989, the founding conference of the Lviv regional Memorial Society was held. On June 18, 1989, an estimated 100,000 faithful participated in public religious services in Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine, responding to Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky's call for an international day of prayer.
On August 19, 1989, the Russian Orthodox Parish of Saints Peter and Paul announced it would be switching to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. On September 2, 1989, tens of thousands across Ukraine protested a draft election law that reserved special seats for the Communist Party and for other official organizations: 50,000 in Lviv, 40,000 in Kiev, 10,000 in Zhytomyr, 5,000 each in Dniprodzerzhynsk and Chervonohrad, and 2,000 in Kharkiv. From September 8–10, 1989, writer Ivan Drach was elected to head Rukh, the People's Movement of Ukraine, at its founding congress in Kiev. On September 17, between 150,000 and 200,000 people marched in Lviv, demanding the legalization of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. On September 21, 1989, exhumation of a mass grave began in Demianiv Laz, a nature preserve south of Ivano-Frankivsk. On September 28, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukraine Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, a holdover from the Brezhnev era, was replaced by Vladimir Ivashko.
On October 1, 1989, a peaceful demonstration of 10,000 to 15,000 people was violently dispersed by the militia in front of Lviv's Druzhba Stadium, where a concert celebrating the Soviet "reunification" of Ukrainian lands was being held. On October 10, Ivano-Frankivsk was the site of a pre-election protest attended by 30,000 people. On October 15, several thousand people gathered in Chervonohrad, Chernivtsi, Rivne, and Zhytomyr; 500 in Dnipropetrovsk; and 30,000 in Lviv to protest the election law. On October 20, faithful and clergy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church participated in a synod in Lviv, the first since its forced liquidation in the 1930s.
On October 24, the union Supreme Soviet passed a law eliminating special seats for Communist Party and other official organizations' representatives. On October 26, twenty factories in Lviv held strikes and meetings to protest the police brutality of October 1 and the authorities' unwillingness to prosecute those responsible. From October 26–28, the Zelenyi Svit (Friends of the Earth – Ukraine) environmental association held its founding congress, and on October 27 the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet passed a law eliminating the special status of party and other official organizations.
On October 28, 1989, the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet decreed that effective January 1, 1990, Ukrainian would be the official language of Ukraine, while Russian would be used for communication between ethnic groups. On the same day The Congregation of the Church of the Transfiguration in Lviv left the Russian Orthodox Church and proclaimed itself the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The following day, thousands attended a memorial service at Demianiv Laz, and a temporary marker was placed to indicate that a monument to the "victims of the repressions of 1939–1941" soon would be erected.
In mid-November The Shevchenko Ukrainian Language Society was officially registered. On November 19, 1989, a public gathering in Kiev attracted thousands of mourners, friends and family to the reburial in Ukraine of three inmates of the infamous Gulag Camp No. 36 in Perm in the Ural Mountains: human-rights activists Vasyl Stus, Oleksiy Tykhy, and Yuri Lytvyn. Their remains were reinterred in Baikove Cemetery. On November 26, 1989, a day of prayer and fasting was proclaimed by Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky, thousands of faithful in western Ukraine participated in religious services on the eve of a meeting between Pope John Paul II and Soviet President Gorbachev. On November 28, 1989, the Ukrainian SSR's Council for Religious Affairs issued a decree allowing Ukrainian Catholic congregations to register as legal organizations. The decree was proclaimed on December 1, coinciding with a meeting at the Vatican between the pope and the Soviet president.
On December 10, 1989, the first officially sanctioned observance of International Human Rights Day was held in Lviv. On December 17, an estimated 30,000 attended a public meeting organized in Kiev by Rukh in memory of Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov, who died on December 14. On December 26, the Supreme Soviet of Ukrainian SSR adopted a law designating Christmas, Easter, and the Feast of the Holy Trinity official holidays.[57]
In May 1989, a Soviet dissident, Mustafa Dzhemilev, was elected to lead the newly founded Crimean Tatar National Movement. He also led the campaign for return of Crimean Tatars to their homeland in Crimea after 45 years of exile.
Belarus: Kurapaty [ edit ]
On January 24, 1989, the Soviet authorities in Byelorussia agreed to the demand of the democratic opposition to build a monument to thousands of people shot by Stalin-era police in the Kuropaty Forest near Minsk in the 1930s.[83]
On September 30, 1989, thousands of Byelorussians, denouncing local leaders, marched through Minsk to demand additional cleanup of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster site in Ukraine. Up to 15,000 protesters wearing armbands bearing radioactivity symbols and carrying the banned red-and-white national flag used by the government-in-exile filed through torrential rain in defiance of a ban by local authorities. Later, they gathered in the city center near the government's headquarters, where speakers demanded resignation of Yefrem Sokolov, the republic's Communist Party leader, and called for the evacuation of half a million people from the contaminated zones.[84]
Central Asian republics [ edit ]
Fergana, Uzbekistan [ edit ]
Thousands of Soviet troops were sent to the Fergana Valley, southeast of the Uzbek capital Tashkent, to re-establish order after clashes in which local Uzbeks hunted down members of the Meskhetian minority in several days of rioting between June 4–11, 1989; about 100 people were killed.[85] On June 23, 1989, Gorbachev removed Rafiq Nishonov as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Uzbek SSR and replaced him with Karimov, who went on to lead Uzbekistan as a Soviet Republic and subsequently as an independent state.
Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan [ edit ]
Nursultan Nazarbayev became leader of the Kazakh SSR in 1989 and later led Kazakhstan to independence.
In Kazakhstan on June 19, 1989, young men carrying guns, firebombs, iron bars and stones rioted in Zhanaozen, causing a number of deaths. The youths tried to seize a police station and a water-supply station. They brought public transportation to a halt and shut down various shops and industries.[86] By June 25, the rioting had spread to five other towns near the Caspian Sea. A mob of about 150 people armed with sticks, stones and metal rods attacked the police station in Mangishlak, about 90 miles from Zhanaozen, before they were dispersed by government troops flown in by helicopters. Mobs of young people also rampaged through Yeraliev, Shepke, Fort-Shevchenko and Kulsary, where they poured flammable liquid on trains housing temporary workers and set them on fire.[87]
With the government and CPSU shocked by the riots, on June 22, 1989, as a result of the riots Gorbachev removed Gennady Kolbin (the ethnic Russian whose appointment caused riots in December 1986) as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan for his poor handling of the June events, and replaced him with Nursultan Nazarbayev, an ethnic Kazakh who went on to lead Kazakhstan as a Soviet Republic and subsequently as an independent state for decades.
1990 [ edit ]
Moscow loses six republics [ edit ]
On February 7, 1990, the Central Committee of the CPSU accepted Gorbachev's recommendation that the party give up its monopoly on political power.[88] In 1990, all fifteen constituent republics of the USSR held their first competitive elections, with reformers and ethnic nationalists winning many seats. The CPSU lost the elections in six republics:
The constituent republics began to declare their national sovereignty and began a "war of laws" with the Moscow central government; they rejected union-wide legislation that conflicted with local laws, asserted control over their local economy and refused to pay taxes. President Landsbergis of Lithuania also exempted Lithuanian men from mandatory service in the Soviet Armed Forces. This conflict caused economic dislocation as supply lines were disrupted, and caused the Soviet economy to decline further.[89]
Rivalry between USSR and RSFSR [ edit ]
On March 4, 1990, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic held relatively free elections for the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia. Boris Yeltsin was elected, representing Sverdlovsk, garnering 72 percent of the vote.[90] On May 29, 1990, Yeltsin was elected chair of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, despite the fact that Gorbachev asked Russian deputies not to vote for him.
Yeltsin was supported by democratic and conservative members of the Supreme Soviet, who sought power in the developing political situation. A new power struggle emerged between the RSFSR and the Soviet Union. On June 12, 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR adopted a declaration of sovereignty. On July 12, 1990, Yeltsin resigned from the Communist Party in a dramatic speech at the 28th Congress.[91]
Baltic republics [ edit ]
Lithuania [ edit ]
Gorbachev's visit to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on January 11–13, 1990, provoked a pro-independence rally attended by an estimated 250,000 people.
On March 11, the newly elected parliament of the Lithuanian SSR elected Vytautas Landsbergis, the leader of Sąjūdis, as its chairman and proclaimed the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, making Lithuania the first Soviet Republic to break away from the USSR. Moscow reacted with an economic blockade keeping the troops in Lithuania ostensibly "to secure the rights of ethnic Russians".[92]
Estonia [ edit ]
On March 25, 1990, the Estonian Communist Party voted to split from the CPSU after a six-month transition.[93]
On March 30, 1990, the Estonian Supreme Council declared the Soviet occupation of Estonia since World War II to be illegal and began reestablishing Estonia as an independent state.
On April 3, 1990, Edgar Savisaar of the Popular Front of Estonia was elected chairman of the Council of Ministers (the equivalent of being Prime Minister).
Latvia [ edit ]
Latvia declared the restoration of independence on May 4, 1990, with the declaration stipulating a transitional period to complete independence. The Declaration stated that although Latvia had de facto lost its independence in World War II, the country had de jure remained a sovereign country because the annexation had been unconstitutional and against the will of the Latvian people. The declaration also stated that Latvia would base its relationship with the Soviet Union on the basis of the Latvian–Soviet Peace Treaty of 1920, in which the Soviet Union recognized Latvia's independence as inviolable "for all future time". May 4 is now a national holiday in Latvia.
On May 7, 1990, Ivars Godmanis of the Latvian Popular Front was elected chairman of the Council of Ministers (the equivalent of being Latvia's Prime Minister).
Caucasus [ edit ]
Azerbaijan's Black January [ edit ]
During the first week of January 1990, in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, the Popular Front led crowds in the storming and destruction of the frontier fences and watchtowers along the border with Iran, and thousands of Soviet Azerbaijanis crossed the border to meet their ethnic cousins in Iranian Azerbaijan.[94] It was the first time the Soviet Union had lost control of an external border.
Ethnic tensions had escalated between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis in spring and summer 1988.[95] On January 9, 1990, after the Armenian parliament voted to include Nagorno-Karabakh within its budget, renewed fighting broke out, hostages were taken, and four Soviet soldiers were killed.[96] On January 11, Popular Front radicals stormed party buildings and effectively overthrew the communist powers in the southern town of Lenkoran.[96] Gorbachev resolved to regain control of Azerbaijan; the events that ensued are known as "Black January". Late on January 19, 1990, after blowing up the central television station and cutting the phone and radio lines, 26,000 Soviet troops entered the Azerbaijani capital Baku, smashing barricades, attacking protesters, and firing into crowds. On that night and during subsequent confrontations (which lasted until February), more than 130 people died. Most of these were civilians. More than 700 civilians were wounded, hundreds were detained, but only a few were actually tried for alleged criminal offenses.
Civil liberties suffered. Soviet Defence Minister Dmitry Yazov stated that the use of force in Baku was intended to prevent the de facto takeover of the Azerbaijani government by the non-communist opposition, to prevent their victory in upcoming free elections (scheduled for March 1990), to destroy them as a political force, and to ensure that the Communist government remained in power. This marked the first time the Soviet Army took one of its own cities by force.[97]
The army had gained control of Baku, but by January 20 it had essentially lost Azerbaijan. Nearly the entire population of Baku turned out for the mass funerals of "martyrs" buried in the Alley of Martyrs.[97] Thousands of Communist Party members publicly burned their party cards. First Secretary Vezirov decamped to Moscow and Ayaz Mutalibov was appointed his successor in a free vote of party officials. The ethnic Russian Viktor Polyanichko remained second secretary and the power behind the throne.[98] In reaction to the Soviet actions in Baku and their backing of Armenia in the conflict, Sakina Aliyeva, Chair of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic called a special session where it was debated whether or not Nakhchivan could secede from the USSR under Article 81 of the Soviet Constitution. Deciding that it was legal, deputies prepared a declaration of independence, which Aliyeva signed and presented on January 20 on national television. It was the first declaration of secession by a recognized region in the USSR. Aliyeva and the Nakhchivan Soviet's actions were denounced by government officials who forced her to resign and the attempt at independence was aborted.[99][100][101]
Following the hardliners' takeover, the September 30, 1990 elections (runoffs on October 14) were characterized by intimidation; several Popular Front candidates were jailed, two were murdered, and unabashed ballot stuffing took place, even in the presence of Western observers.[102] The election results reflected the threatening environment; out of the 350 members, 280 were Communists, with only 45 opposition candidates from the Popular Front and other non-communist groups, who together formed a Democratic Bloc ("Dembloc").[103] In May 1990 Mutalibov was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet unopposed.[104]
Western republics [ edit ]
Ukraine [ edit ]
On January 21, 1990, Rukh organized a 300-mile (480 km) human chain between Kiev, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk. Hundreds of thousands joined hands to commemorate the proclamation of Ukrainian independence in 1918 and the reunification of Ukrainian lands one year later (1919 Unification Act). On January 23, 1990, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church held its first synod since its liquidation by the Soviets in 1946 (an act which the gathering declared invalid). On February 9, 1990, the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice officially registered Rukh. However, the registration came too late for Rukh to stand its own candidates for the parliamentary and local elections on March 4. At the 1990 elections of people's deputies to the Supreme Council (Verkhovna Rada), candidates from the Democratic Bloc won landslide victories in western Ukrainian oblasts. A majority of the seats had to hold run-off elections. On March 18, Democratic candidates scored further victories in the run-offs. The Democratic Bloc gained about 90 out of 450 seats in the new parliament.
On April 6, 1990, the Lviv City Council voted to return St. George Cathedral to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The Russian Orthodox Church refused to yield. On April 29–30, 1990, the Ukrainian Helsinki Union disbanded to form the Ukrainian Republican Party. On May 15 the new parliament convened. The bloc of conservative communists held 239 seats; the Democratic Bloc, which had evolved into the National Council, had 125 deputies. On June 4, 1990, two candidates remained in the protracted race for parliament chair. The leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU), Volodymyr Ivashko, was elected with 60 percent of the vote as more than 100 opposition deputies boycotted the election. On June 5–6, 1990, Metropolitan Mstyslav of the U.S.-based Ukrainian Orthodox Church was elected patriarch of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) during that Church's first synod. The UAOC declared its full independence from the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, which in March had granted autonomy to the Ukrainian Orthodox church headed by the Metropolitan Filaret.
On June 22, 1990, Volodymyr Ivashko withdrew his candidacy for leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine in view of his new position in parliament. Stanislav Hurenko was elected first secretary of the CPU. On July 11, Ivashko resigned from his post as chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament after he was elected deputy general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Parliament accepted the resignation a week later, on July 18. On July 16 Parliament overwhelmingly approved the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine – with a vote of 355 in favour and four against. The people's deputies voted 339 to 5 to proclaim July 16 a Ukrainian national holiday.
On July 23, 1990, Leonid Kravchuk was elected to replace Ivashko as parliament chairman. On July 30, Parliament adopted a resolution on military service ordering Ukrainian soldiers "in regions of national conflict such as Armenia and Azerbaijan" to return to Ukrainian territory. On August 1, Parliament voted overwhelmingly to shut down the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. On August 3, it adopted a law on the economic sovereignty of the Ukrainian republic. On August 19, the first Ukrainian Catholic liturgy in 44 years was celebrated at St. George Cathedral. On September 5–7, the International Symposium on the Great Famine of 1932–1933 was held in Kiev. On September 8, The first "Youth for Christ" rally since 1933 took place held in Lviv, with 40,000 participants. In September 28–30, the Green Party of Ukraine held its founding congress. On September 30, nearly 100,000 people marched in Kiev to protest against the new union treaty proposed by Gorbachev.
On October 1, 1990, parliament reconvened amid mass protests calling for the resignations of Kravchuk and of Prime Minister Vitaliy Masol, a leftover from the previous régime. Students erected a tent city on October Revolution Square, where they continued the protest.
On October 17 Masol resigned, and on October 20, Patriarch Mstyslav I of Kiev and all Ukraine arrived at Saint Sophia's Cathedral, ending a 46-year banishment from his homeland. On October 23, 1990, Parliament voted to delete Article 6 of the Ukrainian Constitution, which referred to the "leading role" of the Communist Party.
On October 25–28, 1990, Rukh held its second congress and declared that its principal goal was the "renewal of independent statehood for Ukraine". On October 28 UAOC faithful, supported by Ukrainian Catholics, demonstrated near St. Sophia's Cathedral as newly elected Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Aleksei and Metropolitan Filaret celebrated liturgy at the shrine. On November 1, the leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, respectively, Metropolitan Volodymyr Sterniuk and Patriarch Mstyslav, met in Lviv during anniversary commemorations of the 1918 proclamation of the Western Ukrainian National Republic.
On November 18, 1990, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church enthroned Mstyslav as Patriarch of Kiev and all Ukraine during ceremonies at Saint Sophia's Cathedral. Also on November 18, Canada announced that its consul-general to Kiev would be Ukrainian-Canadian Nestor Gayowsky. On November 19, the United States announced that its consul to Kiev would be Ukrainian-American John Stepanchuk. On November 19, the chairmen of the Ukrainian and Russian parliaments, respectively, Kravchuk and Yeltsin, signed a 10-year bilateral pact. In early December 1990 the Party of Democratic Rebirth of Ukraine was founded; on December 15, the Democratic Party of Ukraine was founded.[105]
Central Asian republics [ edit ]
Tajikistan: Dushanbe riots [ edit ]
On February 12–14, 1990, anti-government riots took place in Tajikistan's capital, Dushanbe, as tensions rose between nationalist Tajiks and ethnic Armenian refugees, after the Sumgait pogrom and anti-Armenian riots in Azerbaijan in 1988. During these riots, demonstrations sponsored by the nationalist Rastokhez movement turned violent. Radical economical and political reforms were demanded by the protesters which in turned torched government buildings; shops and other businesses were attacked and looted. 26 people were killed and 565 people were injured.
Kirghizia: Osh massacre [ edit ]
In June 1990, the city of Osh and its environs experienced bloody ethnic clashes between ethnic Kirghiz nationalist group Osh Aymaghi and Uzbek nationalist group Adolat over the land of a former collective farm. There were about 1,200 casualties, including over 300 dead and 462 seriously injured. The riots broke out over the division of land resources in and around the city.[106]
1991 [ edit ]
Moscow's crisis [ edit ]
On January 14, 1991, Nikolai Ryzhkov resigned from his post as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or premier of the Soviet Union, and was succeeded by Valentin Pavlov in the newly established post of Prime Minister of the Soviet Union.
On March 17, 1991, in a Union-wide referendum 76.4 percent of voters endorsed retention of a reformed Soviet Union.[108] The Baltic republics, Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova boycotted the referendum as well as Checheno-Ingushetia (an autonomous republic within Russia that had a strong desire for independence, and by now referred to itself as Ichkeria).[109] In each of the other nine republics, a majority of the voters supported the retention of a reformed Soviet Union.
Russia's President Boris Yeltsin [ edit ]
On June 12, 1991, Boris Yeltsin won 57 percent of the popular vote in the democratic elections, defeating Gorbachev's preferred candidate, Nikolai Ryzhkov, who won 16 percent of the vote. Following Yeltsin's election as president, Russia declared itself independent.[110] In his election campaign, Yeltsin criticized the "dictatorship of the center", but did not yet suggest that he would introduce a market economy.
Baltic republics [ edit ]
Lithuania [ edit ]
On January 13, 1991, Soviet troops, along with the KGB Spetsnaz Alpha Group, stormed the Vilnius TV Tower in Lithuania to suppress the independence movement. Fourteen unarmed civilians were killed and hundreds more injured. On the night of July 31, 1991, Russian OMON from Riga, the Soviet military headquarters in the Baltics, assaulted the Lithuanian border post in Medininkai and killed seven Lithuanian servicemen. This event further weakened the Soviet Union's position internationally and domestically, and stiffened Lithuanian resistance.
Latvia [ edit ]
Barricade erected in Riga to prevent the Soviet Army from reaching the Latvian Parliament, July 1991
The bloody attacks in Lithuania prompted Latvians to organize defensive barricades (the events are still today known as "The Barricades") blocking access to strategically important buildings and bridges in Riga. Soviet attacks in the ensuing days resulted in six deaths and several injuries; one person died later of their wounds.
Estonia [ edit ]
When Estonia had officially restored its independence during the coup (see below) in the dark hours of August 20, 1991, at 11:03 pm Tallinn time, many Estonian volunteers surrounded the Tallinn TV Tower in an attempt to prepare to cut off the communication channels after the Soviet troops seized it and refused to be intimidated by the Soviet troops. When Edgar Savisaar confronted the Soviet troops for ten minutes, they finally retreated from the TV tower after a failed resistance against the Estonians.
August coup [ edit ]
Tanks in Red Square during the 1991 August coup attempt
Faced with growing separatism, Gorbachev sought to restructure the Soviet Union into a less centralized state. On August 20, 1991, the Russian SFSR was scheduled to sign a New Union Treaty that would have converted the Soviet Union into a federation of independent republics with a common president, foreign policy and military. It was strongly supported by the Central Asian republics, which needed the economic advantages of a common market to prosper. However, it would have meant some degree of continued Communist Party control over economic and social life.
More radical reformists were increasingly convinced that a rapid transition to a market economy was required, even if the eventual outcome meant the disintegration of the Soviet Union into several independent states. Independence also accorded with Yeltsin's desires as president of the Russian Federation, as well as those of regional and local authorities to get rid of Moscow's pervasive control. In contrast to the reformers' lukewarm response to the treaty, the conservatives, "patriots", and Russian nationalists of the USSR – still strong within the CPSU and the military – were opposed to weakening the Soviet state and its centralized power structure.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin speaks atop a tank outside the White House in defiance of the 1991 coup.
On August 19, 1991, Gorbachev's vice president, Gennady Yanayev, Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov, Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov, KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov and other senior officials acted to prevent the union treaty from being signed by forming the "General Committee on the State Emergency", which put Gorbachev – on holiday in Foros, Crimea – under house arrest and cut off his communications. The coup leaders issued an emergency decree suspending political activity and banning most newspapers.
Coup organizers expected popular support but found that public opinion in large cities and in the republics was mostly against them, manifested by public demonstrations, especially in Moscow. Russian SFSR President Yeltsin condemned the coup and garnered popular support.
Thousands of Muscovites came out to defend the White House (the Russian Federation's parliament and Yeltsin's office), the symbolic seat of Russian sovereignty at the time. The organizers tried but ultimately failed to arrest Yeltsin, who rallied opposition to the coup by making speeches from atop a tank. The special forces dispatched by the coup leaders took up positions near the White House, but members refused to storm the barricaded building. The coup leaders also neglected to jam foreign news broadcasts, so many Muscovites watched it unfold live on CNN. Even the isolated Gorbachev was able to stay abreast of developments by tuning into the BBC World Service on a small transistor radio.[111]
After three days, on August 21, 1991, the coup collapsed. The organizers were detained and Gorbachev was reinstated as president, albeit with his power much depleted.
Fall: August–December 1991 [ edit ]
On August 24, 1991, Gorbachev dissolved the Central Committee of the CPSU, resigned as the party's general secretary, and dissolved all party units in the government. Five days later, the Supreme Soviet indefinitely suspended all CPSU activity on Soviet territory, effectively ending Communist rule in the Soviet Union and dissolving the only remaining unifying force in the country. Gorbachev established a State Council of the Soviet Union on 5 September, designed to bring him and the highest officials of the remaining republics into a collective leadership, able to appoint a premier of the Soviet Union; it never functioned properly, though Ivan Silayev de facto took the post through the Committee on the Operational Management of the Soviet Economy and the Interstate Economic Committee and tried to form a government though with rapidly reducing powers.
The Soviet Union collapsed with dramatic speed in the last quarter of 1991. Between August and December, 10 republics declared their independence, largely out of fear of another coup. By the end of September, Gorbachev no longer had the authority to influence events outside of Moscow. He was challenged even there by Yeltsin, who had begun taking over what remained of the Soviet government, including the Kremlin.
On September 17, 1991, General Assembly resolution numbers 46/4, 46/5, and 46/6 admitted Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to the United Nations, conforming to Security Council resolution numbers 709, 710, and 711 passed on September 12 without a vote.[112][113]
By 7 November 1991, most newspapers referred to the country as the 'former Soviet Union'.[114]
The final round of the Soviet Union's collapse began with a Ukrainian popular referendum on December 1, 1991, in which 90 percent of voters opted for independence. The secession of Ukraine, long second only to Russia in economic and political power, ended any realistic chance of Gorbachev keeping the Soviet Union together even on a limited scale. The leaders of the three principal Slavic republics, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus (formerly Byelorussia), agreed to discuss possible alternatives to the union.
On December 8, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus secretly met in Belavezhskaya Pushcha, in western Belarus, and signed the Belavezha Accords, which proclaimed the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and announced formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as a looser association to take its place. They also invited other republics to join the CIS. Gorbachev called it an unconstitutional coup. However, by this time there was no longer any reasonable doubt that, as the preamble of the Accords put it, "the USSR, as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality, is ceasing its existence."
On December 12, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR formally ratified the Belavezha Accords and renounced the 1922 Union Treaty. It also recalled the Russian deputies from the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The legality of this action was questionable, since Soviet law did not allow a republic to unilaterally recall its deputies.[115] However, no one in either Russia or the Kremlin objected. Any objections from the latter would have likely had no effect, since the Soviet government had effectively been rendered impotent long before December. On the surface, it appeared that the largest republic had formally seceded. However, this is not the case. Russia apparently took the line that it was not possible to secede from a country that no longer existed. Later that day, Gorbachev hinted for the first time that he was considering stepping down.[116]
On December 17, 1991, along with 28 European countries, the European Union (then known as the European Community), and four non-European countries, the three Baltic Republics and nine of the twelve remaining Soviet republics signed the European Energy Charter in the Hague as sovereign states.[117]
Doubts remained over whether the Belavezha Accords had legally dissolved the Soviet Union, since they were signed by only three republics. However, on December 21, 1991, representatives of 11 of the 12 remaining republics – all except Georgia – signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which confirmed the dissolution of the Union and formally established the CIS. They also "accepted" Gorbachev's resignation. While Gorbachev hadn't made any formal plans to leave the scene yet, he did tell CBS News that he would resign as soon as he saw that the CIS was indeed a reality.[118]
In a nationally televised speech early in the morning of December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned as president of the USSR – or, as he put it, "I hereby discontinue my activities at the post of President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." He declared the office extinct, and all of its powers (such as control of the nuclear arsenal) were ceded to Yeltsin. A week earlier, Gorbachev had met with Yeltsin and accepted the fait accompli of the Soviet Union's dissolution. On the same day, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR adopted a statute to change Russia's legal name from "Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic" to "Russian Federation", showing that it was now a sovereign state.
On the night of December 25, at 7:32 p.m. Moscow time, after Gorbachev left the Kremlin, the Soviet flag was lowered for the last time, and the Russian tricolor was raised in its place at 11:40 pm, symbolically marking the end of the Soviet Union. In his parting words, he defended his record on domestic reform and détente, but conceded, "The old system collapsed before a new one had time to start working."[119] On that same day, the President of the United States George H.W. Bush held a brief televised speech officially recognizing the independence of the 11 remaining republics.
On December 26, the Council of the Republics, the upper chamber of the Union's Supreme Soviet, voted both itself and the Soviet Union out of existence.[120] (The lower chamber, the Council of the Union, had been unable to work since December 12, when the recall of the Russian deputies left it without a quorum.) The following day Yeltsin moved into Gorbachev's former office, though the Russian authorities had taken over the suite two days earlier. By the end of 1991, the few remaining Soviet institutions that had not been taken over by Russia ceased operation, and individual republics assumed the central government's role.
The Alma-Ata Protocol also addressed other issues, including UN membership. Notably, Russia was authorized to assume the Soviet Union's UN membership, including its permanent seat on the Security Council. The Soviet Ambassador to the UN delivered a letter signed by Russian President Yeltsin to the UN Secretary-General dated December 24, 1991, informing him that by virtue of the Alma-Ata Protocol, Russia was the successor state to the USSR. After being circulated among the other UN member states, with no objection raised, the statement was declared accepted on the last day of the year, December 31, 1991.
Consequences and impact [ edit ]
Russian male life expectancy, 1980–2007
Sports [ edit ]
The breakup of the Soviet Union saw a massive impact in the sporting world. Before its dissolution, the team had just qualified for Euro 1992, but their place was instead taken by the CIS national football team. After the tournament, the former Soviet Republics competed as separate independent nations, with FIFA allocating the Soviet team's record to Russia.[121]
Before the start of the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville and the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, The Olympic Committee of the USSR formally existed until March 12, 1992, when it disbanded but it was succeeded by the Russian Olympic Committee. However, 12 of the 15 former Soviet Republics competed together as the Unified Team and marched under the Olympic Flag in Barcelona, where they finished first in the medal rankings. Separately, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia also competed as independent nations in the 1992 Games. The Unified Team also competed in Albertville earlier in the year (represented by six of the twelve ex-Republics), and finished second in the medal ranking at those Games. Afterwards, the individual IOCs of the non-Baltic former republics were established. Some NOCs made their debuts at the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer. and anothers made it at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Members of the Unified Team in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona consisted of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. In these Summer Games, the Unified Team secured 45 gold medals, 38 silver medals, and 29 bronze medals to beat second place United States by 4 medals, and third place Germany by 30 medals. In addition to great team success, the Unified Team also saw great personal success. Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus was able to secure 6 gold medals for the team in gymnastics, while also becoming the most decorated athlete of the Summer Games.[122] Gymnastics, athletics, wrestling, and swimming were the strongest sports for the team, as the four combined earned 28 gold medals and 64 medals in total.
Only 6 teams competed earlier in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville. These countries were Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The Unified team placed second, losing to Germany by 3 medals. However, much like the summer games, the Unified team had the most decorated medalist in the Winter Games as well with Lyubov Yegorova of Russia, a figure skater with 5 total medals.[123]
Telecommunications [ edit ]
The Soviet Union's calling code of +7 continues to be used by Russia and Kazakhstan. Between 1993 and 1997, many newly independent republics implemented their own numbering plans such as Belarus (+375) and Ukraine (+380).[citation needed] The Internet domain .su remains in use alongside the internet domains of the newly created countries.
Chronology of declarations of restored and newly independent states [ edit ]
Animated map showing independent states and territorial changes to the Soviet Union in chronological order
States with limited recognition are shown in italics.
Before the coup [ edit ]
Lithuania – 11 March 1990
Estonia (transitional) – 30 March 1990
Latvia (transitional) – 4 May 1990
Armenia (transitional) – 23 August 1990
Abkhazia – 25 August 1990
– 25 August 1990 Tatarstan – 30 August 1990
– 30 August 1990 Transnistria – 2 September 1990
– 2 September 1990 Georgia – 9 April 1991
During the coup [ edit ]
Zviazda, a state newspaper of the Belarusian SSR, issue from 25 August 1991 whose headline reads "Belarus is independent!" , a state newspaper of the Belarusian SSR, issue from 25 August 1991 whose headline reads "Belarus is independent!"
Gagauzia – 19 August 1991
– 19 August 1991 Estonia (effective) – 20 August 1991
Latvia (effective) – 21 August 1991
After the coup [ edit ]
Country emblems of the independent states before and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Note that the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (fifth in the second row) no longer exists as a political entity of any kind and the emblem is unofficial.
Legacy [ edit ]
In Armenia, 12% of respondents said the USSR collapse did good, while 66% said it did harm. In Kyrgyzstan, 16% of respondents said the collapse of the USSR did good, while 61% said it did harm.[124] Ever since the collapse of the USSR, annual polling by the Levada Center has shown that over 50 percent of Russia's population regretted its collapse, with the only exception to this being in 2012. A 2018 Levada Center poll showed that 66% of Russians lamented the fall of the Soviet Union.[125] According to a 2014 poll, 57 percent of citizens of Russia regretted the collapse of the Soviet Union, while 30 percent said they did not. Elderly people tended to be more nostalgic than younger Russians.[126] 50% of respondents in Ukraine in a similar poll held in February 2005 stated they regret the disintegration of the Soviet Union.[127] However, a similar poll conducted in 2016 showed only 35% Ukrainians regretting the Soviet Union collapse and 50% not regretting this.[128] On 25 January 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Vladimir Lenin and his advocating for the individual republics' right to political secession for the breakup of the Soviet Union.[129]
The breakdown of economic ties that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union led to a severe economic crisis and catastrophic fall in living standards in post-Soviet states and the former Eastern Bloc,[130] which was even worse than the Great Depression.[131][132] Poverty and economic inequality surged—between 1988–1989 and 1993–1995, the Gini ratio increased by an average of 9 points for all former socialist countries.[133] Even before Russia's financial crisis in 1998, Russia's GDP was half of what it had been in the early 1990s.[132] In the decades following the end of the Cold War, only five or six of the post-communist states are on a path to joining the wealthy capitalist West while most are falling behind, some to such an extent that it will take over 50 years to catch up to where they were before the end of communism.[134][135] In a 2001 study by economist Steven Rosefielde, he calculated that there were 3.4 million premature deaths in Russia from 1990 to 1998, which he partly blames on the "shock therapy" that came with the Washington Consensus.[136]
United Nations membership [ edit ]
In a letter dated December 24, 1991, Boris Yeltsin, the President of the Russian Federation, informed the United Nations Secretary-General that the membership of the Soviet Union in the Security Council and all other UN organs was being continued by the Russian Federation with the support of the 11 member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
However, the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic had already joined the UN as original members on October 24, 1945, together with the Soviet Union. After declaring independence, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic changed its name to Ukraine on August 24, 1991 and on September 19, 1991, the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic informed the UN that it had changed its name to the Republic of Belarus.
The other twelve independent states established from the former Soviet Republics were all admitted to the UN:
17 September 1991: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
2 March 1992: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan
31 July 1992: Georgia
Explanations of Soviet dissolution in historiography [ edit ]
Historiography on Soviet dissolution can be roughly classified in two groups, namely intentionalist accounts and structuralist accounts.
Intentionalist accounts contend that Soviet collapse was not inevitable and resulted from the policies and decisions of specific individuals (usually Gorbachev and Yeltsin). One characteristic example of intentionalist writing is historian Archie Brown's The Gorbachev Factor, which argues Gorbachev was the main force in Soviet politics at least in the period 1985–1988 and even later largely spearheaded the political reforms and developments as opposed to being led by events.[137] This was especially true of the policies of perestroika and glasnost, market initiatives and foreign policy stance as political scientist George Breslauer has seconded, labelling Gorbachev a "man of the events".[138] In a slightly different vein, David Kotz and Fred Weir have contended that Soviet elites were responsible for spurring on both nationalism and capitalism from which they could personally benefit (this is also demonstrated by their continued presence in the higher economic and political echelons of post-Soviet republics).[139]
By contrast, structuralist accounts take a more deterministic view in which Soviet dissolution was an outcome of deeply-rooted structural issues, which planted a "time-bomb". For example, Stephen Walker has argued that while minority nationalities were denied power at the Union level, confronted by a culturally-destabilizing form of economic modernization and subjected to a certain amount of Russification, they were at the same time strengthened by several policies pursued by Soviet regime (such as indigenization of leadership, support for local languages and so on) which over time created conscious nations. Furthermore, the basic legitimating myths of the Soviet Union federative system—that it was a voluntary and mutual union of allied peoples eased the task of secession/independence.[140] On 25 January 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin supported this view, calling Lenin's support of the right of secession for the Soviet Republics a "delay-action bomb".[141]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ Russian: Распа́д Сове́тского Сою́за , tr. Raspád Sovétskovo Sojúza, though more frequently a negatively connotated Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за , tr. Razvál Sovétskovo Sojúza variant is used. , though more frequently a negatively connotated Russian variant is used.
References [ edit ] |
2000 block of Royal Street
A juvenile was arrested Friday afternoon, police said, on a burglary charge in the 2000 block of Royal Street, shown here. Law enforcement sources said the teen was Marshall Coulter, the 15-year-old who survived being shot in the head by a Marigny homeowner in July 2013 who feared the intruder posed a threat. Coulter was unarmed at the time, police said.
(Naomi Martin, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Marshall Coulter, the 15-year-old recently arrested in a burglary months after his near-fatal shooting at the hands of a Marigny homeowner, now faces mounting legal troubles.
New Orleans police confirmed Monday Coulter was also booked over the weekend in another home invasion, in which police say Coulter "armed himself" with their gun after a struggle. It is the first time the teen, who has been described by family as a non-violent pilferer, is accused of a crime of violence.
That allegation comes after months of Coulter's family and supporters insisting he was no threat to anyone, even though he had been caught stealing. One brother described him as a "professional thief."
It is a disclosure that could support a position asserted by Merritt Landry supporters, who say the homeowner was in imminent danger by a potential gunman when he confronted the unarmed teen in the predawn hours in his gated yard last July.
Police said they suspect Coulter as a 13-year-old broke into a house in the 900 block of Frenchmen Street on June 11, 2012. The residents returned home around 3:30 a.m. and found the teenager inside the house. The residents had a "struggle" with the teen, who then armed himself with the victims' gun, police said.
Coulter then ran away with the victims' gun, police said.
Police did not book Coulter with that crime, an aggravated burglary, until Friday, even though there was an arrest warrant on file. Two law-enforcement sources said Coulter was believed to be incapacitated after being shot in the head -- his mother said he was still undergoing skull surgeries in December -- so authorities did not seek him out to book him right away.
It is unclear when Coulter became a suspect in the Frenchmen Street home invasion. Officer Garry Flot, a police spokesman, said he did not know when the arrest warrant was secured.
News of the Frenchmen Street break-in follows the news Friday that Coulter was arrested after police said he was caught inside a home in the 2000 block of Royal Street. Coulter had apparently used a key left inside the mailbox to open the door, and did not take anything, according to a witness who spoke with him right before the arrest happened. Coulter waited "willingly" for the police to arrive, authorities said.
The July 29 Marigny shooting put Coulter in a coma and led to the arrest of the homeowner, Merritt Landry, who fired a single round at the teen's head after finding him in his gated yard.
Landry said he believed the teenager was trying to break into his home and harm his family, but New Orleans Police Department officers arrested him on a charge of attempted second-degree murder. Prosecutors, however, have had trouble prosecuting the case. They were unable to secure a grand jury indictment against him earlier this year, leaving the prosecution in limbo.
Landry's attorney, Kevin Boshea, said the new information about Coulter's arrest highlighted the potential threat the teen posed to Landry during their brief encounter at 2 a.m. Landry's supporters have maintained from the beginning he thought his life was in danger and feared for the safety of his pregnant wife and young daughter inside his house.
Landry first yelled, "Stop, stop, stop," but Coulter kept moving toward the house, Boshea said. Landry told police he saw Coulter make a sudden move. So Landry fired the shot.
"You've only got one second to make a decision so you better make the right one, otherwise who knows," Boshea said.
Gary Robichaux, head of ReNew Schools, where Coulter was previously enrolled, said he found news of the teen's recent arrest "sad." But not surprising.
He said educators had noticed signs that Coulter had mental-health and behavioral issues, such as stealing. They tried to get Coulter on the right track through counseling and meeting with his mother, Sarah Jane Coulter, but it was not enough.
Robichaux said he sees Coulter as emblematic of children who fall through the cracks due to a lack of mental-health resources in the city.
"Marshall was obviously a kid who had issues and needed help, almost beyond our capabilities," Robichaux said. "There are no quality places in the city where we could get help for someone like Marshall -- and unfortunately they end up in the legal system."
--
Editor's note: An earlier version of this report used the phrase "turned the gun" on the residents in the Frenchmen Street home invasion that occurred June 11, 2012, which may have incorrectly characterized the events. A brief - but verbatim - police description of the crime, which has been incorporated into the story, reads as follows: "Marshall Coulter 15, was arrested for a warrant for an Aggravated Burglary that occurred 6-11-12 under item # F-15531-12. The location was a home in the 900 block of Frenchmen Street. Gist the victims returned home and found the suspect inside of their house. A struggle ensued at which time the suspect armed himself with the victims gun. The suspect then fled the scene on foot." |
Description: Hitler reacts to GyroDawn on Reddit's the button
Sir, The time between presses has been increasing
Orange flairs are getting common
We are watching all of your accounts trying for red
There was an error and 3 of your accounts were given a purple flag
They were clicked at 10.59 but the server had a glitch
That's okay, I still have many accounts,
I can still get the first red flair
Sir,
The first..
The first red flair was given as a result of the glitch
The mods let /u/GyroDawn keep it.
Leave if this didn't happen on your watch. I want those three alone.
HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN!
THE FIRST RED IS HERE AND IT IS NOT ONE OF MY ALTS
WHAT COLOR ARE OUR ARMBANDS? OUR FLAG? PURPLE?
NO! IT IS RED! RED! AND YOU GET ME FILTHY PURPLE
I MIGHT AS WELL JUST CLICK ALL MY ALTS NOW AND JOIN THE 60'S
WHY SHOULD I WAIT FOR A BETTER TIME WHEN FIRST RED IS TAKEN
RED! FIRST RED! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GET ME RED!
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? DIDN'T YOU NOTICE THE NETWORK WAS DOWN?
Sir, it was a server error on the Reddit site
YOU THINK I CARE THAT REDDIT IS TO BLAME?
Sir they tried their best but they received cheater flairs
SOMEONE WAS ABLE TO GET THE RED!
YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SUPER MEN
YOU SHOULD HAVE SUPERIOR REACTIONS
THERE WERE 3 ON AT ALL TIMES
WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING THIS FOR 3 WEEKS
ARE YOU TELLING ME WE HAVE WASTED ALL THAT TIME
WHAT IS THE POINT OF THE BUTTON ANYWAY?
ITS JUST SUCKING AWAY OUR LIVES
WE COULD HAVE BEEN READING ALL THE OTHER SUBS
I feel like I've wasted my life
I wanted the first red. First red you understand?
It was our destiny
three purples...
IF I WANTED PURPLES I WOULD HAVE CLICKED DAY ONE
NOW ALL MY OTHER ACCOUNTS ARE A WASTE
WHAT GOOD IS RED FLAG IF IT'S NOT THE FIRST
I GUESS I COULD GET BEST TIMES
BUT NO ONE CARES ABOUT BEST TIMES ONCE THEIR BEAT
I care about your 38 second record
We might as well just disconnect the internet
There is nothing for us there there anymore.
delete
delete them all
all my reddit accounts, delete them all
except the furries themed one
then unplug the router |
Samples 1 Sample No. Compound name Category of the drug identified 1 Butane-1,4-diol Alkyldiol 2 ADB-CHMINACA Synthetic cannabinoid 3 ADB-CHMINACA Synthetic cannabinoid 4 5F-ADB Synthetic cannabinoid 5 5F-ADB Synthetic cannabinoid 6 25H-NBOMe (1) Phenethylamine 7 25I-NBOMe Phenethylamine 8 25E-NBOMe (3) Phenethylamine 9 25D-NBOMe (2) Phenethylamine 10 25I-NBMD (4) Phenethylamine 11 RH34 (5) Phenethylamine 12 Escaline (6) Phenethylamine 13 Compound 7 –a 14 Compound 8 – 15 Compound 8 – 16 Compound 9 – 17 Compound 10 – 18 Compound 11 – 19 Compound 12 – 20 Compound 13 – 21 Compound 14 – 22 Compound 15 – The research collaborator obtained 22 samples (Table), intended for use as ingredients in the recreational drug product prior to being sold on the drug market, from a recreational drug dealer in August 2014. There was one liquid sample labeled “sample No. 1”, and “sample Nos. 2–22” were all in powder form.
Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis A 10-μL aliquot of liquid sample or 10 mg each powder sample was initially dissolved into 2 mL methanol and arbitrarily diluted. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis was performed using GC–MS-QP2100 Ultra (Simadzu, Kyoto, Japan) equipped with a DB5MS capillary column (30 m × 0.25 mm i.d., 0.25 μm film thickness; Agilent, Santa Clara, CA, USA.) with a helium carrier gas flow at 1.56 mL/min. The injection port was set at 260 °C and an injection volume was 1 μL in the splitless mode. The initial oven temperature was set to 60 °C, which was held for 2 min, and then increased by 10 °C/min up to 320 °C and held for 10 min. Electron ionization (EI) was used with a temperature of the ion source set to 200 °C and operation in full scan (m/z 40–700) mode. GC/MS data analysis was performed using the SWGDRUG MS Library ver. 2.2 supplied by Scientific Working Group for the analysis of seized drugs (SWGDRUG) [2] and Cayman Spectral Library (Cayman Chemical) [3].
Nuclear magnetic resonance analysis A 10-mg sample of each powder (sample Nos. 13–22, which could not be identified by GC/MS) was dissolved in 1 mL methanol-d 4 (99.8 %) or pyridine-d 5 (99.8 %). Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra were measured using an ECX-500 instrument (JEOL RESONANCE Inc., Tokyo, Japan) at 500 MHz for 1H and 125 MHz for 13C. The signals were assigned on the basis of 2D NMR experiments, which involved correlated spectroscopy (COSY), distorsionless enhancement by polarization transfer (DEPT135), heteronuclear multiple quantum coherence (HMQC), and heteronuclear multiple-bond coherence (HMBC) spectral analyses.
High resolution mass spectrometry analysis High resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) analyses of sample Nos. 13-22 were carried out using JMS-700 V (JEOL Inc., Tokyo, Japan) operated by fast atom bombardment (FAB) in the positive mode with xenon gas. Glycerol or 3-nitrobenzyl alcohol was used as matrix. The spectra were run in a mass range from m/z 10 to 1000. PEG 200 and PEG 400 were used for mass calibration. Resolution performance was 3000.
Results and discussion Twenty-two samples were measured by GC/MS and searched for by the spectral libraries. Every sample was composed of a single compound, showing a purity of more than 90 % (data not shown). Twelve samples (10 compounds) matched with the data of the spectral libraries and were identified as specific compounds (Table 1, Fig. 1). 1–6 could be easily identified by matching each spectrum with that described in the libraries, they have not appeared in scientific literature. Therefore, we presented their EI mass spectra as useful information to forensic toxicologists (Fig. 2 4 5 6 7 Open image in new window Although the compoundscould be easily identified by matching each spectrum with that described in the libraries, they have not appeared in scientific literature. Therefore, we presented their EI mass spectra as useful information to forensic toxicologists (Fig.). Among 25-NBOMe designer drugs, 25I-NBOMe and 25B-NBOMe are most common and detected from seized materials [] and human specimens []. 1 3 2 3 7–14) and one phencyclidine derivative (compound 15) were identified as novel designer drugs for the recreational samples (Fig. 1 Compound Observed m/z Calculated m/z Error (ppm) 7 274.1816 274.1807 0.9 8 290.1752 290.1756 −0.4 8 290.1742 290.1756 −1.4 9 220.1694 220.1701 −0.7 10 234.185 234.1858 −0.8 11 260.2018 260.2014 0.4 12 224.1444 224.1451 −0.7 13 246.1873 246.1858 1.5 14 232.1689 232.1701 −1.2 15 234.1502 234.1494 0.8 Compound No. NMR Data 7 1H δ: 0.88 (t, J = 7.4 Hz, 3H, H-5), 1.17–1.32 (m, 2H, H-4 × 2), 1.97–2.24 (m, 6H, H-3 × 2, H-2″ ×2 and H-3″ ×2), 2.96–3.02 (m, 1H, H-4″), 3.28–3.34 (m, 3H, –OCH 2 CH 2 − and H-1″), 3.59–3.64 (m, 1H, H-4″), 3.66–3.71 (m, 1H, H-l″), 4.70 (t, J = 8.8 Hz, 2H, –OCH 2 −), 5.19–5.21 (m, 1H, H-2), 6.90 (d, J = 8.5Hz, 1H, H-5′), 7.92 (dd, J = 8.5 and 2.0 Hz, 1H, H-6′), 7.97 (d, J = 2.0 Hz, 1H, H-2′) 13C δ: 14.2 (C-5), 18.6 (C-4), 24.0 (C-3″), 24.2 (C-2″), 29.6 (–OCH 2 CH 2 −), 33.8 (C-3), 53.1 (C-l″), 56.2 (C-4″), 70.0 (C-2), 74.0 (–OCH 2 ), 110.7 (C-5′), 127.5 (C-2′), 128.8 (C-1′), 130.7 (C-3′), 132.6 (C-6′), 167.9 (C-4′), 195.0 (C-l) HMBC 1_3,2′,6′ 2_3,4″,1″ 3_2,4,5 4_3,5 5_3,4 l′_5′ 2′_6′ 3′_5′,OCH 2 CH 2 ,OCH 2 4′_2′,5′,6′,OCH 2 CH 2 ,OCH 2 6′_2′ 1″_2,2″,4″ 2″_1″,3″,4″ 3″_1″,2″,4″ 4″_2 OCH 2 _ OCH 2 CH 2 OCH 2 CH 2 _OCH 2 8 1H δ: 0.83 (t, J = 7.0 Hz, 3H, H-6), 1.10–1.32 (m, 4H, H-4 × 2 and H-5 × 2), 1.98–2.06 (m, 4H, H-3 × 2 and H-3″×2), 2.11 (br, 1H, H-2″), 2.21 (br, 1H, H-2″), 3.01 (br, 1H, H-4″), 3.33 (br, 1H, H-l″), 3.62 (br, 1H, H-4″), 3.68 (br, 1H, H-l″), 5.19–5.21 (m, 1H, H-2), 6.13 (s, 2H, –OCH 2 −), 7.02 (d, J = 8.2 Hz, 1H, H-5′), 7.51 (d, J = 1.7 Hz, 1H, H-2′), 7.74 (dd, J = 8.2 and 1.7 Hz, 1H, H-6′) 13C δ: 13.9 (C-6), 23.5 (C-5), 24.0 (C-3″), 24.1 (C-2″), 27.1 (C-4), 31.4 (C-3), 53.1 (C-l″), 56.2 (C-4″), 70.1 (C-2), 104.1 (-O–CH 2 −), 108.8 (C-2′), 109.5 (C-5′), 127.5 (C-6′), 130.2 (C-1′), 150.4 (C-3′), 155.3 (C-4′), 195.0 (C-l) HMBC 1_3,2′,6′ 2_3,4 3_2,4,5 4_2,3,5,6 5_3,4,6 6_4,5 l′_2,3,2′,6′ 2′_5′,6′ 3′_2′,5′,OCH 2 4′_2′,5′,6′,OCH 2 5′_2′ 6′_2′ 1″_2 9 1H δ: 0.88 (t, J = 7.7 Hz, 3H, H-4), 1.35 (t, J = 7.1 Hz, 3H, H-2″), 1.99-2.13 (m, 2H, H-3 × 2), 2.37 (m, 6H, 3′-CH 3 and 4′-CH 3 ), 3.00–3.14 (m, 2H, H-l′×2), 5.14–5.16 (m, 1H, H-2), 7.35 (d, J= 7.8 Hz, 1H, H-5′), 7.79 (dd, J = 7.8 and 2.0 Hz, 1H, H-6′), 7.84 (m, 1H, H-2′) 13C δ: 8.5 (C-4), 11.7 (C-2″), 19.8 (3′-CH 3 ), 20.2 (4′-CH 3 ), 24.9 (C-3), 43.2 (C-l″), 63.7 (C-2), 127.7 (C-6′), 130.8 (C-2′), 131.5 (C-5′), 133.1 (C-1′), 139.2 (C-4′), 146.4 (C-3′), 196.3 (C-l) HMBC 1_2,3,2′,6′ 2_3,4,1′ 3_2,4 4_2,3 l′_5′ 2′_6′,3′-CH 3 3′_2′,6′,3′-CH 3 ,4′-CH 3 4′_5′,3′-CH 3 ,4′-CH 3 5′_4′-CH 3 6′_2′ 1″_2, 2″ 2″_1′ 3′-CH 3 _2′ 4′-CH 3 _5′ 10 1H δ: 0.88 (t, J = 7.4 Hz, 3H, H-5), 1.16–1.27 (m, 1H, H-4), 1.30–1.39 (m, 1H, H-4), 1.35 (t, J = 7.4 Hz, 3H, H-2″), 1.89–2.00 (m, 2H, H-3), 2.36–2.37 (m, 6H, 4′-CH 3 and 5′-CH 3 ), 2.99–3.14 (m, 2H, H-l″×2), 5.13-5.15 (m, 1H, H-2), 7.35 (d, J = 8.0 Hz, H-5′), 7.78 (dd, J = 8.0 and 1.7 Hz, 1H, H-6′), 7.83 (m, 1H, H-2′) 13C δ: 11.7 (C-2″), 14.1 (C-5), 18.6 (C-4), 19.8 (3′-CH 3 ), 20.2 (4′-CH 3 ), 33.9 (C-3), 43.3 (C-l″), 62.9 (C-2), 127.7 (C-6′), 130.8 (C-2′), 131.5 (C-5′), 133.2 (C-1′), 139.2 (C-4′), 146.5 (C-3′), 196.4 (C-l) HMBC 1_2,3,2′,6′ 2_3,1″ 3_2,4,5 4_2,3,5 5_3,4 l′_5′ 2′_6′,4′-CH 3 3′_2′,6′,4′-CH 3 4′_5′,4′-CH 3 5′_4′-CH 3 6′_2′ 1″_2, 2′ 2″_1″ 3′-CH 3 _2′ 4′-CH 3 _5′ 11 1H δ: 0.73 (t, J = 7.4 Hz, 3H, H-5), 1.33–1.51 (m, 2H, H-4 × 2), 1.85–1.94 (m, 4H, H-2″×2 and H-3″×2), 2.12–2.17 (m, 8H, H-3 × 2, H-3′-CH 3 and H-4′-CH 3 ), 3.34 and 3.5l (each as br, each as 2H, H-l″×2 and H-4″×2), 5.41 (m, 1H, H-2), 7.24 (d, J = 7.3 Hz, 1H, H-5′), 8.07-8.09 (m, 2H, H-2′ and H-6′) 13C δ: 14.1 (C-5), 19.5 (C-4), 19.5 (3′-CH 3 ), 19.8 (4′-CH 3 ), 24.0 (C-2″ and C-3″), 32.6 (C-3), 51.7 (C-l″ and C-4″), 65.9 (C-2), 127.1 (C-6′), 130.2 (C-2′), 130.5 (C-5′), 134.7 (C-1′), 137.8 (C-4′), 144.4 (C-3′), 197.7 (C-l) HMBC 1_2,3,2′,6′ 2_3,4 3_2,4,5 4_2,3,5 5_3,4 l′_5′ 2′_6′ 3′_2′,6′,3′-CH 3 4′_5′,3′-CH 3 5′_4′-CH 3 6′_2′ 12 1H δ: 0.89 (t, J = 7.3 Hz, 3H, H-5), 1.17–1.29 (m, 1H, H-4), 1.32–1.42 (m, 1H, H-4), 1.36 (t, J = 7.3 Hz, 3H, H-2″), 1.91–2.03 (m, 2H, H-3 × 2), 3.02-3.08 (m, 1H, H-l″), 3.10–3.17 (m, 1H, H-l″), 5.18–5.20 (m, 1H, H-2), 7.31–7.36 (m, 2H, H-3′ and H-5′), 8.16 (m, 2H, H-2′ and H-6′) 13C δ: 11.7 (C-2′′), 14.1 (C-5), 18.6 (C-4), 33.7 (C-3), 43.4 (C-1′′), 63.1 (C-2), 117.5 (d, JC,F = 22.7 Hz, C-3′ and C-5′), 131.8 (d, JC,F = 2.3 Hz, C-1′), 133.1 (d, JC,F = 9.5 Hz, C-2′ and C-6′), 168.2 (d, JC,F = 256.3 Hz, C-4′), 195.3 (C-1) HMBC 1_2,3,2′,6′ 2_3,4,1″ 3_2,4,5 4_2,3,5 5_3,4 1′_3′,5′ 3′,5′_2′,6′ 4′_2′,3′,5′,6′ 1″_2, 2″ 2″_1″ 13 1H δ: 0.88 (t, J = 7.1 Hz, 3H, H-5), 1.17–1.29 (m, 1H, H-4), 1.32–1.41 (m, 1H, H-4), 1.35 (t, J = 7.4 Hz, 3H, H-2″), 1.90–2.01 (m, 2H, H-3 × 2), 2.14 (m, 2H, H-2′″×2), 2.98–3.07 (m, 5H, H-3′″×2, H-l′″×2 and H-1″), 3.09-3.16 (m, 1H, H-l″), 5.15–5.17 (m, 1H, H-2), 7.42 (d, J = 7.8 Hz, 1H, H-5′), 7.85 (dd, J = 7.8 and 1.4 Hz, 1H, H-6′), 7.91 (m, 1H, H-2′) 13C δ: 11.7 (C-2″), 14.1 (C-5), 18.6 (C-4), 26.4 (C-2′″), 33.4 (C-l′″), 33.9 (C-3), 34.1 (C-3′″), 43.3 (C-l″), 63.0 (C-2), 125.7 (C-2′), 126.1 (C-5′), 128.6 (C-6′), 133.7 (C-1′), 146.9 (C-4′), 154.0 (C-3′), 196.4 (C-l) HMBC 1_2,3,2′,6′ 2_3,1″ 3_2,4 4_2,3,5 5_3,4 l′_l′″,5′ 2′_6′ 3′_2′,6′,1′″,2′″ 4′_5′,1′″,2′″ 5′_3′″ 6′_2′,5′,3′″ 1′″_2′, 2′″,3′″ 2′″_3′″ 3′″_5′,2′″ 1″_2,2″ 2″_1″ 14 1H δ: 0.88 (t, J = 7.7 Hz, 3H, H-4), 1.36 (t, J = 7.4 Hz, 3H, H-2″), 2.00–2.17 (m, 4H, H-3 × 2 and H-2′″×2), 2.97-3.07 (m, 5H, H-3′″×2, H-l′″×2 and H-1″), 3.09–3.16 (m, 1H, H-l″), 5.15–5.18 (m, 1H, H-2), 7.42 (d, J = 7.9 Hz, 1H, H-5′), 7.85 (dd, J = 7.9 and 1.5 Hz, 1H, H-6′), 7.92 (m, 1H, H-2′) 13C δ: 8.6 (C-4), 11.7 (C-2″), 24.9 (C-3), 26.4 (C-2′″), 33.4 (C-l′″), 34.1 (C-3′″), 43.3 (C-l″), 63.8 (C-2), 125.7 (C-2′), 126.1 (C-5′), 128.6 (C-6′), 133.7 (C-1′), 146.9 (C-4′), 154.0 (C-3′), 196.4 (C-l) HMBC 1_2,3,2′,6′ 2_3,4,1″ 3_2,4 4_2,3 l′_l′″,5′ 2′_6′ 3′_2′,6′,2′″,3′″ 4′_5′,2′″,3′″ 5′_3′″ 6′_2′,3′″ 1′″_2′,2′″ 2′″_1′″ 3′″_5′, 2′″ 1″_2,2″ 2″_1″ 15 1H δ: 1.70–1.88 (m, 2H, H-4 and H-5), 1.94 (dd, J = 13.3 and 3.7 Hz, 1H, H-6), 1.98–2.00 (m, 1H, H-5), 2.06–2.11 (m, 1H, H-4), 2.31 (s, 3H, NH-CH 3 ), 2.42 (dt, J = 13.6 and 6.2 Hz, 1H, H-3), 2.47-2.51 (m, 1H, H-3), 3.20 (ddd, J = 13.6, 5.6 and 2.8 Hz, 1H, H-6), 3.84 (s, 3H, O-CH 3 ), 6.93 (t, J = 2.3 Hz, 1H, H-2′), 7.00–7.02 (m, 1H, H-6′), 7.12–7.14 (m, 1H, H-4′), 7.51 (t, J = 8.3 Hz, 1H, H-5′) 13C δ: 22.9 (C-5), 27.1 (NH-CH 3 ), 28.5 (C-4), 32.8 (C-6), 40.1 (C-3), 56.0 (O-CH 3 ), 72.8 (C-l), 115.2 (C-2′), 116.8 (C-4′), 121.2 (C-6′), 132.4 (C-1′), 132.5 (C-5′), 162.4 (C-3′), 207.2 (C-2) HMBC 1_6,2′,6′,NHCH 3 2_3,6 3_5 4_3,5,6 5_3,6 6_5 l′_6,5′ 2′_4′,5′ 3′_2′,4′,5′,6′,OCH 3 6′_2′,4′,5′ However, the fragmentation patterns of the other 10 samples did not match those of the libraries (Table, Fig.). For the determination of these nine compounds, NMR and HRMS analyses were performed (Tables). As a result, eight synthetic cathinones (compounds) and one phencyclidine derivative (compound) were identified as novel designer drugs for the recreational samples (Fig.). Analysis data on the structural determination of compounds are indicated below.
Identification of compounds 7–15 3 7 at 21.08 min with peaks at m/z 126, 127, and 55. HRMS analysis indicated the [M + H]+ value at m/z 274.1816, and the protonated molecular formula was estimated to be C 17 H 24 NO 2 (calculated value 274.1807, accident error 0.9 ppm; Table 2 7 was eventually identified as 1-(2,3-dihydro-1-benzofuran-5-yl)-2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)pentan-1-one (5-DBFPV) by NMR (Table 3 1 Open image in new window Sample No. 13 was analyzed by GC/MS. Figureshows the EI mass spectrum of compoundat 21.08 min with peaks at m/z 126, 127, and 55. HRMS analysis indicated the [M + H]value at m/z 274.1816, and the protonated molecular formula was estimated to be CNO(calculated value 274.1807, accident error 0.9 ppm; Table). Compoundwas eventually identified as 1-(2,3-dihydro-1-benzofuran-5-yl)-2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)pentan-1-one (5-DBFPV) by NMR (Table, Fig.). Sample Nos. 14 and 15 were analyzed by GC/MS and both samples indicated exactly the same EI mass spectra and the same retention time at 20.95 min with peaks at m/z 140, 141, and 84 (Fig. 3), indicating these are the same compound (compounds 8). HRMS analysis indicated the [M + H]+ value at m/z 290.1752, and the protonated molecular formula was estimated to be C 17 H 24 NO 3 (calculated value 290.1756, accident error −0.4 ppm for sample No. 14 and −1.4 ppm for sample No. 15; Table 2). Compound 8 was eventually identified as 1-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-yl)-2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)hexan-1-one (3,4-MDPHP) by NMR (Table 3, Fig. 1). For sample No. 16 (compound 9), EI mass spectrum showed peaks at m/z 86, 58, and 41 at 15.47 min. HRMS analysis indicated the [M + H]+ value at m/z 220.1694, and the protonated molecular formula was estimated to be C 14 H 22 NO (calculated value 220.1701, accident error −0.7 ppm; Table 2). Compound 9 was eventually identified as 1-(3,4-dimethylphenyl)-2-(ethylamino)butan-1-one (3,4-dimethyl-NEB) by NMR (Table 3, Fig. 1). For sample No. 17 (compound 10), EI mass spectrum showed peaks at m/z 100, 58, and 101 at 16.40 min. HRMS analysis indicated the [M + H]+ value at m/z 234.1850, and the protonated molecular formula was estimated to be C 15 H 24 NO (calculated value 234.1858, accident error −0.8 ppm; Table 2). Compound 10 was eventually identified as 1-(3,4-dimethylphenyl)-2-(ethylamino)pentan-1-one (3,4-dimethyl-α-ethylaminopentiophenone) by NMR (Table 3, Fig. 1). For sample No. 18 (compound 11), EI mass spectrum showed peaks at m/z 126, 127, and 55 at 18.68 min. HRMS analysis indicated the [M + H]+ value at m/z 260.2018, and the protonated molecular formula was estimated to be C 17 H 26 NO (calculated value 260.2014, accident error 0.4 ppm; Table 2). Compound 11 was eventually identified as 1-(3,4-dimethylphenyl)-2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)pentan-1-one (3,4-dimethyl-α-PVP) by NMR (Table 3, Fig. 1). For sample No. 19 (compound 12), EI mass spectrum showed peaks at m/z 100, 58, and 95 at 13.39 min. HRMS analysis indicated the [M + H]+ value at m/z 224.1444, and the protonated molecular formula was estimated to be C 13 H 19 FNO (calculated value 224.1451, accident error −0.7 ppm; Table 2). Compound 12 was eventually identified as 2-(ethylamino)-1-(4-fluorophenyl)pentan-1-one (4F-α-ethylaminopentiophenone) by NMR (Table 3, Fig. 1). For sample No. 20 (compound 13), EI mass spectrum showed peaks at m/z 100, 58, and 101 at 18.21 min. HRMS analysis indicated the [M+H]+ value at m/z 246.1873, and the protonated molecular formula was estimated to be C 16 H 24 NO (calculated value 246.1858, accident error 1.5 ppm; Table 2). Compound 13 was eventually identified as 2-(ethylamino)-1-(indan-5-yl)pentan-1-one (bk-IVP) by NMR (Table 3, Fig. 1). For sample No. 21 (compound 14), EI mass spectrum showed peaks at m/z 86, 58, and 115 at 17.43 min. HRMS analysis indicated the [M + H]+ value at m/z 232.1689, and the protonated molecular formula was estimated to be C 15 H 22 NO (calculated value 232.1701, accident error -1.2 ppm; Table 2). Compound 14 was eventually identified as 2-(ethylamino)-1-(indan-5-yl)butan-1-one (bk-IBP) by NMR (Table 3, Fig. 1). For sample No. 22 (compound 15), EI mass spectrum showed peaks at m/z 176, 205, and 134 at 17.58 min. HRMS analysis indicated the [M + H]+ value at m/z 234.1502, and the protonated molecular formula was estimated to be C 14 H 20 NO 2 (calculated value 234.1494, accident error 0.8 ppm; Table 2). Compound 15 was eventually identified as 2-(3-methoxyphenyl)-2-(methylamino)cyclohexanone (MMXE) by NMR (Table 3, Fig. 1). |
Another skeleton has tumbled out of Danny Rayburn’s closet, and this one looks a lot like John Leguizamo.
Spoiler Alert: It is John Leguizamo.
The multi-hyphenate is joining Bloodline‘s upcoming second season in a series-regular role that has strong ties to Ben Mendelsohn’s late (but still viable) black sheep, TVLine has learned exclusively.
Leguizamo’s character, Ozzy Delvecchio, is a charming, violent, opportunistic wild card from Danny’s past who, in the wake of Danny’s murder, arrives in the Florida Keys with mysterious motives and threatens to wreak havoc in the lives of the Rayburns.
“We’ve been huge fans of John’s acting and writing for many years, and are absolutely thrilled to be collaborating with him,” said Bloodline‘s exec-producing triumvirate, Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman, in a statement to TVLine. “His enormous range and fearless creativity make him a perfect fit for this character — and an incredible addition to the stellar cast we’re so fortunate to be working with.”
Last month at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, Glenn Kessler confirmed that Emmy-nominee Mendolsohn would be back in Season 2 as a full-fledged regular despite Danny’s murder in the Season 1 finale. “There’s a very important story that we’re interested in telling that includes [Danny],” he explained. “We’re going to learn more about Danny’s effect on the family and more about his past, and also what his effects are in the present day.”
Leguizamo’s past TV credits include The Kill Point, My Name is Earl and ER.
Bloodline Season 2 is slated to be released during the first half of 2016. |
A guy named Craig “Sawman” Sawyer, who claims to be an ex-Navy SEAL sniper, put a post on Facebook saying that if the Mueller investigation ends with Trump being removed from office, it will lead to another civil war and he and other “patriots” will “execute” people in a “gruesome massacre.”
Americans, Patriots, pray for our nation. Pray for our President. I’m hearing serious rumblings of a hostile, illegal coup against our democratically elected President by seditious, deep-state subversives funded by Soros & other globalists. Very disturbing. Patriots, this would be nothing less than an act of war against the American people. It would be the removal of our boldest defender & last possibility of maintaining our protective Constitution. Under the boot of globalists, life as we know it, would immediately decline to the model that suits the globalist interest – Marxist/Socialist/Communist. They get complete control, you get zero. Freedom, Gone! Liberty, Gone! This agenda is evil and simply cannot be allowed, at ANY cost. Like ALL military, law enforcement and government officials, I took an oath to defend our Constitution against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. By abandoning the rule of law and conducting a coup against the President & policies WE THE PEOPLE elected, they have made themselves enemies of the United States. Under threat, ALL patriots, whether civilian, law enforcement, government, or military, have the duty to defend our Constitution against such enemies. Some speculate on “civil war”. I readily recognize a much more sobering reality: Anti-American subversives involved in ANY WAY in an unconstitutional coup against our President will be run down and executed immediately by the world’s most supreme warriors. There will be nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide, no mercy, no sense of humor. Harsh examples will be made. My prediction is it will be a gruesome massacre. Why? Because one side in this conflict has 8 Trillion bullets & the other side doesn’t know which bathroom to use. It will likely only take a few hours. Lessons will be learned. History will take note. Order restored. United We Stand! At the ready. USA!
He makes clear in the comments that this “unconstitutional coup” refers to the Mueller investigation, saying that “the crooks were counting 100% on a corrupt investigation to try to accomplish what they can’t legally.” Except, of course, the Mueller investigation is entirely legal. And if it ends in impeachment, that will be an entirely constitutional process that is perfectly legal. And if it ends in indictments, that will also be 100% legal and the rights of the accused will be protected. They’ll have their day in court and be judged by a jury of their peers. Why this dolt thinks any of that is unconstitutional is a mystery.
And is there anything more ridiculous than people ranting about “globalists” — that is, multinational corporations whose loyalty is to their own profits rather than to nation-states — and calling them Marxists? Is there anything like a remotely coherent thought rumbling around in their empty heads? It doesn’t seem so. All they know is that commies are bad, so therefore everyone they don’t like or agree with is a commie. Yes, they’re that simpleminded. |
Happy birthday! Diamond Head Lighthouse turns 100 Copyright by KHON - All rights reserved Video
The Diamond Head Lighthouse has been a beacon for canoe paddlers, kayakers, surfers, and mariners, keeping them safe for 100 years.
The U.S. Coast Guard held a centennial celebration for the lighthouse Saturday night.
This is technically the second such structure at Diamond Head, replacing an ironwork tower that was established in 1899 under the Hawaiian kingdom to guide trade ships and keep them safe.
No one stays in the lighthouse to keep the light burning anymore. Instead, its keeper is a five-member unit of the Coast Guard that takes care of this and a hundred other so-called "navigation aids" across the state.
"You think of the countless ships that have gone by, the number of surfers who are out there even now who guide on the light, and so I would just tell you it's a special place and we are honored to serve in keeping this light burning day in and day out," said Radm. Vincent B. Atkins, U.S. Coast Guard District 14 commander.
"This light can be seen 18 miles out at sea. It's important for mariners to see, and when they come in at night, they know they can rely on this lighthouse. They've been relying on it for a hundred years," said Chief Joshua Williams, U.S. Coast Guard boatswain's mate.
In honor of the lighthouse's 100th birthday, the Coast Guard commissioned an art contest for school students.
The three finalists were recognized Saturday and the winner, Logan Erickson, will have her artwork displayed at the lighthouse indefinitely. |
Google tends to put Easter Eggs into all Android OS releases - remember the one Jelly Bean came with? Turns out the company stuffs these treats into more than just the operating system, as the Nexus Q's Android app has it too.
Beneath the tough outer shell of the Q lives a lonely Magic 8 Ball. To summon this genie bipolar fortuneteller, rub tap it in the right place a few times, and out it comes. The right place happens to be the image of the sphere (first screenshot below) - just tap away, and the Q will eventually exclaim "Have a dilemma? Ask the Q."
As you can see, it knows its stuff, though the bipolar nature shows through sometimes:
The app was not found in the store. :-( Go to store Google websearch
Thanks, +Adrian Perez! |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.