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On The Front Lines
U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Protect Right of Students to Wear American Flag T-Shirt to School, Affirms Ruling That Patriotic Garments Are Disruptive
WASHINGTON, D.C —The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a case in which California public school students were prohibited from wearing American flag t-shirts to school, allegedly out of a fear that it might be disruptive. In refusing to hear the appeal without giving any reason for the decision, the Supreme Court lets stand a lower court ruling that upheld the ban out a concern for school safety. The Rutherford Institute had asked the Supreme Court to hear the case of Dariano v. Morgan Hill, in which several students were ordered by school officials to cover up their American flag t-shirts on May 5, 2010, allegedly because officials feared that it might offend other students who were celebrating the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo.
“When public school students can’t wear an American flag on a t-shirt because it might be disruptive, then free speech as we’ve known it is dead,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State . “If the Supreme Court continues down the road to political correctness, then eventually anything we say will be treated as threatening as a loaded gun and deemed just as dangerous.”
On May 5, 2010, three Live Oak High School students wore patriotic t-shirts, shorts and shoes to school bearing various images of the U.S. flag. During a mid-morning “brunch break,” the students were approached by Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez, who told the students they could not wear their pro-U.S.A. shirts and gave them the option of either removing their shirts or turning them inside out. The students refused, believing the options to be disrespectful to the flag. Rodriguez allegedly lectured the group about Cinco de Mayo, indicating that he had received complaints from some Hispanic students about the stars and stripes apparel, and again ordered that the clothing be covered up to prevent offending the Hispanic students on “their” day. Principal Nick Boden also met with the parents and students and affirmed Rodriguez’s order, allegedly because he did not want to offend students who were celebrating Cinco de Mayo.
Arguing that the decision by school officials constituted viewpoint discrimination against pro-U.S.A. expression, Rutherford Institute attorneys filed a First Amendment lawsuit on behalf of the students and their parents in district court. In November 2011, the district court ruled in favor of school officials, citing a concern for school safety. That ruling was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Although the appeals court acknowledged that other students were permitted to wear Mexican flag colors and symbols, it ruled that school officials could forbid the American flag apparel out of concerns that it would cause disruption, even though no disruption had occurred. Three of the nine judges on the Ninth Circuit agreed with The Rutherford Institute that school officials violated long-standing Supreme Court precedent forbidding suppression of protected expression on the basis of a “heckler’s veto,” which occurs when the government restricts an individual’s right to free speech in order to maintain order. Affiliate attorney William J. Becker assisted The Rutherford Institute in its defense of the students.
Case History
03/12/2015 • Rutherford Institute Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Reject Politically Correct Censorship, Protect Right of Students to Wear American Flag T-Shirts to School
12/15/2014 • Rutherford Institute Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Reject Politically Correct Censorship, Protect Right of Students to Wear American Flag T-Shirts to School
09/19/2014 • Ninth Circuit Stands by Its Ruling That It Is Unsafe for California Students to Wear American Flag T-Shirts to School
03/13/2014 • Rutherford Institute Asks Ninth Circuit to Reconsider Its Ruling Declaring It Unsafe for California Students to Wear American Flag T-Shirts to School |
by DAVE MARTINEZ
It looks like Arthur Blank won.
Following a report from Sports Illustrated detailing the tug-of-war between Atlanta and Minnesota over the “United” moniker, a MLS trademark filing uncovered by EoS seems to show Atlanta has won that debate.
MLS filed a trademark for MNFC and Minnesota FC on February 18th, 2016; just one day after the original SI report was published.
As reported by Brian Straus, Minnesota and Atlanta are in line to make their MLS debuts for 2017. That presents the odd conflict of having two teams enter the league at the same time, with the same name. Unnamed sources told SI the team’s identical moniker would be an issue for the league, forcing both sides to jockey for possession of the United name.
While Minnesota United has established their brand since 2013 through the North American Soccer League, Atlanta gained entry into MLS first, giving each strong grounds for their stake in “United.” As reported, MLS was already close to backing Atlanta in their quest to keep the United brand — and it looks like they have already done so. In fact, the original SI report makes mention of “Minnesota FC” by name as a possible alternative to Bill McGuire’s club.
Minnesota United FC issued no comment. EoS also reached out to MLS, but did not receive comment by the time of this report. |
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The idea for blackout started when I let someone use my cellphone and the person went through my emails and stole business information, contacts and some pictures. I then started thinking, what can I do to protect my information when my cellphone is in the hands of others or when my phone is unprotected. This problem was driving force behind the idea...Blackout. With this application you will be able to protect your information by blocking access to any other app(s) on your phone. Additionally, when your phone is locked, people can see who's calling or texting you by just glancing at your home screen. In some Instances, they can even read your incoming emails without even touching your phone. Blackout makes privacy a nonexistent problem!
This app is great for parents with minor children, because now they will be able to block any app on their child's phone. When their child go to school they should be focused on the class work and not their phone. With Blackout, parents can customize their child's phone to the point where they can only make phone calls and only the parent can open blocked apps by using a special code.
What is the Concept?
The concept of Blackout is relatively easy to understand. With it installed, all information on your Android or iPhone will be blocked as if it was blacked out. It is a simple, user friendly application which is designed to protect the user’s privacy and information. The idea behind the app is that the user can allow someone to use their phone without accessing any information on it.
How does it Work?
A brief explanation of the operation is as follows: The user can allow someone to use their phone without accessing any information. The user would be able to block apps such as contacts, emails, pictures, camera and the internet. The app can be customized to a person’s liking so they could disguise the app on their phone with the installed Blackout application. In addition to that, the app will be voice automated.
What are the Benefits of Using this Application?
The unique features of this application will provide the following benefits for all users: With the app parents have the option to block their child’s access to the internet or camera. A person can only borrow/use the phone - they do not see anything. If someone calls, the number does not show. When they make a call they cannot access your incoming/outgoing call log. Blackout will help relationships between spouses, parents and children and all around protect your privacy. Parents can blackout their child’s camera, internet, or Facebook so when their child goes to school they can only make phone calls.
Marketing
My team envisioned this product to appeal to a multitude of consumers worldwide. The markets are endless for the ingenious application Blackout. Google Play and iTunes are the most popular application stores in the primary market and are the ideal places to market this application. There are several new stores in the cyber world for the Android version of this application such as, AppsLib, Samsung Apps, F-Droid, Slide ME, GetJar, and Amazon App Store for Android. I remain flexible in the market for future possibilities that could improve the expediency and marketability of his product. |
Shares of Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) are down after a fiery crash involving a stolen Model S raised safety concerns about the lithium-ion batteries used to power electric cars.
Investors bid down Tesla shares by 2.9 percent to $222.66 on Monday, just days after a man stole an electric-powered sedan from a Tesla store in Los Angeles, led police on a high-speed chase and then slammed into several cars and a pole, the Wall Street Journal reported. Seven people were injured, but no deaths were reported in the July 4 accident that split the vehicle in half.
The smashed sedan sprayed chunks of the car’s lithium-ion batteries around the street. Some of the pieces burst into flames and shot sparks through the air like fireworks, the WSJ noted, citing a broadcast report by television station KTLA-TV.
The Los Angeles crash marks the fourth time a Tesla car has burned after a collision. The California-based carmaker’s stock dropped nearly 14 percent early last October after a Model S struck debris on a highway south of Seattle and caught fire. Two weeks later, shares took another hit after a Model S slammed into a concrete barrier and a tree in Mexico.
Car fires are relatively common among gasoline-powered vehicles in the United States, but accidents involving electric vehicles garner extra attention because the battery packs are becoming powerful enough to raise concerns over lithium-ion chemical fire risks. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has criticized what he said is disproportionate media coverage of a handful of Model S fires. About 65,000 car fires occurred each year from 2008 to 2010, almost all of which involved conventional vehicles, according to a study by the U.S. Fire Administration.
After the earlier crashes, Tesla added a titanium plate in March to increase protection of the lithium-ion batteries in the Model S vehicles. The luxury sedan has a five-star rating for crashworthiness, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s highest designation.
The company is working with Los Angeles police and fire officials to examine what exactly happened to the car during the July 4 crash, a Tesla spokesman told Bloomberg News. |
"We've been developing this concept for over three years and feel now is the perfect time for this ground-breaking product," said O'Connor. "Storage space is always at a premium on a laptop and without the potential to upgrade the factory drive, the OWC DEC brings that option back in addition to cleanly supporting the gear we all rely on."
Other World Computing today announced the OWC DEC , an attachment designed to snap onto the bottom of a 2016 MacBook Pro to add additional functionality to the machine.The OWC DEC adds 4TB of storage, an SD Card Slot, USB Type-A ports for using standard USB devices, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. According to OWC, additional features will be introduced at a later date.OWC has crafted the DEC from aircraft-grade aluminum that's designed to match with the finish of the MacBook Pro. It attaches flush to the bottom of the MacBook Pro, making it thicker, but doing away with the need for a separate dock. OWC says the DEC when attached to the 2016 MacBook Pro will be "as thin as a 2012 MacBook Pro," which measured in at 0.95 inches. The pictures of the OWC DEC appear to be early renderings and do not depict all of the listed ports.OWC plans to begin shipping the DEC out to customers in the spring of 2017. Pricing has not yet been announced. |
A new study revealed the worrying fact that 18 percent of all Austrian women already had a problem with stalking. Now Austrias women minister Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek (Socialdemocrats) wants to evaluate the anti stalking law.
What is stalking? Stalking is an sulky answer to unrequited love. Unwanted daily telephone calls, e-mails or presents are already categorized as “stalking”. Stalking is a another expression for “insistent tracking”.
It was the medical university of Graz who has done the first study about stalking in Austria. The result shows that stalking is a huge problem in Austria.
Four unwanted efforts to get in contact in one month are already labeled as “stalking”. The typical stalking victim in Austria is a young lady who lives in the city and has no solid relationship. There is absolutely no influence in the educational achievement.
Most of the women stay a stalking victim for years. The longest stalking lenght in Austria amounted 54 years. 40 percent of the victims declared that stalking has a negative influence on their mind. Between 32 and 40 percent worry about disturbances of their health.
© Photographer: Keeweeboy | Dreamstime.com |
Mali's children in chocolate slavery
By BBC's Humphrey Hawksley in Mali At a run-down police station in Sikasso, a small town in Mali, the files on missing children are endless. The sad truth is that many have been kidnapped and sold into slavery. The going price is about US$30.
I might have got out but there are thousands of children still over there. If by your report, you can help free just one, you would be doing a good job
Former child slave Malick Doumbia The local police chief is in no doubt where the children have gone. "It's definitely slavery over there," he said. "The kids have to work so hard they get sick and some even die." In all, at least 15,000 children are thought to be over in the neighbouring Ivory Coast, producing cocoa which then goes towards making almost half of the world's chocolate. Many are imprisoned on farms and beaten if they try to escape. Some are under 11 years old. Save haven Save the Children Fund has set up a transit centre in the hope that one day these children will come home from the cocoa, coffee and other farms on which they are working. But so far they haven't. The place is empty, although one who managed to escape has a message worth listening to.
Mali's Save the Children Fund director, Salia Kante, has a message for shoppers - think about what you are buying
"I might have got out," said Malick Doumbia, "but there are thousands of children still over there. If by your report, you can help free just one, you would be doing a good job." The work of this former slave ended up in shops around the world, as products that often do not specify exactly where they came from. So Mali's Save the Children Fund director, Salia Kante, has a message for shoppers too - think about what you are buying. "People who are drinking cocoa or coffee are drinking their blood," he said. "It is the blood of young children carrying 6kg of cocoa sacks so heavy that they have wounds all over their shoulders. It's really pitiful to see." Slave trade In the market, field worker Ibrahim Haidara asks people what they know about the slave trade.
One man replied: "After one year you don't get money. If you ask for your money, you don't get money and you are beaten." The slave children are taken from poor areas of Mali - the sons and daughters of street sellers, or the slum kids whose parents sell them for just a few dollars to work as plantation slaves in another country. Yet the multi-nationals who make their living out of selling chocolate and coffee all around the world haven't contributed anything to the campaign here to stop the slavery trade taking place. |
A prominent Black Lives Matter activist and two other protesters arrested last month while demonstrating over the shooting death of Alton Sterling by a white Baton Rouge police officer filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against several local law enforcement agency heads and the city-parish.
DeRay Mckesson, of Baltimore, Maryland, who was active in the Ferguson, Missouri, protests that followed the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown; Gloria La Riva, of San Francisco, California; and Louisianian Kira Marrero are seeking damages for what they call their "unlawful mass arrests" in Baton Rouge. They also allege officers used excessive force.
The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed against Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr., East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux, Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson, Mayor-President Kip Holden, and the city-parish.
"Defendants employed unconstitutional tactics to disturb, disrupt, infringe upon and criminalize plaintiffs and class members' constitutional rights to freedom of speech and assembly," the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge, states.
The suit complains that police responded to the protesters in a "militarized and aggressive manner" and pointed their weapons directly at protesters and brandished assault weapons alongside armored vehicles.
Through State Police spokesman Maj. Doug Cain, Edmonson said he had not seen the lawsuit but added that his troopers' actions were appropriate from what he personally witnessed.
Baton Rouge police spokesman Sgt. L'Jean McKneely said the department does not comment on pending litigation and Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Casey Rayborn Hicks said the office had not seen the suit and could not comment on it.
The Baton Rouge police chief has defended the actions, saying there were credible threats against law enforcement.
East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III announced recently that Mckesson, La Riva, and Marrero are three of roughly 100 arrested protesters who won't be prosecuted by his office on misdemeanor charges of obstructing a highway. In all, about 185 arrests were made in the days after Sterlings' death.
About 100 protesters arrested in BR won't be prosecuted, DA says More than half of the protesters arrested in the days following the shooting death of Alton …
Even so, McKesson, La Riva and Marrero, who were arrested July 9 near police headquarters along Airline Highway, say they were required to post substantial bail and pay administrative fees and court costs to obtain their releases, and in addition to incurring substantial attorneys' fees, they will have to pay money to have their arrests expunged.
The suit was assigned to U.S. District Judge John deGravelles, who also is presiding over a similar suit filed July 13 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana and local organizing groups on behalf of protesters.
Sterling, 37, was fatally shot July 5 outside the Triple S Food Mart.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana and other groups also filed a lawsuit last month over the treatment of protesters by police. |
What could be better than a train ride along the scenic California coast to begin your vacation?
Read a book instead of struggling with street maps. Have a meal, or take a nap. You will arrive rested and ready to begin. Many hotels offer free pick-up and drop-off service, ask when making your reservations. Be sure to check out all the great savings on hotels, activities and dining when you take the train and show your ticket. Santa Barbara lies along the West Coast Amtrak route, served by the Pacific Surfliner® and Coast Starlight® routes. The train station is conveniently located in downtown Santa Barbara, an easy walk, or 50-cents shuttle ride (free with train ticket) from many downtown attractions Additional stations are located nearby in Carpinteria and in Goleta near the airport. Also see information on commuter options for the train coming in April.
Pacific Surfliner® The Pacific Surfliner offers five trains a day coming from San Diego through Los Angeles into Santa Barbara, with two continuing to San Luis Obispo. Many are new trains boasting larger windows, at-seat audio and video, laptop outlets, reclining seats with footrests, and surfboard racks. Roll on your bike and lock it up for free if you make an advanced reservation when ordering tickets.
Amtrak Coast Starlight® The Coast Starlight train runs from Seattle, Washington through Portland, Oregon and Northern California to Santa Barbara and on to Los Angeles. On this route, you can enjoy wine tasting, gourmet meals, and on-board entertainment.
The Pacific Surfliner now offers a free transfer ticket program with the local transit service. See Free Transit Transfer Program Creates Convenient Connections for Pacific Surfliner Train Passengers. Want to take your bike on the train? For more information please see our page How to Take a Bike on Local Transit Services. Get maps and more info on How to Get Around.
Save 20% on Amtrak® Pacific Surfliner®
2019 Santa Barbara Car Free Train Discount Save 20% on the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner® from San Diego, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo and points between to and from any stations in Santa Barbara County! Save 20% on the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner® (plus associated thruway buses, except not valid on the 7000-8999 thruway series).
(plus associated thruway buses, except not valid on the 7000-8999 thruway series). Good for travel to or from the following Santa Barbara County Stations: Carpinteria, Santa Barbara, University of California Santa Barbara, Goleta, Guadalupe, Lompoc, Surf, Solvang, Santa Maria and Buellton.
Valid for purchase through December 16, 2019 and for travel January 4, 2019-December 19, 2019
Tickets must be purchased three days in advance through a link on this website (instructions below)
Not valid for certain holiday periods (dates below)
Up to one (1) child age (2-12) may accompany each adult at half the regular full adult rail fare
Instructions for the Santa Barbara Car Free Train Discount
Select your route and dates Find the route and dates you wish to travel. Write down the schedule, but do not book yet. For schedules and information go to Amtrak’s Three day advance reservations are required and some restrictions apply. See blackout dates below. Find the route and dates you wish to travel. Write down the schedule, but do not book yet. For schedules and information go to Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner and some restrictions apply. See blackout dates below.
Register Have your schedule and payment information ready and register below on this website at least three days before you plan to travel. Upon registration confirmation, you will be given a link to Amtrak’s website.
Purchase Follow the instructions and link provided to Amtrak’s website and purchase your ticket. You must select a qualifying route and date to be eligible for the discount. There is no promotional code for use at a later time and you may not use the discount for purchase on board the train, at any station or to purchase of a gift certificate.
Experience Use your train ticket for discounted transportation, hotels, attractions and activities. See Use your train ticket for discounted transportation, hotels, attractions and activities. See Santa Barbara Car Free Experience . Enjoy!
This offer is valid for sale through December 16, 2019 for travel between January 4, 2019 and December 19, 2019 on the Pacific Surfliner or San Joaquin and associated thruway buses (except not valid on the 7000-8999 thruway series) to or from any Amtrak station in Santa Barbara County.
Discount is NOT available for travel on the dates listed here:
February 15, 2019
February 18, 2019
April 19, 2019
April 22, 2019
May 24, 2019
August 30, 2019
September 2, 2019
November 26-December 2, 2019
Offer is valid for 20 percent off of the best available regular adult fare, subject to availability. The discount will only be applied when the “adult” passenger type is selected. The offer may not be combined with any other discounts. Up to one (1) child age (2-12) may accompany each adult at half the regular (full, not discounted) adult rail fare. This offer is valid for coach seats; upgrade to business class accommodations are available upon full payment of accommodation charges. Once travel has begun, no changes to the itinerary are permitted. Fares, routes and schedules are subject to change without notice, other restrictions may apply.
See Official Terms and Conditions below. For train schedules and general information, see Amtrak.com.
REGISTER NOW
Official Terms and Conditions 2019
THIS OFFER IS EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE AFTER REGISTERING AT WWW.SANTABARBARACARFREE.ORG. THIS OFFER IS VALID FOR SALE BETWEEN 01JAN19- 16DEC19 AND VALID FOR TRAVEL BETWEEN 04JAN19- 19DEC19. BLACKOUTS APPLY ON THE FOLLOWING DATES: 15FEB19, 18FEB19, 19APR19, 22APR19, 24MAY19, 30AUG19, 02SEP19, 26NOV19-02DEC19. ADVANCE RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED A MINIMUM OF THREE (3) DAYS PRIOR TO TRAVEL. UP TO ONE (1) CHILD AGE (2-12) MAY ACCOMPANY EACH ADULT AT HALF THE REGULAR FULL ADULT RAIL FARE. THIS OFFER IS VALID FOR TRAVEL TO/FROM THE FOLLOWING SANTA BARBARA COUNTY STATIONS ONLY: CARPINTERIA, SANTA BARBARA, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA, GOLETA, GUADALUPE, LOMPOC-SURF, SOLVANG, SANTA MARIA, AND BUELLTON. SEATING IS LIMITED; SEATS MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE ON ALL DAYS. FARES ARE SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY. THIS OFFER IS VALID FOR TRAVEL ON THE PACIFIC SURFLINER, AND ASSOCIATED THRUWAYS; EXCEPT NOT VALID ON THE 7000-8999 THRUWAYS. THIS OFFER IS VALID FOR COACH SEATS; UPGRADE TO BUSINESS CLASS ACCOMMODATIONS ARE AVAILABLE UPON FULL PAYMENT OF ACCOMMODATION CHARGES. IN ADDITION TO THE DISCOUNT RESTRICTIONS; THIS OFFER IS ALSO SUBJECT TO ANY RESTRICTIONS, BLACKOUTS, AND REFUND RULES THAT APPLY TO THE TYPE OF FARE PURCHASED. FARES, ROUTES AND SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. ONCE TRAVEL HAS BEGUN; NO CHANGES TO THE ITINERARY ARE PERMITTED. THIS OFFER IS NOT COMBINABLE WITH ANY OTHER DISCOUNT OFFER. AMTRAK AND PACIFIC SURFLINER ARE REGISTERED SERVICE MARKS OF THE NATIONAL RAILROAD PASSENGER CORPORATION.
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In the U.S., obesity is a high-profile issue staked out by people like Michelle Obama and Jamie Oliver. But how do other countries address it, especially wealthy countries, where this problem is most rampant?
Dubai pays people to lose weight. New Zealand, where one in four adults are technically obese, bars overweight immigrants from obtaining a visa. China has used acupuncture to treat obesity for centuries.
But one country has managed to keep obesity down with the help of a controversial government policy that probably wouldn't fly in the U.S. That country is Japan, where only about 3.5% of the population is classified as obese, compared to rates as high as 30% or greater in countries like the U.S. And it's not just a generally healthier diet and lifestyle that's kept the Japanese trim.
Citizens must adhere to government-mandated waistline limits or face consequences. The government has established waistline limits for adults ages 40 to 74. Men must maintain a waistline at or below 33.5 inches; for women, the limit is 35.4 inches. The "metabo law" went into effect in 2008, with the goal of reducing the country's overweight population by 25% by 2015. The government's anti-obesity campaign aims to keep "metabolic syndrome" — a number of factors that heighten the risk of developing diabetes and vascular diseases, such as obesity and high blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol levels — in check, thus minimizing the ballooning health care costs of Japan's massive aging population.
Those who stray beyond the state-mandated waistlines are required to attend counseling and support sessions. Local governments and companies that don't meet specific targets are fined, sometimes quite heavily.
NEC, Japan's largest maker of personal computers, says it's possible to incur as much as $19 million in penalties for failing to meet their targets. Matsushita, which makes Panasonic products, has to measure the waistlines of at least 80% of its employees, along with their families and retirees. The company distributes "metabo check" towels that double as tape measures to employees to ensure adherence to the waistline limits come time for employees' annual checkups.
This seems to be working for Japan, at least for now, though the policy has its share of problems. Critics of the policy say the government's real goal is to shift health care costs onto the private sector.
One thing's for sure: This would never work in the U.S. We've already resorted to means like aspiration therapy, or personal stomach pumping, so it's safe to say that we're way beyond this kind of solution. Combating epidemic-level obesity is important, but Japan's approach is teetering on insanity. It would turn every one of us into libertarians. |
Just a pinch of salt and a little more time and Brampton's Kimberly Duffus might still be cooking in the MasterChef Canada kitchen.
Duffus, 24, was sent packing by judges Claudio Aprile, Michael Bonacini and Alvin Leung in the third episode of the current and fourth season of the popular reality cooking show in the first elimination challenge of the year. It certainly wasn't an easy one as it was the dreaded replication challenge where Duffus and a handful of other competitors had to recreate a tough recipe — squid ink pasta with honey mushrooms and a soft-boiled hen's egg.
Making things all the more challenging for Duffus was the fact she had only made pasta from scratch once before.
"Yeah, I'm pretty nervous right now (but) I'm going to push through it," Duffus told Aprile during the episode.
The pressure was clearly on as Duffus and the others had to juggle several different techniques in a short period of time, including harvesting the squid ink and ensuring the egg turned out exquisite.
Duffus struggled with her egg somewhat and partially broke it. However, when Aprile cut into it during the judging portion, he was extremely pleased with the gorgeous golden yoke that trickled out.
"Stunning," was how he described it before saying it should bring a "smile" to Duffus' face. However, he was less pleased that the egg didn't have any salt and made it known that could be an issue when it came to decisions on who to send home.
Bonacini also tried her dish and commented that the noodles were underdone and needed a bit more time in the boiling water.
When the final decision came and the judges told Duffus that her time in the kitchen had come to an end, it was a sad moment for the mother of seven-year-old daughter Nevaeh.
"Your daughter … got to see her extremely talented mother excel on the national stage," said Bonacini. |
Mr Purnell, who serves on the board of the British Film Institute and the Royal National Theatre, has been appointed as director of strategy and digital.
His lucrative new role will fuel accusations of left-wing bias at the taxpayer-funded corporation.
Mr Purnell had previously been head of corporate planning at the BBC in the 1990s before entering frontline politics as a Labour MP.
After quitting politics he became a producer and has been working at production firm Rare Day.
“I'm really excited to be coming back to the BBC to work on its future with such a great team,” Mr Purnell said. “Over the last couple of years, producing and developing programmes has rekindled my passion for the career I had before politics. I feel very lucky to have the chance to return to the BBC at such an important time.”
Rob Wilson, Conservative MP for Reading East, said that Mr Purnell is not an “appropriate choice” and said that the BBC has “learned nothing” from the recent criticism of the exorbitant salaries paid to executives at the corporation.
“Many have long had suspicious about a metropolitan, leftist bias to the BBC’s output, particularly in news,” Mr Wilson said. “With the BBC under greater scrutiny in recent months, I find it hard to think why the BBC think a former Labour Cabinet Minister is an appropriate choice for a leadership role.”
Mr Purnell’s appointment follows a series of resignations at the corporation in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
The failings at the BBC over the allegations about Savile led to the resignation of George Entwistle, the former director-general.
Mr Entwistle was replaced by Lord Hall, who will earn £450,000 a year as well as a £82,000 pension which he receives because he is a former BBC employee.
Mr Wilson added: “At a time when household budgets are under pressures, licence fee payers will also find it strange that Mr Purnell is to be paid nearly £300,000 a year in his new role as ‘Director of Strategy’. The BBC has only recently faced public heavy criticism for wasting people’s money on lavishly paid non-jobs at the top. This suggests it has learned nothing.
“Tony Hall’s tenure as Director General has not got off to an auspicious start.”
Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: "This is an extortionate amount of licence fee payers’ money to splash on yet another BBC senior executive.
"This fantastic pay deal won’t help corporation get a grip of its salary bill which it must do to provide better value for money. It says something about BBC pay at the top that Purnell is now earning twice as much as he was when he was the Secretary of State responsible for overseeing the work of the broadcaster."
Helen Boaden, the executive in charge of BBC News when the Savile controversy erupted, is to move to a new role heading the corporation's radio networks.
Ms Boaden has been director of news at the BBC for eight-and-a-half years but had to step aside for a spell from November last year in the wake of the Savile investigations.
She will become director of BBC Radio from April 15. She has previously been the controller of Radio 4, prior to taking up her news role in September 2004.
There will also be changes to the role which acting director-general Tim Davie will take on in April when Lord Hall starts his job.
Mr Davie - formerly the director of BBC audio and music - will become CEO of the corporation's commercial arm BBC Worldwide, and this role is being expanded to include "a more strategic global perspective".
This will involve developing the BBC's international brand and editorial strategy.
Mr Davie said: "I am very pleased to take on the important task of building the BBC brand globally and leading a growing, creative BBC Worldwide."
Mrs Boaden said: "It is a huge pleasure to be returning to my first love of radio. I look forward to working with our outstanding controllers and some of the most creative on and off air talent in the BBC.
"The British public love BBC Radio and I intend to cherish and champion it."
Mrs Boaden offered to resign from her news role in the early days of the Savile scandal which engulfed the BBC late last year over the late DJ's years of sexual abuse.
She became caught up in the controversy when it emerged a BBC2 Newsnight investigation into claims about Savile had been dropped at a time when programme bosses had been preparing Christmas tribute programmes following the presenter's death.
She resumed her role as director of BBC News in December after further blunders - caused by a change in the chain of command in news while an inquiry was ongoing - led to Lord McAlpine being wrongly identified as being involved in a sexual abuse scandal. The BBC will now recruit new directors for BBC News and BBC Television.
The corporation said there would be no increase in the senior management pay bill. Mr Purnell is to receive a salary of £295,000 when he starts work next month. |
When you’re learning to play guitar you need to practice chords, strumming patterns, fingerpicking patterns, songs and scales in order to become an an accomplished guitar player. That stuff can be hard sometimes so it’s obvious you also need a break now and then.
Indulging in some easy awesome guitar riffs is good for your spirit. It’s motivating and will keep the fun alive while working on your regular practice workout.
It’s time to plug into your overdrive and distortion pedals, turn on the amp and just go for it.
Here are some of the most easy and timeless guitar riffs and intros that will make you sound like a badass!
Click on the song title to watch the video. Click on “Tabs” to see the tablature and click “More Tabs” to find more of the original tablature and artist.
Have fun!
1 – Smoke on the Water – Deep purple Tabs – More Tabs
2 – Seven nation army – White Stripes Tabs – More Tabs
3 – I will follow – U2 Tabs – More Tabs
4 – Satisfaction – Rolling Stones Tabs – More Tabs
5 – Beat it – Michael Jackson Tabs – More Tabs
6 – Come as you are – Nirvana – Tabs – More Tabs
7 – Sunshine of your love – Cream Tabs – More Tabs
8 – Enter sandman – Metallica Tabs – More Tabs
9 – Fortunate son – CCR Tabs – More Tabs
10 – You really got me – The Kinks Tabs – More Tabs
11 – Daytripper – The Beatles Tabs – More Tabs
12 – Zombie – Cranberries Tabs
13 – Breaking the law – Judas Priest Tabs – More Tabs
14 – Redemption song – Bob Marley Tabs – More Tabs
15 – Heart of gold – Neil Young Tabs – More Tabs
16 – Other side – RHCP Tabs – More Tabs
17 – The one I love – REM Tabs – More Tabs
18 – One – Metallica Tabs – More Tabs
19 – Roadhouse blues – The Doors Tabs – More Tabs
20 – Plush – Stone Temple Pilots Tabs – More Tabs
21 – Heartbreaker – Led Zeppelin Tabs – More Tabs
22 – By the way – RHCP Tabs – More Tabs
23 – Chasing cars – Snow Patrol Tabs – More Tabs
24 – Ticket to ride – The Beatles Tabs – More Tabs
25 – The man who sold the world – David Bowie / Nirvana Tabs – More Tabs
Do you know some really easy guitar riffs? Please share in the comments. |
Turkey captures 978 for illegal cross-border attempts
ANKARA
AA Photo
Some 978 people have been captured ahead of illegal crossings through Turkish borders, the Turkish General Staff has said.The general staff said in a written statement that 978 people were captured before illegally crossing Turkey’s borders with Greece, Bulgaria, Syria, Iraq and Iran on Dec. 26.Some 697 of them were captured as they attempted to cross into Turkey from Syria. Six other people were captured ahead of crossing into the country from Iraq and Iran. Turkish authorities also captured three people before they illegally crossed into Syria.Near the border with Greece, 26 people were captured as they attempted to cross into Greece from Turkey’s northwest, while 21 other people were captured ahead of illegally crossing into Bulgaria.Turkish security forces also seized 496 boxes of cigarettes, 20 kilograms of tea, 252 bottles of alcohol, a car, four cellphones and several electronic devices, which all appeared to be smuggled.Meanwhile, seven suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were detained for attempting to cross the border illegally into Syria, the Turkish Armed Forces announced on Dec. 27.“Seven people suspected of being ISIL militants, one of whom is a child, were detained in the Elbeyli district of the southeastern Kilis province for trying to cross the border illegally,” the statement said. |
As if being poor isn't bad enough -- and, trust me, the disparities are bad indeed -- it's even worse to be poor and also live in an impoverished neighborhood. Yet even that pales in comparison to being poor and Black in America.
I'm writing from Caux, Switzerland where I am part of over 200 people gathered from almost 40 countries to learn about the impact of race and racism on people's lives and find ways to grow, to heal, and to thrive as multi-racial communities. What follows is an integrative summary of several presentations, including those of Harvard Sociologist David Williams and Brian Smedley from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The full conference program is available here.
Racial health disparities are not new but most of us don't really know the specifics, possibly because there is relatively little discussion of this both in the and among health care providers. The data in race-conscious societies are bleak. Not only in the United States, but also in Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K., non-dominant racial groups have significantly worse health outcomes than the dominant racial group.
The pattern is consistent. According to Williams, in race-conscious societies, racial minorities get sick at younger ages, have more severe illness, and die sooner than Whites.
In New Zealand, Canada, and the United States, indigenous men have a life expectancy that is 7 years less than the male average in their respective country. In Australia, the gap is 21 years (Bramley et al, 2004).
Life expectancy is obviously a meaningful outcome, but it is also a rather nebulous one. It's possible to get much more specific. There are 10 different bio-markers associated with and . These include systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, glycated hemoglobin, albumin, creatinine clearance, triglycerides, c-reactive protein, homo-cysteine, and total cholesterol. Together these comprise the Allostatic Load, the cumulative "wear and tear on the body" that occurs when individuals are exposed to repeated or chronic stress. Geronimus et al., AJPH, 2006 found significant Black-White differences in Allostatic Load in every age category, including 18-24-year-olds where Blacks scored almost 50% higher (White mean=1.1, Black mean=1.6).
The important point here is that this is NOT just driven by poverty or socioeconomic (SES) level more broadly. To be sure, SES also matters. Data show that, at age 25, White college graduates can expect to live 6.4 years longer than their White counterparts who did not complete high school. A similar SES difference is evident in the Black sample where Black college graduates live 5.3 years longer. Yet, the distribution curves barely overlap with Black college graduates having a life expectancy that is 1.8 years LESS than Whites with only a high school (Murphy, NVSS, 2000; Braveman et al., AJPH, 2010, NLMS 1988-1998). Being poor and uneducated (the two are highly correlated) is bad for your health, but not as bad as being Black.
How is it that race matters in such a tangible way? A comprehensive answer involves multiple pathways, including neighborhood segregation, institutional , bias, internalized racism, and environmental (e.g., exposure to toxins) and psychosocial stressors.
Although a detailed discussion of all these pathways is beyond the scope of this article, I'll focus briefly on the effects of segregation (I wrote a bit about unconscious bias in health care here).
According to Williams and Collins (2001), residential segregation affects health outcomes in four different ways:
1. Segregation determines the quality of education and employment opportunities. A national study of the effects of segregation on young African American adults found that the elimination of segregation would erase Black-White differences in in High School graduation rates, in unemployment rates, and in earnings and reduce racial differences in single motherhood by two-thirds (Cutler, Glaeser, & Vigdor, 1997). These variables are directly connected to socioeconomic status and clearly linked to lower health outcomes.
2. Segregation contributes to the creation of pathogenic neighborhoods and housing conditions. Residential neighborhoods are a large predictor of access to quality education as well as social peer groups and exposure to . According to Williams, "in the 171 largest cities in the U.S., there is not even one city where Whites live in ecological equality to Blacks in terms of poverty rates or rates of single- households." Moreover, "the worst urban context in which Whites reside is considerably better than the average context of Black communities." (Sampson & Wilson, 1995, p. 41). These living conditions not only limit access to opportunity but also exposure residents to considerably more stress and trauma than those living in better neighborhoods. This is particularly troublesome because racial segregation in the United States is higher than in almost any other nation and in many ways resembles that of South Africa during apartheid (Massey, 2004; Iceland et al., 2002; Glaeser & Vigdor, 2001).
3. Conditions linked to segregation can constrain the practice of health behaviors and encourage unhealthy ones. It is common for businesses to disinvest from low-income communities, which tend to be predominantly Black. This disinvestment includes, as just one example, grocery stores, which makes it difficult for low-income Black families to buy fresh fruit and vegetables -- even when they are committed to eating healthy food.
4. Segregation can adversely affect access to high-quality health care. Segregation limits access to educational and employment opportunities, which in turn limits access to health insurance.
The social disparities in heath outcomes have a clear human cost. According to Woolf et al., 2004, AJPH, it is estimated that in the years 1991-2000, 176,633 deaths were averted due to medical advances. If the death rates of Black were the same as those of Whites, 886,202 deaths would have been averted. According to their data, 5 deaths could be averted just by reducing racial disparities for every life saved by medical advances and eliminating disparities in health would save more lives than current advances in medical technology.
There are economic costs too. According to LaVeist et al., 2009, in the years 2003-2006 the medical care costs associated with racial disparities was $229.4 Billion and lower work and premature death resulted in a cost of $1,008 Trillion. The total cost of $1.24 Trillion is more than the GDP of India, the 12th largest economy in the world. According to Schoeni et al's (2011) study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, if all Americans had the better health of college graduates, our society would gain $1.007 Trillion annually. Williams concludes -- and I concur -- that social justice is not only cost-effective but that our society can no longer continue to bear the costs of doing nothing.
Remedies are not simple, certainly not as easy as taking a pill, but change is possible. Medical professionals (and others) can learn to become aware of unconscious bias and municipalities can work with Federal policy makers to de-segregate low-income housing by dispersing small low-rise housing units in middle-income communities rather than consolidating and concentrating such housing in the most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Both and the private sector can also create conditions (e.g., economic incentives) for businesses, including grocery stores, to move into the neighborhoods that currently don't have access to healthy food. Health care can be provided to the poor and uninsured using the model developed by the Church Health Center, which partners with local physicians and health care providers to provide medical and preventive services to the uninsured in Memphis, TN.
In his brief address, Williams issued a challenge to those gathered. It was a challenge later expanded in a different context by Mee Moua from the Asian American Justice Center and then again by Marc Leyenberger from the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance. The challenge is in multiple parts: to recognize the injustice that exists, to be unwilling to tolerate it, and to insist on a seat at the table -- any table that has influence on either policy or practice -- in order to have a voice in moving toward racial justice. It seems appropriate, gentle reader, to pass this challenge on to you. Let's work toward justice together. Let's do it with love.
References
Bramley, D., Hebert, P., Jackson, R. T., & Chassin, M. (2004). Indigenous disparities in disease-specific mortality, a cross-country comparison: New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States.
Braveman, P. A., Cubbin, C., Egerter, S., Williams, D. R., & Pamuk, E. (2010). Socioeconomic disparities in health in the United States: what the patterns tell us. American journal of public health, 100(S1), S186-S196.
Geronimus, A. T., Hicken, M., Keene, D., & Bound, J. (2006). “Weathering” and age patterns of allostatic load scores among blacks and whites in the United States. American journal of public health, 96(5), 826-833.
Schoeni, R. F., Dow, W. H., Miller, W. D., & Pamuk, E. R. (2011). The economic value of improving the health of disadvantaged Americans. American journal of preventive medicine, 40(1), S67-S72.
Woolf, S. H., Johnson, R. E., Fryer Jr, G. E., Rust, G., & Satcher, D. (2004). The health impact of resolving racial disparities: an analysis of US mortality data. American Journal of Public Health, 94(12), 2078-2081.
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For more racial analysis of news and popular culture, join the | Between The Lines | Facebook page and follow Mikhail on Twitter.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. |
Oct. 13, 2017, 7:39 PM GMT / Updated Oct. 13, 2017, 8:15 PM GMT By John Paul Brammer
A flier distributed at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., on Friday that promoted a book titled "The Health Hazards of Homosexuality" prompted outcry when photos surfaced on social media.
The flier was given out to attendees at the gathering where President Donald Trump spoke in complimentary tote bags that also included a sticker saying, "I don't believe the liberal media."
MassResistance, a group based Massachusetts that identifies itself as "a pro-family activist organization that educates people to help them confront the attacks on the traditional family" on its website, created the fliers to promote the book by its founder, Bryan Camenker.
A request for comment from MassResistance was not immediately returned. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated MassResistance a hate group since 2008.
A portion of the contents of "The Health Hazards of Homosexuality" pamphlet distributed at the Values Voter Summit. Garrett Haake
According to its preface, the book "aims to alert the public — especially young people and their parents — on the serious physical and physiological health dangers inherent in adopting a 'gay,' lesbian or bisexual (GLB) identity."
The book says the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that resulted in the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide, made "sodomy a right and a legitimate basis for marriage."
It also claims homosexuality is a mental disorder and the truth is being suppressed by "the homosexual lobby and their allies," including the "radicalized" entertainment industry, press and educational establishments.
The book touts an official endorsement from a Dr. Paul Church, where he is listed as "Urologist, Asst. Clinical Professor of Surgery (part-time), Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts, October 2016." A spokesperson for Harvard Medical School told NBC News that Church has not been affiliated with the school since December 2015.
Church was fired in January 2016 from his position as a urologist at Beth Israel Deaconess, one of Harvard’s affiliated hospitals, for sending anti-gay emails to staff.
Trump received a standing ovation at the Value Voters summit, which was organized by the Family Research Council (FRC), when he said in his remarks Friday that Americans "don't worship government, we worship God."
Pamphlet distributed at Values Voter Summit promoting "The Health Hazards of Homosexuality" by Bryan Camenker of Mass Resistance. Garrett Haake
He became the first sitting president to address the annual gathering of evangelical conservatives, a powerful bloc that helped propel him to the White House in November.
According to its website, the FRC "does not consider homosexuality, bi-sexuality, and transgenderism as acceptable alternative lifestyles or sexual 'preferences'; they are unhealthy and destructive to individual persons, families, and society."
LGBTQ advocate groups condemned Trump's appearance at the summit.
"This morning, addressing a gathering of some of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ activists in the country, Trump once again legitimized hate speech and vowed, again and again to write discrimination into law by pushing laws focused on religious exemptions," Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, a media watchdog group, said in a statement, adding that religious exemption laws serve to legalize discrimination.
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Infrastructure is a powerful driver of economic growth and inclusive development, capable of boosting aggregate demand today and laying the foundations for future growth. It is also a key element of the climate-change agenda. Done badly, infrastructure is a major part of the problem; done right, it is a major part of the solution.
Over the next 15 years, more than $90 trillion in infrastructure investment will be needed worldwide. That is more than twice the value of the entire stock of infrastructure today, and requires total annual investment to increase more than twofold, from $2.5-3 trillion to above $6 trillion.
Around 75 per cent of this investment will have to take place in the developing world, particularly middle-income countries, owing to their growth needs, rapid urbanization, and already-large infrastructure backlogs.
Closing the infrastructure gap will undoubtedly be challenging. But it also represents a profound opportunity to create the underpinnings of a more sustainable future.
As it stands, more than 80 per cent of the world’s primary energy supply and more than two-thirds of its electricity are derived from fossil fuels. Infrastructure alone accounts for around 60 per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions. If the world follows the same old approaches in building new infrastructure, it would lock in polluting, resource-intensive, and unsustainable pathways to growth.
But shifting to renewable energies and sustainable infrastructure can have the opposite impact, helping to mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions while enhancing countries’ resilience to climate change. If climate risks are factored into investment decisions, renewable energies, cleaner transport, efficient water systems, and smarter, more resilient cities will emerge as the best bets.
Fortunately, the political will to take action to mitigate climate change has never been stronger. At last December’s United Nations climate conference in Paris, world leaders reached a landmark agreement to work toward a more sustainable future, including by transforming the way infrastructure projects are developed, financed, and implemented.
But agenda setting is just the first step. Delivering sustainable infrastructure at scale will require strong public policy leadership and responsive private-sector entrepreneurship.
Policymakers must clearly articulate overall strategies for sustainable infrastructure investment, and embed them in comprehensive frameworks for sustainable growth and development. Here, the G20 countries can lead the way. Only with such integrated strategies can policymakers offer the level of policy coherence needed not just to maximize the effectiveness of each policy, but also to instill confidence in the private sector to do its part.
What precisely should those strategies entail? While specific policy actions and priorities must be tailored to individual countries’ circumstances, the main elements of sustainable infrastructure agendas can broadly be captured under four “I”s: investment, incentives, institutions, and innovation.
“ If climate risks are factored into investment decisions, renewable energies, cleaner transport, efficient water systems, and smarter, more resilient cities will emerge as the best bets.
For starters, policymakers will need to ensure a significant increase in total investment. This requires a reversal of the broadly negative public-investment trend in the last couple of decades. Governments must allocate significantly more funds to sustainable infrastructure.
But, given severe fiscal constraints in many countries, public investment alone is not enough; the private sector will still have to meet more than half of the total need. Efforts to reduce policy risks and costs of doing business can help spur the private sector to scale up investment considerably.
To ensure that new investment is oriented toward sustainable infrastructure, policymakers must also adjust market incentives. The elimination of fossil-fuel subsidies and the implementation of carbon pricing are particularly important; with oil prices very low, now is the ideal time for countries to implement such reforms.
Pricing reform will also be needed in other industries, including water. By getting prices right and reforming regulation to correct distorted incentives, governments can put markets to work in support of public-policy goals.
But more investment alone is not enough. Strong institutions are needed to ensure the feasibility, quality, and impact of that investment. Particularly important is the capacity to develop strong project pipelines and institutional frameworks for public-private partnerships.
With around 70 per cent of total investment in sustainable infrastructure occurring in urban areas, close attention must also be paid to the quality of municipal institutions, as well as cities’ fiscal capacities. For developing economies, multilateral development banks will be a key partner in building capacity and catalyzing financing.
Finally, there is the fourth “I”: innovation. On one hand, technological innovation will be needed to provide increasingly efficient components of low-carbon, climate-resilient infrastructure. That is why investment in research and development – especially in renewable-energy technologies – must also increase significantly.
On the other hand, fiscal and financial innovation will be needed to capture the potential of new technologies. Specifically, the creative use of fiscal space will enable the mobilization of more financing for sustainable infrastructure. And there will be more space as carbon taxes raise substantial revenue for governments (and improve the tax structure).
Meanwhile, new financial instruments and the resourceful use of development capital can leverage more private finance and lower its cost. Promoting infrastructure as an asset class could help attract more savings toward infrastructure. As it stands, assets under management by banks and institutional investors worldwide amount to more than $120 trillion, of which infrastructure accounts for only about five per cent.
Today, both infrastructure investment and climate action are urgently needed. With the right approach, we can achieve both goals simultaneously, building a more prosperous and sustainable future.
Zia Qureshi is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Director of Development Economics at the World Bank.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2016.
www.proejct-syndicate.org |
More in foreclosure choose to walk away
Standing is a living room full of packed boxes, Army Sgt. first class, Nicklaus Skaggs, his daughter, Madisyn Skaggs,6 months, is debating a voluntary foreclosure on his home of 3 years Vacaville, Calif., on Thursday, Mar. 13, 2008. The Skagg family bought their for home for $455,000. Now faced with rising mortgage payments, they figure their property is worth $160,000 less than they paid for it. As their other debts grow they are ready to walk away in order to save themselves from complete financial disaster. Photo by Mike Kepka / San Francisco Chronicle Ran on: 03-16-2008 Nicklaus Skaggs holds his daughter Madisyn in the Vacaville home that his family is walking away from in a foreclosure. Ran on: 03-16-2008 Nicklaus Skaggs holds his daughter Madisyn in the Vacaville home that his family is walking away from in a foreclosure. less Standing is a living room full of packed boxes, Army Sgt. first class, Nicklaus Skaggs, his daughter, Madisyn Skaggs,6 months, is debating a voluntary foreclosure on his home of 3 years Vacaville, Calif., on ... more Photo: Mike Kepka Photo: Mike Kepka Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close More in foreclosure choose to walk away 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Foreclosure used to be a last resort, something that hard-pressed homeowners would scrimp and plead to avoid. But as the subprime lending crisis sweeps up millions of borrowers nationwide, some are deliberately choosing foreclosure as an early option.
As their home values tumble and their mortgages rise, these "walk away homeowners" decide to cede their houses to their lenders.
"It's throwing good money away after bad" to pay an escalating mortgage on a home that's plunging in value, said Army Sgt. 1st Class Nicklaus Skaggs of Vacaville. He and his wife, Tishara, stopped paying their mortgage in February. They signed up with a new company called You Walk Away to help guide them through the multi-month foreclosure process.
The couple paid $455,000 for their Vacaville home almost three years ago, shortly after Nicklaus Skaggs returned from a year in Iraq. Now the home's value has dropped to $290,000. Their adjustable-rate mortgage, which started at about $3,000 a month, has reset twice, climbing to about $4,000.
They have no regrets about their decision.
"I feel like the pressure has lifted off my shoulders; before I was trapped," said Nicklaus Skaggs, 40, an earnest man who plans to retire from the Army in two years, after completing 20 years of service.
"If we keep paying the mortgage, we would really sink ourselves," added Tishara Skaggs, 35, who was an Army specialist driving heavy-wheel trucks until her lupus led to a medical discharge in 2002. The Skaggses have two daughters, Tabitha, 7, and Madisyn, 6 months.
No skin in the game
Walk-aways represent a profound shift in American attitudes toward homeownership - a shift that may have begun with the no-money-down subprime loans. People who don't have "skin in the game" - their own cash on the line - feel less attachment to their homes. People who bought homes expecting rapid appreciation may be quicker to dump them when they don't perform as expected.
The walk-away phenomenon is common enough that mailing in one's keys to the lender has earned its own nickname: jingle mail.
In California, purchase mortgages on residences are "nonrecourse," which means lenders cannot pursue foreclosed homeowners for additional money.
It is clear that many borrowers cede their homes without asking their lender for a break. More than half of foreclosures involve people who never spoke to their bank, studies show.
Housing counseling agencies said they would never advise clients to surrender to foreclosure without exploring other options.
"It never makes sense to literally just walk away," said Martin Eichner, director of the HUD program at Project Sentinel in Sunnyvale. "Even if you're hopelessly underwater, you should at least try to negotiate a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure where you give it back voluntarily. The worst thing to do is to let it go to foreclosure because it goes on your credit report as a black mark that follows you for years to come."
But some financial experts, such as "mad man of Wall Street" Jim Cramer, say walking away makes economic sense.
"When your house drops 20 percent in value ... it's better to walk away, even if you're wealthy," he said on TheStreet.com TV last summer. "Because you don't want to lose your credit card and you don't want to lose your car. Your house is the one thing that's fungible. It's smart to walk away."
New company offers help
You Walk Away (youwalkaway.com), based in San Diego, began in January to assist homeowners who want to let their homes go into foreclosure.
"What if you could live payment free for up to 8 months or more and walk away without owing a penny?" its Web site asks prospective customers. "Unshackle yourself today from a losing investment and use our proven method to Walk Away."
While going into foreclosure is free - you just stop paying your mortgage - Jon Maddox, co-founder and senior advocate at You Walk Away, said the company provides emotional, practical and legal advice that makes the process more palatable.
Customers pay $995 for an advocate to answer questions via phone and e-mail, a letter to their lender to stop dunning phone calls, consultations with a real estate attorney and a CPA, and assistance cleaning up their credit after foreclosure.
You Walk Away has served slightly more than 500 people in its 2 1/2 months of operation, Maddox said.
Maddox said 70 percent of his customers are financially floundering, while 30 percent made an economic decision to walk away.
"They don't care about their house anymore," he said. "It's a big weight around their neck. They're trying to get out of it and get their heads above water again. They're paying too much for the title of homeowner."
You Walk Away operates in California, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Florida and is working to set up services for six other states. Maddox said the 13-employee staff will triple within a few months.
What about downsides?Foreclosure carries a range of financial negatives, but some are not as drastic as people imagine. Homeowners do not have to declare bankruptcy in a foreclosure (although some people do so because it temporarily halts the process, giving them more time in their homes).
An oft-cited fact is that a foreclosure stays on one's credit report for seven years. Many people assume they could not buy another house during that time.
But even the company that crunches numbers to produce credit scores says a foreclosure is not that devastating.
Jennifer Crawford, senior director of product support for Fair Isaac Corp. in San Rafael, said she would tell a homeowner being foreclosed upon: "All is not lost for the long term. Do not panic. You can absolutely take a structured approach to getting back in good credit standing. All other things being equal, in one or two years you can quickly build back up your credit standing."
The three major credit bureaus all use Fair Isaac's algorithms to calculate credit scores.
While a foreclosure does stay on a credit report for seven years, its impact declines over time, Crawford said.
"Let's take a scenario where you have a foreclosure but every other aspect of your credit profile is current - you've made all payments and have no other derogatories," she said. "If that is the situation, probably within a couple of years, you could be back in the high 600s or low 700s" - considered good credit scores.
Crawford said the impact of other steps short of foreclosure - missing payments, arranging a short sale, or returning the house as a deed in lieu of foreclosure - all depends on whether and how the lender reports them to the credit bureaus.
Tax consequences are another downside. Ordinarily, "canceled debt" such as a foreclosed mortgage is taxed as income. However, a law passed late last year mitigates this at the federal level until 2009.
Playing hardball with the bank
Some homeowners are sufficiently savvy - and brash - to try to turn the housing meltdown to their advantage.
A Discovery Bay man who asked not to be identified said he is "upside down" on his house by about $260,000. Instead of bemoaning the situation, he plans to capitalize on it.
"I refinanced a couple of years ago and pulled out $100,000 and put in a fabulous pool," he said. "Now I've got this fabulous pool and fabulous house, but it's not worth anything. Why shouldn't I be building equity over the next four to five years instead of playing catch-up?"
The man said he has not made a mortgage payment for five months.
"I'm playing the bank game," he said. "I'm playing chicken with them. I already got them to agree to put (the unpaid) payments on the tail end of the loan. What I'm really pushing them to do is to (adjust my mortgage) for the current market value and write off the rest. I'd love (to have it) lopped down to a $450,000 basis rather than $710,000."
If the bank won't negotiate, he'll walk away, the man said.
That kind of story sends chills down bankers' spines. To date, most loan modifications have involved freezing interest rates or repayment plans for arrears.
But no less an authority than Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, is now urging lenders to reduce mortgage principals so homeowners won't walk away.
"Principal reductions that restore some equity for the homeowner may be a relatively more effective means of avoiding delinquency and foreclosure," he said in a speech this month.
Not deadbeats
From their online research, the Skaggses know that bloggers have a lot of vitriol for walk-away borrowers, calling them irresponsible and worse. The couple say they have always paid their bills on time and feel they were given poor advice about both their mortgage and the housing market. Now they are in limbo, living among unpacked boxes. They returned a few months ago from a temporary posting to Fort Bliss, Texas, and stopped unpacking when they realized how high their mortgage would soar. They tried to contact their lender for a loan modification, but found the experience frustrating and their lender unresponsive.
Nicklaus Skaggs will be redeployed this summer, possibly to Iraq again. After he retires from the Army, they hope to buy a house in his hometown of Louisville, Ky. In preparation for that shift, he's studying for a bachelor's degree via correspondence school and then plans to pursue an MBA.
With no housing expenses during the eight-month-plus foreclosure process, they can save for a down payment, they said. Since so many people are now swept up in foreclosures, they hope that lenders will extend some grace to people like them, they said.
"In the long run, I think this is the best financial solution," Nicklaus Skaggs said. "I have to do what's right for my family. I don't care if someone judges me. I certainly wouldn't put my family in a position to lose $150,000 if I can help it." |
The past few years have seen rapid advances in machine learning, with dramatic improvements in technical performance—from more accurate speech recognition, to better image search, to improved translations. But we believe AI can go much further—and be more useful to all of us—if we build systems with people in mind at the start of the process.
Today we’re announcing the People + AI Research initiative (PAIR) which brings together researchers across Google to study and redesign the ways people interact with AI systems. The goal of PAIR is to focus on the "human side" of AI: the relationship between users and technology, the new applications it enables, and how to make it broadly inclusive. The goal isn’t just to publish research; we’re also releasing open source tools for researchers and other experts to use.
PAIR's research is divided into three areas, based on different user needs:
Engineers and researchers: AI is built by people. How might we make it easier for engineers to build and understand machine learning systems? What educational materials and practical tools do they need?
Domain experts: How can AI aid and augment professionals in their work? How might we support doctors, technicians, designers, farmers, and musicians as they increasingly use AI?
Everyday users: How might we ensure machine learning is inclusive, so everyone can benefit from breakthroughs in AI? Can design thinking open up entirely new AI applications? Can we democratize the technology behind AI?
We don't have all the answers—that's what makes this interesting research—but we have some ideas about where to look. One key to the puzzle is design thinking. Instead of viewing AI purely as a technology, what if we imagine it as a material to design with? Here history might serve as a guide: For instance, advances in computer graphics meant more than better ways of drawing pictures—and that led to completely new kinds of interfaces and applications. You can read more in this post on what we call human-centered machine learning (HCML).We’re open sourcing new tools, creating educational materials (such as guidelines for designing AI interfaces), and publishing research to answer these questions and spread the power of AI to as many people as possible.
Open-source tools
Today we're open sourcing two visualization tools, Facets Overview and Facets Dive. These applications are aimed at AI engineers, and address the very beginning of the machine learning process. The Facets applications give engineers a clear view of the data they use to train AI systems.
We think this is important because training data is a key ingredient in modern AI systems, but it can often be a source of opacity and confusion. Indeed, one of the ways that ML engineering seems different than traditional software engineering is a stronger need to debug not just code, but data too. With Facets, engineers can more easily debug and understand what they’re building. You can read full details at our open source repository.
Supporting external research
We also acknowledge that we're not the first to see this opportunity or ask these questions. Many designers and academics have started exploring human/AI interaction. Their work inspires us; we see community-building and research support as an essential part of our mission. We’re working with a pair of visiting academics—Prof. Brendan Meade of Harvard and Prof. Hal Abelson of MIT—who are focusing on education and science in the age of AI.
Focusing on the human element in AI brings new possibilities into view. We're excited to work together to invent and explore what's possible. |
Men of colours: the Melbourne Stars went down to Adelaide in their season-opener. Credit:Getty Images Those are the internal expectations. The external is all about the fans who have put their bums on seats, bought the merchandise, turned on their televisions and portable screens and generally engaged with the players, the colours, the big hits and the sparkling stumps. A number of my friends and acquaintances in the 50-plus age group, who have not so much followed Test cricket as revered it, have regularly surprised me with their expressions of expectation about BBL05. They may not have the command of the batting averages, centuries and five-fas, let alone the strike rates of the leading characters, as they do of the past 140 years of Test cricketers, but certainly their children and grandchildren do. My mates identify the teams by their colours. It's a bit like trying to learn the teams in Super Rugby. You figure out the colours first, then you work out who the Highlanders, Rebels and the Stormers are and what city, state or province they represent (although I'm still not sure about the Chiefs).
Sydneysiders and Melburnians have to make a decision. In Sydney the Sixers/Thunder division is a geographical one between east and west, although Sydney's sprawling urbanity and allegiance to state and national players blurs the lines. Melbourne quite rightly boasts the most ardent sporting fans in the nation so they will find a red or a green guernsey to buy and wear, but following a stadium rather than a suburb seems weird even for them. The colours – originally seen as Warhol crossed with Miley Cyrus – have become commonplace. The youth of the nation now associate cricket with brightness and cool. The colours have become the brand. The timing of the tournament, in terms of lazy summer evenings, the school year finishing and the holiday period, has worked brilliantly. Those are not new concepts and those months have been filled by Test and one-day international matches in the past, many with sell-out crowds. In the not so dim past, Test matches were interspersed with one-dayers and the fans turned up in droves to both forms. Even Sheffield Shield matches would be better attended in late December and through January.
Fans like a familiar schedule and, once the regular timings of the Test matches were changed by CA to suit visitors' schedules and increasing overseas commitments, supporters found it difficult to plan their summers to suit their cricket-watching proclivities. CA and the state associations spent precious little in promoting domestic cricket during those years. They were primarily concerned with getting fans to international cricket and the state teams were vehicles to train and produce the players for the bigger stages. State teams were loss leaders and investment centres rather than revenue producers. Now the fans – young and old – know when the Bash is coming and, like my pre-geriatric mates, the air of expectation adds to the excitement when it arrives. With a free-to-air network involved, there are sponsors queuing up to get their logos on lime green, magenta and various garishly hued uniforms, ergo more cash all round. This summer we have the added factor of a poor international opponent, who will hopefully be more competitive on Boxing Day.
The juxtaposition between the next two Test matches and the Big Bash will be interesting for the immediate future of the West Indies as a cricket entity, and perhaps the medium-term shaping of the Australian domestic calendar. If a domestic tournament can out-rate and out-draw the international team, then CA may look at only inviting the big three Test countries – South Africa, England and India – in the future and expand the BBL franchises. If money alone rather than investment in the diverse nature of the game is the deciding factor, then the face of cricket in Australia may be in for a rapid slap. It's not that long ago that India was a cricket-mad nation, albeit one with a fractured competition, dilapidated venues and warring regional administrations. Now the IPL has turned Indian cricket into a cash-rich behemoth, demanding and receiving worldwide attention, not to mention the world's best players. Similarly, Australian cricket may see further upside in expanding the colourful Bash and doing deals to rival the AFL and NRL.
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Niners starting center Daniel Kilgore had surgery last month connected to the broken ankle he sustained in October and his anticipated mid-training-camp return has been pushed back, head coach Jim Tomsula said today.
Tomsula characterized the procedure as a minor clean-up surgery. He suggested calcium deposits might have been restricting blood flow in the area.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” Tomsula said. “It was a quick surgery … Feel real good about that … The fix on his ankle — that’s all great. We don’t have any issues with that. It came with the healing.”
It’s not clear when Kilgore will return, but Tomsula indicated his latest surgery wouldn’t significantly delay his 2015 debut.
“I don’t know how far back,” Tomsula said, “but we’re not concerned for him long-term, season-ending, none of that stuff.”
Marcus Martin and Joe Looney will take the majority of the training-camp snaps at center while Kilgore is out. Martin, a 2014 third-round pick, made the final nine starts at the position after Kilgore was placed on injured reserve last year.
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Inside linebacker Michael Wilhoite has been placed on the active/non-football injury list with what Tomsula characterized as a minor leg strain.
“I don’t think it’s going to be too long,” Tomsula said of Wilhoite making his training-camp debut.
In addition, inside linebacker Nick Bellore isn’t expected to participate in the first training-camp practice Saturday night because of an illness.
The 49ers also removed outside linebacker Aaron Lynch and rookie offensive tackle Trent Brown from the NFI list. Running back Carlos Hyde was removed from NFI on Thursday.
Twitter: @Eric_Branch |
A wartime love story was being retold thanks to a newlywed couple in Texas who discovered a collection of World War II letters 70 years after they were written.
Andy and Jessica Green found the letters shortly after moving into their new home in Lubbock.
While looking for the dryer vent in the attic, Andy Green spotted an old pillowcase filled with hundreds of letters and photographs dating back to 1942.
“So I went out into the garage and he had this old pillowcase and it had stuff in it, so we dumped it out on the garage floor and it was just hundreds and hundreds of these old, old letters and I’m picking up a couple looking at them, and he picks up one and says this is from 1942,” Jessica Green told Lubbock TV station KCBD.
The correspondence was between sailor Dale Simpson and his sweetheart Virginia Sims.
“I pray for a safe journey into your arms again,” Dale Simpson wrote.
The letters detailed their wartime romance and eventually their marriage.
“I got your letters and pictures today and fell in love all over again,” another of the letters read.
The homeowners learned that Dale and Virginia Simpson had passed away, but said they planned to return the letters to their family.
“It was like we were divided by — you know — years of inexperience … and growing up left to do,” Andy Green told the station. “In a similar way, I feel just as lost without Jessica as Mr. Simpson seemed to be without Virginia,” he said. |
BREAKING: Israeli Team Refused to Brief Trump Officials As Long as McMaster Appointee Mustafa Ali Was in the Room
BREAKING REPORT FROM A TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SOURCE—
In August the Zionist Organization of America, the oldest pro-Israel group in the country, called on President Trump to reassign H.R. McMaster.
This was after McMaster purged Trump loyalists who support Israel and are critical of Iran and radical Islamic terrorism from the National Security Council.
A top Israeli reporter claimed McMaster views Israel as an ‘illegitimate, occupying power,’ just like Iran.
on Wednesday Israeli National News reported that a recent meeting at the Trump White House with Israeli officials disintegrated into a shouting match with Trump National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster and Israeli officials.
Now there is more on the McMaster meeting.
The Israelis refused to disclose information on the Hezbollah terrorist group as long as McMaster’s associate and Obama holdover, Mustafa Javed Ali, was in the room.
McMaster reportedly brought NSC Senior Director on Counter-Terrorism Mustafa Javed Ali to the White House meeting with Israel.
Mustafa Ali is a McMaster appointee!
Mustafa Ali was CAIR’s “diversity outreach coordinator.”
The Israelis reportedly know more about Mustafa Ali than the Trump administration does.
According to my source, H. R. McMaster is a very, very bad person.
David Steinberg at PJ Media reported:
During the week of August 27, an Israeli delegation met with members of the National Security Council (NSC) at the White House to discuss the current threat to Israel by the terror group Hezbollah. Israel believes this threat is currently dire. This meeting preceded a two-week long Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) exercise to rehearse for possible war with Hezbollah. The Jerusalem Post described this exercise, which commenced on September 4 and is ongoing, as the IDF’s largest in 20 years. Hezbollah has been a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997. However, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster reportedly brought NSC Senior Director on Counter-Terrorism Mustafa Javed Ali to the White House meeting with Israel. Ali, a McMaster appointee, is described by a senior administration source as being “opposed to Hezbollah’s designation as a terrorist organization.” What then transpired at the meeting has been confirmed to PJ Media by several administration sources, by members of non-governmental organizations involved in national security, and by a source within the Israeli government. The Israeli delegation demanded that Mustafa Javed Ali leave the room. This demand was made despite the clear likelihood that Ali would later be privy to the meeting’s materials and discussion. As such, sources speculated that Israel intended the demand to serve as a message to President Trump that McMaster’s behavior has constituted a subversion of Trump’s stated Middle East policy.
And there’s more…
Friction between General McMaster and the Israeli delegation did not end with Israel’s demand that Ali leave the room. Sources reported that McMaster went on to explicitly dismiss the Israelis’ specific concerns about Hezbollah. In particular, the Israelis expressed concern that the “safe zone” currently being established within Syria — an idea that had been vociferously supported by Hezbollah’s sponsor, Iran — would immediately become a safe zone for Hezbollah to operate. McMaster was said to “blow off” this major Israeli concern, and to be “yelling at the Israelis” during the meeting.
MORE COMING….. |
The head of an Alberta advocacy group for parents is defending the public funding of private schools as a way to save taxpayers money.
"It is a false narrative to claim that independent education removes dollars from the public system," said Donna Trimble, executive director of Parents for Choice in Education, pointing to a study commissioned by her group. "It actually saves dollars from the public system."
Trimble spoke out after an Edmonton-area Christian school board's refusal to implement LGBTQ government guidelines prompted calls from critics to pull funding and review the allocation of provincial dollars to Alberta private schools.
Private schools receive 70 per cent of the operational funding of public schools
But Trimble said the argument is false that it costs the province more to fund private schools.
She said Alberta private schools receive approximately $5,150-per-student annually, less than half of the $10,900 a year provided to public school students.
It would cost the province more for every one of the existing 29,400 private school students if they returned to the public school system, she said.
Trimble said the private school system saves Alberta on average $750 million over five years.
Trimble also defended the right of Alberta school boards not to implement LGBTQ guidelines laid out by the province.
On Thursday, Education Minister David Eggen vowed to 'aggressively pursue' schools that don't follow the LGBTQ guidelines recommending schools allow students to use the washroom and play on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
'Not legally binding'
But Trimble said the guidelines are "not legally binding", as stated in a letter from Eggen which she provided to CBC News.
"These guidelines were created as a resource to be used by educators as they work to accommodate their students and are not legally binding," Eggen wrote to parent and blogger Theresa Ng on March 15, 2016.
Eggen was responding to Ng's open letter on Facebook in which she agreed something must be done to protect LGBTQ students and their families, but criticized the guidelines for failing to reflect the diverse needs and perspectives of all Albertans.
[email protected]
@andreahuncar
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This story is set in the same universe as the novel Incandescence, some 300,000 years before Rakesh’s journey to the bulge. It is not a part of the novel itself.
Copyright © Greg Egan, 2005. All rights reserved.
1
In their ten-thousand, three hundred and ninth year of marriage, Leila and Jasim began contemplating death. They had known love, raised children, and witnessed the flourishing generations of their offspring. They had travelled to a dozen worlds and lived among a thousand cultures. They had educated themselves many times over, proved theorems, and acquired and abandoned artistic sensibilities and skills. They had not lived in every conceivable manner, far from it, but what room would there be for the multitude if each individual tried to exhaust the permutations of existence? There were some experiences, they agreed, that everyone should try, and others that only a handful of people in all of time need bother with. They had no wish to give up their idiosyncrasies, no wish to uproot their personalities from the niches they had settled in long ago, let alone start cranking mechanically through some tedious enumeration of all the other people they might have been. They had been themselves, and for that they had done, more or less, enough. Before dying, though, they wanted to attempt something grand and audacious. It was not that their lives were incomplete, in need of some final flourish of affirmation. If some unlikely calamity had robbed them of the chance to orchestrate this finale, the closest of their friends would never have remarked upon, let alone mourned, its absence. There was no aesthetic compulsion to be satisfied, no aching existential void to be filled. Nevertheless, it was what they both wanted, and once they had acknowledged this to each other their hearts were set on it. Choosing the project was not a great burden; that task required nothing but patience. They knew they’d recognise it when it came to them. Every night before sleeping, Jasim would ask Leila, “Did you see it yet?” “No. Did you?” “Not yet.” Sometimes Leila would dream that she’d found it in her dreams, but the transcripts proved otherwise. Sometimes Jasim felt sure that it was lurking just below the surface of his thoughts, but when he dived down to check it was nothing but a trick of the light. Years passed. They occupied themselves with simple pleasures: gardening, swimming in the surf, talking with their friends, catching up with their descendants. They had grown skilled at finding pastimes that could bear repetition. Still, were it not for the nameless adventure that awaited them they would have thrown a pair of dice each evening and agreed that two sixes would end it all. One night, Leila stood alone in the garden, watching the sky. From their home world, Najib, they had travelled only to the nearest stars with inhabited worlds, each time losing just a few decades to the journey. They had chosen those limits so as not to alienate themselves from friends and family, and it had never felt like much of a constraint. True, the civilisation of the Amalgam wrapped the galaxy, and a committed traveller could spend two hundred thousand years circling back home, but what was to be gained by such an overblown odyssey? The dozen worlds of their neighbourhood held enough variety for any traveller, and whether more distant realms were filled with fresh novelties or endless repetition hardly seemed to matter. To have a goal, a destination, would be one thing, but to drown in the sheer plenitude of worlds for its own sake seemed utterly pointless. A destination? Leila overlaid the sky with information, most of it by necessity millennia out of date. There were worlds with spectacular views of nebulas and star clusters, views that could be guaranteed still to be in existence if they travelled to see them, but would taking in such sights firsthand be so much better than immersion in the flawless images already available in Najib’s library? To blink away ten thousand years just to wake beneath a cloud of green and violet gas, however lovely, seemed like a terrible anticlimax. The stars tingled with self-aggrandisement, plaintively tugging at her attention. The architecture here, the rivers, the festivals! Even if these tourist attractions could survive the millennia, even if some were literally unique, there was nothing that struck her as a fitting prelude to death. If she and Jasim had formed some whimsical attachment, centuries before, to a world on the other side of the galaxy rumoured to hold great beauty or interest, and if they had talked long enough about chasing it down when they had nothing better to do, then keeping that promise might have been worth it, even if the journey led them to a world in ruins. They had no such cherished destination, though, and it was too late to cultivate one now. Leila’s gaze followed a thinning in the advertising, taking her to the bulge of stars surrounding the galaxy’s centre. The disk of the Milky Way belonged to the Amalgam, whose various ancestral species had effectively merged into a single civilisation, but the central bulge was inhabited by beings who had declined to do so much as communicate with those around them. All attempts to send probes into the bulge — let alone the kind of engineering spores needed to create the infrastructure for travel — had been gently but firmly rebuffed, with the intruders swatted straight back out again. The Aloof had maintained their silence and isolation since before the Amalgam itself had even existed. The latest news on this subject was twenty thousand years old, but the status quo had held for close to a million years. If she and Jasim travelled to the innermost edge of the Amalgam’s domain, the chances were exceptionally good that the Aloof would not have changed their ways in the meantime. In fact, it would be no disappointment at all if the Aloof had suddenly thrown open their borders: that unheralded thaw would itself be an extraordinary thing to witness. If the challenge remained, though, all the better. She called Jasim to the garden and pointed out the richness of stars, unadorned with potted histories. “We go where?” he asked. “As close to the Aloof as we’re able.” “And do what?” “Try to observe them,” she said. “Try to learn something about them. Try to make contact, in whatever way we can.” “You don’t think that’s been tried before?” “A million times. Not so much lately, though. Maybe while the interest on our side has ebbed, they’ve been changing, growing more receptive.” “Or maybe not.” Jasim smiled. He had appeared a little stunned by her proposal at first, but the idea seemed to be growing on him. “It’s a hard, hard problem to throw ourselves against. But it’s not futile. Not quite.” He wrapped her hands in his. “Let’s see how we feel in the morning.” In the morning, they were both convinced. They would camp at the gates of these elusive strangers, and try to rouse them from their indifference. They summoned the family from every corner of Najib. There were some grandchildren and more distant descendants who had settled in other star systems, decades away at lightspeed, but they chose not to wait to call them home for this final farewell. Two hundred people crowded the physical house and garden, while two hundred more confined themselves to the virtual wing. There was talk and food and music, like any other celebration, and Leila tried to undercut any edge of solemnity that she felt creeping in. As the night wore on, though, each time she kissed a child or grandchild, each time she embraced an old friend, she thought: this could be the last time, ever. There had to be a last time, she couldn’t face ten thousand more years, but a part of her spat and struggled like a cornered animal at the thought of each warm touch fading to nothing. As dawn approached, the party shifted entirely into the acorporeal. People took on fancy dress from myth or xenology, or just joked and played with their illusory bodies. It was all very calm and gentle, nothing like the surreal excesses she remembered from her youth, but Leila still felt a tinge of vertigo. When her son Khalid made his ears grow and spin, this amiable silliness carried a hard message: the machinery of the house had ripped her mind from her body, as seamlessly as ever, but this time she would never be returning to the same flesh. Sunrise brought the first of the goodbyes. Leila forced herself to release each proffered hand, to unwrap her arms from around each non-existent body. She whispered to Jasim, “Are you going mad, too?” “Of course.” Gradually the crowd thinned out. The wing grew quiet. Leila found herself pacing from room to room, as if she might yet chance upon someone who’d stayed behind, then she remembered urging the last of them to go, her children and friends tearfully retreating down the hall. She skirted inconsolable sadness, then lifted herself above it and went looking for Jasim. He was waiting for her outside their room. “Are you ready to sleep?” he asked her gently. She said, “For an eon.”
2
Leila woke in the same bed as she’d lain down in. Jasim was still sleeping beside her. The window showed dawn, but it was not the usual view of the cliffs and the ocean. Leila had the house brief her. After twenty thousand years — travelling more or less at lightspeed, pausing only for a microsecond or two at various way-stations to be cleaned up and amplified — the package of information bearing the two of them had arrived safely at Nazdeek-be-Beegane. This world was not crowded, and it had been tweaked to render it compatible with a range of metabolic styles. The house had negotiated a site where they could live embodied in comfort if they wished. Jasim stirred and opened his eyes. “Good morning. How are you feeling?” “Older.” “Really?” Leila paused to consider this seriously. “No. Not even slightly. How about you?” “I’m fine. I’m just wondering what’s out there.” He raised himself up to peer through the window. The house had been instantiated on a wide, empty plain, covered with low stalks of green and yellow vegetation. They could eat these plants, and the house had already started a spice garden while they slept. He stretched his shoulders. “Let’s go and make breakfast.” They went downstairs, stepping into freshly minted bodies, then out into the garden. The air was still, the sun already warm. The house had tools prepared to help them with the harvest. It was the nature of travel that they had come empty-handed, and they had no relatives here, no fifteenth cousins, no friends of friends. It was the nature of the Amalgam that they were welcome nonetheless, and the machines that supervised this world on behalf of its inhabitants had done their best to provide for them. “So this is the afterlife,” Jasim mused, scything the yellow stalks. “Very rustic.” “Speak for yourself,” Leila retorted. “I’m not dead yet.” She put down her own scythe and bent to pluck one of the plants out by its roots. The meal they made was filling but bland. Leila resisted the urge to tweak her perceptions of it; she preferred to face the challenge of working out decent recipes, which would make a useful counterpoint to the more daunting task they’d come here to attempt. They spent the rest of the day just tramping around, exploring their immediate surroundings. The house had tapped into a nearby stream for water, and sunlight, stored, would provide all the power they needed. From some hills about an hour’s walk away they could see into a field with another building, but they decided to wait a little longer before introducing themselves to their neighbours. The air had a slightly odd smell, due to the range of components needed to support other metabolic styles, but it wasn’t too intrusive. The onset of night took them by surprise. Even before the sun had set a smattering of stars began appearing in the east, and for a moment Leila thought that these white specks against the fading blue were some kind of exotic atmospheric phenomenon, perhaps small clouds forming in the stratosphere as the temperature dropped. When it became clear what was happening, she beckoned to Jasim to sit beside her on the bank of the stream and watch the stars of the bulge come out. They’d come at a time when Nazdeek lay between its sun and the galactic centre. At dusk one half of the Aloof’s dazzling territory stretched from the eastern horizon to the zenith, with the stars’ slow march westward against a darkening sky only revealing more of their splendour. “You think that was to die for?” Jasim joked as they walked back to the house. “We could end this now, if you’re feeling unambitious.” He squeezed her hand. “If this takes ten thousand years, I’m ready.” It was a mild night, they could have slept outdoors, but the spectacle was too distracting. They stayed downstairs, in the physical wing. Leila watched the strange thicket of shadows cast by the furniture sliding across the walls. These neighbours never sleep, she thought. When we come knocking, they’ll ask what took us so long.
3
Hundreds of observatories circled Nazdeek, built then abandoned by others who’d come on the same quest. When Leila saw the band of pristine space junk mapped out before her — orbits scrupulously maintained and swept clean by robot sentinels for eons — she felt as if she’d found the graves of their predecessors, stretching out in the field behind the house as far as the eye could see. Nazdeek was prepared to offer them the resources to loft another package of instruments into the vacuum if they wished, but many of the abandoned observatories were perfectly functional, and most had been left in a compliant state, willing to take instructions from anyone. Leila and Jasim sat in their living room and woke machine after machine from millennia of hibernation. Some, it turned out, had not been sleeping at all, but had been carrying on systematic observations, accumulating data long after their owners had lost interest. In the crowded stellar precincts of the bulge, disruptive gravitational effects made planet formation rarer than it was in the disk, and orbits less stable. Nevertheless, planets had been found. A few thousand could be tracked from Nazdeek, and one observatory had been monitoring their atmospheric spectra for the last twelve millennia. In all of those worlds for all of those years, there were no signs of atmospheric composition departing from plausible, purely geochemical models. That meant no wild life, and no crude industries. It didn’t prove that these worlds were uninhabited, but it suggested either that the Aloof went to great lengths to avoid leaving chemical fingerprints, or they lived in an entirely different fashion to any of the civilisations that had formed the Amalgam. Of the eleven forms of biochemistry that had been found scattered around the galactic disk, all had given rise eventually to hundreds of species with general intelligence. Of the multitude of civilisations that had emerged from those roots, all contained cultures that had granted themselves the flexibility of living as software, but they also all contained cultures that persisted with corporeal existence. Leila would never have willingly given up either mode, herself, but while it was easy to imagine a subculture doing so, for a whole species it seemed extraordinary. In a sense, the intertwined civilisation of the Amalgam owed its existence to the fact that there was as much cultural variation within every species as there was between one species and another. In that explosion of diversity, overlapping interests were inevitable. If the Aloof were the exception, and their material culture had shrunk to nothing but a few discreet processors — each with the energy needs of a gnat, scattered throughout a trillion cubic light years of dust and blazing stars — then finding them would be impossible. Of course, that worst-case scenario couldn’t quite be true. The sole reason the Aloof were assumed to exist at all was the fact that some component of their material culture was tossing back every probe that was sent into the bulge. However discreet that machinery was, it certainly couldn’t be sparse: given that it had managed to track, intercept and reverse the trajectories of billions of individual probes that had been sent in along thousands of different routes, relativistic constraints on the information flow implied that the Aloof had some kind of presence at more or less every star at the edge of the bulge. Leila and Jasim had Nazdeek brief them on the most recent attempts to enter the bulge, but even after forty thousand years the basic facts hadn’t changed. There was no crisply delineated barrier marking the Aloof’s territory, but at some point within a border region about fifty light years wide, every single probe that was sent in ceased to function. The signals from those carrying in-flight beacons or transmitters went dead without warning. A century or so later, they would appear again at almost the same point, travelling in the opposite direction: back to where they’d come from. Those that were retrieved and examined were found to be unharmed, but their data logs contained nothing from the missing decades. Jasim said, “The Aloof could be dead and gone. They built the perfect fence, but now it’s outlasted them. It’s just guarding their ruins.” Leila rejected this emphatically. “No civilisation that’s spread to more than one star system has ever vanished completely. Sometimes they’ve changed beyond recognition, but not one has ever died without descendants.” “That’s a fact of history, but it’s not a universal law,” Jasim persisted. “If we’re going to argue from the Amalgam all the time, we’ll get nowhere. If the Aloof weren’t exceptional, we wouldn’t be here.” “That’s true. But I won’t accept that they’re dead until I see some evidence.” “What would count as evidence? Apart from a million years of silence?” Leila said, “Silence could mean anything. If they’re really dead, we’ll find something more, something definite.” “Such as?” “If we see it, we’ll know.” They began the project in earnest, reviewing data from the ancient observatories, stopping only to gather food, eat and sleep. They had resisted making detailed plans back on Najib, reasoning that any approach they mapped out in advance was likely to be rendered obsolete once they learned about the latest investigations. Now that they’d arrived and found the state of play utterly unchanged, Leila wished that they’d come armed with some clear options for dealing with the one situation they could have prepared for before they’d left. In fact, though they might have felt like out-of-touch amateurs back on Najib, now that the Aloof had become their entire raison d’être it was far harder to relax and indulge in the kind of speculation that might actually bear fruit, given that every systematic approach had failed. Having come twenty thousand light years for this, they couldn’t spend their time day-dreaming, turning the problem over in the backs of their minds while they surrendered to the rhythms of Nazdeek’s rural idyll. So they studied everything that had been tried before, searching methodically for a new approach, hoping to see the old ideas with fresh eyes, hoping that — by chance if for no other reason — they might lack some crucial blind spot that had afflicted all of their predecessors. After seven months without results or inspiration, it was Jasim who finally dragged them out of the rut. “We’re getting nowhere,” he said. “It’s time to accept that, put all this aside, and go visit the neighbours.” Leila stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Go visit them? How? What makes you think that they’re suddenly going to let us in?” He said, “The neighbours. Remember? Over the hill. The ones who might actually want to talk to us.”
4
Their neighbours had published a précis stating that they welcomed social contact in principle, but might take a while to respond. Jasim sent them an invitation, asking if they’d like to join them in their house, and waited. After just three days, a reply came back. The neighbours did not want to put them to the trouble of altering their own house physically, and preferred not to become acorporeal at present. Given the less stringent requirements of Leila and Jasim’s own species when embodied, might they wish to come instead to the neighbours’ house? Leila said, “Why not?” They set a date and time. The neighbours’ précis included all the biological and sociological details needed to prepare for the encounter. Their biochemistry was carbon-based and oxygen-breathing, but employed a different replicator to Leila and Jasim’s DNA. Their ancestral phenotype resembled a large furred snake, and when embodied they generally lived in nests of a hundred or so. The minds of the individuals were perfectly autonomous, but solitude was an alien and unsettling concept for them. Leila and Jasim set out late in the morning, in order to arrive early in the afternoon. There were some low, heavy clouds in the sky, but it was not completely overcast, and Leila noticed that when the sun passed behind the clouds, she could discern some of the brightest stars from the edge of the bulge. Jasim admonished her sternly, “Stop looking. This is our day off.” The Snakes’ building was a large squat cylinder resembling a water tank, which turned out to be packed with something mossy and pungent. When they arrived at the entrance, three of their hosts were waiting to greet them, coiled on the ground near the mouth of a large tunnel emerging from the moss. Their bodies were almost as wide as their guests’, and some eight or ten metres long. Their heads bore two front-facing eyes, but their other sense organs were not prominent. Leila could make out their mouths, and knew from the briefing how many rows of teeth lay behind them, but the wide pink gashes stayed closed, almost lost in the grey fur. The Snakes communicated with a low-frequency thumping, and their system of nomenclature was complex, so Leila just mentally tagged the three of them with randomly chosen, slightly exotic names — Tim, John and Sarah — and tweaked her translator so she’d recognise intuitively who was who, who was addressing her, and the significance of their gestures. “Welcome to our home,” said Tim enthusiastically. “Thank you for inviting us,” Jasim replied. “We’ve had no visitors for quite some time,” explained Sarah. “So we really are delighted to meet you.” “How long has it been?” Leila asked. “Twenty years,” said Sarah. “But we came here for the quiet life,” John added. “So we expected it would be a while.” Leila pondered the idea of a clan of a hundred ever finding a quiet life, but then, perhaps unwelcome intrusions from outsiders were of a different nature to family dramas. “Will you come into the nest?” Tim asked. “If you don’t wish to enter we won’t take offence, but everyone would like to see you, and some of us aren’t comfortable coming out into the open.” Leila glanced at Jasim. He said privately, “We can push our vision to IR. And tweak ourselves to tolerate the smell.” Leila agreed. “Okay,” Jasim told Tim. Tim slithered into the tunnel and vanished in a quick, elegant motion, then John motioned with his head for the guests to follow. Leila went first, propelling herself up the gentle slope with her knees and elbows. The plant the Snakes cultivated for the nest formed a cool, dry, resilient surface. She could see Tim ten metres or so ahead, like a giant glow-worm shining with body heat, slowing down now to let her catch up. She glanced back at Jasim, who looked even weirder than the Snakes now, his face and arms blotched with strange bands of radiance from the exertion. After a few minutes, they came to a large chamber. The air was humid, but after the confines of the tunnel it felt cool and fresh. Tim led them towards the centre, where about a dozen other Snakes were already waiting to greet them. They circled the guests excitedly, thumping out a delighted welcome. Leila felt a surge of adrenaline; she knew that she and Jasim were in no danger, but the sheer size and energy of the creatures was overwhelming. “Can you tell us why you’ve come to Nazdeek?” asked Sarah. “Of course.” For a second or two Leila tried to maintain eye contact with her, but like all the other Snakes she kept moving restlessly, a gesture that Leila’s translator imbued with a sense of warmth and enthusiasm. As for lack of eye contact, the Snakes’ own translators would understand perfectly that some aspects of ordinary, polite human behaviour became impractical under the circumstances, and would not mislabel her actions. “We’re here to learn about the Aloof,” she said. “The Aloof?” At first Sarah just seemed perplexed, then Leila’s translator hinted at a touch of irony. “But they offer us nothing.” Leila was tongue-tied for a moment. The implication was subtle but unmistakable. Citizens of the Amalgam had a protocol for dealing with each other’s curiosity: they published a précis, which spelled out clearly any information that they wished people in general to know about them, and also specified what, if any, further inquiries would be welcome. However, a citizen was perfectly entitled to publish no précis at all and have that decision respected. When no information was published, and no invitation offered, you simply had no choice but to mind your own business. “They offer us nothing as far as we can tell,” she said, “but that might be a misunderstanding, a failure to communicate.” “They send back all the probes,” Tim replied. “Do you really think we’ve misunderstood what that means?” Jasim said, “It means that they don’t want us physically intruding on their territory, putting our machines right next to their homes, but I’m not convinced that it proves that they have no desire to communicate whatsoever.” “We should leave them in peace,” Tim insisted. “They’ve seen the probes, so they know we’re here. If they want to make contact, they’ll do it in their own time.” “Leave them in peace,” echoed another Snake. A chorus of affirmation followed from others in the chamber. Leila stood her ground. “We have no idea how many different species and cultures might be living in the bulge. One of them sends back the probes, but for all we know there could be a thousand others who don’t yet even know that the Amalgam has tried to make contact.” This suggestion set off a series of arguments, some between guests and hosts, some between the Snakes themselves. All the while, the Snakes kept circling excitedly, while new ones entered the chamber to witness the novel sight of these strangers. When the clamour about the Aloof had quietened down enough for her to change the subject, Leila asked Sarah, “Why have you come to Nazdeek yourself?” “It’s out of the way, off the main routes. We can think things over here, undisturbed.” “But you could have the same amount of privacy anywhere. It’s all a matter of what you put in your précis.” Sarah’s response was imbued with a tinge of amusement. “For us, it would be unimaginably rude to cut off all contact explicitly, by decree. Especially with others from our own ancestral species. To live a quiet life, we had to reduce the likelihood of encountering anyone who would seek us out. We had to make the effort of rendering ourselves physically remote, in order to reap the benefits.” “Yet you’ve made Jasim and myself very welcome.” “Of course. But that will be enough for the next twenty years.” So much for resurrecting their social life. “What exactly is it that you’re pondering in this state of solitude?” “The nature of reality. The uses of existence. The reasons to live, and the reasons not to.” Leila felt the skin on her forearms tingle. She’d almost forgotten that she’d made an appointment with death, however uncertain the timing. She explained how she and Jasim had made their decision to embark on a grand project before dying. “That’s an interesting approach,” Sarah said. “I’ll have to give it some thought.” She paused, then added, “Though I’m not sure that you’ve solved the problem.” “What do you mean?” “Will it really be easier now to choose the right moment to give up your life? Haven’t you merely replaced one delicate judgement with an even more difficult one: deciding when you’ve exhausted the possibilities for contacting the Aloof?” “You make it sound as if we have no chance of succeeding.” Leila was not afraid of the prospect of failure, but the suggestion that it was inevitable was something else entirely. Sarah said, “We’ve been here on Nazdeek for fifteen thousand years. We don’t pay much attention to the world outside the nest, but even from this cloistered state we’ve seen many people break their backs against this rock.” “So when will you accept that your own project is finished?” Leila countered. “If you still don’t have what you’re looking for after fifteen thousand years, when will you admit defeat?” “I have no idea,” Sarah confessed. “I have no idea, any more than you do.”
5
When the way forward first appeared, there was nothing to set it apart from a thousand false alarms that had come before it. It was their seventeenth year on Nazdeek. They had launched their own observatory — armed with the latest refinements culled from around the galaxy — fifteen years before, and it had been confirming the null results of its predecessors ever since. They had settled into an unhurried routine, systematically exploring the possibilities that observation hadn’t yet ruled out. Between the scenarios that were obviously stone cold dead — the presence of an energy-rich, risk-taking, extroverted civilisation in the bulge actively seeking contact by every means at its disposal — and the infinite number of possibilities that could never be distinguished at this distance from the absence of all life, and the absence of all machinery save one dumb but efficient gatekeeper, tantalising clues would bubble up out of the data now and then, only to fade into statistical insignificance in the face of continued scrutiny. Tens of billions of stars lying within the Aloof’s territory could be discerned from Nazdeek, some of them evolving or violently interacting on a time scale of years or months. Black holes were flaying and swallowing their companions. Neutron stars and white dwarfs were stealing fresh fuel and flaring into novas. Star clusters were colliding and tearing each other apart. If you gathered data on this whole menagerie for long enough, you could expect to see almost anything. Leila would not have been surprised to wander into the garden at night and find a great welcome sign spelled out in the sky, before the fortuitous pattern of novas faded and the message dissolved into randomness again. When their gamma ray telescope caught a glimmer of something odd — the nuclei of a certain isotope of fluorine decaying from an excited state, when there was no nearby source of the kind of radiation that could have put the nuclei into that state in the first place — it might have been just another random, unexplained fact to add to a vast pile. When the same glimmer was seen again, not far away, Leila reasoned that if a gas cloud enriched with fluorine could be affected at one location by an unseen radiation source, it should not be surprising if the same thing happened elsewhere in the same cloud. It happened again. The three events lined up in space and time in a manner suggesting a short pulse of gamma rays in the form of a tightly focused beam, striking three different points in the gas cloud. Still, in the mountains of data they had acquired from their predecessors, coincidences far more compelling than this had occurred hundreds of thousands of times. With the fourth flash, the balance of the numbers began to tip. The secondary gamma rays reaching Nazdeek gave only a weak and distorted impression of the original radiation, but all four flashes were consistent with a single, narrow beam. There were thousands of known gamma ray sources in the bulge, but the frequency of the radiation, the direction of the beam, and the time profile of the pulse did not fit with any of them. The archives revealed a few dozen occasions when the same kind of emissions had been seen from fluorine nuclei under similar conditions. There had never been more than three connected events before, but one sequence had occurred along a path not far from the present one. Leila sat by the stream and modelled the possibilities. If the beam was linking two objects in powered flight, prediction was impossible. If receiver and transmitter were mostly in free-fall, though, and only made corrections occasionally, the past and present data combined gave her a plausible forecast for the beam’s future orientation. Jasim looked into her simulation, a thought-bubble of stars and equations hovering above the water. “The whole path will lie out of bounds,” he said. “No kidding.” The Aloof’s territory was more or less spherical, which made it a convex set: you couldn’t get between any two points that lay inside it without entering the territory itself. “But look how much the beam spreads out. From the fluorine data, I’d say it could be tens of kilometres wide by the time it reaches the receiver.” “So they might not catch it all? They might let some of the beam escape into the disk?” He sounded unpersuaded. Leila said, “Look, if they really were doing everything possible to hide this, we would never have seen these blips in the first place.” “Gas clouds with this much fluorine are extremely rare. They obviously picked a frequency that wouldn’t be scattered under ordinary circumstances.” “Yes, but that’s just a matter of getting the signal through the local environment. We choose frequencies ourselves that won’t interact with any substance that’s likely to be present along the route, but no choice is perfect, and we just live with that. It seems to me that they’ve done the same thing. If they were fanatical purists, they’d communicate by completely different methods.” “All right.” Jasim reached into the model. “So where can we go that’s in the line of sight?” The short answer was: nowhere. If the beam was not blocked completely by its intended target it would spread out considerably as it made its way through the galactic disk, but it would not grow so wide that it would sweep across a single point where the Amalgam had any kind of outpost. Leila said, “This is too good to miss. We need to get a decent observatory into its path.” Jasim agreed. “And we need to do it before these nodes decide they’ve drifted too close to something dangerous, and switch on their engines for a course correction.” They crunched through the possibilities. Wherever the Amalgam had an established presence, the infrastructure already on the ground could convert data into any kind of material object. Transmitting yourself to such a place, along with whatever you needed, was simplicity itself: lightspeed was the only real constraint. Excessive demands on the local resources might be denied, but modest requests were rarely rejected. Far more difficult was building something new at a site with raw materials but no existing receiver; in that case, instead of pure data, you needed to send an engineering spore of some kind. If you were in a hurry, not only did you need to spend energy boosting the spore to relativistic velocities — a cost that snowballed due to the mass of protective shielding — you then had to waste much of the time you gained on a lengthy braking phase, or the spore would hit its target with enough energy to turn it into plasma. Interactions with the interstellar medium could be used to slow down the spore, avoiding the need to carry yet more mass to act as a propellant for braking, but the whole business was disgustingly inefficient. Harder still was getting anything substantial to a given point in the vast empty space between the stars. With no raw materials to hand at the destination, everything had to be moved from somewhere else. The best starting point was usually to send an engineering spore into a cometary cloud, loosely bound gravitationally to its associated star, but not every such cloud was open to plunder, and everything took time, and obscene amounts of energy. To arrange for an observatory to be delivered to the most accessible point along the beam’s line of sight, travelling at the correct velocity, would take about fifteen thousand years all told. That assumed that the local cultures who owned the nearest facilities, and who had a right to veto the use of the raw materials, acceded immediately to their request. “How long between course corrections?” Leila wondered. If the builders of this hypothetical network were efficient, the nodes could drift for a while in interstellar space without any problems, but in the bulge everything happened faster than in the disk, and the need to counter gravitational effects would come much sooner. There was no way to make a firm prediction, but they could easily have as little as eight or ten thousand years. Leila struggled to reconcile herself to the reality. “We’ll try at this location, and if we’re lucky we might still catch something. If not, we’ll try again after the beam shifts.” Sending the first observatory chasing after the beam would be futile; even with the present free-fall motion of the nodes, the observation point would be moving at a substantial fraction of lightspeed relative to the local stars. Magnified by the enormous distances involved, a small change in direction down in the bulge could see the beam lurch thousands of light years sideways by the time it reached the disk. Jasim said, “Wait.” He magnified the region around the projected path of the beam. “What are you looking for?” He asked the map, “Are there two outposts of the Amalgam lying on a straight line that intersects the beam?” The map replied in a tone of mild incredulity. “No.” “That was too much to hope for. Are there three lying on a plane that intersects the beam?” The map said, “There are about ten-to-the-eighteen triples that meet that condition.” Leila suddenly realised what it was he had in mind. She laughed and squeezed his arm. “You are completely insane!” Jasim said, “Let me get the numbers right first, then you can mock me.” He rephrased his question to the map. “For how many of those triples would the beam pass between them, intersecting the triangle whose vertices they lie on?” “About ten-to-the-sixth.” “How close to us is the closest point of intersection of the beam with any of those triangles — if the distance in each case is measured via the worst of the three outposts, the one that makes the total path longest.” “Seven thousand four hundred and twenty-six light years.” Leila said, “Collision braking. With three components?” “Do you have a better idea?” Better than twice as fast as the fastest conventional method? “Nothing comes to mind. Let me think about it.” Braking against the flimsy interstellar medium was a slow process. If you wanted to deliver a payload rapidly to a point that fortuitously lay somewhere on a straight line between two existing outposts, you could fire two separate packages from the two locations and let them “collide” when they met — or rather, let them brake against each other magnetically. If you arranged for the packages to have equal and opposite momenta, they would come to a halt without any need to throw away reaction mass or clutch at passing molecules, and some of their kinetic energy could be recovered as electricity and stored for later use. The aim and the timing had to be perfect. Relativistic packages did not make in-flight course corrections, and the data available at each launch site about the other’s precise location was always a potentially imperfect prediction, not a rock-solid statement of fact. Even with the Amalgam’s prodigious astrometric and computing resources, achieving millimetre alignments at thousand-light-year distances could not be guaranteed. Now Jasim wanted to make three of these bullets meet, perform an elaborate electromagnetic dance, and end up with just the right velocity needed to keep tracking the moving target of the beam. In the evening, back in the house, they sat together working through simulations. It was easy to find designs that would work if everything went perfectly, but they kept hunting for the most robust variation, the one that was most tolerant of small misalignments. With standard two-body collision braking, the usual solution was to have the first package, shaped like a cylinder, pass right through a hole in the second package. As it emerged from the other side and the two moved apart again, the magnetic fields were switched from repulsive to attractive. Several “bounces” followed, and in the process as much of the kinetic energy as possible was gradually converted into superconducting currents for storage, while the rest was dissipated as electromagnetic radiation. Having three objects meeting at an angle would not only make the timing and positioning more critical, it would destroy the simple, axial symmetry and introduce a greater risk of instability. It was dawn before they settled on the optimal design, which effectively split the problem in two. First, package one, a sphere, would meet package two, a torus, threading the gap in the middle, then bouncing back and forth through it seventeen times. The plane of the torus would lie at an angle to its direction of flight, allowing the sphere to approach it head-on. When the two finally came to rest with respect to each other, they would still have a component of their velocity carrying them straight towards package three, a cylinder with an axial borehole. Because the electromagnetic interactions were the same as the two-body case — self-centring, intrinsically stable — a small amount of misalignment at each of these encounters would not be fatal. The usual two-body case, though, didn’t require the combined package, after all the bouncing and energy dissipation was completed, to be moving on a path so precisely determined that it could pass through yet another narrow hoop. There were no guarantees, and in the end the result would be in other people’s hands. They could send requests to the three outposts, asking for these objects to be launched at the necessary times on the necessary trajectories. The energy needs hovered on the edge of politeness, though, and it was possible that one or more of the requests would simply be refused. Jasim waved the models away, and they stretched out on the carpet, side by side. He said, “I never thought we’d get this far. Even if this is only a mirage, I never thought we’d find one worth chasing.” Leila said, “I don’t know what I expected. Some kind of great folly: some long, exhausting, exhilarating struggle that felt like wandering through a jungle for years and ending up utterly lost.” “And then what?” “Surrender.” Jasim was silent for a while. Leila could sense that he was brooding over something, but she didn’t press him. He said, “Should we travel to this observatory ourselves, or wait here for the results?” “We should go. Definitely! I don’t want to hang around here for fifteen thousand years, waiting. We can leave the Nazdeek observatories hunting for more beam fluorescence and broadcasting the results, so we’ll hear about them wherever we end up.” “That makes sense.” Jasim hesitated, then added, “When we go, I don’t want to leave a back-up.” “Ah.” They’d travelled from Najib leaving nothing of themselves behind: if their transmission had somehow failed to make it to Nazdeek, no stored copy of the data would ever have woken to resume their truncated lives. Travel within the Amalgam’s established network carried negligible risks, though. If they flung themselves towards the hypothetical location of this yet-to-be-assembled station in the middle of nowhere, it was entirely possible that they’d sail off to infinity without ever being instantiated again. Leila said, “Are you tired of what we’re doing? Of what we’ve become?” “It’s not that.” “This one chance isn’t the be-all and end-all. Now that we know how to hunt for the beams, I’m sure we’ll find this one again after its shifts. We could find a thousand others, if we’re persistent.” “I know that,” he said. “I don’t want to stop, I don’t want to end this. But I want to risk ending it. Just once. While that still means something.” Leila sat up and rested her head on her knees. She could understand what he was feeling, but it still disturbed her. Jasim said, “We’ve already achieved something extraordinary. No one’s found a clue like this in a million years. If we leave that to posterity, it will be pursued to the end, we can be sure of that. But I desperately want to pursue it myself. With you.” “And because you want that so badly, you need to face the chance of losing it?” “Yes.” It was one thing they had never tried. In their youth, they would never have knowingly risked death. They’d been too much in love, too eager for the life they’d yet to live; the stakes would have been unbearably high. In the twilight years, back on Najib, it would have been an easy thing to do, but an utterly insipid pleasure. Jasim sat up and took her hand. “Have I hurt you with this?” “No, no.” She shook her head pensively, trying to gather her thoughts. She didn’t want to hide her feelings, but she wanted to express them precisely, not blurt them out in a confusing rush. “I always thought we’d reach the end together, though. We’d come to some point in the jungle, look around, exchange a glance, and know that we’d arrived. Without even needing to say it aloud.” Jasim drew her to him and held her. “All right, I’m sorry. Forget everything I said.” Leila pushed him away, annoyed. “This isn’t something you can take back. If it’s the truth, it’s the truth. Just give me some time to decide what I want.” They put it aside, and buried themselves in work: polishing the design for the new observatory, preparing the requests to send to the three outposts. One of the planets they would be petitioning belonged to the Snakes, so Leila and Jasim went to visit the nest for a second time, to seek advice on the best way to beg for this favour. Their neighbours seemed more excited just to see them again than they were at the news that a tiny rent had appeared in the Aloof’s million-year-old cloak of discretion. When Leila gently pushed her on this point, Sarah said, “You’re here, here and now, our guests in flesh and blood. I’m sure I’ll be dead long before the Aloof are willing to do the same.” Leila thought: What kind of strange greed is it that I’m suffering from? I can be feted by creatures who rose up from the dust through a completely different molecule than my own ancestors. I can sit among them and discuss the philosophy of life and death. The Amalgam has already joined every willing participant in the galaxy into one vast conversation. And I want to go and eavesdrop on the Aloof? Just because they’ve played hard-to-get for a million years? They dispatched requests for the three modules to be built and launched by their three as-yet unwitting collaborators, specifying the final countdown to the nanosecond but providing a ten-year period for the project to be debated. Leila felt optimistic; however blasé the Nazdeek nest had been, she suspected that no space-faring culture really could resist the chance to peek behind the veil. They had thirty-six years to wait before they followed in the wake of their petitions; on top of the ten-year delay, the new observatory’s modules would be travelling at a fraction of a percent below lightspeed, so they needed a head start. No more tell-tale gamma ray flashes appeared from the bulge, but Leila hadn’t expected any so soon. They had sent the news of their discovery to other worlds close to the Aloof’s territory, so eventually a thousand other groups with different vantage points would be searching for the same kind of evidence and finding their own ways to interpret and exploit it. It hurt a little, scattering their hard-won revelation to the wind for anyone to use — perhaps even to beat them to some far greater prize — but they’d relied on the generosity of their predecessors from the moment they’d arrived on Nazdeek, and the sheer scale of the overall problem made it utterly perverse to cling selfishly to their own small triumph. As the day of their departure finally arrived, Leila came to a decision. She understood Jasim’s need to put everything at risk, and in a sense she shared it. If she had always imagined the two of them ending this together — struggling on, side by side, until the way forward was lost and the undergrowth closed in on them — then that was what she’d risk. She would take the flip side to his own wager. When the house took their minds apart and sent them off to chase the beam, Leila left a copy of herself frozen on Nazdeek. If no word of their safe arrival reached it by the expected time, it would wake and carry on the search. Alone.
6
“Welcome to Trident. We’re honoured by the presence of our most distinguished guest.” Jasim stood beside the bed, waving a triangular flag. Red, green and blue in the corners merged to white in the centre. “How long have you been up?” “About an hour,” he said. Leila frowned, and he added apologetically, “You were sleeping very deeply, I didn’t want to disturb you.” “I should be the one giving the welcome,” she said. “You’re the one who might never have woken.” The bedroom window looked out into a dazzling field of stars. It was not a view facing the bulge — by now Leila could recognise the distinctive spectra of the region’s stars with ease — but even these disk stars were so crisp and bright that this was like no sky she had ever seen. “Have you been downstairs?” she said. “Not yet. I wanted us to decide on that together.” The house had no physical wing here; the tiny observatory had no spare mass for such frivolities as embodying them, let alone constructing architectural follies in the middle of interstellar space. “Downstairs” would be nothing but a scape that they were free to design at will. “Everything worked,” she said, not quite believing it. Jasim spread his arms. “We’re here, aren’t we?” They watched a reconstruction of the first two modules coming together. The timing and the trajectories were as near to perfect as they could have hoped for, and the superconducting magnets had been constructed to a standard of purity and homogeneity that made the magnetic embrace look like an idealised simulation. By the time the two had locked together, the third module was just minutes away. Some untraceable discrepancy between reality and prediction in the transfer of momentum to radiation had the composite moving at a tiny angle away from its expected course, but when it met the third module the magnetic fields still meshed in a stable configuration, and there was energy to spare to nudge the final assembly precisely into step with the predicted swinging of the Aloof’s beam. The Amalgam had lived up to its promise: three worlds full of beings they had never met, who owed them nothing, who did not even share their molecular ancestry, had each diverted enough energy to light up all their cities for a decade, and followed the instructions of strangers down to the atom, down to the nanosecond, in order to make this work. What happened now was entirely in the hands of the Aloof. Trident had been functioning for about a month before its designers had arrived to take up occupancy. So far, it had not yet observed any gamma ray signals spilling out of the bulge. The particular pulse that Leila and Jasim had seen triggering fluorescence would be long gone, of course, but the usefulness of their present location was predicated on three assumptions: the Aloof would use the same route for many other bursts of data; some of the radiation carrying that data would slip past the intended receiver; and the two nodes of the network would have continued in free fall long enough for the spilt data to be arriving here still, along the same predictable path. Without those three extra components, delivered by their least reliable partners, Trident would be worthless. “Downstairs,” Leila said. “Maybe a kind of porch with glass walls?” “Sounds fine to me.” She conjured up a plan of the house and sketched some ideas, then they went down to try them out at full scale.
They had been into orbit around Najib, and they had travelled embodied to its three beautiful, barren sibling worlds, but they had never been in interstellar space before. Or at least, they had never been conscious of it. They were still not truly embodied, but you didn’t need flesh and blood to feel the vacuum around you; to be awake and plugged-in to an honest depiction of your surroundings was enough. The nearest of Trident’s contributor worlds was six hundred light years away. The distance to Najib was unthinkable. Leila paced around the porch, looking out at the stars, vertiginous in her virtual body, unsteady in the phoney gravity. It had been twenty-eight thousand years since they’d left Najib. All her children and grandchildren had almost certainly chosen death, long ago. No messages had been sent after them to Nazdeek; Leila had asked for that silence, fearing that it would be unbearably painful to hear news, day after day, to which she could give no meaningful reply, about events in which she could never participate. Now she regretted that. She wanted to read the lives of her grandchildren, as she might the biography of an ancestor. She wanted to know how things had ended up, like the time traveller she was. A second month of observation passed, with nothing. A data feed reaching them from Nazdeek was equally silent. For any new hint of the beam’s location to reach Nazdeek, and then the report of that to reach Trident, would take thousands of years longer than the direct passage of the beam itself, so if Nazdeek saw evidence that the beam was “still” on course, that would be old news about a pulse they had not been here to intercept. However, if Nazdeek reported that the beam had shifted, at least that would put them out of their misery immediately, and tell them that Trident had been built too late. Jasim made a vegetable garden on the porch and grew exotic food in the starlight. Leila played along, and ate beside him; it was a harmless game. They could have painted anything at all around the house: any planet they’d visited, drawn from their memories, any imaginary world. If this small pretence was enough to keep them sane and anchored to reality, so be it. Now and then, Leila felt the strangest of the many pangs of isolation Trident induced: here, the knowledge of the galaxy was no longer at her fingertips. Their descriptions as travellers had encoded their vast personal memories, declarative and episodic, and their luggage had included prodigious libraries, but she was used to having so much more. Every civilised planet held a storehouse of information that was simply too bulky to fit into Trident, along with a constant feed of exabytes of news flooding in from other worlds. Wherever you were in the galaxy, some news was old news, some cherished theories long discredited, some facts hopelessly out of date. Here, though, Leila knew, there were billions of rigourously established truths — the results of hundreds of millennia of thought, experiment, and observation — that had slipped out of her reach. Questions that any other child of the Amalgam could expect to have answered instantly would take twelve hundred years to receive a reply. No such questions actually came into her mind, but there were still moments when the mere fact of it was enough to make her feel unbearably rootless, cut adrift not only from her past and her people, but from civilisation itself.
Trident shouted: “Data!” Leila was half-way through recording a postcard to the Nazdeek Snakes. Jasim was on the porch watering his plants. Leila turned to see him walking through the wall, commanding the bricks to part like a gauze curtain. They stood side by side, watching the analysis emerge. A pulse of gamma rays of the expected frequency, from precisely the right location, had just washed over Trident. The beam was greatly attenuated by distance, not to mention having had most of its energy intercepted by its rightful owner, but more than enough had slipped past and reached them for Trident to make sense of the nature of the pulse. It was, unmistakably, modulated with information. There were precisely repeated phase shifts in the radiation that were unimaginable in any natural gamma ray source, and which would have been pointless in any artificial beam produced for any purpose besides communication. The pulse had been three seconds long, carrying about ten-to-the-twenty-fourth bits of data. The bulk of this appeared to be random, but that did not rule out meaningful content, it simply implied efficient encryption. The Amalgam’s network sent encrypted data via robust classical channels like this, while sending the keys needed to decode it by a second, quantum channel. Leila had never expected to get hold of unencrypted data, laying bare the secrets of the Aloof in an instant. To have clear evidence that someone in the bulge was talking to someone else, and to have pinned down part of the pathway connecting them, was vindication enough. There was more, though. Between the messages themselves, Trident had identified brief, orderly, unencrypted sequences. Everything was guesswork to a degree, but with such a huge slab of data statistical measures were powerful indicators. Part of the data looked like routing information, addresses for the messages as they were carried through the network. Another part looked like information about the nodes’ current and future trajectories. If Trident really had cracked that, they could work out where to position its successor. In fact, if they placed the successor close enough to the bulge, they could probably keep that one observatory constantly inside the spill from the beam. Jasim couldn’t resist playing devil’s advocate. “You know, this could just be one part of whatever throws the probes back in our faces, talking to another part. The Aloof themselves could still be dead, while their security system keeps humming with paranoid gossip.” Leila said blithely, “Hypothesise away. I’m not taking the bait.” She turned to embrace him, and they kissed. She said, “I’ve forgotten how to celebrate. What happens now?” He moved his fingertips gently along her arm. Leila opened up the scape, creating a fourth spatial dimension. She took his hand, kissed it, and placed it against her beating heart. Their bodies reconfigured, nerve-endings crowding every surface, inside and out. Jasim climbed inside her, and she inside him, the topology of the scape changing to wrap them together in a mutual embrace. Everything vanished from their lives but pleasure, triumph, and each other’s presence, as close as it could ever be.
7
“Are you here for the Listening Party?” The chitinous heptapod, who’d been wandering the crowded street with a food cart dispensing largesse at random, offered Leila a plate of snacks tailored to her and Jasim’s preferences. She accepted it, then paused to let Tassef, the planet they’d just set foot on, brief her as to the meaning of this phrase. People, Tassef explained, had travelled to this world from throughout the region in order to witness a special event. Some fifteen thousand years before, a burst of data from the Aloof’s network had been picked up by a nearby observatory. In isolation, these bursts meant very little; however, the locals were hopeful that at least one of several proposed observatories near Massa, on the opposite side of the bulge, would have seen spillage including many of the same data packets, forty thousand years before. If any such observations had in fact taken place, news of their precise contents should now, finally, be about to reach Tassef by the longer, disk-based routes of the Amalgam’s own network. Once the two observations could be compared, it would become clear which messages from the earlier Eavesdropping session had made their way to the part of the Aloof’s network that could be sampled from Tassef. The comparison would advance the project of mapping all the symbolic addresses seen in the data onto actual physical locations. Leila said, “That’s not why we came, but now we know, we’re even more pleased to be here.” The heptapod emitted a chirp that Leila understood as a gracious welcome, then pushed its way back into the throng. Jasim said, “Remember when you told me that everyone would get bored with the Aloof while we were still in transit?” “I said that would happen eventually. If not this trip, the next one.” “Yes, but you said it five journeys ago.” Leila scowled, preparing to correct him, but then she checked and he was right. They hadn’t expected Tassef to be so crowded when they’d chosen it as their destination, some ten thousand years before. The planet had given them a small room in this city, Shalouf, and imposed a thousand-year limit on their presence if they wished to remain embodied without adopting local citizenship. More than a billion visitors had arrived over the last fifty years, anticipating the news of the observations from Massa, but unable to predict the precise time it would reach Tassef because the details of the observatories’ trajectories had still been in transit. She confessed, “I never thought a billion people would arrange their travel plans around this jigsaw puzzle.” “Travel plans?” Jasim laughed. “We chose to have our own deaths revolve around the very same thing.” “Yes, but we’re just weird.” Jasim gestured at the crowded street. “I don’t think we can compete on that score.” They wandered through the city, drinking in the decades-long-carnival atmosphere. There were people of every phenotype Leila had encountered before, and more: bipeds, quadrupeds, hexapods, heptapods, walking, shuffling, crawling, scuttling, or soaring high above the street on feathered, scaled or membranous wings. Some were encased in their preferred atmospheres; others, like Leila and Jasim, had chosen instead to be embodied in ersatz flesh that didn’t follow every ancestral chemical dictate. Physics and geometry tied evolution’s hands, and many attempts to solve the same problems had converged on similar answers, but the galaxy’s different replicators still managed their idiosyncratic twists. When Leila let her translator sample the cacophony of voices and signals at random, she felt as if the whole disk, the whole Amalgam, had converged on this tiny metropolis. In fact, most of the travellers had come just a few hundred light years to be here. She and Jasim had chosen to keep their role in the history of Eavesdropping out of their précis, and Leila caught herself with a rather smug sense of walking among the crowd like some unacknowledged sage, bemused by the late-blooming, and no doubt superficial, interest of the masses. On reflection, though, any sense of superior knowledge was hard to justify, when most of these people would have grown up steeped in developments that she was only belatedly catching up with. A new generation of observatories had been designed while she and Jasim were in transit, based on “strong bullets”: specially designed femtomachines, clusters of protons and neutrons stable only for trillionths of a second, launched at ultra-relativistic speeds so great that time dilation enabled them to survive long enough to collide with other components and merge into tiny, short-lived gamma-ray observatories. The basic trick that had built Trident had gone from a one-off gamble into a miniaturised, mass-produced phenomenon, with literally billions of strong bullets being fired continuously from thousands of planets around the inner disk. Femtomachines themselves were old hat, but it had taken the technical challenges of Eavesdropping to motivate someone into squeezing a few more tricks out of them. Historians had always understood that in the long run, technological progress was a horizontal asymptote: once people had more or less everything they wanted that was physically possible, every incremental change would take exponentially longer to achieve, with diminishing returns and ever less reason to bother. The Amalgam would probably spend an eon inching its way closer to the flatline, but this was proof that shifts of circumstance alone could still trigger a modest renaissance or two, without the need for any radical scientific discovery or even a genuinely new technology. They stopped to rest in a square, beside a small fountain gushing aromatic hydrocarbons. The Tassef locals, quadrupeds with slick, rubbery hides, played in the sticky black spray then licked each other clean. Jasim shaded his eyes from the sun. He said, “We’ve had our autumn child, and we’ve seen its grandchildren prosper. I’m not sure what’s left.” “No.” Leila was in no rush to die, but they’d sampled fifty thousand years of their discovery’s consequences. They’d followed in the wake of the news of the gamma ray signals as it circled the inner disk, spending less than a century conscious as they sped from world to world. At first they’d been hunting for some vital new role to play, but they’d slowly come to accept that the avalanche they’d triggered had out-raced them. Physical and logical maps of the Aloof’s network were being constructed, as fast as the laws of physics allowed. Billions of people on thousands of planets, scattered around the inner rim of the Amalgam’s territory, were sharing their observations to help piece together the living skeleton of their elusive neighbours. When that project was complete it would not be the end of anything, but it could mark the start of a long hiatus. The encrypted, classical data would never yield anything more than traffic routes; no amount of ingenuity could extract its content. The quantum keys that could unlock it, assuming the Aloof even used such things, would be absolutely immune to theft, duplication, or surreptitious sampling. One day, there would be another breakthrough, and everything would change again, but did they want to wait a hundred thousand years, a million, just to see what came next? The solicitous heptapods — not locals, but visitors from a world thirty light years away who had nonetheless taken on some kind of innate duty of hospitality — seemed to show up whenever anyone was hungry. Leila tried to draw this second one into conversation, but it politely excused itself to rush off and feed someone else. Leila said, “Maybe this is it. We’ll wait for the news from Massa, then celebrate for a while, then finish it.” Jasim took her hand. “That feels right to me. I’m not certain, but I don’t think I’ll ever be.” “Are you tired?” she said. “Bored?” “Not at all,” he replied. “I feel satisfied. With what we’ve done, what we’ve seen. And I don’t want to dilute that. I don’t want to hang around forever, watching it fade, until we start to feel the way we did on Najib all over again.” “No.” They sat in the square until dusk, and watched the stars of the bulge come out. They’d seen this dazzling jewelled hub from every possible angle now, but Leila never grew tired of the sight. Jasim gave an amused, exasperated sigh. “That beautiful, maddening, unreachable place. I think the whole Amalgam will be dead and gone without anyone setting foot inside it.” Leila felt a sudden surge of irritation, which deepened into a sense of revulsion. “It’s a place, like any other place! Stars, gas, dust, planets. It’s not some metaphysical realm. It’s not even far away. Our own home world is twenty times more distant.” “Our own home world doesn’t have an impregnable fence around it. If we really wanted to, we could go back there.” Leila was defiant. “If we really wanted to, we could enter the bulge.” Jasim laughed. “Have you read something in those messages that you didn’t tell me about? How to say ‘open sesame’ to the gatekeepers?” Leila stood, and summoned a map of the Aloof’s network to superimpose across their vision, criss-crossing the sky with slender cones of violet light. One cone appeared head-on, as a tiny circle: the beam whose spillage came close to Tassef. She put her hand on Jasim’s shoulder, and zoomed in on that circle. It opened up before them like a beckoning tunnel. She said, “We know where this beam is coming from. We don’t know for certain that the traffic between these particular nodes runs in both directions, but we’ve found plenty of examples where it does. If we aim a signal from here, back along the path of the spillage, and we make it wide enough, then we won’t just hit the sending node. We’ll hit the receiver as well.” Jasim was silent. “We know the data format,” she continued. “We know the routing information. We can address the data packets to a node on the other side of the bulge, one where the spillage comes out at Massa.” Jasim said, “What makes you think they’ll accept the packets?” “There’s nothing in the format we don’t understand, nothing we can’t write for ourselves.” “Nothing in the unencrypted part. If there’s an authorisation, even a checksum, in the encrypted part, then any packet without that will be tossed away as noise.” “That’s true,” she conceded. “Do you really want to do this?” he said. Her hand was still on his shoulder, she could feel his body growing tense. “Absolutely.” “We mail ourselves from here to Massa, as unencrypted, classical data that anyone can read, anyone can copy, anyone can alter or corrupt?” “A moment ago you said they’d throw us away as noise.” “That’s the least of our worries.” “Maybe.” Jasim shuddered, his body almost convulsing. He let out a string of obscenities, then made a choking sound. “What’s wrong with you? Is this some kind of test? If I call your bluff, will you admit that you’re joking?” Leila shook her head. “And no, it’s not revenge for what you did on the way to Trident. This is our chance. This is what we were waiting to do — not the Eavesdropping, that’s nothing! The bulge is right here in front of us. The Aloof are in there, somewhere. We can’t force them to engage with us, but we can get closer to them than anyone has ever been before.” “If we go in this way, they could do anything to us.” “They’re not barbarians. They haven’t made war on us. Even the engineering spores come back unharmed.” “If we infest their network, that’s worse than an engineering spore.” “‘Infest’! None of these routes are crowded. A few exabytes passing through is nothing.” “You have no idea how they’ll react.” “No,” she confessed. “I don’t. But I’m ready to find out.” Jasim stood. “We could send a test message first. Then go to Massa and see if it arrived safely.” “We could do that,” Leila conceded. “That would be a sensible plan.” “So you agree?” Jasim gave her a wary, frozen smile. “We’ll send a test message. Send an encyclopedia. Send greetings in some universal language.” “Fine. We’ll send all of those things first. But I’m not waiting more than one day after that. I’m not going to Massa the long way. I’m taking the short-cut, I’m going through the bulge.”
8
The Amalgam had been so generous to Leila, and local interest in the Aloof so intense, that she had almost forgotten that she was not, in fact, entitled to a limitless and unconditional flow of resources, to be employed to any end that involved her obsession. When she asked Tassef for the means to build a high-powered gamma-ray transmitter to aim into the bulge, it interrogated her for an hour, then replied that the matter would require a prolonged and extensive consultation. It was, she realised, no use protesting that compared to hosting a billion guests for a couple of centuries, the cost of this was nothing. The sticking point was not the energy use, or any other equally microscopic consequence for the comfort and amenity of the Tassef locals. The issue was whether her proposed actions might be seen as unwelcome and offensive by the Aloof, and whether that affront might in turn provoke some kind of retribution. Countless probes and spores had been gently and patiently returned from the bulge unharmed, but they’d come blundering in at less than lightspeed. A flash of gamma rays could not be intercepted and returned before it struck its chosen target. Though it seemed to Leila that it would be a trivial matter for the network to choose to reject the data, it was not unreasonable to suppose that the Aloof’s sensibilities might differ on this point from her own. Jasim had left Shalouf for a city on the other side of the planet. Leila’s feelings about this were mixed; it was always painful when they separated, but the reminder that they were not irrevocably welded together also brought an undeniable sense of space and freedom. She loved him beyond measure, but that was not the final word on every question. She was not certain that she would not relent in the end, and die quietly beside him when the news came through from Massa; there were moments when it seemed utterly perverse, masochistic and self-aggrandising to flee from that calm, dignified end for the sake of trying to cap their modest revolution with a new and spectacularly dangerous folly. Nor though, was she certain that Jasim would not change his own mind, and take her hand while they plunged off this cliff together. When the months dragged on with no decision on her request, no news from Massa and no overtures from her husband, Leila became an orator, travelling from city to city promoting her scheme to blaze a trail through the heart of the bulge. Her words and image were conveyed into virtual fora, but her physical presence was a way to draw attention to her cause, and Listening Party pilgrims and Tassefi alike packed the meeting places when she came. She mastered the locals’ language and style, but left it inflected with some suitably alien mannerisms. The fact that a rumour had arisen that she was one of the First Eavesdroppers did no harm to her attendance figures. When she reached the city of Jasim’s self-imposed exile, she searched the audience for him in vain. As she walked out into the night a sense of panic gripped her. She felt no fear for herself, but the thought of him dying here alone was unbearable. She sat in the street, weeping. How had it come to this? They had been prepared for a glorious failure, prepared to be broken by the Aloof’s unyielding silence, and instead the fruits of their labour had swept through the disk, reinvigorating a thousand cultures. How could the taste of success be so bitter? Leila imagined calling out to Jasim, finding him, holding him again, repairing their wounds. A splinter of steel remained inside her, though. She looked up into the blazing sky. The Aloof were there, waiting, daring her to stand before them. To come this far, then step back from the edge for the comfort of a familiar embrace, would diminish her. She would not retreat.
The news arrived from Massa: forty thousand years before, the spillage from the far side of the bulge had been caught in time. Vast swathes of the data matched the observations that Tassef had been holding in anticipation of this moment, for the last fifteen thousand years. There was more: reports of other correlations from other observatories followed within minutes. As the message from Massa had been relayed around the inner disk, a cascade of similar matches with other stores of data had been found. By seeing where packets dropped out of the stream, their abstract addresses became concrete, physical locations within the bulge. As Leila stood in Shalouf’s main square in the dusk, absorbing the reports, the Aloof’s network was growing more solid, less ethereal, by the minute. The streets around her were erupting with signs of elation: polyglot shouts, chirps and buzzes, celebratory scents and vivid pigmentation changes. Bursts of luminescence spread across the square. Even the relentlessly sober heptapods had abandoned their food carts to lie on their backs, spinning with delight. Leila wheeled around, drinking it in, commanding her translator to punch the meaning of every disparate gesture and sound deep into her brain, unifying the kaleidoscope into a single emotional charge. As the stars of the bulge came out, Tassef offered an overlay for everyone to share, with the newly mapped routes shining like golden highways. From all around her, Leila picked up the signals of those who were joining the view: people of every civilisation, every species, every replicator were seeing the Aloof’s secret roads painted across the sky. Leila walked through the streets of Shalouf, feeling Jasim’s absence sharply, but too familiar with that pain to be overcome by it. If the joy of this moment was muted, every celebration would be blighted in the same way, now. She could not expect anything else. She would grow inured to it. Tassef spoke to her. “The citizens have reached a decision. They will grant your request.” “I’m grateful.” “There is a condition. The transmitter must be built at least twenty light-years away, either in interstellar space, or in the circumstellar region of an uninhabited system.” “I understand.” This way, in the event that the Aloof felt threatened to the point of provoking destructive retribution, Tassef would survive an act of violence, at least on a stellar scale, directed against the transmitter itself. “We advise you to prepare your final plans for the hardware, and submit them when you’re sure they will fulfil your purpose.” “Of course.” Leila went back to her room, and reviewed the plans she had already drafted. She had anticipated the Tassefi wanting a considerable safety margin, so she had worked out the energy budgets for detailed scenarios involving engineering spores and forty-seven different cometary clouds that fell within Tassef’s jurisdiction. It took just seconds to identify the best one that met the required conditions, and she lodged it without hesitation. Out on the streets, the Listening Party continued. For the billion pilgrims, this was enough: they would go home, return to their grandchildren, and die happy in the knowledge that they had finally seen something new in the world. Leila envied them; there’d been a time when that would have been enough for her, too. She left her room and rejoined the celebration, talking, laughing, dancing with strangers, letting herself grow giddy with the moment. When the sun came up, she made her way home, stepping lightly over the sleeping bodies that filled the street.
The engineering spores were the latest generation: strong bullets launched at close to lightspeed that shed their momentum by diving through the heart of a star, and then rebuilding themselves at atomic density as they decayed in the stellar atmosphere. In effect, the dying femtomachines constructed nanomachines bearing the same blueprints as they’d carried within themselves at nuclear densities, and which then continued out to the cometary cloud to replicate and commence the real work of mining raw materials and building the gamma ray transmitter. Leila contemplated following in their wake, sending herself as a signal to be picked up by the as-yet-unbuilt transmitter. It would not have been as big a gamble as Jasim’s with Trident; the strong bullets had already been used successfully this way in hundreds of similar stars. In the end, she chose to wait on Tassef for a signal that the transmitter had been successfully constructed, and had tested, aligned and calibrated itself. If she was going to march blindly into the bulge, it would be absurd to stumble and fall prematurely, before she even reached the precipice. When the day came, some ten thousand people gathered in the centre of Shalouf to bid the traveller a safe journey. Leila would have preferred to slip away quietly, but after all her lobbying she had surrendered her privacy, and the Tassefi seemed to feel that she owed them this last splash of colour and ceremony. Forty-six years after the Listening Party, most of the pilgrims had returned to their homes, but of the few hundred who had lingered in Shalouf nearly all had showed up for this curious footnote to the main event. Leila wasn’t sure that anyone here believed the Aloof’s network would do more than bounce her straight back into the disk, but the affection these well-wishers expressed seemed genuine. Someone had even gone to the trouble of digging up a phrase in the oldest known surviving language of her ancestral species: safar bekheyr, may your journey be blessed. They had written it across the sky in an ancient script that she’d last seen eighty thousand years before, and it had been spread among the crowd phonetically so that everyone she met could offer her this hopeful farewell as she passed. Tassef, the insentient delegate of all the planet’s citizens, addressed the crowd with some sombre ceremonial blather. Leila’s mind wandered, settling on the observation that she was probably partaking in a public execution. No matter. She had said goodbye to her friends and family long ago. When she stepped through the ceremonial gate, which had been smeared with a tarry mess that the Tassefi considered the height of beauty, she would close her eyes and recall her last night on Najib, letting the intervening millennia collapse into a dream. Everyone chose death in the end, and no one’s exit was perfect. Better to rely on your own flawed judgements, better to make your own ungainly mess of it, than live in the days when nature would simply take you at random. As Tassef fell silent, a familiar voice rose up from the crowd. “Are you still resolved to do this foolish thing?” Leila glared down at her husband. “Yes, I am.” “You won’t reconsider?” “No.” “Then I’m coming with you.” Jasim pushed his way through the startled audience, and climbed onto the stage. Leila spoke to him privately. “You’re embarrassing us both.” He replied the same way. “Don’t be petty. I know I’ve hurt you, but the blame lies with both of us.” “Why are you doing this? You’ve made your own wishes very plain.” “Do you think I can watch you walk into danger, and not walk beside you?” “You were ready to die if Trident failed. You were ready to leave me behind then.” “Once I spoke my mind on that you gave me no choice. You insisted.” He took her hand. “You know I only stayed away from you all this time because I hoped it would dissuade you. I failed. So now I’m here.” Leila’s heart softened. “You’re serious? You’ll come with me?” Jasim said, “Whatever they do to you, let them do it to us both.” Leila had no argument to make against this, no residue of anger, no false solicitousness. She had always wanted him beside her at the end, and she would not refuse him now. She spoke to Tassef. “One more passenger. Is that acceptable?” The energy budget allowed for a thousand years of test transmissions to follow in her wake; Jasim would just be a minor blip of extra data. “It’s acceptable.” Tassef proceeded to explain the change to the assembled crowd, and to the onlookers scattered across the planet. Jasim said, “We’ll interweave the data from both of us into a single packet. I don’t want to end up at Massa and find they’ve sent you to Jahnom by mistake.” “All right.” Leila arranged the necessary changes. None of the Eavesdroppers yet knew that they were coming, and no message sent the long way could warn them in time, but the data they sent into the bulge would be prefaced by instructions that anyone in the Amalgam would find clear and unambiguous, asking that their descriptions only be embodied if they were picked up at Massa. If they were found in other spillage along the way, they didn’t want to be embodied multiple times. And if they did not emerge at Massa at all, so be it. Tassef’s second speech came to an end. Leila looked down at the crowd one last time, and let her irritation with the whole bombastic ceremony dissipate into amusement. If she had been among the sane, she might easily have turned up herself to watch a couple of ancient fools try to step onto the imaginary road in the sky, and wish them safar bekheyr. She squeezed Jasim’s hand, and they walked towards the gate.
9
Leila’s fingers came together, her hand empty. She felt as if she was falling, but nothing in sight appeared to be moving. Then again, all she could see was a distant backdrop, its scale and proximity impossible to judge: thousands of fierce blue stars against the blackness of space. She looked around for Jasim, but she was utterly alone. She could see no vehicle or other machine that might have disgorged her into this emptiness. There was not even a planet below her, or a single brightest star to which she might be bound. Absurdly, she was breathing. Every other cue told her that she was drifting through vacuum, probably through interstellar space. Her lungs kept filling and emptying, though. The air, and her skin, felt neither hot nor cold. Someone or something had embodied her, or was running her as software. She was not on Massa, she was sure of that; she had never visited that world, but nowhere in the Amalgam would a guest be treated like this. Not even one who arrived unannounced in data spilling out from the bulge. Leila said, “Are you listening to me? Do you understand me?” She could hear her own voice, flat and without resonance. The acoustics made perfect sense in a vast, empty, windless place, if not an airless one. Anywhere in the Amalgam, you knew whether you were embodied or not; it was the nature of all bodies, real or virtual, that declarative knowledge of every detail was there for the asking. Here, when Leila tried to summon the same information, her mind remained blank. It was like the strange absence she’d felt on Trident, when she’d been cut off from the repositories of civilisation, but here the amputation had reached all the way inside her. She inhaled deeply, but there was no noticeable scent at all, not even the whiff of her own body odour that she would have expected, whether she was wearing her ancestral phenotype or any of the forms of ersatz flesh that she adopted when the environment demanded it. She pinched the skin of her forearm; it felt more like her original skin than any of the substitutes she’d ever worn. They might have fashioned this body out of something both remarkably lifelike and chemically inert, and placed her in a vast, transparent container of air, but she was beginning to pick up a strong stench of ersatz physics. Air and skin alike, she suspected, were made of bits, not atoms. So where was Jasim? Were they running him too, in a separate scape? She called out his name, trying not to make the exploratory cry sound plaintive. She understood all too well now why he’d tried so hard to keep her from this place, and why he’d been unable to face staying behind: the thought that the Aloof might be doing something unspeakable to his defenceless consciousness, in some place she couldn’t hope to reach or see, was like a white hot blade pressed to her heart. All she could do was try to shut off the panic and talk down the possibility. All right, he’s alone here, but so am I, and it’s not that bad. She would put her faith in symmetry; if they had not abused her, why would they have harmed Jasim? She forced herself to be calm. The Aloof had taken the trouble to grant her consciousness, but she couldn’t expect the level of amenity she was accustomed to. For a start, it would be perfectly reasonable if her hosts were unable or unwilling to plug her into any data source equivalent to the Amalgam’s libraries, and perhaps the absence of somatic knowledge was not much different. Rather than deliberately fooling her about her body, maybe they had looked at the relevant data channels and decided that anything they fed into them would be misleading. Understanding her transmitted description well enough to bring her to consciousness was one thing, but it didn’t guarantee that they knew how to translate the technical details of their instantiation of her into her own language. And if this ignorance-plus-honesty excuse was too sanguine to swallow, it wasn’t hard to think of the Aloof as being pathologically secretive without actually being malicious. If they wanted to keep quiet about the way they’d brought her to life lest it reveal something about themselves, that too was understandable. They need not be doing it for the sake of tormenting her. Leila surveyed the sky around her, and felt a jolt of recognition. She’d memorised the positions of the nearest stars to the target node where her transmission would first be sent, and now a matching pattern stood out against the background in a collection of distinctive constellations. She was being shown the sky from that node. This didn’t prove anything about her actual location, but the simplest explanation was that the Aloof had instantiated her here, rather than sending her on through the network. The stars were in the positions she’d predicted for her time of arrival, so if this was the reality, there had been little delay in choosing how to deal with the intruder. No thousand-year-long deliberations, no passing of the news to a distant decision-maker. Either the Aloof themselves were present here, or the machinery of the node was so sophisticated that they might as well have been. She could not have been woken by accident; it had to have been a deliberate act. It made her wonder if the Aloof had been expecting something like this for millennia. “What now?” she asked. Her hosts remained silent. “Toss me back to Tassef?” The probes with their reversed trajectories bore no record of their experience; perhaps the Aloof wouldn’t incorporate these new memories into her description before returning her. She spread her arms imploringly. “If you’re going to erase this memory, why not speak to me first? I’m in your hands completely, you can send me to the grave with your secrets. Why wake me at all, if you don’t want to talk?” In the silence that followed, Leila had no trouble imagining one answer: to study her. It was a mathematical certainty that some questions about her behaviour could never be answered simply by examining her static description; the only reliable way to predict what she’d do in any given scenario was to wake her and confront her with it. They might, of course, have chosen to wake her any number of times before, without granting her memories of the previous instantiations. She experienced a moment of sheer existential vertigo: this could be the thousandth, the billionth, in a vast series of experiments, as her captors permuted dozens of variables to catalogue her responses. The vertigo passed. Anything was possible, but she preferred to entertain more pleasant hypotheses. “I came here to talk,” she said. “I understand that you don’t want us sending in machinery, but there must be something we can discuss, something we can learn from each other. In the disk, every time two space-faring civilisations met, they found they had something in common. Some mutual interests, some mutual benefits.” At the sound of her own earnest speech dissipating into the virtual air around her, Leila started laughing. The arguments she’d been putting for centuries to Jasim, to her friends on Najib, to the Snakes on Nazdeek, seemed ridiculous now, embarrassing. How could she face the Aloof and claim that she had anything to offer them that they had not considered, and rejected, hundreds of thousands of years before? The Amalgam had never tried to keep its nature hidden. The Aloof would have watched them, studied them from afar, and consciously chosen isolation. To come here and list the advantages of contact as if they’d never crossed her hosts’ minds was simply insulting. Leila fell silent. If she had lost faith in her role as cultural envoy, at least she’d proved to her own satisfaction that there was something in here smarter than the sling-shot fence the probes had encountered. The Aloof had not embraced her, but the whole endeavour had not been in vain. To wake in the bulge, even to silence, was far more than she’d ever had the right to hope for. She said, “Please, just bring me my husband now, then we’ll leave you in peace.” This entreaty was met in the same way as all the others. Leila resisted speculating again about experimental variables. She did not believe that a million-year-old civilisation was interested in testing her tolerance to isolation, robbing her of her companion and seeing how long she took to attempt suicide. The Aloof did not take orders from her; fine. If she was neither an experimental subject to be robbed of her sanity, nor a valued guest whose every wish was granted, there had to be some other relationship between them that she had yet to fathom. She had to be conscious for a reason. She searched the sky for a hint of the node itself, or any other feature she might have missed, but she might as well have been living inside a star map, albeit one shorn of the usual annotations. The Milky Way, the plane of stars that bisected the sky, was hidden by the thicker clouds of gas and dust here, but Leila had her bearings; she knew which way led deeper into the bulge, and which way led back out to the disk. She contemplated Tassef’s distant sun with mixed emotions, as a sailor might look back on the last sight of land. As the yearning for that familiar place welled up, a cylinder of violet light appeared around her, encircling the direction of her gaze. For the first time, Leila felt her weightlessness interrupted: a gentle acceleration was carrying her forward along the imaginary beam. “No! Wait!” She closed her eyes and curled into a ball. The acceleration halted, and when she opened her eyes the tunnel of light was gone. She let herself float limply, paying no attention to anything in the sky, waiting to see what happened if she kept her mind free of any desire for travel. After an hour like this, the phenomenon had not recurred. Leila turned her gaze in the opposite direction, into the bulge. She cleared her mind of all timidity and nostalgia, and imagined the thrill of rushing deeper into this violent, spectacular, alien territory. At first there was no response from the scape, but then she focused her attention sharply in the direction of a second node, the one she’d hoped her transmission would be forwarded to from the first, on its way through the galactic core. The same violet light, the same motion. This time, Leila waited a few heartbeats longer before she broke the spell. Unless this was some pointlessly sadistic game, the Aloof were offering her a clear choice. She could return to Tassef, return to the Amalgam. She could announce that she’d put a toe in these mysterious waters, and lived to tell the tale. Or she could dive into the bulge, as deep as she’d ever imagined, and see where the network took her. “No promises?” she asked. “No guarantee I’ll come out the other side? No intimations of contact, to tempt me further?” She was thinking aloud, she did not expect answers. Her hosts, she was beginning to conclude, viewed strangers through the prism of a strong, but very sharply delineated, sense of obligation. They sent back the insentient probes to their owners, scrupulously intact. They had woken this intruder to give her the choice: did she really want to go where her transmission suggested, or had she wandered in here like a lost child who just needed to find the way home? They would do her no harm, and send her on no journey without her consent, but those were the limits of their duty of care. They did not owe her any account of themselves. She would get no greeting, no hospitality, no conversation. “What about Jasim? Will you give me a chance to consult with him?” She waited, picturing his face, willing his presence, hoping they might read her mind if her words were beyond them. If they could decode a yearning towards a point in the sky, surely this wish for companionship was not too difficult to comprehend? She tried variations, dwelling on the abstract structure of their intertwined data in the transmission, hoping this might clarify the object of her desire if his physical appearance meant nothing to them. She remained alone. The stars that surrounded her spelt out the only choices on offer. If she wanted to be with Jasim once more before she died, she had to make the same decision as he did. Symmetry demanded that he faced the same dilemma. How would he be thinking? He might be tempted to retreat back to the safety of Tassef, but he’d reconciled with her in Shalouf for the sole purpose of following her into danger. He would understand that she’d want to go deeper, would want to push all the way through to Massa, opening up the short-cut through the core, proving it safe for future travellers. Would he understand, too, that she’d feel a pang of guilt at this presumptuous line of thought, and that she’d contemplate making a sacrifice of her own? He had braved the unknown for her, and they had reaped the reward already: they had come closer to the Aloof than anyone in history. Why couldn’t that be enough? For all Leila knew, her hosts might not even wake her again before Massa. What would she be giving up if she turned back now? More to the point, what would Jasim expect of her? That she’d march on relentlessly, following her obsession to the end, or that she’d put her love for him first? The possibilities multiplied in an infinite regress. They knew each other as well as two people could, but they didn’t carry each other’s minds inside them. Leila drifted through the limbo of stars, wondering if Jasim had already made his decision. Having seen that the Aloof were not the torturers he’d feared, had he already set out for Tassef, satisfied that she faced no real peril at their hands? Or had he reasoned that their experience at this single node meant nothing? This was not the Amalgam, the culture could be a thousand times more fractured. This cycle of guesses and doubts led nowhere. If she tried to pursue it to the end she’d be paralysed. There were no guarantees; she could only choose the least worst case. If she returned to Tassef, only to find that Jasim had gone on alone through the bulge, it would be unbearable: she would have lost him for nothing. If that happened, she could try to follow him, returning to the bulge immediately, but she would already be centuries behind him. If she went on to Massa, and it was Jasim who retreated, at least she’d know that he’d ended up in safety. She’d know, too, that he had not been desperately afraid for her, that the Aloof’s benign indifference at this first node had been enough to persuade him that they’d do her no harm. That was her answer: she had to continue, all the way to Massa. With the hope, but no promise, that Jasim would have thought the same way. The decision made, she lingered in the scape. Not from any second thoughts, but from a reluctance to give up lightly the opportunity she’d fought so hard to attain. She didn’t know if any member of the Aloof was watching and listening to her, reading her thoughts, examining her desires. Perhaps they were so indifferent and incurious that they’d delegated everything to insentient software, and merely instructed their machines to baby-sit her while she made up her mind where she wanted to go. She still had to make one last attempt to reach them, or she would never die in peace. “Maybe you’re right,” she said. “Maybe you’ve watched us for the last million years, and seen that we have nothing to offer you. Maybe our technology is backwards, our philosophy naive, our customs bizarre, o |
Xach posted recently about Fighting blog spam with Common Lisp as a short example of using lisp to solve everyday programming problems. Here’s one I made last weekend.
The Problem:
My wife belly dances, and we frequently do some light video editing before posting things to youtube. One of the annoying chores is making title cards, usually white text on a black background that we put at the beginning and end of each video to state time, place, etc, and then fade in/out. An example:
Text should be large enough to fill the screen, centered, and all the same size. For awhile I made these in Gimp, then made them in HTML and took screenshots, and finally said screw it and wrote a small helper program. I don’t know how to use Gimp effectively, and jiggling font sizes in HTML is a pain. I’m sure there are better solutions, but it was faster (and more fun) for me to write some lisp.
The Solution:
To make title cards, I wrote a little program called “Titler”.
Like Xach’s project, I started with (quickproject:make-project "~/src/lisp/titler/" :depends-on '(vecto iterate))
From there I banged away at it for a little while, found some .ttf files on my system and got the basic generation done using vecto’s string drawing functions. The only tricky bit was to determine the optimal font size. Vecto provides a string-bounding-box function that will give you pixel dimensions for a given string at a given font size. I made a function that uses newton’s method to iteratively try different font size values until we get one that fits on the title card and takes up more than 75% of the width. I’m almost positive there are corner cases where my implementation won’t converge on a solution, but it works pretty well for now.
For the next video I can make easy titles:
(make-title "www.ShamblingShimmies.com May 26, 2011 Sun Center Gainesville, FL" 640 480)
Code is at https://github.com/ryepup/titler, and you can see the results (and my wife fire dancing) at http://youtu.be/Wicy0B7Ol5Q. |
Hey guys! I've made a change to the way attack-move works that will be going to PBE ~~tomorrow~~ start of the next PBE cycle. Please be aware that this is SUPER experimental and not something we're shipping right now. I really want to get your feels feedback and start tuning this to see if it's something we would want to keep. Currently if you attack move in this situation, the Annie closest to Vayne will be attacked. even though the cursor was clicked right next to (but not quite on top of) the other Annie: http://i.imgur.com/ni6jghj.png With this change, you will instead attack the unit closest to your cursor when clicking attack move, within specific constraints: 1. The enemy must be within 250 units of your cursor click 2. The enemy must be at least within 50 units of your max attack range (If the enemy is between your attack range and 50 units past your attack range, you will only "run backwards" to hit them if your cursor was within 50 units of the enemy out of the maximum 250 scan) Attack move will still work the same in any other case that doesn't meet the above two criteria. The idea is to capture your intent when it comes to attack moving. Were you actually trying to click that guy four pixels from your cursor who had two silver bolts on him? Instead of attacking that minion near your feet, you will actually attack what you intended. Here, Vayne is attacking the bot that is directly next to her cursor instead of the one closest to her. http://i.imgur.com/qBl82VM.png Here, Vayne is prioritizing the Annie that was closet to her attack move click instead of the minions directly in front of her (note that Annie was the closest thing at the time Vayne clicked, but she moved a bit before this screenshot was taken): http://i.imgur.com/qMh1F9T.png This is a pretty big change, and it's highly experimental. I want to try to tune it more to make playing ADC feel less clunky, so ADC mains especially please send feedback this way! I will be making a feedback post in PBE as well when the feature goes live to that environment.
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For the main chain in the United States only, see TJ Maxx
TK Maxx, often stylised as T·k·maxx, is a subsidiary of the American apparel and home goods company TJX Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts. It uses a slightly different name from that of the TJ Maxx stores in the United States, to avoid confusion with the British retailer T. J. Hughes. TK Maxx stores are operated throughout the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria and the Netherlands, totalling 515 stores in Europe (up from 407 in December 2014) and 35 in Australia in April 2017.[3]
History [ edit ]
TK Maxx and HomeSense joint store in the MetroCentre , Gateshead
In 1976, T.J. Maxx was founded in Framingham, Massachusetts, United States, by Bernard Cammarata. The first British store opened in Bristol in 1994.[4] The company modified the name to TK Maxx to avoid confusion with the established British retail chain T. J. Hughes (which is not affiliated with TJX).[5]
In 2007, TK Maxx began winding down new store openings within the United Kingdom. Focus was given to revamping older inner city stores, or relocating them. This decision led to the creation of Maxx Maxx, moving from a budget reputation into a large department store format with a wider product range.[citation needed]
Opening of stores in the Netherlands between 1999 and 2001 was not as successful as the company wished.[citation needed] The first store in Germany opened on October 4, 2007, in Lübeck.[6]
In August 2008, TK Maxx opened a store on Kensington High Street, London, England, its first central London store, on a site formerly occupied by Habitat.[7] In the following year, TK Maxx became locked in a dispute over its plans to open a store at Piccadilly Circus, London. It had signed an agreement in February 2009 to occupy a 20,000-square-foot (1,858 m2) unit, formerly used by Virgin Megastores and later Zavvi, with a £1.55 million a year rent.[8]
The freehold to the land is owned by the Crown Estate which had the final decision over allowing the company to move into the unit. The Crown Estate rejected the plans, saying that it did not fit in with the strategy it had for the site, which was meant to give the area an upmarket appeal.[9]
The decision was met with condemnation from publicist Max Clifford, who launched a campaign in conjunction with Look to persuade the Crown Estate to allow the store to open in the unit.[10] A court appeal by TK Maxx against the decision failed;[11] Dutch retailer The Sting took the building as their first store in the United Kingdom.[12]
In March 2009, the TK Maxx e-commerce site was launched, initially selling only handbags, but later also selling other accessories.[13]
In October 2015, the first Dutch store opened in Eindhoven. Followed by two more stores in Groningen and Rotterdam. In 2017, the brand was launched in Australia when it took over the 35 Trade Secret discount department stores. The stores opened in April in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne with stores in Cairns, Townsville, Toowoomba, Newcastle, Wollongong, Canberra, Albury, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast by the end of May.[14]
In November 2018, a mass brawl between hostile extended families took place in Osnabrück.[15]
Charity work [ edit ]
In June 2007, TK Maxx was an active participant of UK Comic Relief, having been the sole retailer of the Red Nose Day T-shirts which generated £2 million for the Comic Relief cause.[16] In June 2009, TK Maxx was again the sole retailer of the Red Nose Day T-shirts, with exclusive designs by Stella McCartney, raising a total of £3,200,589.[17]
TK Maxx also worked with the Woodland Trust by starting to charge for plastic carrier bags in August 2008 and donating the proceeds to the Trust. The proceeds allowed the Woodland Trust to plant 30,000 new trees on a 15 acres (60,703 m2) site near Elmstead Market, Essex. The usage of carrier bags from TK Maxx dropped by 73% since the scheme was launched. At the time, shops usually provided free carrier bags; since 2015 a charge, usually donated to charity, is required by law throughout the United Kingdom. Since 2004 TK Maxx has held a Christmas card recycling scheme in conjunction with the Trust.[18]
TK Maxx also runs a 'Give Up Clothes For Good' campaign, where customers are encouraged to bring in unwanted clothes for Cancer Research UK.[19][20]
In Ireland, TK Maxx actively supports Enable Ireland, a charity which helps provide free services to children with disabilities.[21] |
Representatives from Oman, Qatar and Yemen met with a minister from the Israeli Prime minister's office Member of Knesset Ayoob Kara and the Israeli ambassador on Wednesday night in Ecuador in order to discuss developments in US President Donald Trump's upcoming peace initiative to jump-start stalled talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
The meeting was, for the first time, made public and displayed a willingness from all parties to advance peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.
Minister Kara spoke with the presidents of Guatemala, Ecuador and Paraguay and asked them to join with Israel in order to combat the global threat of terror.
The minister added that President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are aligned on every step of the new peace initiative in the Middle East and there has been progress made on the topic. |
Detroit police believe they may have thwarted a robbery Wednesday as a result of Project Green Light, which allows officers to tap into high-definition video surveillance cameras at businesses.
A citizen called 911 at about 1:30 p.m. Monday to report seeing a man with a gun outside the Sunoco gas station at 7 Mile and Hoover, Assistant Police Chief Steve Dolunt said.
With the gas station participating in the Green Light program, officers in the Real-Time Crime Center watched the live video feed which showed the driver of a car parked at a pump.
“You could see everything clear as day,” Dolunt said. “You see one guy hand another guy a gun, and he slips the gun into his U of M shorts and walks into the gas station.”
A squad car was dispatched, and the man was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon.
Gas station employee Tom Harper said the incident happened quickly.
“I don’t really know what happened,” said Harper, who said he didn’t call police. “All I know is, the cops showed up and pulled their guns on the guy, and then they arrested him.”
The arrest is at least the second since Green Light started in which an alleged criminal was nabbed using the high-definition video. In March, a woman was shown on video shooting a man inside a car in a Mobil station in the 15500 block of Fenkell on Detroit’s west side.
The woman, identified by police and prosecutors as Shamicah Burton, 20, was charged with two counts of assault with intent to murder, carrying with unlawful intent, carrying a concealed weapon and felony firearm. She has a pretrail hearing Thursday.
Mayor Mike Duggan announced Green Light in January, with eight participating businesses. Since then, the number of businesses equipped with the $6,000 video systems has grown to 25. Fourteen gas stations, four McDonald’s restaurants, six stores and one bar participate.
The program was started in an effort quell rampant violence at gas stations and party stores. City officials, when launching Green Light, said about a quarter of all violent crimes in the city in the first half of 2015 happened within 500 feet of a gas station.
“This real-time crime-fighting is amazing,” Dolunt said. “It’s nice to be able to see crimes as they’re happening, and with the high-definition video, you can see everything so clearly. (In Wednesday’s incident), you could clearly see where the guy had stashed his gun. That’s valuable information for an officer to have.”
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Streaming on Netflix is a scifi romance with very deep philosophical roots. TiMER is about what would happen if a piece of technology could tell you when you would meet your soulmate.
The premise of TiMER is simple. It's set in our own world, but with a twist. In the mid-to-late nineties, someone came up with an invention that, when implanted in a person's wrist, could count down the days until they met their soul mate. The invention only worked if the soulmate also had a timer - if they didn't, the timer remained blank until they got one - but it was so quickly adopted by such a large part of the population that the point became mostly moot.
I had to watch until the end to know if I liked TiMER. Most of the way through, I was too nervous to enjoy it. It's not that the movie is scary: The genre is. TiMER is a romantic comedy at heart, and romantic comedy is a slippery genre that often sells itself short. It sets up a tricky situation, something that will keep the lovers apart, something that's clever and deep, but too frequently it throws its main point away with an airy, 'love conquers all!'
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By the end of TiMER, I knew that I admired it. Its premise would have been easy to throw out the window, but it set up its universe and stuck by it. The movie honored its own rules, and so it ended up being honorable.
Here are the rules of the movie:
1. The timer is never wrong. No malfunctions. No oopses. The person you're looking at when the timer gives off its little alarm is The One.
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2. The timer does not change. You can't have a deep personal epiphany and have your timer cut a year off your sentence. You can't spontaneously hop a boat to Fiji and have the timer re-set.
For the most part, knowing things ahead of time is a blessing. At least you can prepare. I know that if I were in that world I'd get a timer. And the world at large seems pretty happy with the timers. The divorce rate has plummeted. Painfully impossible longing has been minimized. The older generations have confirmation of their wise marriages (if you've met before, timers just count down to your next meeting), or solid reasons to give up on marriages they suspect aren't working. The younger generations can plan out their lives with a little more information.
The movie centers on a timered family that isn't as lucky as the rest. Timer implantation is legal at age fourteen. The parents believe in timers because theirs got them together after difficult previous marriages.
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The children are not as enthusiastic. One daughter in her late twenties has been watching her timer count down for fourteen years and knows that she'll be watching it count down for another fourteen years. The son has just been implanted with a timer, and finds out he'll meet the girl he's destined to be with in three days. When he does his parents invite her parents over for dinner, because they consider her part of the family already. The third daughter, Oona, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Anya, has had a perpetually blank timer for the last fifteen years. She's spent a decade getting un-timered guys to get implanted, only to find out that they're not her soul mate and have the relationship dissolve on the spot.
Of course in reality, there are a hundred ways to circumvent this. There would be a site called matchmytimer.com up so fast that your head would spin. But that's not how it works. The idea of a love timer is not about technology. It's about knowing your fate, and how that can really screw things up. And that goes way, way back, and way, way forward.
Everyone knows how well the characters in Oedipus managed to sidestep their fate. Greek myths, folk tales, Shakespeare and Disney movies all found ways to show how trying to pull away from destiny is like trying to get out of a hole with a shovel. Be as aggressive as you like, you're only going deeper.
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Science fiction also has characters succumb to their destiny rather than overcome it, but it takes a different tack. Science fiction characters mostly get what they want out of their destinies, but only when those destinies don't really matter to them anymore. Sure, Luke and Anakin were going to overcome the dark side of the force. Anakin only managed it after doing pretty much all the damage he could do. Luke only managed it after connecting with his father became more important to him than victory. Yes, Paul Atreides became the Kwizatz Haderach, but how much good did that do him? And in The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K Le Guin, Genly Ai did get the planet Gethen to join the Ekumen federation, as prophesized by a spiritual religious sect, but only after he lost all emotional ties to that federation. In science fiction, you get what's coming to you only after you've been through so much that you stop wanting it.
TiMER is contemporary science fiction. Despite its unbelievable premise, it does a fair bit of world-building. The TiMER store looks disturbingly like a cross between a T-Mobile and Apple store. There are parties set around timers zeroing out. There are groups of people who live their lives like a perpetual mardi gras as their time to be free and single runs out, and people who believe that if you know your One is out there, having sex with someone else is like pre-cheating. It splits the difference between plot contrivance and reality.
And it splits the difference between ancient tragedy and post-modern prophecy. It maintains the strict rules of Greek tragedy: you can't dodge destiny. At the same time, it mixes in a little philosophy in with its strictness. You can love and be loved by someone who isn't your soul mate. You can build a happy life with someone who you know you're not going to be with in one year's time or in ten year's time. You can settle for someone who's not the perfect fit because you love them more than the person coming up who will be the perfect fit. Timer even does the impossible, suggesting that you, your friends, and your soul mate would all be much happier - short or long term - if you passed them by in a crowded room instead of zeroing out with them.
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TiMER has shortcomings, but in the end it's a very smart movie. Ignorance can be bliss. So can knowledge. Neither one has to crush you. |
It's been years since I played a Rollercoaster Tycoon game, but thinking back to it brings forth foggy memories of a challenging yet enormously enjoyable juggling act. It was a series that asked you to balance the value of an amusement park in both business and entertainment terms.
You had to build rides that were scary enough to raise pulses without triggering gag reflexes, and adjust the prices of goods to ensure punters didn't feel ripped off while still turning a profit. The layout was important, too - it was unwise to place food stalls near the exit of a corkscrewing coaster, but charging people a fortune to use the toilet afterwards was a guaranteed money-spinner. You couldn't just slap down attractions haphazardly - you needed to build practical routes to enable people to queue efficiently and get around without any trouble. Building the theme park of your dreams, in other words, required a good deal of thought.
There's no need to think about any of the decisions you make in Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile - not least because most of them have already been made for you. You're not a tycoon but a lapdog, following instructions that are usually accompanied by large pulsing arrows telling you exactly where to tap. You'll name your park, add a few attractions and facilities, build a basic wooden rollercoaster, and then the game grips your hand a little less tightly and you're left with three nominal goals - build this facility, plant some trees, lay some pathways, and so on.
Complete any of these goals and you're given some experience points, some cash and a pat on the back. It doesn't matter that your customers have to walk across a large field to reach the entrance to your rollercoaster or that your balloon stand is positioned immediately behind your 'welcome' sign, because both will attract foot traffic regardless.
New goals arrive to replace the old ones. Look, now it's time to build a gift shop. Where? Doesn't matter. You're doing a great job. Tap here to put it down. No, you don't need to build a path to it - after all, paths are now classed as 'decorations'. They have no function, they are merely a cosmetic concern. Isn't that great? Claim your reward. Well done! You pressed your finger against an icon with a big arrow saying 'touch here'. You are excellent! Everything is awesome! Everything is cool when you're tapping the screen!
This burger-arranging mini-game is rubbish, yet it's comfortably the best thing about Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile
You're living the dream - except it's a waking nightmare. But this insidious language of positive reinforcement constantly tries to convince you you're having a good time. It's a psychological trick - not even a very good one, and certainly not subtle - to lure the easily pleased into feeling like they've achieved something. And all you're doing is following instructions a lobotomised sloth could comfortably keep up with.
I log in on the third day of playing and find my park's 'buzz' rating has been boosted by 18%. Wow! I must be doing something right, I think. No. I got it for nothing more than checking in on my park. My customers are more engaged not because I've made any smart decisions, but because I turned the game on. One tap and everyone's happy.
This isn't an uncommon tactic, of course; indeed, it's one employed by plenty of free-to-play games. Except Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile isn't free-to-play. It costs £1.99. That £1.99 gets you roughly 45 minutes' worth of cash and tickets (the game's twin currencies, because you can harpoon whales more effectively when you attack from two angles, right?) before they run out, at which point the waiting game begins.
First it's a few minutes for a facility to be built, then it's half an hour for a new ride. Then it's an hour, five hours, 11 hours, and the number of tickets required to speed up the construction increases in steadily larger increments, like a Fibonacci sequence invented by a total prick. Expand your boundaries, you're instructed. Except with each 'for sale' sign you tap, you have to pay more. Within minutes, you're paying three times the cost for the same area of land.
I discovered this when one of my goals was to build a new steel rollercoaster to join my two wooden ones. I decided to take a look at the prefab models, for reasons that will soon become abundantly clear. I picked a monster called Black Mamba having freed up a bit of land in advance. It was too big, of course, but I was still shocked to discover that I'd have to pay for eight new plots to fit it in, at a cost approaching the price of the ride itself.
It's time to build a gift shop. Where? Doesn't matter. You're doing a great job. Tap here to put it down. Isn't that great? Claim your reward. Well done! You are excellent!
The graphics are tolerably mediocre, I suppose, though if you've got 10 attractions or more, the engine will labour to render them all.
So I opted instead to pay for a 4D cinema - a snip at 57,400 coins, or the equivalent of 574 taps of my ice cream stand, which at the time was earning 50 coins per minute with a maximum yield of 100. Yet with a potential revenue of 9840 coins per hour, assuming I was to touch all the coin icons to refresh the various amenities as soon as they appeared, I worked out it would take between five and six hours of waiting, watching and occasionally tapping before I could afford my sci-fi picture house. Not factoring in the build time, of course.
I soon began to sympathise with the builders, however, because manually constructing a rollercoaster is an equally tedious and long-winded process. In theory, a touchscreen should be ideal for this sort of thing, but instead of drawing a track and then adjusting heights and angles, it has to be done piecemeal. It's alarmingly limited, to. Sometimes you'll want to raise or lower a piece and the game inexplicably won't let you - perhaps because the ride would be too exciting, and your customers would be too happy too soon, boosting your earning power before you'd had chance to spend real money trying to hurry things along.
As I was close to finishing construction on my second coaster, I grew bored of trying to defy these bizarre restrictions and fashion a more outlandish design, and opted to use the 'auto complete' option so that the game could bring my misery to a swift end. Every time I tried, it would think about it but tell me to bring the start and finish closer together. This continued until the track was a single square away from the entrance. Still the game couldn't figure out a way to connect the two.
It's far from the only technical issue. There's no option to change the camera angle and no way to adjust the transparency of anything - so good luck if you were planning on building something behind your rollercoaster. At one point I located an errant piece of stone pathway only when a building inexplicably disappeared from view for a few seconds. This fairy house I've just added must be magic, I thought. But then it happened to a burger joint and my octopus ride. And my toilets, my hotel, my gift shop and my coffee stand.
I haven't even mentioned the music. It's irredeemably bad, with offensively simplistic melodies looping incessantly to maddening effect.
Price and availability iOS: £1.99
There's no consistency to any of it, from the interface to the internal logic. I inadvertently turned my ice cream parlour into a hot dog stand while swiping to browse a menu, yet I had to confirm that yes, I really did want to get rid of that lone tree sitting in the middle of an otherwise empty square where I was planning to put a new attraction. At one point, I tapped on a speech bubble to see what one of my customers was thinking. "I wish they had a chain carousel ride," he said, as he walked past my chain carousel ride. Later, I realised there was no way anyone could reach the entrance to my second coaster without crossing the track. It wasn't long before queues were forming outside and it became my highest-rated ride.
And then there's the now-mandatory Facebook integration. I resisted the temptation at first, even with all the wheedling encouragement, but eventually relented for the sake of the review, not least because soon I was being nagged by a new goal. "It pays to be social," it claimed, and it evidently did - I earned a hefty wodge of cash and 15 tickets, the game promising it would only need to access my friends list and my profile in return. That was a lie, as I found out when I completed a hot dog stand, and I was suddenly whisked out of the game and into the Facebook app. "Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile would like to post publicly to Facebook for you." I opted to skip the game's offer to fill my feed with its nonsense. It didn't seem to take the hint, dragging me back when I completed another ride.
Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile's problems are pervasive, but most of them stem from a fundamental - perhaps wilful - misunderstanding of what made Rollercoaster Tycoon great in the first place. Rather than empowering you to build the park of your dreams, instead it invites you to clutter the place up with bonsai bushes and lampposts, without for a minute considering that you might not want to. Freedom comes eventually, as you level up and gain access to more rides and facilities, but at what cost? You either spend hours upon hours gaining hollow praise for your obedience or spend real money on virtual resources. And surely no amount of positive reinforcement can compensate for the steady deterioration of your soul.
About the only thing I can say in favour of Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile is that it accurately captures the experience of visiting a theme park: it costs too much to get in, the stalls are all overpriced, you have to wait ages for all the rides and the whole experience will leave you feeling decidedly nauseous. |
This article was originally written for teleSUR English.
As the Greek debt drama finally comes to a head these weeks, with the Syriza-led government quietly warning the U.S. Treasury Secretary and the chief of the International Monetary Fund that its cash reserves are now all but empty and that the government will not be paying the Fund if it does not receive an infusion of new cash before early June, a critical question arises: why do the radical leftists not simply get it over with and declare a moratorium on the outstanding debt? Why do they care about their creditors in the first place?
The question may sound trite, but it becomes increasingly perplexing once we place Greece’s never-ending debt crisis in historical perspective. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Greece — along with most Eastern and Southern European countries and practically all of Latin America — responded to its fiscal troubles by forcefully suspending debt payments to foreign bondholders. Economic history is replete with such unilateral moratoriums. In fact, before World War II, default was simply part of the rules of the game.
A remarkable contrast
Take the first wave of sovereign defaults following the independence struggles of the Latin American countries in the 1820s. Between 1822 and 1825, London and Amsterdam-based financiers — blinded by the prospect of easy profits — gobbled up Latin American government bonds like hotcakes. Some European investors were even deceived by a legendary swindler into buying the bonds of the non-existent newly independent nation of Poyais. In those years, financial euphoria (and investor myopia) reigned supreme.
The lenders’ fall was swift and painful. Lured by cheap credit, the young Latin American debtors massively over-borrowed, while the European creditors wildly overextended themselves. After the wars were over, nearly every newly independent government fell into default. As one of the leading historians of the episode noted, “during a quarter of a century most of the borrowing countries maintained an effective moratorium on their external debts, which indicated an appreciable degree of economic autonomy from the great powers of the day.”
It is not difficult to understand why the Latin American governments would have wanted to exert this autonomy to full effect. Economists have found that countries that defaulted in the 1930s, for instance, recovered faster than those that did not. The countries that repaid their debts were forced to carry out contractionary policies (i.e., austerity measures) in order to free up the currency reserves with which to pay their debts. Transferring these scarce resources abroad directly contributed to a deepening of the crisis.
Why, then, would Greece not simply go down the same path today? The country has spent about a half of its history in a formal state of default. It defaulted on its first independence war loans in the 1830s, along with the Latin American countries. It defaulted again in 1843, in 1860 and in 1893. After the latter episode, German bondholders demanded international control over Greek finances — which they obtained with the establishment of the International Committee for Greek Debt Management following the Greco-Turkish war of 1897. Still, Greece managed to default again during the 1930s. None of these defaults occurred under radical governments.
Yet today, even under an anti-austerity government led by the radical left Syriza party, whose ranks contain an array of old-school Marxists, Greece has been scrupulously obedient to the dictates of its foreign creditors, at least when it comes to repaying the debt. This is all the more remarkable because, in a previous election campaign just three years ago, the same party still pledged to unilaterally suspend debt payments and to hold an audit of the national debt with a view to repudiating all illegal and illegitimate obligations. While the Speaker of Parliament, Zoe Konstantopoulou, has since called into life such an audit committee, Prime Minister Tsipras has sworn not to take unilateral action.
So what’s really going on here…? If less radical governments defaulted one after another in previous eras, why does Europe’s most left-wing government in recent memory not simply do the same?
Structural changes in capitalism
The short answer is that the world has changed in dramatic ways since the mid-1970s. The kind of capitalism we have today is not like the capitalism of yore. It is not like the Keynesian compromise that reigned during the post-war decades and that formed the bedrock of the Bretton Woods regime, when debt crises were practically non-existent. Nor is it like the laissez-faire liberalism of the so-called “first wave of globalization” in the classical gold standard era (1880-1914), when default was still widespread.
Unlike previous eras, today’s capitalism has been thoroughly financialized. This, in turn, has had major consequences not only for the dominance of finance within the overall regime of accumulation; it has also affected the nature of the capitalist state and its relationship to private creditors. To summarize a long and complicated story, we can identify at least three structural changes that have been seminal in shifting the loyalty of governments away from their domestic populations and towards international lenders and domestic elites.
First, the growing concentration of financial markets has rendered peripheral countries increasingly dependent on an ever-smaller subgroup of systemically important and politically influential international banks and institutional investors. Second, a host of international financial institutions have been created, most importantly the IMF and the ECB, which can jump in whenever a debtor is in distress to provide emergency “bailout” loans (under strict policy conditionality) so the debts can be repaid. Third, financialization has contributed to the entrenchment of what David Harvey calls the state-finance nexus, to the point where national governments and economies have become increasingly dependent on central banks and on domestic private banking systems just to survive. As a result, bankers have obtained vast leverage over economic policy, even when they (or their friends) are not in government themselves.
These three changes have been foundational to the generalized move away from widespread default, as was the norm prior to World War II, and towards the incredible track record of debtor compliance that has been established under the neoliberal regime of financialization. Ever since the Mexican debt crisis of 1982 — and the Latin American and Third World debt crises that followed in its wake — governments have generally tried to avoid a suspension of payments at all costs. As Harvey has put it:
“What the Mexico case demonstrated was one key difference between liberalism and neoliberalism: under the former lenders take the losses that arise from bad investment decisions while under the latter the borrowers are forced by state and international powers to take on board the cost of debt repayment no matter what the consequences for the livelihood and well-being of the local population.”
Of course there have been exceptions. Russia defaulted in 1998, although the fallout was limited mostly to domestic creditors and a rogue speculative hedge fund in the US. The Argentine crisis briefly punctuated the aura of neoliberal invincibility in late 2001, but as I have argued in a previous column, a closer look reveals that the country’s default was in fact triggered by deliberate actions on the part of the Wall Street-IMF-Treasury complex. This leaves Ecuador as the only country to have imposed a unilateral default in recent decades — but even Ecuador did not do so in the outright fashion of the 1930s.
The structural power of creditors
By and large, it is therefore safe to say that the overarching rule governing international finance today is that countries will repay even under the harshest of conditions, and will rarely — if ever — default on their external obligations. This has led to a bizarre situation in which Yanis Varoufakis, the fervid Greek finance minister, has pledged to “repay private creditors to the last penny,” even promising to “squeeze blood out of a stone” to repay the IMF. These statements are patently absurd, as it was Varoufakis himself who, prior to taking office, claimed that the debt cannot be paid and argued that Greece should have “stuck the finger” to Germany and defaulted a long time ago.
Still, it should be clear by now that Syriza’s backtracking and Varoufakis’ wavering statements on whether or not the debt can and should be repaid are not the result of some personal disloyalty to the cause, nor of some grand scheme of betrayal playing out between Syriza and its supporters. Instead, what has happened is that the Greek government has run headlong into the structural power of its official creditors, and the party’s leadership does not have the guts to confront it by pursuing a rupture. The power of Greece’s creditors revolves around the fact that the IMF, the ECB and the Eurogroup, which now collectively hold about 80 percent of the country’s debt, are the only ones capable of providing the Syriza-led government with what it so urgently needs: cash.
In the end, all capitalist states stand or fall by the soundness of their finances. What matters to a government in charge of such a state is whether it can pay public sector wages and pensions — and, ultimately, police and the army. What matters, in addition, is that credit keeps circulating through the domestic economy and that cash keeps coming out of ATMs when people withdraw funds from their accounts. If, within this complex system of credit circulation, there is a sudden hiccup or a systemic blockage — if the state can no longer pay its employees, or if the banks are forced to close doors and private businesses can no longer obtain trade credit — the whole system literally grinds to a halt.
The results of such an economic freeze-up, history tells us, are usually not very pretty for those in power. Argentina’s implosion following its record default in December 2001 is a case in point. Similar revolts took place during financial crises in early-modern Europe, like when the wool carders of Florence rose up in the Ciompi revolt of 1378, or when the working classes and bourgeoisie of Paris rose up against Louis XIV during the public debt crisis in 18th-century France. Just a few days ago, a Bank of Greece official ominously warned that a bank closure might have similar consequences in Greece today: “We would see the revolt that this crisis has not yet produced. There would be blood in the streets.”
Spillover costs of default
In the past, defaulting governments were able to avoid such domestic “spillover costs” by defaulting only on foreign lenders. In the process, the burden of adjustment was effectively shifted onto private bondholders in the creditor countries, and scarce resources could be reinvested domestically in order to dampen the social consequences of the crisis and hasten the recovery. But in the complex and highly intertwined financial markets of our day and age, such discrimination between externally and domestically held debt is no longer possible. Default on one becomes default on all.
The result is to make a suspension of payments very costly in the short term. In addition to the oft-repeated “calamity” of being forced out of the Eurozone, the spillover effects of default would extend all the way down into the domestic economy and would ripple out into the social fabric, threatening political stability. No democratically elected government — let alone a leftist one — would like to take responsibility for triggering (let alone putting down) a popular revolt over disappeared pensions and wages.
The flip-side of the story, of course, is that such spillover costs generally turn out to be relatively short-lived, and may therefore end up paying off over time — if the government is prepared for the shock and manages to hold onto power, that is. Aided by good external conditions, Argentina’s recovery began after 6 months. Greece’s conditions may be less rosy, but there is nevertheless reason to believe that unilateral default followed by a break with the euro would lead to recovery within months. Obviously, the government would need to have a well thought-out Plan B that would allow it to bridge the difficult transition period.
This is why some of Syriza’s more radical factions are now urging the government to take this gamble and pursue a rupture with the creditors. The party’s moderate and euro-friendly leadership, however, does not appear to be willing to do so. While the divide between the two camps can partly be ascribed to ideological differences within Syriza and the fear of being punished by voters for crashing out of the Eurozone, it should be clear that the predominance of creditor-friendly solutions to international debt crises cannot be ascribed purely to a lack of “political willingness” on the part of government officials. The spillover costs of default structurally limit the room for maneuver of heavily indebted peripheral states, compelling them to repay no matter who is in charge of the government and no matter how radical their ideas may be.
These limiting factors are related to the three structural changes mentioned before. In the case of Greece, the country remains dependent on foreign sources of credit — at least in the short-term — to pay pensions and wages. Since private investors have long since stopped buying Greek debt, the only ones capable of furnishing the Greek government with much-needed cash are the Eurogroup and the IMF. Both are currently withholding promised credit tranches and refusing to extend further loans unless the Syriza government surrenders to the creditors’ dictates by effectively renouncing the anti-austerity and anti-reform platform on which it was elected.
Meanwhile, the Greek state and economy remain dependent on the functioning of the domestic credit system, which is currently kept alive with drip-feed infusions of emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) from the European Central Bank. The ECB sets the ceiling for the total amount of ELA that Greek banks are entitled to, raising this amount only marginally every two weeks. This is clearly a deliberate attempt to starve the Greek economy of liquidity and thereby put pressure on the government to surrender.
Unsurprisingly, in such a context of growing financial insecurity, ordinary Greeks fear that the government may soon impose capital controls to prevent a banking collapse, so they have begun to withdraw their bank deposits in droves: more than 35 billion has been withdrawn since December. If these trends continue, the banks may have to shut their doors within three weeks. The consequences for the Greek economy would be immediate. Without ECB help, the government would be forced to come to the rescue of the banking system with an infusion of liquidity — thus forcing it to print a new currency.
At the edge of a cliff
So for all the obvious drama, there is a grave irony in all of this. The structural power of creditors in today’s heavily financialized world economy may have succeeded in preventing the vast majority of borrowing countries from pursuing unilateral default in response to a sovereign crises; but in the case of Greece the extreme stance of the creditors, in their dogged insistence on full repayment and a complete surrender of Syriza’s radicals, is threatening to produce precisely that which it is supposed to prevent: a disorderly unilateral default.
The Eurogroup seems blind to the fact that Tsipras and Varoufakis are probably the creditors’ most reliable allies in Greece today. Both are moderate reformists with widespread popular support who are actually willing to repay, even if they know they cannot. By forcing Syriza’s relatively cooperative leadership into a humiliating cash-for-reforms deal, the creditors may actually end up strengthening the hand of the pro-default radicals inside the government. Alternatively, if they refuse to sign a deal and continue to deprive the Greek government of the emergency credit on which it depends to service its maturing obligations, they may simply make default unstoppable.
This shows that even the most watertight regimes of financial control may end up backfiring into the faces of those who run them — and while there is no way to predict that this will actually happen in Greece, the creditors clearly cannot rest on their laurels just yet. Yes, unilateral default has been largely banished from the global political economy in recent decades. And yes, national governments have long since been shackled to their creditors in an all-encompassing system of hyper-financialized capitalism. But none of this provides any guarantees that Greece’s banking system will survive long enough and its cash reserves will be replenished in time for the government to be able to pay the 1.5 billion euros falling due to the IMF over the course of June.
Standing at the edge of a cliff and confronted with such a deeply entrenched and extremely asymmetric balance of power, we should not be surprised that a young and ill-prepared government like Greece’s is hesitant to jump voluntarily. Still, no one can predict how they will react when they are pushed. Maybe it’s time to give them a little nudge from below? |
STANFORD, Calif. -- An improving Cardinal defense stole the spring game spotlight, posting a 23-7 victory that should earn the unit some extra luxuries during offseason conditioning. Here are some observations from a sunny Bay Area Saturday afternoon:
1. The defense enjoyed a productive spring: The state of Stanford's defense worried many at the onset of spring practice. For the second straight offseason, coordinator Lance Anderson has been tasked with rebuilding a big chunk of the unit, and his job is more daunting this time around because fresh faces populate the entire defensive line.
Kevin Hogan was able to form a connection with tight end Austin Hooper, but Stanford's defense dominated the spring game for the most part. Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports
Stanford's defense, though not airtight, was fluid and powerful during its victory in the spring game. That marked a significant departure from the shakiness that plagued it about six weeks ago, when a paper-thin defensive line labored through practices.
The ingredients for an unstable situation were still present Saturday -- injuries to Ronnie Harris and Kevin Anderson meant that only one 2014 starter, Blake Martinez, participated -- but that didn't seem to matter. Solomon Thomas and Harrison Phillips both continued to muscle up along the front. Martinez cleaned up with 11 tackles. Outside linebacker Joey Alfieri, finally feeling 100 percent healthy after fracturing his fibula in high school, emerged as a hard hitter. Young cornerback Alijah Holder made a name for himself with consistent play in the secondary alongside veteran safeties Kodi Whitfield and Dallas Lloyd, the owner of Stanford's one interception off a Martinez tip.
So, after a relatively brief hiatus, the Cardinal's once-elite defense looks like it's back on the path to effectiveness. When Anderson, Harris, and presumably even Zach Hoffpauir (an MLB draft candidate) return to action, this unit should be even stronger. It certainly looks like Lance Anderson is in the middle of yet another impressive rebuilding effort.
2. The kicking and punting games remain question marks: Following the game, David Shaw was quick to point out that Stanford's offense should have scored more than seven points, but three missed Conrad Ukropina field goals prevented them from doing that (the defense, which earned points for stops, scored instead). Punter Alex Robinson also struggled, and special teams remain a definite point of worry following the departures of Jordan Williamson and Ben Rhyne.
Touted punter/kicker Jake Bailey is part of the incoming freshman class that'll be arriving on campus this summer, and Shaw confirmed that he'll compete to start at both kicker and punter. The Cardinal likely don't want to wear out Bailey's leg by forcing him to kick and punt come this fall, so Ukropina and Robinson will be counted on to improve their spring game performances. Shaw did note that the kicking game had been solid up until Saturday, when Stanford practiced inside the stadium for the first time.
3. The rapid improvement of Phillips and Thomas is real: Both young defensive linemen weigh over 270 now -- Thomas told me that he's packed on about 31 pounds of functional weight since he arrived on campus as a freshman -- and both threw around their newfound strength effectively on Saturday. The duo combined for 10 tackles, a pair of sacks, 2.5 tackles for loss, and a host of other disruptions. When it comes to the improvement of these two players, sports performance director Shannon Turley and line coach Randy Hart are really standing out: Stanford is seeing the successors to Henry Anderson and David Parry develop right in front of their eyes.
4. Hogan to Hooper brings a sense of déjà vu: Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan enjoyed an efficient spring thanks in large part to the re-emergence of the Cardinal's tight end position. The focus of Hogan's passes didn't change during Saturday's finale: He finished 13-for-19 for 187 yards, and 103 of those yards went to tight end Austin Hooper. The fact that receivers Devon Cajuste and Francis Owusu didn't participate obviously showered Hooper with additional opportunities, but the sophomore's rapport with Hogan is undeniable. He consistently found openings in the seams, and his quarterback delivered pretty throws there. The duo's success brings back memories of Stanford's glory days at tight end a few seasons ago. Hooper is no Coby Fleener or Zach Ertz just yet, but his importance to the Cardinal offense is undeniable at this point.
5. Fall promises a different look: With Cajuste (strained hamstring) out, this spring game featured even more inactive players than originally expected. Stanford expects most of them to be back and healthy in time for the regular season, and that means the spring game wasn't the most accurate preview of what's coming this fall. Aziz Shittu, Nate Lohn, and transfer Brennan Scarlett are all on their way to fortify the defensive line. The coaching staff expects Anderson to deliver a big senior season at outside linebacker. Harris and (potentially) Hoffpauir should be leaders in the secondary. Owusu is expected to fill out the receiving corps, and several more currently injured offensive linemen are expected to alter the nature of competition up front come training camp.
This spring game was a nice early look at some individual progress, but it was nowhere close to being an overall indicator of the team that Stanford will trot out at Northwestern on Sept. 5. |
NAS' Concert Promoter Kidnapped After the rapper no-showed at a recent New Year's Eve concert, his concert promoted has been kidnapped Text Share Tweet Email
Here's some very unfortunate news. NAS' concert promoter Patrick Allocco and his son have been captured by a local promoter in Angola. Henrique 'Riquinho' Miguel had paid NAS $300,000 in advance to perform at New Year's Eve show in which the rapper ultimately did not attend.
Henrique has demanded that NAS refund the $300,000 in addition to $50,000 in damages for the safe return of Allocco and his son. Nas is willing to repay the original amount but is refusing to pay for the extra compensation. In addition, NAS is demanding for a signed letter by Miguel and Allocco to release him from liability.
Allocco and his son are still stuck in Angola as negotiations have reached a stalemate. Allocco's team have issued this statement:
"The hope is that Nas and Jemiah Jai (NAS' opener for that concert) will return all of the monies that were wired to them immediately so that our ransom may be paid and our safe return to the United States may be facilitated." |
Royals take note: true love is not public relations
Posted
Princess Diana was revolutionary in her love for the people, but William and Kate are playing it safe. If they cannot step away from the scripted visits, what is their love then but public relations? Aron Paul writes.
It is often said that the renascent popularity of the British monarchy is due to the celebrity of the Royal Family, particularly of the new generation of royalty. This may be true, but it only tells half the story. Republicans and monarchists alike rarely dig much deeper than this. Both have yet to come to terms with a monarchy stripped of its former political meanings and acknowledge the meaning of what is left.
Old-fashioned monarchists still delude themselves that royal celebrity is about "duty and service". Republicans, for their part, dismiss the celebrity power of royalty as quickly as they are baffled by it. Rather than dismiss it, we should understand it, for the strengths of institutions often tell where they are most vulnerable.
The power of royalty in the age of celebrity is love. Love is the value, of all those the British monarchy adopted to survive democracy, that has survived the fall of its once great empire.
Queen Victoria invented the romantic monarchy. She transported people into a vision of her idealised family life through publishing her Highland Journals. When her husband, Albert, died, she mourned with an intensity that shocked as well as evoked the sympathy of her subjects. The widowed Queen became a cipher giving to her subjects a feeling of power as they imagined themselves to be her defenders.
Australians seized upon a visit by one of her sons as a sign of their monarch's love for them. When Queen Victoria's son Alfred visited Australia in 1867, colonial poet Henry Kendall imagined Australia as a woman greeting a lover, "with a sighing whose meaning is love".
As lovers, rather than as political actors, royalty grew their celebrity. Edward VIII had to abdicate his throne to marry the woman he loved because she was a commoner, an American and a divorcee. The story riveted the world. The meaning of love itself would change, and future kings would instead be called to build their thrones upon its shifting sands. The danger for the monarchy was that it would cling to the old meanings of love. Princess Diana's revolt illustrated that crisis of identity most vividly.
Diana's popularity was grounded in her deployment of the royal celebrity to embrace a new post-colonial, post-modern, fragmented society. The narrative of love was her asset and the camera her tool in this endeavor. She brought the world with her through her celebrity, shining a light in places society had hidden away, as she did when famously reaching out to AIDS patients. Diana illustrated the potentially revolutionary and political nature of love.
Consider for a moment a few words from Diana. "I think the biggest disease this world suffers from in this day and age is the disease of people feeling unloved," she said in her famous Panorama interview. "I know that I can give love for a minute, for half an hour, for a day, for a month, but I can give. I am very happy to do that, I want to do that."
Encapsulated in this supposedly apolitical statement is the heart of the monarchy's political power. This was what made Diana popular. It is what makes her children popular today - not merely their celebrity, but the belief that they embody a genuine love that they are willing and able to share.
How can such love be political? Diana gave substance to her expression of love because she had an enemy. The establishment tried to control and to crush her. It is easy to forget in today's commentary that Princess Diana was as much loathed as she was loved. What made Diana revolutionary was her determination to use her celebrity "to help the most vulnerable people in society", to wear her heart on her sleeve, and to "only do what your heart tells you". True love is not comfortable with the conventions of power, class, race and gender. Those conventions place boundaries upon love. Diana stepped across those boundaries. This was the source of her power.
The question republicans and monarchists should be asking in the wake of another royal tour is how Diana's successors are living up to this enormous challenge. This tour was tightly choreographed and conventional. While it was planned to echo Diana’s 1983 visit, there was little reminiscent of her revolutionary moments. Instead, the Royal couple performed as the establishment decreed. It was safe and scripted. Their ordinariness reassured us that they are just like us. Perhaps they were being true to themselves. But there was also something missing.
Our future kings and queen saw an Australia that tourists see. Uluru, Bondi, bilbies and the Blue Mountains. Their love was spent among people whom it was safe to love, rather than shining a light on the most vulnerable people we, as a nation, have hidden away. While Australia celebrated Easter and Anzac Day in the presence of royal love, it was a love put tightly back within the conventional ambit of the nuclear and national family.
It is here, in the meaning and scope of its love that the power of the monarchy, and any challenge to it, resides. After all, institutions should be held to the values they espouse. If the Royals love us, then they should not be afraid to see us as we are, nor to tell us uncomfortable truths.
If they cannot step across those boundaries, what is their love then but public relations? Had the Royal couple visited Christmas Island, or any of the other places we have hidden away, we would have known Diana's heirs were with us.
Dr Aron Paul is a Melbourne based writer and historian. His PhD Royalty and the Australian nation 1867-1997 is a cultural history of royal visits to Australia. View his full profile here.
Topics: royal-and-imperial-matters, human-interest |
In this Cocos2D-X tutorial, you’ll learn how to use Cocos2D-X and C++ to produce a cross-platform “Hello World” app that will run under both iOS and Android.
Update 5/13/2013 Fully updated for Cocos2D-X 2.1 and iOS 6. (original post by Jean-Yves Mengant, update by Jorge Jordán).
Cocos2D is an amazing and easy to use framework, but since it’s written in Objective-C you can only write games with it for iOS and the Mac.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could use the same easy to use Cocos2D API, but have it run on Android as well? This way you could greatly extend the market for your app, without adding a lot of extra work!
Well, this is possible with the Cocos2D-X game framework! Cocos2D-X is a C++ port of the Cocos2D API, so you can use the API you know and love. And since it’s in C++, it works on many platforms – from iOS to Android to Windows to Linux and more!
In this Cocos2D-X tutorial, you’ll learn how to use Cocos2D-X and C++ to produce a cross-platform “Hello World” app that will run under both iOS and Android.
And in a few days, I’ll post a follow-up Cocos2D-X tutorial that will show you a practical game example – a cross platform space shooter!
So grab your iPhone and/or Android device, and let’s get started!
Hello, Cocos2D-X for iOS!
Before you go any further, make sure you download the latest version of Cocos2D-X.
Unzip the file in to a folder somewhere on your hard drive. Note the full path to that folder – it will be referred as $COCOS2DX_HOME.
Now that you’ve got the code, let’s install the templates! You can do this with a script that’s inside $COCOS2DX_HOME. To run it, just quit Xcode, open a shell terminal and type:
cd $COCOS2DX_HOME ./install-templates-xcode.sh -f -u
Note: In the above, for the first line, you need to replace $COCOS2DX_HOME with the actual path to where you extracted the files. Simply typing in $COCOS2DX_HOME as part of the command will do nothing.
The installation will simply proceed without any further intervention from you. Once the templates are installed, run Xcode and create a New Project. You should see a new Cocos2d-x temples section in the project template dialog. Don’t worry, the Cocos2d-X templates don’t conflict with the classic Cocos2D templates, so you can continue to create new projects using Cocos2D, when needed.
Let’s try the new templates out! Open up Xcode (4.6 if using the last version) and create a new project, selecting the iOS\cocos2d-x\cocos2dx template:
Click Next, name the project Cocos2DxFirstIosSample, choose iPhone for Device Family, click Next and then click Create.
Now press the Run button to see the Cocos2d-x Hello World app running:
Pretty easy, eh? While you’re at it, take a look at the project files in Xcode – particularly Classes\HelloWorldScene.h and Classes\HelloWorldScene.cpp. If you’re familiar with Cocos2D, this should look familiar to you – the same Cocos2D API, but in C++!
Setting up Eclipse for Cocos2D-X Development
You’re now done with the Xcode setup part and you need to have a look at the Android Cocos2D-X configuration with Eclipse.
This Cocos2D-X tutorial assumes that you have a fully-functional Android Eclipse standard development environment. If you don’t, follow through the Getting Started With Android Development tutorial first, which provides a step-by-step guide to setting up a dedicated Eclipse Android development platform.
But wait… A standard Eclipse Android environment is dedicated to Java development only, and Cocos2D-X is based on C++!
Don’t worry, Eclipse has been around for 10 years, so there are tons of plugins out there to extend its core functionality beyond just Java development.
This includes some plugins for C/C++ development! Let’s install them now. Open up Eclipse and perform the following steps:
From the Eclipse IDE main toolbar, go to Help/Install New Software
Open the Work with combo box and select the item containing your Eclipse version name (Juno if using the last version of Eclipse).
Find Programming Languages in the plugin tree (you’ll only see the plugin tree if you checked the Group items by category checkbox – otherwise, you might have to search the list a bit …) and check C/C++ Development Tools.
Click Next and walk through the rest of the wizard, and wait for the components to download and install. At the end of the install process Eclipse will ask you to restart, click Yes.
To ensure that the installation was successful, from the Eclipse IDE main toolbar, go to Help/Install New Software
Select the already installed link and check the installation of the following components.
You will now be able to develop C/C++ projects using Eclipse!
Setup the Android NDK (Native Development Toolkit)
Initially, Android development was done exclusively in Java, and most of the Android apps on the market today are Java-based.
However, these days you can write Android apps in C/C++ with the Native Development Toolkit (NDK)! This was introduced by Google in June 2009 as a way to allow components written in C/C++ to be accessed via the standard Java Native Interface (JNI).
Installing the NDK is straightforward:
Download the latest version of the NDK here (choose the MacOSX platform).
Unzip the tar.bz2 file to the location of your choice. This location will be referred from now on as $NDKROOT.
The NDK brings to the Android environment a C/C++ compilation toolchain, able to cleanly compile/link (using the GCC 4.7 compiler) and build a ready-to-install APK-signed package.
Having this compilation toolchain in place allows you to integrate external C/C++ libraries (like Cocos2d-x) into Eclipse. These libraries, compiled as external dynamic libraries bound inside an APK, communicate with the “legacy Java Android architecture” though the JNI (Java Native Interface).
The compilation toolchain can be used in two ways :
Standalone mode: uses the arm-linux-androideabi-g++ directly in your custom make file. This will increase your project complexity/maintainability. I recommend you avoid this mode unless you have no alternative.
Integrated mode: uses the $NDKROOT/ndk-build shell tool, which is a highly-customized make file dedicated to NDK library builds. This is the preferred way to go and the mode you will use in this Cocos2D-X tutorial.
Explaining the JNI and NDK would take too long, and is out of the scope of this Cocos2D-X tutorial. There is a lot of documentation about JNI available on the web. The only book seriously covering this topic is available for free here.
If you need more information about the NDK, there is a very good book available that covers NDK C/C++ development: Android Native Development Kit Beginner’s Guide by Sylvain Ratabouil. This book covers NDK programming in depth and should rather be called “From Beginner to Expert.”
The NDK itself also comes with very detailed documentation, located under $NDKROOT/docs.
Hello, Cocos2D-X for Android!
Now let’s do a “Hello, World” Cocos2D-X tutorial for the Android platform, just as you did for iOS.
You will need to do this via the command line, however, since there are no Cocos2D-X project templates available via the Eclipse IDE at the moment. (You know what? This would be a great open source project candidate, if you are so inclined :])
The $COCOS2DX_HOME directory contains a shell script named create-android-project.sh that you will use to generate the android project.
But, before launching this shell script for the first time, you need to make a tiny customization at the top of the above file:
# set environment paramters NDK_ROOT_LOCAL="/home/laschweinski/android/android-ndk-r8d" ANDROID_SDK_ROOT_LOCAL="/home/laschweinski/android/android-sdk-linux_86"
Modify these above lines so that the NDK_ROOT_LOCAL variable points to the directory where you installed the Android NDK ($NDKROOT) and ANDROID_SDK_ROOT_LOCAL points to the place where you installed the Android SDK.
Now run the create-android-project.sh script from the command line and you will get several prompts as to various input values. These prompts will ask you to provide the below information:
The first prompt will ask you for the “Input package path”. This is the package name that will be used for java code production. You can use reversed domain notation here (similar to an iOS bundle ID) – something like com.yourdomain.samplecocos2dxandroid (remember to replace com.yourdomain with the reverse domain notation for your actual domain) Next, you will get a list of available Android APIs and their ids. Depending on what’s installed on your machine, the list will vary. But the prompt at this stage simply asks for the Android API level your app will support and you can use the id for the last item on the list that’s a Google API. Finally, you have to provide the project name. Call it samplecocos2dxandroid.
The command-line output from the above process will look something like the following:
bash-$ ./create-android-project.sh Input package path. For example: org.cocos2dx.example org.jymc.samplecocos2dxandroid . . . Available Android targets: ---------- . . . ---------- id: 25 or "Google Inc.:Google APIs:17" Name: Google APIs Type: Add-On Vendor: Google Inc. Revision: 2 Description: Android + Google APIs Based on Android 4.2.2 (API level 17) . . . input target id: 25 input your project name: samplecocos2dxandroid Created project directory: /Users/jymen/development/cocos2dx/samplecocos2dxandroid/proj.android . . . Added file /Users/jymen/development/cocos2dx/samplecocos2dxandroid/AndroidManifest.xml Added file /Users/jymen/development/cocos2dx/samplecocos2dxandroid/build.xml Added file /Users/jymen/development/cocos2dx/samplecocos2dxandroid/proguard.cfg bash-$
Pay attention to the Created project directory: line towards the end of the script output. That’s where your Android project has been created by the script. The project location (/Users/jymen/development/cocos2dx/samplecocos2dxandroid in the above example) will be referred as $PROJECT_HOME from now on.
Note: Do not try to move the project from that location to a different location. At least one of the scripts you’ll work with in the next section will not work if you do.
Building the Project
There are two steps to building the project – compiling the C++ code with a command line script, and compiling the Java code with Eclipse.
But, before compiling, you need to define NDK_ROOT parameter so it points to your $NDKROOT directory. Open the $PROJECT_HOME/proj.android/build_native.sh shell script and add the following line at the top of the file:
# paths NDK_ROOT="/home/laschweinski/android/android-ndk-r8d"
Modify the above line so that the NDK_ROOT variable points to the directory where you installed the Android NDK ($NDKROOT).
To compile the C++ code, switch to the $PROJECT_HOME/proj.android folder via the command-line and issue the following command:
./build_native.sh
Note: If at this point you are getting the message “please define NDK_ROOT” you must ensure that you specified correctly the root to your Android NDK directory in the above step.
You should see some output similar to the following in response to the above command:
Gdbserver : [arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3] libs/armeabi/gdbserver Gdbsetup : libs/armeabi/gdb.setup Compile++ thumb : cocos2d <= CCConfiguration.cpp Compile++ thumb : cocos2d <= CCDrawingPrimitives.cpp : : : Compile++ thumb : cocos2d <= CCTileMapAtlas.cpp Compile++ thumb : cocos2d <= CCTouchDispatcher.cpp Compile++ thumb : cocos2d <= CCTouchHandler.cpp Prebuilt : libstlport_static.a <= <NDK>/sources/cxx-stl/stlport/libs/armeabi/ SharedLibrary : libcocos2d.so Install : libcocos2d.so => libs/armeabi/libcocos2d.so Compile++ thumb : cocosdenshion <= SimpleAudioEngine.cpp Compile++ thumb : cocosdenshion <= SimpleAudioEngineJni.cpp SharedLibrary : libcocosdenshion.so Install : libcocosdenshion.so => libs/armeabi/libcocosdenshion.so Compile++ thumb : game_logic <= AppDelegate.cpp Compile++ thumb : game_logic <= HelloWorldScene.cpp SharedLibrary : libgame_logic.so Install : libgame_logic.so => libs/armeabi/libgame_logic.so Compile++ thumb : game <= main.cpp SharedLibrary : libgame.so Install : libgame.so => libs/armeabi/libgame.so
This builds the C++ Cocos2D-X libraries, and the C++ code for your project.
To build the Java code, you’ll create an Eclipse project – that’s way easier than working via the command-line :]
Start Eclipse and go to File\New\Other. Choose Android\Android Project from Existing Code, and click Next. Click Browse and select the $PROJECT_HOME/proj.android folder, as shown below.
Click Finish, and you now have a project!
Note: By default the Android Build Target is 2.2 but change it to use the latest version. To do it select Project\Properties from the main menu, choose Android from the list on the left and select Android 4.2.2. Be sure that you have configured an AVD with Target Name 4.2.2. If you need more information, check out the Getting Started with Android Development tutorial.
At this point the project might have some errors but don’t be affraid, they are pretty easy to fix:
One of the errors rises because Eclipse can’t find the resource “@drawable/icon” so, expand the project tree on the left, open AndroidManifest.xml and change to the AndroidManifest.xml view so you can see the plain text. Look for the following line of code:
<application android:label="@string/app_name" android:icon="@drawable/icon">
and change it by the correct icon name:
<application android:label="@string/app_name" android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher">
And, before you close AndroidManifest.xml, modify android:minSdkVersion to be:
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="14"/>
and Save the file.
The second error rises because Eclipse can’t find some Cocos2D-X Java classes. Select Project\Properties from the main menu and choose Java Build Path from the list on the left. In the Source tab click on Link Source and Browse to the following directory
$COCOS2DX_HOME/cocos2dx/platform/android/java/src/
where $COCOS2DX_HOME is the directory where you installed the Cocos2D-X resources. In Folder name write cocos2dx-src, click Finish and OK.
Now the project has no errors, it was easy right?
You can now run it. Right click the project in the tree on the left and select Run As\Android Application. The AVD (Android Virtual Device) will launch showing the Hello, Cocos2D-X project (maybe, if it doesn’t work keep reading below):
If the application does not launch on the emulator and LogCat Eclipse view shows the error java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: No config chosen, it’s due to an issue with OpenGL ES 2.0 in latest AVD Target versions. To solve it you must take two steps:
1) Go to the Android Virtual Device Manager, select the AVD you are using and click Edit. Then make sure the Use Host GPU checkbox is checked, as shown below:
2) Now open samplecocos2dxandroid/cocos2dx-src/org.cocos2dx.lib/Cocos2dxActivity.java, look for init() method and add:
this.mGLSurfaceView.setEGLConfigChooser(8, 8, 8, 8, 16, 0);
before:
this.mGLSurfaceView.setCocos2dxRenderer(new Cocos2dxRenderer());
Now try running it again – and hopefully it should work this time.
For more details about configuring an Android Virtual Device, check out the Getting Started with Android Development tutorial.
Congrats, you now have a “Hello, World” project running on both iOS and Android!
Defining a Combined Java/C++ Project in Eclipse
Compiling the C++ code with a command line script and compiling the Java code with Eclipse is cumbersome. It would be a lot easier if you could just build everything using Eclipse.
Luckily, you can do this by telling Eclipse that your Android project is a combined Java/C++ cross language project!
To do this, select the samplecocos2dxandroid project in the left tree, and select File\New\Other from the menu and then, C/C++\Convert to a C/C++ Project from the dialog, as shown below:
Click Next. In the next screen, check the box for your project, select the C++ Project option, and specify the Makefile project\Other Toolchain option for Project type:
Click Finish. Eclipse may ask you if you want to open the C/C++ perspective, just click No if this occurs.
The next step is to change the project settings to specify how to run your make command. In the left tree, right click the samplecocos2dxandroid project, select Properties, and select the C/C++ Build section.
Uncheck the Use default build command checkbox, and in the build command textbox type in:
bash ${workspace_loc:/samplecocos2dxandroid}/build_native.sh NDK_DEBUG=1 V=1
Click Apply, and click OK.
Select Project\Build All from the main menu, and you’ll see the C++ make run in the Eclipse console:
There are still some warnings to resolve. To see what I mean, open up jni/hellocpp/main.cpp, and you’ll see a bunch of warnings:
These are occurring because you do not have the correct C++ include path specified yet. To do this, in the left tree, right click the samplecocos2dxandroid project and select Properties\C/C++ General\Paths and Symbols\Includes\GNU C++.
Use the Add button to select the two directories shown below, then click Apply and OK.
$(NDKROOT)/platforms/android-14/arch-arm/usr/include $(COCOS2DX_HOME)/cocos2dx/include
Note: Don’t forget to replace $(NDKROOT) and $(COCOS2DX_HOME) with the actual paths where you installed these on your machine.
Click Apply and you might be prompted to re-build the indexes. Go ahead and say Yes and then click OK to close the dialog.
Now, if you look at main.cpp, you’ll see most of the include warnings have disappeared:
However, the AppDelegate.h file still can’t be found. This is because the AppDelegate.h file is located in the $PROJECT_HOME\Classes folder. This folder is very important for you since it contains the portable C++ classes for your project, such as HelloWorldScene.cpp, which will be the starting point for your project.
When you created your Eclipse project, you had to select the $PROJECT_HOME\proj.android folder as the root folder since Eclipse requires AndroidManifest.xml to be inside the specified folder. But this means your project does not contain the critical Classes folder, and this is why you’re still getting that warning.
Let’s fix it now. In the left tree, right click the samplecocos2dxandroid project, and select Properties\C/C++ General\Paths and Symbols\Source Location. Click Link Folder, check the Link to a folder in the file system checkbox, and browse to the Classes directory inside the $PROJECT_HOME folder. Click OK, then Apply and OK.
You should now be able to see the Classes directory in your file tree, and the #include “AppDelegate.h” warning in main.cpp should have gone away.
Eclipse will still have some warnings in the project, but this is just because Eclipse is not that great at parsing C++ header files for the code analyzer stage. To disable this, bring up the project properties (right-click the project and select Properties from the context menu) and turn off the warnings in the Code Analysis section, as you can see in the screenshot below:
Click Apply and then OK and finally – a project you can edit and build with Eclipse! :]
What About the Java Code?
If you look over the project content in Eclipse, you will notice some Java code in the src and gen folders and might wonder what that’s all about.
The main language for Android development is Java. The project template has created some Java scaffolding code for you that loads the C++ code that does all the heavy lifting in your app.
You won’t usually have to modify the Java code, but let’s look at the main class – src\com\xxx\samplecosos2dxandroid\samplecocos2dandroid.java – in more detail to see what it does.
This class contains the main Android Activity class that takes control when the app launches. It will first load the requested C++ dynamic library generated by the NDK:
Since this class derives from Cocos2dxActivity, behind the scenes, Cocos2D-X will give control to the C++ AppDelegate initInstance method, and finally the applicationDidFinishLAunching method.
So to repeat, the Java code just contains wrapper code that you will rarely need to change, since all the game’s logic will be inside the C++ code.
Combining the iOS and Android Project Structures
Right now you have two Cocos2D-X projects – one for iOS and one for Android. Your goal is to have them share the same directories so that you can use the same C++ files (with all your portable game logic) in both projects.
In both of your projects, you have a folder called Classes that contains this portable game code (Android on the left, iOS on the right):
If you look closely at the Classes directory in Eclipse and Xcode, you will see that the C++ files are completely identical! So all you need to do is point both projects to use the same folder, and you are set!
To do this, open up your Cocos2DxFirstIosSample project in Xcode. Select the Classes group, click Delete, and select Move to Trash when the popup appears.
Next, right click the project in the Project Navigator, select New Group, and rename the new group to Classes. Right click the Classes group, and select Add Files. Select the following files from your $PROJECT_HOME\Classes folder and make sure that the Copy items into destination group’s folder checkbox is not checked before you click Add:
Do a Clean and Build of the Xcode project to check that everything is OK.
Congrats – everything is in place and your Xcode/Eclipse combined iOS/Android projects are ready to use!
When to Use Xcode, and When to Use Eclipse?
Now that you have two project files it might not be immediately obvious which you should use when.
The usual development strategy for Cocos2D-X is to develop and test on iOS (via Xcode) first, and after you’ve got that working, make sure it works on Android (via Eclipse) second. Just keep the following rules in mind:
Test often. Develop short pieces of code and test that they work on Android. This way you don’t get too far before finding any problems. Test on multiple devices: There are a large number of Android devices available, often with subtle differences, so it’s best to test on as many devices as you can lay your hands on.
It’s also possible to have a reversed strategy (develop for Android with Eclipse first), but I find this approach less productive, since Xcode feels faster and easier to use for me than Eclipse. Plus, the Android emulator usually takes a long time to start up and so takes longer when it comes to debugging things whereas the iOS simulator comes up pretty fast each time you start it.
Debugging Tips and Tricks
Debugging the iOS part of the Cocos2d-x project is exactly the same as debugging standard Cocos2D code, so there is nothing special to add here.
However, for Android, here’s some notes.
When building for debug with NDK, a ‘server side’ gdb and gdbcontext is bundled inside the APK generated by the ndk-build shell and populated to the device. This remote debugger will communicate with any compatible GDB client agent.
The best GDB agent to use with Eclipse is the NVidia debug manager plugin, but installing that is beyond the scope of this Cocos2D-X tutorial.
Note: If you want to install the NVidia Debug Manager plugin, all you really need to do is to go to this page and download the full Tegra Android Developer Pack even though you might think you don’t need it. When you install the Tegra Developer pack, it gives you the option to select what you want to install and at this point, you can opt to install just the plugin. However, that will not install the plugin into Eclipse. It will simply put the plugin ZIP file on your hard drive. Now follow the instructions on this PDF to actually install the plugin.
I found that on some physical devices (Samsumg Galaxy S being one of them), the remote debugger always fails to start though it correctly starts with the same APK on an AVD (Android Virtual Device).
To start a debug session select your project, right click and select Debug As/Android NDK Application, as you can see below:
Do note though that you get the Android NDK Application option only if you download and install the NVidia debug manager plugin. Otherwise, you will not see the above option when you right-click.
You can set a breakpoint by double clicking a code line, as you can see here:
When the breakpoint hits, it will halt at that line of code with more information:
Sadly, debugging from Android using GDB may not always work, so you might find it helpful to add an extra debug tracing system in place as an alternative debugging method. For more info on this, contact me and I’ll share some tips on how you might do this.
Where To Go From Here?
Congrats, you now have your hands dirty with Cocos2D-X and have your iPhone and Android development environments fully set up and ready to go!
Stay tuned for my next Cocos2D-X tutorial, where I’ll show you how you can make a complete cross-platform Space Game with Cocos2D-X.
In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments about this Cocos2D-X tutorial or Cocos2D-X in general, please join the forum discussion below! |
Getting better at noticing mistakes is one of the best ways of taking your Spanish to the next level.
This challenge has been carefully designed to do just that.
Here is an oversimplified example:
Sentence in English: She likes to play every day
Reference 1: Voy al colegio todos los días.
Reference 2: A ella le parece todo bien.
The final answer would be:
A ella le gusta jugar todos los días.
Now for the real challenge
Translate the four sentences in English using the reference sentences in Spanish. The words in bold in the reference sentences below each English sentence must appear in the final Spanish translation but not always in the same form (masculine could be feminine, indicative could be subjunctive, singular could be plural, etc.).
E1: Whoever wrote this recipe book taught me everything I know about Asian cuisine.
R1: El que quiera venir, que se apunte en esta lista.
R2: Todo lo que te digo te entra por un oído y te sale por el otro.
E2: At the beginning, he didn’t want to (accept / be happy with) such a low salary, but now he says that he’s very satisfied with his job.
R3: Me ha dicho su mujer que está satisfecha con los términos del divorcio.
R4: La abuela se conforma con que vengas a verla una vez a la semana.
E3: Let’s hope this is the correct number. Here is a shoehorn in case you need it.
R5: Aquí tiene el libro de García Márquez que buscaba.
R6: No estoy seguro, pero creo que esta es la calle que buscaba.
E4: I think that you would be much more calm if you didn’t think (about) things so much. |
Low Oil Prices Could Pop Canada’s Real Estate Bubble
Low oil prices have hammered Canadian housing prices, threatening to pop the country’s much discussed real estate bubble, but according to one industry insider, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Over the past few years, Canada’s housing market has truly defied common sense. Despite stagnant wages, soaring debt levels, and a recession in the first half of the year, real estate prices have soared at a double-digit clip for much of the last decade.
The situation has produced some truly eye-popping statistics. For example, the average price of a single detached home in Vancouver is now more than $1.6 million. (Source: “Canada faces house-price dilemma in push to tighten mortgages,” Financial Post, December 3, 2015.) In Toronto, the nation’s largest city, one out of every 140 people is a real estate agent. (Source: “Canada’s next housing bubble: real estate agents,” Financial Post, May 9, 2014.)
These trends might be coming to an end.
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Slumping oil prices are starting to take their toll on the country’s housing market. In Fort McMurray, home to Canada’s vast oil sand reserves, home sales have collapsed 41% year-over-year. The average MLS sale price of a home plunged by more than $117,000 in October, down 20% from $585,438 during the same period in 2014. (Source: “The average house in Fort McMurray has lost $117,000 or 20% of its in value in one year,” Financial Post, November 23, 2015.)
The fallout from the commodity bust is now starting to hit other centers. Calgary, Canada’s energy capital, saw average MLS sale prices fall 4.4% year-over-year to $444,535 in October. Nearby cities have also reported big year-over-year declines in home sales, including Regina (12.3%), Edmonton (16.3%), and Saskatoon (21.4%). (Source: Ibid.)
Canada’s economy is built on three pillars: oil, mining, and real estate. Low commodity prices have already knocked down the first two; a real estate bust would kick the last leg out from under the country’s economic recovery.
More concerning, however, would be the impact on households. Canadian consumers are up to their eyeballs in debt, far surpassing the levels witnessed even during the U.S. real estate bubble of 2005. Further declines in real estate prices would shove many homeowners into insolvency, pushing the nation’s banking system to the brink.
How much worse can things get? In a presentation to a private audience in New York on Monday, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) chief executive, Evan Siddall, presented a range of scenarios. According to stress tests run by Canada’s housing agency, Canadian housing prices could crash 26% if oil stays at $35.00 a barrel over the next five years. (Source: “Oil at US$35 would send Canadian home prices tumbling 26%, CMHC says,” Financial Post, November 30, 2015.)
In the CMHC’s worst-case situation, Canadian housing prices could crash 44%. Deflation, or falling prices, could stall business investment, pushing the nation’s unemployment rate to 16%. The Canadian housing market outlook, and the Canadian economic outlook, in turn, don’t look good.
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Summer camp is a rite of passage for many American children, whether they enjoy the experience or hate it. Four years ago, Timothy Noah dissected camp culture and found that adults will never escape the patterns they exhibited as camp-bound children, no matter how many years removed. The article is reprinted below.
If there’s a more reliable Rorschach than sleep-away camp, I’d like to see it. How you responded to being shipped off (often at an appallingly tender age) to a cluster of cedar cabins beside a mountain lake; to being taught Native American crafts, chants, and songs of dubious authenticity; and to being subjected to various painful hazing rituals—many of them involving underwear—reveals an awful lot about your fundamental character. If, as the Duke of Wellington claimed, the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, then the psychotherapy bills of our own great nation were run up on the tetherball courts of Camp Weecheewachee (or whatever the hell your summer camp was called).
Let’s begin with the people who didn’t like camp. I was one such person. The first camp I got sent to was Camp Lenox, an establishment in the Berkshires that is still in business. During my summer there, in 1966, it was run by and for males who thrived on athletic competition. I did not. My older brother was an enthusiastic jock, and it was his love for the place that landed me there. I don’t remember seeing much of him after we got off the bus—he was seven years my senior—but he’d occasionally appear in the distance, wearing the black beret that marked him as my enemy in Color War. I was assigned to the orange team; our symbol was a baton. To this day I shake my head in disbelief that a responsible camp director would set brother against brother in the name of competitive sport. Perhaps you find my thinking on this point a little rigid. Well, I’m sorry, but I’m not the sort of person who can alter his loyalties so easily, even within such a character-building realm. (I would have made a terrible Kennedy.)
Observing my perplexity with mild concern, my parents shipped me off to a different camp the following summer. This was Camp Arcady, in the Adirondacks. Now defunct, it was co-ed and less single-mindedly dedicated to sports than Camp Lenox had been. Arcady had other advantages over its predecessor, the most memorable being a waterfront counselor named Doreen who had once been a Mouseketeer on The Mickey Mouse Club. Visions of Doreen (who in the decade since her TV stardom had filled out quite satisfactorily) haunted my prepubescent dreams. Even now, in my mind’s eye, I see Doreen emerging, like Botticelli’s Venus, from a clamshell perched on the shores of Lake George, a whistle nestled chastely in her cleavage. It was probably because of Doreen that I learned to water-ski. Water-skiing is the only camp sport I remember enjoying. Otherwise, I was pretty miserable. For the evidence, click here (center row, fifth from the left).
People (like myself) who didn’t enjoy camp tend to have a problem engaging in organized activities of all kinds. Later in life we often become criminals or sociopaths. The more respectable among us often become journalists. If we’re extremely bright or creative (or aspire to be), we may become writers or scholars or artists. The common thread is an outsider mentality. A self-flattering analysis, I know, but such is my privilege as author of this article.
Some people hated camp so much that they made their parents bring them home. These people should not be confused with the outlaws described above. There is nothing outré about not being able to endure summer camp. The come-and-get-me set grow up to be neurotic and needy. These are people who can often be heard on C-SPAN’s early-morning call-in program Washington Journal, filibustering from a time zone still blanketed in predawn darkness, until the host says, “Please state your question.”
Some people enjoy camp. These people grow up to be normal. My own two children, I’m pleased to report, belong to this category, assuming the blasé letters I’m receiving (“Pringles would taste pretty good right about now”) reflect sincere contentment.
Some people really, reallyenjoy camp. I wish I could tell you that these people grow up to be really, really normal, but they don’t. You know who I’m talking about. These are the ones who wept uncontrollably when the papiermâché numbers spelling out 1967 were set ablaze on a little raft that a camp counselor, under cover of darkness, towed stealthily to the middle of Lake Weecheewachee on the evening of the last group sing. These are the people for whom childhood represented the zenith of human existence and everything that followed an anticlimax. The women—they’re mostly women—usually end up in abusive relationships with pathologically angry men who eventually abandon them and pay child support erratically, if at all. If the person who really, really enjoyed camp is a man, then he is unlikely ever to develop an intimate relationship and on occasion may be spotted in the back of a police cruiser speeding away from a grade-school playground.
The final category is people who really, really, really enjoy camp. These are the camp cultists. You probably expect me to say that these campers grow up to be utterly incapable of functioning in a noncamp environment, and end up sleeping on the streets in cardboard boxes. In fact, the opposite is true. Camp cultists grow up to be chief executive officers of major corporations, name partners in Wall Street banking firms, Cabinet secretaries, governors, and presidents of prestigious foundations. Their universities invite them to serve on their boards. Their home towns name schools after them. They are the Establishment. Longtime Disney CEO Michael Eisner is a camp cultist, having published, in 2005, Camp, a memoir of his bygone days at Vermont’s Keewaydin Canoe Camp, which bills itself as the nation’s oldest continually operating summer camp (it was founded in 1893), and whose Web site invites alumni to donate securities to something called the Keewaydin Foundation. I haven’t read Eisner’s book, but according to Amazon.com, its “statistically improbable phrases” include “winds ceremony” and “Indian circle.”
For camp cultists, summer camp is an experience that lasts a lifetime. When they’re too old to be campers, they come back as counselors. When they’re too old to be counselors, they send their children in their stead. When their children eventually succeed (on the third or fourth try) in getting themselves thrown out of Camp Weecheewachee, for infractions too ghastly to contemplate, camp cultists send money. Lots and lots of money. If it weren’t for camp cultists, half the summer camps in the United States would be forced to close their doors, depriving today’s campers of this essential early exercise in psychological sorting.
Or perhaps not. Montana Miller, a folklorist who teaches a class called “Summer Camp Ethnography” at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University, insists that even children who don’t attend summer camp subject themselves to the same psychological sorting process by imagining that they did. In an e-mail to me, she elaborated:
There have been so many movies and books and TV shows—not to mention the stories told by friends who return from camp—that kids internalize whether or not they went to camp themselves. … I had [my students] do an in-class writing assignment in which they recounted an anecdote from camp—presenting it as a personal-experience narrative, but not necessarily real. It could be fictional or something that happened to someone they knew. They read their anecdotes out loud to the class and we tried to guess whether these were real experiences they had had themselves, or constructions from their imaginations and their pop culture educations. You know what? In almost every case, it was impossible to tell.
The summer-camp ink blot, then, is universal. You are how you camped, even if you never camped at all.
Like Slate on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. |
Comedian Bill Maher on Friday named Rep. John Kline John Paul KlineNCLB agreement would overhaul Uncle Sam's role in schooling Republican to Pentagon: Release disputed study on women in combat Republicans take aim at NLRB's 'joint employer' ruling MORE (Minn.) as the viewer-nominated GOP lawmaker the funnyman wants to oust from Congress in his "Flip a District" challenge.
But Maher will have a tough time trying to defeat Kline, who's not a top Democratic target and is expected to cruise to a seventh term.
The liberal host announced the "winning loser” during a live broadcast of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" in Washington DC.
Maher targeted Kline, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, for voting to repeal ObamaCare 54 times, his stance against gay marriage and denying climate change funding.
"He's one of those silent threats you never see coming....Ebola. ISIS. John Kline," he said. "He embodies the sellouts that keep this town running."
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Maher solicited names of 16 lawmakers through social media in a NCAA-style bracket to determine an incumbent that most viewers wanted to vote out of office.
The finalist in the challenge, which targeted Republicans in somewhat competitive districts around the nation, included Republican Reps. Mike Coffman (Colo.), Renee Ellmers (N.C.) and Blake Farenthold (Texas).
Maher will now campaign against Kline in an attempt to unseat the Minnesota Republican and flip his district from red to blue, hoping the lawmaker will "feel the heat" from his constituents.
Kline may represent a swing suburban Twin Cities district — which did narrowly vote twice for President Obama — but Democrats have never managed to recruit a top challenger. This year, he faces a rematch against former state Rep. Mike Obermueller (DFL), who he beat in 2012 by eight points in a good year for Democrats.
"There are a lot of terrible, entrenched congressmen out there," he said in a statement posted on his show's website. "Many don’t even have an opponent. We’re going to choose one of them, throw him into the national spotlight, and see if we can’t send him scuttling under the refrigerator on Election Night."
Immediately after his show's taping, the 58-year-old jetted to a D.C. theater five minutes away for a live hour-long stand-up special.
This post was updated at 10:41 p.m. |
Immediately following an album signing event on Saturday, Public Enemy were scheduled to perform a gig in Sheffield, England alongside The Prodigy. The hip-hop outfit’s agenda was going as planned, until the taxi tasked with taking Chuck D and Flavor Flav to the concert drove off without them.
Fortunately for the two MCs, a Good Samaritan and longtime fan named Kevin Wells stepped in to lend a hand. Wells, who’d attended the in-store signing, offered to drive them to Motorpoint Arena in his Ford Focus. It was a tight squeeze, as evidenced by a selfie Wells took (seen above), but a memorable, once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing for any fan.
“They were such nice guys, we had a right laugh,” Wells told The Telegraph of the ride. “We were chatting away, but the phone was constantly going as their management were clearly worried.”
At one point during the drive, they were all belting “Bohemian Rhapsody”. “Then as we were coming through Attercliffe, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, by Queen, came on the radio,” Wells said. “Everyone was singing the words and rocking out in the back of my car, it was like a Wayne’s World moment. I was looking in the rear view mirror thinking, ‘Is this actually happening?'”
Chuck D and Flavor Flav managed to reach the venue just in the nick of time, 15 minutes before Public Enemy were set to hit the stage. As for Wells, he’ll have one heck of a story to tell for years to come. |
A fan at the Blue Jays-Braves games is taken to an ambulance after struck by a bat. (Photo: USA TODAY Sports)
DUNEDIN, Fla. – A 59-year-old woman suffered blunt force trauma when she was struck in the head by a piece of a broken bat during Monday’s Toronto Blue Jays exhibition game at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium.
Pam Henderson, a Nova Scotia resident and Blue Jays spring training season ticket holder, was injured when Atlanta Braves designated hitter Kelly Johnson’s bat shattered as he grounded out in the sixth inning Tuesday. The large end of the barrel flew high into the stands and struck Henderson and her husband, Bill, who suffered an injured wrist – and his watch shattered – as he tried to shield his wife from the bat shard.
Henderson was taken by ambulance to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg. She was treated and released Monday evening, according to a hospital spokesperson.
The Hendersons were sitting down the first base line, but about nine rows deep, and in the front of the second tier of seats – an area that certainly would not have been covered by enhanced safety netting that Major League Baseball has recommended teams install after a woman was critically injured at Fenway Park last April. Their seats were roughly parallel to the first base bag.
Emergency personnel at the stadium were summoned immediately, and Henderson – her face heavily bandaged – was taken from the scene. A Dunedin Fire and Rescue EMT radioed that Henderson suffered blunt force trauma.
“There was blood running down really quick,” said Pat Wright, a Nova Scotia resident and the sister of Bill Henderson. “She did not lose consciousness, but she was in shock.”
Henderson’s seats were seven rows above the Blue Jays dugout. Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki sent one of his bats up to the family.
"We're out there doing our thing, and we know it can end badly," Tulowitzki told USA TODAY Sports. "It sticks with us the whole game. It does affect us."
Tulowitzki speaks from experience, as one of his shattered bats struck and injured a woman at Dodger Stadium in 2008. His Colorado Rockies teammate, Todd Helton, had borrowed his maple bat, and it shattered and broke Susan Rhodes' jaw in two places.
"It's one of those things that's just bad luck," said Tulowitzki. "It seems to be happening more and more."
Wright said her brother and sister-in-law come down every winter for Blue Jays games, and she and her husband had come to visit this week.
Johnson departed before the game concluded, but Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said it was clear the broken bat posed a risk.
"I would've been surprised if anyone didn't get hurt," Gonzalez said. "Every time it happens, it's scary. We're always worried." |
This article is about the word. For other uses, see Pussy (disambiguation)
pussy refers to cats, weakness or cowardice, or female genitalia, in addition to other meanings. The wordrefers to cats, weakness or cowardice, or female genitalia, in addition to other meanings.
Pussy is a noun, an adjective, and in rare uses a verb in the English language. It has several meanings, including use as slang, as euphemism, and as vulgarity. Common meanings of the noun include "cat", as well as "coward or weakling", and "the human vulva or vagina", or as a synecdoche, "sexual intercourse with a woman".[1] Because of its multiple senses including both innocent and vulgar connotations, "pussy" is often the subject of double entendre.
The etymology of the word is not entirely clear. Several different senses of the word have different histories or origins.[1][2][3]
Etymology
An example of double entendre in street art : a graffiti mural of a woman caressing a pussycat between her legs.
The noun pussy meaning "cat" comes from the Modern English word puss, a conventional name or term of address for a pet cat.[4] The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) says that cognates are common to several Germanic languages, including Dutch poes and Middle Low German pūse, which are also used to call a cat. The word puss is attested in English as early as 1533. Earlier etymology is uncertain, but similar words exist in other European languages, including Lithuanian puižė and Irish puisín, both traditional calls to attract a cat.[4]
The words puss and derived forms pussy and pusscat were extended to refer to girls or women by the seventeenth century.[1][4] This sense of pussy was used to refer specifically to genitalia by the eighteenth century, and from there further extended to refer to sexual intercourse involving a woman by the twentieth century.[1]
Noah Webster, in his original 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, defined pussy as: "inflated, swelled; hence, fat, short and thick; and as persons of this make labor in respiration, the word is used for short breathed". He gave pursy as a "corrupt orthography" or misspelling of pussy.[5] In 1913, however, Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary reversed the original, suggesting that pussy was a "colloquial or low" variant of pursy. That word, in turn, was defined as "fat and short-breathed", with etymology from Old French pousser "to push".[6]
The Webster's Third International Dictionary points out similarities between pussy in the sense of "vulva" and Low German or Scandinavian words meaning "pocket" or "purse", including Old Norse pūss and Old English pusa.[7]
The medieval French word pucelle, meaning "maiden" or "virgin", is not related to the English word. It is attested in Old French from the ninth century, and likely derives from Latin. The precise Latin source is disputed, with either puella "girl" or pulla "pullet, young female chicken" suggested as earlier sources.[8]
As a homograph, pussy also has the meaning "containing pus";[3] with this meaning, the word is pronounced , while the other forms are all pronounced . Another adjective is the rare or obsolete Northern English dialect form pursy meaning "fat" or "short-winded".[2]
Meanings of the verb relate to the common noun senses, including "to act like a cat", "to act like a coward", or "to have sex with a woman".[9] Adjective meanings are related to the noun.
Uses
Cat and similar
pussy refers to cats as well as other animals, including rabbits and hares. The wordrefers to cats as well as other animals, including rabbits and hares.
Both in English and in German puss was used as a "call-name" for cats, but in English pussy was used as a synonym for the word cat in other uses as well. In addition to cats, the word was also used for rabbits and hares as well as a humorous name for tigers. In the 19th century, the meaning was extended to anything soft and furry. Pussy willow, for example, is a name applied to various species in the genus Salix with furry catkins. In thieves' cant the word pussy means a "fur coat".[1]
The Oxford English Dictionary gives as the first meaning of the noun: "Chiefly colloq[uial]. A girl or woman exhibiting characteristics associated with a cat, esp[ecially] sweetness or amiability. Freq[uently] used as a pet name or as a term of endearment." The examples it cites from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries are not sexual. Another example, not cited by the OED, is one of the main characters of E. Nesbit's Five Children and It - Jane, nicknamed Pussy by her siblings.
The verb pussyfoot, meaning to walk softly or to speak in an evasive or cautious manner, may come from the adjective pussy-footed "having a cat-like foot", or directly from the noun pussyfoot. This word, first attested in the late nineteenth century, is related to both the "cat" and the "woman" meanings of pussy.[10]
Female genitalia
Woman wearing a "pussyhat"
In contemporary English, use of the word pussy to refer to women themselves is considered derogatory and demeaning, treating people as sexual objects.[11] As a reference to genitals or to sexual intercourse, the word is considered vulgar slang. Studies find the word used more commonly in conversations among men than in groups of women or mixed-gender groups, though subjects report using pussy more often than other slang terms for female genitals.[12] There are women seeking to reclaim the word[13] to symbolise sexual pleasure,[14] power,[15] and trust in their bodies (e.g. around childbirth).[16]
Donald Trump's use of the word to describe his interactions with women ("grab them by the pussy", known as the Access Hollywood tape) provoked strong reactions by media figures and politicians across the political spectrum; an image of a snarling cat with the slogan "pussy grabs back" became a "rallying cry for female rage against Trump".[17] Pink "pussyhats" (knitted caps with cat-like ears) were a notable feature of the worldwide protests held the day after Trump's inauguration as President of the United States.[18] The name attempts to reclaim the derogatory term[19][20] and was never intended to be an anatomical representation.[21]
Words referring to cats are used as vulgar slang for female genitals in some other European languages as well. Examples include German Muschi (literally "house cat"),[22] French chatte ("female cat", also used to refer to sexual intercourse),[23] and Dutch poes ("puss").[4] The Portuguese term rata (literally "female rat")[24] and Norwegian mus ("mouse")[25] are also animal terms used as vulgar slang for women's genitals.
Weakness
The word pussy is also used in a derogatory sense to mean cowardly, weak, or easily fatigued. The Collins Dictionary says: "(taboo, slang, mainly US) an ineffectual or timid person."[26] It may refer to a male who is not considered sufficiently masculine, as in: "The coach calls us pussies."[27]
Men who are dominated by women (particularly by their partners or spouses and at one time referred to as 'hen-pecked', see pecking order) can be referred to as pussy-whipped (or simply whipped in slightly more polite society or media).[citation needed] This may be used simply to denigrate a man who is contented in a relationship. The hyphenated phrase is parsed as "whipped by pussy", a manipulative relationship dynamic wherein a female deliberately or subconsciously withholds sexual intercourse to coerce the male into surrendering power in other aspects of the relationship. The male's weakness is his desire for access to female genitalia, and his willingness to weaken his position in the relationship to obtain that access, combining two uses of the word pussy.[citation needed]
Word-play between meanings
double entendre of "pussy". The Barrison Sisters lift their dresses to show a live kitten, aof "pussy".
Pussy is one of a large number of English words that has both erotic and non-erotic meanings. Such double entendres have long been used in the creation of sexual humor.[28] This double meaning of "pussy" has been used for over a hundred years by performers, including the late-19th-century vaudeville act the Barrison Sisters, who performed the notorious routine "Do You Want To See My Pussy?" in which they raised their skirts to reveal live kittens.[29]
In the British comedy Are You Being Served? the character Mrs. Slocombe often expressed concern for the welfare of her pussy. The double entendre made every reference to her cat seem to be a salacious and therefore humorous reference to her vulva.[30]
In the 2002 film 8 Mile a rapper insults his rivals by including the line, "How can six dicks be pussies?" The line relies on double meanings of both dick (either "contemptible person" or "male genitalia") and pussy ("weak" or "female genitalia"). Such word play presents a challenge for translators of the film.[31]
Pussy Riot is a Russian radical feminist punk rock collective that stages illegal events in Moscow protesting President Vladimir Putin and the status of women in Russian society. Band member "Kot" says that she knows how the word is used in English, and that it is also used in Russian as term of endearment for little girls. These various meanings create a tension with the word "riot", which the group likes.[32]
In 2017 Planned Parenthood released a series of short videos on YouTube about female sexual health, with the overall title "How to take care of your pussy". Instead of the word "pussy" being shown or spoken, a cat appears instead. The visuals consist mainly of cats, playing on the popularity of cat videos, with a voiceover by Sasheer Zamata. Refinery29 called it "a pretty genius metaphor"[33] and Metro said: "If there are two things left in this world that are inherently wonderful, it’s cats and vaginas. Don’t argue. It’s true.[...] It makes sense, then, that Planned Parenthood has decided to combine the two to create a truly splendid video series."[34] The series has been shortlisted for a Shorty Award.[35]
See also
Cunt, another old vulgarism for the vulva
References |
Ken Shamrock Roughs Up a Woman (Thought She Was a Man)
Ken Shamrock -- Accused of Battering Woman ... Thought She Was a Man
EXCLUSIVE
hall-of-famer-- one of the greatest MMA fighters ever -- has been accused of battering a woman at a California mall ... but Ken claims it was an honest mistake ... 'cause he thought she was a he.Shamrock -- whose nickname is "The World's Most Dangerous Man" -- was hangin' out at a mall in Modesto, CA last month when he saw two women fighting each other in front of the Coach store ... surrounded by a group of lookie loos filming the whole thing.We're told Shamrock dove into the scrap and tried to pry the women apart ... when one of the bystanders, a HEAVYSET bystander, jumped on his back and tried to rip Ken out of the pile.Shamrock's rep tells TMZ ... he threw the person off of his back and followed up with a move that knocked the attacker to the ground.After the person was incapacitated, the crowd shouted at Ken, "You just hit a girl." Ken took a closer look and realized the attacker was in fact a female .. so he immediately backed off.An officer arrived to the scene and took a battery report against Shamrock, noting the only injury was a slight abrasion to the woman's knee. The report was sent to the District Attorney's Office.But law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Shamrock probably won't be prosecuted because officials don't feel the woman he knocked to the ground is a "victim." In fact, they believe Ken was acting in self-defense.Shamrock's rep notes, "Outside the ring, Ken is not a violent man ... and was only trying to do the right thing." |
Mike Belshe, Wences Casares, Jihan Wu, Jeff Garzik, Peter Smith and Erik
Voorhees have called off segwit2x with Belshe stating:
“Our goal has always been a smooth upgrade for Bitcoin. Although we strongly believe in the need for a larger blocksize, there is something we believe is even more important: keeping the community together.
Unfortunately, it is clear that we have not built sufficient consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade at this time. Continuing on the current path could divide the community and be a setback to Bitcoin’s growth. This was never the goal of Segwit2x… we are suspending our plans for the upcoming 2MB upgrade.”
Jeff Garzik, lead developer of the segwit2x client, BTC1, stated:
“Btc1 project will continue the stated mission — a “Fedora for Bitcoin” — continuing as an alternate implementation, that supports Bitcoin, as well as other chains such as Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and other Bitcoin-family chains.”
Amaury Séchet, lead developer of Bitcoin Cash, stated:
“When deciding to decouple the segwit and 2MB upgrade, Charlie Shrem assured me that he would make sure this is not the outcome. Proof of Shrem is not a very solid consensus mechanism.”
Matt Corallo, a former Blockstream developer, now at ChainCode Labs, said:
“Lets take Segwit2x’s failure as a learning experience – Bitcoin’s community is strong, and needs to broadly support any changes to Bitcoin’s consensus rules. Future proposals must start by soliciting broad community feedback, not just an afterthought.”
The decision to call off segwit2x was unexpected without any hints given prior to its announcement just minutes ago. Bitcoin’s price initially jumped:
And then, soon after, it sort of crashed:
Most of bitcoin’s prominent businesses agreed back in May 2017 to upgrade the bitcoin network through segwit with a base blocksize increase (2x) to follow three months later.
However, as soon as segwit was locked-in, segwit2x was declared cancelled by Blockstream with a campaign then beginning against the base size increase.
That appears to have succeeded as far as the main bitcoin chain is concerned, with some big blockers forking off to their own Bitcoin Cash chain this August 1st 2017.
The ecosystem was preparing for another fork on November 16th, the segwit2x fork, but this last minute announcement now means that is not going ahead.
Bitcoin, therefore, will likely follow the settlement system, with the three years long debate now seemingly settled as all visions have their own projects to follow their own plans and implementations.
That may mean on-chain congestion will continue in bitcoin, as will high fees, with the Lightning Network now expected, as well as signature compression to add more space, potentially new sidechains, as the Bitcoin Core roadmap prevails.
As the mailing list might be under heavy demand and may not load for some we quote the full statement below:
“The Segwit2x effort began in May with a simple purpose: to increase the blocksize and improve Bitcoin scalability. At the time, the Bitcoin community was in crisis after nearly 3 years of heavy debate, and consensus for Segwit seemed like a distant mirage with only 30% support among miners. Segwit2x found its first success in August, as it broke the deadlock and quickly led to Segwit’s successful activation. Since that time, the team shifted its efforts to phase two of the project – a 2MB blocksize increase.
Our goal has always been a smooth upgrade for Bitcoin. Although we strongly believe in the need for a larger blocksize, there is something we believe is even more important: keeping the community together. Unfortunately, it is clear that we have not built sufficient consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade at this time. Continuing on the current path could divide the community and be a setback to Bitcoin’s growth. This was never the goal of Segwit2x.
As fees rise on the blockchain, we believe it will eventually become obvious that on-chain capacity increases are necessary. When that happens, we hope the community will come together and find a solution, possibly with a blocksize increase. Until then, we are suspending our plans for the upcoming 2MB upgrade.
We want to thank everyone that contributed constructively to Segwit2x, whether you were in favor or against. Your efforts are what makes Bitcoin great. Bitcoin remains the greatest form of money mankind has ever seen, and we remain dedicated to protecting and fostering its growth worldwide.
Mike Belshe, Wences Casares, Jihan Wu, Jeff Garzik, Peter Smith and Erik
Voorhees” |
Organizations are increasingly adopting agile software development methodologies through a combination of bottom-up adoption and top-down change. However, the reality of agile adoption has diverged from the original ideas described in the Agile Manifesto, with many adoptions resembling what Forrester labels water-Scrum-fall.
This happens in part because agile adoption has been practitioner-led, leading teams to focus on domains they can influence, mainly the team itself. Areas outside of their control, such as project planning and release management, continue to follow more-traditional approaches, meaning that Scrum adoption is limited to the development team. That team is presented with a detailed project plan and a set of requirements that it then works through, incrementally delivering software (but not to production) as the production release process runs at a different cadence.
While this model is not inherently bad, application development professionals need to carefully consider and make the right decisions about where the lines fall between water-Scrum and Scrum-fall. Otherwise, they are unlikely to realize agile’s business benefits, such as faster time-to-market, increased business value, and improved flexibility and responsiveness.
In recent research, Forrester offers the following advice to help organizations manage the water-Scrum and Scrum-fall boundaries to increase agility:
Water defines the upfront work
Governance rules require many organizations to define requirements and plans before starting work. In some companies, these plans form the basis of a contract between the business and IT that defines project direction, timeline and budget.
One vice president of development framed this in conversations with Forrester, saying: “We have to spend time upfront with the business building the requirements and plans to ensure that we know what they want, and they know how long it is going to take and how much it is going to cost. The problems start when the business does not know what they want or the architecture is new to us.”
Given these realities, it’s imperative that application development and delivery professionals push back on the water-Scrum side of the model. Spending too much time upfront will not increase the quality of the release; on the contrary, it is wasteful. Documents are a poor proxy for working software, and thus any documents created should be just enough to introduce the problem area and allow high-level planning and development work to commence. How many times have end users only understood the problem after they have seen a solution that was not quite right? Feedback late in the cycle tends to be less welcome, as the team has to balance the feedback with the significant cost of changing the application.
Scrum comes in the middle of the process
Scrum in particular has become popular; many teams are adopting its basic principles, such as daily meetings, the roles of product owner and Scrum master, and Scrum planning and retrospectives. Scrum’s success can be associated with many things, but in particular a strong focus on teams and team dynamics has attracted many people who feel that traditional approaches lack a real people focus. |
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With good news like this and more jobs for Americans, there is no denying America is on the rebound.
From Fox Business:
Wal-Mart Stores said it plans to create about 10,000 U.S. jobs this year, a sign that even the country’s largest private employer feels the need to tout American job growth ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. The jobs will come from previously planned store openings, store expansions and new e-commerce services, the company said Tuesday. The retailer said 24,000 additional construction jobs will be supported by those efforts. “With a presence in thousands of communities and a vast supplier network, we know we play an important role in supporting and creating American jobs,” Dan Bartlett, Wal-Mart executive vice president of corporate affairs, said in a press release. The announcement is the latest in a string of public displays from companies looking to head off criticism from the Trump administration about U.S. job losses. Last week Amazon.com Inc. promised to create 100,000 full-time jobs in the U.S. in the next 18 months mostly through expansion plans already in the works.
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Typical weather conditions in an Icelandic winter
The climate of Iceland is subarctic (Köppen climate classification: Cfc)[1] near the southern coastal area and tundra inland in the highlands. The island lies in the path of the North Atlantic Current, which makes its climate more temperate than would be expected for its latitude just south of the Arctic Circle. This effect is aided by the Irminger Current, which also helps to moderate the island’s temperature.[2] The weather in Iceland can be notoriously variable.[3]
The aurora borealis is often visible at night time during the winter. The midnight sun can be experienced in summer on the island of Grimsey off the north coast; the remainder of the country, since it lies just south of the polar circle, experiences a twilight period during which the sun sets briefly, but still has around 2 weeks of continuous daylight during the summer.
Seasons [ edit ]
Winters [ edit ]
The Icelandic winter is relatively mild for its latitude, owing to maritime influence, and enhanced by its proximity to warm currents of the North Atlantic Gyre. The southerly lowlands of the island average around 0 °C (32 °F) in winter, while the Highlands of Iceland tend to average around −10 °C (14 °F). The lowest temperatures in the northern part of the island range from around −25 to −30 °C (−13 to −22 °F). The lowest temperature on record is −39.7 °C (−39.5 °F).[4]
Summers [ edit ]
The average July temperature in the southern part of the island is 10–13 °C (50–55 °F). Warm summer days can reach 20–25 °C (68–77 °F).[4] The highest temperature recorded was 30.5 °C (86.9 °F) at the Eastern fjords in 1939. Annual average sunshine hours in Reykjavík are around 1300, which is similar to towns in Scotland and Ireland.[5]
Climate data for Reykjavík, Iceland (1961–1990) Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Average high °C (°F) 1.9
(35.4) 2.8
(37.0) 3.2
(37.8) 5.7
(42.3) 9.4
(48.9) 11.7
(53.1) 13.3
(55.9) 13.0
(55.4) 10.1
(50.2) 6.8
(44.2) 3.4
(38.1) 2.2
(36.0) 7.0
(44.6) Average low °C (°F) −3.0
(26.6) −2.1
(28.2) −2.0
(28.4) 0.4
(32.7) 3.6
(38.5) 6.7
(44.1) 8.3
(46.9) 7.9
(46.2) 5.0
(41.0) 2.2
(36.0) −1.3
(29.7) −2.8
(27.0) 1.9
(35.4) Source #1: Icelandic Meteorological Office[6] Source #2: All Icelandic weather station climatic monthly means[7]
Climate data for Akureyri, Iceland (1961–1990) Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Average high °C (°F) 0.9
(33.6) 1.7
(35.1) 2.1
(35.8) 5.4
(41.7) 9.5
(49.1) 13.2
(55.8) 14.5
(58.1) 13.9
(57.0) 9.9
(49.8) 5.9
(42.6) 2.6
(36.7) 1.3
(34.3) 6.7
(44.1) Average low °C (°F) −5.5
(22.1) −4.7
(23.5) −4.2
(24.4) −1.5
(29.3) 2.3
(36.1) 6.0
(42.8) 7.5
(45.5) 7.1
(44.8) 3.5
(38.3) 0.4
(32.7) −3.5
(25.7) −5.1
(22.8) 0.2
(32.4) Source #1: Icelandic Meteorological Office[6] Source #2: All Icelandic weather station climatic monthly means[7]
Winds and storms [ edit ]
Iceland, especially inland and during winter, is frequently subject to abrupt and dramatic changes in weather that can sharply reduce visibility, as well as rapidly increase wind speed and precipitation, and shift temperature.
The prevailing wind direction is easterly. Westerlies are very infrequent.[8] Generally, wind speeds tend to be higher in the highlands, but topographical features can aggravate winds and cause strong gusts in lowland areas. Wind speed in the lowlands reaches 18 m/s (40 mph) on 10-20 days per year but upwards of 50 days per year at places in the highlands.[4] The strongest measured 10 minute sustained wind speed is 62.5 m/s (140 mph) and strongest gust 74.2 m/s (166 mph).[9] Heavy dust storms can be generated by strong glacial winds, and can be very strong. Up to 10 t (9.8 long tons; 11.0 short tons) of material can be in motion per transect per hour. These storms are very frequent in the early summer in the arid highland areas north of the Vatnajökull glacier.[10]
Thunderstorms are extremely rare for any specific location in Iceland, with fewer than five storms per year in the southern part of the island. They are most common in early or late summertime. They can be caused by warm air masses coming up from the continent, or deep lows from the southwest in wintertime. Lightning can usually be observed in connection with ash plumes erupting from the island’s volcanoes.[11] Vortices, sometimes to the scale of tornadoes, also occur with volcanic eruptions. Landspouts and waterspouts occasionally are observed. Classic mesocyclone derived tornadoes (i.e. forming from supercells) are very rare, but have been observed. Any of these do occasionally cause damage, although the sparse population further reduces the probability of detection and the hazard risk.[12][13]
Atmospheric pressure [ edit ]
There is a persistent area of low pressure near Iceland known as the Icelandic Low, found between Iceland and Greenland. This area affects the amount of air brought into the Arctic to the east, and the amount coming out of the Arctic to the west.[14] It is part of a greater pressure system known as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).[15]
See also [ edit ] |
The Senate approved a stopgap spending bill on Thursday night, ensuring there will be no government shutdown days before Christmas and essentially completing a frenetic year on Capitol Hill — and the first under President 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.
Senators voted 66-32 to approve the roughly four-week continuing resolution (CR), which funds the government through Jan. 19, hours after it passed the House.
Seventeen Democrats voted for the measure, including several up for reelection next year in states carried by Trump such as Sens. Joe Donnelly Joseph (Joe) Simon DonnellyOvernight Energy: Trump taps ex-oil lobbyist Bernhardt to lead Interior | Bernhardt slams Obama officials for agency's ethics issues | Head of major green group steps down Trump picks ex-oil lobbyist David Bernhardt for Interior secretary EPA's Wheeler faces grilling over rule rollbacks MORE (Ind.), Claire McCaskill Claire Conner McCaskillPoll: 33% of Kentucky voters approve of McConnell McCaskill: Lindsey Graham 'has lost his mind' Trey Gowdy joins Fox News as a contributor MORE (Mo.) and Joe Manchin Joseph (Joe) ManchinTrump claims Democrats ‘don’t mind executing babies after birth’ after blocked abortion bill Democrats block abortion bill in Senate The Hill's Morning Report - A pivotal week for Trump MORE (W.Va.).
But leadership, including Minority Leader Charles Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerBrennan fires back at 'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview Harry Reid: 'I don't see anything' Trump is doing right MORE (D-N.Y.), as well as many of the party's potential 2020 contenders, opposed the bill.
Two Republicans, Mike Lee Michael (Mike) Shumway LeePush to end U.S. support for Saudi war hits Senate setback The Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times MORE (Utah) and Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulThe Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times The 10 GOP senators who may break with Trump on emergency MORE (Ky.), bucked their party and voted "no."
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The vote concludes a successful week for Republicans, who on Wednesday finished work on a sweeping tax-cut bill that marked the first major legislative win for Trump.
There were some hiccups along the way with the spending bill, but GOP leaders shepherded the legislation through both chambers on Thursday in part by arguing that it did not make sense to step on the party's successful message on taxes.
Defense hawks had pressed for more funding for the Pentagon. They wanted a deal that increased the spending ceilings for defense, and that would prevent automatic spending cuts scheduled to start at the end of next month without a new measure for the year.
Meanwhile, a coalition of progressive Democrats bucked the bill because lawmakers failed to get a deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program by the end of the year.
Democrats lined up on the Senate floor ahead of the vote to demand that Congress pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.
"Congress could show some courage and protect dreamers by passing a clean DREAM Act. We have waited too long already. ... So my question to Sen. [Mitch] McConnell [R-Ky.] is this: What are you waiting for?" asked Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann WarrenSanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' House to push back at Trump on border GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration MORE (D-Mass.), referring to the Senate majority leader.
Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) met with Schumer on Thursday afternoon to urge him to take a harder line in the immigration fight.
But Democratic leadership remained tight-lipped about if they would force a shutdown in the hours leading up to the Senate’s vote.
“We’re not going to address any of those things until we see what the House does,” Schumer told reporters during a press conference on Thursday.
Unlike in the House, where the stopgap bill passed with only Republican votes, GOP leadership needed the support of at least eight Democrats to get the 60 votes needed to overcome procedural hurdles. Speeding up the continuing resolution also required the agreement of every senator.
Preventing the shutdown will send GOP lawmakers and Trump off on their holiday breaks with a successful conclusion to a difficult year in which they struggled on legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare. Bickering between Trump and members of the Senate GOP conference was also common.
Still, Republicans will return in January to what could be a difficult set of challenges.
They will have to agree to legislation to keep the government open again before Jan. 19, and also face battles over the DACA program and two health-care bills that the White House and McConnell had promised to move in exchange for Sen. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsHouse to push back at Trump on border Hillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration MORE's support on the tax-cut bill.
The Maine Republican didn't get what was promised to her in December, but will be looking for results in January.
Passage of the continuing resolution comes after Senate Republicans were largely stuck in limbo as they waited for their House counterparts to agree on a bill that could pass the Senate.
Initially, Republicans were expected to add two bills aimed at fixing ObamaCare, sought by Collins, into the legislation once it reached the Senate. But they dropped that plan after it became clear that it couldn’t pass the House and as lawmakers were scrambling to get on the same page with a shutdown looming.
Asked on Thursday if they had the votes to pass the stopgap bill, Sen. John Cornyn John CornynHillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators Key senators say administration should ban Huawei tech in US electric grid Senate plots to avoid fall shutdown brawl MORE (R-Texas) fired back: “Does the House have the votes to pass the CR?”
The president also lashed out at House Democrats in a tweet earlier Thursday, saying they were trying to overshadow the GOP tax bill by forcing a shutdown.
“House Democrats want a SHUTDOWN for the holidays in order to distract from the very popular, just passed, Tax Cuts. House Republicans, don’t let this happen. Pass the C.R. TODAY and keep our Government OPEN!” Trump wrote.
The funding bill also includes a short-term extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), some spending “anomalies” for defense, a waiver for the pay-as-you-go budgetary rules so the GOP tax bill doesn’t trigger Medicare cuts and an extension of a controversial surveillance program.
The National Security Agency’s (NSA) warrantless surveillance program, which was set to expire on Dec. 31, allows the government to collect emails and text messages sent by foreign spies, terrorists and other foreign targets overseas. One section of the law, Section 702, has drawn criticism from privacy advocates because of the potential for U.S. citizens' communications to be swept up in the surveillance.
Congress has offered competing versions of legislation to extend and reform the program, but still needs to work out the differences between the bills.
And a bipartisan group of privacy hawks in the Senate, as well as the far-right House Freedom Caucus, warned that they would oppose including a long-term extension in the continuing resolution.
“Congress should not vote on any long-term reauthorization of Section 702 until both the House and Senate have fully debated meaningful reforms in 2018,” Paul and Lee said in a joint statement with Sens. Ron Wyden Ronald (Ron) Lee WydenSenate reignites blue slip war over Trump court picks Overnight Health Care — Presented by National Taxpayers Union — Top Dems call for end to Medicaid work rules | Chamber launching ad blitz against Trump drug plan | Google offers help to dispose of opioids Top Dems call for end to Medicaid work rules after 18,000 lose coverage in Arkansas MORE (D-Ore.) and Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph LeahySenate plots to avoid fall shutdown brawl Booker wins 2020 endorsement of every New Jersey Democrat in Congress The Hill's Morning Report - Can Bernie recapture 2016 magic? MORE (D-Vt.).
Meanwhile, Paul warned earlier Thursday that he would force a roll call vote on the funding bill because it included a waiver to raise the pay-go rules. But he failed to strip the waiver out of the legislation in a 91-8 vote.
“Calling all conservatives, libertarians, and anyone who believes in limited government: call your legislatures and say don’t exceed the budget caps,” Paul said in a tweet ahead of the vote.
Updated: 8:49 p.m. |
AP: COLUMBIA, S.C. After going AWOL for seven days, Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday that he'd secretly flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he'd been having an affair. He apologized to his wife and four sons and said he will resign as head of the Republican Governors Association.
"I've let down a lot of people, that's the bottom line," the 49-year-old governor said at a news conference where he choked up as he ruminated with remarkable frankness on God's law, moral absolutes and following one's heart. His family did not attend.
The woman, who lives in Argentina, has been a "dear, dear friend" for about eight years but, Sanford said, the relationship didn't become romantic until a little over a year ago. He's seen her three times since then, and his wife found out about it five months ago.
He told reporters he spent "the last five days of my life crying in Argentina" and the affair is now over. Sanford, a rumored 2012 presidential candidate, refused to say whether he'll leave office.
"What I did was wrong. Period," he said.
Questions about Sanford's whereabouts arose early this week. For two days after reporters started asking questions, his office had said he had gone hiking on the Appalachian Trial.
Cornered at the Atlanta airport by a reporter, Sanford revealed Wednesday morning that he'd gone to Argentina for a seven-day trip.
When news first broke about his mysterious disappearance, first lady Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press she did not know where her husband had gone for the Father's Day weekend.
Sanford's announcement came a day after another prominent Republican, Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, apologized to his GOP Senate colleagues after revealing last week that he had an affair with a campaign staffer and was resigning from the GOP leadership.
Sanford, first elected governor in 2002, has more than a year remaining in his second term and is barred by state law from running again.
He emerged Wednesday afternoon at a news conference and it took more than a few minutes into his address before he got to the crux of what had happened. He spoke of his love of hiking and how he used to guide trips along the Appalachian Trail _ and only then tearfully apologized to his wife, his staff and his friends.
"I hurt a lot of different folks," he said, occasionally choking up throughout the news conference that lasted about 20 minutes.
A former three-term congressman, Sanford most recently snared headlines for his unsuccessful fight to turn aside federal stimulus cash for his state's schools. His vocal battle against the Obama administration _ and libertarian, small-government leanings _ won praise from conservative pundits. Ultimately, a state court order required him to take the money.
Sanford was born May 28, 1960, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the eldest of four siblings. He earned a bachelor's degree in business from Furman University in 1983 and a master's of business administration from the University of Virginia in 1988.
After working for a couple of years in the financial world in New York, he returned to South Carolina and said he was shaped by his summers working on the family plantation. He served in the U.S. House for three terms before honoring a term limits pledge and leaving office in 2001.
In 2002, he defeated incumbent Democrat Jim Hodges by 4 percentage points to become governor and won re-election in 2006, beating Democratic state Sen. Tommy Moore. |
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu government to start counselling for admissions for MBBS and BDS seats in the state based on the NEET merit list and complete the process by 4 September.
A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra directed the state government to initiate the admission process after the Centre told the court that it was not in favour of the recent ordinance passed by Tamil Nadu to exempt it from the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) this year.
The apex court was hearing a plea filed by six students seeking a direction to the state government to conduct counselling for the medical seats solely on the basis of the merit list prepared on the basis of NEET marks.
The apex court had on 17 August put on hold till today, the counselling for the medical seats in state asking the MCI and the state government to find a balanced solution to deal with the interests of state board students and those who cleared NEET.
The plea had alleged that the Tamil Nadu ministers were bargaining with the central government for presidential assent for their proposed ordinance to exempt the Tamil Nadu students from NEET as a “quid pro quo for supporting the NDA candidates for the Presidential and Vice Presidential polls. |
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Miami Beach police said they found an stockpile of guns and ammunition in the apartment of man who threatened officers and city workers.
Miami Beach cops were glad to take Ricky Weinberger off the streets.
“There were over 16 firearms and 45 to 4,600 rounds of ammunition found in a very small apartment,” a state prosecutor announced in court Monday.
Police released a photo of the arsenal, which was a mix of assault rifles and handguns.
But what got Weinberger into big trouble was threatening Miami Beach city workers and police officers.
On December 28, 2016, a Miami-Dade judge Weinberger that he was not to have any contact with any Miami Beach police officers. The injunction included social media, email and text messages.
Yet Weinberger reportedly continued to harass officers with violent and vile threats on the phone to the police station, on social media and on a law enforcement website.
In court Monday, Weinberger refused to answer any questions.
“I need to speak to my attorney before anything happens. I have not met him yet, you are violating my rights, you are violating my rights, you are violating my rights!” he said.
Judge Mindy Glazer followed up by asking, “Do you have any money or property to pay for an attorney?”
“I’d like to speak to my attorney before I answer any questions,” he replied.
And though Glazer said he could answer that one question, Weinberger insisted he wasn’t going to answer any questions.
When beach cops took Weinberger down, he threatened to kill them. Those threats led Glazer to recommend Weinberger undergo a psychological evaluation. |
Columnist
It was the middle-finger salute seen around the world.
Juli Briskman's protest aimed at the presidential motorcade that roared past her while she was on her cycling path in Northern Virginia late last month became an instantly viral photo.
Turns out it has now cost the 50-year-old marketing executive her job.
On Halloween, after Briskman gave her bosses at Akima, a government contracting firm, a heads-up that she was the unidentified cyclist in the photo, they took her into a room and fired her, she said, escorting her out of the building with a box of her things.
"I wasn't even at work when I did that," Briskman said. "But they told me I violated the code-of-conduct policy."
Her bosses at Akima, who have not returned emails and calls requesting comment, showed her the blue-highlighted Section 4.3 of the firm's social-media policy when they canned her.
"Covered Social Media Activity that contains discriminatory, obscene malicious or threatening content, is knowingly false, create [sic] a hostile work environment, or similar inappropriate or unlawful conduct will not be tolerated and will be subject to discipline up to an [sic] including termination of employment."
[Flipping off President Trump has changed Juli Briskman’s life — and exposed our divisions]
But Briskman wasn't wearing anything that connected her to the company when she was on her ride, nor is there anything on her personal social-media accounts — where she wordlessly posted the photo without identifying herself — to link her to the firm.
She identifies herself as an Akima employee on her LinkedIn account but makes no mention of the middle-finger photo there.
Wait. It gets even more obscene.
Because Briskman was in charge of the firm's social-media presence during her six-month tenure there, she recently flagged something that did link her company to some pretty ugly stuff.
As she was monitoring Facebook this summer, she found a public comment by a senior director at the company in an otherwise civil discussion by one of his employees about the Black Lives Matter movement.
"You're a f------ Libtard a------," the director injected, using his profile that clearly and repeatedly identifies himself as an employee of the firm.
In fact, the person he aimed that comment at was so offended by the intrusion into the conversation and the coarse nature of it that he challenged the director on representing Akima that way.
So Briskman flagged the exchange to senior management.
Did the man, a middle-aged executive who had been with the company for seven years, get the old "Section 4.3" boot?
Nope. He cleaned up the comment, spit-shined his public profile and kept on trucking at work.
But the single mother of two teens who made an impulsive gesture while on her bike on her day off?
Adios, amiga.
[A cyclist flipped of f Trump’s motorcade and entered the annals of presidential protests]
Her mistake, said Bethesda lawyer Bradley Shear, who specializes in social-media issues, was her honesty.
"You can't see her face; she is totally unidentified in that picture," he said. "But once she identified herself to her employer, they had to consider that information."
The company takes into account how the image of an employee flipping off the president looks and whether it may draw negative attention or threats, said Shear, who has a blog devoted to such matters.
But what about the First Amendment?
That will save you from being punished by the government for your words, but it doesn't protect your paycheck, he said. "You can say whatever you want," he said. "You might not get jailed for what you say, but you might not get the job you want."
Briskman is not a strident activist.
In fact, after years of working all over the world as part of the nation's diplomatic corps, she's usually pretty reserved.
"I think I gave money for clean water once," she said.
During the Women's March the day after Trump's inauguration, she couldn't make it into Washington. Instead, she said, she stood in somber protest outside the CIA headquarters with a "Not My President" sign.
That day on her bike, she wasn't planning to make a statement.
She was feeling much like many other Americans who are frustrated with Trump's behavior and the way he has performed as president.
"Here's what was going through my head that day: 'Really? You're golfing again?' " Briskman said.
She had been pounding out her daily exercise, a little shorter than usual because she was still recovering from running the Marine Corps Marathon, when the phalanx of black cars passed her.
She'd been chewing on the state of the nation during her ride — imagining the devastation in Puerto Rico, furious that young immigrants brought to the United States as children could be deported, despondent over the deaths and devastation in Las Vegas, concerned about her friends in the diplomatic corps who said their daily job is now being the laughingstock of the world — when the presidential golfing procession interrupted her meditation.
"I was thinking about all this, tooling along, when I see the black cars come and I remember, oh, yeah, he was back on the golf course," she said.
So she did what millions of Americans do on the road every day.
Hail to the chief, resist-style.
But she couldn't just ride off. Or watch it whoosh away. The motorcade stopped, bisecting her usual route. She knew it wouldn't be wise to cut between the cars. And she didn't want to stay with her routine and look like she was stalking the motorcade when it turned where she usually turned. So she decided to change her route, and punctuated the final insult with another one-fingered salute.
She had no idea the sentiment had been snapped by photographer Brendan Smialowski for Agence France-Presse and Getty Images. And that night, it started popping up all over.
A few of her friends thought they recognized her, tagged her on the photo and asked.
"I said, 'Yeah, that's me. Isn't it funny?' " she said. Ha ha. And she posted it as her Facebook cover photo and her Twitter profile picture, so now her 24 Twitter followers could guess that it was her.
The next few days, though, it started getting nasty at the yoga studio, where she is a part-time instructor — something she does mention on Facebook. Some threatening emails came, Briskman said.
"They told the owner of the studio she should fire me," she said. So Briskman quickly removed mention of the studio and it was all back to ommm at the yoga place and in her life. She wasn't a celebrity. Only the back of her head and her hand were.
But knowing that connection had been made, Briskman wanted to make her bosses at Akima aware of the situation.
"It was just a heads-up," she said.
It didn't take long for her head to roll.
And now, heads are shaking.
Briskman has contacted the American Civil Liberties Union about the case.
Her bosses told her that they do support her First Amendment rights. But they wanted her to "be professional," she said.
Does Briskman regret that middle finger, that reflexive moment that wasn't all pussyhats and protest signs, that wasn't calculated resistance, but rather a totally relatable plain-old, working-woman, living-my-life, what-the-heck-is-going-on-in-our-world reaction?
Nope. "I'd do it again," she said.
Resist, sister.
Twitter: @petulad |
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One of the biggest questions I’ve been seeing this year are what the various reference codes mean on the IRS Where’s My Refund Tool. A lot of tax filers are getting IRS Reference Codes back, but don’t know what they mean and don’t know if they are in trouble.
For more information on WMR, check out When To Expect My Tax Refund Tax Calendar.
However, finding the IRS reference codes has also been one of the hardest things to track down this year, especially with all the changes to the way the IRS is processing refunds.
Anyway, here are the IRS Where’s My Refund Tool Reference codes. You read this chart by first looking for your code, then seeing what the error is. Each error has a specific set of steps that the IRS will follow, called Inquiry Response Procedure. Here is the list of what the IRM Codes mean.
Also, if you’re concerned about a generic message that says “Refer to Tax Topic 152”, all that means is check out these tips about getting your refund. Here is a link to Tax Topic 152.
We put together a list of common errors and issues, you can check it out here: IRS Where’s My Refund Common Questions.
IRS Tax Refund Reference Codes
1001 – Refund paper check mailed more than 4 weeks ago
1021 – BFS part offset, check mailed more than 4 weeks ago (contact BFS at 1-800-304-3107)
1061 – BFS part offset, direct deposit more than 1 week ago (contact BFS at 1-800-304-3107)
1081 – IRS full or partial offset, paper check mailed more than 4 weeks ago
1091 – IRS full or partial offset, direct deposit more than one week ago
1101 – No data, taxpayer filed paper return more than 6 weeks ago
1102 – No data, taxpayer filed electronic return more than 3 weeks ago
1121 – Problem identified; P-Freeze (We’ve discovered that this is typically a typo on the return)
1141 – Refund delayed liability on another account (this means you owe a government entity money)
1161 – Refund delayed, bankruptcy on account
1181 – Refund delayed, pulled for review, not within 7 cycles conduct account analysis
1201 – All other conditions not covered by a status code conduct account analysis
1221 – Refund delayed, pulled for review, within 7 cycles conduct account analysis
1241 – Paper return received more than 6 weeks ago; in review, notice for additional information will be received
1242 – Electronic return received more than 3 weeks ago; –E Freeze; in review, notice for additional information will be received
1261 – Paper return received more than 6 weeks ago; –Q Freeze; in review, notice for additional information will be received
1262 – Electronic return received more than 3 weeks ago; -Q Freeze; in review, notice for additional information will be received
1301 – Fact of Filing Electronic return received more than 3 weeks ago; no other information See IRM 21.4.1.3.1.2, Return Found/Not Processed
1341 – Refund delayed, liability on another account
1361 – Refund withheld for part/full payment of another tax liability
1381 – Refund withheld for part/full payment of another tax liability
1401 – Refund withheld for part/full payment of another tax liability
1421 – Refund delayed bankruptcy on account; -V Freeze; more than 8 weeks
1441 – Refund delayed, SSN, ITIN or Name mismatch with SSA/IRS; return posted to Invalid Segment
1461 – Taxpayer is advised their refund check was mailed undelivered by the Postal Service. Taxpayer is provided the option to update their address online. Check account to determine if the taxpayer changed their address online. If address is changed, advise taxpayer their request is being processed. If taxpayer did not change their address, follow instructions in IRM 21.4.3.4.3, Undeliverable Refund Checks.
1481 – Refund delayed, return Unpostable
1501 – Direct Deposit between 1 and 2 weeks ago, check with bank, file check claim
1502 – Direct Deposit more than 2 weeks ago, check with bank, file check claim
1521 – No data, paper return taxpayer filed more than 6 weeks ago; TIN not validated
1522 – No data, taxpayer filed electronic return more than 3 weeks ago; TIN not validated
1541 – Offset Overflow freeze set when offset storage within IDRS is not large enough to hold all generated transactions, or credit balance has been completely offset and two or more debit modules still exist
1551 – Frivolous Return Program freeze
1561 – Excess credit freeze set when the taxpayer claims fewer credits than are available
1571 – Erroneous refund freeze initiated
1581 – Manual refund freeze with no TC 150, or, return is Coded CCC “O” and TC 150 posted without TC 840
2007/2008 – Taxpayer’s check returned undelivered by the Postal Service and taxpayer does not meet Internet Refund Fact of Filing (IRFOF) eligibility. For example account may have an additional liability, or a freeze code other than S-. Analyze account and take appropriate action.
2009 – Taxpayer’s check returned undelivered by the Postal Service and taxpayer does not meet IRFOF eligibility. Taxpayer does not pass disclosure through IRFOF due to lack of data on IRFOF.
2015 – Savings bond request denied – partial offset – more than 3 weeks from refund date
2016 – Savings bond request denied – total offset
2017 – Savings bond request allowed – more than 3 weeks from refund date
5501 – Split direct deposit – partial offset – more than 2 weeks from refund date
5510 – Split direct deposit – returned by the bank – check mailed – with partial offset
5511 – Split direct deposit – returned by the bank – check mailed
8001 – Paper return taxpayer filed more than 6 weeks ago, failed authentication
8002 – Electronic return taxpayer filed more than 3 weeks ago, failed authentication
9001 – Where’s My Refund System Error. Before you freak out and leave a comment, read our full article on IRS Code 9001 and What It Really Means?
9021 – Reference Code for all math error conditions Analyze account and follow appropriate IRM
9022 – Math error on return. Direct deposit more than 1 week ago Analyze account and follow appropriate IRM
9023 – Math error on return. Refund paper check mailed more than 4 weeks ago Analyze account and follow appropriate IRM
9024 – Math error on return. Balance due more than $50 Analyze account and follow appropriate IRM
If You Get a Reference Code on Your WMR
If you check Where’s My Refund (WMR) and see you have a reference code, you should identify the code and see if any action is required.
In many cases, no action is required on your part. One of the most common codes is 9001, which, as you can see, just means you accessed WMR using a different SSN or TIN. Once the IRS analyzes to ensure no fraud has taken place, you will get your return like normal.
If there is an issue, the IRS will typically send you a letter to your mailing address within 90 days stating what the issue was, and any additional information required.
If you have any questions, you can call the IRS directly at 800-829-1040. |
Hamilton Nolan is upset that rich people buy up apartments in New York City and do not really use them. He proposes putting an end to this practice by taxing owners of unoccupied apartments 20% of the apartment's market value. But there is a better way forward: tax NYC land rents.
As Nolan points out, one of the main reasons rich people buy up apartments in NYC (that they do not then live in) is for speculative investment reasons. They are hoping to increase their wealth by flipping the apartment in the future after the price of it has climbed up and up. If you can attack these speculative returns, you can blow up this entire game.
The easiest and most comprehensive way to attack these speculative returns is not a tax on unoccupied apartments. It is a complete tax on speculative housing returns, which is what taxing land rents would entail.
The price of an apartment roughly consists of two things: the value of the physical structure and the value of the location. Since the value of the physical structure does not generally increase over time (unless it is changed in some way), it is only an increase in the value of the location that causes apartment values in NYC to increase. Speculators are not banking on on the value of the aging physical structure of the apartment going up. They are banking on the value of the location going up.
We can conceptually distinguish, then, between the annual rental value of the physical structure of the apartment and the annual rental value of the land it sits on (it's location). When you rent or buy and apartment, these two things are squished together into one price, but they can be separated out. If you separate them out, you can tax the annual rental value of the land at very high rates (ideally 100%). This would operate just like a property tax, except it would be assessed only on the land value.
If you tax land rents in this manner, then increases in the value of the location of an apartment (aka the value of the land) does not translate into speculative returns for its owner. This is because, under such a land value tax regime, any increase in the rental value of the land is entirely captured by an identical increase in the land tax assessed to the owner. This means that when owners go to sell their apartments to a new buyer, that buyer will not be willing to pay the owner more money for it. Any gain in the value of the apartment (which would cause the buyer to be willing to pay more for it) is entirely offset by the tax liability that comes along with owning the place.
What this move essentially does is ensure that the public (through taxation) captures any of the speculative gains that come from the value of a location increasing. This would blow up the investment strategy of buying and holding NYC apartments, which should significantly cut down on the number of vacant units. |
Health Canada has approved the immediate opening of a downtown supervised safe injection site to combat the opioid crisis in Toronto, but it’s not nearly enough, according to one of the founders of an unsanctioned pop-up site at Moss Park. “It’s not a crisis response,” registered nurse Leigh Chapman said.
Neighbourhood resident Clifford checks out a Naloxone kit he was given at the Moss Park pop-up safe-injection site on Aug. 14, 2017. With an epidemic of overdose deaths, a group of harm reduction workers opened the site inside a tent in Toronto's Moss Park. ( Richard Lautens / Toronto Star )
“I think it’s great that they have accelerated the opening of the sanctioned safe injection sites,” Chapman said. “It would be great if they could expand their hours and have much longer hours than we have.” She said there are no plans to shut down the Moss Park pop-up site, which runs seven days a week, with volunteers working from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. “We can’t abandon these people who are visiting our tent in Moss Park,” Chapman said. “We are building trust and allowing them the opportunity to feel safe with volunteers who care about their wellbeing. The city should care too.”
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More details on the facility at 277 Victoria St., near Yonge and Dundas St., are expected from the Medical Officer of Health on Monday morning. The interim site there has approval to run until at least Feb. 28, according to Health Canada. The Moss Park group has received funding from a GoFundMe campaign In addition to supervising injections, it has handed out more than 200 kits of naloxone to block the affects of opioids. Toronto Mayor John Tory met this month with harm reduction workers to talk about how to respond to the city’s opioid problem. Health Canada has already approved safe injection sites at the South Riverdale Community Health Centre and at the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, but those sites remain closed pending renovations.
About 2,400 opioid-related overdose deaths were reported in Canada in 2016. Chapman said her group has successfully responded to five overdoses.
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“Generally, every day we see 12 to 25 people,” Chapman said. “These are people that are injecting in the medical tents.” Volunteers take daily walks through Moss Park looking for discarded drug-injection kits and reaching out to drug users, she said. “We’ve reached out to a place where there is open drug use and the population there is underserved,” Chapman said. The problem comes as heroin, which is grown from poppies and illegally imported, is laced with fentanyl, which is laboratory produced and has high potency. “People are overdosing in alleys,” Chapman said. “They just don’t know what they’re taking.” Chapman praised the response by police to the Moss Park clinic. “We’ve had a ton of police support and community support,” Chapman said. “They were amazing. Very supportive.” |
The L.A.-based band is creating a stir with debut album 'In a Tidal Wave of Mystery.'
Ryan Merchant and Sebu Simonian of the band Capital Cities. (Photo11: ) Story Highlights Capital Cities have just released debut album 'In a Tidal Wave of Mystery'
The duo's hit single is 'Safe and Sound'
They're on tour, wrapping Nov. 2 in Los Angeles
A match made on Craigslist: When Sebu Simonian placed an ad on Craigslist seeking work as a music producer in 2008, he found not only a job, but also his music soulmate. "Ryan (Merchant) was the only person to respond to the ad, actually," says Simonian. "We just had this creative chemistry and kept working together on commercials for two or three years."
While making music for companies like Wal-Mart and Home Depot afforded the Los Angeles-based duo reprieve from the usual emerging artist pitfalls (surviving on Ramen noodles and Taco Bell, living in group houses), Merchant, 32, and Simonian, 34, took their partnership to the next level in 2010, when they became Capital Cities. "Our songwriting and production methods are quite experimental. One of us will come up with a melody or drum pattern, then the other adds another layer," says Simonian. "But overall, I'd say that we write timeless songs produced in a fun and danceable way."
Arriving Safe and Sound: Their playful fusion of pop, rock and EDM made its way around the Web, building a loyal fan base. "We did it all ourselves the first two years; we injected our music into the blogosphere and got positive reviews, and then that led to word of mouth, and that led to us getting on the radio," Simonian says. Hit single Safe and Sound, off the duo's first full-length album, In a Tidal Wave of Mystery, is perched at No. 2 on USA TODAY's alternative airplay charts.
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Spreading optimism: "Safe and Sound is an ode to humanity and all living things. We want people to recognize that life can be good, things are getting better," says Simonian. In that spirit, Capital Cities are busy sharing the love on a headlining tour aptly titled Dancing With Strangers. They've got a handful of festivals on their itinerary before they wrap up in Los Angeles on Nov. 2, including Firefly, Osheaga and Summerfest.
All roads lead to music: While Merchant grew up in San Francisco, obsessing over Michael Jackson's Thriller, Simonian's family settled in Los Angeles in 1985. Born in Syria to Armenian parents, Simonian spent the first six years of his life living in Lebanon. To escape the Lebanese civil war, the family found its way to L.A. Despite their wildly different backgrounds, Simonian and Merchant shared the same single-minded goal: a career in music. "I started my first band when I was 15 and never looked back," says Simonian.
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Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/125qnWM |
Tourists in the far eastern Russian Arctic spotted some 200 polar bears in September roaming on a mountain slope where they had feasted on a whale carcass, but scientists see the gathering as a sign of the Arctic changing
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Moscow (AFP)
A boatload of tourists in the far eastern Russian Arctic thought they were seeing clumps of ice on the shore, before the jaw-dropping realisation that some 200 polar bears were roaming on the mountain slope.
"It was a completely unique situation," said Alexander Gruzdev, director of the Wrangel Island nature reserve where the encounter in September happened. "We were all gobsmacked, to be honest."
The bears had come to feast on the carcass of a bowhead whale that washed ashore, later resting around the food source. The crowd included many families, including two mothers trailed by a rare four cubs each, Gruzdev told AFP.
Climate change means ice, where polar bears are most at home, is melting earlier in the year and so polar bears have to spend longer on land, scientists say.
This might wow tourists but means the bears, more crammed together on coasts and islands, will eventually face greater competition for the little food there is on land.
Locals are also at risk from hungry animals venturing into villages.
Wrangel Island, off the coast of Russia's Chukotka in the northeast, is where polar bears rest after ice melts in early-August until November, when they can leave land to hunt for seals.
It is also considered the birthing centre for the species, with the highest density of maternity dens in the entire Arctic, Gruzdev said.
"A whale is a real gift for them," he said. "An adult whale is several tens of tonnes" that many bears can feed on for several months.
Studies have shown that, compared with 20 years ago, polar bears now spend on average a month longer on Wrangel Island because "ice is melting earlier and the ice-free period is longer," said Eric Regehr, from the University of Washington, the lead American scientist on the US-Russian collaborative study of Wrangel Island polar bears.
Changing ice conditions could also be responsible for the increasing number of bears flocking there, Regehr said.
This autumn, the number of bears observed was 589, far exceeding previous estimates of 200-300, he said, calling it "anomalously high".
The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates there are about 26,000 polar bears in the Arctic, with a long-term "potential for large reductions" due to ice loss.
Ice is key as polar bears hunt exclusively on the ice surface, often staking out seals by their breathing holes.
- Nothing can replace seals -
Regehr said the polar bear population in the shared US-Russian Chukchi Sea "appears to be productive and healthy" at the moment, but as time spent on land continues to increase, the bears' nutrition and body condition will be affected.
"The question is at what point the population will begin to experience negative effects, is that at one and a half months (more time on land than normal), two months, more?" he asked.
"We don't know exactly, but there is a threshold somewhere in the future."
Despite some food sources on land -- including musk oxen, lemmings, or even grass -- nothing can completely replace the energy-packed seals that bears have evolved to rely on.
"They are resourceful and adaptable animals, and some bears will probably find something to eat, but the number of bears we currently have in the Arctic definitely cannot be sustained on land," Regehr said.
That made the image of hundreds of bears around the whale carcass both impressive and concerning, he said.
"There is evidence that it foreshadows the future: larger numbers spending more time on the island and ultimately less time on the sea ice with fewer prey, with a negative cascade of effects."
- Moving walruses -
One effect is the increasing chance of conflict between polar bears and humans, for example in native Chukchi settlements, all of which are located on the coast.
Since mid-October, polar bears have been coming dangerously close to a Chukotka village called Ryrkaipy, which is located near Kozhevnikov Cape, an important site for walrus gatherings, or haulouts, that lies about 200 kilometres (about 124 miles) south of Wrangel Island.
With changing ice conditions, walruses can be forced to come ashore in steep unsuitable areas.
This year, hundreds died as the huge animals crushed one another, possibly after being disturbed by a predator, said Viktor Nikiforov, a polar bear specialist and coordinator of Marine Mammals expert centre.
The problem is that some walrus corpses then floated to the village, attracting polar bears. "One bear broke the window of a house," Nikiforov said.
The village went on high alert, forbade children to walk to school and cancelled some public events, reports said.
Nikiforov said scientists and locals used bulldozers to move walrus corpses away from the village. He echoed concerns that bears spend more time ashore as the ice-free period becomes longer.
"The concentration of people and animals in one area increases and there is conflict," he said.
"We cannot stop climate change, but we can sort out the situation on the shore and make life easier for the bears," he said, referring to measures such as bear patrols to minimise conflict with humans.
"With changes in nature, that has to be attended to."
© 2017 AFP |
This page provides Frequently Asked Questions that define gathers and their role in the NSL community. After the FAQ, rules and expectations are stated, along with solutions and punishments that are relevant to player conduct during gathers.
FAQ
Q: So what are gathers?
A: Gathers are pick-up games where you can sign up to play a competitive 6v6 NS2 game with other players from the league.
Q: Does one need to be good to play in these gathers?
A: Anyone who understands basic English and is willing to listen is welcome to join. Sometimes experienced players can get a bit frustrated with beginners but it’s okay, we've all been through that path before, it’s nothing personal. :-)
Q: Why would I play these games instead of public games?
A: Because these games are much more demanding, and arguably more fun. You can get a taste of what NS2 used to be as a competitive game, pinnacle of FPS games. Nearly all players who play gathers regularly prefer them over public. Gather games tend to be more balanced, too, as captains pick the teams and admins might intervene to avoid boring walkovers.
Q: Why would I not play these games?
A: Possibly either of because of some personalities you'll come across or, you're not interested in playing this game as seriously as some players still do. Depending which kind of team you end up playing with, you'll have to put more or less effort into the game, more likely the former.
Q: What do I need before I join?
A: Teamspeak3 and working copy of NS2. Also you might need some tolerance for extended waiting.
Q: So how do I join?
A: Click here and follow the instructions. It’s important you get yourself to Teamspeak and the game server, we can guide you through the rest of the stuff.
Q: I got banned from the server after I registered, WTF is this?
A: You need to sign up to a gather, and wait until it starts, not join a game in progress. Don't worry, it’s just a temporary ban (if there even was one).
***
Breaking rules can be punished with warnings and bans, according to the discretion of gather moderators. In the case that no moderator is present, a timestamped video or screenshot is needed as evidence. Testimony from a majority of present players may be used as evidence.
Font Scheme
Rule
[S]olution
[P]unishment
Before a Gather
1. Play until the end with the Steam ID that appears on your NSL profile.
[P] Not showing up to a gather, and not taking appropriate steps to find a replacement player, can result in a ban from gathers. See the following Rule 2 for further details.
2. If you cannot play, get a substitute, known as a merc, to replace you in the gather.
Be sure to clearly identify the merc will be, such as in the game server, teamspeak, and gather page chat.
[S] Ask all the Gatherplayers to actively help finding a substitute player.
[P] A warning will be issued, with a possible ban.
Basic Expectations from Gather Players
3. Act with courtesy, respect, and decent sportsmanship.
See ENSL Rules section 3 (Code of Conduct) for further details.
[P] A warning will be issued, with a possible ban.
4. Speak in a language all your teammates understand, preferrably English.
[P] A warning will be issued, with a possible ban.
5. Pick wisely and quickly as captain.
[P] A warning will be issued, with a possible ban.
6. Players are expected to play a role or lifeform that is stated on their gather page icons. Player preferences are to be respected.
[S] The icons next to a player's gather profile designates their role and lifeform preferences. Please keep these icons up to date.
[P] Not having an up-to-date gather profile can mislead captains and undermine team organization, resulting in a warning and possible ban.
7. Join the ENSL TeamSpeak + NS2 Server in less than 10 Min.
[S] If you are later than 10 minutes you may be replaced.
[P] Lateness results in a warning and possible ban.
During a Gather
8. Listen to your Captain, Commander and teammates, in that order. Effective communication is needed during gameplay, with microphone usage on TeamSpeak preferred at all times.
[S] Adjust your TeamSpeak setting so that you can hear your teammates throughout the round.
[P] If a player refuses to play and listen to their teammates, or has ineffective communication, a warning will be issued, and a ban is possible.
9. Don't join the next gather until the existing gather is clearly over and the "Marines/Aliens Win" logo is shown.
[P] Joining a gather too early will get you removed, along with a 3 minute timeout. |
Researchers have created an elegant and affordable new way to build a material with powerful capacities for energy storage.
For the past several years, scientists at George Washington University's Institute for Nanotechnology have been learning how to synthesize graphene, a sheetlike, orderly network of carbon atoms so thin that its third dimension is almost undetectable. Until recently, they had focused on synthesizing "nanotubes," tiny curls of graphene that are strong conductors of electricity. But in 2010, says Michael Keidar, the institute's director and an author of Tuesday's report, "We tried to grow nanotubes and we accidentally grew graphene" sheets at the same time.
Since the nanotubes and sheets have complementary properties that are valuable for energy storage, the researchers spent the next four years perfecting their accident to create the two materials simultaneously. What they made is a messy but powerful jumble of the two, which can be painted directly onto paper.
Graphene sheets and nanotubes come from the same raw material: solid graphite that is heated to become a gas and then a plasma. Cradled within a magnetic field, the plasma bundle releases jets of material that precipitate as either sheets or tubes, depending on the field.
By applying a non-uniform magnetic field, the scientists were able to make the plasma release jets containing both fully-formed nanotubes and still-fluid plasma that forms graphene on contact with a surface. This mixture, either painted or printed onto sheets of paper, becomes an ultracapacitor: two plates which hold large amounts of energy between them in an electric field.
"Generally speaking, [nanotubes] and graphene both have unique and excellent electronic, thermal, and mechanical properties," states the report, published April 22 in the Journal of Applied Physics. Of the two materials, graphene sheets have a higher surface area, which translates to higher energy storage capacity, and lower resistance, which means that electricity skates more freely across it. But graphene flakes don't necessarily form a cohesive surface alone.
"The nanotubes interconnect this entire network," says Dr. Keidar. Thanks to their stickiness and the graphene's many excellent qualities, he says, "the power per unit volume would be larger" than a capacitor made out of either material alone.
It would be cheaper, too, since the team has figured out how to produce a ready-made blend of the two materials, in one single step – no mixing or purifying needed.
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Ultracapacitors are great at delivering quick bursts of power, and they are far more durable than chemical batteries. But until now, their high cost and low storage capacity have prevented them from replacing batteries.
The work of Keidar and his colleagues stands to make them both smaller and cheaper. "That's what makes it very exciting," he says. |
Viral Video: Could Apple’s Patent Suits Take Down “Star Trek” Enterprise?
As the world tries to figure out the impact of Apple’s massive court win over Samsung, a new video imagines what might happen if the company asserted its rights over the spaceship on “Star Trek.”
The parody video sees a bleak world for the Starship Enterprise, as key features are crippled due to Apple’s massive intellectual property holdings. Between Siri and Apple’s gesture patents, it seems Apple’s hold extends beyond the smartphone space and into outer space.
While “Star Trek” may not have a role in the case, Samsung did try to use another science-fiction flick as an example of prior art in the Apple case.
However, Judge Lucy Koh put the kibosh on using “2001: A Space Odyssey” as an example of a pre-iPad tablet.
Apple versus Samsung Full Coverage |
BANGKOK — Thailand and New Zealand sound like the best places for prostitutes in Asia and the South Pacific, because they don’t face the repressive laws that exist in the rest of the region, according to a new U.N. report that calls for the decriminalization of the voluntary sex trade.
The worst countries to be caught possessing a condom while appearing to work as a prostitute include China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
In those countries, an unused condom can be used as evidence that a person is an illegal sex worker.
Renting bodies for money in Asia also involves niche demographics.
On the Indian subcontinent, for example, so-called “flying” sex workers are people, such as students, who work part time.
Organizations focusing on prostitution, HIV/AIDS and related legal problems discussed these and other issues at a recent meeting in Bangkok, where they discussed the U.N. study “Sex Work and the Law in Asia and the Pacific.”
“Nearly all countries of Asia and the Pacific criminalize some aspects of sex work, … [but] criminalization increases vulnerability to HIV,” said Cherie Hart, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Development Program (UNDP), describing the dangers of contracting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
The report called for the decriminalization of prostitution because it found “no evidence from countries of Asia and the Pacific” that outlawing the sex trade has prevented HIV epidemics among sex workers and their clients.
The report also called for euphemisms.
“The terms ‘prostitution’ and ‘prostitute’ have negative connotations and are considered by advocates of sex workers to be stigmatizing,” said the 210-page report, authored by Australian human rights lawyer John Godwin.
“The term ‘sex work’ is preferred,” said the report, issued by the UNDP, the U.N. Population Fund, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and several nongovernmental organizations across Asia.
New Zealand and Australia’s New South Wales province are models of how decriminalization of prostitution boosted condom use and slowed the spread of HIV, resulting in “extremely low or nonexistent” transmission of sexual diseases among prostitutes, said the report.
“I would like to be a sex worker in New Zealand,” said Mandeep Dhaliwal, director of the UNDP’s HIV, Health and Development Practice, when asked which countries in Asia were the best places for them to earn a living as a prostitute.
Thailand is also a relatively safe place to be a prostitute. Although prostitution is illegal, authorities usually ignore the sex trade, enabling many upmarket Thai and foreign sex workers to enjoy higher wages, cleaner environments and less hassle compared with elsewhere in Asia, said Chantawipa Apisuk, who directs Empower, a Thai foundation led by prostitutes.
“In Thailand, although it’s illegal, it’s still open, and a lot of people, my friends, are working,” she added.
Sex workers should enjoy the same labor conditions as factory workers or entertainers, said Ms. Chantawipa, who wore a T-shirt emblazoned with her favorite slogan: “Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere.”
The report also studied call girls, street walkers and brothels and found that, in many Asian countries, they were “illegal, illegal, illegal,” said the report.
Problems are exacerbated when reformers and authorities voice shrill warnings about human-trafficking and forcibly “rescue” prostitutes who do not want to be “saved,” the report said.
“The language of some international and regional instruments have either implied a strong link between trafficking and sex work, or conflated these concepts,” it said, referring to local laws, international agreements and other formal legal arrangements.
Anti-trafficking laws should focus on minors in the sex trade and victims coerced or deceived into prostitution but not voluntary sex workers, the report said.
“Often, sex workers are portrayed as passive victims who need to be saved. Assuming that all workers are trafficked denies the autonomy and [choice] of people who sell sex,” the report said.
Prostitutes “rescued” against their will, often suffer an immediate and devastating loss of income.
Their colleagues, also working voluntarily, then often hide from authorities and end up in worse conditions where they are exploited and more vulnerable to HIV infection, the report said, adding that arresting customers is also a failed strategy.
“The UNAIDS Advisory Group on Sex Work has noted that there is no evidence that [anti-prostitution] initiatives reduce sex work or HIV transmission, or improve the quality of life of sex workers,” it said.
The report called “compulsory detention of sex workers, for the purpose of ‘rehabilitation’ or ‘re-education’” a “highly punitive approach” used in China, India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
“In some countries, rehabilitation centers are used as a source of free or cheap labor,” it said.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. |
Sony Pictures Image works is moving staff from its Los Angeles headquarters to its Vancouver studio, according to Variety.
The magazine reports that about three dozen employees, mostly from the software development department, will be relocating, although Sony has not officially stated how many people will be affected.
The company is offering relocation expenses to the staff, while those who do not choose to relocate will likely lose their jobs, according to Variety.
"As part of this process, we are transitioning a percentage of our technology teams to our Vancouver, B.C. studio in order to provide greater support to our artist community and remain cost competitive," Sony said in a statement issued exclusively to Variety. "Sony Pictures Imageworks is committed to our headquarters in Los Angeles and we have a healthy slate of projects through 2014 including Columbia Pictures' The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Warner Bros.' Edge of Tomorrow."
Variety also reported that staffers expect wider layoffs to come both in L.A. and in Vancouver, and that the company is seeking to trim costs by $250 million.
No one from the Vancouver studio was available to comment Wednesday.
However, Brent Greening, visual effects supervisor and a senior instructor at Vancouver Film School, said he is not concerned about layoffs at the Vancouver studio.
Greening said the local visual effects industry is about to explode, with more companies moving in and existing ones expanding. He didn't want to disclose any specifics before the companies made official announcements. "You are going to see a lot of companies cash in on the talent here in Vancouver. We have a big talent base and we are very international," he said.
"Vancouver is becoming one of the hubs for VFX. The tax incentives are good and the talent is awesome."
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said he was pleased to hear Imageworks will be increasing its presence in the city.
"Our digital media sector is booming, and the jobs and innovation taking root in our city are keeping Vancouver's economy strong," Robertson said, in an email.
Robertson said he had met with senior executives at Imageworks on a recent business mission to Los Angeles, adding that it was clear they were aware of the business advantages of operating in Vancouver.
Last February, Sony Pictures Imageworks announced it was doubling its Vancouver workspace for visual effects and digital animation.
Greening said Imageworks hired staff mainly from Vancouver when it expanded. "There's not enough people to fill the spots. If companies were to hire everyone who came in, they still wouldn't have a full workforce. It's just expanding that rapidly."
Visual effects are a boom industry in Vancouver, with nearly all of the world's major company's establishing studios here in recent years and creating more than 2,200 local jobs. Other significant effects companies to set up shop in Vancouver include Digital Domain and MPC. Another local firm, Gener8, a company that converts traditional film to 3D, recently hired seven students before they graduated, Greening said. The hires follow an announcement by that company that it would be expanding by 80 employees.
[email protected] with a file from Scott Simpson |
Hawaii lawmakers are considering decriminalizing prostitution in the state after the speaker of the House introduced a bill that would also legalize buying sex and acting as a pimp.
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Hawaii lawmakers are considering decriminalizing prostitution in the state after the speaker of the House introduced a bill that would also legalize buying sex and acting as a pimp.
The proposal also would end a state law that says police officers cannot have sex with prostitutes in the course of investigations.
Transgender activist Tracy Ryan said she is trying to convince state lawmakers to pass the bill because transgender women are overrepresented in the sex trade and therefore disproportionately affected by criminalization laws.
House Speaker Joseph Souki said in an interview that he does not have a position on the bill and he introduced it as a favor for Ryan.
“I don’t like seeing people sent to jail that don’t belong there,” Ryan said.
But longtime anti-sex-trafficking advocate Kathryn Xian said that legalizing the selling, promoting or buying of sex would make it harder to police the industry.
“If this bill passes and everything was no crime whatsoever, then abuses against women and children would just shoot through the freaking roof,” Xian said. “It would be exponentially harder to prove violence in the industry. It would be almost impossible to prove any sort of labor abuse.”
Asked about the part of the bill that strikes language preventing police from having sex with prostitutes during investigations, Souki said: “No, again I have nothing to say about the bill.”
Hawaii has an unusual history with prostitution investigations. Until 2014, it was legal for police officers to have sex with prostitutes as part of investigations, but state lawmakers changed that after The Associated Press highlighted the loophole in a story.
The Honolulu Police Department did not immediately respond to a telephone message seeking comment about the bill.
Ryan wants to preserve the law preventing police from having sex with prostitutes to arrest them if the bill does not pass, but “if they can’t arrest them anyway because it’s no longer illegal, it’s a moot point,” she said.
Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Keith Kaneshiro said the bill would make it harder to address global sex trafficking because “it would be more difficult to find the bad actors, more difficult to get witnesses to make cases.”
Michael Golojuch Jr., chairman of the LGBT caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, said transgender women are overrepresented compared with other women in the sex trade because the discrimination they face leads some to feel it’s the only kind of work they can get.
Golojuch personally supports the idea of decriminalizing prostitution, but he said he and the caucus had not yet taken an official position on the bill.
“My dream job would be union organizer for consensual sex workers,” Golojuch said. “It would be great for people who want to do that work to unionize them and empower them so that they are taken care of.”
Not everyone thinks legalizing prostitution would benefit sex workers.
“By normalizing sexual exploitation and recasting it as a career choice that has no harms attached, we’re creating a setting and a system where we are OK with objectifying women, where we’re OK with buying other human beings’ bodies, and that has effects that are far-reaching in terms of how women are treated,” said Khara Jabola, chapter coordinator of Af3irm Hawaii, a feminist group.
The bill and another to decriminalize marijuana may be part of a push to reduce the prison population, House Majority Leader Scott Saiki said.
But any decriminalization bills are unlikely to pass before the Legislature gets a report from a working group that has been meeting on the topic. That report isn’t expected before the session ends, Saiki said. |
WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed the nomination of Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of health and human services on Tuesday, allowing President Obama to fill the last vacancy in his cabinet with a seasoned politician who will take charge of the fight against swine flu.
The vote was 65 to 31. Among the nine Republicans who voted for Ms. Sebelius was Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who announced on Tuesday that he was becoming a Democrat.
Besides directing federal efforts against swine flu, Ms. Sebelius will lead the administration’s campaign for universal health insurance.
Republicans had delayed the vote because of concerns about Ms. Sebelius’s support of abortion rights as governor of Kansas for the last six years. Some Republicans also asserted that she and the administration intended to ration health care using the results of research comparing the cost and effectiveness of different treatments.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, said the threat of a flu pandemic made it urgent to confirm Ms. Sebelius, “so President Obama has in place a strong secretary of health.” |
A/N - This is my first real attempt at writing fanfic. I got the idea for it after I listened to a song, so the one shot is based off of it as well. The song is called Let It Die by Starset and I'd recommend the reader to listen to it or to at least check the lyrics out before reading to understand the idea I came up with in a better way.
Also a great thanks to everyone who proofread it too.
She had already memorized the sequence. The last few nights had been all the same. The same dream, or nightmare if you prefer, happening all over again, all night long.
She would fall... Fall into the void, voices seemingly echoing on her head, louder and louder, until they suddenly stopped. That's when she would wake up.
For what felt like the hundredth time that night, Ruby felt herself awaken. Immediately jolting her upper body upwards, accidentally knocking a few books over to the floor.
She scanned the dorm room to see if her clumsiness had woken up anyone and spotted her sister and Blake sleeping peacefully in their makeshift bunk beds. She then attempted to look downwards from her bed, in search for a certain heiress, but immediately regretted doing so, feeling her eyes water up, her thoughts filling with the past. Memories of when she and Weiss had met for the first time, ice cold personality and a death stare in her eyes against the hyperactive and clumsy girl she was herself, but most of all, they were memories of how Ruby had been able to change Weiss' personality since then.
She had definitely been changing, opening up more to her teammates, and especially Ruby, with whom she had developed a rather close relationship. All of these thoughts made the tears in her eyes finally flow free to the young leader's face as she laid back and closed her eyes once more, reliving the memory that haunted her over and over again.
2 weeks prior
Team RWBY had been deployed to Forever Fall, along with a few other first and second year teams, in order to fight the reappearance of large quantities of Grimm monsters in an area which had a small village nearby, effectively surrounding it. While the enemies themselves were not powerful, their vast number had exhausted them pretty fast, their Auras dropping to dangerous levels.
Ruby had two Ursae left in her sights, while her team members were busy finishing off their fair share of monsters. While fighting a single Ursa at a time was rather easy for an experienced huntress-to-be like Ruby, fighting two of them simultaneously required a lot more focus than it looked. Having to keep track of both their positions and actions at the same time was not an easy task, but Ruby was confident in her skills and years of training.
Maybe too confident though, because as she was going for the kill on the first one, she forgot about the second for no more than a millisecond, but that was enough of a time window she never should've given the enemy Ursa.
Even though she sliced the head off of the first Ursa, the other one was already retaliating, and even though she managed to strike him, cutting off one of its arms clean, Ruby had no time nor reaction to move away. She felt the impact of its good paw on her back, sending her flying against a nearby tree. Dazed and too tired to move, she heard the Ursa coming back to finish her. She closed her eyes, as it was lifting its only remaining claw to deliver it's final last resort blow, and she hoped it would be quick.
But the fatal blow never came, at least not for her, and as she opened her eyes she immediately looked away, wishing she hadn't opened them in the first place, as on top of her was a frozen-solid Weiss.
Her hands were planted on each of Ruby's sides effectively shielding her from the Ursa's strike, who had now effectively died of blood loss due to its arm being cut before. She bore a painful expression on her face, a bloody and messy Ursa claw coming right out of her chest.
Ruby quickly closed her eyes hoping it was all a bad dream and it would soon end.
"Ruby...", she heard that too familiar voice calling faintly, said girl still not wanting to open her eyes.
"Ruby…", Weiss called again, this time Ruby willed herself to open her eyes again, only to see the other girl's blood streaming quickly from where the Ursa claw had been.
"W-Weiss, w-why?", Ruby's brain started to falter, she panicked and her first instinct was to rip off a part of her cloak as quickly as she could, trying to stop the blood flow from the heiress' chest, but to no avail.
'Why?' was also the question echoing in Weiss' head, not even comprehending her own body's impulse to save the younger girl. Maybe she thought that saving her would be a way to pay her back for melting her ice heart into a world of friendship, maybe it was something else.
"Y-you dolt…" were the only words that left the heiress' mouth, her life slowly vanishing. "D-do you reall-" Weiss coughed some blood before continuing, "-think that would work on a wound this big?" she managed to say, now starting to feel Ruby's tears falling down her face as she was held tightly by said girl in hopes that that simple gesture would have the power to save her from certain death.
"W-Weiss...", Ruby managed to say, sobbing hard now, "Pl-please d-don't leave me here alone again..." was all the heiress heard, all of her energy now had drifted away from her effectively dead body, Ruby still not wanting to let go of her partner's body, holding her close as if pretending that she was peacefully asleep...
Present time
The memory flash made Ruby feel tears falling freely down her face as she tried her best to forget them and get some sleep, even though she already knew such thing would be impossible since she still hadn't got a decent night of sleep since she had come back from the mentioned mission.
Already asleep now, the damned sequence played over and over again until Ruby opened her eyes once more.
Expecting to see the dorm room again, she was surprised as white was now all she could see as she heard the familiar voice that had haunted her nights for the last few weeks.
"What are you doing to yourself?" Ruby was asked as she searched for the source of the voice, only to sense the presence of something behind her, cold expressionless blue eyes, dark red blood stains on the area where she had been hit, and a harsh tone in her voice.
"Why?..." was all the red girl managed to answer back, still not being able to face her partner's gaze.
"What are you, an idiot?" Weiss almost shouted, making Ruby flinch, "Do I even need a reason to save you?" was what she really meant to say, but the words just simply wouldn't come out of her mouth like that.
"I-I've been looking for a wa-" Ruby tried to begin talking, losing her power of speech almost instantly as she was interrupted by the heiress, her remarkable intelligence able to fill the gap in Ruby's speech instantly.
"Looking for what? Have you even thought about what you're doing?" she retorted, trying to return some sense to the young girl's head.
Ruby, not listening to what her former partner was saying, attempted to continue her speech "...and if I could find a way..." she started, finally able to look up towards the older girl, "...then I would bring you back tonight."
"Ruby, stop spewing nonsense," Weiss began, hoping that she would finally listen to her now, "you are ruining your life along with your time in this school, you've been missing classes and exams for nothing, you complete idiot."
Ice blue eyes coldly stared into silver ones, as if they were staring right through them, as the red-clothed girl's orbs began to pool with water at the feeling of rejection of her idea. "B-but what if I could actually make it?" she tried again, already picturing the negative answer she'd get, as tears started crawling all over her face.
"You'd be just wasting energy for nothing. You have no physical evidence that the hundreds of books you have snuck from the library into your bedroom will ever end up working, do you?" Weiss scolded her partner, ignoring her failure-prone attempts to save her.
"But I also have no evidence in contrary, it could actually w-" Ruby attempted to begin her speech before being cut off again.
"Ruby," the heiress having resumed her scolding tone, "have you even tried to look around yourself? Everyone is getting worried sick about your own wellbeing as of late."
"Then if I can't save you, I don't want to leave this place anym-" the red-clothed huntress made an effort to start talking again before she felt a sharp pain in her face, completed with Weiss cutting her off for the third time.
"Ugh, can you even stop for a second?, she began, the slap and her harsh voice tone finally silencing the other girl and grabbing her attention. "Are you even listening to what you're saying anymore? I swear that at times you're the most immature person I've ever known in my entire life."
While it had been a poor choice on words, it was exactly what Weiss was feeling at that moment, maybe even starting to regret having given her own life for the younger girl's.
She then started to notice Ruby's hands clenching as if she was trying to suppress something.
"Ruby? Are you okay? I'm sorry if I sounded too harsh, it wasn't really my intention...", she asked, not wanting to further increase the young huntress' depressive state she was already at.
That's when Ruby snapped, "You." she began, "You don't even know what it feels like to have one of your closest friends dying in your arms, do you?"
"Ruby…" Weiss tried to talk, before being herself cut off by the red-clothed huntress, tears now falling freely down her face.
"A-after you died, I felt so cold, I just wanted you back with all of us, with me... I felt so alone…", her voice now reduced to slightly more than a whisper "...I felt dead myself."
Weiss looked down, only to see Ruby now leaning towards her shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably as she felt the words of her former partner sinking in her mind.
"Ruby?" she called cautiously, her voice softening down after what she had just heard, but no answer was given from the younger girl.
"Hey Ruby?" she tried again, this time her call being listened to as Ruby looked upwards, her constant tear flow not seeming to have an end in sight. "Hey, come on..." she patted Ruby's back in an attempt to try to comfort her "I know you had the best of intentions with your 'idea'..." she started, noticing that Ruby was indeed calming down, "...but please I want you to know that I would never have done what I did if I wasn't ready to face the consequences of my actions.".
"B-but I don't wanna live without you now, it feels so lon-" Ruby tried to speak before Weiss interrupted her.
"You dolt, you still have Blake, JNPR, even Professor Ozpin. Not to mention that Yang is probably worrying herself into exhaustion at this point, you know?"
Ruby felt herself look downwards now at the thought of the pain she was making not only her friends but also her extremely overprotective older sister go through because of her current state. "But it doesn't feel the same…" she restarted her speech, through tears and sobs, "...it will never feel the same as it was with you…" her voice starting to falter now, "I…"
Ruby then felt a familiar hand move itself from her back towards her cheek in an effort to clear the tears that stained her face. As she looked upwards in the direction of the fallen ice queen, her expression quickly changed into one of shock as her lips were quickly met by the heiress' own.
"I think I may have fallen in love with you as well, you dolt." Weiss said, as she retracted from the kiss and hugged the other girl, Ruby still not wanting to let go of her.
"B-but now y-you're d-" Ruby attempted to say, still trying to fully understand what had just happened, tears beginning to reform in her eyes as the white-themed girl cut her off.
"Hey Ruby?" She started, "Please don't cry. Believe me when I say that I am as sad as you are now, but we can't change the past now can we?"
Ruby managed to mutter a faint "No, but..."
"No buts," Weiss continued, "Please don't make me regret this decision I have made. Promise me you'll become good enough for both of us?"
"M-Mhm." was all Ruby managed to say between sobs.
"Mhm what?" Weiss asked, not satisfied with the red huntress' answer.
"I... I promise." Ruby said, steeling herself in order to calm her sobbing down and to formulate a coherent answer to the heiress' question. "I promise that I will not let you down, I will not let you have died in vain, not when you died to save me of all people." still feeling her heart tighten at the mention of her partner's death.
"That's more like it." Weiss replied, sending a small smile of reassurance towards the other girl, and kissing her on the head, holding Ruby tightly, finally happy with her partner's answer and newfound determination.
"But please remember, even if we do have to part ways in the real world," Weiss couldn't take it anymore, her ice mask breaking apart as she felt her own tears forming in her eyes "e-even if we have to let it die, don't you ever dare forget me, you hear me you idiot?" She said, finally letting herself cry and sob as well. She hugged Ruby closer hoping that they could stay like that forever, as they both cried their broken hearts out.
"Don't forget me." The last sentence spoken by the heiress plus the promise she had made now echoed in Ruby's head.
Finding new determination, she closed her eyes and finally drifted off to sleep, being finally able to sleep properly like she hadn't been able to since that fateful day.
And she knew... she knew that from now on she would have her little snow angel guarding her from above her at all times so she would never feel alone ever again. |
niukasu1990 Profile Joined July 2012 588 Posts December 02 2013 16:25 GMT #1 Rumors Only, not confirmed, but highly likely
1. WE Roster Change
Misaya and Caomei out, Former-Rstar top and mid joined
2. TSM.CN probably
Tabe was organizing a TSM.cn, but he was banned.
3 .LMQ.TC to NALCS
For those who don't follow LPL, LMQ.TC is the second team for Royal, like Blaze and Frost
Uzi was supposed to join too, but he is under 17.
Royal Top,Godlike may join LMQ.TC.
niukasu1990 Profile Joined July 2012 588 Posts December 02 2013 16:40 GMT #5 On December 03 2013 01:27 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
wtf is this toxicity
misaya pls
Their coach Aaron said he would leave WE and went to travel.
After a day, WE.academy coach said he took 2 members and joined a new team, and cursing Aaron. Rumors said Rstars members will joined WE and announced tomorrow. Their coach Aaron said he would leave WE and went to travel.After a day, WE.academy coach said he took 2 members and joined a new team, and cursing Aaron. Rumors said Rstars members will joined WE and announced tomorrow.
Carnivorous Sheep Profile Joined November 2008 Baa? 6740 Posts December 02 2013 16:41 GMT #7 On December 03 2013 01:40 niukasu1990 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 03 2013 01:27 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
wtf is this toxicity
misaya pls
Their coach Aaron said he would leave WE and went to travel.
After a day, WE.academy coach said he took 2 members and joined a new team, and cursing Aaron. Rumors said Rstars members will joined WE and announced tomorrow. Their coach Aaron said he would leave WE and went to travel.After a day, WE.academy coach said he took 2 members and joined a new team, and cursing Aaron. Rumors said Rstars members will joined WE and announced tomorrow.
link to news/rumors pls ty link to news/rumors pls ty Moderator Baa!
niukasu1990 Profile Joined July 2012 588 Posts December 02 2013 16:41 GMT #8 On December 03 2013 01:31 suicideyear wrote:
is there even another challenger qualifier for na lcs
They r for next next season. They r for next next season.
niukasu1990 Profile Joined July 2012 588 Posts Last Edited: 2013-12-02 16:55:44 December 02 2013 16:54 GMT #9 On December 03 2013 01:41 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 03 2013 01:40 niukasu1990 wrote:
On December 03 2013 01:27 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
wtf is this toxicity
misaya pls
Their coach Aaron said he would leave WE and went to travel.
After a day, WE.academy coach said he took 2 members and joined a new team, and cursing Aaron. Rumors said Rstars members will joined WE and announced tomorrow. Their coach Aaron said he would leave WE and went to travel.After a day, WE.academy coach said he took 2 members and joined a new team, and cursing Aaron. Rumors said Rstars members will joined WE and announced tomorrow.
link to news/rumors pls ty link to news/rumors pls ty
http://1.t.qq.com/smallorc
Former-PE coach and Current WE.Academy coach
The most ironic thing is, today is when they won IPL5. Former-PE coach and Current WE.Academy coachThe most ironic thing is, today is when they won IPL5.
Carnivorous Sheep Profile Joined November 2008 Baa? 6740 Posts December 02 2013 17:13 GMT #10 chinese esports still has deep waters i see ORZ Moderator Baa!
niukasu1990 Profile Joined July 2012 588 Posts December 02 2013 17:25 GMT #12 On December 03 2013 02:13 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
chinese esports still has deep waters i see ORZ
The breaking updates is,misaya and caomei are supposed to retire, but their coach Aaron took Clearlove and Fzzf without notifying anyone, which makes everyone angry, and probably make WE not participating into next Season LPL.(atleast 3 members from original team)
Now everyone is watching them how to solve this problem The breaking updates is,misaya and caomei are supposed to retire, but their coach Aaron took Clearlove and Fzzf without notifying anyone, which makes everyone angry, and probably make WE not participating into next Season LPL.(atleast 3 members from original team)Now everyone is watching them how to solve this problem
Carnivorous Sheep Profile Joined November 2008 Baa? 6740 Posts December 02 2013 17:29 GMT #13 misaya and caomei will probably stay on to play, either for a full season or until replacements an be found imo. if this is all true, i think that will be the most likely course of action taken by WE. Moderator Baa!
JonGalt Profile Joined February 2013 Pootie too good! 2695 Posts December 02 2013 18:23 GMT #16 I won't be happy until there's a TSM in every league.
by season 7 we'll have an all TSM semi finals. Graphics Who is Jon Galt?
suicideyear Profile Joined December 2012 Ivory Coast 962 Posts December 02 2013 18:59 GMT #17 On December 03 2013 03:23 JonGalt wrote:
I won't be happy until there's a TSM in every league.
by season 7 we'll have an all TSM semi finals.
only way TSM will ever win worlds ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) only way TSM will ever win worlds ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )))____◎◎◎◎█████
obsKura Profile Joined March 2011 Ireland 11 Posts Last Edited: 2013-12-02 23:54:56 December 02 2013 23:20 GMT #18 EDIT: nvmd C9 ~^v^~ In EE-sama we trust. ~^v^~ C9
Redox Profile Joined October 2010 Germany 11906 Posts December 02 2013 23:20 GMT #19 Very interesting. Any idea on when this Chinese team would come to NA? Would they play in coke league until next LCS qualifier?
Also inb4 NA LCS most competetive league lol. Off-season = best season
Lord Tolkien Profile Joined November 2012 United States 6229 Posts Last Edited: 2013-12-02 23:29:00 December 02 2013 23:28 GMT #20 On December 03 2013 08:20 Redox wrote:
Very interesting. Any idea on when this Chinese team would come to NA? Would they play in coke league until next LCS qualifier?
Also inb4 NA LCS most competetive league lol.
NA new Mecca of e-Sports confirmed.
But more seriously, a TSM.CN? I'd giggle.
It does rhyme though.
Hmmmmmm. NA new Mecca of e-Sports confirmed.But more seriously, a TSM.CN? I'd giggle.It does rhyme though.Hmmmmmm. "His father is pretty juicy tbh." ~WaveofShadow
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Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night? Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic? Have you or your family ever seen a spook, spectre, or ghost? If the answer is "yes," then don't wait another minute. Pick up the phone and call the professionals . .
Ghostbusters: The Board Game is an episodic adventure game for one to four players, who are charged with busting ghosts and sealing gates to the Spirit World. The game is customizable, cooperative, and highly re-playable. It features unique illustrations and figures based on original artwork and designs by Dan Schoening, the artist of IDW's Ghostbusters comic book series. Each Ghostbuster has a distinct role and unlocks unique abilities by gaining experience. The game offers modes for different levels of players, making it accessible to beginners and challenging to experts. Now is your chance to save the world!
Ghostbusters TM & © 2015 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
• Box Dimensions: 12.125"W x 12.125"H x 4"D • 48 Custom 32-50mm Plastic Mini Figures • 10 Double-Sided 5.5" x 5.5" Game Board Tiles • 6 Dice (5 D6 & 1 D8) • 43 Tokens (Streams, Slimes, Gates, XP Trackers) • 1 PKE Meter • 4 Player Cards (4"H x 6"W) • 6 Ghost Cards (4"H x 3"W) • 1 Ghostbusters Operations & Field Manual The Paranormal level pledge will get you the base game box, along with all applicable stretch goals unlocked during the campaign. Includes upgraded Ecto-1 and upgraded 100mm Stay Puft Marshmallow Man The Mass Hysteria level pledge will get you the deluxe game box featuring Kickstarter-exclusive packaging with foil stamping, exclusive 12" x 12" giclée print, exclusive glow-in-the-dark dice, 4 exclusive double-sided game board tiles, exclusive Sandman boss figure and ghost card, exclusive "Impossible Mode" angry, super-sized Stay Puft Marshmallow Man boss figure and ghost card, and additional scenarios, plus all applicable stretch goals. Includes upgraded Ecto-1 and upgraded 100mm Stay Puft Marshmallow Man The Retailer level pledge is for verified retailers ONLY. We will message you to verify your sales license and store info. If we cannot verify your retailer status, we WILL refund your pledge. You get 6 copies of the base game box, 6 retailer-exclusive glow-in-the-dark Slimer figures, plus 6 copies of all applicable stretch goals. Includes upgraded Ecto-1 and upgraded 100mm Stay Puft Marshmallow Man Cats and dogs living together! That’s how amazing the planned stretch goals are. Hurry up and unlock them! Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Sculpt Pending. Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Sculpt Pending. Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Sculpt Pending. Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Sculpt Pending. Stay Puft Marshmallow Man upgraded to 100mm for all games moving forward Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Sculpt Pending. Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Sculpt Pending. Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Does not come with any other game content. Free to Mass Hysteria Backers and optional $5 add-on for all other backers. Free to Mass Hysteria Backers and optional $5 add-on for all other backers. Illustrations by Robb Mommaerts. Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Sculpt and color not final. Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. For Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Sculpt and color not final. Image from unleashthefanboy.com For Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Sculpt and color not final. For Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Sculpt and color not final. Optional Add-On For Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Sculpt and color not final. Free to all Mass Hysteria Backers and optional $5 add-on for all other backers. For Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. For Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Sculpt and color not final. For Paranormal and Mass Hysteria Backers Only. Sculpt and color not final. Ecto-1 upgraded from card board to plastic mini for all games moving forward. Available to all backers of all tiers. Available to all backers of all tiers. Available to all backers of all tiers. Available to all backers of all tiers. Does not come with any other game content. Illustrations by Robb Mommaerts Available to Paranormal, Mass Hysteria, and Retailer backers Illustrations by Robb Mommaerts Includes New Unique Scenario Card. Sculpts not final Includes New Unique Scenario Card Includes New Unique Scenario Card Includes one set of Add-ons EXCEPT an additional copy of the Base or Deluxe Game. Ghost Cards Here's a look at some of the Ghost Cards. Take a look at how they react when hit or missed and all of the things that differentiate them from each other. The Grey Lady may be shy, but she's not afraid to stop your roughhousing in its tracks. If this librarian has paid your scenario a visit, she won't go quietly! If you do manage to get her attention, she leaves you only with your thoughts, waiting to cramp your style in the next adventure! The Grey Lady will add a challenge to many scenarios, especially if playing more than one in a single session. Sandman will include a custom scenario specifically designed for him. Zombie Taxi Drivers are eager to take the Ecto-1 on a joy ride around town! Once one of them reaches your ride, he immobilizes it until you get rid of him, but not until he sends it speeding off, ghost rider style! The Zombie Taxi Drivers will come with a scenario specifically designed for them. However, they can also be used as Class 1 replacements and companions in base game scenarios. Note: When differently named Ghosts share a Class, roll a d6 for each, with the higher roll making an appearance. Impossible Mode versions get +3 to this roll! Player Cards Up to 4 players take on the roles of the Ghostbusters and attempt to return balance between the Spirit World and ours, busting ghosts and sealing the gates from which they’re invading. Completing a scenario requires teamwork, planning, and resourcefulness. Melanie Ortiz keeps a watchful eye on her coworkers, and a closer eye on her targets. Her selfless acts bring her closer to knowing herself, and in turn, in how to deal with the approaching end game of the other worldly intruders. Janine’s quick response time is her key attribute at the front desk and as a Ghostbuster! When she spots a newly summoned Ghost, she acts fast, and when she sees a fellow Ghostbuster in a tight situation, she leaps into action! Kylie thinks things through, to the point where she anticipates what's coming! Her research into the forbidden arts has granted her insight into the dark intentions of her enemies, whose actions seem entirely random to everyone else.
Ron is always trying to prove he has the chops to be a better Ghostbuster, even if that means putting himself in danger. He's no schlub when it comes to tech and the closer he gets to a threat, the more brazen he becomes.
Peter Venkman is a risk-taker who does his best work in close proximity to ghosts.
Illustrated by Dan Schoening, sculpted by Samuel H. Greenwell |
Keith Constantin will not be slapped with dangerous offender status — not unless he physically harms someone again.
The convicted sex offender was arrested after intentionally breaking his 11 p.m. curfew on Aug. 1, turning himself in to Hamilton police at 11:15 p.m.
He told The Spectator he did so because his family feared for their safety and the public uproar following an announcement by Hamilton police that he was living in the community became too much.
If tried and convicted for breaching his peace bond, he faces a jail sentence of up to two years, but Hamilton's Crown Attorney's office will not bring forward a dangerous offender application because the law does not permit it. An accused must be convicted of a "serious personal injury offence" in order to meet the threshold where the Crown could go down that road.
Canada's most notorious criminals have been declared dangerous offenders. It means they serve indeterminate prison sentences with no chance of parole for at least seven years.
Constantin, 35, has been convicted of raping two women and sexually assaulting a seven-year old boy. One of the women was 45 and blind, the other was recovering from an epileptic seizure in his parents' home.
Failing to comply with a peace bond — technically the charge is "breach of a recognizance" — will be the matter before the court, not the entirety of his criminal record, which also includes robbery. Constantin voluntarily entered into the peace bond with Hamilton police.
Hamilton Assistant Crown attorney Karen Shea, the office's specialist in high risk offenders, said they work within the confines of existing legislation.
"The Criminal Code is clear in terms of the offences for which we can embark on a dangerous offender application."
She added that breaching a peace bond is a serious offence and that if Constantin is tried and convicted, probation conditions could be tacked-on to his sentence. |
Inkle has just released Sorcery! 3 for PC and Mac, and just less than two months ago they released Sorcery! 1 and 2 as a single release at Steam too. This last is a really good opportunity for a great introduction to the series next to the amazing Karhé: City of Traps. And the third part The Seven Serpents is my favourite Sorcery! to date. With the ongoing development of Sorcery! 4, a completely new and own franchise in the works at the same time, and this releases of their games for PC, I could not let pass catching up with Jon and ask how it’s going.
Jon, in the previous interview with us you said that Inkle games would never be ported to PC. What alignment of stars has produced this change in your opinion? What milestones have made it possible the PC ports?
The biggest hurdle was always technical: we’ve built our games specifically for Apple’s platform. To get 80 Days onto PC, Cape Guy and us did a full Unity rebuild, which took a long time.
But then, our Android developer, Iain Merrick, did some actual magic; and we are now able to cross-compile iPhone code onto a desktop environment. It’s a pretty impressive technical achievement, and we’re super-happy to be able to bring the games to more players thanks to it.
While you are releasing past Inkle games for PC, you are working at the same time in Sorcery! 4. You have said in recent interviews that for the fourth installment of the series you are going nuts, making your own thing. I fear that you go too far from the original book for the fans taste. Could you elaborate this to us? Maybe I got lost in translation. Tell us about the spirit, the approach for the end of the series.
The final part of Sorcery! has a difficult job to do – it has to tie up everything so far, including all the additions and changes we’ve made to the world, while also capturing the spirit of the final book – which was brutal, full of tricks, and my own my personal favourite. It also has to be a fun stand-alone game for people new to the series, so it can’t be too stupidly hard.
So following the book just isn’t an option: the book is full of clever ideas that suit the gamebook format really well. We have to develop it, expand it, and make the most of it. This is the last Sorcery! game: we can’t waste any ideas we have left.
Obviously, we don’t want to lose fans of the original series, but so far, every time we’ve expanded and developed the world, the fans have been more than happy – I think it’s great to see an old, beloved series not just being repackaged, but given new life.
I got the luck to catch you when you were at the recording of the new and shiny soundtrack for Sorcery! It was something like a magic moment, to be there, listening live new songs for one of my favorite series. I wonder how you were feeling.
Nervous! The orchestral recording sessions are really exciting but they come with this knowledge that whatever we get, we’ll use. The musicians don’t get much time to practice the music, and Laurence Chapman’s themes are quite unusual and difficult.
But when they come through, it’s a great feeling. I think on that recording session they nailed the Part 4 theme on their first play; that was amazing.
At the same time I was thinking. Inkle guys are crazy! How they dare to record with an orchestra for a interactive fiction game? Is this going to be profitable? So tell me, how this is even possible? I imagine Sorcery! and 80 days are doing so well that you two could spend in this luxuries.
It’s a careful balancing act: you won’t see us employing full voice acting for some time yet, I think! Rather, the success of our previous games – and above all, the enthusiasm and passion of the fans waiting for the new releases to come out – gives us a sense that we can afford to add a little more gloss and a little more polish here, partly just because we want to make the best games we can.
The following is not a question… I just want to say that 80 days looks beautiful in the big screen. I played it the other day with big picture in the TV from my sofa, and although text font was a little too small for sofa distance, the artistic design fit awesome.
Great. We were really pleased by how it plays as “couch” experience
How are Inkle games doing for PC market?
We’re happy with how they’re going, though it’s not been an easy ride – ports of older games don’t get much coverage and don’t create the same burst of enthusiasm of a new release. But for us, this is as much about building a wider market moving forwards as it is about shifting copies now.
Apart of finalizing Sorcery series, you are doing a new game, at last, from your very hand. Tell us something about it. If you can’t tell us concrete things, at least tell us an abstract of the concept for the new game.
All right: it’s…
… oh, well, if you insist, I’ll answer vaguely instead.
It’s a development of previous ideas: it’s built on characters; spread out across a world that you can explore quite freely. It mixes mechanics with a narrative flavour with narrative with game-like implications. It’s a new world, and a new story.
We’re also moving quite significantly in terms of production values: this game will be a lot more visual than previous inkle games.
When I was promoting the Z-Files kickstarter, I contact you to ask for support and feedback. You game me great criticism about the lack of the project delivering story and narrative interaction in the pitch, and because I always talked about “follow the philosophy of Inkle” and such, and you told me: …for me, the key point about choices isn’t “changing the story”, anyway, it’s about giving the player moment-to-moment uncertainties that ground them in what’s happening *right now*. A “dodge or attack” choice is okay for that, though it’s usually better if built up over one or two choices, rather than just presented flat. “ I’m curious for that concrete technique, that thing of “built up over one or two choices”. I understand that you pretend to build some tension so when finally the proper choosing comes, the effect is greater for the player. Could you elaborate this a bit?
So, there’s a tendency in designers to think about game in terms of its flow chart. Choose X, go here; choose Y; go there. The designer see the whole map of the story from top down.
But players don’t. Players only see what’s directly in front of them, and a choice – do X or Y – is always completely arbitrary unless it has some context. The player has to have some clues to consider, so ideas of what each choice might be like; but they’re also taking a chance.
In a game of blackjack you draw one card at a time, and then decide whether to keep drawing more cards; you don’t pull out three and then see if you won or lost. You could make that game, but it’s got fewer moments of choice, fewer risks, and less tension — for the same basic outcomes.
So I don’t quite agree that we “pretend to build tension until the proper choice comes”; rather we ask the player to make small decisions which stack the odds a little this way, or a little that way, until their opportunities for choosing are done. We try to think of scenes as conversations between player and game. We try not to let the player character do any major action without the player declaring, specifically, that they wanted it, because otherwise the player won’t believe it really happened.
We embrace the complexity that arises out of all of this, because the fun and complexity of the scenes is what makes the game fun. If the main plot is totally linear, it doesn’t really matter until a player tries to play the game again; but if the scenes aren’t fun, tricky, and interesting, they’ll never play your game through.
Another good technique is to hide actions within the tree to simulate some opaqueness so the interface does not shows the options transparently. I found the plot of the artificer at 80 Days where she creates an artifact that is like a projector, and the investigation that comes after, when a crucial action is hidden as an conversation with Fog. I found that brilliant, and it worked very well for me. I felt intelligent.
I’m glad it worked for you! That trick – of burying an option behind an option, is always risky: what if players think of the idea, but don’t “find” it? We try to write those choices so they won’t give the game away, but players who are thinking ahead can see where they’re going. But it’s definitely one of the tricky parts of writing this kind of game.
Recently Inkle has released as open source, Ink, the tool you use at the studio to craft your games (visit repository at GitHub). Why you have decided to make that move?
A few reasons, I suppose, but in the end – because we can only make so many games, but we’d like to play games with interesting, fiddly choice mechanics. So we’re hoping that by open sourcing ink, we might shift the discussion a little bit, and encourage people to make games that are a bit more like what we like. They don’t have to, of course, they can do what they want — but people certainly won’t make games like ours if they don’t have the tools to do it.
Thanks a lot for your time Jon. I hope all is well with the PC launch, and I’m eager to put my hands on Sorcery! 4. how it’s going with the development of the ending of the series?
Good. It’s a long road and there’s a lot to do; the first pass of the text is almost written, but then there’s all the art – and art direction – to go into the mix, the new code features required by the game, and then all the rewriting that comes out as a result of all that work. The end is in sight… but still somewhat out of reach! |
News outlets are reporting the Trump administration is preventing federal agencies from using social media or talking with the press.
Media stories have popped up warning of “gag orders” at the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Agriculture and Department of Commerce. It sounds alarming, but this sort of thing is far from unprecedented.
Federal officials were ordered not to talk with the media due during the Obama administration “increased scrutiny surrounding” the implementation of the stimulus package.
The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) released an email from a top U.S. Forest Service public affairs staffer stating “due to the increased scrutiny surrounding ARRA [the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act] work and partly due to a relatively new administration, we remain under strict instructions for talking with the media.”
The gag order came after Congress passed the stimulus package, or ARRA, in 2009 with the hopes of boosting the economy. But right off the bat, reporters began questioning how the $840 billion stimulus package was being spent.
“If you receive media calls that fall under the following categories you cannot talk to the reporter, but should instead get their contact info and get in touch with me:,” Kate Goodrich-Arling, the public affairs officer at the Monongahela National Forest, wrote in a January 2020 email to staff.
PEER said the administration’s “message control” mentality stood in stark contrast to President Barack Obama’s promise to run the “most transparent” administration in history. In fact, Obama signed a 2009 executive order asserting his ability to “ “supervise, control, and correct employees’ communications with the Congress.”
PEER mentioned another instance where the Obama administration had federal officials under a “gag order.”
“Recent action by EPA to censor what its own employees could say in a private YouTube video about weaknesses in cap-and-trade systems for controlling greenhouse gas emissions,” PEER wrote.
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LightSquared Announces Simple, Affordable Solution to GPS Interference Issues
RESTON, VA, September 21, 2011 – LightSquared™, a wholesale carrier building a nationwide wireless broadband network that will create consumer choice and industry innovation, has signed an agreement with Javad GNSS Inc. to develop a system that will eliminate related interference issues for high-precision GPS devices.
The Javad GNSS system can be adapted to work with high-precision GPS devices including those already in the agriculture, surveying, construction and defense industries.
Javad GNSS has completed the design, made prototypes and tested those prototypes. Preproduction units will be released for public tests in October, followed by mass production. High-precision receivers for positioning applications are expected to go to market by November 2011 and precision timing devices by March 2012.
"I have said from the beginning that this interference issue will be resolved as soon as smart engineers like Javad Ashjaee put their minds to it. With this new system, Mr. Ashjaee makes another mark for himself as a cutting edge pioneer in the precision GPS industry, a field he has helped shape for more than 30 years," said Sanjiv Ahuja, chairman and chief executive officer of LightSquared.
"This breakthrough is a final step toward LightSquared's goal of building a nationwide wireless network that will bring lower prices and better service to Americans from coast to coast."
To develop the technology, Javad GNSS took the existing flagship receivers and reconfigured the filters and linear amplifiers to make them completely compatible with LightSquared's bottom 10 MHz of spectrum. It was a very simple and inexpensive process and was developed in a matter of days. The additional cost for this technology is not expected to increase the selling price of the device to the customer.
"This interference problem is not a difficult one to solve, once you decide to solve it,'' said Javad GNSS founder Javad Ashjaee. "We've begun manufacturing preproduction models and expect to have 25 available within two weeks – we are not talking in hypotheticals here."'
"The truth is that high precision GPS users have a wide range of interference issues to contend with – from congested frequencies to intentional jamming. LightSquared made this problem much easier to solve by moving to spectrum farther away from the core GPS frequencies. As LightSquared's spectrum neighbor, it's our obligation to build a wall between our spectrum and LightSquared's. My filter accomplishes that goal,'' said Dr. Ashjaee. Good fences make good neighbors.''
"The tests conducted so far by the GPS industry did not take into account the GPS modernization plan that is in place," said Dr. Ashjaee. "Since we have demonstrated that LightSquared can certainly coexist with the current GPS satellite signals, the coexistence will be even stronger when the new GPS satellites with modern L1C, L2C and L5 un-encrypted codes are launched."
About LightSquared
LightSquared's mission is to revolutionize the U.S. wireless industry. With the creation of the first-ever, wholesale-only nationwide 4G-LTE network integrated with satellite coverage, LightSquared offers people the speed, value and reliability of universal connectivity, wherever they are in the United States. As a wholesale-only operator, LightSquared will deploy an open 4G wireless broadband network to be used by existing and new service providers to sell their own devices, applications and services – at a competitive cost and without retail competition from LightSquared. The deployment and operation of LightSquared's network represent more than $14 billion of private investment over the next eight years. For more information about LightSquared, please go to www.LightSquared.com, www.facebook.com/LightSquared and www.twitter.com/LightSquared. |
Hypocrisy: Religious Believers and The Surveillance State
I love religious believers; they are so hypocritical. Right now, the country is debating the role and rights that government has or doesn’t have to spy on its citizens. As it turns out, our government is already doing that and just wasn’t telling us about it.
Many Americans are outraged about the government’s spy program and rightfully so. Progressives are particularly outraged. Many of us consider Edward Snowden (who exposed the program) to be a hero. As it turns out, many religious believers are outraged too because they see it as an attack on human dignity. I actually agree with that, but I also extend that attack on to one more reason why I think belief in an all-watching deity is immoral.
Once again, religious hypocrisy establishes two sets of morality. One set for actual people and another set for imaginary deities. Just as torture is wrong when people do it and still wrong when religious believers claim God does it, spying on people is wrong when people do it and still wrong when religious believers claim God does it. Sure, it is almost a moot point since their God doesn’t actually exist in the first place, but the hypocrisy is that religious believers actually believe that God does exist and does allow for eternal torture and is eternally spying on not just American citizens, but on everyone!
If something is morally wrong for people, then it is morally wrong for deities too. Ironically, religious believers are often the ones who talk about how there is objective morality and are complaining that atheism is too subjective and relativistic (even when it isn’t). So if there is objective morality, then there can’t be two sets of moral laws. If something is wrong, it is wrong, period.
Of course morality is more complicated than that, but many religious believers reject a complicated and more nuanced view of morality and yet their argument is to exempt deities from moral law. They will claim that God is the moral law giver and therefore not subject to the law. But this argument doesn’t hold. Congress are the lawgivers of government and yet they too are held accountable to the law.
When it comes to the surveillance, polices are allowed to spy on people only when they get a warrant which specifically lays out why the person or persons are being watched and what exactly they are being watched for. Where is God’s warrant? What independent body is God appealing to in order to obtain that warrant?
While I don’t believe such a deity exists, even if I held such a belief I would still not view that deity as praise worthy. Spying on people without the due process of law is immoral. It is immoral for governments to spy on its citizens without a just cause and it if deities existed, it would be immoral for gods to spy on people too.
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After running away with the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday, Bernie Sanders in his victory speech made the case for why he can win a general election. Then MSNBC host Rachel Maddow did the same thing — only in a much more compelling way.
To be clear: Maddow, who co-moderated a Democratic debate last Thursday, hasn’t explicitly backed Sanders over Hillary Clinton. And during MSNBC’s primary-night coverage, she didn’t try to tell viewers why they should vote for the Vermont senator.
Instead, she followed Sanders’s address with a personal reflection that was all the more striking in its sincerity after hours of cable news blabbing. Her message was a vivid example of what Sanders had said moments earlier — that an unapologetically liberal candidate can actually turn out voters better than a center-left candidate whose more mainstream positions supposedly make him or her more “electable.”
If you really are a liberal, it’s been a long time in this country when you felt like mainstream politics had nothing to say to you, and that mainstream politics just was not about you. And I look at all these young people, in particular, out at this Bernie Sanders event: I was 19 in 1992 when Bill Clinton was running on the Democratic side, and at the 1992 Republican convention, Pat Buchanan got up there and gave his “culture wars” speech, where he basically declared a crusade against minorities and particularly against gay people. And as a gay person watching that in 1992, I didn’t feel like Bill Clinton had my back, right? I didn’t feel like the Democratic Party had my back. He was talking about agreeing with Ronald Reagan that government was the problem and all that stuff.
If you are a liberal, you are not a majority in this country, and you know it, and it always feels that way. But this Democratic race with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigning this way against each other — that happened because Bernie Sanders got into this race. And all these kids who are enthused about this race — whether or not they’re supporting Bernie Sanders directly — are never going to feel like mainstream politics isn’t about them.
If Sanders indeed has a shot — and reasonable people can disagree — Maddow perfectly captured the reason why in one minute of live television. The clear implication was that her own feelings of disenfranchisement represent the sentiments of other liberals, too, and that Sanders (the self-proclaimed democratic socialist) has suddenly made many of those people feel less marginalized.
Thus, the case for Sanders being Democrats’ best bet to hold the White House isn’t about an ability to win the center, come November. (That’s an argument for Clinton.) It’s about an ability to bring to the polls a horde of liberals who might otherwise stay home.
Following Bernie Sanders's victory in New Hampshire, supporters are optimistic that the 'Bern' will gain momentum and spread to South Carolina and Nevada next. They also couldn't help but dance throughout the rally, going as far as dedicating some serious dance moves to the senator. (Alice Li/The Washington Post)
Maddow and Rush Limbaugh are about as dissimilar as two media figures can be. But this is the same argument the conservative talk radio host has been making in reverse about the need for Republicans to nominate a true conservative who will fire up and turn out voters who skipped Election Day when Mitt Romney was at the top of the ticket four years ago and when John McCain was the standard-bearer in 2008.
Here’s how Limbaugh put it in October:
If they don't nominate one of these conservative candidates, then they are looking at another huge butt kicking. … They keep nominating these moderates, these Northeastern liberals or whatever. They think [they] are gonna get the independents, and they keep losing.
There’s a remarkable symmetry here, as commentators on opposite ends of the political spectrum promote the counterintuitive idea that moving toward the poles, rather than toward the middle, is the way to succeed in 2016.
Sanders on the Democratic side and Ted Cruz on the Republican side surely hope they are right. And by getting personal on primary night, Maddow made the most convincing case yet. |
Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
A Palestinian journalist covering a Turkish minister's visit to the Gaza Strip has accused Palestinian police of physically assaulting him on Sunday.
Muhammed Fayyad, a reporter for Al-Jeezera, told the Palestinian Journalists' Union that he was physically assaulted by multiple police officers at the Gazan Ministry of Endowments after asking why a plain-clothes security guard had shoved him while he took pictures of the minister's visit.
Fayyad added that he "was struck on the head by a police officer" as he was being taken out of the building, according to Palestinian news agency Ma'an.Fayyad then went to the police station to file a formal complaint, yet was shocked to find that authorities had already issued an arrest order against him.He was briefly taken to al-Shifa hospital before being formally arrested, complaining that he was beginning to feel the effects of his earlier assault.In light of the event, the Ministry of Internal Affairs released a statement that said, "during the Turkish minister of endowment's visit... some journalists caused chaos and a disturbance that misrepresented our people's image and embarrassed those responsible for the visit's agenda," Ma'an reported.The statement went on to say: "Accordingly, security men intervened to control the situation, leading to the arrest of the Al-Jazeera reporter after he verbally abused and disturbed the security men's job and did not commit to the visit's arrangements."The journalist was later released until an investigation of the incident is complete and legal procedures may be taken," the statement said.In response, the journalists' union demanded that security services within the coastal enclave cease all actions against Fayyad, and asked Hamas to stop all violations against journalists. The Gaza Center for Press Freedom reported hundreds of "violations of press freedom" that have taken place in Gaza in the past year alone, in what was the deadliest year for Palestinian journalists on record, according to Ma'an.
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An unintended legacy of California's gold rush, which began in 1848, endures today in the form of mercury-laden sediment. New research by Michael Singer, associate researcher at UC Santa Barbara's Earth Research Institute, shows that sediment-absorbed mercury is being transported by major floods from the Sierra Nevada mountains to Central Valley lowlands. The findings appear today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).
Contamination of food webs as a result of mercury-laden sediment, coupled with regional shifts in climate, poses a huge risk to the lowland ecosystems and to the human population as well because a lot of people eat fish from this system.
"This new study addresses a gap in the general theory of the evolution of toxic sediment emplaced by industrial mining, which enables anticipation, prediction and management of contamination to food webs," Singer said.
His research shows that mercury stored in immense Sierran man-made sediment deposits is carried by the Yuba River and other nearby streams to the Central Valley lowlands during 10-year flood events, most recently in 1986 and 1997. His team used several independent datasets and modeling of the episodic process to demonstrate how mercury-laden sediment stored in deep river valleys more than 150 years ago travels hundreds of miles into ecologically sensitive regions.
The discovery of this process was serendipitous. Singer and a colleague were working in California's Central Valley studying how quickly floodplains filled up with sediment when they came across Burma-Shave signs that said, "SAND."
"We thought that was quite strange because the floodplains around us were so much finer — composed of silt and clay materials," recalled Singer. "So we followed the signs and ended up in a huge sand mine. They were mining sand by the truckload for the construction industry and said they would be doing so for at least the next several decades."
It turns out that a massive flood in 1986 in the Yuba River Basin brought enough sand with it to bury a major rice field, which a savvy farmer then leased to the sand-mining operator. According to Singer, the upstream Yuba was the biggest gold-mining drainage of all the Sierra drainages used in the 19th century, so it made sense to think about possible mercury contamination because gold rush miners used mercury to separate gold.
"They didn't just pan for gold," Singer said. "That's a romantic notion of gold mining. It was actually an industrial process whereby they sprayed giant high-pressure hoses, invented in 1852, at upland hillsides to wash the sediment downstream. Sides of mountains were washed away and sent downstream, and the sediment started filling in these confined river valleys, actually spreading all the way out to San Francisco Bay. This caused problems for steamboat operations and increased flooding on lowland farms. The U.S. government ultimately got involved and stopped the mining in 1884, which basically ended the gold rush overnight."
Singer says mercury is currently a big problem in San Francisco Bay and the Delta. "People know there was gold mining in the Sierra Nevada and they know that there was mercury mining in the Coast Ranges, but they're not really sure of the modern-day impact, especially when the contaminant sources are not directly by the bay," he said. "People want to know what is causing contamination of the food webs of the Central Valley."
The PNAS paper begins to answer that by documenting flood-driven fan erosion, sediment redistribution and a process called progradation, the growth of a sedimentary deposit farther out into the valley over time, which, in this case, spread the mercury-laden sediment into parts of the basin where there is higher risk of it being taken up by food webs.
The research team compared gold rush data with modern topographic datasets, which showed that the Yuba River was progressively cutting through the sediment and in the process leaving behind massive contaminated terraces along the riverbank. Flood data and modeling indicate that these terraces move only when a flood event is big enough to saturate them so that the terraces fail and the mercury-laden sediment is carried and driven downstream. |
The four 2014 Ford Falcons of Ford Performance Racing with teams Ford Pepsi Max Crew, Bottle-O Racing Team and Team JELD-WEN Ford unveiled their liveries at the Sydney Motorsport Park today.
Ford Pepsi Max Crew fields two Ford Falcons this season for Mark Winterbottom and rising star Chaz Mostert.
“Overall, the whole team is in the best mindset for the year ahead and it is nice to get some young hungry guys in the other cars as that pushes everyone,” said Winterbottom.
“Obviously this is a dream this year to be driving for the Pepsi Max Crew in car six and I am really excited to get some good results for the team and for myself. I’m looking forward to creating some noise both on and off the track for the Pepsi Max Crew,” said Mostert.
Jack Perkins returns to full-time racing for the first time in four years with JELD-WEN Ford in the V8 Supercars this season.
“This time of year is really tough for all drivers, as we’re so close to getting back into the race car after a long period of down time, and it’s really very exciting. Normally, at this time of year I’d be up on the farm, working out in the paddocks, so it’s a very nice change of pace to be preparing for a full-time season of V8 Supercars,” said Perkins.
David Reynolds starts his third season for Bottle-O Racing and is confident to be a regular front runner this year.
“We had awesome pace in the second half of last season so I plan to continue that from the start of this year. Initially I felt the off-season came just as I was hitting my straps but on reflection the time off was good as I will need all my energy for the busy year ahead. Our success will also depend on how other teams have progressed in the off-season but I think our pace at the end of 2013 bodes well for how we start this year so I have no reason not to think we will be in contention,” said Reynolds. |
Although many Bitcoiners feel tax compliance is not required, the reality is somewhat different. Many countries effectively tax Bitcoin capital gains and incomes. Accounting can quickly become a big hassle when dealing with cryptocurrency, though. NODE40 launched a new tool to make tax compliance a lot easier for Bitcoin enthusiasts. Efforts such as these will pave the way for more cryptocurrency recognition as well.
NODE40’s new tool for tax compliance is quite interesting Making this process a lot smoother is of the utmost importance. This tool is mainly oriented toward US-based Bitcoin enthusiasts, though. It doesn’t offer international coverage, but it can still be a viable tool regardless. NODE40 introduced a similar tool for Dash users earlier this year. Focusing on Bitcoin is absolutely necessary, though, as the IRS has been meddling in cryptocurrency affairs as of late.
Considering how more and more people show an interest in Bitcoin, the IRS will play a lot more attention moving forward. Reporting gains and losses to the taxman is not easy, though The NODE40 Balance software should make this a breeze, thanks to an intuitive user interface. The software analyzes the Bitcoin blockchain for specific addresses and calculates net values from each transaction. All of this information is translated into IRS Form 8949 with a few mouse clicks.
NODE40 Balance is a Powerful Tool for Bitcoiners
NODE40 CEO Perry Woodlin commented as follows:
“Not only is blockchain accounting inherently complicated, it’s currently under heavy legal scrutiny. Since the IRS considers digital currency property, each and every input to a transaction has a potential gain or loss. Tracking the cost basis and days carried on every input to a transaction is simply not possible without sophisticated software. Nobody wants to think about gains and losses when purchasing goods or services, much less manually record transactions in a spreadsheet for future record keeping. NODE40 Balance allows digital currency owners to use the blockchain as the public ledger it was always intended to be, and provides users with the most accurate data for their reporting obligations at tax time.”
It is good to see a viable alternative solution to file Bitcoin-related taxes. No one enjoys the slow and manual process which may not always generate an accurate report. The current software is useful to Electrum users, with more supported wallets to be integrated in the near future. Exodus and Trezor are two Bitcoin wallet solutions which will be supported shortly. Users can trial the software for free- it is still in beta – and should remain free until the end of 2017. No exchange wallets are supporting at this time. Bitcoin users should always keep funds in their own private wallets, after all.
Header image courtesy of Shutterstock |
Description: Brave is now facing the ultimate downfall of Fapstar Stasarik in GE... can they fight to keep it??
PL has managed to make a blockade forcing all ships to stay in GE,
they are currently gate camping in V-3YG7,
Ax-Dot, and 3-OKDA
They are sitting inside of each system, outside of GE waiting.
They are also using warp bubbles to keep us from leaving the area...
Catch defense will be able,
to take them out...
Lychton Kondur....
Catch defense....
Catch defense fleet isnt big enough to break the blockade...
We never had enough FC's for something this big.
These Corporations will remain here: BOVRIL, Brave Newbies, and Brave Operations - Lollipop Division.
How could we lose so much space?
An alliance of over Eleven thousand lost this space?
Those damn exploration pilots wasted all this time skill training into exploring!
How could we allow so much wasted time..
At the expense of people wasting skill training..
They buy all the cloaking devices...
So they can fly around without being killed looking for "artifacts and data."
WE COULD HAVE BEEN USING CLOAKING DEVICES TO SPY ON PL!
Lychton, we use exploration and find artifacts and data sites to...
TO DO WHAT? FLY YOUR HERONS ABOUT AND FIND WORMHOLES???
Lychton, we explore to find building material.
we can get plenty of building material without your precious "relics"
And those damn ratting pilots as well!
They warp into Sansha space
thinking they can kill rats for worthless bounties,
but instead their ships are destroyed because they are unskilled pilots!
They are constantly buying ships and weapons
and after those are blown up they wonder why there arent enough equipment for them to destroy!
I feel like they very purpose of this corporation is to waste time!
And all of you are responsible for allowing these shmucks to waste their time on worthless skills!
How could any of you understand?
I started this alliance, and i must not of put enough soul into it.
Perhaps thats why things are falling apart...
We open the doors,
to any NewBro that wants to do exploration or fucking ratting in null sec!
they are the very reason we are about to lose GE...
We will take care of them when this is all over,
and make sure they have no place in the brave alliance.
How can anyone make a living off those skills?
Its ok, we can always train you to tackle...
This whole system was on a brink of being lost...
and one of you is allowing your memebers to waste skill training on worthless skills.
You know who you are.
Rest easy, I wont end the alliance.
I hope the risk was worth everything you've lost... because now we wont have a home,
and all your members will lose everything.
Be ready for the final battle. |
In the "Star Trek" TV appearances and movies, the U.S.S. Enterprise's warp device lets the ship to travel faster than light, an ability which is, as Mr. Spock might respond to it as, "highly illogical." Nevertheless, there's actually a loophole in the famous Einstein's general theory of relativity that may perhaps let a ship to go across vast spaces in less time than it would take light. So that loophole is, it’s not the star-ship that's moving even faster then light, it's the space around the star-ship. Actually, researchers at NASA are presently working on the first applied field test on the way to verifying the probability of warp drives and faster-than-light travel. Perhaps the warp drive in "Star Trek Into Darkness," which is also one of my favourite Star Trek movie, is possible after all.
According to the famous Einstein's general theory of relativity, an entity with mass can never go as fast as or faster than the speed of light. The original "Star Trek" sequence passed over this "universal speed limit" in support of a ship that might zip around the galaxy in a time of days instead of years. They tried to describe the ship's faster-than-light abilities by running the warp device with a "matter-antimatter" engine. Antimatter was a standard subject of study in the 1960s, when Original Star Trek series maker Gene Roddenberry was first writing the series. Once matter and antimatter strike, their mass is transformed into kinetic energy in observance with Einstein's mass-energy equality formulation, E=mc2. Or you can say, matter-antimatter impact is a hypothetically powerful foundation of energy and fuel, but according to the Einstein’s theory even that wouldn't be sufficient to push a star-ship to faster-than-light speeds. However, thanks to "Star Trek" that the term “warp" is now basically synonymous with faster-than-light travel.
So is warp drive possible?
Many years after the original "Star Trek" appearance had vanished off the air; ground-breaking physicist and confirmed Trek fan Miguel Alcubierre claimed that perhaps a warp drive is possible after all. It just wouldn't work exactly the way "Star Trek" supposed it did. Objects with mass can't travel faster than the speed of light. But suppose, as an alternative of the ship travelling through space, the space was actually moving around the ship? Space doesn't have any mass at all. And we identify that it's stretchy: space has been increasing or in proper words expanding at a determinate rate forever since the Big Bang. We understand this from witnessing the light of distant stars, over time, the wavelength of the stars' light as it touches Earth is extended in a procedure termed as "redshifting." According to the Doppler Effect, this means that the cause of the wavelength is travelling further away from the eyewitness in this case Earth. So we know from detecting redshifted light that the fabric of space is flexible.
Alcubierre by means of this understanding traced an escape in the "universal speed limit." In his theory, the star-ship actually never travels faster than the speed of light, as an alternative, space ahead of the ship is contracted whereas space behind it is expanded, letting the star-ship to move across distances in less time than light would take. The star-ship itself rests in what Alcubierre called a "warp bubble" and, inside that bubble, never goes faster than the speed of light in any case. Since Alcubierre issued his paper "The Warp Drive: Hyper-fast travel within general relativity" in 1994, numerous physicists and science fiction authors have worked with his theory, counting "Star Trek" itself. Alcubierre's warp drive concept was retroactively combined into the "Star Trek" myths by the 1990s TV sequence "Star Trek: The Next Generation." In a way, at that moment, "Star Trek" produced its own slight grandfather paradox: However eventually its theory of faster-than-light travel was seriously defective, the series recognized a vocabulary of light-speed travel that Alcubierre finally formalized in his own warp drive concepts.
A ring-shaped warp drive machine could move a football-shape starship (as shown in the center) to actual speed faster than light. The idea was first suggested by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre. Image Credit: Harold White
The truth is that the best ideas sound crazy at first. And then there comes a time when we can't imagine a world without them." That's a speech from the 100 Year Star-ship organization, a think tank keen to creating Earth what "Star Trek" would call a "warp-capable civilization" in less than a century. The main phase on the way to a practical warp drive is to verify that a "warp bubble" is even possible, and it can be artificially formed. That's precisely what physicist Harold "Sonny" White and a group of scientists at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas are trying to achieve right now. The Alcubierre warp drive concept is still theoretic at the present. "." That's a speech from the 100 Year Star-ship organization, a think tank keen to creating Earth what "Star Trek" would call a "warp-capable civilization" in less than a century. The main phase on the way to a practical warp drive is to verify that a "warp bubble" is even possible, and it can be artificially formed. That's precisely what physicist Harold "Sonny" White and a group of scientists at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas are trying to achieve right now.
Rendering to Alcubierre's theory, one might generate a warp bubble by relating negative energy, or energy produced in a vacuum. This procedure depends on the Casimir effect, which states that a vacuum is not essentially just a void; as an alternative, a vacuum is essentially full of shifting electromagnetic waves. Altering these waves generates negative energy, which probably alters space-time, generating a warp bubble. To find out if space-time alteration or distortion has happened in a lab experiment, the scientists shine two extremely directed lasers: one over the site of the vacuum and one through normal space. The scientists will then relate the two beams, and if the wavelength of the one going over the vacuum is stretched out, i.e. red shifted, at all, they'll know that it travelled through a warp bubble.
A ring-shaped warp drive machine could move a football-shape starship (as shown in the center) to actual speed faster than light. The idea was first suggested by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre. Image Credit: Harold White |
Hey there frequent visitors! You may have noticed a little change with my site, specifically in regards to my URL. What once was culinaryxcouture.blogspot.com is now culinarycoutureblog.com. Basically, I bought a piece of the Internet with my monies and now it's mine and I own it. No more subdomain, no more extra periods, and no more extra letters. Woot woot!
I definitely should have made this change sooner as it would have prevented a lot of annoying instances when giving out my url to friends and family, but it's all good now! The change has been made, I am super happy about it, and this calls for a celebration!
Of course, every celebration needs a phenomenal chocolate dessert. Enter deep dish chocolate chip cookie pie. Don't worry, it's not as fat as it sounds, I promise. It doesn't have any butter OR refined sugar. And it's vegan, which means it's totally healthy. Fat pants can stay in the drawer for this one. Just bring a fork and a tall glass of milk and you're good to go.
Since this delicious pie is made of hearty ingredients, you're less likely to overeat because you'll feel full sooner. And when you do feel full, it won't be the gross kind of full where you regret everything you just ate. No, with this pie, you'll walk away thinking "Mmm that ooey gooey chocolate chip cookie pie was so good for me, I feel amazing". Or you know, some other variation of that thought process.
My point is, you really have to make this pie. And if my blabbering about how awesome it is hasn't convinced you yet, I'll let the melted chocolate do the talking. Yup, that should do the trick. |
Every year since 2012, EdTech has scoured the web to assemble the 50 Must-Read Higher Ed IT Blogs.
We're now preparing entries for our 2015 edition of the list, and we'd like to know which blogs matter to you. Our nominations list is managed by Listly, a social media tool for submitting and curating lists. To add a blog to the list, log in to list.ly via Twitter or Facebook. And if you see a blog that you like on the list, feel free to vote for it. But no forums or communities please!
Your nominations and votes will help inform the selection of our Top 50 list, although the final decision on whether a blog makes the final cut isn't based solely on how many votes a nominee receives.
The nomination period for the 2015 Must-Read Higher Ed IT Blogs will run through May 25. The list will be published online at the end of May.
Start submitting your favorite blogs right away! Click the "Add to List" button below to get started. |
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Thursday put the kibosh on prospects of a deficit-reduction “grand bargain,” instead making clear this his priority in upcoming negotiations will be to get rid of sequestration.
“That’s all happy talk,” he told KNPR Nevada Public Radio. “I would hope that were the case but we’re not going to have a grand bargain in the near future.”
“I hope that we can do some stuff to get rid of sequestration and go on to do some sensible budgeting,” he said.
Pressed repeatedly during the interview on what it’d take for him to consider cutting Medicare and Social Security, Reid stammered, “You keep talking about Medicare and Social Security. Get something else in your brain. Stop talking about that. That is not going to happen this time. There’s not going to be a grand bargain.”
Reid recounted the recent battle that led to a government shutdown and a near-breach of the debt ceiling and made clear he’s lost his patience with Republicans.
“You know, it’s really hard to try to be rational and logical with people who are illogical and not rational. … Take one thing as an example. Al said the true definition of insanity is someone who does something over and over and over again and expects a different result. If Einstein’s right then we have a bunch of insane people in the House of Representatives,” Reid said, citing more than 40 House GOP votes to repeal or dismantle Obamacare. |
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December brought good news and bad news for Vermont’s jobs picture: The unemployment rate dropped again, but so did the labor force.
Among the people who consider themselves ready and willing to work, more of them were employed in December than in recent months. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remains among the lowest in the nation, at just 4.2 percent compared to a national average of 6.7 percent.
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But fewer people consider themselves ready and willing to work. Vermont’s labor force lost about 950 people in December, dropping to 349,900 — the lowest in 35 years, according to state economist Tom Kavet.
“This serves to lower the unemployment rate, but underscores the exceptionally weak employment growth that has characterized this recovery,” Kavet wrote in his January report to the Legislature.
The reasons for the decline could range from retirement to layoffs to giving up hope. Business leaders and some economists have expressed concern in recent weeks over the continuing decline.
But Kavet and his counterpart, Gov. Peter Shumlin’s economist Jeff Carr, saw early indicators of improvements on their horizon. Their consensus forecast in early January predicted modest gains this year, and stronger growth in 2015.
Department of Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan recognizes that many residents continue to look for jobs — or better jobs — even as the state’s economy slowly recovers. She encourages anyone to take full advantage of the resources her offices offer, in particular job training opportunities.
“Depending upon a person’s eligibility, we can provide funding for training,” Noonan said in a press release. “We also have specific funding for workers who are laid off or who lost their job as a result of adverse foreign trade impacts. We have funding to work with ‘at risk’ youth, Vermont veterans, low-income Vermonters and Reach Up participants.”
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To get a better sense of the jobs that comprise Vermont’s economy, click through the interactive graph below. The visualization shows the relative size of the major industries and sectors, measured by the number of people each employs in the state. It is based on preliminary estimates from December 2013 surveys, so the numbers may change as more data becomes available in early 2014. |
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Excerpted from Undisputed Truth, available now from Blue Rider Press.
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Don King was offering me a $20 million settlement in exchange for him getting to promote my fights again. I told Jackie Rowe that before we could talk about working together and settling, I wanted three things of mine that Don still had—a green Rolls-Royce, a painting that the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi had given me that was supposed to be worth a lot, and the thing I was worried the most about: a drawing of me in the middle of a bunch of X-Men that Stan Lee had done.
Don called Jackie and told her that he would fly us down to Florida and put us up so we could work out a settlement. Jackie, her son, my girlfriend Luz, and I got on Don’s private jet and flew down. I packed a big block of coke and a duffel bag with a half-pound of reefer. I was doing my coke and smoking my blunts and listening to my Walkman and I was higher than the plane was when an epiphany hit me.
“This is my motherfucking plane. I paid for this plane. And this motherfucker is acting like he’s doing me a favor sending me down on my own fucking plane. This nigga is playing me.”
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The drugs were playing with my head and I was freaking out and getting jealous.
Don picked us up at the private airport in his Rolls and he had Isadore Bolton, who used to be my chauffeur before he stole him from me, driving some of Don’s associates in the lead car. We were driving down to Miami from Fort Lauderdale on the I-95. Don said some innocuous thing, and all that jealousy and rage spilled out of me and I kicked him in his fucking head. Boom! You don’t turn your back on a jealous cokehead.
Don swerved off onto the side median and I started choking him from the backseat. I got out of the car to get into the front seat and kick his ass some more, but Don took off down the median.
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Now I was on the side of the fucking highway by myself. Don drove a little bit down the road and then let Jackie and her son and Luz out of the car. They came up to me carrying my bag with the half-pound of reefer. I had the coke stash on me.
“Why did you let him go, Jackie?” I screamed. “Now we’re out here on the fucking highway.”
All of a sudden, Isadore pulled up. He was there to pick us up because he lost our car and when he called Don, Don told him to turn around and get us.
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He pulled up alongside me and rolled his window down and told me to get in the car.
“Fuck you, motherfucker,” I screamed.
Isadore got out of his driver’s door and I was right on him. I punched him in the face twice, shattering his left orbital bone. The force of the blows knocked him across the driver’s seat and I reached in and grabbed his leg and bit it. Isadore managed to kick me off him and close his door, so I punched the outer panel of his door and bent the steel. I was about to break his window when he managed to drive away.
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His shoes were still on the side of the road and he was driving barefoot.
Then the cops came. They were talking to us and I had the half brick of coke and Luz was holding the duffel bag with the half-pound of weed. These cops were so excited to see me that the motherfuckers didn’t even ask me what we were doing on the side of the highway. They’d have put anybody else’s ass on that grass, and they’d be locked up for life for having all that coke. I’m an extremist. Why couldn’t I just buy an eight ball? No, I had to have a half a brick. The guys who sold it to me said, “Mike, this is sales weight. Police are not going to hear that you’re getting high with a half a brick of blow.” And I had this as my personal stash.
The cops offered to drive us to our destination. Jackie talked Don into giving us some money, and he sent a guy over with a couple hundred grand.
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We partied every night for a month and then a friend of mine came by with his tour bus and we picked up a couple of girls and drove all around the east coast.
In June, I was visiting my childhood friend Dave Malone and we were flying our pigeons in Brownsville. That night Dave drove me back to the Marriott Hotel where I was staying. Outside the hotel, two guys who were returning to their rooms and they were pretty drunk and came up to me and asked me for an autograph. I was high on cocaine. Let me tell you something about me. When I was getting high and it was nighttime or early in the morning, I was not a good person to meet. I was just nasty, looking for trouble. I could have these Herculean fucking mood swings, almost Jekyll and Hyde shit.
So these two Puerto Rican guys approached me and asked me for my autograph. I told them to fuck off.
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“You ain’t all that, anyway,” one of them said. “We got guns and you only got your fists.”
If I wasn’t on coke probably nothing would have happened. But I was, so I chased them into the lobby and up the escalator. We got to the top of the escalator and I knocked one of them out with one punch. The other guy was hiding behind the front desk and I pulled him out and hit him. He was spared when hotel security came.
Image by Jim Cooke, original photo via Getty |
by BRIAN NADIG
Several development proposals near the intersection of Milwaukee Avenue, Irving Park Road and Cicero Avenue and the role that subsidies could play in the success of some of those projects were discussed at the Oct. 6 meeting of the Six Corners Association.
“Six Corners is on the cusp of major development,” association executive director Kelli Wefenstette said at the association’s community leaders roundtable luncheon. “In a year from now, it could look drastically different than it does now.”
Those projects call for a Binny’s Beverage Depot, Retro Fitness and possibly a pancake house inside the former Bank of America building at 4901 W. Irving Park Road, a Culver’s restaurant on the site of a former tire shop at 4939 W. Irving Park Road and a retail center on the site of the former Bank of America at 4747 W. Irving Park Road.
Also, in neighboring Old Irving Park, a mixed-use development at Irving Park and Avondale Avenue will include a Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria carryout store, Potbelly’s Sandwiches and Bow Truss Coffee.
Alderman John Arena’s director of economic development Anthony Alfano said that the developer for the Binny’s project initially requested $4 million in tax increment financing subsidies to pay for some of the infrastructure improvements on the property but that the request has been lowered to $2 million.
Arena does not take subsidy requests lightly and that to be considered developers must show that their project would provide a community benefit, Alfano said. The Binny’s project would include the conversion of a rear alley into a public plaza and the preservation of the former bank’s 300-seat, second-floor theater, he said.
“There really are not a lot of 300-seat theaters in the city,” Alfano said. Plans call for the theater to be made available for use by community organizations, he said.
The Chicago-based Clark Street Development initially sought $12 million in TIF subsidies for a proposed retail center on a nearly 4-acre site at the southeast corner of Irving Park and Cicero and that request was later reduced to about $5 million, Alfano said. “Now they’re asking for zero TIF,” Alfano said. “It’s still set to be a $40 million investment in the community.” An anchor tenant for Clark Street’s proposed retail project has not been announced.
It also was reported that TIF subsidies are being considered for the redevelopment of several underutilized buildings on the east side of the 4000 block of Milwaukee, including the former Mr. Steer’s Steakhouse. The Condor development company recently acquired those properties and a brewpub is among the new uses being considered for the block, Alfano said.
It also was reported more that $3.5 million in TIF grants through the city’s Small Business Improvement Fund have been used to renovate storefronts at Six Corners.
Also at the meeting, it was announced that the association is planning to install on-street bike corrals, additional public art and other improvements to help make Six Corners a destination. “We want to make it a place people want to come to,” Wefensttee said. “Make it a place people feel safe and comfortable.”
The association also is looking making an existing walkway that runs behind the Klee Plaza between Cicero and Milwaukee more visible to shoppers. One recommendation calls for painting the public sidewalk that leads to the walkway.
It also was reported that the Chicago Ballet Center, 4024 N. Cicero Ave., is constructing a new dance studio on the top floor of the four-story Portage Lofts building at 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave., which also houses the National Veterans Art Museum, the Filament Theater and the Inside Out Art Studio and Mask Shop.
Association board member Jackie Intress, who serves as Filament’s outreach manager, said that it is very unusual to have a building in a city neighborhood dedicated to such a wide variety of art uses.
Arts Alive Chicago president Cyd Smillie said that these art uses have played a key role in attracting new businesses, such as the Community restaurant that open earlier this year at 4038 N. Milwaukee Ave. “Community is here because of Filament,” she said.
The association is sponsoring a “Halloween Treasure Hunt” and “Costume Coven,” which includes spooky games and mask making, on Saturday, Oct. 31. A schedule of activities and times is available at www.sixcorners.com. |
Somehow, the Patriots found a way to make their already potent offense even more powerful. Somehow, the best team in football just improved significantly.
As first reported by ESPN’s Dianna Russini, the Patriots traded for Saints receiver Brandin Cooks on Friday night. To acquire Cooks, the Patriots sent the Saints a package of draft picks: the last pick in the first round and a third-rounder. In addition to landing Cooks, the Patriots also snagged the Saints’ fourth-round pick. CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora confirmed Russini’s report.
Got all that?
TRADE! The Patriots have traded their #32 & 3rd #103 pick to the Saints for wide receiver Brandin Cooks & their 4th #118 pick per sources — Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) March 11, 2017
So, first of all: Wow.
Cooks, still only 23, averaged 81 catches, 1,155.5 yards and 8.5 touchdowns the past two seasons. In that span, he also averaged 14.27 yards per reception. He’ll be joining an offense that already features Tom Brady (the greatest quarterback of all time), Rob Gronkowski (the best tight end in the game), Julian Edelman (a dependable underneath receiver) and two pass-catching backs in James White and Dion Lewis.
Keep in mind: Brady rediscovered his deep ball this past season, posting the NFL’s second-highest passer rating (124.4) on passes thrown at least 20 yards downfield, per Pro Football Focus. He did that without Cooks.
Again: Wow. The best team in football just found a way to get even better.
This trade might also matter because it could incentivize the Patriots to trade backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. They just gave up two draft picks, already lacked a fourth-rounder due to Deflategate, and sent a second-rounder to the Panthers for Kony Ealy earlier Friday while getting a third-round pick back. The point being, the Patriots could use some draft ammunition, having no picks before the third round, and they have a desirable quarterback sitting behind Brady.
Before the trade, La Canfora wrote about the possibility of the Patriots sending Garoppolo to the Browns:
DePodesta and Belichick think very much alike, both are rooting heavily in an economist approach to pro sports, and the Browns and Patriots have already done plenty of business together in recent years. Neither team would have to do a thing until just before the draft and a trade could still come together. No one is better than Belichick at playing hardball and then ultimately squeezing for more than he could have hoped for (he would parlay some of these picks into a trade for Saints receiver Brandin Cooks, for instance, who he really likes and still have plenty left over to move up and down the draft board the next few years).
The thinking remains the same, though it’s clearly happening in a different order. The Patriots already got Cooks. Now they need the draft picks.
As for the Saints, they just parted ways with a talented receiver who is going to want a huge contract in the near future. With the draft picks, they could either grab a cheaper replacement for Cooks or fix an awful defense. They have plenty of holes to fill.
The bottom line: The Patriots are still the team to beat in the NFL. |
Mark Fischer gave a myriad of updates on the Asian side of the UFC's plans, and among the news announced is the signing of Taiwan's Rocky Lee. The Managing Director of UFC Asia broke the news to MMA-in-Asia.com, stating that the unbeaten prospect is set to make his debut at the upcoming UFC: Macau card this August.
The 27-year-old is 3-0 in his MMA career and has competed under the PRO FC and Legend FC banners around Asia. No opponent has been named yet, but an announcement is expected to happen soon.
Also confirmed by Fischer to be on the Macau line up are several TUF: China competitors. The Featherweight finals between Yang Jianping and Ning Guangyou has been announced, along with other fighters such as the TUF welterweight winner Zhang Lipeng, and Anying Wang who will appear on separate bouts. Both men registered their first official UFC victories last March, and will look to follow up with another win in front of a partisan crowd on August.
Among the other news announced was the plans of hosting shows with Korea and Philippines as their next destinations. The Manila card that was planned for 2014 was scrapped at the last minute, with Fischer mentioning a 'strong sponsor' that had to pull back a bit, causing the delay in their long overdue Philippine event.
They say it's now penciled in for early 2015, although with the multiple postponements throughout the years, no one can blame Filipinos if they don't hold their breath for it.
Here's a rundown of the other news from the head of UFC's Asian division:
- UFC now reaches 448 million homes with various TV deals across Asia.
- 12 Chinese fighters are in the UFC roster, including several fighters that were not from TUF: China.
- UFC plans to go to mainland China, but they want to do a big show, instead of rushing "to go there just to say that we went there".
For more details, you can also watch the entire video interview with Fischer here:
Follow me on twitter -- @antontabuena |
This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's August 21 Fighting Issue. Subscribe today! Read it in Spanish here.
VLADIMIR GUERRERO JR. wedges himself into a plastic seat just outside the luxury suite at Marlins Park, two hot dogs on a paper plate in one hand, a Pepsi in the other. The 18-year-old pulls out his phone, its background set to his No. 27 jersey, and he scrolls through texts. It seems everyone wants a piece of him. Tonight is the first day of All-Star week, and Junior went 2-for-4 with two runs in the Futures Game. He was the youngest player on either roster. The game capped the announcement that he was being promoted to High-A Dunedin, Florida, his reward for the past three months in Lansing, Michigan, where Junior had carried a .409 on-base percentage with seven home runs and 21 doubles. Now Baseball America's new No. 2 prospect, Junior is not only taking the next step up the Blue Jays' ladder, but he's also beginning to burnish his legacy in baseball -- and at home.
From the back of the luxury suite, his father watches him, surrounded by friends and family from the Dominican Republic, California, New York and Florida. Despite the middle-aged paunch and the hair shaved close to his skull, Vladimir Guerrero looks younger than his 42 years. His beard hangs in a tight V off his chin. His arms are thick. When he walks the room, his gait still shows the athlete's high butt, the swaying shoulders, the wiggling hips. He takes a sip from a Corona and glances again at Junior and the tinted dreadlocks that brush against his shirt.
Is Vlad following Junior to Dunedin to watch his first game?
"No," the father says flatly.
Is he excited about his son's promotion?
Vlad shrugs, takes another pull from his bottle. He's proud of his son. Anyone who sees the barrage of celebratory posts on his social media knows that. But there's a competitive edge that keeps Vlad -- and his son -- from reveling too long in any of Junior's accomplishments. The father spent most of this century as one of the game's most dynamic players. So much of everything his son might hope to accomplish Vlad has already done.
"There's still a long way to go," Vlad finally says. "I'll be excited when he gets to the majors."
Guerrero, who lived with his grandmother in Lansing, moved to Lakeland in July after a promotion. Edward Linsmier for ESPN
JUNIOR FIRST SWUNG his father's 32-ounce, 34-inch bat when he was 3. He hit his first home run on a big-league-sized field in his native Dominican Republic when he was 12. Four years later, he was one of the brightest baseball talents on an island overflowing with them, and the Blue Jays signed Junior to a $3.9 million bonus in 2015. Overnight, he became one of the richest teenagers in baseball and easily among its most anticipated.
But since he was a boy, people have wondered whether he could live up to his father's very large footprint. After he signed, even after a coach posted his impressive batting practice on YouTube, critics said his in-game stroke wouldn't be as prodigious as his father's. They questioned his arm -- definitely not like Dad's. They talked about his work ethic, or, rather, imagined the work ethic of a kid who grew up with everything. Could a young man with a famous and wealthy father be hungry enough to carve out a big league career? Would he even care?
Béisbol Experience "I want to be the third Dominican in the HOF," Vladimir Guerrero tells Béisbol Experience. Here, a closer look at Guerrero's storied career.
Watch the video »
In this way, even Junior's backstory is held up against his father's remarkable past. Vlad grew up poor in Don Gregorio, an agricultural town in the D.R. a few miles from the Caribbean Sea. He used lemons wrapped in rags instead of baseballs, drank from puddles because his family's shack didn't have running water or electricity. When a hurricane blew the roof off the house, all six of the Guerreros living in it moved into a single room and shared two beds.
Junior, on the other hand, moved among spacious clubhouses in Montreal and Anaheim and Arlington and Baltimore. When he watched his father work, it was from a fully catered suite. He has never known what it's like to feel hunger pangs, to leave school to help support a family, to have a relief helicopter drop milk and sugar from the sky.
"I can only imagine what my family's life was like when they needed help," Junior says through a translator. "It wasn't easy for them. They made sacrifices. I benefited from that. I got to live my life because of all that came before me."
He was never pushed toward baseball, but ever since Junior picked up his father's bat and swung it, his father knew the game "was in his blood -- just like me." As he got older and spent more time in the Dominican, Junior begged to play baseball every day, sometimes two or three games in a row. "I grew into what my dad was doing," he says.
Comparison was, and remains, inescapable. Over a 16-year career, Vlad hit 449 home runs, made nine All-Star teams and won the 2004 American League MVP. Enshrinement in the Hall of Fame is almost a certainty -- he missed by just 15 votes this winter in his first year of eligibility. Junior is always being reminded of who he is, what his father has done. Whether it's in a stadium or in a media guide or walking down a street, he is Vladimir Guerrero Junior. He will forever be the son -- the second.
Years after celebrating with his dad in Montreal, Guerrero Jr. is now making a name for himself. REUTERS/Andre Forget
JUNIOR STARTED TO understand how much his father meant to the game when he was 10 years old. It was 2009, and the whole family was in Anaheim as Vlad hit his 400th home run. For one delirious moment, the cheers were so deafening it sounded like the place might collapse.
Two years later, at home in the D.R., Junior hit his own milestone home run -- his first out of a big-league-sized field. His father heard about it, and a week or two later he went to a game.
"I didn't want him to see me," Vlad remembers. "I didn't want to pressure him. I didn't want him to have me take away from that. But I had to go to the ballpark to check it out."
He hid off to one side, deep in the outfield, while his son stood in the batter's box and stared down the pitcher. And then, to his father's delight, Junior hit another one out.
As Junior got older, his father sent home game tapes, and Junior studied them, watching his dad swing from his heels -- smacking homers on pitches above the letters, driving a double off a ball just a few inches off the dirt. But even as Junior watched and worshipped his father -- "¿Mi papá? He's my everything" -- he's also been quick to distance himself from Vlad's legacy. "I want to show people what I can do, that I'm not here because of my name." And even as Vlad has insisted that Junior make his own name for himself -- "I never talk to him about expectations; I've told him, 'Don't listen to what people say, play your game'" -- he compares his son's stats, stroke and schedule to his own. They seem to compete against each other and love each other in equal measure.
Junior says he has more plate discipline than his father. Vlad says he had more power than his son. But both have the same swing -- that same hitch and extension through the ball and the same sound off the bat. Junior sometimes even hits without batting gloves like his father used to do. "But," he insists, "I'm not doing it to be compared to my dad. It's how I want to play."
Vlad is very much a paternal figure: This past offseason, he taught his son to lift weights, told Junior the added muscle was necessary for late-season stamina. For three months during the winter, Vlad helped with his son's training program -- at the field by 7 a.m, then five hours of lifting and hitting.
On Saturdays and Sundays, they played softball together, set up in the infield and played as if their reputations depended on it. Junior, Vlad says, is faster and quicker. "But that's because he's younger. Hitting, though? I try to show him I still have it."
In that way and others, Vlad holds himself as a benchmark for his son's burgeoning career. He keeps a running count of Junior's home runs and compares the number to his own minor league total from nearly 25 years ago. Through July of this season -- Junior's second as a pro -- he'd hit seven. Vlad, he will remind you, hit 16 in his second minor league campaign.
While Junior was crushing for the Lansing Lugnuts this year, a story on Bleacher Report compared his abilities with his father's. The Guerreros' business manager and family friend, Jesse Guerrero, emailed the story to Vlad, then talked to him on the phone. "I told him it said Junior might be the better baseball player between the two of them," Jesse says. Maybe as good, but never better, Vlad shot back. "Then he starts going through all his stats. Vlad says he went straight from Double-A to the majors, that he hit a home run in his third major league game. I'm like, 'OK, OK, you've got a point.'"
BACK IN THE D.R., the Guerrero guesthouse -- a tangerine-colored beauty with an enormous honeycomb-shaped pool -- rises high above the Nizao River, atop a hillside adorned with massive white rocks in a "27" formation. The number is so huge that it can be seen from the next town. It is a monument to a family's success and a reminder to the community of the possibilities that can bless even the poorest among them.
Vlad has used his money to support the local economy. He's owned a supermarket, a livestock and vegetable farm, a propane distribution company, a concrete-block factory and a women's clothing store. There are stories of schoolchildren gifted with glasses, of young baseball players getting a surprise shipment of gloves and bats.
His son shares his generosity. The minor leagues are a cutthroat operation, perhaps the easiest place to be consumed with selfishness. You compete not with the other team but with your teammates. Yet in the Lansing clubhouse, where Junior spent part of his summer, he was known for literally giving the shirt off his back to a teammate who needed one. At a mall during a road trip in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he asked which players had young children. He then bought bags filled with baby clothes for each of them.
"When you see that name Guerrero on the back of the jersey, you can make assumptions about who he is," says Cesar Martin, a Dominican native and Junior's former manager with the Lugnuts. "But he never asked to be treated differently. He doesn't just want to talk to the Spanish-speaking players. He goes out of his way to include everyone. He doesn't think he's special. He works like he's trying to prove something. He plays like he's poor."
In Lansing, Junior roomed with his grandmother -- sent by Vlad to keep an eye on him this year -- and a teammate, Yeltsin Gudino, in the apartment complex just beyond left field. Their place had two bedrooms. Grandma got one; Junior and Gudino shared the other. Gudino is a 20-year-old shortstop from Venezuela with a wife and a 6-month-old son who both live in Florida. Gudino missed his wife and baby and was slumping at the plate. He was constantly reading news on his phone, watching as his home country was torn apart by political turmoil. At night, after games, Junior stayed up with Gudino.
On the worst nights, Junior called his father and then handed the phone to Gudino. Vlad explained to the young man that what he could control was what he did at the plate. A hitter could never lose his confidence, Vlad said, because that's all he had. Strike out, ground out, hit a home run. It didn't matter. Always think you're good enough for another chance.
The talks comforted the young Venezuelan. "Senior is a lot like his son," Gudino says. "If you need anything, he will help."
Guerrero Jr. went 2-for-4 at the Futures Game in July while his father looked on. Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
ON FATHER'S DAY, Vlad watches his son play for the first time this year. After surprising Junior in the Lugnuts' clubhouse, Vlad throws out the first pitch to him. After the pitch and the hug, Vlad moves to a team suite to watch the game. On his way to the concrete tunnel behind home plate, fans shout his name, wave and reach toward him with baseballs and pens for autographs.
You're always an Expo, Vladdy!
Vladdy, you're the greatest!
Vlad finds a seat outside the suite, near his girlfriend. They look at the lineup posted on the outfield video board. Junior is the designated hitter against the West Michigan Whitecaps, batting fifth.
In the bottom of the second, while people in the next suite stare at Vlad and search his lifetime statistics on their phones, Junior steps to the plate. He smacks the first pitch to the second baseman. Hard, but an easy groundout. Vlad doesn't move.
In his next at-bat, with the Lugnuts already down 5-0, Junior grounds out to the pitcher. Vlad makes no demonstrative show of frustration. He instead stands up and moves about the suite. He pours a beer into a Styrofoam cup and sits at a table. He watches the game from behind the glass. In the sixth inning, Junior again grounds out to the pitcher. Vlad again shows no emotion, but he's watching his son's body language as Junior moves to the dugout. He's been doing this all night: He's more interested in Junior's response to groundouts than the groundouts themselves. He's looking for signs of a hitter's maturation.
Then someone asks Vlad: "Could you hit this guy?"
Vlad can't help but raise an eyebrow, give a little What do you think? smirk.
The game is a blowout. After Lansing loses 10-1, Vlad hands his first-pitch ball to his girlfriend and he's out the door.
In the team's party room beyond left field an hour later, Lugnuts players surround the shuffleboard and pool tables, playfully taunting one another. Junior sits at the bar with a can of Coke, eyeing a pan of lasagna. His father is on his right, digging into a plate of buffalo wings.
Only recently have the people around Vlad begun calling him Senior. The word sounds harsh, like the past tense of what once was a really lively verb.
Vlad doesn't like it. "It's no good," he says. "Maybe in three years. It makes me sound old. I'm Vladimir Guerrero. I've always been Vladimir Guerrero."
The Guerreros' business manager sets out dozens of photographs to be signed, which will be donated to a pediatric cancer organization in Canada. After the signatures are collected and stacked, 23 of Junior's rookie cards are spread atop the bar, and Junior dutifully signs them. Another card is pulled out. It's Vlad's rookie, from 1996. He was three years older than his son is now. Vlad grabs the cardboard and stares at the photo of his younger self. He's throwing a ball. The moment is preserved in time, an entire baseball career in front of him. Junior watches his father, smiling at his nostalgia. He can't resist. Junior takes the card, flips it over and scans the back. Vladimir does it all: run, field, throw, hit for average, and hit for power. ... The Expos believe he'll be a .300 hitter with 30-30 potential.
"Is that from 30 years ago?" Junior asks and laughs. Vlad laughs too, shaking his head and smirking at his son's jab. "No!" he exclaims.
Junior keeps hold of the card and grows quiet. Even after a game like tonight's, he can almost see it: his father's past melding with his future, Junior stepping into the batter's box in Toronto, ready for the pitch. At the sight of a familiar swing, the crowd roars, and it is still deafening. But this time, Vlad Guerrero is the one watching from the stands. |
This is the second of two letters that I recently received which show how older atheists can face emotional challenges dealing with their religious family members, even though their age often has given them more financial security and personal confidence than younger atheists have. Last week’s letter was from a woman in her mid-fifties who has come out to her father and siblings, while this week’s letter is from a 61-year-old man who has come out to only one of his six siblings.
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy.
Hi Richard, Let me thank you in advance for taking the time to read this letter. I expect it follows a familiar theme that you likely have encountered many times before me. Here’s a little background on me: I am a 61 year-old male. I am married to a wonderful woman and have two lovely adopted girls my wife and I adopted at birth. I was raised in a very Irish Catholic family with six siblings all of whom are still Catholic – though some are more Catholic than others. Only my sister knows with certainty that I am no longer religious and have not been for some 10+ years. I have told her that I am an atheist. She does not understand my lack of belief since I was in the seminary at one point in my early years. Last year, my mom passed away at 92. She was deeply religious as was my Dad who predeceased her by 28 years. My mom was buried from the Catholic church of our childhood. I had no problem attending and pretending that I was Catholic for the day. It was simply the right place for me to be regardless of my lack of belief. However, the first year memorial mass is now on the calendar; this will be the first of many to follow. All siblings will be in attendance. Now, I find myself in a situation where I would like to remember my mom in my own way, a way that does not require a religious backdrop. Is it appropriate for me to feel this way? If I don’t attend the memorial mass, I know my siblings will not understand. I have come to know that very few people understand a person who lacks faith. Thus, I don’t discuss it with anyone but my wife. This leaves me feeling alone and troubled. What might you advise in this situation? Sincerely,
Mike
Dear Mike,
To answer your question first, Yes, it is entirely appropriate for you to feel whatever way you feel. Your feelings are never correct or incorrect; they are yours. You feel what you feel. If you reconsider and possibly change some of the thoughts that stimulate those feelings, then your feelings might change and be more comfortable, and that’s one of the things we’ll explore here.
You told one sister that you’re an atheist, and you’re apparently assuming that she has not told your other five siblings. You said that she “does not understand” your lack of belief, and you’re apprehensive that the others will “not understand” if you don’t attend the memorial mass. You stated that very few people “understand” a person who lacks faith.
The phrase “don’t understand an atheist” can have different meanings. The narrowest meaning is about having some of the common misconceptions about what atheism is. That can usually be corrected with a 20 minute chat over coffee. (No, we don’t secretly believe, we don’t hate God, we don’t worship the devil, we don’t need faith to be unconvinced of deities, we don’t lack morals, and we don’t live depressed, meaningless lives. We are as good and decent as anyone else; we just need evidence instead of fallacious arguments, testimonials, and a warm, fuzzy feeling to give credence to elaborate and outlandish claims.)
I have the impression that what you mean by “My siblings will not understand” is that even if the above misconceptions are clarified, your siblings will still not accept you, they might disapprove of you, might reject or even shun you.
With the prospect of five of your brothers and sisters doing any of those things, I can certainly understand you feeling, as you said, “alone and troubled” to say the least. But let’s explore if the worst case scenario is likely:
Take a look at the reaction of the one sister in whom you have confided. Although you say she “doesn’t understand,” apparently there is still a relationship where you can talk to each other. So if her lack of understanding is the misconceptions about atheism version, you can in a relaxed and patient manner have a nice sit-down with her to let her ask any questions, and clear up her incorrect assumptions. After that, you can work on getting the acceptance version of her lack of understanding hopefully up to a level where the two of you can agree to disagree about religious beliefs, but you can openly and overtly agree that you love and respect each other as persons, and you’ll treat each other accordingly.
Now let’s look at your other five brothers and sisters:
If you try to use an excuse for not attending the next memorial mass, it will probably work for the first time, but even if you have a different excuse each year, each one will have less credibility than the one before. Regardless of how creative and convincing each excuse is, it’s the practice of giving excuses that begins to get stale, and soon people catch on.
Unless you are okay with continuing the charade of attending memorial masses year after year, they’re going to get suspicious and figure it out. Your letter doesn’t sound like you are comfortable with that endless deception.
So it would seem that one way or another the truth will out. Your choice is that you can have control of exactly when and how it comes out, or you can leave it to the distortions and exaggerations of suspicion, speculation, rumor, and hearsay among your siblings. What a mess that would be.
I suggest that you pick the time, the place, and the method to tell them all the same thing all at once, so that your information doesn’t get all screwed up like a series of people playing the “telephone game.”
A big face-to-face meeting where you verbally tell all of them the same thing at once could be daunting to even the most self-assured person, and with five uninformed people listening, there would be five times the number of sources for interruptions, tangents, derailments, attempts to re-convert you, tension, and rancor even before you have finished talking.
So another way to do it is to compose a thorough letter to them that explains as much as you can in general, to be delivered to each of them on exactly the same day. Besides it being less intimidating for you, it would be more accurate. You will be able to have your entire say without interruption or tangents, and they can then speak among each other with everyone having in their hands the exact same information. That will eliminate the speculation and “telephone game” distortion.
To compose your letter, use what you learn from your sit-down with your sister. Her questions and misconceptions will probably be similar to those that your other siblings will have. Consider including the common misconceptions that I listed in the third paragraph of my response here, if they seem appropriate. Present them in a non-condescending way so that they don’t take offense if they don’t hold one or more of them. Also consider proactively preventing some reactions that you would rather not have to deal with. You can ask them to not try to re-convert you; you’re not trying to de-convert them, so that respectful forbearance should go both ways.
Emphasize your love for them. You have been an atheist for over ten years, and you have not changed into a terrible person. You have held back because you value your loving relationships with them. You will continue to be the same brother you have been to each of them all this time, and you hope that they can continue to be the same brothers and sisters that they have been toward you. You just won’t be at all of the church services that they go to. You’ll attend whatever religious events are right for you to attend, as you determine.
Although they will all receive the same information, of course they won’t all have the same response. You said that some are “more Catholic than others,” and they naturally have varying personalities. They will also all have differing influences from their spouses.
Probably none of them will like it, but some will probably be more willing to accept the reality that you present. Those more accepting ones might be able to gradually convince the less accepting ones. They will probably respond to you individually, but they will all be operating from an identical letter.
It will not be entirely smooth, and certainly not perfect. Nothing complicated, delicate, and emotionally laden going between seven brothers and sisters ever is. But you will have made your best attempt to be true to yourself, to be truthful to them, and to offer it all with the laudable intention to preserve the love and respect that should flow freely between brothers and sisters regardless of such differences.
I wish you the best of possible outcomes. Please feel free to write an update for us when the outcome seems to be more or less complete. I’m sure that several people here would be very interested in hearing how it goes.
Richard
You may send your questions to Richard right here. Please keep your letters concise, but include pertinent information such as age, relevant financial issues, and significant people in the situation. They may be edited. There is a very large number of letters. I am sorry if I am unable to respond.
(Image via Shutterstock) |
Let’s face it – water is so dull. But vitaminwater, with its kaleidoscopic pinks, peaches and violets, is like Vegas in a bottle! Vitaminwater’s shimmering hues even seduced rapper 50 Cent, the inspiration for amethyst-tinged Formula 50. But aside from using star power and flashy colors, vitaminwater’s parent company, Glaceau (owned by Coca-Cola), markets the drink by emphasizing its nutritional value. Is there any science behind the marketing though?
A vitamin-fortified drink may sound like a swell idea, but there are two caveats to keep in mind. First, most Americans aren’t vitamin-deficient, according to Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor at New York University. A government survey in 1999 showed that the median American adult man or woman already consumes more than the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of vitamins thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, B 6 and B 12 , and three-quarters of the RDA of vitamins C, B 9 and A (including carotenes). In fact, vitamin E is the only surveyed vitamin Americans consume at less than half of the RDA – but it’s found in only a third of vitaminwater drinks.
If you want to drink your additional vitamin E, there’s a second caveat: your body may not absorb it. To understand why, it’s important to know that vitamins can be divided into two groups: water-soluble and fat-soluble. Vitamin C and the B complex group are water-soluble and can easily enter the bloodstream with water. Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble. That means they can only enter the bloodstream to carry out their functions if they are dissolved in dietary fat, like that found in a meal. An Italian study published by the American Heart Association in 2001 showed that subjects who took vitamin E for two weeks on an empty stomach increased their vitamin E concentration in blood little or not at all, compared to an 84 percent increase in subjects who took the vitamin E supplement during dinner. So unless you prefer vitaminwater to wine with your meal, vitamins A and E will pass largely unused into your city’s septic system.
Even if you were to absorb all the vitamins, vitaminwater might have trouble living up to its image as a salubrious alternative to sugary soft drinks: Each bottle of vitaminwater contains 32.5 grams, or two heaping tablespoons, of crystalline fructose. Fructose is a simple sugar that sweetens many fruits, although the crystalline fructose in vitaminwater is produced from cornstarch, not fruit, by crystallizing the fructose in fructose-enriched corn syrups. As one would expect, nobody needs these extra sugars, according to Nestle, the NYU nutritionist. One research team has even indicated that the intense sweetness of sugary drinks may be addictive.
“The way that vitaminwater is marketed and positioned it’s made to look more healthful than other sugary beverages, but it’s not – it’s still just a soft drink,” said Margo G. Wootan, Director of Nutrition Policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “It has this aura of healthfulness that is not deserved. Adding vitamins and minerals to junk food doesn’t make it healthy.” |
There has been much brouhaha over the issue of Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi being exempted from getting frisked at the airports since way back in 2012 when the reports first surfaced in response to a RTI query being filed.
Since May 2014, when a new NDA Govt. came in media reports surfaced that Robert Vadra’s ‘No-frisking’ privileges would be finally revoked. Further, “media reports” of January this year suggested Vadra’s name has already been revoked from the list at airports. Last week however, TheNewsMinute broke an exclusive (read here) how a response to a RTI query filed by the TNM revealed that Vadra’s name on contrary was still on the ‘No-frisking’ list at the airports. Although there is a reason why it is so, this really outraged and angered a lot of people. We shall further discuss the reasons but first a short history regarding this case.
When the first reports regarding this case surfaced, inspite of much public outrage over the issue of why a private citizen should be extended such privileges, the then UPA govt. brazenly defended this move citing Vadra’s case to be “special” in lieu with his association to his wife – a SPG protectee – Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
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According an RTI reply given to a group called RTI Anonymous in March this year, P Chidambaram’s ministry gave Vadra this exemption because he is a “special case”
The reply had this to say: “Shri Robert Vadra has been granted exemption from pre-embarkation security checks at all civil airports in the country on the recommendation of this ministry as a special case as he is married to a SPG protectee, i.e. Smt Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in consultation with central security agencies.” But after this cryptic note, the ministry gives no further details, citing exemptions from disclosure. “The details in this regard are exempted from disclosure under Section 24(1) of the RTI Act 2005. Shri Vadra has been exempted from pre-embarkation security checks at all civil airports only while travelling with SPG protectee,” the reply further stated.
The No-frisking at airports is usually extended to limited VVIPs such as Heads of States- Prime Minister, Presidents, Governors, among others, so they can board planes without going through multilayered clearance. However, under the UPA this privilege was extended to 33 categories from the President to Special Protection Group protectees.
Moreover, the SPG protection which was formed after the assignation of Indira Gandhi mostly for the protection of the Prime Minister and their immediate families; this has been further expanded to cover important dignitaries such as Presidents, the Speaker, The Dalai Lama and in this controversial case, to Mr.Vadra by his association to Priyanka Gandhi who aforementioned is an SPG Protectee.
It is important to Note that although in the original SPG Act, the protection cover to earstwhile Prime Ministers and their immediate families were of 5 years, the law was amended multiple times by Congress led governments to accommodate the Nehru-Gandhi family under this Act.
The Congress then demanded an amendment in the SPG Act to give security to Sonia Gandhi and her children. The Act was further amended by the Narasimha Rao government in 1991 to give SPG protection to all former Prime Ministers and their immediate family members for a period of 10 years from the date on which the former Prime Minister ceased to hold office. SPG cover for any period beyond this is based on an assessment to see if the level of threat justifies the continued provision of proximate security. Members of the Gandhi-Nehru family are the exception to that general rule. The Act has since been amended four times. This really means that an Act (SPG), which has been amended four times in 17 years, can’t be amended one more time.
When the new BJP led NDA Govt., acting upon a complaint letter filed by a non-profit body, The Air Passenger’s association of India(APAI), urging to look into the special privileges enjoyed by such persons as Vadra of being exempted from frisking, the Civil Aviation Ministry decided to look into the matter.
It is to be noted that to remove a person from the ‘no-frisking list ‘, a due process has to be followed whereby the Civil Aviation Ministry consults with the Ministry of Home Affairs reviewing the threat perception to the person finally reaching the conclusion to whether keep or revoke the no-frisking privilege.
This brings us to the crux of the matter of why Vadra or any other VVIP categories other than the Prime Minister, President or Speaker might still be on the airprort ‘no-frisking’ list.
While most argue and urge for immediate revocation, it is forgetten that whether we one likes it or not a due process has to be followed.
The Civil Aviation Ministry acting upon the APAI’s complaint had written to the MHA between September – December last year for removing the privileges which exempted Mr.Vadra from being frisked however, the MHA was in dilemma since it had to look into a couple of issues.
After not having responded to the first letter, the Home Ministry now says that it is looking into the matter and an order would be issued soon. The aviation ministry in its two letters had told the home ministry that since Vadra does not hold any Constitutional post he cannot be given the privilege of not being frisked. The home ministry before withdrawing this privilege has a couple of issues to look into. Since he belongs to the family of a former Prime Minister he was awarded security by the Delhi police commando security.
Finally, according to today’s Economic Times report (read here), a Civil Aviation Ministry official is quoted to have finally received clearance from the MHA which does not consider threat to Robert Vadra to be “grave enough to warrant inclusion in ‘no-frisk’ list”. The clearance from the Home Ministry came during the second week of June and the review is likely to be started soon whereby Robert Vadra and many other VVIPs would be likely to lose the ‘no-frisking’ at the airports privilege very soon.
– @RpG_89
(Special thanks to @ArmchairPseph for proofreading)
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Maybe the Orioles aren’t thought of as having an embarrassment of riches when you talk about their minor league talent, yet. But within the next couple years, their top prospects will make even O’s cynic, Keith Law of ScoutsInc.com, smash some crow.
Dylan Bundy — according to every baseball talent evaluator out there — is as “can’t miss a pitcher prospect” since the likes of Stephen Strasburg was drafted. Last year’s first round selection, RHP Kevin Gausman, has already been clocked in the upper 90’s (98 MPH a couple times) in early spring training games. Second base prospect Jonathan Schoop has continued to excel at every level and could be your starting two-bagger in 2014 and we already reaped some early returns of what Manny Machado can do.
I’m not foolish enough nor have I spiked my orange kool-aid on this early afternoon day to try and sell you on the Orioles as a top flight MLB minor league organization, far from it. But if they were a stock on Wall St, their arrow would be pointing up for sure. Dandy Dan Duquette might look like a serial killer with those 1950’s sunglasses he seems to sport on a consistent basis, but that nerd evaluates talent like a Hustler Club owner.
Beside the top flight prospects that most Oriole fanatics know, there are a growing number of “2nd tier” guys making a name for themselves down on the farm. First base prospect (God do we need one), Nick Delmonico seems to be a fan favorite, at least online. Orioles message boards have jocked this 2011 6th round pick out of Knoxville, TN like he was the second coming of Will Clark. At 6’2” and a shade under 200 pounds, this dreamboat seems to fit the mold of what a power hitting corner infielder should look like. Adding upper body strength will be crucial for him to develop into that “Eutaw Street” power left-handed bat that the club has been dying for since that cheat Rafael Palmeiro left town. Last year at Delmarva (A-Ball), he hit a modest .249 with 11 bombs and 54 RBI in just under 400 plate appearances.
Other that you might see shagging BP balls in the outfield at OPACY in the coming years include, outfielder LJ Hoes, RHP Mike Wright, and LHP Eduardo Rodriguez who turns 20 in April and could be the club’s best left handed pitching prospect of them all. And I haven’t even pointed out the likes of RHP Stevie Johnson (one of my personal fav’s), OF Xavier Avery and RHP Stuart Pomeranz, as all three already have collected a big league per diem.
And like I stated before, I’m not peeing down your leg and telling you it’s raining by suggesting the Orioles rival the Tampa Bay Rays when it comes to Minor league systems. But what I can say with pretty solid certainty is between Buck Showalter and Dan Duquette there will be no more Chris Smith-type drafts. There will be no more Syd Thrift and his confederate money roaming the 3rd floor of the warehouse. There will be no more of the dual GM’s (Beattie/Flanny RIP) bit that brought such “talents” like Devi Cruz and Javy Lopez. Nope those years are in the rear view mirror for Orioles Nation!
Jabby Burns is a diehard #OrangeKoolAid drinker and contributor to BaltimoreSportsReport.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JabbyBurns and check out his website JabbyBurns.com. |
Over the last 50 years, skateboarding has gotten a bad rep. I can easily conjure the cliché: grumpy building managers or weary parking-lot attendants shaking their fists at hoodie-wearing teenagers on skateboards disappearing into the alley, the eternal struggle for vacant space. And for much of Minneapolis, that’s how skateboarding has remained, a DIY practice thriving at the margins or in large, privately owned suburban complexes.
But skateboarding is changing fast. Over the last few years, cities like Denver, Portland, Philadelphia and Calgary, Alberta, have invested in iconic skate parks that have filled underused public places with life and creativity. Starting this year, the Minneapolis Park Board, with help from a nonprofit called City of Skate and input from the city’s skating community, is rethinking the role that skate parks play in its award-winning park system.
Skate park design 101
The good news is that there’s a lot of room for improvement. Ten years ago, Minneapolis constructed six small skate parks, one in each park district of the city. For many skaters, the existing system remains underwhelming.
“They put resources towards it, but didn’t build them in a way that’s usable and good,” Witt Siasoco, an artist and skateboard advocate, told me. “In a way it’s like designing a golf course. It has to be intertwined with the land and has to be built by somebody that actually does the activity.”
But despite the lackluster design, Minneapolis’ existing skate parks are still heavily used. Along with basketball courts and fish restaurants, they are some of the most peopled elements of the park system.
That’s one of the huge reasons skate parks have become a key component for city park systems elsewhere. Existing park amenities like playgrounds or ball fields tend to attract younger children or more organized activities. But that leaves a lot of less formalized park activities out in the cold, especially for the all-important teenage demographic. Skate parks are ideal for providing places for creativity and play for precisely this group.
“The bottom line is that a skate park has to be great for skateboarders,” Paul Forsline, one of the founders of City of Skate, told me. “We want to make sure that the city invests in good skate parks that put the skateboarders first, but also invests in great spaces that are good for the city at large.”
One example: I was living in St. Paul’s North End when they installed a new skate park on an underused patch of parkland in a rundown light industrial area off Front Avenue.
According to the skaters I talked to, the Front skate park isn’t that great for skating — but that didn’t seem to matter to the neighborhood kids. While waiting for the bus on the corner, with the city’s asphalt pothole plant looming in the background, I was amazed at the skate park’s consistent buzz. From the very first days of spring until the last days of late summer, skaters were hanging out and doing tricks. Compared to any other public space in the neighborhood, this little patch of asphalt was the most heavily used at all times of the day.
(For video evidence, see here or here: as Andy Sturdevant described in a MinnPost column, skate videos have a rich and ongoing tradition.)
“Good parks need to be able to flow and to handle good crowds,” Phil Schwartz told me this week. Today Schwartz works as a housing inspector, but he grew up exploring downtown Minneapolis on a skateboard. “Flow would be like that things go in a direction. You do a trick on one obstacle and do a trick on the next and to be able to go in circles and do tricks without running into a wall or another skateboarder.”
Another skate park “pro tip”: Chain link fences aren’t necessary. Skateboarding isn’t tennis. When Minneapolis relocated its 10-year-old skate park in Elliot Park, they removed the fence after prompting from the skating community. Today it’s the first and only fenceless skate park in the city.)
MinnPost photo by Bill Lindeke Elliot Park skate park
The vision: Minneapolis as the ‘City of Skate’
The City of Skate group popped up three years ago in an attempt to help Minneapolis and Park Board planners improve their skate parks. The idea is that currently the city could use some assistance from the skating community to help with design and advocacy.
For example, not all skateboarding is equal, and an ideal skate-park system will cater to many different kinds of skating. A rough taxonomy: stair skating, bowl skating, transition skating and rail skating. (Note: I cannot skateboard, so I am relying on others for this list.)
“There are different needs and wants,” Paul Forsline told me. “When you’re trying to build a park there’s that push and pull, but we’re not talking about just one park; every park is varied and different and has certain elements.”
Forsline got involved in skateboard advocacy because of his kids, who began lobbying for a skate park in their neighboring Lynnhurst Park as teenagers back in 2008. Since then he’s been advocating for better skate parks in Minneapolis, and helped found City of Skate as a nonprofit to formalize the lobbying efforts.
Courtesy of City of Skate
According to Forsline, the holy grail for Minneapolis skate parks would be a centrally located iconic park that could match the ambitious plans from other cities, something like Philadelphia’s 3-year-old Paine’s skate park or Calgary’s plans for a citywide system. Even more than for most architecture, the devil is in the design details. The subtleties of skateboarding are not immediately apparent to someone who doesn’t practice the sport.
“If it’s not implemented well, the first person that’s going to notice that is a skateboarder,” Forsline said. “We’re trying to create these environments where it feels great to be there, interesting whether you’re a skateboarder or not. It should be integrated into the landscape — maybe there’s a stage to have music on the weekends, skate videos, have a screen, even maybe a spot for food trucks to pull up.”
Next week, City of Skate is set to formalize its working partnership with the Park Board with an official memo of understanding. Though the recently released priority list might lead to a few changes, the first two items on the to-do list are new skate parks in Nokomis-Hiawatha Regional Park and in Northeast Athletic Field Park, on opposite ends of the city.
Margins vs. centers
When talking about skateboarding, it’s hard not to slip into cliché. For example, one such trope is that cities look a lot different from atop of a skateboard. A structure that seems to others’ eyes like a forgotten bench or a concrete eyesore comes to life when skaters arrive.
For a great example of this kind of creative placemaking (yes, I used that word), check out this video of a New Zealand skater named Richie Jackson, who finds the most amazing uses for the most obscure pieces of infrastructure.
Most people who grew up skateboarding have stories of exploring their cities in this dynamic way, of testing material and social boundaries.
“It’s almost cliché to talk about it, but skating helps you look at the city in distinctive ways,” Phil Schwartz explained. “Being able to go downtown when I started skating at 14 or 15, being downtown at night, seeing all the people, some of the crazy people. It gives you a point of view on streets; anything flat ground is fair game. Again, it’s a cliché, but the city is kind of like a canvas,” Schwartz told me.
Given its origins, like street art or mountain bicycling, skateboarding grew up with a creative DIY culture. Skateboarders reveal the potential of many of the city’s marginal or underused places, from public plazas to vacant lots to parking lots. As Jane Jacobs once described, one trick of good park planning is to balance the desire to create green space with cultivating existing activity.
Courtesy of City of Skate
“I’m a little pessimistic that by the time the city gets a quality skate park I’ll be 40 years old,” Phil Schwartz told me. “Hopefully I’ll still be skating. And hopefully something happens in the next few years — but without the funding nothing can be done.”
The one thing that I’m convinced about is that, whenever Minneapolis actually begins completion of its first 21-century skate park system, the parks will be amazingly popular.
“City of Skate is like 3 years old,” Witt Siasoco told me. “I’m an old skater and lot of guys affiliated with City of Skate are older, but we needed to start a nonprofit to raise funds and talk about it at a government level. It’s about getting more skaters involved in in park planning and city planning. We know it’s a longer road, but I’m really looking forward to having some really good skate parks in the city.” |
In an unexpectedly brazen rattling of sabers, just days after China deployed troops to its first foreign base in Djibouti, a move which the Global Times clarified is "about protecting its own security, not about seeking to control the world, Beijing made a less than subtle reversal, when it told Japan on Friday to "get used to it" after it flew six warplanes over the Miyako Strait between two southern Japanese islands in a military exercise.
It all started late on Thursday night, when Japan's defense ministry issued a token statement describing the flyover by the formation of Xian H-6 bombers, also known as China's B-52, earlier that day as "unusual", while noting that there had been no violation of Japanese airspace.
The flyover was hardly surprising: the Chinese navy and air force have been carrying out a series of exercises in the Western Pacific in recent month, both as they hone their ability to operate far from their home shores, as well as a trial balloon to gauge the reactions of their increasingly more nervous neighbors.
What made this flyover different, is that usually following a formal protest by the "offended" country, Beijing would take note and issue a token statement of its own, "neither admitting nor denying" guilt, but certainly without assurances of further transgressions. But not this time. On Friday the Chinese defense ministry said it was "legal and proper" for its military aircraft to operate in the airspace and that it would continue to organize regular training exercises according to "mission requirements."
In other words, Beijing pushed back against Japan's complaint suggesting that China had not only done nothing wrong, but that this behaviour would escalate:
"The relevant side should not make a fuss about nothing or over-interpret, it will be fine once they get used to it," the ministry said in a statement.
Furthermore, the Miyako Strait is between Japan's islands of Miyako and Okinawa, to the northeast of self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own.
It wasn't just Japan: also on Thursday, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said the Chinese bombers flew just outside its air defense identification zone and that it had "closely followed" the movements.
It is probably safe to assume that several more such close encounters, coupled an escalation in the harsh language - don't expect Japan to back off diplomatically, especially not under Abe who militant ambitions are hardly secret - and a repeat of the tensions that erupted in 2013/2014 over territorial claims in the East China Sea, and which ended with diplomatic relations between China and Japan collapsing as well as nationalist sentiment in both China and Japan erupting, appears likely.
In a separate close encounter, at the same time that the US was conducting a succeeful THAAD-based intercept of a ballistic missile on Tuesday, a Chinese spy ship was lurking just 100 miles from Alaska's coast to witness the said test for itself, Fox News reported. Furthermore, it was the first time the North American Aerospace Defense Command had seen this class of Chinese spy ship before near Alaska, an official told Fox News. The ship was spotted off the coast of Kodiak, on Alaska's southern tip.
The THAAD test came after North Korea successfully test launched an alleged ICBM missile (this has subsequently been challenged with many claiming the missile was only intermediate range) that flew longer than any test conducted by Kim's regime to date. Officials have said that Kim may now have the capability to strike Alaska. Prior to the test, both China and Russia have repeatedly demanded that the US remove its THAAD installations from South Korea over concerns that the balance of power in the Pacific Rim could shift, and destabilize the region.
China has sent warships to Alaska before, most famously in 2015 when former Barack Obama visited Alaska, China "greeted" him by sending five ships, while more recently a Chinese warship trailed a U.S. warship when it sailed earlier this month near a contested island in the South China Sea.
China also recently launched a new class of destroyer in Shanghai, which military experts say is on par with modern U.S. Burke class guided-missile destroyers. Furthermore, China now has roughly the same number of destroyers, cruisers and submarines as the U.S. Navy, according to new study from CNAS a Washington think tank.
In a separate naval adventure, China's first fully functional aircraft carrier recently sailed near Taiwan after making a port call in Hong Kong that marked 20 years since the British handed the city over. The carrier was declared combat ready following initial tests in November. It does not, however, have advanced steam catapults to launch jets like a modern U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.
It was not clear where the Chinese spy ship had moved to after its brief trip to the Alaska coast. |
Soc.Culture.New-Zealand FAQ file by Rabbi Bajzheet and The Jumping Mollusc of The Burning Giraffe Date: Sort of late December 1991 DISCLAIMER: These are our views. These are not the views of our government, parents, bank managers, giraffe, probation officers or university and we have no employers. We don't care. Okay, here it is - the highly unofficial scnz faq file. Comments are most welcome, mail us at [email protected] and include lots of yummy food parcels. Geography
------------- New Zealand is situated the same distance eastwards from Australia as London is to Moscow. So if anybody tells you it's right next to Australia, tell them to piss off. It is bigger than Conneticut, but smaller than Canada. There are two main islands - The North Island and The South Island. There is also about a zillion other islands dotted around and about, none of which need concern you. The South Island is slightly bigger than the North Island, but South Islanders that refer to themselves as "Mainlanders" are wankers. The largest city in New Zealand is Auckland, which has a population of approximately 900,000 people, many of whom own Holdens (qv). The capital is Wellington, which is really boring and windy and don't go there. The fourth largest New Zealand city is called Bondi, a suburb of Sydney. It has more New Zealanders in it than Hamilton (qv). Lake Taupo, situated in the centre of the North Island, is very big, but smaller than Texas, and has less guns but more trout. Why fucking bulls is better than fucking Bulls
-------------------------------------------------------- The worst place in New Zealand goes by the tantalising and evocative name of Bulls, population two men and a dog. It has achieved it's dubious distinction by having the bones of stranded hitch hikers scattered along all points of egress. It is a shithole; if you manage to escape it within five hours of having entered it, you can count
yourself very lucky indeed. All you need know when travelling in New Zealand is: North Island: beaches
South Island: mountains ...and don't go to Dannevirke, you'll hate it. I was recently told about the perfect NZ tourist's map. It is a world map produced by an English publisher for use in schools, probably in the 1940s or 50s. It has marked on New Zealand three cities - Auckland, Wellington and Bennydale. Go to Bennydale, it's choice. Mollusc's dad got beaten up by a big Maori woman in the Bennydale pub in 1976. If you're a Crowded House or Split Enz fan, a pilgrimage to Te Awamutu is essential. You will see why Split Enz split, and why Neil Finn now lives in Melbourne. Hamilton is a strange place - very foggy in winter, and not in Canada (or Conneticut). If you are hitch hiking in the area and somebody offers you a lift "as far as Hamilton", you can guarantee you will end up walking from one side of town to the other, which will a) take about two hours and b) not endear you to any part of the stinky, boring, flat, green Waikato plains. History
--------- Many years ago a bloke called Maui went fishing with his brothers, using his grandmother's jawbone as a fish hook (apparently his grandmother's jaw fell off through overuse, an object lesson in verbosity). He caught a big fish and hauled it to the surface. It was a big fish (man). Like, really really big. About as big as the North Island. In fact, if the truth be told, it *was* the North Island. But that's okay, because Maui's canoe was pretty large as well, as big as The South Island (get the picture?) Maui's brothers, seeing the size of the fish, became jealous and laid into it with their meres and axes and shit, thus conveniently terraforming it into a fairly rugged bit of heavily forested fish (or land, as geologists prefer to call it). A bit after that, in a huge migration from Hawaiiki (probably no relation), the Maori people arrived in this new land of Aotearoa, The Land of The Long White Cloud. After spending about 1000 years not inventing the internal combustion engine, nuclear weapons, those horrible guttering systems which get clogged up with leaves and twigs and dead sparrows and need to be cleaned out every six months, or Unix, the country was colonised (invaded) by Europeans, bringing blankets, muskets, whaling ships, God, syphilis, tuberculosis and guttering systems. The Maoris, overwhelmed by the European's staggering generosity, occasionally went berko and killed some settlers, but to no avail. By 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi - popularly advertised as New Zealand's founding document - was signed by the Governor of New Zealand (representing Queen Vicky of England) and various Maori chiefs, representing each tribe. After another thirty years of bloodshed, things began to settle down a little bit and the real business of farming sheep and building towns like Bulls (qv) could begin in earnest. Bulls was built. It still exists today. Aaaaaargh. The capital was moved from Russell to Auckland to Wellington to London to Washington. There was speculation during the 1940s that the new capital might be Berlin or Tokyo, but such rumours were unfounded in the cold impartial light of military superiority and nuclear weapons. World War One came, and with it came the battle of Gallipoli, in which heaps of Kiwis and Aussies got dropped on the wrong beach by a Pommie Bastard who was probably marinating his brain in gin at the time. A battle that should have lasted about twelve hours lasted six months, and cost Gunner Spinley (Mollusc's grandad) his face, which stopped a Turkish bullet. World War Two rolled around, and thousands more Kiwis died displaying the refreshing lack of self-preservation that Allied High Command was so enamoured with. The score stands at New Zealand two, Germany nil. Nuclear ships stopped coming in 1984 with the election of The First Labour Government in a Very Long Time. America loves us slightly less than it did before. The French blew up a Greenpeace ship, The Rainbow Warrior, in Auckland in 1985. We like the French slightly less than we did before. However, due to the fact that we export dairy products and beef and lamb to France, we don't dislike them enough to really do anything about it. We won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 and nobody really gives a shit, except Westies (qv) and their fathers. We had a sesquicentennial in 1990 (150th anniversary - we note with interest that the word did not exist prior to 1990). It was crap and lost lots of money. Politics
--------- There are three main political parties in New Zealand: National, Labour and McGillicuddy Serious. National: Currently the government. A bunch of right wing dickheads, intent of reducing inflation to 0-2% per annum by taking away everybody's money until nobody can afford anything, so prices don't go up. Simple? Rumour has it, so too is the Minister of Finance. Labour: The Opposition. A bunch of right wing dickheads, who used to be a bunch of left wing dickheads until 1984 when, rumour has it, their souls were all sold to the Business Round Table (Mafia). We don't believe this, no no no, not at all. But it's worth repeating. McGillicuddy Serious: Scottish Monarchist Regressionists, intent in re-establishing the Jacobite line to supreme executive office, then disassembling all the trappings of modern technology (internal combustion engines, guttering systems, Unix, etc.) and living a life of pastoral, clan-oriented bliss. Due to growing popular disillusionment with both National and Labour, an outside favourite to win the 1993 general election. It is interesting to note that New Zealand has no formal constitution and only one house of Parliament. So, if The McGillicuddy Serious Party is elected, it can do all this quite legally. Culture
--------- Buzzy Bees: A quintessential piece of Kiwiana. It is a small wooden bee that toddlers can drag around on a piece of string. It has wings that rotate (backwards) and it makes a weird clicking sound. They are no longer made, much to the author's remorse. The Edmond's Cook Book: More copies of this book have been sold in New Zealand than any other book (ever). Produced by Edmonds, makers of fine Baking Powder, Cake Mix and Bournville Cocoa. There are hundreds of recipes, many incorporating Edmond's "Sure to Rise" Baking Powder, Edmond's Cake Mix, and Bournville Cocoa. Holdens: Holden is an Australian car manufacturer, a subsidiary of General Motors. Most Australiasians either don't know this, or don't care. The classic New Zealand car is a very old grey Holden station wagon, with shot suspension and dodgy brakes. It is driven by Westies (qv). They are popular because they are cheap (because they are crap) and have big engines, which may or may not be V8s. We don't know, nor care. We are cyclists, who dislike most cars and hate Holdens. Swannies: Woolen bush shirts and jackets made by Swanndri NZ Ltd. Very waterproof, scratchy, rugged, warm and make you look like a mass murderer when hitch hiking. Pavlova:
3 egg whites 1 teaspoon vinegar
3 tablespoons cold water 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup castor sugar 3 teaspoons cornflour Beat egg whites until stiff, add cold water and beat again. Add castor sugar gradually while still beating. Slow beater and add vinegar, vanilla and cornflour. Place of greased paper on greased tray and bake at 150 degrees C (300 F) for 45 minutes, then leave to cool in the oven. (Courtesy of The Edmond's Cookbook (naturally)). This recipe never works, nor does any other recipe for pav, except this one: $15 Bicycle
Carrier bag Ride bicycle down to supermarket, purchase pavlova with $15, place in carrier bag. Ride home. Remove pavlova from carrier bag, place in cold oven. When guests arrive, remove from oven and say "Look at this pav I just made!" Any Australians, South Africans, Yugoslavians or Tibetans who tell you that the pav was invented in their country are full of shit and are not to be believed. Pies: North Americans may be unfamiliar with this phenomenon. A pie is a savoury hors d'ouvres pastry thing, but three times the size, filled with meat (from whence we can only guess) and with a lid on. The worst pies in New Zealand can be had for NZ$1.60 a piece at a grimy, smelly, cockroach-infested petrol station by Lake Karapiro. Coming a close second are the infamous Putrid Pies of Panmure (a suburb of Auckland). They seem to be available from all the bakeries - do not touch them, they are the source of all evil. There are some quite nice pies in Queenstown, but we really hate Queenstown, and this ruins the whole pie eating experience for us. There are also some quite nice pies in Onehunga (south Auckland). However, it should be noted that pies can never be rated at anything above "good". Also, pie criticism is one of the most subjective things imaginable. Westies: Westies are youths who wear black jeans, basketball boots, black jerseys and black tee shirts. They have long hair at the back, short hair at the front. They listen to far too much AC/DC, Midnight Oil and U2 for their own good. They drive Holdens, and are typically called Wayne or Trev. They can be distinguished from Goths in that they usually have axle grease all over their hands, jerseys, etc. and don't like The Sisters of Mercy and haven't heard of Bauhaus. Also, they usually have suntans and have no unwarranted suicidal tendencies. They play rugby league and drink Rheineck (beer coloured piss-water). The are singularly stupid, but are common all over New Zealand, especially in the small towns. The original Westies are from, as far as we can work out, West Auckland - Henderson, Te Atatu, etc. The American equivalent would be Bruce Springsteen the Panelbeater. Sticky Filth: A band from New Plymouth. On the surface they appear to be three Westies who make a nasty noise. This is a fair statement, except that the singer/bassist has no hair, and they wear Doc Martens instead of basketball boots. They play a kind of fast, speed metal noise - a kind of cross between Dinosaur Jr, Napalm Death and a revving chainsaw. His Majesty's Carpark, Auckland: Used to be His Majesty's Theatre, now a carpark. Used to be a cultural icon, now a carpark. Cars park there. Not bicycles, or theatregoers (obviously). Some Holdens may be found there. The North Western Motorway: A fun thing to run across while on acid. The Burning Giraffe: The name of our flat. Home of all that is good and righteous in the world, and venue for some pretty Goddamn demon parties, like last night, for example - a few more holes in the walls, some of the fence got burnt (it swore at Mollusc, apparently, so it had to die), furniture and barbequeue got burnt too. C'est la mort. It was the final break-up party - we seven (plus assorted girlfriends, cat, dog etc.) are going our more-or-less separate ways after 15 odd months of sex, squalour, starvation and psychoactive substances. We'll be sorry to see the place go, but perhaps it was time - the back yard is full of beer bottles and charred aerosol cans, the front door won't close and the toilet has developed an alarming list to starboard (we're not kidding - eventually it's going to fall through the floor). Finally, a joke: Why did the chicken receive the Victoria Cross? For valour. Yours at 4am; Rabbi and Mollusc, fuckabouts at large. P.S. Careful readers will note there are no questions in this FAQ file. Bugger. |
When 93-year-old Rhoda Weiderhorn died on Sunday in Newton, Mass., the family remembered her in meaningful and time-honored ways: a Jewish funeral and memorial service, sitting shiva at night and serving guests Gram's signature spread: cold cuts, fresh fruit, banana bread and rugelach alongside coffee.
But tucked at the end of her obituary in the Boston Globe was also a more unusual request that Weiderhorn's grandson inserted. Instead of sending flowers or giving to charity, Jethro Heiko asked those who knew Weiderhorn to a donate to a Kickstarter project for a card game he is developing.
The obituary, full of the standard details of birth, marriages and children, included a link to a page dedicated to Weiderhorn on the website of his Philadelphia-based design firm, The Action Mill:
"My Gift of Grace is a game that helps families and friends talk about death and dying ... This is a project that can help us prepare ourselves for life's endings and to live our lives with greater grace and resilience, two qualities which Rhoda embodied throughout her life," it said. "Note: for this project to be successful, we need to achieve our fundraising goal by August 9th, so please pledge today and ask your friends to pledge as well."
It's working. Along with his three partners at the firm, Heiko, a designer and community organizer who previously ran a bereavement support program for college students, has raised more than $27,000 for the game. The group has printed a prototype, and wants to ship and sell it by the fall to customers including hospitals and hospices, funeral directors and social workers. The total fundraising goal for revisions, testing and manufacturing: $38,000.
"People are contacting me, sharing stories about their experiences with death, saying things like, 'I would not share this with you, but your project gave me permission to do so,'" says Heiko, 40, who launched the fundraising campaign with his colleagues in early July. Weiderhorn's death has brought the work even closer to his heart.
The game doesn't have winners or losers. Instead, it uses cards divided into questions, statements and activities. To start the game, each player fills out a card that has a question (What activities make you feel alive?) or statement (Check off from a given range of options about what you think will be the worst part of the end of your life.), then uses those to start conversations with family and friends. The game ends with "action" cards, which double as magnets, and act as reminders to, for example, visit a cemetery and talk to its employees to learn more about death and funerals.
The goal is to to help people express and explore what they want for their lives and deaths -- hopefully, long before they die.
"You might give the game to your family when you turn 50, or your parent might give it to you at your graduation," said Action Mill partner Nick Jehlen. "Playing the game with your loved one is a gift as well. We like to call it an 'important conversation wrapped in a game and given as a gift'."
My Gift of Grace is just one of the death-centered projects of Action Mill, a 7-year-old "human-centered" design firm specializing, according to its website in creating, "tools to improve how people work, transform complex systems, and create more meaningful connections." The firm works with doctors and hospitals, as well as nonprofits and activists on projects that combine the company's expertise in social change and nonviolent protest as well as industrial and graphic design.
"A lot of people think a game about death and dying sounds sad and scary, but our experience is the more you do it, the more it allows you to be joyful about day-to-day life," said Jehlen, 42, who tested the game by playing it with colleagues, and sought the input of chaplains and health-care workers.
"It's a very unusual sort of detour from the standard practice or standard way of things," said Karl Ahlswede, a former cardiac surgeon who has consulted on the game. "What I see, particularly with some people in the aging population, is that if you approach a conversation about the end of life it brings up a wall. So if instead what you are doing is playing a game and talking about things or activities that are important in their lives and coming at it from the direction of letting family know about their desires, it bridges a gap. Some people need a nudge."
Nick Jehlen, Georgia Guthrie, Jethro Heiko, and Rob Peagler of The Action Mill in their Philadelphia, Penn. office.
And while the game's name may indicate a religious tilt, its creators say My Gift of Grace is also for nonreligious people.
"We talk a lot about grace in our company. We have some people who say this is about religion. Our answer is that grace means different things to different people. It's having ease and comfortability," said Jehlen. "Grace is associated with Christianity in some people's minds, but grace is also a part of a lot of other religions. We don't put explicitly religious questions into the cards, but people who are religious can express their faith while they play."
This isn't the first time the company has tried to tackle the taboo topic of death. Earlier this year, Action Mill launched Death and Design, a blog that looks at creative ways people around the world approach death rituals and processes. The blog has explored changes at the 115-year-old San Francisco Columbarium, a "kind of cemetery for the ashes of people who have chosen to be cremated." And it's peered into the Salle des Departs, a French minimalist morgue that commissioned artists and a composer to make a typically cold, uncomfortable setting for grieving families more uplifting.
The blog has also highlighted at Death Cafes, informal coffee-shop meetings set up for anything-goes conversations about death, and tech companies that work on death-related issues. GetYourShitTogether.org, for example, was launched by a widow who was at loss about her late husband's wishes about life support, or how to handle life insurance and funeral issues after his death from a car accident. |
A review of the military pay system to be started this year will likely not be completed before early 2019, Pentagon officials said.
That timeframe, they said, is typical for the congressionally mandated study, known as the Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation, or QRMC. To start the review, the Defense Department traditionally requests the review order from the president, who then sets the study in motion.
The regularly scheduled review will be done instead of a separate, additional study ordered by Congress last year on whether or not the Defense Department can move from the current military pay structure to a salary system, according to a letter sent by Pentagon officials to lawmakers in April.
Related content:
"A transition to a salary system would be a change of historic proportions, and significant additional study is necessary to understand the second and third order effects, the potential risks to readiness, if any, and the effects of the DoD's ability to recruit and retain the nation's all-volunteer force," the letter, sent to the House and Senate armed services committees and signed by senior defense executive A.M. Kurta said. "The additional study required to fully analyze, understand and anticipate future effects from this type of change has necessarily and most appropriately been performed by the Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation."
The last stand-alone QRMC was published in June of 2012. The regularly scheduled 2016 study order was shelved by President Barack Obama after Congress in 2013 ordered the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission, or MCRMC.
The MCRMC report made a series of military benefits recommendations, including a plan to revamp the military retirement system and one to plus-up troop financial education. Versions of both of those were included by Congress in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act through a new retirement program known as the Blended Retirement System.
-- Amy Bushatz can be reached at [email protected]. |
TORONTO – A law firm in Thunder Bay, Ontario that launched an $800-million class action lawsuit against the company that recalled a birth control pill in Canada is claiming that 40 women are now pregnant.
In the wake of Apotex’s recall of birth control pill Alysena in April, lawyers at Watkins Law Professional Corporation says that 40 women are pregnant while other women have stepped forward to join the class action.
“Over the last couple of weeks, our website and other forms of social media inputs have been inundated with calls from concerned women and potential claimants,” lawyer Christopher Watkins said in a statement.
His colleague, Sandy Alexander Zaitzeff says that so far, 40 pregnancies and four abortions have occurred so far. About 60 women from across Canada have joined the class action.
“We have well over 25 women who now claim to have become wrongfully pregnant while taking the drug Alysena. We have hundreds more who have contacted us and expressed concern and trauma and are in a waiting game.”
The statement says a “steady stream” of callers are anxious after hearing that the contraceptive “they placed so much dependency on” may have failed.
“Some have serious medical issues which could result in potential severe medical complications if they become pregnant. Others are left in turmoil of how they will react…,” the statement read.
Apotex has not yet responded to the claims made in the lawsuit.
Watkins was not available for comment Thursday.
In an interview when the class action was first launched, he told Global News that women don’t have to be pregnant to join the lawsuit.
Read more: Ontario women launch class action suit against Alysena distributor
He said that in some instances, if women deliver babies with birth defects or any issues that would need additional care, they could sue for damages linked to these costs. Meanwhile, other women may have taken time off work to deal with pregnancy, the fallout of relationships or health concerns.
“The gamut is very wide,” Watkins had said.
On April 8, Health Canada warned women that the product contained two weeks’ worth of placebos instead of one.
Read more: Health Canada recalls birth control pill Alysena
It added that the “possibility of unplanned pregnancy cannot be ruled out.”
About 50,000 packets of the product with the recalled lot number LF01899A was distributed across Canada, except for in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Days later, the recall was expanded to include 11 additional lots of the pill, but only as a precautionary measure.
Now, Watkins is appealing to women across Ontario and other parts of Canada to contact him on the firm’s website.
Watkins says that he filed the class action after a few women reached out to him. Only three people are needed to form a class action.
The claim has been issued in the Superior Court of Justice in Thunder Bay, Watkins said. He says he anticipates that other provinces could be taking on their own cases.
Aglukkaq has ordered an investigation into why Canadian women were not immediately informed of the recall. An initial recall notice by Apotex was sent to retailers and distributors but a public notice wasn’t released until five days later.
Apotex spokesperson Elie Betito told Global News in April that the company will not comment on legal proceedings before the court. He did not respond to request for comment Thursday.
Sabrina Lombardi, a lawyer with Siskinds LLP in London, Ont., says that the lawsuit is a novel case in Canada.
“It is a very difficult and novel issue to pursue,” she told Global News.
“It depends on what exactly the damages are with respect to the pregnancy,” she said. She explained that if the pregnancy resulted in a disabled child, for example, some damages could be recovered to care for the baby.
“It’s very wide open. This area of law is not at all settled,” she said.
In April, other lawyers weighed in, noting that it could be an uphill climb to prove it was these recalled pills that caused pregnancy.
“The short story is that people will very likely bring lawsuits in Canada against this manufacturer,” said Harvard University professor and Canadian Glenn Cohen.
“They’ll have to show the mistake regarding the placebo caused them to be pregnant and had it not been one of these placebo pills, they would not have gotten pregnant.”
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