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The class-warfare debate that flared up after the release of the Mitt Romney video really got its start this cycle many months ago, when Elizabeth Warren made some remarks about taxes and the rich that went viral.They focused attention on fundamental questions about government, the true nature of individual success, and our shared responsibilities to one another — a debate that took a sharp turn in another direction with the Romney video.
So I checked in with Warren for her take on Romney’s comments.
“Romney just wrote off half the people in Massachusetts and half the people in America as deadbeats,” Warren told me. “This is a separate category of contempt for half of our fellow citizens.”
“He doesn’t understand that millions of these people are working their hearts out, and paying plenty in taxes,” Warren continued, meaning many people pay no federal income taxes do pay other taxes. She added Romney has “no recognition of what people’s lives are really like.”
Warren said Romney’s comments clarified the choice voters face this fall. “It’s a party that says, `I’ve got mine and the rest of you are on your own,’ versus those who say, `We’re all in this together,’” she said. “There’s a clear choice in this election, between those who believe that to build an economy, the rich and powerful should get richer and more powerful, with tax cuts for the wealthiest and deregulation, while everyone else is left to pick up the pieces.”
Warren has taken the lead in three polls against Brown, and Brown has not cracked 46 percent in any them — potentially dangerous territory for an incumbent — but she rebuffed all questions about polling. Asked to address recent reports that some Dems are pressuring her to shift her strategy, out of fear that Brown is defining himself as likeable and above partisanship, Warren suggested she’d stick to her course. “I’m out there every day, working for every vote in the Commonwealth,” she said. “I would be doing that if I were down 20 points or up 20 points.”
However, Warren did recently become the first of the two candidates to release an ad taking direct aim at the opponent. The ad, which charges that Brown sides with big money interests, prompted Republicans to say she has gone “negative,” showing she is well aware this race remains a dead heat in which Brown could still prevail. Asked to respond, Warren suggested it’s fair to draw a sharp contrast on issues.
“I’m talking about the issues,” Warren said. “The central issue in this campaign is how Scott Brown has voted for the last two and a half years. Scott brown is not a bad guy, and sometimes he has some good votes,” Warren continued, in a nod to the political reality that Brown has established his image as independent. She added: “But too often, when it comes down to it, Scott Brown votes with millionaires and billionaires instead of working families here in Massachusetts.” |
Finnish politician suggests people be embedded with a chip to prevent misuse of social welfare benefits abroad
In the last few days paying out social benefits to citizens living outside of Finland has been in discussions. A politician from the True Finns Party, Pasi Mäenranta, is also worried about the abuse of the benefits. He published a post on Facebook, where he suggests that all Finnish citizens leaving the country be embedded with an identification chip.
Mäenranta feels that tagging and tracking citizens leaving the country could be a viable option for preventing abuse of the state social benefits: "We don't know in what situations people go abroad. It is possible that our social benefits are used to provide for a lavish lifestyle in a country with lower cost of living. I hope for a change to this."
The comment comes after suspicions of Isis recruits being provided for by finnish unemployment funds. In addition to a chip embedded in the body the politician considers for bracelets as well. If the bracelet is broken, payment of social wellfare benefits is immediately cut off.
He suggests that the system would be voluntary, but leaving the country without it would suspend payment of social welfare benefits. In addition it could be used for tracking people in natural catastrophes or other events.
Mäenranta is not worried about this being a violation of privacy, since people are already willingly tracked with smartphones, Google or Facebook.
Source: YLE
Written by Janita on Tuesday August 11, 2015
Permalink - Tags: news, finland, privacy |
As The International 2017 draws closer, the Dota 2 scene gets busier. The qualifiers span across an entire week and all regions play simultaneously, making it rather difficult to follow the progress of each one. TI itself is no different story, with a large group stage and 4 simultaneous streams it is difficult to follow every team, let alone all the best games. Outside of TI, things don't look better either, with tournaments around the world occurring at different times of the day, it can be very easy to miss out on an entire tournament, unless you have the convenience to adjust your sleep schedule. Personal recommendations from friends and strangers can be nice, or even highlight compilations, but these are usually scattered across multiple different websites and often times those highlights alone aren’t enough to show how a game progressed.
This is why we at Dotabuff are proud to announce the launch of our newest feature, Clips. Instead of manually searching for the best highlights of every game, Clips automatically compiles highlights of every relevant match for you, in real time. Did you just get up to grab a drink from the kitchen and missed a teamfight? Clips will have it within seconds.
Our new Clips page has a variety of browsing options. You can watch the most recent Clips or the most viewed ones, but more importantly: You can browse by tournament, team or player! Can’t get enough of Miracle- Triple Kills? Then check out our Clips page, or head to the player’s Esports Profile! From today onwards, you can find Clips virtually anywhere on our site. Every pro player, every pro match and every hero will have a Clips tab from now on.
Now, we wouldn’t be a stats site if we didn’t make use of our statistics. Once a match has finished and it has been parsed by TrueSight, every Clip will feature detailed statistics on what happens inside the Clip. Similar to the in-game’s teamfight recap, you can see gold and xp changes neatly organized on the right side. Clicking on an event also lets you watch that specific event itself, so you don’t have to manually browse for that Drow Ranger death. You can also click on the little hero icons at the bottom of the video player to jump to specific hero deaths.
As mentioned in the beginning though, these highlights are only as useful as the context provided. What does a certain Rampage mean in the grand scheme of this game? Was it a turning point or was it the icing on the cake? This is why Clips feature a timeline just at the top, which displays networth advantages and more importantly: it shows other Clips! A marker just before a huge change in networth? Must’ve been a big teamfight! This way, you can follow the game’s progress more detailed than ever before, without manually browsing through a VOD or replay.
With Clips, we hope to bridge the complex competitive scene and the not so hardcore audience. As much as we enjoy Dota, we realize that not everyone has the luxury to be able to watch every game they want to. LAN events start early in the morning and last well into the night, often during the week as well. Clips will hopefully help these fans not miss out on crucial moments at events. Even hardcore fans will find it difficult to follow Dota across the globe at any time. Now they won't have to.
As much as Clips is for the users, it is also for the broadcasters. By highlighting who is casting what, we hope to support casters who are just breaking into the scene. On the bottom right of every clip, you'll see who was casting, statsing or observing a game, granted they are inside the lobby with their actual account. With Clips, casters can build their own portfolio of highlights on their own profiles. No more patience from Zhou as you browse through games to find that one memorable phrase. It's right here in their Clips page.
Open & Regional Qualifiers Await
Right now, the open qualifiers for TI7 are in full swing. You don't usually follow the Open Qualifiers, because there are a seemingly infinite number of games and streams? Check out some of the best Clips of the Open Qualifier right now! And as the qualifiers for this year's International will run rampant from Monday onward, with up to six games scheduled to take place at once. This is the perfect opportunity for both you and us to play around with Clips. We hope that Clips can alleviate some of the pressure of having to watch as many games as possible and perhaps even make following competitive Dota 2 more enjoyable. |
Lynne Rossetto Kasper: We've got a family cookbook that you've done with your new book Appetites. But I have to laugh, okay, because the family cookbook has duck fat, wild boars, and there’s about four tubs of different stocks in the fridge. So, tell me about how you cook at home.
Anthony Bourdain: I have a very unusual -- or I thought I had an unusual, sort of non-nuclear, dysfunctional extended family. My house is: an absentee wife who pretty much abandoned me to become a professional jiu-jitsu and grappling expert; a daughter, a nine-year-old girl who grew up eating very adventurously, largely, I think because her mother's Italian and she was exposed to those kinds of food; a Filipino nanny and her son who is essentially, in all important ways but blood, my little girl's brother and best friend; and an extended family of Filipinos, visiting Brazilians, and various grapplers and martial arts professionals; as well as a bunch of other knuckleheads coming in and out. So I found myself, for the last nine years, cooking in a way or cooking things that I never really did as a professional and trying to live the role of the patriarch. This book reflects a guy who spent 30 years in the restaurant business, who is now preparing school lunches for his little girl and cooking Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for this big, dysfunctional, messy group of people. The food is fairly straightforward; I don’t want to give the impression that it's unapproachable. There's also meatloaf and macaroni and cheese, and the sort of thing a nine-year-old would like. I [also] bring the kind of organizational skills to it that I picked up over all those years. I've cooked a lot of Thanksgivings professionally. I think what I've learned will be very helpful to people who struggle with a big holiday meal and find themselves not even remembering eating because there's so much work involved.
LRK: Well, give me a ‘for instance’ with Thanksgiving because this is the perennial question: “How do I survive?”
AB: For a professional, Thanksgiving is a three-day operation. You make the cranberry relish two days in advance. It only gets better. You don't struggle. We don't make gravy in the pan. That never works. You know, where you deglaze the pan with water or flour and, supposedly, you have some magical gravy. Who does that? You make a turkey stock, and then, maybe, you incorporate the drippings. You do that on the day before, perhaps. Again, it's something that improves by sitting and marrying up. Most importantly, you don't carve the turkey at the table. I always prepare what I call the "stunt turkey," a small turkey that I roast and actually stuff, which I actually advise against stuffing your turkey. I cook the stuffing on the side, like I do in the restaurant. It's healthier and it's more controllable. But, basically, I make a stunt turkey for display. I show everybody the turkey with the little paper booties on it and the stuffing inside, and they all go "ooh" and "aah!” Then I whisk that back into the kitchen for myself, for leftovers and turkey sandwiches tomorrow, which is what Thanksgiving's really all about, as far as I'm concerned. And then I have my service turkey, which is a big turkey. Which I take the breast off the bone. I remove all of the thighs and the drumsticks and I slice that breast into nice, attractive shingles, lay it out on my separately cooked stuffing, and I send out an immaculate-looking platter of portion-controlled, cookbook-ready turkey that people can actually eat. I'm not up there wrestling with this turkey, struggling to hack off a few pieces of scrawny white meat for people. Your turkey's getting cold while the other guy is waiting for me to figure out how to carve turkey off the bone at the tableside without stabbing myself. In this way, you also ensure that everybody gets some white meat, some dark meat, whatever they like because it's worth remembering that the murder rates spike enormously over the holidays. And I think a lot of that is turkey-related.
LRK: [laughing] Probably. I wonder, too, about the fact that people get together over the holidays that maybe haven't chosen to be there.
AB: Yeah. This is a situation that's fraught with peril and there's probably all sorts of simmering resentments going on. You should be able to spend as much time at the table as possible. You should be organized. It should be a pretty painless operation if you organize yourself correctly. I think those kinds of realistic expectations -- when you throw a dinner party, you should be able to: a) enjoy the meal yourself, and b) spend time with your guests. You shouldn't be stirring risotto in the kitchen for twenty-two minutes while your guests are getting sort of bitter and drunk waiting for their food.
LRK:But there is something you say that sort of stopped me for a moment. You say you really hate to admit that, for you, there's more stress in cooking for a party of five at home than cranking out meals for 500 in a restaurant.
AB:Yes. Much easier for me. I can crank out 500 turkey dinners standing on my head, but Thanksgiving for five family members with all of that backstory coming. Or five anybody. I get really nervous. So, I have my prep and my mise en place. I am squared away.
If you'd like to hear an extended version of Lynne's conversation with Anthony Bourdain, click here. |
A Progressive Conservative vice-president has resigned in protest from the party executive after officials glossed over a questionable nomination amid allegations of ballot-stuffing, the Star has learned. Robert Elliott quit as the Tories’ third vice-president and policy chair after a raucous weekend meeting of PC brass in Toronto, where leader Patrick Brown was given the power to rubber-stamp contentious candidates.
Robert Elliott quit as the Tories' third vice-president and policy chair after a meeting of PC brass in Toronto on the weekend. ( SUPPLIED PHOTO )
“It did happen, but with respect to it I have no further comment,” Elliott, a consultant with Temple Scott Associates, said Monday from Ottawa. “I understand you have a job to do and I appreciate that — I know your work — but I don’t have any further comment,” he said politely. Conservative insiders said Elliott — a party vice-president for the past nine years and the chief returning officer for the 2015 PC leadership contest won by Brown — was troubled by alleged shenanigans in Ottawa West-Nepean.
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In the May 6 nomination race there, Karma Macgregor won by 15 votes over runner-up Jeremy Roberts, even though there were 28 more ballots in the boxes than had registered. Roberts, whose formal appeal of the result was rejected by the party executive Saturday, said the contest “contained highly suspect irregularities.” “There were clear indications of fraud undertaken,” he said in a statement, noting “the events that transpired here send a very dangerous and potentially damaging message about our cause.” Macgregor, a veteran Tory activist and the mother of Brown’s deputy chief of staff, could not be reached for comment. Despite the shambolic nomination in Ottawa — and similar problems in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas and Newmarket-Aurora — the party executive opted against holding new contests.
“As you know, there have been concerns raised about due process in a handful of nomination contests. They’ve elevated quickly,” PC Party president Rick Dykstra said in an internal email obtained by the Star. “Unfortunately, there is no procedural answer that will satisfy everyone. Replacing one appellant with another is not productive. There could be endless appeals,” he wrote.
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“Rather than constantly looking in the rear-view mirror, we simply need to move forward . . .” Dykstra pointed out that the party is implementing “new processes . . . designed to make nominations and appeals more transparent and fair and to ensure full and fair compliance with established procedures.” These measures include retaining private-sector auditors PwC to oversee nominations and having a neutral observer from the Tory executive in attendance. But in a controversial move, the party announced Brown was certifying all 64 nominated Tory candidates — including Macgregor — regardless of the allegations of irregularities. “Any further process or reconsideration in these 64 ridings is accordingly rendered moot, as these 64 individuals will be our candidates, regardless of any meeting or reconsideration,” wrote Dykstra. In the same internal party email, Brown strongly endorsed his slate. “They . . . are all excellent representatives of our party and each one of them will make a fantastic MPP. Even those who have questions about the way certain meetings were run agree that all 64 are excellent candidates. That is not in dispute,” the leader said. Sources, speaking on background to discuss the high-level deliberations, said that was the last straw for Elliott, who tendered his resignation. While others on the executive shared his concerns, insiders said they were urged to rally behind Brown. Polls suggest he could topple Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals in the June 7, 2018, provincial election and the Tories, fresh from winning the Sault Ste. Marie byelection Thursday, do not want to hurt their chances. Dykstra, for his part, declined to comment on Elliott’s departure other than saying “he has decided to move on from the executive team but he intends to continue on as a hardworking volunteer for our party.” |
British Justice Secretary Chris Grayling stated his intentions today to raise the criminal penalty for cyber trolling in the UK up to a maximum two year sentence, in an attempt to halt the spread of online abuse happening on social media and other sites.
Image via The Next Women
The Malicious Communications Act, which was passed 10 years ago, allows for a maximum penalty of only six months against cyber trolls and other internet troublemakers. Under the law, cyber trolls are defined as "Those who subject others to sexually offensive, verbally abusive or threatening material online."
This includes harassment and stalking, but each broadly defined case is decided by a magistrate or, in severe cases as proposed under the new bill, a crown court -- which means that cyber trolling is open to subjective definition on a case-by-case basis.
Threatening or harassing tweets, Facebook messages, and email communications have previously been prosecuted under the law, but Grayling and others hope the extended maximum sentence will be a sufficient deterrence to discourage this behavior.
In an interview with UK tabloid Daily Mail, Grayling made his feelings on the issue of cyber trolling known.
These internet trolls are cowards who are poisoning our national life. No one would permit such venom in person, so there should be no place for it on social media. That is why we are determined to quadruple the current six-month sentence.
The UK is seen as unique by many countries in its approach to handling the internet, which has included prosecuting those who post hate speech and racism online, and blocking access to "extreme" content like violent pornography and sexualized images of minors.
The bill would additionally include an amendment to prosecute "revenge porn," which would extend a maximum two-year sentence of anyone posting private, sexual videos or photos of an ex on the internet.
Source: Daily Mail via BBC |
For someone who is always saying that holidays suck, I seem to be strangely festive this year. I got my Christmas tree yesterday, and I’ve been wanting to always polish my nails with Christmas colors. Today is not an exception since I decided to wear my favorite green glitter: Color Club Holiday Splendor. Holiday Splendor is the stand out gem from Color Club’s Beyond The Mistletoe Holiday Collection 2011 which was just a complete holo glitterbomb win. Do you want to see what my mani looked like? Well, here we go…
Read below to see what I used for this manicure.
I don’t know about you, but I think this polish is magical. Because of the tinted base, you only need two coats for full opacity. It does dry a little gritty so a nice top coat is a must if you want a smooth finish.
This is just a bonus unfocused and blurry picture that really shows off the amazing holo in this polish. Seriously, how can you not love this??
Since I’ve been on a stamping kick lately, I used Cheeky plate CH 52 and Konad’s special white polish for this design. It almost pained me to cover up Holiday Splendor, but I really love the holo goodness peeking out randomly.
So what do you think about Color Club Holiday Splendor? Did you get any polishes from this collection? Thanks for stopping by and talk to you tomorrow! |
BEIJING: Taiwanese firm Foxconn 's decision to invest a whopping $5 billion in India has caused unease in China as it marks the first top international firm opting for India amid a slowdown in the Chinese economy."Foxconn chooses India over China for new plant," read the headline in state-run china.org.cn while carrying the news of the Taiwanese electronic giant signing up to set up a big plant in Maharashtra."Foxconn's latest India investment represents the leading electronic product maker's intention to profit from the world's fastest expanding market of smartphones. Foxconn, famous for making parts for Apple , will reportedly produce Xiaomi phones in the new factory, a rumour that Foxconn authorities did not clarify or comment," it said.Despite the bad publicity over suicides in the past by Chinese employees owing to pressure and poor working conditions, China valued Foxconn's massive presence as it employed over a million workers, who mostly hailed from rural areas with little education.Foxconn converted China the leading base for manufacturing of all top brands of phones and computers including Apple, Samsung, Dell etc.It will be the first leading investor to show interest to shift to India."The Foxconn-India deal also shows that India wishes to develop its manufacturing sector, as the rising labor cost in China is forcing away many investments in lower-end and labor-intensive industries," the report said."At the same time, the Chinese government is encouraging its companies to take the opportunities brought by the "Belt and Road" initiatives, and to invest overseas, a move which also helps absorb excessive industrial capacity back home," it said.China's growth stood at seven per cent in the first half of the year with forecasts that it would slow down further. |
The single biggest foreign policy failure in American history may be the Iraq War. To date according to iCasulaties, 4,486 men and women in uniform have died in Iraq. According to Iraq Body Count, between 110,971 and 121,262 Iraqi civilians have died. The cost of the war, which was once estimated at $3 trillion, is now estimated at over $5 trillion. The Bush Administration and the mainstream media both colluded to manipulate the truth and lie to the American public about the reasons and motivations for going to war.
Now, a decade later the Eisenhower Study Group at Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University is documenting the Iraq War Drumbeat in the lead up to the war. Guerrilla Blog is joining the Watson Institute in documenting the two months that lead up to the invasion that would engulf the United States in a decade long war. You can follow the conversation on twitter at the hashtag #IraqWarDrumbeat. Here at the blog we will post articles and photos from those two months leading up to March 20, 2003.
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Here be vampires!
The rumor that I never go to parties is vastly exaggerated. I'm at a party here, a party there, and pretty soon the year is complete. Just last weekend I was at a party (ribs, salad, Diet 7-Up) and fell into conversation with a woman who seemed to know a lot about virtual communities.
"Have you heard about help vampires?" she asked me.
I had not.
"Google it. It's really an integral part of the online experience." So, being ever alert to trends in our community, I did indeed Google "help vampires" and found a website called Slash7, written by Amy Hoy. This is her opening salvo on the issue:
"It's so regular you could set your watch by it. The decay of a community is just as predictable as the decay of certain stable nuclear isotopes. As soon as an open source project, language, or what-have-you achieves a certain notoriety - its half-life, if you will - they swarm in, seemingly draining the very life out of the community itself.
"They are the Help Vampires. And I'm here to stop them."
She then goes on with a sort of field guide to help vampires:
"Identifying Help Vampires can be tricky, because they look like any ordinary person (or Internet user, whichever is lesser). But by closely observing an individual's behavior using this handy checklist, you too can identify Help Vampires in their native settings:
-- "Does he ask the same, tired questions others ask (at a rate of once or more per minute)?
-- "Does he clearly lack the ability or inclination to ask the almighty Google?
-- "Does he refuse to take the time to ask coherent, specific questions?
-- "Does he think helping him must be the high point of your day?
-- "Does he get offensive, as if you need to prove to him why he should use Ruby on Rails?
-- "Is he obviously just waiting for some poor, well-intentioned person to do all his thinking for him?
-- "Can you tell he really isn't interested in having his question answered, so much as getting someone else to do his work?
"Note that I use 'he' here in the general sense even though Help Vampires are almost exclusively male. It appears that (the) male Help Vampire, drawn as it is to shiny technology, occupies an evolutionary niche that females of the species simply do not find desirable."
(OK, candidly, I don't know what Ruby on Rails is either. We are at one of those nodes where the geek and non-geek can meet and discuss issues of mutual concern.)
There are help vampires in the non-virtual world as well. They ask you a plumbing question, and the next thing you know you're on the floor of a strange bathroom looking up at a strange sink - something that hasn't happened to you since you were 22. (Or it has, in which case: Consult a specialist.)
With me, it was news releases - at least until I learned to say the magic word "no." Help vampires depend on goodwill and the desire that most of us have to be (a) liked and (b) useful. That desire thwarts our ability to see the obvious traps laid for us.
(I just realized I had done a little help vampiring myself. I looked up Ruby on Rails; it is "an open-source web framework that's optimized for programmer happiness and sustainable productivity. It lets you write beautiful code by favoring convention over configuration." Not something I'll be needing, but I did save a reader a letter explaining it all to me.)
It is a cliche that online communities are the Wild West of the Internet, where gunslingers go to practice their aim, pick fights with real or imagined enemies, and generally swing their big guns in an obvious way. What is less evident but equally true is that the Net is home to a traditional kind of co-dependency, and that help vampires find their prey by radiating an "I need to be saved" vibe.
What they need to be saved from is, in general, their own laziness or, less often, their own stupidity. The question you need to ask: How much of my life do I need to have wrapped up in a stranger's quixotic journey toward understanding? Do you not perhaps have your own problems, many of them well worth solving?
And yet, in some way, our online buddies are our most intimate friends. We greet them in our bedclothes, type at them while picking our teeth. Often we see them late at night. It's an illusion, friends. Your "friends" are not really your friends. That philosophy and virtual garlic should protect you from help vampires. |
Women are increasingly turning their noses up at the 2016 election, including Democratic women despite the likelihood that their party's nominee will be one of them, according to a new Gallup survey of the gender gap in those closely following the election.
Women have never paid as much attention to the current race as men, but Gallup found that the attention gap has expanded in recent months.
Once just two points apart, in February, the gap is now 13 points and is seen in both Democratic and Republican ranks as men continue to be engaged in the election dominated by news coverage of Republican Donald Trump.
Gallup said that 44 percent of men, compared to 31 percent of women, are paying close attention to the race.
"The gender gap persists within both parties. An aggregated analysis of March and April responses shows that Republican men are eight points more likely than Republican women to be following the election very closely, while Democratic men are 11 points more likely than Democratic women," said Gallup.
"Pure independents — those who do not lean to either party — are following the news less closely than those in either party, regardless of gender, as would be expected. But even with overall lower levels of interest, independent men are significantly more likely than independent women to say they are following the news very closely," added the survey analysis.
Gallup blamed the lack of female candidates for women paying less attention, though that doesn't explain the low interest among Democrats who are likely to nominate their first woman as the party candidate. What's more, several groups that support women's issues, such as Planned Parenthood and Emily's List have been very public about backing Clinton.
But, just 30 percent of Democratic women are paying attention the to race, compared to 44 percent of Republican women.
"Data show that there has been a gender gap in attention paid to historical elections as well. One possible, although difficult-to-document hypothesis, is that the general absence of women as candidates for the major parties' nominations over time could be a factor in women's overall lower attention to the race. Even this year, despite the presence of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic front-runner, only one other individual out of the more than 20 candidates who began the presidential race is a woman — Carly Fiorina," said Gallup.
"The implications of the gender gap in election interest are unclear at this point. Women may well vote at their usual levels — women constituted 53 percent of the presidential vote in 2012 based on exit polling — even if their interest levels stay relatively low. It's also entirely possible that women's relative interest may pick up once the two parties hold their conventions in July and the nominees are solidified," said Gallup.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at [email protected] |
Drug agencies warn against using antidepressants in children and adolescents because they increase the risk of suicide. It is more difficult to know what the risk is in adults, as there has been massive underreporting and even fraud in the reporting of suicides, suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts in the placebo-controlled trials(1,2). The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has contributed to the obscurity by downplaying the problems, by choosing to trust the drug companies, by suppressing important information, and by other means(2).
In a meta-analysis of the placebo-controlled trials from 2006, the FDA reported only five suicides in 52,960 patients on SSRIs (one per 10,000 patients)(3), but there were many more suicides in these trials(2). Five years earlier, in 2001, Thomas Laughren, who was responsible for the FDA’s meta-analysis, published a paper using FDA data where he reported 22 suicides in 22,062 patients randomised to antidepressants(4), which is 10 per 10,000, or 10 times as many as he reported in 2006. In Laughren’s 2001 paper, there were four times as many suicides on antidepressants as on placebo, which was statistically significant (P = 0.03, my calculation). However, Laughren did not tell his readers about this but wrote: “There is obviously no suggestion of an excess suicide risk in placebo-treated patients.” No, but there surely was in the drug-treated patients!
In its meta-analysis, the FDA found that paroxetine increased suicide attempts significantly in adults with psychiatric disorders, odds ratio 2.76 (95% confidence interval 1.16 to 6.60)(3). GlaxoSmithKline also found an increase in suicide attempts in adults and in 2006, GSK USA sent a “Dear Doctor” letter that pointed out that the risk of suicidal behaviour was increased also above age 24(2).
The FDA was inconsistent. The agency claimed in 2009 that it is only in those below 24 years of age that these drugs are risky(5). But in 2007, the agency admitted, at least indirectly, that SSRIs can cause suicide at all ages(6): “All patients being treated with antidepressants for any indication should be monitored appropriately and observed closely for clinical worsening, suicidality, and unusual changes in behavior, especially during the initial few months of a course of drug therapy, or at times of dose changes, either increases or decreases. The following symptoms, anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, akathisia (psychomotor restlessness), hypomania, and mania, have been reported in adult and pediatric patients being treated with antidepressants.” The FDA also noted that, “Families and caregivers of patients should be advised to look for the emergence of such symptoms on a day-to-day basis, since changes may be abrupt.” It seems that the FDA finally admitted that SSRIs can cause madness at all ages and that the drugs are very dangerous; otherwise daily monitoring wouldn’t be needed. Such daily monitoring is, however, a fake fix. People cannot be monitored every minute and many have committed SSRI-induced suicide within a few hours after everyone thought they were perfectly okay.
Since there is pervasive scientific misconduct in the published trial literature related to suicidality and aggression on antidepressants, we decided to look elsewhere. We obtained 64,381 pages of clinical study reports from the European Medicines Agency, which proved to be very revealing(7). In January 2016 we showed, for the first time, that SSRIs in comparison with placebo increase aggression in children and adolescents, odds ratio 2.79 (95% CI 1.62 to 4.81). This is an important finding considering the many school shootings where the killers were on SSRIs.
In October, we showed in a systematic review of placebo-controlled trials in adult healthy volunteers that antidepressants double the occurrence of events that can lead to suicide and violence, odds ratio 1.85 (95% CI 1.11 to 3.08)(8). The number needed to treat to harm one healthy adult person was only 16 (95% CI 8 to 100).
On November 14th, we showed that adverse effects that increase the risk of suicide and violence were 4-5 times more common with duloxetine than with placebo in trials in women with stress urinary incontinence(9). The results were similar for FDA-defined activation events, and there were also more women on duloxetine that experienced a core or potential psychotic event, relative risk RR 2.25 (95% CI 1.06 to 4.81). Many women were hit by the harms of duloxetine. There were 187 who had at least one core or potential activation event on duloxetine out of 958, whereas only 42 of 955 women on placebo experienced such events, i.e. 15% more women were harmed when on active drug than on placebo, or one out of every seven treated.
Duloxetine was never approved for use in stress incontinence in the US or in Canada whereas it is approved in Europe. We performed a meta-analysis of 4 randomised placebo-controlled trials of duloxetine (involving a total of 1913 patients) submitted to the European Medicines Agency for marketing approval. We used data from the clinical study reports (totalling 6870 pages and including individual patient data). It would have been quite impossible to demonstrate how dangerous duloxetine is, if we had only had access to published research.
Our systematic review underlines that antidepressants not only increase the risk of suicide and violence in children and adolescents, but also in much older people: The women in the trials had a mean age of 52 years. In accordance with this, the FDA has previously announced that women who were treated with duloxetine for incontinence in the open-label extension phase of the clinical studies had 2.6 times more suicide attempts than other women of the same age(2).
I have no doubt that the manufacturers of antidepressants and their paid allies among the psychiatrists will argue that there is nothing to worry about because we did not find an increase in suicides or suicide attempts in adult healthy volunteers or in women with urinary incontinence, only an increase in precursors to such events. But this argumentation is faulty. Looking at precursor events to suicide is just like looking at prognostic factors for heart disease. We say that increased cholesterol, smoking and inactivity increase the risk of heart attacks and heart deaths and therefore recommend people to do something about it. Psychiatric leaders, however, routinely try to get away with untenable arguments. Many say, for example, that antidepressants can be given safely to children arguing that there were no more suicides in the trials, only more suicidal events, as if there was no relation between the two, although we all know that a suicide starts with suicidal thoughts, followed by preparations and one or more attempts.
Conclusions
Although the drug industry, our drug regulators and leading psychiatrists have done what they could to obscure these facts(2), it can no longer be doubted that antidepressants are dangerous and can cause suicide and homicide at any age(2,10,11). Antidepressants have many other important harms and their clinical benefit is doubtful(2). Therefore, my conclusion is that they shouldn’t be used at all. It is particularly absurd to use drugs for depression that increase the risk of suicide when we know that psychotherapy decreases the risk of suicide(12). The psychotherapy trials have been criticised for lack of blinding(12) but it is difficult to blind such trials. Furthermore, suicidality is a pretty hard outcome.
We should do our utmost to avoid putting people on antidepressant drugs and to help those who are already on them to stop by slowly tapering them off under close supervision. People with depression should get psychotherapy and psychosocial support, not drugs.
* * * * *
References:
1. Healy D. Did regulators fail over selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors? BMJ 2006;333:92–5.
2. Gøtzsche PC. Deadly psychiatry and organised denial. Copenhagen: People’s Press; 2015.
3. Laughren TP. Overview for December 13 Meeting of Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee (PDAC). 2006 Nov 16. www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/briefing/2006-4272b1-01-FDA.pdf.
4. Laughren TP. The scientific and ethical basis for placebo-controlled trials in depression and schizophrenia: an FDA perspective. Eur Psychiatry 2001;16:418-23.
5. Stone M, Laughren T, Jones ML, et al. Risk of suicidality in clinical trials of antidepressants in adults: analysis of proprietary data submitted to US Food and Drug Administration. BMJ 2009;339:b2880.
6. FDA. Antidepressant use in children, adolescents, and adults. http://www.fda.gov/drugs/drugsafety/informationbydrugclass/ucm096273.htm.
7. Sharma T, Guski LS, Freund N, Gøtzsche PC. Suicidality and aggression during antidepressant treatment: systematic review and meta-analyses based on clinical study reports. BMJ 2016;352:i65.
8. Bielefeldt AØ, Danborg PB, Gøtzsche PC. Precursors to suicidality and violence on antidepressants: systematic review of trials in adult healthy volunteers. J R Soc Med 2016;109:381-392.
9. Maund E, Guski LS, Gøtzsche PC. Considering benefits and harms of duloxetine for treatment of stress urinary incontinence: a meta-analysis of clinical study reports. CMAJ 2016;14 November. http://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.151104.
10. Healy D. Let them eat Prozac. New York: New York University Press; 2004.
11. Breggin P. Medication madness. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin; 2008.
12. Hawton K, Witt KG, Taylor Salisbury TL, Arensman E, Gunnell D, Hazell P, Townsend E, van Heeringen K. Psychosocial interventions for self-harm in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2016; 5: CD012189. |
On April 11, quarterback guru Steve Calhoun of the Armed & Dangerous Football Camp was a guest on SI Now. Three days later, the Rams traded up for the 2016 draft’s No. 1 pick, and about two weeks later, the Eagles made a similar move to grab the No. 2 spot.
When asked which of the draft class’s quarterbacks could step in and play right away for an NFL franchise, Calhoun had answered, “I think there’s quite a few, there’s at least three or four guys who have the opportunity to play Day One. Carson Wentz, Cody Kessler, Jared Goff, Dak Prescott.”
Goff and Wentz, sure. By that point, it had become rather obvious that a QB-needy team would swing a deal with the Titans to nab one of those players. With rebuilding Cleveland set to pick second but active in trade talks itself, the other prospect was not expected to fall far.
But Kessler and Prescott? At best, they—like the majority of the 2016 QBs, including Goff and Wentz in some people’s minds—were viewed as long-term developmental projects. If they could be serviceable backups, great. If they ever matured into starting NFL quarterbacks, all the better. The consensus was that they were not ready to be faces of the franchise out of the gate, nor were they drafted to fill those roles.
Circumstances changed. By Week 3, Wentz, Prescott and Kessler held their respective team’s QB1 slot; another rookie, Jacoby Brissett, made a spot start that same week for the Patriots. Together that weekend, those four rookies combined for three wins, 873 yards passing, five touchdowns and just one turnover (a Kessler fumble).
Even in a year full of surprises from the rookie QB class, up to and including Goff riding the pine for the first two months, Week 3 was a stunner. Almost no one saw it coming.
So what did Calhoun notice that so many missed?
Wentz aced every test at the combine, a critical moment for the FCS star's national exposure. Todd Rosenberg
Indianapolis. February. Carson Wentz takes the podium at the NFL scouting combine, in front of dozens upon dozens of media members. For any draft prospect, these press conferences can be daunting. For a kid from Bismarck, N.D., who played his college ball in the Football Championship Subdivision, who suddenly has the eyes of the entire league on him, it’s a veritable trial by fire.
Wentz owns the room. He bounces from question to question like a seasoned White House press secretary, covering topics ranging from the type of offense he ran in college to why he loves the state of North Dakota.
“I view every day just as an opportunity,” Wentz says. “I’m excited as heck to keep playing ball, for sure.”
It is a performance reminiscent of Derek Carr’s from the 2015 combine—the soon-to-be Raider dazzled with his professionalism, even staying beyond his allotted press-conference time to answer questions about his young son, who had battled health problems early in his life.
Believe it or not, those moments matter—quite a bit, in some cases. The combine is overwhelmed by talk of height, weight, speed, hand size and so on, but what happens elsewhere helps paint a significant part of the picture.
Everyone, from each of the 32 NFL GMs to any casual fan sitting at home, has access to extensive game tape these days. We all can see if a quarterback has a strong arm or can run outside the pocket. What’s often missing from such study is the so-called intangibles, issues like how a quarterback interacts with his teammates or how he responds to a loss or how he behaves when faced with adversity.
There is no surefire equation for evaluating quarterback prospects, because those unquantifiable variables will always exist.
“There’s always going to be a hole,” says Bleacher Report draft expert Matt Miller. “You can talk to everyone—coaches, teammates, opponents, scouts, but you’re never going to get a complete picture. It’s the same for me as it is for the Green Bay Packers. You try to do the best you can.”
That’s one thing for any of us on the media side of the evaluation process, who fire out rankings and mock drafts and try to assess as accurately as possible how impactful each rookie class will be. It’s another thing entirely for NFL front offices, where jobs live and die with draft successes or failures.
Nowhere is that pressure more evident than when a franchise has to find a quarterback.
“Every owner, GM, coach knows that position is critical to their success,” says Dan Hatman, director of scouting development at The Scouting Academy and a former NFL scout for multiple franchises. “The beauty of working for a team and studying the college process is that more often than not you’ll generate additional questions film can’t answer. Then you go to that [player’s] coaching staff, interview him directly, whatever mechanism you have available. ... When you’re going film only, you’re going to be limited in that holistic grading.”
Therein lies the explanation for why something as simple as a combine press conference can hold water in the draft process. NFL teams want to see prospects perform well on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium during that week, but front-office personnel will tell you that it’s everything else—the medical checks, the one-on-one interviews, the play diagrams up on a whiteboard—that drive a prospect’s value.
Even those elements only take an evaluation so far.
“I had the opportunity to work with Russell Wilson his rookie year during the lockout,” says Calhoun. “I’d been a fan from afar but to be able to work him out ... he absolutely crushed it. I had him work out with [former University of Washington and current CFL QB] Keith Price; he’s looking at me like, ‘Dude, it took four years to master all this stuff. Russell comes out in two hours and crushes it.’ That’s when I knew he’s going to be really good. He’s able to process information, able to really ask questions and just has that laser focus.”
This is why the NFL has so much trouble pinning down future stars at the quarterback position—why each off-season we have to talk about the five or 10 or dozen teams that have a need at the game’s most important position. Because for all the analysis that goes into finding that next superstar, there still is a factor of “you’ll know it when you see it.”
Which doesn’t help much when a team cannot see how its draft pick will perform at the NFL level until he is thrown into the fire.
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Eric Galko is the founder of Optimum Scouting and the scouting director for the Dream Bowl, a postseason college all-star game. As he drives to his next information-gathering pit stop, though, he is thinking like an NFL general manager.
The Rams traded two first-round picks (2016 and ’17) plus a handful of other second- and third-rounders to Tennessee for the chance to draft Goff. The Eagles’ package for the No. 2 pick opened with their 2016 and ’17 first-round picks (they later reacquired one of the latter by dealing Sam Bradford). The Texans handed Brock Osweiler $18 million per year, the Redskins slapped a franchise tag worth nearly $20 million on Kirk Cousins.
And then the Browns and Cowboys quietly found potential long-term starting QBs in the third and fourth round of the draft.
“What I think it should do is that this whole QB contract market should get turned upside down,” Galko says, “because you can take a QB in the second through fourth round every year. If you hit even once, not only do you have a Dak Prescott, you’re saving millions of dollars per year on a quarterback.”
Part of the rub here, of course, is that neither Prescott nor Kessler nor, in truth, any of the 2016 QBs were drafted to start right away. There is an alternate timeline where Teddy Bridgewater, Tony Romo, Jimmy Garoppolo, Trevor Siemian and either Robert Griffin III or Josh McCown stay healthy, and the rookies haven’t seen the field save for the preseason and the occasional mop-up duty.
That a small handful of first-year quarterbacks have been able to step in and hold their own points to another meaningful disconnect: The media breaks down talent in the grand scheme of the entire league; each individual front office looks only at how Player X fits its system.
“The NFL can reject a guy and say, ‘We don’t want this guy for this reason,’” Galko says. “For people who cover the draft, you can’t just say, ‘That guy sucks.’ I wasn’t a big Jared Goff guy, but some guys on our staff were—I can’t just take him off our board because I wouldn’t draft Jared Goff. That’s the trap we fall into sometimes.”
We had the same level of disagreement here at SI when setting our draft board. I lobbied for Goff as the top QB, while Doug Farrar, now at Bleacher Report, sat on Team Wentz. In the end, Goff landed at spot No. 14 on our Big Board, Wentz at 34. Farrar then gave the Eagles an “A” grade for their Wentz selection and the Rams a “B-” for taking Goff.
Does that mean Doug was right and I was wrong? So far, yes. Long-term ... maybe. We don’t know yet whether Goff is any good, nor for how long Wentz, Prescott and Kessler can maintain any positives they’ve thus far displayed.
So much of the early returns have come because of the very specific situations in which those quarterbacks landed. What if the Rams had taken Wentz instead? Would the Eagles still have felt compelled to trade away Sam Bradford, thus clearing the way for Goff to take over?
“Off the tape in college, I liked Goff above Wentz,” Hatman says. “But once the trade happened, I would rather be the QB in Philly than in L.A.”
Or how about if the Cowboys had nabbed, say, Connor Cook in the third round instead of using a fourth-round compensatory pick on Prescott? Would we now be talking about Cook the way we’re talking about Prescott, or would the Cowboys have a journeyman veteran holding down the fort until Romo returns?
“You just never know for sure,” Cowboys executive VP Stephen Jones said in an interview with 105.3 FM earlier this month. “Everybody says, ‘Boy, y’all were sure smart to get Dak in the fourth round.’ If we’d known Dak was going to be doing what he’s doing now, we sure wouldn’t have waited until the fourth round to pick him.”
The NFL is a copycat league, so there no doubt will be efforts to replicate this draft class’s victories—the hunt for another FCS high-riser like Wentz or a proven college star like Prescott. There’s never going to be a straight point-to-point comparison.
It depends on the player. It depends on the situation. It all has to come together just so for there to be any positive outcomes on the field.
“We as coaches here at our office, we had our thoughts of which team was a good fit,” says Randy Hedberg, Wentz’s quarterbacks coach at North Dakota State and a 1977 NFL draft pick by the Buccaneers. “We all felt that Philly was a good fit because of the staff—good fit, had a staff with coaches familiar working with quarterbacks. You never know, with a young quarterback. ... Having kind of gone through it, you also want an offensive line with some veterans and a good defense. I think that’s what the Eagles had going on.”
“Everyone’s trying to mimic that success,” Miller says. “They’re going to keep looking for that prototype: size and athleticism, no b.s. attitude. I think Wentz was a lot like Andrew Luck—all he cares about is football. Kind of dorky, kind of nerdy. But I don’t know that the mold has changed that much. GMs, scouts, fall in love with players.”
The three quarterbacks often mentioned at the top of the 2017 draft class are Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer, Clemson’s Deshaun Watson and Miami’s Brad Kaaya. The prospect who has undergone the biggest rise since the season’s start, however, is North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky.
Pro Football Focus recently named Trubisky one of college football’s four “breakout” draft prospects this season. CBSSports.com analyst Dane Brugler, who each year produces one of the most comprehensive draft guides available, just handed Trubisky to Chicago at No. 4 in a 2017 mock draft.
Trubisky has started eight games in his North Carolina career.
Is that enough of a sample size for NFL teams to start formulating an opinion of him? Will they feel better by season’s end when, if he stays healthy, Trubisky likely will have 13 starts under his belt?
“Mitch is an interesting kid, because you watch film and say holy s--t, this is it, big arm and good athlete,” Miller says. “Then you’re reminded he’s only started a few games in college. You want to see it as long as possible to see if it’s the real deal. ... That’s still the thing I really value in a college QB. I just want to see you get better every year. You should just see continued progress and not regression. With Trubisky, I want him to stay [in school] because I think he has some first-round traits.”
But the flip side is that those first-round traits might get him drafted in ... well, the first round—if he chooses to bypass his final year at North Carolina to test the NFL waters.
Trubisky is arguably the prime example right now of how the 2016 class could spin the NFL forward. No matter how he performs down the stretch for the Tar Heels, his game experience will be limited coming out of the season, and odds are any mechanical worries will still be there.
Still, teams eyeing quarterbacks will wonder what he might be capable of in the right system, with a summer’s worth of pro coaching.
“His mechanics are really hit or miss,” Galko says. “His footwork, it seems like he’s purposely not doing it right to test himself. But the kid is confident in the pocket, under pressure, in the red zone, and he’ll let the ball fly out of his hands off one foot, 40 yards downfield. He’s had to be somewhat efficient—the numbers are a bit wrong because he’s had a few dropped interceptions—but I’ll take a chance on that guy in the second through fourth rounds. Maybe he’ll never be as good as the top guys, but he has a chance to be damn good.”
When the raw talent is evident like it is with a player like Trubisky, can the NFL solve the rest of the formula?
A quick succession of injuries in Cleveland launched Kessler (right) from a third-string emergency option to permanent starter. Jason Miller/Getty Images
“I had a young QB with me,” Calhoun reminisces, “and we went up to USC to see Cody [Kessler]. I told this kid, ‘Watch how the players react around Cody.’ He said, ‘What do you mean?’ and I said, ’You’ll see it.’
“So then we were hanging out with Cody, and a couple of teammates are standing maybe 100 yards away across campus. They started yelling over, ‘Hey, Cody!’ Then they ran over just to say hi to him.
“If a scout could see that,” Calhoun says, “that’s the intangibles.”
Calhoun has the advantage of working up close with many of the game’s future stars at quarterback. Kessler trained with him starting at the age of 12. He sees others, like Prescott, at the prestigious Manning Passing Academy.
NFL teams spend an abundance of resources on scouting at the college level, from area scouts up through their general managers. They do not really get any extended one-on-one time with prospects until after the college season ends—the Senior Bowl, the combine, formal visits before the draft. So, the hunt for those coveted positive intangibles is limited in many ways to a two-month window from February through April.
The challenge is even steeper when it comes to uncovering a player like Wentz, whose college games were not available across the country live on ESPN or CBS each week.
“That’s where the area scouts really separate themselves,” Hatman says. “No one’s patting you on the back for finding a guy who can play at Alabama. You come back from Troy or [North Dakota State] and say, ’I’ve got a guy,’ and you’re right? Your boss looks and says, ’Huh, maybe you’ve got the chops.’
“There will be conversations about trying to get that prospect earlier. ... When GMs and college directors really start working, that’s where it starts flowing to the public, and by that time we’re at the Senior Bowl.”
The process will not be markedly different moving forward. Teams and draft analysts have been in their 2017 books since almost the moment the 2016 draft ended. The road still has all the signature stops: the start of the college season, bowl games, all-star games, combine, private workouts. The question is what, if anything, can be gleaned from how relatively smooth the transitions for Wentz, Kessler and Prescott have been.
“I don’t know that they’ve changed how I will evaluate QBs,” Miller says. “They’re gonna give people more of an imagination because you can see where you can take [a prospect] as a player.”
“The fluctuation in market value will be impacted next year,” Hatman says. “We create the narratives. The piece that’s interesting to me: Of the teams, of [Wentz, Kessler and Prescott], not a single one had an offense built for them in the off-season. All had QBs taking No. 1 reps to be starters ahead of them. The coaches then put in things to match their skill set, for their success.”
There is no satisfying solution here, no degree of certainty with which the 49ers or Browns or Bears could draft a quarterback near the top of the 2017 draft and know, beyond any doubt, that he is going to be great.
“Guys in the top 15 picks, a team thinks, ‘We’ve got to make it work with this guy,’” Hatman says. “If there's a guy with a pulse, he’s going that high. Everything after top 50, though, you’re not expecting a starter. New England, for example, been taking shots at QB, and now they have Garoppolo and Brissett.”
Calhoun had a hunch about Kessler and Prescott for reasons that went beyond what could be measured easily. A reminder, too, that he mentioned Goff as a QB that could start early. Just because that assertion has yet to pan out does not make his guesses about the other rookies any less correct.
Each individual case is a snowflake.
“I can definitely see it from a young age, the amount of time that I’m around them, not only am I out on the field working on mechanics but I have them in the classroom, up on the board and understanding defenses and protections,” Calhoun says. “You can definitely see those guys where you say, ‘O.K., he has a chance.’
“I never say, ‘He’s going to make it and be great,’ but just that he has a chance to play in the NFL. Then it comes back to circumstances.”
As we’ve seen this season, those circumstances can change in a heartbeat. |
In June 2017, István Mészáros sent me a copy of the present article for publication in Monthly Review. At the time, he asked if I would write an introduction, as well as give titles to its various sections, as I had for some of his previous essays. This piece was originally written as the closing section of Chapter One of his great work, Beyond Leviathan: Critique of the State—drafted but left unfinished upon his death on October 1, 2017. Beyond Leviathan is divided into three parts, each of which was projected to be more than two hundred pages long and published as a separate volume. The three parts are entitled The Historic Challenge, The Harsh Reality, and The Necessary Alternative. Chapter One of Part One is entitled “From Relative to Absolute Limits: Historical Anachronism of the State,” and is in turn divided into five sections: (1) “Historical Constitution and Antagonistic Reality of the State”; (2) “Freedom Is Parasitic on Equality: Common Denominator of Antagonistic Political Formations and the Qualitative Determination of Disposable Time”; (3) “From Primitive Equality to Substantive Equality—via Slavery”; (4) “Capital’s Deepening Structural Crisis and the State”; and (5) “The Historic Circle Is Closing—The Challenge to Secure Exit.” The third section of Chapter One was published in the September 2016 issue of MR, and the first section will appear as an article in a future issue. This article, the fifth and final section, is printed here for the first time. We are committed at MR and Monthly Review Press to ensuring that all of Beyond Leviathan will eventually be made available in a form as close as possible to Mészáros’s intentions. In the meantime, the parts he selected for prior publication should encourage critical thinking about what he called “the challenge and burden of [our] historical time.” “Capital’s Historic Circle Is Closing” is a remarkably coherent statement, capable of standing on its own. Nevertheless, readers will no doubt benefit from a few words on the broad contours and conceptual framework of the larger critique of which this article is a part. Beyond Leviathan represents the endpoint of Mészáros’s analysis of “the structural crisis of capital,” whose main features he worked out in the early 1970s, as he was completing Marx’s Theory of Alienation. To address the issue of the state in a meaningful and dialectical way, it was necessary first to explore its material foundations. This was done in his monumental treatise Beyond Capital: Toward a Theory of Transition, published in 1995. That work focuses on the “capital system,” viewed as a form of “social metabolic reproduction,” of which capitalism, in Mészáros’s classification, is conceived as a specific historical form. Hence, simply overcoming capitalism, as in the Soviet Union, is not sufficient, since the entire capital system and its state must be challenged in their inner functioning and from within the core of the productive order. This requires the formation of a qualitatively different, communal system of social metabolic reproduction. It is here that Beyond Leviathan is intended to complete Mészáros’s analysis. In his critique, the transition to socialism, which constitutes an absolute necessity of our time, requires the withering away of the state. But explaining what this means and how it is to be carried out demands the most thoroughgoing critique of the state ever developed. Indeed, no other political philosopher in the Marxist tradition since the classical period has attempted a more ambitious critique of the state, both at the level of theory and as a guide to revolutionary praxis in the transition to socialism. As Hugo Chávez said, Mészáros was “the pathfinder” of twenty-first century socialism. —John Bellamy Foster
The Structural Crisis of Capital and the State
We are now not very far from marking the centenary of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address. In fact, by now more than five-sixths of the time is gone toward that memorable centenary. However, the changes accomplished in all these decades are very far from what were the solemnly declared and for a long time sincerely believed original hopeful expectations.
President Roosevelt entered his office in the period of what is customarily referred to as the Great World Economic Crisis, dated 1929–33. His First Inaugural Address was delivered on March 4, 1933, promising a radical change in the world economy, not as a limited conjunctural improvement lasting perhaps a few years, but as a deep-seated and permanent transformation. Major unhindered capital-expansion was thought to be the answer, to be helped along in a significant way by presidential candidate Roosevelt’s New Deal program in the United States, announced on July 2, 1932, and contributing, of course, to his overwhelmingly successful election.
Indeed, economic expansion appeared to work almost prodigiously in the United States from the second half of 1933 to the early months of 1937. However, in the second half of 1937 the U.S. economy started to relapse into a stagnant state and in 1938 the country experienced a deep recession. Understandably, however, the outbreak of the Second World War “rescued” the U.S. economy from its recession, carrying with it for the country a massive productive expansion and two decades of successful growth also after the end of the global war, in the period of postwar reconstruction all over Europe and in some other parts of the world.
President Roosevelt’s original design for a vigorous capitalist economy explicitly advocated the removal of “artificial” protective devices represented by the still existing British and French Empires. He made it absolutely clear already in his First Inaugural Address that he “shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment.” 1 And in the same spirit a few years later he made it quite clear that he advocated the right “to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad.”2 President Roosevelt made it also very clear during the Second World War that he was not only against the British continuing to rule India after the war but equally against the French retaining the territories of Indochina as well as their North African colonies.3
Thus Roosevelt genuinely believed that putting an end to the traditional empires would create the conditions for healthy economic development all over the world. And he projected American leadership as arising not from colonial/military domination, but by virtue of the principles inherent in the U.S. type of economic advancement, oriented by the claimed “freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad.” Toward the peak of the country’s successful expansion under the New Deal he was even talking in heightened positive terms about the work of “destiny” in this way: “a better civilization than any we have known is in store for America and by our example, perhaps, for the world. Here destiny seems to have taken a long look.”4
However, in contrast to such expectations, postwar developments—by which time Roosevelt was dead—had brought with them not “freedom from monopolies at home or abroad” but the assertion of the new power relations of continued imperialism under American domination. Under such conditions the world economy was characterized by the prevalence of the most iniquitous differential rate of exploitation of the global labor force, with labor in the capitalistically much more advanced U.S. economy occupying a considerably better position in that respect.
Filipino historian and political theorist Renato Constantino gave a striking example of this gruesome mode of exploitation, which in his country imposed the appallingly low wages of the differential rate:
Ford Philippines, Inc., established only in 1967, is now [four years later] 37th in the roster of the 1,000 biggest corporations in the Philippines. In 1971 it reported a return on equity of 121.32 percent, whereas its overall return on equity in 133 countries in the same year was only 11.8 percent. Aside from all the incentives extracted from the government, Ford’s high profits were mainly due to cheap labor. While the U.S. hourly rate for skilled labor in 1971 was almost $7.50, the rate for similar work in the Philippines was only $0.30.5
What is most significant in such matters, however, is that from the early 1970s onward we have been experiencing the capital system’s deepening structural crisis, instead of the originally projected unhindered expansion of the world economy to the benefit of all. The secondary antagonism of the capital system between the rival competing units for a long historical period contributed to expansion and, in its turn, was also greatly supported by continued expansion. That is why it could be idealized in the name of unqualified expansion, ignoring its nature and consequences. With the onset of capital’s structural or systemic crisis, however, things have changed not only for the worse but for much the worst.
Thus, despite the increasingly direct involvement of the capitalist state in the economy, even in the form of injecting in its rescue operations trillions of dollars into the bottomless hole of bankrupt capitalist enterprises, the problems multiplied. At the same time the neoliberal ideologues of capital hypocritically continued to glorify the insuperable virtues of the “free enterprise system” and even the fiction of “rolling back the boundaries of the state” when in reality we had a propensity to stagger from one crisis to another ever since the 1970s. In our time, however, in contrast to 1939, the potentiality of a global war cannot “rescue” the capital system from its deepening structural crisis, because of its suicidal danger. Thus the primary antagonism between capital and labor—representing also labor’s positive hegemonic alternative to the system’s modality of societal reproduction—cannot be ignored any longer.
Capital’s Closing Circle
With the structural crisis of the capital system as a whole, and by no means only of capitalism, the expansionary historic circle through which capital could dominate humanity for a very long time is perilously closing. That closure brings with it the danger of humanity’s total destruction in the interest of capital’s absurdly prolonged rule. I have repeatedly tried to highlight since the 1970s the fundamental differences between capitalism, historically limited to a few centuries, and the much more fundamental frame of reference of the capital system, focusing at the same time on the grave dangers manifest in now-unfolding historical developments.6 In this context, it will be necessary to stress the principal factors that clearly indicate the perilous character of capital as such, destructively resisting the necessary closure of its historic circle. As everyone knows, we are told all the time that “there is no alternative” to capital’s mode of reproducing the societal order. We must take a closer look at this claim. But before doing so, it is necessary to sum up as briefly as possible the defining characteristics of the capital system’s structural crisis.
The historical novelty of capital’s structural or systemic crisis, in contrast to its periodically recurrent conjunctural crises, is manifest under four main aspects: Its character is universal, rather than restricted to one particular sphere (e.g., financial or commercial) or affecting this or that branch of production, or applying to this rather than that type of labor, with its specific range of skills and degrees of productivity, etc.
Its scope is truly global, in the most threateningly literal sense of the term, rather than confined to a particular set of countries, as all major crises have been in the past.
Its time scale is extended, continuous—if you like permanent—rather than limited and cyclic, as all former crises of capital happened to be.
Its mode of unfolding might be called creeping—in contrast to the more spectacular and dramatic eruptions and collapses of the past—while adding the proviso that even the most vehement or violent convulsions cannot be excluded as far as the future is concerned: i.e., when the complex machinery now actively engaged in “crisis management” and in the more or less temporary “displacement” of the growing contradictions runs out of steam.7
With regard to these defining characteristics, it is particularly important to stress the fundamental difference between the capital system as a whole and the limited historical phase of capitalism integrated into the overall capital system. For it cannot be underlined enough, the capitalist private enterprise form of production, with its “personifications of capital” (in Marx’s words) as individual capitalists, can be overthrown, and had been, for instance through the Russian October Revolution in 1917, but not the capital system in its entirety. That must be totally eradicated through a fundamental restructuring process and replaced by a radically different socialist metabolic order. Likewise, the capitalist state can be overthrown, and had been, but not the state as such. The state as such must also be totally eradicated and replaced by a qualitatively different modality of truly autonomous overall control of societal decision-making by the people through the qualitative reconstitution of the social metabolism itself.
The disconcerting historical fact is that whatever can be overthrown can also be restored. Indeed, private capitalism and the capitalist state had been both overthrown and restored. Restored, for instance in the former Soviet Union, by Mikhail Gorbachev and his associates. And they did not have to restore the capital system itself because they had it already, with themselves as the dominant post-capitalist bureaucratic “personifications of capital” whose role was to enforce the politically regulated maximal extraction of surplus labor, in contrast to the primarily economic extraction of surplus labor as surplus value under capitalism. For the historically limited post-capitalist transformations of capitalism—like those undertaken in October 1917 and thereafter—are perfectly compatible with the continued rule of the capital system’s metabolic order, since no fundamental socialist restructuring is involved in the political overthrow of the capitalist state without the eradication of the hierarchically entrenched state structure itself.
This is an elementary lesson for the future. In fact the difference between the capital system and capitalism is vitally important to us not in relation to the past but in terms of the present and the future. For our grave problem is the danger presented to humanity’s survival not simply by this or that particular form of capital’s state formations known up to the present time but by any one of its conceivable varieties also in the future, as they are bound to arise if capital’s social metabolic order is not restructured in a historically viable socialist way. It must be also underlined that the idea of a “global coercive state,” no matter who champions it, borders on insanity.
Breaking the Bounds of Nature
To be sure, capital’s personifications of any color must resist at all cost the necessary closure of their system’s historic circle in the interest of prolonging its rule. For the globally perceptible social determinations pointing in the direction of that historic closure are both overwhelming and closely intertwined, so that against them the traditionally enforced adjustments and state correctives cannot work any longer.
Let us see the principal factors that indicate the necessary closure of the capital system’s historic circle, calling at the same time for a viable alternative.
Perhaps the most obvious—if extremely problematic—global accomplishment that cannot be denied in its all-destructive power even by capital’s worst apologists is the ability of the dominant states to annihilate humanity through a global military conflagration. Evidently, this problematical achievement through the now fully operational weapons of mass destruction did not exist in past ages. However, it appeared on our horizon with its menacing finality simultaneously with the closure of capital’s historic circle. As we know, in our time, the so-called “strategic thinkers” of the political/military domain do not hesitate to commend and actively “plan the unthinkable,” while some presidents and prime ministers decree that with their politically trustworthy “safe fingers,” they would not hesitate to push the nuclear button in the event of a global confrontation.
In this way the capital system’s ardent defenders put their fate into the safety and viability of the weapons of mass destruction—which include also chemical and biological weaponry—as well as into the groundlessly assumed remedy of mutually assured destruction (MAD). The alternative would be, of course, to positively overcome the causes of lethal antagonisms, which happen to be inseparable from the nature of the capital system itself, especially in the descending phase of its global development. But precisely because such systemic antagonism is inherent in capital’s social metabolic order, not reducible to its political/military superstructure, the measures traditionally enforced through extreme military violence by the rival states cannot be used under the conditions of potentially total destruction of humanity. That price would be far too high to pay even in terms of the most elementary requirements of rationality.
Advocating MAD as such a postulated automatic deterrence is a fundamentally irrational strategy. Its only “rationality” consists in promoting the massive vested interests of the “military-industrial complex,” in Eisenhower’s memorable phrase. The required and feasible alternative to MAD can only be the elaboration of a qualitatively different social metabolic order. A new order that is not overburdened with systemic antagonisms due to vested interests. The operation of such qualitatively different social metabolism is the only way to bring under control, and in due course fully eliminate, the now threatening weapons of mass destruction. By contrast, the radical incompatibility of attending to the causes of antagonism within the established economic and political order, in view of its insuperably antagonistic systemic determinations, signals the necessary closure of capital’s historic circle.
Another literally vital determination on the global scale concerns our planet’s limited material resources. Naturally, this is also a historical development, accomplished through the spread of the capitalistically ever more advanced mode of industrial production over the entire globe, with more than seven billion people, in contrast to the past as recent as even the period just before the Second World War. Today it is unavoidable to consider satisfying the needs of four immense capitalist economic complexes—the United States, Europe, China, and India—in contrast to a few decades earlier, when a handful of dominant capitalist countries could derive overwhelming benefits to themselves from the material resources and services of the “underdeveloped world,” treated as the presumed legitimate “hinterland” of their own expansion. As a result of these changes, now also the working classes of China and India have started to demand a less miserable share of their own products, to be used by themselves in comparison to the past.
Naturally, of this whole complex of problems, the apologists of capital only notice the greatly increased need for the planet’s limited material resources, and even that in a grossly distorted form, under the ideologically most revealing heading of “population explosion.” To be sure, no one should deny the increasing relevance of these factors, let alone the absolute legitimacy of the people’s need. But it is necessary to highlight also some social and economic determinations that inevitably call again for a fundamental structural change in our societal reproductive order. They indicate some heavily aggravating conditions regarding the mode of allocating and utilizing the resources available for the satisfaction of the needs of ever greater numbers who work with, and lay their claim on, our planet’s limited material resources as a result of capital’s economic conquest of the world.
It is enough to mention here two of the most important aggravating conditions: the perverse imperative of uncontrollable capital-expansion oriented toward exchange value, to the detriment of use value, creating scarcity also when without the imperative of endless capital-expansion there would be an alternative to the danger of ever-increasing scarcity; and the dominance of destructive production and concomitant waste, combined with the capital system’s self-mythology of “creative destruction,” also at the descending phase of capital’s systemic development.
In relation to both of these major aggravating determinations, the obvious practically feasible remedy would be a positively planned strategic intervention in the economy, in the interest of maximizing socially required use-value and at the same time attending to the strictest control of waste. But that kind of rationally planned economy—which is inconceivable without substantive equality as its social basis—is totally incompatible with the long-established modality of capitalist production.
Moreover, we have to add here to the general problem of increased need for the planet’s material resources—including the elementary requirement of water—the special difficulty arising for the demand for strategic material resources among the competing massive capitalist complexes. In the absence of a rationally planned allocation of such resources on a global scale, that can only lead to belligerent confrontations among the rival states, with potentially devastating consequences. By now for several centuries the capitalist productive system had very little concern about economy as economizing, in the original sense of that term. However, in the future the required societal reproduction is bound to be totally unthinkable without the conscious application of the orienting principles of a properly planned and responsibly economizing economy. Accordingly, also in that sense we notice here the necessary closure of the capital system’s historic circle.
At least one more problem must be forcefully underlined here: the ecological incompatibility of capital’s mode of social metabolic reproduction with the rationally sustainable demands of our time. This is clearly expressed today even in the way in which a new geological epoch is being named to indicate humanity’s extremely problematical—indeed most dangerous—impact on our planet. This new geological epoch is called the Anthropocene, corresponding to the time when some of the capital system’s ineradicable damages have been inflicted on our planet, more or less in the last hundred years, beginning with the residues of nuclear explosions and continuing to the present, in permanent plastic deposits in the oceans.
Naturally, capital’s ecological incompatibility with the demands of historically sustainable existence goes much further than a few uncontestable and no longer eradicable phenomena that mark a new geological epoch, even if their rate of increase might be reduced or stopped altogether. To the vast range of ecological damages we have to add, among others, not only chemical pollution and soil erosion, but also—what is frequently discussed at conferences on “global warming” — increasing acidity in our oceans, as well as the grave disruption of biodiversity and the irresponsible treatment of nuclear waste in the service of profit. Indeed the earlier mentioned aggravating condition of destructive production, in the interest of maintaining uncontrolled growth targets and mindless profitability, is closely connected with capital’s enmity to ecological sustainability. Thus also in this absolutely vital domain the painful evidence points to the closure of the capital system’s historic circle. An irreversible closure because the capital system, due to its innermost structural determinations, cannot remedy any of the identified dangerous developments, even if it tries to derive profit from them in some cases, like for instance the grotesquely propagandized “carbon tax” as the claimed solution to global warming.
What are the prospects for the future under these circumstances? That is a very difficult question. For in connection with all of the determinations identifiable in the closure of capital’s historic circle we find powerful vested interests inseparable from the mode of overall control characteristic of the Leviathan state. Rational appeal for change would be in this respect very naïve. Structurally entrenched overall decision-making powers tend to resort to adventurism when they cannot prevail in any other way. Historical evidence for countless centuries tends to confirm that way of responding to fundamental challenges by the rival states when the stakes increase.
The March of Folly
In relation to the Leviathan state’s unavoidable adventurism, it is relevant to distinguish between the unholy imperative of the state’s necessarily asserted commanding functions in dangerous situations and the role of implementing them by the commanding personnel itself. As mentioned before, in idealist philosophical accounts of historical development, exemplified by the most monumental of them conceived by G. W. F. Hegel, the commanding personnel of the state tends to assume a somewhat mysterious role, under the exalted name of the “World Historical Person”—like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Luther, and Napoleon, repeatedly praised by Hegel—as the instruments cunningly used for its own design and purposes by the “World Spirit” and hidden from the historical individuals concerned.
In his characterization of the paradoxically unhappy fate of such figures, we are told by Hegel that “they attained no calm enjoyment; their whole life was labor and trouble; their whole nature was naught else but their master-passion. When their object is attained they fall off like empty hulls from the kernel. They die early, like Alexander; they are murdered, like Caesar; transported to St. Helena, like Napoleon.”8
However, the question of why the World Historical Persons must suffer a rather unhappy fate in their different historic circumstances remains wrapped up in complete mystery. The assertion that they have fulfilled the World Spirit’s hidden design and therefore they can “fall off like empty hulls from the kernel” seems to be ubiquitously valid by definition, thanks to the very nature of the Hegelian explanatory design. The World Historical Persons cannot go wrong even when they go devastatingly wrong, because in doing so, even if their action brings disaster, they actually fulfill the World Spirit’s unobjectionable purpose. In this way even the most irresponsible deed pursued by them is responsible and even ideal, because it brings into existence the required World Historical phase of events and developments, together with their objective embodiments.
The particular institutional forms and instruments through which the World Historical Persons prevail or fail—in the case of the three individuals named in the last quote by Hegel, Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon, acting within the particular institutional form of the antagonistic state through which they assert their own role—is not mentioned at all, let alone criticized by the great German philosopher, because they themselves are said to be the instruments. Indeed they are said to be the instruments not of a potentially objectionable particular state formation but of the World Spirit itself whose ultimate design is the institution of the ethically insuperable (and therefore absolutely unobjectionable) institution of the Germanic state. Such a state cannot be considered an instrument in its human sense. For it is said to be nothing less exalted than “the Divine Idea as it exists on Earth.”9
The great problem in this respect is that in the really existing world the requirement of successful military action in the interest of the particular antagonistic state formation represented by its commanding personnel sooner or later induces them as decision makers—that is, as Hegel’s World Historical Persons—to undertake extreme risks and overreach their own power in dangerous adventures until a greater state power violently counters their efforts. Before that fateful clash, there seems to be no limit to their commanding power. They must presume to undertake even the most extreme risks, not because their “whole nature is naught else but their master-passion,” but because it is dictated by the objectively required state-imperative to succeed on behalf of the state, which they command, and outwit through their chosen extreme designs their adversary or enemy.
The Hegelian World Historical Person nearest to our own time, Napoleon, was undoubtedly an outstanding historic figure. Winston Churchill characterized him as “the greatest man of action born in Europe since Julius Caesar.”10 In truth he was much more than that. He was a great military leader and commander as well as an organizational genius, with his own vision of the state. Napoleon was victorious in fifty-eight of the sixty-five immense military confrontations he fought, often against far superior forces. Even his English military rival, who in the end defeated him at Waterloo thanks to much more powerful military units on his side, “when asked who was the greatest captain of the age, the Duke of Wellington himself replied: ‘In this age, in past ages, in any age: Napoleon.’”11 Moreover, the Code Napoléon, instituted in France in 1804, represented a great advance over its rivals in being the most consistent in eliminating the feudal remnants in the domain of the Law. And yet Napoleon undertook the disastrous Russian adventure in 1812 and was responsible for the almost complete annihilation of his own army. Moreover, he even tried to restore slavery in the French colonies in Latin America as a way of securing military victory, although such an absurdly retrograde social design was undoubtedly contrary to his own conception of political Enlightenment.
Thousands of years earlier, Alexander the Great seemed to be always invincible. However, even he undertook some extreme risks that almost destroyed his army. This happened when he had chosen to follow a route with his vast army through the Makran Desert, although there were alternatives to it, and had to suffer nearly catastrophic losses. In the end,
After sixty days in the desert, the survivors…had seen thousands die around them, perhaps half their fellow-soldiers and almost all the camp-followers. If 40,000 people had followed Alexander into the desert, only 15,000 may have survived to see Kirman. All such figures are guesses, but there is no mistaking the men’s condition. Not even the sum total of all the army’s suffering in Asia, it was agreed, deserved to be compared with the hardships in Makran.”12
And this is not the whole story. For in the course of actual historical development to our own time, some conditions have radically changed in this respect, and by no means for the better. Alexander the Great and Napoleon almost annihilated their own armies through their chosen actions that made them overreach adventurously the power presumed by them. But they could do nothing worse than that. Today the situation is incommensurably worse. For irrespective of which side of the social confrontation the commanding personnel might represent—a progressive or a fatefully retrograde one—their overreaching themselves is capable of destroying humankind altogether, and potentially even the conditions of life on this planet in its entirety.
This is far from being a hypothetical danger. In 1962–63, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev installed in Cuba his country’s advanced ballistic missiles, capable of raining nuclear warheads on the nearby United States. He was inspired for this action by the fateful misconception that by doing so he might be able to protect Cuba itself, which was tangibly threatened by the United States also after the Bay of Pigs invasion. The consequence of Khrushchev’s action, however, was that the entire world was placed in the immediate vicinity of a potential nuclear devastation until those ballistic missiles were withdrawn from Cuba and shipped back to the Soviet Union. Needless to say, no one can exclude today the recurrence, in some form, of a similar potential self-extermination of humankind as a result of adventurous decision-making. It stands to reason that no one should ever have that power. Nevertheless, the fact is that some do. And that kind of danger is bound to persist for as long as the Leviathan state in any one of its conceivable forms survives.
Substantive Equality and a New Social Metabolic Order
As we have seen, eighty years ago President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was promising the world “a better civilization than any we have known”—in conjunction with a projected unhindered economic development everywhere and the end of imperialism—because “destiny seems to have taken a long look.”13 In reality, however, a few months after President Roosevelt died, shortly after his well-deserved fourth election to the American Presidency, his former Vice President and automatic successor, Harry Truman, unleashed over Hiroshima and Nagasaki the atomic weapons of mass destruction, causing the instant death of 130,000 people, mostly civilians. At the same time, contrary to the earlier prognosticated hopeful expectations, countless millions of people all over the world were condemned to remain tied to their earlier conditions of utter misery. Also, imperialism could continue in the same old civilization, as before, even if under new relations of international power, with the United States as its dominant economic, political, and military force.
However, the replacement of one dominant imperialist power by another, redefining thereby the international relation of forces among the former imperialist countries, does not mean that historical development as a whole can be brought to a halt in epochal terms, with regard to the social metabolism of reproduction in general, in total subordination to the newly dominant state.14 That kind of absurd political reductionism is proper only to some reactionary pseudo-theoretical Empire-fantasy. In the really existing world every mode of social metabolic reproduction has its historical limits objectively defined in comprehensive epochal terms. It is in that fundamental epochal sense that the historic circle of the capital system as a whole is perilously closing in our own time. And that closure has far-reaching objective implications for every state, irrespective of its size or its more or less dominant position in the international order, including all known and feasible varieties of the post-capitalist capital system.
Politicians at the top of the established state tend to repeat their view that “there is no alternative.” Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev did so in unison, until they had to find out that, after all, there had to be an alternative to both of them.15 To some extent this assertion of “no alternative” happens to be true, even if not in the way the high-ranking politicians presume, on the basis of their institutionally defined (and confined) position. The changes in this respect under the circumstances of the necessary closure of capital’s historic circle are seminally important.
The primary function of the institutionally articulated political/military form of societal control has been for many centuries the protection and enhancement of the established social metabolic order of which it is an integral—both constitutive and self-constitutive—part. This is why the periodic attempts made in the past radically to alter that metabolic order had to assume from the start the form of some kind of “revolutionary overthrow” of the established political/regulatory framework itself. For they had to try to “open the gates,” so to speak, to a radical change in the social and material class relations themselves, from slave revolts and peasant uprisings to the French, Russian, and Chinese Revolutions.
However, the consolidation of their initial gains proved to be in general very limited. This had to be the case because the inertia of the inherited structural determinations—of which the institutionalized political form itself was an integral part, given its own self-constitutive hierarchical structural embeddedness—militated against lasting success. This is why historical development shows the well-known tendency of such revolutionary attempts to turn instead into some form of change in personnel only, reproducing the structural determinations of domination and subordination even when there is a significant shift, for instance, from the feudal to the bourgeois state order.
The emergence of the modern capitalist state alters the form but not the substance of the class determinations of structural domination and subordination. Under the conditions of the ascending phase of capital’s social metabolic order, materially productive developments can dynamically proceed toward their all-conquering global completion. However, the descending phase carries with it some grave negative changes that prove irreversible from capital’s social ground, accelerating the closure of capital’s historic circle on our planet with its inevitably limited resources. In the material domain such changes bring the consequences of wasteful destructive production, due to the unalterable systemic imperative of endless capital-expansion, with its ultimately catastrophic impact on nature. At the same time on the political/military plane they result in monopolistic imperialist military destructiveness, with the danger of humanity’s total self-annihilation. And capital’s Leviathan state can only impose total destructiveness on humanity through its weapons of mass destruction—which it continues to “modernize” and multiply—but not prevent it. Thus the total eradication of the Leviathan state is a vital necessity in our time, in the spirit envisaged by Marx for weighty reasons. That is the course that needs to be followed after the long destructive deviation suffered by humanity since the last decades of the nineteenth century under the conditions of monopolistic imperialism.
This is where we can see the paradoxical truth of “there is no alternative” repeatedly stated by some leading politicians, as confined to the political domain. Certainly there is no alternative in the sense envisaged by them, because it is impossible to elaborate the much needed societal reproductive alternative in and through the political/military framework of state-determinations. By the inherent nature of the fundamental issues at stake, the historically sustainable alternative can only be a radically different social metabolic order. For the requirements of sustainability imply a societal reproductive order with its consciously articulated—autonomously planned and exercised—mode of overall decision-making, in place of the authoritarian usurpation of power in all of its historically known varieties by the hierarchically entrenched and superimposed antagonistic Leviathan state. Without instituting—uncompromisingly in the form of substantive equality—and also safeguarding such order against the restoration of the material and political vested interests of the long class-exploitative past, it is impossible to secure exit from capital’s historic circle.
So much must be rectified even in the world of ideas before an order of substantive equality can be secured. Let us confine our attention in that respect to the crucially important dimension of societal restructuring that directly involves the problem of substantive equality. For even one of the greatest idealist philosophers of all history, Hegel, could dismiss the demand for equality, in favor of veiled vested interests, with words like these: “Men are made unequal by nature, where inequality is in its element, and in civil society the right of particularity is so far from annulling this natural inequality that it produces out of mind and raises it to an inequality of skill and resources [wealth], and even to one of moral and intellectual attainment. To oppose to this right a demand for equality is a folly of the Understanding which takes as real and rational its abstract equality and its ‘ought-to-be.’”16
In reality, the opposite is true of everything Hegel asserts about nature’s inequality in relation to human beings. Difference is certainly in great evidence in nature, but turning nature’s difference into human inequality is revealingly arbitrary, when social institutions are responsible for it. But the unjustifiable Hegelian ideological legitimation of historically established societal inequality in the name of nature itself arises because some social forces in the course of the French revolutionary turmoil were forcefully struggling over it. That is what Hegel had to reject, with a categorical claim, in the name of the absolute validity of his philosophical categories.
In contrast to the specific antagonisms of the French Revolution, a century and a half earlier, at the time when Thomas Hobbes was writing his Leviathan, the demand for substantive equality could not appear with its powerful social challenge on the historical agenda. In the Hobbesian philosophical conception, there was no need to assume a retrograde position toward equality and enlist nature in its pretended favor. On the contrary, Hobbes, for his own specific philosophical reasons, could make absolutely clear his view on nature’s full consonance with human equality:
Nature hath made men so equall, in the faculties of body and mind; as that though there bee found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body, or of quicker mind then another; yet when all is reckoned together, the difference between man, and man, is not so considerable, as that one man can thereupon claim to himselfe any benefit, to which another may not pretend, as well as he. For as to the strength of body, the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machination, or by confederacy with others, that are in the same danger with himselfe. And as to the faculties of the mind, (setting aside the arts grounded upon words, and especially that skill of proceeding upon generall, and infallible rules, called Science; which very few have, and but in few things; as being not a native faculty, born with us; nor attained, (as Prudence,) while we look after somewhat els,) I find yet a greater equality amongst men, than that of strength. For Prudence, is but Experience; which equall time, equally bestowed on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto.17
We shall see in the chapters dedicated to Hobbes and Hegel why, in their theories of the state, they adopted such diametrically opposite views.* What is necessary to stress in the present context is that the pressing demand for the establishment of substantive equality that first appeared as a historic imperative of social reality during the French Revolution, and was violently defeated in its aftermath, can never be removed from our own historical agenda. For the elaboration and effective societal reproductive operation of the required—fundamentally different—social metabolic order is unsustainable without it. That is the key defining characteristic of the socialist metabolic order. Our success or failure to secure a sustainable exit from capital’s dangerously closing historic circle depends on it.
Exiting Capital’s Closing Circle
Despite the undeniable dangers on our horizon, is it possible to secure that exit from the capital system’s necessarily closing historic circle? That is a painfully difficult but unavoidable question. At the present stage of history, even with the “principle of hope” on our side, this vital question can receive only a conditional and tentative answer.
Toward the end of the Second World War, reflecting on the harrowing vicissitudes of the war years, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote a great one-act play, translated into English under the title No Exit. He wanted to convey in it the feeling of absolutely paralyzing powerlessness that seemed to dominate people under the conditions of ostensibly uncontrollable war.
At first he thought to set the stage in a caved-in bomb shelter where the escape routes have been blocked. But then he realized that in a situation like that the force of solidarity among the people buried in that shelter could begin to operate, urging them to work together to find an exit. And that would undermine the meaning Sartre intended to convey in his play. Thus, thanks to a brilliant dramatic insight, he set his play in hell, from which there could be no escape. And this is how his intended message sounded from the mouth of one of the three fatefully trapped people:
Yes, now is the moment; I’m looking at this thing on the mantelpiece, and I understand that I am in hell. I tell you, everything has been thought out beforehand. They knew I would stand at the fireplace stroking this piece of bronze, with all those eyes intent on me. Devouring me. [He swings around abruptly.] What? Only two of you? I thought there were more. Many more. [Laughs.] So this is hell. I would never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the “burning marl.” Old wives’ tales! There is no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is other people!18
That was the final summation, which stressed the irreconcilable antagonism among the three people whose mutually tormenting bad conscience defined their relationship of hell among themselves throughout their interchanges in the course of the play, giving its nightmarish meaning to the riveting Sartrean words: “Hell is other people!”19 Those words referred in general to “other people,” wherever they might be, who have brought, and might also in the future bring, the war upon others and themselves, engaging uncontrollably in similar acts of hell and trapping others as well as themselves in hell by their own acts.
This vision was conceived by Sartre in his haunting play just months before Harry Truman ordered the instant destruction of the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the name of democracy and freedom. For several decades thereafter Sartre continued to fight with passionate determination and courage against the very real danger of nuclear inferno being imposed upon the earth. In all those decades the tormenting words of warning about the acts of Hell brought into this world by people, the ubiquitous “other people,” could be always felt behind Sartre’s indefatigable protests, even when they were not directly uttered.
Unpunished state-determinations continue to be responsible also today for countless acts of hell, when unjustifiable justifications can be twisted around at will in endless self-legitimating contradictions. In many ways feudal reactionary Saudi Arabia can continue to bomb, unpunished, countless civilian targets in Yemen, even the hospitals clearly marked by the organization Médecins Sans Frontières, and the infernal destructive weaponry is supplied for such acts of hell by the leading “democratic states,” violating thereby their own international commitments. And when that is made clear in public, they can cynically retort that there is “insufficient evidence” that the Saudis use the weapons against civilian targets. The “democratic states” can do that unpunished because they are the judge and jury also over what should be considered, as defined by their own view, the “sufficient evidence.”
The same kind of self-legitimating self-contradiction can prevail over the infernal weapons of mass destruction in general. The military-industrial complex may be criticized on occasions, but its highly profitable products—for which the funds are supplied by the state from taxes imposed mostly on the working people—cannot be seriously challenged. The dominant states cannot consider abandoning such weapons. Once upon a time leading left-wing British politician of the Labour Party, Aneurin Bevan, declared that he “would not walk into the negotiating chamber naked”—that is, if the highly debated issue of British nuclear disarmament would be adopted as party policy—and therefore he was rejecting it as future foreign secretary. Bevan was betraying thereby the reactionary nature of his taking for granted the permanent discriminatory inequality of international power politics. And he could not be considered an exception in that respect. In their international agreements, the politicians of the dominant states agree to reduce their nuclear arsenal by a few hundred bombs and at the same time order the manufacture of thousands of them from their own military-industrial complex. Thus many thousands of such nuclear weapons are available for being unleashed on our planet, while as few as two hundred of them would be sufficient for the destruction of humanity altogether, according to the relevant scientific assessment.
It is perfectly true, of course, that some of the major states are less dominated by the vested interests of their own military-industrial complex than some others. But that is quite irrelevant in the present context. None of the dominant states are likely to give up on their own nuclear weapons not only in view of the now generally acknowledged role of such weapons of mass destruction in asserting military strength in the international power structure, but also because of their own likely fear of being more exposed through unilateral nuclear disarmament to nuclear destruction. Thus the now existing huge nuclear arsenals are likely to be with us in the foreseeable future. At the same time, as capital’s historic circle is getting nearer to its irreversible closure, the intensifying internal and international economic and social antagonisms are bound to carry with them increasing dangers. And since materially grounded globalization inexorably proceeds under the present circumstances, nation-based antagonistic political/military determinations can only aggravate the systemic antagonisms. The best one can hope for in that respect is that the dominant states do not engage in a fundamental direct confrontation, with its catastrophic consequences.
These challenges cannot be resolved within the paralyzing confines of the necessarily hierarchical and antagonistic framework of the political/military domain. For finding a solution, as mentioned before, a radical transformation of our modality of decision-making is required, affecting no less the elementary constitutive cells of our societal reproduction than the most comprehensive level of the global interdependencies. And the fundamental guiding principle of that kind of transformation can only be the universal adoption of the positive principle of productive work, on the basis of substantive equality, inseparable from the total eradication of the hierarchical and necessarily antagonistic state formations.
Nearly two centuries ago, Goethe depicted in his Faust with wonderful, subtle irony the final moments of his hero who was modeled by him in some way on the great historic figure of Paracelsus. In that final scene Goethe’s hero, blinded by Sorge (Anguish) because he refused to yield to her, mistakenly greets the noise of the Lemurs—who are in fact digging his grave—as the welcome noise of canal-digging, in realization of his great social project and self-fulfillment for which he is destined to lose his wager with Mephistopheles, the devil. These are Faust’s final words:
A swamp along the mountain’s flank
Makes all my previous gains contaminate;
My deeds, if I could drain this sink,
Would culminate as well as terminate:
To open to the millions living space,
Not danger-proof but free to run their race.
Green fields and fruitful; men and cattle hiving
Upon this newest earth at once and thriving.
Settled at once beneath this sheltering hill
Heaped by the masses’ brave and busy skill
With such a heavenly land behind this hedge,
The sea beyond may bluster to its edge
And, as it gnaws to swamp the work of masons,
To stop the gap one common impulse hastens.
Aye! Wedded to this concept like a wife,
I find this wisdom’s final form:
He only earns his freedom and his life
Who takes them every day by storm.
And so a man, beset by dangers here,
As child, man, old man, spends his manly year.
Oh to see such activity,
Treading free ground with people that are free!
Then could I bid the passing moment:
“Linger a while, thou art so fair!”
The traces of my earthly days can never
Sink in the aeons unaware.
And I, who feel ahead such heights of bliss,
At last I enjoy my highest moment—this.20
In Faust, Divine Providence rescues the hero from the clutches of the devil Mephistopheles. We cannot count on such solution in our references to the legitimately updated contemporary meaning of historic Paracelsus. The ground of Goethe’s understandable irony, depicting also the fateful mistake of Faust in his wishful self-fulfillment, noble and deserved as it is in favor of his hero, must be removed in the actually existing world.
Under the conditions depicted by Goethe, Faust/Paracelsus could not possibly achieve his historic dream. Goethe in his greatness supremely conveyed also that. Even in our time the earlier indicated question marks still remain. That is because historic achievement of the magnitude involved in positively oriented and truly autonomous human decision-making absolutely needs the enduring foundation of substantive equality. That is feasible only on condition of fully articulating the required radical mass movement in the spirit of globally extendable solidarity. Combined with substantive equality, that is the only basis on which the necessary critique of the Leviathan state can succeed in historically sustainable terms.
Notes |
Welcome to Locating London's Past
This website allows you to search a wide body of digital resources relating to early modern and eighteenth-century London, and to map the results on to a fully GIS compliant version of John Rocque's 1746 map.
Add some data
Video walkthrough
Historical background
Records of crime, poor relief, taxation, elections, local administration, plague deaths and archaeological finds can all be searched and mapped on this site.
Historical background and datasets
The Map
Building on a fully GIS compliant version of John Rocque's 1746 map of London, this site allows you to relate an eighteenth-century representation of the metropolis to the first accurate OS map of London (1869-80), and to a modern Google Maps environment.
Mapping methodology
Winner of the BSECS Prize for Digital Resources 2014 |
ANZ is very pleased to announce from 1 November, 2017, Australian and New Zealand World of Tanks PC fans will be able to log onto the brand new ANZ periphery server and enjoy low lag battles! At this stage the server will be active during ‘prime time’, which will help us ensure players receive an optimal experience. The periphery server will be active from 6pm – 12am AEDT daily.
If you already have an Asia account, you’re ready to go. Simply log in, and select the ANZ periphery from the drop down menu during operational hours. For those who have accounts on the North American server, Wargaming will be allowing people to register for their accounts to be transferred over from October 17 – 22.
If you have any further questions about the Australian server launch please be sure to read through this extensive FAQ here.
To celebrate this momentous occasion, the Wargaming ANZ team will be hosting a special launch event in Sydney on November 1 and you’re invited. Be sure to RSVP here as numbers are limited.
It’s going to be a great night!
Roll out!
Wargaming ANZ
RSVP Here
Discuss the Event Here! |
The Wizards have signed Daniel Ochefu to a three-year partially guaranteed contract according to Eric Pincus of BasketballInsiders.com:
The Washington Wizards have given Daniel Ochefu a three-year contract at minimum, $50k guaranteed this season @BBallInsiders — Eric Pincus (@EricPincus) July 7, 2016
Ochefu, a rookie center out of Villanova, is currently on the Wizards' summer league team. The guaranteed $50,000 appears to be compensation for him to attend training camp this fall.
Had heard Wizards wanted the ex-Villanova center at training camp. This would ensure at least that much. https://t.co/WFgnF82yNL — Ben Standig (@BenStandig) July 7, 2016
In addition, Ochefu received interest from other teams.
The Wizards currently have three centers on the roster including Marcin Gortat, Ian Mahinmi, and Jason Smith. With Ochefu also in the mix, the center rotation now appears to be a bit crowded. I don't expect to see Ochefu being the Wizards' starting center next season. But on the surface, perhaps Gortat could be on the trading block, even without considering the fact that Ochefu has a deal. |
Former World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz leaves his house in the Washington suburb of Chevy Chase, Maryland, in this file photo dated May 17, 2007. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
BERLIN (Reuters) - Paul Wolfowitz, a Republican adviser to former U.S. President George W. Bush, plans to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November presidential election despite his "serious reservations", Der Spiegel magazine reported on Friday.
Wolfowitz, who served as deputy defense secretary under Bush and also as president of the World Bank, said he viewed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as a security risk because of his admiration of Russian President Putin and his views on China, the magazine reported.
"It's important to make it clear how unacceptable he is," the magazine quoted Wolfowitz as saying in an interview.
Wolfowitz joins a long list of Republicans who have said they will not vote for Trump.
"I wish there was a candidate whom I could support enthusiastically. I will have to vote for Hillary Clinton, although I have serious reservations about her," he said.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week showed that Clinton would win the key swing states of Florida, Ohio and Virginia, and have a 95 percent chance of beating Trump if the election were held now.
Wolfowitz rejected a common description of him as a key architect of the 2003 U.S. war against Iraq, saying that if he had truly been the architect many things would have gone differently, the magazine reported.
Wolfowitz said the goal had been to free the country, not occupy it, creating tensions with many Iraqis.
He also defended the decision to invade Iraq, saying it was based on intelligence that later turned out to be faulty.
"Of course we would have proceeded differently if we had known that Saddam Hussein was not stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, but was only planning to do so," he said. "We would not have invaded."
In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine in May 2003, several months after the invasion, he suggested there were multiple reasons for it, but the Bush administration highlighted Iraq’s supposed WMD as the justification for the war as the most politically convenient.
“For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on,” he said at the time.
(This version of the story has been refiled to correct typo in second paragraph)
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; editing by Ralph Boulton) |
Report: Statement from the Black & Green Forum & 2nd Solidarity Eco-Camp in the Philippines
ECO CAMP BACKGROUND
Eco-Camp is an activity organized by Mobile Anarchist School with the help by Local Autonomous Network (LAN) both active in the Philippines. Last April 2012 was the first camping held in Tanay Rizal, Philippines. It was attended by various collectives and individuals totaling around 40 people who participated the various activities and discussions in the camp. The objective of the eco-camp was to discuss the different issues confronting our current society and to find solidarity actions that can help expose and popularize our issues.
After series of activities in 2012, the LAN decided to expand its activities on ecological issues due to concrete manifestation of the crisis impacting the archipelago.
The second eco-camp gathering was organized by LAN and the Mobile Anarchist School in March 2013 to heighten our education campaign and to strengthen the relationship with other affinity groups and build an international network better able to work towards intensifying our impact by making solidarity actions globally.
We invited anarchist from Indonesia, Germany, Greece, Japan, and U.S.A. to join us in the Philippines for six-day activities to share our experiences, ideas, and discuss the possibility of organizing future actions on these important issues detailed here.
The first event was the Black and Green Forum which provides education and popularization campaign of LAN, and its objectives to provide analysis on ecological issues based on the perspective of a non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian framework and to share alternatives which already being done by anarchist and autonomous activists in the local and international level.
The Black and Green Forum was carried out in collaboration with Third World Studies Center- University of the Philippines (TWSC – UP) and entitled “Anarchism: Ecological Crises, Climate Change and Direct Action”.
In recognition that Food not Bombs is one of among effective methods of anti-authoritarian actions an activity was organized after the Black and Green Forum to spread information with regards to history, experience and insights of the Food Not Bombs global movement.
After the two events in Quezon City, activists witnessed the industrial wastewater discharge into creeks and tributaries of Laguna Lake. The next day, activists once again meet for four days at the Second Solidarity Eco-camp in Tanay, Rizal. These activities culminated to adoption of this common statement where the specific context of most localities detailed below was critically discussed.
Mining surfaced as one of the major issues being addressed by the network in their respective localities due to its various social and environmental impacts. But generally, autonomous and anarchist activists are responding to multiple and interconnected social and ecological issues.
PHILIPPINES
The massive destruction of the ecology of the archipelago is directly attributed to investments of corporations who are up to extract natural resources to gain more profit.
The marginalized communities in the global south such as the majority of urban and rural poor communities in the Philippines constantly experience the negative impacts of environmental destructions; the changing weather pattern already claimed 300,000 of lives on the annual basis, it destroyed billions of assets and it caused massive losses in various sectors such agriculture. Floods and landslide have become common and the government has shown that it will not provide concrete and long term solutions.
Despite of very destructive and hazardous impact of mining, the government allowed it to operate and even give more incentives to corporations, the corrupt government is assisting the destructive enterprise of these profit-hungry institutions through legislations and coercive processes.
Mining corporations in the Philippines such as Sagittarius Mines/Xtrata, Philex and among others should be held liable to the destruction of the environment, murdering people and displacing communities. The said corporations and the likes should be kick-out of the archipelago and made them pay for the damages and violence they incurred.
In general, lakes, rivers, bays, forests (upland and mangroves) and other ecosystems are being used and exploited in favor of the capitalists to the demise of marginalized communities. We encourage people and community to directly take action in defending and reclaiming their lives by protecting their own habitat.
JUSTICE FOR THE VICTIMS OF STATE VIOLENCE
Like any government in the world, the Philippine Republic is guilty of executing people both political and innocents. The Philippine government is harboring criminals that terrorize and rob people. The Philippine National police (PNP) and the military (Armed Forces of the Philippines) are supposed to protect the people; but we are all aware that these institutions violate people’s dignity and life and getting away with it.
CONTACT
Email: aschool (at) riseup.net
LINKS
onsiteinfoshopphilippines.wordpress.com
ebinfoshop.surestepintegral.com
unitedmedianetwork.wordpress.com
mindsetbreakerpress.blogspot.com
INDONESIA
The history of Indonesia is a history of agrarian conflict which has endured since colonial times, and continues to the present day. Conflicts which remain unresolved or which are even deliberately cultivated to reinforce structures that benefit political and business elites. And then, as part of these conflicts, acts of violence emerge, by state security forces against the people, legitimized in the name of the law. When peasants and those defending the people’s rights are prosecuted, terrorized, intimidated, arrested or shot, it is a clear example that the state prefers to solve its problems with violence.
Meanwhile, the people who are standing in the way of capital’s expansion are themselves labeled as violent, under the pretext that state security forces are merely maintaining security and stability (for capital). Another source of violence comes from those elements of society whose discourse supports that of the state and corporations, with their slogans about resistance, saying that resistance should be non-violent, meaning that the people do nothing in the face of the state’s treachery. The actions which the people take in defending or reclaiming what is rightfully theirs is not violence. It is their struggle, just as in the colonial era people took up arms to fight for independence.
The Forum for Communication between Agrarian Communities (FKMA) was conceived, formulated and formed by peasant farmers and other communities that have been victims of the collusion between the state and corporations to seize agrarian resources (living space).
JAPAN
ECOLOGICAL DESTRUCTION BY CORPORATION AND STATE (MINING PROJECT & RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION)
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident is the second largest nuclear disaster after Chernobyl. Approximately 30,000 people died of its accident, and currently, around 150,000 people still live in evacuation under government order or by their own choice and certain number of those people cannot go back to their home town forever because of high level of radioactive contamination.
Although it was triggered by a large earthquake and tsunami, this accident was definitely a human disaster. It means that an electric company and the national government are responsible due to a series of underestimations sustained by a “myth of safety”, such as that of the height of a possible tsunami, the possibility of a “station blackout,” and duration of power failures. In addition, confusing and misleading information, and also a deliberate concealment of information occurred.
In the background of this, there is the “Atomic Village” or “Atomic Circle,” a very closed relationship among politicians, government offices, academics, industrial leaders, and the media. Japan, has had no true independent regulator of nuclear issues. This disaster revealed out that Japan is the society simply determined by the economic growth led by the state policy.
In response to all these incidents, unprecedented enormous protests against nuclear society have been happening in Japan to get our destiny back to our own hands. The struggles are work in progress.
[Further information regarding the protests]
Genpatsu Yamero Demo: http://911shinjuku.tumblr.com/
Metropolitan Coalition Against Nukes: http://coalitionagainstnukes.jp/
GERMANY
The German state as one of the powerful leaders in Europe and also in the world has to defend its capitalist interests by any means necessary. In the ongoing economical crisis in Europe, Germany is on the one side mainly responsible for the tragic situation in countries like Greece, Spain or Portugal where poverty and social exclusion is growing every day. On the other side the state and some of the big corporations make profit from this economical situation.
But concerning to one of the main topics (mining) at the Eco Camp, the German business is actively participating in the overexploitation of natural resources around the world and of course also in the Philippines. Since over 10 years the “Commerzbank “gave credits to the mining company Lepanto to support gold digging in the Cordillera region.
This area and their people are strongly affected through the environmental pollution. In the Tampakan area in Mindanao a Gold and Copper project was developed by the big Swiss mining company “ Xstrata“, one of the shareholders is the „Deutsche Bank“. This bank also gave loans to “Atlas Consolidated” to finance their copper mine in Toledo City, Cebu. But also other big companies, like for example “DHL“ try to make substantial profits out of this dirty economical practice. They provide everything what is needed to take care of the mining sector needs. These short examples show how German companies are involved in international mining.
Some additional short notices should highlight that Germany tries to consolidate their leading position as good as possible. Germany and their military forces intervene in different international conflicts, for example in Afghanistan, Syria or since some weeks in Mali.
Furthermore Germany takes part in developing new strategies of modern warfare to control social uprisings. In the middle of the country is the most advanced training center in Europe for practicing war and counterinsurgency. But beside this practice of prevention they do everything to fight possible enemies. Surveillance, repression and police brutality are only some ways to secure their power.
The struggle against capitalism is global. For international solidarity.
Let’s light up the fire of revolt. For social revolution!
USA
The U.S. is in the last days of empire and is forcing a crisis on the population. The 2010 census shows that one in two Americans are struggling to survive. Several million people are homeless and half of all prisoners on Earth are locked up in U.S. jails. While the two political parties pretend to argue over policy they really share the same goals of supporting transnational corporate power.
Since Americans are in a period of what may be the final transfer of capital from the taxpayers to the elite the authorities are taking every measure to protect their interests from civil unrest. Federal and Sate governments are implementing policies to aid in a rapid increase in mining, oil extraction, timber harvesting and many other ecologically damaging activities which are also inspiring resistance. New legal policies give the president the power to kill or detain anyone including Americans without trial. For the first time since the civil war the military is empowered to wage war against the American people. Local police have been militarized with new equipment, training and powers.
The current economic crisis has inspired a new wave of anti-homeless laws and other forms of criminalization of the poor. The technology for surveillance is so sophisticated the authorities are able to monitor nearly all electronic communications and monitor nearly every movement of anyone considers a threat.
Protests in the U.S. against the policies of the state and corporations have been frequent but Occupy Wall Street surprised both the activist community and the security forces. Many people who had never considered participating in a protest where moved to join because of their personal conditions. Many of the new protesters had voted for Obama believing here would bring change but he continued the policies that caused them to lose their jobs and homes. Occupy Wall Street also frightened the elite inspiring bans or limitations on the sharing of food in public spaces. This has in some cases caused the local community to support groups like Food Not Bombs. In late December 2012 a public interest law firm received nearly 200 pages of F.B.I. documents showing that the Obama administration was worried and started to monitor activists months before the occupations started. These documents show that the F.B.I. organized with private security to implement a wide range of disruptive tactics including organizing bombing plots in the name of occupy and a suggestion that the people considered to be the leaders be killed using suppressed sniper rifles. Since the disruption of occupy resistance in the United States has been in disarray. Efforts to regroup have been derailed by covert means within the movement.
After the evictions and disruption of the occupy movement many activists refocused their attention to stopping the XL Keystone Pipeline, the rapid increase in coal mining and the associated rail lines and super ports. There is also an increase in protests and direct actions against the rapid increase in hydraulic fracturing or fracking though no wide spread campaign of sabotage by the public has occurred yet. Fracking is a process of pumping toxic chemicals into the earth to force carbon to the surface. The contamination to fresh water and the surrounding ecosystem is already driving many into poverty as their land and homes have become worthless. This crisis is likely to grow dire when the tens of thousands of wells already in operation run dry during the decade and the small amount of profit shared with local land owners also evaporates.
It is very important that the Anarchists and other opponents of corporate and government domination start to work together and consider new strategies of resistance while at the same time organizing systems of mutual aid as the economy continues to collapse and the repression increases.
Millions more will become homeless and hunger is sure to increase in the United States. The new police state policies like the deployment of the military in local communities, advanced methods of surveillance and the promised use of over 30,000 drones patrolling American skies will make resistance challenging. Reaching the public with counter information and working with them to implement some effective strategies of resistance while building an alternative to the failing system will require reflection and critical thinking in the anarchist community.
Recent events like Katrina and Sandy, the occupations, increase in projects like community gardening show that the best hope for Americans can be found in the ideas of the anarchist community.
GREECE
“THE MINES OF HALKIDIKI ARE A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY THAT SHOULD NOT GO WASTED”
Soil, water and air are priceless, and belong to all of us. Gold, on the other hand, is an abstract concept that, especially today, acquires value when it functions as ‘money’, when it is used as an effort to counterbalance the ‘over-the-top money’, money invented out of thin air, that came into being three decades ago through bank lending and the stoke exchanges’ system of speculation and gambling. We have to point out the fact that only the 10% of the world’s extracted gold deposits is actually put in some tangible use. At the same time, the quantity of gold that is being used as ‘money’ in stoke exchanges and in the international monetary system is seven times more than the real quantity of gold which can be found in the planet.
‘Development and progress’ is the echo following the announcements concerning the goldmines, as well as the wind turbines on Lesvos and Limnos islands, and elsewhere, the waste incineration factories; all these plus innumerable other such crimes are presented as the antidote to the crisis, the same crisis that the development itself created. The case of the goldmines is the most extreme one, out of all these ‘developing crimes in the name of progress’, due to the fact that no one even dares to oppose the destruction that they are about to cause, but also because—as we all know by now—the multinationals will draw all the profit, apart from a short-term small portion that will go to a few hundred workers. Furthermore, it is not coincidental that this scandalous transaction scam of the northern-eastern Halkidiki mines took place during a period of affluence, at a time when no one paid any attention, while the realization of the mega-project, the actual construction of the mines, is pushed forward now, amidst the crisis. Here, we are faced with blunt blackmail: we have to either accept such a plainly and straightforward destructive proposition, or else we will not manage to survive.
The whole problem with the capitalistic growth is not simply that there are some businesspeople and politicians who are squeezing exorbitant profits out of everybody else, and in order to do so—always in the name of the profit—they will destroy the environment, but the plain fact that our lives are being governed by an international money mafia that kills humans, animals and the Earth. The true face of progress is one of a vicious circle that will constantly dictate even harsher terms in order to exploit more each time. Development manages to achieve this through the breaking up of communities and the weakening of individuals, bonding them tighter and tighter to the chariot of this mechanism of death and destruction called capitalism. Consequently, this ongoing collapse gives birth to certain types of people who fall prey to the blackmail—because they are so desperately looking for single-handed solutions that seem to be in their own self-interest—and eventually believe that their interests are the same ones with those of multinational corporations. They do not care about the impact that their choices have on the whole of society, the consequences of which will soon knock also on their door.
The system wishes to incapacitate us so that we are in no position to decide for ourselves. Its whole existence depends on whether we choose to bind ourselves to the dynamic engine of capitalism, in order to survive or even enjoy a share of the profits of the capitalistic growth. If we want to stand against this dictatorship of money, if we want to build another world, we cannot succumb to this blackmail of crisis that is offering further disasters and is driving us towards the desperate pursuit of a personal bailout while threatening entire communities with mass destruction. We can neither hand over our future to any sort of saviors. On the contrary, we must fight to defend common goods and resources. We must fight to put an end to the activities of these mega-companies and of all the politicians who are in their payroll. We must struggle to prevent the destruction of people’s communities.
Social solidarity, collective consciousness and human values are our weaponry.
We must meet and discuss:
Which goods are necessary?
Which are the values that we should fight for?
How do we take decisions? How can we, ourselves, organize and take charge of our lives?
Whoever is silent is an accomplice to the crime…
OPEN COORDINATIVE OF THESSALONIKI AGAINST THE GOLDMINES
http://nogoldthess.espivblogs.net/
Tags: #Occupy, Anti-Nuclear, Black & Green Forum, Deutsche Bank, Food Not Bombs, Fracking, Fukushima, Greece, Indonesia, Japan, Mining, Nuclear Disaster, Philex, Philex Gold, Philex Mining, Philippines, USA, Xtrata Ltd
This entry was posted on Friday, April 12th, 2013 at 11:54 am and is filed under Eco Struggle. |
Low unhappy with Germany fans over Werner treatment
The youngster, who remains at the heart of a diving controversy while playing for RB Leipzig, was greeted with jeers during his brief cameo
coach Joachim Low has voiced his dismay at the hostile attitude shown toward attacker Timo Werner during Saturday's 7-0 win over San Marino.
Werner came off the bench 10 minutes after half-time to replace Lars Stindl in this weekend's World Cup qualifier and was jeered and whistled by his own fans throughout his substitute cameo.
Kane bails England out - but he needs help
The 21-year-old has been an unpopular figure among German football fans ever since diving to win a penalty for Leipzig in the 2-1 home win over in December 2016.
Low was not impressed with the German fans' behaviour and has urged them to change their attitude toward the young attacker.
"There was a dive once, he made a mistake, and he admitted he was wrong," Low told Bild.
"But we are talking about a very young player here.
"Someone who plays for the national team, is only at the start of his career and who has scored 21 goals in one season in the should not be jeered and whistled. That is simply not okay."
3 players getting their first #DieMannschaft goals
A new debutant
A first Germany hat-trick
Seven goals
All in a day's work! #GERSMR pic.twitter.com/IsuymIlagk — Germany (@DFB_Team_EN) June 10, 2017
Werner himself, meanwhile, believes he is being treated different than other players because he plays for hugely unpopular Leipzig.
'Kroos should hang up his boots now!'
"I do not know what all the fuss is about," Werner added.
"We have seen people dive for years. People are making a big thing out of it just because I play for RB Leipzig." |
Facebook has mapped the entire human population of earth as it prepares to build an internet in space 2:33 PM ET Fri, 1 Sept 2017 | 01:02
Facebook doesn't only know what its 2 billion users "Like."
It now knows where millions of humans live, everywhere on Earth, to within 15 feet.
The company has created a data map of the human population by combining government census numbers with information it's obtained from space satellites, according to Janna Lewis, Facebook's head of strategic innovation partnerships and sourcing. A Facebook representative later told CNBC that this map currently covers 23 countries, up from 20 countries mentioned in this blog post from February 2016.
The mapping technology, which Facebook says it developed itself, can pinpoint any man-made structures in any country on Earth to a resolution of five meters.
Facebook is using the data to understand the precise distribution of humans around the planet.
That will help the company determine what types of internet service — based either on land, in the air or in space — it can use to reach consumers who now have no (or very low quality) internet connections.
"Satellites are exciting for us. Our data showed the best way to connect cities is an internet in the sky," Lewis told about 150 people gathered in San Francisco this week for a Space Technology and Investment Forum sponsored by the Space Foundation.
"We're trying to connect people from the stratosphere and from space," using high-altitude drone aircraft and satellites, to supplement Earth-based networks, said Lewis.
Facebook hired Lewis, a former intellectual property lawyer with extensive experience in international aerospace law, about one year ago.
Her job, as she told the forum, is to work with partners in the aerospace industry to build a multi-pronged network to serve the entire planet.
The data is used "to know the population distribution" of Earth to figure out "the best connectivity technologies" in different locales, Lewis said. "We see these as a viable option for serving these populations" that are "unconnected or under-connected," she said.
In addition to Lewis, Facebook is also hiring aerospace engineers to help it crack this market.
The mapping technology is part of a much broader effort by U.S. companies to take advantage of a slew of data now available from the hundreds of satellites orbiting the earth.
"All this satellite data is coming from space, so people are trying to figure out what the business opportunities are," says Edward Swallow, senior vice president for civil and commercial systems for the Aerospace Corporation, an entity set up by the government in 1960 to protect America's pre-eminence in space.
Facebook rival Google, for example, sold its satellite-imaging business, formerly called Skybox, earlier this year "because they figured out they could get the data without having its own satellites," Swallow told CNBC in an interview. |
Way to go, Burger King. You made a grandma cry.
A receipt allegedly given to a Virginia grandmother and her daughter-in-law at the drive-thru of a Richmond, Va., Burger King on Saturday called the pair "b***h a** hoes," according to photos published by CBS affiliate WTVR-TV. A manager on duty apologized when he heard of the vulgar note, but he didn't refund the meal, said the distraught grandmother, who was in tears over the incident.
A Burger King representative said the company was looking into the incident.
"At Burger King Corp., we have great respect for all of our guests and customer service is a top priority every day at BURGER KING® restaurants," a spokesman for the company told The Huffington Post in an email. "BKC has recently been made aware of a photo that shows an alleged receipt from a franchisee-owned and operated restaurant that does not comply with our customer service policy. We are working with the franchisee, who is investigating the matter, to determine the origins of this photo."
This isn't the first time Burger King has been in hot water over an obscene receipt. Two employees were fired from a California Burger King for printing "f**k you" on a receipt back in 2010. |
HSU case judge critical of Jackson emails
Updated
A Federal Court judge has taken Health Services Union national secretary Kathy Jackson to task over secret emails sent to his chambers by her legal team.
Justice Geoffrey Flick made the surprising revelation at the start of a hearing on an application to have the HSU's east branch put into administration.
The judge told the court that Ms Jackson and her legal team tried to communicate with his associate on the weekend and that such communication was outside the formal processes of the court.
Justice Flick then held up a pile of printed emails and asked what he was meant to do with them.
He said it was a "serious breach" of court processes and queried if action should be taken against Ms Jackson.
The judge also accused one of Ms Jackson's lawyers, Brett Shields, of wasting the court's time by being under prepared.
Outside court, Ms Jackson refused to comment on the developments because the case is before the courts.
A two-week hearing has been set down for the various applications, that were previously going to be heard by two courts.
They include applications by Ms Jackson, HSU acting national president Chris Brown, HSU East boss Peter Mylan and Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten.
All want a declaration from the court that both the east branch of the federal HSU and the separate entity HSU East have ceased to function effectively.
Justice Flick has previously told the court it is not his role to hold a Royal Commission, but that someone must look after the union's finances and the interests of HSU members.
But he was quick to knock back a request from one lawyer this morning for the court to break for morning tea.
"We are not the Supreme Court. We do not take morning tea breaks," Justice Flick said.
Topics: courts-and-trials, unions, sydney-2000, melbourne-3000
First posted |
Story highlights The first public hearing in the House on Russia's meddling in US elections has been scheduled
Nunes told reporters there is no evidence yet of President Donald Trump being wiretapped
(CNN) The first public hearing in the House on Russia's meddling in US elections will be March 20, Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said Monday.
Nunes said he has invited FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers, as well as former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former Attorney General Sally Yates, to testify.
In the Senate, Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr responded for the first time publicly Tuesday since President Donald Trump's accused his predecessor then-President Barack Obama of wiretapping his phone last year, without presenting any evidence. The North Carolina Republican did not rule out including the wiretap accusation in his committee's investigation.
"We're going to go anywhere there is intelligence or facts that send us," Burr told CNN. "So I'm not going to limit it one way or the other. But we don't have anything today that would send us in that direction, but that's not to say that we might not find something."
Nunes also told reporters there is no evidence yet of President Donald Trump being wiretapped last year by then-President Barack Obama, but said the committee will look into it.
Read More |
My usual methods of decoding experience – art, literature and old punk rock records – have been rendered irrelevant by the sheer unscrupulousness of our public figures. We are in a post-Thick of It world, where the fictional PR attack dog Malcolm Tucker seems, compared with those schooled by Lynton Crosby OBE, dancing in Dionysiac reverie on the ruins of democracy in a downpour of dead cats, to have been charmingly hampered by principle.
But help is at hand. Pretty much all I have watched since Christmas 2014 is Italian westerns of the 60s and 70s. I have seen 108 now. And I started pursuing this monomaniacal psychological experiment long before Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook told us this week that we should all live “post-choice”, demonstrating his commitment to his aesthetic by displaying a wardrobe full of dozens of expensively identical shirts, all presumably tax deductable and purchased online via an account in Luxembourg.
I’ve pretty much given up on 21st-century films, which are all about either outer space or a man being sad. But the so-called spaghetti westerns espouse a bleak, fatalistic view of humanity where no one is motivated by anything other than naked self-interest and everyone has a price, and none of them feature Eddie Redmayne giving a heart-rending performance as someone with some kind of issue.
Cameron is like those sleazy guys who call your attention while pick-pocketing your wallet and grabbing your genitals
In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Gianfranco Parolini’s If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (1968), in which the eponymous anti-hero slaughters all who stand between him and a coffin full of stolen gold, tells us more about 21st-century business and politics than David Fincher’s The Social Network (2010), even though I have seen neither.
Since Lynton Crosby OBE started showing off about his “dead cat” news management methods, we can now see dead cats coming a mile off, like smallpox-infected pigs catapulted over the walls of a besieged medieval citadel, and a political gaff one might once have forgiven as a thoughtless slip of the tongue, we now realise is in fact a cynically scripted media misdirection strategy.
In short, if Cameron said “bunch of migrants” by accident, he is a dick, but if he said it on purpose, in order to draw the eye, dead-cat-style, away from the Google atrocity, which he did, then he is a bastard, which is worse.
Increasingly, the once proud visionary dreamer of the “big society” is like those sleazy guys they warn you about on posters at railway stations, who call your attention to an imaginary problem while pick-pocketing your wallet and grabbing your genitals. David Cameron is the Cologne New Year’s Eve of British politics.
Contemplating my tax returns, in the light of George Osborne’s pitifully cautious pencil probe into the rectum of Google’s financial affairs, I struggle to make sense of my obligation to contribute vast swathes of my income to the maintenance of a society whose leaders seem to hold its citizens, its flora and fauna, and those stranded in limbo at its borders, in haughty contempt.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Illustration by David Foldvari.
I have considered my options. Presumably, as a standup comedian, I am paid to generate laughter, which I do, almost nightly, in rooms all around the country, and simply putting the word “comedian” in inverted commas in your below-the-line comments about me will do nothing to alter that demonstrable fact.
If there were some way I could move the point at which the laughter I produce was released from, say, William Aston Hall, Wrexham, to Luxembourg, could I then say that the end point of the financial transaction I had entered into with my paying audience was in a region where UK tax did not apply?
The initial outlay of developing a system where the audience laughed into airtight, sound-proofed bags, which were then driven to Luxembourg in a van, and opened noisily but harmlessly on an Alpine meadow to the bewilderment of billy goats and trolls, would be costly, but in the end I would be able to avoid paying tax on the vast majority of my income.
It’s a system that Google’s creative accountants, Ernst & Young, could doubtless find a way of making legal, laughter being as invisible and slippery a commodity as the online transactions whose virtual existence they magically transport from one theoretical taxation zone to another, but would that make it moral, a distinction that seems to have been deliberately obscured this week? Perhaps the oracle of spaghetti westerns could tell me.
On a midnight train out of Brighton on Wednesday, I watched most of a 1971 film called Black Killer on my laptop. It’s an incoherent effort, but its low opinion of officialdom and its nihilistic worldview meant its barely competent director, Carlo Croccolo, reached across the decades directly into my current anxieties in a way that Star Wars: The Force Awakens did not.
Corbyn v Cameron at PMQs: was 'bunch of migrants' jibe intentional? Read more
Black Killer concerned a corrupt and unaccountable judge, who makes farmers sign over their lands and then has an outlaw band, the O’Haras, kill them. The O’Haras, despite having an Irish name, look totally Mexican. Perhaps they are a multinational outlaw band, advised by Ernst & Young to stash the judge’s blood money in an iron safe in Luxembourg via a complex network of carrier pigeons.
A lawyer, played by a misspelt Klaus Kinsky, arrives and spends the whole film arguing with the judge in an office, trying to get him on legal technicalities. I thought he was supposed to represent powerless justice, to 70s Italian audiences as familiar with Mafia corruption as we are with Google and Osborne today.
Meanwhile, contrasting the apparent impotence of proper procedure, an arrow-slinging Native American woman (Marina Malfatti), who keeps getting injured and having to undress to receive treatment, usually to her bottom, takes matters into her own hands, picking off the officially sanctioned O’Hara Gang plc one by one.
It is here that Croccolo’s clumsy fable parts company with our experience. There is no intermittently naked Native American woman to come to our aid against Google and Osborne and all the tax-dodging multinationals. There is only Eva Joly, vice-chair of the special European parliamentary committee on tax rulings, who has defied death threats in the past to investigate big business corruption. And who, one hopes, can dodge any of the dead cats David Cameron’s own hired thugs can throw at her. I don’t know what will happen. I fell asleep before the end of Black Killer, and woke up at 3am in Bedford, itself a vast filmic metaphor for the unknowable.
A Room With a Stew plays Bournemouth Pavilion on 4 February and Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle (Series 4) will be on BBC2 soon |
Residents and greens groups demand action to stop plan to plunder natural resources by companies that pay next to nothing to remove water
A plan to extract millions of litres of water out of a Unesco world heritage site, send it by pipe to the coast and ship it to foreign markets for bottling has ignited a campaign over water resources in New Zealand.
An export company is proposing to collect 800m litres a month of the “untapped” glacial waters of Lake Greaney and Lake Minim Mere, mountainous dams that are fed by rainfall on the Southern Alps.
New Zealand river granted same legal rights as human being Read more
The pristine water, which the company Alpine Pure calls “untouched by man” would be pumped 20km downhill through an underground pipeline to a reservoir at Jackson Bay on the West Coast, where it would be processed.
From there, it would travel through a two-kilometre pipeline laid on the seafloor to a mooring, where 100,000-tonne tanker ships would be waiting to transport it in bulk to overseas markets in China, India and the Middle East.
The company already has permission to extract the water and is going through the process of getting resource consent from the Westland District Council for the pipeline.
Green groups are calling on the government to urgently step in and protect the nation’s freshwater springs and lakes, although Alpine Pure claims it is only taking a fraction of the water that falls as rain on the Southern Alps.
“We’ve had a lot of interest in this proposal from overseas companies, and a couple of times we’ve started chilling the champagne,” said Bruce Nisbet, managing director.
“Pristine water has been falling on the Southern Alps for a million years, and it would usually be wasted by flowing directly out to sea. The amount we want to take is very small.”
But the plan has angered environmentalists who warn New Zealand is giving away its most precious natural resource for free, at a time when domestic water supplies are increasingly subject to contamination scares.
Two weeks ago a petition signed by 15,000 people was delivered to parliament calling for an immediate halt to bottled water exports.
It comes amid growing anger that multinational companies such as Coca-Cola are drawing millions of litres of water from ancient underground aquifers for next to nothing.
The company, which has an annual revenue of over $60bn, last year paid NZ$40,000 to the local council for the right to extract up to 200 cubic metres of water a day.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Blue Spring, New Zealand Photograph: -
The majority of New Zealand’s bottled water is drawn from Blue Spring in Putaruru , where Coca-Cola Amatil has a bottling factory.
The spring is world-renowned for its colour and clarity, and is classified as a natural Taonga, or treasure.
Although Blue Spring is the major supplier of New Zealand’s bottled water industry, companies are now looking to more remote parts of New Zealand to access untainted water supplies, hence the push to access glacial water from Lake Greaney and Lake Minim Mere on the edge of the Mount Aspiring National Park.
‘A precious, finite resource’
Currently, century-old legislation stipulates that no-one owns New Zealand’s water, with individuals and companies alike only paying a nominal fee to councils for the infrastructure associated with extracting and processing it.
However, after a series of contamination scares in the North Island last year – one of which resulted in thousands of residents falling violently ill with gastroenteritis as a result of animal faeces entering the water – Kiwis are growing increasingly concerned that their freshwater reserves are being exploited by corporate multinationals, while they are forced to boil or buy back their water, at a cost of around NZ$3 a litre.
Jen Branje, the founder of protest group Bung the Bore which initiated the petition to parliament, said the government must halt the practice.
“We want a ban on all bottled water exports until we have legislation in place to protect this resource.
Billionaires' bolthole: how New Zealand became an escapee's paradise Read more
“Currently it is being given away willy-nilly for free and it is depleting our own reserves and that shouldn’t be happening.”
According to government figures, New Zealand’s annual freshwater resource is 500tr litres, of which 2%, or 10tr litres, is extracted.
As of May 2016, 71 consents have been granted in New Zealand for “the taking of water for bottling”, a spokesman for the ministry for the environment said.
Catherine Delahunty, the Green party’s spokesperson for water, said that her party and the Labour opposition were pushing for companies to be charged for exporting New Zealand water.
“We are handing over this precious, finite resource and it is disappearing offshore. And that is really upsetting for Kiwis who have seen the increasing water degradation of their own supplies over the last 20 years,” she said.
Prime minister Bill English has now announced the government would ask an expert water panel to investigate whether water destined for overseas exports should be charged, after mounting public pressure.
“We do accept there’s growing public concern about it, that’s why we want to refer it off to this group to look at what if any reasonable options there are,” he said. |
The Italian’s transformation from striker into efficient winger could help Sunderland stay up. He talks about his new role, leaving Liverpool and how Sam Allardyce ‘doesn’t always speak proper English but is a manager you listen to’
As a keen student of interior design, Fabio Borini knows all about minimalism and fully appreciates the benefits of clean lines, pared-down spaces and clever use of light. When it comes to the insides of houses, this most stylish Italian has long understood that, sometimes, less really is more but now he seems to be applying the same concept to an increasingly unshowy, attacking game big on functionality and efficiency.
Deployed wide on either flank in Sunderland’s 4-1-4-1 formation, Borini has been transformed from a limelight-craving centre-forward into a no-frills tracker-back whose dedication to the cause helps explain why Sam Allardyce’s side are currently favourites to win their private relegation battle with Newcastle and Norwich.
In the language of Farrow & Ball paint charts he has gone from Rectory Red to Elephant’s Breath but will at times put up with being barely noticed by some fans if it means Sunderland survive.
“I call my role a blind job because people don’t notice the work you’re doing,” says Borini. “I feel a bit like Thomas Müller at Bayern Munich – they pick him because he does a lot of blind jobs, which makes things easier for everyone else.”
The need to create a platform from which Jermain Defoe, Allardyce’s lone striker, can menace opponents while also protecting Sunderland’s full-backs – arguably the team’s weakest defensive link – explains why Borini has scored only four times in 24 appearances since his £10m move from Liverpool last summer. “My natural position is to play up front, especially as one of two strikers,” says the 25-year-old as he prepares for Saturday’s trip to Stoke. “Playing wide is hard. Sometimes it’s more about going backwards than forwards. It’s about defending and tracking back rather than enjoying the ball in the opposition half, and it’s why I’m not scoring as many goals as I want.
Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend Read more
“You could see against Arsenal last week [when Sunderland drew 0-0 at the Stadium of Light] that I probably touched the ball more in my own box than in the opposition half so it does get a little bit frustrating. It’s not so enjoyable.”
Not that a player who proved prolific in central striking roles at both Swansea and Roma is complaining. “My job has to be done,” he says. “The manager thinks I’m the right man for it so I’ll do it. You have to put yourself to one side a little bit to help the team and that’s what I’ve done all season – but it will all be worth it if we stay up. Hopefully next season we won’t be fighting relegation and I can play a more attacking role, have a bit more freedom in the attacking third.”
Outside the window at the Academy of Light, Sunderland’s weekday headquarters, it is sleeting and the temperature has plunged to Siberian levels. Undeterred, Borini believes this hostile weather can only help his team-mates get in the mood for visiting the unloved Britannia Stadium and a Mark Hughes side hurt by a series of unexpectedly heavy defeats.
“Stoke away is always difficult for everybody,” he says. “Nobody ever wants to play at Stoke but we have to go there and try to win. We need the points but Stoke are going to be angry, they’re going to want to show what they can really do.”
Borini knows the feeling. His enduring quest to prove himself has carried him from the youth system at Bologna – where he also studied design at college – to Chelsea, where he admired Carlo Ancelotti’s capacity for “keeping absolutely everybody happy” but could not quite break into the first team. A loan stint at Swansea was followed by switches to Parma and then Roma before an £11m transfer to Liverpool.
It reunited him with Brendan Rodgers, the coach who had mentored him as a youngster at Stamford Bridge and then the Liberty Stadium – where Borini’s goals clinched promotion to the Premier League – but the pair’s once close bond did not take long to unravel. “We don’t speak any more,” he confirms. “It’s sad. It ended badly between me and him, it’s not what I wanted.”
Things really started to go wrong when a forward who had shone during a season-long loan at Sunderland during the 2013-14 season refused a £14m move to Wearside and instead resolved to force himself into the Anfield first-team picture. Seeing things somewhat differently, Liverpool’s former manager became so annoyed at his intransigence that Borini was ordered to train alone last season.
“I’m a proud person,” says the one-cap Italy international who started only eight of his 25 games on Merseyside. “But after a while I understood there was no future there and knew I just needed to accept it. Training alone was the hardest thing but they were pushing me away, forcing me to make the decision to go.
“Maybe I didn’t get as many opportunities as I deserved but the world doesn’t end when you leave Liverpool and now I’m very happy here. I’ve had too many clubs, too many changes, so I want to stay at Sunderland, to have some stability.”
Even so, part of him was transported back to Merseyside this week. “To fight for 27 years to make something wrong right is amazing,” he says, reflecting on the inquest into the Hillsborough disaster and the jury’s verdict that 96 Liverpool fans had been unlawfully killed. “It’s a great achievement for all the families and the whole city. It’s an amazing place.”
He has relished discovering the north-east to be “a bit similar” and particularly appreciates Allardyce’s honesty. “He’s a very straight guy,” Borini says. “You know what he’s thinking and, even if you don’t, he’s going to tell you. He shouts a lot, sometimes for no reason, and he doesn’t always speak proper English but he’s a manager you listen to.”
Like Allardyce, Borini is deeply into both psychology and sports science. A player who claims he can learn more about a person from their choice of decor and internal colour schemes than during an hour’s conversation used to employ a personal mental coach.
He credits Roberto Civitarese, who helped him for six years, with smoothing the transition from northern Italy to Chelsea. “As a young guy you don’t know how things work and there’s a lot of distractions,” he says. “He was very expensive but he helped me focus on the right areas and understand what I needed to do.”
When Allardyce succeeded Dick Advocaat, the manager hired a psychologist to work with Sunderland’s squad. “My talks with him have had a positive outcome,” says Borini. “Psychology can make a big, big difference. If your body’s right 80% of football’s in the mind. Look at Leicester – something’s definitely changed in their minds this season.”
Borini’s dedication is such that he has installed a gym at the home he shares with his wife, the model Erin O’Neill. “Physically, I need to do a little bit more work than some players,” he says. “I need top-ups.”
Mentally, few team-mates can be as agile as a multilingual Italian who regularly reads books in English – he’s currently reading the diary of Anne Frank –and is sufficiently artistic to have designed pieces of furniture for the interior of a new holiday home in Ibiza where he can practise his already flawless Spanish.
For the moment, though, Borini is applying himself to solving a single, critical problem. “Sunderland’s a big club with great fans and one of the biggest stadiums in England,” he says. “Most Premier League clubs are smaller than us and we won’t always be fighting relegation but, before we can change everything, we have to stay up. We must make sure we don’t get relegated.” |
Not to be confused with Hershey Bar
The Hershey Bears are an American professional ice hockey team based in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The current Bears club has played in the American Hockey League since the 1938–39 season making it the longest continuously operating member club of the league still playing in its original city.[1][2][3]
The Bears organization currently serves as the primary development club for the NHL's Washington Capitals since the 2005–06 season. Since the 2002–03 season the hockey club's home games have been played at Giant Center, located less than half a mile west of Hersheypark Arena, the AHL club's previous home from 1938 to 2002. (The Arena was also the home to the EAHL Hershey Bears from 1936 to 1938.) The Bears have won 11 Calder Cups, more than any other AHL team. They won their most recent title in 2010.
Chocolate manufacturer Milton S. Hershey first established the "Hershey Hockey Club" in 1932 to manage pro hockey teams based in Hershey. Now in its ninth decade, it has operated four teams in three pro leagues, including the AHL Bears. Now called the Hershey Bears Hockey Club, it is a subsidiary of the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company (originally called "Hershey Estates" and later "HERCO"), the entertainment and hospitality division of the Hershey Trust Company.[1][4]
Gordie Howe, who was selected into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972 and was known as "Mr. Hockey," once remarked, "Everybody who is anybody in hockey has played in Hershey," although he himself did not play there.
Team history [ edit ]
The origins of "Hershey Hockey" [ edit ]
Hershey Ice Palace 1932 amateur hockey program
The history of Hershey hockey goes back to a series of amateur hockey matches played in Hershey between college teams beginning in early 1931. The first such formal hockey game ever played in Hershey took place on February 18, 1931, when Penn A.C. and Villanova University faced off in the 1,900-seat Hershey Ice Palace. Nine months after that successful inaugural contest, Swarthmore Athletic Club moved into the Ice Palace, where they played their first game on November 19, 1931, against Crescent A.C. of New York City. In the lineup that night for Crescent was a 23-year-old center named Lloyd S. Blinco, a native of Grand Mere, Quebec, who came to Hershey the next season and would remain continuously associated with Hershey hockey for a half century as a player, coach, and manager.[1][2]
The popularity of these amateur hockey matches prompted chocolate-maker and amusement park-operator Milton Hershey and his long-time entertainment and amusements chief, John B. Sollenberger, to bring pro hockey to Hershey by sponsoring a permanent team. To that end Mr. Hershey established the Hershey Hockey Club (now called the Hershey Bears Hockey Club) in 1932 which is now the oldest such continuously operating professional ice hockey management organization in North America outside of those operating the "Original Six" clubs of the National Hockey League in Montreal, Toronto, Boston, New York, Chicago, and Detroit, which were all established in or before 1926. The first hockey team the organization iced was the Hershey B'ars in the newly formed Tri-State Hockey League which included three other teams from Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Atlantic City. After a single season in 1932-33, that circuit reformed itself into a larger, seven-club Eastern Amateur Hockey League in which Hershey played first as the "Chocolate B'ars" (1933–1934), then again as the "B'ars" (1934–1936), and finally from 1936 to 1938 as the "Hershey Bears," a name adopted in response to criticism levied by New York sportswriters and the league that the "B'ars" moniker was too commercial. (These writers had already informally dubbed the club as the "Bears from Penn's Woods" when they visited Madison Square Garden to play the New York Rovers.)[1][2]
On December 19, 1936, the newly renamed EAHL Bears also moved from the confines of the Ice Palace (where they had to play on a small, 60x170-foot rink) into the newly constructed 7,286-seat Hersheypark Arena (then known as the "Hershey Sports Arena") built immediately adjacent to the older venue. Over the next sixty-six seasons, Bears' teams played a total of 2,280 EAHL and AHL regular season and playoff games at the Hersheypark Arena, which served as the home to hockey in Hershey from 1936 to 2002. Since 2002 the AHL Bears have used Hersheypark Arena as their practice arena only.[1][2]
Hershey B'ars at the Ice Palace, Hershey's first pro hockey team (Tri-State Hockey League) The 1932-33at the Ice Palace, Hershey's first pro hockey team (Tri-State Hockey League)
The Bears join the I-AHL [ edit ]
The Philadelphia Record on June 29, 1938 Newspaper clipping ofon June 29, 1938
Since 1936, the Canadian-American Hockey League and International Hockey League had formed an eight-team "circuit of mutual convenience" playing an inter-locking schedule as the International-American Hockey League. However, just a month into the season, the Buffalo Bisons were forced to fold when their arena's roof collapsed, leaving the I-AHL with seven teams.
On June 28, 1938, the Can-Am and IHL formally merged into a single league under the I-AHL name. One of the first acts of the newly merged league, which became the American Hockey League in 1940, was to grant an expansion franchise to the Hershey Bears Hockey Club, which at the time still owned and operated the EAHL Hershey Bears, the then three-time regular season champions of that league. The new Bears took the Bisons' place in the I-AHL's West Division, allowing the I-AHL to play a balanced schedule for the first time in over two years. (While the new Bears began play in the I-AHL in 1938, the hockey club also continued to operate an EAHL team, the Hershey Cubs, for one more season before leaving that league altogether.) In 1977 Hershey became the only original AHL hockey club to have continuously iced a team in the same city since the league's inaugural season as a fully merged league when the Rhode Island Reds franchise was sold and moved to New York state as the Binghamton Dusters after the 1976-77 campaign.[1]
Hershey Hockey Club Program & Guide 1938-39
Defenseman Henry J. "Hank" Lauzon, an original EAHL B'ar, became the first player to sign with the new Bears. The former EAHL club's coach, Herb Mitchell, would guide the I-AHL Bears for their first three seasons. The Bears made a very good account of themselves in their first I-AHL campaign, winning the West Division with a 31-18-5 record—the first of 16 regular-season division titles. However, they were defeated in the first round of the Calder Cup play-offs by the New York Rangers' top farm team, the Philadelphia Ramblers, three-games-to-two. Defenseman Herb Kalbfleisch became the first Hershey player to be named a First Team All Star that year while goalie Alfie Moore took Second Team honors behind the Ramblers' Bert Gardiner.[2][3]
Former Boston Bruins' coach and Hockey Hall of Fame member (elected 1971) Ralph "Cooney" Weiland guided Hershey throughout the War years winning regular season titles in 1942-43 and 1943-44.[3] The Bears' 13 losses in a 1942-43 are still the fewest by the club in a single season while Wally Kilrea's 99 points (31-68) that season gave Hershey its first of ten AHL scoring champions. Hershey won their first of 11 Calder Cup titles in 1947 under second year coach Don Penniston while also winning their fourth Division title in just nine seasons that year dominating the AHL's East with 84 points (25 more than second place Springfield) on a record of 36-16-12 behind All Star goalie Harvey Bennett, Sr. In the play offs Hershey defeated the Western Division champion Cleveland Barons in a four-game first round sweep outscoring them 24-3 before winning the Calder Cup finals in seven games over the Pittsburgh Hornets.[2][3]
In 1948 then 21-year-old Winnipeg-born center Arnie Kullman joined the Bears, and except for 13 games with the Boston Bruins in 1949-50 he would play his entire twelve-year career in Hershey. When Kullman retired in 1960 he had amassed 629 points on 253 goals and 376 assists in a Hershey uniform, a total which would only be eclipsed by Tim Tookey (with whom he shared number "9" that was eventually retired in honor of both players) and Mike Nykoluk. Kullman's 753 games as a Bear is also second only to Nykoluk's 972.[3]
Arnie Kullman (1948-60)
From 1950 to 1956 the Bears were coached by a pair of former Boston Bruin defensemen: Johnny Crawford (1950–52), who guided Hershey to another Division title in 1951-52, followed by player/coach Murray Henderson (1952–56). In 1953-54, center George "Red" Sullivan became the second Bear to win a scoring title and the first to be named the league's MVP collecting 119 points (30-89) in just 69 games to set an AHL regular season scoring record which stood for almost thirty years while his 89 assists that season is still an AHL record six decades later.[2][3]
Although never an All Star, another player to briefly skate in Hershey during this era was Don "Grapes" Cherry who as a coach (Rochester, Boston, Colorado) and later a broadcaster became and still remains one of the game's most visible and controversial figures. As a 20-year-old defenseman Cherry made his professional debut with the Bears during the 1954-55 season and also played for the club in 1956-57. As a TV personality and longtime commentator on Hockey Night in Canada, this former Bear is one of the best known figures in Canada in any field.[2]
With the demise of the AHL Pittsburgh Hornets in 1956, Bears' managers John Sollenberger and Lloyd Blinco were able to acquire the services of seven of the recent Calder Cup champion Hornets' best players including four-time All Star goalie Gil Mayer and the AHL's eventual all-time scoring leader Willie Marshall (523–852—1,205).[3] The most important from Pittsburgh, however, was the AHL's only ever five-time First-Team All-Star defenseman Frank S. Mathers. who would remain active with the Bears for an unprecedented thirty-five seasons as All Star defenseman, player-coach, general manager, and club president. Under Mathers' leadership, Hershey won over 1,500 games and six Calder Cup titles while Mathers himself was honored with the Lester Patrick Award in 1987 for his "contributions to hockey in the United States", and in 1992 he became the second individual to be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame based on a career in the AHL.[2][3]
While the Mathers' era in Hershey started slowly with a fourth-place finish in 1956-57, he led the Bears back-to-back Calder Cup titles in his second and third seasons as the team's player/coach. With Bobby Perreault and Gil Mayer in goal, the league's top two scorers in linemates Willie Marshall and Dunc Fisher, and Mathers himself earning All Star honors on defense for the sixth time in seven years, the Bears won both the regular season and play-off championships in 1957-58. Although Hershey finished the 1958-59 season with just a .500 record (32-32-6), they defeated the Cleveland Barons in the first round before upsetting the regular-season champion Buffalo Bisons in the finals, four-games-to-two, to win their third Calder Cup title.[2][3]
Don Cherry (l), Frank Mathers (c), and Mike Nykoluk (r) all joined the Bears in the 1950s
In 1958 the Bears also acquired the services of 23-year-old center Mike Nykoluk who had split the previous two seasons between the Toronto Maple Leafs and their AHL club in Rochester.[2] When Nykoluk retired fourteen years later in 1972, he was the AHL's then fourth (now sixth) all-time leader in points with 881 on 195 goals and 686 assists and his 972 games as a Bear are 219 more than Arnie Kullman's second overall 753 in a Hershey uniform.[3] In 1972 his jersey number "8" also became the first to ever be retired by the Bears.[2]
Although it was more than a decade before the Calder Cup returned to Hershey, during the first half of the 1960s five key players joined the club who would each stay from anywhere from seven to nine seasons: defensemen Barry Ashbee (1962–70) and Ralph Keller (1963-72), and forwards Roger DeJordy (1962–70), Michel Harvey (1963-71) and Gil Gilbert (1965–72). Together they would eventually account for 2,654 games played, 710 goals, 1,251 assists, and 1,961 points as Bears.[2] While these five and league MVP Mike Nykoluk all helped the Bears win their division's regular-season title in 1966–67 for the first time since 1957-58 on a 38-24-10 record behind the goaltending of First Team All Star Andre Gill and a league-leading 52 goals by DeJordy, it would be another two years before the Calder Cup returned to Hershey in 1968-69 defeating the Quebec Aces in five games. Gilbert led the league in scoring with 100 points (35-65) with teammate Michel Harvey close behind at 93 as the Bears also won their third consecutive Eastern Divisional title. That season also saw Frank Mathers add the duties of GM to his portfolio with the retirement of Lloyd Blinco from that post.[2][3]
With the close the 1972-73 season Frank Mathers ended his unbroken 17-year run as coach to devote his efforts full-time to his duties as GM. Including a brief return to the bench in 1984-85, Mathers compiled a personal coaching record of 610-513-134 for a career winning percentage of .539. His successor was former Bears' winger Chuck Hamilton (1973–79) who had spent seven seasons playing for Hershey from 1963 to 1970. In his first season as the Bears' coach Hamilton led a relatively inexperienced squad including nine rookies to a fifth Calder Cup title losing only two games in the playoffs' three rounds in which they the Cincinnati Swords (4-1), Baltimore Clippers (4-0), and Providence Reds (4-1) with the championship game played at th Arena before a then record crowd of 8,703.[2][3]
Hershey won a sixth Calder Cup in 1979-80 under player/coach Doug Gibson who replaced first year coach Gary Green when he was unexpectedly promoted to the Bears' then NHL affiliate, the Washington Capitals, early in the season. Gibson also led the Bears in play-off scoring with a dozen goals and seven assists for 19 points in sixteen Calder Cup games while goaltending was shared by Gary Inness (6-1) who himself would later coach the team and Dave Parro (6-3). Although Hershey had finished four games below .500 during the regular season (35-39-9), the Bears defeated the Syracuse Firebirds (4-0) in the opening round before upsetting both the Southern Division champion New Haven Nighthawks (4-2) in the semifinals and the Northern Division winning New Brunswick Hawks (4-2) in the finals with two of their four wins in the championship series in double overtime.[2][3]
Although the Bears did not repeat as Calder Cup champions in 1980-81, under new coach Bryan Murray the club had its best regular season to that point with 103 points on a record of 47-24-9 and established a still standing record for goals with 357. Right wing Mark Lofthouse become the fifth Bear to win the AHL's scoring title (48-55–103), and on the night of February 7, 1981 he also set a team single game record eight points (4-4) as the Bears defeated the Rochester Americans at Hersheypark Arena, 11-2, while the team also tied the AHL's then record for goals in a period with nine. Among the Bears' rookies that year was a 20-year-old center Tim Tookey, who over three separate stints with the Bears (1980–82, 1985–87, 1989–94) over the next fourteen years collected 693 points (251-442) in 529 regular season games, second only to Mike Nykoluk's 808 on the Bears' all-time list.[2][3]
Bears locker room at HersheyPark Arena
As had Gary Green in 1979, Murray left the Bears early in the 1981-82 season to become coach of the Washington Capitals (replacing Green) and was replaced by former Hershey goalie Gary Inness under most unusual circumstances. Inness had retired as a player a year earlier but wanted to remain in Hershey and keep involved with the Bears. With no coaching position available to offer him, but in need of a new trainer, Bears' GM Frank Mathers offered him that job. With Murray's promotion to Washington a month later elevated Inness the eleventh coach in the Bears' history. Inness would remain behind the Hershey bench until December, 1984, when Frank Mathers returned to that post on an interim basis for the first time since 1973 and coached the club until then recently retired Hall of Fame Flyer winger Bill Barber took over for the final sixteen games of the season.[2]
The 1984-85 season was also the first of a dozen year affiliation with the Philadelphia Flyers who shared the club with the Boston Bruins that year before taking over as the sole parent club the next season and remained so through 1995-96. Former Flyer right wing and AHL Hall of Fame coach John "Too Tall" Paddock (1985–89) took over for the next four seasons and under his guidance the Bears averaged 45 wins a year, won two overall regular season titles, reached the play-off finals twice, and brought Hershey a seventh Calder Cup championship in 1987-88.[2]
HersheyPark Arena
In his first year as the Bears' coach, Paddock led the club to first place overall in the regular season with a 48-29-3 record and either four goals in the final game of that 1985-86 season, left wing Ross Fitzpatrick became the third Bear to score 50 goals in a season while rookie goalie Ron Hextall, now GM of the Flyers, set a team record with three consecutive shutouts at home. Both Hextall and defenseman Kevin McCarthy were First Team All Stars while linemates Fitzpatrick and Tim Tookey were both named to the second All Star Team. With five shut-outs and a 30-19-2 record, Hextall became the first (and so far only) Bear to be named AHL Rookie of the Year as well as winning the Baz Bastien Memorial Trophy as the AHL's top goalie. (As an NHL rookie the following season with the Flyers Hextall won both the Vezina Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy.) Although th Bears lost to the Adirondack Red Wings in the Calder Cup finals, Tookey also won the Jack Butterfield Trophy as MVP of the play-offs.)[2][3]
Although the Bears finished fourth in the Southern Division in 1986-87 with 87 points (43-36-1), their top line of Tim Tookey, Ross Fitzpatrick and Ray Allison finished first, fifth and seventh in overall league scoring with 124, 85 and 84 points respectively and accounted for a total of 125 of the Bears' 329 goals while center Mitch Lamoureux also finished in the top ten with 43 goals and 46 assists for 89 points good for fourth overall in the league. Tookey's 124 points (51 goals, 73 assists) also established a still standing single-season record for a Hershey player, made him the seventh Bear to win the AHL's scoring title, and just the third to win the Les Cunningham Plaque as the league's MVP. Tookey's 124 points that year is also still the sixth best single-season total for an individual player in AHL history, just fourteen points less than the current league record of 138 set by former Bear Don Biggs with the Binghamton Rangers in 1992-93.[2][3]
Flyer GM Ron Hextall was the AHL Rookie of the Year as a Bear in 1985-86
With the start the 1987-88 season, Hershey became the first professional hockey club outside of the NHL to reach the half century mark and that year also both won a then league record 50 regular season games and swept all three of its play-off series for an unblemished post season record of 12-0 and a seventh Calder Cup title. After an unexpectedly slow 3-7-0 start, goalie Wendell Young was returned to Hershey from the Flyers and went 33-15-3 with a 2.77 GAA while rookie Darryl Gilmour appeared in 25 games compiling a 14-7-0 record and 3.68 average. Along with veterans such as Bears' leading scorer center Mitch Lamoureux, wingers Al Hill, Don Nachbaur, Kevin Maxwell, and defensemen Steve Smith and Dave Fenvyes, the team also had nine first and second year players including second-year winger Brian Dobbin who finished third in team scoring behind Lamoureux and Maxwell with 83 points (36-47) even though he had been recalled to Philadelphia seven times during the campaign and only played in 54 games for Hershey, and rookie center Glen Seabrooke also broke the 30-goal mark (32) and was fifth overall in Bears' scoring with 78 points. On defense the Bears had second-year blueliner John Stevens, now associate coach of the two-time Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings, rookie Gordie Murphy who is now an assistant coach with the Flyers, and Jeff Chychrun, another sophomore. On May 12, 1988 Hershey completed its unprecedented 12-0 sweep to the Cup by defeating the Fredericton Express, 4-2.[2][3]
Modern era [ edit ]
The Washington Capitals returned as the Bears NHL parent club in 2005 after a 21-year span with the Boston Bruins, the Philadelphia Flyers, and the Colorado Avalanche. (The club has also had earlier NHL affiliations with the Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Buffalo Sabres). As of the 2009–2010 Calder Cup Finals, the Bears have played in 22 Finals series, a league record.[3] The Bears went back-to-back in 2008–2010 to win their 10th and 11th Calder Cups, winning their most recent cup versus the Texas Stars. The Bears became the first team in AHL history to win a Calder Cup series after trailing the series 0–2, going on to win 4 straight to take the series 4–2.
On December 20, 2006, the Bears played their 5,000th regular season game at the Times Union Center in Albany, New York. The Bears scored seven times en route to a 7–4 win versus the Albany River Rats.[6] On May 2, 2007, the Bears played their 500th Calder Cup playoff game in franchise history at the GIANT Center. The Bears played the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and won 4–3.
In 2010 the Bears set a new club record with 12 straight wins, topping their previous record of 11 set the season earlier in 2008. Over the stretch from December into January the Bears outscored their opponents by a 52–22 margin.[7] The Bears also set a new AHL record for consecutive home victories at 24. Hershey went without a loss at GIANT Center from November 29, 2009 to March 19, 2010.[8] Hershey has set an AHL mark for consecutive playoff series victories, with eight wins in a row. Besting the record shared with the 2005–2007 Bears and the 1990–1992 Springfield Indians.
2006 Calder Cup championship [ edit ]
In 2006 the Hershey Bears, with new head coach Bruce Boudreau, returned to the playoffs after a two-year absence. The team came off with a strong start by winning their first two series, against the Norfolk Admirals and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, in four games each. In the Eastern Conference finals, the Bears played the Portland Pirates. The Bears quickly took a 2–0 series lead, but then lost the third game. The Bears then rebounded and won game four, to take a 3–1 series lead. However the Bears were unable to finish the job and were forced back to the Giant Center for game seven. The Bears trailed throughout the game, but managed to tie it with a goal from Graham Mink just over two minutes remaining. In overtime, the Bears finished with a goal by Eric Fehr, to win the series 4–3. On June 15, 2006, The Bears won the Calder Cup by a series mark of 4–2, defeating the Milwaukee Admirals. This marked the ninth time the franchise had won the Calder Cup, which tied Hershey with the original Cleveland Barons for the highest number of AHL playoff titles.
Hanging Ten [ edit ]
The following season, Boudreau's Bears finished with a 51–17–6 record and appeared to be on the verge of repeating as champions. They rolled through the playoffs defeating Albany in five games, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in five, and won the Eastern Conference in a sweep of Manchester. The Bears appeared to have a tenth title wrapped up against Hamilton, who had finished the regular season with 95 points compared to Hershey's 114. The Bulldogs, however, upset the Bears 4–1. The next season was disappointing to the Bears – Boudreau was promoted to head coach of the Capitals, and the Bears would finish the season 42–30–2–6, losing to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 4–1 in the first round.
The next season, the Bears bounced back. Finishing with 49–23–2 record, they would go on to sweep the Philadelphia Phantoms in the first round, overcome a 3–2 deficit to beat Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the second, and then defeated Providence, 4–1, in the Conference Finals. They opened their 21st Calder Cup appearance with a 5–4 overtime win over the Manitoba Moose in Winnipeg, but lost Game 2, 3–1. Back home in Hershey, the Bears scored a pair of wins (3–0 and 2–1) before falling in Game 5, 3–2. In Game 6, the Bears scored 3 goals before Manitoba even got on the board, and then an empty-net goal sealed it. With the 4–1 Game 6 victory the Bears defeated Manitoba and finally scored their league-record tenth Calder Cup.
2009–10 season [ edit ]
Following the Calder Cup win, head coach Bob Woods was promoted to Washington as an assistant coach. He was replaced by Mark French, a former coach in the ECHL. The 2009–10 Bears won a franchise-record 12 consecutive games and notched a 24-game win streak at the Giant Center. They went on to win 60 games, breaking the old AHL record of 57 and finishing a point shy of tying the single-season points record. The Bears rallied from a 2-0 deficit against the Texas Stars to win their 11th Calder Cup, their second consecutive championship and third in the last five seasons.
2013 AHL Outdoor Classic [ edit ]
Hersheypark Stadium hosted the fourth annual AHL Outdoor Classic in 2013, with the Bears facing their intrastate rival Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The "Baby Pens" defeated the Bears in front of a capacity crowd of 17,311 fans by a score of 2–1.[9]
In the 2015–16 season, the Bears qualified for the 2016 Calder Cup playoffs where they defeated the Portland Pirates 3 games to 2 in the first round. Hershey then faced the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the division finals and won 4 games to 3 and won the Emile Francis Trophy. In the conference finals, the Bears defeated the regular season champion Toronto Marlies 4 games to 1, winning the Richard F. Canning Trophy as conference champions. In Calder Cup finals, the Bears were swept by Lake Erie Monsters in four games. Chris Bourque was awarded the AHL regular season MVP Les Cunningham Award, earned the John B. Sollenberger Trophy as the league's top scorer, and was named to the First All-Star Team.[10]
In the 2016–17 season, the Bears finished in third place in the Atlantic Division. The Bears defeated the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the division semifinals three games to two before losing to the Providence Bruins in the division finals four games to three. Travis Boyd was chosen for the Second All-Star Team.[11]
The Bears failed to qualify for the playoffs in the 2017–18 season.
2018 AHL Outdoor Classic [ edit ]
Hersheypark Stadium once again hosted the AHL Outdoor Classic on January 20, 2018, the AHL's 10th outdoor game, with the Bears facing their intrastate rival Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Flyers affiliate from Allentown defeated the Bears in front of a crowd of 13,091 fans by a score of 5–2.
Team information [ edit ]
Logos and uniforms [ edit ]
The colors of the Hershey Bears are dark brown, medium brown, tan, and white (though the team's primary colors are often referred to as "chocolate and white"), a reference to The Hershey Company and its products. The primary logo is a medium brown bear, outlined in dark brown, roaring while standing on a hockey stick centered above the Hershey Bears wordmark. The wordmark has "HERSHEY" in tan above "BEARS" in white (both outlined in dark brown). All these parts are contained by a circle filled in tan and outlined in dark brown on the primary logo.
Before their move to the Giant Center in 2002, the Hershey Bears wore simpler uniforms with the colors of chocolate brown and white. The previous logo used a silhouette of a skating bear with a hockey stick in brown centered in a white, ovular shield outlined in brown. For their move to the Giant Center, the Bears unveiled a new identity-its team colors being burgundy, black, gold, and silver. The primary logo was a maroon bear, outlined in black, swatting a hockey puck centered below the Hershey Bears wordmark. The wordmark was a horizontal gradient using gold and burgundy outlined in black, with the Hershey part centered on a rectangular outline designed to resemble a Hershey's candy bar. The alternate logo consisted of a bear's head in burgundy and black with the initials "HB."
Coco with a special St. Patrick's Day jersey.
In the advent of the 2007–08 season, all of the teams of the American Hockey League unveiled newly designed Reebok Edge uniforms, including the Hershey Bears. At this time they unveiled an updated version of the "old school" jerseys with the word BEARS written diagonally in Black on a white home jersey and the word HERSHEY written in white on a maroon away jersey. Both jerseys featured black on both sides, the Washington Capitals logo on one shoulder and the classic "skating bear' oval logo on the other shoulder.
The current home and road uniforms were unveiled before the 2012–13 season. The home uniform includes a white jersey with chocolate brown and tan striping. The Bears' primary logo is centered on the front. The shoulder logos feature a stylized bear-foot print. The away jersey is chocolate brown with white shoulders and tan stripes near the bottom of the sweater. The current third jersey features a bear-head as the sweater crest and has cocoa brown trim.
Mascot [ edit ]
The official mascot of the Bears is a brown bear called Coco. Coco wears a Bears home jersey, white helmet, brown hockey gloves, and ice skates while skating and black track pants with black shoes. He debuted on October 14, 1978 at the Hersheypark Arena.[12]
Season-by-season record [ edit ]
This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Bears. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Hershey Bears seasons
Regular season Playoffs Season Games Won Lost OTL SOL Points PCT Goals
for Goals
against Standing Year 1st
round 2nd
round 3rd
round Finals 2013–14 76 39 27 5 5 88 .579 221 213 4th, East 2014 Did not qualify 2014–15 76 46 22 5 3 100 .658 218 181 1st, East 2015 W, 3–1, WOR L, 2–4, HFD — — 2015–16 76 43 21 5 7 98 .645 259 220 1st, Atlantic 2016 W, 3–2, POR W, 4–3, WBS W, 4–1, TOR L, 0–4, LE 2016–17 76 43 22 8 3 97 .638 252 211 3rd, Atlantic 2017 W, 3–2, LV L, 3–4, PRO — — 2017–18 76 30 37 4 5 69 .454 201 249 8th, Atlantic 2018 Did not qualify
Players [ edit ]
Current roster [ edit ]
Updated February 21, 2019.[13][14]
Retired numbers [ edit ]
The Bears playing against the Norfolk Admirals during the 2009 preseason
Team captains [ edit ]
Hockey Hall of Famers [ edit ]
Frank Mathers (defenseman/coach, 1956–62; coach, 1962–73; general manager/president, 1973–91), enshrined 1992 (builder)
Ralph "Cooney" Weiland (coach, 1941–45), enshrined 1971 (player)
AHL Hall of Famers [ edit ]
Individual award winners [ edit ]
Les Cunningham Award (League MVP)
John B. Sollenberger Trophy (Leading point scorer)
(* = The award was known as the Carl Liscombe Trophy until 1954–55)
Jack A Butterfield Trophy (Playoffs MVP)
Willie Marshall Award (Leading Goal Scorer)
Dudley "Red" Garrett Memorial Award (Rookie of the Year)
Eddie Shore Award (Best Defensemen)
Aldege "Baz" Bastien Memorial Award (Best Goaltender)
Hap Holmes Memorial Award (Goalie(s) with lowest goals against avg)
Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award (Coach of the Year)
Fred T. Hunt Memorial Award (sportsmanship, determination and dedication to hockey)
AHL First Team All-Star
AHL Second Team All-Star
Head coaches [ edit ]
Asterisk (*) denotes number of Calder Cups won
References [ edit ] |
A Brief History
On July 10th, 1040 Lady Godiva is supposed to have ridden naked on horseback to force her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes.
Digging Deeper
Since Lady Godiva’s legendary ride, many other women have made great impressions on culture, society and history mainly because they were in the buff. This article will list the top 10 women famous for being naked or who, at one point in their lives, had famously been naked. The order they will be presented in is not a ranking, but merely a chronological listing.
For the other articles in the History and Headlines series on naked ladies, please click here.
In the meantime, this list has been expanded to include 50 ladies! For the other ladies, please see: 11-20, 21-30, 31-40 and 41-50.
For the latest installment in this series, the “Top 10 Black Women Famous for Being Naked,” compiled in honor of Black History Month, please click here.
For an article concerning a famous empress and future saint known for her seductive use of her body, please examine “The Saint Who Liked To Spank!” Finally, for more on the topic of women not wearing a specific article of clothing (the bra!), please read “When National Geographic First Showed a Woman’s Bare Breasts in its Magazine” and “June 4, 2010: Braless Attorney Barred from Entering Prison.”
1. Lady Godiva – 1040
Though her nude ride is stuff of legends, Lady Godiva did in fact exist and was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, in what is present-day England. Since the couple were generous benefactors to religious houses, there are many records of them. The legend of the nude ride was first recorded in the 13th century, two hundred years after it was supposed to have taken place. Feeling sympathy for the people of Coventry who were suffering greatly because of the high taxes imposed by her husband, she begged him to lift the taxation. When he laughed and told her he would only do it if she rode on horseback through the streets without clothes, she took him at his word and mounted a horse clothed in only her long hair. Her husband probably fearing that other men would see his wife naked issued a proclamation that everyone was to stay indoors with the blinds shut. One man by the name of Tom, however, disobeyed that order and spied on Lady Godiva as she rode past his shop. To this day, such voyeurs are called “Peeping Toms.” In the end, the Earl of Mercia is said to have been impressed by his wife’s courage, and lowered the taxes.
2. Simonetta Vespucci (Botticelli’s Venus) – late 15th century
Simonetta Vespucci was an Italian woman of the Renaissance who was renowned for being the greatest beauty in Florence where she attracted the attention of the famous painter Sandro Bottecelli and became his muse. Though she died young, her image continued to inspire Bottecelli and he used her likeness for his some of his most famous works, including his Birth of Venus nine years after her death. In this famous painting, Simonetta is depicted as Venus, rising nucle from the foamy sea and standing on a scallop shell, her strawberry blonde hair flowing about her. As a result of Bottecelli’s devotion, Simonetta is since known as the most beautiful woman of the Renaissance.
3. Victorine Meurent (Manet’s Olympia) – mid to late 19th century
An artist in her own right, today Victorine Meurent is primarily known as the French Impressionist painter, Édouard Manet’s favorite model. He used her nude image in two of his most famous and controversial works – Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe and Olympia. In the former, known in the English-speaking world as The Luncheon on the Grass, Victorine is depicted nude as she picnics with fully clothed men. She is the only subject of the painting who looks directly at the viewer and she does it with a grin and in a confident, secure and almost provocative manner. As Olympia, Manet depicts her as a courtesan reclining on a couch as if she were waiting for her next gentleman-customer. Again, she directly looks at the viewer, this time with an almost confrontational gaze. Both paintings when first displayed were criticized and attacked as viewers felt threatened by such overt displays of prostitution, sexuality and female confidence. This public response immortalized Victorine’s nucle body in the world of art.
4. Josephine Baker – 1920s and 1930s
This African-American born woman who later became a citizen of France took Paris by storm in the 1920s where she became known for her comedic appeal, erotic dancing and for practically appearing nude onstage, something she could not have done in prude America. Though she wasn’t Chiquita Banana, her most famous outfit consisted solely of 16 bananas being strung around her waist. Whereas in France and Europe she was treated like a superstar, later attempts at success in America failed because American audiences rejected the thought of a black woman being just as sophisticated as high-class Frenchwoman. In addition she refused to entertain in venues that practiced segregation, having initially left the United States to avoid racism. As a result, American audiences missed out on a performer Ernest Hemingway, who also lived in Paris at that time, described as, “…the most sensational woman anybody ever saw or ever will.”
5. Marilyn Monroe – 1950s
Marilyn Monroe is the perfect example of yet-unknown good girls trying to catch a break in the entertainment world having to resort to letting nude pictures be taken of them to make ends meet and then later having these pictures come back and “haunt” them. When Marilyn posed for her iconic nude photos in 1949, she did so because she was a struggling actress. Four years later, when she finally getting bigger roles, Hugh Heffner bought the rights to the photos and published them in his first issue of Playboy, making Marilyn the first official Playmate of the Month. Initially Marilyn was embarrassed by her nude photos appearing on calendars and magazines, but her explanation that she needed the money to pay the rent, garnered her such public sympathy and support that it did not hurt her career, and the photos gave her the publicity she needed to become the most famous blonde bombshell ever.
6. Jayne Mansfield – 1963
Jayne Mansfield, often unfairly described as the poor man’s Marilyn Monroe, was in her own right a groundbreaker. Though often considered a ditz, she did in fact have a genius IQ, could play the violin and was a woman of considerable depth who was greatly loved by her husband and children for her kindness and compassion. Her image was an act and Jayne had no problem dumbing herself down because that was her entertainment persona. She also had no issues displaying her ample assets to further her career and was the first mainstream actress to appear nude in a movie. The movie was called Promises! Promises! and was banned in Cleveland and many cities, though the Cleveland courts later ruled that the nude scenes were not lewd. True to form in her role as the cheap Marilyn, photos of her nude from the movie set were published in the June 1963 issue of Playboy. Even if her willingness to show her breasts on camera was considered trashy at the time, she was the first star to go nude, which made it more acceptable for the other actresses who followed her. Not even Marilyn did this.
7. Yoko Ono – 1968
Although not considered a great beauty, Yoko’s nude body graced the cover of a record album. In 1968 she and John Lennon released their experimental album Two Virgins with a nude cover. The full frontal nudity was so explicit and provoked such outrage that the record had to be covered with a brown bag. Many copies of the album were impounded because the cover was considered obscene. John Lennon believed the uproar had less to do with the explicit nudity but rather with the fact that both subjects were both overweight and somewhat unattractive (Of course this is coming from the guy who said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ…). At any rate, it was her unclothed body on an album cover that gave Yoko Ono her first taste of notoriety and made her a household name.
8. Demi Moore – 1991/1992
Two of the most famous magazine covers to ever grace publication were both fronted by Demi Moore in the nude. Both shot by Annie Leibovitz, the first displayed a heavily pregnant Demi in her birthday suit and the second one a thinner Demi in a painted suit. The cover of pregnant Demi is considered one of the most highly regarded magazine covers of all time and started the trend for celebrities to grace the covers of magazines with their pregnant bellies. This may seem commonplace now, but at the time Demi and Annie were pushing the boundaries of the socially acceptable. For the second cover, Demi allowed a business suit to be painted on her nude body. Published just one year after the belly photo, the suit photo was meant to show off the results of Demi’s fitness regimen. Demi later used both her nudity and her toned physique to her advantage in movies such as GI Jane and Striptease.
9. Madonna – 1992
In the early 90s, Madonna wrote (or rather modelled for) her coffee table book Sex. Probably initially meant more to provoke and to illicit a public response rather than to tastefully display depictions of erotica, this book is now deemed a bold, post-feminist, work of art. Though the book contains poems, stories and essays (like who is actually buying the book to read them?), it is probably primarily read for the images of Madonna’s sexual fantasies which include simulated bisexual and homosexual sex, sadomasochism and analingus. Whatever the literary content though, what is remembered most is that Madonna was buttnaked in many of the pictures and in many of the movies she starred in at that time. Madonna is someone who might be labeled a “provocatrice” or rather “provocatrix…”(made up word by the author and derived from provocatrice combined with dominatrix). She does what she does more so for the reaction than for the actual artistic merit. Lucky for her, her actions are later deemed artistic.
10. Kate Winslet 1997
“Jack, I want you to draw me like one of your French girls.” Who could forget this iconic quote and the iconic scene that followed? Kate Winslet, known for not being shy on camera, disrobed for the only nude scene in the movie Titanic. Wearing only the Heart of the Ocean necklace, Rose poses nude on a couch and lets herself be sketched by Jack. This scene was probably one of the most romantic and tastefully depicted images of nudity on film, with music that definitely contributed to the atmosphere of the scene. An interesting fact that not many people may know is that the sketch done of Kate/Rose was actually done by the director, James Cameron, himself. It was, however, Kate’s body, natural look and demeanor and comfort level that made the scene what it is. No one can act a nude woman on camera like Kate Winslet. She is one of the few mainstream and respected actresses to regularly go nude for her roles and be praised for it, despite not having the perfect Hollywood body.
Remember, for more ladies famous for being naked, please also refer to our other articles in the series by clicking here.
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see… |
Production number Class Tactical numbering First flight Remarks Image
LZ 26 N Z XII (Z 12) 14 December 1914 Z XII made 11 attacks in Northern France and at the Eastern front, dropping a total of 20,000 kilograms (44,000 lb) of bombs; by the summer of 1915 Z 12 had dropped around 9,000 kg (20,000 lb) of bombs on the Warsaw to Petrograd trunk railway line between the stations at Malkina and Białystok. One flight carried a load of 3,000 kg (6,600 lb).[23] Decommissioned on 8 August 1917.
LZ 27 M L 4 18 August 1914 Flew 11 reconnaissance missions over the North Sea, participated in the first raid over England on 20 January 1915. Forced landing in Blavandshuk on 17 February 1915 during a storm; 11 of the crew were interned, with four members lost when the airship was subsequently carried out to sea.[24]
LZ 28 M L 5 22 September 1914 Flew 47 reconnaissance missions over the North Sea and Baltic Sea; proved especially useful in discovering enemy mines. Two attack missions, dropping 700 kg (1,500 lb) bombs. Damaged beyond repair by Russian air defences on 7 August 1915.
LZ 29 M Z X 13 October 1914 Two attacks on Calais and Paris, dropping 1,800 kg (4,000 lb) of bombs; on the way back Z X was damaged by enemy fire and dismantled after a forced landing at St. Quentin.[25]
LZ 30 M Z XI 15 November 1914 Used for raids on Warsaw, Grodno and other targets on the Eastern front. Destroyed in an accident on 20 May 1915
LZ 32 M L 7 20 November 1914 Flew 77 reconnaissance missions over the North Sea, with several unsuccessful attempts to attack English coastal towns. Brought down on 4 May 1916 by anti-aircraft fire from HMS Phaeton and HMS Galatea and its wreck was destroyed by the Royal Navy submarine E31
LZ 33 M L 8 17 December 1914 Used for reconnaissance missions along the Western front. Brought down by anti-aircraft fire at Tirlemont on 5 March 1915. The crew of 21 were all killed.
LZ 34 M 6 January 1915 Carried out two raids on the Eastern front, dropping 1,110 kg (2,450 lb) of bombs. Heavily damaged by enemy fire on 21 June 1915 and destroyed by fire following a forced landing near Insterburg.[27]
LZ 35 M 11 January 1915 Two raids on Paris and Poperinghe (Belgium), dropping 2,420 kg (5,340 lb) of bombs; forced landing near Aeltre (Belgium) due to damage by enemy fire, then destroyed by a storm.
LZ 38 P LZ 38 3 April 1915 Carried out the first bombing raid on London on 31 May 1915 killing 7 and injuring 35 people (with material damage assessed at £18,596), five successful raids on Ipswich, Ramsgate, Southend (twice) and London,[30] dropping a total of 8,360 kg (18,430 lb) of bombs. Destroyed by British bombing in its hangar at Evere on 7 June 1915.[31]
LZ 39 O LZ 39 24 April 1915 Three raids on the western, later two on the eastern front, dropping a total of 4,184 kg (9,224 lb) of bombs. On 17 December 1915, captained by Dr. Lempertz, LZ 39 was hit several times by shrapnel during an attack on Rovno. All rear gas cells were punctured and the front engine car was hit and later fell off. The crew abandoned the now-overstressed control cabin, dropped ballast and shifted loads to rebalance the ship and used an emergency control station in the rear to limp back to Germany. Upon forced landing the ship collapsed because material for repair and the supply of gas needed to refill the cells were not available.[32]
LZ 40 P L 10 13 May 1915 8 reconnaissance missions around the North Sea; 5 attacks on England dropping a total of 9,900 kg (21,800 lb) of bombs. Destroyed in a thunderstorm on 3 September 1915 near Cuxhaven killing 19 crew members.[27]
LZ 41 P L 11 7 June 1915 31 reconnaissance missions, notably during the Battle of Jutland; 12 raids on England dropping a total of 15,543 kg (34,266 lb) of bombs. Significant raid on Sunderland on 1 April 1916, when 22 people died. Several of the L 11 crew transferred to the ill-fated LZ 95.[33] Decommissioned in April 1917.
LZ 42 P LZ 72 15 June 1915 Only used as a school ship, as airframe metal was of poor quality; decommissioned in February 1917.
LZ 43 P L 12 21 June 1915 5 reconnaissance missions; after being damaged by A.A. fire during a raid in which it bombed Dover came down in the English Channel. Towed back to Ostend on 10 August 1915 but caught fire during salvage operation.[34]
LZ 44 P LZ 74 8 July 1915 Two attacks on England dropping a total of 3,500 kg (7,700 lb) of bombs; wrecked when it flew into a mountain in the Schnee Eifel on 8 October 1915.[27]
LZ 45 P L 13 23 July 1915 45 reconnaissance missions, including one in which it played a significant part in the action of 19 August 1916;[35] 15 attacks on England dropping 20,667 kg (45,563 lb) of bombs; decommissioned on 25 April 1917
LZ 46 P L 14 9 August 1915 Most successful German Navy airship; 42 reconnaissance missions; 17 attacks on Britain dropping a total of 22,045 kg (48,601 lb) of bombs; taken out of service during 1917 and 1918. Destroyed by its crew on 23 June 1919.
LZ 47 P LZ 77 24 August 1915 6 attacks on England and France dropping a total of 12,610 kg (27,800 lb) of bombs. Destroyed by enemy fire on 21 February 1916 in the Battle of Verdun, killing the crew of 15.[29][36] Reports at the time indicated LZ 77 had searchlights, eight machine guns, two so-called 'revolver' guns in the top lookout post, was accompanied by fixed-wing aircraft and at least one other Zeppelin and had orders to bomb the nearby railway lines.[37][38]
LZ 48 P L 15 9 September 1915 8 reconnaissance missions; 3 attacks on England dropping a total of 5,780 kg (12,740 lb) of bombs. Damaged by ground fire from Dartford AA battery[29] during a raid on London on 1 April 1916, it came down at Kentish Knock Deep in the Thames estuary. 1 crew member was killed, the other 17 were taken prisoner.[39]
LZ 49 P LZ 79 2 August 1915 Dropped a total of 4,440 kg (9,790 lb) of bombs in two attacks on Brest-Litovsk and Kovel and one attack on Paris on 30 January 1916; hit by French fire and damaged beyond repair in forced landing near Ath.[39]
LZ 50 P L 16 23 September 1915 44 reconnaissance missions; 12 attacks on England dropping a total of 18,048 kg (39,789 lb) of bombs; delivered supplies to German isles in winter 1916. Damaged beyond repair during a training mission at Nordholz Naval Airbase on 19 October 1917.[39]
LZ 51 P LZ 81 7 October 1915 Used at the South-Eastern and the Western Front; transported a diplomatic commission to Sofia on 9 November 1915;[40] one attack on Étaples (France) and two attacks on Bucharest, dropping a total of 4,513 kg (9,949 lb) of bombs; brought down by ground fire near Turnovo (Bulgaria) on 27 September 1916.[41]
LZ 52 P L 18 3 November 1915 Destroyed in shed fire at Tondern during refuelling on 17 November 1915[29]
LZ 53 P L 17 20 October 1915 27 reconnaissance missions; 9 attacks on England dropping a total of 10,724 kg (23,642 lb) bombs. Destroyed in its hangar at Tondern on 28 December 1916 when LZ 69 caught fire.[41]
LZ 54 P L 19 27 November 1915 Raided England on 31 January 1916, dropping a total of 1,600 kg (3,500 lb) of bombs. On 2 February 1916 after a raid on England[29] with three engines failing, it came under Dutch fire[42] and sank in the North Sea, drowning all crew members as nearby English fishing trawler King Stephen refused any help to them.[43] In the last hours Kapitan-Leutnant Loewe and his crew dropped into the sea their last messages, which washed up six months later in Sweden.[42] On 23 April 1916 Torpedo boat G41 attacked and sank the King Stephen, taking its crew prisoner.[42] LZ 54/L 19
LZ 55 P LZ 85 12 September 1915 6 attacks dropping a total of 14,200 kg (31,300 lb) of bombs on Dünaburg (Latvia), Minsk, the railroads of Riga,[32] and Saloniki (twice); damaged by fire from the battleship HMS Agamemnon on 5 May 1916, it came down in the Vardar marshes. The crew of 12 were captured.[44]
LZ 56 P LZ 86 10 October 1915 7 attacks dropping a total of 14,800 kg (32,600 lb) of bombs along the Eastern and South-Eastern front; crashed on 5 September 1916 at Temesvar, killing nine of the crew.[45]
LZ 57 P LZ 87 6 December 1915 2 attacks on Ramsgate and Margate dropping a total 3,000 kg (6,600 lb) of bombs; in July 1916 handed to the German Navy; 16 reconnaissance missions around the Baltic Sea; later used as a school ship. Decommissioned in July 1917.[41]
LZ 58 P LZ 88 14 November 1915 14 reconnaissance missions; 3 attacks dropping a total 4,249 kg (9,367 lb) of bombs along the Western Front; in January 1917 handed to the German Navy who used it for experimental purposes. Decommissioned in September 1917.
LZ 59 Q L 20 21 November 1915 6 reconnaissance missions; 2 attacks on England dropping a total 2,864 kilograms (6,314 lb) bombs; ran out of fuel after raiding Scotland on 3 May 1916, drifted and stranded near Stavanger (Norway). The crew destroyed the airship. 16 were captured, 3 died.[29] Kapitänleutnant Stabbert escaped six months later. LZ 59
LZ 60 P LZ 90 1 January 1916 4 attacks on Bar-le-Duc, Norwich, London and Étaples, dropping a total of 8,860 kilograms (19,530 lb) of bombs; on 7 November 1916 broke loose in a storm and blown out to sea and was never seen again.
LZ 61 Q L 21 10 January 1916 17 reconnaissance missions; 10 attacks on England dropping a total 14,442 kilograms (31,839 lb) of bombs. Intercepted and destroyed by Flight–Lieutenant Egbert Cadbury,[46] flying BE 2C, No. 8265, Flight Sub–Lieutenant Gerard William Reginald Fane, flying RAF BE 2C No. 8421 and Flight Sub–Lieutenant Edward Laston Pulling, flying BE 2C, No. 8626, firing phosphor rounds. L 21 caught fire and fell into the sea about eight miles east of Lowestoft on 28 November 1916. There were no survivors.
LZ 62 R L 30 28 May 1916 First of the Type R "Super-Zeppelin" class, it had a volume of 55,200 m3. Ten raids on England dropping a total of 23,305 kilograms (51,379 lb) of bombs; 31 reconnaissance missions above the North and Baltic Seas and at the Eastern Front; retired on 17 November 1917 and laid up at Seerappen. In 1920 ordered to be transferred to Belgium as part of war reparations, where it was dismantled. Some components, including an engine car, are preserved at the Royal Army and Military History Museum, Brussels.
LZ 63 P LZ 93 23 February 1916 Three attacks on Dunkirk, Mardick and Harwich, dropping 3,240 kilograms (7,140 lb) bombs. Decommissioned in 1917.
LZ 65 Q LZ 95 1 February 1916 Destroyed by French anti-aircraft fire on 21 February 1916 during an attempted attack on Vitry-le-François.
LZ 66 Q L 23 8 April 1916 51 reconnaissance missions; 3 attacks on England dropping a total of 5,254 kg (11,583 lb) of bombs; captured Norwegian ship "Royal" in the North Sea on 23 April 1917. Destroyed on 21 August 1917 by 2nd Lt Bernard A. Smart flying a Sopwith Pup launched from a platform on the cruiser HMS Yarmouth.[48] Smart later led the Tondern raid which destroyed LZ 99 & LZ 108.
LZ 67 Q LZ 97 4 April 1916 Four attacks on London (twice), Boulogne and, later, Bucharest, dropping a total of 5,760 kg (12,700 lb) of bombs, plus several unsuccessful flights due to bad weather. Decommissioned on 5 July 1917.
LZ 68 Q LZ 98 28 April 1916 One attack on London dropping 1,513 kilograms (3,336 lb) bombs, plus several flights aborted due to bad weather; handed to the German Navy in November 1916; 15 reconnaissance missions around the Baltic Sea. Decommissioned in August 1917.
LZ 69 Q L 24 20 May 1916 19 reconnaissance missions around the North Sea; 4 raids on England dropping a total of 8,510 kilograms (18,760 lb) f bombs; crashed into a wall while being taken into its hangar on 28 December 1916[49] and burned out together with LZ 53.
LZ 70 Not built
LZ 71 Q LZ 101 29 June 1916 Stationed in Yambol (Bulgaria); 7 attacks dropping a total of 11,934 kg (26,310 lb) of bombs on Bucharest, Ciulniţa, Feteşti, Galaţi, Odessa, Mytilene, Iaşi and Mudros. Dismantled in September 1917.
LZ 72 R L 31 12 July 1916 One important reconnaissance mission in fleet operation against Sunderland; 6 attacks on England dropping a total of 19,411 kilograms (42,794 lb) of bombs; with LZ 74, LZ 76 and LZ 78 part of Zeppelin raid on night of 23 September 1916;[50] intercepted and destroyed by British fighter pilot Lt. W. Tempest on 2 October 1916 near Potters Bar, north of London, while commanded by the leading airship commander of the time, Kapitän Leutnant Heinrich Mathy, who died with his entire crew after jumping from the flaming Zeppelin. The crew were originally buried at Potters Bar but were later exhumed and reburied at Cannock Chase.
LZ 73 Q LZ 103 23 August 1916 One successful attack on Calais dropping 1,530 kilograms (3,370 lb) of bombs (several other attacks being cancelled or aborted due to poor weather); decommissioned in August 1917
LZ 75 R L 37 9 November 1916 17 reconnaissance missions around the North and Baltic Sea and England; 4 raids dropping a total of 6,450 kilograms (14,220 lb) of bombs; retired on 24 December 1917; transferred to Japan in 1920 (disassembled)
LZ 77 Q LZ 107 16 October 1916 One attack on Boulogne, France, dropping 1,440 kilograms (3,170 lb) of bombs (several other raids being cancelled or aborted). Decommissioned in July 1917.
LZ 78 R L 34 22 September 1916 Three reconnaissance missions; two attacks on England dropping a total of 3,890 kg (8,580 lb) of bombs; took part in the Zeppelin raid which also involved the L 31, L 32 and L 33 on the night of 23 September 1916, and was the only Zeppelin that survived the raid; intercepted and destroyed by British fighter pilot 2nd Lt Ian Pyott in BE2c no. 2738 off Hartlepool on 27 November 1916.
LZ 79 R L 41 15 January 1917 15 reconnaissance missions around the North Sea; four attacks on England dropping a totalof 6,567 kilograms (14,478 lb)of bombs; used as a school ship from 11 December 1917. Destroyed by its crew on 23 June 1919.
LZ 80 R L 35 20 October 1916 13 reconnaissance missions around the North and Baltic Sea; three attacks on England dropping a total of 4,284 kilograms (9,445 lb) of bombs; decommissioned in September 1918.
LZ 81 Q LZ 111 20 December 1916 Not used in the German Army and transferred to Navy in May 1917; 7 reconnaissance missions around the Baltic Sea. Decommissioned on 10 August 1917.
LZ 82 R L 36 1 November 1916 20 flights around the North Sea and England, including four reconnaissance missions; damaged during landing in fog at Rehben-an-der-Aller on 7 February 1917 and decommissioned.
LZ 83 R LZ 113 22 February 1917 15 reconnaissance missions around the Eastern Front and the Baltic Sea; three attacks dropping a total of 6,000 kilograms (13,000 lb) of bombs. In 1920 ordered to be transferred to France as part of war reparations.
LZ 84 R L 38 22 November 1916 Damaged beyond repair in a forced landing (due to heavy snowfall) during an attempted raid on Reval and Saint Petersburg on 29 December 1916[51]
LZ 85 R L 45 12 April 1917 12 reconnaissance missions around the North Sea; 3 attacks on England dropping a total of 4,700 kilograms (10,400 lb) of bombs. Ran out of fuel on 20 October 1917 and destroyed in forced landing near Sisteron, France, the crew being taken captive.[52] LZ 85
LZ 86 R L 39 11 December 1916 Two reconnaissance missions around the North Sea; one attack on England dropping 300 kg bombs, and on return destroyed by French flak near Compiègne on 17 March 1917.[53]
LZ 87 R L 47 11 May 1917 18 reconnaissance missions and three attacks dropping a total of 3,240 kilograms (7,140 lb) of bombs around the North Sea and England. On 5 January 1918, a giant explosion in the air base in Ahlhorn destroyed four Zeppelins (including L 47) and one non-Zeppelin built airship, housed in one adjacent hangar and two 0.5 mi (0.80 km) away.[54]
LZ 88 R L 40 3 January 1917 7 reconnaissance missions; 2 attacks on England, dropping a total of 3,105 kilograms (6,845 lb) of bombs. Damaged beyond repair while landing on 16 June 1917 in Nordholz.[53]
LZ 89 R L 50 9 June 1917 5 reconnaissance missions around the North Sea; two attacks on England dropping a total of 4,135 kilograms (9,116 lb) of bombs. Ran out of fuel on 20 October 1917 and, after the control car had been torn off as a result of an attempt to crash the airship to prevent it falling into enemy hands near Danmartin, it was blown over the Mediterranean with five crew members still on board.[55] Captured Crew of L-50 at Danmartin.
LZ 90 R LZ 120 31 January 1917 17 reconnaissance missions and 3 attacks dropping 11,250 kilograms (24,800 lb) of bombs around the Eastern Front and the Baltic Sea. Retired on 8 October 1917; in 1920 ordered to be transferred to Italy as war reparations, where it broke apart one year later while gas was removed.
LZ 91 S L 42 21 February 1917 First of the Height-Climber S class, which had a lightened structure to improve maximum altitude. 20 reconnaissance missions; 4 attacks on England dropping a total of 6,030 kilograms (13,290 lb) of bombs; used as a school ship from 6 June 1918. Destroyed by its crew on 23 June 1919.
LZ 92 S L 43 6 March 1917 6 reconnaissance missions; one attack on English docks, dropping 1,850 kilograms (4,080 lb) of bombs. Shot down by British fighter aircraft on 14 June 1917 during reconnaissance mission.
LZ 93 T L 44 1 April 1917 8 reconnaissance missions; 4 attacks on England and Royal Navy units. Driven south to France by a heavy storm, it was shot down over Lunéville on 20 October 1917.
LZ 94 T L 46 24 April 1917 19 reconnaissance missions around the North Sea; 3 raids on England dropping a total of 5,700 kilograms (12,600 lb) of bombs. Destroyed in the Ahlhorn explosion.[54]
LZ 95 U L 48 22 May 1917 Several of the LZ 41 crew transferred to the L 48;[33] one reconnaissance mission successful. As part of an attempted attack on London with 3 others became lost and was then intercepted and destroyed by British fighters over sea near Great Yarmouth on 17 June 1917 crashing near Leiston. Three survivors; crew buried at Theberton, Suffolk,[56][57] later to be exhumed and reburied at Cannock Chase.
LZ 96 U L 49 13 June 1917 Two reconnaissance missions around the North Sea; one raid on England dropping 2,100 kilograms (4,600 lb) of bombs; while returning, forced to land near Bourbonne-les-Bains on 20 October 1917 and captured almost undamaged by French forces. The design of LZ 96 influenced the design of the first American rigid airship, the USS Shenandoah (ZR-1)[58] and the British R38. LZ 96 (L49) L 49 (LZ96) brought down.
LZ 97 U L 51 6 June 1917 3 reconnaissance missions; one raid on the English coast, dropping 280 kg bombs. Destroyed in the Ahlhorn explosion.[54]
LZ 98 U L 52 14 July 1917 20 reconnaissance missions; accidentally taken above London by an unexpected storm during a raid, it dropped 2,020 kilograms (4,450 lb) of bombs there. Destroyed by its crew on 23 June 1919.
LZ 99 U L 54 13 August 1917 14 reconnaissance missions; two attacks on England dropping a total of 5,840 kilograms (12,870 lb) of bombs; destroyed together with LZ 108 when seven RNAS Sopwith Camel fighters, launched from the aircraft carrier HMS Furious, bombed the Toska hangar at Tønder, Denmark. (Only two fighters returned to the Furious, though three of the others landed in Denmark after running low on fuel.)
LZ 100 V L 53 8 August 1917 19 reconnaissance missions; 4 attacks on England, dropping a total of 11,930 kilograms (26,300 lb) of bombs. Intercepted and destroyed by a Sopwith Camel flown by Lt Culley RAF, who took off from a lighter towed by the destroyer HMS Redoubt, on 11 August 1918. LZ 100 was the last zeppelin destroyed in the war. L 53 (LZ 100) in 1917.jpg L 53 crashing
LZ 101 V L 55 1 September 1917 Two attacks dropping a total of 5,450 kilograms (12,020 lb) of bombs. Heavily damaged in the second one on 19 October 1917, it drifted behind western front and rose to a Zeppelin all-time record altitude of 7,600 metres (24,900 ft) to escape; then dismantled upon forced landing.
LZ 102 W L 57 26 September 1917 Not used in combat. Intended for use in Africa. Damaged beyond repair by heavy wind on 8 October 1917.
LZ 103 V L 56 24 September 1917 17 reconnaissance missions; participated in the last raid on England on 6 August 1918. Destroyed by its crew on 23 June 1919.
LZ 104 W L 59 30 October 1917 Known as the Afrika-Schiff, stationed in Yambol (Bulgaria); LZ 104 started out on a resupply mission to German East Africa. However, British forces had advanced to the designated landing zone, forcing the German admiralty to abort the mission and recall the ship while west of Khartoum. Nevertheless, LZ 104 set a long-distance flight record of (6,757 kilometres (4,199 mi) in 95 hours and 5 minutes) or nearly 4 days in the air. The ship met its end on 7 April 1918 when it crashed into the waters of the Strait of Otranto with the loss of all 21 crew. LZ 104
LZ 106 V L 61 12 December 1917 9 reconnaissance missions; two attacks on England dropping a total of 4,500 kilograms (9,900 lb) of bombs; in 1920 ordered to be transferred to Italy as war reparations.
LZ 107 V L 62 19 January 1918 Two reconnaissance missions; two attacks on England dropping a total of 5,923 kilograms (13,058 lb) of bombs; on the raid on 12/13 April 1918 her gunners managed to damage and drive away an attacking airplane, the only known instance of this happening. Crashed north of Helgoland on 10 May 1918: shot down by Felixstowe F2A flying-boat N4291, flown by Capt T.C. Pattinson and Capt T.H. Munday.[59]
LZ 109 V L 64 11 March 1918 13 reconnaissance missions over the North Sea; with LZ 108, LZ 106, LZ 107, and LZ 110 raided north of England dropping 2800 kg in bombs. In 1920 transferred to Britain as war reparations. Scrapped at short notice when hangar required for the damaged R36.[60] L64 (left) L71 (right) Pulham, Norfolk 27 January 1921
LZ 110 V L 63 4 March 1918 Dropped a total of 8,915 kg (19,654 lb) of bombs in three attacks on England, including participation in the last raid on England on 6 August 1918. Destroyed by its crew on 23 June 1919.
LZ 111 V L 65 17 April 1918 Participated in last raid on England on 6 August 1918. Destroyed by its crew on 23 June 1919.
LZ 113 X L 71 29 July 1918 Not used in war; in 1920 ordered to be transferred to Great Britain in the context of war reparations. Scrapped at short notice when hangar required for the damaged R36. L64 (left) L71 (right) Pulham, Norfolk 27 January 1921
L71 engine cars + control car 1921
Gondolla from Zeppelin LZ113, Musee de l'Air et de l'Espace, Le Bourget, Paris.
LZ 114 X L 72; in France: Dixmude 9 February 1920 Not delivered because war ended; in 1920 ordered to be transferred to France in the context of war reparations and handed over on 9 July 1920 and renamed Dixmude.[62] Made then world record duration flight of 118 hours.[18] Exploded off the coast of Sicily during a thunderstorm on 23 December 1923 following a lightning strike, killing all aboard.[62] LZ-114
LZ 115 Construction abandoned under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
LZ 116 Construction abandoned under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
LZ 117 Construction abandoned under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
LZ 118 Construction abandoned under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles |
CLOSE Binghamton Mayor Rich David addresses media and fans Thursday at NYSEG Stadium about the Binghamton Rumble Ponies hosting the 2020 Eastern League All-Star Game. Rob Centorani / Staff Video
Buy Photo Binghamton Rumble Ponies President John Hughes greets a fan Thursday while flanked by Binghamton Mayor Rich David, left, and State Senator Fred Ashkar on Thursday at NYSEG Stadium. The Rumble Ponies announced Thursday they will be hosting the 2020 Eastern League All-Star Game. (Photo: Rob Centorani / Staff photo)Buy Photo
Numerous politicians, media members and a smattering of fans who assembled near the Binghamton Rumble Ponies dugout on a pleasant Thursday afternoon signaled something important was about to be announced.
Turns out, in about 35 months, NYSEG Stadium will play host to the 2020 Eastern League All-Star game. Circle July 15, 2020 on your calendars – the likely date the Eastern League’s best players will converge on Binghamton to showcase their talents.
“It’s a destination for baseball enthusiasts,” said Binghamton Mayor Rich David, joined by state Senator Fred Akshar, state Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo and U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney at the announcement.
“You’re going to see players from across the region, across the league – the best of the best come to Binghamton," David said. "People are going to come to see the new stadium, they’re going to come to see top-level talent, they’re going to see a game that has never really taken place in this community before.
"There’s no doubt in my mind it’s going to be a full house and when people come out for these types of events, athletic events, without question, they go to restaurants before, to taverns after, they spend a lot of time in downtown. From an economic standpoint, it’s very significant.”
Eastern League President Joe McEacharn was first to the podium.
“In recognition of the efforts of every member of this community, its leadership, I’m pleased to announce that Binghamton and the Rumble Ponies have been awarded the 2020 Eastern League All-Star Game,” McEacharn said.
Buy Photo The scoreboard at NYSEG Stadium includes a message Thursday that the Binghamton Rumble Ponies will host the 2020 Eastern League All-Star Game. (Photo: Rob Centorani / Staff photo)
It will mark the second time Binghamton has hosted an all-star game. In 1994, then-named Binghamton Municipal Stadium was the site for the Double-A All-Star Game. For a five-year span in the 1990s, the three leagues that play Double-A baseball – the Eastern, Texas and Southern leagues – combined their stars for one game.
On June 30, Rumble Ponies President John Hughes submitted a bid to host a future all-star game and encouraged area fans through social media to let the Eastern League know that Binghamton wanted it. The hashtag #bingithome was the rallying cry.
“This community has a lot of heart and when we get behind something, we really, really stick with it,” Lupardo said.
Binghamton didn’t get the 2019 game – that went to Richmond, Virginia, in an announcement made July 15 – but it has the 2020 game.
“I almost cried, frankly,” said Hughes, Rumble Ponies President since December of 2015. “It’s a huge win for not just me but the community. To be the underdog, the dark horse and rally around the community, it was a humbling moment in my life. It really was.”
CLOSE Area residents weigh in on possibility of Tim Tebow playing for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. Rob Centorani / Staff video
Akshar praised Hughes’ leadership.
“That’s why we made a $2 million investment in the stadium this year,” said Akshar. “Clearly, the commitment of John Hughes and this organization runs very, very deep. They’re committed to Binghamton, they’re committed to the Southern Tier for an extended period of time, so you can make an investment like that in a place like this. It impacts the economy in a positive way. It’s all good stuff.”
Without going into specifics, Hughes said he wants to put on a great show.
“We’re going to spend the next three years thinking of some great and creative things to do, things that have never been before at the all-star game,” he said. “I have three years to prepare for this – watch out.”
Follow @PSBRob on Twitter. |
As predicted, there is already someone from the Reefer Madness crowd spouting their propaganda. “There is no control over who is using the marijuana. It opens a Pandora’s box for the illegal use of marijuana,” party chairman Michael Long told the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Michael Long, can I check your medicine cabinet? If there is even one pill in there that is regularly abused by millions of people in America every day, then you sir are a hypocrite. Pandora’s box was installing marijuana prohibition in the first place. The only thing that has been let out of Pandora’s box is organized crime’s profit margins from marijuana sales, which is rampant in New York. Organized crime will continue to profit off of patients as long as people like Michael Long are still in office making decisions. |
OpenReplica is the easiest way to coordinate your distributed system!
OpenReplica provides availability, reliability and fault-tolerance in distributed systems. It is designed to maintain long-lived, critical state (such as configuration information) and to synchronize distributed components. It works as follows: you define a Python object that encapsulates the state you want replicated, along with methods that can update it, and can synchronize threads that access it. You give it to OpenReplica, your object gets geographically distributed automatically, and you receive a proxy through which multiple clients can access the replicated object transparently. To the rest of your application, your replicated object appears as a regular Python object when you use the provided proxy.
OpenReplica ensures that new object replicas are dynamically created to compensate for any node or network failures involving your nodes. Our current implementation executes replicas on PlanetLab hosts distributed at academic sites around the globe, on failure independent hosts. You could also use the code behind OpenReplica to deploy on other hosts, and integrate with DNS and Amazon Route 53.
OpenReplica is similar to services such as Google's Chubby and Yahoo's ZooKeeper, except for a critical difference: OpenReplica provides an object-oriented interface to applications. Overall, OpenReplica differs from existing systems in the following ways:
High Performance : Coupled with the concurrent Paxos protocol our implementation uses, the object-based API obviates the need for costly serialization and achieves much higher performance than other systems.
: Coupled with the concurrent Paxos protocol our implementation uses, the object-based API obviates the need for costly serialization and achieves much higher performance than other systems. Dynamic Implementation : OpenReplica enables any server to be replaced at run-time. There are no statically designated servers, or configuration files -- any and all servers can be changed on the fly.
: OpenReplica enables any server to be replaced at run-time. There are no statically designated servers, or configuration files -- any and all servers can be changed on the fly. DNS Integration : Clients locate the up-to-date replicas through DNS. OpenReplica enables you to run your own authoritative DNS server, or to use a subdomain under openreplica.org, or to use Amazon's Route 53.
: Clients locate the up-to-date replicas through DNS. OpenReplica enables you to run your own authoritative DNS server, or to use a subdomain under openreplica.org, or to use Amazon's Route 53. Easy to use: Smoothly integrates into your existing Python program, no external interfaces needed. Even complex coordination functionality, such as implementing synchronization objects like semaphores, is straight-forward.
How does OpenReplica work?
OpenReplica is powered by ConCoord, a novel coordination service that provides replication and synchronization support for large-scale distributed systems. ConCoord employs an object-oriented approach, in which the system actively creates and maintains live replicas for user-provided objects. Through ConCoord, the clients are able to access these replicated objects transparently as if they are local objects. The ConCoord approach proposes using these replicated objects to implement coordination constructs in large-scale distributed systems, in effect establishing a transparent way of providing a coordination service.
To support complex distributed synchronization constructs, ConCoord presents a novel mechanism that enables the replicated objects to control the execution flow of their clients, in essence providing blocking and non-blocking method invocations on a replicated object. ConCoord employs Paxos as the underlying consensus protocol to tolerate crash failures of hosts and the underlying network. To facilitate deployments in dynamic cloud environments, the implementation supports view changes, which permit any number of servers to be replaced at runtime. Integration with DNS enables clients to easily locate the most current set of replicas. |
TORONTO — Toronto’s deputy mayor reportedly met with Rob Ford on Saturday to relay concerns stemming from the latest accusations related to an alleged crack video.
Reports say Norm Kelly had a one-on-one meeting with Ford, but neither man has spoken publicly about it.
Earlier, Kelly said he hopes Rob Ford makes “the right decision” after the meeting where he would relay concerns stemming from the latest accusations related to an alleged crack video.
Kelly said on Friday that concerns have been raised by councillors “from both sides of the spectrum” after police announced they had recovered a video that allegedly appears to show Ford smoking crack cocaine. He wouldn’t be specific but told reporters Friday they “already know the concerns.”
Kelly’s staff has said a media update on the meeting isn’t expected until Monday.
Reporters caught Ford leaving his city hall office early Saturday afternoon.
“I told you before I’m not resigning,” Ford said before getting into an elevator.
Ford and his brother Coun. Doug Ford will still be hosting their weekly Toronto radio show Sunday, Newstalk 1010 program director Mike Bendixen confirmed on Twitter. He added Ford will address “some of the news from this week” on air.
On last weekend’s edition Ford spoke enthusiastically of campaigning in next year’s city election.
The mayor’s lawyer, Dennis Morris, went on the offensive Friday morning, accusing the police of politicking and demanding Chief Blair release the video so the public can judge its contents. The police say they cannot because it’s before the courts; they are waiting for the mayor to respond to a request to be interviewed.
In the midst of the turmoil, new details surfaced of a 2 a.m. St. Patrick’s Day 2012 visit to city hall — contained in a security guard email released to the press — by a “very intoxicated” and “sweating profusely” Mayor Ford.
Even before then, some of the mayor’s political allies were ruminating on the latest crisis to grip city hall. The Toronto and Region Board of Trade issued a press release calling on Mayor Ford to “put Toronto first” and take a leave of absence.
Councillors Frances Nunziata, Denzil Minnan-Wong, Cesar Palacio, Peter Leon, Gary Crawford and Peter Milczyn gathered to discuss what to do. Budget Chief Frank Di Giorgio said there was talk of drafting a letter, which he opposed. “I think it’s like adding fuel to the fire. There is enough of a flame under his butt, OK. I don’t think he needs anymore,” said Di Giorgio. In the end, the group chose to convey their “concerns” to Deputy Mayor Kelly, so he could relay them to the mayor.
The deputy mayor says he hopes Ford will listen very carefully and look at the concerns “through the eyes of the people of Toronto, his colleagues on council and himself and his family.”
He would not elaborate on what decision Ford should make, saying it’s up to the mayor.
Toronto police Chief Bill Blair announced Thursday that police had found video images “which appear to be those images which were previously reported in the press.”
Police allege a friend of the mayor, Alexander Lisi, tried to get his hands on the video. He has been charged with extortion.
Ford said Thursday he could not comment because the matter is before the courts but said he sees “no reason to resign.”
After reports of the alleged video first surfaced in the U.S. website Gawker and the Toronto Star in May, the mayor has said he does not use crack cocaine and that the video does not exist.
The Canadian Press, with files from Natalie Alcoba, National Post |
During his announcement on Wednesday, President Obama said a transformation of relations with Cuba would bring opportunities for both countries. (AP)
During his announcement on Wednesday, President Obama said a transformation of relations with Cuba would bring opportunities for both countries. (AP)
The United States and Cuba ended more than a half-century of enmity Wednesday, announcing that they would reestablish diplomatic relations and begin dismantling the last pillar of the Cold War.
The historic move, following 18 months of secret negotiations and finally made possible by Cuba’s release of detained U.S. aid contractor Alan Gross, fulfilled one of President Obama’s key second-term goals.
The decision is likely to reverberate across many political frontiers where the standoff between Washington and Havana has played a role — including across much of Latin America, where U.S. policy on Cuba has long been a source of friction.
“These 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked,” Obama said in a televised, midday address. “It’s time for a new approach.”
Saying that he was “under no illusion about the continued barriers to freedom that remain for ordinary Cubans,” Obama said he was convinced that “through a policy of engagement, we can more effectively stand up for our values and help the Cuban people help themselves.”
1 of 24 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Alan Gross freed after 5 years in Cuban prison View Photos U.S. officials announced that Cuba has released American aid worker Alan Gross after five years in prison. Caption U.S. officials announced the American’s release after a swap of prisoners. Nov. 27, 2012 Jailed American Alan Gross poses for a photo during a visit by Rabbi Elie Abadie and U.S. lawyer James L. Berenthal at Finlay military hospital as he served a prison sentence in Havana. U.S. officials announced that Cuba has released Gross after five years in prison. James L. Berenthal/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
In simultaneous remarks in Havana, Cuban President Raúl Castro affirmed his government’s willingness for dialogue on “profound differences” between the countries, “particularly on issues related to national sovereignty, democracy, human rights and foreign policy.”
Castro said that “Obama’s decision . . . deserves the respect and acknowledgment of our people.”
Obama and Castro — who spoke by phone Tuesday, the first such exchange between leaders of the two countries since the 1959 Cuban revolution — thanked Pope Francis and the Vatican, which they said were instrumental in promoting their dialogue, and the government of Canada, where secret talks that began in June 2013 were held.
In addition to reopening an embassy in Havana, the administration plans to significantly ease trade and financial restrictions, as well as limits on travel by Americans to Cuba, by using its regulatory and enforcement powers to evade limits imposed by a congressionally mandated embargo.
Americans will be permitted to send more money to Cuban nationals, use their debit and credit cards in Cuba, and bring $100 worth of Cuban cigars into this country. U.S. exports to Cuba will be made easier, and additional items will be authorized. U.S. banks will be allowed to open correspondent relations with banks in Cuba.
The administration also said it would launch a review of Cuba’s status as a state sponsor of terrorism, a designation it feels Havana may not deserve alongside Sudan, Syria and Iran, and would work with Congress to ultimately lift the trade embargo and other sanctions.
While Obama said the Cubans had also agreed to expand Internet access and other freedoms, and to release 53 political detainees, Castro did not mention any of those measures in his televised speech. Coverage of the momentous announcement in Cuba’s Communist Party media was limited to the reestablishment of diplomatic relations and the release of three Cuban spies imprisoned in the United States.
In addition to Gross, who the Obama administration said was freed on humanitarian grounds after five years, the United States exchanged the three Cubans for an unnamed U.S. intelligence asset said to have been held in Cuba for two decades.
The inclusion in the deal of the U.S. spy, a Cuban national, appeared to have been the break that allowed it to go through. Cuba had long offered to release Gross in a swap for its imprisoned intelligence agents; the administration had long refused on the grounds that Gross, a subcontractor working for the U.S. Agency for International Development, was not a spy and should be released without conditions.
Gross left Cuba on Wednesday morning aboard a U.S. government aircraft, accompanied by his wife and several members of Congress who had long pushed for his release. Despite concerns about his increasingly ill health, he appeared relatively healthy, albeit significantly slimmer than at the time of his arrest and missing several teeth he said he had lost in prison.
“What a blessing it is,” Gross, a Maryland resident, said at a hastily arranged Washington news conference. “Thank you, President Obama, for everything you have done today and leading up to today.”
Obama’s decision to go far beyond a deal to bring Gross home and declare an end to the estrangement between the countries was rooted in the long-term strategic goal of eliminating what he called an outdated policy that “has had little effect beyond providing the Cuban government with a rationale for restrictions on its people.”
“Today,” Obama said, “Cuba is still governed by the Castros and the Communist Party that came to power half a century ago.”
The White House also said that the U.S. stance against Cuba alienated Washington from “regional and international partners.” That alienation has been particularly apparent in Latin America, which long ago rejected U.S. insistence that it continue isolating Cuba. One senior administration official described U.S. policy on Cuba as “an albatross around the neck of the United States in the hemisphere and around the world.”
Debate at the last Summit of the Americas, held in 2012 in Colombia, was dominated by criticism of the U.S. stance on Cuba. Ejected from the Organization of American States at U.S. urging in 1962, Cuba has been invited to attend the next summit, in April, by Panama, the host government. Obama also plans to attend.
Many Republicans were sharply critical of what House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) called Obama’s “mindless concessions” to Cuba and what others referred to as “appeasement.”
Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of several Cuban American lawmakers to denounce the deal, said it will “invite further belligerence toward Cuba’s opposition movement and the hardening of the government’s dictatorial hold on its people.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called the announcement “just the latest in a long line of failed attempts by President Obama to appease rogue regimes at all cost.”
But Democrats generally, and some Republicans, applauded the moves.
“Having diplomatic relations is far more likely to achieve the ends that we seek than trying to cook up programs like the one that ultimately got [Gross] in prison,” said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). Gross was sent to Cuba to secretly distribute Internet equipment to Jewish community groups, part of a congressionally mandated program to encourage Cuban democracy.
Administration officials said that the reestablishment of relations was a “reciprocal” decision by both countries. But measures to expand commerce and Cuban American contacts, they said, were not “concessions” but unilateral decisions they believe will better accomplish U.S. goals of promoting democracy and openness in Cuba.
The officials said that they did not expect a strongly negative U.S. public reaction to the moves, citing changes in the political sentiments of a new generation of Cuban Americans.
In Cuba, church bells rang throughout Havana as the two presidents delivered their simultaneous addresses.
“Finally!” said Joseph Carlos Quintero, cheering the normalization announcement with fellow students on the University of Havana campus. Saying the vast majority of Cubans were “ecstatic” at the news, Quintero said that any thaw between the two countries would mean more money and more visits from Cubans in the United States.
“Everyone is talking about this right now,” Aline Rodriguez said as she stood in a long line for ice cream in Havana’s Coppelia Park. “And everyone is happy.”
The deal is a major diplomatic victory for Castro, 83, who has said he will step down in 2018.
Since taking over in 2006 from his ailing older brother Fidel — now 88 and all but disappeared from public life — Castro has repeated an offer to engage in direct conversations with Obama “as equals,” saying any issue would on the table.
But just as Obama’s hands were tied by the imprisonment of Gross, Cuba insisted that there would be no improvement of relations without the release of the imprisoned Cuban intelligence agents that Havana has championed as “anti-terrorism” heroes. The three were part of a group of five spies who were sent by Cuba in the 1990s to infiltrate anti-Castro exile groups in Miami.
After a series of hotel bombings in 1997 by anti-Castro militants targeting the island’s burgeoning tourism industry, Fidel Castro authorized Cuban officials to release information on the militant groups to U.S. investigators.
But the information Cuba provided helped American law enforcement detect the presence of the spies, ultimately leading to their arrests in 1998 and subsequent U.S. prison sentences. Fidel Castro was said to be personally anguished by their fate.
Gross, who was arrested in 2009, quickly became a bargaining chip. Convicted for “crimes against the state,” he was sentenced to 15 years and jailed at a military hospital. In recent months, he had refused medical care and diplomatic visits while threatening to take his own life.
Two of the five Cuban prisoners had already served much of their terms in prison and been released to Havana. The Justice Department said that Obama had commuted the sentences of the remaining three and that they had been delivered to Cuba by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Nick Miroff in San Diego and Maya Albanese in Havana contributed to this report. |
Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council, responds to the increase in hate crime in the region.
Sir Richard said: "Ours is a city which has always welcomed non-native Mancunians and respected the contribution they make to our economy, our public services - especially the NHS, in which many work - and the general vibrancy of the city.
"The people who are most definitely not welcome are the racists and thugs who do not abide by the values of this great city and make no positive contribution.
"Manchester remains an inclusive, international city and we will not tolerate any abuse of people from different national, ethnic or religious backgrounds. We will work closely with Greater Manchester Police to ensure our communities continue to feel safe and that those who spout poison are brought to justice and appropriately punished.
"Whilst sadly there has been an increase in hate crime incidents taking place in the wake of the referendum result, I know that the majority of those who voted Leave are not racist bigots. Although they might have legitimate concerns about a changing world which have to be addressed by building an economically and socially inclusive city and I'm sure they will join with me and all other ordinary, decent people in condemning the actions of those who would spread hate." |
Packers safety Charles Woodson would count $9,437,500 against the salary cap next season, $10 million if he played all 16 games, and more with incentives. Credit: Associated Press
By of the
Green Bay - No decision needs to be made this very second. The agent for Charles Woodson hasn't heard from Ted Thompson. Indeed, it's all quiet on the Midwestern front. But Carl Poston also realizes decision time may be nearing for the Green Bay Packers general manager.
Woodson turns 37 years old in October. The veteran defensive back is due millions of dollars.
"I guess the Packers have to make a decision," Poston said. "Is having Charles out there worth $11 million a year? I would think so because he's one of the better defensive players. He's not what he was but he's much more valuable than most defensive players, period."
So here are the facts. Woodson's 2013 base salary is $6.5 million and a roster bonus of $2.5 million comes the first day of training camp. The safety also is due a $1 million bonus through the 16-week season - $65,000 for each game he plays - with more potential money based on incentives. So, in sum, Woodson would count $9,437,500 against the salary cap next season, $10 million if he played all 16 games, and more with the incentives.
Green Bay could wait until late July if Thompson feels the Packers could absorb Woodson's cap figure throughout free agency. But there are also extensions to Aaron Rodgers, Clay Matthews and/or B.J. Raji for Green Bay to consider. A decision on Woodson may come before the first official day of the 2013 league year - March 12.
At some point, the Packers must decide just how valuable Woodson is to their defense. Poston is optimistic. Thompson didn't give Woodson any assurances he'd be back, but to the agent no news is good news.
"They haven't said anything to the contrary," he said, "so we're assuming he's going to be back."
Safety Morgan Burnett was one of two defensive players in the NFL to play every snap in 2012. He's reliable and progressing. Next to him, there's uncertainty. The Packers could stay young with M.D. Jennings and Jerron McMillian. They could a sign a veteran or could draft someone.
Or maybe they stick with Woodson. If Thompson deems Woodson's $10 million cap figure too steep - yet still wants him back - the two sides could restructure the contract. Woodson has two years left. Maybe they find middle ground.
Said Poston, "There's always a tradeoff. I'm sure there's something we could work out if there's more guaranteed money in the deal."
The Packers were willing to take on Woodson's contract in 2012, moving him to safety to extend his career. In nine total games, Woodson finished with 50 tackles, 1½ sacks, one interception and seven pass breakups.
Meanwhile, Casey Hayward - 13 years Woodson's junior - seized the slot cornerback position. The rookie from Vanderbilt was the ball hawk coordinator Dom Capers craves at that spot with 21 breakups, six picks and one very bright future.
At safety, results were mixed for Woodson. His first game back from a broken collarbone, the 6-foot-1, 202-pounder helped the Packers quarantine Adrian Peterson. He'll get his hands dirty. Then again, he also can't rely on his trademark hunches as much at safety. As position coach Darren Perry has said, discipline is paramount at safety.
In the playoff loss at San Francisco, Woodson was caught leaking up-field on a 45-yarder to running back Frank Gore. While Woodson may have been full strength physically, Poston said it probably was "a little premature" for him to play in the postseason, adding that "if he hasn't been playing for four or five months, that's still very difficult."
Multiple times, Capers praised Woodson's ability to change games.
In 100 games with the Packers, Woodson has 38 interceptions, 11½ sacks, 15 forced fumbles and 10 touchdowns. At what price is it worth seeing if Woodson can recalibrate this playmaking ability at safety for another season?
"Charles is a football player," Poston said. "If you wanted Charles to sell popcorn at halftime, he would do it. Moving to safety is just a natural progression of his development, his leadership. He's like a coach on the field. I think that just having him on the field is a major, major asset. So regardless of what position he's playing, you can say Charles is a football player."
Poston explained that he restructured Woodson's last contract to give him flexibility at this point in his career. In his opinion, it is not back-loaded. Maybe, Poston forecasts, Woodson will "do the Ray Lewis thing" and declare a season to be his last come November or December. He's not sure. After talking to Woodson during the Super Bowl Sunday evening, the agent received no indication that Woodson has any intention of retiring.
He wants to keep playing. And he wants to do it in Green Bay.
Now, it's the Packers' call.
"I don't even think it's a decision," Poston said. "But you never know. I could get a call as soon as we hang up. You never know." |
Nations have a responsibility to increase the well being and wealth of their residents. As in the private sector, one of the key factors influencing a state’s ability to pursue this goal is the number of customers (people and businesses) that it can generate or attract. Historically, states have tried to maximize their number of customers by promoting population growth, entrepreneurship and immigration.
Estonia realistically has little chance of succeeding with those approaches. But in an increasingly digital world, its experience in enhancing the lives of its citizens with digital services could translate to virtual growth, which in many ways could be better than the real thing.
After splitting from the Soviet Union and regaining its statehood in 1991, Estonia clearly saw the impossibility of physically serving a small population spread across a large territory (large in a European context; Estonia is bigger than the Netherlands or Switzerland). It is not realistic to put a bank branch in every small town or have a full-service government office in each village. Both the private and public sectors decided to bet on the development of digital solutions and e-services. Today, 25 years later, Estonia has one of the most developed national digital infrastructures in the world. It is a country where a digital signature is preferable to a physical one, taxes take only a few minutes to file, and online elections have been a fact of life for over a decade.
One of the most important foundational components of a functioning digital society is a secure digital identity. When nearly all government services are provided over the Internet, both the state and the private sector need to know who is physically accessing them via a computer or mobile device. This is why, back in 2002, Estonia started issuing its residents mandatory ID cards containing a chip that allows residents to unambiguously identify themselves and authenticate legal transactions and documents through digital signing. A digital signature has been legally equivalent to a handwritten one throughout the European Union — not just in Estonia — since 1999.
The Estonian state’s secure digital identity system and e-services facilitated location independence. The state could serve not only its sparsely populated areas, but also the entire Estonian diaspora. Estonians who reside in Silicon Valley, Singapore or South Africa can maintain a connection to their homeland via e-services, contribute to the legislative process and even participate in elections.
The ability to serve the diaspora led to a logical question: If it is possible to offer a convenient and effective e-services environment to expatriate Estonians, why not also offer it to non-Estonians, even those who do not reside in Estonia, who need better everyday solutions than those offered by their own states?
Is it possible to provide country as a service?
In recent years, the world has seen a massive leap in the number of people who offer their skills and knowledge for sale on the global marketplace irrespective of location and national borders. Businessweek estimates this number will reach 100 million in the U.S. alone by 2020.
These people are not looking to streamline their finances via tax havens. They have not been engaged in entrepreneurship so far because incorporating and maintaining a company is a major hassle. It is simpler to not take the step and to just continue drawing a salary.
At the same time, since they are providing their services globally, it does not really matter to them whether their company is a legal entity in their place of residence or a different jurisdiction altogether. The most important thing is that the creation and upkeep of the company be easy and hassle-free. Incidentally, it is also important for these people that, despite being incorporated in a different nation, they remain honest taxpayers as far as their own country is concerned.
This is one of Estonia’s target groups. Its offering is a location-independent, hassle-free and fully digital economic and financial environment for anyone who needs it. The company is managed by its owners themselves, not nominal “directors.”
Where exactly are the taxes paid, at the end of the day? “Taxes must be paid where the value was created” — that is the principle espoused by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and increasingly adopted by nations. If a location-independent entrepreneur creates a company in Estonia but lives in Singapore, the company is not benefiting from Estonia’s roads, its educational system, its healthcare or any of the other services it provides its residents. The person is using the Singaporean educational system and driving on Singaporean roads, so it is logical that he or she should contribute taxes to the functioning and development of that state’s physical environment.
The solution is transparency reporting between Estonia’s tax authority and the Singaporean one. The Estonian Tax and Customs Board has the capability to offer such information and transparency. Potentially, the Estonian side could even collect the taxes and send the money to Singapore.
So why is Estonia doing it? The more people and companies that are engaged with the Estonian business environment, the more clients there are for Estonian companies. E-residents will not only establish companies, but they will also likely start using the services of other Estonian companies. They will need bank accounts, international payment service providers, accounting support, legal advice, auditors, asset management, investment opportunities, etc.
The more clients Estonian companies gain, the bigger their growth potential will be and therefore also the growth potential of the Estonian economy.
Country as a service is the new reality. For example, if the U.K. says unequivocally that it will not issue a secure, government-backed digital identity to its subjects, or if states fail to greatly simplify the machinery of bureaucracy and make it location-independent, this becomes an opportunity for countries that can offer such services across borders.
As a small state, Estonia has learned over the years to serve primarily small and micro businesses. To do so profitably, processes must be maximally digitized and automated, and not just in the private sector, but in the public one as well. Estonia’s model is location-independent, which makes it easy to scale without overextending resources. Estonia is a nation of 1.3 million people and its vision is to acquire at least 10 million digital residents (e-residents), in a way that is mutually beneficial by the nation-states where these people are tax residents.
Taavi Kotka is the government of Estonia’s CIO, the founder of the e-residency program, and one of Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders of 2016. |
AP Images
Before the NFL combine, the biggest knock on Clemson defensive end Vic Beasley was his size.
Therefore, it was a surprise that Beasley ultimately measured at 6'3", 246 pounds at his combine weigh-in. When you couple his measurements with his outstanding performances in the drills, it's easy to understand why Beasley's stock has risen sharply.
You must be wary of any prospect whose stock takes a large jump because of the combine. The combine is a useful tool, but in reality, it is a smaller piece of the evaluation puzzle.
What Beasley did on the field in college is much more indicative of what he will do in the NFL than what he did at the combine. Fortunately, his combine performance was about answering concerns about his transition to the NFL rather than establishing his ability. He had already established his ability with his performances on game days; the combine simply solidified his status as a top prospect.
The 22-year-old played four seasons in college. He compiled 33 total sacks during that time, including 25 over his final two seasons, and 52.5 tackles for loss, including 44.5 over the last two years.
Beasley may not ever be more than an adequate run defender in the NFL, but that is all he needs to be. That is because he projects to be an outstanding pass-rusher if he can develop properly once he's drafted. His skill set should be valuable in a passing league.
Much like Robert Quinn of the St. Louis Rams, Beasley's pass rush is largely built on his speed.
Credit: Draftbreakdown.com
As the above image highlights, Beasley was regularly the farthest lineman downfield during his time at Clemson. He can be inconsistent anticipating the snap, so he is much faster off the line at times. But even when he doesn't anticipate the snap well, he's explosive enough to get positioning against offensive tackles.
On this play he is facing Cameron Erving, a potential first-round pick in the 2015 draft.
Erving isn't quick for an offensive tackle, so Beasley is taking advantage of a relatively weak spot for him. However, he is still an impressive athlete for the college level, and he is a player who could be drafted as an offensive tackle, even though he is more likely to be drafted as a center.
After only a couple of steps, Beasley gets level with Erving. Critically, Erving's feet are facing the sideline when he contacts the defensive end, so he's forced to abandon his drop to an extent to contain Beasley. This is how Beasley's speed at the snap can affect NFL tackles.
When you watch the play through, the speed and hand usage stand out.
Credit: Draftbreakdown.com
Beasley understands how to use his hands to put himself in position to leverage his weight through contact. Erving is a strong blocker who can be effective against much bigger defensive ends than Beasley. Yet he can't overcome Beasley's combination of speed and strength when he is trying to recover his positioning.
Speed alone isn't enough to be an effective pass-rusher in the NFL; you need to understand and be able to take advantage of the benefits it provides.
Credit: Draftbreakdown.com
On this play from the same game against the same offensive tackle, Beasley shows aggressive hands as Erving attempts to engage him. Erving appears to hesitate when Beasley makes that aggressive move, so the defensive end actually makes no contact with the offensive tackle.
The impact is the same, though.
Beasley gets past Erving and to a point where the offensive tackle can't push him out of the play. It's important that Beasley shows off the resilience, body control and strength to fend off Erving's desperate attempt to push him to the ground/past his quarterback.
When Beasley's hands and feet are working in concert, it's very difficult to prevent him from penetrating the pocket.
Credit: Draftbreakdown.com
Credit: Draftbreakdown.com
His burst from a standing start, his hand usage, balance and fluidity coming off the edge make him a terror to handle when he does so. Beasley doesn't necessarily need a lot of space to excel, but when he gets it, his sheer talent will cause even the best offensive tackles in the NFL problems.
Even though Beasley had great measurements and workouts at the combine, he is likely still going to end up as a 3-4 outside linebacker instead of a 4-3 defensive end.
That doesn't mean he can't be a 4-3 defensive end. He could easily fit in the Chris Clemons role as a defensive end for Gus Bradley's Jacksonville Jaguars. That would require the Jaguars to select him third overall unless a trade partner became available.
If the Jaguars do draft Beasley, they may want to adjust their approach to take advantage of his ability to drop into coverage.
Credit: Draftbreakdown.com
Dropping high-quality pass-rushers into coverage is typically a bad idea, but it's still valuable to have a player who can do it effectively. A high-quality pass-rusher who can drop into space comfortably adds another dimension to his defense's blitz packages. His presence alone helps to create a layer of doubt in the mind of the opposing quarterback.
At the combine, Beasley said (via Chase Goodbread of NFL.com), "A lot of teams see me as a 3-4 outside linebacker. I am willing to play defensive end in a 4-3 at the next level, but the majority of teams want me to play outside linebacker and I'm fine with that."
A coach such as Dick LeBeau, who is now with the Tennessee Titans, previously made good use of an excellent pass-rusher who could drop into space: James Harrison. Harrison and LaMarr Woodley were a great pass-rushing duo, but Woodley primarily only covered backs in the flat when he was in coverage.
Harrison was more like Beasley during his prime. Harrison had the fluidity, quick feet, awareness and balance to move around the field and carry out different assignments. Whoever drafts Beasley should use the blueprint that LeBeau created with Harrison all those years ago.
Beasley's value against the pass is largely unquestioned. His ability against the run is somewhat understated, though.
Although he won't dominate double-teams or always get the better of offensive tackles on the edge, Beasley shows off good awareness and strength at the point of contact. He wasn't simply brushed out of plays when he faced double-teams in college, and he showed the ability to penetrate his way toward backs with his strength.
Credit: Draftbreakdown.com
One thing is for sure, offenses can't block Beasley out of plays with the average tight end. He is strong enough (35 bench press reps) and smart enough to punish inadequate blockers, even those plying their trade at the NFL level.
The combine didn't make Vic Beasley. It just erased the remaining doubts about his quality.
He won't be the consensus top pass-rusher because this class offers plenty of variety and quality for analysts, coaches and scouts to choose from. Beasley should go in the top 10 of the draft, though, and the team that acquires him won't rely on an athlete who needs to develop into a football player.
Beasley is a natural pass-rusher with the physical talent to be a star in the NFL. NFL teams desperately search for that kind of player every offseason. The scarcity of those players should make him one of the more sought-after prospects in the draft this year.
He may not become Robert Quinn, but Quinn is at the ceiling of edge defenders in the NFL. Beasley can reach a few rungs below the St. Louis Rams defensive end and still become a superstar. |
Kiev
Before he was Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort worked for the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych started out as a petty thief in the bleak Soviet city of Donetsk. He stole fur hats from men using its outside toilets. He would reach over the door as they squatted, defenceless, and flee while their trousers were still around their ankles. Even among the criminals of Donetsk, this was thought low behaviour. ‘It’s hard to imagine now that we had such a character as a president of the country,’ said Alex Kovzhun, a Ukrainian political consultant. Kovzhun joyfully put this story on thousands of mock newspaper front pages during the 2004 presidential campaign. Yanukovych lost that election and, Kovzhun told me, decided then to get expert help with his image. He had been using Russian political consultants; he thought he needed an American. Enter Paul Manafort.
The sophisticated American ‘bedazzled’ Yanukovych. ‘Manafort did wonders for him. He created a classical Soviet persona: the older, good-looking guy in a suit with a fatherly smile… They taught him, you have to smile when you shake hands. It became a Pavlovian reflex. Shake hands, smile. Shake hands, smile.’ With Manafort’s help, Yanukovych won the presidency. ‘Yanukovych was a violent crime figure who brought all the knowhow from the crime world to the state. He organised a system of absorbing money from the country, and scaring everybody shitless.’
Yanukovych got rich. He lived in a luxury dacha outside Kiev with his mistress and his two Thai masseuses. The house has been a museum ever since he fled to Moscow in 2004, a monument to bad taste and excess. There is a garage with 50 luxury cars; a painting depicts Yanukovych in heroic pose as a rally driver. There’s a stuffed lion and a grinning alligator, suits of armour and parakeets, marble and mahogany, Swarovski crystal and Persian carpets.
The man who helped make all this possible, Paul Manafort, liked the good things in life, too, if his indictment in the US this week is any guide: $934,000 on antique carpets; $1.3 million on home entertainment systems; a tailor’s bill of $849,000… the indictment states that $18 million was secretly funnelled into the United States and never declared to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It claims that $75 million from Manafort’s businesses passed through offshore accounts in Cyprus and the Caribbean. This is the first indictment brought by Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating (alleged) Russia interference in the US election.
On the face of it, none of the charges relate to what Manafort did then. Instead, he is accused of tax evasion, money laundering, and failing to register as a lobbyist for Ukraine. The President tweeted, gleefully: ‘Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign… why aren’t Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????’
Mueller has been looking at a lobbying firm run by a prominent Democrat, Tony Podesta, brother of John Podesta, chairman of Hillary’s campaign. The firm is referred to, though not by name, in the Manafort indictment. Trump’s base got a whiff of Democrat blood in the water when Tony Podesta resigned from the firm to concentrate on answering Mueller’s questions about his work for Ukraine. Trump’s friend and adviser Roger Stone has long been pushing a story that the other Podesta — John, the campaign chairman — is guilty of laundering Russian money through the Clinton foundation.
But for Trump’s future, the crucial issue is where exactly Manafort’s millions came from. Can the money be traced back to Kremlin loyalists in Ukraine? In August 2016, the New York Times published pages from a ledger belonging to Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions. Next to Manafort’s name was a figure: $12.5 million. Days later, he resigned as Trump’s campaign manager. In Kiev last week, I met a senior official who has seen the secret report into this produced by Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service, the SBU. His job is so sensitive that he has to log any meetings arranged with foreigners. We had to ‘accidentally’ bump into one another in a park, like characters in a Cold War spy novel.
He told me there were three ledgers, representing three separate ‘black’ funds being run by the Party of the Regions. In each case, he said, the money was actually supplied by a different oligarch, all with ties to Moscow. This may be the story that Mueller and his team are trying to prove: Russian money in Ukrainian politics buying influence with Manafort and through him with Donald Trump. The SBU managed to infiltrate Manafort’s operation, I was told. They say they can show that Manafort was paid $600,000 a month over four years, $28.8 million in total. This was far more than claimed in the original New York Times story — and it is the figure from just one of the three funds. They believe the final total was higher still. The FBI has all this information.
Manafort’s lawyer says the documents have been forged, while a former member of his team in Ukraine told me such sums were what you would expect to be paid for a big political operation. I spoke to Manafort himself a year ago, when I first learned he was under investigation. He sounded wounded. ‘I was just trying to bring Ukraine closer to the West,’ he told me. In Washington, a friend of Hillary Clinton’s scoffed at that. The Russians must have known Manafort was hiding millions offshore, he said, and could have used this knowledge to blackmail him. ‘The suspicion would naturally be that they were a driving force behind his volunteering to serve the Trump campaign for free. Their objective would have been to gain a foothold deep inside the Trump camp.’
This is far ahead of anything in this week’s indictment, which was a tax fraud and money laundering case. The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, declared from the podium: ‘Today’s announcement has nothing to do with the President.’ One of Trump’s lawyers, Jay Sekulow, told CNN: ‘I’m not concerned about this at all, and no one else is either.’ The President’s team sounded almost relieved. The White House had long known the Manafort indictment was coming. The media strategy was clear: ‘Nothing to see here.’ Trump himself tweeted: ‘There is NO COLLUSION!’ Then Mueller delivered a sucker punch.
The special counsel announced that a young adviser to the campaign, George Papadopoulos, had admitted lying to the FBI about his contacts with various Russians. His plea agreement makes it clear that the campaign knew about the hacking of Democratic party emails a month before it was publicly revealed. Suddenly ‘collusion’ was back in what they call ‘the conversation’ in Washington. ‘Mueller perfectly understands how to play the Washington DC media game,’ said Rick Wilson, a political consultant. ‘He’s been around it for 40 years. They kept Papadopoulos concealed and basically turned him into a guided missile. That’s going to ramp up their [the Trump team’s] already extreme paranoia into the stratosphere.’
Wilson is a Republican but also a fierce critic of Trump. ‘The guy doesn’t understand what exactly is happening to him. It’s like a Greek tragedy.’ Trump’s supporters had ‘actually come to believe that when Donald Trump tweets something, it’s real’. But: ‘The tempo of the game is going to be decided by Bob Mueller… Mueller doesn’t care about Donald Trump’s tweets except so far as they incriminate Donald Trump. He ignores the static, and presses on towards the target.’
Another Washington insider told me: ‘What you have to understand about Bob Mueller is that he is the ultimate Wasp. He believes in the rules and God help you if you break them. I wouldn’t like to have him after me.’ Trump’s friend Roger Stone told a conservative website that the President’s ‘only chance for survival’ in office was to neutralise Mueller. Speculation is rife in Washington that Trump will try to fire Mueller, a night of the long knives to eclipse the one in Watergate. That, or start a war with North Korea.
Ominously for Trump, Papadopoulos was described in his plea deal as an ‘active co-operator’. The American media took this to mean that he had been wearing a wire. That thought may have some members of the Trump campaign team in a cold sweat. Papadopoulos, once described by Trump as an ‘excellent guy’, was trashed by the President on Twitter as ‘a proven liar’.
Papadopoulos says he went to the Russians to get ‘dirt’ on Hillary Clinton. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr, has already admitted he held a meeting with a Russian lawyer with a similar aim in mind. Mueller is surely investigating that. It may also be significant that the Manafort indictment makes no mention of his work for the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Manafort’s emails, now turned over to investigators, show him offering ‘private briefings’ to Deripaska during the campaign. Mueller is surely looking at this too. All of this is about ‘collusion’, not just money.
Mueller appears then to be moving steadily, relentlessly closer to Trump. No one expects that this week’s indictments will be the last in the Russia investigation. |
Press release, 14 December 2012 Fertile soil doesn't fall from the sky. The contribution of bacterial remnants to soil fertility has been underestimated until now
Leipzig. Remains of dead bacteria have far greater meaning for soils than previously assumed. Around 40 per cent of the microbial biomass is converted to organic soil components, write researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the Technische Universität Dresden (Technical University of Dresden) , the University of Stockholm, the Max-Planck-Institut für Entwicklungsbiologie (Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology) and the Leibniz-Universität Hannover (Leibniz University Hannover) in the professional journal Biogeochemistry. Until now It was assumed that the organic components of the soil were comprised mostly of decomposed plant material which is directly converted to humic substances. In a laboratory experiment and in field testing the researchers have now refuted this thesis. Evidently the easily biologically degradable plant material is initially converted to microbial biomass which then provides the source material to soil organic matter.
Soil organic matter represent the largest fraction of terrestrially bound carbon in the biosphere. The compounds therefore play an important role not only for soil fertility and agricultural yields. They are also one of the key factors controlling the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Climatic change can therefore be slowed down or accelerated, according to the management of the soil resource.
The electron micrograph shows bacteria (Hyphomicrobium sp;. Yellow) growing up partly on solid surfaces, floors and sediment grains. During growth whatsoever cells die and deformed or fragmenting cell envelopes remain. Small-scale fragments of these shells (red) then set the microparticulate matrix in soils and sediments.
Photo: Burkhard Schmidt-Brücken, Institute of Material science/TU Dresden
Colored by: Christian Schurig/ UFZ
CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/de/)
In laboratory incubation experiment, the researchers initially labelled model bacteria with the stable isotope 13C and introduced the bacteria to soil deriving from the long-term cultivation experiment "Ewiger Roggenbau" in Halle/Saale. Following the incubation time of 224 days the fate of the carbon of bacterial origin was determined. "As a result we found fragments of bacterial cell walls in sizes of up to 500 x 500 nanometres throughout our soil samples. Such fragments have also been observed in other studies, but have never been identified or quantified", declares Professor Matthias Kästner of the UFZ. The accumulation of the bacterial cell wall fragments appears to be supported by peptides and proteins from the liquid interior of the cells, which remain to a greater extent in the soil than other cell components. These materials enable the formation of a film of organic molecules on the mineral components of the soil, on which the carbon from the dead bacteria is accumulated and stabilised. When the fragments of the bacterial cell walls dry out, they may lose their rubber-like properties and can harden like glass. If the soil subsequently becomes moist again, however, under certain circumstances they cannot be re-wetted – an important prerequisite for their degradation by other bacteria. This would provide the simplest explanation for the stabilisation of theoretically easily degradable carbon compounds in soil. "This new approach explains many properties of organic soil components which were previously viewed as contradictory", says Matthias Kästner. In the late 1990s, Kästner and his team arrived at this idea on the basis of earlier investigations on the degradation of environmental contaminants like anthracene in polluted soils of former gas work sites. In these investigations, isotopic analyses revealed bound carbon residues which have been of bacterial origin. With the support of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; DFG), from 2000 on they began to follow up this clue within the scope of two joint research programmes.
In the course of the last 150 years glacier has retreated by around one kilometre. In its place granite rock remained behind, which was gradually recolonised by living organisms accompanied by soil development. Following the formation of new soil the first plants, such as mosses and grasses, were followed by bushes and, later, also by trees.
Photo: Christian Schurig/ UFZ
CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/de/)
Following the laboratory experiment, the hypothesis was tested in field research. In summer of 2009 the researchers took soil samples in the forefield of the Damma Glacier in the Swiss Canton Uri. In the course of the last 150 years glacier has retreated by around one kilometre. In its place granite rock remained behind, which was gradually recolonised by living organisms accompanied by soil development. Following the formation of new soil the first plants, such as mosses and grasses, were followed by bushes and, later, also by trees. In the meantime, the Damma Glacier, on which a broad range of studies is being conducted, has therefore become an important outdoor laboratory not only for climate researchers, but for ecologists as well. The soil investigated with the samples was between 0 and 120 years old and thus allowed insight into early processes of soil development. Scanning electron microscopic investigations which followed at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen also indicated that the covering of the soil mineral particles by a film comprised of bacterial cell wall residues had increased with the soil age. The results of the outdoor investigations therefore confirmed the hypothesis and the laboratory results. This new knowledge was ultimately made possible by recent advances in scanning electron microscopy, which in the meantime enable the identification and evaluation of the soil nano-components.
The Damma Glacier, on which a broad range of studies is being conducted, has become an important outdoor laboratory not only for climate researchers, but for ecologists as well. The soil investigated with the samples was between 0 and 120 years old and thus allowed insight into early processes of soil development.
Photo: Christian Schurig/ UFZ
CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/de/)
The predominant share of the plant debris in fertile soil is thus rapidly processed by micro-organisms, e.g. bacteria, leading to more bacteria and, in turn, also to more cell fragments. This then results in more organic material in the soil. "Even though the greatest part of the organic carbon in the eco-systems is definitively produced primarily by plants, we were able to show that a large part of the organic material is actually comprised of residues of bacteria and fungi. This underscores the importance of bacteria as organisms in all types of soil", summarises Matthias Kästner. Furthermore, they are important for the global climate: The degradation of these organic material results, in mineralisation products and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). According to estimates from Great Britain the amount of CO 2 escaping annually to the atmosphere due to the degradation of organic material in the soils of England and Wales is in the order of magnitude by which greenhouse gas emissions are annually reduced there. This means that no rigorous progress in climate protection may be accomplished without first protecting the soil. Tilo Arnhold
Publications: Christian Schurig, Rienk H. Smittenberg, Juergen Berger, Fabio Kraft, Susanne K. Woche, Marc-O. Goebel, Hermann J. Heipieper, Anja Miltner, Matthias Kaestner (2012): Microbial cell-envelope fragments and the formation of soil organic matter: a case study from a glacier forefield. Biogeochemistry. published online:DOI: 10.1007/s10533-012-9791-3 The investigations were supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the scope of the SPP1315 DynaCarb project and the European Union within the scope of the ModelPROBE project.
Anja Miltner, Petra Bombach, Burkhardt Schmidt-Brücken, Matthias Kästner (2012). SOM genesis – Microbial biomass a significant source. Biogeochemistry, in press; published online: DOI 10.1007/s10533-011-9658-z The investigations were supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the scope of the SPP1090 BioRefrak project and the European Union within the scope of the ModelPROBE project.
Further information: Professor Matthias Kästner/ Dr. Anja Miltner/ Dr. Christian Schurig Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) Telephone: 0341-235-1235 http://www.ufz.de/index.php?de=4459 http://www.ufz.de/index.php?de=4530 http://www.ufz.de/index.php?de=18888 or from Tilo Arnhold (UFZ press office) Telephone: 0341-235-1635 http://www.ufz.de/index.php?de=640
Related links: EU project ModelPROBE: http://www.ufz.de/modelprobe/index.php?en=18269 DFG project DynaCarb: http://www.spp1315.uni-jena.de/
UFZ core topic water / soil: http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20167 |
Mar 24, 2017-
Data analysis of air quality monitoring stations set up last year in five places across the country shows that Lumbini is the most polluted city followed by Chitwan, Ratnapark (Kathmandu), Pulchowk (Lalitpur) and Dhulikhel (Kavrepalanchok).
Data collected from the air quality monitoring stations between October and February showed presence of PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) in Lumbini five times higher than the World Health Organisation standard of 25 microgram per cubic metre (ug/m3) in a period of 24 hours. Nepal’s national air pollution standard is 40 ug/m3.
For the month of January, PM2.5 in Lumbini was measured at 173.035 ug/m3 followed by 113.32 ug/m3 in Chitwan and 109.08 ug/m3 in Ratnapark of Kathmandu.
“Brick kilns and cement factories in the Lumbini-Bhairahawa Corridor produce pollutants,” said Arnico Panday, senior atmospheric scientist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). Coal burning and burning of other stuff like tyres and tubes add to the problem.”
In 2013, 62 percent of air pollution in Lumbini was due to the flow of toxic air originated in India, while 24 percent of air pollution was created within Nepal. Polluted air from Bangladesh and Pakistan also played a crucial role in increasing pollution in the Tarai, according to data maintained by ICIMOD.
There are around 1,000 brick kilns in Nepal and around 30,000 in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, two large bordering states in India. Toxic fumes produced by these brick kilns are collected in the skies and the wind blowing from those places bring about more fumes to the trans-border area making it tremendously polluted.
Biomass, garbage burning, agricultural residue fires, forest fires are other agents that add to air pollution.
As far as Kathmandu is concerned, air pollution varies depending upon the time of the day.
Pollution level during early mornings and evenings in Kathmandu shoots up dramatically, while it decreased in the afternoons. Also, Kathmandu tends to choke on pollution during winter months.
According to Shankar Prasad Poudel, senior divisional chemist at the Department of Environment, the government is monitoring 30 brick kilns of the Valley to analyse their contribution to air pollution in the Valley.
The ongoing road-widening driving and Melamchi pipeline laying work to have been contributing to the Capial’s air pollution.
Published: 24-03-2017 09:01 |
Countryfile is my guilty secret. On a Sunday evening, when I want to sit back and not think too much, BBC1 offers me an hour of alternative reality. It offers a Britain that is beautiful yet real, hard-working yet leisured, a place without streets, housing estates or crowds, yet unmistakably British. Its star presenter, Adam Henson, does not lie in the grass contemplating the view with a piece of straw in his mouth. He works. But round him people are allowed to play.
This year, Countryfile broke through 8 million viewers, putting it in the same league as Downton Abbey and Strictly Come Dancing. The appeal of the programme to Britain’s overwhelmingly urban population is undeniable. But is it what Henson claimed this weekend, that Countryfile offers not only space, a skyline, less light pollution, livestock, hills and mountains but also a “rural idyll”, somehow a place apart?
Watching a child deliver a lamb is captivating and gruesome
I have no doubt why the show works for me. It portrays the countryside as beautiful, but it shows a harder edge. The beauty has been manufactured by humans over centuries. This continues to require hard work, often yielding clashes and controversy. The landscape is awash not only with farmers but with conservationists, walkers, cyclists, field-sports enthusiasts and birdwatchers. Henson is himself a one-man Archers.
I like that roughly half the items in each programme are devoted to how farmers make money, and half to how others enjoy the product of their labours. There is always a running tension between these two. Watching a child deliver a lamb is captivating and gruesome. An item on the subsidy scandal of anaerobic digestion pulls no punches. The upland “rewilding” lobby is given a fair crack of the whip, as are both sides in the beaver and badger debates.
Farmers look after the landscape, but they can do immense damage. They should be held to account. And not only farmers. Some years ago, the programme put David Cameron on the spot, eliciting from him a pledge to protect the countryside as if it were his “own family”. Since his chaotic planning reforms have done more harm to the countryside than any policy in recent times, I was glad to see the programme rerun that interview and review subsequent performance. If Cameron indeed treats his family like he treats the countryside, I fear for his family.
The British countryside has never had it so bad Read more
The programme has faults. Its down-market pace, the constant chopping and changing for fear of losing audience, is irritating. Farmers are treated too kindly, their complaints indulged and that dreaded word – subsidy – too little mentioned (especially to sheep farmers).
But the secret of the programme’s success, I am sure, is as a window on a Britain that most viewers have forgotten exists. Britons take more holidays abroad than any other big nation. If they travel at home, it is by train or motorway between urban settlements.
As a result, the political consensus holds that there is no constituency for the rural landscape. It holds that people resent farm subsidies and feel that food could be more cheaply imported; if people want homes, build over the countryside.
This view of public opinion is clearly misguided. In survey after survey, “the countryside” rates with the monarchy, the NHS and Shakespeare among the most admired features of the national personality. Countryfile shows that this admiration is not an abstraction. It is indeed escapist, but that of a desire for relief from the confines of the city. It is escapism with attitude.
The explosion of countryside TV helping treat our ‘nature deficit disorder’ Read more
The countryside is today being extensively reworked to suit the demands of townspeople – variously for leisure, open air and wildlife. It is not so much a place where a small minority of the population works. It is where a majority of townspeople enjoy themselves. The Peak District national park is the second most-visited in the world. The Lake District and the Pennines are the lungs of the north-west. The Chilterns and Downs confine London in its basin, a constraint but also a blessed relief. All this must be recognised by farmers.
Britain after the second world war was the inventor and master practitioner of “town and country planning”. Today, its guardianship of historic buildings is relatively successful. Its guardianship of the rural landscape is deplorable. Cameron has put green belts up for grabs. Rural settlements are no longer allowed to grow organically, but are besieged by estates. Distribution sheds proliferate amid a wilderness of wind turbines and agribusiness. Their siting is no longer planned and regulated. It is let rip.
Amid all this, Countryfile is a political warning. It suggests that the countryside carries clout, not from the farming lobby but from a new group – a wider British public introduced to its qualities of beauty and delight. This is the most political programme I know. |
Bert Spector is associate professor of international business and strategy at the D'Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University.
Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump made much of his business experience, claiming he’s been “creating jobs and rebuilding neighborhoods my entire adult life.”
The fact that he was from the business world rather than a career politician was something that appealed to many of his supporters.
It’s easy to understand the appeal of a president as CEO. The U.S. president is indisputably the chief executive of a massive, complex, global structure known as the federal government. And if the performance of our national economy is vital to the well-being of us all, why not believe that Trump’s experience running a large company equips him to effectively manage a nation?
Instead of a “fine-tuned machine,” however, the opening weeks of the Trump administration have revealed a White House that’s chaotic, disorganized and anything but efficient. Examples include rushed and poorly constructed executive orders, a dysfunctional national security team, and unclear and even contradictory messages emanating from multiple administrative spokesmen, which frequently clash with the tweets of the president himself.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) succinctly summed up the growing sentiment even some Republicans are feeling: “Nobody knows who’s in charge.”
So why the seeming contradiction between his businessman credentials and chaotic governing style?
Well for one thing, Trump wasn’t a genuine CEO. That is, he didn’t run a major public corporation with shareholders and a board of directors that could hold him to account. Instead, he was the head of a family-owned, private web of enterprises. Regardless of the title he gave himself, the position arguably ill-equipped him for the demands of the presidency.
[Trump wants to manage the economy by personally running every business. He can’t.]
Several years ago, I explored the distinction between public and private companies in detail when the American Bar Association invited me to write about what young corporate lawyers needed to understand about how business works. Based on that research, I want to point to an important set of distinctions between public corporations and private businesses, and what it all means for President Trump.
Public corporations are companies that offer their stock to pretty much anyone via organized exchanges or by some over-the-counter mechanism. To protect investors, the government created the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which imposes an obligation of transparency on public corporations that does not apply to private businesses like the Trump Organization.
The SEC, for example, requires the CEOs of public corporations to make full and public disclosures of their financial positions. Annual 10-K reports, quarterly 10-Q’s and occasional special 8-K’s require disclosure of operating expenses, significant partnerships, liabilities, strategies, risks and plans.
Additionally, an independent firm overseen by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board conducts an audit of these financial statements to ensure thoroughness and accuracy.
Finally, the CEO, along with the chief financial officer, is criminally liable for falsification or manipulation of the company’s reports. Remember the 2001 Enron scandal? CEO Jeffrey Skilling was convicted of conspiracy, fraud and insider trading and initially sentenced to 24 years in prison.
Then there is the matter of internal governance.
The CEO of a public company is subject to an array of constraints and a varying but always substantial degree of oversight. There are boards of directors, of course, that review all major strategic decisions, among other duties. And there are separate committees that assess CEO performance and determine compensation, composed entirely of independent or outside directors without any ongoing involvement in running the business.
Whole categories of CEO decisions, including mergers and acquisitions, changes in the corporation’s charter, and executive compensation packages, are subject to the opinion of shareholders and directors.
In addition, the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act requires — for now — regular nonbinding shareholder votes on the compensation packages of top executives.
And then there’s this critical fact: Well-governed firms tend to outperform poorly governed ones, often dramatically. And that’s because of factors like a strong board of directors, more transparency, a responsiveness to shareholders, thorough and independent audits, and so forth.
None of the obligations listed above applied to Trump, who was owner, chairman and president of the Trump Organization, a family-owned limited liability company (LLC) that has owned and run hundreds of businesses involving real estate, hotels, golf courses, private jet rentals, beauty pageants and even bottled water.
LLCs are specifically designed to offer owners tax advantages, maximum flexibility, and financial and legal protections without either the benefits (such as access to equity capital markets) or the many obligations of a public corporation.
For example, as I noted above, a corporate CEO is required by law to allow scrutiny of the financial consequences of his or her decisions by others. As such, CEOs know the value of having a strong executive team able to serve as a sounding board and participate in key strategic decisions.
Trump, by contrast, as the head of a family business was accountable to no one and reportedly ran his company that way. His executive team comprised his children and people who are loyal to him, and his decision-making authority was unconstrained by any internal governance mechanisms. Decisions concerning what businesses to start or exit, how much money to borrow and at what interest rates, how to market products and services, and how — or even whether — to pay suppliers or treat customers were made centrally and not subject to review.
[I sold Trump $100,000 worth of pianos. Then he stiffed me.]
Clearly, this poorly equips Trump to be president and accountable to lawmakers, the courts and ultimately the voters.
Another important aspect of the public corporation is the notion of transparency and the degree to which it enables accountability.
A lack of transparency and reluctance to engage in open disclosure characterized the formulation of Trump’s immigration ban that was quickly overturned in federal court. That same tendency toward secrecy was manifest throughout the campaign, such as when he refused to disclose much about his health (besides this cursory “note”) or release any of his tax returns.
While there’s no law that requires a candidate to divulge either health or tax status, that lack of transparency kept potentially vital information from U.S. voters. And Trump’s continuing lack of transparency as president has kept experts and advisers in the dark, leading to precisely the confusion, mixed messages and dysfunction that have characterized these early weeks. And, of course, this can quickly lead to a continuing erosion of public trust.
Trump, it should be noted, made one stab at a public company: Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts. That was an unmitigated disaster, leading to five separate declarations of bankruptcy before finally going under, all this while other casino companies thrived. Public investors ignored all the signs in favor of the showmanship and glitz of the Trump brand and, as a result, lost millions of dollars. Trump allotted himself a huge salary and bonuses, corporate perks, and special merchandising deals.
What is especially telling about this experience is that, rather than speaking on behalf of fiduciary responsibilities for the best interests of the corporation, Trump noted, “I make great deals for myself.”
There is no need to be overly naive here.
Some CEOs also operate in a highly centralized manner, expecting obedience rather than participation from direct reports. All business executives expect a shared commitment from their employees to their corporate goals and value dependability, cooperation and loyalty from subordinates.
But the involvement of a multiplicity of voices with diverse perspectives and different backgrounds and fields of expertise improves the quality of resulting decisions. Impulsive decision-making by an individual or a small, cloistered group of followers can and often will lead to disastrous results.
Virtually every U.S. president, ranging from the great to the inconsequential and even the disastrous, has emerged from one of two groups: career politicians or generals. So why not a CEO president?
Without question, a background in politics does not guarantee an effective presidency. Abraham Lincoln, the consensus choice among historians for the best president ever, was a career politician, but so was his disastrous successor, Andrew Johnson.
Likewise, we can think of many traits of an effective corporate CEO that could serve a president well: transparency and accountability, responsiveness to internal governance, and commitment to the interest of the overall corporation over and above self-enrichment.
Sadly, that is not Trump’s background. His experience overseeing an interconnected tangle of LLCs and his one disastrous term as CEO of a public corporation suggest a poor background to be chief executive of the United States. As such, “nobody knows who’s in charge” may be the mantra for years to come.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. |
CLOSE Become a tipping expert by learning exactly who you should tip and by how much. VPC
Half of Americans tip between 16-20%. Do you? (Photo: Photosiber, Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Are you a Republican man from Connecticut paying for your meal with a credit card? You’re probably a great tipper, according to a new report from CreditCards.com.
The credit card information website teamed up with researchers from Princeton and surveyed about 1,000 adults across the U.S. Their study indicates that the best tippers are men, Republicans, from the Northeast, and customers paying with a credit or debit card. These groups generally tip a median of 20% when dining at a restaurant.
The study says that women, Democrats, Southerners, and those paying in cash leave a 15% to 16% tip, on average.
Why are some groups better tippers than others?
"Generally it all comes down to income," said Matt Schulz, senior analyst at CreditCards.com. "The more money you have the more likely you are to leave a little extra tip on the table."
Tipping etiquette can spark hot debate. The etiquette experts at the Emily Post Institute recommends diners tip at least 15% to 20% pre-tax at a sit-down restaurant.
About half of tippers in the survey fell into that sweet spot, tipping between 16% and 20%. On the low end, one-in-five customers at dine-in restaurants don’t leave any gratuity at all.
“I was definitely surprised by how many people tip over 15%, but I was also surprised by how many people never tip at all at a restaurant,” said Schulz..
“How is that even possible? I’m guessing they don't get very good service on their next visit,” he said.
More: Diners leave waitress taunting note and no tip
Tipping: There's no guarantee
Tipping is a cultural norm in America and those tips are how many people pay the bills. In most states, tipped workers generally make about $2.13 per hour as base pay and the rest of their salary comes in the form of tips, according to government data, with many having to split tips with other restaurant staff.
Tipped workers make the federal minimum wage, before gratuities, in just nine states: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New York, Oregon and Washington.
Waitstaff are dependent on the goodwill of their customers for their salary, according to Teofilo Reyes, of Restaurant Opportunities Center United, an organization that advocates for restaurant workers.
CLOSE How much is the right amount to tip your delivery driver. Buzz60's Sam Berman has the full story. Buzz60
“Tips can vary pretty dramatically, so there’s no stability in wages from tipping.” Reyes said. “There’s no guarantee that someone’s going to tip you.”
Rayes said tipping is really dependent on the personality of the customer and can be based on a lot more factors than just service, like race. A 2008 study conducted by Michael Lynn, a professor at Cornell University, found that both black and white customers tip black servers less than their white counterparts.
Payscale, an online salary database, estimates that hourly tips can range from $1.01 to $16.16. Tips can account for 58% of a waiter’s salary, according to Payscale.
Although employers are required to pay tipped workers minimum wage after tips, in 2016 the food service industry owed employees almost $40 million in back pay.
Pay violations disproportionately impact women and people of color in the service industry. Seventy percent of servers are women, and a ROCU study found that 90% of women who rely on tips have experienced sexual harassment at work, both from managers and customers.
“ The idea that 'the customer’s always right' becomes much more salient. You can’t stand up for yourself unless you’re willing to lose your wages,” said Reyes.
Some customers argue that instead of tipping, restaurants should simply pay workers a fair wage. In response, restaurants including upscale eateries like Per Se and The French Laundry have banned tipping altogether.
When Joe's Crab Shack experimented with eliminating tips, customers complained of higher food prices and poor service. Cornell's Lynn is unsure whether the quality of service actually decreased or the expectation of poorer service was enough to upset customers, but as a result, Joe's Crab Shack brought back tipping.
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For Bangladeshis, the tragedy at the garment factory in Savar is a symbol of our failure as a nation. The crack that caused the collapse of the building has shown us that if we don't face up to the cracks in our own systems, we as a nation will get lost in the debris. Today, the souls of those who lost their lives in Rana Plaza are watching what we are doing and listening to what we say. The last breath of those souls surrounds us.
Did we learn anything at all from this terrible loss of life? Or will we have completed our duty by merely expressing our deep sympathy? What should we do, now that news of a deadly fire in another factory in Dhaka reaches us?
Important questions have been raised about the future of the garment industry. Pope Francis has said buyers are treating the garment workers like slave labourers. A very large foreign buyer, Disney, has decided to pull out of Bangladesh. Others may follow. If that happens, it will severely damage our social and economic future. This industry has brought about immense change in our society by transforming the lives of women. We cannot allow it to be destroyed. Instead, Bangladeshis must be united as a nation to strengthen the garment industry, and foreign companies must play their part too.
I propose that foreign buyers jointly fix a minimum international wage for the industry. This might be about 50 cents an hour, twice the level typically found in Bangladesh. This minimum wage would be an integral part of reforming the industry, which would help to prevent future tragedies. We have to make international companies understand that while the workers are physically in Bangladesh, they are contributing their labour to the businesses: they are stakeholders. Physical separation should not be grounds to ignore the wellbeing of this labour.
Of course, we have to be prepared for a negative market reaction. Some will argue that Bangladesh would lose the competitiveness it has gained by offering the cheapest labour. To retain its competitiveness, Bangladesh would have to increase its attractiveness in other ways, for example, by increasing productivity and specialised labour skills, regaining buyers' trust, and ensuring workers' welfare. But until we are able to fix an international minimum wage, we will not be able to pull workers from the grievous category of "slave labour" the pope placed them in.
Gaining support for the minimum wage won't be easy, but through sincere discussions with politicians, business leaders, citizens, church groups and the media in consumer countries, it can be achieved. In the past, I have tried to convince foreign buyers – but without success. Now after the Savar tragedy, the issue has gained a new urgency. I want to mobilise my international and Bangladeshi friends to make stronger and more persistent efforts this time. It wouldn't be necessary for all the companies to agree on the minimum wage at the same time. If some leading firms take the initiative, it would start the ball rolling.
There is also another practical way to help ensure better standards for Bangladeshi garment workers. Let's say a garment factory produces and sells a piece of clothing for $5, which is then packaged and shipped to New York. This $5 includes not only the production, packaging, shipment, profit and management but also indirectly covers the share that goes to the cotton farmers, yarn mills, and the cost of dying and weaving.
When US customers buy this item from a shop for $35, they feel happy that they've got a bargain. But everyone who was involved in the production collectively received $5. Another $30 was added in the US for taking the product to the final consumer. Now, with a little effort, we could make a huge impact in the lives of workers. Would a consumer in a shopping mall feel upset if they were asked to pay $35.50 instead of $35? My answer is no, they won't even notice. If we could create a Garment Workers Welfare Trust in Bangladesh with that additional 50 cents, we could resolve most of the problems workers face – safety, work environment, pensions, healthcare, housing, their children's health, education, childcare, retirement, old age and travel. Everything could be taken care of through this trust.
Bangladesh exports garments worth $18bn each year. If all the garment buyers accept this proposal, the trust would receive $1.8bn each year. That's $500 in the trust for each of the 3.6 million workers. All we have to do is to sell the item of clothing for $35.50 instead of $35. A barely noticeable change to the price could work wonders.
Of course, international buyers may argue that extra 50 cents would reduce the demand for the product and that their profits would shrink. But we would offer them an arrangement whereby their sales would go up, instead of down. The extra 50 cents could be a marketing tool to make the product more attractive to consumers. We could put a special tag on each piece of clothing, saying: "From the happy workers of Bangladesh, with pleasure. Workers' wellbeing guaranteed." It could be endorsed by Grameen, the NGO Brac, or some other respected international organisation. There could be a beautiful logo to go with it.
When consumers saw that a well-known and trusted institution had taken responsibility to ensure both the present and the future of the workers who produced the garment, they wouldn't mind paying 50 cents extra.Consumers would be proud to support the product and the company, rather than feeling guilty about wearing a product made under harsh working conditions.
I do not expect all companies will immediately implement my proposal. I hope a few come forward to experiment, and that their country's governments, organisations that work to protect labour rights, citizens groups, church groups and the media will step forward to support it, too. This issue should attract attention more urgently now in light of the deaths in Savar.
Pulling industry out of Bangladesh is not a solution. It would be unfortunate for Bangladesh and for the foreign buyers. There is no sense in them leaving a country that has benefited a great deal from their business, a country that could have continuing rapid and visible economic and social progress because of them, a country that would always remain grateful to them.
I believe they would rather remain in Bangladesh, and take pride in creating a new society and economy. Changes are taking place in the world of business. Even if they are tiny changes, they are coming nonetheless. We can accelerate that change.
The Savar tragedy has created a huge wound and deep pain in the minds of the people of this country. I pray that from this deep pain we will find a way to resolve the problems in our national life. When we watched the tragedy unfold on our television screens – the hundreds of helpless people dead and injured – it made us aware of what our dysfunctional system has led us to. After all this, will we just keep on watching as it keeps on happening, again and again?
When will we come to our senses? |
The Right to Parent, Even If You Are Poor
Carolyn Hill speaks at a June 15, 2012 protest at the Philadelphia Department of Human Services. (Every Mother is a Working Mother Network)
Carolyn Hill still remembers the night, two years ago, when the Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS) came to take her nieces away. The girls, ages 1 and 2, had been placed with her about a year earlier, after being removed from their mother's custody due to her mental health issues. Hill thought she’d begun the process of adopting the girls: She’d taken parenting classes at the request of the agency and had begun paperwork so that she could go forward with adoption.
But on Tuesday April 3, 2012, Hill got a call from the Lutheran Children and Family Service (LCFS), a nonprofit that had taken over her case the previous fall (Philadelphia's DHS farms out its caretaking services to a number of nonprofits). The caller said that she needed to speak with Hill that day. The social worker who had called Hill arrived at her home after 5pm and, without prior warning, took Hill's nieces away. “She didn't even let them finish eating—I had stopped to get them some food, but she just took them right on out,” Hill tells In These Times. (LCFS did not return a request for comment.)
When Hill called DHS to find out why the girls had been removed from her care, she was told that everyone was on Easter vacation (Easter would fall on the following Sunday, a full five days away). “It felt like it was a set-up for them to come get the kids [at a time] when I can't get in touch with anybody,” she says. Hill went to court the following Monday. She says she was not informed by the agency of how she could fight the removal: “I was supposed to go within 30 days [of the court hearing] and file an appeal—file for standing—but nobody told me about that.”
Two years later, she still isn't sure why the girls were removed from her custody. The answers, she says, keep changing. The agencies brought up a drug conviction for which she served six months' probation in 1999—something the city knew about when she first took custody of her nieces, she says—and accused her of having mental health issues because she possessed Ambien to help her sleep. They also complained that she did not have a GED.
Hill began to seek ways to get her nieces back, and soon found an ally: Every Mother is a Working Mother Network (EMWM), a Philadelphia- and Los Angeles-based group that works to combat the devaluation of parenting labor, particularly as done by low-income women of color. Members of the group have advised her, helped her find a lawyer, and will be available to testify that she would be a fit parent for her nieces.
EMWM sees Hill’s case as an example of an ongoing problem not just in Philadelphia, but also across the country and around the world: Poverty and a lack of opportunity become an excuse to separate children from their families
“How dare they say that she cannot have the children because she doesn't have a high school diploma?” asks Selma James, author of Sex, Race and Class, cofounder of the 1970s International Wages for Housework Campaign and coordinator of the Global Women’s Strike, an international network that aims to value the caring labor disproportionately performed by women, of which EMWM is a member. James continues, “The class bias that says that anybody who doesn't have a GED therefore can't be a parent is so blatant that it's terrifying.” |
The Enlightened Equipment (EE) Revolt Underquilt is a hammock underquilt with an integrated perimeter suspension system that is compatible with any gathered end hammock. Like many other underquilts, it has a differential cut rather than a rectangular one (the inner shell is slightly smaller than the outer shell) that conforms to curve of your body and hammock to improved weight-to-thermal efficiency.
Custom-made
EE makes all of their underquilts and top quilts on a semi-custom basis where you select the dimensions, down fill power, colors, and fabrics you want on your quilt. Ordering through their website is very simple and easy to do and they’re very responsive if you have any questions about what to get.
Here are the full specs for my Enlightened Equipment Revo Underquilt:
MSRP: US $250.00
Insulation: 800 fill power, DownTek-treated down
Fabric/colors: Green outer 10d fabric DWR-coated, Charcoal inner 10d fabric DWR-coated
Weight: 19.3 ounces
Loft: 2.5″
Measurements: 75 x 45
800 Down Fill Weight: 13 oz
Temperature Rating: 20F
Down Fill
The Revolt Underquilt shown here is rated for 20 degrees fahrenheit and insulated with 800 fill power DownTek treated duck down. EE uses duck down in all of their 800 and 850 fill power quilts, and goose down in their 900 and 950 fill power quilts, with the option to get DownTek treated down which is nice since the underquilt may be exposed to spashback and high humidity in rainy weather. There’s also no price difference between the two.
Is 800 fill power duck down less warm than 800 fill power goose down? No, but it is less expensive. Fill power is fill power (See Down Fill Power Ratings) regardless of whether the down is from a duck or a goose, but you should be aware that EE sources their down from different animals nonetheless.
I ordered an 800 fill power down Revo underquilt even though they offer 850, 900, and 950 fill power goose down because I determined it was the best value for my dollar. The price for high end goose down has dropped since then, so it’s worth comparing the costs and benefits again. If you can afford it, get the highest fill power rating you can reasonably afford. It will perform better during the lifetime of ownership.
Sizing
I ordered a size extra-long underquilt (75″ x 45″) so I wouldn’t have to augment it with a foam pad under my feet or adjust the position of the insulation to cover my feet by pulling one end longer than the other for an asymmetric lay. Weight was a secondary concern to cold weather comfort as far as I was concerned. Up to a limit at least.
Suspension
The thermal efficiency of a underquilt is very dependent on the effectiveness of the suspension system you have and it’s important that a cold weather quilt fit snugly against your body without any air gaps at the ends. You really want the underquilt insulation pulled up close against your body even if this means cranking down on the elastic suspension lines on your underquilt.
Most full length underquilts have an elastic cord running horizontally along the long side. These are usually attached to the ends of a gathered end hammock using an S-biner. When you tension them using a cord lock or line loc it pulls the underquilt close to the bottom and sides of the hammock so the down insulation can insulate your butt, shoulders, and feet. There are also elastic cords that run perpendicular to the hammock that are used to block off any airflow at the ends between the underquilt and the hammock.
The Revolt has an elastic cord that runs lengthwise along the underquilt which is attached to the corner using a piece of webbing and a line loc for easy adjustment. The cord runs through a channel under the shell fabric. The same system is used for the horizontal cord running underneath and perpendicular to the hammock, although small cordlocks are used instead.
Enlightened Equipment has an add-on option to add two plastic clips to the end of the Revolt suspension to make them easier to clip onto your hammock suspension. However, they’re quite difficult to use in cool weather and I suggest you connect both lines to a NiteIze S-biner and clip that to your hammock suspension instead.
The Dream Hammock Thunderbird shown here, has underquilt hooks that help keep the sides of the underquilt in place during the night. It’s a handy feature that makes it easier to keep the sides of the underquilt at the right height and prevents them from slipping over to the other side when you move around at night.
Performance
I’ve had the EE Revolt Underquilt down to 20 degrees multiple times and been cozy warm. While everyone’s experience with a underquilt is going to be different depending on their physiology, what they’re wearing, and when they last ate, I feel that the 20 degree temperature rating on my quilt is spot on if not a bit conservative. I do try to optimize all those other factors by wearing long underwear, a warm hat, and eating fatty foods before bed regardless.
On hindsight, buying the EE Revolt in the extra long length was a good call. It’s long enough that I don’t have to worry about its position at night, which can be a problem with a shorter length quilt.
How does the EE Revolt Underquilt stack up against underquilts from other cottage manufacturers that specialize in hammock insulation. So so, to be honest. I sold my Revolt after using it for less than a year and switched to underquilts from Loco Libre and UGQ Outdoor. Their underquilts have draft collars that make them far more effective and wind resistant in colder weather. They have better shell fabrics as well. Buying a underquilt from EE isn’t a terrible purchase, but they aren’t really a hammock-centric company and focus on making products for people who sleep on the ground.
Disclosure: Philip Werner purchased all of the products in this review with his own funds.
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Glasgow Rangers boss Mark Warburton is continuing his search to for another striker to bring to Ibrox.
Rangers manager Mark Warburton confirmed that he wants to bolster his attacking options
Mark Warburton confirmed to the Evening Times earlier this month that he was still hoping to sign a new striker ahead of Rangers' return to the Scottish Premiership.
With Martyn Waghorn and Kenny Miller largely scoring goals for fun last season, the Light Blues should be targeting someone that would ask different questions of opposition defenders to give them more variety at the highest level.
Martyn Waghorn finished as the side's top goalscorer last season
Fulham forward Matt Smith would arguably provide that variety in abundance.
His height would unquestionably allow for the Gers to adopt a more direct style if it was required, but it would be foolish to suggest that he was not capable of finding the back of the net using his feet.
The 27-year-old's record in front of goal is pretty impressive considering that 93 of his 161 league appearances since moving to Oldham in 2011 have come from the substitutes' bench.
Matt Smith
Having played for the likes of Leeds and the Cottagers, he would surely have a fairly strong idea of the expectation that exists at Ibrox. United are always spoken of as a team that should be contending for promotion from the Championship given their history, while Fulham only fell out of the top flight a couple of years ago so often also feature in the same conversations.
And with Waghorn proving that he is more than capable of scoring goals as one of the wide-men in a front three, Smith's presence in the middle would certainly not hinder last season's top scorer's own tally.
Smith would allow the Gers the chance to adopt a more direct style
In fact, the problems that Smith could cause could make the former Sunderland man's task easier as he may be earmarked as the man that sides need to mark out of the game, which may enable the likes of Waghorn and Miller to exploit the spaces left behind.
With Fulham losing Moussa Dembele to Rangers' Old Firm rivals recently, it remains to be seen how they would feel about letting another of their forwards go this summer. But if Warburton was able to pull off a deal, it could provide his squad with the kind of depth up front that very few teams will be able to cope with. |
While solar panels and wind turbines are the two best-known methods of generating renewable energy, they aren’t the only approaches. The day after we learned that Apple has become a power company, we hear that it has just been given the go-ahead to employ a particularly cool method.
Landfill gas utilization traps the methane gas given off from landfill sites and either converts it into pipeline-grade gas or uses it to generate electricity. It’s doubly environmentally friendly, generating power from waste but also preventing the release of methane – a greenhouse gas – into the atmosphere …
NordVPN
Hickory Record reports that Apple has just been given the go-ahead to construct a landfill gas energy plant in North Carolina. In Apple’s case, it will use fuel cells to generate electricity from the gas.
A new lease agreement between Catawba County and Apple will allow for the construction of a renewable energy facility that harnesses landfill gas […] The lease lasts for 16 years with an option to go five years longer. In a separate Landfill Gas Sales Agreement with Quadrogen Power Systems, Inc., the county agreed to sell about 40 percent of its landfill methane. Quadrogen will treat the methane for use in the Apple facility.
A Catawba County spokesperson described the technology as ‘the next great energy source that is clean and safe for citizens across the entire country.’
Apple has a major data center in North Carolina which is already powered entirely by renewable energy, using a mix of solar panels and biogas cells. |
The rape of the 13-year-old, the latest such attack to 'cure' homosexuality, adds to calls for action – and retaliation
A 13-year-old lesbian has become the latest victim of "corrective rape" in South Africa, prompting activists to call for direct retaliatory action.
The girl, who is said to be open about her sexuality, was raped in Pretoria last Thursday, a government spokesman said.
Campaigners say so-called corrective rape, in which men rape lesbians to "cure" them of their sexual orientation, is on the increase in South Africa. Thirty-one lesbians have been killed because of their sexuality in the past decade, campaigners say, and more than 10 lesbians a week are raped or gang raped in Cape Town alone.
Last month, a 24-year-old woman who belonged to a gay and lesbian rights group was stoned to death after an apparent gang rape.
Officials said the 13-year-old victim's case is being investigated by police and she and her family are receiving support. Tlali Tlali, a government spokesman, said it seemed to be another incident of corrective rape, adding: "Government condemns this senseless and cowardly act of criminality."
Tlali said every South African had the right to express themselves in the sexual orientation of their choice. "Gay and lesbian rights are human and constitutional rights which must be protected and respected at all times."
Ndumie Funda, founder of the Luleki Sizwe Project, a charity that supports survivors of corrective rape in Cape Town, said she had heard reports of a transgender person being raped over the weekend. "It is getting worse and needs to come to an end," she said. "People are not being given a platform to come out of the closet. What about those who are locked in a cage and cannot come out? It's not fair and it's about time we talk."
Funda, 37, became involved in the campaign when she met Nosizwe Nomsa Bizana, who had been raped at gunpoint by five men and infected with HIV. The couple became engaged but Bizana died in 2007. Funda is forced to take a different route home every day to avoid being targeted because of her public activism.
She estimates about 510 women report corrective rape in South Africa each year and warned of a popular backlash. "It is about time we retaliate," she said.
Possible action includes disrupting imminent local elections. "We used to say during the apartheid era we will deal with them the way the enemy deals with us. The retaliation will be legitimated by the reaction of the people. I cannot give further details until I confer with the other comrades."
Last month, Noxolo Nogwaza, a member of the Ekurhuleni Pride Organising Committee, a gay rights group, was allegedly raped by eight men and murdered in KwaThema township near Johannesburg. Human Rights Watch said evidence suggested Nogwaza was targeted because she was lesbian. It described the murder as the latest in an epidemic of brutal homophobic attacks in South Africa and called on the government to take action.
Nogwaza's body was found in the same township where Eudy Simelane, a former South African international women's footballer, was gang raped, beaten and stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs.
Other alleged victims of corrective rape include Nokuthula Radebe, 20, whose body was found in Soweto in March this year, and Sizakele Sigasa and Salome Masooa, partners who were raped and murdered in 2007. A court case involving the murder of 19-year-old Zoliswa Nkonyana in 2006 has been postponed more than 30 times in five years.
Last week, the government set up a team to address hate crimes against lesbian and gay South Africans after 170,000 people around the world signed an online petition demanding action against corrective rape – a record for a campaign on the social change website change.org.
In 2006 South Africa became the fifth country in the world, and the first in Africa, to legalise gay marriage. It is a signatory to the international Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
But the gap between constitutional theory and practice on the ground remains stark. Research by the country's Medical Research Council has found that one in four men admit committing rape, and one in three in Gauteng province, where Nogwaza and Simelane were attacked.
Dean Peacock, co-founder and co-director of the Sonke Gender Justice Network, said its research had found some men described feeling threatened by gender transformation, including the assertion of women's and children's rights.
He said: "When you compare South Africa with other countries, what distinguishes it is gang rape: a performance of masculinity, young men proving themselves to each other and saying to a woman: 'We're not prepared for you to assert that kind of autonomy, especially sexual autonomy'."
Peacock said that some men in post-apartheid South Africa occupied a "dangerous nexus" of patriarchy, masculinity, poverty, radical disappointment with the government, profound feelings of insignificance, and a sense they can act with impunity. But they were still individual agents able to make choices, and nothing could excuse horrendous violence against women, he said. |
I went to a Jesuit missionary school. We called the priests “Father”. We called the other male teachers “Sir”. And the women “Miss”. As a boy I was less alarmed by the bleeding man on the crucifix as by the pictures of Jesus and Mary where you could see their glowing hearts through their robes. It looked like some kind of scary open-heart surgery to me. We did learn to rattle off the Lord’s Prayer – Our Father who art in heaven – without ever really thinking about the meaning of what we were saying. But we did not go to Catechism classes, we sang patriotic Bengali songs during the drill display and the priests lent us not Bibles but sci-fi books and westerns. No one that I knew in my class converted to Christianity. And we did Saraswati Puja at home and at every examination I carried with me a small paper twist with dried flowers from that puja. As a goddess exclusively devoted to learning, she remained unquestionably the first port of call when it came to divine help during trigonometry. To this day I remember both the Lord’s Prayer and the Saraswati-mantra by heart.
If a Vishwa Hindu Parishad had shown up and demanded we install Saraswati images in our school and insisted we call the teachers “Pracharya” or “Up-pracharya” or Guruji or Sir (hardly a very “Hindu” word, that one) we would have been more bewildered than upset. But in Bastar the VHP and missionaries who run 22 schools in a tribal district have been locked in negotiations over exactly those kind of issues. They have also demanded no Santa Claus distribute sweets to the children during Christmas.
It’s obviously not really about what you call teachers. Or Santa Claus. Or Ma Saraswati either. It’s all about power play. The missionaries are accused of converting poor tribals. The VHP has been trying to ramp up its re-conversion “Ghar Vapasi” programmes. These latest measures are just warning shots that are part of that larger battle. It was apparently triggered by the alarm raised when the Bishop of Jagdalpur said a missionary school should be established with every church in the region.
The issue around conversion and missionaries especially in tribal areas is a complicated and tricky one. A missionary-run school in tribal Bastar is not the same as the missionary-run school in middle-class Calcutta. Interfaith minister Philip Goldberg, author of American Veda: How Indian Spirituality Changed the West writes about the shady practices of zealots who target the poor and illiterate sometimes offering free treatment in return for conversion or dressing in orange robes to look like swamis. They are, he says “like door-to-door salesmen racking up commissions” and sounding more like “snake-oil hucksters of legend than servants of Christ” devoted to serving “the least of these.”
But to respond to the misdeeds of some missionaries by heavy-handedly trying to introduce Hindu symbols into a missionary school is merely a way of flexing muscle to let them know who is Big Boss. Saraswati is not being installed as a Goddess of Learning but as a watchdog in the guise of Goddess, a muscular assertion that this is a Hindu country and they had better watch their step. What next? A demand for Saraswati in a madarsah? A missionary-run school is run by a religious order and parents who put their children into such a school are well aware of it. That’s just as true for the Catholic missionary schools as it is for the ones run by the Ramakrishna Mission.
As for the schools in Bastar who knows if Saraswati is even prominent in the pantheon of these tribal communities whose children go to these schools? The priests are called Father because it is part of their religious practice and the VHP must think very little of the intelligence of the average child if they regard this as a source of great confusion to impressionable minds. “We asked the missionaries what was the meaning of father? Father means pita. We have only one father, how can we address a teacher as father?” says Suresh Yadav of the VHP. However Saraswati can be called Mata because “matayen aur behanen we say before any address.” I have known families where the children have gone to my missionary-run alma mater for generations. I have never heard of anyone confused about the difference between the Father Bouche and Father Bruylants in school and the real father at home.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is of course welcome to start or fund its own schools complete with Saraswati images and Pracharyas. One wonders how it would react to outsiders telling it what pictures to hang on its walls. Some would be happy if the government banned missionary schools altogether except there are plenty of schools in India affiliated to Hindu religious orders as well and what's sauce for the goose will become sauce for the gander as well.
This particular skirmish sounds more ridiculous than ominous. The VHP is happy to make outlandish attention-grabbing demands to stay in the media limelight and its Praveen Togadia has butted heads with Narendra Modi in the past. But the church in Bastar cannot just dismiss the VHP’s fulminations as hot air. Sometimes hot air can have fiery consequences. It remembers the how missionary Graham Staines and his sons were burned to death in their station wagon in Keonhjhar, Odisha by a gang led by a Bajrang Dal activist.
A Saraswati image in a Bastar school is a long distance away from a burning station wagon in Odisa. But when bullying enters a school’s syllabus, in the name of protecting the children, it should worry us all.
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The Air Force encounters turbulence of the digital kind when it underestimates the complexity of moving the service to a single network.
The U.S. Air Force’s migration to a new enterprise network known as AFNET will be at least two years late in completion because the project turned out to be more complicated than planners anticipated.
The move to AFNET was designed to eliminate costly and increasingly difficult-to-maintain stand-alone legacy networks at 27 of the Air Force’s bases and major commands and consolidate the service under one global network. AFNET also includes the creation of regional processing centers located at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois; Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; and Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. And, while the service has begun to see some benefits from the migration, the project is not expected to be finished until sometime in 2014.
“We underestimated the complexity of trying to do the migration with all those different standards,” admits Markus Rogers, director of network architecture with the Air Force Network Integration Center (AFNIC), Scott Air Force Base. AFNIC has been tasked with being the central unit responsible for all aspects of the project, including technology, training and acquisition; work began in 2008.
At first, AFNIC developed what can best be described as a false sense of accomplishment when it began the AFNET migration in the offices of one of the Air Force’s major commands, the Air Mobility Command. “We started with them because they had already consolidated, and we wanted to use the lessons learned from their consolidation in our process moving forward. And, we were very successful with that command,” indicates Rogers.
However, the success was to be short-lived, or as Rogers puts it, “We underestimated then how much harder it was going to be to move to the next command, which was the Air Education and Training Command [AETC].” The difference here, he continues, is that the AETC had not yet consolidated its network, “and that was something we had not planned for when we began the migration. That was the cause for some of the initial delays that we had,” he explains. The primary lesson learned was, “Don’t underestimate the complexity, and while everyone would say, ‘Yes, we are not standard, we know that and this is going to fix it,’ I would say that we did not know how nonstandard we really were,” Rogers says. As a result, the AFNET migration, which was to have been completed by the end of 2012, now is expected to be completed by March 2014 at the earliest.
In addition to the technology challenges, a cultural change was required, which Rogers admits also was vastly underestimated. He says that prior to AFNET, the bases and major commands managed their networks and infrastructure very independently. “They had built it to meet their requirements, and it was managed to meet individual requirements. However, when we stand up the AFNET, they now become a part of that Air Force network, and they no longer have their own standard that they have to meet. They now have to fall in line with the Air Force standard, and that cultural change was much more difficult than originally expected,” he says. For the most part, he considers much of the cultural resistance to have been overcome, and part of the credit goes to a key AFNET component, the Enterprise Service Desk (ESD).
Considered the centralized help desk for the entire AFNET, the ESD replaces the local help desks at bases and major commands. Now, AFNET users have one number to call for help, and, just as they do in private and public sector network operations centers, a trouble ticket is issued and tracked as part of the resolution process.
While the AFNET ESD has resulted in some significant efficiencies in handling trouble ticket items, and AFNIC has begun to see an overall reduction in the number of those trouble tickets, Rogers admits that some consideration is being given to returning some limited help desk functions to local bases and commands. “When the ESD was first stood up, bases and commands lost all their permissions, and you had to go to the ESD, and they would help. There’s been an understanding since then that this is not the most effective way to work the service desk, and there’s been some discussion of providing permissions down to the base/command level—limited permissions, but in very certain areas to allow local personnel to resolve some of these issues in a timely and more cost-effective method than trying to do everything centrally,” he explains.
Rogers explains that much of the reason for the delay can be traced to the three-phase process that must take place at each base and major command as part of the AFNET migration. In the first phase, AFNIC personnel travel to the individual facility and begin a preparation process that includes meetings with key personnel. “The second phase is what we call our user migration. This is when we come to a base, and this is the visible part of the activity, because this is where we move the users’ cheese, so to speak. They are now taken out of their legacy network, and they are put into the AFNET. That activity generally takes one to two months on average per facility, depending on the size,” he explains.
The final phase of a facility’s migration to AFNET also can be the most troublesome. “The part that is often overlooked in this process, and that is driving some of the longer periods of time to do the migration, is what we call legacy shutdown. This is where we actually migrate those legacy servers. That’s a period of time that’s very invisible to most users, but that goes on for approximately six months after we migrate a major command and as much as two to three months at a major base,” Rogers says. Along with the servers supporting legacy applications, servers supporting specialized functions and mission-specific applications are attached to AFNET for the first time, and at that point, the facility’s local network is turned off.
Rogers says as of early May, the AFNET migration has been completed at seven major commands: the AETC; Air Force Reserve Command; Air Mobility Command; Air Force Global Strike Command; Pacific Air Forces; U.S. Air Forces in Europe; and Air Force Space Command. He notes the process is considered totally complete only when the legacy networks are shut down at the major command domains. To date, this has occurred only at the Air Force Reserve Command.
In recent years, the Base Closure and Realignment process has forced many single-service military bases to become joint bases, supporting the activities of two or more defense services simultaneously. Rogers says that the move to joint bases also has caused some delays in the AFNET migration. “A lot of that is the coordination, because one service is usually in charge of that one area, but network connectivity is usually maintained by that service. So, the Air Force will run its own network, the Navy will run its own network, but that infrastructure may not necessarily be owned or run by the Air Force. That coordination between them has been challenging at times,” he admits.
Candidly, Rogers believes it is possible the Air Force may encounter even more unexpected challenges as the AFNET migration branches out to other facilities before the expected completion of the project, resulting in further delays. “Every time we start another command or start another base, we essentially have to re-learn a lot of what we learned before,” he explains. And, while there are many similarities between the stand-alone networks at Air Force facilities, it is the differences—and dealing with those differences—that complicate matters, he adds.
Lest anyone lose sight of why the AFNET migration is happening, Rogers says, all it requires is looking at some of the tangible results of the work done so far. “We’ve had a net reduction of 2,603 servers over the last four years that the Air Force no longer has to support,” he notes, and adds that in some cases, standardization has allowed AFNIC to consolidate the functions of several legacy servers into only one AFNET server. In addition, AFNET has helped elevate the level of cybersecurity on the service’s networks because bases and commands no longer depend primarily on their own network connections. Rogers adds that standardization has made it easier and faster for AFNIC to patch and deal with network vulnerabilities as they are uncovered. |
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The folks behind Platform Beer Co. are planning on opening a cider house in the Flats. That makes at least two cider houses in the works in Northeast Ohio in the coming months.
"The cider market is growing," Platform's Paul Benner said. "Craft ciders have grown so quickly."
Real-estate investor Rafid Fadul owns the Tenk Machine Building on Center Street.
Benner and Carson "have a small stake" in Urban Apple. Reed Jaskula is the force behind the cider house. The goal is dual-pronged and ambitious: Open a tasting room and plan for a massive distribution push.
The goal, Benner said, is to produce "drinkable, lower-alcohol ciders."
And striving for that goal is Benner's colleague, Jaskula, who said he aims for half a dozen ciders on tap.
Benner said they considered putting the cider house near Platform, but decided on the Flats. They will have a press and will crush the apples they bring in. "To do that in-house is unique," Benner said.
Making cider is akin to crafting beer in that you can experiment with different yeast strains. Like beer, flavors and styles can range quite a bit. To the uninitiated, it's easy to say 'Well, cider is always going to taste like apple.' But it can take on the aroma and flavor profile common in, say, a Belgian ale. Others can vary in sweetness.
"To me, I think of it between wine and beer," Benner said. "There's not a lot of education on it."
Production goals are 400 barrels the initial year, doubled to 800 in the second year and then 3,200 in year three, Benner said, with the entire state a target for distribution.
"We're gonna try to hit it hard," Jaskula said.
"Because it's a locally made product and shelves are so limited, we can grow it over time. There's a need to go outside the state" for apples. Benner said.
Benner said it will take three to six months to make the cider, so opening this year would be "optimistic."
Ohio has just a handful of cider makers, according to the Cyder Market, which tracks the industry. And when it comes to distribution, most take a very parochial approach.
One of the cider makers in the area is Richard Read's Griffin Cider Works. Late last year, Read announced plans to branch out from his five-year old cider business based in Westlake to open a cider house in Lakewood. His initial goal was to open Last Voyage Cider Houses on Thursday, April 23 - St. George's Day in his native England. Read, who is now looking at opening the end of May, said Platform's cider-house venture is a good thing for the market.
"I think it's great because it brings more attention to real cider," he said. "I hope they do it well. ... I think more than not most people are going to say 'Oh, there's a cider house here and there, that legitimates it.' I think it's great."
Read said he is working on producing Spanish ciders and will include Black Box Brewing ales at his Lakewood location. Beer choices will be Ohio-centric though not exclusive. The biggest difference between Last Voyage and Platform's venture is distribution. Read's cider will be distributed in-house only.
Jaskula said the market - for now - is "niche" but "is starting to make its way."
"We have a unique opportunity to stay ahead of the curve," he said.
With the majority of the state's craft breweries already located in Northeast Ohio, it might be doing just that when it comes to cider. |
Toronto could lose at least 2,184 infant and toddler child care spaces — and fees would skyrocket — under proposed provincial child care changes aimed at addressing 12-month maternity leaves and full-day kindergarten, according to a city report. A minimum of 325 infant spaces and 1,859 toddler spots would disappear while costs would soar by almost $21 million under the plan to change child care age groupings, group sizes and staff-child ratios, says the report to be discussed by the city’s community development committee Wednesday.
Lindsay Siple with her daughters Elise, 3, and Lilah, 5, at Plains Rd. Child Care. As president of the daycare's parent board, Siple says proposed provincial changes to age groupings, staff-child ratios and group sizes will mean fewer spaces and high fees for parents. ( Keith Beaty / Toronto Star )
It means fees would rise by 20 per cent to 40 per cent, pushing the median cost of infant care to almost $2,100 a month and toddler care to $1,850. At those costs, combined with new age restrictions and group sizes, many centres would have trouble keeping infant rooms open, the report notes. “If the regulations are implemented, the licensed child care system will decrease in size while the cost of delivering the service will increase,” says the city report. Critics say the province has proposed the changes without the benefit of detailed figures on how it would affect daycare access and cost.
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At a time when Toronto’s daycare fees are the highest in Canada and licensed space for infants and toddlers is scarce, “the proposals are contrary to the provincial goal of increasing affordability and access to licensed child care,” the report adds. The proposed changes, first released for consultation in February, have been met with a flood of community and parental opposition. More than 9,000 parents responded to a city survey about the proposed regulatory changes, with most opposed to the new age groupings and group sizes, the report says. However, the city, parents and academics support the province’s proposal to increase the ratio of fully trained early childhood educators per classroom, from one out of three workers to two out of three — despite the added cost. “We totally support the addition of qualified staff,” said Elaine Baxter-Trahair, general manager of Toronto children’s services. “It’s great for the program, for employment, and it’s wonderful for the quality and for the children.
“But we have concerns about the group sizes and the ratios simply because instead of improving access, they inadvertently reduce access.” The province has received “extensive” feedback and the proposed regulations will not be proceeding as currently drafted, said a spokeswoman for Education Minister Liz Sandals.
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“We have heard the concerns that have been raised, and we will be working with the sector to make changes to reflect the concerns heard as we continue to modernize Ontario’s child care and early years system,” Nicole McInerney said in a statement. Under the proposed changes, infant rooms would be restricted to babies up to 12 months old instead of 18 months. Babies would enter toddler rooms when they turn a year old and would move to pre-school rooms at two years old. While a three-month-old will be part of a smaller group with more staff under the proposed system, a 13-month-old will be placed in a larger group (for toddlers) with fewer staff and other children as old as 24 months. Sandals has cited one-year maternity benefits as the rationale for changes to infant age groupings. But many low-income families, students and self-employed parents can’t take advantage of those benefits. And most centres fear the change will make infant rooms unviable. “In terms of accessibility, we are going to lose spaces which will make it harder to find care,” said Toronto mother Lindsay Siple, president of the parent board at Plains Road Child Care centre near Woodbine Ave. and O’Connor Dr. “And my fees are going to go up.” Siple, who has a daughter in kindergarten and a three-year-old in the daycare’s preschool room, is expecting her third child in September. As a self-employed public health consultant who may need care when her baby is younger than 12 months old, losing the infant room in her centre would be devastating. “Finding infant care is already like winning the lottery,” she said. She is one of more than 50 families with unborn children on her centre’s waiting list for 2017. Siple is also worried her new baby may not be developmentally ready for a toddler room at 12 months and that the older children in that room would also lose out. “I can see that the older children wouldn’t necessarily be getting the care that they need because the focus would be on the safety of the younger children,” she said. This story has been updated from a previous version to add that the province is not proceeding with the proposed child care regulations as currently drafted. |
Asiana Airlines President and CEO Yoon Young-doo, fourth from right, and board members bow during a Seoul news conference about the crash-landing of an Asiana Airlines flight at San Francisco airport. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
On Sunday, Asiana Airlines President and CEO Yoon Young-doo held a news conference in Seoul, flanked by several board members, on the crash in San Francisco that killed two passengers and wounded many others. The South Korean airline executive said all of the things you might expect: he explained what he knew, offered condolences for the victims and defended the airlines' pilots and planes. Then he did something that, for American audience, was more unusual: he offered not just a personal apology but a deep, solemn bow. The Asiana board members on the stage bowed with him.
Part of this, of course, is that bowing is common in South Korea but not really done in the United States. But there's more to it than that. South Korea's corporate culture, like the Korean economic boom of the last few decades, is unusual and much-studied. In some ways, this bow was a symbol of what makes the country's corporate culture so different.
Part of it has to do with the way South Korea's economy grew: with a heavy guiding hand from the state. The government helped a number of once-small companies consolidate into massive conglomerates known as chaebols, which are often family-run and have since accumulated tremendous political and economic power.
In some ways, chaebols are a lot like American multinationals: economic behemoths with heavy influence. But, in part due to the way they grew and the state's role in fostering them as national symbols, perhaps as well as some Confucian cultural influence, they operate in some ways like family businesses. And they're treated as such by many employees and by South Korean consumers. According to a 2005 article on chaebols in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, "Korean consumers have a strong attachment to chaebols with which they associate quality and, in turn, trust," with the chaebols serving as a kind of extension of Confucian ideals of the family. That means consumer loyalty to the brand but also brand responsibility for the consumer: hence, bowing to ask forgiveness.
Tan Soo Kee, a scholar at the University of Michigan who studies the intersection of business and culture in South Korea, has written that ideal business executives are expected to be "paternalistic." This isn't purely a good thing – workers are expected to obey their managers as children obey their father, something that few Americans would likely embrace, and it hardens South Korea's glass ceiling for female workers – but it also implies a boss's responsibility for the well-being of his or her (usually his) workers, as well as his customers.
That sense of corporate responsibility to consumers may also partly be a result of the way South Korea's chaebols grew up: developed to feel an obligation to serve the state.
"At this company, profit is not our only motive," Ken Hong, the communications director of Korean electronics giant LG, told the New Yorker's Nicholson Baker for a recent story. "It's also about creating opportunities through growth. The government sets targets each year for how much they'd like the workforce to grow, and we do what we can to accommodate." Every company says it creates jobs and grows the economy, but Hong was saying it a little differently. "Koreans in general don't have a problem taking guidance from the government," he said. "It's a factor in our success."
That sense of responsibility and shared mission helps explain not just why an executive would bow to his consumers, but why consumers would not only expect but gratefully receive such an apology. On social media, many South Koreans seemed eager to defend or sympathize with Asiana and its leadership, even before its president officially apologized. |
Dexter is continuing its ratings winning steak right to the end.
For the eighth season in a row, Showtime’s serial killer thriller broke viewership records for its season premiere — and that’s despite airing in the summer for the first time. Dexter‘s final season debuted to 2.5 million viewers, edging out last year’s premiere by 4 percent. Including its repeat, Dexter had 3.2 million for the night. If you want to see the episode, here’s an edited version below.
Aided by this big lead in, new drama Ray Donovan had Showtime’s most-watched original series premiere ever with 1.4 million viewers at 10 p.m. and 2.2 million for the night. Total sampling on Donovan, including On Demand, brings its overall pilot viewing tally to 3 million viewers.
Check out the return of our Dexter recaps here. Also: See our interviews with stars Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter. Here’s the Dexter premiere: |
Just look at that bridge. I was almost tempted to call it Photoshopped, but then I remembered I'm not a stupid idiot. The Siduhe Grand Bridge has been in construction for over 4 years and stands 2,132 feet above the ground below. Holy shit! One of the initial problems with building the bridge was how to get the 3,200ft long cables across the valley. The answer? Attach them to rockets and blast them across.
so you've erected the enormous towers on each side of the deep valley, deeper than any valley previously bridged. how do you get a pilot cable from one tower to the next? previous solutions have included: attaching the cable to a kite and flying it over (e.g. niagara falls suspension bridge), carrying one end by helicopter (e.g. akashi kaikyo bridge) and floating one end on a boat (e.g. brooklyn bridge). the brains behind the siduhe bridge decided to ignore all those options and break another record instead. they attached the 3200ft cables to rockets and accurately fired them over the valley, becoming the first people to do so.
Hell yes! Ah, ingenuity at its finest. And also, rocket power. PSSSSSHOOOW! But seriously, for a case of beer I'll let you shoot me out of a cannon. Two cases and I'll even wear a paper hat.
Hit the jump for several pictures of the actual rocket firings. Pretty cool stuff.
Chinese bridge builders use rockets to shoot 3,200-foot cables across a valley [dvice]
and
rockets help build bridge higher than empire state building [deputydog] |
In a shocking revelation, the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) today notified Amnesty International that UK government agencies had spied on the organization by intercepting, accessing and storing its communications.
In an email sent today, the Tribunal informed Amnesty International its 22 June ruling had mistakenly identified one of two NGOs which it found had been subjected to unlawful surveillance by the UK government. Today’s communication makes clear that it was actually Amnesty International Ltd, and not the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) that was spied on in addition to the Legal Resources Centre in South Africa.
The NGOs were among 10 organizations that launched a legal challenge against suspected unlawful mass surveillance of their work by the UK’s spy agencies.
“After 18 months of litigation and all the denials and subterfuge that entailed, we now have confirmation that we were in fact subjected to UK government mass surveillance. It’s outrageous that what has been often presented as being the domain of despotic rulers has been occurring on British soil, by the British government,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
After 18 months of litigation and all the denials and subterfuge that entailed, we now have confirmation that we were in fact subjected to UK government mass surveillance. It’s outrageous that what has been often presented as being the domain of despotic rulers has been occurring on British soil, by the British government. Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Share this Twitter
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“How can we be expected to carry out our crucial work around the world if human rights defenders and victims of abuses can now credibly believe their confidential correspondence with us is likely to end up in the hands of governments?
“The revelation that the UK government has been spying on Amnesty International highlights the gross inadequacies in the UK’s surveillance legislation. If they hadn’t stored our communications for longer than they were allowed to by internal guidelines, we would never even have known. What’s worse, this would have been considered perfectly lawful.”
How can we be expected to carry out our crucial work around the world if human rights defenders and victims of abuses can now credibly believe their confidential correspondence with us is likely to end up in the hands of governments? Salil Shetty Share this Twitter
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Today’s IPT email made no mention of when or why Amnesty International was spied on, or what was done with the information obtained.
This shows the urgent need for significant legal reform, including proper pre-judicial authorization and meaningful oversight of the use of surveillance powers by the UK security services, and an independent inquiry into how and why a UK intelligence agency has been spying on human rights organizations.
It also underlines Amnesty International’s call for an end to mass communications surveillance by governments. |
People outside the Bowling Green subway station in downtown Manhattan battle over a naked statue of Hillary Clinton.
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An artist erected an obscene statue of Hillary Clinton in downtown Manhattan Tuesday morning causing a heated fight between defenders of the profane piece of protest art and women trying to tear it down.
The grotesque caricature of the Democratic candidate appeared outside the Bowling Green station during morning rush hour on Tuesday and shows Clinton with hoofed feet and a Wall Street banker resting his head on her bare breasts.
The statue was up for less than three hours before an enraged woman toppled it over and started yelling at the statue’s creator.
A statue depicting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton appeared near the Bowling Green subway entrance in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday. (Laura Bult/New York Daily News)
“This is obscene!” shouted the woman, an employee at the nearby National Museum of the American Indian who would only identify herself as Nancy.
“To put something up like this in front of my work place...I shouldn’t have to see this,” she later told the Daily News, fighting back tears as she gestured toward the crude figure.
Video of the dispute shows the museum worker struggling with the artist who erected the statue, who identified himself as 27-year-old Anthony Scioli, as he tried to prop the structure back up. At one point during the tussle, the woman sits down on the statue to prevent Scioli from picking it back up.
A woman in a hijab steps in to help Nancy and stomps her foot on the statue's face, yelling at Scioli: "Don't! Leave it alone!"
A small crowd of morning commuters hovered around the scene with their phones out, some of whom started hurling insults and picking sides in the debate over the statue.
The statue was only up for less than three hours. (Laura Bult/New York Daily News)
“This lady shows up and tips it over and starts assaulting anyone who tried to put it back up!,” Gene H., 39, an IT worker, told the News, citing his belief in freedom of speech as a reason the statue should stay up.
A sign on the statue credited Mini Master and Boogie Night Production with its creation and witnesses said it went up sometime before 6 a.m.
Around 8:30 a.m. officers with the counterterrorism unit arrived to the scene and ordered Scioli to dismantle and remove the statue because he failed to get a permit for the demonstration. No one was arrested and no one received a summons, according to police. The statue was taken away in a van moments later, cops said.
A nude statue of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, named "The Emperor Has No Balls" was unveiled in Union Square in Manhattan in August. (Marcus Santos/New York Daily News)
In August, an unrelated anarchist collective called INDECLINE, put up a naked statue of Donald Trump in Union Square . The political group also erected statues of the GOP nominee in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Seattle.
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Are you having a good day? Well, Google might be about to ruin it. The Google I/O ticket drawing is complete, so you should have the results in your email. Acceptance emails started going out a few days ago, but now everyone else should have their rejection. Bummer.
Left: Yay, Right: Boo
Google switched to the lottery system last year, which at least means you don't have to hover above the keyboard when registrations go live. However, it's impossible to know if you'll get a ticket. Those who won spots in the drawing will now have the option to pay $900 for a ticket. Most others will be watching from home.
If you got a rejection email, don't completely lose hope. Last year there were some extra invite codes floating around in Google Easter Eggs. Maybe you'll still make it to I/O on May 28-29 this year. |
PBS takes us to China this week, where the increasing signs of environmental degradation are leading many in this officially ‘atheist’ nation to embrace Buddhism. Buddhism is on the rise in China, currently estimated to have about 200-300 million adherents, for a variety of reasons. After the extreme persecution of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 70s, the nation slowly and quietly allowed some cracks to form in its atheist and socialist facade. Over the last twenty years especially, the force of expanding capitalism has been accompanied by individual freedoms of movement, education (as countless young people have traveled to the US and UK especially for higher education), and finally, religion. In this time there has been a rapid rise in the practice of Christianity, often in underground ‘home churches’, a more official and open re-valuation of Confucian ideals, and a return of Buddhism, including that of Tibet with its emphasis on the development of the twin virtues of wisdom and compassion.
Even high officials in the Communist Party have recognized the beneficial moral teachings of Buddhism in a time of increasing wealth, consumerism, and spoiled single-children. Martin Palmer, who had spent nearly two decades trying to get religious groups to take up environmental conservation, was invited in 2006 to speak with the minister for the environment and the minister for religion, “They said the single-child policy has created the most selfish generation in China’s history, because each child has been brought up as the center of attention for the family. Nothing is too much to give to them. And these two Communist Party officials said we want the religions to help us bring compassion back.”
Bringing us to Tibet, PBS interviews a monk named Tashi Sangye:
My grandmother taught me that I shouldn’t wash my hands or pee in the river or make it dirty. I said why? They told me there is a dragon god. I asked them what the dragon god looks like, and they said, “Don’t say it, don’t say it. You will know when you grow up.” Mama and papa told me in secret that this is a sacred lake. But they said, “Don’t ever talk about it openly,” because we couldn’t talk about gods. They do not exist in the Communist Party’s eyes; they are superstitions. If anyone talked about a god they would be beaten, so we wouldn’t dare to say it. But through thick and thin in a country that’s seen so much political upheaval and social change, those fundamental values have endured, he says. Who will protect the environment? In the West and in China, it’s the government’s responsibility. But the Tibetans don’t think this way. This is not the Buddhist way. If you think that way you are not Buddhist. You are the protector. No matter if you are a newborn or an 80-year-old, you are all protectors. You are all responsible. You have the responsibility. All life should be protected.
View the whole video here:
(Images are from the video, see their website here) |
A major boost in manpower is still weeks away at MNsure’s overwhelmed call center, which continues to keep customers on hold for 30 minutes or more while the state health exchange tries to regroup from a variety of problems that have slowed enrollment.
Call center industry veterans, and one MNsure board member, said the agency should have solved staffing problems at the call center three months ago, when it became obvious the agency had underestimated the number of operators needed to handle the deluge of calls.
Some callers have waited as long as two hours to speak with a MNsure representative since the exchange launched on Oct. 1. The industry standard for call centers is 30 seconds.
“Anybody could get it wrong up front, but what was everybody [at MNsure] doing while all of these people were on hold?” said Fred Weiner, president of The Connection, a Burnsville company. “What were they doing in October, November and December?”
Weiner said his company is one of three vying for an outsourcing contract with MNsure that agency officials expect to finalize within the next week. The contract is expected to allow MNsure to add up to 100 external customer service representatives to its call center, which currently has 65 operators.
The additional workers are expected to be in place just as the agency prepares for its next major test: a crush of consumers rushing to meet the March 31 deadline to buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, which requires most Americans to have coverage or pay a tax penalty.
Abdikarim Abdi and Josh Truax took calls and worked on training in the MNsure call center in St. Paul.
MNsure officials said they are confident their call center strategy will work because other technical problems are decreasing, and more applicants are enrolling successfully. “We are reacting right,” said Brian Beutner, MNsure’s board chairman. “Would we have liked to have done it sooner and more timely? Maybe.”
The state originally expected about 135,000 consumers to use MNsure to enroll in private and government-subsidized health plans by the end of open enrollment in March. But only 27,775 people have bought coverage, according to the latest data through Jan. 22.
As of Thursday, MNsure was planning to cap its hiring at 50 additional external operators. But the agency decided to double its goal after the Star Tribune asked why it wasn’t following the advice of the health care IT company Optum, which analyzed MNsure’s operations.
Optum, which is credited with fixing widespread problems with the federal health exchange, told MNsure in January that it should hire 100 operators to boost customer service and eliminate long wait times.
In a written statement on Sunday, MNsure told the Star Tribune that it decided to boost staffing beyond 50 operators “after looking more strategically” at the call center’s needs.
With the additional workers, MNsure officials said average hold times should drop to two minutes, compared to an average of 36 minutes in January. On busy days, MNsure officials acknowledge, callers could be on hold for 10 minutes.
“In the call center industry, 10 minutes is considered a huge failure,” said Pete Hainey, president of Customer Elation, one of the largest call center operators in Minnesota. “No business would accept a 10-minute hold as their norm.”
Even though MNsure more than doubled its call staff in December, it hasn’t been enough. Last week, callers waited up to 40 minutes to speak to an operator.
“Is it taking way too long to fix? Yes,” said Tom Forsythe, a MNsure board member. “I have not been as aggressive as I should have been. … The response was inadequate.”
Missed opportunities
When state officials started laying the groundwork for MNsure in 2011, they planned to hire a consultant to assess its call center needs. But a consultant was never hired.
MNsure officials came up with their own estimates, based on information they gathered from health insurers and others. Those estimates were considerably off target.
Instead of handling 900 calls per day, as initially projected, the call center was taking an average of 2,174 calls per day by December, with operators bogged down with consumers stymied over technical issues while signing up for coverage.
In fact, callers were on hold so long that half hung up before reaching a live operator. By comparison, the industry standard is 3 percent.
Ben Merrill estimates he has spent more than three hours on hold over the past few weeks. He gave up twice after waiting for 20 minutes. Another time while on hold, he ran an errand while staying connected. He got through after nearly an hour, only to be told the call center could not help him.
MNsure call center – by the numbers • Number of call center operators in October: 27 • Average wait time : 10 minutes, 34 seconds • Number of operators in December : 54 • Average wait time : 56 minutes, 45 seconds • Number of operators in January : 65 • Average wait time : 36 minutes, 33 seconds • Number of external operators to be added by end of February: 100 • Projected wait times by March : 2 to 10 minutes
“It’s a tremendous waste of people’s time,” said Merrill, 41, of St. Paul, who eventually got insurance through the system.
MNsure officials defended their original projections, saying the exchange is operating in uncharted territory.
“This hadn’t been tried before,” said MNsure interim CEO Scott Leitz, who replaced MNsure’s former chief executive in mid-December. “The state exchanges have a level of complexity that is far different from checking on the status of a shipment from Nordstrom.”
Overconfident
Call center veterans agreed that MNsure faced some unique challenges, but they said the agency made a critical mistake by not hiring professionals to design the operation. Last June, after watching MNsure leaders outline plans for the call center, a former representative of Avaya, a $5 billion telecommunications company, wrote an e-mail to several board members warning of problems ahead.
MNsure “is not set up to handle the pending onslaught of traffic the exchange is going to generate,” wrote Johan Aasheim, then of Avaya.
Other experienced call center firms said they tried to get the state to consider hiring an outside vendor to take at least some of the calls.
“They made it clear they had all of the infrastructure they needed,” said Hainey at Customer Elation. “The government went in with an arrogant attitude of, ‘We know how to do this better than business.’ And clearly they don’t. … This is one of the worst customer service experiences I’ve seen executed in my career.”
Industry experts said MNsure could have fixed the call center’s problems in October or November. With more than 400 call center companies in Minnesota, there was plenty of excess capacity.
“It’s one thing to have a problem — it’s another to not fix it,” said Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting in New Jersey, a research firm focused on the call center industry. “And this is very fixable. You have some great [options] in Minnesota.”
MNsure’s chairman agrees that mistakes were made with the call center. “Things will go wrong,” Beutner said. “That is the nature of starting something from scratch.”
In November, the agency tried to work out a deal with an outside vendor, but the deal collapsed when the parties couldn’t agree on the price, said Erik Larson, MNsure’s chief operating officer. “Their cost numbers were quite out of line,” he said.
This time, MNsure is negotiating with three companies, including Optum.
A new vendor will enable MNsure to offer a service that is standard at other call centers dealing with high volume — callers will be allowed to schedule a return phone call. MNsure has been equipped to do that since Oct. 1, but the agency hasn’t had enough workers to make those calls, Larson said.
Forsythe, the MNsure board member and General Mills executive, said he remains critical of the state’s decision to create a primary call center for MNsure instead of directing most calls to an experienced operator. That decision was made before MNsure’s board took over in August.
“I think the strategy was upside down,” Forsythe said. “As a result, we were not positioned to outsource volume to a vendor and reduce these call wait times.” |
It has been standing over Scotland’s capital for almost two centuries - but was notoriously never finished off.
Now one of the Queen’s official artists has called for the National Monument on Calton Hill to be finally completed.
Sandy Stoddart was appointed the Queen's sculptor in Scotland in 2008.
Sandy Stoddart, the Queen’s official sculptor in Scotland, said it would would create a “citadel of beauty” as well as honour the legacy of its original architects.
Edinburgh-born Stoddart has designed a number of Edinburgh’s best-known sculptures, including the leading Enlightenment figures David Hume, Adam Smith and James Clerk Maxwell.
Stoddart believes completion of the Calton Hill monument, which helped win Edinburgh its nickname as the “Athens of the North,” would be “extraordinarily radical” and has offered to assemble a team of experts to take forward his idea.
He has predicted that finishing off the monument would offset the impact of the modern-day “generic horrors” which he says are gradually turning Edinburgh into the “Dubai of the North.”
The monument has been standing over Edinburgh for over two centuries.
Stoddart was speaking ahead of a debate he is due to take part in tonight in the capital which has been organised to coincide with World Heritage Day.
Instigated to commemorate the Scottish soldiers and sailors who lost their lives fighting in the Napoleonic Wars, the National Monument was earmarked for Calton Hill over an alternative location on The Mound.
It was designed by the architects William Henry Playfair and Charles Robert Cockerell, and based on the Parntheon on the Acropolis in Athens.
Although work began in 1822 during George IV’s visit to Edinburgh, it was halted seven years later when the project ran out of funding, despite prominent supporters including the author Walter Scott and heritage campaigner Lord Cockburn. The fact it was never finished has seen the monument often described as “Edinburgh’s disgrace.”
Stoddart, whose most recent public art work for Edinburgh was a statue of Playfair erected outside the National Museum of Scotland, said completion of the monument would be a fitting tribute to the work of Playfair and Cockerell.
Stoddart said: “It would be extraordinarily radical to do this. Radical is a word that is misused. I consider myself a truly radical artist. I try to go back to the fundament roots of everything.
“I don’t mean something disruptive, I mean doing something proper of which the dead would approve. You are now allowed to pay homage to them these days. To protect these sites and work according to their command we have to work in collaboration with the dead.
“I’m really serious person about this kind of thing. I’ve dedicated my life to it. The making of monuments and the preservation of them is not a puny thing to do.
“It’s completely stupid to call the National Monument a disgrace. It was started and never finished. What we should try to do now is finish it. And not in contemporary terms, with some steel box grafted onto the wee Parthenon that was started. We should actually build the damn thing. It can be done.
“A proper group of people would have to be brought together to do it. Edinburgh could do so something extraordinary here if the city spoke to me. I could pull it all together and we could get started on it. It could be a citadel of beauty if it was done properly.” |
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland said on Saturday it would summon Russia’s envoy after he said Warsaw was partly to blame for the outbreak of World War Two, continuing a spat which has seen the Polish ambassador in Moscow summoned twice in just over a week.
Poland's Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna looks on as he listens questions during news conference after his meeting with Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond at the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw March 6, 2015. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
Relations between the two countries have been extremely fragile due to Russia’s support for separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine. Warsaw has been one of the most vocal critics of Russia’s actions - which Moscow denies - and a strong proponent of upholding economic sanctions against it.
In an interview aired by private broadcaster TVN24 on Friday evening, Russian ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreyev said Poland was partly responsible for Nazi Germany invading in 1939 because it had repeatedly blocked the formation of a coalition against Berlin in the run-up to the conflict.
Andreyev also said Polish-Russian relations were currently at their worst since 1945 because Poland had chosen to freeze political and cultural contacts.
“The Russian ambassador will be summoned to the foreign ministry on Monday so that this issue is clarified to him by a foreign ministry representative” Schetyna told reporters.
Earlier on Saturday, the Polish foreign ministry issued a statement expressing “surprise and concern” over Andreyev’s remarks.
“The narrative presented by the highest official representative of the Russian state in Poland undermines historical truth and refers to the most mendacious interpretation of events, familiar from Stalinist and Communist times,” it said.
SOVIET GRAVES
Hours before the interview with Andreyev was aired, Moscow had summoned Poland’s ambassador to Russia, Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalecz after gravestones were vandalized in a Soviet cemetery in a Polish town 20 kilometers from the Belarusian border.
Fifty-seven graves were discovered vandalized on Wednesday at a cemetery in Milejczyce in north-eastern Poland where 1,615 Russian soldiers are buried.
The Polish foreign ministry condemned the incident on Friday, and police and a government council are investigating.
A Reuters cameraman at the cemetery on Saturday said most of the graves, each containing several dozen soldiers, had been damaged, with shattered red stone Soviet stars and wreaths with Polish writing on them scattered across the ground.
A number of Poles had come to the graveyard to clear up, including one 60-year-old man who gave his name as Wlodzimierz.
“These young boys were fighting not for their homeland, they were fighting for Poland, they were freeing this place, and they died here in this region. And now to come and do something like this? I’ve been coming here for two days, and when I look at it I’m shaking,” Wlodzimierz said.
A week before the incident at the graveyard a Soviet-era statue was removed in another Polish town, which also led to the Polish ambassador being summoned by Russia’s foreign ministry.
“One gets the impression that the desecration of our memorial places has been raised in Poland to the rank of a state policy,” the Russian ministry said in a statement demanding exhaustive measures to find and bring the vandals to justice. |
Need A Public Defender In New Orleans? Get In Line
When you enter the lobby of the Orleans Public Defender's Office, expect a bit of a wait, because receptionist Chastity Tillman will likely be busy on the phone.
"The jail calls. We get them every second," Tillman says.
Jailed suspects call to get their court dates and to see a lawyer. But for those accused of the most serious of crimes, there will be no visit from an attorney; no help in negotiating a bond; no investigation into their alleged offense. Public defenders say they don't have the resources to handle the city's indigent caseload after a million-dollar budget shortfall.
So they are turning away some who can't afford to pay for their own legal representation.
"And without that, there could be evidence that [goes] missing. There could be videos that are erased or taped over. Witnesses' memories fade," says Orleans Deputy District Defender Jee Park. "So there are many unfortunate circumstances that can arise if you don't have an attorney who is working on your case right away from Day 1."
This office handled 22,000 cases last year. Now, there's a waiting list for felony suspects who've been granted a court-appointed lawyer.
Law New Orleans Public Defenders Refuse New Cases To Highlight Underfunding New Orleans Public Defenders Refuse New Cases To Highlight Underfunding Listen · 4:05 4:05
"We know that we cannot accept those appointments and know that we're going to do ethical, constitutional representation," Park says.
That's left those suspects in limbo. And there is no backup, says Marjorie Esman with the ACLU of Louisiana. "People are going to be languishing in jail. It's gonna backlog the court system for who knows how long until this can be resolved," she says.
The ACLU has filed a class action federal lawsuit on behalf of suspects who can't afford their own lawyers. Esman says they have a constitutional right to legal representation.
"That's why we have what's supposed to be a robust system of public defenders throughout this country is to make sure that before the government can take away your liberty and lock you away, you have a lawyer to defend you," she says.
Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the country. It also has one of the highest rates of exonerations.
Statewide, public defenders in about 12 districts say they don't have the resources to keep up. Six have taken the extraordinary step that the Orleans Public Defenders' Office has: putting some suspects on a waiting list for counsel. Esman says it's the state's responsibility to adequately fund public defense.
Louisiana's new governor, Democrat John Bel Edwards, acknowledges the public defender overload. But he says there's no plan for more funding with the state facing a $1.9 billion budget shortfall.
"There's more budgetary pressure than we've ever had in the history of the state," Edwards says.
"We are committed to trying to make sure that public defenders are adequately funded so that we don't get to the place that perhaps the Supreme Court would step in and talk about inadequate defense and what that might do to our criminal justice system. We certainly need to avoid that," Edwards says.
The crisis point is near, warns state public defender James Dixon.
"We're not the only agency in trouble, clearly, but now we're in federal court," Dixon says. "If the feds fix it, it won't be gentle. I'd rather we fix this. This is something the state should fix."
Dixon says what's broken is the way Louisiana pays for public defense. Much of the funding comes from local traffic tickets and court costs, an unstable source. When receipts are down, public defenders lay off lawyers, and caseloads creep up to constitutionally questionable levels.
Dixon says if the state doesn't make indigent defense a priority, a federal judge may soon force it to. |
New Hampshire Fish and Game officers rescued a hiker who failed to buy a ticket for the Cog Railway down from Mount Washington and twisted his ankle while trying to descend on foot.Officers said 26-year-old Ton Wu of Lowell, Massachusetts, climbed the mountain Sunday with a friend. They planned to take the Cog Railway down, but it was sold out.The two started hiking back along the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail when Wu got hurt. They made it to the Appalachian Mountain Club hut, which was closed for the season, and waited for help.Two officers hiked down from the summit of Mount Washington and reached the pair around midnight Sunday, about five hours after getting their call for help.12967056
New Hampshire Fish and Game officers rescued a hiker who failed to buy a ticket for the Cog Railway down from Mount Washington and twisted his ankle while trying to descend on foot.
Officers said 26-year-old Ton Wu of Lowell, Massachusetts, climbed the mountain Sunday with a friend. They planned to take the Cog Railway down, but it was sold out.
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The two started hiking back along the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail when Wu got hurt. They made it to the Appalachian Mountain Club hut, which was closed for the season, and waited for help.
Two officers hiked down from the summit of Mount Washington and reached the pair around midnight Sunday, about five hours after getting their call for help.
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A gay pride rally Saturday, June 27, 2015 in Manilla, Philippines. (Photo: Bullit Marquez Associated Press)
After hosting successful LGBT pride nights with three of Detroit's four major professional sports teams, the Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce is planning another event, this one in conjunction with the Detroit Lions this fall.
James Felton Keith, CEO of the organization, said the group will host what he believes is the first LGBT pride night of its kind on Oct. 25 during the Lions' game against the Minnesota Vikings at Ford Field.
"It means a lot, in particular the support and rapid response from (the Lions)," Keith said. "It means the world, actually. I think, as the Chamber of Commerce we're usually the boring LGBT group. We're the suits in the back of the room just trying to make sure that things are moving along. But these large sporting events play into our InDetroit campaign (and) our Inclusive Detroit campaign, which primarily affects the large corporations in the area. But these sports franchises are some of the largest corporations in the area and they affect the overall social sentiment."
Attempts to reach the Lions officials working with the group were unsuccessful, but Keith said the team is working with his group to provide access to a block of upper-level tickets plus rooftop seating and will acknowledge the event on the scoreboard or in some other fashion during the game.
Kevin Heard, a board member for the chamber, said the group is seeking corporate sponsorship to help with the event and a pre-game tailgate party.
The Chamber hosted LGBT pride nights at games for the Pistons last December, the Red Wings in April and the Tigers earlier this month that Keith said helped spread awareness of the group and its cause.
The Red Wings allocated a portion of ticket sales to Chamber-endorsed non-profit organizations, the Tigers event drew about 1,400 people, including fans from as far away as Cleveland, and about 200 people already have inquired on Facebook about tickets to this fall's Lions event, Keith said.
Tickets will go on sale later this summer.
"We do anticipate a good 1,400- to 1,500-member (turnout) to piggyback on the 1,400 people that we had at the Tigers pride night," Keith said. "We expect a lot of those that can't get in the stadium, that they'll at least be available for the tailgate."
Contact Dave Birkett at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
Download our free Lions Xtra app on your Apple and Android devices. |
Although both Edward Snowden and his complete stash of documents remain hidden away from the British government, that didn't stop officials from trying to take action: they went after computers at The Guardian containing information leaked by the whistleblower with power tools. Newly released video from the paper shows exactly how editors, under the watchful eye of GCHQ technicians, destroyed countless computers and hard drives, despite knowing the information had already been disseminated around the world. Watch the full video below and on The Guardian.
The paper appropriately describes the destruction as three hours of "hot, sweaty work" — officials protected by masks used angle grinders, drills with revolving bits, and other tools to take apart the hard drives. One by one, the destroyed pieces were then fed into a "degausser," a tool that destroys magnetic fields and erases data. Officials didn't stop there either: they also asked President Obama to force news outlets to destroy any info they had about Snowden, but the president refused. It was a showy, ill-fated attempt to stop more Snowden news from coming out, and that point is made blatantly obvious in this video. Guardian deputy editor Paul Johnson told the paper that it was "the most surreal event" he had witnessed in British journalism.
This article has been corrected to state Guardian employees destroyed the computers, not GCHQ officials. |
SHIMLA: The Election Commission has made special preparations for independent India's first voter Shyam Saran Negi to vote in the upcoming assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh on November 9.As Negi finds it difficult to walk at the age of 100, Kinnaur district administration will provide a special vehicle to take him to the polling station and drop him back home. At the polling station, Negi would receive a grand welcome.Post-independence, when parliamentary polls were being held in the country for the first time, the EC had advanced the voting in Kinnaur, keeping in mind harsh winters and early snowfall. The elections were held in other parts of the country in January and February, 1952.On October 25, 1951, Negi became the first Indian to cast his vote in independent India for Mandi-Mahasu par liamentary constituency (now Mandi). The EC had then carried the election material to Chini (now Kalpa) village polling station, located in a primary school, on mules. He was a government school teacher at the time and retired in 1975.“He is an inspiration to others as he has never missed the chance to vote“ said Surma Devi his daughter-in-law. Negi's name became populr after Google created a video of him for its #PledgeToVote campaign during the 2014 parliamentary polls, where he is shown narrating the story of the first vote.Top BJP leaders including home minister Rajnath Singh, textile minister Smriti Irani and UP CM Yogi Aditya Nath are likely to campaign against chief minister Virbhadra Singh in Arki in the upcoming assembly polls. Though Virbhadra had contested and won the 2012 assembly elections from Shimla rural seat, he has left that seat this time for his son and state Congress chief Vikramditya and shifted to a new constituency-Arki, in Solan district. Arki was a Congress stronghold once but returned the BJP candidates to the assembly in last two elections. |
Congressman Ryan Zinke is from Montana, a state where over a third of the land is controlled by the Interior Department. Needless to say, Zinke probably knows a thing or two about the department. Plus he’s AWESOME! Isn’t he a great addition to the team?
Ryan Zinke, a Congressman from Montana made no secret of his ambitions to join a Donald Trump Cabinet, yet his nomination as Interior secretary is in some ways an unlikely fit for the retired U.S. Navy SEAL.
Zinke, 55, was an early supporter of the president-elect and publicly expressed his interest in a Cabinet post when Trump visited Montana in May.
Like other Western states, Montana’s wide-open, rugged landscape has a huge federal presence. The Interior Department and other U.S. agencies control almost a third of its land and even more of the underground ‘mineral estate’ that holds vast amounts of coal, oil and natural gas.
As with several other Trump Cabinet nominees, Zinke has advocated for increased energy drilling and mining on those lands and expressed skepticism about the urgency of climate change.
The Republican lawmaker also has been a vocal supporter of keeping public lands in the government’s hands. That’s a central political issue in Montana, where hunting and fishing access is considered sacrosanct.
The president-elect’s son Donald Jr. is an avid hunter and was in Montana on a hunting trip last month. That may have given Zinke an advantage over another lawmaker Trump was said to have considered for the Interior post, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. She wrote on Facebook Tuesday that it had been an ‘honor’ to be invited to meet with Trump.
Zinke met with Trump on Monday in New York, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. A person close to Zinke confirmed the Tuesday offer.
He hadn’t yet accepted when he left Tuesday for his home in the mountain town of Whitefish, Montana, according to two of those people. All three insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the transition process publicly.
Energy development, land management and hunting fall under the Interior Department’s jurisdiction. However, those were second-tier issues for Zinke during his successful re-election campaign this fall against Democrat Denise Juneau. |
With Linux 4.0, you may never need to reboot your operating system again.
-- SUSE
One reason to love Linux on your servers or in your data-center is that you so seldom needed to reboot it. True, critical patches require a reboot, but you could go months without rebooting. Now, with the latest changes to the Linux kernel you may be able to go years between reboots.
This is actually a feature that was available in Linux in 2009 thanks to a program called Ksplice. This program compares the original and patched kernels and then uses a customized kernel module to patch the new code into the running kernel. Each Ksplice-enabled kernel comes with a special set of flags for each function that will be patched. The Ksplice process then watches for a moment when the code for the function being patched isn't in use, and ta-da, the patch is made and your server runs on.
Oracle acquired Ksplice in 2011, and kept it just for its own Oracle Linux, a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) clone, and as a RHEL subscription service. That left all the other enterprise and server Linux back where they started.
Then KernelCare released a service that could provide bootless patches for most enterprise Linux distros. This program use proprietary software and is only available as a service with a monthly fee. That was a long way from satisfying many Linux system administrators.
So, Red Hat and SUSE both started working on their own purely open-source means of giving Linux the ability to keep running even while critical patches were being installed. Red Hat's program was named kpatch, while SUSE' is named kGraft.
The two companies took different approaches. Kpatch issues a stop_machine() command. After that it looks at the stack of existing processes using ftrace and, if the patch can be made safely, it redirects the running code to the patched functions and then removes the now outdated code.
Special Feature The 21st Century Data Center More than ever, data centers run the world, but many of them need a 21st century reboot. Today’s data centers have to be more efficient, redundant, and flexible than ever. We examine when and how to best run your own data center versus when to outsource to the cloud or a service provider, and when to take a hybrid approach. Read More
Kgraft also uses ftrace, but it works on the thread level. When an old function is called it makes sure the thread reaches a point that it can switch to the new function.
While the end result is the same, the operating system keeps running while patches are made, there are significant differences in performance. Kpatch takes from one to forty milliseconds, while kGraft might take several minutes but there's never even a millisecond of down time.
At the Linux Plumbers Conference in October 2014, the two groups got together and started work on a way to patch Linux without rebooting that combines the best of both programs. Essentially, what they ended up doing was putting both kpatch and kGraft in the 4.0 Linux kernel.
Jiri Kosina, a SUSE software engineer and Linux kernel developer, explained, that live-patching in the Linux kernel will "provides a basic infrastructure for function "live patching" (i.e. code redirection), including API [application programming interface] for kernel modules containing the actual patches, and API/ABI [application binary interface] for userspace to be able to operate on the patches. This is "relatively simple and minimalistic, as it's making use of existing kernel infrastructure (namely ftrace) as much as possible. It's also self-contained, in a sense that it doesn't hook itself in any other kernel subsystem (it doesn't even touch any other code)."
The release candidate for Linux 4.0 is now out. Kosina stated that "It's now implemented for x86 only as a reference architecture, but support for powerpc, s390 and arm is already in the works." And, indeed, the source code for these architectures is already in the Live Patching Git code.
Simply having the code in there is just the start. Your Linux distribution will have to support it with patches that can make use of it. With both Red Hat and SUSE behind it, live patching will soon be the default in all serious business Linux distributions.
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Several days back we featured a rather useful app called ‘GUnity’ that gave you an easy way to tweak the Unity desktop to your liking. ‘Confity’, pictured below, is a similar application that follows the same ‘ethos’ as GUnity, only this tool provides a lot more bang for your proverbial free buck…
What can it do?
Confity can do most of what Gunity can: you can adjust the launcher size, change shortcuts for the Dash and command prompt, reduce or increase the panel opacity, etc. Better yet it has features that GUnity doesn’t, including options to add quicklists to popular applications with one click and disable or enable system tray applets (Shutter, etc) with one click.
To get even more enthusiastic about it I can’t help but appreciate the inclusion of an ‘undo’ button for many of the options; if you don’t like the changes applied you can revert just as easily as you enabled them.
Editions
One area where Confity lose points is in its startup. Before you can do anything you’re told to pick one of two layouts, neither of which differ in anything but layout.
Whilst this ‘choice’ may be appreciated by some it seems a needless inclusion. Just my 2 cents.
Download
Confity is available to download as a source package and as a pre-packaged .deb file for Ubuntu 11.04 from the project page @ sourceforge.net/projects/confity
The latter of these, due to the developers first attempt at Debian packaging, will kick-up a minor fuss about being ‘badly packaged’ when installed through the Software Centre.
You can choose to ignore this at your own risk. Alternatively the application can be downloaded as source, extracted and run from its folder by double-clicking on the ‘confity.py’ file inside. |
There's a growing anti-trade sentiment in our country. Much of the dialogue is grossly misinformed. Let's try to untangle it a bit with a few questions and observations.
Does the U.S. trade with Japan and England? Put another way, is it members of the U.S. Congress trading with their counterparts in the Japanese Diet or the English Parliament? Of course not. When I purchased my Lexus, I had nothing to do with either the Japanese Diet or the U.S. Congress. Through an intermediary, a Lexus dealer, I dealt with Toyota Motor Corporation.
While it might be convenient to speak of one country trading with another, such aggregation can conceal a lot of evil, particularly when people call for trade barriers. For example, what would be a moral case for third-party interference, by either the Japanese Diet or the U.S. Congress, with an exchange between me and Toyota Motor Corporation?
Some might reason that since Japan places restrictions on U.S. products entering their country, an appropriate retaliatory measure is not to allow Japanese products to freely enter the U.S. Consider that Japanese protectionist restrictions on rice imports force Japanese consumers to pay three or four times the world price for rice. How much sense does it make for Congress to retaliate against Japan by imposing restrictions on their products thereby forcing American consumers, say Lexus buyers, to pay higher prices? Should our rule be: If one country screws its citizens we should retaliate by screwing our citizens?
MP: It's a simple, but overlooked point: Countries don't trade, individual American consumers make voluntary decisions to buy products produced by foreign companies (e.g. check the country of origin on the tags/labels on your clothes), and individual American businesses voluntarily buy from, and sell to, foreign firms and consumers. Most of the discussion about trade focuses on aggregate trade statistics at the "country level," like reports of a $56.5 billion U.S. trade deficit in September, a $700 billion U.S. trade deficit for 2007, a $195 trade deficit with China this year, or a $14 billion trade surplus with the Netherlands this year.
Like Walter Williams points out, those aggregate trade data can disguise the fact that it was individual American consumers and businesses making voluntary decisions on buying and selling products every day that result in some country-level trade deficit or surplus when trade data between the U.S. and other countries is aggregated at the end of a month, quarter or year.
Bottom Line: People trade, not countries. Therefore, any restrictions on trade in the form of protectionism hurt American people, i.e. U.S. consumers, and the workers and shareholders of U.S. businesses. A tariff on Japanese-made products is not a tariff on the country of Japan,it is really a tax on American consumers and businesses who voluntarily decide to buy products made by Japanese producers. |
Christopher Gregory/Getty Images
Rick Santorum doesn’t just wear his religion on his sleeve, he billboards it in neon. Still, for all the flash and sparks generated by an ostentatiously Catholic candidate’s crusade for the presidency, one thing has been missing from most discussions: the actual Catholic voter.
But with Tuesday’s primary results, we now have extensive exit polling from three major states in the Catholic belt across the Midwest. The verdict from Michigan, Ohio and now Illinois is consistent: a majority of Republican Catholic voters are giving a thumb’s down to Santorum.
In Illinois, where more than a third of Tuesday’s Republican electorate was Catholic according to the exit polls, Santorum lost the Catholic vote by a what-part-of-no-don’t-you-understand 23 points – a much bigger margin than with all voters.
In Ohio and Michigan, Santorum also did worse among Catholics than he did with the overall primary participants. Mitt Romney barely beat Santorum in Ohio, 38 percent to 37 percent. Catholic voters made the difference for him: he crushed Santorum with that share of the vote, 44 percent to 31 percent.
The same pattern held in Michigan, which Romney won by 41 percent to 38 percent. Santorum won the evangelical vote, but Catholics carried the day for Romney: he got 44 percent to Santorum’s 37.
This trend followed in a state with a majority share of Catholics in the primary electorate, Massachusetts, where Romney won them 75 percent to 12 percent (of course, it’s one of his home states). And in heavily Catholic Puerto Rico as well, Santorum was overwhelmed.
If Romney has indeed finally sealed the deal after Tuesday, he will owe his nomination in large part to common-sense Catholics who rejected a less rational one of their own.
Three other takeaway points:
Santorum’s far-right Catholicism will not put the Catholic vote in the Republican column in November. Barack Obama won Catholics 54-47, just slightly better than he did over all. Catholics, as with most of the population, are not buying into the dour 13th-century philosophy of Santorum regarding women, their bodies and reproductive practices. Even conservative Catholics — who make up nearly a third of the Republican electorate — are not buying it. Imagine if Democratic Catholics — the majority of the faith, based on 2008 — had their say on this guy.
A test case of the Santorum effect was the Pennsylvania Senate race of 2006. Senator Santorum lost the Catholic vote in his home state by a whopping 18 points to a Catholic Democrat, Robert Casey Jr.
If the Catholic vote is in play in November, it will be because of the economy, or some other issue that is bothering most Americans. Catholics are an almost perfect mirror of the general electorate. They voted for George W. Bush 52 percent to 47, compared to the 51-48 percent outcome. And this was against the first major party Catholic nominee, John Kerry, on the ballot in 44 years.
The vote for John F. Kennedy, the nation’s first Catholic president, was as much cultural as religious — he was militantly secular in outlook, but represented the high point of Irish-Catholic aspiration.
Santorum, to the disgust of many who follow St. Peter’s faith, said that Kennedy’s famous speech on the separation of church and state made him want to vomit. Anybody else feel that way? If there was a widespread reappraisal of Kennedy’s view following Santorum’s lead, it would be reflected in votes this year. It’s not. The only way to read the results is Catholic rejection of a Catholic retrograde.
In trying to explain this, Santorum says he does better among Catholics who attend church frequently and follow the dictates of Rome. “We do well among people who take their faith seriously,” he said earlier this week. True. The problem for him is that a majority of American Catholics don’t listen to their bishops, and they vote their conscience. The Jesuit-educated among them, you could argue, have been trained for independent thinking — precisely the kind of voter who finds Santorum lacking in reason, logic and a broad view of humanity.
Second, the fact that most Catholics would vote for a Mormon, while evangelical Protestants — Santorum’s true base — would not, says a lot about his followers. National polls show that those who consider Romney’s religion a problem are more likely to be evangelical Christians, again, Santorum’s followers. They’re religious bigots; there’s no other way to say it.
Many, if not most, of these same Santorum evangelicals make up a significant percentage of the Republican base who still think — in the worst kind of reality-denial — that Obama is a Muslim. In Alabama and Mississippi 45 percent believed that fantasy based on polling just before the recent primary.
More polling shows that a large percentage of Santorum Republicans continue to live in a fact-free bubble on other questions. In Illinois, 39 percent of Republicans said Obama was a Muslim and 36 percent said he was not an American. For good measure, 43 percent said they did not believe in evolution.
Not long ago, when a woman at a Santorum event wondered how someone who “is an avowed Muslim” could be president, Santorum did nothing to correct the badly misinformed voter. And just a few days ago, in Louisiana, Santorum applauded a preacher, the Rev. Dennis Terry, who said “America was founded as a Christian nation,” and those who were not Christian should leave.
Such talk is willful nonsense, but it runs through our history. The majority of Catholic voters, bless ‘em, have rejected the crazies pooled behind Rick Santorum. |
JEWEL SAMAD via Getty Images Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump has five liabilities above $50 million. At least two of those $50 million loans are to foreign-owned Deutsche Bank, which has tried to work around U.S. banking regulations.
WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump has lied so many times this presidential election campaign that the very value of truth in politics seems meaningless. But there’s one thing the presumptive GOP nominee and his campaign have said with uncharacteristic correctness: Candidate financial disclosure laws suck.
By law, candidates for federal office and members of Congress have to file a financial disclosure detailing their assets and liabilities. It’s a key element of transparency that helps prevent politicians from pushing policies that further their own pecuniary interests.
But don’t believe for one second that these disclosures really tell you anything about a politician’s wealth. What’s required in these documents sheds little light, the loopholes so egregious there’s hardly any reliability and the ways to mislead so numerous that it all amounts, basically, to a blind-faith, best-guess.
It was in that spirit that Trump released his own financial disclosure last month, providing a picture of his wealth consistent with what he’s said all along -- namely: I get to be worth whatever I say I’m worth.
So bad are the financial disclosure laws that, according to the documents, Trump’s net worth is somewhere in between the billions he claims and the hundreds of millions he may be in debt.
The biggest problem with the businessman's disclosure is perhaps the biggest problem overall. The ranges in the disclosures start between $1 and $1,000. But they soon grow exponentially from those small differences to ranges as broad as $5 million to $25 million, $25 million to $50 million, then finally $50 million and above. It’s in that last category where you’ll find Trump Tower, which the reality TV personality claims would fetch $2 billion on the open market, but is counted as $50 million.
“This report was not designed for a man of Mr. Trump's massive wealth,” his campaign said in a press release last July, unintentionally reaching the zenith of truth in a campaign marked by falsehoods.
It’s undeniable that the ultra-rich seem to be a second thought in these disclosures, but perhaps even more troubling is how unconcerned the law seems to be with someone like Trump taking out massive loans.
He has five liabilities above $50 million. Two of those (at least) $50 million loans are to foreign-owned Deutsche Bank, which raises its own set of thorny ethical issues, as Mother Jones points out. The man who could potentially be the next president could owe $100 million -- almost certainly more, in fact -- to a bank that has tried to work around U.S. banking regulations.
We don’t know how much Trump actually owes. And because we don’t know the extent of those liabilities -- or his assets -- there’s no way to reliably determine his net worth from these documents.
Trump claims his net worth is greater than $10 billion, while the respected business magazine Forbes, who devoted unprecedented resources to the question, says it’s closer to $4.5 billion. (Forbes, for the record, says Trump Tower, after the $100 million loan on it is paid off, has a net value of roughly $530 million.)
Joe Raedle via Getty Images The presidential candidate has assets including Trump National Doral, but the financial disclosures don’t provide an accurate picture of wealth.
Whatever the real worth, Trump is right; these financial disclosures don’t provide an accurate picture of wealth -- not when someone like him or Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) have multiple assets and liabilities in those max categories.
At those top levels of wealth, where precision in a politician’s finances probably matter more than nailing down whether a Congressman has a credit card with a balance of less than $1,000, the disclosures are wholly inadequate.
But there are plenty more problems with personal financial disclosures. For House lawmakers and candidates going for that chamber, one notable issue is that bank accounts not gathering interest aren’t required to be disclosed. A member could potentially put millions in a non-interest account and never tell anyone, functionally meaning a food stamp recipient goes through more stringent financial accounting than a member of Congress.
In the Senate and for executive branch employees, you only need to disclose a bank account if it has more than $5,000 in it or generated more than $200 in income, which is still more lenient than the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Members of Congress also don’t need to disclose their personal residences as assets -- or their mortgages as liabilities. They don’t even need to disclose a vacation home, if they’re not renting it out.
All these loopholes make it impossible to actually know where a politician’s money comes from.
Take, for example, the case of 27-year-old congressional candidate Justin Fareed. The Republican was aged 25 when he first ran for Congress last cycle and loaned himself nearly $200,000. Fareed had only been in the workforce for a couple of years and had made less than $100,000 in total income over that period.
The “third generation rancher” reported in 2014 that he had six assets with a minimum worth of $153,006 and a maximum value of $396,000. After loaning himself the money, Fareed reported in 2015 that his assets had appreciated to between $217,006 and $581,000. This was while he was making $5,000 in all of 2014 and $25,000 as of May 2015.
That may raise some questions, but within the broad ranges of financial disclosure, Fareed could come close to covering the expenses of his campaign, though his campaign told The Huffington Post that the money came from regular disbursements out of his "intergenerational trust fund." That’s presumably listed on his financial disclosure as “Northern Trust,” but the disclosure doesn’t designate what exactly the trust is and Fareed doesn’t break out what investments are contained in that asset.
The truth is the public can’t make a complete judgment with incomplete information -- and that’s what we have. Adam Rappaport, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington chief counsel
That may raise some questions, but within the broad ranges of financial disclosure, Fareed could come close to covering the expenses of his campaign, though his campaign told The Huffington Post that the money came from regular disbursements out of his "intergenerational trust fund." That’s presumably listed on his financial disclosure as “Northern Trust,” but the disclosure doesn’t designate what exactly the trust is and Fareed doesn’t break out what investments are contained in that asset.
There may be some clarity in Fareed's 2016 disclosure, which was due May 15, but he hasn't filed it. The late fees on blowing off the disclosure will come to a whopping $200.
While such finances might raise some eyebrows, there are plenty of possible explanations that make it impossible to know where Fareed's money came from. He co-owns a home with his parents, so he could have taken out a home equity line of credit on his personal residence, which he is not obligated to disclose. Candidates can also take loans out from a retirement account, which does not need to be disclosed and, miraculously, does not lower the reported value of the asset.
If the point of these disclosures is to give the public a broad picture of a politicians investments, that’s one thing. Generally, the public can get a sense of someone’s financial interests through these documents. But it’s impossible to really know anything.
“The truth is the public can’t make a complete judgment with incomplete information,” Adam Rappaport, the chief counsel and assistant director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told HuffPost. “And that’s what we have. We have some information, but not enough, and not enough precision.”
Trump’s latest financial disclosure is full of incomplete accounting, as Politico noted this week. Getting him to his self-estimated 11-figure net worth requires the sort of blind faith Trump demanded from the press on Tuesday.
In response to a number of questions about Trump’s financial disclosure, campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks told Politico, “The report speaks for itself.”
As the campaign noted in July, it doesn’t. |
Staying Sharp as a Solo Programmer
How to learn from others when you’re by yourself
John Mertens Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 4, 2017
The Backstory
My job title used to be CTO[1]. In an early stage startup, this usually translates into “only person writing the code”. And for a decent portion of Versa’s existence, that’s exactly what I was: the solo programmer. Even when I started hiring others, they were all on the other side of the country from me, so I was still physically alone.
Unsurprisingly in hindsight, my time running the tech side of Versa[2] also marked a time of significant leveling up on my part. For the first time in my career I was solely responsible for a Rails codebase, all of devops (a term popularized at about the same time), as well as sourcing and hiring talent to build a tech team…all remotely.
I don’t know about you, but I enjoy being dropped into completely foreign environments. I mean, it’s not enjoyable at the start — far from it — but I’ve learned that it is under these extreme conditions that I grow the most. Being the CTO of a nascent startup was a terrifyingly perfect fit.
The Musical Montage
That said, it took a month or two to stifle my near-constant imposter’s syndrome panic to a point where I could start to strategize how to evolve. In retrospect, I visualize this period as the musical montage — the part of the story where the protagonist puts their nose to the grindstone and “suddenly” becomes the hero worth making a movie about. And it’s exactly that montage scene I want to share with you today. Specifically because it is normally not sudden an it is where all the actual work happens.
I’ve discovered over the years that I learn quickly by doing or watching someone else do. Prior to Versa, that process happened with the help of other programmers on my team — of which I currently had none. So my first practical step was to watch good programmers do their thing. To do this I spent many lunches eating in front of my laptop, watching episodes of Railscasts, Destroy All Software & Ruby Tapas. Interspersed among them were some YouTube videos, but I kept coming back to these three because I thought they were (1) relevant to what I was doing day to day & (2) well polished & digestible.
Quick sidebar on Railscast: Although no longer active, these screencasts were the most helpful while building out our Rails app. It seemed like every time I wanted to add a new feature (i.e. an activity feed) or wanted to know more about a particular concept (i.e. Service Objects), Ryan already had an episode ready to go. Truly phenomenal work.
In addition to screencasts, I would add some variety to my viewing by watching conference talks. Confreaks.tv was (and still is) my go to source.
Another thing I discovered working solo is that I didn’t really have anyone to talk to (or specifically, listen to) about programming. There were others in similar situations as me around my coworking space (I’ll get to that in a minute) but they were also busy working on their startups. I found that podcasts about programming filled the void quite well. I have lots of opinions on podcasts and my preferences (as well as the podcast landscape) have evolved since this time but I’ll save that for another post. Suffice it to say that walking to the office, listening to programming podcasts like Ruby Rogues, JavaScript Jabber and The Changelog was another factor in leveling up my software engineering game. It was good to listen to other coders talk about building things, obstacles they’ve run into, lessons they’ve learned, as well as talking about whatever the new hotness was. As someone with introvert tendencies, it was great to be a fly on the wall for their conversations.
Now let’s get back to those other humans in my coworking space I mentioned before. As a former fellow at Code for America, I was offered a great desk rental deal in their office, along with other civic tech-minded startups. After a few months working there some friends and I started meeting semi-regularly for lunch. We were all in basically the same position so we called it the Civic CTOs Lunch. It was where we could catch up on what everyone was working on, maybe offer suggestions, maybe just listen and, if needed, kvetch a little among our tribe. It was fun but had the a typical ad-hoc system flaw: no one (a.k.a me) prioritized it enough to keep up on scheduling the lunches; but it was fun while it lasted 😀
The other nugget of wisdom I learned during this period of growth is that if I don’t work learning into my daily schedule it will never happen. As I mentioned above, I watched screencasts (something I might not do) while eating lunch (something I never miss). I also had a 3 mile round trip walking commute everyday. That fit in nicely with a 45–60 minute podcast.
The Aftermath
It has been two and a half years since I stopped being a solo programmer and started working on a large team of people in the same physical space again. Looking back, I’m a little amazed at how much my skill set and my mindset have evolved. I consider myself an expert (or almost 😉) in a handful of buckets in which I was definitely a n00b before (i.e. Rails, JS, distributed systems, devops, management, product development). And knowing myself, it wouldn’t have happened as quickly had I not been forced into it by being the only one there.
You know, sometimes I amaze even myself.
– Han Solo
[1] According to LinkedIn it was “Chancellor of the Nerdery” — but that was to stave off recruiter spam.
[2] Damn near EVERYTHING else in the company was handled by my AMAZING partner in crime and chief instigator, Keya Dannenbaum. |
Manila Luzon has already proven herself to be one of the most fabulous, and fiercest, queens in Drag Race herstory, and now she will be imparting her wisdom on a young, aspiring drag queen on a new episode of MADE.
This afternoon at 5/4 c on MTV, Manila will be helping one young man achieve his drag queen dreams. As you can see from the above clip, there are hurdles along the way (heels), but we have a feeling Manila will be able to smooth out this queen’s rough edges.
And, for even more Manila, check out RuPaul’s All Stars Drag Race when it premieres October 22 at 9/8 c on Logo.
Can Team Latrila take the crown?
Willam Did Not Fare So Well On ‘CSI’ Last Night |
HARI SREENIVASAN:
California recently made affirmative consent the law. And other states are considering similar moves, while many schools have made it a part of their policy.
Here to discuss this are Jaclyn Friedman, editor of the book "Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape," and Shikha Dalmia of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank. She is also a columnist for the magazine "The Week."
So, Ms. Friedman, I want to start with you.
Explain what exactly affirmative consent means, and why do you think it's necessary?
JACLYN FRIEDMAN, Editor, "Yes Means Yes!": Affirmative consent is the basic principle that all people participating in a sexual act or experience with each other have to make sure that their partner is not only not objecting, but that they're actually actively into whatever is happening.
It's really that simple. And if you can't tell, you have to ask. It's necessary because no means no, which we have all learned, is not adequate, right? There are a lot of situation where, if a person feels threatened or overpowered, they may freeze up and not protest, even though they don't want anything to happen to them, or that they might be incapacitated from drugs or alcohol and can't protest.
And, oftentimes, these are used as defenses by rapists, and they get away with it, and are left free to re-offend. And so we really need to move to a standard that says it's on all of us to make sure that our partners are actively enjoying whatever is happening between us, which seems also like a pretty basic human principle. |
Not surprisingly, states with more conservatives are considerably more religious than liberal-leaning states. The correlation between conservative political affiliation and religion (the share of state population for which religion is an important part of daily life) is considerable (.63).
Conservative states are also less well-educated than liberal ones. The correlation between conservative affiliation and human capital (that is, the percent of adults who have graduated college) is substantially negative (-.53).
States with more conservatives are less diverse. Conservative political affiliation is highly negatively correlated with the percent of the population that are immigrants (-.59) or gay and lesbian (-.66).
Conservative states are more blue-collar. Conservative political affiliation is strongly positively correlated with the percentage of the workforce in blue-collar occupations (.73) and highly negatively correlated with the proportion of the workforce engaged in knowledge-based professional and creative work (-.61).
States with more conservatives are considerably poorer than those with more liberals. Conservative political affiliation is highly negatively correlated with income ( -.65) and even more so with hourly earnings (-.79). Columbia University's Andrew Gelman's influential book Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State sheds light on this phenomenon. While rich voters trend Republican, Gelman and his colleagues found, rich states trend Democratic.
Conservatism, at least at the state level, appears to be growing stronger. Ironically, this trend is most pronounced in America's least well-off, least educated, most blue collar, most economically hard-hit states. Conservatism, more and more, is the ideology of the economically left behind. The current economic crisis only appears to have deepened conservatism's hold on America's states. This trend stands in sharp contrast to the Great Depression, when America embraced FDR and the New Deal.
Liberalism, which is stronger in richer, better-educated, more-diverse, and, especially, more prosperous places, is shrinking across the board and has fallen behind conservatism even in its biggest strongholds. This obviously poses big challenges for liberals, the Obama administration, and the Democratic Party moving forward.
But the much bigger, long-term danger is economic rather than political. This ideological state of affairs advantages the policy preferences of poorer, less innovative states over wealthier, more innovative, and productive ones. American politics is increasingly disconnected from its economic engine. And this deepening political divide has become perhaps the biggest bottleneck on the road to long-run prosperity.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected]. |
Systems overwhelmed by surge in submissions protesting against plan to allow cable companies to open up 'fast lanes'
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was forced to extend the deadline for comments over its controversial plans to change the way it regulates the internet, after its systems were overwhelmed by thousands of new submissions.
By Tuesday afternoon, more than 780,000 comments had been submitted to the regulator over its proposed “open internet” rules that have cable companies, politicians, consumers and activists at loggerheads over the future of the internet.
Thousands more submissions were expected before the planned deadline of midnight Tuesday, as activists and consumer groups rallied supporters to lobby the FCC to moved: protect “net neutrality” - the concept that all traffic on the internet should be treated equally – and stop cable companies setting up high-speed “fast lanes” for some customers.
The FCC, which has struggled to get Congress to fund an upgrade to its antiquated systems, has now extended the deadline to midnight Friday. A second round of comments on the original submissions will then begin, ending in September, with the FCC expected to make its ruling by the end of the year.
“Not surprisingly, we have seen an overwhelming surge in traffic on our website that is making it difficult for many people to file comments through our electronic comment filing system (ECFS). Please be assured that the commission is aware of these issues and is committed to making sure that everyone trying to submit comments will have their views entered into the record,” said FCC spokeswoman Kim Hart.
Amazon, Google, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter and others submitted a joint comment Monday arguing against an FCC proposal that would allow broadband providers to charge websites for faster service as long as the arrangements are "commercially reasonable."
The Internet Association, a lobby group representing dozens of major tech firms, wrote to the FCC arguing the proposal is a direct threat to the concept of net neutrality.
“Segregation of the internet into fast lanes and slow lanes will distort the market, discourage innovation and harm internet users,” said Michael Beckerman, president and CEO of The Internet Association. “The FCC must act to create strong, enforceable net neutrality rules and apply them equally to both wireless and wireline providers.”
But the association stopped short of calling for the internet to be regulated as a utility, a proposal that would give the FCC far greater powers, and which the cable companies are lobbying against fiercely.
Consumer groups including Common Cause, Fight for the Future (FFTF) and Free Press are pushing for that idea, arguing that the internet should be reclassified as a “common carrier” like the telephone system, which would allow the FCC to ban tiered charging.
“The FCC has the power to do that,” said FFTF’s Evan Greer. “At this stage it’s clear that the public want real net neutrality, and that anything short of that is just another example to the undue influence wielded by cable companies in the corridors of power.”
Comcast, Time Warner and their cable rivals argue that tighter regulation would deter investment and likely fail in the courts. The FCC is being forced to redraw its rules after a court defeat narrowed the extent of its regulatory powers.
The National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) is expected to file its submission later Tuesday. In a blogpost, the lobby group called on the FCC to reject “extreme voices that wrongly suggest that the only acceptable course for the commission to take is to turn back the clock on progress by reclassifying broadband as a title II common carrier service.
“For well over a decade, Democratic and Republican policymakers confronted with the promise of high-speed internet access have embraced a ‘light touch’ regulatory model that has spurred unprecedented levels of investment in our nation’s broadband infrastructure.”
Comments to the FCC received a major boost after comedian John Oliver attacked the proposals last month on his HBO show Last Week Tonight.
“What's being proposed is so egregious that activists and corporations have been forced onto the same side,” said Oliver. He attacked FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, a former cable company lobbyist, saying his appointment was “the equivalent of needing a babysitter and hiring a dingo."
So far, the number of comments the FCC has received on its open internet plans trails well behind the 1.4m comments submitted following Janet Jackson’s notorious “wardrobe malfunction" during the 2004 Super Bowl. |
EDMONTON –The University of Alberta’s Board of Governors approved a tuition increase for both domestic and international students.
In U of A President Indira Samarasekera’s blog, she explained tuition fees for domestic undergraduate and graduate students will increase by one per cent.
“The Board passed a motion to increase general tuition for domestic undergraduate and graduate students by one per cent (CPI), the maximum allowable increase as set by government,” she explained in a blog post dated Dec. 13.
Samarasekera also explained that after “considerable debate” the board also approved a five per cent overall increase to undergraduate international tuition and fees.
“This increase includes the one per cent increase for CPI. The additional four per cent increase will be used to fund programming and services for international students as well to address other inflationary pressures faced by the university,” she said in the blog.
Tuition for graduate international students will increase by one per cent.
“As you know, the Provost’s Office is in the process of reviewing graduate student experience, enrolment, and funding, a review which includes, of course, the experience and support we provide international graduate students. Once the full review is complete, we will determine at that point whether we will bring forward proposals changing domestic and international graduate tuition and support.”
The Provost’s Office also launched an online feedback form to get input from faculty, staff and students.
All increases and fees will be effective as of Sept. 1, 2014 for all students.
Samarasekera also said Acting Provost Martin Ferguson-Pell and the senior team decided to partially restore funding for graduate assistantships in the Science and Arts faculties. The funding was reduced in the 2013-2014 budget, however, provincial reinvestment of $14.4 million in the university’s operating grant meant the institution could allocate $2.4 million in the 2014-2015 budget to graduate assistantships.
Samarasekera also commented on the recent provincial cabinet shuffle, which saw Dave Hancock replace Thomas Lukaszuk as deputy premier and minister of advanced education.
WATCH: Premier Redford shuffles her cabinet
Hancock is the fourth minister to take the advanced education portfolio since Premier Alison Redford was elected.
“I look forward to meeting with the new Deputy Premier once he is sworn into office and discussing with him his vision and plans for Alberta’s post-secondary sector,” wrote Samarasekera.
“He was our minister when I first came to the U of A. Spring 2005 marked the beginning of a period of reinvestment in Alberta’s post-secondary system and Dave Hancock was a champion in helping to secure the funding for the Edmonton Clinic Health Academy and the Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science.”
Minister Hancock will be interviewed on the Global Edmonton Morning News on Wednesday around 7:20 a.m.
Follow @Emily_Mertz |
Canucks Army is excited to announce we’ll be co-hosting the 2017 Vancouver Hockey Analytics conference with the Vancouver Canucks, Hockey Graphs and Hockey Data.
This event follows in the footsteps of last year’s event, a smashing success held at the Harbour Centre. The Vancouver Canucks have stepped forward this year to help host the event and have even volunteered Rogers Arena as a location.
The Vancouver Hockey Analytics Conference, or VanHac for short, is the largest of its type on the West Coast. The event aims to provide a platform for members of the hockey community to share ideas and collaborate on a variety of topics related to hockey analytics.
This platform also offers an increased level of visibility for the analysts who ply their trade in this field, whether they’re developers, organizations or businesses within the community.
You can find information about the event here:
Date: Saturday, March 11th, 2017
Location: Rogers Arena, Vancouver, Canada
Website: HockeyGraphs.com/VanHAC
The call for speakers is currently open with a deadline of January 10th, 2017. See the website for more details or go here to submit your submission.
The plan as of now is to cap the amount of participants at 100 individuals. If you’re interested in attending the event, I recommend following the link above, as it will be updated as more information is made available. |
Low-wage workers in the United States have staged their largest action to date to demand a $15-an-hour minimum wage, with some 60,000 workers walking off the job in more than 200 cities. The “Fight for $15” campaign brought together fast-food workers, home-care aides, child-care providers, Wal-Mart clerks, adjunct professors, airport workers and other low-wage workers. Organizers say the action was held on Tax Day to highlight the taxpayer funds needed to support underpaid workers. A new study says low wages are forcing working families to rely on more than $150 billion in public assistance. We speak with Steven Greenhouse, former labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times, who has been covering the “Fight for $15” movement. TRANSCRIPT:
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Low-wage workers in the United States have staged their largest action to date to demand a $15-an-hour minimum wage, with some 60,000 workers walking off the job in over 200 cities. Protesters in the Fight for $15 campaign include fast-food workers, home-care aides, child-care providers, Wal-Mart clerks, adjunct professors, airport workers and other low-wage workers. The Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, helped organize the campaign.
In Chicago, demonstrators held signs saying, “We are worth more!” while in New York dozens of protesters temporarily halted business at a McDonald’s by staging a die-in, lying on the ground in front of the franchise. Several New York protesters carried signs saying, “We work hard” and “We see wage slavery.” Protesters included Jemere Calhoun, who works at two McDonald’s restaurants.
JEMERE CALHOUN: We’re fighting for $15 and a union. We’re fighting for a $15 minimum wage, because we feel that that’s what we need, and that’s what we deserve, and it’s only humane. We’re fighting for a union, because without a union, I mean, you know, it’s tough to enforce these rules that these companies ignore or just simply just don’t care about. You know, we need benefits. We need healthcare. We need sick days. We need maternity leaves. These things are really important to families.
AMY GOODMAN: Organizers say the action was held on Tax Day to highlight the public assistance needed to support underpaid workers. A new study says low wages are forcing working families to rely on more than $150 billion in public assistance. According to the University of California Center for Labor Research and Education, more than half of combined state and federal spending on public assistance goes to working families. President Obama has been pushing to raise the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 to $10.10. On the state level, Colorado, Maine, California, Oregon and Washington are all considering increasing their minimum wage to $12 an hour. Meanwhile, the Center for Economic and [Policy] Research says the minimum wage would be more than $18 an hour if it had risen as fast as productivity since 1968.
For more, we’re joined by Steven Greenhouse, former labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times. He has been covering the Fight for $15 movement extensively. On Wednesday, he co-wrote a piece for The Guardian called “Fight for $15 swells into largest protest by low-wage workers in US history.” He’s also author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Steven Greenhouse.
STEVEN GREENHOUSE: Nice to be here, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the significance of what’s being described as the largest low-wage protest in US history.
STEVEN GREENHOUSE: So this began in November 2012 as a one-day affair in New York with 200 strikers at like 30 restaurants. It was a small acorn. And, you know, lo and behold, it’s really grown into a fairly mighty oak – you know, over 200 cities, support actions in over 30 countries, 60,000 workers.
And it’s really put several things into the national discussion – one, the whole issue of low-wage workers and the difficulties it takes to live on $7.25 or $8.00 an hour. And second, it’s really kind of changed – also changed the conversation from not about whether we’re just concerned about a minimum wage, but really establish a living wage. And it’s really brought into question, you know, whether even the $10.10 an hour that President Obama is pushing begins to be adequate.
And we’ve even seen some companies – McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, Target – raise their wages. And a lot of people say that’s the result partly of these pressure campaigns, also because of a tightening labor market. But at the same time they’re saying they’d like to see Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Target go up to $15, which is a big leap.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And what are some of the groups that have been involved in making the movement so large?
STEVEN GREENHOUSE: So, like here in New York, there’s a group, New York Communities for Change, which is a group representing many African Americans, Hispanics, poor people, and they’ve worked very closely with the Service Employees International Union. In this protest yesterday, what was new is they started working very closely with civil rights groups around the country, with Black Lives Matter. And labor unions, in general, are very involved. The Service Employees union has spent millions of dollars really getting this going, hiring organizers, and it’s really created a movement that, you know, people around the country are saying there’s something new here. This is not just, you know, workers at a few restaurants. It’s really this movement of fast-food workers, Wal-Mart workers, janitors, home-care aides. And politicians are really starting to pay lots of attention.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about this convergence of the different movements, as you’re describing – Black Lives Matter, the immigrants’ rights movement, Occupy before it. Go back to 1968, right? Dr. Martin Luther King died trying to organize the Poor People’s Campaign. Talk about this trajectory.
STEVEN GREENHOUSE: So, I went to Atlanta a few weeks ago to do a story for the Times about how they were very deliberately trying to combine this movement of the fast-food workers, the Fight for $15 movement, with the civil rights movement to show that it’s not just, you know, trying to raise pay a few dollars an hour, but it’s an economic justice and social justice movement. And the meeting was held in the reverend – you know, Reverend King’s former church, Ebenezer Baptist Church, and it was very moving. And a lot of the language they’re using or rhetoric they’re using really comes out of the civil rights movement, that – you know, “I am a man,” “We want dignity,” “$7.25 isn’t enough to support our families.” And it’s really snowballing.
And one big change I’ve seen since I started covering this in November 2012 is just many, many people – you know, we often think of low-wage workers are like scared to stick their heads above the parapet because they’re going to fired or they’re going to get in trouble, and many of them are immigrants worried that bad things will happen to them. People are usually emboldened. You know, now when I go interview a lot of these workers, they’re happy to give me their names. And usually when you interview workers, they’re very scared to.
AMY GOODMAN: A hundred fifty billion dollars, public assistance, that goes to working families? Explain the significance of this, something that I think people across the country identify with, that regular working people and poor working people are supporting these large corporations like Wal-Mart and McDonald’s by having to pay public assistance to their workers.
STEVEN GREENHOUSE: There’s this notion that everyone who receives public assistance is a chisler, isn’t working, isn’t sitting on their hands, isn’t going to look for a job. But this study out of Berkeley found that three-quarters of the money, nationwide – three-quarters of the money nationwide spent on public assistance, whether food stamps, Medicaid, goes to people with – goes to families who have at least one person working. And the study found that this is an indirect subsidy to companies like Wendy’s and Burger King and McDonald’s and Taco Bell and Wal-Mart and Target, which often pay $7.25, $8, $9 an hour. And it’s very, very hard to raise yourself, no less two or three kids, if you’re earning that much. And, you know, I think one of the points of the study is that it really raises the question: Should taxpayers be subsidizing the Wal-Marts and McDonald’s? And Wal-Mart and McDonald’s respond that, “Well, thanks to – thanks in part to our lower low wages, we’re able to give consumers low-cost products.”
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And they also make the argument, of course, that if they paid higher wages, they would employ less people.
STEVEN GREENHOUSE: Yes. I mean, you know, as many of your guests have said on this show, many, many economic studies show that a modest increase in the minimum wage will have very little effect on jobs. You know, jumping – there really haven’t been studies about the –
AMY GOODMAN: Or they’ll charge more – or they’ll charge more for burgers.
STEVEN GREENHOUSE: Or they’ll charge some – well, if you raise pay to $15 an hour, they’re going to charge more for burgers. That’s – I mean, yeah, but even liberal economists like Jared Bernstein say that, you know, there haven’t been studies about the job effects of going from a $7.25 federal minimum wage to $15. You know, that could really speed up automation. We could see some McDonald’s cashiers replaced with kiosks and –
AMY GOODMAN: Speaking of McDonald’s, McDonald’s just announced that they’re going to increase the minimum wage – but explain the little twist here – to the nonfranchise workers. Franchises employ 90 percent of McDonald’s workers. It won’t go to them?
STEVEN GREENHOUSE: Right. See, McDonald’s on April 1st trumpeted this, quote-unquote, “big announcement” that it’s raising wages to about $9 an hour – you know, raising wages by about 89 cents, on average around 10 percent, for its workers, from around $8 an hour to around $9 an hour, roughly. But that’s only for the workers at company-owned restaurants, which – and that’s only about 11 percent of all the workers at McDonald’s restaurants in the US The other 89 percent work for franchisee, franchise-run restaurants. So, one of the weird things is McDonald’s said, “Look, we’re doing this great thing to help workers,” but many workers in the franchise restaurants got really pissed off, and I think it really jazzed them up. And as a result, a lot more participated in yesterday’s protest than people were expecting.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: How likely do you think it is, to the extent that you can speculate, that $15 is a realistic goal? And also, if you could talk a little bit about what the impact of this movement is likely to be on the 2016 presidential race?
STEVEN GREENHOUSE: So, when this started – you know, this movement started in November 2012 – I think many, many, many people said, “$15, that’s just a crazy, crazily ambitious number.” But then we’ve seen, you know, SeaTac approve $15, and Seattle has approved a $15 minimum wage, and Washington state talks about perhaps going to a $15 statewide minimum wage. And San Francisco has a $15 minimum wage. And Chicago, with a centrist mayor, has adopted a $13 minimum wage. So the discussion about what’s a achievable wage has really changed. But $15 is a very ambitious goal, in my view. You know, typical wages in fast food now are about $8.80, $9 an hour, and we’re really talking about a two-thirds increase. That’s a lot. And my sense is if the movement could get $12 or $13, they’d be pretty darn happy. They still – you know, it’s hard to know whether $15 is really, really the goal, or it’s kind of a bargaining position to aim for $12 or $13.
And the explosion in the streets yesterday, I think, is putting pressure on the candidates, Democrat and Republican, to take a stand on the minimum wage. Certainly, Hillary, as the lone Democratic candidate, will be pushed to embrace, somehow support the campaign, maybe support a minimum wage of higher than $10.10 an hour. The Republicans, you know, uniformly oppose a higher minimum wage. But I think, as this movement builds, it’s going to increase pressure on them. You know, so Marco Rubio said, “I don’t want wages of $10.10 an hour. I want people to be paid $30 an hour.” That’s kind of dodging the issue. I think this movement is going to really press the Republicans to take a firm stand on what they want to do on the minimum wage.
AMY GOODMAN: We just have 30 seconds. I want to jump to what our next subject is, TPP. You just interviewed Richard Trumka, head of the AFL–CIO, and Trumka told you he’s no fan of the TPP. Explain.
STEVEN GREENHOUSE: So, he could talk about that for half an hour [inaudible]. So, he says the agreement is too secretive. It’s not going to do much to help labor rights. It says – he says it’ll be too much like NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that it’s going to increase imports from overseas, it’s going to take away jobs from Americans, and that, he says, basically is part of a corporate agenda that’s going to help big corporations and not do much for American workers, perhaps hurt them.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Steven Greenhouse, we want to thank you for being with us, former labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times. He’s been covering the Fight for $15 movement extensively. On Wednesday, he co-wrote a piece in The Guardian, “Fight for $15 swells into largest protest by low-wage workers in US history.” We’ll link to that article at democracynow.org. His book is called The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker. And next up, we will talk about the TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with Lori Wallach and Florida Congressmember Alan Grayson. Stay with us. |
Sharon van Etten headlines a Planned Parenthood benefit in January
In a post-Trump social climate, it can be easy to get down on yourself for enjoying the art and culture that you love. Scrambling to spend $75 to see a bearded millionaire coo neo-folk hymns in a multi-million-dollar converted warehouse can seem trivial when New York’s LGBT youth are homeless at alarming rates, state legislatures are passing unconstitutional abortion laws, and Muslim women are being attacked in public across the country.
But being a music fan and making a difference are not mutually exclusive. Over the next few weeks, New York musicians are putting their money where their mouths are and donating their time to raise money for various causes and organizations that fight for social justice, whether that be through education, health, law, or activism. Helping out is easy — just buy a ticket, show up, and show your support. We’ve collected more than a dozen such benefit shows happening in the city over the next few weeks, with links to the organizations they’re supporting. And if you like what you hear, consider direct action — these organizations could use all the help they can get.
12/19
ACLU
Shunklings, Birdbird, Shake, Beeyotch, Dog Petter
Silent Barn
8 p.m., $8
Standing Rock
Dead Sexy Sheila, Dances, Sic Tic, Lola Pistola
Sunnyvale
8 p.m., $8
Planned Parenthood
Language, Total Slacker, Jemez,
Alphaville
8 p.m., $10
12/19
Oakland Fire/Trans Assistance Project
Pharmakon, Drew McDowall, DJ Richard, Bookworms, Ciarra Black
Saint Vitus Bar
5 p.m., $15-30
1/3
Doctors Without Borders
Runny, Mighty High, The Star Spangles, Trashy, The Whores
Saint Vitus Bar
8 p.m., $12
1/6
Hetrick-Martin Institute for LGBTQ Youth
David Grubbs, Anastasia Clarke, Max Alper, Camilla Padgitt-Coles, Julia Santoli
Knockdown Center
8 p.m., $10
1/13
Standing Rock
The Phantom Family Halo, Mystic Ruler, Mega Bog, Jib Kidder
The Park Church Co-Op
8:00 p.m.
1/16
ACLU
Sean Mcverry, Birch, Jackie Mendoza
Shea Stadium BK
8 p.m., $8
1/18
ACLU/Planned Parenthood
Sharon Van Etten, Beirut, Daniel Rossen (Grizzly Bear), Kevin Morby, Hand Habits
Music Hall of Williamsburg
8 p.m., $40
1/19
ACLU/Planned Parenthood
Helado Negro, Beirut, Daniel Rossen, Kevin Morby, Ruth Garbus
Rough Trade
7 p.m., $30 |
[Editor's Note: the following article is a condensation of a much more extensive paper on this subject by the author. You can read the full article here.]
Recently, Peter Zuckerman published a piece arguing for the repeal of USC 523 (a)(8) -- the student loan exception to a debtor's ability to discharge debt under the US. Bankruptcy code. The argument Zuckerman puts forth, while strong and compelling, does not take into consideration the systemic consequences that removing bankruptcy and other protections appear to have had on the lending system.
By removing the threat of bankruptcy (as well as statutes of limitations, usury laws, and other consumer protections that exist for all other loans), and establishing a very lucrative compensation system for the collection of defaulted loans, the largest lenders, all of the guarantors, and likely even the Department of Education now make more revenue from defaulted loans than loans that remain in good stead. This is a very significant and troubling fiscal environment that appears to correlate to all manner of systemic faults and failings in the federal lending system. This is a key point that frequently goes unacknowledged in public discourse on this issue, but shouldn't.
While it's a bit unclear whether the fiscal preference for defaults extends to the Direct Loan program [Ed. Note: These are loans made directly by the Federal Government]. It is quite clear for the FFEL program [Ed. Note: These are loans that were made by private lenders, but were subsidized and guaranteed by the Federal Government. Though this program was terminated a few years ago, many billions of FFEL debt remains outstanding]. Large FFEL Program lenders like Sallie Mae and Nelnet own collection subsidiaries, which are allowed to keep almost 20% of every payment on a defaulted loan before applying the payment to principal or interest. Because lenders are reimbursed nearly full-book value on defaulted loans, there is really only upside for defaulted loans compared to loans that remain in good stead. It's a "second bite of the apple," so to speak . Sallie Mae cites collection costs on these loans prior to defaulting as the reason they would prefer that loans not default. But this claim really doesn't hold up under scrutiny.
Guarantors derive, on average, about 60% of their income from penalties and fees from defaulted loans. Therefore it is even less controversial to claim that guarantors have financial preference for defaults, than the analogous claim for lenders.
Supplemental materials in the President's 2009, 2010, 2011 budgets (and prior) show that for every dollar paid out by the federal government for defaulted Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) student loans (which comprise a large majority of all outstanding student loans), the Department of Education recovers $1.22 (we assume this is before collection costs, and the government's "cost of money") . Making generous assumptions about these costs still leaves a significant amount of profit on defaults that isn't realized for healthy loans. The savings on subsidies and the ending of spread payments that a defaulted loan triggers makes defaults even more attractive from the Department of Education's perspective.
To be clear: Any lending system where the lender would rather a loan default than remain in good stead is unacceptable. It would tend to promote bad loan administration, inaccurate reporting, and a plethora of other systemic failings. It would also tend to push up the price of the commodity being purchased if the lending system finances a significant portion of the market. And indeed this bears out in the case of student loans.
For example: It is a matter of record that lenders actually defaulted student loans without even attempting to collect on the debt. In 2000, Sallie Mae paid $3.4 million in fines as a result of the U.S. Attorney's office discovering that the company was invoicing for defaulted loans where the borrower was never contacted. Rather, records were fabricated to indicate that the borrower had been contacted. While it is unclear how common this type of behavior is across the industry, we do know that other lenders have been found to be making similar false claims. That it happened at all demonstrates perverted fiscal motivations, however.
Another example: Despite repeated claims by the Department of Education, the student lending industry, their lobbyists, and the universities that default rates were relatively low, it turns out that they were being vastly undercounted. This is a fact that the Department of Education, lenders, and universities are loathe to acknowledge even today. The public is routinely mislead about a school's default rates, and the Department of Education does essentially nothing to correct this.
Also, most citizens with outstanding student loan debt were never informed that bankruptcy protections, statutes of limitations, truth in lending requirements, and other fundamental consumer protections were gone prior to taking out the loans. Because these protections exist for every other type of loan in the nation, they had no reason to suspect or ask about this possibility.
The Department of Education, should have been "sounding the alarms" about this growing problem years ago, pushing for stricter lending limits, lower tuition, etc. But it did not. Instead, it seems to have assumed a "cheerleader" role that essentially enabled the prices, and associated debt levels to rise to where they are today. This is a critical institutional failing that is almost never pointed out, but should be.
There are other examples that, taken together, indicate strongly that the Department has been working for the lenders (and schools) either without regard to the interests of the students, or even against their interests, but the examples already mentioned are sufficient to demonstrate broad systemic failings that could, should, and would never have happened had adequate oversight been exercised.
T he argument for repeal of 523(a)(8) -- the bankruptcy exclusion for student loans --gets much stronger in view of this. Reorienting the fiscal motivations to their proper alignments is urgently needed. Returning, at a minimum, the bankruptcy protections that should never have been removed is the obvious first action that would achieve this, in all likelihood.
In so doing, the federal government will, once again, have a financial interest that student loans not default, and will be compelled to use its considerable influence to encourage the universities -- in a serious and meaningful way -- to both provide a quality education that gives the student the best chance for success, and also to do this at a reasonable cost.
Instead of looking the other way, or worse, as Congress deliberates on whether to raise the loan limits yet again, the Department of Education will be compelled to object. Instead of dumbing down regulations meant to keep schools accountable (like the gainful employment rule), the Department would be inclined to go the other way, and start cracking the whip on the schools where needed, instead of coddling them.
The Department of Education might even come up with new tools for ensuring academic excellence, low cost, and ultimately, student success... tools that will work because the Department, institutionally, will want them to work.
© 2013, Alan Collinge.
______________________________________________________
Alan Collinge is the founder of http://StudentLoanJustice.org, and the author of The Student Loan Scam.
The Irascible Professor comments: Recently passed legislation will limit, starting in 2014, the repayment amount for new student loans to 10% of disposable income, and will provide forgiveness for any remaining debt after 20 years. While these much needed reforms are welcome, they do little to solve the problems faced by those with outstanding student loans not covered by the reforms. There is nearly a trillion dollars of such loans outstanding. Unfortunately, this debt never goes away regardless of the circumstances of the borrower and his or her cosigners. For example, borrowers who through no fault of their own are unable to maintain their payments often find their student loan debt skyrocketing as lenders put their loans into default and begin to charge late fees and penalties. Almost all other types of debt can be discharged in bankruptcy if a debtor finds himself or herself unable to repay.
While the IP does not have much sympathy for deadbeats who can repay their loans, but won't; he realizes that many people end up in situations where they simply cannot repay their outstanding debt. One frequent factor is illness that prevents the debtor from working. It's estimated that about half of the personal bankruptcies in the U.S. are caused by overwhelming medical bills. A person with student loan debt who cannot repay because of illness can discharge his or her other debts through the bankruptcy process, but not the student loan debt. That fundamentally is unfair! The reforms that will go into effect for new student loans starting in 2014 go a long way towards towards restoring reasonable consumer protection to the student loan market. However, these new protections do nothing for the millions of people with student loans not covered by these new protections. Thus, restoring the bankruptcy option is essential.
The Irascible Professor invites your .
© 2013 Dr. Mark H. Shapiro - All rights reserved.
Technocrati tag(s): education college university |
SPOKANE, Wash. --- The City of Spokane announced a new plan for how they will deal with the excessive amount of potholes in the area this season.
This weekend, the city will begin testing new material to fill the potholes. They said they hope it patches up the holes for a longer period of time.
The crews are switching to a different cold weather mix to fill the potholes that is cement-based. It is typically used on bridges.
"Today, we have additional crews from the water and waste departments out there filling potholes in the traditional cold mix method, really trying to improve the condition of the city streets for this weekend," said Gary Kaesemeyer, the director of the Spokane Streets Department.
Next week, the city plans to bring in more equipment to fill the potholes. They said similar equipment has already been used in Idaho.
City Street Director says they're bringing in a new piece of equipment for longer lasting pothole repair. pic.twitter.com/BZCsMvAOWu — Lindsay Nadrich (@KREMLindsay) February 24, 2017
"Of course, extraordinary times call for different ways to approach this stuff," said Scott Simmons, the director of Spokane Public Works. "We've seen a tremendous amount of potholes, more than we have seen in the past years."
Inland Asphalt is also stepping up to help. Mayor David Condon said they are opening so crews can what they call a "hot mixture" they know works well to fill potholes.
"We've never had the chance of having hot mix in the winter, you know, now obviously the availability of that will facilitate the process," Condon said.
City of Spokane is holding a press conference to announce its plan to deal with potholes. pic.twitter.com/6xxz3RfV39 — Lindsay Nadrich (@KREMLindsay) February 24, 2017
City crews will reevaluate the plan on Monday after seeing how the weekend goes. The City Council said they will also consider adjusting the budget to fix the roads if needed. |
This article is over 3 years old
Cat litter used to absorb liquids in a barrel of nuclear waste was the wrong type, sparking a chemical reaction and a subsequent radioactive leak
A radiation leak at an underground nuclear waste dump in New Mexico was caused by “chemically incompatible” contents, including cat litter, that reacted inside a barrel of waste causing it to rupture, scientists said on Thursday.
The US Energy Department report on last year’s radiation accident at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad showed that a drum of waste containing radioisotopes like plutonium was improperly packaged at the Los Alamos National Laboratory near Santa Fe before arriving for disposal.
The improper mix in the barrel, including the wrong sort of cat litter used to absorb liquids, sparked a chemical reaction causing it to heat up and generate gases that dislodged its lid, spewing radioactive materials, investigators found.
The radiation leak that began in the WIPP disposal chamber half a mile below ground on 14 February, 2014, “did not result from a detonation,” the report showed.
The accident exposed 22 workers to radiation in amounts not expected to threaten their health, according to Nuclear Waste Partnership LLC, the contractor that operates the plant.
New Mexico levies $54M against US for violations at nuclear repository Read more
The accident indefinitely suspended key operations at the site, the Energy Department’s only permanent underground repository for certain types of radiological waste tied to US nuclear labs and weapons sites.
In September, Energy Department officials estimated the cost of the initial recovery of the dump at $240m and said it might be two years or more before it is fully operational.
The report released on Thursday confirms the agency’s preliminary theories about the cause of the costly mishap and also clarified that just one barrel of waste from Los Alamos was to blame.
New Mexico slapped the Energy Department with $54m in fines in December for violations of state hazardous waste permits tied to WIPP and the Los Alamos lab.
Also last year, a team of federal inspectors released a report that cited chronic lapses in safety procedures at Los Alamos that contributed to the radiation leak.
The lab’s “waste processing and safety-related control procedures should have prevented the addition of these potentially incompatible materials,” the inspectors said of the ruptured waste barrel.
The Energy Department could not be reached immediately for comment late Thursday. |
Dominick Reuter / Reuters Americans say that even though they see more ads from Clinton, they're talking more about Trump.
Hillary Clinton’s massive lead over Donald Trump on ad spending hasn’t gone unnoticed by the American public.
Forty-seven percent of Americans polled in a new HuffPost/YouGov survey say that they’ve seen more ads from Clinton during the last month than they have from Trump. Just 7 percent say they’ve seen more Trump ads. Another 24 percent say they’ve seen an equal number for each candidate, while 15 percent haven’t seen any commercials and 7 percent are unsure.
People’s self-reported recollections aren’t exactly perfect, and some will mistakenly report having seen ads that they couldn’t possibly have watched. In one study, 17 percent of people told pollsters that they remembered seeing a commercial that had never actually been played for them.
But lending credence to the results is the lack of partisan split you’d expect to see if people on either side were trying to prop up their own party with their responses. Fifty percent of Republicans, and a nearly identical 53 percent of Democrats, say they’ve seen more ads from Clinton.
And, more importantly, the public’s impression that Clinton is outgunning Trump on the airwaves matches up with the numbers. Clinton’s campaign has outspent Trump’s campaign by a 17-to-1 margin, NBC News reported earlier this week, and even with outside groups supporting both candidates factored in, the Democrats retain a 6-to-1 advantage.
“We haven’t seen a modern presidential campaign that is so lopsided in terms of advertising,” wrote Erika Franklin Fowler, the co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project.
Recent history offers little precedent for exactly how much that imbalance is likely to affect Trump, whose campaign voters increasingly perceive as being poorly run.
“The evidence suggests that campaign ads have small effects that decay rapidly — very rapidly — but just enough of the impact accumulates to make running more advertising than your opponent seem a necessity,” political scientist Lynn Vavreck wrote in June. “It sets off an arms race of ads as candidates try to neutralize or displace their opponents. But will the 2016 general election be different? Mr. Trump has used unconventional campaign tactics and has relied on free media to get his messages out. All of this may render advertising less relevant.”
Although Trump is losing on ad spending, he’s still getting plenty of airtime and ink. By a 27-point margin, 40 percent to 13 percent, Americans say they’ve seen more news stories about Trump than Clinton in the past month, with 38 percent reporting hearing equally about both.
“I have a little TV in my office. If I put it on right now, I have a 75 percent chance of seeing him,” Jordan Cohen, the chief marketing officer for the digital marketing firm Fluent, told The Wall Street Journal.
Perhaps as a result, Trump also comes up more in Americans’ conversations: Twenty-nine percent say they spend more time talking about him, while 13 percent spend more time talking about Clinton. A 53 percent majority spend equal time talking about both candidates, or try to eschew mentioning either candidate.
The poll finds less clear of a disparity in other forms of messaging. While Trump has an 8-point edge over Clinton on the number of posts Americans have seen from him on Twitter and Facebook during the last month, 52 percent of respondents say they’ve seen equal postings from both candidates or none at all.
Huffington Post
Roughly equal percentages of Americans also reported being contacted by each campaign. Ten percent said they’d heard from Clinton’s campaign, 11 percent said they’d heard from Trump’s, 4 percent said they’d heard from both, and 69 percent said they hadn’t heard from either.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted Aug. 23-25 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov’s opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.
The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls.You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov’s nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found here. More details on the polls’ methodology are available here.
Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some, but not all, potential survey errors. YouGov’s reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample, rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate. Click here for a more detailed explanation of the model-based margin of error. |
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Civil rights advocates backing the litigation could ask the Supreme Court to step in and keep the revised voter ID law on hold through this fall's elections. | Eric Gay/AP Appeals court, 2-1, gives Texas OK to use new voter ID law
A divided federal appeals court has stayed a lower judge's ruling barring Texas from implementing a revised version of its voter identification law.
A panel of the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals voted, 2-1, to allow Texas to use the revised voter ID measure known as SB 5 beginning next year. In the meantime, interim rules used in 2016 will be in effect, the appeals court declared.
"The State has made a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits. SB 5 allows voters without qualifying photo ID to cast regular ballots by executing a declaration that they face a reasonable impediment to obtaining qualifying photo ID. This declaration is made under the penalty of perjury," Judges Jerry Smith and Jennifer Elrod wrote in a joint order Tuesday. "The State has made a strong showing that this reasonable-impediment procedure remedies plaintiffs’ alleged harm and thus forecloses plaintiffs’ injunctive relief."
Smith and Elrod also faulted U.S. District Court Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos for going beyond the scope of a previous 5th Circuit ruling instructing her to assess whether SB 5 had cured problems with SB 14, another voter ID measure Texas passed in 2011. Ramos ruled that original measure was tainted by an effort to discriminate on the basis of race and the measure signed earlier this year did not fix the problem.
"The district court went beyond the scope of the mandate on remand," Smith and Elrod wrote. "Simply put, whether SB 5 should be enjoined — as opposed to whether it remedies SB 14’s ills — was not an issue before the district court on remand."
The third judge on the 5th Circuit panel handling Texas' request to stay Ramos' ruling, Judge James Graves Jr., said it was far from clear Texas would prevail. He noted that the 4th Circuit ruled last year that a North Carolina voter ID measure which the courts found was motivated by race was not adequately redressed by fixes to the law, and instead needed to be removed "root and branch."
Graves also said preserving the status quo would mean returning to the procedures used during last year's elections, rather than letting Texas go through with the process set up by the new law.
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"If a stay is granted at all, then it should be comprehensive. In other words, the correct approach would be to stay both the district court’s order and the new legislation," Graves wrote.
The Department of Justice supported the ruling.
"We are pleased that the Fifth Circuit has stayed the injunction and allowed Texas to proceed with its duly enacted voter identification laws. Preserving the integrity of the ballot is vital to our democracy, and the Fifth Circuit’s order allows Texas to continue to fulfill that duty as this case moves forward," according to a statement from spokeswoman Lauren Ehrsam.
Civil rights advocates backing the litigation could ask the Supreme Court to step in and keep the revised voter ID law on hold through this fall's elections.
Smith is a Reagan appointee, Elrod is a George W. Bush appointee, while Graves and Ramos are Obama appointees.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post misstated when the new law's provisions would take effect under the 5th Circuit order. |
As most people are no doubt aware, many of North America's Christmas traditions have been imported from other countries, and many of them have pre-Christian, pagan sources. In fact, the whole idea of having a winter celebration involving the exchange of gifts and the lighting of a festively decorated tree pre-dates the establishment of Christmas, dating back to festivals such as the Germanic Yule and the Roman Saturnalia.
Not all of those Old World traditions made it to modern North America, though. For instance, when's the last time you or your neighbours included a shaggy, horned demon in your holiday festivities? The demon in question (pictured above) is called Krampus, and in some Alpine countries he is considered a traditional companion of St. Nicholas. While St. Nick rewards children for good behaviour, the job of Krampus is to keep them in line with the threat of a birching.
In the Austrian ski resort of Schladming, Krampus fans gather every December to dress in carved masks and goat-hair costumes, wearing cowbells to warn of their approach. According to Wikipedia, "They are typically young men in their teens and early twenties and are generally intoxicated. They roam the streets of this typically quiet town and hit people with their switches. It is not considered wise for young women to go out on this night, as they are popular targets."
Click here and here for some photos that will keep you up at night. |
About
A real close shave...
My love for firearms and marksmanship has not faded since my time in the Marine Corps. This was an idea last year that had finally come to fruition.
We had such a great experience with our Vulcan Combs that we are now ready to introduce our .50 Caliber Razors. Let's jump right into the project details.
We are using the art of repurposing live fire brass into handles for safety razors. First we established all dimensions of what we were using as our base, the .50 caliber brass cartridge.
Sizing up the round.
The opening of the cartridge was a no brainer, but I wanted to create the whole piece and compare it with others in the market. The length and width are very comparable, and because it's brass, naturally has a great weight.
I decided to build it from bottom to top; I have the round so I then designed the patent pending "Slug adapter".
Slug adapter
This piece was a little tricky, but having worked with a lot of metals I knew I wanted to keep it simple; brass on brass application. The Slug adapter grooves in at the bottom and goes deep into the round with knurling on the upper portion to really grip back into the brass. Here is a shot of it with chrome finishing, you'll see some brass leftover on the inner parts to ensure brass on brass connection.
Actual Slug adapter
Designing the razor plates was relatively easy. I opted for the smoothest surface with a comfortably close shave.
Razor top & bottom plate
....and then the finished project, all parts chrome plated.
.50 Caliber Razors imagined
This is the first time we put it together...I was pretty stoked.
....And the finished product :)
Now all you have to do is get some cheap razor blades from CVS or any drug or grocery store, and you're set for an inexpensive, great close shave!
10 for only $5!
I hope you like my project, Thank you! |
Keuka College, a Division III school with a total enrollment of fewer than 2,000 students, will change its athletic teams' nickname from Wolfpack to Wolves after the end of the 2015-16 academic year, after pressure from NC State to protect its Wolfpack trademark.
Keuka College is changing it's nickname from "Wolfpack" after pressure from NC State. The press release is gold. pic.twitter.com/axeFpVCQBl — Prescott Rossi (@PrescottRossi) February 5, 2016
The school told the Greensboro News & Record that NC State made no bones about its intentions to keep the Wolfpack name for itself.
"We didn't receive an official cease-and-desist order," says Pete Bekisz, Keuka's communications director. "But they made it clear they would pursue this in federal court. ... They made it clear they wanted to be the only Wolfpack."
And NC State all but confirmed a vigorous defense of its mark to the News & Record, as well.
N.C. State officially trademarked the one-word "Wolfpack" nickname in 1983 to "preserve the value ... and protect consumers from misinformation," Brad Bohlander, State's chief communications officer, wrote in an email. "Because of the history associated with the mark and N.C. State, the uniqueness of the mark in collegiate sports, and the value provided to the university," Bohlander wrote, "N.C. State works to protect its mark from possible dilution and others’ infringement."
Keuka's use of the Wolfpack nickname dates back only to 2014, when students voted to change it from Storm after Keuka students' response to flooding in the Finger Lakes area of New York.
It's very hard to see how anyone could confuse Keuka with NC State, either, especially given that Keuka uses green and gold as its school colors. But the smaller school — which had an endowment of $8.7 million in 2011, a fraction of NC State's athletic budget of just under $64 million in 2014-15 — is clearly convinced that discretion and a pointed press release are the better part of valor.
NC State and Keuka are currently the only NCAA athletic programs to use the one-word Wolfpack as their teams' nickname. The University of Nevada uses Wolf Pack, as does NAIA Loyola University of New Orleans. |
Via @MarkCuban:
Some background, Patent Troll Says It Owns Podcasting; Sues Adam Carolla, HowStuffWorks:
We’ve written a few times about a patent trolling operation called Personal Audio. Like so many patent trolling companies, who’s actually behind it is something of a mystery, but it does have an empty office in East Texas that no one ever goes to. It sued Apple and others claiming that it held patents on the concept of “playlists” and actually scored some victories. Amazingly, it sued Apple multiple times over the same patent, arguing that small changes to its products were new violations.
Well, the company is back with a “new” patent, 8,112,504, called a “System for disseminating media content representing episodes in a serialized sequence” and appears to be claiming that podcasting itself violates the patent — and has sued three podcasters, including Adam Carolla’s “ACE Broadcasting,” HowStuffWorks and Togi Entertainment. |
Buy Photo A portion of Bloyd Rd. at Roosevelt Ave., near Santarossa Mosaic & Tile Co., Inc. (2707 E. Roosevelt Ave.) is closed heading to the underpass on I-70, Friday, February 23, 2007. Highway construction begins on Monday, and businesses like Santarossa, as well as commuters and other travelers will feel the traffic changes as roads are closed and alternate routes are used. (Kelly Wilkinson / The Indianapolis Star) (Photo: Kelly Wilkinson)Buy Photo
Republican legislative leaders say they need hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue to pay for highway improvements, with much of that money expected to come from a tax hike on gasoline.
But those same lawmakers were also behind a series of tax cuts over the past five years that wiped out more than $600 million a year in state revenue — money that critics argue could have been used for roads.
Supporters of the road funding plan are pitching the gas tax increase as a “user fee.” Those who use the roads will end up paying for them.
But economists say there’s another way to look at the proposal when placed in the context of the recent tax breaks — as a large shift of the state’s tax burden from higher income to middle income Hoosiers.
That’s because the taxes lawmakers have cut since 2011 have tended to benefit wealthier individuals. They include the elimination of the inheritance tax, corporate and financial institution tax cuts and a 5 percent reduction to Indiana’s flat personal income tax.
The new tax hikes, on the other hand, will likely hit a broader socio-economic group — Hoosier motorists.
“In a sense we have cut one tax and raised the other,” said Larry DeBoer, an economics professor at Purdue University. “The income tax and corporate tax — and the inheritance tax in particular — tend to be more progressive. Higher-income people pay more. The gasoline tax is not as progressive. It is a shift then from higher income to middle income people.”
Michael Hicks, an economist at Ball State University, agreed.
“The recent tax changes, coupled with a gas tax increase, would levy a higher burden on lower- and middle-income households,” he said.
Republican leaders in the House are expected to unveil the details of their road-funding package Wednesday at 10 a.m. Incoming Gov. Eric Holcomb is expected to do the same on Thursday.
While the details remain unclear, discussions have centered on an increase to Indiana’s 18-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax as a starting point. The tax, which provides the bulk of Indiana’s road funding, hasn’t been increased since 2003.
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Lawmakers are also considering new toll roads, BMV fees and new taxes on electric and alternative fuel vehicles.
Sen. Luke Kenley, a Noblesville Republican who leads the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, has said a gas tax increase of 8 to 10 cents a gallon would cost the average Hoosier about $150 a year. Along with a motor carrier surcharge and special fuels tax, the gas tax increase could raise $350 to $400 million, he said.
Compare those amounts to the amount of revenue lost due to recent tax cuts that when fully implemented will cost the state more than $600 million a year. Those cuts include:
A 5 percent reduction to the personal income tax passed in 2013 that is expected to cost about $200 million to $300 million in each of the next few years.
The elimination of the inheritance tax in 2013 that is expected to cost about $165 million a year.
Corporate income tax cut passed in 2013 and 2014 that is expected to cost more than $190 million a year when fully implemented in fiscal year 2022.
Financial institutions tax cuts passed in 2013 and 2014 that are expected to cost more than $40 million a year when fully implemented.
Republican fiscal leaders argue that those past tax cuts — especially the income tax championed in 2013 by Gov. Mike Pence — have benefited a broad group of Hoosiers.
Others such as the inheritance, corporate and financial institution tax cuts have helped keep jobs in Indiana, which benefits a wide range of wage earners, they say.
“If you have a better corporate tax rate and if you eliminate the inheritance tax, then you are building a situation where people will want to stay here instead of moving to Florida,” Kenley said. “Then you are keeping those people and their taxes here.”
He said Indiana’s low unemployment rate and record private sector employment are evidence that the strategy is working.
But critics point out that at the time those cuts were passed, Republican lawmakers and Pence argued that state revenues were robust enough to sustain the revenue losses.
“Now there is a tax shift from the wealthier individuals down to the people without a lot of means,” said Rep. Greg Porter, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. “We’re at the point that we have to back fill those cuts on the backs of working people.”
Ways and Means Chairman Tim Brown, a Crawfordsville Republican, disagreed with that assessment. He said lawmakers have cut even more than they’re seeking to raise now when including older tax cuts such as the cap on property taxes that lawmakers enacted under former Gov. Mitch Daniels.
“The issue also with road funding is you have to have a dedicated source of funding for acquisition, engineering and construction of projects that transcends a two-year budget cycle,” Brown said. “I think a lot of Hoosiers understand user fees and want to see user fees … being borne by everybody, even non-Hoosiers.”
Karen Tallian, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said most lawmakers agree that about $1 billion a year is needed to maintain and expand the state’s roads.
But the debate about how to fund those improvements raises questions about whether prior tax cuts came at the expense of needed services.
“Let’s just say the tax policy is not very consistent. We giveth and we taketh away,” she said.
Call IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter: @indystartony.
Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/2j27C2W |
Mint Press News explores the use of psychotropic medication in the foster care system, and specifically in Texas, starting with an example:
Hours after Texas Child Protective Services removed 5-year-old Tristen from the care of his mother and placed him in a foster home, Tristen’s foster parents took him to see a psychiatrist, citing concerns the young boy was depressed. That day, a psychiatrist prescribed Tristen three medications: one for anger, one for depression and one to help the 5-year-old relax.
Now an adult and out of the foster care system, Tristen says he recognizes he was depressed that day, but he says he never needed any medication — his feelings were only natural given the circumstances.
“They just took the thing that meant the most to me,” he said. “My family.”
Passed from foster home to foster home all over the state of Texas, Tristen says no one ever asked him how the pills made him feel, despite the fact that he would often spend time in his room crying because he felt his medicines were slowly tearing his chest apart.
Doctors also never tested Tristen to see whether the drugs were working or whether the combination of medications he was on was safe. And whenever he asked his case worker or foster parents if he could stop using the drugs, they threatened to call the police, take him to a psychiatric hospital or kick him out of the foster care system.
A psychologist to whom Mint Press talked to estimates 67 percent of foster children aged 13 to 17 in Texas are on at least one prescription medication, numbers he says are likely similar across the country. Foster parents receive about $17 a day per child they take care of but receive up to $1,000 a day for children with mental health issues, incentivizing them to find mental health problems in the children in their care. Read the rest of the article, which includes a quote from a former judge who doubts most CPS agents even know how to spell “investigation,” here. |
In late October 2016, malicious actors took over internet-connected devices to launch a series of cyberattacks known as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
Hackers launch DDoS attacks by sending an overload of web traffic at a target to the point that it is unable to function. To generate this traffic deluge, hackers use a large number of connected devices, or a technique called reflection, in which compromised devices send traffic to an intermediary service that expands and reflects the data at the target.
To counter DDoS attacks, the S&T Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Cyber Security Division (CSD) is funding several research projects that will help defenders turn away attacks.
The October DDoS attacks targeted Dyn—a domain name system (DNS) host that transforms the word-based internet addresses of domains to their numeric internet protocol (IP) addresses—which rendered numerous popular websites, including Twitter, PayPal, Shopify and The New York Times unavailable. These targeted attacks impacted millions of users across the world.
Until recently, most major attacks were reflections. However, using Mirai—malware that turns computer systems into remotely controlled “bots”—hackers now can access a wealth of infected IoT smart devices such as closed-circuit TV cameras and DVD players with weak default passwords to create huge botnet armies.
As a result, over the past six months there has been an exponential increase in the intensity and frequency of DDoS attacks. For instance, in September 2016, there was a 620 gigabyte (Gbps) per second attack on cybersecurity blog KrebsOnSecurity and a 1.1 terabit per second (Tbps) one on OVH, a French Internet Service Provider, that may have reached 1.5 Tbps (Megabytes, Gigabytes, Terabytes...What Are They?).
A Dyn official told a reporter they, “observed 10s of millions of discrete IP addresses” during the attack. In a postmortem several days later, Dyn said many of them were legitimate user attempts to connect to a website. A more troubling aspect of growth in size of DDoS attacks is that it is not clear current network infrastructure can withstand larger-size attacks, say cybersecurity experts.
CSD’s Distributed Denial of Service Defense (DDoSD) project is spearheading a three-pronged approach to shift the advantage to network infrastructure defenders. The project’s two primary focuses are on increasing deployment of best practices to slow attack scale growth and defending networks against a one Tbps attack through development of collaboration tools that can be used by medium-size organizations. A third part of the project addresses other types of denial of service attacks such as attacks against 911 and Next Generation 911 emergency management systems.
“The goal of the DDoSD project is to build effective and easily implemented network defenses and promote adoption of best practices by the private sector to bring about an end to the scourge of DDoS attacks,” says Program Manager Daniel Massey. “Our performers are developing exciting new defense approaches that will help organizations defend against very large-scale DDoS attacks.”
The DDoSD project encourages universal adoption of Internet Best Current Practice 38 (BCP 38)—issued by the Internet Engineering Task Force. BCP 38 slows attack scale growth by blocking forged packets at or near the source of an attack. The University of California San Diego (UCSD) has developed the Open Source Spoofer Toolset, which provides organizations the capability to test whether their network is deploying BCP 38 correctly as well as assisting in correcting and identifying issues or vulnerabilities. Using this free tool, both system administrators and individuals can test whether the network they use allows spoofing.
While we encourage all organizations to deploy BCP 38, no one tool or defense can stop every attack. That’s why the DDoSD project is engaged actively in several research initiatives.
In a significant research initiative supported by CSD, a team at Galois, a Portland, Oregon-based tech firm, is working on a novel solution called DDoS Defense for a Community of Peers. The solution is a dynamic, peer-to-peer network of collaborating service providers across the internet. When a node suspects an attack is underway, it publishes this information to its peers. Each peer then examines its data flows for suspicious traffic. If an attack is identified, the peer nodes contributing to the attack can shut down the flow, thereby shutting down—or limiting—the attack before it takes the target offline.
Other research teams are dedicated to ramping up defenses against the growing size of attacks. Five teams of researchers have demonstrated the capability to withstand a 250 Gbps attack and are working toward defenses for a one Tbps attack.
CSD’s DDoSD project is beginning to tilt the playing field toward defenders. Much work still needs to be completed, especially in the area of developing proactive defenses against new types of attacks. Cyberspace is always changing, and the work to prevent DDoS attacks and other threats from malicious actors will never stop. CSD’s DDoSD is just one of the ways S&T is working with our partners to help keep cyberspace safe and secure. |
We've seen the fortunes rise for America's cities on the east and west coasts, and the cities of the Sun Belt continue their rapid acceleration in growth and prosperity. Where I live, in the capital of the Rust Belt, we've seen nearly as much revitalization as others, despite some considerable structural challenges. But how does that good fortune, that revitalization, expand outward to the places that need it? That's the question that plagues Rust Belt cities today. Back in November, I read an article in Governing Magazine that suggests there are few clear and easy answers for struggling post-industrial cities, but the factors of their future success may now be unknowable. Consider New York's transformation from its near-default in the 70's to its position today:
"Let’s look back at a place once left for dead: New York City. In the 1970s, it was failing and nearly went bankrupt. Films like Death Wish and Taxi Driver portrayed an urban dystopia. The city’s population was falling, and some argued that there was nothing left to do but implement a strategy of planned shrinkage.
How could such an unexpected transformation have occurred? New York certainly benefited over the past two decades from the fantastic leadership of two mayors, Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg. But this can obscure larger forces that played a major role in the city’s transformation.
The reality is that many cities around the world -- Boston, London, Seattle, Tokyo, Washington, D.C. -- have radically transformed themselves for the better over the same period. This suggests that common factors have been at work."
Those "common factors"? We all know them to be now to be the factors that enabled the global economic shift from manufacturing to knowledge -- global networks and access to highly skilled talent, ultimately leading to the exponential growth of knowledge industries.
Writer Aaron Renn attributes at least part of the revival in the knowledge cities to leadership, saying that in New York's case, the administrations of Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg set the tone for the rebound. He even notes how my hometown of Detroit, long left for dead, is making a comeback by utilizing many of the same assets -- educated talent, major corporations, vital networks and connections to other global leaders -- and concludes that a smaller city like Flint, MI, just 60 miles north of Detroit, can't expect to plot the same course for itself. Renn ends by saying that political leadership must do the difficult job of dealing with its legacy challenges, from underfunded public pensions to inadequate infrastructure, work to pave the way for private growth that might be presently unknowable, and to avoid the kinds of government boondoggles that seek to stimulate growth, but actually hamper it.
I tend to believe that leadership matters, but assets matter more. New York, Boston, DC and the Bay Area were well positioned with certain assets as the economy turned in their favor, even as they were at their lowest moments. Late 70's New York still had Wall Street, even if financiers commuted in from Westchester County or Connecticut then, instead of living on the Upper East or West sides now. It was still the nation's media capital. It was still a fashion capital, and it still had the eye of the entire world as the home of the United Nations. Harvard, MIT and other universities make Boston a deep reservoir of elite talent; the same goes for Stanford and Berkeley in the Bay Area. DC naturally attracts the nation's best and brightest as our capital. Each of these cities managed to leverage these assets for their growth.
Many Rust Belt cities have similar assets -- Chicago, definitely so; Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and St. Louis, moderately so. The problem for them, however, is two-fold: one, after relying so much on manufacturing for so long, the transition to utilizing other assets still moves at a glacial pace. And two, much like Flint lacks the assets that Detroit does, limiting its prospects, Rust Belt city assets don't carry the same weight as those on the coasts, therefore limiting their own prospects.
Rust Belt cities are in a position not unlike where Southern cities were in the eight-decade span between the end of the Civil War and the end of World War II. After losing their economy (the slave-driven plantation agriculture economy), enduring early automation challenges that further reduced agriculture employment, and falling behind Northern cities in participating in the manufacturing economy, Southern cities struggled for nearly a century to figure out what to do.
After World War II, the economic winds shifted in the direction of Southern and Western cities, now together marketed as the Sunbelt. They could market lower land, labor and construction costs to woo businesses. The construction of the interstate highway system meant that the rail disadvantage of the South could be negated. The spread of air conditioning made hot Southern and Southwest summers tolerable.
The Sunbelt perfected the practice of nibbling away at the Rust Belt's economy to serve as a new economic foundation for them. Once established, they took it and ran with it.
As for a Rust Belt future, I see Rust Belt cities eventually engaging in similar practices, but with their target being coastal cities. Many Rust Belt cities have strong urban bones with an abundance of walkable urbanism. And it's well known that this asset comes at an affordability that coastal cities can't match. While YIMBYs are doing everything they can to increase housing in coastal cities and push prices downward, we may find that businesses elect to move to other cities with similar assets at a lesser price, and hope to bring more people with them. At some point a new economic foundation is established, and the process will accelerate.
Chicago has already reached this point, even if it hasn't experienced the same level of success as the coastal cities. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee and St. Louis sit behind Chicago, at varying levels. Sadly, I don't know if the Flints or Akrons or Rockfords of the Rust Belt will ever see the same change, at least under our current economy. But hey -- in 1920, Charlotte was a small cotton processing center and minor rail hub with 46,000 people, while the prosperous auto industry was attracting enough people to Detroit to push it just shy of one million people. Today, Charlotte is a major banking and financial center, the economic capital of two states, and has over 800,000 residents, while Detroit has fallen below 700,000. The script was flipped.
Am I saying this will be a conscious Rust Belt strategy? Not at all. Even 40 years after reaching peak manufacturing employment nationwide, Rust Belt cities are still trying to figure out how to operate in an environment where manufacturing simply doesn't dominate anymore. Eventually each city will conduct its own evaluation of its assets and determine the appropriate way to market them. This, however, is just my own understanding of how the broad macroeconomic cycle plays out and takes place into account. |
The Woodwright's Shop is a traditional woodworking show hosted by master carpenter Roy Underhill on PBS in the United States. It is one of the longest running "how to" shows on PBS, with thirty-five 13-episode seasons filmed. Since its debut in 1979, the show has aired over 400 episodes. The first two seasons were broadcast only on public TV in North Carolina; the season numbering was restarted when the show went national in 1981. It is still filmed at the UNC-TV (University of North Carolina Center for Public Television) studios in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
Overview [ edit ]
The Woodwright's Shop teaches the art of traditional woodworking, using hand tools and human-powered machines. Viewers learn how to make furniture, toys, and other useful objects out of wood. Viewers also learn how to lay out wood projects and which tools to use for specific purposes. The show also teaches viewers how to use tools properly.
The host, Roy Underhill, instructs viewers on creating wooden joints using hand tools and machine tools.
Wood joints [ edit ]
Underhill often shows the viewers how to create several useful and strong wooden joints, which are commonly used in carpentry.
Mortise and tenon: This joint is often used for two pieces of wood that attach at right angles to each other in a "T" shape.
Tongue and groove: Tongue and groove joints are typically used for large surfaces such as a series of wooden panels on a wall or a table top.
Dovetail joint: This joint is typically used for the corners of boxes.
Rabbet: A rabbet joint is one of the simplest joints used on the show.
Timber framing techniques are often used in conjunction with the wood joints described on the show.
Various hand tools for carving wood
Hand tools are a major focus of the show. All of the hand tools used on the show are manually operated (i.e. non-electric).
Chisel: The chisel is one of the most commonly used tools on the show and is typically used to shave down material and to square up holes.
Wooden mallet: The mallet is often used to drive the chisel into the workpiece.
Bow saw: The bow saw is often used by Underhill to cut large pieces of wood and to make curved cuts.
Brace and bit: Most of the drilling on the show is done with a brace and bit which is a hand powered drill.
Plane: Underhill uses the plane to level out surfaces and to square up joints.
Hatchet: Large pieces of wood are cut down to manageable size with a hatchet.
Drawknife: This tool is often used to quickly remove excess material.
Adze: The adze is used to hollow out surfaces like a chair seat.
Proper handling and maintenance of tools is also part of the show. This includes the sharpening and sometimes making of tools, such as a scraper made from an old saw blade.
The most commonly used machine tool on the show is the lathe. Underhill typically uses a treadle lathe, but has also shown the viewers how to build and operate a spring pole lathe. He also often uses a gouge, in conjunction with his lathe, to remove material and smooth out a workpiece.
One of the simplest types of machines used on the show is a miter box. This is used to create square and perpendicular saw cuts, or to create saw cuts at a specific angle.
Early history [ edit ]
The show started as an idea that Roy Underhill had in 1976.[1] He built a workshop and historic museum in Durham, North Carolina, in the mid-1970s. He called it "The Woodwright's Shop" and started teaching classes on how to build things out of wood.[2]
Underhill pitched the show idea to the PBS affiliate in Chapel Hill in 1978 but was rejected. He tried again in 1979 and filmed a pilot.[2] Only in the fall of 1979 was the show accepted. 1979 was the same year that This Old House started airing on PBS.[2] Underhill admits that he made up the term "woodwright" and that it is not an actual term.[3] Initially, he was concerned about using the made-up term in the show's title, but decided to use it anyway.[3]
Production [ edit ]
The show has a tight filming schedule.[4] The show does not have a real script; instead, Underhill works out the story he is going to present and how to do it. He decides where camera shots are needed and sets workpieces and tools in those locations.[4] The filming of different shots is limited to three takes because of the limit of workpieces used on the show[clarification needed].[4]
In recent years, the show is filmed in one take with no editing and as a result, the host is often out of breath by the end of the 24 minute program.[2]
Injuries [ edit ]
The show also does not hide the nicks and cuts that come from woodworking with hand tools. The first such incident occurred in the third episode of the series, "Dumbheads in Action".[5] A dumbhead is a clamping fixture on a foot-operated shaving horse used to hold unseasoned ("green") wood.
On one occasion, Roy seriously injured his hand with a hatchet.[4] The scene was kept in the show because it was the last take of this particular scene. Underhill reviewed the take and felt that it gave the show some realism.[6]
PBS funding [ edit ]
Host [ edit ]
Roy Underhill in his shop
Roy Underhill is the host and creator of The Woodwright's Shop. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.F.A. in theater direction.[2][7] Roy went to Duke University for environmental studies in the mid-1970s. For his thesis, he did a live presentation titled "How to start with a tree and an axe and build your house and everything in it."[2] Somebody told him "You ought to do that on TV", when he was finished with his presentation.[2]
He went on to work at Colonial Williamsburg as a carpenter, building houses the way they were built in the 18th century.[2] During this same time, he also started producing The Woodwright's Shop television show for PBS.[4] For 10 years, Underhill was a master housewright for Colonial Williamsburg.[7] He helped with program development for another five years before he left over a disagreement about the authenticity of slave quarters on the project.[2]
Roy has written several books on woodworking, most of which have been published by the University of North Carolina Press. Some of the books include, The Woodwright’s Shop: A Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft (ISBN 0-8078-4082-3) and The Woodwright’s Guide: Working Wood with Wedge and Edge ( ISBN 0-8078-5914-1).
Roy lent his woodworking expertise to the 2005 movie The New World about the founding of the settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, in the 17th century. He also taught actor Colin Farrell about woodworking for the film and acted as an extra in the movie.[2]
Guests [ edit ]
Roy has had a wide range of woodworking professionals as guests on his show from many different fields of woodworking, Frank Klausz, Nora Hall, Steve Latta, David Calvo, Michael Dunbar, Dan Mack, Don Weber, Wayne Barton and Curtis Buchanan as well as many lesser-known specialists in the fields of tinsmithing, spoon carving, cooperage (barrels, buckets, canteens), lutherie (stringed instruments), whirligigs, archery, puppetry, basket making, spinning wheels and blacksmithing. Guests have also included famous people with a woodworking hobby, such as Governor Mike Easley.[8] Roy's wife and children have appeared on various episodes over the show’s over thirty-plus-year span of production.
Episodes [ edit ]
Each season of The Woodwright's Shop consists of 13 episodes broadcast during the last 13 weeks of the year, typically starting at the beginning of October.
Video release [ edit ]
The show was first released on VHS tapes in 1993.[9] In April 2012, Popular Woodworking announced an exclusive deal to bring the show to DVD, beginning with the first three seasons and Season 20.[10] The current season of the show can be watched online at the PBS video website.[11] Also, the last few seasons of the show can be watched online at the official website.[12] |
Mohammad Ali Road in South Mumbai remains thronged with foodies through out the month of Ramzan. The famous food galli saw a brand new visitor on Thursday night. Katrina Kaif along with some of her famous friends dropped by to taste some of the choicest of dishes including kebabs and malpua at an eatery there.
Our source says that Kat had apparently heard a lot about the tasty food available there and wanted to visit the place for a long time. The informer says, “Kat convinced director Kabir Khan and his wife Mini Mathur to accompany her. Incidentally, her former beau Salman Khan’s sisters Alvira and Arpita too were spotted with Katrina.”
Apparently, while they were busy eating, a big crowd gathered outside to catch a glimpse of Kat. A friend of the actress says, “The group gorged on food and sweets. However, a huge crowd surrounded them soon. Thankfully, they got out safely.” |
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