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I received my Secret Santa gift today!!!!
To be honest, I really thought I wasn't gonna get anything from my SS. My info was pulled only twice - first was on the first day and the next was on the 18th. My SS shipped the day after. Given that I am new to Reddit and this exchange thing, I knew nothing on how things around here work. I thought, "What the f?!?! How can my SS ship me something after looking at my info just twice?!" And to add, I'm a thousand miles away from the UK! I was already expecting to get a Christmas card with an apology saying shipping to the Philippines costs too much.
Yesterday, I got Reddit's email saying I can already confirm not getting a gift. It was the e-mail I was waiting for, BUT I thought I should wait another day or two just to see if I get anything. And, lo and behold, I get a note from the post office saying I have a parcel waiting for me. I asked our mailman to receive it for me and he delivered it today!!
Here's what I got!!!! It was delivered to me AFTER I got back from the gym. Perfect tease from all the chocolates that fronted me! Hahaha!
Thank you so much to my Secret Santa, Marie!!!! I hope I got your name right. Hahaha. I am so happy with everything and how it wasn't anything I expected it to be! Maligayang Pasko (Merry Christmas)!!! Happy Holidays!!
P.s. I love the nifty woven hearts!! |
Stop Trump Politics in Canada
A Tactic 1000 Times More Powerful Than Federal Voting
The Situation
This May, the Conservative Party of Canada will elect its next leader for the 2019 federal election. Kevin O'Leary is currently ahead in the polls. He is a reality TV millionaire proposing to run the country like a corporation.
Despite lacking any kind of platform or experience, he would make unions illegal; sell senate seats; and "inspire" the poor with additional wealth inequality. If you are terrified at the prospect of our country following the same path as the United States, you may be wondering what can be done.
The Solution
I propose we seek to re-orient debate for the 2019 election away from a cynical embrace of celebrity politics. To participate, I urge you to: Register as a Conservative Party member and vote for Michael Chong as their next leader.
You might not vote Conservative at the federal election, but Canadians would have the option of voting for a candidate committed to our democratic institutions and capable of leading a credible opposition.
Why is Michael Chong the best alternative?
Chong resigned from Harper's cabinet to defend his principles
Chong supported combatting climate change in 2004; and voted against homophobic attempts to remove rights from gay Canadians in 2006.
Chong is only slightly behind in the polls
That said, a January 22nd Forum Research poll revealed a big spike for O'Leary since his entrance to the race, which ought to be concerning.
Chong's platform is more moderate, with a focus on curbing climate change.
He proposes a revenue-neutral carbon tax modelled on British Columbia's. His other policies fit with fiscal conservative agendas. He does not include the kinds of discriminatory and short-sighted policies that other candidates position at the centre of their platforms. Kellie Leitch, for instance, has said that Trump's presidency offers an "exciting message and one that we need delivered in Canada as well." Andrew Scheer, Maxime Bernier and Lisa Raitt will all undo carbon taxation, in addition to proposing socially conservative platforms.
The Legwork: What You Can Do
Register as a Conservative Party member for one year for $15 at: chong.ca You will have one of 18 million votes if you vote against O'Leary in the federal election, but if you join now, you will have one of 100,000. And, because the Conservative Party wants a leader who appeals broadly, it weighs all ridings equally. That means urban ridings with as few as 50 voters count the same as rural ridings with 500. This is an opportunity to have a political impact that should not be squandered.
Your Vote is Powerful. Join Today.
by William Robinson with help from friends. |
Things have not been going so well for Jeb Bush. He squandered his months-long first-place standing in national polls and failed to capitalize at all on his huge name recognition advantage relative to the likes of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. His Super PAC spent more than $14 million on ads in Iowa to garner 2.8 percent of the vote and sixth place, at a total cost of $2,800 per vote.
But perhaps his most humiliating moment in the campaign to date came at a Tuesday night event at the Hanover Inn in Hanover, New Hampshire, an establishment previously most famous as the site where 1988 Democratic candidate Gary Hart was asked about his extramarital affair and his political career burst into flames.
Bush's appearance at the inn wasn't quite that big of a disaster, but it was pretty bad, as the New York Times's Jonathan Martin and Ashley Parker reported:
"Please clap" supplants Hemingway's six-word story as the shortest, saddest story ever told https://t.co/tEkYI2OnEV pic.twitter.com/jHIrTnwIiT — Nate Goldman (@NateGoldman) February 3, 2016
The video is even rougher:
Jeb got a bit of good news today when a poll from the Republican-aligned Harper Polling found him in second place in New Hampshire, a mere 17 percentage points behind Donald Trump. Half the poll was taken after Iowa. But a nonpartisan poll from UMass Lowell also including some post-Iowa responses put him in fourth place, and polling averages have him in fifth.
Really, when things are that rough, the least you can do is clap for the guy. |
Groundbreakers: Today Is the Day’s Temple of the Morning Star Share:
The influence of Pink Floyd’s seminal The Dark Side of the Moon is undeniable.
Though it exists on a wholly different musical plane, Today Is the Day’s fourth album, 1997’s Temple of the Morning Star, has been just as influential a work on the history of extreme music as The Dark Side of the Moon was for rock, prog, and pop. On Temple, singer/guitarist Steve Austin and his rotating band of weirdos (on this album drummer Mike Hyde and bassist Christopher Reeser) managed to fully encapsulate and epitomize every detail of the tradition, regardless of how minute, with an accuracy and precision unmatched by any other.
But their adherence to musical conventions was hardly an exercise in austerity; instead, their incisiveness is married to and matched (and perhaps even outweighed) only by the degree to which the trio were willing to spit in the face of that very same convention. Today Is the Day had always operated on a different wavelength, but Temple of the Morning Star was a fearless march into territories still not fully explored today by the band or any of those they influenced.
From the chunky, minimalist noise rock of their earlier days on Amphetamine Reptile (“Pinnacle,” “Kill Yourself”) to the dark, blown-out sludge of their later efforts (“High as the Sky,” “Hermaphrodite”) to trippy sound experiments (“Mankind,” “Root of all Evil”), Temple contains representations of every sound Today Is the Day would explore throughout their career.
But that’s not to say Austin’s experimentalism is over; far from it, in fact. Today Is the Day would take their music in heavier directions on later albums (along the way launching the career of Mastodon’s Bill Kelliher and Brann Dailor). Last year’s Animal Mother is just as excruciating and affecting as any other entry in the band’s discography and just as vital to its course.
The scope of Temple of the Morning Star’s influence is simply incalculable. Its sound echoes out across the musical landscape in everything from sludge groups like Tombs and Lord Mantis to weirdo hardcore by the likes of Botch and Coalesce to modern noise rock bands like KEN Mode. Today Is the Day’s legacy is an active one, and though the band is far from a household name even in the microcosm of underground metal, many of the genre’s modern heavy-hitters simply would not be around without albums like Temple of the Morning Star and Willpower, and that legacy continues with new releases every three to four years.
Groundbreakers is the Toilet ov Hell’s Hall ov Fame where we induct some of the most important and influential metal albums of all time. Catch up on previous entries into this hallowed bowl.
Neurosis – Souls at Zero
Death – Symbolic
Fear Factory – Demanufacture
Voivod – Killing Technology
Did you dig this? Take a second to support Toilet ov Hell on Patreon! |
In 2009 One Lap of America, it happened first time that a Japanese car emerged as a winner of it. At this weekend, Will Taylor got the trophy for its 2009 Nissan GT-R after a nine racetrack odyssey of Lap Dog, Lap Puppy and Steve Rankins.
The Nippon car first marked the victory when the event was first ran in 1986 and in the same event Toyota Celica from rallyist Karl Chevalier beat Audi 5000s wagon of well-known racer John Buffum.
The year was taken off by defending champion Drew Wikstrom and mark Davia in their Porsche 911 Turbo, a new winner was quite certain, but after sometime and it was quite evident that powerhouse of Stuttgart would take away the stage once again.
The #3 Team Cannonball GT-R became the cause of stunning all the new comers with its great consistency. After besting from gremlin, Mark Pombo and Tom Long seemed to fell by the wayside.
The #3 GT-R showed quite consistency in performance throughout the week while setting the best ever performance of OloA wet skidpad and won event at Talladega Grand Prix Raceway, Turfway Park, Daytona International Raceway and others. Many victories that may take place during this year under really tough competition appear like a walk off.
Source: AutoBlog |
Numerous shooting have occurred in the 1100 block of West Wilson Avenue this year. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Josh McGhee
UPTOWN — Uptown's violent October crescendoed with a violent Halloween that left a man dead and a teen wounded.
The North Side neighborhood wasn't alone in its uptick in crime. The city had 78 murders in October, marking a 278 percent increase over last year. Uptown had three homicides and four people wounded in shootings in October.
Around 7 p.m. Monday, Jacoby Baker, 24, was walking in the 1100 block of West Wilson Avenue when someone in a black SUV drove by and fired shots, according to officer Ana Pacheco, a Chicago Police spokeswoman.
He was struck in his side and taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in critical condition but later pronounced dead, officials said.
About 8 hours earlier, a 15-year-old boy was shot in his right leg when another man walked up to him and shot him in the 4500 block of North Malden Street, Pacheco said.
The shootings were gang-related, according to police and Ald. James Cappleman (46th).
"What we've been hearing from many police at CAPS meetings is that in the last two years, younger gang members no longer listen to the older gang members, and have become more prone to the use of violence for minor disagreements," Cappleman said in a newsletter Tuesday.
"Rather than shooting over the establishment of drug sale territories, today it's often about feeling slighted by another opposing gang member," he said.
Town Hall Police District Cmdr. Robert Cesario said he would be "speculating" when asked if he had a reason for the rash of shootings, saying the department did not have any more information on Monday's shooting at a CAPS meeting Tuesday night at Courtenay Language Arts Center, 4420 N. Beacon St.
Before Monday's homicide, the most recent fatal shooting occurred Oct. 26. Around 3:40 p.m., Tramell Williams was found with multiple gunshot wounds in the 4400 block N. Racine Ave. He was taken to Illinois Masonic, where he was pronounced dead.
Around 8:50 p.m. Oct. 17, Greg Tucker Jr., a 25-year-old former basketball player for Whitney Young and Lincoln Park High School, was shot in the 4500 block of North Hazel St. The father of a young daughter frequented the Clarendon Park Fieldhouse just around the corner from the shooting.
In non-fatal shootings:
• Around 6:15 p.m. Oct. 29, a 25-year-old man was shot in the 4500 block of North Sheridan Road. He was grazed in his arm and taken to Illinois Masonic in stable condition, police said.
• Around 12:25 a.m. Oct. 22, a 28-year-old man in the 800 block of West Cuyler Ave. when a man got out of his car and fired shots. The man was struck in his left knee and taken to Illinois Masonic, where his condition was listed as "stable," police said.
• Around 8:53 p.m. Oct. 15, a 24-year-old man was shot twice in his leg while in the 1100 block West Wilson Avenue.
In response to the shootings, Cappleman said he's implemented a number of initiatives to help quell the violence and has been promised the ward would get seven new police officers from recent police academy graduation classes.
The initiatives include creating a public safety task force among businesses along the 4600 block of North Broadway and from Hazel Street to Racine Avenue along Wilson Avenue to teach them methods to reduce crime; working with the city's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection to require businesses to work with police "or face consequences;" and meeting regularly with Truman College security, according to the alderman's newsletter.
Tuesday's CAPS meeting got heated, with about 50 residents demanding answers and more police presence after the recent shootings, but few answers were offered.
Neighbors complained about quality-of-life issues such as "open air drug markets" near their homes and in front of Truman, 1145 W. Wilson Ave.
One parent, who visits the campus often to pick up her son and declined to be named, citing concerns for her son's safety, called recent events around the school "appalling."
After witnessing drug dealing and loitering, and hearing about shootings near the school, she feels unsafe waiting for her son outside the building, she said.
"These students are working hard to better themselves and are walking through a minefield to get to school," she said.
The woman said she has has left three voicemails with the school's security officers, but hadn't heard back.
Andres Durbak, director of security for the college, said the school works "seamlessly" with the Chicago Police Department, Cappleman and the community to protect the students.
Security has arrested trespassers at the school, some of whom have been sent to jail for as long as four months, but they have no jurisdiction off campus, he said.
While many neighbors expressed concerns about the shootings at the CAPS meeting, some said they were unsure if crime had really gotten worse.
"Maybe it has gotten worse or maybe I've become more aware," said William, a 5-year resident who refused to give his last name. "Now, I am hearing about more unintended victims."
So far this year, the neighborhood has had seven homicides and 32 people have been wounded in shootings.
In 2015, 25 people were wounded in Uptown and another nine people were killed in shootings in the neighborhood. In 2014, 18 people were wounded in shootings and another five people were killed. In 2013, 24 people were wounded and one person was killed. In 2012, 23 people were wounded in shootings and five people were killed, according to DNAinfo's map of shootings in the city since 2010.
The most shootings in the neighborhood in recent years occurred in 2011, when 44 people were shot and another three were killed.
Tuesday's meeting was William's first. He said he began paying more attention after his niece moved into the neighborhood, he said.
A few months back, she went to grab a sandwich at Jimmy John's, 1148 W. Wilson Ave., and shots rang out near the corner of Leland and Magnolia Avenues as he waited for her on the porch.
"Around that time, I really got more aware," he said. "It concerns me. It upsets me. It makes me afraid for children, the elderly and the unintended."
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here. |
As NASA researches the best (and most cost effective) ways to someday launch humans beyond low-Earth orbit once again, it's looking back at its storied history for clues. Recently a team of young engineers got the rare opportunity to disassemble the F-1 — NASA's most powerful rocket engine — analyze its components, and refurbish the engine anew. Despite the fact that it was completed way back in the 1950s, the F-1 remains the most powerful rocket engine ever assembled by the United States. Five F-1 engines propelled NASA's Saturn V rocket to the skies throughout the Apollo program. The young generation of engineers were also able to reassemble and fire its gas generator, experiencing 31,000 pounds of thrust firsthand. The engine is in fact capable of producing even greater power, as it routinely reached 1.5 million pounds during missions.
As for why NASA is digging out its old relics, the agency is investigating the best approach to building engines for its Space Launch System — the next-generation rocket that could one day carry astronauts to Mars and beyond. "NASA’s young engineers are gaining valuable knowledge working with one of the most powerful engines ever built, and the SLS program will benefit from data that will bolster our efforts to reduce risk and enhance the affordability as we develop an advanced heavy-lift booster capable of a variety of missions," said Chris Crumbly, who manages the SLS Advanced Development Office. |
Here are some recent examples of the stupid, suspicious society we are creating. What they reveal is a state of mind that reveres regulations and authority over common sense. This is not something that has been imposed on Britain. Rather we have succumbed to a climate of fear and unreason in the belief that we will somehow be safer. Read these links and mourn the loss of something essential to the national character.
Store stops father buying alcohol (BBC News)
Woman, 28, told to prove age to buy pizza-cutter (Telegraph)
Mother of BBC star Nicky Campbell banned from taking photographs of her granddaughters (Daily Mail)
Parents to undergo checks before having exchange students to stay (This is Derbyshire)
Armed police raid innocent mum's home and suggest brandy to calm her nerves (The Mirror)
Parrot that whistles The Sash almost lands owner with an ASBO (Daily Record)
Gazette staff stopped by police under Terrorism Act (Evening Gazette) |
BERNE (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s national team will face no sanction from FIFA for failing to respect a minute’s silence for the victims of the London attacks before the start of a World Cup qualifier in Australia, soccer’s global governing body said on Friday.
Soccer Football - Australia v Saudi Arabia - World Cup 2018 Qualifiers - Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, Australia - 08/06/2017 The Australian team stand together as they observe a minute's silence for victims of the London attacks, in which two Australians died. REUTERS/David Gray
The Saudi Arabia Football Federation earlier “unreservedly” apologised for the incident, which a former Australian government minister said showed “a disgraceful lack of respect” for the victims of the London attack.
“After reviewing the match report and images of the said match, we can confirm that there are no grounds to take disciplinary action in relation to the matter you mention,” FIFA said in a statement.
Eight people were killed and 50 injured after three Islamist militants drove into pedestrians on London Bridge last Saturday, then attacked revellers nearby with knives. Two of the dead were Australian.
Football Federation Australia (FFA) said it had “sought agreement” from the Saudis and the Asian Football Confederation to hold the minute’s silence to honour the victims ahead of the match at Adelaide Oval late on Thursday.
The Australia team duly lined up in the centre circle and linked arms but all bar one of the Saudi players dispersed around the pitch and continued to jog and stretch.
“Both the AFC and the Saudi team agreed that the minute of silence could be held,” an FFA spokesman said.
“The FFA was further advised by Saudi team officials that this tradition was not in keeping with Saudi culture and they would move to their side of the field and respect our custom whilst taking their own positions on the field.”
The incident prompted a social media storm, coming as it did at a time when Australians were still mourning victims of recent attacks.
In addition to the Australians who died in London, a deadly siege in Melbourne on Tuesday that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called “an act of terrorism” claimed one victim, while an Australian schoolgirl was one of more than a dozen killed in a Baghdad car bomb blast last week.
Anthony Albanese, a front bench spokesman for the opposition Labor Party, said the incident was “bloody disgraceful”.
“There is no excuse here. This isn’t about culture, this is about a lack of respect,” he told Channel 9.
“I’m so angry about this.”
The governing body of Saudi football later issued a statement saying it “deeply” regretted the incident.
“The players did not intend any disrespect to the memories of the victims or to cause upset to their families, friends or any individual affected by the atrocity,” it added.
“The Saudi Arabian Football Federation condemns all acts of terrorism and extremism and extends its sincerest condolences to the families of all the victims and to the government and people of the United Kingdom.”
Prime Minister Turnbull said on Friday that he had not seen video of the incident but thought everybody should condemn “terrorism”.
Soccer Football - Australia v Saudi Arabia - World Cup 2018 Qualifiers - Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, Australia - 08/06/2017 The Australian team stand together as they observe a minute's silence for victims of the London attacks, in which two Australians died. REUTERS/David Gray
“The whole world, the whole free world, is united in condemnation of that terrorist attack and terrorism generally,” he told reporters in Tasmania.
Australia won the match 3-2 to move level on 16 points in Group B with the second-placed Saudis and leaders Japan, who have a game in hand, with two rounds to play.
The top two teams win a place at the World Cup finals in Russia next year. |
It's not every day you can truly be amazed by the power of people to overcome adversity and impress you. My typical day consists of me fighting back the urge to hurt random strangers based on their idiocy, but I was surprised when I learned about my giftee.
Originally, there was no mention that my giftee had picked up my info, which lead me to create a post on where my gifter had been. I had a some good discussion with some other redditors that were shafted and we commiserated on the lack of goodwill we'd come to expect from these exchanges.
Then finally, a notice that my info had been received! Hooray! Then a note?! An explanation! Finally all my fears and doubt would be expunged! The letter tells me that my giftee has recently been re-diagnosed with Leukemia and was undergoing his 2nd chemo battle with the disease. My heart sank. Here I am complaining about the exchange and my giftee is taking on his 2nd cancer treatment. It's truly when you get to know strangers that you learn that sometimes your problems aren't as big as you think and that nothing is too big to handle.
I am truly blessed for all I have and it took this exchange to really show me. I want to thank my giftee for sending me these nerf guns, as well as 1 year (!) of Reddit Gold.
Thank you so much for your generosity and I really wish you luck during your 2nd battle. I'm rooting for you and you inspired me to re-establish my listing in the bone marrow transplant database. I may not be your match, but hopefully one day I could be for someone. |
Heading into the 2017 season, all the hype for the Buffalo Bills is around the 2017 draft picks and how they will perform. However, only the first chapter is written for the 2016 draft picks, and for two of them, this is their first real look at NFL training camp.
Lawson was bugged by a shoulder surgery that didn’t allow him to get on the field until week 7 of the 2016 season and by that time, it was hard to take snaps away from Lorenzo Alexander. During the Week 8 tilt, Lawson recorded his first NFL sack on Tom Brady. Only starting one game, Lawson never found his groove and wasn’t exactly 100 percent throughout the last 10 games.
Rex Ryan had Lawson uncomfortably play as a 3-4 OLB. This year in a 4-3 base, he will be able to put his hand in the dirt, pin his ears back, and get after the quarterback like he did at Clemson. Lawson should be much improved over his performance last year as he participates in his first NFL training camp.
Ragland was going to be the anchor of the Bills defense last year until it all came to a screeching halt. After tearing his ACL in training camp, the rehab process started shortly after to get himself ready for the 2017 season.
Although he hasn’t played in a 4-3 system, his football IQ and ability to be around the ball will allow Ragland to be a part of a lot of snaps this year. His unofficial rookie season should be a promising one.
With Lawson and Ragland sidelined, Washington started more games than any Bills rookie last year (11). Even though he didn’t overwhelm on the stat sheet, his presence was surely felt. His role on the defensive line might actually decline, as it looks like Marcell Dareus and Kyle Williams shouldn’t be missing games. Washington and Jerel Worthy will rotate in on the interior, and that’s probably a good thing.
Williams was a value pick for the Bills in the fifth-round last year. If it wasn’t for a foot injury his senior season at Arkansas, he had a good chance of being drafted sooner than he was.
Only getting 27 carries as the Bills third option at running back, he never got his shot to solidify himself as a reliable back. Fumbling twice on those 27 carries didn’t help his case. Penciled in as the number 2 going into training camp, Williams will have medium-sized shoes to fill after the departure of Mike Gillislee and with little else in the way of depth, he had better be ready for a larger role.
WR Kolby Listenbee (Round 6)
Listenbee was released by the team in June. He was never really healthy during his time with the team, recovering from several groin surgeries.
If you told me right after the 2016 draft that sixth-round pick Kevon Seymour would be the rookie that brought the most to the table I would have laughed in your face. Turns out, he was and it really wasn’t even close.
Seymour only started 3 games last year but played well in the 15 games in which he appeared. According to Pro Football Focus, Seymour allowed the lowest rate of receptions per coverage snap at a rate of 14.8 coverage snaps per reception.
The rookie cornerback who allowed the lowest rate of receptions per coverage snap might surprise you... pic.twitter.com/SK5nzGHHaY — Pro Football Focus (@PFF) July 14, 2017
All 5 players who are still with the team will have multiple chances to make a serious impact this year. As most of them are on one side of the ball, the defense looks promising for the future. |
European scientists are currently trying to collect enough antimatter to determine if the elusive substance reacts to gravity in the opposite way that normal matter doesby "falling up" instead of down.
Anti-gravity has long been a staple of science fiction as a future technological means for propelling spacecraft away from massive objects like planets and stars? But does it really exist in nature?
Scientists working on the Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus (Alpha) experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland aim to find out, according to reports. They theorize that antimatter, made up of antiparticles which possess an opposite electrical charge and quantum spin to normal particles, could also be repelled by ordinary matter instead of being attracted to it.
Writing in the latest issue of Nature Communications, the Alpha experiment scientists from the LHCb team note that "there are many indirect indications that no such differences exist" in how matter and antimatter interacts with gravity. But they also suggest that the new wealth of data the experiment has collected on antihydrogen particles is worth looking through to check if anti-gravity does exist, while proposing a way to do that.
"[T]here have been no direct, free-fall style, experimental tests of gravity on antimatter. Here we describe a novel direct test methodology; we search for a propensity for antihydrogen atoms to fall downward when released from the Alpha antihydrogen trap. In the absence of systematic errors, we can reject ratios of the gravitational to inertial mass of antihydrogen >75 at a statistical significance level of 5 percent; worst-case systematic errors increase the minimum rejection ratio to 110. A similar search places somewhat tighter bounds on a negative gravitational mass, that is, on antigravity. This methodology, coupled with ongoing experimental improvements, should allow us to bound the ratio within the more interesting near equivalence regime," the researchers write.
The LHCb research team is now prying into other mysteries of antimatter such as the rates at which exotic particles decay into either matter or antimatter, according to BBC News. Scientists last week were able to determine "a slight difference in the decay of particles called Bs mesons," BBC News reported.
But one big hurdle in this research is that producing antiparticles is difficultand keeping them around for any length of time is even tougher.
The universe contains plenty of normal matter but just trace amounts of antimatter. When normal particles and antiparticles collide they destroy each other in a process called annihilation, creating high-energy photons, or in some experimental instances, new exotic particles.
But in recent years, researchers working on CERN's Alpha experiment have been able to trap and maintain antihydrogen atoms for as long as 15 minutes. That's given them much more time to study these antiparticles, BBC News noted. Now CERN scientists are looking through data collected from 434 antihydrogen atoms they've trapped in the past few years "with the anti-gravity question in mind."
"In the course of all the experiments, we release [the antihydrogen atoms] and look for their annihilation. We've gone through those data to see if we can see any influence of gravity on the positions at which they annihilatelooking for atoms to fall for the short amount of time they exist before they hit the wall," Jeffrey Hangst, a spokesperson for the Alpha experiment, told BBC News. |
As part of his update on the fungal meningitis outbreak in Florida, Gov. Rick Scott inadvertently sent callers to an adult phone line rather than the toll-free meningitis hotline.
It happened during the meeting of the Florida Cabinet. Gov. Scott was directing concerned Floridians to go to the Florida Department of Health website or call.
“You can call the Dept. of Health’s toll-free, 24 hour hotline set up in response to this,” Scott said reading off an 866 number.
When WUSF posted that telephone number as part of its web story, we were quickly notified by a reader that the number instead connected to an adult telephone line.
“Hello boys, thank you for calling me on my anniversary,” is how the recording opens. A young female voice then directs “existing callers” to press one, and so on.
We notified the governor's office of the incorrect number. A spokesperson responded by saying the correct hotline to the Florida Department of Health has been available for days and Gov. Scott inadvertently had an incorrect number. She added that the governor was informed of his mistake during the cabinet meeting and gave out the correct hotline.
The correct Florida Fungal Meningitis Hotline is: 866-523-7339. |
Donald Trump seemingly said that he does not pay federal income tax during an exchange with Hillary Clinton during Monday night’s presidential debate at Hofstra University.
Clinton first raised the prospect of Trump not paying any federal income tax during a discussion of why Trump hasn’t released his tax returns (Clinton based the allegation on several returns Trump once provided in order to receive an Atlantic City casino license, although he did pay federal income tax in some of those years). Soon after, the two began debating the large federal debt, with Clinton quipping that perhaps it would be smaller if Trump paid income tax.
Trump’s reply? “If I did, it would be squandered.”
A reporter followed up with Trump after the debate, asking if this was an admission that he doesn’t pay federal income tax. He didn’t deny it. |
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KEY FINDINGS
Australian adult prisoner numbers continue to rise.
§ The number of prisoners in adult corrective services custody increased by 4% from 41,202 at 30 June 2017 to 42,974 at 30 June 2018. § Between 2017 and 2018 the national imprisonment rate increased by 3% from 216 to 221 prisoners per 100,000 adult population.
Unsentenced prisoners and sentenced prisoners
§ The number of unsentenced prisoners in adult corrective services custody increased by 7%, from 12,911 at 30 June 2017 to 13,856 at 30 June 2018. Victoria had the largest change in unsentenced prisoners, increasing 22% (or 485 prisoners) from 30 June 2017. § Sentenced prisoners increased by 3% from 28,199 to 29,030 prisoners.
Sex
§ Female prisoner numbers increased at a faster rate than male prisoners in 2018, up 10% (326 prisoners) from 30 June 2017 to a total of 3,625 prisoners. Male prisoners increased 4% (1,438 prisoners) in the same time frame.
§ Males continue to comprise the majority of the Australian prison population accounting for 92% of total prisoners. Most common offences for prisoners in Australia
§ The most prevalent offences were: Acts intended to cause injury (9,659 prisoners or 22%);
Illicit drug offences (6,779 prisoners or 16%); and
Sexual Assault and related offences (5,283 prisoners or 12%).
§ Since 2017, Illicit drug offences and Sexual Assault and related offences had the largest increases in number of prisoners, up 624 and 498 prisoners respectively. These two offences combined accounted for the majority (63%) of the national increase in the prison population.
The number of prisoners in adult corrective services custody increased by 4% from 41,202 at 30 June 2017 to 42,974 at 30 June 2018.Between 2017 and 2018 the national imprisonment rate increased by 3% from 216 to 221 prisoners per 100,000 adult population.The number of unsentenced prisoners in adult corrective services custody increased by 7%, from 12,911 at 30 June 2017 to 13,856 at 30 June 2018. Victoria had the largest change in unsentenced prisoners, increasing 22% (or 485 prisoners) from 30 June 2017.Sentenced prisoners increased by 3% from 28,199 to 29,030 prisoners.Female prisoner numbers increased at a faster rate than male prisoners in 2018, up 10% (326 prisoners) from 30 June 2017 to a total of 3,625 prisoners. Male prisoners increased 4% (1,438 prisoners) in the same time frame.Males continue to comprise the majority of the Australian prison population accounting for 92% of total prisoners.The most prevalent offences were:Since 2017, Illicit drug offences and Sexual Assault and related offences had the largest increases in number of prisoners, up 624 and 498 prisoners respectively. These two offences combined accounted for the majority (63%) of the national increase in the prison population. |
SAN DIEGO -- Keenan Allen isn’t one to back down from the challenge. The fleet-footed receiver out of Cal said he eagerly anticipates facing cornerback Richard Sherman, safety Earl Thomas and the rest of the "Legion of Boom" when the San Diego Chargers travel north for a matchup with the Seattle Seahawks on Friday.
Allen sat out practice on Wednesday, but said he’s healthy and will play against the defending Super Bowl champions in his team’s second preseason game.
Chargers second-year receiver Keenan Allen says he's looking forward to matching up with the Seahawks' secondary. AP Photo/Gregory Bull
“I definitely look forward to competing against ‘the best,’ so to say,” Allen said, smiling. “Yeah, it’s definitely going to be fun. [Cornerbacks Sherman and Byron Maxwell] are pretty long guys with long arms. So it’s definitely going to be a good fight.”
Allen played against Sherman as a freshman at Cal, totaling five receptions for 81 yards in a lopsided loss against Stanford in 2010. Sherman finished with an interception in that game.
But a lot has changed for both since then, with Sherman developing into one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL, and Allen putting together one of the most impressive performances by a rookie receiver in recent memory. Allen finished with 71 receptions for 1,046 yards and eight touchdowns in 2013.
The Seahawks have two of the biggest cornerbacks in the NFL in the 6-foot-3 Sherman and the 6-foot-1 Maxwell, along with the biggest safety in the league in 6-foot-3, 232-pound thumper Kam Chancellor. But the Chargers can counter with size as well. Four of San Diego’s top six receivers on the depth chart are at least 6-foot-2, including starters Allen (6-foot-2, 211 pounds) and Malcom Floyd (6-foot-5, 225 pounds).
Add in athletic tight ends Antonio Gates and Ladarius Green, along with a prolific pass-catcher out of the backfield in Danny Woodhead, and San Diego could give Seattle some problems defensively in the passing game.
Of course, what makes this game unique is both teams will play again in a month when the Seahawks travel to Qualcomm Stadium to face San Diego in the Chargers’ home opener on Sept. 14, so don’t expect either team to show too much schematically.
Chargers receivers coach Fred Graves said execution will be critical in facing one of the most talented defensive backfields in the league. As a group, Graves said his receivers had the fewest drops in the NFL last season with just 13.
“You’re not just going to outrun them and out jump them athletically,” Graves said. “So your technique, your timing and all of that stuff has to be on point. So our guys are ready for them.”
Floyd said he’s not concerned about any verbal sparring against the talkative Sherman.
“I don’t think he does talk mess unless he’s provoked, from what I’ve seen,” Floyd said. “I think he’s a good guy. He’s a smart guy. He went to Stanford, and I think he picks his battles the right way.” |
CLOSE President Donald Trump said Saturday there was "no place" in the United States for the kind of violence that broke out at a white nationalist rally in Virginia and appealed to Americans to "come together as one." (Aug. 12) AP
To elevate Trump’s deplorable, evil fringe as equal to the rest of us united was extraordinary for a U.S. president — and nothing short of vile.
Klan members salute during a KKK rally in Charlottesville, Va. on July 8, 2017. (Photo11: Steve Helber, AP)
President Trump is not known for holding back his rage and venom when he’s angered or feels threatened, or for struggling to “counter punch.” Typically, the easily triggered leader of the free world, his finger seemingly perpetually poised in hover position over the nuclear button, uses a cannon when a BB gun will do. But, curiously, he seems to lose his voice and his nerve when it comes to taking on Russian President Vladmir Putin for intervening in U.S. elections, or the white nationalists and Nazis — domestic terrorists — who marched with torches in Charlottesville, Va.
Notice whom Trump tiptoes around to understand to whom he feels beholden.
More: 5 years after Oak Creek Sikh massacre, combat hate before it takes more lives
More: Donald Trump has a sickening fetish for cruelty
It’s becoming increasingly harder to deny that Trump’s actions and words make it appear as if he’s reluctant to cross a benefactor or those who comprise a disturbingly influential portion of what we must, if we are to be intellectually honest, accept and admit is his base.
His tepid, tardy response to the shameful group of Americans (and it hurts to call them Americans) was stunning, coming on the heels of his knee-jerk “fire and fury” threat to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un after yet another missile test — and his equally reckless, violent follow-up threats about military action.
The gentler, vaguer “diplomatic” language used by Trump on alt-right white nationalists proudly using the Nazi salute and sporting swastikas is chilling. He didn’t name them or even blame them, in fact said “hatred, bigotry and violence” had been going on “for a long, long time” and came from “many sides.”
It was reminiscent of candidate Trump in Feburary 2016 finding it difficult to denounce former KKK leader David Duke for telling his followers it would be “treason to your heritage” to vote for anyone but Trump. He told CNN’s Jake Tapper he simply didn’t know enough about Duke and the KKK to condemn them.
In Charlottesville, Duke said on camera that the white supremacists were marching on behalf of President Trump, and that they viewed this as fulfilling the promises of Trump’s candidacy.
Trump gave him legitimacy by placing the KKK, Nazis and other white supremacists on par with, well, everyone else.
He’s “normalizing” them.
Top Trump aides Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller are widely associated with white nationalism or the “alt right.” Duke praised Bannon’s appointment to a senior White House position, telling CNN "You have an individual, Mr. Bannon, who's basically creating the ideological aspects of where we're going," and “ideology ultimately is the most important aspect of any government." Peter Brimelow, who runs the white nationalist site VDARE, said Bannon connects Trump to the alt-right movement online, adding: “I think it’s amazing.”
Miller, a hero of the alt-right, was influential in shaping Trump’s Muslim travel ban and his extreme immigration proposals. He’s now a top name Trump is considering as his latest communications director.
The escalation of blatant racial hatred by the white supremacists with their torches and Nazi salutes should have been addressed with at least the same “fire and fury” as Trump’s ill-advised cheap bravado on North Korea. Instead, after nearly a full day of silence, the president inexplicably claimed there was fault on “many” sides.
POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media
More: Trump embodies every one of the Seven Deadly Sins
There are not “many” sides. We are Americans living our lives. We are Americans of all stripes, creeds, colors and ethnicity. To elevate Trump’s deplorable, evil fringe as a “side” equal to the rest of us united was extraordinary for a U.S. president — and nothing short of vile.
Donald Trump carefully, purposefully, and strategically established moral equivalency between the Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, and those protesting them. Can you imagine Winston Churchill or Franklin D. Roosevelt bestowing similar moral equivalency on Hitler’s Nazi Germany and the millions of allied troops fighting and dying to rid the planet of such evil?
Charlottesville, tragically, will now serve as a mecca for white supremacists who firmly believe that with Trump, their day has finally, at long last, arrived.
Cheri Jacobus is a Republican consultant and commentator. She is president of Capitol Strategies PR. Follow her on twitter @CheriJacobus
You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @USATOpinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to [email protected].
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MonoDevelop has become the third IDE to support Microsoft’s F# language. With .NET support essentially dead on the Eclipse IDE and WebMatrix being targeted for causal developers, it is likely to be the last IDE to add support for it in the foreseeable future.
The feature list for MonoDevelop’s F# Plugin include:
Identifier completion - The editor automatically suggests identifiers such as member names after the "." symbol. You can also hit Ctrl+Space to get all identifiers available in the current scope (such as variable and type names).
Tool tips - When you place mouse pointer over an identifier, a tool tip with information about the identifier appears. Tool tips usually show type signatures, list of members of types etc.
Background type-checking - The F# compiler runs as a background process and checks the edited file for parsing errors as well as type errors. Errors are immediately shown using red underlining.
F# Interactive pad - The plugin adds F# Interactive as a new tool window to MonoDevelop. You can use it to interactively evaluate F# code written in the editor as well as for writing simple code snippets to test things.
The source code for F# on MonoDevelop is licensed under Apache 2.0 and can be found at https://github.com/fsharp.
MonoDevelop started as a fork of SharpDevelop, the only other general purpose .NET IDE not made by Microsoft. (Other .NET IDEs do exist, but are dedicated to a specific language such as Delphi Prism.) To better support Linux, SharpDevelop’s original user interface was ported to Gtk#. Since then MonoDevelop and SharpDevelop continued to diverge, with MonoDevelop becoming the IDE of choice for Novell’s commercial offerings such as MonoTouch. (Again, there are third-party IDEs that support MonoTouch development.) Meanwhile SharpDevelop remained a Windows-only product and is in the process of replacing the user interface with one built using WPF. |
The Coming of Age festival is celebrated on the second Monday of January and marks the transition of young Japanese who have reached the age of 20 into adulthood.
By Anthony Joh Jan 13, 2014 1 min read
The Coming of Age Day in Japan is celebrated on the second Monday of January and marks the transition of young Japanese who have reached the age of 20 into adulthood.
The ceremony is traditionally an opportunity for women to wear a traditional kimono called a Furisode (振袖). Due to the complexity of putting on the kimono, many women will visit a beauty salon to be dressed and have their hair styled for the occasion.
Once dressed many families will visit the local ward office for the official ceremony and then after visit a shrine to celebrate and take photos.
At time it seemed like there were more photographers than women wearing kimonos.
Many couples also choose to get married on this day and if you are lucky you can watch the traditional ceremony at a local shrine.
With the declining birthrate in Japan there seems to be fewer young people every year but if you are in Japan in early January, Coming of Age Day (成人の日) is a great way to have fun and to see some young Japanese people in traditional clothing. |
Most Texans are well aware of our solid history in horror and alternative films, from Texas Chainsaw Massacre to the more recent works of Robert Rodriguez. Slightly less known is the important role our state has played in the development of many horror writers.
Texas has long attracted notable writers of the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, going back to at least the late '20s when a young man named Robert Ervin Howard, living in Cross Plains, began writing adventure stories for the seminal pulp magazine Weird Tales.
Howard would go on to create the ultimate barbarian hero, Conan, pioneering the "Sword and Sorcery" genre of fantasy with that character and others. He also was friends with H.P. Lovecraft and penned several still-frightening horror stories, before his death in 1936 at the age of 30.
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Michael Moorcock, the British writer responsible for characters like Elric of Melnibone, and occasional collaborator with the space rock band Hawkwind, has also lived in Texas for the last few decades. There must be something about this state that writers of the fantastic find stimulating, and some of those currently working here should be better known and reach larger audiences.
These three authors who call Texas home are currently writing stories that genre fans should seek out as soon as they can.
Don Webb was born in Amarillo during a time when that city was probably best known for its Cold War-era Plutonium production. He was first published professionally in 1986, and has 20 books covering horror, mystery, poetry, and non-fiction occult. He has taught Science Fiction writing for UCLA extension since 2002, and makes his home in Austin.
Webb states, "I have been nominated for and not won very prestigious awards. Last year alone I lost both the Shirley Jackson Award and the International Horror Critics Award. I am hoping to not win other awards of note in coming years. I had been cited in Best American Short Stories (as well as 70 other citing in one "best of the year" list or another)."
Webb has an evocative style of writing that draws the reader into the worlds he creates, and this is especially evident in his horror writing, much of which takes on Lovecraftian themes. He has a way of using a turn of phrase that is both engaging as well as entertaining. There is lots of darkly humorous material peppered in his storytelling. Short stories such as "The Jest of Yig" and "A Little Night Music" showcase Webb's talents nicely. Any fan of weird and frightening fiction should seek out his work as soon as possible. Many of his books are available through Amazon and other book sellers.
Webb has a 30-year retrospective of works inspired by H.P. Lovecraft coming out in August, titled "Through Dark Angles." It's available from Hippocampus Press, and is definitely worth picking up for any horror fan.
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Amy Lee Burgess is originally from New England, but now calls Houston her home after being forced out of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the city.
She had been writing off and on since high school, and dove back into it with renewed vigor after her relocation to Houston. Burgess's work centers around charismatic werewolf and vampire characters, and fans of Anne Rice or Charlaine Harris will find a lot to love in her stories. Her tales are rich in atmosphere and feature both compelling plots with deep back stories, as well as witty dialogue that draws the reader into the world of characters like Stanzie Newcastle (a wolf shifter) and the sexy vampire Claire. Burgess skillfully weaves intricate plots through her supernatural series of books, with rich, honest characterizations that truly engage the reader.
Both her "Wolf Within" and "The Circle" series are available for download through Amazon, as well as Kensington Publishing. They are immersive, and well worth reading on a rainy Houston night (or any night, for that matter).
Austin Malone is a displaced New Orleans native now living in Houston. He primarily writes short stories, and his work covers a broad spectrum of styles, ranging from Fantasy to Science Fiction and Horror. His short story "Crash and Burn" is worth finding, as even a jaded horror fan like myself found it to be an intense and disturbing read. Of course, I mean that in the best way possible. Malone's work deftly explores themes of death, despair, and pain.
Malone's work has been published in anthologies like "Sword & Laser Anthology" and "A Fancy Dinner Party," both of which are available on Amazon.
All three of these authors currently working in Texas have a lot to offer any fan of the weird and frightening. Texas has always had a dark side lurking in the shadows of its blistering sun, and these writers will remind you just how good it feels to let that darkness in for a while. |
Contrary to popular belief, so-called hypoallergenic dogs do not have lower household allergen levels than other dogs.
That's the conclusion of a study by Henry Ford Hospital researchers who sought to evaluate whether hypoallergenic dogs have a lower dog allergen in the home than other dogs. Hypoallergenic dogs are believed to produce less dander and saliva and shed less fur.
The findings are to be published online this month in the American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy.
"We found no scientific basis to the claim hypoallergenic dogs have less allergen," says Christine Cole Johnson, Ph.D., MPH, chair of Henry Ford's Department of Public Health Sciences and senior author of the study.
"Based on previous allergy studies conducted here at Henry Ford, exposure to a dog early in life provides protection against dog allergy development. But the idea that you can buy a certain breed of dog and think it will cause less allergy problems for a person already dog-allergic is not borne out by our study."
This is believed to be the first time researchers measured environmental allergen associated with hypoallergenic dogs. Previous studies analyzed hair samples from only a handful of dogs in a small number of breeds.
Henry Ford researchers analyzed dust samples collected from 173 homes one month after a newborn was brought home. The dust samples were collected from the carpet or floor in the baby's bedroom and analyzed for the dog allergen Can f 1. Only homes with one dog were involved in the study. Sixty dog breeds were involved in the study, 11 of which are considered hypoallergenic dogs.
Based on public web site claims of hypoallergenic breeds, dogs were classified as hypoallergenic using one of four "schemes" based on their breed for comparing allergen levels. Scheme A compared purebred hypoallergenic dogs to purebred non-hypoallergenic dogs; Scheme B compared purebred and mixed breed dogs with at least one hypoallergenic parent to purebred non-hypoallergenic dogs; Scheme C compared purebred and mixed breed dogs with at least one hypoallergenic parent to purebred and mixed breed dogs with no known hypoallergenic component; Scheme D compared only purebred dogs identified as hypoallergenic by the American Kennel Club to all other dogs.
Researchers found that the four schemes yielded no significant differences in allergen levels between hypoallergenic dogs and non-hypoallergenic dogs. In homes where the dog was not allowed in the baby's bedroom, the allergen level for hypoallergenic dogs was slightly higher compared to allergen levels of non-hypoallergenic dogs.
While researchers acknowledged limitations in their study -- the amount of time the dog spent in the baby's bedroom was not recorded and the size of its sample did not allow looking at specific breeds -- they say parents should not rely on dog breeds classified as hypoallergenic. |
Nearly 6 months ago, I put out a request on r/Dodgers for anyone who was going to the Dodger Stadium to grab me the collectible bobblehead from the Vin Scully bobblehead night game. I'm by no means a collector, but in the weeks leading up to the game, my dad expressed a heavy interest in somehow driving to the game or trying to find one of the figures online.
My father grew up in Corona, California so his love for baseball and the Dodgers go back to his earliest childhood memories. When he used to spend time with his friends or family, they used to listen to Vin Scully on the radio as he called the games. Now, nearly 30 years later, we still share the same experience of listening to Vin Scully during the MLB season.
Knowing this, I knew I needed to get a hold of one of those bobbleheads and as discreetly as possible so I could surprise my dad. I made a couple of posts on the Dodgers subreddit as well as on a number of other sites, but nothing panned out. The day of the game came and past and I was left with checking online auction sites. As more time passed, the auctions became more and more out of my spending range as a college student. I soon had to accept the fact that I had missed my chance.
Then, without even thinking of my past attempts, I signed up for Secret Santa 2012. A few days later, I received a message on one of my older posts from the summer asking if I ever got the bobblehead. Without even connecting the two, I responded back that I hadn't and I inquired if the person was willing to trade or negotiate. I never got a response and I figured that my chances of getting the collectible were practically gone.
Fast forward to 1 week ago, a package came in the mail from my secret santa. As I carefully cut open the mailing tape that kept the box shut tight, I honestly wondered what I could have got. As the image of Vin Scully smiling face peered through the opening, I stepped back out of breath. I really couldn't believe someone I never met would track down one of the bobbleheads and ship it all the way from across the country. I was blown away from the kindness and thoughtfulness of the gift.
Being able to share the priceless toy with my father was the highlight of my Christmas and one of the best experiences I had in 2012. I'm so grateful to have such a caring and considerate Secret Santa. |
LiAngelo Ball is speaking out at length for the first time since his shoplifting arrest in China — and he is throwing his now-former UCLA teammates under the bus, claiming he was just following their lead during an incident last month.
Ball confirmed on NBC’s “Today” show that he’s decided to leave UCLA after his indefinite suspension following the shoplifting arrest in China last month with fellow freshman teammates Jalen Hill and Cody Riley. The detained players were allowed to return to the United States after President Donald Trump said he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping and secured their release. Ball appeared on the show early Tuesday with his outspoken father, LaVar, and admitted to shoplifting, but only after others did first, he said.
“We all went out one night, went to the malls, went to the Louis Vuitton store and, uh, people started taking stuff, and then, you know, me just not thinking and being with them, I took something too,” Ball said.
Ball said he and his teammates then left, assuming they’d “just get away” without any repercussions, thousands of miles from their home.
“And we left thinking we’ll just get away — you know how kids think,” Ball continued. “I didn’t realize ‘til I got back to my hotel, I’m like, ‘That was stupid.’ But by then it was too late. And then sure enough, the next morning, the police came and got us.”
Ball spent the next day-and-a-half in jail, he said.
“Oh, it was horrible,” he said of the conditions. “They take your clothes, you wear, like, whatever they have for you, a little jumpsuit or whatever, take your shoestrings and you just sit in a cement cell for however long. It’s just you and all the officers — and they don’t speak English.”
Ball confirmed he wasn’t prepared to sit out several months before getting back on the hardcourt. UCLA is 7-1, about one-quarter of their way through the season, after opening with a victory in Shanghai against Georgia Tech.
“Yeah, that’s the whole season, pretty much,” Ball said. “That’s just a long time of doing nothing. I’d rather be playing.”
see also LaVar Ball pulls suspended LiAngelo out of UCLA LaVar Ball is taking the reins on his suspended son’s...
TMZ reported Monday that Ball’s father, LaVar, had decided to pull his son, a fringe NBA prospect, out of UCLA and off its basketball team because he considered the suspension unfair, particularly after the charges against him and the other players were dropped.
“China already said, ‘OK, he made a bad mistake, we’re going to drop the charges.’ That’s the punishment they gave him,” said LaVar, who disputes Trump’s role in his son’s return home. “Now we over here — we gotta serve some more punishment? He apologized. What is the long process for? We only went to UCLA — one and done — to play basketball.”
LaVar then promised to take matters into his own hands with LiAngelo, who had been expected to come off the bench for UCLA prior to his suspension. Ball’s eldest son, Lonzo, was selected No. 2 overall by the Los Angeles Lakes earlier this year after leading UCLA to the Sweet 16.
“I’m going to get Gelo in shape, we’re going to work him out, we’re going to do some other things and he’s going to be headed to the NBA,” he said.
Related Video 1:10 UCLA players back in Los Angeles after shoplifting arrests in China |
A picture of a faulty washer, submitted to SaferProducts.gov.
Samsung, still recovering from the messy recall of its premium Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, has disclosed that products from another major category are also prone to exploding — its washing machines.
Consumers reported at least six models of its top-loading washing machines — some of which have operated without problems for years — have been known to explode, spin violently and levitate during the spin cycle, turning them into dangerous projectiles. Samsung has set up a website for customers to check if their machines are faulty, but has not issued a formal recall or released a full list of which models are affected.
Descriptions of the faulty machines filed with the government are harrowing.
"The machine jumped forward about two feet and turned 90 degrees," reads one report filed to SaferProducts.gov, where users can report faulty products to the government. "It slammed into the dryer, leaving a huge dent in the side of it." The washer then ripped the electrical outlet from its screws and bent it to the side, the report said. Others said their appliances ripped holes in the walls, or lodged pieces of plastic and metal in the drywall after exploding.
A class-action lawsuit against Samsung over the appliances is in the works, but these reports also prompted the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to issue a warning statement about the washers Wednesday.
Samsung has suffered brand damage after recalling its Galaxy Note 7, which could explode during charging. The washer defects are unrelated to the battery issues Samsung faced with its smartphone. But the danger of both defects raises questions about the company's quality control, and could damage the company's brand significantly if consumers associate Samsung with dangerous products.
A survey from strategy and design firm Branding Brand found that 34 percent of Samsung smartphone owners, drawn to the quality of its products, said they would not buy another phone from the company in light of the Galaxy Note 7 recall. That could be particularly damaging as Samsung, like other tech rivals, moves into a consumer electronics world, where everything is connected. Some washers that are affected by this defect can connect to users' smartphones, using the firm's "SmartCare" diagnostic technology.
If consumers have doubts about one of a company's products, it can be damaging to the whole ecosystem of devices, said Chris Mason, chief executive and co-founder of Branding Brand.
"When one of those dominoes falls, it could have cascading effects," he said.
Still, others said it's too early to raise the alarm for all Samsung products. Consumer Reports, which spearheaded the call for Samsung to recall the Galaxy Note 7 formally, said that while these products are dangerous, it has no evidence of a wider safety problem with Samsung products. "We are not aware of data on any other Samsung products that would cause us to re-evaluate our current recommendations," Glenn Derene, director of content development for Consumer Reports, said in an e-mail.
The CPSC is urging consumers to report any incidents to SaferProducts.gov, said commission spokesman Scott Wolfson. "If there are new incidents, or older ones that have not been reported, please report them immediately," he said. |
19th-century Belgian Roman Catholic priest and saint
Father Damien's signature
Father Damien or Saint Damien of Molokai, SS.CC. or Saint Damien De Veuster (Dutch: Pater Damiaan or Heilige Damiaan van Molokai; 3 January 1840 – 15 April 1889),[2] born Jozef De Veuster, was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary,[3] a missionary religious institute. He won recognition for his ministry from 1873 to 1889 in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi to people with leprosy (also known as Hansen's disease), who were required to live under a government-sanctioned medical quarantine on the island of Molokaʻi on the Kalaupapa Peninsula.[4]
During this time, he taught the Catholic faith to the people of Hawaii. Father Damien also cared for the patients himself and established leadership within the community to build houses, schools, roads, hospitals, and churches. He dressed residents' ulcers, built a reservoir, made coffins, dug graves, shared pipes, and ate poi from his hands with them, providing both medical and emotional support.
After eleven years caring for the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of those in the leper colony, Father Damien realized he had also contracted leprosy when he was scalded by hot water and felt no pain. He continued with his work despite the infection but finally succumbed to the disease on 15 April 1889.
Father Damien has been described as a "martyr of charity".[5] He was the tenth person in what is now the United States to be recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church.[6] In both the Latin Rite and the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church, Father Damien is venerated as a saint. In the Anglican communion, as well as other denominations of Christianity, Damien is considered the spiritual patron for leprosy and outcasts. Father Damien Day, April 15, the day of his passing, is also a minor statewide holiday in Hawaii and to this day Father Damien is the patron saint of the Diocese of Honolulu and of Hawaii.
Upon his beatification by Pope John Paul II in Rome on 4 June 1995, Blessed Damien was granted a memorial feast day, which is celebrated on 10 May. Father Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 11 October 2009.[7][8] The Catholic Encyclopedia calls him "the Apostle of the Lepers."[9]
Early life [ edit ]
Father Damien was born Jozef ("Jef") De Veuster, the youngest of seven children and fourth son of the Flemish corn merchant Joannes Franciscus ("Frans") De Veuster and his wife Anne-Catherine ("Cato") Wouters in the village of Tremelo in Flemish Brabant in rural Belgium on 3 January 1840. Growing up on a farm, it was assumed that he would eventually take over the farm. Instead, Jozef attended college in Braine-le-Comte, then entered the novitiate of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Leuven. He took the name of Brother Damianus (Damiaan in Dutch, Damien in French) in his first vows, presumably in reference to the first Saint Damian, an early Christian saint who was said to perform miracles.[10][11]
Following in the footsteps of his older sisters Eugénie and Pauline (who had become nuns) and older brother Auguste (Father Pamphile), Damien became a "Picpus" Brother (another name for members of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary) on 7 October 1860. His superiors thought that he was not a good candidate for the priesthood because he lacked education. However, he was not considered unintelligent. Because he learned Latin well from his brother, his superiors decided to allow him to become a priest. During his ecclesiastical studies, Damien prayed daily before a picture of St. Francis Xavier, patron of missionaries, to be sent on a mission.[12][13] Three years later when Damien's brother Father Pamphile could not travel to Hawaiʻi as a missionary because of illness, Damien was allowed to take his place.
Mission in Hawaii [ edit ]
Father Damien in 1873 before he sailed for Hawaii
On 19 March 1864, Damien landed at Honolulu Harbor on Oahu. He was ordained into the priesthood on 21 May 1864, at what is now the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, originally built by his religious order, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Today it serves as the Cathedral of the Bishop of Honolulu.[14]
In 1865 Father Damien was assigned to the Catholic Mission in North Kohala on the island of Hawaiʻi. While Father Damien was serving in several parishes on Oʻahu, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was struggling with a labor shortage and a public health crisis, as identified by planters.[15] Many of the parishioners Native Hawaiians had high mortality rates to such Eurasian infectious diseases as smallpox, cholera, influenza, syphilis, and whooping cough, brought to the Hawaiian Islands by foreign traders, sailors and immigrants. Thousands of Hawaiians died of such diseases, to which they had no acquired immunity.
It is believed that Chinese workers carried leprosy (later known as Hansen's disease) to the islands in the 1830s and 1840s. At that time, leprosy was thought to be highly contagious and incurable. Later the medical community determined that roughly 95% of human beings are immune to it and, in the 20th century, developed effective treatment. In 1865, out of fear of this contagious disease, Hawaiian King Kamehameha V and the Hawaiian Legislature passed the "Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy". This law quarantined the lepers of Hawaii, requiring the most serious cases to be moved to a settlement colony of Kalawao on the eastern end of the Kalaupapa peninsula on the island of Molokaʻi. Later the settlement of Kalaupapa was developed. Kalawao County, where the two villages are located, is separated from the rest of Molokaʻi by a steep mountain ridge. Even in the 21st century, the only land access is by a mule trail. From 1866 through 1969, a total of about 8,000 Hawaiians were sent to the Kalaupapa peninsula for medical quarantine.
The Royal Board of Health initially provided the quarantined people with food and other supplies, but it did not have the manpower and resources to offer proper health care. According to documents of that time, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi did not intend for the settlements to be penal colonies, but the Kingdom did not provide enough resources to support them.[4] The Kingdom of Hawaii had planned for the lepers to be able to care for themselves and grow their own crops, but, due to the effects of leprosy and the local environmental conditions of the peninsula, this was impractical.
According to researcher Pennie Moblo, accounts about the colony from the 19th well into the 20th century have overstated its poor condition, adding to the myth of the European saviors for the colony and the island, whose government was eventually controlled by European Americans. For instance, most of the houses and other buildings were constructed and owned by the residents, even after the change of government and increased investment by the Territory of Hawaiʻi. By 1868, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia (1911), "Drunken and lewd conduct prevailed. The easy-going, good-natured people seemed wholly changed."[16] This seems to be an account fulfilling the contemporary European ideas about the Hawaiians more than an accurate record of conditions.[17]
There is evidence that lay volunteers offered to help on the island, and that the Hawaiians would have preferred a native priest, if one had been available.[17]
Mission on Molokai [ edit ]
While Bishop Louis Désiré Maigret, the vicar apostolic of the Honolulu diocese, believed that the lepers needed a Catholic priest to assist them, he realized that this assignment had high risk. He did not want to send any one person "in the name of obedience". After much prayer, four priests volunteered to go, among them Father Damien. The bishop planned for the volunteers to take turns in rotation assisting the inhabitants.
On May 10, 1873, the first volunteer, Father Damien, arrived at the isolated settlement at Kalaupapa, where 816 lepers then lived, and was presented by Bishop Louis Maigret. At his arrival he spoke to the assembled lepers as "one who will be a father to you, and who loves you so much that he does not hesitate to become one of you; to live and die with you".
Damien worked with them to build a church and establish the Parish of Saint Philomena. In addition to serving as a priest, he dressed residents' ulcers, built a reservoir, built homes and furniture, made coffins, and dug graves.[10] Six months after his arrival at Kalawao, he wrote to his brother, Pamphile, in Europe: "...I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ."
During this time, Father Damien had not only cared for the lepers, but also established leadership within the community to improve the state of living. Father Damien aided the colony by teaching, painting houses, organizing farms, organizing the construction of chapels, roads, hospitals, and churches. He also personally dressed residents, dug graves, built coffins, ate food by hand with lepers, shared pipes with them, and lived with the lepers as equals. Father Damien also served as a priest during this time and spread the Catholic Faith to the lepers; it is said that Father Damien told the lepers that despite what the outside world thought of them, they were always precious in the eyes of God.
Father Damien, seen here with the Kalawao Girls Choir during the 1870s.
Some historians believed that Father Damien was a catalyst for a turning point for the community. Under his leadership, basic laws were enforced, shacks were upgraded and improved as painted houses, working farms were organized, and schools were established. At his own request and of the lepers, Father Damien remained on Molokaʻi.[4] Many such accounts completely overlooked the roles of superintendents who were Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian. However, Pennie Moblo states that until the late 20th century, most historic accounts of Damien's ministry revealed biases of Europeans and Americans, and nearly completely discounted the roles of the native residents on Molokaʻi.[17]
William P. Ragsdale was a highly popular and effective mixed-race attorney and politician who was part Hawaiian; he had served as an interpreter and in other government posts. After finding that he had contracted leprosy, he "gave himself up to the law", and was appointed to serve as superintendent at Kalaupapa in 1873. He led it until his death in 1877. His popularity led to his being called "Governor." Father Damien succeeded him briefly as superintendent, but he gave that up after three months in February 1878 in favor of another appointee. His superiors did not want priests serving in government posts.[18]
Recognition during his lifetime [ edit ]
King David Kalākaua bestowed on Damien the honor of "Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Kalākaua".[19] When Crown Princess Lydia Liliʻuokalani visited the settlement to present the medal, she was reported as having been too distraught and heartbroken at the sight of the residents to read her speech. The princess shared her experience, acclaiming Damien's efforts.[20] Consequently, Damien became internationally known in the United States and Europe. American Protestants raised large sums of money for the missionary's work. The Church of England sent food, medicine, clothing, and supplies to the settlement. It is believed that Damien never wore the royal medal, although it was placed by his side at his funeral.
Illness and death [ edit ]
Father Damien on his deathbed St. Marianne Cope standing beside Father Damien's funeral bier (image reversed) The leprosy patients of Molokaʻi gathered around Father Damien's grave in mourning
Father Damien worked for 16 years in Hawaii providing comfort for the lepers of Kalaupapa. He gave the people not only faith, but also homes and his medical expertise. He would pray at the cemetery of the deceased and comfort the dying at their bedsides.
In December 1884 while preparing to bathe, Damien inadvertently put his foot into scalding water, causing his skin to blister. He felt nothing and realized he had contracted leprosy after 11 years of working in the colony.[4] This was a common way for people to discover that they had been infected with leprosy. Despite his illness, Damien worked even harder.[21]
In 1885, Masanao Goto, a Japanese leprologist, came to Honolulu and treated Damien. He believed that leprosy was caused by a diminution of the blood. His treatment consisted of nourishing food, moderate exercise, frequent friction to the benumbed parts, special ointments, and medical baths. The treatments did relieve some of the symptoms and were very popular with the Hawaiian patients. Damien had faith in the treatments and said he wanted to be treated by no one but Goto,[22][23][24] who eventually became good friends with Father Damien.[25]
Despite the illness slowing down his body, in his last years, Damien engaged in a flurry of activity. He tried to complete and advance as many projects as possible with his time remaining. While continuing to spread the Catholic Faith and aid the lepers in their treatments, Damien completed several building projects and improved orphanages. Four volunteers arrived at Kalaupapa to help the ailing missionary: a Belgian priest, Louis Lambert Conrardy; a soldier, Joseph Dutton (an American Civil War veteran who left behind a marriage broken by alcoholism); a male nurse, James Sinnett from Chicago; and Mother (now also Saint) Marianne Cope, who had been the head of the Franciscan-run St Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse, New York.[26][26] Conrardy took up pastoral duties; Cope organized a working hospital; Dutton attended to the construction and maintenance of the community's buildings; and Sinnett nursed Damien in the last phases of illness.
With an arm in a sling, a foot in bandages, and his leg dragging, Damien knew death was near. He was bedridden on 23 March 1889, and on 30 March he made a general confession.[27] Damien died of leprosy at 8:00 a.m. on 15 April 1889, aged 49.[28] The next day, after Mass said by Father Moellers at St. Philomena's, the whole settlement followed the funeral cortège to the cemetery. Damien was laid to rest under the same pandanus tree where he first slept upon his arrival on Molokaʻi.[29]
In January 1936, at the request of King Leopold III of Belgium and the Belgian government, Damien's body was returned to his native land in Belgium. It was transported aboard the Belgian ship Mercator. Damien was buried in Leuven, the historic university city close to the village where he was born. After Damien's beatification in June 1995, the remains of his right hand were returned to Hawaii and re-interred in his original grave on Molokaʻi.[30][31]
Father Damien had become internationally known before his death, seen as a symbolic Christian figure caring for the afflicted natives. His superiors thought Damien lacking in education and finesse, but knew him as "an earnest peasant hard at work in his own way for God."[32] News of his death on 15 April was quickly carried across the globe by the modern communications of the time, by steamship to Honolulu and California, telegraph to the East Coast of the United States, and cable to England, reaching London on 11 May.[33] Following an outpouring of praise for his work, other voices began to be heard in Hawaiʻi.
Representatives of the Congregational and Presbyterian churches in Hawaii criticized his approach. Reverend Charles McEwen Hyde, a Presbyterian minister in Honolulu, wrote in August to fellow pastor, Reverend H. B. Gage of San Francisco. Hyde referred to Father Damien as "a coarse, dirty man", who contracted leprosy due to "carelessness".[34][35] Hyde said that Damien was mistakenly being given credit for reforms that were made by the Board of Health. Without consulting with Hyde, Gage had the letter published in a San Francisco newspaper, generating comment and controversy in the US and Hawaiʻi. People of the period consistently overlooked the role of Hawaiians themselves, among whom several had prominent roles of leadership on the island.[36]
Later in 1889 Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and his family arrived in Hawaii for an extended stay. He had tuberculosis, then also incurable, and was seeking some relief. Moved by Damien's story, he became interested in the controversy about the priest and went to Molokaʻi for eight days and seven nights.[34] Stevenson wanted to learn more about Damien at the place where he had worked. He spoke with residents of varying religious backgrounds to learn more about Damien's work. Based on his conversations and observations, he wrote an open letter to Hyde that addressed the minister's criticisms and had it printed at his own expense. This became the most famous account of Damien, featuring him in the role of a European aiding a benighted native people.[34][37]
In his "6,000-word polemic,"[37] Stevenson praised Damien extensively, writing to Hyde:
If that world at all remember you, on the day when Damien of Molokai shall be named a Saint, it will be in virtue of one work: your letter to the Reverend H. B. Gage.[34]
Stevenson referred to his journal entries in his letter:
...I have set down these private passages, as you perceive, without correction; thanks to you, the public has them in their bluntness. They are almost a list of the man's faults, for it is rather these that I was seeking: with his virtues, with the heroic profile of his life, I and the world were already sufficiently acquainted. I was besides a little suspicious of Catholic testimony; in no ill sense, but merely because Damien's admirers and disciples were the least likely to be critical. I know you will be more suspicious still; and the facts set down above were one and all collected from the lips of Protestants who had opposed the father in his life. Yet I am strangely deceived, or they build up the image of a man, with all his weakness, essentially heroic, and alive with rugged honesty, generosity, and mirth.[34]
Since then historians and ethnologists have also studied Damien's work and the life of residents on Molokaʻi. For example, Pennie Moblo assesses the myth and controversy about the priest in the context not of religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, but of changes in relations in Hawaiʻi between the royal house, European-American planters and missionaries, and native residents, in the years of the overthrow of the government and assumption of power by Americans.[15] Among the facts left out of early accounts praising Father Damien was that the residents of the leper colony wanted a native priest, that lay volunteers were rejected, and that residents asked in 1878 that the priest be replaced. As Hawai'ians were literate, they spoke for themselves. In this period, Damien had patient J.K. Kahuila, a Hawaiian Protestant minister, put in irons and deported to Oahu because he believed the man was too rebellious. Kahuila got a lawyer and demanded investigation of Damien.[15] Moblo concludes that in most 19th and 20th-century accounts, "the focus on Damien eclipses the active role played by Hawaiians and preserves a colonially biased history."[15]
Mahatma Gandhi, the important political leader of India, said that Father Damien's work had inspired his own social campaigns in India, leading to independence for his people and also securing aid for those who needed it. Gandhi was quoted in T.N. Jagadisan's 1965 publication, Mahatma Gandhi Answers the Challenge of Leprosy, as saying,
The political and journalistic world can boast of very few heroes who compare with Father Damien of Molokai. The Catholic Church, on the contrary, counts by the thousands those who after the example of Fr. Damien have devoted themselves to the victims of leprosy. It is worthwhile to look for the sources of such heroism.[38]
Canonization [ edit ]
Original grave of Father Damien next to the St. Philomena Roman Catholic Church in Kalawao, Kalaupapa Peninsula, Molokaʻi, Hawaii ( ) Grave of Saint Damien in the crypt of the church of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts in Leuven , Belgium ( )
In 1977, Pope Paul VI declared Father Damien to be venerable. On 4 June 1995, Pope John Paul II beatified him and gave him his official spiritual title of Blessed. On 20 December 1999, Jorge Medina Estévez, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, confirmed the November 1999 decision of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to place Blessed Damien on the liturgical calendar with the rank of optional memorial. Father Damien was canonized on 11 October 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI. His feast day is celebrated on 10 May. In Hawaii it is celebrated on the day of his death, 15 April.
Two miracles have been attributed to Father Damien's posthumous intercession. On 13 June 1992, Pope John Paul II approved the cure of a nun in France in 1895 as a miracle attributed to Venerable Damien's intercession. In that case, Sister Simplicia Hue began a novena to Father Damien as she lay dying of a lingering intestinal illness. It is stated that pain and symptoms of the illness disappeared overnight.[39]
In the second case, Audrey Toguchi, a Hawaiian woman who suffered from a rare form of cancer, had remission after having prayed at the grave of Father Damien on Molokaʻi. There was no medical explanation, as her prognosis was terminal.[40][41] In 1997, Toguchi was diagnosed with liposarcoma, a cancer that arises in fat cells. She underwent surgery a year later and a tumor was removed, but the cancer metastasized to her lungs. Her physician, Dr. Walter Chang, told her, "Nobody has ever survived this cancer. It's going to take you."[40] Toguchi was surviving in 2008.[40]
In April 2008, the Holy See accepted the two cures as evidence of Father Damien's sanctity. On 2 June 2008, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican voted to recommend raising Father Damien of Molokaʻi to sainthood. The decree that officially notes and verifies the miracle needed for canonization was promulgated by Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal José Saraiva Martins on 3 July 2008, with the ceremony taking place in Rome and celebrations in Belgium and Hawaii.[42] On 21 February 2009, the Vatican announced that Father Damien would be canonized.[7] The ceremony took place in Rome on Rosary Sunday, 11 October 2009, in the presence of King Albert II of the Belgians and Queen Paola as well as the Belgian Prime Minister, Herman Van Rompuy, and several cabinet ministers,[8][43] completing the process of canonization. In Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama affirmed his deep admiration for St. Damien, saying that he gave voice to voiceless and dignity to the sick.[44] Four other individuals were canonized with Father Damien at the same ceremony: Zygmunt Szczęsny Feliński, Sister Jeanne Jugan, Father Francisco Coll Guitart and Rafael Arnáiz Barón.[45]
Damien is honored, together with Marianne Cope, with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on 15 April.
In arts and media [ edit ]
Films [ edit ]
Literature [ edit ]
Screenwriter and film director John Farrow wrote the biography Damien the Leper (1937). [50] In 1939, RKO Pictures purchased the book for a feature film titled Father Damien , to be directed by Farrow and star Joseph Calleia. [51] [52] The project was not realized.
(1937). In 1939, RKO Pictures purchased the book for a feature film titled , to be directed by Farrow and star Joseph Calleia. The project was not realized. The poetic dramatization Father Damien (1938) was written by Edward Snelson, later Joint Secretary to the Government of India (1947), KBE, and dedicated ‘To G.’, the actress Greer Garson, to whom he had been married in 1933. [53]
(1938) was written by Edward Snelson, later Joint Secretary to the Government of India (1947), KBE, and dedicated ‘To G.’, the actress Greer Garson, to whom he had been married in 1933. The one-man play Damien by Aldwyth Morris, was broadcast nationally on PBS in the United States in 1978 and again in 1986 on "American Playhouse". The broadcast received a number of recognitions including a Peabody Award.
by Aldwyth Morris, was broadcast nationally on PBS in the United States in 1978 and again in 1986 on "American Playhouse". The broadcast received a number of recognitions including a Peabody Award. The 2016 novel God Made Us Monsters by William Neary explores Father Damien's rise to sainthood.[54]
Monuments and statues [ edit ]
Legacy and honors [ edit ]
In 2005, Damien was honored with the title of De Grootste Belg, chosen as "The Greatest Belgian" throughout that country's history, in polling conducted by the Flemish public broadcasting service, VRT.[12] He ranked third on Le plus grand Belge ("The Greatest Belgian") in a poll by the French-speaking public channel RTBF.
In 1952, the Picpus Fathers (SS .CC) opened the Damien Museum, (Dutch: Damiaanmuseum ) in Tremelo, Belgium, in the house Damien was born and grew up. In 2017 the museum was completely renovated.
With canonization highlighting his ministry to persons with leprosy, Father Damien in his work has been cited as an example of how society should minister to HIV/AIDS patients.[55] On the occasion of Damien's canonization, President Barack Obama stated, "In our own time, as millions around the world suffer from disease, especially the pandemic of HIV/AIDS, we should draw on the example of Father Damien’s resolve in answering the urgent call to heal and care for the sick."[56] Several clinics and centers nationwide catering to HIV/AIDS patients bear his name.[57] There is a chapel named for him and dedicated to people with HIV/AIDS, in St. Thomas the Apostle Hollywood, an Episcopal parish.[58][59]
The Damien The Leper Society is among charities named after him that work to treat and control leprosy. Damien House, Ireland, is a centre for "peace for families and individuals affected by bereavement, stress, violence, and other difficulties with particular attention to Northern Ireland".[60] Saint Damien Advocates is a religious freedom organization that says it wants to carry on Father Damien's work with orphans and others.[61][62]
Schools named after him include Damien High School in Southern California, Saint Damien Elementary School in Calgary, Canada, and Damien Memorial School in Hawaii.[63] The village of Saint-Damien, Quebec is also named after him. Churches worldwide are named after him.
St. Damien of Molokaʻi Catholic Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, dedicated in 2010, is believed to have been the first Roman Catholic church in the continental United States to be named for Saint Damien after his canonization. A Traditional Latin Mass church, it is operated by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) and was authorized in 2010 by Eusebius J. Beltran, Archbishop of Oklahoma City. Pontiac, Michigan (in the Catholic archdiocese of Detroit) has a St. Damien parish.[64]
The Damien and Marianne of Moloka'i Heritage Center was established at the St. Augustine by the Sea Catholic Church in Honolulu; Marianne of Molokaʻi was canonized in 2012. The center is open several hours every day except holidays.[65]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ] |
Update 17 January, 2015: Sony Online Entertainment's Adam Clegg has taken to the H1Z1 sub-Reddit to apologise for the mistake on his original Stream and to clarify the Airdrop contents and loot probabilities.
Original Story: There doesn’t seem to be a day goes by lately where a gaming drama doesn’t unfold. Whether it’s #Gamergate, Guild Wars 2’s Gem fiasco or Elite: Dangerous’ change of approach to an offline mode, there always seems to be something agitating a gaming community. Sony Online Entertainment finally created their own scandal yesterday on the Early Access launch day for H1Z1.
For anyone who hasn’t been following H1Z1 closely, it’s a new free to play horror survival game from Sony Online Entertainment. In the same vein as Day-Z, you play a survivor alongside hundreds of others, intent on scavenging and lasting for as long as you possibly can. As a free to play title, like all SOE games, a big part of H1Z1’s development has been the discussion on monetization and how in a survival based game SOE are going to earn income. What was always preferred by the community and often stressed by SOE was that H1Z1 wouldn’t be pay to win and players wouldn’t be able to strengthen themselves through microtransactions. Instead, income would come from primarily cosmetic items such as clothing or emotes so that the game remains both fair and equally competitive rather than how big your wallet is. When food, ammunition and weaponry are the main source of survival, the last things players wanted were for these goods to be purchasable.
One specific microtransaction in H1Z1 and one which has been discussed at great length is the Airdrop. The intention behind it, according to SOE, was to create a server wide event when one is purchased. A plane will fly overhead that can be seen and heard by all, before dropping goods onto the map in the vicinity of the purchaser. Key to the Airdrop being fair is the fact that anyone is able to loot the crate when it lands on the ground, meaning that there’s a great deal of potential for players to pursue the parachuted goods to see what’s inside.
Unsurprisingly and when H1Z1 launched yesterday, many players quickly purchased the Airdrop to see what was inside. Of three Airdrops that have been opened, all three contained weaponry and ammunition.
Tan Military Backpack 12GA Pump Shotgun 18x Shotgun Shell
Tan Military Backpack M1911A1 21x .45 Round
Tan Military Backpack Waist Pack AR15 Land Mine 2x First Aid Kit 90x .223 Round M1911A1 (he had already grabbed it on screenshot)
The reason why this has annoyed the community so much is because Sony Online Entertainment have, throughout H1Z1’s development, insisted that weapons and ammunition won’t be purchasable because it would fundamentally undermine the purpose of the game. While I personally have no problem with Airdrop's supplying weaponry and ammunition, I can fully understand why some of the community are aggitated. There’s been a variety of information from SOE that state opposing things about Airdrop's. Game development is fluid and things change but unfortunately for developers, once “official” information leaves the lips of an individual, players aren’t quick to forget it.
Eight months ago John Smedley took to the H1Z1 Reddit to discuss microtransactions and one of his specific points was Airdrops.
We will NOT be selling Guns, Ammo, Food, Water... i.e. That's kind of the whole game and it would suck in our opinion if we did that.
Smed further went on to state in a PCGamer interview about H1Z1 back in April 2014, he confirmed that:
“We will NOT be selling Guns, Ammo, Food, Water... i.e. That's kind of the whole game and it would suck in our opinion if we did that.”
As recently as January 12, 2015 Adam Clegg, one of Sony Online Entertainment’s game designers stated, alongside NGTZombies, the following:
Adam: There’s no way you can get ammo - any other way. You can’t buy ammo. NGTZombies: Right Adam: You can’t buy guns. NGTZombies: Right. Adam: You can’t get them out of a crate. NGTZombies: Right. Adam: There’s zero way - you have to find them in the world. NGTZombies: So where would I find ammo other than the Police station?
In contrast to this conversation, the H1Z1 official webpage states the following under point 8 of the “WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM H1Z1 EARLY ACCESS”
8) We have made the decision to allow paid for airdrops into the game with things like guns and other things being randomly selected as part of the airdrop. We’re making them highly contested and building a whole set of rules around this, but you should be aware that our goal is to make this a way to keep things interesting on the servers but still be contested. If these offend your sensibilities just know that they are going to be there. We have gone out of our way to make sure the airdrops are contested in-game and that you can’t simply expect to easily walk about to the airdrop and grab it. Even if you paid for it.
Considering the original publication date of the Early Access page was 1/15/15 and four days ago a developer was stating the opposite, I anticipated that at some point Smed would be rearing his head in the H1Z1 sub-Reddit to discuss Airdrops and the fact they contain incredibly valuable supplies. Sadly and as a far as damage limitation goes, his reply was far from measured or understanding:
I'm going to weigh in here on this subject. We've been showing it clearly in all of the streams we have been doing. I made a point of personally doing it during last Friday's streams. We want them to be server events... so we make sure the whole server knows they're coming and I've personally been killed many times after I paid for them myself. So I fundamentally disagree with the argument. In terms of us not being honest about it - untrue to an extreme. Quoting an 8 month old reddit post after numerous streams and interviews where we've been quite public AND putting it front and center in our "What to expect document" which was right on the purchase page just makes this blatantly unfair IMO. (here's the link - https://www.h1z1.com/dev-updates/h1z1-what-you-can-expect-in-early-access) or you can just go back to the steam page. So if you think it's P2W don't buy it. Don't play it. But I have to say wait until you've personally tried them before making the call. We included airdrops in both the $20 and the $40 versions just so you could see for yourselves. But to clear up the misconceptions - 1) You cannot call in airdrops until the servers are 1/4 full. 2) You can't call in airdrops without generating a ton of zombie heat. 3) the airdrops are random in what they deliver. 4) you are not guaranteed to get a single thing out of the airdrop you called in. You could die trying and you're out the money. 5) We fly the plane in very slowly and loudly.. we also stream green smoke from it you can see from very far away. This is all I'm going to say on the subject. We've been straight about it. We've called attention to it publicly and it's something we've decided we want in the game. It makes it more fun. It can shake things up. Please don't judge based on knee jerk reactions. Try it. Or watch more streams with people doing it. Now with all that being said - we're going to be making some big changes to them in the next day or so. 1) Dramatically widening the radius they come in - it's too small from what we're observing. 2) Making sure the chance for guns is a much lower chance so they are much more rare. 3) Upping the minimum number of people on a server to even allow air drops. It's set at 50 right now and we're going to at least double it. We are serious about these being server events and contested. 4) Making the plane fly even slower.
Despite his prickly response and him completely failing to grasp what his team has been saying when on a PR push (including himself), I’d have to say that I actually side with him on this matter. An Airdrop containing what it does and the community reacting hysterically to it (as most of the Reddit community are) is doing a disservice to the true intention behind the Airdrop, irrespective of SOE’s original design choice for them not to contain weaponry. Worse, this level of hostility also completely undermines the fact that H1Z1 is currently being tested. As it currently stands the whole concept of an Airdrop being a server wide event is being undermined by the fact that players couldn’t get onto servers, zombies weren’t working as intended (most simply didn’t move) and the Airdrop landed too closely to the original requester. These three things culminated in what is effectively guaranteed loot that unquestionably strengthens your character. This isn’t what was intended and Smed has clearly stated this.
For Airdrop’s to have any value and to encourage the purchase of them (SOE inevitably need income from H1Z1) players need some incentive to buy them. Unless they contain something of value, players will simply choose not to buy them. Some players certainly won’t like the sound of that, but I consider the ruleset that Sony Online Entertainment have wrapped around Airdrops is more than fair. Irrespective of whether you hand over $5.00 or not, nothing in the crate will be guaranteed to you. If Smed implements all that he states, Airdrops truly will become an event for the server where everyone turns to the skies and heads in the direction of the plane, as quickly as humanly possible. Eventually and I’m sure it’ll reach this point quickly, players will work together to ensure whomever called in an Airdrop won’t benefit from it and that is definitely a good thing.
What has annoyed me the most in the sorry saga (and it’s very much still ongoing) is the fact that so few of the H1Z1 community have even taken a second to breath and assess what Smed has said. His team worked through the night to stabilise the game and identify as many issues as possible and before they could even catch their breath, all hell has broken loose. Before players condemn Airdrop's in their current form they really should take a moment to analyse the wider gameplay aspects that they’ll offer and how in the long run, a randomised crate of loot that will attract all and sundry is far from pay to win. In fact, it's quite exciting. |
It’s that time of the week again when we so generously offer you the opportunity to take part in a LIVE Twitter Q&A with one of our beloved artists. First we gave you the chance to ask DNAEBEATS about his work with Blackalicious, his touring diet and his love of The Undertaker. Then DJ Shiftee took the hot seat to answer questions about his live set-up, his favorite sandwich and his passion for MILFs. Our third Q&A saw Suzi Analogue field questions about black hoodies, her work with TOKiMONSTA and her favourite Wu-Tang joints. Oh, and Killer Mike even popped in for a word! If you missed any of those, where the hell were you???
For one hour this evening (6-7pm EST / 11pm-12am GMT) MIK will answer ANY question. That’s right, it doesn’t have to be about music, it can be as serious or as silly as you like! If it was me I’d wanna know about his legendary Family Tree crew, the work that went into his new EP on Slit Jockey or how many pairs of Air Force Ones he owns!
“But wait, Seclusiasis! I really need to look at pornography in that time/my house will be on fire/I have a date!” Fear not, party people! You can send your question to james AT seclusiasisDOTcom and we’ll ask MIK for you. Just include “MIK Q&A” in the subject and your questions shall be answered.
Now get scribbling some questions!
@ThatsMIK
@Seclusiasis |
The Crimean People's Republic (Crimean Tatar: Qırım Halq Cumhuriyeti) (Russian: Крымская народная республика) existed from December 1917 to January 1918 in the Crimean Peninsula, a territory currently disputed between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Crimean People’s Republic was the first Turcic and Muslim democratic republic in the world. In its founding, the Crimean People's Republic was one of many short-lived attempts to create new states after the Russian Revolution of 1917 had caused the Russian Empire to collapse.
Brief history [ edit ]
Establishment [ edit ]
The Crimean People's Republic was declared by the initiative of the Qurultay of Crimean Tatars,[1] which stipulated the equality of all ethnicities within the peninsula; the largest proportion of people living in the Crimea at the time were Russian (then comprising 42% of the population of the Crimea) or Ukrainian (11%).[2] However, Crimean Tatars were for a while the dominant political and cultural force on the peninsula. Noman Çelebicihan was the first President of the nascent Republic.[1]
The Qurultay consisted of 76 delegates, four of whom were females (Şefika Gasprinskaya, Anife Bоdaninskaya, Ilhan Tohtar, Hatice Avcı). The delegates were chosen from five counties: Yalta (24), Akmescit (19), Kefe (16), Kezlev (11), and Orkapy (6). The Qurultay elected as chairman the Crimean writer Asan Sabri Aivazov.
The Qurultay in opposition to the Bolsheviks published a "Crimean Tatar Basic Law", which convened an All-Crimean Constitutional Assembly, established a Board of Directors as a provisional government, and erected a Council of National Representatives as a provisional parliament.[3] The Board of Directors and the Central Council of Ukraine both mutually recognized each other.[1]
Bolshevik coup d'etat [ edit ]
This attempt to build a new nation was quickly defeated by the Bolshevik- and anarchist-dominated Black Sea Fleet.[3] Already on December 16, 1917, the Bolsheviks captured Sevastopol where the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet was located and dissolved the local council of deputies. The power in the city was transferred to the local revkom. The Bolsheviks were supported by some ships of the Black Sea Fleet. To defend itself, the Crimean government created a United Crimean Headquarters on December 19, 1917 that had at its disposal two cavalry and one infantry regiment of Crimean Tatars as well as some Ukrainian and Russian formations that amounted to some thousand people. Several armed incidents took place during January 1918. On January 14, 1918, the Bolsheviks captured Simferopol where they managed to arrest former President of Crimea (Head of Directorate) Noman Çelebicihan who had just resigned on January 4, 1918. He was transferred back to Sevastopol and interned until February 23, 1918, when he was shot without trial. The body of Çelebicihan was thrown into the sea.
On the initiative of Çelebicihan on January 10, 1918, the Qurultay created a special commission that conducted talks with the Bolsheviks to stop the armed conflict in Crimea.
By the end of January 1918 the Bolsheviks had captured the whole of Crimea and dissolved both the Qurultay as well as the Council of National Representatives. A mass terror engulfed the peninsula based on class struggle and ethnic cleansing. With Çelebicihan in the Reds' custody, another leader of the Crimean Tatars, Jafer Seidamet, managed to escape to the Caucasus across continental Ukraine. Many Crimean military formations retreated to the mountains. The government of Ukraine blockaded Crimea, while trying to reestablish control over the Black Sea Fleet and the city of Sevastopol. Any Muslim supporting military formations on the way to Crimea was stopped. That in turn triggered a protest from the All-Russian Muslim military suro (council). Note that by the end of January 1918, the Ukrainian government itself was forced to declare war on the Russian SFSR due to advancement of the Red Guard forces of Moscow and Petrograd into Ukraine without explicit notification.
The Bolsheviks briefly established the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic on Crimean territory in early 1918 before the area was overrun by forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the German Empire. Some officials of the National government such as Cafer Seydahmet Kırımer who managed to escape the Bolsheviks' terror sought political asylum in Kiev and petitioned for military help from the advancing Ukrainian Army as well as the forces of the Central powers.
Government [ edit ]
On December 28 the Qurultay had established a republican government (Hükümet).
Minister of Justice - Noman Çelebicihan (chairman)
Minister of Defense - Cafer Seydahmet Kırımer (also Minister of Foreign Affairs)
Minister of Education - Ahmet Özenbaşlı
Minister of Finance - Seyitcelil Hattat (also Minister of Foundation)
Minister of Religion - Ahmet Şükrü
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Coordinates: |
The infamous PTAT (People Talking About This) metric will soon be removed from Facebook Insights, and that is a very, very good thing. It will be available in the exports and through Facebook’s API until July 2nd 2014, which may coincide with Facebook “adjusting” its Insights dashboard. After that, PTAT won’t be available anymore, as announced on its Platform Roadmap page. The reason? According to Facebook, it’s ‘to better see how people interact with a page’s content’. This is definitely one of the most exciting changes I’m looking forward to this year. Now, before I tell you why I dislike this metric so much, I’m going to explain what people think PTAT is, what it actually is, and why it’s not that useful, as well as a few recommendations of metrics you can use instead.
What is PTAT?
PTAT stands for “People Talking About This”, and it’s a metric that a lot of marketers and industry tools swear by. The problem with PTAT is that, while it’s been here for almost 3 years, not everyone actually understands it. The two most common mistakes are:
Assuming that PTAT is only a combination of people liking, commenting and sharing your Page content;
Taking PTAT literally, assuming that PTAT is the number of people who are actually talking about your Facebook page.
This confusion often stems from the wording that Facebook uses - “People Talking About This”. So, before going any further we need to understand Facebook’s rationale behind calling this metric what it is today.
Facebook Stories
When you interact with a Page’s content, you create an item that is then displayed on your friends’ News Feed and News Ticker (until the old layout completely fades out). An example of a Facebook story is “Ben liked a picture”, “Ben was tagged in a picture”, “Ben commented on a post”. (You can read more about this here.)
Every time someone triggers a ‘story’ from your Page or its content, it mentions your Page in the story. For instance, if my friend Paul shares your latest picture, it will show in my News Feed as “(Paul) shared (Page)’s (picture)” . Because of how this item appears in my News Feed (with your Page’s name on it), that item is telling a “story” about your Page on my feed, spreading your Page name through “Facebook word of mouth”. Everyone who triggers a story from your Page is, in a way, talking about your page - hence the wording “People Talking About This”.
However, likes, comments and shares aren’t the only interactions that can trigger a ‘story’. Here’s a list of actions that trigger a story:
liking a post
liking a comment
commenting on a post
commenting on a comment
sharing a post
answering a question/”poll”
responding to an event
claiming an offer
posting on the page wall
mentioning the page in a post
tagging the page in a photo
checking in at your place/page
sharing a check-in deal
liking a check-in deal
writing a recommendation
liking a page.
As you can see, a lot goes into PTAT, but what’s of great interest is the last one in the list: liking a page. This means that your PTAT includes people who engage with you as well as people who like your page. Liking your Page goes beyond engagement, as I can like your Page and not interact with it at all, or even worse - I can like your Page and hide all your posts from my News Feed.
The problem is that PTAT is often used incorrectly as an engagement metric, when it actually involves interactions that go beyond engagement. PTAT is better classified as an “activity metric”, as it looks at all activity going on around your Page and its content, as long as a story is triggered.
Another problem with PTAT is that it’s an aggregate metric, a mashup of several metrics together. Due to the metrics involved, it can be easily manipulated and gamified. For example, if you run ads to increase your number of fans, your PTAT will increase considerably. PTAT favours pages that have a high fan growth or who run advertising, regularly or irregularly. This makes it an unfair metric to use for page comparison, especially if your content performs better than your competitor, while your competitor invests a lot more money than you in ads.
Lastly, if one of your goals is to drive traffic from your Page to your website, PTAT won’t be of much use to you as clickthroughs don’t trigger ‘stories’. This means that a well-performing link (in terms of clickthroughs) won’t be counted towards your PTAT. The same applies to video plays and picture views.
So, all in all, PTAT is a nice-to-have metric that shows you at a high level how many users are creating stories that display in others’ News Feeds. However, if you’re looking for something to measure the performance of your content, PTAT is not what you’re looking for.
“Miscalculations and Misspending”
Facebook used to put a lot of emphasis on PTAT, making it the only engagement metric publicly available for all pages - even those you don’t own. Everything else, including reach and engaged users, is only visible to Page Owners for their own pages. Due to this, page owners who haven't invested in a social analytics tool are forced to make do with two metrics for comparisons: the number of fans, to benchmark fan growth, and PTAT, to benchmark engagement.
This leads to other implications, such as the need for brands to have one engagement metric that factors in the size of the page, leaving some marketers to use an improvised engagement rate - PTAT out of Fanbase. While I've already talked about why I’m not a big fan of this engagement rate, this is the only calculation that Facebook leaves Page owners to make with what’s publicly available for other pages. The result? More spending on ads to increase this engagement rate, putting page owners in a vicious circle of miscalculations and misspending.
However, it would be wrong to put all the blame on Facebook: responsible marketers should be aware of what metrics mean if they intend to use them as Key Performance Indicators. This aggregate metric doesn’t tell you what drove engagement - in fact, if you choose to have PTAT as your KPI, it can be a very misleading indicator of engagement.
What You Need
To measure engagement and its performance, you need engagement metrics. The good news is, most of what you need is already in the Facebook exports. If you’re serious about Facebook Marketing, you can’t afford to ignore those exports.
So, what metrics can you use? Here’s Facebook’s recommendation:
To better see how people interact with a pages content, the PTAT metrics have been split into separate elements: Page Likes, People Engaged (the number of unique people who have clicked on, liked, commented on, or shared your posts), Page tags and mentions, Page checkins and other interactions on a Page. We recommend that you use these metrics moving forward to evaluate your Page posting strategy and engagement.
You can make use of metrics in the Facebook exports, like engaged users, or consumers and consumptions (although I personally prefer the last two).
Additionally, you can build your own ratios, based on what you’re looking for, such as:
- Rate of Engaged Fan Reach: how many of your fans who saw your content later engaged with it?
- Rate of Engaged Fanbase: how many of your fans engaged with your content?
- Rate of Fan Reach: how many of your fans actually saw your content?
- Rate of stories per impression: how many of your content and page impressions result in a Facebook story?
Facebook’s removal of PTAT is a great thing, as it shows how important it is to focus on the individual elements that make up aggregate metrics instead of relying solely (and blindly) on them. |
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July 13, 2015, 9:57 AM GMT / Updated July 13, 2015, 5:31 PM GMT By Alastair Jamieson
Almost 50 million Americans from Wisconsin to Ohio and Kentucky were facing the threat of severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes Monday, forecasters said.
Damaging winds, heavy rain and lightning were likely for many parts of the Midwest, according to the Weather Channel.
Tornado sirens sounded in several counties in Wisconsin, while central Illinois was a greatest risk of twisters. However, the larger threat was from thunderstorms and localized flooding in areas that have already seen heavy rainfall.
A severe thunderstorm watch was in place until 10 a.m. CT (11 a.m. ET) for southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana — including Chicago and Milwaukee — the Weather Channel said. Over 47 million people were in areas of “slight risk or worse,” it said.
“The threat could stretch as far northeast as central Ohio,” lead forecaster Kevin Roth said. “Altogether quite a few states will be affected.”
He added: “We can’t rule out tornadoes but damaging winds and lightning are the main threat.”
The severe weather was predicted to move southeastwards during Monday and into Tuesday, affecting Kentucky and Tennessee through to the Carolinas and northern Georgia, Roth said.
Meanwhile, the South was sweltering in under summer temperatures. Dallas could top 100 degrees Monday, Roth added.
Kansas City was also under a heat warning. |
You might not realize it, but regular showering is a luxury reserved only for people in the most developed countries. In many parts of the world, the cost of water to supply a shower far exceeds what many individuals can afford, or there are insufficient plumbing and water treatment infrastructure to even make showers a reality.
So, when there is plumbing, what does water cost? Based on a 2012 report from the International Water Association—and calculating for a 17 gallon / 8.2 minute shower (U.S. averages)—the price of a shower can cost as much as 92 cents in countries like Madagascar and India, and a whopping $3.82 in Papua New Guinea. On the low end, showers can be as cheap as $0.03 in China and Argentina.
While a dollar per shower might not seem egregious to those of us in living in the U.S., taking a shower can cost as much as 70 percent of the average person’s daily income in countries like Papa New Guinea. People in Ethiopia and India would have to use one-fifth of their daily income to pay for the same hot water that so many of us take for granted. If an American citizen had to spend 70% of his or her daily income on showers, it would cost $83 per day!
Of course, the price of a shower is moot for many people throughout the world. Nine-hundred million people on this planet don’t have access to clean water. Twice that many people (1.8 billion) use a water source that’s contaminated with human waste. Contaminated water leads to the deaths of 3.3 million people every year. That’s the same number of people that graduated from high school in the U.S., in 2016.
Imagine having to travel great distances multiple times a day just to get the water you need to survive. Such is the case for Aylito Binayo, of Ethiopia, who spends eight hours a day carrying 50 pounds of water from the nearest river back to her village. When having access to clean water is a full-time job, every drop needs to be conserved as much as possible. Aylito only uses 2.5 gallons of water per day. Compare that to the average American, who uses 100 gallons of water per day. The next time you hop in the shower, remember how important it is to conserve the water you have. |
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. rendition of “Black Mirror,” the British sci-fi series that has been a buzzy hit for Netflix, is in the works, the new leaders of Endemol Shine North America said Wednesday at the Real Screen confab.
The keynote session at the Washington Hilton marked the first major public appearance by Cris Abrego and Charlie Corwin since they were tapped co-CEOs and co-chairmen of Endemol Shine North America.
Corwin confirmed that “there is a plan” regarding a U.S. version of the “Twilight Zone”-esque series created by Charlie Brooker and produced by Annabel Jones for Endemol U.K. He declined to elaborate other than to say that Brooker and Jones “have really touched on something and I agree – we need more.”
Abrego and Corwin, formerly heads of Endemol North America, were tapped to lead the Stateside operation of the globally minded production powerhouse formed in October through the merger of Endemol, Shine Group and Core Media. The combined company’s slate of shows includes “The Biggest Loser,” “Big Brother,” “American Idol,” “MasterChef” and “Hell on Wheels.”
Developing a U.S. spin on “Black Mirror” is in keeping with the business model of mining program formats that travel well. Both Shine Group and Endemol were in the hunt for global franchises, which is one reason why Shine parent 21st Century Fox and Endemol parent Apollo Global Management decided to tie the knot in a joint venture.
With audiences now experiencing entertainment in multiple ways, Endemol Shine is “uniquely positioned to succeed in this new medium paradigm,” said Corwin. The firm’s global scale, independence, ability to deficit finance shows and massive library of intellectual property are just some of its advantages, he told the group.
Session moderator Brian Stelter, CNN correspondent and host of “Reliable Sources,” invited the pair to frame the key issues facing the industry and their personal perspectives. “Is there too much television, simply too much inventory for the amount of hours that people can watch?” he asked.
If the question relates to the broadcast network primetime reality genre, it is indeed a crowded space, Abrego agreed. “But for us as content creators, there is nowhere near too many great shows out there for people to watch,” he said.
As for digital initiatives from the firm, Corwin said the U.S. subsidiary wants to be on “every platform.” That means aggressive growth from Endemol Beyond, the firm’s new multichannel premium web of international and local channels across platforms such as YouTube and Yahoo. They said Endemol Beyond hopes to join the ranks of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu while also working more closely with them.
Corwin referred to Endemol Beyond as the firm’s “fledgling over-the-top play.” He said it marks an important new venture for Endemol, enabling it to go directly to its auds. But doing so will not lessen its commitment to work with every other over-the-top provider as well as every other broadcast network and cable around the world, he said.
Two other key growth areas for the new firm are live events and scripted programs. Its successful entry in the former was the recent New Year’s Eve special hosted by rapper Pitbull on Fox. The show was “very exciting for us,” said Corwin. “We want to take talent like that across all platforms.”
The duo said that greater emphasis on scripted product is a natural for the firm, especially with the depth of IP from its global parent company.
“We’re going to take every advantage of that to bring amazing shows from around the world to American audiences,” said Corwin. Examples include Shine’s crime drama for FX, “The Bridge,” and Fox’s “Gracepoint,” a rendition of U.K. series “Broadchurch.”
Neither of those Yank adaptations were commercially successful, but that hasn’t deterred Endemol Shine from pursuing other formats. With the heat that “Black Mirror” generated simply from word of mouth on Netflix, a U.S. version was all but inevitable. “Mirror” creator Brooker has previously said he would be the showrunner on any U.S. series rendition. (Robert Downey Jr.’s Team Downey banner optioned the feature film rights to the “Black Mirror” episode “The Entire History of You” in 2013.)
“Black Mirror” is among nearly two dozen new series prospects in the works at the enlarged company. The North American unit also has its own wholly original scripted shows, including DirecTV’s “Kingdom” and AMC’s “Hell on Wheels.”
Corwin conceded that the company’s own plans might be viewed as a threat to existing broadcasters, both network and cable. “But we are all getting into each other’s business,” he said, citing efforts of others to build inhouse studios, a potential threat to indie studios. “We’ve got to be good partners,” he said. |
ATLANTA (AP) – Nearly half of America's public schools didn't meet federal achievement standards this year, marking the largest failure rate since the much-criticized No Child Left Behind Law took effect a decade ago, according to a national report released Thursday.
The Center on Education Policy report shows more than 43,000 schools — or 48% — did not make "adequate yearly progress" this year. The failure rates range from a low of 11% in Wisconsin to a high of 89% in Florida.
The findings are far below the 82% failure rate that Education Secretary Arne Duncan predicted earlier this year but still indicate an alarming trend that Duncan hopes to address by granting states relief from the federal law. The law requires states to have every student performing at grade level in math and reading by 2014, which most educators agree is an impossible goal.
"Whether it's 50%, 80% or 100% of schools being incorrectly labeled as failing, one thing is clear: No Child Left Behind is broken," Duncan said in a statement Wednesday. "That's why we're moving forward with giving states flexibility from the law in exchange for reforms that protect children and drive student success."
State's scores varied wildly. For example, in Georgia, 27% of schools did not meet targets, compared to 81% in Massachusetts and 16% in Kansas.
That's because some states have harder tests or have high numbers of immigrant and low-income children, center officials said. It's also because the law requires states to raise the bar each year for how many children must pass the test, and some states put off the largest increase until this year to avoid sanctions.
The numbers indicate what federal officials have been saying for more than a year — that the law, which is four years overdue for a rewrite, is "too crude a measure" to accurately depict what's happening in schools, said Jack Jennings, president of the Washington, D.C.-based center. An overhaul of the law has become mired in the partisan atmosphere in Congress, with lawmakers disagreeing over how to fix it.
"No Child Left Behind is defective," Jennings told The Associated Press. "It needs to be changed. If Congress can't do it, then the administration is right to move ahead with waivers."
Waivers fix the immediate problem but likely will make it much more difficult for parents to understand how schools are rated because progress will no longer be based on just one test score.
Under the 11 waivers already filed, states are asking to use a variety of factors to determine whether they pass muster and to choose how schools will be punished if they don't improve.
Those factors range from including college-entrance exam scores to adding the performance of students on Advanced Placement tests.
At least 39 states, plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, have said they will file waivers, though it is unclear how many will get approved.
Republicans in Congress say Duncan and President Barack Obama are using the waivers to push a "backdoor education agenda" that will ultimately let schools off the hook.
"The law needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed in Congress and not by executive action," House education committee Chairman John Kline, a Republican from Minnesota, said in September after Obama announced the waivers.
Under No Child Left Behind, states that have tough standards are punished and schools that make progress but don't hit benchmarks get treated the same as schools that see performance dip, Jennings said.
"A lot of educators saw the weaknesses in No Child Left Behind even when it was rolled out — that this day and time would come," said Georgia schools Superintendent John Barge. "It's kind of a train wreck that we all see happening." |
The history of the 20th century graffiti art is a long and well-documented story, but with the recent popularity of all things urban and street art related that have benefited a great number of contemporary urban artists who now combine street art with studio-based works, it is always good to remind ourselves of the originators of the street art and graffiti scene. The 21st century has seen these two movements become recognized art forms bound to break away from being branded as forms of vandalism. While some of the original graffiti artists from the 1970’s managed to cross over into the art gallery world, only recently has it been seen as the norm for artists to work both outdoors and in the studio. This has been aided somewhat also by the rise in galleries that now specialize in exhibiting urban contemporary artworks. But first, let’s go back a little further and find out just who is responsible for those spray cans that are equally loved and hated.
Origins of the Spray Can
You may be surprised to learn that the original concept of the aerosol dates back to France in 1790, when carbonated drinks were served, while in 1837, a gentleman named Perpigna invented the soda siphon with the use of a valve. Spray cans made of metal were first used in 1862, but were too heavy for commercial use at the time while in 1899 inventors Helbling and Pertsch patented pressurized aerosols. Into the 20th century and Norwegian Erik Rotheim patented his aerosol with valve, which was the forerunner of the modern version, the Norwegian post office even produced a stamp to celebrate the invention in 1998.
On to World War II and the United States government invested in research to find a way for their troops to carry a spray against bugs with malaria, this resulted in a small aerosol invented by Lyle Goodhue and William Sullivan. Their work led Robert Abplanalp to design a valve crimp, that let liquids be sprayed from a can under pressure. His lightweight aluminum cans became widely available to the public in 1947 through his Precision Valve Corporation. Then we come to 1949 and one Edward Seymour, the father of spray paint. On the suggestion of his wife Bonnie, Seymour came up with the aerosol can full of paint, the first color being aluminum. The company, Seymour of Sycamore was founded to manufacture the spray paints and is still going strong today in Chicago.
The Original Graffiti Art Writers
While graffiti has existed in many forms, from when man lived in caves through to ancient civilizations, the modern form of street art and graffiti writing was undoubtedly born during themed to late 1960’s. Darryl McCray, better known as Cornbread, is the man who is often credited with being the first graffiti writer, tagging his name all over North Philadelphia. The story goes that he started graffiti writing because of a girl he had a crush on, Cynthia Custuss, which led to him writing ‘Cornbread Loves Cynthia’ all over the area, then continuing with his own tag. Cool Earl was best friend to Cornbread and also became known for his tagging exploits, the pair gaining media attention. Another Philadelphia tagger, Top Cat 126, moved to New York in 1967 and helped to spark the graffiti trend there. Watch Cornbread and Taki 183 in action in this MOCA 2011 video.
Take a look at the development of the culture in Bomb It – The Global Graffiti Documentary video
Graffiti – New York & The 1970’s
The end of the 1960’s saw the emergence of the graffiti scene in New York, when a number of graffiti writers started tagging their names, usually an alias combined with a street number, such as JULIO 204, CAY161 and the infamous TAKI183. He gained notoriety when The New York Times ran an article on him in 1971, resulting in tagging becoming a game of who could get noticed the most. 1971 was also the time when the subway trains started to be tagged, creating some of the most iconic artwork to have come out of the early graffiti and street art scene. The graffiti being created also started to evolve and become more unique, with artists such as LEE 163 starting to join the letters together. The early 1970’s also saw the emergence of two legends of the graffiti scene in Phase 2, who developed his distinctive bubble writing and Blade, who became known for covering entire train carriages with graffiti work. 1972 also saw the creation of United Graffiti Artists, a collective formed by Hugo Martinez, who recognized the potential of this new exciting art form and started to display graffiti work in galleries. The remainder of the 1970’s saw graffiti spread across the USA and saw the graffiti writers develop more complex forms of artwork. The end of the 70’s was marked by a defining moment, Fab 5 Freddy and Lee Quiñones, both from Brooklyn graffiti group The Fabulous 5, being given a prestigious exhibition in Rome, Italy. Check out 10 New York Graffiti Legends Still Kicking (Ass). |
John Springer Collection / Corbis
Need a lesson in parenting? If you live in California, you may have to take one from the government whether you like it or not. Next week, Assemblywoman Sally Lieber will introduce a bill banning the practice of spanking children younger than four. If passed, the state will become the first to make the corporal punishment of infants and toddlers a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine along with more than a dozen countries, mostly in Europe, that have laws against the practice. "Young children can't run or speak for themselves. They are sitting ducks for abuse," Lieber said. "And it is just not true that the current law protects children well."
She's not the first American to argue that legislation is the answer. The town of Brookline, Mass., successfully passed a resolution against spanking in 2005, although similar statewide efforts have failed. Last year in Massachusetts and 15 years ago in Wisconsin proposed anti-spanking bills did not get much support in the legislature; critics feared that it would be impossible to enforce a ban against such a common practice. According to the American Demographics' 2004 data, nearly half of parent-age Americans think it is an appropriate mode of discipline for children 12 and younger. Even more surprising, only 27 states have actually banned corporal punishment from their public school systems.
For critics of the ban, the current law which states that parents, guardians and relatives can use any form of physical discipline that is necessary as long as it is not unjustifiable is enough. But for Lieber, who hears criticism daily from prosecutors, judges and pediatricians that children are being beaten and their parents are getting off on a technicality, the law doesn't even come close to being enough.
"By law you would have a hard time differentiating between a responsible parent who thinks about parenting and then hits and one that does not," Lieber said. "Responsible parents have to give up the privilege to physically discipline their children for the sake of protecting children that aren't being hit once in a blue moon or in a light way, but are really being hit day after day, many times a day."
But new California bill may have a better chance of success. Unlike previous attempts, the age restrictions will make the bill more palatable to many. "We are talking about babies," said Nadine Block, executive director of the Center for Effective Discipline. "People know that babies don't understand right and wrong. Hitting them is ineffective and can lead to injury." Another plus is that Gov. Schwarzenegger has already noted that he is receptive to the bill. Although the Governor recalled being hit by his father, he said that he and his wife, Maria Shriver, did not practice spanking and preferred other methods of discipline, like threatening to take away playtime. "I think any time we try to pass laws that say you've got to protect the kids, it's, in general, always good," Schwarzenegger said in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News. "I just want to find out from her exactly the way she envisions it and to enforce it and what the whole thing is about."
While the assemblywoman has outlined a proposed punishment, she has yet to address how the bill would be enforced. In Europe, most countries consider the ban on spanking an educational law, which means that on the first couple of offenses parents receive a fine and attend mandatory parenting classes on discipline. "I don't know how the European laws would really translate in the U.S.," Block said. "But I do think an educational law is a good way to go." Like child abuse, unless the child reports it or the spanking leaves a mark and is reported by a relative or teacher, it will be very difficult to detect when parents are violating the law.
"A hundred years ago it was considered a novel idea for the law to say you couldn't hit your wife," said Block. "Today, we can't hit slaves, wives or military personnel. Children are the only class that is unprotected." |
Last night during his post-draft press conference with the Miami Dolphins, former Ole Miss offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil openly admitted that he had received money from an assistant coach during his time with the Rebels.
In response, Ole Miss released a statement around midnight:
“The university is aware of the reports from the NFL draft regarding Laremy Tunsil and potential NCAA violations during his time at Ole Miss. Like we do whenever an allegation is brought to our attention or a potential violation is self-discovered, we will aggressively investigate and fully cooperate with the NCAA and the SEC.”
Tunsil's Draft Presser via WBBM. "Was their an exchange between you and your coach for $$?" "I'd have to say, yeah." pic.twitter.com/TqYeOSjOfO — Robby Donoho (@RobbyDonoho) April 29, 2016
Additionally, Tunsil’s social media accounts created all kinds of controversy during last night’s draft. First, his Twitter account was hacked to reveal a video of him smoking a bong while wearing a gas mask. Then his Instagram account was hacked to reveal text message conversations between Tunsil and the Ole Miss coaching staff involving an exchange of money.
The former of the two was key in Tunsil’s drop to No. 13 overall after serving as the top prospect on most boards for weeks heading into the NFL draft.
Stay tuned. This could potentially do some damage to the Ole Miss football program. |
I've been meaning to take a little time to assemble a bunch of the voluminous evidence out there that shows the 2A has little to nothing to do with militias.
This might just inspire me to get it done. Anyone who has done a little homework on this, knows that the case that the 2A right has always been meant for militias alone, until Heller, rests on ice thinner than tracing paper.
If you put aside the de facto individual right that nearly all Americans have had EVER since before we even declared independence, there are mountains of evidence showing recognition of the individual right running from before 1776, through to today and in every era in between. It is astounding to me that none of them questions that. Yes, yes the 2A right has always been collective and meant for militias, not individuals. That's why the entire country and it's government have behaved as if the exact opposite was the case since day one. Maybe we just forgot we're all supposed to be in militias if we want to keep and bear arms. We just needed the hoplophobes to remind us. Yes, that must be it. The entire country had had amnesia for the last 240 years or so.
This militia nonsense is nothing more than the gun controllers grasping at straws. They are tugging on every thread they can find right now to see which one will make the 2A right magically unravel before their eyes. It's really pretty sickening. If America saw a concerted, organized, wide scale effort like this to undermine ANY other right, there would be widespread outrage running across socioeconomic and cultural lines in every direction. Because it is the 2A right, which is politically incorrect in certain circles these days, they get away with it. It's time we started vigorously setting the record straight on this I think. Not that the "militia argument" is going to convince anyone who doesn't already despise guns and gun owners, but it's the principle of the thing. I have a special kind of hate for revisionist history. It needs to be dealt with. |
Credit: DC Comics
Credit: DC Comics / Vertigo
Vertigo's new horror series The Dark & Bloody has taken some strange turns in the last couple issues, combining horrors of war with a creepy rural American horror story.
Featuring art by Scott Godlewski, the story by writer Shawn Aldridge has shown how Iris Gentry, a veteran who returned from Iraq to his hometown in Kentucky, has stood by while terrible things have happened around him.
But some of those horrors followed him home, and now there's a monster in town who's looking for revenge for the deeds committed by Iris' regiment in Iraq.
In The Dark & Bloody #4 this week, the monster made it into Iris' home, as his wife Sarah was attacked and his son Shiloh has disappeared.
Newsarama talked to Aldridge and Godlewski to talk about how Iris' previous indecision and inaction have brought him to this point, and what comes next as he finally makes a decision that changes the story for himself and his family.
Newsarama: Shawn, the last couple issues have really revealed a lot, and the events in this week's issue bring the stakes into Iris' family. Do you feel like this is a turning point for the series?
Credit: DC Comics / Vertigo
Shawn Aldridge: Yeah. Issue #3 was a turning point, but this issue brings it full force into the family. The entire family is impacted now. Before it had been the peripheral, and Iris dealing with what he thought was a monster, or what he thought might have just been him going crazy.
But now, the stakes are higher, with Sarah getting attacked and Shiloh getting taken.
Nrama: The addition of Elijah Cooper, the wise, older, knowledgeable guy — how did you come up with his character?
Aldridge: I wanted someone who could verify what Iris is going through, who could tell Iris, look, you're not crazy.
And I wanted him to be someone different, as opposed to a guy who just knows everything.
It's also reflective of every small town I've ever lived in growing up — they all had that one sort of weird guy that everybody thought was maybe crazy, who everybody knows. In my hometown, it was a guy named Birddog. Or he was nicknamed Birddog, I guess — that wasn't his real name. And everybody knew him. He was the guy that wandered around Main Street. You were bound to run into him.
And also, we once lived in this double-wide trailer, me and my family, which I always imagined was haunted (because I was like 10, right?) and the landlord was just the scariest looking dude I'd ever seen. He was an older gentleman, in his like 60's, who had one blind eye, and then his other one was kind of a crazy eye anyway, so it would just move around freely. And that solidified in my 10-year-old mind that this place wasn't right.
So Elijah is kind of based on an amalgamation on the weird people I knew growing up in small towns in Kentucky.
Credit: DC Comics
Newsarama: Scott, let's talk about the visual approach to the comic. How did you guys come up with the look for some of these things? I mean, this issue, we got to see the monster that's really inside the little girl Ayah. Can you talk about the art on this series?
Scott Godlewski: I've had a lot of help from Shawn. He actually provided a lot of reference material. So I had a really easy job coming up with the look of everybody.
But I think the creature in particular is a design that I'm very proud of. That might be my favorite thing that I've ever put on paper. I think we did a couple passes on her face until we got to the beak thing. But yeah, I'm really happy with it. That's one for my portfolio.
Nrama: The story has a rural feel to it, yet because it's associated with the war, it feels much larger than just a "creepy small town" story. Was it a challenge visually to draw a story that exists in both those worlds?
Godlewski: Yeah, going from the rural, woodsy setting to Iraq was kind of a pain. I mean, if I never have to draw another Marine in my life I think I'll be happy with that.
Nrama: Shawn, can you tell us what's coming up in the story?
Credit: DC Comics
Aldridge: The last two issues get really dark. For the slow burn that the first two issues may have been in people's opinion, the last two are the exact opposite. Iris finally builds up the courage, he finally realizes what has to be done. And it's hard to say what it is without giving a big spoiler away.
But he makes the decision he has to make in order to protect his family. And it's probably the first time that he makes a decision that isn't just sort of "sit back." Because, you know, the theme of the one with the puppies, even though he didn't want to do it, it was sort of like, well, this is the way of life. And then when we get to issue #3, which is the war scene and we realize why this thing is after him, again, inaction is what's brought this about.
So these major moments in his life have always been scarred by his indecision or lack of, I don't want to say courage, because I don't think he's a coward. I just think he's a person who's never gotten to the point of, "I have to do something." It's like, "I want to do it, but I don't want to mess up my own life too." It's almost a selfishness.
So issue #5 is the issue where he stops being inactive, in a way that's really pretty brutal.
Nrama: So a lot of action.
Aldridge: Yeah, it's non-stop after that. We get the rest of the scene that ended issue #4. And all the pieces get set for the final confrontation that involves everyone.
I can tell you that Eric gets his just due, and I think people will like what happens next. We get a call back to issue #1 and the puppies in a really whacked out way, characters get nice moments, and I think the final issue helps spin the book into a way that horror stories might not normally play out. As we've learned in previous issues, the monster — there's some sympathy there, with Ayah being a product of war, like Iris is too.
And the artwork just keeps getting more and more beautiful. The entire series has looked fantastic. I think Scott — and this takes nothing away from his first issues at all, because I think they were awesome — but I think with issue #4, and seeing the pages from #5, it reaches a climax as far as the beauty of the art. It kind of makes me wish I'd written it 12 issues. It's all great, but it's really beautiful now. |
Houston City Councilman Dave Martin had some harsh words for the American Red Cross at a council meeting Wednesday and urged Houstonians to give their money and supplies to other organizations.
Repeatedly calling the Red Cross the "Red Loss," Martin said it has been local government that has done all of the heavy lifting at the shelters and that has provided most of the resources — "yet every time I turn on the TV, I see [the Red Cross] taking in millions of dollars in donations," Martin said. He said the Red Cross was the "most inept, unorganized organization I've ever experienced."
"Don't waste your time, don't waste your money [donating to the Red Cross]," he said. "Give it to another cause."
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The Texas Gulf Coast Red Cross chapter did not immediately return a request for comment about the resources it has specifically devoted to Houston-area shelters.
Other council members clarified later that the city strongly supported the thousands of individual Red Cross volunteers across the region working at the shelters and elsewhere.
In recent years, the criticism lobbed at the Red Cross has mostly been reserved instead for the upper administration and how it has used millions in donations to actually help victims of natural disasters.
The criticism mounted most pointedly in 2015, after NPR and ProPublica released a series of damning reports targeting how the Red Cross responded to the hurricane that devastated Haiti in 2010. In their joint investigation, "In Search of the Red Cross' $500 Million in Haiti Relief," the news outlets found that despite claiming it had provided homes to more than 130,000 people, the Red Cross had built just six homes. (The Red Cross told the outlets that it had completed more than 100 projects in Haiti and repaired 4,000 homes, but refused to provide a list of the projects and the costs.)
NPR and ProPublica found that much of the $488 million in donations was handed off to third-party organizations, which then did the actual boots-on-the-ground work — but not before the Red Cross reserved some of the money for its own administrative fees. A subsequent report commissioned by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) found that one quarter of the $488 million went to the nonprofit's internal expenses.
Just a week ago, NPR pressed American Red Cross executive Brad Kieserman about what percentage of the money people donate for Hurricane Harvey relief will actually end up helping the flood victims — but he did not know.
Elsewhere along the Texas Gulf Coast, some have criticized the Red Cross's approach to operating relief centers where hundreds of people need food, water and a place to sleep. Over near Beaumont, a woman's post on Facebook went viral after she complained about how the Red Cross tried to put 400 warm hamburgers into an ice chest after a pilot had just flown them all the way from Austin to Beaumont's regional airport. Jolei Shipley, an attorney and Harvey volunteer who witnessed the dispute, told the Houston Press the pilot — with the disaster relief nonprofit Sky Hope Network — had learned while delivering relief supplies that the hundreds of evacuees hadn't had a warm meal in more than 24 hours, subsisting on PB&J sandwiches and snacks like pretzels. The Red Cross, however, wouldn't allow the burgers to be distributed because the people had just eaten sandwiches a few hours earlier, Shipley said.
The airport was never intended to be a shelter, Shipley said, but turned into one after planes that were supposed to take people to Dallas shelters were massively delayed because of the storm. People were kept on air-conditioned buses in the meantime, and Shipley said dozens of local volunteers organized by "cheer moms" from Nederland High School showed up to help. Shipley, a former Red Cross volunteer herself, said several volunteers from the Red Cross came about a day later and tried to "take over."
"If you make 800 PB&J sandwiches, they start to get kind of gross," Shipley said. "That’s like cattle feed. These people aren't cattle; they’re people. Maybe what she was trying to do was conserve; maybe she had a rulebook that said people can only eat once every four hours. But it was just very curt, very absolute, and people got upset."
If you want to donate money to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey but plan on listening to Councilman Martin, see our post on all the ways you can pitch in. |
Tired of a winter that froze your fingers when you turned a page to read? We are too. As we look forward to spring, we've put together 20 of the titles that we're most looking forward to reading.
This season brings a little bit of something new mixed with old favorites --- retrospectives of the work of Jules Feiffer, Bill Watterson and a slew of Drawn and Quarterly creators sit on our shelf next to Wonder Woman's first digital excursion and the collected short graphic fiction of rising star illustrator Nate Powell. You'll find bugs that talk, cats that talk and...well, honestly, there are a lot of animals that talk on this list. But that's not all. Philosophy and computer history mix with adaptations of Greek myth and weird fiction and cosmic horror. Take a look, and enjoy some of the best of what this season has to offer.
Curated by John Maher |
Supporters are getting the message that Sen. Elizabeth Warren really isn't going to run for president.
Two weeks after Run Warren Run announced it was throwing in the towel, a second group that sought to draft the Massachusetts Democrat sees a better future in Vermont.
The Hill reported Thursday the Ready for Warren group was rebranding itself as Ready to Fight. Friday morning, the website ReadytoFight.org appeared with photos of Warren and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders side by side, offering an endorsement of the Vermont independent.
Unlike Run Warren Run's website, which has gone into retirement mode, the original Ready For Warren website still is online, inviting potential voters to sign a letter urging Warren to run for president. A post on the Ready for Warren Facebook page refers to Ready to Fight as a "sister organization."
When reached for comment, Ready for Warren organizers referred me to an opinion article published on CNN.com, and provided a copy of an e-mail sent to campaign supporters. In the e-mail, the organizers make it clear that Ready to Fight is a concurrent effort, not a replacement.
Ready for Warren will continue to be a place for everyone who wants to organize to make the case to Warren, and the country, that she should run.
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For her part, Warren continues to say she is not running for president, but nothing has changed there. |
DC Comics states that Buzzfeed exclusively announced Villain’s Month earlier this week. Funny, I’m sure we did that, back in November. Anyway, they did report this exchange;
Will Villain Month have any major repercussions? Is there a chance that some of the heroes won’t make it through September?
DD: They might make it through September, but I can’t guarantee they’ll make it through the entire series. That includes what might be one of the most talked about events for DC Comics this year. One of our major recognizable characters will be affected in a very dramatic way.
JL: If you’re going to do an event that impacts the entire universe, there have to be consequences or repercussions, and this one is going to be meaningful. It all comes out of the great story starting in September. |
BELFAST – A British exit from the European Union (EU) would not wreck Northern Ireland’s economy, the minister widely expected to be named the province’s next leader said on Monday, urging London to be bolder in its renegotiation with Brussels.
Britain’s plans for a referendum on whether to stay a member of the EU has raised alarm in the Irish Republic over the political and economic implications and among Catholic Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland long opposed to British rule there.
According to an Open University report, a British exit from the EU would deprive Northern Ireland, one of Britain’s poorest regions, of 8.4 percent of economic output that relies on direct EU funding. An Irish think tank said British-Irish trade would decline by 20 percent, with towns on either side of the border with Northern Ireland hit hardest.
However, Finance Minister Arlene Foster of the euro-sceptic Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), favoured to replace outgoing First Minister Peter Robinson, dismissed fears that Northern Ireland’s economy would be hit hardest by a so-called “Brexit”.
“The idea that if we leave Europe that we wreck the economy is scaremongering. I think we would want to make sure we had free trade agreements with a lot of other countries, but we can stand on our own feet,” Foster told Reuters in an interview.
“Do I believe it (the EU) needs reform? Absolutely. It is no secret that we are a eurosceptic (party) – I think we would like him (British Prime Minister David Cameron) to be a little more ambitious (in negotiations).”
Northern Ireland’s largest nationalist party Sinn Fein – which shares power with the DUP – opposes a Brexit and warns of the possible impact on a 1998 peace agreement that ended decades of bloodshed between pro-Irish Catholic nationalists seeking union with Ireland and pro-British Protestants.
Foster said her party would wait to see what Cameron’s EU renegotiation delivers before coming to a position.
Foster, 45, who has twice stood in as first minister over the past five years, said the party was “not at that stage” when asked if she would like to succeed Robinson after he announced on Friday that he would shortly stand down.
She said the DUP would first decide on a new leader – which Robinson indicated will be split off from the post of First Minister – and that the new leader would then pick who would be the new first minister.
DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds, an MP in the British parliament, is the bookmakers favourite to become party chief.
While the DUP and Sinn Fein struck a deal last week to stop the power-sharing administration from collapsing, Robinson’s successor will have to avoid a repetition of the near-constant political paralysis that critics say is damaging the economy.
Foster, who survived an Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb attack on a school bus at the age of 17, said relations with Sinn Fein, the IRA’s former political wing, were “workmanlike, and womanlike”.
As part of last week’s agreement, Foster will oversee a cut by 2018 of Northern Ireland’s corporation tax rate to match the 12.5 percent applied in the Irish Republic, enabling it to better compete for foreign direct investment.
She said the deal will give investors certainty and allow Northern Ireland to sell itself as a destination for business, particularly in the United States, Asia and the Middle East.
“Do I think we will overtake the Republic of Ireland? I think that will take some time.”
(By Ian Graham; Editing by Padraic Halpin and Mark Heinrich) |
The Singapore economy's direct exposure to Greece is "negligible", and its domestic money and foreign exchange markets continue to function in an orderly fashion, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Monday evening.
The Singapore economy's direct exposure to Greece is "negligible", and its domestic money and foreign exchange markets continue to function in an orderly fashion, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Monday evening.
Greece accounts for just under 0.2 per cent of Singapore's total trade, and 0.1 per cent of Singapore's total banking system assets, the MAS said in response to media queries.
But there is "some uncertainty" over the broader impact of the ongoing developments in Greece.
"MAS is closely monitoring developments in the eurozone economy and global financial markets, and their potential impact on domestic markets and the economy," Singapore's central bank said.
Read more on the Greek crisis here. |
A town in southwestern Ontario is grieving the death of a famous rodent resident.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our iconic prognosticating groundhog Wiarton Willie,” South Bruce Peninsula Mayor Janice Jackson said on Wednesday. “Willie was 13 years young and served our Town, Province and Country with immense pride each and every Groundhog Day.”
While groundhogs tend to only live to the age of four in the wild, and albinos like Willie generally live even shorter lives, Wiarton Willie owed his longevity to his “daily care regiment” and “living in a safe and protected environment,” Jackson said.
Willie is believed to have died from natural causes.
The amalgamated town of South Bruce Peninsula, which encompasses Wiarton, Ont., will be mourning their marmot mascot with a funeral procession on the morning of Sept. 30, which will pass a statue bearing Willie’s likeness.
“We invite our community and communities beyond to join us in appreciation and respect for the albino groundhog who put Wiarton on the map!” Jackson, who will be officiating the ceremony, said.
Wiarton Willie’s death closely follows that of Mac McKenzie, the human who founded the Wiarton Willie Festival in 1956. McKenzie died on Aug. 10 at the age of 90.
Willie’s death, and his longstanding connection to McKenzie, was also commemorated with a poem:
“You lived a long and healthy life,” a verse reads, “And though today we cry / We know you are with Mac again / A celebration in the sky.”
Wiarton, thankfully, will not be Willie-less this coming Groundhog Day, with the animal’s two-year-old understudy Wee Willie scheduled to take his predecessor’s place at Prediction Morning on Feb. 2, 2018.
Folklore dictates that if a groundhog sees its shadow on Groundhog Day, the region will experience six more weeks of winter. Not seeing a shadow is supposed to herald an early spring.
This year, Willie predicted the latter, but frigid temperatures and falling snow saw winter’s icy grip extend well into March in southwestern Ontario.
“We had a tumultuous relationship -- he was vocal when I missed his big day,” Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne admitted in a tweet on Wednesday. “He sometimes delivered good news. Rest in peace Wiarton Willie.” |
Ben Rhodes, the president’s Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, recently told the New York Times Magazine that newspapers no longer have foreign bureaus, so “they call us to explain to them what’s happening in Moscow and Cairo.” The average reporter Rhodes encounters is 27 years old and “their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.”
One of the things they know nothing about is the major movement of modern times, Marxism-Leninism, also known as Communism, which first appeared nearly 100 years ago in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. From the start, the movement attracted attention around the world.
“I have seen the future and it works,” wrote American Lincoln Steffens, and that set the trend for “progressives,” as Communists and fellow travellers styled themselves. With the USSR firmly identified with the future, and the United States and other democratic capitalist nations cast as representatives of the past, defense of the Soviet regime became job one. When Stalin took the helm, the progressives hit stride.
“I put my money on Stalin,” was a favorite phrase of New York Times Moscow correspondent Walter Duranty. When Stalin starved to death several million Ukrainians, a technique he pioneered, Duranty wrote that there was no famine at all, and in fact abundance prevailed. He won a Pulitzer Prize and his articles played a role in U.S. recognition of the USSR. Duranty knew full well what was going on, but as a progressive guardian of the regime, he did his job.
So did Anna Louise Strong, the progressive American journalist who edited the Moscow News and wrote for the Atlantic Monthly, Harpers and The Nation. “One must not make a god of Stalin,” the feminist Strong wrote in her 1935 book, I Change Worlds. “He was too important for that.” That is hard to top but many other progressives had a go, as Paul Hollander chronicled in Political Pilgrims. Together they formed an alibi armory for the Soviet regime during the nadir of its brutality.
After the Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939, Stalin’s vast repressions of the late 1940s, and Khrushchev’s revelations in 1956, many progressives left the Communist Party, never to return. The Soviet Union lost its status as the representative of the future, and progressives turned their attention to the various Third World Communist regimes. When their murderous reality became evident, the progressives no longer hailed such regimes as models for the west and the wave of the future. On the other hand, the progressives’ antipathy for the West in general, and United States in particular, retained its full force.
Enter militant, supremacist Islam, as retrograde a force as ever existed: theocracy, oppressive Sharia law, and no semblance of human rights for anyone, particularly women. This is hardly the vision of social justice and diversity that progressives claim to espouse. Feminists, one would think, would be on the front lines against arrangements, but for the most part they are missing in action. Islamic regimes were allegedly victims of Western colonialism, and that outweighs any impulse to speak out.
Supremacist Islam justifies terror, mass murder, and slavery. It pursues a global vision of an Islamic world, and in this vision, as with the expansionist Soviet Union, the United States is glavy vrag, the main enemy. Progressives, bound by their ongoing grievances, respond with classic cognitive dissonance.
The threat is from some disembodied “extremism,” detached from its source. Those who perpetrate terrorism have complaints rooted in colonialism, or as the State Department contends, they can’t find a job that pays enough. On this theme, the worst offender is President Obama, a lifelong radical progressive.
When Islamic terrorists kill innocents, he invokes the crusades, in which the United States was not involved, and tells Americans to get off their high horse. Recall self-described “soldier of Allah,” Nidal Hasan, consulting with Anwar al-Awlaki about killing Americans. At Ford Hood in November 2009, Hasan murders 13 unarmed American soldiers while yelling “Allahu akbar!”
The President of the United States wondered what could have motivated Hasan to act, and called the mass murder “workplace violence.” It did not even qualify as “gun violence,” one of the president’s favorite themes. And of course, he refuses to use the word “Islamic” in regard to terrorism. This may be because, as The Audacity of Hope explains, he went to a “predominantly Muslim school” in Indonesia. On the other hand, one sees the same dynamic as the progressives who stood guard for Stalin. For progressives, the fault lies with the West in general and United States in particular.
For all their hatred of the West, and the notion that Communism was replacing capitalism, the Soviets never infiltrated agents to kill innocent civilians at random as on 9/11, in San Bernardino, Orlando, Paris and Nice. In radical Islam, in contrast, those who commit such deadly acts of terror gain the approval of Allah. As C.S. Lewis wrote, nobody will torment us more than those who do so with the approval of their own conscience. That warrants extreme caution that seems missing from progressives, and from the media.
The know-nothing reporters helped Ben Rhodes create an “echo chamber” that “validated what we had given them to say” on the Iran deal. In his speech to the DNC, the president claimed that, through diplomacy, “we shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program.” On the other hand, many believe the progressive president’s deal with Iran virtually guarantees that the Islamic regime will acquire nuclear weapons.
In the West’s long standoff with the Soviet Union, no nuclear attack occurred, and there was no case of nuclear terrorism. With nuclear weapons in the possession of a radical Islamic regime, a major sponsor of terror whose mantra is “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” the result could be radically different. As inspector Claude Lebel told Madame De Montpelier in The Day of the Jackal, “be in no doubt as to the seriousness of your position.”
Meanwhile, progressives of a certain age might recall the famous poster from the 1960s about what to do in case of nuclear attack:
1) Stay clear of all windows.
2) Keep hands free of glasses, bottles, cigarettes etc.
3) Stand away from bar, tables, orchestra, equipment and furniture.
4) Loosen necktie, unbutton coat and any other restrictive clothing.
5) Remove glasses, empty pockets of all sharp objects such as pens, pencils etc.
6) Immediately upon seeing the brilliant flash of nuclear explosion, bend over and place your head firmly between your legs.
7) Then kiss your ass goodbye. |
Follow the adventures of the greatest horror writers
'The Spinechillers' is a weekly comic strip relating to the little known story about the time when the world's greatest writers shared a small boarding house to create some of the most loved horror stories of all time.
Small press comic genius Ben Clark is the creative talent behind the strip and will be delivering a freshly drawn adventure each Friday.
Marvel at HP Lovecraft's inspiration for Cthulu, gasp as Ambrose Bierce struggles under the weight of his own creative output, and marvel as Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mud wrestle to determine once and for all who is the better horror writer.
"My idea for the comic strip is to take the writers from The Spine Chillers series, and have them all live together in a grotty, 1950s style boarding house, with an indifferent battleaxe of a Landlady called Mrs Parkinson. I thought the boarding house backdrop provided the most scope for stories, conflict and most importantly, jokes. One thing I have to stress is that it is not my intention to belittle or insult these wonderful writers, many of whom are among my greatest heroes. I'll be taking the Mickey, but in an affectionate way. What I always attempt in my comics is to be silly, and to make people laugh. The characters I am working on are of course not how these men were in real life, but a daft alternate version, which hopefully people will find amusing!"
Ben Clark |
Neanderthal ancestry in contemporary human populations
We searched for regional similarities to the Neanderthal genome in the genomes of 11 contemporary human populations, which have the best genome coverage in the 1,000 genomes project: three populations of African ancestry—HapMap African ancestry individuals from South West of the United States (ASW), Luhya individuals (LWK) and Yoruba individuals (YRI); three populations of East Asian ancestry—Han Chinese in Beijing (CHB), Han Chinese from South China (CHS) and Japanese (JPT); and five populations of European ancestry—CEPH individuals (CEU), HapMap Finnish individuals from Finland (FIN), British individuals from England and Scotland (GBR), Iberian populations in Spain (IBS) and Toscan individuals (TSI)13. For each pair of the human populations, the human genome sequences were compared with the Neanderthal and the chimpanzee genome sequences. We used the high-coverage Neanderthal genome sequence, obtained from the bone of one individual excavated in 2008 in the east gallery of Denisova Cave in the Altai mountains (Altai)14,15, combined with the low-coverage Neanderthal genome sequence, obtained from three individuals (Vindjia)10, to reconstruct a consensus Neanderthal genome sequence by excluding all sites with sequence variation among individuals. We further used the reference chimpanzee genome in combination with genome sequence data from 10 chimpanzees16 to exclude sites variable among chimpanzees. Only single nucleotide sites displaying sequence differences between the chimpanzee16,17 and the two reference Neanderthal genomes10,15 were used in the analysis (n=1,158,559).
Similar to Green et al.10, we used the D statistic to detect potential Neanderthal gene flow. For each pair of human populations, we defined two configurations for genomic sites: sites where the sequence of an individual from one human population (population A) matched the Neanderthal rather than chimpanzee genotype were assigned to the ABBA configuration; and sites where the sequence of the other human population (population B) matched the Neanderthal rather than chimpanzee genotype were assigned to the BABA configuration (Fig. 1a). For each population, the D statistic, which we will refer to as the fraction of Neanderthal-like sites (NLS), was calculated as the ratio of (#ABBA−#BABA) to (#ABBA+#BABA), where # stands for the number of genomic sites in the specific genotype configuration (ABBA or BABA; see Methods). While D-statistic values reflect relative similarity between the Neanderthal and the modern human genomes tested, they do not provide a quantitative estimate of Neanderthal ancestry, that is, a 5% D-statistic value reflects a higher similarity between population A and Neanderthal compared with that for population B, but does not signify a 5% level of Neanderthal ancestry in the population A genome.
Figure 1: Proportions of NLS in contemporary human populations. (a) Schematic representation of genomic distance calculations between contemporary human populations and Neanderthals. The genomes of out-of-Africa individuals were compared with the genomes of individuals of purely African ancestry (YRI). Single nucleotide differences from the Neanderthal genotype in an African genome were referred to as ‘ABBA’, while sites with the Neanderthal genotype in an out-of-Africa genome were referred to as ‘BABA’. (b) Average proportions of NLS in contemporary African (AF), European (EU) and Asian (AS) populations calculated based on sequence data from the 1,000 genomes project13; blue: genome wide (n=1,158,559 sites), red: LCP genes (n=498 sites). The error bars show the s.d. of the NLS proportion estimates. (c) Genomic distances between 11 contemporary human populations and Neanderthals; blue, genome wide; red, LCP genes. The maximal bar length corresponds to a NLS frequency of 30%. Placement of ASW and CEU individuals in sub-Saharan Africa and Western Europe, respectively, reflects their approximate historical geographical origins rather than their present location. Full size image
In agreement with previous observations10, the genomes of contemporary humans of European and Asian descent showed greater similarities to the Neanderthal genome than did the genomes of the three populations of purely African descent. On average, the NLS frequency was 6.1±0.2% for contemporary humans of European and Asian descent, thus indicating a substantial excess of NLS in contemporary out-of-Africa populations (Fig. 1b,c, blue bars; Supplementary Tables 1–3). This D-statistic estimate is similar to the ones reported by other studies (4.8±0.2%)10, with the higher values obtained in our study potentially arising from the additional filtering of genomic sites polymorphic in Neanderthals. Further, in agreement with other studies10, there was no substantial difference in the genome-wide frequencies of NLS between European and Asian populations, with a slight tendency for higher frequencies in Asians: 5.9±0.08 and 6.2±0.06%, respectively18,19.
For each pair of human populations, we searched for the presence of functional groups of genes showing an unusual excess, or paucity, of NLS. This analysis, based on gene groups compiled according to gene ontology terms20, and conducted using the gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) algorithm21, yielded an unexpected observation; we indeed find significant clustering of NLS in specific functional groups, but these functional groups differed substantially between contemporary European and Asian populations (Supplementary Data 1). Functional groups showing NLS enrichment in Asian populations mainly represent immune and haematopoietic pathways. The strongest signal of NLS enrichment was, however, observed in contemporary Europeans and included two functional groups: the lipid catabolic process (LCP) and its nested term—cellular LCP (GSEA, permutations P<0.01, significance score >3; Fig. 2a). Specifically, genes in the LCP term had the greatest excess of NLS in populations of European descent, with an average NLS frequency of 20.8±2.6% versus 5.9±0.08% genome wide (two-sided t-test, P<0.0001, n=379 Europeans and n=246 Africans; Fig. 1b,c, red bars; Supplementary Table 4; Supplementary Fig. 1). Further, among examined out-of-Africa human populations, the excess of NLS in LCP genes was only observed in individuals of European descent: the average NLS frequency in Asians is 6.7±0.7% in LCP genes versus 6.2±0.06% genome wide (Supplementary Table 4).
Figure 2: Outstanding genetic features of lipid catabolism genes. (a) Clustering of NLS in functional categories in the genomes of contemporary humans of European (EU) and Asian (AS) descent. The significance scores are proportional to the NES and inversely proportional to the false discovery rates calculated for each gene ontology (GO) term in the biological process category using the GSEA algorithm. Sizes of circles and squares represent NLS fractions in Europeans and Asians, respectively, for each GO term. Numbers near the circles mark the top two GO terms with a functional enrichment significance score greater than three, based on the distribution of Neanderthal-like genomic sites in Europeans: (1) LCP, (2) cellular LCP. (b) Positive selection signals in LCP gene regions estimated using CMS scores. Black squares represent the frequency of sites with elevated CMS scores (>1), potentially indicating genomic regions under recent positive selection in LCP gene regions, normalized by the frequency of such sites in all annotated genes within the same population. The boxplots show the variation of normalized site frequency estimates obtained by 1,000 bootstraps over LCP gene regions (n=38). The boxes show quartiles and the median of the data, the whiskers extend to the minimum and maximum data values located within 0.5 interquartile range from the box. The numbers above the boxplots show the proportion of bootstrap values where the normalized site frequency of elevated CMS scores in Africans (AF) or Asians (AS) was greater than, or equal to, the normalized site frequency in Europeans (EU). Full size image
The excess of NLS observed in LCP genes for populations of European descent was based on a large number of sites (n=498), and was robust to bootstrapping across sites (P<0.01, 1,000 bootstraps, Supplementary Table 5; Supplementary Fig. 2). Notably, NLS were located in 23 independent genomic regions. Among the remaining 15 LCP genes that did not contain NLS, 8 did not contain sites showing divergence between Neanderthals and chimpanzees and the remaining 7 contained only a few such divergent sites (Supplementary Table 6). It is furthermore robust to the potential effects of DNA damage characteristic of ancient DNA samples, as excluding the C/T and A/G substitutions that may stem from deamination of cytosine residues in ancient DNA22,23 did not affect the results (Supplementary Table 4). Repeating the analysis using the genome sequences of African (ASW, LWK, YRI), European (CEU, FIN, GBR, IBS) and East Asian (CHB, JPT) individuals, which were sequenced to deeper coverage at the pilot stage of the 1,000 genomes project, as well as the high-coverage genome sequences of African (ASW, LWK, YRI, MKK—Maasai in Kinyawa, Kenya), European (CEU, TSI) and East Asian (CHB, JPT) individuals provided by the Complete Genomics human diversity set24, confirmed our observations (Supplementary Tables 7 and 8). Finally, repeating the analysis using the high-coverage (Altai) and the low-coverage (Vindjia) Neanderthal genomes, separately, resulted in similar findings (Supplementary Table 9).
Adaptive signature of Neanderthal sequences in LCP genes
The excess of NLS in LCP genes in the genomes of contemporary Europeans may be due to a rapid spread of Neanderthal alleles in European ancestors because of their adaptive significance. Specifically, one may hypothesize that, over time, Neanderthals acquired changes to lipid catabolism, which were beneficial for survival in the environmental conditions of prehistoric Europe and Central Asia. These adaptive variants may then have been acquired by the modern humans through introgression and rapidly brought to high frequency by positive selection. To test this hypothesis, we searched for signatures of positive selection in the genomes of contemporary humans of European, Asian and African decent using composite of multiple signals (CMS) scores25. High CMS values indicate genomic regions under recent positive selection based on three distinct signatures of selection: long-range haplotypes, differentiated alleles and high-frequency-derived alleles. We indeed found a significant excess of high CMS scores in the LCP gene regions of contemporary Europeans but not Asians or Africans (Fig. 2b). This effect was robust at different CMS score cutoffs and was specific to LCP: no significant excess of high CMS scores in individuals of European descent was observed in comparable genomic regions containing other metabolic genes (Supplementary Fig. 3). Furthermore, within the LCP term, high CMS scores found in contemporary Europeans were associated with genes containing the excess of NLS, but were not associated with other LCP genes (two-sample Wilcoxon test, P=0.0003; n=45 and 20; Supplementary Fig. 4).
Metabolic changes associated with Neanderthal ancestry
The observed signatures of positive selection suggest that genetic variants shared with Neanderthals resulted in adaptive changes in lipid catabolism in Europeans, but not in Asians. At a physiological level, these adaptive changes should affect the concentrations of LCP metabolites, and the expression levels of the corresponding metabolic enzymes, in a manner specific to Europeans. To test this, we analysed the lipid composition of prefrontal cortex (PFC) tissue in 14 adult humans of European, African and Asian descent, as well as 14 adult chimpanzees (Supplementary Data 2) using C 8 -reversed phase liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry26,27. Out of 4,243 detected mass spectrometric peaks, 1,314 could be computationally matched to lipid compounds belonging to 63 metabolic categories using metabolite annotation databases28,29. After elimination of low confidence matches supported by less than 5 mass spectrometric peaks, 16 metabolic categories, containing 1,253 peaks, remained and were used in further analyses (Fig. 3a; Supplementary Data 2).
Figure 3: Lipid concentration and gene expression divergence in LCP and other metabolic pathways. (a) Principal component analysis based on normalized intensities of 1,314 annotated mass spectrometric peaks corresponding to 63 metabolic categories. Each circle represents an individual: blue, Asians; grey, Africans; red, Europeans; black, chimpanzees. (b) The distribution of lipid concentration divergence estimates measured between chimpanzees and humans of African (AF, n=4 individuals), Asian (AS, n=5 individuals) and European (EU, n=5 individuals) descent for metabolic categories directly linked to LCP genes (red, n=1,090 mass spectrometric peaks) and metabolites in other metabolic pathways (grey, n=163 mass spectrometric peaks). To minimize the influence of environmental differences among populations, metabolic divergence in the LCP term was normalized to the divergence of all other metabolic pathways within the same population. The numbers above the red boxplots show the proportion of values from the LCP divergence distribution obtained by 1,000 bootstraps over individuals within populations that were smaller than, or equal to, the divergence values calculated based on other metabolic pathways represented by the grey boxplots. All boxes in this and the other panels show quartiles and the median of the data, the whiskers extend to the minimum and maximum data values located within 0.5 interquartile range from the box. (c) Principal component analysis based on the expression levels of 25,813 genes. Each circle represents an individual; colours are as in panel a. (d) The distribution of gene expression divergence estimates measured between chimpanzees and human populations for LCP genes directly linked to seven metabolic categories shown in panel b (red, n=6 expressed genes) and other LCP genes (grey, n=26 expressed genes). Normalization procedure and significance estimation were conducted the same way as for metabolite data presented in panel b. Full size image
Seven of these 16 metabolic categories were directly linked with genes in the LCP term (Supplementary Table 10) based on Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway annotation30. In Europeans, the concentrations of lipids within these seven metabolic categories linked with LCP were more diverged from chimpanzees than the concentrations of lipids in the other nine metabolic categories not linked with LCP (q<0.0001; q value shows the proportion of the LCP divergence values that were smaller than, or equal to, the divergence values in other metabolic categories). By contrast, in contemporary Africans or Asians there were no differences between the concentration divergence of lipids associated with LCP and the lipids associated with other metabolic categories (q>0.1; Fig. 3b). This result was not driven by one or several metabolites, but represented a general property of this metabolite group, as shown by bootstrap analysis (q<0.0001) Further, this result was not caused by differences among population samples with respect to age, sex, tissue preservation or postmortem delay (Supplementary Table 11; Supplementary Fig. 5). We note that, while we cannot control for environmental differences among populations, our analysis is based on the relative divergence of seven metabolic categories associated to LCP and was normalized to the divergence of the other nine metabolic categories not associated with LCP within the same population. This normalization removes the influence of environmental factors affecting LCP and non-LCP metabolites to the same extent. Furthermore, our study design provides no indications that environmental effects should be particular to Europeans: all individuals of European and African descent used for lipidome analysis came from the same region within the United States, while all individuals of Asian descent came from central China.
Expression changes associated with Neanderthal ancestry
We next asked whether the greater concentration divergence of LCP metabolites observed in Europeans could be linked to a similarly accelerated expression level divergence of the corresponding enzymes. To test this, we measured gene expression levels in the 14 human PFC samples used in the lipid analysis, as well as 6 out of 14 chimpanzee PFC samples, using high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). For each sample, we obtained an average of 15 million reads, 85% of which could be mapped31 uniquely to the corresponding genome (Fig. 3c; Supplementary Table 12; Supplementary Fig. 6). Using KEGG pathway annotation, six genes annotated in the LCP term and detected in the RNA-seq data could be directly linked to the seven LCP metabolic categories (Supplementary Table 10). For these six genes the expression divergence from chimpanzees, relative to the expression divergence of other LCP genes expressed in PFC, was the largest in Europeans (q<0.0001; q value shows the proportion of the divergence values that were smaller than, or equal to, the divergence values in other LCP genes), intermediate in Asians (q=0.04) and absent in Africans (q=0.59; Fig. 3d; Supplementary Fig. 6). This result was robust, as shown by bootstrap analysis, and was not caused by differences in age, sex, RNA quality or postmortem delay among the three human populations (Supplementary Fig. 7). Thus, accelerated metabolic divergence in the LCP term found in Europeans appears to be linked to an accelerated expression level divergence of the corresponding metabolic enzymes.
Notably, the gene regions of the six LCP enzymes linked to European-specific metabolic changes contained an even higher proportion of NLS in Europeans (31.6±4.1%) than all LCP genes (20.8±2.6%). Furthermore, these NLS were not distributed uniformly within the gene regions, but clustered in the vicinity of transcription start sites, suggesting that they may have a role in causing gene expression level changes seen in Europeans (two-sample Wilcoxon test, P=0.048; n=14 and 27; Supplementary Fig. 8). By contrast, individuals of Asian and African descent did not show any significant excess of NLS within the same gene regions (Fig. 4a).
Figure 4: Potential regulatory effects of NLS in LCP pathway. (a) Average proportions of NLS in contemporary African (AF), European (EU) and Asian (AS) populations calculated based on sequence data from the 1,000 genomes project13; blue, genome wide (GW, n=1,158,559 sites); red, all LCP genes (n=498 sites); black, LCP genes connected to European-specific metabolic changes (MC, n=114 sites). The error bars show the s.d. of the NLS proportion estimates. (b) Relative concentration levels of 2-lysophosphatidylcholine, in three contemporary human populations and in chimpanzees (CH). The boxplots represent the median and the variation of normalized, z-transformed metabolite concentrations in each sample group calculated by 1,000 bootstraps over individuals within populations (n=11 mass spectrometric peaks). The *** indicates significance of 2-lysophosphatidylcholine concentration difference between European (n=5) and chimpanzee (n=14) individuals (P<0.001) estimated by the bootstrapping procedure. (c) Gene expression levels of genes directly linked with 2-lysophosphatidylcholine according to KEGG annotation, in the three human populations and chimpanzees. The boxplots are as in panel b. The *** indicates significance of expression difference between European (n=5) and chimpanzee (n=6) individuals (P<0.001) for genes directly linked with 2-lysophosphatidylcholine (n=21) estimated by the bootstrapping procedure. Full size image
Possible functional implications of changes in LCP
While we find changes in lipid catabolism particular to Europeans at the metabolite concentration and enzyme expression levels, the significance of these changes at the organismal level remains to be investigated. Still, the changes observed at the molecular level provide some clues. Among the seven metabolic categories associated with LCP, 2-lysophosphatidylcholine has been implicated in a number of functions, including reactive oxygen species generation, apoptotic and non-apoptotic death, as well as glucose-dependent insulin secretion32 (Fig. 4b,c). Furthermore, genetic variants linked to obesity (DAVID33, Fisher’s exact test, P<0.01 after multiple testing correction, n=38) hypertriglyceridemia and coronary heart disease, as well as triglycerides and cholesterol levels (DAVID, Fisher’s exact test, P<0.01 after multiple testing correction, n=38) in genome-wide association studies34 show a significant enrichment of LPC genes containing an excess of NLS (Supplementary Table 13). Notably, frequencies of these diseases have been shown to differ between individuals of European descent and other human populations35. These observations support a contribution of Neanderthal genetic variants to the phenotype of contemporary Europeans. |
John Man is a young violinist who has been struggling for years to overcome his limitations as a musician. Though graced with some talent and a degree of innate musicality, Man has always found it difficult to play with the sort of polish and professional mastery shown by his colleagues.
“I tried just playing the way I want over and over and over again, hoping that it would get better,” he said. “It never did! It was like, the more I played it the same way the more it would sound the same. What could I do?”
Finally, out of sheer desperation, Man started doing what his teacher had been telling him to do in every lesson for the past five years. “The results have been incredible!” said Man. “It’s as if following the advice of an older, more experienced musician allows me to somehow cultivate effective working habits better than my own.”
We spoke to Man’s teacher, Dorothy Schnupsky, whose teaching philosophy revolves around a concept she calls The Job. “As musicians, our Job is to play the music as musically as possible,” she said. “So if you look at things like the notes, and perhaps the dynamics and phrase markings, and basically every other instruction that has been dutifully laid out on paper using a sophisticated and clear system of notation developed over centuries, then your playing will improve. I charge an hourly rate to say this.”
Man also took inspiration from his roommate Bob Guy, who is studying to be a doctor. Guy reportedly spends hours studying facts until he knows them, because he eventually hopes to use those facts saving lives. “When Guy encounters a complicated fact he really tries to understand what it is, rather than hitting it over and over again very fast until skills develop,” said Man. “He doesn’t stop to tell anyone how difficult it is and which other doctors do it the best and how the love of doctoring is in his blood, he just works at it until he gets better. He has such a talent.”
Man is very pleased that he no longer needs to use his old system of learning things, which he called The System. This required him to smoke frequently, evoke his greatness unintentionally with suggestive anecdotes, and always insist that other musicians do not have “feeling.” Now that he has discovered Schnupsky’s approach, he will soon find true happiness. |
BibleGirl will greet her fans at RuPaul’s DragCon in NYC this weekend. (Photo via Instagram/Travis Magee)
BibleGirl is a 24-year-old drag queen with a master’s degree in everything internet, and she uses her scholarly knowledge strategically.
“BibleGirl is the love child of MySpace trolling and every possible contemporary pop-culture reference,” she tells Yahoo Beauty. “My drag name hails from the trend of having unapologetically irreverent screen names in order to garner attention.”
BibleGirl’s image is attention-grabbing indeed. “My message is that life ain’t so serious, and we all need to laugh at the little things, love each other, and punch Nazis,” says the persona of a Brooklyn young man, who will appear with a huge lineup of other celebrity drag performers at RuPaul’s DragCon in New York City on Sept. 9 and 10.
Trolling Instagram and spilling all the tea on Twitter, she’s garnered a huge following (more than 80,000) of drag lovers singing praises for her bitchy comments. It’s made her one of the best-known drag personas never to have appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race. And that’s just the way she likes it.
so much is happening so fast this fall season especially not drag race — BIBLEGIRL (@BibleGirl666) September 7, 2017
Still, drag going mainstream is a plus in BibleGirl’s book, so long as it’s done with cultural awareness. This is something she kept front-of-mind when she launched dragqueenmerch.com and her mobile game app, BibleGirl’s Big Apple.
“I completely embrace [drag in the mainstream] as long as it isn’t framed by exploitation and is brought to the mainstream by somebody or a group of people that immediately live within the ‘queer gaze,’” she says. “It helps further along the process of normalizing who we are.”
For BibleGirl, demonstrating her ever-changing makeup routine for fans is part of normalizing drag culture. As a result, they’ve embraced her wholeheartedly, adopting her signature makeup look, using hot pink tones to contour and accentuate her nose and lips.
OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS https://t.co/Mxtpsf8SeX — BIBLEGIRL (@BibleGirl666) September 7, 2017
“The beginning steps of my routine prove to therapeutically get me into the ‘painting’ headspace. Shaving, then having tea while doing a quick 10-minute face mask, really takes me there,” says BibleGirl. “I learned by watching a lot of YouTube videos, experimenting in my free time, and understanding how achieving desired shapes with color works!”
Despite her undeniable originality, BibleGirl has three celebrity muses, each queens in their own right. “My top three are Britney Spears, Kim Kardashian, and Rihanna,” she says. “I really got into learning about the craft and industry about seven years ago. … The same people definitely remain as inspirations.”
She continues, “I feel like every part of my drag has a performance component. As a social media ‘personality,’ the job tends to be more around the clock than people think. Maintaining character, whether it be by aesthetic, by tweet, or physical performance, the overarching concept of performance is extremely integral. I’m performing for those that have gotten me to where I am, and I just want everybody to feel like they’re at the most kickass party ever!”
Tune into Yahoo Style + Beauty’s Instagram page on Sunday morning to see BibleGirl’s makeup routine before RuPaul’s DragCon.
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Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty. |
Seventy-five years after the start of the blitz, second world war bomb sites continue to shape modern London, with second and even third waves of redevelopment throwing up buildings expected to last as little as three decades
I recently came across a photograph of a family eating a meal outside the broken shell of Sayer Street School, which was bombed during the blitz. It stood out, because Sayer Street no longer exists. This was once a long road of shops – a fishmonger, cat-meat dealer, grocer, saddler, bookbinder – and solid, five-storey tenements in Elephant & Castle. When the blitz began, the street was hit by several bombs.
What happened next to Sayer Street encapsulates several aspects of the waves of development that continue to shape London – and the central role played by the bomb sites of the blitz 75 years after the first explosions.
In the immediate aftermath of the war, Sayer Street was used as a car park. This was a popular use for bomb sites: indeed, the NCP car park empire began with the £200 purchase of a bomb site on Red Lion Square.
Then, in the 1960s, the remaining residents were turfed out as Sayer Street was demolished, chewed up by the Heygate Estate – a council housing development that was originally conceived as one of three gigantic estates stretching from Elephant to Peckham, linked by walkways and ramps for two miles. “These plans were incredibly radical, sweeping away neighbourhoods irrespective of damage and replacing them with high-rise towers nobody wanted to live in,” says Peter Larkham, professor of planning at Birmingham School of the Built Environment. The Heygate was bleak, poorly built and badly maintained, but it housed many of London’s poorest.
And then, last year, it was demolished, having lasted 37 meagre years. Southwark Council sold it to Lend Lease, a private developer that is building Elephant Park, a residential village of towers and plazas, where a three-bed apartment costs £2.5m. Those former residents who can’t afford flats in the new building – in other words, almost all of them – have essentially been displaced as efficiently as those who once lived on Sayer Street.
Concrete towers for the poor have been torn down and replaced with glass towers for the wealthy
Facebook Twitter Pinterest City of London skyline as seen from the Heygate Estate. Photograph: elephantpix/Alamy
Once you start looking around, it’s astonishing how often the bomb site of 1940 is the building site of 2015. Developers and planners are still working round decisions made when London was rebuilt following the aerial bombardment that began on 7 September 1940. More than 20,000 bombs fell on the city, destroying or damaging beyond repair 116,000 buildings.
“Everybody called it an opportunity,” says Larkham. “That’s a difficult word if you suffered from bombing, were made homeless and saw people killed, but it was an opportunity for many.”
You can see those opportunities marked out in colour in the Bomb Damage Maps, a series produced by the London County Council during the war showing colour-coded bomb damage across the city, building by building. The maps were originally created to help landowners deal with insurance and compensation, but were also used for postwar planning. They’re also fascinating for regular Londoners: they show, for example, exactly why there’s a council estate round the corner from my house in Herne Hill – the old Victorian terraces were obliterated by German bombs.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A composite panorama of London after the blitz. Photograph: London Metropolitan Archives / City of London Police / London County Council Bomb Damage Maps 1939-1945 (Thames & Hudson)
If the bomb sites represented an opportunity, then it was a short-term one: the more I explored, the more I discovered that much postwar development has already been replaced. Concrete towers for the poor have been torn down and replaced with glass towers for the wealthy.
It’s a similar story with office blocks. A photograph in The Blitz: London Then & Now, John Neville’s book which juxtaposes photographs of bomb sites with the modern buildings that occupied the spot in 1990, shows The Ring on Blackfriars Bridge Road. The Ring was a Georgian chapel turned boxing venue, which was half-demolished in a bomb strike on 25 October 1940. But I didn’t recognise the building that replaced it. A stark concrete tower raised on a pedestal, this turned out to be Orbit House, an office block built in the 1960s by Richard Seifert, one of the UK’s most prolific postwar architects. The reason I didn’t recognise the building, I discovered later, is that it was itself demolished a few years after that 1990 photo was taken, to make way for Will Alsop’s Palestra, a square glass wall with overhanging roof. Whereas The Ring had over its 150-year life been adapted for several different uses – chapel, warehouse, boxing venue, theatre – Orbit House was demolished after just 30, unable to meet changing requirements and thrown away like a broken toy.
It’s astonishing how often the bomb site of 1940 is the building site of 2015
Facebook Twitter Pinterest On 29 December 1940, Cripplegate was razed in firestorms. St Giles’ church survived. Photograph: Daily Mail/Rex Shutterstock
A senior City planner told me that 30 years was about right for a modern office, as demands change so swiftly. Palestra – its name comes from the Greek word for a wrestling ring – currently towers above Blackfriars Bridge Road. It looks permanent, but if the planner is right, it will be gone by 2030.
“Some buildings have been demolished incredibly rapidly, before they’ve even been paid for,” says Larkham. “Can we afford to keep doing that? One of the worst products in terms of sustainability is concrete. The fact we can put these building up and then pull them back – is that really the best solution? We need to design for more flexible longer-term planning.”
This “second generation” blitz development has even taken place at one of London’s most successful postwar buildings. The Barbican was built over a scene of utter devastation: on 29 December 1940, the entire ward of Cripplegate was razed in firestorms. “Thousands of buildings have been burnt and blasted to the cellars,” wrote HV Morton in 1951. “Here and there the side of a building rises gauntly from the rubble, a detached gateway stands by itself in the undergrowth, the towers of a few churches, or a spire, lift themselves mournfully, like tombstones in a forgotten cemetery … How can anyone reconstruct a town from its cellars?”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Barbican surrounds St Giles’, Cripplegate. The initially controversial estate is now widely regarded as an example of successful postwar architecture. Photograph: Dan Sparham/Rex Shutterstock
Well, in 1965 construction began on the Barbican, which eradicated the old street plan, cellars and all. Completed in 1983, the initially controversial estate is now widely regarded as an example of postwar architectural ideals put into successful practice – but part of it has already been replaced. Milton Court, containing a fire station, mortuary and coroners court, was the first section of the Barbican to be completed in 1959, and in 2008 it was the first to disappear, replaced by new glass-walled facilities for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, despite protests from conservationists who believed it should be saved.
Occasionally, these private projects disinter unexploded bombs that have sat silently under social housing blocks – a reminder of how quickly the second wave of redevelopment has come round and what it is replacing. One was recently uncovered on a building site in Bethnal Green, another on a building site in Grange Walk in Bermondsey last March, when two 1950s low-rise blocks were knocked down, displacing 54 households. The low-rises are being replaced by a large, mixed-used scheme of shops and 205 flats. If all the unexploded bombs went off simultaneously, one wonders if there would be any social housing left in London at all.
Occasionally, these projects disinter unexploded bombs that have sat silently under social housing blocks
Facebook Twitter Pinterest New facilities for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama replaced Milton Court – the first part of the Barbican to be built, and the first to be demolished, in 2008. Photograph: Alamy
A few sites at least are relatively undeveloped. The Caffe Nero branch on Tottenham Court sits in splendid isolation, all that remains after a V2 hit a church, killing nine people. The church was rebuilt but the rest of the plot remains empty. “There’s no absolute imperative that somewhere must be developed,” says Larkham. “Some property is owned by companies that don’t feel they have to develop, maybe nobody has come forward with a proposal or maybe it’s a SLOP [Space Left Over After Planning]. There were lots of these bits of lands that were purchased by agencies perhaps for road-widening schemes that never happened.”
Other sites were deliberately left derelict as memorials to the blitz, though even these have usually been touched by the busy hand of development. Christ Church on Newgate was destroyed by the December 1940 firestorm. While most churches were rebuilt, this was left as a ruin after The Times presciently wrote in 1944: “The time will come – much sooner than most of us to-day can visualise – when no trace of death from the air will be left in the streets of rebuilt London. At such a time the story of the blitz may begin to seem unreal not only to visiting tourists but to a new generation of Londoners. It is the purpose of war memorials to remind posterity of the reality of the sacrifices upon which its apparent security has been built. These church ruins, we suggest, would do this with realism and gravity.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Christ Church on Newgate Street was left as a ruin to remind Londoners of the horrors of the blitz – but is the site too polite to be effective? Photograph: Alamy
Christ Church barely fulfils this remit. Its remains have been laid out as a neatly landscaped garden, overshadowed by the large Merrill Lynch building. In 1974, two surviving walls were demolished in a road-widening scheme and in 1981, neo-Georgian offices were added in imitation of the 1760 vestry – these currently house a dentist. Even the church tower has been transformed into a 12-storey private home. The entire complex is a mess, but a very polite mess that evokes no great thoughts of human sacrifice; a campaign in 2013 to turn it into a more meaningful memorial was short-lived. But Christ Church at least fared better than another memorial-ruin: St Mary Aldermanbury was sold to Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri to act as a memorial to Winston Churchill. It can’t be long before City planners give up on Christ Church as a wasted opportunity, and stick a glass office in its place, maybe with a plaque.
The only thing stopping them from doing so is that in 1950 the ruins were given Grade I-listing, highlighting another legacy of the blitz: namely, the way the unforgiving nature of London’s postwar redevelopment spawned the modern conservation movement.
Columbia Market is a good example of how this process worked. On the first day of the blitz, a bomb hit a shelter in Bethnal Green, killing 38. Columbia Market, where it hit, was a Victorian development founded by Angela Burdett-Coutts, a philanthropist and friend of Charles Dickens. It was a combination of market and social housing constructed in a dramatic neo-Gothic style. Although the damage was repairable and the building was historically and architecturally significant, Columbia Market was demolished in 1960. It was replaced by a dismal modern tower block, named Old Market Square in a half-hearted nod to what was lost.
“The idea of heritage and listing buildings only really started after the war, when things were demolished so rapidly we don’t know exactly what was demolished and what was valuable,” says Larkham. “We now have 10,000 conservation areas and half a million listed buildings. Some planners think we conserve too much.”
In fact, the fate of Victorian buildings such as Columbia Market partly explains why postwar buildings are already being replaced – anything older has a conservation order slapped on it.
At any rate, conservationism arrived too late for Columbia Market, which now only survives as a section of railing outside a nursery. “It’s a fascinating building that must have cost a fortune and completely dominated the road,” says Laurence Ward of the London Metropolitan Archives, who has edited a 75th anniversary edition of the Bomb Damage Maps. “Now you’d never know it existed.”
This is a thought echoed by Alan Lee Williams. He was 10 when his home in Mayday Gardens, near Blackheath, was hit by a parachute mine. “It was meant for the Thames, but damaged 27 houses and took our roof off,” recalls Williams, now 84 and reflecting on a life that included a period as Labour MP for Hornchurch. Williams’s house was repaired. Several other houses – coloured black on the bomb maps, indicating “total destruction” – remained derelict throughout the war. Eventually the fire services built a water tank on the bomb site, which Williams and his twin brother would swim in.
The meticulously hand-coloured bomb damage maps of London – in pictures Read more
Visit Mayday Gardens now, however, and you’d have no idea anything had happened here, but for a surprising reason: the destroyed houses were rebuilt exactly as before. Some local residents I asked about the street’s history admitted it came as news to them. The careful reconstruction of these suburban homes comes as a stark contrast to the way working-class districts were treated.
Williams later lied about his age to join the fire service as a messenger, and was on Shooters Hill when a V2 rocket hit the Brook Hotel pub in November 1944, destroying a passing bus and killing 29. He was lowered into the rubble to rescue a survivor, a girl who lived on his street. “I still live in the area and I bow my head as I go past,” says Williams. “I always thought it was strange that there was never an explanation of what happened to these places. They should have put up plaques. It’s always a puzzle why it didn’t happen, maybe they just wanted to forget.” The pub was rebuilt before the end of the war. It currently houses a supermarket in an ugly makeshift building that has survived far longer than many more ambitious projects. Meanwhile, just a few miles away in the City and all along the Thames, the towers continue to rise above former bomb sites. London’s postwar reconstruction still isn’t complete. Will this version survive any longer than the last?
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"Mutri" redirects here. For the Italian municipality, see Cusano Mutri
The Bulgarian mafia (Bulgarian: мутри, mutri) is a series of organized crime elements originating from Bulgaria.
Organized crime groups and activitieis [ edit ]
Bulgarian organized crime groups are involved in a wide range of activities, including drug trafficking, cigarette smuggling, human trafficking, prostitution, illicit antiquities trafficking, extortion (often under the cover of ostensible security and insurance companies), racketeering, various financial crimes, car theft and the arms trade. They appear to have connections with the Russian mafia, Serbian mafia, and the Italian Cosa Nostra. Bulgarian organized crime groups mainly use security and insurance companies such as SIC and VIS as fronts for criminal activities.
The organized crime (OC) groups are arguably the most serious problem in the country. OC groups range from local street extortionists to international drug dealers and money launderers. There were an estimated 118 organized crime groups in Bulgaria in 2004.[citation needed] Not a single major OC figure has been punished by the Bulgarian law, though there are nominal on-going series of OC-related assassinations. The criminal wealth is usually laundered into ownership of sports teams, property developments and financial institutions. Organized crime influence all state institutions, including the government, Parliament and judiciary.[citation needed] Organized criminals donate to all the major political parties. They "own" municipalities and individual members of Parliament, controlling municipal councils and mayors. Bulgarian governments have done little to reduce the presence of organized crime, despite domestic efforts and U.S. and EU pressure to combat it.[1] According to a former United States Ambassador to Bulgaria[who?], Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has links with the mafia.[2] According to Jürgen Roth, Borisov is the Bulgarian Al Capone.[3]
Drug trafficking organizations run by Bulgarian nationals have been investigated in Los Angeles and Tampa. These groups deal with the import of cocaine and multi-thousand doses of ecstasy into the United States. Most members of these were imprisoned in the U.S. There, Bulgarian nationals are identified for falsification of IDs, organized bank fraud, mortgage fraud, credit card fraud and alien smuggling.[1]
Living criminal figures [ edit ]
Contract killings [ edit ]
Since the fall of communism in 1989, there have been more than 150 high rank heads mafia-style contract killings in Bulgaria, frequently perpetrated in the centre of the capital, Sofia, in broad daylight. There has been at most 1 conviction[4] in these cases to date, though sources differ.[5][6] This is frequently blamed on the alleged widespread corruption at all levels of the Bulgarian judicial system including the Prosecutor's Office.
The cost of contract killings carried out by highly professional snipers has been estimated at approximately £5,000-£50,000 The more important the more expensive one worth .[4]
Some of the most prominent assassination targets of recent years (in chronological order):
Other mafia-related assassinations [ edit ]
Australia [ edit ]
Judicial prosecution and fight against criminal networks [ edit ]
In 2006, the EU dispatched the head of Germany's criminal investigation office Klaus Jansen to assess Bulgaria's progress in fighting organized crime. He concluded that Bulgaria had failed to implement modern principles and methods in the fight against crime, criticising among other things the low commitment of the country's police force to combat organized crime.[17][18][19] The report further observed that "indictments, prosecutions, trials, convictions and deterrent sentences remain rare in the fight against high-level corruption" and described efforts to fight crime as "a total mess". Jensen also suggested that European police information passed to Sofia could end up with criminals. In a reaction to the report, Interior Minister Rumen Petkov described the findings as exaggerated and protested against Jansen's way of presenting the situation in Bulgaria which, in his words, demonstrated his incompetence.[20]
In the Bulgarian judicial system, the Prosecutor General is elected by a qualified majority of two-thirds from all the members of the Supreme Judicial Council and is appointed by the President of the Republic. The Supreme Judicial Council is in charge of the self-administration and organisation of the Judiciary.[21]
List of Prosecutor Generals in Bulgaria post-1989:
History [ edit ]
See also: History of Bulgaria since 1989
Much of the post-Communist Bulgarian mafia originates from the professional sportsmen and especially the wrestlers of the Communist period (1944–1989). The Iliev brothers, Krasimir "Big Margin" Marinov and Iliya Pavlov were all students of the school for future champions "Olympic Hopes" (Bulgarian: "Олимпийски надежди").[22]
In post-1990 Bulgaria, the word борец ("wrestler") came to denote a mafia man (a common synonym is мутра (mutra),[23] literally "mug, or mean mug"). The image of the Bulgarian "mug", including a sturdy muscular build, a black suit, sunglasses, a shaved head, and golden jewellery, became synonymous with the so-called Bulgarian "transition" (to market economy). These wrestlers were also known to own expensive cars with license plates with double numbers so that strangers would recognize their status as elite criminals. [24]
The wrestlers came to control much of Bulgarian business, so the word "businessman" acquired similar undertones. The wrestlers also infiltrated Bulgarian politics (it was often alleged that SIC and VIS were connected to the two main parties of the 1990s, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Union of Democratic Forces, respectively).[22] As the UDF government (1997–2001) made the registration of the criminal insurance businesses more difficult, much of their networks and personnel were integrated into existing legal insurance firms, while at the same time the principal bosses moved the focus of their attention to smuggling, trade and privatization.[24]
During the government of National Movement Simeon II (2001–2005), assassinations became especially common. Throughout the Post-Communist period, evidence has often surfaced to show the close ties between the criminal networks and politicians and officials. UDF chief prosecutor Ivan Tatarchev allegedly recreated together with Ivo Karamanski, NMS-II finance minister Milen Velchev was photographed playing cards with Ivan "The Doctor" Todorov, and BSP interior minister Rumen Petkov negotiated with the shadowy "Galev brothers".
See also [ edit ]
General:
References [ edit ] |
There is usually some sort of drama when a sports record gets broken. With longevity records there is the long, march and the build up towards the climactic moment. With single-game tallies, the aspiring record breaker generally battles not just history but also his contemporary opponent as well as any game clock. But there wasn't any of this sort of tension when Griffen Lentsch recently shattered the Division III basketball single-game scoring mark.
The junior marksman for Grinnell College scored 89 points in a game against Principia College on Saturday, eclipsing the previous record of 77 points with more than four and a half minutes remaining. Lentsch netted 40 of those points in the first half to stake his team to an insurmountable lead and just kept rolling over the opposition and past his predecessor in the NCAA record books. The only drama was if he could catch either of the players to reach the 100-point plateau in NCAA history -- Bevo Francis and Frank Selvy both did that in 1954.
The previous D-III record was also held by a Grinnell player, Jeff Clement. Also a junior when he set the previos record, Clement sunk 19 three-point shots in his team's 149-144 win over Illinois College in 1998. Lentsch managed just 15 treys but rode his sweet shooting stroke to nearly 50% shooting from the field and 20 made free throws.
Like Clement, Lentsch benefited from the frenetic, all-out pace preached by Grinnell coach David Arseneault. For years, Arseneault's teams have looked to shoot from distance on offense and press on defense. To keep up the relentless assault, he subs en masse like a hockey coach. |
Today Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth submitted evidence to the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General to support the ongoing inquiry into conflicts of interest and mismanagement in the environmental review of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. The groups request that the Inspector General takes steps to ensure that the tainted Final Environmental Impact Statement, released on Jan. 31, is excluded from the agency’s National Interest Determination.
Image courtesy of Friends of the Earth/ 350.org infographic
“The State Department hired an oil industry consultant to write the environmental review of Keystone XL without taking steps to guard against industry bias,” said Doug Hayes, Sierra Club staff attorney. “So it’s no surprise that the report attempts to minimize the pipeline’s massive carbon pollution and threats to human health and water quality. This flawed report should have no place in the decision making on this pipeline.”
In Aug. 2013, the State Department confirmed that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) had opened an inquiry into the agency’s hiring of the consultant Environmental Resources Management (ERM) to prepare the environmental review of the project. Evidence shows that ERM made false and misleading statements on its application for the contract.
“By hiring ERM, the State Department ignored its own guidelines and invited the fox into the hen house,” said Ross Hammond, Friends of the Earth senior campaigner. “ERM has an obvious self interest in making sure Keystone XL is built."
"The process that allowed them to get this contract has been corrupt from day one and the American people deserve better from their government," Hammond continued. "It’s up to the Secretary Kerry and the Inspector General to restore some integrity and accountability into the review process, not preside over a whitewash.”
On its application, ERM was asked to disclose relationships with entities that might benefit in any way from the approval of the pipeline proposal. ERM answered that there were none. In truth, ERM, which was recommended to the agency by TransCanada, performed services on the Alaska Pipeline Project, a joint project between Exxon and TransCanada. ERM also failed to disclose that at least 11 of its oil industry clients—including Chevron, Exxon, Saudi Aramco, Shell and Total—stand to profit if President Obama approves Keystone XL.
Rather than conduct any independent conflict screening, the State Department simply accepted ERM’s disclosure at face value. The groups contend that this a violation of the State Department’s own protocol and the OIG’s recommendations from a similar 2012 investigation into the contractor in the first Keystone XL review.
The groups conclude that potential bias introduced by the hiring of an oil industry-linked consultant invalidates the FEIS, which has been criticized for downplaying carbon pollution estimates that will result directly from the pipeline, threats to human health and water supplies, and other technical faults.
On Tuesday, Feb. 4, Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and Oil Change International filed a Freedom of Information Act Request to the State Department to unearth insider communications with the Canadian government and the oil industry in the weeks leading up to the release of its FEIS. And on Wed. Feb. 5, Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers for the agency’s failure to disclose documents related to a wetlands permit needed for the pipeline. The Inspector General invited the groups to contribute evidence in a Nov. 21, 2013, letter.
Today the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth also published State Department documents they have received so far under the Freedom of Information Act regarding the hiring of ERM to prepare the DSEIS for Keystone XL.
Visit EcoWatch’s KEYSTONE XL page for more related news on this topic. |
Korey and Sharon met at Pensacola Christian College and married in 2010. It wasn’t long before they welcomed their son into the world.
In August 2015, the couple from Pensacola, Florida, learned they were pregnant again. This time, they decided not just to keep their baby’s gender a secret — they also left out one other vital piece of information.
Since most of their family members live in other states, Korey and Sharon kept “the secret” going by deactivating their Facebook accounts and making some of their loved ones swear to secrecy for the time being.
After Sharon gave birth, it was time for the big reveal. Sharon’s mom was the first to walk into the hospital room. She brought one pink and one blue balloon, since she didn’t know the gender of her new grandbaby and wanted to be safe — but when she looked in her daughter’s arms, she got the surprise of a lifetime.
It’s impossible not to have fun watching reaction after reaction in the massively viral video below.
I’m so grateful Korey and Sharon caught all these priceless reactions on film!
Please SHARE this amazing video with your friends on Facebook! |
Soon the media will start to obsess with the Iowa caucuses. They will repeatedly tell us two things:
1. The Iowa Caucuses are a squirrelly little affair that predict nothing.
2. The Iowa Caucuses are important national news.
Iowa presents an interesting strategic decision for Trump. On one hand, he can let someone else win Iowa and it probably won’t have much impact on the final result. Trump could let Iowa go and concentrate on the primary states ahead.
But Trump is playing a different game. He is not addressing your sense of reason. He is talking to your energy, your emotions, and even your biases. By that filter (the Master Persuader filter), Iowa might be important as an energy booster for the campaign.
Trump likes energy. And as he has said, winning Iowa might set him up to run the table. So he probably wants to win Iowa, just to keep dominating headlines. Plus, it could be an early kill shot for the primary season if it causes Republican voters to capitulate – assuming many don’t know Iowa is electorally unimportant – and accept Trump as the eventual nominee.
My prediction under the Master Persuader filter is that Trump will try to win Iowa with a linguistic kill shot that is being engineered as I write this. But I won’t go so far as to predict he wins Iowa. I’d give that a 50% chance.
But I do predict Trump will A-B test a new line of attack on Clinton. If it works, he wins Iowa. If not, all he loses is Iowa. So this situation is when a person with a business background would test a new approach.
You’ll recognize Trump’s test balloon against Clinton when you see it. It will be the one that speaks to Iowa’s socially conservative base.
Bonus Thought 1: One of the skills a hypnotist has to master is reading people’s inner thoughts based on their body language. That’s a common skill for people in the business world too, but hypnotists go deeper than looking at crossed arms and furrowed brows. We learn to look for subtle changes in breathing patterns, tiny changes in muscle tone, variations in skin color (blushing or not), word choice, pupil dilation, and more. I assume law enforcement people look for similar tells when doing interrogations.
As regular readers know, I’m a trained hypnotist. And to me, Hillary Clinton looks as if she is hiding a major health issue. If you read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink, you know that so-called “experts” can sometimes instantly make decisions before they know why. In my case, I am going to make an “expert” hypnotist prediction about Hillary Clinton without knowing exactly which clues I am picking up, or whether I am hallucinating them.
Prediction: I’ll put the odds at 75% that we learn of an important Clinton health issue before the general election. That estimate is based on my own track record of guessing things about people without the benefit of knowing why. I think Trump is picking up the same vibe. He has already questioned Clinton’s “stamina.”
Bonus Thought 2: The biggest criticism of Trump is that his immigration plans remind people of Hitler. But what happens when you think of Trump and Putin getting together to fight ISIS? The last time Russia and the U.S. teamed up for major military action they were trying to defeat Hitler. On the 2D level of analysis, Trump’s chummy comments about Putin are a red flag. But on the 3D playing field, where Trump does best, it flips the Hitler meme into something more like getting the band back together to fight Hitler. Your brain probably won’t let you imagine Trump as fighting Hitler (along with Russia) and yet being Hitler at the same time. So while no one was watching, Trump probably solved for the Hitler meme. Watch the Trump-Hitler theme on social media start to diminish.
The more general rule of persuasion here is that you can’t stop a Hitler accusation by arguing all the reasons you are NOT Hitler. No one cares about the details because we are dealing with emotion, not reason. But you can find a bigger Hitler, and that accomplishes the same thing because the brain doesn’t allow for two simultaneous Hitlers.
I pause to inform new readers – and remind the regulars – that I do not endorse Trump or anyone else for president. All of the candidates look qualified to me. I am interested in Trump’s persuasion methods. I have never seen better. |
It recently came to my attention that somebody I know is planning on swallowing his copy of Ocarina of Time for the 3DS.He told me it will be a fitting tribute to a game series he loves so much, to have it always be "inside" of him. I told him that's not how digestion works and that the cartridge would pass through his body within a day or two, but he argued that since our bodies extract nutrients from food there would betype of infusion taking place, where he would absorb some of the coding from the game into fat reserves or bone marrow or something else.Apparently he originally wanted to do it with the gold cartridge of the N64 original, but he thought that breaking it apart and eating it in pieces would reduce the chance of anything coming from it.I tried explaining how it was a bad idea, but he assured me that he checked into the science of it and digesting small quantities of plastic would cause negligible damage at best, and he thinks any "minor stomachache" that may result will be far outweighed by the satisfaction of knowing that part of his favorite game is always within his spirit.He's planning on doing this with liquor, too. After showing me this chart...... he said that since the liver and stomach are so close together, it would increase the chances of Zelda code spreading to other areas of his body if pieces of it travel the same route as the alcohol does for digestion.think he should just get a Zelda tattoo and be done with it, but I know little about the nuances of the digestive system (though I obviously know you can't absorb something's power just be eating it), and because of that I don't think he gave my opinion much credence when I advised him that it would be dangerous.Has anybody run into DS or 3DS games being swallowed before, be it by a sibling or a pet or something? Is there any science I can point him to in an attempt to dissuade him from doing this? |
This article was originally published in PC Gamer UK Issue 252.
It starts, as it always does, in prison. But The Elder Scrolls Online's take on the series' traditional opening is a little different. You've been captured and sacrificed to the Daedric prince Molag Bal, harvester of souls. You wake in Coldharbour, Bal's particular plane of Oblivion. Unlike Mehrunes Dagon's Deadlands – which you stormed through again and again in TES IV – Coldharbour is a drab, lifeless reflection of the surface world. Your escape from this place and back to reality constitutes The Elder Scrolls Online's tutorial. My time with the game began immediately after this point.
Where you end up after Coldharbour depends on which of the three factions you belong to. The Aldmeri Dominion, composed of High Elves, Wood Elves, and the catlike Khajiit, are imperious conquerors from the south. The Ebonheart Pact are an alliance of convenience between Skyrim's Nord, Morrowind's Dark Elves and the stealthy Argonians – they're keen to hold on to their independence, but need each other in order to do it. I played the first six levels of the game as a member of the Daggerfall Covenant: the Bretons, Redguard and Orcs who form The Elder Scrolls Online's final faction.
"Those who feared that The Elder Scrolls Online would amount to another cash-in MMO have it wrong."
As such, my character began life in the sea off the coast of Stros M'Kai – an island not seen in the series since the 1998 standalone adventure Redguard. I was rescued by pirates and put to work recruiting specialists for a heist that would secure my new crew passage off the island. So begins the 50-level personal narrative that leads you through Zenimax Online Studios' take on Tamriel, zone by zone. So far, then, so MMO.
Those who feared that The Elder Scrolls Online would amount to another cash-in MMO with a big name behind it have it wrong, but the counter-position – the promise of a casualty-free marriage of emergent RPG and online game – doesn't quite hit the mark either. From my first moment in game it is clear that TESO is the product of a measured and ongoing negotiation between opposing forces: the traditional MMO and the singleplayer game, ambition and technology, the demands of the community and the views of its designers. Its successes and failures alike are produced by that process.
“We're not trying to top Skyrim,” game director Matt Firor says. “If you want to play Skyrim – go play Skyrim! We're doing something a little bit different. It should feel comfortable to people who play Elder Scrolls games, but it's its own game in its own right.”
The first thing that struck me, wandering the streets of the coastal town of Hunding, is how minimal the interface is by MMO standards. Most of the time you'll only be looking at a crosshair, a minimap, and a subtle chat window in the corner of the screen. Status bars and numbered hotkey slots only appear when they're needed, leaving your view of the world uncluttered.
"First-person view also makes it easier to appreciate the above-average degree of interactivity."
There'll be a first-person option, too. While it wasn't present in the build I tried, I was shown the game being played Skyrim-style in a later demonstration. This should come as a relief to players who feared that one of the defining features of the series had been ignored, and I asked Matt Firor why the company had kept its inclusion so quiet.
“We always knew it was something players were going to want. We're still in the process of doing it. In a first-person singleplayer game, all the graphical effects are tuned to be [only so far] in front of me. In a multiplayer game, the same effect has to work far away from the camera when you're looking at it, and from a hundred meters away when another player is looking at you.”
The developers anticipate that players will prefer a zoomed-out view for certain styles of play – particularly the Dark Age of Camelot-style mass PvP – but the option is there, and it works. First-person view also makes it easier to appreciate the above-average degree of interactivity in The Elder Scrolls Online's world.
Books on shelves and tables can be read, and in some cases these lead to quests or earn you experience. Potions and other consumables can be gathered from barrels and chests. It's not as high-fidelity as Skyrim – there are no dynamic physics objects, and the greater majority of items are static and cannot be interacted with – but it works as an MMO adaptation of a traditional Elder Scrolls idea.
"Expect to see a lot more mixing and matching of weapons and magic."
Combat gets a similar treatment. As in the previous games, you press the left mouse button to swing or fire your weapon and hold the right mouse button to block. Power attacks can be charged up and enemy spells can be interrupted with a bash. On top of this is six hotkeyed abilities, an ultimate ability, and a hotkeyed consumable item such as a healing potion. Spells and special moves are cast instantly and have no cooldown: instead of establishing a combat rotation à la World of Warcraft, it's a lot closer to how Skyrim and Oblivion handled favourites menus. Unlike those games, however, spells don't need to be assigned to a hand before they can be cast – so expect to see a lot more mixing and matching of weapons and magic. Success in combat is a case of expending your reserves of health, stamina and magicka to suit the situation. Blocking, dodging and using special melee attacks, for example, all consume a regenerating stamina reserve, making split-second decisions just as important as theorycrafting a great skill build.
“You can't pause the game in an MMO, so what we did was provide you with shortcuts,” lead gameplay designer Nick Konkle says. “That's something that was necessitated by what we do in MMOs, but actually I really enjoy having access to multiple different spells. I like what that does to our game.”
The main weakness of the combat system at the moment is feedback. Ditching the scrolling numbers of a traditional MMO to enhance immersion is praiseworthy, but it needs to be replaced by something and at the moment The Elder Scrolls Online's animations and sound effects don't sell the impact of your blows strongly enough. Remember whittling down an unresponsive dragon with an iron sword in Skyrim? This is one area where the game could do with breaking from the past.
Each zone has a primary narrative to follow with optional objectives branching off from it, and secrets to discover if you decide to push at the boundaries of the map. Moving on from Hunding I fought through my first Dwemer ruin, using a control rod to direct an ancient spider robot as I made my way through a series of environmental traps. Later, I unearthed a chest containing a note that led me across the map, following landmarks to find a buried treasure. As I did this, I was continually recruiting NPCs to my side: a High Elf researcher, a human scoundrel, and a stealthy pirate queen. These encounters ended in decisions about the fates of characters that I'm told will impact the story later on, and this promise was borne out in the composition of the group that I eventually left Stros M'Kai with – and who showed up in the second quest line I played. |
The last mile of a run is tough. You’re exhausted, at the end of your playlist, and probably have other things on your mind (like the post-run brunch). Even the pros sometimes struggle to get through that final stretch: “I know I’m getting close to the finish line, but it also takes a tremendous amount of energy to sustain my pace for what seems like an eternity,” says ultra-marathoner Stephanie Howe. But whether you’re training for an upcoming race or just completing your mileage for the day, that last mile is an important one. Here, the best mental tricks from runners, running coaches, and Health editors to help you stay motivated until the finish line.
Focus on the ‘after’
“I picture myself finishing, then enjoying whatever I’m going to be doing right after. Having something to drink, a snack, or seeing my family. Visualizing the ‘after’ seems to make the ‘just before’ less painful.”
—Beth Lipton, Health food director and avid runner
Use your secret weapon
“My strategy for getting through the last mile is twofold: First, I keep a positive attitude and tell myself what a great job I’m doing. Seriously. Sometimes I even say those words out loud: ‘Stephanie, you are doing your very best right now. Great job!’ or, ‘Come on little legs, only a few more minutes and then you get a long break.’ I really believe in the power of self-talk and keeping a positive attitude. Secondly, I make sure to keep fueling. Many runners totally forget that they need to keep fueling so they have enough energy to make it to the finish line. My secret weapon is CLIF Shot Energy Gel in Double Espresso ($24 for 24-count, amazon.com). It’s in a platinum package for a reason. Throughout the race, I alternate between CLIF Bloks Energy Chews and Clif Organic Energy Food, but I save my platinum package until the end. The energy I get from it not only gets me to the finish line, but I usually arrive with a smile as well.”
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—Stephanie Howe
Health.com: The 50 Most Gorgeous Running Races in America, State By State
Try the 10-minute trick
“One mental thing I always use when things are hard is telling myself, ‘You can handle anything for 10 minutes.’ I think about how short 10 minutes is in the grand scheme of things, and I’m able to go the extra mile (literally!).”
—MaryAnn Barone, Health social media editor and avid runner
Remember your goals
“I tell myself a few different things (and I say some of these in my class during the last pushes, too). The first one is from one of my favorite cyclists, Jens Voigt: ‘Shut up legs, do what I tell you!’ I’ll also think, ‘How would giving up now look on social media!?’, ‘You’ve made it this far. Just. One. More. Mile!’ and ‘Wait, this race is point-to-point? Have to get to the finish to get my bag anyway…’ It’s easy to say, ‘Remember why you came.’ But for some runners, that doesn’t mean much when they’ve gotten so wrapped up in what hurts, how far is left to go, etc.—that they do, in fact, lose sight of what their goal is. Cold, dark, and alone—that’s what carried me through 68 miles at the East River track in the middle of winter. Find your ‘why’. Find your breath. Let it carry you home.”
—Vinnie Miliano-Mile, a coach at Mile High Run Club in New York City
Health.com: What’s the Difference Between LISS and HIIT Workouts?
Get competitive
“For me, it’s all about distraction. I usually spend my runs as tuned-in to my body as I can be—making sure I’m breathing well, that I’m staying on top of my cadence, and that I don’t get hit by a car… But that last mile is when I let it all go and ’empty the tank’. I like to pick a person running near me and secretly ‘race’ them—that takes my mind off the final mile!”
—Alison Mango, Health editorial producer and avid runner
Trust your training
“Here are a few tips I use and give to my athletes: Trust your training. It will carry you. Tell yourself that you are stronger than you realize. Focus on the task at hand—that stride, that breath, that mile, that form. And remember, if it were easy, it wouldn’t be worth it.”
—Elizabeth “Corky” Corkum, a coach at Mile High Run Club in New York City
This article originally appeared on Health.com
Contact us at [email protected]. |
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Pressemitteilungen » Pressemitteilungen aus dem Jahr 2019 » Pressemitteilung Nr. 109/15 vom 30.6.2015 Bundesgerichtshof Mitteilung der Pressestelle Nr. 109/2015 Richter am Bundesgerichtshof Dr. Detlev Fischer im Ruhestand Richter am Bundesgerichtshof Dr. Detlev Fischer wird mit Ablauf des 30. Juni 2015 nach Erreichen der Altersgrenze in den Ruhestand treten. Herr Dr. Fischer wurde am 22. Februar 1950 in Göttingen geboren. Nach Abschluss seiner juristischen Ausbildung trat er am 1. März 1979 in den höheren Justizdienst des Landes Baden-Württemberg ein. Im Januar 1982 wurde er zum Staatsanwalt bei der Staatsanwaltschaft Karlsruhe und im März 1983 zum Richter am Landgericht Karlsruhe ernannt. Von Oktober 1989 bis Oktober 1992 war er als wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter an den Bundesgerichtshof abgeordnet. Ende 1995 wurde er zum Richter am Oberlandesgericht Karlsruhe befördert. Von Januar 1999 bis April 2002 war er zugleich Mitglied des Anwaltsgerichtshofs Baden-Württemberg. Ebenfalls im April 2002 wechselte er als Vorsitzender Richter an das Landgericht Karlsruhe. Am 10. November 2005 wurde Herr Dr. Fischer zum Richter am Bundesgerichtshof ernannt. Er gehört seither dem schwerpunktmäßig für Rechtsstreitigkeiten auf den Gebieten des Zwangsvollstreckungs- und des Insolvenzrechts sowie über Schadensersatzansprüche gegen Rechtsanwälte und steuerliche Berater zuständigen IX. Zivilsenat an. Die Rechtsprechung dieses Senats hat Herr Dr. Fischer in allen dem Senat zugewiesenen Rechtsgebieten maßgeblich mitgeprägt. Seit März 2005 ist Herr Dr. Fischer erster Vorsitzender des Vereins Rechtshistorisches Museum e. V., der - neben weiteren Tätigkeiten wie der Durchführung von Vortragsveranstaltungen und Ausstellungen sowie der Herausgabe einer Schriftenreihe - Träger des auf dem Gelände des Bundesgerichtshofs befindlichen Rechtshistorischen Museums ist. Karlsruhe, den 30. Juni 2015 Pressestelle des Bundesgerichtshofs
76125 Karlsruhe
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Range:
East Africa; Egypt south to Tanzania; southwest Somalia west to Kenya.
Habitat:
Semi-arid desert regions, scrub savannahs, and rock outcroppings.
Characteristics:
The Kenyan sand boa is a heavy-looking reptile with a blunt head, small eyes, and a thick, short body. Its belly is white or cream colored and its back has orange or yellow coloration with dark brown splotches. The tail is very short and tapers quickly to a dull point and can’t be coiled. The boa’s eyes and nostrils are placed on the head so that they remain free of debris when the snake’s body is hidden below the sand.
Behavior:
The Kenyan sand boa spends most of its life buried in the sand where it is invisible. It will also hide under stones and in the burrows of other animals.
Because of the desert heat, it is not active during the midday heat, only emerging early in the morning and in the evening to search for food. It seizes its prey and suffocates it between the coils of its body, only relaxing its embrace when the animal stops breathing. It then swallows its victim whole, without chewing, in the same way as other snakes.
This snake is considered a docile species and rarely strikes or bites. In fact when threatened, it buries itself quickly and carefully in soft ground, usually sand.
Reproduction:
Kenyan sand boas reach sexual maturity at two to three years of age. These snakes are ovoviviparous (young develop inside egg sacs incubated inside the female’s body). The young hatch live after a gestation period of four months inside the female’s body. She gives birth to five to 12 offspring. The young are completely independent at birth.
Interesting Facts:
When food is scarce, sand boas may live over a year without any food at all.
Sand boas are some of the smallest boa species on Earth.
The Kenyan sand boa typically hunts by lying in wait under sand and ambushing passing prey.
The Kenyan sand boa has been known to kill small prey by dragging it under the sand to suffocate it.
The male Kenyan sand boa may have to dig the female out of the sand before mating can occur.
Conservation:
All reptiles play an important role in their ecosystem. Many snake species are threatened by habitat destruction and the pet trade.
They are important predators as snakes consume many animals that humans consider pests, including mice, rats and destructive species of insects. They help to control disease and damage to crops by preying on these species. |
We haven't seen the last of Hemlock Grove's puking, disruptive boob-touching, and eye-popping werewolfing! Netflix has renewed the Eli Roth-helmed horror series for Season 2, ordering 10 episodes with a target launch date of 2014. The company has also announced that Charles H. Eglee will join the series as an executive producer and showrunner; Eglee's previous EP credits include The Walking Dead, Dexter, and The Shield.
Because Netflix has yet to release any hard data with regard to how many people are watching any of its original series—which now include House of Cards and the recently released fourth season of Arrested Development, with Orange Is the New Black slated to launch in July—I can't really tell you how successful Hemlock Grove is, at least from a business standpoint. But Roth can! Here's his official, company-approved statement, straight from the press release.
The worldwide fan response to Hemlock Grove was phenomenal. Netflix members loved the potent combination of sexy monsters, mystery, and the dark family soap opera that ended with a huge twist, leaving audiences worldwide totally shocked. Season 1 was just a warmup for what we have in store for Season 2. Get ready to be scared in ways you never expected.
Well gee, when you put it that way... I probably still won't watch it, since I personally didn't feel compelled to watch much of Season 1. Did you? If so, will you be back for Season 2? |
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Family say a man beaten by three officers with the San Antonio police department last year is now paralyzed from the chest down after surgeons experienced complications attempting to repair his spine.
Forty-three-year-old Roger Carlos was in the 10600 block of Westover Hills Blvd. in May, 2014 taking photos of a building he had recently purchased that was to be his wife’s new medical practice.
According to police, Carlos was approached by three officers at around 2:30 p.m: two SAPD SWAT-team members identified as Carlos Chavez and Virgilo Gonzalez, and one undercover drug task force officer whose identity has not been released.
The officers were pursuing a suspect nearby who was wanted on felony drug and weapons charges after he had fled from the cops along the Highway 151 access road. He had abandoned his car in a parking lot of a restaurant approximately a few hundred feet away from where Carlos was standing.
The cops reportedly mistook Carlos – who has no criminal record and was simply taking pictures with his phone – for their suspect, and struck him about 50 times even though he was not fighting back and complied with their orders, he says.
“All three of them started beating me on the head,” Carlos said. “It was unbelievable. I couldn’t believe it was happening to me. These guys, they beat me like a bunch of thugs.”
After being handcuffed and explaining to officers that he owned the property, Carlos says he was approached by a fourth officer who said the real suspect was in custody close by.
The beating left Carlos with a brain aneurysm, broken teeth, and injuries to his face, neck, and back causing lose of feeling and movement. He was forced to undergo multiple surgeries to his spine to relieve pain and pressure from herniated discs costing 10s of thousands of dollars.
Family said on Friday that as a result of complications during surgery on November 3 at a San Antonio area hospital, a piece of bone broke off and compressed against his spinal cord causing paralysis from his chest down.
“Its hard to see it, its hard to believe that something like this occurred over a mistaken identity,” Carlos’ wife Ronnie said. “That is the hardest thing that has happened to us.”
Following an internal affairs investigation in October of last year, the three officers that brutalized Carlos were originally given 15-day suspensions – but those “sanctions” were latter reduced to suspensions of only five days by then-police-chief William McManus.
Adding insult to injury, instead of serving their actual suspensions, the cops were allowed to use their accrued leave time to take a paid vacation. They did not receive any additional disciplinary action for their brutality.
Carlos may never walk again and is now even loosing feeling in his arms and wrists. Family say doctors are concerned that the complications could also lead to the father of three having trouble breathing.
“People need to stand up and say something about it. Just because a police officer has a right to do something like that based on a law that protects them, it’s not right,” Ronnie Carlos said. “Carelessness, just carelessness of these three officers, not realizing that they ruined his life.”
The family has retained an attorney and is preparing to take legal action against the San Antonio police department. You can help contribute their medical expense fund HERE.
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After five seasons with the Sharks, Larry Robinson is leaving the organization.
Robinson, 65, spent the last three seasons as the club's director of player development. He served as an associate coach from 2012-14.
TSN in Montreal and the Montreal Gazette originally reported the news.
The Sharks confirmed that Robinson's contract would be expiring, and general manager Doug Wilson told NBC Sports California that the divorce was amicable, and "because of geography." Robinson lives in Florida.
According to the Montreal Gazette:
Robinson’s contract with the Sharks expires on July 1, but agent Donnie Cape said Thursday that San Jose general manager Doug Wilson has given him permission to speak with other teams. Robinson lives in Bradenton, Fla., and the long travel distance to San Jose is one of big the reasons he’s looking for a new team to work for.
Robinson seemed to ponder retirement in 2014, but signed a three-year extension to remain in the Sharks' front office. He worked mostly from his home in Florida the past two seasons, making occasional trips to San Jose, including during training camp.
In the summer of 2015, Robinson underwent surgery for skin cancer.
Recognized as one of the best defensemen in NHL history, Robinson won six Stanley Cup championships with the Montreal Canadiens as a player, and holds the NHL record for playing 20 straight seasons in the playoffs. A 10-time All-Star and two-time Norris Trophy winner, Robinson was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1995.
Robinson was the head coach of the Los Angeles Kings from 1995-99, and the New Jersey Devils from 1999-2002 and again in 2005-06. He led the Devils to the Stanley Cup in 2000. Robinson has nine Stanley Cup rings as a player and coach.
* * *
The Sharks did not renew the contract of pro scout Jason Rowe, who had been with the organization for the past nine seasons. Rowe focused on eastern NHL and AHL teams. |
...outraged by the images of Ukrainian security forces firing automatic weapons on their own people.
...it seems clear that the so-called ‘shooters’ who killed 14 police men, wounded some 85, and killed 45 protesting civilians, were outside third party agitators. Many witnesses, including Yanukovych and police officials, believe these foreign elements were introduced by pro-Western factions-- with CIA fingerprints on it.
[T]here is ample evidence of pro-Western, third party interference, beginning with Victoria Nuland, John McCain, USAID, National Endowment for Democracy (who apparently organize very well on Facebook and Twitter), etc. Why for instance are so many policemen dead and wounded, and yet no one has investigated this in the new government?
Please donate to the Ron Paul Institute Copyright © 2015 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
Famed Hollywood director Oliver Stone created a media storm this week with his statements about the February coup that ousted democratically elected Ukrainian leader Victor Yanukovych. Stone has concluded that the mysterious sniper fire that killed dozens and ultimately led to the overthrow was the work of outside agitators rather than of Yanukovich's security forces. The mainstream media and the US government claimed immediately that the horrific attacks were the work of Yanukovych's security personnel, underscoring the Western narrative that the Ukrainian president was a ruthless killer who lost all legitimacy when he ordered troops to fire on his own people.In a statement issued by the White House on February 20th, the US administration said it was:Such US government claims have routinely been debunked and this one appears to be no different.Stone was in Moscow working on a film about NSA whistleblower Ed Snowden when he interviewed the deposed president Yanukovych for a documentary he is also working on. According to Stone's research he believes the coup in Kiev was a classic CIA overthrow:He noted the similarities with other CIA overthrow operations such as the one that temporarily ousted Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, as well as Iran in 1953 and Chile in 1973. While the US and its allies have created the narrative that the crisis with Russia is about Russian actions in Crimea and Ukraine, the reality is that it has been the US that has been involved in Ukraine and which precipitated the crisis.Faced with unexpected hostility over his post, Oliver Stone followed up with another statement clarifying that his conclusions had nothing to do with an affection for Yanukovich, who he said may well be the most corrupt president Ukraine ever had, but that the real point is the issue of US involvement in Ukraine's internal affairs. Wrote Stone today:Stone clearly understands how the regime change machine works, where the US politicians, government agencies, and government-funded "NGOs" work in concert toward a singular US government goal. Stone even understands how important the use of social media is to the regime changers. Recall how many times the State Department spokesperson would with a straight face inform journalists that evidence for US claims about a Russian invasion of Ukraine or the Russian shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 could be found in "social media." Indeed, through such US government programs as the Alliance of Youth Movements and Movements.org, the US government actually trains activists overseas how to use social media to help overthrow their own governments.Will Oliver Stone's fame and stature help create cracks in the wall of US government and mainstream media propaganda about the US role in the Ukrainian coup? We can only hope so. |
[Alternative Titles: Crate, no Barrel, The Crate Beyond, the Cratest Show on Earth, or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Crates, included for your amusement –ed.]
Hello all, Tom is away this week (he’s off in a van somewhere, solving mysteries), so it falls to I, Chris, token Canadian and lover-of-polygons, to deliver this week’s Desktop Tuesday . I’ve spent the last few days working on a new feature for Alpha 11 that we’ve seen requested a lot, so it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you: the humble-yet-versatile Crate!
As you can see, crates hold items, much like stockpiles do, with two very important differences: they are a small fixed-size, and they can be moved around. This means you can store tonnes [he really IS Canadian! –ed.] of things without all that Stockpile Sprawl our parents warned us about, and you can move them near to where they are needed. For example, you can load a crate up with wood, and then move it right next to a construction, instead of having your workers trudge back and forth from a far-away stockpile. Or, put a food crate in your dining hall!
Just like stockpiles, they can also have filters applied to them, so that you can decide what can and cannot be stored in a crate. Crates will come in a few different sizes, and will be craftable (with the bigger ones requiring higher crafting levels.) madness. Crates CANNOT contain crates. Don’t even think about it, for that way lies
Also, a word on this week’s Twitch streams!
Hey everyone, Stephanie here. As Chris mentioned above, Tom is out this week but we will continue to stream as normal on Tuesday and Wednesday (6:00pm PST Tuesday and 8:30am PST Wednesday). On Thursday, Albert has courageously offered to talk a bit about performance, memory usage, and other technical monsters he’s been wrangling recently. To better fit his schedule, that stream will be moved early by 2 hours, to 4:00pm PST, Thursday, 6/18. |
PHILADELPHIA -- An oil spill Monday reported afternoon, which saw thousands of gallons of heating oil seep into the Schuylkill River, prompted a multi-agency response to clean up the mess.
Approximately 200 gallons of home heating oil entered the waterway that feeds into the Delaware River.
The source of the overflow -- which totaled more than 4,000 gallons -- was traced back to a sensor malfunction on an emergency generator at a CenturyLink facility between Market and Chestnut streets near 23rd Street, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
According to Newsworks, the leak began Saturday night and crossed CSX railroad tracks before entering the river, however the site is downstream from where the city's water intakes are located.
According to the city's office of emergency management, the water department's intake valves were closed and the spill posed no threat of health concerns. The state Department of Environmental Protection reported Monday there was no oil sheen in open water and the spilled fuel was contained to ice in the river.
We are assisting @USCG & @PhillyFireDept coordinate clean up response to home heating oil spill on Schuylkill River pic.twitter.com/qi3Gi1gRZV -- Philadelphia OEM (@PhilaOEM) January 25, 2016
Miller Environmental Group Inc., an oil spill response organization, assisted with clean-up operations, according to the Coast Guard, which was monitoring the situation as of Monday afternoon.
The site of the spill at 2400 Market Street is just shy of the banks of the Schuylkill, which feeds into the Delaware River farther south near the Navy Yard. Additional agencies that responded to the spill included the Environmental Protection Agency, the city's fire and water departments and the state's fish and boat commission.
Greg Adomaitis may be reached at [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis . Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook |
THE Long Now Foundation's 10,000 Year Clock (designed but seeking cash to build) aims to measure the passage of time over an epoch rather than an hour. It is part of the outfit's mission to lambast short-termism and encourage longer-term thinking. Randall Munroe, creator of the popular webcomic xkcd, seems to be playing the same game. On March 25th Mr Munroe posted a seemingly static cartoon titled, "Time". Move a mouse over the image, and the caption "Wait for it" appears.
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Babbage did. Nothing happened. But on revisiting the site after thirty minutes, the image had changed. In the intervening weeks a new frame of an animation has appeared at the same interval. It documents the creation of elaborate and improbably tall sand castles by "Cueball" and "Megan", a couple who recur in Mr Munroe's strips. The castle is then supplemented by a wooden construction. To what end, no one yet knows, and Mr Munroe won't say. A complete sequence so far, with annotation, may be found at the fan site Explain xkcd.
Mr Munroe's interests are far-ranging, and he has posted ambitious efforts in the past. Recently a frame hid a vast, draggable world; a few years ago, he plotted the full timeline of major character interactions from "The Lord of the Rings" and a few other epics. These are beloved by geeks and teachers alike. On visiting a science teacher's classroom with his older son recently, your correspondent saw a large-format version of "Lakes and Oceans" posted on a wall. (Mr Munroe makes his work available under a Creative Commons copyright licence that allows reuse for non-commercial purposes so long as the work is attributed.)
The readers of Mr Munroe's strips are clever dicks and he has confounded their attempts to peer into the future. When a web browser loads the cartoon's page, the image of the comic is not loaded directly; rather when the cartoon graphic is requested, Mr Munroe's server tells the browser the current frame's file name, which it duly retrieves and displays. Every half-hour a script on his server changes that redirection to the next frame's name.
The files are not called "frame1", "frame2", and so on, but rather "0734ba60427cab503539c5e8be809688f0a6b56254248d60c51235a7b662182b", to cite one recent file name. These are randomly picked characters, much like a well-chosen password. Readers cannot guess the next file name in a sequence to figure out the ending. (Mr Munroe's server may also go one step further and not copy the next file into a publicly retrievable location until it's needed, as well.)
This instalment of the comic has tickled the fancy of enough people to get its own wiki that tracks progress and advances theories. It may be months, even years, before all will be revealed. |
With peer state competitors China and Russia in the periphery, along with an emboldened Iran, the looming threat posed by North Korea's long-range ballistic missiles has resulted in a frenzy of missile defense messaging that is often as wrong as it is in fashion. Emanating from the very tip-top of the America's government, the notion that missile interceptors are some sort of perfect panacea to ballistic missile wielding foes, even rogue states with relatively limited resources, is a lie. And despite the inaccurate claims made by the President on down the line, these systems do offer some form of defense against limited, low volume attacks and the more advanced the enemy missile is, the less reliable American interceptors would likely be under real-world conditions.
The War Zone has gone into detail about just how challenging shooting down a long-range ballistic missile is, and how rickety America's defenses really are when it comes to counter such an attack. But as we enter into a new political environment where hawkish rhetoric is en vogue, the misunderstandings surrounding missile defense and its limitations are snowballing, and the mainstream media isn't innocent in this phenomenon either. Just today Reuters published a highly circulated article about the possibility of installing a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor battery at a new site on America's west coast. The report states in part:
The U.S. agency tasked with protecting the country from missile attacks is scouting the West Coast for places to deploy new anti-missile defenses, two Congressmen said on Saturday, as North Korea’s missile tests raise concerns about how the United States would defend itself from an attack... ...West Coast defenses would likely include Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missiles, similar to those deployed in South Korea to protect against a potential North Korean attack... ...Congressman Mike Rogers, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee and chairs the Strategic Forces Subcommittee which oversees missile defense, said the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), was aiming to install extra defenses at West Coast sites. The funding for the system does not appear in the 2018 defense budget plan indicating potential deployment is further off... ...When asked about the plan, MDA Deputy Director Rear Admiral Jon Hill said in a statement: “The Missile Defense Agency has received no tasking to site the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense System on the West Coast.” The MDA is a unit of the U.S. Defense Department. Congressman Rogers did not reveal the exact locations the agency is considering but said several sites are “competing” for the missile defense installations... ...Rogers and Congressman Adam Smith, a Democrat representing the 9th District of Washington, said the government was considering installing the THAAD anti-missile system made by aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp, at west coast sites... ...In addition to the two THAAD systems deployed in South Korea and Guam in the Pacific, the U.S. has seven other THAAD systems. While some of the existing missiles are based in Fort Bliss, Texas, the system is highly mobile and current locations are not disclosed. A Lockheed Martin representative declined to comment on specific THAAD deployments, but added that the company “is ready to support the Missile Defense Agency and the United States government in their ballistic missile defense efforts.” He added that testing and deployment of assets is a government decision."
Big problem here—THAAD isn't capable of defending the country against incoming ICBMs. It is a system developed to counter theater ballistic missiles. In other words it is meant to swat down short to medium-range missiles, and at the high-end of its envelope, intermediate-range ballistic missiles, not long-range, fast and high-flying ICBMs. The first test of THAAD against a simulated IRBM occurred just last July, and its developmental past had plenty of issues. Additionally, THAAD isn't capable of defending continent sized areas like America's high-flying Ground Based Missile Defense (GMD) interceptors. THAAD batteries based on the west coast of the U.S. would be nearly useless as they are built to intercept less capable missiles during their terminal phase of flight. If eventually future iterations of THAAD become capable of swatting down fast and high-flying intercontinental ballistic missiles as they make their final descent towards their targets, such a system may be able to protect key cities on the west coast. But considering North Korea's latest missile, the Hwasong-15, is capable of hitting anywhere in the United States, and its range is likely to only grow greater in the future, deploying some sort of advanced THAAD battery that doesn't even exist now to the west coast would mean the North Koreans would just target somewhere else. Really, the whole report is likely based on a misunderstanding of America's BMD capabilities by head lawmakers and on Reuters and other outlets not having anyone with the knowledge base to question those statements. Sadly, this is an all too common occurrence.
US Army US Army THAAD battery troops in front of a launcher and interceptor.
The Pentagon and the Trump Administration look to expand America's Alaska-based GMD arsenal from 44 interceptors to 64. Those missiles are claimed to be capable of providing a midcourse intercept screen for the U.S., supposedly including Hawaii. Vandenberg AFB in California also has GMD capability, but for testing purposes, and it is not an active ballistic missile defense site. If anything, more GMD interceptors deployed to Vandenberg AFB in an operational format would seem like a much better investment than deploying useless THAAD batteries to locations on the west coast. Regardless, the fact of the matter is that none of these systems have been proven effective in combat. Even their testing conditions remain questionable and likely don't really simulate real-world conditions where a missile can be fired at a moment's notice. This is especially true in regards to a situation where multiple enemy missiles are launched over a short period of time. All told the complexities of America's missile defense systems, and especially of its long-range GMD system and the rickety command and control, communications, and sensor architecture that goes along with it, make its effectiveness outside of scripted test scenarios questionable." Even the long-running MIM-104 Patriot missile system, which has a controversial past dominated by false statements and metrics as to its anti-ballistic missile effectiveness, has once again turned into a perceived missile shield with almost mythical powers. The PAC-3 variant of the system, which is specially adapted for intercepting short-range tactical ballistic missiles, along with the earlier PAC-2 variant has seen success in Saudi Arabia as of late. UAE has also used the Patriot to swat down incoming missiles. Israel, another operator of the Patriot, has had positive results with the system in recent years as well, even against diminutive drones. But a New York Times article published today paints a different and likely far more realistic picture of the Patriot's effectiveness when it comes to intercepting increasingly more capable missiles fired by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in western Yemen.
Israel Government A February 12th, 1991 Patriot missile launch targeting Iraqi Scud short-range ballistic missiles. At the time the Patriot was described as one of the biggest successes of Desert Storm, but it turned out the missiles intercepted few if any enemy targets.
Analyst Jeffrey Lewis noted in the piece exactly what we at The War Zone have been saying about the Trump Administration in particular for some time now:
“Governments lie about the effectiveness of these systems. Or they’re misinformed... And that should worry the hell out of us.”
The bottom line here is that missiles of all types, even the finest the West can produce at any cost, fail for a variety of reasons. These can include manufacturing faults, software glitches, environmental factors, wear and tear, and especially operator error. And in many cases multiple missiles are fired at a single target in hopes of overcoming the odds, but even then there is no guarantee they will work, especially if the malfunction is not in the missile itself. And this inconvenient reality isn't just present in super high-end anti-ballistic missiles, but also in those that are deployed in the air on a daily basis around the globe. Take the AIM-9X Sidewinder failure during the shoot down of a Syrian Su-22 by a US Navy Super Hornet over Syria last June. Reports of the failed Sidewinder missile were turned into ridiculous conjecture by even seasoned defense writers. It seemed as if many people just couldn't believe that a heavily tested and widely deployed AIM-9X could be a dud or could have failed due to the engagement parameters of the incident or other unforeseen circumstances. Talk of "dirty flares" used by Russians and a story from decades ago about an anomaly with the AIM-9L/M, which has a totally different class of seeker, ran rampant. The whole reaction was surprising as people's basic understanding of expendable ordnance seemed to have changed entirely over the past two decades. The idea that a missile costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions each, and hundreds of millions or even billions to develop, could fail to accomplish its mission in the age of iPhones may sound unbelievable to many. But it isn't a strange phenomenon, although it may be attributed somewhat to the greater trust we place in technology and the assumptions that go along with it.
USAF The air-to-air missile technology that the USAF bet on big ended up having miserable probability of kill metrics during the Vietnam War. These have slowly improved since, but even in Desert Storm, highly evolved variants of the same missiles used in Vietnam proved far from highly reliable. The quest for reliability of missiles of all types has continued over the last 25 years, and great improvements have been made, but no missile is totally reliable even against canned targets, let alone an enemy who is doing everything they can to survive. You can read a recap of air-to-air missile reliability during Vietnam and Desert Storm here.
The public sees military technology usually in its most sensationalized form—in big Hollywood movies, video games, or flashy Department of Defense and defense industry paid for commercials. Through this unrealistic lens, one missile means one kill. But in reality, that just isn't true. Often times people will argue about the air-to-air effectiveness of say the F-22 Raptor, stating that it can take down eight aircraft with its eight missiles, versus say and F-35 that can take down four aircraft with its four missiles. Once again, this isn't accurate. Depending on the situation, two missiles or more would be fired at a single target in order to help up the probability of a kill. With this in mind, the magazine depth of an aircraft or an air defense battery, whether it is shipborne or land-based, looks much smaller. Even during the anti-ship missile attack on US Navy ships patrolling the Red Sea off Yemen, multiple missiles were fired at the incoming anti-ship missile, including supposedly two SM-2s and a RIM-166 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile, in addition to advanced decoys. Even after all these munitions were expended, the Navy still didn't know if the ship actually shot down the anti-ship missile or if it just crashed on its own accord. Keep in mind that this was a relatively low-threat environment where a non-state actor had possession of rudimentary anti-ship missiles, not a high-end threat environment where a layered missile barrage was possible. Soaring talk of the Patriot's successes in Saudi Arabia, which could be at least partially inaccurate, has helped lead to the sale of more Patriot batteries to new customers including Poland, Romania, and Sweden. Other Arabian Gulf countries and Japan are also looking to upgrade or greatly expand their missile defense capabilities. Most notably Japan is moving forward with two Aegis Ashore sites stocked in part with SM-3 Block IIAs to help protect from incoming North Korean missiles. But in the meantime, Japan's key population centers and military installations are being guarded by PAC-3 Patriot missiles. The PAC-3 can provide defense against short-range ballistic missiles during their terminal phase of flight, but North Korea could unleash long-range missiles that fly a steep parabolic arc to overcome these defenses, which are imperfect even when targeting missiles flying within their core engagement envelope as we have already discussed.
USN Arleigh Burke class destroyer firing an SM-2 missile.
Considering what is at stake, both journalists and our political leadership need to separate myth from reality when it comes to the limitations of our ballistic missile defense capabilities. Shooting down a "bullet with a bullet" is a very complex task, and although the American defense-industrial complex has improved the chances of success of doing this across multiple platforms in recent years, the cold and honest truth is that the "ballistic missile defense" concept still remains very much a work in progress. There are some anti-ballistic missile concepts being developed on the dark horizon of defense technology that could add new "layers" of more effective ballistic missile defense, and thus increase the chances that an enemy missile will be neutralized before it can execute its dastardly deed. These include the possibility of introducing a long awaited "airborne laser" capability, albeit in unmanned form, aimed at busting ballistic missiles during their vulnerable boost stage. This is more or less the "holy grail" of BMD as it doesn't rely on costly interceptors, relies on less infrastructure to work, and it acts as a deterrent in its own way as the missile would fall back down on the country it was launched from. It can also be redeployed with ease. The possibility of a space-based anti-missile layer is also enticing. But these capabilities remain largely conceptual or partially experimental at best, and it will take years to mold them into an operational form, and there is risk that they will never make it to that point at all even after great investment. Considering the finite dollars available for missile defense, competition for bolstering existing capabilities or developing new ones will be intense to say the least. What is important is that the myth of a "missile shield" gives way to realistic talk about the benefits and shortfalls of the systems that make up such a notion. This is especially important when it comes to policy makers and critical decision making. We have discussed this in the past when it comes to President's Trump's chronically inaccurate blustering on the subject:
"Nobody is saying that the President needs to be a weapon systems expert, but when it comes to missile defense it is critical that he or she comprehends the basic capability types, including their real-world limitations, and how they fit into a larger strategic picture. Just thinking that America is protected by some nearly impenetrable ballistic missile shield and that we can sell something similar to our allies will result in a poor understanding of the overall strategic equation in an entire region. Most importantly it will give a false sense of security to the worst person possible—the individual that will be making major policy and military calls—potentially on very short notice. Metaphorically speaking, throughout history, in many cases when a commander's troops are equipped with heavy armor, that commander is likely to have them take more risks on the battlefield. But if that armor is far less effective than the commander understands it to be, what would seem like well balanced battle plan can end up being a massacre. The same applies in this case. When you think there is only a three percent chance an ICBM can hit the US, making risky foreign policy and military decisions in regards to the country with the ICBMs is simply more palatable. These chronic misstatements are also a credibility issue. Why delve into the details if in doing so you are always inaccurate? Whether this is a flaw that can be blamed on the President's advisors or a personal one is immaterial, but the fact that it exists is undeniable. "
AP A Ground-based interceptor is launched during a test. Roughly three dozen of these missiles are operational at Fort Greely in Alaska. That number is slated to rise to 44, with a request for another 20 missiles being on the table.
In the end the best missile is the one you never actually have to use. Avoiding conflicts and relying more heavily on diplomacy and strategic compromise, backed by a well equipped and highly trained military, is a far better solution than a myopic march to war that is backstopped by a extreme reliance on questionable defensive systems that are supposed to keep thousands, or even millions safe from incoming missile barrages. And if a war were to occur with North Korea in the coming months or years, the public will be furious over the failed missile shield that they were told was near perfect when it comes to stopping North Korean missiles. What people should know is the truth, which is that these systems offer some form of defense from small-scale attacks, but they represent anything but an impervious barrier. And it's very unlikely that a near perfect system will be available anytime in the foreseeable future. This is not just due to technological or financial limitations. It's also because it is so easy for the enemy, even one with highly limited resources, to effectively counter.
North Korean State Media Kim Jong Un inspects the monstrous HS-15 ICBM.
Simply put, it is far easier and cheaper for the enemy to simply build more missiles of advancing capabilities than it is to build an anti-missile architecture to counter all of them. Look how fast North Korea's ballistic missile program has moved along. Within the span of roughly five months, the rogue state went from a highly impressive first iteration of an ICBM to one that is far more capable and imposing, and features a huge nose section that could very likely be filled with multiple warheads and decoys in the not so distant future. These are things our missile defense system isn't really ready to deal with, and it isn't clear how many more billions of dollars will be required to make defending against a higher-end threat, and especially a more numerous one, a real possibility. Even North Korea's evolving submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) capabilities could potentially outmaneuver the THAAD battery deployed to the Peninsula and put other targets in the region at risk on short notice. Based on the rumor chain, we should expect big developments in Pyongyang's SLBM program in the coming year. So once again we come back to the reality that diplomacy and even compromise is a far better counter for an existential threat like an ICBM armed North Korea than endlessly trying to perfect a missile shield that will feature diminishing returns as North Korea's capabilities rapidly evolve. Not just that, but there are other ways of delivering nuclear weapon to US shores than atop an ICBM. None of this is to say that building better missile defenses is a useless cause, not in the least. For certain applications and scales the technology can be very useful, even if it is imperfect (Iron Dome for instance). But it must be looked at and relied upon as a temporary therapeutic treatment for our strategic ills and not a cure. Contact the author: [email protected] |
loga meeting
Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, uses styrofoam balls to illustrate how a surge in global oil supply has sent oil prices sliding, hurting the Louisiana oil and gas industry and the state budget on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016. (Photo by Jennifer Larino, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Louisiana lawmakers thinking about hitting up oil and gas companies to help close a $940 million shortfall in this year's state budget need to pick another target, industry leaders said Wednesday (Feb. 17).
"The state is as broke as we are," said Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association.
Briggs spoke Wednesday (Feb. 17) at the group's annual "State of the Industry" luncheon at the Windsor Court Hotel in downtown New Orleans.
Briggs spent most of his talk describing how a global oil glut threatens to keep prices low for the foreseeable future. Regional producers are in "survival mode" as new work dries up and profits diminish, he said.
Watch LOGA's Don Briggs use a cascade of pingpong balls to illustrate the oil glut.
Given that environment, the industry should not be expected to pony up more in taxes, he said.
"Where can the state get its money from? I don't know. You can't get it from us," Briggs said.
Both the state budget and the oil patch are intricately linked to oil prices, which have been locked in an historic slide. Oil futures are currently trading around $30 a barrel, down from a high near $100 in 2014.
Over that time, Louisiana has lost 11,600 jobs in the mining and logging sector, which includes oil and gas. Drilling has slowed just short of a halt and new projects are on hold.
In Baton Rouge, lawmakers are confronting a budget crisis enhanced by lower oil and gas severance tax revenue as well as a slow in sales tax revenue from areas of the state hit hardest by the downturn. Those areas include the Acadiana region and Houma, where the bulk of the job loss has occurred.
Briggs said the current crisis -- and the $2 billion shortfall anticipated next year -- is not merely the result of an unexpected fall in oil prices. Former Gov. Bobby Jindal and lawmakers knew the state would one day face a reckoning, but failed to address a growing problem, he said.
"They all have been knowing this was coming for a long time," Briggs said.
Where should Louisiana be looking to close the gap? Briggs acknowledged his was an unpopular stance, but argued Louisiana has more four-year universities than it can afford to support.
Louisiana has more than a dozen public colleges and universities. He noted Florida has 12 and more than four times the population.
Consolidating higher education would be a big step toward freeing up revenue, he said.
There is no clear path forward, but Briggs said taxpayers and small businesses can expect to bear the brunt of the pain. "What happens here is anyone's guess right now," Briggs said. |
Wireless 20/20 digs into preparations for the upcoming FCC 600 MHz incentive auction proceedings
It is time for bidders to start gearing up for the 600 MHz band incentive auction. This could be the last time a large block of valuable low-band spectrum will be up for sale in the foreseeable future. The Federal Communications Commission recently announced the schedule for the Broadcast Incentive Auction 1001. The deadline for broadcasters to file their initial Form 177 applications expressing their intent to participate in the reverse auction is Jan. 12. Each participating broadcaster that has completed an application must commit to whether it wants to sell all of its spectrum, engage in channel sharing or move to a lower channel or from a UHF to a VHF channel.
Having established the schedule and final procedures for the incentive auction, the FCC is now working to maximize the perceived value of this spectrum during the reverse auction in which broadcasters will offer to voluntarily relinquish some or all of their spectrum usage rights. Although the FCC has stated its central objective is to allow market forces to determine the highest price and best use of the 600 MHz spectrum, a final list of opening bid prices for the incentive auction has been released. The top opening bid price in the reverse auction, where broadcasters will sell spectrum to the FCC, has been set at $900 million for a station in the New York City metropolitan area.
In the run-up to the reverse auction scheduled to begin on March 29, the agency will hold a mock auction and a practice auction, in addition to training webinars and other tutorials. The FCC will also make available an interactive, online tutorial focusing on the pre-auction application process for the forward auction (Auction 1002) no later than Jan. 19. The FCC is expected to reach its projected 84 megahertz spectrum clearing target across more than 400 partial economic areas, but broadcasters are still running their simulation models to decide whether and how they are going to actually participate in the auction. If successful, the FCC could clear as much as 110 to 126 megahertz of 600 MHz spectrum with very low impairment.
• Most major broadcasting companies are likely to participate in the reverse auction to varying degrees, including CBS, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Media General, Nexstar Broadcasting, Entravision Communications, Meredith and Gray Television.
• Comcast recently stated it will consider selling some “spectrum usage rights” for its NBCUniversal broadcast television stations during the 600 MHz incentive auction, and based on whether it can expect a good price for giving up its spectrum.
• Other broadcasting companies have said they will take a wait-and-see approach to the auction.
Wireless 20/20 believes the FCC needs to keep up momentum for the auction by reassuring broadcasters there will be sufficient interest from carriers in buying their spectrum. Once the reverse auction begins there will be a maximum of 52 rounds, with the prices broadcasters get for their spectrum declining with each round. The process will continue until each broadcaster giving up spectrum is placed in a band or is declared a provisional winning bidder. As part of the auction process, the broadcast television bands will be reorganized or “repacked” so the television stations that remain on the air after the incentive auction occupy a smaller portion of the UHF band, thereby clearing contiguous spectrum that will be repurposed as new, flexible-use licenses suitable for providing mobile broadband services.
The forward auction will ultimately set the prices broadcasters relinquishing rights in the reverse auction will be paid. The FCC Form 175 participant filing window for the forward auction (in which wireless carriers will bid on the broadcast spectrum) was extended to between Jan. 26 and Feb. 9. But mobile operators will not actually know what spectrum will be auctioned until the FCC completes the reverse auction process. Once the reverse auction is completed it will take the FCC a few weeks to set the initial clearing target for how much broadcast spectrum it is going to receive and the band plan. After this brief break, the forward auction will begin. Based on extensive experience in spectrum auctions in the U.S. and Canada, Wireless 20/20 believes mobile network operators and other investors must be ready for the forward action to begin in May or June 2016. Although it is not clear how long the forward auction will last, the FCC estimates the whole process could take two to three months with the auction closing in the third quarter of 2016.
The FCC has released its opening bid prices for the forward auction in which wireless carriers will bid on the broadcast spectrum. Wireless 20/20 has been carefully reviewing forecasts of how much spectrum will be cleared for wireless users in the broadcast incentive auction and how much money the forward auction may attract. Projected auction revenues differ widely and depend on how many broadcasters choose to relinquish their spectrum. In a recent report, Wells Fargo predicted the 600 MHz auction will generate total bids of between $30 billion and $35 billion – a range below the astounding $41.3 billion in net revenue generated in the FCC’s AWS-3 auction, but still above all of the other spectrum auctions the FCC has conducted. This record-breaking result came with major carriers taking on significant debt.
The success of this auction may depend on carriers continuing to have almost an insatiable appetite for spectrum. Carriers are currently making a direct trade off between capital being used for network densification and allocating capital for the spectrum auction. Mobile carriers are also considering their spectrum needs and the amount they can spend on acquiring new spectrum in light of their current holdings, available capital and the amount of debt they took on to help pay for spectrum they acquired during the AWS-3 spectrum auction. AT&T and Verizon Communications had to sell off assets to help finance their license payments, and this will undoubtedly affect these carriers’ ability to invest in the incentive auction. Although 600 MHz spectrum has been prized for its long reach and ability to penetrate walls, the incentive auction is scheduled when AT&T and Verizon are increasingly looking to expand their network capacity. T-Mobile US and Sprint still need additional low band spectrum to enhance their LTE network coverage.
Wireless 20/20’s analysis has been influenced by a series of recent statements and financial reports from wireless carriers, signaling that there may be a land rush for these new broadcast spectrum licenses.
• Although AT&T is highly leveraged after its investments in DirecTV and Mexico, the carrier is likely to bid aggressively and dominate the forward auction by spending as much as $10 billion on a nationwide 2×10 megahertz block of spectrum.
• Verizon will likely limit its bid to a total of $5 billion. Verizon is less interested in 600 MHz spectrum, which is very good for coverage but not so good for capacity in densely populated areas. Verizon is concerned about the interference between 600 MHz and 700 MHz spectrum, and is more focused on densifying its network with small cells and acquiring fill-ins for existing low-band spectrum.
The FCC has set aside 30 megahertz in most markets for smaller wireless carriers and investor groups that hold a smaller share of sub-1 GHz spectrum to bid on during the forward auction. That would allow Sprint and T-Mobile US to not have to bid against Verizon and AT&T.
• Sprint has already stated that it will not participate in the auction. Sprint’s rationale for bowing out is understandable since it lacks capital to bid aggressively against T-Mobile US and the company holds a sizable chunk of high-band spectrum that still need to be deployed to improve capacity.
• Sprint’s decision not to participate could make T-Mobile US the only nationwide carrier eligible to bid on the reserve spectrum, and the “un-carrier” will reportedly bid as much as $8 billion in the 600 MHz auction. T-Mobile US has been selling off towers and more to raise cash, and CEO John Legere has predicted T-Mobile US will walkaway a winner in the incentive spectrum auction.
• Several tier-two regional and tier-three rural mobile service providers appear to be enthusiastic about the opportunity to participate, bid on and win valuable 600 MHz spectrum for mobile broadband, including US Cellular, C Spire, Cellular One, Bluegrass Cellular, Cellcom, Carolina West Wireless, Chariton Valley Wireless, Chat Mobility and Union Wireless.
• Other possible “dark horse” players, or those companies that do not currently play in the wireless industry include Google, and cable companies like Comcast and Charter Communications have stated that they are exploring participating as a bidder in the forward auction to build a low-frequency canopy for areas without Wi-Fi coverage.
• Investor groups are also likely to emerge as bidders once we get closer to the forward auction. Chamath Palihapitiya is backing a company called Rama that has ambitions to compete with Verizon and AT&T by bidding in the range of $4 billion to $10 billion in the 600 MHz incentive auction, with the hope of winning enough airwaves to start a new carrier to shake up the U.S. wireless industry.
Smaller carriers and investors face a unique challenge in positioning themselves to secure the most spectrum at the lowest cost and may not be prepared to execute a success strategy for the 600 MHz auction.
Wireless 20/20 has prepared the following check-list for mobile operators and investors as they prepare for the Upcoming 600 MHz Broadcast Spectrum Incentive Auction:
1. Keep a close watch on the reverse auction as it unfolds during the next few months. This will determine how much 600 MHz broadcast spectrum is released and the degree of impairment across more than 400 PEAs. The prices broadcasters receive for their spectrum will decline over a maximum of 52 bidding rounds until a provisional winning bidder is declared for each band.
2. Be patient as the FCC repacks the 600 MHz band so the remaining broadcast TV stations occupy a smaller portion of the UHF band and as much contiguous spectrum can be cleared and repurposed as new flexible-use licenses for mobile broadband services.
3. Organize your forward auction team, including experts in bid tracking, game theory, simulation and competitive analysis, and begin preparing for the forward auction as the reverse auction unfolds.
4. Develop your auction strategy and run a large number of simulations to prepare for the actual bidding process several weeks before the forward auction begins.
5. It is critical that smaller bidders determine the funding needed to effectively participate, and begin project planning, team building and auction preparation early in 2016.
6. Once the FCC has released the cleared spectrum and opening bid prices for the forward auction, these bidders should focus on valuing the spectrum in those PEAs targeted for their company and by likely competitors.
7. The key to winning targeted licenses at the most favorable prices is setting up an auction war room well in advance to conduct auction simulations, track auction bidding and competitive auction bidder prediction.
Wireless 20/20 helps mobile operators and their vendors develop their 4G LTE launch strategies, service offerings, marketing plans, technology roadmaps and business cases. More information about the WiROI™ Neutral Host Network Venue Tool can be found at www.wireless2020.com/WiROINeutralHost/.
Editor’s Note: Welcome to Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. |
Coordinates:
The Marine Life Park is a part of Resorts World Sentosa, Sentosa, situated in southern Singapore. The 8-hectare (20-acre) park houses two attractions, the S.E.A. Aquarium and the Adventure Cove Waterpark, and featured the largest oceanarium in the world from 2012 to 2014,[2][3] until it was surpassed by Chimelong Ocean Kingdom.[4]
S.E.A. Aquarium [ edit ]
Walking in the SEA Aquarium
The S.E.A. Aquarium (South East Asia Aquarium) was the world's largest aquarium by total water volume until overtaken by Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in Hengqin, China. [4] It contains a total of 45,000,000 litres (9,900,000 imp gal; 12,000,000 US gal) of water for more than 100,000 marine animals of over 800 species.[1] The aquarium comprises 10 zones with 49 habitats. The centerpiece of the Aquarium is the Open Ocean tank with more than 18,000,000 l (4,000,000 imp gal; 4,800,000 US gal) and 50,000 animals.[5] Until 2014 when eclipsed by China's Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, it had the world's largest viewing panel, 36-metre (118 ft) wide and 8.3-metre (27 ft) tall, which is intended to give visitors the feeling of being on the ocean floor.[2] They also have a conservation group called Guardians of the S.E.A.A., [6] which supports research, education and public engagement efforts to protect the marine environment.
Collection [ edit ]
The S.E.A. Aquarium houses the world's largest collection of manta rays, including one of only a few giant oceanic manta rays in captivity. It also showcases 24 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, scalloped hammerhead sharks, the Japanese spider crab, and relatively uncommonly-exhibited species such as the guitarfish and the chambered nautilus.[7]
Here is the list of some marine animals living in the S.E.A. Aquarium:[8]
Attractions [ edit ]
The main attractions include:[9]
Dining [ edit ]
Dining is possible at the Ocean Restaurant by Cat Cora and S.E.A. Side Snacks.[9]
Shopping [ edit ]
The gift shop located at the exit of S.E.A. Aquarium sells a variety of souvenirs.[9]
Controversies [ edit ]
The resort originally planned to include whale sharks, but conceded that it might not be feasible to house them and has dropped the plan.[10] There is ongoing controversy over captures of wild dolphins from Solomon Islands and the facilities in which they are kept in Subic Bay, Philippines. On 14 October 2012, Quezon City court issued a 72-hour temporary environment protection order to block the re-export of the dolphins to Marine Life Park, following a civil rights suit filed by animal rights groups. RWS spokesperson reiterated that the resort's acquisition of the 25 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins adhere to regulations governed by the United Nations Environment Programme under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.[11]
Another appeal was made and the exports to Singapore were temporarily held. When the hold had expired, RWS exported the dolphins while the court appeal was ongoing. On the flight to Singapore, one of the dolphins, Wen Wen, died.[12] This was the third dolphin that has died prior to the opening of the Dolphin Island section within the park.[13]
Adventure Cove Waterpark [ edit ]
The Adventure Cove Waterpark (simplified Chinese: 水上探险乐园; traditional Chinese: 水上探險樂園; pinyin: shuǐshàng tànxiǎn lèyuán) is situated in southern Singapore. The park features seven water slides, including the region’s first hydro-magnetic coaster, Riptide Rocket. It also features bay like Bluwater Bay, a wave pool and tubinthe Adventure River. The 620-metre (2,030 ft) river, one of the world’s longest lazy-rivers, have 13 themed scenes of tropical jungles, grottoes, a surround aquarium and more.[2]
Rides and attractions [ edit ]
Rides and attractions include:[14]
Type Name Description Thrilling Water Slides Dueling Racer Consists of two vertical water slides which allow two riders to race down the slide at a time by lying on a mat. Pipeline Plunge A slide that is shaped like a pipe which allows two riders to slide down together in a float. Riptide Rocket Southeast Asia’s first hydro-magnetic roller coaster, which provides strong climbs and steep drops and shocking twists to two riders on a float. Spiral Washout Funnel-like slide which caters to two riders on a float. Splashworks Like a multiple obstacle course, Splashworks consists of balance beams, tight ropes, cargo nets, and platform cliff jumps. Tidal Twister Slide with unpredictable twists and turns, catering to two riders on a float. Whirlpool Washout On a float, riders slide down the ride in twists, turns and dips. At the end of the slide, people will be facing backwards. Immersive Experience Ray Bay An up-close encounter with the rays. Additional charges apply. Rainbow Reef Snorkel amongst reefs and 20,000 tropical fishes of four different species. Fun For Kids Adventure River Float in a tube through 14 habitats around the waterpark. The habitats include a Grotto, dolphin lagoon and ray bay. Big Bucket Treehouse A water playground with mini water slides and water-filled buckets tipping. Bluwater Bay Ride the waves in a giant pool. Seahorse Hideaway Shallow wading pool with fountains.
Dining [ edit ]
The Bay Restaurant serves local favourites, Asian and Western delights. Dining is al-fresco style and situated on a terrace overlooking the Waterpark.
Shopping [ edit ]
Reef ‘n Wave Wear is a one-stop destination for swim apparel, gifts and souvenirs.
Transport [ edit ]
The park is accessible by MRT (via the Sentosa Express), bus, car and by foot.[15]
See also [ edit ] |
Minister Koen Geens said Europe 'may not realise this but this is the reality’
Europe will ‘soon have more Muslims than Christians’: Belgium warns against ‘making an enemy of Islam’ at Brussels attacks hearing
Muslims will soon outnumber Christians in Europe, a Belgian minister has
claimed.
Speaking at a hearing into the Brussels attacks, Koen Geens said the European
Community may not realise it “but this is the reality”.
His comments were followed by Belgian deputy prime minister Jan Jambon warning
against Europeans “making an enemy of Islam” describing it as “the worst
thing we can do”.
Times Newspapers Ltd 2
Speaking at the EU Parliament, Mr Geens said: “In Europe, very shortly we’re
soon going to have more practising Muslims than practising Christians.”
“That is not because there are too many Muslims, it is because Christian are
generally less practising¿ Europe does not realise this, but this is the
reality.
Mr Jambon then added: “I’ve said a thousand times, the worst thing we can do
is to make an enemy of Islam. That is the very worst thing we could do.
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“We have 600,000 to 700,000 Muslims in Belgium and the overwhelming majority
of those people share our values.
“To make an enemy of all of those people, we really will be creating problems.
We need to see who the terrorists are, who supports the terrorists, what
networks are there to support them.
“That is who we need to tackle and we need to get all of the rest of the
Muslims on our side not working against us.”
Picture supplied by Xposure 2
Elsewhere in his speech, Mr Geens said: “terrorists are using Viber, WhatsApp,
Twitter, Skype or Facebook to communicate with each other.”
He told EU lawmakers that in the past governments could rely on
telecommunications operators to cooperate with investigators, but that
social media firms haven’t been as forthcoming.
Mr Geens said “communication with these providers is far from optimal,
and that has been a major obstacle for the investigations.”
He said “the EU needs to step in urgently to coordinate national
responses and a discussion with providers.”
The March 22 suicide attacks on the Brussels airport and subway killed 32
people. |
SUNRISE, FLA. (WSVN) - A man barricaded himself in a Sunrise home for nearly five hours, Monday afternoon, after allegedly shooting and killing a mother and daughter inside, officials said.
Police confirmed, Monday afternoon, that two people were found dead inside the house, located inside Del Rio Village, near University Drive. The suspect, identified as 32-year-old Kevin Nelson, surrendered to SWAT with his arms raised in the air after negotiating for nearly five hours with police.
According to police, someone called 911 to report shots fired, at around 11 a.m. Officials have not released who the caller was.
Upon arrival, police made contact with the suspect inside the home.
“Once the officers made contact, they called the residence. He picked up, stated, ‘I’m in here,’ hung up the phone, and since then we have been negotiating,” said Sunrise Police Officer Michelle Eddy.
Neighbor Michael Plesak shot a Facebook Live video of the SWAT response. “A couple seconds later, they came pounding on my door, and so I ran downstairs,” Plesak said. “I cut the feed and ran downstairs.”
Sean Grasmick, who also lives in the area, said he thought officials confused the suspect with him. “I just walked outside my house, and I was on the phone, and they thought that was me because I understand the gentleman — well, I wouldn’t call him a gentleman at this point — was on the phone with the cops, and when I walked out my door, they probably thought that I was the person, and they told me to lay right down, and they put me in handcuffs. They figured out that it wasn’t me.”
Nelson walked out with his hands up at 3:30 p.m.
The two people found dead inside are a woman and a juvenile. “During the search of the residence, two deceased were found,” Eddy said. “I’ve got a 40-year-old female and a 15-year-old female.”
According to police, the 40-year-old woman and her daughter lived with Nelson in the Sunrise townhouse. They have not released whether she was in a relationship with Nelson. The 15-year-old girl is the 40-year-old’s daughter.
They both died from gunshot wounds.
Family members on the teen’s father’s side of the family identified the younger victim as 15-year-old Shanice Smith.
Her grandfather, Courtney Smith, said he suspected there might have been trouble in the home.
“She was an ‘A’ student, you know. She had a bright future ahead of her,” he said. “I didn’t know, but I kind of suspected something, but I saw her at Christmas. I brought her a Christmas gift, and I wanted to talk to her, you know, because I do not know anything about this guy.”
Nelson is currently being questioned by detectives. He has not been charged.
Nelson had been charged with domestic violence in October, police said, after he splashed bleach around his home and punched his wife. It remains unclear whether his wife and the victim in today’s shooting are the same woman.
Negotiators used Bernard Lee’s living room for hours during the standoff.
“It just seemed like what was happening is they wanted to make him calm as possible, so they kept telling the gentleman, ‘Would you please surrender? Come out with your hands up,'” Lee said.
Cindy Vogel, a neighbor, was disgusted by the murder.
“I think it’s horrible. I think if someone is so miserable, they should take it out on themselves, not somebody else, especially a kid,” Vogel said. “We’re just sad that it happened.”
Another neighbor, Jay Noska, said, “It’s brutal. It’s heartless. It’s disgusting.”
Police continue to investigate.
Copyright 2018 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
The National Democratic Alliance government has named 10 Bharatiya Janata Party leaders independent directors at public sector undertakings. BJP members have been offered positions on the boards of the Engineers India Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd and the National Aluminium Company Ltd, among other PSUs, The Indian Express reported.
BJP’s Delhi unit Vice President Shazia Ilmi (pictured above) has been appointed an independent director at Engineers India Ltd; Gujarat IT cell convenor Rajika Kacheria, who is a cosmetologist, has been named the head of Cotton Corporation of India Ltd; and Bihar MLA Kiran Ghai Sinha has been listed as an independent director of the National Aluminium Company.
Moreover, teacher-turned politician and BJP’s minority chief in Gujarat Asifa Khan will be on the board of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd; former BJP MLA candidate from Odisha Surama Padhy has been given a position on the board of Bharat Heavy Electricals; and BJP’s Karnataka unit secretary Bharathi Magdum will serve on the state trading board.
The United Progressive Alliance administration was criticised for appointing Congress loyalists to the boards of PSUs. In 2014, the Securities and Exchange Board of India had amended its rules to make it mandatory to have at least 50% non-executive or independent directors on the boards of public sector companies and at least one woman director. |
Sean Casey
Studio City, California
Much of what we know about storms—and especially much of what we see about them on TV—comes from self-made storm chasers. Filming tornadoes up close and personal demands a love of adrenaline-pumping adventure and an intimate understanding of a twister’s cryptic workings. After nine years of running into and away from dangerous weather, storm chaser and IMAX filmmaker Sean Casey, 40, has mastered these skills and uses them to educate and entertain the public. Casey is most famous for footage that has aired on the Discovery Channel’s docudrama series Storm Chasers, which follows scientists as they deploy data-collecting probes inside tornadoes from the confines of 16,000-pound armored vehicles. But the filmmaker has been deciphering the natural world through IMAX films for some 21 years. “You have to really understand your subject matter so that you can film the more amazing parts of it,” says Casey, who has made films about volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, ecology, and other subjects. “Going out with an IMAX camera,” he says, “appeals to my sense of hunting and gathering images.”
Paul Breed
Solana Beach, California
“I grew up in Alaska. My dad ran a bush airline, and if you didn’t fix it yourself, it didn’t get fixed,” says Paul Breed, 46, owner of a small software company in California. “Since that point in time I have always been a builder of things.” Breed and his son have constructed prototype lunar landers to compete in the X-Prize Foundation’s Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, slated for late 2008. A $1 million prize will be given to the first team that can demonstrate a prototype capable of performing maneuvers that simulate ferrying a payload between the surface of the moon and lunar orbit.
Breed wants to show that small teams can build relatively inexpensive rockets—he’s doing it for less than half a million dollars. His lander design looks like the frame of a pyramid and uses hydrogen peroxide for fuel?. Breed and his son were the first team to publish online their full FAA experimental permit application, which painstakingly documents the safety of the trial, often a formidable barrier to entry. As Breed had hoped, other teams have copied their method. “This is a passion, not a moneymaking thing. If I can persuade three other people that a small team of two or three people can build serious rockets, that’s significant.”
Ian Kluft
San Jose, California
Impacts by asteroids have transformed the course of life on Earth, most famously by wiping out the dinosaurs. Identifying craters gives important information about how often impacts occur and what their effects on Earth might be. Unfortunately, geologic changes tend to erase these craters. Ian Kluft, a 42-year-old commercial pilot, believes he has identified a previously overlooked crater in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, famous for hosting the annual Burning Man arts and countercultural festival. Kluft’s first notion that Black Rock’s rocks were suggestive of an impact crater came during a trip there in 2003. Since then he has assembled an assortment of data supporting his idea that the remnants of an impact crater measuring 40 miles across can be found in the desert and its surroundings. Patterns in the layers and types of some rocks, as well as a series of concentric rings visible in satellite imagery, suggest a dramatic impact in the region.
Kluft began his research in earnest after finding the notations of two mining company geologists from the 1980s. “They had enough information between them that if they had even thought of it, they could have made the discovery in 1980,” Kluft says. He hopes to gather enough evidence to persuade a professional geologist to take on the quest.
Stephen Felton
Cincinnati, Ohio
Stephen Felton says snails may not look like much, but they fight mean—and they have been doing so for a long time. Some 450 million years ago, Cyclonema gastropods were attacking other snails by secreting acid onto their victims’ shells and then boring holes through them. While this mirrors the behavior of modern snails, no one knew their ancient relatives used the same strategy—until Felton came along.
For more than 40 years, Felton, 73, has been scouring the Cincinnati area’s fossil-rich geology as a pastime, assisting professional and fellow amateur geologists. A highlight of his career came in 2001 when the Paleontological Society recognized his achievements by awarding him the Harrell L. Strimple Award, which celebrates exceptional amateur paleontologists. |
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is getting a rough ride for going after doctors and small-business types allegedly exploiting the tax system to their benefit.
Perhaps Mr. Trudeau would get more brownie points pursuing those gaming the real estate sector, people who are leaving a far more critical problem in their wake than anyone sprinkling income to pay a few less dollars in tax.
The latest census information underscored once again the inexplicable divide that exists between average incomes in certain parts of the country and house prices. The median total income for households in Metro Vancouver, for instance, was $72,662 in 2015 – 15th in the country. In the city of Vancouver, it falls to $65,327 – an area in which the average house price is $1.4-million. In neighbouring Richmond, B.C., the average house price is over $1-million and the median total income is a paltry $65,241.
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For subscribers: CRA crackdown on real-estate taxes fails to track collection results
Only when you go further out into the burbs, where house prices are lower, do incomes begin to rise. In Surrey, for instance, the average home price is $764,000 and median total income was $77,494 in 2015, according to the recent census.
In a place such as Calgary, median household income was just under $100,000 and average house price around $460,000 – so there isn't nearly the disconnect that you see in Vancouver or Greater Toronto, where the average home costs just over $750,000 and median household income was $78,373.
In Metro Vancouver, some of the most expensive areas for housing – Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond – claim some of the highest poverty rates.
Richard Wozny, a real estate analyst with Site Economics, has delved into the numbers in Metro Vancouver. He says that in the world of economics there is something called the median multiple, which is the ratio of income to average house price. So, if you earn $100,000 and the average house price in the city in which you live is $200,000, than the ratio is two to one, or simply two.
A median multiple of three or under is considered affordable; five and over is considered seriously unaffordable. Hong Kong, one of the most expensive housing markets in the world, had a multiple of 19 in 2015, according to a Demographia study. Australia's Sydney, another city with extreme house prices, had a multiple of 12.
Metro Vancouver's median multiple exceeds 20, with some municipalities such as the city of Vancouver and West Vancouver in the high 30s. And yet, the median household incomes in some of those same ultra-expensive neighbourhoods fall below the regional average. How do you explain that?
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Mr. Wozny says even factoring in the likely percentage of retirees in some of these areas, the numbers make no sense. More likely, some of those buying homes for $1-million, $2-million or $3-million are not reporting their full incomes. We know that, in some cases, wealthy offshore investors are using trusts and numbered companies as well as spouses and children to buy homes while reporting little annual income.
Meantime, people in the "outer burbs" living in homes of less value are reporting more. In other words, there are people of moderate income living in Metro Vancouver who are, through their taxes, paying a greater share of the costs of the regional services and infrastructure that others, making far more income, also enjoy.
Canada has become an Eden for money launderers and tax evaders, allowing many to freeload off of others who can ill afford it. It was disclosed this week that since 2015, the Canada Revenue Agency has identified hundreds of millions in taxes owing in real estate transactions. Yet only three cases nationwide have been referred for criminal prosecution.
Mr. Wozny looks at a city like Seattle that has a higher median household income than Vancouver and lower average house prices. He believes part of the reason for that is because the United States has tougher regulations, including taxing worldwide incomes. This helps prevent offshore opportunists from scamming the tax system and pillaging the real estate market to the detriment of honest, hard-working Americans.
It's ironic that the proposed tax changes that are causing Mr. Trudeau so much grief are supposed to benefit the middle class, that fuzzy demographic the Prime Minister loves to defend.
Yet, that same middle class in parts of this country are getting absolutely hosed by some who are helping to drive up housing prices, reaping the financial rewards from it, but not paying the same costs as everyone else.
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It's not fair. And the government needs to do something about it. |
The yellow on the Heavy Bolter looks a lot brighter here than in person, but I'm pleased with the results so far - I am however taking suggestions as to what uniform the arm of the zombie guardsman should be (it's recent plague so won't have had time to rot too much yet).
Notice the lack of silly emo hair.
Next up, the first of my troops choices - a squad of 5 Kakophoni
These guys have yet to be assembled beyond this stage, but will hopefully be getting the treatment tonight (well, short of attaching the guns that is).
Finally, the tactical support squad
After my first little list building effort, then realising that these guys couldn't form the basis of your mandatory troops choices, I went with the 3rd company elite to allow me to use the Kakophoni in that role. I still loved the idea of the volkite squad however, so I stuck them in there as mid ranged fire support for Eidolon's unit. I'll fill the squad out as the points levels increase but it's staying at ten guys for now (I think I still have a spare helmet from my last purchase of these somewhere so won't have to use a bare head at least) I do love the sculpted shoulder pads and torsos too, they give a nice variety in the squad and I can't wait to get some paint on them.
In the still to do pile I've got a squad of 5 palatine blades to build (including some serious sword-bending tonight) and there will be another 5 kakophoni and a rhino to come to fill out my 1000pts.
So that's it for building for now, though there are still some vanguard veterans to do for the Dusk Knights.
This year however I've decided to get stuck into Dave Weston's Hobby Season, and so I present to you my to-do list for the next 12 months (this will of course be subject to change, addition and deletion as my butterfly tendencies affect my output!).
Dusk Knights
Complete 4 drop pods. 1 requires weathering, 1 needs final layers then weathering, 1 requires complete assembly and painting, and I haven't bought the 4th yet.
Buy, build and paint 3 Land Speeders.
Paint the remaining Librarius Conclave models.
Paint the 12 Devastator models I have built.
Paint the Honour Guard.
House Seraphus
Finish painting Sire Gabriel, and complete his base.
Emperor's Children
Paint Eidolon.
Buy, build and paint 2 squads of Kakophoni.
Build and paint 5 Palatine Blades.
Paint 10 Tactical Support marines.
Buy, build and paint 1 Rhino.
Obsidian Enclave
If I manage to complete all of the above, then this will be my prize.
Buy, build and paint 2 Ghostkeels.
Buy Mont'ka.
Buy, build and Paint 3 Broadside suits.
Begin the re-paint of all the Tau into new colour scheme.
See you in the paint room soon!
TBE These guys have yet to be assembled beyond this stage, but will hopefully be getting the treatment tonight (well, short of attaching the guns that is).Finally, the tactical support squadAfter my first little list building effort, then realising that these guys couldn't form the basis of your mandatory troops choices, I went with the 3rd company elite to allow me to use the Kakophoni in that role. I still loved the idea of the volkite squad however, so I stuck them in there as mid ranged fire support for Eidolon's unit. I'll fill the squad out as the points levels increase but it's staying at ten guys for now (I think I still have a spare helmet from my last purchase of these somewhere so won't have to use a bare head at least) I do love the sculpted shoulder pads and torsos too, they give a nice variety in the squad and I can't wait to get some paint on them.In the still to do pile I've got a squad of 5 palatine blades to build (including some serious sword-bending tonight) and there will be another 5 kakophoni and a rhino to come to fill out my 1000pts.So that's it for building for now, though there are still some vanguard veterans to do for the Dusk Knights.This year however I've decided to get stuck into Dave Weston's Hobby Season, and so I present to you my to-do list for the next 12 months (this will of course be subject to change, addition and deletion as my butterfly tendencies affect my output!).Dusk KnightsHouse SeraphusEmperor's ChildrenObsidian EnclaveSee you in the paint room soon!TBE
Greetings all, it's been a busy time for The Burning Eye recently, hence the lack of many meaningful posts on the blog. The major reason for that is of course Hero for a Day, which as I hope you'll have seen from last week's post was an absolute blast, and a huge success, so we'll be doing it all again next year (probably in September to avoid all the summer holidays).Since then I've had a bit of a break from 40k, and have been messing about with my Magic the Gathering card collection. Rob over at 30kplus40k very kindly donated his no longer used collection when he came up for HFAD, so I've been eagerly poring over them to see what can improve my decks and what new ones I can come up with. I'm going to be dipping my toe into a few previously untouched areas, including slivers and my first ever mono green deck.Back to the main course though - what else have I done since HFAD? Well, this Saturday just gone Tom and I ran some introductory games at our local stockist, Melton Toys. I'm pleased to say that we had three willing young subjects in the morning who all went away having enjoyed their games, and was glad to see a few older faces expressing an interest, hopefully we'll see at least some of them at MAD Wargaming in the future.Other than that, models have been rolling off the production line, with a building frenzy going on.Dusk Knights:I bloody love terminators. Not their rules, obviously, anyone who knows me will have heard the tirade spat in that direction, but as for the models, they're right up there in terms of the rule of cool. Betrayal at Calth notched that up a few levels with the Cataphractii pattern armour, and I recently dropped a few quid to get myself a full squad. I've built them up over the last week and now I just need to put them on bases (which I conveniently already have, though they're a bit more plain than most of the DK stuff).I've kitted them out with the following combinations, which I think give them decent presence in all phases of the game. 2x Heavy flamer and chainfist, 3x Combi bolter and lightning claw, 4x Combi bolter and power fist, 1x Combi bolter, power sword and grenade harness. The squad therefore comes with a decent amount of anti infantry shooting, the chainfists will work nicely on tanks and buildings, and are also put onto the heavy flamer guys to make sure I minimise the number of models I need to try to avoid getting killed first (a trick I learned from using Dark Eldar reavers). I didn't want to go paired lightning claws because of the reduction in fire output, but equally 3 seemed a decent number to still have an impact on those power armour squads.The Contemptor will still be getting a bit of conversion work from here, but because of the way the model goes together (the whole thing comes in two halves, front and back) I wanted to make sure it was properly glued before I got the saw out to reposition legs and torso. I think the Kheres assault cannon is a no-brainer so I won't be bothering magnetising or painting the alternative. I actually also got a spare Kheres for the other arm with this model that you can't use in 40k, so look out for an EC Contemptor hitting my to do pile in the next 12 months.Next up for the Dusk Knights on the build line will be a third drop pod.In the meantime though I have started work on the second tactical squad, and progress has been decent so far!Emperor's Children:Now that HFAD is out of the way, and the last tale of gamers my club ran is finished (kind of fizzled out at the end really, Ryan couldn't be caught, Mj's chaos were so far behind he couldn't reach 3rd place and once I lost to Ryan I couldn't catch Martin either) we've decided to jump straight back in. Hopefully you've seen the army posts I've been running as close to weekly as I can (it's amazing how difficult it can be sometimes to get non bloggers to answer a few simple questions, haha) and I've started building my collection in the last couple of nights.First up then, Eidolon. The Boss, Lord Commander, Head Honcho, whatever you want to call him, in my practice game despite whiffing his first set of attacks, he still munched his way through a unit of 6 Thallax and a Mechanicum Domitar. He won't be the first EC to get paint, but I'm hoping he will be the most impressive (until I get Fulgrim of course). I have to say (and yes I know I'm late to the party in this respect) that I was really very impressed with how the model goes together - this is not at all like most models, the parts fit seamlessly and even without instructions, it's obvious where everything goes. |
Image copyright PAcemaker Image caption Sinn Féin said they are committed to making the institutions work.
Sinn Féin has rejected a DUP proposal for an an immediate restoration of the assembly in Northern Ireland along with a parallel, time-limited process to deal with culture and language.
The DUP leader, Arlene Foster, made the proposal at a DUP meeting in Belfast on Thursday night.
She described it as a "common-sense solution" to the political deadlock.
However, Sinn Féin said the DUP had not addressed the cause of Stormont's collapse.
In June, talks between parties failed to restore a power-sharing executive.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Sinn Féin's leader at Stormont, Michelle O'Neill said: "The DUP have failed to embrace principles of power sharing, they have failed to embrace the principles at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement, of equality, of mutual respect and of parity of esteem.
"They have acted disrespectfully towards Irish identity and Irish culture and they have failed to deliver people their rights, whether that be marriage rights, language rights, economic rights or cultural rights.
Analysis: Enda McClafferty, BBC News NI political correspondent
It was billed as a significant speech by the DUP leader - a potential game changer that could break the political deadlock.
But within minutes of Arlene Foster going public with her "common-sense solution", her one-time political partners in Sinn Féin quickly torpedoed it.
As Mrs Foster was leaving the stage, the Sinn Féin press machine was moving into overdrive.
Read more here.
"The issue of a parallel process has been discussed and disregarded throughout the course of all of the negotiations which we have had to date.
"It was an offer they knew would be rejected and it is certainly not a new offer," she added.
Image copyright Press Eye Image caption Arlene Foster addressed a DUP meeting in Belfast on Thursday night
Addressing her party, Mrs Foster said if the parties fail to reach an agreement, then direct rule from London would be the only option.
Mrs Foster added that more talks would be a "waste of time unless there is some new thinking".
She said that the executive should be restored immediately so ministers can deal with ongoing pressures in areas such as health and education.
At the same time, she said, parties should "agree to bring forward legislation to address culture and language issues in Northern Ireland within a time-limited period to be agreed".
Mrs Foster acknowledged the need to deal with culture and language, but those matters "should not have a greater priority than health or education or the economy".
Image caption UUP leader Robin Swann said the speed of Sinn Fein`s rejection of Mrs Foster's suggestion reflected Gerry Adams' intransigence
"We have nothing to fear from the Irish language nor is it any threat to the Union. However what we cannot and will not do is simply agree to one-sided demands," she said.
Mrs Foster also accused Sinn Féin of building "a barrier to the return of Stormont".
Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann acknowledged the DUP's proposal to restore the executive, but said that in light of Sinn Féin's "intransigence", other options should be explored.
"If Sinn Féin and the DUP can no longer work together then other alternatives should be explored to ensure that Northern Ireland is governed by Northern Ireland politicians," he said.
Image caption SDLP leader Colum said Arlene Foster had missed an opportunity to show 'real leadership'
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the DUP proposition was a can-kicking exercise.
"Anything can be agreed in a time-limited parallel process can be agreed now.," he said. "Time is not the issue, a critical lack of political generosity is."
The Alliance party's deputy leader described the ongoing deadlock as a "complete and utter mess".
Stephen Farry told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme: "The DUP need to show a much stronger sense of realism about the depth of reasons as to why we're in the current crisis.
"At the same time, Sinn Féin needs to show a little bit more in terms of flexibility and the speed of their rejection was telling of their attitude towards the talks."
He also told the programme it seemed "inevitable" there would be some sort of intervention from the UK government.
Image copyright EPA Image caption Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams says that without a stand-alone Irish Language Act, there will be no new assembly
Northern Ireland has been without a functioning devolved government since January, when the coalition led by the two biggest parties, the DUP and Sinn Féin, collapsed over a botched green energy scheme.
The late deputy first minister, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness, stood down in protest against the DUP's handling of an investigation into the scandal, in a move that triggered a snap election in March.
One of the major sticking points in talks to restore devolved government has been Sinn Féin's demand for an Irish Language Act.
Earlier this week, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said there would be no Northern Ireland Assembly without an Irish Language Act. |
The decades-old video has been provided by the Oprah Winfrey Network. | AP Photo Oprah gives tape with Puzder abuse allegations to Senate
Senators in both parties have viewed an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in which President Donald Trump's Labor Secretary nominee Andrew Puzder's former wife leveled allegations of physical abuse against him, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The decades-old video, which is not easily found, has been provided by the Oprah Winfrey Network, those sources said. The video has been provided to senators in a Capitol Hill office building, according to people who have seen it.
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"I’ve arranged for senators on the committee to see that ... I thought that was a reasonable request. No reason not to see it," said HELP Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). "That happened 27 years ago. His former wife has said it was all not true. She has reiterated that in a heartfelt letter to members of the committee and has been willing to talk to members of the committee so I don’t think that’s an issue. “
The episode is called "High-Class Battered Women," according to a source familiar with the matter. It aired in March, 1990.
Alexander said he supports Puzder's nomination. But Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the HELP Committee that will vote on Puzder's nomination, said she was "deeply troubled" by the video.
"It was important for us to know all of the information about any candidate that comes before us," Murray said in an interview.
Last month POLITICO reported that Puzder's former wife, Lisa Fierstein, appeared in disguise on Oprah to discuss her abuse allegations, which she has since retracted, most recently in a letter to the Senate HELP Committee.
The HELP Committee asked OWN for all episodes about domestic violence between 1985 and 1990, OWN said in a written statement, and OWN turned over 20 “for the committee members to review in confidence.” OWN "did not provide copies or transcript of the episodes and has not provided information about the identities of anyone who appeared,” it said.
Susan Collins (R-Maine) has reviewed the episode, as well.
Collins is among at least four GOP senators undecided on Puzder, whose confirmation hearing has been scheduled for Thursday. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Tim Scott of South Carolina are also not decided on his nomination. All serve on the HELP Committee. Puzder can only lose two GOP votes if all Democrats oppose his nomination on the Senate floor. It could take just one GOP defection to tag his nomination as "unfavorable" in a committee vote, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could still bring the nomination to the floor.
The abuse allegations are only one of the controversies dogging Puzder. His nomination was rocked last week after his spokesman said he had employed an undocumented immigrant for years. The fast-food executive also apprenticed to a Mafia-connected lawyer early in his career, drew criticism for conditions for workers at his CKE restaurant chain and faced accusations of sexism over advertisements showing bikini-clad women eating his company's hamburgers.
Scott bristled at reports that indicated he opposed Puzder. Still, he said it was "concerning" that it took Puzder five years to pay back taxes on the undocumented immigrant who once worked for him.
"I have not come out with a position," Scott said. "I've never said I was opposed to him, at all."
Collins did not say whether the video swayed her. The Maine senator also said she'd inquired about making the video public but was told it was merely being provided so senators could come to their own decisions.
"I was told that it's owned by the Oprah Network and they will not share it. I couldn't even have my staff view it," she said.
Not all senators on the HELP Committee have seen it. Both Democratic Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Tim Kaine of Virginia said they had not.
GOP leaders said that they were confident Puzder would prevail regardless of the swirl of controversy around him. Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has called on Trump to withdraw Puzder's nomination, which is now Democrats' top target as Republican leaders fight to get their 52-member caucus behind him.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said the nomination was "all good."
"Full speed ahead. I've talked to a number of [undecided senators] and I'm confident he'll be confirmed. He's a good nominee," Cornyn said.
Collins said nothing about what Fierstein said on the tape. Another senator who has viewed the video also declined to describe it.
Fierstein’s accusations first surfaced in local news reports around the time of her divorce from Puzder. She has since suggested she made them up to bolster her divorce settlement. Puzder has always denied that he abused her.
Fierstein appeared on the Oprah show in a wig and glasses, and was identified only by the made-up name of Ann.
View Puzder 'vowed revenge,' wife told Oprah An excerpt of 1990 interview of 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' with Lisa Fierstein, ex-wife of Andrew Puzder. POLITICO obtained the tape from Charlotte Fedders, a fellow guest on the Winfrey show.
The Campaign For Accountability, a left-leaning nonprofit, will appear Tuesday in court in St. Louis County to try to unseal divorce-related documents concerning the abuse charges that were sealed the day after President Donald Trump tapped Puzder for the job.
One document that wasn't sealed, a 1988 petition, shows Fierstein accused Puzderof having "assaulted and battered [her] by striking her violently about the face, chest, back, shoulders, and neck, without provocation or cause," and that as a consequence she “suffered severe and permanent injuries.”
The judge in the case dismissed the petition, in which Fierstein sought $350,000 in damages, on the grounds that Puzder's divorce agreement had already settled all Fierstein's prior claims against him.
But Fierstein's allegations of abuse weren’t confined to filings related to a divorce agreement. Court documents indicate that Fierstein filed an abuse claim against Puzder before the divorce — within a couple of weeks of the alleged May 1986 domestic violence incident. Fierstein also sought a protective court order against Puzder, documents show. The couple formally separated in June,1986. |
TOBRUK Libya (Reuters) - Libya’s budget deficit could more than double to 19 billion Libyan dinars ($15 billion) this year, as political and civil chaos ravage the OPEC member’s oil revenues, a senior lawmaker said on Wednesday.
Libya usually enjoys large budget surpluses thanks to oil export revenue but last year it ran an 8 billion-dinar deficit as a wave of protests cut into crude output. That civil strife has since spiraled into fighting that is close to civil war.
In response to the economic crisis, the House of Representative plans to cut spending in the 2014 budget next week to 52 billion dinars from 64 billion dinars, Abdelsalam Ansiya, a senior lawmaker expected to be the new head of the budget committee, told Reuters.
Parliament will also slash its oil revenue forecast to 17 billion dinars from a previous estimate of 26 billion, he said.
“In the first six months there were almost no oil revenues,” said Ansiya, who was the previous budget committee head before June elections for a new parliament.
Oil production has increased to 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) but two months ago output was less than a quarter of that due to year-long protests at ports and technical problems at facilities that had stood idle.
For months Libya’s oil production was less than 100,000 bpd, barely enough to supply its own Zawiya refinery.
Ansiya said the budget deficit estimate of 19 billion dinars - up from a previous estimate of 10 billion - was on the pessimistic side.
“I personally think the deficit will be less,” he said.
SALARIES AND SUBSIDIES
The government is unable to control brigades of former rebels who helped oust Muammar Gaddafi that are now battling each other.
Chaos reached the capital Tripoli in late July and after weeks of fighting an armed opposition group from the city of Misrata took control, forcing parliament to move to the eastern city of Tobruk.
Expatriates have pulled out, diplomats have evacuated and foreign airlines have mostly stopped flying to Libya.
The Tobruk parliament is being challenged by a rival assembly and government, set up by the Misrata group controlling Tripoli. But Ansiya said the House of Representatives was still able to cooperate with the central bank in Tripoli.
“The central bank is (still) paying salaries and subsidies,” he said.
The slump in oil revenues forced the central bank to eat into its foreign currency reserves, which were down to $109 billion by the end of June, the last reported figure, from $130 billion in August 2013.
The bank might have to draw on more funds as Libya has yet to finalize legislation governing bond issues, a plan long in the works and hard to achieve due to the turmoil, analysts say.
Ansiya said parliament would not cut the public sector salaries and subsidies that make up more than half of the budget and would instead target ministerial and infrastructure spending since the militia fighting has made many projects impossible.
That might help the budget, but may also fuel discontent among Libyans. Anger over ageing schools and poor roads were among the grievances of Libyans who rose up against Gaddafi.
Major projects such as a new airport for Tripoli have already been halted by chaos and political infighting.
A huge repair bill from the Tripoli fighting is also waiting. The old airport terminal, the runway and much of the civilian air fleet were damaged during the fighting in Tripoli in July and August. |
Share. The best of Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade. The best of Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade.
Editor's Note: List last updated September 11, 2015.
This November, the Xbox 360 will turn 10 years old. Throughout that decade, its game library has grown to include some of the best shooters, RPGs, platformers, and adventure games ever seen. But with the release of the Xbox One, the Xbox 360's enormous lifespan is inevitably coming to a close.
This year, your top 25 game selection committee is Brian Albert (Editor), Ryan McCaffrey (Executive Previews Editor), Mitch Dyer (Editor), Miranda Sanchez (Associate Editor), Tristan Ogilvie (Video Producer), and Brandin Tyrrel (Associate Editor).
Our criteria are as follows:
The primary question this top 25 list is intended to answer is simple: "What are the 25 best games we played on this platform?" How much fun we had with the games is obviously our primary concern, but we also considered elements like longevity/staying power, influence, and innovation.
You may note the absence of impressive, unforgettable games, but the hard truth is that, no matter how much we love those games and more, Xbox 360's 10 years have been so good to gamers that there simply isn't room for everything on the Top 25. The following are the best of the best, and they should not be missed.
Exit Theatre Mode
Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s South Park role-playing game isn’t so much a fantastic licensed title as much as it is Season 18 of the long-running satirical TV series all by itself. The 12-14-hour Stick of Truth takes both inspiration in its creators’ favorite video game genre as well as sheer glee in mocking all of its tropes and conventions – all with a decidedly South Park bent that will have you laughing longer and harder at its outrageous, genuinely funny storyline. By the end of the adventure, it’s clear that no other South Park video game should ever be made without heavy, direct involvement from Stone and Parker. Between television, film, theater, and now video games, is there an entertainment medium they aren’t hilarious in?
Exit Theatre Mode
Before realizing the depths of Fez, the outward-facing appeal was its simple yet powerful gameplay hook. The world, which exists in 3D but presents itself in 2D, can be rotated 90 degrees with each pull of the triggers. It disrupts your understanding of perspective by creating opportunity in the way the world has changed. What you see is what you get, so regardless of the physical logic of a space, its visual appearance makes it easy to understand where you can go and how you can get there. Its reverence for video games, the lovely soundtrack, hilarious inside jokes, and mysterious wonder are the claws that dig Fez’s hooks in deep. Mind-bending puzzles, insane alien languages, and risk-free exploration make Fez’s delightful, nostalgic world a joy to wander. It borrows liberally from many things, but Fez is still unlike anything else on Xbox 360.
Exit Theatre Mode
Mojang’s out-of-nowhere PC masterpiece found much more success on Xbox 360 than most anyone anticipated. Its spacial limitations, in addition to a new developer in 4J Studios, meant it wasn’t even the same Mojang game. Yet Minecraft on consoles works because of those things. 4J has been vigilant about not only trying to achieve feature parity with its PC counterpart, but giving Minecraft on Xbox 360 unique content that console gamers can really relate to. Character skins and regular free updates fill the void left by the absence of mods, and not in a “good enough” way, either. Local co-op allows for instant creativity as you and yours build a unique world from scratch, using harvested materials and collaborative teamwork. Minecraft’s greatest success is its commitment to not living as a half-baked imposter. This is the real deal, and it continues to impress its ever expanding Xbox 360 audience with killer content updates.
Exit Theatre Mode
It’s hard enough to build a successful new franchise, but creating one that becomes a key pillar for an entire console platform? So many planets have to align: releasing at the right time in a system’s lifecycle, marketing it well, crafting likeable characters, and – oh yeah – designing an incredible game helps. Gears of War pulled off the miracle, and Gears of War 3 is the pinnacle of the series to-date. Epic storyline with genuinely emotional moments? Check. Huge battles and set-pieces? Yep. Polished multiplayer with dedicated servers? Mmm-hmm. The greatest Horde mode on the planet? Damn straight. The brand-new Beast mode that puts a clever reversal on Horde? Absolutely. Oh, and four-player cooperative campaign play too. Outside of The Orange Box and the Mass Effect Trilogy, Gears of War 3 is arguably the best overall package in the history of Xbox 360.
Exit Theatre Mode
Car porn. That’s what developer Turn 10 Studios shamelessly advertised Forza Motorsport 4 to be, and that, gloriously, is what it is. The Xbox’s answer to Gran Turismo might not look quite as stunning as Sony’s signature racer (though it does look outstanding), but it’s decidedly more playable and packed with many more user-friendly features.
First, the cars themselves: a select handful are viewable inside and out in Autovista mode, and the rest are fully modeled so that you can drive from cockpit or traditional external camera views. And the rides themselves vary wildly – everything from electric cars (Tesla Roadster) to pop-culture superstars (DeLorean DMC-12) to every flavor of supercar in-between. Outside of the races, you’ve got challenges to issue to and receive from other players, a robust multiplayer suite, car customizations out the tailpipe (including the return of the user-generated content farm known as the Auction House), and more. It is the ultimate game for gearheads on 360.
Exit Theatre Mode
If you could distill feelings into physical form, Rayman Legends would be bottled joy. Its imaginative level designs -- which challenge you to think about 2D spaces in a more serious way than ever -- play into new gameplay systems that improve on Rayman Origins’ perfected, traditional approach. Plus, a huge amount of Origins’ amazing levels are included in Legends. The addition of Murfy, a secondary character any local co-op player can control with the tap of a button, turns precision platforming into a more complex, timing- and skill-based exercise.
Exit Theatre Mode
The Metroid School of Design teaches philosophies that many games have abandoned in recent years, but Shadow Complex’s politically driven thriller story uses it magnificently. Backtracking with new skills to open new areas allows players to discover darker secrets about a shady organizations true intentions. Its twin-stick shooting and varied player abilities create intense, awesome scenarios where speed, platforming, and twitch reaction is essential to surviving small encounters or huge boss battles. Shadow Complex is the closest thing we have to a traditional Metroid game, and it has plenty of unique style to call its own. This was a defining Xbox Live Arcade Release at the time, and it remains an essential, unforgettable Xbox 360 game.
Exit Theatre Mode
Emotion has been the holy grail of video games since the dawn of the medium. Making the player genuinely affected by his or her actions on the screen is as rare as it is powerful. Telltale’s five-episode, adventure-game season of The Walking Dead – made in partnership with Robert Kirkman – swings an emotional hammer, and it will hit you squarely in the face. As convicted felon Lee, you must protect orphaned young girl Clementine as the two of you try to simply survive and endure the horrors of a post-zombie world. You must experience this. You must.
Exit Theatre Mode
Before killing off major characters became the new hotness, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare shot you in the face and irradiated you with nuclear explosions. Its terrific campaign marked the start of what is now Call of Duty’s signature style: big set pieces, tons of action, and excellently paced, varied single-player missions. Plus, All Ghillied Up remains one of the best FPS levels ever created. Modern Warfare’s multiplayer was the first big console shooter to give Halo a run for its money, and the excellent maps, perks, and loadout system laid the groundwork for every Call of Duty (and countless other shooters) to come.
Exit Theatre Mode
Klei’s stealth game proved that the satisfaction and complexity of classic, Splinter Cell-style hardcore stealth could be equally effective in 2D. The agile hero’s ability to navigate intricate spaces, use various tools to lure enemies, hide, and traverse made Mark of the Ninja an absolute joy to play. Its sharp controls, gorgeous art, and demanding difficulty went a long way, too. This is expert-level, AAA quality in small-scale, independent form. Mark of the Ninja’s options for lethal/non-lethal/evasive tactics, when put into the context of its exceptional level designs, makes for one of the most memorable downloadable games to hit the platform. |
As Buffalo Sabres fans continue to pull their hair out waiting for a Jack Eichel extension, the man himself wants to calm the fan base down. From Bill Hoppe of Buffalo Hockey Beat, Eichel was clear about his intentions to stay with the Sabres.
I have no problem playing the year out…I’m pretty adamant on staying a Sabre and staying in Buffalo. I want to bring some excitement to this town and the contract thing will take care of itself.
That meshes with the latest reports that an extension might not be reached before training camp begins, but instead of panic over his future with the club fans should feel confident their superstar is committed long-term. Eichel is on the final year of his entry-level contract and was eligible for an extension on July 1st, but might want to wait for his own breakout season before signing anything.
Injured for much of last year, Eichel doesn’t have the eye-popping numbers that many expected when he was taken second-overall behind Connor McDavid in 2015. While he’s still scored 113 points in 142 games, he’s seemingly been passed over in many minds by Auston Matthews as the second-best young player in the league. When he has been healthy though, Eichel has shown that he could be a devastatingly effective offensive player, easily capable of scoring at a point-per-game rate over the next few years. It’s unlikely that playing the year out would do anything to hurt his long-term value, but he could prove that he deserves an extension approaching $10MM per season if he put together a healthy productive year.
It’s clear that the Sabres are on the same page, with GM Jason Botterill recently saying they wanted to lock up Eichel for eight seasons. He’s the face of the franchise going forward, and it would be incredibly unlikely for a new contract to not be finished at some point before the start of the 2018-19 season. It might just have to wait until next year. |
In today’s film news roundup, Willem Dafoe is honored, August Maturo gets his first feature film, and Fathom Events dates the documentary “Alien Intrusion.”
FESTIVAL AWARD
The 29th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival has selected Willem Dafoe for its Icon Award for his performance in “The Florida Project.”
The award will be presented at the festival’s gala on Jan. 2 at the Palm Springs Convention Center.
“Willem Dafoe is a versatile actor who has appeared in over one hundred films in his stellar career,” said festival chairman Harold Matzner. “In ‘The Florida Project,’ Dafoe delivers a career defining performance, as a hotel manager overseeing his sometimes unruly residents, which has received numerous critical accolades.”
Past recipients of the Icon Award include Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall, Tom Hanks, and Meryl Streep. For his performance in the film, Dafoe received best supporting actor recognition from the New York Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics, and the National Board of Review. He has received a best supporting actor nomination from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, Broadcast Film Critics’ Association, and Satellite Awards.
Dafoe was nominated for Academy Award supporting actor nominations for “Platoon” and “Shadow of the Vampire.” His other film credits include “To Live and Die in L.A.,” “Spider-Man,” “Spider-Man 2,” “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou,” “John Wick,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” and “Murder on the Orient Express.”
CASTING
August Maturo is making his feature-film debut on New Line’s “The Nun,” Variety has learned exclusively.
Maturo starred as Auggie Matthews from 2014-17 on the Disney Channel series “Girl Meets World.” Additional credits include “Teachers,” “The Odd Couple,” “Bones,” “Suburgatory,” “See Dad Run,” “Raising Hope,” “Dads,” and “Weeds.”
Demian Bichir and Taissa Farmiga are starring. The studio began developing “The Nun” last June, shortly after “The Conjuring 2” opened. Producers are James Wan, who directed the two “Conjuring” movies and produced the sequel, and Peter Safran, who produced both movies.
Corin Hardy directed “The Nun,” written by Gary Dauberman and Wan, which centers on Bichir’s character traveling to Rome to investigate the killing of a nun. The demon nun, a manifestation of the evil spirit Valak, came to life in “The Conjuring 2” from a painting by Patrick Wilson’s paranormal investigator Ed Warren and later attacked Vera Farmiga’s Lorraine Warren.
The film opens July 13. Maturo is represented by Paradigm, Mills Kaplan Entertainment, and attorney Eric Suddleson.
SPECIAL EVENT
Fathom Events, KAOS Connect and Creation Ministries International are presenting the documentary, “Alien Intrusion: Unmasking A Deception” on Jan. 11 at more than 700 theaters.
The showings will include an exclusive interview with author and producer, Gary Bates, along with others who have personally experienced the UFO phenomenon.
“We’ve extensively researched the UFO and extraterrestrial phenomenon from all sides,” Bates said. “We have spoken with scientists, experts and even people who claim to have had encounters with beings not of this world. Our documentary, ‘Alien Intrusion’ delves deeper than any before it. We believe it provides a definitive answer to this seemingly baffling mystery.”
Shelly Maxwell of KAOS Connect, “This riveting documentary includes spine-chilling, first-person testimony of ‘alien visitation’ experiences that Bates, researchers, scientists and theologians all believe to be real, but for reasons that are different from long-standing popular beliefs. Bates provides compelling answers that challenge common perceptions, origins and meanings of these visitations. His conclusions left me awestruck.” |
Overview It's the game of Operation PLUS Despicable Me 2 Movie Fun! Pull the wacky pieces from the Minion patient. Comes with 4 unique collectable Minions that play across the entire Despicable Me 2 line. For Ages: 6
Operation Despicable Me 2 is Mischievous Fun
It's the classic skill game of Operation, now with multitudes of minions! Stuart's having a bad day and it's up to you to fix him. Operate on Stuart to remove the unicorn fluff or fix his nutty noggin and his toxic tongue. Collect all of Stuart's Funatomy parts to win and earn extra points with Minion Medics, but don't set off the buzzer. Are your hands steady enough to win the Despicable Me 2 version of Operation?
Features:
Gameboard featuring Stuart the Patient and tweezers
4 Minion Medics
11 plastic Funatomy parts
1 storage bag
Game guide
Minions is an upcoming 2014 American 3D computer-animated comedy film and a spin-off/prequel to the 2010 hit Despicable Me. It is being produced by Illumination Entertainment for Universal Pictures. Written by Brian Lynch, it will be directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, and produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healey.[1] Sandra Bullock will voice Scarlet Overkill, the villain of the film,[2] and Jon Hamm will voice her husband and inventor, Herb Overkill.[3] The film is scheduled to be released on December 19, 2014.[4] The film was first teased in the ending credits of Despicable Me 2, where three of the Minions are seen auditioning for the film.[5]
Despicable Me 2 is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated comedy film and the sequel to the 2010 animated film Despicable Me.[7] Produced by Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures, the film is directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, and written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio. This marks the first time that Illumination Entertainment made a sequel film.
Steve Carell, Russell Brand, and Miranda Cosgrove reprise their roles as Gru, Dr. Nefario and Margo, respectively. Kristen Wiig, who played Miss Hattie in the first film, voices agent Lucy Wilde, while Ken Jeong, who played the Talk Show Host, voices Floyd Eagle-san. New cast members include Benjamin Bratt as Eduardo (aka El Macho) and Steve Coogan as Silas Ramsbottom, head of the Anti-Villain League (AVL).
The film premiered on June 5, 2013 in Australia,[8] and was theatrically released in the United States on July 3, 2013.[2] The film received mostly positive reviews from critics and became a massive box office hit by grossing over $918 million worldwide against its budget of $76 million.[5][6]
A prequel/spin-off film, Minions, focusing on the little yellow henchmen before they met Gru, is set to be released on July 10, 2015.[9] |
For other uses, see FC Anzhi
Football Club Anzhi Makhachkala (Russian: Футбо́льный клуб «Анжи́» Махачкала́, pronounced [fʊdˈbolʲnɨj kɫup ɐnˈʐɨ məxətɕkɐˈɫa]) is a Russian football club based in Makhachkala, capital of the Republic of Dagestan. Founded in 1991, the club competes in the Russian Premier League, playing their home games at the Anzhi-Arena.
On 18 January 2011, Anzhi Makhachkala was purchased by billionaire Suleyman Kerimov,[2][3] and subsequently made numerous high-profile signings, including those of striker Samuel Eto'o[4] and manager Guus Hiddink. Following severe budget cuts ahead of the 2013–14 Russian Premier League season, the club lost most of its key players and went on to finish bottom of the table, which resulted in relegation to the Russian National Football League at the end of the season, returning at the first attempt.
History [ edit ]
The club was founded in 1991 by former Dinamo Makhachkala player Aleksandr Markarov with the head of Dagnefteprodukt - Magomed-Sultan Magomedov and took part in its first season in the Dagestan League the same year. The club's name Anzhi means pearl in local Kumyk language and is a former name of Makhachkala. FC Anzhi ended up as league champions with an unbeaten record and 16 wins out of 20 matches.[5]
Due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the club entered Zone 1 of the Russian Second Division (the third-highest tier) in 1992[5] and finished in fifth place. The club won their Group in 1993, but due to league reorganisation were not promoted, and remained in the new Western Zone of the third tier until a second-place finish in 1996 guaranteed promotion to the First Division,[6] under the coaching of Eduard Malofeev.[5] A key player in Anzhi's early history was Azerbaijani international forward Ibragim Gasanbekov, who was the team's top scorer in all of their first seven seasons. He was league top scorer in 1993 (30 goals) and 1996 (33 goals).
In 1999, Anzhi won the First Division, and were thus promoted to the top-flight Premier League for the first time.[5] The side missed out on a bronze-medal finish on the last day of the season, as they conceded a last-minute Torpedo Moscow penalty which took their opponents into third place.[7] On 20 June 2001, the club played in the final of the Russian Cup for the first time, losing to Lokomotiv Moscow on penalties after a 1–1 draw.[5]
Anzhi finished 15th and were relegated from the Premier League in 2002, but during their first season back in the First Division, they reached the semi-finals of the Russian Cup, where they lost 1–0 to Rostov.[8] In their seventh season in the First Division, Anzhi won the league and returned to the Premier League.[5] On 5 December 2010, defender Shamil Burziyev died in a car accident at the age of 25.[9]
Purchase [ edit ]
Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o was the team's captain until his departure to Chelsea in 2013
On 18 January 2011, the club was purchased by Dagestani billionaire Suleyman Kerimov,[10] but later it was revealed that the President of Dagestan, Magomedsalam Magomedov, met Kerimov and gave him a 100% stake in the club, including 50% of the shares of the former owner of the club Igor Yakovlev, in exchange for financial support.[11] Kerimov was planning to invest over $200 million in infrastructure, of which a substantial amount will go in building a new stadium with a capacity of more than 40,000 spectators, which would meet all UEFA requirements.[12]
Kerimov's investment was immediate as the club made signings in the 2011 winter transfer window. The first significant signing came on 16 February, when the club announced the free transfer of Brazilian left-back Roberto Carlos, a FIFA World Cup winner in 2002.[13] Further signings included €10 million on another Brazilian, the former Corinthians midfielder Jucilei[14] and €8 million on Moroccan winger Mbark Boussoufa from Anderlecht. Boussoufa's transfer was finalised in the last minute of the window, on 10 March.[15]
In summer 2011, the club signed the Hungarian Balázs Dzsudzsák, who signed a four-year deal to transfer for a reported €14 million.[16] Anzhi also bought Russian midfielder Yuri Zhirkov from Chelsea for a similar fee.[17] On 23 August 2011, Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o signed from Inter Milan for approximately €28 million on a world-record €20.5 million annual salary.[18]
In February 2012, the club appointed the experienced Dutchman Guus Hiddink as its new manager[19] following Yuri Krasnozhan's two-month-long spell in charge. Hiddink's first signing was Congolese defender Christopher Samba, joining for £12 million from Blackburn Rovers.[20]
On 30 January 2012, Roberto Carlos announced his plans to retire at the end of the season.[21] He ended his football career on 9 March and took up a role as the club's director.[22]
On 10 October 2012, Anzhi opened a youth academy, the first in Dagestan in order to develop youth talents for the first team. The academy is being run by Anzhi Sporting Director Jelle Goes.[23]
On 22 July 2013, Hiddink resigned from his post as manager, ending an 18-month stint. His newly appointed assistant, countryman René Meulensteen, was promoted to the manager position.[24] However, after 16 days as the team manager, Meulensteen was sacked.[25]
Budget cuts [ edit ]
On 7 August 2013, Kerimov decided to reduce the team's annual budget by two-thirds.[26][27] As a result, on 15 August 2013, Yuri Zhirkov, Igor Denisov (who had only joined the club in June) and Aleksandr Kokorin (who himself had just signed weeks before) were packaged to Dynamo Moscow for an undisclosed fee. The three players had been purchased with the previous two years at a cost exceeding €50 million.[citation needed] Remchukov said that the reason for the move was the "sharp deterioration in the health of Suleyman Kerimov, because of worries about the club's lack of success".[25] In addition, Dynamo also signed Christopher Samba, Vladimir Gabulov and Aleksei Ionov from Anzhi. Other cost-cutting transfers included Samuel Eto'o and Willian to English side Chelsea (the latter of which had only just signed for Anzhi in January 2013); Lassana Diarra, Mbark Boussoufa and Arseniy Logashov to Lokomotiv Moscow; João Carlos to Spartak Moscow; and Oleg Shatov to Zenit Saint Petersburg. The firesale continued into January 2014 with the sale of striker Lacina Traoré to Monaco for €18 million and the sale of midfielder Jucilei to Emirati side Al-Jazira.[28]
Several of the players sold had been recent signings for Anzhi; Aleksandr Kokorin had signed from Dynamo only a month before being sold back to the Dinamiki and had yet to make an appearance for Anzhi. Igor Denisov and Aleksei Ionov had both only signed in June and had played only a handful of matches before being sold. Christopher Samba had rejoined Anzhi in July after a spell with Queens Park Rangers. Willian had joined in January and played only 11 league matches before being sold.
The budget cut resulted in Anzhi performing very poorly in the 2013–14 Russian Premier League: when the season ended, Anzhi finished last and were relegated after amassing a record-low of three wins and 20 points, making them the worst last-placed team in Europe.[29] However, they returned to the top division at the first attempt.
Recent history [ edit ]
Yuri Semin was announced as Anzhi's manager on 18 June 2015, signing a one-year contract with the option of an additional year.[30] After gaining only 6 points in first 10 games of the 2015-16 season and with Anzhi in last place, Semin left Anzhi on 29 September 2015.[31] After Semin's departure, Ruslan Agalarov was placed in charge of the club,[32] until the end of the season, saving them from relegation with a play-off victory over Volgar Astrakhan.
Pavel Vrba was appointed as the clubs new manager on 30 June 2016,[33] following the expiration of Ruslan Agalarov's contract on 31 May 2016.[34] On 28 December 2016, Suleyman Kerimov sold the club to Osman Kadiyev,[35] with Pavel Vrba leaving by mutual consent two days later,[36] with Aleksandr Grigoryan being appointed as the clubs new manager on 5 January 2017.[37]
Anzhi was relegated from the Russian Premier League once again at the end of the 2017–18 season, losing the relegation playoffs to FC Yenisey Krasnoyarsk with an aggregate score of 4–6. On 13 June 2018, FC Amkar Perm announced that the Russian Football Union recalled their 2018–19 season license, making them ineligible for the Russian Premier League or Russian Football National League.[38] As a consequence, Anzhi took Amkar's spot and was not relegated.
Crest and colours [ edit ]
Anzhi badge from 2007 to 2009. The club returned to the original in 2010.
The club's crest includes a yellow eagle in traditional Caucasian clothing with elements of the Dagestani flag.
The club's name derives from the word Anzhi which means "pearl" in the Kumyk language. It was also the ancient name for the land around where Makhachkala is situated.
In the 2013–14 season, they changed their kit sponsor from Adidas to Nike.
Stadium [ edit ]
Due to the risk of possible armed conflict in Dagestan, the club's players primarily live and train at a village near Moscow, at a training base previously used by Saturn Moscow. The club fly in for home matches,[39][40] which have a heavy security presence.[41]
The club's 28,000-seat Anzhi Arena was built in 2003, and due to its facilities is not used in European competition, for which Anzhi use the Lokomotiv Stadium in Moscow. A high-priority goal of Kerimov when he purchased the club was the construction of a new 40,000 seater ground.[42][43]
Supporters [ edit ]
Anzhi receive most of their support from the Northern Caucasian region, particularly from the city of Makhachkala. The club also enjoys support from fans scattered all over Dagestan, and the local area in general.[44] The club is hated by some supporters of the Moscow-based clubs as well as Zenit Saint Petersburg, in part out of jealousy of the club's former wealth and also out of ethnic and religious animosity.[45]
European competitions [ edit ]
Anzhi participated in the 2001–02 UEFA Cup. Their opponents were Rangers of Scotland. Instead of usual home-and-away fixtures, UEFA decided to hold a single match in a neutral venue—the Polish Army Stadium in Warsaw—due to the unstable situation in neighbouring Chechnya. Rangers won the match 1–0.
After finishing fifth in the 2011–12 Russian Premier League, Anzhi qualified for the group stage of the UEFA Europa League for the first time in the club's history, after eliminating Budapest Honvéd in the second qualifying round, Vitesse in the third qualifying round and AZ Alkmaar in the play-off round.[46] However, they again had to play home matches away, this time at the Luzhniki Stadium, due to unrest in the city of Makhachkala. They finished second in group A behind Liverpool; both games between the two ended as 1–0 home wins. Liverpool, Anzhi and Young Boys took the top three positions in the group respectively with ten points each, and were ranked by their head-to-head record with fourth-placed Udinese; Anzhi were the only team in the group not to lose at home, having won all their home games in the group stage. Guus Hiddink's team were drawn with German side Hannover 96, who won group L. The Russians won the first leg 3–1 at the Luzhniki before a 1–1 draw in Hanover sent them through 4–2 on aggregate. They then faced Newcastle United in the next round, where Alan Pardew's men became the first team to deny Anzhi a home win in European competition. In the second leg away at St James' Park, Newcastle's Papiss Cissé headed home the winner in the last second to eliminate Anzhi; Mehdi Carcela-González had earlier been sent off for the club.
Record [ edit ]
1R: First round, 2Q: Second qualifying round, 3Q: Third qualifying round, PO: Play-off round
Notes
1 Only one leg was played, in a neutral venue in Warsaw, Poland, due to security concerns in Russia.
Honours [ edit ]
Recent seasons [ edit ]
Players [ edit ]
As of 26 February 2019,[47] according to the RFPL official website
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
No. Position Player No. Position Player
Out on loan [ edit ]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
No. Position Player No. Position Player
Reserve teams [ edit ]
Club officials [ edit ]
Last updated: 5 January 2017
Source: http://www.fc-anji.ru/coaches/
Records [ edit ]
Top scorers by season [ edit ]
Notable players [ edit ]
Had international caps for their respective countries. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for Anzhi.
Managers [ edit ]
Information correct as of match played 5 December 2016. Only competitive matches are counted.
Notes:
P – Total of played matches W – Won matches D – Drawn matches L – Lost matches GS – Goal scored GA – Goals against
%W – Percentage of matches won
Nationality is indicated by the corresponding FIFA country code(s). |
1. Numbers are arbitrary.
“99 percent of all statistics only tell 49 percent of the story.” — Ron DeLegge II
10,000 steps is the number that’s advertised everywhere, mostly because it’s a nice, round number. It doesn’t have to be the same for you. You could shoot for 9,000, 11,000, 7,000 or 15,000.
Maybe your legs are short. Maybe you’re a runner. Maybe you have knee problems.
This habit isn’t about hitting some arbitrary goal. It’s about learning to love moving more.
2. Walking is where people waste a lot of time.
“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much.” — Seneca
Then again, numbers do matter in some cases. Like this one.
As I would have expected of a repetitive task, I automatically walked faster the more I walked. Not so much on my deliberate walks, but when walking was about getting from A to B. I couldn’t help but notice:
People are slooooooooow.
They drag their feet, stop and stare randomly and end up in front of closing subway car doors. Sigh.
There are times when walking needs to be fun and times when it needs to be efficient. Knowing the difference could save you 15 minutes a day, equals two 40-hour work weeks per year, equals one full year over an 80-year life.
So know the difference.
3. Walking changes how you sit.
“No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch.” — Anonymous
Here’s a crazy fact:
You sit more than you sleep. On average, people sit for 9.3 hours a day, while sleeping only for 7.7. No wonder they say sitting is the new smoking.
Once my tracker had annoyed me to get up often enough, I started noticing myself. I became more uncomfortable with sitting. That’s a good thing.
As a writer, I still sometimes sit 2+ hours in one go. When you’re in the zone, you’re in the zone. But I shift around in my seat a lot more. I change position. Move to the edge. Lean back. Sit properly again.
When sitting is inevitable, pretend you can’t sit still and it’ll take less of a toll.
4. Walking keeps you healthy.
“Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.” — Winston S. Churchill
Notice I didn’t say fit. But healthy. I know a proper health regimen includes real exercise, but it’s only when you give that up that you realize how valuable walking really is.
I stopped swimming when I started school because there’s so much work and so far, walking has kept me healthy through even the most stressful periods.
It’s not a lifestyle I’d want to keep forever, but it’s good to know that while I can’t outrun a runner, I can still outrun a lot of people when I need to.
Plus, I’m sure the extra vitamin D from all the sun helps.
5. Sometimes, it’s better to be average.
“I don’t think there’s too much normal out there anymore. Though there’s still plenty of average to go around.” — John David Anderson
10,000 steps are about 5 miles, or 8 km, give or take. Walked every day this is serious exercise — just not in a time frame that makes you sweat like crazy.
Your legs will want rest. Let them rest. It’s also easier to walk more on a day that’s already high in steps than forcing yourself out of bed Sunday morning.
Dancing really helps. I rarely go clubbing, but if I do, I always add an extra 8–10k.
For once, shoot for average and use the buffer you build wholeheartedly to rest. Enjoy those days, they’re precious too.
6. Walking = Thinking.
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
A lot of my best ideas of the past year came to me while walking. New revenue streams. Business obstacle breakthroughs. Advice for friends. Advice for myself.
I’ve had hour long phone conversations, sent endless voice messages, listened to densely packed podcasts.
To walk is to think. And we all need to make more time for thinking.
7. Walking = Living.
“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” — J.K. Rowling
I’m a music junkie. I often listen to music while walking. Whenever I don’t, I remember walking is the ultimate mindfulness practice. I just walk and watch the world.
The people around me. The ways I could go. The rooftops of the buildings I pass. Walking is one of the most fundamental experiences of being human.
Don’t rob yourself of that experience. |
With the November elections looming, politics and the public policy debate are being Twitterrized, i.e. reduced to cable news buzzwords and treated like a horserace. It’s a bad time to be an antiwar activist. Foreign policy, and the vital issues of war and peace, are lost in the chatter.
There are, of course, a few politicians whose dedication to principle rises above the general noise level – Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich come to mind – but this time around there seems to be even less of a focus on what’s happening outside of the continental US. This is due largely to the economic crisis. Bread and butter issues are in the forefront, with massive cuts in social services on the agenda and howls of pain rising to ever-higher decibels. What’s happening over in Afghanistan is the last thing on people’s minds.
The antiwar movement, for its part, is way down in the doldrums, having been abandoned by its lefty-"progressive" adherents for the joys of Obama-ism. The United for Peace and Justice "coalition" – a group of leftist and pacifist organizations – has just dissolved for lack of interest (and lack of funding), and the Trotskyist-initiated conference in Albany, New York, which was supposed to fill the vacuum, decided to join up with a bunch of government unions and other groups protesting cutbacks in the "One Nation Working Together" march in Washington, sponsored by the AFL-CIO and other "social activist" groups. Predictably, they’re marching on behalf of a multitude of causes, with the war issue tacked on like an afterthought.
In short, Obama-ism has taken its toll on the antiwar movement, bringing it to a screeching halt.
What, in the face of all these obstacles, is the right course for what remains of the antiwar movement?
What’s needed is a revolution in our own mentality, one that will sweep away the routinist thinking that has dominated the movement for too long, and capture national attention in a dramatic way.
This entails a new focus, a new strategy, and a renewed commitment to activism. Boring "marches" don’t cut it anymore: these are invariably hijacked by ideologues who use them to promote all sorts of ancillary causes – until the main issue, the issue that ostensibly brought the marchers together in the first place, is submerged in a babble of bromidic sloganeering.
What’s required is a single-issue focus that is laser-like in its intensity, and uncompromisingly militant in its tactics. This means we ought to be concerned with the issue of war and peace and nothing else. Period.
Secondly, we need to develop new forms of activism, qualitatively different from the peace crawls of the past. The time is past when supposedly "massive" marches on Washington, or anywhere else, are going to have a positive effect. We need to develop guerrilla strategies for confronting the War Party and making peace a living issue in this election year. And we can do it – but only if we abandon the dregs of the past and start looking at things from a fresh perspective.
This election year is going to be a major one, a pivotal event that will determine the shape not only of Congress but of our country’s fate for a long time to come. The economic and social crisis that has gripped the US shows no signs of abating: indeed, it shows every sign of intensifying, with the very real prospect of a major economic downturn. Instead of trying to tail the unions, the Democratic party (or do I repeat myself?), and whatever "mass movement" appears to be "in motion," we need to strike at the very heart of the monster – the US Congress, whose members are seeking reelection this November.
Congress holds the power of the purse: they can deny funding to Obama’s wars, if they so choose. They haven’t made a move in this direction, naturally, and won’t unless forced to – so let’s go after them, hammer and tongs.
Oh sure, a few Democrats and a smattering of Ron Paul Republicans made a showing of it, the last time war funding came up for a vote, with a record number voting "nay." But that isn’t enough: the war(s) continue, and are being escalated even as I write.
There’s just one way to draw attention to this issue and that is by confronting them. Every election season the politicians come back from Washington to ask for your vote: they come out of hiding and even hold "town hall" meetings, which you are notified of by franked mailings (paid for by you). They make public appearances in their home districts, and expose themselves to the hoi polloi: it’s a perfect set-up for confronting them with the enormity of their crimes.
Not every member of Congress, of course, is a war criminal: some, like my own congresswoman, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, have not only voted "nay" but raised their voices against the madness that is our foreign policy. Unfortunately, these innocents are few in number: the vast majority are guilty, and have to be confronted with their guilt.
We don’t have to be nice about it, either, and we shouldn’t be.
Anyone who voted in favor of funding this war needs to be pursued, condemned, and harried at every opportunity. If they’re on the hustings, campaigning, they need to be ambushed – metaphorically, of course – and held to account.. They have to be made to understand that the American people are sick unto death of paying for their policy of mass murder, and they have to be convinced we won’t be appeased until the mayhem stops.
I know most progressives are contemptuous of the so-called tea partiers, whose protests have roiled the political waters, but at least they ought to look at the tea party’s tactics, and acknowledge how effective they were in grabbing national attention. The tea party protests started at "town hall" meetings called by the politicians themselves, who thought that – as usual – no one but the terminally bored and their own supporters would show up. Boy, were they wrong.
Overnight, the tea party movement became the focus of national attention: the image of angry protesters booing and mocking our preening politicians was indelibly imprinted on the national consciousness. Suddenly faced with the unfamiliar task of explaining themselves, these pampered princes and princesses were in shock — and today they are in a panic, as the prospect of losing their jobs looms large.
While keeping our tactics strictly legal, we should not cavil at employing the tactics of deception: after all, the War Party’s agenda is one great big deception. One way to "ambush" unsuspecting warmongers is to invite them to a "candidate’s forum" to discuss their views. The invitation should come from an innocuous-sounding front group – "Citizens for Public Policy Participation," or something equally harmless-sounding. Invite a few reporters, and some local "respectable" types, so they feel safe. Once you’ve got them in the room, they’re immediately in a position where they have to answer questions – and, having done your homework, you’ll have just the right embarrassing questions in hand.
Don’t forget to videotape everything.
We also should make a point of giving administration officials the same sort of treatment, regardless of the fact that they’re not running for office but are instead appointees. Wherever they turn up in public they need to be reminded of the crimes the Obama regime is committing all over the world.
Politicians are opportunists, by their very nature. They respond to noise – and so we have to make a lot of it. And we have to be loud. A high decibel level can make up for our present lack of numbers.
Our task, in short, is to dramatize our opposition to the Empire in a way that simultaneously startles and educates our audience. Grab their attention, and then use the opportunity to focus on an issue that gets short shrift every election year.
While we should seek out confrontations with the most aggressive neocon types, it won’t always be necessary to engineer the sort of "ambush" described above. A lot of the more ideologically-inclined pro-war public officials may be eager to debate the issue, because they think it will help them politically to be seen as pro-war: we should make every effort to engage them, and disabuse them of this notion.
Our goal is to make US foreign policy an issue. But we can’t do this in a vacuum. Nor can we do it by holding endless conferences where "national" marches attended by a few thousand die-hards are solemnly organized. Local groups, acting at the street level, are the most effective. There is no need for any kind of nation-wide "coordination." Decentralized groups built around specific actions will develop their own methods, and strike on their own schedules.
We need to pursue the War Party’s public representatives like harpies, like Nemesis on the prowl: we must harry them and humiliate them and make it impossible for them to make an appearance without the expectation that they’ll soon be in a confrontation with yet another American who wants to know why we’re spending trillions on rebuilding Afghanistan while our own nation is falling apart at the seams.
We need a new strategy, and militant tactics, because we don’t have a whole lot of time. The weight of empire is like an albatross hung ‘round the neck of the American giant, and there are plenty of signs that the burden is bringing him down sooner rather than later. When the American empire collapses, it will likely drag a lot of us down with it: the economic consequences of our foreign policy alone, let alone the moral aspects, require immediate action.
So don’t just sit there – go out and make some noise!
NOTES IN THE MARGIN
I’m taking my show on the road this autumn, to campuses around the country, talking about some of the ideas expressed in my recent column on "Anti-Interventionism: The Left-wing Tradition." My talk is entitled "Why Has the Left Sold Out the Antiwar Movement?" – which is sure to provoke a controversy, or at least that’s the hope.
If you’re interested in booking me at your campus, write [email protected], or call the Antiwar.com office, at: 510-217-8665.
Read more by Justin Raimondo |
Christian Horner addresses the media ahead of the Spanish GP and covers all topics regarding the Max Verstappen and Daniil Kvyat swap between Red Bull and Toro Rosso.
Daniil said he hasn't had a real explanation as to why this decision was made, what's your explanation for the move?
Christian Horner: "Of course, many people will judge it to be harsh or unjust, possibly. But Red Bull is in a unique position where we have four cockpits in Formula 1 in Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, and at the moment they're four relatively competitive cockpits.
"We have an awful lot of information about the drivers. They come through the junior programme, we see how they develop on the simulator, we analyse their performance in the car, we generate a huge amount of data, knowledge, information, together with other testing that we do with the drivers.
"We came to the conclusion that Daniil has been struggling a little bit for form compared to his team-mate, there had been a consistent pattern there. The discussion arose about Max and within the contractual situation that we have with these drivers and the four cockpits we had a unique opportunity to shuffle the order.
"So, rather than waiting until later in the year we elected to get on and do that in time for the European season and thus effectively switch the two drivers, Verstappen into the Red Bull Racing car and Daniil into the Toro Rosso."
Does that mean you would have done the same if the accident in Russia had not happened?
CH: "I think the accident in Russia for many people is seen as a catalyst but there's obviously an awful lot more that is considered than just one Sunday afternoon. As I say, we're privy to an awful lot of information with these guys. It wasn't a decision that was taken lightly, and it was given a huge amount of consideration.
"There were other factors obviously as well regarding the longer term and future of the Red Bull Racing team regarding its driver line-up.
"You could wait until the test after Silverstone, you could wait until the end of the year, but we elected that actually, if we're going to do it, let's get on and do it in time for the European season.
"Both the drivers were in the factory on Friday of last week testing in the simulator for their respective teams. While it might seem unnatural for another team, the fact that Red Bull does have these four cockpits, it allows us essentially to have that flexibility and deem what we see as putting our best foot forward."
Max Verstappen and Daniil Kvyat face the media after it was announced the pair would swap places. Max Verstappen and Daniil Kvyat face the media after it was announced the pair would swap places.
When you talk about long term, do you have in mind that other teams are interested in Max as well and this is probably a chance for Red Bull to show him how important he is?
CH: "Of course. Max Verstappen is, make no mistake about it, one of the hottest properties in Formula 1 at this point in time. It's only natural that other teams would show interest in a driver that's demonstrating that kind of ability and talent. It also kills off the driver market regarding Red Bull drivers, certainly for the foreseeable future.
Do you feel sorry for Daniil?
CH: "Look, I think it's a harsh decision. Feeling sorry for Dani, on one hand you can see that he's not driving a Red Bull Racing car, but he's still driving in a competitive car in Formula 1.
"I think he takes some solace from the fact that any other driver who hasn't succeeded at Toro Rosso or Red Bull Racing hasn't been retained. Formula 1 costs Red Bull tens of millions of pounds, if we didn't believe in him as a talent he wouldn't have been retained.
"I think putting him into Toro Rosso will enable him to recover his confidence and form and of course we can evaluate it from there."
Do you think it's fair to suggest that the door hasn't been closed on him coming back here?
CH: "As we've demonstrated, anything is possible. The contracts that they have obviously permit the team to cross the drivers across those seats."
Is there any sense that going forward that if you want to win a Constructors' Championship, you've got to have two absolute top drivers in your Red Bull team?
CH: "You always want to put your best foot forward and have the most competitive driver line-up as you can possibly have.
"I think a Ricciardo-Verstappen line-up potentially is one of the, if not the, strongest pairing of future years. Of course that depends on how things develop and pan out and how regulation changes come in for next year. With the power units hopefully converging, that provides some opportunities for this team over the next couple of seasons."
Daniil Kvyat clarifies whether he keeps his podium. Daniil Kvyat clarifies whether he keeps his podium.
Has Verstappen's contractual situation changed in any way during this process?
CH: "I'm not going to tell you what, but yes. He's beyond any doubt committed to this team for multiple years."
Will he get more money as a Red Bull driver?
CH: "The salaries between the drivers are absolutely fixed so both drivers will be earning the same as what they were earning, respectively."
Was Daniil warned that he was effectively driving for his seat?
CH: "With these guys, there's always pressure. Particularly in our scenario, you've got a junior team where if drivers are performing you have the ability to upgrade drivers. That pressure has inevitably been there since the pre-season test. That's not something that needs to be spelt out to a driver on a daily basis."
Was there some impatience from Verstappen's side to make the move earlier in the season?
CH: "No, there was no pressure at all. Max was actually more surprised than Daniil was, to be honest with you. There was no positioning or pressure from Max's side or management in any way."
We look back at the crash that cost Daniil Kvyat his place in the Red Bull line-up from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards. We look back at the crash that cost Daniil Kvyat his place in the Red Bull line-up from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards.
Do you think it could be too early to put him in at 18 against Ricciardo?
CH: "Certain people said it was too early for him when he came in at 16. I think he's proved to be one of the most exciting things currently about Formula 1 in the paddock.
"He's demonstrated that he's got a great amount of natural talent, great natural ability. He can overtake, he can race.
"He's got an awful lot to learn but he's got a very mature head on young shoulders. Certainly, everything I've seen in his development so far has impressed me enormously and I think that curve will continue."
Do you think he'll give you some flash points in terms of managing him? There seemed to be a break down at Toro Rosso.
CH: "I'm not really aware what's happened at Toro Rosso, I can only judge what's happened at our team. We've had difficult relationships with our drivers before, it tends to happen when you've got two quick ones.
"I don't see it being an issue. I think that he's growing as a driver but also as a young man as well. When he gains more experience his outlook is going to change on certain things but you can see this absolute desire burning within him at the moment, and competitiveness, and of course a huge amount of talent.
"Of course, he's going up against one of the very best drivers in Formula 1 as a benchmark and that is Daniel RIcciardo. The way Daniel's driving at the moment I don't believe there's a better driver in Formula 1. The thought of the pairing is fantastically exciting for us."
Which driver is under the most pressure in Spain?
Watch the Spanish GP live on Sky Sports F1. The race starts at 1pm on Sunday, with build-up underway at 11.30am. Or watch the race without a contract for £6.99 on NOW TV. |
At some point in our lives, we are confronted with something we fear is larger than ourselves, and with nowhere else to turn, we peer up to the heavens. There are also those among us who look there first and hold that gaze for a lifetime.
Astrophysicist Mario Livio is one such person. A senior theoretical astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Livio is an expert on supernovae and their imaging. His work has helped to determine the expansion rate of the universe and to understand dark matter and black holes.
I was there at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in 1990 when Hubble became the first major optical telescope to be launched into space. Our so-called “eye in the sky” allowed us to look back in time and illuminate our origins. In spite of a rocky start that required a repair mission, Hubble soon detected evidence of massive black holes, followed by Pluto’s moons, and then the universe’s early galaxies.
In celebration of the Hubble Telescope celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, I spoke with Livio at the Institute about the mission’s extraordinary achievements and its impact on science, the arts, and society. Livio took me on a tour through distant supernovae, dark energy, dark matter, the Hubble Constant, and galaxy evolution, demonstrating his trademark ability to make complex science understandable.
As for the most revolutionary question he sees facing mankind? Whether we are alone in the universe.
Also in Astronomy The Gravity Wave Hunter By Michael Segal The celestial object came flying across the nighttime sky quickly, moving in an unusual pattern. Chiara Mingarelli and her friend saw it from a field in rural Ontario, their regular nighttime observation post. The interpretation was clear: Aliens. Her next...READ MORE
Each video question plays at the top of the screen.
How has the Hubble Space Telescope changed the way we see the universe?
Hubble’s images, M16 and Deep field, are particularly well-known. What other images are just as mesmerizing?
How does Hubble’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph show us the structure of the universe?
Ground-based telescopes can provide different information than space-based telescopes. Can you explain?
What is dark energy?
What will dark energy do to our universe?
What is dark matter?
What has Hubble discovered about black holes?
Hubble has the ability to look very deep into the universe. What do Hubble deep fields show?
What does this ability to see so far into the universe mean for the discovery of other habitable planets?
How has the prospect of completely decommissioning Hubble affected you?
Mario Livio
Interview Transcript
How has the Hubble Space Telescope changed the way we see the universe?
We’ve known since the 1920s, that our universe is expanding; but we thought that maybe this expansion is slowing down because of the gravity of all the mass within the universe. What we discovered in 1998—and Hubble played a very crucial role in that discovery—is that not only is the expansion not slowing down, it is actually speeding up; it’s accelerating. And this acceleration is caused by this repulsive force, as opposed to gravity’s attractive force, of this thing we call dark energy.
Now, how was that discovered? Basically, we look at very distant stellar explosions that we call Type 1a Supernovae. Here you can see some of them. Here, you see a galaxy. You see that point of light appearing there? That’s the supernova. Or, here is a galaxy. You see that point of light appearing there? That’s the supernova. Now, these are very distant supernovae. They are distances of maybe 7, 8 billion light-years away. What that means is that the light left those supernovae 8 billion years ago. So we get a picture, if you like, of our universe as it was 8 billion years ago. So we can compare the expansion that [existed] then to the expansion that is now—and that’s how we found basically, that the expansion is accelerating, speeding up.
Another very important thing that Hubble has done was to refine measurements of the Hubble constant. The Hubble constant is actually a measure of the current rate of expansion of the universe, and it is the most important parameter that determines the age of the universe. The age basically goes like one over the Hubble constant.
Before the Hubble Space Telescope was launched, there were two groups of astronomers who were quarrelling all the time about the value of the Hubble constant. They had two values that were different, one from the other, by a full factor of two. In the appropriate units, one had a value of about 50 and one had a value of about 100, which of course cannot be. What happened with the Hubble Space Telescope is [that] by lots and lots of measurements, of many, many distant indicators—like in this galaxy, these green circles, they mark the locations of things we call Cepheid Variables (these are stars that pulsate)—it turns out that there is a very, very tight [relationship] between the period of the pulsation (how long it takes the star to pulsate) and the actual brightness of the star, the intrinsic brightness of the star. Because we can measure the period of the pulsations quite accurately, we can know what the real brightness of the star is. And then, by comparing the real brightness of the star to the brightness that we see, we can tell how far away [that] star is. It’s like [this]: If I hold a candle here, and I hold it at twice the distance, it would be four times less bright. It falls like, one over the square of the distance—the brightness of the thing—and this is with these things as well.
We can then determine the distances and that has been the main problem: Determining distances with high precision. But now we have done this. Currently, we have managed to refine the value of the Hubble constant. We know it within an error of no more than about 3 percent. Remember, from knowing it only to within a factor of two, to knowing it within 3 percent. And, that’s how well we actually now know the age of the universe. The age of our universe is very nearly 13.8 billion years, and we know that now with a very, very high precision.
Hubble’s images, M16 and Deep Field, are particularly well known. What other images are just as mesmerizing?
Well, first of all, I would say that those two images are still mesmerizing, I think, yes? M16 has become iconic; there is no question about that. It has been called, “The Pillars of Creation,” and so on. I mean, these columns of gas and dust where new stars are being born—they are really fantastic. The Hubble Deep Field, and its successors, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, eXtreme Deep Field and so on, continue to be very inspiring, showing us that our universe is [made up of] hundreds of billions of galaxies and so on, so certainly amazing. But of course, there have been many more since then. Here are a few of them.
So this one, we have called this Mystic Mountain, simply because it looks like a mountain! It’s another pillar of gas and dust where new stars are being born inside. Not only that new stars are being born inside, but here, you can even see the jets that emanate from the disc around a young star that is being born inside there. And here, you can see another jet that emanates from another star that is being born inside here, and [which] has this jet in it. And of course, since the cameras that we have installed on Hubble through servicing missions since then have a higher resolution and better image quality, then of course, the images give many more details than we were able to see before. I think this is just an astounding image, Mystic Mountain.
There are other fantastic images. Like this. This is the Horsehead Nebula, called that because in ground-based images, and so on, this looked a little bit like the head of a horse. But we have now taken this image in infrared light because Hubble has the Wide Field Camera 3, which has infrared capabilities. Dust is completely opaque to visible light, but it is mostly transparent to infrared light. What infrared allows is [the ability] to see through parts of this nebula and therefore, see all [of] these incredible details in this Horsehead. I believe this is a truly amazing image.
Another image that I think is fantastic is this. We sometimes call it, “The Rose.” These are really two interacting galaxies, and because of their gravitational interaction, because of tidal forces, each one of them stretches a bit the other and they form this structure that looks a little bit like a rose, so we call it that. Again, you can see here in all those tails, in those tidal tails, all those blue clusters of stars, new stars being born and so on. All of this happens as a result of this interaction. So we really have literally thousands of new images, and many of them are really breathtaking.
How does Hubble’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph show us the structure of the universe?
Dark matter is really responsible for the formation of structure. What happened in the early universe is [that] it’s the dark matter that collapsed first to form certain gravitational potential wells, and the ordinary matter just then flowed into those potential wells. That’s how eventually, galaxies started forming and clusters of galaxies started forming.
But when we simulate this structure that this dark matter forms—and now there are very, very large computer simulations that do this—we discover that it forms in like a network of filaments, a cosmic web of filaments of this dark matter. It’s a bit like a sponge, but it’s really where the filaments would be the thing, and between them, there are these voids and so on. So we have this kind of structure and then the ordinary matter collects at those densest points in that cosmic web-type thing.
Now, how can we discover the existence of this cosmic web? Eventually, all the intergalactic gas forms this type of thing. We cannot see it because it doesn’t emit enough light for us to actually be able to see that. But we look at more distant quasars for example, which are these very, very distant black holes at centers of galaxies, which appear like points of light. And the light from those quasars passes—on its way to us, to our telescope—it passes through many of those filaments. As it passes through the filaments, atoms manage to absorb some of the light from that light that comes in, and we actually see these absorptions in the spectra that we take. So Hubble, for example, has this fantastic spectrograph now called COS, Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, which really is seeing all these things and thereby is allowing us to map this three-dimensional structure of the cosmic web that we have.
Ground-based telescopes can provide different information than space-based telescopes. Can you explain?
Each one of those telescopes has its strengths and its weaknesses. The telescopes on the ground are very large. The Keck telescope, the Very Large Telescope—they have large collecting areas and therefore, they can go after very faint things. If you need to take a spectrum of a very faint object, that’s the way you’re going to do [it]. On the other hand, in visible light … Even though adaptive optics has managed to take out some of the blurring effects of the earth’s atmosphere in the infrared, in visible light, there is still nothing that compares with Hubble in terms of the resolution that can be achieved in visible light. And there is also nothing in the near future that can compare with that.
So if you need this incredible high resolution, in pinpointing details and so on, things like Hubble is still the thing to [use]. Now, we will have the James Webb Space Telescope, which is a bigger mirror—Hubble is only 2.4 meters; James Webb is 6.5—it’s a much larger telescope. But it operates exclusively, essentially, in the infrared, not in visible light, like Hubble. So it will have its strengths. The LSSD will have its strengths, and so on. So I see this as really, a large effort, where observations from one observatory will complement the observations from another observatory. Because only through these different modes of observation—different wavelengths, different sensitivities and so on—will we be able to get a more complete picture.
What is dark energy?
We don’t know what this dark energy is. We know what it does: It accelerates the expansion of the universe. We also know that it’s a very smooth form of energy that fills the entire space. And we have some ideas as to what it might be. We think it’s the energy associated with empty space, with a physical vacuum. The vacuum, in physics, is not something where there is nothing there; it’s very, very active. In fact, it’s teeming with pairs of virtual particles and anti-particles that appear and disappear, appear and disappear, you know, and so on. So we think that it’s that energy of that vacuum that does this. The problem is that when we try to calculate how much energy there should be in the vacuum, we get numbers that are different by many orders of magnitude from what is actually seen. So we still don’t know exactly what this dark energy is, but the current best guess is that it is this energy of empty space, and that’s pushing the expansion of our universe to accelerate.
What will dark energy do to our universe?
Well, because we don’t yet know precisely how dark energy is going to behave, I cannot really answer that question. However, if dark energy is indeed the energy associated with empty space, then we actually know that its density stays constant, and that means that the expansion of our universe will continue to accelerate in the same way that it accelerates now. It will continue to accelerate forever. About a trillion years from now, or so, we would not be able—if there are astronomers still left in our neighborhood, I mean, of the galaxy—they would not be able to see any other galaxy in the night sky, even with their strongest telescopes. They would think they are the only galaxy in the universe about a trillion years from now. So the universe is going to go to a very cold death if that’s how things are.
Now, as I said, we still are not sure that dark energy is indeed this energy of empty space, so things can actually end up in very different ways. In one end, it can all end up in a big crunch, [where] the whole expansion turns back and starts re-collapsing. Or, it could end up in something we call, “a big rip,” which means that even the smallest structures will be torn apart [in] the end by the force of the expansion—even atoms and nuclei of atoms, you know, and everything and so on. But like I said, most observations to date are consistent with just continuing accelerating expansion, like now. You will not see any other galaxy and that’s going to be it.
What is dark matter?
Our universe is very strange. About 70 percent of it is in this form of energy we now call dark energy, which is this energy that is pushing the universe to accelerate. About 20-some percent is in the form of what we call dark matter, which is matter that we don’t see because it does not emit any light and it does not interact through the electromagnetic interaction. Less than 5 percent is what we call baryonic matter. That’s the stuff that we’re made of, [that] stars are made of, [that] galaxies are made of. That’s only less than 5 percent of the energy budget of the universe.
So dark matter is very important. It’s 20-some percent of the energy density of the universe. In particular, it has been instrumental in building up all the structures we see in the universe—galaxies and clusters of galaxies and so on. Now, because it interacts so weakly and does not emit any light, the question is how do you find that it’s there at all? And we find it through its gravitational interaction, because it does interact gravitationally. It started by looking at individual galaxies. You look at objects that are very far away from the center of the galaxy and if all the mass of the universe was the mass of the galaxy that we see, things there could not have stayed in orbit moving around the center of the galaxy; there just wasn’t enough mass to hold it there. So we infer that there must be all kinds of mass there that we don’t see. It started with that.
Then it went to clusters of galaxies, and we found that on all scales, there is this matter that we actually don’t see. Now, in some particular cases like in the case shown here, two clusters of galaxies collide. Each one of these clusters of galaxies has a halo of dark matter around it; but it also has some hot gas inside it—just normal gas, baryonic gas, inside it. Now, what happens when the two clusters collide is that the hot gas actually collides, it interacts electromagnetically and it collides. And because it’s hot, it can be seen in X-rays. So in this particular case, that is what is shown in red here and these are observations by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, in x-rays.
On the other hand, the dark matter—which interacts very, very weakly, does not interact thermally—it kind of passes through. And that’s the blue stuff we see here, which we don’t really see. We only know it’s there because what this matter does, [is] this thing we call gravitational lensing—namely, we look at objects that are far behind this cluster. The light from those objects is being distorted by the gravity of the cluster, in the same way that [if] you put a lens in the path of light, it distorts the path of the light. This is one of the effects of Einstein’s general relativity.
So from this gravitational lensing, from the pattern that we see of the gravitational lensing, we can actually reconstruct the distribution of mass in these clusters of galaxies. And that’s what gives us this, where these blue things are. So those are the result of Hubble observations, of these distortions in the light of the more distant objects. And that tells us where the hot gas is. What you see here is essentially a clear separation between the two, because one just passes through, while the other actually collides. So with Hubble we have now been able, in a few cases, to map the distribution of dark matter in this way. And we’ve even been able to do a three-dimensional map, you know, across large distances in space of the distribution of dark matter.
What has Hubble discovered about black holes?
One of the things that Hubble discovered was that first of all at the center of almost every galaxy there is a black hole, a supermassive black hole, a large black hole. A discovery not by Hubble, by the way, is that at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy, there is a black hole with a mass of about 4 million times the mass of the sun. But Hubble showed that essentially, almost every galaxy you look at, there is a black hole at the center. But more than that, Hubble discovered that there is a very tight [relationship] between the mass of the black hole, at the center of the galaxy, and the dispersion of the velocities, of the speeds around that black hole—which is also a measure of the mass of the bulge of stars at the center of the galaxy around the black hole.
Now, this is very, very important because you might have thought that the galaxy and the black hole at its center don’t know of each other; they evolve completely independently. But the fact that the mass of the black hole is so tightly related to the velocity dispersion, or the mass of the bulge around it, means that the galaxies and the black holes actually co-evolve, they evolve together. And we think we understand now even how that works, that, you know, for as long as mass is being created there at the center, the bulge grows and the black hole grows. At a certain point you start to have this feedback where radiation starts pushing on the gas that is in there, and that stops the growth both of the black hole, if you like, and of the bulge. And so their masses remain tied together. This image here shows the galaxy M87, which has a black hole with a mass of about 3 billion times the mass of the sun at its center, and it has this spectacular jet also that we see comes out in this Hubble image from this.
Hubble has the ability to look very deep into the universe. What do Hubble deep fields show?
You take a very, very deep observation of a tiny area of sky—roughly the area that you would see if you looked through a drinking straw in the sky—and this is the Hubble Ultra Deep Field; it’s an image like this. Of course, the amazing thing in these images is that almost every point of light that you see here, with very few exceptions, is an entire galaxy with perhaps 100 billion stars like the sun. And there are many thousands of them in this image.
And we have gone deeper than the original Hubble Deep Field, especially because the Hubble Space Telescope now has capabilities also in infrared light. Infrared light allows us to see even deeper because the universe is expanding, so light is shifted more towards the red side of the spectrum. So if you look in the infrared you can see even deeper, you know, and so on. So we have gone deeper than this. We have now seen the universe as it was when it was even less than 500 million years old; when today it’s 13.8 billion years old. So we have really seen the universe at its infancy.
Now, what have we discovered from all of this? Well, first of all we have seen the whole history of how galaxies evolve, how they merge together. It’s all, you know, sort of mergers and acquisitions, basically, like big corporations. You start with small building blocks, they merge together to form bigger things, those merge together to form yet bigger things, until you form the large galaxies that we see today.
What does this ability to see so far into the universe mean for the discovery of other habitable planets?
Until 1992, we didn’t know of a single planet outside our solar system. In 1992, we discovered the first planets around another star, but they were around a bizarre star, a pulsar, which is this very compact object—not the type of thing where life could probably ever evolve, and so on. Only in 1995 did we discover the first planet around a more sun-like star. Since then, lots of planets have been discovered, in particular by the Kepler satellite.
There are now thousands of planet candidates and over 1,000 or so of confirmed extrasolar planets (planets that revolve around their parent stars). Not only that, Kepler has shown that statistically speaking, about maybe 20 percent of all stars, sun-like stars or smaller stars, have an Earth-sized planet, roughly, in the habitable zone around that star. The habitable zone is that zone which is neither too hot nor too cold around the central star, so that it can allow for liquid water on the surface, because we think liquid water may be an essential ingredient for life, so that’s why we call it the habitable zone. So about 20 percent of all the sun-like stars or smaller have something like an earth-sized planet in that habitable zone. That amounts to literally, billions of planets in the habitable zone in our own Milky Way galaxy alone.
Hubble has done something that is quite unique, and that is determine the composition of the atmospheres of some of these planets. How does it do that? The way it does that is for transiting planets—planets that happen to be along such a line of sight that the planet passes in front of its parent star. [These planets] eclipse its star. Now, that eclipse is very small because the planet is very small compared to the star. So all that it does is that the light of the star is dimmed by about 1 to 2 percent as the planet goes in front. However, and here is the trick, when the planet goes in front, yes, it dims the light of the star by about a couple of percent, but some of the light from the star passes through the atmosphere of the planet on its way to us. And then, we can look at what that atmosphere absorbs from the light of the star, and that tells us the composition of the atmosphere of this extrasolar planet.
This was done both with Hubble and with the Spitzer Space Telescope. We could determine what is the composition of the atmospheres of these planets. And we discovered now in many such, in particular so far, giant planets, like Jupiter in our solar system, we discovered water, we discovered even methane, some organics and so on. And a variety of other elements like sodium and so on were discovered in this thing. Now, I should say that in the upcoming years we will do even better because in 2017, there is this satellite TESS that is supposed to be launched, and that will discover a few such planets’ in habitable zones, and then in 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope, the scientific successor of Hubble, will be launched, and it will be able to characterize the atmospheres of those planets that TESS will find, those transiting planets. In principle, if we are really, really lucky and if life is ubiquitous, then we could perhaps even identify some biosignatures in those atmospheres. By that, I mean signatures that we think are most likely formed by life—for example oxygen, ozone, the atmosphere being outside of thermochemical equilibrium and things of that nature.
Now, mind you, even if we find a few biosignatures like water, like oxygen, ozone, and so on, this is not going to be, “Oh, we discovered life! That’s it!” because there are other processes that could in principle do all this. So any one biosignature is not going to be sufficient to convince anybody that we have discovered some life forms. But if we discover a whole combination of those, you know—we find an earth-sized planet, which is in the habitable zone, and we find that it has water, it has oxygen, it has ozone—in principle, we could even try to determine if there is something that chlorophyll does, you know, that plants do, there is some sort of rise, we call it the “red edge,” that you can see, in principle. It’s very hard to see, but in principle it can be seen. If we will find a whole combination of those and the atmosphere is out of thermochemical equilibrium, then maybe you can start to be somewhat convinced that there could be some life form there.
How has the prospect of completely decommissioning Hubble affected you?
Hubble has certainly been a large part of my scientific career; there is no question about that. Every servicing mission was extremely suspenseful and stressful for me. I once said that it’s a little bit like when your child is being born or something like that. I wasn’t exaggerating too much; I mean, I was exaggerating a bit, but I wasn’t exaggerating too much.
Now, I always knew that Hubble will finish working one day. In fact, nobody expected Hubble to work 25 years or more. By the way, Hubble is not done—we are celebrating 25 years now, but Hubble is doing fantastic science now, and in fact, has perhaps the largest complement of instruments it has ever had. So we definitely would like it to continue working at least I would say until 2020 or thereabouts, to allow it to overlap, maybe for a couple of years or so, with the James Webb space telescope. But I always knew that it will finish at one point, and it’s good to already have a scientific successor for Hubble, which is the James Webb Space Telescope.
The idea is really that science continues and you cannot get attached to a particular experiment so much [so] that when that experiment transforms into something even bigger and better, you would still lament the loss of the other one. So I think my transition to James Webb is gradual and a natural one, and I cannot wait to see that launched. |
Canada: Mass rally in support of locked-out US Steel workers
By Carl Bronski
31 January 2011
Following the rally at city Hall, close to 10,000 workers, pensioners and students march through the streets of Hamilton in solidarity with locked out Steelworkers
About 10,000 people marched through downtown Hamilton, Ontario last Saturday to show their support for 900 workers who have been locked out for 11 weeks by US Steel at the (former Stelco) Hilton Works complex. The rally was called by the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) to protest deepening attacks on workers’ pension schemes, not only at US Steel-Stelco, but across Canada.
The rally was attended by workers and retirees from many United Steelworker-organized mills, mines and factories, including Vale Inco, and by auto workers, public sector workers and young people.
Since 1983 company-provided pension coverage for workers in Canada has dropped from an average of 40 percent to less than 35 percent of personal income. For those without any private pension—that is, the majority of the population—the federal government’s Canada Pension Plan (CPP) covers, at most, just 25 percent of a worker’s former income. Since the global collapse of the financial system in 2008, employers have sought to buttress their profit levels by divesting themselves of their previous pension responsibilities.
In the current dispute at US Steel, management is seeking to impose a two-tier pension plan on the remaining members of Local 1005 of the United Steelworkers (USW) union as well as other concessions. Since the company bought Stelco in 2007, 2,200 jobs have been shed, whilst those workers continuing in employment have suffered through extensive periods of layoff. The sacking of the 2,200 workers was pushed through by US Steel in apparent violation of agreements with the federal government undertaken by the company when it purchased Stelco. That dispute is currently before the courts.
The existing defined benefits plan at the Hamilton works—under which retirees are guaranteed a set pension—would be closed to new hires and replaced with a defined contribution scheme that places an employee’s retirement at the mercy of stock market fluctuations. Management is also insisting that the pension entitlements of over 9,000 retirees be de-indexed from a cost-of-living allowance that protects the pensioners from inflation.
But if workers at the rally were looking for a viable way forward in the fight for a decent retirement, they were to be sorely disappointed. The speakers’ podium at the rally was dominated by leading figures from the labour bureaucracy—among them Sid Ryan, president of the OFL, Ken Georgetti of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Leo Gerard, president of the USW, and Ken Neumann, the Canadian National Director of the steelworkers’ union.
The cynicism and impotence of these figures was on full display throughout their speeches. International Steelworkers leader Leo Gerard bombastically declared that he would “be damned” if he allows a two-tier scheme to be foisted on the Hamilton membership. Gerard must believe that Steelworkers’ memories are extremely short. Only last year, two-tier pension schemes were imposed on Steelworkers at the Vale Inco mines in Sudbury and at U.S. Steel’s Lake Erie works, which lies only a few miles from the current idled Stelco facility. And in Labrador, Newfoundland, the USW is this week recommending that Vale Inco workers accept similar concessions after a year-and-a-half on the picket lines.
A section of the march in downtown Hamilton with signs denouncing capitalism and in support of locked out United Steelworkers union (USW) local 1005
In their speeches, the OFL, CLC and other union leaders made various appeals to the federal government of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Intoned Sid Ryan, “We’re saying to the Canadian government, force this company to live up to the commitments they made to Canadians.” Should one of the most pro-big business governments in the history of the country fail to listen to Ryan’s slavish appeal, he promised to make pensions “an issue” in the next federal election.
CLC leader Ken Georgetti made clear exactly what this will mean, calling on the assembled throng to support “our NDP Members of Parliament.” In this regard, Georgetti chose his words quite carefully. In past elections, trade union leaders have called for the re-election of the handful of sitting NDP members, while promoting “strategic voting” schemes that encourages workers to vote for the big business Liberal opposition wherever the NDP is trailing in the polls.
To underline this approach, the OFL deigned it “politic” to exclude leaders of the federal and provincial NDP from the speakers’ list. In any case, the NDP itself—whenever it has gained power in provincial legislatures—has consistently pursued pro-business policies. And, with the full support of the CLC, OFL, and USW leaders, it responded to the eruption of the world economic crisis in the fall of 2008 by immediately striking a deal to serve as the junior partner in a Liberal-led coalition government.
At the rally, a handful of supporters of the Communist Party of Canada circulated a statement calling for the “nationalization” of the Stelco works. But “nationalization” for this nationalist-Stalinist group is to be accomplished, not by a workers government, but by the very big business parties that currently predominate in parliament. For these remnants of counter-revolutionary Stalinism, the “nationalization” of the steelworks is necessary in order to better arm Canadian-based companies to wage trade war against their competitors in other countries—at the expense of workers in the US, Europe and Asia, as well as those in Canada
Also present at the demonstration and promoting their ultra-nationalist call for “Canadian sovereignty” were members of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). Rolf Gerstenberger, the president of the locked-out Local 1005, is vice-president of the Maoist group. Since the beginning of the lock out Gerstenberger has functioned as a loyal member of the USW bureaucracy, depicting the struggle primarily as one between Americans and Canadians—not workers and capital—and actively opposing a joint struggle of steelworkers in North America and around the world against all concessions and job cuts. Like the other USW leaders, he cannot and will not make any appeal to US Steel’s American workforce to take job action in support of their brothers and sisters in Hamilton.
Workers from across southern Ontario gather at Hamilton City Hall in support of locked out Steelworkers
US Steel’s wholesale attack on its workers’ retirement plan is part of an employer offensive that has seen companies across the country gut pension plans that were won through decades of struggle. Corporations have been pushing for the institution of defined-contribution plans in place of defined-benefit plans because the former greatly limit their future liabilities. Under such schemes, companies are required to regularly pay defined amounts for their workers’ pension benefits into investment vehicles, but all the risk then falls on the workers. Companies are freed from any obligation to set aside monies for a “rainy day” should pension investments go sour. Defined-contribution schemes thus improve companies’ capital base and make them more attractive to buyers in any takeover scenario, driving up the value of their shares.
Last month, the federal Conservative government reneged on a commitment to raise Canada Pension Plan benefits and in concert with the provinces adopted a scheme supposedly aimed at solving the pension crisis that was designed for and by big business. The new pension scheme will provide workers with not a cent in defined benefits, makes the administration of the scheme a new source of enrichment for the financial industry, and places workers’ retirement income entirely at the mercy of the gyrations of the stock market
Supporters of the Socialist Equality Party intervened at the Hamilton rally, circulating a leaflet denouncing the duplicity of the labour bureaucracy and calling for an internationalist program to defend workers’ livelihoods.
The leaflet concluded, “If the Hamilton US Steel workers’ struggle is not to be isolated and defeated, workers must repudiate the nationalist, pro-capitalist perspective of the USW and the NDP. The Hamilton US Steel workers must strive to make their struggle the spearhead of an industrial and political counter-offensive of the entire working class against the drive of big business and their governments to make working people pay for the world capitalist crisis. They must take the leadership of their struggle out of the hands of the bureaucracy, form their own rank-and-file strike committees, and consciously strive to unite their struggle with steelworkers and all other workers in the US and around the world.”
“Militant industrial action, including the organizing of mass picketing and solidarity strikes, must be coupled with the development of an independent political movement of the working class that fights for a workers’ government committed to reorganizing economic life on socialist lines so production and employment can be based human need, not the profits of the few.”
This author also recommends:
Canada: Steelworkers’ struggle at a crossroads
[31 January 2011] |
A composite image of northern lights on Jupiter caused by a solar storm. Joseph DePasquale, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Chandra X-ray Center The northern lights here on Earth might seem otherworldly, but the ones on Jupiter are truly out of this world.
In a study published in Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics, researchers announce that they have observed the effects of a solar storm on Jupiter's aurora, the planet's version of our northern lights. It's the first time the interaction between Jupiter's aurora and a solar storm, also known a a coronal mass ejection or CME, has been observed.
Auroras occur when charged particles interact with a planet's magnetic field. On Earth, the aurora, caused by particles from the solar wind interacting with the atmosphere, occurs in visible light (the greens and reds seen in the Northern lights), but on Jupiter, much of the aurora is in the form of x-rays, visible to instruments, but not human eyes. The image above is a composite image, showing a photo of the planet overlaid with the x-ray aurora in purple and white.
In the new study, researchers observed a strong increase in power in the aurora when particles from a large solar storm reached Jupiter in 2011. During the storm, the aurora was eight times brighter than normal, and featured an x-ray hotspot (the white dot) that pulsed much more frequently than usual. After the storm passed, the aurora went back to normal. Researchers are still looking into the data for more information, which could help give us a deeper understanding of auroras here on Earth, as well as on planets well outside our solar system.
"We want to understand this interaction and what effect it has on the planet," William Dunn said. "By studying how the aurora changes, we can discover more about the region of space controlled by Jupiter's magnetic field, and if or how this is influenced by the Sun. Understanding this relationship is important for the countless magnetic objects across the galaxy, including exoplanets, brown dwarfs and neutron stars."
This isn't the first time researchers have studied Jupiter's aurora. Researchers have captured images of Jupiter's aurora since the Voyager spacecraft took pictures of the planet in 1979, but are now getting an even better sense of what drives aurora's on the solar system's largest planet.
Jupiter has the largest aurora in the solar system, hundreds of times more powerful than Earth's, but other planets have auroras too. The northern lights on Mars are probably blue, and researchers have even found evidence of auroras on objects outside our solar system.
This article originally appeared on Popular Science. |
In this post, we bring another useful free resource to download for our readers – Seamless Denim Textures. Included in this pack are 5 different repeating patterns of blue denim fabric that will seamlessly tile horizontally and vertically and can be applied to a background of any size.
On downloading the freebie, you’ll receive a Photoshop Pattern (.PAT) file as well as 1200×1200 px denim texture tiles in JPG format that can be used in any graphic design software. With a high resolution of 300 DPI, these patterns are suitable for all kinds of graphic design projects.
Preview
You can get a preview of all the denim patterns in the image below.
These realistic denim textures are created from scratch using advanced filters in Photoshop. Combining different filters and adjustments, you can produce custom textures for your designs. If you want to learn to create your own textures, you may also want to check out these texture Photoshop tutorials.
Features of Denim Patterns Pack
Format: PAT , JPG
, Dimension: 1200 ×1200 px
Resolution: 300 DPI
5 Seamless Patterns
Patterns Free for Commercial use (CC BY 2.0 license)
The PAT file includes all the five patterns, on loading it in Photoshop, you can access these patterns as seen in the image below:
You can use these denim textures as pattern overlays in backgrounds or for creating denim text effects. Since denim is basically a kind of woven fabric, these textures work well with stitched effect that I’ve used in the image at the beginning of the post.
Download
Here is the link to download these denim fabric patterns. If you like this freebie, please do share this post with your friends and help spread the word :).
Get Seamless Denim Patterns
The patterns are free for commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution license. If you use them in your design projects, you are required to attribute the resource to superdevresources.com. However, if you choose to purchase the premium license for the pattern pack, then you can use them in your projects (personal or commercial) without attribution. For further details, kindly visit the licensing page.
More Free Textures and Patterns
You might also want to download these free patterns and textures from our site: |
Inter Milan beat Cagliari 3-1 away from home over the weekend.
In the process, it looks as if a young member of the Rossoblu has attracted the interest of the Nerazzurri.
Attacking midfielder Nicolo Barella has been scouted by Inter before, and it looks like he’s caught their eye yet again.
Barella has made 14 appearances for Cagliari this season, scoring 2 goals and an assist in the process. The Italian holds an impressive 84.9 percent pass success rate, while averaging 1 key pass per game.
Barella is a very strong tackler, completing his status as an all-around midfielder. The midfielder has a very strong average of 3 tackles per fixture, while picking up an interception on a regular game basis.
The young product of Cagliari is effective once he possesses the ball. He uses his speed and sublime dribbling ability to zoom past opposing defenders.
According to SempreInter, Barella takes inspiration after one of Inter Milan’s greatest players.
Barella is understood to have been inspired by Inter legend Dejan Stankovic and is currently learning to perfect his trade under Daniele Conti.
Internazionale aren’t the only club in on the developing midfielder. Several sources indicate that A.C. Milan, Juventus, and Liverpool have all garnered interest in Barella.
The Nerazzurri could always get younger in midfield. Adding Barella into the mix could be the prefect fit, especially since he might be chased in January. The price tag wouldn’t be too heavy for Inter. Somewhere around the £8 to 15 million sounds reasonable.
Keep an eye on Barella between now and the next transfer window. Who knows, he could be wearing a Pirelli shirt soon.
Want to contribute? Sign up for an SB Nation account and join the conversation on Serpents of Madonnina. Whether it is match coverage and analysis, breaking news, mercato or you just want to be immersed in all things Inter, we have it right here.
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The man accused of opening firing inside a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, tried to kill himself but had run out of bullets following the shooting, according to the son of a victim who said he spoke with a survivor.
Dylann Roof allegedly first killed Rev. Clementa Pinckney and then wildly began shooting people attending a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church, according to Kevin Singleton, who said he spoke with the oldest survivor of the shooting. His mother, Myra Thompson, was among the nine killed Wednesday.
Singleton said he was told that Roof, 21, then allegedly tried to kill himself -- but he had run out of bullets.
"He put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger but there was just no bullets left," said Singleton. "I'm assuming he wanted to take his own life."
Authorities Investigating Website, Purported Manifesto Connected to Dylann Roof
Charleston Shooting Suspect's Childhood Friend Details Their Upbringing
'Take Down the Flag' Rally Protesters Call for Removal of Confederate Flag in South Carolina
Roof was apprehended in Shelby, North Carolina, about 250 miles away from the church. He has been charged with nine counts of murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.
A website surfaced Saturday that allegedly revealed disturbing views about race in addition to dozens of photos believed to be of Roof, including one of him holding a gun and another of him holding a Confederate flag. According to sources, the site was believed to be legitimate, but authorities, including the Charleston Police Department, are working to confirm its authenticity.
Ashley Pennington, a public defender assigned to Roof, has not responded to ABC News' request for comment.
Standing outside the church for the first time since the shooting, Singleton reflected on his mother's strength.
"What I'm going to miss most about my mom is her enthusiasm and her just undeniable faith in the world to succeed," he said. "I miss her a lot and I love her very much. She's a very strong, strong woman. It's just a lot." |
This is a list of locations in the United States which have been reported to be haunted by ghosts or other supernatural beings, including demons.
States with several haunted locations are listed on separate pages, linked from this page.
States and federal districts [ edit ]
Alabama [ edit ]
Adams Grove Presbyterian Church in Dallas County
The Dr. John R. Drish House in Tuscaloosa
Sweetwater Mansion in Florence, during 1934.
Arizona [ edit ]
Stage area at the Bird Cage Theater.
Arkansas [ edit ]
The Gurdon Light is a mysterious floating light above the railroad tracks near Gurdon (Clark County), a few miles away on Highway 67, which was first sighted during the 1930s. A popular legend is that a railroad worker was in an accident in which he was decapitated and now he is holding a lantern going up and down the tracks searching for his missing head. The other legend involves the murder of a foreman for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad. The Gurdon Light was reportedly sighted shortly after his murder near those tracks during 1931. The local legend appeared on NBC's television program Unsolved Mysteries during 1994. [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27]
The Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs bills itself as America's most haunted hotel. It was featured on the television show Ghost Hunters in 2005.
California [ edit ]
California is the location of many supposedly haunted locations. Notable locations with reputations for being haunted include Alcatraz, El Adobe de Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano, and the Winchester Mystery House.
Colorado [ edit ]
Pioneer Park in Aspen is reportedly haunted by the ghost of Harriet Webber, wife of its builder, who died of what was ruled to be an accidental strychnine overdose during 1881, four years before it was built. [28]
Stanley Hotel in Estes Park Colorado, was built by a Massachusetts couple named F.O. and Flora Stanley. They lived there, and reportedly never left. Staff says Flora can be heard playing her piano at night. If you take a picture in the hotel, it is said Mr. Stanley can show up at any time in that picture. Children can be heard running up and down the halls. This lovely mountain resort in the Colorado wilderness was the inspiration for Stephen King´s thriller, The Shining.[29]
Connecticut [ edit ]
Bara-Hack is a ghost town in the northern part of the state that is reportedly haunted. [30]
Dudleytown is an abandoned town founded in the mid-1740s. It lies in the middle of a forested area in Cornwall. The original buildings are gone and only their foundations remain. Videos purport to show restless spirits in the area [31] and hikers have reported seeing orbs in the area. [32]
and hikers have reported seeing orbs in the area. Union Cemetery in Easton (also Bridgeport), which dates back to the 17th century, is touted as "one of the most haunted cemeteries in the entire country" by authors of paranormal books who claim that visitors have photographed orbs, light rods, ectoplasmic mists, and apparitions. A spirit known as the "White Lady" has also been reported.[33][34][35]
District of Columbia [ edit ]
The Octagon.
Several sites in Washington are reputedly haunted, including the Capitol Building, the White House, and the Octagon House (1801).
Florida [ edit ]
Don CeSar Hotel [36] in St. Petersburg Beach, Fla, is allegedly haunted by the ghost of its original owner, Thomas Rowe, who built the Moorish-style "Pink Palace" during 1926. The story is that Thomas Rowe was forbidden to marry the love of his life, a singer in the opera Maritana, [37] by her parents. He built the Don CeSar in remembrance of her, and named it after a character in the opera. "Time is infinite. I wait for you by our fountain" , [38] she wrote to him on her deathbed, and after his own death, it was reported that they were seen to be meeting by the fountain in the hotel lobby , [39] see "Haunted Love: Tales of Ghostly Soulmates" [40] for full particulars of this 'historia reconti'} .
in St. Petersburg Beach, Fla, is allegedly haunted by the ghost of its original owner, Thomas Rowe, who built the Moorish-style "Pink Palace" during 1926. The story is that Thomas Rowe was forbidden to marry the love of his life, a singer in the opera Maritana, by her parents. He built the Don CeSar in remembrance of her, and named it after a character in the opera. , she wrote to him on her deathbed, and after his own death, it was reported that they were seen to be meeting by the fountain in the hotel lobby . The Leaf Theater in Quincy is reportedly haunted by several former movie operators and theater attendees [41]
The University of South Florida Library in Tampa is reportedly haunted.[42]
Georgia [ edit ]
Hawaii [ edit ]
ʻIolani Palace is said to be haunted.[47]
Idaho [ edit ]
A security camera in the Pocatello High School captured a translucent figure going down a hallway and in and out of a bathroom when the school was closed for winter break in 2014. Six deaths have been confirmed in the school's history, including a boy who drowned in the swimming pool. People report hearing voices in conversation and the sound of a piano inside the school's otherwise empty theater.[48]
Illinois [ edit ]
Former Chicago Historical Society Building is said to be haunted since its use as a temporary morgue for victims of the Eastland Disaster (1915).[49]
Indiana [ edit ]
There are several reputedly haunted sites in Indiana, including the Culbertson Mansion in the former shipbuilding town New Albany.
Located in the town of Fowler Indiana is the Fowler Theatre. The Historic Fowler Theater is known for its beautifully restored Art Deco look and feel, but beyond the ornate, outward appearance, there is a history of mysterious noises, shadows and strange activity: http://www.fowlertheater.com/paranormal-investigations/
Iowa [ edit ]
Ambrose Hall
Kansas [ edit ]
Kentucky [ edit ]
White Hall
X Cave at Carter Caves State Resort Park located in Carter County, Kentucky is said to be haunted by two Cherokee Indian lovers according to the book, 'More Kentucky Ghost Stories' by Michael Paul Henson. When the cave was reopened, the bones of two Indian bodies and silver artifacts were allegedly found, but later lost.[58]
The Bourbon Inn in Louisville, Kentucky is believed to be haunted by the spirit of the nanny of the family the lived in the building in the late 1800s. Visitors to the Inn have reported seeing the apparition of a woman on the stairs. [59]
White Hall near Richmond in Madison County, owned by Cassius Marcellus Clay (1810 -1903), is said to be haunted by the ghosts of Clay, his former wife, and his son.[60]
Louisiana [ edit ]
Maryland [ edit ]
Massachusetts [ edit ]
The USS Salem (CA-139) in Quincy, which now serves as a museum ship open to the general public. Though never seeing combat, the ship has seen its fair share of life and death, notably after the 1953 Ionian earthquake serving as a hospital ship.
(CA-139) in Quincy, which now serves as a museum ship open to the general public. Though never seeing combat, the ship has seen its fair share of life and death, notably after the 1953 Ionian earthquake serving as a hospital ship. Lyceum Hall in Salem which now serves as a restaurant used to be a lecture hall where Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alexander Graham Bell and other notable men delivered lectures and presentations in the 19th century. The building is built on land that belonged to the Bridget Bishop, the first person executed in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The ghost of Bishop is believed to haunt the building.[66]
Michigan [ edit ]
Big Bay Point Light is reputedly haunted by the red-haired ghost of its first keeper, Will Prior.[67]
Missouri [ edit ]
Montana [ edit ]
[71] Bannack, Montana a ghost town reportedly haunted by executed outlaws and a woman in a blue gown named Dorothy.
Nevada [ edit ]
The Nevada Governor's Mansion in Carson City was first occupied by the family of Governor Denver S. Dickerson during July 1909. Guests and staff have reported seeing a woman and child on the premises, thought to be Dickerson's wife Una and daughter June, the only child to have been born in the residence.[78]
New Jersey [ edit ]
New York [ edit ]
North Carolina [ edit ]
North Dakota [ edit ]
Ohio [ edit ]
Arnold's Bar and Grill, the oldest continuously-operated bar in Cincinnati, is rumored to be haunted. [97]
Cincinnati Music Hall is a theater that was built over a potter's field. Reports of spirits on the property date back to 1876. During 1988, during the installation of an elevator shaft, bones of adults and children were exhumed from under the hall. [98]
Emmitt House in Waverly was featured by television programs My Ghost Story and Haunted Collector before it burned down during January 2014. Some human remains had been found at the site. [99]
and before it burned down during January 2014. Some human remains had been found at the site. Madison Seminary in Madison, an 88-room building that has been a school, a home, and an asylum for the insane. Figures move through locked doors, screams have been heard, and a killer may have buried his victim beneath the basement floor. [100]
Mahall's 20 Lanes, a 90-year-old bowling alley in Lakewood, is reputed to have "otherworldly noises" and sightings of an "otherworldly woman" in a long dress; plus a vintage calculator "does weird things."[101]
Oklahoma [ edit ]
Dead Women Crossing in Weatherford allegedly has paranormal activities including a mysterious blue light that originates in the creek and a spectral woman crying for her baby around the area.[102]
Oregon [ edit ]
There are a number of Reportedly haunted locations in Oregon. Reported hauntings in the state are linked to such historic places as the Oregon Trail and early coastal communities, as well as the history of Portland, the state's largest city and metropolitan area, which was considered one of the most dangerous port cities in the world at the beginning of the 20th century.[103] During 2012, USA Today named Portland among the top ten most haunted cities in the United States.[104]
Allegedly haunted locales in Portland include the Bagdad Theater, a vaudeville theater built by Universal Studios during 1927; Pittock Mansion, a mansion overlooking the city; the Roseland Theater, a former church and music venue; and the city's Portland Underground (or so-called shanghai tunnels),[105] made up of various passages beneath the streets of northwest Portland that were used to smuggle prostitutes and sailors onto ships in the port, where they were often sold into slavery or forced labor.[106]
Pennsylvania [ edit ]
Pennsylvania has many locations that are reported to be haunted, including the town of Gettysburg (site of the Civil War battle of the same name)[107] and, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, such places as Cliveden Manor, the First Bank of the United States, Fort Mifflin, Library Hall, Pennsylvania Hospital, and Powel House.
Rhode Island [ edit ]
White Horse Tavern in Newport is haunted by a man who checked in with a companion one night in the 1720s but was found dead beside a fireplace the next morning. His companion had disappeared sometime during the night. Today his ghost reportedly hangs out by that fireplace, daring others to solve his freak death. Also, a man in colonial-era clothing occupies an upstairs bathroom.[18]
South Carolina [ edit ]
Many areas in South Carolina are reportedly haunted. This stems from the state's historic role in the Revolutionary and Civil wars. Charleston is considered by many to be the most haunted city in the state, and some even venture as far as to say it is the most haunted city in America. [1]
Pawleys Island is said to be haunted by a Gray Man, who appears shortly before dangerous storms to warn the inhabitants. [54]
Folly Beach is said to be haunted from the time of the Civil War. Nearby Morris Island was the site of the famous Fort Wagner battles of 1863. The western side of Folly was thus used as a Union Army field hospital where many wounded soldiers—including members of the famous 54th Massachusetts regiment—returned from battle. Over the years, hurricanes and heavy storms uncovered some of these unmarked graves even as late as 1987.[108]
Tennessee [ edit ]
Texas [ edit ]
The Devil's Backbone in Texas Hill Country is allegedly haunted by Spanish monks, Native Americans, Confederate soldiers on their horses, and a wolf's spirit. [115]
The Marfa lights have been attributed to haunting. In May 2004, students from the Society of Physics Students at the University of Texas at Dallas spent four days investigating and recording lights observed southwest of the view park using traffic volume monitoring equipment, video cameras, binoculars, and chase cars. The conclusion was that all of the lights observed over a four night period southwest of the view park could be reliably attributed to automobile headlights traveling along U.S. 67 between Marfa and Presidio, TX. [116]
The commissary at the Houston Zoo may be haunted by the first zookeeper, Hans Nagel, who was shot by a park police officer during late 1941 after being caught spying on teenagers in a parked car.[117]
Virginia [ edit ]
Washington [ edit ]
Wisconsin [ edit ]
The Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee is said to be haunted.[124]
See also [ edit ] |
‘Comfort Women’ statue unveiled in SF Chinatown
Former "comfort woman" Grandma Yong-soo Lee reaches out to touch a section of the Comfort Women Memorial statue after it's unveiled at St. Mary's Square park in Chinatown in San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, Sept. 22, 2017. During World War II, thousands of women were captured and used as sex slaves by the Japanese military. less Former "comfort woman" Grandma Yong-soo Lee reaches out to touch a section of the Comfort Women Memorial statue after it's unveiled at St. Mary's Square park in Chinatown in San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, ... more Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2017 Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2017 Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close ‘Comfort Women’ statue unveiled in SF Chinatown 1 / 7 Back to Gallery
Four bronze women took up their positions in a Chinatown plaza Friday to bear silent witness to the wartime atrocity inflicted on hundreds of thousands of their sisters.
It was the unveiling of the long-awaited “Comfort Women” sculpture in San Francisco’s St. Mary’s Square to honor the Asian women who were forced to become sex slaves by the Japanese army during World War II.
“We all share the same humanity,” Yong-soo Lee, 89, a surviving comfort woman, told a crowd of about 500 that turned out for the unveiling. “This is an issue for everyone. This is about a sincere apology from the government of Japan.”
Lee, who was kidnapped from her home in Korea at the age of 15 and forced to work in a Taiwan brothel that served Japanese soldiers, fought back tears as she said that the experience was “too much to talk about” and that she is “still suffering from the pain and torture.”
The bronze sculpture by Carmel artist Steven Whyte depicts three young somber Asian women on a pedestal and a fourth, older woman gazing up at them from below. The powerful sculpture sits in the southeast corner of the square, in the shadow of Financial District skyscrapers that seem small by comparison.
The artwork, two years in the planning, remained the subject of controversy even on its unveiling.
In a statement, Jun Yamada, the consul general of Japan in San Francisco, said such memorials “seem to perpetuate and fixate on certain one-sided interpretations, without presenting credible evidence.”
Those words drew ire from 89-year-old Lee, who, through an interpreter, replied, “What kind of bull— is that?”
She and her fellow survivors, who call themselves “grandmas,” continued to demand an official apology, investigation and reparations from the Japanese government.
“We hate the crime,” Lee said, “not the (Japanese) people.”
A small army of elected officials was on hand, along with retired Superior Court Judges Lillian Sing and Julie Tang, who had led the battle to win approval for the public art.
“Japan is trying to cleanse and erase history,” Sing said. “We want to pay honor to the victims.”
The crowd waited for nearly two hours for the speeches to end and for Lee and the other dignitaries to yank a golden cloth from the sculpture, to applause and cheers. Everyone in the crowd who made it through the ceremony was rewarded with a free souvenir shopping bag depicting the sculpture.
Jonathan Fortun of San Francisco called the sculpture “natural, fitting and moving,” and said it makes you “feel the atrocity.”
“Japan didn’t want this here, but it belongs,” he said. “It’s important.”
Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @SteveRubeSF |
There’s this blog I read.
It’s written by a mother of a child who has survived Histiocytosis and come out the other side free of the disease, but sadly not the long term consequences of both the disease and the treatment. Neither her nor her daughter are fully out of the shadow of Histiocytosis, and it charts life for them both. It is well written (a rarity I find). She is eloquent, articulate, and the posts are all well structured. She often strikes a chord with me, and describes things I have, and still am experiencing. I have found it helps a lot to not only hear from someone who has gone throught it and come out the other side, but it helps to know what we are expereincing is not unusual under the circumstances.
But today I read her most recent blog post and I finished it feeling sadder, and more alone than I have for a long time. “Alone” is not strictly accurate. I’m not alone, my wife is amazing, and we have some incredibly supportive friends and family. But I expected to feel the way I usually did when I read her posts, and I felt the exact opposite.
Here’s why.
Her most recent post was an appeal to normal Mums. It described all the things a histio-mum is, how their life is different, and how being a normal is never going to be possible any more. I’ll give you a flavour of it.
“When your kid is sick, you get them treatment, you go the appointments. You’re a mom. You do mom things. This is just a mom thing. The difference in this particular mom thing is the degree of the mom thing. It’s mom thing to the 10000th power. Moms are just superheros without enough sleep. Well, chemo moms are just a different kind of superhero with even less sleep. Not better, and not worse.”
You see where I’m going now.
She’s a mum, and she was talking to other mums about being a mum.
I’m not a mum.
So it wasn’t about me.
I’m probably being oversensitive. I know this kind of completely non-deliberate exclusion is something women have been dealing with for centuries if not millenia. I’m proud to call myself a feminist. I dont think women should be treated as equals because I’m related to women, I think women should be treated as equals because they are equals. We’re all just fucking people alright? I dont give a shit about your gender, your skin colour, the place you were born. You are a person, just like me, and everyone else. You have the same rights, and the same value, and deserve to be treated equally.
So when I read about how my life is, and how it has changed from someone else, and that person categorically excludes me, it damages things for me, and every other dad who is trying to be the best parent they can be. It says that I cannot care as much as my wife does, because she is the mom, and I am not.
My wife and I make a consious effort to share the childcare. She’d probably tell you we don’t manage it completely equally – I’m a little free-er and easier with the TV than she’d like, and I have a tendency to stay in the house rather than take them all out because it is easier for me. But I do the vast majority of the cooking, she works several evenings a week so I pick them up from school, cook them tea, help them with their homework, give them their medicine, help them clean their teeth, put them to bed, and comfort them when they are poorly. This doesn’t make me special. It just makes me a parent. It doesn’t make me better than my wife, it makes us parents together.
When PB needs to go to the Hospital sometimes I take him, sometimes my wife does, and sometimes we take him together.
So here’s the deal.
Unless you are talking about something that has affected you because you grew a person inside of you and squeezed them out after 9 months. Or about breastfeeding, then it isn’t a mom-thing. It’s a parent thing. You don’t have a monopoly on caring because of the shape of your genitals, just as I don’t get to be excluded because I happen to only have the one X chromosone.
I’ll carry on pissing people off by arguing about how sexism is ridiculous, I’ll defend a woman’s right to do whatever the hell she wants as long as it is legal and moral. And I’ll continue to take flak for calling out bigotry, misogyny, and prejudice whenever I see it, deliberate or not. All I ask of you is that you don’t talk about caring for kids as a mom-thing.
Now don’t think I’m judging her, I’m not. I have massive respect for her, and still enjoy her writing. It is just that there is something in society that paints Dads as not caring. And I want to change that.
So go read her blog, it’s here |
BEIRUT – The powerful head of Syria’s feared Air Force Intelligence in Aleppo has been moved from his post in an eyebrow raising move, only days after Damascus started a massive bombardment campaign against the opposition-held half of the strife-stricken city.
On Sunday, pro-regime outlets announced that Major General Adib Salameh, an officer notorious for his considerable influence and alleged corruption, was reassigned as the new deputy director of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate in Damascus.
Meanwhile, General Iyad Mindo, the head of Air Force Intelligence at Damascus International Airport, was promoted to take up the posting in Aleppo, which Salameh held since 2012.
Enab Baladi described Salameh’s transfer as a “freeze of his broad influence,” citing sources as saying that the general was moved to Damascus to bring him closer under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s control.
“Salameh… managed in a record time to extend his influence over all security branches in Aleppo and established relations with all the city’s [businessmen],” the pro-rebel outlet said in its short biography of the intelligence official.
It added that Salameh was involved in “huge corruption cases,” a common criticism of the officer leveled by Syrian opposition media and supporters.
Salameh is also known for giving political cover to members of his extended family operating a criminal gang in his hometown of Salamiyeh north of Hama.
His transfer comes after the Syrian regime on Thursday evening heralded the start of an offensive aimed at rooting Syrian opposition forces out of the eastern sectors of Aleppo following the collapse of a US-Russia brokered cessation of hostilities.
In the ensuing days, Syrian jets launched the heaviest wave of airstrikes in Aleppo since the start of the conflict in the country, killing dozens of civilians.
NOW's English news desk editor Albin Szakola (@AlbinSzakola) wrote this report. Amin Nasr translated Arabic-language material. |
When it comes to building a successful business, Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence data reveals that more app publishers are achieving an important milestone on Apple’s App Store than on Google Play. Based on our analysis of in-app revenue—not inclusive of advertising revenue—nearly double the number of publishers made their first $1 million in annual revenue last year on the U.S. App Store compared to Google Play. In all, 66 publishers met or surpassed this benchmark figure on Apple’s store in 2016, which was 1.7 times more than the 39 that managed the same degree of success on Google’s platform.
What’s more, as you can see in the chart above, the number of publishers who had their first $1 million or greater year on the U.S. App Store in 2016 nearly doubled over 2015, when 34 surpassed that mark in terms of annual U.S. revenue.
While it still trails behind the App Store by this measure, Google Play grew its number of equivalent publishers on its U.S. store considerably more than Apple’s platform in 2016, by nearly 2.8 times from 14 in 2015. This is a promising figure for Google, which, when combined with the impressive year-over-year revenue growth we’ve witnessed from its platform over the past few quarters, signals that developers are enjoying a growing measure of success monetizing on Google Play.
Breakdown by Publisher Category Focus
In addition to studying the million-dollar publisher output of both stores in the U.S. over the past two years, we utilized our data to break down which categories these app makers were focusing on. The results, seen below, paint a stark contrast between the two platforms in terms of where publishers are finding the most success.
Games publishers accounted for the single largest category of first-time million-dollar earners across both platforms, however they were far more prominent on Google Play, where they constituted 75 percent of the total, compared to just 47 percent on the App Store.
Publishers also had their first million-dollar year across a more diverse set of categories on Apple’s store. Social Networking, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Photo & Video, and Utilities focused publishers all accounted for more than 5 percent of the total on iOS. Dating app publishers made up seven of the 66 publishers that earned $1 million or more for the first time on the App Store last year, including the likes of Coffee Meets Bagel, Bumble, and Clover. Other standouts that exceeded this the milestone included teen-focused “chat stories” app HOOKED and the fast-growing video sharing app Musical.ly.
On Google Play, only Social Networking and Entertainment publishers accounted for more than 5 percent of the total apart from Games.
Apple Likely to Maintain Monetization Lead
This analysis provides another important measure of Apple’s monetization leadership in the world’s second largest market for app spending. Not only are consumers spending more per device through its platform, but a greater number of up-and-coming publishers are reaping the financial rewards each year.
As we touched on in our findings, Google Play is showing positive momentum in terms of monetization, but given its substantially larger user base and download volume compared to its in-app revenue generation, it still has a considerable way to go before it’s on level footing with Apple’s ecosystem in the U.S. and worldwide.
Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence platform is an Enterprise level offering. Interested in learning more? Request a live demo with our team! |
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