text
stringlengths 14
100k
| meta
dict |
|---|---|
Alastair Gale and River Davis, Wall Street Journal, September 11, 2019
{snip}
{snip} One of the world’s most immigration-resistant countries is trying to attract workers needed for jobs ranging from apple picking to airport baggage handling.
To do that, Japan is imposing strict rules in an effort to head off the kind of social and political turmoil that migration has brought to the U.S. and Europe. In many cases, foreign workers in Japan can’t bring family members and can’t stay longer than five years. Most programs require Japanese-language proficiency. Only in the most labor-starved industries can foreigners secure a path to permanent residency — and the government can cut off the flow if the shortage eases.
{snip}
Japan’s experiment, which some business leaders and human-rights groups say is too restrictive, is a test of whether a country can bring in foreign workers without sparking the kind of populist backlash that has turned immigration into a divisive issue in the U.S., Germany, Italy, the U.K. and other countries.
As Japan debated opening up, some politicians and newspaper editorials warned that it needed to avoid the instability seen in the West.
“It would be a disaster if we ended up with the same problems as the U.S. and Europe because we don’t have a proper immigration policy,” Yuichiro Tamaki, the leader of opposition Democratic Party for the People, said late last year as policy makers put together plans to allow in more foreigners.
In the past four years, the number of foreign workers in Japan has nearly doubled to 1.46 million, and a new visa system promises to accelerate the influx. At the same time, the country’s political system is as stable as it has been in decades. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in power for nearly seven years, easily scored a victory in July’s parliamentary elections, where immigration was hardly discussed.
{snip}
In a survey of 27 countries by the Pew Research Center last year, Japan was the only nation in which those wanting immigration to rise outnumbered those who thought it should decline.
Nonetheless, fast-tracked plans to bring in more foreign workers have stirred some concern about large numbers of foreigners failing to integrate into society and burdening Japan’s financially strained public health-care program. Supporters of the program who say they need more workers have been equally vocal.
{snip}
The policy isn’t about recasting Japan as a nation of immigrants or fulfilling any obligation to accept people from war-torn nations. Immigration authorities say they granted residency to only 82 refugees last year, less than 1% of those applying — a statistic that prompted objections from some foreign groups but relatively little discussion at home.
Japan’s population has been shrinking for a decade, and nearly three in 10 people are 65 or older. Last year, the number of Japanese living in Japan fell by around 430,000, roughly the population of Oakland, Calif., contributing to the greatest scarcity of job applicants in more than 40 years.
Convenience stores previously open 24 hours are now closing before midnight, parcel companies are limiting delivery hours because they can’t find drivers and the nation’s military is running short of new soldiers.
{snip}
In the city of Settsu, near Osaka, the local government is in a standoff with people opposed to the construction of a training center for Vietnamese and Indonesian workers in a residential area. Posters and banners around the proposed construction site display slogans such as: “The center threatens the safety of our children.”
The proposed facility would provide a month of language and other training for around 60 workers before they move on to jobs elsewhere.
“I’m not opposed to immigration, but Japan is an island nation. For hundreds of years, it’s been the same people,” said Yoshio Hashimoto, who heads a group opposed to the training center. “With 10 or so people, crime probably wouldn’t rise. But make this 100 people or 200 people, and of course the risk of crime will rise.”
To ease such tensions, the new visa program requires candidates to prove a basic level of Japanese-language ability. English and other languages aren’t widely spoken in Japan.
{snip}
The program allows the government to dial back immigration if there is a recession or technological shift that eliminates the need for foreign help. Economists at Mitsubishi Research Institute, a think tank, forecast that Japan’s labor shortage will peak at around two million people next year and gradually fall back to zero around 2028 because of expected advances in robotics and artificial intelligence.
For now, foreign workers enjoy something of a seller’s market, with Japan competing against other relatively affluent Asian nations that also have worker shortages. South Korea issues around 45,000 visas each year for workers from countries such as Pakistan and Nepal to take positions in manufacturing, fisheries and other sectors. Draft legislation in Taiwan aims to attract foreigners to fill labor shortages in areas including nursing.
{snip}
Japanese officials say they are working to improve inspections of businesses that hire foreign workers under the new visa program.
{snip} | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Ted Cruz's Dad on the Media's 'Evil Agenda' and More Surprising Comments A look at the outspoken comments made by the Texas senator's father.
Oct. 22, 2013 -- intro: As the country rebounds from the government shutdown, the man who has come to be seen as one of the instigators of the two-week long closure -- freshman Sen. Ted Cruz -- continues to say that he'll stop at nothing to prevent the implementation of President Obama's signature health care law.
"I will continue to do anything I can to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare," the tea party hero said in a recent interview with ABC News' Jonathan Karl.
The tendency to be outspoken seems to run in the family, because the senator's father, Rafael Cruz, has also been making headlines over the last few months.
Like his son, Cruz's father is no stranger to the spotlight. He has spoken at a number of conservative events, including the Heritage Foundation organized "Defund Obamacare Tour," which took him to cities across the country in August. He's also becoming a regular on the conservative speaking circuit and on talk radio.
The Cuban immigrant and pastor turned his attention to the media during an interview on Glenn Beck's radio show last Friday.
"In your previous segment you were talking about imagining America. I'll tell you what, it almost seemed like I was listening to what was happening in Cuba during Castro," the Texas senator's father told Beck. "The very same thing, the ministry of misinformation that you have in all the communist countries. Well, did you know, Glenn, we have a ministry of misinformation in this country? It's called the liberal media, and they just tell us what they want us to hear. They are rewriting history."
Beck agreed with Cruz, and pointed out his annoyance with the "liberal media" for "rewriting history."
"They have an agenda," the elder Cruz said, "and, unfortunately, the agenda is an evil agenda. It's an agenda for destroying what this country is all about."
With Sen. Cruz's name in the mix for a potential 2016 presidential bid, it's worth getting to know Rafael Cruz. Here are some of his other comments that may surprise you:
quicklist: 1 title: Obamacare Equals 'Suicide Counseling' text: On Sept. 27, Rafael Cruz was the keynote speaker at a fundraising dinner for the Adams County Republicans, just outside of Denver.
The advertisement for the event, as seen on Facebook, promised, "food, fun, and inspiration," and Rafael Cruz took the opportunity to deliver some notable comments on the president and the Affordable Care Act.
"We're denying care to the elderly. With care being rationed; with care being postponed for 12 to 18 months; with care being controlled by a group of bureaucrats, that on the basis of cost benefit, will decide whether you get a medical procedure or not. They're destroying our end of life," Cruz said. "One of the things in Obamacare is that for the elderly, is every five years, you must have end-of-year counseling. Translation, suicide counseling."
quicklist: 2 title: Too Many 'RINOs In The Republican Party' text: At the same event, Cruz turned his attention to his own party, calling out members of the GOP for being Republican in name only, or RINOs.
"We have too many RINOs in the Republican Party," declared Cruz. The audience responded with massive applause and cheers.
"They have their minds made up, and basically their idea is this: you're too stupid and I know what I'm doing. Well, I'll tell you what, we the people are not stupid. We the people ought to be smart enough to throw them out of office, or primary them, and put constitutional conservatives in their place!" Cruz exclaimed.
A two-minute audio clip of the event was posted to ColaradoPols.com a liberal blog, YouTube on Sept. 30. The audio clip was given to the blog site by a source at the event.
In the audio posted, a women can be heard interrupting Cruz, and saying Obama "is a Muslim." Cruz didn't correct the audience member; instead he responded that, during the 2008 presidential race Sen. John "McCain couldn't say that because it wasn't politically correct." He then noted, "It is time we stop being politically correct!"
quicklist: 3 title: Obamacare Will 'Destroy the Elderly' text: In August, alongside his son, Rafael Cruz addressed a gathering of Christian conservatives in Ames, Iowa. For nearly 20 minutes, the pastor regaled the audience with a fiery pro-Christian, anti-Obama speech that drew a boisterous standing ovation from the crowd at an annual summit organized by the Family Leader, an Iowa-based conservative group.
"This administration has both their hands in your pocket," the 74-year-old Cruz said. "They're going to take everything you have."
Near the end of his speech, he declared: "Obamacare is going to destroy the elderly by denying care, by even perhaps denying treatment to people who are in catastrophic circumstances."
quicklist: 4 title: Obama Is 'Just Like A Dictator, Like Fidel Castro' text: In July, Rafael Cruz spoke at Free the People, an event organized by Freedom Works, a conservative group. During the speech, Rafael Cruz compares President Obama to the infamous dictator from his home country, Fidel Castro. Not just once, but twice.
"I grew up in Cuba under a strong, military, oppressive dictatorship. So as a teenager, I found myself involved in a revolution. I remember during that time, a young, charismatic leader rose up, talking about hope and change. His name was Fidel Castro," Cruz said, making a direct comparison to Barack Obama and the theme central to his 2008 presidential campaign.
The Texas senator's father, again, compared Obama and Castro minutes later. "I think the most ominous words I've ever heard was in the last two State of the Union addresses, when our president said: If Congress does not act, I will act unilaterally," Cruz said. "Not much different than that old, bearded friend that I left behind in Cuba -- governing by decree, by executive order, just like a dictator, like Fidel Castro."
quicklist: 5 title: On His Son: 'God Has Destined You For Greatness' text: In an exclusive interview on CBN's The Brody File, Rafael Cruz spoke about his son's rising star in politics.
The elder Cruz was unsurprised by the success of his son. In fact, he said he believes his son was 'destined' for greatness by God.
In a July interview, Rafael Cruz spoke about the senator's childhood and said, "Let me go back to when he was maybe four. When he was four I used to read Bible stories to him all the time. And I would declare and proclaim the word of God over him. And I would just say, you know Ted, you have been gifted above any man that I know and God has destined you for greatness." | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
If this integration could be standardized the OmniSharp team would only have to deal with the server part, instead of having also to deal with all the different extensions.
But, while OmniSharp did a great showcase for Roslyn and .NET it did not provide any new infrastructure or language integration basis in general. It just showcased that such a standard is totally missing and would definitely solve a problem that the OmniSharp team faced: The missing integration in the client (i.e., the various editors) results in many redundant plugins, which will eventually end up in maintenance hell.
The OmniSharp project was fairly successful. Integrations for all known editors exist such as vim, Sublime Text, Emacs, etc. They all provide a great experience that comes already quite close to using C# inside Microsoft’s own flagship IDE Visual Studio.
The idea made sense. Instead of developing an advanced C# language extension in N editors (thus duplicating a lot of the features with risk of unequal implementations and risk of the maintenance hell) only a couple of lines had to be written; enough lines to connect to a small server. The server itself could purely use Roslyn and would be implemented in C# itself.
The idea was simple: A small server layer makes all the greatness of Roslyn easily accessible. Any editor with advanced capabilities (i.e. extensibility) could therefore access Roslyn’s information on C# files without having to re-implement these details. Only the integration of such a server into the editor needs to be done.
As a result of Microsoft’s efforts to increase the C# adaption outside of the usual circles, the OmniSharp project was born. It was a simple server that leverages the cross-platform aspect of .NET and it’s new compiler platform Roslyn.
Furthermore, it should be easy to use the created basis for future projects. Microsoft created a few external tools (and some of these even made it outside of the company), but wanted to created something that not only shows the greatness of this new piece of tech, but also increases the adaption of C# / .NET as a whole.
It all started when Microsoft played around with use cases of C# (and VBs) new and shiny compiler, codenamed Roslyn . What makes Roslyn special is that it was developed with reusability and extensibility in mind. Instead of being a black box, developers could easily hack (or extend) the fundamentals that C# was standing upon.
In this post we will investigate how to use the language server protocol for actually extending any client understanding the LSP.
By using the LSP we can reduce the number to the number of languages (or even further if some languages are similar and may be aggregated). How is this possible? Well, all we need is a generic specification for common editing tasks within a communication pattern. This specification is called the language server protocol.
The language server protocol (LSP) is Microsoft’s answer to the old n * m problem: Consider n languages and m editors — how many implementations are needed to make these languages available on all editors?
This combination is both elegant and powerful. There is also one more thing that makes VSCode as appealing as it seems to be: The Language Server Protocol.
However, performance issues and general limitations prevented an immediate success. The door for web technologies in the editing space seemed to be open and Microsoft happily stepped in. VSCode is nothing more than the same idea as GitHub’s Atom with Monaco as code editor and TypeScript in its extensibility core.
We’ve seen quite a lot of movement on the editor front in recent years. First, Sublime Text came to conquer the world. It’s novel design elements (preview bar, go to anything, instant command prompt) paired with ultra strong extensibility proved too much for the competition. Later, when GitHub started the Atom project , it seemed a natural successor.
Language server basics
Fast forward into 2018 — we realize that progress has been made and such a standard exists, even though the standard was artificially born and has yet to reach full coverage. The initial work on the standard commenced by three companies: Microsoft, Red Hat, and Codenvy.
Today, many clients are already out there and the LSP working group contributors are keen on working together to improve the existing specification. At its core, the LSP only defines a server for JSON-based remote procedure calls (RPC), known as JSON-RPC. JSON-RPC is already quite old, established, and fairly simple.
There are multiple ways to use JSON-RPC, but you see these two ways in most implementations:
Communication is done via the standard input / output, i.e., the command line interface Communication is performed via TCP/IP, i.e., network messages similar to HTTP
The protocol is independent of the communication format. We could use telnet or similar to establish a connection. As long as we can send in strings and receive strings we are good. The format of the strings, of course, needs to follow the JSON-RPC specification, which can look such as
// standard input --> sent to server { "jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "subtract", "params": [42, 23], "id": 1 } // standard output <-- sent to client { "jsonrpc": "2.0", "result": 19, "id": 1 }
All in all it is just a format for RPC which is based on JSON with some special rules and restrictions. An important observation is that the JSON-RPC protocol is fully asynchronous. Responses to clients can be send out-of-order and without time restriction. This motivates the correct use of the id parameter, which can be used to map previously done requests with incoming responses.
The question now: How is JSON-RPC used in the LSP?
Well, JSON-RPC provides the abstraction over the used communication and programming language. Thus, even though the client (e.g., VSCode) would use one technology (e.g., Node.js), a language service could be a completely different technology (e.g., C#) and does not even require to be run locally.
In theory, such language services could be also in the cloud, even though it seems impractical to include such high latency times in an IDE. Another limitation that prevents such implementations is that we have a one-to-one relationship between client and server.
To quote the spec:
The protocol currently assumes that one server serves one tool. There is currently no support in the protocol to share one server between different tools.
In short: LSP specifies a couple of well-defined methods including their parameter and result (types). All these methods are supposed to be accessible via the JSON-RPC protocol and are therefore naturally decoupled from a specific technology or communication format.
Protocol essentials
Now that we roughly know the fundamentals of the LSP, it is time to actually look at the protocol. By default, the protocol assumes that the server is started and closed by the client. Hence, the lifetime of a language server is fully determined by its user.
Multiple instances are, of course, possible and should not conflict with each other. In its core the protocol distinguishes between three kinds of messages being send by the two parties:
Requests from the client, which are supposed to have a response
Responses from the server, which are replies to earlier requests
Notifications, which are messages without response expectations (originator: client), or without prior requests (originator: server)
Right after the server started the client will send an initialization request. The client will then wait for a response, which will be acknowledged with a notification. Then standard notifications and requests / responses are exchanged until the client sends a shutdown request. The server, however, will not fully shutdown until it gets an Exit notification.
The following sequence diagram illustrates this base layer:
Language Server Protocol — essential message flow
For the initialize request the interesting part is the exchange of capabilities. There are two good reasons:
As the server we get to know what the client supports and how the client is configured; this influences how the server should handle things
For the client we need to know what the server can do to avoid unnecessary calls without (successful) responses
One of the pieces of information the request information contains is the root path of the current project (if any). This will then help to determine the correct absolute paths when relative paths need to be resolved.
The delivered client capabilities are divided into two groups, namely single text document capabilities and full workspace capabilities. Experimental client capabilities (not further specified) can also be delivered. In this post we will only cover the text document capabilities.
One question that will arise at some point: Since LSP works mostly with text documents how is the support for binary documents given? Which binary encoding is used?
Well, the LSP answers these (and similar) questions quite simple and straight forward:
There is currently no support for binary documents.
So, we can only use the LSP with text-based files. Hence the name text documents.
Coming back to the response we introduced earlier we may be now interested to see how simple the interface for the initialize response may look like:
interface InitializeResult { capabilities: ServerCapabilities; }
Here ServerCapabilities is really just an object with some (optional) pre-defined keys. Each key resolves to a known capability.
Here, we will only implement a single one. Let’s just assume we implement the hoverProvider capability, which gives clients the possibility of getting information at hover on parts of the open text document (e.g., documentation or symbol details).
As such the result snippet of the JSON-RPC response could look as follows:
{ "capabilities": { "hoverProvider": true } }
How can an interaction look like where this capability is used? It all boils down to the textDocument/hover method, which is specified in the standard.
To demonstrate visually:
Language Server Protocol — action on hover
Here, the Hover inferface is specified to contain (optionally) the range to illustrate and the content(s) to show. Each content fragment is either a simple string or specifies a language (e.g., HTML) for rendering. The TextDocumentPositionParams is an interface that is used quite often.
It only contains two properties:
A reference to the document in question (standard, is part of any textDocument/* method), the reference is transported as a simple { uri: string } object
method), the reference is transported as a simple object The position of interest, which is the column / row position of the mouse pointer in case of hover
The position contains two properties, line (0-based) and character . The latter is tricky as it is really the cursor, which is always between two positions in a string . Thus a character value of 0 is right before the first character, while 1 is between the first and second character.
In fact, with the flow earlier shown a full (single document) flow looks more close to:
Language Server Protocol — a sample document editing flow
Armed with this knowledge secure in the back of our mind, let’s look at a sample server and its integration into a real client.
A sample server
For now, we’ll write a simple server for plain text files that has just a single capability: handling hover actions. For the sample we want to display a nicely formatted message with the actually hovered word. This should also give us some insights into the basic language server API or workflow.
For the following to work we need to install the vscode-languageserver NPM package. This package is (despite its name) not tightly bound to VSCode and can be easily used for general language servers. As I’ll explain in the next section, we will still need a dedicated extension for VSCode (mostly for the metadata information, but also for a couple of other reasons).
There are a couple of reasons for using the formerly mentioned NPM package. Obviously, it is a battle tested implementation of the language server protocol. It gives us nice syntax sugar to get going fast. Most notably, we don’t have to worry so much about:
using the correct capability names (TS support is fully given),
receiving (and using) the capabilities (again mostly TS),
the whole initialization handshake incl. capability exchange,
correctness to the LSP (and lower-level specifications such as JSON-RPC), and
handling the whole connection
At last, let’s start with some basic functionality. For getting some text, we can use the following simple implementation. Note: the algorithm is obviously just a crude approximation and does not handle any edge case except line boundaries.
function getWord(text: string, at: number) { const first = text.lastIndexOf(' ', index); const last = text.indexOf(' ', index); return text.substring(first !== -1 ? first : 0, last !== -1 ? last : text.length - 1); }
The function will be used from our onHover handler. Before we can reach that, however, we need to establish the connection. So let’s define how this looks:
import { IPCMessageReader, IPCMessageWriter, createConnection, IConnection, TextDocuments, InitializeResult, Hover, } from 'vscode-languageserver'; const reader = new IPCMessageReader(process); const writer = new IPCMessageWriter(process); const connection: IConnection = createConnection(reader, writer); const documents: TextDocuments = new TextDocuments(); documents.listen(connection); connection.onInitialize((_params): InitializeResult => { return { capabilities: { textDocumentSync: documents.syncKind, hoverProvider: true } } });
The connection is the vscode-languageserver abstraction over the LSP and the underlying JSON-RPC. It supports multiple kinds of connections, which are abstracted via the reader and writer. This even allows mixed combinations such as IPC readers and console writers.
Now we can implement the onHover method returning a Hover object in case we have something to respond. Otherwise, we just return undefined for simplicity. The connection.listen() at the end starts the actual connection.
// ... connection.onHover(({ textDocument, position }): Hover => { const document = documents.get(textDocument.uri); const start = { line: position.line, character: 0, }; const end = { line: position.line + 1, character: 0, }; const text = document.getText({ start, end }); const index = document.offsetAt(position) - document.offsetAt(start); const word = getWord(text, index); if (word !== '') { return { contents: { kind: 'markdown', value: `Current word: **${word}**.`, }, }; } return undefined; }); connection.listen();
Most importantly, we get the document via its identifier (unique through the uri ) from the connected documents. The documents are a nice abstraction layer to take care of the otherwise repetitive task of managing the documents via didOpen and didClose like notifications. Nevertheless, it is important to realize that a document consists only of a few functions. Most of the functions just deal with position resolution to indices or vice versa.
Finally, we need a way to tell clients about our server. This is the point where we need to dive into writing VSCode extensions.
Extending the client
Several client implementations of the protocol exist. There are, as usual, some big players in the field. Important, as already stated beforehand clients also transport capabilities. Like servers, clients may also not support all capabilities of the LSP. Mostly, due to implementation time / focus, but sometimes also due to technical challenges, e.g., limitations in the plugin layer to integrate the LSP. The most known implementations exist for:
Atom
Emacs
IntelliJ IDEs
Sublime Text 3
vim/neovim
VSCode
It is no coincidence that this reads a bit like the “who’s who” of text editors and / or IDEs (with the exception of Visual Studio missing, which may be soon changed). The LSP really fulfills its promise to bring language services without less effort to more platforms, which is something any texteditor (or IDE) can profit from.
One reason why existing IDEs may be resistant to change is lack of profiling/debugging. Another may be required core architecture changes to allow using LSP-conform servers or extensions.
One of the unique selling points of a product like Visual Studio is that it comes with integrated language support that just feels native and the same for all supported languages. Using an open-source technology that will bring in a lot of different providers with different grades (and mindsets) of implementation will certainly degrade the standard user experience.
Also, since debugging is not part of the LSP, a huge fraction of the whole development process would still be missing, which makes it difficult for the marketing folks at Microsoft to sell this product.
Nevertheless, I think its fair to say that the advantages of supporting the LSP are much bigger than the unwanted side-effects. Once a standardized debugging server protocol (known as Debug Adapter Protocol, short DAP) is released a dynamic duo consisting of DAP and LSP would be here to stay.
Most clients could theoretically work with a language server nearly out of the box, however, there are some restrictions that still demand us writing some kind of glue layer (called a plugin):
It makes it possible for users to actively decide if they want the server
It actively transports data beyond the LSP (metadata relevant for the client)
It enables creators of plugins to use multiple technologies, e.g., DAP and LSP integration with different sub-systems
It allows the plugin to use more of the specific client, e.g., custom notifications, binding to commands, etc.
Now, we’ll look at a very simple plugin for VSCode. We will not go into many details, but rather follow KISS to just achieve the one thing we desire — integrate our sample server.
This diagram illustrates how extensions enable the different renderers to go beyond the Electron shell of VSCode; right to the external process via JSON-RPC.
The VSCode extensions host communication to the LSP instance.
The easiest way to get started with extensions in VSCode is to install the Yeoman generator ( generator-code ). We can then go ahead and create a new project using yo code . Not only will the basic boilerplate be available, but also interesting tooling aspects such as a valid launch.json that enables debugging the extension by just pressing F5. This command will open a new instance of VSCode with the extension in development being enabled and ready to be debugged.
In VSCode extensions the package.json contains the basic metadata to describe the extension. The metadata is used to, e.g., decide when to activate the extension. The activation is quite important as VSCode tries to be conservative about its resources and does not want to carry to full load of all extensions into every file.
For simplicity, we can just activate when a certain language is chosen. Here, let’s say our target is a plain text file (remember: in the end our simple language server will just repeat the currently highlighted word on hover).
{ // ... "activationEvents": [ "onLanguage:plaintext" ] }
As we started with the (empty) boilerplate our package.json only contains the bare minimum. To integrate a language server we should also add the vscode-languageclient NPM package. Let’s just add this to the devDependencies of our extension.
How does the actual extension look like? As specified in the main property of the package.json we have our root module (e.g., in src/extension.ts) of the VSCode extension. This one needs to export the activate function.
Activating a LSP compliant server is easily done via the previously mentioned vscode-languageclient package. It allows us to focus on what really matters; identifying the right application and setting up the different channels plus defining the VSCode related metadata.
The code is mostly self explanatory.
import { join } from 'path'; import { ExtensionContext } from 'vscode'; import { LanguageClient, LanguageClientOptions, ServerOptions, TransportKind } from 'vscode-languageclient'; export function activate(context: ExtensionContext) { const serverModule = context.asAbsolutePath(join('server', 'server.js')); const serverOptions: ServerOptions = { run: { module: serverModule, transport: TransportKind.ipc, }, debug: { module: serverModule, transport: TransportKind.ipc, options: { execArgv: ['--nolazy', '--inspect=6009'], }, }, }; const clientOptions: LanguageClientOptions = { documentSelector: [{ scheme: 'file', language: 'plaintext', }], }; const client = new LanguageClient('hoverExample', 'Language Server Hover Example', serverOptions, clientOptions); const disposable = client.start(); context.subscriptions.push(disposable); }
The provided execution context is the only relevant part here. We use this one to tell VSCode about the created subscription, such that the resource is managed properly. VSCode will then send the necessary commands to ensure well-defined behavior.
Debugging the server can be done via a simple task in the launch.json (such a file is specific for VSCode and needs to be stored in the .vscode directory).
{ "name": "Attach to Server", "type": "node", "request": "attach", "port": 6009, "sourceMaps": true, "outFiles": [ "${workspaceRoot}/out/**/*.js" ], "preLaunchTask": "watch" }
One important note: The “installation” of the server into our extension (if we want to create it within a single repository) is necessary and potentially (depending on the situation) not straight forward. The VSCode team has written a little helper installServerIntoExtension , which is part of the general language server tooling and thus already available if we have installed the prior packages.
A command such as the following will install the server from the current directory using its metadata and TypeScript configuration (for the build process) into the client-dir directory.
installServerIntoExtension ../client-dir ./package.json ./tsconfig.json
Alternatively, install the server via NPM or make a more proficient disk search. The crucial point is that the server is started in isolation and thus needs its own node_modules structure (among other things).
Successfully showing the information on hover.
Having done all that VSCode can now blend in the information on hover that we provided. Time to integrate the language server also in another editor?
Conclusion
Knowledge of the LSP is not valuable simply in an academic sense. It can give us an edge in many different scenarios. Not only is the language server protocol a nice piece of technology, but it also uses other standards and technologies which are worth knowing about. Finally, using LSP gives us a great deal of potential reusability.
Obviously, we will not write our own IDE on a regular basis. However, tasks that involve some kind of language processing are quite standard. If all compilers / parsers would be (also) available in form of a LSP compliant tool, we can easily connect and use the functionality provided.
Where have you been in touch with LSP yet? What values do you like the most about LSP and its implementations? Any use cases we did not mention here? Please tell us in the comments!
References | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Stikbold! is a hard-hitting, fast-paced dodgeball sports game set in a colorful and quirky 70s universe.
With brand-new content, improved features and gameplay for up to 6 players, the Switch™-exclusive DELUXE edition is perfect for any party or social gathering.
CASUALLY COOPERATIVE STORY MODE (1-2 P)
Join Stikbold! superstars Björn and Jerome on a tour through the zany universe as they embark on a CO-OP adventure to unravel the mysterious disappearance of rival love-interest Heidi Starbrow on the night of the BIG game! Battle your way through a surprising cast of funky characters and unlikely boss fights.
Playable solo or with your favorite buddy - Beat the story, then beat your friend!
BRUTALLY FUN LOCAL-MULTIPLAYER BRAWLS (1-6 P)
Put your skills to the ultimate test in the definitive battle of the living room – Will you be victorious or go down with a BAM... and have your revenge from beyond!
Take control of level-specific hazardous events and use them to interfere and harass the remaining opponents instead of sitting idle while waiting for next round to begin... Don’t get mad, get even!
Inspired by the greatest party-game classics, Stikbold! offers accessible but deep gameplay with a great variety of playful twists to spice up the action and keep the party going.
6 UNIQUE ARENAS – Humiliate your friends on a series of distinct environments with unique, gameplay-altering dynamics and level-specific player-controlled hazards.
UP TO 6 PLAYERS – With DELUXE edition, max player count has increased to 6 to accommodate even bigger parties. Play Free-For-All, 3v3, 2v2v2 or perhaps someone frisky is up for a 5v1?!
4 INTENSE MINI-GAMES (2-6 P) – No party game is complete without mini-games. Mix it up with Handyball, Pop-pop, Crate Escape and Wild Rumpus
WHEEL OF RUMPUS (1-6 P) – This crazy new game show-inspired tournament will take the players on a playful tour through all the game’s content. Adaptation is the key to success in this format, littered with bounties, secondary objectives and decorative, cosmetic prizes to underline your victories.
18 COLORFUL CHARACTERS – Choose from the large roster of colorful athletes to find the personality quirky enough to match your style. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A 100-metre stretch of concrete on the outskirts of town has residents of Smithers, B.C., scratching their heads.
It all started when North Central Plumbing and Heating decided to move to a then-vacant building on the frontage road along Highway 16.
The building required substantial renovations, and a Smithers bylaw requires projects over $75,000 to include public infrastructure.
The result? A short stretch of segmented concrete sidewalk about half a kilometre away from its nearest neighbour — built for about $10,000 at the expense of the building's owner, BPW holdings, which performed the upgrades.
"It literally goes absolutely nowhere," said Trevor Bruintjes, general manager of North Central Plumbing and Heating, who says his employees get questions about the sidewalk constantly.
"I almost want to have a sidewalk sale just so that it might have purpose one day."
Trevor Bruintjes says there are no other sidewalks for about 500 metres in either direction. (Trevor Bruintjes)
The sidewalk is situated along a grass boulevard that runs between the highway and the frontage road on which North Central Plumbing and Heating sits, along with a number of other businesses.
Despite its seemingly pointless nature, Bruintjes says Smithers town council was adamant the sidewalk be built.
Mayor Taylor Bachrach said council has been trying to get a sidewalk built along this particular stretch of road for some time. He said two other recent redevelopment projects in the area have also included isolated chunks of sidewalk.
"It's an area without any sidewalk that previous councils have identified as an area where we want to improve walkability," he said.
"I think that's why this has created so much public attention, is because when you look at it, it is all by itself, and it is a very short section of sidewalk that isn't connected to anything, [but] the theory is that as the properties along the frontage road are developed over time, that sidewalk will get filled in and eventually will become connected."
But Bruintjes says neighbouring businesses have done numerous smaller renovation projects over the years, meaning they've never hit the threshold to be required to build sidewalks of their own.
He thinks it could be as long as 20 years until the sidewalk actually connects to anything.
"By then, my sidewalk is probably in need of replacement," Bruintjes said.
In the meantime, Bruintjes is having some fun with the situation.
He's placed two signs along the sidewalk: at one end, a sign reading, "The end is near;" and at the other, a sign reading, "The end."
The new "sidewalk to nowhere," in all its glory. (Trevor Bruintjes)
With files from Andrew Kurjata and Josh Pagé. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
In only a few instances (outside of the voting booth) does the average Wisconsinite have the power to advance the 100-year struggle for universal quality healthcare as we do next month.
For many, the Affordable Care Act was a godsend—the outlawing of insurance company practices that discriminated against people with preexisting conditions and provider of tax-credit support for hundreds of thousands of residents to help pay for premiums. It also offers one place to go, healthcare.gov, with clear rules that ensure a level playing field.
But the fight was never at its end. For too many, thanks to conservative sabotage, affordable healthcare coverage remains out of reach. People are still delaying care, struggling with bills and choosing to remain uninsured. Yet the stage of this drama today is not so much in Washington, D.C., as it is in Madison, Wis., and this spring, you have two major ways to be heard.
Expanding BadgerCare is now the opportunity in front of us that could guarantee more affordable healthcare coverage to tens of thousands of people, while improving care for the rest of us by accepting available federal funds that former Republican Gov. Scott Walker long refused and by opening up BadgerCare to be a “public option” to the individuals, families and employees who choose to buy in at their expense.
Expanding BadgerCare could immediately help the homecare workers, childcare workers, construction workers, office staff and restaurant employees who generally earn between $7.25 and $16 an hour, depending on family size and hours worked in a given month. Too many hard-working Wisconsinites simply can’t rely on their job for adequate healthcare coverage, and with small tweaks, BadgerCare could be available to everyone as an affordable alternative “public” option for healthcare—including for those who get it at work.
But there is a barrier: Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled state Senate, led by Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. While many senators (including Fitzgerald) have publicly wavered at times, they’ve publicly stated on many occasions that they remain opposed to affordable healthcare coverage for working Wisconsinites, yet it only requires three Republican senators to change their mind, and current budget negotiations with Gov. Tony Evers makes this year likely the one when big things will happen.
What Can You Do To Help?
Call your state senator (see Milwaukee-area senators list below). Senate supporters of BadgerCare can work with you, while opponents need to hear from you on it.
You can also make plans to attend the single budget hearing taking place in the Milwaukee area on Thursday, April 11. Alas, as of the publication of this article, the precise location of this hearing is unknown, but it should be on that day and start about 10 a.m. (Since these public hearings are first come-first served for seating, make plans to arrive before 9 a.m. if possible.)
Friends of the Shepherd Help support Milwaukee's locally owned free weekly newspaper. LEARN MORE
To keep track of the scheduling of this budget hearing, please look for updates at Citizen Action of Wisconsin’s webpage at citizenactionwi.org or call them at 414-476-4501. Let us know if you can attend, and the moment it is clear where and when, we will connect you with how you can most help. Citizen Action also has an online pledge form at form.jotform.com/90774266565165.
This is your best chance to get involved to help tens of thousands of working Wisconsinites gain affordable healthcare coverage.
Milwaukee-area Wisconsin State Senators
Dale Kooyenga (District Five) 608-266-2512
Alberta Darling (District Eight) 608-266-5830
Duey Stroebel (District 20) 608-266-7513
David Craig (District 28) 608-266-5400
Chris Kapenga (District 33) 608-266-9174
Kevin Kane is a director at Citizen Action of Wisconsin. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
This is not a State Merit position. This is a contractual position with the opportunity to work long term.
Daily work is carried out with limited supervision from the Environmental Stewardship Program Manager.
Analyze and assess data, problems, and issues and their impact on programs, plans or the current environment.
Define and evaluate alternative uses of resources, viable options/approaches and anticipated costs and benefits, consequences and outcomes using present and projected information.
Formulate plans and policies to meet the social, economic, and physical needs of natural communities.
Develop, promote and market strategies for the implementation of plans, policies and programs.
Coordinate planning activities and policies across state, regional, county and local levels; integrate with other entities outside the state.
Provide technical assistance, training and education for understanding and managing change.
Design and manage the planning process.
Systemically evaluate the impact of plan implementation and incorporate findings with the ongoing planning process.
Applicants must have education, training and/or experience demonstrating competence in each of the following areas;
Possession of a Bachelor's degree or higher in Life of Physical Science or related field, preferred.
Three years' experience in environmental land use or preservation of natural habitats.
Three years' experience in interpreting natural resources rules, regulations, standards, policies and procedures.
One year experience in natural resource planning and implementations.
Experience with GIS is preferred.
Knowledge of Delaware flora and fauna is preferred.
Job Type: Full-time
Salary: $39,093.00 to $48,866.00 /year | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A Palm Coast man rigged the front door of his home with wiring attached to a car battery charger in an attempt to electrocute his pregnant wife, Flagler County Sheriff's investigators said.
Michael Wilson, 32, is accused of trying to kill his wife after he attached electrical devices to the inside of the deadbolt lock and the door handle of their Palm Coast home, according to a charging affidavit. The ploy, which could have easily led to her death, was to have her insert the house key and then grab the handle, completing the circuit and sending a jolt of electricity through her arm, chest and heart.
Fortunately for Wilson's wife, who was in Knoxville, Tennessee with family at the time, she never took a hold of that door knob. Her stepfather, Jon Flositz, became suspicious after she told him Wilson had warned her not to let a child touch it. Flositz went to examine the house with his wife, Alissa, and they found the word "Hi" and a drawing of two eyes in what appeared to be lipstick on the back sliding door, according to the deputy's report.
He contacted authorities, and when they responded to 110 White Hall Drive on Tuesday, they found the front door was barricaded and locked. Burn marks were seen near the door's handle. A kick to the door sent off a large spark.
On the other side was an elaborate rigging consisting of two chairs, a child's high chair, blue tape, a shower-type rod, electrical cords, wiring — some of which was cut from a bedroom salt rock lamp — and a car battery charger with clamps.
Steven Bray, a journeyman lineman from from Florida Power & Light, was shown several photographs of what deputies described as the "booby trap" and he said that a person who touched the door lock and handle at the same time would receive a jolt of some 120 volts and 1 amp, enough power that the person had an 80 to 100 percent chance of "suffering death or great bodily harm," according to the affidavit.
Wilson is charged with two counts of attempted aggravated battery on a pregnant person and one count of grand theft of a firearm.
"This is one of the most bizarre domestic violence cases I have seen in my career,” Sheriff Rick Staley said in a statement. "Not only did this man try to electrocute his wife, but he could have injured a deputy or any person attempting to enter this residence. Thankfully this man was found and taken into custody before he could cause the harm he intended."
In addition to the electric rigging, deputies found a series of strange items within the house: pictures of a sonogram on the kitchen table, sticky-note love letters in the bedroom with a photo album showing Wilson and his wife together, and the wife's recently-installed smart cameras dumped in the toilet.
An interview with Wilson's wife, whose name is redacted throughout the report, shed light on the scene. She said that a few months ago her husband fell but he refused to seek medical treatment.
"Up until that point, (Wilson) seemed to be a normal person," she told the detective.
He was later hospitalized under Florida's Baker Act — which allows for someone to be involuntarily taken into custody for mental evaluation — in late November. While he was absent she obtained a revolver from her stepfather, which she hid in a kitchen cabinet, and installed two smart cameras that sent video feeds to her phone.
Wilson eventually apologized for his behavior and she asked him to join her in Knoxville where she was spending the holiday with her family and her children. He arrived there on Dec. 21. The next evening, however, he suddenly got up while they were watching television around midnight and left. In the morning she began to receive text messages from Wilson, who insisted that she was cheating on him.
She said Wilson didn't return until about 4:30 p.m. Dec. 24, some 40 hours later. In that time, she received an alert on her phone that the smart cameras in the Palm Coast home were disconnected. Wilson also made comments that made her believe that he had visited the home during his absence, including inquiring about the location of the firearm and cameras. He also advised her "to use the front door of the home because the garage door isn't going to open."
She told her stepfather about the comments and he checked the home before she returned to Florida.
Wilson was arrested on a warrant at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in Knoxville. He was being held Friday on $150,000 bail and will be extradited to the Flagler County Detention Facility.
A Facebook page belonging to Wilson shows him gripping two handguns, and he boasts that he "is the guy that your father warned you about." It also lists him as "widowed." | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Do you have some bitcoins burning a hole in your pocket? You're in luck. Several sites have joined forces for Bitcoin Black Friday, an online campaign that will offer discounts to those who pay in bitcoins.
"It's a one day extravaganza of deals for Bitcoin users that will allow tech-savvy shoppers to get all their holiday gifts purchased without spending a dime," organizers said. "Instead, they can spend their bitcoins, which have surged in value recently as they have become more and more widely adopted."
Bitcoins are a virtual currency created by users in their own computers with a Bitcoin "miner" application. It takes quite a while to "mine" one bitcoin, so it's not exactly a get-rich-quick scheme, but in recent weeks, the price of a bitcoin has skyrocketed; on Thursday night, it was over $1,000. Bitcoin is still in its infancy, so you can't exactly pay with bitcoins at the corner store - or even major retailers - but those who want to cash out will now have a few more options thanks to Bitcoin Black Friday.
The event is the brainchild of Bitcoin evangelist Jon Holmquist. Last year, he organized a Bitcoin Friday event with 75 merchants, which he said helped "gain much needed attention and legitimacy for Bitcoin." This year he teamed with Internet freedom activists Fight for the Future, and has signed on more than 250 merchants.
"Bitcoin Black Friday is an awesome way to bring the whole Internet community together at a time when Bitcoin needs as much mainstream attention as possible," Holmes Wilson, co-founder of Fight for the Future, said in a statement. "Even though it seems like Bitcoin is going strong, it won't be politically safe until it's widely used by average Internet users - that's already happening, but we're speeding things up with Bitcoin Black Friday, and making it fun in the process."
Among those who signed on are dating site OK Cupid, which will offer a discount to bitcoin users who sign up for its premium service. Reddit will also offer discounted Reddit gold to bitcoin users, while Humble Bundle - a charity-focused site that lets users pay what they want for games - will also let supporters pay with bitcoin.
Also participating in Bitcoin Black Friday is GSM Nation, which sells unlocked smartphones, travel site CheapAir.com, domain name seller Namecheap, VPN service Private Internet Access, gift card discount site Gyft, open-source hardware firm AdaFruit, organic coffee company Bitbrew, and Christmas tree site ChristmasTre.es.
GOOD Magazine will also offer $5 off on subscriptions to those who pay with bitcoins, while the Internet Archive will have discounted merchandise for the bitcoin faithful.
Users can also snag authentic Moroccan rugs from Beni Ouarain, bundled shaving gear from Shave like Dad, 35 percent off Web hosting from Exohosting, and even liquor discounts from CityWineCellar.
If you'd rather give away your bitcoins, the Bitcoin Black Friday website will also let users donate to a variety of charities and non-profits, including Sean's Outpost, Songs of Love, and the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Monica. The BitGive Foundation, a new non-profit that collects bitcoins and distributes them to public health and environmental charities, will also accept Bitcoin donations on behalf of Save the Children to aid in disaster relief efforts in the Philippines.
A full list of participating retailers is on the Bitcoin Black Friday site. For more, see Everything You Need to Know About Bitcoins, as well as PCMag's Best Deals Today.
Further Reading
Personal Finance Reviews | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
3-mile wide asteroid to pass near Earth tonight, may hit us in future The "potentially hazardous" rock, 3200 Phaethon, will be visible through a small telescope tonight
Tonight, December 16, an asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon is going to miss Earth by 6.2 million miles. Given the relative emptiness of space, that's just about grazing us.
The 3-mile wide asteroid has been classified as "potentially hazardous" by NASA, which designates that it has a probability of one day colliding with Earth. That won't be today: 6.2 million miles is not close enough to be of concern. For comparison's sake, the moon orbits us at an average distance of 240,000 miles, or 25 times closer.
Advertisement:
But 6.2 million miles is close enough to Earth that amateur astronomers will be able to observe the space rock with a relatively small telescope. Astronomy Now has a map and details on how to see it.
Even though it's just passing by, 3200 Phaethon has made its mark on Earth in other ways. According to NASA, the recent Geminid meteor shower, visible on Earth throughout the past week, may be related to 3200 Phaethon; NASA says that 3200 Phaethon is "widely thought to be the parent body for the meteor stream, due to similarities between [Phaethon's] orbit and that of the meteors." Many meteor showers are caused by comets rather than asteroids, as comets rain particles in a way that can produce meteor showers when they intercept Earth. This would make Phaethon unusual among asteroids: "Most meteor streams are associated with comets, so this raises the question of whether Phaethon could be an inactive comet nucleus," NASA writes.
There are a lot of asteroids of varying size in the solar system, but few which pose a threat. Because 3200 Phaethon orbits the sun once every 523 days in a highly elliptical path, the asteroid occasionally dips closely to Earth's orbit, which may one day put us at risk for collision. (You can look at an interactive model of its orbit around the sun here).
Advertisement:
It is not known definitively how devastating a 3-mile wide asteroid impact would be on Earth, and may actually depend on the place that it struck (water vs. land). The asteroid that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs was 6.2 miles wide in diameter, and struck a large gypsum deposit that sent sulphur into the atmosphere, blotting the sun for perhaps years and killing much plant life. If the asteroid had hit a slightly different spot on Earth, the outcome might have been very different.
Major extinction events on Earth, generally caused by asteroid impacts, are believed to happen at least once every hundred million years, and perhaps more frequently. The last major extinction event, known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, was caused by the aforementioned asteroid and killed off much of the large land-dwelling life on Earth, including dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago. That impact paved the way for the rise of small mammals who were the ancestors to all humans.
Advertisement:
While no potentially civilization-threatening asteroids have been discovered yet, efforts to track and catalogue potentially hazardous asteroids may pay off in the future. If an asteroid on course to strike Earth is detected with enough of a lead time, even a tiny application of force — say, a mirror or a laser pointed at it to slowly push it to one direction — would be enough to push it off course and prevent an impact with Earth. The trick is finding said asteroid far enough in advance, as a last-minute diversion or tactical nuke, as depicted in films like "Armageddon," is unlikely to be practical nor physically possible. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
Hey everyone! My name is Adam Shlomi and I am a 22-year-old senior at Georgetown University from South Florida. I am the founder of SoFlo SAT Tutoring, an online SAT/ACT tutoring company that provides exceptional test prep to students across the country. I started this business in my bedroom almost a year ago while I was recovering from ankle surgery. I couldn’t walk for 6 months and SoFlo gave me the motivation to get up in the morning.
SoFlo currently brings in average revenue of $15,000 a month and has seen a linear increase in student sign-ups each month since its official inception in March 2019. Since our customer lifetime is short –our students study for and take the SAT, get the score they want, and then no longer require our services– we invest in and rely heavily on the quality of the service we provide to attract future customers. Happy customers and significant score increases have helped spread the word and grow the brand.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
I come from an entrepreneurial family. My father works for himself and my maternal grandfather started a clothing factory. Working for myself has always been encouraged by my family, but before I could get started, I needed to learn a skill. At Georgetown, I study international politics and business. Most students with these backgrounds go on to work at prestigious firms like J.P. Morgan. I really didn’t know what kind of business I could start, and frankly, planned to work as a (boring) data analyst after graduation.
If you have an idea but don’t have the knowledge to execute, use that idea as motivation and go learn how to turn your vision into reality.
Tutoring first came to mind because I had spent significant time working for other tutoring companies and cutting my teeth/learning how the industry works during my teen years. I first started tutoring when I was 15. I was hired by College Experts, a local test prep center in Davie, Florida. My first student was three years older than me, and I spent our first session teaching him how to use his calculator rather than trying to explain any complicated formulas. Being a student myself, I was able to bring a student’s perspective to tutoring. I worked for College Experts until my senior year of high school when I began tutoring on my own and finding clients on Craigslist.
As a freshman at Georgetown, I began working for CollegeVine, one of the leaders in the online tutoring sphere. At CollegeVine, I learned methods and strategies for effective online tutoring. Maybe more valuable were the lessons I learned about what doesn’t work with online tutoring. After a year, I left CollegeVine and continued tutoring on my own for a few family friends, but mainly focused on keeping my grades up and enjoying college.
Then came the injury. In my junior year, I suffered a horrible ankle injury while camping with friends in West Virginia and was forced to return to South Florida for surgery because of my health insurance policy. I was unable to put any pressure on my leg and my future was in doubt as doctors suggested I might never walk again. I had to do some soul-searching and committed myself to a positive mindset and working every day to improve my physical health.
I always need to be working on a project because I’m the kind of person who can’t sit still. Without classes, I used the extra time I was afforded to begin taking SAT tutoring seriously. I built a website, established a legal company, and marketed the business to friends & family. Thus, SoFlo SAT Tutoring was born. But SoFlo was a part-time operation. During the day, I still worked as a data analyst intern for a local bank, helping them automate credit models.
Eventually, my ankle began to heal and daily physical therapy became a necessity. The comfortable bank job wasn’t able to fit into my recovery schedule and I was forced to quit and focus my attention on the prospect of walking again. I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason, however, and shortly after leaving the bank, word of my SAT tutoring began to spread. Students raved to their friends and parents wrote shining reviews. I hired and trained tutors to handle the influx of new students, and once I started bringing other tutors on board, I realized I had started a real company.
Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.
When I decided to take SoFlo seriously as a full-time operation, the first things I did were build a website, make a logo, and start posting on craigslist and Facebook. I didn’t hire another tutor for the first 3 months because of 1.) I didn’t have the client demand and 2.) I wanted to work out all the kinks of online tutoring.
I thought about what my SAT tutoring experience was like as a student and how that experience could have been improved. I asked and answered how to onboard students, how long sessions should be, what the right amount of homework was, and what curriculum would work best.
This process was all about using various past experiences and critical thinking to brainstorm how I could create the best tutoring experience for my students. I made templates for text messages to send to parents and students for initial outreach and began to operationalize my variables. I came up with a homework schedule based on students’ current weaknesses and time remaining until test their official test date and tried out a series of different curriculums to find out which one was most effective.
The goal was to design an effective, repeatable system that I could train other tutors to follow.
With the refined system, students were showing better score improvements and good reviews started rolling in on various platforms like Google Business and Facebook. The timing was great because as that system crystallized, our client demand started increasing. I hired our first tutor using Indeed, after sorting through hundreds of resumes. I invested a ton of time training him, and he is still tutoring with SoFlo currently. When a system for tutoring was in place and demand was growing I began to focus on business operations and marketing.
Describe the process of launching the business.
I had read The Lean Startup and was guided by two principles when I started the business;
Get Customers. Simple: If people are paying for our service then I have a business. If people aren’t paying for our service then I don’t have a business. Don’t Spend money. Let’s do everything as lean as possible and establish a profitable business before we start spending money.
For client acquisition, my first step was to make a website. SoFlo started off offering in-person SAT tutoring in South Florida, a less competitive local market before we transitioned to online SAT Prep. I decided to splurge on our website because I knew that a website would be paramount to brand success. So I spent $70 on Thrive Architect -- which, at the time, felt like a huge investment. Compared to our local competitors, the landing page I made in a few nights looked pretty good. It was my first time making a website. I’ve always loved the internet, and found web layout to be like creating an avatar in a video game; building the website was fun.
When it came to growing the business, I stuck to my goal of making every step of the process as cheap as possible. It was like a mini-lesson in procurement. I was always searching online and browsing reddit to find the most affordable product from the best WordPress plugin, to the best server hoster and accounting software. I used communal reviews and information aggregation on Reddit to inform a lot of my initial purchase decisions.
I didn’t expect the business to grow as fast as it did. It was initially just a passion project to keep me sane as I was lying in bed recovering. So it was a learning experience to try my hand at all of these important structural business-owning activities like setting up quickbooks, building a website, signing up customers, hiring employees, and creating social media profiles.
I also didn’t have a business plan when founding SoFlo. In my entrepreneurship class at Georgetown, I was taught to test the market and see if I can survive rather than drafting up a large proposal. I was getting used to waking up every day and deciding which project I wanted to work on. The business grew very naturally as people kept giving me ideas. For instance, someone found my tutoring ad on Craigslist and tried selling me logo design for $100. I went on Fiverr and made a logo for $5.
Some of my biggest successes have come from me getting an idea and then staying up for hours trying to make it happen. I spent hundreds of dollars and at least 6 weeks trying to find a channel to hire tutors. One night at 11 P.M. I had the idea to post on on-campus job boards -- non-professional job boards for student work-study jobs. I went through the top 12 universities in the U.S. and posted our SAT Tutoring job on every board that would accept it. One week later I had over 50 applications. One good idea put into action can be worth months of work.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
My primary focus right now is to keep adding customers. A business that doesn’t have customers isn’t a business, and if people are trying to pay for our service, all the other problems can get solved.
I knew a lot about my potential customers. I’ve been watching my mother make purchase decisions on the internet her whole life. So I designed a website that would be easy for my mom to use. That meant simple big fonts, not too much moving visually, and a clean, modern look.
I also decided to direct website traffic into a phone call with me. I don’t think my mother would hire an SAT Tutor without speaking to them first and feeling comfortable. So I made it a goal to get a customer’s number as fast as possible and then call them up. This sales model was inspired by the bank I had been working at. They send out tons of direct mail pieces and the moment they get a lead, a sales rep is on the phone to establish a relationship.
Then, I searched ‘SAT Prep’ and ‘SAT Tutoring’ on Google. Many of the top results were platforms (Yelp, Tutors.com, Google Local) so I added myself to every single one using my home as the address. I filled out every profile so I could rank as high as possible in search queries. Once I started getting positive reviews, calls started trickling in. Between the professional looking website (especially compared to my competitors) and positive reviews, customer interest kept growing. People are justifiably skeptical of a company they find online, so we operate on a no-contract basis. If someone has a positive experience using our service, they will continue to use our tutoring. If they don’t, they are not locked into a long term contract they are unhappy with.
Not having contracts is a break from the traditional SAT prep model, but it helps us sign up clients who might be hesitant and significantly reduces the headaches and bad reviews caused by unhappy customers.
In order to turn a lead into a customer, we have to provide exceptional service. If I get a call or text from a customer I stop what I’m doing and answer them because they are my first priority. Many people signed up initially because we were responsive, professional, and friendly on the phone. Our promptness was a key differentiator in the beginning because it showed we were putting in the effort.
Another key aspect of customer retention is connecting with the students. We try and hire tutors who are young and charismatic -- seriously, I don’t hire anyone who I don’t like talking to. We’re a company run by young people and many of our tutors are only a few years removed from high school themselves. Being able to connect with students gives us an edge over the service other companies are able to provide.
At the end of the day, we have to make sure students improve on the SAT. If we do a great job and scores improve, customers tell their friends and the SoFlo family continues to grow.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
I’ve set a goal to triple SoFlo in 2020. I want to triple the number of students we work with. I think about client acquisition in terms of channels. Yelp, for example, is a channel. Word of mouth is another channel we benefit from. My challenge for 2020 will be finding new channels that generate a positive return on marketing spend. Our current client acquisition cost is ~$60 and that cost is recovered in the first session. As SoFlo grows, I have to be realistic about raising that acquisition cost somewhere between $75-$100.
One of the avenues I’m excited to explore will be using modernpostcard for postal mail retargeting, so after someone visits our website (if we can track their IP address to a mailing address), they will receive a postcard with a discount offer to encourage a signup. This is an experiment that has promise.
We are also starting an SEO campaign. I’m working to build press and domain authority for soflotutors.com with the ultimate goal of producing content like blog posts that will increase website traffic and signups. The obstacle is that a few established companies like PrepScholar already have done such broad blogs on nearly every topic like “When should I take the SAT” to “Here are the 8 tricks for the SAT Writing section,” so we’ll be competing with their content.
I’m about to finish college and move to Brooklyn. I expect to have more time to work on SoFlo because I can make this company my sole focus again. Growth slowed down after I went back to college because I have other obligations like homework and social events that limit me from committing time to my business. I learned more in the 6 months I started this company than in my 3 years of college, and I’m looking forward to going full time.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
The three main lessons I’ve learned from starting SoFlo:
DO. DO. DO. Being an entrepreneur is defined by doing. I encourage everyone to take the steps needed to turn ideas into reality. Make a website, post flyers, do something to turn your idea into a concrete, tangible operation. New ideas will come flying and keep chasing those. I’ve taken a DIY approach to SoFlo, so I’ve tried solving every obstacle on my own, like setting up my WordPress server or designing our advertisements. SoFlo gives me the chance to learn by doing and through this process I’ve learned about Photoshop, web design, hiring practices, digital marketing, and so much more. Where can I compete? I think a lot about what my competitive advantages are when picking projects to work on. I’m young, tech-savvy and good at selling products. So it made sense for me to spend time making the nicest website I can and working on the marketing and sales aspects of my company. Finding your strengths and capitalizing on them is what will make your venture take off. Making Mistakes. After the college admissions scandal broke, I tried to partner with local schools to launch an SAT scholarship to offer free tutoring to students in need. I had printed up some nice flyers and made a website, but every single school refused to partner with us. It wasn’t about profits, I genuinely wanted to give back to my hometown. I realized that I needed to be operating in the digital world, and so I tried again by adding the scholarship to our website and opening it up to all students. Since then it has been a huge success and 15% of our students are currently on the scholarship. Without that initial mistake, I would not have been pushed to find a long term solution.
I think of SoFlo as having 4 distinct units:
Acquiring clients (Customers)
The tutoring (Product)
Business operations (billing/scheduling)
Acquiring tutors (Employees)
For acquiring clients:
Thrive Architect is an amazing landing page builder, plus the support is great.
Tawk.to I truly believe click funnels are nearly dead, but our chat feature gets a ton of engagement.
For the tutoring:
r/SAT has been helpful in designing a curriculum and getting an idea for what students struggle with
AWW App, Trilogy Mentors, and BigBlueButton have all been used as we try to find a good online whiteboard virtual classroom tool. I am always looking for better options.
For business operations
Zapier has helped us automate the entire onboarding process. Clients fill out a form and then Zapier automatically adds the student and the parent to our contact book sends them a draft email with a diagnostic test and places their info into a spreadsheet so I can assign the right tutor. Zapier is the best money I ever spent.
G Suite. I started SoFlo using my personal Google Drive and now I have the entire business running on drive. All of the practice tests, marketing materials, and signup records are on Google.
For acquiring tutors
Freshteam is the absolute best free HR software I’ve found. They have a paid version, but the free version is unbelievably powerful. It allows us to track applicants, automatically send emails, and then onboard them once we choose to hire.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
How I Built This by Guy Raz -- I love how unique the stories are. They always inspire me and show how all different types of entrepreneurs exist and there is no one path to success.
Smart People Should Build Things by Andrew Yang. Jeff Reid, the head of the entrepreneurship program at Georgetown University assigned this book to me. Yang makes the argument to make your own trail and avoid banking/law/consulting as a way to continue driving the economy forward. In a school where there is a lot of pressure to work in investment banking or consulting, someone laying out an argument for entrepreneurship was impactful for me.
r/entrepreneur. I love Reddit because as my interests evolve, I am able to find a community that matches me at the time. When I was focused on history, I was always on r/askhistorians, when I was putting my energy into creative writing r/writingprompts became a second home. When I started my business r/entrepreneur provided a lot of inspiration.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
The internet is revolutionary. Every single topic is available to learn, so the argument that “I don’t know how to do something” falls short.
If you have an idea but don’t have the knowledge to execute, use that idea as motivation and go learn how to turn your vision into reality.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Most of our team are other young people in graduate school, taking gap years, and some are in undergrad. We have about 20 tutors today from schools like Princeton, Johns Hopkins, and Georgetown. We also have a copy-writer and an operations manager. I believe in hiring really smart people for work that excites them and then staying hands-off. We all work remotely and I make an effort to be as close as possible to both the tutors and the managerial department.
Right now I’m looking to hire for two positions and applications are open at soflotutors.com/careers:
Web Developer: Someone who wants to take the lead on building a free SAT Tutoring platform that fills in the gaps of Khan Academy.
Graphic Designer: I’m looking for a freelancer who is experimental and artistic as we design mailers, online ads, and layout an SAT curriculum.
Where can we go to learn more?
Our website. My email is [email protected] and I’m always happy to chat. Our facebook is soflotutors.
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
Want to start your own business?
Hey! 👋I'm Pat Walls, the founder of Starter Story. We interview successful business owners and share the stories behind their business. By sharing these stories, we want to help you get started. Interested in starting your own business? Join Starter Story Premium to get the greatest companion to starting and growing your business: Connect + get advice from successful entrepreneurs
Step by step guides on how to start and grow
Exclusive and early access to the best case studies on the web
And much more! Pat Walls, Founder of Starter Story
PROMOTED
Are you ready to boost your revenue? | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The owner of a Stuttgart brothel appeared in court on Friday over charges of pimping and human trafficking to the tune of millions of euros. Proprietor Jürgen Rudloff denies the allegations.
Rudloff owns the Paradise brothel in Stuttgart, as well as several other red light district establishments in Frankfurt, Saarbrücken and the Austrian city of Graz. At one time, Rudloff loved to show off his business acumen — appearing on chat show couches and giving press interviews about how legal prostitution in Germany stayed profitable and above board under business models such as his.
That business model, according to Rudloff, was a 5,800-square-meter "Men's Wellness Oasis," which visitors paid between €70 and €80 to enter and be entertained by the women on the ground floor, according the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper.
If the men wanted to go with the women to their rooms, said Rudloff, they had to pay the sex workers themselves. He had nothing to do with it — the women rented their own space in his brothel.
Read more: German brothels get new 'ethical sex seal' for prostitution
Human trafficking, pimping, fraud
But state prosecutors in Stuttgart disagree. They say Rudloff was procuring women illegally from gangs. On top of that, he is accused of defrauding his investors. Authorities claim that he received at least €3 million ($3.7 million) from financial backers, ostensibly to open new brothels, but instead used the money to fund his lavish lifestyle.
The investigation into Rudloff's business dealings resulted in 11 arrests in 2014. Rudloff is said to have fled to Switzerland, and was arrested when he voluntarily returned to Germany in September 2017.
Read more: Sex in Germany: Study opens a window into German bedrooms
Prosecutors have said they expect a lengthy trial, which is scheduled to go on until at least March 2019. The case has renewed debate about prostitution in Germany. The practice has long been legal in Germany in regulated brothels, something proponents say is good for the health and safety of sex workers. However, detractors are usually quick to point out that the system lends itself to women being trafficked from Eastern Europe and elsewhere after being promised dancing and waitressing jobs in Germany. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
But suspend your rational thought process for a moment – the WWF assures us that CO2 causes global warming and global cooling
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Evidence that the planet is tip-toeing towards the onset of a new mini ice age continues to present itself following unprecedented ice storms in Kenya as well as Sydney experiencing its coldest August for 60 years. But don’t worry because according to the World Wildlife Fund, global cooling can just as easily be blamed on CO2 emissions as can global warming.
The cold snap arrives on the back of the Sun reaching a milestone not observed in nearly 100 years – the entire month of August passed without a single sunspot being noted.
Lack of solar activity in 2008 has coincided with evidence of a cooling trend across the world.
Earlier this year, China experienced its coldest winter in 100 years while northeast America was hit by record snow levels and Britain suffered its coldest April in decades as late-blooming daffodils were pounded with hail and snow on an almost daily basis. The British summer also left many yearning for global warming, with temperatures in June and July rarely struggling to get over 16 degrees and on one occasion even dropping as low as 9 degrees in the middle of the afternoon.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
“Summer heat continues in short supply, continuing a trend that has dominated much of the 21st Century’s opening decade,” reports the Chicago Tribune. “There have been only 162 days 90 degrees or warmer at Midway Airport over the period from 2000 to 2008. That’s by far the fewest 90-degree temperatures in the opening nine years of any decade on record here since 1930.”
According to an Associated Press report, The Farmers Almanac is now also predicting “below-average temperatures for most of the U.S.” The publication boasts of an 85 per cent accuracy rate for its forecasts which are given two years in advance.
According to a report from the World Meteorological Organization last month, the first half of 2008 was the coolest for at least five years, adding that it may actually be the coolest since 2000.
Meanwhile, Arctic ice has expanded by 30 per cent since this time last year as respected scientists predict a new mini ice age within 10 years.
Continuing the trend, parts of Kenya just experienced unprecedented ice storms after which 4 inch deep hail covered the ground.
“Residents of a village in central Kenya were shocked to see a blanket of hail resembling snow covering their land,” reports the BBC.
“I have not seen such a thing ever since I was born,” said one resident of Nyahururu.
Hail storms in western Kenya are not unknown, but the hail normally melts instantly because of high temperatures on the ground. Not this time around, and Kenyans were keen to take advantage of the rare event by enjoying numerous photo opportunities.
Meanwhile, in Sydney, Australians are talking about “the big chill,” the coldest August in Sydney for more than 60 years.
So what’s to blame for the sudden cold snap affecting many parts of the globe? The rapid decrease in solar activity, an event that has always preceded similar mini-ice age periods throughout history?
Not according to the World Wildlife Fund, who blame human-caused CO2 emissions for the cold snap.
That’s right – in case you weren’t aware of the new climate change catch-all explanation, CO2 now causes global warming as well as global cooling.
All weather events, be it rainfall, storms, hurricanes, typhoons or earthquakes are also caused by CO2 emissions.
But don’t worry because experts have the solution that can save us all from global warming, global cooling, or whatever the weather happens to be doing at any particular time.
At a cost to the taxpayer of around $100 billion dollars a year, as part of a program to “geo-engineer” the world, scientists are proposing to build a fleet of spaceships that will be sent up above the Earth’s atmosphere, spanning half the diameter of the entire planet, to block out the Sun from reaching parts of the globe.
But I thought CO2, and not the Sun, was the main driver of climate change?
Maybe Barney the purple dinosaur is the true culprit behind it all – but whatever the explanation – at least I can be assured that my government and the esteemed experts advising them will do their level best to tax and control every aspect of my behavior in the interests of saving us all from global warming, global cooling, or whatever else the weather decides to do tomorrow.
This article was posted: Thursday, September 4, 2008 at 4:41 am
Print this page.
Infowars.com Videos:
Comment on this article | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Bernie Sanders net worth 2020: Bernie Sanders is an American politician who has a net worth of $3 million dollars. Sanders has been a United States Senator representing Vermont since 2007. He has also undertaken a number of Presidential campaigns.
Income: According to his 2015 financial disclosure, Bernie and his wife had $750,000 worth of assets at that time and up to that point they typically earned $250-$300,000 per year in total income. Bernie's income started to soar after he published the book "Our Revolution" in 2016. Bernie earned a little over $1 million in 2016 and $1.1 million in 2017. In each of those years, roughly $800,000 of the couple's earnings came from book advances and royalties. He and his wife Jane had a combined adjusted gross income of $561,000 in 2018 after his book earnings dropped to $393,000 for the period.
Between 1981 and 1989 he earned $33,700 per year as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont.
As a US Congressman between 1990 and 2005, Bernie earned between $90,000 and $140,000.
As a US Senator, he earns $174,000 per year in salary, beginning in 2005.
In June 2017 Bernie estimated his net worth to be $2 million after taking into account mortgages and retirement accounts.
As part of his 2020 Presidential campaign, Bernie released tax returns dating back to 2010. Here is how much Bernie and Jane Sanders earned combined:
2009 – $314,742
2010 – $321,592
2011 – $324,870
2012 – $280,954
2013 – $279,724
2014 – $205,617
2015 – $240,610
2016 – $1,062,626
2017 – $1,150,891
2018 – $561,293
Total = $4,742,919
Early Life: Bernard "Bernie" Sanders was born in Brooklyn, New York City on September 8, 1941. His father Elias worked as a paint salesman after he immigrated to the U.S. in 1921 from Austria-Hungary. His mother Dorothy was born in NYC. Growing up in Midwood Brooklyn, Sanders was raised in the Jewish faith. He attended James Madison High School, where he was captain of the track team. He ran for student body presidency but finished last. Bernie lost both of his parents young, with his mother dying just after he graduated high school at the age of 46, and losing his father just a few years later. Sanders went to Brooklyn College before transferring to the University of Chicago and graduating with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1964.
Sanders was heavily involved in political activism during his time in Chicago. He joined the Young People's Socialist League and was active in movements for racial equality. He participated in numerous rallies and sit-ins to protest his university's segregated campus housing policy. In March 1963, he traveled to Washington to see Martin Luther King, Jr. give his legendary "I Have a Dream" speech. Sanders was also actively involved in antiwar and peace movements throughout college.
Early Career: Sanders returned to NYC after he graduated college and held a wide variety of various jobs before moving to Stannard, Vermont in 1968, and continued odd jobs including writing articles for alt publication The Vermont Freeman. In 1972, his political career began when he ran unsuccessfully as the Liberty Union candidate for Vermont governor and as a candidate for U.S. senator in 1972 and 1974. He finished third in 1974. He finally scored political gains by running for Mayor of Burlington, Vermont and winning by just twelve votes. Bernie served as mayor from 1981 to 1989, (re-elected three times) and became known for his self-described Socialist views and outspoken nature.
U.S. House of Representatives: The political underdog seemed an unlikely candidate for national office, but clinched a 1990 seat as an independent in the U.S. House of Representatives. In his early days in the House, he alienated colleagues with his outspoken criticism of both parties. He admonished politicians who were on the side of the wealthy versus the average or poor American and famously voted and advocated for banking reform. Bernie was a vehement opposer of 2001's Patriot Act and the war in Iraq. Rolling Stone called Sanders the "amendment king" in 2005, citing his ability to get more amendments passed than any other congressman since 1995. Sanders served as a representative for sixteen years, from 1991 until he became a senator in 2007.
Senate: On April 21, 2005, Sanders entered the race for the U.S. Senate when Jim Jeffords announced he was not seeking reelection. Sanders had the support and endorsement of both Chuck Schumer and then-senator Barack Obama, as well as the support of Howard Dean and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. He defeated Rich Tarrant, who had spent $7 million of his own wealth on his campaign, by a large margin, and went on to be re-elected with 70% of the vote in 2012 and 2018.
As a Sentator Bernie has sponsored many important bills that have become law, such as the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2013. He voted against the Troubled Asset Relief Program, otherwise known as The Wall Street Bailout in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, Sanders famously held an 8-hour filibuster against George Bush's Tax Relief act of 2010, which consisted of major proposed tax cuts for the wealthy. In 2010, he supported the DREAM Act, which aimed to provide a path to citizenship for undocumented minors who immigrated into the U.S.
Notoriously a defender of healthcare for all, he successfully added a provision to the Affordable Care Act to provide $11 billion to rural community health centers in 2009. In response to the House's vote to repeal and replace the ACA in 2017, he co-sponsored the Medicare for All bill, a single-payer health care plan, along with 15 other Senate co-sponsors. Bernie has also been vigilant in introducing and sponsoring bills that support a living wage and a hike in the minimum wage. He is consistently liberal on social issues such as LGBTQ rights, is pro-choice, anti-death penalty, and considers himself a feminist. He has been vocal and open about his opposition and criticism of the Trump administration.
Presidential Campaigns: On April 30, 2015, Bernie announced his intention to seek the Presidential nomination for the Democratic Party for the 2016 election. During his primary race, Sanders relied almost solely on grassroots and small individual donations rather than Super PACs, and unprecedented move that ended up breaking the fundraising record for most contributions at a certain point in his campaign. In February 2016, it was reported that he had received $3.7 million contributions from 1.3 million contributors. By March of that year, the campaign had raised over $96 million. Ultimately, Hilary Clinton won the nomination, and Sanders formally endorsed her on July 12, 2016.
No longer considered an underdog, in February 2019, Sanders announced that he would be running for president again in 2020. The campaign employed the same grassroots funding attempts, along with social media as a key tool in organizing efforts. The campaign recruited over one million volunteers within weeks of his announcement. On February 11, 2020, Sanders claimed victory at the New Hampshire primary.
Personal Life: Sanders was married to college sweetheart Deborah Shiling from 1964 to 1966. He has one biological child, Levi (b.1969) with Susan Mott. In 1988, Sanders married Jean O'Meara Driscoll. He is stepfather to Jean's three children, Dave, Carina, and Heather. He has seven grandchildren. He has written six books, including a published speech of his famous filibuster.
Real Estate: Bernie and Jane Sanders own three homes. In 2009 they bought what is now their primary home, a 4-bedroom property in Chittenden County Vermont, for $405,000. They took out a $324,000 mortgage from Congressional Federal Credit Union for the purchase. According to Zillow their home is 2,300 square-feet with four bedrooms and is currently valued at around $440,000.
In 2007 they bought a townhouse in Washington D.C. for $488,999. Zillow estimates that this home is worth $685,000, though recent similar homes have sold for $800,000 or more.
In 2016 they bought a vacation home on Lake Champlain in Vermont for $575,000. The property had been previously listed for $775,000. It's a two-story log cabin-style home covering 1.1 acres. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Police are monitoring social media sites and investigating several dairies in a bid to crack down on thieves selling stolen cigarettes.
Photo: 123RF
Counties Manukau Area Commander Dave Glossop said "active investigations" were under way into several dairies suspected of re-selling stolen tobacco, which he said was the fastest growing crime in the country.
"Some of the dairy owners we deal with are saying they have been offered cigarettes," he said.
"Clearly the ones that are receiving stolen goods are not telling us, but we'd like somebody to dob them in."
Police last week started a month-long campaign to crack down on violent crime, including against dairy owners, offering to reward people who provide information leading to successful prosecution.
Inspector Glossop said increasing police numbers was not the answer, as the rise highlighted a wider issue - that so many youth "feel it's OK to go and rob the local dairy".
Police were aware of stolen cigarettes being sold on social media sites like Facebook, he said.
"The biggest growth area is cigarettes because they're highly disposable, light, easy to get hold of and they're really expensive."
Unlike Trade Me, which had strict monitoring policies in place, sites like Facebook had a system that "works in the criminal's favour", he said.
While many of the criminals had gang connections, the police did not believe cigarettes were being stolen to order.
"Most of the robberies we deal with are often just a group of people who get together ... alcohol is often a contributor ... they go out and commit these robberies."
Buyers 'need to be exposed', shop owners' group says
The Crime Prevention Group represents hundreds of shop owners who are sick of the rise in violent robberies, especially armed ones, in south Auckland.
Anyone with information about who was buying stolen cigarettes should report it to the police, the group's spokesperson, Sunny Kaushal, said.
"They need to be exposed."
While the police's new operation to tackle the problem was a good step, they still failed to turn up to many robberies in the first place, Mr Kaushal said.
"The police are trying to do a good job but more police are needed."
But Inspector Glossop disagreed.
"If anybody out there seriously thinks that we don't want to come to a robbery then ... they're in a twilight zone."
Shopkeepers often reported a robbery when it was technically shoplifting to theft, which was given a lower priority, he said.
"It's a bigger social issue as to why we have this increase, particularly in youth, who feel that it's OK to go and rob the local dairy.
"What is happening with all of the things in our society that is creating these pockets of people who have no social conscience. We are not going to arrest our way out of this problem." | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Both of these games are great, but as loot shooters they can be a bit lengthy. Also beware this doesn't come with all content for Borderlands 2, as there is a supplementary dlc that will run you about $15, but it's worth it if you want to get the whole story and see the bridge from Borderlands 2 to Borderlands 3! | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
For several months, people have wondered whether freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was actually dictating the House agenda rather than Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. But now we must ask, is Ocasio-Cortez also dictating the strategy of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer?
On Tuesday, facing an embarrassing and divisive vote on the Green New Deal resolution, which is supported by the base of the party but opposed by those closer to the center, Democrats decided to vote "present" en masse. The fact that no Democrat was willing to go on record as supporting the resolution, despite the fact that it was co-sponsored by six presidential candidates, on the surface, represents some pushback against the idea of growing momentum for this unrealistic proposal.
But Ocasio-Cortez says she told Senate Democrats how to vote. "I encouraged them to vote present, along w/ others," she tweeted.
Because I encouraged them to vote present, along w/ others.
McConnell tried to rush the #GreenNewDeal straight to the floor without a hearing.
The real question we should be asking: Why does the Senate GOP refuse to hold any major hearings on climate change? https://t.co/de8oKOXeJf — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 26, 2019
This isn't the only example of Ocasio-Cortez boasting of her power. Last month, she declared "I'm the boss," until other lawmakers come up with a proposal to address climate change.
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
GETTY The arson attack was reportedly caused by a lack of Nutella
FREE now and never miss the top politics stories again. SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow and never miss the top politics stories again. We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.
Two men have been charged with setting fire to the hall in Dusseldorf, Germany, in an attack that saw huge hundred-metre high billows of smoke fill the air above the city. German Red Cross employees reported the arson attack took place on June 7 as a result of heightened tensions during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting that sees Muslims avoid food during the daytime.
While the centre cancelled ordinary lunchtime meals to the dismay of non-Muslims, hot food was still available during the early morning and late evening. A spread of cold food was also made available during the day for migrants who were not observing the religious holiday.
IG Flames sparked one hundred-metre high billows of smoke seen across the city
GETTY The fire caused €10 million worth of damage
While the centre cancelled ordinary lunchtime meals to the dismay of non-Muslims, hot food was still available during the early morning and late evening. A spread of cold food was also made available during the day for migrants who were not observing the religious holiday. But it appears the selection of food was not good enough for some of the residents, after a gang of migrants decided to fire to the hall.
Migrants go to extreme lengths to cross borders Fri, October 7, 2016 Desperate migrants fleeing Syria and surrounding places have been trying to sneak across borders in incredible ways. These include hiding in suitcases and sleeping next to car bonnets Play slideshow 1 of 40
“It was triggered by a dispute about food during Ramadan.” Spokesman for Dusseldorf state court
It is believed the perpetrators were angry that Nutella and confectionary was being made available during daylight hours, meaning supplies were then limited during the night. As they lit fires throughout the centre, they shouted: “There isn’t enough Nutella, Gummibears and chocolate.” German Red Cross Kitchen Master Stefan Gross said: “Most migrants were satisfied. There are always very few who complain.”
REUTERS At least 26 people were injured in the blaze
Two men have now been charged with the arson attack, including an Algerian known as Adel D, who is accused of aggravated arson and dangerous bodily harm. A Moroccan, known only as Mohammed B, called on other migrants to help start more fires at the time of the arson attack. He was also arrested accused of arson.
REUTERS The centre which housed 280 people was completely burnt to the ground | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Eduardo Giannetti (esq.) e André Lara Resende: questão fiscal no Brasil é urgente, mas é necessário evitar uma abordagem "excessivamente fiscalista" — Foto: Silvia Zamboni/Valor
Fim da reeleição e eleições legislativas separadas dos pleitos para o Executivo, como na França, são dois pontos fundamentais de uma reforma política a ser feita, na visão dos economistas André Lara Resende e Eduardo Giannetti, coordenadores de economia de Marina Silva (Rede), pré-candidata à Presidência. "A questão dominante hoje no Brasil é a política, o guarda-chuva de todos as outras", diz Lara Resende. "Em seguida existe uma questão séria fiscal, em que o problema da Previdência é provavelmente o mais grave".
Na avaliação de ambos, porém, é preciso evitar uma visão "excessivamente fiscalista", nas palavras de Lara Resende. Ao falar do teto de gastos, Giannetti enfatiza o compromisso "absoluto com o equilíbrio fiscal", mas classifica o mecanismo que limita o crescimento das despesas da União como uma medida excessiva. "Parece promessa de alcoólatra", diz Giannetti. Para a Previdência, defendem unificar regras dos setores privado e do setor público e a introdução de algum elemento de capitalização.
Acenam para o agronegócio ("exemplo de sucesso") e insistem para que o setor entenda que "sem a Amazônia de pé, não há Cerrado produtivo".
Os economistas falam em diminuir imposto sobre remédios, demonstram simpatia à taxação de dividendos e defendem aumento da tributação sobre herança. Elogiam ainda a orientação da reforma trabalhista, mas criticam a implementação. Os dois colaboram com Marina sem uma divisão de tarefas definidas entre eles. A seguir, os principais trechos da entrevista:
Valor: A linha geral das propostas econômicas de Marina muda muito em relação a 2014?
Eduardo Giannetti: Os princípios gerais são os mesmos, mas a situação do Brasil se agravou muito. O grau de urgência da questão fiscal aumentou. Não tínhamos noção em 2014 de quão grave era o problema fiscal que se armava.
Valor: A situação fiscal é justamente citada por muitos como o problema mais urgente. Concordam?
Lara Resende: É um problema urgente, não há dúvida nenhuma. Mas há muitos outros. Tenho certa resistência em relação a uma visão excessivamente fiscalista, no sentido de que o único objetivo, no curto prazo, é equilibrar ou reduzir o déficit fiscal. A questão fiscal deve ser encarada com uma perspectiva de alguns anos, e o objetivo não é exclusivamente equilibrar o orçamento. Existe uma tarefa enorme a ser feita de simplificação, de reorganização do sistema tributário, do sistema fiscal. Muitas vezes uma abordagem muito fiscalista de curto prazo é contraproducente.
Valor: Como veem o teto de gastos?
Giannetti: Achamos o teto uma medida excessiva. Parece um pouco promessa de alcoólatra. Congelar o gasto público por dez anos, renovável por mais dez, é completamente fora de proporção. Mas somos absolutamente comprometidos com o equilíbrio fiscal.
Lara Resende: A aprovação do teto teve um elemento simbólico, de declaração de intenções. Foi positiva. Mas é uma camisa-de-força muito complicada, certamente inexequível ao longo do tempo.
Valor: Há chance de o teto ser rompido em 2019. Vai ser revisto?
Lara Resende: Difícil dizer, mas em algum momento deverá ser revisto.
Valor: Que outros assuntos também são tão prioritários?
Lara Resende: Temos muitos assuntos urgentes. A questão dominante hoje é a política. Uma certa reorganização da forma de fazer política, que Marina deixa muito claro, é fundamental para recuperar a capacidade de ação do governo. A percepção sobre a política se deteriorou de tal modo que a democracia representativa parece carecer de legitimidade. Por tudo isso, nos parece que essa questão política é a primeira, o guarda-chuva de todos as outras. Em seguida, existe uma questão séria fiscal, em que a Previdência é provavelmente a mais grave e para a qual deve-se tentar uma solução sustentável no longo prazo o quanto antes. Mas tenho dúvidas se devemos continuar a fazer remendos. Talvez se deva tentar repensar de modo mais estruturado a Previdência. E há uma questão de sempre no Brasil, a social - como voltar a crescer e restabelecer o emprego. Isso depende de coisas como simplificação, desburocratização, transformação do Estado.
Giannetti: Em 1988, a carga tributária bruta era de 24% do PIB, normal para um país de renda média. O Estado investia 3% do PIB. Desde então, a carga tributária cresceu em todos os governos. Hoje está em 34% do PIB. Além disso, tem o déficit nominal girando em torno de 6% do PIB. Ou seja, 40% da renda nacional transita pelo setor público. No entanto, quase metade dos domicílios não tem saneamento. Os nossos indicadores sociais são muito aquém do nível de desenvolvimento e do tamanho do Estado. A educação é deplorável. Há problemas de saúde pública, segurança. E a capacidade de investimento do Estado caiu de 1988 para cá. Na média dos últimos cinco anos, está em torno de 2,5% do PIB. O desafio maior é colocar o Estado a serviço do cidadão, e a não a serviço de si mesmo. Não estou falando em reduzir o tamanho do Estado, e nem em aumentar. Somos contra aumentar a carga tributária.
Valor: É possível não aumentar a carga tributária num país com um déficit primário de 2% do PIB?
Lara Resende: Sim. Aumentar imposto se tornou disfuncional no Brasil. É por isso que estou falando do foco excessivamente fiscalista. Há um certo momento em que aumentar imposto de fato leva quase a uma desorganização, inviabiliza o crescimento. Mas você pode reorganizar toda a estrutura fiscal, sobretudo como se gasta.
Valor: Qual é a reorganização dos gastos possível num mandato?
Lara Resende: É mais importante usar quatro anos para criar as bases para uma sustentabilidade fiscal de longo prazo do que mostrar resultados imediatos de curtíssimo prazo. Nesse sentido, é mais importante a reforma da Previdência. Em 1998, presidi uma comissão no governo FHC para a reestruturação da Previdência. Se tivéssemos feito lá atrás, seria muito mais fácil fazer a transição. Na época pensávamos num regime misto, de repartição e de capitalização.
"Achamos o teto de gastos públicos uma medida excessiva. Parece promessa de alcoólatra"
Valor: É possível introduzir elementos de capitalização hoje?
Lara Resende: O custo de transição lá atrás era mais fácil. Isso tem que ser estudado. Mas, como não há nenhuma indicação de que nós vamos reverter a redução da taxa de crescimento demográfico e de envelhecimento, ter pelo menos parcialmente um regime de capitalização parece inevitável, para uma solução definitiva da Previdência.
Giannetti: E nós temos uma aberração na Previdência do setor público no Brasil. O corporativismo do Estado brasileiro está asfixiando o país. O benefício médio da Previdência no INSS é de R$ 1,3 mil por mês. No caso do Executivo, é de R$ 7 mil; no do Legislativo, de R$ 16 mil; e no do Judiciário, R$ 27 mil. Isso é um sistema de castas.
Valor: Como fazer reformas com um Congresso tão complicado?
Lara Resende: A própria palavra reforma está muito desgastada. Eu prefiro evolução. A primeira coisa a mudar é a forma de fazer política. Depois você muda as instituições. E Marina tem dito isso. A política, na vida pública, é uma prestação de serviço para o país e para a população, e não algo que se faz profissionalmente em nome do poder. Algumas coisas Marina já tem defendido, como o fim da reeleição, valendo inclusive para ela.
Valor: Marina assumiria num ambiente em que partidos do Centrão serão fortes. Hoje ela tem uma bancada de dois deputados.
Giannetti: Dilma loteou 34 ministérios entre dez partidos e não conseguiu eleger o presidente da Câmara. Faliu o presidencialismo de coalizão. Acabou.
Lara Resende: Achar que é possível continuar a governar assim é um equívoco. Um presidente eleito tem pelo menos um prazo de carência de seis meses, um ano, em que as suas propostas adquirem um caráter de aprovação plebiscitária. Assim como o Congresso está fragmentado, o que é um grande problema, ele tambem está muito acuado. E Marina propõe a ideia de uma união de reorganização da política e do país.
Giannetti: No começo do mandato, há um momento em que o governo tem força gravitacional para fazer um excelente ministério e liderar iniciativas importantes junto ao Congresso. Tem poder e capital político para tanto. Parte desse poder deve ser usado para uma reforma política, que vai mudar regras eleitorais, regras de financiamento de campanha, vai repensar as instituições da política.
Valor: A reforma política correria então paralela à reforma da Previdência no começo do mandato?
Lara Resende: Sim. E algo muito importante que vi depois da eleição de [Emmanuel] Macron [na França] é a ideia de defasar as eleições parlamentares em três, quatro meses depois da eleição presidencial. O eleito tem capacidade de fazer maioria depois no Legislativo. É uma forma de sair dessa cilada do presidencialismo de coalizão.
Giannetti: Um problema no Brasil é que os cargos legislativos são eleitos à sombra das eleições majoritárias, que concentram toda a atenção. Isso prejudica a democracia brasileira. É preciso valorizar a eleição legislativa, separando o calendário das eleições majoritárias das eleições para o legislativo.
Valor: Alguns analistas apostam num segundo turno entre Jair Bolsonaro e Ciro Gomes.
Giannetti: Vejo Bolsonaro e Ciro como a volta da polarização PSDB versus PT, mas em outras bases. Com a diferença de que os dois são portadores de espírito belicoso. Ao contrário de Marina, que tem espírito de reconciliação, de união nacional. Marina é a única com possibilidade de unir o Brasil. Bolsonaro e Ciro trazem a guerra na alma.
Lara Resende: Os dois representam radicalização, à direita e à esquerda. Mas há um número enorme de pessoas que diz que não vai votar ou não decidiu. A radicalização é mais fácil, mais visível. Marina é sempre a segunda mais citada [em pesquisas] e derrota os dois no segundo turno. E o que me impressiona é como a mídia e os analistas fazem silêncio sobre Marina, que é absolutamente incompatível com a posição dela nas pesquisas. No establishment empresarial, é como se ela fosse invisível. Marina tem grande chance de ser eleita.
Valor: Se Marina for eleita, vocês vão para Brasília?
Lara Resende: Cada coisa no seu tempo [risos]. Sem falar do nosso caso, acho que Marina não vai ter nenhum problema para compor equipe da mais alta qualidade. Se até o Michel Temer conseguiu...
Valor: Pretendem recorrer a plebiscitos e referendos?
Lara Resende: Não. Democracia plebiscitária é muito arriscada.
Valor: Pensam em privatizar Petrobras e Eletrobras?
Lara Resende: Eletrobras, com certeza. Petrobras é uma questão mais complicada. A ideia da Petrobras como é hoje, um monopólio de fato, é complicado. Uma companhia aberta, com controle do governo, num setor tão estratégico, cujos preços são determinantes para o transporte no país, ser tratada como foi... É correta a ideia de recuperar a empresa, mas se esqueceu de um elemento: é uma empresa pública, com preços públicos. Foi um equívoco.
Valor: A política de preços da Petrobras teria que ser diferente?
Lara Resende: Não tem dúvida.
Giannetti: Não temos nada dogmático sobre privatização. Agora, consideramos errôneo privatizar para cobrir rombo fiscal de curto prazo. Isso não se faz. É vender a prata da família para ir jantar fora. E, sobre Petrobras, há uma situação que merece atenção especial: embora não seja um monopólio legal, o refino no Brasil é um monopólio de fato. Nós precisamos ter competição no refino.
Valor: Como avaliam a gestão de Pedro Parente na Petrobras?
Giannetti: O trabalho de governança foi excepcional. É uma pena que houve falta de sensibilidade na política e na metodologia de precificação dos derivados. Porque transmitir a volatilidade do mercado internacional do petróleo e da taxa de câmbio todos os dias para o consumidos final...
Lara Resende: Uma média móvel teria resolvido. A Petrobras foi ameaçada de ser destruída, [houve] a questão de multa nos EUA etc. Esse foco na recuperação, que Pedro Parente fez com grande competência, o levou a desconsiderar essa outra questão. Perdeu a perspectiva de que estava na função de um homem público.
"Marina é a única com possibilidade de unir o Brasil. Bolsonaro e Ciro Gomes trazem a guerra na alma"
Valor: A agricultura brasileira hoje é sustentável?
Giannetti: É preciso separar. Tem gente muito séria comprometida com sustentabilidade no agronegócio. E tem um segmento retrógrado - a pecuária não avançou com a mesma seriedade e produtividade que os produtores de cereais. Mas o agronegócio é o exemplo de como podemos ser competitivos em escala global sem proteção do Estado. Conquistou o mundo sem depender de grandes apoios, investindo em tecnologia. A indústria, que vive pendurada em gabinetes em Brasília atrás de proteção, está em frangalhos.
Valor: E a pressão do agronegócio sobre o Cerrado e a Amazônia?
Giannetti: Eles têm que entender que o negócio deles depende de sustentabilidade. Sem a floresta amazônica de pé, não tem o Cerrado altamente produtivo. Porque depende de um regime pluviométrico que a Amazônia fornece. O serviço ambiental da Amazônia é um ativo estratégico brasileiro. Temos que transmitir para o agronegócio que ele é o maior aliado da integridade da floresta. O futuro do Brasil não vai ser decidido em reunião do Copom ou em pregão da Bolsa. Vai ser decidido nas milhares de salas de aula e no que soubermos fazer com nosso patrimônio ambiental.
Valor: Ciro promete taxar dividendos. Como veem a proposta?
Lara Resende: Não discutimos nada especificamente. No exemplo que o Ciro usa, o do sistema bancário, ele é excessivamente taxado. Tem lucro extraordinário porque o sistema bancário é altamente concentrado. Isso é que tem de ser revisto. Mas a ideia de tributação da distribuição de dividendos com certeza é uma coisa que eu tenho uma certa simpatia, em princípio. Mas você tem de equilibrar. Porque se taxou o lucro, taxar o dividendo é taxar duas vezes.
Valor: Pensam em reduzir ou acabar com a "pejotização"?
Giannetti: Há algo errado num país em que profissional liberal precisa ter empresa. As distorções se tornaram tão aberrantes que acabam empurrando para "pejotização", que depois mina a base de arrecadação da Previdência. Se tem uma coisa que o Brasil não precisa é aumentar a carga tributária. Mas podemos arrecadar melhor, começando com a redução da regressividade. 36% do preço dos remédios é imposto. Vamos reduzir imposto sobre remédio, porque afeta a população idosa e de baixa renda.
Lara Resende: Em telecomunicações, é de 45%.
Giannetti: Tem que taxar progressivamente. Quem ganha mais tem que necessariamente pagar mais. Não tenho nada contra imposto sobre heranças. Acho muito interessante. O princípio básico é que a carga tributária já foi longe demais, mas podemos arrecadar de maneira mais eficiente e equânime. Pelo modo como arrecada e como gasta, o Estado brasileiro aumenta a desigualdade. É um paradoxo. Por exemplo na Previdência, que é um sistema de castas.
Lara Resende: Estive ouvindo Bernard Appy [economista especialista em tributação]. O diagnóstico mostra um contrassenso inacreditável. Se a sociedade soubesse para onde vão [os tributos] e como está sendo tributada...
Giannetti: Seria uma rebelião.
Valor: Ciro defende também um imposto sobre movimentação financeira a partir de um certo nível. Usaria para pagar dívida.
Giannetti: Maluquice total.
Lara Resende: Isso não existe.
Valor: E a CPMF convencional?
Giannetti: Não é usada em lugar nenhum do mundo, só em situações emergenciais.
Valor: E como avaliam o Bolsa Família?
Lara Resende: Custa muito pouco, tem efeito muito positivo. Tenho grande simpatia pela ideia de uma renda mínima garantida. Mas que isso não seja não inserir as pessoas. Tem de ser vinculado à atenção, à educação fundamental, que é o X da questão.
Valor: Considerando o que tem sido dito pelos pré-candidatos, há proposta que pareça ser uma grande loucura na área econômica?
Giannetti: Ouvi Ciro Gomes dizendo que o Brasil precisa de um teto para gastos com juros. Isso é calote. Outra coisa que ele diz, que é inacreditável, é que a despesa com a dívida pública no Brasil é 50% da receita. Não sei se é ignorância ou má-fé. Dizer que é 50% da receita, ele está somando juros e amortização, o que é uma maluquice. Equívoco. Isso é para impressionar os incautos.
Valor: Ciro é assertivo. Que tom Marina vai adotar?
Giannetti: Ela não vai desconstruir nenhum candidato. Mas se ele cometer equívoco grave, ela, com toda a sobriedade, vai ter que apontar. Como chegou a 50% de despesa financeira? Que conta é essa? A conta de juros no Brasil é alta, não há dúvida. Vamos ter que trabalhar para diminuí-la, mas não vamos apelar somando juro e amortização. Não é correto. Isso é populismo.
Valor: Há um problema básico de infraestrutura. Quem vai querer financiar isso, se não é o BNDES?
Giannetti: Não somos contra o BNDES financiar projetos de infraestrutura relevantes para os quais não há possibilidade de investimento privado. O BNDES tem papel fundamental como banco de fomento. Agora, ele foi abusado irresponsavelmente pelo governo Dilma quando passou a financiá-lo, com emissão de dívida primária, para transferir aos campeões nacionais. Vamos restituir ao BNDES a sua função original e legítima. Foi talvez a maior extravagância do governo Dilma. Usar o brinquedo e arrebentá-lo, como eles fizeram. Falamos de 9% do PIB.
Valor: E a reforma trabalhista? Marina fecha com essa que foi feita pelo governo Temer?
Giannetti Considero a orientação, tal como colocada no "Ponte para o Futuro" [propostas econômicas que Temer apresentou em 2015] e que inspirou a reforma, correta. Acho que foram muito infelizes na implementação. Acabaram criando mais incerteza jurídica do que havia, por conta das idas e vindas e detalhes inacreditáveis. Nem sei como entra a história do trabalho em condições insalubres para grávidas.
Valor: Quais os problemas do mercado de trabalho no Brasil? | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
N.B. couple used giant manure heap to harass neighbours, judge rules https://t.co/paIT6yAjMn pic.twitter.com/hc324Z9HwN — Calgary Herald (@calgaryherald) January 28, 2017
Everyone poops, including cattle, who don’t poop more than other mammals, but do poop commensurate to their size—which ends up being a lot of poop, if you have a lot of cattle. Farmers, for decades, have repurposed such poop as fertilizer, but, if they don’t, it just piles up. It also smells unpleasant, if you don’t like the smell of poop, especially the poop that is fresh and wet and pungent.
It’s that latter category of poop that a couple in New Brunswick, Canada has accused their neighbors of intentionally piling up along their property line, part of a long-running feud, according to the Calgery Herald. The poop, pictured above, would smell whenever the wind blew the wrong way, or after it rained. It was also so large that it was viewable on Google Earth.
The poop appeared in November 2013, and was removed less than a year later, in October 2014. But in that time the poop was “fresh, unseasoned, wet, raw manure. The smell was disgusting,” David Gallant, who sued his neighbors Lee and Shirley Murray over the poop and other issues, wrote in an affidavit, according to the Herald.
A judge recently ruled in Gallant’s favor, awarding him and his wife $15,000 in agreeing that the Murrays had used the poop as a tool of harassment.
“I have little doubt these activities were initiated by the Murrays and designed to inflict fear, nuisance and harassment against the Gallants,” the judge said.
According to the Herald, it’s unclear how the dispute between the two neighbors, who live in a rural area, started, though they have been living in close proximity since the Gallants bought their property from the Murrays in 2001.
It eventually came down to the poop, and legal action, and, finally, perhaps, some poop justice for the Gallants. Lee Murray, though, says he plans to appeal, claiming that the poop was old and didn’t smell that bad. He would never, he said, intentionally put a big pile of cow poop near his neighbor’s property line just to harass them.
“I’m not that type of guy,” he told the Herald. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Andreessen Horowitz Gives up Venture Capital Status
In an interesting turn of events, Andreessen Horowitz has registered all its employees as qualified financial advisers, essentially giving up their status as a venture capital firm in order to explore other options, as reported on April 2, 2019.
New Developments
The business world is ever-changing and as such, the firms in it are changing just as fast, whether by launching new products and services or exploring new markets and searching for new opportunities.
One such business that is undergoing massive changes is Andreessen Horowitz, who it was reported on April 2, 2019, has undergone some significant restructuring. As part of these restructuring efforts, all members of their staff have been registered as qualified financial advisors.
Before now, the company had been known as a venture capital firm and had raised over $1.7 billion across seven funds, most of which was invested in tech and financial services ventures such as Lyft. By making this move, they are leaving their previous reputation behind and starting anew and it seems crypto might have something to do with this.
Our firm (@a16z) has filed an application to register as an investment adviser (still pending). But that doesn’t mean our jobs change. We are and will remain a VC firm. 1/3 — Jeff Jordan (@jeff_jordan) April 3, 2019
Moving Ahead
Form all Indications, the reason for this restructuring move is to allow for the firm to go into other types of business deals across other industries, including those that are deemed risky.
“If the firm wants to put $1 billion into cryptocurrency or tokens, or buy unlimited shares in public companies or from other investors, it can. And in doing so, the thinking goes, it’ll again make other firms feel like they have one hand tied behind their back,” the report says.
While this move will come with some new-found freedom, there will be some sacrifices made. For starters, because they are no longer a venture capital firm, their investors cannot speak publicly about the performance of their portfolios. On top of this, each employee will now be audited periodically.
While the company’s next move hasn’t been announced, it is safe to say that it might involve cryptocurrency at some point.
In 2018, they invested $15 million in MakerDAO via their a16z investment fund and bought out six percent of all the MKR tokens that exist. In the same year, they set up their cryptocurrency investment fund worth about $300 million which seeks to invest in blockchain and crypto projects.
They are hardly the only major company that is dipping its toes into the crypto waters as others such as JP Morgan and PayPal have recently done the same. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A small but noisy clutch of anti-Brexit protesters greeted Boris Johnson as he arrived.
Britain has still not proposed any workable alternatives to the Northern Ireland "backstop" provisions of its Brexit withdrawal agreement, the EU said Monday after talks between bloc chief Jean-Claude Juncker and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The first face-to-face encounter between Boris Johnson and European Commission president Juncker failed to yield any major breakthrough, although Downing Street insisted it had been a "constructive meeting".
Boris Johnson says Britain will not agree to a divorce deal that includes the backstop, a provision which temporarily keeps the UK in the EU customs union to keep the Irish border open, and will not delay Brexit beyond October 31, even if it means leaving with no deal.
Juncker's office said he used the lunch meeting in Luxembourg to reiterate the EU view that it is Britain's responsiblity to come up with a workable alternative to he backstop, which was agreed by Boris Johnson's predecessor Theresa May but rejected by MPs.
"President Juncker recalled that it is the UK's responsibility to come forward with legally operational solutions that are compatible with the Withdrawal Agreement," a statement from Juncker's office said.
"President Juncker underlined the Commission's continued willingness and openness to examine whether such proposals meet the objectives of the backstop. Such proposals have not yet been made."
Alongside the main meeting, EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier also held talks with British Brexit Minister Stephen Barclay.
A small but noisy clutch of anti-Brexit protesters greeted Boris Johnson as he arrived and left the talks, singing the "Ode to Joy" EU anthem, waving flags and chanting slogans.
With just six weeks to go before Brexit day, the two sides have agreed to step up the pace of talks, Downing Street said, with negotiators to start meeting "soon" on a daily basis rather than twice a week as at present.
"It was agreed that talks should also take place at a political level between Michel Barnier and the Brexit Secretary, and conversations would also continue between President Juncker and the prime minister," a spokesperson said. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
EV UI Moving to Page Info
As part of a series of data-driven changes to Chrome’s security indicators, the Chrome Security UX team is announcing a change to the Extended Validation certificate indicator on certain websites starting in Chrome 77. This doc explains what’s being changed and why, as well as the supporting research that guided this decision.
On HTTPS websites using EV certificates, Chrome 76 currently displays an EV badge to the left of the URL bar that looks like this:
Starting in Version 77, Chrome will move this UI to Page Info, which is accessed by clicking the lock icon:
Through our own research as well as a survey of prior academic work, the Chrome Security UX team has determined that the EV UI does not protect users as intended (see Further Reading below). Users do not appear to make secure choices (such as not entering password or credit card information) when the UI is altered or removed, as would be necessary for EV UI to provide meaningful protection. Further, the EV badge takes up valuable screen real estate, can present actively confusing company names in prominent UI, and interferes with Chrome's product direction towards neutral, rather than positive, display for secure connections. Because of these problems and its limited utility, we believe it belongs better in Page Info.
Altering the EV UI is a part of a wider trend among browsers to improve their Security UI surfaces in light of recent advances in understanding of this problem space. In 2018, Apple announced a similar change to Safari that coincided with the release of iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 and has been implemented as such ever since.
Information for embedders
This change is being incorporated into the Chrome-specific UI code and will not affect embedders that are based solely on the underlying content layer. Embedders that incorporate the Chrome-specific code will either take up these changes or maintain a diff from the master Chromium branch.
Further Reading
A series of academic research in the 2000s studied the EV UI in lab and survey settings, and found that the EV UI was not protecting against phishing attacks as intended. The Chrome Security UX team recently published a study that updated these findings with a large-scale field experiment, as well as a series of survey experiments.
No one single study conclusively determines that EV UI is completely ineffective or cannot be made to be effective. However, we believe that the body of research, as well as the product principles outlined above, together strongly suggest that the EV UI does not belong in Chrome’s most visible UI surface.
External Research:
Chrome Research: | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE’s 2020 reelection campaign has spent more than 22 percent on legal fees so far this year, according to the latest fundraising reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
The campaign has spent around $835,000 in legal fees in the first few months of 2018.
The money was divided up between at least eight different firms and the Trump Corporation, according to an analysis from BuzzFeed.
ADVERTISEMENT
Trump is in the middle of a costly legal battle with adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who is suing the president to get out of a nondisclosure agreement he didn’t sign.
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford — alleges she had an affair with Trump and was paid “hush money” by his personal lawyer to keep quiet about the relationship.
The two legal firms involved in the fight with Daniels — Harding LLP and Larocca, Hornik, Rosen, Greenberg & Blaha — were paid a combined total of $280,000.
The most donor spending — $350,000 — went to Jones Day, the firm that has represented the Trump campaign since the 2016 election and handled all litigation relating to it, BuzzFeed reported.
About $125,000 was spent by the campaign at Trump-owned businesses, hotels and restaurants.
The campaign has also made 20 different purchases from Amazon, notable because the president has been attacking the company on Twitter this month.
John McEntee, Trump’s former personal assistant who was forced out when he couldn’t get security clearance, was hired by the campaign in March.
Reports indicate that he was paid $22,000.
The campaign has raised over $10.1 million so far this year. They have spent $3.9 million and reportedly have $28.3 million cash on hand. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
General Analysis
No. 4 in Chinese Culture
Wide Use of No. 4
People with the lucky number 4 are usually endowed with excellent management capability. They are good at summarizing scattered documents, making complicated situations simple and clearly handling problems. Since most of them lack the sense of security, they pursue the steady relationship to make themselves feel being protected. Besides, these people fear or hate changes in life and they are the most stubborn compared with people having other lucky numbers. Though they may have realized their own weakness, they hardly want to change themselves. What’s more, they are good arguers upon some conflicts or arguments especially when they stand on a reasonable side, so give up the idea to dispute with them or persuade them.Strong points: They are patient, reliable and self-composed in the daily life which makes them good executants or ministrants. Generally speaking, they are proud, but not arrogant; conservative, but not stereotyped. Diligence, loyalty and realism are their strength. Apart from that, they are always ambitious and determined. No wonder that they are usually able to make great achievements.Weak points: Stubbornness is the most distinctive characteristic for those who have the lucky number 4. They are jealous, quarrelsome and sometimes boring. Although they usually are able to defeat others in the arguments with some surprising words or logicality, they actually lack imagination. Moreover, most of them may be a little tightfisted.In the eyes of the Chinese, 4 is generally disliked by people just as 13 is in the western world. This is because Four is pronounced Si in Chinese, the same as 死 (death). Therefore, many buildings, especially hotels don not set the fourth, fourteenth and twenty-fourth floors and other floors with 4. When choosing the telephone numbers and the vehicle identification numbers, many people would avoid number 4. Anyway, Four sounds like the pronunciation of “water” in Zhejiang area’s dialect, in which case it has neither the commendatory nor the derogatory meaning. While in the musical scale, Four is pronounced Fa, the same sound with 发 (fortune) in Chinese. Therefore some people regard 4 as the propitious and lucky number in this case and there is an old saying in Chinese - 四季发财 (be wealthy all the year round).Even though 4 has derogatory connotation in Chinese, it seems to be very popular in Chinese culture, especially to express some religious ideology. For example, Four Greatness (the greatest natural power that human should abide by) in Buddhism refers to Earth, Water, Fire and Wind, while Tao, Heaven, Earth and Human are the Four Greatness of Taoism. Furthermore, the ancient Chinese people took benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom as Four Moral Criterions. Sometimes, the four moral criterions refer to fealty to parents, loyalty to one’s own country, honesty to friends and respect to the seniors. For Chinese literati, writing brush, ink stick, ink slab and paper are the Four Treasures in the Study.In China’s long history, 4 has been widely used as a number to classify something with the same characteristics or of the same category. Here are some typical examples:1. Four Seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter2. Four Directions: east, west, south, north3. Four Inventions of Ancient China : paper making, printing, compass, gunpowder4. Four Skills of the Ancient Chinese Scholars: playing zither, playing chess, calligraphy, painting5. Four Classic Novels of the Ancient China: Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Kingdom of Wei, Shu and Wu), Outlaws of Marsh, Journey to the West, A Dream in Red Mansions (The Story of A Stone)6. Four Sorts of the Well-known Embroidery : Su (Suzhou) Embroidery, Xiang (Hunan) Embroidery, Shu (Sichuan) Embroidery, Yue (Guangdong) Embroidery7. Four Famous Pavilions: Penglai Pavilion in Yantai of Shandong, Yueyang Pavilion in Hunan, Tengwang Pavilion in Nanchang of Jiangxi, Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan of Hubei8. Four Plants in Chinese Painting : Plum Blossoms, Orchid, Bamboo, Chrysanthemum9. Four Grottoes: Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Maiji Caves in Tianshui10. Four Famous Buddhist Mountains: Mt. Wutai in Shanxi, Mt. Putuo in Zhejiang, Mt. Emei in Sichuan, Mt. Jiuhua in Anhui | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Why Do We Need This?
In short, this is to protect your users. With Kin apps, developers do not control or store a user’s private keys. The private keys are stored on a user’s phone and allow them to access their funds on the blockchain. This module allows you to make sure your users never lose those funds in situations where they may lose, break or reset data on their phone.
Educating Your Users!
Blockchain is a very new technology when it comes to mainstream users. They don’t need to understand how it works but we believe it’s extremely important to educate your users on the importance of backing up their Kin account. Simply displaying a message or giving a tutorial after the creation of their account can go a long way in terms of protecting them and their funds.
We’re hoping everyone is as stoked as we are about the addition of this new module. This is the first of many and we can’t wait to continue building cool new modules and features that makes it easy for developers to build engaging apps with Kin! | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The first bang sounded distant and muffled. On the fourth floor, Bertillia Lavern assumed somebody downstairs was setting up for an event and had dropped a folding table.
But when the bangs kept coming, Lavern recognized the sounds.
Years earlier, before taking a civilian office job at Naval Sea Systems headquarters, Lavern was a Navy medical specialist. Known as a corpsman, she'd been on training operations with the Marines. She knew the snap of gunfire.
The 39-year-old hit the ground and scurried under a desk with her supervisor in a nearby cubicle, she said. They stayed there silently as the shots continued.
From that vantage point, the building's open floor plan allowed her to view the fifth floor, where she saw someone moving.
"Get down!" she screamed, emerging from her hiding place.
She remembers her supervisor, Andy Kelly, making the same demand of her. And she remembers a bright flash of light.
"Glass shattered right by my head," she told The Associated Press in a phone interview on Thursday. "It was on the edge of Andy's cubicle."
Lavern's account is the most detailed yet by someone who was inside the Navy Yard when former Navy reservist Aaron Alexis, a contractor who had worked at the Navy Yard for less than a month, shot and killed 12 civilians on Monday before being killed by police.
Lavern said she and Kelly ducked down again and waited for a break in the shooting.
"We realized then we had to get out of the building," she said. "Andy looked around the corner to check that the coast was clear."
Lavern crawled to her desk to grab her identification badge and her purse. From there she saw her colleague, Vishnu Pandit.
"He was down."
Pandit, 61, had spent 30 years with the Navy. Known to his coworkers as Kisan, he had two sons and was a grandfather and lived in North Potomac, Md. He was the first person she greeted at the office each morning. And he had been shot in his left temple.
Using tissues from his desk, Lavern pressed her hand against her friend's head. She held him there and prayed over him.
"I felt him breathe," she said.
She felt for his pulse. Amazingly, it was strong.
She turned to Kelly: "We need help now!"
Kelly ran for help and Lavern stayed behind, she said. She did not know where the gunman was.
"Stay with me," she said. "I'm right here."
She told him that God loved him, that his friends loved him, that they wanted him to stay with them.
"We don't want you to go," she told him.
Three security guards arrived. They carried Pandit to an office chair, rolled him to the stairs and strapped him into an evacuation chair used to help disabled people quickly escape.
But it wouldn't roll.
"We lifted, dragged the chair down the stairs."
At every floor, she said, she checked his pulse. It remained strong.
When they got to the second floor, she said, the security guards' radios came to life: "The shooter was on the first floor," she said. "On the west side."
Exactly where they were heading.
They continued downstairs and escaped through a side door, where she said they found a security guard in an unmarked car.
A gunman was on the loose and the security guard was worried about leaving his post. Still, he took Lavern and Pandit into the car and raced off. They made it off the grounds of the Navy Yard and to a street corner a few blocks away. The security guard needed to get back to his post and asked police who were there to get an ambulance immediately.
Lavern eased her friend to the pavement. His pulse was gone.
Across the street, James Birdsall was having his morning coffee in his office on the 11th floor at Parsons, an engineering company. As he and his colleagues watched the police cars screaming toward the Navy Yard, Birdsall noticed a man lying down on the street corner below at New Jersey Avenue and M Street.
Birdsall assumed someone had had a heart attack. His company had trained him to use a defibrillator but the man was all the way across the street and there was already a woman giving CPR.
"But I thought, 'If don't do this now, I'm going to look back and say I should have,'" Birdsall said Thursday.
So he grabbed the defibrillator and ran. The 11-floor elevator ride seemed to take especially long. The run through the lobby and across the intersection remain a blur.
Birdsall knelt at Pandit's head while Lavern pumped at his chest. That image was among the first to surface from the Navy Yard shooting Monday in a photo that was taken by congressional staffer Don Andres and circulated on Twitter by Tim Hogan, a spokesman for Rep. Steve Horsford, D-Nev.
Almost immediately, there were questions about what it showed. Was it really a shooting victim? If so, how did he get blocks from the scene? There was speculation that someone had a heart attack, unrelated to the chaos blocks away.
But Birdsall saw the gunshot wound to Pandit's head. He attached the defibrillator's two pads to the man's chest.
The machine said not to administer a shock, Lavern said. So she continued giving CPR.
Others came to help and Lavern kept talking to her friend. Birdsall could tell that from the way she kept saying his name that she knew him well.
Within two minutes of being dispatched, an ambulance arrived. Lavern asked to go to the hospital with him but a detective told her she needed to give a police report instead. She removed Pandit's badge and gave it to rescue workers so they would know who he was.
The Associated Press had distributed two photos Andres took on Monday but hours later withdrew the photos until it could be verified they were related to the Navy Yard shootings. The AP reissued the photos along with this story.
Pandit was pronounced dead on arrival at George Washington University Hospital, where Dr. Babak Sarani, the hospital's director of trauma and acute care surgery, called the injury "not survivable."
Lavern, a mother of one from Stafford, Va., attended Pandit's funeral on Thursday.
"He was a good friend," she said. "He was the sweetest man."
Her husband, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Randall Lavern, said he wasn't surprised at her actions.
"That's my wife," he said. "She's always the one running to help."
-------------------------------------------------
Associated Press Writers Ben Nuckols and Jessica Gresko contributed to this report. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Izvor: N1
Željko Sačić, jedan od najistaknutijih članova Hrvatskog generalskog zbora (HGZ), u emisiji N1 Studio uživo objasnio je razloge zbog kojih je dao neopozivu ostavku na mjesto u Upravnom odboru te udruge.
Je li Generalski zbor, kako ste rekli, "mala podružnica za potrebe HDZ-a"?
Nažalost, oni su jako blizu tome, ako već nisu tu crtu prešli. Jer sama činjenica da se krše odredbe Statuta Hrvatskog generalskog zbora i da se ide po mišljenje o određenom dnevno-političkom pitanju, odnosno frakcijskoj borbi u HDZ-u, već baca sumnju na vjerodostojnost odnosno na poštivanje naših strateških odrednica kao Generalskog zbora.
Ja sam na to ukazao pravodobno u utorak i sretan sam što sam to imao prilike reći generalima. Da će se to dogoditi ako se očitujemo u smislu osude prosvjeda u Vukovaru. Rekao sam da ćemo kao generali u javnosti stvoriti jako negativan dojam o nama samima. I da ćemo produbiti jaz između generala, branitelja, vojnika i drugih. A najvažnije je da ćemo okrenuti leđa hrvatskoj žrtvi i Vukovarcima koji imaju problem s neprocesuiranjem ratnih zločina. To je problem koji traje 20-ak godina, a ne samo Plenkovića i ove Vlade. Na to sam ukazao, no nisu me poslušali. General Miljavac je odlučio tako kako je odlučio. Nije slučajno da je nakon godinu dana čekanja baš prekjučer se Plenković sjetio pozvati određene generale, a ne čitav Upravni odbor, na sastanak. Igrom slučaja svi ti generali koje je pozvao su u HDZ-u.
Mislite li da je i Plenković okrenuo leđa, kako ste rekli, hrvatskoj žrtvi kada smatrate da to sad radi Generalski zbor.
Neugodno sam iznenađen plitkoćom političke misli Andreja Plenkovića. Da on i njegovi savjetnici imaju i malo političke mudrosti, on je mogao poentirati na toj plemenitoj i humanoj ideji ideji da se procesuiraju ratni zločini, ali je zbog svojih nekakvih interesa ostavio prostor da se sukobi s cijelom populacijom i sa svim pravdoljubivim ljudima.
Kako je mogao poentirati, to HDZ-ov gradonačelnik prosvjeduje protiv nečinjenja institucija...
On je naslijedio neaktivnost i pasivnost državnog represivnog aparata.
Je li mogao razdrmati su neaktivnost?
Da se više angažirao u ove dvije godine, mogao je. On očito zbog političkih razloga to ne želi. I sada i on i general Miljavac i mnogi moji oponenti u Generlalskom zboru imaju kvaziargumente kad kažu da bi se tu mogli rušiti temelji same države, da bi moglo doći do nasilja i destabilizacije, što je potpuna laž i budalaština. Tamo će biti masu redara i hrvatskih domoljuba kojima je interes samo jedan jedini, a to je solidarizacija sa žrtvom. U čemu je problem da se ljudi solidariziraju sa idejom da se treba pokrenuti i procesuirati zločine.
To treba reći DORH-u, sudstvu, policiji, tajnim službama i svima oni koji su zaduženi da dođu do podataka i da ih procesuiraju. Smiješno bi bilo da Plenković tamo dođe i diže ruku u zrak da se procesuiraju ratni zločini, nego može dati potporu. Ali, za nevjerovati je da je on u startu osuđuje prosvjed u Vukovaru sa argumentima da to destabilizira državu i da to može dovesti do destabilizacije i nasilja. To jedan prijer ne smije reći jer time podcjenjuje sebe i sve državne službe koje u Hrvatskoj brinu o sigurnosti i vrijeđa zdrav razum.
Šef HVIDRA-e Josip Đakić kaže da neće ići na prosvjed?
Ov je pokušaj "đakizacije" Generalskog zbora. Rekao sam im da si ne dozvole da budu kao Đakić. On je vezan sa Plenkovićem i HDZ-om. Predložio sam saborskom zastupniku Hrvoju Zekanoviću da damo zakonsku inicijativu da se zakonski onemogući da jedna osoba bude više od dva mandata na čelu bilo koje udruge jer to dovodi do političkih zlouporaba udruga. Đakić je visokopozicionirani dužnosnik HDZ-a i saborski zastupnik i predsjednik HVIDRA-e i on istodobno koristi svoje mjesto u HVIDRA-i za provođenje svoga političkog programa HDZ-a. On to namjerno ne odvaja kako bi manipulirao, a mi branitelji ne želimo da HVIDRA-a bude podružnica HDZ-a nego smo svojina naroda.
Smatrate da Đakić i Miljavac čuvaju leđa Plenkoviću?
Apsolutno. Rekao bih da su oni žrtve Plenkovića jer ih je on izmanipulirao i zloupotrebljava ih za ostvarenje svojih ciljeva i ideja. Što nije etično ni moralno.
N1 pratite putem aplikacija za Android | iPhone/iPad | Windows| i društvenih mreža Twitter | Facebook | Instagram. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
(top left pink)
She alone will conquer the deep depths of the Realm of Darkness …
Follow-up Report:
Aqua has fallen into the Realm of Darkness for the sake of her friends. In this all-new episode, she will chase after the truth of this battle.
(blurb by mickey)
When he visited the Realm of Darkness, Mickey talked with Aqua, who was lost. In this realm of being isolated and struggling alone, what kind of encounter did they have?
(key)
A second meeting in a familiar world!?
As she traverses the Realm of Darkness, Aqua steps into a world resembling the motif of Enchanted Dominion (of Sleeping Beauty). There, Aqua sees the figures of Terra and Ven, the friends that she struggled alongside in order to become a Keyblade Master. Is this some kind of trap, or is it...!?
(blurb)
As Aqua's hand neared Terra and Ventus, a large thorn stopped her. The way the world continued to change made it seem like it had its own intentions.
(purple blurb)
Aqua
One of the Keyblade Masters. She is strong-hearted and serious, with a calm demeanor, but her heart is gentle, and she loves her friends very much. In order to save her best friends, she fell into the Realm of Darkness.
(blurb)
This is one scene from the opening movie. As the first in the [KH] series to use the PS4, improvements are obvious in the beauty of the cinematics.
(blurb)
In [KH0.2], they are utilizing the same gameplay system that we'll see in [KHIII], and you can enjoy battles where the characters move smoothly. Exhilarating action is just ahead!
King Mickey
The king of Disney Castle. He protects the worlds as a Keyblade Master. The Keyblade is a legendary weapon that can only be used by chosen wielders.
(main blurb)
[Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue] (hereon known as [KH2.8]) is a three-title production m that is most closely linked to what will be the most recent in the numbered series, [KHIII]. One of the productions, [Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -Fragmentary Passage-] (hereon known as [KH0.2]), is packed with interesting scenes.
News: [KH -HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix] Release Decided
[KH -HD 1.5 Remix-] and [KH -HD 2.5 Remix-], which were both released on the PS3, will now have all six productions combined into one package for the Playstation 4! The release date is set for 03/09/2017, and the asking price is 6800yen (7344yen with tax).
Production Titles (in series order)
-KH Birth by Sleep Final Mix
-KH Final Mix
-KH Re: Chain of Memories
-KH 358/2 Days (theatrical production)
-KHII Final Mix
-KH Re: Coded (theatrical production) | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
米国旗に身を包んだ男がホワイトハウスの敷地内に侵入
（ＣＮＮ） 感謝祭の休日に当たる２６日午後２時４５分ごろ、米ホワイトハウスのフェンスを乗り越えて男が敷地内に侵入し、シークレットサービスに取り押さえられた。大統領一家は公邸内で感謝祭を祝っているところだった。
シークレットサービスによると、ジョセフ・キャプト容疑者はホワイトハウス北側のフェンスを乗り越えて庭に侵入。すぐに取り押さえられ、拘束された。
現場を目撃したＣＮＮ記者によると、同容疑者は封筒を持ち、青いシャツと白いパンツ姿で米国旗を身にまとっていた。拘束した隊員は銃を抜き、警察犬を連れていたという。
ホワイトハウスは約２時間後に警戒態勢を解除した。しかし北側と南側のフェンス周辺は同日夕刻の時点で一時的に封鎖されたままとなっている。
ホワイトハウスのフェンスが乗り越えられ、敷地内に侵入された事件は今年に入ってこれで少なくとも３度目になる。昨年９月には、イラク戦争に従軍経験のある４２歳の元兵士がホワイトハウスの建物内に侵入し、大統領公邸につながる階段まで到達する事態も起きた。
相次ぐ侵入騒ぎを受けて、柵には長さ約１８センチの剣先フェンスが取り付けられたが、２６日に侵入した男はこれも乗り越えた。 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Federal Judge William Bertelsman reopened the $250 million defamation case filed by Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann against the Washington Post in late October.
Sixteen-year-old Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann was smeared and maligned by the liberal press after he was harassed in Washington DC following the March for Life. The Washington Post accused the teen of blocking and impeding Nathan Phillips as the native American elder was harassing the Catholic boys in Trump hats. It was all a lie and the Washington Post was one of the leading liberal outlets attacking the young Catholic boys.
BREAKING: A federal judge in Kentucky has reopened the $250 million defamation case filed by Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann against the Washington Post after dismissing it in July, allowing the lawsuit to proceedhttps://t.co/hkLvNp5N3b — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 28, 2019
Attorney Robert Barnes responded to the news in October.
TRENDING: BREAKING: Multiple Injuries After Car Plows Through Crowd of Trump Supporters in Yorba Linda, California (VIDEO)
Let me thank @ewarren for removing our Covington case to federal court & giving us the chance to brief the issue. After briefing, the judge also reconsidered & reopened the Sandmann case against the Post. Despite many big corporate media law firms against us, justice is coming. https://t.co/1d7f1K4CK6 — Robert Barnes (@Barnes_Law) October 28, 2019
The same judge has now ruled in similar cases against CNN and NBC.
This allows the cases to move forward on the same basis as the WaPo case.
Nicholas Sandmann’s attorney Lin Wood cheered the decision by Judge Bertelsman today. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
When Vickers realizes Janek is really mutinying and going to ram the alien ship with the Prometheus, she has only 40 seconds to flee to an escape pod. She races to the escape room and slams her hand on a waist-high box mounted on the wall next to one of the pods. The clear, protective door over the pod lifts. She hurriedly dons her environment suit and throws herself into one of the coffin-shaped alcoves. She reaches to her right and on a pad we can’t see, she presses five buttons in sequence, shouting, “Come on!” The pod is sealed and shot away from the ship to land on the planet below.
The transparent cover gives a clear view into the pod. That’s great, since if there were multiple people trying to escape, it would be easier to target an empty one. The the shape inside is unmistakeable. That’s great because at a glance even an untrained passenger could figure out what this is. The bright orange stripes are appropriately intense and attention-getting as well.
Viewers might have questions about the placement of the back-lit button panels inside the pod, seeing as how they’re in a very awkward place for Vickers to see and operate. I presume she has some other interface facing her, and the panels we see in the scene are for operating when the pod is resting on the planet’s surface and its lid opened. From that position, these buttons make more sense.
I think that’s where the greatness ends. The main consideration for an escape pod is that it is used in dire emergencies. Fractions of a second might mean the difference between safety and disintegration, and so though the cinematic tension in the scene is built up by these designed-in delays, an ideal system shouldn’t work the same way. How could it be improved? There are three delays, and each of them could be improved or removed.
Delay 1: Opening a pod
Why should she have to open the pod with a button or handprint reader or whatever that thing is? The pods should be open at all times.
If pods had to be sealed for some biological or mechanical reason, then a pod should open up for her immediately when she enters the room. Simple motion detectors are all that is needed.
If she has to authorize for some dystopian, only-certain-people-can-be-saved corporate reason, then a voice print could work, allowing her to shout in the hallway as she runs for the pod.
Some passive recognition would be even better since it wouldn’t cost her even the time of shouting: Face-recognition or fast retinal scan through cameras mounted in the room or the pod. Run a quick laser line across her face and she’s authorized.
Delay 2: Suiting Up
Can she put on the environment suit in the pod? Yes, the pod is cramped, but that’s the biggest delay she experiences. Increase the size of the pod slightly to allow for that kind of maneuvering, and then she can just grab the suit as she’s running by and put it on in the pod’s relative safety.
Even cooler would be if the pod was the environment suit: All she would have to do is throw herself in the pod, activate it, and the minute she landed on LV223, the capsule transformed, Autobot-style, into an exosuit, giving her more protection and more enhancement for survival on an alien planet. Plus, you can imagine the awesomeness of letting Vickers fight the zombified Weyland Ripley-style.
Delay 3: Activation
This is one delay that I’m pretty sure can’t be either automatic or passive. The cost of making a mistake is too dire. Accidentally pressed a button? Sorry, you’re now being shot away from the mother ship faster than it can travel. Still, why does she have to hit a series of buttons here? Is it a (shudder) password, as a corporate cost-control measure? Yes, that spells dystopia, but it should be faster and more intuitive, and we’ve already authorized her, above.
Fortunately this doesn’t need much rethinking. Since we’ve already seen a great interaction used for an emergency procedure, i.e. the 5-finger touch-twist used for emergency decontamination on the MedPod, I’d suggest using that. Crew would only have to be trained once.
The total interaction, then, should be that Vickers:
Runs to the escape room Is identified passively (and notified of it by voice) Grabs a suit (this is optional if you go with the awesome exosuit idea) Throws herself into an open pod Performs a simple gesture on a touch pad Is shot away from the soon-to-explode ship
Bam! You have saved massive amounts of time, a crewmember removed from the immediate danger, and you have the setup for an awesome ending where Vickers in her exosuit can just punch the falling alien spaceship out of the the way rather than running from it like a moron.
Share this: Reddit
Twitter
Facebook
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Since the launch of the Internet, our lives have been shaped by technological development, yet still, many consumers have limited financial freedom.
What if you could take financial power back? With blockchain technology, there may be a solution.
Introducing Celsius Network
Celsius is a new way to earn, borrow and pay on the blockchain.
The Celsius wallet allows you to deposit your own cryptocurrency and earn returns on your holdings, or take out loans against your crypto assets.
Alex Mashinsky, CEO and founder of Celsius Network, has a strong history of technological development, particularly seizing opportunities during the nascent stages of the Internet.
Earn interest
As a token holder, once you have deposited your crypto into the Celsius wallet you will start earning interest right away – paid every Monday. Interest rates go as high as 7.5%.
Take loans
Imagine the typical Bitcoin holder. They invested because they believe in the future of Bitcoin. They expect the price of Bitcoin to go up.
Things come up. Sometimes a holder needs fiat currency but they don’t want to sell their Bitcoin.
Celsius solves this problem by allowing you to take out loans with your cryptocurrency as collateral. That way you can maintain your crypto holdings while paying off a loan.
Pay simply
CelPay is another part of Celsius’ offerings, allowing you to feelessly send crypto quickly without using private keys. It works through any messenger, email or social media.
Not only that, you will be paid to use CelPay. Earn 1% on all BTC and ETH transactions and 2% on all CEL transactions via CelPay.
Token utility
The CEL token is an integral part of the system. You will receive better interest rates if you choose to be paid in CEL, while CEL holders will have priority in line for loans and receive better dollar loan rates. If you pay back your loan interest in CEL you will receive better loan rates, too.
When there is a queue for loans, the network looks at two things: CEL balance and HODL ratio. The higher your CEL balance the better, but HODL ratio looks out for the smaller fish too. If you are a dedicated CEL holder they can tell and it will put you in good stead.
Safety
Whenever you are storing your crypto you have to ask yourself: is it safe?
Coins stored in the Celsius wallet are held by BitGo, a blockchain custody solution. Your coins are lent out to various places like hedge funds and traders. Loaned coins are always over-collateralized by another asset.
The coins are lent out from the community pool so your funds are always accessible if you need them. A Celsius community member wrote an in-depth article about the safety of the network if you have a deeper interest. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Trans people have been stoned to death, burned alive and had their eyes plucked out by their murderer, a new report says.
It highlights the tragedies of 226 trans people murdered in the last 12 months. 11 of the victims were 18 years old or younger.
But even these harrowing stories are likely just the tip of the iceberg.
Brazil and Mexico, once again, lead the list in the most reported killings of trans men and woman, according to a new report released by Transgender Europe’s Trans Murder Monitoring project.
But the research only includes the murders of trans people that can be documented through publicly available information, or are reported by local advocacy groups. That means the number of deaths is certainly underestimated.
Media organizations – including normally reputable Western names – are often guilty of misgendering the victims when they are trans, making it even more difficult to get a real sense of the problem.
And even in countries where rights for gays and lesbians have made progress, it is clear there are still dangerous places for trans people to exist.
In Brazil, 113 trans people were reportedly murdered, and in Mexico, 31 were killed.
10 trans people were murdered in the United States and two were killed in Canada. One was killed in the UK.
The full detailed list makes for very difficult reading.
A 21-year-old trans woman, known only as Glenda, was beaten and stoned. Her half naked body was found weeks after her death in a Mexican waste land.
Suman Singh, a 20-year-old Indian, was set on fire by four people in January, dying from the injuries in hospital.
A Brazilian trans woman, known only as NN, was reported dead in August. Local newspapers reported she was found ‘without eyes’.
And Alex, an eight-year-old from Rio De Janiero, told her dad she was a girl. He responded by beating her up so badly she died.
Alecs Recher, co-chair of Transgender Europe, said it was important to learn from these statistics.
‘Transgender Day of Remembrance is there to honor the people that have lost their lives to brutal transphobia,’ Recher told Gay Star News.
‘Our Trans Murder Monitoring data show that more murders are reported where there is a strong trans movement. This means that we learn only about the tip of the iceberg and that organizing ourselves does make a difference.
‘The police, the judicial system, the media and the wider public must never misgender, misname or misreport a trans person’s death. At least in death the victim’s dignity must not be violated again.
‘It is so important for us all to come together on Transgender Day of Remembrance to commemorate the victims and see it as a task to work together to prevent further murders and to improve trans peoples’ general living conditions.’ | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A UK company’s spinal implants that allegedly moved and eroded in patients, and which are at the centre of legal action, have highlighted potential weaknesses in the way in which some medical devices enter the market, an investigation has revealed.
Documents seen by the Guardian show the plastic discs were approved for sale by the British Standards Institution (BSI) after tests on 30 people over six months
A customised version was also implanted in nine baboons, according to a paper by members of the company’s own scientific advisory board.
The devices, made by the now-defunct Ranier Technology, which was based in Cambridge, are the focus of legal action brought by prosecutors in Germany against a doctor who implanted them, allegedly without first obtaining fully informed patient consent.
Many of the patients who received them are undergoing surgery to have them removed, with doctors finding some had completely disintegrated, according to an investigation coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, involving the Guardian and BBC’s Panorama.
Ranier Technology was granted CE (Conformité Européenne) safety marks for two implants, Cadisc-L and Cadisc-C. The devices were certified by the BSI in 2010 and 2011 respectively, and once approved were marketed to hospitals across Europe.
The firm gained millions of pounds in backing from investors impressed by its work in developing artificial spinal discs, which it said would bring relief and a normal quality of life to patients suffering degenerative disc disease.
Q&A Do you have a related story or information to share? Show We want to hear from readers to find out more about your experiences and perspectives on the story. You can get in touch by filling in this encrypted form. If you require an enhanced level of security please see here for other ways to contact the Guardian. Your responses will only be seen by the Guardian and we’ll be in touch if we are considering your response as part of our reporting. You can read terms of service here.
Instead, about half of the patients given the Cadisc-L implants have had to undergo further surgery after the discs apparently disintegrated or moved in their backs, the Implant Files investigation has discovered.
The implants were seemingly beset by problems from the start, according to scientific analysis. The documents seen by the Guardian show that in trials on baboons using a custom-sized version of Cadisc-L the discs had all been put in the wrong place.
A 2009 review of some of the animals noted that “overall six months is a relatively short time to follow an implant up”, but even after that time there appeared “to be worrying changes between the implant and the bone in all but one subject”.
Details of the tests on humans have not been published, but it is known they only ran for six months before the CE mark application, even though the implants were aimed at young patients.
The case raises questions about the different standards applied by regulators around the world.
The documents reveal Ranier Technology chose to seek approval in Europe first because it was easier than doing so in the USA, and that it hoped to use the CE mark to help it get the approval of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “Like Cadisc-L, the regulatory strategy for Cadisc-C is to penetrate Europe first and follow up in the USA … On the whole the regulatory process and required testing tends to be more stringent in the US compared with the EU.”
Regulators in other European countries approved clinical tests, and patients were recruited in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
The investigations ran from October 2009 until June 2010, and by August 2010 the company had a CE mark for Cadisc-L.
The BSI would not comment on Ranier Technology’s application, citing confidentiality requirements.
The documents show the FDA asked for more data to back up the company’s approval application. The regulator was concerned about the misplacement of the device in the baboon study and asked the company to provide “a breakdown of changes made to the device, instrumentation, and surgical technique as a result of ‘lessons learned’”.
Ranier Technology was dissolved this year. The Guardian put a number of questions to the company’s former chief executive Dr Geoffrey Andrews.
In a statement, he said the Cadisc-L devices used in humans were not the ones used in tests on baboons. The baboons were implanted with a much smaller custom-made version of the device.
“For clarification, no Cadisc-L devices were implanted in any animal,” he said. “Ranier spent over eight years and more than £20m in the design, development and testing of Cadisc-L. The research, development and testing involved many top experts from across the world.”
Andrews said the testing complied with the relevant standards and included checks “to replicate long-term usage and which predicted a 40-year service life for Cadisc-L”.
He said clinical tests in patients had gone very well, with good outcomes after the first four years. It was after four patients had to undergo further surgery that the company “decided unilaterally, and as a precaution, to formally withdraw Cadisc-L from the market, which it did on 31 March 2014”.
In Germany, a case against a doctor was filed late last year alleging assault against 53 patients who had the device implanted. He has denied the allegations. There is no action against Ranier Technology. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Regardless of the controversy surrounding the use of employees’ provident fund numbers to estimate job growth, something is afoot on job growth. The survey-based seasonally adjusted Purchasing Managers’ Indices (PMIs) show that employment has indeed picked up recently, both in manufacturing and in services.
Take a look at the accompanying chart 1. It shows hiring has improved in the manufacturing sector since August 2017, although there has been a slackening in recent months. In the data, a reading above 50 denotes growth, while one below 50 signals a contraction. In services, hiring picked up from May 2017, with two bad months in July and August last year, owing to the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST). Thereafter, job growth in services has been robust. As the chart shows, growth in employment in the services sector hasn’t been this good since 2011.
The PMI data also shows that business expectations, both in manufacturing and in services, are improving. Optimism on the economy is one reason for hiring more people. These are signs of an end to the long drought in job growth.
Note that the PMI data shows only hiring in the top companies in the formal sector. It doesn’t cover the informal sector and unfortunately, we have no data on job losses in the informal sector as a result of demonetization and GST.
The flip side of the rise in market share of the formal sector is the fall in share of the informal sector, which will entail job losses there. The size of India’s informal sector is huge and a recent study by the International Labour Organization, citing 2009-10 data on the Indian economy, estimated informal employment at 83.6% of non-agricultural employment. The study points out that domestic workers, home-based workers and street vendors together constitute around a third of urban employment in India.
Also, as chart 2 shows, the proportion of informal employment in the sectors that employ the most people is very high. Among non-agricultural activities, 97.6% of construction jobs, 97.2% of jobs in trade and 84.5% of jobs in transportation are informal.
What ultimately matters is whether we are creating decent and productive jobs not only for those joining the labour market but also for those leaving disguised unemployment in agriculture.
Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.
Share Via | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Heritage Foundation's wingnut president, former Sen. Jim DeMint is out of the trail, trying to dupe a bunch of old white people that are showing up at their events that "Obamacare" is going to destroy their lives. Never mind as Sarah Jones pointed out today, that the Affordable Care Act is based on a proposal that came out of his foundation in the '80's.
Jim DeMint tells Delaware crowd that Obamacare is un-American:
Conservative former Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina was in Brandywine Hundred Thursday for the last stop on a nationwide tour to drum up support for cutting off funding for the coming implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
DeMint, a favorite of the tea party, told a standing-room-only ballroom at the DoubleTree Hotel, that the health care reform known as Obamacare is a threat to personal freedom and an effort by Democrats and progressives to exercise control over citizens.
“I cannot think of anything that’s more un-American than national government-run healthcare,” DeMint said to the crowd of conservatives from around the state. “(Liberals) see as their holy grail taking control of the health care system…If they can control that they can control most of our lives.”
The Republican left the Senate at the end of last year to become president of the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, whose lobbying arm, Heritage Action for American, organized Thursday’s event. The gathering was the last stop on a nine-city defund-Obamacare tour that began earlier this month.
“We don’t have the time to wait, on Oct. 1 sign ups for these exchanges start, on Jan. 1 the subsidies start going out,” he said. “The time is now to fight.” [...]
DeMint said Republicans in Congress should not back away from a budget showdown over Obamacare.
“If there’s ever been anything worth fighting for in the political arena, it’s this,” he said.
DeMint preached a set of health care reforms to the enthusiastic crowd that he said would accomplish the same goals as Obamacare, namely cheaper insurance coverage for more Americans, without direct government intervention in the insurance process.
“We know there are common sense ideas that can make health care and health insurance more available,” he said. “If you give businesses a tax break for buying health insurance, you should do that for individuals as well…Let people buy health insurance anywhere in the country. Those choices become available as companies have to compete for your business.”
DeMint also said the “Medicaid-style” plans open to new patients under the Affordable Care Act won’t pay doctors enough to provide quality care.
“It’s like having a bus ticket with no buses,” he said. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Article content
François Hollande is a cold, cynical cheat and a Socialist who “doesn’t like the poor,” according to a devastating memoir by a vengeful Valérie Trierweiler, the French president’s spurned ex-girlfriend.
Depicted as icy, obsessively ambitious and out of his depth, Mr. Hollande is picked apart in Thank You For This Moment, published Thursday, a “kiss-and-tell” account of their nine-year relationship and her 18 months at the Elysée Palace.
We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or François Hollande a lying Socialist who 'doesn’t like the poor,' says ex-girlfriend in 'kiss-and-tell' memoir Back to video
The president’s aides said he was kept totally in the dark about its release and was “appalled” at extracts leaked Wednesday, including one recounting a desperate fight to stop Ms. Trierweiler taking sleeping pills in the presidential bedroom after his affair with Julie Gayet, the actress, hit the headlines.
But perhaps the most damaging passage of the book, cited by Le Monde, is one in which Mr. Hollande appears to mock the poor.
“He presents himself as the man who doesn’t like the rich. In reality, the president doesn’t like the poor,” writes Ms. Trierweiler, who is from a gritty neighbourhood in Angers, west of Paris. Her father is an invalid and her mother worked as cashier at an ice rink. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Inspired by a recent report that calculated that there are more men named John, Robert, William or James than there are women on the boards of large companies, an economist at the New York Times has applied this index to a variety of institutional contexts.
Turning to the CEOs of those major companies, for example, reveals an even more egregious stat: For each woman CEO, there are four men named John, Robert, William or James. In fact, the number of companies run by men named John exceeds those run by women. (Same with David.)
Of course, the index isn’t a particularly accurate gauge of gender inequality in all contexts — in institutions that are more ethnically diverse, for example, or that draw from a younger generation with more Jacobs and Tylers than Johns and Bobs. But it’s still a revealing/depressing experiment. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The employee and management structure of a major Iowa retailer and employer is undergoing changes, according to company officials.
Hy-Vee, Inc., has launched a restructuring initiative called "Helpful Smile 2020," which will make changes to the management structure at stores and potentially to the distribution or number of lower-level employees, according to information provided by the company. The goal of the changes is to "become more efficient while continuing to elevate" shoppers' experiences, Hy-Vee claims.
The changes are multi-faceted. Some will happen as a result of
. The change in when and how stocking takes place in stores will lead to overall staffing changes, including moving employees within the store, some who could be promoted, and possible staffing reductions, according to information provided by the company. There were no details on which employees or positions could be eliminated or how many could be affected.
"We value our employees and customers, and want to be the best place to work and shop," the company said, in a statement. "Our industry is continually evolving, which is why it’s imperative that we evolve with it."
Another change will be to the store director position, which traditionally has been the top decision-maker at the store level. Now, that title will be changed to district store director and used for persons who oversee multiple stores. At the store level, a person called a store manager will oversee day-to-day operations at their store but report to district store directors.
Some current store directors will be shifted to become district store directors, while others may be kept as store managers.
30 dietitians who currently work at store locations will be moved to the corporate offices.
The company said that the changes were being made in order to adjust to the changing needs of customers and the evolving retail landscape. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Here’s the link to Part 1.
I don’t want to take up a lot of time with my own Bullshit. For one, I use the concept at the end of the interview. For two, this is perhaps the most important post I have ever done. So just a little Bullshit. Well, maybe medium Bullshit, because I don’t care for Bullshit sitting on my chest.
My wife and I decided long ago not to have kids. This sort of decision is unusual, not the norm, and makes for a far, far different life than one would have otherwise. I just wasn’t interested. Beatrice loves children. So much so, she became a school teacher and is coming up on 30 years of doing that same thing every day. She dotes on her nephews & nieces and I insist that mine interest me, and then I’m all in. I’m an asshole. Bea has her kid fix every day.
But frankly, one of the reasons I was negative to the idea of kids going back a long time is because, for the most part, the little fockers can annoy me to no end in sight. I can’t tell you how many times over years and years I have slapped myself on the cheek, wondering why people put up with the 24/7 crap very nearly every kid puts out. And, it’s far too long since my childhood days — where you only remember the good stuff — that I know how to reconcile it. I think we didn’t behave as badly as people put up with now, commonplace. But that’s just me.
This part of the video makes me wonder if I missed out, having a mignon or two. I live with no regrets and I take my chances and lumps, but perhaps, just perhaps, we evolved in such a way that children are not naturally a massive pain in the ass as I have uniformly noted them to be, and that includes every single one I have ever known.
I have an intro and a conclusion to the following video. The intro is about 20 seconds and while I understand many of you are just not into the videos I’ve been doing lately, I’m going to ask that you watch at least the intro, maybe a minute or two into the content, and then decide: “do I know anyone with kids who might benefit from this.”
Cole, Finian and Wesley
Then listen to your conscience from there.
What we cover is every imaginable “normal affliction” kids face — afflictions even I grew up with and saw in the early 60s — and how paleo seemed to resolve them all — as if there’s something magical about living and being a wild human animal.
Click on it.
Here’s the links: | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Carl Frampton is hoping for a much-needed lift when he fights in his home city of Belfast for the first time since 2015 after a year that has seen him lose his WBA world featherweight title, miss out on fighting at less than a day's notice and then split from long-term mentor and promoter Barry McGuigan.
Frampton (23-1, 14 KOs) feels he has a renewed purpose under new trainer Jamie Moore and in another change has radically reduced the amount of sparring in training ahead of his featherweight bout against Mexican fighter Horacio Garcia (33-3-1, 24 KOs).
"Everything has changed," Frampton, 30, said about his training and preparation compared to what it was like with Shane McGuigan.
"I feel like that was the right decision for me at the time to move on with my career and now it's turning out that it is because I'm absolutely enjoying boxing.
"I just don't have as many niggles. I used to spar a lot, sometimes over 200 rounds per camp, and I just felt like it was a lot.
"I did enjoy sparring but you're still taking a lot of punishment and a lot of times I was having problems with, almost like whiplash, where you're knocked about for 220 rounds.
"I was having these niggles up around my neck, my shoulders, my back.
"We've reduced the amount of sparring and made it quality rather than quantity and it seems to be working, because I've done less than half the number of rounds I would normally spar but when I did my last 10 rounds I was flying, as fit as I've ever been. Frampton was beaten by Leo Santa Cruz and in doing so lost his WBA title in January 2017. Steve Marcus/Getty Images
However, Frampton denied that concerns over suffering from brain injuries in later life was the reason behind him halving his sparring sessions.
"People have made out that I've dropped the number of rounds I've been sparring to avoid problems after boxing but if you woke up as a boxer worrying about taking a punch to the head in sparring then you're in the wrong game. That's not something I'm worried about.
"But I did feel it was an excessive amount and there's no need to do it.
"Of course, I don't want to be walking around punch drunk and you can see that happening to fighters when they go on too long.
"Obviously I don't want that to happen to me but that's not the main reason, the main reason to reduce the rounds was to restrict the injuries so I could perform better."
As a result of his new regime, Frampton feels fresher ahead of his first fight with promoter Frank Warren.
"I'm flying," said Frampton.
"No injuries, no niggles, I've just done my last hard punching session and I'm feeling good, sharp, I'm excited.
"I genuinely feel rejuvenated. I know people are expecting me to say that but I genuinely feel that way. I've had a complete overhaul of everything." | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
An international team of scientists, led from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, have discovered an entirely new approach to the treatment of type II diabetes. The therapy involves the blockade of signalling by a protein known as VEGF-B and this prevents fat from accumulating in the ‘wrong’ places, such as in muscles and in the heart. As a result the cells within these tissues are once again able to respond to insulin.
In experiments on mice and rats, the scientists have managed to both prevent the development of type II diabetes and reverse the progression of established disease. The study is published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, where it is described as a breakthrough in diabetes research. The findings are the result of a joint effort by Karolinska Institutet, the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the Australian biopharmaceutical company CSL Limited, amongst others.
“It’s a great feeling to present these results,” says Professor Ulf Eriksson of the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at Karolinska Institutet. “We discovered VEGF-B back in 1995, and since then the VEGF-B project has been a lengthy sojourn in the wilderness, but now we’re making one important discovery after the other. In this present study we’ve shown that VEGF-B inhibition can be used to prevent and treat type II diabetes, and that this can be done with a drug candidate.”
Type II diabetes is normally preceded by insulin resistance caused by obesity. When this happens, the cells no longer respond sufficiently to insulin, which leads to elevated levels of blood sugar. Insulin resistance is related to the storage of fat in the ‘wrong’ places, such as the muscles, blood vessels and heart, although exactly how this relationship works is not fully known.
What scientists do know, however, is that the VEGF-B protein affects the transport and storage of fat in body tissue. This was discovered by Professor Ulf Eriksson’s research group in a study published in Nature in 2010. These theories have now been developed for a new study in which VEGF-B signalling was blocked in a group of diabetic mice and rats.
A total of four related studies are reported in the Nature paper. In one case, mice bred to spontaneously develop diabetes were given a drug candidate called 2H10, which is an antibody that blocks the effect of VEGF-B. The mice subsequently developed neither insulin resistance, nor diabetes. The team also crossed the diabetes strain of mice with one that lacked the ability to produce VEGF-B, and found that the offspring were protected from developing the disease.
In another two studies, the scientists took normal mice and rats that had not been specially bread to develop type II diabetes, and left them to develop the disease as a result of a fat-rich diet and the resulting obesity. In these cases, progression of the established disease was halted and reversed to varying degrees after treatment with 2H10.
“The results we present in this study represent a major breakthrough and an entirely new principle for the prevention and treatment of type II diabetes,” says Professor Åke Sjöholm, consultant in diabetology at Stockholm South General Hospital. “Existing treatments can cause many adverse reactions and their effects normally wear off. There is a desperate need for new treatment strategies for type II diabetes.”
Current treatments for type II diabetes normally involve initial dietary measures and/or pills designed to boost insulin secretion and sensitivity or to reduce glucose production. After a few years, such treatments eventually prove inadequate for up to 30 per cent of patients, who then require insulin injections. Type II diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions, and according to the World Health Organisation, is expected to afflict over half a billion people by 2030.
The drug candidate used in the study, 2H10, is a monoclonal antibody and is being developed by the biopharmaceutical company CSL Limited. Scientists from CSL contributed to the work and the company co-funded the study. Funding was also supplied by the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, the Frans Wilhelm and Waldemar von Frenckell Fund, the Wilhelm and Else Stockmann Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Research Council, the Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg Foundations, the Research Foundation of the Swedish Diabetes Association (Diabetesfonden), the Peter Wallenberg Foundation for Economics and Technology, and the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation.
Earlier this year, Professor Eriksson was awarded the Heart-Lung Foundation’s grand research grant of SEK 15 million (about € 1.7 million / $ 2.3 million) the largest in Sweden in the field of cardiovascular disease. The grant will be used to finance further research into VEGF-B. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Fedora 28 and GNOME 3.28 I should start my review with a disclaimer. I have been using Fedora with the GNOME desktop as my daily driver for about two years. For me, Fedora strikes the right balance between shipping the latest and greatest software and providing a stable operating system. Fedora is a test-bed for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and a pioneer when it comes to technologies like Wayland, SELinux, Firewalld and, dare I say it, systemd. Equally important, all these technologies are thoroughly documented.
I like Fedora better than I like the GNOME desktop environment. The GNOME desktop on my main PC has been customised quite a bit and there are only two GNOME applications I use regularly: Files and GNOME Terminal. For this review I have tried to stick with the default GNOME desktop as much as possible. In last week's newsletter we had an opinion poll about the vanilla GNOME desktop as provided by Fedora vs. Ubuntu's customised GNOME experience, and I want to share some of my thoughts on that discussion in this review.
Fedora editions
There are three distinct editions of Fedora 28: Workstation, Server and Atomic. This review is about the Workstation (i.e. desktop) edition, but I briefly want to mention the other flavours. The latest Server release is noteworthy because it introduces a feature called "modularity". Put simply, it is now possible to choose which version of certain applications you want to install. The Atomic edition is similar to Fedora Server but is more geared towards all things containers. I haven't tried either edition but I have heard people talking about them fondly. It seems Fedora has become a serious contender for servers, in particular if you are using Docker and Kubernetes. A year ago I would never have considered running, say, NextCloud on Fedora - if only because of its rapid release cycle - but now I am not so sure.
The latest release of the Workstation edition is interesting for a few reasons. Fedora 28 ships with the latest GNOME desktop (3.28) which has improved Thunderbolt support as one of its main features. For the first time it is also possible to install a number of proprietary software packages via Fedora's software centre. Other changes include improved battery life and the inclusion of VirtualBox Guest Editions (which makes it easier to run Fedora in VirtualBox).
Fedora Workstation is available for 32-bit and 64-bit architectures and the ISO is roughly 1.7GB in size. If you are running an older version of Fedora then you can upgrade your install via the software centre or the DNF package manager. The latest Fedora ships with version 4.17 of the Linux kernel (a release candidate - the latest stable kernel at the time of the release was 4.16.8) and the latest version of systemd (version 238).
Installation and first impressions
Fedora's Anaconda installer has seen some changes. The Btr file system is no longer available and the default file system is ext4 - I think this used to be XFS, but I could be wrong. User accounts are now created when you first boot into your system and there is no longer an option to set a root password. If you prefer using su rather than sudo, you can run "sudo su" in a terminal window and then "passwd root" to set a root password. Other than that Anaconda is still Anaconda: it works and it is quite fast, but the partitioning is scary.
Fedora 28 -- Partitioning with the Anaconda installer
(full image size: 134kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The first thing I noticed after I had created my user account was that the GNOME login screen didn't give me the option to use Xorg rather than Wayland. This worried me as there are a few things that don't work properly on Wayland yet. The Shutter screenshot application, for instance, is completely broken on Wayland. I can RDP to Windows machines in a Wayland session but there are small nuisances - using Alt-Tab to cycle through open applications on the remote desktop will cycle through applications on the local machine, for instance. It turns out that the option to choose which session to run is only disabled on the first boot - after rebooting my laptop the GNOME on Xorg session was available (GNOME Classic, a desktop session resembling GNOME 2, is available as well).
Fedora 28 -- A screenshot taken with Shutter in a Wayland session
(full image size: 259kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The GNOME experience
As already mentioned, Fedora ships with a largely vanilla GNOME desktop environment. The project obviously decides which applications are pre-installed and you get a Fedora-themed wallpaper. Other than that it is up to the user to customise their desktop. Fedora doesn't in any way prevent you from customising GNOME but it doesn't help you either. Applications such as GNOME Tweaks and Dconf Editor are not installed by default and you get just one pre-installed theme (Adwaita) and two wallpapers (you can get more wallpapers by installing the f28-backgrounds-extras-gnome package).
Almost all the pre-installed applications in Fedora 28 are GNOME apps. One good thing about GNOME applications is that they have got sensible names - it is obvious what applications such as Calendar, Contacts, Files, Terminal, Software, Maps, Photos and Videos are. Another common denominator is that the applications follow GNOME's design principles. There are no application menus and just a single toolbar with a few buttons. The aim is to provide a clean, consistent and distraction-free interface.
Fedora 28 -- GNOME's activities overview
(full image size: 962kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
One of the few applications that doesn't follow GNOME's design principles is Evolution. The e-mail client has an abundance of toolbars, buttons and configuration options. It also includes functionality that is already provided by other GNOME applications, such as a calendar, task list and contacts manager. Evolution is, however, nicely integrated with the desktop environment. For instance, events you add to GNOME Calendar will show in Evolution's calendar, and visa versa.
I found that there is an e-mail client available which does follow GNOME's design principles: Geary. It looks like Geary is no longer maintained and although the interface is pretty, the application itself isn't very functional. For instance, the window with settings for e-mail accounts was too tall to fit on my screen and lacked scroll bars. As a result some settings were effectively inaccessible. Geary was also the only application that froze during my trial.
Whereas Geary isn't quite ready for prime time, Photos has replaced Shotwell. Like other GNOME applications, Photos has a straight forward, clean interface. The application automatically retrieves image files from your Pictures directory and displays them in a grid. Right-clicking on an image gives you the option to edit the selected photo or to add it to an album. Like most GNOME applications, Photos has zero customisation options. There is no option, for instance, to display the structure of your Pictures directory. If your photo collection is organised in directories you will have to right-click on each and every image and assign it to an album. Good luck with that if you have thousands of photos.
To illustrate the point, below are screen shots of Shotwell and Photos. In Shotwell, I can easily select all the photos in a directory named alms_houses. In Photos, I have no way of displaying the same collection of images, unless I move each individual photo to an album.
Fedora 28 -- Searching for photos of alms houses in Shotwell
(full image size: 402kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Fedora 28 -- Searching for photos of alms houses in GNOME Photos
(full image size: 304kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
After exploring Photos a bit more I found that the application didn't display all my photos. For instance, Photos retrieved only five images of a directory containing 18 photos - the other 13 were missing. I wanted to compare the number of photos in my Pictures directory with the number of photos in Photos but alas, to keep the interface clean and simple Photos doesn't reveal the number of images the application is managing.
At this point I should mention Documents. As the name suggests, Documents is a document manager. Like Photos, it finds files of a certain type (such as PDFs and LibreOffice documents) and displays them in a grid, and it is possible to create collections of documents. I have made quite an effort in the past to use Documents. I used to even change the "title" and "keywords" tags in PDFs (using Exiftool) to get everything neatly organised. But then Documents failed me: new documents wouldn't be displayed and tags I had added or changed were suddenly ignored.
The default music player is Rhythmbox. Like Evolution, the application has a more traditional interface. To get a more GNOME-like experience I tried Music. As you might guess, Music tries to automagically retrieve music from the Music directory. At first, it didn't find any music files but after I had rebooted my laptop the application suddenly worked. Once Music was up and running I found the application to be very nice indeed. The application organises your music collection by album, song and artist and has the option to create playlists. That is all I need a music player to do, and in the case of Music I therefore appreciated the minimalist interface.
Fedora 28 -- GNOME Music
(full image size: 529kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The only non-GNOME applications in the latest Fedora are Firefox (version 59) and LibreOffice (version 6). GNOME does have its own web browser, called Web, but it is not pre-installed in Fedora. I tried Web and kept it as the default browser. It rendered web pages perfectly fine (Web uses the WebKit engine) and out of the box it blocks adverts and other nuisances, such as social media buttons designed to track you. Third party cookies are disabled by default and DuckDuckGo is the preferred search engine (Google and Bing are also available). It is nice to have a browser with sensible default settings. I was also pleased to find that Web can manage GNOME extensions without having to install an addon (in Firefox you need the GNOME Shell Integration addon).
Fedora 28 -- GNOME Web and Firefox
(full image size: 218kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
A final application I want to mention is Boxes, which is GNOME's application for running virtual systems. Compared with VirtualBox the interface is very minimalist but it has all the options I need and a few nice extras. For instance, when you create a new virtual machine you can now install various Linux and BSD operating systems without having to hunt for the relevant ISO image - Boxes will download the ISO for you and then create the virtual machine. Among the available ISOs is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. To install RHEL you do need to create a Red Hat Developer account, however, which involves handing over an excessive amount of personal data and agreeing to ridiculously long terms and conditions.
Fedora 28 -- Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux in Boxes
(full image size: 34kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Repositories
One of the headline features of Fedora 28 is the option to enable selected third party software repositories from within GNOME Software. Like many other distros, Fedora only includes free and open source software. To install various proprietary applications and codecs you can add third party repositories such as RPM Fusion via the command line. These third party repositories are provided by users and not endorsed or supported by the Fedora project.
When you open Software in Fedora 28 the new feature is clearly advertised and the repositories can be enabled with the click of a button. Alternatively, selecting "Software Repositories" from Software's menu will also let you enable (or disable) the new repositories. The third party software repositories are fairly empty at the moment: the only repos available are for Google Chrome (from Google's repository), PyCharm (from the Copr repos), NVIDIA graphics drivers and Steam (both from RPM Fusion).
Fedora 28 -- Managing software repositories in GNOME Software
(full image size: 259kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
I tried the new feature by enabling the Google Chrome repository and found it didn't quite work. When I tried to install the Chrome browser via Software I got a message to say that I needed to enable the repo I had just enabled.
Fedora 28 -- Software asking if the Google Chrome repository should be enabled
(full image size: 69kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
After double-checking that the repo was indeed enabled already I decided to hit the "Enable and Install" button. That resulted in an error: Software told me that Chrome couldn't be installed because the Google Chrome repo was already enabled. As with the Music application, the solution was "turning it off and on again" - after I had rebooted my laptop I could install Chrome.
Fedora 28 -- Software refusing to install Google Chrome
(full image size: 74kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
In general, GNOME Software felt a little buggy. Installing and removing software from the default repositories worked fine but Software failed to notify me of available software updates. A week into my trial the Updates tab in Software still showed that my software was up to date. Running "dnf update", however, showed that there were in fact 231 updates waiting to be installed.
Fedora 28 -- Software up to date?
(full image size: 334kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
As a final note on the repositories, Fedora includes the Linux Vendor Firmware repository. The repo provides firmware updates for your hardware, provided that the hardware vendor has made updates available to the excellent fwupd project. (Unfortunately, my Thinkpad X220 isn't on the list of supported devices).
Flatpak
Fedora's release announcement failed to mention Flatpak. The package format markets itself as "the future of application distribution" and has close ties with Fedora. I looked into Flatpak about a year ago and didn't find it all that useful. Flatpaks I installed worked fine but always use the Adwaita theme. Unless you use GNOME's default theme your Flatpak applications look rather out of place.
To install Flatpak applications you first need to add the FlatHub repository via the command line: sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo Once that's done you can install Flatpak applications via Software. I installed Gradio (an application to find and listen to on-line radio stations). As I expected, Flatpak applications still don't blend in with any custom theme you might have installed. As I am quite happy with the legacy way of application distribution I decided to remove Gradio and the Flathub repository. To my surprise, though, that didn't work. I could uninstall Gradio but I couldn't get rid off the Flathub repository. When I tried removing the repo in Software I was told that I didn't have permission to do so (and I wasn't prompted for my password). Running the command sudo flatpak remote-delete flathub resulted in another error: "Can't remove remote 'flathub' with installed ref runtime/org.gnome.Platform/x86_64/3.26".
Fedora 28 -- The Gradio Flatpak using the Adwaita theme
(full image size: 489kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Final thoughts
For this review I used Fedora Workstation with a vanilla GNOME desktop environment, and I tried to use native GNOME applications as much as possible. I found vanilla GNOME to be a mixed bag. There were many aspects I really liked but there also a few things that made me cringe.
Let's start with the positives. The documentation is quite good - it is well written and covers all the basics. I also quite like how GNOME handles notifications; they are displayed underneath the clock and clicking on the clock brings up a menu that shows recent notifications. The notification area is also used to display calendar appointments and what music is playing. At first I saw the notification area as an ugly, humongous monster but I grew to like it.
Most GNOME applications are pretty, and the absence of toolbars and buttons encouraged me to learn various keyboard shortcuts. After a few hours I no longer missed the minimise button on windows - using the Super-H shortcut is quicker and easier than clicking with the mouse on a minimise button. GNOME applications also use a pleasantly consistent work flow. For instance, applications such as Files, Music and Photos all give you the option to mark items as a "favourite", which in effect is a handy bookmarking system. Similarly, to perform a search in applications such as Files, Web and Software you simply start typing. It takes a little time to get used to but it soon becomes second nature. Having to use the Ctrl-F keyboard combination to do a search now feels a little slow.
That said, I don't buy into the "distraction-free" philosophy. The GNOME desktop certainly looks very clean - there is just one panel with a few items. Personally, though, I like to be able to open applications with the click of a button, and I like to see what applications I have got open at all times (whether via a dock or task bar). I can't get used to constantly opening the "Activities overview" to access applications, work spaces and the search menu. It feels like I am using a mobile phone desktop environment on a PC.
My main gripe with GNOME, though, are applications such as Photos. In Shotwell, I can instantly see how many photos I have. I can easily find images by browsing to the relevant directory. I can choose which directories photos are imported from, and if Shotwell's toolbars become too overwhelming I can simply hide them. GNOME Photos has stripped all these functions and assumes that I am happy to spend hours organising my photo collection in a new way, by adding them to albums. And then Photos doesn't even find images in the directory it is supposed to automatically retrieve images from.
Of course, this is my personal opinion, and it is more about GNOME than it is about Fedora. As I mentioned in the introduction, I like Fedora for its release cycle, package manager and because it is at the forefront of many new technologies. I work in a web hosting environment with many CentOS and CloudLinux servers, and Fedora seems a natural fit. Plus: GNOME can be tweaked.
As for Fedora itself (sans-GNOME), it seems Fedora 28 is another solid release. I upgraded one my PCs from version 27 to 28 without any issues. SELinux hasn't thrown any mysterious alerts at me yet. Updates are applied quickly and cleanly and just about all software I want to use is available. It is a pleasantly boring experience.
I also like where Fedora is going with the third party repositories. Fedora's project leader, Matthew Miller, recently talked on the Late Night Linux podcast about how Fedora is trying to find the right balance between software freedom and providing a functional system. He was unapologetic about the third party repos: " [...] being a theoretical, pure freedom distribution that doesn't actually work on anybody's hardware doesn't help anybody. " I very much agree and hope Fedora will add more third party repositories. At the same time I would like to see better integration of Flatpak repositories and applications.
Finally, I should mention that there are various Fedora spins. If you don't like GNOME, you have the option to install Fedora with the KDE, Xfce, LXQt, LXDE, MATE, Cinnamon or Sugar on a Stick desktops. * * * * * Hardware used for this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo Thinkpad X220 with the following specifications: Processor: Intel Core i3-2520M, 2.5GHz
Memory: 8GB of RAM
Wireless network adaptor: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205
Wired network adaptor: Intel 82579M * * * * * Visitor supplied rating
Fedora has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.4/10 from 501 review(s).
Have you used Fedora? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
LOS ANGELES — From "A Quiet Place" to "A Star is Born," studios backed more films with female leads in 2018, according to new research. Out of the top 100-grossing movies, 40 films had women in central roles as either the main character or the co-lead, according to the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. That represented an increase of eight films from the previous year and 20 movies from 2007. It is the highest percentage of female-driven films in 12 years.
Hollywood has been under public pressure in recent years to tell more stories that feature women and people of color. Some of that advocacy appears to be producing results; recent hits such as "Black Panther" and "Crazy Rich Asians" scored with audiences in part because they were inclusive.
Actresses from underrepresented groups still don't get the same opportunities as white actors, but data suggests that things are improving. Twenty eight of the top 100 movies of 2018 featured an underrepresented lead or co-lead, according to the report. That's a net gain of seven films from 2017 and a 15 film gain from 2007. Last year, black or African-American actresses had five lead or co-lead roles, three mixed race actresses had lead or co-lead roles, two Hispanic or Latina actresses had lead or co-lead roles, and one Asian or Asian-American actress had a lead role. There were ethnic groups that were virtually ignored. No Native women and women from the Middle East had leading roles.
The Morning Rundown Get a head start on the morning's top stories. This site is protected by recaptcha
Although Hollywood is widening its aperture to include more points of views and is promoting more movies with women and people of color, there's still room for improvement. The overall percentage of female leads in top-grossing films may have grown, but it pales in percentage to their share of the population and of the moviegoing audience. Women comprise 51 percent of the population in the U.S. and Canada and 50 percent of ticket-buyers. The same holds true with underrepresented groups, who account for 39.3 percent of the U.S. population. Moreover, Latinos and Asians account for a disproportionate amount of ticket sales.
Hollywood has also been accused of being ageist, particularly when it comes to actresses who often get shuffled off into grandmother roles when they are nearing middle age. To that end, researchers at USC looked at the number of protagonists that were 45 years of age or older at the time of theatrical release. Eleven of the 100 top grossing movies, a group that includes "Halloween" and "Ocean's 8," featured a female lead or co lead 45 years of age or older. That's more than double the number from 2017 when only five of the top-grossing films had a female lead who was 45 or older.
Change in Hollywood can only come with buy-in from the major studios that produce and distribute movies. The study found that each of the seven major studios had at least one woman of color in a leading role in 2018. All but three companies — Sony, Fox, and Warner Bros. — were near proportional representation to the U.S. population when it comes to movies with female lead characters. In terms of promoting films with underrepresented leads, the top performer was Sony, followed by Lionsgate, Paramount, and Universal.
"2018 offers hope that industry members have taken action to create content that better reflects the world in which we live, and the box office seems to have rewarded them for it," said Dr. Stacy L. Smith, founder and director of the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, in a statement. "This data shows us that it is possible for change to be achieved- companies must not grow complacent but continue the progress they have made in 2019 and in the years to come."
USC Annenberg's Inclusion Initiative examines diversity in media. The group releases several reports on representation of women and people of color in a range of fields, from movie criticism to directing. Smith also helped create the inclusion rider, which is a provision in an actor or filmmaker's contract that mandates that productions make a good-faith effort to hire underrepresented groups.
Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Congress got a significant boost in the Rajasthan after BSP chief Mayawati on Wednesday announced that she will extend her party support to Congress in forming the next government, if needed. In the assembly elections results announced on December 11, Congress has emerged as single largest party, ousting BJP in Rajasthan and Chattisgarh and emerged as the single largest party in Madhya Pradesh.
In the Rajasthan assembly elections, Congress won 99 seats out of 199 while BJP secured 73 seats. BSP and others won 6 and 20 seats, respectively.
The results of assembly elections in five states are crucial for the BJP-led NDA government as it opens the gate for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting began at the party’s state headquarters here on Wednesday to discuss the name of the next Rajasthan chief minister.The final decision will be taken by Rahul Gandhi based on the feedback.The name of the chief minister will be announced in the evening.
Follow live updates here:
10:00 pm IST After observers’ feedback, Cong chief will take final call: Sachin Pilot “It’s a normal procedure for Congress party legislators to give their feedback to observers. Observers give feedback to Congress president and then a final decision is taken. We’ve authorised Congress Pres to take a final view as to who will head CLP leaders of the party,” said Sachin Pilot.
7:37 pm IST Congress to decide on CM tomorrow Congress will decide on Rajasthan’s CM tomorrow.
7:35 pm IST Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot reach Governor’s House Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot and other Congress leaders arrive at the Governor’s House in Jaipur.
7:30 pm IST Congress MLAs leave for Governor’s House Congress leaders leave for Governor House.
7:00 pm IST Heavy security outside party office
6:40 pm IST Supporters of Gehlot, Pilot raise slogans Extremely charged atmosphere outside and inside congress office in Jaipur. Police deployed to manage crowd. Supporters of Gehlot and Pilot raising loud slogans.
4:40 pm IST Pilot, Gehlot meet at party office State Congress president Sachin Pilot and former CM Ashok Gehlot meet with newly elected legislatures at party office in Jaipur. State Congress president Sachin Pilot and former CM ashok gehlot in conversation at the meeting of newly elected legislatures at party office, in Jaipur. ( Himanshu Vyas/HT Photo )
12:20 am IST Independent MLA Thanagazi at Gehlot’s residence Independent MLA from Thanagazi Kantilal at Ashok Gehlot’s residence.
09:12 am IST Meena to support only if Gehlot becomes CM Independent MLA Ramkesh Meena from Gangapur says that he will give support to Congress party only if Ashok Gehlot becomes chief minister
09:11 am IST Independent MLA Meena at Gehlot’s residence Independent MLA Ramkesh Meena from Gangapur city also reaches Gehlot residence
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Enfin une preuve que le documentaire d’investigation existe toujours à Canal +. En effet, après de nombreuses hésitations, le reportage nommé « Flipper, un ami qui nous cache des choses » ne fera finalement l’objet d’aucun acte de censure.
« Les dauphins ont eu de la chance cette fois mais il ne faudrait pas qu’ils s’amusent à être à nouveau provocateurs » commente un des employés de la chaîne. La direction des programmes a en effet hésité à diffuser ce documentaire dans la mesure où, selon les informations données au réalisateur du documentaire, Yves Jardon, « on voit un dauphin qui se moque littéralement de plusieurs personnes, dont des hommes qui n’ont rien demandé. »
Ne pas froisser les dauphins
Mais d’autres raisons auraient pu pousser à retirer le reportage de la grille de diffusion. Selon plusieurs sources, Vincent Bolloré aurait déclaré, dans un comité d’entreprise extraordinaire : « Nous ne devons pas prendre le risque de froisser les dauphins. Ils sont un enjeu crucial pour le développement du groupe. »
Le reportage échappe donc de justesse à la censure et devrait être diffusé dans le courant de la semaine prochaine. Un autre documentaire, « Les Pygmées, l’âme du Cameroun », n’a pas eu cette chance cet été. Le film s’est vu refuser le feu vert du service juridique après avoir, selon plusieurs rumeurs, froissé M. Bolloré, qui « n’a pas apprécié de voir des Pygmées dans un documentaire sur les Pygmées. » | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The origin of the phrase “In God We Trust” is in the fourth stanza of “The Star Spangled Banner.” During the Civil War, the United States Mint began engraving the motto on its coins, testament to the justice of the Northern cause against the rebellious South. Close to a century later, on July 30, 1956, at the height of the Cold War and in response to “godless communism,” President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the law that turned “In God We Trust” into the official motto of the United States. Since then, it has appeared on all the bills produced by the U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
A special Haaretz poll conducted by Dialog in honor of the 242nd Independence Day of the United States finds that if America puts its trust in God, Israel puts its trust in America. A whopping 84 percent of the Israeli public believes that if the country faced an existential military crisis, the United States would come to its aid. Confidence that Uncle Sam is a friend indeed for a friend in need spans all sectors of the Israeli public, including, to a lesser extent, Israeli Arabs. For a nation schooled in slogans such as “a people who dwell alone,” “all the world is against us” and “If I am not for myself, who will be?,” the Israeli trust in the United States is both extraordinary and remarkable.
Open gallery view U.S. Vice President Mike Pence stands behind as U.S. President Donald Trump shows the proclamation he signed that the U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, December 6, 2017 Credit: Kevin Lamarque / REUTERS
A substantial majority of the Israeli public also believes that its alliance with the United States is eternal and will withstand the tests of time. 62 percent of Israelis believe the special relationship between the two countries will endure, compared to only 24 percent who fear it may weaken or collapse. Confidence in the U.S. is also shared across the spectrum, including Israeli Arabs, though they may see the strength of the alliance in a negative light. Only the ultra-Orthodox harbor doubts — and the gap is intriguing. Perhaps they refuse to put their trust in a government of flesh and blood, especially one of non-Jews, or they may carry stronger strains of the Jewish gene that views the treachery of nations as inevitable. Possibly they feel more comfortable with the U.S. motto “In God We Trust,” even if said God isn’t exactly the same.
Open gallery view Credit: Haaretz
The United States is the most admired country among the seven we presented, though it’s fair to say that it wasn’t much of a contest. Admiration for the U.S. neared 90 percent among all Jews but encompassed Arabs as well, albeit less enthusiastically. Next in line, surprisingly, was Argentina, possibly in a vote of sympathy for the early ejection of superstar Leo Messi and his team from the World Cup. China, we were surprised to see, came in third, ahead of France, and both are far more popular than Russia, despite the large Russian contingent in Israel and the close ties between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Arabs, for their part, have positive feelings for Russia and China — but their clear favorite is France. Contrary to what you might think, there’s no love lost between Israeli Arabs and Egypt or Iran either, which, when combined with Jewish disapproval, round out the bottom of our standings. Iran garners sympathy from very few Jewish Israelis.
Israel’s infatuation with America is also linked, of course, to personal contacts. 43 percent of Israelis have visited the United States, and 23 percent say they’ve done so multiple times. 17 percent of Israelis, including 30 percent of Israeli Arabs, say they have first-degree relatives — parents, children or siblings — living in the United States. 32 percent say that given the opportunity, they would like to emigrate — “move to and live” in the poll — to the United States. Young people are more attracted than their elders to the Land of Opportunity as are secular Israelis in relation to more religious ones. Only 5 percent of Haredim express any interest in moving to the goldene medina, as their forefathers dubbed it, and none of them with any great fervor, in line, perhaps, with the Rambam’s edict that going abroad is akin to idol-worship. Comparing the overall Jewish population with Israeli Arabs, the latter seem more devoted to the Palestinian principle of “sumud,” or attachment to the land. 69 percent of Israeli Arabs said they wouldn’t even consider moving to America, compared to only 31 percent equally unequivocal Jews.
Between Trump and Obama
The natural inclination is to link the trust of Israelis in America to their much-ballyhooed admiration for Donald Trump, but there are two flies in this ointment. First, similarly high levels of confidence in the U.S. were registered a decade ago, at the end of President George W. Bush’s tenure and the start — though not the end — of President Barack Obama’s. On the other hand, even if the poll shows a return to normally high levels of trust, rather than a dramatic change, a poll conducted last year by Pew Research showed that Israel is the only democratic country in which confidence in the U.S. president ability to handle world affairs remained unchanged following Trump’s election, and actually went up a notch or two.
Open gallery view Credit: Haaretz
The second, somewhat surprising reservation is that Israelis like Trump — far more, certainly, than his predecessor Obama —but less than what might be expected. All in all, 49 percent of the Israeli public views the president favorably, compared to 45 percent who don’t. It’s a respectable outcome for Trump, though less categorical than expected, unless one compares it to the dismal approval ratings for Obama: Only 19 percent view Obama positively, compared to 76 percent who don’t. This result also flies in the face of global trends, with the exception of countries such as Russia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
According to the poll —- and possibly as a direct consequence of Trump’s endless capacity for self-aggrandizement and his infamous approach to women — there is a distinct gender gap in Israeli attitudes to the president. 33 percent of Israeli men say they are very favorably disposed toward Trump, compared to only 15 percent of women. Religion is also a indicator: Only 48 percent of secular Israelis like Trump, compared to 60 to 70 percent of those who describe themselves as traditional, religious or ultra-Orthodox. The Arabs, as expected, can’t stand the U.S. president, with 65 percent saying they have no sympathy for him whatsoever. But they’re not too enamored with Obama either: Only 25 percent of Israeli Arabs say they like him. Among Jews, sympathy for Obama is low even among secular Israelis, but still double that of their more religious compatriots. Hareidi admiration for Obama is virtually nonexistent, a dislike that could stem from his liberal positions, if we’re being generous, but perhaps also from the color of his skin, if we’re not.
Unlike most of the world — and contrary to logic and known facts, one might add — the Israeli public believes that America’s position in the world has grown stronger under Trump. 53 percent of Israelis believe this is the case, compared to 23 percent who say America has grown weaker and 14 percent who maintain that nothing has changed. Perhaps things you see from here you can’t see from anywhere else, perhaps the Israeli public views Trump’s unfriendly spats with ostensible U.S. allies — some of which are also habitual Israel-critics — as a sign of machismo and strength, and possibly we view the world through the narrow prism of the nixing of the Iran nuclear deal, the transfer of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and Trump’s cold shoulder toward the Palestinians, to the exclusion of everything else.
Open gallery view Credit: Haaretz
In this regard, at least, Israeli expectations of Trump’s blueprint for the “ultimate deal” — which currently seems frozen in limbo — corroborate Palestinian apprehensions. 44 percent of the public expects the plan to be “pro-Israeli,” compared to only 7 percent who fear it might be pro-Palestinian and another 31 percent who think it will be balanced. Expectations of a deal tilted in favor of Israelis are especially high among Arab Israelis, many of whom self-identity as Palestinians.
All of this translates into high approval marks for Netanyahu’s overall handling of relations with the United States. 66 percent approve of the prime minister’s management of the special relationship, in appreciation no doubt for the close ties he’s forged with Trump and the decidedly pro-Israeli turn in U.S. foreign policy. There is a clear gender gap at work here as well, with men approving of Netanyahu’s American expertise far more than women. The emerging trends in this poll point to the possibility that the same overall gender gap that exists today in U.S politics is prevalent in Israel as well, with men leaning rightwards, and women the other way.
Open gallery view Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an event in honor of the 242nd Independence Day of the United States, July 2018 Credit: Ilan Assayag
The Great Jewish Diaspora
Netanyahu gets substantially lower marks, however, for his handling of relations with American Jews. Only 44 percent are happy with his performance, compared to 26 percent who aren’t. Given the tensions between Netanyahu and the Reform and Conservative movements, it comes as no surprise that 90 percent of traditional, religious and Haredi Jews approve of Netanyahu’s policies toward U.S. Jews, unlike secular Israelis — about 40 percent of the population — who disapprove by a 39 percent-34 percent margin.
Open gallery view Results of a poll of the Israeli public. Credit: Haaretz
Strikingly, however, the same secular Jews are far less interested than religious Israelis in seeing the majority of American Jews immigrate, or make aliyah, to Israel. Some 43 percent of secular Jews state that they have no special interest in them coming to Israel. Only 8 percent say they would “very much like” to see American Jews move to Israel en masse, compared to 21 percent of traditional Jews, 51 percent of secular and 63 percent of the most observant Haredim. Overall, an amazing 98 percent of Haredim support such mass immigration, even though the influx of such a large number of Jews with liberal views could deprive them of their kingmaker position in Israeli politics. It should be remembered, however, that Jewish sages ruled long ago that the commandment to settle in Israel is equal in importance to all the other mitzvot in the Torah combined.
The poll also contains some very bad news and some very good news for American Jews. The bad news is that a sizable 52 percent-37 percent majority of Israelis maintain that American Jews do not have the right to criticize Israel in public, a position once accepted on both ends but lately seen as anachronistic. Curiously, on this question women seem much more strident than men, with an unequivocal 59 percent-28 percent majority of women telling American Jews to keep their mouths shut, compared to an even split among men. Perhaps women adhere more than men to the rule that one shouldn’t wash dirty laundry in public and that arguments should stay discreet and in the family.
On the other hand, the non-Orthodox majority of American Jews will be gratified to learn that contrary to the monopolistic attitude of their own religious hegemony, a significant plurality of Israelis support religious pluralism and favor equal rights for Reform and Conservative Jews, 47 percent-30 percent. Support for religious equality reaches an overwhelming 71 percent-11 percent among secular Israelis but also encompasses those who identify as traditional. Religious Jews, on the other hand, including a near unanimous ultra-Orthodox community, oppose recognition of Reform and Conservative Jews. Given that the ultra-Orthodox are perennial members of Israeli coalitions, and that their position enjoys wide support in Likud and Habayit Hayehudi as well, it still seems that American Jews will have to await the messiah to achieve equality, in the Western Wall and elsewhere, unless they decide to immigrate en masse to get the job done themselves. Whichever comes first. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Biology and its sub-disciplines, like genomics, have become incredibly data intensive in recent years. Methods like high-throughput sequencing and mass spectrometry generate huge amounts of data that need to be processed in a reproducible and scalable manner. However, many workflows in bioinformatics and genomics are driven by a series of shell scripts that are, at least in some cases, manually triggered.
This begs the question: how can bioinformatics and genomics professionals utilize the tooling that they are familiar with or need (i.e., shell scripts that wrap a variety of specialized tooling) in a more sustainable, reproducible, and scalable manner? As it turns out, many are turning to Pachyderm as the answer!
Let’s take a common use case as an example. Suppose we want to do variant calling, which identifies variations in gene sequencing data, using tools from the Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK). A typical workflow for this might include a couple of shell scripts to (i) find variant likelihoods for various input files, and (ii) perform joint genotyping.
Of course you could manually get the input files to these shell scripts, trigger them, and gather the results, but this is time consuming and doesn’t scale to high-throughput scenarios. It’s also far from reproducible. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Kremlin announced that Putin will determine adequate response to US sanctions.
Russia will undoubtedly provide an adequate response to new US sanctions and it will make Washington officials 'feel uncomfortable', Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.
"We will certainly response adequately…and it will be determined in line with decisions adopted by Russian President [Vladimir Putin], Peskov told reporters commenting on the US move, which he described as "unpredictable and aggressive."
"There is no doubt that this adequate and mirror response will make the US side feel very uncomfortable as well," Peskov stressed.
The Kremlin spokesman added that Moscow regrets the US move to impose new anti-Russian sanction as it continues to destroy bilateral relations.
He noted that the sanctions were unpredictable and seemed aggressive, adding that Russia still hopes to build normal relation with the US government.
The Obama administration imposed earlier on Thursday a series of punitive measures against Russia, including the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and the closure of two Russian diplomatic compounds, in response to Moscow's alleged interference in US presidential elections.
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the ministry would make an official statement on Friday regarding the new sanctions.
"Tomorrow there will be official statements, countermeasures," Zakharova wrote on Facebook, adding that the move has complicated matters for the new US administration. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Save this for later
If the BAE Systems design wins the Type 31e bid it could deal a blow to British shipbuilding aspirations as company officials suggest exports could be built outside of the UK.
Speaking to Shephard, Kevin Joyce, international business development for naval ships at BAE Systems, said the company ... | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Pundits were far less diplomatic. Many found it astounding that American lawmakers could be so oblivious to the global consequences of their actions, and to the damage they were doing to the faith and credit of the United States. “The rottenness of modern Washington makes outsiders gasp,” wrote Simon Jenkins in The Guardian. “The pomposity of its architecture can no longer dignify the log-rolling, the gerrymandering, the lobbyists’ egregious power, the money sloshing everywhere and the partisan polarization that drips from every news program.”
Some of the more alarmed and outraged voices rose from China, the country holding the largest share of American debt. One commentary from China that attracted attention in Europe was by Liu Chang of Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, who called not only for the diversification of Beijing’s huge dollar holdings, but for a “de-Americanized world.” That, he wrote, would include “new international reserve currency that is to be created to replace the dominant U.S. dollar, so that the international community could permanently stay away from the spillover of the intensifying domestic political turmoil in the United States.”
From Athens — where an American default could have turned an unending economic crisis into catastrophe — Nikos Konstandaras wrote in the daily Kathimerini that Aristophanes, the master of ancient Greek comedy, “would have loved the idea of a group of lawmakers exploiting their position to abolish the state they are sworn to serve. For Greece’s ancient tragedians, the vain indifference, the ignorance of dangers caused by our character and actions, was familiar material.” The question, he added, was whether America is “the scene of comedy or tragedy.”
When the deal was reached in Washington last Wednesday, the world exhaled. But nobody believed it was over. “There is nothing more temporary than the defeats and victories in Washington,” wrote Le Figaro, the Paris daily. Even if civil servants are back at work for now, “America’s financial credibility is damaged and its democratic system has revealed to the world its gaping blockages.”
The questions abroad will continue; answers, however, are hard to find. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Ms. Wences once bragged to a friend, as they walked on school grounds just before a snowstorm, that her father was the one who sprinkled the salt crunching under their feet. Her father, Enrique, later told her not to talk about his work.
“He said, ‘You don’t want to be like me, mija,’” she recalled, using a Spanish abbreviation for “my daughter.” “I want you to go to school. I want you to do better than me.”
Mr. Wences, 43, said he was self-conscious that he did not finish high school.
It was a regret that would power him through seven-day workweeks for 25 years so that his daughters could get an education. One of the happiest moments of his life was when Yoselin called him from her car in the parking lot of Wake Technical Community College, where she was studying for an associate degree, to tell him that N.C. State had accepted her transfer application.
Ms. Wences said that if she got pregnant now, she would probably have to drop out of college.
“I’d feel embarrassed that the sacrifices that my dad made up to this point would be going down the drain,” she said.
Between 2007 and 2017, the population of Hispanic women of childbearing age in Wake County grew nearly 50 percent, drawn by a booming local economy. Yet the fertility rate for Hispanic women dropped by about 47 percent, according to Dr. Johnson. The rate for women who were not Hispanic dropped by about 16 percent in the same period, he said.
Birthrates tend to follow economic cycles. The fact that the American rate has not picked up along with the economy in recent years has puzzled demographers. In a survey late last year, the top reasons young women gave for delaying children involved money — children were simply too expensive.
But several young women interviewed for this article said that was not the case for them. Many came from large extended families with aunts and cousins who would care for a baby if need be. Many of those women had been raised by siblings in Mexico as their parents worked. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Trump defends Muslim ban, claiming police avoid ‘radicalized’ areas of Paris and London, and saying of US Muslims: ‘We love you. We want to work with you’
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump defended his plan to temporarily halt all Muslim entry to the United States on Tuesday, a proposal roundly condemned by fellow Republicans and met with horror by American Muslim leaders.
“We’re not talking about the Japanese internment camps, not at all, but we have to get our hands around a very serious problem,” Trump told Joe Scarborough on the MSNBC morning political talkshow Morning Joe, referring to the second world war-era camps where Japanese Americans were placed. Victims of those racist policies have since been apologized to and given reparations by the American government.
'I. Don't. Care': Trump brushes off horrified reaction to his Muslim ban Read more
Trump proposed the “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims’ entry into the United States on Monday evening, hours before a campaign rally on the USS Yorktown, a second world war aircraft carrier berthed near Charleston, South Carolina.
The statement came in response to a shooting in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people. The FBI is investigating the massacre as an act of terrorism inspired by Isis. Trump remains the frontrunner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Trump said critics of his plan to stop Muslims from entering the country “[have] been condemning practically everything I say and yet they come to my side”.
“The ones that aren’t on my side are down to about zero in the polls and aren’t going to go anywhere.”
Arguing in support of his plan, Trump repeated debunked claims that neighborhoods in London and Paris have become “so radicalized” that police refuse to go there.
“Paris is no longer the safe city it was. They have sections in Paris that are radicalized, where the police refuse to go there. They’re petrified. The police refuse to go in there,” Trump said, refusing to name specific neighborhoods in the city. “We have places in London and other places that are so radicalized that the police are afraid for their own lives. We have to be very smart and very vigilant.”
During his campaign, Trump has already said that he would support a database of American Muslims; would consider a special ID for Muslims; that police should surveil mosques; and that Muslims in Jersey City, New Jersey cheered after the World Trade Center fell.
The candidate appeared to invoke President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s second world war-era proclamations as support for his proposals.
“[The proposal is] not unconstitutional, keeping people out until we get a hold on what’s going on, Joe,” Trump said. Roosevelt started internment camps “because he had to do it,” adding: “Look, we are at war with radical Islam.”
The proclamations Trump referred to – Nos 2525, 2526 and 2527 – sent thousands of people of German, Italian and Japanese descent to internment camps in the United States. People of those ancestries were rounded up, arrested and investigated by the US. In addition, more than 15 countries in Latin America took up America’s offer to intern people of those nationalities living within their countries – and deported more than 6,600 individuals to the US, according to the National Archives.
Trump again cited his support for a controversial poll released in June by the Center for Security Policy, which claimed that many American Muslims support violent jihad to impose sharia law. The center’s founder and president is the prominent Islamophobe Frank Gaffney, who has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate speech in the country, as being “gripped by paranoid fantasies about Muslims destroying the west from within”.
As for specifics, Trump said that US customs and border protection agents would need to question people entering the country about their religion, and deny them entry if they people answered that they are Muslim. Trump said he would make exceptions to the “temporary” ban for leaders of Islamic countries, and said he didn’t believe such a policy would affect America’s diplomatic relationships abroad.
“We love you. We want to work with you,” Trump said, when asked for his message to American Muslims. “We want you to turn in the bad ones.”
Prominent Republicans from across the spectrum have condemned Trump’s proposals. Former US vice-president Dick Cheney said barring Muslims from entering the country “goes against everything we stand for and believe in”, in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
Fellow Republican candidates ran the gamut from outright denunciation of the plan to comparisons with their own plans. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson told the New York Times that immigrants should be registered and monitored, but not based on their religion. Kentucky senator Rand Paul was more nuanced in his criticism. A spokesperson told the New York Times that Paul’s campaign would “block visitors and immigrants” from countries with “known radical elements”.
Democrats were direct in their condemnation. Former Maryland governor and Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley called Trump a “fascist demagogue”. And Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton called the proposal “reprehensible, prejudiced and divisive”.
“This makes us less safe,” the candidate said on Twitter.
Trump’s latest proposal “sounds more like a fascist leader of the 40s than a man who is running to be the leader of a civilized nation like the United States”, said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in an opinion piece for the Guardian, suggesting a comparison between Trump and Adolf Hitler. Ahwad called on Republicans to condemn Islamophobia, as President Obama did in a rare Sunday evening address from the Oval Office. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Aspiring chef dies hours after making ultra-hot sauce for chilli-eating contest
An aspiring cook who challenged his friend to a chilli-eating contest died just hours later.
Andrew Lee, 33, had used a bag of home-grown red chillies to make a super-hot sauce.
The forklift truck driver, who had recently passed a medical at work, dared his girlfriend's brother to eat a spoonful - then ate a plateful himself. Shortly after he had a heart attack and died.
Andrew Lee made an ultra-hot sauce with homegrown chillis. The morning after he was found unconscious and paramedics were unable to revive him
Mr Lee took a jar of the sauce to his girlfriend's house last weekend, where he challenged her brother Michael, his family said.
His sister, Claire Chadbourne, 29, explained: 'They had a contest over who could make the hottest chilli sauce.
'Andrew had used chillies to make Thai dishes before but had never made anything this hot.
'My dad grew the chillies especially for Andrew. The contest was planned and he gave them to him.
'Andrew just ate it with a plate of Dolmio. It was not a proper meal because he had already eaten lamb chops and mash after coming home from work. I don't know if Michael ate the chilli sauce as well.'
But as he went to bed after the contest, Mr Lee, of Edlington, Doncaster, had complained of itching, she added.
The next morning, his girlfriend Samantha Bailey, a mother of four, found him unconscious.
She called an ambulance, but paramedics were unable to revive him. Mr Lee was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mrs Chadbourne added: 'He apparently got into bed at 2.30am and started scratching all over.
'His girlfriend scratched his back until he fell asleep. She woke up and he was dead.
'Who would have thought he could have died from eating chilli sauce? We don't know of anything else that could have caused his death.
'He was perfectly healthy and the post-mortem showed no heart problems.'
She added: 'He loved cooking for his friends and was a good cook. He always said he wanted to be a chef but didn't want to start at the bottom.
'He would do anything for anybody. He never held a grudge and loved fishing and computers.'
Mr Lee's mother, Pamela, 61, said: 'He had used chillies in cooking but never made a sauce like this before.
1'He tested the sauce after making it, stuck his finger in and went to wash it, saying, "Wow, that's hot."
'We don't know what happened to him. Something has given him a cardiac arrest and we can only put it down to the chilli sauce.'
Toxicology tests are under way to see whether Mr Lee had a fatal reaction to the sauce.
Attempts to develop ever hotter varieties of chilli pepper have been condemned by health experts, who warn of potentially lethal effects.
Mild adverse reactions can include burning eyes, a streaming nose and uncontrollable hiccups. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.
So if you've been sick, you know that intensive care is not something that doctors recommend lightly. Boris Johnson is clearly in danger, and that's a bad sign.
Johnson is in his mid-50s and hale enough to lead a country. If coronavirus can happen to him, a lot of us should be worried. And we are worried -- worried enough to endure things that just a month ago would have seemed preposterous.
FAUCI SAYS WORLD MAY NEVER RETURN BACK TO NORMAL AFTER CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK
Last week, Dr. Michael Ryan, a leader at the World Health Organization, announced that in response to the spread of this virus, authorities may have to enter people's homes and remove family members, presumably by force.
Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme: In most parts of the world, due to lockdown, most of the transmission that's actually happening in many countries now is happening in the household at family level.
In some senses, transmission has been taken off the streets and pushed back into family units.
Now, we need to go and look in families to find those people who may be sick and remove them and isolate them in a safe and dignified manner.
Just so you know, we're coming to your house, seizing your children and "isolating" them in a safe and dignified manner, whatever that means.
Now, that's not something under normal circumstances, officials casually drop during briefings. It is the kind of statement that might trigger violence. People don't respond well when you threaten to take their kids.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER
But Ryan said it like it was no big deal, and that's how the media treated it. His threat didn't make headlines in any of the major newspapers in this country. That's the kind of moment we're in.
So how long will this moment last? Well, on Friday, Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, predicted that the first in a series of lockdowns will go on until June.
Anderson Cooper, CNN anchor: One of the things that just concerns me -- it is not one of those immediate concerns, but, you know, this draws out through the summer and then the cold weather comes around, and then there's another wave of it. How do you, as a leader, think about this?
Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles: Early on, when people said, is this just going to be a few days or a couple of weeks? I said, no, I think it's at least two months. And I said, if we're successful in this, we can expect a second spike in the late fall or early winter. That's how viruses work.
We better steel ourselves for a second and maybe even third round of this. But we also need to be nimble enough to know we're not going to flip a switch one day and turn the economy back on.
A "second and maybe even third round" of lockdowns. That's a long time.
Former Obama official, Jason Furman, who is now an economist at Harvard, predicts the disruption may be even more severe than that: "We should certainly be prepared for a meaningful level of deliberate suspension of economic activity for the rest of the year."
Well, it would be nice to know that there's a good reason for all of this, and of course, everyone wants there to be a good reason, sincerely. Yet the arguments for a prolonged national lockdown are starting to sound strained.
In a much-discussed article on "Medium" recently, two academics from Pittsburgh argued that lifting the lockdown at all, even many months from now, would be negligent: "As long as a large majority of the population remains uninfected, lifting containment measures will lead to an epidemic almost as large as what happened without having mitigations in place at all."
Well, that sounds plausible when you read it. In fact, it sounds like science. But is it science? A large majority of the population remains uninfected, they say, but is that true? We don't know if it is true.
As of now, nobody can say what percentage of the American population is infected or has been infected. There haven't been large scale randomized tests conducted here. We don't even know when the disease first arrived in the United States. There's informed speculation that this strain of coronavirus has been here since late November or December.
Authorities traced the first confirmed case to January 15th in Washington state. An unnamed 35-year-old Chinese immigrant who landed in the United States after visiting his family in Wuhan wound up in a hospital outside Seattle. Apparently, he recovered.
Now, depending on how you count, the virus has been circulating among us for up to four months now. For most of that time, there was no systematic attempt to quarantine the population. How many Americans were infected over that period? Again, we don't even have a ballpark number for that. But the number could be enormous because the virus turns out to be much easier to transmit than we thought it was.
Nobody can say what percentage of the American population is infected or has been infected. There haven't been large scale randomized tests conducted here. We don't even know when the disease first arrived in the United States. There's informed speculation that this strain of coronavirus has been here since late November or December.
On Friday, you may have noticed, the CDC issued new guidance on mask use. The government now recommends wearing "cloth face coverings" in public. Why did they make that change? Because researchers are learning more about how this virus moves from person to person.
Scientists now believe the coronavirus can be transmitted by someone who shows no symptoms merely by speaking. Remember when they told you that hand washing was the key to staying safe? That recommendation was based on the belief that the virus lived mostly on surfaces. And that's not the case.
We're still not exactly sure how the virus is spread, but among some populations -- and this is interesting to know -- it appears to be astonishingly widespread. An article in the Italian media last Thursday, for example, described a blood drive in a village in Lombardy -- that's the northern part of Italy, the most infected part of the country. Of the 60 people who showed up to give blood, 40 tested positive for coronavirus. None had shown symptoms of it. None knew they had it.
Keep in mind that Lombardy has been strictly locked down by government orders since March 9th -- that's almost a month ago. Yet about 70 percent of this group got it anyway.
A report from Hong Kong in February suggested that a woman diagnosed with the coronavirus may have infected others 10 floors away in the same apartment building, even though she never came into contact with any of them. Health officials concluded the virus likely traveled through plumbing pipes to different apartments. And it wasn't a wild guess. In 2003, an outbreak of SARS spread the same way.
So it's starting to look like the coronavirus is more transmissible than we expected or we're told. The good news is it also seems far less lethal overall. People are still dying in large numbers. Not all of them are sick or old, and that's terrifying to watch.
But as the data trickle in, there's evidence that many infected people are not sick. Iceland has tested a larger percentage of its population than any country in the world. They've tested about 5 percent of all citizens. The United States, by comparison, has tested 0.3 percent.
A year from now -- and we should think about this -- how will all of us feel about the decisions we've made in the face of this pandemic? Is there a single person who sincerely expects the coronavirus itself will hurt more people in the end than the damage we're causing in our response to it? Probably not.
So far, about half those who've tested positive in Iceland have been completely asymptomatic. So given all of this, what is a wise response to this pandemic?
Historically, health officials have used quarantines to contain infectious diseases. Until now, a quarantine consisted of separating the sick from the general population and then doing everything possible to protect the especially vulnerable. In this case, that would include the elderly and immunosuppressed, among other groups.
We have a pretty good idea that targeted quarantines work. They've been used for centuries around the world. But that's not what we did. Instead, the United States and many other countries instituted mass quarantines in which governments shut down entire nations for long periods. That's never happened before.
Now, mass quarantine makes sense if you're fairly certain it will prevent mass infection. But are we certain of that? Well, despite what you might hear on television, we are not certain of that, still. In fact, there's some indications it hasn't been as effective as we'd hoped it would be.
Italy imposed one of the toughest lockdowns in Europe. Almost a month later, as we just told you, an overwhelming majority of at least one town has been infected with the virus anyway.
Now, it's possible to imagine that a mass quarantine might stop transmission of a virus. It might work if it actually separated people, if citizens were forced to stay in their homes and not have any interaction with other people. But we're not doing that in the United States. We never will do that here.
Too many Americans live alone, for one thing. People would starve to death. Instead, the directive we're living under is this: Stay home, except to buy food. The one place you can go is the supermarket, where, by the way, everyone else in your neighborhood has been this week.
From an epidemiological standpoint, this is lunacy. If you wanted to infect an entire population, you'd encourage everyone in a specific zip code to meet regularly in one enclosed location. It doesn't make sense.
Authorities must know it doesn't make sense. That's obvious. But instead of changing course, or fine tuning, they're doubling down, hoping that vehemence will compensate for bad science.
Coronavirus is not the only bad thing that's happening in America right now, horrifying as it is. We should never minimize the danger of this pandemic or minimize our obligation to respond to it wisely.
Here's the mayor of Los Angeles just last week:
Garcetti: If you've observed recurring violations of the safer at home order, please continue to let us know at coronavirus.lacity.org/businessviolation. You know the old expression about snitches, well, in this case, snitches get rewards. We want to thank you for turning folks in and making sure we are all safe.
So you just saw the mayor of our second biggest city offering to pay citizens to snitch on their neighbors, for, among other things, daring to go to work.
Working is one activity we've decided should not be allowed. Jogging, fishing, golf -- fine. Being employed -- a massive threat to public health.
We've decided that offices are somehow more dangerous than supermarkets -- far more dangerous, so no one has bothered to explain how. The result of this, by some estimates: More than 17 million Americans are unemployed right now. That's the highest number in the history of this country.
A year from now -- and we should think about this -- how will all of us feel about the decisions we've made in the face of this pandemic? Is there a single person who sincerely expects the coronavirus itself will hurt more people in the end than the damage we're causing in our response to it? Probably not.
Mass unemployment is almost certain to cause far more harm, including physical harm to the average family, than this disease. In 1967, two psychiatric researchers decided to rank traumatic life events in order of how profoundly they affected people's health. Stress can kill you, we know that, and they wanted to determine which kinds of stress were the most dangerous.
The doctors found that losing a job ranked high on the list of health degrading traumas. Joblessness came in well above death of a close friend, to put it in some perspective. If you ever found yourself unemployed with dependents to take care of, you understand this. Unfortunately, many of our policymakers don't understand. They've never been in that position. They never will be.
Our professional class doesn't have much interest in middle-class job loss or its consequences. We know that because they've essentially ignored it for decades, not to mention the family disintegration and the drug epidemic it has spawned.
So far, about 10,000 Americans have died from the Wuhan coronavirus. That number will rise, and it will likely include people you know. That's a tragedy. But it's not the only tragedy in progress in this country.
In 2018, more than 67,000 Americans died of drug overdoses. The year before, more than 70,000 died. That's more than the entire population of the towns most of us grew up in. And those totals are far lower than the real number, according to people who study the question.
The drug epidemic has permanently changed the demographics of this country. But for some reason, CNN has not kept a running tally of drug casualties on the screen. Why is that? Well, you know why. It's not their peer group. It doesn't seem real. They're not that interested. And the same thing is going on now.
If the coronavirus shutdown was crushing college administrators or nonprofit executives or green energy lobbyists, it would have ended last week. Instead, it's mainly service workers and small business owners who have been hurt, and they're not on television talking about what they're going through. You need to look closely to see their suffering.
Over the weekend, the head of Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration announced the calls to the state's mental health and suicide prevention hotline had gone from about 1,000 to 25,000 a day.
Calls to Indiana's addiction hotlines have risen dramatically as well. Reports of domestic violence have spiked in this country and in fact, around the world. In France, they rose 32 percent in a single week. Someday, we will get the numbers on the child abuse going on during this lockdown, and we'll all feel sick to our stomachs.
Once again, coronavirus is not the only bad thing that's happening in America right now, horrifying as it is. We should never minimize the danger of this pandemic or minimize our obligation to respond to it wisely. We've been saying that on the show for months.
No thoughtful person wants to reopen baseball stadiums tomorrow or book a cruise to Shanghai. But there has to be a more balanced course than the one we're on now.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
For most people, going to work cannot be more dangerous than buying produce at Safeway twice a week. And if it is more dangerous, tell us how it is more dangerous and be specific when you describe that. Otherwise, it's time to start caring about the entire population. Healthy people are suffering badly, too.
Adapted from Tucker Carlson's monologue from "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on April 6, 2020.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM TUCKER CARLSON | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Warren dropping out of the presidential race would solidify a one-on-one Democratic primary matchup between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, following former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's withdrawal from the 2020 race Wednesday morning.
The timing of Warren’s decision about the future of her campaign is unclear. She is currently at home in Massachusetts and does not have any publicly scheduled events until Friday.
Besides the question of whether to forge ahead in the race, there is another looming decision over who she would support, if anyone, in the event that she ended her campaign. Several allies outside the campaign said that it was not a given that Warren would throw her support behind fellow progressive Bernie Sanders.
“Elizabeth believes in her ideas and in the big, structural change that is badly needed to root out corruption in Washington and will decide what she thinks is the best way to advance them,” Lau wrote in the email.
POLITICO NEWSLETTERS 2020 Elections Unpacking the national conventions and the race for the White House. Sign Up Loading By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
As results from Super Tuesday states rolled in Tuesday evening, the mood inside the Warren team turned grim, with two staffers even sniping at each other on Twitter.
Others began referring to the campaign and her team in the past tense, with one talking about little girls one day carrying “the torch that Elizabeth Warren lit.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
【Aniplex+ Exclusive Merchandise】
This is a figure based on the artwork of Nisemonogatari Blu-ray/ DVD package cover.
Look at the happy looking Shinobu in a bathtub filled with donuts.
Detailed rubber duckies and the palm trees are also part of the charm.
Get yours today!
【Approximate Measurements】
Depth: 5 inches
Height: 4 inches
Width: 9 inches
Weight: 1.5 lbs
Available for the following territories: North America, Central America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Ireland | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
There's so much food and wine left over I now have to host another party.
488 shares | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Socially Ambivalent Penguin
excitedly tell a platonic female friend that you now have a girlfriend
she suddenly wants to have fun with you
these captions aren't guaranteed to be correct | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The California Supreme Court just rejected the government’s attempt to require a youth probationer, as a condition of release, to submit to random searches of his electronic devices and social media accounts. The trial court had imposed the condition because the judge believed teenagers “typically will brag” about drug use on the Internet—even though there was no evidence that the minor in this case, Ricardo P., had ever used any electronic devices in connection with any drugs or illegal activity, let alone ever previously bragged about drug use online.
EFF and the ACLU filed an amicus brief in the case back in 2016, warning that the search condition imposed here was highly invasive, unconstitutional, and in violation of the California Supreme Court’s own standard for probation conditions—which requires that search conditions be “reasonably related to future criminality.” We also warned of the far-reaching privacy implications of allowing courts to impose such broad electronic search conditions. We’re pleased that the California Supreme Court heeded our warnings and recognized the substantial burden this “sweeping probation condition” imposed on Ricardo’s privacy.
The court recognized that the probation condition would give Ricardo’s probation officers “full access, day or night, not only to his social media accounts but also to the contents of his e-mails, text messages, and search histories, all photographs and videos stored on his devices, as well as any other data accessible using electronic devices, which could include anything from banking information to private health or financial information to dating profiles.” And by allowing remote access to Ricardo’s online accounts, the condition would potentially allow his probation officers to monitor his communications in real time. According to the court:
“If we were to find this record sufficient to sustain the probation condition at issue, it is difficult to conceive of any case in which a comparable condition could not be imposed, especially given the constant and pervasive use of electronic devices and social media by juveniles today.”
The court noted, for example, that if it were to hold—as the California Attorney General argued—that any search condition facilitating supervision of probationers was “reasonably related to future criminality,” it might be obligated to uphold “a condition mandating that probationers wear 24-hour body cameras or permit a probation officer to accompany them at all times.”
This is a critical ruling. The search condition imposed in this case was not unique, but one that many juvenile probationers have been subject to in California in recent years, under the same unsupported reasoning that the trial judge offered here. The California Supreme Court’s decision not only resolves a split in the lower courts regarding the legality of such probation conditions, but it sends a clear message: probation conditions that have “a very heavy burden on privacy with a very limited justification” are not entitled to deference.
We applaud the California Supreme Court for recognizing the serious privacy invasion imposed by the search condition issued in this case and for striking down the condition as invalid. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Paris police have seized 60 tonnes of miniature Eiffel Towers that black-market vendors were hoping to sell to tourists.
The French capital is one of the world's top destinations, visited by about 29 million tourists a year, but with the holidaymakers comes an influx of bootleg souvenirs, from trinkets costing a few euros to fake Hermès scarves.
Police play a cat-and-mouse game with the mostly immigrant sellers who flood the top tourist sites, taking business from the authorised vendors and paying no taxes.
Police said on Thursday that the tin trinkets, brightly coloured and barely 8cm high, were seized on Tuesday from a warehouse near Le Bourget airport north of Paris. A woman of Chinese nationality was in police custody.
Authorities say Paris-based Chinese gangs import the trinkets from China and sell them on to other groups, which in turn control the sellers.
Hundreds of black-market sellers hawk their wares around the Eiffel Tower at the height of the summer season, say police.
Flyers are circulated encouraging tourists not to buy from street sellers.
Police said in a statement that they had also raided an office in Paris' central Marais district, where some 100 black-market sellers a day would buy replica Eiffel Towers to sell on. They seized over 150,000 euros in cash from the premises.
However, police are hindered by the inability of over-stretched courts to prosecute the waves of illegal sellers, many of whom come from Senegal and India.
When sellers are caught their goods are confiscated, but they are released because most are unable to pay a maximum fine of 3,750 euros ($5,000).
Few are sent back to their home country because of a bureaucracy plagued by delays, authorities say.
Reuters | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Photo Shows 'Affluenza' Teen Being Detained in Mexico, Officials Say He Had Farewell Bash Ethan Couch and his mother were arrested in Mexico.
-- Texas officials are convinced that Ethan Couch, the teen who killed four people in a drunken-driving wreck in 2013, fled the country with the help of his mother.
Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson detailed in a press conference Tuesday how Couch left the country and possibly violated his parole.
Anderson said Couch and his mother Tonya Couch drove their pickup truck across the border into Mexico. Anderson called it a planned escape.
Anderson did not give the specific date of the Couches alleged departure. Details about the farewell bash have not been released, but Anderson said that authorities learned from an interview with an unspecified source that it was "something akin to a going away party before they left town."
Authorities took that as evidence that such a move indicated some degree of premeditation, and Anderson said that it meant "what we had suspected all along had happened" -- that Couch and his mother were actively trying to avoid authorities.
Couch was picked up in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Monday at 6 p.m. local time along with his mother, according to a spokesman for the Jalisco state prosecutor's office. Both underwent a medical checkup and were transferred to immigration authorities. According to Anderson, the Couches are still in the custody of Mexican authorities and will be returning to the U.S. "shortly."
Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson said that Tonya Couch is expected to face charges of hindering apprehension which could carry a sentence of between two and 10 years behind bars. Ethan Couch already has a hearing scheduled on Jan. 19 to allow him to be treated as an adult rather than a juvenile. If he remains a juvenile in the eyes of the court, the longest sentence he could receive is four months in confinement.
Even if he is transferred to an adult court, however, the maximum amount of time that he will spend in jail is 120 days since the adult court is bound by the terms of the original probation. If that happens, he will then have to abide by the remainder of his original 10-year probation period and will likely have to wear tracking devices, Wilson said.
Couch's attorneys released a statement prior to the law enforcement press conference saying they have not yet heard from the Couches.
"We have seen the numerous media reports indicating that Ethan has been detained by Mexican authorities and we have heard that the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office and Sheriff have confirmed these reports to media outlets," attorneys Scott Brown and Wm. Reagan Wynn said in a statement.
"At this point, we have not had the opportunity to speak with our client and we do not anticipate being able to do so unless and until he arrives in the United States. Until we have more information concerning this situation, it would not be prudent for us to make any further public statement," they said.
Couch was convicted of four counts of intoxication manslaughter but was not sentenced to any jail time; instead, he was given 10 years' probation -- a punishment considered a mere slap on the wrist by critics, and one that outraged the victims' families. Part of his parole mandates that he regularly checks in with his parole officer and that he not drink alcohol for 10 years.
Couch's defense team, which included psychologist Dr. G. Dick Miller, argued that the teen suffered from "affluenza," meaning his irresponsible behavior and lifestyle were a product of his affluent upbringing and "profoundly dysfunctional" parents. Although lawyers in the case did not specifically use "affluenza" as Couch's defense, Miller used the term in his testimony as a paid witness for the defense.
A juvenile judge in Texas issued a "directive to apprehend" -- effectively a warrant -- for Couch on Dec. 11, but it is still unclear when he may have left the state.
Juvenile probation check-ins are typically monthly, Texas authorities said, but because local juvenile court system mandates that parole check-in records are not publicly released, investigators did not immediately know when he last met with a probation officer. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
14.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard
Advertisements
Of all the things Republicans hate, and they hate nearly everything, it is non-compliance with Israel’s agenda they regard as throwing Israel under the proverbial bus. They also hate any religious leader that fails to support their neo-conservative economic and social agenda. Recently, although Republicans love the Vatican’s support for opposition to equal rights for women and the LGBT community, there has been growing enmity over the Pope’s opposition to income inequality and anthropogenic climate change. The Pope finally went too far this past week when he failed to comply with Israel’s agenda that Palestine will never be a sovereign state.
When Pope Francis announced on Wednesday that the Vatican, as an independent sovereign state, would be signing a treaty officially recognizing the “state of Palestine,” it bolstered the growing international support for Palestinian sovereignty since negotiations have been paralyzed by Israeli obstinance. In fact, while Republicans and Israelis were claiming Papal betrayal and expressed outrage at his humanitarian sensibilities, Palestinian leaders celebrated the Vatican endorsement due to the Pope’s international standing and popularity.
Israelis are offended because Francis allegedly has a close relationship with Jews dating back decades, and because Christians, particularly Republican Christians, are crucial support for Israel’s continuing inhumane enterprises targeting Arabs in general, but Palestinians in particular. As a senior Palestinian foreign-affairs official, Husam Zomlo, noted, “The Vatican is not just a state. The Vatican represents hundreds of millions of Christians worldwide, including Palestinians, and has vast moral significance.” Official or not, the Pope’s endorsement does not grant Palestinian Statehood, but it was important not only from a religious leader, but from another sovereign State.
Advertisements
The idea that the Vatican is a “State” is lost on Republicans who regard the Vatican, and the Pope, as a powerful Christian ally to use as a legislative and judicial weapon against American women and the LGBT community. It is curious that Republican Representative Jeff Duncan (SC), a Christian hawkish defender of Israel, said “It’s interesting how the Vatican has gotten so political when ultimately the Vatican ought to be working to lead people to Jesus Christ and salvation, and that’s what the Church is supposed to do.” If Duncan is correct, and he is not; then why in dog’s name do Republicans use the Vatican for their un-Jesus-like political assaults on women and gays? Every time this new Pope announces Jesus-like policies, Republicans go ballistic and cry religious foul. Obviously, recognizing the Palestinian State as a means to expedite a peaceful resolution to the Palestinian homeland issue will go a long way toward peace in the entire region; it is another Christ-like approach by Pope Francis.
It is possible the Vatican move was partially in response to Netanyahu’s statement last March that as long as he controls Israel there will never be a Palestinian state because it is impossible under current conditions. It is likely he meant under current conditions of his newly formed neo-conservative Arab-hostile government. Netanyahu’s remarks inspired President Obama to “reassess” Washington’s longstanding rubber-stamp policy of defending Israel in international forums no matter its inhumanity and warmongering towards Palestinians.
Ever the optimist, in an interview with the pan-Arab news outlet Asharq al-Awsat on Wednesday, the President said he still looked forward “to the new Israeli government and the Palestinians, through policies and actions, to demonstrate a genuine commitment to a two-state solution.” After the Vatican announcement and Israeli response, it seems unlikely the Israelis are committed to any kind of solution that involves peace; particularly in light of recent threats by Netanyahu confidante and Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon to slaughter Palestinian Arabs and launch a nuclear strike on Iran.
While Palestinians were heartened by the Vatican announcement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the Pope’s endorsement was “disappointing” and that recognizing a Palestinian state “would not advance the peace process.” They are the same Israeli sentiments after last fall’s “wave of European Parliamentary resolutions” on Palestinian statehood to encourage Israel to go to the negotiating table and away from hostility and encroachment into Palestinian territory.
Israeli analysts claimed that the Pope’s recognition was even more painful than those of European nations. The editor of the “Times of Israel,” David Horovitz said “Even this philo-Semitic pope, this pope who cares about the Jews, even he doesn’t get it. Every time something like this happens, there’s this sense of anguish. Why don’t you understand? We want to separate from the Palestinians, but on terms that don’t threaten our security.” Horovitz is parroting the same weary Israeli line that everything threatens their security. If Israel was truly interested in “separating from the Palestinians” they would stop expanding settlements into Gaza and the West Bank and sit down with Palestinian leaders and negotiate a solution that does not decrease the walled-in reservation Palestinians are forced to live in.
As a sign that Israel will find any reason to complain about or oppose any support of statehood or a homeland for Palestinians like the one America and Great Britain created for Jews, some Israelis found a religious reason to claim Papal betrayal. According to a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Yossi Klein Halevi, the Pope could have had the common decency to wait to announce the Vatican’s treaty with “the Palestinian State” until after the Nostra Aetate celebration. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the official Catholic Church declaration absolving Jews of their “guilt” for killing Jesus Christ.
It is unlikely that many Jews, either in Israel, America, or elsewhere in the world feel the need for absolution over biblical mythos claiming their ancestors crucified another Jew. Israelis certainly have not asked to be absolved for the recent rash of Israeli attacks on Christians in Palestine and Israel, and perhaps that played a part in the Vatican recognition of the Palestinian State.
It is more likely that many Israelis are intolerant of any perceived opposition to their anti-Palestinian policy regardless their stated reasons; reasons that always include their right to self-defense. Mr. Halevi made that point very clear when he complained that the Pope prevented Israelis from celebrating being forgiven for killing Jesus Christ. He said, “Why not let us all savor that spiritual achievement? Why muck it up with politics? On the one hand, the Catholic Church has made profound progress in its theology toward the Jewish people and toward the Jewish return home. On the other hand, there’s this deep insensitivity here to the fears of Israelis that a solution will be imposed on us that could undermine our ability to defend ourselves in a radically unstable Middle East.”
First, no-one is forcing a solution on Israel just because they support or recognize that the Palestinian people believe they have a right to their own State; especially not recognition by the Vatican. It is noteworthy that a solution for a Jewish state was forced on the Palestinian people and despite being displaced their only request is to be recognized as an independent state. It is something that Israel, and Republicans, adamantly opposed and now that the Pope has announced the Vatican’s official recognition of a “Palestine State,” he has incurred the wrath of both Israel and Republicans who only hate the Pope when he cannot be used as a weapon. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
This story was recounted in a Texas Monthly article by Skip Hollandsworth that said the entire tale “was like an East Texas version of ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.’ ” Hollandsworth found a town that loved Bernie Tiede and didn’t seem to care much for the the late Marjorie Nugent. This quote in his article summed up the reaction from people around Carthage:
AD
AD
“From the day that deep freeze was opened, you haven’t been able to find anyone in town saying, ‘Poor Mrs. Nugent,’ ” said city councilman Olin Joffrion, a respected Carthage insurance agent. “People here are saying, ‘Poor Bernie.’ ”
Hollandsworth’s article was the basis for “Bernie,” a movie starring Jack Black as the mortician and Shirley MacLaine as Nugent. (Matthew McConaughey played the district attorney who prosecuted Tiede’s case.) “Bernie” was directed by Richard Linklater, best known for directing “Dazed and Confused,” “School of Rock” and the “Before Sunrise” series, and the script was written by Linklater and Hollandsworth. The film was given limited release in 2012. It received very good reviews, earning a score of 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but otherwise didn’t make a particularly big dent in the popular consciousness. (If anything, it was largely noted as one of those movies McConaughey made during his recent “Hey, Matthew McConaughey is making good movies again” revival.)
But even a relatively overlooked movie starring Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey is a movie starring Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey. That attracts some attention. A defense attorney in Austin named Jodi Callaway Cole, who saw the movie at a screening sponsored by Texas Monthly, said the movie raised some issues for her, and she eventually took on Tiede’s case. Linklater, who said he believed Tiede was given “an extremely harsh sentence,” gave Cole the $2,000 in prize money the film won at the South by Southwest Festival.
This week, a judge agreed to let Tiede out of prison. Tiede had been sexually abused, something that wasn’t brought up during the 1999 trial; psychiatrists now say that the shooting was not premeditated and that he had a “disassociated” episode relating to his earlier abuse. They also say Tiede doesn’t present a continuing danger to society.
AD
AD
Linklater testified on Tiede’s behalf this week and even offered to let Tiede live with him in Austin. (This last part is what has caused a surge in new interest in Tiede’s story, because Oscar-nominated writer-directors typically don’t invite convicted murderers to live in their homes.)
Tiede was released on a $10,000 personal bond and given several conditions, one of which is that he does indeed have to live with Linklater. (He also has to seek psychological help and he can’t have any guns.) The director who made a movie that helped free Tiede said he didn’t have any reservations about letting Tiede move in, according to the Texas Tribune. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Department of Justice sent out a memo last week with this arresting detail: Prosecutors around the country should consider coronavirus as a “biological agent,” and therefore charge certain acts related to COVID-19 as federal crimes of terrorism.
As a former U.S. prosecutor, I have no quarrel with the department’s being able to “make a federal crime” of the worst conduct that we may see with the virus. Among other things, it gives the country a hook to bring federal resources to bear on cases that for whatever reason may be difficult for states to bring. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
As 67 new Ebola virus disease (EVD) illnesses in Sierra Leone and Liberia pushed the outbreak total to 1,048 cases, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned about the risk of virus transmission from wildlife, especially fruit bats.
Along with new infections, 19 more deaths were reported in Sierra Leone and Liberia, raising the fatality count to 632, according to a Jul 19 update from the World Health Organization (WHO) that covers new cases reported from Jul 15 to Jul 17.
The WHO said the outbreak shows a decline in Guinea, which was the first country hit by the outbreak, the biggest and deadliest one of its kind so far. The country reported no new cases or deaths during the reporting period.
However the country's neighbors Sierra Leone and Liberia reported a steady rise in cases at a level that the WHO said was serious.
Sierra Leone situation
Sierra Leone reported 45 new illnesses and 9 deaths, lifting the country's total so far to 442 cases, 206 of them fatal. The country has for the first time more cases than Guinea, which has logged 410.
Gambia has sent a team of 11 healthcare workers to help Sierra Leone with its outbreak response, based on a call for regional collaboration made at an early July health minister's meeting in Accra, Ghana. The WHO added that the team will help with critical human resource needs, but the mission will also help boost preparedness in Gambia.
Meanwhile, Sierra Leone's religious leaders have criticized the government's management of the outbreak response, noting that a lack of information is fueling rural community resistance to medical help, Reuters reported today.
Bishop John Yambasu, head of the United Methodist Church of Sierra Leone and chair of an interfaith task group, said he was disappointment that the government hasn't declared a public health emergency, which he said would increase resources for outbreak response, according to Reuters. He accused the government of being too concerned about the political ramifications of declaring an emergency.
The country's health minister has said the outbreak is serious but hasn't reached emergency levels, Reuters said.
Liberia developments
Meanwhile, Liberia reported 22 more infections and 10 deaths to the WHO. The numbers boost the country's total to 196 cases, which includes 116 deaths.
The WHO said it, Liberia's health ministry, and its other health partners are assessing the outbreak response in each country to identify challenges and help set priorities.
A recently completed assessment in Liberia identified a number of gaps, including low coverage of contact tracing; persistent denial about the disease and resistance to response activities in the community; weak data management; inadequate infection and control practices, especially in outlying health facilities; and weak leadership and coordination at the subnational level.
The WHO said some of the challenges are driven by a lack of financial resources and human technical capacity. The agency added that authorities are mapping out the financial, logistics, and human resources needs as part of a national operational plan to battle the EVD outbreak.
Similar assessments are under way for Guinea and Sierra Leone, as well, the WHO said.
In other developments, elected officials in Liberia have voted to ask the country's president to declare a health emergency due to the country's EVD outbreak, the Daily Observer, a newspaper based in Monrovia, reported on Jul 18.
A motion passed by the country's Senate on Jul 17 orders its leadership to join with the country's House of Representatives in requesting the health emergency and asks that the government free up $1.5 million to help the health ministry battle the disease.
FAO caution singles out fruit bats
The FAO said today that although curbing human-to-human EVD transmission is the most important focus, it is working closely with the WHO to raise awareness about transmission risks from wildlife among rural communities that hunt bush meat to supplement their diets and income.
The agency said the communities risk future spillover from species that carry the virus, including fruit bats, some primates, and duikers—small antelopes native to sub-Saharan Africa.
Juan Lubroth, DVM, the FAO's chief veterinary officer, said in a statement that the group isn't suggesting that people stop hunting, because that wouldn't be realistic. "But communities need clear advice on the need not to touch dead animals or to sell or eat the meat of any animal that they find already dead."
He added that people in rural communities should also avoid hunting animals that are sick or behaving strangely.
The FAO, however, said fruit bats should be avoided altogether, because they are the most likely reservoir for the virus and can carry it without showing signs of disease. In West Africa, fruit bats are usually eaten dried or in a spicy soup, the group added.
Several governments in the region have tried to ban the sale and consumption of bush meat, but bans have been impossible to enforce and have prompted suspicion from rural populations, the FAO said.
Katrinka de Balough, DVM, FAO veterinary public health officer and Ebola focal point, said in the statement that mistrust, myths, and rumors are among the challenges in controlling the disease. She added that concerns are growing about the impact the outbreak might have on food security in some parts of the region, with some farmers afraid to work in their fields and some markets shut down.
The FAO said it has committed resources and has been working with partners to improve information about the disease using existing networks that include rural radio and agricultural extension services. It also added that it will work with governments to set up wildlife surveillance systems to more quickly detect the virus.
"Rural communities have an important role to play in reporting unusual mortality in the animal population, which is another reason that their collaboration is so crucial," de Balogh said.
Another step will be to assess the role of hunting, with an eye toward identifying healthier, more sustainable livestock production options that can provide more protein and income sources, the FAO said.
See also:
Jul 19 WHO update
Jul 21 FAO statement
Jul 21 Reuters story
Jul 18 Daily Observer story | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The first of 3 Spicks & Specks specials for 2020 will screen later this month.
This is a ’90s themed special with guests Tina Arena, Kram, Tom Gleeson and Anne Edmonds. And the beard.
Get ready to relive the music of the 1990s, in the first of the Spicks and Specks specials for 2020. Adam, Myf and Alan are joined by legendary singer songwriter Tina Arena, Spiderbait drummer and singer Kram and comedians Tom Gleeson and Anne Edmonds to head back to the time when the music was grunge, the teens smelled like spirit and the girls were spiced.
Denise Scott, Dave O’Neil and Scott Edgar lend a helping hand during Smells Like 90s Wardrobe, donning some eye-watering outfits. Dave Graney ‘n’ the Coral Snakes perform reimagined 90s hits for Look What They’ve Done To My Song Ma while The Final Countdown sees the competition hotting up as it leads to a nail biting finish.
Tina Arena finally finds out what it would be like in a mosh pit before closing the show alongside Kram, performing a 90’s classic.
7:40pm Sunday February 23 on ABC.
Related | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Everyone has experienced the moments of melancholy that hit us when we think too much about the past. Sometimes they are triggered by a conversation with friends, sometimes by a song or a smell or clearing out the boxes from underneath the bed. Thinking about the past is a natural and often perfectly healthy thing to do when we let the moment drift past and return wholeheartedly to our lives in the present. Unfortunately, that isn’t always easy to do, especially when events in the past feel like a dark cloud hovering over our current lives or if our present feels like a pale shadow of the life we used to lead. Sometimes, thinking about the past take over our present completely.
Dwelling on the Negative
Psychologists refer to dwelling on negative things, in the past or present, as ‘ruminating’. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema at Yale University conducted numerous studies on ruminating and discovered, perhaps unsurprisingly, that people who persistently focus on negative things are far more likely to become and remain depressed. It sounds obvious when laid out that way; how can dwelling on the negative not lead to depression and misery?
Unfortunately, over the years, the media has popularised the idea that the only way to deal with events in the past that have had a negative impact on our lives is to talk about them. Talk therapy and psychotherapies are predicated on the idea that digging into our past can explain our present problems and emotions, which can certainly be true if you have an unexplained issue or emotional problem. This does not, however, mean that talking about the past can resolve those issues or emotional problems; there is a world of difference between identifying a trigger from the past and dwelling on the events that caused the trigger.
Dwelling on the negative things that happened to us only serves to prevent us from moving forward into the future. They become excuses and ‘reasons’ not to make steps in the present to correct issues in our lives and, more importantly, reliving distressing or traumatic events in the past over and over again in our heads reopens the wound time and time again, making it impossible to start to heal.
Rose Tinted Nostalgia
Conversely, for many adults the past was a simpler and happier time. As we get older, often our friendships become more difficult to maintain and making new friendships seems to border on the impossible. For those that did not find a partner early in life or who do not have a family around them, memories of the past can be extremely enticing. Reminding ourselves of a time when we felt carefree and had an abundance of friends before people paired up and settled down, or thinking of a time we used to be successful in our careers before becoming sick or entering a period of unemployment can remind us that we are capable of living a life that held happiness or meaning.
It is difficult to accept that life changes – especially when those changes leave us feeling lonely or unfulfilled. Nostalgic memories of happier times are one thing, but when this turns to self recrimination for ‘allowing’ our lives to get off track or bitterness and anger about whatever it is that we feel derailed things, thinking about past happiness becomes just as dangerous as thinking about past trauma.
Leaving the Past in the Past
Many people do not realise that it is possible to stop thinking about the past. They will insist that they cannot stop the thoughts that pop into their head and are unable to prevent the periods of rumination that bring them down and stop them from moving toward a happier and healthier future.
It is very difficult to stop thoughts from popping into your head. It is, however, entirely possible to prevent yourself from dwelling on those thoughts or giving them space in your head. Acknowledging that you get to choose what you spend your time focussing on is the first step, after understanding how dwelling on the past is damaging you, to healing in the present.
When thoughts of the past pop into your head, consider the following:
Have I thought about this before? Did thinking about it then resolve anything in my present? If the answer is no, then thinking about the past could well be damaging and engaging in something to distract yourself from your thoughts instead. Make a list of activities you can do that do not involve thinking about the past and have this on hand.
Is there a current problem that needs to be resolved? If there is a current issue or problem, instead of dwelling on the things in the past that led to the difficulties you are experiencing, get into problem solving mode instead. Make positive plans to deal with the problem or seek help from professionals offering Cognitive Behavioural Therapies to help with adjusting your mind-set and finding solutions to current issues. CBT is proven to be extremely effective for helping people reclaim their present from problems and issues caused by past events, without spending excessive time discussing them.
Will thinking about this change what happened? The answer is, assuredly, a solid no. Accepting the bad things that happened in the past or the things that changed our lives in negative ways to create our current future is a powerful tool. Practising self compassion and treating ourselves with kindness and respect goes a long way to helping us move forward. If you would not constantly remind someone you care about of traumatic and terrible things that happened to them in the past, or bring up perceived mistakes again and again, you should not do this to yourself either. You are as deserving of care, protection and compassion as anyone else.
The past has only as much power as we choose to give it. It is not easy and it takes effort but the reward is the future you are giving yourself by leaving the past where it belongs. You have the power to choose – choose to reclaim your present and stop letting the past steal your future. If you feel like you need help and support, join our forums and chat rooms and find other people facing the same problems and struggles; we are stronger together.
(Visited 2,836 times, 1 visits today) | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Show full PR text
SwiftKey launches HD skin, five new languages and a longer free trial
New HD skin that looks sharp on big-screen phones
Introducing five new languages, Scandinavian layouts
Free trial period doubled for the holidays, to a month
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – SwiftKey™, the intelligent text prediction app for Google Android™ smartphones, received a significant update Wednesday that adds a new HD skin, UI improvements and five new languages.
The award-winning app, officially released less than three months ago and with over a half a million downloads to date, now has a refreshed HD skin that is optimized for screens of any size, its developers TouchType said.
TouchType's CEO Jon Reynolds said: "We've worked closely with UI experts to create a stunning high
definition skin for SwiftKey, and from the feedback we've already received, people are loving it.
SwiftKey brings an innovative solution to the problem of typing accurately on a smartphone, relying on powerful language technology to infer both the word a user is typing, and their likely next word. Using these techniques, SwiftKey users can skip whole words as they write, saving key-presses
TouchType said they were pleased to reveal a range of festive treats for SwiftKey users. For those who write in US English,
Wednesday's release improves language prediction quality and adds a keyboard layout without accented characters. For international users, the app now supports Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Danish, Norwegian and Polish, and has support for Scandinavian keyboard layouts.
"This new version of SwiftKey is just what our most passionate users have been waiting for," said TouchType's CTO, Dr Ben Medlock.
"We've listened to our users and delivered some fundamental improvements in time for Christmas.
We've also got some incredible new features in the pipeline, so users should join our VIP community to get early access to the exciting things ahead."
The new release comes just after TouchType won a prestigious Mobile Marketing Magazine award for SwiftKey's 2010 launch. "SwiftKey is, quite simply, one of the most innovative and useful apps we have ever seen," the judges commented, adding: "Genius – there's no other word for it."
SwiftKey is available on the Google Android platform as an unlimited, paid app for $3.99 and a free trial app, offering predictions for 31 days.
Readers can apply to join SwiftKey's VIP community at http://swiftkey.net/vip.
Current SwiftKey users should update their language modules to experience quality improvements via the app's settings menu.
See SwiftKey in action on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6poOrKoEf8
SwiftKey Version 1.1.74 Change Log:
- New HD skin with sharper graphics and font
- 14 languages now supported:
- New keyboard layouts:
QWERTY English (no accented characters on long-press)
QWERTY International (accented characters on long-press)
(AZERTY, QZERTY and QWERTZ also supported)
- New suggestions ribbon added in landscape mode for menu options (e.g. contact lookup in Gmail)
- Trial now lasts 31 days
- Various bug fixes, including:
Null Pointer Exception in resetTempLanguageModel
Fixed candidates disappearing with hard keyboard after sending a message
Added ç/Ç to AZERTY layout
Support for hard keyboard microphone key on Motorola Droid
Fix crash in QuickOffice | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Our new issue, “After Bernie,” is out now. Our questions are simple: what did Bernie accomplish, why did he fail, what is his legacy, and how should we continue the struggle for democratic socialism? Get a discounted print subscription today !
Draft cards weren’t the only cards set on fire during the 1960s. Back then, at least one young medical student also burned their membership card in the powerful physicians’ organization that some had nicknamed the “American Murder Association.” While the Vietnam War ended long ago, people are still fighting for the physical and financial health of the US public — and the body count continues to rise. Today, the American Medical Association (AMA) says it is the voice of American doctors. But it has long been a chief advocate of the country’s private health insurance system, which treats health care like a business and produces some of the worst health outcomes in the developed world. Over the years, the AMA has lobbied against the passage of Medicare, obstructed civil rights campaigns to integrate hospitals and fight racism within the medical profession, and blocked or watered-down reforms that would limit the power of the health insurance industry. Nowhere is the AMA’s intransigence more evident than in its nearly one-hundred-year-old opposition to publicly financed health care and especially single payer (Medicare for All, in today’s parlance). Yet in a surprising move last August, the AMA abruptly withdrew from a corporate front group that aims to stymie the Medicare for All movement. The benign-sounding Partnership for America’s Health Care Future consists of nearly sixty organizations representing private health insurers, medical device manufacturers, and pharmaceutical and hospital executives. “The AMA dropping out of the Partnership is very significant,” said Wendell Potter, a health industry executive turned whistleblower who regularly attended meetings in groups just like the Partnership. “It has to be seen as a big loss to the Partnership because the AMA is so well known and has been a reliable partner in years past.” That isn’t to say the Partnership has let up. Last month, the Washington Post reported that 50 percent of all political advertising in Iowa ahead of the Democratic caucus had been paid for by the Partnership. You can also see the Partnership’s influence in their million-dollar attack ads broadcast during the 2020 Democratic presidential debates and on the lips of Democratic Party insiders parroting Partnership talking points to “build on what’s working in health care” rather than fighting for transformative reform. So why did the AMA decide to leave? The AMA’s departure may have been an attempt to preserve its credibility in the face of a discredited health care system that it helped create and a response to mounting pressure within its own ranks. What we shouldn’t see it as is a surrender in the AMA’s war against health justice — a war it’s been waging for too long to quit now.
“AMA: Get Out Of The Way!” This past June, physicians convened for the opening session of the AMA House of Delegates at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago. The well-dressed guests and the plush accommodations could have been any business convention or a meeting of the Fortune 500. And then: raucous noise. Demonstrators, led by disabled activists from ADAPT and a contingent of senior citizens, marched into the Hyatt Regency conference hall chanting loudly. Having breached hotel security, the group made their way to the conference hall holding cardboard protest signs carved into the shape of tombstones. Now face-to-face with the stunned doctors, the protesters dropped to the floor to symbolize the roughly 39,000 people who die unnecessarily each year due to lack of health insurance. In front of a lectern splashed with the AMA logo, Susan Aarup, a disability rights activist, commandeered the meeting and proceeded to school the assembled professionals about how their health reform policies have negatively impacted her life. “I had to go to the pharmacy because of a bladder infection,” Aarup yelled. “When I got to the pharmacy I found out they cancelled my health insurance.” “That’s not right,” she said. “We need Medicare for All!” Simultaneously, five hundred doctors, medical students, nurses, and other health care activists converged outside of the annual meeting to deliver a simple message to the AMA: drop your membership in the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future. Support Medicare for All or get out of the way. “With AMA members comprising only 15 percent of physicians, they are not the voice of doctors anymore, and they definitely do not represent me or my fellow medical students,” Rush University medical student Alankrita Siddula told the crowd. “America has had enough, and Medicare for All will happen, whether the AMA is with us or not,” she said. Two months after the demonstration, the association left the Partnership. With its credibility on the line, the AMA’s withdrawal may represent a public relations concession to the protests. But it could also reflect strategic differences among members of the Partnership on the most effective way to kill Medicare for All. What we see from the history of the AMA’s lobbying efforts is that its success often hinges on manipulating the US public’s trust of physicians to first outright oppose bold reform measures and then harness incremental reforms like the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that actually strengthen market forces. The Partnership has made it clear that it will continue to oppose any reform option that seeks to expand government participation in health care. The AMA, in contrast, is opting for the appearance of open-mindedness, putting forward a slate of modest proposals to expand “access” to private health coverage under the ACA, which has also ensured more revenue for hospitals and physicians. “The AMA decided to leave the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future so that we can devote more time to advocating for these policies that will address current coverage gaps and dysfunction in our health care system,” AMA CEO James Madara told Politico after the announcement. Former AMA president Donald Palmisano put it more clearly. “I think we ought to put a stake in the heart of single payer,” Palmisano told the House of Delegates following the June protest. “We’ve done it before; we ought to do it again.”
A History of Exclusion The AMA was founded in 1847 as a guild whose primary mission was to protect the business interests of physicians (overwhelmingly white and male) against encroachment from adversarial medical practitioners, competing interest groups, and the government. The AMA portrayed its efforts to professionalize medicine as guided by American ideals like individualism and freedom. What went unspoken was the role that money played in the AMA’s policy decisions even when it came to opposing efforts that sought to ameliorate patient suffering. “The leaders of the American Medical Association saw early health care models — union welfare funds, prepaid physician groups — as a threat,” notes historian Christy Ford Chapin. “A.M.A. members sat on state licensing boards, so they could revoke the licenses of physicians who joined these ‘alternative’ plans. A.M.A. officials likewise saw to it that recalcitrant physicians had their hospital admitting privileges rescinded.” During the Jim Crow era, AMA leaders looked the other way when their Southern affiliates barred African-American physicians from becoming members. Their exclusionary policies helped grow the National Medical Association, a professional organization founded by black doctors that vocally supported single-payer health care when few physicians’ groups would even touch the issue. The AMA eventually managed to exert control at every level of the medical profession. A pamphlet distributed to doctors in 1953 summed up the group’s dominance: “The Association began helping you the day you entered medical school and continues to aid your practice and guard your freedom. Even if you are not a member, it is your AMA to a certain extent.” The public’s growing faith in doctors as the purveyors of scientific progress, meanwhile, endowed the AMA with prestige and credibility. Hospital administrators eagerly ceded control of medical care delivery to AMA doctors. Elected officials clamored to win the association’s support, afraid of paying a price for challenging the “voice of American medicine.” Simultaneously, the AMA inculcated in patients the idea that medical care is a transaction tied to the marketplace and not a right. In 1915, a group of progressive academics with the American Association of Labor Legislation (AALL) devised a plan to provide social health insurance for workers with the hopes of offsetting the physical and financial burdens associated with poverty and disease. The AMA briefly supported the AALL plan in New York, to be funded by contributions from workers, employers, and the state, but the association’s conservative wing reversed course in 1920. The first shot in the AMA’s war against single payer was fired that year when 90 percent of the House of Delegates voted to oppose “any plan embodying the system of compulsory insurance … provided, controlled or regulated by any state or the Federal government.” While the AALL plan won support from several interest groups, its prospects wilted because proponents placed too much emphasis on securing the backing of medical societies like the AMA instead of mobilizing workers themselves. More successful, writes Beatrix Hoffman in The Wages of Sickness, were employers and commercial health insurers, who amplified the AMA’s agenda by constructing their “self-interest as the public interest” in concert with one another, presaging coalitions like the Partnership. The movement for national health insurance picked up steam again after World War II as labor unions pushed a single-payer plan and Harry Truman declared “health security for all” a top priority of his nascent presidency. Two-thirds of the American public supported Truman’s proposal for a national health insurance program. An alarmed AMA stated beating the war drums. In 1948, it enlisted Campaigns, Inc., the world’s first political consulting firm, to lead the attack. Armed with a $5 million war chest amassed from $25 AMA membership fees, Campaigns, Inc. oversaw the delivery of 55 million pieces of propaganda, blending Cold War hysteria with nationalistic fervor that denounced single-payer health care as “socialized medicine.” At the same time, the AMA recognized the potential of the burgeoning private health insurance market to keep single payer at bay. “The Voluntary Way Is the American Way,” AMA doctors told patients. The campaign was “the largest political offensive ever waged against a single piece of legislation in U.S. history,” Chapin writes. By the early 1950s, the movement for a national health program lay in ruins. Not content to simply fight single payer, the AMA also provided cover for Jim Crow. It continued to justify its Southern medical societies’ discriminatory membership policies against African-American physicians as well as the association’s refusal to take a stand against segregated medical services, which threatened the health of millions of people. Speaking to doctors with the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) in 1966, Martin Luther King, Jr excoriated the AMA for perpetuating racism in medicine and abdicating its moral obligation to advocate for the right of all people to quality health care. “Of all the forms of inequality,” King said, “injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman because it often results in physical death. I see no alternative to direct action and creative nonviolence to raise the conscience of the nation.” On four separate occasions in the 1960s, physicians with the black-led National Medical Association marched alongside members of the MCHR and King’s Poor People’s Campaign to protest the AMA’s complicity with Jim Crow racism. At the same time, many of these progressive forces were battling to ensure health care for seniors and the very poor. By fusing civil rights with the human right to health care, Medicare and Medicaid supporters were able to put forward a moral argument that even the AMA found difficult to spin. Faced with the loss of millions of dollars in federal reimbursements, hospitals and the AMA conceded to these publicly funded programs at the zero hour. “After Medicare’s passage, the reputation of the AMA as a collection of compassionate experts laboring for the public good lay in tatters,” Chapin writes. Internal divisions within the AMA were further exacerbated when the organization’s own student section dissociated themselves from the organization over its refusal to support universal health care and civil rights. By the end of that decade, the association disavowed its discriminatory membership policies to save face. In recent years, the AMA has taken a more progressive stance on certain issues, calling for more diversity in medicine and standing up for immigrants with DACA status. But the AMA has never addressed King’s fundamental concern : the continuation of an unjust and inequitable health care system. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The 'polar vortex' hitting the U.S. with insanely-low temperatures has also offered the opportunity for some incredible photos — and now we've got some from Niagara Falls.
At the falls, where the temperature has been hovering in the low teens, Reuters photographer Aaron Harris took these shots of a partially frozen area of the U.S. side on Wednesday.
While there is some misinformation floating around, it's worth noting that the falls are not completely frozen over. You can see them flowing as usual on the live webcam.
Still, the photos are worth taking a look at. Enjoy: | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
There is, appropriately enough, a biblical quality to Craig Venter's account of the genesis of his quest to create life "from scratch". He dates his mission to 1968 when he was working in the frontline medical corps of the US army in Vietnam during the Tet offensive. He had tried, and mostly failed, to save hundreds of men from dying – it was M*A*S*H without jokes – and he felt he'd had enough of the horror of life. A champion swimmer, he determined to swim out into the South China Sea and not swim back. In the beginning, then, this mythology goes, the biologist was in the middle of the ocean, "surrounded by venomous sea serpents", preparing to meet his genome. It took a shark circling to wake him out of this suicidal fantasy.
"For a moment," he wrote in his 2007 autobiography, "I was angry that the shark had disrupted my plan. Then I became consumed with fear. What the fuck was I doing? I wanted to live…" Venter struck out for shore, now miles behind him, and when he arrived there it was if he had been reborn, like Crusoe, into a new fate: "I lay on the sand, naked, for what felt like hours. I was exhausted and relieved. I wanted my life to mean something; I wanted to make a difference. I felt pure; I felt energised."
For the last 40 years, that pure energy has driven Craig Venter to extraordinary heights. ("A doctor can save maybe a few hundred lives in a lifetime," he told his brother as he embarked on his scientific career, with a characteristic mix of hubris and chutzpah. "A researcher can save the whole world.")
Venter first came to international attention as the "rogue" biologist who attached himself to the painstaking $5bn, 15-year programme to decode the human genetic blueprint, "the book of life" Human Genome Project and announced to anyone who would listen he could do it much more quickly and much more cheaply with private capital (the distinguished scientists leading the global initiative were, he insisted, "the Liars Club": habitual fibbers about costs and deadlines).
He caused further outrage when he said he would not only beat that establishment club to the solution but patent the results. He eventually – arguably – made good the first part of that boast but, under pressure from President Clinton, gave up on the latter and agreed a joint declaration of the triumph with the official team in the millennium year, losing a fortune in the process. (Asked how he felt to have deciphered human life, Venter, who had designs on being "the first billionaire biochemist", replied: "Poorer.")
Not content with what was widely considered the landmark scientific achievement of our age, however, Venter then decided he would solve the crisis of climate change and ecological meltdown by discovering a biologically engineered source of energy. He set sail on his $15m yacht Sorcerer II on an unending voyage with the mission, along the way, "to put everything that Darwin missed into context" and map the whole world's genetic components. He dipped buckets into the Sargasso Sea and sent millions of primordial microbial lifeforms back to his labs for decoding.
As a development of that ongoing effort, last week Venter announced in the pages of Science magazine that his research team had – by putting together a living and replicating bacterium from synthetic components, inserting a computer-generated genome into a cell – "created life" in the laboratory for the first time. The experiment suggested the possibility of creating bacteria to perform specific functions: as producers of fossil fuels or medicines.
Venter, now 63, is nothing if not a showman and the publication of this revelation and the subsequent press conferences, have polarised opinion in ways with which he has long been familiar. Some authorities, and several newspaper leader writers, have claimed him as our Galileo or our Einstein; others have been notably underwhelmed.
Freeman Dyson, the physicist, captured the full range of academic sentiment in this dry appraisal: "This experiment is clumsy, tedious, unoriginal. From the point of view of aesthetic and intellectual elegance, it is a bad experiment. But it is nevertheless a big discovery… the ability to design and create new forms of life marks a turning point in the history of our species and our planet."
Venter's ego and his preference to turn to corporations rather than research foundations as funding partners (Exxon Mobil is a $600m sponsor of his energy experiments) do not tend to endear him to the academic establishment. Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University College London, and a perennial voice of reason, offered me this verdict on the biologist's latest headlines.
"It's very easy to mock Venter," Jones suggests. "When he first appeared, people just kind of sneered at him. But they stopped sneering when they saw his brilliance in realising that the genome was not a problem of chemistry but a problem of computer power. I don't think anybody can deny that that was a monumental achievement and he has been doing fantastically interesting things subsequently with marine life. Having said that, though, the man is clearly a bit of a prick and one with a serial addiction to publicity."
Jones is sceptical about the hyperbole of breathless headlines. "The idea that this is 'playing God' is just daft. What he has done in genetic terms would be analogous to taking an Apple Mac programme and making it work on a PC – and then saying you have created a computer. It's not trivial, but it is utterly absurd the claims that are being made about it."
Stewart Brand, the ecological visionary and creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, is more persuaded. Brand has got to know Venter over the last couple of years through John Brockman's Edge initiative which brings together the world's pioneering minds. What differentiates Venter from many of his peers, Brand believes, is that he is not only a brilliant biologist, but also a brilliant organisational activist. "A lot of people can think big but Craig also has the ability to fund big: he doesn't wait for grants, he just gets on and finds a way to do these things. His great contribution will be to impress on people that we live in this vast biotic of microbes. What he has shown is that microbial ecology is now where everything is at."
Brand once suggested that "we are as gods and we might as well get good at it". That statement has gained greater urgency with climate change, he suggests. "Craig is one of those who is rising to the occasion, showing us how good we can be."
On the publication of his autobiography, Venter also brought out another book, one that contained the six billion characters of his own genome. It was the first full catalogue of a single individual's genetic code and it revealed several secrets about Venter's inherited traits, notably a predisposition to heart disease and to Alzheimer's. What it has not so far rendered, however, is the chemical clue to his most vital characteristic: impatience.
The greatest scientists have shared the understanding that there is so much to do and so little time in which to do it. A decade ago, Venter was plagued by the sense that "as a civilisation, we know far less than 1% of what will be known about biology, human physiology and medicine. My view of biology is: we don't know shit". In the years since, he has perhaps done more that any man who has ever lived to add to that raw information. He did this initially by being the first to see that "the analogue world of biology" had to be transformed by the "digital world of the microchip". He is now, it is said, the largest private user of computer power in the world.
Just as he found his vocation in the sea, so he returns to it constantly for inspiration. He was a high school dropout, a prototype beach bum. "I was a surfer as a kid, I was a surfer in Vietnam, I am still a surfer," he likes to say. When a writer for Wired magazine caught up with him in French Polynesia a couple of years ago, Venter was wandering the shoreline, naked, fishing items of interest out of the water. At the time, he described his scientific quest by gesturing to the ocean: "We're just trying to figure out who fucking lives out there." Of the billions of answers to that particular question, Venter himself has now added another one: Mycoplasma mycoides J Craig Venter Institute-syn1.0. Life has his name on it. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A handgun I wanted to shoot for decades was the Coonan 1911-style .357 Magnum. This combination of power and function is uncommon in a relatively compact package. Recently, I finally had the chance to fire the Coonan. The Coonan isn’t a lightweight handgun but it is far more compact than the Desert Eagle .357 or a six-inch barrel revolver, as an example.
A .357 Magnum self-loader is pretty interesting. The .357 Magnum in its full-power loading is a powerful loading with excellent wound ballistics. The .357 Magnum is useful for personal defense, hunting, and recreational use. Wedding a rimmed revolver cartridge to the self-loading action isn’t an easy feat. It has been done with the .22 LR and the .38 Special, but the .357 Magnum’s recoil brings a host of other problems.
The 9mm Luger in its +P+ variants nips at the heels of the .357 Magnum, at least in the usual four-inch barrel variants, and the .38 ACP Super is even stronger than the 9mm by perhaps 100 to 150 fps with the best class of loads. However, none equal the legendary 1,400 fps 125-grain JHP .357 Magnum load.
After years of attempting to get the .38 Special and 9mm Luger small bore cartridges off their feet, we finally had a loading with excellent wound potential and penetration in the 125-grain .357 Magnum. The Federal 125-grain JHP is still a great all-around duty and personal defense load. The problem with the load is that weapon wear takes its toll on small parts in the revolver. The load also kicks a lot.
The Coonan is designed to accommodate the .357 cartridge and does so with reliability and accuracy. The handle is longer than the .45 ACP 1911 because the .357 Magnum cartridge is longer than the .45, but it is also thinner. The grip should not challenge most hand sizes.
The pistol isn’t as heavy, long, or tall as it first appears, and only a bit larger than the .45 ACP 1911 Government Model. The pistol weighs 42 ounces. The extra weight of the Coonan helps control the recoil of the .357 Magnum cartridge. The pistol is well finished, with stainless steel construction and excellent overall fit of the slide to the barrel and barrel to the slide.
The controls are straight up 1911, with the slide lock, magazine release, and slide lock safety operating crisply. The grip safety properly locks the trigger and when depressed releases its hold on the trigger about midway into its travel. The sights are high visibility types that offer a good sight picture. The stainless steel magazine holds seven cartridges. The Coonan is a robust design that resembles other 1911 handguns and some of the parts interchange. The long ejection port of the Coonan is very distinctive. The trigger isn’t a standard straight-to-the-rear 1911 type but hinged in a manner similar to the Browning High Power.
I have fired the Coonan extensively and find it an impressive handgun. I have fired the Federal Cartridge Company 125-grain JHP and the 180-grain JHP as well as the 158-grain Hydra-Shok. Results have been good. Firing from a solid bench rest at a long 25 yards, the pistol has exhibited several 2-inch five-shot groups. The Hornady Manufacturing 125-grain Critical Defense has also given good results.
The five-inch barrel makes it shorter than a six-inch barrel revolver, but there is no cylinder and barrel gap. As a result, the Coonan develops higher velocity than expected. This velocity gain is a great advantage over the revolver.
The .357 Magnum Coonan demonstrates greater velocity with the same bullet weight than any .357 SIG loading—with the same weight bullet and load, it will outperform the average six-inch barrel .357 Magnum revolver. As an example, I have a medium-power loading I use often consisting of the Hornady 125-grain XTP bullet and a modest charge of Titegroup powder. This loading breaks about 1,250 fps in a four-inch barrel revolver with modest recoil. It is a good practice load.
While powerful, it isn’t as powerful or hard hitting as the full power 1,450 fps load. In the Coonan, this load exhibits 1,450 fps with modest recoil. So, we are getting the legendary Magnum performance with approximately .38 Super recoil. On the other hand, a handload using a heavier charge of medium-burning powder easily breaks 1,550 fps from the Coonan.
The Coonan isn’t just a .357 Magnum self-loader; it brings back the performance of the original .357 Magnum. If you are a hunter, the Federal Cartridge Company 180-grain load breaks 1,200 fps from the Coonan, an excellent choice for deer-sized game. For boar, load the Hornady 180-grain XTP to 1,200 fps for deep penetration.
For personal defense, the Coonan is about as fast into action as a Government Model .45. Practice is demanded, and so is careful load selection. Leather selection is important. For home defense, no handgun is too large to fight with, and the Coonan is an excellent handgun for those willing to master the piece.
The Coonan really shines as a field and hunting handgun for those that appreciate an instant second shot and the fast handling of the 1911 design. The pistol is fast on target to the first shot, but recoil is such that fast follow-up shots are not in the class with the .45 ACP. And that is ok. The Coonan is a specialized handgun that is not for everyone. But for those willing to practice hard and master the piece, it is a formidable handgun. As for myself, I am glad I had 30 years of experience with other 1911 handguns before tackling this one.
Have you ever owned or fired a Coonan .357 Magnum? What was your experience? Share your answers in the comment section.
[bob] | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
It was a remarkable live-TV moment. During Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, reporter Griff Jenkins was at the scene of an anti-Trump demonstration in DC where a fire had been set in the street. Suddenly, a young boy [maybe 10-11] stepped up to say that he “kind of started the fire.”
When Jenkins asked why he started the fire, the boy, who identified himself as “Carter,” said “because I felt like it and I’m just sort of saying, screw the president.”
A bit later, Charles Krauthammer said there’s a “whiff of ISIS” to the way parents are exploiting their children in this say. Said Tucker: “The idea that you would implicate your children in your political activism, you’d be out on the street at 9:30 at night. It’s demented.”
FOX NEWS REPORTER GRIFF JENKINS: We’re outside the National Press Club. You can see the police presence. There are signs thanking President Obama. Obviously, tt’s mostly peaceful now. A fire broke out just behind us. There is a fire over here. We’ll show you where that was. The ashes now just sort of starting to simmer right in the middle of this. Excuse me one second. This fire was started. In fact, this young man, you are participating in the fire. What’s your name? BOY: My name’s Carter and I actually kind of started this fire. JENKINS: So why did you start that fire, Carter? BOY: Uh, it’s Carter. JENKINS: Sorry. Why did you start that fire? BOY: Because I felt like it and because I’m just saying, screw our president. . . . CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Incidentally, can I say a word about that kid who was setting the fire? TUCKER CARLSON: That was bizarre. CHARLES: Yeah, but wouldn’t you love to be that kid? Parents who take you out on a winter night and they encourage you to set fires? I’m sure it would have appealed to the anarchist in you. But it tells you how completely weird the parents and the other people out there are. They are the same people who show up at the IMF meetings, at World Bank, the Occupy Wall Street. You ask them why are you out there, they are completely incoherent. What did that woman say? There are Nazis upstairs at the National Press Club. I mean, these people ought to be medicated. TUCKER: I think some of them are. But the idea that you would implicate your children in your political activism, you’d be out on the street at 9:30 at night letting your eight-year-old set fires is demented. It says a lot. CHARLES: It’s got a whiff of ISIS to it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
In early 2014, Microsoft started providing Office 365 users with the option to secure their accounts with multi-factor authentication. When signing in, folks have to respond to a phone call, text message, or phone notification after entering their password. The feature has since worked on PCs and smartphones, but when Office came to Android tablets, support was absent.
According to the identical changelogs accompanying the latest versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for tablets, that has changed.
What's new: Multi-factor authentication for Office 365 accounts.
Support of Mobile Application Management with Microsoft Intune. This enables IT administrators to (1) restrict copying of company data from managed Office apps to personal apps, (2) enable app level encryption, (3) enforce an app level PIN, and (4) selectively wipe managed apps and related data on a device.
Bug fixes and performance improvements.
This effectively opens up all three Microsoft Office tablet apps to a subset of users who previously went without. And considering the sensitive circumstances under which many users fire up Office, this is for the best. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
I'm sure during this time of great uncertainty, I'm not the only one who feels like they could use a confidence boost! If you've been wanting to up your makeup skills (and end your confusion once and for all), join me this Sunday at 2pm for Makeup Made Easy!
I'm celebrity makeup artist Melissa Murdick (@MakeupByMelissaM on Instagram), and aside from painting some of Hollywood's leading ladies like Selena Gomez, Tamera Mowry, and trans pop star Kim Petras, I also run a website called www.ThePrettyFix.com where I teach everyday beauties like you how to do makeup for the real world! I am also the current makeup instructor at the Los Angeles LGBT+ Center's Trans Lounge.
The goal of this class is to teach you ALL the basics of makeup in one easy-to-follow, comprehensive class. By the end of class you'll know:
* The only 4 things you need to know how to do when it comes to makeup
* The essential makeup products you need to have in your collection
* Exactly how to apply all of the basic makeup products like a pro to create a great full-face look
(foundation, concealer, powder, brow pencil, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, blush, & lipstick)
*Where to go from here!
This class includes a full demonstration on a female trans model and has a live Q and A with me at the end! Come armed with all of your makeup questions!
I am offering this class completely free of charge during this difficult time for everyone. If you would like to make a donation the option is available and greatly appreciated, but absolutely not required. I can't wait to see you all there! | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
I dag er pakker til en verdi under 350 kroner fritatt fra moms og toll, men det blir det slutt på fra 2020.
Posten tar i dag betalt 158 kroner i gebyr for å fortolle pakken for deg. Det gebyret kommer til å bli lavere når den såkalte 350-kronersgrensa forsvinner, skal vi tro Posten.
Gebyret på 158 kroner går til dekke kostnadene til blant annet registrering, rapportering og den fysiske håndteringen av pakken. I dag må kunden bare betale dette gebyret om pakken har en verdi mellom 350 og 3000 kroner.
I 2017 ble betalt 88,5 millioner kroner for såkalt «forenklet fortolling».
John Eckhoff er pressesjef i Posten. Foto: Birger Morken / Posten
Vil tjene penger på noe folk ønsker
– Vi har ikke noe ønske om å ta betalt for noe folk ikke vil ha, vi ønsker å tjene penger på det folk faktisk ønsker, sier pressesjef John Eckhoff i Posten.
Han sier at Posten nå jobber for å finne en enklere måte å fortolle pakker.
Likevel er det en rekke oppgaver Posten, og andre selskaper som leverer pakker, er lovpålagt å gjøre. Derfor er det ikke realistisk å fjerne gebyret helt.
– Prisen for forenklet fortolling kommer ikke til å ligge på 158 kroner i 2020. Vi jobber med å finne en billigere løsning, men det er også avhengig av andre enn Posten, sier Eckhoff.
Forenklet fortolling Ekspandér faktaboks Forenklet fortolling innebærer at den som leverer pakken, tar seg av betaling av toll på dine vegne. Dette gebyret innebærer mer enn bare den faktiske betalingen av toll, det er også registrering av pakken, rapportering til Tollvesenet og den faktiske håndteringen av pakken. Eksempler på hva noen av distributørene tar betalt for forenklet fortolling: Postnord: 205 kroner UPS: 180 kroner Posten: 158 kroner DHL: fra 197 kroner FedEx: 2,5 % av den totale tollen og mva., eller 100 NOK (det største beløpet av de to).
Må betale uansett
Siden det ble kjent at regjeringen ville fjerne 350-kronergrensa, har det blitt spekulert i om det er mulig å unngå å betale tollgebyr når du får noe fraktet inn i landet. Det er det ikke.
Du kan for eksempel fortolle varene privat, direkte til Tollvesenet, men distributøren vil fortsatt ta betalt for blant annet registrering, håndtering og rapportering.
Dermed vil du måtte ut med et gebyr, også om du velger å betale selve tollen direkte til Tollvesnet.
Posten ville vente på EU
I 2021 skal EU etter planen innføre en felles internasjonal løsning, hvor det blir mulig å betale merverdiavgift (moms) direkte i nettbutikkene.
Posten tror denne nettbaserte løsningen gjør oppgavene med fortolling lettere, og at det hadde vært lurt å vente med fjerningen av 350-kronersgrensa.
– Postens innspill var å vente til EUs felles løsning for innkreving av moms direkte i nettbutikken er på plass i 2021, men andre aktører ville ha vekk 350-kronersgrensa så fort som mulig, sier Eckhoff. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
President Trump's announcement Monday that the U.S. is designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization comes as no surprise to intelligence professionals like myself who have known for a long time the pure evil of the Iranian regime.
The information the U.S. government has on their illicit activities is clear: Iran is the largest exporter of terrorism in the world.
US TO DESIGNATE IRAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARD A TERRORIST GROUP
I’ve personally witnessed that terrorism first hand. During the “surge” in Iraq, I was deployed with the 82nd Airborne Division to a combat outpost just outside of Sadr City where a few hundred of us occupied a small building within the city for nearly 15 months. During one of the most volatile years in Iraq, our unit defended our outpost from regular enemy attacks and a constant bombardment of rocket fire and mortars.
Being a constant target of regular attacks, we had to watch the horror of fellow soldiers dying right in front of us. Many brave soldiers lost their lives fighting that year and even more were wounded, and are still having to live with those scars today. The reality was that during those times we weren’t fighting Al Qaeda, we were fighting Iran.
Much of the turmoil we see around the world is a direct result of the actions of the IRGC and state sponsorship of terrorism by Iran.
The IRGC was pulling the strings for those attacks on our outpost and directly authorizing and planning attacks on American soldiers in other parts of the country as well, using their many proxy forces to carry it out.
Furthermore, much of the turmoil we see around the world is a direct result of the actions of the IRGC and state sponsorship of terrorism by Iran. From conflicts in Syria and Lebanon to Yemen and Venezuela, Iran’s proxy groups that fall under the purview of the IRGC are covertly involved in terrorist operations that escalate chaos in support of their broader agenda. More specifically within the IRGC, a small branch of rogue elements known as the IRGC-“Quds Force,” led by none other than Major General Qasem Soleimani, exports terrorism and funds their operations through illicit activities including Illegal arms sales, front companies, and the drug trade.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Defense officials know that Iran’s IRGC designation as a terrorist group is long overdue. The designation, however, is a bold move by the administration and proof that the president is willing to take risks to stop the Iranian state-sponsorship of terrorism from spreading further. Senior U.S. officials have previously steered away from such action, despite recommendations by rank and file defense and intelligence experts, because those senior officials worried about a tit-for-tat scenario playing out on the world stage. If we went after their military or diplomats, they would go after ours.
For those of us who have literally lived through the evil of the Iranian regime, though, it is past the point where we can sit back and do nothing. President Trump and the administration must never forget the Iranian regime was responsible for the deaths of Americans and if we let them continue unchecked globally, the Iranian regime will be responsible for many more.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM BRETT VELICOVICH | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
We’re in the midst of Upfronts week, a period of time when television network executives announce their programming schedule for the upcoming year to their advertisers and the media. For the 2018-2019 season, there were several pilots ordered that featured South Asian talent.
So far, 10 have been ordered to series (!), 6 have sadly definitely not been picked up, including Hannah Simone-starrer “The Greatest American Hero” on ABC and an Indian-American family comedy called “Pandas in New York” on CBS (here’s hoping the talented actors get scooped up on other projects real quick!).
Three pilots (Janina Gavankar’s untitled comedy on FOX, Lilly Singh-starrer “Bright Futures” on NBC, Kosha Patel-starrer “False Profits” on ABC) remain in contention for a few more days before the final decision.
Here’s our breakdown of what you can expect to see on your screen next:
1. “I Feel Bad”
Starring: Sarayu Blue, Paul Adelstein, Madhur Jaffrey, Aisling Bea
In this comedy, Blue is the lead, which itself is a huge change from the usual family sitcoms we are used to seeing on TV. Based on a successful blog of the same name, Emet (Blue) is a hard-working mother, wife, daughter who is struggling to be perfect at it all and also balance her career. In learning to be perfect, this modern family woman realizes its only normal to actually be imperfect. “I Feel Bad” hails from producers Aseem Batra (“Scrubs”), Julie Anne Robinson, and Amy Poehler (“Parks and Recreation”).
“I Feel Bad” will premiere this fall on NBC, airing at 9.30/8.30c on Thursdays.
2. “New Amsterdam”
Starring: Ryan Eggold, Freema Agyeman, Anupam Kher, Janet Montgomery, Tyler Labine
Medical dramas are taking over our TV. This one focuses on an ensemble of doctors at New York City’s oldest public hospital. The institute’s new medical director disrupts the system by breaking apart the bureaucracy, telling his team to focus solely on exceptional treatment and patient care. They tackle Ebola patients, cancer and immigration storylines, and this is just in the pilot. Bollywood actor Kher joins the cast as a series regular (his first for a primetime American show), playing Dr. Anil Kapoor, one of the older and more rigid doctors at the hospital.
“New Amsterdam” will premiere in the fall on NBC, airing at 10/9c on Tuesdays.
3. “Manifest”
Starring: Josh Dallas, Melissa Roxburgh, Parveen Kaur, J.R. Ramirez, Athena Karkaris
In this “Lost”-like high-concept drama, when a plane safely lands after a turbulent journey, for the passengers of the flight, no time has passed. However, in reality, its been over five years. The show will look at how some of these passengers, including siblings Ben and Michaela Stone (Dallas, Roxburgh) deal with their new chance at life while figuring out the mystery behind their ‘disappearance.’ One of these passengers is also Saanvi (Kaur), a brilliant medical researcher who, after the tragic flight, learns that her work has caused medical breakthroughs that she must deal with.
“Manifest” will premiere in the fall on NBC, airing at 10/9c on Mondays.
4. “The Enemy Within”
Starring: Jennifer Carpenter, Morris Chestnut, Raza Jaffrey
A gender-reversed “The Blacklist,” “The Enemy Within” is being touted as a spy-chasing and thrilling drama. Erica Shepherd (Carpenter) is ex-CIA and now, the biggest traitor this country has seen. However, in order to catch a notorious criminal, the FBI enlists her help to track him down. Jaffrey plays Ali Ziai, an FBI agent who is an expert with interrogation techniques that focus on empathy and not intimidation.
“The Enemy Within” is slated to premiere on NBC in early 2019
5. “The Red Line”
Starring: Noah Wyle, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Vinny Chhibber, Aliyah Royale
Three Chicago families’ lives converge in the wake of a mistaken shooting. From acclaimed producers @ava and @GBerlanti comes the powerful story about finding hope in tragedy, #TheRedLine coming to #CBS. pic.twitter.com/TypyIbSEUy — The Red Line (@TheRedLineCBS) May 14, 2018
In CBS‘s timely event series, a white cop accidentally shoots a black doctor to death in Chicago. What follows is the emotional aftermath through the lens of three families connected to this tragedy. Chhibber will play Liam, a quick-witted and openly gay high school teacher who’s straight-forward methods are helpful to Daniel (Wyle) and his daughter Jira (Royale) after her mother’s untimely death. The pedigree is high on this one because it hails from uber-producer Greg Berlanti (The CW’s Arrowverse) and Ava DuVernay (“A Wrinkle in Time”).
6. “God Friended Me”
Starring: Brandon Michael Hall, Suraj Sharma, Joe Morton, Javicia Leslie, Violette Beane
In this CBS dramedy about faith and hope in the modern age, Hall’s Miles is an athiest and a podcast host who friended on Facebook by God. He doesn’t know what to make of it or of the many strangers who hit him up with messages he doesn’t know how to handle. Unintentionally, Miles becomes an agent of change in the lives of those around him. Sharma plays Rakesh Sehgal, Miles’s coworker and best friend, who uses his hacking skills to help Miles figure out who is behind the God account.
7. “Murphy Brown” (straight-to-series)
Starring: Candice Bergen, Jake McDorman, Nik Dodani, Faith Ford
The #MurphyBrown adventure begins 😱 A post shared by Nik Dodani (@nikdodani) on Apr 6, 2018 at 5:35pm PDT
A 13-episode straight-to-series order was given to this show, a revival of the original “Murphy Brown,” which aired 30 years ago and ran for 10 seasons on CBS. Bergen plays the titular investigative journalist and news anchor. The revival is set in present-day and the entire cast has returned for it. Dodani, however, is a new addition. He will play Pat, the social media director at Murphy’s new show, he is tasked with bringing her to the 21st-century journalism upgrades.
8. “Whiskey Cavalier”
Starring: Scott Foley, Lauren Cohan, Vir Das, Ana Ortiz, Tyler James Williams
ABC‘s inter-agency action dramedy stars Foley and Cohan as FBI agent Will Chase (code name Whiskey Cavalier) and CIA’s Francesca Trowbridge (code name Fiery Tribune), respectively. After a series of misadventures, the two become leaders of a secretive and powerful team to perform covert operations across the world. Das, an Indian comedian, will star in his first American primetime drama as Jai Datta, an FBI agent.
“Whiskey Cavalier” will premiere on ABC in early 2019.
9. “The Fix”
Starring: Robin Tunney, Adam Rayner, Mouzam Makkar, Merrin Dungey, Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje
Hailing from famous attorney Marcia Clark, this upcoming legal drama on ABC stars Tunney as Maya Travis, an L.A. lawyer who flees the city for a more peaceful life after losing a high profile trial. Eight years later, the same celebrity criminal is facing another murder charge and Maya returns for another chance at justice. Makkar, who recently starred in NBC’s “Champions,“ will play Loni Kampoor, the lead attorney of the current trial.
“The Fix” will premiere on ABC in early 2019.
10. “Roswell, New Mexico”
Starring: Jeanine Mason, Nathan Parsons, Michael Trevino, Karan Oberoi, Tyler Blackburn
#Roswell, New Mexico is coming soon to The CW! pic.twitter.com/P33o4gg8Zy — Roswell, New Mexico (@CWRoswellNM) May 11, 2018
Reboot alert! The CW is bringing back “Roswell,” which aired on WB and UPN from 1999-2002, but with an immigration twist. This one centers on Liz Ortecho (Mason), the daughter of undocumented immigrants and a jaded medical researcher who returns to her home of Roswell, New Mexico, to discover that her childhood crush is actually an alien. Oberoi will play Noah Bracken, a charming and devoted husband who realizes his wife is hiding a big truth from him. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A legal challenge to Canada's new passenger bill of rights from a group of airlines is "ill-founded" and should be dismissed, according to the country's attorney general.
In a pair of court filings, lawyers for the federal government and the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) say the government will fight air carriers' attempt to overturn rules that beef up compensation for travellers subjected to delayed flights and damaged luggage.
In a motion to the Federal Court of Appeal earlier this month, Air Canada and Porter Airlines Inc. along with 15 other airlines and two industry groups argued the new regulations exceed the agency's authority and contravene the Montreal Convention, a multilateral treaty.
As of July 15, passengers can be compensated up to $2,400 if they are bumped from a flight and receive up to $2,100 for lost or damaged luggage. Compensation of up to $1,000 for delays and other payments for cancelled flights will take effect in December.
The issue came to the forefront after a 2017 incident in which two Montreal-bound Air Transat jets were diverted to Ottawa because of bad weather and held on the tarmac for up to six hours, leading some passengers to call 911 for rescue.
John McKenna, who heads the Air Transport Association of Canada — one of the applicants in the case — has called the new compensation grid "very high" and the new rules "outrageous," claiming they will trigger higher air fares.
Passenger-rights advocates say the rules do not go far enough, arguing the criteria for monetary compensation are tough to meet as passengers would have to present evidence that is typically in the hands of an airline.
The rules impose no obligation on airlines to pay customers for delays or cancellations if they were caused by mechanical problems discovered in a preflight check — walking around the aircraft before takeoff looking for defects — rather than during scheduled maintenance, which involves more thorough inspections required after 100 hours cumulatively in the air.
AirHelp, a Berlin-based passenger-rights company, has said the number of issues categorized as outside an airline's control amounts to a long list of ways to avoid compensating passengers.
Canada's transportation regulator says it will argue the appeal should be dismissed should the court choose to hear it. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
THE CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLY on gender equality will meet today for the first in a series of discussions around the issue of gender in Irish society.
It will be the fifth such assembly to convene since the project’s establishment back in July 2016, with previous assemblies taking place on issues including climate change, managing an ageing population, and abortion.
The assembly consists of 99 members of the public from across a variety of demographics, including age, location and gender – each tasked with reviewing and analysing the issues before recommendations are made.
A number of experts and professionals from a variety of disciplines, including health and childcare, will present to the assembly in the weeks to come with a view to it then publishing a report in six months’ time.
TDs from across the political spectrum will then review the recommendations, and the Government can decide on whether to act on them.
Issues around gender have risen to the top of the political debate in recent years with data showing women are, on average, paid less than men, face issues when trying to access healthcare, and are less likely to be promoted than men.
Of the 531 candidates registered to contest the upcoming general election, just 162 are women, although this represents a slight increase on the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, on 10 January, two Cork students were awarded the BT Young Scientist Award for their project examining how gender stereotypes become apparent in children as young as five years old.
Related Read €10.3 million in funding announced for migrant integration and gender equality in the workforce
Last summer, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that women and men are far from equal. “We fall very far short of that and the current pace of change and the current rate of progress is too slow,” he said.
Varadkar said at the current rate, it could take many generations before women and men in Ireland are “truly equal”.
Former secretary general of the European Commission Catherine Day will chair the assembly over the coming months.
Day, who will open the assembly with an address to members today, sits on the board of the Institute of International and European Affairs along with the European Movement Ireland.
Today is the first in a series of weekend meetings with the next one falling between 14 – 16 February.
#Open journalism No news is bad news Support The Journal Your contributions will help us continue to deliver the stories that are important to you Support us now
Once the citizens’ assembly is complete, an all-party committee will consider its recommendations and report them to the government. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
When asked during the Feb. 11 Democratic debate if there would be any limit on the size of government if he were elected president, Sen. Bernie Sanders quickly veered into a list of problems that, he believes, the United States faces.
"Of course there will be a limit," he said, "but when today you have massive levels of income and wealth inequality, when the middle class is disappearing, you have the highest rate of child poverty of almost any major country on Earth. Yes, in my view, the government of a democratic society has a moral responsibility to play a vital role in making sure all of our people have a decent standard of living."
For this item we will focus on his childhood poverty claim.
In July, Sanders earned a Mostly False for making a similar claim, but in that instance he was more definitive, saying, "We have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth." In this instance, he changed it to "almost any major country."
Clearly many poor countries have a higher childhood poverty rate than the United States, which is why Sanders refers to "major" countries.
In July, his campaign made it clear that when he talks about major countries, he is referring to members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international economic group composed of 34 generally wealthy countries.
At the time, Sanders was referring to a 2012 UNICEF report on childhood poverty in which the United States ranked No. 34 out of 35 countries with a childhood poverty rate of 23.1 percent. Only Romania, a non-OECD member, scored worse.
We found a more recent UNICEF report from 2014 where the U.S. rate of childhood poverty was only exceeded by Israel, Mexico, Spain, and Greece, as well as that of non-OECD Latvia. (Romania was not included.)
We also found a report done by the OECD itself from 2014, which used data from 2010, where the United States is listed as having less childhood poverty than Chile, Mexico, Turkey, Israel — all of which are OECD members — and Romania.
The Sanders campaign referred us to a July 16, 2015, update of the OECD report. In ranks 38 countries for childhood income poverty using 2012 data. Six countries -- Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Mexico, Israel and Turkey -- are listed as having more childhood poverty. Turkey ranks the worst.
Unfortunately, these reports are not necessarily comparable. For example, the 2012 UNICEF report and the OECD report defines impoverished children as those living in households below 50 percent of the median national income. The 2014 UNICEF report moved the poverty bar to 60 percent.
But a bigger problem may be the way poverty is defined in these reports. When you base it on households earning less than a certain percentage of the national income, countries with higher levels of income inequality are also statistically more likely to have higher rates of poverty. In countries where income inequality is less, childhood poverty levels may appear lower.
As we noted in July, that's why some commentators have criticized such methodology because it may miss the point of a measurement of poverty. One can be less well-off, the argument goes, without being poor, since being poor is defined instead by a lack of access to certain key goods, not by where one’s income falls relative to everyone else’s.
As the 2012 UNICEF report acknowledged, poverty is a relative concept, and using an "absolute" poverty line -- a fixed income adjusted over time to inflation -- becomes less useful as incomes rise over time.
Our ruling
Sanders said the United States has "the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth."
Unlike his July statement, Sanders isn't saying we're at the bottom, just that we're close to it.
The reports we've seen aren't perfect, but they do suggest that childhood poverty is embarrassingly high for a country so rich.
Comparing U.S. rates to the childhood poverty rates of other countries is perilous, however, because countries have so many different standards of living. In addition, the income inequality in the United States may be exaggerating our position.
The statement is partially accurate, but leaves out important details, so we rate it Half True. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
TEN mayors running some of Perth’s biggest councils share the title of best paid mayor after suspended City of Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi had her pay slashed.
The mayors of Armadale, Joondalup, Swan, Cockburn, Belmont, Melville, Kwinana, Stirling, Wanneroo and Fremantle receive $135,910, the maximum remuneration allowable.
That is $47,045 less than Ms Scaffidi was previously in line to receive but $95,310 more than the lowest-paid metropolitan mayor, East Fremantle’s Jim O’Neill.
The figures represent only the mayor’s sitting fees and annual allowance and not additional allowances, such as up to $3500 for information technology, and travel expenses.
Mayors who sit on regional councils may receive additional fees and be in line for extra expenses.
The Salaries and Allowances Tribunal sets the maximum and minimum amount that council mayors can be paid depending on which “band” councils fall into. The biggest councils are in band one.
Your cookie settings are preventing this third party content from displaying. If you’d like to view this content, please adjust your Cookie Settings . To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide.
The tribunal this month decided elected members and chief executives would not receive a pay increase for the coming year, citing tough economic times.
A mayor who presides over a band one council can get an allowance of between $50,750 and $88,864 and either annual attendance fees of $24,360-$47,046 or individual attendance fees of $609-$1177 per meeting.
The capital city council is an exception, where the lord mayor is entitled to receive an allowance of $60,900 to $135,909. The commissioners running Perth council last week voted to cut Ms Scaffidi’s allowance from the maximum to the minimum while she is suspended after legal advice suggested they did not have the right to axe it entirely.
Your cookie settings are preventing this third party content from displaying. If you’d like to view this content, please adjust your Cookie Settings . To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide.
For the mayor of a band two council the allowance falls to $15,225-$62,727, annual attendance fees to $14,719-$30,841 and per meeting fees to $369-$772.
Those amounts fall further for band three and band four councils. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Mike Koozmin/S.F. Examiner file photoWorkers put the finishing touches on a development on 10th Street in October. Higher fees for developers have been suggested in the drive for more middle-income housing.
For two decades, San Francisco has squeezed concessions from every large residential development built on city soil. That has meant forcing below-market-rate units into each project or making developers pay a fee to opt out — an option increasingly taken in recent years.
Since 1992, there have been 1,463 below-market-rate units built that were either sold or rented out to middle-income residents. The City also has collected millions in fees during that time that have gone into building other housing.
Now, with the housing crisis squeezing the middle class, some are wondering if developers should be asked to contribute more to help alleviate the crisis.
There are several programs in The City to help provide housing for low- and middle-income residents, including the Housing Trust Fund and developer fees used to build housing, as well as units managed by the Housing Authority.
But tweaking the Inclusionary Affordable Housing Program could be one of the best ways to increase the stock of middle-income housing, said Peter Cohen, co-director at the Council of Community Housing Organizations.
As it stands, every new residential project of 10 or more units must price 12 percent of the units at below market rate, pay a fee to opt out or build below-market-rate units off-site.
“If the developers would take that program seriously and build the units and stop feeing out … we'd get more middle-income units,” Cohen said. But with the hot real estate market, developers are gladly paying the fee instead of losing profits, so tweaks need to be made to the program to prevent that.
By increasing the fees developers pay to opt out on building below-market-rate units and ratcheting up income requirements so more people in the middle are eligible, The City could incentivize the inclusion of more below-market-rate housing in ongoing construction projects, Cohen said.
An additional idea would give builders the option to have a wider variety of below-market-rate pricing for more middle-income units. What some are calling a “dial” would give builders the choice to have more middle-income units in a building, but as a concession they would have to increase the percentage of those units above what is currently mandated.
Tim Colen, executive director of the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition, said his group does not support all the proposed changes to inclusionary housing, but they do back the dial idea.
Still, more needs to be done.
“It's a good step, but it can't be the entire solution, it just can't,” he said.
Whatever happens to inclusionary housing, it is no silver bullet for San Francisco's housing problems, Colen said. The City simply has done a poor job of planning for middle-income housing construction, he said, adding that any solution has to include more building in all parts of The City, not just the most expensive eastern part of town.
While Cohen also backs the dial idea, he counters that unless additional sticks are used — increasing in-lieu fees, for instance — developers will increasingly opt out of including these units in their new projects.
Fifty-five percent of developers who received planning permits in fiscal year 2010-11 opted for the in-lieu payments, compared to only 25.2 percent of developers from July 1, 2002, to mid-2010, according to a 2012 report on housing by The City's Budget Analyst's Office.
If developers had not opted out, 1,597 additional units would have been built, according to the Mayor's Office of Housing.
But Mayor Ed Lee said during an event Wednesday that The City could in some instances build up to twice the number of units off-site as would be included on-site in a development.
“It's just basic economics that would allow you to understand that it isn't all on-site,” Lee said.
Bay Area NewsdevelopmentHousing Trust Fundmiddle income housingPlanningSan Francisco housing
If you find our journalism valuable and relevant, please consider joining our Examiner membership program.
Find out more at www.sfexaminer.com/join/ | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Claiming New Jersey’s gun permit laws are derived from slavery and motivated by racism, a man denied a license is set to have his case reviewed by the nation’s high court next month.
Marc Stephens, representing himself, argues he has a Constitutional right under the Second and Fourteenth amendments to keep and bear arms at home and in public, which the state of New Jersey has denied him even though he has had multiple death threats. His petition is set to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in its Feb. 17 conference but has been winding its way through the legal system since 2013.
Stephens, who legally owned a firearm in California, was told by officials with the Englewood, New Jersey police department that he could not bring his gun to the Garden State without a permit. Six months after filing for a permit through the agency, he was denied with officials citing he did not have a “justifiable need” to own a gun. This led Stephens to file a case in a local court seeking to overturn the denial, which was dismissed in March 2014.
Switching to federal jurisdiction, subsequent motions for reconsideration in the U.S. District Court and the Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit were swatted away, leading Stephens to petition the Supreme Court late last year.
In his filing, Stephens argues that laws in New Jersey dating back to 1694 have discriminated against gun ownership based on race and the remnants of those laws endure today, in violation of equal protection mandates of the Fourteenth Amendment. Stephens maintains the state’s current firearm permit and licensing scheme was originally “passed through its legislature based on ‘Race Discrimination'” and is seeking to have it overturned by the high court.
Second Amendment scholars have long held the legal foundation of gun control was laid in oppressive pro-slavery and later Jim Crow-era laws.
Both sides of the gun control argument have unsuccessfully invoked equal protection laws in federal court in recent years with a group of University of Texas professors asking for an injunction against campus carry and a filing by a gun rights group against carving out former law officers from a campus carry ban in California, with each case tanking.
Although the Supreme Court receives thousands of petitions each year, the number granted is few, typically 100 or less. Granting a petition requires the votes of four justices, something the court has declined to do in several recent gun rights cases sent up from the Circuits even with a full bench.
Stephens did not respond to a request for comment from Guns.com. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Dundee United today completed the sale of the GA Arena to Director and shareholder Mike Martin.
The transaction ensures an injection of working capital into the business to offset the financial challenges of a second successive campaign in Championship football as well as minimising the Club's dependency on secured property loan agreements.
Mr Martin, who also recently purchased the shares of former director Justine Mitchell, has further agreed to an option for the company to repurchase the land at no commercial gain to himself.
Chairman Stephen Thompson said, “The financial challenge of the Club being in the Championship is obvious. Since Christmas 2017 we have brought in revenue via only two home games. The board is very grateful for this voluntary commitment by Mike that brings working capital into the Club and ensures the focus of everyone remains on the absolute priority of a return to the Premiership.
"While battling these financial challenges we have utilised the options of secured property loan agreements with several parties and while these parties have been of great assistance this deal allows the Club to bring control back to the boardroom table as well as put in place an agreement to buy it back when the time is right.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
I wanted to make this in appreciation for all the support smosh has provided me by featuring my work on two separate occasions.Occasion 1: www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/photos… Occasion 2: www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbi… I also wanted to make this because smosh is AWESOME. I've been a fan ever since they were doing their theme song remakes. Their version of the pokemon theme song was one of the first youtube videos I've ever seen.The image I used of Anthony and Ian is based on their "friendship always wins" image, which can be found here:Regretfully because I was working on a pocket etch a sketch, I wasn't able to knock out some of the more minute details, and I don't think I was able to capture their likenesses. But I think that people can logically assume who is in the image based on the context of the logo.I hope smosh sees this! I made this for themEDIT (5-16-12): Smosh featured this on their facebook!Thank you so much for being such a wonderful supporter of my work!EDIT 2 (7-13-12): This was featured on a list of the best smosh fan art ever! I am very honored! www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/photos… Also, Anthony Padilla claims to have gotten an art boner from this. Everyone who watches smash videos understands that this is a compliment of the highest regard.EDIT 3 (10-12-17): I replaced the image with a better quality photo of the rendition that I cleaned up really nicelyInstagram: www.instagram.com/princessetch… facebook fanpage: www.facebook.com/princess.etch… | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Beme, the social media app founded by Casey Neistat, is getting involved in the election by launching an app called Exit Poll.
The concept is simple: You download the app, tap who you are voting for (the options are Hillary or Donald or decline to answer), what state you are in and record a short video explaining your reasoning.
Exit Poll then will collate these videos into a Facebook Live stream tomorrow night that will play on its newly formed Facebook Page. The idea is you can watch the stream and hear the thoughts and opinions of thousands of Americans participating in the election.
While this sounds simple, it actually provides a valuable service. These days it’s harder than ever to drown out the noise and hear what your fellow Americans think. Sure, you can open your Facebook feed and see political posts from your crazy uncle who posts daily links from random right- or left-wing news sites, but that doesn’t tell you anything useful. From the sound of it, Exit Poll will let you hear thoughtful comments from Americans around the country.
Of course, this all depends on the quality of the videos submitted by voters. But Neistat explained to me that his company will be screening everything for “profanity and inappropriateness,” which helps increase the odds that the videos shown will actually be interesting and thoughtful.
Notably (and despite its name) Exit Poll won’t be releasing any of the aggregate voting data — so there will be no way to see how many people in Pennsylvania using the app voted for Trump or Clinton, even though the startup will have that data.
In his launch video, Neistat readily admits that the app will most likely only be useful tomorrow, on Election Day. But the project is part of a bigger move from Beme to experiment with live video, and Facebook Live is obviously the frontrunner in this space.
As a refresher, Neistat launched Beme about a year and a half ago as a way to share short clips with others around the world. While the app initially soared in popularity, with 1.1 million videos shared in the first week, it had trouble gaining traction and downloads slowed. Beme is still available for download, but Exit Poll may be an indicator that the company is at least experimenting with other ideas.
Exit Poll is available for download now on iOS and Android, and this is the Exit Poll Facebook page where the Live stream will play tomorrow. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Chris and Pete take a less-than-leisurely stroll through Shibuya's love hotel district, and answer your emails. It's a podcast...on the move! (Contains crows.)
Wanna say hi? [email protected]
More Abroad In Japan shows available below, subscribe, rate and review us on iTunes, and *please* tell your friends!
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
This is the first post on our brand new travel authority website and I will be regularly publishing a detailed post on Travelling in India, Culture, Travel hacks, Best Places to Visit etc. In the Current post, we talk about Best Hill Stations in South India and given that South India has lot to offer for tourists, Coming up with Top 7 hill stations list was indeed a difficult choice and we believe there are many wonderful hill stations left out and I hope to discuss in detail about them in future blog posts.
1. Munnar
Is a hill station and a town in the God’s own country – Kerala. With it’s mesmerizing beauty, lakes, and beautiful countryside, It’s a perfect gateway for honeymooners and family vacation far away from the cacophony of urban life.
Best time to visit:
Throughout the Year.
How to reach Munnar:
By Air
The nearest airport is Cochin International Airport and it’s located 110 km from Munnar.Another way to reach Munnar by air is by landing at Madurai Airport which 140 km away.
By Train
Aluva railway station is the nearest railway station and it’s 108 km from Munnar and well connected by taxi service.
By Road
Traveling by air or train though convenient, a popular way to reach Munnar is through road from Madurai which is 135 km drive with lush greenery.
2. Kodaikanal
Kodaikanal is lovingly called as Princess of Hill Stations and it’s one of the famous holiday destination in South India. Located in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu, the literal meaning of its name is “Gift of the forest”. Blessed with lush Meadows, Waterfalls, Grasslands and Dense forests, it’s ultimate destination to visit when you want your short vacation to be complete.
With its enchanting backdrops and breathtaking viewpoints, the lake filled with water lilies and Amenities seen in a city, this will be my number one places to visit on my travel to-do list.
Other sightseeing options include Coaker’s Walk, Pine Forests, Bryant Park, Guna caves, Shola Falls etc.
Best time to visit:
Can be visited any time of the year but the best time is September to May when the weather is at its supreme good.
How to reach Kodaikanal:
By Air
The nearest airport to Kodaikanal is Madurai which is 120 km’s away. There are good bus connectivity and taxi service from the airport.
By Train
There are regular trains to Kodaikanal from all the major cities of India and the Station name is Kodaikanal Road (KQN).
By Road
Kodaikanal is 3.5 hours drive away from Madurai. It’s also easily accessible by road from Bangalore (305 km) and Chennai (439 km).
3. Idukki
Idukki, the landlocked district in the state of Kerala is one of the greenest and Best hill stations in India and this rugged hill resort is well known for its tea gardens, wildlife sanctuaries, rubber plantations and dense forests and these dense tropical forests cover over fifty percent of the land area.
The district derives its name from the three rivers Thalayar, Periyar and Thodupuzhayar which flows through a narrow gorge. Idukki dam is Asia’s first and largest arch dam with a height 555 feet standing between the two mountains – ‘Kuravanmala’ and ‘Kurathimala’ which is a major tourist attraction along with elephant safari that takes the visitors through the tea plantations along the mountainous hills.
Best time to visit:
October to May.
How to reach Idukki:
By Air
The closest airport to reach Idukki is Cochin international airport which is around 100 km away and well connected to all the important cities in India.
By Train
If you want to experience the majestic landscapes of Idukki, the best way to get there is boarding a train to Cochin. Once you are in Cochin, we can hire a private taxi or board a public bus and enjoy the serene beauty along the way.
By Road
The best way to reach Idukki is by bus and there are frequent bus services which are plying between Cochin and Idukki town run by the government and private transporters. The highway NH-49 makes it easier to reach the hill district and the journey is bound to leave a memorable experience in people’s mind.
4. Coorg
British famously called Coorg as the Scotland of South known for its breathtakingly exotic scenery and lush greenery. Its official name is Kodagu and is one of the top hill stations in India. You can best spend your time by touring the coffee plantations, trekking the hills or white water rafting – the options for adventurous traveler here is endless.
Coorg is also rich in wildlife and has three wildlife sanctuaries and a national park; Pushpagiri, Talakaveri, and Brahmagiri and Nagarhole National Park. Other major tourist attractions are Abbey Falls, Iruppu Falls, and Tibetan Buddhist Temple.
Best time to visit:
With the temperature in the range of 15 to 20 degree Celsius, Coorg is round the year destination. If you are an adventure person, October to March is the best time for trekking.
How to reach Coorg:
By Air
The nearest airport to Coorg is Mangalore which is 135 km away and it’s well-connected to all the major Indian cities
By Train
Coorg does not have a railway station however you get down at the nearest railway hubs either Mysore, Hassan or Mangalore. These places are well connected to rest of the country with multiple trains running from here.
By Road
A lot of private transporters operate buses to and from Coorg. If you really want to experience the breathtaking view of hills, road travel will be the most sought way of reaching the hill top.
5. Ooty
Ooty is a popular summer destination which draws thousands of tourists every year from across the world and It’s one of the Best Hill Stations in South India. It’s situated in the Nilgiri hills and also known as the queen of hill stations. En route to the hills, the tourists are greeted with sprawling grasslands, tea plantations, dense forests and eucalyptus trees.
For adventure lovers, there are a lot of fun-filled activities like trekking, angling and hang gliding etc. The hilltop itself is besotted with many vivid picnic spots.
Best time to visit:
Ooty has a pleasant climate and its charm is seen throughout the year. The best time of the year to check into Ooty is from October to June which is right after rainy season so we can experience uninterrupted sightseeing.
How to reach Ooty:
By Air
Ooty is two and half hours drive away from Coimbatore International Airport which is well connected by all Indian domestic airlines.
By Train
Ooty is one of few hill stations in India which is bestowed with Railway station and connects all the major town in the state of Tamil Nadu and it also falls under New Delhi to Coimbatore Rail route giving it access to many major cities in India. If you want to enjoy the toy train, you need to get down at Mettupalayam which is 47 km from Ooty and this train connects Ooty to Coonoor and Mettupalayam.
By Road
Located on NH 67, Ooty has well-connected road network. It’s 80 km from Coimbatore and many buses are operated by the Tamil Nadu State Transport corporation to Ooty throughout the day.
6. Yercaud
Yercaud is a Hill station in the Salem district of Tamil Nadu. It derives its name ‘Lake Forest’ due to the significant amount of forest near the Lake and also known as Jewel of the South. At an altitude of 4970 feet on the Shevaroys Hill ranges of the Easter Ghats, has abundance Coffee plantations, Orange grooves, Spices like Pepper which are the major produce of this region.
Tourists can enjoy boating in the Yercaud lake, Trekking in the eastern ghats, Annual flower show every year which is a major summer attraction during the month of May.
Best time to visit:
October to June is the best time to visit, suitable for outdoor activities when the temperature ranges between 13°C and 25°C.
How to reach Yercaud:
By Air
The nearest airport to Yercaud is Salem airport at a distance of 38 km and Tiruchirapalli airport at a distance of 163 km. The Salem and Tiruchirapalli airports are well served to the state capital Chennai.
By Train
Salem Railway Junction is the nearest railway station at a distance of 35 km from where you can hire a taxi or board a public bus to reach Yercaud.
By Road
Yercaud has well-connected road network to all the major cities in the south via Salem. Chennai is at a distance of 358 km and Bangalore is at a distance of 222 km. If starting from Bangalore, it will be 5 hours drive via Hosur.
7. Nandi Hills
Nandi hills is an ancient hill fortress in the state of Karnataka is also known as ‘Hill of Happiness’. Nestled in the town of Nandi, it’s 60 km away from Bangalore and provides for the perfect weekend getaway with its mesmerizing view of the mist grazing the peaks of the mountain, the morning sunrise will make you spellbound when witnessed from the top of the hill. It also provides plenty of opportunities for Trekking, Cycling, and Paragliding but make sure that you go in a group for these activities by contacting a local club and also keep a check on the weather.
Best time to visit:
Nandi Hills is an ideal place which can be visited throughout the year. The hills receive moderate rains from June to August and it remains drenched all these months, So plan your journey accordingly.
How to reach Nandi Hills:
By Air
It takes an hour drive from Bangalore International airport to reach Nandi Hills and is well connected to all the major Indian and International cities.
By Train
Chikkaballapur railway station is the nearest rail station at 19 km. There are frequent trains plying between Chikkaballapur and Bangalore which is at a distance of 65 km and connects all the major Indian towns and cities.
By Road
Bus service is available daily from Bangalore’s Majestic Bus stand and it runs in the Morning and Evening. If traveling by car from Bangalore, take NH7 from the Hebbal flyover. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Around 1807, Dean Mahomet decided to leave Ireland and head to London. It was the biggest city Mahomet had ever seen yet. Mahomet, Jane and their two small children (they would have five more over the years), set up home in one of the city’s growing fashionable centres: Portman Square.
Dean Mahomet found work with a rich Scottish nobleman who called himself the Honourable Basil Cochrane. He had returned from India in 1805 as a very wealthy “nabob” (as Europeans who had amassed great wealth in India were called). Cochrane bought for himself one of the largest houses in Portman Square.
Cochrane claimed to have developed a form of vapour cure, learnt from his days in India. He guaranteed that it ensured complete improvement in health. He set up a vapour bath providing therapy to his clients at his large residence, and this is where Dean Mahomet worked.
One of Dean Mahomet’s sons, Horatio, was to write a book on this some years later. In it he said it was Cochrane who had the initial idea of setting up a vapour bath, but it was Dean Mahomet who had “fitted” up and equipped it appropriately for Cochrane.
Soon Dean Mahomet added to Cochrane’s bath a unique practice that would become wildly popular in England. This was the “shampooing” or the therapeutic massage. When he later wrote the story of his own life, embellishing his early life to make things more attractive for his potential readers, Dean Mahomet also claimed that he had been a practitioner of the shampooing technique in England right from 1784 – the very year he had arrived in Cork.
The word “shampoo” came from the Hindi word champo, which meant “to smear, or massage”. Champo itself is said to come from the champa flower used to make fragrant hair oil. After Dean Mahomet offered the “shampoo” in Cochrane’s vapour bath, it was soon in huge demand. Many commercial bathhouses, aiming to copy Cochrane, came up soon after and began to include shampooing among the therapies they offered.
However, Dean Mahomet did not receive any acknowledgement from Cochrane for his shampooing innovation. Nor did his rich, influential clients at Cochrane’s baths acknowledge this. He was disappointed and went about reinventing himself. He decided to start an eatery to present Indian cuisine to the British aristocracy.
An ‘Indian’ restaurant
In late 1809, Dean Mahomet set up his “public eating house”, which he called the “Hindostanee Coffee House” to make it stand out from all the other eating places popular at that time. Everything about it – its ambience, its furnishings, and even the way Mahomet advertised it – was intended to draw in the kind of clientele he wanted: Europeans who had worked and spent several years in India, and who wanted that same experience “back home”.
The Hindostanee Coffee House was located on Portman Square, quite near where Mahomet lived. Coffee did not feature in it at all. Instead, the menu offered meat and vegetable dishes, suitably spiced and served up with seasoned rice. There were sofas and bamboo chairs to create an “Indian” setting.
As the scholar Michael Fisher has detailed, on the walls were paintings showing Indians engaged in various activities, and sporting scenes showing Indians. The Coffee House offered a separate smoking room where diners were offered gilded hookahs in which the tobacco, Mahomet claimed, was carefully mixed with Indian herbs.
However, the rents and the eatery’s special cuisine catering to those “familiar” with it in some way, meant that start-up costs exceeded whatever capital Dean Mahomet had. Even bringing in a partner helped little and finally in March 1812 he went bankrupt and closed it down. It meant Dean Mahomet had to move with his family to a boarding house, where rents were lower. He again found employment in a vapour bathhouse.
The magic of the message
It was around this time that Brighton in the south of England was growing into a fashionable and sought after seaside destination. Sea bathing was popular as a healthy habit. For those self-conscious about swimming openly in public, “bathing machines” that were, in fact, carriages drawn by horses, ran along the shore to take the bather directly into the water. Professional “dippers” waited near these machines to help bathers into shallow seawater.
Once again, Mahomet and his family went about making a new life for themselves in Brighton. Two years after their restaurant shut, in September 1814, they set themselves up as “bathhouse keepers” on the eastern edge of Brighton.
For his new bathhouse, Dean Mahomet advertised a range of luxuries, such as especially made Indian tooth powder; then something he claimed to have just introduced from India – the celebrated “culeff” or kalaf, which is Persian for “permanent” red-black hair dye.
Dean Mahomet and his wife also offered clients their own specialised version of the “therapeutic bath”. This was called “the Indian Medicated Vapour Bath”, promising a different experience with medicinal herbs. Dean Mahomet also offered “shampooing” with specially made Indian oils.
Master of shampooing
In their offering of “Indian” vapour and shampooing they were different from Brighton’s other baths. Dean Mahomet began to call himself “Shampooing Surgeon” in his advertisements. In 1820, he published another book containing a detailed description of the many people he had treated. The book had testimonials from grateful patients in praise of his technique. It was called Cases Cured by Sake [Shaikh] Deen Mahomed, Shampooing Surgeon, and Inventor of the Indian Medicated Vapour and Sea-Water Baths . . . (1820).
His success meant he could invest more into his business. He then built Mahomet’s Baths right on the road overlooking the sea, and close to the Royal Pavilion built by King George IV. In the new place, there were separate baths on different floors for ladies and gentlemen. While they waited, clients could read newspapers and journals in beautifully appointed reading rooms. The walls had the usual Indian landscapes again and designs that Dean Mahomet had selected. The ladies had a “boudoir” (sitting room) and gentlemen their own “private parlour”. Verandas encompassed the entire building, and there was also a “sun room” for clients to soak up the sun if they so desired.
The basement had the coal and store cellars, a breakfast room, a room for the manservant, kitchens, pantry, and other offices essential to running a bathhouse. In the steam engine room, the large volume of sea and fresh water used by the establishment was pumped up. However, as they drew in more and more clients, they began to be copied.
Besides his advertisements, Dean Mahomet brought out new editions of his book. It was now called: Shampooing, or, Benefits Resulting from the Use of The Indian Medicated Vapour Bath, as Introduced into this Country by S.D. Mahomed (A Native of India). Between 1822, 1826 and 1838, three editions of his book appeared. He offered a different version of his life story in this book. Dean Mahomet now claimed to have received some kind of medical training in India. He also raised his age by over a decade in the hope that this made him seem more “respectable”.
In this period, royalty numbered among his clients, including King George IV (who ruled between 1820–30) and King William IV (who ruled between 1830–37). He was even awarded Warrants of Appointment as royal “Shampooing Surgeon” to Their Majesties.
Excerpted with permission from Across the Seven Seas: Indian Travellers’ Tales from the Past, Anuradha Kumar, Hachette. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Apple may be preparing to license its AirPlay technology to allow third-party TVs to receive video streams from iOS devices. Bloomberg outlined a plan supposedly in the works at Apple on Wednesday, saying that video devices that could play streamed video via AirPlay could hit the market as early as this year, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the project.
AirPlay is Apple's recently reintroduced technology (previously called AirTunes) that allows a computer's iTunes library or an iOS device to stream photos, video, and music to a compatible device. Currently, Apple offers licenses to a number of audio system manufacturers so that users can stream music to a set of speakers, but the only device available that can receive AirPlay video streams is the second-generation Apple TV.
According to Bloomberg's sources, Apple is considering adding video licensing to the mix so that third-party devices can receive streams of TV shows, movies, and other A/V clips. Companies selling AirPlay-compatible audio equipment would reportedly pay Apple $4 per device sold, so a Web-enabled TV might cost a bit more if manufacturers want to add AirPlay to their feature lists. The sources also said that Apple's AirPlay chip vendor, BridgeCo, is "working with several TV makers to build its products into Web-connected TVs," though they didn't specify whether those plans involved AirPlay or some other technology.
There have been long-running rumors that Apple might one day roll out its own Internet-connected TV—thanks mostly to buzz created from analysts—but such an idea has largely been panned by most observers. However, an AirPlay video licensing deal would move the risk of getting into the TV market from Apple to manufacturers, while still allowing the company to make money from it (not to mention the potential for extra iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad sales).
Apple declined to comment on the rumor. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
ADELAIDE has put an offer to in-demand defender Jake Lever, but he's in no rush to sign on the dotted line as rival clubs line up for his services.
Lever and his management held off negotiations until a new collective bargaining agreement between the AFL and the AFL Players' Association was finalised.
But Lever confirmed on Tuesday afternoon the Crows had made an offer through his manager Ned Guy.
"The Crows have tabled something, so it's about talking about it with my manager and (partner) Jess and deciding," Lever told radio station 5AA.
"I haven't put a timeline on it; whenever it gets done, it gets done.
"I'm not sure I want it to be done before the finals, because if it's a decision I have to make, I don't want to be rushed into it just because it's just before finals.
"It's important to think about everything and get everything negotiated.
"I trust my manager and I trust the club."
Lever emphasised he is happy at the Crows and his focus is solely on performing his role for the team.
Despite all the ongoing speculation where he might play next year, Lever's form on the field hasn't faltered.
He was superb in last Friday night's 59-point thumping of the Western Bulldogs with 22 possessions and 11 marks.
It's been reported the Bulldogs are prepared to table a lucrative five-year deal to Lever in the vicinity of $4.25 million.
A meeting between Lever's dad and Bulldogs list manager Jason McCartney last weekend added fuel to the fire, but Lever said it was simply a case of two friends catching up.
"My dad is mates with Jason McCartney and went away to Europe together on the AIS trip and go to know each other, so I wouldn't read anything into that," Lever said. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Pelicans.com continues its look back at the 2014-15 season with player-by-player analysis of the team:
2014-15 OVERVIEW
Due to the July trade acquisition of Omer Asik and the Pelicans being incrementally healthier this season compared to 2013-14, Ajinca’s minutes per game dipped slightly (from 17.0 to 14.1), but his production and efficiency still increased nearly across the board. One of New Orleans’ most improved players, Ajinca notched career highs in scoring (6.5 ppg) and field-goal percentage (55.0), while primarily coming off the bench behind Asik.
The native of France was called upon to start eight times when Asik was sidelined, and used his extensive experience from the previous season (30 starts out of 56 appearances) to often perform well. Ajinca averaged 9.6 points and 6.8 rebounds as a starter, even though his minutes weren’t starter-like (21.6 per start). Whether by mathematical fluke or otherwise, the Pelicans’ won-loss results varied drastically based on Ajinca’s role: They were 41-27 when he played, but just 4-10 when he did not. They were 2-6 with him as a starter, but 39-21 when he entered the game as a reserve.
Like his team, Ajinca made another notable step in his progression in 2014-15. The skilled, 7-foot-2 center viewed New Orleans’ 11-win increase and first trip to the playoffs with this group as partly due to the adversity of the recent past.
“We’re learning every year,” the upcoming unrestricted free agent said. “Last year was the same problem with injuries. We still learned a lot from it. That helped us this year, to go through it and get better. We came out this year ready and able to go to the playoffs.”
Ajinca, who spent a significant chunk of his ’14 offseason working out at the Pelicans’ practice facility in Metairie, will be participating again this summer with the French national team. His extensive international court time has been invaluable during his second NBA stint.
“We hope what happened this year will help us go farther next season. I want to keep working on my game, offensively and defensively,” he said.
TOP THREE ALEXIS AJINCA GAMES OF 2014-15
#3, Jan. 30: New Orleans 108, L.A. Clippers 103
Ajinca continued to put up exceptional numbers in home games vs. the Clippers, a unique trend that dates back to the 2013-14 season. This time, Ajinca netted 17 points and nine rebounds (four offensive boards) in just 24 minutes. Last season, he had a 14-point, 11-rebound home game vs. LAC, along with 19 and 12 in another contest. All three of his double-doubles in 2013-14 were against the Clippers.
#2, Feb. 27: New Orleans 104, Miami 102
For the second time in a span of just over a month, Ajinca established a career high in scoring, tallying 24 points in 22 minutes. In a game televised nationally by ESPN, he also finished off the victory by scoring the decisive basket with 26 seconds remaining, off a feed from Eric Gordon. Ajinca grabbed eight rebounds vs. the Heat. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A team of Argonne researchers (from left, Khalil Amine, Jun Lu, Larry Curtiss, Zonghai Chen, Kah Chun Lau, and Hsien-Hau Wang) have developed a way to create stable lithium superoxide in a lithium-air battery system.
While lithium-ion batteries have transformed our everyday lives, researchers are currently trying to find new chemistries that could offer even better energy possibilities. One of these chemistries, lithium-air, could promise greater energy density but has certain drawbacks as well.
Now, thanks to research at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Argonne National Laboratory, one of those drawbacks may have been overcome.
All previous work on lithium-air batteries showed the same phenomenon: the formation of lithium peroxide (Li 2 O 2 ), a solid precipitate that clogged the pores of the electrode.
In a recent experiment, however, Argonne battery scientists Jun Lu, Larry Curtiss and Khalil Amine, along with American and Korean collaborators, were able to produce stable crystallized lithium superoxide (LiO 2 ) instead of lithium peroxide during battery discharging. Unlike lithium peroxide, lithium superoxide can easily dissociate into lithium and oxygen, leading to high efficiency and good cycle life.
"This discovery really opens a pathway for the potential development of a new kind of battery," Curtiss said. "Although a lot more research is needed, the cycle life of the battery is what we were looking for."
The major advantage of a battery based on lithium superoxide, Curtiss and Amine explained, is that it allows, at least in theory, for the creation of a lithium-air battery that consists of what chemists call a "closed system." Open systems require the consistent intake of extra oxygen from the environment, while closed systems do not—making them safer and more efficient.
The lattice match between LiO2 and Ir3Li may be responsible for the LiO2 discharge product found for the Ir-rGO cathode material. Credit: Argonne/Larry Curtiss
"The stabilization of the superoxide phase could lead to developing a new closed battery system based on lithium superoxide, which has the potential of offering truly five times the energy density of lithium ion," Amine said.
Curtiss and Lu attributed the growth of the lithium superoxide to the spacing of iridium atoms in the electrode used in the experiment. "It looks like iridium will serve as a good template for the growth of superoxide," Curtiss said.
"However, this is just an intermediate step," Lu added. "We have to learn how to design catalysts to understand exactly what's involved in lithium-air batteries."
Explore further New battery technologies take on lithium-ion
More information: Jun Lu et al. A lithium–oxygen battery based on lithium superoxide, Nature (2016). Journal information: Nature Jun Lu et al. A lithium–oxygen battery based on lithium superoxide,(2016). DOI: 10.1038/nature16484 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Yogi Adityanath government has found itself embroiled amidst countless controversies since the Gorakhpur MP took oath of office in the state in March.
The firebrand Hindutva leader courted controversy for his decision on moral policing and shutting down of slaughterhouses. All his early decisions were deemed appropriate as they were in line with the teachings of the RSS, the BJP’s ideological mentor organisation.
However, a cabinet minister from Yogi government on Monday caused one more episode of embarrassment when she inaugurated a beer bar inn in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar.
The invitation card described Singh as the chief guest while her husband, also the state vice president of the BJP, was a special guest.
Swati was seen posing for photos with the hosts including flashing a book on beer bar.
Swati, who is also the head of the BJP women’s wing, had won the Assembly poll from Sarojini Nagar seat of Lucknow in this year’s elections.
Swati had chosen to contest the poll after the BJP suspended her husband from the party for calling the BSP supremo Mayawati, a prostitute and person worse than rickshaw puller.
Dayashankar was, however, welcomed back in the BJP after his wife’s thumping win.
However, the latest act involving the women and child development minister is bound to expose the party’s glaring double standard and gap in what the leadership preaches and how their ministers practice the so-called moral values. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
It’s the Rally Monkey’s 12th birthday on Wednesday, but don’t expect the Los Angeles Angels to bake a banana cake for their primary primate.
R. Monkey’s first appearance on June 6, 2000, is just a fact, not anything to wildly jump up and down about before or during Wednesday’s game against the visiting Seattle Mariners.
“No, we don’t celebrate the anniversary,” says Peter Bull, the Angels’ manager of entertainment and production. “We did once, after the first anniversary, and we got killed that game, so we thought, ‘No, we won’t do that anymore.’”
Bull certainly would know. He was there for R.M.’s coming-out party a dozen years ago and has been in his position since 1999, coordinating in-game entertainment at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, including the monkey’s appearances on the stadium video board.
The Rally Monkey has been a part of the franchise since his debut -- “It has a life of its own,” Bull says -- but this season marks the 10th anniversary of his leap into legend.
Ten years ago, the Angels were comeback kings, rebounding from a 6-14 season start to win the American League wild card, sweep aside the Yankees and Twins in the playoffs and then rally from a 3-2 series deficit to beat the San Francisco Giants in the World Series.
When the Rally Monkey appeared late in games that season (only when the Angels were trailing or tied), the team went 24-16.
In the World Series, Monkey magic was at its peak as the Angels -- down 5-0 in the seventh inning of Game 6 -- rallied to win 6-5 amid a crescendo of red-clad, ThunderStix-wielding fans.
Nationally, the Rally Monkey became as much a part of the postseason telecasts and Angels storylines as Troy Glaus, Tim Salmon and Francisco Rodriguez. TV cameras focused on monkey-waving fans and homemade signs in the stands, such as “Fear the Monkey,” “Believe in the power of the Rally Monkey” and “Got Monkey?”
Ten years after the team’s only World Series, the Angels' cast has changed -- new ownership, new players and even new stadium name (goodbye, Edison International Field) -- but the monkey remains.
“The crowd reacts just the same way as before, with just as much energy,” Bull says of the monkey’s appearances. “People still bring monkeys in and they react to it. Really, in terms of its effect and the fans’ energy and support of it, it’s pretty much the same.”
• • •
The rules, too, remain the same. The Rally Monkey will not appear until the sixth inning or later of a game in which the Angels are tied or trail by four runs or fewer.
“Got to set him up for success, of course,” Bull says.
The Rally Monkey serves as the Angels' bizarro closer, appearing only in the sixth inning or later when the team is tied or trails
by four runs or fewer. Angels Baseball
So, though the monkey remains a part of Angels tradition, he’s not visible at every game. There are no monkey statues or monkey murals in the stadium. He has his place. He’s behind the scenes, waiting.
“The Rally Monkey isn’t something we put at the forefront as kind of our brand image,” Bull says. “It’s a piece of us. It has its place during a game, but we’re not all about putting the monkey on the board all game long, every game. It has its place, just like a closer has his place coming into a ballgame. ...
“It’s kind of a signal, it’s a belief that the Angels can come back in any situation. So if that gets the fans into the game to scream more than maybe they normally would, to provide more positive energy, then that’s a positive thing.
“Ultimately it’s about baseball, it’s about the team on the field. They’re the guys that get the job done.”
Edward Melendez agrees. Melendez, 42, who runs the website RallyMonkeySays.com and the Twitter account @RallyMonkeySays, likes the way the team doesn’t “saturate the games with him.”
If the team is winning, there’s no need. If it’s trailing late, a certain anticipation builds for the monkey’s appearance. Melendez remembers how the energy level in the stadium would explode when the monkey appeared in 2002.
“That was the incredible part of it,” Melendez says. “You’d see him come on the big JumboTron and you kind of just felt the energy.”
The reason the Rally Monkey caught on, though, was because the Angels won.
“That might have been the biggest reason for his success,” says Melendez, still a die-hard Halos fan who runs his site and watches every game from his home in Helena, Mont. “Had they brought him out and nothing had occurred, I’m sure he would have gone the way of many other mascots and other devices that teams use to garner that type of excitement.”
• • •
Instead, the monkey flourished.
Major League Baseball has licensed plush monkeys in the colors and uniforms of other teams. Fans who looked down their noses at the Angels’ lucky monkey 10 years ago can now buy one at their own home park or on the Web.
When Torii Hunter was introduced as an Angel
in 2007, he bonded with the Rally Monkey. AP Photo/Ric Francis
The Angels’ Rally Monkey has appeared in TV commercials, been displayed in the Baseball Hall of Fame and remains a topic of player conversation. This spring, when talking about the Dodgers-Angels interleague series, Dodgers star Matt Kemp told the Associated Press, “I don’t like the Rally Monkey. I’m scared of the Rally Monkey. You’re out there in the outfield and the monkey just pops up on the screen. That’s kind of scary.”
Five years after his Twins lost to the Angels in the 2002 ALCS, outfielder Torii Hunter produced a Rally Monkey at the news conference to announce his signing with the Angels, and called him his “new best friend.”
“This Rally Monkey has been a thorn in my side and in my nightmares, so I’m just happy to be a part of this organization and be a part of the monkey,” he told reporters.
In a way, Bull says he’s not surprised R.M. is still going strong 12 years after his debut.
“We knew at the time it was something special,” he says. “We just had a feeling.”
Which brings us to that first night, June 6, 2000.
There have been various accounts about how the Rally Monkey came to be, and who came up with the concept. Bull, who was directing the game that night, calls the monkey’s emergence “a collective thing,” not the brainchild of any one individual.
The Angels were trailing the Giants in an interleague game that night, and Bull was monitoring the videos on his preview monitor, so he could see and approve anything to be shown. He saw the next clip was of a jumping monkey, a clip often used (among others) when the team scored.
“And I mentioned when I saw it, ‘Oh you have the monkey on a standby.’ I didn’t mean Rally Monkey. The director at the time, who was Dean Fraulino, said, ‘Yeah, that’s a rally monkey.’ Another operator in the room said, ‘I can put some text over it and just say 'Rally Monkey.' Why don’t we just play it now?' We were joking, basically. And because of the fact that the game was out of hand, you kind of feel, what the heck, what could it hurt? You throw the kitchen sink out there to amuse yourselves almost -- although we should never do that, just to amuse ourselves,” he adds, laughing.
“We’d gotten a runner on before we put it up there, so we threw this monkey jumping up and down on the video board with text over it that said ‘Rally Monkey.’ We just threw it out there. The batter, I believe, got a hit, so we decided to throw it up there again, just because. The team rallied a little bit, scored a run or two that inning, it was just a funny thing.
Rally Monkey enjoys a deserved rest after inspiring the Angels to a huge win over San Francisco in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series. Jeff Haynes/AFP/Getty Images
“The next inning came around and we’re like, ‘Let’s just keep doing this. It seems to be working.’ Sort of superstition. Once you try something and it works, you just keep doing it.
“Fast forward to the ninth inning, we’re still down. Robb Nen, the Giants closer at the time, hadn’t blown a save all year and we just continued to run this monkey between batters, sometimes between pitches, and we came back and beat the Giants that day.”
Bull remembers they thought they’d stumbled on something special in that 6-5 win, but didn’t realize to what degree. The next game, the monkey appeared again and the Angels scored in the bottom of the eighth to win 10-9.
By the morning after the first win, Bull says the Angels started to get calls from fans about monkeys.
“Our merchandise person said, ‘Why did somebody call me that says he’s got plush monkey dolls for us if we want to buy them?’ So I explained to him what it was, and that’s what kind of started us selling them,” he says.
Even before the team started stocking its store with stuffed capuchin monkeys, however, fans had begun to bring their own.
In the meantime, says Bull, the team realized if it was going to continue to use the monkey, it would need to shoot its own clips with a monkey in Angels garb.
Since 2000, Bull says the team has worked with a company called Animal Actors in Thousand Oaks, Calif., that has used a variety of capuchin monkeys to shoot video clips for the Angels. The standard clip is the monkey jumping up and down, but the monkey has also been dubbed into famous movie scenes. Each year, too, the company will provide a Rally Monkey to appear at the team’s Fan Fest.
To Bull -- the Rally Monkey’s keeper, in a sense -- it’s just a fun piece of a larger puzzle. The players on the field are the stars. The monkey’s a supporting actor who plays a small, but popular, role.
“It’s kind of a fun thing to see and it kind of lightens the mood a little bit,” he says. “If you’re an Angels fan and you come to the game and we’re winning, you’re happy. If you don’t see a monkey, then all is good. If we’re [down] at least four runs or less, you might see a monkey on the board. Maybe for that moment it’ll make you pause for a second and go, ‘OK, we can come back in this game.’ It’s a symbol. And hopefully it’ll entertain some people.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
British universities are struggling to keep pace with global institutions in preparing students for the modern workplace, a new report on world rankings suggests.
The UK has experienced a sharp drop in performance for graduate employability at its universities over this decade following intensified global competition, the analysis finds.
The Global University Employability Ranking, published by Times Higher Education (THE), lists the top 150 institutions for employability based on a survey of 7,000 major employers around the world.
The UK has 10 universities in the annual ranking this year, compared to 15 institutions in 2011 - when it was the second most represented nation in the graduate employability table.
Since 2011, the country’s overall performance has declined more than any other European nation. Meanwhile, Germany has more than doubled its number of institutions in the top 150.
Experts say the international outlook of Asian universities- and the increased use of the English language in universities in other countries - are key factors for the UK’s decline.
Firms increasingly cite East Asian institutions as top producers of workplace-ready graduates. South Korea has leapt from one university in the top 150 in 2011 to six this year, the report says.
Simon Baker, data editor at THE, said: “The new data analysis reveals a substantial global shift in graduate employability this decade. We see a dramatically improved performance within East Asia and parts of Europe.
Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events
“By-and-large, the highest risers are those equipping students with softer skills increasingly favoured among recruiters, such as teamwork –combined with the strongest possible industry experience.”
He added: “In contrast, we can also track the extent of the decline since 2011 among traditionally dominant countries like the US and UK.
“The increasingly international outlook of Asian universities, as well as the use of English becoming more widespread – removing a natural competitive advantage of the UK and US – have been two key factors behind this.”
Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Show all 20 1 /20 Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Harvard University Flickr/Michael Hicks Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Cambridge University Flickr/John Menard Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Oxford University, All Souls College Tejvan Pettinger/CC BY 2.0 Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Massachusetts Institute of Technology Flickr/Justin Jensen Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Stanford University Flickr/Franco Folini Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine John Hopkins University Flickr/David Wilson Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Karolinska Institutet, Main entrance from Solnavägen with the 'Aula Medica' in the background Creative Commons Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine University of California, Los Angeles campus Flickr/Tzuhsun Hsu Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine University of California, Hastings College of Law Flickr/Ken Lund Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Flickr/Lauren Manning Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine UCL University, London Flickr/Neil Turner Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Imperial College, London Flickr/Andrew Crump Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine University of Melbourne Flickr/Geoff Penaluna Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Berkeley University Flickr/Charlie Nguyen Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine University of Toronto Flickr/Umair Khan Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine The Geisel Library on the San Diego campus of the University of California Flickr/O Palsson Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine University of Sydney Flickr/Jason Tong Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Kings College London iStock Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine Duke University Flickr/Carine06 Best Universities for Life Sciences and Medicine University of Singapore Flickr/smuconlaw
Alistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK, said: “As the recent CBI/Pearson report shows, the demand for UK graduates by UK employers is still strong, and continues to grow.”
But he added: “It is clear that to maintain our world leading position we must start matching our competitors’ increased investment in higher education.
“Rumours of a cut in tuition fees, together with the impact of Brexit on research funding, and uncertainty over the status of international staff and students, risk putting the global reputation of our universities at risk.”
Global University Employability Rankings – total number of institutions per country/region:
Country/region Number of universities included in 2018 ranking Number of universities included in 2011 ranking USA 34 55 Germany 13 6 France 10 12 UK 10 15 China 7 4 Switzerland 7 6 Canada 6 7 Netherlands 6 4 South Korea 6 1 Australia 5 5 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Sucede luego de que se conociera el resultado de la elección presidencial que consagró anoche a candidato del Frente de Todos, Alberto Fernández, y su compañera de fórmula Cristina Fernández de Kirchner en primera vuelta con el 48% de los votos y tras la decisión del Banco Central de endurecer el cepo cambiario (se podrán atesorar hasta u$s 200 dólares mensuales).
En tanto, los bonos soberanos de Argentina caían un 1,2% en promedio, en línea al alza de 99 unidades del riesgo país a 2.245 puntos básicos.
Cabe destacar que pese a ser considerado un político moderado, el arribo de Fernández a la presidencia es visto con preocupación por los mercados financieros, que temen amplias regulaciones de la economía como las que aplicó su compañera de fórmula, la exmandataria Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Sin embargo, la buena elección de Macri dará lugar a una oposición fuerte con la que Fernández, sin mayoría en la Cámara de Diputados, se verá obligado a negociar sus políticas.
"El próximo Gobierno peronista va a estar muy condicionado, con una oposición que queda fortalecida (...) No es una victoria contundente de Alberto" Fernández, dijo el economista Ariel Coremberg, de la Universidad de Buenos Aires.
El presidente del BCRA, Guido Sandleris, dijo hoy que la restricción cambiaria dispuesta apunta a preservar las reservas de la entidad hasta la asunción del nuevo Gobierno nacional electo.
"Es crucial dar tranquilidad a la economía" y por ello "buscamos proteger las reservas", sostuvo el funcionario durante una rueda de prensa previo a la apertura de los mercados. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.