text
stringlengths 14
100k
| meta
dict |
|---|---|
The National Research Council (NRC) of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences is the leading provider of nutrient recommendations for dogs and cats. These form the basis for the Association of American Feed Control Official’s (AAFCO) nutrient profiles. AAFCO, in turn, provides mechanisms for developing and implementing uniform laws, regulations, standards and enforcement policies pertaining to such diets [ 28 ].
Other countries and regions have frequently developed their own nutritional guidelines based on country-specific legislation (e.g., Regulation (EC) No 767/2009 for Europe [ 29 ]) and with reference to AAFCO guidelines (e.g., the European Pet Food Industry (FEDIAF) on feeding trials [ 30 31 ]; the Working Group on the Labelling and Advertising of Pet Food in Canada on ingredient labelling [ 32 ]). The World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) similarly provides global nutritional assessment guidelines [ 33 ].
Companion animal diets may be accompanied by labelling claims that they are nutritionally complete and balanced. There are two recognised methods of substantiating such claims, and within the U.S., the label’s nutritional adequacy statement must specify the method used [ 34 ]. The first method is to formulate the diet to meet AAFCO Dog and Cat Food Nutrient Profiles. The second method (which is considered the gold standard) [ 35 ], is to conduct a feeding trial for the specified life stage, using AAFCO-approved protocols. Upon successful completion of an appropriate feeding trial, the pet food is exempt from requirements to formulate it to meet nutrient profiles [ 36 ]. If nutritional claims cannot be substantiated using either method, the product must be clearly labelled as a snack, treat, or dietary supplement, or must contain a statement that indicates it is “intended for intermittent or supplemental feeding only” [ 34 ].
Such standards are intended to ensure that companion animal diets are nutritionally sound and that their nutritional content is accurately understood by consumers. However, a number of studies have raised concerns about the nutritional adequacy of vegetarian or vegan companion animal diets.
Most recently, Kanakubo and colleagues examined 13 dry and 11 canned vegetarian diets for dogs and cats that were sold in all or most of the United States. Crude protein (CP) and amino acid (AA) concentrations were compared with AAFCO Dog and Cat Food Nutrient Profiles. Minimum CP concentrations for the specified species and life stages were met by 23 diets; the remaining diet passed appropriate AAFCO feeding trials. However, 25% (6/24) diets did not meet all AA minimum requirements.
3.2. Company Responses
Twelve companies based in the U.S. and internationally supplied the 24 diets examined. In late 2015, we contacted all of these companies by email. We inquired whether they had any additional data or information relevant to the conclusions of Kanakubo and colleagues [ 37 ]. In particular, we asked whether companies could supply any evidence (e.g., studies by external independent laboratories or internal assessments) to verify the nutritional adequacy of their products. We also inquired about any steps taken during the manufacturing process to ensure that diets are nutritionally adequate, and consistent over time.
An initial email inquiry was followed by an additional email to non-responders after one month. Five companies (Ami, Evolution Diet Pet Food, Purely for Pets, Big Heart Pet Brands, Central Garden and Petco) failed to respond to either inquiry. An additional company (Natural Balance Pet Foods) declined to provide comments. Responses from the remaining six companies varied substantially.
Some of these six asserted that their products were nutritionally adequate. Royal Canine, for example, asserted that, “Canine vegetarian dry and wet diets are formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles for maintenance”.
Similarly, Purina Nestle asserted that, “The nutritional adequacy of our products is fundamental. We ensure this through formulation, feeding trials, and strict manufacturing processes. We meet or exceed every major food quality and safety standard, including those issued by the FDA, USDA, AAFCO and FEDIAF”.
V-dog asserted that their diet is “formulated to meet or exceed the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles for adult maintenance”. They even supplied the ingredient lists for their products and a nutritional breakdown. They also asserted that “Our production facility has staffed animal nutrition experts and veterinarians that conduct regular tests on the kibble post production to ensure its nutritional adequacy. We obtained our kibble’s guaranteed analysis from an external lab and our regular nutrition and quality tests are performed by our production facility on a regular basis”. They stated that they had not performed feeding trials, however “we’ve been in business for over 11 years and have seen thousands of dogs thrive into their golden years on the v-dog kibble”.
PetGuard asserted that, “In addition to independent laboratory tests for determining the level of vitamins, minerals and nutrients in our finished diets, we conduct home feeding studies to determine the performance of our diets in an actual home environment. It is an ongoing program for our dog and cat foods. The only compensation these pet parents receive for completing health and behavioural forms six times per year—and submitting the yearly veterinarian check-up report—is the foods themselves. Canned, kibble, treats or snacks, all are evaluated. We have done this for the past 20 years and are confident and pleased with our data that shows our diets perform, as a single source diet should, for the long term health and long life of our study group’s companions (average 16 years for canines and 18 years for felines)”.
No company provided details of independent laboratory verification of the nutritional content of their diets. PetGuard also stated that, “Our data is proprietary and we will not be able to share it with you. In a very competitive environment—where innovation and creativity comes from hard work, study, and technical manufacturing breakthroughs—discretion is necessary”.
Clearly, few companies asserted that they had used feeding trials or independent laboratory verification of nutritional composition. Evanger’s Dog and Cat Food Company provided some insights into the possible reasons for this: “Many brands send their foods to third-party laboratories to make sure they meet their guaranteed analyses, which typically doesn’t include the complete AAFCO breakdown as that would cost a few thousand dollars more—and no one makes that in profit on a batch of food. This is why manufacturers rely on help from their vitamin and mineral premix suppliers for help when formulated ( sic ) the food. They would assist in the inclusion rates and the knowledgeable ones would even provide degradation results for the age and processing of certain vitamins”.
In one case (Wysong), the company admitted that its product was unlikely to be nutritionally complete: “Wysong does not advocate the singular feeding of VeganTM to carnivores such as dogs and cats. … It is designed for intermittent feeding or as a base to add different meats for sensitivities and allergies”. They further asserted their philosophical opposition to the concept of attempting to produce a single, nutritionally complete diet: “Complete knowledge of nutrition does not exist … and therefore “completeness” is misleading. … With that in mind, Wysong seeks to formulate and educate for optimal, not “adequate” nutrition and encourages pet owners to rotate, vary, and enhance the diet”. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Rev. Jeremy Lucas brought an olive branch to a gun fight recently, hoping for a mellow outcome. It began when he won a semi-automatic rifle in a local raffle, then revealed his plan to destroy it and was mostly congratulated for his stand.
But the 44-year-old Episcopal priest’s token attempt to take another gun off the streets did little to keep the peace. In response to his gesture, Lucas got threats and demands for his arrest.
“I’ve come to learn a lot about the nature of social media,” Lucas said last week of some of the comments about his one-man, one-gun protest. “The rabid gun activists come out swinging, trying to close down any meaningful conversation and attempting to intimidate people into silence.”
Lucas, pastor of Lake Oswego Christ Church in this upscale Portland suburb, had read about a girls’ all-star softball team’s plan to raffle an AR-15 rifle to raise money for a trip to a regional playoff in Lancaster, Calif.
The news report in Willamette Week included a photo of one of the girls at home plate, swinging the weapon.
Lucas says he thought portraying the gun as a prize sent the wrong message. “I have nothing against this softball team. We’ve had good conversations,” he said. “I understand that it’s purely economics, that guns are popular and the team needed to raise a lot of money.”
Lucas grew up in Alabama owning and shooting guns. But he sees the AR-15, America’s most popular rifle, as a danger to society. It is one of the weapons of choice among today’s mass shooters, from Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 to the shooting last month of four teens, three fatally, by another teen near Seattle.
See the most-read stories this hour »
Shown is the AR-15 at the heart of a debate over gun ownership and control in Oregon. (The Rev. Jeremy Lucas )
Commonly, if wrongly, called an assault rifle — a term historically reserved for fully automatic weapons — the AR-15 functions like any semi-automatic: one trigger pull to fire each bullet. But it’s lightweight, has a military feel and can be quickly reloaded with another magazine. In a minute, it can be fired 45 to 60 times.
A concerned Lucas first contacted the softball team and offered church funds to pay for the all-stars’ trip, if they’d cancel the raffle. “It’s one less gun that could be used to threaten someone or terrorize someone,” he would later explain.
But it was too late, Lucas was told. Some tickets had already been sold, and by law, the raffle would have to play out.
So the pastor came up with Plan B: Win the rifle, then destroy it — melt it down, turn it into a piece of art, perhaps a garden tool. Lucas dipped into his church’s discretionary fund for $3,000 and, at $20 apiece, bought 150 of the 500 raffle tickets.
When word spread of his plan, he acknowledged it was a mostly symbolic gesture, telling local media: “There are millions of guns, I know that.”
But if he won, he said, “this gun will never be used to kill kids in schools, kill people in a movie theater, kill people at an office party or at any other place of mass shootings. … It won’t be used by a vet with PTSD to kill himself.”
“If I had the chance for $3,000 to keep any of these things from happening — even one time — I’d do it again in a second,” he said.
Hoping to tip the odds further in his favor, Lucas reached into the church funds again and went back for another 150 tickets. But all of them had been sold, he was told, including more than 70 to a fellow buyer who, like Lucas, hoped to unlevel the field.
Lucas says he didn’t consider it divine intervention when one of his tickets was drawn. “I’m not sure that’s exactly how God works, fixing raffles,” he said with a laugh. “I like to believe I took a faithful stance. But I think that God would have been on my side even if I didn’t win, because we helped send a girls softball team on their trip.”
When news about his win and plans to destroy the gun began to spread, Lucas got Facebook thank-yous from relatives of some of the Sandy Hook victims and encouragement from hundreds of others.
Donors replenished the $3,000 he’d used from the church coffers and then some. Bishop Michael J. Hanley, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon, sent his huzzas as well. “It was a wonderful thing and actually filled me with a certain amount of glee that he could pull it off,” Hanley said in a statement. “Probably more of us need to act in this way, jumping into the unknown consequences of doing good deeds.”
But not everyone saw it that way.
Some unhappy commentators suggested Lucas had violated Oregon’s new gun law by failing to have a background check conducted on a parishioner to whom he’d given the weapon for safekeeping.
Then there were the “critics and trolls” on social media and on news websites, Lucas wrote on his blog, “lobbing their hate and vitriol.”
The Oregon State Police, acting on a tip from a local gun club official, opened an investigation into the allegation that he’d violated the background check law. A spokesperson there said the case is under review. Such a misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine that could reach more than $6,000.
The man who has taken credit for tipping authorities — Kevin Starrett, executive director of the Oregon Firearms Federation — says he doesn’t like the law, but seems to take some joy over the possibility it will be used to prosecute one of its proponents.
“If the pastor is prosecuted,” Starrett said in a statement, “it will demonstrate the idiocy of the law and the people who passed it. If the pastor is not prosecuted, it will demonstrate that anti-gun liberals are above the law and it was only intended to hurt the average gun owner, against whom it could be selectively enforced.”
Lucas, a law school graduate who worked as an attorney before turning to the church, said he supports the background check law. “Its intent is to keep someone from going out and buying a gun for someone else. I’m glad it’s getting some publicity.”
For that matter, if he did end up in court, that could generate more coverage, and perhaps keep the dialogue going, the reverend says.
“Anything that can keep us talking about this patchwork of gun laws and gaping holes that we can drive through is good,” he said. “I mean, it took me less than half an hour to pass that background check and walk out with a semi-automatic rifle. We really should be talking about that.”
MORE FROM NATION
More shots fired in Milwaukee as protesters clash with police
How do Americans view poverty? Many blue-collar whites, key to Trump, criticize poor people as lazy
How Texas governments are trying, sometimes unsuccessfully, to keep guns out of public buildings | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
creator09 said: So i am tired of this girl . I am just gonna focus on becoming a millionaire from now on, i am really tired of girls and their stupid games . Here i am drinking a whiskey like a boss reading methods and this bitch got the nerve to ignore me on a saturday night while i am thinking of BIGGER things , i also failed big this week on this method i worked so hard so i am extra mad and this bitch playing games like life is easy. Click to expand...
stand them up
et emotionally attached to any girl
never expect too much from anyone
The Ultimate Life
I can't find the post that I wrote regarding this exact thing couple of weeks ago. But hey, that's just how it is.Haha.Nowadays especially in 2018, they look for a high limit ATM card type of guy and if you have that, you would have her not only on Saturday but 24/7/365.It's for you to take a deep breath, get a shower and dust off that s#ank and be on the road to becoming a millionaire. Once you get where you wanna be, girls will wait for you and you canAnd one more thing, you shouldrun behind a BUS, TRAIN and a GIRL, because when one goes, another comes, right?Concentrate on making a bright career and you will have girls waiting in lines for you and you will plenty of opportunity to stand them up.=>. Why?Because of -NO emotional bulls#it drama every drama every now and then.NO tantrums for tiny little things at home.NOT getting dragged into silly little things and creating a huge scene for absolutely nothing.NOT wasting a huge amount of time trying to cheer her up for something that she got sad of and that something is absolutelylol.I don't mind spending a couple of grand behind pornstars when I reach the top of the mountain.And if you treat any high-class foreign escorts like a friend and not just " Hey, here's your money, you can leave " way,they are the BEST listeners in the world and they will open up to you also. They can be your best friends if you take them for a nice lunch or dinner after having fun and sometimes they will pay for the entire lunch or dinner as they will get so friendly with you.So, flush that b#tch out of your mind and start making money bro | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
If you’re looking for a box that is unique And within a course of its own, then you need to consider creating your own or… | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
OMG--seeing you jack your excellent, cock is amazing and makes me so want to suck you off-Thank you for the hot dream
Post Reply | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Nach der Rückkehr Karl-Theodor zu Guttenbergs in die Öffentlichkeit haben die Plagiatsjäger von GuttenPlag Wiki ihre Arbeit wieder aufgenommen. Und sind fündig geworden.
Wieder in der Öffentlichkeit: Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg kürzlich bei einem Vortrag in Kanada
Anzeige
Der ehemalige Bundesverteidigungsminister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU) ist nicht nur in Hinblick auf seine Doktorarbeit mit Plagiatsvorwürfen konfrontiert. Plagiatsjäger der Internet-Plattform GuttenPlag Wiki werfen dem CSU-Politiker vor, in ähnlich fehlerhafter Arbeitsweise wie bei der Dissertation 2006 beim Verfassen eines Aufsatzes aus dem Jahr 2004 agiert zu haben.
Auf bisher 13 von 23 Textseiten des außenpolitischen Aufsatzes mit dem Titel „Die Beziehungen zwischen der Türkei und der EU – eine ,Privilegierte Partnerschaft‘“ haben die Rechercheure bisher Textübernahmen aus verschiedenen Quellen nachgewiesen, darunter Zeitungsartikel, Ausarbeitungen der Europäischen Union und ein Dokument des Wissenschaftlichen Dienstes des Deutschen Bundestages.
Rund ein Drittel aller Textzeilen des Essays, der in der Zeitschrift „aktuelle analysen“ der CSU-nahen Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung erschien, sind laut GuttenPlag plagiiert.
"Das Bauprinzip der Doktorarbeit"
Anzeige
„Unsere Analyse des Beitrags zeigt, dass sich hier in kleiner Form das Bauprinzip der Doktorarbeit widerspiegelt, ziehen die Internet-Aktivisten gegenüber der „Welt am Sonntag“ eine erste Bilanz. Sie erheben schwere Vorwürfe: „Wenn Guttenberg sagt, dass er in seiner Dissertation aufgrund deren erheblichen Umfangs den Überblick verloren habe, dann ist das gelogen.“
Es stelle sich die Frage, ob man „in einem Aufsatz von wenigen Seiten den Überblick verlieren kann“. Tatsächlich, so die GuttenPlag-Rechercheure weiter, handele es sich hier „schlicht um Guttenbergs offensichtliche Arbeitsweise beim Verfassen von Texten, die sich die eigene Formulierungsarbeit ersparen möchte“.
Dass die Rechercheure nun erstmals seit Monaten wieder unter dem Namen GuttenPlag arbeiten, zeigt ihre Empörung über die Äußerungen Guttenbergs. Die Gruppe hatte bereits im vergangenen Februar angefangen, das Papier genau unter die Lupe zu nehmen.
Anzeige
Schon damals wurden Plagiate festgestellt, unter anderem die des Wissenschaftlichen Dienstes. Angesichts Guttenbergs neuer Erklärungen zur Entstehung seiner Doktorarbeit nahmen sie die Analyse wieder auf, um die Erläuterungen Guttenbergs zu widerlegen.
Gründer einer konservativen Partei?
Nach Angaben von GuttenPlag spielt der Aufsatz von 2004 in der Doktorarbeit von 2006 fast keine Rolle. Textübernahmen wurden nicht festgestellt.
Guttenberg war wegen der Plagiatsaffäre um seine Doktorarbeit im März vom Ministeramt zurückgetreten und zog sich danach auch von allen anderen politischen Ämtern zurück. Ende des Sommers ging er mit seiner Familie in die USA. Sein Buch „Vorerst gescheitert“ ist seit Dienstag im Handel erhältlich.
Anzeige
Ungeachtet der Plagiatsaffäre halten viele Deutsche den einstigen Minister am besten geeignet für die Neugründung einer konservativen Partei. 30 Prozent trauen ihm einen solchen Schritt zu, wie eine Umfrage von TNS Emnid im Auftrag von „Focus“ ergab.
Deutlich hinter dem über eine Plagiatsaffäre gestürzten CSU-Politiker liegt mit 20 Prozent der ehemalige CDU-Politiker Friedrich Merz, den seit seinem Rückzug aus der Politik immer wieder Gerüchte um eine Parteigründung begleiten. Ex-BDI-Chef Hans-Olaf Henkel, der selbst entsprechende Spekulationen genährt hatte, halten dagegen nur acht Prozent der Befragten für geeignet, den CSU-Rebell Peter Gauweiler sechs Prozent.
Verteidigungsminister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) reagierte gegenüber der „FAS“ gelassen auf das Wiederauftauchen seines Amtsvorgängers in der Öffentlichkeit: „Wir sollten Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg und seine momentanen Aktivitäten nicht so wichtig nehmen.“
De Maizière fügte hinzu: „Das gilt für alle: für ihn selbst, für die Politiker, aber auch für die Medien. Damit wäre allen am meisten gedient, auch ihm.“
Guttenberg behauptet in einem kürzlich erschienenen Interview-Buch, sein Nachfolger de Maizière habe 95 Prozent von seinen, Guttenbergs, Reformplänen für die Bundeswehr übernommen. Darauf angesprochen sagte de Maizière: „Ich habe die Antwort auf die Frage, was ich an Reformplänen vorgefunden habe, schon zu Beginn meiner Amtszeit verweigert. Dabei bleibt es.“ | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Geonosis, the setting of the first major Clone Wars battle, joins us on November 28 as the next addition to Star Wars™ Battlefront™ II’s line-up of legendary Star Wars™ planets. The update – befittingly-named The Battle of Geonosis Update* – will also see the arrival of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi** and three new vehicles, including the AT-TE. To learn more about what to expect from Geonosis and the AT-TE, we chatted with Peter Vesti Frendrup, Senior Level Designer at EA DICE. Plus, we’re giving you another work-in-progress look at Obi-Wan Kenobi. You don’t want to miss out on this one!
General Grievous facing Obi-Wan Kenobi on Geonosis. How the Work on a New Star Wars™ Location Begins Choosing a new location for Star Wars Battlefront II is a similar process as when additional heroes are decided upon. Something you can read all about in the recent Making of a Hero article. In the case of level design, Peter went into the specifics, saying, “After we’ve decided on the planet, we dig deeper into what makes the specific location unique. What’s its main theme? What happened here? What do we want to see happen here?” “Of course, we’re also looking at gameplay, as in what kind of gameplay we already have, and what do our players like and dislike. Then, we figure out how we can marry the location, the gameplay, and the narrative, and hopefully come up with something new as well!”
A work-in-progress, in-editor view of Geonosis’ open battlefield in Star Wars Battlefront II. The Key Focus in the Making of Geonosis “I think in most people’s minds, Geonosis was a place where a huge conflict went down, with two evenly-matched armies clashing.” The Battle of Geonosis, as depicted in Star Wars™: Episode II – Attack of the Clones™, was fought between the Galactic Republic and the Separatists on the Geonosian home world. This dynamic, featuring two large armies, is different than a lot of other scenarios in Star Wars Battlefront II where the Resistance, or the Rebels, are up against a superior force. While the setup on Geonosis in Star Wars Battlefront II is tailored to be fun, and not to become a 1:1 representation of what’s seen in the film, the aim is for players to get that same, grand scale. “The experience of playing Geonosis shouldn’t be about a single player winning the objective for the entire team. It should rather feel like you’re being part of the largest battle yet, and you’re in it together with your team members on the frontlines. That’s been the number one focus for us,” Peter explains. How We’re Making Geonosis Feel Like the Largest Battle Yet There are a lot of things that we’re doing through the concepts of Living World and Battle Beyond to make Geonosis feel like Star Wars Battlefront II’s most ambitious skirmish yet. Players will see lots of lasers, fighting going on in the distance, and starfighters flying above their heads as part of the surroundings. “Another thing that we’ve done to add to that sense of scale, was to focus on the AT-TE as a fully player-controllable vehicle. We’re going to have as many of them in the level as possible,” Peter says. The six-legged walker is a beast of a machine and a true protagonist in the battle on Geonosis. Without spoiling too much, a brief overview of the location’s narrative is necessary to explain its importance.
A first look at the work-in-progress animation of the AT-TE in movement. In phase one, the Galactic Republic (the attackers) must gain control of two objectives to call in heavy support in the form of multiple AT-TEs. Then, in phase two and three, the battle tanks are used to assault the Separatists (the defenders) who have besieged a droid foundry. Between phase one and two, the ticket-counter is switched from remaining Galactic Republic ground troops to remaining AT-TEs. Thus, defending or attacking the walkers is vital to the mission in a game of Galactic Assault on Geonosis. “Also, players will board the AT-TEs directly from the battlefield, as opposed to spawning into them from the spawn screen. If the Galactic Republic manages to push through in the first phase, Republic Carriers will come swooping in from the sky and drop the AT-TEs on the surface.” This, among other things, aims to add up to that unique, grand battle atmosphere. And, speaking of vehicles, new speeders appropriate to the Separatists – the STAP – and the Galactic Republic – the BARC speeder – are added to Geonosis along with the AT-TE. “They’re similar to the speeders already in the game, but with some adjustments made to their aiming, to make them more viable on a big, open level,” Peter says. Geonosis – An Open Battlefront A big battle. An open level. An experience close to what is seen in Attack of the Clones. Those are three key characteristics of Geonosis that Peter elaborates on from a level design perspective, saying, “From the beginning, we actually had our new game mode (featuring capture points and capital ships takedowns, set to arrive early next year) in mind. Typically, we design our locations for Galactic Assault and add the smaller game modes where they sort of fit.” “But for this one, we designed the level to be totally open, and closed it off for Galactic Assault just to keep the gameplay streamlined. We saw a few cases in playtests where people got confused and thought they could go to areas that we’ll open up for the new mode.” Being a more open-ended space, some might worry that Geonosis could become too much of a haven for long-range Specialists. This is something that Peter and the team are keeping their eyes on. “With vehicles at the heart of the gameplay and objectives on this map, you won’t really help your team much by sitting behind a rock to snipe from 200 meters away. Indirectly, sure, as you’re earning Battle Points and can spawn in as vehicles, enforcers, or heroes. But not directly.” “We’re providing lots of cover across the map as well, to give you a fair chance of not getting sniped.” “Also, looking at the film, there’s a cool moment when a big dust storm hits the battlefield. Players will see that we’ve incorporated the storm into gameplay as a transition between phases, breaking up the openness of the map for a while.” Another Look at Obi-Wan Kenobi Arriving with the Battle of Geonosis Update too, is the much-anticipated Obi-Wan Kenobi – who you might have caught in glimpse of in our latest Community Update! And what better way to end this first look of Geonosis, than showcasing a couple of work-in-progress assets of the Jedi Master. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Jim Leavitt's defense is preparing for both Khalil Tate and Rhett Rodriguez
Justin Herbert made his triumphant return last season at Arizona’s expense.
After missing five games with a fractured collarbone, Herbert passed for 235 yards and a touchdown during a 48-28 drubbing of the Wildcats at Autzen Stadium.
Entering the rematch, No. 19 Oregon is preparing for the possible return of Arizona starting quarterback Khalil Tate from injury.
First-year coach Kevin Sumlin hasn’t said publicly whether Tate or backup Rhett Rodriguez will get the start Saturday at Arizona Stadium (7:30 p.m., ESPN).
“Since it’s homecoming, I would say Khalil Tate,” Oregon sophomore cornerback Deommodore Lenoir predicted.
The Ducks (5-2, 2-2) held Tate to 191 total yards of offense with one touchdown and two interceptions in 2017. The dynamic dual-threat quarterback had rushed for 1,207 yards and 11 touchdowns in the previous six games.
In his last eight games since facing Jim Leavitt’s defense, Tate, who has been hobbled by an ankle injury all season, has averaged 28.3 yards rushing with three rushing touchdowns.
“We put in a game plan to stop Khalil Tate and force them to throw the ball,” Lenoir said. “I would say everybody watched the Oregon film and piggybacked off of that and created their own game plan.”
After facing Gardner Minshew, the nation’s leading passer, Oregon’s secondary is preparing for an Arizona offense that ranks 57th nationally in passing yards (242.3 per game).
The Ducks are 97th in passing yards allowed (251.0 per game) after yielding 323 yards and four touchdowns during last week’s 34-20 loss at Washington State.
“All I do is deal with us,” Sumlin said when asked about the Wildcats’ (3-5, 2-3) standing in the jumbled Pac-12 South Division standings. “We’re trying to beat the next opponent, and the next opponent is very talented.”
Tate has completed only 53.4 percent of his passes this season with 1,415 yards, 11 touchdowns and four interceptions. Rodriguez, the son of former Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez, has completed 41 of 79 passes (51.9 percent) for 506 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions.
During last week’s 31-30 loss at UCLA, Rodriguez made his first career start and threw two interceptions.
“If it’s Rodriguez, it’s going to be a fun game for the secondary, I would say that,” said Lenoir, who intercepted Minshew twice. “Hopefully I can bring out a hat trick.”
Oregon leads the Pac-12 and is tied for eighth nationally with 11 interceptions, including seven in the last three games.
Lenoir is now tied with safeties Ugo Amadi and Jevon Holland for the team lead with three interceptions.
“Tremendous,” Leavitt said of Lenoir’s performance in Pullman. “He got on top of the receiver in that second half really well, got the pick. It was a mesh route, and he got the first pick that way, just had good eyes on the ball and did a good job.
“Wish we could have returned it a little bit, but it was two good picks.”
Arizona’s 53.3 completion percentage rate ranks last in the Pac-12 and 112th nationally. By comparison, Herbert has completed 61.8 percent of his passes this season.
The Wildcats have been leaning on the run game. J.J. Taylor is averaging 102.1 yards rushing with four touchdowns and is third in the FBS in all-purpose yards (164.4 per game).
“We’ve seen their traits and what they do and how they run the offense,” Oregon coach Mario Cristobal said of preparing for both Tate and Rodriguez. “Their offense has continually gotten better and better as the weeks go by. They’re complemented by a tremendous running game as well.”
Arizona’s loss to the Bruins at the Rose Bowl was its third of the season by five or fewer points.
Despite the disappointing start to the season for Tate and the Wildcats, Cristobal noted that he was on the Alabama sideline when Johnny Manziel led Sumlin’s 2012 Texas A&M team to a win over the top-ranked Crimson Tide.
“I know the types of problems that (Sumlin’s offense) poses for opponents, and he has a great feel for the game,” Cristobal said. “He creates mismatches. He creates air and space for athletes to make plays, and they certainly have a lot of athletes.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The 2016 Blast The latest POLITICO scoops and coverage of the 2016 elections. Email Sign Up
Tweets from https://twitter.com/politico/lists/team-politico
“Well, we are fighting to the end, we are fighting to win, and we are going to do everything possible to win here in Indiana," Ted Cruz said ahead of the Hoosier State's key primary next week. | AP Photo Cruz vows to stay in 'as long as we have a path to victory'
Ted Cruz on Thursday said his campaign for the Republican nomination would continue "as long as we have a path to victory," expressing confidence that he would earn a majority of the delegates needed to clinch the nomination during the Republican National Convention.
During an interview on Tony Katz's Indianapolis radio show, Cruz responded to whether his plan would be to go to the convention even if he loses in Indiana, where 57 winner-take-all delegates are up for grabs.
“Well, we are fighting to the end, we are fighting to win, and we are going to do everything possible to win here in Indiana. We’re barnstorming right now," Cruz said, ticking through his three campaign events scheduled across the state and encouraging Katz's listeners to visit both his usual campaign website and the one launched yesterday to mark the choice of his vice presidential pick, Carly Fiorina, CruzCarly.com.
Katz attempted to clarify what Cruz meant later in the same interview, to which the Texas senator responded, “We are continuing as long as we have a path to victory, and I believe we are going to earn a majority of the delegates at the convention.”
Cruz also discussed the "extended process" that entailed his selection of Fiorina as his running mate should he earn the Republican nomination.
"We started out with a long list of over 40 people who were the best, were plausible candidates for vice president. We then narrowed that down to a list of 17, and we began doing vetting on those 17, predominantly relying on public records at that time," Cruz said. "And then from there, we narrowed it to five and ultimately spent a lot of time and consideration and prayer, and it became clear to Heidi and me and to the entire team that Carly brought the right package of knowledge and experience and judgment and character. And at the end of the day, it was a very easy choice."
He declined to name any of the others considered, calling it "not a kind thing to do."
"But look, it’s a lot of the people you would naturally think of—other candidates who were in the field, other elected leaders and prominent leaders, people who have earned respect and have been in the trenches battling for conservative principles," he said. "We initially cast a fairly wide net and then had a systematic process of narrowing it down."
Calling the selection of a running mate "one of the most solemn and serious decisions any presidential candidate has to make," Cruz said, "The most important job of a vice president is if the president gets hit by a truck to be prepared to step in immediately and follow through on the promises and the commitments that have been made, defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and keep us safe and secure."
"And that’s what we were looking for, and I think Carly fits the bill perfectly," he said. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Minneapolis voters will not weigh in this November on whether the city should raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour, following a ruling issued Wednesday by the state’s highest court.
In a unanimous order released a day after it heard the case, the Minnesota Supreme Court sided with the city of Minneapolis, which had argued that a proposal to raise the wage was not a proper subject for an amendment to the city’s charter. The court also ruled in the city’s favor on a separate charter amendment case, in which a police-accountability group sought to let voters decide whether to require police officers to carry professional liability insurance.
The ruling is a blow to advocates for both issues who didn’t feel like they were being heard by the City Council and instead wanted to take their case to voters. The high court’s decision means advocates for these issues are now forced to resume negotiations with council members and the mayor.
“This is about people’s lives in a city with the worst racial disparities in the country,” said Mike Griffin, field director of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, a lead group pushing the $15 wage. “If we can’t raise wages through a charter amendment, we’ll raise them through an ordinance.”
The court has not yet issued its full opinions on the two cases, opting to release shorter orders reversing a lower-court decision in the minimum-wage case and upholding an earlier ruling in the insurance matter. The justices were up against a tight timeline; with the deadline to print absentee ballots approaching, Hennepin County elections officials had said they needed a decision by the end of the week.
But the court did provide a window into its thinking, writing that the city’s charter does not grant citizens the right to vote on policy decisions, instead vesting that power in the hands of the City Council. In the police insurance case, the court said the proposal conflicts with state law over cities’ requirements to back employees in legal matters.
Chief Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea on Tuesday questioned Bruce Nestor, the attorney representing the wage-hike supporters.
Debates around both issues — and the proper process for taking them to City Hall — had been ongoing for months and often turned emotional. Supporters said the changes were necessary to help erase racial and economic disparities and transform policing. Critics — particularly of the minimum wage plan — worried about broader impacts on the city’s economy, while others feared putting the issues on the ballot would open the doors to policymaking by referendum in cities across Minnesota.
Hours before the rulings, activists with 15 Now Minnesota, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha and Neighborhoods Organizing for Change turned up at City Hall to demand that council members vote to drop the appeal on the minimum-wage issue. After that effort failed — and the Supreme Court ruled in the city’s favor — 15 Now’s executive director, Ginger Jentzen, said her group was disappointed but resolute. She said months of activism had pushed council members, for the first time, to support a higher wage.
“I think these low-wage workers are really changing the landscape of the city,” she said. “Clearly, pushing on the City Council for $15 as an ordinance is the path we want to go down now.”
Anticipating a possible loss at the court, activists said earlier in the day they would push to have a $15 minimum wage enacted by Election Day — whether on the ballot or through a City Council ordinance.
That would be a faster timeline than the council supported earlier in August, when it requested staff recommendations on the issue by the second quarter of 2017.
“I think that’s realistically the very fastest a meaningful minimum wage policy can be passed,” said Council Member Lisa Bender, a co-author of that resolution.
City Attorney Susan Segal said that the victory for the city was about a legal question — rather than a determination on the merits of a particular issue.
“This has never been about whether there should be a higher minimum wage,” she said. “This has always been about the proper process and venue for doing that.”
Other legal hurdles might await, however, should the council decide to pass a citywide minimum wage higher than the one set by the state or federal government.
Graco Inc., a manufacturer of pumps and spray equipment, filed paperwork on Friday challenging the proposed $15-an-hour ballot initiative on the grounds that it conflicted with the state’s minimum wage law — a different legal argument than the one made by the city.
“A municipal minimum wage would conflict with state law, whether that municipal minimum wage is enacted as part of a city charter amendment or as an ordinance,” Christopher Larus, an attorney for Graco, said before Wednesday’s ruling.
Graco’s filing is no longer relevant after the court’s decision, but it foreshadows what could be a looming battle.
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges issued a statement that stopped short of supporting a higher minimum wage in the city.
“I continue to advocate for a strategic, regional approach to raising wages that will benefit the greatest number of people, fuel inclusive growth and expand opportunity,” she said.
John Stanoch, interim president and CEO of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce, said his organization wants to be an active participant in discussions about a city minimum wage ordinance but is against a piecemeal city-by-city approach to setting wages. “This should be addressed at the state level,” he said.
Meanwhile, backers of the police-insurance plan said they were frustrated by what they saw as a political decision to block police reform on the council. Under the proposal by the Committee for Professional Policing, officers would have to carry insurance policies and be responsible for the cost of higher premiums if they were involved in lawsuits over misconduct.
Neighborhoods Organizing for Change organizer Rod Adams addressed a crowd outside City Hall on Wednesday.
Dave Bicking, the group’s chairman, said his group is exploring taking additional legal action — and assisting activists in other states looking to pass police insurance laws. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
West Tigers captain Robbie Farah has apologised to Prime Minister Julia Gillard for an offensive tweet he posted last year.
Farah's apology comes only days after he made a public stand against trolling on Twitter, having been the victim of such behaviour himself.
A Twitter user posted offensive comments about Farah's late mother on Sunday, which led the New South Wales State of Origin star to call for political and police intervention.
Farah asked both Ms Gillard and NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell to crack down on trolling.
But it has been revealed that Farah posted a tweet last year, responding to former rugby league international Mark Geyer, who had asked what users would buy for Ms Gillard's 50th birthday.
Farah's tweeted response was "a noose", which he later removed.
He says he has written to Ms Gillard to apologise for any hurt his post caused, highlighting the offence he took to comments made about his mother.
"As you are aware I have been vocal in recent days about criticising those who say some pretty disgraceful things through social media and I have appreciated your support in relation to that cause," the statement read.
"It is an experience that has highlighted the hurtful nature of unthinking comments and even those which are sometimes put forward as black humour.
"In the course of this I have been alerted to a tweet I made last year in relation to the Prime Minister, which was in hindsight clearly offensive.
"At the time I did think about what I had done and removed the tweet soon after posting it, but that of course doesn't repair the damage.
"I make no excuse and offer my sincere apologies.
"I can only say that I have learnt a lot in recent days and I hope that everyone in the community can learn about the pain that we can cause through such comments."
Farah says he hopes the incident "will only serve to encourage everyone to think about what we are really saying" when making comments via social media. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
autocorrect is Sasuke’s worst enemy. next to naruto.
7:43 pm • 20 April 2014 • 2,698 notes | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
AP
On Thursday, the word from Hawaii was that Packers center Jeff Saturday would take some time to consider whether to keep playing after this weekend’s Pro Bowl.
Saturday has sped up the process. Saturday appeared on 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis on Friday and said that he would be retiring after Sunday’s game.
“We’ll finish it with sunsets in Hawaii and call it a much better career than I would have anticipated,” Saturday said on the Grady and Big Joe Show.
Saturday will be closing out a 14-year career with his sixth Pro Bowl nod, although he did end the season on the bench after the Packers opted to go with Evan Dietrich-Smith in the middle of the line in the final weeks of the regular season and playoffs. Saturday started 182 games for the Colts after signing with them in 1999, all but the final 16 of them with Peyton Manning at quarterback during a very fruitful run for the Colts that included a Super Bowl championship.
Saturday also served on the Executive Committee for the players during the 2011 lockout. His emotional hug with Patriots owner Robert Kraft when the matter was finally settled made for a good way to end the contentiousness and get back to football.
Not bad for a guy who got cut by the Ravens in 1998 as an undrafted player. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
この夏の初めごろ、MozillaがElectrolysisというコードネームで、Firefoxブラウザーの多重処理アーキテクチャに取り組んでいることを本誌は報じた。それから数か月後にMozillaは、ユーザー人口の1%を対象とする初期テストを終え、MozillaのFirfox担当ディレクターAsa Dotzlerによると、初期としては良い結果を得たそうだ。
同社の報告によると、応答性は400%改善し、大きなWebページのロード時間は700%改善された。これらの数字は、ユーザーがブラウザーのフリーズや休止、遅れ、クラッシュなどを、もうめったに体験しないことを意味している。Dotzler自身は、これまでのバージョンを“janky”（駄作、二流品）と呼んでいる。
来週はFirefoxユーザーの10%に多重処理が行き渡る。当面、アドオンを使っているユーザーには、この新しいアーキテクチャが配布されない。このような段階的な展開は、配送のバグを避けるために、この業界ではよく行われる。Mozillaは同じテストをニューバージョンのユーザーグループと、従来バージョンのユーザーグループの両方に対して行い、結果を比較している。
今のところ、多重処理は単一コンテンツや単一ブラウジングのプロセスに限定されている。今後のバージョンでは、複数コンテンツのプロセスやサンドボックス化にも適用される。
数週間後にMozillaは、テスト対象として選んだユーザーの全員に多重処理を手渡す。それは、全ユーザーの40-50%に相当する。そして半年後には、ほとんとどのユーザーにこの機能が行き渡る。これらの過程をFirefoxのバージョンで表すと、下記のようになる:
Firefox 49: 一部のアドオンを多重処理対応にする
Firefox 50または51: サンドボックスとその他のアドオンを多重処理化
Firefox 52または53: 複数のコンテンツプロセスに対応
これから数か月かけてMozillaの技術者チームは、力点をセキュリティの改善とWebデベロッパー向けの新しい機能へ移す。
チームはこれまで、長い時間をかけて、新しいブラウザーがなるべく多くのユーザーからアクセスできるよう、努めてきた。意外と手こずったのが、二方向エディティングで、アラビア語のように“右から左へ”のサポートはFirefox 49-51ぐらいになる。
初めのころユーザーが心配したのは、多重処理によってRAMの使用量が増えること、それにより〔RAMの少ないシステム上では〕ブラウザー全体が遅くなることだった。
DotzlerによるとMozillaは過去5年間、MemShrinkと呼ばれるメモリ節約プロジェクトに取り組んできた。それにより、低メモリ消費が実現したからこそ、多重処理も可能になった。プロセスが一つ増えると、オーバヘッドは約20%増える。今の計画では、Webページ一つにプロセスを一つ与える、というやり方はしない。今チームは、今後の展開では最大プロセス数をどれぐらいに限定すべきかを、研究している。複数のページに一定数のプロセスを割り当てる場合、ページの集合をランダムに決めるべきか、ドメインでまとめるべきか、という検討課題もある。
Dotzlerは語る: “競合製品を見ることも、勉強になる。それらは多重処理をRAMの多用で実装しているから、行き詰まることもありえる。それらを反面教師としてMozillaでは、ユーザーのRAMを食い尽くさないアーキテクチャを構築している”。
忘れた人も多いかと思うが、ElectrolisisはMozillaにとって初めての、多重処理アーキテクチャの試みではない。6年前のProject Candleは、モバイルのFirefoxに多重処理を持ち込んだ。でもDotzlerによると、当時のモバイルのシステムでは無理だと分かり、そのプロジェクトは廃案にされた。
Firefoxの今のモバイルブラウザーは単一プロセスで動いているが、スマートフォンの処理能力の向上に助けられている。今および将来の高性能なスマートフォンなら、複数のコンテンツプロセスを動かすことも、可能だろう。
[原文へ]
（翻訳：iwatani(a.k.a. hiwa）） | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
You want Jesus to help the victims families? How about next time asking him to stop the shooter?
265 shares | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Dane County's Distressed Property Index increased in December to a record high for the fifth straight month, as houses in or near foreclosure continued taking an increasing slice of area home sales.
The index was 31.6 percent, up from 23.1 percent in December 2009.
December's rating also was higher than each of the past four months' values: 26 percent in August, 27.8 percent in September, 28.8 percent in October and 30.2 percent in November.
The index is produced from court filings and data from the South Central Wisconsin MLS at DaneCountyMarket.com. It charts the market prevalence of distressed properties as a proportion of overall monthly home sales.
The December reading suggests more than 31 percent of all home sales in the county involved distressed properties. The data have been tracked since January 2006, when the index was just 5 percent.
Index co-creator Dan Miller, a Madison real estate agent, said index values likely will remain above 25 percent for the next several months due to continuing high foreclosure filings balanced against relatively low numbers of home sales in Dane County. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Si les candidats au Ballon de Plomb étaient cotés, Moody's aurait accordé un triple A à Maaazou. Pronostiqueurs, voyants, astrologues, traders... tous le voyaient déjà gagnant. Il n'a pas trahi les espoirs et avec 27,9% des points attribués, et n'a souffert ni de la concurrence d'André-Pierre Gignac (pourtant autrement plus "populaire"), ni de la dispersion des votes vers un Maïga qui s'était placé sur le même registre que lui – mais qui pâtissait d'être un trop bon footballeur. Maazou a été le premier choix de 41% des électeurs...
En dépit d'un passage furtif dans le championnat de France, Moussa Maazou a réalisé le maximum sur les trois critères, faisant feu de tout bois sur le terrain et devant les micros avec une constance remarquable, assurant peut-être sa victoire grâce à une campagne de communication redoutable. En pleine période électorale, il a ainsi affirmé n'avoir "rien à envier à un joueur du Real ou du Barça", avant que son club de Zulte-Waregem n'annonce sa volonté de rompre son contrat et de réclamer une indemnisation devant l'indigence des prestations fournies...
Moussa Maazou, neuvième vainqueur du Ballon de Plomb, a vaincu l'anonymat pour emporter le trophée. À vingt-trois ans seulement, il établit un record de jeunesse et un nouvel indice de plomb. C'est simple: on n'est pas sûr d'avoir eu un aussi bon client depuis Francis Llacer.
Le portrait du vainqueur
Maazou, entre Zlatan et Van Damme
Le Top 3 de ses déclarations
1. "Ici, il faut faire des passes, tout ça… On joue au football. C’est plus compliqué."
2. "Je n'ai rien à envier à un joueur du Real ou du Barça."
3. "Les gens peuvent dire ce qu’ils veulent. S’ils sont déçus, c’est leur problème, je m’en bats les couilles."
Les résultats du scrutin
5127 votes confirmés par e-mail du 21 décembre au 4 janvier (trois choix par vote: 3 points attribués au premier, 2 au deuxième, 1 au troisième).
Le palmarès
2003 : Francis Llacer
2004 : Fabrice Fiorèse
2005 : Benoît Pedretti
2006 : Bernard Mendy
2007 : Matt Moussilou
2008 : Frédéric Piquionne
2009 : Mateja Kezman
2010 : Yohan Démont
2011 : Moussa Maazou
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Imagine the horror of having to share your neighborhood with something like this.
In the excellent article by Alex Baca Erik posted about yesterday, she focused a great deal on the need to upzone areas currently designated for single family housing only, a form of land use that, absurdly, includes most of the land where housing can be built in most American cities. She didn’t talk a lot about what single family zoning should be replaced with, which led to some speculation in comments about towers in the sky appearing in single family neighborhoods. This might, theoretically, be a consequence of an end to zoning altogether, but it’s certainly not what Baca and pro-housing zoning reformers are suggesting. What those reformers have noted, correctly, is that there’s lots of room for increased density in these areas without radically changing the built form. The neighborhood Rob and I lived in in graduate school is a fine example of this–in one of the older parts of Wallingford, our rental house was surrounded by rowhouses, garden apartments, duplexes, and some small (2-3 story, 6-15 unit) apartment buildings, as well as single family homes. This neighborhood only exists in this form because it was one of the sections of Wallingford built before the cloud of exclusionary zoning settled over much of Seattle in the mid-20th century. The argument against single family zoning generally takes the form of advocating for allowning something like that to emerge again.
The thing about this kind of zoning reform is that to have an impact, it has to be broadly applied. The general approach to upzoning is to find a place the city decides it wants to channel growth and upzone there. Since this kind of zoning change is likely to add units slowly over time, perhaps just a few per block, it needs to be broad–ideally city-wide–to have a real impact on housing supply. Last December, Minneapolis made history by passing a set of zoning reforms and affordable housing plans that included effectively ending single family zoning in the city. Anywhere single family housing could be built, you will now be able to build a triplex. (It is perhaps not a coincidence that Minneapolis is one of the only major cities governed by millennials and younger gen-xers; few issues better fit the generational warfare framing better than exclusionary vs plentiful housing.)
Earlier today, The House of Representatives in Oregon passed a similar measure, HB2001, by a wide margin, with 75% of Democrats and over 50% of Republicans voting for it. Portland area legislator Tina Kotek’s bill would change single-family only zoning state-wide to allow 4-plexes. This bill almost certainly has the support of a majority of state senators and the governor; the main obstacle to this bill becoming law is the Republican members of the state senate are staging a quorum strike; as of this writing they are in the process of fleeing or have recently fled the state to avoid being forced to vote on a cap and trade climate bill, championed by Governor Brown, that has also passed the house. (The State Senate in Oregon is currently 18 D, 12 R, but 20 Senators are needed for a Quorum.) The outcome of that standoff will likely also determine the fate of this legislation.
I tend to assume the value of this kind of legislation is so obvious that it hardly needs to be spelled out, but to do it anyway:
The original purpose of single family only zoning was to achieve racial segregation without segregating by race directly. It spread quickly as a response to Buchanan vs. Warley, and 1917 case that ruled a Louisville law prohibiting sales of homes to Black people in certain parts of the city on freedom of contract grounds. The idea of segregating by housing form rather than overtly by race as an end-run around this decision took off immediately and spread across the country. See ch. 3 of Rothstein’s Color of Law for receipts.
Whether, or to what extent, the desire for racial segregation motivates continued support for single family zoning today, there can be no question it is a major driver of economic segregation. It is, quite simply, a law that says “you must be able to afford X amount of land to go with your home to be permitted to live in this neighborhood.” These neighborhoods are often locations of opportunity and privilege, bit and small–they may be in the best school districts, they may provide access to parks and recreation, they may simply have safer spaces for children to play (multi-family housing is more likely to be zoned for streets with more and faster traffic, condemning those who can’t afford land with their house to a more dangerous and polluted immediate environment.)
One impediment to the construction of new housing is the cost of building it, which can be extremely high. One reason new single family homes and (unsubsidized) new high-rise apartments are almost always going to be expensive is that these are particularly expensive forms of construction. 4plexes are probably the cheapest form of housing to build, which means new housing developments priced for a less wealthy segment of the market are more likely to pencil out and get financed. Single family neighborhoods in cities generally have better transit and shorter commutes to job centers than “drive till you qualify” single family homes further out. Imposing a “you must be rich enough to afford 5000 square feet of land to buy a home here” rules in uniquely valuable locations is a form of opportunity hoarding and class warfare, and should be opposed by anyone concerned about growing economic inequality. This kind of legislation increases the breadth and depth of freedom of movement as a universal right. (Opponents of this kind of change will fine examples of some new attached homes in 2/3/4plexes that are more expensive than some older homes. This tactic should be about as compelling as someone sorting through the used car listings and discovering that (some) Nissans are more expensive than (some) Audis.
While Republican opposition to a separate climate change bill may render HB2001 collateral damage, it’s a climate bill in its own right. People generally don’t want long commutes, for obvious reasons; this creates more opportunities for more housing at a wider range of price points near where the jobs are, and it incentivizes smaller homes, with smaller environmental footprints. Michael Andersen has a nice analysis here of the climate impact of adding just one duplex/triplex/4plex per block in single family neighborhoods. It’s not trivial.
One reason these reforms are unthinkable is the no-growth, pastoralist vision of environmentalism (that just happened to coincide with their material interests) boomers left us with. Recent developments in Portland and Minneapolis suggest we’re finally starting to crawl out from under it, and may be willing to start letting our cities be cities, and stop using land use regulation to enable a scheme of planet-cooking generational theft. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Important Updates
2021 Exam Information
AP Exams will cover the full content in each course, giving students the opportunity to receive college credit and placement.
Given the uncertainties of the 2020-21 school year, some students may feel unsure about taking AP Exams in May. So that students feel comfortable registering by the fall deadline, this year there will be no fees whatsoever if a student decides not to test or to cancel their exams. Every AP student should keep their options open by registering for the exam on time because there will still be a $40 fee for late orders.
View the latest information on testing.
AP Questions and Feedback Throughout the Year
AP practice exams and past exam questions are available in the AP Classroom question bank. Personal progress checks are also available to ensure your students build mastery of content and skills. The progress dashboard highlights progress for every student and class across units.
Sign In to AP Classroom | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
This article series is now available as a professionally formatted, distraction free paperback or ebook to read offline at your leisure.
The first thing we’re going to cover in this series on 31 bits of know-how you should learn before heading out on your own, is really more of a mind-set than a skill-set, but it’s a crucial building block that will lay the foundation for the rest of the “harder,” more practical skills we’ll be covering throughout the month.
It’s developing a self-reliant mentality.
Part of being a grown man is taking care of yourself and making your own decisions. It isn’t until you’re on your own that you realize how much you relied on adults to make your life run smoothly. From doing your laundry to calling the doctor when you’re sick, your parents likely did a lot of things for you.
While you might not be completely self-sufficient right when you move out (many young people rely on their parents for varying degrees of financial support well into their twenties), you can certainly be self-reliant in a number of areas in your life. For example, you shouldn’t need your mom to remind you about important appointments or your dad to bug you about taking your car in to get its routine maintenance. You should be able to remember to do those things yourself. A man with a self-reliant mentality doesn’t wait around for someone else to take care of things that need to be taken care of. If he encounters a problem, he takes the initiative and tries to figure out how to resolve it himself.
So how does a man develop a self-reliant mentality?
One of the best answers I have found to this question actually comes from a great, albeit endearingly cheesy, 1950s educational film called “Developing Self-Reliance.” It’s ten minutes long and definitely worth watching:
In the film, a kind-hearted teacher lays out the four principles of building self-reliance for one of his young students:
1. Assume responsibility. Start taking responsibility for your life and the things in it. If you’ve relied on your mom to wake you up every morning so you weren’t late to school, it’s time to make friends with the alarm clock on your smartphone. Start using a calendar to keep track of your appointments and important due dates. When you notice your apartment or dorm room is looking messy, clean it up. Don’t blame your teacher or your boss if you’re not doing well in a class or at work. If you make a mistake, own up to it, and try to make it right yourself instead of immediately running back to mom and dad so they can fix it for you. When you come home to visit your parents, don’t fall back into old routines, and let mom do your laundry for you. Parents sacrifice much in taking on not only their own burdens, but the burden of responsibility for each of their children as well. But they should not have to carry more than their own burdens indefinitely; when a child is able, he, in gratitude to the unselfish care he received for many years from his parents, should begin to transfer his load from their shoulders to his, as soon as he possibly can.
I’ll be honest with you. Taking responsibility for your life isn’t all that fun. It requires doing things that are often boring, tedious, frustrating, and time-consuming. You’ll feel the burden of weighing a hard decision and accepting the consequences, even if they’re not favorable to you. You’ll often go un-praised and un-rewarded for being responsible.
But taking responsibility for your life is satisfying. You’ll gain a quiet confidence in yourself as you take control of your own life. You’ll feel empowered. Instead of feeling like life is simply happening to you, you’ll begin to feel like the captain of your destiny and master of your soul. As you assume responsibility for your life, you’ll notice doors open up to new and better opportunities. While you may notice that other young men who don’t take responsibility for their lives seem to enjoy a life of worry-free ease, give it a few years: those same men will probably have progressed little and seem stuck in neutral. You can have little responsibility, a ton of fun and pleasure, and few life options, or a healthy amount of responsibility, a healthy amount of fun and pleasure, and a ton of life options. I personally endorse the latter option. As the video above puts it, while it’s easy to get by by having other people do everything for you, “the trouble is, when you’re not self-reliant, you’ll never do more than just get by.”
2. Be informed. Of course in order to take on more responsibilities, you have to know how to carry out those responsibilities. Some young men continue letting mom and dad do things for them, with the excuse that they just don’t know how to do those things themselves. They often turn to their parents to make decisions for them for the same reason. But the truth is, they’ve never actually tried to figure things out on their own.
This excuse is especially weak in the age of the internet, with answers to many of life’s questions just a Google search away. Need to figure out how to apply for financial aid? Don’t pawn the job off on mom — get on the computer and start researching it yourself.
This isn’t to say that you should completely avoid mom and dad or other adults for advice and counsel. There are some problems or decisions Google just can’t help with. You should definitely take advantage of the practical wisdom older people have acquired by asking for their input when making an important decision or trying to solve a problem.
However, I’d encourage you not to always make your parents a resource of first resort. We frequently turn to our parents when we don’t really want input — we want to be told what to do. And when parents hear about your problem, they often want to take care of it for you, even when you protest. So investigate yourself first; try figuring things out on your own. Experience can be the best teacher. Once you’ve reached a wall, then go talk to your parents. Because you’ve gotten your hands dirty with your issue, so to speak, you’ll be in a better position to ask them effective questions. Instead of feeling like a kid, you’ll feel more like a fellow traveler in the land of adulthood who’s simply looking for advice from someone who has already been there.
In situations where the stakes are high, turn to others sooner rather than later; oftentimes it’s better to learn from the mistakes of others, rather than making them yourself. But by always taking at least the first steps of intelligence gathering yourself whenever you can, you’ll grow and make discoveries you wouldn’t have otherwise.
The self-reliant man is always looking for a chance to learn and expand his knowledge and skills. He reads books for his classes not because he has to, but because he wants to. And whether he’s in college or on the job, he also reads regularly for pleasure. He keeps up with the news and current events. He talks to others and really listens to them. He’s very observant wherever he goes. In this way, he builds up a library of information that he can draw upon when making a decision or solving a problem.
3. Know where you’re going. A self-reliant man has goals that he has set for himself. His aims are not merely those things other people think he should do. The self-reliant man is autonomous and doesn’t overly rely on others to validate his decisions. A self-reliant man works with an end in mind. He has created a blueprint for his future. When he runs into a problem, he informs himself on what an ideal resolution would be and then works to make it a reality. He plans out his weeks and ensures tasks that he’s responsible for are completed.
4. Make your own decisions. One thing I’ve learned the hard way is that life is actually much easier and a lot less stressful when you proactively make your own decisions. It’s tempting when you’re younger to simply let life happen to you and hope that decisions and problems will magically resolve themselves. They won’t. In fact, problems and decisions often get bigger and harrier the longer you wait to take action on them. Make proactive decision-making a habit. With any choice or problem you may face, decide on an action plan quickly, and execute it immediately.
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” -Theodore Roosevelt
Also, while you should certainly seek advice from others to inform your decisions, don’t rely on them to make your decisions for you. It’s your life. Don’t let others live it for you.
Balancing Self-Reliance
Learning to be self-reliant takes time; you’re not magically transformed into a sage, totally autonomous adult the moment you turn 18. Rather, self-reliance is something you develop in stages as you get older, learn from experience, and become more and more independent.
I often get questions from readers like, “When my parents come and visit, is it okay for them to buy me groceries?” “Is it okay for them to pay for my rent?” These men want to know where a young man should draw the line in being self-reliant and receiving assistance from their parents. Unfortunately, I don’t have any easy answers for such queries, and I don’t think there are any hard and fast rules either. I would recommend asking yourself this question: “Will this support lead to more independence down the road or will it lead to greater dependence?” For example, a recent study showed that college students who get less financial support from their parents think of themselves as adults sooner, drink less, and may be more career-oriented, while those whose parents give them a free ride are more likely to engage in risky behaviors like binge drinking, and may be less motivated in their studies. But students with parents who provide no assistance, are more likely to take longer to graduate and drop out altogether. Basically, what the study found was that either too much self-reliance or too little can lead to a compromised college career, and less independence in the future; thus, the authors of that study recommended a balanced approach in which parents provide some assistance, while the student is responsible for other expenses. All of which is to say, it’s best to grow into self-reliance in stages — concentrate on becoming self-reliant in whatever you can, wherever you’re at in life, in ways that don’t compromise your ability to gain more independence in later stages.
Related Articles
Tags: Heading Out on Your Own | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Last updated on .From the section Formula 1
How will Hamilton fare at Mercedes?
Lewis Hamilton has named his old McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso as the man he most wants to beat in 2013.
The 2008 champion says the Ferrari driver - second to Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in 2012 - will be his benchmark as he begins his Mercedes career.
"Alonso's the fastest driver I can see," said Hamilton, whose team-mate Nico Rosberg was quickest in testing.
"I think Ferrari are going to be quick this year. He's the guy I want to beat. Anyone would struggle to beat him."
Hamilton made a stunning debut as Alonso's team-mate in 2007 before their relationship turned sour over which of them was the team's de facto number one.
Gary Anderson BBC F1 technical analyst "Can Mercedes make a car that is worthy of his talents? Hamilton has been playing down their chances but I think they've done it this year."
Alonso left to rejoin Renault - with whom he won the 2005 and 2006 world titles - but he and Hamilton now share a mutual respect.
The Spaniard nominated Hamilton as the strongest driver on the grid in the build-up to the new season.
Hamilton said renewing his rivalry with another former team-mate Jenson Button did not interest him.
"The rivalry between me and Fernando excites me more," added Hamilton. "Trying to finish ahead of Alonso, in a Ferrari that is actually really competitive, is a really nice challenge.
"You also want to beat Seb [Vettel] as they are the ones with most titles."
Hamilton 'pleased' with pre-season testing
Hamilton knows how it feels to be the driver everyone is aiming to beat and it is a position he hopes to get back into with his new team.
Mercedes set the fastest time in winter testing and, although Hamilton played down his chances, Mercedes appear to have made a step forward.
"We all want to be the one," he said. "I was the one for a short period of time.
"Now it's toppled over to Sebastian. But I want to be at the forefront. People see [seven times champion] Michael Schumacher as a god and that's where I want to be." | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
What’s new in the world of Riverdale and beyond? Take a look below at previews of JUGHEAD: THE HUNGER #3, BETTY & VERONICA VIXENS #3, ARCHIE’S BIG BOOK VOL 2: FANTASY, and ARCHIE GIANT COMICS ROLL.
To purchase these and other great Archie Comics, find a comic shop near you using the Comic Shop Locator service, visit the Archie Comics Online Store, or download the Archie App!
Keep reading for a look at the covers and preview pages for these exciting new Archie Comics titles.
JUGHEAD: THE HUNGER #3
NEW ONGOING SERIES! This is it—the confrontation you’ve been waiting for! Werewolf Jug vs Werewolf Hunter Betty Round 2! The last one ended in a draw—this one may end one of their lives!
Script: Frank Tieri
Art: Pat and Tim Kennedy, Joe Eisma, Bob Smith, Matt Herms, Jack Morelli
Cover: Adam Gorham
Variant Cover: T. Rex
On Sale Date: 1/24
32-page, full color comic
$3.99 U.S.
VARIANT COVERS:
BETTY & VERONICA: VIXENS #3
NEW ONGOING SERIES! The Vixens are taking matters into their own hands and doing whatever they can to protect their hometown. But are they a match for the dangerous Southside Serpents?
Script: Jamie L. Rotante
Art: Eva Cabrera, Elaina Unger, Rachel Deering
B&V: Vixens #3 CVR A Reg: Eva Cabrera
B&V: Vixens #3 CVR B Var: Sandra Lanz
B&V: Vixens #3 CVR B Var: Jen Vaughn
On Sale Date: 1/24
32-page, full color comic
$3.99 U.S.
VARIANT COVERS:
ARCHIE’S BIG BOOK VOL 2: FANTASY
This second volume of the ARCHIE BIG BOOK series features some of the best fantasy and fairy tale stories featured in Archie comics!
Script: Various
Art: Various
Cover: Various
978-1-68255-907-9
$19.99/$21.99CAN
6 5/8 x 10 3/16”
TR
304 pp, Full Color
Direct Market On-Sale Date: 1/24
ARCHIE GIANT COMICS ROLL (TR)
Get ready for a rollercoaster of fun and laughs with this collection of 480 pages of iconic Archie tales in one amazing volume!
Script: Various
Art: Various
Cover: Dan Parent, Bob Smith, Rosario “Tito” Pena
978-1-68255-915-4
$7.99/$9.99 CAN
4 7/8 x 6 9/16”
TR
480 pp, Full Color
Direct Market On-Sale Date: 1/24 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
President Trump took on the media and James Comey in a string of fiery tweets Friday morning, warning the ousted FBI director not to leak details of their conversations while suggesting he could cancel future press briefings -- in response to the media uproar over his team's changing narrative on Comey's firing.
In doing so, the president also gave cover to his embattled representatives who have scrambled to reconcile the president's recent statements and the administration's original explanation.
“As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!” Trump wrote. “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???”
Trump then fired a shot across the bow at his terminated ex-top cop: "James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
This comes as details from a supposedly private dinner conversation between Trump and Comey emerged in The New York Times.
As for Trump's warning to the press, he was responding to coverage of his claim to NBC News that he was going to fire Comey regardless of any recommendation from his team -- in spite of prior claims suggesting otherwise.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday night said Trump fired Comey after receiving a written recommendation from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, along with a letter from Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That memo cited Comey’s mishandling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s secret email server as the primary reason for his firing.
“That was a DOJ decision,” Spicer said.
Vice President Pence, speaking at the Capitol on Wednesday, also pinned the impetus for the firing on Rosenstein and Sessions.
“Let me be very clear that the President’s decision to accept the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general to remove Director Comey as the head of the FBI was based solely and exclusively on his commitment to the best interests of the American people and to ensuring that the FBI has the trust and confidence of the people of this nation,” Pence said.
Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also said on Wednesday that Trump was merely following the guidance of his top advisers.
“I think it’s real simple,” Sanders told MSNBC. “The Deputy Attorney General…made a very strong recommendation. The president followed it and he made a quick and decisive action to fire James Comey.”
But Trump blew up that narrative on his own Thursday during his sit-down interview with NBC. During a conversation in which Trump said Comey was a “showboat” and “grandstander,” he was also clear he had made up his mind to fire Comey long ago, no matter what Rosenstein and Sessions told him.
“I was going to fire regardless of recommendation,” Trump said.
That interview aired less than an hour before Sanders took the podium at the White House press briefing to face a hostile group, upset that what they were told on Wednesday was not the same as what Trump said Thursday. Sanders denied the information she previously supplied was inaccurate and contended the narratives actually matched closely. She also said the White House had not been trying to pin Comey’s firing on Rosenstein.
Trump’s apparent explanation shift to NBC News has only stoked the battle on Capitol Hill over Comey’s firing.
Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats on Thursday cited the shift in asking DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz to probe Trump’s firing. They noted that Trump originally cited the memo from Rosenstein in his dismissal of Comey. However, the Democrats’ letter cited reports that the White House and Justice Department had been working to build a case against Comey, and Trump’s own statement to NBC News that he was “going to fire Comey” regardless of any recommendation.
“We believe these circumstances merit a thorough review, and we urge you to address this matter with the utmost urgency. We look forward to your review and a report on your findings,” they wrote.
Rosenstein, meanwhile, is being invited to brief all senators as early as next week. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) contradicted President Donald Trump on Thursday, saying that he has “no reason to dispute” the death toll from Hurricane Maria.
“I have no reason to dispute these numbers. I was in Puerto Rico after the hurricane. It was devastating,” Ryan said during a press conference. “This was a horrible storm. I toured the entire island. It’s an isolated island that lost its infrastructure and power for a long time. You couldn’t get to people for a long time on the island because roads were washed out, power was gone and the casualties mounted for a long time.”
Ryan did not place any blame on the federal government for the high death toll, however.
“This is a devastating storm that hit an isolated island,” he said. “And that’s really no one’s fault. It’s just what happened.”
Earlier on Thursday, Trump claimed falsely that the death toll from Hurricane Maria, 2,975, was falsely inflated by Democrats trying to make him look bad.
Watch part of Ryan’s comments below: | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Sorry but I couldn't help myself... my first skimpy animated gif | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Parents who refuse to let their son wear a skirt to school may need to be referred to social services, a council’s guidance has advised schools.
Mothers and fathers who dismiss a “gender questioning” child’s requests to change their name could also be a trigger for concern, according to Brighton and Hove City Council’s “Trans Inclusion Schools Toolkit”.
It comes after warnings that schools are "sowing confusion" in children's minds by over-promoting transgender issues, and that children are being encouraged to “unlearn” the difference between boys and girls.
The guidance advises teachers on how to handle a number of different scenarios, including if parents say: “I refuse to allow my son to change his name or wear skirts”.
Schools are advised that some parents may “struggle” to accept their child’s gender identity and it may be a long time before they accept the change.
“If a setting has a significant concern about the child’s wellbeing and or safety in relation to how the parents or carers are managing the exploration of the child’s gender identity it may be necessary and advisable to follow safeguarding procedures,” schools are told. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Excluding the companies from the Australian network has angered Beijing, but foreign minister says it protects national security
This article is more than 2 years old
This article is more than 2 years old
The incoming foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, has defended a decision that shut Chinese telecommunications giants out of Australia’s 5G network, saying it was necessary to protect national security.
The decision to bar Huawei and ZTE from supplying equipment to Australia’s 5G network was made amid the Liberals’ leadership ructions late last week, meaning it was largely overshadowed by the political turmoil.
But the decision did not go unnoticed abroad. It angered the Chinese government, which labelled it wrong and said it would compromise business relationships.
Tony Abbott 'not retiring' and calls Peter Dutton a 'reluctant challenger' Read more
“The Australian government has made the wrong decision and it will have a negative impact to the business interests of China and Australia companies,” China’s commerce ministry said in a statement on its website.
Payne, who will soon be sworn in as foreign affairs minister, on Monday defended the decision, saying it was not targeted specifically at Huawei and ZTE. She said it applied to any company that had obligations that clashes with Australia’s national security.
“It’s targeted and aimed at solely protecting Australia’s national interests, and the protection of Australia’s national security. That is our first responsibility as a government, it’s our first responsibility as a national security committee,” she told Sky News on Monday.
There are significant fears that Huawei and other Chinese telcos could be compelled by Chinese security services to help with intelligence gathering under new laws passed last year. The national intelligence law requires all organisations and citizens to assist the country’s spy network.
Those fears were alluded to in the statement released last week by then treasurer and acting home affairs minister, Scott Morrison, who has since become prime minister.
Morrison’s statement said there was a risk from companies who were “likely to be subject to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government that conflict with Australian law”, though he did not name Huawei or ZTE specifically.
Payne on Monday acknowledged concerns about the Chinese government compelling such companies had played a role in the decision.
“That is part of the legal system in which they work, so yes that is a concern,” she said, adding that it had been a “well-considered” decision consistent with others made across the world.
A statement from Huawei, however, said the decision was “politically-motivated” and “not the result of a fact-based, transparent, or equitable decision-making process”. It added that the move was not in the best interests of the Australian people.
Morrison's ministry giveth and taketh away as the Liberal healing begins | Katharine Murphy Read more
The company said that “interpreting Chinese law should be left to qualified and impartial legal experts” and said the national intelligence law could not be used to compel telcos to install backdoors, listening devices, or compromise the telecommunications equipment of other nations.
“A mistaken and narrow understanding of Chinese law should not serve as the basis for concerns about Huawei’s business,” the company said. “Huawei has never been asked to engage in intelligence work on behalf of any government.”
Chinese state media has roundly condemned Australia’s decision. It was described as a stab “in the back” to Huawei, and “disappointing and poisonous” to bilateral cooperation.
Huawei Australia (@HuaweiOZ) We have been informed by the Govt that Huawei & ZTE have been banned from providing 5G technology to Australia. This is a extremely disappointing result for consumers. Huawei is a world leader in 5G. Has safely & securely delivered wireless technology in Aust for close to 15 yrs
Huawei has struggled to make good on recent expansion plans. Its attempts to expand into the United States were dealt a blow when the Pentagon raised security concerns about Huawei phones and ordered retail outlets on US military bases to stop selling them.
In the United Kingdom, a government report found the company’s broadband and mobile infrastructure equipment provided only “limited assurance” that it posed no threat to national security. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Beyoncé
Lemonade
When & Where: April 23 on HBO and TIDAL
What: Sweet revenge in album form
Vince's Verdict: “ ‘Oh, I didn't know Beyoncé came out’—no one says that. That's not a thing.” Surprise: 😵 😵
Frank Ocean
Endless and Blonde
When & Where: August 19 and 20 on Apple Music and iTunes
What: Everything we ever wanted
Vince's Verdict: “We were waiting for the album for a long time. There's no reason to make posters.”
Surprise: 😵
Kanye West
The Life of Pablo
When & Where: February 14 on TIDAL
What: The MSG live-stream-slash-fashion-show was a defining moment of 2016. The aftermath was very Kanye: He was tweaking the album even after releasing it.
Surprise: 😵 😵 😵
Chance the Rapper
Coloring Book
When & Where: May 12 on Apple Music
What: Chance's gift to humanity
Vince's Verdict: “Chance doesn't believe in selling music because Chance has a lot of morals and a lot of values behind the thing that he does.”
Surprise: 😵 😵 😵
James Blake
The Colour in Anything
When & Where: May 6, everywhere
What: Spirit guide for millennials
Surprise: 😵 😵
Solange
A Seat at the Table
When & Where: September 30, everywhere
What: Prompted a national discussion around feminine blackness in America.
Surprise: 😵 😵
Kendrick Lamar
untitled unmastered.
When & Where: March 3, everywhere
What: A mixtape of unfinished songs—still better than pretty much every other rap album this year
Vince's Verdict: “I don't think he was thinking, ‘I hope this goes double platinum.’ That's more of a gift to his listener than anything else.”
Surprise: 😵 😵 😵 😵 😵
Rihanna
ANTI
When & Where: January 27 on TIDAL
What: TIDAL accidentally leaked the album early, took it back after about 25 minutes, and then released it again.
Vince's Verdict: “There's no such thing as a surprise album if you follow the artist on Instagram. You knew what was happening the entire time because you saw the pictures in the studio.”
Surprise: 😵 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
FOOTBALL Federation Australia's highest-ranked coaching official will endorse Phil Stubbins' coaching CV.
FFA officials last night said the federation's technical director Han Berger would stand by Stubbins' five-star coaching credentials for the vacant Adelaide United job.
Stubbins is one of the leading contenders for the job after the Reds yesterday announced football director Michael Petrillo will head up a new coaching selection committee with FFA.
Former Socceroos Craig Foster, John Perin and Alex Tobin and Reds board member and owner Bruno Marveggio on Wednesday night quit the first coaching panel after the club declared Mike Valkanis would remain as an assistant coach.
I believe I understand Adelaide, the culture and what the supporters expect from the players
Stubbins returned to Adelaide 10 days ago after coaching the AIS and Thailand's Bangkok Glass and Police United.
"With the vacant position as the head coach now available and my previous experiences with the club I certainly feel confident of taking the club if given the opportunity," Stubbins said.
"I believe I understand Adelaide, the culture and what the supporters expect from the players when wearing the red shirt of Adelaide United.
"Reds supporters are intelligent and demand success."
Stubbins played a leading role in helping the Reds achieve an AFC Champions League final and FIFA Club World Cup (2008) and the 2009 A-League grand final.
But Stubbins is not alone.
Adelaide City's Damian Mori, former Melbourne Victory boss Ernie Merrick, ex Brisbane Roar coach Miron Bleiberg and current Bari (Italy) assistant manager Nunzio Zavettieri are also strong candidates.
Former UEFA Champions League coach Zaviettieri was a student of Adelaide's methods in SA last year. The AIS's Tony Vidmar is understood to also be on the radar. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
OLATHE, Kan. — Food insecurity during the coronavirus pandemic has grown as quickly as the unemployment rate as “stay-at-home” orders remain in effect.
In Johnson County, Mission Southside is serving nearly three times the number of meals as usual. The agency has served Olathe and Gardner for nearly 10 years, and they’ve never seen the need grow by this much, this fast.
One month ago, Mission Southside delivered about 250 back-snacks every week. That number is now well over 700.
They also supply diapers and meals to folks in their community, and sometimes assist with rent. Many of those they serve are undocumented, so they won’t receive a government stimulus check.
Organizers advise those in need to visit area food pantries and save their money for things like medicine, gasoline and housing.
“They’re going to need their money to go toward their rent and for medicine and those things that are so essential and are large dollar items,” Howard said. “If we can help with the food, I can take off some of the that can take some of the pressure off for the rent and those types of things.”
Executive Director Craig Howard said that donations are up for now, but the crisis is far from over. When it ends, he said there will still be a long recovery for many who have limited resources.
If you would like to help meet the need, Mission Southside is taking food and diaper donations, or you can give a financial donation on their website, here. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A Telephone Call
by Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)
Approximate Word Count: 2421
P lease, God, let him telephone me now. Dear God, let him call me now. I won't ask anything else of You, truly I won't. It isn't very much to ask. It would be so little to You, God, such a little, little thing. Only let him telephone now. Please, God. Please, please, please.
If I didn't think about it, maybe the telephone might ring. Sometimes it does that. If I could think of something else. If I could think of something else. Knobby if I counted five hundred by fives, it might ring by that time. I'll count slowly. I won't cheat. And if it rings when I get to three hundred, I won't stop; I won't answer it until I get to five hundred. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty, forty-five, fifty.... Oh, please ring. Please.
This is the last time I'll look at the clock. I will not look at it again. It's ten minutes past seven. He said he would telephone at five o'clock. "I'll call you at five, darling." I think that's where he said "darling." I'm almost sure he said it there. I know he called me "darling" twice, and the other time was when he said good-by. "Good-by, darling." He was busy, and he can't say much in the office, but he called me "darling" twice. He couldn't have minded my calling him up. I know you shouldn't keep telephoning them--I know they don't like that. When you do that they know you are thinking about them and wanting them, and that makes them hate you. But I hadn't talked to him in three days-not in three days. And all I did was ask him how he was; it was just the way anybody might have called him up. He couldn't have minded that. He couldn't have thought I was bothering him. "No, of course you're not," he said. And he said he'd telephone me. He didn't have to say that. I didn't ask him to, truly I didn't. I'm sure I didn't. I don't think he would say he'd telephone me, and then just never do it. Please don't let him do that, God. Please don't.
"I'll call you at five, darling." "Good-by, darling.,' He was busy, and he was in a hurry, and there were people around him, but he called me "darling" twice. That's mine, that's mine. I have that, even if I never see him again. Oh, but that's so little. That isn't enough. Nothing's enough, if I never see him again. Please let me see him again, God. Please, I want him so much. I want him so much. I'll be good, God. I will try to be better, I will, If you will let me see him again. If You will let him telephone me. Oh, let him telephone me now.
Ah, don't let my prayer seem too little to You, God. You sit up there, so white and old, with all the angels about You and the stars slipping by. And I come to You with a prayer about a telephone call. Ah, don't laugh, God. You see, You don't know how it feels. You're so safe, there on Your throne, with the blue swirling under You. Nothing can touch You; no one can twist Your heart in his hands. This is suffering, God, this is bad, bad suffering. Won't You help me? For Your Son's sake, help me. You said You would do whatever was asked of You in His name. Oh, God, in the name of Thine only beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, let him telephone me now.
I must stop this. I mustn't be this way. Look. Suppose a young man says he'll call a girl up, and then something happens, and he doesn't. That isn't so terrible, is it? Why, it's gong on all over the world, right this minute. Oh, what do I care what's going on all over the world? Why can't that telephone ring? Why can't it, why can't it? Couldn't you ring? Ah, please, couldn't you? You damned, ugly, shiny thing. It would hurt you to ring, wouldn't it? Oh, that would hurt you. Damn you, I'll pull your filthy roots out of the wall, I'll smash your smug black face in little bits. Damn you to hell.
No, no, no. I must stop. I must think about something else. This is what I'll do. I'll put the clock in the other room. Then I can't look at it. If I do have to look at it, then I'll have to walk into the bedroom, and that will be something to do. Maybe, before I look at it again, he will call me. I'll be so sweet to him, if he calls me. If he says he can't see me tonight, I'll say, "Why, that's all right, dear. Why, of course it's all right." I'll be the way I was when I first met him. Then maybe he'll like me again. I was always sweet, at first. Oh, it's so easy to be sweet to people before you love them.
I think he must still like me a little. He couldn't have called me "darling" twice today, if he didn't still like me a little. It isn't all gone, if he still likes me a little; even if it's only a little, little bit. You see, God, if You would just let him telephone me, I wouldn't have to ask You anything more. I would be sweet to him, I would be gay, I would be just the way I used to be, and then he would love me again. And then I would never have to ask You for anything more. Don't You see, God? So won't You please let him telephone me? Won't You please, please, please?
Are You punishing me, God, because I've been bad? Are You angry with me because I did that? Oh, but, God, there are so many bad people --You could not be hard only to me. And it wasn't very bad; it couldn't have been bad. We didn't hurt anybody, God. Things are only bad when they hurt people. We didn't hurt one single soul; You know that. You know it wasn't bad, don't You, God? So won't You let him telephone me now?
If he doesn't telephone me, I'll know God is angry with me. I'll count five hundred by fives, and if he hasn't called me then, I will know God isn't going to help me, ever again. That will be the sign. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty, forty-five, fifty, fifty-five. . . It was bad. I knew it was bad. All right, God, send me to hell. You think You're frightening me with Your hell, don't You? You think. Your hell is worse than mine.
I mustn't. I mustn't do this. Suppose he's a little late calling me up --that's nothing to get hysterical about. Maybe he isn't going to call--maybe he's coming straight up here without telephoning. He'll be cross if he sees I have been crying. They don't like you to cry. He doesn't cry. I wish to God I could make him cry. I wish I could make him cry and tread the floor and feel his heart heavy and big and festering in him. I wish I could hurt him like hell.
He doesn't wish that about me. I don't think he even knows how he makes me feel. I wish he could know, without my telling him. They don't like you to tell them they've made you cry. They don't like you to tell them you're unhappy because of them. If you do, they think you're possessive and exacting. And then they hate you. They hate you whenever you say anything you really think. You always have to keep playing little games. Oh, I thought we didn't have to; I thought this was so big I could say whatever I meant. I guess you can't, ever. I guess there isn't ever anything big enough for that. Oh, if he would just telephone, I wouldn't tell him I had been sad about him. They hate sad people. I would be so sweet and so gay, he couldn't help but like me. If he would only telephone. If he would only telephone.
Maybe that's what he is doing. Maybe he is coming on here without calling me up. Maybe he's on his way now. Something might have happened to him. No, nothing could ever happen to him. I can't picture anything happening to him. I never picture him run over. I never see him lying still and long and dead. I wish he were dead. That's a terrible wish. That's a lovely wish. If he were dead, he would be mine. If he were dead, I would never think of now and the last few weeks. I would remember only the lovely times. It would be all beautiful. I wish he were dead. I wish he were dead, dead, dead.
This is silly. It's silly to go wishing people were dead just because they don't call you up the very minute they said they would. Maybe the clock's fast; I don't know whether it's right. Maybe he's hardly late at all. Anything could have made him a little late. Maybe he had to stay at his office. Maybe he went home, to call me up from there, and somebody came in. He doesn't like to telephone me in front of people. Maybe he's worried, just alittle, little bit, about keeping me waiting. He might even hope that I would call him up. I could do that. I could telephone him.
I mustn't. I mustn't, I mustn't. Oh, God, please don't let me telephone him. Please keep me from doing that. I know, God, just as well as You do, that if he were worried about me, he'd telephone no matter where he was or how many people there were around him. Please make me know that, God. I don't ask YOU to make it easy for me--You can't do that, for all that You could make a world. Only let me know it, God. Don't let me go on hoping. Don't let me say comforting things to myself. Please don't let me hope, dear God. Please don't.
I won't telephone him. I'll never telephone him again as long as I live. He'll rot in hell, before I'll call him up. You don't have to give me strength, God; I have it myself. If he wanted me, he could get me. He knows where I ram. He knows I'm waiting here. He's so sure of me, so sure. I wonder why they hate you, as soon as they are sure of you. I should think it would be so sweet to be sure.
It would be so easy to telephone him. Then I'd know. Maybe it wouldn't be a foolish thing to do. Maybe he wouldn't mind. Maybe he'd like it. Maybe he has been trying to get me. Sometimes people try and try to get you on the telephone, and they say the number doesn't answer. I'm not just saying that to help myself; that really happens. You know that really happens, God. Oh, God, keep me away from that telephone. Kcep me away. Let me still have just a little bit of pride. I think I'm going to need it, God. I think it will be all I'll have.
Oh, what does pride matter, when I can't stand it if I don't talk to him? Pride like that is such a silly, shabby little thing. The real pride, the big pride, is in having no pride. I'm not saying that just because I want to call him. I am not. That's true, I know that's true. I will be big. I will be beyond little prides.
Please, God, keep me from, telephoning him. Please, God.
I don't see what pride has to do with it. This is such a little thing, for me to be bringing in pride, for me to be making such a fuss about. I may have misunderstood him. Maybe he said for me to call him up, at five. "Call me at five, darling." He could have said that, perfectly well. It's so possible that I didn't hear him right. "Call me at five, darling." I'm almost sure that's what he said. God, don't let me talk this way to myself. Make me know, please make me know.
I'll think about something else. I'll just sit quietly. If I could sit still. If I could sit still. Maybe I could read. Oh, all the books are about people who love each other, truly and sweetly. What do they want to write about that for? Don't they know it isn't tree? Don't they know it's a lie, it's a God damned lie? What do they have to tell about that for, when they know how it hurts? Damn them, damn them, damn them.
I won't. I'll be quiet. This is nothing to get excited about. Look. Suppose he were someone I didn't know very well. Suppose he were another girl. Then I d just telephone and say, "Well, for goodness' sake, what happened to you?" That's what I'd do, and I'd never even think about it. Why can't I be casual and natural, just because I love him? I can be. Honestly, I can be. I'll call him up, and be so easy and pleasant. You see if I won't, God. Oh, don't let me call him. Don't, don't, don't.
God, aren't You really going to let him call me? Are You sure, God? Couldn't You please relent? Couldn't You? I don't even ask You to let him telephone me this minute, God; only let him do it in a little while. I'll count five hundred by fives. I'll do it so slowly and so fairly. If he hasn't telephoned then, I'll call him. I will. Oh, please, dear God, dear kind God, my blessed Father in Heaven, let him call before then. Please, God. Please.
Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twentyfive, thirty, thirty-five.
Back to Top | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised the European Union for putting obstacles in the way of Turkey gaining membership and has stated his disappointment over the lack of support from the EU against the country’s fight against terror.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa last week, Erdogan insisted that Turkey “has done everything it needed to do to fulfil criteria for entry into the European Union,” but that “the EU needs to start keeping its promises too”.
Turkey’s history of attempting to gain accession to the EU goes back decades, with it first being a member of the Council of Europe in 1949 and then unsuccessfully applying to become a member of the Union’s predecessor, the European Economic Council (EEC) in 1987. Since then, various obstacles such as new requirements and criteria have been imposed on Turkey’s membership bid.
Many EU members, particularly prominent ones such as Germany, France, and Austria, have expressed their fears over Turkey joining the Union, with the main factors being an increase in the flow of refugees from Asia Minor and concerns regarding Turkey’s human right violations.
Read: Merkel welcomes EU-Turkey meeting to improve ties
Erdogan has called into question the stance of the EU and many of its members regarding Turkey’s fight against terror, or more specifically its campaign against Kurdish militant groups in south-eastern Turkey and north-western Syria. He said he was “disappointed” about the fact that “even though most European states have labelled the PKK as a terrorist organisation, you often see MEPs in the Parliament in Brussels wearing PKK logos. This is unacceptable, such ambiguous behaviour must stop”.
These statements by Erdogan come amidst the recent breakdown of relations between Turkey and the United States, caused by the latter’s support for the Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Units) in northern Syria. Turkey labels the group as a terrorist organisation and is currently leading an offensive against it in Syria’s Afrin province as part of Operation Olive Branch.
Read: What is behind the US’ support of the YPG? | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
AC Milan's away kit for the 2016/17 season looks like something straight out of a Real Madrid catalog.
No, really, you could look online and check out Real Madrid's 2011/12 home kit, also made by Adidas, and it would be pretty difficult to spot the differences.
The new shirt is predominantly white with gold accents making up the secondary colours. The AC Milan logo remains intact while the Adidas and Fly Emirates logos get the golden treatment. Stripes on the sleeves and along the shoulders, running off of a smart looking collar are also gold.
It seems that the only differences between the Real Madrid shirt and the upcoming Milan away kit is that the collar on the older one had a golden line running along it and the bwin logo remained black.
AC Milan have already unveiled their new home kit, which they have since worn:
The official AC Milan website post about the new home shirt read:
"The new AC Milan home jersey comes with thin red and black stripes on the front and total black on the back. The shade of red featured in the red and black stripes is brighter than last year's jersey and creates a dripping effect at the bottom of the shirt. The Adidas three stripes are grey to give greater uniformity to the kit design and they are placed on the side of the shirt, rather than on the shoulders, to show continuity with the shorts' stripes.
"The black V-neck collar features an Italian flag on the back. The crest displayed on the Home jersey returns, after a two year absence, to the contemporary AC Milan badge. The white Adidas logo is on the left. The names and numbers of the players are written in Milan Type. The shorts are black with three grey stripes. The AC Milan logo is featured on the front, while the red Adidas logo is on the back."
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
Not sure Fry
add your own caption
Not sure Fry
add your own caption
Not sure Fry
add your own caption
Not sure Fry
add your own caption
Not sure Fry
add your own caption
Not sure Fry
add your own caption
Not sure Fry
add your own caption
Not sure Fry
add your own caption
Not sure Fry
add your own caption
Not sure Fry
add your own caption
add your own caption
Not sure if Reddit loves Nick Cage Or hates him | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
У Запоріжжі на стратегічному авіазаводі викрили агента ГРУ 18 серпня 2019, 23:01 Вы также можете прочесть этот материал на русском языке Ілюстративне фото (Фото: migremont.zp.ua)
У Запоріжжі викрили агента Головного управління розвідки РФ, який працював на стратегічному заводі Мігремонт.
Як повідомляє ТСН, він передавав Росії секретні дані.
Повідомляється, що у затриманого Олексія Лазаренка на флешці знайшли фото ударних українських винищувачів. Уточнюється, що він був завербований п’ять років тому і мав доступ до військових таємниць, а затримали його влітку на кордоні з Росією. За даними слідства, він намагався виїхати в РФ до куратора з новими даними про завод. Також українська сторона називає ім'я куратора — їм є офіцер ГРУ Сергій Козачков.
Завербованому шпигуну для кодування повідомлень видали ноутбук з шифрувальної програмою та два телефони, які неможливо було відстежити, так як після відправки інформації, вони змінювали унікальний ідентифікаційний код.
Відзначається, що українська розвідка знала, що на цьому підприємстві працює російський агент, ще у жовтні минулого року. Тоді на Вінниччині за загадкових обставин розбився літак Су-27. Загинули обидва пілоти вищого класу — українець Іван Петренко та американець Сет Неринг. Літак щойно пройшов модернізацію на заводі «МіГремонт» у Запоріжжі.
Однак, агент емоційно переконує - диверсійних задач не отримував.
«Я не передавав інформацію, яка б зашкодила нашим людям. Я жодних бомб не закладав. Я нікого не стріляв», — сказав він.
Про те, що падіння українського літака під час міжнародних повітряних маневрів не було результатом диверсії, переконані й на авіазаводі. Втім, військові слідчі досі не дійшли висновку, чому першокласний літак під керуванням двох майстрів вищого пілотажу раптово пішов у піке і врізався в землю на очах у союзників. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Underneath the surface, things were much better. The jet’s maintenance records were good, and it was available for about $10 million. After a short negotiation it was mine. I imagined that with a little paint and some new leather it would look great. So I embarked on Phase Two of the process: decorating. In the 1920s and 30s, when a man wanted a fine automobile, he ordered the chassis from a manufacturer such as Packard or Duesenberg, then sought out a coach-maker such as LeBaron or Fisher to finish the car. The body and interior were a separate piece of work from the operating aspects of the car, a system that would be ludicrously inconvenient and expensive in this day and age. Over time, the coach-makers were absorbed by car companies. Today all that’s left of Fisher Body Works is a little logo in the doorjamb of old G.M. cars; acquired by Chrysler, LeBaron is the name of a now discontinued sedan. Amazingly enough, this practice still exists in the world of private jets. The manufacturers deliver a “green” airplane, so called because a green corrosion-resistant coating covers the metal. It then goes to a “completion shop,” where the interior is produced, exterior paint is applied, and the plane is finished off. Each interior is an utterly one-off, custom design. I now had to shop for a completion center to refurbish my plane. There are five premier shops in the United States that handle Gulfstreams, and I was soon awash in glossy brochures from each of them. I eagerly pawed through the photos, looking for inspiration in the transformation of my ugly duckling. Trouble is, the pictures were even uglier. Some of the planes were perfectly suited to the sort of folks who would think the high roller’s suite at Caesars Palace is too drab and understated. They were a riot of gold-plating, mirrors, and vulgar clashes of contrasting, expensive materials. Another set was calmer, but had jarring elements that made one wonder what the designers were thinking. My favorite was a plane with overstuffed chairs upholstered in white leather. The leather on the chairbacks was gathered into a narrow vertical slot in the center of the chair, with folds and wrinkles that were pinched into the slot. I’m sure that the designer had other aspirations, but it looked to me like nothing so much as a giant white leather rectum.
When I discovered the kind of product the completion centers were offering, it became clear that, once again, I’d need some outside help. Through mutual friends I interviewed Lee Dicks Guice, an interior designer reputed to be up to the task. Every design professional has an opening pitch designed to both entice and intimidate the client. A few minutes into Ms. Guice’s spiel, she was saying something meaningful about how the dialogue between designer and client would result in the perfect reflection of the client Zeitgeist, or some such. I handed her the photo of the white leather seats. “So, explain how any designer could do this.” She paused for a second, then looked me in the eye, replying, “Isn’t it obvious? The client must have been a colossal asshole.” Setting aside the lingering worry about what type of seats would reflect my own Zeitgeist, I hired Lee to design the interior. “It will be a simple, straightforward job,” I said, “just reupholster it, fix the wood, and paint the damned thing.” Lee said “Uh-huh” with such lack of conviction that it gave me pause.
Decorating a plane is even more wildly expensive than flying in one. No matter how outrageous you think a ground-based price is, wait until you try to put the stuff into a jet. Part of this is the genuine need to use special lightweight materials. Strict F.A.A. regulations also play a role. Mostly, however, it seems to be a way for the completion centers to take a rich guy for a ride even more expensive than he’ll get in his jet. People who have been in business a while tend to develop a good bullshit detector—a sixth sense that tells them when things do not add up. I fancy myself an expert in this arena, and count on it to see me through many tough situations—jets included. What I failed to realize is that my bullshit detector would be in constant alarm. Everything I heard told me I was being taken advantage of left, right, and center. It wasn’t a question of detecting bullshit—I was swimming neck deep in it. But you can’t fight it all, you have to prioritize. Every day brought a new example of bullshit triage. Through sheer force of will, Lee managed to keep most of the costs under control. When that wasn’t possible, she found outside vendors to improve the quality. She designed a special carpet that was to be handwoven by the top carpet weaver in the world, while the completion center offered what was by comparison a very ordinary carpet. The custom carpet came to $24,924; the run-of-the-mill version was $25,000. Custom design became an addiction. I could understand custom woodwork; after all, the pieces were cut to measure. But why in the name of God would I need custom cloth? Yet the pull toward custom was inexorable. F.A.A.-mandated procedures and criteria added so much to the cost that the material price was largely irrelevant anyway, so why not do it right? In the end, every stitch of fabric in the plane was custom-woven. The plates in the galley were custom-designed and painted in Austria to match the stripe Lee did for the exterior. Much of the leather was custom-dyed, and Lee traveled to the sawmill to select the logs that would be turned into veneer. About the only place I drew the line in favor of ready-made was the wineglasses—the custom samples of Baccarat crystal just never looked right to me. Passengers in a plane don’t have direct contact with the engines or avionics. Instead, their experience is dominated by a small number of design details, finishes, and materials. Change these and you change the plane in a dramatic way. My favorite example is “memory foam,” a nasa-designed substance that molds itself to the contours of your body. It’s almost never used by completion centers, but a few hundred dollars’ worth totally changed the feel of the chairs. Lee had to make a half-dozen variations of density and thickness and have me do “sit tests” to find the right combination. Yet it was worth the effort and every penny a hundred times over. Electronics, on the other hand, are expensive. A new switch—say, for a reading light—was $300. Unfortunately, there are almost a hundred switches in the cabin. As long as you’re replacing the switches, you might as well get neat new halogen reading lights for another $15,000. The two flat-screen TVs set me back $36,000. The old telephone on the plane was analog and sounded awful—you really couldn’t conduct business on it. A new, digital telephone was “only” $100,000, not counting the fax-machine adapter for $20,000. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t work outside the U.S. Amid the cruel calculus of the refurb hangar my friend “C,” a billionaire known for his Zen-like affinity for solitude, asked me who my acoustic guy was. My what? It turned out that, if I really wanted to do it right, I needed to hire an acoustic expert to select the proper kind of soundproofing. Otto Pobanz, a 76-year-old former pilot, is the acoustic consultant of the cognoscenti among private-jet owners. Prior to taking the plane in for completion, I picked up Otto in Dallas for a test flight. Up the stairs popped a jovial, burly old guy with six suitcases. Was he going to move in? No, it turned out that five of the cases were crammed with the latest in electronic gear. We spent the next several hours charting every decibel at every frequency from every seat. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Turkey-US agreement against ISIL takes Ankara’s concerns into account: PM
ANKARA
AA photo
Turkey and the U.S. have reached an agreement in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which takes Ankara’s concerns into account, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said, when asked by reporters July 24 if the consensus included a no-fly zone and safe haven in Syria.The two allies will take concrete steps in accordance with this consensus, he told reporters.Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said in a press conference in Ankara on July 22 that Turkey “had agreed on certain topics to support the [anti-ISIL] coalition’s efforts during a recent meeting with the U.S. special representative.”“There is a consensus, conciliation has been reached upon these conversations but I cannot fully express its nature. Unanimity of thought and action has been reached about the issue of joint operations in the future. A related cabinet motion is now open for a signature,” he said.Davutoğlu also noted negotiations with the U.S. on İncirlik Airbase were separate from current security operations against ISIL.The Turkish military has “100 percent” destroyed the ISIL targets which threatened the Turkish border, he said, adding Ankara has informed its allies, including NATO and the U.N., about the operation but dismissed reports that Damascus was notified. The Turkish military did not enter Syrian territory to destroy the ISIL targets, but it would have done so if needed, he said.His remarks followed early-morning airstrikes by Turkish F-16 fighter jets on ISIL targets in Syria. He noted the operation was the result of a decision Turkey took for its own national security.The Turkish army’s operation in Syria was not a pinpoint strike, it was a process, and the operation will not stop, he noted.“We are observing activity in Syria and on the border at every moment. Turkey will show the strongest reaction to the slightest movement that threatens it,” he said.Turkey does not intend to get into war with anyone, the prime minister said. “The Syrian crisis has almost entered its fourth year. Turkey has not been part of any war, and will not be,” he stated.The prime minister said 297 people, including 37 foreigners, had been arrested in nationwide raids against suspected members of ISIL, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and other militant groups, including the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party–Front (DHKP-C).Davutoğlu said the police raids were part of a comprehensive process and vowed Turkey would continue operations against ISIL, PKK and DHKP-C members.The prime minister underlined terror acts by ISIL and the PKK had parallel aspects and were synchronized.“At the time ISIL and the PKK staged terror acts, we see that groups linked to the DHKP-C are on the streets. We think it’s no coincidence,” he said. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
At the GOP Convention, victims of illegal aliens were given a forum to tell their stories of preventable crime, and candidate Trump highlighted those families in his acceptance speech . The point was made that illegal immigration brings suffering and death along with cheap workers.
But Democrats have a different idea about law and borders: for their convention, illegal aliens are being showcased as honored guests rather than job-stealing welfare-abusing moochers.
Hillary & Co. are happy to shred American sovereignty and the safety of citizens in order pander to Hispanics to the maximum degree. The US political system is based around responsible, engaged citizens but Democrats see the globalist borderless model as being more advantageous for them because many people on earth live under a big government and expect even more freebies from Washington. Immigrants routinely leave their socialist homelands for the better opportunities in the United States, but after their arrival they like politics working remake the US into a big government behemoth like the places they left. The foreigners don’t seem to grasp that the opportunity they sought arises from free markets being allowed to function.
Such people are perfect Democrat recruits. They want lots of free stuff and hope that somebody else will pay the taxes required.
As a result, Democrats are rolling out the red carpet for “our nation’s brave undocumented youth” and adults. One Bolivian illegal is serving on the credentials committee — who says Democrats don’t have a sense of the absurd? | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Chile won the Copa America Centenario in 2016 in the United States. Xinhua/Qin Lang via Getty Images
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- CONCACAF president Victor Montgliani said talks are "continuing" with CONMEBOL to hold another joint Copa America tournament in North America.
In 2016, the two confederations joined forces to put on the Copa America Centenario in honor of CONMEBOL's 100th anniversary. The tournament was a clear success both in the stands and on the field. The Copa's average attendance of over 46,000 was more than enough to satisfy tournament organizers.
The television ratings on Univision and Fox also spoke to the appetite for the tournament as the semifinal between the U.S. and Argentina was the most watched men's match in the history of FS1.
Speaking to reporters ahead of Wednesday's Gold Cup final, Montagliani said: "We've are continuing our discussions with our friends in CONMEBOL to bring back a Copa America.
"It won't be a Centenario type, that was a one-off. It will be a Copa America, a joint venture between two confederations."
He added: "We saw the success it had on the field and off the field last year, and we think it's one of the things I get stopped the most by fans. When are we going to have that back?
"I think it behooves both confederations, CONMEBOL and CONCACAF, to do everything we can to bring back an event of such a nature because I think the fans are clamoring for it."
As for the joint U.S./Mexico/Canada bid for the 2026 World Cup, Montagliani said that since the bid has already been submitted, CONCACAF is playing a waiting game to see if anyone else makes a challenge.
"We'll wake up on Aug. 12 and see who else is bidding," he said. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Republicans and Donald Trump’s transition team are exploring whether they can make good on Trump’s promise of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border without passing new legislation, officials said Thursday.
Under the evolving plan, the Trump administration would rely on existing legislation authorizing fencing and other technology along the southern border. Congress would be asked to ensure that enough money is appropriated to take additional new steps — but would not pass a stand-alone bill authorizing a big new wall.
The potential approach was confirmed by two congressional officials and a senior transition official with knowledge of the discussions; all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Details were scarce and the officials emphasized that no final decisions had been made.
The approach could come as a surprise to some but could avoid a legislative fight Trump might lose if he tried to get Congress to pass a stand-alone bill authorizing the kind of border wall he promised during the campaign.
It’s not clear how much could be done along the 2,000-mile border without additional actions by Congress. Lawmakers passed the Secure Fence Act of 2006, but most of those 700 miles have already been built, although some areas are in much better shape than others.
But whatever steps might be taken without Congress’ approval would be likely to fall short of the extravagant new wall on the border that Trump repeatedly said Mexico would pay for. And despite Congress’ involvement in approving any spending, such an approach might also open Trump to charges of going around the House and the Senate to take unilateral actions, something he repeatedly criticized President Barack Obama for doing.
Several lawmakers and congressional officials said the administration could have significant flexibility in taking additional steps without Congress’ approval.
“There’s a lot of things that can be done within current law,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., a longtime proponent of comprehensive immigration reform, though he emphasized that a lasting solution on immigration would take Congress. “You cannot minimize the potential impact of the administration doing what they can do under the law.”
However, some immigration hard-liners have already expressed the desire to see Congress take a vote given how prominent the wall was during Trump’s presidential campaign, and their desire to act on the issue. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Feel like skipping out on your bar tab? Scream 'Fire' and run for the exits.
150 shares | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
After the release of the Mueller report, that’s changing. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was the first big-name 2020 candidate to come out in favor of impeachment, and on Monday Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) joined her.
AD
AD
In some ways, it’s a wonder it’s taken this long. The 2020 Democratic field has already lurched to the left on a number of issues the party used to avoid for fear of looking too extreme: single-payer health care, jobs guarantees, marijuana legalization, free or debt-free college and reparations for slavery. For members like Warren and Harris, supporting impeachment while other 2020 Democrats remain reluctant is a great way to get to the left of your opponents. And there’s very little downside in the primaries, given this is a 75-25 issue.
But while the vast majority of Democratic voters have told pollsters they favor impeachment, there hasn’t really been a national movement. Part of that was because everyone was waiting to see the Mueller report, and part of that was that there really hasn’t been a national leader for the movement.
Neither of those reasons applies any more. The Democratic base feels righteously peeved about what they see in the Mueller report and in Attorney General William P. Barr’s questionable actions in releasing it. They now have a document with which they can make the case that President Trump committed crimes. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III himself didn’t reach that conclusion but only because he didn’t view it as his place to do so. If you look closely at his report, there are four or five areas in which Mueller seems to believe there is substantial evidence Trump’s actions meet the criteria for obstruction of justice.
AD
AD
What’s also significant here is the way in which Warren and Harris are talking about impeachment. Warren’s words in particular seemed geared toward rebutting Pelosi’s argument for a more cautious approach.
A few weeks back, Pelosi set the threshold for impeaching Trump as getting bipartisan buy-in from Republicans. As I argued at the time, she was setting the bar almost impossibly high, given how unified the GOP base remains behind Trump. She was also effectively giving Republicans veto power over impeachment, which requires only a majority vote in the Democratic-controlled House. And she made clear the reason she was setting such a high bar was because it would be a politically arduous process.
“Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country,” Pelosi said. “And he’s just not worth it.”
AD
AD
As I also wrote at the time, there was a real question about whether the Democratic base and fellow Democratic members of Congress would embrace such a standard. Warren served noticed Monday that she simply doesn’t agree with Pelosi. In fact, she was asked about Pelosi’s political calculus, and she flatly rejected it.
ANDERSON COOPER: What do you say to those Democrats who say, look, this is not the time, it’s going to take away the focus from winning in 2020? Speaker Pelosi told her caucus again just today that she no plans to immediately initiate impeachment proceedings. WARREN: So, there is no political inconvenience exception to the United States Constitution.
She continued: “This is not about politics. This is about principle. This is about what kind of a democracy we have.”
And: “If there are people in the House or the Senate who want to say that’s what a president can do when the president is being investigated for his own wrongdoings or when a foreign government attacks our country, then they should have to take that vote and live with it for the rest of their lives.”
AD
Harris’s version was more sympathetic to Pelosi’s political thinking, but she also emphasized principle over pragmatism.
AD
“I’ve not seen any evidence to suggest that [Senate Republicans] will weigh on the facts instead of on partisan adherence to being protective of this president, and that’s what concerns me and what will be the eventual outcome,” Harris said. “So we have to be realistic about what might be the end result. But that doesn’t mean the process should not take hold.”
The Democratic Party is currently engaged in a battle between its head and its heart — between a thirst for the power that has eluded it in recent years and a real sense that impeaching Trump is simply the right thing to do. Warren and Harris are now giving Democrats license to pursue the latter course — to make this a moral calculation rather than the political one Pelosi has argued in favor of. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Dr TK Whitaker turned 99 this week– on Tuesday, December 8th – and the accolade of Irishman of the Twentieth Century, which the public voted to name him in 2001, seems, in the light of recent revelations about the public life of this country, more than deserved. Widely regarded as the architect of modern Ireland, his was the quiet presence, the rational and informed voice, behind many of the events that have shaped recent Irish history.
Born in Rostrevor, Co Down, he went south as a six-year-old when his family moved to Drogheda, where his potential was first nurtured at the local Christian Brothers school.
Family financial constraints meant he was unable to pursue a preferred medical career, and in 1934 joined the Civil Service, entering at the basic clerical-officer grade. His talent ensured his rapid promotion, and in 1956, aged 39, he become secretary of the Department of Finance.
In 1958, against a background of economic stagnation, and motivated by “a sense of anxiety and urgency about Ireland’s economic and political future”, he wrote Economic Development, a blueprint for the economic regeneration of the country.
Detailed, meticulous and comprehensive, Economic Development surveyed the Irish economy, from agriculture to tourism, examining its deficiencies as well as its potential. The document offered radical remedies: the replacement of unproductive by productive capital expenditure, the introduction of free trade, and an end to the isolation and protectionism of the previous era.
But, above all, Economic Development offered hope for the future and a way out of Ireland’s economic quagmire. Economic Development and the White Paper that derived from it, The First Programme for Economic Expansion, led to a period of unparalleled constructive growth and optimism.
In these more self-serving times it is of interest to note that Economic Development was undertaken on a voluntary basis, Ken Whitaker and his team working on their own time, without expectation of monetary or promotional recompense. In this age of entitlement and bonuses, such civic-minded motivation seems sadly anachronistic.
During the 1960s Whitaker spearheaded Ireland’s convoluted path towards membership of the European Economic Community (as the European Union was then known), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In the 1970s, under his governorship, the Central Bank of Ireland was transformed into a dynamic and effective institution, which he guided through many economic upheavals, including two international oil crises.
At the start of his term as governor he gave notice that the Central Bank would be “a warning light” and that it might also have “unpalatable things” to say. From the start he set out to preserve the bank’s autonomy from both government and the commercial banking sector.
In 1970 Whitaker successfully resisted government attempts to obtain statutory control over credit policy, a move that, he said, he “could not regard as being in the national interest” and that would leave him with no option but to resign if persisted with.
Warning light
The later malfunction of that “warning light” and the lack of “unpalatable words” emanating from Dame Street during the reckless credit-creating years of the Celtic Tiger left Whitaker perplexed and appalled. His words to the current governor, Patrick Honohan – “I’m counting on you to save the country from national humiliation” – expressed the depth of his disappointment at the apparent failure of the Central Bank to discharge its obligations.
Although he is the first to acknowledge the immense changes that have in recent times revolutionised the financial and banking sectors, it is difficult not to imagine that, under his stewardship, the warning light would have been flashing in Dame Street long before the banking collapse.
Between 1967 and 1997 Whitaker played a seminal behind-the-scenes role in the search for peace in Northern Ireland. Born in the North and abhorring violence, he helped in 1965 to arrange the historic meeting between Seán Lemass, the taoiseach, and Terence O’Neill, the prime minister of Northern Ireland, at Stormont Castle.
In 1969, amid the carnage, rioting and tear gas, he wrote Jack Lynch’s famous Tralee speech, which publicly, and for the first time, committed the Irish government to a policy of reunification by consent.
One of his policy documents, Northern Ireland: A Possible Solution, written in 1971, became the template for future policy, culminating in the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
Whitaker’s service to the State did not stop on his retirement from public office, in 1976. He has been a member of both the Seanad and the Council of State, was chancellor of the National University of Ireland for 20 years and was chairman of Bord na Gaeilge. More than 40 organisations have benefited from the wisdom he volunteered to share.
Today Whitaker is an example of positive ageing. His continuing interest in public affairs, his openness to new ideas, his generosity and good humour are notable. He is sanguine about reputation, noting “that if you live long enough you would either be canonised or found out – the worst fate being found out after you are canonised”.
In him we are reminded of what is best in all of us, as a society and as individuals. His words from 1969 are still relevant: “Let us remember that we are not seeking economic progress for purely materialistic reasons but because it makes possible relief of hardship and want, the establishment of a better social order, the raising of human dignity and, eventually, the participation of all . . . in the benefits, moral and cultural, as well as material, of spending their lives and bringing up their families in Ireland.”
Anne Chambers is author of TK Whitaker: Portrait of a Patriot (Doubleday Ireland); you can read an extract at bit.ly/1QeFJTc TK Whitaker was the first participant in the ‘Irish Times’ Generations series; the interview is at irishtimes.com/generations | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Now living in South East Asia where the population of Asian ethnicity are the significant majority, I feel like most of my existing accumulated collections of cutouts and entourages would be somewhat alien/foreign inside renders targeted to local audiences.
So I made a few of me and my friends; for anyone/everyone to use for visualizations in your architectural/design projects for free - for any other uses, please contact me first(!) at [email protected].
To download, click on the any of the images, right click and click 'Save Image As...'. All images are in .PNG. Stay tuned, I'll upload more monthly. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Luís Montenegro nunca admitiu publicamente ser maçon, tal como nunca admitiu estar na linha da frente para substituir Pedro Passos Coelho como líder do PSD. Mas, da mesma forma que todos sabemos que ele está a ser empurrado por Miguel Relvas, Marco António Costa e até mesmo, com maior ou menor empenho, por Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa e Luís Marques Mendes, também quase toda a gente sabe que Luís Montenegro pertence (ou, pelo menos, pertenceu) à famosa Loja Mozart, cujos insignes membros eram uma mistura explosiva de altos quadros da Ongoing e dos serviços secretos portugueses.
Esta afirmação não é um diz-que-disse, mas a reprodução de várias notícias e uma dedução elementar efectuada a partir da postura que Luís Montenegro adoptou quando, em 2012, foi confrontado com a sua filiação maçónica. O PÚBLICO noticiou no início desse ano ter tido acesso a uma lista de participantes num encontro da loja Mozart49 onde constava o nome de Montenegro, tal como os nomes dos dois mais altos quadros da Ongoing de então (Nuno Vasconcelos e Rafael Mora), do famoso espião Jorge Silva Carvalho, e ainda de Agostinho Branquinho, ex-deputado do PSD. Um quinteto de luxo. Questionado repetidamente pelos jornalistas acerca da sua obediência a uma loja maçónica, Montenegro nunca a confirmou nem desmentiu, limitando-se a afirmar que “nenhum interesse particular” poderia pôr alguma vez em causa a sua “submissão primeira e única ao interesse nacional”.
Muito bonito, mas a questão persiste: faz ou não sentido, em 2017, uma figura pública com ambições de chegar a primeiro-ministro fazer parte da maçonaria? O caso não diz respeito apenas a Montenegro. Um dos principais críticos de Passos Coelho dentro do PSD, Pedro Duarte, também fez parte, segundo a imprensa, da mesma loja Mozart, de onde terá saído quando a coincidência entre o uso de avental e os negócios mal explicados começou a tomar uma dimensão inaceitável. Se nos lembrarmos que Miguel Relvas é ele próprio um destacado maçon, e que hoje em dia é o principal promotor de um PSD pós-Passos Coelho (a quem nunca perdoou a saída do governo), esta investida maçónica não revela nada de bom. Mas o meu ponto aqui nem sequer é esse – é saber como é que se justifica que um primeiro-ministro, necessariamente alvo do mais apertado escrutínio disponível em democracia, faça parte de uma sociedade secreta com as suas próprias regras hierárquicas. A minha resposta é só uma: não se justifica. Um maçon não deve chegar a primeiro-ministro.
Estamos em 2017, não em 1917, em 1817 ou em 1717, quando o secretismo da maçonaria era uma forma de autoprotecção. Eu conheço a argumentação em torno da subtil diferença entre “sociedade secreta” e “sociedade discreta”, tal como os magníficos princípios que devem nortear a vida de um maçon. Reconheço igualmente o papel importante que a Maçonaria desempenhou na promoção da escolaridade em Portugal, sobretudo durante a Primeira República. Mas a existência de um segredo maçónico e de regras de fraternidade próprias e indisponíveis ao escrutínio público não são compatíveis com as exigências de um cargo de primeiro-ministro. Pior que isso: nas últimas décadas o nome de várias lojas maçónicas apareceu ligado a demasiados casos de polícia, sendo impossível não considerar que a sua opacidade, a sua influência e os seus pactos deram cobertura a práticas ilegítimas. Montenegro e Pedro Duarte devem escolher: ou maçons ou candidatos a primeiro-ministro. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Een recordaantal van 1.608 Belgen heeft in de eerste zeven maanden van dit jaar spontaan zijn buren, zijn ex, een collega of een familielid verklikt bij de fiscus. Daarmee zet de trend van de voorbije jaren zich verder.
Dat blijkt uit nieuwe cijfers van de overheidsdienst Financiën, die tot eind juli lopen, en waar De Standaard inzage in kreeg. Dat is ruim meer dan de 1.127 klachten in de eerste zes maanden van 2013. Het gaat om spontane meldingen die versnipperd binnenlopen op minstens één van de verschillende centrale diensten van de overheid en nadien worden samengeteld.
Een mogelijke verklaring is dat de crisis het rechtvaardigheidsgevoel bij de bevolking aangescherpt heeft. ‘Wij werken het niet in de hand’, luidt het bij de fiscus.
Iets minder dan één op de drie verklikkingen gebeurt anoniem. En vaak gaat het om een bekende: een buur, een vroegere echtgenoot, een familielid, voormalige collega’s, een ex-werkgever...
Maar dat betekent lang niet altijd dat er ook echt sprake is van fraude. 'Soms bevat de informatie amper iets bruikbaars’, zegt Francis Adyns, woordvoerder van de overheidsdienst Financiën. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Whether we are a cryptocurrency enthusiast or a cryptocurrency hater, one feature of crypto which is embraced by everyone in the planet is the privacy and anonymity of a transaction provided by the cryptocurrencies. We do not want the whole world to know whether I am buying a lambo or living my life on Ramens. But not all cryptocurrencies provide the same amount of privacy, take Bitcoin for an example, all transactions using it are permanently open for anyone to view on their public blockchain. In order to overcome this drawback of the most senior cryptocurrency many other cryptocurrencies cropped up and PIVX is one of them.
I selected “PIVX(Private Instant Verified Transaction)” for this week’s extensive coin research topic primarily because of two reasons:
a) It is really showing some great progress to become one of the best privacy-focused coins.
b) It has great potential to become a good short-term as well as a long-term investment.
Although like any other coin it also has some drawbacks and I will discuss all the positives and negatives of having PIVX in your portfolio one-by-one point-wise.
First things first, no matter what a coin has promised to do, we need to checkout whether the team behind it has the potential to pull it off or not, hence the first point to be discussed is the team!
People behind PIVX: PIVX has listed 24 people in their webpage as their team members and 6 of them are listed as developers. One thing that I really liked about their team page is that they have tried to maintain a diversified team and their team covers all the important aspects that need to be covered by any early stage venture. They have four developers who work with the core code and they also maintain a certain level of anonymity. You can find some detailed information on who are the developers and how they justify their decision to be anonymous in this Reddit thread. From an investor’s perspective it is not really good to have a completely anonymous team as at the end of the day they can run away with our money but at the same time most cryptocurrencies have a team of anonymous developers. So I decided to dig a little dipper and found a podcast of one of their lead developers, but no personal information is available over the internet. The co-founders s3v3n h4cks and Coin Server seem to keep their identity as private as the transaction completed by their coin PIVX.
The documentation AKA Purple Paper: The thing that is most important when I take a look at some coin’s whitepaper is it’s simplicity and whether it is written from a non-technical aspect or not. PIVX’s Purple paper has two parts and both parts are successful to make a non-technical person understand what the purpose of PIVX’s existance is. Also one more important thing that I would like to mention here is the way PIVX came up with their white paper. They actually created a public post and asked their community members to vote whether this white paper should be their official white paper and whether the author should be rewarded for his contribution. Such a transparent and community driven approach is really note-worthy and you can find the post here. One problem that I encountered in their white paper is that they haven’t discussed any numbers in it like market cap, maximum mineable coin or whether it has any hardcap or not. Any investor would like to know about the key numbers right from the coin’s white paper. Read our NEO blog to understand how NEO nailed this part!
The Partnerships: There aren’t many huge partnerships that I can talk about here but considering PIVX in itself is a very new coin they had their moments in the past few months. Here is a list of partnerships that helped PIVX to reach where they are today:
Small Technology Overview: Well I have a principle that I won’t discuss a lot about the technology because most of us don’t understand much of it but we should understand some core facts so that we can make some wise decisions based on it. Let’s checkout which technology facts are in favor of PIVX and which are not:
The technical upside:
It uses POS(Proof of stake) mechanism which is itself very efficient both from energy efficiency perspective and security perspective. PIVX also utilizes “masternodes” along with POS to reach consensus and provides more security but this combining technology has some serious issues when it comes to decentralization. In simple words masternodes do a lot of work to complete a transaction, hence they also get more rewards but this system rewards masternode owners above and beyond other users of the system and ultimately leads to a greater degree of centralization. To overcome this, PIVX has developed a unique “Seesaw Reward Balance System” that dynamically adjusts its block reward size between masternodes and staking nodes which ensure decentralization of the network. PIVX also uses ZEROCOIN PROTOCOL (zPIV) to make the transactions completely private and anonymous. This has many advantages as mentioned in their white paper:
zPIV can hide your coin balance from prying eyes protecting you from being targeted. So your zPIV balance isn’t linked to any particular address.
zPIV can hide the transaction history of the coins being sent. Source & target addresses aren’t visible making it private, safe & fungible.
zPIV anonymous transactions are very fast. It takes as little as 0.5 seconds to mint and 2.5 seconds to spend zPIV.
Automatic conversion to zPIV is enabled by default but transparent transfer option is still available. It means that you can always send a fully transparent transaction when required.
The technical downside: No such technical downside that I could point out here maybe future will tell you this. They are currently working with many custom protocols and we need to monitor closely as to how they will proceed in the future.
Roadmap and product development:
This is my favorite portion of the article where I get to ask a few key questions and I believe every investor should ask these questions before investing in a coin.
How long have they been working on the project?
PIVX was originally created and forked from DASH in February 2016, it was originally called Darknet (DNET). Then during the next one year they generated huge community engagement and finally rebranded to PIVX. So they have been working on the project for the past two years. All the key members of the team are still fairly active so that is a good sign.
2. How active is their Github repository?
Active github repository is an indication that the community is very active and you can expect a rise in price in a steady manner. They rank 67th when it comes to the number of commits in the past 12 months. They are way ahead of their competitors like DASH(116th), Verge(89th) and Cloak(260th) but Monero beats them in this aspect as they rank 31st.
3. Were they able to deliver what they had promised in the past?
In one word YES. They have managed to achieve almost whatever they had promised in the past. From releasing wallet for most of OSs to maintaining it , from developing improved POS to integrating ZEROCOIN protocol they have always delivered. This is one Reddit post where you will find people complaining about their hyper-active development process but this actually an indication of how dedicated the develpment team is.
The Roadmap: If you are really excited after learning how much they have achieved in the past, just read their roadmap here, I’m sure it will make you super excited. We have seen it many a times in the past that whenever there is a new update a coin’s price surges and PIVX has many such events lined up in 2018. Here are a few of them:-
1.Deterministic zPIV Wallet
2. zPIV Staking (zPoS)
3. New QT Wallet Design 4. zPIV Decentralized Exchange (zDEX) 5. I2P Network Integration
Responsiveness and Community engagement: PIVX has a very high social presence and their community members are really active. The core members of the development team are always hanging around different social channels and always willing to answer questions. One thing that I have observed is that they are very aggressive when it comes to defend their coin. In PIVX all the key decisions are taken after consulting the community members and they believe in a community-driven approach. You always can take part in the decision-making process and get to know about all the core things that are being developed. These are the stats that you might find helpful(at the time of writing): Reddit followers: 7880(also they have weekly discussion thread) Twitter followers: 60.7K Discord : Very active community and instant access to their community They have a very thriving forum (hosted in pivx website) and you can also subscribe to newsletter to get updates. Listing Exchanges: Don’t consider the number of exchanges, instead in this case, you need to consider trading volume of the listing exchanges. PIVX is currently listed in 14 exchanges : Bittrex , Binance and Upbit have very good trading volume. You can check the other exchanges in Coinmarketcap PIVX is coming up with their own decentralized exchange(The PIVX Core wallet will provide a fully decentralized and anonymous exchange for zPIV and Bitcoin) in 2018 and this would allow PIVX to be more liquid in the future.
The Numbers: PIVX Coin SupplyPIVX doesn’t have a finite coin supply cap like Bitcoin or DASH. Now the immediate question should be “Won’t this devalue my investment?”. You can get the answer right from their FAQ section. There they have mentioned “During the creation of PIVX, it had always been a a decision for PIVX to be a true currency with no hard cap coin supply, just as the Federal Reserve Banks. Unlike the government countries currencies, PIVX rewards it’s users instead of devaluing their savings through inflation.”So how do they achieve it? They don’t have a “hardcap” but they do have a “softcap” i.e. PIVX’s supply increases every year by approx 2.6 million. In this aspect PIVX is unique as it is a limitless coin with a limit, the miners will always keep getting reward but the coin will only have 4% infaltion. PIVX can make both the HODLers and miners happy. They achieve the softcap by burning the transaction fees, you can learn more about it here. PIVX Market Cap At the point of writing this article, the total available circulating supply of PIVX is approximately 55,928,68 PIVX units, and the price of each unit of PIVX is worth $3.91. Hence, the market capitalization of PIVX is $219 million. Although PIVX has shifted downwards since October 2017(29th), PIVX is currently sitting at the 54th position in the list of cryptocurrencies by market capitalization with huge potential for growth. Another important number that can make you really excited is that after its rebranding PIVX has surged +54,118.75% wthin one year. Now that’s a huge return if you had invested earlier.
This is the way I research a coin before making any investment decision and I am super excited to know how and what you dig about a coin. But this is not an investment suggestion as you should always conduct your own research before investing in any coin as it is your hard-earned money. I will soon be back with another coin or token in the next week till then perform your own research on PIVX and let me know what I have missed in the comment section. Also let me know if you have any coin suggestions for me. Lastly don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive all the updates about more coins and SHUFFLUP.
Written by
Shilpa Mitra, @shilpamitr
Co-founder at SHUFFLUP-Go-to platform for all Cryptocurrency trading and arbitrage related information
Loves to read, write programs to solve problems and about new emerging technologies. When she is doing none of these, she watches cricket and dog videos. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
【5月21日 AFP】警視庁が開発した防犯アプリ「Digi Police（デジポリス）」が人気を集めている。ダウンロード数は23万7000件を超え、公共機関のアプリとしては異例のヒットだという。
デジポリスの機能を利用すると、痴漢に遭った時に大音量で「やめてください」という音を発することができるほか、「痴漢です助けてください」という画面を表示して周囲に助けを求めることもできる。
AFPの取材に応じた警視庁の鳥谷峯慶子（Keiko Toyamine）氏によると、ダウンロード数は月1万件近くまで増えているという。(c)AFP | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Donald Trump is already delivering on threats to resurrect the scandals of Bill Clinton’s presidency against Hillary, and they go way beyond Monica Lewinsky
Donald Trump has promised to resurrect the scandals (and pseudo-scandals) of Bill Clinton’s presidency in his battle with the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, this year.
Trump has Bill Clinton's past in his sights – how should Hillary respond? Read more
And he has already begun, this week releasing an attack ad that raised allegations of sexual harassment or assault by the former president. Some of those accusations may be familiar to readers, as might Clinton’s impeachment and his affair with Monica Lewinsky. But only Washington insiders will recall the ins-and-outs of Travelgate and Furnituregate, while Trump’s reference to Vince Foster conspiracy theories this week may have had many scratching their heads. If that was you, allow us to refresh your memory.
Gennifer Flowers
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gennifer Flowers blows a kiss to television host Larry King in 1998. Photograph: David Mcnew/Reuters
Former Arkansas state employee and longtime Clinton friend Gennifer Flowers told the supermarket tabloid the Star in January 1992 that she’d had a 12-year affair with Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas and running for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Clintons appeared together on 60 Minutes and Bill copped to causing “pain” in his marriage but denied the affair; Flowers held a press conference to play audio tapes she said would confirm it did happen.
They didn’t and, since Flowers was reportedly paid to share her story, the scandal failed to sink the Clinton candidacy. Flowers went on to pose for Penthouse, release a tell-all biography, become a cabaret singer and sex advice columnist and, in 2012, told a New Orleans television station that she was developing a reality TV show.
But in 1998, Clinton did admit in a deposition with Paula Jones’s lawyers (more on that later) that he had had a one-night stand with Flowers in 1977.
Travelgate
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bill Clinton delivers his inaugural address after being sworn in 20 January 1993. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
The fact that firing people who worked at the White House – for whatever reason – became a political scandal fanned by Republicans necessitating investigations by Congress and an independent counsel should have been an indication to the Clintons that Washington DC was not welcoming to outsiders.
In 1993, Bill Clinton – and, by extension, Hillary Clinton – inherited what could charitably be called a mess in the White House travel office, which was in charge of booking travel and accommodations for the White House press corps and charging media outlets for the trips.
Billy Dale had led the office since 1982 and used a handwritten ledger to record his estimates of the cost of travel and telecommunications services used by the traveling press corps as well as payments, credits and refunds from providers. He did not use a competitive bidding process when choosing providers and, most problematically, he started depositing refunds issued by service providers – intended for disbursement to the media companies – into his own personal account in 1988 to cover the cost of what are euphemistically called facilitation payments to foreign airport and hotel employees.
The full extent of the problems was not known when Clinton took office; however, the press corps had been complaining about the soaring costs of covering the president.
Just before Clinton took office, Catherine Cornelius, a distant cousin of Clinton’s who had arranged travel during the 1992 campaign, proposed outsourcing the White House travel office to World Wide Travel Inc, the Little Rock firm with which she had worked during the campaign. David Watkins, the campaign staffer who took charge of such matters in the administration, attended some meetings and eventually hired Cornelius, who wrote memos suggesting they could save more than $200,000 by outsourcing.
Meanwhile, Hollywood producer Harry Thomason, a longtime Clinton friend who had a financial interest in an air consulting firm (which had worked with the Clinton campaign), a White House pass and an office in the White House’s East Wing, offered his advice on events. He and his business partner in the airline firm, Darnell Martens, soon discovered that Dale did not use a competitive bidding process to book flights, and let Hillary Clinton and others in the White House know.
Lawyers, including William Kennedy and Vince Foster, were called in, an audit recommended and the lawyers went to the FBI to request an investigation. The FBI hesitated; at that point, the White House counsel threatened to call in the IRS to investigate and Cornelius, who had been furtively copying Dale’s records and bringing them home, told the FBI that she suspected financial improprieties beyond the non-competitive bidding process.
After KPMG conducted an audit and found discrepancies – including $18,200 in petty cash unaccounted for – the staff of the travel office was fired by Watkins and the White House announced that the FBI was investigating.
Eventually, Dale was charged with embezzlement, tried and acquitted. Claims were made that the FBI investigation was instigated in bad faith to justify the firings (which came after), Watkins himself was fired (in 1994) for misusing a chartered helicopter for a golf trip and a memo he wrote blaming Hillary Clinton for demanding the firings surfaced during the Whitewater investigation (because everything surfaced during the Whitewater investigation).
But the third Whitewater investigator – yes, there were three – looking into whether the staffers were fired so they could be replaced with employees the Clintons preferred found no evidence that proved beyond a doubt that Hillary Clinton had any direct role in the firings or that anything had been covered up, long after the Clintons found five of the fired staffers other government jobs and a sixth was allowed to retire.
The office’s functions, in the end, were put out for a competitive bidding process; costs continued to go up.
Vince Foster’s suicide
Vince Foster served as deputy counsel to the president in 1993, and was seeking a private attorney at the time of his death because of his involvement in the Travelgate scandal. His sister, breaking more than 20 years of silence, wrote this week in the Washington Post that her brother had called her shortly before his death to tell her that he was severely depressed but concerned that seeking help would affect his security clearance. (Until changes in 1995, 2008 and 2013, it was believed, not without reason, that acknowledging treatment for mental health could affect one’s ability to get or maintain a security clearance.)
Foster killed himself in a park in McLean, Virginia, just days later. Within weeks, conspiracy theorists suggested that the Clintons had been involved in his death because of what he might have known about Whitewater or worse.
The conspiracy theories were all thoroughly investigated, despite little evidence suggesting anything other than suicide at the scene. Over the course of three years, two separate Whitewater independent counsels and two bipartisan congressional panels conducted separate investigations and concluded, again and again, that Foster took his own life.
Filegate
In 1996, while investigating Travelgate, congressional investigators discovered that, starting in 1993, the White House had improperly obtained access to hundreds of FBI files on former White House employees, including some fairly senior Republicans and Billy Dale, the fired travel office employee.
Though the staffers who requested the files – Craig Livingstone and Anthony Marceca – said that they had requested the files because they were on an outdated list of employees provided by the secret service, no one believed them. Both resigned.
Undeterred, congressional investigators and the independent counsels looked into whether Livingstone had been hired because of a special familial connection to Hillary Clinton, whether the Clintons themselves (particularly Hillary) or very senior staffers had reviewed the files, and whether anybody had lied about anything.
A fingerprint analysis completed in 1996 backed up Hillary Clinton’s statements that she had not reviewed the files.
Still, it took four years until the third independent counsel appointed to investigate the Clintons exonerated them and senior White House officials and found that no one had lied about anything. It took another 10 years for a federal judge to dismiss the final civil lawsuit against the FBI and the Clintons in the affair.
Whitewater
The furthest-reaching scandal of the Clinton era – and the only one to result in successful criminal charges against anyone – was named after a 1978 partnership between Bill (then the Arkansas attorney general) and Hillary Clinton and James and Susan McDougal to buy 220 acres of land in the Ozarks and develop it as vacation properties – which they named Whitewater Development Corp.
The Clintons remained, by their account and that of the McDougals, passive investors, and their partnership eventually went bust in 1992. The Clintons lost about $40,000 on the deal; the McDougals lost more, despite a 50-50 split at the beginning of the partnership.
This became a scandal because, after forming the partnership, James McDougal bought an Arkansas savings and loan in 1982, renaming the financial institution Madison Guaranty; Clinton became Arkansas governor for the second time later that same year.
By 1985, Bill Clinton had been re-elected twice, federal regulators were looking into the finances at Madison, and McDougal hired Hillary Clinton’s law firm, Rose, to represent them.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr. Photograph: Joel Rennich/AP
In 1986, Susan McDougal took out a loan for $300,000 from former judge Bill Hale, backed by the Small Business Administration and intended for minority business owners, eventually funnelling it to her husband and through Whitewater. (After his indictment in 1996, Hale claimed that Bill Clinton had pressured him to make the loan; Clinton denied the allegations.)
In 1989, Madison – like many other poorly managed savings and loans of the era – went under and was bailed out by the federal government. James McDougal was tried and acquitted on federal fraud charges related to management of a Madison real estate subsidiary.
Then, in June 1993, Vince Foster, acting as the Clintons’ lawyer, filed late tax returns for Whitewater; he killed himself in July and, after his death, some of the files related to Whitewater were removed from his office.
And in October 1993, the Resolution Trust Company, established to clean up after the savings and loan defaults across the country, recommended further criminal charges be brought in the Madison case and noted that Clinton, as governor, both oversaw Madison and might have benefited from some of its dealings.
Eventually, both McDougals, Hale and Clinton’s successor as governor, Jim Guy Tucker, were all convicted of various fraud charges related to Madison. Walter Hubbell, a partner in Hillary Clinton’s law firm and a Bill Clinton appointee, was additionally convicted of fraud committed against the firm. Hillary Clinton, who had done 60 hours of legal work for Madison, was not found to have broken any laws.
The second independent counsel, Kenneth Starr, eventually admitted that they did not have enough evidence to prosecute Bill Clinton for perjury in the case, let alone anything else.
The investigations cost in total nearly $80m.
Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky and the impeachment
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A White House photo taken in November 1995 of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Photograph: Rex Features
In May 1994, Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, filed a sexual harassment suit against Bill Clinton in which she alleged that in 1991 he had her escorted to a hotel room, ran his hand up her leg, attempted to kiss her neck and finally sat on a sofa, exposed himself and invited her to “kiss it”. She further alleged that his denials amounted to defamation, and asked for $750,000 in damages.
Clinton’s lawyers argued that any trial should be postponed until after the president left office; in May 1997, the US supreme court disagreed.
In August, the judge in the case set a May 1998 trial date and dismissed the defamation charges. Jones’s original lawyers then withdrew from the case over her refusal to accept a settlement, and lawyers from the conservative Rutherford Institute took over her case in September 1997.
While the case was winding its way through the courts, Bill Clinton began a consensual sexual relationship with a then 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Though the pair exchanged gifts, their access to one another was limited to time at the White House and their intimate relationship – this becomes relevant – was limited to oral and digital stimulation. Bill Clinton allegedly ended that part of their relationship in May 1997; Lewinsky had been telling a friend, Linda Tripp, about their relationship, not suspecting that Tripp was taping their conversations.
In October 1997, an anonymous source tipped off the Rutherford lawyers to the affair between Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton; the lawyers subpoenaed Tripp on 24 November and listed Lewinsky as a potential trial witness on 5 December. Lewinsky signed an affidavit that she had never had a sexual relationship with Clinton and submitted it to Jones’s lawyers on 12 January 1998 – the same day Tripp took her infamously taped conversations with Lewinsky to independent counsel Starr.
Starr then requested and received permission to investigate Lewinsky and possible perjury in the Jones case on 16 January, after which they had Tripp lure Lewinsky to a meeting for the FBI to intercept her. They questioned her, and threatened her with criminal charges unless she agreed to cooperate with the investigation.
Clinton, then, denied having sexual relations – as strictly, but strangely, defined by Jones’s lawyers – with Lewinsky in a deposition on 17 January 1998, setting the stage for the perjury charge underlying his eventual impeachment.
By 21 January, every major news outlet was reporting on Starr’s investigation into the affair with Lewinsky; before the end of the month, the judge in the Jones case barred all evidence related to Lewinsky from the trial, ruling that it could disrupt the larger investigation.
In March 1993, Jones’s lawyers, in an effort to fight dismissal of the case, filed depositions from Kathleen Willey, several Arkansas state troopers, Gennifer Flowers and Dolly Kyle Browning, alleging that Clinton’s actions amounted to a pattern of behavior towards women relevant to the suit.
They later filed a 1992 letter in which Phillip Yaokum addressed a woman – now known to be Juanita Broaddrick – and asked her to come forward about being allegedly raped by Clinton in the late 1970s. (In 1999 Clinton’s attorney denied the allegations on his behalf.)
Still, on 1 April 1998, the judge threw out Jones’s case and, in late July, Jones appealed – just after Lewinsky submitted to her first extensive interview with Starr’s office and received immunity from prosecution.
On 17 August 1998, Clinton testified before the grand jury that his deposition in the Jones case had been accurate because of what he had thought the definition of “sexual relations” had been in the case, and that Lewinsky’s affidavit had been accurate because a sexual relationship includes intercourse and they had not had it. He did admit to “inappropriate intimate contact” that had ended “in early 1997”.
In the end, the only recommended charges in the Whitewater investigation were listed in Ken Starr’s September 1998 report and pertained exclusively to Clinton’s alleged dishonesty under oath about his conduct with Monica Lewinsky. Clinton ended up settling out of court with Jones to the tune of $850,000 on 13 November 1998.
On the first day of Clinton’s impeachment hearings – 17 November 1998 – Starr exonerated the Clintons in the Travelgate and Filegate scandals and admitted there wasn’t enough evidence to support charges in the Whitewater investigation.
Clinton was impeached on 11 December 1998 on the basis of the Starr report; after a trial in the Senate, he was acquitted in February 1999.
Furnituregate
In one final scandal, the Clintons left office in 2001 with $190,000 worth of personal gifts, including furniture and mementoes. When the list was published, some donors said they had thought their gifts were intended for the White House as an institution, not the Clintons as individuals; the Clintons agreed to return $48,000 in furniture and reimburse the government for another $89,000 in items possibly intended for the government’s use.
The House committee on government reform, led by Republican congressman Dan Burton, issued a report in 2002 that elucidated the many faults with the record-keeping processes for gifts and recommended reforms – and two items the Clintons turned in were actually returned to them in the end. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The NFL has been pushing American Football in the UK hard the past few years, but its international campaign appears to have skipped the vital step of teaching its teams where the country is.
A map infographic posted on Twitter (and later corrected slightly on its official website) makes three pretty glaring errors:
1. "The team and staff will take three planes" but there are only two journeys.
2. They are playing in the UK not eastern Spain.
3. The UK looks like this, not a Rorschach inkblot of a Pokemon.
It's as if the NFL's international series is a cynical attempt to make money and doesn't actually have anything to do with passion for the UK.
I almost feel bad for the Falcons, the rest of the infographic shows a lot of work by a lot of people has gone into this tour, only for someone to f*ck up the announcement on Photoshop. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Washington (CNN) Our weekly roundup of the news, notes and chatter about the prospects for the next Democratic presidential race:
It's as if former Vice President Joe Biden never really left the political stage.
Presidentrolled out an Afghanistan strategy Monday night that looked eerily like what Biden advocated unsuccessfully in the early days of former President's administration: A heavy focus on Pakistan; no nation-building efforts; an emphasis on training the Afghan army and a precise, surgical focus on eliminating terrorists.
On Thursday, Biden unveiled the title -- "Promise Me, Dad" -- and a bit about his book due out November 14. It'll be heavily focused on his son,, who died in 2015. The former vice president told People : "Honor, duty, responsibility: the values that Beau held dear are the things that continue to inspire us as a family every day. I wanted to share that. And in sharing it, I hope I can help others who have endured what we've endured to find hope, solace and purpose."
Biden's kept an active travel schedule, too. He'll speak at Guilford College in North Carolina on September 17, and then at a Charleston NAACP dinner in South Carolina on September 23. There's the "American Promise" book tour kicking off November 13 in New York City -- a website promoting the book lays out the dates. Then there's a series of leadership conferences in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal that will take him to Canada three times in October and November.
Last time Biden weighed in on politics on Twitter was August 12, taking a swing at Trump over his Charlottesville, Virginia, comments. "There is only one side," Biden tweeted
News and notes:
Bernie Sanders is set to be its face. In SANDERS' 'FIGHT FOR $15' PUSH: The Service Employees International Union and the grassroots "Fight for $15" effort it supports are launching a new campaign to bolster organized labor ahead of the 2018 midterms -- and Vermont Sen.is set to be its face. In a video released Friday morning , Sanders speaks direct to camera for more than two minutes. "There are only two ways for workers to win higher pay," he says, highlighting the struggles of a nursing assistant in Iowa. "Number one, we've got to increase the minimum wage. And second of all, we have got build strong trade unions."
It's no surprise that Sanders would back the SEIU here; he's a longtime proponent of labor rights and unions. More interesting is how tightly the SEIU, which endorsed Hillary Clinton in November 2015 even as she wavered in backing a $15 minimum wage, is hugging Sanders as it seeks to reassert organized labor power in states like Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan. It's one sign that Sanders as a 2020 candidate would command a lot of union support.
CUBAN ON 2020: 'IT'S POSSIBLE.' When Business Insider emailed Mark Cuban about a poll that shows him leading Trump, the Dallas Mavericks owner responded, in part: "I would only run if I can come up with solutions for health care, the plight of working families, and reducing the stress levels of our country. It's possible . When I have something to offer, I will."
Julian Castro's 2020 ambitions could prevent his twin brother, Rep. Joaquin Castro, from running for Texas governor in 2018. One interesting 2020 tidbit, from Dovere: "Julian has talked to many people about the lack of national Democratic figures to channel the rising power of Latinos, and how well-positioned he believes he is to occupy that space." CASTRO SEES A 2020 LANE: LATINOS. Politico's Edward-Isaac Dovere has a story on how former Housing and Urban Development secretary's 2020 ambitions could prevent his twin brother, Rep., from running for Texas governor in 2018. One interesting 2020 tidbit, from Dovere: "Julian has talked to many people about the lack of national Democratic figures to channel the rising power of Latinos, and how well-positioned he believes he is to occupy that space."
Tim Ryan TIM RYAN NOT RULING OUT 2020: In an interview with WMUR in New Hampshire, Ohio Rep. left the door wide open to a 2020 presidential campaign. He said: "I like being out around the country. I like talking about this. I like crafting the message, and I think, you know, maybe the country needs somebody from a place like Youngstown, Ohio, that has tried to develop the local economy at the local level."
— How would Ryan fare? Here's a note one Democratic operative sent: "He was in Polk County recently and, in a room full of progressive Democrats, spoke out against talking about the minimum wage and instead talking about high-paying jobs of the future. He got a great ovation and many liked his candor and bluntness -- he talks like a real person and people like the fact he's willing to take on the establishment."
— But Ryan would still have to build an organization -- something it's not clear he can do. Challenging Nancy Pelosi for House Democratic leader as a conservative alternative could hurt him with the primary electorate, too. And another Democratic operative offered a dimmer view of Ryan, saying: "Ryan likes to complain about the Democratic Party and Party leadership but he's never done anything to help." That operative said Ryan compares negatively to Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, who also criticizes party leadership but is seen as playing a larger fundraising and recruiting role. Both will be in Iowa in late September for the Polk County Steak Fry.
VILLARAIGOSA: HARRIS IS RUNNING. Former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was blunt on MSNBC last weekend when asked whether California Sen. Kamala Harris has a stake in the state's gubernatorial election, in which Villaraigosa is a candidate. "She's going to be knocking on doors in Iowa, I expect," he said.
Jay Inslee -- who many Democratic operatives are quick to mention as an emerging voice in the party -- combined the debate over Confederate monuments with warnings that the Trump administration could end Obama's protections for "Dreamers." He INSLEE ON DACA: Washington Gov.-- who many Democratic operatives are quick to mention as an emerging voice in the party -- combined the debate over Confederate monuments with warnings that the Trump administration could end Obama's protections for "Dreamers." He wrote in a CNN op-ed : "Are we a confident, forward-looking nation that builds monuments -- like DACA -- to hope and determination? Or are we a nation that is turned inward, lauding monuments to intolerance and division?"
Tom Steyer's NextGen America is pumping seven figures into a national immigration Legal Services Network, the super PAC STEYER'S GROUP'S LATEST EFFORT: Billionaire environmentalist's NextGen America is pumping seven figures into a national immigration Legal Services Network, the super PAC announced this week . The group, Steyer said, "will not silently stand by as the Trump administration tries to tear families apart." It's another indication of what Steyer told us recently, amid speculation about a run for office: His head is fully in national issues
From the right:
Jeff Flake. And Flake is striking back. Asked in a radio interview about whether Trump will face a GOP primary challenge in 2020, Flake said: "I think that the way that -- the direction he's headed right now, just kinda drilling down on the base rather than trying to expand the base -- WILL TRUMP FACE A PRIMARY? The President is plotting against Arizona Republican Sen.. And Flake is striking back. Asked in a radio interview about whether Trump will face a GOP primary challenge in 2020, Flake said: "I think that the way that -- the direction he's headed right now, just kinda drilling down on the base rather than trying to expand the base -- I think he's inviting one ."
Howard Schultz, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, John Kasich. Speaking of which... PREPARING FOR 2020: Trump's orbit is informally monitoring the activities of a large roster of potential Democratic 2020 prospects — the usual suspects, plus names like former Starbucks CEO, Facebook's, Massachusetts Rep.and Ohio Sen. reports Politico's Alex Isenstadt in a look at how Team Trump is gearing up for re-election. The Republican Trump world is most focused on as a potential challenger: Ohio Gov.. Speaking of which...
John Hickenlooper have entertained the idea of forming a unity presidential ticket to run for the White House in 2020, a source involved the discussions UNITY TICKET? Kasich and Colorado Democratic Gov.have entertained the idea of forming a unity presidential ticket to run for the White House in 2020, a source involved the discussions tells CNN's Mark Preston . Under this scenario, Kasich and Hickenlooper would run as independents with Kasich at the top of the ticket, said the source, who cautioned it has only been casually talked about.
The week ahead:
Jason Kander, the Let America Vote president, Saturday, August 26 —, the Let America Vote president, headlines the Louisiana Democratic Party's True Blue Gala in New Orleans, starting at 7 p.m. CT. (UPDATE: This event has been postponed due to Hurricane Harvey.)
Elizabeth Warren Monday, August 28 — Massachusetts Sen. speaks at the King Center in Atlanta at 6 p.m. ET at an event called "Women...the Soul of a Nation."
Bernie Sanders Thursday, August 31 — talks about his new book at the University of Iowa, at a 7 p.m. CT event sponsored by Prairie Lights, the Iowa City independent book store.
Amy Klobuchar Thursday, August 31 — Minnesota Sen. visits Iowa State University in Ames to speak at 7:30 p.m. CT in the Memorial Union Great Hall, as 2017's recipient of the Mary Louise Smith Chair of Women in Politics.
Michelle Obama Sunday, September 10 — One a little farther out, but worth having on your radar: speaks at Beth El Synagogue in Minneapolis about her tenure as first lady, in a moderated forum kicking off at 7 p.m. CT.
Before you go: | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The BBC presenter, who replaces David Dimbleby on Question Time, will host her first debate next week Mark Harrison for The Times
Fiona Bruce says she does not know how much she earns and rejects claims that BBC bosses chose her for Question Time because they wanted a woman.
The new role will make Bruce one of the highest paid staff members at the broadcaster but she confessed to not keeping track of her income.
“Because I’ve got four different jobs [with the BBC], I haven’t actually worked out where I’m going to end up,” she told The Times.
Bruce, 54, will take over from David Dimbleby next week when her first episode is broadcast on Thursday. She will continue to read the news and front Antiques Roadshow and the art history series Fake or Fortune?
It was not her idea to apply for the role, but… | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Hello From The Magic Tavern #77
This week I’m excited to meet Foon’s first Unicorn dentist.
Credits
Arnie: Arnie Niekamp
Chunt: Adal Rifai
Usidore: Matt Young
Baron Ragoon: Chris Rathjen
Squibbert: Sarah Shockey
Tricia: Kate James
Mysterious Man: Tim Sniffen
Craig: Ryan DiGiorgi
Producers: Arnie Niekamp, Evan Jacover, Ryan DiGiorgi
Editor: Ryan DiGiorgi
Theme Music: Andy Poland
Magic Tavern Logo: Allard Laban
Audio Assistance: Jason Knox
Production Assistant: Garrett Schultz
Come see us at the Now Hear This podcast festival: nowhearthisfest.com
This episode is sponsored by Cards Against Humanity, Mack Weldon, Dungeons and Dragons, and Drunks & Dragons. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The traditional system of policing the internet to keep kids from harmful content — and companies compliant with federal privacy laws — relies on the honor system.
A user is usually asked to check a box to verify that they’re over 13 or enter their birthday before they’re allowed to enter an age-restricted website. That’s a problem for companies who need to keep compliant with federal privacy law, said Dylan Collins, CEO of SuperAwesome, a company that builds safer internet products for children.
"It's easy to spoof if you're a child,” Collins said. “Of course you're going to say, 'I'm an adult.' The problem is, that is then taking kids into these adult environments, which might not have appropriate content. From a privacy perspective, it also means that all of their personal data is being captured.”
“Kids are then being tracked around the internet. There are laws in place that make that illegal."
To address this, SuperAwesome announced on Wednesday it has been quietly testing an artificial intelligence system on more than 300 indicators that can determine whether a child or an adult is browsing a website, negating the need for people to check a box and verify their age before entering a site.
Collins gave NBC News a demonstration of the new system at the Collision Conference in Toronto, an annual tech gathering with more than 25,000 attendees.
“The signals we use range from the physical device to the nature of the content and how the content is being interacted with, to where on the screen is being tapped,” he said. “A decision is being based on a minimum number of those data points depending on what the system can look at.”
The idea is for the system, which companies would have to license, to work in the background to determine whether a child or an adult is browsing on a website. If it determines the person browsing is a child, the company can then decide to trigger additional privacy controls that prevent it from collecting browsing information or soliciting personal data from the child on the site, allowing it to remain compliant with federal law.
The new age gate technology is currently being tested with some of SuperAwesome’s biggest partners. Collins declined to say who is a part of the initial test, but his kid-focused tech company works with some of the biggest brands in the world, including Nintendo, Activision and Hasbro.
But training AI requires a lot of data. Six years after the company was founded, Collins said it is now using the anonymous data it has collected that shows how kids interact with its products, which include PopJam, a platform where developers can build experiences that allow kids to like, comment and share content, and Kids Web Services, which simplifies the process of building apps, among others.
The number of children online increases by 175,000 every day, according to Unicef, which makes products like this especially important and needed, Collins said.
"We see anonymous engagement with these on a vast scale, so we are able to use that as a training platform to be able to output to something that is able to make an intelligent assessment about user behavior,” he said. "It's fair to say this is the accumulation of six years of building this company and everything we have seen in the universe of kids." | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A man was found dead outside at an apartment complex on Monday morning in Salisbury, according to officials.
Police say the body of 24-year-old Oscar Miguel Aguilera was found lying in the grass between two buildings at the Lakewood Apartment complex, off Statesville Boulevard. Aguilera lived in an apartment less than 25 yards from where his body was found.
According to police, Aguilera's body was discovered at around 7:11 a.m. Monday morning after he had been shot.
Detectives spent the morning and into the afternoon canvassing the area and using a metal detector to find evidence.
Aguilera's friends and family gathered at his home Monday. A family friend, Mariela Ortiz, said they're struggling to understand Aguilera's murder. “ They just did it to do it. He was a nice person, he didn't do drugs, he didn't mess with nobody ."
Friends say the victim was a father of two and was walking home from work through the grassy field near his home when he was shot.
Neighbors who live in the Lakewood Apartments say this kind of activity is unusual. " Very surprised that's not normal for around here. I'm not aware of anything like that ever happening here since I've been here,' resident Arch Hudgins said. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Da Redação | 10/03/2015, 10h10 - ATUALIZADO EM 10/03/2015, 22h32
Foi aprovado em reunião da Comissão de Ciência e Tecnologia (CCT), nesta manhã, o substitutivo ao Projeto de Lei do Senado (PLS) 18/2012, que estabelece que os usuários deverão ser alertados com antecedência mínima de 30 dias sobre fim de descontos em serviços de telecomunicações. Terminativo, o projeto segue para a Câmara.
Outros doze projetos de decreto legislativo para permissão e renovação de outorga de serviços de radiodifusão também foram aprovados pelos parlamentares. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
LANCASTER, Pa. -- Police used genealogical information from a close relative to identify the suspect in the rape and strangulation of an elementary school teacher in 1992. Authorities charged Raymond Charles Rowe, 49, Monday with Christy Mirack's long unsolved killing.
A Lancaster County detective accused Rowe, a popular DJ, of beating Mirack to death inside her home as she prepared to head to work teaching a sixth-grade class. She had suffered a broken jaw in addition to the strangulation and violent sexual assault.
"We never let this case go," but investigators had run out of suspects, said Lancaster District Attorney Craig Stedman. "This has not been easy. But one of the reasons we've stuck with it and never forgotten it is it's so disturbing."
Get Breaking News Delivered to Your Inbox
Stedman said that Rowe would not be eligible for bail, CBS Harrisburg affiliate WHP-TV reports.
The DNA left at the crime scene by the assailant never triggered a match, and Rowe had not been a suspect during years of investigation, Stedman said. In December 1992, Rowe lived about 4 miles from the apartment Mirack shared with a roommate. It's unclear if they knew each other.
Stedman recently hired a private company to use the DNA to search for relatives of the suspect, and that process identified Rowe.
"This killer was at liberty from this crime, this brutal crime, for longer than Christy Mirack was on this earth alive," Stedman said at a news conference. "And they steered us in the path of holding him finally accountable."
An undercover operation at an elementary school where he was performing on May 31 as DJ Freez produced a water bottle and gum he had used, and state police subsequently established an alleged genetic match.
Rowe was arrested at his home Monday and charged with criminal homicide. Court records did not identify a defense attorney, and a message left at his DJ business was not immediately returned.
Authorities said Mirack was found wearing a coat and gloves, suggesting she was about to leave her home when she was killed. A wooden cutting board, believed to have been used to attack her, was found by her body.
The principal of her elementary school, concerned Mirack had not shown up for work four days before Christmas and was not answering calls, discovered the body on her living room floor and called 911.
An autopsy found wounds to her neck, back, upper chest and face. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Recently, I came across a blog post asking whether it was time to "de-tape" my archive. The writer argued that for companies to find hidden value in all the data they've amassed, including archival data, they must deploy random access media -- disk or flash -- rather than sequential or serial access media aka tape. He supported this approach to the role of tape by recounting a couple of anonymous use cases that required fast access to archived data for a test-dev effort or to create custom sports video products.
Such use cases call into question the central thesis. One could argue data that needs to be referenced on a frequent basis, technically speaking, is no longer archival data. It has gone from cold -- to use IBM's terminology -- to warm or even hot. In other words, an archive platform, whether tape-based or not, isn't the proper platform for data that such a workload uses.
The question is not whether we should de-tape archives, but whether we should better define and classify which data is archival and which data is active.
The active archive? This takes us to a modification of the original thesis, as the author introduced the idea of an active archive that conflates what used to be called secondary storage, using capacity disks, with tertiary storage, using tape and optical. Vendors began to blur the lines between secondary and tertiary in the backup storage market in the early 2000s, most notably with the introduction of disk arrays featuring deduplication algorithms designed to substitute disk for tape. Active archive, it seems, derives from the same sort of logic -- an effort to introduce another type of disk or flash platform that is somehow not quite primary or secondary storage, but also not quite as deep archive-ish or offline as the role of tape storage. If you're like me, you aren't sure what that means. Like deduplicating virtual tape libraries, active archive platforms struck me as a contrivance for storage hardware vendors who didn't have any tape products on their play cards. I can't see what niche they fill or if there's a demand for an overpriced product that stores archival data in a less cost-effective manner than tape. First disks, then RAID, then SAN and then the cloud were supposed to deal tape's death card. It hasn't happened yet. The author said Hadoop, Spark and Splunk are among the leading analytical tools for big data. They use object interfaces to access data, whether block or file. This is the basis of his argument for why object-oriented storage is the future. And with the role of tape, as well as most disk-based NAS products, fast becoming less appropriate as storage platforms for analytical databases to access, we must have disk- or flash-based object storage for active archiving going forward. Reinforcing this perspective is the notion that data access protocols used by clouds such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) are also optimized for object storage. Clouds, of course, are inevitable because analysts say so. So, if companies will eventually use cloud-based object storage repositories for their archives, why would they want to place data into a file-based tape storage archive at all?
Cloud still uses tape Last I checked, the industrial farmers of the clouds deploy tape in a big way, mainly because it is the only way to store a data deluge estimated to exceed 100 zettabytes by 2025 and, also, because of limitations on bandwidth available to move data into the cloud or retrieve it once it's placed there in a timely manner. Tape provides a great means of cloud seeding, where data is dumped to tape and then shipped to the cloud storage service provider for inclusion in a massive archival library. As for tape being a poor media for hosting objects, one could make the opposite case. Buckets of objects are actually great candidates for storage using tape in conjunction with the Linear Tape File System. LTFS is a robust way to record long block files such as video, human genome data, and oil and gas exploration telemetry, while smaller files aren't its forte. As Spectra Logic's BlackPearl Converged Storage System and other technologies demonstrate, object buckets offer a great way to store large collections of smaller objects on LTFS tape. Another use case is on-the-fly video editing. Future innovations from companies such as StorageDNA promise to make the data access efficiency of tape much greater than the current tape access metrics -- the maximum 45-millisecond speed for seeking the start of a file after mounting the cartridge isn't half bad for current archival (LTO) media. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
EDITOR’S NOTE: After Nadal lost, the author wrote this piece explaining what went wrong in his prediction and why Nadal lost.
12 months ago Dustin Brown produced the performance of his career, beating at the time World #1 Rafael Nadal on the grass in Halle. Not only did he beat the Spaniard but he destroyed him with a non-stop barrage of fine attacking tennis mixed with serve and volleying 6-4 6-1. Due to such a performance and result, many believe that the German can repeat his performance at Wimbledon against the former champion on the same surface, but here are the reasons why it’s not likely to happen at all.
It’s not really a grass court this time around in anything but name
The grass courts in Halle are known to be noticeably fast; faster than Wimbledon at the very least. This year, however, that is even more true than usual. When asked about the match yesterday in his interview, Nadal said “It is little bit different, the surface and everything.”. The match will be on Centre Court which in particular is the slowest I’ve ever seen it for the first week of the Championships as well as having a higher bounce.
This will heavily favour Nadal. The slower courts will make Dustin Brown’s life a lot harder in through hitting through Nadal and as we’ve seen over the years from the 10th seed on the clay, on the slower surfaces he can keep retrieving shot after shot until forcing out errors from his opponent. This isn’t clay by any means but at the same time to call this a grass court to an extent is anything but true.
This isn’t Germany, it’s Britain.
Dustin Brown is sort of another Gael Monfils. They both feed off the crowd; the more support they get, the better they play. Last year in their match the crowd was fully behind the serve and volleyer, mostly because he was a home favourite. The crowd really did bring the best out of Brown and another big performance will need an electric crowd backing him.
It won’t be the case tomorrow, however. Of course the German will get a fair amount of support being the underdog and a huge entertainer, but most of the crowd will heavily be on the side of the man they’ve witnessed win two titles here before. Right now Nadal is in a rough patch in his career and the crowd will hope their support can push the left-hander to regain some of the form he’s shown here in the past.
It’s a grand slam, not an ATP 250 event
Like many great players, Nadal is one of those who plays his best tennis in the biggest events. It’s the reason he has 14 slams and the most Masters of any player in the history of the sport. Brown, on the other hand, has only made it past R2 at a slam only once in his career and even making the last 64 of Slams has been an issue more often that not. Nadal will be able to use all his experience in Slams and use it to his advantage.
The German hit through Nadal for 2 sets, but can he do it for 3? It’s a very difficult task. Unlike their encounter last year Brown is going to have to pace himself throughout the match and can’t risk going all out from very start and expect it to last for the duration of the match. The Spaniard has one of the best records in terms of winning % in best of 5 matches and there’s a reason behind it–he knows how exactly how to play the moment.
Nadal has a point to prove
After a poor year for his standards and slipping down the rankings seemingly after every big tournament, the Spanish #2 has a huge point to prove. There are many who have already written him off but if anything his year so far might only push him onto bigger and better things starting at this year’s Wimbledon. Nadal is as hungry can be for big results again and judging from his R1 match against Bellucci, which he won comprehensively 6-4 6-2 6-4, this is the most motivated I’ve seen the former World #1 at Wimbledon for many years, and with such motivation and desire, great performances are to be expected.
All in all it’s an incredibly hard task
Of course it’s not certain that Rafael Nadal will win, but if the World #104 is to preserve his winning head to head against one of the greatest players to ever play the game he’s going to need to do something extra special and far beyond what he did in Halle last year and probably ever produced. There’s no saying he won’t do it but but given the circumstances and situation it might well be asking for too much from the qualifier.
Enjoy what you see? Check out our full Wimbledon coverage here.
Main Photo: | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Holy crap, did you know that you can smelt iron ore with a microwave?
This video shows part of an attempt to build a toaster from scratch.
Finding ways to process the raw materials on a domestic scale is also an issue. For example, my first attempt to extract metal involved a chimney pot, some hair-dryers, a leaf blower, and a methodology from the 15th century — this is about the level of technology we can manage when we’re acting alone. I failed to get pure enough iron in this way, though if I’d tried a few more times and refined my technique and knowledge of the process I probably would’ve managed in the end. Instead I found a 2001 patent about industrial smelting of Iron ores using microwave energy. Microwaves, as we all know, are just so much more convenient — and so I tried to replicate the industrial process outlined in the patent using a domestic microwave. After some not-so-careful experimentation which necessitated another microwave, followed by some careful experimentation, I got the timing and ingredients right and made a blob of iron about as big as a 10p coin.
(via mr) | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
"Carabineros detuvo en Maipú a uno de los clonadores de tarjetas más buscados del país"
Personal del OS9 de Carabineros detuvo a uno de los clonadores de tarjetas más buscados del país, un hombre colombiano de 56 años que mantenía orden de expulsión. Se trata de José Jairo Vente Oviedo, quien contaba con antecedentes penales por uso fraudulento de tarjeta de crédito y débito (Ley Nº 20.009). De acuerdo a … Continue reading "Carabineros detuvo en Maipú a uno de los clonadores de tarjetas más buscados del país"
Personal del OS9 de Carabineros detuvo a uno de los clonadores de tarjetas más buscados del país, un hombre colombiano de 56 años que mantenía orden de expulsión.
Se trata de José Jairo Vente Oviedo, quien contaba con antecedentes penales por uso fraudulento de tarjeta de crédito y débito (Ley Nº 20.009).
De acuerdo a la investigación, el detenido lideraría una banda desde el 2015 que se vincularía a la instalación de máquinas de pago inalámbricas adulteradas en diferentes servicentros de la región Metropolitana.
La teniente Javiera García, de la Dirección Investigación Criminal de Carabineros, explicó lo complejo para los usuarios de percatarse de la falsedad de las máquinas, considerando que tienen los mismos logos.
https://media.biobiochile.cl/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/clonacion.mp3
El modus operandi sería que tras obtener los datos de las víctimas, realizaban compras abusivas en centros comerciales. Fue precisamente en esta situación que fue detenido, junto a otros integrantes de la banda, en multitiendas del Mall Plaza Maipú.
Las compras efectuadas en su mayoría corresponden a artículos electrónicos y objetos de alto valor comercial, los que luego eran vendidos a través de redes sociales.
Los otros detenidos son:
1. Cristián Ulloa Gaitán, 24 años, colombiano, sin antecedentes penales ni policiales, rol: comprador.
2. Santa Almánzar López, 39 años, dominicana, sin antecedentes penales ni policiales, rol: distractor al momento de las transacciones.
3. Francisco Medina Escobar, 30 años, chileno, taxista.
La investigación quedó a cargo del fiscal Carlos Gajardo, quien instruyó que todos los imputados fuesen puestos a disposición del tribunal de Garantía. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Hello! I guess you're tired of reading that kind of news, but I was in London this week. Just in front of the Sherlock Holmes Museum, accross the street, there is a shop called "Suit 2 Suit". A gift shop, where they were selling t-shirts, and one of them had a motif looking strangely like your art. Same pose, same style, just edited a bit, but definitely recognizable. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Pope Francis and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday voiced shock over migrant deaths in the Mediterranean and agreed on the need for tackling global warming, just weeks before the Vatican issues an official opinion on the controversy.
Talks on the sidelines of a Vatican seminar on environmental issues were largely taken up by the migrant crisis, an issue on which both leaders have campaigned for a change of approach from the international community.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We shared our shock at the recent grievous loss of life in the Mediterranean,” Ban told a press briefing, calling on European Union governments to step up measures to prevent avoidable deaths while working to address the root causes of the accelerating flow of asylum seekers and economic migrants trying to reach Europe by sea.
Nearly 5,000 migrants have drowned in waters between Libya and Italy since the start of 2014 with the death rate accelerating significantly since a major Italian search-and-rescue operation was suspended late last year because of cost pressures and opposition from other EU states who said it only encouraged migrants to attempt the journey.
“These migrants, many of whom are refugees, are desperate for a better future,” Ban said. “We need to strengthen search and rescue operations, and stop the criminals who exploit the most vulnerable people. We need to address the roots of the problem.”
EU leaders agreed last week to triple funding for the bloc’s maritime border patrol, but aid organisations say the resources devoted to life-saving missions remain inadequate with no end in sight to the surge in the numbers of migrants trying to reach Europe from conflict zones such as Syria, repressive states like Eritrea and desperately poor regions like much of sub-Saharan Africa.
– Environmental accord? –
“The countermeasures (agreed by EU leaders last week) are an important first step… but more needs to be done,” Ban said.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Thousands of people are drowning. These are the poorest and most vulnerable people, who are risking their life… for the slimmest possibility of an opportunity. That really humbles and saddens us.”
Ban dismissed an idea, supported by the Italian government, of destroying boats that could be used by traffickers operating out of Libya, suggesting it could be disastrous for the local fishing-based economy.
“The priority should be given to protecting human rights and dignity and to saving human lives,” Ban said.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Targeting and destroying these boats is not a good way.”
The two leaders also touched on environmental issues, just weeks before Francis publishes a de facto policy document on environmental issues that could have a profound impact on the debate on global warming.
ADVERTISEMENT
Addressing the Vatican seminar, Ban said his talks with the pontiff had been “fruitful and wide-ranging” and that he was looking forward to the upcoming encyclical from the Church, expected in June or July.
An encyclical is a statement of fundamental principles designed to guide Catholic teaching on a subject. It is issued in the form of a letter from the pope to bishops around the world.
“Science and religion are not at odds on climate change,” Ban said. “Indeed they are fully aligned.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Campaigners on climate change believe that an expression of concern from the Church about the impact of global warming, and a signal of support for steps to reduce the fossil fuel consumption they believe causes it could have great influence on the global reflection on the scale of the problem, its roots and what, if anything, needs to be done.
Pope Francis is due to address the UN Special Summit on Sustainable Development in September and the international community will seek to agree a universal agreement on climate change at a summit in Paris in December.
“Paris is not the end point, but must be a turning point in finding a common way forward in meeting the climate challenge,” Ban said.
Climate change sceptics have warned Francis that it would be folly for the Catholic church to integrate the UN’s view of global warming into its official teaching, arguing that the views of people like Ban are not grounded in reliable science. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Basics
We all have to start somewhere. So let’s start with our development environment.
To make tweaks you will need to install Theos, a command line based compiling tool which will handle compiling, packaging, and installing our tweaks onto our devices. To install Theos on your iOS, macOS, Linux, or Windows device, please follow this guide.
Once Theos is installed you’re ready to start making tweaks. You will need a good text editor to edit and create the tweak; personally, I recommend Atom. It’s sleek and easy to use compared to others.
It’s a good idea to have some understanding of Objective-C when developing tweaks, but for this series it will be assumed you have little to no experience at all. If you do have some then this should be a breeze! | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
President Obama speaks at 1776, a hub for tech startups, on July 3 in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Joshua Tucker: The following is a guest post from David R. Mayhew, Sterling professor of political science at Yale University, and Matthew I. Bettinger, a PhD student in political science at Yale University.
*****
In the last century, six presidents have served a full eight years after taking the White House from the other party. This record is pre-Obama, who hasn’t finished yet.
These six presidents were Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt (who went beyond the eight years), Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Three were Democrats, three were Republicans.
All these presidents navigated a first midterm, a successful reelection, and a second midterm. Each one steered into a fourth Congress after a second midterm. Obama will soon face his fourth Congress. Going by the historical record, how does this upcoming Congress shape up? What are the clues?
The six earlier presidents differed in the sizes of their party holdings in congresses, so generalizing across them is dicey. FDR always had Democratic majorities in both House and Senate. Reagan never had a Republican majority in the House. In general, the Democratic presidents enjoyed bigger congressional majorities.
But the trajectories of the parties’ seat holdings — that is, the Democratic trajectories compared with the Republican ones — have not differed all that much going from the first Congress of a president’s service through the fourth. Blending the six experiences into one chart seems allowable:
Average shares of House and Senate seats held by the parties of six pre-Obama presidents in their first through fourth congresses. (Figure: David R. Mayhew/The Monkey Cage; Data: Authors’ calculations drawing on Harold W. Stanley & Richard G. Niemi, Vital Statistics on American Politics)
The above figure displays the average support each president enjoyed in the Senate and House during their first, second, third and fourth congresses.
No surprise, the first Congress is the most favorable time. For one thing, Reagan aside, all six presidents enjoyed party majorities in both houses at that time (Reagan had just the Senate).
But after those early years, the statistics have soured. See the distinctive House pattern in the chart. On the House side, the presidents on average have taken a hit in a first midterm, pretty much stayed even with the board in a personal reelection year, then taken a hit once more again in a second midterm. There is no special “six-year itch” on the House side. Both midterms are bad news. All this patterning is true (on average) for both the Democratic and Republican presidents. So far, the trajectory holds also for Obama — although his party lost so unusually badly on the House side in his first midterm that little or nothing may happen to it in his second.
The Senate pattern is different. In general, the presidents have started out with decent Senate majorities and kept them, even added to them, until the second midterm. Then comes the hammering. Then, senators aided by the president’s coattails six years earlier have run into trouble. So far, with the election of November 2014 looming, the Obama Democrats have mapped onto this historical Senate experience well.
From the White House standpoint, the fourth Congress is the worst Congress party-wise. On average, in party terms — see the chart — both Senate and House have fallen under the 50-percent mark after the second midterm. More concretely, five of the six pre-Obama presidents faced opposite-party majorities in both House and Senate in their fourth congresses. FDR is the exception, but his fourth Congress of 1939-40 was no bargain. The Democrats formally ran it, but it had smaller party majorities and was often dominated by a hostile cross-party conservative coalition. For FDR, it was a grim time.
That is the election background. Once in office, what did these fourth congresses actually do? What was the legislative product? The first thing to say is that there is no instance of a president pressing and winning a domestic program after a second midterm. It is a zero. Hope and change are yesterday’s stories.
But that doesn’t mean there has been no legislative action at all. In a recent book, John S. Lapinski offers a list of the most important 100 laws enacted from 1877 through 1994. That is 1.7 per Congress. For the Wilson, FDR, Eisenhower and Reagan fourth congresses that lie within that time bracket, the score is six statutes or 1.5 per Congress. The difference here is trivial.
Including the six Lapinski statutes (marked here with an L), but not just those, the fourth congresses of all the six presidents through George W. Bush generated the following enactments that in hindsight seem to be especially notable.
Tidying up is one theme. Under FDR, an important reconfiguration of Social Security occurred in 1939, along with his Executive Reorganization Act (L) that had failed in stronger form in 1938.
There were veto overrides — the Volstead Act enforcing prohibition of liquor in 1919 (L-Wilson), a water quality act and an expensive highways act (Reagan), and an expensive farm bill (Bush). Some presidents didn’t like certain measures but signed them anyway — the Esch-Cummins Transportation Act of 1920 reorganizing the railroads after World War I (L-Wilson) and the Hatch Act of 1939 barring political activity by federal employees (L-FDR).
Congress generated the Smith Alien Registration Act of 1940 (under FDR), the Landrum-Griffin Act regulating labor union practices in 1959 (L-Eisenhower), and Japanese-American reparations in 1988 (Reagan). Statehood for Hawaii came in 1959 (Eisenhower). Hashed out in back-and-forth bargaining were a civil rights act in 1960, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act deregulating banking in 1999 (Clinton), and a minimum wage hike, a GI bill for veterans and a refix of intelligence authority under Bush in 2007-08.
Foreign trade is an interesting area. Its enactments have come more or less oblivious to political context — renewals of executive authority in 1940 (FDR) and 1988 (Reagan), an opening to China in 2000 (Clinton) and a nuclear deal with India in 2008 (Bush). But the presidents had to press for these victories. They didn’t just happen.
In a category by itself is the Nineteenth Amendment backing women’s suffrage, voted by Congress in 1919, a move Wilson and others promoted.
But now for the teeth-rattlers — the crisis legislation. Nothing has been more significant. What with Hitler on the march, history would look far different absent the huge U.S. defense buildup, the lifting of the Neutrality Act’s arms embargo and the peacetime draft voted in 1940 (L). Those were the legislative preoccupations of FDR and everybody else in that year. Also, the economy would look different absent the TARP bailout and associated measures in 2008 (Bush).
These crisis measures of 1940 and 2008 are a reminder that history can rise up and bite. Events closed in on all the six presidents in their last two years. The domestic economy was about as bad for Wilson in 1919-20 as for Bush in 2008. Foreign policy kept shaping the agendas: Wilson lost his Senate drive for the Versailles Treaty, FDR prepared for war, Eisenhower focused on Berlin, Reagan wound down the Cold War, Clinton waged a war in Yugoslavia and Bush dealt with Iraq and Afghanistan.
A fair amount of legislating has occurred in these last congresses, but it has had its own texture, and much of the policymaking of these years has been event-driven and non-legislative. Lost in the dust has been any sense that governing consists of enacting a president’s domestic legislative program. A different kind of reality has repeatedly won out. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The process has two steps. First, electricity – such as surplus wind or solar energy – is used to separate hydrogen from water, leaving oxygen. Then, the hydrogen is run through platinum electrode membranes in fuel cell "stacks" and converted to electricity by catalytic reaction, leaving only water.
Long lasting
ANT is less than four years old and has spent $1.5 million scoping the market for hydrogen fuel cells and refining the manufacturing process and software controls to create viable units from Hydrogenics' components. Software firm Thoughtworks does the systems integration.
Dr Dunlop says ANT can match the capital costs quoted by groups using lithium ion batteries – the current storage standard – and its fuel cells will also have a much longer life, emit no carbon dioxide and leave no toxic waste.
It can build systems from 2KW to 25MW and is in talks with Yarra Valley Estate about a 100KW off grid system for about $1.6 million, with an industrial firm about a 1MW off grid system for a greenfields site in Victoria's Western District that will avoid a $50,000 charge to connect to the grid and $50,000-$60,000 in monthly bills, and with Queensland's Ergon about replacing a degraded end-of-transmission line battery system in the state's north.
The hydrogen fuel cycle leaves only water and oxygen behind Applied Nano Technologies
Payback on end-of-line or off remote grid systems could be as quick as three to five years, Dr Dunlop said.
Wind, islands
The 25MW grid units are scalable and mobile. The hydrogen can be produced at one location – say, a wind farm – and safely transported to another to be converted to electricity. One potential partner is a wind farm which wastes a lot of power because the transmission line it is connected to can only transport 60 per cent of peak output. Storing the surplus as hydrogen increases its potential returns.
Other uses are in remote resorts and on islands, where fuel cells can economically replace diesel generators, reduce pollution and produce desalinated water fit for human consumption. The oxygen, which doesn't travel well, can also be stored. ANT is talking to a remote hospital in Papua New Guinea about this.
Dr Dunlop's co-founders include Brian Power, with a background in engineering and manufacturing machine tools, and Michael Wilkinson, whose company Minifab is based at the same Caribbean Gardens tech park as ANT, in Melbourne's outer east.
The Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell vehicle. Supplied. Mark Bramley
Incoming chairman Peter Binks ran BHP Billiton's research labs at Clayton, was head of strategy and business development at Telstra Mobile and was formerly a director of Ceramic Fuel Cells. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Action pour dénoncer la pollution de l’air, place de la Concorde, à Paris, le 31 mars 2018. JACQUES DEMARTHON / AFP
La menace planait depuis plusieurs mois. La Commission européenne l’a mise à exécution, jeudi 17 mai, en annonçant sa décision de renvoyer la France devant la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne (CJUE) pour non-respect des normes de qualité de l’air. Parmi les neuf Etats faisant l’objet d’une procédure d’infraction, l’Allemagne, le Royaume-Uni, l’Italie, la Hongrie et la Roumanie subissent le même sort. L’Espagne, la Slovaquie et la République tchèque échappent à la punition, mais elles restent sous surveillance, dit-on à Bruxelles.
Des sources proches de la Commission confient au Monde que si « la France a fait des efforts, la situation reste très préoccupante dans douze zones soumises à des niveaux de dioxyde d’azote (NO 2 ) très élevés ». Il s’agit principalement des grandes agglomérations. Bruxelles relève ainsi que les concentrations annuelles déclarées en 2016 ont atteint 96 µg/m3 à Paris, soit plus du double que la valeur limite européenne, fixée à 40 µg/m3.
Gaz très toxique, le NO 2 a été rendu célèbre par le scandale du « dieselgate ». Quant aux enquêtes qui ont été ouvertes sur les constructeurs fraudeurs (Volkswagen et FIAT notamment), la Commission demande officiellement à l’Allemagne et à l’Italie d’accélérer et les met en demeure de prendre des sanctions.
Urgence sanitaire
Après des années d’avertissements et d’ultimatums sans lendemain, Bruxelles a décidé de taper du poing sur la table. Pour une raison principale : l’urgence sanitaire. Le dernier rapport de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS), publié au début du mois, rappelle que la pollution de l’air tue environ 500 000 personnes en Europe chaque année, dont 48 000 en France.
La Commission reproche aux Etats cancres des dépassements répétés des valeurs limites de (NO 2 ) pour la France, l’Allemagne et le Royaume-Uni et de particules fines PM10 (de diamètre inférieur à 10 micromètres) pour l’Italie, la Hongrie et la Roumanie.
Cette décision n’est pas une surprise pour le gouvernement. La France est dans le viseur de Bruxelles depuis près de dix ans pour non-respect de la directive européenne de 2008 sur la qualité de l’air. La première mise en demeure remonte à 2009. D’autres ont suivi en 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 et 2017.
A chaque fois, le législateur européen martelait les mêmes griefs : « La France n’a pas pris les mesures qui auraient dû être mises en place depuis 2005 [pour les PM10, et 2010 pour les NO 2 ] pour protéger la santé des citoyens, et il lui est demandé d’engager des actions rapides et efficaces pour mettre un terme aussi vite que possible à cette situation de non-conformité. » Et à chaque fois, il brandissait la même menace : « Si la France n’agit pas dans les deux mois, la Commission peut décider de porter l’affaire devant la Cour de justice de l’UE. »
« Les mesurettes ne suffiront pas »
Le 30 janvier, le commissaire à l’environnement européen, Karmenu Vella, avait convoqué le ministre de la transition écologique français, Nicolas Hulot, et ses collègues européens à un sommet de la « dernière chance » à Bruxelles. « Nous sommes à la fin d’une longue période — trop longue, diront certains — d’offre d’aide, de conseils et d’avertissements », avait tonné M. Vella avant de leur accorder un ultime délai (mi-février) pour présenter des plans d’actions susceptibles de réduire la pollution de l’air dans les meilleurs délais.
Lire aussi Enfin une norme pour limiter le CO2 des camions
Enjoint également par le Conseil d’Etat de transmettre un tel plan à la Commission avant le 31 mars, M. Hulot avait présenté le 13 avril les « feuilles de route » des quatorze zones concernées par des dépassements des normes : Ile-de-France, Marseille, Nice, Toulon, Lyon, Grenoble, Saint-Etienne, Valence, vallée de l’Arve, Strasbourg, Reims, Montpellier, Toulouse et la Martinique.
Sans mesures radicales, et se contentant souvent d’empiler des dispositifs déjà existants, ces feuilles de route ont été jugées insuffisantes par la Commission européenne. Au ministère de la transition écologique, on rappelle que la situation actuelle est « l’héritage de dizaines d’années où nous avons privilégié la voiture, le transport routier, au détriment des solutions écologiques », et on veut croire que la future loi sur les mobilités permettra de rectifier le tir et de « sortir au plus vite de ce contentieux ».
Les mesures « antipollution » du projet de loi devraient être présentées en juin. « Il prévoit notamment des financements pour accompagner le déploiement de zones à faibles émissions dans les territoires les plus pollués », précise le ministère. Aujourd’hui, seules Paris et dans une moindre mesure Grenoble ont mis en place un tel dispositif sur la base des fameuses vignettes Crit’Air.
« Les mesurettes ne suffiront pas pour relever le défi sanitaire lié à la pollution de l’air. Il est très urgent de refondre structurellement la politique de transports, dans tous ses aspects : infrastructures, financements et investissements, fiscalité, gouvernance et aide au changement de comportement, estime le Réseau action climat (RAC), qui demande « l’interdiction de circuler aux véhicules diesel et essence dans toutes les agglomérations polluées d’ici à 2025. » La maire de Paris, Anne Hidalgo, vise une sortie du diesel d’ici à 2024, l’année des Jeux olympiques.
Seuls deux pays ont été condamnés
Dans l’entourage de Nicolas Hulot, on fait aussi remarquer que « l’argent serait plus utile pour lutter contre la pollution que pour payer des amendes ». Car la décision de Bruxelles de saisir la CJUE expose la France à une autre menace, financière. Les textes prévoient une sanction d’au moins 11 millions d’euros et des astreintes journalières d’au moins 240 000 euros jusqu’à ce que les normes de qualité de l’air soient respectées. Mais entre la saisine et la condamnation, la procédure peut encore durer plusieurs années. Prochaine étape, la CJUE prononce un arrêt en manquement. La Commission est alors chargée d’exécuter l’arrêt. Si la France est toujours dans l’incapacité de respecter la directive de 2008, la Commission saisira de nouveau la CJUE. Les juges pourront alors prononcer une condamnation financière.
Jusqu’à présent, seuls deux pays ont été condamnés par la CJUE pour avoir exposé leurs citoyens à un air trop pollué : la Pologne, en février, et la Bulgarie, en avril 2017. Mais pour l’heure, ils ont échappé à une amende, ce qui pourrait aussi être le cas de la France. En 2013, elle avait été condamnée par la CJUE dans un autre dossier de pollution, celui des excès de nitrates dans ses eaux, en violation d’une réglementation de 1991. Depuis, l’état de ses rivières s’est légèrement amélioré et la menace d’une amende s’est dissipée. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Sees someone choking to death "if i save him, he might try to talk to me"
191 shares | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
By Matt Frei
BBC News, Washington
For China, the Olympics are about more than sporting prowess and pride I was in Beijing on the hot summer's night in 2001 when it was announced that the Olympic Games would be awarded to the world's most populous nation. We had squeezed into an outdoor atrium a mile or so from the Forbidden City on the broad Chang An Avenue that was once - a long time ago - filled with 10 lanes of bicycles and is now clogged with dense urban traffic. Giant screens broadcast the voices of IOC officials radiating with the charisma of Swiss bank managers. Their downbeat delivery jarred with the bubbling hysteria of the crowd around us, screaming "Beijing Erlingbai, Beijing Erlingbai!", Beijing 2008, Beijing 2008 in high-pitched anticipation. As the announcement was read out, there was a hushed silence, in which you could only hear the cicadas and the hum of distant traffic. Suddenly the crowd erupted into euphoria. A young bespectacled student next to me burst into tears. His girlfriend sank to the ground. A group of sweating students came up to me and shouted: "You see, China is the best... we are the biggest and now we are the best!" Coming-out party Whenever a city gets the Olympics, there are scenes of jubilation. London went wild for a night when it got the Games in 2005. In Sydney, I witnessed the sporting pride of a nation in love with the outdoors. Australia was keen to use the spotlight to introduce the world to the land "down under". The Chinese have come to the conclusion that the West values economic interest far more highly than democracy - and who can blame them?
Send us your comments But the Beijing Olympics were never just about the pride of a city or the sporting prowess of Chinese athletes, or indeed the tourist board's desire to introduce the globe to Dim Sum, Sichuan folk dresses and the Terracotta Army. For China, the Games are a coming-out party for an emerging super-power, a chance to prove to the world that it deserves to be respected, that it has finally shaken off the yoke of Communist isolation or colonial occupation. The Games will put a human face to all those economic statistics that the world has marvelled at for so many years. In Beijing, the Olympics will not just be a sporting event. They will be a national celebration. Compare it to the perfect wedding of an arranged marriage. It is less about the love between bride and groom and more about the canapes, the placement and the 600 carefully chosen family guests. Last minute objections are a definite no-no. The claim that this is just another international sporting event simply does not wash. The Chinese themselves do not see it that way. The Olympics have always been prone to political meddling. They are after all a competition between nation states and not individual sportsmen and women. There is nothing unusual about the Chinese using the Olympics to gain the respect of the international community. But if granting that respect involves a tacit acceptance of bloodshed or excessive force, plastered on TV screens, then an appearance at the party could become an embarrassment. People will make this judgement on their own terms. Slap in the face Stephen Spielberg decided in February that he could not continue as artistic director of the Games, saying China was not doing enough to pressure Sudan to end the killings and violence in Darfur. The Chinese were furious. The Chinese will see any boycott of the Olympics as a slap in the face Now the situation in Tibet is making others reconsider. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has hinted that the opening ceremony may have to be boycotted. Barack Obama has urged President Bush to consider staying away unless China's human rights record improves. Hillary Clinton has made a similar call, although it is worth pointing out that as First Lady she did go to China in 1996 for the international women's conference despite calls for her not to attend because of Beijing's human rights abuses. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has declared that he will only attend the closing ceremony - the diplomatic equivalent of smoking without inhaling. But the Chinese have a zero-tolerance policy for even the faintest whiff of dissent and any form of boycott will be perceived as a slap in the face for a nation which cares deeply about saving face. For their part, the pro-Tibetan demonstrators know this is their opportunity to hurt China where they have failed even to scratch its hide in recent decades. They will protest all the way to the closing ceremony. As the demonstrations get more heated, the torch more imperilled and the questions more acute, other actors will be forced to reassess. Most Western governments and businesses like a China that is stable and hides its discontent and dirty business from public view. So after two decades the Chinese have come to the conclusion that the West values economic interest far more highly than democracy. And who can blame them? Humiliated The Chinese have had their way over Tibet. They have openly intimidated those countries who want to have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. And from their point of view, the Tibetans are an ungrateful bunch of peasants who have been dragged from the Dark Age of a Buddhist theocracy to the modern era of paved roads, city plumbing and light bulbs. China's attempts brought modernity to Tibet but it has not always been welcome I travelled through China as a student in 1984 when the country was largely closed to outsiders. I stayed in Taerse, a stunning Tibetan monastery on the edge of the Tibetan plateau. This home to hundreds of Tibetan monks had been saved by Zhou Enlai during the Cultural Revolution, as the Chinese mobs prepared to level it to the ground. He felt it was simply too beautiful to be left to the mercies of those wielding the axe in one hand and the Little Red Book in the other. One day, bus loads of Chinese tourists in Mao uniforms arrived. They lined the dirt road to the monastery and laughed openly at the monks and pilgrims who were approaching on their knees as custom dictates. Some shouted abuse. Some even spat. I asked them why they had done that. "Look," a woman with thick, black-rimmed spectacles wearing a blue Mao suit told me. "They are like cave people." You do not pick a fight with your banker, especially when your economy is in trouble
China may have brought electrical power to Tibet but it has also humiliated its recipients for decades, forced the Dalai Lama to stay in exile and imprisoned his chosen successor, the Panchen Lama, when he was just a six-year-old boy, appointing another Tibetan boy in his place. Now that bubble of humiliation, oppression and quiet suffering has burst. The Tibetans know that 2008 is perhaps their only chance to force the world outside Hollywood and what President George W Bush told me in February was "the Dalai Lama crowd" to take note. From governments to Western companies sponsoring the Olympics, all will have to make choices as the protests continue. To boycott or not to boycott. To incur the wrath of China or not. These will become ever more pressing questions, sharpened in the US by the demands of the presidential election campaign and a hinterland of Sinophobia ranging from toxic toys to outsourced jobs. President Bush told me in February that he does not support any boycott. He knows better than anyone how much Chinese investment now underwrites the US economy, how many billions of dollars in US treasury bonds are owned by China. And let's face it: you do not pick a fight with your banker, especially when your economy is in trouble. Fear of chaos The Chinese, too, will have to make choices. Do they live up to their vow to crack down on any dissent? Do they care more about the placement, the canapes and the band at the wedding than about the couple at the altar? What motivates them in their hardline rhetoric towards keeping the torch alight and the Olympics free of dissent is, as ever, fear of chaos. If they are seen to give in over Tibet, they believe it will soon be open season on China's brittle unity. Such is the paranoia of dictatorships. The wedding would be off and the marquee burned to the ground. I end back on that clammy night in Beijing. Amid the euphoria and the crowds, we began to notice armoured vehicles on Chang An. It was the first time since the violent suppression of protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 that the military had been deployed on the streets of the capital. The Chinese do not like large gatherings of crowds, even patriotic ones, if they display too much emotion. Events could go off-script. That was the mistake of 1989. The men and women living in the modern Forbidden City, Zhongnanhai, the heavily guarded home of the party elite, simply do not trust their own people. This may not be a sound basis on which to host a sporting event that is by its very nature unpredictable, but it is the reality of an emerging super-power in which we are all heavily invested. And the hapless little torch making its way around the globe this week is shedding a glaring light on some very inconvenient truths about our relationship with China. Matt Frei is the presenter of BBC World News America which airs every weekday at 0030 BST on BBC News 24 and at 0000 BST (1900 ET / 1600 PT) on BBC World and BBC America (for viewers outside the UK only).
Bookmark with: Delicious
Digg
reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Ethiopia seems to be attracting the attention of economists interested in Africa, and for good reason. Except for Rwanda, Ethiopia is the only African country whose economic growth has been consistently high for more than a decade without relying on a natural resource boom.
Between 2004 and 2014, per capita growth in Ethiopia was 8% per year. This was the highest on the continent during this period, and is impressive by any standard.
The growth has been attributed mainly to a construction boom and increased agricultural productivity. But manufacturing has also been vital. It has grown at 11% per year and manufacturing exports increased more than elevenfold. This was largely thanks to the increasing export earnings of the footwear and apparel industries. The growth represents more than a doubling of manufactured exports’ share in total merchandise exports, which itself more than quintupled during the period.
Nevertheless, manufacturing as a share of gross domestic product in Ethiopia remains 5%, well below the African average of 10%. The country also scores below the African average on diversification, export competitiveness, productivity and technological upgrading.
Despite this, it’s not a long-shot to predict that Ethiopia will catch up with countries like China and Vietnam in some low-tech manufacturing industries in the near future. These are industries for which labour costs are very important. And right now you’d be hard pressed to find a country in the world that has cheaper labour than Ethiopia. Even beyond these obvious industries, there are reasons to believe that Ethiopia might be on the right track to catch up with more advanced economies.
The developmental state
First is the country’s developmental orientation. In many ways it resembles that of successful catch-up experiences in East Asia, such as Korea and Taiwan, with a relatively “authoritarian corporatist” structure and centralised economic planning.
Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s recently deceased prime minister who ruled from 1995 to 2012 and whose legacy remains strong in today’s ruling political coalition, repeatedly expressed admiration for the East Asian experience. He stressed that its success was based on a prudent combination of market forces and state intervention. The state not only provided basic infrastructure and services but also a conducive environment for the private sector.
The second reason to be optimistic about Ethiopia’s prospects is the impressive industrial policymaking capability it has accumulated since the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front government came to power in 1991.
The quality of this capability becomes clear if you read the Growth and Transformation Plan covering 2010-2015. According to economist Kenichi Ohno the plan is unusual in its brevity, coherence and strategic direction. Priority manufacturing industries were designated based on resource availability, labour intensity, linkages to agriculture, export potential and relatively low technological entry barriers. They include apparel and textiles, agro-processing, meat processing, leather and leather products, and construction.
Supporting institutes have been set up for each industry to coordinate the value chains effectively, for example by ensuring efficient supply of inputs to manufacturers and to assist firms with technological upgrading.
Two state-owned banks, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and the Development Bank of Ethiopia, provide most credit to firms in these industries. Foreign banks are simply not allowed to operate in Ethiopia. The understanding is that they will be allowed in only when domestic banks have developed the capacity to compete.
Education and infrastructure
While the Ethiopian government is formulating policies to support specific industrial sectors, for most of the past 20 years the federal budget has been devoted to policies that are more “horizontal” in nature, like education and infrastructure. Results so far are impressive.
Enrolment in primary schools has increased from below 20% in the early 1990s to about 94% in 2012. The number of universities has increased from one in 1990 to more than 30.
And the government has invested massively in infrastructure development, focusing on transport and power generation. The road network expanded from 26,550km to 53,997km between 1997 and 2011. The country is set to quadruple its power generation capacity when the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile is finished in 2017/18. One of the largest hydroelectric power stations in the world, the dam will generate 6,000MW.
Cement and floriculture
Feeding on the boom in construction, cement production has grown dramatically since 1999. The average annual growth of cement production has been more than twice the world average. As a result, Ethiopia is now the third largest cement producer in Africa.
State support has been both direct and indirect. Direct measures include entry incentives for domestic firms, like long-term loans for capital investments, easy access to mining resources and the allocation of foreign currency on a preferential basis.
Additionally, government provision of transport and energy has been crucial.
Like the cement industry, the Ethiopian floriculture sector has made important contributions to overall economic development.
Cut flower exports increased from three tons in 2003/04 to more than 50,000 tons in 2011/12, substantially raising export earnings. From 2007 to 2012, the sector’s employment doubled from 25,000 to 50,484. The industry grew from a single firm in 2000 to about 100 in 2014.
The industry has also created indirect jobs through the expansion of horticulture. Related activities, such as packaging production, cold chain logistics and air transport have all benefited.
While Ethiopian firms initially kicked off the floriculture industry, foreign firms have increased their investment. In 2012 they accounted for 63% of all firms operating in the sector.
This foreign investment has contributed to technological development and improved market access.
Foreign investors say Ethiopia has become an attractive investment location because of natural endowments such as land and altitude, cheap labour and government incentives. These incentives include tax holidays on profits for up to five years, duty free privileges on all capital goods and the provision of construction material.
Subsidised loans have been the prime source of long-term investment financing for firms in the floriculture industry. Almost two-thirds of firms in the industry have relied on loans from the Development Bank of Ethiopia. And private banks, seeing the success of these loans, have also started lending to the industry.
Sectors destined for future success
Both the leather products and the textile and apparel sectors have been designated as top priority manufacturing industries in the recently released five-year development plan (2015 to 2020). One reason for this is because they have strong linkages with the agricultural sector as they use inputs from the livestock and cotton sectors. They are also both labour intensive, thus absorbing labour from the agricultural sector, and have major export potential and low entry barriers.
To become internationally competitive, the Ethiopian government has invited foreign investors to provide much-needed investment capital and technological capabilities. A slew of incentives has been created to induce these firms – as well as domestic ones that can meet international standards – to export. These include:
subsidised land rent in industrial zones;
generous credit schemes;
100% exemption from the payment of duties on imported capital goods and raw materials for the production of exports; and
five-year tax holidays on profits.
Export figures from the past two years indicate positive trends for both industries. But the results are not yet near where they need to be to make a significant contribution to structural change.
However, considering all the positive signs, Ethiopia might very well be on its way to become Africa’s industrial powerhouse.
This article is an edited extract from Transformative Industrial Policy for Africa, a report produced by Ha-Joon Chang, Jostein Løhr Hauge and Muhammad Irfan on behalf of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
L'espace urbain est ultrasexué, pensé par et pour les hommes. Montse Prats/Flickr/CC
Sur le trottoir ou dans le métro, on croise des vieux, des jeunes, des hommes, des femmes. A première vue, l'espace public est mixte. A première vue seulement. Car l'espace urbain demeure un espace où les déséquilibres entre les deux sexes restent profonds. De jour, ça se voit peu. Et pourtant l'Insee a montré que les femmes se déplacent bien plus que les hommes, et elles le font à pied quand les hommes roulent en voiture.
Surtout, contrairement à ces derniers, "les femmes ne font que traverser l'espace urbain, elles ne stationnent pas", explique le géographe Yves Raibaud, coproducteur d'un rapport, en 2011, commandé par la communauté urbaine de Bordeaux. "On constate que les femmes traînent moins souvent dans la rue sans avoir quelque chose de précis à y faire et se déplacent rapidement d'un endroit à un autre", confirme Patricia Perennes, d'Osez le féminisme. Allez vite pour éviter les ennuis... Car une femme seule est trois fois plus abordée dans la rue qu'un homme. Parfois sympathiques, ces rencontres peuvent s'avérer désagréables et provoquer un sentiment d'insécurité.
"RAPPELS À L'ORDRE SEXUÉS"
Sifflées, collées, insultées, autant de situations que vivent les femmes dans la rue. On en a un bon exemple avec l'étudiante belge Sofie Peeters, qui a tourné, cet été à Bruxelles, un film en caméra cachée qui montre qu'elle est la cible de remarques machistes ou insultantes.
Pour la sociologue Marylène Lieber, professeur à l'Institut des études sur le genre, à Genève, les femmes subissent des "rappels à l'ordre sexués, des petits actes qui n'ont rien de grave mais qui leur rappellent sans cesse qu'elles sont des "proies" potentielles dans l'espace public : commentaires, regards soutenus, etc.".
Les parents en tirent des conséquences en disant très tôt à leurs filles comment se comporter et s'habiller. "Toute la journée, on t'explique ce que tu dois être en tant que femme, les télévisions et les journaux font de même, et tu finis par ne plus te définir en tant qu'être humain", explique l'urbaniste Louise Montout. Jusqu'à la puberté, on demande aux filles davantage de déplacements que les garçons, car on les considère plus dégourdies. Mais après, le viol devient la peur structurante des femmes en milieu urbain, alors que la ville est bien plus le lieu des incivilités que des agressions physiques.
En 2011, selon l'Insee, 1,9 % des femmes ont déclaré avoir subi une agression physique, alors que 10 % subissent des violences conjugales. Pourtant, et même si la révolution sexuelle a atténué les choses, la représentation sociale fait du foyer le havre de paix et, de l'extérieur, un espace dangereux. Allons plus loin : une femme seule, dans un parc, la nuit ? C'est une prostituée, pense-t-on souvent. Et le jour ? Une mère de famille.
DANS LE MÉTRO LE SOIR, 2 FEMMES POUR 8 HOMMES
Le métro, le soir, est fréquenté en moyenne par deux femmes pour huit hommes. Les parents ont autant peur du métro la nuit pour leurs filles (leur imposant le taxi) que les filles elles-mêmes, y compris majeures. Ces dernières mettent en place des stratégies pour réduire le danger : porter un pantalon, maquillage sobre, se déplacer en groupe, se rapprocher d'autres filles isolées, avoir un baladeur sur les oreilles en fuyant tout regard.
Ces stratagèmes entraînent une réduction des libertés. "Les filles sont confrontées à une tension entre les attentes placées dans les sorties festives, souvent associées à un habillement plus sexualisé, et un contrôle des parents plus marqué que pour les garçons", constate Clément Rivière, doctorant à l'Observatoire sociologique du changement (Sciences Po). Ainsi, des normes s'imposent, parfaitement intégrées, invisibles et intériorisées.
Les décideurs de la ville ne font rien pour réduire ce fossé entre garçons et filles. Ils font même le contraire. Ainsi, 85 % du budget des équipements programmés dans les zones prioritaires vont aux garçons. Pour "canaliser la violence", dit-on. Les skate-parks poussent comme des champignons un peu partout, alors qu'il n'existe presque rien pour les adolescentes. Dans la revue Traits urbains, en mai, Yves Raibaud prend l'exemple de la construction de stades de football, investis presque uniquement par des hommes : "Imaginez un équipement public pour 43 000 femmes !"
Les gestionnaires des politiques publiques, les urbanistes notamment, sont en grande majorité des hommes et agissent en fonction des idées qu'ils ont des femmes. Est-ce pour des raisons économiques, voire écologiques, ou parce qu'ils imaginent les femmes au foyer le soir, que 5 000 communes de France ont récemment décidé d'éteindre l'éclairage public entre minuit et 5 heures du matin ? Pourquoi nombre de lieux festifs et nocturnes sont-ils construits sans toilettes ? Parce que la nuit est un espace jugé masculin. D'un autre côté, les décideurs et urbanistes n'oublient pas les couloirs à poussettes, ni d'installer des crèches à côté des lieux de travail majoritairement féminins. "Les urbanistes vont répondre que, lors des réunions, on leur demande ces couloirs à poussettes !", rétorque Louise Montout.
"LA VILLE APPARTIENT AUX HOMMES"
Tout le monde est d'accord : la ville est pensée par et pour l'homme, "elle appartient aux hommes ", affirme même Yves Raibaud. Les sociologues diront qu'elle est "androcentrée" - elle place au centre l'homme. Le dogme est si ancré que nous avons du mal à le remettre en question. Pire, nous l'entretenons tous. Car l'espace n'est pas interdit aux femmes, ce sont elles qui s'interdisent l'accès à une rue, un bar, un lieu de fête... Les interdits sont tels, montre l'étude de Bordeaux, que les lieux qu'elles trouvent répulsifs sont les plus nombreux.
En fait, les femmes érigeraient ce que le géographe Guy Di Méo appelle des "murs invisibles" dans l'espace urbain. Ces barrières sont inconscientes. Elles varient d'une personne à l'autre et d'un jour à l'autre en fonction des émotions. Elles sont le fruit de facteurs comme l'âge, le niveau socio-économique, la situation personnelle ou l'environnement culturel. Et pourtant la peur touche l'adolescente comme la maman et sa poussette. "Il suffit d'un viol médiatisé pour que toutes les femmes aient peur", dit Marylène Lieber. Cette peur se transforme au fil des ans avec l'idée d'être une proie dont le sac à main est visé. C'est cette vulnérabilité qui pousse les personnes âgées à cacher leur argent sous leur pull pour sortir.
Les femmes ne ressentent pas non plus l'insécurité de la même façon selon leur éducation et leur classe sociale. On croit qu'il est difficile pour une femme riche d'aller dans un quartier pauvre. Mais, inversement, les femmes du 19e arrondissement de Paris interrogées par Clément Rivière témoignent d'un malaise lorsqu'elles se rendent dans le 16e arrondissement.
Cependant, les femmes se retrouvent sur un point : "Les femmes des quartiers résidentiels qui ont une voiture ne perçoivent pas pareil le problème des sorties que celles qui rentrent en RER ou à pied, mais le processus de construction de la peur est le même", remarque Marylène Lieber. Ainsi la question du genre ne s'arrête-t-elle pas aux banlieues ou aux quartiers populaires. "Elle est transversale à l'espace urbain ", confirme Clément Rivière.
DES MARCHES EXPLORATOIRES LA NUIT À PARIS
La mairie de Paris mène des actions pour rendre plus visibles les femmes dans l'espace urbain. Des marches exploratoires ont lieu la nuit (des femmes se promènent en ville pour réfléchir à ce qui exacerbe leur sentiment d'insécurité) et neuf stations de tram porteront des noms de femmes. "Quand nous sommes arrivées à la mairie, seuls 3 % ou 4 % des équipements parisiens et des rues étaient dédiés aux femmes célèbres ; on est a plus de 13 % maintenant ", se réjouit Fatima Lalem, adjointe au maire chargée de l'égalité hommes-femmes.
Sinon, les avancées sont presque inexistantes. L'Egypte a mis en place au Caire des rames de métro réservées aux femmes. Mais ça ne résout pas le problème de fond. Des spécialistes préfèrent des mesures non spécifiques aux femmes, mais dont elles seraient bénéficiaires : éclairer une ville la nuit, avoir des rues plus propres, décongestionner les transports...
Ces réponses sont incertaines tant les collectivités s'attaquent plutôt aux violences domestiques. Aussi, Marylène Lieber invite les femmes au sport de combat. Clément Rivière, lui, prône la "sensibilisation des parents" aux inégalités. Et des urbanistes repensent l'espace public : "Ne pas viser les femmes ou les jeunes, mais faire de l'intergénérationnel", estime Nicolas Michelin. Reste que les femmes passant plus de temps "dehors" savent mieux se défendre face aux incivilités. Savoir répondre, avoir une grande gueule, faire le poids face à l'agression, ça ne s'improvise pas...
Fanny Arlandis | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A TEENAGE girl died on the street after a pharmacy refused to hand over a life-saving adrenaline injection to the girl's mother because she didn't have a prescription.
Emma Sloan, 14, suffered an allergic reaction to peanuts after mistaking satay sauce for curry sauce at a Chinese restaurant in Dublin.
She told her mother, Caroline, she was having difficulty breathing.
The family rushed round the corner to the Hamilton Long chemist shop but a male worker told Caroline they couldn’t give her an EpiPen shot - a special allergy injection - without a prescription.
The worker advised Ms Sloan to take her daughter to hospital but Emma collapsed on the street outside.
A passing doctor, as well as ambulance staff and firefighters, tried to resuscitate her but it was too late.
The teenager died in front of her two sisters, one of them just two-years-old.
Ms Sloan, 40, told the Irish Herald: "My daughter died on a street corner with a crowd around her.
"I'm so angry I was not given the EpiPen to inject her. I was told to bring Emma to an A&E department. Emma was allergic to nuts and was very careful. How could a peanut kill my child?”
The Mail Onlinereported that Ireland's Children's Minister Frances Fitzgerald had called for an inquiry into the death.
The paper said that the pharmacy regulatory body, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, was reportedly examining the case.
Ms Sloan who described her daughter as "a beautiful, smart and funny girl" and "one of a kind" appealed to parents of children with nut allergies to carry an EpiPen with them at all times. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
More from SeaCon and VegasCon soon, but for now, some excerpts from the meet and greet with Jensen Ackles. Not verbatim, just from recollection, and certainly not a complete transcript – but some highlights from what was a great meet and greet.
Jensen immediately got right to the point of what’s on all our minds – the season finale that will be here all too soon. Mostly because he was really excited about it, which was nice to see. (After all these years, they are as excited about this Show as ever — then again, so are we!)
Jensen said they’re filming out of order so they can accommodate Felicia Day’s busy schedule (he busted on her in an entirely big brother sort of way, which was all kinds of heartwarming). It’s clear that Jensen is very excited about the finale – he even said that for the first time, he’s thinking about calling Jeremy Carver and saying wow, great episode. Jensen then joked “For the first time…. What a jerk I am!”
Jensen was positively gleeful when he talked about how Dean sort of goes all “man on fire”, practically bouncing on his chair. OMG, are we ready for this? He didn’t give away any spoilers of course, and who knows exactly what that means, but don’t go read the Wikipedia entry for that Denzel movie if you don’t want to start biting your nails.
A fan tentatively asked: Does Dean survive?
Other fans: The question is, will WE survive??
I get the feeling we should all stock up on tissues and schedule an advance therapist appointment.
There was a bit of a discussion about whether or not we loved or hated cliffhangers as season finales. I personally rail about them but secretly love them. Jensen wanted to know if the end of S9 was really a cliffhanger, since we already know that Dean’s eyes are black by the end of it.
Fan: Well, it wasn’t for me since you sort of gave it away anyway when you said ‘It’s a real eye opener’
Jensen: (laughing) Yeah, after I said that I thought, oops, that was a little on the nose…
Hard not to forgive him when he’s looking all adorably contrite though, gotta say.
A fan asked about the emotional scenes with Travis Aaron Wade (Cole) in The Things They Carried, including the torture, and if they were difficult to film. Jensen said that because he had worked with Travis before, that made them easier in a way, because they’d both worked out the kinks and the characters now have a past together. Though it was also new ground because most of Cole’s interactions were with Demon!Dean until now.
Jensen asked if Travis had talked about the filming of those scenes when he did his first con in Vegas.
Me: No, but coincidentally we just interviewed Travis and he talked a lot about those scenes.
Jensen: Oh, what did he say?
Me: (wishing I had a better memory) He said that you really helped him. That scene was emotionally overwhelming for him and you came over when you didn’t have to and helped him get it right. To remind him that he had the emotion down, that he could now just say the lines. He said it was you being a wonderful director, even though you weren’t directing that episode, and that he really appreciated it.
Jensen: (is possibly blushing…)
Me: He also talked about his character choice to have Cole call Sam ‘Sammy’ and Dean ‘Deano’ so I get why he did that now, how it makes sense for Cole as ex-military and given his long past with pursuing Dean and his time with Sam as his captive. I understand it now, but at the time that jarred me, just because it’s canon that nobody calls Sam “Sammy” except Dean. Did it feel that way to you and Jared?
Jensen said it didn’t jar them too much. (Sometimes I think fandom takes those canon things more seriously than the actors or writers – or maybe it’s just that it’s hard for us to let the characters evolve, we love them so much and we love the way they relate to each other so much). He did say that there was something else that Cole says that did jar them, not calling them ‘boys’ but close to that.
Jensen: And Jared and I looked at each other like ‘no.’ If he said that, there would be some reaction in the script.
So they changed that phrase, whatever it was.
I have to admit, most of the time I love it when they do that. I love that they know those characters so well, and are assertive about making sure they stay true to Sam and Dean. I love that they were able to work so comfortably and collaboratively with Travis as a guest actor and come to consensus and help each other so that everyone gave their best performance. No wonder the damn show is so good!
Jensen said that it was also scripted originally for Dean to repeatedly refer to Cole as “kid”, which is slightly ridiculous considering Wade is older than Ackles! So they changed that too. Jensen gave props to Travis – they originally were going to cast a twenty year old, but with Travis, they got an experienced actor who could really pull off the character.
Jensen was so excited about the episode that Tom Wright directed recently (and did you know he did Hitchcock’s storyboards?? And that he storyboards his episodes of Supernatural? So cool.) Anyway, Jensen was so excited about the episode that he suggested a few things for it, and Tom liked them and incorporated them. I love that the Show is such a collaboration, in so many ways.
Someone asked about the actors who have played young Dean and young Sam, and mentioned how Dylan Everett said that Jared had helped him get Dean right. Jensen said that Dylan came to set also, to watch ‘Jensen, not Dean’. He wanted to study how Jensen walked, how he moved, the cadence of his voice.
Jensen: [joking] It was a little creepy. I was like, who’s that kid watching me?
He was impressed by the amount of “homework” that Dylan did for the part. He also gave a little advice to Colin Ford, making suggestions about the way young Sam would talk taken from his knowledge of the way Jared speaks as Sam.
A fan asked about the Mockumentary, and whose idea it was for Jensen to be a meditating yoga loving sort of hippie. Jensen laughed and said “Misha’s”.
Fan: You were a good sport then.
Jensen: (laughing) We put Misha through enough on a daily basis, I’m happy to do whatever he wants.
Another question was about the amazing visuals on the show, the production values and the sets.
Jensen: That’s the genius of Jerry Wanek and the art department. They’re second to none. The sets are so amazing, I can feel like I’m really there. The Men of Letters bunker is amazing. Like I have to jump up and touch the wall to be sure it’s not real, the painters are so good at texture.
Jensen: I want them to come remodel my house!
At this point, Jensen helpfully jumped up and touched the wall to demonstrate, which I feel certain everyone in the room appreciated greatly. I always appreciate it when Jensen stands up.
Sorry, got carried away there.
He also gave kudos to Chris Cooper, the Show’s prop master. When you direct an episode, there’s a “show and tell” where they lay out all the props for the episode, and the director gets to pick. Very important props like the First Blade or the amulet, Jerry will design himself.
We interviewed Chris when we were writing Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls – what a great guy! The props on this show are second to none too.
Jensen also joked that the art department gets a kick out of putting self references all over the place. You’ll see their names pop up on the boys’ phone screens or on flyers sitting on motel tables, etc. Margie Kugel, the beer the boys drink, for example, is named for Wanek’s grandmother. And there are a million others if you have a keen eye and good screencap software.
Jerry asked Jensen what he’d like to name the diner in an episode last year and Jensen named it Little Levi’s after his nephew. After the episode, his brother was like, what happened to that sign? It’s now decorating Levi’s room.
I have no clue what question he was responding to, but Jensen also got a chance to geek out about camera angles and filming efficiency and lines of sight, again jumping up to demonstrate.
Jensen [excitedly] I’m giving you a little glimpse behind the curtain!
It had to do with filming along a single line of sight instead of on a ‘plus sign’, which would mean you’d have to film it from all directions for each line of sight instead of just for one. Jensen lights up when he talks about that technical stuff, but he says he wants to be an actor, not a director. He also said he didn’t want it written into his contract that he gets to direct, because he doesn’t ever want them to feel like they “have to” let him. He only wants to do it if they want him to. Which means he doesn’t know yet if he’s directing in S11!
Cross your fingers, fandom!
In the meantime, check back here for more from Seacon and more from VegasCon, including some amazing photos by the talented photographer who worked with us in Vegas, and that interview with Travis Aaron Wade that Jensen asked me to link him to (once I actually write and post it, that is…)
Who’s excited for tomorrow night’s new episode? Rhetorical question, obviously. Everything I heard at SeaCon has made me even more apprehensive, and at the same time, nearly overwhelmed with anticipation. I love that this Show can still do that to me after all these years. I wonder what will happen…hmmm…
–Lynn
Read more from Jensen, Jared, Misha,
Jerry Wanek and many more in Fangasm:
Supernatural Fangirls on amazon
at the link at the top of this page! | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Drake pulled double duty on Saturday Night Live last night, performing for the second time in his career and hosting for the first. All told, he was SNL's most entertaining host in a while, and the same could be said for the episode itself. More highlights are below.
Here he is doing Lil Wayne as Urkel.
He did this ridiculously good impression of Katt Williams.
He was also perfect on SNL's recurring "Mornin' Miami" sketch.
He worked as a hot dad, too.
Good job, Drake. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
HANOVER, N.H. (AP) — Dartmouth College is hoping to become the latest Ivy League school to eliminate loans from its student financial aid packages.
The college recently launched a $3 billion fundraising campaign that includes a goal of raising $500 million for financial aid. Of that, $80 million would go toward an initiative to eliminate loans. Officials say donors made gifts and commitments of $20 million toward that goal in just three days last week.
Dartmouth already exempts students with family incomes of less than $100,000 from having to borrow, but many other students take out loans. Officials say for the members of the class of 2017 who took out student loans averaged a total of $23,400 in debt during their four years.
Brown University is among those that already have eliminated loans from financial aid. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The lights remain off in bustling cities and in small rural villages. Gas generators, the only alternative to the downed power lines that seem to be everywhere, continuously hum outside hospitals and bodegas. When night falls, it’s the glow of car lights, not streetlights, that helps break through the darkness.
Two months after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, much of the U.S. territory still lacks electricity. Even in areas with power, such as the capital city of San Juan, residents must deal with daily blackouts.
For the record: An earlier version of this article reported that Puerto Rico faces a more than $70-million debt crisis. The figure is $70 billion.
A lack of reliable electricity coupled with massive destruction to roads and bridges have led hundreds of thousands to flee Puerto Rico for the mainland U.S., and some economists predict decades of stagnation for an island that already was struggling financially.
In recent days, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello announced that the island, through the work of Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, had restored power to 50% of the commonwealth.
Rossello has said the island will reach 80% generation by the end of November and 95% by mid-December — goals that some here have called unrealistic. By contrast, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates that 75% of the island will regain power by the end of January.
Every time somebody leaves, my debt increases. Anibal Lopez Correa, doctoral student, University of Puerto Rico.
Rossello’s bold proclamations came before the resignation Friday of the power agency’s director, Ricardo Ramos, amid a flurry of controversy over a $300-million contract awarded to Whitefish Energy Holdings to rebuild the island’s power grid. Federal authorities have been investigating the contract awarded to the small company, which is headquartered in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s Montana hometown. The deal, signed shortly before Maria hit, was canceled last month as it faced scrutiny.
Rossello told reporters Ramos had become a “distraction” as the commonwealth scrambles to rebuild an electrical grid that was almost eliminated by the storm.
On Saturday, Yaniel Alexis Perez walked down a narrow street in Añasco, a city of about 27,000 people with views that overlook the Caribbean Sea. He wore a special necklace — a black cellphone charger he carries with him everywhere so he can power up his phone when he finds electricity.
Perez’s house is without power, and still flooded after the unrelenting rains that have pounded the island. The floodwaters have made it dangerous for him to use a generator.
For several weeks, Perez, 25, has powered up thanks to the generosity of friends with generators. He also spends evenings at the home of his neighbor, Ricardo Prosper.
Prosper, 67, considers himself a creative type. He managed to wire the 12-volt lightbulbs in his home to a series of car batteries.
“Even if there is no electricity, there’s light here,” Prosper said, showing his living room.
Officials estimate several hundred people — mostly young adults — are leaving Puerto Rico each day for the mainland.
The exodus was taking place even before Maria, a Category 4 storm, hit the island on Sept. 20.
For years, the commonwealth has struggled with debt. In May, Rossello said the Puerto Rican government, embroiled in a more than $70-billion debt crisis, would go to federal court in hopes of receiving protection from creditors.
Tony Villamil, an economist based in Miami who has worked extensively in Puerto Rico, said Saturday it was “going to take a decade at minimum for the island to recover and regain some sense of normalcy.”
“The ports, the power grid, the highways all need to be rebuilt with significant improvements,” Villamil said. “There needs to be a strong public-private sector relationship that is developed to help in these efforts.”
To date Congress has approved $5 billion in aid for Puerto Rico since Maria made landfall. Even so, Rossello has called on the federal government to give Puerto Rico nearly $94 billion in recovery aid.
While in Washington, D.C., this month for meetings with members of Congress, Rossello outlined how the money would be spent: about $46 billion from the Community Development Block Grant program to restore housing; $30 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for infrastructure; and $17 billion in other grant programs for long-term recovery.
Still, as Rosello and other officials scramble to find money to rebuild the commonwealth and, in turn, stanch migration to the mainland, some have given up and are moving out.
Anibal Lopez Correa is a doctoral student studying education at the University of Puerto Rico.
He was concerned about Puerto Rico’s financial future even before Maria.
“Every time somebody leaves, my debt increases,” Lopez Correa said. “Because those of us who stay remain with the same amount of debt and there is less of us to pay it.”
On Saturday, he was thinking about his own future. Lopez Correa, 28, wants to work as a teacher and has been researching salaries in several states. The wages, he said, are nearly double what he would earn in Puerto Rico when he graduates.
Lopez Correa said he would not rush to a decision, but moving from his native Puerto Rico is something he — like many others — is strongly considering.
Special correspondent Carrero reported from Anasco and Lee from Los Angeles.
[email protected]
Twitter: @kurtisalee | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
TBILISI, August 7. /TASS/. The Georgian Foreign Ministry has slammed a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Abkhazian leader Raul Khajimba in Sochi as ignoring Georgia’s sovereignty.
South Ossetia in talks on international recognition with many countries — president
"These Russian steps [meeting between leaders — TASS] are aimed against Georgia’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and statehood and flagrantly ignore fundamental norms of international law," the ministry said.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia following the August 2008 armed conflict. Russia recognized their independence, repeatedly stating that this decision would not be reviewed.
According to Georgia’s Foreign Ministry, "the international community keeps supporting Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and the policy of non-recognizing Abkhazia and the Tskhinval Region (South Ossetia)."
Ahead of the 11th anniversary of the conflict, which broke out on the night of August 7-8, 2008, the Georgian Foreign Ministry released a special statement calling on Russia to meet its international commitments.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Abkhazian counterpart Raul Khajimba at the Bocharov Ruchei summer residence in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi. According to Putin, they discussed with Khajimba the plans for implementing and boosting joint projects. In his turn, the Abkhazian leader thanked Putin for the opportunity to meet and discuss bilateral relations. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A leading freshwater ecologist says scientists have been vilified and ignored for speaking out while New Zealand's rivers and lakes have become more polluted.
He urged his fellow scientists to push for greater recognition of their science when it came to policy-making, and said if they didn't, they risked being a group that watched from the sidelines while the situation got worse.
Professor Russell Death, a freshwater ecologist at Massey University, gave a keynote address at the New Zealand Freshwater Science Society (NZFSS) conference in Nelson on Tuesday, where he received the Society's top prize for freshwater scientists.
In a candid speech, he told his fellow scientists that the pollution had happened "on our watch" and it was time for scientists to acknowledge they had played a role.
READ MORE:
* Increased RMA powers and regulation of intensive farming planned in water quality push
* EPA chief scientist Jacqueline Rowarth resigns position to take up education role
* Clean water campaigner Marnie Prickett awarded for speaking up for rivers
* 'Unprecedented' freshwater rescue plan unveiled by advocacy groups
"As a Society and as scientists, we really need to take some responsibility that this has happened on our watch," he said.
"It's happened over the last 20 years when the vast majority of us have been active freshwater scientists."
But Death also pointed to the difficulties that came with scientists speaking publicly about the issue, particularly for those reliant on funding from industries that may have a role in water pollution.
That group included scientists working for Crown Research Institutes, where primary industries could constitute a source of funding for research.
It also happened within universities, he said. He cited an incident earlier this year when his then-colleague, freshwater ecologist Dr Mike Joy, was taken to arbitration by Massey University over Joy's public criticism of the Environmental Protection Authority's (EPA) then chief scientist, Dr Jacqueline Rowarth.
Ironically, just months earlier Joy received the national Critic and Conscience of Society award which acknowledges academics who use their expertise to raise public awareness of issues.
He was not formally punished by the university, but has since left. Rowarth also left the EPA.
WARWICK SMITH/STUFF Freshwater ecologist Dr Mike Joy, who was taken to arbitration by Massey University over public criticism of another scientist.
"There are very strong disincentives for speaking out," Death said.
"For those of us who do speak out, our funding is clearly impacted, and we don't get as much funding as we would get [if we didn't] speak out about various industry bodies in New Zealand.
"We do have to speak out, and we are allowed to speak out, but we speak out at our peril and our cost."
In his address, Death said New Zealand's water quality was not "something to be overly proud about," citing its rate of endangered native freshwater species – which was the highest in the world – and its rate of waterborne disease, which was among the highest in the western world.
He also cited deaths related to contaminated drinking water, as seen in the Havelock North disaster in 2016, in which an outbreak of gastroenteritis in the public water supply made thousands sick and was linked to at least four deaths.
"I really thought that once people started dying that things would change and people would take notice, however, that doesn't seem to be the case," Death said.
"It still seems to me that water quality is not improving. If it is, it's only very, very slowly improving. To my mind, there's no convincing evidence that we've turned around the decline that's been going on over the last 20 years."
The Labour-led Government is working on a new freshwater quality framework, which would replace the one instituted by the former National Government in 2013, which was updated in 2017.
The updated standards were criticised by many freshwater scientists, including the NZFSS itself, which said it was concerned by the "widespread decline in aquatic biodiversity and water quality in New Zealand."
The standards would not apply at all to around 90 per cent of rivers, it said, and the swimmability guidelines were more lax than those it was replacing.
New Zealand's freshwater scientists had done valuable, at times world-leading research, Death said, but scientists – as well as the Society itself, for which he had been a member for 30 years – needed to stand up and push aggressively for their science to be practically applied.
"I think we really do need to do better," Death said. "We are the expert body of freshwater science in New Zealand, and we are the people that can have an effect.
"I like to think we could be a little more supportive of those of us who speak out. I think Mike Joy in particular has been vilified for speaking out – a lot of us congratulate him for doing it because we're scared to do it ourselves.
"We need to do more than just meet every year, talk about how bad things are and go 'yup, we really should do something' and then carry on and essentially not do anything... I hope we don't end up being a society where we just record the decline in water quality, the loss of our native species, and how bad that things have got."
The Minister for the Environment, David Parker, will speak at the conference on Thursday to update scientists on the progress of the new water quality rules.
He has previously said the new policies would be in place by 2020, and would include rules around a wider range of contaminants than the existing standards. They would likely include stricter rules around intensive farming, as well as a way for councils to more easily review resource consents, and greater collaboration with Māori.
This week's NZFSS conference was its 50th, and has drawn its largest attendance ever. It has had a strong focus on mātauranga Māori, and incorporating Māori values and expertise into freshwater management. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
As many as 145 pilot whales died on a New Zealand island this weekend after they were left stranded on a beach.
A hiker walking along the beach discovered two pods about 1.2 miles apart at Mason’s Bay on Stewart Island, also known as Rakiura. Conservation workers arrived at the grim scene and discovered 75 of the whales were already dead. They decided to euthanize the remaining stranded whales because of the difficulty of accessing the remote location.
“Sadly, the likelihood of being able to successfully re-float the remaining whales was extremely low. The remote location, lack of nearby personnel and the whales’ deteriorating condition meant the most humane thing to do was to euthanize,” said Ren Leppens, Raikura operations manager of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation. “However, it’s always a heart-breaking decision to make.”
Leppens said the whales were half buried in sand and not in good health, indicating they had been there for perhaps a day before they were found. He said staff shot the whales and the carcasses would be left where they were for nature to take its course.
In an unrelated event, 12 pygmy killer whales were discovered stranded Sunday at Ninety Mile Beach on the North Island, nonprofit organization Project Jonah New Zealand said in a Facebook post. The organization said eight of the whales were alive and being moved to Rarawa Beach on the east coast where it was hoped they could be re-floated.
Whale strandings are not uncommon in New Zealand, but do not often happen in pods, the Department of Conservation said in a news release. About 85 whale strandings are reported yearly, with most of them involving a single animal.
Several factors can cause strandings, such as the whales trying to escape predators, falling ill or navigating incorrectly.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Greta Thunberg may be stoutly opposed to coal mining, but was she a gold miner in a past life?
Conspiracy theorists are out in force, convinced a 120-year-old photo listed in the archives of the University of Washington's library proves the teen climate activist is a time traveller.
A black-and-white photograph of three children working a gold mine in northwest Canada in 1898 is rapidly making the rounds online.
One of the children bears a striking resemblance to the Swedish teen, convincing enough for people to run with the idea that it is in fact her.
A photo of children mining in 1898 has convinced people Greta Thunberg is a time traveller. Credit: University of Washington
Though it's mostly in jest, some say she's travelling through time to stop climate change.
"Maybe she is from the future who (sic) was sent back in time to key moments in history to stop climate change," suggested Twitter user Kelly Edwards.
More on 7NEWS.com.au:
Thunberg is currently sailing to Madrid after touring the United States.
She condemned world leaders for their "betrayal" of young people through their inactivity on climate change at a United Nations summit.
Her next venture will be an appearance at the 2019 United Nation Climate Change Conference, also known as COP25, in Spain. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Historically, we’ve thought about curtailment as a waste of valuable clean electricity — a financial penalty for renewable generators that need to monetize every last electron.
It’s already an issue today. California has so much solar power that in certain months it is dialing back tens of thousands of megawatt-hours of PV generation. It’s happening in other states, to a lesser degree. As a result, people are increasingly focused on storage.
But our perception of curtailment is changing. New modeling suggests that overbuilding wind and solar is actually the most economic solution for achieving high levels of renewables — not necessarily relying on storage.
So, how should we think about curtailment? Is it a liability for generators and grid operators or a tool for cleaning up the grid?
Recommended reading:
L.A. Times: California Has Too Much Solar Power. That Might Be Good for Ratepayers
GreenBiz: A Radical Idea to Get a High-Renewable Electric Grid
Clean Power Research: Curtailment of Low-Cost Renewables a Cost-Effective Alternative to Seasonal Storage
Support for this podcast comes from PG&E. Did you know that 20 percent of EV drivers in the U.S. are in PG&E’s service area in Northern California? PG&E is helping to electrify corporate fleet vehicles. Get in touch with PG&E’s EV specialists to find out how you can take your transportation fleet electric.
We're also sponsored by Wunder Capital. Wunder Capital is the leading commercial solar financing company in the United States. Click here to find out how Wunder Capital can help you finance your next commercial solar project.
Subscribe to The Interchange podcast via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you find your audio content. Or integrate our RSS feed into the app of your choice. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
À cette date, le patron - qui a été révoqué de Nissan et Mitsubishi Motors mais reste PDG de Renault - pourra être libéré sans charges ou inculpé. En attendant, Emmanuel Macron a rencontré Shinzo Abe en Argentine ce vendredi en marge du G20.
Carlos Ghosn restera en prison au moins jusqu'au 10 décembre. Le dirigeant est en garde à vue depuis son arrestation le 19 novembre, à son arrivée à l'aéroport de Tokyo. Au Japon, la garde à vue peut durer 22 jours. Mais il existait une possibilité de sortie dès le 30 novembre. «Un délai supplémentaire de dix jours a été décidé» à la requête du parquet, a indiqué un porte-parole du tribunal. Cette extension est courante.
La prochaine étape est donc désormais fixée au 10 décembre. En théorie, le procureur devrait alors soit libérer Carlos Ghosn, soit l'inculper. Il sera alors maintenu en détention provisoire ou libéré sous caution. Il est également possible que sa garde à vue soit prolongée d'une période maximale de 22 jours, mais il faudra alors que le procureur japonais étende le champ des investigations.
À lire aussi : Affaire Carlos Ghosn: interrogations sur l'enquête japonaise
Emmanuel Egloff: "Ce n'est pas délirant d'envisager une man?uvre visant à évincer Carlos Ghosn" - Regarder sur Figaro Live
Fuites dans la presse japonaise
Pour l'instant, celui qui est encore dirigeant de l'Alliance Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi (mais qui a perdu ses titres de président de Nissan et Mitsubishi) est accusé d'avoir minimisé ses revenus chez Nissan sur la période 2010-2015. Les sommes en cause seraient d'un milliard de yens (7,7 millions d'euros) et porteraient sur une rémunération différée, versée à Carlos Ghosn après son départ à la retraite. Cette sous-déclaration n'aurait pas de conséquences fiscales, ce qui en réduit singulièrement la portée.
Ces accusations sont démenties par Carlos Ghosn, par la voix de son avocat. Mêmes dénégations du côté de Greg Kelly, le second homme également en garde à vue, suspecté d'avoir participé à ces montages financiers. Selon le quotidien japonais Yomiuri Shimbun, il aurait reconnu l'existence de ce montage. Mais il aurait aussi déclaré aux enquêteurs avoir consulté l'Agence des services financiers japonaise sur cette question précise. Elle aurait donné son accord.
À lire aussi : À Kosuge, dans la sinistre prison de Carlos Ghosn
Le dossier monté par Nissan contre son désormais ex-patron semble toutefois bien plus large que ce seul élément. La presse japonaise a distillé fort opportunément un certain nombre d'éléments depuis le début de l'affaire: emplois fictifs pour des membres de la famille de Carlos Ghosn, résidences au Brésil ou au Liban achetées par Nissan pour l'usage exclusif de son ex-patron… Ces éléments, qui relèveraient en France de l'abus de bien social, ne manquent pas. Mais, pour l'instant, la justice japonaise n'enquête pas sur ce point et personne n'a vu de preuves de tels agissements. Il faudra donc attendre avant de pouvoir se prononcer. Au moins jusqu'au 10 décembre.
Bertille Bayart: "Peut-être que bientôt ce sera la responsabilité d'Hiroto Saikawa qui sera mise en cause" - Regarder sur Figaro Live
Rencontre Macron-Abe
En attendant, le ballet diplomatique a commencé. Le président de la République français, Emmanuel Macron, et le premier ministre japonais, Shinzo Abe, se sont rencontrés vendredi 30 novembre, à Buenos Aires, à l'occasion du sommet du G20. L'Élysée a parlé d'un «échange succinct» au cours duquel le premier ministre japonais a rappelé que la procédure judiciaire devait suivre son cours. Emmanuel Macron a, lui, pointé son attachement à ce que l'Alliance soit préservée, de même que la stabilité de Renault.
La presse japonaise évoque, de son côté, une minicrise entre Bruno Le Maire, ministre français de l'Économie, et son homologue japonais, Hiroshige Seko. Ce dernier aurait envoyé une lettre de protestation à la suite de propos de Bruno Le Maire expliquant qu'ils étaient d'accord pour maintenir la gouvernance actuelle. Une telle prise de position publique est inconcevable au Japon. Ce qui n'empêche pas le gouvernement d'intervenir dans la vie des entreprises, mais jamais officiellement comme en France. À Paris, on souligne que cette différence d'appréciation dans la formulation n'empêche pas un soutien identique à la solidité de l'alliance entre les constructeurs.
Carlos Ghosn: victime ou coupable ? - Regarder sur Figaro Live | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Depraved Mmf Flick With A Superb Having A Look Dark-haired
Depraved MMF flick with a superb having a look dark-haired | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Matt Lanter’s career has risen steadily since the days when he was just the son of the nation’s first female President on ABC’s Commander in Chief*. You only need look at his face to understand why.
I rarely agree with the common notion of labeling guys with flawless faces and physiques as “plastic”, mostly because it’s rarely true and seems to stem more from jealousy in the beholder. But for me, Lanter, 29, could serve as Exhibit 1 in the case in favor of the Plastic Rule.
Why? Well, this dude borders on robotic in most everything he does, a fact which is constantly running up against the sheer enjoyment of looking at such a fine human specimen. But time and time again, there’s just no there there. At the same time, I will admit that I rarely watch his current show, 90210, so I could be judging him unfairly. (If so, let me know!)
But one thing’s for sure: He is surely one of Hollywood’s best looking actors, which is what this column is all about. Hair? Perfect. Body? Terrific. Eyes? Truly sublime.
My ruling: Damn HOTT. Plastic, too, perhaps. But HOTT.
*CIC remains the case study of a show that was systematically destroyed by a network for no good reason other than incompetence. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran is in talks to sell crude oil to Egypt, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) on Monday.
Iran has been looking for new buyers for its oil as western sanctions over its disputed nuclear program squeeze sales to long-time customers.
Iranian officials have said on several occasions over the last few months they are in talks to sell oil to new customers, but rarely name them and there is little evidence of significant volumes of oil being shipped to new customers.
A spokesman for Egypt’s oil ministry had no immediate comment on Qasemi’s reported remarks but referred questions about Iran’s policy back to Tehran.
Diplomatic relations between Tehran and Cairo broke down after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution over Egypt’s support for the overthrown Shah and its peace agreement with Iran’s arch-enemy Israel.
Since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, there have been signs of warming relations, including Egyptian President Muhamed Mursi last month making the first visit to Tehran by an Egyptian leader in more than 30 years.
Egyptian Petroleum Minister Osama Kamal told state owned Al-Ahram newspaper earlier this month that Cairo had “no objection” to importing Iranian crude and processing it in Egyptian refineries.
The European Union imposed a total ban on purchases of Iranian crude from July, making it difficult for Tehran to sell all its oil, the lifeblood of its economy. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
(CNN) President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are now Razzie nominees.
The Golden Raspberry Awards, as the show is known in full, honors the year's worst films.
The Trumps were nominated for their screen time in the conservative political documentary from Dinesh D'Souza, "Death of a Nation: Can We Save America a Second Time?" and Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 11/9."
The first couple is in good company, however. The president is nominated in the worst actor category (for appearing as himself), along Johnny Depp ("Sherlock Gnomes"), Will Ferrell ("Holmes & Watson"), John Travolta ("Gotti") and Bruce Willis ("Death Wish").
Melania Trump is joined in her category -- worst supporting actress -- by Kellyanne Conway (as herself, "Fahrenheit 11/9"), Marcia Gay Harden ("Fifty Shades Freed"), Kelly Preston ("Gotti"), and Jaz Sinclair ("Slender Man").
Read More | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Marokon turvallisuuspalvelun johtaja Abdelhak Al Khayam, 59, epäilee terroriteon tekijän olleen katkera suomalaiselle yhteiskunnalle.
Marokon turvallisuuspalvelun johtaja muistuttaa, että mikään terroristijärjestö ei ole ottanut vastuuta Turun iskusta. LEHTIKUVA
Koko Suomi järkyttyi syvästi elokuussa, kun häikäilemätön puukkomies hyökkäsi silmittömästi ohikulkijoiden kimppuun Turun keskustassa. Kahden ihmisen kuolemaan ja kahdeksan haavoittumiseen johtanutta veritekoa tutkitaan terroritekona.
Pääepäilty Abderrahman Bouanane ja muut epäillyt ovat kotoisin Marokosta, mutta maan viranomaiset eivät ole toistaiseksi kommentoineet tapausta.
Nyt Marokon turvallisuuspalvelun (englanniksi Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations) johtaja Abdelhak Al Khayam kertoo ensimmäistä kertaa julkisuudessa maansa tiedustelun käsityksen asiasta. Hän sanoo Marokon viranomaisten seuranneen tarkasti Turun tapahtumia.
Al Khaym oudoksuu sitä, ettei Suomesta ole oltu heihin yhteydessä.
- Emme ole saaneet toistaiseksi tietoa tutkimusten etenemisestä. Kaiken sen, minkä tiedämme, olemme lukeneet uutisista, Marokon terrorismin vastaisen taistelun ykkösjohtaja kertoo puhelimitse.
- Mutta jos tulevaisuudessa on jotain, jota voimme teille Suomessa tarjota, esimerkiksi informaatiota tai jotain muuta, teemme sen.
Kosto turvapaikkapäätöksestä?
Kansainvälinen lehdistö on nimennyt Abdelhak Al Khayamin maan ykkösterroristienjahtaajaksi. Toisin kuin monen arabimaan, usein äärimmäisten salaisten turvallisuuspalveluiden johtajat, Al Khayam viihtyy hyvin julkisuudessa.
Motiivikseen terroristien jahtaamisessa Al Khayam on sanonut sen, että äärimuslimit häpäisevät islamin uskontona.
Al Khayam pohtii tekijän mahdollisia motiiveja terroristien käsittelystä Marokossa saatujen kokemusten kautta. Turun iskun uhrien profiillit ihmetyttävät häntä.
- Meidän kokemuksemme mukaan tämän kaltaiset terroristit eivät iske erityisesti naisiin. Siksi meitä ihmetyttää se, että hän hyökkäsi juuri naisten kimppuun. Useimmiten terroristien kohteena ovat lainvalvontaviranomaiset tai muuten henkilöt, jotka symboloivat valtiota.
Al Khayam muistuttaa, että yksikään terroristijärjestö ole ottanut vastuuta iskusta.
- Tekijä ei ole tunnettu siitä, että hänellä olisi ollut yhteyksiä joihinkin näistä organisaatioista.
- Hänhän oli hakenut Suomesta turvapaikkaa, jonka Suomen viranomaiset olivat evänneet. Isku tapahtui pian päätöksen jälkeen. Siksi voi olla, että hyökkäyksellä oli jotain tekemistä tämän kanssa.
Al Khayam antaa ymmärtää, että syynä saattoi olla estää maasta poistaminen.
Reaaliaikaista tietoa
Al Khayam peräänkuuluttaa laajaa kansainvälistä yhteistyötä ja yhteisiä operaatioita terrorismin vastaisessa taistelussa. Suomi kuuluu tähän joukkoon.
Hän sanoo maansa olleen asiassa aktiivinen.
- Olemme pystyneet antamaan ulkomaisille kumppaneillemme reaaliaikaista, tärkeää tietoa yksittäisten terroristiepäiltyjen liikkeistä, suunnitelmista ja kontakteista. Näillä tiedoilla on kyetty estämään useita terrori-iskuja Euroopassa.
- Tämä on menestyksen salaisuus terrorismin vastaisen taistelussa.
Terroristit sokeita
Entä mitä Marokon viranomaiset haluisivat sanoa Suomelle, jota ensimmäistä kertaa historiassa on kohdannut mahdollinen terrori-isku?
- Terrorismilla ei ole uskontoa, kansallisuutta tai rajoja. Sen vihollinen on ihmisyys. Terroristit ovat myös sokeita eivätkä he tee eroa uhrien välillä. Heitä ei kiinnosta se, onko uhri eurooppalainen vai arabi, Al Khayam lataa.
Ennakkoluulot saattavat kuitenkin haitata väkivallan patoamista.
- Meidän pitää olla avoimia muille kulttuureille, jotta voimme tehdä yhteistyötä ja auttaa toisiamme tässä ilmiössä, joka koskee meitä kaikkia.
Hänestä myös eurooppalaisissa moskeijoissa pidettäviä saarnoja on seurattava. Vaikka kulttuuria ja uskontoa on voitava harjoittaa vapaasti, myös kontrollia on oltava.
- Meidän pitäisi myös lisätä yhteistyötä turvallisuuspalveluiden välillä ja kehittää kumppanuuksia, jotta viranomaiset voisivat taistella yhdessä tätä ilmiötä vastaan. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
How to end the war between your authentic inner light and your protective ego selves. How eventually your Higher Self can transform your ego to become a trusted vessel for your emerging light.
When we begin the spiritual path, it can feel like a whole new universe opens before our very eyes. We open our hearts and minds, try out new ideas and spiritual techniques, we learn meditation, play with mantras, and meet new interesting people. In time, we find out about the importance of listening to our intuition, spiritual hygiene, raising our vibration, and consciously creating our reality. We discover we are more than the personality, we have a Higher Self. All of this and more is of course absolutely wonderful, yet there is one problem. Our personality/ego at some stage will start to put their metaphorical foot on the brake pedal and slow the whole thing down. It might even bring the whole journey to a grinding stop. Now why would that happen. Before you started this journey, there was just you and your ego. You know the parts of you that you would get into conversation with in your head from time to time. The parts of you that would comment on all the stuff happening around you or to you in the world. This may have been fine at the time, but then your Higher Self and guides came onto the scene and those old voices that kept you company for so long were not the only ones trying to communicate with you.
So, what is the ego? The ego is a set of selves that we develop when we enter this world. They are a sort of software support to help us cope with a variety of challenges as we grow and move through the physical world. The ego has primarily function, to help us cope in a difficult environment. The more difficult the outer world seems the stronger the coping mechanisms we will develop. In some circumstances developing a strong rebellious nature can be helpful, in some circumstances a more pleasing nature helps us navigate the world. For some, a primary set of selves evolves to help us simply survive. Imagine growing up in a war zone, or in a dangerously abusive family. Building a metaphorical psychic fortress against the world is how some people cope. For others going invisible is the protection strategy. There are many, being overly aggressive, highly critical, unpleasant or contradictory can all become valid means of self-protection. When we come to the spiritual path we come with all our ego selves. Some of these are very young, we could call them inner child and adolescent selves. Some are more mature. The challenge we have on the path is that when we start to breath and drink in light this shakes up our internal psychic landscapes. Suddenly our egoic defenses are threatened, not by an outside threat but an internal one. Some of our ego selves may not like this intrusion into their psychic space. Some of these selves will seek to oppose our path of spiritual growth. The ego is ruled by the past – your ego was born out of the attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviors of your family and peers as you grew from child to adolescent to young adult. All the critical attitudes and negative experiences we experienced during this time is the fuel for any current anti-growth, anti-adventure, anti-whatever behavior your ego has decided upon.
Getting to know, challenge, neutralize or upgrade these inner selves is an essential part of the spiritual journey whatever your particular path you have chosen to walk. To understand the viewpoint of the ego just think of Bilbo Baggins in the story of The Hobbit. Bilbo himself is very well off and fond of food and clothes. His house is a beautifully furnished hole in the ground. One day he meets a stranger who introduces himself as Gandalf the wizard. Gandalf is looking for someone to join in an adventure. But Bilbo is not interested in having an adventure. Much to Bilbo’s surprise, the next day, Gandalf and thirteen dwarves come visiting. They make themselves at home and demand refreshments. They eat, talk, smoke, and then sing of going on an adventure to seek a treasure buried under a mountain guarded by a dragon. Hearing this Bilbo, who had not planned to join the group, becomes frightened and falls into a fit.
Your Higher Self wants to anchor you in the present and focus your mental energies in the direction of your highest future. Your Higher Self is not concerned with your safety, unlike the ego. This is part of the problem and why these forces seem at odds with each other, at least for a time. Your Higher Self is interested in your growth and knows that your path will, at different points, pull you out of your familiarity zones. This is the very antithesis of what your ego defenses are all about. This is why your ego resists the process. It does not understand why you would want to give up comfort and safety for something as abstract as activating your inner potential or embracing the so-called path of spiritual growth. It is important to understand that part of the process involves upgrading your personality. The journey is meant to transform you and so when your ego starts to block or resist the process this is a sign that something is working. It is a bit like feeling scared before taking a major step in your life such as speaking in public for the first time or meeting someone romantically that you really like for the first time. When nothing really important or significant is happening then our ego selves are not shaken or stirred. So, when your spiritual path starts to shake you then at least something is happening.
What if your ego is trying to protect you from a genuine threat? One important thing to note is there is a difference between your ego selves being shaken because you are shifting your core vibration and they are being shaken because they are being activated as a genuine defense against something not being right with the approach or group you are involved with. This is the tricky part. How I managed to distinguish between the two is the former seems exciting and scary at the same time. This can feel like agreeing to do a parachute jump for the first time and then when the door opens for you to take the jump you resist doing it. Then when you jump you feel exhilarated. The latter feels like walking through glue. There is not that much joy in the process. Tell-tale signs are: odd dynamics in the group you are involved with, an authoritarian approach that discourages you thinking for yourself and isolates you from the thinking of any other spiritual teacher or path. (My advice, if in any doubt, is to Google ‘signs of being in a spiritual cult’ if in doubt). To give an example of this, I have known someone for a few years who is on a particular spiritual path with one spiritual teacher. This person suffered from terrible anxiety and depression which the spiritual practice did not seem to alleviate in any way. Her spiritual teacher advised her to continue the practice with greater dedication. This did not help. I advised her to get more into her body and emotions and take up dancing or something similar. She did do this which helped, but she continued with the spiritual practice which was not helping. The issue for her was she had invested so much time and energy into this group that leaving felt like unplugging a large part of her life. Her boyfriend was also deeply embedded in this group and was very supportive in many ways. Unfortunately, all of this merely kept this unhappy game going.
OK, so let’s say that you are on a spiritual path that works for you and you want to know what to do to. The good news is that your ego selves can be helped to grow up so that it becomes a more reliable force and ally for your journey. Another way of looking at this is the spiritual path is meant to upgrade your ego programs. Just like any computer programs that needs replacing or upgrading your ego selves are meant to grow and shift with the changing outer and inner landscapes. They are not meant to be permanent unchanging fixtures. So, if this intrigues you here are a few steps to consider:
Know the difference between your Higher Self and your ego selves.Your HS has a calming, loving, compassionate and gentle presence, it does not feel judgmental in any way. It does not impulse you to take knee jerk reactions. It is not interested in short term gratification. Your HS is interested in win-win situations. When you are connected to your HS the world seems different, you feel more open and alive, your life and contribution has meaning and you sense a greater level of possibility. Ego selves have a protective function, they are often highly critical of others and of you. You may feel depressed especially if these voices are being critical of you in some way. They trigger old memories and stories from within your subconscious that justify why you should do x or y. When your ego selves are in the driving seat you feel you are running on automatic. As you progress on your path of light these ego parts will change. This is actually one of the signs that you are on the right spiritual path for you. It is also important to note that they can also be upgraded quite quickly. I have had conversations with clients during a Soul Matrix Healing session where I have spoken directly with an ego part and helped it to make a shift within minutes rather than months or years. The important thing here is to discover its primary purpose and to show it that it could do it so much better in another more positive way. Start becoming aware of your mind speak.People often listen to their inner voices without realizing it. Without having some awareness around them they will seem almost like background noise. It’s important to become more conscious of the moments when these voices start speaking to you. They may berate you for not being a certain way or doing things a certain way. The more judgmental ones may say stuff like, “You look so stupid/fat/ugly.” “You can’t do this.” “You messed that up.” “What’s wrong with you?” Some voices on the other hand, can sound soothingly helpful, “Just relax. Stay at home. You don’t need to worry about all that meditating business. Why not just have a nice glass of wine and watch television.” Then, when you give into to this voice another more critical one may pop up later, “You have no self-discipline, just a coach potato. You drink too much. Alone again? Loser!” (A really good book to get if you want to get to know this inner landscape better is Embracing Our Selves by Hal and Sidra Stone. I cannot recommend their work enough). Do not blame or judge yourself for having an un-evolved ego. This just puts you back into fighting with your ego. The fight is pointless and draining. Remember what you resist persists. Awareness is the way. Awareness with persistence. Know that all of these ego voices are trying to be helpful in some way. They will help you even if they have to kill you in the process. Once you know what they are trying to do, such as help you be more liked which will help you feel safer in a group for example, then you can work with these parts to help them find a better way to be more helpful. Start to disengage from these voices. When you notice a voice speaking with you is that voice male or female? How old is that voice? What is the quality of that voice, soothing, demanding or critical? Some voices may sound parental, like your mother or father is in your head. Once you have some awareness of what/who the voice sounds like you can begin to disengage. A powerful exercise is to alter the tone, pitch and volume of the inner voice speaking with you. Imagine you have a set of dials inside where you can turn the volume up or down. Another way to do this is to imagine the voice speaking to you from the outside. Perhaps the voice sounds a few feet away or even shouting in your ear. Imagine sending this voice ten feet away, or twenty or to the other side of town. Imagine adjusting the tone to make it more gentle. Another exercise is to reverse the language of the voice. You can write down the statements of the voice in the first person as “I” statements, i.e. “I am not smart. No-one is interested in my opinion. Then change it to “You are not smart. No-one is interested in your opinion.” This helps you to more sensibly appraise these inner voices rather than just habitually follow their demands or acquiesce to their judgments. You can also respond to these voices in a more affirming way. “I am smart. I am interested in my opinions. Using affirmations is a great way to neutralize critical internal voices. Do something different. Your ego selves have lots of advice they want to give you. “Don’t take that risk.” “Don’t speak up.” “He/she doesn’t really love you.” “Who cares if you’re healthy?” As you get better at recognizing these ego voices you can notice when they trigger certain habitual behaviors. When you listen to such voices unconsciously you may find yourself getting angry, shutting down emotionally, becoming quiet and withdrawn and so on. Once you notice the triggers do the opposite. If you feel yourself withdrawing take a few moments to listen to your mind speak and then do something to break the spell. Go for a walk. Have a cup of tea. Ask someone for a hug. Then do the opposite of the inner voice directive. For instance, if you are at a social gathering and feeling like withdrawing start to engage with someone. If the impulse is to drink alcohol, then go and eat something. Change the behaviour. Call upon your Higher Self for help. In all of this you can call upon the assistance of your Higher Self and guides at any time. Actually, it is important to do so. Do not assume they will help you if you do not ask. Meditate on light, on opening your heart, on grounding your energies into the earth. There are meditation techniques where you can imagine your HS as an angel of light taking a ego part on a journey where it is upgraded. Imagine your HS taking your inner critic on a break to the seaside. Or your HS taking your inner perfectionist to a day of messy fun. Eventually these ego selves will realize that they can relax and shift with you. So, enjoy the journey, go easy on yourself, remember to smile and laugh often. Find supportive people who share this journey. Compare notes. Most importantly do not believe everything you think and feel. Know the difference between genuine intuition and knee jerk ego reaction.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
Steve Ahneal Nobel is an author (5 published books) coach, and Soul Matrix Healer. He was a director of the not for profit organisation, Alternatives (based in St. James’s Church, Piccadilly, London W1) for 13 years. He is a devoted father/grandfather.
Check out his website for more here. http://thesoulmatrix.com/ | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 8:55AM
The future is live. The future is real-time. The future is now. That's the hype anyway. And as it has a habit of doing, the hype is slowly becoming reality. We are seeing live searches, live tweets, live location, live reality augmentation, live crab (fresh and local), and live event publishing. One of the most challenging of all live technologies is that of live video broadcasting. Imagine a world in which everyone becomes a broadcaster and a consumer of video streams, all in real-time (< 250 msec latency), all so you can talk and interact directly without feeling like you are in the middle of a time shift war. The resources and the engineering needed to make this happened must be substantial. How do you do that?
To find out I talked to Kyle Vogt, Justin.tv Founder and VP of Engineering. Justin.tv certainly has the numbers. Their 30 million unique monthly visitors even outshine YouTube in the video upload game, reportedly uploading nearly 30 hours per minute of video compared to YouTube's 23. I asked for an interview after listening to an interview with Justin Kan, another Founder of the eponymously named Justin.tv. Justin talked about how live video was fundamentally different than YouTube's batch video approach, where all the video is stored on disk and replayed later on demand. Live video can't be made by pushing video faster, it takes a completely differently architecture. Since the YouTube Architecture article is the most popular article ever on this site, I thought people might also enjoy learning about live side of the video world. Kyle was unbelievably generous with his time and insight into how Justin.tv makes all this live video magic happen, going way beyond the call, providing a tremendous number of juicy details. Anyone building a system can learn something from how they run their business. I can't thank Kyle enough for putting up with my never ending prodding.
As the emphasis shifts from batch to real-time, the steps Justin.tv are taking is also happening across the industry. We've mostly learned how to create scalable batch systems. Real-time requires a different architecture. LinkedIn, for example, has spent a lot of energy on building a real-time search that is updated nearly instantaneously, even for complex queries. They accomplish this by partitioning data in memory and writing their own highly specialized systems to make it work.
Google is perhaps the perfect example of the change to real-time. When Google was just a little bitty oogle, they lazily updated their search indexes every month. This is a batch model, which meant designing an infrastructure for storing lots of data, which required high throughput, not low latency. Times have changed. Now Google is hyped up on Caffeine and updates continuously. They've had to make many architectural changes and completely overhaul their stack to support customer facing applications, like Gmail, where latency matters. And Google won't be the only ones that have to learn how to deal with the new real-time.
Information Sources
Interview with Kyle Vogt, Justin.tv Founder and VP of Engineering. Justin Kan on Getting Traction by Gabriel Weinberg. AWS the Startup Project by Kyle Vogt. This is Justin.tv's architecture as of over 3 years ago. Inside live video service Justin.tv. Robert Scoble's interview with Evan Solomon, Justin.tv's VP of Marketing.
Platform
Twice - custom web caching system. (http://code.google.com/p/twicecache/) XFS - file system. HAProxy - software load balancing. The LVS stack and ldirectord - high availability. Ruby on Rails - application server Nginx - web server. PostgreSQL - database used for user and other meta data. MongoDB - used for their internal analytics tools. MemcachedDB - used for handling high write data like view counters. Syslog-ng - logging service. RabitMQ - used for job system. Puppet - used to build servers. Git - used for source code control. Wowza - Flash/H.264 video server, plus lots of custome modules written in Java. Usher - custom business logic server for playing video streams. S3 - small image storage.
The Stats
4 datacenters spread through out the country. At any given time there's close to 2,000 incoming streams. 30 hours per minute of video is added each day. 30 million unique visitors a month. Average live bandwidth is about 45 gigabits per second. Daily peak bandwidth at about 110 Gbps. Largest spike has been 500 Gbps. Approximately 200 video servers, based on commodity hardware, each capable of sending 1Gbps of video. Smaller than most CDNs yet larger than most video websites. About 100TB of archival storage is saved per week. The complete video path can't have more than 250 msecs of latency before viewers start losing the ability to converse and interact in real-time.
The Live Video Architecture
Why is live video difficult? It seems like you just need a lot of bandwidth, keep it all in memory, shuffle the streams around, and you are done. Simple. Not that simple. If you can't just do YouTube faster for live video, what makes live video such a challenge? Live video can't hiccup, which means you can't oversubscribe bandwidth. YouTube when they started over subscribed bandwidth. They had like 10 gigs of traffic out a 8 gig pipe. That works because the player just has to buffer. With live video if you exceed your network capacity even for a fraction of a second every single viewer will see buffering all at the same moment. If you have more demand than capacity it just won't work, everyone will constantly see buffering. Having network capacity was very important and something they had to do right. So they came up with their peering architecture . They also have way more capacity than they need available if they should require it. Graceful overflow to a CDN when they do overflow. Sometimes they do run out of capacity and they worked hard on gracefully being able to overflow to a CDN. Usher handles this logic. Once out of capacity new viewers are sent to a CDN. Building systems that appear to have 100% up time yet have the ability to take machines out of production slowly and gradually for maintenance. This is very difficult when viewers can quickly notice any problems and immediately talk to each about it over chat. With the chat feature there's no hiding problems. Users have very high service expectations so problems must be dealt with gracefully. They have to wait until everyone is done using a server before it can enter maintenance mode. It's a very slow rotation. Sessions are never interrupted. Your usual website can have a number errors that few people will notice. The biggest problem they have is controlling flash crowds, when a lot of people want to watch the same thing at the same time. It's a huge amount of incoming traffic. So they needed to create a way to adapt load in real-time across all their video servers and datacenters. That mechanism is Usher. Usher is custom software they created to manage load balancing, authentication, and other business logic for playing streams. Usher calculates how many servers to send each stream in order to ensure there's always optimal load. This is their special sauce and is what sets their system apart. It decides in real-time how to replicate streams to servers based on: How much load a particular datacenter has. Individual load of all the servers. Latency optimization. The list of servers where a stream is available. Your IP address to figure out what country you are from. Your IP address in their route database to see if they peer with your ISP. Which datacenter where the request came in and they try to send you to a video server in the same datacenter. Using these metrics Usher can optimize on pure cost to send you to a server where it's going to be free or they can send you to a server that's closest to where you are to optimize for better latency and performance. They have a lot of dials to turn and have very fine grained control. Every server can act as an edge server (where the video is streaming out of to a viewer) and an origin server (where the video is streaming into from a broadcaster). Based on load a stream may be available on one server or every server in the network. It's a dynamic and constantly changing process. The connections of how streams are replicated between servers looks like a weighted tree. The number of streams is sampled constantly. If a certain stream has a high velocity of new incoming viewers then that stream is replicated to a few other servers. And the process repeats, building up a tree shape, potentially including all the servers in the network. This process can execute in as little as three seconds. The entire video stream stays in memory from the time it hits the origin server to when it's copied to other servers and when it's copied to viewers. There's no disk path involved. Flash is used to be as accessible as possible, which uses the RTMP protocol. There's an independent session for every stream. It's fairly expensive because of the protocol. Multicasting or P2P techniques are not used. Downstream ISPs don't support multicast. They did consider using multicast internally to copy streams between servers, but since they have control over their network and have plenty of cheap bandwidth internally, there's not as much of a benefit. It's also difficult to do at a fine grain level since their algorithms are optimized to put the minimum number of streams on each server. It would be more complicated than the gain they would get. Usher is used, via an HTTP request, to decide which video server to use to handle a stream. The video servers are fairly dumb, the overlay logic controlling the serving topology is managed by Usher. Originally started in AWS, then moved to Akamai, and then moved into their own datacenters. Moved out of AWS because: 1) the cost, 2) the network was too slow for their needs. Live video is bandwidth intensive so having a fast, reliable, consistent, low latency network is key. With AWS you have no control over these factors. Your are running on a shared network that is vastly over subscribed, they couldn't do more than 300 Mbps. They really like the ability to dynamically scale and the cloud API, but couldn't get over the performance and cost issues. Three years ago they calculated their cost per customer with the various solutions as: CDN $.135, AWS $.0074 Datacenter $.0017. The CDN cost has gone down, but their datacenter cost is roughly the same. The point of having multiple datacenters is not for redundancy, it's to be as close as possible to all the major peering exchanges ("voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the customers of each network"). They picked the best locations in the country so they would have access to the largest number of peers. Cost savings. This means a large percentage of their traffic doesn't cost them any money because they are connected directly to these other networks. Performance gain. They are directly connected to what they call "eyeball" networks. An eyeball network is one that has a lot of cable/DSL subscribers in their network. Peering with eyeball networks makes more sense than peering with "content" networks (like CDN's, other websites, etc), since Justin.tv serves traffic primarily to end users. They are one network hop away which is great for performance. in most of the cases these arrangements are settlement free, no one pays any money, you just hook up. They have a backbone network to get the video streams between datacenters. The selection process for a finding a peer is to select whomever is willing to peer will them. It's hard to find partners. Bandwidth billing is complicated and non-standard when you buy in bulk. They bill at 90th and 95th percentile rather than actual usage. While video streams are not streamed from disk, video is archived to disk. The origin server, the server picked to handle an incoming stream, records a stream on local disk, that recording is then uploaded to long term storage. Every second of video is recorded and archived. The archive storage looks like YouTube, just a bunch of disks. XFS is used as the file system. This architecture spreads the writes of broadcasts throughout the servers. It's a lot of work to write thousands of streams simultaneously. By default streams are kept for 7 days. A user can manually specify clips which can be stored forever. Video files are easily partitioned across disks. Their operating system is tuned to handle flash crowds as flash crowds put a lot stress on their systems. The network stack is tuned to handle a large number of incoming connections a second. Since they don't have a lot of disk activity going on they don't need to tune much else. The client participates in the load balancing logic, which is one of the reasons they require the use of their own player. TCP is fairly good at handling their typical data rate of a few hundred kbps, so no special manipulation of the TCP settings are necessary. The number of video servers may seem a little low for their traffic because with Usher they can run each video server to full capacity. Load balancing makes sure they are never over their limit. The load is mostly in-memory so they can drive the network at full capacity. Servers are bought from Rackable a whole rack at a time. They just roll 'em in all prewired. Added real-time transcoding which can take in any format of stream, change both the transport layer and the codec, and stream it out in the new format. There's a transcoding cluster that handles the transcoding. Transcoding sessions are scheduled through a job system that spins off transcoding sessions within the cluster. All their servers can be transcoding servers if the demand outstrips their transcoding farm. Happy with the trend of moving away from heavy protocols and towards using HTTP Streaming, which scales very well with existing technologies. The one problem is there isn't an emphasis on latency and real-time. People fudge and say it's real-time if it's between 5 and 30 seconds behind, but that doesn't work for live broadcast to thousands of people that are trying to converse and interact in real-time. There can't be more than 1/4 second of latency.
The Web Architecture
Peak request volume is 10 times higher than their steady state traffic. They must be able to handle big events. Ruby on Rails is used as the front-end. Every page in the system is cached using their custom built caching system called Twice. Twice acts as a combination light weight reverse proxy and templating system. The idea is to cache every page and then make it easy to merge in what is different for each user. Using Twice each process can handle 150 requests per second as apposed to the backend which can process 10-20 requests per second, a 7x-10x gain in the number of web pages they can serve. Over 95% of pages are served out of cache. Most of dynamic pageviews are rendered in under 5ms since the processing required is minimal. Twice has a plugin architecture so it can support application specific features like: Add geographical information. Lookup a Twice cache key or a MemcacheDB key. Automatically cache data like the user name without having to touching the application server. Twice is custom made to fit their needs and environment. If starting a new Rails app one engineer thought using Web traffic is served out of one datacenter. The other datacenters are there to serve video. They have added monitoring to everything. Every click, page view, and action is measured to help improve service. Log messages from the front-end, web call, or from an application server are converted to syslog messages and forwarded through syslog-ngto a single log host. They scan through the data, load it into MongoDB, and run queries on MongoDB. Their API is served from the same application servers as the website. It uses the same caching engine so scaling the API is accomplished by scaling the website. PostegreSQL is their primary database. The structure is straightforward with a master and a set of read slaves. With their type of site they don't have a lot of writes. The caching system handles the reads. They found that PostgreSQL doesn't handle a large number small number of writes very well, that really bogs it down. So MemcachedDB is used for handling high write data like view counters. They have a chat cluster to handle their chat functionality. If you go to a channel you'll get sent to one five different chat servers. Scaling chat is a easier than scaling vide because it's text and it partitions well. People can be split up into different rooms which can be served on different servers. They also don't have chats with the 100,000 people watching a channel. What they do is assign people into rooms of 200 people each so you can have a meaningful interaction in a smaller group. This also helps with scaling. I thought this was a pretty clever strategy. AWS is used to store profile images. They haven't built out anything that can store lots of small images so it's easier to use S3. It's very convenient and doesn't cost very much so there's no reason to spend time on it. If it does become a problem they deal with it then. Their images are frequently used so they are very cacheable, there's no long tail problem to deal with.
Network Topology and Design
The network topology is pretty simple and flat. Each server has dual 1 gig cards to the top of the rack. Each rack has multiple 10 gig interfaces out to the core routers. For switches they found Dell Power Edge switch, which aren't all that good for L3 (TCP/IP), but works great for L2 (ethernet). It will push 20 gigs per switch all day long and is very inexpensive. The core routers are Cisco 6500 series. Keep it simple. They want to minimize the number hops to minimize the latency and also to minimize the amount of processing per packet. Usher handles all the access control and other logic rather than networking hardware. Use multiple datacenters to take advantage of peering relationships and be able to move traffic as close as possible to the user. Heavy peering and interconnection with other networks. Multiple providers with transit so they can pick the best path. If they notice congestion to a certain network they can pick a different route. They can look at the IP address, look at the time, and figure out the ISP.
Development and Deployment
Puppet is used to build servers from bare metal. They have about 20 different types of servers. Anything from a database slave to a memcache box. With Puppet they can turn a box it into whatever they want. They have two software teams. One is the product team and the other is the infrastructure team. The teams are pretty flat, about seven or eight people in each team. There's a product manager for each team. They typically hire generalists, but do have network architecture and database specialists. Any branch can be pushed to a staging or production within minutes using a web based deployment system. QA has to sign off before is going into production. Usually takes 5 to 10 minutes. Git is used for source code control. They like that you can write a branch, a 20 or 30 line feature, and it's merged in with everyone elses branches that are currently on production. Things are very separate and modular. You can easily pull back certain features as apposed to Subversion where you have to pull back entire commits and anyone who committed some non offending code is out of luck. Every few days everyone tries to merge into the master branch in order to eliminate conflicts. They release many small features: between 5 and 15 deployments a day to production! Range form 1 line bug fixes to a larger experiment. Database schema upgrades are done by hand. Configuration file changes are handled by Puppet. Every feature is basically an experiment. They are tracking virality and retention on every major change they make. It's an experiment because they are trying to figure out which changes actually improve the metrics they care about.
The Future
Their goal is grow by an order of magnitude. To accomplish this they plan on making the following changes:
Shard their video metadata system. Metadata load grows exponentially with the number of streams and number of servers so as they grow sharding is needed to scale. Cassandra is being considered. Shard their web database. Build a copy of their primary datacenter for disaster recovery purposes.
Lessons Learned
Build vs Buy . They've made the wrong decisions many times in the past on building their own or buying something off the shelf. For example, they built a video server at first when they really should have bought. Software engineers like to build custom, but there are many benefits to using software maintained by an open source community. So they've come up with a better process for making those kind of decsions: Is this project active? Maintained? Patched? Are other people using it? Can you ask someone else how to modify it? Extensibility matters. They usually need to make changes. Can we build it faster, get better performance, or get some feature we need if buld it ourselves? This is a slippery slope because the feature argument can always be used to build it yourself. Now, like with Usher, they consider if they can build a feature outside and ontop of another system. Building Usher as the core backbone of their video scalability on top of relatively dumb video servers is an excellent example of this strategy. Worry about you do, not what others do . Their goal is to have the best system, the most up time, and perfected scalability. It took 3 years to develop the tech to to handle millions of simultaneous broadcasting. Don't outsource. The value of what you learn is in experience. Not in code or hardware. Consider everything an experiment. Measure everything. Split test. Track. Measure. It's worth it. Do it from beginning. Have good instrumentation. For example, they append a hashtag to a copied URL so they can tell if you share a link. They went from a period of no measurement to hyper measurement. By rewritting the broadcast process they increased the conversion by 700 percent. They want the site to be fast, responsive, for pages to load faster, to serve video better. Every millisecond of delay squeezed out of the system brings in more broadcasters. They have 40 experiments they would like to run on the flow of getting a user to become a broadcaster. For each experiment they want to look at the retention rates of the broadcaster afterwards, the virality of the broadcaster, conversion rates, then make an intelligent decision on which changes to make. Most important thing is to have an understanding of how your site is shared and optimize it . They were able to increase shares by 500 percent by decreasing the menu depth it took to share a link. Peaks don't grow as quickly as everything else . Serving 10x as many total video views would only require scaling the system by 3x-4x. Use homegenous interchangable parts. Using common building blocks and infrastructure means that systems can be immediately repurposed in response to dynamic load. Identify what is important and execute . Having network capacity was very important and something they had to do right from the very beginning. Run systems hot. Utilize the full capacity of your systems. Why leave money on the table? Build systems that can respond to load by properly distributing it. Dont spend time on what is unimportant. If it's very convenient and doesn't cost very much, there's no reason to spend time on it. Using S3 for profile images is an example of this strategy. Support users in what they want to do, not what you think they should do. Justin.tv's end goal seems to be to turn everyone into a broadcaster. They are trying to make that process as easy as possible by getting out of the user's way as much as possible while the user's experiment. In the process they've found gaming is a huge use case. User's like to capture Xbox output and broadcast live and talk about it. Probably not something you would have thought to put in the business plan. Design for peak load. If you just design for steady state then your site will be crushed when a peak load occurs. In live video this is often a big event and if you mess up a lot of people will spread the bad word about you. Designing for peak load takes a whole other level of technology and the will to do the right thing architecturally. Engineering matters. Keep the network architecture simple. Use multiple datacenters. Use heavy peering and network interconnections. Don't be afraid to divide things up into more scalable chunks. For example, rather than have 100,000 people on a chat channel, split them up into more social and scalable groups. Real-time systems can't hide anything from users, this can make it difficult to convince users that your site is reliable. Users, because they are in a constant interaction with a real-time system will notice every problem and every glitch. You can't hide. Everyone notices. And everyone can communicate with each other about what is happening, in real-time. Very quickly users can develop the perception that your site is having problems when it's often a problem on the user's side. It can be difficult to convince people that your site is reliable. Under these circumstances it becomes even more important to communicate with your users; build in reliability, quality, scalability, and performance from the ground up; and design a user experience as simple and pain free as possible.
Related Articles | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
badge
Experience the MSL Through its Champions:
Select a Player Above
As an individual league, the MSL has long stood as an arena for the best players of Brood War to compete at the highest level. Providing the scene with a benchmark upon which to measure the greatest minds of Starcraft, the MSL can be well understood through its most dominant players. In addition to their transcendent mechanical skill and strategic ingenuity, the best players possess a fundamental understanding of the game that eludes even their most fierce competitors.
But who is the most dominant? Debates rage on regarding who among the many players to ascend the ranks of the various Starcraft leagues are worthy of titles such as "The Greatest of All Time" and "Bonjwa." In their time, five players have proven time and again that their place at the top is indisputable.
NaDa. iloveoov. sAviOr. Bisu. Flash.
Each of them, 3 time MSL winners. Each of them, winners of the Golden Badge.
The history of the MSL is vast and storied, but perhaps the best way to capture the spirit of the tournament is to follow the storylines of its most decorated champions.
Select a player above to walk through the history of the MSL or click here to start with NaDa As an individual league, the MSL has long stood as an arena for the best players of Brood War to compete at the highest level. Providing the scene with a benchmark upon which to measure the greatest minds of Starcraft, the MSL can be well understood through its most dominant players. In addition to their transcendent mechanical skill and strategic ingenuity, the best players possess a fundamental understanding of the game that eludes even their most fierce competitors.But who is the most dominant? Debates rage on regarding who among the many players to ascend the ranks of the various Starcraft leagues are worthy of titles such as "The Greatest of All Time" and "Bonjwa." In their time, five players have proven time and again that their place at the top is indisputable.NaDa. iloveoov. sAviOr. Bisu. Flash.Each of them, 3 time MSL winners. Each of them, winners of the Golden Badge.The history of the MSL is vast and storied, but perhaps the best way to capture the spirit of the tournament is to follow the storylines of its most decorated champions.Select a player above to walk through the history of the MSL or
Lee Yoon Yeol: Nada By: WaxAngel
The Golden Badge was an award given to the five progamers who had won three MBCGame Starcraft League championships in their careers. It was more than just a statistical milestone, or else it would not deserve its own dedicated section as we celebrate the memory of MBCGame. My colleagues will be more than happy to relive the tales of Golden Badges two through five, but we must start at the beginning to understand its meaning and significance.
Like most sufficiently legendary entities, Lee "Nada" Yoon Yeol carries an aura of timelessness. Six championships, six hundred career wins, and the title of greatest to ever play the game. It's hard to imagine a time before these immortal feats truly existed, and such a time surely must have been a wild, untamed age.
That’s not as far from the truth as it might sound. Nada appeared on the radar in 2001, the last year of Korean Brood War's wild west. It was a time before replays, when such things as hidden gosus truly existed, and small organizations found it worth their while to try and ride the wave of Starcraft's astounding popularity in South Korea. Names such as Game-Q, iTV, GameTV, KIGL have long since gone the way of the 2-Gate zealot opener, but they were an ideal space for an aspiring professional gamer to hone his skills.
Nada was a revelation from the start, and his reputation quickly grew as he defeated numerous OnGameNet Starleague (OSL) alumni during his journey through the wilds. Without ever stepping foot in the OSL – disproportionately the most popular and important tournament at the time – he had become a household name among Starcraft fans. By the time Nada got to GemBC (the previous incarnation of MBCGame), he was expected to do big things. He was the rock band that had already killed on the indie circuit, and the question was not if, but when he would stop playing in basements and burst out into the mainstream.
Though it wasn't something to be declared with resounding confidence, the opening season of the 2002 KPGA Tour on the new gaming channel GemBC qualified as 'mainstream.' GemBC had held four previous monthly KPGA tours as dress rehearsals before ramping up the prize money and scale of the tours to compete directly with the OnGameNet Starleague. As a dedicated cable channel, it had the reach to compete with OnGameNet unlike the many online-only contenders. Also, the MBC (one of Korea's major broadcast networks) and KPGA (the previous incarnation of KeSPA) brand names lent some weight to an otherwise untested organization. What they really needed, though, was a great story to fuel to the league along, something OnGameNet was already proving as a necessity in a young industry. In other words, they needed the most rapidly rising player in Korea to drop some jaws.
Alas, after taking down a few more OSL Stars in Chrh and TheMarine, Nada suffered early elimination from the 1st KPGA Tour at the hands of an in-his-prime IntoTheRain. Fortunately for GemBC, they were able to find their storyline for success elsewhere. Boxer defeated Yellow in the finals, allowing the two mega-stars of progaming to continue their growing rivalry and giving GemBC the spotlight it needed (we would learn much later that the formula of Boxer 1st, Yellow 2nd truly did validate the first KPGA tour as a legitimate major tournament). Though it looked like a failure for Nada at the time, in retrospect it simply set a grander stage for history to be made upon.
Nada tore through the 2nd KPGA Tour and took home his first championship. The next season, he took home another. And the season after that, he did it one more time.
Admittedly, there is a distinct lack of narrative. However, that is due to there being only one narrative that really mattered; Nada was unstoppable. Nada's finals opponents were Yellow, Reach, and Chojja, three of the best progamers to ever play. He out-produced, out-controlled, and out-strategized them all. Over his three championship runs, Nada's record was 33 wins and 10 losses.
It is difficult to say that one thing made Nada such a dominant player. One could point to the fact that he was one of the first players with truly superior mechanics, which allowed him to be better than his opponents at essentially every aspect of the game. The most frequent criticism levelled against Nada's play was that it was so efficient that it lacked personality, as if Nada were a machine created solely to win at Starcraft.
His macro was his most visible strength, and he routinely won games because his opponents simply had never seen so many units at certain timings. As strange as it might seem in a world with macro-monsters such as Flash, Best and Zero, "Nada on two bases" was an early colloquialism for someone with a lot of units.
On the other hand, he had the best micro as well. Though Boxer was the player who made micro famous, Nada took all of the Emperor's marine splits, vulture tactics, dropship harassment, etc. and made them routine. Nada had a knack for finding undefended workers, and could as easily win a game through harassment as he could through a head on engagement.
To round it off, Nada was a brilliant thinker as well. Though he could beat anyone in a straight-up game, he cheesed enough to keep his opponents honest and collect the easy win when it was available. In one of his most famous games, where he actually was out-macroed by PvT specialist ForU, he came back from a dire situation by staying calm and understanding his limited advantages. Though ForU had fifty gateways and map control, Nada knew that turtling, upgrading, and waiting for the Protoss player to defeat himself was the solution – all before Flash had ever built his first tank.
In short, Nada microed more, macroed more, in more places and in a smarter way than his opponents. It was one of those rare periods in progaming where a player made it look like he was playing an entirely different game from his opponents. Boxer had done it in 2001 with his micro; Nada in 2002 achieved it with every facet of his play.
In 2002, it was difficult to know what to make of it all. Without seeing hundreds more careers, no one could know that they would never see anyone quite like Nada again. Without seeing so many of those careers come and go without reaching the ultimate goal, no one could fully the appreciate the value of a single championship, let alone three (long story short: in 2002, Yellow and his fans still thought he had a chance). And certainly, there was no way to know that the KPGA Tour would live on for ten more years as the MBCGame Starcraft League, with only the most elite players ever tying the record for three championships again.
As it turned out, Nada wasn't just writing history for himself. Nada was giving MBCGame the foundation for the identity it would carry to its final day: He who dominated the MSL dominated all of progaming.
Once Nada ceased to be the undisputed best player in the world, he stopped winning MSLs. While Nada would remain an excellent player for years, he would never again be the dominant player he was in 2002. Nada's competitors had learned from him and the way he played the game, and had all grown stronger as a result. Though Nada reached the MSL finals for the fourth straight time in 2003, he was decisively outplayed and shut out by the crafty Nal_Ra, marking the end of an era. Slowly but surely, with every passing OSL and MSL, with every one-time champion that never recaptured his momentary glory, with every day the Nada didn't seem quite as dominant as he did in 2002, it became more and more obvious that what he had achieved was truly incredible.
Later, whenever the MSL was conquered and forced to surrender another Golden Badge, it would only be to dominating, game changing players who had achieved the same level of excellence in their times. iloveoov, who took the concept of economic superiority to its limits, Savior, the disgraced master of strategy and tactics, Bisu, who re-invented a match-up that had been static for seven years, and Flash, a machine that synthesized every lesson of the past into what resembles perfection. These players shared the aura of absolute superiority Nada had at his time. By joining his company, they did not dilute the MSL tradition, they only furthered it.
Since his MSL debut, Nada has gone on to have a storied career of ten years. He capped off 2002 by winning an OnGameNet Starleague as well, having won a record four championships in a single year. Further down the line, he would receive another rare award in completely different circumstances, by winning a Golden Mouse (awarded to three time OSL winners) as the representative of the long eclipsed, but still defiant first generation of Korean progamers. Later still, he would even grace the stage of an entirely different game, becoming a top level Starcraft II player at an age where most of his colleagues would have retired.
Throughout this time, his legacy is still inevitably tied with GeMBC. Dozens of announcers have bellowed his nickname, "Genius Terran," over stages around the world. Each time, it reflects his origins. For the name was coined at a time when the meaning was closer to "prodigy," when an eighteen year old progamer was making history in the MSL.
Click Here to Return to the Intro | Continue with iloveoov... The Golden Badge was an award given to the five progamers who had won three MBCGame Starcraft League championships in their careers. It was more than just a statistical milestone, or else it would not deserve its own dedicated section as we celebrate the memory of MBCGame. My colleagues will be more than happy to relive the tales of Golden Badges two through five, but we must start at the beginning to understand its meaning and significance.Like most sufficiently legendary entities, Lee "Nada" Yoon Yeol carries an aura of timelessness. Six championships, six hundred career wins, and the title of greatest to ever play the game. It's hard to imagine a time before these immortal feats truly existed, and such a time surely must have been a wild, untamed age.That’s not as far from the truth as it might sound. Nada appeared on the radar in 2001, the last year of Korean Brood War's wild west. It was a time before replays, when such things as hidden gosus truly existed, and small organizations found it worth their while to try and ride the wave of Starcraft's astounding popularity in South Korea. Names such as Game-Q, iTV, GameTV, KIGL have long since gone the way of the 2-Gate zealot opener, but they were an ideal space for an aspiring professional gamer to hone his skills.Nada was a revelation from the start, and his reputation quickly grew as he defeated numerous OnGameNet Starleague (OSL) alumni during his journey through the wilds. Without ever stepping foot in the OSL – disproportionately the most popular and important tournament at the time – he had become a household name among Starcraft fans. By the time Nada got to GemBC (the previous incarnation of MBCGame), he was expected to do big things. He was the rock band that had already killed on the indie circuit, and the question was not if, but when he would stop playing in basements and burst out into the mainstream.Though it wasn't something to be declared with resounding confidence, the opening season of the 2002 KPGA Tour on the new gaming channel GemBC qualified as 'mainstream.' GemBC had held four previous monthly KPGA tours as dress rehearsals before ramping up the prize money and scale of the tours to compete directly with the OnGameNet Starleague. As a dedicated cable channel, it had the reach to compete with OnGameNet unlike the many online-only contenders. Also, the MBC (one of Korea's major broadcast networks) and KPGA (the previous incarnation of KeSPA) brand names lent some weight to an otherwise untested organization. What they really needed, though, was a great story to fuel to the league along, something OnGameNet was already proving as a necessity in a young industry. In other words, they needed the most rapidly rising player in Korea to drop some jaws.Alas, after taking down a few more OSL Stars in Chrh and TheMarine, Nada suffered early elimination from the 1st KPGA Tour at the hands of an in-his-prime IntoTheRain. Fortunately for GemBC, they were able to find their storyline for success elsewhere. Boxer defeated Yellow in the finals, allowing the two mega-stars of progaming to continue their growing rivalry and giving GemBC the spotlight it needed (we would learn much later that the formula of Boxer 1st, Yellow 2nd truly did validate the first KPGA tour as a legitimate major tournament). Though it looked like a failure for Nada at the time, in retrospect it simply set a grander stage for history to be made upon.Nada tore through the 2nd KPGA Tour and took home his first championship. The next season, he took home another. And the season after that, he did it one more time.Admittedly, there is a distinct lack of narrative. However, that is due to there being only one narrative that really mattered; Nada was unstoppable. Nada's finals opponents were Yellow, Reach, and Chojja, three of the best progamers to ever play. He out-produced, out-controlled, and out-strategized them all. Over his three championship runs, Nada's record was 33 wins and 10 losses.It is difficult to say that one thing made Nada such a dominant player. One could point to the fact that he was one of the first players with truly superior mechanics, which allowed him to be better than his opponents at essentially every aspect of the game. The most frequent criticism levelled against Nada's play was that it was so efficient that it lacked personality, as if Nada were a machine created solely to win at Starcraft.His macro was his most visible strength, and he routinely won games because his opponents simply had never seen so many units at certain timings. As strange as it might seem in a world with macro-monsters such as Flash, Best and Zero, "Nada on two bases" was an early colloquialism for someone with a lot of units.On the other hand, he had the best micro as well. Though Boxer was the player who made micro famous, Nada took all of the Emperor's marine splits, vulture tactics, dropship harassment, etc. and made them routine. Nada had a knack for finding undefended workers, and could as easily win a game through harassment as he could through a head on engagement.To round it off, Nada was a brilliant thinker as well. Though he could beat anyone in a straight-up game, he cheesed enough to keep his opponents honest and collect the easy win when it was available. In one of his most famous games, where he actually was out-macroed by PvT specialist ForU, he came back from a dire situation by staying calm and understanding his limited advantages. Though ForU had fifty gateways and map control, Nada knew that turtling, upgrading, and waiting for the Protoss player to defeat himself was the solution – all before Flash had ever built his first tank.In short, Nada microed more, macroed more, in more places and in a smarter way than his opponents. It was one of those rare periods in progaming where a player made it look like he was playing an entirely different game from his opponents. Boxer had done it in 2001 with his micro; Nada in 2002 achieved it with every facet of his play.In 2002, it was difficult to know what to make of it all. Without seeing hundreds more careers, no one could know that they would never see anyone quite like Nada again. Without seeing so many of those careers come and go without reaching the ultimate goal, no one could fully the appreciate the value of a single championship, let alone three (long story short: in 2002, Yellow and his fans still thought he had a chance). And certainly, there was no way to know that the KPGA Tour would live on for ten more years as the MBCGame Starcraft League, with only the most elite players ever tying the record for three championships again.As it turned out, Nada wasn't just writing history for himself. Nada was giving MBCGame the foundation for the identity it would carry to its final day: He who dominated the MSL dominated all of progaming.Once Nada ceased to be the undisputed best player in the world, he stopped winning MSLs. While Nada would remain an excellent player for years, he would never again be the dominant player he was in 2002. Nada's competitors had learned from him and the way he played the game, and had all grown stronger as a result. Though Nada reached the MSL finals for the fourth straight time in 2003, he was decisively outplayed and shut out by the crafty Nal_Ra, marking the end of an era. Slowly but surely, with every passing OSL and MSL, with every one-time champion that never recaptured his momentary glory, with every day the Nada didn't seem quite as dominant as he did in 2002, it became more and more obvious that what he had achieved was truly incredible.Later, whenever the MSL was conquered and forced to surrender another Golden Badge, it would only be to dominating, game changing players who had achieved the same level of excellence in their times. iloveoov, who took the concept of economic superiority to its limits, Savior, the disgraced master of strategy and tactics, Bisu, who re-invented a match-up that had been static for seven years, and Flash, a machine that synthesized every lesson of the past into what resembles perfection. These players shared the aura of absolute superiority Nada had at his time. By joining his company, they did not dilute the MSL tradition, they only furthered it.Since his MSL debut, Nada has gone on to have a storied career of ten years. He capped off 2002 by winning an OnGameNet Starleague as well, having won a record four championships in a single year. Further down the line, he would receive another rare award in completely different circumstances, by winning a Golden Mouse (awarded to three time OSL winners) as the representative of the long eclipsed, but still defiant first generation of Korean progamers. Later still, he would even grace the stage of an entirely different game, becoming a top level Starcraft II player at an age where most of his colleagues would have retired.Throughout this time, his legacy is still inevitably tied with GeMBC. Dozens of announcers have bellowed his nickname, "Genius Terran," over stages around the world. Each time, it reflects his origins. For the name was coined at a time when the meaning was closer to "prodigy," when an eighteen year old progamer was making history in the MSL.
Choi Yun Sung: iloveoov By: Ver
Choi Yeon-Sung, also known as iloveoov, had the most meteoric rise of any player in Starcraft history with his triple MSL win. iloveoov qualified for the Trigem MSL at the very beginning of his career, won it, and never looked back. However, iloveoov lost in the very first round to Nada, the reigning best player in the world. At that point, iloveoov was just another nobody, a first-time player who luckily managed to qualify. Yet, after being knocked into the losers’ bracket in round one, iloveoov tore through and humiliated every opponent, including getting revenge against Nada 3-1 in the loser's finals.
He went on to 3-0 Yellow, who was then in the best form of his life, having previously beaten Nada for the first time. However, oov's Trigem victory was just the beginning. From Trigem to Spris, he accumulated a terrifying record and placed himself as the leading player of his era. Overall, his triple MSL victory featured the toughest set of opponents anyone has ever had to face back-to-back.
He repeatedly squared off against Bonjwa of the time Nada, while taking down other current champions or finalists in peak form like Yellow, rA, July, and Kingdom. His ELO record of 2353, a number incomparable to those of any of his contemporary rivals and only eclipsed by Flash/Jaedong/Bisu thanks to rampant inflation, signifies just how far ahead of the pack he was and just what he had to overcome in his MSL runs. No player has ever held such a league record against the very tip-top competition.
35-8 Overall (81.4%)
8-3 vP (73%)
16-5 vT (76%)
11-0 vZ (100%)
So how did iloveoov do it? What made him so special? Perhaps the most obvious reason is his mind set. In every area you could compare, oov was different from other players. oov was and is an outspoken, honest person who never hesitated in saying what he believed was right. He has never lacked confidence in public, always believed in himself, and made damn sure that other players knew it. In this area, he was a role model for another future champion, Savior.
"In my interviews, I just say exactly what is on my mind. Although I know that there are progamers who are overly timid or modest because they’re afraid of getting flamed on the internet, I don’t think that’s appropriate so whenever I see Yun-sung hyung’s (iloveoov) interviews I often think that he is worthy of respect."
-Savior
Yet that brash, confident exterior was also part of the picture. In private, oov didn't aim specifically at winning or being the best. He simply focused on the game itself, not on other "minor" concerns. This approach is quite unconventional, like much about iloveoov, yet one cannot argue with his success.
"When I didn’t try to win, I started to play better, and I ended up winning. That’s my style."
-oov
"When I was on my dominant streak, I have never thought myself as the best player, nor did I think I would win any leagues. Maybe that’s because I won!"
-oov
Yet this alone is not enough to explain his success, so let's look at his victories from another angle. While oov was very good at keeping himself fuelled, at his best he also excelled in making his opponents play worse. This is most apparent when looking at his lopsided record against Nada of
"During your peak, you lost a lot to sAviOr and iloveoov. Who was the harder one to face?
A: iloveoov was harder because of his mind games. He was also too tall."
"I've always had great respect for oov's play, I think I'm a little lacking to be called his rival. oov has a better overall feel(vision) for the game - that's something I would like to learn."
"iloveoov hyung would be the most difficult opponent. I think iloveoov hyung will think I’m easy. Because he’s also good at mindgames, I keep thinking I’ll just be beaten"
-Nada
This phenomenon held true against players other than Nada as well. Many of iloveoov's famous victories make little sense on the surface. Frequently it appeared that his opponents would simply be playing into oov's hands for no apparent reason. oov often looked like he was maphacking, managing seemingly blind build order counters and consistently coming out ahead. In the Spris finals against his teammate Kingdom, Kingdom went for a DT drop on the island map Parallel Lines in both games 1 and 5, and both times oov correctly predicted this move and easily held with detection and a fast expansion.
In other cases, such as his
In this game against July oov faked a 2 rax academy expansion, a build with which he had remained undefeated with against the best Zergs, and instead went for an older 2 rax tech build with a much later expansion. July played a greedy style, aiming to get ahead of oov economically, and oov consistently shut down his economy by always having a superiority of force at the right moments. Later on in his life he explained how he could consistently create such dangerous builds and win games so often in one of the most illuminating interviews out there:
"This is what build orders mean to me: there is no perfect strategy, and in a situation where there are weaknesses, holes and solutions, there is a limit to how much you can hide your cards from your opponent. It is more effective to actively manipulate the opponent to commit to an ill-founded assumption, so they are caught off-guard with my actual game-play, and my chances of winning are increased. This is where factors outside of the game come into play and help you decide on your build order."
-oov
oov's victories made him known as the "Cheater Terran," because he did what nobody believed was possible at the time. Frequently, he would just seem to have more units than conceivable, as if he were cheating and making them out of thin air. This ability came from his aptitude for forcing his opponents to follow his lead all game long and making them fight in game plans he had designed and knew inside and out.
In his Cengame finals against Nada, oov won games 4 and 5 by quickly gathering siege tanks and pushing Nada's natural. This early threat made Nada afraid, but instead of committing to the hasty and premature push, oov expanded twice and held his ground. By the time Nada correctly ascertained oov's strategy and broke out, oov already had an overwhelming force and crushed Nada with a mass of units.
A typical iloveoov game: lots and lots of stuff A typical iloveoov game: lots and lots of stuff
The MSL made iloveoov's dazzling rise to fame and colorful storyline possible. Despite its Korean reputation as an inferior tournament, compared to the OSL (due to production value, lack of drama, and other largely superficial concerns) the MSL has been the breeding ground of champions. The OSL, while viewed as the more prestigious tournament, possessed a more luck-based format and random map selections whose only consistent trait was their lack of balance. Yet no player in the OSL ever could look this scary:
That is simply dominance That is simply dominance
For much of its history, the MSL ran with a dual elimination format. This aspect was a crucial factor in iloveoov's first title victory, where he lost to Nada in the very first round but proceeded to beat down every single opponent, including Nada and Yellow, from the losers’ bracket. The MSL system also made sure that iloveoov's second and third title victories were against the very best players, not whoever happened to be the luckiest.
Not only did the MSL give iloveoov his deserved second chance at a victory in the Trigem MSL, but it also made sure that he earned every one of his victories. Compared to the rigors that oov faced in the old MSL system, the modern league formats that let Jaedong win a Starleague over Yellow[arnc], Calm over Kwanro, or Flash over Movie seem like something of a joke. The MSL was crucial in establishing oov's legacy and, at least for some time, making players really earn their titles, thus creating the best storylines. For that, if nothing else, it deserves appreciation.
Click Here to Return to the Intro | Continue with sAviOr... Choi Yeon-Sung, also known as iloveoov, had the most meteoric rise of any player in Starcraft history with his triple MSL win. iloveoov qualified for the Trigem MSL at the very beginning of his career, won it, and never looked back. However, iloveoov lost in the very first round to Nada, the reigning best player in the world. At that point, iloveoov was just another nobody, a first-time player who luckily managed to qualify. Yet, after being knocked into the losers’ bracket in round one, iloveoov tore through and humiliated every opponent, including getting revenge against Nada 3-1 in the loser's finals.He went on to 3-0 Yellow, who was then in the best form of his life, having previously beaten Nada for the first time. However, oov's Trigem victory was just the beginning. From Trigem to Spris, he accumulated a terrifying record and placed himself as the leading player of his era. Overall, his triple MSL victory featured the toughest set of opponents anyone has ever had to face back-to-back.He repeatedly squared off against Bonjwa of the time Nada, while taking down other current champions or finalists in peak form like Yellow, rA, July, and Kingdom. His ELO record of 2353, a number incomparable to those of any of his contemporary rivals and only eclipsed by Flash/Jaedong/Bisu thanks to rampant inflation, signifies just how far ahead of the pack he was and just what he had to overcome in his MSL runs. No player has ever held such a league record against the very tip-top competition.35-8 Overall (81.4%)8-3 vP (73%)16-5 vT (76%)11-0 vZ (100%)So how did iloveoov do it? What made him so special? Perhaps the most obvious reason is his mind set. In every area you could compare, oov was different from other players. oov was and is an outspoken, honest person who never hesitated in saying what he believed was right. He has never lacked confidence in public, always believed in himself, and made damn sure that other players knew it. In this area, he was a role model for another future champion, Savior.Yet that brash, confident exterior was also part of the picture. In private, oov didn't aim specifically at winning or being the best. He simply focused on the game itself, not on other "minor" concerns. This approach is quite unconventional, like much about iloveoov, yet one cannot argue with his success.Yet this alone is not enough to explain his success, so let's look at his victories from another angle. While oov was very good at keeping himself fuelled, at his best he also excelled in making his opponents play worse. This is most apparent when looking at his lopsided record against Nada of 17-6 . oov repeatedly beat Nada down, the best player of all time, when Nada was still around the peak of his abilities. This wasn’t due to a difference in player skill; it was because iloveoov was just that much smarter.This phenomenon held true against players other than Nada as well. Many of iloveoov's famous victories make little sense on the surface. Frequently it appeared that his opponents would simply be playing into oov's hands for no apparent reason. oov often looked like he was maphacking, managing seemingly blind build order counters and consistently coming out ahead. In the Spris finals against his teammate Kingdom, Kingdom went for a DT drop on the island map Parallel Lines in both games 1 and 5, and both times oov correctly predicted this move and easily held with detection and a fast expansion.In other cases, such as his famous marine split game versus July , oov would apply a more thorough principle. Specifically, he would show his opponent a consistent illusion that would mislead them into thinking oov was doing a certain build, then oov would do something else, something entirely designed to defeat his opponent's predicted response.In this game against July oov faked a 2 rax academy expansion, a build with which he had remained undefeated with against the best Zergs, and instead went for an older 2 rax tech build with a much later expansion. July played a greedy style, aiming to get ahead of oov economically, and oov consistently shut down his economy by always having a superiority of force at the right moments. Later on in his life he explained how he could consistently create such dangerous builds and win games so often in one of the most illuminating interviews out there:oov's victories made him known as the "Cheater Terran," because he did what nobody believed was possible at the time. Frequently, he would just seem to have more units than conceivable, as if he were cheating and making them out of thin air. This ability came from his aptitude for forcing his opponents to follow his lead all game long and making them fight in game plans he had designed and knew inside and out.In his Cengame finals against Nada, oov won games 4 and 5 by quickly gathering siege tanks and pushing Nada's natural. This early threat made Nada afraid, but instead of committing to the hasty and premature push, oov expanded twice and held his ground. By the time Nada correctly ascertained oov's strategy and broke out, oov already had an overwhelming force and crushed Nada with a mass of units.The MSL made iloveoov's dazzling rise to fame and colorful storyline possible. Despite its Korean reputation as an inferior tournament, compared to the OSL (due to production value, lack of drama, and other largely superficial concerns) the MSL has been the breeding ground of champions. The OSL, while viewed as the more prestigious tournament, possessed a more luck-based format and random map selections whose only consistent trait was their lack of balance. Yet no player in the OSL ever could look this scary:For much of its history, the MSL ran with a dual elimination format. This aspect was a crucial factor in iloveoov's first title victory, where he lost to Nada in the very first round but proceeded to beat down every single opponent, including Nada and Yellow, from the losers’ bracket. The MSL system also made sure that iloveoov's second and third title victories were against the very best players, not whoever happened to be the luckiest.Not only did the MSL give iloveoov his deserved second chance at a victory in the Trigem MSL, but it also made sure that he earned every one of his victories. Compared to the rigors that oov faced in the old MSL system, the modern league formats that let Jaedong win a Starleague over Yellow[arnc], Calm over Kwanro, or Flash over Movie seem like something of a joke. The MSL was crucial in establishing oov's legacy and, at least for some time, making players really earn their titles, thus creating the best storylines. For that, if nothing else, it deserves appreciation.
Ma Jae Yoon: sAviOr By: Xxio
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
- Ozymandias
Professional Starcraft is a new phenomenon with decades of growth to come; it is only in recent years that even the first line of Korean professionals have begun to end their gaming careers. The age of esports is at its dawn. Yet, in the past decade, it has developed a history rich in culture, and while there are many gains to be made in the world of progaming, there are also achievements that can never be surpassed. For the progamer of today and ad infinitum, there will always be the ceiling that is Ma Jae-Yoon.
No other name in esports evokes such a myriad of memories and emotions. The godfathers of the Terran race, Boxer, Nada, and iloveoov, defined progaming in their prime. Savior broke them. He usurped Oov's throne and had the world eating out of the palm of his hand. Boxer, Nada, iloveoov, Nal_ra, and Reach would never again be dominant, or truly contend, in professional Brood War. Savior's unprecedented style of play and clear transcendence ended their era and created his own.
The MSL was Savior's proving ground. In his reign from 2005-2007 he played in every MSL final, finishing first three times and second, twice. The MSL was where he made fundamental strategic innovations and became the Savior of Zerg. By making the MSL the theatre of his legend, he defined the league as much as it defined him. Until the advent of Kim Taek-Yong in 2007, the MSL booth was the seat of Savior's power. In that booth, he was king.
The Digital Age is reshaping the world. Modern technology gives agency to billions and defines cultures, and yet, there will always be an inability to recreate the glories of the past. The likes of the Roman Empire, the Tang Dynasty, and Classical Greece will never again be seen. Indeed, how can we compare? For how long will we live in the shadow of these great civilizations? In esports, the shadow of Ma Jae-Yoon is long, and Brood War's longer still. Though esports is still in its infancy, it is arguable that Ma Jae-Yoon and the Bonjwas before him created its golden age.
Look on his works, ye mighty, and despair.
Click Here to Return to the Intro | Continue with Bisu... Professional Starcraft is a new phenomenon with decades of growth to come; it is only in recent years that even the first line of Korean professionals have begun to end their gaming careers. The age of esports is at its dawn. Yet, in the past decade, it has developed a history rich in culture, and while there are many gains to be made in the world of progaming, there are also achievements that can never be surpassed. For the progamer of today and ad infinitum, there will always be the ceiling that is Ma Jae-Yoon.No other name in esports evokes such a myriad of memories and emotions. The godfathers of the Terran race, Boxer, Nada, and iloveoov, defined progaming in their prime. Savior broke them. He usurped Oov's throne and had the world eating out of the palm of his hand. Boxer, Nada, iloveoov, Nal_ra, and Reach would never again be dominant, or truly contend, in professional Brood War. Savior's unprecedented style of play and clear transcendence ended their era and created his own.The MSL was Savior's proving ground. In his reign from 2005-2007 he played in every MSL final, finishing first three times and second, twice. The MSL was where he made fundamental strategic innovations and became the Savior of Zerg. By making the MSL the theatre of his legend, he defined the league as much as it defined him. Until the advent of Kim Taek-Yong in 2007, the MSL booth was the seat of Savior's power. In that booth, he was king.The Digital Age is reshaping the world. Modern technology gives agency to billions and defines cultures, and yet, there will always be an inability to recreate the glories of the past. The likes of the Roman Empire, the Tang Dynasty, and Classical Greece will never again be seen. Indeed, how can we compare? For how long will we live in the shadow of these great civilizations? In esports, the shadow of Ma Jae-Yoon is long, and Brood War's longer still. Though esports is still in its infancy, it is arguable that Ma Jae-Yoon and the Bonjwas before him created its golden age.Look on his works, ye mighty, and despair.
Kim Taek Yong: Bisu By: disciple
The year of my high-school graduation, 2007, was utter bliss; I had the most wonderful time of my life, most of it spent with my buddies. It was also the year I found out about the Korean BW proscene and, just like anyone introduced to something exciting and exotic, I was consumed by it.
My first MSLs in 2007 were deeply personal experiences – they marked my passion for the entire universe of esports, one specific progamer and TeamLiquid in general. Those memories are the reason I'm telling you all this, they’re the reason I'm here today, and the reason I don't want to go anywhere else.
The Golden Badge winners’ club consists of only the brightest and most dominant players the Korean BW scene has ever produced. It wouldn't do his accomplishments any justice if I were to say Bisu doesn't belong to this exclusive club, but unlike the Bonjwas before him, Bisu never managed to establish his own long lasting reign of dominance.
His career, from glorious triumphs to lamentable losses, has been marked by the huge expectations the community has of him; just like all great champions, Bisu was challenged to prove his worth in every tournament he has attended. Ultimately, this has resulted in some of the most significant and memorable moments of the MSL.
Bisu's meteoric rise to stardom began during the 2007 GOMTV Season 1 MSL. By then Kim Taek Yong was already considered a prodigious young Protoss player with a solid performance in the Proleague for his team – MBC. With a loss to the Protoss legend nal_ra, followed by wins over the Terran powerhouses Iris and Canata, Bisu had managed to make it through a very hard group in the Ro16. The Ro8 was to be no easier, with the MSL format placing him in a group with two more Terran players – the rising stars Hwasin and Light, as well as an MSL runner up in the form of the Zerg player, Silver. Bisu managed to overcome the odds in fine style and stage was set for a rematch with nal_ra in the final.
The community was on the side of the Dreamer; a win would mean he’d face his nemesis, Savior, in long awaited continuation of their Holy Wars. The underdog shocked everyone though, as Bisu easily bested nal_ra 3-0 in their encounter. It seemed as though everything was lining up for a fourth title in Savior’s fifth consecutive final appearance.
The Starcraft fan's memory is a funny thing though; the scene is so dynamic that months and years can feel like aeons. Events from just three or four years ago are considered legends. In the end, people will always remember how Anytime denied Boxer his golden mouse, how the legend of fall in the OSL was born, and how Flash managed to beat Stork in about half an hour to take his first OSL title.
We all remember the events, but no one remembers the dates. There's one exception though, and that’s 3.3.2007.
The games themselves, and the PvZ revolution that Bisu's win over the Maestro prompted, have been much discussed. Even if we detach ourselves from the significance of the metagame shift that followed those games, the Bisu vs Savior final of GOMTV MSL Season 1 is the most famous, and arguably the most important, match in the history of BW. It marked the end of the so-called Golden Age and the beginning of the last chapter in the scene's development.
Outplaying a Bonjwa in a Bo5 against all odds is, without doubt, the most bombastic way for a newcomer to make his mark in the scene. Following the historic trend of succession, the new poster boy of the scene, Bisu, was to show that he is not just flash in the pan. The upcoming GOMTV MSL Season 2 was eagerly anticipated by the community – it was to answer the question, was there a new Protoss superstar in the making, or would the Maestro reclaim his throne?
Still, Bisu was not alone leading the Protoss race renaissance. After advancing out of his group, defeating Bisu in the process, CJ captain OverSky enlisted in the army, leaving his Ro8 bracket spot vacant. In the resulting Wild Card tournament, the Protoss Commander Stork managed to earn a second chance at the title. Meanwhile, on the upper side of the bracket, a shocking result had been produced as the TvZ specialist firebathero bested the Maestro himself in a thrilling Bo5, ensuring that the MSL finals streak of Savior would not continue.
After another win over Light in the Ro16, the reigning champion Bisu was up against the Red Sniper, Hwasin. Since both iloveoov and Nada had fallen from grace, no player had quite been able to recapture the brilliance of the Bonjwa Terrans. Still, it's fair to say that in 2007 Hwasin was playing the best Starcraft of his life – even managing to take the 2007 Korean WCG over Stork.
Bisu was equal to the challenge though, managing a 3-2 victory in a knife-edge series, and keeping his back-to-back MSL dreams alive. The following semi-final against GoRush had the feel of formality, as Bisu's PvZ had been summarily dismissing Zerg opponents since the 3.3 Revolution. In order to be the first Protoss player ever to win back-to-back MSL titles, Bisu would have to the defeat the Commander, Stork.
The full weight of the community’s attention was focused on this final, with both players taking completely different approaches to the race they were playing. It was the energetic style of Bisu, focused on his trademark multitasking, versus the calm and deeply methodical play of Stork.
If Bisu vs Savior had been a bombshell, Bisu vs Stork was better still. Fans and tournament organizers couldn't have hoped for a better final. The two Protoss stars traded wins in epic games, setting the stage for a fifth and final game worthy of bardic song and poetry. Over the course of a nail-biting, ball-sweating, 50-minute game, Bisu was able to force Stork into submission. The first Protoss back-to-back MSL champion and KeSPa #1 was a reality. After years of struggling in vain, there was finally a Protoss hope.
Sure enough, Bisu soon got his chance to seal his Bonjwa claims and finally establish himself as the undisputed best player in the world. Full of confidence, during the Ro16 of GOMTV MSL Season 3 he was able to win yet another close match with his Terran rival and so called "Insurance" Hwasin. In truth, it was a match Bisu was expected to lose, but, in that way that real champions have, he was able to somehow pull through.
Up until the final, the bracket had been a breeze for Bisu, with this MSL turning out to be the swan song of a couple of old Starcraft legends, with both nal_ra and XellOs generally considered long past their prime. So, after smashing Kwanro and easily overcoming XellOs in the semi-final, Bisu was yet again in a match for the title, breaking all records about Protoss player performance in the MSL.
At this point though, the comparisons between the Revolutionist and the other warriors of Auir were irrelevant; all that mattered was whether or not Bisu would go on to become the fifth Bonjwa. The other side of the tournament bracket was a real dogfight, with Savior and Stork trying to earn their shot at revenge against Bisu. Surprisingly, it was the young Terran player Mind who made it to the final, a fantastic feat considering he had to overcome two Bonjwas (iloveoov and Savior) along the way.
The Golden Badge had been forged – all arrangements for Bisu's Bonjwa coronation were made. The Revolutionist, holding his hands high, kissing his 3rd consecutive MSL trophy, and all was well, all was right with the world... but somehow, it wasn’t to be.
The real outcome was no less perfect, no less right. In true Cinderella style, the dark horse Mind denied Bisu his birthright, completing his extraordinary tournament run. Bisu's weakness, his PvT, was exposed as Mind played perfectly against him, adapting his style to the stale and predictable play of the Revolutionist. As shocking as this defeat was, Bisu's Bonjwa claim and MSL dominance were not yet put to rest.
During the next MSL’s group selection ceremony, Bisu decided, with his wounded pride, that it would be best to quickly re-establish his authority in the scene by challenging the fresh royal roader, and rising Zerg star, Jaedong. As in the cases of his triumphs against Savior and Stork, Bisu crashed and burned in fine style. He lost an epic game to Jaedong on Blue Storm and was eliminated soon afterward. Jaedong on the other hand proceeded to win the tournament, beating the reigning champion, Mind, and his soon-to-be arch-rival Flash on the way.
Feeling the prize slip through his fingers during the group stage of 2008 Arena MSL, Bisu desperately tried to get his revenge on Jaedong, but the Revolutionist's play was weak and uninspiring, all the flare of his groundbreaking PvZ against Savior had long since dimmed. It became increasingly clear that Bisu couldn't establish long-lasting dominance against the new heroes of the day – Jaedong and Flash. After just two group eliminations, people considered the Protoss champion finished, he was in a deep slump with his career shaping up to be one of missed opportunities and dashed hopes. Bisu needed time and a new environment to reinvent his play. Perhaps his transfer to the fading powerhouse - SK Telecom T1, was exactly the boost his career needed.
With the format changes introduced to the Proleague for the 08-09 season, all star players faced a new and different challenge. The tight team league weekly schedule, as well as the three individual leagues running at the same time, meant the amount of games played increased dramatically. Carrying KT and OZ respectively, Flash and Jaedong started posting inconsistent individual league results. Meanwhile, attempting to return to its former glory, SKT withdrew from the new GOMTV Starleague, focusing all of its players’ attention on the Proleague.
As it happened, playing fewer games and having less pressure on him had been exactly what Bisu needed. Entering the 08-09 ClubDay MSL, the Revolutionist was placed in a group with firebathero, as well as the two Protoss players, Much and BackHo. Unburdened by high expectations, Bisu managed to advance from the group after winning two mirror match-ups and losing to firebathero.
Coincidentally, in the Ro16 the Revolutionist was to face his old adversary, the Red Sniper Hwasin, now deep in a slump of his own. Community expectations of a close and thrilling encounter were dashed as Bisu easily overcame his Terran rival. Otherwise, the rest of the Ro16 was marked by total domination by Protoss players, the most notable of which being free’s elimination of Jaedong 2-1 in a close series. Bisu was recognised as the driving force behind this Protoss rejuvenation.
After smashing firebathero 3-0 in his Ro8 match, memorably humiliating him with scouts, Bisu was set for his first MSL semi-final in almost a year. The old flair and confidence was back, this was Bisu as fans remembered him. With all other MSL semi-finalists being Protoss players, and with Stork dominating the OSL, the community started talking about the Golden Age of Protoss and the Era of the 6 Dragons.
With a delay of almost a year, Bisu was finally able to take what belonged to him. Having defeated Free and JangBi, the Revolutionist was awarded the Golden Badge and became undoubtedly the most successful Protoss player of all time. Despite his MSL victory not being worthy of the Bonjwa title, the Golden Badge was ultimately what Bisu needed to regain the reputation a player of his talent and skill deserves.
Following his tournament triumph, Kim Taek Yong entered the most dominant period of his career, winning GOMTV Starleague Season 2, setting a personal winning streak record, reclaiming the top place in the KeSPa ranking as well as becoming #1 in the TLPD all-time ELO ranking. Proclaimed by Boxer himself as the best player in the world, Bisu became once again the subject of a heated Bonjwa debate in the community.
And the rest, as they say, is history. From mediocre team league player and individual league champion back in 2007, Bisu had become SKT's ace and banner-man in 2010 and 2011. His MSL performance on the other hand was nothing short of tragic. His elimination in every group stage meant that the only accolade he was afforded was that of Most Consecutive MSL Appearances, but the results, despite his obvious skills and high expectations, never returned him to the glory he’d known.
For all the MSLs he had attended, Bisu had only managed to make it out of the group stage on six occasions. In four of those six, he had reached the finals, three times a champion. The Revolutionist remained undefeated against Zerg and Protoss in the elimination stage of the MSL, a fact that only serves to highlight Bisu's infamous Achilles’ heel – his predictable and stale PvT.
Comparing Kim Taek Yong to the other great champions of the Golden Badge club, it's almost painfully obvious that, unlike the Bonjwas, Bisu was unable to overcome his weakness. The Revolutionist’s play leaves no one neutral though. While the MSL is generally considered the less prestigious tournament, Bisu has been responsible for the majority of memorable moments in its recent history.
Building expectations and drawing the best from his opponents, Kim Taek Yong has managed to constantly provoke the emotions of the fans – whether those emotions are immense disappointment or ecstatic joy. Even if the Golden Badge is a massive feat in its own right, it is the least the Revolutionist should had accomplished.
Click Here to Return to the Intro | Continue with Flash... The year of my high-school graduation, 2007, was utter bliss; I had the most wonderful time of my life, most of it spent with my buddies. It was also the year I found out about the Korean BW proscene and, just like anyone introduced to something exciting and exotic, I was consumed by it.My first MSLs in 2007 were deeply personal experiences – they marked my passion for the entire universe of esports, one specific progamer and TeamLiquid in general. Those memories are the reason I'm telling you all this, they’re the reason I'm here today, and the reason I don't want to go anywhere else.The Golden Badge winners’ club consists of only the brightest and most dominant players the Korean BW scene has ever produced. It wouldn't do his accomplishments any justice if I were to say Bisu doesn't belong to this exclusive club, but unlike the Bonjwas before him, Bisu never managed to establish his own long lasting reign of dominance.His career, from glorious triumphs to lamentable losses, has been marked by the huge expectations the community has of him; just like all great champions, Bisu was challenged to prove his worth in every tournament he has attended. Ultimately, this has resulted in some of the most significant and memorable moments of the MSL.Bisu's meteoric rise to stardom began during the 2007 GOMTV Season 1 MSL. By then Kim Taek Yong was already considered a prodigious young Protoss player with a solid performance in the Proleague for his team – MBC. With a loss to the Protoss legend nal_ra, followed by wins over the Terran powerhouses Iris and Canata, Bisu had managed to make it through a very hard group in the Ro16. The Ro8 was to be no easier, with the MSL format placing him in a group with two more Terran players – the rising stars Hwasin and Light, as well as an MSL runner up in the form of the Zerg player, Silver. Bisu managed to overcome the odds in fine style and stage was set for a rematch with nal_ra in the final.The community was on the side of the Dreamer; a win would mean he’d face his nemesis, Savior, in long awaited continuation of their Holy Wars. The underdog shocked everyone though, as Bisu easily bested nal_ra 3-0 in their encounter. It seemed as though everything was lining up for a fourth title in Savior’s fifth consecutive final appearance.The Starcraft fan's memory is a funny thing though; the scene is so dynamic that months and years can feel like aeons. Events from just three or four years ago are considered legends. In the end, people will always remember how Anytime denied Boxer his golden mouse, how the legend of fall in the OSL was born, and how Flash managed to beat Stork in about half an hour to take his first OSL title.We all remember the events, but no one remembers the dates. There's one exception though, and that’s 3.3.2007.The games themselves, and the PvZ revolution that Bisu's win over the Maestro prompted, have been much discussed. Even if we detach ourselves from the significance of the metagame shift that followed those games, the Bisu vs Savior final of GOMTV MSL Season 1 is the most famous, and arguably the most important, match in the history of BW. It marked the end of the so-called Golden Age and the beginning of the last chapter in the scene's development.Outplaying a Bonjwa in a Bo5 against all odds is, without doubt, the most bombastic way for a newcomer to make his mark in the scene. Following the historic trend of succession, the new poster boy of the scene, Bisu, was to show that he is not just flash in the pan. The upcoming GOMTV MSL Season 2 was eagerly anticipated by the community – it was to answer the question, was there a new Protoss superstar in the making, or would the Maestro reclaim his throne?Still, Bisu was not alone leading the Protoss race renaissance. After advancing out of his group, defeating Bisu in the process, CJ captain OverSky enlisted in the army, leaving his Ro8 bracket spot vacant. In the resulting Wild Card tournament, the Protoss Commander Stork managed to earn a second chance at the title. Meanwhile, on the upper side of the bracket, a shocking result had been produced as the TvZ specialist firebathero bested the Maestro himself in a thrilling Bo5, ensuring that the MSL finals streak of Savior would not continue.After another win over Light in the Ro16, the reigning champion Bisu was up against the Red Sniper, Hwasin. Since both iloveoov and Nada had fallen from grace, no player had quite been able to recapture the brilliance of the Bonjwa Terrans. Still, it's fair to say that in 2007 Hwasin was playing the best Starcraft of his life – even managing to take the 2007 Korean WCG over Stork.Bisu was equal to the challenge though, managing a 3-2 victory in a knife-edge series, and keeping his back-to-back MSL dreams alive. The following semi-final against GoRush had the feel of formality, as Bisu's PvZ had been summarily dismissing Zerg opponents since the 3.3 Revolution. In order to be the first Protoss player ever to win back-to-back MSL titles, Bisu would have to the defeat the Commander, Stork.The full weight of the community’s attention was focused on this final, with both players taking completely different approaches to the race they were playing. It was the energetic style of Bisu, focused on his trademark multitasking, versus the calm and deeply methodical play of Stork.If Bisu vs Savior had been a bombshell, Bisu vs Stork was better still. Fans and tournament organizers couldn't have hoped for a better final. The two Protoss stars traded wins in epic games, setting the stage for a fifth and final game worthy of bardic song and poetry. Over the course of a nail-biting, ball-sweating, 50-minute game, Bisu was able to force Stork into submission. The first Protoss back-to-back MSL champion and KeSPa #1 was a reality. After years of struggling in vain, there was finally a Protoss hope.Sure enough, Bisu soon got his chance to seal his Bonjwa claims and finally establish himself as the undisputed best player in the world. Full of confidence, during the Ro16 of GOMTV MSL Season 3 he was able to win yet another close match with his Terran rival and so called "Insurance" Hwasin. In truth, it was a match Bisu was expected to lose, but, in that way that real champions have, he was able to somehow pull through.Up until the final, the bracket had been a breeze for Bisu, with this MSL turning out to be the swan song of a couple of old Starcraft legends, with both nal_ra and XellOs generally considered long past their prime. So, after smashing Kwanro and easily overcoming XellOs in the semi-final, Bisu was yet again in a match for the title, breaking all records about Protoss player performance in the MSL.At this point though, the comparisons between the Revolutionist and the other warriors of Auir were irrelevant; all that mattered was whether or not Bisu would go on to become the fifth Bonjwa. The other side of the tournament bracket was a real dogfight, with Savior and Stork trying to earn their shot at revenge against Bisu. Surprisingly, it was the young Terran player Mind who made it to the final, a fantastic feat considering he had to overcome two Bonjwas (iloveoov and Savior) along the way.The Golden Badge had been forged – all arrangements for Bisu's Bonjwa coronation were made. The Revolutionist, holding his hands high, kissing his 3rd consecutive MSL trophy, and all was well, all was right with the world... but somehow, it wasn’t to be.The real outcome was no less perfect, no less right. In true Cinderella style, the dark horse Mind denied Bisu his birthright, completing his extraordinary tournament run. Bisu's weakness, his PvT, was exposed as Mind played perfectly against him, adapting his style to the stale and predictable play of the Revolutionist. As shocking as this defeat was, Bisu's Bonjwa claim and MSL dominance were not yet put to rest.During the next MSL’s group selection ceremony, Bisu decided, with his wounded pride, that it would be best to quickly re-establish his authority in the scene by challenging the fresh royal roader, and rising Zerg star, Jaedong. As in the cases of his triumphs against Savior and Stork, Bisu crashed and burned in fine style. He lost an epic game to Jaedong on Blue Storm and was eliminated soon afterward. Jaedong on the other hand proceeded to win the tournament, beating the reigning champion, Mind, and his soon-to-be arch-rival Flash on the way.Feeling the prize slip through his fingers during the group stage of 2008 Arena MSL, Bisu desperately tried to get his revenge on Jaedong, but the Revolutionist's play was weak and uninspiring, all the flare of his groundbreaking PvZ against Savior had long since dimmed. It became increasingly clear that Bisu couldn't establish long-lasting dominance against the new heroes of the day – Jaedong and Flash. After just two group eliminations, people considered the Protoss champion finished, he was in a deep slump with his career shaping up to be one of missed opportunities and dashed hopes. Bisu needed time and a new environment to reinvent his play. Perhaps his transfer to the fading powerhouse - SK Telecom T1, was exactly the boost his career needed.With the format changes introduced to the Proleague for the 08-09 season, all star players faced a new and different challenge. The tight team league weekly schedule, as well as the three individual leagues running at the same time, meant the amount of games played increased dramatically. Carrying KT and OZ respectively, Flash and Jaedong started posting inconsistent individual league results. Meanwhile, attempting to return to its former glory, SKT withdrew from the new GOMTV Starleague, focusing all of its players’ attention on the Proleague.As it happened, playing fewer games and having less pressure on him had been exactly what Bisu needed. Entering the 08-09 ClubDay MSL, the Revolutionist was placed in a group with firebathero, as well as the two Protoss players, Much and BackHo. Unburdened by high expectations, Bisu managed to advance from the group after winning two mirror match-ups and losing to firebathero.Coincidentally, in the Ro16 the Revolutionist was to face his old adversary, the Red Sniper Hwasin, now deep in a slump of his own. Community expectations of a close and thrilling encounter were dashed as Bisu easily overcame his Terran rival. Otherwise, the rest of the Ro16 was marked by total domination by Protoss players, the most notable of which being free’s elimination of Jaedong 2-1 in a close series. Bisu was recognised as the driving force behind this Protoss rejuvenation.After smashing firebathero 3-0 in his Ro8 match, memorably humiliating him with scouts, Bisu was set for his first MSL semi-final in almost a year. The old flair and confidence was back, this was Bisu as fans remembered him. With all other MSL semi-finalists being Protoss players, and with Stork dominating the OSL, the community started talking about the Golden Age of Protoss and the Era of the 6 Dragons.With a delay of almost a year, Bisu was finally able to take what belonged to him. Having defeated Free and JangBi, the Revolutionist was awarded the Golden Badge and became undoubtedly the most successful Protoss player of all time. Despite his MSL victory not being worthy of the Bonjwa title, the Golden Badge was ultimately what Bisu needed to regain the reputation a player of his talent and skill deserves.Following his tournament triumph, Kim Taek Yong entered the most dominant period of his career, winning GOMTV Starleague Season 2, setting a personal winning streak record, reclaiming the top place in the KeSPa ranking as well as becoming #1 in the TLPD all-time ELO ranking. Proclaimed by Boxer himself as the best player in the world, Bisu became once again the subject of a heated Bonjwa debate in the community.And the rest, as they say, is history. From mediocre team league player and individual league champion back in 2007, Bisu had become SKT's ace and banner-man in 2010 and 2011. His MSL performance on the other hand was nothing short of tragic. His elimination in every group stage meant that the only accolade he was afforded was that of Most Consecutive MSL Appearances, but the results, despite his obvious skills and high expectations, never returned him to the glory he’d known.For all the MSLs he had attended, Bisu had only managed to make it out of the group stage on six occasions. In four of those six, he had reached the finals, three times a champion. The Revolutionist remained undefeated against Zerg and Protoss in the elimination stage of the MSL, a fact that only serves to highlight Bisu's infamous Achilles’ heel – his predictable and stale PvT.Comparing Kim Taek Yong to the other great champions of the Golden Badge club, it's almost painfully obvious that, unlike the Bonjwas, Bisu was unable to overcome his weakness. The Revolutionist’s play leaves no one neutral though. While the MSL is generally considered the less prestigious tournament, Bisu has been responsible for the majority of memorable moments in its recent history.Building expectations and drawing the best from his opponents, Kim Taek Yong has managed to constantly provoke the emotions of the fans – whether those emotions are immense disappointment or ecstatic joy. Even if the Golden Badge is a massive feat in its own right, it is the least the Revolutionist should had accomplished. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Finally, there’s a computer game that accurately simulates the political reaction after a mass shooting.
How many thoughts and prayers can you rack up following these tragedies?
So many great easter eggs throughout the game.
And, just like in real life, nobody ever wins.
(via @Chris_line)
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
SHANGHAI, May 28 (Xinhua) -- China's first Mars probe named Yinghuo-1 will be launched in the second half of this year, said an official with Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) here on Thursday. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Entry to Michigan state parks is free on Black Friday
As part of the #OptOutside movement, Michigan state parks have no entrance fee on Black Friday. It's the perfect way to work off some of that Thanksgiving dinner!
All 79 of Michigan's state parks are free for visitors today, meaning residents can skip the usual $11 Recreation Passport.
Outdoor retailer REI launched #OptOutside in 2015. Instead of participating in Black Friday, REI stores were closed to encourage employees and customers to spend time outside.
Since its beginning, more than 700 organizations and 7 million people have participated, according to REI. Dozens of nonprofit and government agencies have partnered with REI for this event, including the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Land Conservancy of West Michigan.
Even Gov. Rick Snyder was tweeting about Michigan's state parks.
The U.S. Department of the Interior joined the movement and tweeted Thursday encouraging people to "#OptOutside for fun with friends and family."
You can even plan your outing online with help from the National Park Service.
More: 5 ways to #OptOutside and 2 major reasons you should
More: 22 positive, practical things you can do to feel better about yourself and the world | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Confession Bear
mum gave away her bank cards to scammers
i only made her cancel them because i live with her and we'd both suffer | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A major conference to highlight the importance of CBD health and wellness products has been announced for next year.
Impact CBD takes place from August 30 to September 2, 2020 in San Diego, California, and will feature education sessions analysing the effect of CBD on patients, clients, health practices, and businesses. It is expected to host hundreds of CBD providers and experience centres.
It will be supported by ImpactCBDexpo.com – a year-round content feed featuring curated posts, articles, blogs, videos, and podcasts chronicling the impact of CBD.
Julie Keller Callaghan, vice president of content & business development for event organisers Questex Wellness Market, said: “We discovered that CBD impacts so many aspects of the health and wellness market… so we decided to expand our digital and event footprint to serve this demand and, thus, the idea for Impact CBD was born.”
The expo will explore the impact CBD has on patients
According to a press release, ImpactCBDexpo.com will serve as a source for health and wellness professionals to understand the science, clinical studies, products, delivery options, health benefits, and condition-specific applications of CBD to patients, clients, and customers.
The event will focus on the most pressing issues that define the impact CBD has on patients, clients, health practices, and business, the release added.
Initial focus topics will include the cannabis plant, the endocannabinoid system, sourcing, dosing, labelling, COAs, credit-card processing, liability, insurance, legislation, and the Food And Drug Administration (FDA).
John Siefert, Group President at Questex, said: “We want to make it easier for professionals to get vetted and sound guidance, legal advice, and more throughout the year and celebrate this knowledge sharing at the Impact CBD Expo where attendees can see, touch, feel, taste, and experience CBD on the show floor, in custom suites, and in treatment rooms.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Curious to know which athletes are on Tinder in Sochi? | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
NEW YORK (AP) - WeWork’s parent company announced major changes in its corporate governance practices Friday as it revealed plans to list shares on the Nasdaq.
The office-sharing company is pressing on with its highly anticipated stock market debut - expected later this month - despite doubts about its ability to make money and decisions that have raised commitment and conflict of interest concerns about CEO Adam Neumann.
WeWork’s parent company, The We Company, said it was cutting by half - to 10 per share from 20 - the voting power of highest-class shares that Neumann and others would have after the IPO.
The company’s full board of directors also will have the power to remove the Neumann as CEO and appoint a successor, instead of relying on a three-member board committee that would have included his wife, Rebekah Neumann. Adam Neumann would still control a majority of its outstanding voting power, giving him the ability to dictate the outcome of major decisions.
The We Company, announced the changes in a regulatory filing Friday in response to market feedback
Investors have shown lukewarm interest since WeWork outlined its IPO plans last month, painting a picture of breakneck expansion on the back of massive losses, with no clear path to profitability.
The New York-based company is considering pricing its shares in the IPO at valuation of between $15 billion and $20 billion, considerably less the estimated $47 billion that private investors have assigned to it, according to news reports and a source familiar with the discussions.
Neumann, a 40-year-old charismatic CEO who has been the face of the company, has created a stir by using some of his WeWork stock to secure a $500 million personal loan, and selling some of his shares. He has raised conflict of interest concerns because he owns four buildings that WeWork leases. And a backlash prompted Neumann to return $6 million that We Company paid for the trademark “We.”
WeWork has said Neumann would not sell any of his shares in the IPO offering, and would not sell more than 10% of his shares for the subsequent two years.
It said Neumann will no longer buy properties for the purpose of leasing them to his own company. He will also give the company any profits he makes from real estate transactions with WeWork.
“Some of these actions that he took just left a bad taste. Are you trying to milk this thing for your own personal profit and then hand it off to someone else?” said Dan Morgan, senior portfolio manager for Synovus Trust.
The company plans to appoint two directors, including a lead independent board member, within the next year and said that no member of Neumann’s family will sit on the board. Earlier this month, it agreed to appoint a woman - Frances Frei, a professor at Harvard Business School - to its board when the IPO is complete after facing backlash over its all-male board.
WeWork, which plans more aggressive expansion, has billions of dollars riding on a successful IPO. It struck a deal last month that would give it access to $6 billion in financing raised by a group of banks, as long as it raises at least $3 billion in the IPO.
Founded as a co-working space in Manhattan in 2010, WeWork now has 527,000 members in 111 cities around the world. It mostly makes money by renting buildings and dividing them into office spaces to sublet to members.
Its revenue has more than doubled annually over the last few years, reaching $1.8 billion in 2018, but its losses have mounted almost as quickly, reaching $1.6 billion last year.
The brand is popular with small businesses, start-ups and freelancers who can’t afford permanent office space. Members use an app to book ready-made offices or desks and get access to front-desk service, trendy lounges, conference rooms, free coffee and other services.
But its business model has not been tested in an economic downturn that could hurt its members, whose lease commitment currently average 15 months. Meanwhile, WeWork has an average commitment of 15 years on the buildings it leases.
WeWork’s location operating expenses amount to about 80% of sales, and the company has given little indication of how it might reduce its costs and eventually turn a profit, said Morgan of Synovus Trust.
The company’s capital-intensive model has contributed to views that WeWork should be valued more like a real estate company than a technology firm, said Brent Glover, an associate professor of finance at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Finance.
“They have long-term obligations. This is standard real estate model, very different than a software company,” Glover said.
WeWork’s $47 billion private valuation amounts to 25 times sales, compared to the average market valuation of real estate companies at about six times sales, Morgan said.
___
This story has been updated to correct the amount Neumann returned to the company for the “We” trademark. It was $6 million, not $6 billion.
Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters
Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Brigitte is shielding her in an instant.
They’re in Route 66, trying to take care of the Deadlock gang by Morrison’s orders. The gang has recently been responsible for the deaths of several people by blowing up a train; those who didn’t perish in the explosion fell to their deaths when the train was blown open.
Now the entire area has been locked off while the government tries to figure out what to do. Morrison’s squad, comprised of him, Angela, Fareeha, Reinhardt, Genji and Torbjörn, is stuck in an empty diner right under the train wreckage, surrounded by Deadlock members currently firing at their general direction. Hana and Brigitte’s squad, formed by them, Jesse, Satya, Lena and Lúcio, is on the other end of the road, near the Mystery Caves, trying to distract the gang members as best they can.
Hana, despite being out of her mech and currently waiting for a new one to be deployed, makes the mistake of following a lone gangster into the caves intent on interrogating him, ignoring Brigitte and Lúcio’s cries of warning. She follows him deeper into the tunnels, only for him to turn, panicked, once he’s running out of breath, and throw a grenade right at her feet.
His intention is clear; he is not letting her take him alive, and is going to take her with him instead.
She instinctively – stupidly, why is she doing that – tries to run backwards into the tunnel behind her, only to trip and fall square on her back, the grenade only a few feet from her.
‘Well, this is it,’ she thinks, closing her eyes and doing her best to ignore the impulse to contact Morrison’s squad by comm to let them know she’s gonna die – she doesn’t want Angela to hear her lose her life, ‘I’m fucking dead.’
She tenses and waits for the feeling of the explosion blasting her into pieces, but that doesn’t happen. All she registers instead is a hulking, armored frame jumping right in front of her with a blue energy shield up, directed towards the grenade on the ground, with a cry of “D.Va!” before the thing goes off around them.
Still, Brigitte stays where she is, as close to Hana as possible, shielding her from the explosion. She feels the air shift, hears the Deadlock man’s brief terrified scream before he’s silenced, a sickening splat when he lands several feet back.
Brigitte once agains proves her reflexes to be lightning-fast when she, with barely any time to react, all but kneels over Hana, holding the shield above their bodies, when the ceiling starts to collapse as a result of the explosion. Hana barely has time to register the ensuing chaos as heavy rocks fall and thick dust rises around them, the sound of debris crashing against the shield making her close her eyes and cling to Brigitte’s free arm in her panic.
After what feels like several minutes – but Hana logically knows to be mere seconds – the chaos dies down and an oppressive, unnatural silence takes its place. Hana opens her eyes to be met with complete, pitch black darkness, and realizes she had been holding her breath when she tries to breathe in only to inhale a significant amount of dust, immediately making her cough. She hears Brigitte’s heavy breathing right on top of her, wondering how she’s not coughing too, and her hands instinctively try to reach around for her in the darkness.
“Hana?” She hears an accented, hoarse voice call in a tense murmur, finally letting out a small cough.
“I’m here,” Hana breathes out, really more to herself than Brigitte. “I’m here.”
“Are you okay?” Brigitte’s voice sounds strained, and Hana wonders how much weight she just had to block.
“Yeah. I think. Nothing hurts, but I heard adrenaline makes you numb to injuries,” She pauses, before letting out a shaky breath, “I can’t see anything.”
“Fan,” Brigitte curses and shifts a little. “Right, sorry. Damn darkness.”
She grunts a little, and the sound of something heavy being dropped nearby, as well as dirt shifting, echoes around the small space. “Lot of crap on top of us,” Brigitte explains. “Here,” and a light suddenly illuminates the small area they’re trapped in, a small flashlight in the Crusader’s hand; Hana is relieved to find out she’s not been blinded. Brigitte’s kneeling next to her, face full of worry and covered in dust as well as some small, bleeding cuts and scrapes. The redhead inspects Hana’s body with the flashlight for injuries, making a quick scan.
“Nothing looks broken. Mind if I check?”
Hana is flustered for a second to think of Brigitte touching her to check for fractures, but tries to push it aside; this is not the time for foolish lovey-dovey crap.
“Go ahead,” she motions with her head, and Brigitte carefully presses her hands around her arms, legs and on her ribs.
“Does anything hurt?” she asks, and Hana shakes her head no. “Can you move?”
Hana grunts in discomfort as she sits up, but she manages to do it just fine, and nothing hurts when she moves.
“Yeah, I think I’m okay.”
Relief instantly floods Brigitte’s face and she slumps back against the wall with a heavy sigh.
“Well, we have officially destroyed a tourist trap,” she says, leaning her head back, “that’s a first in my book.”
“I mean, it really was the Deadlock guy. But sure.”
“Speaking of which,” Brigitte’s gaze turns to her, reprimanding, and Hana blushes, involuntarily lowering her head, “what in the hell made you think chasing a lone guy into an obvious trap without your mech was a good idea?”
It’s Hana’s turn to sigh.
“I don’t know. I thought... I thought I could catch him. Interrogate him,” Hana’s mind flashes to Morrison and Widowmaker’s usage of the term “child” when referring to her, such a condescending tone. Hana hates it. “To show them... prove I’m more than a stupid kid who does nothing but play video games all day.”
She feels a single tear roll down her cheek. ‘Yeah, and look where that got you. Trapped in a cave-in, dragging another person down with you. Stupid kid.’
“I don’t know what came over me,” she chokes out, frantically wiping her cheek a second too late; she’s sure Brigitte’s seen it judging by the way her brow furrows in worry once again. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”
“Hey, no, come on” Brigitte scoots over to sit next to her. “Don’t say that.”
“It is, though!” Hana’s full out crying now. “I walked into an obvious trap just to make some stupid statement, and I got you trapped in this fucking cave with me and now we’re both gonna die!”
She slams her fists against the ground in rage with all her might, ignoring the pain the act causes and the blood that starts to seep through her white gloves at the knuckles. Brigitte stares at her in her outburst for a second before gently taking her hands in hers, looking her dead in the eyes.
“We’re not gonna die,” she says, dead serious and looking like she completely believes in what she’s saying. “You hear me?”
“Please, we’re trapped several meters into some stupid tourist trap cave, with no water, no food, no oxygen and both exits sealed off,” Hana scoffs through her tears. “We’re dying, and it’s my fault. I killed you because I was too fucking stupid to use my goddamn head for a second—”
“Hana.” Brigitte’s voice is still calm and controlled when she lets go of Hana’s hands and uses them to take both sides of her face instead, gently lifting her head to look at her in the eye. “We’re not gonna die,” she repeats, with such steely determination it makes Hana’s heart skip a beat. “Both Lena and Lúcio saw us come in here. They already probably contacted Morrison. Do you really think Angela would let you die? She’d dig through this cave with her bare hands if she had to. You’re like a daughter to her, you know that. And the others wouldn’t just leave us here either. Pa and Reinhardt would kill Morrison if he even thought about it.”
“But...” Hana tries to protest simply out of self-hatred; she wants Brigitte to be mad at her right now. But she simply can’t find any arguments against what the redhead is saying. “But how can we even get out of here? It’s not like Morrison and the others have a drill.”
“I can’t bash my way through, it’d risk another collapse. Then we’d be dead.” Brigitte lets go of her face (Hana immediately misses the contact) and crosses her arms, leaning her head against the wall again. “And even I or Reinhardt couldn’t move all these rocks out of the way. They’re too big, and stuck in place. Even though dad and Satya are brilliant, I don’t think they’d have the time or materials to build something to move them either.”
“So what, then?”
“I was thinking a controlled explosion from the outside, or something to cut the boulders with. I have a feeling my dad and Morrison will come to the same conclusion.”
“Wouldn’t that also make the cave collapse even more?”
“I don’t know. Definitely not more than me repeatedly slamming my shield or flail against the rocks from this side of the cave-in. It’s all we have, anyway. If... if they can’t get in, I’ll try to bash our way through, if I still have enough energy. As a last resort.”
Something in her tone and the way her voice slightly cracks makes Hana’s heart sink, but she says nothing. They’re both silent for what feels like several minutes.
“It’s fucking hot in here.” Hana complains, suddenly. “Out of all the places we could have gotten trapped in, it has to be a stupid low-ceiling cave in the middle of the fucking desert.”
Brigitte chuckles.
“Tell me about it.” She says. “I’m not used to this type of heat. Can’t say I like it much, either. I can’t even get out of my damn armor because there’s no space for me to remove it in here. Feels like an oven.”
Something suddenly dawns on Hana and she starts to feel a little worried.
“That’s not gonna hurt you, is it? The heat, I mean.”
Brigitte isn’t looking at her when she answers.
“Depends on how long we’re stuck here for.” Her tone is downright bleak. Hana decides it doesn’t suit her in the least.
“How... how long do you think it’s gonna take them to dig?”
“Dunno. Hours. Days. Weeks. Hopefully not. We won’t survive longer than thirteen hours, I’d reckon, considering the carbon dioxide inhalation.”
Hana’s heart sinks.
“Shibal, I am so, so sorry, Brigitte.” She buries her face in her hands. “This is all my fault. You shouldn’t have come for me. That way I’d be dead and you’d be fine.”
“Hana, seriously?” The only way to describe Brigitte’s expression is indignant. “I’d never just leave you to die, I...” She strangely cuts herself off and blushes, perceptible even in the poor lighting provided by the flashlight. “You’re my teammate. I told you, I’ll be your shield. Always.”
It’s Hana’s turn to blush. How someone can sound so completely sincere without even trying is beyond her.
She suddenly, for some inexplicable reason, remembers the Deadlock man who threw the grenade. Surely he must be dead; if not from the explosion, then from the tons of rocks and dirt burying his surely mangled body. Or maybe he’s still alive, conscious, aware of the slow, torturous death he’s about to have.
The reality of their situation finally hits her like a ton of bricks, and she finds herself admitting it out loud before she can stop herself.
“I’m scared.”
She mentally kicks herself and immediately wants to take the words back. She doesn’t look at Brigitte.
The girl’s response is the last thing she expects to hear.
“To tell you the truth,” her voice is somber, and she, too, keeps her gaze directed at the ground, “I am too.”
Hana doesn’t know what to say to that.
“Thank you for saving me.”
So she just says what feels right, and Brigitte finally lifts her head to look at her, meeting her eyes.
It’s like something between them snaps. Brown eyes meet hazel and don’t leave each other for several seconds, each pair barely blinking, before Hana unconsciously starts to lean towards her.
Brigitte doesn’t move, but she doesn’t back away either. Hana rests her forehead against the girl’s and her eyes automatically move to her slightly parted lips. They’re full, and despite being chapped, look soft and inviting. Hana’s eyes fall closed and she feels Brigitte’s shaky sigh against her lips. In any other circumstance, she’d be freaking out, but right now, Hana finds she doesn’t feel like she has time to waste on being flustered. They’re both trapped in a dark cave with only a flashlight and a dwindling supply of oxygen, and they’ll most likely die before they ever see the light of day again despite their team’s efforts, so why should Hana give a fuck?
In the end, it’s Brigitte who closes the gap between them, letting out another soft sigh when her lips meet Hana’s. They’re as soft and gentle as Hana’s always imagined they’d be, and the redhead doesn’t move a muscle until Hana reciprocates fully, slowly moving her own lips against hers. The gamer breathes in deeply through her nose and takes in Brigitte’s scent, a strange combination of cinnamon with a slight hint of machine oil, and Hana finds she likes it. She tastes good too, like mint, and Hana quickly gets overrun by all the sensations, snaking her arms around the girl’s neck and pulling her closer, deepening the kiss, hard metal armor pressing uncomfortably against her chest, though she finds it impossible to care. Brigitte lets out a soft groan that shakes Hana to the core and wraps her arms around the smaller girl in a tight, but comfortable embrace. She’s kissing her in earnest now, and her warmth, presence, strength, gentleness, it’s overwhelming. She’s overwhelming, but in a good way. Her hands are tangled in Hana’s hair and she’s holding onto her like she never wants to let go. In a strange moment of epiphany, Hana finally understands why Brigitte seemed to rethink her words at the last second a few minutes ago when she was telling Hana she’d never leave her to die, and it dawns on the Korean. How long has this girl been infatuated with her? How long has Hana been suffering for nothing, thinking her feelings unrequited? God, she feels like a fool.
When they finally break apart, both are breathless (which Hana vaguely registers as probably being very bad considering their limited supply of oxygen, but she finds it hard to care at the moment) and neither seems to be willing to part any more than breaking the kiss; they’re still embracing, once again touching foreheads, eyes still closed. They just stay like that for several seconds before Hana hears the redhead’s question:
“How long?”
Her voice is breathless and hoarse, and it stuns Hana so completely to hear it she takes a few seconds to compose herself enough to answer.
“What?”
What a dignified, intelligent answer.
“How long have you felt like this?”
Oh.
“Since I first met you.” Hana finds it impossible to not be completely honest. When she laid eyes on Brigitte for the first time, something sparked within her. She is very attractive, yes, but her heart is also so, so big, and she made that clear from the minute she introduced herself to the team. “I will be your shield,” she’d said, proudly, echoing her mentor, and it has always proven itself true. Most of all today.
How could Hana not fall for Brigitte Lindholm? How could anyone?
“I...” Brigitte seems genuinely surprised, looking completely flustered, and Hana decides it’s fucking adorable. The sight makes her smile a little. “Me too. I mean, I had a crush on you from watching your streams and your movies, but when I met you in person, I... just, the you on the screen doesn’t compare to the real deal.”
Now it’s Hana’s turn to be flustered. Brigitte lets out an incredulous chuckle.
“Wow. I just kissed Hana Song.” She says, lightly shaking her head. “I can’t believe this.”
“Consider yourself lucky.” Hana jokes and winks, and gives her a quick peck on the lips before she can say anything. “Trust me when I say most wouldn’t have the slightest chance of doing that.”
“Oh, I do.” Brigitte’s smile widens, and she responds by tightening her embrace and kissing her forehead softly. “Believe me, I do.”
They just stay there, cuddled against each other, without saying anything as time passes. As the minutes go by, Hana starts to feel a light headache. In any other circumstance this would probably be fine, but considering their situation...
“My head hurts.” She mutters, fully leaning against Brigitte. The redhead is immediately alarmed.
“Do you feel tired, or dizzy?” She asks, gently holding Hana’s face with both hands.
“No. Not yet. Just thought I’d let you know.”
Brigitte almost seems to hyperventilate before she forces her breathing back under control, and kisses Hana’s forehead again.
“You’ll be okay,” she says, hugging the gamer even more tightly. Hana allows herself to relax even more in her arms. “You’ll be okay, Hana.”
She caresses her head with the lightness of a feather, and before she knows it, Hana’s asleep.
She wakes up from a dreamless sleep what feels like seconds later, but judging by how suddenly hot and tired she feels, she knows at least several hours must have passed.
She looks up at Brigitte’s face, and the girl looks completely exhausted; there are dark circles under her eyes, she’s drenched in sweat, and her breathing is significantly faster. Hana tries to adjust her position, only to find her limbs feel heavy and fragile.
Her stirring seems to catch Brigitte’s attention, and she gently helps Hana move; the Korean doesn’t miss the way the girl’s arms are shaking, or how she says nothing as she pulls her into her arms and lets out a shaky breath into her hair.
Hana manages to look up and bring a hand to rest on her cheek.
“How long has it been?” She asks, scared of the answer, and scared of how hopeless Brigitte looks. It looks utterly wrong on her.
“Several hours at least. Nine, maybe? I don’t know.” Her gaze distractedly diverts to the blocked tunnel exit . “I can hear some noises occasionally. Don’t know what they’re doing. They’re here, though.”
Her voice is almost devoid of emotion, and if Hana weren’t feeling so physically and mentally exhausted, her heart would have probably broken right then and there. Still, the broken aura around the normally bright, optimistic person gets to her.
Hana doesn’t know what in the hell makes her say it, but she automatically says it without even thinking twice:
“I love you.”
Brigitte looks slightly shocked, but mostly scared.
“Hey, come on, why are you telling me this now out of the blue?” Her voice is shaking as much as her hand as she lightly caresses Hana’s face, getting a strand of hair away from her eyes.
“I feel weak. Can’t see right. Can’t hear right either.” Brigitte’s hand squeezes hers, and Hana catches the single tear running down her face, shining in the light of the flashlight. “We’re dying. I had to let you know.”
“No, no, no,” Brigitte’s borderline panicking now, despite the evident tiredness in her body and mind, “They’re right there. Come on, Hana, please, please don’t lose hope. We’ll be okay.”
“They won’t make it in time.”
“They have to. Please, Hana. Just...” She doesn’t finish her sentence, and one more tear rolls down her face to land directly on Hana’s cheek. The gamer soon notices she’s crying herself.
“God, my head.” Hana brings a hand to her forehead; her head feels like it’s going to explode. “I wish dying from carbon dioxide poisoning hurt less.”
“Fan, Hana, I’m sorry...” The tears are running freely on her face, now. “I said I would protect you...”
“You did. Even when you didn’t have to. This shit was my fault, Brigitte. Don’t blame yourself.”
Brigitte says nothing, but brings her even closer to her own body, pressing a light kiss against her forehead.
“I’m sorry. Your dad’s a nice guy. He doesn’t deserve this shit. Or old man Rein. Fuck, you don’t deserve this shit. You’re an angel and I’m... an idiot. A selfish idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot, Hana, let alone selfish.”
“I fucked you over because I felt like I had something to prove. I’m a selfish idiot.”
“Hana—"
“Angie doesn’t deserve this either.” Hana cuts her off and lets out a humorless chuckle. “She’s gonna be heartbroken.”
‘I’m sorry, umma,’ she thinks, Angela’s grief-ridden face immediately popping into her mind, ‘I let you down.’
“Hana, come on, we still have a few more hours. We’ll be fine.” Brigitte’s voice is bordering on desperate, “I promise, I’ll get Reinhardt to cook something for you when we get out, and then we can go watch that new ghost movie you’ve been going on about, just—please, please, don’t give in.”
“If by some miracle we live through this,” Hana chuckles again, this time with actual humor, although faint and fleeting, “I’ll take you up on that.” She brings her hand against Brigitte’s face and manages a weak smile, struggling to speak through her hyperventilation. “I’m sorry for not letting you know earlier. About how I felt, you know. If I had, we could have had more time together.”
“We will have more time, Hana.” The redhead says, breathing equally heavily. “I promise. You’ll get to see your silly movie, and we’ll laugh out loud at the bad scenes and bother everyone in the theater.”
Hana gives her a genuine smile, but decides against speaking to conserve what little oxygen they still have left. It feels like another nine hours go by as they stay exactly as they are, Brigitte with Hana’s body in her arms, looking into each other’s eyes, before the noise starts to sound louder and gets accompanied by a familiar humming noise as well as a strange slashing, sizzzling one she’s never heard before.
Both Hana and Brigitte immediately look at the sealed exit, expectantly, and they wait for what feels like several seconds before the center of the rock falls backwards like a frameless door. Brigitte only has the presence of mind to shield Hana with her arm as the small rocks and pebbles fly towards them, one catching the redhead’s brow and opening a cut that immediately starts to bleed. The blood impairing her sight should have bothered Brigitte, but Hana figures her sight must be at least as fucked as hers by now, so the girl barely reacts to the injury.
As soon as the rock is cut, Hana is filled with relief as she can finally breathe properly. She inhales so deeply, like a person who has held their breath underwater for too long would, that she ends up choking on air for a few seconds. Brigitte also starts to take longer, deeper breaths as she stares wide eyed at their savior, tears running down her face and leaving behind a clear trail on dust-covered cheeks.
Satya is standing right in front of the newly created passage, breathing slightly more heavily than she usually does, her hard light gun in her hand. Genji's to her right, looking into the cave with his sword drawn– although something bright red and sizzling has been attached to the blade. Something Torbjörn must have hurriedly built to get them out of there, she figures. Further to the back, she can see Reinhardt’s hulking frame, accompanied by...
“Hana!” Angela all but pushes her way into the room, voice dripping with worry, shaking with tears shed and unshed. “Brigitte! Oh mein Gott! Lieblings!”
She essentially tackles the two of them, embracing them comfortingly. In any other situation, Hana might have made some smartass joke, but right now, all she can do is close her eyes and cry into Angela’s shoulder.
Torbjörn rushes in right after her, and, without a word, runs up to them and hugs them along with Angela, squeezing Brigitte particularly tightly. He’s breathing heavily and sniffling, and Hana realizes he’s crying. It occurs to her she’s never seen Torbjörn cry, nor did she ever think she ever would.
Fareeha and Genji walk in as well, giving them brief, but tight and desperate, hugs, and help Angela and Torbjörn carry their still weak bodies out of the room where the rest of the agents wait.
Satya and Morrison look completely shaken. Lúcio looks like he’s been crying, and Lena and Jesse are both sniffling, their eyes red and watery. Reinhardt is openly weeping, and wraps them both up in a big hug as soon as they come into sight, having been too large to walk through the hole created in the rock.
As they all walk out of the caves and back to the shuttle, nobody says a thing; they just walk very close to each other.
Brigitte and Hana both fall asleep on the ride back to Gibraltar, Hana leaning comfortably against Brigitte, who has a protective arm wrapped around her.
They all see it, but once again, nobody says a thing, preferring to just smile in silence.
-----
They are greeted warmly by the agents back in Gibraltar. Hanzo makes them tea; Zenyatta, Ana and Winston help Angela with their recovery; Mei and Zarya give them big hugs and talk to them extensively once they are fully recovered; Bastion chirps happily once they see them; and Orisa, like Mei and Zarya, wraps them both in a warm hug. Hana even finds an anonymous email in her computer that simply says “Glad to know you’re well, chica. World would be terribly boring without ya.” Hana knows who it's from, of course, and the thought that even she is sending her a message regarding the recent events puts a smile on her face. She thinks of asking her how she found out, but decides against it; gathering information is what she does best, and she wouldn’t tell Hana if the gamer asked anyway.
Brigitte does keep her promise to get Reinhardt to cook for Hana. He makes her her favorite dish, addding a slight German cuisine touch to it. She thanks him profusely (as well as Brigitte.)
She also keeps her promise of going to the movies with Hana; she thought it would have been hard to convince Morrison to let them take the day off, but to their surprise, he agrees right away – presumably having been made temporarily softer by their recent near-death experience. As they sit side by side on the chairs in the room Hana rented for a private section, watching the trailers before the film, Brigitte turns to face her with a tender, yet slightly scared expression on her face.
“Did you mean what you said to me in the cave? Or were you like... not thinking straight because of the carbon dioxide?”
Hana furrows her brows.
“What exactly did I say?”
Brigitte’s breathing picks up a little, and her voice trembles.
“That you loved me.”
Hana’s expression softens, though she can feel herself becoming thoroughly flustered.
“Every word.”
Brigitte flashes her the widest, most genuine smile she’s ever seen in her life.
“Good,” she says, “because I love you too.”
She leans in to kiss Hana, and the gamer eagerly responds as the studio logos show up on the cinema screen in front of them. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Largely unaffected by the recent carnage in stock markets, salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group is closing in on to become the country’s first business house to attain a market valuation of Rs. 6 lakh crore.
The cumulative market capitalisation of all 32 listed companies of the Tata group has risen to nearly Rs. 5.90 lakh crore as on Friday — the highest for any business house in the country and almost double the market value of the second ranked Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Group.
The total market value of Tata group exceeds the combined market capitalisation of at least three leading business houses in the country — Mukesh Ambani-led RIL group (about Rs. 2.75 lakh crore), Kumar Mangalam Birla-led Aditya Birla Group (about Rs. 1.5 lakh crore) and Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group (about Rs. 62,000 crore).
Interestingly, the Tata group’s market value has grown substantially over the past one year, including in the past few months when the overall stock markets have been facing strong headwinds and have lost value.
In the past three months, the Tata group’s valuation has grown by over Rs. 80,000 crore or over 15 per cent, while the total valuation of Indian markets has actually fallen by about 10 per cent during the same period, shows an analysis of data available from stock exchanges.
Tata group, which saw a change of leadership late last year from Ratan Tata to Cyrus Mistry, has seen its valuation growing by over Rs 1 lakh crore since the beginning of this year.
On the other hand, valuations of many other large groups have remained either flat or have fallen in the recent months amid a huge volatility in stock markets.
While Tatas have the largest number of listed companies among major business houses in the country, RIL alone used to command a market value of over Rs 4 lakh crore a few years ago as the country’s most valued company.
However, this position is now occupied by Tata group firm TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) with a market cap of close to Rs. 3.96 lakh crore.
In comparison, RIL’s market cap currently stands at about Rs. 2.75 lakh crore, while its only other listed group company, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd, has a market value of just about Rs. 440 crore.
If TCS attains a market value of Rs. 4 lakh crore, it would be only the second company in Indian history after RIL to breach this mark.
The data shows that TCS has been main force behind Tata group’s soaring market value with a surge of more than 50 per cent in the past one year.
The other major companies of the group include Tata Motors (close to Rs. 90,000 crore), Tata Steel (Rs. 27,000 crore), Titan (Rs. 20,000 crore) and Tata Global Beverages (Rs. 8,600 crore).
Other listed entities of the group include Tata Power, Indian Hotels, Tata Communications, Rallis, Tata Coffee, Voltas and Tata Chemicals.
While the group has about 100 operating companies, only 32 of them are listed in the stock market, as per information on its website.
TCS currently accounts for nearly two-third of the group’s total market cap, up from about half at the beginning of this year.
Interestingly, it was after the listing of TCS on August 25, 2004, that the the total market capitalisation of the group’s then 28 listed companies crossed Rs. one lakh crore cap and Tatas became the country’s most valued business house.
Way back in 1991, the total market cap of the Tata group was less than Rs. 8,000 crore and Tata Steel was most valued among its 18 listed companies at that time. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
“The biggest thing is that I’m finally healthy,” said Wil Myers before a game with the Giants. After breaking his wrist in the fourth game of the year in 2014, and then following that up with another broken wrist (the other one) about six weeks later, Myers is happy to have his health. Those broken wrists did a number on his game.
After the first wrist broke, Myers played through it. “I still have a bone that sticks out,” Myers said as he points to a protrusion. “And any time I turned this wrist over, this tendon right here was very painful.” Even that first half of last year, before the second injury, Myers had below-average power (.126 Isolated Slugging, .145 is average).
It was worse when he came back from the second broken wrist after 81 days away. “I just didn’t have it,” Myers said as he shook his head. “This forearm looked like a baby’s forearm, I had no muscle.” That’s when his performance really tanked, as his .055 ISO and overall offense that was 50% worse than league average can attest.
Of course it would, he was playing with a baby’s forearm. But exactly *how* that affected him is also important. “I just became a right-handed hitter — I was basically swinging one-handed,” Myers said of the second half last year. “My whole hand up here was swollen all the time because I was getting jammed on every pitch. I just could not turn it around. I was trying to cheat on fastballs and was very susceptible to offspeed pitches.”
This is what it looks like to cheat on a fastball and get all messed up in table form, featuring the pitch type values that weigh outcomes per 100 pitches of each pitch type. A good fastball hitter lost the ability to catch up to cheese and the rest of his game followed.
Season wFB/C wSL/C wCT/C wCB/C wCH/C wSF/C wKN/C 2013 1.1 0.4 0.4 -1.1 2.0 -7.0 -4.1 2014 -0.8 -1.6 -0.3 -0.1 -1.9 0.6 -0.5 2015 1.2 0.4 -1.2 5.4 3.0
This is what it looks like to cheat on a fastball and swing with one hand in game footage, with late 2014 on the left and his current swing on the right. You might notice what he means when he says that “My swing was so long. I didn’t have a top hand to help me stay short.” Easier to spot is that he starts his swing earlier and finishes the 2014 swing more awkwardly.
The injury also hurt him when he tried to extend. “Anything away I just couldn’t hit,” Myers admitted. This is what it looks like to swing with one hand in a heat map form, with late 2014 on the left and 2015 on the right.
Now, with two hands, Myers is learning from the ordeal. “Just gotta make sure my top hand gets to the ball,” said Myers. “My bat loads behind my head, so my swing is more flat than a lot of guys.” So the top hand is huge for him.
Two working wrists have made it easy on Myers, but a few tweaks this year have helped. He’s become more aggressive, mostly in the zone. His swing rate is at a career high (47.9% this year, 45.5% career) but his reach rate is right in line with career levels (28.4% this year, 29.0% career). The player agreed, but added a caveat that he was “aggressive early in counts.”
Pair this with the fact that he’s batting leadoff regularly for the first time in his career, and maybe we’re talking about a fastball thing here. “I’m getting good pitches early in the count, with the guys behind me, that helps a lot,” Myers said. Though the numbers haven’t really shown that protection is a real thing, the players believe in it for the most part.
In this particular situation, there might be something else going on. Since he’s batting leadoff, Myers is seeing pitches earlier in the game, on average. That might explain the fact that he’s seeing more fastballs. Look at the first four innings in particular, when you’re still facing the starter, most likely:
Considering that his fastball percentage is only up 3% and the difference between the first inning and the second inning in terms of fastballs is nearly 5%, maybe pitchers aren’t really challenging Myers any more than usual. Especially since he’s being more aggressive and swinging earlier in the count, when pitchers are trying to get strikes with their fastballs.
After all that getting healthy, playing center field was no big deal. He pointed out that he’d played there a ton in 2012, and that it was just about learning all the ballparks. In game play, the biggest difference was the action on the hits as they come to him. “A ball to my right, the ball kinda goes away from me, and a ball to my right in right field was coming back,” he said. Just a little like telling the difference between a cutter and a sinker, really.
Wil Myers has some huge mitts, but he’s not sure that mattered much on the plays where he got injured, and there’s nothing he can do about them. “I was born this way,” he deadpanned. But any wrist injury is a such a big deal, he agreed. Last year? “It wasn’t that fun.” Now that he’s healthy, he’s having fun again. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.