text
stringlengths 14
100k
| meta
dict |
|---|---|
Is Google bringing Android and Chrome OS together? In a word – yes, but maybe not in the way you think.
The speculation about Google merging Chrome OS and Android has been a constant over the last few years. Why does Google have two separate systems when everyone else is merging? Why doesn’t Chrome just get folded into Android? Google has to kill one of them off. It’s odd that the tech world insists on Highlander rules – there can be only one. But the truth is that Google can bring them closer and closer together, and create a seamless experience for us, and it doesn’t need one to assimilate the other in order to do that.
Chrome OS is here to stay
[related_videos align=”center” type=”custom” videos=”598724,565121,594543,335116″]
People have strong opinions about Chrome OS, though a lot of them have never actually tried working on a Chromebook. Ever since it was first announced, back in 2009, commentators started queuing up to proclaim it dead on arrival. There have been plenty of assertions about its failure since then. They all suppose that Chrome OS is designed to replace Windows, but it doesn’t have to beat Windows across the market.
Regardless of whether it has met expectations, Google is committed to Chrome OS
According to NPD data, via Betanews, Chromebooks accounted for 14 percent of laptop sales in the U.S. last year, up from 8 percent in 2013, and that figure is still rising. When you consider how cheap Chromebooks are compared to the competition, and how well-suited they are to education, it’s inevitable that Chrome will continue to grow. It only looks like a failure because people use the dominant OS as a yardstick. You can argue about its relative merits (low prices, speed, no updates) and weaknesses (offline, heavy lifting, photo editing), but it is a very good fit for a specific audience and it is still improving.
Regardless of whether it has met expectations, Google is committed to it, as evidenced by the recent Chromebit unveiling alongside four budget-friendly Chromebooks, and not long after the new Chromebook Pixel.
If Chrome OS isn’t going anywhere, then is it on a collision-course with Android? Shortly after the Chrome OS announcement, back in 2009, Sergey Brin said, “Android and Chrome will likely converge over time,” but what did he mean by that?
Android and Chrome converging
Talking about the recent Chrome releases to Forbes,Google’s VP of product management for Chromebook, Caesar Sengupta, said something very telling:
“From a user’s perspective, it doesn’t matter what code is running underneath, Android and Chrome originated in different places. We’ve tried to bring the teams together.”
What we’re actually seeing is an increasingly common aesthetic for the interface, and even more so with the current beta version of Chrome OS. We’re getting Google Now cards whatever device we’re on. Google is making it as easy as possible to get Android apps running in Chrome and Chrome OS apps running on Android. There’s even a new tool that makes it easier for developers to test out their Android apps on Chrome OS devices. The fact Google has folded Chrome tabs into your multitasking menu on Android is worth noting here, too.
There’s even added value for people who use both devices, through handy features like easy unlock, which will unlock your Chromebook when your Android phone is within range. We’re also going to see Android notifications on Chromebooks, so you get phone and text pop-ups or warnings that your phone needs charged on your desktop.
However, none of this means that Android will replace Chrome OS or vice versa.
Why would it be Android anyway?
A lot of people assume that, if it was to merge, then Chrome OS would disappear into Android. This is mostly because Android is so successful. It’s already on the majority of mobile devices, what does Chrome OS offer that Android doesn’t? Actually, given Google’s focus on the Internet, Chrome OS would be preferable. It may not have the same level of apps (yet), but it also doesn’t suffer from fragmentation. It’s simple, it’s very fast, it’s secure, and Google is firmly in control.
But the truth is that Google doesn’t have to choose. If the future for a lot of apps is browser-based, and it looks like it is, then all that really matters is support for the browser. Maybe Chrome OS eventually wins out, when web apps are good enough, maybe web apps never get good enough and it fades quietly away. Developers will probably determine what happens there.
What looks increasingly likely is that the Chrome browser will be the heart of Google’s offerings. It’s the glue that ties your Google services together and enables you to share across devices. The more Google can put in the browser, the less the underlying platform matters.
What is Google really up to?
Where is the burning need to officially merge Chrome OS and Android? There simply isn’t one.
Ultimately, Google is doing the same thing it always does – it wants as many people as possible to use its services online. It’s not trying to make money by selling you hardware or software, at least not primarily. They are a means to an end, which is why Google wants to hit the budget end of the market so hard. It wants to make sure newcomers are using Google services.
It also doesn’t want to “win” a platform war. It already makes its services available on competing platforms. Android and Chrome OS are about reaching new customers first and having the control to offer a better experience second, but as long as you’re using Google services, it doesn’t really care what devices you’re using.
It makes sense to offer a unified experience where you can share your online world across devices as seamlessly as possible. It makes sense to have a single sign-in and account that goes across all your different devices, and even platforms, tied together by the Chrome browser. If Google can present that seamless experience, regardless of the device you’re on, then it’s done its job. Who cares what code runs beneath, as long as it works?
Where is the burning need to officially merge Chrome OS and Android? There simply isn’t one. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
EU:ssa päästy sopuun netin tekijänoikeuslainsäädännön uudistamisesta
Komission varapuheenjohtaja Andrus Ansip kertoi sopuun pääsystä. LEHTIKUVA / Kimmo Mäntylä
STT
EU:ssa on saavutettu sopu internetiä koskevan tekijänoikeuslainsäädännön uudistamisesta. Asiasta kertoi komission varapuheenjohtaja Andrus Ansip Twitterissä. Hänen mukaansa uudistus päivittää tekijänoikeuslainsäädännön digitaaliselle ajalle.
Uudistus vaatii vielä hyväksynnän EU-parlamentissa ja Eurooppa-neuvostossa ennen toukokuun EU-vaaleja.
Lainsäädäntöuudistuksesta on kiistelty pitkään ja hartaasti. Vastapuolina ovat olleet etenkin perinteinen media sekä Googlen ja Facebookin kaltaiset internetjätit. Sopimuksen mukaan internetjätit joutuvat maksamaan korvauksia mediataloille esimerkiksi linkeistä median tuottamaan sisältöön.
EU-parlamentti hyväksyi edellisen version uudistuksesta viime syksynä, mutta se pysähtyi jäsenvaltioiden vastustukseen. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
We owe this man everything.
Some sad news began circulating the internet this week for filmmakers, as it was revealed that Ross Lowell, inventor of gaffer tape, died January 10th at his home in Pound Ridge, New York. In addition to founding the lighting company Lowel-Light, the maverick of filmmaking ingenuity was also an award-winning director and cinematographer.
As a cinematographer in the 1950s, Lowell became frustrated with the lighting options available for shooting footage outside broadcast studios, so he began experimenting with alternate ways of lighting. His first idea was to fashion a small socket on a ball swivel that could accept a flood light and also be attached to various mounts.
His company, Lowel-Light, continued down this path and designed more portable lighting systems. By the time he was done, he held more than 20 patents for his lighting products. This led to an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 1979 for “the development of compact lighting equipment for motion picture photography.”
It was in the process of creating his swivel lighting mount that Lowell found a need to create a kind of heat-resistant tape that could be used to tape lights to a vertical surface. Essentially, he took the adhesive used on duct tape and attached to a type of fabric, and “gaffer tape” was born.
As filmmakers, we all owe this man a tremendous amount of gratitude. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
world
Updated: Feb 21, 2017 22:08 IST
Six people were killed and more than 20 others injured when a group of suicide attackers from a Taliban faction attempted to storm a court complex in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, the latest in a wave of terror attacks across the country since last week.
Three attackers hit the sessions court in Tangi town of Charsadda district, a short distance from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital of Peshawar, on Tuesday morning.
They lobbed grenades and fired at policemen guarding the complex before one attacker blew himself up near the gate. The other two, who were also wearing suicide vests, were killed in retaliatory firing by security forces.
The banned Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed the attack. “We claim responsibility for the attack, which is part of our Ghazi operation,” the group’s spokesman Asad Mansoor said in a phone call to the media.
District mayor Fahad Riaz confirmed the casualties. A lawyer was among the dead, officials said.
An explosion occurred at the entrance of the court complex and another near the bar council room. The bodies and injured were taken to hospitals in Charsadda and Peshawar.
The court complex was crowded in the morning, and deputy inspector general of police Ijaz Khan said police averted a major tragedy by preventing the attackers from entering the courthouse.
A Pakistani volunteer carries an injured child to a hospital in Peshawar on February 21, 2017 after a group of suicide bombers attacked a courthouse in the country’s northwest. Police said one bomber detonated his suicide vest at the court's main gate while police shot and killed the two other assailants. ( AP )
The attack was the latest in a wave of terrorist assaults across Pakistan since last week that has claimed more than 100 lives. The brazen suicide bombings have been claimed by several militant groups, including the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar.
In one of the attacks last week, 90 people were killed when an Islamic State suicide bomber targeted worshippers at a famed Sufi shrine in southern Sindh province on Thursday.
The shrine bombing prompted a countrywide crackdown by security forces targeting militants and their hideouts. The military has said that more than 100 militants have been killed and many others detained.
The government has vowed to fight terrorists, including those it says are hiding in Afghanistan. The military closed the border with Afghanistan over the weekend and used artillery to pound what is said were militant camps within Afghan territory.
Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, the brother of premier Nawaz Sharif, has announced the beginning of a military operation in his province headed by the paramilitary Pakistan Rangers. Sharif said the operation would root out terrorism in Pakistan’s most populous province. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Когда видишь эти рисунки, хочется взять и попасть внутрь – как Алиса в Зазеркалье. Художники, иллюстрировавшие любимые книжки нашего детства, были самыми настоящими волшебниками. Вот спорим – вы сейчас не только увидите в ярких красках комнату, в которой стояла ваша кроватка, но и услышите голос мамы, читающей сказку на ночь!
Владимир Сутеев
Владимир Сутеев сам был автором множества сказок (например, “Кто сказал «МЯУ»?”, известной по чудному мультику). Но больше всего мы его любим за всех этих неподражаемых ежиков, мишек и зайчиков – книжки с сутеевским зверьем засматривали буквально до дыр!
Леонид Владимирский
Леонид Владимирский – это самые симпатичные на свете Страшила Мудрый, Железный Дровосек и Трусливый Лев, а также вся остальная компания, топавшая в Изумрудный город по дороге, вымощенной желтым кирпичом. И не менее симпатичный Буратино!
Виктор Чижиков
Без рисунков Виктора Чижикова не обходился ни один номер “Мурзилки” и “Веселых картинок”. Он раскрасил мир Драгунского и Успенского – а однажды взял и нарисовал бессмертного Олимпийского Мишку.
Аминадав Каневский
Иван Семенов
Собственно, самого Мурзилку сотворил художник с необычным именем Аминадав Каневский. Кроме Мурзилки, ему принадлежит масса узнаваемых иллюстраций Маршака, Чуковского, Агнии Барто.
Владимир Зарубин
Карандаша из “Веселых картинок”, а также множество рисованных историй для этого журнала нарисовал Иван Семенов. Кроме наших первых комиксов, он создал еще и массу отличных рисунков к рассказам Носова о Коле и Мишке и истории о “Бобике в гостях у Барбоса”.
Елена Афанасьева
Самые классные на свете открытки нарисованы Владимиром Зарубиным. Он и книжки иллюстрировал, но этих умильных новогодних белочек и восьмимартовских зайчат теперь коллекционеры отдельно собирают. И правильно делают.
Евгений Чарушин
Очень характерные (и такие правильные!) советские детишки получались у художницы Елены Афанасьевой. Без ностальгии смотреть невозможно.
Анатолий Савченко
Когда слова “мимимишный” еще не было, самый мимимишный художник уже был: это Евгений Чарушин, главный специалист по жизни животных. Невозможно пушистые котята, мохнатые медвежата и взъерошенные воробьишки – так и хотелось задушить их всех… ну, в объятиях.
Валерий Дмитрюк
А самые веселые и шкодные на свете существа получались у Анатолия Савченко: блудный попугай Кеша, ленивый Вовка в Тридевятом царстве – и тот самый Карлсон! Другие Карлсоны просто неправильные, вот и все.
Генрих Вальк
Еще один король задора и хулиганистости – Незнайка Валерия Дмитрюка. А еще этот художник одинаково успешно украшал взрослые “Крокодилы”.
Константин Ротов
Другой известный “крокодилец” – Генрих Вальк – замечательно умел схватывать характеры мальчишек и девчонок, а также их родителей. Именно в его исполнении мы представляем “Незнайку на Луне”, “Витю Малеева в школе и дома”, “Хоттабыча” и героев Михалкова.
Иван Билибин
Карикатурист Константин Ротов изобразил самые веселые и яркие (несмотря на то, что черно-белые) “Приключения капитана Врунгеля”.
Юрий Васнецов
Иваны-царевичи и серые волки, жар-птицы и царевны-лягушки, золотые петушки и золотые рыбки… В общем, все народные сказки и сказки Пушкина – это навсегда Иван Билибин. Каждую детальку этого заковыристого и узористого колдунства можно рассматривать бесконечно долго.
Борис Дехтерев
А еще до Пушкина нас развлекали загадки, потешки, сороки-белобоки, “Кошкин дом” и “Теремок”. И вся эта развеселая карусель переливалась красками Юрия Васнецова.
Эдуард Назаров
Вячеслав Назарук
Когда же мы дорастали до “Дюймовочки”, “Кота в сапогах” и Перро с Андерсеном, нас переносил в их страны Борис Дехтерев – с помощью нескольких волшебных палочек: цветных карандашей и акварельных кисточек.Самый шикарный Винни-Пух – вовсе у Шепарда (хотя он тоже хорош, чего уж там), а все-таки у Эдуарда Назарова! Он и книжку иллюстрировал, и над нашими любимейшими мультиками работал. Кстати о мультиках – именно Назаров нарисовал смешных героев сказок “Путешествие муравья” и “Жил-был пес”.
Николай Радлов
Улыбчивый Крошка Енот, дружелюбный кот Леопольд и коварная парочка мышей, а также грустный Мамонтенок, который искал маму – все это дело рук художника Вячеслава Назарука.
Серьезный художник Николай Радлов успешно иллюстрировал детские книги: Барто, Маршака, Михалкова, Волкова – да так иллюстрировал, что их переиздавали по сто раз. Особенно прославилась его собственная книжка “Рассказы в картинках”.
Геннадий Калиновский
Г.А.В. Траугот
Геннадий Калиновский – автор очень причудливых и необычных графических рисунков. Его манера рисовать идеально гармонировала с настроением английских сказок – “Мэри Поппинс” и “Алиса в Стране Чудес” были именно что “страньше и страньше”! Не менее оригинальны – Братец Кролик, Братец Лис и прочая смешная братва из “Сказок дядюшки Римуса”.
Евгений Мигунов
Таинственное “Г.А.В. Траугот” звучало как имя какого-нибудь волшебного героя Андерсена. На самом же деле это был целый семейный подряд художников: отец Георгий и сыновья его Александр и Валерий. А герои того же Андерсена у них получались такие легкие, слегка небрежные – вот-вот взлетят и растают!
Наталия Орлова
Наша обожаемая Алиса Кира Булычева – это еще и Алиса Евгения Мигунова: этот художник проиллюстрировал ну буквально все книжки великого фантаста.Впрочем, была в нашей жизни еще одна Алиса – из мирового мультика “Тайна третьей планеты”. Ее создала Наталия Орлова. Причем главную героиню художница рисовала с собственной дочки, а пессимиста Зеленого – с мужа! Честное слово, нам искренне жаль, что в этих мирах нельзя опять поселиться целиком. Но в гости заглянуть очень даже можно. А в компании собственных спиногрызов – особенно. Не винксами же едиными, в самом деле, детскую фантазию подкармливать! | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Historic first women’s Ballon d’Or winner asked to twerk in shocking moment
What should have been a historic moment in football was ruined when Ada Hegerberg was asked to twerk on stage at the Ballon d’Or in Paris on Tuesday (AEDT).
Norwegian Hegerberg, who plays for Olympique Lyonnais in France, won the inaugural award for the best female player in the world, beating out 14 other nominees including Australia’s Sam Kerr.
Normally reserved for the men throughout its 62-year history, the 2018 Ballon d’Or finally recognised football’s best women and Hegerberg was rewarded for her outstanding international and club form before the man next to her put a dampener on her big moment.
Solveig, who was a guest host at the awards ceremony, asked the 23-year-old striker to twerk after she received her prize. Hegerberg promptly shut him down, saying “no” and turning her back on him.
Social media turned on Solveig, forcing the music icon to clarify why he made the request to Hegerbeg in an Instagram post on Wednesday (AEDT), saying it was part of his instructions to prepare a song and dance with each award winner.
“I want to publicly apologise for any misunderstanding that came from yesterday’s exchange between myself & Ada Hegerberg during the Ballon d’Or ceremony,” Solveig wrote. “I acknowledge that it was in poor taste and I am deeply sorry for my mistake.
“To add context to the incident, I was asked to prepare a song for each winner and would dance with each recipient after their award was presented.
“The clip circulating on social media does not reflect the whole situation. Moments after I made the remark, we went on to dance together to Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon. The twerking comment was used in contrast to the song I had prepared for her, however, this sentiment was misunderstood and has sadly caused offence.”
‘WHAT A DISGRACE’: SOLVEIG SLAMMED
Football journalist Jason Pettigrove tweeted: “Martin Solveig, you are f***ing pathetic” while tennis star Andy Murray let loose on his Instagram story.
“Why do women have to put up with this s***?” he wrote. “What questions did they ask Mbappe and Modric? I’d imagine something to do with football.
“And to everyone who thinks people are overreacting and it was just a joke ... it wasn’t. I’ve been involved in sport my whole life and the level of sexism is unreal.”
Pettigrove and Murray were far from the only ones to use colourful language to describe Solveig as people from all around the world got inventive with their vocabulary when thinking of ways to shame him.
SOLVEIG ‘AMAZED’ BY SAVAGE BACKLASH
Solveig posted a video on Twitter after seeing the backlash to his twerking request and apologised, saying he meant no disrespect.
In a later tweet he said he apologised to Hederberg, who understood he was only trying to make a joke.
“I’m a little bit amazed as to what I’m reading on the internet,” Solveig said. “I of course didn’t want to offend anyone.
“This comes from a distortion of my English level and my English culture level which is obviously not enough because obviously I didn’t mean to offend anyone and I didn’t know that this could be seen as such an offence, especially if you consider the sequence in total when we ended up dancing to Frank Sinatra.
“This was a joke, probably a bad one and I want to apologise for the ones I may have offended. Sorry about that.”
HEGERBERG RESPONDS AS IRONY LAID BARE
Hegerberg and Solveig danced to Franck Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon but she played down the twerking incident when quizzed by the BBC, saying she understood the DJ meant no harm.
“He came to me afterwards and was really sad that it went that way. I didn’t really think about it at the time to be honest. I didn’t really consider it a sexual harassment or anything in the moment.
“I was just happy to do the dance (to Sinatra) and win the Ballon d’Or to be honest. I will have a glass of champagne when I get back, yes.”
Hegerberg, a three-time Women’s Champions League winner with Lyon, was selected by a jury of 45 journalists as the cream of the crop in female football.
Hegerberg called the award “a huge step for women’s football” and also told The Associated Press she feels “very proud” to be the first Ballon d’Or-winning woman.
Astonishingly, Solveig’s twerking request came as Hegerberg voiced her anger about how women are treated differently to men in football.
Hegerberg expressed frustration about living “in such a man’s world” and said the award will not make her reconsider her refusal to play for Norway, including at next June’s Women’s World Cup, because of her unhappiness over perceived inequality.
“A lot of things need to be done to make the conditions better for women who play football,” she said.
“It’s all about how we respect women’s football. I don’t think the respect has been there.
“I wish the national team the best, though. We just follow two different paths at the moment.”
After her awkward encounter with Solveig, journalist Darren Cleary tweeted a video of her brilliant work on the pitch to remind everyone why she won the Ballon d’Or in the first place.
Hegerberg scored a tournament-record 15 goals for Lyon in the Women’s Champions League and netted 31 goals in 29 goals across all club competitions this season. She finished well clear of Kerr, who came fifth in the voting, but the Matildas star wasn’t bothered as long as female football was put under the spotlight on the world stage.
“For the first time a woman will win football’s highest honour. So even if I don’t win, we will,” Kerr posted on Instagram before the awards ceremony.
Kerr had another outstanding 2018 winning the NWSL golden boot, the PFA Women’s Footballer of the Year and ESPY Award for Best International Women’s Soccer Player.
Dane Pernille Harder and German Dzsenifer Marozsan rounded out the top three while Brazilian Marta was fourth.
FOOTBALL’S STUNNING NEW WORLD ORDER
On the men’s side, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi’s decade-long dominance at the Ballon d’Or came to an end as they were dethroned by Luka Modric.
Modric won the Ballon d’Or for the first time, becoming the first player not named Messi or Ronaldo to claim the top honour since Brazilian Kaka won the prize in 2007.
Modric won the Champions League with Real Madrid and then guided Croatia to the World Cup final in July. The creative central midfielder was voted player of the tournament in Russia.
“As a kid we all have dreams. My dream was to play for a big club and win important trophies,” Modric said. “The Ballon d’Or was more than just a dream for me and it is really an honour and a privilege to hold this trophy.”
Ronaldo was second in the Ballon d’Or followed by France forward Antoine Griezmann. France’s teen star, Kylian Mbappe, was fourth in the polling.
Brazil star Neymar, who was third last year, was a lowly 12th despite a domestic treble with Paris Saint-Germain.
Modric, who has won the Champions League four times with Madrid, was fifth in Ballon d’Or polling last year.
“2018 is a dream year for me,” the 33-year-old Modric said. “Throughout my career I realised hard work, persistence and belief in yourself in difficult moments are the foundations of success.”
Modric’s father was shown on the big screen during the ceremony at the imperious Grand Palais in Paris, wiping away tears.
Ronaldo missed out on a record sixth award, which would have moved him one ahead of Messi.
Mbappe and Griezmann scored in the 4-2 World Cup final win against Croatia. Mbappe won the domestic treble with PSG, while Griezmann scored twice for Atletico Madrid in the Europa League final win against Marseille. France coach Didier Deschamps said a French player should have won the award.
“They deserve it because of what they did with the national team at the World Cup and also because of the trophies they won with their clubs,” Deschamps said.
Messi was fifth in the voting, having been runner-up to Ronaldo the past two years and in the top three every year since 2007. Modric had never previously been in the top three.
With AP | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Another 300,000 Australian premises are getting fibre all the way to the driveway as NBN becomes more generous with its fibre rollout.
It seems the Multi-Technology Mix has been in constant flux since the Coalition government decided to scrap plans to run fibre to the premises to 93 per cent of Australian homes and businesses. These days it's pot luck as to whether fibre runs to your door, your basement, the end of your driveway or the node around the corner.
NBN chief executive Bill Morrow unveiled the first fibre to the curb rollout back in 2016. Credit:Adam Hollingworth
Alternatively you could end up using the HFC pay TV cable networks to access the NBN. Or if you're really off the beaten track you might rely on Fixed Wireless towers or SkyMuster satellite.
Fibre to the curb, also known as fibre to the distribution point, is a relatively recent addition to the NBN mix and was only brought into play last year. It basically runs fibre all the way to the telephone pit out in your street, only relying on the copper phone line to run over (or under) the footpath and your front lawn to reach the house. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Larry Kudlow, director of the U.S. National Economic Council, right, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. Alex Edelman | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump's advisors reportedly are pushing him to focus on keeping the economy strong even if it means easing up on the trade dispute with China and his intense criticism of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. With the 2020 election looming, "plenty of people" inside the White House are telling Trump that trade wars are not "good and helpful," according to a Politico report behind the site's paywall. Along with the advice on China, the president is hearing from advisors telling him to lay off Powell, who is likely to lead a move next week to cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point, or 25 basis points.
Overall, the effort is to get Trump to avoid moves that will thwart economic growth, which appears to be slowing after a 2018 that saw GDP rise 2.9%. While the first quarter of this year came in at 3.1% growth, Q2 is expected to show an increase only around 2% and perhaps even less. For a president continuously under fire for controversial tweets and continuing impeachment threats from some progressive Democrats after the Robert Mueller Russia investigation, maintaining solid economic growth will serve as a pillar for the reelection campaign. The focus is to avoid "prosperity killers," Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council and a key Trump advisor, said in brief remarks to CNBC. "But that doesn't apply to easing up on China."
'The greatest economy' | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Long Read: A Design for Life: How Platforms Are Weaving Their Way Into the Fabric of Capitalism
With platform companies such as Apple and Facebook running up against the limits of their business models, they are turning to new ways to leverage your data for profit. In this week's column, James Meadway examines the measures platforms are taking and asks what it means for the future of capitalism. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Data models can distill powerful insight from raw data. Yet, this insight is only valuable when it is acted on, and it’s only acted on if it’s understood. Visualization plays a vital role in revealing key aspects of data within its overall context, enabling understanding for technical and non-technical decision makers alike.
At Elder Research, we go beyond static graphs to build data visualization applications that facilitate data exploration, providing users the ability to select many different ways to view their data. We enable the user to take a compelling business question to the data as a query, and we translate that into a view where they can explore the data’s details.
To create powerful visualizations make sure they are:
Accurate Readable Interactive Custom Accessible
Accuracy and Readability are essential to basic functionality, and the last three are the secret sauce that makes the data visualization application come alive.
Accurate
The first priority is to ensure accuracy (which includes clarity). The primary purpose of a visualization is to convey understanding, so a visualization that confuses or misleads will engender business mistakes. No matter how attractive a great feature or trick appears, don’t use it if tests show it misleads your intended audience.
Readable
Each visualization must be easy to read. It should never take significant effort to decipher, but be intuitive to understand and navigate. Visualizations should help focus attention on interesting attributes of the underlying data. For example, to represent risk scores we use a color gradient from green (low risk) to red (high risk) as shown above in the map view from our Risk Assessment Data Repository (RADR) tool in the blog header photo. The map is intuitive as the location shows where the contract is, and the size of the dot shows the dollar amount at risk. Another way we help users focus on risk, is to use a polar plot, placing the high-risk points at dead center. Then specific events are represented as icons, as shown on the right.
Interactive
An interesting way to give life to visualization applications is to make them interactive. Interactions feel
intuitive to users, add significant value to data exploration, and can strengthen less powerful visualizations. For example, if a user finds a set of points in a scatter plot that look interesting, allow them to draw a box around those points so only those values are detailed in a data table (as demonstrated below). Or, if the user finds an interesting value in the data table, the tool could allow them to select and highlight it on the graph in order to visualize where it falls in the overall distribution. This back and forth data exploration enables users to connect the visualizations to the data details, and vice versa.
Custom
Customization is a powerful visualization feature. People are more comfortable using things that they have control over, and allowing users to customize their visualizations facilitates data exploration at a much deeper level. Although it adds complexity, allowing users to determine the type of graph they want to use, which fields to group, or whether the y-axis displays a plain value or a cumulative score, can enhance user experience and increase adoption of the tool. Customization may increase the learning curve for users, but it provides them with intuitive tools to explore data and discover unique insights.
Accessible
The end goal is for the insights derived from data to be deployed in the business infrastructure ; that is to lead to action. For each specific scenario, provide tools to make that transition as smooth as possible for the users. Seemingly small features -- such as the ability to easily save pictures of graphs, or export selected subsets of data into formatted excel reports -- can go a long way. Focusing on data accessibility and ease of use from start to finish will increase user satisfaction and adoption, resulting in increased value from data-driven insight.
These five properties are the foundation of powerful visualization tools that help analysts transform data into actionable insight. At Elder Research we excel at understanding our customers’ business needs, and efficiently developing specific solutions that provide them direct business value.
Request a consultation to discuss how Elder Research can help build powerful visualizations that deliver actionable insight to your decision makers.
Related
Read Mining Your Own Business? Learn Best Practices for Data Analytics Success
Watch a demo video of our RADR Visulaization Tool
Read Avoiding Common Data Science Business Mistakes | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich. – The Macomb County Sheriff's Office is trying to identify a male who opened fire at an ATM with a pellet or BB gun.
UPDATE: Teen arrested, charged in Macomb Township pellet gun vs. ATM case
From the Sheriff's Office:
On September 5th, at approximately 6 a.m., he pulled up to the ATM at a Comerica Bank (26 Mile Road in Macomb Township) and proceeded to shoot at the machine with a pellet gun (or BB gun), causing damage to the machine, and windows in the front of the bank.
We believe that he is driving a light-colored Ford Fusion that has damage to the trunk lid/rear.
The Sheriff's Office released the attached surveillance images Monday morning. One of the images shows a male armed with the pellet gun, or BB gun, pointed at the ATM.
Anyone with information on this crime needs to contact the Macomb County Sheriff's Office at 586-307-9358.
Meanwhile, Shelby Township police said they have had a number of windows shot out by BB guns over the past couple of weeks. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Hello everyone!
I don't know about you, but I am a huge fan of baking during the winter.
I love being in my warm house, watching the cold weather outside and smelling baked goods cooking in the oven.
I was trying to think of something new I could bake this winter and it hit me, Cinnamon Rolls.
They sounded like the perfect thing to eat my sad winter feelings away with.
Who doesn't enjoy being comforted by dough, sugar and frosting?
I went to Pinterest and found this recipe that said it was the BEST.
And let me tell you, they were gooood.
You've got to try these bad boys out.
You will need:
1 Cup of Milk, Warm
1 Tablespoon of Instant Dry Yeast
2 Tablespoons of Sugar
1 Teaspoon of Salt
3 Tablespoons of Salted Butter, Softened
1 Large Egg
3 Cups of Flour, More If Needed
For The Filling:
1/2 a Cup of Salted Butter, Melted
1 Cup of Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Cinnamon
For The Glaze:
4 Ounces of Cream Cheese, Softened
1/4 a Cup of Salted Butter, Softened
1 to 1 and a 1/2 Cups of Powdered Sugar
1 to 2 Teaspoons of Milk
1/2 a Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract1 to 2 Teaspoons of Milk
Warm your milk in the microwave in a safe dish for 30 - 45 seconds.
It should be warm not HOT!
Combine the warm milk, yeast and sugar in a large bowl.
Mix together for five minutes or until the yeast has become frothy.
Add the salt, butter and egg and mix until just combined.
Add in your flour slowly one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Add more or less flour as needed.
The dough should be tacky but should not stick to your hands.
I used 3 and 1/2 cups but it will differ each time.
Transfer the dough to a large lightly greased bowl.
Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for one hour.
While the dough is rising make your filling.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the brown sugar and cinnamon until well combined.
Set aside.
Once the dough has risen, remove from the bowl and punch down to release air.
Roll the dough into a 12 X 18 inch rectangle
Brush dough with 1/2 cup of melted butter.
Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture on top of the melted butter leaving a small border around the edges so the filling won't fall out while rolling.
Roll the dough tightly lengthwise to create one long roll.
I found it best to roll pulling the dough towards me, it made it nice and tight.
Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
Using string or a very sharp knife cut the roll into 12, 1 inch slices.
Place slices onto greased cookie sheet.
Cover and let rise for 30 - 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 325o.
Bake rolls for 15 - 20 minutes, until golden brown.
While the rolls are baking make your glaze.
In a medium bowl mix the cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy.
Slowly add in the powdered sugar and mix until well combined.
Add in the vanilla extract.
Slowly add in the milk until a drizzle like consistency is reached.
Frost rolls while they are still warm from the oven. Frost rolls while they are still warm from the oven.
Enjoy!
The rolls turned out delicious.
And I really enjoyed making them.
I love working with fresh handmade dough.
Erik loved them so much he felt inspired to write a poem.
Cinnamon Rolls, A Haiku
Oh, Cinnamon Rolls
How I love to eat your face
Delicious, gooey
Cinnamon Rolls, A HaikuOh, Cinnamon RollsHow I love to eat your faceDelicious, gooey
If you give these a try we would love to hear your thoughts or Haikus.
What is your favorite winter treat?
All my love,
Autumn | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Winners
Arsenal
Their record is identical – P6, W4, D1, L1 – but Arsenal actually sit ahead of Liverpool on goal difference, almost matching the Premier League’s anointed Great Entertainers for goals and narrowly beating them defensively. The pair have met already this season and there was merely a c**k hair between them, but the Gunners’ defeat should come with an asterisk and the words ‘Holding’ and ‘Chambers’. Oh and ‘no Ozil’.
And yet Liverpool’s odds for the title are half those of Arsenal’s; the team that finished eighth last season are seen as more probable title winners than the side that finished second.
It can only be that familiarity has bred contempt with Arsenal. We can comprehend a Liverpool side in their first full season under the effervescent and infectious Jurgen Klopp winning their first Premier League title more easily than we can envisage Arsene Wenger’s perennial ‘not quites’ suddenly becoming the very best. And yet if you watched this Arsenal side blindly – without any knowledge of the last ten years – you would nod sagely and say ‘watch these guys…they’re special’.
When I wrote last week about Granit Xhaka being more swiftly integrated into the first XI, it was not because I did not believe that the Santi Cazorla-Francis Coquelin axis could not win games; it was simply because I could not see enough change. To play basically the same team, under the same manager, and expect things to radically improve seems preposterous. There has to be forward motion and Xhaka brings that, both literally with his forward-first passing, and figuratively because he will ultimately be an upgrade.
What’s clear is that this particular Arsenal side is the best it’s ever been. Perhaps it will suit them that hardly anybody has noticed and is instead marvelling at a Liverpool side which is – at best – on a par.
For lots, lots more on the Arsenal-Chelsea game, read Matt Stead’s excellent 16 Conclusions.
Mesut Ozil
Seriously, if I read any more pieces about this insouciant genius being lazy or a big-game bottler, this computer is going through the window. Thankfully it’s only a Chromebook and can be replaced pretty cheaply, which is not the case with Ozil. He is a wonderful, wonderful player and we should be really sodding glad he is here to entertain us. There was a massive grin on the face of this Premier League neutral when he smacked his hand against his chest after his second goal of the season. He loves Arsenal; Arsenal loves him; cockles are warmed.
Liverpool
Last week’s column began thus: ‘There are four Premier League players who have registered more than one goal and assist in the first five games of the season. One of them plays for Arsenal and takes penalties (Santi Cazorla), and the other three look utterly devastating for Manchester City.’
As well as realising that Nacer Chadli should also have been on that original list with his ridiculous one-game one-man show, a week later we can add the names of Alexis Sanchez, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana. The latter pair were once again astonishingly good in another (almost) complete Liverpool performance.
The caveat is that the opposition were limited even before they were reduced to ten men, but Liverpool pressed and then attacked as a swarm. They were devastating. Even 12 or 13 men could not have handled them, never mind the poor ten of Hull.
Every outfield player bar Ragnar Klavan had at least one shot, with Coutinho and Sadio Mane notching six each. They are a force of nature – a hurricane, a tornado, a tsunami, a plague – and it’s fascinating to see whether this can be sustained over a whole season.
In case you missed it, you should read Daniel Storey on Klopp’s mission to be the same team both home and away.
Liverpool have scored 71 goals in Klopp's 36 league games.
They've only scored more in two completed PL seasons:
77 – 2008/09
101 – 2013/14 — Andrew Beasley (@BassTunedToRed) September 24, 2016
Loris Karius
Jurgen Klopp may claim that he has not made a decision but Simon Mignolet should probably get used to having a numb arse. At least the entertainment is good.
Ander Herrera
There were many thousands of words written in 16 Conclusions about the brilliance of Paul Pogba and the rest of this Wayne Rooney-less Manchester United side, but Ander Herrera’s performance deserves a little more praise, in the context of what had been written in midweek.
There were three different messages being fed to the media last week – from the club saying that they were not unhappy with Jose Mourinho’s public criticisms of his players, from ‘senior players’ grumbling about their manager and from somebody ‘close to Jose Mourinho’ who was keen to point the finger at Louis van Gaal and his methods that were still infecting the club. One player named in several reports as struggling to cope with new instructions was Ander Herrera, perhaps seen as an easy target as the quiet foreigner.
So to see him produce a masterclass of tenacity, discipline and – surprisingly, perhaps – leadership from a deep position against Leicester was particularly rewarding. Still think I am struggling to take on new instructions, oh, ‘friend’ of Jose?
Ander Herrera certainly has weaknesses, but he's always featured when Man Utd have played well over the last few years. Top game again. — Liam Canning (@LiamPaulCanning) September 24, 2016
Raheem Sterling
That goal. Bloody hell. This time last year, Sterling would have attempted to square that ball to Sergio Aguero and probably cocked it up. And we would have groaned. And people would have once again said that he lacked the temperament to play for a big club. Actually, it turns out he just needed one of the best managers in the history of football to tell him that he truly believes he is made for this stage and oh, get in the box more.
No Kevin De Bruyne for a month? The excellence of Sterling means that’s not the title-derailing problem that it was last season.
Sergio Aguero
The best pure striker in English football? For me, there is no competition. Just watch the space he gains with just one touch for his first goal against Swansea. But if there’s one manager who is not content with managing the best pure striker in English football it is Pep Guardiola.
“I’m so happy with Sergio, so, so happy, but I want more, I want more. He can do better. He can do better,” says Guardiola. It sounds a) ominous for every bugger else and b) very promising indeed for Aguero, a player bizarrely underrated because his ‘journey’ does not resonate with the media. Few people think ‘rich club buying great player for loads of money’ is a story worth recounting or rewarding.
You never know, the Premier League’s best striker might finally get a place in the PFA team of the year. Perhaps he should do a David Bowie and turn it down.
Tottenham
My word, there are a lot of big winners this week. You can read about Son Heung-Min here (he was our early winner) but the most impressive thing about Tottenham is that they have conceded just three times in six Premier League games. They were hard to beat last season (until they suddenly became really very easy to beat) but Victor Wanyama (five tackles against Middlesbrough on Saturday) has added a new, specialist dimension.
Spurs were missing four pillars of their success last season – Danny Rose, Mousa Dembele, Eric Dier and Harry Kane – and yet they not just survived, but thrived at the Riverside.
To those crowing about the best start to a season in 51 years: In 1965/66, Tottenham finished eighth. It’s probably not the best statistic on which to hang your hat.
Alan Pardew
Credit where credit is reluctantly due – Pardew’s substititions certainly had an impact. Connor Wickham’s physical presence panicked Sunderland and he eventually earned the free-kick that brought the winner, Zeki Fryers was found down the back of the sofa for a cameo that brought the equaliser and Lee Chung-yong’s only touch was the free-kick that Christian Benteke powered home for the winner.
No wonder he is apparently incensed that he was not seriously considered for the England job.
Jason Puncheon
In the form of his life playing for his local team. We would all like to be Jason Puncheon right now.
@Matamatically Most chances created in the Premier League this season: J.Puncheon (22)
K.De Bruyne (20)
D.Tadic (20)
Willian (20) — Squawka Football (@Squawka) September 26, 2016
Charlie Austin
One shot, one goal. One key pass, one assist. Just 25 touches. Just 15 passes completed at a woeful 60% pass completion rate. But as any insufferable bore will tell you, he knows where the goal is.
This is brilliant by the way…
21 – Since his debut (Aug 2014), Charlie Austin has scored as many PL goals as Wayne Rooney (21), despite playing 20 games fewer. Clinical. — OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 25, 2016
Eddie Howe
Our new hero after telling the BBC in midweek: “I have no problem with the fact that the Premier League doesn’t have as many English, or British, managers as it should. I think we [Britons] have to prove we’re good enough for those jobs.”
After the PFM whining of Harry Redknapp, Sam Allardyce, Alan Pardew, Steve Bruce and Sean Dyche, it’s refreshing to hear a man oft-vaunted as the ‘best young English manager’ saying that his nationality should not matter a jot. He knows that to have his name mentioned in connection with jobs at clubs like Arsenal, he has to at least replicate last season’s results and stay in the Premier League with ease.
That cause was helped considerably by victory over Everton and was more impressive in coming at the end of a week in which they were outclassed by Manchester City and then dumped out of the League Cup by Preston. Howe had to show his mettle by re-energising his players and finding a way to dominate the midfield of Everton. Giving the energetic Harry Arter the licence to roam ahead of Andrew Surman proved the key, with Jack Wilshere happy to accommodate.
Steve Cook
It’s Daniel Storey’s day off and yet he still keeps messaging about Steve Cook. He did a load of clearances or something.
Francesco Guidolin
Swansea may have lost but this was their best performance of the season and there appears to be little doubt about the willingness of the players to work for their beleaguered manager. Perhaps the prospect of Ryan Giggs’ monotone made them pull their collective socks up past their knees.
Losers
Wayne Rooney
Because otherwise his absence will dominate the comments.
Everton
Bump. Having extensively praised Ronald Koeman, here came the reality check for him and us. This squad is simply not strong enough for a sustained challenge for a top-four place.
Bryan Oviedo was exposed at the back-up left-back in the absence of Leighton Baines, a half-fit Gareth Barry was considered a risk worth taking when the alternative was Tom Cleverley, Gerard Deulofeu was supposed to be the change-up option but was given just one word – ‘awful’ – in the Liverpool Echo’s player ratings, and a search on the bench for a goal threat led Ronald Koeman inevitably and disappointingly to Enner Valencia.
It’s no wonder that Koeman was prickly when asked about Ross Barkley; that must have felt like the least of his problems.
In the short term, Everton must find a solution to sluggish starts that will be exposed by teams with energy (Andros Townsend could have a field day on Friday) and in the long term, they really must build a better squad.
West Ham
We’ll just leave this here…
You know it's bad when your club captain comes out with this pic.twitter.com/UnrutpoyVG — Daily West Ham (@DailyWestHam) September 26, 2016
Simone Zaza
His Premier League record so far:
Played 213 minutes.
Taken five shots (none on target)
Attempted four tackles (one was successful)
Attempted four dribbles (one was successful)
Recorded a pass completion rate of 72.7%
Booked twice.
Antonio Conte
We usually scoff at the idea that managerial skills cannot be transferred to the Premier League, but surely he has watched enough English football to know that you can’t play so bloody slow?
For a heartless evisceration of Chelsea’s performance against Arsenal, read Matt Stead’s 16 Conclusions.
Leicester City
Simply rotten. As usual, you can read more in 16 Conclusions but it’s worth looking at Claudio Ranieri’s post-match quotes and the number of times he used the word ‘concentration’. Questions have to be asked of any team that concedes three first-half goals from corners, but this is a Foxes side built for such challenges; you sacrifice pace and indulge a central defensive pairing of Wes Morgan and Robert Huth primarily so that you are solid at set-pieces. That they should stand accused of simply not concentrating should be deeply embarrassing, especially with Porto visiting on Tuesday. Same again and they could get another dicking.
Hull City
It’s been lost in the euphoria of seven points from their first four games and the clusterf***s At West Ham, Stoke and Sunderland, but this is still a Hull side without a permanent manager, with Jake Livermore still at centre-half and with David Meyler still their first option off the bench. While you can believe that the Hammers and Potters will improve – either results or manager will change – it’s hard to see the Tigers going in any other direction but down. This could be a long, long, long, long season on Humberside.
Middlesbrough
When you come up from the Championship with the best defence in the division but the lowest number of goals in the top six, the one thing you must add to your game is goal threat. What earns clean sheets in the Championship simply will not translate wholly to the Premier League. More often than not, you are going to concede, so that – newcomers to this glorious game of football – means that you will probably need to score twice to win a game. Boro have only managed that feat once this season, against a rotten Sunderland side.
While there is no shame in a promoted side allowing 14.2 shots per game (seven teams are worse), coupling that with just 8.7 shots per game is a one-way ticket to a relegation scrap.
Against Tottenham, Alvaro Negredo was so isolated from his teammates that he would have needed a second taxi drop, and it was only when Adama Traore came on the pitch that the two Tottenham centre-halves had anything to do other than decide who was marking the Spaniard.
Manager Aitor Karanka said after the game that he wanted the players to decide whether they wanted to be the first-half team or the second-half team. He might have to decide himself whether he wants to be difficult to beat or to try and win football matches.
David Moyes
He was our early loser, the lucky thing. It might be the only thing he wins this season.
Wilfried Bony
Last week there was talk of other Stoke players being unhappy with his attitude in training and then against West Brom he was substituted just after the hour mark to the obvious delight of Stoke fans. Remember when we really thought this was a match made in heaven?
Craig Gardner
Exactly the kind of average player that should be left on the bench in Tony Pulis’ 1000th match in management. You really are never too old to learn.
Sarah Winterburn | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Standing on the shoulders of giants
As anyone familiar with the crypto markets knows, there is a lot of volatility here. Q1 of 2018 saw a massive decline in prices from the highs of late 2017, which resulted in a lot of traders losing money. However, some institutions that focused on market-neutral strategies did quite well during Q1 2018 because they profited from trader activity in the market, regardless of the direction it was going.
According to Bloomberg:
“Funds specializing in virtual currency market making and arbitrage strategies delivered first-quarter gains even as their mostly bullish peers lost 40 percent on average.”
In this post, we’ll share with you how you can take advantage of a market-neutral strategy called market making that promises the possibility of (relatively) steady returns, and we’ll give you the tools you need to do it yourself so you can profit from market volatility — and incentives — like the big institutions do.
The art and science of making markets
Market making is a trading strategy by which the market maker trader (who we’ll refer to here as the “MM”) places standing buy and sell orders at a carefully calculated spread around the most recent price. Naturally, the MM intends to buy low and sell high, thus “capturing the spread”. This strategy requires a few things:
The MM must monitor the price of the asset
The MM must calculate the spread (or bands) around the price that will allow buy and sell orders to appropriately compensate for risks and costs
When the price moves, particularly when it moves in one direction repeatedly and rapidly, the MM must recalculate the spread and place new orders
The factors that should be considered in the spread calculation can include (but are not limited to):
Price volatility
Trading costs (transaction fees, gas, etc.)
Risk tolerance
Profit!
Note that parameters like where these orders should be placed around the market price, how much to place each order for, how long to let the order live, how to react to market movements, and others are the “special sauce” that each MM holds dear. It will be up to you to determine your own strategy for setting these parameters to maximize profitability.
New Market Maker Program
When we launched ERC dEX, we announced our basic fee structure. We then worked to design an incentive structure that lowers barriers to entry for providing liquidity and are now proud to announce our Market Maker Program (“MMP”) to the world. With the MMP, we actually pay you to trade! The program is based on a six-month agreement during which you agree to provide a particular level of liquidity for a token pair for at least 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. You also agree to allow ERC dEX to use your name/logo for promotional purposes. In return, we charge you 0% maker fees and we pay you a rebate based on the following tiers:
Note: the size commitment in each tier is total buy size plus total sell size in a given token pair. 1 bp is 0.01%.
As an approved market maker, you’ll also have access to our Aqueduct Partner Portal, where you’ll be able to see exactly what’s going on with your liquidity, if it’s getting taken on ERC dEX or elsewhere in the Aqueduct network, and determine how much you’re earning in rebates. Register for our MMP today to learn more.
The Aqueduct Partner Portal
Automation Toolkit software
To augment our new MMP, we’re open-sourcing our Automation Toolkit. This easily-configurable software is completely containerized and has a simple, intuitive user interface that allows even the least technically-inclined to quickly configure it and get started capturing spread!
Starting a market and viewing logs
We’ve also set up a Slack channel for market makers to get help, discuss strategy, and talk shop.
Why make a market on ERC dEX?
ERC dEX isn’t just a single, stand-alone trading platform. It’s a network. Through our Aqueduct global shared liquidity network, we’ve partnered with other relayers, institutional traders, and dApps to syndicate your orders far and wide. Since your orders aren’t stuck sitting on a single order book, but free to roam the global shared liquidity pool that Aqueduct is designed to facilitate, it’s much more likely that your orders will get taken and you’ll capture that sweet, sweet spread. Our relayer and dApp partners on the taker side are working hard to get your orders in front of their audience… an audience you wouldn’t otherwise reach on a single venue or stand-alone relay.
While the Aqueduct network is ever growing, some of our notable liquidity syndication partners today include Melonport, Amadeus Relay, Shark Relay, RigoBlock, and Totle.
But wait, there’s more!
Once you’re in the MMP, you can bring your friends in and get paid for their success! We have a referral program that enables you to invite friends and be paid a commission equal to 10% of the rebates they earn. You can learn the details of this program and get your referral code right in your Aqueduct Partner Portal homepage.
A quick, grossly over-simplified example
You join the MMP at Tier 1 (1 bps) and commit $200 of capital with $100 on both sides of the trade. Current ERC dEX spreads on WETH/DAI are around 20 bps, which is fairly high. A standard MM strategy looks like this (with contrived prices to make things easier to reason about):
WETH/DAI sell price: 100.20
WETH/DAI midpoint price: 100
WETH/DAI buy price: 99.80
With every trade executed, you’d profit about 20 cents, excluding rebate. With the rebate, you’d receive about 1 cent in instant rebates. After 20 trades, you’ve equaled your profit margin for a single trade. This adds up in a big way, especially if you’re running an automated strategy with our Automation Toolkit.
Additionally, our referral program allows you to receive a commission equal to 10% of the rebates paid to market makers you refer. If you refer an account that behaves as outlined above, you would receive an instant referral rebate of .1 cent on every trade. While this is small on a per trade basis, imagine referring a market maker that does 1,000,000 USD in daily volume — not uncommon in existing crypto markets. That market maker is in our Tier 3 program (3 bps), meaning you’d make 3 cents for the same trade above, bringing your total daily rebate to 30 dollars — all for simply signing up and sharing a referral link.
Get started now
To get started, just register for the MMP and then follow our market maker guide and you’ll be up and running in no time. Once you are, don’t forget to take advantage of our referral program so you can get paid when your friends trade.
ERC dEX | Trade Now | Medium | Twitter | Newsletter | Aqueduct | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
1. It's already too hot
Global warming has now put 30 countries in extreme risk of natural disaster, with developing economies most at risk. Extreme droughts are now the norm. Rain and snow now come in buckets. Crops are being hit hard. The Arctic is melting decades before expected. Once this summer air-conditioner is gone, albedo flip methane release is likely to tip. The evidence couldn't be clearer.
Nature is doing its best to soak up emissions, but at just under 1 degree C warming we have more evaporation, boosting water vapour in the atmosphere by 4%. Coupled with higher sea surface temperatures, this is driving mega downpours, as well as hotter and drier droughts.
2. Past CO2 pollution has locked us in to 3-5 degrees C hotter temperatures
Right now, we are on track for 4.9 degrees C (8.8 degrees F) hotter temperatures. Why? Because CO2 lasts for centuries, and will keep heating even if we stop all CO2 emissions now. This is the ogre that is so alarming.
We can't wait to "de-carbonise our economy". We need strong action in the next few years.
3. There is only one way to slow the heating quickly
Short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) can slow the heating by half a degree, or much more in coming decades. The US EPA and the UNEP know this. Hilary Clinton is working with a coalitionof governments to stem SLCPs.
You may have never heard about the climate impacts of soot (black carbon) and ground level ozone, but they are large. Black carbon is 460-1500 times stronger than CO2, and is responsible for 30% of Arctic warming. Since 1750, ground level ozone created by us has warmed the earth one-fifth as much as CO2. Methane is the third SLCP, second only to CO2 in the heating stakes.
Slashing black carbon, methane and ground level ozone is the only way to stop the inevitable heating from CO2 in time. Many climate activists don't like this because it will draw attention away from CO2, but it is the only way. And what is the greatest source of all three SLCPs? Agriculture, particularly livestock agriculture.
Grassland (pasture maintenance) fires are the greatest source of black carbon. Livestock is the greatest source of methane, and of the emissions that create ground level ozone (methane, carbon monoxide and non-methane VOCs) - livestock is also the greatest source. Slashing livestock numbers is a powerful means of controlling all three and a solution to the climate train wreck happening before our eyes.
4. There is only one practical way to clean up the atmosphere
Let's talk about the ogre that has us so alarmed - CO2. Geo-engineering fixes to cool the planet have been blocked because they cost too much or have dubious side-effects. Even proponents talk about the least-worst options.
The only large-scale, low-cost, least side-effect solution on the table was proposed by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency three years ago: stop eating meat, and return the world's grazing pastures to forests, savannah and native grasslands. Seriously. They found that this solution would cost just 1/5th of any other mitigation option.
This has the potential to draw down at least 20 years of CO2 emissions, and we don't even need to plant trees - we need only to stop burning. A prime example of this was published in Nature last year - if the burning stopped, 51% of the African continent would revert to woodland and forest. Africa is the world's fire capital, where herders burn off dry grass every year.
Here is a two week period of fires showing that the world is constantly burning. Note the African savannah fires and the Eastern Europe and South American pasture and agricultural fires.
Eating has more effect on our planet than anything else we do. Grazing land covers 25% of the land mass (70% of all agricultural land) and half the cropland is for feed. Much of this land was forest. Australia recognises this in its Carbon Farming Initiative. The top half of Australia is open tropical woodland, and is burnt each year to remove dead grass for grazing.
So what's stopping us?
Clearly we have a low cost, large scale, minimal impact solution to arrest the inevitable heating, plus draw down the legacy CO2. Climate chaos will force us to take these ideas very seriously.
What's stopping us from doing it? The truth is that meat and dairy industries are heavily subsidised to the tune of billions of dollars. Our tax dollars are distorting the market, making the excellent plant-based proteins less competitive. This must change.
Governments are heavily influenced by industry, and need groundswell support before they will act. There are many opportunities to speak up, for example foods for school lunches, advertising of junk foods and what supermarkets stock on their shelves.
Media must carry the debate - it can no longer be ignored.
But don't forget that each of us have the power to change all this - the next time we eat, the next time we shop - we can be the change we want to see in the world.
Let's deal with a few objections
Pastures use land that cannot be used to grow crops. Yes, but in this age of climate crisis, the highest and best use of 25% of the earth's surface is to grow more trees and perennial native grasses to soak up legacy CO2.
We need all the food we can produce and more. No. Livestock's Long Shadow showed we would have a 50% surplus of food if we stopped eating meat.
Animals eating grass, producing methane that breaks down to CO2 is a natural cycle. The problem here is that methane is CO2 on steroids - far more heating. Methane and CO2 are not the same - methane explodes!
Savannah burns naturally anyway. Yes, but far less frequently. In temperate zones, fires start from lightning strike, but far less frequently than happens now. In tropical savannah (the main culprit) lightning strike fires are rare. The major driver by far is 'tossing the match'. This paper from Australia (similar to African savannahs) explains. Frequent burning stops forests re-growing and causes long term soil carbon loss. Traditional indigenous fires were fine-scale mosaics set throughout the dry season, but were far less widespread.
Cell grazing builds soil carbon. Yes, but the majority of the world's grazing livestock are on tropical pastures, where low stocking rates and fewer water points make cell grazing prohibitive - aside from the livestock emissions.
Grass fed beef is better for the environment. No. Cattle produce 3-5 times more methane eating grass than they do eating grain, and almost all cattle are 'finished' on grain in any case - to make the meat more marketable.
Traditional herders rely on livestock. Some still do, but even the Masai in eastern Africa are turning to cropping because their herds are dying in the extreme drought. Traditions can change very quickly.
Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop www.WorldPreservationFoundation.org
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
What would happen if the moon was made of cheese? Could you pop popcorn in space? We mastered the time zones and finally got our favourite two Stus together for a fun and informative show! Dr. Stuart Robbins is a research scientist who studies planetary geophysics and Dr. Stuart Farrimond is a medical doctor turned science communicator and expert on food science. We talk about food, we talk about space, and we talk about food in space.
Download direct: mp3 file
Dr. Stuart Robbins
About
Twitter
Dr. Stuart Farrimond
About
Twitter | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Contact:
Dallas Goldtooth, [email protected] , (507)-412-7609
Jade Begay, [email protected] , (505) 699-4791
Cannon Ball, ND - Tonight the Governor of North Dakota released an executive order stating that all persons located at the Oceti Sakowin Water Protector camp along Highway 1806 in Cannonball, ND must evacuate. This order comes three days after the Army Corps of Engineers announced plans to evict the general public from the camp on December 5th.
Governor Dalrymple is stepping outside of his jurisdiction and is putting thousands of Americans at danger as a winter storm warning is currently placed over the area where the camp exists.
The following are statements from the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN):
"It's very simple. Deny the permit for the easement or at the very least require a full Environmental Impact Statement, and then we will go home. IEN agrees with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, if Governor Dalrymple is so concerned about our safety, he needs to clear highway 1806, which is blocking emergency services and stop the violence that Morton County Sheriff’s department has been imposing on Water Protectors.
The biggest question on my mind is where is President Obama and why does he remain silent on this issue? Our intention has always been to be here until the water is protected. We have no intentions or plans to go anywhere. If the state of North Dakota tries to forcibly remove us they are once again perpetrating violence against innocent and unarmed citizens of this country." - Kandi Mossett
"We remain committed to peaceful and prayerful civil disobedience. We estimate there are 6,000 people in this camp, women, children, disabled people, veterans, all here for the purpose of protecting the water. We are now in the heart of winter, the roads are icy and it is terrifying to think that the State of North Dakota is contemplating placing the lives of thousands at risk." - Dallas Goldtooth
###
Please share this email with family and friends and if you are able,
Please help support our continued work:
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Having studied all his own film, Jones chalked up the occasional hiccups in pass protection as a rookie to technique issues, not a lack of understanding of the offense or scheme. Running backs coach Ben Sirmans has worked with him on the fundamentals and he feels more confident now, though missing a lot of live, padded reps in training camp was not ideal.
That could be one factor behind McCarthy's declaration on Wednesday that Williams and Montgomery would remain in the "first slot" at running back, with Jones taking a "secondary" role in his first game back Sunday at Washington.
All three held feature status at different times last season, and so far Williams and Montgomery have combined to average a solid 4.0 yards per carry in 2018. McCarthy has been optimistic if not bullish on the prospects for the Packers' ground game after two weeks, based on the progress he's seen since the pads went on early in training camp.
Whether one back emerges as a go-to guy for an extended time this year will come down to production, reliability, and health.
"He's a great slasher as a runner and he's always moving downhill," Rodgers said of Jones. "It's good getting him back in the mix."
After the strong preseason finish, Jones called it both "difficult" and "humbling" to sit out the first two games due to an offseason violation of the league's substance abuse policy. He has vowed to never put himself in that situation again, and the next step in putting it all behind him comes Sunday. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Birth Control Pill: What Every Christian Girl Needs to Know
By: Kristen Clark
Whether you’re on the Pill, know someone who is, or think you might be on it in the future, this post is a must read for every Christian girl.
And since government data reveals that more than eight in 10 American women, ages 15 to 44, have taken the Pill at some point in their lives, we need to be educated on exactly what the Pill is, where it came from, and how it affects our bodies.
The “Birth Control Pill” hit the American scene in 1960 and changed human history forever.
For the first time ever, sexual intimacy and procreation were completely separated.
The invention of The Birth Control Pill is considered one of the greatest achievements for female freedom and sexual liberation.
Planned Parenthood’s CEO, Cecil Richards, stated, “The Pill completely changed women’s ability to pursue whatever their dreams were.”
The Pill began to develop in 1951 by a chemist named Carl Djerassi, and was approved for contraceptive use in the U.S. in 1960. For the first time in history, the Pill was a pharmaceutical medication being prescribed for women who weren’t actually sick.
Ever since then, the Pill has gained popular acceptance and is now used by more than 300 million women worldwide.
As popular as the Pill is today, it carries with it a controversial past.
Margaret Sanger, an atheist, advocate of eugenics, and founder of the abortion mill – Planned Parenthood, was one of the early activists for birth control. She got behind this movement financially and pushed for it politically. However, her evil motive for birth control is swept under many rugs today.
Margaret’s primary goal for using birth control was for wiping out the “weak” populations of society. Her openly racist motto was, “More from the fit, less from the unfit.” Margaret’s evil agenda, masked under the banner of women’s health, paved the way for bringing the Pill into mainstream society.
Many other feminist activists pushed for the Pill as a way to “level the playing fields” between men and women sexually.
If a woman had the ability to have sex without the possibility of getting pregnant, she would then be free to pursue sexual relationships without any boundaries or restrictions.
In other words, she could be as promiscuous as she wanted without the burden of having a baby. Since children were no longer a hurdle, sexual intimacy was no longer “confined” to marriage. Women could now give their bodies away to any man they wanted without any “obligation” of commitment.
Sexual freedom was the driving motivation behind legalizing the Pill.
WHY MODERN WOMEN LOVE IT.
The Pill was a deliberate and rebellious push to free women from God’s design for sex and marriage. Sadly, sexual liberation is the primary reason women love the Pill so much.
The introduction of the Pill launched our nation full speed into the sexual revolution. God’s plan for marriage and family were quickly dismissed as old fashioned and irrelevant.
Although the Pill was birthed out of a desire for sexual autonomy, it is now being quickly prescribed to modern girls and women struggling with anything from acne, to PMS, to irregular cycles, etc.
However, it is estimated that only 14% of women use the Pill for reasons other than pregnancy prevention.
Although the Pill has proven to help relieve some of these symptoms (acne, PMS, irregular cycles, etc.) it doesn’t actually fix the root problem. The Pill simply overrides our body’s natural hormones, which relieves the symptoms, but doesn’t fix the underlying health problems.
Although the Pill is quickly prescribed by doctors everywhere, it is a serious pharmaceutical medication, and should never be taken without careful and cautious research. Whenever a medication alters our body’s natural rhythm to such extreme measures, we must be cautious.
HOW THE PILL WORKS.
The Pill is made of synthetic estrogen and progestin (hormones), which both ultimately alter our body’s natural rhythm. The synthetic hormones override the normal hormonal functions of a woman’s body and ultimately prevent her from ovulating.
The Pill forces a woman’s body to stop doing what God naturally designed her body to do.
The synthetic hormone also changes the cervical mucus to make it harder for sperm to enter the cervix and find an egg. The synthetic hormones also change the lining of a woman’s womb making it almost impossible for fertilized eggs (i.e. babies) to implant. Therefore, those little embryos become forced miscarriages.
Basically, the Pill forces our body to alter its normal functions causing many unhealthy long-term side effects.
HEALTH ISSUES.
Many, many studies have been done revealing that the Pill isn’t as glamorous and “freeing” as it may seem. Some doctors have warned women that by taking the Pill, they may find themselves susceptible to major medical problems that may not show up until later in life.
Side effects from taking the Pill are proving to be complex and long lasting. Many women are now claiming that the Pill is responsible for long-term serious medical conditions like infertility, cancer, strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, liver tumors, gallstones, blood clots, and even death.
Author and popular speaker, Mary Kassian wrote, “When I was working in rehab medicine in the early eighties, one of my patients was a 24-year old single woman who suffered a stroke from taking the Pill, and as a result, was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life.”
The women who do escape the more severe conditions aren’t off the hook.
They will most likely experience some, or all, of the following symptoms:
nausea
headaches
breast soreness
acne
decreased libido
depression
moodiness
weight gain
To prove just how real these health issues are, there are currently 1,100 lawsuits pending against Bayer Healthcare Corporation regarding blood clots, heart attacks and strokes allegedly caused by the Pill (Yaz, Yazmin and the generic Ocella).
By ditching God’s guidelines for sex in exchange for a life of sexual freedom, we as women, are now finding ourselves enslaved to a whole new set of problems.
MORAL ISSUES.
The pill has become such a normal part of life today that we, as Christian women, barely give it a second thought. However, it hasn’t always been this way. At the beginning of the twentieth century, every single Christian denomination condemned the use of birth control.
Children were once viewed with such value and worth, that receiving them into your family was considered a gift from the Lord – not a burden.
Sadly, without even realizing it, the pill has reworked our modern view of children to be more of a take-it-or-leave-it accessory.
As Albert Mohler says, “The availability of birth control in a reliable form – particularly in the form of the Pill – unleashed the sexual revolution. So long as sex was predictably related to the potential of pregnancy, a huge biological check on sex outside of marriage functioned as a barrier to sexual immorality.
Once that barrier was removed, sex and children became effectively separated and sex became redefined as an activity that did not have any necessary relation to the gift of children.
The Pill turned pregnancy — and thus children — into elective choices, rather than natural gifts of the marital union.”
The Pill weakened our Nation’s value of babies, which in turn, became the perfect platform for legalizing abortion.
Another serious moral concern is the forced abortions that are caused by the Pill. If a woman is sexually active while on the Pill (married or single), there is always a chance she could conceive. However, like I mentioned above, the synthetic hormones in the Pill change the lining of a woman’s uterus, making implantation almost impossible.
The womb becomes hostile to the little embryo (i.e. human baby), and a forced abortion takes place. This is not okay.
Psalm 139 says, “For You [God] formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” Life begins at conception. Just think about how many countless babies have been aborted due to the Pill. Sadly, this can easily happen without the mother even realizing she conceived.
WE MUST GET BACK TO GOD’S DESIGN FOR SEX, MARRIAGE, AND MOTHERHOOD.
It’s time we, as Christian women, took a step back and carefully evaluated what has been shoved down our throats all these years. The Pill promised women freedom and liberation, but has only enslaved us to sin and brokenness.
Marriages are in shambles, 40% of babies are now born to single moms, men view women as sexual objects, teen pregnancies are skyrocketing, STD’s are plaguing millions (the Pill doesn’t protect against these), abortion has become a health “necessity,” and children are viewed as an accessory.
Just like a child thrives within boundaries, we as adults, thrive within boundaries too.
God created sexual boundaries for our own good and prosperity. The only way to restore the brokenness and devastation that the sexual revolution has caused, is to get back to God’s good design.
We have to repent for rejecting God’s design for sex and marriage and turn the reigns back over to the One who created us and loves us. God Word must be the foundational source for how we define our womanhood.
Enjoying sex outside of God’s design doesn’t bring about long-term happiness and satisfaction, but rather brokenness, disease, devastation, and death.
May we, as Christian women, chase after God’s truth and define our views of sex, marriage, and children according to His Word.
May our hearts beat to the rhythm of our Savior’s as we embrace His truth in our lives.
May we show a lost and hopeless world the joys and blessings that are found when we do things God’s way.
For more on this topic, check out this helpful post by Mary Kassian.
READ PART 2: “The Birth Control Pill: Continuing the Conversation”
Photo Credit: Here | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism." HST | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzVideo of Lindsey Graham arguing against nominating a Supreme Court justice in an election year goes viral Sunday shows preview: Justice Ginsburg dies, sparking partisan battle over vacancy before election Democrat on Graham video urging people to 'use my words against me': 'Done' MORE (R-Texas) said Thursday that his absence during last week’s confirmation of Attorney General Loretta Lynch was the same as voting against her.
“There was no significance to the final vote, and I had a scheduling conflict,” Cruz said, according to media reports.
“Under the Senate rules, absence is the equivalent of a no vote,” the 2016 GOP presidential candidate added. “It is identical procedurally.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Senators confirmed Lynch as the nation’s new attorney general on April 23 in a 56-43 vote. Cruz, a notable opponent of her nomination, said Thursday he abstained because a majority of Republicans had backed her selection for the position.
“I flew back to Washington to speak on the Senate floor, passionately speaking against confirming Loretta Lynch,” he said. “But unfortunately, leadership chose to go a different direction."
Lynch’s confirmation ended a standoff over her qualifications lasting over 160 days. Cruz was the only senator absent during the final vote.
Sen. John Cornyn John CornynCalls grow for Biden to expand election map in final sprint Bipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death Chamber of Commerce endorses McSally for reelection MORE (R-Texas) subtly rebuked Cruz’s decision in a tweet issued on April 25. In it, he discounted Cruz’s earlier explanation that a cloture vote over Lynch’s candidacy was the only vote that mattered.
“FYI: Cloture ends debate only,” he wrote.
“It does not confirm a nominee,” Cornyn said. “Otherwise a subsequent vote to confirm a nominee is meaningless.”
Cruz’s no-show was the latest in a series of missed Senate votes.
Between January and March, he missed more votes than any other senator besides Minority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidGraham signals support for confirming a Supreme Court nominee this year Trump signals he will move to replace Ginsburg 'without delay' Senate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden MORE (D-Nev.), who was recovering from injury, and Sen. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioSunday shows preview: Justice Ginsburg dies, sparking partisan battle over vacancy before election Florida senators pushing to keep Daylight Savings Time during pandemic Hillicon Valley: DOJ indicts Chinese, Malaysian hackers accused of targeting over 100 organizations | GOP senators raise concerns over Oracle-TikTok deal | QAnon awareness jumps in new poll MORE (R-Fla.), another 2016 GOP contender.
The Texas lawmaker missed 20 of 28 Senate roll call votes in April, according to GovTrack. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Driver reverses car through front door of Wiltshire house Published duration 5 February
image copyright Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service image caption The woman was rescued from the vehicle after she crashed into a house
An elderly woman has reversed a car through the front door of a house.
She wedged the vehicle into the front of the property in a village near Devizes in Wiltshire on Tuesday morning.
Firefighters took two hours to rescue her and got her out from the back of the car. She was treated at the scene by the South Western Ambulance Service.
A spokesman for Devizes Fire Station said it had been "tricky" to free the trapped driver.
A building control officer had been requested to check the building, Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said.
image copyright Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service image caption The woman was taken out from the back of the car after it became wedged in the front door | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
XC001 should "stimulate the formation of new coronary blood vessels to serve areas of the heart that are not receiving adequate blood supply, which may allow patients to increase their daily activities and improve their quality of life,” said co-founder Todd Rosengart, also a physician and Crystal’s former Cornell colleague. He is now a professor and surgery department chairman at Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
And they’re off.
The first Democrat has entered the 2020 presidential election in the hopes of challenging President Donald Trump. Maryland Rep. John Delaney, who represents a Maryland House seat that encompasses the suburbs of Washington, announced his candidacy in a Washington Post op-ed on Friday.
“It is time for us to rise above our broken politics and renew the spirit that enabled us to achieve the seemingly impossible,” Delaney wrote. “This is why I am running for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.”
Delaney’s bid is quixotic, to say the least.
Delaney was first elected in 2012. Nick Wass/AP
A moderate Democrat and wealthy businessman who was first elected in 2012, Delaney has served in the House in relative obscurity.
And he plans to retire from his congressional seat after his term ends in 2018 to pursue his presidential bid — which will make it even harder for him to grow a profile in the lead-up to the 2020 election.
His announcement comes curiously early, with FiveThirtyEight forecaster Harry Enten estimating it could be the earliest candidacy announcement on record since at least 1972.
Delaney said he is retiring in order to run for president “with the commitment it deserves.”
“No games, no cat-and-mouse, no backup plan at the 11th hour if a focus group goes badly,” Delaney wrote.
In 2014, Delaney was the third richest member of Congress, according to Roll Call’s ranking of congressional wealth, with a net worth of at least $92 million. That means he could self-finance at least part of his bid.
But given that he’s not a known quantity in politics, it would take a substantial amount of time and resources to become a top-tier player in the race.
Other well-known politicians on the left with a well-established following are also mulling Democratic bids, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Delaney’s announcement, however, is a sign that Democrats could face as crowded a primary as Republicans did in 2016, with 17 candidates vying for the spot Trump won. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
In the latest incident involving the American military in Asia, a U.S. Navy C2-A transport plane carrying 11 crew members and passengers crashed into the ocean about 900 km southeast of Okinawa, leaving three missing after eight were rescued.
The aircraft had been on a “routine transport flight” carrying passengers and cargo from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, which was conducting joint drills with the Maritime Self-Defense Forces in the Philippine Sea, when it crashed.
The rescued personnel were transferred to the aircraft carrier for medical evaluation and were in “good condition,” the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement.
Search and rescue efforts for the three missing passengers were continuing with U.S. Navy and MSDF ships and aircraft on the scene, it added.
“Our entire focus is on finding all of our Sailors,” said Rear Adm. Marc H. Dalton. “U.S. and Japanese ships and aircraft are searching the area of the crash, and we will be relentless in our efforts.”
Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera had earlier told reporters that the U.S. military had said the cause of the crash appeared to be engine trouble. The C2-A is a twin-engine, high-wing aircraft that provides logistics support to carrier strike groups.
No members of Self-Defense Forces were aboard the plane, Kyodo News quoted Onodera as saying. The 7th Fleet said the names of the crew and passengers aboard the plane were being withheld pending next of kin notification.
The 7th Fleet said the crash would be investigated.
The Reagan is home-ported at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.
The 7th Fleet has seen two fatal accidents in Asian waters this year, leaving 17 sailors dead and prompting the removal of eight top navy officers from their posts, including the 7th Fleet commander.
The USS John S. McCain, also home-ported in Yokosuka, collided with an oil tanker near Singapore in August, leaving 10 U.S. sailors dead. Seven other sailors were killed in June after the Yokosuka-based USS Fitzgerald and a container ship collided south of Tokyo Bay.
The U.S. Navy said in a damning report earlier this month that the collisions were “avoidable,” faulting leadership shortcomings and an erosion of sailors’ basic standards. It also cited the crews’ grueling schedule and resulting fatigue as contributing to the accidents. The report recommended a number of changes to address the issues, including improvements in training and stress management for sailors.
Staff writer Tomohiro Osaki contributed to this report | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Image caption China's birth control policy has drawn much criticism
A photo showing a foetus whose mother was forced to have an abortion has shocked China web users.
Feng Jiamei, from Shaanxi province, was made to undergo the procedure in the seventh month of pregnancy, local officials said after investigating.
Ms Feng was forced into the abortion as she could not pay the fine for having a second child, US-based activists said.
Rights groups say China's one-child policy has meant women being coerced into abortions, which Beijing denies.
"Feng Jianmei's story demonstrates how the One-Child Policy continues to sanction violence against women every day," said Chai Ling of the US-based activist group All Girls Allowed.
The group says it spoke to Ms Feng and her husband Deng Jiyuan after the incident. Mr Deng said his wife had been forcibly taken to hospital and restrained before the procedure.
The BBC's Jon Sudworth in Shanghai says such allegations are nothing new in China, but what has made this one different is a widely circulated photo of the woman lying next to the baby's corpse.
Media reports from China says Ms Feng has been traumatised by what has happened.
Chinese law clearly prohibits abortions beyond six months.
'Harmed image of family planning'
Unnamed local officials in Zhenping county - where the incident took place - denied forcing Ms Feng to have the abortion, local media reports say.
But a preliminary investigation by the Shaanxi Provincial Population and Family Planning Commission confirmed the forced abortion had taken place.
Without naming Ms Feng, it said in a statement that the woman had been seven months pregnant.
"Such practice has seriously violated the relevant policies set by national and provincial family planning commissions, which harmed the image of our family planning work, and caused extremely poor effects in society," said the statement.
"Based on the findings, we have requested the local government to punish the relevant officers according to law," it said.
Internet users expressed outrage.
"This is what they say the Japanese devils and Nazis did. But it's happening in reality and it is by no means the only case... They [the officials] should be executed," one reader on news website netease.com said, according to the AFP news agency.
Activist Chen Guangcheng, who was put under virtual house arrest for campaigning against forced abortions, fled China to the US last month. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
JERICHO, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian women in combat fatigues and headscarves rappelled down a six-story tower, fired assault rifles at imaginary terrorists and in a drill straight out of the movies bundled a would-be VIP into a car and sped off after a shooting.
The 22 future commandos are trailblazers in a still largely male-dominated society, set to become the first female members of the Presidential Guards, a Palestinian elite force of 2,600 men. Their inclusion is the result of gradual changes in the West Bank in recent years.
Some gender barriers have fallen, with a few women assuming posts as mayors, judges and Cabinet ministers or starting their own businesses. At the same time, unemployment is on the rise, and families are more open to women entering non-traditional jobs if it means another paycheck.
Women make up just 3 percent of 30,000 members of the Palestinian police and other security agencies in the West Bank, but there's a push to recruit more, said Brig. Rashideh Mughrabi, in charge of gender issues in the National Security Forces.
The female Presidential Guards recruits were picked from last year's graduating class of Independence University, a four-year security academy in Jericho that trains future officers.
For graduate Kurum Saad, the appeal was immediate. As a female officer, her traditional role would have been in administration, but she wanted adventure.
"I didn't want to sit in an office," the 23 year old said. "Since I was a little girl, I loved shooting and sports."
On Sunday, Saad and the others in her group put on black combat boots, camouflage uniforms and pulled black ski masks over the headscarves to show journalists what they'd learned in their special training.
Several women, including non-swimmers, were asked to jump into a pool as a show of courage. They dove in in full uniform, including boots, and one had to be pulled out by a lifeguard.
Six women, including Saad, rappelled down the six-story tower in pairs. Saad said she excels at sharp shooting but for months was terrified of heights. She said that during training in Jordan with local commandos, she overcame her fear. Sunday, she swiftly made her way down, smiling as she touched ground.
Story continues
Saad said she relishes her role of opening doors for other women. Her father is proud of her and her little sister is eager to join the Guards, she said.
All but two of the female Guards, including Saad, wore black headscarves, reflecting a growing trend among Palestinian women to cover their hair because of tradition, Muslim religious observance or social pressure.
As the women performed their drills at the walled Presidential Guards training complex in Jericho — having been called back from a break for the occasion — hundreds of young men waited in line outside in the brutal desert sun.
They had responded to ads announcing the Guards wanted recruits, but faced a tough selection process, with only a few dozen of the tallest and fittest being chosen.
The Presidential Guards were established under the late Yasser Arafat, the globe-trotting Palestinian leader. Arafat spent most of his life in exile but returned to the Palestinian territories in 1994, as part of interim peace deals with Israel, and set up a self-rule government.
Under Arafat's often-chaotic rule, various security branches grew in size, with often overlapping or competing assignments. After Arafat's death in 2004, the U.S. and Europe stepped in, training and equipping some of the units as part of an attempt to rein in vigilantes and militants.
Under Arafat's successor, President Mahmoud Abbas, the Guards are engaged in personal protection, including of visiting dignitaries, but are also trained for anti-terrorism missions.
For now, the female Guards are only being drawn from the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, which is not under Abbas' control and is ruled by the Islamic militant Hamas, about 400 women serve in the 16,000-strong security forces. They have undergone some training, including in martial arts, but work mostly in administrative jobs, including as border control officers and an anti-drug unit.
The West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem were captured by Israel in 1967 and are sought by the Palestinians for a future state.
The Palestinian security force training was meant to help prepare the people for statehood, yet independence remains elusive, with the latest U.S.-led mediation mission appearing to be on the verge of collapse.
Some of the new female Guards say they believe they are serving their homeland, but in the short term there's also the draw of travel and adventure. On Sunday, they filled out European visa applications for a training session in Italy. Meanwhile, Italian and French trainers are to come to Jericho to teach them stunt driving and more personal protection skills.
The women are to start work at Abbas' compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah in the summer. They'll live in separate quarters from those of the men, but their work will be the same: personal protection, especially if there are female dignitaries or wives of male visitors.
Rami Sammar, 23, one of their male colleagues, said he's watched the women train and is impressed. "The way I see them, they are performing no less than us, the guys," he said.
___
Daraghmeh reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writer Daniela Berretta contributed to this report from Jericho, West Bank. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
United Institute of Music Science is offering a one time free 5 part course on Jazz , "Systems for the Improvising Musician" by Composer, Pianist, Educator , Alan Jay Palmer creator and founder of the United Institute of Music Science and former principal pianist/ assistant with the legendary Alto Saxophonist and Inventor of Jazz Studies, Dr. Jackie McLean.
Don't miss out on this chance to learn the secrets of Jazz Improvisation in this Free Mini Course!
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Zayn Malik has sensationally lashed out at his producer 'pal' Naughty Boy on Twitter.
The singer, who quit One Direction in March, surprised fans when he appeared to turn of his former friend and musical collaborator on Monday with a series of tweets.
Zayn, 22, wrote: '@NaughtyBoyMusic you fat joke stop pretending we're friends no one knows you.'
Scroll down for video
Changing his tune: Zayn Malik has sensationally lashed out at his producer 'pal' Naughty Boy on Twitter
He then added: 'Someone learned how to upload a video... maybe now he should learn how to use logic ha you ain't s*** but a faker'.
It is thought that Zayn's tweet were in responce to the leak of a snippet of a music video he film with British rap stars Krept &Konan for his cover of Rae Sremmurd's hit track, No Type.
While Naughty Boy has yet to respond to Zayn, he did share some cryptic tweets on Tuesday night saying, 'this "music" business teaches you the tricks but never the truth . you know who you are'.
He then added: 'don't feed the hand that bites you'.
'No one knows you': The singer, who quit One Direction in March, surprised fans when he appeared to turn of his former friend and musical collaborator on Monday with a series of tweets
Freak of the Week hitmakers Krept and Konan revealed in June that they had been working with Zayn as they told International Business Times that they had recorded the video for ‘No Type’.
Konan admitted: ‘We’ve done a little cover with [Malik] and we shot a video but it just didn’t end up coming out because it didn’t get finished.
‘After that we heard the news about [Zayn quitting One Direction]. But it was a while before though, it was just a muck around thing. It wasn’t really nothing too serious.’
Krept added: ‘We was chilling with him and Naughty Boy in the studio the majority of the time, just catching jokes. We were just messing around one day and made the cover. I have a feeling the video will just get leaked somehow’.
War of words: The unexpected rant comes after Zayn lashed out at his former bandmate Louis Tomlinson in defence of his producer pal Naughty Boy
Wrong direction: The singer, who sensationally quit One Direction in March, sent a rare tweet to Tomlinson in defence of his producer pal Naughty Boy
The unexpected rant comes after Zayn lashed out at his former bandmate Louis Tomlinson in defence of his producer pal Naughty Boy.
The pair became embroiled in a war of words on the social networking site in May when Zayn told Louis to stop making ‘b****y’ comments about his life now that he is no longer a member of the chart-topping boyband.
The star’s tweet was in response to a new spat between Tomlinson and Naughty Boy, which broke out in May.
Naughty Boy shared an image of himself and Zayn working in the studio, prompting Louis to tweet about the snap.
He wrote: ‘Remember when you were 12 and you used to think those Mac filters for your pictures were cool haha ! Some people still do HA!’
The 30-year-old responded directly, writing: ‘and some people can't even sing.. but who's complaining when there's auto tune eh’.
The beginning of the end: Louis appeared to become enraged when Naughty Boy tweeted a snap of him and Zayn working together in the studio on Wednesday afternoon
Mocking: Louis appeared to be mocking the producer's choice of image with his tweet
Louis mockingly retaliated: ‘Jesus forgot you were such an in demand producer .... How does it feel to be riding on the back of someone else's career?’
Naughty Boy quickly quipped: ‘Yeah how does it feel mate? You've been doing that for the last five years... I've got Emeli Sande and Sam smith on my CV.'
But Louis brushed off the comeback, writing: ‘good for you , well done !! I think we've done alright in terms of sales and I've happened to write on most. Keep trying !’.
It was at this point that Zayn waded into the spat, and there was no doubting whose side he was on.
Writing directly to Louis, he said: ‘remember when you had a life and stopped making b****y comments about mine ?’.
Clashing: The pair tweeted insults back and forth as they got into yet another heated exchange
MailOnline contacted representatives for Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson, who declined to comment.
On March 31, Naughty Boy removed a demo recording of Zayn's first solo effort from the web following a bitter backlash from disgruntled One Direction fans.
The minimalist R&B number, titled I Won’t Mind, emerged on music sharing platform Soundcloud, offering listeners an insight into the 22-year-old’s new recordings in the wake of his departure from the band.
But after a wave of outrage from fans, many of whom blame the enigmatic producer for Zayn’s abrupt departure from the chart-toppers midway through a world tour, Naughty Boy has opted to remove it from the site altogether.
Sharp tongue: MailOnline contacted representatives for Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson, who declined to comment
Withdrawn: Naughty Boy removed a demo recording by former One Direction star Zayn from music sharing website Soundcloud on March 31 after a bitter backlash from fans
Sending a message: The producer responded to fan criticism
Reacting to the wave of criticism that followed, the 30-year-old – real name Shahid Khan – wrote: ‘no one is against anyone here. the fans made all of us. not just a chosen few. the love is alive. hate just doesn't belong there.’
Louis got into a heated Twitter argument with Naughty Boy even before fans were given their first taste of Zayn's solo material.
The singer, 23, was angered by a video Naughty Boy retweeted which seemed to imply that the music producer ‘saved’ Zayn, following his shocking decision to leave One Direction.
Smooth: The minimalist R&B number, titled I Won’t Mind, emerged on music sharing platform Soundcloud on Monday evening, offering listeners an insight into the 22-year-old’s new recordings
After spotting the DJ retweet a ‘Naughty Boy saved Zaughty’ video which said ‘Zaughty will rise’,
Louis immediately shared his thoughts tweeting: ‘Wow @NaughtyBoyMusic you're so inconsiderate pal, seriously how f****** old are you ? Grow up! #masterofallwisdom.'
Naughty Boy believed that Louis was angered by an earlier tweet as he replied: ‘@Louis_Tomlinson calm down. Was talkin bout Louis Walsh cuz he didn't let someone through on X Factor. Look @ the date of the tweet. #2014.’
Spotted: Zayn and Naughty Boy - real name Shahid Khan - were seen in the studio for the first time on Saturday
He then wrote: ‘When ur gettin hate for some thing u didn't do, a bit of love can go a long way, that's why I retweeted, time will tell the real story guys.'
Louis was quick to point out exactly why he was angered as he responded: ‘@NaughtyBoyMusic I was talking about the video you tweeted. Clearly trying to wind the fans up! Well you succeeded anyway. Fair play.'
Louis continued to vent his frustrations as he tweeted, ‘Always have struggled to bite my tongue’, as he added: ‘Anywayyyyyyyyyyyyyy...Big love to all our fans ! Seriously thank you you guys have been unbelievable, can't wait to play Cape Town. Gonna be a BIG show !!!.'
Anger: Louis got into a heated Twitter argument with British producer Naughty Boy calling him 'inconsiderate'
More to say: Louis let his emotions known further even tweeting, 'always have struggled to bite my tongue'
Naughty Boy sent a less than subtle dig with his next tweet as he wrote: ‘@Louis_Tomlinson lol you should let the other boys talk for a change. :).'
Louis would have been even less impressed with Naughty Boy's next tweet which was a link to a demo of Zayn's first solo single.
Naughty Boy teased that the first single off Zayn's forthcoming solo album would be out sometime in 2016.
Well that was fast! Zayn Malik released a demo of his first solo single I Won't Mind online on Monday just five days after leaving One Direction on March 25
'Let the music do the talking guys. thank us later,' Naughty Boy - real name Shahid Khan - tweeted along with a SoundCloud link of I Won't Mind.
'There is nothing but love for what was left behind. that's why we don't mind #2016 #zaughty #zindabad,' he added.
I Won't Mind is both vulnerable and heartfelt, with only an acoustic guitar strumming in the background as the folk song stays true to Zayn's soulful sound.
Following his resignation from the mega successful group, Zayn and Naughty Boy were spotted in and out of a London recording studio over the weekend, no doubt working on more solo material.
Naughty Boy is one of the UK's most sought-after record producers having worked with artists such as Emeli Sandé and Sam Smith.
From five to four: Zayn announced his resignation from 1D on March 25 claiming he just 'wants to be a normal 22-year-old out of the spotlight' (pictured together at the American Music Awards in November 2014)
New friends: Zayn has been spending plenty of time with producer Naughty Boy since leaving 1D, with the two pictured sneaking in a quick cigarette break during the Asian Awards
Zayn's decision to leave One Direction came after he reacted angrily to claims of a fling while partying in Indonesia during a break from One Direction's mammoth On The Road Again stadium tour.
Tweeting on March 18, he wrote: 'I'm 22 years old... I love a girl named Perrie Edwards. And there's a lot of jealous f***s in this world I'm sorry for what it looks like x.'
ZAYN MALIK'S STATEMENT IN FULL 'My life with One Direction has been more than I could ever have imagined. 'But, after five years, I feel like it is now the right time for me to leave the band. I'd like to apologise to the fans if I've let anyone down, but I have to do what feels right in my heart. 'I am leaving because I want to be a normal 22 year old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight. 'I know I have four friends for life in Louis, Liam, Harry and Niall. I know they will continue to be the best band in the world.' Advertisement
The singer - who is engaged to Little Mix star Perrie Edwards - was referring to images, published by MailOnline, in which he was seen partying with tattooed holidaymaker Lauren Richardson at the Seduction nightclub in Phuket.
Soon after Zayn jetted back to the United Kingdom suffering from 'exhaustion' before releasing a short statement announcing his decision to leave the band.
On April 20, Zayn broke a month long absence from Twitter with two tweets addressed to his loyal fan-base.
In the first, he credited those who have remained loyal to him following his decision to leave the band, writing: ‘Wanna say thanks to everyone that's been there for me over the last few weeks, love you all.. you know who you are x’
Posting a second shortly afterwards he added: ‘The x is a kiss by the way ha it's not a mystery .. sorry to any confused ...’
Zayn made his first public appearance post-departure at the Asian Awards in London on Friday evening, and he used his Twitter account to retweet a snap of himself posing with producer Naughty Boy and celebrated Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan.
Following Zayn's departure, Harry, Liam, Louis and Niall wrapped up the latest leg of their On The Road Again tour before heading off on a break. While Louis, Liam and Niall have returned home to the UK, Harry has been busy spending time with his pals in Los Angeles.
Zayn meanwhile has been hanging out with new pal, producer Naughty Boy, with the two sneaking in a quick cigarette break during the Asian Awards where Zayn debuted his new buzzcut hairdo.
The pair – who are thought to be working together on Zayn’s solo material – puffed away on cigarettes and roll ups outside London’s Grosvenor hotel.
Winning: Naughty Boy was on hand to present Zayn with the Outstanding Contribution to Music award on the night - Malik’s first-ever independent award and also his first award, since leaving 1D to go solo
Naughty Boy was on hand to present Zayn with the Outstanding Contribution to Music award on the night - Malik’s first-ever independent award and also his first award, since leaving 1D to go solo.
Starting his speech humbly, Zayn said: ‘I’m not really a guy of many words normally. I don’t normally do the speeches.
‘I'd like to thank my mum and dad, and I'd also like to take this moment to thank four of the best guys that I ever met whilst being in the band and doing all the amazing things that I did.
'Some of the things that we did will stay with me for the rest of my life and I’m thankful for that.'
Malik ended his speech by saying: 'Here's to the future.'
He was recently tipped to be heading for Hollywood after meeting with Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha and Zayn further fuelled the fire that he's going to be making the huge career step, as he has been spending time with the British film-maker.
The 55-year-old shared a picture on her Twitter page last month, of herself with the former 1D star, as she added that he was feeling much better.
'This lovely young man is coming to see @BendItMusical, I'm going to sneak him in. so happy to c him happy!' she wrote along with the very smiley snap.
The two were planning to go along to see the West End stage version of her hit 2002 movie, which starred Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra.
And the picture shows a markedly more cheerful Zayn, who has had a difficult past month after leaving the chart-topping band while also working on his relationship with fiancee Perrie Edwards.
Zayn put the final nail in the social media coffin by removing all references to the boy band from his Twitter profile on May 1.
The singer has now had his handle on the micro-blogging site changed from @ZaynMalik1D to @ZaynMalik and removed his brief biography entirely.
After the changes, Zayn posted just one cryptic tweet, which read: 'Is speech an extension to our thoughts or an image that we like to create x (sic).' | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Trained bears are popular in Russian circuses
An ice-skating bear with a touring Russian circus has killed a circus manager and seriously injured a trainer in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
Kyrgyz officials said the bear turned on the manager, 25-year-old Dmitry Potapov, during a rehearsal.
The bear, who had skates on at the time, severely mauled another circus worker who tried to rescue the manager.
Kyrgyz police shot and killed the bear when they arrived on the scene. It is not clear what caused the attack.
The five-year-old bear attacked Mr Potapov, dragging him across the ice and leaving him with fatal injuries.
A 29-year-old circus employee who tried to rescue Mr Potapov was badly injured and is in a critical condition, said Kyrgyz doctor Gulnara Tashibekova.
The director of the circus arena in Bishkek said Russian circus workers dragged the two men away from the bear and closed the arena's exits until the police arrived.
Bears on ice are common in Russian circuses. Some are equipped with helmets and sticks and trained to play hockey. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
joelucid Registered User Thread OP
Discussion JESC - Surgical Precision with Rpm Filter on BLHeli_S
And now this is possible on BLHeli_S hardware, too! Introducing JESC:
- JESC is a new open source firmware for BLHeli_S ESCs
- Requires an efm8bb21 based BLHeli_S ESC. You can recognize them by their name tag displayed in BLHeli Configurator: if it contains an H in the middle like F-H-30 it's supported.
- Based on BLHeli_S but removes all the legacy protocols and related code for light-weight code base.
- DShot 300 and Dshot 600 supported.
- Adds 48khz PWM mode for extra smooth freestyle flight.
- Super reliable protocol detection due to focus on modern protocols only.
- Adds extensibility with services.
- Optional RPM Telemetry add-on firmware available for small $$ to enable BetaFlight's
- New startup tones which indicate whether rpm telemetry is active.
- Configurable using the new
The results are smoother and colder motors - even with bent props - and better pid loop performance due to the much reduced filter delay. The ESCs make this possible by sending the current speed of each motor at full pid loop speed to the FC where it's used to tune the filters.
More information at
Flight demos:
Betaflight 4.0, rpm filter, scooter 4", emax 1606, LOS (1 min 43 sec)
Zappy 135, nk1306, 550mah 3s, kk3045x3 (2 min 8 sec)
All coded in 8051 assembler by the guy who implemented the rpm filter The RPM Filter in BetaFlight 4.0 removes any motor noise with surgical precision by positioning very narrow notch filters in real time on the motor frequencies. Notch filters have infinite noise suppression at the center so the RPM filter removes motor noise completely while adding very little delay, truly taking flight performance to a new level. This has become possible by real-time rpm telemetry, introduced recently in BLHeli32.- JESC is a new open source firmware for BLHeli_S ESCs- Requires an efm8bb21 based BLHeli_S ESC. You can recognize them by their name tag displayed in BLHeli Configurator: if it contains an H in the middle like F-H-30 it's supported.- Based on BLHeli_S but removes all the legacy protocols and related code for light-weight code base.- DShot 300 and Dshot 600 supported.- Adds 48khz PWM mode for extra smooth freestyle flight.- Super reliable protocol detection due to focus on modern protocols only.- Adds extensibility with services.- Optional RPM Telemetry add-on firmware available for small $$ to enable BetaFlight's Rpm Filter and the coming Dynamic Idle feature via dshot signal line rpm telemetry at up to dshot 600 and 8k pid frequency. No additional wiring required.- New startup tones which indicate whether rpm telemetry is active.- Configurable using the new jesc-configurator. The results are smoother and colder motors - even with bent props - and better pid loop performance due to the much reduced filter delay. The ESCs make this possible by sending the current speed of each motor at full pid loop speed to the FC where it's used to tune the filters.More information at jflight.net Flight demos:All coded in 8051 assemblerby the guy who implemented the rpm filter | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
How FaZe Clan is continuing to lead the esports world The esports world is evolving quickly and so are the professional organizations that drive it. FaZe Clan is among the world’s most popular. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2020 we talked to FaZe Clan CEO
Original Content podcast: ‘Wireless’ shows off Quibi’s Turnstyle technology “Wireless” is probably the best showcase so far for Quibi’s Turnstyle technology. That’s the technology that allows the streaming video app to switch seamlessly between landscape and portrait
Trump administration’s WeChat ban is blocked by U.S. district court A few days ago, the U.S. Commerce Department published a series of rules that aimed to block the downloading of TikTok and WeChat by American users, following an executive order signed by President Tr
Gangster capitalism and the American theft of Chinese innovation It used to be “easy” to tell the American and Chinese economies apart. One was innovative, one made clones. One was a free market while the other demanded payments to a political party and its lea
The TikTok deal solves quite literally nothing Well… that was pointless. After debasing the idea of free commerce in the U.S in the name of a misplaced security concern, stringing along several multi-billion dollar companies that embarrassed
President Trump reportedly has approved the Oracle deal for TikTok’s US operations President Donald Trump said has has given his stamp of approval “in concept” on the Oracle bid for the U.S. operations of the wildly popular social media app, TikTok, according to a report
Homeland Security issues rare emergency alert over ‘critical’ Windows bug Homeland Security’s cybersecurity advisory unit has issued a rare emergency alert to government departments after the recent disclosure of a “critical”-rated security vulnerability i
Was Snowflake’s IPO mispriced or just misunderstood? Welcome back to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s broadly based on the daily column that appears on Extra Crunch, but free, and made for your weekend reading.
From Unity to Disrupt, tech has an especially optimistic week Snowflake, Jfrog, Sumo Logic and Unity each raised price ranges days before IPO, to meet what had seemed like growing enthusiasm from public markets. Each one still popped.
Human Capital: The Black founder’s burden Welcome back to Human Capital, where we unpack all-things diversity, inclusion and labor in tech. This week, we’re looking at Google’s internal message board problem, as well as some highl
On lying AIs A yellow-eyed cat tilts its eyes at the camera, gazing up from a grey bedspread. ‘London Trip’, is the AI’s title for this photo-montage ‘Memory’ plucked from the depths
This Week in Apps: iOS 14’s surprise arrival, Apple’s app bundle, TikTok & WeChat banned from app stores Sunday Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the TechCrunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all. The app industry is as hot as ever, wi
Unity Software has strong opening, gaining 31% after pricing above its raised range Whoever said you can’t make money playing video games clearly hasn’t taken a look at Unity Software’s stock price. On its first official day of trading, the company rose more than 31
Conan O’Brien on how to embrace an ever-changing media landscape “Like most of the best things in my life,” Conan O’Brien explains, with a wry smile, “the success of the podcast was a complete surprise.” The answer is a typically self-effacing one from th
Chamath launches SPAC, SPAC and SPAC as he SPACs the world with SPACs SPACs are going to rule the world, or at least, Chamath’s future portfolio. Chamath Palihapitiya, the founder of Social Capital, has already tripled down on SPACs, the so-called “blank check” ve
Daily Crunch: Partial US TikTok ban is imminent The Trump administration moves forwards with plans to ban TikTok and WeChat (although TikTok gets a partial extension), Unity goes public and we announce the winner of this year’s Startup Battle
SaaS Ventures takes the investment road less traveled Most venture capital firms are based in hubs like Silicon Valley, New York City and Boston. These firms nurture those ecosystems and they’ve done well, but SaaS Ventures decided to go a differen
Gaming companies are reportedly the next targets in the US government’s potentially broader Tencent purge Some of the biggest names in online gaming in the United States have received letters from the U.S. government requesting information about their relationship with the multibillion-dollar Chinese tech
Check out this never-before-seen clip from HBO’s The Perfect Weapon At Disrupt 2020, we got a chance to see some never-before-seen footage from HBO’s upcoming documentary The Perfect Weapon. The documentary, which was executive produced by John Maggio, is based
Salesforce announces 12,000 new jobs in the next year just weeks after laying off 1,000 In a case of bizarre timing, Salesforce announced it was laying off 1,000 employees at the end of last month just a day after announcing a monster quarter with over $5 billion in revenue, putting the
Load More | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Les Paul — the Waukesha native known for his hand in creating the solid-body electric guitar and innovative recording techniques like sound-on-sound recording — would have celebrated his 100th birthday on Tuesday.
Sue Baker was a close personal friend of the famous inventor and musician, and she’s currently the program director of the Les Paul Foundation. She described the "Wizard of Waukesha" as inspirational.
"He was always trying things, whether it was music, or early technology, or just fun kid stuff. He was always thinking," she said.
In addition to his technological contributions to the music world, Paul was also an innovator of sound. Baker attributed some of Paul's musical creations to his mother, Evelyn Polfuss. Once, said Baker, when Polfuss had traveled to Chicago to see Paul perform, she said she thought she had heard him perform on the radio. But Paul told her she was wrong — he was on the stage instead of the radio.
According to Baker, his mother replied: "'Well then Lester, you better do something about it, because you all sound alike to me.'"
So Paul went back to his home in Hollywood, set himself up in his home studio, and he said he didn’t come out of the garage until he had found a new sound.
That unique sound involved licks, trills, chording sequences, and novel fretting techniques and timing.
Even though he became a musical legend and moved away from Waukesha, Baker said those who knew him said he never lost that "Midwest charm."
"What they mean is that you’re a genuine person, that you really care about other people, and you don’t see yourself more important than anyone else. And that epitomized who Les was," she said. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Missouri guard Jordan Clarkson said Monday that he is passing up his final collegiate season to make himself eligible for the NBA draft.
The 6-foot-5 Clarkson averaged 17.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game this season -- his first with the Tigers. Clarkson spent his first two seasons playing for Doug Wojcik at Tulsa and transferred after a coaching change.
Most NBA executives told ESPN.com that Clarkson is considered a late first-round pick. He is a big, athletic guard who they project to be able to play either backcourt spot.
Missouri coach Frank Haith could also lose Jabari Brown early to the NBA, sources told ESPN.com. Brown, who averaged 19.9 points per game in 2013-14, will likely decide this week whether to return. The Tigers finished 23-12 this season and went to the NIT. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
add your own caption
add your own caption
add your own caption
ZERO, AH, AH, AH ZERO FUCKS ARE GIVEN TODAY | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Wolfenstein: The New Order has been given a release date by Bethesda, along with the news that all pre-orders of the MachineGames’ developed title will be granted beta access to the next DOOM title from id Software.
The DOOM beta comes with each pre-ordered copy of Wolfenstein. Bethesda did not provide additional information on the DOOM title, so it’s unknown at present whether it is the long-awaited DOOM 4 or a different entry in the series; however, all signs point to DOOM 4.
Former id Software co-founder Tim Willits said during QuakeCon 2013 that DOOM 4 was being retooled as of 2011, but there was nothing to discuss at the time. Last we heard, the game is slated for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
If you follow the link to the website in the paragraph above, you will note the following information:
“An insert will be included inside your boxed copy of Wolfenstein: The New Order. This insert will include a key code along with code redemption instructions. Once the key code is redeemed, you’ll be registered to participate in the DOOM beta once it begins. Check back with the website for updated information,” the disclaimer reads.
“Although you’ll receive the DOOM beta key code with your copy of Wolfenstein: The New Order, the DOOM beta won’t begin until a later, yet-to-be announced date. We will contact you with news and updates surrounding the start of the DOOM beta via the email address provided during the key code redemption process.”
Bethesda has said that the only way to ensure access to the beta, is through pre-ordering Wolfenstein: The New Order, currently.
Subscribe to the VG247 newsletter Get all the best bits of VG247 delivered to your inbox every Friday! Enable JavaScript to sign up to our newsletter
Wolfenstein is slated for release on PC, PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in North America on May 20 and throughout Europe on May 23.
Box art is posted below along with a new gameplay trailer. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Chicagoans have become increasingly worried about oil trains carrying the highly explosive Bakken crude through the city, a major transport hub on the way to East Coast refineries. A conference hosted by the progressive labor group Railroad Workers United in Chicago Sept. 19 brought together railroad workers and local residents and train buffs to discuss how railroad workers’ safety and labor rights issues dovetail with safety and environmental concerns for the larger public.
CHICAGO — Railroad workers from around the country and Chicago residents stood on an overpass on a recent bright September Sunday, watching a seemingly endless line of black tanker cars pass on the railroad tracks below. The train was likely carrying crude oil from the Bakken shale in North Dakota, judging by the red hazard placards on the cars and widely documented trends in crude oil shipment.
Oil trains are a perfect example, speakers and participants at the conference noted. Just look at the July 6, 2013 disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, when a parked oil train dislodged and plowed into the town, killing 47 and causing massive destruction and ecological devastation.
The train was operated by a single crew member, engineer Thomas Harding, who now faces the possibility of life in prison, with trial starting in November.
While prosecutors and the now-defunct Montréal Maine & Atlantic Railway have blamed Harding and several other railroad employees for the disaster, labor unions and other advocates say such tragedies are bound to happen more often if railroads are allowed to operate trains with single-man-crews and otherwise make staffing and management decisions driven by the bottom line rather than the needs and rights of railroad employees plus public safety.
This weekend, October 11 – 12, there will be rallies in Lac-Mégantic and Chicago, demanding freedom for Harding and railroad traffic conductor Richard Labrie, accountability from railroads and government regulators including bans on one-man-crews and a continued ban on shipping crude oil through Lac-Mégantic. A flier for the Chicago rally, held at noon on October 12 outside the Canadian consulate at 180 N. Stetson Drive, calls on “environmentalists, neighborhood organizations, railroad workers, steel workers, firemen, all unions and all justice-loving people” to support Harding and Labrie and demand strict safety regulations from the federal government.
Fear and anger in Lac-Mégantic
Union members Harding and Labrie along with manager of train operations Jean Demaitre are each facing possible life in prison on 47 charges of criminal negligence and causing death. They also face federal charges under the Fisheries Act for the environmental effects of the crude oil that flowed into the Lac-Mégantic and Chaudière rivers. Those charges could result in $1 million in fines for each.
“It’s a classic example of piling on” and blaming workers instead of the larger system, said Harding’s lawyer Thomas Walsh at the Railroad Workers United conference in Chicago. “Lac-Mégantic didn’t invent these problems — it’s just the worst example of when the bottom line is about profit, not safety. These problems existed before and they exist since. The unprincipled cost-cutting, chronic fatigue, sham enforcement [of safety laws]. Once you get the laws, who is going to enforce them? The laws have been there but haven’t been enforced properly. The legislator can always say we’ve got the law on the book, the next question is who broke the rule?”
Victims filed a class action lawsuit against Harding, but there has also been much local sympathy for him, with many Canadians blaming the company and government regulators and specifically the one-man-crew policy for the disaster.
Harding was reportedly questioned by police for 10 hours after the disaster without a lawyer present, since he was officially being considered a witness at the time.
Crude oil has not been shipped through Lac-Mégantic since the disaster, but a government ban on such shipments expires in January 2016. While the Montréal Maine & Atlantic Railway went bankrupt in the wake of the disaster, the U.S. investment firm Fortress Investment Group bought the company’s rail infrastructure and launched a new company, the Central Maine and Quebec Railway. Residents and industry watchdogs fear that the company plans to resume lucrative crude oil shipments, though company officials have been quoted saying there are no plans.
Opponents are circulating a petition demanding that no dangerous goods including oil be shipped through the town, and that the tracks be better repaired.
An oil tanker sits in a train yard near Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. (Kari Lydersen)
Fight against one-man crews continues
In the U.S., railroad workers scored a major victory against one-man-crews last September, when a unit of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air and Rail Transportation Workers (SMART) union announced that members had voted down a proposed contract which would have allowed the railroad company BNSF to run more than half its trains with just one worker on board, as In These Times reported.
At the recent Railroad Workers United conference, Ron Kaminkow and other speakers said they think that development – which appeared to take the union leadership and the company by surprise — will mean that major railroad companies do not try to push for one-man crews in the near future. But before long they are sure the issue will be back, especially if the amount of crude oil shipped by train continues to grow.
“A generation ago trains had five to six crew members, the caboose and head each had two to three,” said Kaminkow, who has worked for different railroads in the Midwest and Western U.S. “We’ve pared it down from six to five to four to three to two.
“There’s a generalized feeling among trainmen and engineers that [one-man crews] will have a devastating effect on our safety, and as a result, it will have a devastating effect on the public and the environment,” Kaminkow continued. “If you have a head-on collision, if an engineer falls asleep and goes around a curve and derails, it’s not hard to understand the effect. On a routine run on a summer day, you might be able to run a train across a subdivision with [a one-man crew] with no problem. Throw in subzero weather, extreme heat, a broken knuckle or air hose. There’s no end of scenarios where all of a sudden things start to unravel very quickly.”
Railroad Workers United was formed in 2007 to bring workers from different rail unions together on safety and labor rights issues including one-man crews. The group formed in part because of tension between the major rail unions, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and United Transportation Union (UTU). UTU is affiliated with SMART, the union whose leadership had agreed to allow one-man crews on some BNSF lines until their rank-and-file membership shot the idea down.
“For years the railroads have divided train crews by pitting the leaders of these two unions against each other,” wrote RWU members J.P. Wright and Ed Michaels in Labor Notes in 2012.
Both the BLET and UTU have signed on to the proposed Safe Freight Act, introduced in 2013, which demands a certified conductor and engineer on every train. They are also pushing for state laws demanding two-person crews.
Other safety hazards
One-man crews would exacerbate long-standing safety issues that pose a serious risk even with two-man crews, railroad workers maintain.
Jeff Kurtz, a BLET member and locomotive engineer for almost 40 years, at the RWU conference discussed how chronic fatigue is a long-standing safety and workers’ rights issue for railroad workers, and one that becomes particularly dangerous if an engineer is operating a train alone.
“The schedules we keep destroy our circadian rhythm — for 40 years. I’ve literally gone to work on an hour and a half or two hours’ notice,” Kurtz said. “You stay up until midnight, and the next thing you know your phone is ringing and you’re going to work for 12 or 14 hours.”
He and other speakers noted that railroad workers suffer from both acute and chronic fatigue that affects both their performance at work and their long-term health and quality of life. Kurtz noted that the effects of chronic fatigue can nullify safety measures instituted by the railroad.
For example engineers are often required to respond to certain alerts to make sure they are awake and alert. But when “automatic response behavior” kicks in for a fatigued individual, they may acknowledge the alert as they’ve become used to doing while they are actually half-asleep.
Railroaders similarly experience “micro-sleep” where “you don’t realize you’ve fallen asleep, and the next thing you know you are a couple miles down the road and you don’t know how you got there,” as Kurtz said.
On Sept. 22, BLET national president Dennis R. Pierce sent a letter to railroad CEOs and federal officials warning that locomotive engineers “are being forced by threat of an attendance policy violation to work when fatigued, even though such safety-critical locomotive engineers honesty believe that working in such circumstances would jeopardize safety.”
He charged that railroads’ variable work schedules and punitive attendance policies combined constitute violations of the Federal Rail Safety Act by forcing employees to work in unsafe conditions.
Railroad workers and other union supporters of Harding and Labrie say the men are a chilling example of a situation where inadequate regulations and conditions imposed by the industry put dedicated employees in a position where they became responsible for a tragedy. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Marta MacCullagh was fired from her job as a second-grade teacher at Endeavour Elementary Magnet School in Florida for violating the district’s drug-free workplace policy. (Photo: WFTV)
An elementary school teacher is fighting to save her career after she says she was fired from her job for using medical marijuana.
Marta MacCullagh, who worked as a second-grade teacher at Endeavour Elementary Magnet School in Cocoa, Fla., was charged with violation of the district’s drug-free workplace policy and was terminated from her job on Tuesday, the Brevard Times reported. She had been with the district for over four years.
The educator told Orlando news station WFTV that she’s been registered as a medical-marijuana user in Florida for more than a year. The outlet reported that the Brevard School District was sent a video of MacCullagh with a pipe in November. MacCullagh was subjected to a drug test, which found marijuana in her system, the outlet reported. But since she’s been on Florida’s medical-marijuana registry for more than a year, she didn’t think she’d violated school policy.
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong in my mind. It wasn’t something that was going to be a problem,” MacCullagh told WFTV. “I had a prescription for it just like every other prescription from a doctor.”
The school district, meanwhile, issued a statement to WFTV in defense of its policy: “Any employee who tests positive to a controlled substance, as defined in our drug-free workplace policy, is subject to disciplinary action — up to and including termination.”
The Brevard Times reported that school district superintendent Mark Mullins recommended that the Brevard County School Board fire MacCullagh, and the school board approved the request. Mullins didn’t immediately respond to Yahoo’s request for comment.
The teacher told WFTV that in addition to the fact that she’s lost her job, she’s worried she may lose her teaching certification. MacCullagh has hired an attorney to fight what she feels was a wrongful termination, WFTV reported.
“I was never putting my children in jeopardy,” she said. “I love my job, I love my children. This is what I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve always wanted to teach.”
Story continues
A similar situation unfolded in Waterbury, Conn., last year. Abigail Peck, who’d been hired by B.W. Tinker Elementary School, claimed she was terminated after she disclosed her medical-marijuana usage, Hartford, Conn., news station WFSB reported. Peck filed a lawsuit against the local school system.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
There’s red on the ceiling and red on the floor, red dripping from the window sills and red globules splattered across the walls. It looks like the artist Anish Kapoor has been let loose with his wax cannon again. But this, in fact, is what the making of Christmas looks like; this is the very heart of the real Santa’s workshop – thousands of miles from the North Pole, in the Chinese city of Yiwu.
Our yuletide myth-making might like to imagine that Christmas is made by rosy-cheeked elves hammering away in a snow-bound log cabin somewhere in the Arctic Circle. But it’s not. The likelihood is that most of those baubles, tinsel and flashing LED lights you’ve draped liberally around your house came from Yiwu, 300km south of Shanghai – where there’s not a (real) pine tree nor (natural) snowflake in sight.
Christened “China’s Christmas village”, Yiwu is home to 600 factories that collectively churn out over 60% of all the world’s Christmas decorations and accessories, from glowing fibre-optic trees to felt Santa hats. The “elves” that staff these factories are mainly migrant labourers, working 12 hours a day for a maximum of £200 to £300 a month – and it turns out they’re not entirely sure what Christmas is.
“Maybe it’s like [Chinese] New Year for foreigners,” says 19-year-old Wei, a worker who came to Yiwu from rural Guizhou province this year, speaking to Chinese news agency Sina. Together with his father, he works long days in the red-splattered lair, taking polystyrene snowflakes, dipping them in a bath of glue, then putting them in a powder-coating machine until they turn red – and making 5,000 of the things every day.
In the process, the two of them end up dusted from head to toe in fine crimson powder. His dad wears a Santa hat (not for the festive spirit, he says, but to stop his hair from turning red) and they both get through at least 10 face masks a day, trying not to breathe in the dust. It’s a tiring job and they probably won’t do it again next year: once they’ve earned enough money for Wei to get married, they plan on returning home to Guizhou and hopefully never seeing a vat of red powder again.
Packaged up in plastic bags, their gleaming red snowflakes hang alongside a wealth of other festive paraphernalia across town in the Yiwu International Trade Market, aka China Commodity City, a 4m sq m wonder-world of plastic tat. It is a pound shop paradise, a sprawling trade show of everything in the world that you don’t need and yet may, at some irrational moment, feel compelled to buy. There are whole streets in the labyrinthine complex devoted to artificial flowers and inflatable toys, then come umbrellas and anoraks, plastic buckets and clocks. It is a heaving multistorey monument to global consumption, as if the contents of all the world’s landfill sites had been dug-up, re-formed and meticulously catalogued back into 62,000 booths.
The complex was declared by the UN to be the “largest small commodity wholesale market in the world” and the scale of the operation necessitates a kind of urban plan, with this festival of commerce organised into five different districts. District Two is where Christmas can be found.
There are corridors lined with nothing but tinsel, streets throbbing with competing LED light shows, stockings of every size, plastic Christmas trees in blue and yellow and fluorescent pink, plastic pine cones in gold and silver. Some of it seems lost in translation: there are sheep in Santa hats and tartan-embroidered reindeer, and of course lots of that inexplicable Chinese staple, Father Christmas playing the saxophone.
It might look like a wondrous bounty, but the market’s glory days seem to have passed: it’s now losing out to internet giants like Alibaba and Made In China. On Alibaba alone, you can order 1.4m different Christmas decorations to be delivered to your door at the touch of a button. Yiwu market, by comparison, stocks a mere 400,000 products.
Aiming at the lower end of the market, Yiwu’s sales thrived during the recession, as the world shopped for cut-price festive fun, but international sales are down this year. Still, according to Cai Qingliang, vice chairman of the Yiwu Christmas Products Industry Association, domestic appetite is on the rise, as China embraces the annual festival of Mammon. Santa Claus, says the Economist, is now better known to most Chinese people than Jesus.
The beaming sales reps of Yiwu market couldn’t sound happier with their life sentence of eternal Christmastime. According to Cheng Yaping, co-founder of the Boyang Craft Factory, who runs a stall decked out like a miniature winter wonderland: “Sitting here every day, being able to look at all these beautiful decorations, is really great for your mood.”
It’s somehow unlikely that those on the other end of the production line, consigned to dipping snowflakes in red-swamped workshops for us to pick up at the checkout for 99p, feel quite the same way.
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Four hours. Four banks. Six cents.
This was a typical day in Caracas, Venezuela, capital of the world's most miserable economy.
In most of the world, getting a little money out of the bank is an errand, something forgettable. In Venezuela, for millions of people, it is complicated, tedious and surreal, or just impossible.
I moved here a year and a half ago to cover the country's economic crisis as a freelance journalist. I knew how bad things were, but I never imagined the constant daily struggle to achieve even the simplest of tasks.
As Venezuela has sunk to new depths, prices have skyrocketed, and the currency, the bolivar, has become next to worthless. Supermarkets and banks have become scenes of confusion and chaos: Are they open? Do they have money or food? How much can I get?
Related: Venezuela is losing its teachers
Inflation is so rampant -- some experts say it ran above 4,000% last year -- that it has devoured people's salaries.
As I write this, one dollar fetches about 191,000 bolivars, according to the black market exchange rate that everyone uses. (Nobody trusts the overvalued official rate because the government has lost credibility among ordinary Venezuelans and in international markets that determine exchange rates.)
A year ago, one dollar fetched 3,100 bolivars. The bolivar has lost 98% of its value since then. Even on the day I reported this story, January 11, a dollar would have gotten me about 151,000 bolivars in the morning.
Venezuela's banking authority tells banks every month how much customers can withdraw at one time, according to an official statement. But the authority doesn't make that amount public.
In August, Venezuelan media outlets reported that the authority set the limit at 10,000 bolivars per customer. Press officers declined to elaborate on the rules. The Bank Association of Venezuela, which represents bank branches, closed its press office six months ago.
As the currency loses value, the banks themselves have become their own scenes of confusion. Customers wait in long lines. Some banks don't offer cash and allow only electronic transactions.
So how hard is it to get a dollar's worth of bolivars?
I tried. And failed.
Related: Venezuela oil production plummets
The first bank: 'Minimum an hour' wait
I got to my first bank at 9:30 a.m. Dozens of people were lining up in front. People wait for cash here like Americans queue up to buy lottery tickets when the jackpot soars.
Inside, the five ATMs were deserted, a sign that they were out of cash. The only option was to withdraw money with the bank teller. I quickly counted 21 people in line and just one teller working.
"It's minimum an hour waiting," the last man in line told me as I approached.
I decided to try my luck elsewhere.
This problem has exploded in recent months, but it developed over years.
Venezuela was once Latin America's wealthiest nation, but it was plagued by extreme inequality. A socialist leader, Hugo Chavez, promised to fix the country's deep disparity between rich and poor when he became president in 1999.
Chavez ramped up government spending, providing housing and services for millions of poor Venezuelans. But critics and economists said for years that the spending was irresponsible and unsustainable.
Chavez died in 2013, and his hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, took over. Maduro maintained socialist policies, even while government coffers drained. Food shortages and electric blackouts became more common.
The country spiraled into economic and social unrest following a plunge in oil prices in 2014. Venezuela has more oil than any other nation on earth, but oil is the nation's only source of revenue. Government mismanagement and widespread corruption have caused oil production to plummet.
To patch the inflation problem, the Venezuelan government has repeatedly increased the monthly minimum wage, but prices have risen faster, and the bolivar has plunged further. And it got worse over the holidays.
Related: 'Death spiral': Venezuela's inflation soars beyond 4,000%, expert says
The second bank: 'It's nonsense!'
I walk a few blocks to a second bank. That I could find another one so quickly is a luxury of Caracas. In rural parts of Venezuela, cash is a necessity, and banks are far apart.
At the second bank, the ATMs were already out of cash, and it wasn't even 10 a.m. Frustration set in. Only 10 people were waiting for the tellers, so I decided to line up.
Gustavo Vasquez stood next to me in line. He told me he only needed 30,000 bolivars, or about 18 cents, for a CLAP bag: a sack of food and toiletries the government gives out to the poorest Venezuelans each month at heavily subsidized prices.
Recently, CLAP bags have gotten smaller or been delayed as more Venezuelans slip into poverty and as the government runs out of money to import essential goods.
As one of the many who now rely on food handouts, Vasquez was not on benefits for most of his life. He used to have a full-time job and a quiet life on his pension. But inflation made it impossible for him to live off his income, and government programs like CLAP are now a lifeline for him and his family.
Related: Venezuela defaults, moving deeper into crisis
Critics argue that the CLAPs are used as a political weapon by Maduro to force people to vote for him. But the ethics of political aid were not on Vasquez's mind. He just wanted to get cash so he could pay for the vital handout and eat.
"Here, they only allow [you] to take out 5,000 per day," Vasquez told me. "What should I do? Open an account in six different banks? It's nonsense!"
I managed to reach the front of the line, but the teller said I had to present a check to withdraw money. She wouldn't let me use my debit card. Increasingly annoyed, I left the second bank and passed two others before surrendering and heading home to pick up my checkbook.
Related: Russia extends financial lifeline to Venezuela
I waited four hours to get 6 cents. I spent it all in one place.
It was noon. I had been looking for cash for more than two hours. I returned to the first bank I tried.
I waited another hour in line before reaching the teller with my checkbook in hand. I noticed how everyone in line was still calm and silent, as if general resignation had forced these people to simply accept the situation.
Social rage exploded last year in Venezuela when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Caracas for more than 90 days to protest changes to the constitution and to demand elections and humanitarian aid.
The protests were quashed by government forces. More than 120 people lost their lives, according to state-run media. Police fired rubber bullets and shot tear gas. Protesters lobbed Molotov cocktails. A gas mask became a daily requirement for my reporting.
Related: U.S. hits 10 more Venezuelan leaders with sanctions
Now it seems that the economic situation is so bad that the average Venezuelan is too busy scrambling for cash and food to take to the streets once again.
At 1:23 p.m., I finally presented my check and got the hard-earned cash: 10,000 bolivars, or 6 cents.
Yarmira de Motos, the teller, informed me that the bank manager establishes every morning how much each customer can withdraw based on how much money is delivered by the Venezuelan Central Bank.
For this reason, some banks may allow 5,000-, 10,000- or even 30,000-bolivar withdrawals depending on the day. It's a total gamble.
With my 10,000 bolivars in hand four hours later, I met a friend for a coffee. My cappuccino cost 35,000 bolivars. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
What do abrupt changes in ocean circulation and Earth's climate, shifts in wildlife populations and ecosystems, the global finance market and its system-wide crashes, and asthma attacks and epileptic seizures have in common?
According to a paper published this week in the journal Nature, all share generic early-warning signals that indicate a critical threshold of change dead ahead.
In the paper, Martin Scheffer of Wageningen University in The Netherlands and co-authors, including William Brock and Stephen Carpenter of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and George Sugihara of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., found that similar symptoms occur in many systems as they approach a critical state of transition.
"It's increasingly clear that many complex systems have critical thresholds -- 'tipping points' -- at which these systems shift abruptly from one state to another," write the scientists in their paper.
Especially relevant, they discovered, is that "catastrophic bifurcations," a diverging of the ways, propel a system toward a new state once a certain threshold is exceeded.
Like Robert Frost's well-known poem about two paths diverging in a wood, a system follows a trail for so long, then often comes to a switchpoint at which it will strike out in a completely new direction.
advertisement
That system may be as tiny as the alveoli in human lungs or as large as global climate.
"These are compelling insights into the transitions in human and natural systems," says Henry Gholz, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Environmental Biology, which supported the research along with NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences.
"The information comes at a critical time -- a time when Earth's and, our fragility, have been highlighted by global financial collapses, debates over health care reform, and concern about rapid change in climate and ecological systems."
It all comes down to what scientists call "squealing," or "variance amplification near critical points," when a system moves back and forth between two states.
"A system may shift permanently to an altered state if an underlying slow change in conditions persists, moving it to a new situation," says Carpenter.
advertisement
Eutrophication in lakes, shifts in climate, and epileptic seizures all are preceded by squealing.
Squealing, for example, announced the impending abrupt end of Earth's Younger Dryas cold period some 12,000 years ago, the scientists believe. The later part of this episode alternated between a cold mode and a warm mode. The Younger Dryas eventually ended in a sharp shift to the relatively warm and stable conditions of the Holocene epoch.
The increasing climate variability of recent times, state the paper's authors, may be interpreted as a signal that the near-term future could bring a transition from glacial and interglacial oscillations to a new state -- one with permanent Northern Hemisphere glaciation in Earth's mid-latitudes.
In ecology, stable states separated by critical thresholds of change occur in ecosystems from rangelands to oceans, says Carpenter.
The way in which plants stop growing during a drought is an example. At a certain point, fields become deserts, and no amount of rain will bring vegetation back to life. Before this transition, plant life peters out, disappearing in patches until nothing but dry-as-bones land is left.
Early-warning signals are also found in exploited fish stocks. Harvesting leads to increased fluctuations in fish populations. Fish are eventually driven toward a transition to a cyclic or chaotic state.
Humans aren't exempt from abrupt transitions. Epileptic seizures and asthma attacks are cases in point. Our lungs can show a pattern of bronchoconstriction that may be the prelude to dangerous respiratory failure, and which resembles the pattern of collapsing land vegetation during a drought.
Epileptic seizures happen when neighboring neural cells all start firing in synchrony. Minutes before a seizure, a certain variance occurs in the electrical signals recorded in an EEG.
Shifts in financial markets also have early warnings. Stock market events are heralded by increased trading volatility. Correlation among returns to stocks in a falling market and patterns in options prices may serve as early-warning indicators.
"In systems in which we can observe transitions repeatedly," write the scientists, "such as lakes, ranges or fields, and such as human physiology, we may discover where the thresholds are.
"If we have reason to suspect the possibility of a critical transition, early-warning signals may be a significant step forward in judging whether the probability of an event is increasing."
Other co-authors of the paper are Jordi Bascompte and Egbert van Nes of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Scientificas, Sevilla, Spain; Victor Brovkin of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany; Vasilis Dakos of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research in Potsdam, Germany; and Max Rietkerk of Utrecht University in The Netherlands.
The research also was funded by the Institute Para Limes and the South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies, as well as the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research and the European Science Foundation, among others. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Gaza: Egypt 'to open Rafah crossing to Palestinians' Published duration 25 May 2011
image caption Palestinians protested at the Rafah crossing to mark the anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel
Egypt is to open the Rafah border crossing into Gaza permanently to most Palestinians from Saturday, Egyptian state news agency Mena has said.
Gaza has been under blockade since 2007, when the Islamist Hamas movement took control of the territory.
Under ex-President Hosni Mubarak - ousted in February - Egypt opposed the Hamas administration and helped Israel to enforce the blockade.
Israel says the blockade is needed to stop weapons being smuggled into Gaza.
The Rafah crossing will be opened permanently from 0900 to 2100 every day except Fridays and holidays, beginning Saturday 28 May, Mena said.
"Palestinian women of all ages will be exempted from visas as will men under 18 or over 40," Mena reported.
Rafah is the only crossing into Gaza which bypasses Israel.
The BBC's Jon Leyne, in Cairo, says it is unlikely Israel will welcome the move, although it has been easing its own restrictions on its crossings with Gaza.
Significant shift
The transitional military government said last month that it intended to open the crossing permanently.
Our correspondent says the announcement illustrates the more independent-minded foreign policy likely to be adopted by Egypt's new rulers.
Egypt's co-operation in blockading Gaza was one of the most unpopular policies of former President Mubarak, he adds.
Last year, Israel eased restrictions on goods entering Gaza, but significant shortages in the territory remain.
Mena said the decision to open Rafah was part of efforts "to end the status of the Palestinian division and achieve national reconciliation".
Egypt's post-Mubarak government has already helped broker a reconciliation agreement between Hamas and the Fatah faction, which governs the Palestinian West Bank. Israel has condemned the deal.
Under Mr Mubarak, Egypt upheld its unpopular peace treaty with Israel and opposed Hamas in the internal Palestinian power-struggle.
Hundreds of smuggling tunnels run under the Egyptian border with Gaza.
The blockade has been condemned as a form of collective punishment of the population of the Gaza Strip because of the hardships it causes. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Image copyright Benedict Johnson Image caption The show mixes pieces from unknown and known artists
The Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition has run uninterrupted since 1769, showcasing the work of professional and amateur artists together in a quintessentially British exhibition.
BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz takes an illustrated tour of this year's show.
The academy has whittled down 12,000 submitted art works to 1,200 for its 2014 show, it's a sprawling exhibition of varying quality.
Rule number one in the exhibition-making manual is to start well with a strong room of good work. It reassures the visitor, gives him or her confidence.
Rule number two is: Don't show too much stuff.
The RA's Summer Exhibition has heeded the first, and - by design - ignored the second. The quantity of art on display is great, the standard patchy.
The show does start well with the RA's Central Hall exhibiting work by newly elected Academicians.
Yinka Shonibare's Cake Man II - yours for £162,000 - takes centre stage. The life-size mannequin is bent forwards, balancing a leaning tower of cakes on its shoulders.
Image copyright Benedict Johnson
The figure is dressed in Shonibare's signature colourful African fabrics, topped off with a globe for a head, decorated with stock market graphs. The sculpture is elegant, its message heavy-handed.
Bob and Roberta Smith, Conrad Shawcross and Chantal Joffe are all represented in the room, but the standout pieces are by the newly elected Honorary Academician, Marlene Dumas. The South African-born artist has two small head portraits - Helena and Scarlett. Both are excellent, neither is for sale.
Image copyright Royal Academy Image caption Helena by Marlene Dumas
Turn left and you enter a room of black and white art curated by the artist Cornelia Parker. There's plenty to enjoy in here - not least a break from the chromatic cacophony of the rest of the show. She said she wanted to present work by artists whom she feels ought to be Academicians, like Ryan Gander, Fiona Banner and Martin Creed.
Image caption Artist Cornelia Parker is the RA's chosen special curator for this year's show
Their pieces are fine, but the one that caught my eye was a tiny pencil drawing hidden behind a giant placard by Bob and Roberta Smith. Unlike almost everything else in the room, this is not a work that Cornelia Parker commissioned or selected from friends' studios, but one she chose from the open submission.
It's called Haywain After Hieronymus Bosch and is for sale at £2,000, It is by Rowan Fuggle, an artist who appears to be a graduate from the The Ruskin School of Fine Art in Oxford. I grabbed this photo of it on my phone...
Image caption Haywain After Hieronymus Bosch by Rowan Fuggle
Next door, a mighty red inkjet print by Turner Prize-winner Wolfgang Tilmans blows away the black & white vibe. Greifbar 1 (£102,000) is one of the German photographer's large abstract colour-field images. Stand up-close and it appears sensuous and fragile, but seen from a distance it becomes powerful and bold. Either way, it's very good.
Image caption Tilmans's red inkjet print gives a different impression depending on how near or far the onlooker stands
Tilmans is not the only German making a splash with a large abstract work. In the huge Room III Gallery, two of the big daddies of German Expressionism are having something of a face off. On one side of the room there is a large, half painted, unusually delicate canvas by George Baselitz (£370,000).
Image caption Anselm Kiefer is another German artist with work in the show
Directly opposite hangs a massive impasto painting by Anselm Kiefer (not for sale) called Kranke Kunst ("sick art" or "diseased art").
It's not often that the two artists are hung in such close proximity, a curatorial stand-off that started with their controversial joint commission at the 1980 Venice Biennale, where one of Baselitz's statues was interpreted as giving a Nazi salute.
On a lighter note, there are a couple of small watercolours by the actress Una Stubbs, called Benedict and Martin respectively. They are of her fellow Sherlock stars Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch.
They're not marvellous, but they are fun - and that's allowed, even at the Royal Academy. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Get ready to head back to Camp Firewood, because Wet Hot American Summer is coming to Netflix for an eight-episode long camp reunion.
Following in the steps of the revival of cult classic Arrested Development, [Deadline reports] (http://deadline.com/2015/01/wet-hot-american-summer-netflix-limited-series-original-cast-return-1201342994/) that the long hoped-for follow-up to the campy camp comedy has started filming a limited series for Netflix.
"It's true, camp is back in session. #WetHotAmericanSummer will return for 8 all new episodes," [Netflix's official account] (https://twitter.com/netflix/status/553760968933511169) tweeted to its followers yesterday, which the film's director David Wain re-tweeted. Plus, a new Wet Hot American Summer account appeared on Twitter, which is all the proof necessary to prove this is not a dream.
Wain once again teamed up with his The State co-star Michael Showalter to write the script for the new series and they will both serve as executive producers.
The 2001 film was set at a summer camp in 1981 and had an all-star cast of nascent celebrities, many of whom —like Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler—traded their short shorts, whistles and knee-high socks for A-list status. Other cast members include The State’s Michael Ian Black, former 30 Rock star Judah Friedlander, Janeane Garofalo, Ken Marino, Zak Orth, Frasier star David Hyde Pierce, Joe LoTruglio, Law & Order: SVU stalwart Christopher Meloni, SNL star Molly Shannon, and Showalter. It's rumored that Archer star H. Jon Benjamin will once again provide his trademark voice, although it’s unclear whether he will be reprising his role as a mouthy can of vegetables.
While few other details have been announced, it seems likely that the series will be a prequel to the film. Back in May, Variety reported that such was being discussed. Plus both Wain and [Marino] (http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/q-a-ken-marino-talks-wet-hot-prequel-the-state-reunion-and-burning-love-20121019), who played luckless in love camp counselor Victor Pulak in the film, have hinted that a prequel was being developed
Of course, if the series flashes back too far, Benjamin’s can of mixed vegetables might still be out growing in a farm and the campers could still be in diapers—and there’s no chance any of these counselors would change them.
It seems like the film’s cast is as excited as fans. Lo Truglio tweeted: “It's on like Donkey Kong bc Donkey Kong happened in 1981, just like this movie,” while Marino [sent out ] (https://twitter.com/KenMarino/status/553739893147312128) a special dedication to his character’s love interest, “I hope Abby Bernstein’s still waiting for me.”
While the original film tanked at the box office, its afterlife as a cult favorite and the newfound celebrity status of much of its cast pretty much ensures the new series will be at the top of a lot of Netflix queues. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
As rioters spread fire and violence across France on Sunday, shooting and wounding police officers, President Jacques Chirac vowed to restore calm and punish those responsible for 11 days of disturbances.
Chirac made his first public comments on the unrest after a rare meeting of his security Cabinet that underscored the gravity of the situation. The rampage of arson and vandalism has spilled from hardscrabble housing projects into provincial towns and the capital itself. Rioters showed alarming new aggressiveness Sunday night in clashes that injured 34 police officers, including 10 hit by birdshot from firearms.
“Today, the absolute priority is restoring security and public order,” Chirac said. “The Republic is determined, inherently, to be stronger than those who would sow violence or fear. And they will be caught, judged and punished.”
In his brief statement, Chirac also indicated that the government intended to address the alienation, unemployment and neglect contributing to the explosion of rage in predominantly Muslim neighborhoods.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who stood by Chirac as he spoke, is expected to outline today a plan to deal with deprivation, discrimination and youth unemployment, which is close to 50% in some areas. The government will also speed up a multibillion-dollar overhaul of hundreds of run-down, crime-ridden housing projects, which are fixtures on the industrial peripheries of many French cities and towns and are populated largely by working-class immigrant families.
“We understand also that the evolution of things requires respect for everyone, justice and equality of opportunities,” Chirac said. “But there is a precondition: the restoration of security and public order.”
Although French presidents tend to focus on big-picture issues such as foreign affairs, leaving details of domestic governance to their prime ministers, Chirac’s silence had been criticized as the riots mushroomed into the worst urban unrest in decades. His words Sunday, and his decision to convene ministers in charge of law enforcement and defense, were designed to send a message of strength.
But on the streets Sunday night, thousands of police backed by helicopters clashed again with fast-moving, wellorganized gangs of masked, hooded vandals on scooters and bikes who had torched at least 839 vehicles by midnight. Police made 186 arrests.
About 1,300 vehicles burned overnight Saturday and early Sunday, the most since the unrest began. The toll of 34 injured officers represented a major escalation; only seven had been injured in the previous 10 nights of violence.
The worst incident Sunday took place in a housing project in Grigny, south of Paris. Assailants fired on a contingent of riot police confronting gangs of stone-throwing young men.
Ten officers were hit. Two were hospitalized, with one wounded in the throat and the other in the leg, national police spokesman Patrick Hamon said. The shooters used pellet guns or shotguns to fire birdshot, which can maim but is unlikely to kill, Hamon said.
Police did not shoot back. Under strict orders from Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the police have not fired a single shot since the riots began, Hamon said. Rioters reportedly fired on police about half a dozen times.
“We are fearful for our officers because of these shootings,” he said. “But they are showing great professionalism. The order is repeated to them every morning. Still, at some point an officer might find himself trapped, confronted by a gang or something, and you don’t know what could happen.”
Compared with the gun battles and body counts of riots in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities in recent decades, the French disturbances have been marked by a kind of ritualistic restraint. The rioters have mainly attacked private property and symbols of the state.
Although there have been no deaths, there has been plenty of brutality. A 61-year-old retiree remained hospitalized in grave condition Sunday after being beaten when he went to check on a garbage can fire at his apartment building in the working-class suburb of Stains.
In Normandy, an assault early Sunday by a mob in Evreux left four police officers wounded, one seriously, and destroyed a shopping center, a post office and two schools.
“Rioters attacked us with baseball bats,” Philippe Jofres, a deputy fire chief sitting in his truck, told the France-2 television network. “We were attacked with pickaxes. It was war.”
It was the first outbreak in Evreux. The destruction also spread to Lyon, Nantes, Nice and Cannes.
The nominal trigger for the riots was an incident in the poor Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. Two teenagers, one wanted by police, hid from officers in a power substation and were accidentally electrocuted.
Police said the casualties have been low partly because guns are still rare in France. Many of the rioters are teens who have trouble obtaining anything more powerful than pellet guns. Although heavy weapons such as AK-47 assault rifles can be found in housing projects, they are held mainly by older, experienced criminals involved in organized robbery gangs, investigators say.
“They are specialists, and they don’t have any interest in getting involved in this for the moment, luckily,” a police intelligence official said. “That’s why we are finding kids with low-quality, inferior guns if we find any at all.” But the rioters have other weapons. On Sunday, police arrested six youths in Evry, a town south of Paris, in a basement where they had assembled 90 Molotov cocktails.
One of France’s leading Muslim organizations issued a religious edict, or fatwa, Sunday condemning the riots, according to news reports. The statement by the Union of Islamic Organizations in France cited Koranic passages forbidding the destruction of property. The group has links to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood and has had a sometimes tense relationship with the government.
Islamic groups, from wellintegrated moderates to violent anti-Western extremists, are believed to wield great power in the housing projects. Debate persists among political leaders and police about whether religious extremists have had a role in inciting the unrest.
So far, intelligence officials mainly report instigation by small-time gangsters but only scattered activity by Muslim extremists. Nonetheless, police worry that hard-core Islamist groups could exploit the situation by encouraging the unrest or gain new prominence if the government enlists their assistance in restoring peace. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Last week s.e. smith and several other members of the disability community, including Alice Sheppard (a dancer with AXIS wheelchair dance company), TK Small (a lawyer and disability rights activist), Christine Bruno (who works with the advocacy group Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts), and Maysoon Zayidd (an actor and comedienne with Cerebral Palsy).
came together on the WBAI show The Largest Minority to discuss Glee and depictions of disability in popular culture. This particular episode of the radio show was inspired by s.e.’s post, A Very Glee Christmas.
You can download directly from their site: This is a direct download link to save-as. Alternately, you can play it on the WBAI site by going to their archives and scrolling down to Shared Timeslot Wednesday 10pm to 11pm on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 10:00 pm. Alternately, you can read the transcript.
The actual show itself doesn’t start until 3:52 in to the program slot.
It’s taken me a while to get the transcript of this done, for which I apologize. I did mean to get this up far faster than I did. I also should note that I had some difficulties always identifying who was speaking, and there are points in the program where the show’s audio cuts out terribly and I’m unsure what they’re saying.
Starts at around 3:52 on the download
Announcer: Good evening, Babylon. Welcome to the Largest Minority, WBAI’s program focusing on the news and views of people living with disabilities. Our aim is to increase communication within our community, and to facilitate understanding with society above labels and beyond classifications. Largest Minority airs right after [?] computer show at 9pm on the Second and Fourth Wednesdays of each month, alternating with the Joy of Resistance, Multicultural Feminist Radio. And we like to think of it since this is the season as WBAI’s Island of Misfit Toys. And today, stranded with me on the island is Attorney TK Small in studio and we have, rockin’ the board tonight, our friend Sydney Smith.
For tonight’s show we are going to have a round table discussion with Lawrence Carter Long and a number of different activists and actors and media personailities, talking about the popular television show Glee. Which… and it’s somewhat controversial and also in some ways typical misrepresentation of the disability experience and people with disbailities as well as other minoiryt demographics.
TK Small (TK): I should throw in… this is TK Small by the way. I should throw in that the inspiriation, or the idea behind this segment about Glee related to a very powerful blog that I read that talked about the Christmas Episode where there was reference to Tiny Tim, curing disability and all that, and that’s how the segment around Glee came about.
Announcer: And, we just want to… the discussion, as you’ll hear, will unfold, but there are a number of different ways, I mean personally, I like to think of it as one of the reasons people with disabilities don’t get invited to your fun type of parties is because we may have some sort of a reputation of being a bit of a downer and taking the joy out of things and so we want to dedicate tonight’s show before Christmas to doing exactly that with everybody’s favourite t.v. show, Glee. In fact, TK and I were going to try and ruin everybody’s Christmas by doing an a capella version of, I don’t know if it was going to be Holly Jolly Christmas or Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree but we decided to show you all a little bit of mercy. But before we go into that, we wanted… I wanted to point out another friend of ours, who’s actually part of one of the successful clips of our previous show’s discussion of the life of Laura Hershey on her Facebook Page she made a comment about the use of term “lame duck” to discuss the outgoing 111th congree and wndering whether that was somehow denigrating–
TK: Congress or people with disabilities? [laugh]
Announcer: Right, exactly, that’s just the thing, but I wanted to point out for those of you who maybe want to think a little bit differently about the concept of “lame duck” or “disabled waterfowl” in general – differently abled waterfowl in general – that the news is full of the fact that this is a unprecedented successful and effective congress and among other things we should..I think it is most appropriate that one of the most popular songs is “Donning our Gay Apparel” because your Gay Apparel may include a combat helmet, and you can go into battle for the United States army, navy, marines, as well as the coast guard.
TK: I wonder if I would have to tell them that I’m disabled.
Announcer: Yes. I don’t think you do, I think you could just sneak right in.
TK: They don’t have the same rules of people with disabilities?
Announcer: No.
TK: I can hide my wheelchair while I go into the TIme’s Square recruiting station.
Announcer: We don’t generally– We do not ask, and we rarely tell on this show when someone has a disability. That’s one of the calls we get —
TK: That is an illegal question when you go for a job interview. Your employer is not supposed to ask any questions.
Announcer: Hmm. That’s interesting.
TK: Although as an attorney I used to get that all the time when I was applying for jobs. You’d think that the legal firm would know not to ask that question but apparently not.
Announcer: [laugh] Well, in any event, we wanted to make a point of that… that sometimes the disabled waterfowl can be quite effective and just to note the historic passage of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. In any event, it is now 9:08, about to be 9:09, and now its time for the news headlines.
[I have not transcribed the news headlines.]
Announcer: And we’re back listening to the Largest Minority on WBAI. And, on tonight’s show, as promised before, we’re going to have a round table discussion about the popular television show Glee, which features, among other people, a character portrayed by an able-bodied actor who is in a wheelchair. In the most recent show which re-aired again last night, he has a Christmas wish granted by gaining one of these new apparatuses which enables him to stand up and walk, and it’s portrayed as kind of a Christmas miracle and it’s extraordinarily patronizing and a lot of people with disabilities found it extremely irritating, including people on our panel.
TK: And if anybody walks up to me on the street and says I should get an exoskeleton and make me walk, I’ll kill them.
Announcer: Well, you’ll have to get a killer exoskeleton first and you know what? Someday they’re going to make it. [TK laughs] And so without further ado, our own Lawrence Carter Long is leading this discussion, and here it is.
[Music – theme song. I’m afraid my hearing problems have come back and I can’t hear it clear enough to transcribe it which is unfortunate because I think it sounds awesome, but I don’t want to get the words all wrong.]
Lawrence Carter Long (LCL): And you’re listening to the largest minority on 99.5 WBAI and on the internet at WBAI.org. I’m Lawrence Carter Long and we’re here talking today about everbody’s show that they love to hate within the disability community, Glee. With TK Small.
TK: Lawrence, it’s good to have you back.
LCL: It’s good to be back. You know, nobody thought when the pilot episode of Glee premiered back in May of 2009 that the series would become the phenomena it is now. Glee features on-screen performace based numbers which are selected by Ryan Murphy, who gained previous success with the show Nip/Tuck, and aims to maintain balance on the show between show tunes and charted hits. The music with Glee has been a commerical success with over 13 million digital singles sales and 5 million album sales. The series merchandise also includes DVD and BlueRay releases, a Young Adult book series, an iPad appilication, and a Kareoke game for the Wii. During it’s first season Glee received generally favourable reactions from the critics with Metacritics weighted average based on the average rating of 18 critical reviews at 77%. The season was nominated for 19 Emmy awards, 4 Golden Globe awards, 6 Satellite awards and 57 other awards that we won’t get into, with wins in the 2010 Golden Globe award for best t.v. show, musical or comedy, and Emmy awards for Lynch, guest start Neil Patrick Harris, and Murphy’s direction fo the pilot episode. The second season has been nominated for 5 golden globes, including best tv series in comedy as well as a number of nominations for cast members.
But the feel good show is not without its critics, particularly from the disability community. While media reports in such high profile outlets as People Magazine and US Magazine and trade publications like Hollywood Reporter and Variety have centered on the casting of Kevin McHale as paraplegic wheelchair-using Artie, deeper criticisms regarding plot, tone and representation have received minimal coverage in comparison.
With us today on the Largest Minority we have s.e. smith, who is a feminist and a disability rights activists based in Northern California, who rights for the This Ain’t Livin’ blog, and FWD in the Jewish Daily.
s.e. smith (SE): I am, and I should quickly correct you. I do not write for the Jewish Daily FWD, I write for a feminist website also called FWD.
LCL: Feminist website FWD! Thank you for correcting me.
SE: It’s a very common confusion.
LCL: And also with us is Alice Sheppard who is a Dancer with AXIS Dance company based in Northern California. She’s also a disability advocate. Welcome Alice.
Alice Shepard (AS): Hey Lawrence, it’s good to be here.
LCL: We also have Christine Bruno who’s a Disability Advocate, a actor and director, and works for the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts. Welcome Christine.
Christine Bruno (CB): Hello.
LCL: And fresh from the Keith Olbermann show, the co-creator of Arabs Gone Wild [OPENS WITH SOUND], going on tour again, January 20th, starting in NYC to 8 different cities, Maysoon Zayidd. Hello Maysoon.
Maysoon Zayid (MZ): Hello, Lawrence and TK.
LCL: So. Glee! Let’s talk a little bit about the casting side. Everbody wants to talk about the casting first. What’s the problem with casting a non-disabled guy to play a wheelchair user. Come on, it’s acting! Isn’t that what acting’s about?
CB: How long do we have?
SE: Well, I think you have a situation where you have someone who does not have the lived experience of having a spinal cord injury playing it and it’s very obvious to anyone who has such an injurty or knows people who do that he’s playing it very badly.
LCL: So we’ve got some wheelchair users, and we’ve got some disability advocates. What do you mean by “playing it badly”? How do you play disability badly? I mean, all you gotta do is sit in a chair, right?
AS: If it were only that easy. There’s an understanding of embodiment that’s just not physical in McHale’s portrayal of Artie, and for me, what I see is a huge gap between the body and the chair. He doesn’t even understand how to push that thing. There’s a kind of sweet roll that those of us who use manual wheelchairs can find and use and McHale is always shown shoving and pushing. There’s no rhythm, there’s no feel, there’s no understanding of the chair as part of his body.
LCL: Alice, you know of which you speak because you use a chair and you’re a dancer.
AS: I do.
LCL: You tour professionally, you’re a working dancer. In terms of their choreography none of it really shows the kind of work that you’ve done.
AS: That’s right. The choreography shows Artie just sort of waving his arms, bending a body, behding a head. There’s no integration. And the sad thing about it is that McHale is a beautiful dancer, he’s a really gorgeous mover and, you know, he just can’t make it work in the chair.
LCL: Maysoon, you wanted to add something?
MZ: I just I feel like there’s a couple of different problems with the casting of Artie. One is that, as an actor in the disabled community trying to do my own script, which I wrote, I can’t even get directors to screen test me in my own role as a character with cerebral palsy. As I go from producer to producer, director to director, they do not want to give disabled actors a chance to play disabled parts. Not to mention non-disabled roles. So my first problem with Artie is that I simply do not believe that Ryan Murphy exhausted all options in finding a singer who could sing and dance miraculously and gorgeously, that he couldn’t heal. And I think they intentionally chose an able-bodied actor so they could get him out of the chair to sing and dance whenever they wanted. There’s a problem in Hollywood, there’s a problem in television, that is disabled actors are not given a chance to play neutral roles, and we’re also not given a chance to play our own roles, and we think that only someone mimicing it can win an Oscar. I have Cerebral Palsy. I think Daniel Day Lewis’ portrayal in My Left Foot was absolutely disgusting. So what we see and what the other people see are not the same thing. And when Kevin McHale commented “why can he play gay”, it’s not the same thing. Anyone can play gay, but I can’t play Oprah because I’m white. And he should not be–
LCL: So there’s a certain physicality that comes from playing a disabled character that more often than not people get wrong. Now, Christine, why don’t you talk about this. The Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts. What the Alliance does is help casting directrs, teleivison shows, movie production companies, cast disabled actors. And you work as a sort of go-between between the industry and the working professionals. What is it that you see within the Alliance that shows this problem or illustrates this problem.
CB: Well, basically, I was just gonna say exactly what Maysoon said, we have to start there. There are disabled actors who can play that role, first of all, first and foremost. Alice is absolutely right. The portrayal is faulty at best. I’m trying to be diplomatic. We are on radio.
LCL: You don’t have to be diplomatic with us.
CB: So, Alice is right, but before we even go to the portrayal of a non-disabled actor playing that role let’s go where Maysoon just did and there are actors who can play those roles. In my role as a disability advocate we see this every day all day. We get calls for actors, disabled actors, specifically to play disabled roles. We next to never get calls for disabled actors to play non-disabled characters. Sometimes it happens if a disabled actor goes in a “wows” a producer just in general and they say “We have a part we think you would be great for” and it doesn’t matter that they have a disability but that’s very few and far between.
LCL: Let’s talk about… play devil’s advocate for a bit because some criticisms I’ve seen around Glee have been met with basically the statement “They have a character named Becky who has Down Syndrome, who’s part of the cheer-leading squad. So what about Becky?” And in addition to Becky, in May 2010, Zack Weinstein guest-starred on Laryngitis where he basically was there helping Rachel, who had lost her voice. He was there to serve as the inspiration for Rachel and to help her accept her lot in life. So they have hired disabled actors. What’s wrong with that?
SE: And totally … And totally troped stereotypical roles that pretty much evoke every hateful stereotype about people with disabilities imaginable. I mean, the episode with Zach Weinstein we see him lying in a hopsital bed wearing his football jersey longing for everything he’s lost. He’s just there literally as a prop in an inspirational narrative to make non-disabled viewers feel better about how they think about disability.
CB: And I also think, you know, just to jump ahead for a second. First of all let me address really quickly about the point you’ve made about they’ve hired disabled– They have hired some disabled actors. I mean, at the rirsk of again not being diplomatic it’s true that there’s really two disabilities that can’t be portrayed by other than the people who live those disbailities. One is a little person, and the other is usually a person with Down Syndrome, and there are very distinct physical reasons for that. I mean, can they absolutely not be portrayed, I don’t know. Maybe they could in Avatar Land.
LCL: But again you’re taking jobs away from disabled actors.
CB: That’s right. That’s right. But the other thing is the issue that I wanted to address. I’m sorry, your name is s.e. on the phone, is that right?
SE: Yes.
CB: I think that Glee, unfortunately, casting aside, has missed so many opportunities to, for lack of a better word “right the wrong” of casting a non-disabled actor as a disabled character. They could have done so many things with story-lines that they have chosen, knowingly now, not to do. Because they have been put on notice from the disability community, from the Disabled Arts community, from the unions, that while the casting is said and done and there’s nothing we can do about that we’d like to see the ortrayl and the representation of disabled people and the lived experience of disability be more accurate and authentic.
AS: Can I just speak for a second to the audition for the Cheerios that the character Becky gets? This strikes me as possibly being emblematic. There’s a way in which Becky… we don’t actually find out if Becky can or cannot do what the Cheerios require. She’s given the part, or at leat a place on the team because it looks like Lynch takes care of her or feels sympathy for her or uses the fact that she cannot appear to do that, or is made to seem that she can’t do that, so it’s a sort of pity gag in the audition on the show, and it makes me wonder, what did that mean in the actual audition and casting process?
LCL: And I’ve seen people with Down Syndrome who are on cheerleading squads. Anyone can do a search on YouTube and you can find that sort of thing. One of the things that I think that some peole have brought up in criticizing the disability community is “Well, she refuses to coddle her”, right? She sort of has her there and she kind of, you know, doesn’t treat her differently, but the down side of that is she’s not doing the basic things that most of the squad is doing. It creates this dilemma on how to portray disability in a way that emphasies both honesty and accuracy over sentimentality and false messages, and I think that’s what you’re getting with the Becky character.
MZ: Can I also just interject before I leave, because I have to run, unfortunately, even though that’s difficult for me to physically do. I also feel like growing up in the states watching movies as a child was really traumatic for me, because I was always watching characters who were either healed or pathetic, and Glee is continuing that saga of either the character has to be pathetic with the one goal in life, finding anyone so charitable as to love them, because no one can love someone who’s disabled unless they also heal them. Or, watching people who couldn’t walk on screen suddenly in heels strolling down the red carpet. Glee is definitely trying to bill itself as a show for the youth and it’s yet another place where people look and go “Oh, I guess I can’t become an actor. I guess I can’t do anything. Maybe if I was just Downs they’d give me a chance.”
LCL: So the sense here–
MZ: I’m a comedian by the way, sorry.
LCL: So when we talk about the Artie character, on Dream On. Let’s talk a bit about specific episodes. We’ve got the major plot line in Dream On, where Artie begins doing research on new treatment and he starts to get hopeful that one day yes, he’ll be able to be able to be quote unquote “a real dancer”, that he’ll get out of the chair and dnace around. This suggests a theme of empowerment, that people with obstacles should not be deterred from their ambitions, yadda yadda, but the guidance counsellor tells Artie that his hopes of walking again are unrealistic and he should plan on talking to her on a regular basis and it sort of focuses. So the message that it seems to me that this sends to disabled viewers is not that there are real disabled dancers, using chairs aside, but because of one’s disabilities, your dreams are impossible.
TK: And Lawrence, it might be helpful for our listeners to explain that Alice, sitting righ tnext to you, is practically having a conipution fit as you describe this.
LCL: I thought that was part of her condition [laughter]
SE: I’m not in the studio but if I was you would see me having a small conipution fit myself. I thought the message of that episode was people who use chairs A) never get out of chairs, part time wheelchair users are never acknowledged as existing ever, and b) can never hope to do anything. That’s, like, a huge slap in the face to the disabled dance community to be told that wheelchair users can’t dance in that episode. I mean…
AS: Truly, absolutely. And the thing that really really catches me is one move, the one thing that really could… Aaron Fotheringham is the disabled stunt artist and he pulls that awesome one rear-wheel wheely. I mean, the irony of hiring a disabled stunt artist to actually execute the role of a non-disabled actor. It bites. It just… bites.
LCL: So adding insult to injury.
AS: It did.
LCL: By hiring somebody who can actually pull the move off play the stunt double when it came time to film the episode.
SE: And if you saw any of the press for Wheels, the producers were acting like they had invented this super cool new thing called “Wheelchair Dancing”.
CB: Yes they were.
LCL: There’s no acknowledgement of things like AXIS or Dancing Wheels or CanDoCo or any of the companies who have been out there an in existence for decades.
CB: I mean, they didn’t even look. Not only did they not have a wheelchair dance consultant on the set. Those articles came out, I remember there was one in the Daily News that was sort of framed in this “ha ha, isn’t this sort of funny that we all thought this was going to be easy and simple and then when we tried to wheel up on the ramps in the set we fell over and hit our heads.” [Here’s an example in the NY Post]
LCL: You’re talking about the other cast members in the show.
CB: Yes, the other cast members in the show. In an effort to, and I’m using little quote marks with my fingers in the studio, in an effort to “identify” with Artie’s “plight” as it were, they thought they would stick themselves in wheelchairs and try to dance. But, you know, I want to bring up something that I have heard in my role as disability advocate in the Alliance, the pushback, from the producers, and the creative team on Glee is that, “Okay. So now here we are, we’ve created this diverse group of Gleeclub members, one of whom includes is a character with a disability. You complain complain complain that you don’t see any characters with disabilities on t.v. here now, we’ve given you one, and you’re still complaining.” And let me point out that they’ve won a diversity waward for Glee. So–
LCL: Who gave them that diversity award? Come on, let’s call ’em out. They gave them award.
CB: I’m not going there.
LCL: They get the criticism.
SE: I’m hitting the internet, I gotta tell ya. The other thing, speaking of the so-called diversity of the show, (while looking this up very quickly) if you look at the other cast members you have [?] Mercedes– [this gets really disjointed in the recording. se mentions the fat activist community] what is going on with Lauren Zizes, you have stutters who are furious about the decision to fake Tina’s stutter, and the gay community is not that stoked on Kurt’s storyline either.
LCL: So this is not restricted to the disability community in general.
CB: Except I have heard good things about the portrayal of the gay narrative. I’ve heard good things about it, only because that’s the one that’s the most well-rounded at the moment.
SE: It’s the most well-played and I think it’s because Ryan Murphy and Chris Colfer have that experience. The award came from the Multi-Cultural Motion Picture Association. I also note it’s been recognized by a Television with a Conscious award, which– some of us disagree on, and that would be from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
LCL: So, I think, it points out one of the problems that we get into in doing criticism or having honest criticism of a show like Glee is when people push back, they’ll say, “Hey, wait a minute!” and try and ignore these criticisms that are more in depth about these questionable areas of depiciton and try and reduce the conversation to “you’re just mad they didn’t used disabled actors” instead of really engaging in what advocates are saying and what the people doing those critiques are saying.
SE: Well, it gets back to “any representation is good representation!” complaint, and I think most members of minority groups say “No, the tropes and stereotypical representation is harmful.” And most of the messages that Glee sends about disabilities are actively damaging to the disability community, whether there are disabled or non-disabled actors.
CB: Yes, and that’s sort of the point I was making. Yes, from our point of view, and from the disabled actor point of view, and the disabled person’s point of view, they made a mistake by casting Kevin McHale. From our point of view, but they cold be taking active steps to use these as teaching moments, and really portraying the lived experience as it exists, even with Kevin McHale in the role, if they hired consultants, if they had scripts that were… the accurate portrayal of what we live with everyday. I could live with that a little more than this continuing of the myths and assumptions and perceptions of people with disabilities, and how we live.
LCL: And let’s talk about the common threads within those misconceptions. One of the common misconceptions that get played out over and over and over again on Glee is that Artie seems to be focused on walking agian. He’s only going to be happy if he walks again, and they has been shown now on a third episode, even so far as having a dream sequence where he does get out of the wheelchair and is dancing around with himself [YouTube link to live performance by McHale]. I mean, those things we see over and over again, and again on the Christmas episode which sparked this converastion. He gets the ability to use this machine that costs million of dollars and is not going to be available to anybody, this exoskelton which affords him the ability to wlak again, which he does. [?]
[?] The whole Christopher Reeve thing.
[laughter, agreement]
AS: [These whole section is completely incomprehensible to me. What I caught out of it was about Tina and Artie breaking up, something to do with Mike Chang, and then his girlfriend giving him the ability to walk] a kind of emasculation in the protrayal of disability there.
SE: [Something else incomprehensible] The implication is that everybody’s mocking Brittney for being stupid for believing in Santa Claus and her perceived stupidity is a kind of a running joke in the series which definitely makes me uncomfortable in the “dumb blonde stereotype”, that only Brittney would be stupid enough to think that Santa could give him the ability to walk again.
LCL: And it’s played again as comedy. So, as the show that positions itself, and the producers have certainly done this time and time again when the critisims have been brought out, as a quote unquote “progressive show” with a message, and we’ve talked about how that’s not really the case with any of the characters, and I like to get into that a little bit. Why is it perceived as a progressive show? If it’s a show that depicts minorities through a majority lens – I mean, we’ve got non-disabled actors and writers handling a disabled characters, we’ve got white folks writing for Black and Asian folks. Maybe the exception to this rule is Kurt, Ryan Murphy’s alter-ego, why do you think that most people, despite these criticisms, have continued to laud it or applaud it as a progressive show?
SE: Because it’s the majority that gets to decide whether or not it’s progressive. If you compare reviews of Wheels, which got a lot of press, you see a lot of non-disabled people praising the show for sensitive, honest depiction of disability that shows you what it’s like, and you saw a huge swath of the disability community going “Um… no”.
[Multiple: No.]
SE: So, I feel like the dominant majority is– those are the people writing the pressers and giving out the awards and getting to decide what is progressive or not, and it’s notable that a show written and performed through a majority lens, so it’s nice and safe and comfortable for progressives, is [unclear].
LCL: So i’s a safe kind of portrayal, it’s a cookie-cutter form of progressive, it’s something that allows the viewers and the writers and producers feel better about themselves.
CB: That’s right.
TK: As a disbaility rights activists that does not come from the right side of this issue, that’s what I find so insidious about this type of program, because where the vast majority of able-bodied people get their understanding of disability is through this stupid show.
CB That’s right.
LCL: If it’s reinforcing or reiterating the kind of non-sense people already believe, we’re not going to get beyond that.
TK: Which further leads to “it’s better to be dead than to be disabled“, and forces people to make horrific terrible decisions, like going to somebody like Kevorkian for physician-assisted suicide, because the idea of being disabled is just too scary.
AS: And we’re right back at Million Dollar Baby.
CB: That’s what saddens me and perpelexes me so much about this particular show. I thnk TK is right. It’s really insidious because of its position right now in the American vocabulary and how popular it is. It has so much opportunity to do so much good for so many under-represented groups. And you know what? Audiences are smart. They’ll swallow what you give them if its believable. I blame the producers for taking cheap shots and being lazy. Lazy lazy lazy.
LCL: I think most producers probably are lazy. You don’t see a lot of new things coming out of network t.v.; that’s my own critique. Maybe sometimes on cable. There’s Breaking Bad.
SE: Or Friday Night Lights, yes.
LCL: In terms of their portrayal of disability. I would wonder, why do you think that those push backs on, you know, the disability centered critiques have been done on Glee. s.e., I know when we were communicating about the show and doing this program, you said that you received rape threats, death threats, and all sorts of things for critiquing the show and actually writing about it on the blog, people calling you r#tard and all sorts of things. What do you think, and what do others here think, is so scary about people with disabilities challenging the depictions of us in pop culture and mass media?
SE: We’re making the narrative messy. I have had a piece on Glee go up at the Guardian over the summer, and that’s where probably the majority of the rape threats came from; they’re very friendly over there in the comments I must say. What I found is that people have a very simplistic, sacchrine view of disability that Glee reinforces for them, and things get really complicated when you start talking about things like, say, wheelchair users who dance and actually don’t spend every waking moment wishing they could walk again. It deconstructs the narrative to find out that we’re individuals who experience our disability differently. Some of us may hate them, some of us may love them, and people don’t like having their views of minorities complicated that way.
LCL: That;s more nuanced, that takes a lot more work as an audience. You can’t just sit by and passively watch the show, you might actually have to think about it.
SE: You have to engage with it.
LCL: I just wanted to, before we go a little bit further, I just need to say you’re listening to a very special edition of the Largest Minority radio show, on WBAI. I did say that with a wink and a nod just so everybody knows.
AS: Thank you, Lawrence, I’ve always wanted to be special.
CB: I am special.
SE: Where’s Tiny Tim, that’s what I want to know.
LCL: That’s actually not very far, let’s talk about the Christmas episode. It’s actually not very far from Tiny Tim, is it?
ALL: No.
SE: No it is not.
AS: Not being fully aware of all of the American traditions, can somebody just remind me of that movie, is it Miracle on 34th Street–
CB: Which, Tiny Tim?
AS: No, the t.v. movie that plays every year around the holiday season about miracles and the Christmas season.
CB: You mean all of them?
AS: Yes, all of them, oh, It’s a Wonderful Life, that one!
SE: There’s a lot of telvision about that.
AS: And so the thing that really gets me about the Very Special Christmas Episode is this is directly in that tradition. It’s a direct continuation of Christian narrative about sin, illness, miracles, disabilities, healing and cure. It’s that holiday time, we’re right there. I can’t believe they went there, and they did.
LCL: So, right with your eggnog and your fruit cake, you get a cure narrative.
AS: You don’t get a cure narrative, you get… it’s very interesting to me that they don’t heal him, they don’t cure him, they just make him walk. It’s flying a very careful edge, I want to be careful and say it’s not a cure narrative, it’s miraculous.
CB: It’s a miracle.
LCL: So we get the Christmas miracle.
AS: But we don’t get the cure.
SE: And note that the preson who is rewarded in this narrative is the believer, which is a very old Judeo-Christian concept. Everbody mocks the person who believes and in the end she is redeemed for her faith.
LCL: So let me ask you this. We’ve gone around and I want to make sure that everyone, if they have burning questions or burning comments about the show, but I would ask, first, as a contrast, what are some of the things that you’ve either seen, or would like to see, regarding depictions of disablity that we haven’t quite seen yet. What are the options, what are the alternatives, to the kind of things that we’re seeing on Glee that we’re pushing back against and we’d like to see alternatives to?
CB: Lawrence, I just want to say one thing about, it speaks to that, but I’m not giving an example. In July, I participated in a day-long conference with the unions, with AFTRA and SAG, called Lights Camera Access.
LCL: Tell people what AFTRA is.
CB: Oh, it’s the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. I participated in a day long conference with AFRTA and SAG.
LCL: And this was in Hollywood.
CB: This was in Hollywood at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
LCL: The folks who do the Oscars.
CB: Yes, the Emmys, I think. And Glee, the producers of Glee, Ryan Murphy et al, were invited to the table as one of the panels was “best practices”, so we had representatives there from Breaking Bad, and —
LCL: Breaking Bad showed up, Brothers showed up.
CB: I mean, it was amazing, and basically they were talking about their experience in making television with disabled characters and disabled story lines–
LCL: And you even had people from Family Guy.
CB: Yeah, Family Guy showed up.
LCL: So if the cartoon cahracters can join–
CB: Yeah, we did.
SE: And Seth McFarlane is not known for progressiveness.
CB: No!
LCL: Right, but he was willing to have the conversation which says something about him in relation to the producers of Glee.
CB: Right, yes, and it was a very conscious decision on the organizer’s part to ask Ryan Murphy and the other producers of Glee to come to the table. And they chose not to. I don’t know if there was any response or if they just ignored the request but that to me is very telling. That to me tells me that there is something they’re not doing that they know they should be doing that other people are doing successfully. There is no denying that Breaking Bad is incredibly successful and the way that they’ve handled the storyline with RJ Mitte is amazing because it’s understated and it just is part of the fabric of the show.
LCL: Right, so rather that have a converastion with people who know something about the topic, and can have a focused discussin about the issue and take it a step further it seems they might be more inclined sticking with people who don’t know anything about these issues and enforcing the narrative–
CB: That’s right. And we’re tired of preaching to the converted. I mean, we’re all sitting here, all of us here are sitting in the room talking about these things that we talk to each other about all day every day. It would have been nice to have someone like Ryan Murphy sharing practices that those people, like the Breaking Bad people, sharing their best practices with those who could learn something. But, it didn’t happen.
TK: We need to know where he goes to get coffee and just dog him with scripts and ideas and real gimps doing real things.
LCL: Hey, we can sing, we can dance.
SE: I would note too that Glee has actively thumbed its nose at critics. The embedded meta commentary that you see in various episodes, and especially from Mercedes, tends to be kind of the voice of that, but I mean they’ve basically out and out insulted the disability community with some of the lines in the episodes that are basically, I think there’s one eisode where Mercedes basically says “Oh, tee hee, I’m not suposed to do that, am I, because it’s not PC.”
LCL: Oh, right, she was talking about her, and something, she was talking about Artie and she used Handi-Capable or something like that.
CB? AS?: Ha.
SE: So Glee is obviously hearing us, they just don’t care.
LCL: They’ll do the meta-narrative inside the show, critiquing us, but without us actually being at the table. That whole handicapable is bizarre to me because it sounds like a kitchen utensil. It slices, it dices, it makes fries, but it doesn’t really describe us, the real humans tied in to the issues we’re talking about. So, what would you like to see? What is something that you’ve seen? it is the Christmas season, what would you like to see, on a high note, or what have you seen, and what would you like to see more of? Is there enough out there?
SE: More depictions of disability where it’s not the central focus of the character. I mean, I think you have.. oddly enough, and if everbody here watches Private Practice because I think Doctor Fife is a great example of a character who happens to be disabled.
CB: Yes he is.
LCL: There was another character who was back on ER who did a similar thing, back when ER was on.
CB:Who?
LCL: The woman who was post-polio.
CB: Oh yeah, Dawn. That was short-lived. There’s another one and it just went out of my head.
SE: Bonnie on Jerico, played by Shoshannah Stern, is another great character, she actually– she auditioned for a non-disabled role and they liked her so much that they brought her on and made the character deaf, which I thought was so awesome.
CB: CSI.
LCL: CSI with Robert Davis Boel’s character, who is always there. I know shows like Weeds had Linda Bovine as the social worker, and Shosanna in the first season. Basically it’s not described or gone into details about her disability at all, just showing them.
AS: Or even the Private Practice guy.
CB: Yeah, she just said– Oh, she can’t hear. Alice doesn’t have headphones so she didn’t hear what you just said.
LCL: We said Family Guy earlier, what about South Park? Can you do edgy and do disability?
TK: Edgy is good.
LCL: Edgy is good, we can do edgy.
SE: Edgy is good, especially when it’s coming from disabled people who are owning their own experiences.
LCL: I think we saw that even in Family Guy when we had the character with Down Syndrome who was portrayed by a young woman who actually has Down Syndrome. There have bene these steps taken throughout the industry but we haven’t seen shows with the profile or notoriety of Glee taking something on board.
SE: I think something else I would lik to see, Glee’s handling of mental illness is absolutely deplorable. For the most part pop culture depictions of mental illness makes me actually want to throw things at the television.
CB: Yes.
SE: It is so very rarely done at all well, and pretty much every stereotype you can possibly imagine about people with mental ilness being dangerous and scary and sexually promiscuousness and every thing just get thrrown at us,and very rarely do I see out, proud, capable mentally ill characters.
CB: I will say one thing abot the United States of Tara, which is on Showtime, oh I don’t know if anybody has seen this show, but it is about a woman who has DID and they are very proactive. They are proactive in their marketing of really protraying mental illness in an authentic way. They have on their website a lot of information about DID and where people can go to find infomraiton and they have a consultant on the show as a regular employee, all of the time, so I think if you’re going to talk about mental illness you really have to do right, and I think the’re a show doing their due diligence.
SE: I think Six Feet Under, when it was airing, had some really rocky patches wit mental illness, but at other times the depictions were very honest and real, especially, I’m re-watching it right now. In the third season there’s a storyline with Vanessa having depression that I think was done really really well.
LCL: We’ve gotta wrap it up now. Are there any final thoughts you want people going away with, either thinking feeling or doing regarding Glee and Disability on t.v.?
CB: Don’t watch.
LCL: SE, why don’t we start with you first.
SE: Oh gosh. You know, honestly, the outcome I would like from Glee… I would like to talk to Ryan Murphy personally about what he’s doing, and I’d really like him to come to the table with members of the disability community to have serious conversation with representatives of the disabled actors, disabled dancers, to talk about how damaging Glee is and how to fix it. I mean, the show is still airing. It got a renewal for another season. There is time to turn this bus of sadness around.
LCL: That’s your Christmas wish, we’ll sit down with SE and Ryan Murphy. We’ll have TK moderate. Alice?
AS: I want them in the audience for one AXIS show, and then I want their minds completey opened. Short of that, we have to keep watching as a community, we have to keep talking and writing and calling and sharing and pressing because that’s the way change happens.
LCL: So, it’s a popular show, don’t give up on it.
AS: Keep up the fight.
LCL: Christine.
CB: I’d like to see them really meet with some disabled actors and really entertain the thought of casting disabled actors and just listening to the lived experience of what it’s like to be an actor with disability, with other people in the room so at least if they’re not going to cast disabled actors, whatever, they’re doing what they do right.
LCL: So we can do something with a disabled characters so they’re not just stuck in a box the entire episode.
CB: That’s right, change the narrative, please.
LCL: Alright. This is Lawrence Carter Long, TK Small.
TK: I’m really impressed with the conversation we’ve had here. What I’ve taken away from this is there’s important work being done. It may not be possible to fix Glee, but I do believe through advocacy and script writing, and the ideas of performers with disabilities taking on ownership of the craft and the art, and the presentation itself, that positive things will come out of it.
LCL: Thank you, and I think that’s what we’re all hoping to achieve here. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
We've heard rumblings about Acer's curved, 34" G-Sync display since January, and now it's official. The XR341CK sports a 21:9 IPS panel with a 3440×1440 resolution, and it'll be available in September for $1,299.
Although the XR341CK supports variable refresh rates, it tops out at 75Hz, probably due to the IPS panel. The upside is that the display is rated to reproduce 100% of the sRGB gamut, which could make it good for both gaming and graphics editing. The G-Sync module is also said to enable "6-axis color adjustment."
In the "hope there's an off switch" department, Acer says there's a red ambient light on the bottom edge of the display that pulses with variations in the G-Sync refresh rate.
As might be expected of a premium monitor like this one, Acer sweetens the deal with integrated 7-watt stereo speakers and an aluminum base with height and tilt adjustment. The display supports both HDMI and DisplayPort input, and the backlight uses flicker-free tech for reduced eye strain. There's also a USB 3.0 hub onboard, and gamers can choose between three reticle overlays. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
San Antonio Police officers may have averted a mass-shooting at a state mental health hospital after an employee allegedly entered the facility while armed. The employee also reportedly had a “hit list” in his possession, along with a journal.
Officials with the San Antonio State Hospital called police after an employee reported seeing a weapon in another employee’s bag. The employees also said the man made what they interpreted as threatening comments, Fox29 San Antonio reported.
A police report conveyed to the local Fox affiliate by an unidentified source states that responding officers found a “loaded gun, ammunition, and a journal.”
Fox29 reports that U.S. Army officials told them the man is a member of the Texas National Guard. Hospital officials claim the man is scheduled to be deployed to Africa in the next few weeks.
The 29-year-old man, who is not being identified for health privacy reasons, allegedly told staff members he would be, “wearing a mask and cutting off power to the State Hospital.”
One of the entries in the man’s journal reportedly said, “I am a peaceful person, but there is a storm brewing inside of me.”
He later said, “people don’t understand how being deployed causes ‘f——‘ changes in people,” hospital staff told the source.
Police reportedly “emergency detained” the man and turned him over to the custody of State Hospital doctors and staff. No charges have been filed in the case at this time, Fox29 stated.
Employees of the hospital told the Fox29 reporter that firearms are not permitted inside the hospital. Despite this “gun-free zone” designation, the employee managed to bring the gun and ammunition inside the hospital for an entire shift before it was discovered.
Information about the man’s status to legally own or carry a firearm has not been reported.
State Hospital officials responded to questions about the gun and ammunition and said, “Our policy remains that staff are prohibited from carrying firearms onto campus. We do not search our employees as they enter their workplace.” Officials also disclosed they do not have a policy to disclose information about their patients to U.S. military officials.
Visitors to the State Hospital are required to pass through a metal detector before entering the facility.
Texas National Guard officials did not confirm to Fox29 any information about the man’s status with their organization. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — It’s the “right thing” for every Pennsylvania county to buy new voting machines in time for the 2020 presidential election to give voters confidence in the balloting, Gov. Tom Wolf said, although he acknowledged that it is a costly proposition.
The governor, a Democrat, told The Associated Press on Friday that one of the biggest challenges his administration faces in the matter is helping counties afford an estimated tab of $125 million.
It is, he said, “a big, big purchase.”
ADVERTISEMENT
With a large number of voting machines that do not create an auditable paper trail, Pennsylvania is viewed as one of the most vulnerable states after federal authorities say Russian hackers targeted it and at least 20 others during the 2016 presidential election.
In April, Wolf gave counties a deadline of 2020 to switch to voting machines that leave a paper trail. His administration has suggested that it could decertify all of the machines in use after 2019′s election.
“I think one of the big challenges we have is to make this affordable,” Wolf said in an interview in his Capitol office. “It’s something that I believe most counties understand. We’ve got to make sure that voters, when they go to the polls, feel comfortable, that there is a paper trail, that they have some way of making sure that their vote is actually being counted and I think this is important.”
Among those calling for states to buy machines with a verifiable and auditable ballot by 2020 is Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Wolf said the federal government should contribute more than the $14 million it has committed and vendors “need to have some skin in the game” by providing financing that allows counties to pay in installments over time.
Wolf has committed to asking lawmakers for state aid to cover at least half of the cost. That proposal will be part of the budget plan he delivers to lawmakers on Feb. 5. He declined to say precisely how much he will seek, or why he won’t ask lawmakers to cover the entire cost, minus the federal money.
“I think we have to continue to have a conversation,” Wolf said. “But we’ve laid out the 50 percent just to say, ‘OK, here’s sort of what we’re thinking of.’ ... The goal is to make this as painless as possible for the counties, and as easy as possible to do the right thing.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Pennsylvania is one of 13 states where some or all voters use machines that store votes electronically without printed ballots or other paper-based backups that could be used to double-check the vote, according to researchers at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice.
Four in five Pennsylvania voters use electronic voting machines that lack an auditable paper trail. Wolf’s administration wants every voting machine replaced, including machines that scan paper ballots because those systems lack the availability of technical support and don’t meet current prevailing standards for accessibility and security, state officials said.
So far, two counties — Susquehanna and Montgomery — have notified the state of plans to buy new machines.
Wolf’s administration has asked vendors to propose their best pricing and financing arrangements for the counties, including leasing proposals and pricing for 3-year, 5-year and 8-year purchase plans.
Wolf also has asked Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation to push for more federal money.
In August, Republicans in the U.S. Senate, including Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, blocked a proposal for another $250 million, on top of $380 million approved earlier in the year. Democratic Sen. Bob Casey supported the additional money, and said Monday that he would continue to push for more federal aid. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Opposition leader Ches Crosbie is calling for the auditor general to investigate how the government missed a deadline to cap vegetation around the Muskrat Falls reservoir to reduce the risk of methylmercury getting into the food chain.
"There has been a rupture in relations with Indigenous communities as a result of the government's failure to adhere to the agreement they made with them to do the wetland capping," Crosbie said Tuesday in St. John's.
Was there bad faith in this, or was it simply incompetence? - Ches Crosbie
He noted cabinet ministers and the premier have said there was an unspecified "miscommunication" and it got too late to cap prior to Nalcor's flooding of the reservoir in early August.
"[It represents] a state of failure in our ability to negotiate with, talk to and reconcile with one of the important Indigenous groups in the province," said Crosbie, who said he did not directly consult with those groups before making the request.
"This is a way forward to try and heal that rift," he said.
Public money involved
However, that the miscommunication involved spending $30 million of public money and an offer of compensation if methylmercury levels rise and people can't eat as much country food are also of major concern to Crosbie.
"There is an overarching public interest in getting to the bottom of this, just purely from a financial administration viewpoint, and that's where the auditor general properly gets engaged," he said.
Water at the Lower Churchill River buried trees Aug. 13 as Nalcor flooded the reservoir to generate electricity at Muskrat Falls. (Jacob Barker/CBC)
To further his argument, Crosbie referenced the commissioner of the Muskrat Falls public inquiry calling the gaps in evidence as to how the government missed the deadline "confounding."
"Was there bad faith in this, or was it simply incompetence?" he asked.
Crosbie asks committee to engage AG
An independent expert advisory committee comprising representatives from Indigenous groups that live downstream of the project unanimously recommended wetland capping as a way to mitigate any risks posed by reservoir flooding, at a cost of $30 million.
The risks are associated with country food like fish becoming contaminated as trees and other vegetation at the reservoir break down during flooding, releasing methylmercury into the ecosystem.
That issue remains deeply concerning to the Nunatsiavut government, which unlike the Innu Nation and NunatuKavut, did not accept its $10-million share of the $30 million earmarked for capping to use as they see fit.
Nunatsiavut described that offer as "hush money," which Crosbie referenced Tuesday, adding "most people would say that it certainly does seem to have that appearance."
The government said capping could prevent methylmercury levels from rising by two per cent, so it did not have a significant effect, and levels will be continuously monitored.
Crosbie has asked the Liberal-majority public accounts committee to trigger an auditor general investigation, looking at relevant documents from July 2018 to February 2019, when cabinet said it realized it was too late to conduct wetland capping. That committee is chaired by Tory MHA Kevin Parsons, who told CBC News he will take the request to his fellow committee members in September.
Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Service dog shot and killed
A Florida police officer has been placed on administrative leave after shooting a service dog that was assisting its owner who was having a seizure. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Hi all, I hope that this will function as a quick round-up for all of the slightly less covered rugby events of the week, of which there has... | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A former US Department of Justice (DOJ) ethics adviser has joined leading members of the US legal community in calling on Congress to investigate the destruction of tape recordings of interrogations carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Jesselyn Radack who came to prominence as a whistleblower after she objected to the government’s treatment of John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban" captured during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan told a news teleconference last week that the destroyed tapes are "part of a pattern." She said, "There are some five million missing White House e-mails. No one knows where the hit lists are from the US Attorney massacre. And now the CIA interrogation videotapes have been erased. This is criminal."
"Remember when the Justice Department prosecuted Enron and Arthur Anderson for destruction of evidence and obstruction of justice? Now the Justice Department is trying to block congressional oversight and legal proceedings involving this latest scandal," Radack added.
Radack’s comments came during the launch of a new campaign, "American Lawyers Defending the Constitution." The effort is backed by a statement signed by more than 1,300 lawyers and law students around the country, including former New York governor Mario Cuomo, former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein, leaders of legal organizations and more than 100 law professors in the US.
Their statement calls on House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy to hold wide-ranging hearings to investigate "unconstitutional and potentially criminal activity by the Bush Administration."
The "TapeGate" furor erupted after the New York Times revealed in early December that the CIA in 2005 had destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two al-Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, "a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret detention program, according to current and former government officials." The CIA subsequently announced the program.
The videotapes showed agency operatives subjecting terrorism suspects including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in CIA custody to severe interrogation techniques in 2002. In a message to his staff, CIA Director General Michael V. Hayden reportedly said the tapes were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that the video showing harsh interrogation methods could expose agency officials to legal risks. He also said the tapes no longer had intelligence value.
The destruction of the tapes has raised questions about whether CIA officials withheld information from Congress, the courts and the Sep. 11 commission about aspects of the program.
The CIA program that included the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects began after the capture of Zubaydah in March 2002. The CIA has said that the DOJ and the executive branch reviewed and approved of the use of a set of harsh techniques before they were used on any prisoners, and that the DOJ issued a classified legal opinion in August 2002 that provided explicit authorization for their use.
Other participants on the telephone press conference included Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a legal advocacy group, and Marjorie Cohn, president of the 6,000-member National Lawyers Guild.
Ratner, whose organization has played a major role in providing defense lawyers for detainees in Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere, underscored the importance of congressional action. "For far too long Congress has been the handmaiden of the Bush administration’s undermining and subversion of basic constitutional rights. The right to be free from torture; warrantless wiretapping; jailing without habeas corpus; and disappearances into secret sites. Principles going back to the Magna Carta are at stake," he said.
Ratner called on Congress to "do its job: defend the Constitution from its enemies." "Its enemies are the Bush administration," he stressed.
"Just announcing that investigations will be held and subpoenas will be issued is terribly insufficient unless Congress is willing to enforce the subpoenas by issuing contempt citations," Ratner said, emphasizing that, "Congress has a constitutional duty to oversee the activities of the executive branch, and our entire system of government is threatened when Congress simply folds before an obstinate executive."
Cohn, author of the recently published book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law, told IPS, "From the illegal war in Iraq, to the illegal torture of prisoners in US custody, to the illegal destruction of evidence by the CIA, the Bush administration has become an institution of lawbreakers. Congress must hold hearings to investigate this lawbreaking, and should authorize the appointment of an independent prosecutor since Michael Mukasey cannot be counted on to conduct an impartial investigation."
Radack rose to prominence as a major whistleblower in the Lindh case. In the course of Lindh’s criminal prosecution, the court ordered all documents associated with his interrogation to be turned over. After some documents were turned over, Radack was asked about the existence of more documents. At that time, she looked through the files and discovered that the bulk of her work was missing and had not been turned over. Radack was able to reconstruct much of her work, and informed her supervisor that her department had not complied with the court order.
She was forced to resign before the documents were turned over. A criminal investigation into Radack’s actions was eventually closed with no charges, but her case was referred to the state bar of Maryland, which eventually cleared her of all wrongdoing. She has never been called to testify before Congress.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it had no knowledge that Lindh was represented by a lawyer prior to his interrogation, but this position appears to be contradicted by material in Radack’s files.
Radack told the news conference, "My e-mails documented my advice against interrogating Lindh without a lawyer, and concluded that the FBI committed an ethics violation when it did so anyway. Both the CIA videotapes and my e-mails were destroyed, in part, because officials were concerned that they documented controversial interrogation methods that could put agency officials in legal jeopardy."
In a related development, one of America’s leading constitutional scholars said White House involvement in the CIA’s decision to destroy videotapes documenting severe interrogation techniques of suspected terrorists could constitute as many as six crimes.
Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University law school in Washington, appeared on CNN to discuss a report by the New York Times that four White House attorneys including then-White House counsels Alberto Gonzales and Harriet Miers participated in discussions with the CIA about whether or not the tapes should be destroyed.
Turley said, "There are at least six identifiable crimes here, from obstruction of justice to obstruction of Congress, perjury, conspiracy, false statements, and what is often forgotten: the crime of torturing suspects." "If that crime was committed it was a crime that would conceivably be ordered by the president himself, only the president can order those types of special treatments or interrogation techniques," he added. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Childhood obesity in America is on the rise, and at rates higher than previous studies suggested, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
Those findings emerged after researchers analyzed federal data from the latest National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the “gold standard” in childhood and fitness research which every two years collects data about adult and children obesity across the country.
In 1999, according to this survey, more than a quarter — about 29 percent — of children ages 2 to 19 were overweight. By 2016, that figure rose to 35 percent, according to the latest analysis, and about one in five children are obese.
“There’s a misconception that obesity as a problem is on a decline … That’s very much not the case.”
Asheley Cockrell Skinner, an associate professor at Duke University and lead study author who has worked with these data for more than a decade, said she has seen in her research that “once a kid has developed obesity, it’s a lot harder to change it. It’s much easier to prevent obesity than it is to reverse it.”
What distressed Skinner most in her research, she said, was the fact that she couldn’t “even find a subgroup of age or gender or race where there seemed to be real improvement.”
The largest increases in obesity were seen among children ages 2 to 5. And the risk was highest among teens age 16 to 19 and the Hispanic population. In these groups, four out of 10 children were at risk of being overweight, the most recent survey results showed.
In recent years, researchers thought they saw the first signs of a turnaround in the nation’s struggle to control obesity and the chronic illnesses often tied to excessive weight gain, such as diabetes and hypertension. In 2011 and 2012, a decline in obesity among preschool boys was reported based on that cycle’s NHANES survey data.
That good news came on the heels of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s launch of the Let’s Move campaign, among other efforts designed to encourage the nation’s youth to eat healthier foods and exercise more.
This latest batch of data suggests those finding, may have been overhyped, Skinner said, adding that obesity may be the “biggest threat to our children’s health.”
“There’s a misconception that obesity as a problem is on a decline,” Skinner said. “That’s very much not the case.”
So what’s the problem? That’s the question that’s eluded researchers for decades. It’s more complicated than energy in-energy out, said Tom Baranowski, a psychologist who has tried to develop ways to prevent pediatric obesity since the 1980s. This latest study underscores that idea, said Baranowski, who is now with the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “Clearly, that’s evidence that the extensive amount of efforts expended nationally is not working.”
“The research needs to be more sophisticated, and we need to incorporate more biological perspectives into what we’re doing for obesity.”
“The research needs to be more sophisticated, and we need to incorporate more biological perspectives into what we’re doing for obesity,” he said.
In an editorial that appeared in Pediatrics with the study, David Ludwig, who studies nutrition and obesity at Children’s Hospital in Boston, said cautioned against “overinterpreting short-term trends for complex chronic diseases,” but wrote that public health solutions to obesity “have largely failed so far.”
One positive step from lawmakers in Washington, Ludwig wrote, would be forming “an interagency commission on obesity to align food policy with public health and current science.” He also recommended re-evaluating school lunch standards and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to put more emphasis on ‘nutritional quality, not just quantity.”
“The battle against childhood obesity faces many obstacles, most notably entrenched special interests and a ‘business as usual’ mindset,” Ludwig wrote. “But with political will and collaboration across key sectors of society, we can hopefully, soon, begin to end this worsening epidemic.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
X-men Supreme Official Blog.
Home to updates for the X-men Supreme fanfiction series. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
I just want one Arizona Sports team to do well FUCK ME, RIGHT?
965 shares | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Great for digestion
This is a great product for growing your microbiome. I mix it with A2 milk Kefir and plain yogurt. Tastes great. Would definitely recommend combining this with other strong probiotics. Make sure the probiotics you buy will be able to ferment the types of fiber in this product (resistant starch, inulin and fructo-oligosaccharides) i believe. Be sure to combine this product with intermittent fasting to lessen bad bacteria and feed the good guys. Additionally, i have found hummus to be prebiotic as well. In addition to this product, look into the turpentine pure gum spirits protocol to remove harmful parasites from the GI tract. Works perfectly.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
When Epic Games first announced Unreal Engine 3 was coming to the iPhone, it had a very special surprise: you could download a tech demo and try it for yourself. This was no magic trick; the Epic Citadel demo showed just how good games could look on iOS devices.
Epic Citadel was just a look around a virtual environment, and now we have the first trailer for the game itself. Called Infinity Blade, it looks... well, check it out:
We don't have a specific release date or a price, but this is one of the most impressive things we've seen running on the hardware to date. It would be hard to believe if the tech demo wasn't already in our hands, in fact. Graphics aren't everything—hopefully there will be a fun game connected to these visuals—but they do help to make an impression.
Why haven't we seen anything like this in the past? Epic Games knows how to get the most out of its own engine, obviously, but consumers are also price conscious; it's not worth spending the time and money to make a graphically intensive game if players are going to balk at a price over $2. How expensive will this be if Epic is looking to make a profit instead of just a point? We can't wait to find out. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Economy in Fascist Italy
Citation: C N Trueman "The Economy in Fascist Italy"
historylearningsite.co.uk . The History Learning Site, . 18 Sep 2020 . | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Earlier this week, a pair of transactions brought the 2010 NFL draft back into the spotlight. After spending the first nine seasons of his career with the Buccaneers, former no. 3 overall pick Gerald McCoy was released by Tampa Bay on Monday. A day later, the team signed Ndamukong Suh—who, coincidentally, was taken one pick ahead of McCoy in 2010—to a one-year contract. Nearly a decade after they were drafted back to back, Suh will replace McCoy in the middle of Tampa Bay’s defense.
It’s an odd sequence of events for two players who’ve long been linked and measured against one another. It’s also just the latest NFL headline involving players from the 2010 draft class—from stars like Suh and McCoy to Antonio Brown, Rob Gronkowski, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Eric Berry, and others. With so many members of that group still in the news almost 10 years after entering the league, I decided to examine some of the ways the 2010 class shaped—and continues to shape—the league.
1. As the last class before the new CBA was implemented, the financial impact of this group’s rookie contracts affected teams in ways we’ll likely never see again. Since the rookie wage scale was introduced ahead of the 2011 season, rookie contracts have been the most valuable commodity in the NFL—but that wasn’t the case before the current CBA. Players taken outside the top half of the draft’s first round still had cheap first deals; if you compare the contract of Derrick Morgan (taken 16th overall in 2010) and that of Ryan Kerrigan (taken 16th overall in 2011), the difference in their average annual values was only about $800,000. Look at the players at the top of the draft, though, and the gap widens significantly. Cam Newton, the no. 1 overall pick in 2011, carried an AAV of $5.5 million over the first four years of his deal. Sam Bradford, who was selected first overall the previous year, had an AAV of $11 million.
During Bradford’s second season, his $12.5 million cap hit accounted for 10.1 percent of the Rams’ salary cap. Compare that with Baker Mayfield who, as a fellow no. 1 pick entering his second year, will account for just 3 percent of the Browns’ 2019 salary cap. That difference is massive, and Bradford’s contract negatively impacted the Rams for years. By the time the 2014 season began—Bradford’s last on his rookie deal—the Rams were spending a higher percentage of their cap on quarterbacks than all but two other teams (the Steelers and Giants). And unlike Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning, Bradford wasn’t a Super Bowl–winning passer with a proven track record that spanned more than a decade. He was an injury-prone QB who’d never averaged more than 6.7 yards per attempt in a season.
The 2014 campaign—which Bradford missed entirely because of a torn ACL—was his fifth in the league. Under today’s CBA, fifth-year options ensure that players taken in the top 10 are expensive by that point, as options amount to the transition tag at their position. But even with Jared Goff’s salary on the books for 2020, the Rams are still slated to have only the 12th-largest QB payroll in the league. And unlike the situation with Bradford, these Rams benefited from several years of paying Goff well below the league average price for a starting quarterback.
Bradford’s deal may have been onerous, but no team felt the collective crush of the old CBA’s structure more recently than the Lions. Of the final four drafts before the new CBA was put into place, Detroit picked in the top two on three occasions: The team took Calvin Johnson in 2007, Matthew Stafford in 2009, and Suh in 2010. It didn’t take long before the combined weight of those contracts forced the Lions to make desperate, short-sighted moves to fill in the roster around their young stars. Suh played only two seasons before Detroit restructured his five-year, $64.5 million contract for the first time. By converting about $10 million of Suh’s base salary into a signing bonus, the Lions were able to free up enough space to sign a handful of free agents (including Reggie Bush and Glover Quin) while also working out an extension for Johnson. The following year, they did it again, turning $11.5 million of Suh’s base salary into a signing bonus.
Converting base salaries into signing bonuses is a common practice in the NFL, but the tactic has recently been reserved for players on sizable second and third deals—not for guys entering their third season in the league. The problem with kicking the financial can down the road is that eventually, a team still has to pay up, and thanks in part to a $6.3 million restructure bonus, Suh’s cap hit in 2014 was a whopping $22.41 million, which accounted for 17 percent of the Lions’ cap that season. For reference, no team in 2019 will have a quarterback room that accounts for more than 16.1 percent.
Suh was excellent during his first several seasons with the Lions, but when a team’s best young players don’t provide value on their rookie deals, it makes franchises’ financial situations significantly more difficult to build around—especially compared with other teams that hit on picks outside the top 10 and get bargains in the process. Detroit faced that problem for years, and contracts like Suh’s and Bradford’s were some of the pitfalls the NFL was trying to avoid when the rookie salary scale was put into place.
2. Home run drafts for several teams helped mold the NFL’s most recent class of contenders. The Patriots, Seahawks, and Steelers—arguably the league’s three most successful franchises this decade—used that year’s draft to land players that would define an entire era. And strangely enough, those teams all did it in a similar way: by landing an excellent player in the first round and stumbling into an unlikely star a bit later in the draft.
For New England, that combination consisted of defensive back Devin McCourty, who was taken with the 27th pick, and tight end Rob Gronkowski, who the team got in the second round. Pittsburgh landed center Maurkice Pouncey with the 18th pick and found wide receiver Antonio Brown a staggering 177 picks later. And Seattle got safety Earl Thomas with the 14th pick and safety Kam Chancellor in the fifth round (no. 133 overall). Beyond hitting on those picks, the 2010 draft also provided some insight into the team-building strategies that allowed all three teams to be so successful over the past decade.
During his time with New England, Gronkowski became not only the best tight end of his generation but possibly the greatest to ever play the position. The Patriots have long been successful at finding overlooked assets in the draft, but the way they implemented Gronkowski speaks to the true genius of their offensive approach. With Gronkowski (and Aaron Hernandez, who was taken in the fourth round of the same draft), New England crafted a two-tight-end system that allowed Gronk to use his versatility as he lined up all over the field. The Patriots have always been creative with formations and concepts that buck current NFL trends—just like last season, when they thrived without top receivers, instead relying on their stable of running backs in the passing game. And though Gronkowski probably would have found success no matter where he landed, the Pats’ approach allowed him to reach unimaginable heights.
Sign up for the The Ringer Newsletter Email (required) By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice and European users agree to the data transfer policy. Subscribe
The same is true for both Thomas and Chancellor, who landed in the best defensive back development system in the modern NFL. Thomas had the makings of a star either way, but Pete Carroll and his staff’s ability to mold players like Chancellor (and Richard Sherman, who was drafted in the fifth round a year later) into top-flight defenders formed the basis for Seattle’s dominance.
The Steelers’ draftees also benefited from Pittsburgh’s existing player development system. Over the past nine years, the Steelers have consistently employed top offensive line coaches. Pouncey spent the first three seasons of his career (during which he made three straight Pro Bowl trips and was a first-team All Pro selection) working with coach Sean Kugler, who most recently orchestrated a running game that finished no. 5 in DVOA last season in Denver. (Kugler is currently the Cardinals offensive line coach.) Kugler was eventually replaced by Mike Munchak, a Hall of Fame player who’s considered maybe the league’s top offensive line instructor. The Steelers’ ability to identify and cultivate talent up front has been part of their foundation in recent years, and that reputation began with Pouncey.
The only position where Pittsburgh has a better reputation for unearthing greatness is wide receiver, and the 2010 group was the team’s masterpiece. Finding Emmanuel Sanders in the third round (no. 82 overall) would’ve been impressive on its own, and that’s before you remember they also got Antonio Brown. Brown isn’t just the most valuable draft pick from his own class—he’s among the most valuable draft picks in NFL history. Grabbing a player capable of amassing six straight 100-catch seasons late in the sixth round is the sort of move that can transform an entire offense, and that’s precisely what Brown did during his time in Pittsburgh.
3. But no matter a player’s Hall of Fame credentials, the 2010 class is proof that recent splits have been messy for high-priced veterans. Some members of this class have gotten to play their entire careers for the teams that drafted them. McCourty is in the final year of his deal, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him wind up back in New England. And players like Geno Atkins, Brandon Graham, Trent Williams, and Bryan Bulaga are still in their original homes. But for many of the stars taken at the top of the draft, the past year has been a reminder that, more than ever before, teams are looking to get cheaper and younger at the expense of aging veterans.
McCoy was a staple of the Bucs’ organization for nine seasons; he went to six Pro Bowls over that time and hasn’t finished with fewer than five sacks in a season since 2013. Even last year, in his age-30 season, McCoy finished with 38 disrupted dropbacks in 14 games, which ranked 19th among interior defenders, according to Pro Football Focus. Still, McCoy’s $13 million cap hit was clearly too much for the Bucs to justify, especially considering their lack of cap space (less than $1 million before McCoy’s release, according to Over the Cap). Replacing McCoy with Suh is a curious use of resources, but even a few million bucks (assuming Suh’s contract is smaller than McCoy’s would have been—the details of his deal have yet to be released) matters to a team that’s as strapped for cash as Tampa Bay.
The divorce between Thomas and the Seahawks was even uglier. Thomas started the 2018 season in a holdout after Seattle refused to extend him over the summer, and he ended that standoff only to break his leg in Week 4 and effectively end his tenure with the team. As Thomas was carted off the field in the fourth quarter of a 20-17 win over Arizona, he famously flipped the bird to the Seattle sideline.
Messy splits between beloved players and their teams aren’t a new occurrence in the NFL, but teams have more incentive than ever to jettison expensive veterans in favor of younger options. It’s no accident that in a single offseason, Thomas, Berry, Brown, Suh, and McCoy will all change teams. Brown’s move may have been through a trade, but rest assured, if he were five years younger and not looking for a market-setting deal—like the one he got with Oakland—the return would have been much more than third- and fifth-round picks. Even Gronk wasn’t immune to the NFL’s cost-cutting ways. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported last September that the Patriots and Lions had been deep in trade talks to send the tight end to Detroit, only for the negotiations to unravel.
The 2010 class is in a fascinating position as it relates to the NFL’s new financial priorities. Its best players have been around just long enough to achieve legendary status at a time when teams have shown they believe that accomplished veterans are less valuable than ever when constructing a roster. That expendability led to plenty of animosity this spring, and that isn’t likely to slow down in the future.
4. The considerable number of late bloomers from 2010 show just how crucial situation can be to a player’s career. Many productive guys from this class only hit their stride after landing with a new team or regime. Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham is a perfect example. Originally drafted no. 13 overall by the Eagles as a defensive end for then-defensive coordinator Sean McDermott’s 4-3 system, Graham was relegated to backup duty in his first few seasons. In 2012, he broke out for 5.5 sacks and the highest pass rush productivity in the NFL among edge defenders who played at least 20 percent of their team’s snaps. But the following season, first-year coach Chip Kelly brought a 3-4 defense to Philadelphia and Graham was marginalized yet again. It took until the arrival of Jim Schwartz in 2016—Graham’s fifth coordinator in seven years—for him to finally reach his ceiling. That season, Graham finished with 83 disrupted dropbacks (third among edge defenders) and 17 QB hits (tied for second among edge defenders). In his three seasons under Schwartz, Graham has emerged as one of the most effective per-snap rushers in the league and became a Super Bowl hero in 2018 before earning a three-year, $40 million contract this offseason.
Graham’s roundabout path to success isn’t unique among his draft mates. Schwartz also transformed the career of pass rusher Jerry Hughes, who was taken by the Colts at no. 31 and considered a bust before being traded to the Bills in 2013. After a breakout first year in Buffalo, Hughes turned in the best season of his career in 2014 (61 disrupted dropbacks, good for 13th among edge defenders). This offseason, Buffalo gave Hughes a two-year, $23 million deal with almost the entire contract guaranteed.
Under Jeff Fisher, the Rams were ready to let guard Rodger Saffold walk in free agency. But after agreeing to a deal with the Raiders, he failed a physical and returned to the Rams—only to turn in the best years of his career under Sean McVay. Saffold has emerged as one of the best guards in the league, and this spring, he got paid like one, earning a four-year, $44 million deal from the Titans. Golden Tate also got a third contract this offseason, when he received $23 million guaranteed from the Giants after the team traded Odell Beckham Jr. to the Browns. Tate spent the first four years of his career in the Seahawks’ run-heavy offense before blossoming as a slot receiver in Detroit, where he finished with more than 1,000 yards three times while emerging as the best yards-after-catch wide receiver in the NFL. Collectively, the group is an ideal example of how important the right coaching staff and infrastructure can be for even talented players to find their footing.
5. The 2010 class is a reminder that QB purgatory plagued plenty of the teams in the not-so-distant past—and fear of it still affects how organizations think today. As teams around the NFL are deciding whether to pay their QB upwards of $30 million per season, some have questioned why certain organizations—like the Cowboys—wouldn’t take their chances in the draft to find their next cheap passer. In a vacuum, that approach has its merits. There’s a reasonable chance that the gap between Dak Prescott and a highly drafted QB would be small enough to justify the extra $25 million or so in cap flexibility the Cowboys would gain. But we’re talking about an NFL team here. Risk-taking and trailblazing typically aren’t top priorities. Most of the teams around the league may be set at QB right now, either with an established veteran or a starter in the early, inexpensive years of his rookie deal, but it wasn’t long ago that a significant portion of the league was desperately looking for an answer at the sport’s most important position.
After Bradford was taken no. 1 overall in 2010, two other QBs were taken within the first 50 picks: Florida’s Tim Tebow (no. 25 overall) and Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen (no. 48 overall). That pair started a combined 30 games in their careers. Clausen threw twice as many interceptions (14) as touchdowns (seven). Tebow completed 47.9 percent of his passes. Clausen was bad enough as a rookie that when the Panthers earned the no. 1 pick in 2011, they didn’t hesitate to take Newton. That year, three quarterbacks were drafted after Newton in the first round: Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert, and Christian Ponder. There’s no doubt that quarterback play is more efficient than ever and young passers are coming into the league ready to step in immediately, but the NFL’s decision-makers aren’t that far removed from a time when finding a rookie QB wasn’t easy. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
By Liz Moomey
[email protected]
SALISBURY — A film production company will scout locations for an independent feature produced and written by Kevin Willmont, known for his collaborations with director Spike Lee, including on last year’s “BlacKkKlansman.”
The film will be based on the Houston riot of 1917, also known as the Camp Logan riot, which involved 156 soldiers with the all-black Army’s 3rd Battalion. The overnight riot on Aug. 27, 1917, left four soldiers and 14 civilians dead.
The film will be racially sensitive, according to Linda McElroy, the city’s communication director, but it will not reflect on Salisbury. Salisbury was chosen for filming because it has an excellent backdrop of historic preservation, she said.
The production staff has begun visiting locations in Salisbury, notably the Depot and a home in the Brooklyn South Square neighborhood, McElroy said. Businesses may be used for filming and would be compensated if it affects sales.
Production of the film will begin in early June and take 20 days, if there are no delays.
The film will bring more than 70 people to Salisbury. Local residents will be hired as extras and may audition for small parts in the movie.
McElroy said having a film shot in Salisbury is a great thing and will be an economic boost, bringing money and jobs to the city. It also may encourage future filmmakers to choose Salisbury as its set.
The film crew is working with the city to obtain a special events permit and also working with the Salisbury Police Department.
McElroy said the city will be diligent in letting residents know through Nixle, social media and news media about the possible impact filming will have on traffic.
The names of the film or the production company have not been released. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Andre Iguodala to re-sign with Warriors for 3 years, $48 million
OAKLAND, CA - JUNE 15: Andre Iguodala #9 of the Golden State Warriors talks to the fans while they celebrate the Warriors 2017 NBA Championship at The Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center during thier Victory Parade and Rally on June 15, 2017 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) less OAKLAND, CA - JUNE 15: Andre Iguodala #9 of the Golden State Warriors talks to the fans while they celebrate the Warriors 2017 NBA Championship at The Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center during thier Victory ... more Photo: Thearon W. Henderson, Getty Images Photo: Thearon W. Henderson, Getty Images Image 1 of / 105 Caption Close Andre Iguodala to re-sign with Warriors for 3 years, $48 million 1 / 105 Back to Gallery
Andre Iguodala has long been skeptical of media. Saturday night, after agreeing to re-sign with the Warriors, the 33-year-old swingman broke the news himself.
“Sources close to Andre Iguodala reporting agreed to terms to return to the bay....,” Iguodala tweeted.
Though the terms of the deal haven’t been announced, reports indicate that it is for three years and roughly $48 million, guaranteed. Golden State, which met with Iguodala in Los Angeles on Saturday, reportedly upped its offer from three years, $45 million to close the deal.
Iguodala chose the Warriors over multiyear offers from the Rockets, Spurs and Kings. That the three years on Golden State’s offer are guaranteed was big given that the Warriors had initially wanted to sign him to a two-year deal, which would have ensured money is available when Klay Thompson’s contract ends in 2019.
A budding entrepreneur, Iguodala spent much of the first day of free agency putting pressure on Golden State to improve its offer. He reportedly met with San Antonio after reaching out to the Spurs, Houston, Sacramento and the Lakers. According to ESPN’s site the Undefeated, the meeting with the Rockets was “excellent.”
To offer him a competitive deal, Houston would likely have needed to free up salary, and it appears unlikely that Iguodala landed the big offer ($20 million per year) he sought. Entering his 14th season in the league, this could be his last chance for a lucrative NBA contract.
Re-signing Iguodala was the most pressing question facing the Warriors. They had already agreed to bring back Stephen Curry on a record-setting five-year, $201 million deal, Shaun Livingston on a three-year, $24 million contract and David West on a one-year deal for the veteran minimum of $2.3 million.
To ensure Golden State had flexibility in negotiations with Iguodala, Kevin Durant is waiting to re-sign with the team. Reports surfaced as early as Friday night that, had they not been able to bring back Iguodala, the Warriors may have targeted Rudy Gay. In 30 games with Sacramento last season, Gay averaged 18.7 points and 6.3 rebounds before tearing his right Achilles tendon in January.
The leader of Golden State’s second unit the past three seasons, Iguodala is a savvy facilitator and a defensive stopper. Iguodala’s plus-minus average of 6.9 topped NBA reserves who played at least 50 games.
With 261 assists, 76 steals and 58 turnovers, he finished the regular season No. 1 in the NBA in assists per turnover (4.5 to 1) and No. 7 among players who played at least 70 games in steals per turnover (1.31 to 1). Iguodala, who was a finalist for Sixth Man of the Year, had 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting in Golden State’s championship-clinching Game 5 win.
Recommended Video:
As of Saturday night, the Warriors had 10 players secured for next season: Iguodala, Curry, Livingston, West, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Patrick McCaw, Damian Jones, Kevon Looney and rookie Jordan Bell. In addition to Durant, Zaza Pachulia, Ian Clark, JaVale McGee, Matt Barnes and James Michael McAdoo are still free agents.
Golden State will have to pay luxury taxes next season, which start when a team’s payroll reaches $119 million. It is worth it to a Warriors ownership group intent on competing for a championship for years to come.
Twenty-four hours into free agency, Golden State has accomplished its primary objective: keep its core together.
Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Con_Chron | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Top amateur female golfers from around the world will descend on Red Deer next summer.
The 2019 Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship, which is considered Canada’s oldest golf championship according to Golf Canada, is taking place at the Red Deer Golf and Country Club (RDGCC) from July 22nd to 26th.
RDGCC General Manager Don McFarlane said the golf club applied for the prestigious championship because the club was ‘well-suited’ for it.
“We think it is a good fit for the golf course and will bring higher exposure to the community and our course,” he said. “We like that there are more international competitors in it. That appealed to us.”
As a private facility, McFarlane said the club is obligated to host certain provincial or national events, “As a way of growing the game and giving back to the game.”
In 2018, 156 top female amateur players from 14 different countries participated in the tournament.
Canadian professional golfer Brooke Henderson, who is a Ladies Professional Golf Association star and considered to be one of the top female golfers in the world, won the championship in 2013.
Coordinator of Competitions with Golf Canada Dan Hyatt said Golf Canada ensures the event is held at different locations across Canada each year. Last year, the tournament was hosted at Marine Drive Golf and Country Club in Vancouver. In 2019, hosting the event falls to Alberta.
“The Red Deer Golf and Country Club put in a bid and they were the successful applicant,” Hyatt said. “They’ve got a lot of history with holding provincial championships and have people on their staff who have worked some big events. We couldn’t have picked a better spot to host this year’s championship.”
Outside of Alberta, Red Deer’s golf club, “Is considered a hidden gem,” he said.
“It has got potential. There is a lot of character to the golf course and it will be a true test for the ladies that do come and compete, both the Canadian players and the international players.”
The announcement was made in late November at the Red Deer Golf and Country Club. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Dow futures turned positive, trading more than 100 points higher as Hillary Clinton appeared to gain momentum over Donald Trump amid the debate.
"No big policy statements but she is on her game and he is on the back foot. Market has her priced in to win," said Peter Coleman, head trader at Convergex.
"I think traders were looking for a surprise from Trump. Now he is on the offensive," he said.
Dow futures traded about 60 points higher as of 9:56 p.m. ET, while S&P 500 futures were about 7 points higher and Nasdaq 100 futures about 14 points higher. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
So, yep, a performance-monitoring device for yet another sport has been created. Just in the past 30 days alone, we've heard about new gadgets to help athletes improve their basketball and hockey skills. Now, a University of Newcastle tech spin-off has announced a system known as ClimbAX – and as its name implies, it's designed for climbers.
The hardware end of the system consists of two rubber-coated wristbands, one of which is worn on each wrist. Each of the wristbands contains an accelerometer, orientation sensor, altitude sensor, a NAND memory chip, and a 16-bit microprocessor.
Among other things, the wristbands are able to detect the orientation of each of the user's arms, along with when, how much, and how fast they move.
The idea is that users simply turn the wristbands on and configure them, go rock- or wall-climbing, then afterwards upload that session's data from the bands to the ClimbAX online processing system
The idea is that users simply turn the wristbands on and configure them, go rock- or wall-climbing, then afterwards upload that session's data from the bands to the ClimbAX online processing system. There, the raw data will be analyzed and presented in terms of four metrics: Power, or "the quantity of isometric strength over the course of a move;" Stability, "the ability to remain composed while holding onto holds;" Control, "the ability to transition smoothly between holds," and Speed, which includes the total time it took to complete the climb, along with measurements of how much time was spent resting and how much was spent moving.
Non-climbing movements (such as if the climber stops to scratch their butt), are identified as such and ignored.
Utilizing their personal control panel on the ClimbAX website, users can additionally get an overall session score, track their performance over multiple sessions, observe their left/right-hand bias, and otherwise obsess over their climbing stats.
The technology is still in the final stages of development, and a Kickstarter campaign is planned for early November in order to raise production funds.
Source: ClimbAX via New Scientist | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Senators challenge name of new Tory bill
OTTAWA - The need for — and even the name of — a new Conservative bill aimed at barring polygamous and forced marriages came under fire Thursday in the Senate.
Bill S-7, entitled the "Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act," amends immigration and criminal laws with the aim of keeping polygamists out of Canada and preventing women and girls from being married against their will.
"We wish we could say in the Canada of 2014 that these were no longer challenges for us domestically," Immigration Minister Chris Alexander told the Senate human rights committee.
"But as we know from communities across the country and from the daily fact of violence against women, there remain challenges and we remain duty-bound to act against them."
Conservative Sen. Raynell Andreychuk raised concerns, however, that the government's stated goal of combating violence risks being overshadowed by the bill's dramatic title.
"In that title, if you wanted 'barbaric cultural practices' — which probably wasn't going to be my choice — but if you wanted that, I wished you had added something like 'violence' in there," Andreychuk said.
Alexander defended the name. The fact it has already generated debate means it's already doing its job, he argued.
"What is a barbaric practice? It is a practice that is unacceptable; it is a practice that involves violence that is in many respects indiscriminate, gratuitously meted out, behind closed doors, where women and girls are defenceless, whereby whole families conspire to ensure underage women lie about their age, take part in a forced marriage," he said.
"It is — in my view, and I think in the view of many Canadians — barbaric to subject your family members to that kind of abuse."
Andreychuk later said if the government does believe violence against women is addressed by the title of the bill, she is satisfied with it.
The new law would deny entry to Canada to those seeking to practice polygamy, which is illegal in this country.
It would also require "free and enlightened consent to marriage" and sets a federal minimum age for marriage at 16 — a threshold that wasn't already enshrined in law.
It also makes it an offence for anyone younger than that to be taken out of Canada to be married elsewhere.
That's a direct reference to the polygamous community of Bountiful, B.C., where it's long been believed that teenage girls are shuttled back and forth to the U.S. for marriage.
Four members of that community are currently facing charges in relation to that practice under existing Canadian laws, but past attempts to obtain a polygamy conviction in Bountiful have failed.
The bill also seeks to clarify what it means to be provoked into committing a crime.
That change seeks to remove the provocation option as a defence in cases that involve so-called "honour killings," though immigration officials acknowledged no one has ever tried to use it before.
"The law you bring here has very little evidence based to it," Liberal Sen. Art Eggleton told Alexander. "We've heard of one case of forced marriage that this is based on, and absolutely no successful cases of honour killing."
"You have current laws to deal with it, and you seem more focused on trying to bring a new law in when you have existing laws you could (use to) deal with these matters."
Alexander said extensive research has been done on the issue of forced marriages in Canada, noting in particular the work of the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario.
In a 2013 survey of social assistance agencies in Ontario and Quebec, the agency uncovered 69 forced marriage cases in 2010, 64 cases in 2011 and 77 cases in 2012.
The organization itself opposes the proposed bill.
Deepa Mattoo, the clinic's executive director, is set to testify before the Senate committee next week.
She said it appears that while the minister read her research, he doesn't seem to have read the conclusions.
"There was a clear-cut recommendation put forward and it very clearly said: please do not criminalize forced marriage," she said.
Criminalization does not help women who are victims, she said. Had her group been meaningfully consulted on the language of the bill, they could have helped draft something that would address the problem, she added.
"This whole process seems like lip service," she said. "It's not really giving real, tangible tools which women need."
Follow @StephanieLevitz on Twitter | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Sponsored by Made in Hawaii Festival presented by First Hawaiian Bank
Looking for some new flavors to up your game in the kitchen? For J’s Hawaii will be at the Made in Hawaii Festival from August 16-18 showcasing its gourmet flavored Hawaiian sea salts and sugars! HI Now host Jobeth Devera is in the kitchen with Janis Tanga to get a taste of what these products can do.
Before For J’s was founded, Tanga found great pleasure in sharing recipes with friends and family. Her Steak Poke was a family recipe that she brought to many potlucks and parties. It became so popular that Tanga would often get asked for the recipe and requests to cater the dish. Seeing that so many people enjoyed the dish, she wanted to share the Steak Poke sauce with her customers, so she bottled it.
For J’s Steak Poke Sauce was introduced to the public at the 2016 Made in Hawaii Festival and sold out on the second day of the event. Once people tasted the samples of the poke, they were sold.
Tanga says her family is passionate about food, and sharing these gourmet products is a way of spreading the aloha — from her ohana to yours!
Find sample of these For J’s products at the Made in Hawaii Festival:
– Macadamia Nut Basil Pesto
– Macadamia Nut Basil Pesto Salad Dressing
– Soybeans using Garlic Sea Salt
– Kalua Pork using Kiawe Liquid Smoke and Kiawe Sea Salt
– Fresh Watermelon with a little dash of Hawaiian Chili Pepper Sea Salt
– Grilled Steak Poke using Steak Poke Sauce
– For J’s Signature Rum Cake
– Sweet Tea using Mango Sugar
Need some inspiration in the kitchen? In addition to the original For J’s Steak Poke recipe, you can find others like baked stuffed salmon, prime rib roast, and fishcake poke at forjshawaii.com.
For more information: forjshawaii.com
See more vendors at the Made in Hawaii Festival: | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Mainstream graphical applications for the Linux desktop are generally developed with either Gtk+ or Qt. These open source development toolkits supply user interface frameworks and other components that are needed to build desktop programs. Although Gtk+ has historically been favored by the major commercial Linux distributors, Qt's numerous technical advantages and growing relevance in the mobile industry are increasingly difficult for Linux vendors to ignore.
In a blog entry posted this week, Canonical CTO Matt Zimmerman outlined how the capabilities of Nokia's Qt development toolkit can benefit Ubuntu. Some of the specific advantages that he highlights include Qt's strong corporate backing, robust suitability for cross-platform development, and increasingly rich support for touch interaction.
"We want to make it fast, easy and painless to develop applications for Ubuntu, and Qt is an option worth exploring for application developers. In thinking about this, I've realized that there is quite a bit of commonality between the strengths of Qt and some of the new directions in Ubuntu," he wrote. "No single solution will meet all developers' needs, of course, and Ubuntu supports multiple toolkits and frameworks for this reason, but Qt seems like a great tool to have in our toolbox for the road ahead."
As a third-party Linux application developer who has experience with both toolkits, I'd warmly welcome stronger support for Qt in Ubuntu. In my experience developing Gwibber (a Gtk-based social network tool I created that is included in Ubuntu and other Linux distributions), I have consistently been frustrated with the limitations of Gtk+ and its unsuitability for producing the kind of user interface that I want to offer my users.
Over the past few years, Qt has advanced at an extremely rapid pace and has gained some remarkable capabilities that make it radically easy to achieve things that would be exceptionally difficult and time-consuming to do with Gtk+. Qt significantly boosts developer productivity, lowers the barrier to entry for developers who are new to the platform, and offers a much higher level of cross-platform portability. I think that offering Qt as a standard part of the Ubuntu desktop installation would enrich the platform by opening the door for better third-party software.
Qt 4.7, which was released last month, introduced a new framework called Qt Quick that is especially conducive to rapid development. I've been experimenting with Qt Quick myself ever since the earliest experimental versions were made available in public source code repositories. It allows developers to build sophisticated user interfaces with a simple declarative scripting syntax and bind those user interfaces to data models that are implemented in C++. This pairing offers a great mix of performance and productivity that looks to be a good fit for Ubuntu.
It's also worth noting that the Qt Quick declarative scripting language, called QML, can be used by itself without C++ to build relatively powerful applications. This could also be useful for Ubuntu because it would make it easier for users who don't have a lot of previous programming experience to start building their own software. Such a low barrier to entry really meshes well with the vision of user empowerment that is at the heart of Ubuntu's great development tool projects, such as Quickly and Ground Control.
A point that I think often gets overlooked in the toolkit debate is that adopting Qt doesn't necessarily imply ditching GNOME or switching to KDE. As we discussed in our review of Qt 4.5 last year, Qt has relatively robust support for Gtk+ theming, including conformity with the GNOME HIG and support for native GNOME dialogs. When everything is properly configured, Qt applications look entirely at home in GNOME environments. Adding a standard Qt library stack to a fresh Ubuntu installation requires only 16.5MB of packages, which expands to approximately 50MB on disk.
I'm currently working on a tutorial for Ars that will demonstrate the technical advantages of Qt Quick for mobile and desktop development in a more comprehensive way. It's not ready yet, but I want to share a sneak peek in this article to illustrate the kinds of things that Qt Quick can be used to accomplish.
One of the demo applications that I built for the tutorial is a front-end for the RTorrent BitTorrent client. The user interface, which works well on both desktop computers and touchscreen-enabled mobile devices, has some nice animated transitions and pulls the file icons from the user's default theme. Thanks to Qt's portability, I was able to get it working on Mac OS X and Windows in addition to Linux, my preferred environment. I actually designed it with MeeGo in mind, and I look forward to testing it on an N900 when MeeGo is a bit more usable on that device.
The implementation consists primarily of QML layout descriptions, but also has a small amount of C++ code that communicates with RTorrent's XML-RPC API (you can look forward to seeing the complete source code in my upcoming tutorial). It was a weekend project that required surprisingly little effort. These kinds of applications are trivially easy to make with Qt.
Some historical context
Qt, which was created by a Norwegian software company called Trolltech, was originally made available under a dual-licensing model. Open source software developers could use it at no cost, but commercial developers who used it to build proprietary software had to pay licensing fees. This model allowed Trolltech to build a business around Qt that funded their efforts to improve the toolkit, but it created some barriers to adoption for the major commercial Linux vendors. The model later changed substantially following Nokia's acquisition of Trolltech, resolving the original problems that had prevented Qt from becoming the dominant Linux toolkit from day one.
Gtk+ is distributed under the terms of GNU's Lesser General Public License (LGPL), which means that it can be used freely in both open and closed-source applications. The major commercial Linux vendors originally chose to back Gtk+ because its more permissive license allowed commercial software developers to use it without paying a licensing fee. A toolkit that enables royalty-free commercial Linux application development is critically important for attracting a diverse ecosystem of independent software vendors (ISVs) to the operating system.
Qt has always had a modest technical edge over Gtk+, but it was not enough to outweigh the licensing issues during the early days of the Linux desktop. The gap in quality began widening substantially when Qt 4.0 arrived in 2005 with major improvements, however, and has continued to grow rapidly. Although the high licensing costs deterred adoption among Linux vendors, Qt's technical merits allowed it to gain considerable traction among software industry heavyweights. It is already used today by Google, Amazon, Skype, Adobe and many others.
The real game-changer that redefined Qt's role in the Linux landscape was Nokia's acquisition of Trolltech in 2008. Nokia had spent several years struggling to make Gtk+ suitable for mobile environments with the Hildon toolkit for Maemo, but eventually determined that Gtk+ just wasn't going to meet its needs in the long-term. Acquiring Trolltech gave Nokia an ideal toolkit for moving its next-generation mobile strategy forward.
Nokia relicensed Qt under the LGPL last year, eliminating the major barrier to ubiquitous third-party adoption. As I predicted in my article at the time, the move deeply gutted ISV support for Gtk+, especially in the mobile space. When Nokia and Intel announced MeeGo, their combined mobile Linux platform, they positioned Qt as its standard application development toolkit. The once-promising GNOME Mobile initiative lost practically all of its momentum.
Qt can bring third-party developers to Linux
Although Gtk+ still has value and there are a number of reasons to continue using it for building native Linux software, Qt is now the obvious choice for ISVs that are targeting multiple platforms. Qt makes it exceptionally easy to conform to the native look and feel of the underlying platform or build a totally custom user interface that is optimally suited to a target device or form factor.
As Nokia and Intel bring MeeGo to a wide range of devices, it's going to attract some major commercial software vendors. It would be relatively easy for those software companies to bring their mobile Qt applications to the Linux desktop using the same code that they use on MeeGo. Qt is specifically designed to make that easy. This would be a huge win for desktop Linux because it would bring third-party applications that would not otherwise be available.
It's worth noting that some prominent mobile software vendors are already eagerly embracing Qt due to Nokia's support for the toolkit. Mobile video streaming company Qik, for example, is working on an experimental Qt-based port of its popular application with the aim of bringing it to MeeGo.
Gtk+ is not dead, as evidenced by the excellent Gtk+ hackfest that is currently in progress, as well as some of the nice improvements that are coming for Gtk+ 3.0. I'm increasingly skeptical, however, that Gtk+ will be able to catch up with Qt as Nokia continues to push the toolkit forward faster. The factors that compelled the GNOME-centric Linux vendors to favor Gtk+ during the early days of the Linux desktop are no longer relevant. If they want to continue delivering a competitive user experience, I think they need to either significantly boost their investment in Gtk+ or start seriously considering the possibility of making Qt a first-class part of their environments. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Five grants awarded to innovative Aussie small businesses – from children’s books that encourage social change to biodegradable wrap | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Basics:
For ages 6 and up (publisher suggests 12+)
For 2 to 4 players
Approximately 30 minutes to complete
Geek Skills:
Active Listening & Communication
Counting & Math
Emotional Coping Skills
Logical & Critical Decision Making
Pattern/Color Matching
Strategy & Tactics
Risk vs. Reward
Hand/Resource Management
Learning Curve:
Child – Easy
Adult – Easy
Theme & Narrative:
Get ready to race as fast as you can and dodge squirrels!
Endorsements:
Gamer Geek approved!
Parent Geek approved!
Child Geek approved!
Overview
You’ve built your car and are ready to race! Pulling your vehicle up to the starting line, you size up the competition. Pfff! Amateurs! You don’t see any car packing a bomb thrower or a mounted extendable arm. This is going to be easy! Then you notice that the next car over has a caged squirrel in the front passenger seat. The squirrel turns, locks eyes with you, and frowns menacingly. Hmm, you think, this might be an interesting race after all.
Mad Rush Rally, designed by Sean Dallas McDonald and published by TowerGuard Games, is comprised of 4 Car pawns (in 4 different colors), 70 Item tokens, 1 “Start” Track card (double-sided), 5 “Short-Cut” Track cards (double-sided), and 18 Track cards. That game components are either made of solid plastic or durable cardstock. The game is small and fits nicely in a tiny box that is easy to store and to take on trips. It’s also worth noting that this game was a finalist in the Game Crafter’s Map Builder Design Challenge.
Pre-Race Tune-Up
To set up the game, first determine who will be the first player using whatever means the group decides. We suggest Thunderdome. Give each player a Car pawn of their color choice at this time, too.
Second, find and place the “Start” Track card. Note that the “Start” Track card has 2 sides. One side has a one-way strip of racing track and the other has a two-way strip of racing track. Place the “Start” Track card in the middle of the playing area with the one-way racing track strip face-up for a standard game. See “Game Variants” below for additional details on the two-way racing track strip.
Third, separate the Track and the “Short-Cut” Track cards into two different piles. Shuffle both piles of track once completed and set the “Short-Cut” Track card pile to the side of the game playing area and within easy reach of all the players. Deal an even number of Track cards, face-down, to the players. Any remaining Track cards not dealt are removed for the duration of the game.
Fourth, separate the Item tokens by number (1 through 4) into 4 different piles. The number used should be the one that is on the crate side that also says “Item”. Depending on the number of players, only Item tokens of a specific number will be used.
2-player game uses Item token numbers “2” and “4”
3-player game uses Item token numbers “1”, “2”, and “4”
4-player game uses Item token numbers “1”, “2”, “3”, and “4”
Place the used Item token number piles off to one side of the game playing area and within easy reach of all the players. We suggest you use small cups to help keep things organized. Any unused Item token piles are removed for the duration of the game.
Fifth, players will not place their Car pawns behind the starting line located on the “Start” Track card in turn order sequence. Players can place their Car pawn in any available space, but only 1 Car pawn can occupy a Track space at a time.
That’s it for game set up. Racers, start your engines!
FLOOR IT!
Mad Rush Rally is played in turns with no set number of turns per game. On a player’s turn, they will have 3 Action points to spend. The player is welcome to take any action they like and must declare to the table what actions they will be taking and in what order before continuing their turn. The actions the player can spend their Action points on are summarized here.
Move Car
A player can spend 1 Action point to move their Car pawn 1 Track space. When moving, a Car pawn can only travel to an open Track space that it’s adjacent to. Diagonal and backwards movement is not allowed. When moving through a curve, a Car pawn can move to any adjacent space that shares a side with its currently occupied Track space. A Car pawn can never go through or end its movement on a Track space that another Car pawn occupies. Some Item tokens will also block a Car pawns movement. It’s perfectly possible to get boxed in by opponents, so players should keep their Car pawns moving as often as possible.
When a Car pawn’s movement would take them across a “Short-Cut” Track, the entire short-cut is considered one Track space, regardless of how many “Short-Cut” Track cards the short-cut is comprised of. In essence, the “Short-Cut” Track is like the dividing line between two Track spaces that the Car pawn passes through. Like movement on a Track card, a Car pawn cannot use the “Short-Cut” Track if another Car pawn is currently occupying the Track space where the short-cut returns to the Track card.
Take Item
For 2 Action points, a player can take 1 Item token. A player must take an Item token as their first action if they plan to do so on their turn. Depending on their Car pawns place in the race in relationship to where the finishing line might be, they will randomly take 1 Item token from a specific number pile. The further back the player’s Car pawn is, the higher the Item token number pile they will use. For example, in a 4-player race, a player in 3rd place will take an Item token from the Item token number “3” pile.
The more powerful and useful Item tokens are found in the higher numbered Item token piles. If you have ever played Nintendo’s Mario Kart, you know how this works. The “Blue Shell”, for example, is only given to those karts that are dead last. The same logic applies in Mad Rush Rally. The further back a player’s Car pawn is in the race, the better their odds of claiming an Item token that has a bigger impact on the race as a whole. How and when the player spends their Item token is up to them.
A player can only ever have 2 Item tokens at a time. When they collect an Item token, it’s placed in front of the player, face-down. If a player has 2 Item tokens and wants to draw a new one, they must select one of the two Item tokens they currently have and discard it to claim a new one. When discarding an Item token or resolving an Item token by removing it from a Track card, it’s placed back in the Item token pile number if was drawn from.
Fix Car
During a race, players should expect to be bombed, hit, and bowled over. Depending on the severity of whatever debris they run into or is thrown at them, the player’s Car pawn will be effected. A minor hit will force the player to place their Car pawn on its side. A major hit will force the player to place their Car pawn on its back. When a Car pawn is on its side or back, it cannot move on the track (obviously) and serves as a fantastic roadblock.
For 1 Action point, a player can take their Car pawn on its side and flip it back on its wheels to once again join the race. Note that a Car pawn that is on its side can be hit again. If it’s before the player has the opportunity to put the Car pawn back on its wheels, the Car pawn is placed on its back.
If the player’s Car pawn is on its back, the player loses their following turn. When the player once again can take their turn, the Car pawn is placed back on its wheels automatically. Note that a Car pawn on its back cannot be hit again.
Zero Cost Actions
There are a number of actions the player can take on their turn that do not cost them any Action points.
Place New Track and “Short-Cut” Track Cards: There are two ways to do this. A player can either turn in an Item token or simply move off an existing Track card in play. If a player spends an Item token, the player selects a number of Track cards or “Short-Cut” Track cards equal to the number found on the Item token’s face (not the Item token number found on the crate side). For example, an Item token with a “3” on its face would allow the player to select and play 3 of their Track cards or 3 of the “Short-Cut” Track cards. If moving off a Track card, the player selects 1 of their Track cards and attaches it to the previous Track card, thus extending the race-track as a whole. When placing a Track card, only those found in the player’s pile can be used, all the lanes must line up, and a new Track cannot terminate the race-track or loop back to the “Start” Track card. If placing a “Short-Cut” Track card, the “Short-Cut” Track card must line up its dirt path with the sides of the Track cards, cannot cut off the main track, and it must be completed before the player’s turn is over. Any “Short-Cut” Track card found in the pile can be used and the player determines which of the two sides of the “Short-Cut” Track card will be face-up. Items have no effect when spent for tracks.
Use Item: There are two types of items. Item tokens with a blue background are played and resolved immediately. Item tokens that have a black background are placed on any open Track space and do not get resolved until they are activated by a player. To play an Item token, the player reveals it to the table, identifies the target or the space in which the Item token will be placed, and completes the action by either resolving the Item token or placing the Item token on the space identified. Items can be anything from bowling balls, ramps, oil slicks, a territorial squirrel, or the dreaded bomb. The game’s rule book describes the effects of each item in detail.
Once a player has completed their turn, they announce to the table they are done and the next player in turn order sequence takes their turn. This continues until the race comes to an end.
Passing the Finish Line
Players continue to take turns until one player moves off the end of the last Track card able to be played from their Track card pile, winning the race as a result. For example, moving off the last Track card currently in play and not being able to place a Track card legally given what the player has left in their pile or there are simply no Track cards left to play would result in a win. The player’s opponents have the right to review what Track cards the player has to ensure that the victory is legal.
Gamer Variants
If a shorter game is required, remove 1 Track card for every player before dealing them out during game set up. For a very short game, remove 2 Track cards per player. Expect a much more intense race as a result.
The game includes the “Fork in the Road” game variant, but requires at least 3 players before it can be used. During game set up, use the two-way side of the “Start” Track card. This divides the track into two branches (a left branch and a right branch) and players must choose which of the two track branches they will race on. Players can only play Track cards to the track branch their Car pawn is currently on, but the “Short-Cut” Track cards can be used to allow players to jump front one track branch to the other. Item tokens can still be placed on any open space found on the racetrack.
To learn more about Mad Rush Rally, visit the game’s website on the Game Crafter.
Prediction
Now here is an interesting race game. Normally, a racing game requires the players to do all they can to stay in front of the pack to win the game. The same applies for Mad Rush Rally, but the players are also required to manage the racetrack in front of them and their opponents. A player’s position in the race also determines the usefulness of the Item tokens collected, which very well could be used as a game changer. In this way, Mad Rush Rally is a race game not only about speed, but also about positioning and timing. Neat!
The rules are very easy to understand and the pace of the game will keep our Child Geeks engaged, but not pushed. I have no doubt they’ll enjoy Mad Rush Rally, especially when I tell them it’s like Mario Kart. I believe the Parent Geeks will enjoy the game, too, especially those who want to play a race game with their Child Geeks but have no idea who Mario is or how a video game controller works. The Gamer Geeks? Hmm… Let’s ponder for a moment. Mad Rush Rally is pretty straight forward, but I wouldn’t call it simple. There is a lot to think about, but never to a point where I think a Gamer Geek would consider Mad Rush Rally as anything other than a light game. That should not imply anything negative, but light games ironically have a heavy burden to bear. They must be fast, fun, and engaging and must be so right from the start or fail in the eyes of the gaming elitists.
My only real concern over the game is the player’s ability to target an opponent. When I watch my little geeks and other Child Geeks play race video games, the level of tension and frustration at times is borderline absurd. Especially when one of the Child Geeks get smacked by another player or hit by some weapon. They take it a bit too personally. Unlike a video game, however, Mad Rush Rally does not keep pushing a player forward. Every player has time to think. I hope the lack of constant forward moment is enough to help the younger Child Geeks keep a cool head, otherwise we are going to see some meltdowns. This is why I have listed Emotional Coping under the Geek Skills. Our younger players will be wrestling with the fact they can be targeted on purpose and with full intention of hindering their chances of success.
Teaching the game is very easy. The rules are not overly complicated and any player who has ever played a race game, seen a race, or played a video game where racing is involved will immediately understand the game’s concept and intent. After that, it’s just a matter of making sure players understand how to spend their Action points, how Track cards are placed, and how Items are used. All very straightforward, really. None of our players ever had any questions and were eager to get behind their Car pawn’s steering wheel. No reading is necessary to play, but number recognition is. Older players can read the Item’s description and use to younger players without upsetting the game’s balance or level of fun.
After teaching the game to my two oldest little geeks, I asked them their thoughts on Mad Rush Rally so far.
“Very cool! I love that it’s like Mario Kart!” ~ Liam (age 8) “Oh, yeah! I’m going to totally win this race!” ~ Nyhus (age 6)
Pumped, gassed, and ready to go! Let’s start our engines and see if Mad Rush Rally makes it across our players’ finish lines and into the winner’s circle.
Final Word
The Child Geeks LOVED the game and also HATED it. They loved it when they were winning, loved it when they were able to bomb their buddies, and loved it when new pieces of track were revealed. They hated it when they were bombed, tipped, or in any way hindered by their opponents. Typical and exactly what I expected. Some of the Child Geeks melted down for a bit, feeling picked on and mistreated, but they got over it by the time their turn came up again. One Child Geek had to walk away from the table for a moment to collect themselves while everyone else waited for them to cool down. But in the end, the Child Geeks all voted to approve Mad Rush Rally for two reasons. First, winning the race was always in reach of all the players which made the Child Geeks feel like the game was made for them. Second, they loved playing a game that reminded them so much of a video game they all loved to play. “Wins” all around.
The Parent Geeks could take or leave the game at a peer level, but positively adored it when playing it with their family. According to one Parent Geek, “This is not a bad game, but not one I would want to play with other adults. But with my kids and my family, it’s fantastic!” It was interesting seeing the Parent Geeks get just as excited and frustrated as their Child Geeks, which I think also showed how well-balanced the game is. A player of greater skill and with more experience will be able to make smarter decisions in the short run, but who would win the race was always anyone’s guess. All the Parent Geeks voted to approve the game for its high level of fun, its ease of play, and for allowing them an opportunity to play a race game their Child Geeks enjoyed so much.
The Gamer Geeks initially didn’t enjoy Mad Rush Rally. From their perspective, the game wasn’t doing anything new and that made it less interesting. Gamers Geeks are funny that way. If you don’t entertain them, they tend to poop on you. When our first game started, none of the Gamer Geeks looked engaged and more or less just went through the motions. According to one Gamer Geek, “Oh, look, yet another race game.” It wasn’t until the race was about half-way through that I started to see some of the Gamer Geeks take a more engaged stance with the game. Towards the end of our first game, the Gamer Geeks were clearly split between those who enjoyed the game play and those who didn’t. After 3 games, the Gamer Geeks saw something very different in the game play they did not recognize at first. Unlike other race game, Mad Rush Rally requires the players to use their Track cards like a resource. They move the game forward, but also guide its final destination. Players found that keeping cards in reserve was important so as to ensure that a faster player didn’t win the game. The Item tokens became road blocks and the short-cuts became paths to victory. In the end, the Gamer Geeks pushed away from the table feeling very satisfied with Mad Rush Rally. According to the same Gamer Geek who initially pooh-poohed the game, “After playing the game a few time, I am enjoying it. It’s light, fast, and I can really mess with my opponents. I like that.” All the Gamer Geeks voted to approve the game and thought it made for an excellent game filler or a good way to start an evening of heavier games.
I like Mad Rush Rally for two reasons. First, it’s an easy game to set up and play with my little geeks when we have the free time to play a race game. Second, I enjoy the challenge of trying to create a race track that is one part obstacle course and one part speedway. The game play is pretty straight forward, but the players will need to consider different tactics and develop strategies in hopes of remaining competitive and winning the race. I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that Mad Rush Rally is a deep game, but it certainly is fun. It also does a great job of capturing the video game console feel of go-kart and other crazy racing games where players can bumped and throw things at each other. Which, of course, really appealed to the Child Geeks and the child in me.
I would recommend Mad Rush Rally to any player who is looking for a light racing game that still requires players to think behind the wheel. You need to think through your moves to be an effective driver, but you always need to keep an eye open for opportunities to skunk opponents. Keeping a close eye on Track piles is also necessary. The end of the race can very quickly come and having the ability to extended the track (and the race) for your own benefit is huge. Do look into Mad Rush Rally if you are in need of strategic, tactical, quick, fun, and easy to play race experience for your family gaming table.
This game was given to Father Geek as a review copy. Father Geek was not paid, bribed, wined, dined, or threatened in vain hopes of influencing this review. Such is the statuesque and legendary integrity of Father Geek. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Greetings, Saviors!
In regions all over the Kingdom, there have been sightings of a mysterious creature thought to exist only in legends... the Golden Stone Whale. According to old pirate tales, the Golden Stone Whale's secret treasure chest will appear to those who release the monster's ancient Stone Spirit!
Event Period
FROM the scheduled maintenance on July 11, 2017
TO the scheduled maintenance on August 1, 2017
Who Can Participate
- Characters of all levels
How to Participate
STEP 1. Travel to one of the regions below and awaken the altar of the legendary Golden Stone Whale . The monster is rumored to appear every two hours, only at even-numbered hours , in the following locations:
- Dadan Jungle
- Knidos Jungle
- Koru Jungle
- Nevellet Quarry 1F
- Paupys Crossing
STEP 2. If you're lucky to find the monster, defeat the Golden Stone Whale to receive its Stone Spirit buff , which grants you +100% EXP gains, stamina +20 and movement speed +3 for 1 hour !
- You can receive the "Stone Spirit" buff even if you don't attack the Golden Stone Whale directly, but you must be near the monster when it is defeated.
STEP 3. After obtaining the monster's Stone Spirit, head to your nearest Event Notice Board to receive the Stone Whale Treasure , a chest containing one of 8 different reward items (see Stone Whale Treasure Rewards).
- You can only receive the Stone Whale Treasure from the Event Notice Board while you are under the effect of the Stone Spirit buff .
- The Stone Whale Treasure can be received up to 4 times per day, per team (the Stone Spirit buff is character-bound however, i.e. not shared within the team).
Stone Whale Treasure Rewards
Receive the Stone Whale Treasure from an Event Notice Board while under the effect of the Stone Spirit buff to obtain one of the following items:
- Pirate Hat x1
- Golden Anvil (14 Days) x1
- x8 EXP Tome (14 Days) x1
- Superior Gem Abrasive: 14 Days x1
- Enchant Scroll (14 Days) x3
- Goddess Sculpture (14 Days) x1
- Basic Red Ox x5
- Warp Scroll (14 Days) x5
Important | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
What might be the final major U.S. offensive of the Afghanistan war has begun, according to the war's day-to-day commander. Its purpose is a bit harder to grasp.
Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the outgoing operational commander in Afghanistan, said that US and Afghan troops recently began a push in the eastern province of Ghazni to reduce the potency of the insurgency in an area neglected by the 2010 troop surge.
"In some areas there in the east, south of Kabul, we needed to insert greater combat power, and we've needed to do that for quite some time," Scaparotti told Pentagon reporters via videoconference, contradicting remarks made by the general in charge of east Afghanistan last year. Led by an additional brigade from the 82nd Airborne, the offensive will last through "the current fighting season," he said – even as about 20,000 US forces withdraw by October, weeks before the fighting season ends.
Scaparrotti declined to provide details on how many forces make up what he described as "greater combat power"; where it goes beyond or outside of Ghazni; and said he preferred not discuss even the "intent" of the operations publicly. He also said not to think of it as the "last" major US offensive of the Afghanistan war. But it follows a recent pattern as NATO nears its 2014 deadline for turning Afghan security to its Afghan proteges: US and Afghan troops will clear areas in the east that the Afghans will be tasked with holding.
All Scaparrotti offered was that US forces were "now undertaking operations to secure areas in Ghazni and areas surrounding Ghazni that we've needed to do for some time, and we're also working very hard with our Afghan partners to then gain in strength and to hold those areas once these operations are done."
The military has hardly made a secret of its desire for one last major push into eastern Afghanistan. The Obama administration has hardly made a secret of its desire not to replicate the grueling troop surge, which focused on the south, in eastern Afghanistan. Last week, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that another push into the east would be critical to eroding the power of the Haqqani Network, one of the most lethal components of the Afghan insurgency.
"We've got to get [eastern Afghanistan] and the Haqqani influence reduced in order to meet our timelines for the transition that we're moving toward and – at the end of '14," Dempsey said.
Scaparrotti, whose tour in Afghanistan ends Tuesday, diminished expectations for the offensive. He spoke about "future complementary operations" with the Pakistanis as little more than a hypothetical, rather than a partnered effort to squeeze the Haqqani network on both sides of the border. And Scaparrotti said he was optimistic that NATO would meet the 2014 timetable seemingly regardless of what happens in eastern Afghanistan.
The Haqqani Network is considered responsible for the recent wave of attacks on Kabul, although Scaparrotti said the offensive is focused "on the insurgency in a broad way," not just on the Haqqanis. But still, Scaparrotti said that Ghazni is the current heart of the effort, even though that's not a province the Haqqani Network evidently values.
According to the general, the Haqqanis want to defend three other provinces – what is "traditionally their area of operation: Khost, Paktia, and Paktika."
So what could well be the final major US campaign in Afghanistan doesn't initially target the terrain that its adversary most wants. It won't have the same access to air power that the effort to take Helmand and Kandahar enjoyed. It won't have complementary effort on the border by the Pakistanis to deny insurgent safe havens. And whatever happens won't change the timetable for handing over Afghanistan to the Afghans. No wonder the military isn't exactly playing up the fight for eastern Afghanistan. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
“I take the welfare of every student very seriously and want you to know that I am doing everything I can to better understand the origins of the social media post and evaluate the impact on our school climate and safety of our students,” the letter read. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Prototype engine core made entirely of 3-D printed components
3-D printing delivers significant reductions in lead time and cost without sacrificing reliability
Testing duration was more than three times that of a typical RL10 mission with multiple restarts
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., April 8, 2019 – Aerojet Rocketdyne has successfully completed initial testing of a nearly flight-weight and production-ready configuration of its next generation RL10C-X upper-stage rocket engine that contains major components produced with the company’s industry-leading 3-D printing technology. The successful series of tests confirmed that the 3-D printed components performed as expected when integrated into a complete, full-scale engine system.
"We’ve made steady progress incorporating game-changing 3-D printing technology into our production engine programs to make them more affordable,” said Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and President Eileen Drake. “By producing these components with 3-D printing, we expect to reduce lead time by 35-50%, and overall engine cost by 25-35%.”
The initial round of testing included hot firing the RL10C-X prototype engine three times the duration of a typical RL10 mission, including high mixture ratio operation and multiple engine restarts. The 3-D printed engine components and the entire engine system remain in excellent condition with significant life remaining.
Aerojet Rocketdyne has been working over the past two decades to develop 3-D printing technology, also known as additive manufacturing, to a point where components built using the technology can reliably withstand the extreme operating environment of a rocket engine that experiences high pressures and temperature gradients that range from -423°F to more than 5,000°F.
The 3-D printed components that were tested in the RL10C-X prototype make up the very core of the engine: the injector and the thrust chamber. The injector mixes the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants and delivers them to the thrust chamber where they are burned, creating hot gases that produce thrust as they exit the engine. These components were selected because they offer the greatest cost reduction potential while delivering excellent performance and reliability. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Cross-posted from TCLispers.org:
Lisp GUI Discussion on Vimeo.
Robert Goldman, Paul Krueger, and Patrick Stein gave short presentations on different approaches to Graphical User Interfaces with Common Lisp. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
David Moyes will reportedly be handed up to £200million to spend this summer (Picture: Getty Images)
After a terrible season Manchester United supporters will be desperate for the club to avoid a repeat of last summer’s transfer escapades.
David Moyes has been promised a war chest of up to £200million to spend this summer and it may well take a large proportion of that budget to turn United back into title contenders.
Despite this I don’t believe the club need to bring in nine or 10 players. Instead the club should focus on bringing in between three and six top notch players who can make a real difference and supplement what is already there.
With this in mind here are five players I would like to see United sign this summer.
1) Luke Shaw (Southampton)
Southampton’s teenage left-back has been hugely impressive since making his Premier League bow last season. Playing top flight football at such a tender age has seen his physical development go through the roof, and his defensive is something that will impress United supporters. With Patrice Evra expected to leave in the summer, Shaw would be a perfect replacement. United may well have a free run at signing Shaw with Chelsea and Manchester City both having other, more pressing concerns within their squad.
2) Ezequiel Garay (Benfica)
A talented, experienced ball-playing defender, Garay would add an air of calm to a young Manchester United backline and really bring on the development of Phil Jones and Chris Smalling. He would replace a lot of the qualities sure lost with Rio Ferdinand expected to leave the club this summer. His contract is out in the summer of 2015 so will cost less than the figure of around £20million which was quoted last summer.
United targets Toni Kroos and Marco Reus battle for possession (Picture: Getty Images)
3) Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich)
Arguably the best deep lying playmaker in world football at this time. Kroos has carried Bayern Munich’s midfield with great aplomb for the last two seasons and a dispute regarding his contract could allow Manchester United to blow the Bavarian giants out of the water financially this summer. This would be the most difficult deal for United to pull off with Kroos a key component within the best team in the world, however, the circumstances surrounding the player could give United hope. Would be the perfect replacement for Paul Scholes.
4) William Carvalho (Sporting)
This would be a real gamble as Carvalho is just 22 years of age and his release clause is €45million. However, if you can get a player with Carvalho’s physical attributes at an early age you may well be set in midfield for the next eight years. The Portuguese midfielder is an absolute powerhouse who can sit as a holding midfield linchpin as well as being able to break down opposition attacks in the middle of the park. Would add a real degree of mettle to Manchester United’s midfield which has been missing since the departures of firstly Roy Keane and latterly Owen Hargreaves.
5) Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund)
Another ‘Hollywood’ name but Reus is arguably the best out and out winger around at the moment. He has gone from strength to strength since his move to Dortmund from Gladbach in July 2012 and could warrant a wage packet which Dortmund are unable to offer him. United have the financial clout to pay Reus the money he probably deserves in the current market and that could well be a key factor in the German’s decision. People are quick to dismiss wing-play as a thing of the past but Arjen Robben’s performance against United proves the value of out-and-out widemen.
MORE: Club Metro | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Du möchtest an einer Demonstration teilnehmen? Generiere jetzt deine Entschuldigung inklusive Informationen zu Fridays for Future. Gib deine Daten dazu sorgfältig ein und drücke auf „Entschuldigung erstellen“. Achte darauf, dass alle Felder ausgefüllt wurden. Nach wenigen Sekunden lädt sich deine Entschuldigung automatisch als PDF herunter und du kannst sie ausdrucken. Du kannst auch auf „Profil laden“ klicken und aus einer Karte deinen Streikort auswählen. Die entsprechenden Felder werden dann für dich ausgewählt, so dass du nur noch deine persönlichen Daten eintragen musst.
Hinweis: Es werden keinerlei persönliche Daten zu Servern übertragen, die komplette Erstellung der Entschuldigung erfolgt auf deinem Gerät. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Oh the first days of fall make me want to bake bread, pies and muffins, slow cook Pot Roast, make piles of Chili, Beef Stew, and Vegetable Soup. So I decide to bake my favorite bread, Pumpkin Bread.This recipe is a University of Tennessee Signature Recipe:3 c. sugar2 c pumpkin1 c. oil4 eggsStir these ingredients together until well mixed.Next the spices:1 1/3 t. cloves1 1/3 t. nutmeg1 1/3 t. allspice1 1/2 t. cinnamonNext add 3 1/2 c. flour, 1 and 1/2 t. baking powder and 2 t baking soda.Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Next add 1 t. vanilla and 2/3 c. water. I hand mix this bread as not to over mix. Quick breads, like muffins, need very little mixing.Pour into either 4 large bread pans or like I did, 2 large bread pans and 4 small bread pans, that have been greased and floured. I wanted to share fall with a couple of neighbors and some of the workers at church.Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.This bread is lovely and makes me want some apple cider and it was delicious with the Mushroom Bacon Frittata.Whip out a can of Pumpkin and make this bread for breakfast this weekend!!! It takes no time to put together and makes you feel like fall.... | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenPelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Hillicon Valley: Subpoenas for Facebook, Google and Twitter on the cards | Wray rebuffs mail-in voting conspiracies | Reps. raise mass surveillance concerns Fox News poll: Biden ahead of Trump in Nevada, Pennsylvania and Ohio MORE fundraised Thursday off mistakenly telling viewers to “go to Joe 30330” during his closing statement of the second Democratic presidential primary debate.
"We'll be honest. We've spent all morning brainstorming ideas for a clever email to send you about 30330," Biden's campaign said in an email. "(In case you missed last night's debate, Joe meant to say "Text Joe to 30330" but left a word out. Oops.)"
During closing statements of the debate in Detroit, the White House hopefuls urged potential supporters to visit their websites and donate.
ADVERTISEMENT
Biden, however, intended to direct supporters to text "Joe" to the phone number 30330.
Many members of the media joked about the misstep, and domain names related to the flub were bought up quickly.
While joe33030.com redirects to Biden’s website, Joe30330.com redirects to a page for what appears to be a satirical campaign.
In the email to supporters, Biden's campaign urged supporters to donate $3.03, $30.33 or $303.30. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Tony Abbott has admitted he made unnecessary enemies and left his friends feeling under-appreciated during his time as prime minister, as part of an extraordinary mea culpa on his government's failings.
While Mr Abbott used his first two essays for Quadrant magazine to explain and defend his legacy, in the third and final instalment of the series, he spends some time candidly reflecting on where he and his government went wrong.
He admits "there were some issues the Abbott government could have managed better or not pursued at all". | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Many of us in the search industry were caught off guard by the release of Panda 4.0. It had become common knowledge that Panda was essentially "baked into" the algorithm now several times a month, so a pronounced refresh was a surprise. While the impact seemed reduced given that it coincided with other releases including a payday loans update and a potential manual penalty on Ebay, there were notable victims of the Panda 4.0 update which included major press release sites. Both Search Engine Land and Seer Interactive independently verified a profound traffic loss on major press release sites following the Panda 4.0 update. While we can't be certain that Google did not, perhaps, roll out a handful of simultaneous manual actions or perhaps these sites were impacted by the payday loans algo update, Panda remains the inference to the best explanation for their traffic losses.
So, what happened? Can we tease out why Press Release sites were seemingly singled out? Are they really that bad? And why are they particularly susceptible to the Panda algorithm? To answer this question, we must first address the main question: what is the Panda algorithm?
Briefly: What is the Panda Algorithm?
The Panda algorithm was a ground-breaking shift in Google's methodology for addressing certain search quality issues. Using patented machine learning techniques, Google used real, human reviewers to determine the quality of a sample set of websites. We call this sample the "training set". Examples of the questions they were asked are below:
Would you trust the information presented in this article? Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature? Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations? Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site? Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors? Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines? Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis? Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results? How much quality control is done on content? Does the article describe both sides of a story? Is the site a recognized authority on its topic? Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don't get as much attention or care? Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced? For a health related query, would you trust information from this site? Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name? Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic? Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious? Is this the sort of page you'd want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend? Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content? Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book? Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics? Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail? Would users complain when they see pages from this site?
Once Google had these answers from real users, they built a list of variables that might potentially predict these answers, and applied their machine learning techniques to build a model of predicting low performance on these questions. For example, having an HTTPS version of your site might predict a high performance on the "trust with a credit card" question. This model could then be applied across their index as a whole, filtering out sites that would likely perform poorly on the questionnaire. This filter became known as the Panda algorithm.
How do press release sites perform on these questions?
First, Moz has a great tutorial on running your own Panda questionnaire on your own website, which is useful not just for Panda but really any kind of user survey. The graphs and data in my analysis come from PandaRisk.com, though. Full disclosure, Virante, Inc., the company for which I work, owns PandaRisk. The graphs were built by averaging the results from several pages on each press release site, so they represent a sample of pages from each PR distributor.
So, let's dig in. In the interest of brevity, I have chosen to highlight just four of the major concerns that came from the surveys, question-by-question.
Q1. Does this site contain insightful analysis?
Google wants to send users to web pages that are uniquely useful, not just unique and not just useful. Unfortunately, press release sites uniformly fail on this front. On average, only 50% of reviewers found that BusinessWire.com content contained insightful analysis. Compare this to Wikipedia, EDU and Government websites which, on average, score 84%, 79% and 94% respectively, and you can see why Google might choose not to favor their content.
But does this have to be the case? Of course not. Press release websites like BusinessWire.com have first mover status on important industry information. They should be the first to release insightful analysis. Now, press release sites do have to be careful about editorializing the content of their users, but there are clearly improvements that could be made. For example, we know that use of structured data and visual aids improves performance on this question (ie: graphs and charts). BusinessWire could extract stock exchange symbols from press releases and include graphs and data related to the business right in the post. This would separate their content from other press release sites that simply reproduce the content verbatim. There are dozens of other potential improvements that can be added either programmatically or by an editor. So, what exactly would these kinds of changes look like?
In this case, we simply inserted a graph from stock exchange data and included on the right-hand side some data from Freebase on the Securities and Exchange Commission, which could easily be extracted as an entity from the documentation using, for example, Alchemy API. These modest improvements to the page increased the "insightful analysis" review score by 15%.
Q2. Would you trust this site with your credit card?
This is one of the most difficult ideals to measure up to. E-Commerce sites, in general, perform better automatically, but there are clear distinctions between sites people trust and don't trust. Press release websites do have an e-commerce component, so one would expect them to fare comparatively well to non-commercial sites. Unfortunately, this is just not the case. PR.com failed this question in what can only be described as epic fashion. 91% of users said they would not trust the site with their credit card details. This isn't just a Panda issue for PR.com, this is a survival-of-the-business issue.
Luckily, there are some really clear, straight-forward solutions to this address this problem.
Extend HTTPS/SSL Sitewide
Not every site needs to have HTTPS enabled, but if you have a 600,000+ page site with e-commerce functionality, let's just go ahead and assume you do. Users will immediately trust your site more if they see that pretty little lock icon in their browser.
Not every site needs to have HTTPS enabled, but if you have a 600,000+ page site with e-commerce functionality, let's just go ahead and assume you do. Users will immediately trust your site more if they see that pretty little lock icon in their browser. Site Security Solutions
Take advantage of solutions like Comodo Hacker Proof or McAfee SiteAdvisor to verify that your site is safe and secure. Include the badges and link to them so that both users and the bots know that you have a safe site.
Take advantage of solutions like Comodo Hacker Proof or McAfee SiteAdvisor to verify that your site is safe and secure. Include the badges and link to them so that both users and the bots know that you have a safe site. Business Reputation Badges
Use at least one trade group or business reputation group (like the better business bureau) or, at minimum, employ some form of schema review markup that makes it clear to your users that at least some person or group of persons out there trusts your site. If you use a trade group membership or the BBB, make sure you link to them so that, once again, it is clear to the bots as well as your users.
Use at least one trade group or business reputation group (like the better business bureau) or, at minimum, employ some form of schema review markup that makes it clear to your users that at least some person or group of persons out there trusts your site. If you use a trade group membership or the BBB, make sure you link to them so that, once again, it is clear to the bots as well as your users. Up-to-date Design
This is a clear issue time and time again. In the technology world, old means insecure. The site PR.com looks old-fashioned by all measures of the word, especially in comparison to the other press release websites. It is no wonder that it performs so horribly.
It is worth pointing out here that Google doesn't need to find markup on your site to come to the conclusion that your site is untrustworthy. Because the Panda algorithm likely takes into account engagement metrics and behaviors (like pogo sticking), Google can use the behavior of users to predict the performance on these questions. So, even if there isn't a clear path between a change you make on your site and Googlebot's ability to identify that change doesn't mean the change cannot and will not have an impact on site performance in the search results. The days of thinking about your users and the bots as separate audiences are gone. The bots now measure both your site and your audience. Your impact on users can and will have an impact on search performance.
Q3. Do you consider this site an authority?
This question is particularly difficult for sites that both don't control the content they create and have a wide variety of content. This places press release websites squarely in the bullseye of the Panda algorithm. How does a website that accepts thousands of press releases on nearly any topic dare claim to be an authority? Well, it generally doesn't, and the numbers bear that out. 75% of respondents wouldn't consider PRNewswire an authority.
Notice, though, that Wikipedia performs poorly on this metric as well (at least compared to EDUs and GOVs). So what exactly is going on here? How can a press release site hope to escape from this authority vacuum?
Topically Segment Content
This was one of the very first reactions to Panda. Many of the sites that were hit with Panda 1.0 sub-domained their content into particular topic areas. This seemed to provide some relief but was never a complete or permanent solution. Whether you segment your content into sub-directories or sub-domains, what you are really doing here is helping make clear to your users that the specific content your users are reading is part of a bigger piece of the pie. It isn't some random page on your site, it fits in nicely with your website's stated aims.
This was one of the very first reactions to Panda. Many of the sites that were hit with Panda 1.0 sub-domained their content into particular topic areas. This seemed to provide some relief but was never a complete or permanent solution. Whether you segment your content into sub-directories or sub-domains, what you are really doing here is helping make clear to your users that the specific content your users are reading is part of a bigger piece of the pie. It isn't some random page on your site, it fits in nicely with your website's stated aims. Create an Authority
Just because you don't write the content for your site doesn't mean you can't be authoritative. In fact, most major press release websites have some degree of editorial oversight sitting between the author and the website. That editorial layer needs to be bolstered and exposed to the end user, making it obvious that the website does more than simply regurgitate the writing of anyone with a few bucks.
So, what exactly would this look like? Let's return to the Businesswire press release we were looking at earlier. We started with a bland page comprised of almost nothing but the press release. We then added a graph and some structured data automagically. Now, we want to add in some editor creds and topic segmentation.
Notice in the new design that we have created the "Securities & Investment Division", added an editor with a fancy title "Business Desk Editor" and a credentialed by-line. You could even use authorship publisher markup. The page no longer looks like a sparse press release but an editorially managed piece of news content in a news division dedicated to this subject matter. Authority done.
Q4. Would you consider bookmarking/sharing this site?
When I look at this question, I am baffled. Seriously, how do you make a site in which you don't control the content worth bookmarking or sharing? Furthermore, how do you do this with overtly commercial, boring content like press releases? As you could imagine, press release sites fair quite poorly on this. Over 85% of respondents said they weren't interested at all in bookmarking or sharing content from PRWeb.com. And why should they?
So, how exactly does a press release website encourage users to share? The most common recommendations are already in place on PRWeb. They are quite overt with the usage of social sharing and bookmarking buttons (placed right at the top of the content). Their content is constantly fresh because new press releases come out every day. If these techniques aren't working, then what will?
The problem with bookmarking and sharing on press release websites is two-fold. First, the content is overtly commercial so users don't want to share it unless the press release is about something truly interesting. Secondly, the content is ephemeral so users don't want to return to it. We have to solve both of these problems.
Unfortunately, I think the answer to this question is some tough medicine for press release websites. The solution is multi-faceted. It starts with putting a meta expires tag on press releases. Sorry, but there is no reason for PRWeb to maintain a 2009 press release about a business competition in the search results. In its place, though, should be company and/or categorical pages which thoughtfully index and organize archived content. While LumaDerm may lose their press release from 2009, they would instead have a page on the site dedicated to their press releases so that the content is still accessible, albeit one click away, and the search engines know to ignore it. With this solution, the pages that end up ranking in the long run for valuable words and phrases are the aggregate pages that truly do offer authoritative information on what is up-and-coming with the business. The page is sticky because it is updated as often as the business releases new information, you still get some of the shares out of new releases but you don't risk the problems of PR sprawl and crawl prioritization. Aside from the initial bump of fresh content, there is no good SEO reason to keep old press releases in the index.
So, I don't own a press release site...
Most of us don't run sites with thousands of pages of low quality content. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be cognizant of Panda. Of all of Google's search updates, Panda is the one I respect the most. I respect it because it is an honest attempt to measure quality. It doesn't ask how you got to your current position in the search results (a classic genetic fallacy problem), it simply asks whether the page and site itself deserve that ranking based on human quality measures (as imperfect as it may be at doing so). Most importantly, even if Google didn't exist at all, you should aspire to have a website that scores well on all of these metrics. Having a site that performs well on the Panda questions means more than insulation from a particular algorithm update, it means having a site that performs well for your users. That is a site you want to have.
Take a look again at the questionnaire. Does your site honestly meet these standards? Ask someone unbiased. If your site does, then congratulations - you have an amazing site. But if not, it is time to get to work building the site that you were meant to build. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
GRANT PARK, Ill. (CBS)– There are a grain bin rescue and recovery efforts underway in Grant Park, Illinois not far from Manteno, about 55 miles south of Chicago.
The incident took place just before 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. It is Farmers Elevator Co. of Manteno.
CBS 2’s Steven Graves has the latest.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is on the scene as well as a number of emergency vehicles. They responded to a report of a man who fell about 50 to 70 feet in the grain bin. Officials later found out another man was trapped in the process of trying to save the other.
According to Scott O’Brien, Chief of the Manteno Community Fire Protection District, the call out was for one man in the bin, but it was later discovered two men were in the space.
“One was in there trying to help the other,” O’Brien said. “(That person) was successfully extracted and taken to the hospital for observation.”
However, rescuers were not able to speak with the other man as of recently. Both men worked for the same company, Whitaker Grain.
OSHA officials are investigating. There have been inspections at the company but no violations.
O’Brien said it’s unclear how the incident happened. They fell from a height of 50 to 70 feet.
“The rescue teams are setting up a system. We’re going to have to rescue from the top. And they’re actually building a rigging system to go in to put the patient in the basket and go in to bring them out,” O’Brien said.
We just arrived to find a similar sight of emergency vehicles, rescue teams and the @KankakeeSheriff Office blocking off road into area. Waiting on any information from officials as to what’s happening. @cbschicago https://t.co/XRM8pD1Z4P pic.twitter.com/P6ZSVtt026 — Steven Graves (@StevenGravesTV) January 8, 2020 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Fallout 76 Has Ruined My Life
And it’s not even out yet.
Oh, I know it’s coming. PC or Xbox One or PS4…it doesn’t matter. My life is over. Work’ll be the first thing to go. Then my home life. I’ll soon stop showering everyday. My meals will blend together like survival rations as I huddle cold and alone in a cave. Sharpening the rusty nail in my baseball bat, I wait…hiding from mutated creatures I neither understand nor care to. Breath. Breath. It’s just a game…just a game.
I’m a grown man, dammit! It can’t be this hard to balance real life with a game, but I’ve been down this road before.
It may be the best game series ever made… the single most fantastic, replayable, immersing gamescape ever conceived by mere mortals. Pfff. Mortals. Demi-gods. Lords of code. Programmers of programmers. Designers of..gush, gush, gush. GUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH…but I have a plan.
Bethesda’s Fallout 4 sold 12 million copies and generated over $750 million in its first 24 hours at retail on Nov. 10 (2015). -Fortune
War. War never changes.
I check the Pip-boy projecting its soothing green light upon my old world features. This is what my life has come to. The vast expanse of post-apocalyptic West Virginia illuminated by technology both old and new. So you see, I’m already gone. I can’t remember what I had to do today. It can’t be as important as clearing out this skyscraper full of Super-Mutants terrorizing the local colonies.
I can’t quit now. Not while that Assaultron stands between me and that Power Armour. Look at it. Magnificent. Stainless poly-laminate composite chassis of death. I’ll be unstoppable! Everyone will bow before my awesome power or I’ll….I’ll…access my Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System and blow them all to Hell!!! Mwahahahahahahaha
Fallout 76 has ruined my life. I can’t work. I can’t sleep and when I do… I dream of Nuka-Cola factories and surfing waves of caps carrying me through endless unrealized potential. My muscles grow; my eyes glow. I heal my friends and consume the dead. I talk to robots and bend time. When I’m bored I hold staring contests with Deathclaws. The rads coming off my irradiated body can power a crashed space station.
I’m so much luckier in Fallout; it’s just a better place to be. I matter there to the people of the settlements. A protector of our shared future. We will rebuild. Reunite the world behind a grand vision. 4 times the size of Fallout 4. Bring on the Mirelurk Queen and her crunchy little children. I’m so hungry I could eat a Radscorpion.
The RobCo Pip-Boy (Personal Information Processor) is an electronic device manufactured by RobCo Industries. — Fallout Wiki
Hey! What are you doing?!? No, let me go…let me go! I have to clear the museum of ghouls. Hey, give me that keyboard!? My mouse!!!! Let go of me, FOG CRAWLER!!! Fine…fine…I’ll go to work. Gaaaaawwwwwwddddd….grumble…I hate my life.
And that’s my plan. Play until someone drags me kicking and screaming from my console. Don’t judge me!
Hey if you liked this article check out https://medium.com/@AnthonyMountjoy/money-making-colonies-in-fallout-76-d663fd15761c
Fallout 76 comes out November 2018. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Seven miners were killed and another was missing after part of a coal mine in Turkey’s southeastern province of Sirnak collapsed on Tuesday, government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said.
Search and rescue teams were looking for the missing worker who was trapped at the site.
Turkey’s energy ministry said the coal mine was unlicensed and had been operating illegally.
“The activities of the mining field in Sirnak where the accident took place were stopped by the General Directorate of Mining Affairs in 2013 because it carried operational and security risks,” the energy ministry said.
Workplace accidents are not unusual in Turkey. Its rapid growth over the past decade has seen a construction boom and a scramble to meet soaring energy and commodities demand, with worker safety standards often failing to keep pace.
Its worst ever mining disaster took place in May 2014 in the western town of Soma, where 301 workers were killed. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
This Document is Exhibit 10 of U.S. Supreme Court Case No.00-9587
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL MEMORANDUM-46
MARCH 17, 1978
Presidential Review Memorandum NSCM/46
TO: The Secretary of State
The Secretary of Defense
The Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT: Black Africa and the U.S. Black Movement
The President has directed that a comprehensive review be made of current developments in Black Africa from the point of view of their possible impacts on the black movement in the United States. The review should consider:
1. Long-term tendencies of social and political developments and the degree to which they are consistent with or contradict the U.S. interests.
2. Proposals for durable contacts between radical African leaders and leftist leaders of the U.S. black community.
3. Appropriate steps to be taken inside and outside the country in order to inhibit any pressure by radical African leaders and organizations on the U.S. black community for the latter to exert influence on the policy of the Administration toward Africa.
The President has directed that the NSC Interdepartmental Group for Africa perform this review. The review should be forwarded to the NSC Political Analysis Committee by April 20.
(signed)
Zbigniew Brezinski
cc: The Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of Commerce
The Attorney General
The Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
INTERDEPARTMENTAL GROUP
FOR AFRICA
STUDY RESPONSE TO PRESIDENTIAL SECURITY
REVIEW MEMORANDUM NSC-46
BLACK AFRICA AND THE
U.S. BLACK MOVEMENT
Objective of our policy toward Black Africa is to prevent social upheavals which could radically change the political situation throughout the area. The success or failure of our policy in the region depends on the solution international
and internal issues whose importance of the United States is on the increase.
II. A. U.S. INTERESTS IN BLACK AFRICA
A multiplicity of interests influences the U.S. attitude toward black Africa. The most important of these interests can be summarized as follows:
1. POLITICAL
If black African states assume attitudes hostile to the U.S. national interest, our policy toward the white regimes; which is a key element in our relations with the black states, may be subjected by the latter to great pressure for fundamental change. Thus the West may face a real danger of being deprived of access to the enormous raw material resources of southern Africa which are vital for our defense needs as well as losing control over the Cape sea routes by which approximately 65% of Middle Eastern oil is supplied to Western Europe.
Moreover, such a development may bring about internal political difficulties by intensifying the activity of the black movement in the United States itself.
It should also be borne in mind that black Africa is an integral part of a continent where tribal and regional discord, economic backwardness, inadequate infrastructures, drought, and famine, are constant features of the scene. In conjunction with the artificial borders imposed by the former colonial powers, guerilla warfare in Rhodesia and widespread indignation against apartheid in South Africa, the above factors provide the communist states with ample opportunities for furthering their aims. This must necessarily redound to the detriment of U.S. political interests.
2. ECONOMIC
Black Africa is increasingly becoming an outlet for U.S. exports and investment. The mineral resources of the area continue to be of great value for the normal functioning of industry in the United States and allied countries. In 1977, U.S. direct investment in black Africa totaled about $1.8 billion and exports $2.2 billion. New prospect of substantial profits would continue to develop in the countries concerned.
IV. BLACK AFRICA AND THE U.S. BLACK MOVEMENT
Apart from the above-mentioned factors adverse to U.S. strategic interests, the nationalist liberation movement in black Africa can act as a catalyst with far reaching effects on the American black community by stimulating its organizational consolidation and by inducing radical actions. Such a result would be likely as Zaire went the way of Angola and Mozambique.
An occurrence of the events of 1967-68 would do grievous harm to U.S. prestige, especially in view of the concern of the present Administration with human rights issues. Moreover, the Administration would have to take specific steps to stabilize the situation. Such steps might be misunderstood both inside and outside the United States.
In order to prevent such a trend and protect U.S. national security interests, it would appear essential to elaborate and carry out effective countermeasures.
1. Possibility of Joint Action By U.S. Black and African Nationalist Movement.
In elaborating U.S. policy toward black Africa, due weight must be given to the fact that there are 25 millions American blacks whose roots are African and who consciously or subconsciously sympathies with African nationalism.
The living conditions of the black population should also be taken into account. Immense advances in the field are accompanied by a long-lasting high rate of unemployment, especially among the youth and by poverty and dissatisfaction with government social welfare standards.
These factors taken together may provide a basis for joint actions of a concrete nature by the African nationalist movement and the U.S. black community. Basically, actions would take the form of demonstrations and public protests, but the likelihood of violence cannot be excluded. There would also be attempts to coordinate their political activity both locally and in international organizations.
Inside the United States these actions could include protest demonstrations against our policy toward South Africa accompanied by demand for boycotting corporations and banks which maintain links with that country; attempts to establish a permanent black lobby in Congress including activist leftist radical groups and black legislators; the reemergence of Pan-African ideals; resumption of protest marches recalling the days of Martin Luther King; renewal of the extremist idea national idea of establishing an "African Republic" on American soil. Finally, leftist radical elements of the black community could resume extremist actions in the style of the defunct Black Panther Party.
Internationally, damage could be done to the United States by coordinated activity of African states designed to condemn U.S. policy toward South Africa, and initiate discussions on the U.S. racial issue at the United Nations where the African representation constitutes a powerful bloc with about one third of all the votes.
A menace to U.S. economic interests, though not a critical one, could be posed by a boycott by Black African states against American companies which maintain contact with South Africa and Rhodesia. If the idea of economic assistance to black Americans shared by some African regimes could be realized by their placing orders in the United States mainly with companies owned by blacks, they could gain a limited influence on the U.S. black community.
In the above context, we must envisage the possibility, however remote, that black Americans interested in African affairs may refocus their attention on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Taking into account; the African descent of American blacks it is reasonable to anticipate that their sympathies would lie with the Arabs who are closer to them in spirit and in some case related to them by blood. Black involvement in lobbying to support the Arabs may lead to serious dissention between American black and Jews. The likelihood of extremist actions by either side is negligible, but the discord may bring about tension in the internal political climate of the United States.
3. Political options
In the context of long-term strategy, the United States can not afford a radical change in the fundamentals of its African policy, which is designed for maximum protection of national security. In the present case, emphasis is laid on the importance of Black Africa for U.S. political, economic and military interests.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In weighing the range of U.S. interests in Black Africa, basic recommendations arranged without intent to imply priority are:
1. Specific steps should be taken with the help of appropriate government agencies to inhibit coordinated activity of the Black Movement in the United States.
2. Special clandestine operations should be launched by the CIA to generate mistrust and hostility in American and world opinion against joint activity of the two forces, and to cause division among Black African radical national groups and their leaders.
3. U.S. embassies to Black African countries specially interested in southern Africa must be highly circumspect in view of the activity of certain political circles and influential individuals opposing the objectives and methods of U.S. policy toward South Africa. It must be kept in mind that the failure of U.S. strategy in South Africa would adversely affect American standing throughout the world. In addition, this would mean a significant diminution of U.S. influence in Africa and the emergence of new difficulties in our internal situation due to worsening economic prospects.
4. The FBI should mount surveillance operations against Black African representatives and collect sensitive information on those, especially at the U.N., who oppose U.S. policy toward South Africa. The information should include facts on their links with the leaders of the Black movement in the United States, thus making possible at least partial neutralization of the adverse effects of their activity.
V. TRENDS IN THE AMERICAN BLACK MOVEMENT
In connection with our African policy, it is highly important to evaluate correctly the present state of the Black movement in the Untied States and basing ourselves on all available information, to try to devise a course for its future development. Such an approach is strongly suggested by our perception of the fact that American Blacks form a single ethnic group potentially capable of causing extreme instability in our strategy toward South Africa. This may lead to critical differences between the United States and Black Africa in particular. It would also encourage the Soviet Union to step up its interference in the region. Finally, it would pose a serious threat to the delicate structure of race relations within the United States. All the above considerations give rise to concern for the future security of
the United States.
Since the mid-1960s, when legislation on the human rights was passed and Martin Luther King murdered, federal and local measures to improve black welfare have been taken, as a result of which the U.S. black movement has undergone considerable changes.
The principle changes are as follows:
*Social and economic issues have supplanted political aims as the main preoccupations of the movement. and actions formerly planned on a nationwide scale are now being organized locally.
*Fragmentation and a lack of organizational unity within the movement.
*Sharp social stratification of the Black population and lack of policy options which could reunite them.
*Want of a national leader of standing comparable to Martin Luther King.
B. THE RANGE OF POLICY OPTIONS
The concern for the future security of the United States makes necessary the range of policy options. Arranged without intent imply priority they are:
(a) to enlarge programs, within the framework of the present budget, for the improvement of the social and economic welfare of American Blacks in order to ensure continuing development of present trends in the Black movement;
(b) to elaborate and bring into effect a special program designed to perpetuate division in the Black movement and neutralize the most active groups of leftist radical organizations representing different social strata of the Black community: to encourage division in Black circles;
(c) to preserve the present climate which inhibits the emergence from within the Black leadership of a person capable of exerting nationwide appeal;
(d) to work out and realize preventive operations in order to impede durable ties between U.S Black organizations and radical groups in African states;
(e) to support actions designed to sharpen social stratification in the Black community which would lead to the widening and perpetuation of the gap between successful educated Blacks and the poor, giving rise to growing antagonism between different Black groups and a weakening of the movement as a whole.
(f) to facilitate the greatest possible expansion of Black business by granting government contracts and loans with favorable terms to Black businessmen;
(g) to take every possible means through the AFL-CIO leaders to counteract the increasing influence of Black labor organizations which function in all major unions and in particular, the National Coalition of Black Trade Union and its leadership including the creation of real preference for adverse and hostile reaction among White trade unionists to demands for improvement of social and economic welfare of the Blacks;
(h) to support the nomination at federal and local levels of loyal Black public figures to elective offices, to government agencies and the Court.
This would promote the achievement of a twofold purpose:
first, it would be easier to control the activity of loyal black representatives within existing institution;
second, the idea of an independent black political party now under discussion within black leadership circles would soon lose all support. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
After Glenn Beck blasted the “stupid wrestling people” at WWE for their controversial “racist Tea Party” Jack Swagger® and Zeb Colter® characters, the pro wrestling organization has invited the conservative radio host to appear on next week’s Monday Night RAW and address the sport face-to-face.
“WWE is giving Beck the opportunity to address our 14 million weekly viewers and our global fan base, as he believes we are offending our ‘conservative’ fans with this storyline,” the wrestling organization’s invitation-via-press-release reads.
They go on to explain the rationale for painting Swagger and Colter as right-wing “nutjobs” and pitting him against a Mexican hero for the “heavyweight championship”:
Similar to other television shows and feature films, WWE is in the entertainment business, creating fictional characters that serve as protagonists or antagonists. To create compelling and relevant content for our audience, it is important to incorporate current events into our storylines. WWE is creating a rivalry centered on a topical subject that has varying points of view. This storyline was developed to build the Mexican American character Del Rio into a hero given WWE’s large Latino base, which represents 20 percent of our audience.
So… did Beck accept the invitation? Time will tell.
But let’s all take some time to pray to the Gods of Television tonight because HOLY HELL that would be awesome TV.
UPDATE: Beck has released an official response to the WWE’s invitation. And it’s pretty awesome:
“Unfortunately I am currently booked doing anything else.”
Watch Beck’s segment on the WWE controversy below, via TheBlaze TV:
Your browser does not support iframes.
— —
>> Follow Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? [email protected] | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Department of Transportation has proposed new rules that could require horse carriages along Central Park South to operate from designated boarding areas moving forward.
According to WNYC, a draft of the new rules that was recently submitted shows that the city wants to move pickups to five designated areas within the park, near entrances on Fifth Avenue and Central Park West. The move is aimed at improving health and safety of the horses by cutting down the amount of time they spend alongside traffic, while allowing for the same amount of boarding space that currently exists.
Mayor Bill de Blasio had once vowed to scale back the city’s horse carriage industry, however, after opposition from locals and carriage drivers, his efforts were stifled. In 2016, de Blasio made efforts to educe the number of working horses and relocate the stables, however, City Council stalled on voting for the measure.
The Department of Transportation is accepting comments on the new rules and will hold a hearing on the subject on October 3. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Amid Comeypalooza and the news Sean Hannity is Michael Cohen's mystery client number three, the Russian Connection has been eclipsed—at least for this fleeting moment. But The Washington Post on Tuesday revealed that Trump is reversing his own administration's approach on new Russian sanctions:
Preparations to punish Russia anew for its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government over an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria caused consternation at the White House ... Trump conferred with his national security advisers later Sunday and told them he was upset the sanctions were being officially rolled out because he was not yet comfortable executing them, according to several people familiar with the plan.
Trump abandoned the fresh round of sanctions after Nikki Haley, his ambassador to the United Nations, said Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation that they could be announced on Monday.
So Trump undercut his own UN ambassador—not exactly surprising—to nix his administration's plans to punish Russia for its behavior in Syria. Maybe Trump genuinely thought it was not in the United States' interests to push the issue here. Except this fits neatly into a pattern of behavior for the president, who has consistently been reluctant to criticize Russia or its authoritarian leader, Vladimir Putin, and to institute sanctions in response to its dangerous behavior.
Getty Images
Just on Sunday, we learned that a previous round of sanctions against the Russians, announced in March to punish Moscow for the suspected poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil, sent the president into intergalactic hysterics. The plan was to expel 60 Russian diplomats from U.S. soil, which, his aides assured him, was consistent with the European response, according to The Washington Post.
“We’ll match their numbers,” Trump instructed, according to a senior administration official. “We’re not taking the lead. We’re matching.”
But France and Germany then each expelled only four Russian officials—the 60 reflected the total among all European allies. The president was furious, as it looked like the United States was taking the strongest stance against Russian aggression.
“I don’t care about the total!” the administration official recalled Trump screaming. ... Growing angrier, Trump insisted that his aides had misled him about the magnitude of the expulsions. “There were curse words,” the official said, “a lot of curse words.”
As the Post put it, Trump, who's at odds with his own administration over Russia, "instinctually opposes many of the punitive measures pushed by his Cabinet that have crippled his ability to forge a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin."
The president is screaming and cursing at his national security team because he didn't understand beforehand that the United States would look like it was leading the response to Russia's assassination attempt on our closest ally's soil. Why is President Business Alpha so desperate to just blend into the pack on this?
Getty Images
And are we supposed to believe it's unrelated to the fact that it took his administration a full year to impose sanctions on Russia for its meddling in the 2016 elections—sanctions mandated by law that passed both houses of Congress? As an NBC News story flagged by Esquire's Charles P. Pierce put it at the time, this had further implications:
One U.S. official noted that the delay in initiating sanctions against the oligarchs responsible for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election has muted their effect. He said that the oligarchs have had a year to restructure their U.S. holdings. "They had to know these were coming," he said.
So, in other words, Putin's cronies had plenty of time to move their money around to avoid the sanctions.
And then there's what we've learned about Trump in private, which reflects what we've long seen in public. Part of James Comey's roving carnival book tour over the last week was his claim that Trump won't criticize Putin—even in private:
This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
This, of course, perfectly reflects Trump's public behavior, in which he has almost relentlessly praised Putin—and other authoritarian leaders—and signaled his desire to improve relations with Russia despite the nation's destructive behavior in Ukraine, Syria, and even Salisbury.
It's often overlooked that it's not just secret ties between Trump associates and Kremlin-linked officials that might indicate a connection between the two parties. Trump's public behavior, from day one of his campaign all the way through to his consistent reluctance to impose cutting sanctions as president, has indicated a pro-Russian persuasion that is completely inconsistent with what the Kremlin has been up to in that time period. Where did that come from, and why have Trump's preferences remained totally unchanged even as an investigation into possible Russian collusion threatens to crumble his presidency?
Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Photo
A nutrition advisory panel that helps shape the country’s official dietary guidelines eased some of its previous restrictions on fat and cholesterol on Thursday and recommended sharp new limits on the amount of added sugar that Americans should consume.
The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which convenes every five years, followed the lead of other major health groups like the American Heart Association that in recent years have backed away from dietary cholesterol restrictions and urged people to cut back on added sugars.
The panel said that Americans were eating too much salt, sugar and saturated fat, and not enough foods that fit a “healthy dietary pattern,” like fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, fish and moderate levels of alcohol. Members of the panel said they wanted Americans to focus less on individual nutrients and more on overall patterns of eating, such as a Mediterranean-style diet, which is associated with lower rates of heart disease and stroke.
The panel singled out added sugars as one of its major concerns. Previous dietary guidelines have included warnings about eating too much added sugar, but for the first time the panel recommended that Americans limit it to no more than 10 percent of daily calories — roughly 12 teaspoons a day for many adults — because of its link to obesity and chronic disease.
Americans consume 22 to 30 teaspoons of added sugar daily, half of which come from soda, juices and other sugary drinks. The panel said sugary drinks should be removed from schools, and it endorsed a rule proposed by the Food and Drug Administration that would require a distinct line for added sugars on food nutrition labels, a change the food and sugar industries have aggressively fought.
Many experts, including some who disagreed with the panel’s cautions on salt and saturated fat, applauded its stronger stance on added sugars.
“That was one of the high points of these guidelines, and something that was sorely needed,” said Dr. Ronald M. Krauss, the director of atherosclerosis research at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute. “There is a striking excess of added sugar intake in all age groups across the population.”
Dr. Krauss, the former chairman of the American Heart Association’s dietary guidelines committee, said that the advisory panel’s emphasis on overall dietary patterns was “a tremendous move in the right direction.” As part of that move, the panel dropped a suggestion from the previous guidelines that Americans restrict their total fat intake to 35 percent of their daily calories.
Since they were first issued in 1980, the guidelines have largely encouraged people to follow a low-fat diet, which prompted an explosion of processed foods stripped of fat and loaded with sugar. Studies show that replacing fat with refined carbohydrates like bread, rice and sugar can actually worsen cardiovascular health, so the guidelines encourage Americans to focus not on the amount of fat they are eating but on the type.
The guidelines advise people to eat unsaturated fat — the kind found in fish, nuts, and olive and vegetable oils — in place of saturated fat, which occurs primarily in animal foods.
The panel also dropped a longstanding recommendation that Americans restrict their intake of dietary cholesterol from foods like eggs and shrimp — a belated acknowledgment of decades of research showing that dietary cholesterol has little or no effect on the blood cholesterol levels of most people.
“For many years, the cholesterol recommendation has been carried forward, but the data just doesn’t support it,” said Alice H. Lichtenstein, the vice chairwoman of the advisory panel and a professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University.
Dr. Krauss said that some people experience a rise in blood cholesterol after eating yolks and other cholesterol-rich foods. But these “hyper-responders” are such a minority — roughly a few percent of the population — that they do not justify broad restrictions on cholesterol intake.
The advisory panel does not issue the official guidelines. Its report is sent to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture, which publish Dietary Guidelines for Americans every five years. The agencies usually adhere very closely to the panel’s recommendations.
Although consumers rarely pay direct attention to the guidelines, they nonetheless influence the diets of tens of millions of people. The guidelines shape the menus of the school lunch program, which feeds more than 30 million children each school day, and they are incorporated into national food assistance programs like WIC and SNAP.
The advisory panel included the vegetarian diet as an example of what it called a healthy eating pattern, noting that a plant-based diet is also more sustainable, with less of an impact on the environment. But critics questioned whether the guidelines might overstep the mandate to focus on health and nutrition.
“It appears the advisory committee was more interested in addressing what’s trendy among foodies than providing science-based advice for the average American’s diet,” said Howard Hill, a veterinarian and president of the National Pork Producers Council.
The advisory panel was also criticized for its advice against saturated fat, which has been challenged by several recent studies. Dr. James DiNicolantonio, a cardiovascular scientist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, said that replacing saturated fat with the polyunsaturated fats in vegetable oils could worsen blood cholesterol levels and raise cancer and heart disease risk.
“The recommendations on saturated fat are a farce,” he said.
Adele Hite, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the nonprofit Healthy Nation Coalition, said that in the decades since their inception, the guidelines had played a direct role in the explosion of obesity and chronic disease by steering people away from nutritious whole foods like meat, eggs and butter.
Since the 1980s, Americans over all have been eating more grains, produce, cereals and vegetable oils, while generally lowering their intake of red meat, whole milk and eggs, Ms. Hite said, and yet the population is fatter and sicker than ever.
“Despite the unavoidable conclusion that the guidelines have failed in some fundamental way,” she said, “the response from the advisory committee seems to be that an even more restricted list of acceptable foods will, this time around, do the trick.”
Video
Related: Why Cafeteria Food Is the Best
F.D.A. to Require Calorie Count, Even for Popcorn at the Movies | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
I was researching about decentralized finance when I first came across Synthetix from a tweet from @DegenSpartan. (Learned a lot from his views/knowledge about DeFi & Synthetix - definitely worth the follow!)
It was really difficult to comprehend the system at first as I dwell in their discord group to wrap my head around it. With the meaningful ongoing discussions daily, I begin to understand it a little more day by day.
With this guide, I hope it will help people that have just stumbled upon this project have a better understanding of what Synthetix has to offer and a basic overview of how this project works. There are great things in the pipeline and I am very excited about what the future holds for Synthetix.
Introduction to Synthetix
Synthetix was originally known as Havven and held its ICO around February 2018 for its ERC-20 token, HAV. The price of 1 HAV equals 0.67 USD. The goal at the time of launch was to be a decentralized payment network which uses a dual token system to issue stable coins (nUSD) backed by HAV as collateral. HAV holders were then rewarded with a % of fees generated from all nUSD transactions as a result of keeping nUSD stable.
Going forward, the team realized that they can do so much more than just creating a stable coin. The major rebranding to Synthetix was announced on 30th Nov 2018 and HAV became SNX.
Stretching the full potential of the Synthetix platform, it now enables the creation of on-chain synthetic assets which an oracle is used to track the price movement of the same assets in the real world. This has opened up a wide variety of synthetic assets that any user can mint such as stable coins that are pegged to the price of fiat currencies or dollars pegged to mental/indices/commodities, provided it is offered on the exchange. Synthetic assets allow exposure to the price action of the asset without holding the underlying asset. If you do not want the hassle of dealing with KYC on the exchanges and are bullish on the price of Bitcoin in the future, you can buy sBTC to gain exposure to the value of BTC.
For people who are on the other side of the trend (bearish), there are inverse synthetic assets to short the price and gain profit when the price of the asset decreases. (iBTC) More synthetic assets of other popular asset classes and cryptocurrencies will soon be introduced as the exchange gains traction and demand for a certain asset from the community arises.
Purpose of the SNX Token
SNX token is the foundation of the Synthetic network as it acts as the collateral to back the creation of any synthetic asset (Synths) on the platform. It allows the token holders to participate in the minting of Synths. SNX will be locked into the smart contract during minting and you will receive one fifth of sUSD against the SNX that is locked. (E.g. If $1000 worth of SNX is locked, you will receive $200 sUSD) The optimal collateralization ratio is 500% so it requires the minter to play an active role in maintaining the ratio. The incentive for doing so is that the minter would be able to claim rewards compared to other minters who be blocked when their ratio falls below a certain threshold. This will be discussed in greater detail later on.
Update: The optimal collateralization ratio has increased to 750% to curb the over supply of synths. There was also issues in maintaining the peg of sUSD:USD at 1:1 so this proposed change would hopefully restore the peg.
The Step by Step Minting Process
Mintr is the main dApp that SNX holders will access to mint & burn Synths and collect their transaction fee rewards.
Step 1: You would have to get your hands on some SNX. To find which exchanges have listed SNX as one of their markets, head over to this CoinGecko and buy from any of the exchanges that you want, preferably the exchange which has the highest volume. For decentralized exchanges, there is Uniswap where you can buy SNX with ETH with low slippage.
Step 2: Transfer the SNX bought to either Metamask, Trezor or Ledger and connect to the wallet with your SNX holdings through Mintr.
Step 3: Once connected, you will arrive at this page where there is an option to mint sUSD. Based on the screenshot, the value of the 10000 SNX is currently worth $3468.78 and the target collateralization ratio is 500%. If you decide to lock the SNX, you are able to mint 693.76 sUSD which is one-fifth of the value of the SNX holdings.
With the target collateralization ratio being 750% now, you would be able to mint 462.50 sUSD. (3468.75 divided by 7.5)
You would need to hold some ETH in your wallet to pay for fees when minting. Since minting is one of the most complex computations on Ethereum, it would cost a lot more in gas fees. Tip: Follow the recommended gas limit and only tweak the gwei to whatever you want. The lower the gwei, the longer the time it takes for the minting process. It is also based on how congested the Ethereum network is. To find out which is the most suitable gwei to set, head over to ETH Gas Station.
Step 4: You’re set! You can decide on what to do with your sUSD. You can sell it to ETH on Depot which would be put into the queue system on Swappr or purchase synthetic assets through the Synthetix Exchange.
Managing of SNX & Reward Penalties
To unlock all your SNX holdings, you would have to burn the amount of sUSD equivalent to “Total sUSD debt owed” as shown in the dashboard. You will notice that the debt owed would fluctuate from time to time and is best explained here. In the case that the debt owed is higher than the sUSD you have initially minted, you would need to purchase additional sUSD to recover your SNX holdings.
If the price of SNX drops in comparison to the initial value of SNX when you first minted for sUSD, your current c-ratio will drop below 750%. Burning of sUSD, buying of sUSD and buying of SNX are ways to fix your c-ratio and bring it back up to 750%.
However, if the price of SNX increases, your current c-ratio will rise above 750%. This means you can mint even more sUSD to contribute to the network and use it to purchase synthetic assets or simply hold it. The c-ratio will revert back to 750%.
As a minter, you are eligible for 2 kinds of rewards: SNX staking rewards & a portion of the fees generated from the trading volume in Synthetix Exchange in the form of sUSD. If your c-ratio falls below 682%, you will not be blocked from claiming your rewards until you fix your c-ratio.
Rewards are claimable on a WEEKLY basis through the ‘Rewards’ tab. The amount of rewards claimed is dependent on the total Synth balance at the time of snapshot which is currently every Wednesday around 8 am UTC. It will be more accurate to look at the amount of time left to the end of the fee period by looking at Mintr.
Currently, there is a 2 weeks window to claim your fees before it expires. If left unclaimed, it will be rolled over to the pool to be distributed in the next period. Remember to claim your rewards before the window closes! Although it shows that there are no penalties for having your c-ratio above 750%, you are losing out on potential rewards since you minted less sUSD than you could have.
The table above shows the SNX staking rewards schedule where it indicates the amount of SNX that is released into the circulating supply each year. The SNX staking rewards received will be vested for 1 year from the collection date so that the increase in supply would not have a dampening effect on the price. You can check when the rewards will be unlocked under the ‘Rewards’ tab.
Fret not, it will still be included in your total SNX balance when collected which leads to an increase in SNX locked. This means you can mint even more sUSD and claim greater rewards for the following week, creating a COMPOUNDING effect if you claim your rewards frequently.
Check out DegenSpartan’s Twitter thread to learn more about how the whole rewards system works — 100% transparency in real-time!
Resources
Other than the litepaper available on their website, I will provide some useful statistics from different websites that you can refer to in order to track the different aspects and growth of the Synthetix platform.
Synthetix Dashboard
The Synthetix dashboard has all the information that you will need about the health of the network at your fingertips. You can also see the trend of other interesting statistics such as the fees claimable in the fee pool or how well the sUSD is pegged to the US dollar.
Defi Pulse
DeFi Pulse is a popular tracking tool of key metrics for different projects that are considered to be products built under decentralized finance and are split into different categories - lending, derivatives, payments, etc. It is a great site where you can watch the growth of DeFi projects over time. Synthetix is currently in 5th place with the amount of USD locked. Based on the graph of total value locked (USD), we can see a tremendous rise over the past month which means an increase in SNX locked and the growth of value that SNX holds as an asset. This indicates the amount of confidence that investors have in Synthetix - high!
ViewBase
Another useful statistic that I would like to keep track of daily is the supply of SNX on exchange wallets which can be found on ViewBase. When the supply drops, it indicates that people are withdrawing tokens to their wallets to mint. An increase in supply in the exchange wallets would indicate people are depositing their tokens with the likely intention of selling. The decrease in available supply on exchanges would be beneficial for the price, and vice versa.
Synthetix Exchange Twitter Bot
Last but not least, the Synthetix Exchange bot on Twitter keeps track of the statistics of the Synthetix exchange which includes trading volume & fees generated. This piece of information is useful as it indicates if the exchange is actually growing. More fees will be generated from the growth of exchange activity which results in an increase of reward fees received. As shown in the screenshots, the trading volume in the exchanges saw an increase of $4.29m from May 23 to May 31 and the fees generated increased from 20k to 32k where minters would reap the benefits. The open interest shows what synthetic assets the minters are holding and what position they are taking in this volatile market - longing or shorting a certain asset. It serves as additional information that you can take into consideration when deciding which synthetic asset you want to purchase.
Conclusion
Synthetix has gained the spotlight recently as it climbed through the ranks on Defi Pulse and the price of SNX has greatly appreciated. As more people are getting interested in the project, I hope all the information that is compiled and provided in this guide would suffice for those who are just getting to know Synthetix.
The best way to learn about something is to try it out for yourself! And also discussing the project with like-minded individuals and the team. Hop on to Discord to join in the conversations!
Stay tuned to more in-depth guides about Synthetix and other projects in the DeFi space!
Follow me on Twitter for future updates on articles being posted on the platform! :)
I would love to hear your views of Synthetix on the comments down below! Have a safe day out there trading in this wild wild west! | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Dual Universe is a continuous Single-Shard sandbox civilization building MMORPG taking place in a multi-planets Sci-Fi world with player-driven in-game economy, politics, trade and warfare. Players can freely modify the world by creating structures, space ships or orbital stations, giving birth to empires and civilizations.
If you haven’t heard of Dual Universe, we have a good in-depth overview of the game here and even had an interview with the developer. In short, the game is a voxel-based MMO that gives players the tools to create whatever they want in a No Man’s Sky style game.
Novaquark has big plans for the game too, adding markets, PvP and Space combat, territory warfare and much more. The game is built upon four key pillars; Exploration, Building, Trading, and Conquering. Though, in its current state, only the first three are implemented. It allows you to explore and build anything your heart desires, and even allows you to custom code special functions into your ships. You can even trade your creations and materials in the in-game player driven market.
You can check out the developer’s current roadmap for the game below:
The game is heavily influenced by player-driven feedback, and the developers intend to continue down that route. If you’re interested in Dual Universe, you can check out the full website here, and $60 will snag you a spot in the all future versions of the game. As you can see in the image above, the game still has a ways to go, but is planned for full release in 2020. As it continues to progress, and as player feedback continues to drive the direction of the game, it’s sure to change.
But stay tuned as we plan to bring it all to you in one convenient location. And let us know what you think in the comments below. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
MK Dons boss Paul Tisdale says his team “can’t wait” for a Carabao Cup third-round home tie against last season’s Champions League winners Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp’s men will head to Buckinghamshire next month for an appointment with the Sky Bet League One club.
Reacting to the draw, Tisdale said on the club’s Twitter feed: “What a draw. We’re hoping for another full house at Stadium MK. The Champions League winners in Milton Keynes – we can’t wait.”
Giant killers Colchester have also landed a plum third-round clash after being drawn at home against Tottenham.
Colchester again face Premier League opposition following a penalty shoot-out victory against Crystal Palace on Tuesday.
English football's most popular kits Show all 92 1 /92 English football's most popular kits English football's most popular kits English football's most popular kits The Love The Sales data have team have calculated the popularity of all 368 kits that have been released by the 91 English Football League clubs this season.
Here are those 91 teams in order of popularity – with some surprising results. Which League Two team has released a set of kits even more popular than a high-flying Premier League club? Getty English football's most popular kits 91. Forest Green Rovers LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 13: Nathan McGinley of Forest Green Rovers gives his team instructions during the Carabao Cup First Round match between Charlton Athletic and Forest Green Rovers at The Valley on August 13, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by James Chance/Getty Images) James Chance Getty Images English football's most popular kits 90. Bristol Rovers Lowest League One team. Getty Images English football's most popular kits 89. Peterborough United PETERBOROUGH, ENGLAND - AUGUST 03: Peterborough United's Christy Pym in action during the Sky Bet League One match between Peterborough United and Fleetwood Town at Weston Homes Stadium on August 3, 2019 in Peterborough, England. (Photo by David Shipman - CameraSport via Getty Images ) David Shipman - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 88. Morecambe Getty English football's most popular kits 87. Rochdale ROCHDALE, ENGLAND - AUGUST 20: Rochdale players celebrate withCallum Camps (R2) after he scored his sides opening goal during the Sky Bet Leauge One match between Rochdale and Sunderland at Crown Oil Arena on August 20, 2019 in Rochdale, England. (Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images) Ian Horrocks Sunderland AFC via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 86. Gillingham GILLINGHAM, ENGLAND - AUGUST 13: Brandon Hanlan of Gillingham FC celebrates with teammates after scoring his team's first goal during the Carabao Cup First Round match between Gillingham and Newport County at MEMS Priestfield Stadium on August 13, 2019 in Gillingham, England. (Photo by Jack Thomas/Getty Images) Jack Thomas Getty Images English football's most popular kits 85. Crewe Alexander CREWE, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: A dejected Callum Ainley of Crewe Alexandra applauds the fans at full time during the Carabao Cup Second Round fixture between Crewe Alexandra and Aston Villa at Gresty Road on August 27, 2019 in Crewe, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images) Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA Getty Images English football's most popular kits 84. Plymouth Argyle PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: Joe Edwards of Plymouth Argyle lines up for the start during the Carabao Cup Second Round match between Plymouth Argyle and Reading at Home Park on August 27, 2019 in Plymouth, England. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images) Harry Trump Getty Images English football's most popular kits 83. Cheltenham Town BRISTOL, ENGLAND - AUGUST 13: Jonson Clarke-Harris of Bristol Rovers cuts the ball between Charlie Raglan (l) and Conor Thomas (r) of Cheltenham during the Carabao Cup First Round match between Bristol Rovers and Cheltenham Town at Memorial Stadium on August 13, 2019 in Bristol, England. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images) Michael Steele Getty Images English football's most popular kits 82. Macclesfield Town NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 17: Theo Vassell of Macclesfield Town plays the ball past Sam Hoskins of Northampton Town during the Sky Bet League Two match between Northampton Town and Macclesfield Town at PTS Academy Stadium on August 17, 2019 in Northampton, England. (Photo by Pete Norton/Getty Images) Pete Norton Getty Images English football's most popular kits 81. Crawley Town Soccer Football - Carabao Cup Second Round - Crawley Town v Norwich City - The People's Pension Stadium, Crawley, Britain - August 27, 2019 Crawley Town's David Sesay celebrates at the end of the match Action Images via Reuters/John Sibley EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details. JOHN SIBLEY Action Images via Reuters English football's most popular kits 80. Fleetwood Town FLEETWOOD, ENGLAND - AUGUST 24: Fleetwood Town's Josh Morris is fouled by Accrington Stanley's Zaine Francis-Angol (left) and Seamus Conneely during the Sky Bet League One match between Fleetwood Town and Accrington Stanley at Highbury Stadium on August 24, 2019 in Fleetwood, England. (Photo by Kevin Barnes - CameraSport via Getty Images) Kevin Barnes - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 79. Scunthorpe Getty English football's most popular kits 78. Shrewsbury Town ACCRINGTON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 20: Louis Thompson of Shrewsbury Town and Ross Sykes of Accrington Stanley during the Sky Bet League One match between Accrington Stanley and Shrewsbury Town at The Crown Ground on August 20, 2019 in Accrington, England. (Photo by James Baylis - AMA/Getty Images) James Baylis - AMA Getty Images English football's most popular kits 77. Northampton Town NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: Flo Balogun of Arsenal challenges Jordan Turnbull of Northampton during the Leasing.com match between Northampton Town and Arsenal U21 at PTS Academy Stadium on August 27, 2019 in Northampton, England. (Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images) David Price Arsenal FC via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 76. Swindon Town SWINDON, ENGLAND - MAY 04: Kaiyne Woolery of Swindon Town celebrates with teammates after scoring his team's first goal during the Sky Bet League Two match between Swindon Town and Notts County at County Ground on May 04, 2019 in Swindon, United Kingdom. (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images) Alex Davidson Getty Images English football's most popular kits 75. Exeter City Getty English football's most popular kits 74. Oldham Athletic BLACKBURN, ENGLAND - AUGUST 13: Oldham Athletic's Gevaro Nepomuceno celebrates scoring his side's first goal during the Carabao Cup First Round match between Blackburn Rovers and Oldham Athletic at Ewood Park on August 13, 2019 in Blackburn, England. (Photo by Richard Martin-Roberts - CameraSport via Getty Images) Richard Martin-Roberts - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 73. Walsall Getty English football's most popular kits 72. Rotherham United ROTHERHAM, ENGLAND - AUGUST 06: Akeem Hinds of Rotherham United reacts during the EFL Trophy match between Rotherham United and Manchester United U21 at AESSEAL New York Stadium on August 6, 2019 in Rotherham, England. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images) George Wood Getty Images English football's most popular kits 71. Southend United LINCOLN, ENGLAND - AUGUST 17: Southend United's Elvis Bwomono during the Sky Bet Leauge One match between Lincoln City and Southend United at Sincil Bank Stadium on August 17, 2019 in Lincoln, England. (Photo by Andrew Vaughan - CameraSport via Getty Images) Andrew Vaughan - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 70. Mansfield Town Getty English football's most popular kits 69. Blackpool ROCHDALE, ENGLAND - AUGUST 24: Blackpool's Ben Heneghan salutes the fans after the match during the Sky Bet League One match between Rochdale and Blackpool at Crown Oil Arena on August 24, 2019 in Rochdale, England. (Photo by Alex Dodd - CameraSport via Getty Images) Alex Dodd - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 68. Wycombe Wanderers FLEETWOOD, ENGLAND - AUGUST 20: Fleetwood Town's Conor McAleny vies for possession with Wycombe Wanderers' Nick Freeman during the Sky Bet League One match between Fleetwood Town and Wycombe Wanderers at Highbury Stadium on August 20, 2019 in Fleetwood, England. (Photo by Richard Martin-Roberts - CameraSport via Getty Images ) Richard Martin-Roberts - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 67. Carlisle United CARLISLE, ENGLAND - AUGUST 24: Daniel Whitehead of Salford City competes for the ball with Michael Jones of Carlisle United during the Sky Bet League Two match between Carlisle United and Salford City at Brunton Park on August 24, 2019 in Carlisle, England. (Photo by Charlotte Tattersall/Getty Images) Charlotte Tattersall Getty Images English football's most popular kits 66. Grimsby Town Notts County's Craig Mackail-Smith celebrates scoring their first goal during the Sky Bet League Two match at Meadow Lane, Nottingham. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday April 27, 2019. See PA story SOCCER Notts County. Photo credit should read: Mike Egerton/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Mike Egerton PA English football's most popular kits 65. Barnsley Lowest Championship team. Getty Images English football's most popular kits 64. Colchester United Soccer Football - Carabao Cup Second Round - Crystal Palace v Colchester United - Selhurst Park, London, Britain - August 27, 2019 Colchester United's Paris Cowan-Hall celebrates at the end of the match Action Images via Reuters/Tony O'Brien EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details. TONY O'BRIEN Action Images via Reuters English football's most popular kits 63. Preston North End PRESTON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 24: Preston North End's Tom Barkhuizen during the Sky Bet Championship match between Preston North End and Sheffield Wednesday at Deepdale on August 24, 2019 in Preston, England. (Photo by Rich Linley - CameraSport via Getty Images) Rich Linley - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 62. Doncaster Rovers DONCASTER, ENGLAND - AUGUST 17: Fleetwood Town's Peter Clarke clears the danger away from Doncaster Rovers' Niall Ennis during the Sky Bet League One match between Doncaster Rovers and Fleetwood Town at Keepmoat Stadium on August 17, 2019 in Doncaster, England. (Photo by David Shipman - CameraSport via Getty Images) David Shipman - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 61. Milton Keynes Dons MILTON KEYNES, ENGLAND - AUGUST 20: Milton Keynes Dons' Baily Cargill during the Sky Bet League One match between Milton Keynes Dons and Lincoln City at Stadium mk on August 20, 2019 in Milton Keynes, England. (Photo by Chris Vaughan - CameraSport via Getty Images ) Chris Vaughan - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 60. Reading PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: Yakou Meite of Reading celebrates after scoring his sides fourth goal during the Carabao Cup Second Round match between Plymouth Argyle and Reading at Home Park on August 27, 2019 in Plymouth, England. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images) Harry Trump Getty Images English football's most popular kits 59. Bolton Wanderers Soccer Football - Bolton Wanderers FC - University of Bolton Stadium, Bolton, Britain - August 27, 2019 Bolton Wanderers fan looks at his phone outside the stadium Action Images via Reuters/Carl Recine CARL RECINE Action Images via Reuters English football's most popular kits 58. Lincoln City DONCASTER, ENGLAND - AUGUST 24: Lincoln City's Bruno Andrade during the Sky Bet League One match between Doncaster Rovers and Lincoln City at Keepmoat Stadium on August 24, 2019 in Doncaster, England. (Photo by Andrew Vaughan - CameraSport via Getty Images ) Andrew Vaughan - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 57. Oxford United Soccer Football - Carabao Cup Second Round - Oxford United v Millwall - Kassam Stadium, Oxford, Britain - August 27, 2019 Oxford United's John Mousinho celebrates winning the penalty shootout with Jamie Mackie Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details. ANDREW COULDRIDGE Action Images via Reuters English football's most popular kits 56. Brentford Brentford's Sergi Canos reacts after a missed chance during the Sky Bet Championship match at Elland Road, Leeds. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 21, 2019. See PA story SOCCER Leeds. Photo credit should read: Tim Goode/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Tim Goode PA English football's most popular kits 55. AFC Wimbledon SUNDERLAND, ENGLAND - AUGUST 24: Kwesi Appiah of Wimbledon (#9) celebrates after scoring the first goal for his team during the Sky Bet League One match between Sunderland and AFC Wimbledon at Stadium of Light on August 24, 2019 in Sunderland, England. (Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images) Ian Horrocks Sunderland AFC via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 54. Accrington Stanley FLEETWOOD, ENGLAND - AUGUST 24: Accrington Stanley's Zaine Francis-Angol during the Sky Bet League One match between Fleetwood Town and Accrington Stanley at Highbury Stadium on August 24, 2019 in Fleetwood, England. (Photo by Kevin Barnes - CameraSport via Getty Images) Kevin Barnes - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 53. Port Vale BURSLEM, ENGLAND - AUGUST 10: David Amoo of Port Vale celebrates after scoring his sides goal during the Sky Bet League Two match between Port Vale and Northampton Town at Vale Park on August 10, 2019 in Burslem, England. (Photo by Pete Norton/Getty Images) Pete Norton Getty Images English football's most popular kits 52. Wigan Athletic WIGAN, ENGLAND - AUGUST 17: Wigan Athletic's Nathan Byrne during the Sky Bet Championship match between Wigan Athletic and Leeds United at DW Stadium on August 17, 2019 in Wigan, England. (Photo by Stephen White - CameraSport via Getty Images) Stephen White - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 51. Tranmere Rovers Tramere Rovers' James Norwood celebrates scoring his side's first goal of the game with Ollie Banks during the Sky Bet League Two, Play-Off, Second Leg match at The New Lawn, Nailsworth. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday May 13, 2019. See PA story SOCCER Forest Green. Photo credit should read: Nick Potts/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Nick Potts PA English football's most popular kits 50. Ipswich Town IPSWICH, ENGLAND - AUGUST 10: Luke Garrett of Ipswich celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Sky Bet League One match between Ipswich Town and Sunderland at Portman Road on August 10, 2019 in Ipswich, England. (Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images) Ian Horrocks Sunderland AFC via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 49. Newport County Soccer Football - Carabao Cup Second Round - Newport County v West Ham United - Rodney Parade, Newport, Britain - August 27, 2019 Newport County's Danny McNamara in action with West Ham United's Felipe Anderson Action Images via Reuters/Peter Cziborra EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details. PETER CZIBORRA Action Images via Reuters English football's most popular kits 48. Luton Town BARNSLEY, ENGLAND - AUGUST 24: Jacob Butterfield of Luton Town applauds after the Sky Bet Championship match between Barnsley and Luton Town at Oakwell Stadium on August 24, 2019 in Barnsley, England. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images) George Wood Getty Images English football's most popular kits 47. Cambridge United BRENTFORD, ENGLAND - AUGUST 13: Louis John of Cambridge United celebrates his side's victory in the penalty shoot out in the Carabao Cup First Round match between Brentford and Cambridge United at Griffin Park on August 13, 2019 in Brentford, England. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images) Bryn Lennon Getty Images English football's most popular kits 46. Bradford City File photo dated 20-05-2017 of Millwall's Steve Morison (left) and Bradford City's Billy Clarke battle for the ball during the Sky Bet League One play off final at Wembley Stadium, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Thursday August 1, 2019. Released by Sky Bet League One club Bradford, Billy Clarke is one of them. See PA story SOCCER Released Players. Photo credit should read Mike Egerton/PA Wire. Mike Egerton PA English football's most popular kits 45. Leyton Orient Leyton Orient's Josh Wright (left) celebrates scoring his side's first goal of the game during the Sky Bet League Two match at Matchroom Stadium, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 3, 2019. Photo credit should read: Chris Radburn/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Chris Radburn PA English football's most popular kits 44. Burton Albion Soccer Football - League One - Burton Albion v Luton Town - Pirelli Stadium, Burton, Britain - April 27, 2019 Burton Albion's Lucas Akins celebrates scoring their first goal with Kyle McFadzean and John Brayford Action Images/Paul Burrows EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details. PAUL BURROWS Action Images English football's most popular kits 43. Fulham LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: Tyrese Francois of Fulham looks on as he makes his debut during the Carabao Cup Second Round match between Fulham and Southampton at Craven Cottage on August 27, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by James Chance/Getty Images) James Chance Getty Images English football's most popular kits 42. Coventry City WATFORD, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: Coventry City players applaud fans after the Carabao Cup Second Round match between Watford and Coventry City at Vicarage Road on August 27, 2019 in Watford, England. (Photo by Linnea Rheborg/Getty Images) Linnea Rheborg Getty Images English football's most popular kits 41. Portsmouth PORTSMOUTH, ENGLAND - AUGUST 06: Marcus Harness of Portsmouth looks on during the Carabao Cup First Round match between Portsmouth and Birmingham City at Fratton Park on August 06, 2019 in Portsmouth, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images) Dan Istitene Getty Images English football's most popular kits 40. Stevenage STEVENAGE, ENGLAND - AUGUST 13: Dean Parrett of Stevenage celebrates after he scores his sides first goal during the Carabao Cup First Round match between Stevenage and Southend United at The Lamex Stadium on August 13, 2019 in Stevenage, England. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images) Naomi Baker Naomi Baker/Getty Images English football's most popular kits 39. Swansea City SWANSEA, WALES - AUGUST 25: Kyle Naughton of Swansea City at full time during the Sky Bet Championship match between Swansea City and Birmingham City at the Liberty Stadium on August 25, 2019 in Swansea, Wales. (Photo by Athena Pictures/Getty Images) Athena Pictures Getty Images English football's most popular kits 38. Bournemouth Lowest Premier League team. AFC Bournemouth via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 37. Salford City Highest League Two team. Getty Images English football's most popular kits 36. West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion's Semi Ajayi (left) and West Bromwich Albion's Matt Phillips during the Sky Bet Championship match at The Hawthorns, West Bromwich. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 21, 2019. See PA story SOCCER West Brom. Photo credit should read: Nick Potts/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Nick Potts PA English football's most popular kits 35. Millwall Soccer Football - Carabao Cup Second Round - Oxford United v Millwall - Kassam Stadium, Oxford, Britain - August 27, 2019 Millwall players during the penalty shootout Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details. ANDREW COULDRIDGE Action Images via Reuters English football's most popular kits 34. Birmingham City BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - AUGUST 10: Birmingham City supporters arrive ahead of the Sky Bet Championship match between Birmingham City and Bristol City at St Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium on August 10, 2019 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images) Matthew Lewis Getty Images English football's most popular kits 33. Sheffield Wednesday SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND - AUGUST 20: Moses Odubajo of Sheffield Wednesday reacts during the Sky Bet Championship match between Sheffield Wednesday and Luton Town at Hillsborough Stadium on August 20, 2019 in Sheffield, England. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images) George Wood Getty Images English football's most popular kits 32. Hull City SWANSEA, WALES - AUGUST 03: Jackson Irvine of Hull City battles with George Byers of Swansea City during the Sky Bet Championship match between Swansea City and Hull City at the Liberty Stadium on August 03, 2019 in Swansea, Wales. (Photo by Athena Pictures/Getty Images) Athena Pictures Getty Images English football's most popular kits 31. Blackburn Rovers SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: Blackburn Rovers' Joe Rothwell during the Carabao Cup Second Round match between Sheffield United and Blackburn Rovers at Bramall Lane on August 27, 2019 in Sheffield, England. (Photo by Andrew Kearns - CameraSport via Getty Images,) Andrew Kearns - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 30. Queens Park Rangers LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 21: Bright Osayi-Samuel of QPR during the Sky Bet Championship match between Queens Park Rangers and Swansea City at The Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium on August 21, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images) Alex Pantling Getty Images English football's most popular kits 29. Middlesbrough LUTON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 02: Lewis Wing of Middlesborough runs on during the Sky Bet Championship match between Luton Town and Middlesbrough at Kenilworth Road on August 02, 2019 in Luton, England. (Photo by Harriet Lander/Getty Images) Harriet Lander Getty Images English football's most popular kits 28. Brighton & Hove Albion BRISTOL, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: Leon Balogun of Brighton and Hove Albion in action during the Carabao Cup Second Round match between Bristol Rovers and Brighton & Hove Albion at Memorial Stadium on August 27, 2019 in Bristol, England. (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images) Alex Davidson Getty Images English football's most popular kits 27. Charlton Athletic LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 20: Lyle Taylor of Charlton during the Sky Bet Championship match between Charlton Athletic and Nottingham Forrest at The Valley on August 20, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) Julian Finney Getty English football's most popular kits 26. Bristol City DERBY, ENGLAND - AUGUST 20: Andreas Weimann (L) of Bristol City celebrates with his team mates after scoring the first goal of the game during the Sky Bet Championship match between Derby County and Bristol City at Pride Park Stadium on August 20, 2019 in Derby, England. (Photo by James Wilson/MB Media/Getty Images) James Wilson/MB Media Getty Images English football's most popular kits 25. Burnley WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 25: Burnley's Ashley Westwood during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley FC at Molineux on August 25, 2019 in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. (Photo by Kevin Barnes - CameraSport via Getty Images) Kevin Barnes - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 24. Cardiff City BLACKBURN, ENGLAND - AUGUST 24: Blackburn Rovers' Bradley Dack and Cardiff City Leandro Bacuna during the Sky Bet Championship match between Blackburn Rovers and Cardiff City at Ewood Park on August 24, 2019 in Blackburn, England. (Photo by Rachel Holborn - BRFC/Getty Images) Rachel Holborn - BRFC Getty Images English football's most popular kits 23. Southampton Getty Images English football's most popular kits 22. Watford Soccer Football - Carabao Cup Second Round - Watford v Coventry City - Vicarage Road, Watford, Britain - August 27, 2019 Watford's Daryl Janmaat celebrates scoring their second goal Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details. PAUL CHILDS Action Images via Reuters English football's most popular kits 21. Sheffield United SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: Joe Rothwell of Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield United's Phil Jagielka during the Carabao Cup Second Round between Sheffield United and Blackburn Rovers at Bramall Lane on August 27, 2019 in Sheffield, England. (Photo by Rachel Holborn - BRFC/Getty Images) Rachel Holborn - BRFC Getty Images English football's most popular kits 20. Stoke City STOKE ON TRENT, ENGLAND - AUGUST 24: Stoke City's Sam Clucas organises a defensive wall during the Sky Bet Championship match between Stoke City and Leeds United at Bet365 Stadium on August 24, 2019 in Stoke on Trent, England. (Photo by Stephen White - CameraSport via Getty Images) Stephen White - CameraSport CameraSport via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 19. Sunderland Highest League One team. Sunderland AFC via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 18. Norwich City epa07790467 Norwich's Todd Cantwell (L) celebrates with team mate Teemu Pukki after scoring a goal during the English Premier League match between Norwich City and Chelsea FC at the Carrow Road Stadium, Norwich, Britain, 24 August 2019. EPA/GERRY PENNY EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. GERRY PENNY EPA English football's most popular kits 17. Crystal Palace LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: Andros Townsend of Crystal Palace reaction after penalty shoot-out during the Carabao Cup Second Round match between Crystal Palace and Colchester United at Selhurst Park on August 27, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images) Sebastian Frej/MB Media Getty Images English football's most popular kits 16. Nottingham Forest NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: Albert Adomah of Nottingham Forest celebrates after scoring a goal to make it 1-0 during the Carabao Cup Second Round between Nottingham Forest and Derby County at City Ground on August 27, 2019 in Nottingham, England. (Photo by James Williamson - AMA/Getty Images) James Williamson - AMA Getty Images English football's most popular kits 15. Derby County NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: George Evans of Derby County battles with Rafael Mir Vicente of Nottingham Forest during the Carabao Cup Second Round match between Nottingham Forest and Derby County at City Ground on August 27, 2019 in Nottingham, England. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images) Shaun Botterill Getty Images English football's most popular kits 14, Leicester City Leicester City's Harvey Barnes celebrates scoring his side's second goal of the game during the Premier League match at Bramall Lane, Sheffield. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 24, 2019. See PA story SOCCER Sheff Utd. Photo credit should read: Richard Sellers/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Richard Sellers PA English football's most popular kits 13. Wolverhampton Wanderers WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 19: Ruben Neves of Wolverhampton Wandererers celebrates after scoring during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester United at Molineux on August 19, 2019 in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images) Shaun Botterill Getty Images English football's most popular kits 12. Everton BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - AUGUST 23: Gylfi Sigurdsson of Everton during the Premier League match between Aston Villa and Everton at Villa Park on August 23, 2019 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Tony McArdle - Everton FC/Everton FC via Getty Images) Tony McArdle - Everton FC Everton FC via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 11. Leeds United LEEDS, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: Eddie Nketiah of Leeds United reacts during the Carabao Cup second round match between Leeds United and Stoke City at Elland Road on August 27, 2019 in Leeds, England. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images) George Wood Getty Images English football's most popular kits 10. West Ham United NEWPORT, WALES - AUGUST 27: Jack Wilshere of West Ham United during the Carabao Cup Second Round match between Newport County and West Ham United at Rodney Parade on August 27, 2019 in Newport, Wales. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) Catherine Ivill Getty Images English football's most popular kits 9. Newcastle United Newcastle United's Emil Krafth celebrates the results at the end of the Premier League match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday August 25, 2019. See PA story SOCCER Tottenham. Photo credit should read: John Walton/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. John Walton PA English football's most popular kits 8. Aston Villa CREWE, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: Ezri Konsa of Aston Villa scores for Aston Villa during the Carabao Cup second round match between Crewe Alexandra and Aston Villa at Gresty Road on August 27, 2019 in Crewe, England. (Photo by Neville Williams/Aston Villa FC via Getty Images) Neville Williams Aston Villa FC via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 7. Tottenham Hotspur LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 25: Giovani Lo Celso of Tottenham Hotspur during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on August 25, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) Catherine Ivill Getty English football's most popular kits 6. Huddersfield Town Highest Championship team. Getty Images English football's most popular kits 5. Chelsea NORWICH, ENGLAND - AUGUST 24: Cesar Azpilicueta of Chelsea celebrates after his team's second goal during the Premier League match between Norwich City and Chelsea FC at Carrow Road on August 24, 2019 in Norwich, United Kingdom. (Photo by Chelsea Football Club/Chelsea FC via Getty Images) ***BESTPIX*** Chelsea Football Club Chelsea FC via Getty Images English football's most popular kits 4. Manchester City Soccer Football - Premier League - AFC Bournemouth v Manchester City - Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth, Britain - August 25, 2019 Manchester City's Raheem Sterling celebrates scoring their second goal REUTERS/Russell Cheyne EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY RUSSELL CHEYNE REUTERS English football's most popular kits 3. Manchester United MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - AUGUST 24: Aaron Wan-Bissaka of Manchester United looks on during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on August 24, 2019 in Manchester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images) Sebastian Frej/MB Media Getty Images English football's most popular kits 2. Arsenal LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 17: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Arsenal celebrates scoring Arsenal's second goal with Alexandre Lacazette of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Burnley FC at Emirates Stadium on August 17, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Kaz Photography/Getty Images) Kaz Photography Getty Images English football's most popular kits 1. Liverpool The most popular set of kits in the country. Liverpool FC via Getty Images
And their fellow League Two outfit Crawley, conquerors of Norwich in round two, host Stoke.
Holders Manchester City, who beat Chelsea on penalties to lift the trophy last season, visit Championship club Preston.
Chelsea have home advantage against Grimsby or Macclesfield, whose second-round game was abandoned due to a waterlogged pitch, and Manchester United host Rochdale.
There will be a south-coast derby at Fratton Park between Portsmouth and Southampton, with another all-Premier League tie seeing Brighton at home to Aston Villa.
“It’s great,” said Portsmouth assistant boss Joe Gallen. “I really love derby games and I think it’s brilliant that we’re now going to play Southampton.”
West Ham, meanwhile, face a tricky trip to League One Oxford, with Bournemouth going to last season’s semi-finalists Burton, Leicester visiting Luton and Everton being drawn away against Sheffield Wednesday.
The draw is completed by Arsenal hosting Nottingham Forest, Wolves entertaining Reading, Swansea visiting Watford and Sheffield United meeting Sunderland at Bramall Lane. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
World Rankings
The World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup 2019 comes to a conclusion this weekend with silverware on the line as the USA and Japan, the two unbeaten teams, meet in the title decider in Suva. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Image from YouTube. Licensed under Fair Use.
or: who you gonna believe? me, or your lyin’ eyes?
You all probably know that I’m kind of a stats geek. And, yes, I am; I think that we can learn a lot from breaking down individual and team metrics. I like fooling with numbers. Damn, I really AM a sad sort of stats geek.
This is to show you that, while I am a stats geek and still think it’s worth tracking statistics, it’s also important to look hard at them. Because in some cases there really are lies, damn lies, and statistics.
Specifically, I want to look hard at this statistical breakdown of goalkeeper performance put together by the usually-invaluable Chris Henderson of All-White Kit on his Twitter feed.
Image by Christ Henderson on Twitter
You’re probably familiar with the “expected goals” statistic, xG. If you’re not, there’s a couple of nice quick breakdowns here and here. Henderson has used the xG estimate and compared it to the actual goals-against to assess the keeper’s efficiency.
Unsurprisingly, keepers playing for the better teams in the NWSL, such as Bledsoe for Washington and Naeher for Chicago (and A.D. Franch for Portland) appear in the upper half of the list. They have let in fewer goals than their team’s xG in the matches they played suggested were possible, ranging from almost a goal per game for Bledsoe to about a goal every three games for Franch.
(What I find kind of fascinating on this list is that Kailen Sheridan, playing for the woeful Sky Blue, is second behind Bledsoe at almost four goals prevented every five games. Your defense sucks but You da Woman, K.S.)
But.
As I looked over this list one anomaly stuck out at me.
Look at the stats for A.D. Franch versus Britt Eckerstrom.
Both have played three games. Franch gave up 5 goals against an xG of 6.08 for a differential of -0.36 goals/game. Eckerstrom gave up 4 goals against an xG of 1.69, for an extra 0.77 goals conceded per game.
The statistical conclusion is that Franch is nearly a goal-per-game better technically and tactically than Eckerstrom.
To a Thorns fan that seems ridiculous on its face. Eckerstrom has been solid, very solid in the three matches she’s played this season. Perhaps a trifle ahead of A.D. – who had something of a tough April and early May – perhaps a little behind, but certainly not an entire goal to the worse.
And, actually, if you break down the goals against Eckerstrom you’ll see that, yes, your subjective assessment is correct and the statistic is wrong.
The problem isn’t Eckerstrom; it’s a flaw in the xG system.
Here’s a diagram of the locations of the goals Eckerstrom has conceded in her three matches played, with the xG values for each.
Outside of the Hatch goal they’re all very low, ranging from 1.8% (DiBiassi) to 18.2% (Pressley and Brynjarsdottir). That’s because the xG system gives lower probability values to shots taken from corner kicks – which includes Pressley’s goal in Orlando and DiBiassi’s and Brynjarsdottir’s in Maryland.
It also gives lower odds for headed shots, which includes Pressley’s, and the own-goal.
It also gives very low odds to shots taken from the far outer flanks, such as a corner, which includes the DiBiassi goal.
Taken altogether, I get a total of 0.7xG for these four concessions.
Henderson’s calcs – or, rather, InStat’s, I suspect – are nearly a goal higher. I think this is because I undercounted the own-goal, which I believe in the xG system is an automatic 1.0. If so that yields Henderson’s cited xG value of 1.69.
So the problem here isn’t with Eckerstrom’s technical skill or tactical nous; it’s that the xG system dramatically underweights the attempts that resulted in goals against her.
Or, to put it another way, Eck has been desperately unlucky.
Yes, the Hatch goal was quality. The other three were a mixture of pure bad luck and defensive field player issues; Menges losing Pressley and giving up the free header in Orlando, nobody keeping Cheyna Matthews out of Eck’s grille on the DiBiassi corner, and Dagny’s freakish own-goal.
So you rock on, Eck. Henderson and I and the damn stats may keep fiddling away, but all the while you’re doing juuuuuust fine. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
When considering some challenges facing Nintendo in the current market, it's common for fans to bemoan what they consider to be undercooked or uninspiring advertising and marketing. To take the undercooked description one step further, there is some positive news for those in the UK that feel the Nintendo brand needs more exposure - Super Mario is coming to Happy Meals.
The moustachioed mascot will be taking over in the next range of Happy Meals in the UK, likely in March, with a batch of themed toys sure to be included. While Happy Meal branding may not strike everyone as valuable marketing, the role of these McDonald's meals in getting the attention of young diners shouldn't be underestimated. We suspect you won't find it hard to locate a parent that's been a victim of Happy Meal-related pressure; it'll also be fun for those of you that do enjoy these meals to grab some Nintendo toys.
In terms of gaining some mass-market attention in the UK, especially among young gamers, this seems like a smart move from Nintendo UK. Hopefully similar promotions will be seen elsewhere in Europe and beyond.
Thanks to TJGamer for the tip. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Germany announced Tuesday it will extend compensation to the surviving spouses of Holocaust survivors by nine months.
The organization that handles claims on behalf of Jews who suffered under the Nazis made the decision. Previously, once a Holocaust victim passed away, their spouse was immediately cut off from any source of support.
The New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany said Berlin agreed to continue pensions for nine months after long negotiations.
The payment is expected to be granted to some 14,000 spouses retroactively and a total of about 30,000 people are expected to qualify, conference negotiator Greg Schneider said.
“We have survivors who have been just getting by for many years,” Schneider said in a telephone interview with AP from New York. “This extra nine months of income gives a cushion for the family of the survivor to figure out how to deal with their new circumstances.”
This is the second time Germany has acted to offer more compensation to those who suffered under the Nazis.
In 2016 the German government increased funding all over the world by $600 million, as Breitbart News reported.
An additional $200 million for 2016-2017 and $400 million for 2018 was added to the $1 billion secured by the conference against Germany in 2013.
“We commend the government of Germany for recognizing its continuing obligation to victims of the Holocaust more than 70 years after liberation,” said former U.S. ambassador to the European Union Stuart Eizenstat, who led the conference’s negotiation team.
“We have worked exhaustively to arrive at this agreement with the German government. Holocaust survivors, now in their final years, should know of our total commitment to trying to ensure they live in dignity with the help they need.”
The conference carries out continuous negotiations with the German government to expand categories of people eligible for compensation for suffering and losses resulting from persecution by the Nazis.
The conference established its own fund in 1963 to also aid so-called Righteous Gentiles — non-Jews who helped Jews survive the Holocaust — and this year the German government agreed to help fund those payments.
Schneider said there are some 277 Righteous Gentiles still alive today, whose average age is 91, who also qualify for financial assistance.
“These are non-Jews who risked their lives and the lives of their families to save Jews during the Holocaust. They literally put their lives at stake to save others,” Schneider said. “Every one of these people should live with the greatest of dignity, so it was important for us to ensure an ongoing funding stream.”
AP contributed to this story | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth WarrenHarris joins women's voter mobilization event also featuring Pelosi, Gloria Steinem, Jane Fonda Judd Gregg: The Kamala threat — the Californiaization of America GOP set to release controversial Biden report MORE (D) is prodding her Democratic colleagues to take a hard line against President-elect Donald Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE — and she is receiving both plaudits and pushback for her efforts.
Vulnerable Democrats up for reelection in states that Trump won easily have signaled an early willingness to work with the president-elect and his party. Incoming Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer Chuck SchumerSenate Democrats introduce legislation to probe politicization of pandemic response Schumer interrupted during live briefing by heckler: 'Stop lying to the people' Jacobin editor: Primarying Schumer would force him to fight Trump's SCOTUS nominee MORE (N.Y.) has sought a middle path, suggesting he could find common ground with Republicans while cautioning that he will oppose them when they overreach.
Warren, by contrast, is exhorting her colleagues to “show some spine” and not “roll over” to drug companies and not “compromise with racism” by supporting Sen. Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsGOP set to release controversial Biden report Trump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status MORE’s (R-Ala.) nomination to serve as attorney general.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
In doing so, she is taking a page out of Senate Majority Leader’s (R-Ky.) playbook. He marshaled Republicans in 2009 to oppose President Obama’s agenda right out of the gate, blunting the new president’s policy momentum and helping the GOP win big in the 2010 midterm elections.But McConnell also had to endure considerable criticism in the media and from the opposing party for pursuing an obstructionist approach so unashamedly. Warren may be met with a similar reaction.Republicans argue that while McConnell may have opposed Obama’s early policies, he didn’t threaten to take any action on the floor to block his nominees, as Warren is calling on colleagues to do to stop Sessions from winning confirmation.There are already signs of disquiet, even among some Democrats, about the ferocity of Warren's rhetoric.“Elizabeth Warren does not represent the whole Democratic Party; she represents a very important wing of the party. But there are others of us who have a more pro-business [view], not a cave-in-to-Wall-Street thing,” said Rep. Gerald Connolly, a centrist Democrat from Virginia. “We don’t necessarily have that kind of ideological agenda.”The Massachusetts senator has been much more emphatic than most of her fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill when it comes to criticizing the Trump administration.On Wednesday, she ripped Trump’s pick to head the Treasury Department, financier Steven Mnuchin, as the “Forrest Gump” of the 2008 financial crisis who “managed to participate in all the worst practices on Wall Street.”She called on Trump earlier this month to withdraw his nomination of Sessions to head the Justice Department. She noted that racist comments he allegedly made decades ago as U.S. attorney for Alabama prompted a Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee to reject his nomination for a federal judgeship in 1986.“[Thirty] yrs ago, a GOP Senate rejected @SenatorSessions’ judicial nomination, affirming no compromise with racism; no negotiation with hate,” Warren tweeted.Even if Warren’s comments are rankling some more mainstream Democrats, they are being met with acclaim by progressives.“I think she’s right on target with what she’s doing,” said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America, a liberal grassroots advocacy group.“Across the board we need to stand up for our values, and that might mean obstruction, that might mean following the Mitch McConnell pathway used with Obama and saying to Donald Trump, ‘We’re not going to let you have successes because we know you’re going to use your small number of successes to force through terrible policies,’ ” he said. “Being obstructionist as a default is where we should start.”Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, struck a similar note.“Elizabeth Warren has been thrust into this position of being a de facto leader and prime spokesperson for the Democratic Party. Part of what she’s doing is laying out the battle lines for what represents acceptable compromise versus outright capitulation,” Green said.Like other Democrats, Warren initially expressed openness to working with Trump in the days after his surprise victory overBut as the new Trump administration began to take shape in the following days, she dug in her heels.
Trump’s appointment of his campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon, as a senior presidential adviser — which raised alarm among many Democrats who accused him of affiliation with white nationalists — further emboldened her.
“The president of the United States should condemn bigots, @realDonaldTrump. Not give them a West Wing office to decide our country’s future,” she tweeted.
Citing Clinton’s lead over Trump in the popular vote, Warren told colleagues on the Senate floor Monday, “The American people didn’t give Democrats majority support so we can come back to Washington and play dead. They didn’t send us here to whimper, whine or grovel.”
Warren is taking a strong stand this week against a bipartisan medical research funding bill, the 21st Century Cures Act, using it as a dress rehearsal for the bigger battles of next year.In a scorching floor speech this week, Warren highlighted provisions of the legislation that would make it easier for pharmaceutical companies to market drugs for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); obscure how much they spend on doctors and hospitals to encourage them to prescribe certain medications; and allow a major Republican donor to sell cellular and regenerative medical therapies without meeting current FDA standards.Her stance was especially noteworthy considering how many Democrats support the bill, including Vice President Biden and Sen.(Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.But some Democrats endorse her approach wholeheartedly, seeing her as the Senate’s next liberal lion, a title last held by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D), who was also from Massachusetts.“She’s a very powerful force in the Senate and certainly within the Senate Democratic Caucus,” said Senate Democratic Whip(Ill.), who joined Warren on the floor Wednesday to raise concerns over the 21st Century Cures bill.“In every generation of the Senate there are people who emerge as voices of authority and credibility. Look back at the past — Teddy Kennedy, for example. He was an extraordinary force in the Senate by virtue of his public career and his intellect and his will to move issues forward. I see Elizabeth Warren in the same mold,” he said.Updated at 4:30 p.m. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Chris Elise/Getty Images
Many would argue LeBron James had a better chance to win another NBA title by signing with the Philadelphia 76ers rather than the Los Angeles Lakers, but James gave little thought to actually joining a promising Sixers core.
ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported, in fact, the Lakers were the only team James met with before making his decision.
"No, I don't think he seriously considered [the 76ers]. I think he considered them," Windhorst said of the Sixers in an interview on ESPN Radio's Dan Le Batard Show. "They were on the board. He didn't even grant them a face-to-face meeting. ... This year, he only met one team face-to-face; he only talked to two teams—the team he was leaving and the team he was going to."
The discussion begins at the 4:30 mark of the video below:
Windhorst then speculated James' family preferred a move to Los Angeles rather than Philadelphia before questioning whether the Sixers made sense from a basketball perspective, citing the potential style clash between James and All-Star center Joel Embiid.
Beyond Embiid, it seemed fair to wonder how James and reigning Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons would've operated on the same team.
Since he's not much of a shooter, Simmons needs the ball in his hands to be successful. James immediately would've become the Sixers' primary ball-handler and facilitator, thus negating a lot of Simmons' offensive effectiveness.
While the Lakers are much further away from title contention than the Sixers, James at least has more of an opportunity to help mold the roster to his preferences.
That's not necessarily a good thing for Los Angeles, based on its business so far. After adding James, the Lakers signed Rajon Rondo and Lance Stephenson and re-signed Ketavious Caldwell-Pope.
But the Cleveland Cavaliers shuffled through a number of players and lineups before they built a roster that delivered a championship in 2016. It's a bit unfair to judge the Lakers based on how they look at the moment.
Especially next summer, when a number of marquee stars are eligible for free agency, James and the Lakers front office will pull out all of the stops to strengthen the franchise's championship hopes. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Prestige Lake Ridge
Prestige Lake Ridge is the brand new creation by the reputed real estate builder Prestige Group. The accomplished architectonics in this project is being done by using the latest technologies and hence, is considered to be the most admirable address offering absolute amusement to each and every resident. The construction is widely spread beyond wide acres of land having most charming greeneries that is entirely spread all through till your eyes can reach. The project is conveniently located in Bangalore and enjoys close proximity to all social facilities.This will offers many floor plan options starting from 1 bedroom to 3 bedroom.Are you frustrated in finding your dream home then dont wait just have a visit to this place which fullfill your dreams.It is a reputable project by Prestige Group who are preeminent builders in the emerging market have step forward with one more admirable project.This is a project incorporated with versatile tiles in all bedrooms halls and kitchens.This project costs you at reasonable prices.The projects holded by prestige group are very important which gives the users an idea of how the apartments looks in 3d view .It is a place of divinity where one benefits all aspects of his life by choosing the right apartments of your favourite.
Prestige Group, a brand for Residential properties has back with indias one of the important project known as Prestige Lake Ridge which is a 2bhk and 3bhk apartments located near to Uttarahalli in Bangalore.This apartments can be available at the affordable prices.Prestige Group launches yet another remarkable project this year in Uttarahalli, Bangalore. This impressively designed project situated close to Thurahalli Forest offers 12 towers, which is occupied by 1119 residential apartments in the configuration of 1BHK, 2BHK and 3BHK units. The price of these apartments are well within the affordable bracket that ranges between Rs.30.40 lakhs and Rs.80.50 lakhs.It is the upcoming residential development by Prestige constructions at Kanakapura road, Bangalore. The Looming description is a core of well-designed and capacious housing cut outs. Prestige group is renowned developing group in south India catering to new ideas and desires of the dwellers over these years. It is an extravagant residential enterprise developed by eminent groups of Prestige constructions.
Property Name : Prestige Lake Ridge
: Property Type : Apartments
: Total Area : 15.94 Acers
: Locality : Yadallam Nagar, Subramanyapura Post, Uttarahalli, Bangalore.
: Project Status : Pre Launch
: Possession Date : Dec - 2019
: Total Floors : 2B+18
: Total Towers : 12
: Total Units : 1119
: Bedrooms : 1,2,2.5,3 BHK
: Size Range : 661 - 1750 Sqft
: Price Range : 30.40 L - 80.50 L
: Rate per sft : Rs.4900/-
Now its time for Prestige group to know who they are,they are the leading builders in Bangalore City who has come up with many popular projects like Prestige Lake Ridge which is a Residential flat with 2bhk and 3bhk located in whitefield which gives a clear view how the apartments looks like.The Prestige Group Announces the Pre-Launch of the Much Anticipated project. Lake Ridge, defining the zeal, accord and tranquility of a happy living space is built by the prime building group – The Prestige Group.This is located at off Kanakapura Road, south wing of Bangalore one of the best aspiring projects in the city bed spread across a wide span of 15.37 acres planned out skillfully putting in the best perspective.
Builder
The Prestige Group owes its origin to Mr. Razack Sattar, who envisioned a success story waiting to take shape in the Retail Business in 1956 itself. Since its formation in 1986, Prestige Estates Projects has grown swiftly to become one of South India's leading Property Developers, helping shape the skyline across the Residential, Commercial, Retail, Leisure & Hospitality sectors. Prestige Court on K.H. Road in Bangalore set the pace for the Group's rapid growth which now stands at over 191 Completed Projects spanning a total developed area of over 64.06 million sqft. It also has another 64 ongoing projects comprising around 65.45 million sqft, which include Apartment Enclaves, Shopping Malls and Corporate Structures, spread across all asset classes.Prestige Estate Projects commenced operations as a partnership firm constituted under the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 on April 1, 1986 under the name and style of Prestige Estates and Properties.
Prestige Projects in Bangalore
Prestige Lakeside Habitat is a new launch residential project that is located near the Varthur Lake of Whitefield, Bangalore. This project is coming up with 3426 Spacious Apartments that is offering 1, 2, 3 and 4BHK Apartments.
Prestige Boulevard is a new pre launch project by the Prestige Group located in ECC Road Whitefield, Bangalore. It is providing 2,3BHK Apartments within the Budget Range.
Prestige Song of the South is the residential project by the Prestige Group coming up in Begur, Off Bannerghatta Road in South Bangalore. This development has spread across 33 acres of land area offering 1, 2, 3 & 4 BHK apartments.
Prestige Green Moor is the new renovation by the most reputed real estate builder Prestige Group in Jayanagar, Bangalore offering 3,4BHK Apartments.
Prestige Sunrise Park is a new residential project located conveniently in the Electronic City, Bangalore. It is offering 2.5BHK and 3BHK Apartments within the Budget Range.
Prestige Falcon City is a pre-launch project which has developed by Prestige Group.This is located in Kanakapura Road Bangalore. It is Providing 2,2.5,3 & 4 BHK apartments with Affordable prices. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A week after filing suit, Blizzard has suddenly dropped all charges against alleged hacker group "Starcrack."
On April 12, Blizzard moved to sue a man by the name of John Marshall and five other unnamed defendants, alleging Marshall, under the name "usmc23," was posting detailed reports on the progress of the group's attempt to crack Starcraft II's game client and create an unauthorized copy. Blizzard's complaint was Marshall and his fellow hackers were producing this crack "...with the goal of enabling members of this community to benefit from Blizzard's development of SC2 without paying for it."
A week later, the charges, which included direct and indirect copyright violation as well as the circumvention of copyright protection systems and a breach of contract, have all been dropped, with no stated reason why. What we do know is Blizzard is cracking down on hacks and misuse of its system, so dropping the lawsuit seems a bit out of character. Mistaken identity, perhaps?
Source: Gamasutra | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.