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Gary Levin
USA TODAY
Game of Thrones ends its sixth deadly season Sunday (9 ET/PT), and while fans haven't loved every battle, they're still watching HBO's biggest hit in record numbers.
The fantasy series marks the network's first to run six years while consistently building its audience, HBO says, citing Nielsen and streaming data provided exclusively to USA TODAY. Through June 17, the series has averaged 23.3 million viewers across all platforms, up 15% from last year.
The breakdown: Sunday premiere ratings are up 6%, to 7.3 million, while overall TV and on-demand viewership is up 4%. But viewing on HBO Now and HBO Go digital platforms skyrocketed 70% over last season, to about 2.5 million streams, reflecting growth in HBO Now subscriptions since the app's launch in April 2015.
HBO Go, introduced in 2010, allows the premium cable network's 33 million subscribers to watch series and movies on mobile devices or away from home. HBO Now, added just before Thrones' fifth-season premiere, gives non-subscribers access to HBO's library for $15 a month.
HBO says HBO Now had 800,000 subscribers as of Jan. 1, a figure that has presumably climbed since then. And the 2.5 million average weekly viewership on digital platforms — aimed squarely at the series' young male fan base — is based on a combination of view counts and time spent watching, though multiple viewers on a single device aren't counted. .
Thrones' Sunday comedy companions are also up, though not nearly as sharply: Silicon Valley, averaging 6.4 million viewers, is up 4% this season, but while HBO Now and HBO Go viewership is up 37% from last season, TV ratings dipped 4%. And Veep, averaging 4.4 million viewers, is up 6% overall; TV ratings edged up 1%, but its digital audience climbed 40%.
The lesson? Contrary to fears in some circles, HBO Now "doesn't cannibalize anything on the (TV) network," says CEO Richard Plepler. "It simply expands the audience's opportunity to watch our programs. It's all about expanding the pie."
Later this summer, HBO Now will become home to more original content not shown on TV, including bonus material from Bill Simmons, whose sports and pop-culture talk show Any Given Wednesday premiered this week. And this fall, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart will launch a series of digital shorts on the service, refreshed several times a week.
Aside from Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, traditional broadcast and cable networks are experimenting with original series to drive subscriptions to their apps: CBS All Access, which costs $5.99 a month, will be the exclusive home to a new Star Trek series due in January, and a spinoff of The Good Wife, starring Christine Baranski, later next year. | {
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Way back when, the card company Topps unveiled the names of five major characters from The Force Awakens on a few of their cards. Now, the card list revealing the first wave of cards directly related to the movie and Star Wars as a whole has been released by Topps themselves!
Mild spoilers for Act One ahead.
First, let’s start by looking at the first image in the checklist – which is by far the most informative one.
Cards 81-110 are dedicated to The Force Awakens, although they don’t quite appear to be completely in chronological order.
Nonetheless, it appears to cover the entirety of the Act One of the film, from the opening attack on the village to Han and Chewie’s heartwarming return. Some things of note:
The general narrative that appears to come from this is that Finn ditches the First Order after a run-in with Kylo Ren, he meets up with Rey, and they get off of the planet with BB-8 after an extended chase sequence. Basically, what we have already heard, but more streamlined.
A number of cards mention Poe Dameron, the X-wings, and the Resistance, but Resistance’s forces don’t seem to fit into the narrative of Act One so far. Presumably, most of the scenes shown in the cards come from later points in the movie.
The wording on Card 85 – “Rey Takes Off” suggests that this is the point where she launches the Millennium Falcon, although it could simply be referring to her using her speeder. Card 98 – “Resilient Survivor” also probably refers to her, as does Card 91 – “A Mysterious Figure” (unless that’s the shot of Luke resting his hand on R2-D2).
Card 96 – “Master Of Evil” is most likely referring to either Kylo Ren or Supreme Leader Snoke. While I’m tempted to say that it’s the latter, I’m not sure if Lucasfilm is willing to reveal Snoke so soon, and especially through a more quiet avenue like this.
The rest of the list is less interesting, covering character names, autographs, and assorted material – however, The Force Awakens gets its fair share of representation here.
The last picture has an interesting nugget of information: Card P-11 – “TIE Fighter: Kylo Ren” suggests that the primary antagonist of The Force Awakens has his own personalized TIE. With so little information on space battles in the movie (ironic), one has to wonder where his ship fits into the equation. On another note, this definitely confirms that R2-D2 and C-3PO are both part of the Resistance.
A few scans of these cards have recently hit the web.
When scans of more of the cards related to The Force Awakens hit the net, we will be sure to post them here.
UPDATE!
A few of the cards of the movie’s characters (plus some vehicles) have been revealed.
There’s also a familiar-looking one.
This shot seems to come from the same photoshoot that produced this image:
Special thanks to The Cantina user Altgr0160 for pointing this information out. | {
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Season 2 Production Update 9/13/2016 8:53 am
Yesterday's exciting new teaser video accompanied by the first 25 photos from the second season caused quite a Supergirl fervor. Clearly everyone was excited to see a first look into season 2. That did seem to lead to questions about who's directing what and where Supergirl is in the current filming process. Here's what we can officially confirm:
Supergirl's ten day filming schedule puts today as the wrap on episode 204. They are currently filming episode 205. Larry Teng will direct next week's episode 206. Kevin Smith was spotted on set but he was actually out to lunch with The Flash crew and stopped by to say hi. His episode for Supergirl is 209.
Here are some photos of Kevin Smith's visit.
Here's what Kevin Smith had to say about his Supergirl encounter:
Driving to lunch with my Flash crew and we spotted the fine folks who make Supergirl on the mean streets of VanGroovy! I was able to say a quick hi to Melissa Benoist but I got to pal around for a red hot minute with Superman's pal James Olsen aka Mehcad Brooks! I come back to Vancouver to direct an episode of Supergirl next month but I still fan-girled out seeing the Super set of National City...
So there you have it, Kevin Smith's episode is 209, Larry Teng's first episode is 206 and they are wrapping 205 today!
Cool, hope that helps clear up where we are in production on Supergirl season 2 for everyone. If you have any comments let us know below or in the forum! Also, keep us advertisement free and visit the support page! | {
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Not sure if last step Or second to last step
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Evil-doer Full Name Byron Hadley Alias
Captain Byron Hadley Captain Hadley
Mr. Hadley Origin Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption Occupation
Prison guard Warden Norton's second-in-command Powers/Skills
Expertise in combat Marksmanship
Brute strength
Intimidation Hobby Assaulting prisoners and safe guarding Norton's corruption. Goals Coerce Andy Dufrense into submitting to his rule (failed) . Crimes
Multiple homicides Coercion
Battery
Abusing authority
Domestic violence
Child abuse Type of Villain Brutish Right-Hand
“ You eat when we say you eat, you shit when we say you shit, and you piss when we say you piss! You got that, you maggot-dicked motherf-cker?! „ ~ Hadley abusing a new inmate.
“ Dufresne [taps the window thrice with his baton]... you're mine now. „ ~ Byron to Andy.
Captain Byron Hadley, simply known as Byron Hadley, is the secondary antagonist of the 1982 Stephen King book Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, and its 1994 film adaptation The Shawshank Redemption. He is the top prison guard who serves as Warden Norton's second-in-command.
He was portrayed by Clancy Brown, who also played Viking Lofgren in the 1983 film Bad Boys, the Kurgan in the 1986 film Highlander, Mr. Krabs in Spongebob Squarepants, Undertow in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, Dr. Neo Cortex and Uka Uka in Crash Bandicoot, Savage Opress in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Hades in God of War, Lex Luthor in the DC Animated Universe, Grune in Thundercats, Mr. Sinister in Wolverine and the X-Men, the Evil Entity in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Rahzar in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Surtur in Thor: Ragnarok, Edgar Volgud in Atlantis: Milo's Return, General McGuffin in Wander Over Yonder, and Kojak in Recess: School's Out.
Contents show]
Personality
Captain Hadley is a very cruel, loutish and sadistic man who frequently abuses his authority by brutally beating inmates and sometimes killing them, often for petty reasons. This also includes beating up a new inmate that is addressed by the other inmates as "Fat-ass." The next day, Fat-ass dies from the blows that Hadley gave him for not keeping his mouth shut, showing he absolutely does not care about the prisoners. This make him feared by the inmates. He is also a complainer, by inheriting a lot of money of his dead's brother and complaining about the payments on it. Unsympathetic and corrupt, he gets angry pretty easily with the inmates, whatever the minor things they do and shows many signs of enjoying making them suffer.
Despite Hadley's cruelty, he seemingly softens up to Andy Dufresne after the latter helped him with his money he inherited from his estranged brother (by giving the $35,000 in full, tax free, to his wife). He helps Andy rid of Bogs although it was purely for selfish reasons. He has a wife and children, however, it is unknown if he genuinely loves them or if he is abusive toward them. However, despite briefly becoming softer towards Andy, he starts abusing him again once he starts stirring up trouble.
Biography
He brutally beats up Bogs Diamond (the head of "The Sisters" prison gang) after finding out that the latter had been raping and beating up Andy since Andy is too useful for him and Norton in dealing with financial matters.
Later on, Warden Norton orders him to murder Tommy in order to keep him from proving Andy innocent. He is then arrested for this after Andy escapes with the ledger containing all the info about the corruption and the murder(s) that Hadley committed, avenging the deaths of all prisoners he killed, such as Fat Ass and Tommy. According to Red, it was rumored that Hadley had cried like a little girl once he was arrested, likely because he will be incarcerated in the same prison he guarded and will have to endure retaliation (and possibly murder) from all the prisoners he bullied and abused for years.
Gallery
The Shawshank Redemption - Clip - Welcome To Shawshank The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Scene 5 10 Boggs Beating The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Scene 1 10 Fresh Fish-0
Add a photo to this gallery
Trivia
In the book, Byron Hadley is a minor character whom retires a few years after receiving financial help from Andy and narrowly surviving a heart attack. He also never beats up Bogs Diamond. He is also implied to be an abusive and controlling husband during his conversation with Andy, and he also never meets Samuel Norton.
Clancy Brown studied real-life prison guards as preparation for the role, because he did not want to base his character on any one person. | {
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I bought my dog's costume at target But we can say I made it myself if that's what you're into
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An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube by the Local Committee of Arbeen on August 21, 2013, allegedly shows Syrians covering a mass grave containing bodies of victims that Syrian rebels claim were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces in eastern Ghouta and Zamalka, on the outskirts of Damascus. Photo: Local Committee of Arbeen/DSK/AFP/Getty Images
As Daily Intelligencer noted yesterday, the U.S. Holocaust Museum is at the center of a burgeoning controversy over its decision to conduct a study, through its Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, about whether the United States could have taken a more active role in the Syrian civil war for the sake of protecting civilians, hundreds of thousands of whom have died in the conflict — many as a result of the shelling, torture, gas attacks, and other atrocities committed by Bashar Al-Assad.
After the study concluded that there is little the U.S. could have done to improve matters, and that heightened involvement may have worsened conditions on the ground, there was an angry outcry from some who accused the museum of — as Leon Wieseltier (one of the louder critics) put it — embracing “bystanderism.” It’s important to point out that the vast majority of these complaints were not substantive critiques of the study, but rather discomfort with its conclusion, which ran contrary to the desires of many who have long called for heightened U.S. involvement in Syria.
In the wake of these critiques, the museum effectively unpublished the study, which it had planned to officially unveil at a September 11th event at Washington, D.C.’s U.S. Institute for Peace. “Last week the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide released a research study that examined several decision points during the Syrian conflict,” notes the webpage where the study used to live. “Since its release, a number of people with whom we have worked closely on Syria since the conflict’s outbreak have expressed concerns with the study. The Museum has decided to remove the study from its website as we evaluate this feedback.”
Last night, a source outside the Holocaust Museum sent Daily Intel the study, which consists of six separate papers. Below are links to PDFs of the six, with the first being a brief summary of the entire effort by Lawrence Woocher, who is the Simon-Skjodt Center’s research director.
1. Lawrence Woocher, “Missed Opportunities for Prevention?: A Study of U.S. Policy and Atrocities in Syria since 2011.”
2. Mona Yacoubian, “Critical Junctures in US Policy toward Syria: An Assessment of the Counterfactuals”
3. Andrew Kydd, “Subsidizing Rebels, Taxing Atrocities: Saving Lives in Civil Wars”
4. Ian Lustick, Miguel Garces, and Thomas McCauley, “An Agent-Based Model of Counterfactual Opportunities for Reducing Atrocities in Syria, 2011 – 2014”
5. Daniel Solomon, “Evaluating Counterfactual US Policy Action in Syria, 2011 – 2016: A Review of Empirical Evidence from Related Cases”
6. Lawrence Woocher, “A Survey of Expert Judgments on the Effects of Counterfactual US Actions on Civilian Fatalities in Syria, 2011 – 2016” | {
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Différentes études suggèrent que les personnes athées seraient plus intelligentes que les autres. Pour l'expliquer, deux chercheurs proposent que la religion soit liée à l'instinct. Selon eux, la curiosité intellectuelle permettrait de dépasser ces croyances instinctives.
Durant l'Antiquité déjà, le scepticisme semblait se rencontrer chez les « sages ». Euripide exprimait un rejet des dieux au Ve siècle avant J.-C., dans Bellérophon, tragédie dans laquelle le héros s'exprime en ces termes : « On affirme que dans le ciel il y a des dieux ! Il n'y en a pas, non, il n'y en a pas. Cessez de répéter sottement cette vieillerie. Ne me croyez pas sur parole, voyez de vos propres yeux. Je prétends, moi, que les tyrans font périr les Hommes par milliers, qu'ils les dépouillent de leurs biens, qu'au mépris de la foi jurée, ils détruisent les cités et que, malgré cela, ils sont plus heureux que ceux qui adorent chaque jour tranquillement les immortels ». Des paroles qui trouvent toujours un écho, plus de deux mille ans plus tard.
Des études se sont penchées sur le lien entre intelligence et croyances religieuses et ont conclu à une corrélation négative entre les deux. Ainsi, une méta-analyse de 63 études parue dans Personality and Social Psychological Review en 2013 a trouvé que les personnes croyantes avaient tendance à être moins intelligentes que celles qui ne l'étaient pas. Un article de 1998 paru dans Nature, intitulé Leading Scientists still reject God (« Les scientifiques de premier plan rejettent toujours Dieu »), montrait que seulement 7 % des membres de l'académie des Sciences des États-Unis croyaient en Dieu. Comment expliquer un tel rejet ?
Edward Dutton, chercheur à l'institut de Recherche sociale d'Ulster (Royaume-Uni), et Dimitri van der Linden, du département de psychologie de l'université de Rotterdam (Pays-Bas), ont voulu apporter une explication. Dans un article paru dans Evolutionary Psychological Science, ils présentent plusieurs hypothèses.
La première repose sur « l'irrationalité » de la religion. L'argument est le suivant : il n'est pas possible de prouver logiquement l'existence d'un Dieu, aussi il serait plus rationnel de ne pas y croire. Mais c'est une autre hypothèse que les chercheurs ont préférée.
Il y aurait plus d’athées parmi les grands scientifiques… © Tryfonov, Fotolia
Les personnes intelligentes dépasseraient l’instinct religieux
L'hypothèse privilégiée dans cet article est que la religion soit liée à l'instinct. Cette idée découle d'une théorie développée par Satoshi Kanazawa, un psychologue de la London School of Economics : l'hypothèse de « la savane ». Cette théorie postule que nous sommes adaptés à résoudre des problèmes rencontrés de manière récurrente par nos ancêtres chasseurs-cueilleurs dans la savane africaine. L'intelligence (mesurée par le QI) aiderait à résoudre des problèmes qui ne sont pas fréquents dans la savane. Ceci signifie que les personnes intelligentes ont plus de facilité à gérer la nouveauté dans l'évolution, c'est-à-dire des situations qui n'existaient pas dans l'environnement ancestral.
Pour Edward Dutton et Dimitri van der Linder, la religion est un « domaine de l'évolution », un instinct. Or, l'intelligence consiste à s'élever au-dessus de nos instincts, comme l'explique Edward Dutton dans un communiqué repris par Live Science : « L'intelligence -- dans la résolution rationnelle des problèmes -- peut être comprise comme le fait de surmonter son instinct, d'être intellectuellement curieux et donc ouvert à des possibilités non instinctives ».
Les chercheurs se sont aussi intéressés au lien entre instinct et stress. Ils pensent que l'intelligence aiderait à dépasser ses instincts dans des moments de stress : « Si la religion est en effet un domaine évolué (un instinct), alors elle sera augmentée dans des moments de stress, quand les gens sont enclins à agir instinctivement ». Mais à l'inverse, « l'intelligence nous permet de faire une pause et de raisonner à travers la situation et les conséquences possibles de nos actions ».
Notons cependant que les auteurs ne présentent qu'une théorie sur un sujet qui fait naturellement débat.
Ce qu'il faut retenir Les personnes intelligentes seraient plus souvent athées.
Deux chercheurs proposent que la croyance religieuse soit liée à l'instinct.
Les personnes intelligentes seraient capables de dépasser cet instinct pour mettre en doute l'existence d'un dieu.
Cela vous intéressera aussi | {
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Washington (CNN) Democrat Xochitl Torres Small has defeated Republican Yvette Herrell in one of the nation's last outstanding House races, New Mexico's secretary of state certified Tuesday morning.
The official result brings the total number of Democratic gains in the House to 39 seats, with one race outstanding, according to CNN's count.
Herrell claimed victory in New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District race on election night earlier this month, but as ballots continued to be counted, Torres Small took a lead in the vote count in the race to replace outgoing GOP Rep. Steve Pearce.
As of midday Tuesday, CNN had yet to project a result in California's 21's Congressional District, where Democrat TJ Cox pulled ahead of Republican Rep. David Valadao on Monday evening.
Torres Small's win would swing a GOP-held seat for Democrats, bringing the party control over all three New Mexico US House seats once Pearce's current term ends.
Read More | {
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The owner of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia explained why she ejected White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders from the establishment on Friday evening.
Speaking with The Washington Post, owner Stephanie Wilkinson acknowledged that she may have threatened the economic health of her small business with her principled stand, but said she would do it again.
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“I’m not a huge fan of confrontation,” Wilkinson said. “I have a business, and I want the business to thrive. This feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals.”
Wilkinson recounted how she was at home when she got a call informing her that Sanders was dining at the Red Hen, under a reservation made in her husband’s name. She raced to the business to investigate.
Wilkinson explained that she queried her employees about what to do, knowing several employees were gay and all the staff had all watched the press secretary evade questions while defending Trump’s border separation policy.
“Tell me what you want me to do. I can ask her to leave,” she told her employees. “They said yes.”
The owner politely asked Sanders to step out on the patio “for a word.”
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“I was babbling a little, but I got my point across in a polite and direct fashion,” Wilkinson said. “I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation.”
After explaining her reasoning, she said, “I’d like to ask you to leave.”
Sanders stepped back inside to collect her belongings, then left the establishment, later complaining about her ejection on Twitter.
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“We just felt there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions,” the owner explained. “This appeared to be one.”
Despite the backlash from Trump supporters, Wilkinson seems unworried.
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“Whatever happens, we will soldier on,” Wilkinson said. “Absolutely, yes, I would have done the same thing again.”
Previous coverage of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ being ejected:
Big mistake to whine on Twitter. BIG MISTAKE https://t.co/63wMw0A0jr — Raw Story (@RawStory) June 23, 2018
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It happened and Sarah is being snippy about it: https://t.co/XdR83VUkVa — Raw Story (@RawStory) June 23, 2018
Reports of another Trumpie booted out: https://t.co/pgKPAs6LEO — Raw Story (@RawStory) June 23, 2018 | {
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In case you've been wondering what Glenn Beck has been up to, if you think getting booted from Fox News has chastened him in any way or put a chink in his megalomania, it's time to reconsider. It seems that Beck's plans are bigger than ever. Earlier this week, he revealed plans for some kind of super duper libertarian utopia/theme park. And guess what? It's one big monument to Beck's philosophy - and, presumably, to the lining of his pockets.
I wrote about this in more depth on Crooks and Liars this week, but here's an excerpt:
Glenn Beck wants to be the libertarian Walt Disney. And he has decided to build himself some kind of libertarian-utopia theme park called Independence, USA where, for a price, you can live out Beck’s dream of America The Way It Should Be: Grow your own food, your own energy and your own media. Plus, there’s a giant phallic symbol of a structure that Beck says represents “man reaching up to find God’s knowledge.”
Beck's grandiosity also includes some kind of vision of alternate education and a deprogramming for kids already in school. Plus there's his "baby," i.e. "my national archives," where "We will keep the things and the ideas and the books and the papers that tell the truth.”
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It seems unlikely that such a project could ever get off the ground and, even if it did, be any kind of sustainable. But how many people will get soaked for donations along the way?
Read the rest of my post and watch the full video here. | {
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Story highlights The film opens this week
There is already speculation about the sequel
(CNN) Excitement is so high for the opening of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" there is already chatter about the sequel.
The film hits theaters nationwide on November 18 but that hasn't stopped speculation about the next one.
"Fantastic Beasts" is part of the "Harry Potter" canon and follows the adventures of writer Newt Scamander (Played by Eddie Redmayne), who is the finder of magical creatures.
Potter and his Hogwart friends later study a book Newt has written.
"Potter" author Rowling wrote the new film and corrected a claim about the "Fantastic Beasts" sequel. | {
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“Cherokee Maiden” by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys
“Cherokee Maiden” was written by Cindy Walker, one of country music’s first major female songwriters, and recorded by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys in 1941. Introduced by a fiddle melody reminiscent of a Looney Tunes cue, “Cherokee Maiden” tells the story of the singer’s “night of love” with an American Indian woman, to whom he pledges to return, “straight as an arrow flies.”
Beneath the lightness of the song lies a radical subtext: at the time in Walker’s native Texas, the sexual encounter described by the song was not only frowned on, it was illegal. Texas had been the first state in the union to pass a law officially barring miscegenation, meaning not just interracial marriage, but interracial sex of any kind. After decades of being an unwritten rule, the law was formalized in 1837, and eventually had counterparts in nearly every American state. It was not overturned until 1967.
That year, Virginia State Police raided the bedroom of Mildred Loving, who was of Rappahannock Indian and African descent, and Richard Loving, who was white. The police hoped to catch them in flagrante—a violation of Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act. A subsequent Supreme Court decision established that anti-miscegenation laws were a violation of the 14th Amendment, forcing state governments to eliminate them. But even then, interracial relationships remained taboo—when a Star Trek episode the following year presented viewers with American television’s first interracial kiss, NBC nearly refused to air it.
Yet somehow, a quarter of a century earlier, “Cherokee Maiden” became a country standard, thanks in no small part to Wills and his remarkable band. Bob Wills was the foremost proponent of a style called Western Swing, an early subgenre of country music that adopted aspects of jazz improvisation. Contemporary country and jazz may seem to have nothing to do with each other, but the strands of their histories are not so easy to separate. One of the seminal recordings by the man considered country music’s founding father, Jimmie Rodgers, is 1930’s “Blue Yodel №9,” a blues featuring trumpet improvisations by the man considered jazz’s founding father, Louis Armstrong.
This continuity was not lost on jazz’s most radical modernist of the 1940s, Charlie Parker, who was known to shock his acolytes by stepping up to a jukebox after one of his sets and picking out a country tune. “Listen to the stories,” he is said to have told bewildered onlookers.
“Brown Eyed Handsome Man” by Chuck Berry
Western Swing had little influence on jazz, but, years later, it had a surprising effect on the emergence of rock and roll. Chuck Berry had drawn attention in integrated clubs in the 1950s for being, as his pianist Johnnie Johnson described it, “a black man playing hillbilly music.” Berry’s first single on Chess Records was a song called “Maybelline,” which, depending on who you ask, could be the first rock and roll record. By Berry’s admission, it was a rewrite of the folk song “Ida Red,” which he became familiar with through an upbeat 1938 dance version by Bob Wills.
Though Berry minimized the African-American vernacular qualities of his diction in his singing, his songwriting frequently alluded to the experience of being black in America. He noted in his memoirs that in his signature song, “Johnny B. Goode,” the title character was initially a “little colored boy” who became a “little country boy” in a canny maneuver to make white listeners feel included.
This kind of coded speech, which Paul Gilroy has called “metacommunication,” is characteristic of African-American music, with roots in the necessity to convey messages in secret through work songs and spirituals under slavery. As for “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” it’s a coded description of a brown skinned man. Berry wrote the song after traveling through African-American and Latino neighborhoods in California. One day, he saw a Chicano man being arrested for loitering as a woman pleaded with the policeman to let him go. If the “handsome man” of the title is black or brown, it’s implied that the women who find him irresistible — a judge’s wife, for example — are white. The final verse, in which the man wins a baseball game, would have reminded listeners of Jackie Robinson.
It was with his popularity as a source of material during the British Invasion of the 1960s that Berry’s music became permanently identified as belonging to a new genre, rather than as the output of a black man who played both hillbilly music and rhythm and blues. Though the term “rock and roll” had been used throughout the 1950s, the classification of the varieties of music played by Berry and his contemporaries under that single category happened in retrospect. At the time, country icons Ernest Tubb and Buck Owens comfortably recorded hit versions of Chuck Berry songs, and “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” was itself later covered by Waylon Jennings.
As Andrew Ross has written,
for British musicians, raised in a culture that would not have to begin to properly acknowledge its multiracial constituency for another decade, blues music represented an exotic taste, not a lived experience for a racial minority. This was not the case with the earlier rockabilly culture of Southern kids.
Just as Berry appropriated country, “white trash kids from Baptist backgrounds,” as Ross calls them, drew as much from the blues and gospel of black neighborhoods as they did the country and folk of their family homes. In spite of a history of segregation, racial diversity was a reality of the American South, and music was part of the everyday life of neighbors—like the African-American laborers from whom Bob Wills learned to play music in his childhood, on the plantation in Texas where he and his family picked cotton. In Greil Marcus’s formulation, the operative ethic was not “the ability to imitate,” but “the nerve to cross borders.”
White musicians’ continued borrowings from black music are common knowledge, but the inverse persisted after Chuck Berry as well—Cindy Walker’s best-known song after “Cherokee Maiden” was “You Don’t Know Me,” a country hit for Eddy Arnold that would later become a 1962 R&B hit for Ray Charles. Al Green, whose Hi Records label shared its Memphis home with rockabilly institution Sun Studios, was the most prominent soul singer to follow in Charles’s footsteps, covering Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson on his streak of classic albums in the 1970s.
“Made In Japan” by Buck Owens
Country songwriters are obsessed with language, assembling their lyrics from puns, double entendres, idioms, and whatever other figures of speech suit the occasion. The occasion here, by husband-and-wife songwriting team Bob and Faye Morris, is a reflection by an American veteran on his affair with a Japanese woman he met during the Second World War. After a hushed courtship set to a lilting pentatonic scale, the soldier is spurned by this woman, who is promised to another man in an arranged marriage. The woman is described with a somewhat crass idiom: she is likened to an imported product “made in Japan.”
This allegory seems to turn the human relationship between the soldier and his lover into an exchange of commodities. This is an often-derided way of depicting social life. Consider Animal Collective’s millennial anthem “My Girls,” which proclaims, with extensive qualification, “I don’t mean to seem like I care about material things.” But the voices of country music describe lives in which caring about material things is a matter of necessity, as part of the historically specific conditions in which we live. What the authors acknowledge in “Made in Japan” is that love and sex exist in a world that also includes money and war.
This materialist awareness means that in spite of attempts to claim country music for the cause of right-wing nationalism, globalization isn’t an unusual subject for the genre. It was the locus of Brad Paisley’s cheerfully cosmopolitan 2009 hit “American Saturday Night,” a laundry list of iconic American traditions with origins in foreign countries. This cosmopolitanism is manifested sonically as well — a typical early country recording, most likely played by children of immigrants, might consist of Irish fiddling, Swiss yodeling, Hawaiian steel guitars, and the West African banjo. But “Made in Japan” invokes a more contemporary form of globalization, in the presence of information technology: the lonely former soldier awakens memories of his former lover by dialing in signals from Japan on his transistor radio.
Technology isn’t an unusual subject for country either. Though revisionist accounts of country music affiliated with both Top 40 pandering and indie folk posturing claim it as a nostalgic form, country has always been a defiantly modern practice. Even bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe, whose music is now incorrectly associated with a pastoral wooden purity, described his style as a musical reproduction of the sounds of modern industry in an increasingly mechanized world.
Buck Owens was one of the progenitors of Bakersfield country, which adopted the electric current of rock and roll’s overdriven amplifiers, in reaction to the traditionalist “Countrypolitan” sound of Nashville. In a acknowledgment of its mobile modernism, Owens called the noise of his plugged-in, backbeat-driven band the “freight train” sound, tying it to the technology that brought both the black and white working class from the country to the city in the mid-20th century.
But even though transportation and information technologies offered a potential for connection half a world away, country music is a loser’s art. “When it’s night over here, over there it’s breaking day,” the soldier observes, simply and sadly. In the end, he can’t cross the barriers he faces, those of land, sea, or language.
“Black Rose” by Waylon Jennings
Along with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings carried on the country music insurgency initiated by the Bakersfield style and mavericks like Johnny Cash. Veterans of the industry, Waylon and Willie grew so tired of Nashville politics they left town. Relocating to Austin, Texas, they began drawing from both their Texan roots and the burgeoning local scene of hippie freaks. The resulting music seemed dangerous enough that it acquired a new name: outlaw country.
Preceding subgenres of country tended to be named after places. The ”country” itself, Bakersfield, Nashville — even “honky-tonk” refers to urban Southern bars and “bluegrass” to Kentucky fields. But outlaw country set itself apart: it named the subject. “Outlaw” is a more self-aggrandizing version of the the terminology of class contempt in the American vernacular — words like “white trash,” “hick,” “hillbilly,” “redneck,” “cracker,” and so on. These slurs are not often considered as ugly as racial slurs directed at people of color, partly because their primary determinant is the less perceptible category of class. But that does not mean that they are not also racialized. If, as Stuart Hall famously put it, “race is the modality in which class is lived,” these words refer in part to some abject state of being too white.
While middle-class white Americans are able to maintain a subject position absent of racial determination, rural whites have historically been made victims of what Paul Gilroy calls the “spurious biological theory” that has been more discernibly inflicted on people of color. Research by Annalee Newitz and Matt Wray has noted that “Eugenic Family Studies” at around the turn of the century declared white residents of depressed regions “genetically defective.” In a new manifestation of a long tradition, class was given a biological determinant that regarded the rural poor as an inferior race. Friedrich Engels had observed in 1844 that to the political establishment in England, “the working-class has gradually become a race wholly apart from the English bourgeoisie.” Under the guise of science, the same taxonomy was reproduced in early 20th-century America.
Class slurs are more useful for middle-class and upwardly mobile whites than they are for people of color, permitting a stratification within the category of whiteness rather than a marking of its limits. They pit “Standard English” against rural dialects, the office against the factory or farm, clerical work against agricultural or industrial labour, suburban life against rural or slum life, cars against trucks, church services against tent revivals, pop against country. More directly pejorative associations are also implied, most notably that of incest. These class antagonisms are often hidden behind the inference of conservatism, chiefly racism. It’s unrealistic to ignore the reactionary ideologies that persist among lower-class whites, but antiracism is not the point of these slurs. They are a marking of the boundaries of cultural capital.
The most common of these slurs, and the one that carries with it the most charged liberal indignation, is “redneck,” which country singers of the 1970s like David Allan Coe made central to the language of the music. Now used to denote a particular brand of bigotry, the literal connotation and etymological origin of the word are overshadowed. In the 1930s American South, a “redneck” was a union member on strike. The term metonymically invoked the Communist Party neck kerchief worn by coal miners both for protection and in a statement of solidarity. The more obvious subtext, that of the sunburned neck of a farm laborer, is hardly any less bound up in class antagonism.
Waylon Jennings inaugurated the new category of the outlaw on an album called Honky Tonk Heroes. It was a collection of songs by Billy Joe Shaver, a former trucker fond of LSD, who threatened Jennings’s life to get him to listen to his songs. “Black Rose” describes the protagonist’s affair with a black woman, whom the narrative implies is married. The morality play that results finds him dwelling “on the darker side of shame,” whether over a violation of marital fidelity or in struggle with a racist superego. But the pleasure principle wins out in the end, with a chorus that perfectly states the outlaw sensibility: “The devil made me do it the first time/The second time I done it on my own.”
“Irma Jackson” by Merle Haggard
If the outlaw was a powerful metaphor for country music’s vanguard of the 1970s, it was a real description of one of the genre’s Bakersfield predecessors, Merle Haggard. His series of incarcerations began with juvenile detention for shoplifting at 13, and carried into his early adulthood. He escaped frequently, even from the notoriously secure San Quentin State Prison, where he stuck around long enough to see Johnny Cash play one of his concerts for prisoners.
Racked with guilt over his criminality, Haggard spent his career singing prison songs as often as he did drinking songs, lamenting the “black mark” that follows the “Branded Man.” But in spite of these songs that gave voice to an embattled underclass, Haggard is associated with an opposing sensibility.
“Okie” is an antiquated predecessor to “redneck,” belonging more to the era of John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie, but Haggard resurrected it for his 1969 hit “Okie From Muskogee.” It presents the perspective of a fictionalized commentator from the eponymous midwestern town, who condemns the day’s campus counterculture for its decadence and privilege. The song has left Haggard with the image of a cranky conservative, in spite of its obviously fictional nature. But as his accounts of poverty like “Workin’ Man Blues” and “If We Make it Through December” demonstrate, the overlooked element in this commentary on the New Left by an imagined small-town skeptic is class.
Phil Ochs, the most committed left-wing songwriter of the Greenwich Village folk music scene of the 1960s, took to playing “Okie from Muskogee” in the early 1970s, to disgruntled responses from his young audiences. The song appealed to Ochs due to his concern over the schism between student activists and Nixon’s “silent majority.”
“The idea of a ‘freak’ counterculture was disastrous,” he says in an interview excerpted in the documentary There But for Fortune. “What was needed was an organic connection to the working class.”
And of course, Nixon was using that, and getting across this image of, “it’s them against us. No matter what you think of me, I’m a regular straight American guy, if you’re not going to have me you’re going to have some hairy freak, and dope in the streets, and destruction in the country.” That’s the game he played, and he played it very effectively.
Legend has it that Ochs was once thrown out of a moving limousine by none other than fellow Greenwich Village folkie Bob Dylan, who told him, “you’re not a writer, you’re a journalist.” The dubiousness of this distinction aside, there was a real ideological schism between the two: while Ochs struggled to reach the working class, Dylan followed his class aspirations all the way to the top.
On the 1964 record Another Side, Dylan inverted the rallying cry of the New Left. The personal was not political, he insisted, and the political was no longer relevant. Social movements were a form of artifice, without the complexity and the depth of personal experience. “‘Equality,’ I spoke the word, as if a wedding vow,” he sang in “My Back Pages,” before concluding with the refrain’s trite declaration of enlightenment: “But I was so much older then/I’m younger than that now.” A social abstraction like “equality,” Dylan claimed, fell short of the authentic thoughts and acts of individuals. Equality may have been a matter for society to resolve, but it was not a real personal concern, whereas marriage was. Dylan, in this song and most of his subsequent work, chose the personal.
They were words only a white man could have sung. In 1964, Richard and Mildred Loving’s marriage was still illegal. Their wedding vows were a political act, one that resulted in persecution by a state that didn’t think much of equality either.
A countercultural bohemian like Dylan may not have understood this, but Merle Haggard did. He had written a song in the late 1960s about an ill-fated interracial relationship, but Capitol Records feared that it would alienate listeners who had not seen the irony in “Okie.” He remembers the head of country music at Capitol telling him, “Merle, I don’t believe the world is ready for this yet.” This reaction to the song ended up as an iteration of its core sentiment. “There’s no way the world will understand that love is colorblind,” Haggard sang.
“Irma Jackson” was finally released on 1972’s Let Me Tell You About a Song. It describes a relationship that begins innocently:
I remember when no one cared about us being friends
We were only children and it really didn’t matter then
But we grew up too quickly in a world that draws a line
Where they say Irma Jackson can’t be mine.
But the song ends in tragedy. More sensitive to the risks of maintaining the relationship in a society that has never been colorblind, Irma Jackson breaks it off.
She tells me she’s decided that she’ll go away
And I guess it’s right that she alone should have the final say
But in spite of her decision forcing us to say goodbye
I’ll still love Irma Jackson till I die.
The story’s conclusion is the formerly inevitable one that the Loving v. Virginia case began to reverse. But its beginning resembles the courtship between Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter, in their rural town of Central Point. They met as adolescents in 1950, at the Jeter family farm. Mildred’s brothers were musicians, and they were putting on a performance for the neighborhood, in a style Mildred called “hillbilly music.”
Richard Loving had traveled seven miles across town to hear it. | {
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Rolling out to stores now, Knob Creek’s new 12-year-old small batch bourbon is set at 100 proof, $60 suggested retail price and permanent availability. The blue-labeled bottle was previously a more limited, allocated release, and the brand says its popularity drove the distiller to keeping it around.
This is the second time in less than a year that Knob Creek has brought back the age statement — the number of years the whiskey was matured, stamped on the bottle — on a widely available bourbon. The first instance was reported in the summer of 2019 by longtime bourbon writer Chuck Cowdery’s, which confirmed the most widely available of Beam Suntory’s popular small batch bourbon whiskey, Knob Creek Small Batch, would get its 9-year age statement back. Bottles of guaranteed 9-year-old Knob Creek will also show up on shelves this year. For whiskey fans, this is cause for celebration.
As the demand for Kentucky bourbon spiked without mercy, industry stock couldn’t keep up. Bottles that once carried age statements were forced to drop them, as batches had to be supplemented with younger whiskey to keep bottles on shelves. Always available between $20 and $30, Knob Creek’s standard, entry-level expression was one of those whiskeys.
The return of its age statement could be a sign the aging warehouses built at the start of the bourbon boom are finally pulling their weight; that perhaps aged whiskey stocks have finally caught up with enormous demand, and we’ll start seeing other distillers bring back age statements on regular offerings.
Bottle transparency is never a bad thing. Especially with one of the best value whiskey brands around. Look for bottles of Knob Creek 12-year-old on shelves now.
Learn More: Here
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In June 2017, I traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii to visit the set of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. This week, we have been running a ton of coverage from this visit. It began with interviews with producers Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley, director J.A. Bayona, and stars Bryce Dallas and Chris Pratt. Today, it continues with new star Justice Smith.
This roundtable interview was conducted alongside Eric Vespe from Rooster Teeth.
***
What can you tell us about your character in this movie?
I play Franklin, an anxiety-ridden young man who is also a computer genius. He graduated top of his class at MIT. He’s the antithesis to Owen, essentially. He brings out all of Owen’s masculinity and strength and heroism by being so fragile and not that.
We’ve been told that your character is pretty comfortable in front of a computer and not anywhere else, so naturally you have to go on a dinosaur adventure. That’s gotta give you a lot of room to play a little more broadly than you usually get to.
Right. He also has a clear arc throughout the movie. He’s deathly terrified of going to this island, encountering these dinosaurs. Throughout all of that he toughens up a little bit because he has to.
You’re teamed up with Daniella [Pineda], right?
With Zia, yeah.
What can you say about the relationship between your two characters?
They have a fun back and forth with each other. They like to make fun of each other. She picks on Franklin for being a wuss. He doesn’t really pick on her. She kinda just picks on him. I think he tries. He’s just not equipped with being social. He tries to give it back to her and she always ends up shutting him down. That just represents the bond that they have. They’ve worked together for so long trying to save these dinosaurs.
Would you say it’s a brother/sister relationship or more romantic?
No, it’s not romantic. Not at all! Not in the slightest.
So, you’ve been trying to save these dinosaurs for so long, but have never met a dinosaur. When you finally come face to face with one, what happens?
Exactly what you’d expect: screaming and yelling and pissing your pants.
Do you have a lot of action in this movie?
I do a lot of stunts in this movie, which is surprising because my character… I think it’s set up like that intentionally because my character is someone who you would think is not physical at all and then is kind of forced to be in the movie.
It’d be funny if Chris doesn’t do much of anything in the movie and you get all the hero stuff.
[laughs] Just doin’ rolls and stuff.
We just saw the animatronic dinosaurs and if I was in the movie, my favorite part would be interacting with those on screen, but what was the thing that makes you go “Holy shit, what an awesome job I have!”?
That’s kind of how I feel every day. I’m always doing weird stunts that I never thought I’d be doing and also just being with the cast. They’re all so fun and witty. Chris is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met and Bryce is, like, the nicest and smartest person I ever met. Being around all these great people and working on something, trying to make it great. Is that a cheesy answer?
No, it’s a good answer! We hear you have a pivotal role in trying to find Blue. What can you tell us about that?
Franklin knows how to hack into the tracking system in order to find the dinosaurs. When he goes to the island I think that’s all he’s expecting to do, but as with every Jurassic Park movie things go wrong! He’s in a safe, enclosed room… I mean, he doesn’t feel safe ever, but yeah. He expects to go to this island, do his job and just fly off, but that not how it works out at all.
Bryce Dallas Howard: [On the other side of the tent flap] No, Justice, he expects for everything to go wrong and everything DOES go wrong.
We forgot to tell you that Bryce can hear everything you say. Sorry about that. Good thing you said very nice things about her.
Bryce Dallas Howard: Justice, I’m listening to my book on tape, I swear.
[laughing] Okay, that’s awesome.
Bryce told us that J.A. plays music during some takes. How’s that?
J.A. loves to scare me. My character is perpetually scared, so I guess he wants an authentic reaction, which I respect as an actor, but as a human being I hate it. He plays loud music when I least expect it. He won’t tell me! He’ll have things explode in my face and things explode around me just to freak me out so I’m really scared on camera.
I think that’s just what he’s telling you. I’m pretty sure he’s just fucking with you.
Yeah, “I’m not using any of that…”
Camera’s not rolling, buddy. Sorry to tell you.
I can’t wait to see the movie and all those scenes are cut.
J.A. always cuts to the core of a character emotionally and it’s always exciting to me when people like that do one of these giant movies because then I know there’s going to be some meat to it. Have you found that to be true with how he’s working with you on your character?
J.A. knows exactly what he wants, which I love because then I know exactly what I have to do and there’s no mystery about I have to do. I find myself trying to keep up with him sometimes because he’ll have an idea for a beautiful shot and he really wants to fulfill it and all his movies are so beautiful and so intense I’m like “I don’t want to mess this up!” I’m trying to do exactly what he wants, but I love how specific he is technically and visually.
When you auditioned for this role, did you know it was going to be Jurassic World 2 or were they hiding it?
Well, they hid it, but they don’t hide it well. [laughs] The sides I auditioned with were like “Oh my God, there’s a grizzly bear!” I was like “This is a T-Rex.” It wasn’t that inconspicuous.
What was your relationship with the Jurassic films before this?
I’m a big horror movie fan. Have you see J.A.’s movie The Orphanage?
Yeah, it’s awesome.
I love that movie. When I was a kid I used to watch all these crazy horror movies and my family would take road trips to Vegas – I’m from California – and we had a built-in DVD player in our van and we’d always watch all the Jurassic Parks in order on our trips to Vegas. Those are more suspense movies, but as a kid you’re like “This is a horror movie!” People are dying and dinosaurs were eating people. All my siblings would be too scared to watch it and I’d just be sitting there entranced. That’s my personal experience with them.
You’re right, that first movie especially plays like a horror movie. I remember watching it in the theater when it came out and people were screaming when the Raptor jumps up and barely misses Lex’s leg when she’s in the vent.
Yeah! Or with the T-Rex and they’re in the car…
How’s it like working with Chris? He’s improvisational and, you know, a little funny…
Just a little. He’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met on and off camera. Most of the time I’m just trying to keep up with him. I think it’s similar to the way Franklin and Zia are in the movie. Franklin’s trying to keep up with Zia and off-camera I’m trying to keep up with Chris and his witty banter.
I’m seeing a pattern beginning to emerge here. You seem to be trying to keep up with a lot of people.
I’m trying to keep up with a lot of people. I’m really running, sprinting behind trying to keep up. I just try to give myself over to anything he does on-camera so I can make the shot work and be there for him. He’s an incredible improvisor and most of the time I end up breaking because he just makes me laugh. But yeah, I’m just trying to keep up.
I know we’re trying to avoid big spoilers here, but do you get to have any big scenes with some dinosaurs?
A few times.
Can you talk as much as you can about those moments?
Franklin gets into a lot of shenanigans. He gets into a lot of trouble and he has a very specific reaction to that trouble.
What’s it like doing those scenes on a technical level? I know some of your interactions are going to be with CG creatures, some with practical. How’s it working with each one?
It’s hard because they don’t really teach you in acting class how to act with a tennis ball, you know what I mean? Sometimes I like to pretend that my character is deathly afraid of tennis balls because it’s hard to fully picture the dinosaur, so I’m like “What if I make my character have this weird psychosis where he just hates green sticks and tennis balls?” Working with the animatronics is a lot easier because those things are so lifelike. They genuinely frighten me. Sometimes the guys operating it… there’s usually, like, 16 guys operating this thing and they all scare me, too. Everybody’s out to scare me and I don’t know why! Everyone likes messing with me!
We were disappointed that the T-Rex wasn’t here. We were told it’s huge.
I haven’t seen it.
You haven’t?
I wish, I wish. I hear great things about it. I’m in the same boat you guys are.
Well, I think you answered all our questions. I’m excited to see this scene you’re about to shoot. You’ve got an Indiana Jones scene coming up: you’re hanging off the back of a truck!
I know. I had to do this stunt earlier where I’m running an I had to jump onto this van and it’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. I only did it two times and my body went into shock.
So you’re saying they cast the right person to play this scaredy-cat character.
[laughs] Right! | {
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Who Will Play the Main Role in the Movie about John McAfee Instead of Johnny Depp?
John McAfee keeps surprising us with his new projects. Currently, one of the most popular ones, beside the presidential campaign, is his autobiographical movie called “King of the Jungle”.
Some facts about the movie have been floating around the Internet for quite a while. For example, it was known that the movie would be directed by the creators of American Crime Story, it would be focused on the
time in McAfee’s life when he went wild
and moved to Belize (that’s why “King of the Jungle).
Most importantly, everyone knew that McAfee would be played by a Hollywood star Johnny Depp.
However, there was not much more information on the project, the release dates were unknown, and some people even doubted that the film would come out at all.
It turned out that the movie is very real and is still in production, but with some changes. Johnny Depp is no longer the actor who will portray McAfee. The crypto enthusiast will be played by the star of Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton.
As for why such decision was taken, McAfee himself did not give any clear explanation, but judging by his tweet, he doesn’t really fancy Depp.
We don’t know whether these two have history, or Depp was just not brilliant enough to play such a personality, but hopefully, Michael Keaton will cope this difficult task.
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https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/1057279670033571847https://thecoinshark.net/johnny-depp-is-partnering-up-with-a-crypto-platform/ | {
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by William Iven Facebookでは以前から「嘘のニュース(フェイクニュース)」やデマの拡散を防ぐための手をいろいろと打っているのですが、新たに、広告のリンク先が事実確認を行う第三者機関によって「虚偽である」と判断された場合に、その広告を表示させない措置を執ることを発表しました。 Blocking Ads from Pages that Repeatedly Share False News | Facebook Newsroom https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/08/blocking-ads-from-pages-that-repeatedly-share-false-news/
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Googleが偽ニュースを垂れ流すサイト200個を追放 - GIGAZINE
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2017年08月29日 15時49分00秒 in ネットサービス, Posted by logc_nt
You can read the machine translated English article here. | {
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Dave Bartoo
Special for FootballFour.com
With the rising numbers of college football players leaving their programs early for the NFL, getting a top quarterback, running back and receiver back from the previous season is increasingly rare.
That is one reason Baylor has the top trio in FBS entering the 2014 season.
In a composite of NCAA statistical leaders, the Bears have a top five quarterback in Bryce Petty, a top seven wide receiver in Antwan Goodley, and in spite of losing their No. 1 rusher, their offensive scheme still places Shock Linwood in the top 25 of returning rushers. Without Goodley, the Bears return so many quality receivers, they would still have one of the top 20 trios with their No. 2 or No. 3 receivers.
To formulate a composite ranking, each returning player was broken down into multiple categories and ranked against the other returning players at their respective positions. This creates an average national ranking for every player based on their position. For quarterbacks, there were 11 stats used, seven were used for running backs and seven were used for wide receivers/tight ends.
Like Baylor, Florida State lost its top rusher from 2013, but its returning players have enough potency to give the Seminoles the No. 2 trio. The remainder of the top five is USC and Indiana tied at No. 3 and Houston at No. 5. Arizona State, Temple, Michigan State, Northwestern and Auburn come in with the sixth- through 10th-ranked trios.
So where is Oregon, with a leading Heisman contender in quarterback Marcus Mariota and two strong backs in Byron Marshall and Thomas Tyner? The Ducks would have the No. 2 trio if Bralon Addison — the No. 16 returning receiver in this composite — was not expected to miss the 2014 season with a knee injury. As it is, their top receiver is tight end Johnny Mundt, who ranks 147th among returning pass catchers.
CFBMatrix: A different view of college football
Quarterbacks were evaluated on a composite of attempts, completions, yards per attempt, touchdowns, interceptions, efficiency rating, attempts per game, yards per game, points per pass, interceptions per pass. Running backs were evaluated on a composite of attempts, yards, yards per carry, touchdowns, carries per game, yards per game, points per rush. And wide receivers were evaluated on a composite of receptions, yards, yards per catch, touchdowns, receptions per game, yards per game, points per catch.
The top 10 trios, with individual national position rankings for QB, RB and WR:
1. Baylor (Bryce Petty 5, Shock Linwood 33, Antwan Goodley 7), 15.0 average
2. Florida State (Jameis Winston 7, Karlos Williams 44, Rashad Greene 21), 24.0
3 (tie). Indiana (Nate Sudfeld 17, Tevin Coleman 17, Shane Wynn 39), 24.3
3 (tie). USC (Cody Kessler 14, Javorius Allen 30, Nelson Agholor 29), 24.3
5. Houston (John O'Korn 20, Ryan Jackson 58, Deontay Greenberry 16), 31.3
6. Arizona State (Taylor Kelly 16, D.J. Foster 72, Jaelen Strong 25), 37.7
7. Michigan State (Connor Cook 20, Jeremy Langford 20, Tony Lippett 75), 38.3
8. Northwestern (Trevor Siemian 26, Treyvon Green 38, Christian Jones 55), 39.7
9. Auburn (Nick Marshall 26, Cameron Artis-Payne 62, Sammie Coates 32), 40
10. Utah (Travis Wilson 24, James Poole 81, Dres Anderson 20), 41.7
Dave Bartoo is the creator of CFBMatrix.com, a web site and digital magazine series covering and analyzing college football. Follow him on Twitter @CFBMatrix. | {
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We’ve been talking about Istio and service mesh recently (follow along @christianposta for the latest) but one aspect of Istio can be glossed over. One of the most important aspects of Istio.io is its ability to control the routing of traffic between services. With this fine-grained control of application-level traffic, we can do interesting resilience things like routing around failures, routing to different availability zones when necessary etc. IMHO, more importantly, we can also control the flow of traffic for our deployments so we can reduce the risk of change to the system.
With a services architecture, our goal is to increase our ability to go faster so we do things like implement microservices, automated testing pipelines, CI/CD etc. But what good is any of this if we have bottlenecks getting our code changes into production? Production is where we understand whether our changes have any positive impact to our KPIs, so we should reduce the bottlenecks of getting code into production.
At the typical enterprise customers that I visit regularly (Financial services, Insurance, Retail, Energy, etc) risk is such a big part of the equation. Risk is used as a reason for why changes to production get blocked. A big part of this risk is a code “deployment” is all or nothing in these environments. What I mean is there is no separation of deployment and release. This is such a hugely important distinction.
Deployment vs Release
A deployment brings new code to production but it takes no production traffic. Once in the production environment, service teams are free to run smoke tests, integration tests, etc without impacting any users. A service team should feel free to deploy as frequently as it wishes.
A release brings live traffic to a deployment but may require signoff from “the business stakeholders”. Ideally, bringing traffic to a deployment can be done in a controlled manner to reduce risk. For example, we may want to bring internal-user traffic to the deployment first. Or we may want to bring a small fraction, say 1%, of traffic to the deployment. If any of these release rollout strategies (internal, non-paying, 1% traffic, etc) exhibit undesirable behavior (thus the need for strong observability) then we can rollback.
Please go read the two-part series titled “Deploy != Release” from the good folks at Turbine.io labs for a deeper treatment of this topic.
Dark traffic
One strategy we can use to reduce risk for our releases, before we even expose to any type of user, is to shadow traffic live traffic to our deployment. With traffic shadowing, we can take a fraction of traffic and route it to our new deployment and observe how it behaves. We can do things like test for errors, exceptions, performance, and result parity. Projects such as Twitter Diffy can be used to do comparisons between different released versions and unreleased versions.
With Istio, we can do this kind of traffic control by Mirroring traffic from one service to another. Let’s take a look at an example.
Traffic Mirroring with Istio
With the Istio 0.5.0 release we have the ability to mirror traffic from one service to another, or from one version to a newer version.
We’ll start by creating two deployments of an httpbin service.
$ cat httpbin-v1.yaml
We’ll inject the istio sidecar with kube-inject like this:
$ kubectl create -f < ( istioctl kube-inject -f httpbin-v1.yaml )
Version 2 of the httpbin service is similar except it has labels that denote that it’s version 2:
$ cat httpbin-v2.yaml
Let’s deploy httpbin-v2 also:
$ kubectl create -f < ( istioctl kube-inject -f httpbin-v2.yaml )
Lastly, let’s deploy the sleep demo from Istio samples so we can easily call into our httpbin service:
$ kubectl create -f < ( istioctl kube-inject -f sleep.yaml )
You should see three pods like this:
$ kubectl get pod NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE httpbin-v1-2113278084-98whj 2/2 Running 0 1d httpbin-v2-2839546783-2dvhq 2/2 Running 0 1d sleep-1512692991-txrfn 2/2 Running 0 1d
If we start sending traffic to the httpbin service, we’ll see the default Kubernetes behavior to load balance across both v1 and v2 since both pods will match the selector for the httpbin Kubernetes Service. Let’s take a look at the default Istio route rule to route all traffic to v1 of our service:
Let’s create this routerule :
$ istioctl create -f routerules/all-httpbin-v1.yaml
If we start sending traffic into our httpbin service, we should only see traffic for the httpbin-v1 deployment:
export SLEEP_POD = $( kubectl get pod -l app = sleep -o jsonpath ={ .items..metadata.name } ) kubectl exec -it $SLEEP_POD -c sleep -- sh -c 'curl http://httpbin:8080/headers' { "headers" : { "Accept" : "*/*" , "Content-Length" : "0" , "Host" : "httpbin:8080" , "User-Agent" : "curl/7.35.0" , "X-B3-Sampled" : "1" , "X-B3-Spanid" : "eca3d7ed8f2e6a0a" , "X-B3-Traceid" : "eca3d7ed8f2e6a0a" , "X-Ot-Span-Context" : "eca3d7ed8f2e6a0a;eca3d7ed8f2e6a0a;0000000000000000" } }
If we check the access logs for the httpbin-v1 service, we should see a single access-log statement:
$ kubectl logs -f httpbin-v1-2113278084-98whj -c httpbin 127.0.0.1 - - [ 07/Feb/2018:00:07:39 +0000] "GET /headers HTTP/1.1" 200 349 "-" "curl/7.35.0"
If we check the logs for the httpbin-v2 service, we should see NO access log statements.
Let’s mirror traffic from v1 to v2 . Here’s the Istio route rule we’ll use:
A few things to note:
We are explicitly telling Istio to weight the traffic between v1 (100%) and v2 (0%)
We are using labels to specify which version of httpbin service to which we want to mirror
Let’s create this routerule
$ istioctl create -f routerules/mirror/mirror-traffic-to-httbin-v2.yaml
We should see routerules like this:
$ istioctl get routerules $ istioctl get routerules NAME KIND NAMESPACE httpbin-default-v1 RouteRule.v1alpha2.config.istio.io tutorial httpbin-mirror-v2 RouteRule.v1alpha2.config.istio.io tutorial
Now if we start sending traffic in, we should see requests go to v1 and requests shadowed to v2 .
Video demo
Here’s a video showing this:
Istio Mirroring Demo from Christian Posta on Vimeo.
Please see the offical istio docs for more details! | {
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Earlier this month, while appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Ben Affleck confirmed - despite rumours - he would be directing the next Batman film, much to the delight of DC fans.
“I’m going to direct the next Batman, we’re working on it now,” he told the late night host. “It’s one of those things that’s really frustrating because Live By Night took a year and a half to get ready. It’s just, nobody gave a sh*t.”
However, Affleck has now withdrawn from directing the reboot, titled The Batman, but will still star and produce the Warner Bros. film.
“There are certain characters who hold a special place in the hearts of millions,” Affleck said in a statement, revealed by Variety. “Performing this role demands focus, passion and the very best performance I can give. It has become clear that I cannot do both jobs to the level they require.
“Together with the studio, I have decided to find a partner in a director who will collaborate with me on this massive film. I am still in this, and we are making it, but we are currently looking for a director. I remain extremely committed to this project, and look forward to bringing this to life for fans around the world.”
Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) Show all 14 1 /14 Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) Across the Alley Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) In homage to Rembrandt's "The Descent From The Cross" Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) The End of the Fight Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) Doomsday - Lean & Spacey Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) Doomsday 3D sketch Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) 3- Up Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) Doomsday Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) Doomsday 3d sculpt study Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) Doomsday gets hit by a Nuke Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) Superman v Doomsday Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) Bat Swing Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) Doomsday head study Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) Batman takes a kick Batman v Superman concept art (spoilers) Superman v Doomsday
According to the publication’s sources, the decision was ‘solely made based on what’s best for the project,’ and had nothing to do with Live By Night flopping in cinemas. | {
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The formal definition of estimate is “an approximate judgment or calculation of the value, amount, time or size of something”. In a software development project, estimates are important to help us predict how much time will be necessary in order to finish a set of activities, or to select and prioritize scope for a release or iteration.
It’s rather common on Agile projects that the estimates are done in a planning poker session. Each team member has a deck of cards with the Fibonacci sequence (0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13), and for each user story (US), the team member privately selects one card to represent his or her estimate. All cards are then revealed at the same time. The estimates can represent story points, ideal days, or other units of cost that make sense to the project. Usually we use story points because we can consider three different aspects when estimating: complexity, effort, and risks. The story point unit allows us to more effectively capture sources of variation compared to an hour-based estimate.
Since story points are a relative measurement unit, the first step your team should take is to define one story as the baseline, so that they can estimate the other stories comparing to that reference. According to the literature, the team should find the simplest story in the backlog, and assign 1 story point to it, after that, they use that story as baseline to estimate the other stories.
However, here at Plataformatec we go a step further on defining that baseline story. We select at least one user story for each story point that we use, composing a “ruler score”.
In each sprint, we update the stories in the ruler with US’s of the previous sprint, so that when our team meets for the planning poker session, they have at least one baseline story on each story point to compare to.
Using that practice has brought us a lot of benefits, such as:
The estimation process is more effective because the reference to each story point is clear, reducing the length of the discussion among the team;
Even if the team has a new member, the story point variation is reduced because this practice enforces a reference to each story point in the “ruler score”;
The team members have the same reference for each story point, preventing someone from having an implicit story point reference that is not shared among the others;
On each sprint, the estimates becomes more and more stable, since using the ruler score guarantees that the story point references are always updated.
That’s it! We’d like to know what are your practices in estimating using story points. And if you try out the ruler score, let us know your results!
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Now that one of the most reliable recession indicators in the market got triggered, investors across the globe are starting to worry if this could mean the U.S. economy is slowing down. The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note on Friday dipped below the yield on the 3-month paper. It was the first time since mid-2007 that the yield curve — which plots bond yields from shortest maturity to highest and is considered a barometer of economic sentiment — inverted. (That part of the curve inverted again on Monday.) CNBC takes a look at what this means.
What is a yield curve?
A yield curve is a graph that depicts yields on all of the U.S. Treasury bills ranging from short-term debt such as one month to longer-term debt, such as 30 years. Normally, shorter-dated yields are less than longer-dated ones. The curve, in a normal market environment, is upward sloping as bond investors are likely to get higher rates in a longer-term market environment as opposed to short term. That's because the perceived risk in a longer-term environment is higher. In rare settings, this yield curve starts to get inverted, meaning longer-dated yields are lesser than shorter-dated yields.
What is an inverted yield curve?
An inverted yield-curve occurs when long-term debts have a lower yield as compared with short-term debt. If you drew a line between them on a graph, it would be an upward sloping curve, starting with the 2-year on the left and moving to the 10-year on the right. The higher rate for the longer-term bond compensates an investor for the greater risk that inflation will chip away at the value of that investment over time. Higher long-term rates reflect expectations that growth will continue. But when the difference between the short- and long-term rates narrows, it's a signal that people are less certain that growth is here to stay. The yield curve is a barometer of this sentiment. At 9 a.m. ET Monday, the yield on the 3-month bill was just shy of that on the 10-year note around 2.46 percent. The short-term rate last week exceed that of several longer-term securities. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to price, was higher at 2.428 percent, while the yield on the 2-year Treasury note was also higher at 2.279 percent.
How does an inverted yield curve happen?
Investors are often motivated by short-term market players when making decisions. Shorter-dated bonds are highly sensitive to the Federal Reserve policies than longer-dated bonds. However, longer-term bonds are more sensitive to inflation expectations in the economy as inflation eats into the purchasing power of a bond's future performance. In simple terms, the higher the current rate of inflation and the higher the expected rate of inflation in the future, the higher the yields will rise across the yield curve, as investors will demand this higher yield to compensate for inflation risk. When the Fed starts to raise rates, signaling a stronger economy, that pushes up yields as investors sometimes tend to get rid of shorter-term bonds and move into riskier assets. However, when investors see inflation expectations for the longer-term stable, as is the case with the U.S. economy currently, they tend to move into longer-term safe-haven bonds, even though they may offer modest yields. The latest inversion between the 3-month and 10-year bond yields was a result of several factors such as Fed's dovish signal over rate hikes in 2019 and a whole set of disappointing data in Europe, along with the uncertainty surrounding Britain's exit from the European Union. On Friday, Germany's 10-year government bond yields slipped into negative territory for the first time since October 2016. German government 10-year bond, an important benchmark for European fixed income assets, is viewed as a safe haven for investors. In times of uncertainty and challenging market environment, investors tend to move their investments from riskier assets into safe havens like gold and German government bonds. The bond yields hitting negative territory shows there is a rising demand for the 10-year paper due to the ongoing uncertainty in the euro zone economy being fueled from a slowdown in Germany, a deadlock among politicians on Brexit, among other issues.
What does an inverted yield curve mean?
An inverted yield curve is generally considered a recession predictor. It won't be immediate, but recessions have followed inversions a few months to two years later several times over many decades. The U.S. Treasury yield curve has inverted before each recession in the past 50 years and has only offered a false signal just once in that time, according to data from Reuters. A recent example is when the U.S. Treasury yield curve inverted in late 2005, 2006, and again in 2007 before U.S. equity markets collapsed. The curve also inverted in late 2018. When short-term yields climb over longer-dated yields, it shows that borrowing costs in the shorter-term are more than the longer term. In these cases, businesses could find it more expensive to expand their operations. Meanwhile, consumer borrowing could also fall, thus leading to lesser consumer spending in the economy. All of these could lead to a subsequent contraction in the economy and a rise in unemployment.
Does it mean a rate cut from the Fed then? | {
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Last updated on .From the section Sport
Rusada's suspension was imposed in November 2015
Some Russian drug-testing laboratory data may have been manipulated before it was retrieved by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), the organisation is set to reveal.
The country missed a deadline to hand over the data in the wake of a vast doping scandal that saw its team banned from last year's Winter Olympics.
In January, Wada was finally granted access to a Moscow anti-doping laboratory, raising hopes that hundreds of cheats could be punished.
However, if the data is found to have been tampered with, Russia's anti-doping agency (Rusada) could face the threat of being re-suspended.
It could also lead to renewed pressure on the International Olympic Committee to ban Russia from next year's Tokyo Olympics.
And it will ensure a suspension of Russia by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) continues.
The World Athletics Championships start in Doha on Friday.
Wada has declined to comment, but is set to hold a crucial meeting of its executive committee in Tokyo on Monday.
BBC Sport understands that senior Wada officials were briefed last month that the organisation's experts had found evidence that some data may have been manipulated before being passed over to an inspection team.
Background
A landmark Wada-commissioned report in 2016 found Russia operated a state-sponsored doping programme for four years across the vast majority of Olympic sports.
Russia was told it had to meet two criteria before Rusada could be reinstated after a three-year suspension: accept the findings of the McLaren report into state-sponsored doping, and grant access to Moscow's anti-doping laboratory.
However, Wada's stance softened, and after offering a compromise over the 'roadmap', its compliance review committee (CRC) controversially recommended reinstatement in September 2018 before the second condition had been met, prompting fury from many athletes and anti-doping organisations.
In December, Russia missed a deadline to grant access to its lab, but the following month an inspection team was finally allowed to retrieve the data.
Although it was accused by many of being too soft on Russia, Wada's leadership hailed the breakthrough, insisting it would enable it to identify potential cheats, and allow international federations to pursue cases against them. CRC chairman Jonathan Taylor - a British lawyer - also warned that if the data was found not to be authentic, he would "propose serious consequences".
It was understood Taylor was referring to a possible ban from the Olympic Games, which Wada now has the ability to issue under new sanctioning powers.
Taylor's panel will be expected to recommend that Russia is rendered non-compliant once again when he presents a report to Wada's executive committee on Monday.
However, there are fears from within the athlete community that if data has been manipulated, it may make it impossible for international federations to successfully prosecute cases against Russians suspected of doping. | {
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(Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)
The same riches that profited Saint Teresa of Ávila and Saint Francis de Sales are available to Catholics today.
Not a small group of people will read the title of this piece and, jadedly rolling their eyes, exhale, “Another one?”
By this they mean, another pathetic ode to the traditional Latin Mass, that unfailing attractor of curmudgeons and weirdos. It may feel as though accounts of the excellence of that Mass are issued weekly and persuade no one, instead merely reminding normal people of the limits of atavism.
Defenses of the old liturgy, while not nearly that frequent, nonetheless do usually fail to reach even conservative Catholics. It seems that the precondition for liking the Latin Mass is found in a recessive allele, and that as many people who could like the Latin Mass already attend it. For everyone else, it is too strange, too old, too disconcerting.
Yet one recalls, incredulous, that a few decades ago the entire Catholic world was subject to that Tridentine peculiarity. Ditch diggers and policemen loved it well into the 1960s, not to mention the unlettered peasants, many of them saints, who built and attended the great European churches for centuries.
The last 50 years have caused the faithful such an estrangement from their heritage that when the average Catholic sees the ancient Mass today, he recoils as violently as the tautest Genevan. John Adams, serving in the first Continental Congress in Philadelphia, visited a “Romish Chappell” and relayed his experience to Abigail in his letter of October 9, 1774:
The poor Wretches, fingering their Beads, chanting Latin, not a Word of which they understood, their Pater Nosters and Ave Maria’s. Their holy Water — their Crossing themselves perpetually — their Bowing to the Name of Jesus, wherever they hear it—their Bowings, and Kneelings, and Genuflections before the Altar. . . . Here is every Thing which can lay hold of the Eye, Ear, and Imagination. Every Thing which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant.
Pitying the poor common folk who could be taken in by so overwrought a display, he was grateful that he had been raised in the clear, simple religion befitting a free man. Somehow modernity has gotten the opposite idea, that the overwrought display appeals only to pretentious nostalgiacs who wear bow ties and sing Gregorian chant in the shower. The first response is to be expected from a New England Unitarian, but the second is more unsettling. The Catholic patrimony of 1,900 years is treated as a discarded prototype, flawed and foreign, dialectically superseded by the Novus Ordo.
When one considers, however, the faithful’s uneasiness during the transition from the old form, and the wrenching and massaging that were required to acclimate them to their new liturgical environs, one realizes that the average Catholic suffers not from genetic defect or Hegelian synthesis but from a simple lack of exposure.
Tradition is a muscle that requires frequent exercise to avoid atrophy, and as regards the Latin Mass, Catholics have spent the past half-century emaciating like astronauts in zero gravity. No one is born used to altars and sacrifice and Latin and polyphony and weighty silence. One must learn over time, acquiring gradually a taste for what one at first cannot understand. Practices that seem inscrutable or even absurd reveal at length their ancient antecedents. Bemusement dissolves into confidence, boredom yields to rapture, chuckling becomes awe.
The most active participation there ever was in any Mass was that of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross, who neither did nor said anything the Evangelists thought worthy of reporting. In fact the famous hymn says only ‘Stabat mater dolorosa’ — the mournful mother stayed.
The hurdles preventing enjoyment of the Latin Mass are numerous, but they can be overcome. The most intimidating is usually the language, which, it is pointed out, people do not speak. That is true, but Cicero himself would not apprehend everything said by the priest because half of it is inaudible in the first place. Latin is the Church’s language, Roman and catholic as the Church is Roman and Catholic. Something is to be gained from the story of the woman who approached a priest after Mass with the complaint “Father, I didn’t understand a single word you said up there today.” “That’s all right, madam,” he responded; “I wasn’t talking to you.”
Aside from snark, which is always satisfying, a lesson reveals itself. The priest offers the sacrifice to God on behalf of the faithful; he is our representative to God as were the Levites of the Old Testament, as is Christ even now. Indeed, at Mass the priest acts, per Saint Paul’s phrase, in the person of Christ — that is, as Christ Himself.
That is the reason half the words are inaudible. It is not that the Mass is merely happening to a passive congregation. It is that the priest, our ordained ambassador (or, as the English say, minister), links us to Calvary, and earth to heaven. The traditional form makes this point visually by positioning the priest not “with his back to the people” — as those prone to ecclesiastical glass-half-emptiness like to say — but with his face toward God, as a captain might stand ahead of his men.
What, then, becomes of lay participation, which many Catholics feel is necessary to their benefit from Mass? The answer is that internal participation excels (and is the goal of) external. The faithful unite their intentions to those of the priest; they follow along in the missal or spend time in mental prayer; they weld their souls to the sacrifice. After all, the most active participation there ever was in any Mass was that of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross, who neither did nor said anything the Evangelists thought worthy of reporting. In fact the famous hymn says only “Stabat mater dolorosa” — the mournful mother stayed.
Well-catechized Catholics know the foregoing doctrines, which are true of all the different liturgical rites of the Church, yet they shy away from the form that most visibly embodies them. That is, I daresay, a spiritual loss. The Latin Mass is certainly intimidating in its solemnity and otherworldliness, but how else should the Holy Sacrifice be than solemn and otherworldly? The same riches that profited Saint Teresa of Ávila and Saint Francis de Sales can be available to every Catholic today, and it would be sad indeed to forfeit one’s inheritance because of a little discomfort. St. Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei — which uses the Novus Ordo and is wildly popular among conservative Catholics — said the Latin Mass daily until his death in 1975, well after the institution of the new liturgy.
“If it is so,” said Sir Arnold Lunn in the Sixties, “that the Latin Mass is only for the educated few, surely Mother Church in all her charity can find a little place even for the educated few?” Though I applaud the wit I cannot concede the premise: The Latin Mass is, and always has been, for everyone. | {
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PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Harvest Health & Recreation, Inc. (CSE: HARV, OTCQX: HRVSF) (“Harvest”), a vertically integrated cannabis company with one of the largest and deepest footprints in the U.S., is pleased to announce it has entered into a binding, definitive agreement to acquire CannaPharmacy, Inc. (“CannaPharmacy”), subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including receipt of regulatory approvals in the relevant states. CannaPharmacy owns or operates (through management companies) cannabis licenses in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland and holds a minority interest in a pending licensee in Colombia. Harvest expects that the transaction will be accretive to Harvest’s 2020 revenue and EBITDA.
“All of our efforts back up our three core objectives; to expand and deepen our retail and wholesale footprint, build national brands and continue our path to profitable growth, and this CannaPharmacy deal is no different,” said Jason Vedadi, Executive Chairman of Harvest. “Harvest has led the cannabis market in the Western United States for years, and this acquisition will similarly widen and extend our U.S. foothold to the East Coast. When you add that to our existing dominant position in the Pennsylvania and Maryland markets, acquisition of CBx and its suite of brands, as well as our pending acquisitions of Falcon and Verano, with its holdings throughout the eastern seaboard and brands and infrastructure to leverage, we are looking at Harvest becoming a household name throughout the region in a matter of months.”
Expanding Unrivaled National Footprint
CannaPharmacy has operations in four contiguous northeastern U.S. states. The licenses and assets of CannaPharmacy will add to Harvest’s extensive national footprint, already the country’s largest and deepest in terms of licenses and facilities permitted across 17 states and Puerto Rico. Upon closing of this transaction and closing of its previously announced acquisition of Verano Holdings LLC (“Verano”) Harvest will hold licenses that allow it to operate up to 213 facilities, including 130 retail dispensaries.
“We’re seeing significant M&A activity across our industry, but the most important factors are the price one pays for an acquisition, strength of the assets relative to the market size and synergies between the companies,” said Steve White, CEO of Harvest. “Harvest was already fully funded to build out our entire footprint, inclusive of the significant assets that come with the Verano acquisition. Our recent $500 million financing, secured in $100 million traunches for new accretive acquisitions like CannaPharmacy, continues to solidify Harvest’s position as the leading company in the cannabis industry in reach, brands, infrastructure, assets and footprint.”
This acquisition includes:
New Jersey
One of six operational (and 12 awarded) fully vertical licenses, permitting cultivation, retail sales and manufacturing.
Woodbridge, NJ flagship store open and operational on a major highway since 2013, one of six in the state, 20 miles from NYC. According to the most recent NJ Dept. of Health annual report in April 2018, this dispensary has served more patients and completed more cannabis transactions since inception than any other dispensary.
A satellite store is approved and under construction in Union, NJ, 17 miles from NYC, on one of the most heavily trafficked highway corridors in the state at the intersection of the Garden State Parkway, NJ Turnpike, Route 22, and Route 78.
Approval pending for a third dispensary in densely populated Monmouth County, NJ (the “Jersey Shore”), which presently does not have a single dispensary.
43.4% year-over-year revenue growth from 2017 to 2018.
New Jersey has 42,000 medical patients and growing 60 percent annually.
Pennsylvania
One 46,800 square foot cultivation and processing facility in the fifth most populous state in the country, with a statutory cap of 25 grower-processors;
Facility is a former Pepsi bottling plant employing local Pennsylvanians.
Harvest currently has seven state licenses allowing up to 21 retail stores throughout the state.
Pennsylvania currently has 116,000 medical patients as of February 2019 and growing at 10 percent month over month.
Maryland
Rights to one dispensary in Prince George’s County.
Delaware
One of three fully vertical licenses, permitting cultivation, manufacturing, and three retail dispensaries.
Newark, DE flagship open and operational on a major highway leading into the heart of downtown, one of four stores statewide, in the county that hosts 60 percent of the state’s population.
Two additional dispensaries expected to open in 2019-2020.
Delaware currently has 7,104 medical patients, a 53 percent increase from 2017, and is experiencing rapid growth in a state with one of the most liberal lists of qualifying conditions in the country.
Harvest recently won every license it applied for in Pennsylvania, giving the company the ability to open up to 21, the largest retail network in the state. Harvest received the highest scores on all but one of its regional applications (where it placed 2nd overall) based on its responses to the criteria developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Building the First National Brands & Infrastructure
“The acquisitions of Falcon and Verano along with our already completed acquisition of CBx Enterprises will bring our proven best-in-class logistics and delivery model and suite of premium and best-selling brands to these vibrant markets to allow Harvest to quickly, safely and effectively provide the highest-quality cannabis to patients across the East Coast,” continued White. “These transactions allow us to effectively reach more than 1,000 dispensaries across the country. This move will finally enable the first national brands to establish themselves coast-to-coast in cannabis.”
Harvest’s pending acquisition of Verano Holdings includes:
Licenses and operations in 11 states and territories, including seven cultivation licenses, 37 retail licenses and potential to reach 150+ million Americans;
Vertically integrated, cash-flow positive operations;
Proven executive team with retail, manufacturing, branding, logistics and operational experience and 300 employees. Hiring for approximately 300 new positions in 2019 with a focus on hiring minorities, women and veterans;
Game changing ethanol extraction technology at pharmaceutical grade levels providing new market opportunities for cannabis biotech, food and beverage verticals;
Portfolio of premium proprietary brands with 150 + product SKUs sold in 150 + retail locations;
Total cultivation expansion capacity of 900,000 sq. ft in Illinois, Nevada & Maryland;
Ownership of an interest in nine Zen Leaf™ dispensaries with average annual revenues 2.5x higher than retail cannabis industry averages.
Harvest’s pending acquisition of Falcon International includes:
A management team comprised of business and cannabis industry professionals with expertise managing high-growth companies.
16 cannabis licenses spanning across the industry’s cultivation, manufacturing and distribution verticals.
Falcon is one of the state’s largest distribution platforms providing Harvest with access to over 80 percent of the California storefronts. Falcon’s strong distribution network gives Harvest the ability to distribute its own high-quality brands to dispensaries across California.
Sophisticated automation and production capabilities with capacity for over one million packaged units per month. The company is currently expanding their facility to triple capacity, which includes additional space for joint ventures or other colocated manufacturing relationships.
Deep cultivation expertise and a robust supply chain supporting indoor, greenhouse and outdoor flower brands.
A portfolio of top-selling California brands including: Cru Cannabis™, Littles™ and High Garden™.
Continued Path to Profitable Growth
Harvest recently announced the private placement of US$500 million in convertible debentures to continue to finance acquisitions and corporate growth. The company is one of the only U.S. multi-state operators with a track record of profitability.
Harvest expects the CannaPharmacy transaction will be accretive to the company’s 2020 revenue and EBITDA.
Closing of the acquisition of CannaPharmacy and the previously announced acquisition of Verano and Falcon are subject to applicable regulatory approvals, applicable shareholder or unitholder approvals, approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange, as well as any other approvals that are customary for transactions of this nature. There can be no assurances that the transactions will be completed as proposed or at all.
About Harvest Health and Recreation
Harvest Health & Recreation Inc. is one of the first consistently profitable, vertically integrated cannabis companies with one of the largest footprints in the U.S. Harvest’s complete vertical solution includes industry-leading cultivation, manufacturing, and retail facilities, construction, real estate, technology, operational, and brand building expertise — leveraging in-house legal, HR and marketing teams, along with proven experts in writing and winning state-based applications. The company has more than 750 employees with proven experience, expertise and knowledge of in-house best practices that are drawn upon whenever Harvest enters new markets. Harvest’s executive team is comprised of leaders in finance, compliance, real estate and operations. Since its founding in 2011, Harvest has grown its footprint every year, has been ranked as the third largest cultivator in the U.S. and currently owns licenses for more than 210 facilities across the U.S. Harvest shares timely updates and releases as part of its regular course of business with the media and the interested public. For more information, visit: https://www.harvestinc.com/.
Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains statements which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of Harvest with respect to future business activities. Forward-looking information is often identified by the words "may," "would," "could," "should," "will," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect" or similar expressions and include information regarding: (i) the closing of the acquisitions of CannaPharmacy and Verano, including satisfaction of the conditions to closing of such acquisitions; (ii) expectations regarding the size of the U.S. cannabis market, (iii) the ability of the Company to successfully achieve its business objectives, (iv) plans for expansion of Harvest, and (v) expectations for other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and (vi) expectations for future revenue and EBITDA.
Investors are cautioned that forward-looking information is not based on historical facts but instead reflects Harvest management's expectations, estimates or projections concerning future results or events based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. Although Harvest believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, such information involves risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such information, as unknown or unpredictable factors could have material adverse effects on future results, performance or achievements of the combined Company. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information are the following: the potential impact of an announcement of a going public transaction on relationships, including with regulatory bodies, employees, suppliers, customers and competitors; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; and in particular in the ability of the Company to raise debt and equity capital in the amounts and at the costs that it expects; adverse changes in the public perception of cannabis; decreases in the prevailing prices for cannabis and cannabis products in the markets that the Company operates in; adverse changes in applicable laws; or adverse changes in the application or enforcement of current laws, including those related to taxation; the inability to locate and acquire suitable companies, properties and assets necessary to execute on the Company's business plans; and increasing costs of compliance with extensive government regulation. This forward-looking information may be affected by risks and uncertainties in the business of Harvest and market conditions.
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although Harvest has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Harvest does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update this forward-looking information except as otherwise required by applicable law.
Non-IFRS Financial and Performance Measures
In this press release, Harvest refers to certain non‐IFRS financial measures such as EBITDA, being Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization. EBITDA measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. “EBITDA” is defined as income from operations before depreciation and amortization and certain other charges. Harvest uses EBITDA as an indicator of its principal business activities prior to consideration of how its activities are financed and the impact of taxation and non-cash depreciation and amortization. EBITDA is used by many analysts as one of several important analytical tools and management of Harvest believes it is useful for providing readers with additional clarity on Harvest’s operational performance prior to consideration of how its activities are financed, taxed, amortized or depreciated. For a quantitative reconciliation, please refer to the Company’s MD&A filed from time to time. | {
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Signed copy of the Hobbit sells for record at auction (06.06.15 by Pieter Collier) - Comments
A first edition copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, given by J.R.R. Tolkien to one of his former students Katherine Kilbride in 1937, was sold at Sotheby's auction house in London for £137,000 (about $210,000). This more than doubled the world record and makes this copy of The Hobbit the most expensive in the world. The record was held by a first edition The Hobbit dedicated to Elaine Griffiths, The Queen of Hobbits, which sold for £60,000 in March 2008. This copy, in almost perfect condition and mint jacket, can now be added to the list of most expensive copies of The Hobbit in the world.
Tolkien inscribed only a handful of presentation copies of The Hobbit on its publication, with CS Lewis also a recipient. This The Hobbit also includes an inscription by J.R.R. Tolkien in Old English, identified by John D Rateliff, author of The History of The Hobbit, as an extract from Tolkien's The Lost Road (see J.R.R. Tolkien, The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 5 published in 1987). This time-travel story, in which the world of Númenor and Middle-earth were linked with the legends of many other times and peoples, was abandoned incomplete.
Within a set of page proofs of The Hobbit, Tolkien wrote a list of family members, colleagues, friends and students to whom he wished to present copies of the book (see Appendix V within John D. Rateliff's second edition of his The History of The Hobbit, published in 2011). Intended recipients were E.V. Gordon; C.S. Lewis; Elaine Griffiths; K.M. Kilbride; Marjorie Incledon; Mary Incledon; R.W. Chambers; Aileen and Elizabeth Jennings; Mabel Mitton ("Aunt Mabel"); Florence Hadley ("Aunt Florence"); C.L. Wrenn; Simone d'Ardenne; Helen Buckhurst; Jane Neave; "Rattenbury" (thought by Rateliff to be R.M. Rattenbury, a lecturer in Classics at the University of Leeds); "Livesleys" (possibly the couple who ran a guest house in Sidmouth); A.H. Smith; Jennie Grove; Stella Mills; W.R. Childe; George S. Gordon; and Hilary Tolkien. Rateliff notes that copies were also to go to the Oxford Magazine and the "Book Soc."
< br /> In the last decades many of these association copies of The Hobbit have been sold on auction and several were sold directly to collectors. They remain the most precious books any Tolkien lover or collector could desire. Prices have now risen so high that they have become accessible for the lucky few. Doubling the previous price record however indicates a very strong interest. Many had expected that with the release of The Hobbit movies many rare copies would have been brought to the auction block, however no such thing happened and prices remained stable (no such thing during The Lord of the Rings movies where prices skyrocketed). Now with all the movie hype calmed down it is time for the books to retake their place.
The recipient of this The Hobbit was Miss Katherine ("Kitty") Kilbride (1900-1966) who had been one of Tolkien's first students at Leeds University in the 1920s. Kitty Kilbride was, recalled her nephew, "...an invalid all her life and was much cheered by his [Tolkien's] chatty letters and cards. ...books were given to her as they were published".
Kilbride's letter of acknowledgement for the present volume is preserved in the Tolkien papers in the Bodleian Library (MS.Tolkien 21, f.66). She notes "what fun you must have had drawing out the maps".
Tom Shippey's study of Tolkien's fiction, The Road to Middle-Earth, cites a similar poem and translates it as: There is many a thing in the West-regions unknown to me, marvels and strange beings, a land fair and lovely, the homeland of the Elves, and the bliss of the Gods ... ?. But this inscription diverges in the third line. According to Professor Susan Irvine at UCL, Tolkien followed eardgard elfa or the homeland of the elves with eorclanstanas / on dunscrafum digle scninath, which she translated as precious stones / shining secretly in mountain caves. So and the bliss of the Gods... was changed for precious stones shining secretly in mountain caves.
Kilbride's set of The Lord of the Rings (inscribed to "C.M. Kilbride") was sold by Sothebys on 19 July 1982, lot 315, and later sold once again by Sotheby's New York on 10-11 December 1993, lot 581. An autograph postcard to her, dated 24 December 1926, was sold at Bonham's on 12 June 2012, lot 150.
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A Chinese attack submarine stalked the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan near Japan last month in the closest encounter between a carrier and a People’s Liberation Army Navy submarine since 2006, according to American defense officials.
The Chinese submarine sailed very close to the Reagan during the weekend of Oct. 24, said defense officials familiar with reports of the incident.
The incident occurred as the Reagan sailed from its home port to the Sea of Japan around the southern end of Japan.
Days later, in the Sea of Japan, the Reagan was targeted for a close flyby by two Russian Tu-142 bombers that flew within a mile of the ship at an altitude of 500 feet. U.S. Navy jets were scrambled to escort the bombers away from the carrier group.
The submarine encounter also occurred days before the USS Lassen, a guided missile destroyer, carried out a freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea.
The Lassen’s passage within 12 miles of a disputed island in the South China Sea on Oct. 26 was fiercely denounced by the Chinese government. Chinese spokesmen, both military and civilian, said the passage was a violation of Beijing’s territorial sovereignty, a claim rejected by the United States, which said the ship was sailing in international waters.
Disclosure of the Chinese submarine encounter comes as Adm. Harry Harris is visiting China for the first time as the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific.
Pacific Fleet and Pacific Command spokesmen declined to comment on the submarine encounter but did not deny that the incident occurred.
Additional details of the encounter—such as the type of submarine involved, whether it surfaced or remained submerged, and how close it came to the ship—could not be learned.
The nuclear-powered carrier is a symbol of U.S. power projection capabilities. China’s military has been attempting to drive the U.S. military out of Asia as part of efforts to assume the sole leadership role in the region.
One defense official said the detection of the submarine set off alarm bells on the Reagan, although it could not be learned whether anti-submarine warfare aircraft were launched to locate and track the vessel.
Other defense officials said the Reagan’s recent submarine encounter appeared similar to China’s stalking of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk in 2006.
During that incident, a Song-class attack submarine surfaced undetected within torpedo range of the Kitty Hawk on Oct. 26, 2006—nearly nine years to the day of the recent Reagan encounter.
The 2006 incident also was disclosed during the visit to China by Adm. Gary Roughead, then-commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
China is known to use its military forces to send political messages and it appears that the Reagan incident also was timed to the expected navigation operation in the South China Sea and to Harris’ visit.
Harris has been a forceful advocate within the military for challenging China’s claims to vast areas of the South China Sea. He told a Senate hearing in September that "the South China Sea is no more China’s than the Gulf of Mexico is Mexico’s."
Harris visited U.S. troops in South Korea over the weekend and took part in the annual U.S.-South Korea Military Committee Meeting and Security Consultative Meeting in Seoul.
On Monday, Harris traveled to Beijing for a three-day visit and talks with Chinese military leaders. He was scheduled to speak at Peking University on Monday.
"Sustained military-to-military dialogue between the U.S. and China is designed to maximize cooperation on areas of mutual interest while candidly addressing and managing disagreements," the Pacific Command statement said.
Harris’ last visit to China took place in April 2014 when he took part in talks with the Chinese military on a Code of Unplanned Encounters at Sea in Qingdao, China. The code, which covers submarine-ship encounters, was approved in 2014.
It is not known whether the Chinese submarine followed safety guidelines outlined in the code during the Reagan encounter. The code is designed to prevent collisions at sea.
The Reagan and four other warships were on the way to conduct joint naval exercises with South Korean naval forces at the time of the Chinese submarine stalking.
The exercises were held Oct. 26 to Oct. 29 in waters around the southern end of the Korean peninsula. The carrier arrived Friday in Busan, South Korea, for a port call.
Accompanying the Reagan are the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville and the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers USS Fitzgerald and USS Mustin.
A Pacific Command statement issued Saturday said the Reagan is one of two carrier groups operating in the region. The second is the USS Roosevelt, which departed Singapore Oct. 28 on its way to San Diego.
The Reagan was "operating off the east coast of the Korean peninsula conducting routine bilateral training with the Republic of Korea navy," the command statement said, adding that anti-submarine warfare training was part of the exercises.
"The U.S. routinely conducts carrier strike group operations in the waters around the Republic of Korea to exercise maritime maneuvers, strengthen the U.S.-ROK alliance, and improve regional security," the statement said.
"The U.S. Navy maintains a presence in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region to help preserve peace and security and further our partnerships with friends and allies," said Rear Adm. John Alexander, the Reagan’s commander. "Our forward presence contributes to freedom of navigation and lawful use of the sea, as well as furthers operational training and enables an exchange of culture, skills, and tactical knowledge."
Rick Fisher, a Chinese military affairs analyst, said China’s willingness to use submarines to harass U.S. large warship demonstrates that the Navy needs more submarines for escort missions.
It also highlights the need for additional U.S. attack submarines as Los Angeles-class submarines are retired and are not replaced quickly enough by newer Virginia-class vessels.
"The importance of our aircraft carriers was just demonstrated in the South China Sea," said Fisher, with the International Assessment and Strategy Center.
"While most press attention focused on the freedom of navigation exercise of the destroyer USS Lassen, the larger story was the fact that the destroyer was covered by the presence of the aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt," he added. "The carrier was deployed to ensure that China was deterred from attacking or substantially harassing the destroyer."
Fisher said that he expects China’s attack submarine fleet to begin increasing in size.
"The PLA may build up to 14 of their third-generation Type 095 SSN, which might add up to a total SSN fleet of about 20," he said, using the military designation for attack submarine.
"Inasmuch as the U.S. may only be able to spare about 30 SSNs for its Pacific-based forces, this could greatly stress the U.S. submarine fleet absent new construction," he added.
A fleet of 30 attack submarines may limit continuous deployment of submarines to around 10, given the need for maintenance and for crew rotations.
Retired Navy Capt. Jim Fanell, a former Pacific Fleet intelligence chief who is an expert in Chinese submarine forces, said Beijing’s submarines are the vanguard of the PLA Navy’s expansive operations into the island chain near its coast and into distant seas.
"Whether it is sending nuclear submarines to the Gulf of Aden or having SSBNs [missile submarines] conducting patrols of long duration as far as the middle Pacific, the U.S. Navy has been keenly aware of PLA Navy submarine operations, especially since the Oct. 26, 2006 Song [submarine]/[aircraft carrier] Kitty Hawk incident."
Fanell said he is unaware of the recent incident involving the Reagan strike group but stated: "Given the strategic trajectory of the PRC and its focus on its maritime sovereignty campaign, it should come as no surprise to anyone in the United States that the PRC’s submarine force has been tasked to stalk the U.S. Navy, especially, our forward deployed and transiting carrier strike groups."
Chinese state-run media and military commentators have denounced the deployment of the Reagan, which replaced the carrier group led by the USS George Washington.
"The United States intends to strengthen its military superiority in order to frighten the neighboring countries of the disputed region, such as China, [North Korea], and Russia," retired Chinese Rear Adm. Yin Zhuo told state television in September. | {
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Qui a payé les costumes de François Fillon? 22h29 , le 11 mars 2017, modifié à 11h27 , le 21 juin 2017
ENQUÊTE - Depuis 2012, 35.500 euros de vêtements auraient été réglés en liquide pour le compte de François Fillon à la boutique Arnys. Le 20 février, deux costumes ont été payés en chèque par un ami généreux, pour un montant de 13 000 euros "à la demande de François Fillon".
Depuis 2012, l’ancien Premier ministre se serait fait offrir pour près de 48.500 euros de vêtements (Reuters)
François Fillon s’habille depuis des années chez Arnys, la célèbre boutique rive gauche, rue de Sèvres à Paris. Mais qui paye ses costumes, blazers et pantalons confectionnés sur mesure? Selon nos informations, depuis 2012, l’ancien Premier ministre se serait fait offrir pour près de 48.500 euros de vêtements. Sur ce montant, 35.500 euros semblent avoir été réglés en espèces. Les 9 et 10 février derniers, soit moins de quinze jours après la révélation du "Penelopegate" par Le Canard Enchaîné, deux costumes que François Fillon a fait retirer à la boutique ont, cette fois-ci, été payés par chèque. Montant de l’achat : 13.000 euros. Le chèque, au nom de la banque Monte Paschi, a été signé le 20 février et adressé par porteur le jour-même au magasin.
"Ça n’a rien de répréhensible"
Dans le JDD, "l’ami généreux" signataire du chèque confirme et l’entourage du candidat répond : "On se demande jusqu’où iront ces intrusions malveillantes dans sa vie privée. Il est exact qu’un de ses amis lui a offert des costumes en février. Ça n’a rien de répréhensible. Quant à l’affirmation que certains costumes auraient été payés en espèces, c’est totalement extravagant. Aucune maison sérieuse n’accepte des paiements en espèces de tels montants." Quant au responsable "Grande mesure" de la maison Arnys, il commence par raccrocher brutalement à l’évocation du seul nom de François Fillon, puis, rappelé, se refuse "à tout commentaire".
Lisez l’intégralité de notre enquête dans le JDD en kiosques, sur smartphone et tablette ou sur Internet. Découvrez également nos offres d'abonnement.
Source: leJDD.fr | {
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Story highlights The suspect was arrested outside a Laker training facility
The two rings were from the 2009 and 2010 seasons
Report: The gift cards were going to go to community groups
A security guard was arrested this week and is accused of stealing two Los Angeles Lakers championship rings and $20,000 in gift cards, police said.
Eddie Monterroso, 23, who worked at a Lakers training facility, was arrested Tuesday outside the facility, the El Segundo Police Department said.
The two championship rings were from the 2009 and 2010 seasons, police said.
A search of the suspect's home on December 10 "yielded evidence of the theft as well as the championship rings," according to an El Segundo Police Department statement.
He is facing charges of burglary and grand theft, police said.
The gift cards were going to be used by the team to give away as donations to community groups for Christmas, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The police were able to retrieve only $6,000 in the gift cards, the newspaper reported. | {
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Article content
With legalization upon us, our expert panel will cut through the noise and give solid advice for how to invest in the cannabis market.
There has been widespread enthusiasm for investing in cannabis companies in Canada over the past few years. Few investments have offered such explosive growth and as the country heads towards creating a legal market for adult consumption, expectations for the future of the industry are high.
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But plenty of questions remain about just how profitable these companies can be after legalization on Oct. 17. Hardly any of them are currently profitable, there are few meaningful metrics upon which to base investment decisions and it’s difficult to determine whether strategies of cost containment and product differentiation will be effective.
Watch our panel of experts as they take questions on investing opportunities in cannabis. | {
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É difícil nos dias de hoje você ir a qualquer lugar na cidade e não ver alguém com os olhos fixados na tela do celular, não faltam dispositivos e recursos para se conectar à internet e muita gente passa o dia na rede. A Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte, por exemplo, atualmente disponibiliza 91 pontos com acesso gratuito de wi-fi, ou hotspots. Nesta sexta-feira (17), é comemorado o dia mundial da internet. Desde o lançamento, a rede está em constante evolução e a cada dia está mais presente na vida das pessoas.
Para quem hoje já convive com a internet e os recursos que ela oferece como as redes sociais, troca de mensagens, compartilhamento e reprodução de músicas e vídeos, serviços e mais uma infinidade de aplicativos e aplicações, a realidade no início do século era bem diferente.
O padrão de internet wi-fi por exemplo foi lançado no ano 2000, segundo o professor do departamento de ciência da computação da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) Daniel Macedo. Na época, a internet era discada e também havia uma tecnologia de conexão pela linha telefônica padrão ISDN; e os celulares, desconectados, começavam a mandar mensagens de textos.
2 de 3 No início do século, em 2001, primeiros locais públicos ofereciam internet grátis em desktops. Rede wi-fi ainda não existia — Foto: Reprodução/TV Globo No início do século, em 2001, primeiros locais públicos ofereciam internet grátis em desktops. Rede wi-fi ainda não existia — Foto: Reprodução/TV Globo
Em 2001 uma reportagem do MGTV mostrou alguns locais que ofereciam acesso gratuito na capital mineira, como a Biblioteca Pública, onde o usuário podia usar a internet, nos computadores desktop, aqueles brancos, com monitores de tubo e entradas para diskets. Cada um podia usar por 40 minutos ao dia. A novidade atraia a atenção das pessoas.
MGTV em 2001 mostra locais de acesso com internet gratis em computadores, em BH
Conforme o professor, atualmente, levando em consideração uma conexão de 15 megabits por segundo, a velocidade para tráfego de dados na rede é 100 vezes mais rápida que no início do século. A internet banda larga como temos em 2019, ainda era uma novidade, já a internet móvel não existia por aqui.
A rede hoje, principalmente nos grandes centros, está presente na vida de todos. “Eu acredito que a internet no celular já passou o desktop. Tem uma facilidade. É mais interessante acessar a internet em um disposto pequeno. A gente hoje acessa a internet o tempo todo”, destaca o professor.
Agora, quase no fim da 2º década do século XXI, a internet faz parte da vida das pessoas, quase como a energia elétrica e a água. Está virando uma comodites, explica o também professor do departamento de ciências da computação da UFMG Ítalo Cunha. Com relação às novidades, ele destaca a internet das coisas, que abre um leque de aplicações como automação residencial e monitoramento; e o governo eletrônico.
Acesso wi-fi em BH
3 de 3 Praças, parques, escolas, centros comunitários e outros equipamentos públicos contam com wi-fi grátis em BH — Foto: Adão de Souza/PBH Praças, parques, escolas, centros comunitários e outros equipamentos públicos contam com wi-fi grátis em BH — Foto: Adão de Souza/PBH
Os hotspots da Prefeitura funcionam em parques, praças, escolas, centros comunitários e outros equipamentos públicos. De acordo com a Prodabel, cerca de 400 mil acessos são registrados por mês nos pontos disponibilizados pela administração municipal. E cinco mil novos usuários fazem cadastros a cada mês.
Para usar os hotspots da Prefeitura, o cidadão precisa fazer um cadastro. São três horas de acesso diário à internet e ilimitado para acesso ao portal da Prefeitura. Hoje, de acordo com a Prefeitura, são mais de 380 mil cadastros. A meta da atual administração é chegar ao fim de 2020 com 112 pontos e a expansão tem o foco em vilas e favelas. A tecnologia usada é de internet via rádio em 2.4 e 5.0. | {
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US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin at the State Department in Washington, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
In April, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked , “Why should US taxpayers be interested in Ukraine?” Now, the United States does not always provide assistance or help defend other victims of aggression, so the answer must go beyond the simple observation that Ukraine is the victim of premeditated aggression. I see five reasons why.
First, we defend our allies and interests by helping Ukraine defend itself. Every Ukrainian soldier who fights for his country represents one less American who is needed for the defense of Europe. Ukraine is fighting our war and that of our allies. Helping Ukraine defend itself actually saves taxpayers money.
But the answer goes deeper than that. Second, Ukraine is fighting our war and that of Europe because Moscow has essentially declared war on Europe and the international order. Russia has waged information warfare against every European government from the Baltic states to Spain. Moscow openly subsidizes political parties all over Europe in an effort to undermine democratic governments. The same tactics that we have seen in the 2016 US election have been replicated in France, Holland, and Germany, and will be utilized elsewhere.
If Ukraine is denied the means to help defend itself, it will likely to fail to dislodge the nefarious manifestations of Russian influence from its polity and the rest of the former Soviet Union, and that influence will spread westward. Then Eastern Europe will live, under the shadow of war, ethnopolitical tension, and the ever-present reality of territorial amputations as has happened in Ukraine. As Sherman Garnett, then an official of the Carnegie Endowment wrote years ago, Ukraine is the keystone in the arch of European security. Therefore, its fall or disintegration entails the disintegration of European security.
In the last hundred years, the United States has fought three wars, including the Cold War, to keep peace in Europe. Abandoning Ukraine to Moscow not only betrays our long-standing political interest in a peaceful, democratic, and stable Europe, it reopens the prospect of major European war that we had thought was permanently behind us. This is why every Ukrainian soldier fights in our place.
Third, we gave Ukraine assurances that we would protect its territorial integrity and security in the 1994 Budapest Agreement, and the Obama administration did not honor that commitment. Consequently, Putin pressed harder in Europe in the belief that the United States and the West were unwilling to defend it, and our European allies now require endless displays of our credibility to reassure them.
Fourth, our earlier failure to help Ukraine defend itself has encouraged Moscow to escalate further. Today, there are three Russian armies mobilizing against Ukraine with a full complement of ground, armor, and artillery capabilities, not to mention air defenses and naval threats. Either Moscow wants to intimidate Kyiv and the West into submission, or it actually is preparing to fight another war. The threat of war, if not war itself, is integral to Russia’s military calculus; it aims to inhibit both Kyiv and the West from acting in the misplaced belief that doing so would provoke Russia. Since Russia is already provoked and escalating anyway, that argument has no validity. Those who oppose giving lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine will argue that Russia has an unchecked capability of escalation dominance, so there’s little point to giving the Ukrainians arms anyway. Moscow can always do more. If the West fully supports Kyiv, this claim is simply false. Indeed, such support would likely force Moscow to seek a political solution or return to the Minsk agreements that, however imperfect, remain the only way out of the war.
Fifth, as the strongest power in the world, the United States cannot simply avert its eyes whenever aggression occurs, especially aggression involving a nuclear power. The Trump administration may promote an “America first” foreign policy, but as the underwriters of the international order for seventy years, we have a vital interest in sustaining it. Throwing Kyiv under the bus might lead to lucrative financial deals or rhetorical support against terrorists, but it opens the door to a new terror of permanent war. Supporting Ukraine’s defense, however, may deter others from breaking the rules.
In April, Tillerson urged State Department employees to “understand the difference between policy and values,” and that “freedom, human dignity, the way people are treated…are not our policies.” Even realist Henry Kissinger has written interests and values cannot be separated in practice. Whenever we betray our values by thinking we can make a deal that advances our immediate self-interest, we end up paying a much greater cost to defend our interests and those values. Helping Kyiv defend itself is not only the right thing to do, it is the strongest manifestation of “self-interest rightly understood,” as Alexis de Tocqueville might have put it, and needs to be seen as such.
Stephen Blank is a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council. | {
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Donald Trump’s presidency has been marked by a rise in protectionism. His “America First” policy has involved introducing a number of tariffs against imports from the EU, Mexico, Canada and especially China.
Encapsulating his approach, Trump tweeted in March 2018 that “when a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win”. The economic weapon of choice in this war is tariffs, aimed at discouraging imports and protecting domestic industries.
Against this backdrop, we set out to explore how these tariffs influence whether people feel richer or poorer across different countries. And whether retaliation is a good strategy for the countries that have had tariffs imposed on them.
Our findings suggest a calm, non-retaliatory response would limit the negative impact of this trade war. But in the case of the US and China, we have seen an escalation of aggressive tariff measures aimed at deterring each other’s imports. So where will all this end and who will be the ultimate winners and losers?
Steel wars
Tariffs are taxes on imports, which make the products more expensive in the importing country. For example, assume you are importing sheets of steel at US$10 each and the tariff rises from 10% to 25%, then the price could go up from US$11 to US$12.50. This rise will have a range of potential impacts.
If another steel producer (domestic, or importer that has not been affected by the tariff) will offer sheets of steel at less than US$12.50 then buyers would switch supplier. This is very likely to be at a price higher than $11 (otherwise there would have been an incentive to switch suppliers earlier) and so it’s likely you will not purchase as many sheets as before.
Now let’s also assume that you are buying this steel to make cars. If you start using more expensive steel, then you may keep the price of cars the same, absorb the higher steel cost and accept a lower profit. Or you may pass the increased cost of the steel onto the people buying your cars, through raising the price of your cars.
Now it is possible that this negative impact is short-lived, since domestic steel producers (to continue with the same example) may actually become more efficient and competitive. But there is little evidence to support this outcome when considering the impact of previous US protection measures.
There is also the potential that you simply can’t find steel sheets of the correct thickness (or any other technical requirements) from another supplier. In this case, you are left importing steel at the new price of US$12.50. This further increases the likelihood of car prices rising. It could also seriously affect profit margins for car producers.
Trump is not the first US president to increase steel tariffs – George W Bush did something similar in 2002. So the consequences of Trump’s policy are well understood to hurt US car manufacturers.
Direct impact
Trump’s decision to extend the number of tariffs on Chinese imports in May 2019 made a number of final consumer goods liable for the new 25% duty, including toys, clothing and electronics. Now the effect of this measure is going to directly affect consumers.
The big question here is whether substitutes – domestic or from other import sources – exist, and the competitiveness of their prices. This is one of the reasons why China has started to lower tariffs with respect to other importers while raising import tariffs on American products. For example, China put a tariff on US soybeans and has turned to Brazil and Argentina for alternative supplies.
Around 70% of global trade involves production of goods across multiple countries. These global value chains, as they are called, mean that breaking the chain at any point is highly disruptive and multiplies the negative effect of the US-China trade war – and the impact is much harder to measure.
So it’s difficult to say where this trade war will end. For any country to declare it has won may not be that difficult as this is purely a matter of political gamesmanship. In reality, however, escalating tariffs are damaging to businesses and consumers across the world.
Karen Jackson, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Westminster and Oleksandr Shepotylo, Lecturer in Economics, Aston University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. | {
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Officials at Saint Louis University told students to shelter-in-place Wednesday evening as police searched for a shooter.
The University’s police department said shots were fired outside of the Marchetti East building.
The suspect is described as a black male wearing a hoodie and armed with a handgun.
No injuries have been reported.
Shots fired out side Marchetti East shelter in place — SaintLouisUniversity (@SLU_Official) May 3, 2017
Shots fired out side Marchetti East shelter in place — DPS (@SLUSafety) May 3, 2017
There is no new information at this time. We will update as soon as we can. — SaintLouisUniversity (@SLU_Official) May 3, 2017
Stay with Breaking911 for developments.
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Dans la 18e circonscription de la capitale, la candidate investie par le PS et son adversaire LR se revendiquent tous deux de la majorité présidentielle.
Sur le réseau social Twitter, Myriam El Khomri, pourtant investie par le PS, a revendiqué lundi soir le «soutien officiel» d'Emmanuel Macron. «Merci au président de la République Emmanuel Macron de m'avoir confirmé sa confiance en m'apportant son soutien officiel pour ce second tour», a écrit l'ancienne ministre du Travail de François Hollande, qui affrontera dimanche prochain dans la 18e circonscription de Paris le juppéiste Pierre-Yves Bournazel (LR).
Selon l'équipe de campagne de Myriam El Khomri, «il y a eu des échanges» entre l'ex-ministre et Emmanuel Macron aujourd'hui. «On a twitté peu après avoir reçu la confirmation de son soutien cet après-midi. Pour nous, c'est plus une confirmation puisqu'en décidant de ne pas investir de candidat REM dans la circonscription, Emmanuel Macron souhaitait soutenir Myriam El Khomri», a indiqué cette source.
Fait insolite, dans cette circonscription où la République en Marche ne présentait aucun candidat, les deux personnalités se réclament du parti présidentiel. L'élu LR Pierre-Yves Bournazel, qui se présentait «sous les couleurs de la majorité présidentielle», avait été officiellement soutenu par le Premier ministre (LR lui aussi) Edouard Philippe. «Faites le bon choix, ne vous trompez pas et portez à l'Assemblée nationale un excellent député, Pierre-Yves Bournazel», lançait aux électeurs le chef du gouvernement dans une vidéo postée sur le compte Twitter du candidat.
Myriam El-Khomri, élue du 18e depuis 2008 et investie par le PS, avait de son côté reçu le soutien de la ministre de la Culture Françoise Nyssen et de la sénatrice de Paris Bariza Khiari, déléguée nationale En Marche!. La présidente par intérim de La République en marche Catherine Barbaroux avait pourtant affirmé le 25 mai à l'AFP que le parti n'avait pas choisi entre les deux candidats.
«Que le meilleur gagne!»
Contacté par Le Figaro, l'Élysée a confirmé lundi soir que le chef de l'État a bien eu un échange avec Myriam El-Khomri, et que la candidate PS a reçu à cette occasion l'autorisation du président de revendiquer son soutien. «Emmanuel Macron est très attaché à fonder une majorité qui soit la plus large possible. Les deux candidats ont des histoires et des parcours différents» donnant pour l'un davantage de proximité avec Édouard Philippe et pour l'autre avec Emmanuel Macron. «Que le meilleur gagne!», lance cette source.
Sur ses affiches de campagne pour le second tour, Myriam El-Khomri devrait donc s'afficher avec Emmanuel Macron. Pierre-Yves Bournazel, lui, avec le premier ministre Édouard Philippe. «La magie de la République en marche. À la fin, tout le monde est content», élude l'équipe de campagne de la socialiste. Du côté de Matignon, on refuse de commenter le choix du président de la République. «C'est une configuration assez rare, voire rarissime, où l'on a deux candidats qui se revendiquent de la majorité présidentielle. On ne peut que s'en satisfaire».
Cible de virulentes critiques en raison de la loi travail qui porte son nom, Myriam El-Khomri a recueilli dimanche dernier 20,23% des voix dans cette circonscription détenue par la gauche depuis 1997, devancée d'un peu plus de 11 points, à 31,76%, par Pierre-Yves Bournazel.
Mélenchon refuse d'aider El Khomri
Interrogé mardi sur RTL, Jean-Luc Mélenchon a refusé d'appeler à voter pour la socialiste Myriam El Khomri pour faire barrage à Pierre-Yves Bournazel. «Il ne peut pas en être question», a expliqué l'ancien candidat à l'élection présidentielle. «Nous avons combattu Madame El Khomri de toutes les façons possibles. Elle-même a proposé à la droite de faire un front uni contre nous, je ne vais pas maintenant aller dire qu'il faut voter pour cette femme au nom du fait qu'elle est la cousine de l'ami du voisin de l'homme qui a vu l'ours», s'est justifié Mélenchon. Dans la circonscription, le candidat investi par La France insoumise, Paul Vannier, a obtenu 16,60% des suffrages au premier tour.. | {
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Good eats? Maybe.
When Judy Stacey, Albany's city gardener, told us that tulips were edible, we were kind of surprised. It seems you were, too. So we decided to do a little digging.
It would appear that it's most accurate to say that parts of tulips are edible. And people do eat them. There are recipes, even.
There seems to be pretty wide consensus that the petals of tulips are OK to eat. They reportedly range in taste from "a mild bean-like taste, to a lettuce-like taste, to no taste at all." Apparently some people are allergic to them, so keep that in mind And you should never eat flowers that have been treated with fungicide or pesticides.
There are conflicting reports about the bulbs. Some say no, they're poisonous. Others say yes, if you know what you're doing. It seems that people have eaten tulip bulbs, but they don't taste very good. During World War II, people in Holland were forced to eat tulips and it doesn't sound like they were good eats. Here's how one Dutch person described it:
"Even though much of Western Europe had been liberated from Nazis control, Holland remained under their firm grip. I remember the hunger. We were forced to eat tulip bulbs and sugar beets because there was no other food," Father Leo Zonneveld told Pat Gravely in an account of life during the Second World War that appears online, which was written for the Veterans History Project. "Bread made from tulips is not very good; I can tell you that! The skin of the bulb is removed, pretty much like an onion, and so is the centre, because that is poisonous. Then it is dried and baked in the oven. My mother or older sisters would grind the bulbs to a meal-like consistency. "Then they would mix the meal with water and salt, shape it like a meatloaf, and bake it. I can still remember the taste of it: like wet sawdust."
Um, no thanks. More contemporary reports indicate tulip bulbs haven't gotten any better tasting.
There are a bunch of recipes that use tulip petals: as cups for mousse, accents for tuna, for salad dressing, and little dishes for appetizers. We even turned up a recipe for tulip wine, which is apparently "a lovely white".
So, there's more than you probably ever wanted to know about eating tulips. As with anything like this that doesn't come from the supermarket, it's probably smart to err very much on the side of caution. And, really, you don't want to be the guy who got knocked over by a tulip.
Bottom line
Yes, tulips are edible. The petals, if not treated with chemicals, make good garnishes. The bulbs can be poisonous -- and it doesn't sound like they're worth the trouble. | {
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Um eventual fracasso do diálogo político entre governo e oposição na Venezuela, com o apoio do Vaticano, pode ocasionar derramamento de sangue, alertou neste sábado ao jornal argentino La Nación o enviado do papa Francisco, arcebispo Claudio María Celli.
"Se por caso uma delegação ou a outra quiserem acabar com o diálogo, não é o papa, mas o povo venezuelano que vai perder, porque o caminho poderá verdadeiramente ser o do sangue", disse o sacerdote.
As negociações entre governantes e opositores transcorrem com dificuldades que ameaçam uma rápida solução para a crise venezuelana. Os primeiros dias de trégua, com insultos e posturas irreconciliáveis em torno da saída do chavismo do poder complicam o panorama.
As partes conflitantes voltarão a se reunir em 11 de novembro. Em meio a uma grande crise interna, a oposição exige um referendo revogatório do mandato do presidente Nicolás Maduro.
"Tem gente que não tem medo de que haja derramamento de sangue. Isto é o que me preocupa. (O papa) Francisco está desempenhando um papel muito forte. Corremos um risco. Vamos ver, que Deus nos ajude", pediu o arcebispo, em Roma, após retornar de uma visita a Caracas.
Celli disse que "é o povo venezuelano que se afunda mais". "Quando me reuni com os representantes da oposição, na manhã de segunda-feira, disse-lhes claramente: 'Meu medo é que haja mortos na manifestação de quinta-feira. E se houver mortos, o diálogo, que diálogo é esse?'. A oposição refletiu e, graças a Deus, suspenderam esta manifestação", relatou.
O enviado revelou que na primeira reunião com Maduro, o presidente lhe garantiu: "Prometi ao papa que vou dialogar e cumprirei minha promessa". Celli contou que na segunda reunião com o presidente, disse a Maduro: "Senhor presidente, esta manhã me encontrei com a oposição e há três pedidos. Deve dar sinais e estes não necessitam tempos bíblicos. Deve dar sinais de que o diálogo é o único caminho".
Consultado sobre como encontrou o país, respondeu que "não há dúvidas de que a situação está muito feia. Não somente em nível político, mas em nível social, econômico. Não há comida, não há medicamentos. É inegável que o país está enfrentando uma situação muito difícil".
Ao ser questionado sobre se o Vaticano considera a missão uma mediação, Celli respondeu que não. "A Santa Sé acompanha". "As partes compreendem que ou escolhem o caminho da violência ou escolhem o caminho do diálogo", declarou. | {
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For the lucky 1500 that were able to snag a pair of the Nike MAGs, here's how Tinker Hatfield created the shoe that put that $7,000 dent in your wallet and helped raise $5.6 million for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. | {
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Opera may not be the most popular web browser, but it is certainly one of the most feature-full offerings. Quite frankly, it is actually quite good, and if you haven't tried it recently, you should. Not to mention, it is very much a cross-platform affair, offering versions for Windows, macOS, Linux desktop, Android, iOS, and more.
The upcoming version 50 of the Opera web browser is particularly intriguing. Why? Well, it will offer a really cool integrated anti-Bitcoin mining feature. Besides Bitcoin, it will also block the mining of other cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin and Ethereum. If you aren't aware, some websites are hijacking user computers to mine for cryptocurrencies. This is not only a potential violation of trust, but it can negatively impact the computer's performance too. Mining is also a huge waste of electricity. Opera 50 will offer an optional setting that, when enabled, blocks this nonsense.
ALSO READ: Bitcoin breaks $15,000 -- crypto market crosses $400 billion
Opera shares the following about the feature.
Bitcoins are really hot right now, but did you know that they might actually be making your computer hotter? Your CPU suddenly working at 100 percent capacity, the fan is going crazy for seemingly no reason and your battery quickly depleting might all be signs that someone is using your computer to mine for cryptocurrency. This cryptocurrency mining can sometimes continue after you have first visited the site. But we, as the only major browser with an integrated ad blocker, have a built-in solution to keep miners from trespassing onto your machine. After we recently updated the rules for our built-in ad blocker mechanism, we eliminated cryptocurrency mining scripts that overuse your device’s computing ability. Simply enable Opera’s ad blocker to prevent cryptocurrency mining sites from doing their dirty work on your computer. You can find and change NoCoin in Settings (Preferences on macOS) > Basic > Block ads and under the Recommended lists of ad filters. With NoCoin turned on, pages embedded with cryptocurrency mining scripts will be blocked in a similar way our mechanism blocks ads.
As you can see in the above image, by enabling this anti-cryptocurrency mining feature, you can dramatically reduce CPU usage when browsing a site than is leveraging these mining scripts. Keep in mind, folks, this should also help battery life for those on laptops too.
ALSO READ: Currency mining Android Trojan can kill your phone
If you want to give the beta version of Opera 50 a try, you can use the below links. For those that prefer not to use pre-release software, a stable release shouldn't be too far away. With that said, this is a release candidate, so it should be fairly bug-free. | {
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(CNN) Fifty-five pieces of rhino horn were found hidden inside shipments of plaster at Hanoi International Airport, Vietnam's state media reported Saturday.
Customs officers broke open plaster molds from 14 shipments to uncover the illegally trafficked horns, which weighed 125 kilograms (275 pounds) in total, according to the Vietnam News Agency.
There is high demand for rhino horn in Vietnam.
Vietnam has the world's largest market for illegal rhino horn, according to the World Wildlife Fund. A single horn can fetch $100,000 in Asian countries such as China and Vietnam, where buyers believe it can cure health problems from hangovers to cancer, and use it as a lifestyle drug. The global market is thought to be worth about $500 million.
The seizure in the Vietnamese capital came after Hanoi police arrested a man accused of running a wildlife trafficking ring on July 23.
That arrest followed the discovery of seven frozen tigers in a car parked in the basement of a Hanoi skyscraper.
Vietnam state media reported that seven tiger carcasses were seized by police in Hanoi
Read More | {
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Hong Kong people’s support for Taiwanese independence stands at 35 percent, the highest level since June 1995, a Hong Kong University POP survey shows. It also found that younger people were more likely to favour Taiwanese independence. Among 18-29-year olds, support for Taiwan nationhood stands at 67 percent.
Overall, 52 percent of those surveyed oppose independence for the island. The notion of Taiwan rejoining the United Nations received considerably more support, with 47 percent in favour and 30 percent opposed.
Photo: Wikicommons remix.
Confidence in cross-strait reunification remains low with 56 per cent showing no confidence and just 28 per cent expressing confidence.
“Further analysis shows that the younger the respondents, the more supportive they are of Taiwan’s independence and the more pessimistic about cross-strait reunification,” said the commentary of the survey.
Only 21 per cent of people over the age of 50 supported independence for Taiwan.
The survey was conducted between February 29 and March 3, surveying a random sample of 1,004 people. | {
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UKIP suspends Down's syndrome abortion call candidate Published duration 18 December 2012
image caption Geoffrey Clark is standing for election to Kent County Council and Gravesham Borough Council
A UKIP candidate who called for an NHS review to look at compulsory abortion of foetuses with Down's syndrome or spina bifida has been suspended.
The party said Geoffrey Clark, who is standing for Kent County Council, would not be a UKIP councillor if elected.
Mr Clark said on his website he did not endorse the abortion idea but suggested it to cut the national debt.
Learning disability charity Mencap said it was disgusted and horrified at Mr Clark's personal manifesto.
UKIP said Thursday's ballot paper would still list him as its candidate but, pending an investigation, he would not be a UKIP councillor.
Chartered accountant Mr Clark, 66, who is also standing for Meopham North ward on Gravesham Borough Council in Thursday's by-election, says on his website his comments are personal and do not reflect UKIP policy.
He calls for a national debate and an urgent government review of the NHS, which he says "risks becoming unaffordable in the future".
The review should look at "compulsory abortion when the foetus is detected as having Down's, spina bifida or similar syndrome which, if it is born, could render the child a burden on the state as well as on the family".
He says the review should also look at medical treatment for those aged over 80, "which is disproportionately costly to the NHS" and might also include "legalising euthanasia and giving free euthanasia advice to all folk over 80".
He told the BBC: "I don't intend to offend.
"What I am trying to do is to provoke a debate in the nation because I am so disenchanted with our politicians."
'Forced eugenics'
Mark Goldring, chief executive of Mencap, said: "Much has been written about the Paralympics this summer changing attitudes towards disabled people for the better.
"Yet in the very same year, a council candidate has proposed forced eugenics against disabled people.
"It is abhorrent that Geoffrey Clark sees disabled people solely as a burden when people with a learning disability lead full lives and make valuable contributions to their communities and families.
"We question if he is fit for public office."
Mr Clark, who describes himself as a member of Meopham Parochial Church Council, Rotary International, the Royal British Legion and the Youth Hostels Association, says population, immigration and threats to the green belt are linked issues close to his heart.
If elected, he promises to promote the Christian ethic and British culture, roll back Islam, contain UK population growth and restrict immigration.
A UKIP spokesman said the party rejected Mr Clark's "abhorrent" views.
"The party was not aware of these views when it allowed him to stand under our name," he said.
"Mr Clark has been formally suspended as a UKIP candidate and will not be standing for the party again. | {
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It’s your typical British January and you’re standing in an enormous queue in the freezing cold. You reach the front and are vigorously searched by an army of men who are a bit too heavy handed for your liking, given you’ve been waiting for about two hours.
“ID please,” they bark, turning those away who fail to present the adequate credentials. You wonder what they’re going to do with the scans of your driving licence. Can they sell that? Wait… Why are they taking a photo of your face? “It’s just standard procedure,” they repeat. Next thing you know, you’re pushed into a loud room full of beady-eyed people that you’re quite convinced are spies, and there is CCTV absolutely everywhere. You wonder whether they have it in the toilet stalls. They probably do.
No – you’re not about enter the Arena in The Hunger Games and it’s not some kind of detention centre. It’s Fabric, under a new set of conditions agreed between the club and Islington Council (and I can’t help but think the settlement was far more in one party’s favour than the other.)
After two young people died at the club during the summer after taking drugs, Islington Council made the decision to revoke Fabric’s license, stating that there was a “culture of drugs that the management cannot control”.
Musicians, artists, party-goers and fun-lovers united to see that it didn’t go down without a fight, and the Save Fabric campaign was born. Yesterday, the campaign won its appeal and Fabric was given the chance to open its doors once more, providing the club can adhere to the new regulations negotiated on its license.
World's 10 deadliest street drugs Show all 10 1 /10 World's 10 deadliest street drugs World's 10 deadliest street drugs Whoonga Whoonga is a combination of antiretroviral drugs, used to treat HIV, and various cutting agents such as detergents and poisons. The drug is widely available in South Africa due to South Africa’s high rate of HIV sufferers, and is believed to be popular due to how cheap it is when compared to prescribed antiretrovirals. The drug is highly addictive and can cause major health issues such as internal bleeding, stomach ulcers and ultimately death Getty World's 10 deadliest street drugs Scopolamine Scopolamine is a derivative from the nightshade plant found in the Northern Indian region of South America (Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela). It is generally found in a refined powder form, but can also be found as a tea. The drug is more often used by criminals due its high toxicity level (one gram is believed to be able to kill up to 20 people) making it a strong poison. However, it is also believed that the drug is blown into the faces of unexpecting victims, later causing them to lose all sense of self-control and becoming incapable of forming memories during the time they are under the influence of the drug. This tactic has reportedly been used by gangs in Colombia where there have been reports of people using scopolamine as way to convince victims to rob their own homes World's 10 deadliest street drugs Heroin Founded in 1874 by C. R. Alder Wright, heroin is one of the world’s oldest drugs. Originally it was prescribed as a strong painkiller used to treat chronic pain and physical trauma. However in 1971 it was made illegal under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Since then it has become one of the most destructive substances in the world, tearing apart communities and destroying families. The side effects of heroin include inflammation of the gums, cold sweats, a weak immune system, muscular weakness and insomnia. It can also damage blood vessels which can later cause gangrene if left untreated World's 10 deadliest street drugs Crack cocaine Crack cocaine first came about in the 1980’s when cocaine became a widespread commodity within the drug trafficking world. Originally cocaine would have attracted a high price tag due to its rarity and difficulty to produce, but once it became more widespread the price dropped significantly. This resulted in drug dealers forming their cocaine into rock like shapes by using baking soda as a way of distilling the powder down into rock form. People were doing this because it allowed for them to sell cocaine at a lower quantity and to a higher number of people. The side effects of crack cocaine include liver, kidney and lung damage, as well as permanent damage to blood vessels, which can often lead to heart attacks, strokes, and ultimately death World's 10 deadliest street drugs Crystal meth Not just famous because of a certain Walter H White, but also because it is one of the most destructive drugs in the world. First developed in 1887, it became widely used during the Second World War when both sides would give it to their troops to keep them awake. It is also believed that the Japanese gave it to their Kamikaze pilots before their suicide missions. After the war crystal meth was prescribed as a diet aid and remained legal until the 1970s. Since then it has fallen into the hands of Mexican gangs and has become a worldwide phenomenon, spreading throughout Europe and Asia. The effects of crystal meth are devastating. In the short-term users will become sleep depraved and anxious, and in the long-term it will cause their flesh to sink, as well as brain damage and damage of the blood vessels World's 10 deadliest street drugs AH-7921 AH-7921 is a synthetic opioid that was previously available to legally purchase online from vendors until it became a Class A in January 2015. The drug is believed to have 80% of the potency of morphine, and became known as the ‘legal heroin’. While there has only been one death related to AH-7921 in the UK, it is believed to be highly dangerous and capable of causing respiratory arrest and gangrene World's 10 deadliest street drugs Flakka Flakka is a stimulant with a similar chemical make-up to the amphetamine-like drug found in bath salts. While the drug was originally marketed as a legal high alternative to ecstasy, the effects are significantly different. The user will feel an elevated heart rate, enhanced emotions, and, if enough is digested, strong hallucinations. The drug can cause permanent psychological damage due to it affecting the mood regulating neurons that keep the mind’s serotonin and dopamine in check, as well as possibly causing heart failure World's 10 deadliest street drugs Bath salts Bath salts are a synthetic crystalline drug that is prevalent in the US. While they may sound harmless, they certainly aren’t the sort of salts you drop into a warm bath when having a relaxing night in, they are most similar to mephedrone, and have recently been featured throughout social media due to the ‘zombification’ of its. The name comes from the fact that the drug was originally sold online, and widely disguised as bath salts. The side effects include unusual psychiatric behaviour, psychosis, panic attacks and violent behaviour, as well as the possibility of a heart attack and an elevated body temperature World's 10 deadliest street drugs Purple Drank One of the more unusual drugs around at the moment, purple drank was popularised in 90s hip hop culture, with the likes of Jay Z and Big Moe all mentioning it in their songs. It is a concoction of soda water, sweets and cold medicine, and is drunk due to cold medicines high codeine content, which gives the user a woozy feeling. However it can also cause respiratory issues and heart failure World's 10 deadliest street drugs Krokodil Krokodil is Russia’s secret addiction. It is believed that over one million Russians are addicted to the drug. Users of krokodil are attracted to the drug due to its low price; it is sold at £20 a gram while heroin is sold for £60. However, krokodil is considered more dangerous than heroin because it is often homemade, with ingredients including painkillers, iodine, lighter fluid and industrial cleaning agents. This chemical make-up makes the drug highly dangerous and likely to cause gangrene, and eventually rotting of the flesh
These regulations include no entry to “core club nights” for people under 19, an ID scanning system, improved lighting – whatever that means – and additional CCTV and covert surveillance within the club.
There will also be a zero tolerance approach to drugs – meaning a lifetime ban if you’re caught dealing, buying, in possession of or taking drugs in or outside the premises.
And this is where the problem lies. Don’t get me wrong – I love Fabric and everything that it stands for. I think it’s one of the greatest London establishments and I’ll be back in there as quick as you can say Mandy –– but if the closure was really down to an uncontrollable drug issue, why hasn’t more been done to change the way the venue is allowed to deal with inevitable recreational drug users going forward?
This is a set of conditions that we’re expected to herald a victory, but in reality it only serves to keep the police sat in their cars eating doughnuts rather than fighting pilled-up 18-year-olds and the responsibility of controlling the drug problem off the council.
When Secret Garden Party became the first festival to offer a drug-testing service this summer, a quarter of the 200 people that used the service dropped their drugs in amnesty bins after learning that their ketamine was actually anti-malaria medication, or that their MDMA was actually ammonium sulphate.
It’s time we stopped underestimating recreational drug users, party-goers and all round good time guys, and focus on creating a lasting, progressive, forward-thinking drug policy that reduces harm for the people that do take drugs, and educates those who aren’t sure about them.
MyLondon photography project - In pictures Show all 14 1 /14 MyLondon photography project - In pictures MyLondon photography project - In pictures London calling by Hugh Gary: May 2017 in MyLondon calendar and in 2016 exhibition. “This is Mayfield Lavender. I was just out on a bike ride, and I thought ‘that looks pretty good, especially the phone box in the middle of a field’. There is no phone in the box – it’s just there to look pretty.” Hugh Gary is an ex-British Army serviceman and was helped into housing by the West London Mission’s Big House, a homeless hostel for ex-servicemen. “I went overseas to a few places: all over the Middle East, Australia, Canada.” In the army for 10 years, he left in 2013. “A lot of the homeless people in London are ex-service.” Hugh lives in a self-contained flat after progressing on from the Big House hostel seven months ago. “And then it’s into the big world after that. The flat is only temporary – it’s still part of the Big House. It’s so residents can get used to paying bills.” Hugh hopes to be in his current flat until he finishes a photography course with West London University. Hugh Gary MyLondon photography project - In pictures Drivers Wanted by Richard Fletcher. He was walking past a taxi company on Old Street when he saw the red bus. MyLondon photography project - In pictures The Coffee Roaster by Leo Shaul. “This is George Constantinou in the Camden Coffee Shop, an independent coffee roaster in Delancy Street, Camden Town”, says Shaul, who decided to approach George when he got the contest camera. MyLondon photography project - In pictures St Paul's in Reflection by Christopher McTavis. The photographer says he purposefully put his foot, seen on the floor behind the glass, into the photo. MyLondon photography project - In pictures Peeking out by Jackie Cook: January 2017 in MyLondon calendar and in 2016 exhibition. This is Jackie Cook’s friend Mia Lyons leaving the Mansion House Underground Station on the day of the contest. “We liked the old bannisters and all the wrought iron… It was a spontaneous picture.” Mia and Jackie go to the same drama class and to Haringey Recovery Service, which is run in partnership with St Mungo’s, where Mia is a pottery teacher and Jackie does voluntary meditation teaching. “It’s important to share what people have given to you and never forget where you come from,” Jackie says. “Never ever look down on anybody unless you’re picking them up.” She says she is fortunate to have never had to sleep rough but she has “been on my knees… I ruined all my teeth with drugs, so today I stand on my feet and I smile with pride, I’m really happy with my life today. I don’t have any family - I was brought up in children’s homes. My friends are my family.” Jackie Cook MyLondon photography project - In pictures Camden look by Saffron Saidi: In 2016 MyLondon exhibition. Saffron Saidi saw this woman wearing an old bus driver hat in Camden Town, near the markets and asked her to hold her dog Dotdot. Saffron moved to London from Falmouth in 1996 and lives in Brixton. “I’ve spent most of my life in care. I had a documentary made about me in the ‘90s called Who Cares Wins.” Saffron got accepted into University of Westminster photography course but had to pull out: “I was diagnosed with learning disabilities which made the academic writing on the course extremely difficult… but my talent as a photographer was never questioned as I had an unconditional offer.” She goes to Cooltan Arts, describing it as “a lifeline”. “It keeps me alive.” Saffron Saidi MyLondon photography project - In pictures Banksy's Dalmatian by Saffron Saidi: Cover of 2017 MyLondon calendar and in 2016 exhibition. “I was ecstatic, I couldn’t believe that I’d found another Banksy!” says Saffron Saidi. She asked the man who was working in the Hoxton bar near the Banksy mural of a policeman with a Poodle to hold the lead of her Dalmatian Dotdot: “Another Banksy in Southwark also has a dog with a lead. The barman said that apparently Banksy likes dogs.” Saffron moved to London from Falmouth in 1996 and lives in Brixton. “I’ve spent most of my life in care. I had a documentary made about me in the ‘90s called Who Cares Wins.” Saffron got accepted into University of Westminster photography course but had to pull out: “I was diagnosed with learning disabilities which made the academic writing on the course extremely difficult… but my talent as a photographer was never questioned as I had an unconditional offer.” She goes to Cooltan Arts, describing it as “a lifeline”. “It keeps me alive.” Saffron Saidi MyLondon photography project - In pictures What now? by Laz Ozerden. He took the shot close to Highbury & Islington Station. “For me this picture is like ‘I am nothing and I am everything.’” MyLondon photography project - In pictures Reflecting Sculpture by Hugh Gary. “It’s all reflections, all mirrors. It’s on the canal near Camden around the back of St Pancras. It’s a round a circular garden which is set inside an old gas tank frame. And then there’s new builds going on in the other frames as well. I just thought it would give nice illusions.” In the army for 10 years, he left in 2013. “A lot of the homeless people in London are ex service. And there isn’t really many places that support ex service when it comes to homelessness.” He is currently in his own self contained flat after progressing on from the Big House, a homeless hostel for ex service. “And then it’s into the big world after that. I left the hostel about seven months ago. The flat is only temporary – it’s still part of the Big House. It’s so residents can get used to paying bills and maintaining yourself and your accommodation.” Hugh hope’s to be in his current flat until he finishes a photography course with West London University. Hugh Gary MyLondon photography project - In pictures St Paul's Cathedral by Michelle Goldberg: In 2016 MyLondon exhibition. Michelle Goldberg says she “snuck up to the roof” of a building to get this shot while attended a function in a building on Queen Victoria Street on the day the cameras were handed out. “It’s a lovely view - a rooftop shot of St Paul’s Cathedral, of the towers.” “I’m a Londoner. I was born here. My family have been here four generations, possibly five. My grandparents were in the markets.” Michelle has a long term medical condition and lives in temporary accommodation. “I’ve had four heart attacks, three strokes, a lung collapse.” Michelle Goldberg MyLondon photography project - In pictures “It’s at the market in the morning, and that’s the place where I do shopping. It’s at the market next to Commercial Road”, says Goska Calik. “I was on the way to work and they just stopped in the middle and took out my camera. Last year Goska had the winning photo as chosen by the judges and joined the RPS photography mentoring group. She says she gains a lot from it, “especially for meeting people and taking photos.” She also enjoyed meeting people that share the same passion for photography. “Yesterday I went along with Frances to take photos. That is the most important thing to not just go home and be alone there.” Goska Calik MyLondon photography project - In pictures Out of The Blue by Beatrice. “It was a really hot day,” says Beatrice. “I liked the blue of the sky and the white of the wall. I looked around and saw the red watering can. Perfect! It was still not quite right though. I raised my hand and it cast a strong shadow on the wall, as if I was reaching for the watering can. I was finally pleased with this composition.” Beatrice MyLondon photography project - In pictures Group stretch by Siliana. “It was the first day I collected the camera. I saw people starting to gather around in Trafalgar Square. The security guard said it was going to happen ‘any minute now’ but in the end I waited four hours just for the dance. A friend of mine was with me, she told me it’s something that happens every year. A dance where people enjoy, where people of all ages dance all together. This was their warm up when they were stretching.” Siliana squats in a church in south London, but it’s “under threat” and she’s unsure of the future. She says the squat had 30 to 40 people living in it but when they had the court papers given to them many people left. Siliana was in the calendar last year and is now active in the Café Art photography mentoring group run by volunteers from The Royal Photographic Society which meets up every two weeks to learn photography skills with digital cameras. Siliana MyLondon photography project - In pictures Arcadia by Keith Norris: August 2017 in MyLondon calendar and in 2016 exhibition. This photo is of a male mannequin in a shop window with Louise Danby, a fellow member from Crisis. It was taken in Hatton Garden, “which was kind of an Arcadia of gems and arts,” says Keith who says he has done quite a lot of photography over the years. Louise has had several winning photos in previous MyLondon contests, and she was the one who encouraged him to come and pick up a contest camera at St Paul’s Cathedral. He grew up in Canonbury, Islington in the 1960s when it was quieter than today, with a lot less traffic on the roads. After several years travelling in Europe he returned to London and was homeless for several years. “I was homeless from 1984 to 1992, sleeping rough on the unused railway bridge in Shoreditch. Now it’s the Overground, but in those days it had no rails and was almost impossible to get to. To get up there you had to be fighting fit.”
Give people a chance to make informed decisions for themselves and they will. This is not a subculture of pill-popping, dead-brained people who want to get out of their tree every weekend, and the sooner we recognise this, the sooner we can make a change.
There is no blame to be pinned on Fabric – their campaign to reopen their doors has been a war against an establishment that deems nightlife as something dirty and dangerous, favouring dinner parties, members’ club (where everyone still does coke in the toilets but nobody minds) and a night in with Strictly over “those ghastly nightclubs”, without seeing what the two have in common – a desire to spend your time how you wish, with your mates either round a table or in a circle on a dancefloor.
So here’s to Fabric, the club that has proved to the world how much we young people care about our nightlife. | {
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Republican Rep. Justin Amash Justin AmashOn The Trail: How Nancy Pelosi could improbably become president History is on Edward Snowden's side: Now it's time to give him a full pardon Trump says he's considering Snowden pardon MORE (Mich.) has signed onto legislation from Democrats to create an independent commission to investigate Russian election interference, becoming the second GOP lawmaker to do so.
Amash became a cosponsor of the Protecting Our Democracy Act this week after President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, his spokeswoman confirmed Thursday following a BuzzFeed report.
Amash had indicated on Tuesday in the hours after Comey’s bombshell firing that he was inclined to back the legislation.
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“My staff and I are reviewing legislation to establish an independent commission on Russia. The second paragraph of this letter is bizarre,” Amash tweeted, referring to the paragraph in Trump’s letter to Comey that states “I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation.”
The bill, authored by Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), has been endorsed by all 193 House Democrats, along with four delegates who caucus with them.
Before Amash, Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) was the only Republican co-sponsor.
Despite Amash’s backing, the idea of an independent commission or a special prosecutor to investigate Russia’s role in the election and possible Trump-Kremlin links hasn’t gained traction among most Republicans.
Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainKelly's lead widens to 10 points in Arizona Senate race: poll COVID response shows a way forward on private gun sale checks Trump pulls into must-win Arizona trailing in polls MORE (R-Ariz.) has endorsed the idea, but like Amash and Jones, he is an outlier among Republicans on the issue.
Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanAt indoor rally, Pence says election runs through Wisconsin Juan Williams: Breaking down the debates Peterson faces fight of his career in deep-red Minnesota district MORE (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSenate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden 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 The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden asks if public can trust vaccine from Trump ahead of Election Day | Oklahoma health officials raised red flags before Trump rally MORE (R-Ky.) insisted this week that the current probes by the FBI as well as the House and Senate Intelligence committees will suffice.
“I don't think that's a good idea,” Ryan said on Fox News on Wednesday evening when asked about a special prosecutor.
"I think the intelligence committees are the ones that should do this, because, don’t forget that the methods and sources of our intelligence gathering are also at play here, and we have to be very sensitive so that we don’t compromise that information as well,” he added.
Swalwell urged more Republicans to follow suit after Amash signed onto the bill.
"I'm glad Rep. Amash has joined this effort, and I hope he can persuade others to join, too. We must put country over party to get to the bottom of what happened, and to ensure it never happens again. We can only find these truths with one, united search party," Swalwell said.
- Updated at 4:27 p.m. | {
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Troy Grove and his brother Trevor Grove of Sideshow Collectibles have teamed up to sculpt some amazing Breaking Bad characters. Their plan was to create a series of miniature toon-up figurines approximately 5″ -6″ tall, with the likeness of characters from AMC’s hit show. The collection shows both the in-progress wax sculptures and photoshop color composites. You can see more images from the collection over on Trevor’s Facebook and Deviant Art pages. | {
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Caption WHAAAAAT? Save Cancel
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Online Users in this screenshot: Arthos
File Size Posted Size Location 0.229 MB 15 Oct, 2012 @ 3:57pm 1366 x 768 MGE TRAINING V7 1,342 Unique Visitors 1 Current Favorites | {
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Parliament has recently been critical of the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), highlighting its role in the poor performance of government IT departments.
IOL previously reported that some government departments complained about poor service from SITA, with several MPs questioning whether SITA’s service are worth using at all.
Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said that the future of SITA is being discussed, as it is not working optimally in its current state.
“We have taken a decision, as the President announced, that we will be re-modelling SITA to be an IT-focused company.”
SITA acting CEO Ntutule Tshenye confirmed to MyBroadband that Ndabeni-Abrahams met with SITA employees in December 2018 and outlined her expectations.
“Subsequently, SITA Executive Leadership and the department has had numerous iterations, meetings, and strategic sessions to engage on the re-purposing and the rationalisation of State-owned companies,” said Tshenye.
Cleaning up its act
Tshenye contended that SITA is crucial for digital transformation in South Africa, and said that all parties need to work together to achieve this.
“The key take-out from the current conversations around this issue is that all parties are interested in the same outcome, which is improved service delivery. The focus needs to be on how to achieve this within the current environment.”
Tshenye acknowledged that SITA has a disappointing history of corruption and other issues, but said that it is now looking to clean its act up.
“SITA over the last three years ran a very public campaign on its clean-up and its determination to root out corruption. In this regard, our commitment is steadfast: if there is evidence of corruption, it should be dealt with vociferously.”
“We have seen too many instances of a full value chain that results in the breakdown of either service delivery or ethical and sustainable business practises.”
“As SITA, we are fully willing to account for our role, and hold everybody within the SITA service delivery value chain, to the same standard that we are willing to uphold.”
Tshenye acknowledged that legacy systems still exist in certain government departments, impacting the quality of service rendered and the ability to absorb an increasing citizen demand.
“Information Communication Technology (ICT), even within the context of the emerging Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), remains a niched service delivery tool, and standardisation of ICT systems has not yet been implemented into the entire government ecosystem across all public service platforms,” said Tshenye.
“The austere financial environment and the impact of budget cuts not only affects a department’s ability to replace legacy infrastructure with the updated version that is needed for agile ICT driven operations, but also its ability to invest in staff with the requisite skills, processes and technological training required to remedy the known risks within the government environment.”
“We continue to welcome thoughtful and vigorous debate and engagement on the role of ICT within the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the digitisation of the public service, as this will enhance the content of our discussions and debate.”
Criticism of SITA
DA Shadow Minister and spokesperson for Public Service and Administration Joe McGluwa told MyBroadband that SITA has become a burden to the Department of Home Affairs (DHA).
“Its biggest challenges currently are in delivering an uninterrupted network – which it is incapable of doing,” said McGluwa.
“For the last 10 years, SITA has appeared before the department and their promises to find solutions have never materialized.”
“There is currently no maintenance contract with the DHA hence SITA has made a presentation to replace and upgrade, amongst others, numerous parts at enormous amounts, but this looks more like another pyramid scheme.”
McGluwa said that the only way to fix SITA is for the Department of Home Affairs to shut it down – which can only be achieved by changing legislation.
“There is too much corruption. A lot of work needed to be done,” said McGluwa.
This is an opinion piece.
Now read: Telkom getting hammered | {
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What is Love?
A Christian Blog
How do you not start out with it, “What is love”.
In a study like this we really could go a million directions, we could go Hebrew, we could go Greek, we could just stick with English. Who is the authority, who says, what love is.
In John 15:13, Jesus says, [Jhn 15:13 NKJV] 13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
The verse is plain and simple, there are no hidden meanings in the Greek, it simply means exactly what it says.
The statement echos in depth the path that Jesus, Himself, took to show His love for us, and in turn, should exemplify the love that we claim we have for others.
We say we love, but our actions tend to show a life lived for our selfish desires.
Like I said earlier, there really isn’t any hidden meaning, to lay down your life is simply that. To lay your life aside for the life of another.
It is only a person reborn, that could do such a thing. It is only a heart of Jesus that could carry out such an act, and He proved the fact that it could be done, and then through being born again in the Spirit, that very power then resides in us.
It is a command of God. Just a few verses down, Jesus says in verse 17, [Jhn 15:17 NKJV] 17 "These things I command you, that you love one another.
All around these verses, Jesus explains that the only way to do such a thing is to abide in Him, and to remain in Him, to have relationship with God, through Him.
Jesus asked of us to love, and He did not ask without first, not only showing us, but also giving us and telling us by what power He was able to do that which He was commanding us to do.
The convicting nature of such statements and actions brought me to a moment of trying to see what that might look like. Do I sacrifice everything, to help my brothers? Do I sacrifice my “alone time” or my “me time” to help and fellowship with others? Do I relax? How can I just neglect myself, and just help others, whether they ask or not? If there is a need, I fill it?
I contemplated all of that, and so much more.
I don’t have the perfect answer, but Paul gives us clues to the answer. In 1st Cor. 13:4, Paul writes the words that we read all the time, but what do they really say to us.
Love suffers long, love doesn’t quit, it doesn’t lose heart, it will go to the ends. Jesus never quit on us, He loved us through it all, and even in the midst of such, He forgave the very ones that betray and killed Him.
Love is kind, a word so basic it is the base word. Be kind, the word itself is only used once and is used with love, implying that it is the very act of love. The act of kindness is love.
Love doesn’t envy nor is it boastful. The love of a man is often revealed in his character. The basic character is to think of others and not yourself. It is part of the very definition that we revealed earlier. It is laying down your life for another. A life given over to his brother would not be envious, angry or prideful against his brother.
Love is easily identified. The heart of the man revealed in his actions. Is he an selfless or self filled?
Love is always patient, it takes time, it easily acts in love and understands how to act in the face of adversity.
Love shows no evil, none, no evil. Love it is the opposite of evil. It does not even consider unrighteousness, but yet rejoices and adheres to the truth.
Love will take on whatever is required, it will believe whatever is required, it will hope till the end, and it will endure until that end.
The definition of love, the explanation of love, it may still leave us somewhat confused.
What is Love, Baby, it won’t hurt you, it won’t hurt you.
What I can say, looking at the only perfect life, Jesus faithful gave everything He had, and in the end, He truly gave all mankind their only need when He selflessly laid down His life, just as He had said, for ours, for His brother.
In the end, it is you that will have to decide what that looks like in your life. But do not build a tale that excuses you from what the Bible says. Consult the words and commands of Jesus Himself, and weigh yourself.
Study, pray, and build yourself in the Lord so that you may not be found wanting.
Thank you for reading, and if you have any questions about God, Jesus, or Salvation, please do not hesitate to leave a comment.
Take a moment to review the rest of the site. -
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An Australian teenager smashed an egg in the head of a far-right senator who blamed Muslims for violence. With anger running high following the deadly mosque shooting in New Zealand, the senator then punched the young man.
The teen quickly became an internet sensation, and was trending on Twitter as #EggBoi.
A GoFundMe page has already raised more than $11,000 to pay for his legal fees and “more eggs.”
The goal of the fundraiser was only $2,000.
The swoopy haired teen, dressed in a T-shirt, positioned himself behind Australian Sen. Fraser Anning during a news conference in Melbourne.
He raised his phone with his left hand, then, lifted his right hand and cracked a raw egg on the back of Anning’s head.
The far-right lawmaker had sparked outrage Friday when — after 49 people were killed in a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand — he said Muslims “may have been the victims today; usually they are the perpetrators.”
“The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place,” Anning wrote in a statement.
A day later, he was standing in front of a group of reporters with raw egg dripping down the back of his neck, and he swiftly turned around and punched the young man in the face.
He then lunged for him again, throwing another punch before the two were separated and a group of men tackled the 17-year-old to the floor and held him in a chokehold.
Footage of the encounter immediately went viral — a seven-second video had more than 2 million views just hours after it was posted.
Someone has just slapped an egg on the back of Australian Senator Fraser Anning’s head, who immediately turned around and punched him in the face. @politicsabc @abcnews pic.twitter.com/HkDZe2rn0X — Henry Belot (@Henry_Belot) March 16, 2019
The incident happened the same day Australia officials announced conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos won’t be allowed to enter the country for a tour this year after his comments on the mass shooting in New Zealand.
The alt-right provocateur and former Breitbart journalist said on Facebook that attacks such as the one in Christchurch happened “because the establishment panders to and mollycoddles extremist leftism and barbaric, alien religious cultures.”
A white nationalist walked into a packed mosque in the South Island city of Christchurch on Friday afternoon and opened fire on worshipers, filming and live-streaming the act to social media.
He drove to another mosque and continued the massacre, killing 49 people and leaving several still fighting for their lives. | {
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In the 1980s and ‘90s the U.S. relied on tougher laws which mandated mandatory minimum sentencing that did nothing to reduce drug abuse or drug prohibition-related violence, but contributed significantly to staggering government deficits as prison spending skyrocketed.
Now, once again under the leadership of Attorney General Jeff Sessions these tough laws are being introduced, despite being a proven failure in the past. Sessions wants prosecutors to rely on mandatory minimum sentencing using the so called opioid epidemic and public safety as reasons why America should revert back to archaic responses to the age old problem of escaping reality through illegal drug use and prescription drugs. He contacted 2,300 hundred prosecutors and told them in a memo to always charge offenders with mandatory minimums, however unjust. The major problem with this is it will handcuff judges’ and take away their ability to look at the totality of the facts of a case.
Some experts flat out say there are many myths associated with the so called opioid epidemic.
Well I know all too well that in the past when the government wants to create unconstitutional tools to fight the drug war they only have to declare an epidemic and hide behind the shield of public safety.
But I know personally that this shield of public safety gets worn down when you create laws that violate individual constitutional rights and evolve into unintended consequences, which has destroyed our criminal justice system. This happened in New York State in the past.
In 1985, I made the biggest mistake in my life and got involved in drug activity. For $500 I delivered a package containing four ounces of cocaine to undercover police officers. At the time I was married with a young daughter and struggling to pay my rent. I was approached by someone I knew from my bowling team. He asked why I was coming late to the league. I told him my car kept breaking down and I did not have the money to fix it. He asked me if I wanted to make some easy money. I agreed.
When you get desperate you do stupid things.
I delivered the envelope right into the hands of undercover narcotic officers. I had been set up in a sting operation. I was shocked when I was sentenced to TWO 15-TO-LIFE SENTENCES under the mandatory minimum provisions of the Rockefeller Drug Laws of New York. The judge in my case knew I was not a drug dealer, and gave me a break by running the two sentences together resulting in one 15-to-life bid. It was the same sentence given to someone convicted of second-degree murder in NYS.
I served 12 years in Sing Sing prison until I was granted executive clemency by the Governor George Pataki When I was released, I became an activist and dedicated my life to bringing change to the Rockefeller Drug Laws and doing away with mandatory minimum sentencing.
When these laws were created in New York State in 1973, the legislative intent was to curb the drug epidemic and to capture the drug kingpins. But their intent was flawed, imprisoning instead, low-level drug users, many of who were addicts. In fact the NYS legislature had to revise the laws in 1974. Despite this revision and two others in 2004/2005, hundreds of thousands of lives were ruined, costing New York State billions of dollars.
In 1986 the United States Congress enacted similar mandatory minimum sentencing laws, which compelled judges to deliver fixed sentences to people convicted of certain crimes, regardless of mitigating factors or culpability.
Federal mandatory drug sentences are determined based on three factors: the type of drug, weight of the drug mixture (or alleged weight in conspiracy cases), and the number of prior convictions. Judges are unable to consider other important factors, such as the offender’s role, motivation and the likelihood of recidivism.
According to a report by the Prison Policy Initiative, today there are 2.3 million people locked up and 1 in 5 are incarcerated because of the war on drugs. The United States imprisons more people than any other nation in the world, largely due to misguided drug laws and mandatory sentencing requirements. Since the 1980s, drug war practices have led to the conviction and marginalization of millions of Americans — disproportionately poor people and people of color — while failing utterly to reduce problematic drug use, drug-related disease transmission or overdose deaths.
However, the U.S. learned from its mistakes and failures by the historic reformation of New York’s Rockefeller Drug Laws in 2009 by Governor Paterson. Congress followed by repealing the first mandatory minimum law in 2010, and in 2012 California voters repealed the state’s controversial “three-strike” law for nonviolent offenders. Significant changes followed including revising crack/cocaine disparity sentencing laws that retroactively freed thousands of non-violent individuals. Following significant changes occurred by many including the U.S. Sentencing Commission and the Obama Administration under Attorney General Eric Holderwho tried to fix the broken federal system by telling prosecutors not to rely on mandatory minimums. President Obama at the same time used his pardon powers to free a record number of non-violent drug offenders, many who were sentenced under the provisions of mandatory minimums.
As we see using mandatory minimum sentencing was a proven failed policy that became a poison to the criminal justice system. Many activists have spoken out to stop Jeff Sessions including Dr. Carl Hart who has called him a racist.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions should learn from the mistakes the United States has made in the past trying to deal with the war on drugs. Instead of adopting a get tough approach which includes increased sentences for drug possession and mandatory confinement for addicts a smarter approach should be made that will invest public resources into educating the public about the use of drugs and provide treatment options to fight addiction from opioids. If not, we all lose and the criminal justice system will be broken once again. | {
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For a great many Australians, Tony Abbott didn’t have to go halfway around the world to persuade them his party got it right dumping him. But he did. In a fulsome and spectacular fashion.
There he was at the Margaret Thatcher Lecture in London likening Europe’s massive challenge in dealing with millions of displaced people to Australia’s boat people issue. Like a recurring nightmare it was back, ringing a discordant note in decent ears. The over-inflated play on xenophobia. The denigration of Islam. Ridicule of diplomacy and the United Nations. The prescription of more military force and boots on the ground. Never mind that the whole Middle East disaster was originally triggered by such myopic thinking. He evoked Thatcher’s success in the Falklands as a template for dealing with Iraq and Syria. The naive simplicity of it all.
What shocked many was “Captain Catholic” ditching the precept the founder of his church put out there as essential for salvation: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” He said, “right now this wholesome instinct is leading much of Europe into catastrophic error”. In Germany’s Angela Merkel and other continental leaders he diagnosed compassion as “misguided altruism”.Of course it appealed to other politicians who have sought and failed to achieve success by playing to similar fears and prejudices in their electorates. Britain’s Nigel Farage comes to mind. The ABC thoughtfully sought out the founder of the far right United Kingdom Independence Party for comment. “Heroic,” was his response, “and absolutely right.” A man is known by the company he keeps. Fortunately for Britain, voters preferred the more sensible David Cameron’s Conservatives to Farage’s outfit, which failed miserably at the general election.
Eric Abetz, before he was dumped by Turnbull, was being lined up as our ambassador to Berlin. That Abbott project has been quietly shelved.
Malcolm Turnbull’s response was delivered with a straight face: “He’s obviously had a remarkable career in public life, including two years as prime minister. We owe him a great debt for that, and his views are in hot demand everywhere in the world.” If nothing else, it shows the prime minister has learnt from Labor about how to deal with a knifed leader. Julia Gillard tried to ignore her felled predecessor until she unleashed the dogs of war on him 18 months into Labor’s fraught second term. Remember a procession of senior ministers talking of Kevin Rudd’s “dysfunction,” “disrespect of colleagues,” “chaos” and “hubris”. It was extremely untidy – and too late – and put out there for all to see a bitterly divided government.
It’s early days yet and Abbott has promised no undermining. Turnbull is wise to take out insurance against those on the right of his party who are as deluded as Abbott and think his brand of conservatism, having failed once, would appeal to voters again. Better not to yank on their chains by criticising their hero. The lesson of Labor’s last three years in power is surely that any appearance of being a disunited rabble is political death.
Not that the prime minister is utterly beholden to his party critics. The department of foreign affairs, for instance, was steeling itself to welcoming another senior politician into its diplomatic ranks. Right-wing powerbroker and senate leader Eric Abetz, before he was unceremoniously dumped by Turnbull, was being lined up as our ambassador to Berlin. That Abbott project has been quietly shelved.
That probably explains the Tasmanian senator’s outspoken attack on plans Turnbull was considering to produce enabling legislation for marriage equality. The idea was to have everything in place to green-light same-sex marriage should the promised plebiscite after the election endorse it. Abetz was none-too-subtly threatening a revolt by up to 30 members if the prime minister attempted anything of the sort before the next election.
The appointment of Dr Alan Finkel as Australia’s next chief scientist is another strong signal from Turnbull that the nation is under new management. There is little doubt that the entrepreneurial innovator and scientist wouldn’t have been favoured by the old regime. Imagine Abbott allowing his industry minister to appoint someone with views like this: “My vision is for a country, society, a world where we don’t use any coal, oil, natural gas because we have zero emissions electricity in huge abundance, and we use that for transport, for heating and all the things we ordinarily use electricity.”
With Turnbull and minister Christopher Pyne not demurring at the news conference that unveiled him, Finkel went on: “The best way to get rid of coal is to introduce alternatives that deliver value at a reasonable price, rather than just arbitrarily turning it off.”
The appointment was announced on the day 61 prominent Australians published an open letter to world leaders to negotiate a global moratorium on new coalmines and mine expansion. The logic is simple: if all are agreed on limiting global temperature rises to 2 degrees, we have to start doing something more substantial about emissions sooner rather than later. Expanding coalmines is clearly not helpful in that regard.
But Turnbull wouldn’t have a bar of it. If Australia, the biggest on-water coal exporter in the world, stopped shipping the stuff, other producers would fill the breach. Besides a massive loss of income for the nation, it wouldn’t help the cause. The prime minister ran a line that would have made his predecessor proud: an Australian moratorium would arguably increase global emissions, he said, because “our coal, by and large, is cleaner than coal in many other countries”. In fact, Abbott often ran that line. It was derided by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientists at a Canberra forum earlier in the year.
Turnbull, like opposition leader Bill Shorten, is counting on the market to do the heavy lifting in dealing with coal. It almost certainly will work, as they are at the same time encouraging renewables, which will lead to reduced demand domestically for coal-powered grid electricity. It will just take a lot longer.
The Australia Institute think tank points out that if governments – state and federal – continue subsidising coal producers the new mine will compete with the old mines, bringing down the export price. This will make the commodity more attractive not less, as the science is demanding. Hard-pressed miners such as Glencore have made it crystal clear they don’t need more competition in a market that is expanding, if nowhere as fast as in the boom times of yesteryear.
Adding weight to the argument is analysis that shows the giant Adani Carmichael coalmine in Queensland would not be a goer without government building the rail and port infrastructure and providing a royalty holiday. The test will come if the federal government dips into its Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to help Adani. The Queensland government seems even keener to help out the project.
A struggling Bill Shorten believes the whole issue of climate change gives him an opening over Turnbull. Even before Abbott opened his mouth in London’s Guildhall, the Labor leader certainly didn’t need any reminding that his best chance of being our next prime minister was 17,000 kilometres away. Newspoll saw the Coalition open up an election winning 52-48 lead. And the other signs of political life were even weaker for him. He’s 46 points behind as preferred prime minister and a massive 67 points behind on performance approval. When confronted with these devastating results, he brushed them aside. “I know that if Labor keeps working on the right policies, then the polls will work on themselves.”
This weekend Shorten is heading off to Papua New Guinea, the Marshall Islands and Kiribati. An unprecedented drought in PNG’s rainforests and rising sea levels threatening the Pacific Islands will be the setting for his message to voters back home that he has better policies to combat climate change. His key exhibits are a market-based price on carbon and a 50 per cent target for renewable energy by 2030.
Kiribati’s president, Anote Tong, may take a fair bit of persuading, especially as he and his ally, President Christopher Loeak of the Marshall Islands, are calling for the new coalmining moratorium and for much more ambitious emission reductions from Australia and other developed nations.
Undeterred, Shorten is targeting the prime minister’s apparent contradictions. “I don’t understand what happened to the Malcolm Turnbull of 2009,” he says. “[He] was willing to stake all on ... having policies which were sensible on climate change. Now he’s stuck in government backing in Tony Abbott’s discredited Direct Action plan which just pays big polluters to keep putting out more carbon emissions.”
But the problem for the opposition leader is grabbing people’s attention away from a rampant Turnbull. Shorten’s a bit like Abbott in Guildhall, preaching to his cheer squad. And there just aren’t enough of them. | {
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Atlanta Hawks
Resolution: Find a way to make Trae Young succeed
Trae Young has been absolutely abysmal this season. He shot 36% from deep in his lone year at Oklahoma but has found the NBA to be far less successful, shooting the three ball at just a 27.5% clip. The 15.6 points and 7.4 assists per game look good on paper, but Trae Young needs to be held to a higher standard than making just 1.4 three pointers on 5.1 attempts per game.
Boston Celtics
Resolution: Figure out how to be more consistent
The Celtics have underwhelmed fans in both Boston and around the league, with just a 21-15 record. Call it injuries, call it chemistry or call it unlucky, but the Celtics need to find a way to become a more consistent team. For now, the Celtics can count on Irving, Smart and Morris Sr., but the rest of the supporting cast varies on a night-to-night basis. For example, in their game against San Antonio, Jaylen Brown scored 30 points off the bench while Gordon Hayward failed to score.
Brooklyn Nets
Resolution: Make the Playoffs
The last time the Brooklyn Nets made the playoffs was in the 2014-15 season, and as of right now, they sit just a half game back of the Detroit Pistons for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. A pleasant surprise for the team has been the play of backup point guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who is progressing quicker than anticipated and averaging 17.5 points per game. This team will ultimately go as far as the backcourt will take them.
Charlotte Hornets
Resolution: Get Kemba Walker some help
The Hornets currently sit at 18-18 and would be the 6th seed in the East if the playoffs started today. However, they are very clearly a one man show, as Kemba Walker carries this team on a nightly basis. Walker leads his team in points, assists and steals. Trading for an established big man would aid the Hornets mightily, as they don’t have anyone who can rebound the ball better than Cody Zeller, who is grabbing just 6.2 rebounds per game. The Hornets need to surround Kemba Walker with at least one talented player if they want to make a splash in the playoffs this season.
Chicago Bulls
Resolution: Trade for some picks
The Chicago Bulls are rumored to be in talks revolving around dealing Jabari Parker and possibly Robin Lopez. They did just pull the trigger on dealing Justin Holiday, which returned two draft picks already. The Bulls have just 10 wins this season and will certainly hold another top-7 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. The best move for their franchise is to trade players that either take up too much cap or don’t fit their timeline and aim to build around players like LaVine, Markkanen, and Carter Jr. | {
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“The president quite frankly has led this charge,” Andersson said, adding: “It’s up to our Congress, that co-equal branch, to resist, to say no to this nonsense, to push back, and I call upon my Republican colleagues to do that because what is being spewed as a Republican value is not,” he said. “We are not about hate, we are about inclusion, we are about equal rights for all ... so I call upon my Republican colleagues to reject this and vote no on this.” | {
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Annual pay growth has improved to 2.4% but the decline in UK unemployment slowed to a crawl, official figures show.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported the upturn in regular average earnings - excluding bonuses - for the three months to November, up from the previous rate of 2.3%.
It was a better than expected reading and the strongest since December 2016.
That was enough to help the pound surge above $1.42 against the US dollar, a fresh post-Brexit vote high - with the rally also helped by weakness in the US currency sparked by comments from US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
But pay growth is still trailing behind inflation, which has been running at around 3% in recent months.
It means that, for the ninth month in a row, the ONS reported that pay had fallen in real terms, this time down by 0.5%.
Meanwhile, the number of people in employment rose by 102,000, far ahead of forecasts, to a record 32.2 million.
However, the decline in unemployment slowed, with the jobless total down by just 3,000 to 1.439 million.
The UK's jobless rate remained unchanged from last time, at 4.3%, its lowest level since 1975.
Senior ONS statistician David Freeman said: "Demand for workers clearly remains strong.
"Nevertheless, inflation remains higher than pay growth and so the real value of earnings continues to decline."
Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey said she was "delighted" by the overall figures but she admitted that just after Christmas "people might be feeling a squeeze on their finances".
Economists were divided over the figures.
Paul Hollingsworth, senior UK economist at Capital Economics, said a further acceleration in wage growth was in prospect and could prompt a series of further interest rate hikes from the Bank of England over the coming year.
But Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said pay increases were unlikely to improve enough to see any rate hike before November. | {
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A congressional aide who helped author a Republican memo from the House Intelligence Committee accusing FBI and Justice Department officials of overstepping their surveillance authority is joining the National Security Council, CNN reported Friday.
Kashyap Patel, a senior staffer for Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, reportedly will begin working for the National Security Council's International Organizations and Alliances directorate on Monday.
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The National Security Council did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment.
Patel will help develop the White House’s stance toward the U.S. relationship with the United Nations and other international organizations, CNN reported. National security adviser John Bolton, a former ambassador to the U.N., has been critical of such organizations.
Patel helped pen the so-called Nunes memo, a document excoriating the FBI and Justice Department over allegedly abusing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to obtain a warrant on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The memo alleges that the FBI and Justice Department did not inform a surveillance court that Democrats had partly funded an anti-Trump dossier that was used, in part, to obtain the warrant.
The memo also alleges that Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled the dossier, did so out of hostility toward President Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE.
Patel, according to CNN, was one of two Republican committee staffers who was sent to London in 2017 to connect with Steele's lawyers. The travel was arranged without alerting committee Democrats, CNN reported.
According to CNN, Patel helped craft the memo while working as a senior aide under then-Chairman Devin Nunes Devin Gerald NunesSunday shows preview: Justice Ginsburg dies, sparking partisan battle over vacancy before election Sunday shows preview: With less than two months to go, race for the White House heats up Sunday shows preview: Republicans gear up for national convention, USPS debate continues in Washington MORE (R-Calif.). Nunes is now the House Intelligence Committee’s ranking member.
Using the memo’s authority, the committee moved to declassify the classified information from the FISA warrant, accusing the FBI of hiding that an opposition memo compiled on Trump and Russia was allegedly funded by Democrats. Trump approved the memo’s release, despite FBI officials' requests not to do so.
Democrats responded with a memo attempting to refute the GOP claims. | {
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Special to AG-IP News Agency AMMAN, In a new episode of his weekly program (The World to Where?) aired on Russia Today (RT), - Well-known economic expert, HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, founder and chairman of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Global ...
GENEVA - Delegates from the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) 193 member states wrapped up their Assemblies meetings with a standing ovation for Director General Francis Gurry, whose second and final term as head of the ... | {
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It's no secret that Elon Musk considers Nikola Tesla to be a role model. (After all, he named his automobile company after the guy.) There are many, many parallels between the lives of the two men.
Like Musk, Nikola Tesla was an engineering polymath. Tesla invented neon lights, remote-control boats, alternating current, the hydraulic diode, wireless electricity transmission, and is credited with inventing radio.
Like Musk, Nikola Tesla was showman. When the very concept of electricity was new, he toured a stage show where he demonstrated electrical power by running electrical current through his own body and (reputedly) creating ball lightning--a feat never since repeated.
Like Musk, Nikola Tesla was a celebrity. Tesla was good friends with Mark Twain, for instance, at the height of Twain's international fame. Like Musk, Nikola Tesla was a bit of a ladies' man. Tesla was often seen dining (a bit deal in those days) with some of the great beauties of his time.
Despite his fame and creativity, though, Nikola Tesla gradually lost touch with reality. In his later years, he claimed to have invented some highly unlikely things, like a death ray and a way to photograph human thoughts.
Nikola Tesla also became obsessed with pigeons, feeding thousands of them in his hotel room and claiming that he'd fallen in love with one of them and that the bird had fallen in love with him. His friends had to pay his bills, disguising the payment as "consulting fees."
Nikola Tesla's story has always affected me because, at the age of 20, I was forced to deal with a genius who lost track of reality. My first serious girlfriend, a brilliant, highly creative woman, suddenly stopped sleeping and instead started writing down her ideas to change the world.
As she continued to stay awake, those ideas, at first plausible, became decreasingly so, until she became convinced that world peace would result if we could only get all the world's leaders onto the same carousel. Literally.
Much like Tesla's friends, my girlfriend's parents and teachers were in awe of her and thus were completely unable to cope. It fell to me to get her hospitalized. Ever since then, I've been pretty sensitive to manic behavior.
Now, I'm no psychologist, and even if I were, remote diagnosis is pretty meaningless. However, some of Musk's recent behavior "feels" manic to me. Certainly, over the past few days, Elon Musk has been behaving more strangely than usual.
Musk's recent plan to help rescue the trapped soccer players in Thailand was downright weird. Even if it had been a great idea, changing plans at that point would have further endangered them, and the presence of Elon and entourage can't have been helpful.
Then, when one of the divers pointed that out, Musk made an unfounded accusation that the guy was a pedophile--definitely not an accusation to be made lightly, and highly appropriate in any case for a social-media clapback.
It's all very odd and, well, not Musk-like.
When I consider that Musk by all accounts has been working around the clock to fulfill his company's manufacturing quota and then, atop all that stress, flew across the world on a fool's errand...well, that's pretty much a recipe for some kind of meltdown.
So, frankly, I'm worried. I like Musk. While he's far from perfect (and suffers a great deal from high-tech hubris), I find him and his life inspirational. I'm worried that he's driven himself so hard that he's losing track of reality. I sure hope not. | {
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yeah, if you could just go ahead and not burn out this meme that'd be great
171 shares | {
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Following their series of collaborations throughout 2016 to support the new album “Something To Tell You”, director Paul Thomas Anderson and the buzzy rock band Haim would reunite for yet another music video, released right in the middle of PHANTOM THREAD’s awards season campaign. The song— “NIGHT SO LONG” — is a spare, gorgeously haunting piece that calls for a matching visual treatment, which Anderson delivers in the form of a live performance during Haim’s sound check and subsequent concert at the famed Greek amphitheater in Los Angeles. Following in the minimalist tradition of Anderson’s recent music video work, “NIGHT SO LONG” uses its simple construction to better access and capture the transcendent joy or fleeting rapture of musical expression.
Shooting in a low-contrast style with natural light, Anderson — likely operating the camera himself — initially captures the Haim sisters as close-up faces singing into a microphone. There is little to no context, until a hard cut to a wider shot reveals the girls are performing on a stage by the light of the low-hanging sun. Anderson then shows us the empty amphitheater sprawled out before them, before a hard cut drops the veil of night on top of them and fills the seats with a crowd of fans waving their phones. The piece ends where we started, back on a closeup of the band as they finish their sound check, albeit with the audio swapped out for that night’s live performance— leaving us with an invisible crowd of cheering ghosts while the sisters resign themselves to their introspection.
Anderson’s recent string of minimalist music videos differentiate themselves from the pack by embracing subtlety and nuance over flash, or ideological concepts over technical ones. It’s a testament to his confidence and skill as a filmmaker that he’s able to so quickly and succinctly convey the breadth of his artistic signatures in the space of 5-6 cuts, while still ceding said signatures to the back seat in order to direct our focus onto the band’s own artistry. The track is a beautiful, yet unexpected closer to an otherwise infectiously-energetic album, as is Anderson’s visual realization of the emotional truths behind it.
Beyond its immediate pop culture value, videos like “NIGHT SO LONG” stand to remind us of their creators’ continually-evolving relationship to the cinematic medium; that even brilliant and insanely-accomplished directors like Anderson are still finding new avenues of expression within it disproves the idea that the cinema is an outdated art from best relegated to the twentieth century. Indeed, as long as there’s practitioners like Anderson, the medium still has plenty of life in it yet.
HAIM: “NIGHT SO LONG (LIVE AT THE GREEK)” is currently available via the YouTube embed above. | {
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Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
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boss gives me two cubs tickets cool my bookbag gets a chair | {
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Planned Parenthood’s Leana Wen was let go Tuesday after nearly a year as the abortion provider’s CEO.
During her tenure, she generated news stories such as these:
New Planned Parenthood President Says It’s ‘About Saving People’s Lives’
Planned Parenthood President Guests On Comedy Central, Brags Of Her New ‘Badge Of Honor’
Planned Parenthood President Offended ‘As A Mother’ By Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
Leading the charge for abortion, she tweeted things like this:
"Crisis Pregnancy Centers" falsely depict themselves as health centers when their only purpose is to misinform, shame, and deter anyone seeking safe, legal abortion care. https://t.co/Xs4nwHx2bY — Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) July 14, 2019
Now that she’s been pushed out, whats’ the status of the organization’s interim leader?
She’s a woman of faith.
In 2014, Alexis McGill took her message to the church.
She described herself to The Christian Post as a Christian who believes abortion is complicated issue rightfully managed between the woman, the doctor, and God:
“We all recognize that abortion and terminating a pregnancy is a very complicated decision, but that issue needs to be left to a woman, her doctor and her God, not a politician. I felt that it was a very insulting way of trying to suggest that we’re not capable of grappling with the implications of the decisions that we make.”
Also, keep those black abortions coming:
“I feel like [the pro-life campaign is] an assault on black women’s ability to make a decision. We’d have to talk about the conditions under which that is happening. Black women have less access to healthcare for a whole variety of reasons, and so trying to create those causal links are not always the easiest ways to understand really what’s underlying the challenges that black women are facing.”
Christian Alexis — who’s served, according to LifeNews, on the PP board of directors for “many years” — is sure to generate some compelling headlines of her own.
Concerning Leana — who appeared to perpetually take the position that abortion is all about healthcare rather than politics — there may be a particularly political reason she was ousted.
As reported by The Daily Wire:
Insiders note…that another factor that contributed to Wen’s departure was her lack of “trans-inclusive” language, believing that it would isolate moderates from supporting Planned Parenthood.
Is this a sign of the ubiquitous abortion giant slimmings its waistline, or will the new direction mean impregnated sales?
RedState’s Kira Davis noted on the 16th:
A recent Gallup poll revealed that a mere 25% of Americans support abortions under any circumstances. That puts into question the wisdom of advocating for things like partial birth abortion.
Kira included an interesting quote from Students for Life President Kristin Hawkins:
“The musical chairs at the top of the nation’s number one abortion vendor changes nothing. Women don’t need what Planned Parenthood is selling. Pregnancy is not a disease cured by abortion, and with federally qualified health centers standing by to offer true, full-service healthcare, women have lots of options that don’t include abortion.”
As for Leana’s lack of transgender inclusion, Alexis is primed for such a move. As we’ve already seen in the early Democratic debates, there’s support there. Julian Castro is wholly on board:
“And, you know, what that means is that just because a woman — or, let’s also not forget, someone in the trans community, a trans female — is poor doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have the right to exercise that right to choose.”
And as I covered twice this week, so is bellowing anti-Trump doctor Eugene Gu:
It’s a scientific and medical fact that men can get pregnant and also have abortions. Trans men and non-binary individuals are human beings who deserve to be acknowledged by society. They choose their own identity—not me, not you, not any doctor, and certainly not any politician. — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 12, 2019
It’s a new frontier. So get ready, Christians and men: Your abortions await.
-ALEX
Relevant RedState links in this article: here, here, here, and here.
See 3 more pieces from me:
New Video Allegedly Reveals Planned Parenthood Instructing Teachers On How To Help Kids Hide Abortions From Their Parents
A Continuing Degradation Of Life: Government Orders The Killing Of A Man Who Was Left Quadriplegic By A Car Accident
Apple Co-Founder Has A Message For The World: Get Off Of Facebook
Find all my RedState work here.
And please follow Alex Parker on Twitter and Facebook.
Thank you for reading! Please sound off in the Comments section below.
If you have an iPhone and want to comment, select the box with the upward arrow at the bottom of your screen; swipe left and choose “Request Desktop Site.” If it fails to automatically refresh, manually reload the page. Scroll down to the red horizontal bar that says “Show Comments.” | {
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Bill Murray - So I Got That Going For Me, Which is Nice
she answered i ain't that special to her
that means i am a bit special so i got that goin for me | {
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In 1907, the Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, introduced the first viable method of color photography. Although color photographs had existed, the process was clumsy and complicated. The key ingredient, the Lumières discovered, was potato starch.
The process, called autochrome, involved covering a glass plate with a thin wash of tiny potato starch grains dyed red, green, and blue, thus creating a filter. A thin layer of emulsion was added over that. When the plate was flipped and exposed to light, the resulting image could be developed into a transparency.
Autochrome was immediately popular in Paris, where it was introduced, and soon spread to the United States. The first natural color photograph to appear in National Geographic magazine was an autochrome depicting a flower garden in Belgium, published in 1914. The archives of National Geographic have almost 15,000 glass autochrome plates, one of the largest collections in the world.
Like early black and white photography, autochrome was a slow process. Because exposures were long, subjects had to stay still—sometimes unsuccessfully—to avoid a blurred image. But with autochrome, the blur had an unusual aesthetic effect: Paired with the soft, dyed colors, it made the photo look like a painting.
"That's one thing that's unique about the autochromes that you don't see with modern photos—that beautiful painterly look," said Bill Bonner, image collection archivist at National Geographic.
"We continued to use them into the early 1930s, and then other newer processes replaced the autochrome," said Bonner. "By 1938, we shifted to Kodachrome."
Most publishers adopted Kodachrome in the 1930s because it was easier to use. Autochrome required photographers to carry around heavy wooden suitcases filled with fragile glass plates; Kodachrome film, twinned with a 35mm camera, was light and easy to travel with.
Today, autochrome is rarely used, and films like Kodachrome have been supplanted by digital.
The autochrome plates in our archives provide a unique look into the past, to a time before digital precision replaced a softer, painterly look and palette. | {
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I have spent much of my time writing for this publication talking about how complicated our politics are. Talking about the dangers of failing to acknowledge our complicated history and the need to be honest and open about how to move our country forward.
My need to bridge the divide is a product of having spent my entire life trying to see both sides of the argument. Trying to not fall into the trap of absolutes. Refusing to accept that the world we live in exists only in black and white. Doing my best to show my country that we could be more than the very things that separate us. At some point, enough is enough though. At some point, I can’t be a consensus builder. At some point, even I run out of excuses and explanations for people who can’t even be honest with themselves.
I’m a black man in America with graduate degrees on top of graduate degrees. I feel just as comfortable at a country concert as I do at a rap concert. My friends look like the big box of crayons and my family looks like the United Nations. I am the walking embodiment of this country’s progress, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit by silently and watch us go backwards. The costs are too high.
To the supporters and enablers of President Trump: please read carefully, because I don’t want you to miss a single word. You will never get your country back because it was never yours to have in the first place. America doesn’t belong to any one person. It belongs to Muslims in Detroit, Christians in Lubbock, Jews in New York City, and atheists in Los Angeles.
America belongs to Republicans just as much as America belongs to Democrats. That’s how these UNITED States work. To the uninformed and incompetent former Governor from Alaska, the knuckle-dragging bigot masquerading as a special advisor, and the race-baiting failure of a president that currently have the loudest voices in the Republican Party, you do not have a monopoly on this great country. You never will.
What’s ironic is that my family has been here a lot longer than many of the same people who claim to serve the “real America.” When did your family arrive here, Mr. President? I can trace my family lineage back to our nation’s original sin, but I still love this country more and more each day. In spite of its flaws, I love this country. In spite of the inequality and pockmarks, I love this country. In spite of all those that question my place in this country, I still love this country. This is just as much my country as anyone else’s. I still get goosebumps when the national anthem plays before football games and I still tear up when I hear stories of bravery and valor from our troops.
(And in case there was any confusion, our military isn’t some monolithic group of made up individuals that disappear as soon as we take our hand off of our hearts, it’s made up of real Americans of all races, religions, and beliefs. It’s made up of us.)
It’s easy to wave a flag in the air and call yourself a patriot. It’s easy to put a bumper sticker on your truck. It’s easy to put your hand over your heart and pledge allegiance, but that no more makes you an American than putting on a football helmet makes me Tom Brady. You have to earn it. You have to put in the work.
America is more than just a catchphrase or a collection of colors on a piece of cloth. America means liberty. America means freedom. Being American isn’t just a political term, it’s a way of life. It would serve many enablers and supporters of our President to stop going through the motions of calling themselves an American and ask themselves what it means to actually be an American. I think the term for that is personal responsibility. The time for party politics is over. Your nation, my nation, our nation is under attack. Not just from a foreign entity, but a domestic one as well.
Standing by this president makes you an embarrassment to all that is good in this country. It makes you a stain on the fabric of our nation. It makes you the antithesis of everything that your party purports to stand for. Simply put, it makes you un-American. | {
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Does it Pay to Pay? Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing
Getting listed and FOUND in search engines is not as easy as it used to be. First came the “pay-per-click” (PPC) search engines. Overture (formerly GoTo) changed the face of Internet marketing when it began allowing sites to bid on keywords and assert more control over their rankings. Soon after, other PPC search engines began to emerge, and today there are literally hundreds (though few have the reach or power of Overture).
Next came paid submissions. Search engines with paid submissions *require* that a web site pay a fee to be included in their search engine. The most notable of these is Yahoo!, which now requires that ALL commercial web sites pay a hefty non-refundable fee to be reviewed by their editors…and with no inclusion guarantee.
Then there’s “pay for inclusion” (PFI). PFI programs guarantee your site inclusion in the search engine database that drives search query results…but these still do not guarantee that you will rank well when queries are done.
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Now there are all sorts of text-based ads that look like search result listings but are really paid-for placements. Some, like Google’s AdWords(1), are not so disguised. Google AdWords allows advertisers to purchase target keywords and have text box ads appear down the right-hand side of the search results page. Others, like Yahoo! “Sponsor Listings” and MSN’s “Featured Sites,” are less obvious.
All these pay-to-play options don’t even take into account web sites that have been well optimized for search engines, which a good Internet marketer needs to also take into consideration. Given this landscape, one has to ask, “Does it pay to pay for search engine rankings?”
We believe that in many cases it does, so this week we’re offering some pointers on planning your own keyword buying campaign.
Understand the Landscape
Overture has always seemed to be the leader. First it introduced the pay-for-placement bidding system, which it has constantly honed and refined over the years, but it’s truly brilliant move was securing partnerships with other popular search engines like Yahoo!, MSN, and Alta Vista. With these partnerships, Overture syndicates its top bid results on its partner sites, meaning that bidding on and securing top placements on Overture will also garner you highly visible placements on Overture’s partner sites as well. With Overture, the “follow the leader” strategy makes sense.
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Still, Overture faces a serious competitor. Google is not only the #1 search engine of preference on the Internet, but it has also begun to chip away at Overture’s PPC kingdom. It’s already usurped Overture as the syndication partner of AOL Search and soon Ask.com, too. Google’s AdWords Select program, a similar bid-for-placement offering, drives the syndicated results. These two search engines need to be given heavy consideration when implementing search engine marketing strategies.
Choose Your Keywords Carefully
When selecting your pay for placements keywords, drop your own perspective and put yourself in your typical buyer’s shoes. Think, “What will my buyer type into a search engine and how do I want them to find my site?” Keep in mind that most people today search for keyword phrases (two or three keywords grouped together) to help eliminate irrelevant results so consider purchasing or bidding on more specific keyword phrases which will save you money as well as bring you more qualified buyers.
For example, let’s say you sell scented candles in glass containers. If you just purchase the keyword “candles” you’ll still run the risk of paying for visitors who are looking for three-wick pillar candles, tapers, unscented candles, carved candles…well, you get the picture. Look instead at terms like “scented candles,” “container candles,” or “cinnamon candles” where you can get more bang for your buck.
Also, don’t forget to consider common misspellings for your keywords. Although Overture has recently introduced an “anti- misspelling” technology called “Match Driver,” Google and the other PPC engines do not distinguish between singular and plural terms or commonly misspelled terms…which can also mean effective, inexpensive ad placements for you.
Write Effective Ad Copy
With search engine listings, you’ve only got a small text box or one or two lines to include a title and description of your site. You need to strive to make every single word count. This can be especially important with Google AdWords & AdWord Select buys, which rank your ad by a formula based in part on your ad’s click-thru rate. If your ad gets poor click-thru, it might appear far down the page depending upon the number of other advertisers.
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Here are a few tips for writing good search term ad copy:
* Include keywords in the text or title of your ad
* Identify what makes you unique or better than the competition
* Use calls to action, but try to be more creative than “click here”
* Write a description that will pre-qualify the visitor. You are paying for that click so try to encourage serious buyers while discouraging casual browsers.
* Be sure to proofread before submitting
Track Your Results
As with any Internet advertising program, you ought to monitor your click-thru results and analyze what keywords and what ad copy works best at converting visitors into sales. The beautiful thing about both Overture and Google programs is that you can change your keywords and descriptions by yourself and instantaneously using their Web interfaces.
As for tracking, Overture provides a significant number of reports you can generate at any time to allow you to see your click-thru rates, bid costs, etc. Google’s reporting is more constricted but still important to review.
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On your own end you can also implement some simple techniques to track your campaigns. Start by assigning unique URLs for each keyword. For example, a URL for an ad on Google AdWords might look like www.yoursite.com?referrer=google+keyword. More sophisticated tracking can involve unique tracking id codes and/or post-clicking tracking using a combination of tracking urls and invisible pixels on desired “action pages.” Refer to our previous marketing tip “Greater Uses of Post-Click Tracking” for more on this.
In order for your campaigns to be optimally effective for you, you also ought to figure out what you want from your visitor: mere branding and awareness, a lead or registration, a subscription, a sale, etc.. Once you know this, you should try to pinpoint exactly what that action is worth to you cost-wise because that amount should become your cap or “max bid” as Overture now calls it with their Auto-Bidding program. Calculating your cap and tracking your click-thru and conversion rates ultimately determines if you’re receiving the kind of effective ROI you’re looking for out of your search term ad placements.
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You should also be aware that there are now many third party bid management tools for PPC bid-based search engines like Overture. These bid-based search engines can be dangerous to advertiser’s time and pocketbook if not managed correctly. Bid management tools can help control your search term campaigns, but you still need to be vigilant and continue to monitor your own ROI if the bidding on your chosen terms rapidly escalates.
The Pros & Cons of PPC
One thing about PPC search engines is that you can quickly and sometimes relatively inexpensively achieve top placement in search engines rankings. If you’re trying to reach a targeted market quickly and assuredly, PPC programs most likely should be part of your online marketing mix. PPC programs are also a great way to test terms and ideas. The information you gather with PPC search engine programs can be invaluable for implementing other online marketing initiatives like ad campaigns, email marketing and traditional search engine optimization.
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However, an ad is still an ad, and if what you’re offering is not relevant to the searcher or is not written well, it’s still not going to attract visitors. Plus, there has been some feedback lately that searchers now recognize the paid placements as ads and have begun to ignore them much as they do most banner ads.
Bottom line for the savvy online marketer: embrace both PPC AND “old-fashioned” search engine optimization programs for better overall long-term results.
Reprinted with permission from WebAdvantage.net, an Internet Marketing and Online Advertising Firm Not to be Reckoned With | {
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With oil and natural gas prices rising and coal prices still relatively low, the return of the US to a greater reliance on coal might seem inevitable. However, several recent reports suggest that coal reserves, which have shrunk dramatically during the past century, may still be overstated. Coal prices are likely to rise precipitously during the next two decades due to transport bottlenecks and higher transport costs, falling production trends in many current producing regions, and the lack of suitable new coalfields. This information should give pause to any agency planning new coal power plants today.
Because the US has the world’s largest coal reserves, it has sometimes been called "the Saudi Arabia of coal." It is the world’s second-largest coal producer, after China, but surpasses both the number three and four producer nations (India and Australia) by nearly a factor of three.
Wood was this nation’s primary fuel until the mid-1880s, when deforestation necessitated greater reliance on abundant coal resources. Coal then remained America’s main energy source until the 1930s, when it was overtaken by oil. Today coal fuels about 50 percent of US electricity production and provides about a quarter of the country’s total energy.
The US currently produces over a billion tons of coal per year, with quantities increasing annually. This is well over double the amount produced in 1960. However, due to a decline in the average amount of energy contained in each ton of coal produced (i.e., declining resource quality), the total amount of energy flowing into the US economy from coal is now falling, having peaked in 1998. This decline in energy content per unit of weight (also known as "heating value") amounts to more than 30 percent since 1955. It can partly be explained by the depletion of anthracite reserves and the nation’s increasing reliance on sub-bituminous coal and even lignite, a trend that began in the 1970s. But resource quality is declining even within each coal class.
While there are coal resources in many states, the main concentrations are in Appalachia, Illinois, Wyoming, and Montana (see map below). The 53 largest coalmines in the US, located in just a few states, account for almost 60 percent of total production.
Three states (Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and West Virginia) produce 52 percent of the higher-quality coal in the US. All three of these states seem to be in decline or plateau. Since the Northeast was the area of the nation earliest settled and was long a primary center for industrial manufacture, it is not surprising that the coal of this region was exploited preferentially. Today, Pennsylvania’s anthracite is almost gone. Mining companies there are now exploiting seams as thin as 28 inches. West Virginia, the second largest coal-producing state (after Wyoming), where much coal is surface mined in an environmentally ruinous practice known as mountaintop removal, is nearing its maximum production rate and will see declines commence within the next few years, according to a recent USGS report. (www.byronwine.com/files/coal.pdf)
The interior region—consisting of Illinois, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Western Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas—is the smallest coal producer of the three main producing regions. The Illinois basin boasts large reserves of bituminous coal, but production has fallen there since the mid-1990s. Its coal generally has a high sulfur content (3 to 7 percent), which runs afoul of US environmental laws, especially the Clean Air Act of 1990. Prior to this legislation, power plants burning high-sulfur coal released emissions resulting in acid rain that decimated forests throughout much of the nation. The lignite steam coal of Louisiana is an exception within the region: its sulfur content is low and so production has risen substantially in recent years. After 2018, sulfur scrubbers will be mandatory for coal-fired power plants in the US, perhaps facilitating a move to increase production of coal from the Illinois Basin.
Wyoming has some bituminous coal, but most of its reserves consist of sub-bituminous and lignite. Production from the state (primarily from the Powder River Basin) has increased sharply since 1970, because its coal is abundant, cheaply surface-mined, and low in sulfur. Wyoming is currently responsible for 80 percent of coal production west of the Mississippi.
Montana also has large deposits of lower-quality coal (sub-bituminous and lignite), but these have not been tapped. The current state governor, Brian Schweitzer, is pushing for development of these resources using gasification and carbon sequestration technologies, but there are reasons to doubt whether this will occur soon or on a meaningful scale. Montana’s coal contains salts that will almost inevitably find their way into the environment if widespread surface mining occurs, contaminating rivers and creating problems for cattle ranching—the state’s economic engine and a locus of considerable political clout.
For the nation as a whole, future supply hinges on the question of how long rising production of lower-quality coal from Wyoming—supplemented in the future perhaps by coal from Montana and the Illinois Basin—can continue to compensate for declining amounts of high-quality coal from the East. Clearly, the US has the potential to produce enormous quantities of coal. But the gradual depletion of coal with higher heating value is already necessitating the mining of larger quantities of lower-quality coal to yield an equivalent amount of energy, and as coal is sourced more from Montana and the Illinois this will require the building of more rail transport infrastructure and the overcoming of environmental problems and regulatory hurdles.
Over sixty percent of coal mined in the US is dug from the surface. This is a higher percentage than in most nations, and it is largely due to the contribution of Wyoming. In the eastern states, most coal still comes from deep mines, which are moving toward the recovery of ever-thinner seams. Highwall mining systems and new technologies for longwall mining may lead, ultimately, to remote-control mining involving few or no personnel working underground. These new and more efficient technologies will enable some coal to be mined that would otherwise be left behind, but they are unlikely to be applied throughout the entire industry due to high up-front investment costs.
In surface mining, the largest extraction cost is often incurred in removing overburden (soil and rock). Over the years, the coal industry has introduced ever-larger earth-moving machines for this purpose. However, truck size has probably reached a practical maximum, as the biggest vehicles cannot be maneuvered on roads.
However coal is mined, the industry must always confront the bottom line: the cost of getting coal out of the ground cannot exceed the market price for produced coal. Thus the current price determines whether marginal coals will be mined profitably, or simply left in the ground. On the other hand, however, as the costs of bringing coal to market rise, this can cause the price of coal to increase—unless and until higher prices suppress demand. Given that demand for electricity continues to expand, and that cheap alternatives to coal for power generation do not exist in sufficient quantity in the short run, there seems to be no near-term cap to coal prices. As a result, marginal coalfields are now more likely to be mined.
During the two-year period from January 2006 to January 2008, prices rose from about $100 a ton to $250 a ton for high-quality metallurgical grades of US coal. Central Appalachian steam coal is currently selling for about $90 a ton, up from $40 two years ago. During this time production costs have risen as well, though not at the same pace.
The cost of producing coal is related to the price of oil. Consider the case of Massey Energy Company, the nation’s fourth-largest coal company, which annually produces 40 million tons of coal using about 40 million gallons of diesel fuel—about a gallon per ton (the company also uses lubricants, rubber products, and explosives, all made from petroleum or natural gas). If the price of diesel goes up one dollar, this translates directly to $40 million in increased costs; indirectly related costs also climb.
These costs and prices need to be seen in proportion: while coal generates half of America’s electricity, in effect providing much of the essential basis for all economic activity within the country, US coal industry revenues are only about $25 billion—one-tenth those of WalMart.
During some recent years, the US was a net coal importer, since coal brought by ship from South America was often cheaper to supply to coastal cities than US coal moved there by rail. This was partly a result of rail transport bottlenecks that are now being addressed with the laying of more rails and the construction of more coal cars. Now, however, with coal prices high and imports growing in China and India, the US has begun exporting larger quantities. Mines are employing more workers and production is booming.
History of Reserves Estimates
The US has seen a long controversy between coal resource optimists and pessimists—a controversy that is somewhat mirrored in the global coal resource picture.
In 1907, Marius R. Campbell, Director of the USGS, headed the first attempt at a scientific survey of US coal, concluding that ultimately recoverable reserves amounted to 3157.2 billion tons. Since production in that year was 570 million tons, simple arithmetic yielded an R/P ratio of 5500/1, which was interpreted as meaning that the nation had a 5,500-year supply. That implied an effectively limitless amount for the practical purposes of economic planning.
Campbell did hedge his estimate by pointing out that much of this coal was not minable, or was inaccessible for other reasons. He also wrote that ". . . the bulk of coal being mined today is the best in the country, and before long, perhaps before 50 years [i.e., by 1959], much of the high-rank coals will be exhausted." (Putnam 234) Still, Campbell’s figure for total reserves was for many years taken at face value.
Soon, state surveys began gathering more detailed and accurate information, which resulted in the downgrading of regional reserves. Thus when the US Coal Commission mounted a new survey in 1923, it reduced all state reserves figures and dropped some states entirely from its list of active or likely coal producers. Yet through the early decades of the 20th century, the USGS and the Bureau of Mines stuck to the position that America would have plenty of coal for several millennia.
Shortly after World War II, Andrew B. Crichton (a coal engineer and mine operator in Johnstown, Pennsylvania) undertook a state-by-state informal review of existing reserves estimates, publishing his results in an article titled "How Much Coal Do We Really Have? The Need for an Up-To-Date Survey," in Coal Technology (August 1948). Crichton minced no words:
It was asserted at the Denver [USGS] meeting last October that no one should have the temerity to question the Government figures unless they submitted maps and records proving their statements. Well, that is quite a burden to impose upon an individual to justify an opinion regarding our coal reserves. But that is exactly what could be done in many cases in the east where many have knowledge of the wide discrepancy between the Government figures and private records based on prospecting and actual development. It is these wide differences that prompt the fears and lead to the belief that these fantastic and unbelievable figures of the United States Geological Survey are wrong and dangerously misleading and should be corrected promptly.
Citing instance after instance in which USGS reserves figures for well-mined regions had turned out to be highly inflated, Crichton went on to offer his own estimate of national coal reserves as 223 billion tons—a number not that much smaller than the current official estimate.
Crichton’s article, while causing understandable consternation and embarrassment for the USGS, could not be ignored. It was cited repeatedly in Palmer Putnam’s authoritative book Energy In the Future (1953), which also offered pessimistic assessments of US oil and natural gas supplies. Indeed, Putnam demonstrably erred on the conservative side, forecasting that America’s oil production would peak between 1955 and 1960 (the actual peak was in 1970); and that coal production would begin to decline by 1990—whereas, as we have seen, actual produced amounts continue to grow annually.
The USGS and the Bureau of Mines, which was later absorbed into the Department of Energy, responded by gradually reducing estimates of coal reserves figures for many states and the nation as a whole. Yet through the 1950s, national reserves remained at well over 500 billion tons—still above 1,000 years in terms of R/P forecasting.
In the 1960s, concerned that reserves figures were not making sufficient allowances for factors that would prevent much of the resource from ever being produced, the USGS commissioned surveys by geologist Paul Averitt, culminating in the publication, in 1975, of Coal Resources of the US. By now the official estimate of recoverable reserves had been whittled down to the current range of 260 to 275 billion tons. This was seen as no cause for alarm, as the reserves-to-production ratio forecast remained at comfortably above 200 years; also, it was believed that new technologies (such as longwall mining and underground gasification) would eventually be able to convert substantial quantities of resources back into reserves.
In 1995, the USGS began work on the National Coal Resource Assessment (NCRA), a multi-year effort to create a digital assessment on a region-by-region basis, which is still in process, with few of the crucial results currently publicly available.
According to the EIA website, as of January 1, 2007 the Estimated Recoverable Reserves for the US amounted to 267 billion tons. Since production for 2006 was 1,162,750 tons, that would indicate an R/P ratio of about 230/1.
A graphic from the Department of Energy (EIA), using 2005 data, is helpful in visualizing the various categories within the overall coal resource base.
As we are about to see, the long process of revising national coal reserves figures downward may not be at an end.
New Studies
1. Coal: Research and Development to Support National Energy Policy (National Academy of Sciences [NAS], July 2007, http://books.nap.edu/). This book-length report concluded that "there is no question that sufficient minable coal is available to meet the nation’s coal needs through 2030," and also that "there is probably sufficient coal to meet the nation’s needs for more than 100 years at current production levels"—though this latter judgment does not appear to be based on a peaking analysis. In sum, however, the report is a plea for better, more realistic reserves estimates:
[I]t is not possible to confirm that there is a sufficient supply of coal for the next 250 years, as is often asserted. A combination of increased rates of production with more detailed reserve analyses that take into account location, quality, recoverability, and transportation issues may substantially reduce the estimated number of years supply. This increasing uncertainty associated with the longer-term projections arises because significant information is incomplete or unreliable. The data that are publicly available for such projections are outdated, fragmentary, or inaccurate.
These doubts about current reserves figures were based upon recent Coal Recoverability Studies undertaken in Kentucky, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming—in effect, spot checks to determine whether reserves figures were indeed reliable within restricted areas where coal recoverability could be determined with some accuracy as the result of mining experience.
A total of 65 areas in 22 coal fields have been analyzed, and these studies suggest that 8 to 89 percent of the identified resources in these coal fields are recoverable and 5 to 25 percent of identified resources may be classified as reserves. Because they are based on site-specific criteria, these studies provide considerably improved estimates compared to the ERR [Estimated Recoverable Reserves].
One such study, of the Matewan quadrangle of eastern Kentucky, concluded: "a strong argument can be made that traditional coal producing regions may soon be experiencing resource depletion problems far greater and much sooner than previously thought." (http://pubs.usgs.gov/)
The NAS report enumerates the problems that the US coal industry will face in coming decades:
Almost certainly, coals mined in the future will be lower quality because current mining practices result in higher-quality coal being mined first, leaving behind lower-quality material (e.g., with higher ash yield, higher sulfur, and/or higher concentrations of potentially harmful elements). The consequences of relying on poorer-quality coal for the future include (1) higher mining costs (e.g., the need for increased tonnage to generate an equivalent amount of energy, greater abrasion of mining equipment); (2) transportation challenges (e.g., the need to transport increased tonnage for an equivalent amount of energy); (3) beneficiation challenges (e.g., the need to reduce ash yield to acceptable levels, the creation of more waste); (4) pollution control challenges (e.g., capturing higher concentrations of particulates, sulfur, and trace elements; dealing with increased waste disposal); and (5) environmental and health challenges.
2. Coal: Resources and Future Production (Werner Zittel and Jörg Schindler, Energy Watch Group [EWG], March 2007, www.energywatchgroup.org/). This report contains ten pages of analysis specific to US coal supplies. The EWG authors note,
Until the year 2000, productivity [the amount of coal produced per worker hour] steadily increased for all types of coal produced covering surface and subsurface mining. But since then productivity has declined by about 10%. . . . The decline in productivity can only be explained by the necessity of rising efforts in production. This might be due to deeper digging and/or to a higher level of waste production. Are these already indications for the era of ‘easy coal’ drawing to a close?
The EWG report offers several peaking scenarios for US coal. The most optimistic shows a peak in 2070:
However, the authors warn that "Even if volumetric production rates can be increased by about 60% until 2070-2080 before decline sets in, the corresponding energy production will increase only by about 45-50% due to the increased share of sub-bituminous coal and lignite." Like the National Academy of Sciences, the EWG authors believe that the official estimated recoverable reserves figure is too large. They offer two alternative scenarios for future production: one in which only recoverable reserves at existing mines are considered producible (peak in 2015), and the other in which reported estimated recoverable reserves are all producible, but regional production trends are taken into account peak in 2040). They suggest that "The real profile will be somewhere between these two extremes."
A third peaking forecast is based on an LBST (German renewable energy consultancy Ludwig Bölkow Systemtechnik) analysis, which is itself based on USGS production forecasts in 2000 using 1995 data. The USGS forecast is corrected for actual production in the intervening years, and a future production profile is chosen in accordance with past production trends and likely production growth (Montana and Illinois are assumed to provide only marginally increased amounts). It is this fourth scenario, with a peak around 2025, that the EWG authors appear to consider most reasonable.
The authors conclude:
Considering the insights of the regional analysis it is very likely that bituminous coal production in the US has already peaked, and that total (volumetric) coal production will peak between 2020 and 2030. The possible growth to arrive at peak measured in energy terms will be lower, only about 20% above today’s level. . . . [T]he 250 billion ton figure [the current official estimate of recoverable reserves] should not be the basis for energy planning.
The various EWG scenarios suggest that if Montana and Illinois can resolve their production blockages, or the nation becomes so desperate for energy supplies that environmental concerns are simply swept away, then the peak will come somewhat later, while the decline will be longer, slower, and probably far dirtier.
3. Lignite and Hard Coal: Energy Suppliers for World Needs until the Year 2100 – An Outlook(Thomas Thielemann, Sandro Schmidt, and J. Peter Gerling, German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources [BGR], International Journal of Coal Geology Volume 72, Issue 1, 3 September 2007, http://www.sciencedirect.com/). This paper forecasts no bottleneck in coal supplies and a large potential for expanding coal-to-liquids (CTL) production. It offers relatively little detail for individual producing countries and makes no attempt at a peaking analysis. For the US, the explicit conclusion is that there will be no coal supply problems this century.
4. A Supply-Driven Forecast for the Future of Global Coal Production (Höök, Zittel, Schindler, and Aleklett;Energy Policy, in press, www.tsl.uu.se/). Much of this report repeats data and arguments from the prior EWG publication. The conclusions for the US are also similar:
It is reasonable that USA with its huge energy consumption will be among the first in the Big Six to peak in coal production. All major coal-producing states, except Wyoming, seem to be near or past peak production. It should however be noticed that environmental laws and other socioeconomic restrictions probably prevent a significant amount of coal from being produced in the near future, especially high-sulfur coals. A relaxation of the restrictions will therefore probably be able to increase the reserves, but whether this relaxation will happen or not is hard to tell and not considered in the forecast. . . . The decline in heat value shows that the best American coals are gone and that poorer and poorer coals are exploited each year. The decrease in mining productivity is an also in line with the fact that the most easy-accessible coal is gone.
"A Supply-Driven Forecast" contains two new charts, one a high-case and the other a low-case scenario. The higher case "depicts a continued rapid expansion of Wyoming together with a build-up of the capacity in Montana." The lower case "does not envision a dramatic increase of the Montanan coal production and consequently the production level from Montana remains at its current level." In the higher case, production peaks around 2040; in the lower case, which the authors regard as "more realistic," the decline commences around 2030.
5. Hubbert linearization and curve-fitting (Rutledge and Laherrère). David Rutledge, Tomiyasu Professor of Electrical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology and Director of Caltech’s Lee Center for Advanced Networking, in a presentation at Caltech in October 2007, used Hubbert linearization analysis to estimate future global coal production (http://rutledge.caltech.edu/). Rutledge argues that, in any region for which we have something close to a complete production history (i.e., production has declined substantially due to resource depletion—e.g., British coal or US lower-48 oil), historic reserves estimates typically have turned out to be too high. As we have seen, this position is now in effect supported by NAS on the basis of recent site-specific case studies. Rutledge goes on to argue that Hubbert linearization often yields a more accurate forecast of ultimately recoverable reserves.
Rutledge applies linearization to North American coal producing regions, "with trends for the East (40Gt), West (25Gt), reserves for Montana (68Gt), and trends for Canada and Mexico (2Gt total)." This results in an estimate of total ultimately recoverable reserves of 135 billion tons, roughly half the reserves figure now used by official agencies.
Veteran petroleum geologist Jean Laherrère has charted two Hubbert curves for US coal ("Combustibles fossiles: quel avenir pour quel monde?" http://aspofrance.viabloga.com/), one assuming an ultimate production of 150 billion tons (which is roughly in line with Rutledge’s conclusion just cited), and the other assuming 300 billion tons (which is somewhat more than the current official ERR). The production peak in the former case occurs in 2025; in the latter case, decline commences after 2060.
Implications
With oil and natural gas prices rising at alarming rates, the return of the US to a greater reliance on coal might seem inevitable. The nation is currently paying over $620 billion per year for petroleum imports, and this ongoing transfer of wealth abroad cannot help but have a substantial negative impact on the domestic economy. There are three ways to moderate that impact: reduce consumption of liquid fuels through conservation; produce more fuels domestically; or electrify transport, which will require more electricity. Coal could help with either of the latter two strategies. Given that the nation possesses so much coal, and that energy from coal is still relatively cheap, it would seem inevitable that strong arguments will be made for a dramatic increase in coal production to help solve the nation’s energy problems.
Yet if most of the recent analyses cited here are correct, this strategy has a short shelf life. Within the planning horizon for any coal plant proposed today lie much higher coal prices and perhaps even resource scarcity.
The sheer amounts of coal that will be needed in order to offset any significant proportion of oil (and perhaps also natural gas) consumption, and to meet the projected increased demand for electricity, are mind-boggling. Coal is a lower-quality fossil fuel in the best case, and America is being forced to use ever lower-quality coal. Just to offset the declining heating value of US coal while meeting EIA forecasts for electricity demand growth by 2030, the nation will then have to mine roughly 80 percent more coal then than it is doing currently. If carbon sequestration and other new technologies for consuming coal are implemented, they will increase the amount of coal required in order to produce the same amount of energy for society’s use, since the energy penalty for capture and sequestration is estimated at up to 40 percent. A broad-scale effort to produce synthetic liquid fuels from coal (CTL) will also dramatically increase coal demand. If the current trend to expand coal exports continues, this would stimulate demand even further. Altogether, there is a realistic potential for more than a doubling, perhaps even a tripling, of US coal demand and production by 2030—which would hasten exhaustion of the resource from many current mining regions and draw the inevitable production peak closer in time.
Assuming this higher demand scenario (from CTL, increased exports, and growing electricity consumption), by 2030 the nation’s dependence on coal will be much greater than is currently the case, and coal’s proportional contribution to the total US energy supply will have grown substantially. But at the same time, prices for coal are likely to have increased precipitously because of transport bottlenecks and higher transport costs (due to soaring diesel prices), falling production trends in many current producing regions, and the lack of suitable new coalfields. The interactions of high and rising coal prices with efforts to maximize output are hard to predict.
As limits to domestic coal production appear, exports could diminish and there could instead be efforts to import more coal, probably from South America. But in that case the US economy would suffer increasingly from economic dependencies and geopolitical vulnerabilities that already hobble the nation as a result of its oil imports.
It may be tempting to think of coal as a transitional energy source for the next few decades, while a longer-term energy strategy emerges. But in that case, an important question arises: Will there be sufficient investment capital and technical resources in three or four decades to fund the transition to the next energy source, whatever it may be? By that time (assuming EIA projections are reasonably accurate), demand for energy will be higher. The price of oil, gas, and coal will be higher—perhaps much higher—and so the nation will be spending proportionally much more of its GDP on energy than it does now. Meanwhile, the energy cost of building new infrastructure of any kind will be higher. Therefore it is likely that insufficient investment capital will be available for the large number of new energy projects required. The transition if deferred will thus be more expensive and difficult than it would be now. Indeed, the longer a transition to an ultimate (and sustainable) energy regime is put off, the harder that transition becomes.
Coal currently looks like a solution to many of America’s fast-growing energy problems. However, this is a solution that, if applied on a broad scale, seems certain only to exacerbate the nation’s energy dilemma in the long run, as well as contributing to an impending global climate catastrophe.
(Note: This article is a draft chapter from a forthcoming book, currently titled Coal’s Future/Earth’s Fate, to be published by Post Carbon Press in spring 2009. The author wishes to thank Werner Zittel, David Rutledge, Jean Laherrère, David Strahan, Julian Darley, and Jason Brenno for assistance with this article.
Previous MuseLetters on global coal supply issues are archived on Global Public Media (www.globalpublicmedia.com): | {
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Working Journalists Attacked By Federal Agents
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO - The American Civil Liberties Union today will ask a federal appeals court to allow a case brought by journalists who were kicked, punched and pepper sprayed by FBI agents to move forward. The ACLU will ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to reverse an earlier decision by the district court that sided with the FBI agents and ignored important constitutional issues raised by the journalists.
“This case raises the question of how far government agents can go to impede the ability of journalists to gather the news,” said Catherine Crump, staff attorney with the ACLU First Amendment Working Group. “It’s time for the courts to exercise some much needed judicial oversight. These journalists deserve their day in court.”
In February 2006, several journalists attempting to report on the search of a San Juan apartment by FBI agents approached agents leaving the apartment to ask for their comments. The FBI agents responded by using physical force to intimidate the journalists to stop them from reporting on the apartment search.
On November 5, 2007, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of the journalists, asserting that the FBI agents had violated their First Amendment right to gather news and their Fourth Amendment right to be free from excessive force. The ACLU’s lawsuit asserts that the FBI agents prevented the journalists from gathering the news by, among other things, punching, shoving, and kicking them, spraying pepper spray in their faces, covering the lens of their camera, and pointing an automatic rifle at a one of the journalists.
“In keeping several journalists from doing their jobs, the FBI agents violated the First Amendment right to freedom of the press,” said William Ramirez, Executive Director and attorney with the ACLU of Puerto Rico. “The FBI should not be able to exert excessive physical force every time it wants to escape public scrutiny.”
At the time of the apartment search, the FBI was the subject of intense criticism as a result of an earlier raid in which a leader of the Puerto Rican independence movement was killed.
In addition to Crump and Ramirez, attorneys in the lawsuit are Aden Fine of the ACLU First Amendment Working Group, Josué González of the ACLU of Puerto Rico and Nora Vargas-Agosta. The Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press has filed an amicus brief in the case.
The ACLU’s brief and other related documents are available online here: www.aclu.org/freespeech/censorship/34007res20071105.html | {
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How could that be, you ask? Anyone who saw Clinton's performance in the last Democratic debate would have to conclude she is clueless in the war against terror, refusing even to utter the words "radical Islam." Only the most credulous among us would not concede that fanatics are riving one of the world's largest religions apart. The former secretary of state also missed a chance to describe how she would be different from President Obama in his unsuccessful "containment" of ISIS. Oddly, she failed to challenge Bernie Sanders on his ridiculous claim that climate change gives rise to terror organizations. Those deadly commando-style raids we saw in France? Apparently they were not the result of some twisted ideology; it was a fight over scarce water resources.
Her opponents won’t say it, but I will: Hillary Clinton is the Democratic Party’s Dick Cheney.
No, what makes Hillary Clinton the Dick Cheney of the Democrats is Libya. You heard that right — Clinton is to Obama in Libya what Cheney was to President Bush in Iraq. Against other voices urging caution, they both strongly advocated the invasion of a country that, lacking a follow-up plan to restore stability, fell into complete chaos.
Everyone knows of Cheney's role as an unapologetic interventionist in Iraq. For that, he has been pilloried on the left. Neither has he escaped criticism on the right. No less an authority than former President George H.W. Bush has chastised Cheney for his bellicose views. As vice president, the hawkish Cheney "marched to his own drummer" and was "very hard-line" in ways that ill served his son's administration, the elder Bush told biographer Jon Meacham.
What about Clinton? She, too, was hard-line and marched to her own drummer in arguing for US intervention in Libya. She was able to convince Obama that it was the right policy to pursue, against the advice of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, and Director of Counterterrorism John Brennan. Clinton helped assemble the international coalition against the dictator Moammar Khadafy and told reluctant Arab nations that it was important to her personally.
The United States ousted Khadafy, but since there was no effective plan to manage the transition to a better future, the country fell into anarchy. As then-Secretary Gates explained it: "We were playing it by ear." Today, Libya is an ISIS romper room, where they carry out beheadings, export terror, and massacre civilians indiscriminately.
Of Cheney, Democrats like to point out that, after all these years, he is still unable to admit the failure of the foreign policy he championed. Obama admitted last year that intervening in Libya without an adequate post-conflict plan was his biggest foreign policy regret. But not Clinton.
Consider this oblivious response to CBS moderator John Dickerson from last Saturday's debate:
DICKERSON: "How did you get it wrong with Libya if the key lesson of the Iraq War is have a plan for after?"
CLINTON: "Well, we did have a plan."
Before Libya descended into lawlessness and disorder, Clinton touted her record there. "We set into motion a policy that was on the right side of history, on the right side of our values, on the right side of our strategic interests in the region," she said in 2011.
Yet, now that history is no longer on her side, Clinton shifts blame for Libya to an "arc of instability" that stretches from Afghanistan to North Africa. The truth is that this frightening crescent of terror and the growth of ISIS are at least partly the result of her failed attempt at regime change in Libya.
Eric Fehrnstrom is a Republican political analyst and media strategist, and was a senior adviser to Governor Mitt Romney. | {
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President Donald Trump will host a Hanukkah reception at the White House on Wednesday afternoon.
The event is scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m. EST. | {
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Os sete militares do 127º curso de Comandos detidos esta quinta-feira na sequência da investigação sobre as mortes dos instruendos Hugo Abreu e Dylan Silva estão indiciados pela prática de crimes de abuso de autoridade e ofensa à integridade física. De acordo com o despacho do Ministério Público, procuradora considera que militares em causa moviam-se por “ódio patológico e irracional contra os instruendos” e consideravam-nos “pessoas descartáveis”. Procuradora diz ainda que médico responsável pelo grupo dos Comandos esteve ausente da prova num dia de excessivo calor.
No despacho do Ministério Público, citado pelo jornal Expresso, a procuradora Cândida Vilar, que coordena a investigação no Departamento de Investigação e Ação Penal de Lisboa, refere que os sete militares detidos ontem eram “movidos por um ódio patológico, irracional contra os instruendos, que consideram inferiores por ainda não fazerem parte do Grupo de Comandos, cuja supremacia apregoam, à gravidade e natureza dos ilícitos”. Por esta razão o DIAP de Lisboa entende que há “perigo de continuação da atividade criminosa e de perturbação do inquérito”, razão pela qual procedeu à detenção.
No mesmo despacho, acrescenta o Correio da Manhã, a procuradora dá conta de que o capitão-médico que estava responsável pelos Comandos naquele dia, o dia da ‘Prova Zero’ do 127º curso, pôs as vítimas a rastejar debaixo de 40º C e depois manteve-se 16 horas ausente da prova. Terá sido durante esse período que começaram os primeiros desmaios motivados pelo excesso de calor e pela pouca água que podiam beber. Miguel Domingues faz parte do leque de sete detidos na quinta-feira.
Segundo aquele jornal, o médico, Miguel Domingues, estava destacado para aquele exercício em Alcochete mas esteve ausente do treino entre as 21h30 do dia 3 de setembro e as 11h do dia 4, voltando a sair às 19h desse dia, quando 21 instruendos estavam na enfermaria. Dois deles, Dylan Silva e Hugo Abreu acabariam por morrer. Segundo o despacho do Ministério Público, citado pelo Correio da Manhã, o médico terá ainda mandado dois comandos rastejar até à ambulância com o propósito de causar lesões físicas e neurológicas. O óbito de Hugo Abreu foi declarado às 21h45 do dia 4, pelo INEM.
Esta quinta-feira, o ministro da Defesa, Azeredo Lopes, reiterou a determinação do Governo e do Exército em apurar responsabilidades no caso da morte dos dois comandos, mas rejeitou que a detenção dos sete militares agora indiciados seja vista pela opinião pública como uma condenação prévia. “Não acredito que nenhum responsável político deixasse de adotar, perante os factos que são conhecidos, a mesma determinação que já tive oportunidade de manifestar publicamente”, disse Azeredo Lopes à margem de uma visita que realizou esta quinta-feira a São Tomé e Príncipe.
Neste momento, decorrem duas investigações em paralelo: uma da Ministério Público e outra interna, no Exército. Além destas duas, o Exército está também a investigar as condições em que decorrem os cursos daquela força especial. Os sete arguidos detidos esta quinta-feira juntam-se a dois enfermeiros, que já tinham sido constituídos arguidos anteriormente, mas que não estão detidos.
O caso remonta a 4 de setembro, dia em que o militar Hugo Abreu morreu depois de um exercício no treino dos Comandos. Outro militar, Dylan da Silva, foi transferido para o hospital no mesmo dia, e viria a morrer uma semana depois, à espera de um transplante hepático. | {
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Press release from the city of Asheville:
ASHEVILLE – Mayor Esther Manheimer announced on Friday the formation of a development task force established to make recommendations promoting sound growth and development within the city.
The mayor’s announcement came during Friday’s City Manager’s Development Forum, a biannual event that invites developers to hear from city staff on changes and initiatives that affect development in Asheville.
“We certainly want to encourage local business growth, development has to happen in a way that takes into consideration the wants and needs of the city’s diverse population.” Manheimer said.
Development permitting and construction in Asheville are at their highest point since 2008, according to Development Services Director Shannon Tuch, who was one of several city staff to present to the group. The task force will be charged with identifying barriers to private investment in the city and opportunities like public-private partnerships.
The group is expected to be operating within the next two months, selection of members will come with the help of local stakeholders. | {
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Locks test 2012
Fully updated and including 11 newcomers, Rowan Lamont, assisted by the officers of the Brisbane City bike police, tested a selection of 27 locks to see how well they protect your precious property.
For this year’s instalment of our popular bike lock test, Ride On collected a range of the most interesting new and current locks to determine the best and best value at high, medium and low security levels. Thinking like thieves, we tested the locks to breaking point using techniques that were quick, simple and least likely to draw attention to ourselves. If a lock showed resistance, we increased the severity of the tools and techniques we used.
D-locks continue to offer the highest security. Even the cheapest require an angle grinder to break – a hacksaw can’t get through hardened steel.
A surprise in this test were the hardened steel chains combined with resilient locks. These proved very awkward to break into, providing a great deterrent along with the convenience of being easier to stow than many D-locks.
The lowest level of deterrent came from light and small cables, which require very little ingenuity to break. They can be used to add an additional deterrent along with a bigger lock, or if you just need something to prevent someone walking off with your bicycle while you pop into a shop, but not much more.
The main thing to consider when choosing a lock is the security it offers. If you leave your bike in high-risk situations then you will need a lock that offers high security. A medium security lock would be sufficient if you never leave your bike in a high-risk situation, with the advantage that a medium security lock is generally lighter and less expensive. Another thing to consider is the size of the lock. You might prefer to carry a more compact, smaller lock or you might require a longer, flexible lock such as a chain or a cable to effectively secure your particular bike, such as a cargo bike or trailer. Supplementary cables, such as the Kryptonite Kryptoflex reviewed here, are very useful for locking the wheels as well as the frame or for securing unconventional bikes, trailers, tag-alongs and the like.
The locks are rated on a scale that takes into account function, materials and components, construction, appearance and value for money – within a broader designation of the security level offered. For all locks, it’s important to consider the intended usage and level of security required.
Key to security
Sergeant Michael Schodel knows from personal experience how attached you can get to a bicycle. “I can remember the smell of the bike shop I bought my very first bike from as a kid,” he told Ride On. As a bike mounted officer from Brisbane City Police Station he’s in his dream job and he’s learned a lot about how bikes get stolen.
He and his partner Constable Alana Johnson have three key messages about bike security:
1. Smart positioning
Select a well-lit public place where there are lots of people around. It is even better if there is CCTV coverage.
2. Solid anchoring
Lock your bicycle to as strong and solid an object as you can find as many thefts don’t even have the lock broken. When bicycles are locked against a wall or to flimsy railings they are an easy target for an opportunist thief.
3. Effective recording
The Brisbane police donate many bicycles to community organisations each year that once belonged to a bicycle rider but can’t be returned. A simple solution is to record the serial number of the frame, which is usually underneath the bottom bracket. If you lose your bike, report it and quote its serial number.
Thefts can also be deterred by taking some simple steps to add complexity to the security you use, creating extra inconvenience for a would-be thief. Take advantage of bike cages, use a couple of locks – one for your frame and another for the wheels – and lock the front wheel to the frame. If you regularly leave your bike in the same place each day, you expose it to a possible planned theft. Instead, park in a few different locations to help reduce this risk.
High security – D-locks, chains and a folder
The hardened steel and robust lock mechanisms of these locks means they offer high security, yielding only to an angle grinder. The Abus Bordo 6000 folding lock is included here because it gives such a high degree of protection that it offers an alternative to a D-lock. Chains also offer high security because they are very awkward to attack and require an angle grinder to be broken.
Abus Granit X-Plus 54
$199 | 1397g
High security
– 13mm thick shackle took longest to cut
– Square-section shackle must be cut twice to release
96% The best D-lock money can buy
For retailers southcottcycles.com.au
Vulcan VLS101B Supreme 2000(80 x 140mm)
$40 | 954g
High security
– Shackle had to be cut twice to release
– Very high quality materials and construction for the money
92% Excellent value for money
For retailers www.bikecorp.com.au
Knog Strongman
$100 | 1175g
High security
– Took second-longest time to cut, with two cuts required
– Silicone cover prevents frame damage
89% Difficult to break due to clever design/material choice
For dealers www.knog.com.au
Kryptonite Evolution mini 9
$100 | 1089g
High security
– One cut releases the shackle
89% Performance justifies Kryptonite’s strong reputation
For retailers call Cassons (02) 8882 1900
Abus Bordo 6000 folding lock
$190 | 920g
High security
– Resisted all types of non-mechanical attack
– Convenient size for carrying
88% More compact than a D-lock with more locking options
For retailers southcottcycles.com.au
Trelock BS610
$125 | 1430g
High security
– Top quality hardened steel shackle, requiring two cuts to release
– Heavy but has long shackle
84% Very good high security option
For retailers www.bikecorp.com.au
Ortre Back in 5
$40 | 515g
High security
– Thinner shackle material but had to be cut twice
– Smallest D-lock on test
82% Great looking, great performance, great price
For retailers www.ortre.com
Knog Bouncer
$55 | 865g
High security
– One cut releases the shackle, but tricky to rotate open
– Compact size/protective silicone covering
80% Very good smaller, lighter option
For retailers www.knog.com.au
Trelock BC215 (6mm x 110cm)
$50 | 1025g
High security
– Surprising resistance, two cuts required
– Comparable to a lighter D-lock in security
80% Convenient, flexible and compact high security alternative
For retailers www.bikecorp.com.au
Knog Straightjacket
$36 | 1365g
High security
– Hard to isolate a link to grind, with two cuts required
– Comparable to a lighter D-lock in security
80% Convenient, flexible and compact high security alternative
For dealers www.knog.com.au
On Guard Bulldog SDT 5010
$60 | 1254g
High security
– The lock mechanism became damaged but did not yield during tests
– One cut releases the shackle
76% Reasonable security for the weight
For retailers www.apollobikes.com
Broughill 13mm square shackle
$25 | 1420g
High security
– Tough looking, but one quick cut releases
– Heavy but long shackle
60% Good value for a lock of this quality
Ask at your favourite bike shop
BBB U-vault
$35 | 910g
High security
– Took five seconds longer to cut than the Broughill
– Small, thin key – worried it would snap
60% Budget high security option
More info bbbcycling.com/dealer-locator
Trelock BS301
$59 | 905g
High security
– One quick cut releases
56% Trelock BS610 D-lock offers better value
For retailers www.bikecorp.com.au
Oxford Hercules
$30 | 1095g
High security
– One quick cut releases
54% Low cost, heavy, useful security
Ask at your favourite bike shop
Medium and low security – cable locks
Cables are light weight and convenient, but offer low security. Some of the thicker and more expensive cable locks are more time consuming to break, but all these cables can be cut through with bolt cutters. Some of these locks can be broken by just smashing the lock mechanism apart with a hammer. For a high security lock, see the previous section.
Kryptonite Hardwire 2018
$100 | 1950g
Medium security
– The key lock can be fiddly to use
– Toughest cable on test
88% The best an armoured cable can be
For retailers call Cassons (02) 8882 1900
Kryptonite Krypto Flex (1200x10mm)
$20 | 354g
Low security
– A tough cable providing above average resistance to cutting
– Good soft coat to protect your frame and add cutting nuisance
88% Value-for-money additional cable
For retailers call Cassons (02) 8882 1900
Kryptonite Modulus
$50 | 754g
Low security
– Two cables provide double the protection
– Easy to secure both wheels and frame
86% Fresh and effective new approach that works well
For retailers call Cassons (02) 8882 1900
Kuat Bottle Lock
$35 | 425g
Low security
– Bottle cage mount makes very convenient operation
– Thin, basic cable but 153cm long
82% Very convenient for low-risk situation
To buy www.blueglobe.com.au
Knog Kabana
$50 | 468g
Low security
– Small and light
– Silicone provided an extra nuisance to cut through
80% Funky and effective
For dealers www.knog.com.au
Abus Steel-O-flex 1025 X-Plus
$179 | 1832g
Medium security
– A multi-layered large diameter cable was
difficult and time consuming to break
through
– Lock was very well made and extremely
tough
80% Top performance for top dollar
For retailers southcottcycles.com.au
Trelock PK515 armoured cable
$125 | 1400g
Medium security
– Large diameter very difficult for bolt
cutters
76% A top quality armoured cable
For retailers www.bikecorp.com.au
ES Goliath key
$40 | 985g
Low security
– Layered silicone outer has high nuisance value
– Rotating barrel made it more difficult to cut
62% Average quality armoured cable
For dealers www.echelonsports.com.au
Squizz Combination (12x1800mm)
$20 | 540g
Low security
– Woven braid cable is a nuisance to cut
– Lock broken with seven hammer blows
56% Above average cable for good price
Ask at your favourite bike shop
BBB Codesafe combination (10mm x 1000mm)
$23 | 350g
Low security
– Nice tumbler action makes it easy to use
– Lock broken with six hammer blows
– Plain cable, weaker than Squizz
46% Good operation, average value
More info bbbcycling.com/dealer-locator
BBB Microsafe
$20 | 45g
Low security
– Highest convenience, lowest security
– Weak lock mechanism was broken with one hammer blow
– Cable cut with pliers
42% Says “Please don’t take this bike” but doesn’t do much more
More info bbbcycling.com/dealer-locator
ES Hercules key
$35 | 700g
Low security
– Barrel key lock is easy and quick to use
– Lock broken with four hammer blows
– Thin, basic cable
32% Low-end-of-average cable
For dealers www.echelonsports.com.au
Ride On content is editorially independent, but is supported financially by members of Bicycle Network. If you enjoy our articles and want to support the future publication of high-quality content, please consider helping out by becoming a member. | {
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Ten candidates took the stage as ABC and Univision hosted the third Democratic primary debate. It was the first time the top tier candidates all shared the same debate stage.
Joe Biden currently leads in national polling, but Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are starting to catch up.
The polls have closed! Check out our post-debate analysis for more details. Here’s are the final results:
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[매일경제 스타투데이=최지원 인턴기자] YG Entertainment’s representative YANG HYUN SUK officially announced WINNER MINO’s first solo album release through his social media.
On September 13, YANG HYUN SUK wrote, “MINO. Shooting the MV for his FIRST SOLO ALBUM. COMING SOON” on his Instagram. YANG HYUN SUK has previously shared news on the comeback of agency artists through his social media. He raised the fans’ expectations last month by announcing MINO’s solo comeback.
The video he uploaded along with the captions displayed MINO posing under lights in primary color. The beat that played throughout as background music made the viewers feel nervous and excited at the same time. MINO appeared to be in a serious mood with a black jacket on his upper body. His strong abs and relaxing vibe brought out masculinity and sexiness. The video ended when MINO’s song began to play, raising curiosities of viewers.
Inner Circle (name of WINNER’s fan club) cheered and revealed expectations on MINO’s upcoming comeback. They reacted by writing, “Please take good care of MINO, president”, “Good work, president. Please continue supporting him so that he can perform and appear in a lot of tv shows”, and “You’re the best for telling us about how MINO’s album is progressing! Please continue to do so”.
Meanwhile, MINO will appear on tvN’s ‘New Journey to the West 5’, which will premiere on the 30th(Sun) at 10:40 PM. As MINO has received love from the public through his variety program nicknames such as ‘Songarak’ and ‘Song Mojiri’, people are highly anticipating MINO’s role in ‘New Journey to the West 5’.
2018. 9. 13. | {
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Apple’s transparency report just got a lot more — well, transparent.
For years, the technology giant released a twice-a-year report on the number of government demands it received. It wasn’t much to look at in the beginning; a seven-page document with only two tables of data. Once in a while, Apple would tack on a new table of data as the government would ask for new kinds of customer data.
But that wasn’t sustainable, nor was it particularly easy to read — especially for the hawkish handful who would obsessively read and digest each report.
As other companies, like Microsoft and Google, received more demands over the years, they began to expand their own reports to help users to better understand who wanted their data, why and how often. Apple knew its document-only reports didn’t cut it, and took a leaf from its Silicon Valley neighbors and pushed ahead with its own plan to publish its biannual numbers in a way that ordinary people — like its customers — can read and understand.
The company’s latest transparency report, out Thursday, still comes in its traditional PDF format for those who don’t like change, but now also has its own dedicated, browsable and interactive corner of Apple’s website. The new site breaks down the figures by country — but also historically to provide trends, patterns and context over years’ worth of reporting cycles, in a way that’s more in line with how other tech giants report their government data demands.
And, the company has CSV files for download, containing raw data for academics to drill deeper down into the numbers.
Apple has also reworked how it discloses national security requests, such as FBI-issued subpoenas like national security letters (NSLs) and orders issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA). Since the introduction of the Freedom Act in 2015, passed in response to the NSA surveillance scandal in 2013, companies were given three options of reporting their secret orders — including the numerical bands it can release under what time period. Most companies disclosed the secret requests in bands of 500 with a six-month reporting delay to avoid any inadvertent interference with active investigations. Apple originally released its figures in bands of 250 requests, but is now expanding that to bands of 500 requests to standardize its reporting with other tech companies. It’s also breaking out its FISA content (such as photos, email, contacts and device backups) and non-content requests (like subscriber records and transactional logs).
As for the figures, the transparency report reveals a rise in worldwide demands for data.
According to the report, Apple received 32,342 demands — up 9 percent on the last reporting period — to access 163,823 devices in the first half of the year.
The report found Germany as the top requester, issuing 13,704 requests for data on 26,160 devices. Apple said that the figures were due to the high volume of device requests due to stolen devices. The U.S. was in second place with 4,570 requests for 14,911 devices.
Apple also received 4,177 requests for account data, such as information stored in iCloud — up by almost 25 percent on the previous reporting period — affecting some 40,641 accounts, a four-fold increase. The company said the spike was attributable to China, which asked for thousands of devices’ worth of data under a single fraud investigation.
And, the company saw a 30 percent increase in requests to preserve data for up to three months to 1,579 cases, affecting 4,033 accounts, while law enforcement obtained the right legal process to access the data.
The company also said it received between 0 and 499 national security orders, including secret rulings from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, affecting 1,000 and 1,499 accounts. As the company is subject to a six-month reporting delay, the updated figures are expected out in the new year.
Apple did not reveal in this latest report any national security letters where the gag orders were lifted. | {
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accepts person you don't know and gets annoyed by their posts doesn't delete them
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The Department of Defense has provided a list of $12.8 billion worth of projects from which President Donald Trump could divert funding in order to pay for a wall on the United States' southern border.
Democrats pushed for the list to be released in hopes of rallying members of Congress to vote to override the president's veto of legislation blocking his national emergency declaration — but their strategy could backfire.
What are the details?
During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the ranking member on the committee, pressed acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan to provide a list of projects that could be sacrificed in order to pay for a border wall under President Trump's declared national emergency.
Reed received the 20-page list Monday and subsequently released it on Twitter, warning that "military bases in your state could be negatively impacted."
"What President Trump is doing is a slap in the face to our military that makes our border and the country less secure," Reed said in a separate statement. "Now that members of Congress can see the potential impact this proposal could have on projects in their home states, I hope they will take that into consideration before the vote to override the President's veto."
A two-thirds majority of Congress is needed to override the president's veto, and the votes likely aren't there. So Reed is hoping lawmakers in states that could be affected will be swayed to vote against the threat of funds being diverted.
But that strategy could have the opposite effect, given the Pentagon's disclosure that the funds are, indeed, available for President Trump to build the wall he has long promised to supporters after Congress refused his request during budget negotiations.
What's on the list?
Projects in several states are at risk, including a $6.3 million cryogenics facility in South Carolina, a $13 million child development center in Maryland, and a $15 million human performance training center in Colorado.
Military spending in other countries could also be reallocated. The Pentagon said that, if needed, it could hold off on plans for a $27 million gym and dining facility in Guam, $66 million for a taxiway and apron upgrades in Italy, and $31 million for austere quarters in the Bahamas. | {
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The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutras community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.
This article was originally posted as an update to our game’s Steam Greenlight campaign that started yesterday around noon time for Europe.
Accurate reports on how things are moving during a greenlight, or a kickstarter or any other part of a game development process are useful for other indie developers out there. Here is an overview of how our game fared after approximately 24 hours on Steam’s Greenlight process.
Gorescript is a fast paced doom-like FPS game, built in a custom C++ engine by a single person. Gorescript is the descendant of (the now renamed) Gorescript Classic, which was a 2014 web experiment to build an FPS game using Javascript. Gorescript Classic had great feedback, thus, enter Gorescript.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s move on to the real thing.
Our numbers on Greenlight so far:
I am not entirely sure if those numbers are good or bad. I have the feeling that we are on the slightly good side of things, based on reports of other greenlight campaigns I have seen online. Maybe you guys have some insights on that, please let me know in the comments.
Some of the comments we have received:
Well, this, is something that gets me excited, and I just can’t hide it. Reading all those positive and excited comments is the equivalent of “butterflies” for my marketing stomach!
Now that is all good and peachy, but how about addressing the elephant in every Greenlight room?
Traffic
This is our traffic source break down, since the beginning of the campaign 24 hours ago:
And here is a breakdown of all the social media traffic sources:
As you can see, Reddit was the biggest part of our traffic. A post I submitted on /r/gamedev a few hours after the Greenlight resulted in loads of traffic, and kept Sergiu up half the night to answer questions from other game developers.
With the end times of Steam’s Greenlight upon us, and the inflated number of games appearing daily on Greenlight, it is all the more important that you find alternative traffic sources for your campaign to be successful. Oh! And make the best of your Greenlight page formatting!
I hope that you find this article helpful on your game dev ventures. Let me know if you have further questions in the comments section, I would be more than happy to share my knowledge with you guys. | {
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Redhead pornstar Daria Glower sizzles up your screens with provoking legs and intense solo masturbation film. You will see her strut her items and showcase these provoking stocking coated legs whereas she rubs herself and get off on on this steamy solo masturbation film. | {
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If video games have taught us anything it's that grappling hooks make everything better. Nintendo knew it with Zelda, Avalanche Studios knew it with Just Cause, and Respawn Entertainment knows it with Titanfall 2. With one simple addition, Titanfall—which pitches humans against mechs on the battlefield—goes from an already fast shooter to an even faster one for the sequel, a shooter where rodeo riding a ten foot Titan before chucking a grenade into the unsuspecting pilot's cockpit is a mere flick of a grappling hook away.
Titanfall was always stupid fun. Titanfall 2 is even stupider fun.
That's good for shooter players like me who, not for want of trying, aren't exactly skilled when it comes to hitting rapidly moving targets with a virtual gun and an analogue stick. Accessibility has always been Titanfall's forte, despite being a multiplayer-only game. And while Titanfall 2 does introduce a story mode for those that don't want to play online at all (it's not on show just yet, but you can see the trailer here), I'm relieved to find the accessibility of the multiplayer hasn't suffered as a result. If anything, it's even better.
There are still grunts and droids and various other bots that provide hearty cannon fodder for the casual player, and they're still just as fun to hunt down on the sly while everyone else tries to smoosh each other on the foot of a tetchy Titan. But with the grappling hook and the extra mobility it brings, those players can now bring down Titans without the well-timed wall jumps or pull themselves out of hairy situations without fuss. They might even grapple onto a building, slingshot themselves into the air, and then glide towards an enemy with their jetpack before sending it to bullet hell. Well, with practice at least.
The grappling hook is a revelation, one of those gameplay mechanics you feel has always been there, even though you've only played with it for five minutes. Sure, it doesn't quite have the silky smooth inertia of Rico's hook in Just Cause 3—and if there was one thing I would change about Titanfall 2's grappling hook, it would be the physics—but it's still a valuable addition. And, more importantly, it's a fun one, too.
Using the grappling hook to extend jetpack boosts or to sail over the top of fighting Titans is thoroughly satisfying. I imagine that pros will find their own unique ways to use it (and combat it), too, executing the sort of crazy kills that make for perfect million-plus YouTube fodder.
Other additions to Titanfall 2 are less obvious. With just 10 short minutes in which to play, I couldn't pick out changes to Titan and pilot load outs or any new weapons. But I can say with confidence that the game felt no less inviting. Titanfall was one of my favourite shooters at launch, thanks in no small part to the fact it made piloting a giant mech and blasting people with an oversized lazer gun accessible to everyone, good player or bad.
And so, despite those limiting 10 minutes, I still managed to assail and ride on the back of a flaming Titan, zig zag between two buildings with my jetpack while evading a stream of enemy bullets, and slingshot myself through the air before crashing down spectacularly into a pair of enemy players (it did not end well).
The original Titanfall wasn't the twitchy, sophisticated shooter seemingly designed for 12-year-olds to hurl abuse down a microphone while you sobbed uncontrollably into your controller because you couldn't get a single shot in. It was the shooter for the average joe, the person that couldn't spend every waking minute perfecting headshots and grenade throws because they had to go to work in the morning. That's why I loved it, and that's why I'm excited for Titanfall 2—it's lost none of that magic.
Titanfall 2 is launching on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 worldwide on October 28. | {
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In an odd social narrative twist, Salon released an article titled, “Banning child marriage in America: An uphill fight against evangelical pressure.” Its argument indicates a remarkable double standard.
The article opens asserting, “Child marriage is a real problem in the United States, one that isn’t talked about much. Like human trafficking, we assume that child marriage is something that happens in other countries, countries with antiquated world views and gender norms.” It goes on to state, “Between 2000 and 2015, 86 percent of the reported 207,468 child marriages that took place in the United States were between minors and adults.”
This number comes from a Frontline report in 2017. That report quotes the founder of Unchained At Last, a woman’s advocacy group that’s working to outlaw marriage before the age of 18: “’When I got that spreadsheet from the state health department, I was literally shaking,’ [Fraidy] Reiss said. The spreadsheet showed nearly 3,500 minors married in New Jersey between 1995 and 2012. Most minors were 16 and 17 years old.”
Who Marries a 10-Year-Old Girl?
Almost 90 percent of the minors aged 16 – 17 marrying adults were girls. About 1 percent of minors under the age of 15 were married to adults, about 2,000 kids. Those aged 17 made up 67 percent of these marriages. Of the adults marrying these minors, 85 percent were between the ages of 18 and 23.
The numbers indicating marriages under the age of 15 are profoundly disturbing. There were 985 children aged 14, 51 aged 13, 10 aged 12, 2 aged 11, and 3 aged 10 years. According to the Frontline report and the Tahirih Justice Center, “Most states allow parties between the ages of 16 and 18 to marry with parental consent alone. Many states also allow parties younger than age 16 to marry with judicial approval and/or if one party is pregnant or has had a child.” Astoundingly, 27 states have no “age floor” in which to legally deny a marriage if other conditions are met such as pregnancy, parental consent, or judicial approval.
Reiss told the story of Michelle DeMello, who was married against her will at age 16. The story read, “She was 16 and pregnant. Her Christian community in Green Mountain Falls [Colorado] was pressuring her family to marry her off to her 19-year-old boyfriend. She didn’t think she had the right to say no to the marriage after the mess she felt she’d made. ‘I could be the example of the shining whore in town, or I could be what everybody wanted me to be at that moment and save my family a lot of honor.’” DeMello is now 42 years old.
The State Department released “The U.S. Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls” in 2017. Per The Washington Post, “[t]he strategy includes harsh words about marriage before 18, declaring it a ‘human rights abuse’ that ‘produces devastating repercussions for a girl’s life, effectively ending her childhood’ by forcing her ‘into adulthood and motherhood before she is physically and mentally mature.’” The article clarifies, “Unchained has seen child marriage in nearly every American culture and religion, including Christian, Jewish, Muslim and secular communities.”
Another woman, Sara Siddiqui, shared her story of being forced into marriage at age 16. She said her father “arranged her Islamic wedding to a stranger, 13 years her senior, in less than one day; her civil marriage in Nevada followed when she was 16 and six months pregnant. ‘I couldn’t even drive yet when I was handed over to this man.’”
Conservatives Only Pretending to Care About Parents?
A key issue here is parental consent. Salon writes, “The proposed amendment to existing Kentucky marriage law, SB 48, stalled in committee last week and was criticized by Republican Senator John Schickel because it takes decision-making power away from parents. But the real force behind the bill’s delayed passage comes from Family Foundation of Kentucky. Family Foundation of Kentucky is a conservative lobbying group.”
The author directly accuses evangelical Christians of promoting child marriage: “This link between evangelical Christianity and child marriage actually has been explored recently in the wake of stories of failed Senate candidate Roy Moore’s proclivities. Evangelical communities still push for child marriages between girls in their ‘middle teens’ and men in the mid-twenties or older.” She exclusively cites the accusations against Moore and support for his candidacy as evidence, alongside the ‘religious groups” opposing the bill and others like it.
What she doesn’t tell us is that Republican State Sen. Julie Raque Adams proposed the bill to amend Kentucky’s marriage laws. Martin Cothran of the Family Foundation stated the organization’s opposition was that the bill “takes away parental rights at the very beginning, and then includes them in a sort of incidental way at the end of the process.”
Similarly, state Sen. John Schicke said “Decisions involving a minor child should be made by a parent, not the court.” So, according to the bill’s opponents, their issue has nothing to do with underage sex and everything to do with substituting judicial judgment for parent judgment. The current law allows minors to be married with parental support, while the proposed law would allow only judges to make exceptions. It would also allow judges to void marriages of minors.
So Underage Sex Is Terrible, Except When It’s Not
What is strange here, besides of course the child marriages themselves, is progressive advocates’ passion and outrage over this in contrast to their equal passion and praise for an identical situation in the Oscar award-winning film, “Call Me By Your Name.” As is well known by now, the movie features a sexual relationship between a 17-year-old boy and a 24-year-old man.
The movie has been widely praised with headlines such as The New Yorker: “‘Call Me by Your Name’: An Erotic Triumph,” The New York Times: “Review: A Boy’s Own Desire in ‘Call Me by Your Name,’” and The Atlantic: “The Sumptuous Love Story of Call Me by Your Name.”
The star of the film, Armie Hammer, defended the lead characters’ relationship on Twitter after being challenged on its adult-teen nature, saying, “You do know that you live in a state where the age of consent is 16, right….? Ok. Now shut up.” LGBT advocates and liberal media outlets even complained the movie was not sexually explicit enough. To dismiss criticism, LGBT advocates widely used the argument that Italy, where the film was set, has an age of consent of 14.
So why would a 17-year-old be considered a “child bride” in one scenario and a fully consenting, sexually adventurous adult in another? Why is it acknowledged that entering into adult relationships can be highly dangerous, coercive, and emotionally destructive for minors, but only when the nature of the relationship is heterosexual?
Same-sex marriage has been legal since 2013. Would these advocates argue that it would be abusive to the minor for the characters in this film to marry? The only difference is the kind of sex and religious views of its participants. It seems the Left selectively views an identical situation entirely dependent on what outcome they want from the narrative.
It seems the Left selectively views an identical situation entirely dependent on what outcome they want from the narrative.
It must be said that there is no excuse or justification for any religious leader, judge, or certainly parent to participate in marrying a minor to an adult. While there is a legitimate concern around legal verbiage that could easily be used to limit parental authority, it is morally and ethically obligatory for state legislatures to clearly state that only consenting legal adults should be allowed to marry.
Views surrounding teenage pregnancy and social obligation must be challenged, and a universal understanding of the fragility of young minds and spirits must be recognized. Hypocrisy must be called out wherever it lives, especially when the consequence involves endangering children.
The Salon author is not wrong in the nature of her concern. To realize that children as young as 10 years old have been married to adults in our country is profoundly disturbing. But at the same time, what does the Left expect when it routinely glamourizes teenagers engaging in adult behavior?
Are we to judge a 24-year-old man marrying a 17-year-old girl as an abuser who is coercing her while celebrating a 24-year-old man in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old boy as beautiful and courageous? Are the girl’s parents maliciously manipulating her while the boy’s parents demonstrating love, tolerance, and acceptance? When will politics step aside in favor of protecting children? | {
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Steffen Gillom is a student at the School for International Training in Brattleboro and is helping to start an NAACP chapter in Windham County.
For more information, or to join the Windham County NAACP unit, send an email to [email protected] .
BRATTLEBORO—Windham County may soon get its first National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter.
Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. They describe their mission as being “to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.”
There are more than 2,000 NAACP units across the country, and more than 500,000 members. A staff member at the national headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, said that since the presidential elections, the organization has seen an “enormous increase” in memberships, interest, and donations, and units are getting established in long-underserved areas, such as Grosse Pointe, Michigan.
Vermont is another long-underserved area.
Until February 2015, with the founding of the Burlington unit, there were no Vermont NAACP chapters specifically for adult members. (Norwich University started a youth chapter in 2013, and Rutland is in the process of getting an adult chapter.)
But Southern Vermont has none.
That may change.
Two School for International Training students, Steffen Gillom and Jesse Roaza, are leading the effort to set up the Windham County NAACP unit.
Gillom serves as SIT’s Diversity Fellow in the Department of Student Affairs. Roaza is the Project Coordinator for Wilmington Works and formerly worked with the Windham County Sheriff’s Department.
Although Gillom and Roaza only began collecting the required 100 signatures to form the unit at the end of November, they are more than halfway to their goal.
The requirements to join are simple. “You must be affiliated with the community in some way — you live or work in Windham County,” Roaza said.
Membership is open to all races, Roaza said, noting the organization was founded by African-Americans and Caucasians. The NAACP website’s membership page says, “If you care about fighting the racial disparities that are still too prevalent in America, the NAACP is the place where you can make a difference."
“As a young person of color, it’s exciting for me to have [the NAACP] here,” Gillom said, noting, “it’s important to have representation."
“Steffen will likely become president,” of the chapter once it gets its charter, Roaza said. After elections, the president forms an executive committee and chooses representatives from various towns in the county.
The members will form additional committees focusing on relevant issues in the county, such as awareness, needs assessment, education, and organizational diversity, Roaza said.
Roaza, who is part Korean-Filipino and part Irish, expressed the need for more knowledge about different races and ethnicities in Windham County.
“I’ve had instances of going into delis and people think I’m homeless,” Roaza said. He mentioned another incident: he brought some fellow SIT students to a former food establishment in the area. The other students were Muslim. They were denied service.
“I didn’t debate my own self-identity until I got here,” Roaza said. “I stick out here. I’m half-Asian and half-White. I’ve always been proud of being bi-racial."
“But here, I’m often asked what country I’m from,” Roaza said.
Roaza is from Florida.
“In the South we talk about racism, because the new generation doesn’t want to be racist like their grandparents,” Roaza said, “But here in the Northeast, we don’t really talk about racism until something horrible happens. Then, the conversation starts."
“I love living here,” he said, “but I can’t believe the South does [racial] things better! We’re supposed to be so liberal here."
Roaza attributes this disconnect to too few people of color in the area. But, since moving here a few years ago, he has noticed Brattleboro’s diversity increasing.
Starting the NAACP chapter is right on time, he said.
“Steffen and I were talking about forming this [unit] before the elections, but the catalyst was the [Presidential] elections,” Roaza said.
“Within days after the elections, I saw pickup trucks [in the area] with Confederate flags on them,” he said.
For Gillom, the days after the presidential election brought this experience: he was walking on a public road and someone in a passing car yelled a racial slur at him.
“It caught me off-guard because he just so casually said it. It brought it home. It was disheartening,” said Gillom, who is of African-American, Native American, and European-American descent.
“I’ve never felt so vulnerable,” he said.
“Being a young professional in the working world, I faced discriminatory biases, too, and it’s my responsibility to do something about it,” said Gillom, who is originally from the Midwest.
Gillom is undecided whether he will continue living here after his studies are finished, “but I want to make sure the NAACP is here and is running."
“My biggest concerns are for people of color living outside of Brattleboro. The further you get from Brattleboro ... the language changes, the body language changes, I get more people telling me to ‘go back to my country,’” Roaza said.
He wondered what it’s like to live in a town with only a few people of color.
“Those people are more vulnerable,” he said, “and that’s what scares me."
Gillom and Roaza have reached out to other social and racial justice organizations in the area to collaborate, and have received encouragement from them, from the Windham County Young Professionals group, Wilmington Works, and from the Windham County legislative delegation.
Roaza believes the NAACP’s biggest advantage, “other than the power of its name, is keeping a dialogue with other institutions. The NAACP has always emphasized the importance of an open line of communication."
“A lot of people have talked about their fears of the upcoming president,” Roaza said. “Vermont has a lot of issues, but I like that this county in particular has people who care a lot and who want to get involved ... That’s what I want to contribute, a place for people to voice their concerns and work for civil rights in the county."
“I’m just here to be chill and get shit done,” Gillom said. | {
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The 22-year-old, who has spent almost two months in San Francisco up till now, is the first Pakistani footballer to sign a professional contract with a US club.According to Kaleemullah, his first appearance had been crucial as he had wanted his side to win the match whether he scored or not.“I was just hoping that the first match I appeared in would be a winning one,” Kaleemullah told“It’s like a dream debut. I went in the match for 25 minutes but I know I performed well in that time, putting pressure on the opponents and giving them a tough time.“I know I couldn’t score, despite a few attempts at the goal, but I’m glad that I did help other players.”The Chaman-based striker, who has never seen a stadium with as many as 50,000 spectators before, said that he really wanted the Sacramento Republic FC fans to accept him.“Every player wants to be liked by the fans, so I was a little nervous at first. However, I was surprised with the way they cheered for me and I will never forget this match."In Pakistan, I never saw such a big crowd at a football match so this was something I’ll always cherish,” he said while adding that he hoped to score in the next match for the club on Thursday.According to the Sacramento Republic website, “Kaleemullah immediately made an impact, using impressive speed down the middle and creating chances.” | {
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Redmine is a popular open source project management web application. It was written using the Ruby on Rails framework. This software is more oriented towards a traditional approach for project management with Gantt charts and calendar than Agile, Scrum or Kanban. However, Redmine architecture allows however creating plugins to add additional features. The development of a number of Agile and Lean plugins has therefore been started in these past years. However not all those plugins have been in continuous development until the current release of Redmine 3.3
You will find below a list of Scrum and Kanban plugins that you could consider to use. You might also decide to fork some of the “abandoned” projects if you are willing to put them up to date. The number of these plugins is limited and trying to add Scrum and Kanban features to Redmine might not be the easier road for your Agile open source journey. For people that are looking for open source solutions, the Open Source Scrum Tools Directory is a good place to visit to have an idea of available open source Scrum tools. Redmine has a directory where all the plugins are listed: http://www.redmine.org/plugins
Updates
* September 2016: active plugin added : Redmine Agile Plugin, Scrum2B, Scrum-Plugin, Redmine CRM Agile plugin, Redhopper; transfer inactive plugins to inactive section
Active Plugins
* Redhopper
Redhopper is an open source Redmine plugin that allows creating Kanban boards for Redmine. It was inspired by Jira Agile (formerly known as Greenhopper), but follows its own path. Redhopper makes an extensive use of Redmine core concepts (issues, trackers, workflow, etc.) instead of building everything from scratch. No need to define columns, your issue statuses are good enough. No need to define allowed transitions, your workflow already does it. Get a useful board in seconds.
Web site: https://git.framasoft.org/infopiiaf/redhopper
* Redmine Agile Plugin
The Redmine Agile Plugin is a commercial Redmine board for agile management. There are sprints, backlogs, charts and swim-lanes. First, the sprint backlog is created from the project backlog and then, during stand-up meetings, tasks are moved on the board using a drag & drop feature. Managers then monitor sprint progress in the charts.
The key features of the Redmine Agile Plugin are:
* project backlog contains all the tasks that are not in the sprints yet
* drag & drop sprint backlog creation
* people using swim-lanes may sort tasks in the sprint
* unlimited number of sprints
* task filters and board search
* board settings on the project level
* drag & drop assignment of the tasks
* drag & drop operation with the board
Web site: https://www.easyredmine.com/redmine-agile-plugin/
* Redmine CRM Agile Plugin
The Redmine CRM Agile Plugin is a commercial Agile plugin that provides the following features for Scrum and Kanban:
* Agile Scrum/Kanban boards
* Burndown charts
* Swimlanes
* Colors
* Sprint planning
* Burnup, Velocity, Cumulative flow charts
Web site: https://www.redminecrm.com/projects/agile/pages/1
* Redmine Backlogs
Redmine Backlogs is an open source Agile plugin that can do a number of useful things for your agile team:
* Sort stories in your product and iteration backlogs
* Track story points for each of your stories
* Display burndown charts to show progress
* Track tasks via your iteration’s taskboard
* Produce printable task board cards
* Track impediments within each iteration
The development of the original Redmine Backlogs has stopped, but there are a number of forks that are still actively maintained to be compatible with the last Redmine version.
Original web site: https://github.com/backlogs/redmine_backlogs
Some forks web site: https://github.com/patrickatamaniuk/redmine_backlogs, https://github.com/JohnBat26/redmine_backlogs
* Scrum2B
Scrum2B is an open source project management application, specialized in Scrum/Agile projects and Software Development
Scrum2B main features are:
* Visual vision for Scrum/Agile Project Management: display issues in Sprint, columns (Backlog, New, In progress, Completed, Close)
* Easy to drag and drop the issues in columns for planing
* Multi-select: Easy change Status, Sprint for multi-issues
Web site: https://github.com/scrum2b/scrum2b
* Scrum-Plugin
The Scrum-Plugin allows following the Scrum project management approach with Redmine:
* Sprint task board with drag & drop.
* Sprint burndown chart.
* Sprint stats.
* Product backlog with drag & drop.
* Product backlog burndown chart.
* Product backlog stats.
* Edit PBIs & tasks with a pop-up directly in PB or Sprint board.
* Release planning.
* General Scrum stats for project.
* Hints to use the plugin when something is not well configured.
* Easy to setup, plugin settings & configuration per project.
* Several new permissions in Administration section.
Web site: https://redmine.ociotec.com/projects/redmine-plugin-scrum
Plugins valid for older version of Redmine
* Agile Dwarf
Agile Dwarf, a powerful open source Scrum tool that seamlessly integrates into Redmine to provide Agile project management features
Web site: http://www.agiledwarf.com/, https://github.com/iRessources/AgileDwarf
* Easy Agile
Easy Agile is a simple task board that allows you to define stories and track their statuses through iteration. The application is quite straightforward for the people familiar with the SCRUM and Agile methodology.
Web site: https://github.com/SphereConsultingInc/easy_agile
* Redmine Kanban
The Redmine Kanban plugin is used to manage issues according to the Kanban system of project management.
Web site: https://github.com/edavis10/redmine_kanban
* Redmine-Scrumbler
Redmine-Scrumbler is a Redmine plugin that allows to use the Scrum/Agile process in projects. Scrumbler have interactive dashboard with the ability to configure for each sprint. Plugin adds Scrum Points field in every issue in project. Scrumbler as possible using the standard redmine structure of projects.
Web site: https://github.com/256MbTeam/Redmine-Scrumbler
* Redmine Scrummer
Redmine Scrummer is a Redmine plugin to let it supports the Scrum and Agile approaches. Scrummer is a flexible project management web application written using Ruby on Rails framework.
Web site: https://github.com/BadrIT/redmine_scrummer
* Scrum PM
Scrum PM is a plugin for Redmine for Scrum project management. Redmine Version class becomes a sprint and issue becomes task. Most actions support drag and drop and in the dashboard you can change status of your task simply by dragging it to another column.
* Support for UML diagram generators railroad (Rails) and umlgraph (JAVA).
* One click documentation generation (rdoc and javadoc)
* Continuous integration with CruiseControl
* Burndown charts
* Velocity planing
Web site: http://www.software-project.eu/EN/scrumpm
Web site: https://github.com/software-project/scrum-pm
* Version Burndown Charts
Version Burndown Charts Plugin create burndown chart graph for Scrum from ticket’s estimated hours and %Done in target version.
Web site: https://github.com/daipresents/redmine_version_burndown_charts
* Redmine Todos-Scrum Plugin
Development stopped in 2010. A nested, easy to use project based todos plugin for Redmine. Allows easy creation and management of infinitely nestable todo lists on a per project basis, that can be organized into sprints(or releases). Also provides global ‘My Todos’ for all projects. Todos can be allocated to uses, and tied to Redmine Issues.
Web site: https://github.com/dalyons/redmine-todos-scrum-plugin
* Scrumdashboard
Development stopped in 2009 “Scrumdashboard” is a plugin for Redmine. It enables Redmine to better support the Scrum process by giving the users access to a digital “dashboard”. This shows the status for the current sprint through a digital representation of a whiteboard with post-it notes detailing User Stories/Features/etc (from the product backlog) which is often used with projects using Scrum.
Scrumdashboard supports the following:
* Drag & Drop to change the status of an issue, following the workflow
* Change the types of statuses/trackers displayed on the dashboard
* Column sorting for statuses
* Choose which version to display on the dashboard
* Tooltips for each issue
* Display all the issues or only the issues assigned to the current user
* Configure colors for issues displayed
Web site: https://github.com/thus/redmine-scrumdashboard-plugin | {
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Image copyright PA Image caption Madeleine McCann disappeared in Portugal in 2007
Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have been granted more money to continue the search.
More than £11m has been spent on the Metropolitan Police inquiry, known as Operation Grange, but funding was due to run out at the end of the month.
A Home Office spokesman said the government was "committed" to the investigation into the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine in Portugal.
Scotland Yard began its own investigation into the case in 2011.
Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann, of Rothley, Leicestershire, had appealed for the search to continue for their daughter, who was three when she vanished from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007.
Detectives investigating the disappearance said last year that a "critical line of inquiry" was still being pursued.
Government funding for the investigation has been agreed every six months, with £154,000 granted from October 2017 until the end of March this year.
The Met's Operation Grange was set up after former Prime Minister David Cameron asked the force to "bring their expertise" to the inquiry following a request from Kate and Gerry McCann.
Four people were identified as suspects in 2013, but no further action was taken after they were interviewed by Portuguese officers and the Met Police, who visited the holiday resort in 2014.
The number of UK officers investigating the case was cut from 29 to four in 2015.
On the 10th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance in May last year, police said some 40,000 documents had been reviewed and more than 600 individuals had been investigated.
Thursday 3 May 2007: Timeline
20:30 Kate and Gerry McCann leave their apartment to have dinner at a Tapas bar
Kate and Gerry McCann leave their apartment to have dinner at a Tapas bar 21:05 Gerry McCann checks on Madeleine and her siblings
Gerry McCann checks on Madeleine and her siblings 22:00 A man is seen carrying a child wearing pyjamas heading towards the ocean (E-fit images of the suspect were released as part of a 2013 Crimewatch appeal)
A man is seen carrying a child wearing pyjamas heading towards the ocean (E-fit images of the suspect were released as part of a 2013 Crimewatch appeal) 22:00 Kate McCann raises the alarm that Madeleine has gone missing
Clickable map and timeline
You may also be interested in: | {
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ALLEN PARK -- The Detroit Lions will have their second public off-site practice Wednesday evening, but this one won't be in the friendly confines of a comfortable Division II stadium.
This baby's under the bright lights of Ford Field.
The 7:30 p.m. practice is open to the public, and tickets aren't even required. If you want to get an early peek at your professional footballers, just show up at Ford Field. You're in. That's it.
The workout is the latest installment in new coach Jim Caldwell's efforts to keep things interesting for his players. And it seems to be working. Players kicked up the intensity a notch last week at Wayne State, and I'd expect more of the same tonight.
COMING UP
A few things we'll be watching today:
* You know Detroit has had a drama-free camp when the biggest storyline has been its kicker battle. Giorgio Tavecchio is riding a streak of 21 straight conversions, while Nate Freese has been erratic but has hit his past five. It'll be interesting to see how those guys react to kicking at Ford Field.
* Is Jonathan Baldwin with the team? Detroit claimed him on Monday, but the receiver wasn't with the team Tuesday. It seems there was some kind of hangup with his physical. He's a longshot to make the team regardless, but he is a former first-round pick and it'd be interesting to see what he's got if he can ever get on the field.
* I'm getting interested in Kyle Van Noy, who was reputed by coaches as a three-down linebacker who would contribute right away, yet remains relegated to second-team reps both in practice and on the depth chart. Ashlee Palmer just might have more of a shot at the strong-side job than originally expected.
* Something I'll watch closely: How are Kellen Moore and James Franklin doing? The Lions still haven't determined whether they'll keep a third quarterback. Franklin hasn't done much (yet) to warrant consideration. Moore at this point seems to have a better shot of sticking, but needs to practice better for Detroit to devote a third roster spot to the position.
* Check back this evening for the latest news, as well as our daily notes and observations. We'll also have a photo gallery and video from the practice if you can't make it to Detroit.
LOOKING BACK
In case you missed them, here are some items worth reading:
* LaAdrian Waddle and Nate Freese were among the notable starters on Detroit's first depth chart. Here's a look at the whole thing. In unrelated news, anyone know a good carpal tunnel doctor?
* Our beloved Gillian Van Stratt dropped in on practice Tuesday and stalked Eric Ebron's hands. No, really. Here's photographic evidence.
* Has anyone used the "Heeeere's Johnny!" joke yet? What? Everyone on God's green earth has? Oh, Ok. Well anyway, Johnny Football makes his NFL debut against Detroit. Darius Slay recalls the last time he faced Johnny Football.
* Justin Rogers filed his camp notes like it's his job.
* Gallery from practice. With photos! | {
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(Reuters Health) - Infant sleeping bags, or sleep sacks, are at least as safe as other bedding in preventing sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and might be safer, a new analysis concludes.
SIDS is the sudden, unexplained death of a baby younger than 12 months. While little is known about the condition, factors like putting a baby to sleep face down, or using soft bedding, have been found to increase the risk of SIDS.
In response to prevention guidelines warning against putting infants to sleep with blankets, parents have been putting them to sleep in sleeping bags. These “bags” are sleeveless sacks that cover the shoulders, containing the rest of the body, with the arms outside of the sack to prevent it from rising over the head.
“Infant sleeping bags are used by many parents around the world but it is important not to assume that popularity is equivalent to safety,” said Alessandra Glover Williams of Britain’s Royal United Hospitals Bath.
Williams and her colleague Fiona Finlay analyzed four previous studies of Austrian, Mongolian, Dutch and English infants that examined the impact of sleeping bags on risk of SIDS or SIDS risk factors. They reported their findings in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.
“There are not many trials looking into infant sleeping bags and risk of SIDS but those available are of high quality,” Williams said.
Two of the studies looked at the effect of infant sleeping bags on the risk of SIDS. The other two considered temperature regulation.
The Dutch study, published in 1998, found that cotton sleeping bags lowered the risk of SIDS by 65 percent and that babies who wore them were less likely to turn prone or face-down.
The English study found at first that sleep sacks did decrease babies’ risk of SIDS. But after the researchers accounted for other factors affecting SIDS risk, they could no longer say for sure that the lower SIDS rate was actually due to wearing the sleep sacks.
The Austrian study found that infants stayed just as warm when they slept in sleep sacks as when wrapped in blankets. The study in Mongolian babies found similar body temperatures in infants wearing sleep sacks or swaddled.
The Lullaby Trust, a British charity that aims to prevent unexpected deaths in infancy, recommends sleeping bags for babies as a good alternative to blankets but does not specifically say they reduce the chance of SIDS.
“I think most UK parents are aware of SIDS,” said Dr. Joanna Garstang of the University of Warwick, who reviewed the paper.
“Most (SIDS) deaths in the UK now occur in socially deprived families who struggle to engage with safe sleep messages,” Garstang said. “Sadly, a very common scenario is of a baby dying co-sleeping with parents who have consumed significant amounts of alcohol or taken drugs.”
“Sleeping bags are generally used by higher income families who are anyway at the lowest risk of SIDS,” she adds.
Launched in the 1990s, the Back To Sleep public education campaign, now renamed Safe to Sleep, has strived to educate caregivers about SIDS and ways to reduce it. Since the campaign began, SIDS rates have fallen dramatically, although the condition remains a leading cause of death for American infants.
Because SIDS is rare, “it is hard to accumulate enough data to fully understand what factors might come together to cause (it),” said Dr. David Schwebel of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who was not involved in the study.
Garstang said the main limitation of the new analysis is that it lacked data, since there are very few publications about sleeping bags and SIDS. Dr. Schwebel agrees.
“The studies reviewed are excellent, but there are few of them, and some of them (were small),” he said. “The overall conclusion is that there is some evidence these sleeping bags are safe when used properly, and at least some initial indication they could help to prevent SIDS. But the evidence is preliminary right now, not definitive.”
SOURCE: bit.ly/2RprvSR Archives of Disease in Childhood, online October 8, 2018. | {
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Epic announced today that Ubisoft will continue its relationship with the Epic Games Store. Apparently, the publisher was happy with its decision to release The Division 2 on Epic's client (and not Steam), and will be releasing "several" more games that way—though which ones, Epic can't say yet. Ubisoft will announce that in the near future.
In addition, Ubisoft will be integrating its Uplay social features with Epic's, so that users can share friends between the two services.
At its GDC 2019 keynote, Epic also revealed that Control, The Outer Worlds, and several other games will be coming to the Epic Games Store. Read all about that here. | {
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HOOD RIVER, Ore. (KOIN) — Nestle’s controversial plan to establish a water bottling plant in Cascade Locks has divided the community and sparked contentious debates among those worried about the environment and others working to boost the local economy.
On May 17, Hood River County residents will vote on a ballot measure that would ban all commercial water bottling operations in the region.
If voters pass ballot measure 14-55, Nestle’s years-long battle to export 118 million gallons of water a year from Oxbow Springs could finally come to an end.
“The measure is a way to set the precedent that Hood River County values our water,” activist group the Local Water Alliance’s website states. “We will not sell it off to water exporters wishing to profit at the expense of our water security and future.”
Nestle has denounced the measure for singling out corporate water bottlers.
“Nestle Waters North America (NWNA) is pleased that the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), of which we are a member, is actively opposing Measure 14-55 as it arbitrarily singles out the bottled water industry. As this is a measure to ban our proposed business in Hood River County, we should naturally be engaged in the debate.” – Dave Palais, NWNA Natural Resource Manager
While many citizens are in favor of the measure, most city officials don’t support it.
The Cascade Locks City Council recently voted 6-1 to adopt a resolution that explicitly opposes the water protection measure, an overwhelming vote in favor of Nestle.
Cascade Locks Mayor Tom Cramblett tells KOIN 6 News, when it comes to Nestle’s plan, “the pros outweigh the cons by a long shot.”
“Everything comes down to trying to get jobs for people,” Mayor Cramblett said. “We got a great opportunity for good, full-time paying jobs with benefits, with retirement, with everything that goes along with that.�?
City Administrator Gordon Zimmerman agrees.
“Nestle would be good for the city in increased tax base, increased employment, and increased utility revenues as stated in the resolution,” Zimmerman said via email.
Local Water Alliance Campaign Director Aurora del Val and other local activists have been fighting to protect the region’s water supply for years.
Del Val says she understands the need for economic development in Cascade Locks, but calls Nestle’s project “a shortsighted pursuit of a small number of jobs.”
“We’ve done our research and we know that the kind of jobs Nestle would be providing would be low-paying,” she said. “I don’t buy the promises… from Nestle.”
Around 50 new jobs would reportedly be created if Nestle gets the green light, however, the company hasn’t confirmed whether those jobs would go to locals.
Zimmerman says the city can’t require Nestle to hire Cascade Locks residents.
Research also shows Nestle’s manufacturing facilities will likely continue to automate production processes in an effort to maximize profits and reduce costs.
Opponents say that means it’s unlikely 50 locals will be hired full-time.
As of December 2015, Cascade Locks experienced 18.8% unemployment.
While city leaders tout Nestle’s plan as a way to decrease that rate, they also acknowledge a growing number of new businesses and a recent boom in tourism.
“For the first time in years, the City is attracting the attention of potential manufacturing interests. Bear Mountain Wood Products is expanding. A new value added agricultural industry is coming to town. A local family is working on a fish processing plant.” – City of Cascade Locks
It’s those local businesses del Val says the city should be working to expand.
“People are hiring, actually, at the brewery right here,” del Val said. “I want to make sure we have the kinds of companies that share [our] kinds of values… We don’t want a corporation that’s based in Switzerland and really could care less.”
Aside from creating jobs, the city has acknowledged numerous reasons for pursuing the opportunity, including a property tax base increase and corporate help in the event of a natural disaster.
But anti-Nestle advocates say those things won’t make up for the 118 million gallons of water the company wants to export out of Oxbow Springs every year.
“It is intrinsically a desecration to sell that water,�?Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs’ Anna Mae Leonard said. “It is specific to our spiritual, cultural practices.�?
Just last summer, Governor Kate Brown declared drought emergencies in 23 of Oregon’s 36 counties, the most since 1992. Cascade Locks residents even received notices to conserve water in their summer utility bills.
Lingering concerns brought on by the drought have been alleviated somewhat thanks to El Niño and a much a wetter-than-normal fall and winter. The city already received 78.35 inches of rain this water year, an inch higher than the annual average.
City leaders say they aren’t worried about running out of water anytime soon.
“If [Nestlé’s] bottling plant was running at full production 24 hours a day for an entire year, the plant would bottle almost 118 million gallons of water. That sounds like a lot, but looking at the Columbia River, that amount of water flows by Cascade Locks every 1.4 minutes.” – City of Cascade Locks
Despite elevated rain levels this water year, del Val says local tributaries were visibly drier last summer. She and others with the Local Water Alliance believe fresh water will become scarce as the effects of climate change are felt around the globe.
“In Oregon there’s always been, it seems like, an abundance of water. But it’s really been changing… We know it’s been happening for years, that there’s been a change of the weather pattern,” Local Water Alliance Founder Pamela Larsen told The Story of Stuff Project. “Fresh, clean water is… the most precious thing on the planet.”
At the end of the day, activists working to stop Nestle’s plan say their primary goal is to protect the water supply for local farmers, orchardists, families, salmon and — above all else — future generations.
“Hood River County’s economy is directly linked to water, whether it’s our farms and orchards or river recreation,” del Val said via email. “It’s very important we have control over the future of our water supply and we can’t have that control if we let Nestle or any other corporation truck our water out of the county.”
Del Val says she’s worried Nestle will exploit other water sources in Oregon if given access to Oxbow Springs. It’s something she says the company is already doing.
“At other plants, [Nestle] will travel up to 100-120 miles for other water sources, bring it back to their plant, bottle it up in plastic and ship it out,” she said.
Nestle’s controversial history in California also doesn’t sit well with everyone.
An investigative piece by The Desert Sun revealed Nestle pays only $524 a year to extract nearly 27 million gallons of water from the San Bernardino Mountains.
For over 2 decades, the corporate water bottling giant has been operating in the region under an expired permit with little federal oversight.
“The Forest Service hasn’t looked at [the region] in a number of years, so they can’t say ‘Yes, we’re protecting U.S. public resources. Yes, we’re making sure that there is sufficient water for all the species,” environmental attorney Rachel Doughty said.
“They’ve devastated communities around the country and around the world, and we don’t want that happening here.” – Aurora del Val
Nestle increased its water use in California by 19% during recent periods of extreme drought between 2011-2014, according to figures provided by the corporation.
In an interview with a hydrologist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, Nestle Waters North America CEO Tim Brown said he had no desire to move his company’s bottled water operations elsewhere as California dealt with a historic drought.
“Absolutely not,” Brown said. “In fact, if I could increase [bottling], I would.”
Retired U.S. Forest Service Ranger Gary Earney told The Story of Stuff Project the region’s water supply will only become more critical as the population grows.
“I care a great deal that public land in our country is properly managed, especially in a manner that makes sure that the goods and services it provides are there for future generations,” Earney said. “And that’s not how it’s being managed.”
If Oregon were to experience a severe drought in the future, many Cascade Locks residents say they’re not sure Nestle would act responsibly to conserve resources.
“This corporation has a history of seeking out desperate communities,” del Val said. “I seriously doubt that Nestle or any other large-scale water bottling corporation would stop pumping our water even as water sources continue to shrink.”
Ultimately, it will be up to voters to decide Nestle’s fate in Cascade Locks.
Ballots must be submitted by May 17. | {
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After declaring a major incident police sealed off all the areas the couple had been in the hours before they fell ill, including Queen Elizabeth Gardens, the Muggleton Road address, the Boots branch and the Amesbury Baptist Centre.
Police also sealed off Ms Sturgess's home in John Baker House, a property used by social services to accommodate people with drug and alcohol problems, which is just a two minute walk from Zizzi restaurant, where the Skripals ate before collapsing from the effects of Novichok.
Mr Skripal, a former double agent and daughter Yulia, who had been visiting him from Moscow, spent two months in hospital after being poisoned with Novichok.
They were discharged in May and moved to a secure location where they are continuing to recover.
Downing St treats incident with 'utmost seriousness'
A meeting of the Government's Cobra emergencies committee took place at an official level in the Cabinet Office on Wednesday morning to discuss events in Amesbury.
A Downing Street spokesman said: "This is an incident which understandably is being treated with the utmost seriousness.
"Ministers and the Prime Minister are being kept updated and there was a meeting this morning of officials to receive updates on the facts of the situation."
A Government source said: "Senior Whitehall officials are being kept informed of what is going on on the ground as we seek to establish the facts of this case. No definitive conclusions have yet been established."
Friend who spent day in Salisbury with couple
Sam Hobson, a friend of the couple, said that the day before the pair collapsed he went into Salisbury town centre with them to visit shops and have a drink in Queen Elizabeth Gardens.
These were later sealed off by police, along with the Boots and the Amesbury Baptist Centre.
Mr Hobson said Ms Sturgess, who has known Mr Rowley for nearly a year, is not a drug user. Mr Rowley and Ms Sturgess, who are unemployed, each have a young daughter from different relationships. “I just hope they pull through this,” said Mr Hobson.
Mr Hobson told how the day before Mr Rowley and Ms Sturgess fell ill, the three of them had visited several locations in Salisbury close to the riverside bench at the Maltings shopping centre where the Skripals collapsed after succumbing to the effects of Novichok nerve agent. | {
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Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said Wednesday that the hard-won, warts-and-all budget pact between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Trump "marks the death of the Tea Party movement in America," and will uncontrollably balloon the national debt, which now stands at more than $22 trillion.
The deal, announced earlier this month, would increase spending caps by $320 billion relative to the limits prescribed in the 2011 Budget Control Act. That act's spending control provisions have been repeatedly waived since 2014.
The deal would also suspend the debt ceiling and permit more government borrowing until July 31, 2021 -- after the coming presidential election.
“Both parties have deserted – have absolutely and utterly deserted – America and show no care and no understanding and no sympathy for the burden of debt they are leaving the taxpayers, the young, the next generation and the future of our country," Paul said on the Senate floor. "The very underpinnings of our country are being eroded and threatened by this debt."
The modern conservative "tea party" label originated in early 2009 in the wake of President Obama's pricey bailout plan, after a CNBC reporter called for a movement to advocate for less government and increased fiscal responsibility.
"Can you hear it? Can you hear the somber notes, the feet shuffling, the solemn tones?" Paul asked. "Can you hear it? It's a dirge, a funeral march, the death of a movement -- a once-proud movement with hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall. It's the death, it's the last gasp of a movement in America that is concerned with our national debt.
"Today is the final nail in the coffin. The Tea Party is no more.
"The budget deal today allows unlimited borrowing for nearly two years," Paul continued. "Unlimited. No limits. The government will borrow what they wish, without limit, for two years. It abolishes all spending caps. ... Fiscal conservatives, those who remain, should be in mourning, for Congress, both parties, have deserted you."
The budget deal faces a key vote pn Thursday in the GOP-led Senate, with many conservatives torn between supporting the president and risking their political brand with an unpopular vote to add $2 trillion or more to the government's credit card.
WHAT ARE THE TERMS OF THE BUDGET DEAL?
The Trump-supported legislation backed by the Democratic speaker would stave off a government shutdown and protect budget gains for the Pentagon and popular domestic programs. It's attached to a must-do measure to lift the so-called debt limit to permit the government to borrow freely to pay its bills.
The vote is a politically tough one for many Republicans. The Tea Party-driven House GOP conference broke against it by a 2-1 margin, but most pragmatists see the measure as preferable to an alternative fall landscape of high-wire deadlines and potential chaos. The government will otherwise face a potential debt default, an Oct. 1 shutdown deadline and the return in January of across-the-board spending cuts -- sequestration.
After the deal was announced, North Carolina GOP Rep. Mark Walker tweeted out a picture of the Joker lighting a pile of money on fire, from the 2008 "Batman" film, "The Dark Knight." ("All you care about is money," the Joker laments to a hardened career criminal as the money burns. "This town deserves a better class of criminal. And I'm going to give it to them.")
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is confident the bill will pass despite the misgivings of many Republicans.
Still, for new Senate arrivals, particularly those who ran against a broken Washington culture, the sweeping measure represents a lot of what they ran against: unrestrained borrowing and trillion-dollar deficits, fueled by a bipartisan thirst for new spending.
DEFICITS ARE EXPLODING -- AND NEITHER PARTY SEEMS TO CARE
"This budget process, if we can even call it a process, put taxpayers at the mercy of a House speaker who has no interest in prudent budgeting," said freshman Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. "Our system is not supposed to work this way. When the entire federal budget depends on four or five people striking a deal among themselves, something is not right."
The budget and debt bill are priorities for McConnell, who set up the initial talks — taken over by Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin earlier this month — and pushed to isolate conservative forces in the White House who were disruptive. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York and House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy of California also support the deal.
"The alternative's worse." — Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio
For House Republicans, as the minority party, it was easy to take a pass on voting for the legislation. Pelosi also made a point of showing she had enough Democratic votes to push it through without their help. But it's a different dynamic in the Senate, where Republicans hold the majority and are expected to deliver a strong vote for a Trump-backed agreement.
The agreement is a victory for pragmatists eager to avert the sort of chaos caused by a shutdown, a debt crisis or a freeze to agency budgets — including the massive Pentagon budget. That would mean a continuing resolution, or CR, which could interfere with new weapons procurement and foster waste.
"The alternative's worse. It's either have a CR or another government shutdown and I think you have to believe this is the best you can do in divided government," said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. "You can't pull back. If you go to a CR for defense we'd be losing a lot of what we've gained on the defense buildup. So, you know, I don't love it but on balance it's better than the alternative."
Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he expected a strong showing by Senate Dems in favor of the bill. And GOP leadership stalwarts like Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, swiftly got behind the measure, calling it about the best result possible in a legislative matrix that demands Pelosi's blessing for bills to become law.
"So what price did we have to pay to get this? We had to give Nancy Pelosi a 4 percent increase this year in domestic spending and zero increase next year for an average annual increase that's less than the growth" in gross domestic product, Wicker said.
"I want to know what better deal anybody could have crafted that got Nancy Pelosi's sign-off in the House and Mitch McConnell's sign-off in the Senate, along with McCarthy and Schumer," Wicker said.
The compromise reportedly outraged Democrat Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, who noted the bill would not block Trump from spending money on his proposed border wall.
"I'm worried the House is willing to give him far too much discretion to take money and move it anywhere he wants including a wall," Leahy, D-Vt., told The Washington Post. "So the way it is now I will not vote for it. . . . The other 99 can vote for it, I won’t."
However, in a statement, Leahy later said he would "support the bill" because it "will raise the debt limit for the next two years and stave off economic catastrophe" and reverse "unsustainable cuts in nondefense discretionary spending."
DEFICITS ARE EXPLODING -- AND NEITHER PARTY SEEMS TO CARE
Leahy added, "I understand there is a statement of principles between congressional leaders and the White House, and I have many concerns with its content."
The agreement between the administration and Pelosi lifts the limit on the government's $22 trillion debt for two years and averts the risk of the Pentagon and domestic agencies from being hit with $125 billion in automatic spending cuts that are the last gasp of the 2011 Budget Control Act.
Fox News' Bradford Betz and The Associated Press contributed to this report. | {
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Chris Mendel
is using TikTok. Join us now! | {
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Police are investigating after a video featuring a bikini-clad blonde wielding a screwdriver went viral on Facebook.
The short clip appears to be filmed from inside a car and shows a young woman in a striped bikini confronting another driver.
Do you know any of the people in the video? Email us at [email protected]
The blonde, from Upper Hutt, shouts, "You nearly cut my car off, do you know how to drive?"
She demands to see the other driver's licence and then appears to hit her in the face.
Police say the blonde woman turned herself in at the Upper Hutt station yesterday after the video was uploaded on Sunday.
Senior Sergeant Carolyn McKenzie said officers were still investigating, and she encouraged the apparent victim to come forward.
"At this stage, we don't believe she was hit with a screwdriver but that she's actually holding it in her other hand."
One Facebook user, who did not want to be named, recorded it as it played on her computer screen and shared it on her page, saying she was ''disgusted'' by the woman's antics.
The video has since been shared multiple times and attracted hundreds of comments from unimpressed Facebook users, some of whom claimed to know the victim and her alleged assailant.
McKenzie said the reaction to the video demonstrated how photographed and filmed exploits shared by social media users quickly became ''bigger than Ben Hur''. | {
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The page you were looking for could not be found.
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While the southeast U.S. braces for a possible major hurricane, Michigan and the Great Lakes region should brace for some majorly nice weather. The nice weather is a by-product of Hurricane Florence.
Hurricanes have a circulation pattern that sends air outward and upward from the hurricane. The air then sinks as it travels away from the hurricane. Sinking air warms up and dries out.
So typically there is a 500-mile donut shaped area surrounding a hurricane that gets sunny and warmer than average weather.
The image shows the forecast at around 15,000 feet up for this Friday, September 14.
Upper-level forecast for Friday, September 14 shows the red areas where temperatures aloft are going to be warmer than average. Note the position of Hurricane Florence at the southeast U.S. coast.
You can see the approximate position of Hurricane Florence. Don't use this position as the official forecast. Use the National Hurricane Center forecast track.
The red shading essentially shows where temperatures are warmer than normal in the upper atmosphere. And where it's warm aloft, it's usually warmer than normal at the ground.
The sinking air motion outside of the hurricane also dries up and dissipates clouds.
I typically see the area we are in with relation to the hurricane having sunny skies and temperatures warming into the mid-to-upper 80s. I typically see the high temperature forecast trend upward several degrees as the time period in question gets closer.
That means Michigan and the rest of the Great Lakes region can expect some great, summer-like weather coming up for the second half of our work week and the weekend.
While devastation may be occurring somewhere along the southeast coast late this week, we will be basking in warm sunshine. | {
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Article and Photos by Andrés Alvarado
The roller coaster story of Washington metal quintet Queensrÿche reverts back to the eighties. Spanning the decades since, the band has rifled off all sorts of newsworthy headlines; some good, some bad. Fifteen albums, several DVDs, lawsuits, firings, parallel bands touring under the same name, and much, much more are just a quick recap of what Queensrÿche has done since its inception. Nonetheless, through the thick and the thin, one key aspect of Queensrÿche has remained intact: their showmanship. Promoting their latest LP, The Verdict, the Rÿche chaps would once more let their performance chops do the talking at the swanky Buckhead Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia.
At roughly ten in the night, the Rÿche five hit the stage. With hundreds of aficionados greeting their every move with gleeful cheer, Todd La Torre and the gang rip-n-roll into action. The venue atmosphere converts from anticipation into raw fucking energy; after all, it is not every day one gets to witness legends mastering their craft. Long story short, Queensrÿche brought their A-game and delivered a masterful evening of towering natural highs, broad smiles, singalongs and, of course, metal melody by the bunches.
The playlist for the evening was a mixed bag of throwbacks and modern Rÿche tunes. Original members Michael Wilton and Eddie Jackson made sure that rÿcher purists got their proper dose of that nostalgia-laden fix by performing several numbers off their classic records like Empire, Rage for Order, The Warning and Operation: Mindcrime; while La Torre, Casey Grillo and Parker Lundgren channeled in the newer wave with numbers off latest The Verdict. Moreover, the concert failed to feel disjointed or like a tale of two bands; quite the contrary, it all came together organically, streamlined and rather punchy from the first note played to that final wave goodbye.
All in all, Queensrÿche served up a surreal spectacle of bottomless musicianship. After nearly forty years since their first track hit the sound waves, thousands of live shows, hundreds of hits and millions of fans, Queensrÿche still posseses the ability to make it all seem intimate and close-knit. That Tri-Ryche logo represents decades of excellence, both musically and in the live circuit; and in 2020 it is still a joy to see the Rÿche boys do their thing.
Todd La Torre of Queensrÿche Parker Lundgren of Queensrÿche Eddie Jackson of Queensrÿche Michael Wilton of Queensrÿche Todd La Torre of Queensrÿche Eddie Jackson of Queensrÿche Todd La Torre of Queensrÿche Parker Lundgren of Queensrÿche Todd La Torre of Queensrÿche Michael Wilton of Queensrÿche Todd La Torre of Queensrÿche Parker Lundgren of Queensrÿche | {
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Dave Cross wrote an insightful blog post "A Subtle Bug" describing a anti-pattern in Perl resulting in a bug, which is quite subtle (hence the title of the original post).
Yes it is possible to do a scan/search of your code base and spot this bug. But a one-off analysis poses some issues, like keeping the same bugs out of our code base - permanently.
And this is exactly what static program analysis (or just static analysis) tools are for, especially when integrated with your source control system or CI/CD system.
The dominant static-analysis tool for Perl is named Perl::Critic. I have written several policies for Perl::Critic to enforce my own coding policies and I am quite keen on the concept of static analysis. The reason for my enthusiasm is that I really really like code reviews, but I have often observed that we tend to discuss the obvious, so if we want to get the most out of a human review, which takes time and effort, we leave the boring stuff to the computers, meaning static analysis of your code base and the humans can do what human are quite good at and that is spotting the other stuff using creativity, pattern matching and experience.
Based on Dave's post, which immediately triggered something with me, I have developed a first shot at a policy for discovering the anti-pattern and possible bug in your Perl source code.
Introducing: Perl::Critic::Policy::InputOutput::ProhibitHighPrecedentLogicalOperatorErrorHandling
sub _is_logical_operator { my ( $self , $sibling ) = @_ ; if ( $sibling ) { if ( $sibling -> class eq 'PPI::Token::Operator' ) { if ( $sibling -> content eq q{||} ) { return $TRUE ; } } return $self -> _is_logical_operator ( $sibling -> snext_sibling ()); } return $FALSE ; }
I do not like the name myself and it is somewhat wrong since the remedy of using or over || is also a logical operator. And secondly you can still use the || operator in combination with parentheses.
First implementation was very elegant relying only on the recursive function _is_logical_operator , but this did not handle the presence of parentheses.
So I had to introduce a regular expression :-/
return if $elem -> snext_sibling () -> content () =~ m/^[\s]*[(]/xism ;
Under the banner of clean code, I would love to at least isolate the regular expression - handling it differently would be AWESOME, so I am still pondering a solution.
I have notified Dave of my implementation and tweeted about it and now I am blogging, so hopefully I will get some reviews or feedback - did I mention I love code reviews? :-)
When I have stabilized the code and finalized the documentation, I am thinking about making a pull request to the Perl::Critic distribution, since I am not really interested in maintaining yet another stand-alone policy, but more on this in another blog post.
Please check it out at let me know what you think: | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
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