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Meanwhile, Rivera has Newton in through the third quarter, at one point throwing lead blocks on a reverse. Honestly, if this is the way he wants to play it, good for him. That's why he's called Riverboat Ron, and there have been good teams who have tried to sit their players only to see it backfire massively. Carolina is just as fun to watch on the sideline as it is on the field, so why mess with a good thing? Also, with Benwikere, the team was already short on cornerbacks and there's not much it can do. | {
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Frank S. Page has resigned as president and chief executive officer of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee (EC), effective today, over what is described as “a morally inappropriate relationship in the recent past.”
Florida pastor Stephen Rummage, chairman of the committee, released a 300-word statement Tuesday afternoon on behalf of its officers noting the circumstances of Page’s resignation:
Last evening, the officers of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee met via phone conference with Dr. Frank Page during which he announced his plans for retirement. Today, I spoke with Dr. Page and learned that his retirement announcement was precipitated by a morally inappropriate relationship in the recent past. This news will, we understand, bring great sorrow. I have shared with the Executive Committee officers what Dr. Page shared with me, including Dr. Page’s repentance and deep regret that his actions have caused pain for others.
“My heart is broken for Dr. Page, his family, and everyone affected,” Rummage, senior pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Florida, stated. “I believe I speak for the entire Executive Committee in saying that we are committed to provide them the spiritual and emotional support they need in the coming days. We also recognize the stewardship we owe Southern Baptists and the watching world to communicate with truth and candor and to honor the Lord in our actions and decisions.”
He continued:
I call upon all Southern Baptists to pray for everyone involved in a situation like this, and especially for Dr. and Mrs. Page. Please pray for the Southern Baptist Convention and all that is entrusted to the Executive Committee. As officers, we are committed to provide leadership that the Southern Baptist Convention will recognize and trust. To those ends, in keeping with our Executive Committee bylaws, we will be working on a plan to provide for interim transition in the wake of Dr. Page’s immediate departure and also to conduct a search for the next president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee. I am personally counting on the prayers of Southern Baptists, as I know are all who serve on our SBC Executive Committee.
Page released a statement as well Tuesday afternoon:
It is with deep regret that I tender my resignation from the SBC Executive Committee and announce my retirement from active ministry, effective immediately. As a result of a personal failing, I have embarrassed my family, my Lord, myself, and the Kingdom. Out of a desire to protect my family and those I have hurt, I initially announced my retirement earlier today without a complete explanation. However, after further wrestling with my personal indiscretion, it became apparent to me that this situation must be acknowledged in a more forthright manner. It is my most earnest desire in the days to come to rebuild the fabric of trust with my wife and daughters, those who know me best and love me most.
As EC president, the 65-year-old Page has held a key role in coordinating the work of the SBC’s national ministries—encompassing two mission boards, six seminaries, and other entities—and overseeing a Cooperative Program budget of nearly $200 million yearly. Page’s work also included building relationships with 42 state and regional Baptist conventions and 47,000-plus Southern Baptist churches in all 50 states.
Page was the 2006–2008 president of the SBC, elected to the post as pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, South Carolina. Before being elected as EC president in 2010, Page served as vice president of evangelization for the North American Mission Board from 2009 to 2010.
Among the hallmarks of Page’s eight years as EC president have been strong calls for personal evangelism; support for the Cooperative Program channel of Southern Baptist missions and ministry support; and inclusion of numerous ethnic groups, women, young leaders, and small-church pastors in the life of the convention.
The Pages have two daughters, Laura and Allison; a third daughter, Melissa, died in 2009.
Editor’s note: Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College and former president of LifeWay Research (and a CT blogger) stated: | {
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Facebook estimated that at any given time fake accounts comprise about 5 percent of its 2.4 billion monthly active users.
The report also illustrated the efforts Facebook has taken to enforce other content policies as well as the massive scale of abuse that the company must monitor and crack down on.
Facebook has reported a steady increase in the amount of hate speech it cracks down on. In the first quarter, it removed 4 million pieces of content it deemed had violated its prohibition against hate speech, compared with 3.3 million in the last quarter of 2018.
The social network attributes the increase to the investments it has made in artificial intelligence designed to detect hate speech. | {
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In April 2014, Microsoft will end Windows XP support. No more support means no more updates. No more updates means vulnerabilities discovered after April will no longer be addressed by way of security patches, bug fixes and online or phone tech support. Without those critical updates, millions of XP systems will be exposed to malware and viruses that put both systems and private data at risk for exploitation. Some private groups may take up the cause, but without official support, the outlook is pretty grim.
XP Usage By The Numbers
Microsoft released Windows XP in 2001. Considering the fast pace at which new operating systems are released and adopted by both personal and business users, it stands to reason that ending XP support wouldn’t affect too many businesses. However, statistics show that’s not necessarily the case.
At the height of its popularity, over 800 million people and more than 50 million businesses used Windows XP. Today it’s estimated that over 500 million people still use Windows XP on a daily basis. That’s still nearly 40% of all computers with an active OS. This gives hackers 500 million reasons to turn their attention to XP starting in April. The numbers are staggering. Even if XP usage drops to 10%, approximately 100 million users are still at risk. We imagine they’ll find the OS difficult, if not downright impossible, to resist hacking based on the lack of support. Businesses who don’t have an IT management company or plan in place by then will suffer.
Why This OS Persists
With Windows Vista, 7 and 8 versions all being released since XP, the big questions is always “why are there still so many people using XP?” Well, XP was user friendly as well as designed for commercial use. It offered features required by professional users and made them as easy to use and navigate as they were at home. This made XP just as valuable for business as it was for personal use, and users appreciated not having to learn two different operating systems. Though Microsoft is on Windows 8.1, the rest of the world is still a version or two behind. Windows 7 just kicked XP out of the top spot in 2013. Windows 7 was released back in 2009 by the way.
XP’s popularity was somewhat cemented when its successor (Vista) was introduced and suffered through a disastrous launch. Vista’s debut was overshadowed by compatibility problems and a long string of updates. Many XP users, preferring to skip such headaches, never bothered to upgrade. Instead they continue on with XP and opt for installing intermittent updates along the way.
The Impact on Businesses Still Using Windows XP
Corporate firewalls and anti-virus software (which also require constant updating) are not sufficient to protect XP users once the critical patch support ends. Firewalls and software are reactive to known threats and previously executed hacks. They cannot and do not protect against malware and viruses that don’t exist yet. These unknown threats are known as “zero-day.” After XP support ends, it’s only a matter of time before hackers find an XP “zero-day” and compromise user security. Interestingly, Microsoft recently published the video below to talk about how it’s helping to fight cyber crime:
The greatest thing they could do to fight cyber crime and help millions is to extend support of their premiere OS, but that would probably hinder profits (and that’s a topic to tackle separately).
Businesses still relying on XP need to start considering their non-XP options sooner rather than later. And there are plenty of them. Of course, upgrading to Windows 7 or 8 (8 is viable if your workforce primarily uses mobile or tablet devices) makes the most sense. Switching to an Apple iOS is another. For those comfortable with cloud computing, Chrome OS can handle everything from the browser. Linux software is pretty similar to Windows Office and Outlook as well.
For corporate enterprises, replacing hundreds or thousands of XP-running machines to Macs or retraining hundreds or thousands on a new system is daunting. Not to mention the time, cost and customized in-house software reliant on XP requires. However, the cost of a malicious hack must be weighed against the cost of not upgrading. A breach can be catastrophic for businesses, whereas the upgrade is just mildly painful.
No upgrade is easy for business when the time and cost of doing so is factored into the process. But the cost of doing nothing is far more substantial. Regardless of what your business decides do, that decision should be made soon so that the time to implement doesn’t lag the XP support cut-off date in April. If you’re business doesn’t have a solid IT consultant in place, or needs help with this critical decision, please contact us today!
Related Posts via Categories | {
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Palestinian human rights organisations said Israeli occupation forces arrested 374 Palestinians from across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip during November, including 66 children and six women.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, the Al-Dameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said in a joint statement that 137 Palestinians were arrested from Jerusalem, 42 from Ramallah and Al-Bireh and 70 from Hebron.
As many as 22 Palestinians were arrested from Jenin, 43 from Bethlehem, 12 from Nablus, 15 from Tulkarm, seven from Qalqilya, five from Tubas, two Palestinians from Salfit, eight from Jericho, and 11 from Gaza, it added.
According to the statement, until the end of November 2019, the number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons reached nearly 5,000, including 38 female prisoners, while the number of child detainees amounted to about 200.
The number the administrative detainees in Israeli prisons reached more than 450, the statement said.
READ: One Palestinian died in prison, 360 detained by Israeli last month | {
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Welcome to the blog of NagriCoin — a project of of international biotechnology company NagriTech. For more info: https://nagricoin.io/
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A wealthy Florida Keys man found the dough for an $8 million island off Key West –but was apparently too cheap to cough up the cash for household items he stole them from Kmart, according to reports.
Andrew Francis Lippi, 59, the owner of the Key Haven “Real World” house used in 2006 for the 17th season of the MTV reality series, was arrested on a charge of grand theft over the weekend just days after he purchased the luxe 4.9-acre Thompson Island of Monroe County, The Miami Herald reported.
According to the news outlet, Lippi had swiped $300 worth of goods that included a Keurig coffeemaker, a Hamilton Beach coffeemaker, eight light bulbs and a bed skirt from a Key West Kmart.
Sometime between March 30 and April 5, Lippi bought the wares from the big box department store and then returned the original packaging boxes with other items packed inside, The Miami Herald reported, citing a police report.
Cops say Lippi put a basketball in the Keurig box instead of the $165 coffeemaker, put old light bulbs in the box for the bulbs, and put a pillowcase in the packaging instead of the bed skirt.
The Hamilton Beach coffeemaker was swapped out with an older model, according to the report.
Lippi denied the allegations to The Miami Herald but refused to go into detail.
“Basically it has to do with a commercial dispute,” Lippi said. “I will say this, that the way it was handled by Key West police and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department was wonderful. Some of the finest people I’ve ever dealt with who were kind throughout the whole process.”
When asked about the theft accusation, Lippi said: “It’s very complicated and I’d rather not get into it.”
He added that he purchased the bed skirt from Kmart, but when he got home the pillowcase was inside.
According to cops, Kmart handed over security footage to authorities that showed Lippi with a cart that had the bed skirt in it, the report said.
A week before Lippi’s Saturday arrest, he bought Thompson Island from philanthropist Edward B. Knight.
The island, which is connected to A1A in Key West by a land bridge, is the only private island with direct access to Key West.
The lavish island compound features four bedrooms, six bathrooms, a caretaker’s cottage, a four-car garage and views of the Atlantic Ocean, according to an online listing.
Lippi was released from the Stock Island Detention Center the morning after his arrest, according to the report.
His arraignment is scheduled for April 18. | {
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The Redskins were coming off a 10-6 season in 1990. Though they had won a playoff game the year before and returned many of their key players, there were still big questions surrounding Washington in the offseason.
* * *
John Kent Cooke, son of late owner Jack Kent Cooke: None of us thought we were going to win the Super Bowl, but we thought we would be in contention. We knew we had work to do, though.
Charley Casserly, general manager, 1989-99: We’d made it to the playoffs the year before, and [Mark Rypien] played well. Was Ryp ready to go to the next level? That was one of the things we were going to find out. We didn’t feel we had one of the top three or four quarterbacks in the league.
As I remember it, Ryp had improved the year before but we inquired about trading for John Elway in the offseason. It never came to fruition, obviously, for a number of reasons. One, they thought about it and they said no. What they discussed, we wouldn’t do — they wanted Jim Lachey included, and we wouldn’t trade him. I don’t know if it ever got to the point where it was a real, just-say-yes-and-it’s-done discussion, but we talked about it.
Mike Shanahan, won two Super Bowls coaching Elway in Denver: I heard it was real. I didn’t know how much because I was an assistant coach. But there were a lot of strong rumors about it. That would’ve changed [the history of] both franchises.
Mark Rypien, quarterback: They probably would’ve gone after anyone but me. We had made the playoffs and won a playoff game the year before, which for me was a great moral victory. But at that time, with the Redskins, you were evaluated pretty harshly, and pretty much getting into the playoffs and winning a playoff game was not good enough in that era. People were spoiled because of the success the Redskins had had in the 1980s.
Ricky Ervins, running back: Coming in as a young guy you have an image of the NFL as larger than life. …When I came here, they had nothing but trucks. I expected Porsches — nah, man, it was all trucks. Everyone was blue-collar workers. I felt something right then at that time — it was going to be a special year.
Charles Mann, defensive end: If you made it through training camp, you were a man. It was difficult, and Coach Gibbs believed in hitting. … There’s things they don’t get now in this modern age because they don’t get to hit like we did. As much as I might envy the money that’s being made, I don’t know if I would’ve been as good a player. I felt confident coming out of practice. I was always confident what I’d do in a game based on how we practiced.
Jeff Rutledge, backup quarterback: I can remember coming off the field on Fridays, we felt like we just played a game.
Bubba Tyer, team trainer: There was always one night a week we’d go to Carlisle High School and have this night practice. It was neat. There was always more hitting, more intense, more injuries. He worked them hard.
Despite the tough practices, the Redskins struggled in the preseason. They lost at Pittsburgh and won at New England before dropping their final two to Cleveland and the New York Jets.
Casserly: The last preseason game, we played a lousy game. There was really a sense of anxiousness going into that first game of the regular season that we weren’t right, we weren’t ready to go.
Andre Collins, linebacker: We stunk up the field in preseason. … The only person I felt was freaking out was Coach Gibbs. No one else seemed flustered by it.
Joe Gibbs, head coach: A lot of people don’t know this, but Jack Kent Cooke was none too happy with me after that preseason. … I get a call from the office: “Mr. Cooke wants to meet with you.” I’m thinkin’, “In preseason? This has never happened before.”
He starts right up. “Hey, look, I think we’ve messed up here,” he said. “We’ve got too many old players. Our football team is going downhill.” He goes into a tirade with me about the problems with the football team.
Now, I didn’t usually get this agitated with Mr. Cooke because I respected him a great deal. But that’s one of the few times I did get heated. I started into my own tirade, defending my guys. “We have a good football team,” I said. We went around and around, raised voices, the whole thing. … Finally, he said, “Listen, me and you are going to cool off, go upstairs and have a coffee and talk this out.” And we did.
Then we started winning games. And we won more games. And he never said anything to me again. I always thought we had great conversations. He was never afraid to give you his opinion, which I liked.
NEXT: CHAPTER 2 — 16 GAMES, 14 WINS | {
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Users can check their subscription status from the main window in Skype for Linux 4.2
Microsoft's Skype division has updated the Linux version of its proprietary voice, video and text messaging client with a number of bug fixes and minor features. Skype for Linux 4.2 makes it easier to log into the application with a Microsoft account and the user interface has been improved. When entering screen sharing mode in a multi-monitor setup, the application will now share the screen on the monitor that includes Skype's call window. The size of the Skype icon has also been modified to fit in better in different desktop environments.
The user interface tweaks to Skype 4.2 make it easier for users to find the voice message functionality of the application in the options dialog and they can now check their subscription status for calls to landlines and mobile phones through a link from Skype's main window. Users can also start a conference call right from the conversations view. The ability to turn off birthday notifications has been added, along with some other minor improvements. The new version includes a number of bug fixes including one for a crashing problem with the call interface.
Skype for Linux 4.2 is available packaged for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE and CentOS for 32- and 64-bit systems. The download page also includes detailed installation instructions. The developers point out that users of 64-bit Debian and Ubuntu need to install the libasound2-plugins:i386 package to get the application to work correctly.
See also:
(fab) | {
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A Democratic senator is taking aim at Equifax over the credit reporting firm’s response to a massive security breach that exposed the personal information of as many as 143 million Americans.
Sen. Brian Schatz Brian Emanuel SchatzVideo of Lindsey Graham arguing against nominating a Supreme Court justice in an election year goes viral Democrat on Graham video urging people to 'use my words against me': 'Done' Polls show trust in scientific, political institutions eroding MORE (D-Hawaii) ripped Equifax in a series of tweets on Monday, accusing the firm of “ripping off” consumers by not covering costs associated with credit freezes and leaving those affected confused about what steps to take to protect themselves.
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“If people at equifax cannot pull it together to actually take care of consumers, they shouldn't be allowed to possess our identities,” Schatz wrote on Twitter. “This @Equifax debacle shows this credit report ecosystem operates in the dark, no accountability or consumer protections. It ruins lives.”
Equifax disclosed the breach on Thursday evening, saying that hackers exploited a vulnerability in a U.S. website application that afforded them unauthorized access to Social Security numbers, birth dates and other information for as many as 143 million U.S. consumers. Hackers accessed the information for more than a month before Equifax discovered the breach at the end of July.
The company has faced intense scrutiny from lawmakers on Capitol Hill in the wake of the breach, with several lawmakers demanding hearings on the matter.
Equifax is offering those affected free identity theft protection and credit monitoring. But Schatz took aim at the firm on Monday for not doing enough, noting that the company has not offered to reimburse customers who pay for credit freezes, which cost about $10 per credit reporting agency — or $30 overall.
“If half of those hit by breach buy ‘credit freeze’ then Equifax makes $700 million off their own mistake. That's a ripoff. Waive the cost!” Schatz fumed on Twitter. “WHY ARE YOU CHARGING THIRTY BUCKS FOR A CREDIT FREEZE.”
Separately, Schatz has written a formal letter to the company’s CEO expressing “serious concerns” about the breach and criticizing the company for an “ineffective” response aimed at protecting consumers' data in the wake of the breach.
Schatz is demanding answers from the company on several fronts, particularly its efforts to protect consumer information.
When contacted, an Equifax spokesperson told The Hill that the company expects to engage with lawmakers "in the future" and said that the company has already publicly addressed "many" of Schatz's comments.
"These are very complicated issues, and we expect to be engaging with regulators and legislators in the future. Senator Schatz raises many topics in his tweets, and we already have publicly addressed most of his comments, including his questions about senior executives and our free credit file monitoring and identity theft protection, which we are offering to all U.S. consumers," the spokesperson said.
"We are listening to issues that consumers are experiencing, and their suggestions are helping to further inform our actions. "
Schatz is a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, the leaders of which have already demanded answers from Equifax to a series of questions spelled out in a letter sent to CEO Richard Smith late last week.
This post has been updated to reflect the statement from Equifax. | {
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"Tali?" Garrus said. He saw Tali just staring at Shepard's nameplate.
Both he, Tali, Liara, Ashley, Vega, Javik and Joker stood in front of the memorial wall. They had just placed EDI's and Anderson's name up on the wall. The only name left to add was Shepard's. Garrus placed a hand on her shoulder.
"No," she said sternly. "I'm not ready to give up on him." Tali walked away from the memorial wall. "We need to get back to earth as soon as possible. Shepard will need our help."
The elevator door opened and she went inside. The doors closed. The others looked at each other and shook their heads.
"She's still not ready to accept it," Liara said.
"I'm not sure, I'm ready to accept it," Vega said. "I mean it's Commander Shepard! He already died once already."
"But he was at the epicenter of the energy wave," Ash said.
"You all should be glad," Javik muttered. "The reaper threat is over. The Commander accomplished his mission."
"Yeah, that's great and all, but at this high of a cost?" Vega replied.
"High cost? You are all still alive. Earth has been rescued. All the homeworlds will be able to recover and your galaxy will no longer fear from the reapers. That is a great victory."
"EDI isn't with us anymore," Joker said. "Anderson is dead. Hackett confirmed that much."
"And Shepard is likely dead," Ash added.
"He died already once," Liara said. "It's not fair if he dies again."
"By its very definition war is not meant to be fair," Javik said matter-of-factly. "War is about using your advantage to its fullest potential to crush your enemies."
"This isn't the best time for your brutal honesty."
"Regardless, Tali is right," Garrus interrupted. "This ship has discharged enough. We need to head back to earth. Maybe then we can get some... closure."
"I'll head to the cockpit," Joker sighed sadly. He walked to the elevator and went inside to head to deck 2.
"I should probably talk to him," Liara said. "He's still mourning."
"Good idea," Ash said. "Garrus and I will head up soon to join you. We just need to check in with the crew."
VVVVVV
Bravo team walked through the entranceway to the area below the Citadel tower. The area was in shambles after the multiple explosions that happened on the Citadel. Hackett had sent dozens of teams onto the station to search it for any survivors. First assessments believed they would no one due to the explosions, or at the very least, due to the lack of atmosphere and gravity. Surprisingly this assessment proved to be false. Some parts of the Citadel still had some functionality and it created pockets of habitable zones all over the Citadel. Even the Council miraculously survived.
Bravo team's mission was to investigate the last known location of Anderson's and Shepard's locators were last active. Anderson's life signs flat lined shortly before his locator shut off. Both locators were shut off after the energy blast from the Citadel. Shepard's status is still unknown.
They walked up the ramp into a circular room that viewed a large portion of the Citadel. From there they could clearly see the damage it has endured, but as Hackett said, "we will rebuild together." At the other end of the circular room they saw the terminal used to control the station along with the body of Anderson and the Illusive Man. Anderson was plopped on his side with a bullet wound to his stomach and his eyes shut.
One of the soldiers scanned him. "No life signs."
"We knew that before we got here," another soldier said.
"Doesn't hurt to check. Look at that." The soldier pointed at the Illusive Man. "He doesn't even look human."
"Looks like a husk," the squad commander observed. "He blew his brains out."
"Maybe he looked at himself in a mirror."
The squad commander looked at the Illusive Man's body in disgust and gave it a swift kick. "Your name will be synonymous with the likes of Hitler, you son of a bitch."
"Where's Shepard's body?" one of the subordinates asked.
"Look!" one of them pointed. A section of the floor was missing. They looked up and saw a hole that was shaped exactly like the missing section of floor.
"Get out your grapples," the squad commander ordered.
All the squad members pulled out their grappling launchers and aimed upwards. The grapples fired a plate-shaped projectile that could stick to any surface. They fired and each of the projectiles was successful in sticking to the surface around the hole. The soldiers clipped the rope to their suits and used the launchers to rappelling themselves upwards.
When they reached the hole, the squad commander went in through first. He was followed by his subordinates. They scanned the room. There was rubble everywhere. They saw the Crucible right over head. It was half gone from activation.
"Must have been one hell of a show from here," one of the subordinates said.
"Quiet!" the squad commander silenced him. "Do you hear that?"
The squad members looked at him confusingly. The squad commander search for the source of the noise he heard. His search led him to a pile of rubble near a destroyed tube.
"What did you hear, sir?" one of the squad mates asked.
"Breathing," he answered. The squad commander pulled off one last piece of rubble and jumped back in surprise. "It's Shepard!"
"What? No way!" The soldier ran over next to his commander and saw him. "Holy shit..." He pulled out his omni-tool and did a scan.
"Idiot! You can see and hear him breathing! Call med-evac! Now!"
"Yes, sir!" He switched over the function. "This is Ensign Hawke of Bravo team. We need immediately med-evac at our location. I repeat. We need immediate med-evac at our location."
"Shuttle is on its way to your location," the dispatcher announced. "ETA, five minutes."
VVVVVV
Joker stared into the red-blue aura of the mass effect field of the Normandy. He glanced over to his right to see the seat where EDI used to sit vacant. Tears welled up in his eyes.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Liara said as she entered the cockpit.
"Thanks... I just... I just miss her so much. Do you think that energy wave had something to do with her death?"
"Likely, yes," Liara said. "She was built partially with reaper code."
"You know it was the Commander who gave me the extra confidence to go forward with the relationship. He asked me, if the world ended tomorrow, what would I regret? Yes, I feel like crap. My heart is broken. But you know this pain says a lot about my feelings for EDI. EDI meant a lot to me and she always will. The reapers are gone now. I'm glad they are. This galaxy can finally be at peace."
"Hey, Joker," Ash greeted as she and Garrus entered the cockpit.
"Look guys, I know you are all concern, but I'll be okay. I still need time to mourn. The person you all should be checking on is Tali. I don't think she's well at all."
"We will soon, we just wanted to make sure you were okay," Garrus said.
"And I am and, oh, we are near the end of our transit."
The Normandy dropped out of FTL next to the Charon relay. They could see the damage it had endured.
"Spirits," Garrus gasped.
"The damage the relay had endured..." Liara muttered. "We're going to be here a while."
"Look!" Ash said.
At closer inspection, they could see a dozen ships around the relay. They were gathering the pieces and on the relay, were some people working towards repairing it.
"Barely a day has passed since the end of the war, and they already started on rebuilding."
"Incoming transmission from Admiral Hackett," Traynor notified over the comm.
"Patch it through," Joker said.
"Is that you, Normandy?" Hackett called in over the comm.
"This is Normandy," Joker answered.
"Glad that you've returned. I'm assuming you've seen the relay?"
"Yeah. You're already repairing it?"
"We," Hackett corrected. "We are currently coordinating with the rest of the galaxy using QECs to get the relay network back up. It'll take a while, but we were able to build an anti-reaper weapon in three months with partial plans, during a war and in secret. We can rebuild our own relay in less time."
"That's good news," Liara said.
"You think that's good news? I just got in a report. Shepard's alive."
The four were quiet. Stunned.
"Shepard's... alive?" Garrus muttered in disbelief.
"You goddamn right he is. He suffered some major injuries, but he was breathing. He has been rushed to the med-bay on my ship to get fixed up. Every race is planning on pinning every possible medal on him. Not to mention he is long overdue for a promotion. Several."
"We're heading to your ship right now," Joker said. For the first time since the end of the war, he sounded positive.
Garrus turned to Ash. "Williams-"
"I know!" Ash said cheerfully. "I'll tell her right now."
Ashley ran as fast as she could to the elevator while yelling to the rest of the crew that Shepard was alive. The slow pace of the elevator was made very apparent as Ashley waited to reach engineering. After a minute, the doors opened again. Ashley dashed out of the elevator and ran into Javik.
"So the human made it?" he muttered.
"If I had the time, I would talk to you about privacy," Ash said.
"Go tell the quarian. I assume she will want to prepare for a mating ritual when she hears the news."
Ashley shuddered as Javik walked away. She continued through the two doors and saw Tali standing at her station working away at her console.
"Tali!" she called out to her. "Shepard is alive!"
Tali spun around on her heels. "What?"
"They just recovered Shepard at the site of the Crucible and has been moved to Hackett's ship to heal his injuries. You were right."
"Shepard's alive?" she cried out. Tali fell to her knees. "He's really alive! Oh, Keelah!"
"I knew the Commander wouldn't go down that easily!" Ken cheered. "Kicked those reapers right in the daddy-bags and lived to tell the tale."
Gabby smacked him in the back of the head. "Don't ruin the moment!"
Ashley got on her knees and embraced Tali. Tali threw her arms around Ashley and just let out all of the feelings she was holding inside.
"I-I was so worried he had-" Tali couldn't finish the thought. It brought her too much pain to even think of Shepard leaving her again.
"It's going to be okay," Ashley assured her. "You'll be able to see him real soon."
Ashley crouched there letting Tali release all her emotion until they reached the SSV Aconcagua.
VVVVVV
As soon as the decontamination cycle finished, the Normandy crew flooded out of the door way and made a beeline towards the med-bay where Shepard was having an operation. When they entered the medical wing, a familiar woman walked out of the med-bay.
"Miranda?" Garrus said.
"It's good to see you again, Garrus," she greeted with a smile. Miranda noticed Tali. "You as well Tali. And I see Joker."
"What's the ex-Cerberus agent doing here?" Vega asked while jabbing his finger towards her.
"The operating word is ex-Cerberus. I had long cut my ties with Cerberus, like Shepard. I'm here because I was the one who brought Shepard back to life and am an expert on his implants."
"I don't care about that, tell me about Shepard!" Tali demanded impatiently.
Miranda sighed. "He suffered severe injuries from before and after entering the conduit beam. A bullet wound, burns-" Miranda could tell, even without seeing Tali's face, that she didn't really want to her about his injuries. "His implants have held up and he has been given some clone tissue for skin grafts. He'll recover, but..."
"But what?"
"He's in a coma."
"H-How long till he-?"
"I'm afraid I don't know. I'm sorry."
"C-Can I see him?"
"Of course you can." Miranda looked to the others. "But the room is small, so it can accommodate only a couple visitors at a time."
The crew understood and went to the waiting room while Miranda led Tali into Shepard's private room. Before Miranda opened the door she turned to Tali and said, "I just want to remind you that his injuries will heal. I-It will be hard to see him like he does now, but he will get better."
"I understand."
Miranda nodded and opened the door allowing Tali to finally see him. Tali just stood there for a moment. Tears welled up in her eyes as she saw his bandaged form before her. An IV was hooked up to him.
"Shepard!" she cried out. Tali ran over to his side and grabbed his hand. "Oh, Keelah..." She stroked his cheek.
Miranda walked up next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Th-Thank you, Miranda. You've saved his life again."
"I owe Shepard more than I could ever repay him," Miranda said. "This is the least I could do."
"But I owe you from bringing him back to me. Not just this time, but bringing him back to life after he... died. I love him so much. You gave me a second chance to be with him."
"You don't owe me anything," Miranda whispered.
Tali rest her head on Shepard's chest to listen to him breathing. She closed her eyes to embrace the sound of his beating heart.
"I'll let the staff know you'll be staying here."
"Thank you..." Tali sighed.
"I leave you alone with him. Let me or the staff know if you need anything."
VVVVVV
Several days had passed since Tali arrived in the med-bay. Each of the crew members had come to visit Shepard at some point during those several days. Vega and Ashley could only stay for so long before they were needed for some search and rescue missions. Garrus was needed by the Primarch in organizing the turian fleet. Javik and Liara went to work on her book about the prothean empire. Joker continued as the pilot of the Normandy to aid Ashley and Vega in search and rescue missions.
Tali faithfully remained by Shepard's side. All she needed was food, water and rest on the cot the staff kindly provided for her. On the stand next to Shepard's bed was a photo of him and Tali. The photo was of them shortly after defeating Saren. Tali smiled looking at the photo. Shepard had his arm wrapped around her waist while she had one hand to her face in embarrassment.
The door to the room opened grabbing Tali's attention.
"Hello, Tali. It is good to see you are well."
"Auntie Raan!" Tali stood up from her chair. She walked over and hugged her. "I'm glad you made it through this war."
"As am I," Raan joked. She looked over to Shepard and saw the condition he was in. Her eyes were also drawn to the photo on the stand.
Tali let go of the hug.
"I don't even have to ask," Raan said. "You and Shepard."
Tali walked over to his side, sat down and held Shepard's hand. "We're in love, yes."
"I'm sorry that this has befallen him."
"The doctors said he could wake up. I'm staying by his side until he does."
"But that could be months, maybe even years."
"I don't care." Tali felt herself tear up. "It tore my heart apart when we separated after the event in Arathot. And again after the Alliance operation centre before the beam. I can't leave him again. I will stay by his side until he wakes up."
Raan kneeled down near her and held a hand to the side of her faceplate. "You are so much like your mother. You have your father's stubbornness, but your mother's heart. He is lucky to have you."
"I'm lucky to have him. He saved my life many times. He helped me finish my pilgrimage. Got our people back onto the homeworld. I can never repay him for everything he has done for me and our people."
Raan stood up. "I received word from Admiral Koris from Rannoch using our QEC. They are repairing our mass relay. If we're lucky, we could go home in a couple of months. The relays between here and there still need to be repaired, but everyone across the galaxy is working together to achieve that."
"That's good news. After so long living as nomads, our people can finally."
Raan smiled. "I'll tell you what. I'll get a head start and get Shepard's papers in order so he can be a resident of Rannoch, so when he wakes up you don't have to bother with all of that bothersome paper work."
Tali let out a laugh. "I- We would really appreciate that Raan."
"Anything for the heroes of the quarian people."
VVVVVV
Over the past month, Shepard's room had transformed. There were more decorative pieces in the room. It made it look like a quarian living space. There were flowers and e-cards on one of the stands in Shepard's room that he received from the people he had saved. The curtains in the room had been replaced by ones that matched the wraps Tali had on her body.
Tali was sitting by Shepard's side. In the time since he was brought to the hospital, she had only left the room a dozen times and even then it was cases of the doctors needing room to change Shepard's bandages, remove stitches or to check up on him.
"It's been a month since you came in here. And I have spent every bit of my free time right next to you. Your wounds are almost all healed up. Your face is as handsome as ever, and for the first time in a long time, you look like you're at peace." Tali gave pause. "I have received many letters from the Migrant Fleet. Many congratulating my efforts. And many more from men who are trying to... pursue me romantically. I'm not trying to make you jealous, well... maybe just a little." Tali let out a giggle.
"It's just I don't have any interest in any other man than you. When I went on my pilgrimage, everyone I had run into either tried to kill me or treated me as a pest. But then you came along. You saved my life and let me joined your crew. Even allowed me access to your ship's drive core. You treated me as an equal. Treated me even better than most of my own people. It's not hard to see why I started to develop a crush on you." She held his hand. "When you died, I felt broken. I knew the reapers were coming, but with everyone burying what you did I-I lost hope. But you did the impossible and came back. You saved me on Freedom's Progress, and again on Haestrom. I felt like I was where I belonged when I rejoined your crew. You didn't change. You jumped into the political turmoil of my people's fleet in order to defend me against the charges of treason. You protected my father's legacy and even saved my name. I still remember the day I accidentally told you how I felt about you. To hear you say you felt the same way about me was the best day of my life. We've been through so much together but I know without a shadow of doubt in my mind, I will stay by your side. I-I just-"
Tears started to well up in her eyes. These tears were of sadness and happiness. "I just miss you so much. I want you to hold me. I want to hear your voice. I want to see the life in your eyes. I love you, Shepard."
Suddenly Tali felt Shepard's hand tighten around hers. Shepard slowly opened his eyes and looked to Tali with a smile. "I love you too, Tali," he said in a weak voice. His throat was extremely dry from lack of drinking.
"Shepard!" Tali stood up and embraced him. "You're awake!"
"I'm sorry, I worried you. How long was I out?"
"A month."
"A month?"
"I was by your side for the whole time."
"Are the geth and EDI..."
"They're not with us anymore."
A pained look came across Shepard's face. "It's my fault."
"What?"
"The Crucible was a power source meant to change the Catalyst, the Citadel's AI."
"The Citadel had an AI?"
"It was the one that created and controlled the reapers. It created them to eliminate all life to stop conflict between synthetics and organics. It presented with three options to end the war. Synthesis. It would rewrite the DNA of all organic life to make it part synthetic, while endowing all synthetic life with an understanding of organics. I-I couldn't go for that option. This would have forced a change on all life in the galaxy, both our races and the races that have yet to explore space. It doesn't even solve the problem the Catalyst sought out to stop. We would still be able to create new synthetics. How does being half-synthetic help stop prejudice?"
"It doesn't," Tali said. "Understanding does."
"The second option was Control."
"Control? We spent the entire reaper war trying to stop Cerberus from doing that!"
"I know. According to the Catalyst, I would be killed, and my mind and personality would be used to create a new Catalyst. But how would I know this new Catalyst would stop the reapers from attacking the galaxy forever? The Catalyst admitted that it turned on its original objective. So that wasn't an option either."
"What was the last option?"
"Destroy. The reapers and all their abominations would be killed, but..."
"But?"
"It wouldn't discriminate against synthetic life. The Geth and EDI would be killed along with the reapers. It had to be done. Not only to stop the reapers for good, but to finally put the billions of lives trapped in the reapers and as their minions to rest after eons. I-I killed the geth and EDI."
"You didn't. Each of us fought in this war to destroy the reapers. The geth and EDI included. We all knew we could die, but we fought regardless. The death of the geth and EDI is not your fault. You did exactly what we wanted you to do. What they wanted you to do. You destroyed the reapers. If anything is to be blamed for their deaths, it would the reapers. Believe me when I say that they would have been proud of you. And their deaths were not in vain. You broke the cycle in more ways than one."
"Oh?"
"My people are debating whether or not to bring the geth back. They wouldn't be like they were, but they could be alive again. The politicians are also drafting rights for synthetics in remembrance of the geth's sacrifice. We no longer feel like synthetics and organics can never get along. And it is all thanks to you."
Shepard brought a hand and placed it on the side of her mask. "You always know how to make me feel better."
"There's more," Tali said with a smile. "The Charon relay has been repaired. Wrex, Grunt and the rest of the krogan are going to be returning to Tuchanka soon."
"That is great news!"
"Even better, the relays between here and Rannoch are getting close to being repaired. We can return to Rannoch in a month or two."
"That means I can build you that house you always wanted."
"Yes. You have no idea how go it is to hear that from you. Just thank you. Thank you for coming back."
"Always. So tell me, Miss vas Normandy. Where would you like your home?"
"Shepard. You don't know by now? My home is by your side. Always." | {
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21:00
Your best friend’s mom wants to have sex with you to get back at her husband who cheated (POV) – Erin Electra | {
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Briefly: Last Friday, when Joseph Gordon-Levitt was confirmed for Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises, there was also word that actress Juno Temple was being eyed for a role. Now she is confirmed for the film, and will reportedly play “a street-smart Gotham girl.” That could mean a lot of things — she could literally be a very tertiary character who just has a small role. But the description also sounds just enough like Frank Miller’s version of Robin from the original Dark Knight mini-series that there has already been a good amount of speculation about the reality of the role.
Much more likely, however, is that she’ll play another Frank Miller character, Holly Robinson, who is friend to Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman.
Variety repeats only the basic role description with the casting announcement; it’s possible that another scoop-breaking site like Deadline will chime in with more info soon.
Holly Robinson, introduced by Frank Miller in Batman: Year One, does seem like the most likely role. She was “a juvenile prostitute who lives with Selina Kyle,” and in various incarnations has actually been trained to replace Selina Kyle as Catwoman. Juno Temple’s basic appearance definitely works with the way the character has been drawn over the years. | {
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You’d think in his 54 years, New York police Sgt. Michael Iscenko would have learned more effective ways to get a woman’s attention.
Apparently not.
Iscenko has been suspended, accused of throwing semen on a woman’s leg. The victim, in her 60s, is a co-worker who New York Magazine reports Iscenko had a crush on. The two worked together in the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau.
ADVERTISEMENT
The woman, a civilian employee, had just come out of the women’s restroom and was walking down a hallway when Iscenko allegedly approached her from behind and splashed the liquid on her leg and shoe, the New York Post reports.
“She suddenly felt something on her leg, looked down, and said to him, ‘What are you doing?'” an unnamed source told the Post. The incident occurred in January and Iscenko was suspended in June, according to the New York Daily News.
The woman filed a complaint with her superiors and an investigation is underway. | {
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Evidence for the REAL Third Secret:
The Murder of Pope John Paul I...
Veronica - Our Lady now is pointing up to the left side of the sky, and over on the left side I can see two cardinals. They are walking toward each other. Each has the key, a very large golden key in his hand, like this. Now they’re standing in front of each other, and they’re crossing the keys, like this. Two cardinals. Now they’re pointing now with the keys over to the right of them, and over on the right there is the building, a very large building. It appears to be St. Peter’s. Yes, it’s a domed building. It is St. Peter’s, the Vatican.
Now they’re pointing upward with the keys, high over their heads. And in the sky over the keys I can see the numbers of “666” forming. The letterings are black, tinged in red on the outside, “666.” Now it’s beginning to fade away, the whole scene, as though it’s like blowing, evaporating. It’s completely, almost completely gone now.
Our Lady is motioning now to listen.
Our Lady - “My child, you will understand soon the meaning of this message. You must pray now for your new Vicar. There is a foul plan afoot against him.”
“My child and My children, I am not intending to go through a long discourse with you on the present state of My Church in Rome. Suffice it to say that 666, Lucifer and his agents, will make a concerted effort to dethrone the present Vicar. * In his plan, the plan of Lucifer, he seeks to unite My Church with the world, and this I shall not permit.”
“We will go back, My child, in history, a short history, and remember well what had happened in Rome to John, Pope John, whose reign lasted 33 days. O My child, it is history now, but it is placed in the book that lists the disasters in mankind. He received the horror and martyrdom by drinking from a glass. It was a champagne glass given to him by a now deceased member of the clergy and the Secretariat of the State [Cardinal Villot].”
Yet another book has been written on the suspicious death of Pope John Paul I, this time by a Spanish priest named Father Jesus Lopez Saez. Building upon the work of David Yallop, Father Saez writes: After almost three years of research, David Yallop wrote, in his book In God's Name (1984), that the precise circumstances attending the discovery of the body of John Paul I "eloquently demonstrate that the Vatican practiced a disinformation campaign." The Vatican told one lie after another: "Lies about little things, lies about big things. All these lies had but one purpose: to disguise the fact that Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I, had been assassinated." Pope Luciani "received the palm of martyrdom because of his convictions." Sister Vicenza
Sister Vicenza found the Holy Father dead at approximately 4:45 a.m. on September 29, 1978 and was forced to keep silent by the Secretariat of State, Cardinal Villot, who imposed a vow of silence upon her to cover-up the whole affair. The secretaries were likewise forbidden to advise anyone of the events without Cardinal Villot's authorization. A trustworthy person conveyed to Fr. Saez personally that Sister Vicenza had said, "But the world must know the truth."
Sister Vicenza gave two conflicting reports concerning the state that she first found Pope John Paul I. According to her breathless words to a group of French priests that same morning, it was "in his bathroom" that she had "found him dead." Yet another report (no doubt arranged by Cardinal Villot), says that Sister Vicenza entered the room and found the Pope sitting up in bed, "with an expression of agony" before he died. This discrepancy is very important: if it was determined that Sister Vicenza found the Holy Father dead in the bathroom, still in his papal robes, this would indicate that Pope John Paul I died shortly after his "toast" with Cardinal Villot the night of September 28, 1978. Cardinal Villot in the hours following
Pope John Paul I's murder
David Yallop reconstructs the actions of Cardinal Villot and paints a very suspicious portrait. It is reported that at 5:00 a.m. Cardinal Villot confirmed the Holy Father's death. The Pope's glasses, slippers, and will disappeared, "none of these items has ever been seen again." Speculation is that there may have been vomit on the slippers, which if examined would identify poison as the cause of death.
Cardinal Villot (or an aide) telephoned the embalmers and a Vatican car was sent to fetch them. Incredibly, the car was at their door at 5:00 a.m.! What ensued in the following hour is still a mystery.
It was not until 6:00 a.m. that Dr. Buzzonati (not Professor Fontana, the head of the Vatican medical service), arrived and confirmed the death, without drawing up a death certificate. Dr. Buzzonati attributed the death to acute myocardial infarction (heart attack).
At about 6:30 a.m. Villot began to inform the cardinals, an hour and a half after the embalmers had arrived! Yallop notes that, for Cardinal Villot, the embalmers took precedence over the cardinals and the head of the Vatican medical service.
By 6 p.m. that evening, the Papal Apartments had been entirely polished and washed. Yallop writes that the secretaries packed up and carried away the Pope's clothes, "including his letters, notes, books and a small handful of personal mementos.... By 6:00 p.m., the entire 19 rooms of the Papal Apartments were totally bereft of anything remotely associated with the Papacy of Luciani."
Villot arranged for the embalming to be performed that evening, a procedure as unusual as it was illegal. Why the rush? It is also reported that during the embalming it was insisted that no blood was to be drained from the body, and neither were any of the organs to be removed. Yallop notes that "a small quantity of blood would of course have been more than sufficient for a forensic scientist to establish the presence of any poisonous substances." An alibi for Cardinal Villot:
As the book In God's Name (more than 5 million copies sold) attracted worldwide attention, a disinformation campaign arose in 1984 to discredit David Yallop's conclusions. In a news article quoting Fr. Giovanni Gennari (attempting to defend the Curia against the accusations of investigative journalist David Yallop), Fr. Gennari stated: "John Paul II's predecessor mistakenly took an overdose of tranquillisers... After his conversation with Cardinal Villot, the Pope [John Paul I] mistook the dose he should have taken." (Ouest-France, undated press clipping, July 1984) The same article repeats a statement made by Cardinal Villot in 1978, his alibi Villot: "What occurred was a tragic accident. The Pope had unwittingly taken an overdose of his medicine. If an autopsy was performed it would obviously show this fatal overdose. No one would believe that His Holiness had taken it accidentally. Some would allege suicide, others murder. It was agreed that there would be no autopsy." So Cardinal Villot's alibi was that Pope John Paul I overdosed on his own medication for low blood pressure (Effortil). This alibi intentionally left room for speculation of suicide, to deflect attention away from the real cause of John Paul I's death: poisoning by Cardinal Villot himself. Pope John Paul I was in good health
According to Dr. Buzzonati, Pope John Paul I's cause of death was a heart attack. Regarding this alleged “heart attack,” John Paul I's niece affirmed: “In my family almost no one believes it was a heart attack that killed my uncle. He never had heart trouble or any illness of that kind.” (San Juan Star, October 3, 1978) http://www.thesanjuanstar.com/ And Pope John Paul I’s brother: “John Paul’s brother Edoardo, in Australia on a trade mission, reported that the Pope had been given a clean bill of health after a medical examination three weeks ago. He was frail in health as an infant and as a young priest, but there were no reports of heart trouble.” (San Juan Star, October 9, 1978) From Time magazine (October 9, 1978): In an earlier age so untimely a death might have stirred deep suspicions: “If this were the time of the Borgias,” said a young teacher in Rome, “there’d be talk that John Paul was poisoned.” But the Vatican replied that such allegations were “irresponsible.” (San Juan Star, October 18, 1978) Enough evidence for any law-respecting state
Fr. Saez notes in his book that the amount of evidence is such that "no judge on earth could disregard it." He also notes that "the data and the evidence that we already possess would justify a serious judicial enquiry in any law-respecting state. Now, not only does the Vatican refuse to conduct such an enquiry, but it does exactly the opposite: it thwarts and suppresses any research that tries to get to the bottom of this enigma surrounding John Paul I's death. This state of affairs is manifest in the Vatican's refusal to carry out an autopsy (if in fact one was not carried out) or in the clandestine nature of this operation (if it did actually take place). It also reveals itself in the obscurity surrounding the embalming, in the way that information regarding the circumstances of the death and the discovery of the body was manipulated, in the silence imposed on Sister Vicenza, in the pressure brought to bear on individuals and institutions, and in the widespread fear of speaking about this whole affair. This fear, whether conscious or not, runs particularly deep in ecclesiastical circles." Prior to Pope John Paul I's murder, Our Lady's message of September 13, 1978 warned that there was a "foul plot" against the Holy Father, and that the world would "soon understand" what She meant. According to Fr. Saez, a recent poll reports that 30% of Italians are convinced that John Paul I was assassinated (about 15 million people). Fr. Saez's book, Se Pedira Cuenta, (143 pages) is published by: Origenes; Plaza del Tuy, 4; 28029 Madrid Spain. "But, My children, as I said in the past, I repeat again, that satan and his agents, the band of 666, has entered into the highest places of the hierarchy; and therefore he has captured some of Our formerly noble hierarchy to do his bidding."
Our Lady of the Roses awesome Bayside Prophecies... http://www.tldm.org/../Bayside/
These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995.
“We will go back, My child, in history, a short history, and remember well what had happened in Rome to John, Pope John, whose reign lasted 33 days. O My child, it is history now, but it is placed in the book that lists the disasters in mankind. He received the horror and martyrdom by drinking from a glass. It was a champagne glass given to him by a now deceased member of the clergy and the Secretariat of the State [Cardinal Villot].”
Directives from Heaven... http://www.tldm.org/directives/directives.htm
Articles...
Evidence for the REAL Third Secret of Fatima:
Cardinal Oddi on the REAL Third Secret of Fatima: "The Blessed Virgin was alerting us against the apostasy in the Church"
http://www.tldm.org/news7/ThirdSecretCardinalOddi.htm Fr. Alonso, official achivist of Fatima: The REAL Third Secret of Fatima warned of apostasy in the Church
http://www.tldm.org/news7/ThirdSecretFatherAlonso.htm Evidence of the REAL Third Secret: Fr. Malachi Martin affirms that satanism has been practiced in the Vatican
http://www.tldm.org/news/martin.htm Evidence of the REAL Third Secret: The "deception of the century"
http://www.tldm.org/news3/impostor.htm Evidence of the REAL Third Secret: The murder of Pope John Paul I
http://www.tldm.org/news3/johnpaulI.htm Evidence of the REAL Third Secret: "Satan would enter into the highest realms of the hierarchy"
http://www.tldm.org/news3/highest_realms.htm Evidence of the REAL Third Secret: Communist agents have infiltrated into the Catholic hierarchy to destroy from within
http://www.tldm.org/news2/infiltrators.htm Evidence of the REAL Third Secret: World's most famous exorcist has said, "legions of demons that have installed themselves in the Vatican"
http://www.tldm.org/News6/exorcism1.htm Evidence of the REAL Third Secret: Why didn’t Rome do more about the clergy sex-abuse scandal?
http://www.tldm.org/news5/Rome.htm Evidence of the REAL Third Secret: Man who shot Pope John Paul II says, "Without the help of some priests and cardinals I could not have done it"
http://www.tldm.org/News7/CardinalsHelpedMehmetAliAgca.htm Evidence of the REAL Third Secret: Jacinta told Mother Godinho the Third Secret, but...
http://www.tldm.org/news/StTheresa3rdSecret.htm
Third Secret of Fatima: The REAL Third Secret of Fatima explains the chaos
http://www.tldm.org/news6/ThirdSecret.htm Evidence of a fabrication: Sister Lucy's handwriting notably different in document released by Vatican as the "third secret"
http://www.tldm.org/news/lucys_writing.htm Evidence of a fabrication: The REAL Third Secret of Fatima specifically mentioned the year 1972, as Jacinta revealed to Mother Godinho
http://www.tldm.org/news/StTheresa3rdSecret.htm Evidence of a fabrication: World-famous forensic expert believes Vatican's released "third secret" is not in Sister Lucy's authentic handwriting
http://www.tldm.org/news/speckin-p2.htm More evidence of a fabrication: Jacinta's vision of the Holy Father, "the poor little one," was Pope Paul VI
http://www.tldm.org/news/vision_of_jacinta.htm Two big blunders of the Fatima experts
http://www.tldm.org/news5/blunders.htm Sister Lucy talked about the "diabolical disorientation" in the Church as 1972 approached
http://www.tldm.org/news5/1972.htm Third Secret was to be revealed no later than 1960, "because the Blessed Virgin wishes it so"
http://www.tldm.org/news/in_1960.htm Third Secret: "Words" of Our Lady, not a vision
http://www.tldm.org/news3/contradictions.htm Flaws in the "two-document" Third Secret theory
http://www.tldm.org/news5/flaws.htm Which Third Secret meets the litmus test?
http://www.tldm.org/litmus_test.htm Fatimagate
http://www.tldm.org/FatimaGate.htm The Deception of the Century - the Impostor Pope Paul VI
http://www.tldm.org/News3/impostor.htm Consecration of Russia: The REAL Sister Lucy has repeatedly stated that Russia must be consecrated by name
http://www.tldm.org/news7/SisterLucyConsecrationOfRussia.htm Besiege the Pope to consecrate Russia to Our Lady
http://www.tldm.org/News6/consecration4.htm The “conversion of Russia”: what does it really mean?
http://www.tldm.org/News7/ConversionOfRussia.htm The meaning of the "consecration" of Russia
http://www.tldm.org/News7/Alonso.htm Our Lady of the Roses warns: Russia has not been consecrated properly; Pope John Paul II must consecrate Russia, not the world
http://www.tldm.org/News6/consecration3.htm Pope concerned about persecution of the Catholic Church in Russia
http://www.tldm.org/news6/persecution.htm Russia's persecution of the Catholic Church back in high gear
http://www.tldm.org/news5/ruse.htm Sister Lucy: Sister Lucy was silenced
http://www.tldm.org/news/sister_lucy_silenced.htm Sister Lucy talked about the "diabolical disorientation" in the Church as 1972 approached
http://www.tldm.org/news5/1972.htm A forgery to replace the REAL Third Secret; an impersonator to replace the REAL Sister Lucy
http://www.tldm.org/News7/ConspiracyToSilenceSisterLucy.htm The REAL Sister Lucy has repeatedly stated that Russia must be consecrated by name
http://www.tldm.org/news7/SisterLucyConsecrationOfRussia.htm Sister Lucy "will bear witness" that Jacinta appeared at Our Lady of the Roses Shrine
http://www.tldm.org/news3/affirm.htm Vatican-Moscow Treaty: Rescind the Vatican-Moscow Treaty
http://www.tldm.org/news/treaty.htm
Links...
A "new Fatima" for a "new church", part 1
http://www.fatimacrusader.com/cr75/cr75pg08.asp A "new Fatima" for a "new church", part 2
http://www.fatimacrusader.com/cr76/cr76pg65.asp
There are 4 Things You Must Have to Survive the End Times:
1.) The Douay-Rheims Holy Bible...
"I ask that all who hear My voice will take their Bibles, and if they do not have one, search, but find the right Bible, those printed not after 1965, My children." - Jesus, October 5, 1985
"You must all obtain a copy of the Book of life and love, the Bible. Do not accept the new mods. Try to find in your bookstores the old Bibles, My children, for many are being changed to suit the carnal nature of man. I repeat, sin has become a way of life." - Our Lady, October 6, 1992
"I must ask you all to read but a few short chapters a day now, the Book of life and love, your Bible. Knowledge must be gained for all the disciples of My Son, for you will be attacked by scientific minds. But do not be concerned what you will say to them when accosted, for the words will be given to you by the Spirit." - Our Lady, April 10, 1976
The Douay-Rheims Bible was published in 1899. It is the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. Almost all other Bibles have been rewritten by Satan. See: https://www.tldm.org/directives/d33.htm , https://www.tldm.org/directives/d415.htm and https://www.tldm.org/directives/d182.htm If you don't have a Douay-Rheims Bible order it now! (Order Form) Yours and your loved ones salvation could depend on it.
Read the Bible cover to cover. If you read 4 chapters a day, you will complete the whole Bible in 334 days. I have read the Bible 2 times and working on the third time. A 75 year old Baptism gentleman told me that he and his wife have read the Bible nine times. Wow!
2.) The Complete Virgin Mary’s Bayside Prophesies in 6 Paperback Books..
The Virgin Mary brings directions from God, the Father in Heaven on how to survive the end times. God, the Father, through the Virgin Mary, tells what is coming, how to prepare for it, how to survive it, and how to even stop it. These six volumes along with the Bible are most important to save yourself and your loved ones. Order it now. Tomorrow may be to late. These 6 pocket size paperback books costs $33.00. (Order Form)
3.) Heaven's Home Protection Packet...
Heaven’s Home Protection Packet...
Our Lord stated we must have crucifixes upon the outside of all of our outside doors. In the "Heaven’s Home Protection Packet" there are instructions, four crucifixes, a tube of special cement for wooden or metal crucifixes. Wooden crucifixes adhere better to the doors when the aluminum strap is removed from the back. Put a light coat of cement on the back of the crucifix and then press it to the outside of the door. If you have any problems, you can call us at 616-698-6448 for assistance. This Heaven’s Home Protection Packet is available for a donation of $10.00 plus $4.00 shipping and handling. Send $14.00 to TLD Ministries, P.O. Box 40, Lowell, MI 49331. Item # P15 (Order Form) Crucifix on front and back door... The only real protection against terrorists...
Jesus - "Pray and wear your sacramentals. And, also, My children, I ask you again to place a crucifix upon your door. Both front and back doors must have a crucifix. I say this to you because there will be carnage within your areas, and this will pass you by if you keep your crucifix upon your doors." (6-30-84) (Testimonies of lives and homes saved by the crucifixes.) https://www.tldm.org/news/crucifix.htm (Order Form)
4.) Heaven's Personal Protection Packet...
Heaven’s Personal Protection Packet . . .
Our Lady tells us to be protected from all evil, we must wear the following sacramentals around our necks: a Rosary, a crucifix, the St. Benedict medal, Our Lady of the Roses medal, the Miraculous Medal, and the scapular. We have all of these sacramentals in a packet we call "Heaven's Personal Protection Packet." This packet is available for a donation of $7.00 plus $3.00 shipping and handling. Send $10.00 to TLD Ministries, P.O. Box 40, Lowell, MI 49331. Item # P5 (Order Form) Our Lady of the Roses, Mary Help of Mothers promises to help protect our children. On September 13, 1977, She said, "He has an army of ogres wandering now throughout your country and all of the countries of the world. They are in possession of great power; so wear your sacramentals, and protect your children and your households. Learn the use every day of holy water throughout your household. Insist even with obstructions, insist that your children always wear a sacramental. One day they will understand that they will repel the demons."
On February 1, 1974, Our Lady said, "My children, know the value of these sacramentals. Guard your children well. You must awaken to the knowledge that you will not be protected without the sacramentals. Guard your children's souls. They must be surrounded with an aura of purity. Remove them if necessary from the sources of contamination, be it your schools or even false pastors."
This Heaven’s Personal Protection Packet is available for a donation of $7.00 plus $3.00 shipping and handling. Send $10.00 to TLD Ministries, P.O. Box 40, Lowell, MI 49331. You may use your MasterCard, VISA, or American Express and call 1-616-698-6448. Item # P5 (Order Form)
Incredible Bayside Prophecies on the United States and Canada book . . .
We have researched the Bayside Prophecies on the United States and Canada and put these outstanding prophecies in a 360 page pocket size paperback book. Veronica said it was very good. It tells what is going to happen here and how to prepare for it. Every North American must read this book! Item #B2 Cost $5.00 (Order Form)
My gift to help spread Our Lady of the Roses' messages to the world.
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| Home - Latest News | Introduction | Bayside Prophecies | Directives from Heaven | Order Form | Miracles & Cures | Veronica Lueken | Miraculous Photos | Bible | Radio Program | Bayside Videos |
We encourage everyone to print or email copies of this web page to all the Bishops and all the clergy. Also, email or send this web page to the news media and as many people as possible.
The electronic form of this document is copyrighted.
Quotations are permissible as long as this web site is acknowledged with a hyperlink to: http://www.tldm.org
Copyright © These Last Days Ministries, Inc. 1996 - 2019 All rights reserved.
P.O. Box 40 616-698-6448
Lowell, MI 49331-0040
Revised: January 20, 2019 | {
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We couldn't find anything matching the term "this robot arms water balloon gripper is inspired by a geckos tongue" on Gizmodo
You can try expanding your search to all G/O Media sites | {
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Wow! I mean seriously, WOW!! Thank you sooooo much!! I had to try a couple before I could bring myself to start typing and I genuinely don't know how I've lived this long without Wagon Wheels in my life. I have a new obsession.
No one was home yesterday to sign for the package so I got one of those pretty notes telling me to come pick it up at the post office. I stopped by on my way home and the gal at the counter brought it out then gave me a lecture about wrapping packages in paper. She asked if I ordered something or if it was from family because I should caution them for next time. Her face when I said it was from a stranger on the internet and I didn't have any idea what was inside was a priceless moment I'll never forget.
I sign things, she hands me the box and I was shocked how heavy it was. I picked up my helmet and walked out to my bike. I love people's reactions to watching me strap something down to the passenger seat. It's not like its difficult or anything, but some people just never give bungee cords enough credit.
I rushed home to rip the bad boy open and was so excited I forgot to take a picture before getting the paper open. As soon as I did though and I could see inside a bit I had to pause, double check that the label said my name, and just try to process the enormity of what I saw. SO MANY SNACKS! Did I seriously get this lucky?!?!???? How?? Thank you Matching Gods for giving me the BEST SANTA EVER!
Under the lid I found a nice note explaining my Santa did exactly what I ask, he sent me goodies that represented his home and community.
As I started to unpack everything I was taking it out in layers, but it didn't seem like the pile was going down any. Sooooo many different things in there for me to try. Layer after layer after layer and still no end in sight. How is my Santa this awesome?!?!?
I get down to the bottom and its a lot of the smaller candies. Snickers, milky way and the like, and you know what I learned. The UK's advertising team is way better than the US. We have a couple of the chocolates here but they are way -way- WAY less appetizing looking. I mean seriously, have you ever seen a Snickers bar look so fancy?? /stereotyping
I knew that each layer image I took wouldn't accurately represent the collection so I did my best to lay them all out into one shot, easier said than done! Half my counter was used necessary to get the whole lot of delicious noms that I have now. I am seriously overjoyed!!!
Santa, Thank you. Really really, thank you! It means so much to me that someone spend the time and money that I'm sure you did just to make me smile. And smiling I am. I always put my heart and soul into these exchanges and it is just a joy to receive something equally as thoughtful in return. You are truly the King of Snacks! Mods, can we make a special trophy in honor of this treasure trove? | {
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ざっくり言うと 北海道で行方不明だった男児が3日、陸上自衛隊の演習場内で保護された
「28日夜から演習場にいた」と話しており「5日間余りの空白」があると筆者
家族などと連絡が取れなかったのかなど、残された謎は少なくないと指摘した
提供社の都合により、削除されました。
概要のみ掲載しております。 | {
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StarCrawlers - May 2, 2020
StarCrawlers has been updated with a Beautify feature! This optional feature enhances texture fidelity and sharpness, lighting appearance and effects, and enhances visuals overall. In the course of working on our next project (more news soon!) we experimented with retroactively applying the visual upgrades to StarCrawlers - and it worked ːsteamhappyː | {
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タレントで女優の壇蜜の写真集「モナリザ－雫－」「モナリザ－結晶－」の2冊が3月29日に同時発売された。前者は真夏の大自然の中で、後者は凍てつく雪景の中で大胆ショットを披露してくれており、大いにファンを喜ばせている。
「かつては艶っぽさを全面に押し出していた彼女も、デビューから間もなく10年。アラフォーとなり、平成最後に出すこの2冊の写真集を“ラストの脱ぎ”と位置づけているようです。31日に都内で行われた写真集の“お渡し会”には、会場に入りきらないほどのファンが押し寄せていました」（スポーツ紙記者）
とはいえ、ラストの「脱ぎ写真」と言いながらバストトップを完全に出したカットはなし。だが、そこは我らが壇蜜。“布越しに透けて見える突起”らしきところまでは“アリ”にしてくれているから、さすがなのである。
ところが、そのバストの先端に、ファンがざわついているという。
「写真集を見る限り、以前よりも明らかにぷっくりと膨らんでいるように見えるんです。妊婦？ のはずはなく、38歳にしてカラダはさらなる進化を遂げているようなんです」（芸能記者）
まるでオトコに舐められるのを待っているかのように、その先端部分はますます欲しがり屋になっているというのだ。
「男性関係について様々なリップサービスはありますが、彼女はファンのためにと、もう5年もの間ずっとオトコ絶ちをしていると言われているんです。しかし、ハードな性体験によって快楽を知り尽くした彼女の肉体は、もうガマンの限界。先端部分の膨張は、そんなカラダからの“SOS”なのかもしれませんね」（前出・芸能記者）
改元早々にも、大爆発があるかも！？
（露口正義） | {
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UPDATE: Joanne Ivy, the CEO of the American Egg Board, stepped down earlier than her planned retirement Dec. 31, according to the Associated Press. The USDA confirmed the retirement but did not indicate why.
The USDA is looking into the American Egg Board and its moves involving Hampton Creek.
Dive Brief:
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, has requested the USDA investigate the American Egg Board and their alleged anti-competitive campaign involving Just Mayo eggless mayonnaise from Hampton Creek
The letter states that " The 600 pages of correspondence suggest that members of the AEB staff, USDA officials, and top executives from the egg industry engaged in a strategic, multifaceted campaign to use the power and resources of the federal government to undermine the economic prospects of Hampton Creek, based on their fear that the food start-up’s product, Just Mayo, represented a 'crisis' and a 'major threat' to the egg industry," according to a news release.
In addition to the investigation request, Lee also called into question the need for the AEB, asking whether Congress should continue to authorize an organization that "[behaves] like state-sponsored cartels that intimidate and handicap their competition," the letter said.
Dive Insight:
Lee points out guidelines for the AEB and checkoff programs, one of which forbids "any advertising considered disparaging or those that depict other commodities in a negative or unpleasant light via either overt or subjective video, photography, or statements."
Alleged AEB actions include it offering counsel to Unilever as to how to proceed with its lawsuit against Hampton Creek over the product not containing eggs but still calling itself mayonnaise. Another was allegedly contacting the FDA with concerns about the company, which prompted the investigation that led to a warning letter from the FDA that ordered Just Mayo to change its labeling or face consequences. | {
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So you have been in the saddle all day and have ridden several hundred miles and now just want to kick back, open a beer and watch a film. Here’s RideApart’s arbitrary list of 10 motorcycle films that you may have never seen or even heard of. All of them we think are worth taking a look at.
10. The Wild One (1953)
This is Lazio Benedek’s cult black and white motorcycle club film that shot Marlon Brandon to stardom with his portrayal as moody gang leader Johnny Strabler. The film was based on a magazine story that was published in 1951. The plot is pretty thin. Bike club rides into town led by Strabler during a motorcycle race weekend. The club fall out with the residents and the local police and have to move on to the next town. There’s a standoff with another club, more trouble with the police and someone gets killed when Strabler falls off his motorcycle and it hits an innocent person. It all looks pretty tame when compared to some of today’s films. But nicely shot with some truly iconic images of 1950’s American motorcycle culture that launched a thousand wannabe Johnny Strablers.
9. On Any Sunday (1971)
Considered to be one of the best ever motorcycle sport documentaries ever made, this 1971 film was nominated for an Academy Award. Director Bruce Brown successfully reflected the lives of various types of motorcycle enthusiasts that were racing in motocross, desert racing and the Grand National in the early 1970’s. From a motorcycle point of view they are all here – BSA, Harley-Davidson, Triumph, Husqvarna, Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Hodaka and Bultaco. The film focuses on the people and what makes them want to ride a motorcycle in competition and features Steve McQueen, AMA legend Mert Lawwill and off-road racer Malcolm Smith. A fascinating glimpse of why people race bikes, any bikes, and still a relevant film today.
8. Electra Glide in Blue (1973)
The open desert roads of Arizona, a pair of Harley-Davidson riding traffic cops called John Wintergreen (Robert Blake) and his partner Zipper (Billy ‘Green’ Bush) are on a mission to prove that a suspected suicide is in fact a murder. Not the best plot line in the world but some great motorcycle footage and worth watching on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
7. Choppertown: the Sinners (2005)
An interesting take on Southern California motorcycle culture and life. This award-winning documentary takes a refreshing look at what it takes to build a custom motorcycle with a group of friends. It’s not your OC Chopper story but an honest look at why Rico Fodfrey and his So Cal Sinners crew build their bikes. How they do it and why they do it. How they search for parts and re-use parts in clever and innovative ways. These are average guys keeping motorcycle culture alive and who are not interested in building bikes for big bucks but creating motorcycles for themselves.
6. Hells Angels on Wheels (1967)
One of Jack Nicholson’s first films which tells the story of a disillusioned gas station attendant who’s attracted to the life with the Hells Angels MC. Lots of late 1960’s bikes and an attempt at portraying what life in an outlaw motorcycle club was really like then. Several fist fights, an occasional stabbing and an interesting film to watch. Ralph ‘Sonny’ Barger, President of the Hells Angels, is credited in the titles as being a consultant to the filmmakers and he plays a non-speaking part early on in the film. So it must be true…
5. The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
Before he became an international icon for revolution, Che Guevara was just a medical student with a big, old Norton 500 that he called La Poderosa (The Mighty One). One day Che (played by Gael Garcia) and his best friend decide to take the Norton on a trip around South America. Much of what they saw in terms of poverty and the lives of the South American peasants led ultimately to Guevara to deciding the revolutionary life was for him. Great script and beautifully shot and the Norton features a lot.
4. Stone (1974)
Don’t let the fact this is classed a low-budget film, it’s actually quite entertaining. Set in Australia it features an undercover cop (Ken Shorter) who joins an outlaw motorcycle club called The Gravediggers to find out why their members are being murdered one by one. There are quite a lot motorcycles involved included a Norton at the outset followed by a Kawasaki Z1 900cc. Not a seat of your pants film but an interesting snap shot of motorcycle culture outside the U.S.
3. Dust to Glory (2005)
When you’ve finished watching this you will go straight out and buy yourself an off-road motorcycle and head to Baja. This documentary, which was actually filmed in 2003, follows the Baja 1000 race and all of the competitors through 650 miles of the Mexican desert. There was a huge film crew, several helicopters involved in making this film and the result is pretty spectacular. Not only do the competitors have some fearsome terrain and weather conditions to ride through but they also have to watch out for the spectators that take some pleasure in laying traps for them. Despite being eight years old this is still a riveting watch.
2. Closer To The Edge (2011)
If you’ve never been to the Isle of Man in May to watch the annual Tourist Trophy, this film is almost the next best thing to being there. Filmed in 2010 you get some truly spectacular footage of the world’s greatest motorcycle race. This 104-minute documentary follows racers Guy Martin and Ian Hutchinson in their bid to claim the title of King of the Hill. You won’t believe how fast or how dangerous the 37.73 course is. There is no other motorcycle race – or for that any motor sport event – like this and we could watch this over and over again. Ultimately the only thing to do is go and see this astonishing race for yourself. You won’t regret it.
1. The World's Fastest Indian (2005)
There are several other films that could be at the number one slot but The World’s Fastest Indian is just a great film. Based on the true story of a middle-aged but very determined Kiwi Burt Munro, who against the odds brought his modified Indian scout to Bonneville to set land speed records. It may not be historically accurate but there is a fantastic performance by Anthony Hopkins playing Munro and it takes little time before you start to empathize with this character and the huge challenge he has to overcome to achieve his dream. Lots of motorcycle content and one of those films that you will want to watch again and again.
We’re not saying this is the definitive list of all motorcycle films ever made. Just a cross-section of a wide variety of films that have motorcycle content that we think are worth watching. If you’ve got some better suggestions then let us know. | {
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Transport minister Norman Baker has stepped in after complaints from blind people that their dogs were being ejected from public transport on religious grounds. Mr Baker told bus companies that religious objections were not a sufficient reason to eject any passenger with a well-behaved dog. He said: “If dogs are causing a nuisance then the driver has every right to ask the owner to leave. But it is much more questionable to be asked to remove a dog for religious reasons. One person’s freedom is another person’s restriction.” It is illegal under disability discrimination laws to refuse a blind person and guide dog on board a bus or in a taxi. But Guide Dogs for the Blind Association said it regularly receives complaints from members about the practice. The National Federation of the Blind said the problem was “common and getting worse”.
Its spokesman Jill Allen-King said she had often been left on the kerb by Muslim taxi drivers who had refused to take her dog. She has had similar problems with Muslim bus drivers. She said: “Last year a Muslim taxi driver went mad when I tried to get in with my dog. He said, ‘I have to go home now and wash myself’.”
George Herridge, 73, said he was asked to get off two buses in Reading, Berkshire, last year when passengers objected to his labrador guide dog, Andy. “I was coming home on the bus and there were some Muslim children screaming,” he said.
“The driver pulled over and asked me to get off. It is a lengthy walk into town from where I live and there is no other means of transport.” The Muslim Council of Britain urged tolerance and common sense on the issue. A spokesman said: “Muslim drivers should have no hesitation in allowing guide dogs in their taxi or bus. Some schools of Islam regard the saliva of dogs as impure and others think there is no problem.
“If a dog does lick you, then it’s not the end of the world – just go home and wash.” | {
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Powers Boothe, Who Appeared In 'Deadwood' And 'Sin City,' Dies At 68
Enlarge this image toggle caption Todd Williamson/Invision/AP Todd Williamson/Invision/AP
Powers Boothe, a character actor who worked on television and in the movies, died Sunday in Los Angeles.
A representative tells news agencies that Boothe died of natural causes at his home. He was 68.
According to The Hollywood Reporter:
"Boothe gained a reputation for playing villains with memorable roles in the action film Sudden Death (1995), Bill Paxton's Frailty (2001) and the nefarious Senator Roark in Sin City (2005). Perhaps his most famous villain role was Cy Tolliver, the ruthless saloon owner on HBO's Deadwood. "More recently, Boothe took on the role of Gideon Malick as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, debuting the role in 2012's The Avengers and reprising it on ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "He portrayed Alexander Haig in Nixon (1995) and a sheriff in another Oliver Stone film, U Turn (1997), and was unforgettable as the wicked gunman Curly Bill Brocius in Tombstone (1993). "He also played Connie Britton's father, the industrialist and former mayor Lamar Wyatt, on Nashville and portrayed Noah Daniels, the vice president and then the U.S. president, on 24."
In 1980, Boothe gained national attention playing cult leader Jim Jones in the CBS-TV movie Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones.
He won an Emmy Award for that performance — beating out veteran actors Henry Fonda and Jason Robards.
Actor Beau Bridges tweeted the news of Boothe's death and called him "a dear friend, great actor, devoted father & husband." | {
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We use cookies to give you a better experience. By continuing to use our site, you are agreeing to the use of cookies as set in our cookie policy , which also has information on how to manage them. Cookie settings ACCEPT | {
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Embedding Lua in C: Using Lua from inside C.
-- Start -- Script: script.lua print("I am using Lua from within C") -- End
#include <stdlib.h> #include <stdio.h> /* Include the Lua API header files. */ #include <lua.h> #include <lauxlib.h> #include <lualib.h> int main(void) { /* Declare the Lua libraries we wish to use. */ /* Note: If you are opening and running a file containing Lua code */ /* using 'lua_dofile(l, "myfile.lua") - you must delcare all the libraries */ /* used in that file here also. */ static const luaL_reg lualibs[] = { { "base", luaopen_base }, { NULL, NULL } }; /* A function to open up all the Lua libraries you declared above. */ static void openlualibs(lua_State *l) { const luaL_reg *lib; for (lib = lualibs; lib->func != NULL; lib++) { lib->func(l); lua_settop(l, 0); } } /* Declare a Lua State, open the Lua State and load the libraries (see above). */ lua_State *l; l = lua_open(); openlualibs(l); /* You can do what you want here. Note: Remember to update the libraries used (see above) */ /* if you add to your program and use new Lua libraries. */ /* In the lines below, I load and run the Lua code contained in the file */ /* "script.lua". */ /* Plus print some text directly from C. */ printf("This line in directly from C
"); lua_dofile(l, "script.lua"); printf("
Back to C again
"); /* Remember to destroy the Lua State */ lua_close(l); return 0; }
cc -o embed embed.c \ -I/usr/local/include \ -L/usr/local/lib \ -llua -llualib
1: Create a new project. 2: Add the embed.c file. 3: Add the 2 Lua libraries (*.lib) - Standard library and the Core library. 4: Add the locations of the Lua include files to the project options ("Directories tab"). 5: You may also have to add the locations of the library files - the same way as above. 6: Compile and Build - that's it.
This line in directly from C I am using Lua from within C Back to C again | {
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A white Republican poltician has defended Donald Trump’s racism by telling a reporter that he himself was a person of colour.
After being confronted about the president’s racist tweets from Sunday, in which he told four non-white congresswomen to “go back" to the “crime infested places from which they came," representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania told Vice: “You know, they talk about people of colour. I'm a person of colour. I'm white. I'm an Anglo Saxon. People say things all the time, but I don't get offended.”
“With a name like Mike Kelly,” he added, “you can’t be from any place else but Ireland."
In fact Mr Kelly is from Pittsburgh. He is also not “Anglo Saxon,” which refers to people descended from Germany who came to inhabit England and Wales.
Mr Kelly defended his comments, which were widely criticised, in an interview Wednesday.
“The reporter's tweet mischaracterised our conversation and my broader point: We’re all created equal,” he told The Hill. “It’s time to stop fixating on our differences and focus on what unites us.”
On Tuesday, the House approved a resolution condemning the president’s tweets as racist. The vote was preceded by a contentious session, in which congressional decorum was abandoned. The Pennsylvania congressman did not appear to address the vote in his clarification to The Hill.
Mr Kelly, who assumed his role as congressman in 2011, has been a vivacious supporter of Donald Trump. In 2017, his office was found to be full of oil paintings of the president and his family, including one piece of art depicting Mr Trump embracing his youngest son Barron.
Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn Show all 15 1 /15 Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 20: People participate in an anti-hate rally at a Brooklyn park named in memory of Beastie Boys band member Adam Yauch after it was defaced with swastikas on November 20, 2016 in New York City. On Friday, the park and playground was spray painted with swastikas and the message "Go Trump". Hundreds of people, many with their children, listened to community leaders and Beastie Boys member Adam Horovitz condemn racism and intolerance. Following the election of Donald Trump as president, there has been a surge of incidents of racist activities reported. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 20: People participate in an anti-hate rally at a Brooklyn park named in memory of Beastie Boys band member Adam Yauch after it was defaced with swastikas on November 20, 2016 in New York City. On Friday, the park and playground was spray painted with swastikas and the message "Go Trump". Hundreds of people, many with their children, listened to community leaders and Beastie Boys member Adam Horovitz condemn racism and intolerance. Following the election of Donald Trump as president, there has been a surge of incidents of racist activities reported. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 20: People participate in an anti-hate rally at a Brooklyn park named in memory of Beastie Boys band member Adam Yauch after it was defaced with swastikas on November 20, 2016 in New York City. On Friday, the park and playground was spray painted with swastikas and the message "Go Trump". Hundreds of people, many with their children, listened to community leaders and Beastie Boys member Adam Horovitz condemn racism and intolerance. Following the election of Donald Trump as president, there has been a surge of incidents of racist activities reported. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 20: People participate in an anti-hate rally at a Brooklyn park named in memory of Beastie Boys band member Adam Yauch after it was defaced with swastikas on November 20, 2016 in New York City. On Friday, the park and playground was spray painted with swastikas and the message "Go Trump". Hundreds of people, many with their children, listened to community leaders and Beastie Boys member Adam Horovitz condemn racism and intolerance. Following the election of Donald Trump as president, there has been a surge of incidents of racist activities reported. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 20: Children play on playground equipment that was defaced with swastikas during an anti-hate rally at a Brooklyn park named in memory of Beastie Boys band member Adam Yauch on November 20, 2016 in New York City. On Friday, the park and playground was spray painted with swastikas and the message ÃGo Trump.Ã Hundreds of people, many with their children, listened to community leaders and Beastie Boys member Adam Horovitz condemn racism and intolerance. Following the election of Donald Trump as president, there has been a surge of incidents of racist activities reported. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 20: Beastie Boys member Adam Horovitz speaks at a anti-hate rally at a Brooklyn park named in memory of Beastie Boys band member Adam Yauch after it was defaced with swastikas on November 20, 2016 in New York City. On Friday, the park and playground was spray painted with swastikas and the message ÃGo Trump.Ã Hundreds of people, many with their children, listened to community leaders and condemn racism and intolerance. Following the election of Donald Trump as president, there has been a surge of incidents of racist activities reported. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 20: A piece of playground equipment that was defaced with swastikas stands during an anti-hate rally at a Brooklyn park named in memory of Beastie Boys band member Adam Yauch on November 20, 2016 in New York City. On Friday, the park and playground was spray painted with swastikas and the message ÃGo Trump.Ã Hundreds of people, many with their children, listened to community leaders and Beastie Boys member Adam Horovitz condemn racism and intolerance. Following the election of Donald Trump as president, there has been a surge of incidents of racist activities reported. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn A woamn takes a photo of messages and flowers left at a playground before a protest against racism and hate after swastikas were found in Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn, New York on November 20, 2016. / AFP / ANGELA WEISS (Photo credit should read ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn Activists protest racism and hate after swastikas were found in Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn, New York on November 20, 2016. / AFP / ANGELA WEISS (Photo credit should read ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn Activists protest racism and hate after swastikas were found in Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn, New York on November 20, 2016. / AFP / ANGELA WEISS (Photo credit should read ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn Activists protest racism and hate after swastikas were found in Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn, New York on November 20, 2016. / AFP / ANGELA WEISS (Photo credit should read ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn New York State Senator Daniel Squadron speaks as activists protest racism and hate after swastikas found in Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn, New York on November 20, 2016. The two remaining members of the Beastie Boys called for an anti-hate rally at the park in memory of band member Adam Yauch after it was defaced with swastikas. / AFP / ANGELA WEISS (Photo credit should read ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn Flowers left by activists at the entrance to Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn, New York on November 20, 2016 after swastikas were found in the park. The two remaining members of the Beastie Boys called for an anti-hate rally at the park in memory of band member Adam Yauch after it was defaced with swastikas. / AFP / ANGELA WEISS (Photo credit should read ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn Messages and flowers left by activists at a playground protesting racism and hate after swastikas were found in Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn, New York on November 20, 2016. The two remaining members of the Beastie Boys called for an anti-hate rally at the park in memory of band member Adam Yauch after it was defaced with swastikas. / AFP / ANGELA WEISS (Photo credit should read ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Activists Protest Racism And Hate In Brooklyn Activists protest Racism and Hate after swastikas found in Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn, New York on November 20, 2016. The two remaining members of the Beastie Boys called for an anti-hate rally at the park in memory of band member Adam Yauch after it was defaced with swastikas. / AFP / ANGELA WEISS (Photo credit should read ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images | {
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The 2015 Buffalo Bills have become one of the most talked about teams in the league this season, due to the hiring of Rex Ryan as well as the emergence of exciting quarterback Tyrod Taylor. Although the Bills have been known for their aggressive, hard-hitting defense, the offense has been playing very well and putting up points like no-one outside Buffalo has expected. The Bills are actually third in the league in points per game with 33.3—as of this writing, only trailing the New England Patriots (39.7) and the Arizona Cardinals (42.0).
However, this Buffalo team isn’t the prototypical high-scoring offense with a superstar quarterback throwing the ball 50 times a game. The Bills actually rank second to last in the NFL in passing attempts this season with just 26.0 passes per game. So, how are the Bills scoring so efficiently?
The simple answer is speed. When you look at the Bills entire roster, you see a very interesting trend. Most skill position players have the ability to do multiple things, and are not prototypical runners, receivers or passers. The primary example of course is the quarterback, Tyrod Taylor.
Taylor was a backup QB in Baltimore before signing with Buffalo this off-season, coming in as the projected #3 quarterback behind Matt Cassel and EJ Manuel. However, due to his ability to run the Bills’ offense as well as extend plays out of the pocket and run the ball, he won the starting job and has not looked back since. Now, Taylor is a decent passer in the league when given primary reads on offense, but his ability to run is what makes him perfect for the Buffalo offense. Taylor ran a 4.51 40-yard dash at the NFL combine, which is the ideal statistic for highlighting how fast he really is. The Bills don’t even have to design runs for Taylor, in fact he’s much more dangerous during broken plays, where he can use that speed to gain yards in bulk if no receivers are open.
Still, although Taylor’s speed is very rare in an NFL quarterback, the skill players on the Bills’ are also very unique. Other than Sammy Watkins, who is definitely more of a prototypical wideout, the Bills utilize multiple receivers and backs who are incredibly fast and quick, surrounding Tyrod Taylor with explosive playmakers.
Players like Percy Harvin, LeSean McCoy, Karlos Williams and Robert Woods are all incredibly quick and have the ability to make a five yard play end up a 60 yard touchdown. McCoy, although struggling with a hamstring injury so far this season, is ideal for this lineup because he brings dual threat potential with his skill in both the running and receiving games. Harvin is the ultimate game breaking type of player, who can be utilized as a receiver, runner, or a special teams returner.
It seems that Rex Ryan has established a clear identity for the Buffalo Bills this year, with speed and versatility highlighting this offense. This multilateral aspect of playing could be the ideal type of offense to compliment the bruising Bills’ defense, and Buffalo without a doubt has the pieces to make this offense as dynamic as they want. | {
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Iraqi Christian genocide survivors may forever vanish from their ancient homelands. They were in crisis when I met with them a few days before Christmas last year in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Now their survival is endangered and two things must be done to secure it.
The Senate should quickly bring up and pass the House-passed, bipartisan H.R. 390 (Iraq and Syria Genocide Emergency Relief and Accountability Act)—which I authored with my colleague, Rep. Anna Eshoo (CA-18). H.R. 390 authorizes the Administration to direct humanitarian and recovery assistance to all religious and ethnic minority communities ISIS targeted for genocide. Aid would come from already-approved funds and no additional money is authorized. Authorization would ensure that as long as the U.S. is responding to the crises in Iraq and Syria, vital aid will go to these genocide-surviving communities.
The President should also issue formal instructions, such as a Presidential Memorandum, directing his Administration—especially the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—to identify the needs of these communities and immediately fund entities effectively assisting them on-the-ground. H.R. 390 is a blueprint for such executive action.
The President and Vice President have spoken strongly about the ISIS genocide and committed the Administration to bringing relief to survivors. The Secretary of State formally issued the Administration’s genocide declaration in the recently released International Religious Freedom Report for 2016. His predecessor had also declared the genocide. Last year, the House and Senate unanimously passed resolutions with genocide declarations. The genocide determination is settled. What remains unsettled is whether the U.S. will help Christian and Yazidi communities survive.
Our actions over the next month or two may determine whether the Nineveh Plains remain the historic homeland of many Iraqi Christians. ISIS drove them out with its genocidal campaign and destroyed or damaged their homes, markets and churches. Reconstruction has begun on some homes and some families have returned. Many other families have signaled they want to return. However, they know the U.S. and most other countries have done little to help them survive and rebuild. They also know private funding from groups like the Knights of Columbus and Aid to the Church in Need that sustained them in Erbil is running out. Unless more homes are rebuilt, or humanitarian aid provided, many may be forced to abandon their homes and leave Iraq permanently.
America also has pressing national security interests in enabling Christians to return to their homes. Iran has been paying individuals to move into empty Christian homes in the Nineveh Plains—house-stealing—and backing them with its proxy militias. This supports the Iranian government’s aspirations to directly or indirectly control road access in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to move weapons and personnel.
Additionally, ISIS murders, tortures and enslaves religious and ethnic minorities as part of its ideology and recruitment. Even if ISIS is defeated militarily in Iraq, if it succeeds in purging religious and ethnic minorities from their homelands, terrorist radicalization, recruiting and violence will be fed for generations. Aiding these genocide survivors is an essential element of countering this threat.
Despite this urgency, some career staff at the State Department and USAID have been thwarting the President by making the same decisions as they did during the Obama Administration: refusing to prioritize the survival of religious and ethnic communities targeted for genocide.
These staffers claim they are only able to look at the needs of individuals, without consideration for the survival of their communities, and are unable to fund faith-based entities like the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil. I saw first-hand how the Archdiocese has been providing almost all the medical care, food and shelter to more than 95,000 Christians—almost 90% of Christian survivors—who escaped ISIS and remain in Iraq, as well as some Yazidi and Muslim survivors. The Archdiocese has also been leading the ecumenical Nineveh Reconstruction Committee, which is working to rebuild 12,000 damaged or destroyed Christian homes.
Neither U.S. law nor international norms prohibit directing such assistance to such communities or prohibit funding faith-based entities like the Archdiocese of Erbil, so long as they use it strictly for humanitarian and related purposes and are able to meet certain standards of effectiveness, accounting and transparency.
Nevertheless, some of these staffers continue to claim they lack authorization to implement the commitments of the President and the requirements in the budget bill for the current fiscal year. Passing H.R. 390, and signing it into law, will leave no doubt about the will of the President, the Congress and the American people. Formal instructions from the President will likewise make it clear how he expects his Administration to help these genocide survivors and that there will be accountability if the relevant government agencies fail to act accordingly.
Since ISIS began its genocidal rampage in 2013, I have chaired nine hearings, focused wholly or partially on the crisis. It became clear hearings were not enough and legislation was necessary to move the rank and file bureaucrats. That is why I introduced H.R. 390 in the last Congress and introduced it again this Congress. Together with ongoing Congressional oversight, executive instructions and accountability, the legislation will help Christians, Yazidis and other persecuted religious and ethnic minorities outlast the genocide. It is bipartisan and supported by a wide range of leaders, groups and constituents across the country.
When I met with surviving Christian families in Erbil, they told me suffering had strengthened their faith and they still believed the United States would not abandon them. They need our help now. Will we give it? | {
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An Australian woman who was freed by al-Qaeda after three weeks in captivity has said that her husband, who was seized with her in Burkina Faso, was still alive and she hoped he too would be released soon.
Jocelyn Elliott, 76, gave no further details of the couple's captivity but her comment provided the first confirmation that her husband, Dr Ken Elliott, 81, was still alive.
The couple were seized on January 15 from the town of Djibo, near Burkina Faso's border with Mali, where they have operated a 120-bed clinic for more than 40 years.
"I really hope to be with my husband soon so that we can again go to Djibo and continue [our work]," she said after meeting Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Kabore.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said last week that it had kidnapped the couple and would release the woman unconditionally due to public pressure and guidance from al-Qaeda leaders not to involve women in war.
"It is our religious duty to respect the civilians, based on the Prophet's hadith on not harming women, the elderly and the children, and based on the guidance by our commanders," the audio statement released by the group said.
The couple were abducted from the town on the same day that al-Qaeda fighters raided a restaurant and hotel in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, and killed 30 people, many of whom were foreigners.
Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou presented Elliott at a news conference on Saturday.
But since then she has given no details of her kidnap, captivity or release.
She expressed gratitude to the governments of Niger, Burkina Faso and Australia for her release and said she was very happy to be back "amidst my Burkinabe family". | {
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SACRAMENTO, CA - The Sacramento Kings have recalled rookie forward Duje Dukan from the team’s NBA D-League affiliate, the Reno Bighorns, it was announced today by Vice President and General Manager Vlade Divac.
In four games for the Bighorns, Dukan is averaging 13 points (.426 FG%, .625 FT%, .318 3PT%) and 3.8 rebounds in 27 minutes per game. Dukan has started all four games.
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New Patron: The Archmage
Your patron is a legendary archmage, or some other creature with great arcane power. Most often, your patron craves magic, and will do anything to get it, including making pacts with lesser beings such as yourself to search for secrets of eldritch power. Creatures that would befit this pact include Vecna, archlich and god of secrets, Acererak the Immortal, a planar wanderer and powerful demilich, Mephistopheles, devil lord of Cania, and any other creatures with an abundance of arcane power and eldritch knowledge.
Expanded Spell List The Archmage lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you. Spell Level Spells 1st shield, identify 2nd magic weapon, knock 3rd sending, Leomund's tiny hut 4th polymorph, fabricate 5th Bigby's hand, teleportation circle
Eldritch Spellbook Starting at 1st level when you choose this patron, your patron gives you a spellbook that it uses to grant you wizard spells. You gain possession of a spellbook for wizard spells. Whenever you complete a long rest, choose one spell from the Wizard spell list that is of a level that you can cast with your warlock spell slots. The spell is now written in your spellbook until you complete your next long rest, and while you have the spellbook in your possession, you know all spells written in it, and they count as warlock spells for you. The number of spells you may write in your spellbook when you complete a long rest increases as you level up, increasing to 2 at 5th level; 3 at 11th level; and to 4 at 17th level. You may also choose to cast one of the spells in your spellbook without expending a spell slot. If you do so, you may not cast the spell again (with or without a spell slot) until you complete a long rest. If you later take the Pact of the Tome feature, your Tome of Shadows functions as your spellbook for this feature.
Whispers of Knowledge Starting at 6th level, your patron whispers knowledge to you in your sleep. Whenever you finish a short or long rest, choose a skill from the following list: Nature, Arcana, History, Religion. Until the end of your next short or long rest, you have proficiency in this skill, and can add your proficiency bonus twice to checks with the chosen skill.
Question Patron Starting at 10th level, your patron answers your questions. You learn the contact other plane spell, if you don't know it already, and it doesn't count against your number of spells known. When you cast it, you may choose to use it to contact your patron. If you do so, you automatically succeed on the spell's saving throw. Once you use this ability, you cannot do so again until you complete a long rest. | {
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Our next c2k15 report comes from Andrew Fresh (afresh1@). Andrew writes,
I started off the hackathon without a specific project in mind hoping something interesting would come up. In the mean time I thought I would work on running the GNU libtool tests with our libtool(1) in order to see if there were things I could fix or improve. I did get it to run, but their autowhatever tools to get it to go confused me too much and I ended up running `make test` in the port and stealing the test infrastructure from there. It turns out that was the wrong tack to find broken things in libtool. All the complaints were because our error messages don't look like their error messages or other similarly useless problems. If I end up back at this, I'll instead go find ports that use the other libtool and see if I can figure out why they use it.
I sat near schwarze@ and bmercer@ and it was awesome to see Ingo just coding away with purpose. On the other hand, bmercer@ had a bit of a harder time. He was trying to do several different things to improve armv7 and as one thing would frustrate him he would switch and do something else. I brought a chromebook that I was hoping we'd get a chance to try out but sadly didn't get that far which means I'll be bugging him online. I did enjoy being there when things weren't working so he could futilely try to explain the problem to me (I wasn't much help with kernel memory layouts). Fortunately others overheard and provided words of encouragement and some help which was one of my favorite parts of attending this hackathon.
I ended up picking up another project. stsp@ wants to improve our UTF-8 support and to that end we need to update src/share/locale/ctype/en_US.UTF-8.src. He asked if I could look into automating that and so I did. I spent a bit of time writing perl and a lot of time trying to make sense of documents put out by the Unicode Consortium. I have something mostly working but I need to figure out how to validate the output and then we should be able to move forward.
I drove to the Hackathon from Portland, Oregon with Lisa and Wayne. Because of this, and outside encouragement from bmercer@ I brought a couple of grinders, an electric kettle, a chemex, a french press and 14 pounds of coffee that was roasted in my neighborhood. I think it went well as there were questions about how I was going to bring this all to Europe in the future. We took four days to drive to Calgary via Montana, camping along the way and seeing some amazingly beautiful country. On the way home we took the Trans Canada Highway through the Rocky Mountains to Vancouver, stopping to camp for a night and see Canada's Glacier National Park which we are hoping to get back to.
Overall I had a great time, I really enjoyed the semi-formal presentation on the last day by people with bigger projects talking about what they've done and what they're doing in the future. I am immensely looking forward to the next hackathon I am able to attend. | {
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Yesterday, we shared pictures of the first sighting of a Tesla Model 3 release candidate testing in the wild thanks to a new friend of the site, Wayne, who chased the vehicle around Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto.
Today, Wayne spotted the prototype again and sent us the first video of the vehicle, which shows the Model 3 under new angles and driving for the first time, aside from Elon Musk’s quick 5-second video.
It would seem that the area around Tesla’s headquarters is still the hot spot to get a glimpse of Tesla’s prototypes being tested – like it was when Tesla was testing Model X prototypes back in 2015.
In both sightings, Tesla was using a BMW as a chaser car. Other comparable vehicles are often used during testing phases for performance tuning.
We combined both yesterday’s and today’s sightings in a single video, which we stabilized a little since they are stitched together from the iPhone’s burst mode photos. It’s not perfect, but at least it offers a high-resolution:
Footage taken by Wayne – use his referral code for $1,000 off Model S or X
As we reported earlier today, the main new thing we learned from the latest images of the release candidate is that it features additional sensors on the C-pillars.
Based on the rear hatch, the trunk opening on the release candidate (left) appears to be the same as it was on the pre-alpha prototype (right):
Some reservation holders complained about the opening when the vehicle was first unveiled and Musk later said that Tesla “fixed it”. While it’s not apparent from the visible outlines of the hatch, the opening itself could be bigger.
The thing reservation holders are probably the most curious about is the interior due to Musk’s ‘spaceship-like’ comment, but unfortunately, we don’t have a clear view of the interior with the recent Model 3 release candidate sightings.
One reassuring aspect though is the body panel fits, which so far seem more than decent. When Tesla started production of the first release candidates last month, Musk said that he was seeing a significant improvement in fit and finish with the Model 3 over the Model S and X during the same phase of development.
Hopefully, for reservation holders, it will only get better leading to the start of production, which is still expected in July.
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Scientists have discovered a new metabolic process in the body that can switch off inflammation. They have discovered that 'itaconate' -- a molecule derived from glucose -- acts as a powerful off-switch for macrophages, which are the cells in the immune system that lie at the heart of many inflammatory diseases including arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and heart disease.
The scientists, working in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute at Trinity College Dublin, hope their discovery will have relevance for inflammatory and infectious diseases -- and that their findings may also help to develop much-needed new drugs to treat people living with these conditions.
Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity, Luke O'Neill, was, along with Dr Mike Murphy of the University of Cambridge, the joint leader of the work just published in leading international journal Nature. The discoveries were made using both human cells and mice as a model organism.
Professor O'Neill said: "My lab has been exploring metabolic changes in macrophages for the past six years and we've come across what we think is the most important finding yet."
"It is well known that macrophages cause inflammation, but we have just found that they can be coaxed to make a biochemical called itaconate. This functions as an important brake, or off-switch, on the macrophage, cooling the heat of inflammation in a process never before described."
Dr Evanna Mills, who, with Dylan Ryan was joint first author of the work, said: "The macrophage takes the nutrient glucose, whose day job it is to provide energy, and surprisingly turns it into itaconate. This then blocks production of inflammatory factors, and also protects mice from the lethal inflammation that can occur during infection."
Dylan Ryan added: "We've found that itaconate can directly modify a whole host of proteins important for inflammation in a chemical reaction never before described, and that this reaction is important for the anti-inflammatory effects of itaconate."
The discovery is very much on the frontier of inflammation research and Professor O'Neill and his collaborators are now exploring its relevance to the onset and development of inflammatory and infectious diseases. They are also keen to explore whether the findings can be exploited in the effort to develop new anti-inflammatory medicines.
The work was a collaboration with Harvard Medical School, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Dundee, and GlaxoSmithKline, where both Professor O'Neill and Dr Mills spent time on sabbatical.
Professor O'Neill said: "This discovery and the new research pathways it has opened up will keep us busy for some time but we are hopeful that it will one day make a difference to patients with diseases that remain difficult to treat."
The work was funded by The Wellcome Trust, Science Foundation Ireland, the European Research Council and GlaxoSmithKline. | {
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Article content
Most political assassinations are carried out with a gun or rifle. Occasionally a leader is blown up or poisoned.
Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was assassinated with an ice pick to the head.
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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or This Week in History: Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky assassinated in 1940 Back to video
“Leon Trotsky, exiled ‘Napoleon of the Bolsheviks’ who fled to a haven in Mexico was near death today, victim of a pick-axe attack by a man who had posed as his ‘great admirer,’ ” said an Associated Press story in the Vancouver Province on Aug. 21, 1940.
“The one-time Russian war minister had a wound in the skull which exposed his brain and a fracture at the base of the skull. Two other blows from the axe injured his right shoulder and his right hip.”
Trotsky struggled with his assassin after being hit, biting him in the hand before a bodyguard heard commotion and came into the room to subdue his assailant. He fought for his life for 26 hours before dying on Aug. 22.
The New York Times reported the 60-year-old remained a revolutionary to the end, whispering to his secretary “Please say to our friends I am sure of the victory of the Fourth International. Go forward!” | {
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Image caption Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told the BBC the UK is about to embark on 'the most important election in decades'
The Ulster Unionist Party's decision not to agree an electoral pact in the upcoming poll is "bonkers", the DUP's chief whip has said.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said UUP leader-elect Steve Aiken's move would mean a "unionist dogfight" that could put at risk unionist seats to Sinn Féin.
Political parties are now preparing for a general election campaign.
On Tuesday MPs voted for a 12 December poll, which will be the third election in Northern Ireland this year.
The 10 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MPs voted in favour, while Independent MP Lady Sylvia Hermon voted against.
The legislation will later begin its passage through the House of Lords, where it is not expected to be opposed.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption It's been will they or won't they for weeks, so how did they reach an agreement?
Unionist parties have traditionally agreed electoral pacts in certain constituencies in order to maximise the number of unionist MPs at Westminster.
They feel that if the unionist vote is split between them it makes it more likely a nationalist candidate will take the seat.
Mr Aiken has said his party will stand in all 18 constituencies this time, a move which sparked concern from others within unionist circles that key seats could be at risk.
Image copyright PAcemaker Image caption Steve Aiken, MLA for South Antrim, will be the Ulster Unionist Party's new leader and has already ruled out electoral pacts
DUP leader Arlene Foster said if there was not a pact, North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds could lose his seat and accused Mr Aiken of wanting to "hand away seats to Sinn Féin".
In Fermanagh and South Tyrone a unionist pact secured the UUP a seat for Tom Elliott in 2015 - but he lost it to Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew two years later.
However, Mr Aiken said unionist voters needed to be offered a choice and that his party could not be seen to criticise the DUP but then agree an electoral pact with them.
'Unionist dogfight'
Speaking on BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme on Wednesday, DUP chief whip Sir Jeffrey Donaldson urged Mr Aiken to change his mind.
He said: "I just don't understand where Steve Aiken is coming from, that he proposes we have a unionist dogfight in the middle of the most important election in decades.
"I don't think they stand a chance of winning the seat in the constituencies where they will split the vote."
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin Vice-President Michelle O'Neill told the same programme that her party was not ruling out the possibility of pacts with other pro-remain parties in Northern Ireland.
Image caption Michelle O'Neill will face a contest to retain the vice-presidency position in her party in the middle of the election campaign
She said a single pro-remain candidate would be best placed to win several seats in the Belfast constituencies.
However, she added that despite conversations with the SDLP and Alliance leaders, there had been no indication of that happening.
Speaking on the Stephen Nolan show, the SDLP's Claire Hanna said that the upcoming election is "about representing the remain voice in Northern Ireland and challenging the most extreme forms of Brexit."
The Alliance Party's deputy leader Stephen Farry also told the programme that his party would not be sacrificing any of their candidates to boost the chance of letting a remain candidate win in certain constituencies.
He said: "We don't think of voters as a commodity that political parties can trade. The electorate in Northern Ireland is sophisticated and they can work out what the best forward is themselves."
Who will run in the general election?
There are 18 Westminster constituencies in Northern Ireland, meaning 18 seats out of 650 in the Commons are up for grabs.
The DUP holds 10 seats, Sinn Féin has seven - but its MPs do not take their seats due to a long-standing policy of abstentionism - and independent unionist MP Lady Hermon holds North Down.
It is not clear if Lady Hermon will run again to retain her seat. She faced stiff competition for it from the DUP's Alex Easton in 2017.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption EU election joy for Naomi Long and Martina Anderson
Another question some are already asking is whether Alliance leader Naomi Long will stand in East Belfast, to try and reclaim the seat from DUP MP Gavin Robinson.
She held it between 2010 and 2015, when she lost it to Mr Robinson. He successfully retained it in 2017.
Mrs Long is now an MEP in Brussels, having won the seat for Alliance for the first time in May - but given her party's surge in that election and the council elections in May, she may be tempted to try to secure Westminster representation for Alliance again.
Meanwhile, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has confirmed he will run in the party's traditional stronghold of Foyle, in a bid to reclaim the seat from Sinn Féin's Elisha McCallion, who won it for the first time in 2017. | {
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Нажмите здесь, чтобы поделиться контентом на Facebook. (Открывается в новом окне)
Недавно Министр внутренних дел Арсен Аваков анонсировал создание в Украине киберполиции. Она будет заниматься борьбой с киберпреступностью.
Вместе с тем, в презентации киберполиции, размещённой на сайте МВД, упоминается и реестр запрещённых сайтов. Напомним, такой реестр имеется в России, в него периодически попадают популярные ресурсы и социальные сети из-за достаточно странных, а иногда и нелепых, обвинений. Например, «жертвами» Роскомнадзора в различное время становились «Википедия», «Луркоморье», «Вконтакте», YouTube, Google+, Facebook и другие ресурсы. Теперь же подобный реестр запрещённых сайтов может появиться и в Украине. В частности, на сайте МВД сказано следующее:
«В ближайшее время в киберполиции (планируется) создание онлайн-площадок по реестру и дальнейшему блокированию интернет-ресурсов, через которые осуществляется распространение и сбыт запрещенного контента».
В такой реестр будут вносить сайты, где есть пиратский контент, вирусы, детская порнография и фишинговые материалы. Отметим, на многие сайты, работающие по принципу социальной сети, такой контент может загрузить любой пользователь.
Источник: AIN | {
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Leaf on Fire is a Poke parody game following Leaf as she embarks on the journey to become the greatest trainer the world has ever seen. On the way she will face weird situations and will have to give all the love her little creatures deserve, so they can grow strong and healthy. | {
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“It’s something to feel ashamed of,” said Qasim Sabti, one of Iraq’s most famous artists. “It is the ugliest the city has ever been.”
Government officials say they do not have strong enough laws to police the look of Baghdad, as Mr. Hussein once did. The officials also contend that many agency leaders, with money to spend on renovations and architectural face-lifts, are hiring the cheapest, most inept contractors and pocketing kickbacks and unspent funds.
“We don’t have a strong enough deterrent to stop it,” said Najem al-Kinany, the official in the Baghdad mayor’s office in charge of design, who formed a public taste committee a year ago after receiving a flood of complaints about the city’s appearance. “Before 2003, the subject of public taste and choosing what was appropriate was much better than now.”
Mowaffaq al-Taey, who designed many buildings for Mr. Hussein, and Mr. Sabti, the artist, blame the decline in taste on the fact that so many Iraqis appreciated the arts were wealthy enough to flee the country.
“Right now, when I have an exhibition at my gallery nobody comes from the government, only the art students and other artists,” Mr. Sabti said. “Taking care of the look of the city has stopped because the people who have come to power were living in villages with animals. So how did they develop their taste? | {
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WireGuard is a next generation VPN protocol, which lives in the Linux kernel, and uses state of the art cryptography. One of the most exciting recent crypto-networking developments, WireGuard aims to drastically simplify secure tunneling. The current state of VPN protocols is not pretty, with popular options, such as IPsec and OpenVPN, being overwhelmingly complex, with large attack surfaces, using mostly cryptographic designs from the 90s. WireGuard presents a new abuse-resistant and high-performance alternative based on modern cryptography, with a focus on implementation and usability simplicity. It uses a 1-RTT handshake, based on NoiseIK, to provide perfect forward secrecy, identity hiding, and resistance to key-compromise impersonation attacks, among other important security properties, as well as high performance transport using ChaCha20Poly1305. A novel IP-binding cookie MAC mechanism is used to prevent against several forms of common denial-of-service attacks, both against the client and server, improving greatly on those of DTLS and IKEv2. Key distribution is handled out-of-band with extremely short Curve25519 points, which can be passed around in the likes of OpenSSH. Discarding the academic layering perfection of IPsec, WireGuard introduces the idea of a "cryptokey routing table", alongside an extremely simple and fully defined timer-state mechanism, to allow for easy and minimal configuration; WireGuard is actually securely deployable in practical settings. In order to rival the performance of IPsec, WireGuard is implemented inside the Linux kernel, but unlike IPsec, it is implemented in less than 4,000 lines of code, making the implementation manageably auditable. These features converge to create an open source VPN utility that is exceedingly simple, yet thoroughly modern and secure.
The presentation will be divided up into several parts. First, there will be an overview of the problems with IPsec, OpenVPN, and other popular VPNs, outlining attacks and weaknesses. Next, the WireGuard idea of the "cryptokey routing table" will be introduced, and we’ll walk through several properties derived from it. This will transition into a discussion of the timer state mechanism, and how secure protocols are necessarily stateful, but it’s possible to make them appear stateless to the user by exhaustively defining all possible state transitions. Then we’ll get into the hardcore meat of the presentation: the cryptography and various crypto innovations behind WireGuard. We will discuss the triple Diffie-Hellman, the role of combining static and ephemeral keys, the performance and DoS-potential of Curve25519 point multiplication, using a PRF chaining for rotating keys, identity hiding and remaining silent on a network, and clever usage of authenticated encryption with additional data. We will examine the various attack models, and enumerate the cryptographic mitigations employed by WireGuard. The sum will be a comprehensive overview of modern day crypto tricks, attacks, and useful constructions, and how these insights have been funneled into WireGuard. Finally, we’ll examine the Linux kernel implementation of WireGuard, seeing how it’s possible to avoid allocations in response to unauthenticated packets as a defense coding technique. During the presentation, a live WireGuard endpoint will be provided to audience members who wish to send packets, whether encrypted, legitimate, malformed, dubious, or otherwise curious.
Threaded throughout will be an enumeration of attacks on existing protocols and cryptographic tricks for their mitigation.
My background is in security -- kernels, hardware, reversing, crypto, large networks, etc -- and as such I've broken a lot of systems with some novel tricks and protocol insights. WireGuard is motivated by a sort of cornucopia of clever attacks (crypto and otherwise) against other networks. I made it because I wanted something I could actually confidently run on my own infrastructure, and none of the other tools were nearly up to the task. So, this talk is going to go into depth about real attacks on various protocols, in addition to unveiling some techniques to avoid entire classes of attacks.
Finally, since WireGuard is initially implemented for the Linux kernel, there have been some very interesting considerations to account for with kernel programming. Cross platform implementations are also in the works, written in Go and Rust. | {
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Powers actor Justice Leak has joined the cast of Supergirl as the villain Hellgrammite, Entertainment Weekly reports.
In DC Comics, Hellgrammite is an entomologist transformed into a humanoid bug-like creature by an experiment, but the report suggests the TV version will instead be an alien. In the comics, Hellgrammite’s powers include super-strength, enhanced hopping abilities, and trap others in his cocoons and transform them in larvae.
Hellgrammite has appeared in animated form previously as part of Justice League Unlimited and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Supergirl premieres Monday, Oct. 26 at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS. | {
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“New musicals are never finished, only abandoned,” director Christopher Ashley quipped by phone a few days before flying to New York for the start of rehearsals for “Come From Away,” the musical with an upbeat 9/11 (yes, you read that right) story to tell.
The line, a rephrasing of French poet Paul Valéry’s famous remark on poems, comes in handy in theater circles. Ashley, a Tony-nominated director who has helped usher many new works to Broadway in his role as artistic director of La Jolla Playhouse, knows as much as anyone about the challenges of readying a production for New York’s dangerous shoals.
Pam MacKinnon, who made her name directing plays by male dramatists with pugnacious styles (Edward Albee, David Mamet and Bruce Norris), is learning all about this fight with the clock as she preps her first musical, “Amélie,” for its Broadway unveiling. Still digesting the recent run at the Ahmanson Theatre with the show’s authors (Craig Lucas, Daniel Messé and Nathan Tysen), MacKinnon said she’s approaching the task much like she does a new play, which is to say she’s homing in on the storytelling.
Both “Come From Away,” which premiered at La Jolla Playhouse in 2015, and “Amélie, A New Musical,” which debuted at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2015, made favorable first impressions on me despite their shortcomings. “Come From Away,” by the married writing team of Irene Sankoff and David Hein, overcame its style hiccups with humble emotion. The cavernous Ahmanson magnified some of “Amélie’s” problems, but I still have a soft spot for this offbeat charmer based on the 2001 film starring Audrey Tautou.
Broadway, however, isn’t likely to be as forgiving in a busy spring season that will see a traffic jam of new musicals opening before the Tony Award cutoff date at the end of April. In addition to the fall hits “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” and “Dear Evan Hansen,” both of which look like awards front-runners, there will be a retooled version of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Groundhog Day” and “Anastasia.” For “Come From Away” and “Amélie” to have a fighting chance, the shows will have to make significant leaps from their California tryouts.
“Amélie, A New Musical” at the Ahmanson Theatre in L.A. in December. (Mariah Tauger / For The Times)
“Needs Improvement” is no longer a grading option. But how often do profound improvements actually happen? After more than a decade of tracking new musicals as they make the trek from the West Coast to Broadway, I have yet to see a clunker transform itself into a hit. More surprising, I can’t remember the last time I saw a promising show overcome whatever it was that was keeping it from realizing its full potential.
Musicals en route to New York receive an enormous amount of tinkering, polishing and sharpening. Rarely, however, does all this primping smooth over structural cracks in the book or holes in the score. A Broadway-bound show in need of a major overhaul is like a new car with engine trouble that the dealer tries to assure you only needs a good wax job.
Major overhauls are, of course, expensive. But money isn’t necessarily the biggest stumbling block. Identifying what’s wrong with a show can be tricky. (Is it the songs or the story or the synergy between them?) Finding a workable artistic solution can be trickier still. Critics are used to seeing their advice ignored. But the pileup of all-too-predictable Broadway casualties can make you wonder about the business sense (never mind the artistic acumen) of producers, the real cockeyed optimists.
Center Theatre Group has contributed its share of Broadway lemons (recall the holy mess “Leap of Faith”). But the list of duds that opened in San Diego and subsequently fizzled on Broadway is especially impressive.
“The Times They Are A-Changin’,” “A Catered Affair” and “Bright Star,” all launched by the Old Globe with a yawn from me, came to relatively swift ends in New York. “Cry-Baby,” “Bonnie & Clyde,” “Chaplin” and “Doctor Zhivago,” greeted by me with a wan smile when they debuted at La Jolla Playhouse, traced similar trajectories in their failed bids to conquer the Great White Way.
Many of these shows had promise. A few found appreciative critics. But none was able to figure out a winning formula in that window of time between California and New York.
To be fair, works like the bluegrass “Bright Star” and the country-and-western “Hands on a Hardbody” (another La Jolla Playhouse musical that crashed on Broadway despite some glowing reviews) weren’t ideal fits for the flashy New York marketplace. But marketing challenges aside, is there any hope for a musical still working out its kinks?
Chad Kimball and the cast of “Come From Away” in 2015 at La Jolla Playhouse. (Kevin Berne / La Jolla Playhouse)
“New shows don’t always bend toward progress,” Ashley said. “A musical can take five to 10 years to reach Broadway, without any guarantee of success.” “Memphis,” the Tony winner he directed, took about 10 years, he said. “Come From Away,” which has had a number of readings, workshops and full-scale and concert productions, has taken roughly six.
Something was learned from each outing of “Come From Away,” which has its official Broadway opening at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on March 12. “An intimate black-box venue tells you something very different from an 800-person house, where you find out whether the show can hold that larger space,” Ashley said. “We knew that audiences in Washington, D.C., were going to have strong feelings about a show that takes place during the week of 9/11. We did shows for survivors of the Pentagon attack to see if we were stepping on nerves that we didn’t know about. New York will be a new test.”
Set in a forgotten Canadian backwater, where airlines were rerouted after American airspace was restricted after the terrorist mayhem, “Come From Away” is a warmhearted, folksy affair that might seem a natural for Broadway given its gentle approach to a story that is still emotionally difficult for New York theatergoers. But the scale of the work (containing just enough drama for a one-act) and its mild-mannered appeal struck me in La Jolla as better suited to a more modest off-Broadway venue, where audiences don’t expect to be surfeited with glitz.
Ashley says it’s impossible to predict what will work on Broadway these days. He detects an openness to untold stories and new modes of storytelling, but the economic perils have only grown more fearsome. Complicating the calculus, audiences aren’t as homogeneous as they once were and Broadway is no longer a local phenomenon. Out-of-towners are buying a greater share of tickets.
A show with a 9/11 angle might seem to be an obvious lure for New Yorkers, but Ashley said his conversations with folks at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum have led him to understand that tourists are the ones who are flocking to Ground Zero.
The importance of marketing isn’t lost on him. There are no marquee names in “Come From Away,” and “9/11 musical” could create a misleading impression for a show about a small Canadian town rising to the challenge of housing, feeding and comforting strangers from across the world who were stranded by the events of a dark day.
“The objective is to communicate as honestly as you can about the nature of the show,” he said. “This is a warm musical that explores the necessity for generosity and for taking care of each other.”
This description has guided him as a director. “The show has evolved immensely but the scale of the production has remained remarkably consistent,” he said. “I tried to add more glitz, tricks, production stuff and the show itself has resisted.”
There has, however, been an “October surprise.” (Yes, Broadway shows apparently have them too.) “The Trump administration has created a second lens for viewing our show,” Ashley said. “As you and I are speaking, people are protesting at airports. We’re telling a story that takes place in an airport. This new lens is one that we would never have known when we were working on the show in 2012.“
All of the rewrites of the past four years have been about “sharpening the edges“ and “offsetting the warm tones” with a richer depiction of individual struggle. (The absence of conflict and suspense is the reason this compact musical occasionally felt sluggish in La Jolla.) One of the characters, a Muslim man, is now subjected to a strip search. The tension is heightened around a woman whose son is a firefighter in New York.
Ashley said his role in the revisionary process has been to coordinate and create coherence. MacKinnon described herself as “a nonwriting writer” on her team and “the keeper of the story.”
“I’ve worked a lot on new plays and usually I’m brought in when there’s a full draft,” she said. “I started working on ‘Amélie’ on the heels of a project I did with Craig Lucas. At the time there were only about five songs and 12 pages of treatment. Having started so early in the process, I feel this huge sense of ownership. It’s like I’m sitting on the shoulders of the writers as opposed to sitting next to them.”
Phillipa Soo and the cast of “Amélie” in Los Angeles last year. (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
MacKinnon isn’t worried that the whimsical musical at times seemed adrift at the Ahmanson. The Walter Kerr Theatre (where “Amélie” has its official opening April 3) is closer in size to Berkeley Rep, she said. The journey for her parallels that of “Clybourne Park,” Norris’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama that began at off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons and eventually went to the Mark Taper Forum (another tricky house) before landing (quite successfully) on Broadway.
Like Ashley, MacKinnon is grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the same group of actors over an extended period of time. The biggest change has been in the casting of Amélie herself. But Phillipa Soo, who was starring in “Hamilton” when the show opened at Berkeley Rep with Samantha Barks, had played the part in workshops and so her entry was something of a homecoming.
Between Berkeley Rep and the Ahmanson, the focus was on developing “Amélie’s” voice. (Three new songs were introduced in L.A. to sharpen our understanding of her point of view.) MacKinnon’s primary concern now seems mostly about storytelling nuance and character complexity — the fine points rather than the foundation.
“I just want to see how deep we can go,” she said. “I want to learn more about the core of this title character. The intimacy of the Walter Kerr will help us, but I feel really fortunate that we have 2½ weeks of rehearsals before previews. Not all of the performances had dropped in by the time the show opened at the Ahmanson, but that changed by the end of the run. That work will continue.”
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There comes a point in the journey of a new musical when the focus has to shift from creating the best version of the show to presenting the best version of the production. Figuring out this cutoff is one of the toughest calls to make in Broadway producing.
The show that handled this best in my experience is “Fun Home,” the Tony-winning musical based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir. I admired “Fun Home” at the Public Theater, but the off-production was still finding its legs. It wasn’t until director Sam Gold reworked his staging for an in-the-round presentation at Broadway’s Circle in the Square that the musical’s layered handling of time, the daring architecture of the piece, lucidly came to life. (The touring production of “Fun Home” opens Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre, and I hope the return to a more traditional house doesn’t reverse-engineer the improvements.)
William Goldman’s oft-quote remark about the movie business, “Nobody knows anything,” is tempting to apply to Broadway musicals. But it might be more accurate to say that in addition to talent and luck, educated guesswork is what leads to success. It’s a crapshoot, but the sharpest theatrical minds are prepared to do whatever it takes to shorten the odds.
[email protected]
Follow me @charlesmcnulty | {
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How did he stay upright?Needs a brighter safety vest maybe.... | {
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The Metropolitan Building, downtown's saddest brick-dropper, now has a "potential developer." According to the Downtown Development Authority (DDA), a deal has been reached with an entity called Metropolitan Development Partners to stabilize the Metropolitan's crumbly facade, hence the giant crane out front. Could it be true?
According to the article, the $300K effort will remove Metropolitan's loose terra cotta missiles, which recently destroyed a parked truck. They'll be replaced with a rubber flashing to prevent additional water leakage. Who exactly are the members of the Metropolitan Development Partnership, and how far away are they from actually restoring the place? That's unclear, but $300K is a sizable amount of money to invest.
The company performing the work, Means Group, specializes in building restoration. CEO Eric Means says his crew is "very confident we can restore this building," adding "We are making a substantial investment to protect the public while we take the necessary steps to close a deal."
Stabilization work should finish up by the end of July, Meanwhile, we're left with this one tantalizing quote: "Metropolitan Development Partners plan to create 61 high-end apartments in the building, along with commercial space and retail on the lower floors." Fingers crossed.
· Downtown Development Authority Stabilizing Metropolitan Building [DDA]
· Mysterious Men Tickle Metropolitan Building via Crane [Curbed] | {
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*I pull out my ruggedized laptop from my bag and start typing something*
Me: Ok miss 'Rarity' I have wired about one hundred million dollars in cash to your bank account and consider it the pay for these candies.
Rarity: Why do you need this much of my candy?
Me: Well apparently it seems your candy has enough calories to feed my private army and forces for days and me and my company and private army are dimensional travelers and I have to go to a certain dimension to help out some rebellion overthrow your generic evil villain and provide them support fire with the PMC I work for. But anyways thanks for making these calory filled candies for my entire company to eat.
Rarity: Well aren't you fat as well tubby?
Me: Shut up *I bark orders at my men* Allright boys load up the candy to our transporters and get your fillings ready we're gonna got to another dimensional war with some wacky villain and provide support for a rebellion and they promise good pay for us.
Men: YEAH!, URA!
Rarity: :rolleyes: | {
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General description
1α,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D 3 , also referred as calcitriol, is a calcitrophic hormone. It is the most biologically active metabolite of vitamin D produced in proximal tubular cells in the kidney.
Application
1α,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D 3 has been used to study its effect on transplantation success of human muscle precursor cells (hMPCs) in severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice in-vitro.
Packaging
1 mg in poly bottle
100 μg in poly bottle
Biochem/physiol Actions
1α,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D 3 modulates energy metabolism by facilitating various metabolic processes, such as Ca2+ signaling and modulation of glucocorticoids, by affecting adipocyte apoptosis and by regulating the expression and production of multiple cytokines. In addition, it also modulates phosphorus homeostasis through actions in the intestine, kidney and bone. 1α,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D 3 exhibits antiproliferative effects and is used as a potent therapeutic for human prostate cancer.
Biologically active form of vitamin D 3 in calcium absorption and deposition. 1α,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D 3 has widespread effects on cellular differentiation and proliferation, and can modulate immune responsiveness, and central nervous system function. Recent studies suggest that 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D 3 acts as a chemopreventive agent against several malignancies including cancers of the prostate and colon and shows synergy with other anticancer compounds.
Packaging
Bottomless glass bottle. Contents are inside inserted fused cone. | {
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Powerful what-now?
Powerful Rebirth is a card released in Duel Links in Blades of Spirits to very little fanfare. Konami very clearly intended for this card to be a lynchpin of Six Samurai, due to their effects requiring two monsters on the field. One of the Loaner Deck Duels also shows it’s synergy with Parallel Twister as well as Harpie monsters. However, neither Harpies nor Six Samurai ever took off the ground, and outside of dedicated fans playing Fields of the Warriors Six Samurai, almost the entire box was forgotten.
So why has Powerful Rebirth become so important all of a sudden? The winner of the February KC Cup played Magnet Warriors with three copies, and of the recent Meta Championship Series VI tournament over 1/3rd of the top 32 and the winner played Aliens, all playing at least 2 copies of Powerful Rebirth. Magnets showed up here as well using it, and even a Top 8 Dino deck played a copy. What made this overlooked card roar to the forefront of competitive play after being ignored for months?
How is it useful?
Powerful Rebirth is very unique because it is a trap, that is not actually a trap. It revives a monster from grave, but doesn’t actually do anything defensive other than chump block. The important thing defensively is that it looks as threatening as a set Wall of Disruption. Your opponent might play safe and not try to OTK when your sets are simple bluffs.
Also, what separates this card from other trap monsters like Embodiment of Apophis, is that this can get any monster and lets you use their effects. Magnet Warriors can revive Beta the Electromagnet Warrior for a search or Delta the Magnet Warrior for a mill, and Aliens can get Alien Telepath to destroy spells and traps. Additionally, the extra monster on board without using your normal summon allows for swift OTKs with the help of Enemy Controller to steal opponent’s monster. It’s stellar offensively and allows for incredible follow up and OTK plays.
Why now?
But wait- why have players ignored Powerful Rebirth for so long, when Six Samurai have reasonably good effects and Harpies can pop backrow just like Alien Telepath? The answer lies in the similarities between Aliens and Magnet Warriors. Both have ways to send monsters from deck to grave. Magnets have the aforementioned Delta, and Aliens have “A” Cell Recombination Device. This means that you’ll rarely be stuck in the situation of not having a monster to revive and you can always use your Powerful Rebirths even if your opponent doesn’t destroy your monsters.
What does it mean?
This relates to the power level of Duel Links as a whole because of the differences between monsters and traps. Players often joke that any random 8-10 monsters plus the right backrow can make it to KoG. Powerful cards like Enemy Controller, Floodgate Trap Hole, Wall of Disruption, and Super Rush Headlong have seen play since their release. However, the prevalence of Powerful Rebirth suggests that this might not be the case for much longer. Powerful Rebirth’s rise means that monsters have in general become more powerful and important than defensive cards.
The game is speeding up and it is less feasible to set monsters and backrow and win a grind game. With each new box, monsters with powerful effects that can search other monsters, destroy cards, and otherwise disrupt the opponent are more and more common, and as strategies that can use Powerful Rebirth and other yet-to-be-introduced revival cards like Call of the Haunted to quickly and explosively overwhelm the opponent become more common, sitting on defensive cards is less and less viable. Decks like Magnet Warriors and Aliens who can fill the grave offensively are and will continue to be very dominant.
In conclusion
The paradigm has shifted, and offensive decks are taking Powerful Rebirth with them to the top. It will take the release of a new tier of defensive card swing back towards defensive play in my opinion. Right now, no good defensive cards can destroy a monster without requiring you to already control a monster. Mirror Force could be punishing to a degree that might hold back the aggression enabled by Powerful Rebirth. For now, though, the next best thing we have is Wall of Disruption. I’m interested in what all of this means for Duel Links, and what we will see in the future. | {
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[스타뉴스 길혜성 기자] 2NE1, the four-girl group consisting of CL, DARA, BOM and MINZY is appearing on KBS’s traditional pop music program ‘Yoo Hee-yeol’s Sketchbook’ (‘Sketchbook’) for the first time in 4 years.
According to the information given to Star News by several related personnel from the broadcasting services on August 8, 2NE1 will be filming Sketchbook on August 27 at Yeouido’s KBS new public hall. The filmed show will be aired on August 30.
The four members, CL, DARA, BOM and MINZY appearing on the show together is the first one in 4 years since July 2009.
2NE1 announced that they will be releasing a new song every month until October, starting from the reggae-influenced ‘FALLING IN LOVE’ in July. They also told the fans that they would be seen more frequently on TV variety show and music programs. Thus appearing on ‘Sketchbook’ could be seen as part of the plans, so the fans can see them more often.
Since ‘Sketchbook’ is a performance based music program, the all-rounder 2NE1 is preparing various performances including all vocal and rap stages. Their newest song ‘DO YOU LOVE ME’ of powerful and jaunty rhythm will also be showcased on the program.
Their latest song ‘DO YOU LOVE ME’, just 2 days after its release, has gone beyond sweeping across major South Korean music charts and moved on to top 6 iTunes main single chart, Top Singles Songs in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam.
After making an appearance on M Countdown on August 8, 2NE1 will appear on KBS’s Music Bank on August 9, MBC’s Show! Music Center on 10th, SBS’s Inkigayo on 11th to showcase ‘DO YOU LOVE ME’.
2013. 8. 8. | {
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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi declared that his country would not, in any way, support a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood.
During a reception held by Israeli Ambassador to Italy Gideon Meir in Rome in honor of Israel's 63 Independence Day , Berlusconi, who was the guest of honor, said that "unilateral recognition isn't the way to make agreements between countries" and that this was also the EU's stance.
Facts & Figures Poll: 51% in US oppose unilateral creation of Palestinian state Yitzhak Benhorin New Israel Project survey shows support for Israel still strong in US; 66% of Republicans, 48% of Democrats against one-sided declaration of Palestinian state Poll: 51% in US oppose unilateral creation of Palestinian state
The Italian prime minister said that Israel was "the only real democracy in the Middle East and Italy is concerned when Israel is in difficult situations. There can be no solution but peace in the region."
He said that on its part, Italy has made overtures towards peace by creating opportunities for Italian companies to invest in ventures in the Palestinian Authority in order to help support its economy.
Berlusconi added that Italy was always willing to help Israel to promote peace and hinted that "when there is a viable partner to represent all the Palestinians we can move forward in that direction."
According to Berlusconi, "Italy has always stood by Israel, even within the framework of the EU when it opposed decisions that were un-balanced and unjust towards Israel".
'Italy always willing to help Israel' (Photo: Courtesy of the Foreign Ministry)
The Italian premier also paid tribute to Ambassador Meir and said: "Dear ambassador, this is the last year you'll be celebrating your country's independence with us as an Israeli ambassador and I am truly sad to see you leave."
He further added: "You have greatly contributed to the excellent relations between our two nations, and I say this not just as a politician but as a friend of Israel's." | {
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Providence: Machine Learning At Stack Exchange
At Stack Exchange, we’ve historically been pretty loose with our data analysis. You can see this in the “answered questions” definition (has an accepted answer or an answer with score > 0), “question quality” (measured by ad hoc heuristics based on votes, length, and character classes), “interesting tab” homepage algorithm (backed by a series of experimentally determined weights), and rather naïve question search function.
This approach has worked for a long time (turns out your brain is a great tool for data analysis), but as our community grows and we tackle more difficult problems we’ve needed to become more sophisticated. For example, we didn’t have to worry about matching users to questions when we only had 30 questions a day but 3,500 a day is a completely different story. Some of our efforts to address these problems have already shipped, such as a more sophisticated homepage algorithm, while others are still ongoing, such as improvements to our search and quality scoring.
One of our other efforts is to better understand our users, which led to the Providence project. Providence analyzes our traffic logs to predict some simple labels (like “is a web developer” or “uses the Java technology stack”) for each person who visits our site. In its early incarnation, we only have a few labels but we’re planning to continue adding new labels in order to build new features and improve old ones.
While we can’t release the Stack Overflow traffic logs for privacy reasons, we believe it’s in the best interest of the community for us to document the ways we’re using it. Accordingly, this is the first post in a series on the Providence project. We’re going to cover each of the individual predictions made, as well as architecture, testing, and all the little (and not-so-little) problems we had shipping version 1.0.
We have also added a way for any user to download their current Providence prediction data because it’s theirs and they should be able to see and use it as they like. Users can also prevent other systems (Careers, the Stack Overflow homepage, etc.) from querying their Providence data if they want to.
First up: What kind of developer are you?
One of the first questions we wanted Providence to answer was ‘What “kind” of developer are you?’. This larger question also encompassed sub-questions:
What are the different “developer-kinds”?
How much, if at all, do people specialize in a single “kind” of development?
Among these different kinds of developers, do they use Stack Overflow differently?
We answered the first sub-question by looking at a lots and lots of résumés and job postings. While there is definitely a fair amount of fuzziness in job titles, there’s a loose consensus on the sorts of developers out there. After filtering out some labels for which we just didn’t have much data (more on that later), we came up with this list of developer-kinds:
Full Stack Web Developers
Front End Web Developers
Back End Web Developers
Android Developers
iOS Developers
Windows Phone Developers
Database Administrators
System Administrators
Desktop Developers
Math/Statistics Focused Developers
Graphics Developers
The second sub-question we answered by looking at typical users of Stack Overflow. Our conclusion was that although many jobs are fairly specialized, few developers focus on a single role to the exclusion of all else. This matched our intuition, because it’s pretty hard to avoid exposure to at least some web technologies, not to mention developers love to tinker with new things for the heck of it.
Answering the final sub-question was nothing short of a leap of faith. We assumed that different kinds of developers viewed different sets of questions; and, as all we had to use were traffic logs, we couldn’t really test any other assumptions anyway. Having moved forward regardless, we now know that we were correct, but at the time we were taking a gamble.
The Data
A prerequisite for any useful analysis is data, and for our developer-kind predictions we needed labeled data. Seeing that Providence did not yet exist, this data had not been gathered. This is a chicken and egg problem that frequently popped up during the Providence project.
Our solution was an activity we’ve taken to calling “labeling parties.” Every developer at Stack Exchange was asked to go and categorize several randomly chosen users based on their Stack Overflow Careers profile, and we used this to build a data set. For the developer-kinds problem, our labeling party hand classified 1,237 people.
The Classifier
In our experience, naïvely rubbing standard machine learning algorithms against our data rarely works. The same goes for developer-kinds. We attacked this problem in three different steps: structure, features, algorithms.
Looking over the different developer-kinds, it’s readily apparent that there’s an implicit hierarchy. Many kinds are some flavor of “web developer,” while others are “mobile developer,” and the remainder are fairly niche; we’ve taken to calling “web,” “mobile,” and “other” major developer-kinds. This observation led us to first classify the major developer-kind, and then proceed to the final labels.
Since we only really have question tag view data to use in the initial version of Providence, all of our features are naturally tag focused. The breakdowns of the groups of tags used in each classifier are:
Major Developer-Kinds Web programming languages (java, c#, javascript, php, etc.) Mobile programming languages (java, objective-c, etc.) Non-web, non-mobile programming languages iDevices Web technologies (html, css, etc.)
Mobile Developer-Kinds iDevice related (ios, objective-c, etc.) Android related (android, listview, etc.) Windows Phone related (window-phone, etc.)
Other Developer-Kinds Each of the top 100 used tags on Stack Overflow Pairs of each of the top 100 used tags on Stack Overflow SQL related (sql, tsql, etc.) Database related (mysql, postgressql, etc.) Linux/Unix related (shell, bash, etc.) Math related (matlab, numpy, etc.)
For many features, rather than use the total tag views, we calculate an average and then use the deviation from that. With some features, we calculate this deviation for each developer-kind in the training set; for example, we calculate deviation from average web programming language tag views for each of the web, mobile, and other developer-kinds in the Major Developer Predictor.
Turning these features into final predictions requires an actual machine learning algorithm, but in my opinion, this is the least interesting bit of Providence. For these predictors we found that support vector machines, with a variety of kernels, produce acceptably accurate predictions; however, the choice of algorithm mattered little, various flavors of neural networks performed reasonably well, and the largest gains always came from introducing new features.
So how well did this classifier perform? Performance was determined with a split test of job listing ads with the control group being served with our existing algorithm which only considered geography, we’ll be covering our testing methodology in more depth in a future post. In the end we saw an improvement for 10-30% over the control algorithm, with the largest gains being seen in the Mobile Developer-Kinds and the smallest in the Web Developer-Kinds.
Next up: What technologies do you know? | {
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Bunter Beginn und graues Ende
Die NABU-Naturtipps für Oktober
Leuchtendes Herbstlaub, trompetende Kraniche und Kastanien zum Basteln – ein Herbstspaziergang im Oktober hat eine Menge zu bieten. Jetzt sollte man die Zeit nutzen, bevor die graue Zeit des Jahres anbricht.
Pfaffenhütchen - Foto: Helge May
Gewöhnlicher Schneeball - Foto: Helge May
Weißdorn - Foto: Helge May
Im Oktober legen Bäume und Büsche ein buntes Finale hin. Sie scheinen in Flammen zu stehen und leuchten von tiefrot über goldgelb bis tiefbraun in allen Nuancen. Ein Spaziergang bei Sonnenschein im Laubwald ist ein eindrucksvolles Erlebnis – „Indian Summer“ vor der Haustüre.
Die Farbenorgie hat indes eine nüchterne Erklärung. Sie ist einfach Folge eines Notprogramms im Stoffwechsel der Bäume. Über die Blätter verdunstet jeder Baum hunderte Liter Wasser täglich. Bei Frost können die Wurzeln kein Wasser aufnehmen. Laubbäume würden verdursten, wenn sie im Herbst ihre Blätter nicht abwerfen. Um wertvolle, in den Blättern enthaltene Substanzen wie Stärke oder den grünen Blattfarbstoff zu erhalten, werden sie in Stamm und Wurzeln umverteilt. Durch ihr Verschwinden treten nun farbige Blattinhaltsstoffe hervor, die bislang vom Blattgrün verdeckt waren und das Herbstlaub leuchtet bunt.
Tipp: Igelhaus bauen Ab Mitte Oktober bauen sich Igel ihr Nest für den Winterschlaf. Viele Gärten sind so aufgeräumt, dass dort für die kleinen Insektenfresser kein Platz mehr ist. Bauen Sie den stacheligen Säugern ein Häuschen. Das kann ein alter, umgedrehter Weidenkorb sein oder ein aus Holzbrettern oder Ziegelsteinen gebautes Haus (etwa 40 Zentimeter lang, 50 Zentimeter breit und 30 Zentimeter hoch, mit überstehendem, abnehmbarem Holzdach). Das Innere füllen Sie mit Haferstroh oder Laubstreu, Heu schimmelt zu leicht. Bedeckt wird das Häuschen mit Reisig oder Erde. Wichtig ist es, das fertige Igeldomizil gut zwischen dichten Pflanzen zu verstecken.
Der Oktober hat zwei Gesichter: Den goldenen Herbst mit Ernte und flammendem Laub gefolgt vom grauen Oktober mit Laubfall, Nebel und Kälte. Im goldenen Oktober ist Ernten und Bevorraten angesagt, denn Äpfel, Birnen, Weintrauben, Kartoffeln, Rüben und Hagebutten werden reif. Aus den Schalen brechende Rosskastanien eignen sich zum Basteln. Die Mehlschwalben fliegen ab, Rotkehlchen, Zaunkönig und Zilpzalp lassen nochmals Herbstgesänge hören. Tausendköpfige Starenschwärme vagabundieren umher, und wer in empfindlich kühlen Nächten konzentriert gen Himmel lauscht, hört die trompetenden Zugrufe der Kraniche. Die letzten Libellen fliegen, das Efeu blüht und im Park beginnt die Balz der Stockenten. Mäuse, Eichhörnchen, Murmeltiere und Eichelhäher legen Wintervorräte an.
Im Wattenmeer treffen die Ringelgänse ein. Die kleinen schwarz-weißen Gänse mit dem hellen Halsring sind bis Anfang Mai Überwinterungsgäste. Ringelgänse brüten in arktischen Gebieten der Nordhalbkugel und legen zu uns tausende von Kilometern zurück. Ein Blick auf den Bauch verrät ihre Herkunft: Vögel aus Grönland und Spitzbergen haben helle, aus dem nördlichen Russland stammende dunkle Bäuche. Sie fliegen schnell, aber nicht in Formation. Bei uns trifft man Ringelgänse fast immer in Trupps oder größeren Schwärmen an. Ihre Nahrung besteht aus Algen, Seegras und Salzpflanzen.
Übrigens: Anfallendes Laub ist kein Abfall, sondern gut kompostierbare Biomasse. Räumen Sie den Garten nicht perfekt auf, sondern belassen Sie Laubhaufen und Holzstöße als Unterschlupf für Kleintiere.
Verwandte Themen | {
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News
Overseas firm forced to sell historic hotel
The regulator of overseas investments is baring its teeth in a crackdown on foreign property investors. David Williams reports on the latest twist.
A historic hotel is being sold after its foreign owners failed to undertake a promised redevelopment.
The sale, ordered by the Overseas Investment Office, continues a crackdown on offshore investors by the invigorated Government regulator, which has boosted monitoring and enforcement in the last three years.
Kingstown Blue Spring Resort Ltd – owned by Chinese investors Feng Zhiguo, Jin Hui, and Wang Yaming – bought the Okoroire Hot Springs Hotel, set on 27 hectares of land near Tirau, Waikato, in 2014.
The $3.3 million sale was dependent on a redevelopment, including eight new hot pools and 22 new guest rooms – which, the company argued, would have attracted more guests and created jobs. (The hotel, one of New Zealand’s oldest, opened its doors in 1889. It can sleep 60 guests and has a nine-hole golf course.)
Kingstown Blue missed its August 2018 deadline to undertake the development. The company asked for a change to consent conditions but the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) had little confidence it would complete the development. It decided the company had breached its original consent conditions and today it will publicly announce the order to sell the hotel.
Series of successes
Today’s announcement caps a busy few months for the regulator, after three recent High Court judgments.
In March, the owner of agricultural giant PGG Wrightson, Singaporean company Agria, and its chairman Alan Lai, were fined $220,000 for breaching good character requirements.
Last month, the court ordered $2.95 million to be paid to the Crown after the foreign owners of two rural properties at Warkworth, north of Auckland, bought land without consent. The owners – Chinese businessmen Zhongliang Hong and Xueli Ke, and companies IRL Investment Ltd and Grand Energetic Company Ltd – were forced to sell up and hand over the gain on investment, as well as paying penalties and costs.
Days later, BCH Investments, which lists its shareholders as Aucklanders Huang Xianghua and Bu Qian Yu, were slapped with $588,000 in penalties and costs for buying land without the regulator’s approval. BCH’s 117-section development at Albany, Auckland, will be completed but the properties have to be sold within two years.
This flurry of enforcement is a very different picture to four years ago.
Office becomes easy target
In 2015, a year after the Okoroire Hot Springs Hotel was bought, the Government blocked the sale of Lochinver Station, near Taupō, to prominent Chinese-owned company Shanghai Pengxin, adding to a prolonged national conversation about foreign land ownership.
The Chinese firm had, a few years earlier, provoked a nationwide debate over its purchase of 16 failed North Island dairy farms, known as the Crafar farms. Ministers approved the Crafar farms sale in 2012, following an Overseas Investment Office endorsement. At the time, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters – now deputy prime minister – said the sale was tantamount to “economic treason”.
Then Prime Minister John Key put on a brave face, despite earlier saying he worried Kiwis would become tenants in their own land. He said less than one percent of farmland was foreign-owned and that overseas investment rules, strengthened the previous year, were “working well”.
At best, that was optimistic gloss. By 2015, a four-year budget freeze was biting and there was a long wait for decisions. The Office became an easy target for opposition politicians.
Labour’s Stuart Nash accused the OIO of being toothless. It had approved almost 300 consents since 2008 without turning down a single application, he said, dubbing it an “overworked, rubber-stamping bureaucracy”.
“At the moment you could drive a truck through the legal loopholes,” Nash said.
The following year, the Key-led Government announced a hike in OIO fees to pay for more staff, in the hope of speeding up decisions and boost monitoring and enforcement. That’s the genesis of the flurry of activity seen this year.
Enforcement spike
Figures provided to Newsroom by OIO’s parent body, Land Information New Zealand, show the spike in enforcement action.
In the 2014 and 2015 financial years the OIO took a total of seven actions. That tripled to 21 enforcement actions in 2016. Over the last two financial years there have been a total of 76. (We asked how many actions were taken in the 2013 financial year, but were told those data weren’t captured by LINZ.)
Actions can include court proceedings, legal settlements, ordering a property be sold, warnings, and issuing compliance letters. Two years ago, the OIO formally warned Queenstown lawyer Russell Mawhinney for giving incorrect advice to foreign investors. A 2016 Japanese meat company mega-merger prompted a warning for Itoham Foods, which owns ANZCO Foods.
In 2015, the OIO had just 21 full-time equivalent staff. Group manager Vanessa Horne, who has been in the job 11 months, thinks back then there was only one staffer responsible for monitoring. Two others were “thinking” about enforcement, she says – “but not really taking a lot of enforceable actions”. “They certainly weren’t resourced for that.”
Today, the Office employs 48 people, including 19 in enforcement, monitoring, and intelligence.
Horne: “The extra resourcing has meant that we are able to really be very proactive on those investments now.”
Having more staff means more site inspections. Two years ago it only did two. That rose to nine last year – including visits to farms, abbattoirs, a luxury lodge, and several forests. This month alone the office plans four inspections.
“New Zealand needs good overseas investment – we’re capital poor in many, many areas,” Horne says. “But New Zealand as a whole needs to make sure that we get the benefits out of that overseas investment.”
“If people don’t follow through with those benefits to New Zealand ... we will take action.” – Vanessa Horne
The OIO’s crackdown comes amidst two waves of Government reforms.
The first tightened rules for residential property sales to foreign buyers. The next round includes moves to simplify some rules, while arming the Government with a veto in cases of national interest.
Horne says her office has more enforcement to come. She expects another case to land in court in the next few months, and, separately, a hearing’s scheduled to start in March.
Court cases can suck in four-to-six staff for long periods, but they can also help the OIO do its job. With such high-profile enforcement results, Horne says investors are coming forward earlier to discuss problems they’re having fulfilling their promises. (At the front end, the OIO is hitting up investors early, to weed out substandard applications .)
Discussions are over, however, with Kingstown Blue Spring Resort Ltd and its soon-to-be-sold Okoroire Hot Springs Hotel.
“It’s a really good example of the enforcement activities where people aren’t complying with the conditions,” Horne says. “That goes directly to the benefits to New Zealand that we’re required to look at under our regime – and if people don’t follow through with those benefits to New Zealand that we will take action.” | {
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Big Nips is not very fond of Solaria. Solaria, Weed, and Scottrick are once again captured and placed in the cells. They must figure out a way to escape before they are brought to the Mouth of Hell. Luckily for them, they befriend a crazy wizard who has an idea that just may work.
This episode also has a clip for 7 Lamb's newest audio drama Atlas Avenue Beat. So make sure to stay til after the credits!! And don't forget to rate and review!!
Music provided by:
Kevin McCleod of incompetech.com | {
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Pritzker Working to Raise Illinois Minimum Wage to $15/hr
photo from JB Pritzker’s facebook page
Many have wanted to take newly appointed Illinois governor JB Pritzker to task for not being progressive enough now that he has sealed the governor’s seat, but it seems so far that he meant what he said on the campaign trail.
With Pritzker’s backing, State Sen. Kimberly Lightford is working to introduce a new proposal to raise the minimum wage as early as Tuesday. The hope is that this timeline would allow Pritzker to implement before delivering his first budget proposal to lawmakers on Feb. 20.
“We’re trying to make sure that he’s able to do so,” Lightford said.
Of course, it is important to point out the role that activists have played in this process. The Fight for 15 movement has been consistent over the past few years, setting the talking point at a $15 minimum wage since its inception.
Millions of Americans are just a paycheck away from financial devastation. We deserve the dignity and security of a living wage. Tell Congress to pass the #RaiseTheWage Act: https://t.co/jDqBiXOmFd #Fightfor15 pic.twitter.com/99RvkVXctK — Fight For 15 Chicago (@chifightfor15) February 4, 2019
As for Illinois, the word on Monday is that the terms still need to be ironed out. Up for discussion is how many years it should take to boost the wage to $15, whether employers should continue being allowed to pay some teenage workers less and how to structure tax credits to help small businesses offset rising payroll costs.
“Working families across Illinois deserve a raise,” Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said in a statement. “After years of discussion, debate and delay, Gov. Pritzker is looking forward to joining labor, business and other stakeholders in supporting a bill that will raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.” | {
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Slideshow ( 4 images )
(Reuters) - Shares of Tesla Inc fell 1.7% on Tuesday after news website Electrek reported that the electric-car maker has so far delivered 49,000 vehicles in North America during the second quarter, threatening its goal of a new record.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk had said last month that the company was on course to deliver a record number of cars in the quarter, beating the 90,700 it sent to customers in the final quarter of last year.
Musk reiterated on Tuesday that the company has enough orders to set a quarterly record for vehicle deliveries, according to a leaked email cited by Bloomberg.
“We already have enough vehicle orders to set a record, but the right cars are not yet all in the right locations,” Musk was quoted as having said in the mail to Tesla employees.
Electrek did not give any delivery number for international markets for the quarter.
The Electrek report said that when international market numbers are added, especially in places like Norway and China, Tesla will get pretty close to a new record.
It has over 12,000 additional orders as well and Tesla could end the quarter by delivering 61,000 vehicles in North America, the report said, citing sources inside the company. The report also says, citing a source familiar with the matter, that Tesla has delivered 22,000 vehicles in North America in June so far.
In the first quarter, Tesla reported a 31% fall in deliveries, sparking concerns about the company’s ability to make profits and meet its delivery targets while it grapples with issues related to cash flow and manufacturing.
Demand for Tesla’s Model 3 sedan and other cars have also moved to the top of investors’ list of worries after the company reported slack first-quarter demand against a backdrop of U.S.-China trade tensions. | {
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The Winnipeg Jets announced Thursday the signing of forward Matt Halischuk.
Details were not released by the team, but the Winnipeg Free Press reports it is a one-year, two-way contract worth $650,000 in the NHL and $250,000 in the American Hockey League.
Halischuk, 25, had five goals and six assists in 36 games with the Nashville Predators in 2012-13. The 5-foot-11, 187-pound forward played two games with the Milwaukee Admirals in the AHL and had two goals and one assist.
In 2011-12, Halischuk had a career-high 15 goals and 13 assists in 73 games with Nashville.
A fourth-round pick (No. 117) by the New Jersey Devils in the 2007 NHL Draft, Halischuk has 25 goals and 29 assists in 157 NHL games for New Jersey and Nashville. | {
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The growing of playoff beards is a show of solidarity among men that is rarely equaled. The baby-faced stars on the playing surface become leveled with the bears rumbling on the practice squad, bonding the capable with the incapable. They are equals, giving their bodies up to the cause, as well as their faces. Where else can we see that? Literally see it. Mayors riding with the plebeians? No. Bosses pretending to be assembly-line everymen on reality TV shows? No. No, those are not the same. Mayors, bosses — they have different destinations than their fellows. You see, a playoff beard is a rare, and therefore precious, thing. Both the journey and the destination of a playoff beard are the same for all of those who partake: It must be grown; it must be shaved. It unites.
And thus it comes as no surprise that beards have changed the Mississippi State University baseball team, who have made it to the finals of this year's college world series, which begin tomorrow.
The pioneer was a sophomore pitcher named Trevor Fitts. The team's coach, John Cohen, had a long-standing ban on facial hair. If they're clean-shaven, the logic followed, they'll be disciplined — stoics on the diamond. But Fitts saw injustice. He made a PowerPoint for Cohen before Christmas, to tell him of the value of beards. It detailed the temperatures in the area through the season, and how beards can keep a man's safe from the sun. (The latter is a topic this blog has covered, along with other matters of beard science such as the debatably positive relationship between hirsuteness and bedding a woman. We cannot confirm at this time if the animal magnetism of beards was included in the slideshow.)
And apparently, the slideshow presentation gave the ball coach an epiphany. From the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal:
"And I started thinking about it, and I started thinking, is this for me?" Cohen said. "Is having our players clean-shaven, is that for me, or is that for our players? … "I started thinking about the facial hair. I started thinking about allowing them to have fun, have a good time on the bench, have a good time in our locker room. I suddenly realized, that's important, too."
When the team returned from Christmas break, Cohen announced his change of heart, but that also there was a new code in place: The young men could keep their beards, that is, until they lose; then, the beards must go.
Though not all members have taken part, the new rule changed the culture of the team. "It shows how loose the coaches are on us," second baseman Brett Pirtle told the Daily Journal. "We're really mature. We know what we're doing, that's why they're so loose on us, because they let us just go out there and play, not worry about anything." And that trust has led them to a 48-18 season, a number 14 national ranking, and a berth in the College World Series — their first in five years.
On Saturday, they face Oregon State University, the fourth-ranked team in the country, hailing from a notoriously bearded region — though a quick look through OSU's team site reveals no bearded unity, just a 50-11 overall record and a lot of hugging. The stage is set.
Nate Hopper Associate editor Nate Hopper is an associate editor for Esquire magazine.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io | {
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It has been a terrific four-year run for the Texas Rangers: 90 wins and a trip to the World Series in 2010, 96 wins and one strike away from a World Series title in 2011, 93 wins and a wild-card spot in 2012 and 91 wins in 2013. The Rangers and Rays are the only two teams to win at least 90 games each of the past four seasons. Attendance has increased from 2.16 million in 2009 to as high as 3.46 million in 2012 (down slightly last season to 3.18 million). A lucrative local cable TV deal kicks off in 2015.
The Rangers have become one of baseball’s crown jewel franchises.
While 2013 proved to be a major disappointment, the challenge for Jon Daniels and the rest of the front office now is sustaining this excellence. Building a winning team is one thing; maintaining one is maybe even tougher.
You often hear people say, "You have to keep a winning team together." Or, in a more critical take, "It’s hard to keep a winning team together these days." That's meant to disparage the modern game of free agency and big-money contracts, as if baseball were better in the 1950s when the same few clubs -- primarily the Yankees -- won all the time.
With the trade of Ian Kinsler, loss of free agent David Murphy and the presumed departure of Nelson Cruz as a free agent, the Rangers have essentially turned over their roster from that 2010 club: Only shortstop Elvis Andrus and first baseman/DH Mitch Moreland remain among position players from the 2010 World Series lineup, and none of the pitchers who started in that World Series (Cliff Lee, C.J. Wilson, Colby Lewis, Tommy Hunter) are around. (Lewis did sign a minor league deal in November, although his health remains a question mark.)
The 2011 team added Adrian Beltre, and Derek Holland and Matt Harrison joined the rotation. All three are expected to be a prominent part of the 2014 team (although Holland is out until at least the All-Star break after hurting his knee). Still, that’s a large turnover in just three years. The big additions this offseason have been Prince Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo, acquired to help bolster an offense that scored 125 fewer runs than in 2011.
What Daniels has done is what a modern general manager has to do: be nimble and flexible. The truth is most players have short peaks; you have to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em, to quote former Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers. It looks like Daniels punted at the right time on Josh Hamilton. He's letting Cruz walk away right when his decline phase should begin.
Critics will point out that he also let Mike Napoli leave last year and Napoli would have provided better production at first base or DH than the Rangers received from Moreland or Lance Berkman. True, but the money not spent on Napoli also left more on the table this year for Fielder and Choo, and Napoli's hip issues meant he could no longer catch.
Plus, the whole idea of keeping a team together doesn’t always make sense. The Giants won World Series in 2010 and 2012 -- the only positional starters on both teams were Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval and they had a different closer.
More impressively, look at the small-market Rays. Economic reasons force the Rays to constantly churn over their roster to acquire inexpensive players. But look at their 2008 team that first broke through. What if they’d been able to afford to keep that team together? Well, it would have been a pretty bad team in 2013: Dioner Navarro, Carlos Pena, Akinori Iwamura, Jason Bartlett, Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton, Gabe Gross and Cliff Floyd were the position regulars; James Shields, Matt Garza, Scott Kazmir, Andy Sonnanstine and Edwin Jackson filled out the rotation. Only three players from that team were still with Tampa Bay in 2013: Longoria, then-utility guy Ben Zobrist and September call-up David Price.
The Rays have remained successful because they understand that talent can be fleeting -- and replaced. Economic circumstances have forced them to become a smarter front office.
The risk for a deeper-pocket team such as the Rangers is that you can become lazy, assuming you can just buy talent whenever you need it. Yes, that has worked for the Yankees for a long time, but we're seeing fewer premium free agents hitting the market (Clayton Kershaw being the latest example), so buying success is also becoming a more difficult proposition.
So Daniels is trying to be nimble. It’s time for Jurickson Profar to play, so turn Kinsler into something while he still has value. You lose Cruz but sign (yes, for a lot of money) a better hitter in Choo. Joe Nathan opts out of his deal? Fine, let him go, use that money elsewhere and move somebody else into the closer role.
The Rangers have won 90 games the past four years. Thanks to a front office willing to make changes, I think they'll make it five in a row. | {
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Experience the Emirati hospitality in Dubai, meditate with the Buddhist monks in wonderful monasteries in the east. While you traverse the east, marvel at the spectacular architecture of ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples. The white sandy beaches of Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore will entrance you with their beauty. Discover the artifacts and archeological discoveries of ancient civilization in China.
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Romance your beloved by picking our international honeymoon package on top of the Eiffel tower in the city of love - Paris. Enjoy the famous "Oktoberfest", the largest beer festival while you marvel at German engineering and architecture. Our international tour packages include Australian beaches and famous landmarks in Sydney. Experience the thrilling Australian wild life. If you are up for it, our adventure tour itineraries will take you trekking, mountain biking, rafting, paragliding in the thick amazon forests in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, all of which are pulsing in life. Bring your natural exploration full circle by visiting the Niagara, Grand Canyon and Alaska.
As global travelers, we want you to go out there, fly and voyage through excitement and adventure. Explore the “world”, what we call as “home”!Less... | {
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Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
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EARLY BIRD BRONZE "HIS AND A GIFT FOR HER" PACK: TWO (2) Alpha (black and dark grey with arctic white trim) and either Bluetooth 4.0 or Ant+. Each watch Includes a one year Bronze membership to MapMyRUN to track your activity on your Smart Phone and receive maps, training plans and exclusive offers. This heart rate watch will have an MSRP of $249.00 and the MMR membership is a value of $29.99. Free shipping to USA and Canada ($30 for International Shipping). ALSO included - the incredible cool and powerful "I'M AN ALPHA FEMALE" T-shirt...which kind of says it all, right?
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VILNIUS (Reuters) - Lithuania says it has supplied lethal weaponry to Ukraine for the first time since 2014.
About 150 tonnes of ammunition were handed over to Ukraine on Friday, mostly 5.45 caliber cartridges for various modifications of Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle which the Lithuanian army no longer uses, a spokesman for country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told Reuters.
Lithuania, a member of NATO and neighbor of Russia, has welcomed increasing deployments of American and allied soldiers since the Ukrainian conflict started in 2014, as a means of deterring any aggression on its own soil.
“We are sending a message to Ukraine that it is not alone,” Lithuanian Defence Minister Juozas Olekas told Reuters.
“Lithuania has consistently helped Ukraine in its fight for territorial integrity and the defence of its values, and we would like to keep helping as much as we can,” he said.
Western governments and Ukraine say Russia has armed and supported separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine in a conflict in which more than 9,000 people have died since 2014.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius called on Monday for EU sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine to stay in place as long the situation on the ground does not improve, dismissing calls from the EU’s rotating president Slovakia for them to be lifted.
In 2015 Lithuania rejected Russian complains that its previous supply of lethal weaponry to Ukraine violated international arms trade commitments.
Lithuania invited wounded Ukrainian soldiers for treatment in its hospitals and sent military instructors to the country. | {
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The literary community seemingly can't go five years without someone notable declaring the novel dead.
The novel is a relatively new literary format. Though fictional storytelling has been a tradition since the Greek and Roman empires, the first precursor to the modern novel was Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote in 1605. The form truly came to popular prominence in the 18th century through writers like Henry Fielding and Daniel Defoe. Many scholars, such as Margaret Anne Doody, cite the 18th century as the beginning of "the novel" we know today, because of the rise in literary criticism that happened during the same period, but the novel's creation date is still a matter of heated debate.
As, apparently, is the date of its death. Critics have been declaring the form dead for nearly a century now. And decades of past failed predictions don't seem to deter people from repeating them. Observe:
1902— Jules Verne says the novel is being replaced by newspapers.
1925— José Ortega y Gasset says the novel is dying in Decline of the Novel.
1930— Walter Benjamin says the novel is experiencing a crisis in Krisis des Romans.
Autumn 1946—Lionel Trilling says the novel is in a state of decay in The Kenyon Review.
August 20, 1954— Harold Nicholson says the novel is dead in The Observer.
Fall 1955— Norman Mailer says the novel is dead.
Spring 1957— José Ortega y Gassest reasserts that the novel is dying in The Hudson Review.
Summer 1958— Ludwig Marcuse reports on a symposium where the novel is declared dead for Books Abroad.
October 28, 1965 — Frank Kermode says the novel is always dying in the New York Review of Books.
June 1966—Louis D. Rubin says the novel has always been dead in The Kenyon Review.
December 1969— Ronald Sukenick says the novel is dead in The Death of the Novel and other Stories.
April 1977— Raymond Federman says the novel is dead because no one is reading in American Quarterly.
Winter 1978 — Michael Krasney says the Jewish American novel is dying in Melus.
Fall 1980—Leslie A. Fielder says the novel is dead in Salmagundi.
June 21, 1992 — Robert Coover says that all books are dying in The New York Times.
September 26, 1992‚— William Grimes says the novel is dying but not dead in The New York Times.
Summer 1996— Joseph Tabbi says the novel is dying again in The Wilson Quarterly.
May 2005— Naguib Mahfouz says the spirit of the novel is dead in World Literature Today.
December 24, 2007– Caleb Crain says the novel is dying in The New Yorker.
November 20, 2008— Zadie Smith says the novel is dying in The New York Review of Books.
Summer 2009— Mark Greif says the novel is dead in Boundary 2.
October 29, 2009— Phillip Roth says the novel is dead in an interview.
July 3, 2010—Lee Seigel declares the novel dead in The Observer.
August 22, 2011—Evan Morrison says the novel might be dead in The Guardian.
October 31, 2011— Mark Bauerlein says the novel is declining in Minding the Campus.
January 13, 2013— Sam Byers says the novel is dying on Salon.
June 23, 2013— Thomas Brewster says the "traditional" novel is dying in The Quietus.
May 2, 2014— Will Self says the novel is REALLY dead in The Guardian.
May 4, 2014— A twitter is created to chronicle the Death of the Novel.
May 15, 2014— Scott Christian says the novel is dead in GQ. | {
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Washington D.C. [USA], Feb 11 (ANI): Humans cause more than 25 per cent of deaths among an array of species all over the globe.
The study, conducted by scientists from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in Syracuse, New York and the U.S. Department of Agriculture analysed the deaths of 42,755 animals that were reported in 1,114 published studies.
The study, published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, found that 28 per cent of the animals' deaths were directly caused by humans.
Speaking about the study, co author Jerrold L. Belant said, “We all know humans can have a substantial effect on wildlife. That we are only one among over 35,000 species of terrestrial vertebrates worldwide yet responsible for more than one-fourth of their deaths provides perspective on how large our effect actually is.”
Belant added, "And that's just direct causes. When you also consider urban growth and other land use changes that reduce habitat, it becomes clear humans have a disproportionate effect on other terrestrial vertebrates."
Belant conducted the study with Jacob E. Hill, another ESF faculty member, and Travis L. DeVault of the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
The study included mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians that died in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania between 1970 and 2018. All of them had been collared or tagged as part of research projects.
The study analysed deaths of known cause among 1,20,657 individual animals from 305 vertebrate species and found 28 per cent of deaths were directly caused by humans; the other 72 per cent died from natural sources. Predation (55 per cent) and legal harvest (17 per cent) were the leading sources of mortality.
Hill pointed out that humans' impact was not equal across all the different species. "Larger animals were more likely to be killed by humans than smaller species. Adult animals were more likely than juveniles to be killed by humans," he said.
The scientists concluded that humans are a major contributor to terrestrial vertebrate mortality, potentially impacting evolutionary processes and ecosystem functioning.
The authors point out that 75 per cent of Earth's land surface is affected by human activity and that widespread extinctions of animal species are a defining trait of an era dubbed the Anthropocene. (ANI) | {
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An argument over which car manufacturer produces better vehicles resulted in a woman being stabbed and shot five times during a family dinner, prosecutors said.
Officers with Bedford County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia responded to a domestic disturbance call late last month. According to WSET-TV, a prosecutor said Mark Edwin Turner was at a family dinner on April 22, when he began to argue with his girlfriend’s adult son about the merits of cars made by Chevrolet vs. cars made by Ford.
Bedford Commonwealth’s Attorney Wes Nance said the argument between the pair began outside of their home before it quickly escalated, the news station reported.
READ MORE: Man hid in ex-girlfriend’s attic for weeks despite restraining order, police say
“The allegation is that there was alcohol involved and a dispute began against Logan Bailey, the son of the girlfriend, and Mr. Turner about what type of vehicle is best: Chevy vs. Ford,” Nance said.
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Nance said Turner allegedly brandished a knife and his girlfriend tried to get between to the two men.
“The evidence would be that Mr. Turner got so upset that he brandished a knife, that Ms. Bailey got between Mr. Turner, and Ms. Bailey and was actually struck with the knife, causing about a six-inch injury,” Nance said.
According to WSET-TV, Turner then went into his home and came back outside with a gun and again confronted his girlfriend’s adult son.
“It’s then alleged that Mr. Turner came back out and approached Mr. Bailey. Once again, his mother tried to intervene between the two of them,” Nance said. “During that time, she was shot a total of five times — all of those injuries occurring to her legs.”
READ MORE: Man uses grocery bag as mask during robbery, but removes it to carry loot: police
The son was also shot once in the arm, the news station reported. Both suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
According to the News & Advance, Turner went back into the house following the alleged shooting, as police officers arrived to the home. According to the newspaper, there was a short standoff between the suspect and police before officers managed to arrest Turner without further incident.
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Turner faces a weapons charge and two counts of malicious wounding. | {
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Colts owner Jim Irsay said Andrew Luck is healing "tremendously" from his shoulder surgery. "This was not that complicated of a surgery," Irsay said. "It was a simple labrum repair." | {
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Farmer Mark Borba isn't looking to buy a shiny new tractor this year at the World Ag Expo in Tulare, California. He tends to some 9,000 acres of crops in the drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley, and about one-third of it will be pulled from production.
"I may wander around the grounds for an hour and see all the stuff that I'd like to buy, but no way am I buying anything," said Borba, who grows everything from almonds and garlic to lettuce, tomatoes and onions. "We're over-equipped because we've got equipment to farm 9,000 acres, and we'll probably farm less than 6,000 because of the drought."
The Expo, which runs through Thursday, is the world's largest outdoor farm machinery show. An estimated 100,000 people are expected to view the latest ag machinery and products from 1,500 exhibitors, including Deere, AGCO, Case IH.
But they're not alone: Nontraditional agricultural equipment firms are also on hand, showing off smart water technology, agricultural drones, dairy robotics and mechanized harvesting. Others, like AGCO, are among longtime equipment suppliers that are promoting new precision agricultural technology at the show.
Robert Crain, AGCO's senior VP and general manager of the Americas, said the row crop machinery is the company's "biggest headwind now," while machinery tied to more robust livestock sector "is very, very good. The hay business, for example, and up until very recently, the dairy business, has been good for us."
Competition at the Expo is so fierce that there's talk about discounting this year, particularly for used tractors and combines.
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"The used equipment has been flooding the market," said Charlie Pitigliano, who manages about 10,000 acres of farmland in the San Joaquin Valley. Pitigliano said the lower price of key row crops has led to some used machinery prices to decline by as much as 20 percent.
Pitigliano, who grows wheat, corn and wine grapes, also blames the drought for the softer used farm equipment market. "Farmers are not going to buy equipment if they can get by with what they have now," he said.
Boom for some companies
But the drought also has been a boom for companies selling technology tied to water efficiency and moisture-monitoring systems.
Canadian-based Hortau, which specializes in wireless, Web-based irrigation management systems, started ramping up its U.S. operations 1½ years ago—and already, the California market now represents approximately 75 percent of sales. Hortau sells a so-called tensiometer probe system, which it claims can save farmers up to 50 percent of water and improve fertilizer efficiency to root zones.
"A year ago, things were rough because farmers were focused on finding the water, punching more wells, and doing water deals with neighbors and things," said Joe Wiegand, a Hortau sales representative. "Now everyone's telling me, 'I'm ready to look at the technology and be water efficient and conserve that investment that I spent all that money on.'"
Netafim USA, a supplier of smart drip and micro-irrigation equipment to the agriculture market, is at the show and introducing a new flexible pipeline positioning system that helps growers spend less on infrastructure. "The technology is affordable, and the return on investment is almost immediate," said Ze'ev Barylka, director of ag sales for Netafim.
The latest in ag drone technology also is displayed. The drones allow farmers to create aerial maps to locate soil stress and plot irrigation systems and create more efficient use of water, fertilizer and pesticides.
"We create new knowledge you didn't have before," said Mark Hull, owner of All Drone Solutions, a start-up in Exeter, California. "The drone costs a small amount compared to what you can save."
The drone space is one of the hottest areas of investment today for ag tech investors, according to Rob Leclerc, co-founder and CEO of AgFunder, an online platform for investors looking to get into the food and agriculture technology sector. He said the ag drone space saw $82 million of investment last year, led by $25 million in funding going to Airware.
Leclerc said ag tech funding is coming from venture capital based in the Silicon Valley, as well as the VC arms of big ag companies, plus private equity funds and sovereign wealth funds from Europe and Asia.
"We still have what you'd call a lot of smart money in the space," said Leclerc. "Globally, everyone understands the importance of food and food security and the role that technology will play to take that forward." | {
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PR
「2020年1月まで安心して使えるようサポートしますよ」と言われていたのに、ある日を境に「やっぱり2017年7月でサポートを打ち切ります」と一変したら――。にわかに信じがたい話が現実になっている。米Microsoftが突如打ち出したサポート期間の変更を巡り、国内の法人ユーザーやパソコンメーカーの間で波紋が広がっている。
きっかけは2016年1月15日、Microsoftが運営するブログの1つ「Windows Experience Blog」に掲載された1本の記事だ。同社はこのなかで、米Intelの最新CPUである第6世代Core（開発コード名Skylake）を搭載したパソコン、タブレットでのWindows 7/8.1のサポートについて2017年7月17日で終了すると発表した。ブログでは「サポート期間終了後も継続してサポートを受けるには、今後18カ月のサポート期間中に端末をWindows 10へアップグレードしなければならない」と明記している。
Windows 7の本来のサポート期限は2020年1月。Windows 8.1は2023年1月までサポートが残っており、2017年7月時点ではメインストリームサポートすら終了していない。Skylakeより前の世代のCPUではWindows 7/8.1をそれぞれの期限まで使い続けられるが、これから新たにパソコンやタブレットを買おうという場合、Windows 7/8.1で使いたくても本来のサポート期限まで使えず、大きな制約を受けることになる。どうしても2020年まで使い続けたければ、旧型CPU搭載のパソコンやタブレットを探すという選択肢もあるが、既に大手メーカーの主力機種はSkylake搭載機に移っており、自由に機種を選べる状況からはほど遠い。
さらにブログでは、Skylakeの後継となる「Kabylake」（開発コード名）世代のCPUなど、今後登場するCPUにおいて「サポートを受けるには最新版のWindowsプラットフォームが必要だ」と表明している。 | {
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Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz on Tuesday said that Ivanka Trump Ivana (Ivanka) Marie TrumpSpecial counsel investigating DeVos for potential Hatch Act violation: report Trump, Biden vie for Minnesota Trump luxury properties have charged US government .1M since inauguration: report MORE defending her use of a private email account while in the White House is hypocritical, but that the use of private emails is widespread among public figures and should not be criminalized.
"Well, I think it's hypocrisy on parade," Dershowitz said in an appearance on Fox News. "Each side uses whatever arguments they can to help and bolster their partisan position."
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"Look, everybody uses private email," he said. "We now have a list of probably a dozen people in public life who have used emails."
In this particular case, Dershowitz, who is a contributor at The Hill, said he thought the email use was especially unproblematic.
"Apparently Ivanka Trump used the emails only for scheduling purposes, there was no classified material, the emails are all preserved," Dershowitz, who has frequently backed the Trump administration on legal issues, said. "It's a nonissue, just partisan bickering."
"We should not be criminalizing the use of private emails, whether by Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonDemocratic groups using Bloomberg money to launch M in Spanish language ads in Florida The Hill's Campaign Report: Presidential polls tighten weeks out from Election Day More than 50 Latino faith leaders endorse Biden MORE or by Ivanka Trump and we should put that issue behind us."
The Washington Post reported Monday that Trump violated federal records rules by sending emails to government officials on her personal account in 2017.
A spokesperson for Trump's attorney and ethics counsel Abbe Lowell, Peter Mirijanian, said she "sometimes used her personal account, almost always for logistics and scheduling concerning her family."
Mirijanian added that "no classified information was ever included ... and no emails were ever deleted" from her account.
According to him, all "the emails have been retained in the official account in conformity with records preservation laws and rules."
The revelation of Trump's email use immediately raised parallels to Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she worked as secretary of State.
Clinton used a personal email as her primary means of correspondence for official business serving as secretary of State in the Obama administration.
A swath of emails also disappeared from Clinton's private account during the investigation into her use of the email account.
She has also said that she did not use the email to move classified information.
The issue was a big one for President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE during his campaign and his supporters still chant "Lock her up!" at his rallies in reference to Clinton. | {
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Strain Name: Bluecheese (pheno A – heavy cheese)
Grade: A
Type: Hybrid – Indica Dominant
Looks: Darker blueish color with unique pistol style buds. Rasberry colored hairs. Extremely sticky.
Smell: When the jar is cracked it smells like blue cheese or similar to the craft mac & cheese mix and spices and a hint of dill and exxon fuel. When it is ground up it smells of pungent blueberry rotten fruit with a hint of exxon fuel. Has a unique reek to it. ;)
Taste: Lavender vanilla over tones with a hint of blueberry, a hint of spice and dill skunk. No cheese taste. Taste amazing and unique. Very smooth. Aftertaste reminds me of an old musty basement.
Effects: Day time use. Powerful clear euphoric. Great for getting stuff done. Very anti-anxiety without couch lock haze. Great energetic feelings without a hard come down. Great medical strain for the morning or early afternoon something that packs a punch without the daze or ripped effect.
Potency: Medium
Reviewed By: Volcanobis | {
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Reactions to Israel's five-day bombing campaign in Gaza have been posted all over the web, with some arguing that these firsthand witness accounts and real-time citizen journalism are more interesting than some of the mainstream media coverage. Below is a selection of online content we have come across. Do share your own picks of blogs and sites that are covering the conflict in the comments thread.
• Sameh Akram Habeeb, 23, blogs daily from Gaza City.
• In Gaza provides frequent updates on the situation.
• Gilan Lotan on Global Voices is rounding up some of the Israeli blogosphere's reactions.
• Electronic Intifada provides daily diary entries from a range of people across Gaza.
• The Israeli Consulate of New York has set up a Twitter account, and held citizen press conferences with users. Israel Politik summarises one such Q&A.
• Fida Qishta, who blogs at Sunshine, is a Palestinian activist in the southern Gaza Strip and has been posting video clips along with text. | {
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Love it or hate it—and some people certainly hate it—Scott McCloud’s 500-page, five-years-in-the-making art-fantasy The Sculptor has drawn widespread mainstream attention, with write-ups in major metropolitan papers from The New York Times to the L.A. Times to The Guardian. A film adaptation is in the works. Since the book’s early-February publication, McCloud, author of Understanding Comics and the indie superhero series Zot!, has been on a non-stop, massive worldwide publicity tour, a rare luxury for modern authors. With the initial U.S. tour wrapped up and the first leg of a European tour underway, McCloud is set to spend a busy summer hopping back and forth between overseas appearances and North American conventions, including MoCCA, TCAF, and Comic-Con.
But amid all the hubbub and the virtual ink spilled over the book, little has been said about its ending. That isn’t unusual in a spoiler-averse pop-culture environment. But The Sculptor’s conclusion is easily its most controversial and difficult element. The central storyline is a sometimes breathless, sometimes meandering portrait of David Smith, a frustrated, obsessive young artist who makes a bargain with Death: David has 200 days to live, but during that time, he’ll have the ability to sculpt any substance with his hands and mind, giving him the freedom to quickly and easily create whatever he wants with the time he has left. Seeing this magical ability as a shortcut around his frustrations with his work, he takes the deal, but when he winds up in a relationship with a bipolar Jewish actor named Meg, he winds up with many reasons to regret it. This interview (made entirely out of spoilers, so consider yourself warned) deals closely with the ending of the book: What went into it, what McCloud would have done differently, and why David’s final work of art isn’t necessarily meant as a masterpiece, a victory, a permanent statement, the summary of a life, or anything else it may initially appear to be.
TASHA ROBINSON: You’ve said in many interviews that your process for this book involved creating a complete rough copy, then revising it over and over. Did the ending of the book change significantly in revisions?
SCOTT MCCLOUD: This is substantially what I started with. The ending changed slightly, in small structural ways. I kept playing with the pacing and some of the smaller details. But the ending might have changed the least. A lot of the revision process was trying to earn my ending. And the ending is one of the reasons the story kept tugging at me over time. I felt if done right, that would give the book its reason for existing.
What specifically about it drew you so much?
Well, I liked the monumental aspect of it. Of adding something to the New York skyline. In early drafts, toward the beginning of the book, David is talking about the things he’s yearning to do. He talks about feeling helpless at the base of these huge skyscrapers in Manhattan, and feeling like they were these works of art created by invisible hands in this meaningless, authorless process of money, politics, and Darwinian social mechanisms. And that was calling forward to the way it was going to end, with something of his rising above the skyline. But over time, I realized the book was much more about his terror of being forgotten, and that’s why that scene becomes a dream he confides to his friend, in which the city is tilting and everyone is falling off. Because ultimately, that was more on point.
And because the ending is not really about a triumph, of David’s rising above obscurity, or creating some masterpiece. I don’t think the story presents any opinion one way or another about the quality of the work. [Laughter.] In fact, I think the ending completely bypasses that, the whole idea of aesthetic work. Instead, it just becomes about this shout into the void, and also about keeping a promise to Meg. So now I think that first scene, where he talks about the dream of everyone falling off a tilted ramp of a city, I think that links up much better with the ending. And I think the entire book points to that. It’s more thoroughly about that one pounding priority in his head, to find some way of being remembered.
In terms of “earning the ending,” do you mean in terms of making the characters real enough to create that sense of emotion, or other elements?
I think in terms of making sure that all the scenes leading up to it are part of the same architectural structure. A lot of it just has to do with staying on point. When we talk about the construction of the characters and their relationship, that to me would be necessary to earn any ending. [Laughter.] That’s just necessary, you know? That’s an essential part of the writing that I had to tackle. But to earn this specific ending, specific things needed to be attended to. And I think chief among them was my coming to grips with what the story was actually about. It’s that old saying that readers should only really fully understand what the story was about after they’ve finished it. I’m sure that’s not universally true, but to me it sounds like sound advice. And I think it’s also true for the writer, as well. In some ways, you need to read your story to know what it’s about so you can write it. And that’s what makes rewriting necessary.
So ultimately, for you, is the story about David’s struggle to come to terms with all the issues around what he makes, what it means to him, and how other people relate to it?
Ultimately, I’m trying to show why I see the struggle against being forgotten as futile, but also why I see that futility as beautiful. And I suppose this relates in some ways back to my feelings about art, and the feeling that all art is gloriously useless. [Laughter.] It serves no particular utilitarian function. If it has any other function, then it’s not art. So I admire a character who not only continues to struggle in the face of futility, but even does so when he fully understands the depth of that futility. Which I think David does by the end. He actually gets it. Thanks to his relationship, he finally understands that particular truth, that it doesn’t matter what he does. It’s all going to be washed away by time. Everyone gets washed away by time, even the artists we think of as immune to it now. You push the timeframe forward far enough, we’re all going to be extinguished eventually. He understands that, and he continues to struggle. That, to me, is what’s beautiful.
It feels awfully grim and cynical, though. You give him an apotheosis where he looks at Meg and sees a continuity, a circle of life that he’s become part of. He realizes even if he can’t be immortal through his art, he’ll be immortal through their child. And then you prove him wrong.
David doesn’t make the break, though. Fate steps in. You can blame the author for that, obviously. But I don’t see it as cynical. He decided he was willing to settle for Plan B, and then it was taken away from him, and he had to go back to Plan A. But what he actually chooses to make, I suppose, has very little to do with that at all. He’s keeping a promise. You have to go back to the conversation they have when she comes back to let him know she’s pregnant. She establishes certain conditions, and asks him to make a promise he thinks he can’t make in the moment. But his final act is to fulfill that promise that he didn’t make.
The opening prologue has David telling Meg, “I got one,” and her saying, “Whisper it in my ear.” Then the story begins, and it feels like a story he’s telling her. For the longest time, it feels like this could all just be a 25th Hour-style fantasy he’s spinning, laying out this dramatic alternate world for the two of them. But close to the end, you reveal that the prologue was a different conversation altogether, and he’s just sharing a secret. Did you mean for that moment to feel like an escape hatch for readers?
No! No, actually, I like that! But no, it’s just one of those little surprises, one of those threads you accidentally create as you’re trying to tell one story, it spins some other stories in the mind of the reader. That’s kind of cool, but it was unintentional. Although I did anticipate some people think this entire story is being experienced by David in the split-second before he dies. That all 500 pages are happening in that moment.
The secret he tells Meg in that moment is meant to be something she’ll carry on after he’s gone. And again, you make a point of drawing a connection with the future, then severing it.
This is the continuity most people settle for. Almost everyone who sets out on the path to make art will see their work mostly forgotten by everyone but their family. That’s the usual story. And whatever yearning they have to leave something behind usually defaults to family and friends, to their relationships. And there’s usually some comfort in that, because you’re stepping back into the parade of evolution, of how our species works. The way we become part of something greater than ourselves just by being part of the human race. I think art is a way we step outside of that race, and start to do things that aren’t geared toward survival and reproduction. But there’s comfort in stepping back in. Because we hope to create something beyond ourselves, and yet most people can’t. So this is partially a story about that.
You know, the first chapter of the book is called The Other David Smith. For a while, I considered calling the last chapter of the book the same thing, because there’s another David Smith. But you could almost say the book is about the many other David Smiths, the ones he sees in that old printed phone book. In some ways, that’s who I’m talking about.
You come back to the image of that phone book during his flashback just before death, which underlines the importance of what seems like a random image when it first comes up.
[Laughter.] Well, as an artist, I had to find a lot of images for those pages. But that one seemed important enough to me to include as one of his recent memories.
Those flashback pages are powerful because we’ve seen or heard about so many of those moments. The readers have become a part of that continuity, of what he considers the significant times of his life. What was your process like in selecting all those images?
It was very dull and methodical. [Laughter.] Just making lists, seeing what he’d mentioned, then trying to fill in the blanks. There was nothing exciting about drafting it. But they weren’t superfluous. When his life passes before his eyes, I’m hoping that scene uses that past material in a way that’s more transformational. I tried very hard to make sure that from beginning to end, this story stayed wrapped around this idea of being remembered. What he receives in this flood of memories from his own life is a kind of existential counter-argument to the idea of the memories we leave for others, beyond our lives. I was trying to show in that explosion, in the depth and breadth of those memories and experiences, why they should be seen as carrying an equal or even greater weight than whatever we think we might be able to instill in the memories of others.
David and Meg’s deaths have impact because you take the time early in the book to establish that there’s no afterlife, nothing waiting for them but the void. Was that to keep people from romanticizing their deaths, from imagining them as being reunited somewhere?
For me, that’s just my particular orientation. I’m a secular person, I’m an atheist. And so I’m using fiction and fantasy as a lever from which to postulate a world I believe does exist, in which we have our lives and nothing else. So driving that home—like you say, one of the advantages from a narrative viewpoint is that it more clearly delineates the stakes. If David’s just trying to come up with something for the living to remember while he goes off and parties with the angels, the whole thing seems a lot more trivial. You’re correct that I’m trying hard not to romanticize David’s death. When visualized in a single panel, it’s anything but romantic. We see his brains splattered on the sidewalk. Meg’s death is different. I allowed myself a kind of peculiar visual callback to her entrance into the story, with the crowd ring. I didn’t have a specific purpose there. I lived in New York, and that’s what people do when there’s an accident. When something happens on the street, that ring forms. But I let it sit there and have a near- supernatural resonance, because I thought that was just interesting. It was interesting and unresolved.
I talk about being on point, or being on theme, but I also understand that if you take that to extremes, you just have a blueprint of a story. And I didn’t want that. And so when mysteries like that creep in, I tried to welcome them. Things that didn’t further any particular theme or idea, but just sat there, blinking at me. They pose questions that can never be answered, and I just liked that.
As you say, David’s death is portrayed graphically, but hers is more idealized. She was hit by a car, but her body isn’t broken, there’s no blood.
There’s a little on the sidewalk, but yeah. I went back and forth on that one, and if I’d had more time, I maybe would have given more thought to the makeup department. But there are just so many moving gears in this thing. Yeah, I think maybe I should have curbed my impulses to romanticize that. I’m not really sure. This may just be one of those cases where I ran out of time, where I didn’t sit down and have a little conference call with myself about how to stage that, exactly.
Meg’s death has such a familiar resonance for comics. In mainstream superhero comics, there’s such an awareness and dubiousness at this point, any time you have a woman dying in a story solely to give a man a big emotional moment. No matter how well it’s contextualized or written, it feels at this point like it’s playing to a trope.
That was on my radar from the beginning. The only problem is, I was writing a story about a man who kept losing people he loved. And the loss of people he loved was the entryway into the simple fact that everybody dies. And the story has to come back to square one before it’s done. There’s really no avoiding it. I couldn’t see a way at all the story made any sense at all without that ending. I still don’t. He has to face down death in its purest form. He’s given the opportunity to turn away from that toward the end of the story. All his musings about the continuity of life are his opportunity to turn away from it, as we all do.
I mean, that’s what we do! Family and heritage and our connections, these are ways we can basically forget about death. What’s that old saying, that we watch our children on the path ahead of us so we don’t see death coming up behind us? And that would be untrue to what the story is ultimately about, if he wasn’t forced to confront it in its purest form. There needed to be that break. He couldn’t have that comfort, he couldn’t have that loophole from which to escape the simple fact that we all die and we’re all forgotten. It’s the second death, which even an atheist might not necessarily grasp that within their lifetime. Art is almost the kind of religious loophole for atheists like me. [Laughter.] We’re not going to go to heaven, but maybe we can make things that go to heaven. And get judged by some vague, unspecified art-verdict machine. It’s ridiculous, but we let ourselves believe this. And I couldn’t give David that out.
There’s an idealized streak around women in your work. With Meg here and Jenny in Zot!, they’re both removed figures with a kind of exaggerated beautiful melancholy that takes them out of the world.
Zot is far more romanticized than Jenny.
Sure, but in a different way. He’s a superhero from another world, an actual comic-book character from a more rarefied and idealized place. He’s removed from our world because he doesn’t come from it.
Yeah, she’s drawn to his world, she wants to go someplace simpler. Though I don’t know that that’s romanticizing her. It’s just a natural human instinct to want to go to a better place.
I mean how she’s drawn emotionally.
Oh. Absolutely. When I look back at Zot!, the whole thing’s a little weepy for my tastes now. I’ve always been sentimental. I just don’t think I kept it in check as well back then. I think it did get a little better as it went. If you go from the early color issues to the black-and-white stuff, you can see some of the sentiment starting to slide off a little. But it never went away completely. Clearly it hasn’t gone away completely. This is a very sentimental book on some level. It just has a much harsher background. I mean, look at what we’ve been talking about. [Laughter.]
Setting Meg up as an avatar for family, love, life, connectivity, continuity, art, inspiration, and hope, all at once, and then killing her, certainly does feel like a conscious step away from sentiment. Or idealism.
I don’t see it that way. I think to me, as a story point, it was a level of harshness that I felt I didn’t have a choice on. I felt it necessary to the story, but it was harsh enough for me personally that the fact I may have made it more picturesque, more romanticized, a little more Pietà than if she’d been upside-down in a woodchipper. Romanticizing her death may have been me thinking, “If I’m going to stab my audience, at least I’m stabbing them in the heart instead of in the liver.” Really, it was just me saying, “Enough. I don’t have to show her head split open.” But that’s just because I don’t necessarily have much tolerance for violence.
The art in the book changes around Meg’s death. Holding up the book and looking at it from the side, you can see where the pages suddenly turn darker, with the black extending to the edges of the pages. Much of the action after she dies happens at night, and underground—
—and in the rain. There’s a lot of ink falling from the sky.
But the pages go black, and then as day breaks and the fog comes in, the pages go white. What was your thinking about using that kind of full-page ink saturation as part of telling the story?
I was actually kind of pissed off at myself that I was having so much trouble introducing enough spot-black. I didn’t feel like I was anchoring the story enough. But when he brings her down to the old tunnels, I thought, “If I can’t get the spot-blacks right here, I should just hang up my hat and go home.” [Laughter.] So I remember when I was doing the layouts, I did those pages as almost abstract slabs of black. I was just fighting myself from the first 430 pages or whatever. It irritated me that I still hadn’t gotten the blackness right. So I tried to use it in a more integrated fashion for those pages, because the scene really seemed to demand it. Because there’s no natural lighting down there, just little flickers of light from the street above.
It’s still not good enough. The first few panels look good, and then it looks a little flat. But if it had been too light, it would have looked too angelic. He is literally at his darkest point. He’s without direction. His only paths are closed off to him. And he’s literally looking at a collapsed, old subway tunnel that goes nowhere. I was certainly anxious about the idea of the rain just being delivered on cue. Which is one of the reasons why they talked about the rain, how the rain was something he wanted. He didn’t like the idea of dying on a sunny day. And Meg kept telling him to not be a baby, just take whatever he’s given. So the idea that David wished for the rain, I liked that, that the universe was perverse enough to give him what he wanted, but not in the way he wanted it.
And then of course it goes light toward the end because I have the problem that he’s creating his work in a public place, where everybody would be able to see it all the time. So I brought the rain and fog in to give him a kind of unveiling. Otherwise, the whole last scene, people would have been walking around talking about what he was making, and telegraphing the ending. So there, also, I allowed myself a bit of a curtain-pull that hopefully seems plausible, and not too theatrical. I even had a couple of panels early on where you see skyscrapers disappearing up into the clouds, as a sort of scene-setting for later.
There’s a moment down in the old tunnels where Death-as-Harry tells David that Harry secretly committed suicide after his wife Sadie died, but wants David to know it was a mistake. The narrative gets a little tangled there—we know Harry died in war at 19, and Death came home embodied as Harry. But then he talks about Harry in the third person, and in the present tense as though he still exists, and he lays out this other death. It’s unclear where the different versions of him separate.
I guess in my mind, when Death takes Harry’s body in the war and brings him back, Death is living as a human being—fully. There’s an actual, full human being there that has full knowledge of who he is, but is nevertheless fully alive, and has all those human feelings, including a genuine relationship with Sadie. To me, it made sense that Death would not share the details of Harry’s death with David when they meet. It’s morbid, and it’s of no use to David—unless David experiences something similar, which he does. Harry is fading. We’re told he’ll fade as David’s time comes. But what’s left of him wants to communicate this information to David before his time goes.
And that’s part again of the process of David losing everybody. Even this resurrected version of a twice-dead man has to leave his life.
Exactly. Harry has to go. David has to be genuinely alone. To me, the idea that everybody dies alone makes a lot of sense. [Anya’s Ghost author] Vera Brosgol was one of my early readers of the layout, and she noticed the gunshot that takes David down, as this little distant “bang” out of the fog. And she put in her notes something along the lines of “Death is small and private, even for King Kong.” I hope I’m not misquoting her. But I think that’s true. So it has to be intimate. That part of David’s existence doesn’t have an audience. In stark and deliberate contrast with the big gesture that everybody sees out on the street, the experience of his death is somebody nobody sees but him.
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Steam Prison
Our latest otome license is Steam Prison from HuneX!
In this world there there are those fortunate enough to enjoy safety, luxury, and comfort inside their gorgeous, utopian city with a commanding view of the ravaged surface far below their haven. The rest don't matter. When our heroine leaves the protection of the Heights to perform her police duties on The Depths below, she's greeted with a violent, destitute world of hardworking, damaged individuals. Can she reconcile the world she knows with this world as it is? Will she connect with any of those living below, or join in the contempt for them? Can she endure the truths to be uncovered under her watch?
This dark, mature adventure will be coming to MangaGamer and Steam!
Synopsis
There are two kinds of people: the rulers and the ruled.
The Heights are a gorgeous utopia. The Depths, a filthy industrial wasteland. Our heroine, raised in the Heights, has nothing but contempt for those below. Now an observation mission requires her to descend into that world, and the gears of fate have begun to turn.
Gallery
© 2018 HuneX | {
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The 30 seconds between the power outage and the generator kicking in feel like a lifetime.
Sweat pools on eyebrows. The anticipation is unbearable. And then the power starts up and the fan blasts cool air across your soaked shirt. The little pleasures in life, all the more enjoyable during a Middle East heatwave.
What follows is usually a scramble through the apartment to ensure the appliances that are turned on won’t trip the measly 5A generator. The AC probably has to go off despite the intense humidity and the still air outside if I want to keep the food in the fridge from rotting. The water heater is a definite no-go, but that’s okay because have you ever tried to shower in the early afternoon during a Middle East summer without sustaining first-degree burns?
The summer heat is oppressive in Beirut’s crowded streets. Sweat sticks to you because of the humidity, making an already crowded metropolis feel much hotter than it actually is. The city struggled last month to deal with a rubbish collection crisis – the government characteristically failed to reach a deal to set up a new landfill, leaving the rubbish to rot in the baking heat for nearly two weeks.
A woman covers her nose to try to avoid the smell as she walks past uncollected rubbish rotting in Beirut. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP
The summers are especially frustrating because of the city’s ailing infrastructure. In Beirut, there are daily scheduled three-hour power cuts (there’s even an app that tells you when it’s happening in your neighbourhood) because the demand for power exceeds the supply year-round. At the height of the summer, these power cuts come every hour, or every two. The norm in some of the poorer areas of the city is the absence of electricity. You could perhaps sleep on the tiles, or on the terrace outside.
As an eternal optimist, I always found the power cuts an opportunity to disconnect. Read a book, meditate, go to the gym, journal. I resisted a generator subscription for a long time.
But then last summer’s scorching heat brought with it days-long power cuts, on top of water shortages after a particularly dry winter. Lebanon has 16 rivers, but efficient water distribution is still elusive here.
Plus, eating all the perishables in the fridge every time there was an extended power cut wasn’t sustainable.
I knew I was surrendering to the mercy of Lebanon’s generator cartels, who profit from the state’s failure. Some generator providers even fired at the power plant of the electricity company in the town of Zahlé when it announced a plan to provide 24-hour electricity to residents.
But I have a home and shelter. Meanwhile, thousands of Syrian children in Beirut roam the streets under the piercing sun – shining shoes and selling street wares, sleeping rough and taking shelter in street corners and under bridges. Thousands of others labour in the agricultural hinterland of the Bekaa Valley under the baking sun, their parents sequestered in plastic tents.
Lebanon has over a million refugees. One out of every five people has fled the war next door in Syria, and the country has almost reached its projected population level for 2050. Its infrastructure has been stretched way past the breaking point.
And the Middle East’s summer lingers. | {
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Forget the standard corporate 9-5 desk job, today’s workers, especially millennials, are opting for a more flexible schedule by freelancing.
Continue Reading Below
According to a new report released Tuesday by the Freelancers Union and Upwork, a global freelancing platform, 36% of the U.S. workforce (57.3 million Americans) are now freelancing, contributing to approximately $1.4 trillion annually to the economy, creating an all-time high for the sector.
Freelancing jobs all together have seen an increase of almost 30% since last year, with nearly 50% of millennials choosing to go down the freelance route.
“Freelancing has the word “free” in it. Especially for younger generations, it means more freedom to pursue passion and paint their life the way they want it—based on how they want to live versus where they need to be for a traditional job.” Stephane Kasriel, CEO of Upwork and co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Council on the Future of Gender, Education and Work, tells FOX Business.
Sara Horowitz, founder and executive director of Freelancers Union, says that not only are millennials “turning their backs on the corporate ladder,” but they recognize the need for constant “re-skilling” to stay at the top of their field.
“[Millennials] often maintain multiple skill sets—working as ‘actor/developers’ and ‘writers/accountants,’ to stay ahead as the job market evolves,” Horowitz tells FOX Business.
According to the study, the U.S. freelance workforce is growing faster than the overall U.S. workforce, outpacing it at a rate three times faster since 2014. The study says by 2027, freelancers will make up the majority of the U.S. workforce.
Artificial intelligence is having the biggest impact on the changes with 54% of the U.S. workforce saying they are not very confident that the work they do today is going to exist in 20 years. It’s not just millennials either, baby boomers are also trying to freelance as a second career or even into retirement.
Priscilla Claman, President of Career Strategies, says a lot of her clients don’t really retire anymore but rather morph their jobs into freelance or consulting work.
“It’s becoming a step between working and retiring. Also, a lot of women looking to come back from being full-time moms do the same thing in the reverse direction-start by freelancing, and turn that into full-time employment,” she says. | {
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Bollywood actor Milind Soman, 52, came under fire after sharing photos of himself with his new girlfriend, Ankita Konwar, 18, on social media.
The couple, who have reportedly been dating for four months, was recently in Tromso, Norway, to celebrate Soman’s birthday.
Over the weekend, the actor posted photos of their vacation on Instagram, which quickly went viral.
While many netizens sent Soman well wishes, others freaked out:
“I’ve seen a photo of his GF back in 2014 in his account and I believe she’s 18 now, so I guess he knew her since she was 15. Now that’s disturbing.”
“Bad choice, but what to do? Love is blind.”
“She is young and vulnerable. You should have shown your maturity, psycho.”
“He’s a pedophile, it doesn’t matter that the girl is 18.”
“Cradle snatcher.”
Some, however, were just plain confused:
“Aren’t you Captain Vyom? Wow, it’s been so long I saw you on TV. You have a daughter?”
“Father and daughter.”
“Is she his daughter?”
Twitter users also weighed in:
According to India Today, the two may have been seeing each other for four years already. This means Konwar — whose current age is widely reported as 18 — was then under India’s age of consent.
Konwar, currently a flight attendant for AirAsia, is a traveler herself. She completed her first 10K marathon with Soman, who happens to be an accomplished runner, in November 2015.
In commentary, dating expert Tammy Shaklee, founder of matchmaking service He’s For Me, thinks that the couple’s May-December romance is not such a big deal.
“I do believe everyone deserves their special someone, whatever that looks like to them,” Shaklee told the New York Post. “I do know couples with a 30-year age difference who are genuinely in love. Love is love — as long as it’s a legal age, of course.”
What do you think of Soman and Konwar? | {
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23:43 Reported News Briefs תמוז 9, 5771 , 11/07/11 תמוז 9, 5771 , 11/07/11 MK Ben-Ari Planning Lawsuit Against Boycotter With the boycott law freshly entered onto Israel's lawbooks, MK Michael Ben-Ari said Monday night that he was preparing the first lawsuit under its provisions, against Israeli company Teldor, which manufactures computer networking equipment, fiberoptics, and communication cables. Teldor is actively involved in laying communications infrastructure in the new PA city of Rawabi, and as such has signed a document certifying that it does not do business in Judea and Samaria.
Ben-Ari said that he would file a complaint against Teldor unless it immediately declared that it was not participating in a boycott of Judea and Samaria. “The rule of law must be upheld,” Ben-Ari said Monday night. ► ◄ Other archived news briefs:Jul 11 2011, 11:43 PM, 7/11/2011 | {
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[Warning: This story contains spoilers from American Crime's season two finale.]
American Crime wrapped up its critically acclaimed second season Thursday and finally gave fans some answers — of sorts.
On one hand, the majority of the characters dealt with the fallout from their calculated machinations. Leyland School headmistress Leslie Graham (Felicity Huffman) lost her job, hacker Sebastian de la Torre (Richard Cabral) had the cyberstalking tables turned on him, Terri LeCroix's (Regina King) leaked emails returned to haunt her, and the Sullivans watched their daughter sentenced for dealing drugs.
On the other hand, the show ended on major cliffhangers for Taylor Blaine (Connor Jessup), who said he was drugged and raped at a party, and Eric Tanner (Joey Pollari), the alleged rapist who claimed that the interaction was consensual. Throughout the season, however, both made major missteps that call into question their judgment and veracity, whether it was Eric's phone call that lured Taylor out to get beaten up by the basketball team or Taylor shooting and killing one of his assailants.
In the season's final scenes, Taylor considers taking a plea deal for the aforementioned murder, while Eric is about to approach a muscle car for an anonymous hookup or possible getaway. But just as the camera zooms into each boy's face, the scene cuts to black ... and then the credits roll. The Hollywood Reporter spoke with creator John Ridley about those cliffhangers, this season's challenges and the future of the anthology drama at ABC.
In the finale, Taylor's and Eric's fates are left hanging when it cuts to black. Can you discuss the decision to end this way?
We started the entire storytelling with two particular perspectives and maintaining every step of the way that their story was the truth. I believe if we deviate from that, even in the last moment, that it would be disingenuous storytelling, maddening as it may be. That is the difficult thing about moments like this, that we the observer may never truly know what happened. My wife said to me, "I want it to be a hopeful ending. I want there to be hope." I said to her, "Well, then it can be. If we told you what the ending was, then it terminates. That ending then becomes sacrosanct."
There's a really good line when the judge asks Taylor if he wants the plea deal: "Do you accept or reject that which has been presented to you?" Does this line reflect the theme throughout the series?
Yes, absolutely that line was meant to give a picture of the whole season. It was very much about Taylor's character, it was very much about Eric's character, but it was also about the LaCroix family, it was also about the Sullivan family, having done everything to protect their daughter. It was very much about accepting the unfortunate part of the things that we put on young people, the expectations that we as adults put on young people.
Even beyond basketball many characters focused on winning. Do you think this was their undoing?
Unfortunately, in sports we see that a lot, that winning trumps all. A lot will be forgiven. We see that in all walks of life where everybody loves the winner. I did want to open that discussion because these people are just becoming petty at that point, especially with Dan [Timothy Hutton] and Leslie, it's not about doing right, it's about winning. We're going through an election cycle right now, and we're seeing politicians who are more interested in winning than doing right or having discourse.
Ultimately, Leslie lost everything despite how smart she was and all of her maneuvering.
I had a conversation with Felicity about that at one point. I said, "To me, Leslie is the consummate politician." Felicity was like, "Ah, I don't know if that's the right way to phrase it; nobody likes politicians." But the definition of politics is the art of the possible. I said, "That's the way I want us to think about it, that Leslie has the ability to make all things possible." It's not about liking or disliking, but do we understand this person? Can we see their investment in the situation?
What were some of the big conversations you've had in reaction to the show this season?
In the second episode, teachers were sitting around talking about the breakfast program. It really stood out to people because they were stunned and surprised that in a broadcast television show, you could have two minutes with just teachers talking about inside baseball. Also, I think it was episode nine where the Monica character [Stephanie Sigman] is talking to Evy [Angelique Rivera] and the scene is all in Spanish [without English subtitles]. It's a minute-and-a-half scene and it's all in Spanish. It was very important to me to have a scene in Spanish because the point was that these characters are more comfortable speaking ... and for the rest of us, it's a little uncomfortable because we're thinking, "How long is this scene going to go on? What are they talking about?"
With Channing Dungey as the new entertainment president at ABC, what does that mean for American Crime?
I don't know. I was made aware by ABC that they would do some early pickups and I'm not surprised by the shows that got picked up. They're doing phenomenal. Channing, since she's been at ABC, has been an instrumental part of American Crime from the beginning. Nobody is a bigger fan or supporter. So I'm confident that everything is going to work out the way that it should in the end. I don't think people can lament the passing of American Crime should it come to pass. I've been shooting a pilot for ABC and for another project I've been getting ready to go to London for ABC Studios. I haven't really had a great deal of time to sit and ponder it. I really and sincerely believe that things will happen as they should.
What did you think of the American Crime finale? Do you want the show to return? | {
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BBC Sport traces the history of one of the toughest jobs in sport, the England football manager, featuring rare archive footage and new interviews.
BBC Sport traces the history of one of the toughest jobs in sport - the England football manager.
Using rare archive and new interviews with current manager Gareth Southgate and former England managers Sven-Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello, Roy Hodgson and Sam Allardyce, we hear first-hand the personal toll the so-called impossible job has taken on some of the game's most successful club managers.
With contributions from former England captains Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Rio Ferdinand, along with key decision makers from within football, we take a closer look at what it will take to end England's years of hurt. | {
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She can lift a coconut with her vagina. That is all (Picture: Instagram)
Meet Kim Anami. She lifts weights with her vagina and she’s about to embark on the European leg of her world tour.
The life and sex coach is infamous not only for her self-proclaimed ‘legendary’ vagina, but also for bringing the ancient art of vaginal kung fu to the masses.
She describes herself as a ‘Provocateur. Innovator. Illuminator. Catalyst. Quantum leap life and intimacy coach. Sexual muse. Liberation master. Pleasure savant’.
She counts being able to shoot ping pong balls from your vagina as ‘an essential life skill.’ In fact, she says, ‘it’s every woman’s god given right.’
Kim has for the past five or six months been on a world tour where she lifts objects indigenous to the local area.
For example, in Bali, she lifted coconuts, an array of tropical fruit, and a seashell.
In LA, she lifted a surfboard, gluten-free organic donuts, and cold-pressed juices.
Now, she is embarking on the European leg of her tour and she needs your help.
She wants suggestions for locations/backgrounds to be featured in lifting spots, along with indigenous items she might lift.
In terms of backgrounds, she looks for spots which are architecturally beautiful and/or unique. Or, as she puts it, ‘make them pretty or witty, kids’.
You can follow Kim’s travels on Instagram – keep your eyes peeled from the start of June if you live in Barcelona and Venice as she has pinpointed those as her first destinations.
And to make a picture suggestion, just post an image of a location or object, tagging @kimanami and using the hashtag: #thingsiliftwithmyvagina – you’ve got until May 25.
If Kim lifts or features them, you’ll win complementary access to the next round of Vaginal Kung Fu so you too can become a vaginal kung fu master.
We’re thinking a shot of her lifting a high tea at the Ritz would be pretty special, no?
MORE: Woman who lifts things with her vagina is on a world tour ‘lifting objects indigenous to various regions’
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Charlize Theron thinks she’s fat now that she’s gained 30 pounds. The blonde beauty recently admitted her weight gain is for her new role in the upcoming film, ‘Tully,’ in which she plays a mother whose brother hires her as a nanny after she gives birth to her third child.
Rather than wear a fat suit for the role – as many actresses in her position do – Charlize actually gained weight for the movie, even though others would see it as a huge inconvenience. Charlize made the revelation at the amfAR Inspiration Gala in Los Angeles when she told her good friend Chelsea Handler, “Yes, I am very fat right now,” while also wearing a long black floor-length dress and blazer that covered her body.
Knowing that her opportunities in Hollywood are numbered these days – especially considering that she is 41 now – Charlize is willing to do whatever it takes to stay relevant and keep her name in the headlines, regardless of how much weight she needs to gain or even lose for her to look believable on the big screen.
Other actresses such as Gwyneth Paltrow would never make such a bold move and sacrifice their hard-earned bodies and that’s why Charlize is hoping that it will help set her apart from the rest of the Hollywood pack.
Of course for someone like Charlize Theron to call herself ‘fat’ because she gained 30 pounds is preposterous and unrealistic. Sure, Charlize is an actress who started off her career as a model, but she’s always was always thinner and taller and had smaller proportions than the average woman. For Charlize to call herself fat now though will definitely get her plenty of criticism from fans who know that she’s far from it.
Do you think Charlize Theron indeed looks fat? Charlize is clearly at a normal weight but according to Hollywood standards, there’s no way she’ll find work again if she doesn’t shed the pounds quickly after filming for her latest movie. But knowing how much Charlize depends on her status as a Hollywood sex symbol, it’s doubtful she’ll carry her extra weight with her for too long.
Even Charlize herself knows that she has to be back in the shape she was if she plans on finding work in the very cutthroat industry that is Hollywood. Sure, many in the industry love to preach to their fans to love themselves the way they are, but everyone knows that’s far from the real truth.
Check back with CDL for all the latest news on Charlize Theron.
Charlize Theron takes her two kids Jackson Theron and August Theron to a birthday party in Beverly Hills, California on October 30, 2016. Both of her kids wore pink tutus and appeared to be dressed like ballerinas in light of Halloween. August had long blonde hair pinned to his hair. FameFlynet | {
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Emergency Rescue App
It is an rescue application whose purpose is to reduce the arrival time of the rescue teams
Muhammad Irfan & 2 others | {
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Justice Department FBI's Wray: Spying is 'not the term I would use' to describe Trump campaign probe
FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday he wouldn't use the word "spying" to describe the bureau's investigative work, breaking from Attorney General William Barr's use of the term in reference to the probe of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.
"Well, it's not the term I would use. Lots of people have different colloquial phrases," Wray said during testimony on the FBI's budget for 2020. "I believe that the FBI is engaged in investigative activity, and part of investigative activity includes surveillance.”
Wray’s appearance before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee comes as several Senate Republicans have called for further investigation into the Justice Department’s handling of its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email server and its opening of a counterintelligence investigation into then-candidate Trump’s campaign. But Wray defended the bureau's work and its career employees.
Trump has claimed the FBI "spied" on his campaign and that subsequent investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, including by special counsel Robert Mueller, were part of an "attempted coup" against him.
Barr mirrored that language when he testified before Congress in April.
“Spying on a political campaign is a big deal,” Barr told members of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee during a hearing about the Justice Department’s budget. “I think spying did occur. The question is whether it was adequately predicated. And I’m not suggesting that it wasn’t adequately predicated. But I need to explore that.”
Wray said the FBI went through the proper channels in relation to the 2016 surveillance, adding that it's been "publicly disclosed there were a number of relevant warrants." He also said the FBI was working to help Barr "understand better" how the investigation was launched.
The FBI director said the bureau has taken steps to improve in light of an inspector general report related to the Clinton investigation and defended the work of the FBI’s career employees.
“I think it is important for the American people to understand ... that we’re talking about two investigations, two investigations over about a 15-month period as opposed to the thousands and thousands of investigations the FBI does to keep Americans safe,” he said.
Wray described the FBI employees as “brave” and said they “deserve better than some of the commentary that’s been out there.
In addition to defending the work of the FBI, Wray emphasized that Russian interference in U.S. elections remains a persistent threat and noted that the FBI has asked for more resources in its budget request to address the threat of foreign influence.
“We view our adversary, in particular Russia in this context, as upping its game,” he said.
Wray noted that the FBI better mitigated foreign influence in the 2018 election, compared to the 2016 election, by doing more to coordinate with social media companies to flag Russian-controlled bots from spreading incorrect information. He added that during the 2018 election, the companies also provided information to the FBI regarding suspect accounts and said those efforts will need to continue in 2020.
When asked whether Russia has been sufficiently deterred, Wray responded: “I think there are still more messages to be sent.” | {
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Insight
As Indian women feature at the top of global female suicide rate, we met a group of survivors from Bangalore city who explained how suicidal thoughts crept into their minds.
Women in India are at a higher risk of suicide than men because of various socio-economic reasons. (AP Archive)
BANGALORE, India — Seven women sat in an irregular circle in an East Bangalore cafe. They belonged to different ethnicities, religions, spoke different languages and had different jobs. The only common aspect among them was that they had tried to kill themselves at least once in their lifetime.
Pavithra sat closest to the door and came across as the most nervous one in the group. “I talk to my dog and my therapist about my feelings,” she said. “I don't speak to anyone else about them.”
But as Vanita began to speak in a loud and confident voice that put everyone at ease, Pavithra gained some courage to share her personal story.
For 15 minutes, she eloquently narrated what had happened one summer night when she locked herself in her apartment and considered drinking poison. At daybreak, when “the noises of pressure cookers and school going children got louder” she took a spoonful of toxic fluid.
She was hospitalised for a week, staying away from work for almost six months.
Thirty-two-year-old Pavithra works as an online marketeer in Bangalore. She attempted suicide at 26 when she worked in a call centre in the city. “When I am well, I think suicide is stupid. Who does that? Why would anyone do that? But I have my phases when it seems like the most logical option,” she said.
The women had met each other on different online forums, some at mental health support groups and decided to come together to share their stories on a rainy September afternoon.
“Who knows if we will live until next month,” Vanita said in a humorous manner. “So we can't say if we will meet regularly. We don't want to form an organisation. We just want to be there for each other because we all understand mental illness.”
As they intently listened to each other, the warm beverage they held in their hands to ward off September’s rain-induced chills, had gone cold. After each story the group clapped, some were teary eyed, others nodded in solidarity.
Prevalence
At least 10 women kill themselves every hour in India. In 2016, of the 2.57 million suicides among women across the world, more than 94,000 were Indian, according to a September 2018 paper titled Gender differentials and state variations in suicide deaths in India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2016 published in The Lancet Public Health.
Experts blame illiteracy as one of the reasons that might be responsible for the high number of female suicides. (AP Archive)
Typically, Indian women who commit suicide are likely to be below the age of 35, married and from relatively economically developed parts of the country.
Pavithra, who comes from Hasan town in central Karnataka, is not surprised at the high rates of suicides. “In the villages around our town we see women consuming poison all the time. Some are saved. Some are not,” she said.
For every 100,000 women in Karnataka, 18 kill themselves. These figures are the highest in the country, almost the same as the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Telangana. These are the states with higher economic development. The all-India average is 14.7 per 100,000 women.
“The levels of urbanisation, proportion of literate population, and difference in literacy attainment between men and women have been suggested as reasons for the variations in suicide deaths at the state level in India,” says the paper.
However, Dr Shilpa Agarwal a Mumbai-based psychiatrist said that due to better economic development and higher education levels, the reporting of suicides in these states might be higher.
Rakhi Dandona, lead author of The Lancet Public Health study and Dr Lakshmi Vijaykumar, Founder of Sneha, a suicide prevention centre agree that suicide is not only a mental health issue but also a consequence of various social contexts.
If someone attempts suicide, they begin to believe they are mentally ill, said Pavithra. “We don't realise there are many, many external, societal reasons that push us to take an extreme step,” she said.
For more than two years, Pavithra said, she drowned herself in guilt – for being a loser, for giving up hope, for not thinking of her loved ones. “I do not want to absolve myself of all responsibility but want to recognise that I react that way within a particular context,” she said. Pavithra chose to not reveal the reason for her attempted suicide.
The testimonies of the women in that cafe highlight the need of combating the rising female suicides from both mental health and social perspectives.
Forty-year-old Vanita is a feisty woman, who was forced to leave her marital home eight years ago. “I had attempted suicide a year before my husband abandoned me,” she said, refusing to go into the details of how she attempted it.
“When I was thrown out of the house and was sitting on the pavement with my two young daughters, I felt I had to live. If only to see them through life,” she said, trying to hide deep brown marks on her left arm with her cotton saree.
Women rights activists in India have been protesting and pushing the government for years to take steps to control domestic violence. (AP)
Vanita doesn't recall a single day in her two decades of marriage when her husband had sex with her in a sober state. “I was his queen when he was sloshed,” she said. But when he sobered down, he hit her and asked her to leave the house. “This flip flop in a person confused me, infuriated me and made me lose my mind.”
Vanita was married three months before finishing her undergrad course in commerce in Hyderabad. “My father was scared that I would elope with my then boyfriend,” she laughed. “He quickly married me off to that lunatic,” she added, referring to her husband.
“Husband’s alcoholism is one of the top reasons women give when we quiz them later about why they tried to commit suicide,” said Dr Anish Cherian, from the Department of Psychiatric Social Work at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore.
Since Vanita belongs to a wealthy family, she had no trouble in relocating to Bangalore, where her parents live.
Causes of suicide
Not everyone has the financial cushion that Vanita enjoys. Priya, 26, is a case in point. She works at a software company and spends a quarter of her meagre salary to pay her therapist. She is the first woman in her family to get a higher education. “I do not want my family to say that I went mad and therefore they will not educate other women in the family,” she said, adding that she has not told her family about her regular visits to the therapist.
Priya, who hails from the small town of Mandya, comes from a family of farmers. “My paternal uncle touched me inappropriately for many many years. My mother believed me, but could do nothing. My father beat me for even saying such a thing. So I decided to drink the pesticide that was readily available at home,” she said.
Drought and crop losses that drive farmers into debt traps has been identified as another reason for the high female suicides. (AP Archive)
A 2012 study titled Suicide mortality in India: a nationally representative survey says about half of suicide deaths in India were due to poisoning, mainly ingestions of pesticides.
Many suicide prevention centres in India do call for restricting access to certain pesticides.
The Lancet paper also claims that suicide was the number one cause of death in India in both the age groups of 15-29 years and 15-39 years. Globally, they are the second and third reasons in the respective age groups.
While sociologists and field workers have observed that early marriages or forced marriages can cause a woman to feel trapped, triggering frustrations and suicidal thoughts.
“There is not enough empirical evidence for us to associate causality to suicides,” said Dr Shilpa Aggarwal, Mumbai-based psychiatrist. “We just do not have enough research.”
Fighting stigma
Ranjitha’s kurta covered her arms and her dupatta was draped close to her body. It has been four years since she wore any clothes that revealed any part of her arms or legs. “I get my tailor to stitch only these kurtas for me,” she said. Her arms and legs bear marks of violence inflicted upon her by her in-laws and husband.
Domestic violence is one of the major causes of female suicides in India. The UN Women figures for physical and/or sexual Intimate Partner Violence in a woman’s lifetime is 29 percent.
Even though Ranjitha can file complaints against her parents-in-law and her husband under India’s Domestic Violence Prevention Act, she decided not to. “Where would I go after I complained?” she asked. At 26, she feels imprisoned in a bad marriage.
Her parents and sister support her, she said. But she fears if she leaves her husband her parents would be socially ostracised, one of the stigmas attached to divorced women in India. Two years ago, she drank some poison. “It was not enough to kill me though,” she said.
Exercising the right to divorce male partners is still not looked at favourably in Indian society and reporting intimate partner violence also carries immense stigma. Therefore, frustration builds up.
It's a rare sight to see self-help groups devoted to support women who have suicidal tendencies. Though some women in the East Bangalore cafe have created a space to speak their minds, they know they still have a long way to go.
After a round of sharing stories, new beverages were being ordered. The space lightened up a bit when Vanita began cracking jokes.
“We have to flee our grim realities and humour is the best escape,” she said.
Note: Names have been changed to protect identities. And this reporting was supported by the International Women’s Media Reporting Grants for Women’s Stories
Source: TRT World | {
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IEEFA
We’re seeing an increasing number of boastful assertions by Australian politicians that Australian coal is environmentally friendlier than other coal.
It’s not true—and we’ve published a fact sheet here that gets into the weeds of it—but one illuminating comparison can be found when you stack Australian benchmark thermal coal up next to coal from Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter of thermal coal. Australian thermal coal is higher in energy content, true, but its ash content is double Indonesia’s export-coal average.
Further to this point, Australia has historically developed its best coal resources first, such that the average quality of coal from new mines being proposed is declining with time. As a result, the Australian benchmark for coal is gradually giving way to a lower-quality, secondary benchmark, one that produces 10 percent less energy and almost twice the ash.
Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine, which would purportedly supply India, would produce coal only about 10 percent better than the average quality of domestic Indian thermal coal in terms of energy content. This comparison doesn’t take into consideration the environmental costs of transporting Australian coal to Indian ports. And Carmichael coal if compared to Russian, Indonesian or South African export coal is relatively “low energy, high ash.”
For countries truly seeking to limit the harmful effects of coal-fired power generation pollution, tighter emissions limits are key, a truth that is being embraced by nations as disparate as the U.S. and China.
China has required all coal-fired power plants to be retrofitted with emissions reduction technologies over the past four years. The U.S. EPA this year established expanded new rules on coal-plant emissions.
Australia has studiously avoided similar initiatives—damaging its global standing and putting its own long-term economic health at risk. The fact is, Australia has the most emissions-intensive coal-fired power generation fleet in the world, worse even than India’s, and it’s nothing to brag about.
Tim Buckley is IEEFA’s director of energy finance studies, Australasia.
Source: IEEFA. Reproduced with permission. | {
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I received 2 fantastic hand drawn pictures nicely framed and a nice letter. One picture was a pip boy and the other was Luigi. It looks like a lot of hard work and care went into the creation of these pictures and they came out great! | {
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“This is precisely why a lot of people voted for Brexit,” said Fraser Nelson.
“The FT still doesn’t get it,” Tim Montgomerie added.
They were referring to a Financial Times story: “The owner of pizzeria chain Franco Manca warned that the Brexit vote had started to affect the availability of European restaurant staff in the UK, potentially pushing up wages for new hires.”
Of course, Brexit – in the sense of any legal or policy change to freedom of movement – hasn’t happened yet and won’t for some time, so what Nelson and Montgomerie are really celebrating is that Europeans feel that, after the Brexit vote, the UK is a less welcoming and more hostile country with fewer opportunities and where their prospects are worse.
But let’s leave that aside, and assume that they are making the simple supply-and-demand argument made by many on the Leave side of the referendum campaign, and more generally by those who want to reduce immigration, especially of low-skilled or low-paid workers. That is, that lower immigration of such workers will push up pay for lower-paid Brits.
So is Brexit good news for the low-paid? The early indications are mixed at best. Just a few days after the FT story appeared, The Times reported: “Bosses are calling for a freeze in the minimum wage amid the latest signs that Brexit fears are holding back investment by businesses ... increases in the national living wage ... could prevent firms from growing or lead to job losses, according to the British Chambers of Commerce.”
So, at the same time as Brexit is pushing up wages for low-paid pizza workers, business is saying that if their pay is not in effect cut, the result will be job losses. How to reconcile these two accounts?
Neither, of course, provides hard evidence.
The first is just an anecdote. As for the BCC view on the national minimum wage, well, they would, wouldn’t they?
But let’s assume for the moment that they both reflect reality, albeit imperfectly.
This is an excellent illustration of a fundamental point in economic analysis – the distinction between partial equilibrium, or what happens in one market (here the market for pizza workers) and general equilibrium, or what happens to the economy.
It is perfectly possible that reducing immigration will push up wages for pizza workers, while doing nothing – or indeed having the opposite effect – for wages overall, or even for wages for low-paid workers in general.
There is essentially no evidence that migration to the UK has increased unemployment for British workers. But this doesn’t mean that immigrants don’t “take our jobs” (indeed, as I’ve frequently said, I’m sure that I, like many UK-born economists, have at some point failed to get a job because the employer preferred to hire an immigrant).
The point is that immigrants (directly or indirectly) add to labour demand as well as labour supply; they earn money and spend it.
Ignoring this effect, as many do, is what economists call the “lump of labour fallacy” – the idea that there are only a certain number of jobs to go around, so that if an immigrant (or an old person, or a woman) takes one, then a Briton (or a young person, or a man) must lose out.
So while an immigrant may “take” one job from a British worker directly, she may also “create” one job – or indeed more than one job – for a British worker.
The overall impact is an empirical question, and the empirical evidence in the UK is pretty clear – these two effects more or less balance.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be distributional impacts – some Britons may find it easier to find jobs, others harder – just that the overall impact on the employment rate will be broadly neutral, certainly over anything other than the very short term.
Broadly, the same thing applies for wages.
Again, anyone who claims that reduced immigration will increase wages simply because of “supply and demand” is ignoring basic economics.
Reduced immigration may push up wages for pizza restaurants; but if it also reduces demand across the economy as a whole, then it will reduce labour demand too, and hence wages.
Again, this is an empirical question. And again, we have evidence.
A recent study by Steve Nickell and Jumana Saleheen – much cited during the referendum campaign – looked at the impact of immigration on wages. Iain Duncan Smith, for example, claimed that it showed that immigration had led to a 10 per cent fall in wages.
This was, of course, complete fiction – the actual impact is perhaps only one twenty-fifth as large.
Professor Nickell himself later described the actual impact on the wages of low-paid workers as “infinitesimally small”, and regretted that he wasn’t able to say so during the campaign.
Again, there will be distributional impacts – perhaps pizza workers will see some wage gains, while pizza eaters will lose, as higher wages feed through into prices.
But the net impact, even for low-paid workers, is likely to be very small.
However, even this analysis is still mostly a partial equilibrium one.
Studies like that by Nickell and Saleheen that look at the regional or sectoral impact of immigration on wages can’t necessarily pick up wider, or indirect, economic impacts – in particular, the impact of migration on productivity for the economy as a whole, and hence growth in earnings and GDP per capita.
As with trade, the evidence suggests that migration enhances productivity. This could be for a variety of reasons: by increasing competition – certainly true for us economists, who have to raise our game with so many well-qualified immigrants around; by facilitating the growth of high-productivity clusters; or because immigrants produce goods and services that are complementary to native workers.
Perhaps the availability of reasonably priced, high-quality pizza makes journalists such as Nelson and Montgomerie more productive? Maybe this is implausible, but research in Italy has shown that low-skilled immigration – by making childcare more affordable – makes it more likely that high-skilled Italian women will be in work.
So what’s the overall impact of Brexit likely to be? In my recent research with Giuseppe Forte, I looked at both the direct impact of possible Brexit-induced reductions in migration on the wages of low-paid workers, as estimated by Nickell and Saleheen, and the wider economic impacts, using the work of other researchers.
The numbers are highly uncertain but the conclusion is clear: our analysis suggest that the negative overall economic impact of reduced migration will far outweigh any modest wage gains for low-paid workers.
If low wages are the problem, ending free movement is not the solution. | {
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Zach Wolfs Full-Glass Shots During Stinky Date
To Rey's slight distaste, Zach decides to turn their gay date at a garlic restaurant into a party. Watch it go down like a shot of tequila on "Dating #NoFilter." | {
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There were four types of option given for the participants to choose from. Check out the analysis below:
· 35% are Position Trader Investor
· 27% are Day Trader
· 20% are Swing Trader
· 18% are Scalper
This indicates that crypto enthusiasts aren’t prone to take risks and play a safe position of position trader investor.
Now Let’s see the question wise analysis of survey based on feedback received.
Total 26 questions were there in the survey. All are MCQ type and about to cryptocurrency trading platforms (Features, experience, etc…)
Q1. Which Type of Cryptocurrency Exchange do you Trade on?
There are three types of exchange available in the market — Decentralized, Centralized and Hybrid Exchanges.
Let’s see which one is used the most:
Which Type of Cryptocurrency Exchange do you Trade on?
· 39% of the participants trade on Centralized exchange.
We know that some people are not keen on using CEXs (CEX = centralized exchange) since they associate those platforms, as concept, with well known entities like banks (for many, the enemies of decentralisation and authors of many financial crises); but not all the CEXs have to be considered like that, look at platforms like Binance and Huobi, they provide a great service when comes to liquidity and security, that’s why we see more than one third of the participants giving this answer. The world is various and we accept the different choices coming with that. That’s why the Encrybit’s focus is to make an exchange, which can help those people who need a trusted party in order to have a more secure, relaxed and enjoyable trading experience.
· 35% of the participants trade on Decentralized exchange.
As we can see, more than one third of the participants declared that they’re using a DEX (decentralised exchange) like IDEX, Waves DEX, Ether Delta, etc. This solution is like a “double-edged sword”, since you have the positive side, as there isn’t a central entity that controls your funds or keeps the Private Key but on the other side those exchanges have often lack of liquidity and most of the times you have to pay the fee twice, as you have to send the funds from your wallet into the DEX (1º Fee) and then make the trade (2º Fee). We know that the Mt. Gox experience caused giant losses to many people, but this happened 4 years ago and since then, CEXs made big steps in matter of security and insurance policies regarding events like that (Exchange Hacks -> Loss of Funds -> Customer Refund by the Platform). Not everybody trusts themselves keeping Private Keys and we understand that, therefore, we respect the choice of relaying on CEXs for day to day trading activity.
·18% of the participants trade on Hybrid exchange.
The first Hybrid Cryptocurrency Exchange came along just in 2018, trying to give this sort of new generation exchange platform, which “should” take the best features from the CEXs and DEXs in order to make the trading experience fairer, also allowing easy auditing which can satisfy the government requirements. Still they are not used a lot by the traders, who prefer something more reliable and easy to use, without the risk of losing funds or get stuck in some platform bug; it’s still not sure how secure those exchanges are and which guarantees they provide to the traders. Up until now the CEXs are satisfying the trader’s expectations and that’s why Encrybit is pointing to make an all in one, filled with features, reliable and user-friendly cryptocurrency exchange platform…the best one ever seen!
· 8% of the participants have no idea about the type of exchange they trade on.
Even if just the 8% (800 participants), it’s still a considerable percentage of people that have no clue of the exchanges type they’re trading on, that’s unacceptable for the Encrybit’s team; the traders need proper information about where they’re trading, if it’s a DEX, CEX or an hybrid one! That’s why Encrybit trading platform will provide educational sections in order to give the proper knowledge; in the end a skilled and informed trader, is the one who has more chances to get profits and avoid losses due to lack of basic knowledge.
Q2. How Many Cryptocurrency Exchanges have you Signed up for?
As we claim that the present day exchanges are not sufficient to fulfill all the required functionalities and as a result the traders have to opt for more than one exchange.
It will be clear from the results below:
Number of Cryptocurrency Exchanges Traders Signed Up
· 57% of the participants use more than 3 exchanges to trade
· 18% of the participants use 1 exchange to trade
· 14% of the participants use 2 exchanges to trade
· 12% of the participants use 3 exchanges to trade
The statistic looks quite obvious, most of the traders have multiple accounts, and this happens because of trading pairs scarcity and low liquidity, therefore, traders have to sign up on several exchanges. This is a very annoying situation, making the trading experience a real nightmare sometimes! We know the hurdle of having 3, 4 or 5 usernames and passwords to remember and switching constantly between the different accounts in order to trade the favourite cryptocurrency, which in some cases is not yet listed on the exchange you trade on or won’t be listed because of the exchange policies.
Q3. According to you, Which Feature will Reduce Cryptocurrency Trading Difficulties for Beginners?
The participants were asked for which features to implement for reducing the trading difficulties. They were allowed to choose more than one option from the given.
View the insights below:
Features to Reduce Trading Difficulties
· 39% demand Social Trading
· 15% demand Educational Blog
· 15% demand Handy Expert Advice
· 10% demand Paper Trading
· The rest 21% have chosen the combination of the above mentioned options.
The majority of participants have chosen the social trading as most requested feature into the exchange platform; the social trading is a very useful tool if you want to have good profits but you’re not skilled enough, due to lack of experience, being a beginner in the trading environment. Social Trading feature is already available to the public, but it’s not there yet, it misses in simplicity and usability, most of the times you don’t even hold the cryptocurrencies you think you’re buying copying the trade, but *CFDs, which are totally another asset compered to the actual coin/token itself. Therefore, social trading needs to be taken aside, made better for the traders’ experience, revolutionised in that sense and then it will be the amazing feature traders’ are expecting to see and will definitely enjoy. The implementation of blockchain will provide transparency, automation and fair rewards mechanism, which seem to be another major concern in social trading systems nowadays. In all of that, Encrybit is trying to solve these issues, especially allowing you to copy other trades and actually hold of the cryptocurrencies you’re buying, not a contract or whatsoever. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_for_difference
Q4. Have you Ever Place your Trade Bases on Order book’s Potentials Position?
The participants were asked about to place their trader based on order book’s potential position or not.
Here is the result:
Trade bases on Order book’s Potentials Position — Yes or No?
· 70% opted for Yes
· 30% opted for No
The response to the question above shows that a detailed order book is very important for the trading experience; it allows you to get in the trade at the right moment and maximize the profits. The current order books are not detailed enough; they can be even confusing sometimes! Encrybit knows this and that’s why the team wants to implement a more detailed order book assigning specific colour ranges to easily identify the bunch of orders at a certain price level.
Q5. Would you Like to Get Alert on Sudden Increase and Decrease in Coin Price?
The partakes were asked whether they would like to get alert on sudden changes in the coin price via sms or email?
Here is their answer!
Would like to get alert on sudden changes in the coin price via SMS or Email?
· 90% opted for Yes
· 10% opted for No
This was pretty obvious as if anything wrong happens, an instant alert can make it possible to revert the situation or prevent it from worsening further. Encrybit is going to implement the alert feature and withdrawal on correct OTP and email verification along with option of whitelisted their IP.
Q6. Would you Like to Receive the Latest News and Updates about your Invested Coin on the Exchange?
The participants were asked whether they would like to have latest news and updates about the coins launched and the cryptocurrency market on their dashboard.
Let’s see what they answered.
Want to receive the Latest News and Updates about your Invested Coin on the Exchange?
· 91% said Yes
· 9% said No
Of course the answer was almost entirely a YES! Who doesn’t want a news section integrated into the exchange where they trade? Everybody! Imagine having an all in one platform where you can get information about recent news, good or bad, so you can straight trade the cryptocurrency in question and get the advantage of being already there, ready to exploit the results of the those news. We all know that the market sentiment can shift quickly after bad or good news and that affects the price; why shouldn’t you be able to take advantage of that? Going on different news website could make you lose precious time, which ultimately could result in a late entry in a trade.
Q7. Detail Order Book helps you to Get Quick Position in the Cryptocurrency Market?
· 87% said Yes
· 13% said No
Again, an improved and enhanced order book in place and Encrybit will implement this based on the response and traders expectations.
Q8. Your Preferable Way to Trade is via …….
The participants were asked whether they would like to trade via website, desktop application or mobile.
The responses received were:
Which is your Preferable Way to Trade?
· 48% said Website
· 38% said Mobile App
· 14% said Desktop Application
Here we can see a sort of split between traders who trade on websites (48%) and who trade on the mobile app (38%); that’s a bit of surprise actually, since trading on the website via your laptop/desktop PC is much easier and gives you a bigger vision of the situation while trading, easing the usage of charts with their tools and switching between different pages/sheets if needed, but we follow what the community wants and that’s why Encrybit will provide also a mobile app, other that the website, in order to please both the groups.
Q9. Would like to have the Nominee Functionality on the Exchange?
The traders were asked whether they would like to have nominee functionality on the exchange or not.
The responses received were:
Nominee functionality on the exchange or not?
· 82% said Yes
· 18% said No
It’s very clear that traders want this new features. It is quite new concept to have nominee functionality on the trading platform, Encrybit will include this functionality as per the traders expectations to new generation exchanges after launching public version.
Q10. Do you Prefer to have Details about your Overall Profit/Loss on the Dashboard?
The survey had a question whether the traders like to have their overall profit/loss on the dashboard
and the responses received were:
Want Details about your Overall Profit/loss on the Dashboard?
· 91% said Yes
· 9% said No
The majority of participants have answered positively to have overall profit/loss reports and that’s understandable; every trader knows that, being informed about their trades through detailed reports on profits/losses, is very important in order to adjust their trading approach if required, in definitive how can you know if you’re trading correctly making good entries/exits if there aren’t any reports showing it? Through constant reports, a trader can have a broader view and improve their trading skills comparing the different results day by day.
Q11. According to you, Which is the Most Important Factor while Choosing a Cryptocurrency Exchange?
Encrybit framed this question to get an idea about which factor do the trader give more importance while choosing an exchange. The traders were allowed to choose more than factor from Security, Liquidity, Trading Fees, Customer support, Coin pairs availability and ease of use.
The responses received were:
What to consider while Choosing CryptoExchange?
· 47% said they would consider all the mentioned factors
· 9% said Security
· 7% said Liquidity
· 3% said Trading Fees
· 3% said Customer Support
· Coin Pairs Availability and Ease of Use both received 1% votes each from the participants.
As we can see the participants demand an improvement in all the characteristics cited above, that shows how the current exchanges still lack in things like security (9%) and liquidity (7%) for the big part; imagine to trade a cryptocurrency, which has so low liquidity that your buy/sell orders won’t get filled, that’s unacceptable! Costumer support is also a big concern for the traders, that’s why Encrybit points to provide a fast, competent, multi-language and well-structured costumer support service, in order to solve the trader’s issues in the quickest way possible.
Q12. Do you think Multiple Chart of Different Time span on Single Screen should be Available on Exchange?
On existing exchanges, you’ll have to open multiple tabs for viewing single chart on different time frames. This makes comparison difficult as the trader has to switch between tabs. We asked the traders whether they would like to have the feature in single tab for easy comparison
and the response received were:
Multiple Chart of Different Time span on Single Screen should be Available on Exchange?
· 71% said Yes
· 15% have no idea about the functionality
· 14% said No
First and foremost we need to look at the 15% of the participants who said “No idea”, that brings us again to think about how the traders are still not educated enough to the point that they have no clue about the advantage they could have with some features as the ones proposed by Encrybit; the traders community needs more educational material in order to have a clearer idea of what they need or what can give them more advantages in the trading experience. The 71% chose, understandably, “yes” as answer; having multiple charts on single screen with different time spans into the trading platform makes easier to find the signals, which could make you understand quicker and easier the best entry/exit, support/resistance, avoiding premature entries which could result ultimately in less advantageous trades, if not losing ones.
Q13. How you Manage your Risk while Entering in the Trade?
The participants were asked about how do they manage risk while cryptocurrency trading and were given 3 options with multiple selection. (Plan your trade before execution, calculating proper loss based on recent high & low,based on their account size and trading personality.)
Here is the response!
How Traders manage the risk while Trading?
· 45% checked all the 3 given options.
· 18% said they plan their trade before actual execution.
· 17% said they calculate proper stop loss bases of recent high and low.
· 8% said that on the basis of their account size and trading personality.
Most participants said they’re taking the proper countermeasures when trading cryptocurrencies and that’s very important, since a losing trader will probably leave the trading environment and never come back, we don’t want that! If you, trader, want to leave the space, has to be because you feel that trading is not for you and not because, for the lack of proper tools and educational/informative material, you ended up with losses. Planned trades and proper analysis before the actual execution are the main approaches you need to have before start a trade, if you don’t know how and where to start, Encrybit will provide you all the help you need and then, with a proper knowledge, you should decide if cryptocurrency trading is for you or not!
Q14. Have you Ever Trap in False Breakouts?
The traders were asked whether they have ever been trapped in false breakout.
We received the following responses:
Trap in False Breakouts — Yes or No?
· 62% said Yes
· 26% said No
· 12% had no idea
Let’s explain what a breakout is, since we still have traders who don’t know it; it’s when a support line/resistance line get passed/overtaken (breakout) signalling a possible reverse (price increase/decrease). The false breakout happens when there is this signal but it’s just for a short moment and then the price bounce back going in the opposite direction. If the trader doesn’t recognise a false breakout in time, being too emotional in the trade, it could result in massive losses, especially if you’re using leverages. Unfortunately as we see the answers given, many get trapped in false breakouts and that’s why we keep stressing on the fact that the traders need to be more educated and have the proper TA tools in order to avoid losses.
Q15. Is ‘Social Trading’ Feature Helpful for Cryptocurrency Market?
Social trading is a wonderful feature for both experienced and novice traders. We asked the participants whether they find it useful or not.
Let’s see what they said:
Is Social Trading is Helpful or not?
· 76% said Yes
· 14% were not aware of the social trading concept
· 10% said No
Social trading is one of the big implementations of the platform; we think it will help a lot, especially beginners or those who cannot spend a lot of time on the platform. In life it’s known that who’s more skilled and experienced, will always do better than beginners and unskilled/inexperienced people, that’s why Encrybit wants to provide this tool to the traders and keep them satisfied and engaged.
Q16. For Day Trading in Cryptocurrency, Have you Ever used Crypto Scanner?
Crypto scanner is an automatic analysis of the cryptocurrency market history to find best trading opportunities. The traders were asked whether they have used this feature while day trading.
What are their answers:
Have you ever used Crypto Scanner in Day Trading?
· 47% said Yes
· 43% said No
· 10% were not aware about the concept
The crypto scanner works by automatically analysing the market history for each available coin/token and that’s why Encrybit thinks it should be implemented in the platform; even if the answers were split almost equally between “yes” and “no”, we think that knowing these information make the trading choice much easier, without the need of going around the web on different third party platforms looking for the coin/token history and wasting time, which can be used trading the different coins/tokens. Remember that every instant lost, could be a lost profit!
Q17. Before Entering Crypto Market, Is the Use of Simulators or Paper Trading Useful?
The traders were asked about the usefulness of simulators or paper trading before they actually enter in the cryptocurrency market.
Here are the responses:
Is the Use of Simulators or Paper Trading Useful?
· 69% said Yes
· 31% said No
Another important feature prompted by Encrybit is the chance to do simulated trading without the use of real money, but still using the live markets data; this feature is rarely given by other platforms and that’s unacceptable. As we can see there is still a considerable portion of traders, which prefer to have this option into a trading platform, especially novice traders, who need this tool to try/experiment the cryptocurrency trading environment with simulations and virtual money before actually start trading with their own funds. Our objective is not to make money on the traders skin, making them escape after big losses; a happy trader is a more permanent trader in our opinion!
Q18. How do you Place a Stop Loss in the Cryptocurrency Market?
The traders were asked how they place stop loss in the cryptocurrency market among the given 3 options — Mental Stop loss, Absolute or No Stop Loss.
Here are the amazing answer:
How do you place a Stop Loss in the Cryptocurrency market?
· 55% opted for Absolute Stop loss once your market/limit order is executed
· 15% opted for Mental Stop loss
· 12% opted for No Stop loss
· 11% said they don’t know
As we can see the stop loss used is the absolute one, which executes the order once the limit is reached. This method, as the participants clearly expressed, is the most used one; since you don’t even need to be online in order to execute it, this way of executing orders, which is the opposite for the mental stop loss, is the most advised if you don’t have time to be on the terminal at any time during the day; also it can be very useful, since the price when close to support/resistance levels, can reverse very quickly so if you’re not fast enough, you can miss the chance to buy/sell at the best price. The current trading platforms are still lacking in something that should be fundamental for the traders’ experience, best TA tools and more detailed UI, that’s what is needed by the traders in order to minimizing losses and maximising profits. Here comes Encrybit with its features enriched trading platform, full of amazing TA tools, interactive and user friendly interface and high quality support when comes to solving any issue encountered by the traders.
Q19. Do you think that Risk Management is the only Key to Success in the Cryptocurrency Market?
There was a question which asked the traders whether proper risk management leads to success or not.
Answers are amazing!
Whether proper risk management leads to success or not?
· 71% said Yes
· 29% said No
Two thirds of the participants who answered to this question said that risk management is the only key to success in cryptocurrency trading; honestly and respectfully towards the survey participants we have to say that it’s not the only key to success in that, cryptocurrency trading and trading in general is much more than that, Analysis of Fundamentals, Technical Analysis and being updated on the cryptocurrency you’re trading are all absolutely important in order to have good profits while trading. As we know there so many pumps and dumps in the cryptocurrency space, therefore, if you’re not aware of that, if you have no idea of the project development, if you don’t keep yourself updated, you can get trapped and left with a bag of useless coins/tokens, which have no value!
Q20. Are you keeping a Log of your Everyday Trades in Paper or Excel?
We wanted to know whether the traders record their everyday trades in excel or a sheet of paper.
Here are the responses:
Keeping the Log of your Everyday Trades in Paper or Excel?
· 67% said Yes
· 33% said No
Keep a log of your trades is a very useful thing and it’s nice to see that many traders are using this methodology. Imagine you’re making many trades during the day every day for a year, that’s a lot of trades! Therefore having a log could result very useful to track all of them, make averages or whatever statistics you’d like to apply. That’s why Encrybit will provide a feature, which will allow you to export your everyday trade in a CSV file.
Q21. Is keeping yourself updated with the Latest News and Social Activities for Specific Coins helpful to you for getting Directional Trade?
The traders were asked to stay updated with the latest news and social activities for specific coin to get right direction to trader.
Here are the answers:
Want to stay updated with the Latest News and Social Activities for Specific Coins?
· 89% said Yes
· 11% said No
As we said in previous conclusions, there is more than one key to success in the trading environment; being informed about recent news and social activities is fundamental in order to choose the best coin or make the trade at the best time. Luckily the participants agreed with us and we will content them doing our best in order to implement a great news section satisfying even the more curious traders with the latest information about the coins/tokens listed on our platform and even more!
Q22. Real-time chat with Trader’s Community for Different Tokens and Coins are helpful for you to In and Out from the Existing Trades.
Encrybit asked the traders is the real-time chat for token/coin with trader’s community is helpful or not to take decision of In or Out?
Here are the responses:
Real-time chat with Trader’s Community for Different Tokens and Coins are helpful or not?
· 61% said Yes
· 30% said Maybe
· 9% said No
Apart the no answer to this question (9%), we see a good amount of participants answer positively and the remaining one third saying “maybe”. Encrybit points to manage the chat groups but in later stages it will appoint a community of active and selected traders from the exchange’s users to moderate and create groups. Only a certain level of traders will get opportunity to manage a chat room. Encrybit is planning to create token/coin specific chat groups to avoid confusion and difficulties reading the mixed content. Users in the chat groups will be able to share their thoughts in form of screenshots or texts.
Q23. Are you Aware of Multiple Market Stop Loss?
We were asked this question to know the awareness of multiple market stop loss in trader.
Let’s see the result:
Are you Aware of Multiple Market Stop Loss?
· 65% said Yes
· 35% said No
As we have seen there different kinds of Stop Losses and the Multiple Market Stop Loss can be a great option when comes to maximizing profits or marginalizing losses. This tool is used taking in consideration risks and rewards and is very helpful when a market moves suddenly, especially during your absence. Imagine you would like to take some profits on the cryptocurrency you have bought but also limit the losses if the price drops; with the Multiple Market Stop Loss you can do so, therefore, this instrument gives you the chance to adopt different strategies in regards of the unexpected market movements and its trend, making the trading much less stressing when you’re not able to be on the terminal at particular for longer than usual. Unfortunately not many exchanges provide this amazing tool and that’s why more than one third is not aware of it; Encrybit will obviate to that implementing it into its exchange platform, giving to the traders the chance to set Multiple Market Stop Losses and avoiding the necessity to be constantly on the terminal fearing possible and sudden market swings.
Q24. Have you ever Traded with Trailing Stop Loss?
There was a question which asked the traders whether they ever trade with the trailing stop loss or not.
Let’s see what they answered:
Have you ever Traded with Trailing Stop Loss?
· 54% said Yes
· 46% said No
The answers to this question were almost 50/50, showing a small propensity towards the “yes”. Synthetically, a trailing stop automatically shadows the price movement, following the coin/token rising price action. Over a period of time, the trailing stop will self-adjust, moving from minimizing losses to protecting profits as the price reaches new highs. Since a big part of the traders expressed the tendency to use this tool, Encrybit will give the opportunity to use it, making the trading experience more satisfying, allowing the traders to maximise their profits.
Q25. How do you Create your Position for Specific Coins/Tokens?
The traders were given 5 options with multiple selection. (Support/ Resistant, Trend Line, News. Chart Pattern Fundamentals).
Check their responses:
· 46% chose all the options
· 10% chose Support/Resistant
· 6% chose News
· 6% chose Trend line
· 5% chose Chart Pattern
· 2% chose Fundamentals
Accordingly to the answers given, 46% of the participants expressed that all the five “indicators” are equally important when comes to decide about taking a position in the market; we agree with that since, as mentioned before, there are many keys to success in a trade. The second most answered was the support/resistance of a coin/token and we also agree to that since those levels are taken in consideration by most of the traders in order to understand a possible price reverse or the start of a bull/bear run; same speech applies to the trend line.
Q26. Which Technical Indicator are you using Most of the Time?
We asked the traders regarding the choice of their technical indicators.
The answers are amazing:
Mostly Used Trading Indicators ..?
· 31% said Volume Chart
· 15% said SMA
· 13% said EMA
· 12% said Price Action
· 8% said RSI
· 7% said MACD
· 5% said Bollinger Bands
· 3% Said Pivot Points
· 3% Said ATR
· 2% Said ADX | {
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This is on the danger of pushing it too far. It is a delicate business knowing what the moment will allow. You can be right in intent and wrong on execution, and if you’re wrong on that it may not matter you were right in intent. A great woman in business and the arts once told me the most dangerous place to be is significantly ahead of the curve. People will dismiss you as too far out. Better to be just a little ahead of the curve, which allows people to wonder if you might be a visionary. She in fact was a visionary, and careful not to seem too many steps ahead.
A... | {
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ムービックは、映画『劇場版 ソードアート・オンライン -オーディナル・スケール-』の描き下ろしイラスト商品化企画の第5弾商品ラインナップを公開しました。
本企画は、季節にそった新規イラストを使用した商品が登場するというもので、1年を通して『SAO』の世界を感じられます。
第5弾のテーマは“ジューンブライド”です。キリト、アスナの“ジューンブライド”シーンを描き下ろしたイラストが商品化されます。なお、第5弾グッズは、6月21日ごろより全国のアニメイト、アニメイトオンラインショップ、ムービック通信販売などで発売予定で、現在予約受付中です。
『ビッグタペストリー』
キリトとアスナの美しいウェディングイラストを使用したビッグタペストリーです。
■『ビッグタペストリー』商品概要
【発売予定日】6月21日ごろ予定
【価格】4,000円＋税
【サイズ】約70.7cm×100cm
『ペアグラス』
キリトとアスナのウェディングをお祝いしたペアグラスです。
■『ペアグラス』商品概要
【発売予定日】6月21日ごろ予定
【価格】2,000円＋税
【サイズ】口径約9cm×高さ9.1cm
『手帳型スマートフォンケース』
ウェディングイラスト使用した手帳型スマートフォンケースです。
■『手帳型スマートフォンケース』商品概要
【発売予定日】6月21日ごろ予定
【価格】3,500円＋税
【サイズ】約15cm×7.5cm（サイズ内全機種対応）
『ブックカバー』
シックなデザインのブックカバーです。
■『ブックカバー』商品概要
【発売予定日】6月21日ごろ予定
【価格】800円＋税
【サイズ】約10.5cm×14.8cm（文庫判対応サイズ）
『アクリルスタンド（2種）』
ウェルカムボードが映えるアクリルスタンドです。
■『アクリルスタンド（2種）』商品概要
【発売予定日】6月21日ごろ予定
【価格】各1,200円＋税
【サイズ】全長約15cm
『クリアファイル（2種）』
ウェディングイラストを使用したクリアファイルです。
■『クリアファイル（2種）』商品概要
【発売予定日】6月21日ごろ予定
【価格】各350円＋税
【サイズ】A4対応サイズ
『缶バッジセット』
キリトとアスナの缶バッジセットです。
■『缶バッジセット』商品概要
【発売予定日】6月21日ごろ予定
【価格】600円＋税
【サイズ】直径約5.6cm
※画像はイメージです。実際の商品とは異なります。
※商品の発売および仕様は、諸般の事情により変更・延期・中止になる場合があります。
(C)2016 川原 礫／ＫＡＤＯＫＡＷＡ アスキー・メディアワークス刊／SAO MOVIE Project
関連サイト | {
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An office boy at digital payment company Paytm has made over ₹20 lakh in the recently conducted stock sale wherein around 200 employees sold their shares worth ₹300 crore. The stock sale also saw some 20-25 employees make ₹6-7 crore each (around $1 million). The sale made Paytm second-most valuable internet startup in India with a valuation of $10 billion.
Shifa Naseer / 01:51 pm on short byon | {
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January 20th, 2011
This week, the Internet went all knee-slappin’ hysterical when a video of a woman who fell into a mall fountain while walking and texting was posted on YouTube.
Yes, she was embarrassed and, of course, she’s suing because that’s what people do in this country when they should just walk away and laugh at themselves.
And that is this woman’s problem.
She does not know how to laugh like a hyena at her own stupidity.
Let me show you how it’s done, you silly woman.
I lunched with some blogger friends a few weeks ago at a very fancy shmancy restaurant. I’m more of a cheeseburger and fries kind of girl, so I was totally out of my element.
After our meal, we decided to order some dessert. The only thing on the menu that sounded exciting to me was fried ice cream.
Who doesn’t like ice cream, and holy clogged arteries, who doesn’t like it fried?
All three of us ordered it and when it was delivered to the table, the waiter approached each dish with a small serving boat, which I was hoping was full of hot fudge.
It was not.
It was full of something that set my dessert on fire when the waiter touched a flame-tipped lighter to it.
OK, so now I’m hip to the dessert. I’m getting flambéed here.
I dig it.
It’s pretty.
When my dessert flames out, I start eating. It’s good and decent, but not fabulous, as I prefer my desserts to be.
Why? Because at the bottom of my dish lay a puddle of cream mixed with alcohol.
Alcohol? Why is there alcohol in my dessert? Who puts alcohol in ice cream? I didn’t ask for it and I’m not at all pleased.
But I continue eating because my lunch mates are infinitely more refined than me and not the kind of people who go around freaking out about alcohol in their desserts.
After we say our good-byes and I get home, I immediately Google “flambé” and am surprised to learn that it’s alcohol that makes a flambéed dessert shoot up in flames when you light it.
Oh.
Oh, wait.
I knew that, didn’t I? Yes, I’m sure I knew that. I think. No, I didn’t. Did I? No. I did not.
What I’m sure of is that I’m a dumbass and my blogger friends who are just now reading about this will never invite me to lunch again because I’m just that stupid.
So, lady who fell into a fountain while texting, that is how you laugh at yourself. You do not sue someone. Instead, you realize how dumb you are and then you blog about it for other people’s enjoyment. | {
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Movimento 5 Stelle e Lega insieme al 45% contro il 41-42% di Pd-Forza Italia-Ncd. Secondo quanto risulta ad Affaritaliani.it sarebbe questo l'esito di un clamoroso sondaggio commissionato da Silvio Berlusconi e arrivato ad Arcore poco prima di Natale. Si tratta di indicazioni, tendenze e ipotesi. Che però hanno profondamente allarmato l'ex Cavaliere, già in ansia per il destino di Mediaset con l'assalto dei francesi di Vivendi. Il sondaggio top secret è stato immediatamente inviato anche al Nazareno provocando un terremoto pure nel quartier generale del Partito Democratico. Ecco perché Berlusconi non ha alcuna intenzione di tornare alle urne rapidamente e vuole puntellare il governo Gentiloni.
Da qui l'ipotesi di una nascita di un Nazareno-bis ma questa volta con l'attuale premier (e con il potentissimo Franceschini) visto che Renzi insiste con le elezioni nel più breve tempo possibile. Preoccupazione per l'ipotesi di una saldatura 5 Stelle-Lega, premiata dai sondaggi, si registra anche al Quirinale e a Bruxelles. A questo punto è probabile che il Palazzo farà di tutto per ritardare il più possibile l'appuntamento con le urne puntando nel frattempo sull'approvazione di una legge elettorale proporzionale che tenti di arginare le forze anti-sistema e anti-Europa. Resta da vedere se davvero Grillo e Salvini riusciranno a intavolare un dialogo, con tutte le incognite dei rispettivi elettorati, e se Giorgia Meloni deciderà di essere della partita - nel caso l'intesa M5S-Lega andasse davvero in porto - o se si farà si chiamerà fuori. | {
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Yakov Dzhugashvili, Stalin’s elder son, served in the Red Army during the Second World War, and was captured, or surrendered, in the initial stages of the German invasion of the USSR. There are still many contradictory legends in circulation about the death of Yakov Dzhugashvili, as there are about all the important events in his life.
Yakov, born in 1907, was the son of Stalin’s first wife, Ekaterina Svanidze. His mother died a few months later, and he was raised by his maternal uncle, who urged him to acquire higher education. He travelled to Moscow, learned Russian (his native language was Georgian) and eventually graduated from a military academy. Yakov and his father Stalin never got along. Allegedly once Stalin referred to Yakov as a “mere cobbler”.
Their relationship came to a breaking point in 1925, when Yakov began living with the daughter of an Orthodox priest, Zoya Gunina. The outraged Stalin, however, refused to accept the young woman, who had formerly been a classmate of Yakov. As a result of the permanent conflicts, the deeply hurt young man attempted suicide. The bullet pierced his lung but missed his heart. This prompted the dictator to make the sarcastic remark: “You couldn’t even do this properly”.
Dzhugashvili was captured on 16 July 1941 during the Battle of Smolensk. It is unclear if Yakov was captured or surrendered. In February 2013 Der Spiegel printed evidence that it interpreted as indicating that Yakov surrendered. A letter written by Dzhugashvili’s brigade commissar to the Red Army’s political director, quoted by Spiegel, states that after Dzhugashvili’s battery had been bombed by the Germans, he and another soldier initially put on civilian clothing and escaped, but then at some point Dzhugashvili stayed behind, saying that he wanted to stay and rest.
From other sources, it appears that the retreating Yakov Dzhugashvili was handed over to the Germans by his father’s unhappy subjects, the Russian muzhiks, who hated the kolkhoz system and the Soviet power in general. In the first hours of capture the panic-stricken young man got rid of his officer’s insignia and hid among the masses of prisoners of war. Unfortunately for him he was recognized by one of his former comrades who immediately turned him in.
Soon afterwards the unshaven artillery officer, was interrogated by the Abwehr’s most trained Russian experts. All his words were carefully written down, although only part of these documents have been made public. In any case, from the records of the first interrogations we can conclude that Yakov Dzhugashvili did not abase himself in front of the Germans.
After a while, however, the cornered artillery officer inevitably became more open. He had a very bad opinion of his own division, and even about other units of the red Army, which had been insufficiently prepared for the war. He told his captors that the Red commanders behaved improperly in peacetime and often even during combat. He added that the rich peasants, the kulaks, who had formerly been “the protectors of tsarism and the bourgeoise”, dominated the Soviet system. When answering questions about his family it turned out just how loose his ties were with his father. He gave the year of the death of his stepmother, Nadezhda Alluluyeva, as 1934 rather than 1932, nor could he say exactly how old his younger brother Vasily was.
Stalin found out about his son’ capture when he received a package from the Germans that included a picture of his son. “The fool – he couldn’t even shot himself!” an angry Stalin complained to his younger son, Vasily. The rumor was that Stalin blamed Yakov for “surrendering like a coward” to the enemy. The Nazi German propaganda machine immediately showered the Soviet trenches with leaflets. These stated that, with the exceptions of “commissars and Jews”, they promised good treatment for those Red soldiers and commanders who surrendered unarmed.
Several leaflets featured a photograph of Yakov Dzhugashvili, smiling at the Wehrmacht officers surrounding him. Printed on the back of one of the propaganda publications was a copy letter he had written to his father. It had been extracted from him by the Germans immediately after his capture, and via diplomatic channels had been forwarded to its addressee:
“Dear Father! I have been taken prisoner. I am in good health. I will soon be sent to a camp for officers in Germany. I am being treated well. I wish you god health. Greeting to everyone. Yasha”.
Later in the war the Germans offered to trade him for a German officer held prisoner, some say Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus, who had recently surrendered at Stalingrad, but Stalin adamantly refused such a deal, denying that he had a son who had been taken prisoner. (A story later circulated that Stalin had alleged that he would not trade a field marshal for an ordinary soldier.)
Over the next months the German secret services could obtain little new information from Stalin’s elder son, who was temporarily guarded in a villa in Berlin. Joseph Goebbels and his colleagues initially hope, however, that they could make a puppet of him and involve him in the Russian-language radio propaganda broadcasts. When their plan failed, Yakov Dzhugashvili, whose nerves by that time had obviously deteriorated, was taken on the orders of Himmler to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, after spending time in several temporary officers’ camps.
It was there that the Stalin’s elder son was shot dead, late in the evening of April 14, 1943, in circumstances that to this day remain unclear. According to one widespread version the prisoner unexpectedly started to walk out of the camp and deliberately, or accidentally, touched the barbed wire fence. Then one of the guards shot at him.
New declassified files show that Dzhugashvili was shot by a guard for refusing to obey orders. While Dzhugashvili was walking around the camp he was ordered back to the barracks under the threat of being shot. Dzhugashvili refused and shouted, “Shoot!” The guard shot him in the head.
It is conceivable that he committed suicide: he had had suicidal tendencies since his youth. Whatever the case, he was finding it hard to cope with the pressures exerted on him by visitors arriving from Berlin with cameras and tape-records. He even got into fight with his English fellow prisoners, who treated him disparagingly and on several occasions hurt him physically. Apparently, he had been involved in one such confrontation on the day he was killed. Either way, this was seen by Stalin as a more honorable death, and Stalin’s attitude towards his son softened slightly. | {
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we've had one, yes but what about second upvote?
83,299 shares | {
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People with social anxiety disorder usually experience significant emotional distress in the following situations:
Being introduced to other people
Being teased or criticized
Being the center of attention
Being watched while doing something
Meeting people in authority (“important people”)
Most social encounters, especially with strangers
Going around the room (or table) in a circle and having to say something
Interpersonal relationships, whether friendships or romantic
This list is certainly not a complete list of symptoms — other feelings have been associated with social anxiety as well.
The physiological manifestations that accompany social anxiety may include intense fear, racing heart, turning red or blushing, excessive sweating, dry throat and mouth, trembling (fear of picking up a glass of water or using utensils to eat), swallowing with difficulty, and muscle twitches, particularly around the face and neck. | {
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Source: Screengrab courtesy of Rabble
THE ISRAELI EMBASSY has deleted a tweet featuring the Mona Lisa in a hijab and carrying a large weapon.
A comment from the embassy itself underneath the photo said: “Don’t say we didn’t warn…”
The embassy, which is no stranger to controversial tweets, posted the tweet yesterday evening.
The tweet appeared to be in reference to the recent attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket. Four Jewish men died in the latter attack.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz criticised the tweet, describing the incident as a “gaffe”.
The doctored photo in today’s tweet first emerged in July, when the Embassy posted a number of controversial photographs on social media. They included a depiction of the Molly Malone statue in a niqab.
These photos were deleted after attracting a backlash online, but the embassy didn’t say why it had deleted them.
A request for comment today has so far gone unanswered. | {
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Europe is being affected by the threat of US sanctions on firms that trade with Iran
Plans to reduce European Union dependence on the US dollar – and so improve the bloc’s ability to run an independent foreign policy that is less exposed to US sanctions – were unveiled on Wednesday by the European commission.
The proposal has grown in significance for European integrationists as firms from EU countries withdraw investments from Iran faced by the threat of punitive secondary sanctions from the US.
The EU, unlike the US, wants to maintain the nuclear deal with Iran signed in 2015, but needs to deliver on its side of the bargain by increasing trade with Tehran.
Iranian rulers are becoming increasingly restive as the EU struggles to develop an institutional mechanism to shield Europe from the threat of US sanctions on firms, banks and individual directors that continue to trade with Iran. The US secondary sanctions can be applied on any European firm with links to the US market.
But the commission plans, focusing on increasing the use of the euro in the energy field, are part of a longer-term move to “de-dollarise” the world economy.
The proposed measures include using the euro as default currency in energy contracts agreed between EU member states and third countries, as well as the creation of euro-denominated price benchmarks for crude oil. The EU is one of the world’s largest energy importers.
Why a rising dollar risks unbalancing the world outside the US | Mohamed El-Erian Read more
In other measures, the commission says the EU must develop “a full range of trustworthy interest rate benchmarks” in financial markets, and a fully integrated instant payment system. The bloc’s executive arm will also explore the possibility to further develop the role of the euro in foreign exchange markets.
Launching the long-term plan, the EU economic affairs commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, said: “A wider use of the euro in the global economy yields important potential for better protecting European citizens and companies against external shocks and making the international finance and monetary system more resilient.”
The commission added its plans came “at a time where the recent global trends, the emergence of new economic powers along with the development of new technologies are supporting a potential shift towards a more diversified and multipolar system of several global currencies”.
In a pamphlet coinciding with the commission’s plan, the Centre for European Reform thinktank said the proposals had developed because “the Trump administration is weaponising economic policy, making the euro’s standing in global markets a question of foreign policy, rather than simply of economics”.
The CER said: “The ambition to give the euro a greater role in global markets faces huge economic and political obstacles. Not only is the dollar’s role in the world economy deeply entrenched, the policy changes that would bring about the conditions necessary for growing the euro’s role – an ample supply of European safe assets and a European Central Bank (ECB) that recognises its worldwide responsibilities – would meet fierce resistance, especially in Berlin. Likewise, the consequences of increased global demand for the euro would challenge some of the eurozone’s core policies.”
In the short term the EU is trying to protect trade with Iran by developing a special purpose vehicle, as a way of facilitating trade between the EU and Iran.
An SPV could take many forms, from a standalone state-owned bank to a clearing house for companies that transfer money to Iran, repatriate funds from the country or engage in a form of barter trade with it. On the barter proposals, if an EU firm bought oil from Iran, the SPV could arrange for the cost to be netted off by another firm selling into Iran, so reducing the need for currency or bank transactions.
Can Trump strike the right balance on monetary policy? Read more
Speaking on Wednesday the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Zarif, said he had been assured by the EU that it had made the final arrangements for the SPV, and the proposals would be established in the near future. He added the US was trying to gather information about the SPV in order to hinder its development, so the EU was keeping plans for the SPV confidential to avoid US sabotage.
Richard Nephew, sanctions expert in the state department under Barack Obama, said in London the US commitment to sanctions as a policy tool had bipartisan support, and few see the tool as being over-used. He predicted that, in May, the US – in a bid to topple the regime – may remove waivers on Iranian oil imports currently provided to China and India. He suggested the Indian waiver may end after the elections in India in April.
He said: “What we are hearing out of Russia, China and Europe about finding alternative payment systems is going ultimately be pretty detrimental both to general globalisation and economic integration but also to the use of sanctions as a tool of the US. Anyone who has studied US foreign policy enough knows that just because something is inevitably not in our interest does not mean we are going to stop doing it in the short term.”
He suggested the EU, faced by the threat of US sanctions, may reconfigure initially its planned SPV so it is a humanitarian vehicle. Humanitarian goods, primarily food and medicine, are exempt from US sanctions, so the organisers of a humanitarian SPV should not be subject to sanctions. | {
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