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Entramos en Plaza Podemos y comenzamos nuestra visita. La fachada es blanca y morada, como el logo del partido, y está abarrotada de gente desde abril de este año. Allí habitan de forma permanente más de 3.000 personas, pero ayer pasearon por ella - como nosotros hoy - casi 11.000. Se ha convertido en el punto oficial de encuentro y debate entre los seguidores y miembros de Podemos.
¿Antisistema? ¿Populista? La batalla en Wikipedia por la definición de Podemos
Saber más
Al principio los que se dejaban caer eran personas que ya estaban en Reddit, y que se sorprendieron de forma positiva al encontrarse a Podemos por allí. Desde hace un mes, según explican a este medio quienes están detrás del espacio, ha comenzado a llegar gente que entra por primera vez en su vida. Para hacer la travesía más sencilla, el partido ha publicado en el propio 'subreddit' y en la web oficial instrucciones sobre cómo funciona.
Cualquier propuesta u opinión tiene cabida. Incluso, de vez en cuando, las caras más visibles del partido se acercan a debatir e invitan a los demás a hacer preguntas. “Soy Pablo Iglesias Turrión y puedes preguntarme lo que quieras”. Se trata de una rueda de masas, uno de los espacios más concurridos de la Plaza, donde cualquiera puede hacer preguntas a las caras más visibles del partido.
Pero no pienses que está idea se la han sacado de la manga. La han tomado prestada de los clásicos 'IAmA' de Reddit, un formato que se hizo especialmente famoso después de que lo utilizara el mismísimo Barack Obama.
Erik Martin, director general de Reddit, analiza Plaza Podemos para HojaDeRouter.com. "Tiene personalidad. El 'subreddit' está bien pensado, organizado, tiene una gran cantidad de comentarios, de suscriptores y de votos". Los impulsores del partido que sorprendió en las europeas utilizan la popular plataforma estadounidense, que se encuentra en el puesto 50 entre las más visitadas de todo internet, "y lo hacen bien". En su primer mes de vida, el 'sub' de Podemos ya tuvo 245.508 visitas únicas y más de 1.177.556 páginas vistas.
Para quien no la conozca, Reddit es considerada la comunidad de las comunidades en internet y "atrae casi al 6% del tráfico de la Red", explica a HojaDeRouter.com Miguel Arana, uno de los miembros del equipo de Podemos e integrante de Laboratorio Democrático (Labodemo.org).
"Muchos políticos han utilizado anteriormente esta herramienta", explica Martin, al igual que ciudadanos para conversar sobre las formaciones políticas que siguen. Pero Podemos "es el primer partido político del mundo que utiliza de manera oficial esta plataforma para escuchar a los ciudadanos", debatir con ellos, contestar a sus preguntas, comunicarse y tener en cuenta las propuestas de los usuarios para luego hacer política. “Cuando supimos que un partido político utilizaba Reddit, nos pareció algo espectacular”, admite Erik Martin.
Plaza Podemos se ha convertido en el 'subreddit' más popular entre los españoles, y en el más exitoso en cuanto a tráfico que llega a la web y en cuanto a visitantes únicos en la comunidad española. También es uno de los que más está creciendo a nivel global, especialmente desde el último mes.
Los responsables de Reddit reconocen que, en sus orígenes, nadie pensó que este espacio se convertiría en una herramienta de organización y toma de decisiones que podría afectar al futuro de todo un país, pero creen que es beneficioso y que "aporta transparencia a cualquier iniciativa política".
¿Quién está detrás de Plaza Podemos?
Aunque oficialmente hay un amplio equipo encargado de las redes sociales del partido y dentro del propio Reddit son varios los que organizan el espacio, la cabeza pensante que impulsó Plaza Podemos tiene nombre propio. Se llama Aritza, tiene 39 años y es informático. Creó el 'subreddit' mucho antes de que el propio partido barajara esa posibilidad. Era una buena herramienta "para crear comunidad y estar en contacto" entre quienes, desde Baracaldo, Bilbao y alrededores, trabajaban con Podemos y se comunicaban dificultosamente por medio de cadenas de correo.
A la vez que Aritza creaba la Plaza de forma independiente al partido, este comenzaba a buscar nuevos medios de difusión masiva para conectar con la gente. Fue a partir del éxito de las elecciones europeas cuando pensaron en Reddit y vieron que alguien ya había creado una página. Se pusieron en contacto con el informático y le propusieron que esa página se convirtiera en el 'subreddit' oficial del partido y que él pasara a formar parte del equipo que lo impulsara.
Muchos de los que están detrás de Reddit habían participado en el 15M o provienen de movimientos estudiantiles y sociales como Juventud sin Futuro, aunque hay diversos grados de implicación. Es el caso de Miguel Arana y Miguel Ardanuy, con los que hemos hablado sobre la estrategia de Podemos en la Red.
¿Por qué Reddit?
En España, "Reddit no es muy conocido ni utilizado" – la comunidad internauta de nuestro país utiliza especialmente Menéame -, explica Miguel Arana a este medio. Solo algunos usuarios muy especializados saben cómo funciona y lo controlan. Entonces, ¿por qué Podemos se ha decantado por Reddit?
La respuesta es sencilla. Primero, "porque las herramientas utilizadas hasta el momento - y desde el 15M - no han funcionado de forma efectiva", explica Aritza, y había que arriesgar, probar algo diferente. ¿Podían haber creado un medio propio e independiente? Sí, "pero Reddit es estable y evita problemas: nadie tiene que preocuparse de que los servidores vayan a caerse y tampoco es necesario invertir recursos que ahora mismo son escasos", asegura Arana.
Después, porque algo tan transgresor como Podemos necesitaba una herramienta nueva, pensada desde el inicio, "que "empoderara a la incipiente comunidad". Un instrumento construido entre todos, donde todo el mundo – o casi todo– partiera desde cero, al mismo nivel.
Otras herramientas tienen "mecanismos preestablecidos, viciados", acostumbrados a la misma rutina. “En Menéame, por ejemplo, hay noticias que son fulminadas al segundo por el propio mecanismo de la comunidad”, opina Miguel Arana.
Además, añade que Reddit "es muy visual" y su estructura en forma de árbol hace posible que "se identifiquen fácilmente las líneas de pensamiento". Los hilos más comentados suelen destacarse y no es necesario que el usuario busque en el fondo de la web para encontrar lo interesante.
¿Algo más? Sí, los debates en Reddit "no son estancos". Aunque cualquiera puede encontrar – gracias a las etiquetas - los temas organizados en categorías, la conversación se hace más general, “se debate de todo”. Así surge una comunidad mucho más viva y activa, lo que hace que Podemos “acabe trabajando mejor, porque cuando los debates se dividen mucho terminan muriendo”, asegura Arana.
¿Hacer política?
Puede que en un primer momento la intención no parezca tanto hacer política como organizarse o debatir, pero al final "¿por qué no podemos pensar que eso mismo es la política?", se pregunta Miguel Ardanuy. Más allá de la concepción clásica del poder institucional, afirma que el 15M demostró que puede hacerse política en las plazas. “Cualquier espacio de encuentro, diálogo y debate es, de por sí, político. Y eso es lo que está demostrando muy bien Plaza Podemos”.
Y a la hora de la verdad, ¿dónde quedarán todas las propuestas de los usuarios? La intención es tenerlas en cuenta para, después del diálogo, tomar decisiones firmes y vinculantes. Lo difícil será poder hacer caso a los cientos y miles de comentarios de los usuarios del 'subreddit'.
Arana reconoce que esto es algo que aún hay que pensar, aunque el propio sistema de filtrado de Reddit ayudará bastante a tener en cuenta las propuestas que más destaquen. Tampoco van a parar la máquina porque los retos sean difíciles, “eso es lo que hace la política tradicional”, opina. Esto supone “un antes y un después, un cambio de paradigma [...] ¿Y si ahora los partidos tradicionales intentan hacer lo mismo que nosotros?".
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Las imágenes de este artículo son propiedad, por orden de aparición, de Facebook de Podemos, Redditmetrics.com, Plaza Podemos, Ficus Desk, Reddit.com/r/podemos/ y Podemos Uviéu | {
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Dutch emergency line hit by KPN telecoms outage Published duration 25 June 2019
image copyright Reuters image caption The disruption originated from the network of national carrier KPN
The Netherlands has been hit by its largest telecommunications outage in years, with the 112 emergency number knocked out across the country.
The disruption, which lasted four hours, originated from national carrier KPN, and affected other providers linked to its network.
KPN said the cause was still unclear but it did not appear to be a hack.
"We have no reason to think it was (a hack) and we monitor our systems 24/7," a company spokeswoman told Reuters.
Landlines and mobile phones linked to the KPN network were also affected, but it was the failure of the national emergency line that was most worrying. Emergency services responded by putting out alternative contact information on social media.
Speaking to public broadcaster NPO, KPN board director Joost Farwerck said the network had been backed up to prevent any malfunction, but the backups had not worked.
KPN has been told to explain to Justice and Security Minister Ferdinand Grapperhuis on Tuesday what went wrong. It has also emerged that the company's chief executive, Maximo Ibarra, is to step down, although KPN has stressed it has nothing to do with the outage.
How bad was the outage?
During the disruption, additional police were sent on to streets around the country.
Authorities also advised people to go directly to hospitals or to police or fire stations for any emergencies.
Firefighters also announced they were going out into key areas, with one fire brigade appearing at a key harbour in a Rotterdam suburb in case people needed help.
It took more than an hour for authorities to find an alternative emergency number, and even then the NL-Alert service designed to get in touch with people via their mobile phones during an emergency had problems.
The popular Telegraaf newspaper revealed that the justice and security ministry had used NL-Alert to send out the paper's WhatsApp tips-line as an alternative to 112 by mistake.
An alert was later sent out with the correct number, images of which have been posted by social media users.
Mr Grapperhaus told De Telegraaf that the ministry was investigating how the wrong number was given out.
"Was it an office prank or was there really no plan?" Dutch Green politician Kathalijne Buitenweg tweeted.
What has reaction been?
Political reaction to the failure of the 112 emergency number has been one of shock.
"This just shouldn't be possible," complained centre-right MP Chris van Dam, who said it was simply incomprehensible that the 112 line was "so vulnerable".
Commentators pointed out that national security co-ordinator NCTV had warned only this month that "dependence on digitised processes and systems has become so big" that it could disrupt society and it called for "fallback options and analogue alternatives".
Many others were bemused by the failure. One social media user noted drily that politicians had been trying for years to get more police on the streets, and KPN had managed to do it in a couple of minutes.
KPN is not the only telecoms provider to suffer network problems recently. Earlier this month, Vodafone experienced a "disruption" to its mobile and fixed-line broadband services , affecting subscribers in the UK and several other countries.
Related Topics Netherlands | {
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HOUSTON – MS-13 gang members are being caught entering the United States illegally in growing numbers.
READ: Inside the fight against MS-13 in Houston
Customs and Border Protection agents have apprehended more than four times as many MS-13 members so far this fiscal year than last year.
In April, Channel 2's Jacob Rascon traveled to El Salvador, where MS-13 rules the streets with brutal force.
Earlier this month, he revealed how law enforcement in the Houston area is working undercover to track down and arrest MS-13 gang members responsible for murders and kidnappings.
Here is a by-the-numbers look at the gang:
About 6.3 million people live in El Salvador (there are about 6.4 million in greater Houston).
Approximately $2 million are extorted every month from Salvadorans by MS-13 members, according to prosecutors there.
Approximately 50,924 people were apprehended by Customs and Border Patrol in April 2018, compared with 15,766 people the same month last year. March numbers are similar. This is according to CBP. The overwhelming majority are not gang members, but gang members are found crossing into the U.S. illegally every day.
There are approximately 40,000 MS-13 members in El Salvador, according to its attorney general’s office. Tens of thousands more operate across Central America and Mexico.
There are approximately 10,000-15,000 MS-13 members in the United States, active in more than 40 states, according to the Department Of Justice.
There were 6,656 homicides reported in El Salvador in 2015. That number has dropped by more than 1,000 every year since, except in 2018, when homicides have increased.
There are 800-1,200 MS-13 members in the greater Houston area, according to the FBI.
There have been approximately 227 MS-13 members caught at the U.S. border so far this fiscal year -- a pace not seen since 2014, according to Customs and Border Protection data. They sneak into the country, or they pose as unaccompanied minors or fathers with small children. Law enforcement sources told KPRC that nearly every MS-13 member arrested for a violent crime in the greater Houston area since 2014 has protected unaccompanied minor status.
There are 249 MS-13 “clicas” that operate in El Salvador, led by “Palabreros.” These are governed by 48 “programas,” led by “Corredores.” They collect extortion money and are governed by 15 “ranfleros,” or top leaders of Mara Salvatrucha, one for every letter of the full name of the gang. Additional ranfleros operate inside El Salvador prisons. Orders to execute in the states oftentimes come from El Salvador.
150 MS-13 members have been caught trying to cross the border in the Rio Grande sector so far this fiscal year. That’s more than four times as many as were caught last fiscal year, to date, in the same sector, according to Border Patrol data.
Sixty years is the maximum punishment in El Salvador for any offense, including multiple homicides, according to the AG’s office. Longer prison sentences are handed down, but only 60 years will be served.
Fifteen years is the maximum punishment for minors in El Salvador for any offense, including multiple homicides. MS-13 members are typically serial killers, and it’s not uncommon for a 18-year-old veteran MS-13 member to have killed 20 people. They usually join the gang as teenagers, or younger.
Fourteen agencies work together at Houston’s Texas Anti-Gang Center, the first in the state. There are now six TAG centers in Texas, with a seventh scheduled to open in late 2018.
Seven years is the minimum sentence for homicide for minors in El Salvador. | {
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Con le caviglie scavate da due solchi circolari, come se qualcuno si fosse diverto a incidergli la carne con un coltello, se ne andava in giro per Torino barcollando come un vecchio oppresso dagli anni. Lo ha trovato una volontaria della Croce Rossa, in una via di periferia, appoggiato alla cancellata di una casa. Quello era il suo aspetto, malgrado i suoi vent’anni, nato negli altipiani a Nord del Mali. Con diffidenza si è lasciato soccorrere. Poi, quando si è sentito al sicuro, ha svelato l’origine di quelle ferite. «Mi hanno tenuto incatenato per settimane, in una casa in Libia. I ferri erano così stretti che mi hanno consumato la carne. Ogni tanto le ferite si riaprono e non riesco a camminare. Sono stato anch’io nel “ghetto”. Pensavo di morire là dentro».
Il «ghetto» è un luogo a Sud-Est della Libia, tappa infernale prima della traversata per l’Italia. Uomini da una parte, donne dall’altra, sempre più giovani. A volte bambine. Lo chiamano così i migranti che hanno subito torture, destinati alla prostituzione. Prostituzione anche maschile, non solo femminile. Sono per lo più nigeriani, o dell’area occidentale dell’Africa. Gli investigatori della squadra Anti Tratta, gruppo specializzato della procura di Torino, hanno raccolto segnalazioni su un fenomeno che si sta radicando anche in Piemonte, ma già emerso in altre regioni del Nord Italia, come in Friuli, dove alcuni giovani nigeriani sono stati strappati ad una rete di sfruttatori. È una nuova forma di tratta, dove la «merce» è composta da ragazzi, dai loro corpi. Nella provincia torinese sono emersi alcuni casi segnalati da organizzazioni di assistenza che gestiscono i centri di accoglienza straordinaria. Una dozzina di episodi. Ma tutto inizierebbe lontano, in quel luogo chiamato «il ghetto», che riemerge in molti racconti. Dove le donne subiscono abusi sistematici, a volte di gruppo. Anche torture per puro divertimento. Ma c’è anche chi racconta di ragazzi nigeriani prelevati da uomini libici per essere abusati. «Stanno via tre o quattro giorni e poi vengono riportati indietro per essere scambiati con i nuovi arrivi» dicono gli operatori. Un preludio, per alcuni, di quello che faranno in Italia. «Il guaio è che gli uomini non hanno il coraggio di denunciare gli abusi» affermano gli investigatori.
L’altro filone, si cui si è concentrata l’attenzione della procura, è la diffusione dell’accattonaggio di strada. Una rete di sfruttamento, sempre intrisa di violenza, che costringe gli uomini a diventare raccoglitori di denaro. Ragazzi come merce. Ragazzi costretti a raggiungere certi obiettivi per poter riscattare la loro libertà. Per le donne che si prostituiscono, hanno svelato numerose indagini, spesso originate dai racconti delle giovani vittime nigeriane, il prezzo del riscatto è in genere di 30 mila euro. Cifra che comprende il prezzo del viaggio, del «soggiorno» a Tripoli - che può durare anche mesi - e della traversata. Del prezzo che viene richiesto ai ragazzi non c'è un dato certo. Su un punto non c’è dubbio però: «il fenomeno della tratta di esseri umani che ha investito da tempo l’Italia - scrivono in più relazioni gli esperti - negli ultimi anni continua a trasformarsi, in un contesto internazionale in rapida evoluzione».
E la procura di Torino, in questa battaglia dove i confini non esistono, si trova in prima linea con un modello investigativo e di coordinamento tra istituzioni riconosciuto a livello nazionale. Nei giorni scorsi il responsabile della squadra Anti Tratta di Torino, il commissario di polizia municipale Fabrizio Lotito e Rosanna Paradiso, collaboratrice della procura del gruppo Criminalità organizzata e sicurezza urbana, già presidente di Tampep, associazione nata per aiutare le donne imprigionate nella rete della prostituzione, hanno partecipato nel ruolo di «valutatori» al primo corso italiano di formazione contro la tratta di esseri umani, a cura dell’Osce, l’Organizzazione per la sicurezza e la cooperazione in Europa, organizzato a Vicenza. Un ruolo che gli operatori internazionali e nazionali, hanno riconosciuto a Torino dove da anni è stato creato un gruppo mirato a dare la caccia ai trafficanti di donne e oggi anche di uomini, come evoluzione di quel fenomeno che si nutre dei flussi migratori. Segnali di un nuovo fronte nella tratta di persone, in cui i migranti uomini non sono solo «passeggeri» poi abbandonati al loro destino una volta traghettati in Italia, ma merce da sfruttare nella prostituzione e nell’accattonaggio o in altre attività, come lo spaccio, erano già emersi nel seminario di studi che si era tenuto a Torino lo scorso ottobre, dal titolo: «Beside you. Building European Systems for Investigation and Defence of victims of human trafficking», finanziato dal Consiglio d’Europa. | {
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Image copyright Christopher Furlong
Reports that 150,000 people have joined the Labour Party since the general election are not recognised by Jeremy Corbyn's office.
A collection of popular tweets have suggested that Labour's membership has bulged by 150,000 since the election.
It seems as though this alleged membership surge was first tweeted by Aaron Bastani, the co-founder of Novara Media (a media organisation that backs Jeremy Corbyn). It was later tweeted by shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon. Both tweets were posted on Saturday 10 June:
Image copyright @AaronBastani
Image copyright @RichardBurgon
Twitter users, including journalists, circulated this claim. The Independent and the Metro published stories about the rumoured membership surge (making clear that the tweets were the source).
Image copyright @PickardJE
Image copyright @DavidWhite020
However, Mr Corbyn's office sent out an email on 11 June to all members and supporters, referencing a different membership figure. The email said that, 'over 15,000 people… have joined Labour since polling day'.
BBC Trending contacted the Labour leader's office, who confirmed that they "don't recognise" the 150,000 figure. They did emphasise however that "many people" have joined the party since the election.
A member of the Labour National Executive Committee told BBC Trending that an additional 10,000 people had joined the Labour Party since 11 June, taking the total number of new members to 25,000 since the election.
Was it a typo from Richard Burgon? His office has not yet responded to our request for comment.
Blog by Sam Bright
You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook.
More from BBC Trending:
Election 2017: Was it Facebook wot swung it? | {
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To the Editor:
Re “Mueller Defends Inquiry and Says Russia Isn’t Done” (front page, July 25):
Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony on Wednesday was a sober reminder that there was another significant player in the 2016 presidential election besides Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. It was the Russian government.
In “sweeping and systemati c fashion,” from using a sophisticated disinformation campaign to partnering with WikiLeaks to release stolen documents from the Democratic National Committee, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia worked diligently and spared no expense to see to it that his preferred candidate, Donald Trump, would be our next president.
This subversion of our democracy, which Mr. Mueller reminds us is continuing, apparently does not alarm the Republicans in Congress. Their questions to Mr. Mueller were focused on why and how the investigation was started at all. Even if you want to shield the president from culpability, can you really look away from this destruction of our democracy?
Americans must ask why Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, and Republicans in Congress would block legislation to fortify our election process and leave us vulnerable again in 2020. | {
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The city of Durango is likely to bring back "bump-outs" in spring 2021, regardless of whether the coronavirus presents a threat, because businesses and residents seem to like them. It is one of... Read more | {
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Vermiponics is like aquaponics but using worms instead of fish. The worms eat scraps and create worm castings, the worm castings are then diluted and aerated to make a worm tea and the worm tea is then used as a nutrient solution in a hydroponic set up. If you want to find out more about vermiponics then take a look at the blog I've started about it to follow my progress. | {
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Two workers were injured by falling rocks and boulders at around 12:45 p.m. at the World War II-era storage bunkers in Waikele Gulch, officials said.
Two men, ages 50 and 52, were treated by paramedics and taken to a hospital in serious condition, Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said. The first patient had injuries to his head and arm, while the second received injuries to his leg.
Both were working outside the bunker when large rocks tumbled down during today’s heavy rain, officials said.
EMS said it responded to 94-990 Pakela St., which is listed as Storage Solutions Waikele Self Storage. | {
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Faaborg: Er man til flotte, gamle træskibe, et muntert leben på havnen og måske lidt god musik i teltet, kan man godt sætte et stort kryds i kalenderen ud for den 26. juli.
Her anløbes Faaborg Havn nemlig af feltet af gamle bevaringsværdige træskibe, der i hele uge 30 sejler kapsejlads rundt om Fyn. Løbet sætter ny deltagerrekord i år. Hele 52 skibe er med - en snes mere end der plejer, og ombord befinder sig over 526 besætningsmedlemmer.
Festteltet på "havneøen" i Faaborg åbner klokken 14.00, og hvis man er i tvivl om tidspunktet, så tag bestik af kanonbragene - Faaborg Kanonerlaug saluterer nemlig klokken præcis 14.00.
Alt efter vejr og vind begynder skibene herefter at ankomme.
Langt de fleste skibe kommer som sædvanlig til at ligge i inderhavnen, men i år tager Faaborg Havn også yderhavnen i brug for at få plads til alle. Og der er styr på det, forsikrer havnemester, Lasse Olsen.
- Vi er ved at etablere ekstra midlertidige strømstationer rundt omkring, så alle skibe kan blive forsynet. Normalt er vi godt dækket ind med de installationer, vi har, men der skal lidt ekstra til, når der kommer så mange, siger han. | {
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Tax Preparation Clinics - Saskatchewan
Volunteer tax preparation clinics are generally offered each year between February and April but many are operating all year at various locations across Canada.
If there is no tax preparation clinic listed for your area, check this webpage again as community organizations add clinics on an ongoing basis. | {
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AFTER months of diplomatic wrangling America’s secretary of state, John Kerry, hoped he had finally struck a deal with Russia that would help end the war in Syria, which has killed perhaps half a million people. For the plan to work, both sides needed to lay down their weapons for one week and allow aid into besieged parts of the country. If that happened the truce would then be extended, paving the way for Russia and America to launch joint military action against Islamic State and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (JFS), a terrorist group and former al-Qaeda offshoot.
But the plan never got that far. Although the fighting ebbed, the Syrian government blocked most aid deliveries into rebel-held areas, and stripped vital medical supplies from the few that it did allow across the front lines. On September 19th the Syrian regime refused to extend the seven-day ceasefire, accusing rebels of failing to uphold their side and citing an air strike by American and coalition forces that mistakenly killed 62 Syrian soldiers.
But the real breach came soon after Russian and Syrian warplanes went back into action, pounding rebel-held neighbourhoods in the northern city of Aleppo. A UN aid convoy was bombed—the first attack of its kind since the start of the war. American officials said Russian jets were to blame, citing radar tracks that showed them above the convoy when it was hit. Russia denied it, claiming variously that the trucks had simply caught fire or been shelled.
Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the UN, called it a “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack”. His officials said that if the convoy was deliberately targeted, that would amount to a war crime. (Syria has seen many war crimes in the past five years.) A day later aircraft bombed a mobile clinic in a rebel-held part of Aleppo, killing four medical staff. The UN and several other humanitarian groups said they were suspending aid convoys.
A ceasefire that had taken months to negotiate took only hours to unravel. “They were unloading the aid in a warehouse when the bombs hit. I spent the night pulling the dead out,” says Ammar al-Selmo, the director of Aleppo’s White Helmets, a volunteer civil defence force that works in rebel-held areas, of the attack on the UN aid convoy.
Mr Kerry, whose plan probably represented America’s last real diplomatic effort under the presidency of Barack Obama to slow the killing, is still scrambling to salvage what is left of it. But unless he can convince his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to renew the ceasefire (and persuade the Syrian regime to ground its aircraft, an appeal Mr Kerry made at the UN on September 21st), then dark days lie ahead.
Fighting will probably intensify as the Syrian government, backed by Iran and Russia, doubles down on its efforts to crush rebels in eastern Aleppo, their only major urban stronghold. The fall of Aleppo would at last give President Bashar al-Assad what he craves: dominion over the country’s main cities, industrial hubs and transport links, including access to the sea (see map). In a troubling sign of the fighting to come, Iran has apparently taken advantage of the truce to reinforce its militias around the city. America is now considering arming Kurds in northern Syria, which would pit it against Turkey, a NATO ally.
Rebel forces are also preparing for another round of fighting. A long-discussed merger between more mainstream Islamist groups and JFS is back on the cards.
Rebels in arms
“The merger is a goal for all the Syrian rebel factions. If it was successfully done it would mean a significant turn in the path of the revolution,” says Captain Abdul Salam Abdul Razaq, a military spokesman for Nour al-Din al-Zinki, a key rebel group in northern Syria that once received American military support.
The merger talks are still at an early stage. Mainstream rebels fear that forming a coalition with JFS would expose them to American air strikes. The two sides also disagree on their visions for Syria’s future. Still, if a fresh round of fighting begins, then a stronger military alliance of Islamist factions would stand a better chance of fending off Mr Assad’s advances.
Such a deal would probably torpedo Mr Kerry’s ceasefire plan as well as America’s broader aim of trying to arm moderate rebels to fight against Islamic State. Moscow already accuses America of failing to separate mainstream rebel factions from “terrorist” groups like JFS, a precondition of any joint military action between the two countries. Rebels have so far been reluctant to separate, fearing that doing so will only result in them ceding territory to the Syrian army.
Even if Mr Kerry persuades the warring parties to extend the ceasefire, there is little chance that peace talks will yield results. The political opposition to Mr Assad is weak and the rebels’ trust in the UN has reached a new nadir. America has little leverage over Russia, Iran or Syria.
“The longer this goes on for, the more difficult it will be to hold the centre ground together,” says Salman Shaikh, a former UN official and expert on the Middle East. “One consequence is likely to be the further radicalisation of the mainstream opposition ... a five-year conflict could easily become a 10-year conflict.” | {
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The AFL's rich new broadcasting deal looks likely to come at a further cost to supporters without Foxtel with the prospect of just three games in half of the home-and-away rounds next season being televised on free-to-air.
Fairfax Media understands talks between the Ten Network and Foxtel have stalled over the prospect of the former rights holder Ten buying the 11 available Saturday mid-afternoon games from the AFL's pay TV provider in a development that will hurt fans of less popular Victorian clubs.
While AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has said he was confident Foxtel would sub-licence one game a week on 11 of the 22 rounds in the new deal that now looks in doubt with Foxtel unwilling to give up those exclusive games as it fights for more subscriptions.
Should no deal be achieved AFL supporters would be handed an average 3.5 free-to-air games on the Seven Network of nine fixtures games each weekend. This represents yet another fall in free-to-air, an allotment that has fallen over each of the last four broadcast rights deals. | {
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JAMMU/LUCKNOW: Bal Krishna Parimu was forced overnight to leave Srinagar along with his family as death stalked every corner of his once-idyllic hometown after the January 1990 outbreak of Kashmir insurgency. The Parimus stayed in Jammu for a while before migrating to Lucknow, where 400 displaced Kashmiri Pandit (KP) families have over the years taken refuge.
Twenty five years have passed since the family’s flight from the Valley. But the circumstances that forced them to leave their beloved land still haunt Parimu, who is now in his 50s.
“Even today when I recall that horrid night of January 1990, I get goose bumps. I was left with no option but leave Srinagar holding my wife’s hand, who was carrying our five-year-old son,’’ said Parimu.
Parimu said his neighborhood in old Srinagar’s Fateh Kadal area, where they had lived in harmony for centuries, turned into a terror den overnight.
He added notices were pasted outside KP houses telling them to leave or face death.
The plight of the Parimus mirrors that of an estimated three lakh KPs, who were forced to leave their homes in the Himalayas for an uncertain life in the hot and humid plains across India.
It is not as starker as it is in camps like Jagti near Jammu, where Kashmiri migrants mostly from rural areas took refuge while more urbanized KPs have managed to move on thanks to their better education.
Then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated 4,218 flats for displaced Kashmiris in Jagti in March 2011.
But it has not mitigated their sufferings as the majority of migrants remain unable to return to their homes despite a near-total end to insurgency in the absence of “concrete steps” from the government.
Terming the displacement, as one of the biggest exodus, Archana Zutshi, vice-president of Kashmir Association, Lucknow, said, “January 19, 1990 is the day, which we don’t want to remember. Though thousands of Kashmiri Pandit families were earlier also forced to migrate, but the 1989-90 wave of militancy was the worst, leaving behind unbearable pain and agony with no hope of going back to the homeland.”
Anuradha Chak, another city-based Kashmiri pandit, feels that the Centre has not taken any substantial measures for their return to the Valley. “More than the physical harm, it was the mental trauma and agony, which still remains etched in our minds,” she added.
Jagti-residents say they face chronic day-to-day problems besides the larger issue of their resettlement.
“We face water scarcity and power cuts in summers. But we have gotten used to such harsh conditions now,’’ said Mohni Devi, a middle-aged Jagti resident.
Elders fear their culture and unique identity would vanish if they do not return to the Valley sooner. “Our culture is slowly fading,’’ rued Shadi Lal Pandita, a community leader.
Pandita said packages have been announced for their return, but no one knows where they have vanished.
He said even the Narendra Modi government, which has announced a Rs 500 crore package for the return and rehabilitation of the displaced community, has failed to live up to their expectations.
Pandita added they would return to their homes if they are offered initiatives like political representation.
All Party Migrants Coordination Committee chairman Vinod Pandit blamed successive governments for their plight.
“We are victims of neglect of both the state and the central governments and want a white paper on what they have done for the exiled community.’’
He said the government should discuss its blue print for the community’s return besides addressing their political, economical and political aspirations.
“If the government does not take the matter seriously, the day is not far when the KP community will become a topic for historic writers and research works. An entire generation has died hoping to return to their places of birth.”
Amid widespread despondency, many like former Uttar Pradesh police chief Tilak Kak urge the community to move on. “I do not believe in thinking of the past events. You should think in a forward direction, as otherwise you will stumble and fall.”
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Written By Brian Beutler
Learn more about the impeachment process from Crooked’s new podcast Rubicon: The Impeachment of Donald Trump, hosted by our Editor-in-Chief Brian Beutler.
The public phase of the Ukraine inquiry has ended, or at least entered a hiatus. And after seven hearings with 12 witnesses, we have learned much more in terms of both atmospheric details and new, incriminating facts, than we did at the outset.
But while much of the story is known, certainly enough to impeach the president, the hearings also underscored just how much of the story remains to be told.
Here are three key takeaways as the second week of impeachment hearings draws to a close.
1. Trump is SUPER guilty.
This has been obvious since at least September, when President Trump released the summary of his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump conditioned military support for Ukraine’s war against Russia on investigations of his political enemies. But he’s even guilty by the standards Republicans set for themselves when the Ukraine scandal broke wide open.
Many Republicans set the bar for impeachment at “explicit” quid pro quo—arguing against reason that the rough transcript of the call left a great deal to the imagination. In October, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who’s perhaps Trump’s most slavering loyalist on Capitol Hill, said, “If you could show me that Trump actually was engaging in a quid pro quo, outside the phone call, that would be very disturbing.”
Well, on Wednesday, Trump’s Ukraine point man, E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland confessed: “I know that members of this committee have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a ‘quid pro quo?’” Sondland said. “The answer is yes.”
Naturally, Republicans have tried to sweep their own standard down the memory hole, but by their own lights, Trump’s guilty.
2. Republican excuses bit the dust.
As the inquiry has progressed, congressional Republicans have veered from excuse to excuse—usually hypothetical, often contradictory—to absolve the president himself, if not all of his subordinates, of wrongdoing. By design, the hearings elicited testimony that debunked these excuses one by one.
Some of the most prominent of these included:
There was no quid pro quo!
See above.
Maybe Trump’s subordinates went rogue!
Even if you ignore the Trump-Zelensky transcript where Trump asks for an investigation of the Bidens in exchange for Javelin missiles, David Holmes—a State Department diplomat stationed in Kyiv—testified that he overheard Sondland and Trump discuss the progress the Ukrainians had made on the investigations on a cell phone call the day after Trump spoke with Zelensky.
Sondland told Trump that “President Zelenskyy ‘loves your ass,’” Holmes testified. “I then heard President Trump ask, ‘So, he’s gonna do the investigation?’ Ambassador Sondland replied that ‘he’s gonna do it,’ adding that President
Zelenskyy will do ‘anything you ask him to.’” So no, nobody went rogue. As Sondland swore, “We followed the president’s orders.”
Maybe the Ukrainians didn’t realize they were being extorted.
Yes, they tried this. But multiple witnesses explained it simply wasn’t true. Most explosively, Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, uncovered and provided new hard evidence that the Ukrainians knew what was up way back in July. “My staff showed me two unclassified emails that they received from the State Department.” The first, she testified, read, “the Ukrainian embassy and the House Foreign Affairs Committee are asking about security assistance.” The second read “that the Hill knows about the [frozen aid] situation to an extent, and so does the Ukrainian embassy.” To have put any stock in this excuse in the first place, you’d have to believe Ukrainian officials are extremely stupid, but as it turns out, they documented their awareness.
Well, it all worked out in the end, no harm no foul.
First, the high crime of bribery includes solicitation, so even if Ukraine never announced the investigations, and received the military aid they were entitled to by U.S. law, Trump is still guilty.
Second, Trump released the aid on September 11, after he learned that a whistleblower had filed a formal complaint about his conduct, and after three House committees had launched an investigation of the frozen aid. So he got caught.
We have not yet seen documentation spelling out why Trump agreed to release the aid; such documentation may not actually exist, except in the minds of guilty men like Trump and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. But it doesn’t have too.
3. There’s still enough left to learn.
The unresolved question of whether the administration has evidence that Trump released the funds because he had transitioned into coverup mode underscores how many threads Democrats have yet to pull.
Sondland testified that Mulvaney, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Vice President Mike Pence, and even then-national security adviser John Bolton were read in on the scheme, and some of them actively supported it.
There is a treasure trove of documents, at the State Department and elsewhere, establishing everyone’s level of involvement, but the administration has lawlessly refused to turn them over to Congress.
We still don’t know how many other governments Trump has corrupted U.S. relations with, how many call summaries the White House has stored on a classified server to hide corruption, or what those summaries say. In private depositions and public hearings, witnesses declined to comment on any foreign-leader communications other than two Trump-Zelensky calls, in part because the scope of their subpoenas did not include matters outside of Ukraine.
This is all information the public deserves to know, even if it doesn’t make Trump any more impeachable than he already is, and even if it doesn’t change any Republican minds. The good news is some of this information may still seep out. A federal judge has ordered the State Department to produce some of the concealed Ukraine documents by tonight, pursuant to an outside FOIA request. On Monday, a federal judge will decide whether former White House Counsel Don McGahn must testify to the impeachment inquiry on unrelated matters, and that decision may pave the way for other witnesses to come forward. But it would be a shame if the House intelligence committee concluded its Ukraine investigation without fleshing out at least some of these critically important unknowns. | {
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New Delhi: E-commerce major Amazon has pumped in ₹ 230 crore in its Indian payments arm, Amazon Pay, as it looks to strengthen its operations in the country and compete head-on with the likes of Flipkart’s PhonePe and Alibaba-backed Paytm.
According to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Amazon Pay (India) has allotted 23 crore equity shares worth ₹ 230 crore to existing shareholders -- Amazon Corporate Holdings and Amazon.com.incs -- on right basis.
The resolution was approved on June 28, 2018, it added. When contacted, an Amazon spokesperson said the company’s focus is to make digital payments “the most trusted, convenient and rewarding choice for customers".
“We continue to explore ways to do this, in partnership with banks, processors, fintech companies and ecosystem partners. We have earlier invested in creating new transformational services like cash loading into the wallet at doorstep," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that the company plans to further develop new services for customers and continue to drive adoption for Amazon Pay. “We are committed to the long-term vision of a less-cash India and continue to invest in experiences which reduce customer friction, improve affordability and foster everyday habits, thereby building preference for digital payments," the spokesperson said.
Previously, Amazon has infused funding in its payments business in multiple tranches. It invested ₹ 67 crore in May last year, followed by another ₹ 130 crore in July last year. In March this year, it had pumped in ₹ 195 crore.
Amazon, which is competing with homegrown rival Flipkart in the Indian market, has pumped in substantial funding across operations to expand its operations in the country and build delivery infrastructure.
Its founder, Jeff Bezos has committed an investment of $5 billion in the Indian market. The competition is set to intensify following US retailer Walmart announcing a $16 billion deal last month to acquire about 77% stake in Flipkart (registered in Singapore).
Reports said Amazon is looking at ramping up its investment here by as much as $2 billion, giving the India unit more ammunition. The company, however, has not commented on these reports. Amazon has been infusing funds into its various entities in India, including Amazon Pay, marketplace and wholesale business.
These investments have been directed towards building warehouses, strengthening logistics and increasing product assortment. During a recent investor call, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky had said the company would continue to invest in India as it sees great progress with both sellers and customers, even as the parent entity registered a loss of $622 million from international operations in the first quarter of 2018.
The company is also investing significant money in marketing and promotions as it looks to bring more consumers to its online shopping platform.
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Courtesy of Bleeding Cool's Joshua Stone, here's a look at what went down at last night's cosplay Masquerade event at WonderCon 2019 in Anaheim.
To an audience of 3,000 on the giant Anaheim Convention Center Arena stage, held at 8:30 PM, Saturday, March 30, with WonderCon trophies and complimentary badge for next year up for grabs, or a prize sponsored by a participating company or organization.
The WonderCon Masquerade celebrated its 15th year celebrating the verb "to masquerade" to portray someone other than yourself, and contestants bring to the stage as much imagination as they do skilled workmanship by portraying characters and creating inventive presentations with drama, humour, a storyline, and sometimes a mock battle.
Each entry took the stage for a minute or two, with presentations using specially selected music and lighting, and some elaborate choreography. Re-creations from comic books, movies, television, anime, fantasy, stage shows, video games, and history, or even completely original designs. Some were solo entries, others as groups with a shared theme. And none of costumes purchased or otherwise commercially obtained, and of original construction.
Our Master of Ceremonies was five-time Hugo Award-winning writer-artist Phil Foglio. There was a return performance by The Saber Guild, the largest not-for-profit LucasFilm-recognized Star Wars lightsaber club in the world, and The Corps Dance Crew returned to WonderCon Anaheim to celebrate the return of Young Justice,
WonderCon 2019 trophies were awarded by a panel of judges, assembled from professionals in the costuming fields to the most outstanding entries in categories of Best in Show, Judges' Choice, Best Re-Creation, Best Original Design, Best Workmanship, Most Humorous, Most Beautiful, Best Presentation, and Best Young Fan. Winners in these trophy categories also received complimentary badges for all 3 days of WonderCon Anaheim 2020.
Frank & Son Collectible Show of the City of Industry, California presented a $500 cash prize to the costume entry they deemed to be the audience favourite.
Costumer's Guild West (CGW) presented a one-year membership to CGW, as well as a full scholarship and two night's hotel stay to their weekend conference, Costume College®, held the last weekend each July at the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills, CA, to the entry their representatives selected as showing the most promise.
DC Comics awarded a specially-selected DC Collectibles statuette from their ShopDCEntertainment.com website store to what they deemed as the best re-creation of a character or characters from the DC Universe of comics and movies.
The UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation presented a costume award to coincide with its "Make Cancer Less Scary" public awareness campaign. With four tickets to their annual fundraising Masquerade Party in October.
The Motion Picture Costumers, Local 705 presented two awards, Best Technical Costume Construction and Costumer of Tomorrow, including custom trophies and prizes to entries whose skilful execution, creativity, and attention to detail most highlight an imaginative adaptation of the source or a custom design.
Here's how it looked… | {
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New Zealand's top rally driver Hayden Paddon has been signed by Hyundai Motorsport to contest seven events in the 2014 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) with long-time co-driver John Kennard, starting with Rally Italia Sardegna in June.
The Geraldine driver and his Blenheim-based co-driver will compete in a Hyundai i20 WRC (world rally car), entered as Hyundai Motorsport N with the potential to earn points in both the manufacturers' and drivers' championships.
The crew will drive alongside the two Hyundai Shell World Rally Team i20 WRC branded cars, driven respectively by Thierry Neuville and Juho Hänninen while Dani Sordo and Chris Atkinson sharing the drive in the other car.
Paddon is understandably delighted about the opportunity which sees him become the first New Zealander to secure a professional contract to compete in the World Rally Championship.
"It is an incredible opportunity to be part of the Hyundai Motorsport team in these very exciting times.
"This is what we have worked so hard for, and it will allow us to step up another level with a good programme, a good team and a good testing and development programme," Paddon said.
"We are so ready to make the most of this opportunity. John and I are going to work very hard to meet the targets and objectives and help the team continue to develop towards 2015. It is also a fantastic opportunity for me to work and learn alongside some very experienced people within the team and, of course, the other drivers."
Paddon, the 26-year-old former FIA Production car World Rally Champion from Geraldine is already based in the German city of Frankfurt, less than 50km from the team's headquarters in Alzenau.
Kennard will fly from his home in Blenheim to join Paddon at each event.
With a seven event programme confirmed in the Hyundai i20 WRC, Paddon looks forward to contesting some new and some familiar events throughout the balance of 2014.
June's Italian WRC event, Rally Italia Sardegna, will be Paddon and Kennard's first rally with Hyundai but the Kiwis head off to next week's Rally Mexico to complete pre-event reconnaissance to further their learning of all WRC event routes.
Rallies in Poland in late June, Finland in early August, Australia in September and Great Britain in November are also confirmed with the other two yet to be decided from the remaining three events (Germany, France and Spain).
"From Rally Sardegna onwards, we will be contesting all but one of the events until the end of the WRC season. They are all events that I am looking forward to, and other than Italy and Poland, events that we have experience of. I am particularly excited to also contest Rally Australia, a huge market for Hyundai and also the closest event we now get to home.
"It is literally a dream come true to have a good programme in a world rally car within one of the most exciting teams and manufacturers in world motorsport," says Paddon.
"This is culmination of 18 years of work, with a lot of sweat and tears and a lot of support from New Zealanders to help make this possible. Now we have to take this massive opportunity with both hands, maximise the potential learning and results from our seven events in the Hyundai i20 world rally car and build our career in the WRC."
Hyundai Motorsport team principal Michel Nandan says he is pleased to have the two Kiwis on board.
"Hayden is one of the very talented drivers on the WRC scene at the moment and we will support him as much as we can to reach the highest level possible. We are very pleased to welcome him and John to our WRC adventure and we look forward to seeing them in action at the wheel of the Hyundai i20 WRC in a couple of months' time."
Paddon says he is keen to set modest targets.
"To begin, our targets will be to simply learn, particularly as our first event in Italy is not a rally we have before done. It is also vital for the team to get as many miles and data as possible for the continued development of the car.
"As the season progresses we will certainly be measuring and hopefully matching some of our team-mates. But it's also important to work hard with the team who are still relatively new to the WRC, to learn, develop and grow with them, as a team."
Kennard, who's been Paddon's co-driver since Paddon entered the New Zealand Rally Championship for the first time as a 17-year-old, is equally excited by the opportunities before them.
"This is an incredible chance for Hayden to take his career to the next level," Kennard says.
Hayden Paddon’s 2014 competition schedule with Hyundai Motorsport N
NB. Only two of the TBC events will be contested
WRC Round 6 – Rally Italia Sardegna – 5-8 June
WRC Round 7 – Lotos Rally Poland – 27-29 June
WRC Round 8 – Neste Oil Rally Finland – 1-3 August
WRC Round 9 – ADAC Rallye Deutschland – 22-24 August TBC
WRC Round 10 – Coates Hire Rally Australia – 12-14 September
WRC Round 11 – Rallye de France-Alsace – 3-5 October TBC
WRC Round 12 – RallyRACC-Rally de Espana – 24-26 October TBC
WRC Round 13 – Wales Rally GB – 14-16 November | {
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Family Duarte tomb
A former president of the jockey club
The grandest tombs belong to other dignitaries form the history of Argentina, especially those active at the turn of the 20th century.
Former presidents of the Jockey Club appear to have the most significant resting places. Clearly horse racing in the early 1900s carried a prestige it does not enjoy these days.
At the entrance to the the cemetery is helpful plan which assists the visitor with their navigation of the important resting places.
Admiral Brown Memorial
In a fairly central is the green tower tomb of British/Irish sailor William Brown. Brown was born in what is now the Republic of Ireland, then under British rule.
His family moved to the United States and it was here he entered the employ of the US Navy. Years later he was press-ganged into joined the Royal Navy. The taking of US sailors by the British led to war between the two counties in 1812.
Free of his navy commitments, Brown moved to Montevideo and set himself up as a merchant. However his and other maritime industries were under continual threat from Spanish raiders. Argentina vowed to protect her interest and with his naval background, Brown became head of the navy and is looked upon as father of the Argentine navy, adopting the Spanish for William, Guilermo. Brown had success against the Spanish and against a later British/French blockade. He is celebrated today throughout Argentina streets, football teams and monuments take his name. A number of Argentinian warships have been named after him. When Argentina meet Ireland in rugby union they compete for the William Brown trophy.
Recoleta Cemetery - Cemeterio de Recoleta The story of Brown is just one of many that can be told from their final resting place, the Recoleta cemetery.
Her infamy and myth was no doubt enhanced by the Lloyd-Webber/Rice musicallater developed into a film starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas.I don't propose to go through her life and times in this blog. More scholarly writers than me have written elegantly on the subject.Given her fame, I expected to find the tomb quite easily. I imagined tour groups making a bee-line to that area of the cemetery, which in total must cover about two football fields.That was not the case. Eva Peron was buried in her family tomb of the Duarte's. It is tucked away from the main thoroughfares of the cemetery. Once found though you will find it adorned by flowers left by her admirers and , probably judging by their ages, people who are familiar with her celebrity. | {
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Google has a feature on mobile, where if a featured snippet leads to an AMP page, Google can take the searcher after they click on the snippet to your AMP page, anchor them down to the section of the content the searcher wants to see and highlight that content in yellow. Well, Google is now testing that on desktop.
Glenn Gabe documented this, as he is in the test, on Twitter:
So you see the featured snippet:
You click on it and it loads the page, anchors you down and highlights the content:
Here are more examples:
Here's another example, this time for a health/medical query. Google is jumping you down the page to the exact text ON DESKTOP using the targetText functionality that they have been working on (which can allow you to jump anyone down the page via a link to specific text). pic.twitter.com/suKPh26LWJ — Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 23, 2019
And here's one that went very wrong for some reason. Check out how much highlighted text there is on the page! Not sure how helpful that is for users after clicking a featured snippet. That said, most work very well. I'll keep the test window open and keep trying queries. :) pic.twitter.com/jdcQpQWQQP — Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 23, 2019
I had to check one of my featured snippets out. For "what are untrackable clicks?", Google is jumping me down the page and highlighting the text (again, ON DESKTOP). This was only being done for AMP on mobile. I'm in a test where G is doing this for dtop via targetText in Chrome. pic.twitter.com/zfYKfr3iUa — Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 23, 2019
This is not loading the AMP version of the site to do this. As Glenn said, it is using the targetText Chrome functionality to make this happen:
And for anyone interested in targetText Chrome functionality, here's the explainer document from February. I cannot force this in my test browser window, but Google is using it to jump users to a specific part of the text (and highlight that text). https://t.co/gMOkqqhAVe pic.twitter.com/v2qwwjPZy7 — Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 23, 2019
Note, this does not mean Google is indexing content on a page separately, this is just a user interface experience. Google does not index parts of a page independently.
Forum discussion at Twitter. | {
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Report a problem ×
Before reporting problems please read the user documentation and FAQ. If your problem relates to the address of a particular search result please use the 'details' link to check how the address was generated before reporting a problem.
Use Nominatim issues on github to report problems.
Please ensure that you include a full description of the problem, including the search query that you used, the problem with the result and, if the problem relates to missing data, the osm type (node, way, relation) and id of the item that is missing.
Problems that contain enough detail are likely to get looked at before ones that require significant research. | {
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SAN JOSE — When students returned to classes last week, San Jose State students were greeted by baby blue banners and posters advertising the campus’s new smoking ban rather than throngs of students and teachers puffing away.
Effective Aug. 1, all tobacco products and e-cigarettes were banned at SJSU following years of efforts to gauge student opinions of on-campus tobacco use and come up with a comprehensive smoking policy.
“The biggest change for me is that I now have the confidence to approach someone who is smoking and let them know about the policy,” said Bradyn Miller, an SJSU graduate student studying public administration. The issue of secondhand smoke in public places is personal to Miller because her father, a nonsmoker, has developed lung cancer.
The e-cigarette ban is having the greatest impact on SJSU students. Last year, e-cig use skyrocketed in popularity among the student body, and it was common to see students blowing huge plumes of flavored smoke in and around campus. These devices work by heating a liquid containing nicotine and other chemicals inside, producing a vapor.
E-cigarettes “are becoming a whole lot more popular, and there is a pretty common misconception that they are healthier,” said Mykel Jeffrey, a senior majoring in political science. “A lot of people think it’s cool to walk around with them, but in reality they are putting chemicals into the air that could be hurting other people.”
Although smoking was banned on all University of California campuses in 2014, a small fraction of California State University campuses have prohibited tobacco products. Cal State Fullerton and San Diego State implemented bans in 2013 and 2014, respectively, and Sacramento State is also planning on going smoke-free when the school year kicks off on Aug. 31.
In 2013, CSU Chancellor Timothy White proclaimed that he wanted to start the process of making all 23 CSU campuses go smoke-free, but the issue fell by the wayside, leaving individual CSUs responsible for setting their own tobacco policies.
Senior Vasuki Rao, a journalism major who smokes traditional cigarettes, said she isn’t concerned about not being able to light up on campus, since she can walk across the street to smoke, as many other smokers have done since the ban was implemented.
Unlike college campuses like UC Santa Cruz that are located in more isolated areas, SJSU is right in the middle of downtown San Jose. That makes it easy for students to walk off campus to smoke.
“They could’ve come up with a designated smoking area,” lamented Rao. “People are going to find alternative ways to smoke; they aren’t actually addressing the root of the problem.”
SJSU’s Alcohol Drug Abuse Prevention Committee, which helped design the campus smoking policy in the 2012-13 school year, considered establishing designated smoking areas on campus rather than banning smoking outright, said Jeffrey, who served on the committee. But the plan was nixed when the committee raised concerns that students would continue to smoke elsewhere on campus.
“Faculty and staff are a little more polite when they smoke on campus,” Jeffrey said. “They tend to hide behind a tree or go between buildings, but when it comes to students, they are very social when it comes to smoking. They don’t mind doing it out in the open.”
The ban was more than a decade in the making.
In 2002, former CSU Chancellor Charles Reed gave individual CSU campuses permission to establish their own smoking policies.
In 2013, 10 percent of San Jose State’s student body participated in an online referendum conducted by Associated Students, SJSU’s student government, which asked students if they supported a campuswide smoking ban. About 80 percent of respondents said they supported the ban, which encouraged administrators to begin crafting one. Former university President Mohammad Qayoumi then approved the tobacco-free policy last November.
“It’s a big milestone for our university,” said LooLoo Amante, president of Associated Students.
Rao said that when smoking was permitted, students tended to light up near the dorms. And while doing research for a Spartan Daily article about vaping on campus last year, journalism major Rigoberto Gomes noticed that smokers also tended to congregate next to the library and the Boccardo Business Complex. So far, he hasn’t noticed anyone sneaking a smoke on campus, but Rao and Jeffrey say they’ve spotted a few scofflaws.
The campus tobacco policy says that individuals caught smoking on campus will be issued fines of up to $100. But smokers don’t have to worry about evading campus law enforcement this semester, since the campus police are only issuing warnings to offenders.
“Citations will not begin until January at the earliest,” said Pat Harris, an SJSU spokeswoman. “This was intentionally put in place so that we could continue to raise awareness, collect feedback and respond.”
Contact Sophie Mattson at 408-920-5764. Follow her at Twitter.com/mattsonsophie. | {
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Sorry, baby lovers. The latest research on the “Do babies have an innate moral compass?” question indicates that no, they do not. Rather, like a puppy or young chimp, babies enjoy watching bright objects bounce up and down. Right and wrong, good and evil, do not seem to enter the picture.
Related Content Are Babies Born Good?
This new research from New Zealand’s University of Otago responds to a landmark study published in 2007 claiming the opposite finding: that babies are, indeed, born with an innate sense of morality. From a New York Times op-ed, one of the original study authors, Yale psychologist Paul Bloom, writes:
A sympathetic parent might see the spark of consciousness in a baby’s large eyes and eagerly accept the popular claim that babies are wonderful learners, but it is hard to avoid the impression that they begin as ignorant as bread loaves. I am admittedly biased, but I think one of the great discoveries in modern psychology is that this view of babies is mistaken.
The new study authors weren’t so biased. They noticed a glitch in Bloom and his colleagues’ original work, which they decided to explore.
In the original study, Bloom and his co-authors presented 6 and 10-month-old infants with two scenarios in which a wooden toy tried to climb a hill. In the first scenario, another toy tried to help the climber toy up. In the second, the helper toy turned malicious and instead pushed the climber down the hill. After viewing the interactions, they presented the infants with the option of picking up either the helping toy or the hindering toy. Most chose the helper, which Bloom and his colleagues interpreted as indicative of the babies’ preference for morality.
However, the skeptical researchers in this new study noticed that there were some other obvious differences going on besides just the social interactions. The hinderer toy collided with the climber toy, for example, whereas the helper toy engaged in a fun bouncing action to get its friend up the hill.
To see if the babies actually just like bouncy objects, the New Zealand researchers switched up the game, associating the hinderer toy with bouncing rather than colliding. If babies are so moral, they reasoned, the little guys should see past the bouncing and still pick the helper. Not so. The babies went for the bouncer regardless of the adult world’s perceptions of right or wrong.
Some may be disappointed by this discovery, but there is a way around it: Genetically screen and engineer your children to be moral, as this Oxford professor suggested to The Telegraph. It’s just “responsible parenting,” he says.
More from Smithsonian.com:
In the Long History of Creepy Robot Babies, This One Takes the Cake
When Robots Get Morals | {
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The OTR-250 is a 250 sized racing drone with an offset and tilt rotor design built by racers, for racers. From Southern California comes a unique design that gives you maximum flexibility to angle your propellers (rotors) without getting rotor wash from front to back rotors. The OTR-250 is designed around a vertically aligned frame giving maximum strength while maintaining a light-weight.
Watch the above video to see a prototype OTR-250 going through a quick test flight. Though flying on a very mild setting, the FC and quad seem to handle quite nicely, then changing it to a much more aggressive setting and flipped it. Seems to handle nicely.
Interest in FPV drone racing is spreading fast around the world and it is exciting to see new designs like this coming to market to help in propelling this industry into the next big sporting event.
Latest design (as of Feb 2016) for the OTR-250
Design Specification and Features:
The OTR-250 is a 250 sized racing quad designed around the idea that light weight, strength, and flexibility to customize your flight characteristics are all important. Design is for a protective aerodynamic shell over a lightweight carbon fiber frame with 5 and 6 inch limbs available that can be adjusted to 40 degree pitch.
Motor size:
Can be mounted with 2204 motors or, with washers, can fly with 1804 motors as well.
Dimensions:
Length : 243mm (approx 9.6 in)
Width: 220mm (approx 8.7 in)
Height: 96mm (approx 3.8 in)
Battery:
Have fit up to a 4 cell battery in its compartment.
Options:
– A separate camera mount will be available for those more interested in recording with a Mobius or mobile recording camera.
– It is running a bent antenna off its vtx, but there is a mounting plate also available if you don’t want to run directly off your vtx.
The quad design incorporates a rounded nose and curved body covering that in theory should offer less drag and thus less downward force being applied to the craft. Here is an illustration of the concept.
This cool looking racer on display at an Orange County Drone Fanatics meeting
Keep a look out for a Kickstarter project in the future to help launch this cool FPV racing quad.
You can also follow the project’s progress on the OTR 250 Facebook page.
Got a great and/or unique drone design? We want to hear about it. Contact Us | {
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How to Install Software Updates During Task Sequences
This question has recently come up a few times on Reddit and it’s something I initially struggled with as well. It’s one of those things that should be dead simple but in reality takes a lot of tribal knowledge to pull off.
Wait! A TS Step Not Working As Advertised? Say It Ain’t So!
Alas, yes my dear administrators … not all task sequence steps were created equal. There are some steps that just love to watch the world burn and Install Software Updates is their king. Don’t just take my word for it either, the users have spoken: Fix the Software Update Task Sequence. It is not by chance that this is currently the second most popular User Voice item with 1,421 votes. It’s been so bad for so long that many places have just given up entirely and use MDT solely for their build and captures. Speaking of build and captures…
To B&C or Not To B&C. That is the Question.
What I outline below is going to apply most directly to build and captures for legacy operating systems that you should be migrating away from. As you move to Windows 10 and Office 365 it’s probably worth taking a step back and asking if doing B&Cs is still necessary. With the release cadence of those products we will never see the multi-year backlog of updates that their predecessors had. Furthermore, both products have used a cumulative update model from the start. If you’re doing B&Cs primarily for software updates they will still save you some deployment time but ask yourself how much and if doing so is still worth it. I see a lot of ‘I shaved X minutes off my deployment by doing Y’ talk in the community. While such tricks are cool from a technical perspective I don’t always understand the practical value. In my organization the techs kick off a bunch of devices and then check back … eventually. A 15 minute OS deployment doesn’t save anyone time if the tech doesn’t come back for four hours. As always, your requirements and therefore mileage may vary.
Twelve Steps to Recovery
Below I’m going to outline the steps I took to install updates at least semi-reliably during task sequences. Some of this information might already be dated and unnecessary due to product enhancements. However, it’s what I’m using in production right now so I’m sticking to it. There’s thousands of ways for update installation to fail meaning there’s no silver bullet but this is what took me from something broken to something usable.
Deploying Updates to Unknown Devices
This is a simple step but it’s one I see many people miss and I can’t find it documented anywhere by Microsoft (note to self: fix that). In order for clients to install updates they must be deployed to them. As that applies to devices running OSD task sequences it means deploying to the two unknown computer objects. The easiest way to do that is to use the ‘All Unknown Computers’ collection. Whatever your patching strategy is, make sure that it includes deploying updates to those two devices. My ADRs all have a deployment specifically for this purpose with a deadline that matches my final production rollout. That ensures that when the whole organization gets the patches so do any newly imaged devices.
Provide Adequate Memory, CPU, and Disk Resources
This primarily applies to virtual machines and doubly so during during build a captures for legacy operating systems. If you try and update Windows 7 from the ‘latest’ ISO using a VM with one CPU, a couple GBs of memory, and 20 Gb of disk … things will not turn out well for you. Below I’ll outline strategies to lower the resources required but my standard is a VM with four CPU cores, 8 GB of memory, and 64 GB of disk. When I tried using VMs with half those resources it would timeout (described below), run out of memory (0x8007000E), or run out of disk space (0x80070070). Please, do not try to solve this problem using physical devices … you don’t want to capture drivers in your base image. I’ll admit to bending this rule for VMWare drivers which are very small and unlikely to conflict with physical devices.
Apply The Convenience Rollups
In 2016 Microsoft released Convenience rollup update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (KB3125574) specifically to make build and captures easier. Building this into your image before you run the Install Software Updates step will greatly reduce the number of applicable updates. Keep in mind though that to install this rollup you need to install the April 2015 servicing stack update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (KB3020369) first. I accomplish this by creating a package for each update, creating a program that uses WUSA to install the updates (ex. wusa.exe Windows6.1-KB3020369-x64.msu /quiet /norestart) , and then using the Install Package task sequence step.
If you use VMWare in your organization take special note of the first known issue listed for the rollup. I kid you not, the official solution from Microsoft is to run the provided VB script right before or after the update is installed. I included the script in that update’s package, added a second program to run it, and called it in the task sequence.
Maintain Software Updates To Minimize Your Update Catalog
I wrote on this at length here: Software Update Maintenance: It’s a Thing. That You Should Do. When the Install Software Updates step runs it first needs to know which updates are applicable to the device. That means doing a software update scan which, since the device is unknown, is going to be the first scan the device has ever done. Scanning against three thousand updates rather than ten thousand makes a real difference. As I’ll discuss below, it could mean the difference between success and failure.
Update the Windows Update Agent (WUA)
The flip side of minimizing your update catalog is to make sure you have a recent, if not latest, version of the Windows Update Agent which has to consume it. Back in 2015 and 2016 Microsoft released a whole bunch of updates to the WUA to just keep things afloat for Windows 7. Apparently ‘efficiency’ wasn’t part of the initial WUA design and it took them several releases to reign in the agent from snarfing up all the CPU and memory you threw at it. At the time, the agent was simply consuming more memory than 32-bit versions of the OS could support. In my current build and capture I am installing Windows Update Client for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: March 2016 (KB3138612) to do this. As above, I make a package and install it before the Install Software Update Step.
Increase the Scan Timeout Value using SMSTSSoftwareUpdateScanTimeout
One of the biggest problems with the Install Software Update step is that the update scan will timeout. This step historically has had an arbitrary hard coded timeout value of 30 minutes at which point it will just fail. Now, if you’ve done everything above you probably aren’t going to hit that timeout. In Current Branch 1606 the team added the SMSTSSoftwareUpdateScanTimeout variable to allow you to control this value in seconds. Just to be safe I set it to an hour (3,600 seconds).
As an aside, this is one of the beefs I have with how the product team solves certain issues. They create a new variable, maybe mention it in the release notes, and eventually document it. So they ‘fix the problem’ but leave it as an exercise for the new admin to come across the issue, bang their head for a few days, and then find some reference about it on the internet. I understand the concern for breaking existing workflows but this just seems designed to frustrate new users of the product and encourage them to give up. Why did I have to spend three weeks of my life tweaking the default task sequence to get it to do what is says it does?
Handle Multi-Reboot Updates Using SMSTSWaitForSecondReboot
It’s not a frequent occurrence but some updates require two reboots to install successfully. When that happens during a task sequence the first reboot is initiated by the task sequence engine but the second one is not which means the task sequence environment is not properly saved and the sequences fails with ‘Task Sequence environment not found’. In Current Branch 1602 (and CU3 for 2012 versions) the team added the SMSTSWaitForSecondReboot variable which will allow you to set a value in seconds to wait for that second reboot. My experiences suggests that this is a hard wait and the sequence will always pause for the specified length for every subsequent reboot. I set this to ten minutes (600 seconds) in all of my OSD task sequences. In my deployment task sequences I turn it back down to zero after updates are installed so that subsequent restarts don’t needlessly wait.
More details on this issue here: Task sequence fails in Configuration Manager if software updates require multiple restarts
By Repeating Yourself You Will Convince It
A single Install Software Updates step is never going to install all applicable updates. There’s so many inter-dependencies between them all for that to ever be the case. When Microsoft moved to the cumulative update model the promise was that they would become fully cumulative to the latest ISO by June 2017. I think it’s safe to say that they missed that date and I wouldn’t hold my breath for it to happen at this point. In any case, the solution to this is to repeat the step numerous times. However, simply lining them up in a neat row doesn’t seem to work. What I settled on was repeating the following steps three times:
Check for Updates
Install Software Updates
Reboot Computer
The check for updates step above is a Run Command Line task sequence step that runs the command line below. This triggers the client to scan for software updates. I’ve seen some people recommend putting a wait step after the scan since it runs asynchronously but I haven’t found that to be necessary.
cmd.exe /c wmic /namespace:\\root\ccm path sms_client CALL triggerSchedule "{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000113}" /NOINTERACTIVE
Putting It All Together
Ok, so I lied. I only made it to eight steps. Feel free to admit that this step has a problem and that it needs a power greater than itself. Then, work to remove its shortcomings and have it make amends to the devices it has harmed.
Putting everything together, here is what installing software updates looks like in my Windows 7 build and capture task sequence: | {
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House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth on Friday jumped into the impeachment controversy surrounding President Donald Trump, demanding that the White House hand over documents related to why foreign aid for Ukraine was delayed.
Trump never made an explicit reference to the roughly $400 million aid package during his July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
But the money had been put on hold days before the controversial phone call in which Trump urged the foreign leader to open a corruption investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat running for president.
Yarmuth, a Democrat from Louisville, wrote a Friday letter along with House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey seeking answers from the Trump administration about the delayed aid.
In the letter to acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, the lawmakers say they "have serious concerns that recent apportionment actions by the Office of Management and Budget to withhold military aid for Ukraine and other foreign assistance."
Andy Barr:Trump's conversation with Ukraine leader was 'routine diplomacy'
Yarmuth and Lowey argue such a move by the Trump administration violates the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which specifies the president may request Congress rescind appropriated funds.
The lawmakers say Trump delaying the funds unilaterally is "an abuse of the authority provided to the president to apportion appropriations." They are asking Mulvaney for a number of documents and specific questions that look to establish a timeline explaining when, why and how Trump withheld Ukraine's aid.
"Congress maintains the power of the purse and is obligated to address executive branch overreach," budget committee spokeswoman Alexandra Weinroth said in a news release. "Chairs Lowey and Yarmuth are committed to protecting and meeting those responsibilities."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a key Trump ally, told reporters in Washington this week he never received an explanation from the Trump administration about why Ukraine's aid was withheld.
"I’m grateful that security assistance has been released to help our friends in Ukraine defend themselves," McConnell said.
Catch up:The week that changed everything and sent Congress into chaos
McConnell said he had been pressing Trump's Cabinet secretaries and other officials about the aid package to ensure the U.S. did not back away from those commitments.
The GOP leader said this week how it is important for him the U.S. stand with Ukraine, especially as a firewall against Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggressive actions in the region.
"The best way to contest Putin and his hegemonic aspirations is to rebuild our defenses, work closely with our allies and partners and improve the capacity of those threatened by Moscow to defend themselves," McConnell said.
The senator's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether he supported Yarmuth's letter requesting additional documents surrounding the aid package.
In Kentucky:Judge removed from teacher 'sickout' case over Facebook 'like'
Reach Phillip M. Bailey at [email protected] or 502-582-4475. Follow him on Twitter at @phillipmbailey. | {
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By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
An extremely elusive Hainan gibbon
Gibbons have become the "forgotten apes" and many species will soon go extinct unless urgent action is taken.
So say primate experts who have made a call to action to save the crested gibbons of southeast Asia, which are the most vulnerable group of all apes.
For example, just 20 Hainan gibbons survive on one island in China, making it the world's rarest ape species.
Experts highlighted the status of the apes at the XXII Congress of the International Primatological Society.
"The crested gibbons are the most threatened group of primates and all species require urgent attention to save them from extinction", says Dr Thomas Geissmann, a world-renowned gibbon expert based at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, and advisor on the apes to conservation organisation Fauna and Flora International (FFI).
No less important
There are two main groups of apes.
Great apes include gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos.
Although also threatened, these species tend to receive more attention and conservation funding.
Gibbons make up the other group of apes, sometimes being described as "lesser" apes, though experts increasingly prefer to use the less pejorative "smaller" apes.
Gibbons pair-bond as humans do, but unlike great apes.
Of the different types of gibbon, there are seven species of crested gibbon.
All are highly threatened and some are among the world's most endangered mammals.
They are found east of the Mekong River in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam and China.
Several species have declined drastically over the past decade due to hunting and habitat loss caused mainly by rapid economic development.
Just two small groups of Hainan gibbons remain, living as two family groups on Hainan Island, China.
The Hainan gibbon's closest relative is the cao vit gibbon, which survives in a patch of forest on the border between Vietnam and China, and numbers not much more than 100 individuals.
Conservation work will be key to their survival, say the primate experts, meeting at the XXII Congress of the International Primatological Society held in Kyoto, Japan.
"Current efforts by FFI appear to be turning round the fortune of the cao vit gibbon at the eleventh hour," said Paul Insua-Cao, FFI China-Indochina Primate Programme Manager.
But gibbon conservation attracts much less funding than that of the great apes such as gorillas and orangutans, a situation that must be urgently remedied if this group of apes is to be saved, say the experts. | {
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Rick Wiles has warned of an upcoming World War on his show “TruNews” in the past, but this week he had an even more dire warning.
Wiles declared that “World War III has started,” which, he said, is all the doing of President Obama: “I also believe future historians will record that Barack Obama was the Adolf Hitler of the Third World War — a dangerous, mentally unstable madman who set the world on fire.”
He lamented that Obama was able to create the war while “the zombie-like public sat on their hands and watched.” | {
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Mr Trump is likely to get his way. The evidence so far is that not even China National Petroleum Corporation and Sinopec dare defy Washington. China's giant refiners have said that they will stop buying Iranian exports after the sanctions deadline passes on Sunday. So has India's Reliance. The Europeans are pulling out. Total has suspended all Iranian operations. ENI is winding down purchases. Spare capacity near record low The US will pay a strategic price for Donald Trump's promiscuous misuse of financial hegemony. But right now no serious company can risk being shut out of the US capital markets and the dollarised world payments system. It is too dangerous.
In practical terms, the spare capacity of global oil producers will fall below 1 per cent by early next year for the first time in the history of the post-war energy markets. This is lower than during the Opec shock of 1979, and lower than in July 2008 when Chinese demand pushed Brent to $US147 a barrel. Risky business: Donald Trump's hardcore stance against Iran could have dire consequences for the world economy. Credit:AP "All this works perfectly so long as there are no supply problems anywhere. But Libya and Nigeria are political wild cards, and Venezuela is collapsing," said Helima Croft from RBC Capital Markets. "You have already had three Saudi tankers attacked in the Red Sea by (Iranian-backed) Houthis and one was sunk. You can't rule anything out," said Mrs Croft, a former Mid-East analyst for the US Central Intelligence Agency. On Sunday, Iran's leader Hassan Rouhani threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, the choke point for a fifth of world crude and for British shipments of liquefied natural gas from Qatar.
As tensions were rising between the two counties, Mr Trump tweeted the following in capital letters earlier this year: The Iranians replied that they had been around for millennia and seen empires come and go, including "more civilised" ones. 'Squeezing every last barrel' Jean-Louis Le Mee and Will Smith, from Westbeck Energy, said Saudi Arabia, Opec, and Russia cannot lift output much further to plug the Iranian deficit even if they bend every sinew. "Every producer globally is currently squeezing every last barrel," they said. Westbeck is betting on a "furious rally" in November and December, culminating in a $US150 crescendo next year.
Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih confirmed that the Opec-Russia cartel is in "produce as much as you can mode" and that crude prices could quickly jump to $US100. "Nobody has a clue what Iranian exports will be. There are potential declines in Libya, Nigeria, Mexico and Venezuela. Our spare capacities for the globe are much less today than they were in the past, and we are using a significant part of them," he told Tass. Mr Al-Falih says the kingdom can ramp up output from 10.7 million to 12million barrels a day (b/d). "This I can assure. But if 3m b/d disappears, we cannot cover this volume," he said. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday tried to downplay the US sanctions targeting the country's vital oil and gas sector. Credit:Iranian Presidency Office/AP Few oil watchers believe the Saudis can in fact reach 12 million barrels a day in any meaningful time horizon. S&P Global Platts said the Saudis are already running flat out. There is a 500,000 barrels a day field waiting in the Saudi-Kuwait "neutral zone", this is caught up in a dispute over Kuwait's diplomatic tilt towards Turkey. What seems clear is that Washington will take a draconian line on exemptions for buyers of Iranian crude, with limited waivers and phase-out periods even for allies.
"Our goal remains getting countries importing oil from Iran to zero as quickly as possible," said Brian Hook, head of the state department's Iran action group. Risks obscured in the October rout Loading Total compliance is impossible but a loss of 1.7 million barrels a day by January is on the cards. S&P Global estimates exports will be down by 1.3 million barrels a day as soon as next month. Risks have been obscured over recent weeks by market noise and a jump in Iranian shipments before the deadline. Brent has been caught in the undertow of the October equity rout, dropping 13 per cent to $US76. Hedge funds have been liquidating "long'" positions on the derivatives markets, accelerating the sell-off.
Oil balance is always a complex calculus of shifting supply and demand. Economic slowdowns can deflate prices fast. "The oil market is adequately supplied for now," said the International Energy Agency in its latest monthly report.Yet the IEA says that most of the 2.6 million barrels a day rise in output over the last year is due to Opec and Russia eating into spare capacity. This is "straining parts of the system to the limit". The agency says fresh supply of 5.7 million barrels a day is needed each year just to keep up with the natural decline of old wells. Oil cycles have the power and predictability of tidal flows. Investment in upstream oil and gas peaked at $US750 billion in 2014 before the price crash. It touched bottom at $US460 billion in 2016 and has yet to recover. This has stored up trouble. "We believe big declines in non-Opec conventional production are about to re-emerge as a huge issue," said consultants Goehring & Rozencwajg. The energy intensity of the world economy has halved since the Opec crises of the Seventies. Yet oil can still cause havoc. The spike of July 2008 was a deflationary shock of the first order. It drained demand from the US, European, and East Asian economies, and triggered the collapse of an over-leveraged financial system that had become dangerously unstable. The system is scarcely safer today. The Daily Telegraph, London | {
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Laurie Matthews set up a drop-in centre for homeless kids in 1972, one of the first in Sydney. He has seen a ton of government social policies in his time running Caretakers Cottage in Bondi, not to mention departmental shakeups and bureaucratic tenders.
Now, it’s all about “outcomes-based” funding, playing the tenders game, and for the government’s part, outsourcing “processes” to external consultants such as the Big Four global accounting firms.
The job of dealing with homeless children is not like a plumbing job, says Laurie Matthews. You can’t just call the plumber and get the drain fixed. When it comes to homeless kids the “outcomes-based” approach really means you get more funding if you can get the kids out of your NGO, get the numbers down, and reduce the cost to government.
“Is it purely about getting the kids off the books and saving money or is it about helping kids to build their lives?” asks Matthews. “NGOs (non-government organisations) funding is based on outcomes, but what are the outcomes, who decides them?”
“A 14 year old can’t just get a flat out there on his own.”
More broadly, the ramifications of outsourcing government are profound. If this outsourcing fad turns out to be another failed experiment in government, the bureaucracy which once ran essential services will no longer be there; replaced instead by the likes of Big Four firms charging up to $1,5000 an hour for their work.
So much bureaucracy has already been outsourced to professional firms that government is being gutted of expertise. Meanwhile, the value of government contracts is heading through the roof.
The funding of homeless kids is managed by state governments where there is little public visibility vis-a-vis contract terms. In NSW, the relevant department is Family and Community Services (FACS)
“(We continue) to be subject to tenders by FACS and although I have lost out in a recent Out Of Home Care tender I have also played the game well enough to win a few too. The recent Out Of Home Care tender was managed by (Big Four firm) EY who, from the outset, were told by workers in the community sector that they had failed to get costing right.
Michaelwest.com.au has sought a response from EY which will be appended to this story when forthcoming.
“It seems, when the government and its bureaucrats hand out tenders, they don’t even need to give a nod or a wink as we all know what the ideology is that must be applied.,” says Laurie Matthews.
“In this recent tender, FACS have made such a show of having a probity officer overseeing the process; however the tender took part in two stages. Firstly, an expression of interest where we laid out our intentions and were successful in getting through to the second stage.
“In the second stage we failed, as we had not offered all aspects of the tender though we outlined every aspect of the EOI. In essence the goal posts were moved while EY had four months to fix their part of the process.
“The central aspect of this tender was to reduce the number of young people in care. I can’t disagree with the aspiration; however aspiration does not fix significant disabilities or parents who are deceased or not interested.
“Of greater importance was to rid the field of small NGO’s as they did in 2014 in the failed Going Home Staying Home tender which cost (then minister) Pru Goward her job. It shouldn’t happen again. We how have seven agencies replacing 33. I understand dealing with just a few agencies is cheaper but it limits the range of responses to young people.”
“I have spoken with Ryan Park (the relevant state minister) about the role consultancy companies plan in setting the conservative ideology of the undeserving poor in practice and at least he is aware of the need to engage with the NGO sector and not ride roughshod over us if there is to be partnerships between NGOs and government.”
Matthews makes some valid points and he is by no means “anti-outcomes”). And it is no lay-down-misere that the experiment in government outsourcing is destined to fail. It will work in some cases. From a public interest perspective however, the risk is that when it does fail there will be a vacuum of bureaucracy to fall back upon.
Further, many of the professional firms and their highly salaried workers may be well-intentioned and very bright but what do they know about homelessness apart from statistics? Has the associate at EY who motored through university and now earns $200,000 a year ever actually met a homeless kid?
Does the partner at the professional firm who rakes in the big fees from government had the remotest experience of homeless people apart from walking past them on the way to lunch? Does intellectual savvy have any nexus with common sense?
The risk would appear to be that, if the outsourcing revolution fails, it will come at a heavy cost to taxpayers and the “clients” of NGOs such as homeless kids and the disabled (see story below on the privatisation fiesta in NSW).
Another aspect of outsourcing is that the biggest winners are the Big Four and other consultancies who are not even required to disclose how much revenue they make from taxpayers. Their revenues rise every year yet there is no breakdown disclosed as to their profitability, or their value for money for that matter.
It is believed that now the majority of Big Four revenue derives from government; greater than audit, greater than advising corporations on dodging tax.
Collectively they posted an humongous $7 billion in revenues in 2017 in Australia: EY up 10 per cent to $1.63 billion, Deloitte up 15 per cent to $1.76 billion, KPMG up 10 per cent to $1.5 billion and PwC up 10 per cent to $2.12 billion.
This is a secret bonanza however, and disclosure of state government contracts is far worse than at the federal level. In the public interest, disclosure requirement must be ramped up. Government must also consider – as the Big Four are the chief architects of multinational tax avoidance – refusing government work to any firms who have tax haven connections. | {
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An attempt to reattach it failed - though it saved the man's vision and and a part of his face - and because of the breadth and depth of the lesions "his life was on the line", Ms Uryga said. | {
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Mark Walters
[email protected]
The bill contains sickle cell anemia and autism under treatable conditions.
There is no limit to the THC levels of medical marijuana.
The bill would allow 50 dispensaries in the state that could have up to three locations each.
A bill to legalize medical marijuana cleared its biggest hurdle yet, passing the House by a 149-43 vote Wednesday.
Senate Bill 3 now goes back to the Senate for concurrence. It cleared that chamber in May. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon County, plans to look at every amendment the bill received in the House before sending it to the governor's desk.
"We want to make sure we're not giving kids a toy that doesn't have batteries," Folmer said before the historic vote.
Pa. House nears medical marijuana vote
Parents, patients rejoice from Capitol on the heels of historic vote
Pennsylvania's medical marijuana debate has brought together families of sick children, veterans and other ailing patients from all over the state. Emotion inside the Capitol was palpable for hours Wednesday, with anxious citizen lobbyists awaiting the vote that took place around 6:20 p.m. The crowd of more than 50 stood and erupted in the House gallery after the bill passed.
Moms, dads and grandparents hugged each other and wiped tears from their faces as they offered a "Congratulations!" or "We did it!" A group of moms took a selfie with Folmer in the Capitol rotunda.
Wednesday's progress was "surreal" for Cara Salemme, 36, of North Codorus Township, whose 9-year-old son, Jackson, suffers epileptic seizures. Salemme said S.B. 3's passage lets her know that someday, she'll have legitimate medicine to give her son.
Clearing the Senate was easy compared to the House, said Angie Sharrer, 37, of Tyrone Township, Adams County. Sharrer and her husband, Matt, have been lobbying lawmakers for more than two years to pass a bill they think will help their 11-year-old daughter, Annie, who also suffers epileptic seizures.
Treating epilepsy beyond medicine in Adams County
Seeing moms hugging after the vote impacted Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon County. He was always in favor of S.B. 3, but grew more passionate about it when he met families struggling with illnesses.
"You don't always get to know the people personally who you're going to help," Diamond said from the top of the Capitol steps. "That really makes a huge difference."
The earliest the Senate could vote on the bill is March 21, said Steve Hoenstine, spokesman for Sen. Daylin Leach, a prime cosponsor of S.B. 3.
Gov. Tom Wolf has already pledged his support for the bill.
How York, Adams, Lebanon and Franklin county legislators voted:
Adams County
Dan Moul, R: Yes
Will Tallman, R: Yes
Franklin County
Jesse Topper, R: No
Adam Harris, R: Yes
Paul Schemel, R: Yes
Rob W. Kauffman, R: Yes
Lebanon County
Russ Diamond, R: Yes
Mauree Gingrich, R: Yes
Susan Helm, R: Yes
York County
Kevin Schreiber, D: Yes
Kate Klunk, R: Yes
Seth Grove, R: No
Keith Gillespie, R: Yes
Kristin Hill, R: Yes
Stan Saylor, R: Excused
Contact Mark Walters at 717-771-2032 or follow him on Twitter at @walt_walters. | {
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It has been said that women have more sensitive palates than men. That women are able to detect aromas and nuances those of the male persuasion sometimes miss, and are better at identifying specific flavors in foods and beverages. One of the most important positions in the whisky world is that of Master Blender, whose keen senses of smell and taste are relied upon to determine the quality of the final product. However, guess which gender traditionally dominates that role?
Rachel Barrie of Bowmore is one of the few females in the world to hold this distinguished title. She has quite the task, as she is not only in charge of Bowmore distillery’s releases, but also those at Auchentoshan and Glen Garioch (pronounced “Glen Geary,” rhymes with “eerie”), all part of the Bowmore family spread throughout Scotland.
So how did Barrie earn this prestigious title for one of the most prominent Scotch producers? A combination of right place, right time, and boundless enthusiasm. She had always been interested in the Scotch-making process. She attributes her natural gifts as combined hereditary traits – a sharp sense of smell from her dad and a talent for describing flavors and aromas from her mom. After earning her graduate chemistry degree, Barrie became a Research Scientist at the Scotch Whisky Research Institute. From there she worked as a researcher and Product Development Manager at Glenmorangie, already in charge of key grain to bottle decisions, and was eventually promoted to Master Blender, the first female ever to do so. She came to Bowmore in 2011.
In her first year at Bowmore, Barrie dug right in to select new releases from all three distilleries. During a recent afternoon at the NoMad Hotel in New York City, she presented three of their signature marks, accompanied by “mystery” drams from each distillery, which are destined for release in the coming months. These selections were chosen among a vast range of casks at each distillery. It was up to Barrie to taste through these casks and decide which ones were worthy of bottling for limited editions. One barrel among hundreds at each distillery. The joke is “How do you choose among your children?” But this is precisely what Barrie has to do to be a successful Master Blender. No pressure or anything.
The trick was to choose representations that don’t stray too far from the aesthetic of the distilleries, but at the same time, offer something different to entice the public. The selections were each fascinating to taste in their own way, like jazz variations on their source material.
The well-aged Auchentoshan (let’s just say in America it’s well past legal, but not so old it doesn’t get carded now and then) spent its final maturation in Oloroso sherry casks. This adds a much deeper hue and richer flavors than the lighter, more tropical signature releases of this Lowland malt. Modern Glen Garioch whiskies are unpeated, however the “mystery dram” hails from a time when the distillery still used peat in their production. The resulting whisky has a subtle, sweet smoke that wafts delicately around floral and pine notes. And if Bowmore’s home at Islay is known for its brooding weather, the selected whisky reveals its sunnier side. It’s light both in color and tone, with soft, malty flavors and comforting accents of cookie dough and sweet barbecue smoke. A drop of water frees its more savory notes of olive oil, rosemary and even, baked ham.
Attention gift shoppers: The signature Scotches of all three distilleries are all widely available year round and highly recommended additions to any collection, especially since they are prime examples of three distinctly different regions and styles. Definitely look out for new limited editions from Auchentoshan, Glen Garioch and Bowmore in the coming months. As you do, think about everything that goes into those bottles from grain to barrel, and how much the details matter. The world is lucky to have someone like Rachel Barrie among those who make that call. Our taste buds thank her.
Read more from Editorial. | {
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Jenkins, pour me a glass of my finest champagne I wish to knock it over
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Samsung's new flagship Android smartphone is finally here but has the Korean brand done enough to impress? Check out our Samsung Galaxy S5 review
It's finally here, the Samsung Galaxy S5. A couple of months after its initial launch at MWC in Barcelona, Samsung's latest contender has ditched the bloatware in a bid to take on the likes of the HTC One M8, Apple iPhone 5S and Sony Xperia Z2.
We've been playing with the new handset day and night for the past few days and we've been terrifying ourselves with the new heart-rate monitor and scanning our digits with the fingerprint scanner. We'll be updating our review shortly with more thorough testing including how it works with the Samsung Gear 2 and Samsung Gear Fit.
As we've mentioned, Samsung's latest offering is facing some stiff competition. Last year, we named the HTC One our smartphone of the year and this year HTC has produced and ever better phone, Apple's still going strong with its iPhone 5S and who knows what 2014 could bring in the form of the rumoured iPhone 6. Plus there's the Sony Xperia Z2 which is due to land shortly and looks set to be its best smartphone yet. So let's get down to it and find out if the Samsung Galaxy S5 is up to the challenge. Article continues after our Samsung Galaxy S5 unboxing video
Samsung Galaxy S5: Size and Build
Previous iterations of Samsung smartphones have been criticised for being too plasticky and for those looking for some metal, you're going to be disappointed.
The S5 is made entirely from plastic apart from the dappled leatherette back. Samsung seems to love making things that look like other materials - the sides look metal but they're plastic. The back looks like leather but it's leatherette.
Having said all that, it's a step up from the Samsung Galaxy S4 and we quite like the design. We expected the back to look cheap and tacky but it is, in fact, a pleasing texture and, dare we say it, premium - a word not often used to describe Samsung smartphones.
Vital statistics are 142 x 72.5 x 8.1mm making it a smartphone on the larger and thicker end of the scale. Its weight comes in at 145g, making it lighter than the robust HTC One M8 (160g) and the difference is noticeable when holding both phones. It's heavier than the S4, which tipped the scales at 130g, and dwarfs the iPhone 5s with a heft of 122g.
As with the S4, there are physical buttons to complement the touchscreen. You'll find the home button still in tact and this also now acts as the fingerprint scanner - more on that later. There's also a volume rocker and the on/off switch.
The headphone jack remains at the top of the device alongside an infared port. On the bottom you'll find, under a hatch, the sharing port. The reason for the hatch? The Samsung Galaxy S5 is IP 67 water and dust resistant. Note: resistant, not proof.
The new Samsung Galaxy S5 is available in four hues; charcoal, blue, gold and white. The blue and gold look a little on the tackier-side of the spectrum but each to your own. We'd recommend the charcoal.
As we've already mentioned, this is a large phone. Testament to this is the fact that on our first run we managed to drop it. Take a tip from us, get a case.
Samsung Galaxy S5: Screen
At 5.1 inches, the screen on the Samsung Galaxy S5 is slightly bigger than the 5-inch screen on the Samsung Galaxy S4. Resolution is, again, top of the range at 1080 x 1930 with 432ppi. Although it doesn't match the HTC One M8, Nexus 5 or the Sony Xperia Z2 when it comes to pixels, it far outstrips the iPhone 5S with its relatively meagre 326ppi.
READ: Samsung Galaxy S5 vs HTC One M8: Which is the best?
It's a dazzling screen. Icons appear pin-sharp, menus pop out from the screen and although it has fewer pixels than the S4, it appears sharper and crisper. Videos are pixel-perfect, stutter free and super-smooth. In short, the screen's a joy.
As with the S4, Samsung has stuck with AMOLED tech and, as with its predecessor, the screen is the biggest drain of battery but it's a pay-off we're happy with for the quality of the screen.
Samsung Galaxy S5: Features
The S4 Samsung was guilty of excessive bloatware and we're happy to report that this isn't the case with the S5. Samsung Hub has been removed as have the apps that once came out of the box.
The UI has had the spit and shine treatment - the main difference you'll notice within the settings. It's a much cleaner interface with a very 'Apple' feel about it. It's all colours and pretty icons and we like it.
Elsewhere you'll find subtle updates to the notifications pull down - it now includes S Finder (Samsung's answer to Spotlight search) and Quick Connect (Samsung's answer to AirDrop). There's also multi-windows ported over from the Samsung Galaxy Note Range.
READ: Samsung Galaxy S5 vs iPhone 5S
You'll still find some of the gimmicks from the S4 still lurking like Smart Stay, Air wake up and Smart Pause but these are easily switched off and we'd recommend you do so.
There's also Kids mode and Private mode along with our personal favourite Geo News, an app that tells you if you're in the vicinity of an active wildfire, avalanche, dust storm or extreme cold. We're yet to see what happens if you do happen to be near one of those - thankfully, we've still got still got the smiley face icon that tells us we're OK.
Samsung's tried to address the power issue with a beefed-up version of Sony's Stamina mode named ultra power saving mode. Switch the mode on and it'll change the colour of the screen to black and white and restrict applications to just the essentials.
It'll also turn off mobile data when the screen is off and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are a no-go. Handy if you're teetering in the 10 percent area of battery life and just need that extra bit of time to make it to the plug socket.
Samsung Galaxy S5: Camera
Unlike the HTC One M8, Samsung has upped the pixel count on the Galaxy S5 to 16 megapixels from 13 megapixels on the S4. Pictures are detailed and this time round can compete with the HTC One M8 with its ultrapixel snapper.
On the S4, low light was not your friend but thanks to the new low light HDR feature on the S5, it's not such a problem. Pictures are not fantastic but they're certainly an improvement.
New to the mix is the super-fast autofocus which lives up to its claim. There was no lag whatsoever when taking pictures, it was almost instant. Also new is the selective focus feature. Turn the mode on, select a focus point and take a picture. It's simple and easy and does produce some interesting pictures. Unlike the HTC One M8, you select the focus before taking the picture but you can choose from three focus options once you've taken your snap. It's not quite Lytro but it's a nice feature.
As with the bloatware, Samsung has also cut-down on the number of camera gimmicks. Gone is sound and shot but it's been replaced by virtual tour; a feature that lets you take multiple images and stitches them together to create a 'virtual tour' video. Dual camera and beauty shot remain and you'll also get the usual catalogue of effects from vignette to the lesser-used 'moody'.
Video-wise, Samsung ticks the 4K box with the ability to capture 3840 x 2160 UHD clips. It's really only future proofing at this stage, but if you have the tech, why not put it in, eh? There's also, of course, a front-facing camera coming in at 2-megapixels.
Samsung Galaxy S5: S Health
S Health is one of the biggest updates to land on the Samsung Galaxy S5. If the S4 was the phone that was made to make you walk around, the S5 is the phone that makes you think you should be running a marathon and tells you you're having a heart attack, at the same time.
Essentially, S Health is Endomondo mixed in with MyFitnessPal. On the fitness side, the app will measure running, walking, cycling and hiking. You can set your goals based on distance, time or calories and it'll track all of this and award you medals once you've reached your goals.
It's a great interface with large icons and buttons that are essential if you're mid-run and want to check how well you're doing.
READ: Best Samsung Galaxy S5 cases and covers
On the pedometer side of things, it's as you'd expect; it tracks your steps. Out of the box your goal is 10k steps a day but you can change this, as we did.
Where things get a little more interesting is with the heart rest monitor. Place your finger over the sensor on the back of the phone and you'll be given a reading. During our time with the phone it worked around 60 per cent of the time and it wasn't always accurate; at one point we were given a reading of 222bpm - we're pretty sure that's heart-attack territory.
Samsung Galaxy S5: Fingerprint scanner
As we mentioned earlier, a fingerprint sensor is built into the home button of the phone, much like Apple's Touch ID. To set-up you'll need to scan your finger 14 times and once you're done, you're in.
Unlike Apple iPhone 5S, you need to swipe your finger down the home button and not simple hold your finger on top of it. This is a pain. You have to get the angle completely right or it's a no-go. As with the heart rate sensor, it worked 60 per cent of the time.
Samsung Galaxy S5: Performance
The Samsung Galaxy S5 features the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad core processor, with clock speed of 2.5GHz which makes it a touch faster than the HTC One M8. In everyday use, it's lightning fast and we certainly didn't see any noticeable lag.
Whizzing around Android KitKat 4.4.2 was a breeze and we couldn't get any slowdown playing high-graphic games or streaming HD videos.
Along with 2GB of RAM, there's either 16GB or 32GB memory options that can both be expanded up to 128GB thanks to the micro SD card slot.
Samsung Galaxy S5: Battery
The new handset has a 2800mAh battery on board - a slight boost compared to the S4's 2600mAH. Everyday use isn't a problem for the S5, we'd easily make it to the end of the day with the screen on mid-birghtness, browsing the web and watching the odd video.
Samsung Galaxy S5: Verdict
We called the Samsung Galaxy S4 a thing of beauty and the S5 is even better. It feels better, looks better and does more than its predecessor. S Health is a great addition and a genuine alternative to other fitness and health apps out there. What's more, the camera is much improved and the interface feels cleaner and less cluttered.
Is it the best smartphone out there? We said that the S4 couldn't match the HTC One's gorgeous and demure styling, it remains the case with the S5 and the HTC One M8 although, Samsung is getting closer and in terms of innovation and power, the S5 narrowly takes the crown.
As with the S4, the S5 is undoubtedly going to be a very, very popular phone and deservedly so - it's the best Android smartphone yet. Over to you, Apple.
Samsung Galaxy S5 release date: Available for pre-order now, launches 11 April
Samsung Galaxy S5 Price: £570 | {
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When one encounters a novel stimulus this sets off a cascade of brain responses, activating several neuromodulatory systems. As a consequence novelty has a wide range of effects on cognition; improving perception and action, increasing motivation, eliciting exploratory behavior, and promoting learning. Here, we review these benefits and how they may arise in the brain. We propose a framework that organizes novelty's effects on brain and cognition into three groups. First, novelty can transiently enhance perception. This effect is proposed to be mediated by novel stimuli activating the amygdala and enhancing early sensory processing. Second, novel stimuli can increase arousal, leading to short-lived effects on action in the first hundreds of milliseconds after presentation. We argue that these effects are related to deviance, rather than to novelty per se, and link them to activation of the locus-coeruleus norepinephrine system. Third, spatial novelty may trigger the dopaminergic mesolimbic system, promoting dopamine release in the hippocampus, having longer-lasting effects, up to tens of minutes, on motivation, reward processing, and learning and memory. | {
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South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn shared a stage with Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, a notorious racist and anti-Semite
Clyburn’s office declined repeated requests to denounce Farrakhan
Democrats are currently split on whether or not to denounce Farrakhan
The third-highest ranking House Democrat shared a stage with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a notorious racist and anti-Semite, and has refused to condemn the hate group leader.
South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn attended a 2011 event with Farrakhan and shared the stage with him, even after Jewish groups voiced their opposition to Clyburn attending the event. Clyburn told the Final Call, a Nation of Islam publication, that he was “not bothered in the least bit” by criticisms of his attendance at the event.
As the assistant Democratic leader, Clyburn is the third-highest ranked Democrat in the House. He declined to condemn Farrakhan in a statement released to The Daily Caller News Foundation on Thursday.
“I have fought all my life to advance the cause of social justice and equality, and I have always opposed bigotry in all its forms,” Clyburn said in the statement. His office declined repeated inquiries regarding whether the congressman is willing to condemn Farrakhan, and whether he stood by his decision in 2011 to shrug off criticisms of Farrakhan.
Clyburn is now the eighth House Democrat to have direct ties to Farrakhan. The Republican Jewish Coalition has already called on the seven other Democrats to resign over their ties to Farrakhan.
Clyburn’s fellow House Democrats are divided on whether or not to condemn Farrakhan.
California Rep. Barbara Lee and New York Rep. Gregory Meeks both condemned Farrakhan on Thursday, but other House Democrats known to have met with Farrakhan have yet to condemn him.
Illinois Rep. Danny Davis told TheDCNF that he isn’t bothered by Farrakhan’s position on what Davis called “the Jewish question” and confirmed that he has a personal relationship with Farrakhan. Davis called Farrakhan an “outstanding human being” in an interview in February. Following a backlash, Davis reversed course on Thursday and said he condemns Farrakhan’s “views and remarks” about Jewish people.
“Let me be clear: I reject, condemn and oppose Minister Farrakhan’s views and remarks regarding the Jewish people and the Jewish religion,” Davis said in a statement to Jewish website Forward.
“Those who have attempted to defame me either do not know me or my lifetime record or are deceitfully and deceptively attempting to use this as an opportunity to foment division and hatred between the African American and Jewish communities,” he added.
The statement did not explain why Davis previously called Farrakhan an “outstanding human being,” or why Davis wasn’t bothered by Farrakhan’s tirades against “satanic Jews” until after a public backlash.
Indiana Rep. Andre Carson confirmed to Politico that he has met with Farrakhan but declined to say whether or not he condemns the hate group leader.
“As a Member of Congress, I have met with a diverse array of community leaders, including Minister Farrakhan, to discuss critical issues that are important to my constituents and all Americans,” Carson told Politico. “While many of these leaders have long track records of creating positive change in their communities, this does not mean that I see eye to eye with them on all beliefs or public statements.”
“Racism, homophobia, islamophobia [sic], anti-Semitism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance have no place in our civil discourse,” Carson told Politico. His statement did not include a condemnation of Farrakhan.
Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters, who met with Farrakhan repeatedly, has repeatedly declined to denounce him. (RELATED: Maxine Waters Attended Nation Of Islam Convention Where Farrakhan Defended Suicide Bombers)
Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, also the deputy DNC chair, condemned Farrakhan while first running for Congress in 2006 and assured the public that he had left Farrakhan in his past.
However, Ellison attended multiple meetings with Farrakhan while in Congress, including a visit to his hotel room, according to photos, videos and witness accounts reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation. Ellison has not denied that those meetings take place, although he has insisted that he currently has no relationship with Farrakhan.
Rep. Davis compared Ellison’s relationship to Farrakhan to that of a fallen-away Christian’s relationship with Jesus, in an interview with TheDCNF.
“I don’t know that Keith knows Farrakhan as well as I do — in fact, I know he doesn’t,” Davis said. “I don’t think that Keith is no person who is super engaged with Farrakhan, he just happens to be a movement. Just like many of the folks who are Christians, they’re not super engaged with Jesus, but they say they Christians.”
The leaders of Women’s March have also come under fire for their support for Farrakhan. The co-president of Women’s March, Tamika Mallory, attended the Nation of Islam’s annual convention last month and sat in the audience as Farrakhan railed against Jews and white people. Mallory repeatedly defended Farrakhan in the ensuing backlash.
Mallory has refused to back down from supporting Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, and defended her relationship with both as “coalition work.” (RELATED: This Women’s March Leader Just Doubled Down On Her Anti-Semitic Friends)
Former President Barack Obama was also revealed to have met with Farrakhan while in the Senate. Then-Democratic Illinois Sen. Barack Obama took a smiling photo with Farrakhan at a 2005 Congressional Black Caucus meeting.
The Nation of Islam photographer who took the photo said he suppressed it for 13 years at the request of CBC members who worried the photo would hurt Obama’s presidential aspirations.
Follow Hasson on Twitter @PeterJHasson
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]. | {
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Visitors to Chernobyl can now buy jokey “radioactive” ice-cream and $19 canisters of Chernobyl air so they can inhale “the unforgettable smell of abandoned concrete structures of the Soviet Union, the dampness of basements, mixed with the aroma of Pripyat roses”.
Visitor numbers to the region, devastated in 1986 by the worst nuclear accident in history, have been rising over the years. This has been prompted by less dangerous levels of radioactivity and the trend for dark tourism: who needs Venice when you can take a selfie in Pripyat?
But the figures have now skyrocketed thanks to the hit HBO drama Chernobyl. In October 2018, there were 9,083 visitors to the Zone – the 1,000 sq mile exclusion zone around the plant established by Soviet forces soon after the disaster. This October, there were more than 17,000.
The tour company Solo East has seen bookings rise by 45%, although its owner, Sergii Ivanchuk, is not best pleased: “The HBO series did nothing good. The situation is terrible.” He has refused to tweak his tours, saying he is determined to show the real experience of Chernobyl, not one that follows the TV version. He has been taking visitors into the Zone for 19 years and is appalled by the plans of the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to turn the Zone into a “traveller’s paradise”.
Ivanchuk’s main worry is the rise of vandalism this boom has left in its wake. Everywhere you look, there is penis graffiti. Even love locks – the inane tradition of sweethearts attaching padlocks to structures – has reached Chernobyl. One pound-shop padlock was clipped to the top of the Duga, the giant structure that once scanned the skies over Chernobyl for nuclear missiles. It is now nothing but a rusting climbing frame. At least one tourist has died trying to scale it.
‘Who needs Venice when you can take a selfie in Pripyat?’ Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA
Ivanchuk also despairs at the tour companies cashing in on the show by hawking tasteless souvenirs, from fridge magnets to T-shirts depicting radioactive wolves with glow-in-the-dark eyes. “It should be obvious that a disaster that caused the death of thousands of people should be treated with respect,” he says. “Nobody would think to make gas-chamber magnets and sell them at the entrance to Auschwitz.”
These days, tours make a beeline for “the Bridge of Death”, a chilling presence in the show. Rumour has it that hundreds of city residents gathered there to watch the eerie blue glow of radiation on the night of the explosion, only to later perish (there is no actual evidence of this). And tourists have been posting photos claiming the damage to Pripyat’s buildings was caused by hails of bullets from the Ukrainian army, when in fact the scars and cracks are a result of harsh winters and natural decay.
The huge influx of tourists has also caused ill feeling between Chernobyl’s guides and its “stalkers”, or illegal explorers. While tour companies are raking it in, the stalkers loathe the selfie-snappers they bring. One explorer says: “The influx of tourists is not welcomed by the stalkers, many of whom spend a long time camping there and have done so for many years. A small war is brewing.” One guide was recently attacked.
Stalkers frequently find themselves being blamed for damage in the Zone, something that leaves them furious. Since they are there illegally, they are an easy scapegoat. “Chernobyl,” one told me, “is a home for us, where we can relax, clear our thoughts, play partisans, enjoy the atmosphere of post-apocalypse. We’re stalkers – not vandals.”
‘They can only loiter for five minutes’ ... Chernobyl tourists having radiation checks. Photograph: Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images
Worse than the vandalism, though, is flagrant disrespect. Fans of the show have started visiting the plant’s control rooms to re-enact the scene when the horror of imminent nuclear disaster dawns on the technicians. They are given the same white coats and caps we see on screen, and they perform crass radioactive cosplay for their cameraphones, repeating their favourite line from the show: “Not great, not terrible.” It’s the perfect picture caption.
While three of the plant’s control rooms have long been open, the infamous Reactor No 4, where the explosion happened, has been a no-go zone. Not any more. Since October, fans have been allowed into the space – even though radiation in the room can be 40,000 times higher than normal levels. Tourists must wear protective clothing and can only loiter for five minutes before they have to be removed – and sent off for a radiation check. Who wouldn’t want to Instagram that? | {
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"The possibility of this record-breaking data is jaw-dropping," said Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr., in a news release. "It puts into perspective everything we've been working on, and I cannot say thank you enough to our entire island for working diligently to recover from the worst disaster we've experienced in decades." | {
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O deputado federal Alessandro Molon (Rede-RJ), que pediu o impeachment do presidente Michel Temer. Cleia Viana / Câmara dos Deputados
O presidente Michel Temer negou na noite desta quarta-feira que tenha solicitado pagamentos para garantir o silêncio do deputado cassado Eduardo Cunha, preso desde outubro. A informação foi divulgada por reportagem do jornal O Globo sobre a tentativa dos irmãos Joesley e Wesley Batista, donos da JBS, de fechar uma delação premiada no âmbito da Operação Lava Jato.
O deputado federal Alessandro Molon (Rede-RJ) protocolou um pedido de impeachment de Temer com base na reportagem de O Globo. O senador Ronaldo Caiado (DEM-GO), por sua vez, cobrou a renúncia de Temer e pediu antecipação de eleições.
Leia a íntegra da nota divulgada pelo Palácio do Planalto:
"O presidente Michel Temer jamais solicitou pagamentos para obter o silêncio do ex-deputado Eduardo Cunha. Não participou e nem autorizou qualquer movimento com o objetivo de evitar delação ou colaboração com a Justiça pelo ex-parlamentar.
O encontro com o empresário Joesley Batista ocorreu no começo de março, no Palácio do Jaburu, mas não houve no diálogo nada que comprometesse a conduta do presidente da República.
O presidente defende ampla e profunda investigação para apurar todas as denúncias veiculadas pela imprensa, com a responsabilização dos eventuais envolvidos em quaisquer ilícitos que venham a ser comprovados." | {
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In its first case involving crowdfunding, the Federal Trade Commission has taken legal action against the deceptive tactics of a project creator who raised money from consumers to produce a board game through a Kickstarter campaign, but instead used most of the funds on himself. The defendant has agreed to a settlement that prohibits him from deceptive representations related to any crowdfunding campaigns in the future and requires him to honor any stated refund policy.
Crowdfunding involves individuals and businesses funding a project or venture by raising funds from numerous people, often via dedicated online platforms. According to the FTC’s complaint, Erik Chevalier, also doing business as The Forking Path Co., sought money from consumers to produce a board game called The Doom That Came to Atlantic City that had been created by two prominent board game artists.
“Many consumers enjoy the opportunity to take part in the development of a product or service through crowdfunding, and they generally know there’s some uncertainty involved in helping start something new,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “But consumers should be able to trust their money will actually be spent on the project they funded.”
According to the FTC’s complaint, Chevalier represented in his Doom campaign on Kickstarter.com that if he raised $35,000, backers would get certain rewards, such as a copy of the game or specially designed pewter game figurines. He raised more than $122,000 from 1,246 backers, most of whom pledged $75 or more in the hopes of getting the highly prized figurines. He represented in a number of updates that he was making progress on the game. But after 14 months, Chevalier announced that he was cancelling the project and refunding his backers’ money.
Despite Chevalier’s promises he did not provide the rewards, nor did he provide refunds to his backers. In fact, according to the FTC’s complaint, Chevalier spent most of the money on unrelated personal expenses such as rent, moving himself to Oregon, personal equipment, and licenses for a different project.
Under the settlement order, Chevalier is prohibited from making misrepresentations about any crowdfunding campaign and from failing to honor stated refund policies. He is also barred from disclosing or otherwise benefiting from customers’ personal information, and failing to dispose of such information properly. The order imposes a $111,793.71 judgment that will be suspended due to Chevalier’s inability to pay. The full amount will become due immediately if he is found to have misrepresented his financial condition.
This case is part of the FTC’s ongoing work to protect consumers taking advantage of new and emerging financial technology, also known as FinTech. As technological advances expand the ways consumers can store, share, and spend money, the FTC is working to keep consumers protected while encouraging innovation for consumers’ benefit.
The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint and proposed stipulated order in federal court was 5-0. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, Portland Division.
The @FTC will host a Twitter Chat with staff attorneys from the case today at 2 p.m. ET. Follow the conversation and submit questions using #AskFTC. Staff will be online for 60 minutes.
NOTE: The Commission files a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. Stipulated orders have the force of law when approved and signed by the District Court judge.
The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 2,000 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s website provides free information on a variety of consumer topics. Like the FTC on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to press releases for the latest FTC news and resources. | {
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As you can see, I'm using projectors to draw the splatters onto the surfaces and create the alpha mask. Each projector is procedurally instantiated when a bullet (the white dots flying) impacts a surface.
Projectors have a box collider
, so bullets that impact there don’t create another projector but rather make that one bigger.
This way paint-splatters grow and we keep the number of projectors in the scene fairly low | {
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As PlayStation VR launches it’s killer app is a sleeping giant that will come later. With over 50 games to emerge yourself in during launch, you have to remember it’s only just the beginning. This is a technology many have dreamed of experiencing. Dreams will support VR and literally take you from microscopic to macro worlds. With a Dreams PS4 PlayStation VR experience, it’ll be something for everyone to enjoy.
PlayStation products are like a fine wine as they get better as they age. Top notch devs that have stuck with support from PlayStation have had tons of experience and apply that to our current generation of gaming. Media Molecule has always been about interactivity not only with their games but with their fans. Both LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway allow players to put in pictures and audio using the PlayStation camera. The controls also encourage tactile feedback especially with the PS Vita and PS4 controls. Not only that but LittleBigPlanet 3 had a logic piece that enabled livestream viewers to interact with a level. With everything put into perspective VR adds a whole new realm of possibilities to Dreams PS4.
Perspective
VR headsets put you into the world of your game. Most notably its a first person experience for full immersion, yet there can be uses of 3rd person or a hybrid type of view. Since players will have 1 to 1 precision, exploration will go into greater detail. There is talk of PlayStation VR users getting the same perspective in Dreams PS4 if they were viewing a Twitch livestream. Obviously ideas are being thought of and tinkered with but we’ll see what happens in the final release with proposed features such as that. Imagine the interactive logic piece in LBP3 being improved for Dreams PS4 using VR as an option.
Experience
Take a moment to think about the gadgets/logic system in Dreams PS4 affecting both the player and viewers experience. There may be a 3D survival horror game made in Dreams PS4 with the level set so that viewers can pick a random spot to jumpscare the player. This essentially provides a different experience each play-through. Of course you could use a randomizer, but when you involve real people to interactive with your game it takes it to a whole different level. Online multiplayer could be a huge hit with Dreams PS4 and the PlayStation VR headset. The possibilities are mind boggling.
Dreams on PS4 allows you to experience games, movies, audio, and everything and anything in between, so VR would also apply to those areas. Someone could make a movie in Dreams PS4 and create an actual theater. Now imagine going into multiplayer with a friend and checking out the movie. Maybe the maker of the character mapped arm and hand gestures to your controller allowing you to express your laughter while watching a funny movie. Perhaps you could literally [and virtually] ROFL while in Dreams PS4. As far as audio, what if you had a VR jam session in Dreams? Could you see yourself on a virtual instrument playing together in VR?
Remember that VR for Dreams PS4 is on the back-burner with the game’s main story and features being focused on as priority. Don’t expect VR to be there with Dreams PS4 goes gold day 1. It does give you time to become familiar with the initial outlook of the game though. We’re expecting the range of use for PlayStation VR in Dreams to go from experimental & tech demos to mini games, and of course full fledged levels. What are you looking forward to with Dreams PS4 & VR? ImpSpace is covering more on Dreams PS4 including the PlayStation VR experience when released. | {
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Head in the Clouds By Grennadder Watch
179 Favourites 18 Comments 2K Views
Well, I finally drew something with Paint Tool SAI, and this was the result. Don't know why I have never draw Derpy as the mailmare. I think it came out alright, but it does have some flaws.
IMAGE DETAILS Image size 1100x1700px 1.08 MB Show More
Published : Oct 8, 2013 | {
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If you didn't want to worry about your makeup being counterfeit You shouldn't have bought it from eBay
4,466 shares | {
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Dozens of U.S. colleges are opposing President Donald Trump's sweeping travel ban, which has left some students and professors stranded abroad.
The Association of American Universities urged Trump on Sunday to reverse his executive order halting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, saying it will only steer top scholars to countries that compete with the United States. Presidents from other schools issued scathing attacks of the move.
Many students and scholars from countries affected by the ban have been caught in legal limbo while traveling abroad.
Iranian Yale University doctoral student Ali Abdi left the U.S. days before the order was signed to conduct research in Afghanistan. Now he doesn't know if he can return.
Other schools with students or faculty who were stranded include MIT, Harvard and Clark Atlanta University. | {
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You may have been wondering why a Mariachi singer was trudging through a snowstorm on the streets of Gastown on Wednesday… We found out.
A Vancouver Mariachi singer has explained why he was trudging through a snowstorm in Gastown earlier this week, after a photo of him wearing his colourful charro suit and holding his guitar in the snow went viral on social media.
While most people were sheltering indoors away from the wintery blast on Wednesday, Jan. 15, Alex Alegria, founder and director of Mariachi Los Dorados, said his band was shooting a music video.
Vancouver photographer Banana Cam Photo took the photo and shared it on Instagram with the caption, "Rain, shine and even snow...Mariachi will prevail." It got an incredible amount of attention and has since been shared worldwide.
“The photographer was in the right place at the right time and to be honest I didn't even notice, until later when I saw the photo everywhere,” Alegria said.
Alegria, who has lived in Canada for the past 23 years, said the 12-member band, which plays traditional Mexican music, had ordered a commemorative Canadian themed outfit with a maple leaf to celebrate its 17th year as a group.
“In order to promote the new uniform, and the band, we were shooting a music video in Gastown … and the storm came in the middle of it,” he said.
Alegria said the photo had been shared more than 50,000 times across social media — reaching India, Australia, Germany, England and all of Latin America— and he had been featured on all national TV networks in Mexico.
“I have been getting calls and lots of interviews regarding that photo and the history behind the band,” Alegria said.
The band, previously known as Mariachi Romántico, was established in 2003 with the goal of bringing Mexico's traditional music to Canada. Alegria said the new name came from General Francisco Villa's army “Los Dorados” which had members from North America.
The 43-year-old, who has been a Mariachi singer for 20 years now, said he loved keeping the traditional music alive and it was becoming more and more popular in Vancouver.
“People love our music and we have done shows all across Canada from B.C. to Ontario and Yukon. As well as California, Las Vegas and seven states in Mexico," he said.
“One of the missions of Mariachi Los Dorados is to maintain and promote the beauty of Mexico through its traditional and uplifting music.”
Alegria said he was “extremely humble and thankful for the response” to the photo.
He encouraged people to take the opportunity to listen to the “beautiful music,” to follow Mariachi Los Dorados on social media and to hear the band play at one of its upcoming shows.
Mariachi Los Dorados usually plays Wednesday nights at El Camino's restaurant in Vancouver and Friday nights at Tequila Cocina Cantina in North Vancouver. | {
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Last month, actor Adam Beach wrote an important guest column about what Native Americans have gone through in this country over the past 200 years and the historical trauma of having your culture stripped away as tribes were forced to assimilate. That is one of the themes of Te Ata, the second fully-financed film from the Chickasaw Nation which was shot in Oklahoma on a budget of around $2M. The film — the production, set design, and costumes of which are as meticulous as any film I’ve seen previously nominated for Oscars in those categories — bows today in select theaters.
Q’orianka Kilcher, who led the cast of Terrence Malick’s film The New World in 2005, is back again in another lead role, this time in role of Te Ata, the renowned Chickasaw storyteller — Mary Frances ‘Te Ata’ Thompson — who entertained at the White House, befriended the First Lady, performed for European Royalty and on stages around the world in a career that spanned more than 60 years. And just as she did in The New World, Kilcher knocks it out of the park.
You could say that Te Ata is one of many Hidden Figures in the Native American culture. As Ruth Hopkins (Dakota/Lakota), a tribal attorney, activist and Native writer, said in Beach’s column last month: “There are many Native stories that are not being told. We are so much more than stories of poverty, or hapless victims who must be rescued by a white savior.” And, as Beach said, “Audiences are being robbed by false representation of Native identity and the chance to bear witness to our truth.”
Te Ata, which also stars Graham Greene, Gil Birmingham, Mackenzie Astin, Brigid Brannagh and Cindy Pickett, was shot entirely in Oklahoma and great care was taken to tell one of those stories. Te Ata was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1957 and was Oklahoma’s first Official State Treasure in 1987.
Robyn Elliott, Cabinet Secretary of the Chickasaw Nation Department of Communications and Community Development and press secretary to the Governor of the Chickasaw Nation, told Deadline: “We’ve been producing documentaries for a number of years. Governor Anoatubby’s idea was to share the story as a way to educate people about our impact in the early days of our country’s history. And today, we are still a thriving nation. It was his vision to use film to do that.”
The first film from the Chickasaw nation was Pearl about Pearl Carter Scott, the first licensed female pilot. “One of our goals is that with each feature film we also produce a documentary,” said Elliott.
How did they get such great production value from such a small budget? “We had a tremendous production team. We have a lot of good partners so were able to work with the schools,” said Elliott. “What helped us bring the budget way down was the locations that we were able to get.” She said many of the interior scenes were shot in different rooms of the same large, historical building.
Jeannie Barbour, a Chickasaw historian and the co-writer of the film who currently serves as the Creative Director for the Chickasaw Nation’s Department of Communications, explained. “In Guthrie, Oklahoma, there is a huge, historic building that serviced the masonic temple there for many, many years. We did one of the rooms in the White House there, we did the stage there. It’s a wonderful building fully restored.”
Marcy Gray
In addition, many Chickasaw participated as extras in the film. Some even had speaking roles. “It was just embraced by many, many people and many of our citizens,” said Barbour. The research on Te Ata started in 2011 as they began working with the family. “There is a lot out there as who she was as a performer but we really wanted to capture her as a person. They were wonderful to talk with and work with.”
Kilcher, who is Peruvian, then began researching the character, her mannerisms and voice pattern to bring authenticity to the role. “She understood how important it was to us to get certain elements of our culture and history correct,” said Elliott.
They started on the script in 2013 and a year later were before the cameras. With great direction by Nathan Frankowski (Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed), the film delves into what it meant to be Native American at a time when assimilation was forced upon the culture and how Eleanor Roosevelt (played by Gail Cronauer) made a difference for Native Americans behind the scenes. The film was produced by Paul Sirmons.
The film first dropped in Oklahoma before its L.A. and NY release today, courtesy of Paladin and the Chickasaw Nation. Te Ata will open in other cities nationwide after this weekend.
Both Elliott and Barbour said more films are on their way as the Chickasaw Nation is readying to tell many more stories. “We have a lot of stories left to go in the Chickasaw Nation,” said Barbour. “We are both Chickasaw so it means a great deal to us.”
Currently in post production is The Chickasaw Rancher which stars Martin Spence Meyer (Wind River, Magnificent Seven), Dermut Mulroney and Tommy Flannagan. They are also developing The Battle of Ackia about the Chickasaw participation in the French and Indian War. | {
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Ce document doit permettre à chaque foyer de connaître les consignes à suivre en cas de crise ou d'attaques. Une démarche inédite depuis la Guerre froide alors que la Russie accroît son activité militaire en Mer baltique.
«Si une guerre survient» (Om kriget kommer): tel est le nom du livret destiné à informer la population suédoise sur la meilleure conduite à tenir en cas de «crises et catastrophes en temps de paix, mais aussi d'attaques menées sur la société et la Suède». Il sera distribué à 4,7 millions de foyers en mai.
Ce livret contient «tout ce dont la société a besoin pour être préparée à un conflit, pas seulement militaire», a expliqué au Financial Times Christina Andersson, à la tête du projet mené par l'Agence de contingence civile, qui fait partie du ministère suédois de la Défense. Sont ainsi proposés des conseils en cas de catastrophe naturelle, de terrorisme, ou encore d'attaque informatique. Il fournit ainsi des informations sur les moyens de se protéger et de s'assurer de disposer de denrées de base.
Les premiers ouvrages de ce type avaient été édités dans les années 40, pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. La Suède n'en avait plus diffusé depuis les années 80.
Recrudescence d'exercices russes en Mer baltique
La réédition d'un tel livret, et le fait que les municipalités doivent rouvrir les abris mis en place durant la Guerre froide, interviennent alors que la Suède remobilise ses forces de défense. Le service militaire obligatoire a été rétabli, l'augmentation allouée à défense pour la période 2016-2020 s'élève à 1,1 milliard d'euros, portant le budget à 4,9 milliards d'euros.
En décembre 2012, le chef d'état-major de l'armée suédoise d'alors, Sverker Göranson, avait estimé, dans un rapport, que la Suède pouvait tenir une semaine en cas de guerre. En cause, une réduction importante de budget alloué à la défense depuis la fin de la Guerre froide. En 2013, le pays ne comptait que cent cinquante avions de combat, et sept bataillons.
Depuis 2014, la Suède a accordé une attention accrue à la défense. En cause, l'inquiétude envers son voisin russe. Stockholm, qui a condamné l'annexion de la Crimée, a vu Moscou intensifier ses exercices en Mer baltique. Ceux-ci ont notamment mené à l'incursion d'un sous-marin à l'origine non-identifiée dans les eaux territoriales suédoises. Stockholm avait alors été décidé de déployer des troupes de façon permanente sur l'île de Gotland, qui se trouve entre la Suède et les Pays baltes.
Une attaque armée dirigée vers la Suède n'est pas à exclure.
Traversée par le pipeline Nord Stream, accueillant régulièrement des exercices militaires, la Mer baltique représente un enjeu important, à la fois pour la Russie, l'Otan et la Suède. En 2016, les tensions avaient atteint un haut niveau, après que des navires de guerres américains avaient été frôlés par des Soukhoï.
Les quatre formations de l'opposition de centre droit ont déclaré que le pays devrait se porter candidat à une entrée au sein de l'Otan. Mais la classe politique est partagée sur la menace que représente la Russie. Et la confusion règne parfois, comme lorsque la commission de défense a écrit, en décembre, qu'«une attaque armée dirigée vers la Suède n'est pas à exclure». À l'opposé, plusieurs ministres de la mouvance centre gauche, majoritaire, ont déclaré la semaine dernière qu'une telle attaque était «peu probable».
Le premier ministre Stefan Lofven a insisté sur la nécessité d'une «défense psychologique», capable, au-delà de l'aspect militaire, de «protéger [le pays] de tentatives extérieures visant à influencer la démocratie». | {
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The state Health Department issued a brown water advisory for Waimanalo Beach this morning, as well as for Kailua and One‘ula Beach parks this afternoon due to heavy rains resulting in stormwater runoff entering coastal waters.
“The public is advised to stay out of flood waters and storm water runoff due to possible overflowing cesspools, sewer, manholes, pesticides, animal fecal matter, dead animals, pathogens, chemicals, and associated flood debris,” said the advisory.
While not all coastal areas may be impacted by runoff, the public is generally advised to stay out if the water is brown, and to practice good hygiene and follow up with a primary care physician with any health concerns.
Brown water advisories still remain in effect for the southern shores of Oahu, as well as islandwide on Kauai except for Keoniloa Bay to Sheraton Beach due to severe storms over the weekend.
A high bacteria advisory was also issued this afternoon for Hanakao‘o Beach Park on Maui, where enterococci levels were detected at 150 per 100 millileters during routine beach monitoring. Signs have been posted, and the advisory will remain in effect until water sample results no longer exceed the threshold level of 130 enterococci per 100 milliters.
Updates are available at this link. | {
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Today was a very interesting day. I find it completely ironic how a company will change it’s tune when they realize they have been nothing but complete and utter schmucks. I’m pretty sure the staff that insulted and berated my mother-in-law didn’t give their actions a second thought when they showed up for work today, but this evening I uncovered some things that put the ball is back in our court, and they are not going to be too happy about it.
Twenty-four hours ago my mother-in-law was called a liar, she was demeaned by Erica (a Best Buy staff member), the “manager” Nathaniel refused to engage her on the phone, and the corporate “customer relations” representative, Billy, told her there was nothing he could do about it. My mother-in-law endured Erica’s sarcasm and her rude and inconsiderate attitude. She tried to humiliate her over the phone and then Billy took the word of Nathaniel and Erica over the word of their customer, without knowing one way or the other, who might be telling the truth.
I’m pretty sure if asked, the corporate office will deny that ‘jackass’ training is included when they hire new employees, but Erica did her best to make my mother-in-law feel stupid for trying to pursue the matter, and after insulting her and getting very sarcastic with her on the phone, she told my mother-in-law to call the corporate office and hung up on her.
When my mother-in-law called the corporate office, Billy told her there was nothing they could do because the manager at the store informed him that the camera “appeared it had been dropped”.
Take a look at these photos and tell me where the visible damage is.
Here’s the front,
and here’s the back,
So, could you find it? Of course you couldn’t. There is a small “scratch”, if you can even call it that, on the bottom right on the front side, and there is a small “scuff” mark on the bottom left on the back. That’s it. That’s their argument for “appeared it had been dropped”. Of course, that scratch and the scuff mark could have been made while the camera was in someone’s pocket or in a camera bag. Either way, it appears to be normal use. Normal use of a camera that according to them had never been used before my mother-in-law purchased it.
When my father-in-law stood in the store with the camera in hand, Nathaniel informed him there were no longer any images on the camera. Well, duh, my mother-in-law already told him they had been deleted to make room for my son’s photographic masterpieces. Nathaniel also said that the photos I deleted were only “demo” photos placed on the camera by the nice folks at Casio.
You know it and I know it. Casio does not put demo photos on their cameras. If they did, I doubt they would use photos of a black woman sitting seductively on a bed with the camera box at the corner of the bed. Fuzzy photos of white shutters in the same bedroom won’t exactly sell any cameras either.
Anyway, have you ever heard of “PhotoRescue Expert”? It’s a really nice application that allows you to recover images you may have accidently deleted. Wouldn’t it be awesome if I was able to run that application and scan the camera to see if I could recover any of those “demo” photos?
Oh but wait, I did. Due to the fact we had taken a couple photos before we realized the camera wasn’t working right, the first couple images were not recoverable.
The first photo showed a young black woman sitting on a bed. The second shot showed the empty bed with the camera box sitting at the end of the bed. The third shot… Oh, here, you can see the third shot for yourself. You can see the woman and the headboard in this photo.
Here is the fourth photo, notice the bed and the camera box sitting on the bed. Those are some fuzzy looking blinds if you ask me. Nice demo.
The fifth image shows a close up of the camera box. You can clearly see the broken seal on the cd sitting on top of the camera box. Of course, this can’t be the box for this camera because Nathaniel and Erica both say the camera had never been used before it was purchased by my mother-in-law.
The three remaining images we recovered were taken by my son (when we first realized there was an issue with the camera). The image at the top of this post is one of those oddly exposed images.
In addition to recovering the photos, PhotoRescue Expert also reveals the date and time the photos were taken. That first photo was taken on February 8, 2009 at 3:24. Funny. My mother-in-law didn’t purchase the camera until February 25th.
As I said before, today was a very interesting day. Not only did I prove the camera had no signs of damage, I also proved that the camera had indeed been used before my mother-in-law purchased it. But that wasn’t all I found…
After recovering the images this evening, I called the Best Buy “customer relations” number again. TJ informed me that he could not help me from the corporate office and said I would have to take the camera back into the store with the “evidence” to show the store manager. I decided to call the store and ask a few questions.
It turns out Nathaniel is NOT the store manager. He is the service manager. My mother-in-law was under the impression he was the store manager, since that is who she had asked to speak to. The store managers name is Ryan and after hearing what I had to say, he was quick to offer his assistance. I told him that I wanted to file a formal complaint against Erica because she was way out of line treating my mother-in-law the way she did. Once I mentioned the “evidence” (which I will describe below) from the camera and the formal complaint, he asked me what I was doing on Thursday.
No, he wasn’t asking me out on a date, at least I don’t think he was, but he told me to come in on Thursday and ask for him. He stressed that I wasn’t to ask for anyone else, and that he personally would take care of everything at that time.
Now my question is, why is he being so quick to exchange the camera now? Sure, he knows his staff has done wrong, but they’ve done wrong in the past and that didn’t stop them. Sure, he knows the gig is up, but that never stopped employees from that location from being pinheads before. So what’s changed this time?
Maybe it has to do with the final two images on the camera. It could be that those two images hold the key to this whole debacle. The final two images I found on the camera were not recovered by the software because they had never been deleted. They were simply sitting in a separate folder and neither I, nor the employees at the store, noticed them. These two images are evidence that employees at the Best Buy location in Douglasville, Georgia knowingly sold a used camera as new.
Here is the image ‘CIMG0537.JPG’,
and here is ‘CIMG0538.JPG’.
Although the photos are a bit fuzzy, I think it’s very clear why Ryan is so willing to “take care of me” on Thursday. These last two photos show none other than a member of Best Buy’s own “Geek Squad”. There is no denying it now. Someone at that store knew this camera was used, and they knew is since January 1, 2008, which is the timestamp on those two photos. Notice the filenames. It’s also clear that this camera had taken hundred of photos before my mother-in-law purchased it last week.
Best Buy has a lot of explaining to do. First and foremost, they owe my mother-in-law an apology. The mother of all apologies. Disciplinary action should be taken against Nathaniel and Erica, at the very least, and someone from the corporate office needs to contact my mother-in-law and explain why Best Buy Store #519 in Douglasville, Georgia is selling used cameras as if they were brand new.
Isn’t there some sort of law or regulation that covers the deceptive business practice of packing used items and selling them as new? Are there any lawyers out there that could shed some light on this topic for me? Through my own experiences, I have noticed a consistent pattern at that local Best Buy store, but I never though deceptive business practices was part of their modus operandi.
It should be noted that the images used in this post are copies of the originals. I have the originals available on my computer, plus they’re still sitting on the camera waiting to be recovered again and again, if necessary.
This is no longer just about the camera. This is about doing the right thing. If we, as consumers, don’t stand up for what is right, corporations like Best Buy will never change their policies to prevent this kind of behavior from their staff, and they will never stop taking advantage of their customers.
The ball is in our court, and it’s up to Best Buy to make this right. Offering an apology to my mother-in-law and explaining how a used camera was sold as new would be a good start.
[Note (03/05/2009 00:43)]: I have posted an update to this entry titled, Holding Those Accountable.
[Note (03/05/2009 23:25)]: I have posted another update to this entry titled, An Optimistic Outlook.
[Note (03/06/2009 23:38)]: This matter has been resolved with Best Buy. Read my post titled, Above And Beyond, for the details. | {
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Good lord. The second double flip-flop by a major politician in the span of two days. That’s like back-to-back no-hitters in baseball.
Last year Nike announced that it would build a new manufacturing plant in Goodyear, Arizona, bringing more than 500 jobs with it. Score one for Gov. Doug Ducey. Then, last week, news broke that the company had withdrawn its new sneakers featuring the colonial-era Betsy Ross flag from stores after Nike spokesman and Woke Pope Colin Kaepernick objected that it was racist or whatever. Ducey wasn’t going to stand for that, even if it meant flushing hundreds of jobs down the crapper:
Arizona’s economy is doing just fine without Nike. We don’t need to suck up to companies that consciously denigrate our nation’s history. 8/ — Doug Ducey (@dougducey) July 2, 2019
Arizona’s loss would be New Mexico’s (or some other state’s) gain, it seemed. But hold on. After Ducey posted his tweets, the mayor of Goodyear issued a statement of her own insisting that “We will honor the commitment we made in our agreement.” That was 10 days ago, with the deal momentarily in limbo.
Then, finally, came resolution early today. Nike would be coming to Goodyear after all, according to an excited … Doug Ducey?
This is good news for Arizona and for @GoodyearAZGov. 500 plus jobs. Over $184 million in capital investment. Arizona is open for business, and we welcome @Nike to our state. https://t.co/ZLPkcs3dkD — Doug Ducey (@dougducey) July 11, 2019
He was against the plant coming to Arizona before he was in favor of it, but he was in favor of it before he was against it. Double flip-flop. Which means, I guess, that I need to issue a correction to this post: I thought Ducey’s Nike rant on Twitter was a sort of informal announcement that he planned to run for president in 2024, but that must have been incorrect. No pol who’s eager to pander to righty populists by waging culture war over sneakers would dare turn around and cave — especially not this quickly. He’d look like a total yutz.
In fairness, this isn’t so much a double flip-flop as it is a one-and-a-half flip-flop. Ducey never explicitly said in his Twitter rant on July 2 that he didn’t want Nike’s business in his state, although he certainly strongly implied it. What he said was that he didn’t want the company to receive the $1 million in state financial incentives that had been earmarked for its new plant. And according to the Arizona Republic, it’s still not going to receive those incentives. Ducey stuck to his guns on that and Nike decided to come to Goodyear anyway. The wrinkle is that the company *will* still receive the larger $2 million incentive package it was set to receive from the city of Goodyear itself. Essentially, Nike decided that it was willing to sacrifice $1 million in the name of staying on track with its new plant and watching the governor of Arizona have to swallow his supposed patriotic indignation over its sneaker decision. To Nike, watching Ducey cave might have been worth that much to them since it signaled in a newsy way that any halting efforts to boycott the company over the Betsy Ross thing have already fizzled.
I wonder what convinced Ducey to back the deal after he seemed to usher Nike towards the exit. Maybe he got an earful from pols and citizens in Goodyear that they’d make his life miserable if he cost them hundreds of jobs because of a dispute over whether a shoe design is or isn’t sufficiently patriotic. Possibly he was told by state lawyers that he’d have trouble in court if Nike challenged his decision to withdraw the state financial incentives, since governments aren’t supposed to discriminate on the basis of political viewpoint in making official decisions. Or maybe Ducey just misjudged how angry righties were at the time and were likely to remain about the Betsy Ross sneakers being flushed down the memory hole. He may have thought at the time that Trump was about to jump on the sneaker news and call for a boycott, igniting grassroots Republican opposition to Nike. If that had happened, Ducey would have been positioned at the front of the parade as someone who got to the issue before even Trump did. A populist leader! But Trump ignored the issue — surprisingly — and righties seemed to forget about it in short order, leaving Ducey in the unhappy position of leading a one-man parade that was going to cost his state major economic benefits. He did the right thing in the end, however grudgingly. | {
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The prime minister has pledged that information received by a taskforce set up to deal with the fallout from the Windrush scandal will not be passed on to immigration enforcement.
In a letter received on Monday by David Lammy MP, Theresa May said the taskforce helpline has received more than 8,000 calls, of which more than 2,700 have been identified as Windrush cases.
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More than 800 appointments have been scheduled and more than 200 people have had their cases processed and are in possession of the documents they need.
The taskforce was set up to help people find the evidence they need to prove their right to be in the UK and access public services, but concerns were expressed that the data would be sent to immigration enforcement.
“I want to reassure you that any information provided to the taskforce will be used for no other immigration purpose than that of helping people confirm their status, and it will not be passed to immigration enforcement,” the prime minister said in response to concerns raised by Lammy, seen by the Guardian.
But similar concerns have since been raised over the compensation scheme unveiled last week by Sajid Javid.
Before the scheme is finalised, Javid called for affected Windrush citizens and their families to come forward with their personal stories.
Among those caught up in the Windrush scandal are people forced out of work, in some cases for years, and unable to claim welfare support, as well as individuals wrongfully detained and in some cases deported. Lawyers have begun preparing group compensation claims on behalf of members of the Windrush generation.
Satbir Singh, chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants charity, said: “Time and time again we see the data of vulnerable people being used by the Home Office to initiate immigration enforcement action.
“Promises to protect those accessing the taskforce are directly contradicted by the failure to provide similar guarantees for those giving evidence to the compensation consultation,” Singh said, adding that proposed data protection powers that could prevent people from obtaining information about their own immigration status also undermined their assurances.
Changes proposed in the data protection bill would deprive applicants of a reliable means of obtaining files on themselves from the department through what are known as subject access requests (SARs). The decision to grant the Home Office an exemption to such requests in immigration matters has already been criticised by campaign groups.
But the Home Office has denied the proposed exemption is an attempt to deny people access to their data.
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KOLKATA: Under pressure from state health department, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has decided to exempt patients from submitting photocopies of their Aadhar cards at three dengue detection centres in north Kolkata. Instead any address proof documents such as ration cards, utility bills, voter cards, driving licenses or even ID proof of a government agency with proper address of the beneficiary could be sufficient documents for a patient who wants a blood test at the KMC dengue detection centres in the north.A TOI report on Monday highlighted the ‘strange’ system of asking for Aadhar cards from suspected dengue patients who have been visiting the KMC dengue detection centres at Hatibagan, Cossipore and Girish Park from areas like Baranagar, Baguiati, Dum Dum and Lake Town which are outside the KMC jurisdiction. The idea was to keep residential proof of the patients from the neighbouring municipalities and keep records of the beneficiaries and send detailed record to Swastha Bhawan The KMC health department officials in charge of three borough health offices insisted that Aadhar cards be produced each time a patient from bordering municipalities visits the KMC dengue clinic after they found that a section of patients had provided fake address.However, the system created ripples in the civic corridors after state health top brass asked the civic health department to file a report on the Aadhar card status for the dengue patients. A team of health officials led by municipal commissioner Khalil Ahmed on Monday rushed to Nabanna and met the state health officials to clear the air about the requirement of Aadhar cards for the purpose of getting the benefit of a blood test at the KMC dengue clinics. It is learnt that chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself wanted to know the truth about the Aadhar card requirement by the KMC dengue detection centres.After the meeting with the state health department officials at Nabanna, the KMC officials held a meeting among themselves and decided to give multiple options to the patients wanting to get their blood tested at three dengue clinics in north Kolkata which have been frequented by people of bordering municipalities. “We have decided to exempt the patients from carrying Aadhar cards to our dengue detection centres in parts of north Kolkata. Instead we will be asked to carry any simple documents that will be kept as record of their residential addresses,” a KMC health department official said. | {
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Kelly Lyell | The Coloradoan
Kevin Lytle
Timothy Hurst/The Coloradoan
Never mind that 3-4 start to the season.
CSU’s men’s basketball team took its game to another level Saturday to hand the University of Colorado its first loss of the season, 72-63 at Moby Arena.
Junior guards J.D. Paige and Prentiss Nixon kept the Rams under control on the offensive end, and Colorado State University did the rest with a dominant effort on the boards and some solid defense in the second half.
The Rams (4-4) looked nothing like the team that fell behind by big margins early in losses to Tulane, New Mexico State and Missouri State – all losses.
They looked like a team that could do some damage in the Mountain West while beating CU for the second straight season and seventh time in the past 13 meetings.
“We were really focused on this game, because we didn’t want to go down to 3-5, so it was a big win for us,” Paige said.
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Nixon made a 3-pointer just before halftime to give the Rams a 38-35 lead at the break, and the Rams took control in the second half. They led by as many as 17 points on a 3-pointer by Anthony Bonner with 7:40 remaining, then held off a furious comeback by CU (6-1) that included an 11-0 run in just 1:27.
Bonner’s 3 was the last field goal of the game for the Rams, who scored their final nine points at the free-throw line.
Kelly Lyell
Paige and Nixon scored 16 points apiece for the Rams. Senior forward Che Bob added 11 points, junior forward Deion James had nine points and 10 rebounds and sophomore forward Nico Carvacho nine points, eight rebounds and four blocks.
CSU out-rebounded CU 46-32.
Freshman guard McKinley Wright had 19 points and eight rebounds for CU, which shot just 33.3 percent (11 of 33) from the floor in the second half after shooting 46.4 percent (13 of 28) in the first 20 minutes.
“I think it does a lot for our confidence,” Nixon said. “CU was undefeated coming into this game and for us to be up by 17 at one point and just really shutting them out on the offensive end, it means a lot.”
Next up for CSU is a brutal road swing for games Tuesday at Arkansas and Friday at Oregon, an NCAA Final Four participant last spring. A trip that coach Larry Eustachy said Saturday has him feeling like Gen. George Custer preparing his cavalry for its last stand.
The Rams aren’t likely to win either of those games, and there’s a good chance they’ll take a losing record into the start of Mountain West play Dec. 27 at Boise State.
Despite this performance against CU, they’ve still got a lot to work on during the course of the season, Eustachy said.
They’re haven’t shown the kind of consistency they need to be a legitimate contender for a regular-season conference title. They’ll continue to lose some games they should probably win.
But they’ll probably win a few they ought to lose, too.
Knowing that their only path to a coveted berth in the NCAA tournament is to make a run through the conference tournament to earn an automatic berth, they’ve got 23 games between now and then to work out the kinks.
Even longer, based on Eustachy’s time frame.
“I think we’ve got tremendous room for growth,” he said. “… We (won) a very important game, but we still have our issues. We’ve still got things that we’ve got to blend other guys into.
“I’ve always said this is a 60-game season for me that goes into next year. And, we’ll be really, really good. I don’t know what we can do in league this year, but I know we can compete, and I know with (everyone) a year older what we can do next year and the year after that.”
Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news and listen to him talk CSU sports at 11:35 a.m. Thursdays on KFKA radio (AM 1310).
Kelly Lyell
Next up: CSU at Arkansas, 6 p.m. Tuesday, Fayetteville, Ark.
Watch/listen: ESPN3.com/KARS (FM 102.9) and KRDO (AM 1340)
Twitter updates: @CSUMensBball
CSU 72, Colorado 63
Colorado (6-1) – Walton 3-3 0-0 6, Wright 2-9 1-2 5, Collier 4-10 1-3 10, King 3-13 2-3 9, Wright 7-15 1-3 19, Schwartz 0-1 0-0 0, Bey 2-3 2-2 6, Brown 1-4 0-0 3, Nikolic 2-2 0-0 5, Siewert 0-1 0-1 0. Totals 24-61 7-13 63.
Colorado State (4-4) – Bob 4-9 3-7 11, James 3-10 2-2 8, Carvacho 2-6 4-6 8, Nixon 5-14 2-2 16, Paige 5-9 5-5 16, Jenkins 2-5 3-5 8, Bonner 1-1 2-2 5. Totals 22-54 21-29 72. | {
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USS Nevada (BB-36) was the lead ship of the Nevada-class of battleships which were built for the US Navy between 1912 and 1916. The Nevada-class was the first to incorporate a set of design characteristics that would be employed in a series of American battleship classes during the years around World War I (1914-1918). Entering service in 1916, Nevada briefly served overseas during the final months of World War I. The interwar period saw the battleship take part in various training exercises in both the Atlantic and Pacific.
On December 7, 1941, Nevada was moored in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. The only battleship to get underway during the attack, it sustained some damage before beaching on Hospital Point. Repaired and heavily modernized, Nevada took part in the campaign in the Aleutians before returning to the Atlantic. Serving in Europe, it provided naval gunfire support during the invasions of Normandy and Southern France. Returning to the Pacific, Nevada participated in the final campaigns against Japan and was later used as a target ship during the atomic testing at Bikini Atoll.
Design
Authorized by Congress on March 4, 1911, the contract for constructing USS Nevada (BB-36) was issued to the Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy, MA. Laid down on November 4 of the following year, the battleship’s design was revolutionary for the US Navy as it incorporated several key characteristics that would become standard on future ships of the type. Among these was the inclusion of oil-fired boilers instead of coal, the elimination of amidships turrets, and the use of an “all or nothing” armor scheme.
These features became sufficiently common on future vessels that Nevada was considered the first of the Standard-type of US battleship. Of these changes, the shift to oil was made with the goal of increasing the ship’s range as the US Navy felt that would be critical in any potential naval conflict with Japan. In designing Nevada’s armor protection, naval architects pursued an “all or nothing” approach which meant that critical areas of the ship, such as magazines and engineering, were heavily protected while less vital spaces were left unarmored. This type of armor arrangement later became commonplace in both the US Navy and those abroad.
While previous American battleships had featured turrets located fore, aft, and amidships, Nevada’s design placed the armament at the bow and stern and was first to include the use of triple turrets. Mounting a total of ten 14-inch guns, Nevada’s armament was placed in four turrets (two twin and two triple) with five guns at each end of the ship. In an experiment, the ship’s propulsion system included new Curtis turbines while its sister ship, USS Oklahoma (BB-37), was given older triple-expansion steam engines.
USS Nevada (BB-36) Overview
Nation: United States
United States Type: Battleship
Battleship Shipyard: Fore River Shipbuilding Company
Fore River Shipbuilding Company Laid Down: November 4, 1912
November 4, 1912 Launched: July 11, 1914
July 11, 1914 Commissioned: March 11, 1916
March 11, 1916 Fate: Sunk as target on July 31, 1948
Specifications (as built)
Displacement: 27,500 tons
27,500 tons Length: 583 ft.
583 ft. Beam: 95 ft., 3 in.
95 ft., 3 in. Draft: 28 ft., 6 in.
28 ft., 6 in. Propulsion: Geared Curtis turbines turning 2 x propellers
Geared Curtis turbines turning 2 x propellers Speed: 20.5 knots
20.5 knots Range: 9,206 miles at 10 knots
9,206 miles at 10 knots Complement: 864 men
Armament
Guns
10 × 14 in. gun (2 × 3, 2 × 2 superfiring)
21 × 5 in. guns
2 or 4 × 21 in. torpedo tubes
Aircraft
3 x aircraft
Construction
Entering the water on July 11, 1914 with Eleanor Seibert, the niece of the Governor of Nevada, as sponsor, Nevada’s launch was attended by Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt. Though Fore River completed work on the ship in late 1915, the US Navy required an extensive series of sea trials before commissioning due to the revolutionary nature of many of the ship’s systems. These commenced on November 4 and saw the ship conduct numerous runs along the New England coast. Passing these tests, Nevada put into Boston where it received additional equipment before being commissioned on March 11, 1916, with Captain William S. Sims in command.
World War I
Joining the US Atlantic Fleet at Newport, RI, Nevada conducted training exercises along the East Coast and Caribbean during 1916. Based at Norfolk, VA, the battleship was initially retained in American waters following the United States’ entrance into World War I in April 1917. This was due to a shortage of fuel oil in Britain. As a result, the coal-fired battleships of Battleship Division Nine were dispatched to augment the British Grand Fleet instead.
In August 1918, Nevada received orders to cross the Atlantic. Joining USS Utah (BB-31) and Oklahoma at Berehaven, Ireland, the three ships formed Rear Admiral Thomas S. Rodgers’ Battleship Division 6. Operating from Bantry Bay, they served as convoy escorts in the approaches to the British Isles. Remaining in this duty until the end of the war, Nevada never fired a shot in anger. That December, the battleship escorted the liner George Washington, with President Woodrow Wilson aboard, into Brest, France. Sailing for New York on December 14, Nevada and its compatriots arrived twelve days later and were greeted by victory parades and celebrations.
Interwar Years
Serving in the Atlantic during the next few years Nevada traveled to Brazil in September 1922 for the centennial of that nation’s independence. Later transferring to the Pacific, the battleship conducted a goodwill tour of New Zealand and Australia in late summer 1925. In addition to the US Navy’s desire to accomplish diplomatic goals, the cruise was intended to show the Japanese that the US Pacific Fleet was capable of conducting operations far from its bases. Arriving at Norfolk in August 1927, Nevada began a massive modernization program.
While in the yard, engineers added torpedo bulges as well as increased Nevada’s horizontal armor. To compensate for the added weight, the ship’s old boilers were removed and fewer new, but more efficient, ones installed along with new turbines. The program also saw Nevada’s torpedo tubes removed, anti-aircraft defenses increased, and a rearrangement of its secondary armament.
Topside, the bridge structure was altered, new tripod masts replaced the older lattice ones, and modern fire control equipment installed. Work on the ship was completed in January 1930 and it soon rejoined the US Pacific Fleet. Remaining with that unit for the next decade, it forward deployed to Pearl Harbor in 1940 as tensions with Japan increased. On the morning of December 7, 1941, Nevada was single-moored off Ford Island when the Japanese attacked.
Pearl Harbor
Granted a degree of maneuverability due to its location that its compatriots on Battleship Row lacked, Nevada was the only American battleship to get underway as Japanese struck. Working its way down the harbor, the ship’s anti-aircraft gunners fought valiantly but the ship quickly sustained a torpedo hit followed by five bomb strikes. The last of these occurred as it neared the channel to open water.
Fearing that Nevada might sink and obstruct the channel, its crew beached the battleship on Hospital Point. With the end of the attack, the ship had suffered 50 killed and 109 wounded. In the weeks after, salvage crews commenced repairs on Nevada and on February 12, 1942, the battleship was refloated. After additional repairs were made at Pearl Harbor, the battleship moved to Puget Sound Navy Yard for additional work and modernization.
Modernization
Remaining in the yard until October 1942, Nevada’s appearance was dramatically altered and when it emerged it looked similar to the newer South Dakota-class. Gone were ship’s tripod masts and its anti-aircraft defenses had been dramatically upgraded to include new dual-purpose 5-inch guns, 40 mm guns, and 20 mm guns. After shakedown and training cruises, Nevada took part in Vice Admiral Thomas Kinkaid’s campaign in the Aleutians and supported the liberation of Attu. With the end the fighting, the battleship detached and steamed for further modernization at Norfolk. That fall, Nevada began escorting convoys to Britain during the Battle of the Atlantic. The inclusion of capital ships such as Nevada was intended to provide protection against German surface raiders such as Tirpitz.
Europe
Serving in this role into April 1944, Nevada then joined Allied naval forces in Britain to prepare for the invasion of Normandy. Sailing as Rear Admiral Morton Deyo’s flagship, the battleship’s guns pounded German targets on June 6 as Allied troops began landing. Remaining offshore for most of the month, Nevada’s guns provided fire support for forces ashore and the ship earned praise for the accuracy of its fire.
After reducing the coastal defenses around Cherbourg, the battleship transferred to the Mediterranean where it provided fire support for the Operation Dragoon landings in August. Striking German targets in southern France, Nevada reprised its performance in Normandy. During the course of operations, it famously dueled the batteries defending Toulon. Steaming for New York in September, Nevada entered port and had its 14-inch guns relined. In addition, the guns in Turret 1 were replaced with tubes taken from the wreck of USS Arizona (BB-39.)
Pacific
Resuming operations in early 1945, Nevada transited the Panama Canal and joined Allied forces off Iwo Jima on February 16. Taking part in the invasion of the island, the ship’s guns contributed to the pre-invasion bombardment and later provided direct support ashore. On March 24, Nevada joined Task Force 54 for the invasion of Okinawa. Opening fire, it attacked Japanese targets ashore in the days before the Allied landings. On March 27, Nevada sustained damage when a kamikaze struck the main deck near Turret 3. Remaining on station, the battleship continued to operate off Okinawa until June 30 when it departed to join Admiral William “Bull” Halsey’s Third Fleet which was operating off Japan. Though near the Japanese mainland, Nevada did not strike targets ashore.
Later Career
With the end of World War II on September 2, Nevada returned to Pearl Harbor after brief occupation duty in Tokyo Bay. One of the oldest battleships in the US Navy’s inventory, it was not retained for use postwar. Instead, Nevada received orders to proceed Bikini Atoll in 1946 for use as a target ship during the Operation Crossroads atomic testing. Painted bright orange, the battleship survived both Able and Baker tests that July. Damaged and radioactive, Nevada was towed back to Pearl Harbor and decommissioned on August 29, 1946. Two years later, it was sunk off Hawaii on July 31, when USS Iowa (BB-61) and two other vessels used it gunnery practice. | {
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When Beck was a child, his mother would take him and his brother to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and ask them to choose a favorite and a least favorite piece. “I remember thinking, That’s a lot of pressure,” he said last month, in the atrium of the museum’s Ahmanson Building, a few weeks before the release of his new album, “Hyperspace.” He often picked Millard Sheets’s “Angel’s Flight,” an American oil painting from 1931, as his favorite. It shows two dark-haired women on a small balcony overlooking Bunker Hill, in downtown L.A. “Bunker Hill is the neighborhood in all the old noir films,” Beck said. “It was very picturesque, kind of seedy, post-Victorian. Then the nineteen-sixties came, and the city dynamited it—they just blew the whole hill up.”
Much of the museum’s campus—a cluster of buildings interspersed with open-air courtyards—will be demolished early next year, to make way for a contiguous structure. Beck, who is forty-nine, was feeling vaguely nostalgic about the place. He wanted to take a few photographs of the interior (the mid-century brass clock by the elevators, the pebbled concrete floors) before it disappeared. He paused before a stretch of worn oak panelling. “Lately, I’ve been taking a lot of photos of things like this,” he said. “Saying goodbye to stuff from the past. Making way for the new.”
He pulled out his phone and showed me a black-and-white photo, taken in one of the museum’s courtyards, of his brother, Channing, at the age of five or six, grinning beatifically at the camera, his head slightly cocked. “Look at that little pose he’s doing!” Beck said. He swiped to a photo of himself, at age seven or eight, wearing a homemade Superman cape, with a plastic six-shooter slung low around his waist. He held an Oscar the Grouch puppet. “This pretty much sums it up,” he said, laughing. “Superman sheriff with a Muppet.”
Since 1993, when he released his first album, “Golden Feelings,” on cassette, Beck’s music has varied so deeply in style and tone that it is difficult to tether him to anything other than Los Angeles, where he has lived for nearly all of his life. He has made fourteen albums and won seven Grammys, including one for Album of the Year, in 2014, for “Morning Phase,” a collection of elegant, down-tempo folk songs. It is tempting to divide his music into a handful of categories—mournful folk, bedraggled hip-hop, postmodern sound collage, sexy electro-pop—but the majority of his records fall somewhere in between: Superman sheriff with a Muppet. He can narrate a seduction at a J. C. Penney in a slinking, Prince-like falsetto, as on “Debra,” from 1999’s “Midnite Vultures” (“I pick you up late at night after work / I said, lady, step inside my Hyundai / I’m gonna take you up to Glendale / Gonna take you for a real good meal”), or sing a raw and quietly devastating chorus, as on “Guess I’m Doing Fine,” from 2002’s “Sea Change” (“It’s only lies that I’m living / It’s only tears that I’m crying / It’s only you that I’m losing / Guess I’m doing fine”). Neither mode feels more authentic, though his work does sometimes require listeners to interrogate their own ideas about what they believe to be more profound: ecstasy or ruin.
At LACMA, we visited “Sound Stories,” an exhibition by the artist and composer Christian Marclay, who used the millions of videos publicly shared on Snapchat to build a series of audiovisual installations. Beck was familiar with Marclay’s work. “He’s incredible,” he said. “I remember seeing him on TV. He had done this thing where he had chopped up vinyl records and glued them all together.” Both Beck and Marclay have relied heavily on the recontextualization of samples, and tend to question received norms about how music should be made and distributed. In 1985, Marclay released “Record Without a Cover,” a single-track experimental album that was sold without packaging—any scratches or dents that the record accumulated became part of its sound. The piece suggested that the way most of us had come to consume music, by listening to a fixed recording, was unnecessarily limiting. In 2012, Beck released “Song Reader,” a boxed set that included twenty pieces of sheet music and more than forty illustrations. “Song Reader” uncoupled the idea of music from the idea of recordings—songs could be social, they could be pliable, they could be temporary.
“The Organ,” one of Marclay’s installations, featured a small, spotlit synthesizer in a dark room. Each key cued a different sound and projected a series of vertical images on a screen. Beck patiently tried to teach me how to play Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” so that we might duet. “You’re getting it,” he said, though I was certainly not getting it. We moved on to “Talk to Me/Sing to Me,” a room with forty-two iPhones suspended from the ceiling. Each phone invited visitors to talk or sing and, in response, receive a blast of video, culled from Snapchat, that in some way mirrored the sound and pose they’d just made. Beck launched into a low, echoing version of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.” “I just got a guy with his shirt off, talking in Portuguese,” he said.
It is easy to become cynical about the cacophony of modern living, particularly when you are being bathed in human skronk—all the showboating and gasbaggery of social media. Yet Marclay’s work is charming in its playfulness and humor. Beck’s music operates in a similar way. It forces a person to consider that, sometimes, two things are true at the same time. The world is grim and hilarious; the future is bright and unthinkable; you are sad, but you are dancing; you are home, but it is not the same.
Critics tend to take Beck’s darker, singer-songwriter records more seriously, but he has found that capturing true joy is often more difficult. “Wow,” a song from his thirteenth album, “Colors,” is built around a howling synthesizer melody that recalls the Italian composer Ennio Morricone. “Wow!” Beck sings, dragging out the word. “It’s, like, right now.” The production is opulent; the sentiment is dopey. During the first chorus, Beck utters the phrase “Oh, wow!” He sounds so genuinely dazzled that I regularly find myself thinking of this when I need to be reminded of pleasure. “It’s like how people talk about comedy being harder to pull off than drama,” he told me. “How do you make something levitate?”
Beck has spent twenty-six years making music that is complex in form but scrappy in spirit. His work is as likely to be featured in the credits of “The Lego Movie 2” (“Super Cool,” a collaboration with the pop star Robyn and the comedy trio the Lonely Island) as it is to appear on an album of songs inspired by the Alfonso Cuarón film “Roma” (“Tarantula,” an echoing and apprehensive electro-dirge). Though his earliest albums are often described as dilapidated assemblages, he has precise ideas about craft and structure. At times, he has leaned more deeply into funk and R. & B., refining his falsetto and doing the splits onstage. “I want to defy / The logic of all sex laws,” he sang on the single “Sexx Laws.” (The line was inspired by a verse in “Don’t U Know,” an Ol’ Dirty Bastard song.) Like the R. & B. singer Ginuwine, Beck has an uncanny knack for writing lyrics that totter between farcical and titillating. “I’ll feed you fruit that don’t exist,” he sang on “Nicotine & Gravy.”
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Shopping Cartoon by Roz Chast
There were hints of Beck’s scope and ambition on “Mellow Gold,” his first album for a major label, released in 1994. The single “Loser,” which reached No. 10 on the Billboard charts, sounded like a refracted, postmodern version of Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” Beck had the same scavenging instinct as Dylan, but he was mining from several more decades; besides blues, country, gospel, and folk, he incorporated elements of hip-hop, disco, punk, and electronic music. It’s odd to think that Beck’s first few albums preceded the rise of file sharing, because they so adroitly reflect the thrill and terror of having everything all at once. He is still the musical figure who best anticipated and reflects the reigning aesthetic of our time: abundance. | {
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The cause was complications from chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, a neurological disorder, according to a statement from the Lugar Center, a Washington nonprofit organization focused on weapons proliferation, food security and other issues that the Indiana Republican worked on in Congress.
Mr. Lugar began his public service career on the Indianapolis school board and drew national attention as the city’s mayor before winning election to the Senate in 1977. He twice chaired the Foreign Relations Committee — from 1985 to 1987 and from 2003 to 2007 — and he was the panel’s ranking Republican from 2007 until his defeat, by which time he was the longest-serving senator in Indiana history.
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The cerebral, soft-spoken former Eagle Scout and Rhodes scholar never claimed to be a colorful personality. “Dick has maintained that childhood capability of walking into an empty room and blending right in,” former Environmental Protection Agency administrator William Ruckelshaus, a fellow Hoosier and a friend, once joked at a Lugar roast.
But Mr. Lugar’s civility and grasp of substantive issues drew widespread respect. “He was kind of the E.F. Hutton of the Senate. When he spoke, people listened, because they knew that he had independently thought through his position and weighed it on the merits,” Michael J. Glennon, an international law professor at Tufts University and former legal counsel to the Senate committee, said in an interview, referring to well-known brokerage commercials from the 1970s and ’80s.
After Mr. Lugar’s defeat, John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), then chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, called the loss “a tragedy for the Senate. . . . His expertise on complicated issues honed over 36 years simply can’t be replicated.”
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Mr. Lugar ran for president in 1996, vowing to test whether voters valued “serious talk about issues” over “cheap shots and sound bites.” The answer was not encouraging. Neither his sober — some said wooden — campaign appearances nor his proposal for a national sales tax attracted much interest. He seemed “like a fox-trot man caught in a rock-and-roll culture,” New York Times reporter R.W. Apple Jr. observed at the time.
“I think the momentum is suspect and the money is gone,” Mr. Lugar quipped as he bowed out after low-digit finishes in the early primaries.
His hopes for the vice presidency also went unfulfilled. In 1980, he was on Ronald Reagan’s shortlist but didn’t get the nod, and in 1980, George H.W. Bush tapped Indiana’s junior senator, Dan Quayle, as his running mate. Mr. Lugar never complained publicly.
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A moderate conservative who came of age during the Cold War, he viewed the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as the most serious threat to national security, and it was in that area that he left his greatest mark.
As the Soviet Union collapsed, he and other policymakers feared its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons might fall into the wrong hands. In 1991, Mr. Lugar teamed with the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), to push through legislation to help Russia and other former Soviet republics secure their arsenals and, in most cases, dismantle them entirely.
The initiative — officially the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program but better known as Nunn-Lugar — provided funding and expertise that during the next two decades led to the deactivation of more than 7,500 nuclear warheads and hundreds of other weapons and delivery systems, according to the Defense Department. Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan eliminated all of their nuclear arms.
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After Nunn retired in 1997, Mr. Lugar continued to promote the program and its expansion to countries outside the old Soviet empire.
“His legacy . . . is the thousands of missiles and bombers and submarines and warheads that no longer threaten us because of his extraordinary work,” President Barack Obama said in 2013 as he awarded Mr. Lugar the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Mr. Lugar was also a key supporter of arms-control treaties, including a pact banning chemical weapons that was ratified in 1997 over conservative GOP opposition. In 2010, he worked closely with the Obama administration to overcome similar resistance to the New START nuclear-weapons-reduction treaty with Russia.
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In his first stint as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Lugar played an influential role on two hot-button issues. Although a faithful supporter of Reagan’s agenda, he led the Senate in overriding Reagan’s veto of legislation imposing stiff economic sanctions on apartheid South Africa. He also helped bring about the ouster of Marcos in the Philippines.
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As leader of a congressional delegation, Mr. Lugar traveled to the Philippines to observe the 1986 presidential election and told Reagan that widespread vote fraud invalidated Marcos’s claim to reelection. Reagan, a friend of Marcos’s, initially stood by him, insisting that fraud had also been committed by the challenger, Corazon Aquino.
Mr. Lugar, however, refused to back down, telling PBS’s “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” that Marcos should either hold new elections or leave office. Mr. Lugar was not alone in urging a tough stand with Marcos, whose opulent lifestyle coupled with the country’s sliding economy was encouraging a Communist insurgency. But coming from a Reagan loyalist, Mr. Lugar’s comments added significant weight to the anti-Marcos push.
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In the end, Reagan withdrew his support, forcing Marcos to step down and securing the presidency for Aquino. Paying tribute to Mr. Lugar when he visited the Philippines in 1989, Aquino said his intervention had saved the U.S.-Philippine relationship, the Associated Press reported.
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Although Mr. Lugar was praised for his candor and diligence on the Philippine matter, he could frustrate colleagues yearning for a more consistently confrontational approach, according to journalist John T. Shaw’s book “Richard G. Lugar, Statesman of the Senate” (2012).
Mr. Lugar had concerns about the Bush administration’s plans to invade Iraq in 2003 and particularly its strategy for governing Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s removal from power in Baghdad. Yet Mr. Lugar voted to give the president broad authority to make war and did not forcefully criticize the administration’s Iraq policy until 2007.
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“I went to him a number of times and urged him to get more out front on Iraq,” former Republican senator Chuck Hagel, who was later a secretary of defense under Obama, told Shaw. “Dick opted to do it his way — quiet, private. I told him the White House wasn’t going to listen to him that way.”
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As chairman of the Agriculture Committee from 1995 to 2001, Mr. Lugar pushed to reduce crop subsidies, a position unusual for a legislator from a farm state and unwelcomed by farming interests. As the manager of his family’s 604-acre farm outside Indianapolis, he had hands-on knowledge of federal crop programs and considered them largely wasteful.
Mr. Lugar was such an institution that when he ran for a sixth term in 2006, the Democrats did not put up an opponent. But by 2012, the tea party revolution was in full swing, and an old complaint — that Mr. Lugar was more concerned with the world’s problems than Indiana’s — had gained resonance.
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“I think it’s fair to say that he has visited the Russian Federation more often than Russiaville, Ind.,” said the campaign manager for Mr. Lugar’s Republican challenger, then-state Treasurer Richard Mourdock. Disclosure that the 80-year-old incumbent had sold his Indianapolis home more than three decades earlier but still used it as his voting address reinforced the out-of-touch claim.
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Portraying Mr. Lugar as too liberal, Mourdock hammered at his votes for financial bailout legislation and Obama’s two Supreme Court nominees. Mourdock won the primary with 60 percent of the vote but in November lost to Joe Donnelly, a Democrat.
Gathering laurels
Richard Green Lugar was born in Indianapolis on April 4, 1932. His solidly Republican family owned a company that manufactured biscuit-making equipment and had a farm, which Mr. Lugar continued to oversee while in the Senate.
The Lugar household was full of books and academic expectations. Richard made much use of the former and satisfied the latter. He was high school valedictorian, and in 1954, he graduated, first in his class, from Denison University in Ohio.
In 1956, he married his class co-president, Charlene Smeltzer. In addition to his wife, survivors include their four sons, Mark, Robert, John and David; a sister; 13 grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren.
After his two years as a Rhodes scholar at the University of Oxford in England, Mr. Lugar joined the Navy, completed Officer Candidate School and was assigned to the Pentagon as intelligence briefer for Adm. Arleigh Burke, chief of naval operations.
Mr. Lugar returned to Indianapolis in 1960 and helped his brother Tom manage the family company. He also won a seat on the local school board, where his reform efforts were noticed. In 1967, at 35, he ran for mayor, pledging to revitalize the city, and was elected to the first of two terms.
His initiatives — including the merger of city and county agencies — were praised by President Richard M. Nixon, and Mr. Lugar was proclaimed “Richard Nixon’s favorite mayor.” The title was bestowed by a reporter, not Nixon, but it nevertheless brought him national prominence.
In 1974, Mr. Lugar ran for the U.S. Senate against a popular Democratic incumbent, Birch Bayh. He lost, but two years later he easily defeated the state’s other Democratic incumbent, Vance Hartke, and thereafter, he had little trouble dispatching Democratic challengers.
After leaving the Senate, he created the Lugar Center. Among other projects, the center joined with Georgetown University to produce the Bipartisan Index — a ranking of members of Congress by how often they co-sponsor legislation with members of the other party.
The index echoed a message in Mr. Lugar’s Senate farewell speech. “Too often,” he told his colleagues, “we have failed to listen to one another and question whether the orthodox views being promulgated by our parties make strategic sense for America’s future.”
Brown is a freelance writer. | {
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It’s not really clear just yet exactly what all these powerful, agile quadrupedal robots people are working on are going to do, exactly, but even so, it never gets old watching them do their thing. The latest is an Italian model called HyQReal, which demonstrates its aspiration to winning strongman competitions, among other things, by pulling an airplane behind it.
The video is the debut for HyQReal, which is the successor to HyQ, a much smaller model created years ago by the Italian Institute of Technology, and its close relations. Clearly the market, such as it is, has advanced since then, and discerning customers now want the robot equivalent of a corn-fed linebacker.
That’s certainly how HyQReal seems to be positioned; in its video, the camera lingers lovingly on its bulky titanium haunches and thick camera cage. Its low-slung body recalls a bulldog rather than a cheetah or sprightly prey animal. You may think twice before kicking this one.
The robot was presented today at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, where in a workshop (documented by IEEE Spectrum) the team described HyQReal’s many bulkinesses.
It’s about four feet long and three high, weighs 130 kilograms (around 287 pounds), of which the battery comprises 15 — enough for about two hours of duty. It’s resistant to dust and water exposure and should be able to get itself up should it fall or tip over. The robot was created in collaboration with Moog, which created special high-powered hydraulics for the purpose.
It sounds good on paper, and the robot clearly has the torque needed to pull a small passenger airplane, as you can see in the video. But that’s not really what robots like this are for — they need to generate versatility and robustness under a variety of circumstances, and the smarts to navigate a human-centric world and provide useful services.
Right now HyQReal is basically still a test bed — it needs to have all kinds of work done to make sure it will stand up under conditions that robots like Spot Mini have already aced. And engineering things like arm or cargo attachments is far from trivial. All the same, it’s exciting to see competition in a space that, just a few years back, seemed totally new (and creepy). | {
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It hasn’t been a week since Minecraft for the Raspberry Pi has been released, and already we’re seeing some cool builds that bridge our analog world with Minecraft voxel land. [Martin] got his hands on the Raspi version of Minecraft and decided to take advantage of the API Mojang threw into the build by making a huge analog block clock that keeps real world time in the Minecraft universe.
Basically, [Martin] created a small Python script that draws the face and hands of a clock in a Minecraft world. The Minecraft API comes with neat functions such as drawCircle, and drawLine, so making a real clock face is as simple as getting the system time and doing a bit of trig.
After the break you can check out [Martin]’s Minecraft clock in action. If you’re running the Pi version of Minecraft, you can also get this running on your machine with the code on [Martin]’s git. | {
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I’ve spent a lot of my time in Angular 2 and loved using Typescirpt with that. So since I made the decision to learn React I found it odd to write ‘vanilla’ Javascript without type definition, interfaces, enums and all the other good stuff that comes with Typescript. I did some research and figured out how to incorporate Typescript into a React project from scratch and thought I’d share my findings in this post for anyone else who wants to do the same.
I have written a post about moving from Gulp to Webpack which if you’ve read will see some things form there in here. If you haven’t read it and want to get a better understanding of how webpack works, I highly recommend you doing so.
Let’s get started
Below is a video version of this article for those who prefer learning that way.
This tutorial assumes you have Node version 8 or above installed on your machine, you have some knowledge of how React works, and know a bit about the terminal.
Create a folder called called react-typescript by typing in your terminal.
$ mkdir react-typescript
Create a folder in react-typescript called src. Then in your terminal type;
$ touch webpack.config.js index.html $ npm init -y
The last command creates a package.json file with the default settings/ You’re welcome to change the file if you need to. This concludes the basic setup of the project, now let’s start editing files.
Open the webpack.config.js file you created and place some simple webpack starter code in it.
I’ve spoken about what each thing does in this article, but a lot of them are self explanatory.
Let’s add a file to entry called index.tsx from the src folder like so ‘./src/index.tsx’. We haven’t yet created this file but we will do it later. The .tsx extension is the Typescript version of .jsx similarly .ts is used instead of .js, but we won’t be using any of those in this tutorial. Also in the output, let’s put everything in a folder called build which will export on the root of the project using path, and collect all the amalgamated js files into a bundle.js.
Not let’s create an index.tsx file in the src folder and add this code.
You may be used to importing react in regular js files like this;
import React from "react";
But for Typescript you have to import all (*) as React. The code snippet you pasted is a pretty simple React file that just puts the word ‘Hello’ in a DOM node with the class ‘container’. Let’s create this node in a file called index.html at the root of the project.
Now we need to install all the npms we’ve referenced. First let’s install the react modules.
$ npm i react react-dom
Then the webpack libraries as dev dependencies.
$ npm i webpack [email protected] -D
You’ll notice we’ve installed a specific version of webpack-dev-server because there is a breaking bug with version 2.10.0. If you happen to be going through this when there is a newer version beyond the broken one, you’re more than welcome to try that instead.
Okay–we have a typescript file, but webpack doesn’t know how to read it. Let’s give it the ability to do that. Install awesome-typescript-loader as a dev dependency.
$ npm i typescript awesome-typescript-loader -D
You can read here why it’s better than using ts-loader. Edit the webpack.config file accordingly by adding a rule to the module section.
We’re almost there. Create a file in the root called tsconfig.json which, amongst other things, tells webpack where to direct its search for typescript files.
Now we only have a few more dev dependencies to install. By default our React installations don’t have information about what types the methods are in the packages. We can install packages to generate the types for React and React DOM.
The final edit needed is to update the package.json file by replacing test in scripts with this line;
"start": "webpack-dev-server"
Now if you hit npm start (or yarn start if you have Yarn) in the terminal to start the server. Navigate to localhost:8080 and voila, you should see ‘Hello’ in a h1 tag.
And that’s it! You have a basic Typescirpt, webpack ,and React setup. For the average react project, you’ll probably want to have multiple component files, source maps for debugging, styles, and possibly the ability not to have the bundle.js file hard coded in the index. We’ll deal with that in the next part of this tutorial. | {
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I clicked the "download" button And it was an ad | {
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The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
In 2005, when Congress created the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), it was in expectation that the nation's supply of gasoline would soon be supplemented by something other than ethanol made from corn. Some of the best minds in science and engineering were saying with considerable confidence that the move from the research phase to commercially significant levels of production was just around the corner.
The adoption of the RFS, which many states replicated, turned out to be another misguided intrusion by government into the energy sector. The 2007 recession slowed the global economy, reducing the demand for energy and removing the sense of urgency from the search for alternatives since oil was no longer selling for more than $100 per barrel.
The regulatory regime the RFS imposed, however, turned out to be a gift to the American farmer. It created for them a significant and stable market that is simply no longer sustainable. The public debate about the program's future notwithstanding, it's clear a reexamination of the program is in order before it crumbles under the weight of its own structural flaws.
America cannot produce enough ethanol to meet the current RFS targets. There are not enough alternatives to fuel supplies made from corn for it to continue to work as designed. Congress intended to ensure the ethanol market would grow by letting the EPA set yearly requirements for the amount of renewable fuel to be blended into transportation fuel.
The way the government tracks the private sector's compliance with the RFS mandate is by issuing Renewable Identification Numbers or RINs, based on the amount of blended fuel produced each year. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the amount of corn produced in the U.S. that went towards ethanol production was typically between three and five percent. After the RFS was authorized in 2005, this increased to about 14 percent. The proportion steadily increased so that by 2016, over a third of all corn produced in the U.S. was used for fuel ethanol production, a clear sign that the RFS significantly increased the demand for corn.
American oil refiners, however, have struggled mightily under the burden of high RINs prices. The small and independent refiners where blue-collar Trump voters work purchase RINs from larger blenders because they can't blend fuel and ethanol on their own, meaning they can't generate RINs. This worked while RINs prices were low. As costs rose due to Wall Street's intrusion into the market, the system became unsustainable and as the Fourth Circuit of the Court of Appeals noted, has "amplified competitive disparities" between small and large refineries.
Concerns about energy production and sources aside, small refiners will be forced out of business if the RFS program is not reformed. It might also set off a chain reaction reaching up and down the supply chain, affecting everyone from truckers to farmers.
Blenders buy a large amount of ethanol to mix with fuel from refiners. When refineries shut down the demand for ethanol decreases. If too many refiners shut down, then ethanol producers lose business and purchase less corn. As ethanol producers buy less corn the price of corn drops, hurting farmers and adversely affecting the American economy.
Congress must act to find a solution that stops the harm the RFS is doing, especially to smaller refiners without dumping the problem on the nation's farmers. The writing on the wall is clear. A legislative fix is necessary since it was legislation that created the problem in the first place. The program is broken. But there's still time to fix it before the pain sets in. | {
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Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson says he was surprised by the stoppage in the main event at UFC 244, but understands the doctor's concerns over the cuts around Nate Diaz's eye. (1:52)
During his time in WWE, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson performed at Madison Square Garden more than 30 times. Some of the biggest moments of his career happened inside the "world's most famous arena," long recognized as the pro wrestling giant's unofficial home arena.
When Johnson agreed to be the bearer of the belt in the BMF title showdown at UFC 244 between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz, he felt a weight of responsibility in promoting the fight and making the moment feel as big as it could possibly be.
What he didn't expect were the memories and emotions that came flooding back -- memories that stretched all the way back to 1996, when he was "just a punk kid rookie who had so much to learn, and so much to earn."
play 0:24 The Rock jokes he can take Stipe Miocic Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson addresses if he has ambitions to fight in the UFC and jokes that he can take two-time UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic.
"I had this rush of thought of how I've walked that backstage and those hallowed halls of Madison Square Garden so many times," Johnson said, on Monday's Ariel Helwani's MMA Show. "[I had] the same flashes of thoughts that I went through as a wrestler. Making sure that my timing was right in the ring, the cadence was right, making sure that [I remembered] all the highlights and high spots of a match -- especially if we had to go 30 minutes, 45 minutes sometimes -- all that was going through my head.
"What I realized is I had an even greater, profound level of respect for the fighters who not only walked those hallowed halls of Madison Square Garden -- [but for] MMA fighters who walk that walk before every fight," Johnson said. "I had the luxury of knowing what the outcome would be in pro wrestling. It doesn't take away from the physicality of it -- you're still getting suplexed and thrown around by 300-pound men, and all these injuries that you have to deal with -- but this idea that the fighters don't have that luxury."
Johnson walked out toward the Octagon with his WWE theme blaring out of the MSG sound system, and thrust the BMF title into the air, as he had so many times before with WWE titles. He did it with the utmost enthusiasm, which he also brought to his role in the buildup to the BMF title, with the intent of making sure Masvidal and Diaz cashed in as much as they possibly could.
"Because fighters have a finite window of time, I always want to make sure the fighters and the wrestlers are getting as much money as they possibly can," Johnson said, "because that's the bottom line. Of course, there's passion, there's drive, but at the end of the day I want them to secure the bag.
"If I can help raise the bottom line, then I've done my job."
Johnson held on to that BMF title and looked on as Diaz and Masvidal spent three rounds proving why they each felt worthy of the moniker. When the ringside doctor stopped the fight before the fourth round because of a cut over Diaz's eye, Johnson walked back toward the cage feeling the same way many fans did.
"I think like the fighters and a lot of fans, I wanted the fight to continue," Johnson said. "I was surprised by the stoppage. But I was very careful not to say I disagreed with it. I'm not a doctor, and I'm not in there, and I don't see what the doctor saw."
Despite a chorus of boos inside of MSG for the doctor's decision, Johnson enjoyed the moment and the opportunity to wrap the BMF belt around the waist of Masvidal, his friend and fellow longtime Miami resident.
As the crowd started to file out and Johnson and Masvidal returned to the backstage area, they shared a few moments in which Johnson, one of the highest-grossing movie stars in the world, tried to convey some advice for Masvidal as the latter's spotlight continued to grow.
"I reminded him what an incredible opportunity this is -- to take advantage of it, continue to work hard, as, of course he is going to do," Johnson said. "He loves to talk s---, as we all do down in Miami, because it's what we do. But he also has a cool, sharp, smart wit about him, and he's got his head in the right place. His head being in the right place [has him] wanting to do everything he can to impact his own bottom line, and impact the company's bottom line."
Johnson also talked about his appreciation for fighters to turn things around in a hurry in MMA, and conveyed how impressed he was with how Masvidal has handled his recent star turn.
"I also just reminded him that he has this really cool, calm humility to him, which I think is very unique. A lot of fighters try and find this balance of self-promoting themselves, as well they should, but also have this bit of humility, because that's the basis and the grounds and the foundation of MMA -- it's having that discipline and having a little bit of humility.
"He said, with a smile, 'Man, I've always got that.' And he said, 'Look, I'm going to need you now at every fight, you're my good luck charm. I'm going to have to find you.' And I said, 'You're not going to have to look hard, man, I've got your back.'"
Nick Diaz wants to return
Nick Diaz is ready to return to the Octagon and has his eyes set on Jorge Masvidal. Diaz spoke to Ariel Helwani about his plans for 2020 and how tough it was watching his brother lose at UFC 244.
Stipe Miocic more interested in boxing Tyson Fury than facing Daniel Cormier a third time
UFC heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic is not that intrigued by a third fight with Daniel Cormier, who said that's the one fight he wants before he retires.
Miocic and Cormier split their first two fights with Miocic scoring a fourth-round KO on Aug. 17. Miocic said eye pokes and punches in that fight and previous ones led to a torn retina.
"I got done with the fight and was seeing spots in my eye that I never saw before," Miocic said Monday. "It didn't feel right so I went to the doctor, and he said you have a tear in your retina.
"It was like dark floaties in my eye, it's gotten better, but it's still there."
Miocic, 37, can do some stretching, but not a lot more. He'll visit the doctor in a month to see about a timeline for a return.
When he's ready to return, Miocic's interest has turned away from MMA.
"Tyson Fury is coming in the mix now, I hear," he said of boxing's lineal heavyweight champ. "I like a new challenge."
Miocic said he's 100% more interested in fighting Fury than Cormier.
"I'd love to box him," Miocic said. "He's a great fighter. He's a good dude, and I think we'd put on a good show.
"With DC, I didn't fluke knock him out, I beat him. I decisively beat him. The first fight DC caught me with a punch in the first round. But second fight I won. I didn't get lucky. Right now, [a Cormier fight] doesn't really intrigue me. More with the Tyson Fury, I like that."
Cormier, 40, told Helwani's Show in September: "I'm gonna fight this guy again. My intention is to fight him in the right way. ... It has to be against Stipe, no one else matters."
Ngannou looking for a fight
In the past year, Francis Ngannou has spent just 2 minutes, 22 seconds inside the Octagon. He wants back inside the cage ... or even a boxing ring.
Ngannou (14-3) said on Monday that the fight he wants more than any other is a rematch with UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, who defeated him via unanimous decision in January 2018.
If not that, he'd be open to a heavyweight bout against light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, or a two-fight series with lineal heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury -- one fight in MMA, one in boxing.
Regarding his UFC heavyweight championship ambition, Ngannou believes he has earned another shot at Miocic. That 2:22 he has spent in the Octagon over the past year, after all, covers three stunning victories -- a 45-second TKO of Curtis Blaydes in November 2018, a 26-second KO of former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez in February and a 1:11 TKO of another ex-champ, Junior dos Santos, in June.
But Ngannou recognizes that after Miocic knocked out Daniel Cormier in August to win back his belt from the man who had taken it away a year earlier, the UFC immediately began planning for a trilogy bout. Ngannou hopes he will be next, and in the meantime, he wants to remain active.
The 33-year-old Cameroonian, now based in Las Vegas, said he has not heard from the UFC with a plan for him, so he and his manager intend to visit promotion president Dana White.
"Hopefully this week we're going to have some news," he said. "It's very frustrating. Right now I don't even know how to express my feeling."
Ngannou, No. 3 in the ESPN heavyweight rankings, said he would be open to fighting seventh-ranked Alexander Volkov, who defeated Greg Hardy on Saturday in Moscow, or No. 6 Derrick Lewis, who beat Blagoy Ivanov a week earlier. Lewis owns a victory over Ngannou in a dreadfully uneventful fight in July 2018. "Maybe we can do a rematch," Ngannou said.
Another intriguing potential opponent would be Jon Jones, who has talked about challenging himself by moving up a division.
"If he moves up to heavyweight, yes, that would be great. I would do that," Ngannou said. "Recently, they were talking about Anthony Johnson. Yes, I would take that fight, man. That's a big fight. I think that's the best option right now beside the title fight. But what can I do? It's not up to me. We are not in the same weight class."
And then there's a fighter who is in Ngannou's weight class ... but in a different sport. He recently saw footage of Tyson Fury training MMA with UFC middleweight Darren Till and came away impressed.
"He's good. He's good with his elbow," Ngannou said. "Obviously, he's a great boxer. Even the way he moves in there, it's perfect."
If Ngannou gets booked against Fury, would that play out in a boxing ring or the Octagon? "Both," Ngannou said. "I want to return the favor in the ring. I would like to fight him in the ring either way, if he comes to MMA or not."
Ngannou says he's "100% sure" he will pursue boxing.
In preparation for that eventuality, perhaps, Ngannou recently was seen in a video clip getting boxing instruction with former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. It was a thrill for Ngannou.
"I always looked up to Mike Tyson as the best heavyweight ever," he said. "I would like to be like him, like to hit like him, to have the technique that he has."
Some of that technique appeared to be transferring from "Iron Mike" to "The Predator" in the brief video clip. "He gave me some tips, some techniques, some things to do," Ngannou said. "Actually, that's in secret. I'm going to use it when I fight against Tyson Fury."
Rose Namajunas ready to fight again
play 2:09 Emotional Namajunas has found the passion to fight again Rose Namajunas tells Ariel Helwani that she had lost her passion for fighting, but now feels reinvigorated after taking time away from the sport.
Perhaps more stunning than the way Rose Namajunas lost her UFC strawweight title to Jessica Andrade were her words after their fight in May.
Namajunas, who was knocked out after being slammed on her head in the second round, said that she was considering retirement at 26 years old.
After being out of the spotlight since that loss, Namajunas joined the Helwani Show and opened up about her feelings toward her career. She said it was an emotional decision, but she plans on fighting again in early 2020.
"I lost the passion for martial arts and fighting -- mainly for fighting," a teary-eyed Namajunas said. "I found my passion again. I went back to Minnesota to see one of my coaches from early on in my amateur career -- Greg Nelson. He's just like a huge inspiration for me.
"It's been tough. I think the reason why I wanted to retire was because this isn't a job where you can go in half-assed and not be fully passionate about what you're doing. There's been times where I've not been totally confident in myself going into a fight and then I just pull it off or get through it."
A hefty part of what had "Thug" Rose in the doldrums, she said, was how the pressure of being a UFC champion weighed on her.
It consumed her life, sucking the joy out of being on top of her sport.
"I made it into everything I didn't want it to be," Namajunas said. "I didn't want the belt to define me and all I did was make it define me and that's all that was on my mind every day. ... It turned into a shackle and chain."
So what exactly is next for Namajunas? While many champs that lose their belts plead for an immediate title match, the same can't be said for her.
She's willing to be patient and said she'd accept a fight before getting to face new 115-pound champion Zhang Weili, who knocked off Andrade in August.
"I always want to fight the best and clearly she is right now," Namajunas said of Zhang. "I want to test myself against her, but at the same time whether that be this next fight or get a win under my belt and then go after that, I have no preference at the moment. It doesn't matter who I fight, but you should always have your eye on being the best."
Tyron Woodley wants to fight in January
Former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley hasn't fought since losing his belt to Kamaru Usman in March at UFC 235. After dealing with a hand injury that scuttled a rematch against Robbie Lawler -- the man whom Woodley originally beat for the welterweight title in 2016 -- Usman is "itching" to fight again and expects to step back into the cage again in January.
While that would seemingly rule out a welterweight title fight against Usman or Colby Covington, who battle for the belt at UFC 245 in December, Woodley is keeping a close eye on that one.
"My perfect scenario, to be honest, I want to fight the best the UFC has to offer right now. I want to fight Colby, I want to fight Usman, s---, I want to fight Israel Adesanya after I wipe out the division."
Woodley even posited a superfight with Khabib Nurmagomedov, but was particularly interested in the possibility of battling against Adesanya, the reigning UFC middleweight champion.
"He's a beast. I like Israel. I legit took a picture with him and I hardly ever take a picture with anybody. It's like when I fought Carlos Condit. I was such a huge fan of Carlos Condit, I watched him for so many years. I was so pumped to get ready to fight him because I knew the danger he brought. I feel the same way about Israel."
Still, none of those options seems viable for a January fight. Highly regarded Leon Edwards has been a name floated, and while that could potentially be a high-risk venture, Woodley wanted to make it clear he's anxious to take on all comers, and soon.
"I'm not ruling out nobody. Anybody that's breathing and bleeding can get it."
Demian Maia has "at least two more fights"
Demian Maia has two fights left on the UFC contract he signed prior to last month's victory over Ben Askren, and the 42-year-old Brazilian (28-9) might not be finished with fighting when the deal is done.
"Let's say I win and they say, 'OK, you can fight for the title,' then I would re-sign the contract," he said on Monday. "If I win and they don't let me know what's going to happen, then I probably would stop."
Maia is on a three-fight winning streak, following three defeats in a row -- including losses to Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington, who will meet Dec. 14 for Usman's welterweight championship.
Maia's scouting report on the title fight: "There's one thing that can change this fight: [Covington] is very good at making you angry. As you can see, he is doing that with Usman. Usman is getting out of his mind. For Usman, it's very important to keep calm and don't try to go in there and hurt Colby. Try to go in there and win the fight. Because if [Usman] gets in fight mode and not in competition mode, I think Colby has a bigger chance to win. Colby is always trash-talking, but for him it's the way he does it. It doesn't change his mindset. What he does is something like what [Conor] McGregor does."
Katlyn Chookagian on being the No. 1 contender
Katlyn Chookagian had to pass on a UFC women's flyweight title fight against Valentina Shevchenko in September because the timing coincided with her wedding.
A bummer of a circumstance, but Chookagian, who solidified herself as the division's top contender with a win over Jennifer Maia at UFC 244, said the UFC has discussed a pay-per-view title fight with her for early 2020.
Chookagian is confident that she can drop a major bombshell by defeating Shevchenko, who has become one of MMA's most dominant fighters.
"I think every girl she's fought in the division is really tough and aggressive, but I don't think they have high fight IQ," Chookagian said of the 125-pounders. "I think my style frustrates people and makes them look not as good as they are." | {
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One of the reasons guys harass women is that they can. Their actions get excused as harmless flirting, or simply, “Bob being Bob.” The target of their aggression, whether it’s unwanted physical contact, stalking them around a convention, focusing unwanted attention and commentary on her body, or whatever, has generally been conditioned to not raise a fuss. If she does say something, she’s told she’s overreacting, or looking for reasons to be offended, or simply to lighten up.
So much of the time, the harassment appears to go unchecked.
But you know what? Fandom is a fairly small, interlinked community. People in fandom tend to know each other. Take a purely hypothetical situation where you, a random writer, were harassing a woman at a convention. Maybe she didn’t say anything to you. But–hypothetically speaking–she might have said something to a friend later, warning that friend about you. They might have started keeping an eye out for you, watching each others’ backs and passing the word.
They might even have mentioned what happened to someone like me.
I admit, I sometimes have to fight my own White Knight syndrome, the desire to charge out on my horse and smite creeps like you from our ranks. But of course, I didn’t witness what happened. And this was told to me in confidence. The only reason I’m talking about it here is that it happens so often that there’s no way to identify the specific person–the specific people–I’m talking about. Heck, just at ConFusion, I’m aware of at least three different instances of this kind of crap happening to people, and unfortunately, that’s not unusual.
If you’re worried that the creeper I’m talking about might be you, well, that seems like something you really need to sit down and think about.
I won’t get the rapier out of storage and go on a smiting spree. Nor will I call down the Wrath of the Internet to publicly shame you.
On the other hand, I get a fair number of review copies from various publishers. And what do you know, I recently noticed that you were the author of one of those review copies. Yes you, the same dude who was creeping on a friend of mine. What a fascinating coincidence, eh?
Guess which book will never get reviewed on my blog.
Guess which author will never get a retweet, a linkback, or any kind of promotion from me whatsoever.
I may not have the biggest following on the internet, but I’ve built up a pretty good readership over the years, and your actions toward this woman–actions you probably didn’t even think about…actions you assumed would have no consequence–have cost you the chance to have your book plugged to thousands of SF/F readers.
It’s a shame, really. And I can’t help but wonder how many potential readers you lost, all because you couldn’t treat a woman with more respect…
Hypothetically speaking, of course. | {
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A nearly century-old water main burst in the Hollywood Hills in the predawn hours Wednesday, cracking sidewalks and pavement and submerging cars as at least 100,000 gallons of water spewed into a residential neighborhood.
Much of the flooding had subsided by mid-morning, but customers near the break in the 6400 block of Dix Street went without water until just before 9 p.m. when repairs were completed, according to Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokeswoman Kim Hughes.
City crews are expected to repair the damaged roadway on Thursday.
INVESTIGATION: Is your street at risk from L.A.'s aging water mains?
One-fifth of Los Angeles’ water mains were installed before 1931 but account for close to half the pipes that are most prone to cause damaging leaks, an analysis by the Los Angeles Times has found. Those deteriorating pipes pose a major financial problem for the L.A. Department of Water and Power and city leaders.
The cast-iron pipe that broke Wednesday morning was installed in 1926 and hadn’t had a leak in the last 10 years, said Marty Adams, the DWP’s water systems manager.
DWP engineers assign a letter grade to pipes to prioritize for replacement. About 6% of the system have grades of D and F, denoting the most urgent need. The pipe that broke Wednesday had a grade of C.
Resident Chris Mora said Wednesday morning the deluge was more violent early in the morning. He held his 10-month-old son, Sebastian, while surveying the damage before him.
“I woke up at 2 in the morning and thought there was a sound of rain,” he said.
The Los Angeles Fire Department was on the scene at 4:48 a.m., said Capt. Jaime Moore. Several vehicles were submerged in a parking lot that sits below street level.
Miller Lee rushed to Hollywood Hills after he saw the apartments his father owns on the news. The street was flooded, and his family’s complex looked to bear the brunt of the destruction.
At least eight people live in the four units damaged by the flood, Lee said. Four cars were submerged in the lot between the two complexes, and he worried there was more destruction inside the garages yet to be discovered.
Lee said his family stored classic cars, including a 1954 Triumph convertible, antique Italian furniture and pricey Persian rugs in the garages.
“I’m devastated,” Lee said, standing in the now-drained parking area. “I feel bad for our tenants.”
One of those tenants is Austin Wood, who said he woke up early Wednesday to a police officer pounding on his front door. He discovered the parking lot filled with water and his Buick LeSabre submerged in a murky pool.
His roommate Nick Brightwell said there was a storage unit under the apartment where he’d just stored family mementos.
“Perfect timing on that,” he said.
The DWP’s Adams said the extent of damage to the pipe and its specific cause weren’t immediately clear.
Los Angeles’ system of water pipes has averaged nearly 1,200 leaks a year since 2010, according to The Times’ analysis of DWP data.
Water main leaks and breaks occur on average about three times a day across the city, DWP officials said last year.
Several Hollywood neighborhoods were among those with the largest number of leaks. There were 48 pipe leaks from Jan. 1, 2010, to Nov. 29, 2014, in the Hollywood Hills.
An 82-year-old cast-iron main nearby in the 2000 block of Ivar Avenue ruptured eight months ago.
Pipe age, water pressure, soil quality and leak history are several factors that contribute to water main breaks.
Adams said Wednesday’s break was “unfortunate but not a disaster” as the leak was relatively localized.
“The unfortunate part was that any customers were impacted,” he said. “But this is an indication of what’s going on in an aging city.”
Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Poston and Matt Hamilton contributed to this article.
For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA | {
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Article content
B.C.’s physicians have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new agreement with the B.C. government in a deal that will cost taxpayers at least $331 million over the three-year deal.
Last year, the government paid out $4.516 billion for physician services. By the end of the three-year deal that took effect on April 1, that will rise to $4.85 billion.
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One of the elements of the deal is a signing bonus-like payment of $7,500 to each physician who earned over $75,000 in income in 2018, or in any of the past few years, to help offset rising overhead and other costs of running their offices.
Dr. Eric Cadesky, president of Doctors of B.C., said the sum is a one-time payment. But the help with overhead costs like lease payments doesn’t end there. In 2020, the government will give physicians — in Vancouver, Victoria and other urban areas — premiums to help offset inflationary costs like higher rents.
Doctors who have offices in Vancouver, for example, will get a five per cent increase that will be capped at a daily maximum of $60; Victoria doctors with private practices will get four per cent more with a maximum of $48 a day. And in Kelowna, Nanaimo, Kamloops, Vernon and Penticton,doctors will get three per cent more up to a daily maximum of $36. | {
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Story highlights Earthships are self-sustainable buildings independent of all utilities
The first Earthships were designed in New Mexico, in and near the city of Taos
Walls are made from recycled tires, tin cans and bottles
The price of each one ranges from $250,000 to $1.5 million
(CNN) The ability to live completely off the grid is now a reality courtesy of solar homes, known as Earthships. The U-shaped buildings utilize local resources such as the sun and are made entirely of natural and recycled materials. The future of city living may be to not need the city at all.
"An Earthship is the name we have given a building or vessel that we use to live on this planet that is absolutely independent of all public and municipal utilities," explains Michael Reynolds, founder of Earthship Biotecture, who developed the concept.
JUST WATCHED Are 'earthships' the future of green living? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Are 'earthships' the future of green living? 02:34
In the mountains of New Mexico, USA, Reynolds has built 15 cliff-top homes which, as well as providing a view, were designed to prove that the Earthships could be built anywhere.
At their core are walls made from old tires, bottles, and tin cans mixed with concrete, so your home leftovers are creating new homes. Even sewage isn't spared and is used in indoor and outdoor treatment cells for food production and landscaping. Leftover 'gray' water is also used to flush toilets.
"We were accused of running sewage through the living room," says Reynolds. "That was scary to people but when you see the pictures of what it looks like, it's no longer scary if you understand it."
Read More | {
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The Department of Justice announced that Behzad Pourghannad was sentenced yesterday to 46 months in prison for participating in a conspiracy to export carbon fiber from the United States to Iran between 2008 and 2013. Pourghannad pleaded guilty on Aug. 29, 2019,before United States Magistrate Judge Paul E. Davison. United States District Judge Vincent L. Briccetti imposed yesterday’s sentence.
“Pourghannad falsified shipment documents and used front companies to export carbon fiber to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions,” said Assistant Attorney of National Security John C. Demers. “Carbon fiber is used by the Iranian Regime to further its nuclear, military, and aerospace programs. We continue to thwart the efforts of the Iranian regime to evade our sanctions and work steadfastly with our international partners to investigate, prosecute and bring sanctions violators to justice.”
"Behzad Pourghannad conspired to circumvent U.S. export controls on carbon fiber, a substance with numerous military and aerospace applications,” said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman for the Sourthern District of New York. “The significant sentence Pourghannad received should send a message that such violations, which threaten our national security, will incur stiff penalties.”
According to the Indictment and other documents filed in the case, including statements made during the plea and sentencing proceedings:
Between 2008 and July 2013, Pourghannad and his two codefendants, Ali Reza Shokri and Farzin Faridmanesh, lived and worked in Iran. During that period, they worked together to obtain carbon fiber from the United States and surreptitiously export it to Iran via third countries in violation of United States sanctions. In particular, Shokri worked to procure many tons of carbon fiber from the United States; Pourghannad agreed to serve as the financial guarantor for large carbon fiber transactions; and Faridmanesh agreed to serve as the trans-shipper. Carbon fiber has a wide variety of uses, including in missiles, aerospace engineering, and gas centrifuges that enrich uranium.
In or about late 2007 and early 2008, Shokri and a Turkey-based co-conspirator (CC-2) successfully arranged for the illegal export and transshipment of carbon fiber from the United States to an Iranian company Shokri operated (Iranian Company-1). Specifically, CC-2 contacted a United States supplier of carbon fiber, who in turn enlisted a third individual (Individual-1) for assistance with the transaction. Through Individual-1, CC-2 purchased carbon fiber from the United States supplier and arranged for the shipment of the carbon fiber from the United States, through Europe and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Iranian Company-1 in Iran.
In or about May 2009, Pourghannad and Shokri attempted to arrange another illegal purchase and transshipment of carbon fiber from the United States to Iran. Specifically, Individual-1 returned a signed contract to Pourghannad for Shokri’s purchase of a large quantity of carbon fiber. Individual-1 then purchased the carbon fiber from a United States supplier and arranged for the carbon fiber to be exported from the United States to a third country (Country-1), en route to Iran. Country-1 authorities, however, interdicted the carbon fiber shipment before it could be trans-shipped to Iran.
In or about 2013, Pourghannad, Shokri, and Faridmanesh again attempted to illegally procure and export carbon fiber from the United States to Iran. In the 2013 transaction, Shokri and Pourghannad negotiated with Individual-1 for the purchase and trans-shipment to Iran of more than five tons of carbon fiber. Faridmanesh and Pourghannad further agreed with Individual-1 that the carbon fiber would be trans-shipped from the United States to Iran through Tbilisi, Georgia, with Faridmanesh to serve as the trans-shipper. Faridmanesh specifically instructed Individual-1 to change the shipping labels on the carbon fiber to reference “acrylic” or “polyester,” rather than “carbon fiber.” Pourghannad provided Individual-1 with the bank guarantee that was to serve as surety for a portion of the carbon fiber. In or about June 2013, Individual-1 informed Pourghannad, Shokri, and Faridmanesh that the carbon fiber would soon be shipped from Manhattan and that Individual-1 would replace the carbon fiber labels with shipping labels referencing “acrylic” to evade U.S. export controls.
No one involved in these transactions obtained permission from the U.S. Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control to export the carbon fiber from the United States.
Mr. Berman praised the investigative work of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Commerce, and thanked the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division, Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs, the U.S. Marshals Service, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations for their assistance.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit, with assistance from the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section of the National Security Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gillian Grossman and Trial Attorney Matthew McKenzie are in charge of the prosecution. | {
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BOSTON (CBS) — Julian Edelman became just the third player in Patriots history to record 100 receptions in a season after making four catches early in Sunday’s game against the Bills.
Edelman entered Sunday with 96 receptions for 991 yards on the season. He made consecutive catches 10 minutes into the game, then picked up seven yards on a wide receiver screen later in the drive. Early in the second quarter, he made a catch over the middle, his 100th of the season.
Edelman, 27, was a free agent after last season, and he explored his options before ultimately re-signing with the Patriots for one year and less than $1 million. He became just the third Patriots receiver to catch 100 passes in a season, joining Troy Brown and Wes Welker, who did it five times in his six seasons with New England.
Edelman is also the 10th Patriots player to record a 1,000-yard receiving season.
He was originally drafted by the Patriots in 2009 as a receiver after he played quarterback at Kent State for three seasons. As a QB, Edelman threw for 30 touchdowns and 31 interceptions, but he was dangerous with the ball in his hands, as evidenced by his 2,483 rushing yards and 22 rushing TDs. Though he made just one reception in college, Bill Belichick liked what he saw out of Edelman when carrying the ball, so he drafted him in the seventh round, 232nd overall.
In that same 2009 draft, six receivers were drafted in the first round. Of those six receivers, zero have made 100 receptions in a single season, and only two have recorded 1,000 receiving yards in a season (Michael Crabtree, Hakeem Nicks).
Edelman’s previous career highs in receptions came in his rookie season in 2009 with 37 catches for 359 yards.
Edelman also ranks in the top five in the NFL in total punt return yards, averaging 11.1 yards per return this season. | {
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Aaron Judge has now struck out 20 times this postseason. That's already the most all-time before the World Series. Reggie Sanders (1995) and Austin Jackson (2011) each previously held the record with 19. | {
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It's not about the vote It's about sending a message
316 shares | {
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GREATER NOIDA: India has no reason to distrust Pakistan's assurance that it will take effective action on inputs given about the perpetrators of the Pathankot terror attack, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today."Pakistan government has said it will take effective action. I think we should wait," Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.Singh said since Pakistan has given the assurance to the Indian government, there should be no reason to disbelieve them so early."There is no reason to distrust (avishvaas) them (Pakistan) so early," he said.After the attack, India had said it has provided to Pakistan actionable intelligence to act upon the perpetrators of the terrorist act.During a post-attack telephonic conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif , the government had said that "our Prime Minister very strongly urged the Prime Minister of Pakistan to take action."Actionable intelligence in regard to the terrorist attack and the links with the perpetrators in Pakistan were provided to the Pakistani side. The Pakistan Prime Minister promised us prompt and decisive action. We now wait that prompt and decisive action," it had said.Reports from Pakistan yesterday said law enforcement agencies have picked up "some suspects" connected to Pathankot airbase attack from Bahwalapur district, the hometown of Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed India has identified Masood Azhar as mastermind of the attack. It also blamed his brother Rauf and five others for carrying out the attack that left all six terrorists and seven Indian soldiers dead on January 2.It has provided telephone number in Pakistan contacted by the airbase attackers and given other inputs.India has called on Islamabad to act on the information if the Foreign Secretary-level talks are to take place as scheduled on 15 January. | {
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AUTHOR.
Configuration
Description
English: Aerial Photograph of Wallops Island.
Date 1 January 1982
Source Great Images in NASA Description
Author NASA
Permission
(Reusing this file)
Public domain This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.) NASA logo.svg
Dialog-warning.svg Warnings:
Use of NASA logos, insignia and emblems is restricted per U.S. law 14 CFR 1221.
The NASA website hosts a large number of images from the Soviet/Russian space agency, and other non-American space agencies. These are not necessarily in the public domain.
Materials based on Hubble Space Telescope data may be copyrighted if they are not explicitly produced by the STScI.[1] See also {{PD-Hubble}} and {{Cc-Hubble}}.
The SOHO (ESA & NASA) joint project implies that all materials created by its probe are copyrighted and require permission for commercial non-educational use. [2]
Images featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) web site may be copyrighted. [3]
The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) site has been known to host copyrighted content. Its photo gallery FAQ states that all of the images in the photo gallery are in the public domain "Unless otherwise noted."
Shuttle.svg This image or video was catalogued by Goddard Space Flight Center of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: GPN-2000-001326 AND Alternate ID: WALLOPS4. (Photo: )
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Reawakening Wallops Island Spaceport. Bob Zimmerman BehindtheBlack.com
https://behindtheblack.com/?s=rocket+lab
Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab has picked the spaceport at Wallops in Virginia as its first U.S. launch site.
The company is planning its first launch of Electron from U.S. soil and its Wallops facility for Quarter 3 of 2019, less than a year from today’s announcement. “We needed to get pad and support up quickly, and Wallops met the bill completely for what we needed to achieve in this time,” said Mr. Beck to NASASpaceflight.
Overall, the Wallops launch pad, known as Launch Complex 2 (LC-2), will be Rocket Lab’s second dedicated launch complex, will be capable of supporting monthly orbital launches, and is designed to serve U.S. government and commercial missions. The site will bring Rocket Lab’s global launch availability across two launch complexes to more than 130 missions per year.
It really does appear that once they successfully complete their next two launches in November and December, the company will be aiming to meet a launch cadence of at least one orbital launch per week. | {
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1. Not everything is a federal issue; some things are for the states to decide.
2. I hear what you're saying and you have a good point.
3. One of the beautiful things about our constitution is the liberty given to individuals to pursue their dreams. There is great opportunity in our country to succeed.
4. In an effort to stimulate job growth and despite the objections from my party, I am working with Congress to reduce taxes for small businesses.
5. I am saddened by the cycle of poverty that exists in our major cities, and here is a way we can empower the next generation to break the cycle and fulfill their God-given potential....
6. The folks at the town hall meetings and those who came to Washington on 9/12 were exercising one of the greatest rights we have as Americans, freedom of speech.
7. Stop already with all forms of ‘cult of personality' behavior. I am a public servant, just like all those who have served before and all who will come after my term is complete. It's not about me, it's about the country.
8. I heard a great message Sunday morning at church.
9. History teaches us that evil exists in the world; for this reason the United States must remain strong, ready to defend itself and its allies.
10. I didn't realize a communist was part of my administration. It won't happen again.
11. The billions siphoned out of health care into lawyers' pockets never healed a single person.
12. No other country on earth offers its citizens the opportunity to pursue life, liberty, and happiness as does the United States of America.
13. The experts have looked at the proposed (fill-in-the-blank) program, and when it is extrapolated out beyond just the initial offering there is clear evidence it will cost too much money and will eventually fail.
14. I disagree 100% with the Cloward-Piven strategy of increasing the welfare rolls and overwhelming the financial system, and I am not affiliated in any way with the implementation of such an idea.
15. I don't know the answer to your question but I will give it some thought.
16. The goal of my presidency is not to implement a political ideology, but to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
17. Every person has value regardless of age, gender, color, physical characteristics, or any other factor.
18. Any healthcare bill I sign must include a provision to exclude the rationing of care, keep the door open for competition among insurers, and promote the opportunity for our young people to pursue an education in the medical fields to ensure future supply meets future demand.
19. It is important for legislators to remember that what helps someone in the short-term may actually hurt them in the long-term, and we must avoid this kind of scenario. | {
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Note: The article has been updated to remove mentions of the shooter’s name after reports emerged that he was a minor.
New Delhi: A man brandishing a gun at anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protestors at Jamia Millia Islamia this afternoon opened fire and injured one student.
The man has been arrested by the police. According to ANI, Delhi Police has identified the shooter as a 19-year-old resident of Jewar near Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh.
ANI later tweeted marksheets of the man, which showed that he is yet to turn 18.
In a video shared by ANI, the man can be seen walking and waving a gun as he shouts, “Yeh lo aazadi (here’s your freedom)”.
#WATCH A man brandishes gun in Jamia area of Delhi, culprit has been detained by police. More details awaited. pic.twitter.com/rAeLl6iLd4 — ANI (@ANI) January 30, 2020
Mohammad Meharban, a photojournalist posted pictures and a video of the incident on Instagram. A student identified as Shadaab was injured on his left wrist, a student and eyewitness told NDTV.
Photos and videos of the incident show the police watching from a short distance while the man brandishes the gun at students.
According to reports, traffic has been diverted in all the roads near the area.
Over the past few days, several BJP ministers, MPs and MLAs have been caught on camera inciting violence against protestors against the controversial CAA.
“Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalon ko (shoot the traitors of our country),” junior finance minister Anurag Thakur said at Rithala, while campaigning for the saffron party two days ago.
BJP leader Kapil Mishra, now also a candidate in the Delhi assembly elections scheduled for February 8, was also caught on camera shouting the slogan.
This is a developing story. More details are awaited. | {
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That campaign ride Hillary Clinton calls her “Scooby Van” is no regular conversion van, True Pundit has learned from interviews with federal law enforcement sources. Not even close.
First, there isn’t just one highly customized Mystery Machine van. Clinton’s Secret Service detail employs two almost-identical vans, with one often serving as a decoy. Clinton does not own either van. Both are maintained by the Secret Service. Federal sources did disclose the slight differences between the armored vans but asked that True Pundit refrain from printing those details or disclosing which van Clinton favors. We agreed. Both, however, are bulletproof versions that Explorer Vans built in-house, working with military vendor BAE Systems.
There might be other security features that BAE installed but not even our sources are confirming that type of classified information. BAE, however does boast: “We design, manufacture, upgrade, and support combat vehicles and provide ammunition, precision munitions, artillery systems and missile launchers to a global customer base.”
There has been much debate about Clinton’s health and medical problems. There is little doubt she is suffering from ailments but the presidential candidate refuses to release her medical records. The following new revelations only promise to fuel additional speculation. According to law enforcement sources, Clinton’s customized van warehouses a state-of-the-art automated external defibrillator (AED), a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia and shocks a heart back to its normal cadence. The van also is fitted with an automatic full bed in the rear which she can use to rest between campaign stops or even while being driven to or from a campaign event. See below:
If Clinton does employ the bed option to rest, prior to arriving at a location the bed automatically converts back to a rear bench seat with the press of a button.
When she arrives at an event, Clinton would then move up to a customized massage chair behind the driver, flanked by assistant Huma Abedin to her right. Both of their seats are heated and swivel toward the rear bench seat when it is not being deployed as a bed. The full-sized bed sits behind the backseat captain’s chairs which do not fold down, therefore, the two mid seats can be used if someone is sleeping in the rear.
The massage controller for Hillary’s captain’s chair is pictured below.
The new revelation by True Pundit that Hillary’s van warehouses an AED is perhaps another important piece in Clinton’s ongoing health puzzle. In recent weeks, Clinton’s undercover doctor has been traveling in the front passenger seat of the van with her to campaign stops. This has been widely reported. But now one is forced to question whether Hillary receiving medical care during transport to and from such events? Medical professional on board; medical devices on board for a medical ailment previously linked to Clinton by True Pundit and Wikileaks; full bed in rear of a van retrofitted so people can stand upright and move around while it is being operated. This so-called “Scooby Van” appears more and more like an undercover ambulance.
Fatigued #Hillary's Undercover Doc shadows her from Hospital Van, readies likely med injector from right pocket. RT pic.twitter.com/kS80j6D6Nh — Thomas Paine (@Thomas1774Paine) September 2, 2016
What else is included in Clinton’s custom Mystery Machines:
*26-inch HD flat screen TV, nine speakers, and a sub-woofer.
*It’s own mobile hotspot linked to the TV for local news coverage
*Blue Ray DVD player
*HDMI power stations are built throughout the interior, for quick cell phone or laptop charging.
*A third Auxiliary Air conditioning and heating system
*Aircraft insulation for sound deadening, noise reduction
*Remote controlled suicide side doors
*Custom window shades for all side and rear windows
Both of the Clinton’s vans shown here on the move: one with her and the other a decoy.
The estimated taxpayer-funded price tag of each van is $225,000, not including the most recent purchase which was sent back to the factory for a new hand-stitched leather interior when Hillary didn’t like the original seat colors.
Not everyone is a fan of Clinton’s fancy campaign vehicles.
-30-
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Een nieuwbouwwijk in aanbouw in Den Haag. Beeld Hollandse Hoogte / Robin Utrecht
Het kabinet wil juist dat het aantal nieuwbouwwoningen snel toeneemt. Daarmee moet vooral worden voldaan aan de grote vraag naar woonruimte in en rond de grote steden. Ook moet nieuwbouw de snelle stijging van de huizenprijzen doen bekoelen.
Het Expertisecentrum Woningwaarde verwacht op basis van het aantal afgegeven bouwvergunningen dat het aantal opgeleverde nieuwbouwwoningen binnenkort afneemt. In het derde kwartaal van 2017 werden er ruim 12.500 vergunningen afgegeven, in het tweede kwartaal van 2018 circa 10.500. Ook het aantal vergunningen voor huurwoningen zit sinds medio 2017 in een neerwaartse trend. Als oorzaken van die daling worden onder meer genoemd een tekort aan grote bouwlocaties, de lange duur van bouwprojecten door bezwaarprocedures en een tekort aan bouwvakkers.
Seizoenspatroon
Sinds eind 2017 neemt het aantal verkochte nieuwbouwwoningen al af. In het tweede kwartaal van 2018 bleef dat zo’n 2.000 tot 2.500 woningen achter bij de verwachting op basis van het normale seizoenspatroon. Het Expertisecentrum: ‘Een veelvoud daarvan is nodig voor een gezonde marktwerking. Niet verwonderlijk dat onder de huidige omstandigheden de koopprijzen in alle woningmarktgebieden verder doorstijgen.’
Het Expertisecentrum verwacht dat de prijsstijging op de huizenmarkt de komende jaren nog versterkt zal doorzetten. De markt wordt volgens de onderzoekers aangejaagd door een groeiende overwaarde van bestaande woningen, de aanhoudend lage hypotheekrente, de aankoop van koopwoningen door beleggers in de grote steden, de hoger dan verwachte bevolkingsgroei en de inkomensgroei als gevolg van de sterke economie.
De groei van het aantal nieuwe woningen kwam de afgelopen jaren voor een klein deel uit de ombouw van kantoren en andere bedrijfspanden. Deze transformatie droeg vorig jaar voor ruim 8 procent bij aan die groei, stelde het CBS vast. Er worden 1.900 panden omgebouwd. In ruim 40 procent gaat het om voormalige kantoren, in 17 procent om maatschappelijk vastgoed zoals voormalige ziekenhuizen of scholen.
Kleine woningen
Het aantal woningen dat op die manier werd gerealiseerd is in 2017 licht gedaald naar 7.600. In 2016 waren dat er 8.100, in 2015 7.800. In meer dan de helft van de gevallen gaat het om kleine woningen met een woonoppervlakte van minder dan 50 vierkante meter.
Particuliere verhuurders zijn eigenaar van 82 procent van de nieuwe transformatiewoningen, corporaties van 8 procent. De overige 10 procent zijn koopwoningen.
De meeste transformatiewoningen worden bewoond door jonge eenpersoonshuishoudens met een laag basisinkomen. Vaak gaat het om studenten.
Zuid-Holland kreeg de meeste nieuwe woningen door transformatie: ongeveer een op de vijf. Vooral in de gemeenten Den Haag en Delft zijn veel woningen ontstaan door hergebruik van bestaande panden. Van de gemeenten is Amsterdam koploper met 635 woningen. Maar op het totaal van de toegevoegde woningen is het aandeel (9 procent) vergelijkbaar met het landelijk gemiddelde. | {
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PETERSBURG, Va. – The South Central Wastewater Authority has ended their lawsuit against the City of Petersburg over past-due wastewater treatment payments that currently exceed $1.9 million.
SCWWA came to the decision after working in cooperation with the city and the McAuliffe Administration.
Under the settlement agreement, the city is to resume making timely monthly payments beginning in December and pay a lump sum payment of approximately $1.2 million by December 15, 2016.
The lump sum payment will be applied to the city’s delinquency balance. The city and the authority would then have a two-year payment schedule to redeem the remainder of the outstanding bill.
The settlement agreement must be ratified by Petersbug City Council and the South Central Board, both of which will meet this week to consider the agreement.
The SCWWA filed suit in September, because for four years, Petersburg had been late paying them the money the city collects from residents.
According to the lawsuit, when Petersburg residents pay their sewer bills, the city frequently uses that money to pay other bills, instead of giving it all directly to the authority.
In the lawsuit, the authority sought to put the city in receivership, which meant paid sewer bills would no longer pass through City Hall. Instead, they would go to a third party, who would then give that money directly to the authority.
The SCWWA provides wastewater treatment services to the cities of Petersburg and Colonial Heights, and the counties of Chesterfield, Dinwiddie and Prince George.
In 1996, the localities created the SCWWA to help share in the cost for disposing of waste water.
Petersburg is the largest stake holder in SCWWA. | {
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On This Day
Thursday 27th October 1927
92 years ago
Production of the new Ford Model A, successor to the Model T, began at the Rouge assembly plant in Dearborn, Michigan, US. Prices for the Model A ranged from US$385 for a roadster to US$1400 for the top-of-the-line Town Car. The engine was a water-cooled L-head inline 4-cylinder with a displacement of 201 cu in (3.3 l). This engine provided 40 hp (30 kW; 41 PS). Top speed was around 65 mph (105 km/h). The Model A had a 103.5 in (2,630 mm) wheelbase with a final drive ratio of 3.77:1. The transmission was a conventional 3-speed sliding gear manual unsynchronised unit with a single speed reverse. The Model A had 4-wheel mechanical drum brakes. The 1930 and 1931 models were available with stainless steel radiator cowling and headlamp housings. The Model A came in a wide variety of styles including a Coupe (Standard and Deluxe), the Business Coupe, Sport Coupe, Roadster Coupe (Standard and Deluxe), Convertible Cabriolet, Convertible Sedan, Phaeton (Standard and Deluxe), Tudor Sedan (Standard and Deluxe), Town Car, Fordor (2-window) (Standard and Deluxe), Fordor (3-window) (Standard and Deluxe), Victoria, Station Wagon, Taxicab, Truck, and Commercial.[citation needed] The very rare Special Coupe started production around March 1928 and ended mid-1929. The Model A was the first Ford to use the standard set of driver controls with conventional clutch and brake pedals, throttle, and gearshift. Previous Fords used controls that had become uncommon to drivers of other makes. The Model A's fuel tank was situated in the cowl, between the engine compartment's fire wall and the dash panel. It had a visual fuel gauge, and the fuel flowed to the carburetor by gravity. A rear-view mirror was optional. In cooler climates, owners could purchase an aftermarket cast iron unit to place over the exhaust manifold to provide heat to the cab. A small door provided adjustment of the amount of hot air entering the cab. The Model A was the first car to have safety glass in the windshield. The Soviet company GAZ, which started as a joint venture between Ford and the Soviet Union, made a licensed version 1932–1936. This served as the basis for the FAI and BA-20 armored cars which saw use as Soviet scout vehicles in the early stages of World War II. In addition to the United States, Ford made the Model A in plants in Argentina, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom and Denmark. In Europe, where in some countries cars were taxed according to engine size, Ford in the UK manufactured the Model A with a smaller displacement engine of 2043 cc providing a claimed output of 28 hp (21 kW; 28 PS). However, the engine equated to a British fiscal horsepower of 14.9 hp (11.1 kW; 15.1 PS) (compared to the 24 hp (18 kW; 24 PS) of the larger engine) and attracted a punitive annual car tax levy of £1 per fiscal hp in the UK . It therefore was expensive to own and too heavy and thirsty to achieve volume sales, and so unable to compete in the newly developing mass market, while also too crude to compete as a luxury product. European manufactured Model As failed to achieve the sales success in Europe that would greet their smaller successor in England and Germany. Model A production ended in March, 1932, after 4,858,644 had been made in all body styles. Its successor was the Model B, which featured an updated 4-cylinder engine, as well as the Model 18, which introduced Ford's new flathead (sidevalve) V8 engine. | {
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Two groups of Central American migrants, a fraction of the 7,000-strong human tide that massed at the border during US elections, are demanding speedy approval of their asylum claims – or $50,000 to go home.
One group of about 100 Hondurans has asked the Trump administration to pay them $50,000 each to leave if they could not enter the US. Arriving at the US Consulate on Tuesday morning, they delivered a letter harshly critical of US intervention in Central America and gave the Consulate 72 hours to respond.
Read more
“It may seem like a lot of money to you, but it is a small sum compared to everything the United States has stolen from Honduras,” said group leader Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa of the figure the group had settled upon for reparations. The letter also asked Trump to remove Honduran president Orlando Hernandez from office.
Ulloa said the group does not have a plan for what they will do if the US rejects their terms, but that $50,000 would at least be enough for caravan members to start a business if they must return home. He fled to Mexico 30 years ago after he was accused of bombing a Chinese restaurant and has lived outside Honduras ever since.
A second group of about 50 migrants asked the US to speed up the processing of asylum claims to admit 300 new arrivals per day at San Ysidro Port of Entry. The port currently allows between 40 and 100 asylum seekers through per day, a pace the group says violates both American and international law mandating immediate processing, and puts migrants at risk.
Also on rt.com US responsible for ‘misery & horrors’ forcing people to flee Latin America – Chomsky
Led by Pueblo Sin Fronteras, the organization that organized the migrant caravans, the second group was able to secure a meeting with Mexican immigration officials, whom they asked to stop working with police to deport caravan members. About 15 members of the second group previously attempted a hunger strike in order to speed up the asylum process.
“A lot of people are leaving because there is no solution here,” said Tijuana resident Douglas Matute. “We thought they would let us in. But Trump sent the military instead of social workers.”
While neither group was aware of the other, both said their messages were well-received by the US Consulate. “It was nice to be treated with respect,” said Ulloa, while Xochitl Castillo, a member of the second caravan, received a “warm welcome” from “very kind” officials who promised to pass their letter on to Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, San Ysidro Port Director Sidney Aki and Commissioner of the Office of Customs and Border Protection Kevin McAleenan. Castillo did not give a deadline for a US response.
Read more
The migrant caravans have shrunk significantly, from close to 7,000 people who arrived in Tijuana a month ago seeking entry into the US. Castillo explained that 2,500 of the migrants have applied for humanitarian visas in Mexico, while 700 have voluntarily returned to their home countries and 300 have been deported. Many of the deportees were sent home last month after their attempt to rush the border was met with a volley of tear gas from US border patrol, who shut down the crossing for several hours. Another 3,500 migrants are assumed to have crossed illegally into the US or traveled to other Mexican border cities.
The letter from Castillo's group also criticized “US intervention in Central America” and characterized the caravans’ predicament as a “humanitarian crisis,” a possible nod to Tijuana mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum, who has used that term to refer to the migrants whose presence in his city has “hurt us.” Gastelum threatened to sue Pueblo Sin Fronteras for the damage caused by the caravans, whom he accuses of acting violently and disrespectfully toward the locals. Five thousand migrants were initially housed in a converted sports stadium in Tijuana, awaiting their chance to apply for refugee status.
Despite the diminished migrant “threat,” Trump continues to push for a border wall, threatening on Tuesday to shut down the government if the funding does not pass Congress by December 21. He previously threatened to cut off financial aid to Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras if they did not put a stop to the caravans before they reached the border, and has also accused Venezuela of sending its people northward.
If you like this story, share it with a friend! | {
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You can use any of the available PowerShell cmdlets or develop your own when authoring your serverless functions. To get started, simply download the AWS Lambda Tools for PowerShell module from Powershell Gallery. It includes project templates for PowerShell-based serverless applications as well as tools to publish projects to AWS. For more details, check out our blog post or read the documentation.
| {
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As much as metal is a genre of music and a lifestyle, it is also a community. And like all communities, it has its leaders — men and women whose work, be it by design or circumstance, affects all lovers of extreme music on a regular basis.
Throughout November, MetalSucks will celebrate these industry leaders by counting down The 25 Most Important People in Metal one per day. To be clear, this is a list of the people we believe are most important to metal today, in 2016 — not necessarily the most important people overall in the entire history of the genre. Some of them are musicians. Many of them are not. Some of them are people you’ve heard of. Many of them work behind the scenes and do not routinely get to take a bow. But they all have one thing in common: more than just cogs in a machine, they are truly, undeniably irreplaceable.
Machine Head are a fantastic band, but they’ve never been a revolutionary one. Neither Forbidden nor Vio-lence, frontman/guitarist Robb Flynn’s first two bands, were able to achieve the fame or influence of many of their ’80s thrash peers. While Machine Head have experienced plenty of success, they’ve never been mega-stars, and their nu-metal era continues to be a stain that gives Internet trolls never-ending fodder. Machine Head haven’t ever been “important,” as we define it here, so much as they’ve just been a really fucking good band for a damn long time.
Except, that is, in one category: the complete fearlessness of their frontman, main songwriter and band mastermind, Robb Flynn.
When Machine Head were at their lowest artistic point following 2001’s Supercharger, Flynn turned the band around with Through the Ashes of Empires, and eventually dug deep for The Blackening, which would arguably become one of the greatest metal albums ever written. That takes balls, charisma and hard work, and a lesser man would’ve crumpled under the pressure and allowed his band to fade into the nostalgia circuit.
If we can’t laugh at ourselves, what can we laugh at? These days Flynn just lets all the comments about his ’90s nu-metal look roll off his back. It was a mistake, we’ve all made them, and it takes true confidence to stare it right in the face and say, “Eh, fuck it, whatever.”
Flynn’s “General Journals” diary entries have become a staple of metal Internet culture, and he’s been writing them since LONG before it was common for artists to share everything about what goes on behind the scenes of their band — and in their personal lives — with the public.
Robb has been an ardent supporter of streaming services since long before it was accepted to do so, bucking against his fellow peers whose complaints reach no end and saying “fuck it” to any flack he’d take from his record labels for seemingly threatening their (and his) bottom line.
He’s fearlessly tackled complicated social issues head-on, despite knowing full well he’d alienate a large portion of his fanbase by taking sides. He’s even risked alienating his peers by doing the same. It was Flynn’s video rant against Phil Anselmo’s “white power” salute earlier this year that opened the floodgates for other musicians to express their opinions on the issue, too, following years — nay, DECADES — of silence.
And that is precisely why Robb Flynn is one of the most important people in metal today: he’s a true leader. Fearless, determined, gritty, honest and prepared to deal with the consequences of his actions no matter what. And aren’t all of those characteristics ones we closely ascribe to the metal ethos? The metal world needs more musicians who act like he does.
THE LIST SO FAR
#25: Mark Riddick | {
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This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
Some potholes are like zombies – they never die. Or at least that's the perception of much of the driving public, especially as we enter peak pothole season: late winter and early spring.
At a minimum, potholes create rough roads and poor driving conditions. Too often they degenerate into vehicle-damaging safety hazards that incur the wrath of drivers, attract negative attention from the news media and adversely affect commerce by disrupting or slowing traffic. Our nation's deteriorating roads – of which potholes are an obvious manifestation – are a drag on our economy.
That's why transportation department maintenance crews and pavement engineers continue to stress the need for more effective and efficient pavement repair and maintenance. From their perspective, the ideal repair would last at least a year, could be performed in all seasons, and could be installed easily and relatively quickly – all while keeping traffic delays to a minimum and repair costs down.
Recurring "zombie" potholes are too often a reflection of the type of method that's used to patch or "fix" them – many of which are short-lived and only marginally effective. Researchers around the world, including my colleagues and me, are working to develop better and longer lasting repair alternatives. At the same time, researchers and pavement engineers in academia and in the private and public sectors are developing improved construction techniques and innovative pavement formulations – such as "self healing" materials – that will help prevent potholes from forming in the first place.
But we still have to deal with the millions of miles of roads – and their potholes – we already have.
Animation describing the birth of a pothole.
Potholes occur in all climates. Here’s a nasty one on Kauai, where a temporary ‘fix’ was putting large rocks in the hole. (Image credit: Larry Zanko, CC BY-ND)
Potholes are symptomatic of underlying structural and/or pavement problems.
They form when water penetrates a crack. In cold climates, that water freezes and expands, pushing up on the overlying pavement. Repeated freezing and thawing is a great way to create a pothole. Water also softens and weakens the base material below a pavement, making it susceptible to deformation by passing traffic loads. As the base material deforms, the pavement loses structural support and breaks up. And another pothole is born!
Bottom line: a roadway marred by multiple potholes means the pavement is probably failing and should be replaced. But before that can happen, potholes still need to be repaired.
Traditional repair techniques are, at best, temporary fixes. Take "throw-and-go" cold patching methods, for example. These use repair mixtures that are worked when cold. Some cold patch repairs don't bond well to the edges of the hole, a shortcoming made worse when attempting a repair under challenging wintertime conditions. The same pothole repaired with cold mix patches may have to be redone several times a winter.
Without a good interface bond, the freezing and thawing cycles of late winter and early spring can further weaken the repair and enlarge the crack between the patch and the surrounding pavement.
Another way a repair gets weakened is analogous to hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." The tires of vehicles passing over the repair forcefully push liquid water and fine aggregate particles down into the crack, progressively widening any cracks. Road salt further enhances the latter effect by keeping water in liquid form in subfreezing conditions.
Together, it's all a prescription for a repair's early demise – hello again, zombie pothole.
Search for better repairs heats up
In an effort to address the ongoing need for better repair mechanisms, my colleagues at the Natural Resources Research Institute - University of Minnesota Duluth, outside project collaborators, and I recently completed a study to evaluate promising innovative pothole repair tactics. Our emphasis is on all-season approaches that use the iron oxide mineral magnetite (Fe3O4).
Magnetite content enhances microwave heating rates. (Image credit: Hopstock, 2009, CC BY-ND)
More than 10 years ago, we showed that magnetite and magnetite-containing rock were excellent microwave energy absorbers. The mineral is contained in iron ore rock mined and processed on Minnesota's Mesabi Iron Range, and has the ability to readily absorb microwaves and heat very quickly. We started thinking: when combined with portable microwave technology, could magnetite-containing materials be an effective solution to cold-weather pothole repair?
We mixed small amounts (1 to 2 percent) of magnetite into patching compound, typically made of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) augmented with ground-up recycled asphalt shingles (RAS); the RAS adds a little more asphaltic binder to the overall mix. Then we pack the mixture into a pothole and microwave until the binder softens and is compactible, thanks to the magnetite.
Here's our cookbook recipe (emphasis on cook) for the microwave repairs we performed.
First, find a pothole (easy).
Clean loose debris and/or blow water from pothole.
In subfreezing temperatures, preheat pothole and pavement adjacent to hole with microwave unit to melt or debond any ice or snow in the hole, and to soften the surrounding pavement. This warming contributes to a good bond since the edges of the pothole are able to plasticly intermix – that is, smush together – and meld with the patch material.
Remove or blow out loosened/melted ice/snow.
Place mixture of RAP, microwave-absorbing taconite materials, and RAS into the pothole. Overfill the hole by about two inches to allow for final compaction.
Heat mixture until temperature reaches at least 100°C (212°F) at base of mixture in the hole. Sufficient heating takes place in about 8 to 12 minutes at a 40kW power level.
Tamp down heated mixture with portable gasoline-powered compactor.
Steps to an effective microwave pothole repair. (Image credit: Zanko et al., 2016, CC BY-ND)
The existing pavement essentially becomes part of the repair itself – a unique and key benefit of this technique. And our repairs showed excellent longevity, with some performing well more than two years after their installation.
Obviously, we're not just opening the door of a kitchen microwave oven and pointing it down at the road. In the pilot test, we worked with a small company which had previously developed a truck-mounted microwave system to thaw frozen ground to access buried utilities. They adapted their high-power (50kW), vehicle-based microwave system for the project.
And it wouldn't be much of a stretch for Minnesota's taconite industry to supply the relatively small quantities of magnetite a repair compound would consume. The industry typically produces about 40 million tons of magnetite concentrate annually, and generates tens of millions of tons of additional byproduct rock that also contains magnetite. The byproduct taconite rock actually represents a potential source of hard and durable high quality aggregate for our nation's roads and highways.
Benefits of the pilot pothole patch system
One welcome side effect of the in-place heating mechanism is that it drives off moisture, letting the patch more readily adhere to the surrounding pavement. Patch material can be premixed and stockpiled or mixed on site. And you don't need to keep material hot during transport, making this patching system well-suited for cold weather situations.
Importantly, our project also demonstrated that an effective microwave pothole repair compound can be made almost entirely from inexpensive and abundant recycled materials (such as RAP and RAS) that many maintenance departments have on hand, as opposed to repair compounds that rely on specialized asphalt formulations, virgin asphalt and/or specialty binders.
Microwave technology is not yet a routine method of repair, and it's best-suited for potholes in asphalt rather than concrete. But this approach merits further consideration, and we are working to advance the technology.
After all, given our nation's aging network of roads, zombie potholes will continue to flourish. Microwave repair could be an effective method for keeping them at bay.
Larry Zanko, Senior Research Fellow in Economic Geology at the Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota Duluth
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science. | {
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Adult traditional teaching methods can sometimes be a little boring for kids, so if you want to grab your kid’s attention when talking about money and budgeting, you may want to consider making it a fun activity rather than just a plain presentation.
Here are 8 fun activities around financial literacy that you can use to make the most of your kid’s money lessons.
1. The jar of job opportunities
Create a jar full of sticks indicating on every stick the chore and the price. Kids can pick a chore they want to do and move the stick to their jar when they do it. Once a week, usually on the weekend, take all the sticks out of their individual jars and pay them for their work. Pay Day!
2. The art gallery
Turn your living room into an art gallery, pay for one of their art pieces to go on the wall. Make it clear that it has to be something special, that they put some work and time into so they really earn the money they make. This will give them an early experience with a financial transaction: trading something, they have created for a dollar or a few coins.
3. Reading
Have them read a financial literacy book and discuss together what they have learned about money and how they can apply it to their daily life.
4. Advertising
Teach kids about advertising and how not every item they see in a commercial or online is actually as good as it sounds.
5. Lemonade stand
Help them make a lemonade stand and practice selling to each other with fake money before they take it out to the neighbourhood.
6. Save, spend and donate jars
Help kids decorate 3 jars where they can divide their allowance into 3 categories: save, spend and donate, make it become a normal process in their little minds.
7. The dream job
Have them pick a dream job and explain why. Then they can search online and compare the salaries of everyone’s dream job, they will soon understand that the job that pays the best is the one that you have to work hard to get. | {
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In a bid to expand its security portfolio, Cisco Systems CSCO recently announced its plans to acquire a cloud-based security company, CloudLock, for $293 million in cash and stock.
Cisco expects the acquisition to close in the first quarter of fiscal 2017, subject to customary closing conditions. CloudLock will be incorporated into Cisco's networking and security business group under the leadership of senior vice president and general manager, David Goeckeler.
Waltham, MA-based CloudLock provides a cloud platform that offers online security solutions for business users. CloudLock uses application programming interface (API) management tools to let enterprises apply and monitor security on documents and other content that they share and store in cloud-based applications. It works with major platforms, such as Amazon AMZN AWS, Google GOOGL Apps and Microsoft's MSFT Office 365, among a plethora of other apps and software.
In 2015, the company's revenues totaled to $13.2 million. It has about 130 employees, with offices in San Francisco, Washington D.C., London and Tel Aviv.
CISCO SYSTEMS Price
CISCO SYSTEMS Price | CISCO SYSTEMS Quote
The buyout will enhance Cisco’s current cloud security offerings through increased visibility and threat awareness of CloudLock’s cloud delivered platform. The purchase will help the network equipment maker to broaden its efforts and meet the changing compliance and security needs.
The acquisition comes at a time when the Internet security market is evolving rapidly and Cisco is aligning its long-term growth strategy to capitalize on the “Internet of Everything” trend. As cloud computing and various mobile devices gain popularity, the need for secure networks for data transfer and related services also increases. Additionally, enterprise IT teams are facing great challenges to detect potential threats from these unmonitored and potentially unsecure entry points into the network, creating tremendous security risk.
Therefore, Cisco aims to target this endeavor by looking for integrated hardware/software/services solutions to deal with security threats.
Cisco Systems is the leading provider of IP-based networking services and other products. For several years, the company has been expanding its security portfolio through in-house development. It has also made several acquisitions such as OpenDNS, Neohapsis, Virtuata, Sourcefire, Cognitive Security and ThreatGrid to bolster its offerings.
We believe that this acquisition will broaden Cisco’s customer base and security network offerings, providing it with a significant competitive edge.
Cisco currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
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Un deja-vù. Le scale mobili di Barberini come quelli di Policlinico. Anche questa volta, fortunatamente, nessuno è rimasto ferito ma, ancora, si sono registrate scene di panico con urla e attimi di tensione. Solamente i riflessi di alcuni pendolari hanno evitato il peggio. A raccontare la mattinata vissuta a Barberini è Fabio Carnevali, giornalista, che a RomaToday rivive quanto successo intorno alle 10 di oggi, giovedì 21 marzo, con Atac che ha dovuto chiudere la stazione.
"La scala mobile si è letteralmente accartocciata davanti ai miei e ai nostri occhi. La salita era piena e, ad un certo punto, abbiamo sentito un rumore metallico", spiega. Qui uno dei gradini collassa, si inarca e si rompe poco prima della fine della salita. "In tanti hanno urlato, tutti volevano uscire di lì. C'è stato il panico anche perché le persone si sono quasi calpesatate per scappare".
Alle 10:40 Atac ha poi comunicato la chiusura della stazione. I treni passano senza fermare. "Abbiamo visionato, sia con Metro Roma, che è l'azienda che si occupa della manutenzione effettiva di queste scale mobili, sia con Atac, tutta la situazione delle scale mobili della stazione. Vogliamo andare a fondo a questa vicenda. Il nostro obiettivo è ridare il servizio ai cittadini nel più breve tempo possibile", ha commentato l'assessore alla Mobilità di Roma Linda Meleo dopo il sopralluogo alla metro Barberini.
#info #Atac - metro A: stazione Barberini temporaneamente chiusa; treni transitano senza fermare (intervento tecnico). Utilizzabile la vicina stazione Spagna. Seguono aggiornamenti #roma — infoatac (@InfoAtac) 21 marzo 2019
La memoria, anche dei presenti, è tornata a quanto accaduto alla stazione di Repubblica quando i tifosi del Cska Mosca rimasero incastrati e schiacciati a seguito della rottura di una scala mobile, letteralmente crollata sotto i loro piedi. In quel caso ci furono feriti, anche gravi.
Oggi, fortunatamente, nessuno si è fatto male. Un po' come successe alla stazione Policlinico lo scorso 22 febbraio. Lo stesso giorno un fatto simile a quello successo questa mattina, ancora alla stazione Barberini. E questa è solamente l'ultime, ennesima, fotografia della condizione degli impianti negli scali delle metropolitane romane. Repubblica, Spagna e Barberini stessa solo a maggio torneranno alla normalità.
Sul sito di Atac si legge come a Flaminio, Cipro, Laurentina e Pantano ci siano problemi alle scale mobili. Ascensori rotti, invece, a Re di Roma, Manzoni, Baldo degli Ubaldi, Castro Pretorio, Basilica San Paolo, Torre Gaia, Torre Maura, Centocelle. Fuori servizio, inoltre, i montascale a Lucio Sestio, Giulio Agricola, Porta Furba, Numidio Quadrato, Travertino, Colli Albani, Lepanto, Colosseo, Circo Massimo e Cavour.
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In totale sono 22 tra linee A, B/B1 e C, le stazioni della metropolitana che hanno problemi. Perché, per stessa ammissione dei dirigenti Atac, gli iter di intervento sono lunghi, "ci possono volere mesi per un pezzo di ricambio". Tanto che è successo, ammettono, in casi urgenti, che siano stati sottratti pezzi da impianti di stazioni meno frequentate. Il tutto nonostante la delibera del 28 dicembre scorso in cui il Campidoglio ha promesso 5,2 milioni di euro da destinare ad Atac per manutenere, almeno, gli impianti della Metro B. | {
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Conglomerate Ayala Corp. has proposed to team up with tycoon Andrew Tan-led Alliance Global Group Inc. on the latter’s monorail project, aiming to extend the “Skytrain” alignment to the Makati central business district (CBD) or even to the Light Railway Transit 1 (LRT 1).
AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. president and chief executive officer Rene Almendras told the Inquirer that he had entered into discussions with Kevin Tan, head of AGI’s infrastructure arm Infracorp Development Inc., to possibly lengthen the Skytrain project to traverse the Makati CBD.
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Infracorp submitted late last year an unsolicited proposal to build a two-kilometer monorail from Uptown Bonifacio, Megaworld Corp.’s township project, to the MRT Guadalupe Station, seeking to boost connectivity for commuters amid worsening traffic conditions in the metropolis.
The Skytrain project, which will use the automated cable-propelled monorail technology at no cost to the government, seeks to reduce travel time from BGC to MRT Guadalupe to only five minutes.
“We are in discussions,” Almendras said when asked about the conglomerate’s proposal to extend Skytrain.
Asked whether Ayala would share in the additional cost if the Skytrain project were to be extended beyond the two kilometers originally envisioned by Infracorp, Almendras said this would be part of the discussions.
“If they’re building, they might as well go through Makati. Remember, we have 100,000 people who move from BGC to Makati every day,” Almendras said.
Ayala’s proposal is for Skytrain to be extended from Guadalupe to the Makati central business district, passing through Circuit Makati and possibly even stretching out to LRT 1 that runs the stretch of Taft Avenue.
“Everyone is talking to solve problems,” Almendras said. “The nice part is instead of us doing things on our own, let’s collaborate to make it better.”
AGI earlier announced that the “Skytrain” proposal had been submitted to the government by Infracorp in October. For AGI, this diversification into infrastructure-building is seen aligned with the Duterte administration’s promise to usher in a “golden age of infrastructure” in the country.
If and when approved, the Skytrain monorail project will take three years to construct. It is also proposed to be interconnected with the government’s planned subway system project passing through Fort Bonifacio.
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The next step for AGI’s Infracorp is to await certification from the government for an original proponent status, after which the project will be subjected to a Swiss challenge, which means other bidders will be invited to submit alternative offers, but the original proponent has the right to match the best rival package.
Ayala and AGI are among seven of the country’s biggest conglomerates that created a superconsortium to support an unsolicited proposal to rehabilitate, operate and maintain the outdated and highly congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), currently the main international gateway to Metro Manila.
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A live-action point-and-click horror game from Splendy Games and Wales Interactive, The Bunker is releasing in September 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The mobile version will be out later this year.
Starring Adam Brown (The Hobbit), Sarah Greene (Penny Dreadful), Grahame Fox (Game of Thrones), and Jerome St. John Blake (Star Wars), with a plot from writers behind The Witcher and SOMA, The Bunker stars John, the last remaining survivor in an underground bunker. A nuclear attack wiped out England 30 years ago and now John must stick to his routine to stay sane, but when the routine is thrown into chaos, “he must face his fears and uncover the terrifying mysteries held underground.”
The Bunker was filmed on location in a real decommissioned nuclear bunker located in Essex, England, and is a completely live-action experience, as you can see in the above trailer. For the gameplay, you can expect to explore the bunker and search through computer files, documents, and recordings to learn more about John’s dark childhood.
There’s also a Platinum Trophy and hidden secrets, including John’s scattered childhood Wooden Toys.
The Bunker will cost £14.99 on PC. A PS4/Xbox One price is TBA. | {
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Alibaba made e-commerce history on Sunday, with $30.8 billion in sales over the last 24 hours as part of the company's massive Singles Day celebration.
The $30.8 billion in generated sales is a significant increase from 2017, when customers spent $25.3 billion.
For comparison, total online sales on Black Friday reached $5 billion in 2017, according to Adobe Analytics data. Cyber Monday sales last year reached about $6.6 billion.
SHANGHAI, China — Alibaba just made e-commerce history.
With the company's massive Singles Day celebration on 11/11 — November 11 — coming to a close, Alibaba reports that customers spent $30.8 billion online over the last 24 hours. That is a significant increase from the $25.3 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) Alibaba shoppers spent in 2017.
Alibaba's Singles Day celebration is the biggest shopping day of the year, as the company dominates the Chinese e-commerce market. Shoppers — primarily in China, though the company is increasingly offering Singles Day deals in new countries — flock to Alibaba sites including Taobao.com and Tmall.com.
More than one billion delivery orders were placed over the course of the 24 hours, the first time Alibaba's Singles Day sales surpassed the billion-package landmark. Last year, 812 million orders were placed on 11/11.
Total online sales on Black Friday reached $5 billion in 2017, according to Adobe Analytics data. Cyber Monday sales were roughly $6.6 billion.
"Everywhere I go, which is pretty much everywhere in the world, there are not very many people who do not know about 11/11," Alibaba's president, Michael Evans, told Business Insider in an interview on Sunday.
"Many people ask the question — how can we participate next year? People are very interested, I think partly because they've heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday and they think that's quite big."
He continued: "They've heard of Amazon Prime Day. But, we sold as much in five minutes as Amazon sold in an entire Prime Day."
Alibaba exceeded $4.68 billion in GMV in less than 10 minutes after 11/11 kicked off on Sunday morning.
While not an exact match, Alibaba's Singles Day is similar to Amazon's Prime Day in many ways. Both "holidays" were created or built up for pretty much the sole purpose of offering deals and pushing sales.
However, Singles Day is far larger than Prime Day. While Amazon does not release Prime Day sales figures, total online sales are estimated to have topped $4.2 billion over the company's 36-hour Prime Day event in July 2018, according to Wedbush Securities Inc. analyst Michael Pachter.
Alibaba was crucial in making Singles Day, previously an obscure holiday observed by just a handful of companies, a massive cultural phenomenon over the last decade. This is the 10th year that the company has celebrated 11/11.
As the company celebrated a decade of Singles Day, Alibaba executives emphasized the need to find new ways to continue to evolve, whether that means expanding in different regions or exploring new types of business. This year, more than 20 Alibaba-owned businesses including online shopping site Taobao, delivery platform Ele.me, and supermarket chain Hema participated in 11/11 deals.
"Philosophically, how we look at whether we got into one business or another ... we never ask ourselves whether this is a lucrative area or whether it's going to be a commercially successful thing," Alibaba cofounder and executive vice chairman Joe Tsai told Business Insider.
"We do things out of necessity and we do things out of fear," Tsai continued, citing Alibaba's 2003 launch of Taobao to shut down the threat of eBay expanding in China.
"There's a high sense of paranoia within the company." | {
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With thanks to Soeren Herweg the German Motorsport governing body the DMSB has just announced a package of measures affecting racing at the Nurburgring in response to the fatal accident there two weeks ago.
These include:
Speed limit for certain sections, (Speed limit at Flugplatz, Schwedenkreuz, Antiniusbuche: 200 km/h, Dottinger Hohe: 250 km/h, GPS controlled)
Power reduction of 5%, and
Limited access for fans to certain areas.
All cars that were deemed ineligible are now allowed to race again.
All of the measures will remain in place until the state and the DMSB’s own investigations are complete
The full DMSB statement:
DMSB resolves security measures for Nordschleife
The Bureau of the DMSB (German Motor Sport Association) decided at a special meeting extensive safety measures for the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. “This includes a reduction of benefits for some categories of vehicles, as well as a kind of ‘speed limit’ in certain sections,” said DMSB President Hans-Joachim Stuck. “In addition, some spectator areas are not initially accessible to the usual extent.” This is to ensure a safe racing until the prosecutor closed the investigation after the fatal accident on the last weekend in March and more DMSB own investigations are carried out. Prior to the decision of the Bureau DMSB an expert panel of representatives from the racetrack operator of the automobile manufacturer, from professional racers and recreational athletes, the organizers and DMSB safety and technical experts in Frankfurt had met to work out solutions. “All parties agreed that everything must be done to prevent accidents in which viewers can come to harm,” says Stuck. “Now we have adopted measures that allow short course competition again, albeit to a limited extent. At the same time sets the DMSB up an expert committee to develop medium-term solutions, which will then be implemented as soon as the racing season. This could also include comprehensive regulation changes as possible construction. “
Specifically, the following actions are planned for the immediate implementation: The vehicles of the top classes are slowed by the engine power is reduced by five percent. In order to prevent a dangerous lifting, the speed at critical sections Flugplatz, Schwedenkreuz, Antiniusbuche: 200 km/h, must be reduced. This is done by each of several hundred meters in front of these sections is considered a top speed of 200 km / h (at the Dottinger Hohe of 250 km / h). This is similar to warning signals through the ‘yellow flag’, controlled by GPS and has tough penalties for violations. After passing the pace zone may be accelerated again, so that the vehicles with their individual speed drive on the critical areas. Since the acceleration is reduced, the vessels at the sections Flugplatz, Schwedenkreuz and Antiniusbuche. Simultaneously, a sudden braking is excluded.
In addition, in the sections Flugplatz, Schwedenkreuz, Metzgesfeld and Pflanzgarten some parts of the audience area will initially be only limited access, to enable structural changes again to access these areas. The temporary ban on the hitherto suspended vehicle classes SP7, SP8, SP8T, SP9, SP-Pro, SP-X and Cup-2, the GT classes of H4, the E1-XP1, E1-XP2 and E1-XP Hybrid on the Nürburgring Nordschleife participate in DMSB approved racing events, has been canceled.
“With the agreed package of measures planned in the coming weeks on the Nordschleife events can take place first. At the same time DMSB is especially keep on racing in mind and looking at a commission of experts for suitable measures intended to enable the safe and fair racing on the Nordschleife in the coming years,” said Hans-Joachim Stuck. | {
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Maybe it's just my opinion, but this is a dumb and bad tweet about baseball players and when they're allowed to party:
(This reply is somehow even worse.)
With a win in Atlanta, the Pirates clinched at least a wild card berth and their second consecutive postseason appearance, after more than two decades without a one. There are people out there—few of them, but they exist—who believe that a team should not celebrate a mere playoff berth, that the champagne and cigars should be reserved for World Series alone.
That is objectively a terrible take because making the playoffs is probably the greater achievement. The conventional wisdom these days, backed up by studies, is that the MLB postseason is a crapshoot, and the slog of the regular season is a much better indicator of the best teams. Just getting to October is the real accomplishment. Anything else is gravy.
But more than that, clubhouse celebrations are awesome. What the hell else do you play competitive sports if not to celebrate like madmen when you do something great? And for whatever reason (maybe because they've been here before and now know how to do it up?), the Pirates' celebration last night was a classic.
Clint Hurdle kicked it off with what was supposed to be a speech but skipped right to the soaking instead:
A smoking Andrew McCutchen and a two-fisting Tony Sanchez infiltrated the live shots:
And here are some more photos of the Bucs' champagnekkake. Sports are bad and sad these days. The Pirates celebrating should make you happy.
Photos by AP Images and Getty Images. | {
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You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
26.5 million viewers
The Oscars — which garnered a record low 26.5 million viewers last year — will try and improve the ratings for its live awards telecast by telecasting fewer of its awards live. It will also introduce an award for “outstanding achievement in popular film.” Because as we all know the things that truly deserve to be awarded are those things that have already been richly rewarded. [The Hollywood Reporter]
13-point overperformance
“5 for 5!” and “RED WAVE!” President Trump declared on Twitter yesterday following Tuesday’s special election results. But those exclamations are not exactly fair readings of what went down. In Ohio’s 12th District, for example, Republican Troy Balderson appeared to edge out Democrat Danny O’Connor — but that was a Democratic overperformance of 13 percentage points compared to the district’s partisan lean, in line with the 16-point average overperformance in federal special elections so far. [FiveThirtyEight]
4 million miles from the Sun
A NASA spacecraft called the Parker Solar Probe is embarking on a journey toward the Sun this weekend, where it will endeavor to solve some solar scientific mysteries. It will get within 4 million miles of the star, closer than any spacecraft before it, where temperatures reach 3 million degrees Fahrenheit. But don’t worry, it’s a dry heat. [The Verge]
541 million years ago
Speaking of scientific mysteries, something like half a billion years ago there were things called Ediacaran organisms that dominated our planet’s seas. They were very weird and made up of “branched fronds with a strange fractal architecture.” Were they algae, or fungi, or from some lost kingdom of life? No one could figure it out. But researchers, studying hundreds of their fossils, have now concluded that these fractal lifeforms were animals, unlike any we know today. [Science]
1 Muslim woman
And speaking of elections, Rashida Tlaib won the Democratic primary in Michigan’s 13th district and will run unopposed in November. That positions her to become the first Muslim woman in Congress. [The New York Times]
$570,900 in avoided losses
Christopher Collins, a Republican Congressman from New York, was arrested yesterday and charged with insider trading. According to the indictment, he learned a drug trial had failed thanks to his position on a biotech company board. He is said to have traded on the information, avoiding $570,900 in losses, while his son and another defendant did the same, avoiding $768,000 in losses. “We are confident he will be completely vindicated and exonerated,” Collins’s attorneys said. [AP]
If you see a significant digit in the wild, please send it to @ollie. | {
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Zu leaped through the air, as it were, in slow motion, eyeing the blades that would slash her neck. But somehow, she missed. By a miracle, the noose swung, seemingly on its own power, evading Zu's outstretched neck, and Zu fell to the floor panting hard, bruised and weakened as she was. She was on her face, but soon became aware of an ethereal light behind her back. A hushed voice beckoned her to turn around. "Yuzu," it spoke.
Zu looked behind her, recognizing Mei's voice. "Yuzu," she whispered, "I'm not letting you go. I was the one who moved that noose before you could slaughter yourself." She was drawn once again to that beautiful vision of her sister's bared body. Mei's voluptuous form was not to be ignored, and Zu could feel her wicked heart becoming heavy as her old self began to stir within her. Mei continued. "I came here to heal you from your fatal wound." Yuzu felt herself resurfacing again. "M-mei?" she stammered, her tentacles and claws withering. She was so transfixed on her sister's pulchritude that she was struck speechless with wonder and longing for the goddess who looked into her eyes. Mei approached her as though to fondle her cheek, before Yuzu realized that she wasn't actually there in person. "But, Mei," she said, "are you not here?" "I wish I were," said Mei, bowing her head. Yuzu was silent. Although Zu had been endlessly tormenting her poor soul, her mind had not changed about her love for Mei. She reached out as though to caress her sister's luscious marble breasts, although it really was into thin air. Mei stared at her in pleased surprise, knowing their desires were one and the same. "If only we were really together again, Yuzu," Mei lamented in a mournful tone, "because your hardness to me breaks my heart. I don't know why you're pushing me away whenever I try to tell you my feelings. I just don't know why..." Here both their eyes welled up with emotion as they looked one another in the eye with love and longing. Neither one of them spoke for a full two minutes, and at the end of it, Yuzu spoke with deep sorrow. "It's because you left me, Mei," Yuzu said, taking as it were Mei's hand and laying it on her breast, before breaking down into tears and kissing it. "My love for you has never changed, though, even after you broke my heart." (Here the tears flowed down Mei's own face as Yuzu confessed her feelings.) "But in place of the Yuzu you left, Mei," she continued, "you established a monster in her place, and even were you to heal my fatal wound in my heart, Zu will not leave me." Here Zu returned to her in full force, but before she was swept away, Yuzu's last words to Mei in that brief encounter were these: "You saved me, Mei. Now I will save you!" Immediately, Zu made herself fully manifest and cut off this moment of love that her former self and Mei had shared. "I will have nothing to do with you!" she venomously whispered as Mei left. Yuzu really does love me, said Mei to herself in her room. If only this monster who torments her will go away. I can be with her for life, and we would never have this pain again... She broke a hopeful smile through her tears as she saw a chance for them to be together once again. Only this time, she hoped, it will be for good.
Harumin and Matsuri had already said good-bye to Nene, who was still incredibly rattled that her fantasized world had been shaken to its very foundations. The two were alone again, their instruments packed up, when Matsuri spoke up. "I got hungry when I saw your cweavie this morning," she said, flirting with a deeply flushed Harumin again, "and as badly as I wanted some STEAK AND CHEESE, I just opted out of the wank and decided to give you the receiving end of it," she continued with an alluring smile. "But I think it would be quite courteous of you to return the favor..." | {
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Financial services minister Kelly O’Dwyer says she is ‘deeply concerned’ about allegations raised by ABC and Fairfax
This article is more than 2 years old
This article is more than 2 years old
The Turnbull government has called for an urgent investigation into the Australian Tax Office after a joint Fairfax/Four Corners investigation exposed the ATO’s use of allegedly unethical revenue raising methods.
The financial services minister, Kelly O’Dwyer, says she is “deeply concerned” about allegations raised in the ABC’s Four Corners program, Mongrel Bunch of Bastards, which aired on Monday evening.
A spokesperson for O’Dwyer issued a statement on Tuesday: “The minister has requested a thorough investigation of all allegations raised and the government will be responding once it has had an opportunity to consider that in detail.”
AFP raid home of tax office whistleblower over ABC investigation Read more
Treasury has been asked to run the investigation and to report back to O’Dwyer as expeditiously as possible.
The ATO, the inspector general of taxation and the small business ombudsman will be expected to cooperate with the investigation.
O’Dwyer’s announcement came a few hours after the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said he planned to pursue the allegations raised by the joint Fairfax/Four Corners investigation “with some degree of ferocity”.
“This is an issue which we’re going investigate when we return to parliament,” he said. “I think it is scandalous.”
Andrew Leigh, the shadow assistant treasurer, has also welcomed O’Dwyer’s announcement.
Last week, just days before the Four Corners story was due to go to air, the Australian federal police raided the home of the ATO whistleblower who featured in the program, Richard Boyle.
Boyle, who worked at the ATO since 2005 but is now suspended, told the ABC that his Adelaide home was raided on Wednesday morning last week by three officers from the AFP and an ATO investigator.
The tax office said the search warrant on Boyle’s home was issued because it believed he had accessed information he should not have and provided it to journalists.
“This is an astonishing use of public resources, to investigate someone who has passionately and with every fibre of my being tried to assist taxpayers in meeting their tax obligations and to enforce taxpayers who are ripping the country off by not paying their fair share of tax,” Boyle told reporter Adele Ferguson.
“They’ve spent the past couple of hours going through our drawers, going through our personal belongings and documents.”
O’Dwyer said the Coalition government had a strong record of putting in place the right mechanisms to protect small businesses in Australia.
“It was the Coalition government that established the inspector general of taxation in 2003 and then boosted its powers to provide taxpayers with more specialised and focused complaint handling for tax matters in the 2014-15 budget,” a spokesperson for O’Dwyer said.
“We also established the small business and family enterprise ombudsman in 2016, appointing small business advocate Kate Carnell as the inaugural ombudsman to represent and advocate for small businesses across Australia.”
O’Dwyer and Leigh both drew attention to the number of job losses endured by the ATO in recent years but offered contradictory explanations for the job losses – with each blaming the other for the reduced numbers.
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B-Y-O-Road? Welsh company Faun Trackway dreamed up (and built) a truck that can travel where there are no roads -- because it carries its own. Mounted on the back of an otherwise pretty standard-looking truck, a roll of thin aluminum extrusions can be unfurled to create a 50-meter roadway. The resulting temporary surface is capable of supporting vehicles weighing up to 70 metric tons, so the road-laying truck is a great companion for delivery and rescue vehicles carrying heavy supplies into otherwise hard-to-reach areas. Once the convoy has traversed the aluminum roadway, Faun Trackway's creation rolls the road back up and hustles along to its next challenging destination.
The Swincar is a bizarre but useful car that can drive just about anywhere. Each of the vehicle's independently driven wheels is attached to a spider-like leg for extra ground clearance, and powered by its own electric motor. This setup translates to a lot of power and control, so uneven terrain barely even slows the Swincar down, let alone stops it in its tracks. Because it's an all-electric vehicle with no emissions, the Swincar one-ups traditional ATVs in the sustainability department as well.
This truck can not only drive where there is no road, but it can build a 14-mile tunnel out of Lego-like bricks in just 24 hours. The zipper truck is equipped with rollers held in place by a tapered metal core, and the wider front of the truck allows the tailored lock-blocks to be placed just so, creating a perfect archway. Much like the historic arch's Roman predecessors, the arched tunnels zipped together by this truck need no mortar or adhesive to stay together. Even better, the blocks can be removed once the tunnel is no longer needed and then be reused many times over.
While some off-road vehicles are designed with serious functions in mind, others are just looking for a good party. This modified 1966 VW Bus Bulli T1 was created with slope-side jams in mind, and its wheels were replaced with rubber snowmobile tracks. The hip party van can travel across the snow at a good clip -- around 30 miles per hour -- and comes equipped with a 1,000-watt subwoofer and two 300-watt speakers (as well as two turntables and a microphone). Just add snow and your own DJ.
Designed to make charming brick roads even easier to lay down, this Dutch machine does the work of a crew of human laborers in a fraction of the time. Dubbed Tiger-Stone, the automatic paver-laying machine can lay up to 400 square meters of gorgeous brick road in a day. Adjustable to widths up to six meters, the machine is fed by human workers who stack bricks into an angled hopper in the desired pattern. The machine then leverages gravity to lower the bricks onto the pre-leveled ground where a sand layer has been prepared. Tiger-Stone eliminates the back-breaking aspects of bricklayers' jobs, while cutting both time and cost and -- best of all -- leaves behind a beautiful brick road where there was none before.
This hybrid tricycle helps adventurers with disabilities go places they've never been able to go before. Created by designer Jesse Lee, the Horizon can traverse a wide variety of surfaces that wheelchairs and other adaptive vehicles struggle with, such as gravel, hills, grass and dirt. It's powered by electricity and pedal power (controlled either by hand or foot), which can be combined in one of three different "driving modes," depending on how much power is needed. The Horizon can go up to 25 miles per hour, and its 48-volt lithium-ion battery offers a 30-mile range on a full charge. | {
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This positional power ranking won’t be like the others. Take a look at the graph. In particular, note the right side of the graph.
You’ll notice that a number of the clubs with the poorest first-base situations simultaneously possess strong clubs overall. Seattle, Texas, Toronto, Washington: they’re all supposed to be competitive this year. They’ve punted the position, it seems. Maybe with the ubiquity of high-powered low-defense sluggers on the market, teams have decided just to take the cheapest one. What the reason, it makes for a weird fun-house version of the first-base depth charts we used to know and love.
I say all that and then the first spot up features a vintage first baseman. Anthony Rizzo can hit for power (15th-best isolated slugging percentage in the league) while striking out like it was the 90s (third-best strikeout rate in the top 15 for ISO). He even stole some bases one year. What more is there to say except that the book on Rizzo has been out for years — throw the plate-crowder inside, where he had the 12th-most pitches in baseball last year — and yet Rizzo keeps ticking like a metronome when it comes to power, patience, and contact.
In a testament to the depth on his team, even if Rizzo goes down for a short stint, the Cubs should be able to replace him with a talented option (Kris Bryant) who will himself be replaced by a talented option (Javier Baez). If the stint is any longer than a game or two, though, the team can go with a third talented option (Kyle Schwarber) instead of running him around in left field. Oh, to be loaded with young positional talent and coming off a World Series win.
2. Diamondbacks Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Paul Goldschmidt 658 .288 .402 .509 .383 27.8 1.6 4.1 4.4 Daniel Descalso 42 .239 .314 .365 .294 -1.3 0.0 -0.3 -0.1 Total 700 .285 .397 .500 .377 26.6 1.6 3.9 4.3
The 29-year-old Goldschmidt could be the second 30-30 first baseman in the history of baseball and has thighs similar to the first (Jeff Bagwell). He’s in the prime of his career and everything looks great, but is there a tiny bit of worry? Coming up through the minors, it was said the right-hander wouldn’t hit righties for much power; last year, while his power against lefties was fine (.224 ISO), his power against righties dropped nearly 70% (down from perennially above .230 to .183 last year). If he can figure out why he hit so many ground balls against righties last year, and fix it, we won’t notice this blip.
If he doesn’t, his lefty-mashing and patience will still make him a valuable player. If he gets hurt, though, this team doesn’t have a great solution behind him. Maybe they move Yasmany Tomas in from the outfield if it’s a long-term injury, since Tomas is terrible with the glove. Otherwise, they’ll suffer from moving a far inferior bat to the position.
3. Reds Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Joey Votto 637 .290 .419 .490 .387 31.9 -1.4 0.9 4.1 Adam Duvall 56 .239 .293 .465 .321 -0.3 0.0 0.3 0.1 Christian Walker 7 .242 .296 .419 .307 -0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 Total 700 .285 .408 .487 .381 31.5 -1.4 1.2 4.2
There might be two things at which Joey Votto doesn’t naturally excel. One is defense, although he’s made generally made it an asset with a lot of hard, boring work. The other’s the inside fastball: no batter in baseball received more pitches inside last year. That torrid second half, when he had an OPS over 1.200 and a strikeout rate around 10%? That came when he developed a plan for the inside pitch. This spring, Votto said: “My swing is matched up to fail on the inside pitch, so I felt like I was going to fail. And then, as the season went along, I found something to counter that.” Did he ever. Still, it’s an okay flaw to have. “The inside pitch is a really difficult thing for them to do,” he said of pitchers. “So much room for failure.”
If Votto leaves town or needs a break, the team won’t lose much power, but they’ll lose all those walks that some fans yell about. First base might be where Adam Duvall is headed, but adding some patience will be key to his longevity in the game, really. He had the third-worst strikeout minus walk rate (K-BB%) among hitters last year, and he’s not likely to make much more contact with his power-hungry approach.
4. Tigers Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Miguel Cabrera 637 .306 .386 .531 .384 32.5 -3.3 0.2 4.1 Andrew Romine 42 .237 .294 .310 .268 -1.9 0.1 0.3 -0.1 Victor Martinez 21 .272 .332 .433 .325 0.1 -0.2 0.0 0.0 Total 700 .300 .379 .514 .375 30.7 -3.4 0.5 4.0
When he’s in there, Miguel Cabrera is still among the best in the game. His finished sixth in the majors last year by park- and league-adjusted weighted on-base average — and he, like Rizzo, combines great strikeout and walk rates with power to all fields. Unlike Rizzo, Cabrera is now baseball old. He’ll turn 34 this year, and after years of averaging close to 160 games a year, his health is in greater doubt than ever. His 2015 season was shortened by injury, and Cabrera was just removed from a WBC game for back tightness. More than anything, the question for Tigers fans is how often Cabrera will be in the lineup.
If he does suffer a more long-term injury, the Tigers may deploy Victor Martinez at first base more often. Going to Andrew Romine would cost them just too much offense. But this does highlight how the Tigers, while composed of some stars, may not have the depth to survive the normal season-long assault that is injury.
5. Braves Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Freddie Freeman 665 .278 .380 .495 .370 25.4 -0.1 3.1 3.8 Rio Ruiz 35 .236 .308 .364 .294 -0.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 Total 700 .276 .376 .488 .366 24.5 -0.2 3.0 3.8
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Freddie Freeman right now is that his power spiked last year at 27 years old. Could it be a peak-year thing, timed well to align with the power spike across baseball? Sure. But if you look at his launch angles and exit velocities, he “deserved” even better. And a move to a home park that might play a little more generously to hitters may cover up some regression. Cosmetically, at least. If the power holds, the Braves have their Rizzo.
Unfortunately, the Braves don’t have the rest of the Cubs’ young positional squad. If Freeman goes down, there isn’t a great solution behind him. Rio Ruiz might get a shot, but he probably doesn’t have the power specifically or the bat generally for the position.
6. Giants Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Brandon Belt 602 .263 .361 .449 .349 16.2 -0.6 5.8 3.0 Buster Posey 70 .297 .365 .459 .351 2.0 -0.2 0.7 0.4 Conor Gillaspie 28 .261 .309 .402 .304 -0.3 0.0 -0.2 0.0 Total 700 .267 .360 .448 .348 17.9 -0.8 6.3 3.4
There’s always so much focus on what Brandon Belt is not, at least in San Francisco. He’s not a 30-homer-hitting, league-leading slugger type. He probably won’t hit .300, either. And though his defense is decent, he’s not as fleet of foot as he used to be. Let’s not forget, though, that he had a top-10 on-base percentage among qualified batters last year, so he does have his strengths. He’s also good for an annual awesome adjustment that helps him make the most of his batted balls.
Interestingly, it’s a given that the Giants run Buster Posey out there against lefties. But Belt has been 28% better than league average against lefties. He can take a walk and has improved his power over the years, so he’s not a liability, really. Oh well, just another case of his skillset being undervalued.
7. Indians Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Carlos Santana 560 .251 .368 .458 .357 15.6 -0.8 -0.1 2.4 Edwin Encarnacion 105 .259 .353 .500 .362 3.4 -0.1 -0.1 0.5 Giovanny Urshela 35 .253 .285 .376 .285 -1.1 0.0 0.3 0.0 Total 700 .252 .362 .460 .354 17.9 -1.0 0.1 2.9
Among active players, only Giancarlo Stanton has shown more power since 2012 than Edwing has. Encarnacion has walked the parrot 193 times during that period, an average of 38 a year, so the projections that have him hitting closer to 30 homers next year seem light. Then again, he’s 34 and moving from the homer-friendly Rogers Centre to a park in Cleveland that can stifle offense. As is the case with Carlos Santana, who’ll also play first, Encarnacion’s defense doesn’t rate particularly well. That explains why these sluggers aren’t higher up on the totem pole.
Then again, this team will, by definition, have the best backup first baseman in baseball this year. And in a time when teams seem to be looking past the slugging first baseman, the Indians feature two huge power hitters on relatively friendly deals on a team that has developed great starting pitching and a strong middle-infield tandem. The good got gooder.
Last year, Chris Davis pulled the ball less than he had previously as an Oriole, and it was part of a troubling trend. The three months during which he recorded strong pull rates were still fine. As for the other three months… well, he’s a 31-year-old hitter with a lifetime strikeout rate above 30%. When he’s not maximizing his strengths, things go poorly. You’ll still look up and like what you see by the end of the year, probably, but those bad stretches may get longer and longer.
Unless he gets hurt, everything should be fine — and Baltimore has a capable backup in Mark Trumbo. If the Indians possess the top first-base backup in the majors, the Orioles are probably second on that list.
9. Cardinals Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Matt Carpenter 616 .266 .368 .449 .352 15.1 -0.3 2.6 2.7 Matt Adams 70 .260 .310 .449 .322 0.0 -0.1 0.3 0.1 Yadier Molina 14 .283 .330 .396 .315 -0.1 -0.1 0.1 0.0 Total 700 .265 .361 .447 .348 15.0 -0.4 3.0 2.8
Carpenter’s romp around the infield may now be complete. The human defensive spectrum is probably a best fit at first base with the glove. With the bat? He upped his power the last couple of years by pulling more fly balls, and a full, healthy season may see him hit 30 bombs and give you those sweet, sweet Traditional First Baseman stats. Even if he doesn’t hit 30, though, he’s a perennial OBP king. Since he become a regular, only eight guys have recorded a better on-base mark. And, look: four of the eight are first basemen.
Because they’re a team full of multi-eligible-bachelor bats looking for the right match of a position, the Cardinals of course have a backup plan. Mr. Almost Right in this situation is Matt Adams, who’s been 11% better than league average with the stick in nearly 1500 plate appearances despite more recent problems with platoon splits and injury issues. Should Adams prove to be better than expected, or any of the second- or third-base options worse, we may see a different set of names atop the depth chart at the end of the year. Welcome to Cardinal baseball!
10. Padres Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Wil Myers 595 .258 .335 .453 .338 9.3 1.7 5.7 2.6 Alex Dickerson 105 .264 .322 .436 .322 0.3 0.0 -0.5 0.1 Total 700 .259 .333 .450 .335 9.6 1.7 5.2 2.7
Hey! Take that, Padres haters. The Friars are top ten in something other than throwback unis! Wil Myers finally broke out like we all thought he would four years ago with the Rays. Or maybe he was just finally healthy, because his production last year was similar to what came before in terms of rate — it was just the first time he managed to record more than 400 plate appearances.
That’s a bit worrisome, actually. With Alex Dickerson hurting, the depth chart behind Myers is threadbare. With Myers’ history, and his current neck spasms, you have to wonder how long it is until we see Cory Spangenberg at first base. Myers claims that his oversized hands have nothing to do with his ongoing wrist injuries, but since he’s had chronic issues with both wrists, you have to wonder what’s going on.
Shhh. Just enjoy the only first baseman other than Goldschmidt who could threaten to put up a 30/30 season. Nobody steals any more. And San Diego needs someone who might move the needle nationally.
11. White Sox Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Jose Abreu 630 .285 .346 .487 .352 15.4 -1.6 -3.0 2.1 Todd Frazier 35 .241 .310 .447 .324 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.1 Matt Davidson 35 .207 .281 .361 .279 -1.2 0.0 -0.1 -0.1 Total 700 .279 .341 .479 .347 14.2 -1.6 -3.1 2.1
There might be a book out on Jose Abreu. Last year, he faced the second-most pitches inside, as a percentage of overall pitches. And he had an OPS under .700 on those pitches. So he hasn’t made pitchers pay there yet, in other words. The result is a spray-hitting 30-year-old known more for his ability to hit for average than anything else, and he’s doing this on a team that seems to be in the middle of a rebuild. You’d make him a lock for a trade if it didn’t seem like so many good teams are punting the position.
If he does go, it seems doubtful that the team would hurt Todd Frazier’s trade value by moving him to first permanently, so maybe they’d give Matt Davidson a longer chance. The 25-year-old prospect did cut his strikeouts in Triple-A last year. All the way down to 26.4%. Sigh.
The quiet giant in Queens doesn’t get a lot of love even when he’s going well, so it’s no surprise that some Mets fans have been clamoring for an upgrade at his position after the year he had in 2016. A back injury limited him to 172 plate appearances and also robbed him of effectiveness when he was on the field. He hit barrels like David Ortiz in 2015 and like Alex Avila in 2016. Good health could help him beat his projections — the numbers don’t know he played through injury — in which case Duda would be a comfortably above-average first baseman.
And he has some decent help behind him, too. Wilmer Flores makes the most of his balls in play (he hits the ball really hard), but is better when limited to playing against lefties and at a position where defense isn’t super important. He might give Duda’s back a blow against some tough lefties. Jay Bruce, as a backup plan, is not a bad backup plan.
13. Yankees Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Gregory Bird 420 .249 .326 .469 .339 6.0 -0.1 -0.5 1.2 Chris Carter 210 .222 .317 .483 .339 3.0 -0.3 -1.1 0.5 Tyler Austin 70 .237 .306 .411 .310 -0.7 0.0 -0.1 0.0 Total 700 .240 .321 .467 .336 8.3 -0.4 -1.7 1.8
There’s a fair amount of play in these projections for Greg Bird. On the positive side, Bird played in some pitcher-friendly parks in the minor leagues, which may have hidden the power that he’s shown in the majors. His strikeout rate has also oscillated from the high teens to the low twenties, so it’s hard to know how much he’ll improve on 2015’s 29.8% rate — or even if he’s a lock to do so. Add in a shoulder injury that cost him all of 2016, which may or may not affect him this year, and you’ve got a number of question marks for a 24-year-old who was 37% better than the league over 178 plate appearances in 2015.
Color me optimistic. He got to play a little in the Fall league, so he didn’t miss all of last year. He’s been hitting for power in the spring, too. That’s not a great barometer for general success, but it can provide us hope when it comes to health. When he was healthy, back in 2015, he hit as many barrels per ball in play as Jose Bautista, so that power wasn’t a mirage. A career 21% strikeout rate in the minors suggests that he’ll improve his contact rates in his second go at the league.
If he struggles while the team surges, the Yankees have options. They could send down Bird and use Chris Carter and Matt Holliday at first, or call up Tyler Austin and see what he can do. But the team fares best if Bird beasts.
Adrian Gonzalez has had down years before. So it’s possible that, in that context, his 2016 season might not be so worrisome. Consider: he was still 12% better than league average! Yes. But, poke under the hood, and it gets worse. He lost 1.3 mph off his exit velocity on fly balls and hit more grounders than he’s ever hit before. He pulled the ball in the air a lot less, and generally looked 34 years old. Now he’s got some injury issues in the spring and is a year older. Maybe he’ll only be about 10% better than the league this year, which is only about average for a first baseman.
Short-term replacements for Gonzo include lefty Chase Utley and righty Sott Van Slyke in some sort of platoon. The team has the depth to replace those players at other positions if it comes to it. The Dodgers also have the luxury of going to the best first-base prospect in the game. Cody Bellinger never gets cheated on a swing, and yet has never had crazy strikeout rates in the minors — and adds a plus glove and good athleticism on the basepaths. The future at first base probably won’t come this year, but if it does, Dodger fans should be excited.
While placing 15th here in terms of projected overall production, the Brewers’ first-base situation may be No. 1 in terms of intrigue. The 30-year-old Eric Thames has been destroying the Korean Baseball Organization for the last three years, and the Brewers made a $16 million bet that those numbers will translate well to Major League Baseball. It’s those translations that everyone will be watching — using major-league equivalencies for the KBO can be scary, considering that the sample of hitters who’ve played in both leagues isn’t large. If those MLEs are right, Thames will be an above-average first baseman at the plate and on the basepaths, but not with the glove. Who knows, though? Grab the popcorn.
If the experiment doesn’t work out, the Brewers will have plenty of options. Jesus Aguilar, the right-handed former Indians farmhand, may steal some at-bats against lefties. He’s been raking this spring, but is 26 and lost most of his shine even as he hit 30 home runs in Triple-A last year. Travis Shaw is going to play some third, but so is Hernan Perez, and either of the two could play first base. The minor leagues may produce an option this year, too: Lucas Erceg is hitting the snot out of the ball, but is slated to taste Double-A and stay at third base. If Jacob Nottingham can cut the strikeouts and/or find the power again, he could also help at first. He probably shouldn’t catch any more, at least.
Zoom back in time three or four years, head to an Astros bar like the Flying Saucer, order a Yellow Rose, and ask a group of people watching the game about how they think the club’s first-base situation will unfold. I doubt that “all these stud young first basemen in the system are going to have trouble and the team will sign a Cuban third baseman to play first in his mid-30s” will be anyone’s reply. Considering the nature of Yulieski Gurriel’s major-league debut — marked more by strong contact skills than power — it’s just so bizarre that he’s become the answer in the wake of the prospect-packed, strikeout-ridden Astros clubs of recent history. In related news, this year’s Astros team is projected to make a rare leap on the strikeout-rate leaderboard.
Projections can’t agree on that contact rate for Gurriel, and you can see why. Cuban numbers are notoriously hard to translate, and Guirrel had more strikeouts in his 61 minor-league plate appearances that he did in his 137 major-league PAs. So he’s a bit of a question mark, even with his decent projections.
A.J. Reed struggled in his debut but is projected to improve his strikeout rates in 2017 — and has shown better contact skills this spring. If he finds the power he exhibited in the minor leagues, he’ll better his projections and take the job. Either way, it should be a decent tandem, with different risks tucked in different sorts of pockets: Reed is a lefty with more ceiling and Gurriel is a righty with more floor. Tyler White is an above-average backup plan, even if he’s projected to be a league-average bat.
The average first baseman in the American League last year hit .250/.327/.440. Eric Hosmer, meanwhile, hit .266/.328/.433. That’s almost the same thing! If you disagree with the defensive metrics and believe he’s not a liability with the glove, you can push the wins projection closer to average. It’s hard to say how you could go much further than that, though. This is who Hosmer is: an historical boring-bat anomaly at a bat-heavy position with (perhaps) the clutch skills that make him seem much better than his numbers say he’s been.
If an injury takes down Hosmer, then Brandon Moss — who prefers first base to the outfield — will jump in and provide similar value. But if talks break down between Hosmer and his current team, and the Royals aren’t very good this year, we might see prospect Ryan O’Hearn take over at first this year. Our own Eric Longenhagen recently said in a chat that O’Hearn was the player absent from his top-100 list most likely to have a decent career. He also rated the player fourth best in the Royals system and thought the door was open for him to be an average everyday player.
18. Twins Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Joe Mauer 455 .268 .355 .390 .322 -0.5 -0.5 1.3 0.8 Byung-ho Park 140 .243 .316 .458 .330 0.8 0.0 0.4 0.4 Kennys Vargas 105 .242 .325 .438 .327 0.3 -0.1 -0.2 0.2 Total 700 .259 .343 .411 .325 0.6 -0.5 1.5 1.3
Two years and $46 million. That’s what’s left on the contract that was supposed to keep then-catcher and -superstar Joe Mauer at the center of this Twins team. Of course, he signed that deal the year after he hit 28 homers and nearly doubled his previous isolated slugging percentages, and then never showed that type of power again. Mauer’s extreme patience (only six players have swung less than him the last three years) and extreme opposite-field approach (only two players have gone oppo more often in the last three years) have carved him out a high-OBP, high-batting-average, low-power niche in the game, but it’s not one that’s commensurate in value with his contract. Oh well, nothing to be done about that contract at this point, and Mauer still has value.
If the Twins can ever trade him — they gave him a full no-trade clause, and he’s almost synonymous with the team name — they do have some options behind him. Byung-ho Park cleared waivers and the all-or-nothing Korean first baseman is rewarding them with a big spring built on the same high-exit-velocity game the righty showed last year, hidden beneath a terrible batting average. Kennys Vargas, the switch-hitting Puerto Rican developed in-house, was supposed to take the job this year with his own hard-hitting, contact-averse approach. They could work in tandem given their handedness but won’t both be Twins with Mauer still around since they need to split the first-base and DH situations.
If you’re wondering why Albert Pujols isn’t higher on this depth chart, it’s not because his recovery from foot surgery has gone poorly. He’s playing this spring and should be ready for Opening Day. He’s just no longer an asset in the field like he used to be, and will likely be the designated hitter for the Angels going forward.
So newcomer, and former third baseman, Luis Valbuena looks like the strong-side platoon leader at first base. Valbuena may not have curried the market’s interest this offseason, but he’s been 26% better than league average against righties in the last three years, on par with fellow lefties Carlos Gonzalez and Christian Yelich.
The 31-year-old Valbuena will share the position with 27-year-old righty C.J. Cron, who looks like ex-Angel Mark Trumbo in a lot of ways. He also doesn’t walk or strikeout as much as other sluggers, at least. If he can push his power to Trumbonian levels, Cron may take the job outright and push Valbuena into a time share at third base. Either way, Cron’s flaws will keep the position from rising much further in the depth charts.
20. Red Sox Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Mitch Moreland 420 .249 .312 .424 .315 -4.6 -0.7 3.4 0.5 Hanley Ramirez 210 .281 .355 .479 .356 4.8 -0.3 -0.8 0.7 Brock Holt 70 .272 .335 .376 .312 -0.9 0.2 -0.2 0.0 Total 700 .261 .327 .436 .327 -0.8 -0.8 2.4 1.2
Remember when Hanley Ramirez was a bad-glove shortstop who was destined to move to third? He’s hit every branch on the way down the defensive-spectrum tree and is suddenly a DH who will play first base against lefties. The good news is that the bat has survived the fall — and also bounced back from a terrible first season in Boston. The bad news is that the health waxes and wanes and seems to be the primary indicator of his overall success in a given year. This spring, he’s dealing with a throwing problem of some sort, but maybe that DH slot will help him nurse his way through anything that’s barking.
For his career, Mitch Moreland has been 5% better than league average against righties, with a .258/.321/.457 line that looks useful. His isolated-power numbers, and his strikeout and walk rates, have been fairly stable — it’s just his ball-in-play numbers that have oscillated up and down, taking his overall value with them.
He’s obviously capable of serving as half of a league-average grouping, and Hanley’s bat is capable of floating the other half. But that doesn’t mean that the Boston tandem doesn’t have a fair share of risk between Hanley’s health and Moreland’s BABIP.
The Red Sox took the Rangers’ first baseman, and the Rangers took a former Red Sox first baseman, who was also once a Rangers first baseman. This is how your competitive teams fill the first-base position.
Not to say that Mike Napoli is flotsam or jetsam. He’s been 10% above league average with the bat, or better, every year of his career save one early season with the Angels and another one (2015) split between Boston and Texas. Of course, that last one is a little bit more worrisome, considering he’s 35 years old now and just had the second-worst strikeout rate of his career last season. If he keeps the three extra ticks on fly-ball exit velocity that led to the career high in home runs last season, Napoli would better the projections and push this ranking, but the opposite is just as possible, if not more so.
Ryan Rua and Jurickson Profar are probably going to be needed in the outfield, but the team does still have an interesting backup plan in Joey Gallo. Gallo is still striking out nearly half the time this spring, but if anyone could push a 40% strikeout rate and still have enough power and patience to sniff league-average value, it would be this kid. But 50% is untenable.
22. Marlins Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Justin Bour 490 .264 .336 .444 .331 3.3 -1.0 -0.9 0.8 Derek Dietrich 210 .250 .335 .417 .326 0.7 0.0 -0.6 0.3 Total 700 .260 .335 .436 .329 4.0 -1.1 -1.5 1.1
You don’t have to fiddle with the filters much to make Bour look like a viable option at first base. You do have to relax the qualifiers, since he’s been hurt and platooned a fair amount, but among first baseman with 750-plus plate appearances since the start of 2015, Bour is 12th in wRC+, right between Carlos Santana and Wil Myers. He’s 28, healthy, doesn’t have a real flaw when it comes to contact, patience, or power, and his team has hinted they are ready to give him the everyday job at first. If he can handle lefties at all, and keep his power to his demonstrated levels instead of falling to projected levels, there might be some breakout potential here, even.
If Bour doesn’t take the job, they don’t have a natural platoon partner to hold his hand. Derek Dietrich has used decent power to hit 10% better than league average to date, but he’s basically projected to be league average there. He’s more of a super utility guy than any sort of backup plan or viable first-base solution.
The joke is that Justin Smoak has naked pictures of someone in the Blue Jays front office, since he’s basically been a replacement-level player for his entire career and Toronto opted to keep him around for two more years and $8.2 million. Maybe instead it’s that their in-house analytics like him more defensively at first base, see what Jeff Sullivan saw in Smoak’s batted-ball stats, and hope for more power going forward. Those things are more probable than leaked Snapchat images.
He’s 17% worse than the league against lefties so far in his career, though, so righty Steve Pearce will get some time at the position. The new Jay has been 30% better than the league against lefties. Let’s not mention here that he’s been Smoak’s equal against righties, though. That’d be rude. If Smoak is what he’s been, Pearce’s playing time at the position could go way up.
Speaking of rude, let’s get Rowdy Tellez in the picture here. Tellez has been tearing up the minor leagues, to the point that projections like the 22-year-old for league-average offense in the big leagues, this year. He’s bad bodied and a liability at first base to some, but he’s also dropped 30 pounds and worked hard on his glove in the meantime. It might be time to get Rowdy this year, though that probably only happens if Smoak is bad and Pearce isn’t healthy.
Despite the breakout of Ryon Healy and the signing of Trevor Plouffe, it looks like Yonder Alonso is still the starter against righties at first base. In the past, he’s ridden patience and a good glove to one-win production on a seasonal basis, so it’s not a stretch to expect about the same this year. What’s a little different this time around, though, is that Alonso is trying to hit more fly balls this year. He’s killing it this spring, and has been changing where he positions himself on defense to better fit his home park, so there’s hope for something better even as he turns 30 this season.
If it doesn’t work out, the Athletics can move guys around. Not only could they just make Healy and Plouffe full-timers and then rotate players like Mark Canha in and out of DH, but there are some young players in the pipeline who could help at first. Chris Mitchell’s KATOH system likes Matt Chapman as the 39th-best prospect based on his huge power. He’ll mostly likely have to make a little more contact, though, if he wants to be a regular in the majors. Matt Olson has the other problem: his contact and patience rates are fine, but he needs a bit more power to make it at first.
25. Phillies Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Tommy Joseph 595 .261 .306 .483 .334 5.3 -0.8 -2.1 1.1 Andres Blanco 70 .251 .308 .384 .301 -1.3 -0.3 -0.5 -0.1 Howie Kendrick 35 .273 .331 .390 .313 -0.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 Total 700 .261 .307 .468 .329 3.7 -1.1 -2.6 1.0
He’s 25 now, and he’s not a catcher, but Tommy Joseph is in the big leagues. After coming over to the Phillies from the Giants in the Hunter Pence trade, he suffered repeated concussions and had to move off his first position eventually. Across the majors and minors last year, he hit 27 homers in 447 combined plate appearances, so the power seems legit, even if it disappeared at times in the minors. He had a lot going on then. What’s keeping his projections back now is a lack of patience (not likely to improve much, given his proclivity for swinging away) and playing time. It’s hard to project him as a full-time starter given his sporadic plate-appearance totals in recent years.
If he does play all year, and adds a little patience, the guys behind him won’t play much. If he needs a platoon partner… the guys behind him won’t play that much. The only lefty with the bat-and-glove combo to play first base, maybe, is Michael Saunders. He’s never played first before, but has hurt his knees playing in the outfield. Crazier things have happened.
26. Mariners Name PA AVG OBP SLG wOBA Bat BsR Fld WAR Dan Vogelbach 385 .243 .334 .408 .322 1.9 -0.1 -0.3 0.8 Danny Valencia 301 .261 .314 .426 .318 0.6 -0.8 -2.4 0.2 D.J. Peterson 14 .221 .268 .376 .278 -0.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 Total 700 .250 .324 .415 .319 2.1 -0.9 -2.8 1.0
The Mariners are going to give everyone’s favorite adult son a chance at first base. The projection systems all think Dan Vogelbach can be a league-average hitter, at least against righties, and most think he can handle first base with the glove. There’s still a decent amount of disagreement about what Vogelbach will do with his chance, and the Mariners are projected to be in the Wild Card race. There might be a change at the position if the team is going well but Vogelbach is struggling.
It’s unclear what that change would be, though. The team seems to have painted themselves into a corner here. Danny Valencia would be a fine solution against lefties, and maybe the team would just let him loose while Vogelbach works on things in the minor leagues. Nelson Cruz at first? Eh. Justin Morneau? Billy Butler?
Vogelbach will probably be fine. Right?
This ranking took a bit of a hit when Ian Desmond suffered a broken hand this spring. The Rockies’ new first baseman will probably miss a month of the season, so you take a 100 plate appearances off for that, then you take another 80 or so off for the other positions he’ll play. Because he will play other positions, right? Right?!? It’s just so weird to put a guy with defensive ability and an average first baseman’s line at first base, but that looks like the plan.
The result is that the injury doesn’t actually hurt the club too much. Add back in the missing month, and the Rockies improve to 22nd or 23rd. Nope, the signing is still one of the weirder ones of the offseason. Maybe the weirdest.
Mark Reynolds can put up about the same weighted on base average, especially if limited to facing only lefties, and isn’t a terrible fielder. Gerardo Parra didn’t look great at first last year, but it was his first go. Not sure that platoon wouldn’t have sufficed if they wanted to spend the money elsewhere. Last year’s 28-year-old rookie Stephen Cardullo did show up in a “Next Brandon Moss” query, but his power numbers were likely inflated by good minor-league parks, since he didn’t show that same power in the independent leagues from whence he was plucked.
The narrative is healthy here: this is just another good team here at the back end of this list. And in past years, the Pirates were completely into skimping at first base, as they’ve run out (in no particular order) John Jaso, Michael Morse, Garret Jones, Gaby Sanchez, Casey McGehee, Ike Davis, Travis Ishikawa, and Lyle Overbay at the position over the last five years.
But this year is a little different. Josh Bell isn’t projected to be awesome, but he’s an internal prospect with a little more upside than you’d normally see from a Pirate first baseman. Projections and prognosticators don’t think Bell will show a ton of power or glove, and the depth charts feel Bell will get some outfield time, and that’s why the group is hurt here. But Bell has been working hard on defense and has shown some power outbursts in the past; if he does better than expected in those two fields, you’ll see the Pirates zoom up the rankings.
If he doesn’t, the team still has John Jaso and can return to their standard practices at first base.
It’s been a long time since Logan Morrison was the brash young Marlin with the fire Twitter account. Morrison will turn 30 this year and his social-media personality has mellowed with time. Ongoing knee problems have kept him from ever putting up a full season, but the Rays won’t really need that from him this time around. They’ll just need him to walk some, make decent contact, and have better than league-average power and maybe get a little bit more out of his balls in play than he has for his career.
When/if he gets hurt, the Rays will have options. Nick Franklin can play second base and push Brad Miller back to first, where the latter played for much of last year. Even with regression coming for Miller’s power, most likely, that set-up wouldn’t miss much of a beat. In fact, the Rays may decide that’s the way to go, regardless.
Someone has to be last. In this case, it’s the Nationals — despite having one of the best teams in the National League. Going strictly by the numbers, it’s easy to see why they belong here. Ryan Zimmerman is 32 and has been 15% worse than league average over 857 plate appearances since the 2015 season started. He’s coming off a career-low walk rate and a career-high strikeout rate.
Dig under the surface, though, and there’s some hope. Zimmerman was 14th in average exit velocity last year, a fact which seems at odds with his poor batting average on balls in play the last two years. The problem for Zimmerman has been trouble getting the ball in the air. He’s been murdering grounders and is aware of the problem.
If he can lift the ball, he’ll see a resurgence — and the Nationals will be happy with their first baseman. If he doesn’t improve, he’ll probably fall into the soft side of a strict platoon with newcomer Adam Lind, who has been 26% better than league average against righties in his career. In which case, at least according to the projections, the team will improve their ranking here. All the way up to… huh, 30th. | {
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There are ten more principal authority council by-election results to come before Christmas, of which seven are for contests held this week – and this time, unlike previous weeks, they’re all Thursday by-elections.
First in was a reminder that, despite the promising polling news, there is still a lot of patchiness in the Liberal Democrat recovery with a contest without a Lib Dem candidate:
It’s now nine years since the ward has last seen a Liberal Democrat candidate, with eight contests since uncontested by the Liberal Democrats despite that distant last showing for the party actually being a fairly close second place.
Over in Wales, a by-election in a ward the party missed out on by three votes last time didn’t, alas, result in a Liberal Democrat gain thanks to a very strong independent candidate who has been well known in the area for many years:
But then much better news from the South West courtesy of a quite remarkable swing:
That’s a particular impressive result as all the way back to the first contest in this ward in 1987 it has been won by the Conservatives. Congratulations to Ross Henley and the team.
Ross is a former leader of Taunton Deane Council, who lost his seat by just four votes in a different ward last year. What’s more, the ward is in Taunton Deane Parliamentary constituency, formerly held for the Liberal Democrats by Jeremy Browne and one of the party’s prime targets in a general election if there is a recovery in the party’s fortunes in the South West.
Then there was a second Liberal Democrat gain, again in the South West and this time in a ward the party hasn’t won since its creation way back in 1979 save for once getting one of the two councillors briefly in the early part of this century:
Congratulations to Richard Keeling and his team. Richard had been an independent councillor for the ward 2011-15 and he and his colleagues will not be the only ones celebrating in that corner of the country as another by-election on the same council brought a third Liberal Democrat gain – again with a huge increase in the Liberal Democrat vote:
Congratulations to Sally Morgan and her team too. She was previously councillor in this ward in 2007-11 after the Lib Dems gained one seat in a split result in 2007.
The two gains in Teignbridge follow another Liberal Democrat gain in a council by-election in the same council back in September.
There was also a Liberal Democrat candidate for the first time since 2007 in a ward over in Suffolk:
Elsewhere:
Seven contests, three Liberal Democrat gains? Father Christmas has arrived.
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If you sign up for my daily email with the latest pieces from this site, you’ll also get included as a little bonus the full set of council by-election results each week: | {
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