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Citigroup Inc. and the U.S. are close to an agreement in which the government will substantially increase its stake in the bank and will demand boardroom changes in return, according to people familiar with the matter.
The deal, expected to be announced Friday morning, is designed to ease jitters about the soundness of one of the world's... | {
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Can a GST number be obtained on a virtual office address?
Yes, with proper documentation, GST number can be obtained with Virtual Office. Address Proof, Agreement and NOC from legal owner is provided.
What all documents are provided under Virtual Office for GST Registration?
Proper Address Proof, Agreement and NOC from legal owner of the premises. The documents have to be in proper desired format and guidelines as outlined by the GST Authorities.
What are the major cities where InstaSpaces provides virtual office services?
InstaSpaces provides virtual office address in all 29 states of India. The major cities included are Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Noida, Pune and all the metro cities.
Does InstaSpaces provides cheap Virtual Office Address for GST Registration in Karnataka?
Yes, we provide a wide range of virtual office spaces from cheapest to premium ones. Also we provide end-to-end solution for GST registration.
What can I do with a virtual office?
We can use the virtual office for my business correspondence/postal address, or for registrations of the business with government departments, and for call forwarding and call answering services.
Who can opt for a virtual office?
Any business owner looking to expand their business, or any entrepreneur or freelancer looking to register their business. Any business looking to get GST registration office address in any Indian state.
How will I receive my mail or courier deliveries? | {
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Pete Alonso will donate part of his Home Run Derby winnings towards multiple charities
If you tuned into the Home Run Derby on Monday night you were not disappointed.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was the talk of the town as the 20-year-old rookie opened the competition by setting a record with 29 home runs in the first round and then topped Joc Pederson, 40-39, in a triple tiebreaker the following round.
However, things didn’t go Vlad’s way in the final round, as he was edged by New York Mets rookie Pete Alonso, 23-22.
Pete Alonso defeats Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 23-22 in the final round to win the #HRDerby!
MORE: https://t.co/rrKY2a6QJ5 pic.twitter.com/bhRY42tAg1 — TSN (@TSN_Sports) July 9, 2019
Alonso, who’s only getting paid $555,000 this season, won $1 million with his performance in the Home Run Derby, but he didn’t keep it all for himself. Leading up to the event, the 24-year-old announced that he would be donating 10% of his winnings towards charity, if he won, and now that it’s official he plans on splitting up the donation between the Wounded Warrior Project and Tunnel To Towers.
Nice gesture by Pete Alonso to donate 10% of earnings to charities. Class move. #Mets — Steve Phillips (@StevePhillipsGM) July 9, 2019
Congrats to Pete Alonso for winning the #HRDerby2019. I love the fact he’s donating to @wwp and @Tunnel2Towers Well done. 👏🏼🇺🇸 — Cory Bridgmon (@cbridgmon) July 9, 2019
“We grew up in a military background, both of my grandpas,” Alonso told Mike Puma of the New York Post. “We have a real important [emphasis] on the people who care of human life and are selfless in that regard. They put themselves in the line of duty, whether that be overseas or here trying to protect us civilians in New York or around the country.
Pete Alonso’s salary this season is $550k. He just made $1 million by winning the derby tonight. Best part, he’s donating a large sum of money to @Tunnel2Towers! Congratulations! 🇺🇸⚾️ — Anthony White (@AnthonyWhiteTX) July 9, 2019
It’s been a rough year for the New York Mets and their fans, but Pete Alonso is one of the positives to come out of this season. In 89 games, the 24-year-old leads the team in home runs (30), RBI (68) and runs (57) and owns a .280 batting average and a .372 OBP in 325 at-bats.
(H/T New York Post) | {
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Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.10-b1-77-g1574bd0 character file.
5063 TrCk the Grappler (level 10, -11/110 HPs)
Began as a Troll Chaos Knight on June 18, 2012.
Was a Plaything of Xom.
Mangled by a soul eater (15 damage)
... summoned by Xom
... on Level 1 of the Lair of Beasts.
The game lasted 00:35:15 (8294 turns).
TrCk the Grappler (Troll Chaos Knight) Turns: 8294, Time: 00:35:15
HP -11/110 AC 9 Str 24 (25) XL: 10 Next: 16%
MP 0/4 EV 12 Int 8 God: Xom
Gold 292 SH 0 Dex 11 (12) Spells: 0 memorised, 9 levels left
Res.Fire : . . . See Invis. : . - Unarmed
Res.Cold : . . . Warding : . . b - +2 robe
Life Prot.: . . . Conserve : . (shield restricted)
Res.Acid. : . . . Res.Corr. : . I - +1 wizard hat {god gift}
Res.Poison: + Clarity : . (no cloak)
Res.Elec. : . Spirit.Shd : + (gloves unavailable)
Sust.Abil.: . . Stasis : . (boots unavailable)
Res.Mut. : . Ctrl.Telep.: . A - amulet of guardian spirit
Res.Rott. : . Levitation : . i - ring of poison resistance
Gourmand : + Ctrl.Flight: . B - cursed ring of poison resistance
@: mildly poisoned, somewhat resistant to hostile enchantments, unstealthy
A: unfitting armour, claws 3, horns 1, talons 1, herbivore 1, fast metabolism 3,
gourmand, regeneration 2, +10% hp, saprovore 2, screaming 1, spit poison 1,
tough skin 2, AC +2, Dex +3
a: Spit Poison, Renounce Religion
You were on level 1 of the Lair of Beasts.
You worshipped Xom.
You were a beloved toy of Xom.
You were completely stuffed.
You visited 3 branches of the dungeon, and saw 12 of its levels.
You collected 399 gold pieces.
You spent 127 gold pieces at shops.
Inventory:
Missiles
u - 26 +0 stones (quivered) {god gift}
Armour
b - a +2 robe (worn)
g - a +2 cloak of preservation
p - a +0 cloak
I - a +1 wizard hat (worn) {god gift}
Magical devices
t - a wand of polymorph other (6)
v - a wand of fireball (6)
C - a wand of random effects (16)
Comestibles
a - 9 meat rations
c - 3 chunks of hippogriff flesh
f - 2 chokos
q - 2 pears
w - 2 apples
z - 2 bread rations
E - a banana
Scrolls
d - 5 scrolls of identify
e - a scroll of recharging {unknown}
j - a scroll of amnesia {unknown}
k - 7 scrolls of remove curse
l - 2 scrolls of magic mapping {unknown}
m - a scroll of curse armour {unknown}
x - 5 scrolls of enchant armour {unknown}
y - 5 scrolls of detect curse
F - 2 scrolls of immolation {unknown}
H - a scroll of noise {unknown}
Jewellery
i - a ring of poison resistance (right claw)
A - an amulet of guardian spirit (around neck)
B - a cursed ring of poison resistance (left claw)
Potions
o - 3 potions of invisibility
r - a potion of curing
D - 2 potions of restore abilities {unknown}
M - a potion of magic {unknown}
Magical staves
s - a +4 rod of smiting (10/10) {god gift}
(Xom gifted it to you on level 3 of the Dungeon)
Skills:
+ Level 8.8 Fighting
- Level 1.5 Armour
+ Level 6.7 Dodging
+ Level 11.0 Unarmed Combat
You had 9 spell levels left.
You didn't know any spells.
Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations
Branches:
Dungeon (10/27) Temple (1/1) D:4 Lair (1/8) D:10
Orc: D:6-11
Altars:
Ashenzari
Cheibriados
Elyvilon
Fedhas
Kikubaaqudgha
Makhleb
Nemelex Xobeh
Okawaru
The Shining One
Trog
Vehumet
Xom
Yredelemnul
Zin
Shops:
D:5: ( D:6: ( D:7: * D:9: ((
Annotations
D:7 exclusion: orc wizard
Lair:1 exclusions: hippogriff and hydra, Jozef
Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations
You are too large for most types of armour.
You have claws for hands.
Your metabolism is lightning-fast.
You like to eat raw meat.
You heal very quickly.
You can eat rotten meat.
You are covered in fur (AC +1).
You have very tough skin (AC +2).
You have a pair of small horns on your head.
You have sharp toenails.
You are partially covered in molten scales (AC +1).
You are agile (Dex +3).
You digest meat inefficiently.
You are robust (+10% HP).
You occasionally shout uncontrollably.
You can spit poison.
Message History
You are poisoned. You feel clumsy.
The sun demon hits you! You are engulfed in flames!
The soul eater completely misses you.
The orange demon hits you but does no damage.
The orange demon stings you but does no damage.
The crimson imp blinks! The hairy devil barely misses you.
The hairy devil hits you. The midge barely misses you.
The quasit bites you but does no damage.
The quasit claws you but does no damage.
You finish taking off your +0 cloak.
Unknown command.
Wear which item? (? for menu, Esc to quit)
The orange demon hits you. The orange demon stings you! The sun demon hits you!
* * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *
You are engulfed in flames!
One of your 8 scrolls of remove curse catches fire!
* * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *
The soul eater hits you!
You die...
Xom is highly amused!
## # #+#
.# ##
.#####+.###
#..........
#.........##
#..........#
#..55.....#
+.434.....####
#[email protected]......
#.§55.....##
###5.#####.#
#.P#
#..#
#..#
##..
#..
P##
You could see a soul eater, a sun demon, 2 orange demons, a hellwing, a hairy devil, 2 quasits, 3 iron imps, a crimson imp and a midge.
Vanquished Creatures
2 hill giants (D:10)
A troll (D:10)
A two-headed ogre (D:10)
A hippogriff (Lair:1)
2 orc warriors (D:7)
2 ogres
4 sky beasts
An ice beast (D:10)
A crocodile (Lair:1)
4 centaurs
A boring beetle (Lair:1)
3 giant frogs
A killer bee zombie (D:8)
4 wights (D:7)
An electric eel (D:10)
3 crimson imps
3 big fish (D:10)
A big kobold skeleton (D:7)
An orc priest (D:5)
3 iguanas
3 scorpions
10 hounds
A shadow (D:8)
2 hound skeletons
4 orc wizards
10 worker ants
A sheep (D:6)
3 jellies
A goliath beetle zombie (D:10)
A mummy (D:10)
9 adders
An adder skeleton (D:10)
2 iguana skeletons
2 giant mites
2 worms
2 giant eyeballs (D:10)
2 oozes
23 orcs
11 bats
7 giant cockroaches
12 goblins
11 hobgoblins
2 quokkas
An ant larva (D:10)
A ball python (D:6)
3 giant geckos
8 giant newts
10 jackals
18 kobolds
An orc zombie (D:5)
16 rats
A rat zombie (D:5)
A toadstool (D:7)
222 creatures vanquished.
Vanquished Creatures (collateral kills)
A gnoll shaman (D:7)
An orc wizard (D:7)
3 gnolls (D:7)
2 orcs (D:7)
7 creatures vanquished.
Vanquished Creatures (others)
A white imp (D:10)
An ufetubus (D:10)
A giant spore (D:7)
7 toadstools
10 creatures vanquished.
Grand Total: 239 creatures vanquished
Notes
Turn | Place | Note
--------------------------------------------------------------
0 | D:1 | TrCk, the Troll Chaos Knight, began the quest for the Orb.
0 | D:1 | Reached XP level 1. HP: 20/20 MP: 1/1
172 | D:1 | Reached XP level 2. HP: 28/28 MP: 1/1
222 | D:1 | XOM: cast spell 'Summon Butterflies'
276 | D:1 | Reached skill level 4 in Unarmed Combat
684 | D:1 | XOM: miscast effect
1020 | D:2 | Reached XP level 3. HP: 35/35 MP: 2/2
1022 | D:2 | Reached skill level 5 in Unarmed Combat
1047 | D:2 | XOM: miscast effect
1167 | D:2 | XOM: stat loss: -3 Str (18/21)
1280 | D:2 | Gained mutation: You cover ground slowly.
1280 | D:2 | Gained mutation: Your magical capacity is low (-10% MP).
1281 | D:2 | Gained mutation: You digest meat inefficiently.
1281 | D:2 | Gained mutation: You have a pair of small horns on your head.
1281 | D:2 | Gained mutation: You are agile (Dex +1).
1412 | D:2 | XOM: god gift: 3 honeycombs {god gift}
1458 | D:2 | Reached XP level 4. HP: 41/44 MP: 1/1
1560 | D:3 | Found a white marble altar of Elyvilon.
1584 | D:3 | XOM: miscast effect
1820 | D:3 | Found a bloodstained altar of Trog.
1889 | D:3 | XOM: god gift: potion of mutation
1892 | D:3 | Gained mutation: You have sharp toenails.
2130 | D:3 | XOM: god gift: halberd
2181 | D:3 | XOM: god gift: short jewelled rod {god gift}
2205 | D:3 | Identified a +4 rod of smiting (10/10) {god gift} (Xom gifted it to you on level 3 of the Dungeon)
2245 | D:4 | Reached skill level 6 in Fighting
2245 | D:4 | Reached skill level 8 in Unarmed Combat
2245 | D:4 | Reached XP level 5. HP: 51/54 MP: 1/1
2343 | D:4 | Reached XP level 6. HP: 60/62 MP: 2/2
2510 | D:4 | XOM: 5-stop teleportation journey
2742 | D:4 | Found a staircase to the Ecumenical Temple.
2760 | Temple | Entered the Ecumenical Temple
2829 | Temple | XOM: god gift: 33 stones
2914 | D:4 | XOM: miscast effect
3006 | D:4 | Reached skill level 9 in Unarmed Combat
3389 | D:5 | Entered Level 5 of the Dungeon
3479 | D:5 | XOM: 2-stop teleportation journey
3521 | D:5 | Found Tulleunt's Weapon Shop.
3570 | D:5 | XOM: miscast effect
3675 | D:5 | Reached XP level 7. HP: 70/70 MP: 2/2
4466 | D:6 | Found Kodoyn's Weapon Boutique.
4467 | D:6 | XOM: stat loss: -2 Str (20/23)
4590 | D:6 | Lost mutation: Your magical capacity is low (-10% MP).
4590 | D:6 | Gained mutation: You are agile (Dex +2).
4590 | D:6 | Lost mutation: You cover ground slowly.
4969 | D:6 | Found a burning altar of Makhleb.
5049 | D:7 | Reached XP level 8. HP: 36/80 MP: 0/3
5207 | D:7 | Gained mutation: You are partially covered in molten scales (AC +1).
5208 | D:7 | Gained mutation: You are robust (+10% HP).
5325 | D:7 | XOM: give mutations
5325 | D:7 | Gained mutation: You occasionally shout uncontrollably.
5325 | D:7 | Gained mutation: You can spit poison.
5647 | D:7 | XOM: summons 2 friendly demons
5947 | D:7 | Reached skill level 5 in Dodging
5997 | D:7 | Found Cro Cock's Assorted Antiques.
6009 | D:7 | Bought a scroll of identify for 52 gold pieces
6009 | D:7 | Bought a purple potion for 23 gold pieces
6009 | D:7 | Bought a potion of curing for 52 gold pieces
6155 | D:8 | Reached XP level 9. HP: 89/96 MP: 4/4
6163 | D:8 | XOM: miscast effect
6241 | D:8 | Reached skill level 10 in Unarmed Combat
6528 | D:8 | XOM: miscast effect
6698 | D:9 | Found a basalt altar of Yredelemnul.
6765 | D:9 | Found Foefrom's Weapon Shop.
6927 | D:9 | Found Zaorir's Antique Weapon Shop.
6934 | D:9 | XOM: god gift: ring mail
7130 | D:10 | Entered Level 10 of the Dungeon
7136 | D:10 | XOM: polymorph orc priest -> ant larva
7158 | D:10 | XOM: summons 2 friendly demons
7401 | D:10 | Found a staircase to the Lair.
7436 | D:10 | Paralysed by a giant eyeball for 3 turns
7511 | D:10 | XOM: miscast effect
7594 | D:10 | Gained mutation: You are agile (Dex +3).
7673 | D:10 | Reached XP level 10. HP: 73/107 MP: 4/4
7772 | D:10 | XOM: god gift: wizard hat {god gift}
7852 | D:10 | Paralysed by a giant eyeball for 4 turns
7853 | D:10 | XOM: god gift: scroll labeled LIYPRUDA COADGH
7994 | D:10 | XOM: stat loss: -1 Str (24/25)
8033 | D:10 | XOM: god gift: plain deck of cards
8079 | Lair:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Lair of Beasts
8114 | Lair:1 | Noticed Jozef
8157 | Lair:1 | Reached skill level 11 in Unarmed Combat
8176 | Lair:1 | XOM: god gift: twisted demon blade {god gift}
8289 | Lair:1 | XOM: summons 13 hostile demons
8290 | Lair:1 | Identified a scroll of acquirement {god gift}
8294 | Lair:1 | HP: 4/110 [sun demon[Xom] (15)] | {
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Oregon Petition (1998) Signed by 31,000+ Scientists and Experts 5 years ago The Oregon Petition (2007; repeating text of the Global Warming Petition Project, 1998) was signed by 31,487 American scientists and experts, including 9,029 with a PhD.
Multiple Causes of Increase in C19 Cases & Hospitalizations 1 month ago Update 2020-08-12. A push for more testing might have caused increase in the COVID-19 infection cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Some doctors require patients with COVID-19 symptoms to have a PCR test before prescribing HCQ-based treatment. …
COVID-19 Notes 1 month ago We have 3 deaths/M/day. Below is a sub-sample of countries that had no or almost no COVID-19 deaths in the last week – 0.0 to 0.23 deaths/M/day. Do they have a cure for COVID-19 or … | {
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A British businessman who turned his Vietnamese ex-lover into a human fireball was arrested in Thailand after authorities suspected him of hiding in the Philippines.
On Jan. 15, Gary Iredale, 52, allegedly doused Nguyen Hang, 23, in petrol and set her on fire in a tailor shop that she owned.
Iredale was reportedly enraged after Hang admitted to being in love with another man and broke up with him. They had been together for about a year.
The victim sustained 70% burns to her body and is currently in a coma.
In response to the news, Iredale’s father, Roy, told the Daily Mail:
“If you do a thing like that, you have to stand by it and take your punishment.”
“It is so unlike him. He was the life and soul of the party, he always was. Everybody liked him wherever he went. I think he should hand himself in.”
His mother, Nora, could not believe it either:
“I feel sick and can’t believe it’s happening. I never thought he would do something like that. What has he done? I am heartbroken.”
According to his family, Iredale moved to Vietnam three years ago to teach English. He met and married an Australian woman in his travels, but they were already divorced.
According to local outlet GVTT, Iredale arrived on a motorbike and covered his face during the crime.
Witness Alan Nicholls, who was shopping with his wife at the time, also spoke with the Daily Mail:
“It was the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen. This guy came into the shop, wearing a face mask, and threw petrol over the woman and the rest of the shop and set her on fire. It’s rocked the local community to its core.”
It appears Iredale became unstable after committing the atrocity.
“We watched Gary from our balcony chasing a stray dog, shouting all sorts of obscenities at the dog,” Ben Evans, who lives two floors below his apartment in Hanoi, told Philippines Lifestyle News.
“This led him to arguing with an elderly Vietnamese gentleman, who had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on.”
Authorities suspected that Iredale fled Hanoi to Thailand after the crime and hid in the Philippines. He was later found and arrested in Thailand on Jan. 18.
Hang’s family is seeking justice and praying for her recovery. | {
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March 24, 2020 Joe Biden Says “Listen to Dr. Fauci.” Shouldn’t He?
"Listen to Dr. Fauci," Joe Biden lectured President Trump on CNN today, adding, "he should listen to the scientific experts.”
On The View, Biden instructed the media to “have Dr. Fauci on a lot more than the president,” further attempting to sow division and drive a wedge between the President of the United States and the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) during a global health crisis.
But shouldn't Joe Biden listen to Dr. Fauci?
Just hours before Biden's comments, Dr. Fauci denounced the divisive tactics Biden is employing as “not helpful” in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Listen:
HOST: It seems like increasingly a bunch of the questions from the media are designed to create a rift between you and the President of the United States. Or at least, to emphasize differences of opinion in a way that creates distance between you and the President. Are you sensing that as the media continually asks you questions about the differences you have with him?
DR. FAUCI: That is really unfortunate. I would wish that that would stop because we have a much bigger problem here than trying to point out differences. There really fundamentally at the core, when you look at things, there are not differences. The president has listened to what I have said and what the other people on the task force have said. When I've made recommendations he's taken them. He's never countered or overridden me. The idea of just pitting one against the other is just not helpful. I wish that would stop and we’d look ahead at the challenge we have to pull together to get over this thing.
On The View, Biden also accused President Trump of making decisions that are not grounded in science. But Dr. Fauci is a scientist, and Fauci says President Trump has “never” made a decision that went against the science-based advice he provided. Watch:
HOST: There’s this statement put out, some in the press, some of the opposition party to the President, that the President doesn’t follow the science. Is the President following the science?
DR. FAUCI: Every single time that I – and when I say every, it’s like almost every day, it’s not like once a month – we’re in the [White House] task force meeting. There are several of us, myself included, and I’m not the only one, that’s a scientist or a public health person. There are other people who have other responsibilities, so we get a good sampling of expertise that you need, and it’s led by the Vice President. Secretary Azar is there as the Secretary of HHS. And we talk about every aspect and we make all of our decisions and recommendations that are based on the science. I have never, in that room, had a situation where I said, ‘scientifically this is the right thing to do it,’ and they said, ‘don’t do it,’ or, ‘scientifically this is the wrong thing to do,’ and they did it anyway. Then we get up and we present it to the President and he asks a lot of questions. That’s his nature. He’s constantly asking you questions. And I never, in the multiple times that I’ve done that, where I’ve said, ‘for scientific reasons we really should do this,’ that he hasn’t said, ‘let’s do it.’ Or, when he’s decided – not decided – when he suggests, ‘why don’t we do this?’ And I say, ‘no, that’s really not a good idea from a scientific standpoint’ – he has never overruled me.
Joe Biden is doing exactly what Dr. Fauci has said is "not helpful," and Biden's attacks on President Trump are directly contradicted by Dr. Fauci – who Nancy Pelosi praised today as a “truth teller.”
Biden can't continue to have it both ways. Either he should listen to Dr. Fauci or he should stop talking. | {
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The Duldrumz are retreating!
The Duldrumz arrived to abduct all the world's games and banish them to far-off planets where humanity would have no chance to find them. However, the Saliens were successful in their campaign to free the abducted games, and now humans and extraterrestrials alike may enjoy the Summer.
Thanks for playing
The Steam Community joined together and earned a total of 2,616,591,115,638 XP while fighting the Duldrumz, conquered 52 planets, and won over 20,000 free games in the process. | {
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It’s been a couple of weeks since I introduced a new approach to tracking the MLS Eastern Conference Standings, an approach which I fully admit was borne out of a resistance to accept Atlanta United as struggling to stay in range of the last playoff spot. Since some time as passed, and we’ve seen our share of positive and negative ATLUTD results in the intervening period, I thought I would post an update. First, here’s where the East stands after this weekend’s happenings:
Atlanta remain fourth, squarely in the playoff mix according to “PoP” (still working on the name). As a reminder of how this works, just after the Houston game, Atlanta were hanging out in 4th, just four points off the pace (-4). They’ve since beaten NYCFC at home (+0), and lost to Vancouver Whitecaps away (-1) for a combined -5. Most teams at the top have dropped off further the pace as well with the exception of Chicago, who having slipped early in the season are holding their ground, winning at home and drawing away. The Impact who sit second to last in the official table are right there scrapping above the red line and should not be overlooked.
Steady
It’s important to remember that this view is in no way a “Power Ranking,” or any sort of subjective measure of a team’s underlying quality, nor is it a prediction for how the standings will look in the end. It’s simply a different (hopefully more balanced) objective way to look at things that have occurred. As an Atlanta fan, this worries me because as I look to the future, it will be a tall task for the Five Stripes to maintain the Pace in September by winning something like 6 home games in 17 days. What otherwise might have been an advantage heading down the stretch may not be this year thanks to the engineering marvel that is the Mercedes Benz Stadium’s retractable roof.
Another way to look at things
And this reminds me to thank everyone for the comments left in the last post (and on Twitter). One thing I read that I think is quite fair is the concern that this new look might over-correct the table for home-away scheduling in the sense that it awards away teams for keeping pace with a draw (when the average MLS side’s historical away pace matches this at 1 point per game), but it requires much more of home teams, setting the pace at 3 PPG when in fact teams average fewer than 2 PPG at home over the course of a season. While home field advantage seems to be at all time highs in 2017, I think it’s worth at least looking at the adjusted table with this in mind. So here we go. Here’s how the standings look if you compare each team’s raw points earned to date to how the historically average MLS team does with the same number of home and away games (# of home games X 1.78 + # of away games X 0.98):
Whereas in the first version, a zero means a team is on pace to win the Supporter’s Shield, in Version 2 (above), zero means you’re on pace for 43 points, good enough for the 6th spot in some years, but below the 46 point average for the last playoff berth in the East.
So there you go. Atlanta is on track for the playoffs under either of the above approaches, but not comfortably so in the more modest Version 2 table. They’re also fifth in the conference if you just take straight points per game. The Official MLS table, (the one that we see in every pre-match and post-match segment) remains a hater with Atlanta in 8th, something that could come to pass if Atlanta struggles with the congested fixture list coming up.
I write detailed Atlanta United match analyses and some statsy-type stuff over at ATLUTDInsight.wordpress.com. Check it out some time if you like that sort of thing.
Postscriptum: for completeness sake, the little guys
And since I neglected to show this for the Western Conference in the last post, here you go. First, classic PoP:
And for completeness, Version 2 for the West (against a pace of 43 points): | {
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美國白宮貿易顧問納瓦羅下周將率團前往瑞士日內瓦，要求改革建立已有145年歷史的萬國郵政聯盟（UPU）。有相關報道稱，如果談崩，美國最早將於10月17日退出萬國郵聯。
廣告 繼續瀏覽後續
白宮方面曾於去年10月17日宣布，美國國務院已通知萬國郵聯，美方即日起啟動為期一年的退出程序，原因是“萬國郵聯的憲章改革未取得充分進展”。在這期間，美國將展開雙邊及多邊協商談判，若有成果，美國才會撤銷退出萬國郵聯的行動。如今，距離美國宣布啟動這一程序已經過去近一年的時間，《紐約時報》當時報道稱，美政府有關萬國郵聯的表態是受到了“鷹派”納瓦羅的建議，他認為這是限制中國的一種方式。萬國郵聯的前身是1874年10月9日成立的“郵政總聯盟”，1878年改為現名。中華民國曾於1914年加入該聯盟，由於中華民國為會員國，中華人民共和國1953年與該聯盟斷絕往來。
1972年4月在萬國郵政聯盟承認中華人民共和國為該組織的唯一合法代表後，與該組織關係開始正常化。它自1978年7月1日起成為聯合國一個關於國際郵政事務的專門機構，總部設在瑞士首都伯爾尼，宗旨是促進、組織和改善國際郵政業務，並向成員提供可能的郵政技術援助。而值得一提的是，自1969年起，貧困及發展中國家就在萬國郵聯的框架下，享受低於富裕國家的郵政費率。儘管白宮在去年宣布啟動退出該組織程序的相關聲明中，並未表示這一舉動是針對任何國家或組織，但分析普遍認為這與鷹派眼中不對等的美中郵政關係有關。
納瓦羅此前曾於9月11日在英國《金融時報》發表專欄文章提出，“中國利用萬國郵聯的優惠條件，扭曲全球電子商務”。他並指控，中國公司常透過美國電商龍頭亞馬遜或中國電商龍頭阿里巴巴，向美國消費者出售“仿冒產品”，中國更是由於在萬國郵聯體系中被列入發展中國家，因此則享有國際運輸優惠。他稱，這使中國向美輸送“仿冒產品”的運輸成本更為低廉。文中，納瓦羅寫道，“小到柬埔寨，大如中國，這些國家的製造商從本國向紐約寄送小包裹，要比美國製造商從洛杉磯寄往紐約更便宜。”
納瓦羅表示，根據其預估，美國郵政管理局（USPS）在從中國運抵美國的每個小包裹上，每件約損失一美元。他說，美國企業或製造業從洛杉磯快遞約453公克的包裹到紐約，需支付7美元到9美元運費。不過，根據終端費收費制度，相同的包裹從中國寄出，遞送相同地區，美國郵管局卻只收到約2.5美元。2公斤的包裹郵資為19到23美元，中國郵政卻只要付5美元。彭博社報道指出，此舉符合特朗普在國際關係上的“美國優先”態度，也符合他對國際多邊協議的懷疑。而這一努力幾乎針對中國，目前中國出口商在向海外運送包裹的費用上享有優惠。針對“退群”後的應對辦法，納瓦羅還曾提出，美國郵政局應該單方面重新計算它向其他國家支付的、用於寄往美國信件和小包裹的費用份額。美國尋求的是一種“由本國宣布費率的體系”。
如果萬國郵聯的192個成員國批准了受美國支持的體系修改方案，那就可能提高中國電商企業的成本，同時讓聯邦快遞等美企受益。但如果美國退出該協議，美國郵政局將無法適用於支撐全球郵件遞送的法律、監管和技術框架。美國則必須迅速與各國達成雙邊協議，以確保郵件在國際上的運送。據悉，美國早在2016年就倡議該組織進行改革，萬國郵聯去年於土耳其舉行的大會也決議要檢討中國享有的優惠待遇，以減少在運輸成本上的“不公平競爭”。彭博社分析稱，如果納瓦羅的改革努力失敗了，那美國準備最早於10月17日退出萬國郵聯，這可能會使往返美國的包裹陷入混亂，並可能造成代價高昂的官僚體系壁壘。與此同時，包括美國電商巨頭eBay等企業就反對當局脫離這一組織。萬國郵聯將於9月24日在日內瓦召開特別會議。 | {
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We had the chance to talk to Bram Cohen , the inventor of BitTorrent and the co-founder if BitTorrent Inc. He goes into detail about the recent the acquisition of uTorrent, how to deal with encrypting ISPs, a streamable version of BitTorrent, BitTorrent's arrangement with the MPAA, and much more.
TorrentFreak: What is the best thing about your job at BitTorrent Inc?
Bram Cohen: I really enjoy making products which I personally want to use, and like to empower people to do things they couldn’t do without BitTorrent’s efficiency and reliability. I also enjoy working with my team. We’ve recruited a really talented group of engineers from the P2P community and the tech industry, as well as some of the best business people in Silicon Valley. Together, we’re taking BitTorrent to new heights while still remaining true to our original goal of delivering content to the masses.
TorrentFreak: How do you see the future of BitTorrent Inc, what will its core business be?
Bram Cohen: We have two core businesses. We have a content delivery service to power websites which have downloadable and streaming objects on them, and we also have an entertainment destination at BitTorrent.com which will allow consumers to both publish and download high-quality digital content. Professional publishers have licensed over 5,000 downloadable video, music and game files, some of which will be free, and some for rent or purchase. We expect our network to be very prominent and an extension of our well-known brand.
TorrentFreak: Are there still “puzzles” that need to be solved to improve the BitTorrent protocol?
Bram Cohen: I had lunch with Vint Cerf at Google last week, and we discussed this at length. BitTorrent is a mature protocol at this point, but there are still a number of interesting things to work on. For example, improving tit for tat, making seeding optimizations for enterprise use, and trying to figure out if there’s any good use for error correcting codes. Regarding that last one, it turns out that there are, but most of the academic work has been barking up the wrong tree. We also have a great testing environment built, so we can test the impact of protocol extensions on real, live swarms, which is critical when making enhancements that benefit the BitTorrent community at large.
TorrentFreak: More and more ISPs have started to throttle BitTorrent traffic. How do you feel about this, especially related to the upcoming BitTorrent video store?
Bram Cohen: ISPs have historically thought that all P2P traffic is illegal, which most definitely is not the case today. Identifying traffic as BitTorrent versus http is a very poor proxy for determining legal versus illegal. Even more so as content creators have begun using our self-publishing service to distribute their own work and major studios have signed up because they recognize the enormous potential of BitTorrent as a sales channel.
Legal traffic is growing within the P2P ecosystem and piracy also travels with HTTP and FTP in high volumes. ISPs have to invest in making their networks better and faster rather than stifling applications which consumers use and love. That’s just bad marketing and customer service, especially given the competition which exists in the broadband industry and consumer focus on network neutrality. For instance, in Japan and Korea, consumers currently enjoy true all-you-can eat symmetric fiber-to-the-home at 100 mbps. That’s a great environment for P2P development to make the Web a truly powerful medium for on-demand media, with broadcast economics. Of course, it also leads to the question: Why is the United States two generations behind?
TorrentFreak: What would you advise BitTorrent users to do, when they find out that their ISP is throttling BitTorrent traffic?
Bram Cohen: Switch. Competition is the best thing for the consumer. If you’ve got a couple of options, try the alternatives. If you have no alternatives or both alternatives suck, call customer service. And call them a lot. It turns out that angry customers are more expensive to ISPs than providing unadulterated access to popular applications and websites.
TorrentFreak: The mainline client now supports encryption, but there are no settings to control this (correct me if I’m wrong). Does this mean that the client encrypts all transfers?
Bram Cohen: No. The mainline client accepts incoming encrypted connections, but makes unencrypted outgoing connections by default. We added support for that primarily for our users in unfriendly ISP environments. As I’ve said before, protocol encryption is at best a temporary hack around ISP rate limiting, until identification techniques are put in place which use transfer patterns rather than packet inspection to identify traffic. There are better approaches to evade traffic shaping, although we’re still trying to work productively with ISPs, who own the network after all. But if we can’t find a way to work together to provide a better experience for BitTorrent users, then the arms race will begin.
TorrentFreak: You said before that you’re not a big fan of encryption. What would you suggest as an alternative?
Bram Cohen: I say just leave things in the clear, and try to use caching technology to improve the ISP network. Or better yet, ISPs should lay more fiber and build bigger pipes.
The so-called ‘encryption’ of BitTorrent traffic isn’t really encryption, it’s obfuscation. It provides no anonymity whatsoever, and only temporarily evades traffic shaping. There are better approaches to obfuscation, and I’ve got a great team of engineers who are quite eager to fight that battle, but I’m hoping that everything can be resolved amicably without getting into a serious arms race.
TorrentFreak: What was the main reason behind the acquisition of uTorrent?
Bram Cohen: uTorrent has both an impressively clean codebase and large user community, although we were already working on our own C++ implementation. Moving forward, you’ll see announcements related to BitTorrent being embedded on silicon and on non-PC hardware thanks to the new C codebase we have (based on uTorrent and our protocol extensions).
TorrentFreak: Are their plans to remove any of the present features uTorrent has?
Bram Cohen: No, uTorrent users are quite happy with it, and we wish to keep things that way. In fact, be on the lookout for a Mac and Unix port, which we have the resources to do thanks to the size of our engineering team.
TorrentFreak: What will happen to the mainline client in the future?
Bram Cohen: Our mainline extensions and uTorrent’s will converge. However, we are still committed to offering an open source BitTorrent reference implementation.
TorrentFreak: Will the uTorrent client be integrated into the BitTorrent Video Store?
Bram Cohen: We’re going to launch our entertainment network with support for whichever BitTorrent client the user wishes to install.
TorrentFreak: Can you give us any details on the pricing of the products in the BitTorrent Video Store, and the quality of the video files?
Bram Cohen: We haven’t announced any firm pricing yet. The video quality will be the best possible with the available codecs. In addition to being a “store,” our site will be a destination for publishing and discovering digital entertainment, and will have plenty of free files in addition to the pay ones.
TorrentFreak: You said before that some of the content from the video store will be “protected” by Windows DRM. What is your personal view on DRM, do you see other, more user friendly alternatives?
Bram Cohen: Right now most of our content partners are insisting on DRM for the content we’re making available. It’s causing an awful lot of headaches, but we’re trying to minimize the impact on user experience and support.
TorrentFreak: Over the past year we’ve heard quite a lot of rumors about the arrangement between BitTorrent and the MPAA. Can you tell a little more about the nature of this agreement?
Bram Cohen: We support keeping copyright infringing material off of our site, and have deals with most of the MPAA member companies to make their content available through our entertainment network. The MPAA is actually a lot less of a hive mind than many people think. We’ve had to negotiate individually with each member company regarding business deals. We don’t currently have any investment from any of them.
TorrentFreak: Several other BitTorrent sites like mininova.org and torrentspy.com have the exact same policy, and remove infringing material whenever they are asked to. Though, they are often seen as the bad guys. The MPAA even sued torrentspy and isohunt, and refuses to start a dialogue, while they index the same torrents and bittorrent.com does. What’s your opinion about this?
Bram Cohen: It’s easy to make the mistake that thinking the exact letter of the law is all that matters in such situations. I have no legal opinion of what mininova and torrentspy are doing, since I’m not familiar with the exact details. But being antagonistic will result in predictable outcomes, regardless of how well defended one thinks one is legally.
TorrentFreak: Due to the arrangement with the MPAA most people might think that most of the content they search for on bittorrent.com is legal. However bittorrent.com does index a lot of copyrighted work. Don’t you think this might confuse some of the users of the site?
Bram Cohen: We’re cooperating to get copyrighted work out of our search index, and when our new site launches, much more emphasis will be placed on the self-published and licensed content within our own index, instead of the general Web search.
TorrentFreak: In March the MPAA urged the Swedish government to take down the site because it is linking to infringing material. bittorrent.com indexes the torrents from thepiratebay.org , a site that is often referred to as “Pirate Heaven”. Has the MPAA ever asked BitTorrent Inc to stop indexing The Pirate Bay?
Bram Cohen: The focus of takedown notices has primarily been on particular pieces of content, not so much where they came from.
TorrentFreak: Is there a future for BitTorrent in the development of streaming online content. For example, would it be possible for video streaming sites like YouTube to use (a modified version of) BitTorrent?
Bram Cohen: Yes, we’ve developed a streaming version of BitTorrent. Stay tuned for more details around the middle of this year.
TorrentFreak: BitTorrent is slowly starting to replace the video recorder, especially among younger people. Popular episodes of TV shows like LOST are downloaded (illegally) more than 500,000 times in just one week over BitTorrent. These figures clearly show the potential that BitTorrent has, and it’s an indication that TV as we know it is about to change. Do you think BitTorrent Inc can play a role in the future of TV? And what kind of product or business model do you think could compete with these pirated shows?
Bram Cohen: Our new site will launch with thousands of movies and TV shows, so yes, we clearly have a role in the future of video. As far as competing with the piracy experience, the better consumer experience we provide, the less people will feel the need to rely on piracy. To do that, we’ll be providing an extensive and valuable catalog of content at a good price. In the future, we’ll expand into free, ad-supported content as an integral part of our site. We’re also going to give independent publishers a platform to distribute, promote, and ultimately sell their own content as part of that experience.
TorrentFreak: If you look back at the past 5 years, what is the thing you’re most proud of?
Bram Cohen: Looking back at the past 5 years, I can still say that I’m proud of getting BitTorrent to work in the first place. When I first started working on it, nobody knew whether it was possible to overcome all the logistical problems of handling a flash crowd. It was challenging, but not only did I get it to work at all, but got it to work extremely efficiently. More recently, I’m proud of being part of the team that has worked hard to convince content publishers and enterprise businesses that unlike other p2p architectures, BitTorrent is a legitimate and incredibly powerful tool for content delivery.
TorrentFreak: Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions! | {
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Article content
Vancouver-based coffee chain JJ Bean is ahead of the curve on raising B.C.’s minimum wage. It bumped the company’s starting rate to $14 an hour in January, and hasn’t felt any negative effects, according to CEO John Neate.
“I think we did the right thing,” said Neate, five months and four days ahead of B.C.’s first legal step in increasing in minimum wage, a $1.30-raise to $12.65 an hour, on the way to $15.20 by 2021.
We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or B.C.'s minimum wage jumps $1.30 on Friday, sparking new debate about consequences Back to video
As the June 1 date nears, there is new debate over whether the increase is too fast, will come with unintended consequences and whether there are better ways to end poverty.
The Vancouver-headquartered Fraser Institute released a report today that argues government-funded income subsidies would be a better way to increase the incomes of low-wage workers without unintended consequences.
Neate, however, sees the need for higher wages because “it’s so hard for staff just to live in Vancouver now.” | {
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December 11th, 2015
Dell Frees UEFI, iXsystems Wins Double Silver & More…
FOSS Week in Review
I honestly wish this news was better: Please allow a moment of silence for what seems to be the passing of Firefox OS. As a ZTE Open owner and a one-time regular user of that phone (until I needed something more dependable), this hits a sentimental note with me, since I was truly hoping that Mozilla would get the OS for the phone up to speed so it wouldn’t — oh, just to give a personal example — abandon users while performing important, job-dependent communications, for example.
And now, for the wrap:
Dell Fixing UEFI for Linux? Linux users may be able to update their UEFI firmware on devices, if Dell has their way. The computer manufacturing giant is looking at making things easier for Linux users, and Richard Hughes writes on his GNOME blog that this capability might be available as early as Fedora 24. “With Dell on board, I’m hoping it will give some of the other vendors enough confidence in the LVFS to talk about distributing their own firmware in public,” Hughes writes, and we have our fingers crossed here.
iXsystems Wins Industry Awards: iXsystems, a San Jose-based manufacturer of server hardware and the corporate steward of FOSS projects like FreeNAS and PC-BSD, has taken the Silver in the Product Line of the Year category for its Enterprise Storage Product Line and another Silver in the Most Customer Friendly Company of the Year category in Best in Biz Awards, an awards program judged by members of the tech press and industry analysts. Congratulations, iXsystems: A long-time FOSS advocate gets the recognition it deserves.
LibreOffice Gets Another Update: Italo Vignoli announced the final minor update to the conservative “Still” branch of development of LibreOffice 4.4.7. “This is a bug and security fix release and users are urged to upgrade,” Vignoli writes in a blog post. “Only 14 fixes this time that include the loss of bullets when saving in PowerPoint format, misaligned paragraphs in documentation, and a regression that caused Open Document formats to take a “looong time” to open.” Thank you for fixing that PowerPoint conversion issue, guys and gals — that was a big one.
Linux Certs Available for Microsoft Azure: Some FOSS hearts have been all atwitter this week with the news that Microsoft and the Linux Foundation have introduced a new certification combining Linux system administration with Microsoft Azure skills. This heart beating behind this sternum is not as atwitter as others — perhaps this is an inevitability and some may argue that this is just a corporate fact-of-life. But to use a sports metaphor, when you let your opponent back in the game, you risk losing it at the final gun. There’s the argument that because Microsoft “loves” Linux (and War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength) we should be more inclusive, but this is the company that considered Linux a cancer and has fought FOSS for decades. Rather than throw the Microsoft that is treading water a life preserver, I still think throwing it an anchor would be more fitting.
So while I figure out what I’m going to do with my ZTE Open phone, I’ll see you next week.
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Србија (без КиМ) 12 – 19. јул 2018. телефонско истраживање репрезентативни узорак испитаника: 1000 ОДГОВОРИ ИСПИТАНИКА НА ПИТАЊА Да ли, по питању стандарда, данас живите боље или горе него пре пет година? боље 19,5% горе 43,6% исто 36,1% не знам/без одговора 0,8% Укупно 100,0% Да ли од Ваших примања (плате, пензије) Ви или Ваша породица можете себи да приуштите летовање ове године (одлазак на путовање, море, бању и сл.)? да, можемо 22,8% да, али само ако се одрекнемо свега осталог 16,0% не 60,4% не знам/без одговора 0,8% Укупно 100,0% Са ког медија се највише информишете? телевизије 50,9% радија 2,5% интернет портала 37,1% штампаних новина 5,8% уопште се не информишем преко медија 3,7% Укупно 100,0% Са које се ТВ станице највише информишете? РТС 30,8% ТВ Пинк 15,2% ТВ Прва 10,6% Н1 6,3% O2 4,1% ТВ Хепи 4,0% локална ТВ станица 1,9% РТВојводина 1,5% Студио Б 0,7% не пратим информативни програм на ТВ/ без одговора 24,9% Укупно 100,0% Да ли користите интернет и колико често? свакодневно 55,9% неколико пута недељно 8,9% не користим интернет 35,2% Укупно 100,0% Да ли подржавате улазак Србије у ЕУ? Да 46,5% Не 38,7% немам став / без одговора 14,8% Укупно 100,0% Да ли подржавате улазак Србије у НАТО? Да 7,1% Не 80,0% немам став / без одговора 12,9% Укупно 100,0% Да ли подржавате савез Србије са Русијом? Да 60,8% Не 23,1% немам став / без одговора 16,1% Укупно 100,0% Уколико бисте морали да бирате, да ли сте за то да Србија уђе у политичко-економски савез са: ЕУ 15,3% Русијом 27,6% Кином 5,4% земљама Балкана 2,8% да остане неутрална 37,3% не знам/ без одговора 11,6% Укупно 100,0% Уколико би услов за улазак Србије у ЕУ био пријем Косова у УН, да ли мислите да би тај услов требало прихватити? Да 12,0% Не 71,5% не знам / немам став 16,5% Укупно 100,0% Шта би, према Вашем мишљењу, у овом тренутку, било најреалније решење проблема Косова? признање потпуне независности Косова 4,2% подела на српски и албански део 33,4% одлагање коначног решења за неко боље време 43,0% не знам / немам став 19,4% Укупно 100,0% Да ли, према Вашем мишљењу, у Србији треба да се одржи референдум о коначном решењу за Косово, или мислите да нема потребе да се о томе грађани изјашњавају? треба 49,4% нема потребе 34,0% не знам / немам став 16,6% Укупно 100,0% Да ли мислите да у Србији, у последње време, постоји пораст насиља, криминала и угрожавања безбедности грађана? Да 69,2% Не 22,3% не знам / без одговора 8,5% Укупно 100,0% Како бисте, оценом од 1 до 5, оценили: 1 2 3 4 5 Средњa оценa рад владе Ане Брнабић за протеклих годину дана 18,5% 14,8% 21,7% 26,3% 18,7% 3,12 МИШЉЕЊЕ О ПОЛИТИЧКИМ ЛИЧНОСТИМА Оцените по школском систему, оценом од 1 до 5, следеће личности: 1 2 3 4 5 не знам/ немам став Александар Вучић 18,2% 8,4% 12,1% 14,8% 36,6% 10,0% Ивица Дачић 20,1% 10,7% 14,7% 18,9% 23,6% 12,0% Зорана Михајловић 19,4% 10,7% 18,3% 18,4% 15,9% 17,3% Небојша Стефановић 23,9% 11,1% 12,1% 16,6% 17,3% 18,9% Војислав Шешељ 43,3% 14,4% 10,9% 6,6% 5,7% 19,1% Саша Јанковић 48,7% 14,3% 8,4% 4,0% 1,1% 23,5% Зоран Лутовац 28,0% 8,2% 7,7% 3,2% 0,5% 52,4% Вук Јеремић 44,4% 13,9% 12,8% 6,1% 1,6% 21,2% Бошко Обрадовић 50,5% 12,7% 9,1% 4,4% 1,5% 21,7% Драган Ђилас 47,8% 11,1% 11,6% 7,6% 1,8% 20,2% Драган Марковић Палма 20,0% 11,3% 15,4% 19,5% 18,1% 15,7% Ђорђе Вукадиновић 15,1% 9,5% 12,1% 5,5% 1,5% 56,4% Санда Рашковић Ивић 23,0% 15,2% 15,0% 5,8% 0,9% 40,0% Оцените по школском систему, оценом од 1 до 5, следеће личности: Средње оцене Александар Вучић 3,48 Ивица Дачић 3,17 Драган Марковић Палма 3,05 Зорана Михајловић 3,01 Небојша Стефановић 2,90 Ђорђе Вукадиновић 2,28 Санда Рашковић Ивић 2,11 Војислав Шешељ 1,97 Драган Ђилас 1,81 Вук Јеремић 1,80 Зоран Лутовац 1,74 Бошко Обрадовић 1,64 Саша Јанковић 1,62 Ако би следеће недеље били расписани ванредни парламентарни избори, да ли бисте на њих изашли? да, сигурно бих изашао 67,1% можда / вероватно бих изашао 12,8% не, не бих изашао 11,7% не знам/ без одговора 8,4% Укупно 100,0% За коју странку/листу бисте највероватније гласали на тим ванредним парламентарним изборима? (са неизјашњенима) СНС– А. Вучић 36,9% за опозицију, али не знам тачно за кога 11,1% СПС– И. Дачић 6,9% листа око Драгана Ђиласа 4,6% Јединствена Србија – Д. М. Палма 2,2% СРС– В. Шешељ 2,2% Народна странка Вука Јеремића 2,1% Двери– Б. Обрадовић 1,7% ДС– З. Лутовац 1,6% листа око Саше Јанковића 1,2% остали 3,3% не зна/не жели да се изјасни/ неће да гласа/без одговора 26,3% Укупно 100,0% За коју странку/листу бисте највероватније гласали на тим ванредним парламентарним изборима? (без неизјашњених) СНС– А. Вучић 50,0% за опозицију, али не знам тачно за кога 15,0% СПС– И. Дачић 9,3% листа око Драгана Ђиласа 6,3% Јединствена Србија – Д. М. Палма 3,0% СРС – В. Шешељ 3,0% Народна странка Вука Јеремића 2,9% Двери– Б. Обрадовић 2,3% ДС– З. Лутовац 2,2% листа око Саше Јанковића 1,6% остали 4,5% Укупно 100,0% За кога сте гласали на последњим председничким изборима? (са неизјашњенима) Aлександар Вучић 47,9% Саша Јанковић 8,5% Љубиша Прелетачевић - Бели 4,3% Вук Јеремић 3,8% Војислав Шешељ 2,4% Бошко Обрадовић 1,3% остали 1,5% није гласао 16,8% не зна/не жели да се изјасни/без одговора 13,4% Укупно 100,0% За кога сте гласали на последњим председничким изборима? (без неизјашњених) Aлександар Вучић 68,7% Саша Јанковић 12,2% Љубиша Прелетачевић - Бели 6,2% Вук Јеремић 5,4% Војислав Шешељ 3,5% Бошко Обрадовић 1,8% остали 2,3% Укупно 100,0% Да ли сте навијали за Француску или Хрватску у финалу Светског фудбалског првенства? Француску 50,0% Хрватску 17,4% ни за једну/не пратим фудбал/ без одговора 32,6% Укупно 100,0% Видети још: Истраживање НСПМ: Већина грађана сматра да живи горе него пре пет година, не може себи да приушти одмор – али гласа за СНС; Трећина за поделу КиМ, 43 одсто за одлагање решења, а 71,5 одсто против "трампe" Косова за ЕУ (НСПМ) | {
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INDIANAPOLIS — Andrew Luck last season made his return to the football field after a year away. And now he's back to being considered by his peers as one of the best players in the league.
One year after being completely left out, the Indianapolis Colts quarterback tonight was revealed as the 20th-best player in the league in the NFL Network's "Top 100 Players of 2019" list, which is voted on by players across the NFL.
Luck is the fourth Colts player to make this year's "Top 100" list; previous selections were linebacker Darius Leonard (No. 26), tight end Eric Ebron (No. 66) and wide receiver T.Y. Hilton (No. 70). The four selections are the most for the Colts since 2014 (4).
That Andrew Luck wasn't on the "Top 100 Players of 2018" list at this time last offseason was somewhat understandable, given his uncertain status as he continued to work his way back from a right shoulder surgery that costed him the entire 2017 season.
But Luck was able to handle a full load in practice by the first day of training camp last July, and he kept improving from there. By season's end, he had turned in perhaps his best all-around season in the NFL by completing 430-of-639 passes for 4,593 yards with 39 touchdowns to 15 interceptions.
Luck set single-season career highs in completions, attempts, completion percentage and passer rating. Luck's passing yards and passing touchdowns were the second-best marks of his career.
He ranked in the top-five in the NFL in passing touchdowns (second), attempts (second), completions (second) and yards (fifth).
Also, from Weeks 4-12, Luck threw three or more touchdown passes in eight consecutive games, which was the longest streak in the NFL last season and tied for the second-longest in league history.
For his efforts, Luck was named the Associated Press' NFL Comeback Player of the Year, becoming just the third player in team history to win the award, joining Jim Martin (1963) and Lenny Moore (1964). Luck was also named to his fourth Pro Bowl. | {
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A hotel chain owned by Gordon Sondland Gordon SondlandGOP chairman vows to protect whistleblowers following Vindman retirement over 'bullying' Top Democrat slams Trump's new EU envoy: Not 'a political donor's part-time job' Trump names new EU envoy, filling post left vacant by impeachment witness Sondland MORE, President Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE's ambassador to the European Union, is pushing back on a proposed boycott from a Democratic lawmaker, warning it would hurt workers.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer Earl BlumenauerAhead of a coronavirus vaccine, Mexico's drug pricing to have far-reaching impacts on Americans Trump threatens to double down on Portland in other major cities Federal agents deployed to Portland did not have training in riot control: NYT MORE (D-Ore.) on Wednesday had called for a boycott of Sondland's hotels until the Trump administration official complies with House Democrats' request for documents in its impeachment probe.
Sondland is the founder and chairman of Provenance Hotels, a chain of six hotels in Portland. The area makes up a large part of Blumenauer's district.
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“We are saddened to have our Congressman Earl Blumenauer call for a boycott that would put the livelihoods of thousands of his own constituents in peril. This attack on our employees is unwarranted,” Provenance Hotels spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael told Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Jim McDermott James (Jim) Adelbert McDermottSondland has 'no intention of resigning,' associate says Three women accuse Gordon Sondland of sexual misconduct Portland hotel chain founded by Trump ambassador says boycott is attack on employees MORE, Sondland's personal attorney, added in a separate statement to the radio station: "Congressman Blumenauer’s irresponsible attempt to hurt a homegrown business that supports hundreds of jobs in our local economy is just shameful and ought to outrage all Oregonians.”
Blumenauer called for the boycott on Twitter, arguing that "no one who cares about America should do any business or stay at any of Gordon Sondland's hotels until he fulfills his duty as a citizen to testify & turn over all relevant documents to the House.”
No one who cares about America should do any business or stay at any of Gordon Sondland's hotels until he fulfills his duty as a citizen to testify & turn over all relevant documents to the House.
Here’s a list of his hotels: https://t.co/a2MvRc8tVs
Share if you agree! — Earl Blumenauer (@repblumenauer) October 9, 2019
Sondland, who finds himself embroiled in House Democrats' ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Trump, reportedly talked to Ukraine about how to respond to Trump's request for Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenFormer Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick Bloomberg rolls out M ad buy to boost Biden in Florida MORE and his son, Hunter Biden.
Last week, Sondland voluntarily offered to appear before a House committee to testify about what he knew, but the Trump administration blocked him from testifying. | {
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Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says booing is fine during the game, but not when it’s directed at a particular individual.
Magpies captain Scott Pendlebury was booed when accepting his Anzac Day medal, prompting Buckley to condemn the behaviour in front of the microphone.
The Collingwood coach says although he won’t tell people what to do, he won’t stand for “personalised” booing.
“People don’t like being told how they should behave and I’m not about that,” he told SEN’s Whateley.
“But I think that there are times when the contribution of the supporter base can be disrespectful and not always is someone standing in front of a microphone when that happens.
“So in many ways, I was booing them by saying what I said so I was voicing my disapproval.
“When you’re in the crowd, it’s pretty hard to voice your disapproval and be heard other than through venting like that.
“I don’t mind that in-game, I understand that in-game, I like it when it’s in the flow of play.
“I don’t like it when it’s personalised, when people feel vilified or judged as a result of that and potentially that’s the umpires at times.
“That’s the way I’ll continue to see it and the way I’ll parent my boys.”
The Magpies will aim to put the booing saga behind them when they take on Port Adelaide at the MCG on Friday night.
Hear Nathan Buckley on SEN's Whateley in the player below. | {
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Founded in 2012, Onyx Path Publishing is a Pennsylvania-based company dedicated to the development of exemplary, immersive worlds. Working with a group of amazingly talented creators, we explore print, electronic and other forms of media distribution to make our products available to our fans. | {
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Originally Posted by Amary Originally Posted by
DIVINE GIFTS
* Every 30 minutes, an icon in the bottom left corner will light up to offer you a Divine Gift package. You can collect a maximum of 10 Divine Gifts per day.
* Divine Gifts can be opened to receive Sun/Moon/Starpoints, Lucky Sun/Moon/Star Points, bound food, potions, Lunarites, Hereafter Stones, fireworks, or Any-Post Owls.
* Divine Gifts are untradeable. | {
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This is beyond odd, but here goes. I rise to defend Hillary Clinton.
She is under attack and this time, the long knives are wielded by members of her own clan. Suddenly, after two years of indulging Clinton’s blame games and pity parties, lefty pundits say she’s talking too much, she’s stuck in the past, she had her chance and she blew it.
Vanity Fair, declaring that she “still hasn’t learned the lessons of #MeToo,” is furious that Clinton said her husband’s Oval Office dalliance with Monica Lewinsky was not an abuse of power because the 22-year-old intern “was an adult.”
Politico flatly declared Clinton a “problem” who won’t go away and fretted that Democrats “don’t know what to do” about her.
A New York Times columnist, noting that Clinton is a font of gaffes and a focus for Republicans, accused her of “moral arrogance” and wrote that “someone needs to perform an intervention.”
The passions are real and the imagery colorful. Imagine an intervention where a pink pussy-hat posse forces Clinton into a van and drives her to a remote cabin in the woods to keep her from talking.
Alas, the motives are suspect. These three writers, all female, are not so much angry at what Clinton is saying as they are over the timing. The gist of their complaint is that she is hogging the spotlight they believe should be trained on Democrats running in the midterms. They’re mad because they fear she’s undercutting the holy war they subscribe to against President Trump.
Intramural feuds are often bloody, but this one is also stupid. Trying to silence Clinton is a lost cause and, even if it succeeded, wouldn’t cure what ails Democrats.
In fact, shutting her up might push the party even deeper into the wilderness.
Implicit in the charge that Clinton is the problem is the assumption that others are the solution. It’s a fair point — until you try to name any Dem who has a better shot at serving as the party’s leader, uniting it around a message and potentially defeating Trump in 2020. After all, that’s the job that is vacant.
So let us run through the parade of likely applicants, starting in the Senate: Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Sanders is running on vapors, Booker is a lightweight who embarrassed himself with the Spartacus shtick and Gillibrand is a do-nothing hack.
Anybody stand out? While there is political talent, none strikes me as a heavyweight contender who could lead the party and go toe-to-toe with Trump.
Sanders is running on vapors, Booker is a lightweight who embarrassed himself with the Spartacus shtick and Gillibrand is a do-nothing hack.
As for Warren, CNN, showing its usual tin ear, moved her to the top of the Dem field just before she imploded with her disastrous DNA test. Her silly repetition of the now-disproven claim that she has significant Native American ancestry opens her to endless ridicule and further diminishes her already narrow appeal.
Others advertising their availability include Joe Biden, Eric Holder, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
Same question: Does anybody in the group look like a champion in waiting? Not to me and, to judge from the lack of great enthusiasm, not to big funders or hot-shot consultants.
Two others in the thinking-and-hoping stage are New York’s feuding Frick and Frack, Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo.
Mayor Putz is term-limited and it looks as if his career has peaked. His image of being lazy, corrupt and incompetent means he’s not an asset to anyone, so he may have to get a real job when he finally leaves City Hall.
As for Cuomo, his mediocre record might get him a third term in deep-blue New York, but it’s not likely to endear him to national Dems. He trusts no one, including himself, which is why he hides from the media, lest he say things like America “was never that great.”
His habit of ducking debates won’t fly in a grueling presidential campaign against numerous competitors, and the rampant corruption on his watch makes him a fat target.
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is also considering a run, and fellow richie Tom Steyer, whose deep pockets are funding the “Need to Impeach” movement, could be a candidate. Oprah flirted with the idea before saying no, but don’t be surprised if she flirts again.
The list, then, is long, varied and growing — but not compelling. Which is why Clinton, despite her enormous flaws and two presidential defeats, can’t be ruled out as the party’s best hope. God knows she wants it more than anybody else.
It’s also why I have been saying for months that she was keeping her options open and might actually seek a rematch with Trump.
And that was before she and Bill Clinton announced their six-month speaking tour. The gambit is designed to keep her name front and center without having to declare herself a candidate. Her recent phone calls to White House reporters also signal her plan.
So I was not surprised when one of her former aides, Philippe Reines, admitted to Politico that Clinton might run. He cited her fan base, said she was tough enough to go against Trump and could raise the money.
There you have it, the official word that attempts to silence her are doomed. Brace yourself — she’s baaaack! | {
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Annual Show – 2020 SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO COVID 19
VANCOUVER ORCHID SOCIETY SHOW & SALE
CANCELLED TO TO COVID-19
March 20 (SET-UP & Preview Party, a Private Function, Ticketed Event), March 21 & 22, 2020 (Show and Sale, Open to the Public)
VanDusen Botanical Garden
Floral Hall, 5251 Oak St, Vancouver, B.C. | {
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5. Someone still remembers Benjen Stark. A fan dressed as the missing first ranger wanted to know why no one seemed to be looking for him any longer. Deflected Weiss, "It was Kit's idea, he said pointing at Kit Harrington (Jon Snow). "I got distracted," said Harrington, pointing at Rose Leslie (Ygritte).
6. Sophie Turner thinks Sansa and Tyrion have power couple possibilities. "He was my other half," said Turner, laughing. She rued that just as the two were starting to build a trusting relationship,"in the spirt of 'Game of Thrones,' they cut that off." Should the pair come together in the future, however, Turner thought the combination could be like the new "Brangelina."
7. Maisie Williams got cryptic. When a fan asked what it was like to play a character with so many shifting identities -- Arya, Arry, etc., and Williams replied: "She is no one."
8. Dragons vs. direwolves splits the panel. When the group was asked -- by a girl dressed as Arya -- "dragons or direwolves?" the answers were varied down the line. John Bradley said Sam's friendship with Jon necessitated he pick direwolves while Rose Leslie and Gwendoline Christie went for dragons. The Starks and Snow -- Maisie Williams, Kit Harrington and Sophie Turner each backed: "direwolves of course," as did Natalie Dormer. George Martin demurred, as did Benioff and Weiss. For his part, Rory McCann bayed like a hound, and Pedro Pascal went with a snake. One twist: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) opted for a "direwolf ... because they're easier to kill."
9. "The show is the show and the books are the books," so spake Martin, addressing a recurring line of questioning including whether book fans should stop watching the show until the books catch up. "I encourage people to watch the show and also, for people to read the books. Reading books is good." The author used his Scarlett O'Hara analogy from 'Gone With the Wind' to hammer the point home: "How many children does Scarlett O'Hara have?" Pointing out that she has three in the novel, and only one in the movie, Martin asked rhetorically, "What's the true story? The answer is she has none. She never existed and is not a real person. That is the situation -- the show is the show and the book is book." | {
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The Dundas Valley Montessori School is investing about $1 million to help teenage students to get their hands dirty.
The school has purchased 10,000 square feet of property surrounded by conservation lands in the Dundas Valley to house its adolescent program.
The $986,000 deal will be finalized at the end of June, said director Tony Evans.
It's good news for the adolescent school — called Strata — whose attempt to lease a parcel of Hamilton Conservation Authority land was scuttled last year when donors convinced the HCA to re-naturalize that site.
But it's better news for Strata students — 24 of whom will start attending classes on the site in September.
The decision to move the adolescent program from Dundas Montessori's home base on Kemp Street to the middle of a conservation area is deeply intertwined with the Montessori philosophy. Evans says that in their teen years, students need a practical, exploratory education that allows them to learn by doing.
"Adolescents need nature. They need to be connected to real work that has significance," Evans said. "I think anyone that's ever been 13, 14, 15 years old remembers that sitting in a chair all day, listening to a teacher tell them about something, isn't the right way to educate a child."
As a result, the Strata program is hands-on for the students and hands-off for the educators. The teens, who range from Grade 7 to Grade 9, don't have to meet formal curriculum requirements until their last year of the program.
They're able to focus on whatever interests them, whether that's playing music, cooking meals in the industrial-grade kitchen, or tending to the class apiary. Almost every subject can be used as a vehicle to teach math, science, history, geography and the arts.
"We've always looked on the curriculum as a bit of a limitation," said Chris Marks, the director of Strata. "We're not handcuffed. We're always open to do whatever comes about. Biology and ecology we do through the bees and the gardens."
The students also participate in "micro-economies," such as their weekly café, when parents and residents are invited into the school for a coffee and a home-baked treat. They're then responsible for balancing the books and managing the cash — which in turn finances their class trips. (Last week, the students spent a week cycling across Niagara).
"When they leave here, they've run a business that generates $30,000 a year," Marks said.
Last year, the school tried to lease the Maplewood Hall lands owned by the Hamilton Conservation Authority, but the idea was opposed by groups such as the Hamilton Naturalists' Club and Environment Hamilton and residents.
The new Strata property, near the Old Mill restaurant beside the Canterbury Hills camp, will allow students to continue to broaden that practical approach to their learning. There's enough room for veggie gardens, a chicken coop, and an expanded apiary.
It also has the capacity for boarding, which Evans hopes to integrate into the program within the next few years.
"Our interest is not to just build a school in the forest for 50 kids. Our interest is to change education — to offer a better and more substantive form of adolescent education," Evans said.
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For the students, Strata is simply a more fun environment in which to learn.
"I love how interactive it is. Instead of sitting at a desk all day, you're actually doing stuff," said student Quinn McGregor. | {
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Poliisille moitteita kotietsinnöistä - kantelijalle korvauksia
Eräässä moitittavassa tapauksessa kotietsintä oli tehty aamukuudelta ja vielä toistettu kolmen tunnin kuluttua, ilman päätöstä. | {
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Unsurprisingly, most would rather have head-choppy sharia law.
HOROWITZ: Do you feel more comfortable living under American law or do you feel more comfortable living under sharia law? SOMALI MAN: Uh, sharia. ANOTHER SOMALI: I’m a Muslim. I prefer sharia law. A THIRD SOMALI: Sharia law, yes. HOROWITZ: Do you prefer Sharia law over American law? A FOURTH SOMALI: Of course, yes. HOROWITZ: Do you find most of your friends feel the same way? FOURTH SOMALI: Yeah, of course, if you’re a Muslim, yeah.
Why not offer them a free one-way ticket to Somalia in return for them rejecting their American citizenship or green cards?
Then they could go full jihad in the dear homeland with al Shabaab. They can stone and behead to their heart’s content. Win, win.
And stop importing them. Muslim immigration welcomes historic enemies of Western civilization and must stop. | {
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Nearly a year ago British ministers agreed a plan for the UK’s transition in the World Trade Organization as it leaves the EU. The goal was to establish the UK’s position in the WTO by 29 March 2019 in a way that minimized any disruption, by replicating as far as possible the UK’s current trade regime in the WTO as part of the EU. In WTO speak, this would involve transposing the UK’s existing WTO commitments from the schedules it shares with the EU, into UK specific ones.
This week’s announcement that the UK and the EU will present proposals to tackle some of the thorniest challenges involved in this WTO transition is an important milestone. Extricating the UK from our common EU structures in the WTO was always going to benefit from close cooperation. From the start, the UK has reassured the rest of the WTO membership that it would seek to work responsibly with the EU to achieve a smooth transition. And just as for our WTO partners, we have also been determined to minimize any disruption for our EU partners as a result of that transition.
The vast majority of the UK’s obligations expressed in the EU schedules can be replicated relatively easily. On the goods trade side, they mostly consist of tariffs. So, for example, a 10% tariff on cars into the EU becomes a 10% tariff on cars into the UK. On the services trade side, many of the UK’s WTO commitments are already expressed as UK specific commitments. The EU rules governing those commitments will be replicated in UK law as part of the EU Withdrawal Bill now going through Parliament. There are many important details that need to be got right in all this, but for the most part they are administrative.
Three areas in particular, however, are more complicated. Agricultural quotas and subsidies cannot just be copied and pasted. And although we are a full member of the WTO in our own right, we currently participate in an important WTO agreement know as the Government Procurement Agreement only by virtue of our EU membership. The GPA governs the $1.7 trillion global market in public procurement. The UK currently makes up about 25% of the EU’s value to the other GPA members, and so it is in everybody’s interest that we remain part of it after we leave the EU.
These are three of the areas that the UK and the EU have agreed to work together to address, in the letter that the EU’s Ambassador to the WTO and I have just sent to the WTO’s membership.
The most tricky issue of all are the agricultural tariff rate quotas, or TRQs as they are known in the WTO. These are the way the majority of agricultural imports for countries without free trade agreements with the EU enter the EU market. A number of countries have valuable country-specific quotas for particular products, such as lamb or beef. These are all set out in the EU’s goods schedule. When the UK joined the then European Economic Community in 1973 we brought a lot of agricultural trade – including lamb from New Zealand, beef from Australia – with us into the Common Market. Likewise as we leave the Single Market, we will take a lot out with us. The question is how much, and what should we do with the EU’s TRQs – which currently include the UK – so as to minimize any disruption to those countries that rely on them to trade with the UK.
Some have suggested that we should effectively double the EU TRQs by providing an additional TRQ of the same size to the existing EU TRQ in the UK specific goods schedule, while the EU should retain its existing TRQ. We have made it clear that we are committed to avoiding any disruption of existing trade. That remains our clear commitment. But it is hardly a surprise that we have never committed to granting our trading partners a windfall gain of doubling their market access! Local producers in the UK would be displaced. Other WTO members who export to the UK through different schemes, for example the preferences we grant the Least Developed Countries and other developing country members, would also see their trade eroded. The UK may decide to liberalize agricultural trade in the future. But the process of establishing our position in the WTO with minimal disruption is not the moment to do so.
In his statement to Parliament on 5 December last year, Secretary of State Liam Fox said that we would undertake our transition in dialogue with the WTO membership. In the first quarter of this year, the UK reached out to every member of the WTO to explain our overall approach. In June and July we held meetings with all those WTO members with most at stake in how we resolve the issue of TRQs. And over the summer, we sat down with the European Commission to work out how we could tackle our common challenges in the WTO, particularly the TRQs.
The UK and the EU will present our ideas later this month to those countries that the UK saw in June and July. We look forward to hearing their reactions, and their own proposals. We are absolutely open to hearing why they consider that our approach to the matter will in fact disrupt their trade, if that is their view. We will then reflect on what we have heard before deciding our next steps. The UK has over a year before it needs to submit its own UK specific schedules. We want to do so with the support of our trading partners in the WTO. So over the next year we plan to have extensive and intensive discussions to find a way forward, particularly with those countries who rely most on the EU TRQs.
The UK is a founding member of the WTO, and of its predecessor the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. We were a leading voice in the multilateral trading system before we joined the EU. Once we have completed our transition in the WTO, we will be in position to be so again. | {
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These companies have pledged to hire people over 50
Charles Schwab Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Industry: Securities Charles Schwab Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Industry: Securities Photo: JB Reed, AP Photo: JB Reed, AP Image 1 of / 35 Caption Close These companies have pledged to hire people over 50 1 / 35 Back to Gallery
Studies have shows that at age 50, people are happier and less stressed, are often more confident than ever, and are at their peak for vocabulary, comprehension and overall knowledge.
But - according to a ProPublica report from December - most people switching careers over 50 are being forced to leave, forcing them into potentially challenging career searches.
RELATED: The 29 best tech companies to work for in 2019, according to employees
Hundreds of companies are hiring workers aged 50 or older onto their workforces in all kinds of roles. In fact, more than 800 have signed AARP's pledge to bring on employees to reap the benefits of a "multi-generational workforce," which "yields a strong pipeline of talent, protects business continuity and taps into new resources to address labor shortages."
Among them are big and diverse names as Aetna, Rover, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MetLife, Wells Fargo, General Mills, Pfizer, LinkedIn, MINDBODY and MGM Resorts International. Whatever a candidate's background and industry of experience, there are surely options.
RELATED: Survey names the best Bay Area companies for working women
Where should your career go next? That's up to you. But we've combed through the hundreds of companies seeking age-diverse employees and highlighted some locally-based organizations in the above gallery.
Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at [email protected] or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.
| {
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A suicide bomber detonated an explosive in a marketplace, killing 22 and injuring dozens more Friday, Al-Jazeera reports.
The incident occurred in Musayyib, a Shiite town located about 40 miles south of Baghdad. This was not the region’s first attack that day. Another bomb had gone off in the nearby city of Karbala just hours earlier, wounding several but yielding no casualties.
Shortly after, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing on its Amaq website. The Islamic holy month of Ramadan has been littered with terrorist attacks in other Iraqi regions.
Two weeks prior, another set of blasts hit the nation’s capital Baghdad, resulting in 27 deaths and hundreds more injured. ISIS also claimed for one of these incidents, this time a car bomb detonated in the district of Karrada.
Iraqi forces continue to go on the offensive fighting the terrorist group, and believe ISIS will soon be defeated after eight months of conflict. According to Iraqi authorities, the suicide bombings are a response to recent military defeats, and are likely to increase until all the Islamic State’s radical militant groups are exterminated from the country.
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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IF YOU EXPECT YOUR BOYFRIEND TO READ YOUR MIND HE'S GONNA HAVE A BAD TIME
97,410 shares | {
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Aparna Kottary is a home tutor and currently she is pursuing her master's degree.
A post-graduate student from Mangaluru, Apeksha Kottary, has entered the India Book of Records for making the longest gift item, an explosion box, designed on the theme ''Incredible India''.
Ms Kottary is a home tutor and currently she is pursuing her master's from Besant Evening College in Mangaluru. She has made over 35 varieties of unique gift items so far.
"I am from Mangaluru and I have entered the India Book of Records. I was really interested in making craft items since my childhood. I used to make gift items and craft items for my friends and relatives on their birthdays and anniversaries. Gradually I started watching YouTube videos and learned to make gift boxes and other items," she said.
Ms Kottary said that she has also entered the Exclusive World Records for making unique explosion gift boxes.
"The measurement of this box is 25x25 cm when closed and when opened, its length is around 1,000 cms. The entire box has been designed on the theme ''Incredible India''. It consists of pictures and information of all the states, Union Territories, great personalities of India and freedom fighters of India. I will apply for Guinness World Record as well," she added. | {
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BRILLION, WI (WTAQ) – Muslim workers at a business in Calumet County say they’re out of a job.
The 53 employees say the new prayer-on-the-job policy at Ariens Manufacturing will force them to leave.
Before the new policy went into effect, the Somali Muslims were able to leave the production line twice-a-shift to pray two of the five prayers their faith requires each day.
The company says it is asking them to pray during scheduled breaks because its manufacturing environment doesn’t allow for unscheduled stops.
The workers say praying only during a meal break goes against Muslim practice.
According to the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), “an employer doesn’t have to accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs if doing so would cause hardship to the employer.”
“We are open to any of the employees returning to work under the new policy or will look for openings in shifts that do not coincide with prayer time,” according to a statement from Ariens provided to WBAY-TV in Green Bay. “We respect their faith, and we respect their decision regardless of their choice to return to work or not.”
Ten of those workers, according to Ariens, have indicated they want to stay in their current jobs under the new policy.
You can join in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.
(Additional reporting from Wheeler News Service) | {
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It was reported that DSP Media's trainee Sojin, who was a member of 'Baby KARA', has been found dead yesterday.It was revealed that she was found lying unconsious on a flower bed in a garden of an apartment building in Daejeon, Daedeok-gu by a passerby at 2:07 PM KST on February 24th. She was immediately transfered to a nearby hospital but it couldn't save her life.According to Daejeon Dongby Police Station, she might have jumped from the 10th floor of the apartment building to commit suicide. No suicide note has been found either.Sojin spent 5 years under DSP Media as a trainee and she made it into the TOP 4 of 'Kara Project'. She was reportedly to have suffered from depression recently.DSP Media also told 10asia that Sojin ended her contract with the agency one month ago.We offer our deepest condolences to Sojin' family and all her loved ones. May she rest in peace. | {
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Stylish. Limited Edition Data Angel Baseball Cap, or Beanie (cuffed or uncuffed) (our coders fav), in Black , with a highly detailed embroidered DataGateKeeper Logo in White with Gold Halo. Hot! From Episode 1: "Data Angel, Coming to Earth".
Includes: the Cap or Beanie, Plus everything in Reward #1
Less | {
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「ロマンシング佐賀」（関連記事）と「さが松り」（関連記事）を同時開催するなどブームを取り入れたコラボに積極的な佐賀県が、「ポケモン」にも声を掛けていたことが分かりました。さすがは佐賀県、フットワークが軽い。
さまざまなコラボの企画・運営を行っているのは、佐賀県広報広聴課。過去にはスプラトゥーンとのコラボ（関連記事）で、「ポケットモンスター」の生みの親でもある任天堂とのコラボも経験済みです。
そんな佐賀県広報広聴課が、サービス開始以来大変な人気となっている「ポケモンGO」を見逃すはずもありませんでした。すでにコラボに向けて、動き出しているようです。
また、鳥取県では鳥取砂丘を「ポケモンGO」のプレイに最適な場所とする“鳥取砂丘スナホ・ゲーム解放区宣言”を行うなど自主的な取り組みをしていますが（関連記事）、佐賀県は“公式なコラボ”にこだわっていきたいとのこと。「ロマ佐賀」「さが松り」ときているので、次は「SagakenGO」が始まるのか……!?
現段階で分かっていることは、“佐賀県がポケモンに声をかけている”ということだけ。果たしてどんなコラボになるのか、そもそも実現するのかも現段階では分かりません。しかし、今までの実績を考えれば、佐賀県在住のポケモントレーナーの皆さんは期待してもよさそうです。
関連キーワード コラボレーション | ポケモンGO | 任天堂
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The Last One... is the final leg of the One to One Hundred design project. Each 100 panel poster represents numbers from 1 to 100. | {
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Jeff Goodman and Michael Wilbon break down the Thunder's decision to trade Serge Ibaka to the Magic for Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and the rights to Domantas Sabonis. (1:27)
The verdict was swift and cruel: The Oklahoma City Thunder had fleeced the Orlando Magic in swapping Serge Ibaka for Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and the No. 11 pick in Thursday's NBA draft.
It's hard to imagine the Thunder getting a fatter return for Ibaka as he enters the final year of his contract. The closest recent analogue is probably the Charlotte Hornets' acquisition a year ago of Nicolas Batum from the Portland Trail Blazers -- another instance of a contender with a huge pending free agent (LaMarcus Aldridge) dealing away an almost-All-Star on the verge of a massive pay raise. The Blazers knew Aldridge was fine with Batum leaving, just as the Thunder know Durant is fine with Ibaka heading elsewhere in his prime, per several league sources.
In exchange for Batum, Charlotte coughed up Gerald Henderson and Noah Vonleh -- the latter a mid-lottery pick who barely played before arriving in Portland. The Magic gave up much, much more.
Ibaka bristled about his lack of touches in Oklahoma City and for the past year has been sending signals he might leave in free agency, sources have told ESPN.com. Goran Dragic and his camp agitated in the same way as the Suns imploded during the final year of Dragic's deal; the Heat swooped in and nabbed the guard for two first-round picks and zero relevant players.
Utah's George Hill might be a better player than Ibaka, and the Jazz just snagged Hill on the final year of his contract for the No. 12 pick -- and only the No. 12 pick. Ibaka is better than Markieff Morris, but he's also set to earn nearly four times more than Morris in 2018 and 2019; Washington swiped Morris from Phoenix for the No. 13 pick and two guys the Suns waived almost immediately.
Hell, it's not even a stretch to argue the Thunder got more for Ibaka than they did for James Harden back in 2012. Steven Adams is a monster, but there was no way to know the Thunder would be able to draft a player so damn good -- and with such a delightful mustache -- with the centerpiece pick (No. 11 in 2013) in the Harden deal.
By essentially any precedent, the Thunder got an above-market return for a plateauing, low-usage big man who will be chasing a $30 million-plus max contract a year from now. Some deal like this was inevitable. Durant and Russell Westbrook are due new super-max deals over the next two summers; Adams has developed into a max-level player; and the Thunder signed Enes Kanter at last summer's version of a max contract.
For most teams, it is just not possible to juggle five or six huge contracts at once. Even if the league's massive TV deal and rising salary cap make it financially viable, Thunder general manager Sam Presti has always resisted tying up all his cap flexibility in four or five players -- and churning the minimum bin for a new supporting cast of aging mercenaries every summer. Harden became players and picks; Reggie Jackson become Dion Waiters, and with Waiters set for a hefty new deal, the Thunder used Ibaka to find an even better two-way shooting guard, Oladipo, with one year left on a rookie contract.
When the Thunder dealt away first-round picks to get Waiters and Kanter, Presti likely already knew they could recoup one in an Ibaka trade.
The move works regardless of Durant's future. If he leaves, the Thunder have gotten younger and deeper, restocking themselves for a doomsday scenario in which both Durant and Westbrook bolt. If Durant stays, they've upgraded from Waiters with a bulldog attacker who enjoys defense and can fit snugly in lots of roles -- as a starter over Andre Roberson, a sixth man and a fixture in small-ball lineups.
Durant will play power forward in those small-ball lineups, and he showed against the Warriors in this year's Western Conference finals that he can almost mimic Ibaka's panic-inducing rim protection. If he can do that when it really matters alongside Adams, the Thunder had no need to spend 30 percent of the salary cap on Ibaka. He was effectively expendable.
And yet, I can't shake the feeling that the fallout from this trade will be more complicated. At the very least, I'm curious -- especially about whether Ibaka, still just 26, might prove that his disturbing signs of early decline are more the product of demoralizing third- and fourth-wheel status in Oklahoma City.
For the past half-decade, we've all obsessed over the unicorn big man who can both shoot 3s and protect the rim. If you crafted a frontcourt partner to balance the weaknesses of Orlando's Nikola Vucevic, you would design that sort of player. The Magic just got that guy, and people are laughing at them.
That speaks a lot to how fast the league has evolved. As I wrote last spring, switching defenses have transformed the "stretch 4" into an almost antiquated concept. A big who can launch stand-still 3s is much less of a threat if defenses just switch every screening action, preventing him from popping open and daring him to do something against a smaller defender.
Coaches a year ago started to use the term "playmaking 4" instead of "stretch 4." A playmaking 4 can post up smaller guys after switches, draw double-teams and whip passes around the floor. Run a playmaking 4 off the arc, and he can shift into drive-and-kick mode. Draymond Green is a playmaking 4. Karl-Anthony Towns, Kristaps Porzingis and Myles Turner could develop into playmaking centers with 3-point range. They are the next frontier.
The change came fast, and it made Ibaka look old-fashioned. He has basically no post game, though he can face up for jumpers over smaller dudes. He has never dished even 100 assists in a season and looks uncomfortable making plays in space. He needs a beat to map the floor, and in that beat, good defenses slam every window shut.
Ibaka would occasionally show flashes of a more instinctual game -- a quick extra pass to the corner or a catch-and-drive attack that would end in a smooth running hook. To justify this trade, and his next contract, those flashes will have to become more regular. He'll also have to bounce his 3-point percentage back into the high-30s and prove he can hit them without Durant and Westbrook generating easy looks.
Those looks were a given in Oklahoma City, and there will be times when the Thunder feel Ibaka's absence. There just aren't a lot of guys with his skill set. He has enormous value just standing around for 3s and intimidating fools at the rim. Durant reminded us what he can do on defense when he dials in, but pogo-stick rejections of poor Shaun Livingston aside, he's not quite on Ibaka's level as a possession-by-possession deterrent.
Oklahoma City's non-Durant options at power forward all lack something. Kanter and Ilyasova struggle defending the perimeter. Roberson can't shoot, and in Oladipo, the Thunder have found yet another shaky long-range option opponents will happily leave open -- and another guy who needs the ball. (He's also due a big raise after this season, though he won't earn as much as Ibaka). Assume 30-plus minutes for Adams, and a lot of Thunder lineups would feature four so-so shooters around Durant.
Sliding Ibaka to center was always the Thunder's super-spacing trump card, and it's gone. Small lineups with Ibaka -- and not Adams -- turned the Golden State series in Games 3 and 4 and temporarily solved the Warriors' Death Lineups. To win four series against the very best competition, you need a lineup for every situation. The Thunder have lost a bit of their shape-shifting versatility.
If that's the only cost, this trade is obviously worth it. You can't make massive long-term decisions based on anxiety about how you might match up during a couple of quarters against one specific postseason opponent. I'm just not convinced this is a painless home run.
That said, Oladipo should shoot better on cleaner looks courtesy of Oklahoma City's world-beaters. His stroke is solid, and he seems to finish every season with a flourish of long-range accuracy.
His departure leaves a void in Orlando and marks the second time in about four months the Magic sloughed away a piece of their young core. Oladipo has been perhaps a mild disappointment, but if you repicked the weak 2013 draft, he'd still go around No. 5. He was the closest thing to a symbol of what Orlando was trying to build: a hardworking, defense-first team of high-IQ gym rats.
It has been tough to suss out much of an identity beyond that, and it gets tougher now. Tobias Harris is gone, for nothing. Oladipo is out in favor of an older player who has looked slower and more ground-bound since a couple of leg injuries. Win-now reaches for Channing Frye, C.J. Watson, Jason Smith and Ben Gordon mostly went bust and gave the impression of a team flailing around in too many directions at once.
This is what happens sometimes when you bottom-out and don't draft a foundational star who defines the direction of your team. You try lots of stuff, and eventually you grow impatient for a playoff appearance. Is this Ibaka's team now? Aaron Gordon's? Elfrid Payton's? Does Payton top out as anything better than a poor man's Ricky Rubio?
The Magic need Ibaka to be awesome -- to rebound better, do more on offense and prove that his 3s-and-rejections skill set, once so coveted without any trimmings, travels well. If he does, extending Ibaka now and paying him through his 30th birthday isn't a bad outcome.
His rim protection should help Vucevic, but the effect might be muted with Ibaka chasing power forwards around the 3-point arc. It will be a minor challenge finding enough minutes for all three of Vucevic, Ibaka and Gordon, even if new coach Frank Vogel remains partial to traditional big lineups.
In theory, the combined shooting of Ibaka and Vucevic should allow the Magic to play Gordon at small forward and perhaps turn him into a pick-and-roll beast who slices hard to the rim. But he seemed to settle in as a power forward, and you can bet the Magic will deliberate shifting Ibaka to center -- and either dealing Vucevic or turning him into their version of Kanter off the bench. (That will be a hard sell to a proud player).
The deal leaves Mario Hezonja as the only true wing under contract. He did not look NBA-ready for much of last season, and suddenly he could have a ton of responsibility. Evan Fournier is a restricted free agent, and given how badly the Magic need him now, he should hold out for a max contract. If the Magic don't give him one, some rival team with money leftover in the middle of free agency should toss Fournier a max offer sheet just to force the Magic into matching it.
That will probably be the final step in Orlando's makeover. Fournier's cap hold is a paltry $5.7 million, and as long as that low number remains on the Magic books, they will have about $46 million to spend on free agents. Chandler Parsons and Batum would seem the most obvious targets, but whiff on those, and the pickings at the wing get slim pretty damn fast. If they only sign one high-priced free agent aside from Fournier, the Magic could have max cap space again next summer even with Ibaka onboard.
The Magic paid a steep price for Ibaka -- steeper than bounties that netted Batum, Dragic, Morris and Hill for other teams. They are betting that even in a league trending toward speed and off-the-bounce playmaking across all five positions, a huge dude who can shoot 3s and swat shots is more valuable than other players in the same general tier. If Ibaka doesn't rediscover his vigor, they will lose that bet. Lots of rival executives think they lost it the second they flung the former No. 2 pick away.
Maybe so. They definitely outbid the market for a guy who will hit free agency in a year. But I wouldn't be surprised if Ibaka helps the Magic more than expected. That might not justify the deal in the end, but delivering the verdict early is dangerous. | {
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Living in New Hampshire, I see a lot of granite houses. While not very common, they are quite beautiful. Gray edifices that appear able to withstand anything; a granite house is a miniature castle.
The majority of homes are made from wood, as that’s what you see around you in New England. Wood. New homes with a facing of brick are popular. Homes made of real brick and real stone, not just a facing cover, are rare and old.
many of the homes shared this fan like feature
It was a total delight to be driving to Baltimore Vermont, with my friend Ellie from Baltimore Maryland, and come across a whole village of granite stone houses.
There is a church. A Universalist church.
There is a school house, that I am sure is now a private residence. There is an old school desk out front to remind viewers of the previous use.
There are beautiful homes, with their year of build noted. The homes were not all built at the same time. There is a variance of about 10 years between many of them. Most appear to have been farms.
Ellie and I decided to purchase at least one as there are two for sale. Of course, what we would do in the wilds of Vermont we had not decided. I expect we’ll just drive by for another visit.
But the unexpectedness of a granite village is typical of the joy of “just driving around.”
We also found Baltomore Vermont.
When we stopped to take a photograph a concerned local asked if we were “alright”. Not many tourists, no make that not many people, come to Baltimore Vermont unless they live there. We never did find the museum. | {
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Saturday on Fox News Channel’s “Justice,” conservative commentator Ann Coulter, author of “Resistance Is Futile! How the Trump-Hating Left Lost Its Collective Mind,” warned that if President Donald Trump failed to fulfill his election promises and get a handle on immigration, it will impact on the Republican Party’s ability to win elections in the future.
Host Jeanine Pirro asked Coulter if some of the promises Trump had made on immigration were really going to happen. Coulter replied by saying it better or Texas and Florida may flip Democrat and limit the GOP’s ability to win future presidential elections.
“He says a lot of great things and he better start following through because, I mean, one of the things you were saying about Hillary, and I think all of us have been sorting of sitting back hoping she would run again,” Coulter said. “But, I mean consider that in Texas alone — look at how close those last two elections were — in Texas and Florida. If either of those ever flip, no Republican ever gets elected president again. Three out of four Hispanics in Texas are under the age of 18. So, each day Trump doesn’t fulfill the immigration promises — his voters are dying off and Democratic voters, Hillary’s voters are registering to vote. So, I hope he keeps his promise. This is why we wanted a wall.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | {
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Fast Start Leads Arkansas Into SEC Tournament Semifinals
Box Score (PDF) | Malham and Christopherson Post-Game | 2018 Tournament Bracket
ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — It only took seven minutes before the Razorback soccer team was up 3-0 on the Ole Miss Rebels Tuesday night at the Orange Beach Sportsplex. That fast start helped fourth-seeded Arkansas cruise to a 4-0 win over the fifth-seeded Rebels, earning a spot in the SEC Tournament semifinals for the third-consecutive season.
Arkansas (12-4-3, 6-3-1 SEC) was the highest-seeded team to advance at the end of the SEC Tournament’s four-match day and will face eighth-seeded Florida on Thursday with a chance at its third-straight finals appearance.
Junior Tori Cannata and sophomore Taylor Malham were both part of the Razorbacks’ three-goal first half as they also got the help of an Ole Miss own goal in the fourth minute. Cannata’s header came in just the second minute of the match while Malham’s found the net in the seventh minute.
Senior Reece Christopherson also found the scoresheet early in the second half in her first game back since suffering an injury against LSU (Oct. 4). Christopherson showed no signs of rust after the five-game layoff, playing 67 minutes in the midfield and helping limit Ole Miss to only three shots on goal.
The four goals scored by Arkansas is its largest goal output in an SEC Tournament match since netting four in a 4-0 win over Missouri in 2013. It’s also the second time this season that the Razorbacks have won by a four-goal margin as they defeated Kentucky earlier in the year, 4-0.
Cannata now takes over the team lead with eight goals on the season and also has 18 points. She doesn’t quite take over the team lead in points, though, as that goes to McKeon, who had a career-high three assists in the game. She now has 19 points, which is one less than her season best of 20 from her freshman season.
From Head Coach Colby Hale
“It was a great start with three goals in the first seven or eight minutes. It, obviously, set the tone and that was a pretty complete performance by us. We’ve been starting games pretty quick, the shots just went in for us today. We’ve been creating a lot of chances and I think the players were hungry. I thought this was deserving today.”
Up Next
Arkansas moves on to the SEC Tournament semifinals where it will face eight-seed Florida on Thursday, just a week after finishing the regular season against each other. A win for the Razorbacks would give the team it’s third-straight SEC Tournament final appearance. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at the Orange Beach Sportsplex and will be televised on the SEC Network.
For more information on Razorback Soccer, follow @RazorbackSoccer on Twitter. | {
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Just looking at the price candle chart of a cryptocurrency is not going to tell you much. Looking at these charts in search for shapes seems a bit of black magic to me.
So, I started looking at how more expert investors study a new cryptocurrency. And I found something.
We have the 24h Volume which describes how much value has transacted in the last day. Then we have Market Capitalization. Or to put it simply Price * Numer of units of a given currency.
The theory goes that if an asset is exchanged more frequently, its value should increase. Because there’s a limited supply, there is also more competition to get that asset.
If the market capitalization increases more than the 24h volume in the same day, it means there is market speculation. The asset is overpriced compared to its actual value.
It can happen because there’s an euphoric hope the asset will appreciate in value. Or it’s an indicator of a price spike which is not sustainable. It’s an indicator that someone is pumping the price in short time, buying large quantities, to then sell it all shortly after, causing the price to crash.
Stellar’s 24h Volume and Market Cap compared to other cryptocurrencies on Decryptoray. 6th of September 2018.
There’s a way to understand if the growth of the transaction volume and the market cap is ok-ish. Compare them with other cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, Ether and other ones in your portfolio.
This will not save you from all the evil in the crypto world. But at least, it will tell you if you’re in a price peak and that the price will be highly volatile.
Until next time.
PS: if you want to compare volume and market cap as explained in the article, I am personally building a tool called Decryptoray. Feedback welcome! | {
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自己啓発のために1年間女優業を休業すると宣言したエマ・ワトソン(25)が、見知らぬ男性からお尻を触られて苦しんでいたことを激白している。
フェミニズムの勉強と読書にいそしんでいるエマは、国連で女性の権利のための機関UN Womenの親善大使を務めているが、男女平等を実現するための「He For She」というキャンペーンの一環で行われたイベントで明らかにしたもの。
「女性がお金の話をすると、ディーバとかフェミナチ(英語のフェミニストとナチの掛け合わせ造語。急進的、先鋭的なフェミニストを指す)とかって言われちゃうからできないの。でも今は、なんとでも呼べばって思っているわ。あってしかるべき権利なのだから。『気難しい』とか『ディーバ』って言われたとしても、誰も私を止められないわ」
「部屋を出て行こうとしたら、見知らぬ男性からお尻を叩かれたことがあるのよ。それからストーカーがついてきて、家に歩いて帰るのが怖かったこともね。あまり自分の話をすると、私個人のこととして大ごとになっちゃうから避けてきたけど、大部分の女性が経験していることだと思う。とにかく私が声を出して、男性にも現状を知ってもらわない限りは、何も変わらないわ」と語っている。
昨年9月に国連で性差別撤廃スピーチを行った直後に、米掲示板サイト4Chanで「ヌード写真を流出させる」とハッカーから脅迫を受けたことを明らかにしていたエマ。しかし、そんな脅しに屈しないどころか、10歳年上のボーイフレンドの心強いサポートを受けて、更なる使命感に燃えているようだ。【NY在住/JUNKO】
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When visiting the SilverTowne showroom in Winchester, Indiana the first thing you will notice when you step inside is our large selection of coins and precious metals. There’s something for coin collectors and investors at every level – from beginners to experts.
Once you tear your gaze away from the display cases, you will be treated to other breathtaking sites. Hanging high from the ceiling, we are proud to showcase our Czechoslovakian chandelier. This stunning fixture is made from 7775 cut crystals that are reportedly the finest available today. We also gladly show off our solid oak staircase, custom made in Wisconsin, brought in by truck, and completely assembled on site.
In addition to the chandelier and staircase, we feature many antiques and collectibles brought in from all over the United States, each adding to the allure and history of SilverTowne.
Even though it’s worth visiting us just to check out the building & décor, there is also lots of shopping to enjoy! In addition to our coin department brimming with rare coins, modern coins, commemorative coins and original silver bullion designs minted at our own SilverTowne Mint - we also offer a wide selection of numismatic supplies and informative books, so you’ll find everything you need to support your coin collecting adventures. Plus, you’ll find many numismatic-themed gifts for all of your family and friends.
As you can see, there is a lot to see at the SilverTowne Showroom. Whether you spend a few minutes looking around, or browse our selections for hours, you are certain to find lots of treasures to take home with you.
We look forward to seeing you soon! | {
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Moscow and Beijing Have Tehran’s Back
As the Trump administration moves to reimpose sanctions on Iran—which had been suspended since the signing of the 2015 nuclear agreement—it aims to “build a global coalition to put pressure on Iran to stop [its nefarious] behavior.” As the U.S. administration sees it, it can achieve a bigger and better deal with Tehran if it exerts maximum pressure on the regime—exemplified by President Donald Trump’s own furious tweeting on July 22.
But Trump will fail. Not only are the United States’ European allies opposed to his decision to leave the nuclear agreement and reintroduce sanctions, but Russia and China also won’t allow Iran to be isolated again. In fact, Beijing and Moscow were Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s first ports of call on his mini-diplomatic tour to ensure the nuclear agreement’s continued implementation after U.S. withdrawal, continuing a long Iranian tradition of looking to the two as a bulwark against Western unreliability.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled the U.S.-backed Shah, Iran found itself isolated on the international stage. The United States reacted to the hostage crisis and the new regime’s anti-Western rhetoric by cutting ties with Tehran. Joined by its allies, America sought to contain the new regime. Soon, the United States and Europe—once Iran’s key partners—scaled back or ceased their political, economic, and military relations with the country. As a result, Tehran built ties with countries that didn’t place as much weight on the regime’s pariah status.
In the decades following the 1979 revolution, Tehran strengthened its political, economic, and military ties with Beijing and Moscow. During the Iran-Iraq War, China was vital to Iran’s war effort. It was one of the only arms suppliers willing to provide Tehran with weapons and military equipment. When the war ended, China occupied a central role in the country’s post-conflict reconstruction efforts, particularly in Iran’s infrastructure projects and the supply of consumer goods.
Russia for its part, began working with Tehran at the end of the nineties to develop port and rail infrastructure in Iran. Crucially, with virtually all other suppliers gone from the Iranian nuclear sector, Moscow slowly built up its presence there, developing a quasi-monopoly in the area by the turn of the century.
As a result, Russia and China were reluctant participants in international efforts to sanction and isolate Iran following the unveiling of covert aspects of its nuclear program in the 2000s. The two powers exploited Iran’s isolation to expand their foothold and influence in the country, and Iran leveraged these relationships to offset the impact of sanctions. Iran also hoped to build intricate political ties that neither Beijing nor Moscow would be willing to jeopardize should the West want to isolate the Islamic Republic again.
But dealing with the two giants was not easy for Tehran, which grew tired of Russian and Chinese unreliability and substandard products. As the Iranians saw it, Russian and Chinese officials and businesses were purposely stalling on a number of key projects—including the completion of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant by Moscow, which took 19 years to be built and come online, and the Tehran Metro by Beijing, with the first line completed five years after the agreement was signed between China and Iran and work continuing today to extend the lines.
By 2012, fed up with the Russians and the Chinese and eager to open up its economy and resume relations with the West, Iran returned to the negotiating table. Iranians craved normalization of the country’s status on the international stage, access to international markets, more suppliers, higher-quality European products, and more comprehensive relationships than Moscow and Beijing were affording them. But from Iran’s perspective, history had shown that it couldn’t rely solely on the West—so Iran continued to build and deepen its ties with Russia and China.
In the last several years, Russia has played an important role in the development of Iran’s nuclear and aerospace industries, with its involvement in the construction of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and the sale of airplanes and their parts. And it increasingly supports Iranian regional activities in the Middle East and South Asia, most notably by fighting alongside Iran and the Bashar al-Assad regime to push back the opposition in Syria and by allegedly supporting Taliban groups in Afghanistan to defeat the Islamic State offshoot there.
China’s energy dependence and Belt and Road Initiative have made Iran an increasingly attractive partner. Beijing remains involved in building up Iran’s infrastructure, including electricity, dams, cement plants, steel mills, shipbuilding, motorways, and airports. Defense cooperation, including arms and technology trade and joint military drills, has become an increasingly significant part of Iran’s relationship with both countries, with China in the Persian Gulf and Russia in the Caspian Sea.
The 2015 Iran nuclear deal made the pursuit of joint initiatives easier for Russia and China—but the likely collapse of the deal won’t be a disaster for them. Both countries have a longstanding presence in the Iranian market and understand how to navigate it. Both are searching for ways to insulate their state and local banks from the U.S. market and third-party U.S. sanctions.
As the United States encourages Iranian oil consumers to reduce their imports from Iran to zero by November, China has begun processing futures trading and oil imports in yuan to wean itself off the U.S. dollar. Likewise, Russia announced in April that it would try to use other national currencies to pay for oil imports. Such measures would limit the U.S. ability to effectively deploy sanctions against Iran and other nations in the future.
Additionally, both Russia and China have multiple deals currently in process in different sectors of the Iranian economy. Both countries are assessing whether they can fully take over European deals that are collapsing in the aftermath of U.S. withdrawal. For example, China’s national oil company is poised to take over from France’s Total for the development of the South Pars field.
And while Iranians continue to harbor suspicion of Russia and China, today they have no choice but to turn to them once again. For example, when it became clear in the aftermath of Trump’s pullout from the deal that Boeing and Airbus wouldn’t be able to sell planes to Iran, previously stalled negotiations with Russia on the sale of medium-range passenger planes resumed, resulting in an agreement to sell in April.
Russia and China effectively shelter Iran from complete isolation and provide it with political support, defense assistance, and economic relief, undermining Western efforts to pressure Tehran. That means Trump’s stated goal of isolating Iran to pressure its regime to return to the negotiating table and craft a more favorable deal to the United States isn’t a viable policy. Isolation only works when it is reinforced by key players within the international community. Today, Iran has other partners it can turn to that will mitigate the fallout from the collapse of the nuclear deal. And given their own strategic interests in Iran, neither Russia nor China will buy into a U.S.-led policy of endless pressure. | {
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Uno scenario di guerra con i Paracadutisti della Folgore in azione nei cieli toscani protagonisti di un'imponente esercitazione:" Mangusta 2018". "Mangusta 2018"questa infatti è la denominazione dell'esercitazione interforze che ha visto entrare in azione oltre mille paracadutisti della Folgore con unità specialistiche ed operative dei Carabinieri Paracadutisti del Reggimento Tuscania, specialisti delle trasmissioni e della guerra elettronica, nuclei cinofili, assetti dell'Aeronautica Militare ed unità di Paracadutisti USA.
"La Mangusta" è la tradizionale esercitazione della Brigata Paracadutisti Folgore e ha visto contrapporsi sul campo due unità avversarie per testare le capacità acquisite dai propri paracadutisti nella concezione e nella conduzione delle operazioni, a seguito di aviolancio, in ambienti operativi non permissivi per la conquista e la tenuta di posizioni strategiche e per consentire l'afflusso delle Forze Alleate in uno scenario di crisi.
L'esercitazione si è conclusa oggi nelle aree addestrative della Toscana. Durante l'imponente esercitazione è stato simulato l'immediato intervento della NATO che invia un contingente multinazionale:obiettivo conquistare l'aeroporto occupato da forze ostili con l'aviolancio di una prima aliquota impegnata in una Forcible Entry Operation vale a dire un'operazione avioportata che ha lo scopo di preparare il terreno per l'entrata in Teatro dei successivi scaglioni di forze. Questa fase dell'esercitazione ha visto come protagoniste tutte le forze in campo ovvero tutte le risorse sia in termini di attività difensive che offensive, anche tramite l'impiego delle unità specialistiche del Reggimento Paracadutisti Genio Guastatori, nonchè nelle più tipiche delle attività della Folgore: ovvero l'interdizione e la controinterdizione d'area mirate al massimo controllo del territorio.
Tramite aviolanci con la tecnica della caduta libera e della navigazione aerea con paracadute aperto e mediante l'utilizzo di battelli per le infiltrazioni via mare è avvenuta l'infiltrazione dei Paracadutisti della Folgore. Attività di aviolancio di CDS (Container Delivery System) per rifornire e consegnare equipaggiamenti alle truppe dispiegate sul terreno tramite l'impiego di velivoli sia ad ala fissa che ad ala rotante dell'Aviazione dell'Esercito e dell'Aeronautica Militare volte ad implementare la capacità di proiezione dell'aria delle Forze Armate Italiane si sono susseguite durante tutta l'esercitazione.
Di notevole importanza è stato il ruolo delle unità dei nuclei cinofili impiegati con i propri cani per il controllo del territorio, nonchè dagli assetti delle trasmissioni e della guerra elettronica che hanno giocato un ruolo fondamentale anche con le attività di ingaggio radar verso gli assetti di volo sia italiani che statunitensi.
La Mangusta 2018 è stata davvero un'esercitazione importante e per la Difesa è un'eccellente opportunità ed un significativo ritorno in termini di interoperabilità e di integrazione con le Forze Armate straniere e di massimizzazione del valore addestrativo per via del realismo dello scenario e per l'impiego dei vari assetti specialistici nazionali ed internazionali nonchè per l'aggiornamento della capacità tecniche e tattiche del personale delle Forze Armate appartenente alle diverse specialità. | {
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Fox News host Laura Ingraham defended her comments about the "massive demographic changes" in America on Thursday, saying her remarks "had nothing to do with race or ethnicity."
Why it matters: Ingraham's show, along with other prime-time Fox News programs, is popular with President Trump's base. These comments echo some concerns of that voting cohort, the white working class; a 2017 survey from the Atlantic and PRRI found that 48% of the white working-class say they "feel like a stranger in [their] own country," and 68% said the American way of life should be protected from foreign influence.
What Ingraham said this week
On Wednesday, Ingraham responded to remarks made by progressive Congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the changing demographics in the U.S.
Ingraham's response: "The America we know and love doesn't exist anymore... Massive demographic changes have been foisted on the American people, and they are changes that none of us ever voted for, and most of us don't like."
Ingraham defended her comments on Thursday after receiving wide-spread backlash — and support from former KKK leader David Duke, who called her remarks "[o]ne of the most important (truthful) monologues in the history of MSM."
"A message to those who are distorting my views, including all white nationalists and especially one racist freak whose name I won’t even mention. You do not have my support. ... Despite what some may be contending, I made explicitly clear that my commentary had nothing to do with race or ethnicity. But rather a shared goal of keeping America safe and her citizens safe and prosperous."
— Ingraham on Thursday, per Mediaite
What Ingraham said in the past | {
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Steven Moffat has teased big changes in Doctor Who's eighth series.
The show's head writer spoke about Peter Capaldi's casting at Hay Festival, saying that the new Doctor will bring about the show's biggest changes since 2005.
Adrian Rogers BBC
He said: "We haven't made much of change to Doctor Who since it came back in 2005. It's been the same show. It's maybe amped some things up and lowered some other things, but it's basically the same.
"I just felt it needs to be a bit more different now. It's needs to be surprising again!" he said of his decision to cast an older actor.
Moffat also said that casting a "handsome, yet quirky, young man with entertaining hair" would have resulted in the long-running sci-fi series becoming too formulaic.
REX/Huw Evans
"It would have just exposed the formula," he claimed. "We'd have found somebody great and people would have liked him, but the show would have just become that little bit more ordinary."
Capaldi, 56, replaced Matt Smith as The Doctor in the final scene of last year's Christmas special.
Last week, a teaser trailer for the new series was released, confirming that Capaldi's first full series in the role will begin in August.
Watch Matt Smith's regenerate into Peter Capaldi below:
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This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io | {
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The FBI is investigating a secret society of tattooed deputies in East Los Angeles as well as similar gang-like groups elsewhere within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, it was reported Thursday.
News of the probe comes from multiple people familiar with the inquiry, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The federal probe follows allegations of beatings and harassment by members of the Banditos, a group of deputies assigned to the Sheriff's East L.A. station who brand themselves with matching tattoos of a skeleton outfitted in a sombrero, bandolier and pistol. The clique's members are accused by other deputies of using gang-like tactics to recruit young Latino deputies into their fold and retaliating against those who rebuff them.
In interviews with several deputies, FBI agents have asked about the inner workings of the Banditos and the group's hierarchy, according to three people with close knowledge of the matter who spoke to The Times on the condition their names not be used because the investigation is ongoing.
In particular, according to The Times' sources, agents have been trying to determine whether leaders of the Banditos require or encourage aspiring members to commit criminal acts, such as planting evidence or writing false incident reports, to secure membership in the group.
The agents also have inquired about other groups known to exist in the department, which has roughly 10,000 deputies and polices large swaths of the sprawling county. They have asked for information about the tattoos and practices of the Spartans and Regulators in the department' Century Station, and the Reapers, who operate out of a station in South Los Angeles, according to the sources.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva released the following statement to FOX 11 on Thursday night:
"The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is not aware of any ongoing investigation by the Federal Bureau of an investigation of subgroups from the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station. However, in the event that an investigation is initiated the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will provide our full cooperation."
The inquiry marks the return of federal law enforcement authorities tasked with digging around in the Sheriff's Department, which has been beset by episodes of corruption and mismanagement in the past several years.
In 2011, the FBI secretly opened an investigation into reports of inmate abuse by deputies working in the county jails. The sweeping probe involving an inmate who served as an undercover informant upended the department, sending several deputies to prison for beatings and cover-ups. Former Sheriff Lee Baca and other senior staff were convicted of conspiring to obstruct the FBI.
The current investigation appears to have been spurred by a group of deputies who in March filed a legal claim against the county accusing sheriff's officials of failing to address a hostile work environment in the East L.A. station. The deputies say Bandito leaders, who are alleged to control key elements of station operations, put others' lives at risk by not sending backup to help on dangerous calls, enforced illegal arrest quotas and carried out other forms of harassment.
The claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, focuses on what deputies say was an unprovoked attack by members of the Banditos during an off-duty party in the early morning hours of Sept. 28 at Kennedy Hall, an event space near the station. The altercation started when four Banditos began harassing a rookie, according to the claim.
CNS contributed to this report. | {
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tenzin/lin history was so weird and unappealing to me before because I was trying to imagine both of their present day personalities together, but the season 3 backstory stuff for lin it made everything make so much sense since she was a gigantic nerd baby and it would just be two gigantic nerd babies like We Are Adults In A Mature Relationship.
So just playing around with how they’d act and I love everything about the whole love triangle thing too, like I guess what little we know about it let’s me fill in my own details and it would just be such a sadistically entertaining situation and really nice character development for three characters I really enjoy. | {
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MFPS may earn a small commission via affiliate links in this post. Read our full disclosure policy here.
You can get a Free coffee or fountain drink when you Download the QuickChek app. Renowned for their high quality, QuickChek coffees are roasted using a proprietary select blend that incorporates only the world’s finest beans. | {
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The U.S. Air Force is slacking when it comes to the B-1 Lancer fleet, with less than ten operational units out of a total...
The U.S. Air Force is slacking when it comes to the B-1 Lancer fleet, with less than ten operational units out of a total number of 62.
The fast-moving, low-level bomber was once the pride of the USAF but now problems are beginning to manifest as the Air Force neglects them in favor of newer airframe and projects.
The newest B-1 in the fleet began flying the skies 31 years ago and the plane itself has been in service since 1985.
Originally it was outfitted to deliver a nuclear payload, but over time the B-1’s role within the Air Force has changed.
The B-1B was used to the point of exhaustion in Afghanistan, where high demand for close air support and a higher mission tempo kept the non-nuclear bomber overworked.
According to Popular Mechanics, the USAF has reassigned crews of non-flyable Lancers to other aircraft, and the remaining planes have been tasked with jobs such as long-range strike and maritime missions against enemy ships.
The B-1 is slated to retire before 2030 and is to be replaced by the B-21 Raider.
© 2019 Bright Mountain Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The content of this webpage may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written consent of Bright Mountain Media, Inc. which may be contacted at [email protected], ticker BMTM. | {
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'Tis the season of Tisdale.
Former Disney standout Ashley Tisdale has long been outspoken about suffering from anxiety and depression.
Now the 34-year-old actress, singer and producer says she’s in a “good headspace” since releasing “Symptoms” in May, her first studio music album in 10 years. She is also wrapping up filming on a forthcoming Netflix series and stars in the CBS comedy sitcom “Carol’s Second Act,” alongside Patricia Heaton
Tisdale spoke with reporters at the Television Critics Association’s summer press day at the famed Beverly Hilton Hotel about bonding with her mother figure Heaton on the show and how she’s been able to keep her emotions in the fairway through acting and music.
'THE MIDDLE' STAR PATRICIA HEATON SAYS 'CAROL'S SECOND' ACT' CAME AT PERFECT TIME: 'I WAS FEELING A BIT AT SEA'
“I mean, I think for me it's just always about the show and the characters. I just did a Netflix series with Dennis Quaid 'Merry Happy Whatever,' which has been so much fun and I'm just acting in that as well and I just really love the character,” Tisdale told reporters about being excited to simply be an actor as opposed to producing and directing as she has on projects in the past.
“And then when I heard about this opportunity like I said I've been such a huge fan of Patti [Heaton] – she's such a legend and I'm so excited to work with her. Also, it’s a sitcom and it's just gonna be so fun to be in front of a live audience again.”
Tisdale, a rising Hollywood staple since her days as Maddie Fitzpatrick on “The Suite Life of Zac & Cody” and Sharpay on “High School Musical,” said she was especially excited for her new roles because it’s the first and second time she has had the chance to play a character who is her own age — a rarity for young performers in show business.
ASHLEY TISDALE ACCUSES KEVIN SMITH OF HITTING HER CAR
“That's very different too,” the “Guilty Pleasure” songstress said about her role in the Dennis Quaid-produced holiday series – which is slated to begin streaming on Netflix in November – when asked how similar it was to her past performances.
"It's really nice to be able to be in a ... kind of a mature role, where I get to be my age and that character is very different from this character,” she said.
“That's what acting is all about,” she added. “It's just like playing all these kind of characters and bringing them to life.”
Tisdale was happy to discuss her newfound relationship with acting legend Patricia Heaton, who plays Tisdale’s mother on the series, telling reporters the two wasted no time establishing their mother-daughter dynamic and bonded over their love of sweat equity.
ACTRESS ASHLEY TISDALE SELLING CAPE COD IN STUDIO CITY FOR $2.66M
The Emmy-nominated actress said she had never met Heaton before landing the gig and reckons her and connection to Heaton might have aided in helping her solidify the job.
“When we met it was so funny because we just clicked and we had all these stories,” Tisdale explained. “We're talking about, you know – I love to renovate my homes and she renovates her homes and so we just bonded and I think obviously that's what got me the job,” she said in amusement.
“But yeah, even listening to her now — we have so much in common and it's such a dream to play her daughter.”
Listening to the lively Tisdale, one would get the sense she is one of the hardest working performers in the business. When asked how she manages to balance the copious commitments she has on her plate, the Broadway actress credits taking care of thy self.
ASHLEY TISDALE'S NSFW ROLE AS A SEX WORKER IN 'AMATEUR NIGHT'
“I mean, I love to read anything from just stuff that helps with anxiety and stuff that you would get to learn about yourself and grow," she said. "I think we need to challenge ourselves as people.”
Tisdale said she is also a "big fan" of meditation.
“There are great meditation apps that are super easy even when I'm at work. If I have an emotional scene like I just did in the Netflix show — you know, it's like doing meditation helps you become super present in the moment and then you're able to be so connected in the scene.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“And I think it's such a great tool just in life. So yeah, I feel like headspace is great. But yeah, I just try to do like you know – self-care is so important even if you love to work nonstop, it's important to take that time. I went from the Netflix show to Montreal to shoot something and back here, so I'm going to take a good four days off before we start the show.”
“Carol’s Second Act” airs Thursdays at 10:30 p.m. EST on CBS. | {
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The 9/11 false flag attack has propelled a wave of perpetual wars building a new order based upon chaos.
Aaron Dykes
Activist Post
Twelve years after the September 11 attacks, Americans are still entangled in perpetual war, centered around the Middle East which has been based in numerous theaters, including Iraq and Afghanistan, Libya and now possibly Syria. The specter of terrorism still looms, putting supposedly-guaranteed civil rights in the backseat and fear in the fast lane.
Checkpoints and security measures have accelerated at home in the United States, while a military without a clear mission continues roaming campaigns against supposed hotbeds of terrorism, or alternately ‘extremism’, carrying out clandestine operations and drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and other locales, and tense diplomatic relations in countless parts of the globe.
In short, the world has never been the same since 9/11. The term itself has been seared into the collective conscience, never to be forgotten.
From the first moments of the attacks on the World Trade Center towers, followed by an attack on the Pentagon, a downed plane in Shanksville, PA and reports of numerous other hijacked planes and incidents, the truth was essentially thrown out the window. The event – pivotal to world affairs for the foreseeable future – was based upon perception, a perception carefully crafted to captivate a nation and predicate a response.
What really happened has never been officially explained – or at least acknowledged – but has been painstakingly pursued by victims’ family members, concerned citizens, whistleblowers and government officials, technical professionals and alternative media pioneers.
The 9/11 truth movement has no single manifestation, but remains driven and defined not by its most prominent voices, but by its mandate to counter a sea of lies and evoke something that establishes the truth. History may well view 9/11 not as the day America was attacked by a foreign terrorist group, but the day the United States – a once great republic defined by its Constitution and an established respect for individual rights and a separation of powers – began to nosedive into decline.
The reasons are numerous, even legion. So are the lies that began with that traumatic national wound. The truth then, necessarily, is detailed and multifaceted. It has many angles that each yield important pieces of a profound but simple revelation – a great nation’s laws, the American way of life, already undermined and deteriorating, was hijacked and transformed by the power of “magic.” Not supernatural magic directed by forces unseen, but a complicated parlor trick, concocted by a cadre of powerful illusionists who’ve taken the world for a sick, twisted and regrettable ride.
Untangling that lie – that is, even beginning to contemplate repair and restoration – requires confronting that truth, the essential truth, from whatever angle one finds to be a traversable path.
One of the most palatable, yet confrontational remains the question of World Trade Center Building 7.
Though it was not hit by a plane, nor severely damaged by the wreckage of the collapses of the Twin Towers, the 47-foot skyscraper, which housed important government and finance institutions, collapsed well into the afternoon of 9/11, and significantly, appeared to collapse just as buildings taken down deliberately by demolition do.
Its collapse – broadcast live during the chaotic and traumatic news coverage of the day – fits into the official story of 9/11 like a square peg into a round hole. WTC7 clashes so soundly with the version of events sold to the public, that raising awareness of its very existence has been enough to snap countless individuals out of their 9/11 “hypnosis” and allow other pertinent questions to be raised – and actually contemplated.
It was omitted from the 9/11 Commission’s final report, but officially explained via fires that brought down the support columns. While such fires did exist, they do little to explain the structural failure that caused the building to fall suddenly and completely at a rate quite close to free fall speed. After considerably delay, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) explained away the event as if sweeping dirt under a rug to avoid embarrassment.
Instead groups like Architects & Engineers for 9/11 and various awareness campaigns –including ReThink 9/11 – have studied the case of WTC7 from the point of view of physics, science, public policy and common sense to present an alternative explanation considerably closer to reality.
WTC Building 7 has become a rallying point for 9/11 conspiracy realists – awakened to the fact that the fast & furious conclusion of the September 11 attacks were used to pursue a dark political agenda – and instead use its embarrassing, sore thumb, loose end of an existence (prior to collapse that is) to raise and perpetuate compelling questions that can not and should not be ignored.
Ahead of the 2013 anniversary of September 11th, ReThink 9/11 conducted a survey of the public’s awareness, perception and attitude towards the outwardly forgotten WTC7. The results may surprise you (READ THE RESULTS HERE IN PDF). The group also raised funds to put up a billboard addressing the outstanding questions about Building 7 in Times Square, one of the most heavily trafficked areas in busy downtown Manhattan, as well as to raise awareness in cities around the world.
Watch their video – and ReThink 9/11. It’s time to set aside the “official” lies and consider what really happened to the victims, our nation and our society:
Mainstream media defector and now alternative media icon Ben Swann profiled the group’s efforts for the 2013 anniversary of September 11th.
Watch his Reality Check report “More Americans ‘Rethinking’ 9/11?”:
If this sounds too incredible, reconsider the fact that the live coverage of the 9/11 attacks conflicted significantly with the official story that would later emerge, including numerous reports – both from news anchors and numerous eyewitnesses on the scene – of explosions in the towers. These were not confused with impact of the planes, but reported as secondary explosions worthy of a more full investigation, but instead cast aside into the realm of illegitimate ‘conspiracy theory.’
9/11 Revisited: Live Mainstream Media Coverage Conflicts with Official Story
And dozens, even hundreds, of other significant and legitimate questions exist and persist. This video presentation examines of just a few.
Though this subject matter has been heavily trodden already by many courageous individuals concerned about the truth, it remains – 12 years after the fact – critical that anyone who doesn’t want to go on blindly as a victim in this world to confront this evidence and awaken to a realization, however harsh, that we are living through a dangerous world of the unreal.
Aaron Dykes is a co-founder of TruthstreamMedia.com, where this first appeared. As a writer, researcher and video producer who has worked on numerous documentaries and investigative reports, he uses history as a guide to decode current events, uncover obscure agendas and contrast them with the dignity afforded individuals as recognized in documents like the Bill of Rights. | {
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Many of us knew where the night was headed before Sufjan Stevens even took a breath. Pittsburgh wasn't going to be different from Baltimore, which was no different from Jersey City, where his "Hotline Bling" cover made its well-documented debut. A handful of YouTube videos and Setlist.fm logs took away the surprise at Heinz Hall, but you can imagine how much of a sidewind that original performance must have been. For his Jersey City audience, it might have felt like Oscar Isaac's out-of-nowhere dance sequence in Ex Machina—a jarring tonal shift from everything that preceded it, which somehow still worked as a natural progression.
And yet Stevens’ encore-capping take on "Hotline Bling" isn’t just another innocuous cover. Viewed as a YouTube artifact, the performance seems like nothing more than a surprisingly faithful tribute to Drake’s biggest pop moment—he hasn’t transformed it into a brooding, acoustic lullaby. But an isolated video tells very little about its context in the show. A majority of his main set consists of Carrie & Lowell in its entirety, but sequenced for an even more relentless assault on the tear ducts (sample section: "John My Beloved", "The Only Thing", "Fourth of July"). It’s a tour that finds Stevens performing the most gut-wrenching and personal material of his career, and these songs still visibly take a toll on him—he wiped his eyes when the lights came down after "No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross".
One of Carrie & Lowell’s most heartbreaking elements was its resolution, or lack thereof. Stevens ends the record on "Blue Bucket of Gold", a gentle song that echoes his pleas from earlier on the album, in search of unrequited validation from his mother. "Tell me you want me in your life," he begs throughout the track, even though he knows that it’s too late for her affirmation. By ending the record here, Stevens suggests that this loose thread is something he’ll grapple with for the rest of his life, and that it may not ease with the passing of time. Not coincidentally, he’s been concluding every main set on the tour with "Blue Bucket of Gold", which trails off into a nearly 10-minute long cyclone of noise.
But the miracle is, there's an encore—by not letting Carrie & Lowell’s closer get the last word, Stevens draws out the hopeful crescendo of "Should Have Known Better" over the show’s two-hour period. Before the Jersey City show, his encores typically consisted of a "hits" collection from Illinois, Seven Swans, and Michigan, and he still leaned on those highlights for the Pittsburgh date. But with the inclusion of "Hotline Bling" he’s giving us a gratifying update on his post-Carrie & Lowell life. The Sufjan Stevens back catalogue counts as a minor emotional reprieve from his current material, but "Hotline Bling" is a well-earned triumph. | {
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A Grimsby man who believes that the Earth is flat is calling on bookmakers to accept his bet after he has been rejected by a number of the main national bookies.
Gerrard Gallacher, of Eastern Inway, has attempted to bet a number of national bookmakers up to £100 that the Earth is flat, however is constantly being rejected by them, as they say that his request is "invalid".
But Gerrard firmly believes that he will win the bet, and in doing so could end up costing bookies millions of pounds. He also feels that if the betting agents feel that he is 100 per cent wrong and won't pay out on the bet, they should at least accept it.
William Hill have famously in the past accepted bets from people who believed that Elvis Presley was going to make a comeback in the late 90s.
He said: "I think the reason that they won't accept my bet is because they know that I am right in saying that the Earth is flat, and if other people joined me in placing the bet they could lose millions.
"But then even if I am proven wrong and the world is round, then why would they not take my bet? It is just easy money for them.
"William Hill are known for taking on crazy bets, I could go in now and bet my son will play for Celtic and score a hat-trick in 20 years, and they have even accepted one saying Elvis will come back from the dead, so why not that the Earth flat?
"I have tried everyone, Paddy Power, Bet 365, William Hill and Coral but none of them are interested. I thought I had made some progress with SkyBet as they were open about it when I spoke with them, but yet again they came back to me and said they wouldn't do it."
Gerrard says that he first began thinking that the Earth was flat a few years ago after becoming curious about the subject and since then he has done research and is now even more convinced that he is right.
One of the biggest arguments that persuaded him, is the theory that there are no actual real photographs of the Earth, believing that NASA use computer generated images because it is not possible for them to send a rocket into space.
He said: "I just don't believe that we have ever sent rockets into space. I cannot comprehend that if space is a vacuum where there is no air, then what do the rockets propel against?
"I have also viewed footage of amateur weather balloons that clearly show to me that the Earth is flat, as I cannot see a curvature anywhere.
"Another reason that has convinced me is that apparently water is always meant to fall at a level and does not bend. So then how does the Earth manage to bend water all the way around a globe, it just doesn't seem to add up.
"I am sure that I am right, but willing to be proven wrong, a bookmaker just needs to step up to the plate and take my bet, I would have thought they would like the easy money." | {
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After receiving agressive DM’s from someone who disliked my casual critique of Million Dollar Extreme Presents World Peace.
Please know that I was joking with my responses, just as I believe this person was joking.
This is but one of the many people who sing praises for the show. It is praise that I do not understand. In trying to understand the appeal of a show I do not particularly like, I visited some of the comedy group backlog of work.
I wanted to find something to like about the show besides Charls “Where’s the Fucking E” Carroll’s face, and I found that despite comparisons to Tim and Eric and Wonder Showzen, MDE is a different breed of alternative comedy. As their preserved YouTube videos show, they are a breed that really likes to use the C-word (I myself enjoy using the word, but only when directing it to myself. They also use the homophobic F-word. Such language can be funny, good old South Park humor, and perhaps their overuse of the word is based around the idea of using a word so much as to make it meaningless.
It is specifically cynical dude humor, and the comedy troupe’s show World Peace is given a disservice by following The Eric Andre Show, which is arguably the biggest original program on [adult swim], until Rick and Morty comes back. As much as programming at [adult swim] thinks that the shows are reaching to the same type of audience with both shows, it is wrong having Eric Andre be a lead-in to World Peace, as the show in the 12 o’clock slot is honestly an intense fucking roller coaster, where viewers are mortified for the guests and fearing for the hosts physical and mental health, all while laughing at the very things that elicit the concerns. World Peace so far has been much more tame, and is in ways a letdown, because of its anti-humor.
A lot of blames for whatever I find wrong with the show can be put on the fact that this is anti-comedy. After all, I am a girl, and I cannot comprehend something as complex as comedy that is intentionally not funny. It is intentionally meant to not be the very thing is categorized as being. Oh boy. My female brain hurts. It’s throbbing like a man’s manhood from the arousal of feeling intellectually superior to me. I fear I am going to faint.
World Peace is best viewed online, and it will likely flourish online, as with Eric Andre and the only other big summer show Mr. Robot. Simply because if one watches World Peace and is hungry for context one can back track and catch the blink and you’ll miss it details or even things that are simply not as noticeable. I enjoyed the moments where I could see the smiles cracking at the corners of Hyde’s and Rochefort’s mouths during The Wall Show, and, as I did with the non-WP content, saw the moments where the actors break character and laugh as the highlights.
The fans of MDE appear to be mostly males, and white, as can be construed by this Reddit thread.
They are also misogynists.
But hate the fans and not the bands. Speaking of bands, another commendable part of the show is the end credits that play over pretty good music. Another reason to watch online: you can pause and find the song.
There are hints of misogyny on the show. One. Two.
My interpretation of The Wall Show was a satire of the entitlement and high standards of people between the ages of 20 and 30.
“You have a bad CarFax and I’m supposed to take that?” made me laugh.
I don’t feel like extensively talking about “Jews Rock.” Oh, it’s so funny because it’s applying the message Jews control the media to an educational program! Look! They’re pointing to their cameras at a producer and [adult swim] executives, who we can only assume are Jewish given the way they look displeased and the topic of the sketch! They’re so offensive! They don’t care!
That was sarcasm.
The merits of the show aside, it should not have two highlight moments over the course of ten minutes. A half-hour show can get combo hits with jokes. They seem committed to the anti-humor sketches, but they might have a hit on their hands by including interviews like the ones they did for their YouTube channel. It will have them be more comparable to Eric Andre, but people [aimeemccarthy being one] already accuse the troupe of ripping off Tim and Eric. The YouTube content and the goofs in the second episode show that the show can be its best if they extemporize a bit more.
My first impression of the show with its first episode was that the writers mistook incomprehensibility as a form of asserting intellectual superiority.
The big issue here is that at points in watching MDEs material online and on [adult swim], my mind develops a filter that puts fedoras on the men. I have been to heavily influenced by Internet femenism and seen to much of what Internet femenism makes fun of in the real life to have much patience for guys who are too cool to be funny on a comedy. Chris D’Elia drained me of that patience.
The fandom and the show are serious about taking nothing seriously. Take a look at the reviews of the show on IMDB.
I feel required to sigh. I feel like this could have been written by a number of guys I go to school with. [adult swim] has been called out for the lack of diversity when it comes to the creators of its shows, nearly all of them are white males. Not a single female. With Brad Neely’s Harg Nallin’ Sclopio Peepio already the role of the show that’s “too cool and alt comedy to be funny” has been filled. The 2015-2016 TV season was not a good year for sketch comedy so far. Harg Nallin’ hasn’t had the greatest reception. SNL fired three cast members, and Party Over Here got the axe, but no tears here. Party Over Here perpetuated the belief that women aren’t funny. It’s sad to see the first all-female sketch show cancelled, but now I can look forward to the first successful all-female sketch show. Sketch comedies have been met with animosity, and it’s likely because there is not enough of a diversity of voices to bring fresh material. Let’s not forget the main demographic of [adult swim], 18-49, who have grown to distrust sketch comedy. Those at the lower end of the demographic remember the horrible final seasons of All That and when the show So Random of Sonny with a Chance became its own show on Disney Channel.
So, because I would like to see a success for a sketch comedy for my favorite cable network. Hope for the best, expect the worst, and the second episode was better than the first episode, so maybe it will improve episodically. I could even grow accustomed to the brand of humor and think it’s all great anyway. I will continue to watch, as one watches a fire, or two people punching each other over a piece of cardboard. I am hypnotized by Charls Carroll’s jawline, I’m a woman and I can put up with anything from a man if he’s hot enough.
It is my hope that they follow this man’s advice
It may make World Peace similar to Eric Andre, but at least then it would be more justifiable to have World Peace follow Eric Andre. | {
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[Boycott - Economic - Europe]
Why Boycott Marks & Spencer 2011?
inminds
29 September 2011
On Saturday 24th September 2011, pro-Palestinian activists demonstrated outside Marks & Spencer's flagship store in Oxford Street, London calling for a boycott of the store for its ideological and economic support of the Zionist state.
Why not support the Palestinians and join the picket outside Marks and Spencer on Oxford Street, its held every Thursday between 6-8pm without fail. The closest tube station is Bond Street (W1C 1AP).
Sourcing from settlements
Of course this is just their stated position, in reality M&S still sources from the same settlement exporters Hadiklaim and Agrexco, both of which have a documented history of supplying settlement produce mislabelled as Israeli produce. Also in their correspondence M&S refers to the West Bank and Gaza in the Zionist vocabulary of "disputed territories" rather than "occupied territories" as recognised in international law; and alarmingly M&S appears not to include East Jerusalem as part of this "disputed territory".
A suitable BDS target?
"Simon Marks and Israel Sieff [M&S chairman and M&S director] played a major role in early Zionism. In a virtual coup they ousted the anti-Zionist stalwarts of the British Jews' Board of Deputies. Acolytes of Chaim Weizmann, they set up the Palestine Office in London, which propelled the passage of the 1917 Balfour Declaration (statement of British support for a Jewish state).
Israel's wife Rebecca Sieff, co-founded WIZO (the Womens International Zionist Organisation) in 1920, and helped to run it for 20 years. In 1934 the Marks and Sieff families set up the Daniel Sieff scientific research institute in Rehovot, which in 1948 was incorporated into Israel's renowned Weizmann Institute.." New South Wales Board of Jewish Education
1. Why pick on M&S?
Many in the solidarity movement have never supported the M&S boycott because of M&S's so-called "Jewish connection" feeling the boycott was either inspired by anti-Semitism or otherwise would be seen as anti-Semitic because it was picking on the most visibly "Jewish shop" in the UK. We felt just the opposite, to give M&S a 'free pass' just because of its "Jewish origins" would pander to anti-Semitism.
The reality is that no other business in the UK is so seeped in supporting Zionism as M&S, from its origins in helping lay the foundations for the Balfour declaration, to its long time chairman stating that one of the fundamental objectives of M&S is to aid the economic development of Israel, to its London offices been laid open for official Israeli government meetings - all this at a time when the company was meant to be a PLC, accountable to its shareholders. Employees have admitted that M&S policy was to "fly the flag for Israel and try and encourage its industry", staff were "encouraged" to spend "extra curricular" time supporting "Zionist causes" and "it actually helped your promotion prospects". It can be argued that without M&S Israel would not have a textile industry today, certainly the Israeli textile giant Delta Galil would not have survived without M&S's patronage.
To this day M&S still has a 'buy Israeli' policy although now Israeli companies have moved their sweatshops to Egypt, Jordan, and South East Asia so the M&S label will no longer read 'made in Israel'. With public support for Palestine growing, with a permanent picket camped outside its doors, M&S is now more sheepish in advertising its support for Israel and it closely guards its trade figures also reclassifying much of it as trade with the countries where the Israeli sweatshops are located rather than with where the money goes. We have seen little evidence of any real change, its claim of dropping settlement goods is a hard earned victory which we need to build on.. the boycott continues and expands. With M&S's recent entry in to Egypt a boycott campaign has now been launched in Egypt, inshallah, this will help reinvigorate the M&S boycott across the Arab world.
More on why M&S:
http://www.inminds.co.uk/article.php?id=10443
2. BDS is not about boycotting individual shops (unless they are Israeli!) but boycotting the goods. So while we'd boycott dates from M&S, there is no need to boycott M&S?
A strength of the BDS campaign (BNC) is that it essentially leaves it up to activists to pick their targets and determine what is possible for them. Clearly M&S's relationship with Israel is more than just a business one, the ideological support they have given Israel whilst trading as a PLC cannot otherwise be explained. With this they have made themselves a target for the BDS movement. BTW It's not strictly accurate to suggest that BDS isn't about boycotting shops, the Palestinian BDS National Committee has in the past explicitly called for a boycott of a non-Israeli shop , one that doesn't even sell Israeli goods - H&M in response to its opening of its second store in Israel, the investment coming just on the heels of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza.
3. M&S are now one of the better stores as they do at least try not to sell goods from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Why single them out?
Essentially for us every inch of Israel is occupied Palestine. The distinction between Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and Israel is purely strategic for campaigning as those trading in settlement goods are more vulnerable under international law and EU legislation than those trading in Israeli goods (since Oslo), its the weak link so we pick on it. But at the end of the day an orange from the West Bank and an orange from Israel still amounts to a stolen Palestinian orange.
Also, the Palestinian call for BDS is clear on this point - it calls for a total boycott of Israeli goods and makes no special distinction of settlement goods.
Do you not think that M&S's decision to stop selling OPT goods has something to do with the picket camped outside their flagship stores in London and Manchester for the past 10 years? Our total admiration for those dedicated activists and their resilience to all the attacks they have gone through including asbos, prosecution, physical violence, being hounded at place of work, etc. If anything this is the time to intensify the campaign, not pull the rug from under it.
Source: inminds.com
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Page URL: http://www.inminds.com/article.php?id=10517 | {
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Romania enters top 10 countries with most command and control servers for DDoS attacks
Romania has entered the top ten countries with the most command and control servers for DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks, currently ranking sixth, according to a report by Kaspersky Lab experts.
The Kaspersky DDoS Intelligence system registered DDoS attacks against resources in 72 countries in the first quarter of 2017, slightly fewer than in the last quarter of 2016. The Netherlands and Great Britain replaced Japan and France in the top 10 countries with the most DDoS victims.
“We have seen a significant decline in the number of DDos attacks at the beginning of the year, and this trend has continued for five years,” said Kirill Ilganaev, head of Kaspersky DDoS Protection la Kaspersky Lab.
“This may be due to cyber criminals or their clients taking a break. However, despite this now familiar downturn, we have recorded more attacks between January and March this year than in the first quarter of 2016, which confirms the conclusion that the overall number of DDoS attacks tends to increase. So now it is not the time to let your guard down, on the contrary, it’s better to take care of your protection before the cyber criminals get back to their usual work routine.”
South Korea remains the leader in terms of number of command and control (C&C) servers detected, according to the report. The US comes next, followed by the Netherlands, which took China out of the top three for the first time since the monitoring started. Romania is at number six with a share of 1.35%.
In the first quarter of 2017, the longest DDoS attack lasted 120 hours, being much shorter than the longest attack reported in the previous quarter, of 292 hours.
Irina Popescu, [email protected] | {
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Article content continued
“David Eggen has been targeting Christian education and home-schooling since he came into office. A critical spectator would have to surmise that the revocation of accreditation has more to do with personal politics than the financial accountability of the association,” Soos wrote in the petition’s description.
In an interview, Soos said Eggen’s move was heavy-handed for the degree of alleged mismanagement. It has sparked fear among other religious schools and home-schooling societies they could be under attack, he said.
If the claims are legitimate, Eggen should call a public inquiry, he said.
For more than two decades, Trinity Christian School Association has subcontracted Wisdom Home Schooling of Derwent, Alta., to run its home-schooling program. With families involved from High Level to Lethbridge, it is the largest privately run such association in Alberta, with a third of the province’s students who are home schooled.
All parents who home school their children must register with a public or private board of their choice, which sends teachers to check on their lesson plans twice a year, and reimburses them for educational expenses.
The government gave Trinity Christian nearly $5.4 million in public funds last year, almost all of which was passed directly to Wisdom, says an Alberta Education report prepared during a summer investigation. | {
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September 17, 2015 2 min read
This story appears in the September 2015 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
Check out other industries that are benefiting from launchpads here.
Startups in the legal marijuana business have unique concerns—initially, finding a welcoming bank, credit card provider and landlord. Even those who don’t grow, sell or process the plant face obstacles most entrepreneurs don’t have to deal with. It’s no surprise, then, that incubators serving pot startups have cropped up nationwide to help.
One of the newest is Green Labs Denver, a 35-desk incubator and co-working space for ancillary cannabis businesses, such as apps, vending machines and tourism.
“We’re all facing the same legislative hurdles,” says Green Labs co-founder Mike Looney. The way he sees it, startups in this volatile industry stand a better chance at success by banding together and pooling their resources.
Green Labs’ incubation arm makes equity investments of $30,000 to $250,000 in high-growth-potential startups, Looney says. Besides providing free desk space and business services, the Green Labs team coaches startups on revenue models, sales strategy and investor pitches. Also included: introductions to private investors and free legal advice from attorneys in Green Labs’ extended network.
The incubator has hosted five companies in the past year; Looney expects there to be 10 by year’s end. (Additionally, since opening its doors in spring 2014, the facility has rented co-working space to dozens of non-incubated startups.)
Tapping into Green Labs’ growing network of cannabis professionals has been a boon for The Colorado Experience, a marijuana-friendly vacation rental company that joined the incubator this summer. “Green Labs has really helped us bring in a lot of new leads, facilitate new properties and develop our growth,” says Sebastian Nassau, the startup’s COO.
Further upping the networking ante are Green Labs’ community events, hosted throughout the month (examples: Yoga and Cannabis; and Sushi and Joint Rolling). But during business hours it’s all work and no blaze. “It’s people on their laptops all day,” Looney says. “It’s a very upscale space, and we want to keep it that way.” | {
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BOSTON -- A Massachusetts Senate committee has released a bill that reads like a wish-list for clean energy advocates.
The bill sets more ambitious environmental and regulatory standards, bans fracking in Massachusetts, prohibits residents from being taxed for new natural gas pipelines, eliminates a cap on reimbursements for solar projects and sets the stage for carbon pricing.
"We believe this act, if it is enacted, will protect our public health here in the commonwealth, create literally thousands upon thousands of new jobs in the commonwealth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially," said Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, chairman of the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change.
The bill will now go to the Senate Ways and Means Committee before it can get a vote from the Senate or the House. While it is unlikely to be passed as is, the bill could set the stage for discussions on issues related to clean energy in the Legislature.
The legislation incorporates several bills that have been discussed by House and Senate committees. "This is not a standalone bill dreamt up in the middle of the night by the Senate," Pacheco said.
It includes a host of policies that would promote clean energy while avoiding new natural gas infrastructure.
The bill would prevent the construction of any new natural gas pipelines and prohibit a tax on ratepayers to pay for pipelines. It would require gas companies to repair existing infrastructure to prevent leaks.
Clean energy advocates have been pushing for the implementation of a carbon tax, where residents and businesses pay for the amount of energy they use. The Senate bill would require state officials to implement some form of a market-based system by between 2020 and 2022, depending on the sector of the economy.
The bill would increase the use of solar energy by lifting a cap on reimbursements for people who generate solar energy and return it to the grid. It would make it easier for low-income residents and renters to take advantage of these credits. The bill would increase wind energy by allowing the state to purchase more energy from offshore wind and hydropower.
It would require the state's pension board to divest from fossil fuel companies.
It sets higher standards for a range of measures that would require businesses, utilities and the state to use more renewable energy.
There are also steps to expand the use of electric vehicles.
The goal would be to have Massachusetts use all renewable energy by 2050.
Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Acton, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change, called it "the boldest, most visionary clean energy bill in 10 years."
Environmental and renewable energy groups praised the bill.
Northeast Clean Energy Council President Peter Rothstein said, "NECEC endorses action by the Legislature this session to ensure that the Commonwealth's clean energy economy stays on track, especially in light of mounting headwinds at the federal and state level causing project delays and decelerating growth." Rothstein said the council supports raising the standards for how much energy must be produced by renewable energy, lifting solar net metering caps and fixing the way utilities charge solar customers.
Emily Norton, Massachusetts director of the Sierra Club, said, "This bill is appropriately ambitious and comprehensive, matching the urgency of climate change."
"This comprehensive bill should become law as soon as possible," said Eric Wilkinson, the Environmental League of Massachusetts' general counsel and director of energy policy. "With the federal government turning its back on climate change, it is up to the states to lead the way and this bill does just that." | {
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Cringe-inducing video of the guitar shot this weekend that required Matt Hardy to get 38 stitches has been released. And yes, it’s just as gnarly as it sounds.
The whole thing went down Saturday at Wrestlecade IV in Winston-Salem, North Carolina when Jeff Jarrett hit Matt with his signature guitar after a run-in from Ethan Carter.
However — as you can see in the video — Matt is accidentally hit with the edge of the instrument and begins to heavily bleed afterward.
The spot opened a huge gash on Matt Hardy’s head and he stayed overnight at the hospital for observation, just to be safe. We’re told no internal damage was found by the time he was released.
Watch the video. You’ve been warned. | {
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The researchers tested use of algae meal as part of a regular diet for cattle in series of three different research experiments and found that it boosted dry matter intake (DMI) and was digestible.
“The objectives of these studies were to determine the in vitro digestibility, preference, in situ disappearance, and performance of steers consuming increasing concentrations of ALG (algae meal) in concentrate-based diets,” wrote the researchers in the Journal of Animal Science. They added that because of its different makeup, it could be a possible replacement for corn in the diet.
“Overall, these studies suggest that ALG is highly digestible in concentrate-based diets and could potentially be used as an alternative energy feedstuff in beef feedlot diets. The digestibility studies indicate that ALG is readily digested within the rumen and is intermediate in digestibility between corn and soyhulls,” they reported.
“Additionally, these data suggest that ALG may make an excellent feed ingredient in grower cattle diets, as feed intake was stimulated when greater amounts of ALG were included in the diet,” they added.
The research project was partially funded by Solazyme.
Details of the algae meal
“Looking at the nutritional analysis of the algae meal we saw a combination of fiber (able to be used by cattle), fat (for energy), and protein (for growth),” Stephanie Hansen, associate professor of beef feedlot nutrition at Iowa State University told FeedNavigator. “While some algae products have too much protein or a lot of minerals like iron or aluminum, we didn’t see that with this product, so we knew we had the opportunity to feed it at greater inclusions than previously studied algae products.”
The meal is a mixture of dried, deoiled microalgae bodies and soyhulls and offers a nutrient makeup that is unique from other microalgae feed products, the scientists said. Unlike a pure microalgae product, the substance being tested is comprised of 57% microalgae.
“Because of its favorable nutrient profile, we hypothesized that replacing energy feedstuffs with ALG would have no effect on cattle DMI or growth,” said researchers.
Experiment details
In all three experiments, four diets were used – a control diet of wet corn gluten feed and the control diet with 15% algae meal, 30% algae meal and 45% algae meal substituting part of the corn in the dry matter (DM), stated the study. Before starting the experiments, preliminary work was done to determine it the meal was digestible at the levels used in the trials.
The first trial sought to determine steer preference of the meal, said the researchers. In it, the steer were fed a pairing of the four diets for six separate, five day intervals. Each diet offered amounted to half of the day’s ration and the troughs were inspected every hour for the four hours after initial feeding. A DMI for each steer was determined.
In the second experiment the four diets were delivered for four 14-day intervals. Dacron bags were inserted on day 13 of the trial, they said.
Corn, algae meal, soyhulls and hay were ground and added to duplicate bags in the rumen at 0, 12, 24, and 30 hours to determine estimates of DM disappearance at different times, they said. All bags were removed at 36 hours. Rumen pH was measured at six hours post feeding on the final day of the study.
“Absolute rate of digestion represents the percent of DM digested per hour for the 36-h digestion experiment,” researchers said.
The third test compared the growth and DMI of 48 steers receiving one of the four diets. For the trial, steers were split into one of eight pens and fed a series of intermediate diets before starting one of the four diets used in all the experiments, they said in the study. The steer received the final diet for 55 days. They they were weighed at the start, on days 26 and 27 and at the end. Average daily gain was established as were DMI and the gain:feed (g:f)ratio for each steer.
Results
The first experiment demonstrated, in terms of total DM consumed, that steers favored a diet with 15% or 30% algae meal, when they were paired with a diet that included 45% algae meal, researchers said.
During the four-hour window, there was a “diet x hour” effect as during the first hour, cattle tended to start with the control diet or 15% algae meal diet compared to either the 30% or 45% diets. By the fourth hour, the trend was for more of the 15% or 30% diet to be eaten than the control diet, they said.
In the second experiment, no change was found on the rumen pH six hours after feeding, nor did the researchers report finding that diet or diet x hour altered the “ruminal disappearance of algae, corn, hay or soyhulls.” However, the overall DM disappearance did increase the longer it was in the rumen and the algae meal increased the rate of disappearance during the time window. But, they added, there was “no effect of experimental diet on the absolute rate of disappearance of the bromegrass hay or soyhulls.”
“The disappearance of (algae meal), as well as the lack of differences in rumen pH measured at six hours postfeeding, suggests no discernible negative impacts on the rumen environment, indicating ALG could serve as a viable feedstuff in cattle diets,” researchers concluded.
The final experiment did not see the steers’ midpoint or ending BW change by addition of the algae meal, researchers said. There was a linear increase in DMI as the algae meal increase in the diet and for the first 27 days steers getting 15% and 45% algae meal saw an improved average daily gain. Additionally, the average daily gain linearly improved as the amount of the algae meal increased.
The largest DMI overall was for steer getting 45% algae meal at 8.85kg/d compared to 7.19 kg/d from the steer getting the control diet, reported the study. However, feed efficiency decreased during the study.
However, results also suggest that the product needs additional moisture to be used to the best effect, Hansen said.
“One thing we learned was that the product is so dry that if you want to feed higher inclusions you need some wet ingredients in the diet to help mix the diet and increase palatability to the animal,” she said.
What’s next
After the three-experiment project, the research team ran another study with finishing cattle, said Hansen. Information gathered in that work is in the process of being published.
“As we move forward, the logical next step is to continue to refine the feeding value of the algae meal for cattle under a variety of feeding conditions such as roughage vs. concentrate based diets so that beef producers understand how to take advantage of the product,” she said.
Source: Journal of Animal Science
Title: Determining the preference, in vitro digestibility, in situ disappearance, and grower period performance of steers fed a novel algae meal derived from heterotrophic microalgae
DOI: doi:10.2527/jas.2014-8654
Authors: M. L. Van Emon, D. D. Loy and S. L. Hansen | {
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(Updates with five arrested, quote from protester, charges)
WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - An anti-war protester waved blood-colored hands in U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's face at a congressional hearing on Wednesday and shouted "war criminal!", but was pushed away and detained by police.
"The blood of millions of Iraqis is on your hands!" yelled the protester, Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz of the Code Pink organization which often disrupts hearings on Capitol Hill with protests against the Iraq war.
Rice, an architect of President George W. Bush's Iraq policy, appeared unfazed by the incident, which occurred when she entered a House of Representatives meeting room to testify at a hearing on U.S. Middle East policy.
"Out!," shouted the chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, Rep. Tom Lantos, as plain-clothes security men and police hustled the woman away. The California Democrat also ordered the removal of several other Code Pink activists.
Capitol Police said later five people were arrested, including Ali-Fairooz, who was charged with disorderly conduct and assault on a police officer.
She was also charged with defacing government property for smearing the red paint from her hands on the hallway wall outside the hearing room. The other four protesters faced disorderly conduct charges. | {
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A photo seen on a local Facebook page has residents up in arms and the Mayor shocked and appalled.
The image was posted to the Parc-Ex Action Squad group Facebook page on May 1. The author said it was taken at the corner of Hutchison and Jean-Talon in Parc-Extension. It shows someone holding up a Nazi flag as demonstrators took part in the May Day protests below.
"I am deeply shocked by the hateful gesture" Mayor Valerie Plante said in a Tweet. "It does not reflect the values of inclusion and respect that are near and dear to Montrealers."
"Montreal is an open and welcoming city: Intolerance and racism do not belong here."
Mayor Plante was not the only city official to take notice.
Internet sleuths quickly determined the building the person was standing on was a condo building which needs a key to access the roof. The possibility of one of their neighbours being the individual behind the flag caused many of them to panic and demand answers.
The condo's board of directors is not revealing the identity of the individual but have contacted police and passed along the building's surveillance video to help with any type of investigation.
While Canada's criminal code does not specifically restrict owning or displaying a Nazi flag, sections 318-320 do provide law enforcement agencies the ability to intervene if a flag is used to communicate hatred in a public place. | {
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Hi Ann, just a brief visit after a long forced absence. I have to say it, though Val is my own OC, I so seldom see such a fine and lovely blend of colors used in works of art here at DA. Perhaps I haven't looked far or deep enough, but you do, indeed, have such a skill. It takes my breath when you make such efforts with it. Truly, I am impressed all over again.
I hope you are well, and I hope to be in touch eventually once I deal with a few personal and unfortunately serious health challenges. Real life always overrides the needs of our private souls and psyches. Nevertheless, it is a goal of mine to see certain fictional characters brought to life through art as only you would do it.
(((hugs for you )))
I have been holding a personal prayer for you (should any diety exist) so that you should be well and happy in the Ukraine during such difficult times. So relieved to see you are still here... More later... | {
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A news outlet took issue with the Senate’s Obamacare repeal draft not mentioning “women” in a Friday article, but left out the fact that the bill also doesn’t mention men.
Quartz’s White House correspondent Heather Timmons complained how the Senate draft of the Obamacare repeal bill doesn’t have the word “women” in it at all and only mentions females in the context of abortion.
“The Senate bill was crafted behind closed doors, by 13 men and no women. A search of the language used in the 142-page draft document(pdf) shows that womanhood and motherhood are, quite literally, also omitted from most of the bill itself. Here are the few mentions,” Timmons wrote.
What Timmons failed to mention is the repeal draft doesn’t have the words “men” or “man” in it either.
Timmons continued on with her grievances about how women are talked about in the bill, taking issue with “motherhood” only being discussed in relation to abortion. Timmons was also upset that the word “woman” appeared three times only to discuss abortion and a new work requirement.
“The bill uses the word ‘mother’ twice, both in relation to abortion, and specifically to how it will cut health care for women. On page 8, the bill lays out new definitions of which health care plans qualify under the act, eliminating ones that provide abortion except in rare circumstances,” Timmons wrote.
Timmons claimed that the Affordable Care Act proved it was trying to make health care better for the female population by mentioning “women” multiple times.
“The Affordable Care Act, on the other hand, contains dozens of specific mentions of ‘women’ that have nothing to do with abortion or work requirements. It is clear that it was written in part to make healthcare better and more accessible for women,” she wrote.
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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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Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday reported its fifth new oil discovery after drilling the Turbot-1 well offshore Guyana with the Stena Carron drillship.
“The results from this latest well further illustrate the tremendous potential we see from our exploration activities offshore Guyana,” ExxonMobil Exploration Co. President Steve Greenlee said in a company announcement. “ExxonMobil, along with its partners, will continue to further evaluate opportunities on the Stabroek Block.”
According to ExxonMobil, Turbot is the latest in a string of discoveries in Guyana. Previous discoveries in the South American country include Liza, Payara, Snoek and Liza Deep. The company said that its affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd. began drilling Turbot-1 on Aug. 14, 2017, and encountered a reservoir of 75 feet (23 meters) of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone in the primary objective.
According to Wood Mackenzie, the Turbot-1 discovery “puts Guyana on the map” because the country currently produces no oil.
“ExxonMobil continues with its successful exploration campaign offshore Guyana with the discovery of Turbot,” said Pablo Medina, Wood Mackenzie’s senior analyst, Latin America Upstream. “This shows that deepwater can still be attractive. After today’s announcement, ExxonMobil’s Liza and Payara complex might approach the 2 billion barrel mark in commercial reserves.”
Wood Mackenzie expects Guyana to be one of Latin America’s top oil producers by 2026 with approximately 350,000 to 400,000 barrels per day of oil production, noted Medina.
“ExxonMobil’s Latin America footprint has increased significantly with its recent stream of discoveries in Guyana and its aggressive bidding in Brazil’s latest licensing round,” Medina said.
Turbot-1 is located in the southeastern portion of the Stabroek Block roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of the Liza phase one project, ExxonMobil stated. Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd. operates the 6.6 million-acre (26,800-square kilometer) Stabroek Block and holds a 45-percent interest in it. Others holding stakes in the acreage include Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. (30 percent) and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Ltd. (25 percent).
ExxonMobil also noted the Stena Carron will move to the Ranger prospect. The company added that it plans to drill an additional well on the Turbot discovery next year. | {
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Ev Williams has said that Medium is a platform, not a publisher. Despite its title and apparent initial focus on long features, it’s become increasingly known as a place for writers to post short-form content. It’s also proven popular with companies, as we saw earlier this week when Amazon’s Jay Carney and The New York Times’ Dean Baquet used the platform to attack and defend the paper’s Amazon investigation. Around 20,000 people are creating posts every week, and it gets 25 million unique visitors a month. Now Williams is trying to steer the service toward big brand dollars.
At the Kairos Summit in Los Angeles last week, Williams and his partner James Joaquin pitched their new venture capital fund Obvious Ventures to a room full of fledgling entrepreneurs. Joaquin described his partnership with Williams as "world positive investing," meaning renewable energy, health and wellness, and education. About an hour before, I sat down with Williams to discuss the next phase of his new fund, Medium, and how writers might make money on it.
To do that, Williams says Medium, which has raised $82 million since its 2012 founding, will be a tool for top-tier creatives to get brand deals. He says the next phase of Medium is about linking writers with brands, with Medium acting as the go-between, vetting creators. Meaning, in part, a native advertising hub filled with long-tail content. Here’s Williams on what's next for Medium.
Adam Popescu: You’ve said Obvious Ventures invests in companies you wish existed. What exactly do you wish existed?
Ev Williams: It’s the old William Gibson quote: "The future’s already here, it’s just not evenly distributed." Advances in technology will help fuel the spread of any solution, but there are so many solutions to problems that aren’t to scale yet. We see this huge opportunity, so many examples. If you look at [the company] Tesla, Tesla’s success isn’t based on fundamental scientific breakthrough. It’s great engineering, for sure, and they’ve made advances, but they’ve put so many pieces together to create great deals that helped that company succeed against all odds.
"The web itself wasn’t meeting that need to its full potential."
I started Medium with the intention that there’s a better way to support quality ideas, thinking, stories we don’t yet have on the internet. Social media filled a gap that we didn’t know existed before, and Twitter and its followers so-to-speak have created a layer of real-time information that is extremely powerful. But that doesn’t suffice to help explain our world, or drive deeper understanding and connection. The web itself wasn’t meeting that need to its full potential. That’s why we created Medium. And while I was working on Medium, I was talking with James Joaquin about how do we make more good things happen — so we came up with the plan for Obvious, to help things succeed that we want in the world.
Nine months ago, Medium felt like a place for long form. Then there seemed to be a switch to short form. What’s your vision?
The vision never changed. Think about it like a magazine: a couple feature articles which are pages long, then a one-page column, little blurbs, and all that stuff goes together. That’s the way we always saw Medium. It was always for what we saw as medium- to long-form content. It was always meant to be anything longer than a tweet to go on Medium — as long as it was less ephemeral and had some lasting value.
What happened to get a lot of attention were the longer pieces. It’s also the case that the design didn’t necessarily optimize — if you wanted to write a paragraph, it looked funny on Medium, so those are the changes we made, but it wasn’t a shift in vision. Anyone who has ideas and stories to share with the world. It’s — who publishes to the web? or, who uses blogs? It’s all of the above. That’s who Medium is for. Tons of brands use it.
So, what’s next for Medium?
There’s tons published every day. From nonprofits, to brands, lots of big brands, small brands, individuals obviously. We saw the same thing at Twitter — this is more true of Medium today than it was at Twitter — after a while, people would say Twitter is all tech and startups. The only people on Twitter are Silicon Valley people.
"After a while, people would say Twitter is all tech and startups."
Medium is a little bit in that stage now. It’s early, and there’s a lot of stuff you just don’t see because you’re not connected to it. And we need to do a much better job ourselves of surfacing that. That’s something we’re spending more time on now.
Our first couple years, we were spending time helping to get — helping folks on the creation side — that’s still the driver, but now there’s enough that we need to work a lot more on discovery.
Is Medium a place for writers to make money?
One big thing that’s not there yet that we just announced last week is to help creators monetize if they’re at the more professional level. And we haven’t rolled out exactly — we haven’t rolled out any features around that — but I think the building blocks are there.
Meaning native advertising?
I don’t think there’s one way that monetizing makes sense for all types of content. There’s going to be sponsorships and branded dollars on the platform. Our vision is to connect quality creators with brands who may want to work with them. [It’s] more than for us to necessarily sell ads and give every writer a few pennies.
"Our vision is to connect quality creators with brands."
There’s interesting things we could do around premium content and subscriptions. A number of outlets are seeing success in that, even as stand-alone sites. Something like that is easy to imagine, and [it’s] going to work a lot better on the platform.
Connecting creators with brands — almost an agency model? Medium vetting creators with brands?
It’s too early to say any more details about how that’s going to work. We — because a lot of people are asking, we just put out the news that we’re definitely going to do that, and we’ll be talking about it more as we know more details.
Can you give a time frame?
Later this year, early next year.
Here you are running a major technology company, one of several you’ve had major success. Obviously you made the right moves — can you tell me a mistake you’ve made as an entrepreneur?
Not listening to my gut. And what I’ve tried to do now is, if in doubt, I’d rather be wrong based on what I think the answer is, to any decision, than right, based on other people’s inputs. Not that I won’t take other peoples’ inputs and try to get smarter about a situation.
Young entrepreneurs tend to get in over [their] head very quickly, that’s the nature of starting things. When you’re in over your head, it’s very natural to look around and ask, "What should I do?" That’s why you bring on investors and advisers. And that’s critical. But where the mistakes happen is when lots of well-meaning people who have lots of experience and knowledge give you advice. And you let that override your gut. That’s when you lose that authenticity. The mission. The directive. Or the product veers in a way you wouldn’t if left to your gut. | {
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The finale had its flaws and may not have satisfied everyone, but the series had made its mark well before the end -- with writing and acting more important than plot.
This column contains spoilers to the season finale of True Detective. Watch before reading.
It's likely that wherever you fell on the spectrum about the need for, the execution of and the overall satisfaction surrounding the final mystery in HBO's terrific True Detective, depended on what show you were watching.
Because True Detective, the eight-episode anthology series starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, was very much a tale of two shows. Television is a writer's medium first, followed closely by the need for talented actors to pull off and bring to life that dialogue.
True Detective's brilliance indeed lies hard in the writing and the acting, so watching Rust and Marty talking in cars was a magnificent combination of both. You probably couldn't sell a story about existential cops in a pitch meeting, but series creator Nic Pizzolatto's exceptional prose sealed the deal and the series got made.
TV RATINGS: 'True Detective' Finale Scores Series High
Beyond existential cops who struggle with their relationship to each other and the relationships around them, True Detective was about a bizzare collection of serial murders, the occult, the strange off-the-grid nature of rural Louisiana and about how the emotionally corrosive nature of police work -- especially when it touches on humanity's darkest sides -- can rot even the strongest man from the inside.
That murder mystery -- who killed a girl and then elaborately staged a satanic death altar in the middle of a remote field? -- was essentially the motor that fueled the series (as too were the other unexplained deaths and missing children reports that detectives Hart and Cohle were piecing together). But if finding out the whodunit was the motivating factor for watching True Detective, then you were watching mostly for a different reason than those of us who could have watched Rust talk to Marty on a road trip across the country, with no murder to solve at all.
That's why leading up to the finale -- a new cast and a different story will be in place in season two -- there seemed a need to tamp down wild and speculative theories about who did it and what all the devil worshipping elements really meant. Pizzolatto himself downplayed the actual mystery as the essential part of the series, but viewers are conditioned to want answers (and, too often, ones that close out the mystery in black and white).
STORY: HBO Go Crashes During 'True Detective' Finale
Taking that into consideration and, ultimately, how the relationship between Rust and Marty changed in the finale, it wasn't the greatest of endings. But neither did it detract from the overall impact of the series, Pizzolatto's clear talent, the superb acting by everybody on the series but especially McConaughey and Harrelson, plus the beautiful directing of Cary Joji Fukunaga.
True Detective ends its first season as a thrilling, conceptually intriguing idea brought to life by vivid and memorable language and two magnificent acting performances.
But as the ending goes, there seemed to be enough shortened payoff to probably irritate those strictly in the mystery camp and, for the rest of us, the reversal of Rust's nihilistic tendencies in a too-pat metaphor of darkness and light brawling for supremacy in the world (and our souls).
We found out the killer -- Erroll Childress, who worked up and down the coast as a maintenance worker at rural schools. He was freaky squared, but we barely knew anything about him until this final episode, and while that didn't offset for me the power of the series, it just emphasizes after the fact that the actual crimes in True Detective were handled rather straightforwardly and thus were the backdrop to a stage where we got to see Rust and Marty essentially waiting for Godot, or if you prefer the mythology of the series, either The Yellow King or Carcosa. Thus, what Rust and Marty were doing professionally was less important than how they went about it, what they said during it and how it destroyed them in the process.
But since Pizzolatto intriguingly set out in this world of his the mythology of The Yellow King and Carcosa, some people will feel like they didn't get the answers or the meanings they desired.
And yet, despite loving so much about True Detective, it seemed that other aspects of the finale were more disappointing than not getting concrete answers. For example, the compelling flashback and flash-forward element that whiplashed these eight episodes to and fro was riveting, but in the finale, Rust in particular looked a lot more vibrant than any time we saw him being interviewed by detectives Gilbough (Michael Potts) and Papania (Tory Kittles).
STORY: HBO's 'True Detective' Is Averaging 10.9 Million Viewers
Could his time spent reunited with Marty, working the case as private detectives, have brought more focus and purpose to his life than when he was drinking beers all day and cutting them up with a knife? Sure. But to have Rust in that bright white designer shirt and showing cat-quick reflexes with his gun while tracking Childress, something seemed a bit off there.
And, also minorly troubling, True Detective had a beautiful, strange look to it as untraditional, unfamiliar Louisiana became a palette for Fukunaga. But the finale had a moment -- where Rust has a vision inside Carcosa just before Childress gets the jump on him -- that was a visual trick, an outlier that hadn't been employed. And in the waning minutes of the finale, we got Rust portrayed in several Christ-like images and poses that was a departure from much of the original cinematography. Meaning, had Fukunaga and Pizzolatto tried to infuse previous visuals (outside of the occult elements) into metaphors, we would have known that it was part of their intention, part of the show's ongoing visual narrative. But to add such stark elements at the end seemed a bit forced. Included in this aspect was shooting Rust's perspective of Marty, while sitting in the wheelchair, from so low that Marty's head became like an enormous illuminated planet, with the stars and the dark skies behind him.
Since that leaked into the duo's discussion about darkness and light and recalled Rust's star-gazing past in Alaska, there was at least a verbal precedent. But to attach so much visual meaning to those final moments seemed a stretch. It was enough for Rust to find some sliver of hope without having to layer on these visual tricks.
But none of that was ultimately a deal-breaker. In fact, the deal was already locked in place in those early, dialogue and existential heavy moments between Rust and Marty in the car. Those "time is a flat circle" days of two disparate men bantering was the hook that True Detective set in me. Getting all the puzzle pieces together (or not) was of less interest all along.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @BastardMachine | {
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“This case sends a signal that governments need to abide by modern treaties they’ve signed,” he said.
The joint commission, which was made up of appointees from the First Nations and the Yukon government, spent seven years negotiating with both sides before presenting a final recommendation in 2011 to set aside 80 percent of the wilderness for conservation, with the rest allotted for road construction and resource extraction. But in 2014, the Yukon government rejected the commission’s plan and adopted its own version, which would have opened more than two-thirds of the area to industrial development.
The First Nations, joined by two environmental groups, filed a lawsuit, arguing that the government had violated its treaty obligations and must accept the commission’s final recommendation. Two lower courts ruled in their favor but disagreed over whether the government could rewind negotiations for a better deal.
In its decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Yukon government had acted in bad faith, and can only approve, reject or modify the commission’s final recommendation after further consultations with indigenous groups.
“Yukon’s changes to the Final Recommended Plan did not respect the land use planning process in the Final Agreements and its conduct was not becoming of the honor of the Crown,” the court said, referring to the Canadian government. | {
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Elmore Leonard, who died almost exactly one year ago, was probably the most cinematic novelist in the English language, known for his unerringly spare prose and ear-pleasing dialogue. Despite this, his writing suffered notoriously bumpy transitions from the page to the screen. It wasn’t for lack of trying: More than two dozen of Leonard’s novels and short stories have been adapted for film or television.
Among the most successful of these adaptations, as I argued in this essay, has been FX’s Justified, which will enter its sixth and final season next year. To coincide with its publication of Elmore Leonard: Four Novels of the 1970s, the Library of America sent The Atlantic this video of Timothy Olyphant, the star of Justified, reading a passage from one of those novels, Swag.
Published in 1976, Swag is the story of two men, Frank Ryan and Ernest “Stick” Stickley. (The latter would reappear as the protagonist of Leonard’s 1983 novel Stick, which was adapted into a very bad motion picture starring and directed by Burt Reynolds.) The two meet when Stick boosts a car from the dealership where Frank is working. Frank initially identifies Stick to the police but later, at trial, changes his mind, enabling Stick to get off. He does this in part due to the coincidence of their first names. As he explains, “I started thinking about that old saying about being frank and earnest. You be frank and I’ll be earnest.” But the principal reason Frank allows Stick to stay out of jail is that he’s looking for a partner with whom to undertake a series of armed robberies. | {
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This is part two of a two-part series on dynamic contagion. Part one is here.
Last time I discussed how the dynamic type tends to spread through a program like a virus: if an expression of dynamic type “touches” another expression then that other expression often also becomes of dynamic type. Today I want to describe one of the least well understood aspects of method type inference, which also uses a contagion model when dynamic gets involved.
Long-time readers know that method type inference is one of my favourite parts of the C# language; for new readers who might not be familiar with the feature, let me briefly describe it. The idea is that when you have a method, say:
Select<A, R>(IEnumerable<A> items, Func<A, R> projection)
and a call to the method, say:
Select(customers, c=>c.Name)
then we infer that you meant to call:
Select< Customer, string >(customers, c=>c.Name)
rather than making you spell it out. In that case, we would first infer that the list of customers is an IEnumerable<Customer> and therefore the type argument corresponding to A is Customer . From that we would infer that lambda parameter c is of type Customer , and therefore the result of the lambda is string , and therefore type argument corresponding to R is string . This algorithm is already complicated, but when dynamic gets involved, it gets downright weird.
The problem that the language designers faced when deciding how method type inference works with dynamic is exacerbated by our basic design goal for dynamic , that I mentioned two weeks ago: the runtime analysis of a dynamic expression honours all the information that we deduced at compile time. We only use the deduced-at-runtime types for the parts of the expression that were actually dynamic; the parts that were statically typed at compile time remain statically typed at runtime, not dynamically typed. Above we inferred R after we knew A , but what if customers had been of type dynamic ? We now have a problem: depending on the runtime type of customers, type inference might succeed dynamically even though it seems like it must fail statically. But if type inference fails statically then the method is not a candidate, and, as we discussed two weeks ago, if the candidate set of a dynamically-dispatched method group is empty then overload resolution fails at compile-time, not at runtime. So it seems that type inference must succeed statically!
What a mess. How do we get out of this predicament? The spec is surprisingly short on details; it says only:
Any type argument that does not depend directly or indirectly on an argument of type dynamic is inferred using [the usual static analysis rules]. The remaining type arguments are unknown. […] Applicability is checked according to [the usual static analysis rules] ignoring parameters whose types are unknown.[1. That last clause is a bit unclear in two ways. First, it really should say “whose types are in any way unknown”. L<unknown> is considered to be an unknown type. Second, along with skipping applicability checking we also skip constraint satisfaction checking. That is, we assume that the runtime construction of L<unknown> will provide a type argument that satisfies all the necessary generic type constraints.]
So what we have here is essentially another type that spreads via a contagion model, the “unknown” type. Just as “possibly infected” is the transitive closure of the exposure relation in simplistic epidemiology, “unknown” is the transitive closure of the “depends on” relation in method type inference.
For example, if we have:
void M<T, U>(T t, L<U> items)
with a call
M(123, dyn);
Then type inference infers that T is int from the first argument. Because the second argument is of dynamic type, and the formal parameter type involves type parameter U , we “taint” U with the “unknown type”.
When a tainted type parameter is “fixed” to its final type argument, we ignore all other bounds that we have computed so far, even if some of the bounds are contradictory, and infer it to be “unknown”. So in this case, type inference would succeed and we would add M<int, unknown> to the candidate set. As noted above, we skip applicability checking for arguments that correspond to parameters whose types are in any way tainted.
But where does the transitive closure of the dependency relationship come into it? In the C# 4 and 5 compilers we did not handle this particularly well, but in Roslyn we now actually cause the taint to spread. Suppose we have:
void M<T, U, V>(T t, L<U> items, Func<T, U, V> func)
and a call
M(123, dyn, (t, u)=>u.Whatever(t));
We infer T to be int and U to be unknown. We then say that V depends on T and U , and so infer V to be unknown as well. Therefore type inference succeeds with an inference of M<int, unknown, unknown> .
The alert reader will at this point be protesting that no matter what happens with method type inference, this is going to turn into a dynamic call, and that lambdas are not legal in dynamic calls in the first place. However, we want to get as much high-quality analysis done as possible so that IntelliSense and other code analysis works correctly even in badly broken code. It is better to allow U to infect V with the “unknown taint” and have type inference succeed, as the specification indicates, than to bail out early and have type inference fail. And besides, if by some miracle we do in the future allow lambdas to be in dynamic calls, we’ll already have a sensible implementation of method type inference.
This is part two of a two-part series on dynamic contagion. Part one is here. | {
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Puzzle Warriors 3 One-Hundred Twenty-Third episode. (Podcast #123)
"We resolve to play more MPQ"
Covering 1/3-1/10 2018
* This weeks events:
: Deadpool dailies:
wed Sentry, The Punisher (Dark Reign), Blade (Daywalker), Wolverine (Patch), Human Torch (Classic), Colossus, Cyclops, Hood
: Crash of the Titans: Professor x and Cyclops is next
* PVE Events:
: enemy of the state, 33.5k is 6 doom covers, 70k is yellow and gree Merica, 111k is 66 CP. 1-50 is LockJaw, 51-400 is Human Torch
: Unstable ISO 8, progression gets Human torch and Lockjaw. Placement get you Cloak and Dagger
: Shield Training still going
* PVP Events:
: Its the Hey Season, Soul Season!
: shield sim, 900 red ragnarok, 1200, 1400, 1700 are daredevil, 2000 is blue nico
: The Real McCoy, Progression gets Beast and Ironheart. 1200 15cp. 1-10 is Rocket and Groot, 11-50 is Hood.
* Roster slot discount. 20% off
* R143
* And, this week BOOSTED CHARACTERS:
4-Star: Agent Coulson, Gamora (Awesome Mix Volume 2), The Hulk (The Main Event), Medusa, Wolverine (X-Force)
3-Star: Blade (Daywalker), Steve Rogers (Super Soldier), Daredevil (Man Without Fear), Squirrel Girl, Vision
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Vanhan asuntolainan marginaali kannattaa kilpailuttaa varsinkin silloin, jos se on yli yhden prosentin.
Harva tulee ajatelleeksi, että vanhan asuntolainan marginaalin voi kilpailuttaa milloin tahansa, vaikkei ole muuttamassa uuteen asuntoon.
Vanhojen asuntolainojen marginaalien kilpailuttaminen kannattaa erityisesti silloin, kun lainan nostosta on kulunut useampi vuosi. Yli yhden prosentin marginaalit asuntolainoissa ovat tänä päivänä tasolla, joissa on laskuvaraa.
Pankit haluavat pitää kiinni hyvistä asiakkaista, ja pelkkä viestin lähettäminen marginaalin laskusta omalle pankille yleensä tuottaa jo tulosta. Sinnikkyys palkitaan kilpailutuksessa: oman pankin lisäksi kannattaa kilpailuttaa pari muutakin pankkia.
Parhaimmillaan voi saada marginaalinsa jopa puolitettua, mikä saattaa tarkoittaa esimerkiksi 200 000 euron lainassa noin 1 000 euron säästöä vuodessa.
Jokainen asuntovelallinen on tietenkin yksilöllinen tapaus. Pankit tutkivat tarkasti velallisen taustat ja arvioivat asiakkaan maksukyvyn myös tulevaisuudessa. Tulot, ammatti, koulutus ja esimerkiksi perhetilanne voivat vaikuttaa marginaalin kokoon.
Asunnon vakuusarvo on myös yksi tekijä, jota arvioidaan. Halutun alueen asunnon riskiä pidetään pienempänä.
Asuntolainoja myöntävän Hypoteekkiyhdistyksen pankinjohtaja Sami Vallinkoski sanoo, että asuntolainojen marginaalit ovat viime vuosina tasaisesti laskeneet. Hypon tilastoissa pääkaupunkiseudulla lainamarginaalit liikkuvat nyt 0,55–0,75 prosentissa. Maakunnissa ne ovat kilpailun puutteen vuosi korkeammat.
Vallinkoski sanoo, että vanhoja asuntolainan marginaaleja kilpailutetaan yleensä asunnonvaihdon yhteydessä.
”Lainamarginaali kannattaa kilpailuttaa, jos lainan nostosta on kulunut useampi vuosi.”
”Pelkkään alhaiseen marginaaliin katsominen voi kuitenkin johtaa harhaan, jos mukaan leivotaan ylimääräisiä kuluja tai muita pankkituotteita”, Vallinkoski muistuttaa.
Ylimääräinen kulu voi olla esimerkiksi pankille maksettava isohko lainannostopalkkio, jonka asiakas uudesta lainasta joutuu maksamaan.
Pankit yrittävät myös muuttaa vanhoja lainaehtoja esimerkiksi euribor-lainojen osalta. Kuukauden tai kolmen kuukauden euribor-lainoja ei käytännössä enää myönnetä ja asiakkaalle myydään 12 kuukauden euriboria.
Osuuspankin tilastoissa uusien asuntolainojen marginaalien hinnat liikkuvat yhden prosentin molemmin puolin.
”Korkeimmillaan uusien asuntoluottojen marginaalit olivat vuonna 2013. Tämän jälkeen marginaalit ovat jonkin verran alentuneet – muutos on ollut keskimäärin alle puoli prosenttiyksikköä”, sanoo OP:n pankkitoiminnasta vastaava johtaja Jouko Pölönen.
”Sen sijaan vanhojen asuntolainojen marginaalien kilpailutusta ei ole ollut paljon”, Pölönen kertoo.
Nordean Kiinnitysluottopankin toimitusjohtajan Tom Millerin mukaan Nordean myöntämien asuntolainojen keskiarvomarginaali on alle 0,9 prosenttia, eikä ero ole merkittävä pääkaupunkiseudun ja muun Suomen välillä.
”Myönnämme vuodessa noin viidellä miljardilla asuntolainoja. Vanhojen asuntolainojen kilpailuttaminen ei ole ollut kovin yleistä”, Miller sanoo.
Pankkiasiantuntijoiden kommenteista voikin päätellä, ettei kilpailutusmahdollisuudesta tiedetä tai sitten se koetaan työlääksi. Pienissä asuntolainoissa kilpailutuksen hyödyt voidaan kokea vaivaan nähden liian pieniksi. Rahaa se kuitenkin on pienikin raha.
Korkojen nousuun voi jo varautua
Tällä hetkellä euribor-lainojen koroilla ei ole juuri merkitystä asuntovelalliselle, sillä ne ovat miinuksella.
Korot eivät kuitenkaan ole loputtomiin alhaalla. Niiden noustessa yleensä kuukauden ja kolmen kuukauden koroissa on ollut pienempi korko kuin vuoden euriborissa. Euribor-lainojen pituuksista kannattaa myös neuvotella, sillä korkojen nousu on edessä.
Pankkien asiantuntijat arvoivat, että seuraavan viiden vuoden aikana korot nousevat pari prosenttia ja lainamarginaalit pysyvät nykyisellä tasolla, suhteellisen alhaalla.
Korkojen nousun puolesta puhuu Euroopan keskuspankki EKP:n elvyttävä rahapolitiikka, joka kiihdyttää Euroopan ja Suomen taloutta. Talouskasvun myötä EKP tulee suurella todennäköisyydellä nostamaan myös ohjauskorkoaan, mikä vaikuttaa suoraan myös euribor-korkoihin.
Korkojen taso ja nousunopeus ovat kuitenkin arvioiden varassa. Rahapolitiikassa edetään yleensä maltillisesti, mutta korkojen nousuun on jo hyvä varautua. | {
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One of motorcycle racing’s first true superstars– Geoff Duke, known simply as “The Duke” by his circuit peers and fans, was a six-time World Champion (racking up 33 Grand Prix victories along the way), who dominated the ’50s racing scene, winning three of his titles on Snortin’ Norton bikes. After bringing home the championship three years in a row for Norton (’50, ’51 & ’52), in ’53 he moved on to race for Italy’s Gilera– not exactly an endearing move with the British fans and press, but nonetheless ‘The Duke” continued his winning streak, and would eventually find himself racing Nortons again down the road.
Duke’s racing prowess was a boost for Norton, who struggled to regain their racing foothold against the evolving postwar technology as their single cylinder machine was up against the advanced, more powerful multi-cylinder engines being cranked out by the Italians and AJS on home soil. What Norton did get right was their legendary shock-absorbing “featherbed” racing frame. The name was coined when Isle of Man TT racer Harold Daniell was quoted as saying that it was like “riding on a featherbed” as compared to riding on a “garden gate” when compared to conventional racing frames. Their featherbed frame technology, with a lower center of gravity and shorter wheelbase, combined with finessed engine placement to further maximize bike handling, were crucial in keeping the Norton Manx competitive– the mother of all badass cafe racers that are still loved today.
Ultimately, Norton frames were paired with Triumph engines by motorheads looking to create hybrid bikes that became known as “Tritons” — effectively combining their respective strengths to create fierce racing machines.
1952– The legendary Geoff Duke astride a 500cc Norton bike at the Dutch TT, Assen, the Netherlands. via
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1951, Northern Ireland, UK– The line-up for the start of the Senior World Championship motorcycle race in Ulster. The winner was British motorcyclist Geoff Duke (No. 55) on a Norton bike. –Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
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1951, Ulster, Ireland– Motorcycle racer Geoffrey Duke walks past fans to the officials’ stand after winning a race. Duke was the first to wear a one-piece leather, seen above. –Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
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1950, Isle of Man, UK– British motorcyclist Geoff Duke races on a Norton bike in the Tourist Trophy Races. –Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
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1950, Isle of Man– Mechanics work on two Norton motorcycles before the start of the Tourist Trophy Race. –Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
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1950, Isle of Man, UK– British motorcyclist Harold Daniell takes a corner fast on his Norton bike in the Senior Tourist Trophy Race. –Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
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1950, UK– British motorcyclist Geoff Duke is congratulated by his opponents after winning the Senior Tourists Trophy Race on the Isle of Man. His average race speed was 92.27 m.p.h. Other members of the winning Norton team pictured are 40 year old Harold Daniell (left, wearing glasses), a triple winner of the event; John Lockett (shaking Duke’s hand) who came third and Artie Bell (far right) who was a close second. Duke was the first to wear a one-piece leather, seen above. –Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
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1955, Dundrod, Belfast, Northern Ireland– Flashing by at speed competing in the 500cc event at the International Ulster Grand Prix is John Hartle (Norton) who finished second in this class. 17/8/55. MJH.M.3. — Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
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Tritons– 130-mph road-going racebikes with genuine track quality, speed and handling. via
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For almost forty years, the Manx Norton dominated motorcycle road racing. World champions Geoff Duke and Mike Hailwood used its combination of reliability, fine handling and outright speed to win countless races all over the world.Now, almost fifty years after production of the 500cc 30M model ceased, Norton has reproduced this iconic motorcycle to exacting specifications. via
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Aaron Dykes
Activist Post
Bilderberg insider and EU Commissioner Viviane Reding launched plans to transform the EU’s Intelligence Analysis Centre (INTCEN) into a full-blown EU superstate spy agency back in 2013.
Were the Paris terror shootings a false flag? The lack of blood seen in footage of the incident, along with plenty of other, typical factors suggest as much.
What else is new?
But what is often equally telling with signature staged events, as Paris may well have been, is the political agenda to justify power that emerges in the wake of violence, bloodshed and tragedy.
You know, afterwards. When the pieces are picked up, and used to revitalize unpopular governments and their mechanisms of control.
Such is the case with the post-Charlie Hebdo world, freshly jolted into fear by “the bloodiest attack on French soil in half a century.”
‘Hebdo Demands European Intelligence Powers’
The Peninsula is reporting on calls by the Italian Prime Minister to set up a new European Union-wide intelligence agency that would establish even greater broad powers for the already undemocratic European superstate government.
Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called Friday for the European Union to have its own intelligence agency following the bloodiest attack on French soil in half a century. “We have the common currency and we must also have a common security and intelligence system. Europe must be united against terrorism,” the premier said, according to Italian media reports.
Though some EU officials deny any plans for such an agency, it has come to light that Viviane Reding, an EU Commissioner who attended Bilderberg in 2013 and 2014, announced plans for an EU spy agency in 2013 to be completed by 2020:
EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding had floated the idea in 2013 when she announced long-term plans to get a spy agency up and running by 2020. Former Asked if the commission intends to put forward a proposal on turning a little known intelligence unit inside the EU’s foreign affairs branch into an intelligence agency, commission spokesperson Natasha Bertuad said “No”. The commission instead wants to enhance data-sharing at the EU level by making sure its EU intelligence analysis centre (IntCen) works better with other EU agencies like Europol, the EU’s joint police body. Integrated into the EU’s foreign policy branch, the External Action Service (EEAS), IntCen is meant to provide a situational picture of crisis moments like last week’s Charlie Hebdo shooting.
While not everyone is on board, there has been shows of support by several important European figures:
Dutch liberal MEP Sophie Int’Veld on Monday said IntCen should be transformed into an intelligence agency so long as it has “a proper treaty base, a legislative framework and arrangements for democratic oversight.”
Perfect news for the power of the European Union and the resolve of the military contractors who’ve feared a lapse in winning the profits of a roaming battle against ideas.
U.S. and UK Reassert Spy Powers, Too
Moreover, the so-called “Five Eyes” – comprised of the intelligence networks in the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, are set to meet in London to discuss broader terrorism fighting strategy:
The five nations that make up the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network will meet in London next week to confer on strategies to fight terrorism in the wake of the Paris attacks, Canadian officials said on Tuesday.
And, of course, London is calling for more spy power, via MI5 chief Andrew Parker:
Amid a backlash against digital surveillance after disclosures by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden in 2013, Mr. Parker said there was a growing imbalance between the number of terrorist plots against Britain and the ability of spies to track their communications. , Mr. Parker said there was a growing imbalance between the number of terrorist plots against Britain and the ability of spies to track their communications. Speaking at MI5 headquarters late on Thursday, he warned against an atmosphere in which privacy was “so absolute and sacrosanct that terrorists and others who mean us harm can confidently operate from behind those walls without fear of detection.” “If we are to do our job, MI5 will continue to need to be able to penetrate their communications as we have always done,” he said. “That means having the right tools, legal powers and the assistance of companies which hold relevant data.”
Touché, Mr. Snowden.
It would seem that with the Jihadist assault on Paris – against a satirical newspaper, no less – the War on Terror is back on and, this time, it will help to build up the secrecy and power of the EU superstate. Never underestimate the power of satire and weaponized irony in a time of war.
Recall that America’s Department of Homeland Security was brought to power after 9/11, and enjoyed a Fog of War atmosphere that provided little criticism in official circles and nearly unlimited funding to grant it expansive umbrella powers over nearly every federal agency in the nation and even sway over state and local law enforcement activities as well.
The same auspicious power grab now stands to be repeated, catching the European population unaware during a time of fear.
Make no mistake, terrorism as we know it is a tool. Despite its unfixed image, it is used towards very practical and definite ends. Stay vigilant on that, how about?
Bilderberg, and Global Integration, Once Again in the Shadows
The European Union itself came to be through stealth, during a long, gradual climb out of the shadows.
The role of the secretive Bilderberg in transforming a humble European Coal and Steel Community agreement, dating to 1951, into continent wide union (transcending individual nations) remains largely unknown and under reported.
However, the successful creation of a Europe with common borders, common tariffs, a common currency (a project which former Bilderberg chairman and EU commissioner Etienne Davignon bragged about hatching) and, afterwards, common laws, common financial regulations, a powerful council and a superstate Parliament is monumental.
Ever greater integration into the European Union, including the adoption of new members from the Eastern bloc and beyond, is part of the ambition, too, and a continent wide intelligence agency would clearly be a noteworthy achievement for a system bent towards total power on a global scale.
It was Bilderberg’s own EU Commissioner Viviane Reding who took Eric Holder to task in the summer of 2013 with a strongly-worded letter (and a public meeting) criticizing the abuses by U.S. spy agencies against Europeans and their data.
The PRISM scandal “hit a raw nerve” because Europeans “care about their privacy.” She stated that new tools enabling Europeans to “deal with this kind of scenario are contained in the European Commission’s proposal.” Reding said she had “serious concerns” about the recent reports of “large-scale” accessing and processing of EU citizens’ data using major online service providers in an article for The New York Times.She stated that new tools enabling Europeans to “deal with this kind of scenario are contained in the European Commission’s proposal.” While Reding was publicly standing her ground against the politicians she is ultimately accountable to, the behind-the-scenes political and diplomatic exercise was of mostly talk but little action.
In reality? Reding wasn’t fighting for “privacy-loving Europeans.” She was actually aiming to bring an EU intelligence agency to power – as a “counterweight” to the NSA’s invasive practices. In November 2013, she stated:
“What we need is to strengthen Europe in this field, so we can level the playing field with our US partners… The NSA needs a counterweight. My long-term proposal would therefore be to set up a European Intelligence Service by 2020.”
Wow.
The obvious justification for keeping and expanding spying powers in a post-Snowden world, is enough to make anyone look twice at the whole Hebdo affair.
And if you don’t think this was all a staged theater production, please consider the propaganda effort that went into creating this photo op with world leaders, joined hand-in-hand in solidarity against the attacks.
I mean, really?
Aaron Dykes is a co-founder of TruthstreamMedia.com, where this first appeared. As a writer, researcher and video producer who has worked on numerous documentaries and investigative reports, he uses history as a guide to decode current events, uncover obscure agendas and contrast them with the dignity afforded individuals as recognized in documents like the Bill of Rights. | {
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A new text message exchange obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates shows House Speaker Glen Casada joking with an aide about whether two young women were of legal age for sexual relations.
That exchange occurred on August 21, 2016, when Cade Cothren, then the press secretary for the Tennessee House Republican Caucus, sent Casada a video of two young women dancing in his apartment. At the time, Casada was the caucus chairman.
"R they 21?" Casada asked..
"It only takes 18," the aide responded, adding a smile emoji.
Casada's answer: "Lol!!! And true!"
For the last two weeks, the Williamson County Republican has been engulfed in a text message scandal involving Cothren, who had served as the Speaker's chief of staff until he resigned last week.
On Monday, Casada told reporters that his "sin" had been to use "base language" with two other men "that was not appropriate talk for a speaker of the House."
He insisted he had no plans to resign.
"If two texts run someone out of office, then there is no one qualified," the House Speaker added.
As NewsChannel 5 previously reported, Casada and Cothren had been involved in another text exchange in July 2016 in which the caucus employee sent his boss a pic of a woman pole dancing.
Casada responded, "Can I just touch?"
That August, Cothren texted Casada about having had sexual relations with a woman in the bathroom of the Nashville restaurant Party Fowl.
"I knew it," Casada responded, adding "u were only gone for 60 seconds?"
Cothren responded, "Yes, I take after you. Like father like son."
"Lololol!" Casada texted. "If I'm happy, then all is good!!!!! And I'm easily pleased."
Additional stories:
NewsChannel 5 Investigates: Capitol Hill | {
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A cluster of ancient footprints in the Arabian desert offers the clearest evidence yet for the early origins of modern elephants’ social structure, according to a Yale-led research team.
Roughly seven million years old, the prints represent the movements of at least 14 prehistoric elephants through the inland desert of the Arab Emirate of Abu Dhabi, anthropologists report in a paper published on Feb. 22 in Biology Letters. The research shows that early elephants exhibited social patterns typical of their modern descendants — herding by adult females and offspring, and solitary wandering by adult males.
“It is definitely clear that you have two social modes in elephants at this time,” said Yale anthropologist Andrew Hill, a senior researcher on the project.
Plainly visible in the crusty surface of the desert, the footprints were known to researchers for several years. But the inherent relationships among them only became clear after researchers produced and analyzed a detailed photo mosaic of the area using high-resolution aerial cameras.
The analysis revealed two distinct trackways — one belonging to a herd of about 13 elephants of varying sizes, and an intersecting trail of a lone, larger elephant. At more than 260 meters long, the latter trackway is among the longest fossilized mammalian routes ever recorded.
“It’s like walking back in time,” said Hill, whose former Yale graduate student, Faysal Bibi, now a postdoctoral fellow in Europe, is the paper’s first author.
Elephants long ago vanished from the United Arab Emirates.
Other authors are Brian Kraatz of the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific; Nathan Craig of Pennsylvania State University; Mark Beech of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority; and Mathieu Schuster of the Université de Strasbourg.
Support for the research came from the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, the National Science Foundation, the Institute International de Paleoprimatologie et Paleontologie Humaine, the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, and Yale University.
Marilyn Fox of Yale’s Peabody Museum has produced replicas of some of the individual footprints, which are now part of the museum’s collection.
More details about the project are available online. | {
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Les avocats de la partie civile lors de l’audience du 24 mai. ERWAN FAGES
En trois semaines d’audience, il s’est déjà dit beaucoup de choses au procès France Télécom. Il en reste sept. Aux trois juges du tribunal correctionnel de Paris il reviendra de déterminer ce qui, dans la montagne de pièces débattues jour après jour, est susceptible de constituer ou non le délit de harcèlement moral reproché aux sept anciens dirigeants et à l’entreprise elle-même, poursuivie en qualité de personne morale. Il leur incombera aussi la charge d’examiner au cas par cas la situation des trente-neuf personnes reconnues victimes dans ce dossier – dont dix-neuf se sont donné la mort entre 2007 et 2010.
Mais cette audience ne présente pas seulement un intérêt judiciaire. Elle offre un singulier miroir à l’actualité politique et sociale nationale.
Article réservé à nos abonnés Lire aussi Procès France Télécom : radiographie d’un système de harcèlement moral
Les premiers mots prononcés par Didier Lombard, le 7 mai, ont été pour les victimes et leurs familles. Dans une déclaration préalablement écrite, il a exprimé « le profond chagrin qui demeure et demeurera à tout jamais le [sien] pour ceux qui n’ont pas supporté la transformation ». Mais passé ce moment d’émotion, chacune de ses interventions témoigne, depuis, de son incompréhension à être assis sur le banc des prévenus. « Le phénomène médiatique de l’été 2009 – ainsi désigne-t-il l’acmé de la crise sociale à France Télécom – a détruit le succès de la transformation », a-t-il déclaré.
Didier Lombard est celui qui, après les erreurs d’investissement ou l’attentisme de certains de ses prédécesseurs, a « sauvé une entreprise au bord de la faillite » par sa vision stratégique et industrielle, et il n’admet pas que ce mérite soit éclipsé.
Cité à la barre des témoins, Jean-Claude Delgenès, le président du cabinet Technologia, qui a rendu, en 2009, un rapport accablant sur le malaise à France Télécom, a résumé d’une phrase ce qui était, selon lui, l’état d’esprit des dirigeants de l’époque face aux salariés de l’entreprise : « Il n’existe pas de sujet en désaccord. Il n’existe que des sujets qui n’ont pas encore été compris. »
Article réservé à nos abonnés Lire aussi Procès France Télécom : Didier Lombard rattrapé par sa petite phrase sur la « mode » des suicides
Rapport intime avec l’entreprise
Parties civiles au procès – et plus unies aujourd’hui qu’elles ne l’étaient hier –, toutes les organisations syndicales dénoncent le manque d’écoute qu’elles ont rencontré. « Il y a eu un déni, une véritable hostilité face aux lanceurs d’alerte », a affirmé Patrick Ackermann, le délégué du syndicat Sud-PTT qui a signé la première plainte déposée contre la direction le 14 septembre 2009, mettant en cause « des méthodes de gestion d’une extraordinaire brutalité. »
Il vous reste 55.73% de cet article à lire. La suite est réservée aux abonnés. | {
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Living in a warming world means experiencing a litany of unexpected events.
From an increase in the population of iguanas in Florida and super nests of wasps in Alabama, to world-class soccer stars competing in record-breaking heat in France and torrential rainfall in India, this week has seen a slew of unprecedented and unexpected climate impacts.
European heat wave linked to climate change
Last month was the hottest June ever experienced in Europe. In France, where athletes are currently competing in the 2019 Women’s World Cup, the country saw its highest temperature since records began — a small town in the southern part of the country, Gallargues-le-Monteuex, reached 45.9 degrees Celsius (114.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on June 28. That’s more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the previous record set in 2003.
New analysis out this week by scientists trying to decipher the degree to which climate change played a role in these soaring temperatures revealed that global warming may indeed have made the heat wave “at least five times” more likely.
The ‘scream’ heat map over France has been swiftly followed by the country's highest temperature of all time – 44.3C https://t.co/AcjtIi9rGC pic.twitter.com/Sc7apfkGeg — Oliver Milman (@olliemilman) June 28, 2019
Areas in Switzerland, Germany, the Czech Republic and Spain also experienced record-breaking heat, and Austria logged its warmest June on record, which was “in large part due to the heat wave,” researchers said.
As a result, there were wildfires in Spain and 4,000 schools closed early in France. And in Toulouse, France, a conference on extreme weather and climate change was also disrupted.
Deadly rainfall in drought-stricken India
This week, at least 35 people died due to heavy rainfall in the Indian state of Maharashtra. On Tuesday, nearly 15 inches of rain fell in just 24 hours — the worst Mumbai had experienced in 14 years. Flights and trains were cancelled and around 1,000 people were left stranded in the city awaiting rescue.
India’s monsoon season lasts from June until September. Typically, the country gets about 70% of its annual rainfall during this season — water on which farmers rely.
The deadly rainfall this week, however, comes after a drier-than-normal start to the monsoon season. June ended with a third less rainfall than the 50-year average, according to the India Meteorological Department. This has sparked concerns about access to adequate drinking water as well as fears over crop production; 9.5% less land has been cultivated this year for summer crops so far.
Meanwhile, a report by the United Nations’ International Labor Organization warns that India’s agriculture and construction sectors are expected to be hard-hit by climate change. Global warming, it states, will likely lead to a productivity loss equivalent to 34 million full-time jobs by 2030.
Warmer winters producing wasp ‘super nests’
Warmer winters could be leading to emergence of wasp ‘super nests’ as The New York Times reported recently.
In Alabama, at least four super nests — huge colonies made up of the aggressive yellow jacket wasps that survive for a second year rather than dying-off in winter — have been spotted so far. Typically, only about one or two such nests are spotted in a year, during June and July. However, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System issued a news release warning residents to expect more this year.
“Imagine a colony of yellow jackets the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, filled with 15,000 of the stinging insects. Now, imagine more than 90 of these super nests in Alabama,” the news release states.
That’s what the state experienced in 2006 and this year could be shaping up to be another record-breaker.
Yellow jacket wasps usually don’t survive in the cold — only the queens have an antifreeze compound in their blood that allows them to start a new colony in the spring. But with warmer winters and more queens surviving, that means more wasps are hatching.
Rapid sea ice loss in Antarctica
New satellite data reveals rapid sea ice loss in Antarctica. According to researchers, the continent has seen a “precipitous” fall in sea ice since 2014 with the rate of loss much faster than that experienced in the Arctic; as much sea ice was lost in four years in Antarctica as was lost in the Arctic over 34 years.
Scientists are still determining exactly what caused the dramatic loss in sea ice. In fact, the steep drop comes after 40 years of steady growth in Antarctica’s sea ice, further puzzling researchers as it reached a record low in 2017.
Unlike melting land ice, sea ice loss does not contribute to sea level rise. However, the loss of the highly-reflective white ice does contribute to global warming — darker surfaces such as open water absorb more heat than they reflect. The more sea ice is lost, the more heat is trapped, thereby leading to more ice loss in a vicious circle.
As Andrew Shepherd, a professor at Leeds University in the U.K., told The Guardian, “The rapid decline has caught us by surprise and changes the picture completely. Now sea ice is retreating in both hemispheres and that presents a challenge because it could mean further warming.”
Melting glaciers in Greenland are creating sand
Everyone knows that Greenland’s glaciers are melting. But with that comes a lot of erosion — and a lot of sand.
According to scientists, 8% of the annual sediment delivered to the world’s oceans comes from the Greenland ice sheet, and they expect that to increase with climate change.
And as The New York Times reported this week, scientists are starting a research project to see whether the “erosive power of ice” — one that is set to continue with climate change as glaciers melt — is enough to produce the highly sought after resource; sand is vital to the construction industry but it’s increasingly hard to come by as demand grows with urbanization.
More iguanas in Florida
Iguanas thrive in warmer weather. And now Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has issued a notice encouraging homeowners to “kill green iguanas on their own property whenever possible.”
As one local resident who used to love seeing the reptiles around his home told The Washington Post, “They aren’t cute anymore…. They’re a menace.”
A proliferation of iguanas comes with a host of problems biologists say, including erosion, degradation of infrastructure (such as canal banks, sea walls, building foundations), and harm to landscaping and ornamental plants. They can also carry salmonella.
According to scientists, climate change is helping iguanas spread further north and more quickly. Between 2000 and 2018, for example, Grand Cayman island saw its iguana population expand from almost none to an estimated 1.6 million. Now, Florida is trying to take control before things in the state become similarly explosive. | {
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Josh Carpenter has found a new employer at Google where he’ll be working on Cardboard as a product designer for WebVR. Carpenter left a leadership position working with Mozilla’s VR research team earlier this year.
At Mozilla, Carpenter worked on WebVR and A-Frame, each of which were designed to expose the power of immersive VR to the great many Web developers spread across the globe. Developers building high-end games have found their toolsets naturally extended to include VR platforms. Web developers, however, haven’t been able to use their tools to create the same kind of high quality experiences.
That was clearly a goal at Mozilla for the MozVR team Carpenter led and it seems he will be continuing similar work at Google.
I'm joining Google VR to work on #webvr with @borismus and @Tojiro. VR is for everyone, & WebVR is going to help make it happen. Stay tuned! — Josh Carpenter (@joshcarpenter) May 9, 2016
Under new leadership from Clay Bavor, Google is accelerating its VR efforts and hosting a developer conference later this month in San Francisco where we will get an information dump about new initiatives. A world in which VR grows out of game technologies rather than web technologies — where Google reigns supreme — could put Google at a disadvantage in the long run. While it could help Google too, Web developers would benefit if it became easier to make high quality VR experiences using the technologies driving so much of what we already use the Internet for everyday. Maybe that’s what Carpenter could do at Google? | {
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Occupy DC protesters harassed a security guard last Friday at the Washington DC Convention Center, where the Americans For Prosperity conference was held.
SEE RELATED:
The woman in the video above appears to get around. The Media Research Center caught her using her children as human shields during one violent scuffle in the evening.
Once again, this is the movement the Democrats have endorsed. | {
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NEW DELHI: Slamming resolution of opposition parties against the Citizenship Amendment Act, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday said Pakistan must be happy over the move and asserted that the new law exposes Islamabad's “barbaric treatment” of minorities.
“Opposition unity stands exposed as major parties like SP, BSP, TMC and AAP kept away (from a meeting convened by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi ). The resolution is neither in national interest nor in the interest of security. It is also not in the interest of those minorities who fled neighbouring countries to escape persecution,” Prasad told reporters.
Congress and 19 other opposition parties passed a resolution on Monday, demanding that the amended citizenship law be withdrawn and process of National Population Register (NPR) immediately stopped, asserting that it was all part of an “unconstitutional package” that targeted poor people, SC/STs and minorities.
Prasad said Congress is ready to stoop to any level against Prime Minister Narendra Modi . “Today Congress stands with the gang of tukde-tukde and urban Maoists. I am making an unambiguous allegation that Congress is inciting violence in the country,” he said.
The minister said Congress should explain what is the reality about the state of the minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh. “Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi should explain whether most of the people facing persecution on religious lines in Pakistan and Bangladesh were poor and Dalit or not?” he asked.
Prasad said opposition is making baseless allegations that the bill was passed in a hurry as he added, “The bill was debated in both Houses for two days after which it was passed through voting. Now it is being alleged that the bill was passed in a huff.”
Taking a dig at the absence of several key opposition parties from Monday’s meeting, he said, “The so-called resolution was passed after meeting of 19 parties. However, BSP, SP, AAP and TMC were not present in the meeting and their absence exposes the opposition unity.”
BJP leader GVL Narasimha Rao took a dig at P Chidambaram for opposing CAA, saying that the former finance minister had brought his level of intellect at par with that of Rahul Gandhi .
Chidambaram asked the Prime Minister to have a televised Q and A session over the CAA. The former Union minister alleged that Modi is reluctant to take questions over the Act, which has triggered widespread protests across the country.
"Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Chidambaram are telling lies about CAA and misleading people and country," he added. "When Pakistan is being exposed in the world for persecuting minorities, those opposing CAA are furthering Pakistan's point of view," Rao said.
| {
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What does it mean to be a revolutionary leftist today?There is still that tapping at your shoulder, that whisper in your ear that you once knew, when you were young, idealistic, in college -- Marx was right and you know it. | {
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AP
Given the unusual circumstances surrounding his final year at Notre Dame and somewhat baffling performance in the National Championship game, Manti Te’o was always going to have to prove to whatever organization decided to draft him that he was worth the investment.
So far with the San Diego Chargers, Te’o is passing the test with flying colors.
According to Michael Gelhken of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Te’o has impressed coaches and players alike with his skill and maturity in the Chargers’ facility.
Head coach Mike McCoy, center Nick Hardwick and linebacker Larry English in addition to other members of the Chargers organization all praised the approach Te’o has brought to the team and the work ethic he’s showed since being drafted in April.
“I see what’s going to be a heck of a football player,” Hardwick said. “He gets good jumps on the snap. He knows where the ball is going. He seems to be really quick to react on it. In the locker room, he’s a cool guy. He’s easy to be around.”
It appears as though Te’o has answered any questions his teammates may have had about what kind of person he is off the field. Now it’s just about what he can do on it.
“When you’re on the football field, everything else doesn’t matter,” Te’o said. “Thankfully for me, I’m surrounded by a bunch of teammates that have really pushed me to be better. All they care about is No. 50 is working his butt off, and I’ll take care of the work ethic part. They’ll make sure I’m moving in the right direction. … I can’t be a leader if I don’t know where I’m going.” | {
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アップルは4月4日(米国時間)、プロフェッショナル向けデスクトップMac「Mac Pro」をアップデートした。クアッドコアモデルと6コアモデルだったラインナップが、価格はそのままで下位モデルが6コアモデル、上位モデルが8コアモデルになり、GPUも強化された。アップルのオンラインストアでは、下位モデルから販売が始まっている。
6コアモデル
下位モデルは標準構成で298,800円。搭載プロセッサは、6コアのIntel Xeon E5 (12MB L3キャッシュ)。12GBだったDDR3 ECCだったメモリが16GBになり、GPUがデュアルAMD FirePro D300からデュアルAMD FirePro D500にアップグレードされた。
プロセッサ：3.5GHz 6コアのIntel Xeon E5 (12MB L3キャッシュ)、オプションで3.0GHz 8コアプロセッサ (25MB L3キャッシュ)または2.7GHz 12コアプロセッサ (30MB L3キャッシュ)
メモリ：16GB DDR3 ECCメモリ (オプション：32GB、64GB)
グラフィックス：デュアルAMD FirePro D500 GPU (オプション：デュアルAMD FirePro D700)
ストレージ：256GB PCIeフラッシュストレージ (オプション：512GB、1TB)
8コアモデル
上位モデルは標準構成で398,800円。搭載プロセッサは、8コアのIntel Xeon E5 (25MB L3キャッシュ)。GPUは、デュアルAMD FirePro D700。これまではデュアルAMD FirePro D500だった。
プロセッサ：3.0GHz 8コアのIntel Xeon E5 (25MB L3キャッシュ)、オプションで2.7GHz 12コアプロセッサ (30MB L3キャッシュ)を選択可能
メモリ：16GB DDR3 ECCメモリ (オプション：32GB、64GB)
グラフィックス：デュアルAMD FirePro D700 GPU
ストレージ：256GB PCIeフラッシュストレージ (オプション：512GB、1TB)
拡張ポートは、USB 3×4、Thunderbolt 2×6、デュアル・ギガビットEthernet、HDMI 1.4 UltraHDなど。ワイヤレスは、Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac)、Bluetooth 4.0。
Mac Proはサーマルコアと呼ばれるシリンダー型の筐体全体が冷却機構を兼ね備えたデザインを特長としている。Thunderbolt 2による外部拡張を活用し、プロフェッショナル向けでありながらコンパクトなサイズと静かな動作を実現した。2013年に発表された時には独特のデザインで大きな話題になったが、発売以来Mac Proのアップデートが行われず、そのためプロフェッショナル向けデスクトップPCからAppleが撤退する可能性も指摘されていた。 | {
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5/11開催「〈物語〉フェス ～10th Anniversary Story～」ご本人様確認について
2019年5月11日(土)開催の「〈物語〉フェス ～10th Anniversary Story～」に関して、<br/>当日幕張メッセイベントホール会場でのご本人様確認について、以下にお知らせいたします。<br/><br/>----------------------------------------------<br/>ご本人確認について<br/>----------------------------------------------<br/>転売防止対策の為、ご入場の際に、購入者様(お申込みされた方）のご本人確認のご協力をお願いさせて頂きます。友人、家族を含む第三者に販売ないし譲渡する事はできません。<br/><br/><font color="#ff3300">チケットには「お申し込み時のイープラスの会員登録者名」がチケット券面に印字されます。</font><br/><font color="#ff3300">ご購入の際は、必ず、ご来場者ご本人様のお名前でご購入をお願い致します。</font><br/><font color="#ff3300">ニックネームや旧姓等、券面と名前が違う場合はご入場をお断り致します。</font><br/><br/>公演当日は、入場時にご購入者様の身分証明書のご確認をさせて頂きます。<br/>お名前が記載されている「チケット」と、チケットに明記されているお名前と同じお名前の確認ができる「身分証明書（1点、または2点以上）」を必ずお持ちください。<br/><br/>「チケット」「身分証明書」をお持ちいただけない場合、紛失、盗難、不備がある場合等いかなる理由においてもご入場をお断りさせて頂きます。<br/>その場合、チケットの払い戻し・交通費等の負担も致しません。あらかじめご了承ください。<br/><br/><font color="#ff3300">※ご同伴者様は、必ず購入者ご本人様と一緒にお越しください。</font><br/><font color="#ff3300">ご同伴者様のみで来場された場合は、本人確認ができないためご入場をお断りさせて頂きます。</font><br/><font color="#ff3300">※「購入者様」と「来場者様」が同一である事が確認できない場合や、転売や譲渡等が発覚した場合、ご入場をお断り致します。</font><br/>※また正規の購入方法以外で入手されたチケットに関するトラブルには一切責任を負いません。<br/>※確認内容に相違がある場合、確認の為しばらくお待ちいただく場合がございます。<br/>※開演間際は、本人確認の都合上、大変混み合うことが予想され、開演時間までにお入りいただけない場合がございます。開場時間になりましたら、お早めに会場へご入場ください。<br/><br/>----------------------------------------------<br/>■今回の公演入場において身分証明書として認められるもの<br/>（コピー／手書き／期限切れ／使用不可の細工が施されているものは不可）<br/><br/>【顔写真付きの物】 ※１点で確認ができます<br/>1. パスポート<br/>2. 運転免許証<br/>3. 学生証<br/>4. 住民基本台帳カード<br/>5. 身体障害者手帳<br/>6. 外国国籍の方は次のいずれか（外国人登録証明書・在留カード・特別永住者証明書）<br/>7. 療育手帳<br/>8. 個人番号カード（マイナンバーカード）<br/>※個人番号カード（マイナンバーカード）を身分証明書として利用される際は、表面(写真のある方)のみをご提示ください。裏面(個人番号が印字された面)を提示されないようご注意ください。 <br/>なお、本人確認の際に、個人番号カード（マイナンバーカード）の裏面を見ることはありません。<br/>※個人番号（マイナンバー）の通知カード(個人番号が印字された写真のない紙のカード)は身分証明書として使用できません。<br/><br/>上記1～８のいずれかをお持ちでない場合<br/>以下の〔A〕または〔B〕の方法で確認をとらせて頂きます。<br/>〔A〕：「公的証明書」を２点お持ちください<br/>〔B〕：「公的証明書」１点と「名前が印字されている物」1点以上をお持ちください<br/> （公的証明書１点だけではご入場できません）<br/><br/>【公的証明書とは】 ※1点では不可。確認には、以下のうち2点が必要です。<br/>保険証、住民票、戸籍謄本、戸籍抄本、印鑑登録証明書、年金手帳<br/>※公的証明書はいずれも、公的に発行された状態のままお持ちください。<br/> また住民票、戸籍謄本、戸籍抄本については発行後半年以内のものとします。<br/><br/>【名前が印字されている物とは】※1点では不可。確認には、このほかに公的証明書1点が必ず一緒に必要です。<br/>社員証、顔写真の無い学生証、クレジットカード、キャッシュカード<br/>※公共料金請求書（電気/水道等）や、各種郵便物の類は、名前が印字されたものであっても不可となります。<br/>お客様には、大変お手間をお掛け致しますが、趣旨のご理解とご協力を何卒宜しくお願い申し上げます。<br/> | {
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Sharia Victory in Florida Threatens Human Rights
A controversy over the defeat of Florida legislation that would have restricted state courts from considering foreign laws as part of legal decisions has intensified. This is after a Tampa judge ruled that two opposing Muslim parties have their dispute settled under Islamic sharia law "pursuant to the Quran" in spite of the fact that one Muslim group did not want to do this...and the Florida Appellate Court denied the petition to appeal the judge's ruling. The proposed law, SB 1360, had been opposed jointly and lobbied against by both CAIR and the ADL. It drew the passionate attention of many in the Florida Jewish community, where opinions seem to be drawn on party lines. These groups erroneously argue that this ban will actually put other religious laws in jeopardy as well, especially Jewish religious law, called Halakhah.
Abraham Foxman, Director of the ADL, claims that passage of the law would have been "harmful to the religious freedom of all Floridians, including observant Jews." He and others are seriously mistaken. The defeated law and others proposed by several state legislators are meant to make it clear that disputes heard in religious alternative courts must not contradict or interfere with the administration, application, or exercise of state and federal constitutional law, and either party has the right to immediate redress in the civil secular court system for enforcement of those rights. These proposed legal guidelines do not prohibit the use of other religious laws -- only sharia law. In a recent Florida Jewish newspaper article, the publisher emeritus made an argument in defense of sharia courts in America based on the existence of other religious courts. He believes that sharia law is constitutionally compatible, just like Halakhah and Canon Law and is more economical, and that banning it is simply unconstitutional, discriminating against one religious group over others. This position is substantiated by comparing sharia law to Jewish law, noting the similarity of the two. But this editor falls short in his argument by avoiding a comparison of the serious differences that exist in the laws of the Quran, which sharia legislates. Like others espousing this position, the editor presents an incomplete picture and uses it to belittle those who take an opposing viewpoint. It is most important to include the inequalities inherent in Islamic law in any discussion of this nature because they expose the unconstitutionality and incompatibility of sharia law within the American justice system. American citizens must be allowed to question, without being called "Islamophobes" or "bigots," the inherent threat of Islamic sharia ideology, disguised as only religious law, before it endangers our American society. The political correctness of this constitutional argument actually blinds one to the dangers of some Islamic laws...specifically those that pertain to women and children and the punishments rendered for breaking these laws. It is clearly the dissimilarities that distinguish other religious laws from the unconstitutionality of sharia laws. Opponents to SB 1360 offered as proof of the wisdom of their position that religious laws are already being used in local civil courts in determining judgments regarding family matters, dietary requirements, and business disagreements...and they point out that nothing disastrous has happened. The guidelines applied to these decisions are in line with, and enforceable by, the American court system. But it is also necessary that both parties agree to participate in a religious court rather than a secular court and that they both agree that the decision of the arbitrator is binding. On the face of this, as the editor pointed out, is there is nothing "sinister" about religious courts settling family, dietary, and financial disputes, especially with this practice already having gone on for years in arbitration courts. Some even wonder why anyone would question our Constitution's and appellate courts' ability to prevent the impact by Islamism in America. The "sinister" fact is that Islamic ideology makes Muslim women and children powerless, intimidated by the obscene rules of a male-dominated society. Sharia law requires women to present practically impossible proof of their innocence, such as eyewitnesses to being raped. A woman who seeks justice for this crime, files for divorce, or desires child custody, or a child that strays into Western ways, has hardly any means to win in a sharia court. In addition, the Islamic laws prescribe cruel and inhuman punishments that the American people would understand and agree to be inhumane and unconstitutional. These penalties usually pertain to sexual matters, stealing, alcohol consumption, and apostasy and include punishments that are retaliatory in nature. Caning and flogging in public are done in cases where a female is found guilty of a minor sexual infraction, and stoning to death for a wife's adultery is common in the Muslim world. Amputation of a hand or foot is considered an appropriate price for thievery, while beheading, crucifying, and hanging are the recommended penalties for murder or blasphemy. Children can also be harshly treated under sharia law by being forced to remain in the custody of an abusive father after there is a divorce. Killing in the name of "family honor" is an accepted form of Islamic punishment for a woman's unfaithfulness or a Muslim child straying too far from the Islamic way. To believe that Muslim women who seek justice in America are willingly agreeing to sharia courts is absolute blindness. One has to wonder how anybody, whether liberal or conservative, religious or not, can support such treatment of more than half of the Muslim population (23% of the global population is Muslim) and condemn those of us fighting this unjust ideology entering our court system. It seems that all that is heard is how victimized Muslims are, especially after 9/11, and we know how well Americans can identify with the so-called underdog. (The facts show that religious persecution of Muslims is extremely small when compared to the global growth of anti-Semitism and the Islamic persecution of Coptic Christians.) It is also important to add to the information the Muslim Brotherhood's credo, which clearly presents the Quran as the supreme word of Allah, above all other laws: "Allah is our goal, the Quran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader, jihad is our way and death for the sake of Allah is the highest aspiration." This mission statement was written back in the late 1920s by the fastest-growing political organization in the Muslim world today. It demands that the U.S. Constitution take a back seat to the Quran, which rejects America's constitutional secularism and its legal penalties, while Halakhah and Canon law do not. The evidence of extreme female and child subjugation in Islamic sharia law should be enough to justify strong American non-partisan support in favor of banning sharia courts without jeopardizing the other religious courts' status. Those religious leaders fearing that Halakhah or Canon laws are threatened by banning sharia law need only to take a look at the inherent unconstitutionality of sharia laws before condemning the proposed legislation. | {
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A key economic indicator increased more-than-expected in August, continuing momentum of an improving economic outlook.
Leading indicators increased 0.4 percent in August, greater than the 0.2 percent increase economists polled by Reuters anticipated. This is up from a gain of 0.3 percent in the prior month, according to the Conference Board.
"While the economic impact of recent hurricanes is not fully reflected in the leading indicators yet, the underlying trends suggest that the current solid pace of growth should continue in the near term," said Ataman Ozyildirim, Director of business cycles and growth research at the Conference Board.
The index is a closely followed indicator for how healthy the U.S. economy is. The Conference Board tracks 10 components, including manufacturers' new orders, stock prices and average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance.
This is breaking news. Check back for updates. | {
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The health-care bill passed by Republican lawmakers has gotten attention for how it would change marketplaces for individual insurance and cut subsidies for low-income Americans.
Now, it appears that efforts to overhaul the health-care system could also remove benefits from those with insurance plans sponsored by their employer, leaving them on the hook for huge costs in the event of a major illness.
With 49% of Americans receiving health insurance from their employers, it is the most popular avenue for coverage—and the most politically sensitive.
The original Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted by the Obama administration called for increasing taxes on these plans as a cost-cutting incentive. The move has been virtually killed by bipartisan agreement, delaying the application indefinitely.
Now, House speaker Paul Ryan and president Donald Trump are trying to repeal the ACA and replace it with the American Health Care Act, a bill that cuts health-insurance subsidies and ends the requirement to obtain health insurance. Forecasters predicted that it would result in 24 million people losing coverage.
That bill originally didn’t have enough votes from the Republican majority to pass—it wasn’t extreme enough for hardliners nor moderate enough for moderates. Now, it has been further changed to win over conservative hardliners. A new amendment would allow states to opt out of requirements imposed by the health-care law, particularly that they provide 10 essential types of coverage for fundamental issues ranging from pre-natal care and check-ups to pediatrics and prescriptions, with no annual limits or life-time cap.
If states opt out of these requirements, insurers could lower premiums by pushing more of the risk (and eventual cost) onto individuals who purchase barebones plans. It would also allow them to refuse coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. While the president has promised that his health-care overhaul will provide universal coverage, Republicans say they are simply giving states the choice to opt out, so their bill does not violate his pledge.
Health experts say the amendment would also allow insurers who sell group plans to go on a regulatory shopping trip around the country. If they adopt the standards of a state that has opted out of essential coverage areas, they could limit their coverage, a move currently forbidden by the Affordable Care Act.
A staffer on the committee that wrote the bill tells Quartz that the Trump administration could prevent large-group insurers from lowering their standards, with an administrative order that takes away their ability to choose their own set of essential benefits. Yet a Brookings Institute analysis of the issue notes such a move would not line up with Trump’s executive order that Obamacare administrators “provide maximum regulatory flexibility.”
It’s not clear whether employers would take advantage of this opportunity to offer cheaper, riskier coverage; before the ACA passed, more than half of companies put no cap on the benefits they offered. Indeed, many employers use generous benefits to attract employees. On the other hand, jurisdiction shopping between states by financial industry players suggests that insurers will come under pressure to find the most permissive regulator.
The bill, which is still opposed by doctors, nurses, retirees, and hospitals, now moves to the senate, where a more moderate mix of lawmakers has expressed skepticism about the implications of the legislation. | {
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“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
A few years ago, a professor I really admire told me one thing I’ll better never forget. He said that the day your curiosity dies, you could consider yourself dead.
Yeah, you can actually be dead and still breath and appear to be a normal human being.
If I’d told you that I’m going to give you all the money you’d need to buy anything you want for the rest of your life, also every personal quality, like courage or equanimity, everything you thought you’d ever need, right now, would you take it?
There are two kinds of people in this world.
The heroes, the explorers, the adventurers, and the dreaded and despicable, Philistines.
There is just one difference between the two of them, and that is curiosity.
Let me tell you a little story.
When I was young, in elementary school, I wanted to build a spaceship. I couldn’t picture in my mind the impossibility of the project coming to life, I thought I just needed to make a good plan, gather knowledge, resources and get busy working on it. I mean, if somebody else has done it, why can’t I?
When I encountered my friends and invited them to my darling little project, I was found with two groups, the ones that thought it possible who said why not, and the second group who started laughing and shaming the ones that said why not.
Not caring about the annoying laughter, I gathered the good fellas and we started planning the trip to space. We divided goals and work but unfortunately, we didn’t finish it. One thing I can tell you, we had a terrific time.
Later, in high school, I got my first chemistry class. Around that time, the big questions started roaming through my teenage head and I started to feel immense wonder and curiosity about life, I remember I used to think for the first time: Why the fuck am I here? What is this? Who am I, like really?
One day, during the chemistry class, we started talking about the matter, and what it is made of. We started talking about the body and how the body is made of organs and how every organ is composed of cells, and how every cell is composed of tiny organelles like the mitochondria and the Golgi apparatus.
By that moment, I started questioning myself how far could you go?
My intelligent professor stopped at the organelles of the cell to move to another topic. I raised my hand and asked him what were the organelles made of, he told me that they were made of even tinier particles named DNA and RNA, amazing. I then asked him what were those things made of, he proceeded to tell me that they were made of atoms, obviously, I asked him what were those things made of and at this point, I could see the anger rising in his face, and he asked me if I was mocking him.
I answered no nervously, and he told me to shut up, literally.
I’ll never forget that moment. His insecurities interfered with my sincere curiosity, what a great man.
I’m older now, I can smell philistines from miles. They are petty and scornful, they irradiate bitterness and negativity, they are pestilent with fear, and they hide in what is “socially acceptable”, they are quite boring, but in the end, they are just scared creatures. They usually tell you why you can’t do something: There is a lot of competition, you are too old, you are too young, you know, the usual uninspiring shit. Do you know of any philistines?
“Why does man accept to live a trivial life? Because of the danger of a full horizon of experience, of course. This is the deeper motivation of philistinism, that it celebrates the triumph over possibility, over freedom. Philistinism knows its real enemy: freedom is dangerous. If you follow it too willingly it threatens to pull you into the air; if you give it up too wholly, you become a prisoner of necessity. The safest thing is to toe the mark of what is socially possible.”
― Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death
It’s easier following the norm and what is socially acceptable, it’s easier to kill yourself while still living if you get me. It’s easier to become a copy of a copy of a copy.
Understandable though, there is a reason why the philistines choose this easier road. It’s already established and easy to follow and especially, one it is one in which you will not get lost.
In comparison, the adventurer that follows his curiosity is bound to get lost or hurt and surely, of being mocked by the Philistines and his dreaded “I told you”.
There is no safe road in life, take the road of the philistine and you’ll be dead inside in a while, take the road of the adventurer and you will get lost and hurt but at least you will live.
The books of history don’t mention any philistine.
The philistines choose to follow the comfort of a normal life. The adventurer chooses challenges and struggles, sweat and dirt.
When a person gets asked, what do you want?
It’s easy to say you want money, great sex and all the usual, what’s harder is to ask yourself what are you willing to suffer for? What challenge is so great and admirable that are you willing to take your chances? What ignites your curiosity the most?
“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. … The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.”
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca, On the Shortness of Life.
Really, it’s just a simple decision. The decision to follow even the tiniest spark of curiosity you have within you.
what pain are you willing to sustain? what price are you willing to pay?
When you go out on an adventure, you don’t know what you are going to find, that is why it is an adventure. That is why you become an explorer, but you have to start, meaning is found in the act of discovery, of chasing one’s curiosities. There are going to be terrible monsters of the mind of the world and of the soul, but you will actively look to defeat them and become better for it.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
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Former Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne was a visitor with the Miami Dolphins today, though not as a player. Wayne was in attendance at the Dolphins mini-camp practice today to help some of Miami’s wide receivers.
Former NFL receiver Reggie Wayne showed up to watch Dolphins minicamp today. He played... https://t.co/7R7D1vhdu0 pic.twitter.com/ZEJt5GuAUL — James Walker (@JamesWalkerNFL) June 15, 2016
Wayne, of course, played for new Dolphins offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen in Indianapolis for several years. He was the Colts’ wide receivers coach from 2002-2009, meaning that he was Wayne’s position coach for eight years (Wayne was drafted in 2001). Christensen then transitioned to the role of offensive coordinator in 2010 and 2011, again working closely with Wayne. Even after he moved to quarterbacks coach in 2012, he was still on the staff and around in the offensive meeting room. So Wayne only played one NFL season (his rookie year) without Clyde Christensen on staff with the Colts offense in some capacity.
“He’s one of those guys that you just love talking ball with and love being around,” Dolphins head coach Adam Gase told ESPN's James Walker about Wayne. “Any time any of our players can talk to guys of that caliber. ... it’s great for our guys. They learn stuff.”
Wayne isn’t the first former NFL player to visit the Dolphins this year. Wes Welker, who played for the Dolphins early in his career (2004-2006) and also played for Gase in Denver (2913-2014), has also been at Dolphins mini-camp this week. Earlier this offseason, Peyton Manning visited the team to help tutor quarterback Ryan Tannehill. Manning, of course, played for Christensen in Indianapolis and then for Gase in Denver.
The Dolphins are certainly being proactive about bringing in former players to help their current ones, which is something that might be a good idea for the Colts to consider. The Colts are very much focused on developing younger players this offseason, and it surely wouldn’t hurt that development for those players to be able to talk with, learn from, and ask questions of former players who know the coaches and system. Perhaps it’s something Reggie Wayne would be interested in doing for the wide receivers group, but even if not there are several former players that the coaching staff could bring in to help the Colts players learn the system and continue to develop. It’s not something they have to do in order to be successful, but it’s at least an interesting idea worth considering for the Colts. | {
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Veintiséis años no han sido suficientes para borrar de la memoria de María Belén Márquez las manos del sacerdote Fernando Martínez sobre su cuerpo. “No te tocaba solamente la pierna, te tocaba las partes íntimas”, se lamenta. “Yo tenía seis años, estaba muy chiquitita”. Decirlo en voz alta le genera mucha vergüenza, le da pena “que la gente sepa” lo que le pasó. Márquez, de 34 años, es una de las ocho víctimas que este año denunciaron haber sido abusadas cuando eran niñas en Cancún -al sur de México- por el director de su colegio, miembro de los Legionarios de Cristo. “No fue una debilidad, fue abuso sexual, y en varias ocasiones”, detalla sobre lo que pasó entre las paredes del Instituto Cumbres entre 1991 y 1993. Su relato revive uno de los recuerdos que más le atormenta, la voz del cura interpelándola en la oscuridad: “Me decía: ‘¿Te gusta?, ¿te gusta?’, y yo callada”.
Hostias y cera de vela que las niñas usaban para jugar era lo que les prometía el sacerdote a cambio de que fueran a su oficina, cuenta Márquez a este periódico. Era su “modo de atracción”. Desde que el caso estalló en mayo, la mujer, que actualmente dirige la ONG católica Misión Maya, ha vuelto a sufrir ansiedad, rechazo a su cuerpo y culpa, síntomas que padecía de niña. “Uno cree que pudo haberlo evitado”, comenta con pesar. “Son secuelas que no se ven, pero que duran toda la vida”.
Biani López Antúnez es otra de esas ocho mujeres. Cuando tenía ocho años se mudó de Ciudad de México a Cancún porque su familia quería darle una vida mejor, lejos del revuelo de la capital. “Lejos de la inseguridad”, comenta mientras la angustia se apodera de su rostro. Los dos años posteriores a su llegada fueron un martirio. Sus padres la inscribieron en la escuela que dirigía Martínez, a quien la congregación había puesto al frente de la institución pese a acumular al menos tres denuncias por pederastia. “¡Puta madre! Ellos sabían perfectamente que estaban poniendo un depredador sexual en mi colegio”, maldice la mujer de 36 años. “Era totalmente prevenible”.
“Además de abusar de nosotras, nos hacía ver los abusos a otras niñas. Dejaba la puerta entreabierta y nos hacía sentarnos a ver”
La narración de estas dos víctimas, que se han decidido a hablar por primera vez en público con EL PAÍS, repasa con nitidez lo que sufrieron. “Además de abusar de nosotras, nos hacía ver los abusos a otras niñas. Nos metía en el cuarto de baño de la capilla, pero dejaba la puerta entreabierta y, al resto, nos hacía sentarnos en primera fila y ver”, cuenta López.
La lacra de la pederastia dentro de una de las congregaciones religiosas más poderosas de México ha quedado expuesta nuevamente este año con el caso Martínez. La primera ola de denuncias públicas que enfrentó la orden fue en 1997, cuando ocho exlegionarios señalaron por abuso sexual a Marcial Maciel, fundador de la Legión y muy cercano al papa Juan Pablo II. Una institución todavía reticente a admitir el problema ha tenido que hacer frente los últimos siete meses a un segundo vendaval de acusaciones.
A 22 años de que trascendieran las primeras denuncias contra Maciel, la presentadora de radio Ana Lucía Salazar contó en sus redes sociales lo que había sufrido en manos de Martínez. “Su denuncia fue un parteaguas para mí porque sacudió algo que yo tenía reprimido”, admite López, que en la actualidad se dedica a la museografía. El revuelo que causó la acusación de Salazar forzó a la orden religiosa a abrir una investigación interna, cuya conclusión fue presentada el 22 de noviembre.
El intento de transparencia resultó ser una radiografía de las cañerías de la congregación, en la que los Legionarios revelan que, en el momento en que fue nombrado director del Instituto Cumbres -una escuela que forma parte de una red internacional con presencia en 19 países-, Martínez acumulaba denuncias por abuso sexual desde 1969. El resumen detallado de los esfuerzos de los religiosos por ocultar el caso durante cinco décadas ha desatado el enojo de las víctimas y las ha empujado a hablar. “Confiamos en la Iglesia y al ver esto, uno siente el engaño y vuelve a vivir el abuso”, dice Márquez. “Es indignante. Siguen siendo una estructura mafiosa que opera de la misma manera que hace 26 años”, agrega López.
“Vi su foto y sentí miedo”
Márquez no se acordaba de Aurora Morales. Fue hasta después de la denuncia de Salazar que se dio cuenta de quién era: la maestra que las sacaba de clases y las dejaba en la oficina del abusador. “Vi su foto en Internet e inmediatamente sentí miedo, inseguridad”, reconoce sorprendida. “¡Miedo, a mis 34 años!”, repite. “Tengo grabada la escena de miss Aurora sacándonos del salón. Nos decía: ‘Pues te habla el director”. Las niñas no sabían entonces de la complicidad entre ambos. “Pensábamos: ‘Claro, ella nos lleva, pero no sabe lo que pasa después, tenemos que decírselo”, relata López. Cuando finalmente se lo contaron, Morales les pidió que guardaran silencio. “No me voy a olvidar nunca. Nos dijo que iba a hablar con Martínez, pero que no se lo dijéramos a nuestros padres”.
“Habían activado el mecanismo de encubrimiento antes de reunirse con nuestros padres”
La investigación interna de los Legionarios admitió abusos sexuales solamente a seis víctimas y casi no indagó en el encubrimiento. Solo Maciel, fallecido en 2008, fue señalado de haber ordenado los traslados y nombramientos de Martínez pese a su historial. Uno de los grandes reclamos que hacen las víctimas al reporte de la congregación es la omisión del nombre de la maestra Morales. Otro es el de Eloy Bedia, quien era director territorial de los Legionarios en México en esa época y recientemente ha sido promovido en la escala legionaria.
Tanto Bedia como Morales conocían los hechos desde 1993, aseguran, cuando ellas revelaron a sus padres lo que pasaba. “24 horas después de contarlo, Bedia estaba sentado en la sala de mi casa con las madres”, asegura López. La petición que le hicieron las familias al representante de la orden religiosa fue un careo con el abusador de sus hijas y la respuesta fue que Martínez ya no se encontraba en México. “Habían activado el mecanismo de encubrimiento antes de reunirse con nosotros”, reclama. “Ellos se justifican en que obedecieron órdenes”, reprocha Márquez, “pero cuando hablas de abuso infantil no te puedes refugiar en la obediencia”.
Los abusos en palabras de niñas
Cuando tenía ocho años, López escribió, junto a otras víctimas, una carta en la que narraban los hechos. “Hablábamos con palabras de niñas, pero relatamos los abusos que estábamos sufriendo”. Según cuenta, se la dieron a una maestra que al reportarlo ante su superior le ordenaron callar. “La empezaron a amenazar con que la iban a echar y poco después la corrieron del colegio”.
Esa carta, que las víctimas han recuperado 26 años después, se ha convertido en uno de los principales elementos de la causa judicial que pretenden abrir antes de que finalice el año. “Los responsables tienen que saber que el tiempo no pasó para nosotras”, resalta Márquez. “Yo soy católica”, se repite a sí misma. “Como católicos creemos que defender a la Iglesia es ser prudentes, callar para no dañar, pero hemos dañado más con el silencio”. | {
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ファンタジーのような話に聞えますが、実は極めて合理的な要求でした。詳細は以下から。
時間とは何でしょうか？それはチクタク進む時計の針が表すもの。ではその時計が表す24時間は何に基づいているのでしょうか？
それは地球が自転する周期であり、太陽や月をはじめとした星々の運行そのものでもあります。
ではもしも、毎日朝が来なかったら？毎日夜が来なかったら？
私たち日本人にはあり得ない仮定に聞えるかもしれませんが、そうした場所がこの地球上には存在しています。そう、白夜と極夜の発生する緯度66.6度を超える北極圏や南極圏の話です。
ノルウェー北部のソムロイはスカンジナビア半島の北端近くの島に位置する人口300人余りの小さな漁村。夏には澄んだ海と白く美しいビーチ、冬にはオーロラを求めて観光客も訪れます。
そんなソムロイは5月18日から7月26日まで、69日間に渡って太陽が沈まない長い白夜の季節を迎えます。そしてこの時期、ソムロイでは伝統的な時計の時間は基本的に無視されることになります。
住民のKjell Ove Hvedingさんは「街の伝承で『真夜中の午前2時』と呼び習わされる時間に、子供たちがサッカーをして遊び、人々が家のペンキ塗りや芝刈りを行い、若者たちが泳いでいるのを見ることができるでしょう。我々の多くは、自分たちが何世代も続けてきたことを単純に公的なものと認めて欲しいだけなのです」と述べています。
Tah-dah! Vi har laga en film som førrklare verden der ute ka vi egentlig driv med:). Ka dåkker syns? Time-Free Zoneさんの投稿 2019年6月6日木曜日
この「時間のない島」というフレーズは魅力的だったため、ソムロイがこの計画を発表した後観光客は大きく増加しました。ですが、ソムロイの住民たちはこの計画を単なる観光キャンペーンではなく実生活のための真剣な提案だと捉えています。
住民たちは既にノルウェーの国会議員に署名を渡し、彼らの努力の実務的、法的な影響について議論を行っています。住民たちの主張が通れば、ソムロイは学校や仕事の時間を伝統的な時計の上での時間からより柔軟に調整できるようになります。
もしソムロイが世界初の「時間のない島」になれば、終わりなき夏を夢見る観光客がこれまで以上に訪れることは間違いなさそうです。
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Karl Marx still sells, 200 years after his birth
Marx’s Communist Manifesto changed the world and his bicentennial birthday has inspired celebrations in art, politics, economics and even capitalism. | {
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The Obama administration will begin to tap federal retiree programs to help fund operations after the government lost its ability Monday to borrow more money from the public, adding urgency to efforts in Washington to fashion a compromise over the debt.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has warned for months that the government would soon hit the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling — a legal limit on how much it can borrow. With that limit reached Monday, Geithner is undertaking special measures in an effort to postpone the day when he will no longer have enough funds to pay all of the government’s bills.
Geithner, who has already suspended a program that helps state and local government manage their finances, will begin to borrow from retirement funds for federal workers. The measure won’t have an impact on retirees because the Treasury is legally required to reimburse the program.
The maneuver buys Geithner only a few months of time. If Congress does not vote by Aug. 2 to raise the debt limit, Geithner says the government is likely to default on some of its obligations, which he says would cause enormous economic harm and the suspension of government services, including the disbursal of Social Security funds.
Many congressional Republicans, however, have been skeptical that breaching the Aug. 2 deadline would be as catastrophic as Geithner suggests. What’s more, Republican leaders are insisting that Congress cut spending by as much as the Obama administration wants to raise the debt limit, without any new taxes. Obama is proposing spending cuts and tax increases to rein in the debt.
“Everything should be on the table, except raising taxes,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Because raising taxes will hurt our economy and hurt our ability to create jobs in our country.”
The Obama administration has warned that it is dangerous to make a vote on raising the debt limit contingent on other proposals. But Boehner is demanding that Congress use the debt vote as a way to bring down government spending.
“I’m ready to cut the deal today,” Boehner said. “We don’t have to wait until the 11th hour. But I am not going to walk away from this moment. We have a moment, a window of opportunity to act, because if we don’t act, the markets are going to act for us.”
Geithner’s plan to tap federal retiree programs as a temporary means to avoid a government default comes as the Obama administration has shown growing interest in altering those programs to curb the debt in the long run.
Administration officials have expressed interest in raising the amount that federal employees contribute to their pensions, sources told The Washington Post.
The Republicans have suggested that the civilian workforce contribute more to its retirement in the future, effectively trimming 5 percent from salaries. The administration has not been willing to go that far in talks being led by Vice President Biden.
Treasury secretaries have tapped special programs to avoid default six times since 1985. The most protracted delay in raising the debt limit came in 1995 after congressional Republicans swept to power during the Clinton administration.
But today, the government needs far more money to cover its obligations than in the past, making the special measures less effective than they used to be. The government needs about $125 billion more a month than it takes in each month.
In a letter released last week to Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Geithner wrote that a default would risk a “double-dip” recession.
“Default would not only increase borrowing costs for the federal government, but also for families, businesses and local governments — reducing investment and job creation throughout the economy,” Geithner wrote.
But several prominent congressional Republicans have dismissed the Obama administration’s assertion that the country would face dire consequences if Congress does not vote to raise the federal limit on government borrowing by August. Many of the skeptics are affiliated with the tea party.
In the Senate, freshman Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) has said the Obama administration has been exaggerating the effects of hitting the default mark. He says breaching the limit would cause only a partial government shutdown.
Other freshman Republicans have said that Geithner could raise money to avoid defaulting by selling investments in private companies. The Republican Study Committee, which represents more than 150 lawmakers, sent a letter to Geithner last week pressing for more details about the Aug. 2 deadline.
More from The Washington Post:
READ: 2chambers: GOP, tea party less likely to see potential default as ‘disastrous’
READ: Wonkbook: Happy debt-ceiling day!
READ: Boehner: It’s clear U.S. must raise debt limit
READ: A tale of many, many, many caps
READ: Debt ceiling, deficit solution: Epic federal yard sale?
SEE PHOTOS: Key players in debate over U.S. fiscal policy
CHART: A look at national debt and debt ceiling over past 30 years
READ: More news from Post Business | {
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A new generation of the HTL process can convert all kinds of biomasses to crude bio-oil, which is sufficiently similar to fossil crude oil that a simple thermal upgrade and existing refinery technology can be employed to subsequently obtain all the liquid fuels we know today. What is more, the HTL process only consumes approximately 10-15 percent of the energy in the feedstock biomass, yielding an energy efficiency of 85-90 percent.
To emphasize, the HTL process accepts all biomasses from modern society - sewage sludge, manure, wood, compost and plant material along with waste from households, meat factories, dairy production and similar industries.
It is by far the most feedstock flexible of any liquid fuel producing process, including pyrolysis, bio-ethanol, gasification with Fischer-Tropsch or catalytic upgrading of different vegetable or agro-industrial residual oils, and does not carry higher costs than these.
Hydrothermal liquefaction is basically pressure cooking, but instead of cooking the biomass in batches, one pot-full at a time, this new generation of HTL is based on flow production, where the biomass is injected into a 400 °C pre-heated reactor, "cooked" under high pressure for ~15 minutes and then quickly cooled down to 70°C.
At 400°C and high pressure the water is in a supercritical state, neither liquid nor gas, at which it easily decomposes the biomass. The process is environmentally friendly, since no harmful solvents are involved, and the energy efficiency is very high: The HTL process only consumes approximately 10-15% of the energy in the feedstock biomass, because the heat energy is recycled between the heating and cooling of the process medium.
The wet medium means that HTL readily accepts moist or wet biomasses, such as those mentioned above. Wet biomasses are in vast majority on Earth. All other known processes for liquid bio-fuel production either require expensive drying or only make use of a limited proportion of the biomass, e.g. the carbohydrate content.
The water phase emanating from the HTL process has low carbon contents and can either be recycled into the process or ultimately be purified to attain drinking water quality, which is the long-term goal. As such HTL replaces the burden of disposal with the benefit of recycling.
The HTL process has the following benefits:
Crude HTL oil has high heating values of approximately 35-39 MJ/kg on a dry ash free basis
The HTL process only consumes approximately 10-15% of the energy in the feedstock biomass, yielding an energy efficiency of 85-90%
Crude HTL oil has very low oxygen, sulphur and water content (compared to e.g. pyrolysis oil which typically contains approx. 50% water)
HTL oil recovers more than 70% of the feedstock carbon content (single pass)
HTL oil is storage stable, and has comparatively low upgrading requirements, due in part to a high fraction of middle distillates in the crude oil. It is much less upgrading intensive than e.g. pyrolysis oil, which needs immediate upgrading in order not to deteriorate.
The bio-oil from HTL can be used as-produced in heavy engines or it can be hydrogenated or thermally upgraded to obtain diesel-, gasoline- or jet-fuels by existing refinery technology. In this sense, HTL bio-oil is directly comparable to fossil crude oil. This is unique among liquid bio-fuels and means that it can directly enter the existing fuel distribution network for automotive transportation in any concentration, giving it full drop-in properties.
In Denmark, Aarhus University and Aalborg University are in partnership on HTL research at all levels. In Aarhus, Dept. of Chemistry focuses on fundamental understanding of the process and quick surveys of the effects of different feedstocks and catalysts along with subsequent upgrading. Dept. of Agro-Ecology develops energy crops while Dept. of Engineering works on pilot-scale HTL. The latter is pursued even more vigorously at Aalborg University (Dept. of Energy Technology), which focuses strongly on pilot-scale production and process efficiency, as well as upgrading of HTL bio-oil along with end user testing of oils and upgraded distillates in engines and turbines. The Dept. of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, AAU Esbjerg, directs its activities towards extracting value not only from the oil, but also from the effluents.
The combined efforts and unique results already obtained hold promise of another energy technology endeavor in Denmark comparable only to the breakthrough of the windmill-industry in the 1980's.
###
About the HTL process:
HTL operates in hot, compressed water at >300 degrees C and >200 bar, often assisted by catalysts
Boiling is suppressed, i.e. no energy is expended to overcome the latent heat of evaporation
Successful HTL is dependent on extremely swift heating and cooling of the biomass, in order to avoid the formation of tar or ash compounds
Heat energy is recycled between the heating and cooling of the process medium
A typical Pilot-scale plant yields ~30 liters of bio-oil per day - one such plant is being built at Aalborg University
An industrial scale plant can be anything from 300 barrels per day up several thousand, comparable to fossil oil wells
Some HTL has made use of heterogeneous as well as homogeneous catalysts, e.g. ZrO2
Recently, Aarhus University has shown that ZrO2 has no effect on HTL of the biomass DDGS
Little-known facts on H2O: | {
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Abstract This package provides contex.rules , an interface which enables a very declarative form of string manipulation, where you can manipulate a string “in one go” in sophisticated ways. This library also provides two related abstractions, StringContext and MatchContext , which can be used for a more stateful manipulation of strings. I recommend using contex.rules as I think that makes for more readable code. Nevertheless, those abstractions are well documented and might usefully serve as building blocks. Indeed, contex.rules is implemented on top of them.
The problem with our interfaces for string manipulation My motivation for creating this package was that I was assigned a task in which it was necessary to change strings such as '1_Photo032-2008.jpg' into '1_Photo031-2008.jpg' . All the numbers could vary between filenames, and it seemed like I always had to do something inelegant to accomplish this task. Maybe it was to match the various parts and stich them back together: >>> match = re . fullmatch ( '(\d+)_Photo(\d+)-(\d+)\.jpg' , '1_Photo032-2008.jpg' ) >>> ' {} _Photo {} - {} .jpg' . format ( match . group ( 1 ), ' {:0>3} ' . format ( int ( match . group ( 2 )) - 1 ), match . group ( 3 )) '1_Photo031-2008.jpg' Or using re.sub with non-consuming regex groups to match the correct area of the string: >>> re . sub ( '(\d+)(?=-\d+\.jpg)' , lambda m : ' {:0>3} ' . format ( int ( m . group ( 1 )) - 1 ), '1_Photo032-2008.jpg' ) '1_Photo031-2008.jpg' Shouldn’t this be simpler? Describing that string with a regular expression is simple enough, and I’m only changing one little part of the string, so why do I have to fiddle around with indices, and why do I have to sacrifice readability? Most importantly, why do I have to experience this aesthetic pain deep in my heart?
First attempt: stateful manipulation My first idea was that our abstractions aren’t fit for this sort of problem. Strings are flat, they have no sense of context, and if you pull out a substring then it requires special effort to stich it back together. The solution? Just keep track of the before and the after : >>> view = contex . match ( '1_Photo032-2008.jpg' , '\d+_Photo(?P<number>\d+)-\d+\.jpg' ) >>> view < MatchContext object ; tup = ( '' , '1_Photo032-2008.jpg' , '' ) > >>> view . group ( 'number' ) < MatchContext object ; tup = ( '1_Photo' , '032' , '-2008.jpg' ) > >>> result = view . group ( 'number' ) . replace ( lambda n : ' {:0>3} ' . format ( int ( n ) - 1 )) >>> result < MatchContext object ; tup = ( '1_Photo' , '031' , '-2008.jpg' ) > >>> str ( result ) '1_Photo031-2008.jpg' >>> This way I can move around the “focus point” of the string with methods such as .group , manipulate that space, and when I’m done convert it back to a str . I can even manipulate more than one area of the string: >>> view = contex . match ( '1_Photo032-2008.jpg' , '\d+_Photo(?P<number>\d+)-(?P<year>\d+)\.jpg' ) >>> view . group ( 'number' ) . replace ( '' ) . group ( 'year' ) . replace ( lambda y : y [ - 2 :]) < MatchContext object ; tup = ( '1_Photo-' , '08' , '.jpg' ) > >>> MatchContext keeps track of where the matched regular expression groups are: Even though I removed the content of the “number” group, MatchContext knows where to find and replace the “year” group. It can also deal with nested regex groups, 0-length matches etc. Note Previously (v2.0.1 and earlier) I allowed arbitrary slicing on MatchContext objects to select the focus point in addition to the .group method. This was a mistake. When you’re dealing with 0-length slices and adjacent regex groups that matched 0-length strings, there arises serious problems of semantics. I found out that the expected semantics is inextricably linked to which regex group you previously selected with .group , and therefore had to disallow slicing for MatchContext objects.
Removing the state: Vive la Revolution The MatchContext abstraction certainly is an improvement for these particular types of problems, but there is one downside to it, and that is that it adds an additional layer of state to ordinary strings: The programmer must remember which part of the string is in “focus”, or, in other words, which state the string is in. So my next challenge was to eliminate the state. What I found out was that only in rare cases is the state needed or useful, and this lead me to believe that the fundamental problem isn’t really the abstractions we use for representing strings, but rather the interfaces we have for manipulating them. Thus, pardon the pun, enter contex.rules : >>> contex . rules ( '\d+_Photo(?P<number>\d+)-(?P<year>\d+)\.jpg' , { ... 'number' : lambda n : ' {:0>3} ' . format ( int ( n ) - 1 ), ... 'year' : lambda y : y [ - 2 :] ... }) . apply ( '1_Photo032-2008.jpg' ) '1_Photo031-08.jpg' Or maybe I want to change the layout of the filename completely: >>> contex . rules ( '(\d+)_Photo(?P<number>\d+)-(?P<year>\d+)\.jpg' , { ... 'number' : lambda n : int ( n ) - 1 , ... 'year' : lambda y : y [ - 2 :] ... }) . expand ( '1_Photo032-2008.jpg' , 'Photo_ {1} _ {number:0>3} - {year} .jpeg' ) 'Photo_1_031-08.jpeg' The string manipulation is done in one go. The programmer doesn’t need to remember where the focus point is right now, or specify which order to do the replacements in. This is a much more declarative interface: you tell it what the string looks like, what changes you want made, and it figures out the rest. You don’t need to stich the pieces back together, and can create more readable regular expressions as well because of that. Nested regex groups are also allowed: the nested one will be replaced first (which will make a difference if the replacement for the outer group is a callable). More advanced example Here’s an example using re.search (as opposed to re.fullmatch , which is the default): >>> contex . rules ( '(?P<millennium>\d)\d {3} ' , { ... 'millennium' : lambda s : int ( s ) + 1 , ... 0 : lambda y : '<span class="year"> {} </span>' . format ( y ) ... }, method = re . search ) . apply ( 'Current year: 2015' ) 'Current year: <span class="year">3015</span>' Notice that the 'millennium' group is replaced before the 0 group. contex.rules is explained in more detail in its very long docstring.
Doubtful stability In order to retrieve certain information about the regular expressions to resolve ambiguities related to 0-length matches and so on, I’ve seen it necessary to use sre_parse.parse to parse the regular expressions. This is an “internal support module” or something like that, and the stability of this library becomes doubtful as a result. My judgement was that it would take a lot of time and effort to create my own parser for python regular expressions, and I could easily create some bugs in that parser too.
Conclusion I hope that the examples of contex.rules I have given are sufficiently intuitive so that any programmer can look at them and infer pretty accurately what they do, because the whole point of this endeavor is to increase readability. Furthermore, I’d be interested to see if other people can take this idea ^\w{7}
Using Contex The contex package contains 5 functions: rules(regex, rule_dict, method=re.fullmatch, flags=0) for declarative string manipulation.
for declarative string manipulation. T(string) for converting a string into a StringContext object.
for converting a string into a object. search(string, pattern, flags=0) and
and match(string, pattern, flags=0) for regex searches (with the same semantic difference as in the re module). They both return a MatchContext object.
for regex searches (with the same semantic difference as in the module). They both return a object. find(string, substring, right_side=False) for finding a substring, returns a StringContext object. contex also contains the StringContext and MatchContext classes.
Installing contex should work in both Python 2.7 and 3. Install with $ pip install contex . If you want to install for Python 3 you might want to replace pip with pip3 , depending on how your system is configured.
Developing Contex is documented and tested. Run $ nosetests or $ python3 setup.py test to run the tests. The code is hosted at https://notabug.org/Uglemat/Contex | {
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The company has asked the FDA for priority review of the combination therapy, which, if granted, could shorten the review timeframe from approximately 12 months to 8 months. The FDA grants priority review for several reasons, including when a potential drug is considered a major treatment advance.
The treatment is the first to combine two drugs into a single pill to address the underlying genetic cause of the disease in those with two copies of the F508del mutation. About 50 percent of people with CF in the United States have two copies of the F508del mutation and 40 percent have one copy.
“The CF Foundation is very pleased to see that this combination treatment is moving forward with possible approval in 2015,” said Robert J. Beall, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. “This is an exciting step forward in our efforts to speed development of new and effective therapies for all people with CF.”
Vertex has also submitted an application to the European Medicines Agency for approval of the drug for people with two copies of the F508del mutation in the European Union. The combination treatment has already been granted accelerated assessment in the European Union.
Approximately 8,500 people with CF ages 12 and older in the United States and 12,000 in Europe have two copies of the F508del mutation.
Results released earlier this year from late-stage clinical trials of the combination treatment in those with two copies of F508del showed that those who received the drug had significant improvement in lung function and other important health measures, including weight gain, and a reduction in the rate of pulmonary exacerbations. The combination treatment was generally well tolerated by participants who took the drug, with few adverse events reported.
Vertex plans to begin a Phase 3b clinical trial of the potential combination drug in people ages 12 and older with two copies of the F508del mutation who have severe lung disease and may benefit from the treatment prior to its potential approval. The trial will enroll a limited number of people in the first quarter of 2015.
People with CF and their families who have questions about the Phase 3b clinical trial may contact Vertex Medical Information (in the United States) at 1-877-634-8789 or [email protected], or (outside the United States) [email protected].
Additional Resources | {
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NEXT time you walk into a room and completely forget why you’re there, take it as an evolutionary compliment.
It’s a sign your survival instincts are finely attuned to the dangers of your new environment, even if you can’t remember why you’re holding an empty tea cup.
That’s according to Australian pop-science guru Dr Karl Kruszelnicki who said the evolutionary quirk is triggered by walking into a new space.
“The doorway is a killer,” he said as human brains can only focus on an area “the size of your thumbnail at arm’s length.
“Subconsciously you’re checking out the killer toaster.”
It’s just one of a handful of facts the ABC and BBC presenter gave an audience in London ahead of his Royal Institute live shows. Here’s some more mind-blowing trivia you never knew you needed to know.
WHY DIET COKE WILL MAKE YOU MORE DRUNK
A rum with diet coke will make you significantly more drunk than a rum with regular coke, Dr Karl explained.
This is because the energy from the sugar in the real Coke means it will take longer for the alcohol to be pushed into your system. It’s thought this is because the body will treat a sugary drink like food, and it will sit in your stomach longer to be broken down by acids.
WHY YOU (PROBABLY) KISS TO THE RIGHT
Two thirds of people lean to the right when going in for a kiss, according to some not at all creepy research carried out by Onur Gunturkun while hanging around airports and watching couples kiss each other without baggage or any other obstruction in the way.
That makes five out of the possible nine combinations potentially good, and four out of nine kisses a “terrible situation”, Dr Karl said.
DR KARL’S WIFE MAKES HIS SHIRTS
True story.
AN AUSSIE ON THE LOO HELPED SHORTEN WORLD WAR ONE
Australian-born William Bragg was stationed in France during World War I when he noticed that he was lifted off the seat of the otherwise-sealed toilet, when a large artillery gun nearby was fired.
He figured out, along with a friend, that the gusts of winds were due to a low frequency sound produced by the gun.
The discovery led to a way to locate enemy guns during the war — a major advantage to the allied forces — and eventually won him the Nobel prize.
THE OUTBACK HAS ‘UPSIDE DOWN’ RIVERS
Australia’s outback is home to one of the world’s oldest, the Finke River, parts of which are “upside down” meaning there is sand on top and freshwater underneath, according to Dr Karl. “Literally people have died within a metre of water, because of thirst,” he said, adding that the red soil gets its colour from huge quantity of iron ore.
“You can run electricity through the dirt of Australia, it’s that conductive.”
‘SELFIE’ IS AN AUSSIE INVENTION — OR IS IT?
Take a bow, Australia. The first recorded use of the world “selfie” seems to be a drunk Aussie at a mate’s 21st, who smashed his face and posted it online.
Nathan Hope, aka, Hopey, put a picture of himself with a huge fat lip on Dr Karl’s forum in September 2002.
He said he “tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps …. sorry about the focus it was a selfie”.
It’s commonly reported as the first usage of the term however Hopey himself later said “It was not a word I coined. It’s something that was just common slang at the time, used to describe a picture of yourself. Fairly simple.”
THE ODDS OF GETTING A DOUBLE YOLK EGG
Are around 1000 to 1, but they can be reduced by factors like buying large eggs which are more likely to contain the double yolk ones.
The odds of getting four in a row are around one in a trillion, so make sure you buy a Lotto ticket that day.
‘THERE IS NO DEBATE’
When asked about the Australian education system and its emphasis on science Dr Karl said it’s geared for the elites and advocated a greater emphasis on STEM subjects, arts and trades.
“[I come from a time] when education was seen as an investment in future rather than an intolerable burden on society,” he said.
“The best predictor of how many prison cells you will need is the illiteracy levels for 10 and 11 year olds.”
“Our education system in Australia, despite being horrendously expensive is also …. geared for the top 5 per cent of students. The other 95 per cent are left feeling bad.”
On the Brexit quagmire the UK finds itself in as politicians squabble over the terms, he compared the economic consequences to the climate change and vaccination.
“There is no debate about vaccination or climate change … if you’re in a restaurant and you’re the chef and you suddenly have a case of diarrhoea and you come out and say I have two choices, I have faeces on my hands, shall I wash them or not? Well there are two choices, obviously, but are both of them equally good in terms of health? No! You wash your hands. Really really thoroughly! There are arguments where the weight is all on one side.” | {
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