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Portland officials are negotiating with Lyft, the global ride-hailing and mobility company, to operate the city’s Biketown rental fleet.
But while Portland transportation staffers last year said they wanted to see a new fleet featuring hundreds of electric assist bikes hit city streets this spring or summer, they’re now walking back that timeline.
“We think completing a contract in 2020 is reasonable,” Dylan Rivera, transportation bureau spokesman, said in an email this week, “but we have no specific timeframe in mind.”
Portland’s contact with Biketown’s current operator, Motivate, ends in April.
So why isn’t Portland rushing to find a new on-demand bike rental company?
Lyft owns Motivate, so city officials say they don’t expect riders to notice any service disruption.
“Right now, we’re negotiating with our existing operator, so it stands to reason that extending would be relatively easy to do,” Rivera said.
Rivera said Portland believes it’s important to “get the contract right,” and he said that transportation officials are seeking a five-year agreement with a potential for a five-year extension.
“Taking a number of months to get it right seems like time well spent to get the best long-term deal for Portlanders,” he said.
The city in October opened the floodgates to companies interested in running the Biketown system, which will still be sponsored by Nike through at least 2021. Portland required at least half of the new fleet to be e-bikes, and it called for an expansion into all neighborhoods, including hilly Southwest Portland and neighborhoods east of 82nd Avenue.
Last month, the city procurement division quietly disclosed it chose Lyft, the San Francisco-based company, over the lone other bidder. Social Bicycles, better known as the dockless bike and scooter company Jump, submitted the other bid. Uber, Lyft’s chief competitor, owns Social Bicycles.
If negotiations fall apart, the city can then begin discussions with Social Bicycles.
Lyft declined to provide photos of the company’s e-bikes, citing the ongoing contract discussions.
“We thank PBOT, Nike, and the City of Portland for their many years of partnership and are happy to be in discussions with the City of Portland about possibilities for the future of Biketown,” a spokesman said in an email.
Rivera said city staffers have test-ridden multiple e-bikes from potential vendors, but he declined to comment.
-- Andrew Theen; [email protected]; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen
Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. | {
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Leading scientists condemned President Donald Trump's brief appearance at a United Nations summit meant to serve as a "slingshot" toward achieving ambitious goals of combating the global climate crisis, decrying America's commander-in-chief as "the greatest impediment to climate action in the world right now."
After it was initially signaled that Trump would not attend the climate hearings at the U.N. General Assembly, the president went on to appear for 10 minutes alongside Vice President Mike Pence and U.N. Ambassador Kelly Craft before leaving to address a meeting on the persecution of religious minorities, according to CBS News. Despite his appearance, there is no indication that Trump is willing to recant his past denials of man-made climate change.
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The Trump administration has pursued an aggressive anti-environmental agenda since Day One. This has included pulling America out of the Paris climate accord, purging all information about climate change from the Environmental Protection Agency's website, ordering parts of the government to stop studying how climate change will impact the planet's future and claiming that "the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."
"Trump is an embarrassment for the United States, and it is shameful that our political process is acting as his facilitator," Ken Caldeira, an atmospheric scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Department of Global Ecology, told Salon after Trump's U.N. appearance Monday. "Trump's refusal to meaningfully participate in international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions augments our national shame."
Given Trump's well-known opposition to combating the climate crisis, Caldeira said that president's brief participation should have come as no surprise.
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"While it is nice that he managed to spend as much time sitting in the U.N. General Assembly, apparently, as his attention span would allow, following the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, nobody was expecting anything better," Caldeira said of Trump. "Nobody has expectations that the Trump administration will try to do anything other than undermine past accomplishments and hamstring future progress."
Another top climate scientist also told that Trump was an embarrassment, calling attention to the fact that ten minutes does not afford the president enough time to "listen to others."
"Yes, it is an embarrassment for the U.S.," Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished senior scientist in the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told Salon by email. "The planet's ability to fight climate change requires U.S. leadership, which has gone in entirely the wrong direction. The U.S. has moral and ethical responsibilities, because it is the biggest contributor over time to the problem. And it is the only nation capable of leading and bringing everyone else along. There are numerous examples of this in the U.N., for instance. In this case, the U.S., with Europe and China, could change the whole problem and start us on a solution."
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Michael E. Mann, a distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State University, said the U.N. summit was "better off without Trump."
"Any true climate solutions will have to go around him and almost certainly involve defeating him in the next election," Mann told Salon. "Trump is the greatest impediment to climate action in the world right now. The U.N. should not legitimize him by inviting him in the first place." | {
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Sporting Kansas City announced on Friday the signing of 16-year-old Homegrown Player Erik Palmer-Brown. The defender becomes the youngest signing in club history and is the only player born in 1997 currently on a team’s roster in Major League Soccer.
“We have put a strong emphasis and many resources into our Academy program and this is another example of the great strides taken in helping our players reach the next level of soccer,” Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes said. “Jon Parry and his staff have done a tremendous job in the development of Erik Palmer-Brown and we are excited to watch his growth within Sporting Kansas City.”
“I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity ahead,” Palmer-Brown said. “To play the sport I love professionally and to begin my career in my hometown is a dream come true. I owe a lot to my family, my coaches and my teammates for helping me reach this point.”
Palmer-Brown is considered one of the top youth prospects for his age in the country. A member of the United States Under-17 Men’s National Team, Palmer-Brown is ranked the No. 1 player in the region and No. 9 player nationally for the Class of 2015 by Top Drawer Soccer (the leader in online coverage of college and high school soccer).
The 6’1, 175-pound central defender has steadily progressed in the Sporting Kansas City Academy since joining in June 2009 at age 13. Within three years of development under Director of Coaching Jon Parry, Palmer-Brown was training with Sporting Kansas City’s senior team and appeared in an MLS Reserve League match in June 2012.
He joined the United States Under-15 Boys National Team in September 2012 and was named the Week 6 Player of the Week in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy a month later. He was chosen to the 1996-97 Academy Select Game at the 2012 Winter Showcase, earning Man of the Match honors from U.S. Soccer, and was named a Winter Showcase Standout by Top Drawer Soccer.
In January, Palmer-Brown was invited to attend the prestigious U.S. Soccer Residency Program in Bradenton, Fla. under the direction of U.S. Under-17 Men’s National Team head coach Richie Williams. He debuted with the U17’s in a pair of scrimmages in Carson, Calif. against the LA Galaxy and Nike’s The Chance team and has since travelled extensively for international competition.
At the Under-15 level, Palmer-Brown represented the United States at the 2013 Tournament Delle Nazioni in Italy. In June, he was on the U.S. Under-17’s roster for the Caspian Cup in Azerbaijan and most recently, he helped the United States win an international tournament in Japan at the U-17 level.
Palmer-Brown is a three-time State Cup champion (2009-2011) and appeared in 40 U.S. Soccer Development Academy matches – starting in 38 of those games -- over the last two seasons. In addition to his prolific club soccer career, Palmer-Brown played one season of high school soccer as a freshman at Lee’s Summit High School in the fall of 2011. He was named All-Conference First Team and Defensive Player of the Year, as well as receiving honorable mention recognition on the MSHSAA Western All-Region and Class 3 All-Kansas City teams.
Palmer-Brown becomes the third Homegrown Player on Sporting Kansas City’s roster, along with Jon Kempin (2010) and Kevin Ellis (2011). He will occupy the club’s available off-budget roster spot and will remain eligible to play in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy for the Sporting KC Academy under-18 team.
Major League Soccer established the Homegrown Player initiative in 2007 to permit teams to promote youth academy players to professional contracts. These players must meet Homegrown Player criteria, including participation in the club’s youth system and residence in the team’s Homegrown territory.
While playing professionally, Palmer-Brown will complete his high school education at Archbishop O'Hara High School in Kansas City, Mo.
Transaction: Sporting Kansas City (MLS) signs defender Erik Palmer-Brown as Homegrown Player.
Erik Palmer-Brown
Position: Defender
Number: 2
Born: 4/24/97
Height: 6-1
Weight: 175
Hometown: Lee’s Summit, Mo.
Birthplace: Napoleon, Ohio
Citizenship: USA
Twitter: @erikbrown14 | {
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In our commitment to advancing graduate students in the field, ATTW is pleased to announce the 2018 ATTW Graduate Research Award. This award’s purpose is to support and advance the research of graduate students in the latter stages of their PhD programs (preference will be given to those students working on their dissertations).
Up to three awardees will receive a monetary amount ($500.00) to be used for research expenses and/or to help defray the costs of attending the annual ATTW conference. In addition, award recipients will be featured in a work-in-progress panel presentation at the annual conference in Kansas City, Kansas in 2018, and the conference registration fee will be waived.
Application details
At this time, we are soliciting application materials from graduate students whose research is in technical and professional communication. Interested students should submit (as one *.pdf file)
a prospectus that describes their current research and its contribution to the field of technical and professional communication; the prospectus should also address the applicants’ plans for future work. (Please limit to 3-4 pages).
a description of the ways in which the award money will be used to support the research.
a current CV.
a letter of support from the student’s advisor that confirms the student’s status as a graduate student and details the advisor’s support for the student’s application.
Awards will be given to those with clearly defined research projects that contribute to the field of technical and professional communication.
Completed applications should be submitted online: http://attw.submittable.com
Important Dates
Application deadline: January 20, 2018
Notification of award recipients: February 5, 2018
ATTW Conference: March 13-14, 2018
Questions
If you have questions, feel free to contact Michelle F. Eble at [email protected]
Note: The selection committee for these research awards operate outside the conference proposal submission process. In the event that graduate students are selected for this award, they would present at a work-in-progress panel award panel. | {
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Happy New Year.
I mentioned this in the podcast yesterday but wanted to put it down in words. For me, the thing that was most bothersome about Super Bowl XLIX wasn’t so much the agonising manner of the defeat. It was the way it jeopardised the legacy of this era of Seahawks football.
Win back-to-back Super Bowls and this is the team of the decade. Forever to be remembered as one of the greats. Pete Carroll would be one Super Bowl title behind Bill Belichick’s incredible haul. It wouldn’t matter if they didn’t win it this season. They’d be the Seahawks people always remember.
Now there’s a genuine danger that the Carroll-led Seahawks will be remembered for little more than that ending to that game. That would be unfair. Watching the creation of this team has been like watching a good movie (not Indiana Jones 4). What kind of an ending is the abject misery of that intercepted pass?
The only way anyone is going to get over that play is to win another Championship. To gain redemption. The desperation to get there is probably more intense for this fan base than even winning the first title. Nobody wants their team to be that team.
There is still a chance the Seahawks make the Super Bowl this season. It’s probably a smaller chance than the Cardinals or Panthers — but they have a legitimate shot.
Here’s ten reasons to feel like this season could still be a story of redemption:
1. Here are the players who were part of Seattle’s Super Bowl roster last season that are currently no longer with the team:
B.J. Daniels, Robert Turbin, Tony Moeaki, Chris Matthews, Kevin Norwood, Bryan Walters, Keavon Milton, James Carpenter, Max Unger, David King, O’Brien Schofield, Kevin Williams, Tony McDaniel, Landon Cohen, Malcolm Smith, Byron Maxwell and Jeron Johnson.
Here are the players that were not available last year or have since been added:
Brandon Mebane, Fred Jackson, Tyler Lockett, Frank Clark, Jordan Hill, Cassius Marsh, Ahtyba Rubin, Kevin Pierre-Louis, Kelcie McCray.
A few key players have departed (Maxwell, Unger, McDaniel) but nobody of major significance. The emergence of Lockett, the return of Mebane and the addition of Rubin offset the losses. Basically, this is virtually the same roster that many claimed to be the most complete team in the NFL a year ago.
2. According to Football Outsiders, the Seahawks have a 76.4% chance to be the #6 seed. That would mean going to Green Bay or Minnesota in the Wild Card round. Seattle recently destroyed Minnesota on the road while the Packers, according to the MMQB’s Peter King, are “positively messed up”. If the Seahawks can get on a roll in the wildcard — that could be the launchpad for a post season run. Maybe avoiding Washington is a good thing — they’ve won three in a row. Kirk Cousins has thrown eight touchdowns and zero picks in his last two outings. The Seahawks have struggled against good tight ends — Jordan Reed has 25 catches, 333 yards and five touchdowns in the last three weeks.
3. Marshawn Lynch is close to returning. If there is to be some kind of fairytale end — Lynch possibly provides it. This could be his final season in the NFL. At the very least it looks like his final year in Seattle. Although he seems to have a unique relationship with the front office — there’s no question he inspires his team mates. Helping Lynch finish in style could be the thing that unites this squad and gives them that extra edge in the post season. The NFL has a weird way of providing these kinds of endings. Jerome Bettis, Ray Lewis. Santa Clara is only 40 miles from Oakland, in case you’re wondering.
4. The Seahawks lost to the Rams in a squalid performance last weekend. Do you have to be the hot team to win in the post season? Absolutely not. In 2012 the Ravens lost four of their last five games before winning a Championship. In 2011 the Giants lost five out of six between weeks 10-15 before winning a Championship — including a 23-10 loss at home to the 5-11 Washington Redskins. Whatever happened last week against St. Louis or even this week against Arizona doesn’t matter. What matters is the best players coming good at the vital moment — the post season. In particular that means the quarterback. In 2011 and 2012, Eli Manning and Joe Flacco found their best form. Russell Wilson has been playing his best football for several weeks already.
5. Speaking of Wilson — he might be the most under-appreciated player in the league. There are only two players in NFL history with a +100 career passer rating — Aaron Rodgers (104.4) and Russell Wilson (101.4). Rodgers has been described as, at least up until this season, possibly the most talented quarterback ever to play the game. His inability to win another title (plus Tom Brady’s growing collection) stalled some of that talk. Wilson is on target to emulate Rodgers’ career without the benefit of a long developing process behind Brett Favre. Over the last few weeks Wilson has excelled in all of the key areas — red zone percentage, third down conversion, explosive plays. The Seahawks have a genuine title winner at quarterback who can drive this team forward.
6. Going on the road could be a good thing for the Seahawks. They only won five games at Century Link in 2015. Unless Pittsburgh sneaks into the playoffs, none of those wins came against a team that will make the post season. It feels like Seattle is getting everyone’s best shot at the CLINK. It’s an opportunity to make a statement — a chance to prove you belong. Whether it’s Cam Newton showing he can win the big game, the Cardinals trying to prove they are the best in the NFC West or the Rams looking to end a bad season on a high — the Seahawks haven’t been able to match that will and intensity at home when the pressure is on to get the job done. It might suit this squad to go on the road and be the under dog. They certainly thrived in that role when they pummelled the Vikings in week 13.
7. There is something to be said for knowing what it takes to win. The Seahawks are a Championship roster filled with players that have won on the big stage. The Panthers and Cardinals can prove over the next few weeks they can achieve that level too. And yet they still need to prove it. Carson Palmer hasn’t won a playoff game. Cam Newton’s only playoff victory came against the Ryan Lindley-led Cardinals a year ago. It might not be a significant advantage — but there is an advantage to Seattle and Green Bay in that they know ultimately what it takes to go deep into the post-season.
8. The Seahawks have history against all of the teams in the NFC playoffs. They’ve won in Carolina in each of the previous three seasons. They destroyed the Cardinals last year with Ryan Lindley at quarterback — but also beat Bruce Arians and Carson Palmer convincingly in their own backyard in 2013. The Seahawks recently won comfortably in Minnesota and had a big win in Washington against Kirk Cousins last year. And while they lost to Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in week 2 at Lambeau — they also beat Green Bay twice last season. They’ve beaten these teams before — there’s no reason why they can’t do it again.
9. Albert Breer made an interesting point on the Brock and Salk show yesterday. When discussing what makes a legitimate Championship contender, he made reference to Arizona’s multiple ways they can beat you. They run the ball well. Carson Palmer could (and maybe should) be the league MVP. The defense plays tough, solid football and can make the plays to win a game. How is this any different to the Seahawks? Russell Wilson is having a fantastic year. They’re expected to have Beast Mode back on the field — possibly for the last few games of his career. The defense hasn’t always played up to a 2013 or 2014 level — but it’s still ranked #4 overall by DVOA, #2 in pass defense, #3 against the run and #3 in points-per-game. The Seahawks remain balanced and like Arizona — can beat you in multiple ways.
10. This is the chance. You can’t find redemption for the last Super Bowl in week 5. You can’t find it in week 15. The Seahawks can only re-write the script in the playoffs. If they want people to stop talking about last season — they need to make it happen in January and February. Not October. They’ve already conquered the burden of having to live with that experience by even making the post season. Some clubs would’ve buckled under the weight of disappointment, anger and frustration. Even getting to the playoffs is an achievement. Now they’ve made it — this is the time to make amends. Super Bowl XLIX hung over this franchise for nearly a full year as a negative. For the next few weeks they can finally use it as a motivating factor. A positive. Go and put things right. | {
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The election of Donald Trump has exacted a severe psychic wound upon American liberalism. This was the essential promise of candidate Trump and his Republican base will trade away everything simply for the wages of jouissance in “triggering the liberals.” A uniquely grotesque white supremacist and serial sexual assaulter now occupies the seat of power belching obscenities and petty personal grievances via Twitter. After a chaotic and incompetent first year in office Trump has achieved a major class war and policy victory with the latest tax bill. Yet in the terms of the liberal political crisis he is being tried primarily for crimes of decorum and procedure. It is telling that on the same day as the Republican senate enacted the Koch-tax fantasy, liberal media and political elites were busy celebrating Michael Flynn’s guilty plea and cooperation as part of Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Cold War patriotism and conspiracies of Russian subterfuge have been deployed by liberals in the place of the class politics and broad-based material appeals that would be capable of defeating Trump’s libidinal and ethno-nationalist paeans to American greatness. Through this combination of delusion and political procedure American liberals are attempting to salvage a regime of truth based on a habitus of post-politics.
Technocratic Habitus
In the current conflagration it makes more sense to think of American liberalism as a cultural habitus or affect than a consistent ethico-political project. The cultural mourning of Barack Obama’s absence from the White House does not come from a sense of a great ideological project thwarted but the loss of how it made liberals “feel” to have Barack and Michelle at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The dignity of the office was never greater for liberals with the tempered, professorial and historic figure of Obama appealing to our better selves. This habitus eschews ideology for process, compromise and the promise of meritocracy. It is this transcendent virtue, which is held to ennoble political institutions and realize America’s promise. This uniquely American and deluded optimism is mixed with a biting cynicism towards those that would use politics to transform society. The socialism of Sanders and the fascism of Trump are seen as twin evils. Wielding this cynical knowingness marks one as a member of a technocratic, managerial or cultural elite that gets how things “really work.” This self-satisfied enlightened class is the rational “fact-based community” staring down Yeats’ impassioned worst. The domain of politics does not require antagonistic ideological struggle but simply the intervention of the enlightened drawing upon their critical faculties to solve problems.
This tired end of history politics has found its apogee and perhaps last iteration in the exaltation of Silicon Valley as the hegemonic ideal work and play in late capitalism. The promise of what Evgeny Morozov calls “techno-solutionism” imagines programmers, engineers and thought leaders utilizing data to solve all manner of social problems. The reality is rather the enclosure of the social commons, rent-seeking, the cannibalization of other sectors, mass unprofitability and a bubble inflated only by Gulf money and capital’s ideological investment. This rotten edifice was a fitting avatar for the zombie politics of Clinton that would wield data and innovation in the battle against Trump’s fascism.
Clinton’s tortured Pokémon Go pun has become an iconic moment of internet humor but did in fact contain a sincere techno-solutionist enquiry; “What if there was an app that could gamify democracy and mobilize an atomized techno-polity?” As observed by Žižek the possibilities of technology are seemingly endless in an inverse proportion to the diminution of the political realm to effect social change. For the challenge of neoliberal precarity STEM, apps and learning to code are the panacea. Even Clinton’s appropriation of radical intersectional discourse manages to stuff racial justice into the rubric of techno-solutionism. A Clinton campaign graphic highlighted “complex intersectional challenges” facing the African-American community. The graphic displayed an interconnected network of key terms including “Investments in Communities of Color,” “Accountable Leadership” and “Access to Nutritional Food.” In this appeal to Ted Talk-style social science there is a vulgar conflation of intersectionality with networks. Intersectionality no longer represents an ethico-political demand for justice but the call for “solutions and real plans” as if enlightened technocrats have yet to devote their brilliance to the task.
Where this Silicon Valley fetishism extended beyond rhetoric was in the algorithmic campaign management of Robby Mook. Mook boasted to Politico in September 2016 that the campaign “relied almost entirely” on the beautiful mind of data chief Elan Kriegel. Data was the key to replacing a clunky press-the-flesh style of politics with economical micro-targeted ad spends and a small footprint campaign in places like Michigan and Wisconsin. The campaign very self-consciously presented itself as comprised of “engineers and developers who left lucrative careers at places like Google, Facebook, and Twitter to help code Clinton’s way to more votes.” This was both the engine of the Clinton campaign and a cultural marker of liberal habitus. Clinton’s message of experience and technocratic competency, “a progressive who gets things done,” was evidenced by this reliance upon the best and brightest. The appeal to liberal habitus and competency would transcend the retrograde politics antagonism wielded by the chaotic and blundering campaign of Trump.
The trauma of the Trump victory for American liberals is not simply a political defeat, liberals have found ways to “enjoy” defeat through a ubiquitous Daily Show-style humor that cements a righteous cultural superiority. The material consequences of Trump’s victory are ghastly however liberal distress centers around the collapse of post-political regimes of truth. The meritocracy has spat up Trump as the obscene face of power and the internet, once a mechanism of the end of history, is now the dominion of post-truth, conspiracy and jouissance. Where liberals imagine online as a space of collaboration, innovation and precious data Trump embodies the economic and libidinal logics of affective media production. The Trump campaign was not carefully amassing data and email addresses for electoral models, volunteer engagement and donations but tapped online as a space of seething antagonism and jouissance. Where social media companies utilize free labor to extract data Trump’s brand of ruthless opportunism and vulgar transgression secured a loyal following performing free labor in sharing affective testimony, performing the spectacle of raucous rallies and filling the signifier #MAGA with meaning.
The disruptive potential of the internet and online social networks, once synonymous with Occupy Wall Street and Tahrir Square, has been realized in the distributed white supremacy of Trump. There has been a great deal of intellectual resources from cyber-enthusiasts such as Yochai Benkler devoted to theorizing online connectivity as reinvigorating public and democratic values. On the academic left Deleuzian affect theory, the rhizome and the multitude have become means to optimistically interpret fleeting and emotionally driven online interactions as coalescing into a human becoming. However, the superfluous-ness of online spaces, the universal affect of critical knowingness and the traumatic encounter with “the other” has meant the collapse of meaning or what Jodi Dean describes as “the decline of symbolic efficiency.”
It is Trump’s politics of obscene transgression, victimization and ethno-nationalism that is able to short-circuit the failures of discourse. Online subcultures have taken to Trump as a super-ego agent of jouissance. He indulges in the same conspiracy, victimization-complex and bombast as your average shit-poster while wielding immense power. That he has eclipsed so-called “moderate Republicans” speaks to the libidinal truth of American conservatism; a desire to wield unrestrained power as an exceptional group besieged by innumerable enemies. The logic of trolling is exemplary of the jouissance and the libidinal charge Trump followers enjoy. The conspiracy, obsession and ruthless dehumanization of the liberal enemy has become the de-facto logic of the right-wing from alt-right millennials to septuagenarian Fox News viewers alike. Trump followers enjoy the ceaseless conspiracy, as with the recent “November 4th Antifa Civil War” panic, with self-expressive modes of discourse like YouTube vlogs used to construct whole-cloth an omnipotent Antifa enemy that users can righteously threaten to kill.
These contours of a “post-truth” polity are not the signs of distortion in communication networks needing a techno-fix or the invasion of a foreign pathological body, they are the essential conditions necessary for harnessing affective digital labor. These economies of online are built around celebrities and megabrands such as Trump, affluent users sold on as commodities and a global proletariat of content moderators, click-farm and digital piece-meal workers. Fake news fulfills both the libidinal incentives of Trump followers and the economic motivations of Macedonian teenagers for whom the fractions of a penny per click are valued. That American liberalism could imagine its habitus as universal and transcendent of this material politics is pure ideology. This past year in response to Facebook’s role in American malaise, and its own brand crisis, Mark Zuckerberg announced a 50-state “listening tour.” This self-presentation as the earnest philanthropist motivated by the desire to solve problems and bring people together through technology is as soothing to liberals as it is myopic. While Zuckerberg feigns social responsibility this fraction of class power is best embodied by “Übermenschen” such as Thiel, Musk or Kalanick brazenly accelerating the demise, or “disrupting,” collective and public notions of the social.
Reconstituting Truth
The ascendance of Donald Trump should represent the end of post-politics, which has failed dramatically by its own terms. A liberal regime of truth based on the cultural authority of experts, discourses of rationalism and the ability of political institutions to represent these values cannot be said to exist. Where the crucial task for this moment would appear to be forging a left mass politics of justice and solidarity in fighting Trump’s fascism, American liberals are determined to reconstitute their regime of truth. Trump is not seen as a manifestation of particular American political pathologies but is an agent of subversion able to benefit from the collapse of truth at the hands of foreign interference. It has become the dominant narrative in American liberal circles that Vladimir Putin has master-minded what Hillary Clinton calls a “political 9-11” in “hacking” the electoral process and broader polity. Post-2016 the intellectual resources of liberal institutions from media, think-tanks, the democratic party and the voice of Morgan Freeman have all been devoted with a focus towards uncovering this plot. Leaving aside the hysteria that this framing has elicited1 it is instructive to consider what this new infrastructure for truth looks like.
The notion of election hacking reveals how techno-metaphors of the social are being used to both salvage technocratic authority and to designate unruly actors that fall outside normative bounds as the social equivalent of malware. Hacking of course has a specific meaning, the penetration of networks to gain data or information for either malicious, political, economic or public interest purposes. Despite the salience of the hacking metaphor very little in this story involves actual hacking. Scare headlines alleging the penetration of voting systems and the electrical grid have been thoroughly discredited. The exposure of DNC emails revealing the broadly suspected cynicism and corruption of the party are not considered hacking of a journalistic variety but a grave matter of national security. The attribution of these emails to Russian hacking has relied upon the work of for-profit national security contractors such as CrowdStrike whose analysis has been marked with errors and naked self-interest.2 Even if one accepts Russian hacking this fact does not approach anything like the scientific certainty that cyber-security consultants ascribe. Rendering the indeterminacy of cyber-espionage and online politics in these terms requires a great deal of ideological work and the reliance upon the national security state as the arbiter of truth, or the Lacanian big Other of symbolic authority. As Octave Mannoni’s formulation of disavowal goes, we may very well know that the National Security state is corrupt and manipulative “but nevertheless Russian active measures!”
In the hands of the national security state discourses of hacking reproduce cold war and Red Scare tropes of an infection in the body-politic. This was evident in the laughable pronouncements of the Office for the Director of National Intelligence, head of all seventeen US intelligence agencies. In assessing Russian interference, a January 2017 report centered almost entirely on Abby Martin’s RT program, defunct since 2015, that described “the current US political system as corrupt and dominated by corporations.” Former Obama official and Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein recently surmised Russia’s interference as the use of timeless “Marxist Strategies” with pawns like Trump and Sanders dividing the polity, in Sanders’ case against the “supposedly evil” banks. The angst and uncertainty that comes with the demise of post-politics can be ascribed to a Russian infection of social networks through weaponized memes and troll farms with the intent to make you doubt American institutions. Here the claim to truth is simply an affective sense that something is wrong which allows one to disavow critique and reinvest in the liberal habitus of cynical knowingness.
There is a bizarre inversion of Alt-Right notions of “Meme Magic,” the idea that trolling and “triggering” your enemies is building a real movement, as the political establishment seeks to classify and codify its existential dread. And so Pokémon Go, once a symbol of the power of connectivity, has been in the words of CNN used to “exploit racial tensions and sow discord among Americans.” The austere confines of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee have been used to discuss memes, $100,000 worth of Facebook ads and an apolitical animal lovers Facebook page the New York Times speculate attempted to “build a large following before gradually introducing political content.” Facebook and other tech companies have been happy to ban ads and inflate the threat of Russian meme warfare with the claim that up to 126 million American users may have seen Russian-linked posts. Their monopolies have been built upon a regulatory light-touch secured by peddling a tech-utopianism useful to American global soft power projection. They are happy to trade-in fallacious digital liberty bona fides for a natural alliance with the state and continued regulatory exemptions.
From this political landscape entrepreneurs have emerged inhabiting this regime of truth and building careers in service of its interests. Robby Mook has found his way to Harvard as a Senior Fellow for the “Defending Digital Democracy Project” which, in partnership with moderate Republicans, Facebook and Google, will secure democracy against future nebulous cyber threats. Seemingly progressive political players have provided a patina of intellectual and journalistic seriousness to this narrative. The Center for American Progress has launched “The Moscow Project” and the magazine, which bears the name of the legendary socialist Mother Jones has partnered with “PutinTrump.org” whose logo arranges the “P” and “T” to look like a hammer & sickle. Twitter has given rise to freelance Russia “experts” and a critical mass of followers waging a war for truth against Putin-bots and unwitting Russian assets. The key policy entrepreneur, and in the words of Slate “star,” in this battle for truth is Clint Watts.3 Watts’ McCarthy-ite testimony to congress described a Russian “playbook” to foment disunity and civil war through social media. The remedy to “silence the guns” of Russian cyber war would be a system of government veracity ratings, what Watts calls “nutrition labels.” We have seen lawmakers call for the banning of RT and shadowy groups like PropOrNot producing lists smearing left-wing journalists approvingly published in the Washington Post.
The cliché “Orwellian,” to be avoided at all costs, is inescapable as this regime of experts looks to wield a notion of truth that exceeds reaction and evacuates liberalism of any of its last principles. | {
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Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Gail Jardine: "I can walk, I can turn... it's really helped me"
A treatment that has restored the movement of patients with chronic Parkinson's disease has been developed by Canadian researchers.
Previously housebound patients are now able to walk more freely as a result of electrical stimulation to their spines.
A quarter of patients have difficulty walking as the disease wears on, often freezing on the spot and falling.
Parkinson's UK hailed its potential impact on an aspect of the disease where there is currently no treatment.
Prof Mandar Jog, of Western University and associate scientific director, Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ontario, told BBC News the scale of benefit to patients of his new treatment was "beyond his wildest dreams".
Image copyright AFP Image caption Scientists monitor their patients' improvement using sensors on a specially made suit.
"Most of our patients have had the disease for 15 years and have not walked with any confidence for several years," he said.
"For them to go from being home-bound, with the risk of falling, to being able to go on trips to the mall and have vacations is remarkable for me to see."
Normal walking involves the brain sending instructions to the legs to move. It then receives signals back when the movement has been completed before sending instructions for the next step.
Image copyright BBC News/Western University Image caption The parts of the brain involved with movement (red on the left-hand scan) are not working properly, but three months into the trial those areas are now functioning
Prof Jog believes Parkinson's disease reduces the signals coming back to the brain - breaking the loop and causing the patient to freeze.
The implant his team has developed boosts that signal, enabling the patient to walk normally.
However, Prof Jog was surprised that the treatment was long-lasting and worked even when the implant was turned off.
He believes the electrical stimulus reawakens the feedback mechanism from legs to brain that is damaged by the disease.
"This is a completely different rehabilitation therapy," he said. "We had thought that the movement problems occurred in Parkinson's patients because signals from the brain to the legs were not getting through.
"But it seems that it's the signals getting back to the brain that are degraded."
Countryside walks
Brain scans showed that before patients received the electrical treatment, the areas that control movement were not working properly. But a few months into the treatment those areas were restored.
Gail Jardine, 66, is among the patients who has benefited from the treatment.
Before she received the implant two months ago, Gail kept freezing on the spot, and she would fall over two or three times a day.
She lost her confidence and stopped walking in the countryside in Kitchener, Ontario - something she loved doing with her husband, Stan.
Now she can walk with Stan in the park for the first time in more than two years.
"I can walk a lot better," she said. "I haven't fallen since I started the treatment. It's given me more confidence and I'm looking forward to taking more walks with Stan and maybe even go on my own".
Image copyright Guy Alden Image caption Guy Alden used to rely on a wheelchair but after his treatment he had his first holiday in seven years with his wife, Barb
Another beneficiary is Guy Alden, 70, a deacon at a catholic church in London, Ontario. He was forced to retire in 2012 because of his Parkinson's disease.
His greatest regret was that it curtailed his work in the community, such as his prison visits.
"I was freezing a lot when I was in a crowd or crossing a threshold in a mall. Everyone would be looking at me. It was very embarrassing," he told me.
"Now I can walk in crowds. My wife and I even went on holiday to Maui and I didn't need to use my wheelchair at any point. There were a lot of narrow roads and a lot of (slopes) and I did all of that pretty well."
Dr Beckie Port, research manager at Parkinson's UK, said: "The results seen in this small-scale pilot study are very promising and the therapy certainly warrants further investigation.
"Should future studies show the same level of promise, it has the potential to dramatically improve quality of life, giving people with Parkinson's the freedom to enjoy everyday activities."
Follow Pallab on Twitter | {
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Typhoon Hagibis is now being blamed for 10 deaths and over 100 injuries in Japan — a day after the powerful storm made landfall and flooded Tokyo with record-breaking rain, according to public broadcaster NHK.
Sixteen people are also reported missing from the storm that forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate.
“The major typhoon has caused immense damage far and wide in eastern Japan,” government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
Suga said 27,000 military troops and other crews were deployed for rescue efforts. By early Sunday local time, some of those trapped were being plucked from their roofs by helicopters.
Winds as high as 95 mph slashed Honshu, Japan’s biggest and most populated island.
Major shopping areas were deserted, and both of the city’s airports were shut down, as were trains and subways.
A whopping 37 inches fell over 24 hours in the popular resort town of Hakone, about 55 miles southwest of Tokyo.
A 50-year-old man died near Tokyo in a car overturned by punishing winds, while another was killed after being washed away in a vehicle.
With Post wires | {
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“Tinder’s definitely not a game,” said Elie Seidman , the company’s chief executive , in a recent interview. “At the core, it’s about human connection.”
If you squint, though, the app doesn’t look so different from the countless mobile games on the market. Tinder has a clear objective and explicit rules. At any time of day, there are tens of millions of people playing, er, swiping, on the dating app. And, like the games with which it competes for screen time, Tinder charges users who want a leg up.
For example, in Clash of Clans, a mobile game in which you build and defend a village , you can use real money to buy “gems,” the basic currency of that game. On Tinder, you can buy extra “super likes” (which alert others that you are enamored of them) and “boosts” (which make your profile more visible to people in the area) .
Or, to really increase your chances, you might subscribe to Tinder Gold for about $30 a month. (The price depends on multiple factors, including where you live and how many years you have walked the earth searching for a partner. ) | {
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Florida Sen. Marco Rubio will reverse course and run for reelection this year, he announced Wednesday.
Rubio launched an unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination this year, coming up short against now presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Throughout the campaign, Rubio had repeatedly insisted he would not run for reelection.
“I know people in politics don’t like to admit they’ve changed their mind. But I’ve changed my mind,” he said in a Fox News interview on Wednesday.
Rubio, who fiercely tangled with Trump during the campaign but said he intends to support the GOP nominee, said the U.S. will need senators who will stand up to the next administration, whether it is Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton in the White House.
“No matter who wins this presidential election, the Senate’s role of being able to act as a check and balance on bad ideas from the president I think … [is] going to matter more in 2017 than they perhaps ever have in our history,” he continued. “And that’s saying a lot given what we are facing now.”
WATCH: @marcorubio tells Chris Wallace why he changed his mind and decided to run for re-election in the Senate.https://t.co/zrqCFwcDcz — Fox News (@FoxNews) June 22, 2016
As recently as the second week of June, close Rubio advisers in Washington were convinced that talk of him running was idle chatter. Many of Rubio’s D.C.-based advisers remained unenthusiastic about the idea.
Democratic Florida operative Steve Schale, who has a friendly relationship with Rubio world and is generally favorable toward Rubio, ticked off the reasons why it was a high-risk move for the Florida Republican to run again.
“If you are running out of a sense of party loyalty, or just a fear of being out of the national conversation, then think twice,” Schale wrote on his blog. “If his goal is to be president, which I suspect has been his goal since running for the West Miami Commission in 1998, he should resist the temptation and trust what was clearly his plan up until a few weeks ago.”
Story continues
That plan had been to work with super lawyer Bob Barnett, sifting through offers for work in the private sector, and build his personal fortune — with the idea of running for president again in a few years.
But according to one source, Rubio’s wife, Jeanette Dousdebes Rubio, was in favor of him running for reelection. And other close friends and advisers in Florida, such as Adam Hasner — a lobbyist and former majority leader in the Florida House of Representatives — were also pushing him to run, this source said. Hasner has not responded to texts or phone calls.
And after the massacre at an Orlando nightclub earlier this month, Rubio began to shift. One Rubio confidant said if the senator returned to Congress, it would be to put himself “in position to shape policy” on anti-terrorism measures.
Rubio is potentially in position to be chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee or the Senate Intelligence Committee in two to four years, the Capitol Hill insider said.
But even this argument stretches credulity as Rubio would potentially be running for president again by the time he assumed any such chairmanship. | {
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A landmark of the country and also a tourist attraction in Malabo, the Capital city of Equatorial Guinea burned down on Wednesday in an unexplained fire.
St. Elizabeth’s Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral located on Independencia Avenue in the city of Malabo, home of the Archdiocese of Malabo. It is considered the largest Christian church in the West African nation. It was named after St. Elizabeth of Hungary.
Firefighters battled to bring a blaze at Malabo’s cathedral under control on Wednesday, as flames engulfed parts of the historic building, considered the most important Christian church in Equatorial Guinea.
Dozens of people gathered in silence near the cathedral in the early evening as the fire service sprayed water jets onto the century-old structure.
It was not immediately known whether anyone was hurt in the fire, in which huge flames consumed part of the facade of the building.
Equatorial Guinea is a Central African country comprising the Rio Muni mainland and 5 volcanic offshore islands.
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Capital Malabo, on Bioko Island, has Spanish colonial architecture and is a hub for the country’s prosperous oil industry.
Its Arena Blanca beach draws dry-season butterflies. The tropical forest of the mainland’s Monte Alen National Park is home to gorillas, chimpanzees, and elephants.
Cuthbert Ncube, chair of the African Tourism Board offered sympathy on behalf of the African Travel and Tourism community. He added: Equatorial Guinea is, known as a safe place to visit, especially in Malabo and Bata.
Equatorial Guinea is the land of primates with painted faces, soft clouds of butterflies and insects so colorful they belong in the realm of fiction. Yes, Equatorial Guinea has something of a reputation, with a history of failed coups, allegations of corruption, trafficked bushmeat, and buckets of oil, but there is plenty to bring you to this country’s beautiful black-and-white shores. | {
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Ce qu'il reste de l'usine textile de la rue Bolivar, au sud de Mexico, où quatre personnes ont pu être sauvées © Eduardo Blas
Beaucoup dꞌévènements se répètent selon une fréquence troublante au Mexique. Le séisme du 19 septembre 2017, bien que beaucoup moins meurtrier, a fait écho au tremblement de terre du 19 septembre 1985. Les dégâts les plus importants ont été observés dans les mêmes quartiers du centre historique et de lꞌouest résidentiel. Et la télévision mexicaine a succombé à la même tentation : relayer - peut-être sciemment, peut-être pas - un canular sur le sauvetage dꞌun enfant vivant sous les décombres. En 1985, ce fut Monchito. En 2017, ça a été Frida.
Les médias commerciaux latino-américains sont coutumiers de la désinformation au service de puissants intérêts politiques et économiques. La particularité de la chaîne mexicaine Televisa est la récurrence de montages médiatiques orchestrés en collaboration directe avec lꞌexécutif régalien et ses branches judiciaire ou militaire.
Afin de rendre populaire la détention de la Française Florence Cassez à partir de 2005, la justice mexicaine avait déjà fait appel aux services de Carlos Loret de Mola : pour la couverture comme par hasard exclusive et soi-disant en direct de son arrestation. Mme Cassez, en réalité, avait été arrêtée un jour avant puis mise contre son gré en situation de flagrant délit. Lꞌhistoire de Frida, sur les écrans de télévision mexicain, est sortie de la bouche des journalistes Denise Maerker et... Carlos Loret de Mola.
Les présentateurs de Televisa Carlos Loret de Mola et Denise Maercker © Clément Detry
La jeune survivante fantôme de lꞌécole Rebsamen
Le sort des enfants ensevelis de lꞌécole Enrique Rebsamen a fait déplacer tout ce que le Mexique compte de correspondants et dꞌagences internationales vers le grand sud semi-rural et historiquement indigène de la capitale. Le séisme de magnitude 7,1 de lꞌéchelle de Riechter, qui sꞌest déclaré dans lꞌEtat méridionnal du Puebla, a fait près de la moitié de ses 273 victimes dans les quartiers du sud, du centre-sud et du sud-ouest de Mexico. Vingt-et-un enfants ont trouvé la mort dans cette seule école située à proximité du grand stade Azteca.
Après le séisme de Mexico, Clément Detry pour radio Classique Clément Detry
Lꞌamiral de la Marine mexicaine José Luis Vergara, le lendemain, a donné exclusivement à Televisa la déclaration suivante : «Nous savons quꞌil y a une petite fille vivante à lꞌintérieur, mais nous ne savons pas comment lꞌatteindre sans provoquer un effondrement et prendre des risques pour le personnel». La chaîne a réagi rapidement, envoyant dꞌimportants renforts logistiques à ses reporters et consacrant une transmission en direct de neuf heures dꞌaffilée à la mission de secours sur le site de lꞌécole. Les opérations ont rapidement été prises en main par la Marine elle-même, qui a intimé aux centaines de secouristes volontaires présents depuis les première heures dꞌobéir aux ordres ou de quitter les lieux.
Les «informations» de Televisa au sujet de son personnage âgé de 12 ans et appelé Frida Sofía ont été reprises sur Europe 1, France info et LCI, pour nꞌen citer que quelques-uns. Le récit est passé ensuite sous les plumes de plusieurs grands quotidiens mexicains, tels que La Razon ou El Universal. Les titres publiés en une sont, au moment où nous écrivons, encore visibles en kioske : « Sauvetage de Frida : le pays retient son souffle», «Lꞌespoir sꞌappelle Frida»...
Le phénomène #Frida, créé par Televisa, a ému et induit en erreur plusieurs grands quotidiens nationaux © Clément Detry
Le phénomène #Frida, créé par Televisa, a ému et induit en erreur plusieurs grands quotidiens nationaux © Clément Detry Le phénomène #Frida, créé par Televisa, a ému et induit en erreur plusieurs grands quotidiens nationaux © Clément Detry
Les premiers doutes sur lꞌhistoire de Frida Sofía sont apparus au cours de la transmission en direct sur YouTube du portail Aristegui Noticias, dont les nouvelles sont présentées par une célèbre journaliste dꞌinvestigation, Carmen Aristegui. Depuis son studio de Mexico, Mme Aristegui a donné la parole à plusieurs secouristes volontaires et parents de famille qui ont rapporté des propos dꞌofficiers de police et dꞌemployés de lꞌécole concernant lꞌinexistence de lꞌélève dans les registres dꞌinscription scolaire. La confirmation définitive du canular a été donnée par le ministère de la Marine, dont les officiers ont été les principales sources de Televisa tout au long de sa transmission.
La mère d'un enfant en vie de l'école Rebsamen explique qu'il n'y a jamais eu de Frida Sofia dans cette école © Aristegui Noticias
Dans une déclaration accordée à TV Azteca le 21 septembre dans lꞌaprès-midi, lꞌamiral Angel Enrique Sarmiento a affirmé que son institution n'avait «jamais eu connaissance de la version des évènements où figure le nom de cette jeune fille».
Après plusieurs heures de chaos informationnel sur fond de post-vérité orwellienne, la Marine est revenue sur son démenti, admettant avoir diffusé lꞌinformation de la mineure en vie et présentant ses excuses pour lꞌerreur commise. Tandis que les militaires soufflaient le chaud et le froid sur la situation dans cet édifice spécifique, différents check-points se sont formés dans dꞌautres zones affectées pour y limiter la liberté de circulation. Dans la nuit du 21 au 22 septembre, des engins de chantier se sont approchés de plusieurs sites pour en retirer les décombres, tandis que les volontaires insistaient pour poursuivre la recherche de survivants.
Sauvetage d'un enfant réellement enseveli dans le quartier de Coyoacan, au sud de Mexico © @PAG_Coyoacan Sauvetage d'un enfant réellement enseveli dans le quartier de Coyoacan, au sud de Mexico © @PAG_Coyoacan
Lꞌéditorialiste du grand quotidien d'opposition La Jornada, Julio Astillero, a donné une interprétation du scandale qui dédouane partiellement Televisa. Les présentateurs Carlos Loret de Mola et Denise Maerker, auxquels il manifeste son «respect professionnel» «malgré les divergences idéologiques et politiques», auraient pêché par confiance démesurée envers les sources officielles et par course au sensationnalisme. «Cꞌest le ministère de la Marine, en tant quꞌinstitution capitale de lꞌEtat mexicain, qui a mis en scène cette farce», dit-il. Les reporters nꞌauraient eu «aucune possibilité de savoir que toute cette histoire était fausse».
Lꞌhistoire de «Frida», en plus de permetre à la Marine dꞌagir en protagoniste sur le site de lꞌécole Rebsamen, a focalisé localement lꞌattention médiatique nationale et internationale. Les militaires, pendant ce temps, se sont déployés et ont pris le contrôle dꞌaxes stratégiques dans quatre grands quartiers sinistrés : Coyoacan, Benito Juarez, Miguel Hidalgo et Tlalpan.
Le photographe et vidéaste indépendant Eduardo Blas, auteur des images dans cet article, a documenté plus dꞌune dizaine dꞌopérations volontaires de secours à des endroits différents depuis le 19 septembre. Il dénonce ce 21 septembre une «obstruction militaire» au travail des volontaires et de la presse autour de lꞌimmeuble de bureaux et d'ateliers textiles de la rue Bolivar, dans le quartier de La Obrera. Le photographe Perseo Greco, du site dꞌinformation Surco informativo, se trouvait près du même point de contrôle. Il confirme le témoignage et ajoute que des éléments «policiers et militaires» lꞌont «dégagé» dꞌun camion de volontaires situé en dehors du périmètre de contrôle de la Marine.
Pendant les journées du 20-21 septembre, les forces armées ont déployé des milliers de soldats et plusieurs engins lourds à travers la ville © Clément Detry Pendant les journées du 20-21 septembre, les forces armées ont déployé des milliers de soldats et plusieurs engins lourds à travers la ville © Clément Detry
Lꞌaffaire Florence Cassez et les autres montages de Televisa
Les présentateurs Denise Maerker et Carlos Loret de Mola disent avoir vérifié toutes les informations quꞌils diffusaient auprès de «sources officielles». Ils rappellent que leurs journaux télévisés ont fait constamment référence aux officiers de la Marine chargés de coordonner les secours. Ils nꞌont cependant aucun moyen de démontrer quꞌils ont été victimes, et non complices de l'acte de désinformation.
Les porte-paroles de la chaîne ne précisent pas comment celle-ci a obtenu du ministère de la Marine lꞌinformation sur «Frida» en exclusivité, ainsi quꞌun accès privilégié aux recherches dans les décombres. La diffusion sur les réseaux sociaux de plusieurs photos du producteur de Televisa, Pedro Torres, dans lꞌenceinte de lꞌécole et vêtu dꞌun gilet de la police fédérale alimente la polémique.
En 2005, les autorités mexicaines ont simulé lꞌopération dꞌarrestation de Florence Cassez et sa mise en examen pour complicité dꞌenlèvement devant les caméras de Televisa et au bout du micro de Carlos Loret de Mola. Ce dernier a reconnu en 2013 quꞌil y avait eu montage. Il a cependant récidivé en 2016, lorsqu'il a dirigé lꞌéquipe qui a filmé - toujours en exclusivité - la pseudo-arrestation du narcotrafiquant El Chapo Guzman un peu plus de six mois après son évasion dꞌune prison fédérale. La personne «arrêtée» dans la grande opération conjointe de lꞌArmée et de la Marine, baptisée «Cisne negro», sꞌest avérée un acteur embauché par Televisa. | {
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PORT CHARLOTTE, FLORIDA — A homeowner defended themselves after someone broke into their home, sending them running down the street with a bullet wound to the back.
The homeowner called 911 to report the incident. Police were sent to the home and while they were interviewing the homeowner, they received another 911 call from someone seeking medical assistance.
That second 911 call came from the burglar who had just been shot.
The sheriff’s office was first called by the homeowner around 7pm Thursday. The homeowner told deputies that a woman named Jessica had forced her way inside a home on the 100 block of Strasburg Drive in Port Charlotte, had fought with the homeowner and only ceased when the homeowner fired a shot from their handgun, hitting the woman in the lower left back. The suspect fled and deputies were speaking to two victims inside the home when they got another call, this time for medical assistance. The call came from 40-year-old Jessica Gutzler in the area of Strasburg Drive and Seaton Avenue, less than half a mile away from the home invasion. Gutzler was taken to the hospital. Deputies say based on evidence, it was clear Gutzler knew the homeowner, had gone there to get into a fight and was the person shot by the homeowner. via mysuncoast.com
This is one of those stories where you just have to scratch your head and wonder ‘why?’. Of course the bad person in any story doesn’t want to be shot, but that’s a consequence that comes with breaking into someone else’s home.
Like all of the self defense stories that we cover, it’s good to hear that the intended victim wasn’t injured, and was able to successfully defend themselves against a person who was looking to do them harm. | {
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Direct train services from Penrith could be cut back as the city's $20-billion Metro project wavers on its promise of a faster, better rail system for all.
Documents obtained by the ABC reveal the NSW Government has considered plans to bring new express trains to the Northern line, while reducing peak-hour services from Penrith, Kingswood and Werrington.
There are also hints that Sydney's suburban trains may become more crowded.
An impact document predicts a reduction of 'West to North' capacity by 25 per cent, suggesting more passengers on already crowded trains from Sydney's western suburbs.
The planning documents were secured after a successful three-year legal battle with Transport for New South Wales, with two appeals to release the information under the GIPA Act.
Commuters at Penrith train station could have their peak-hour services reduced. ( AAP: Dean Lewis )
Last year Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the $20-billion Metro project would deliver a "massive boost" to the entire train network.
"It will also mean faster and more frequent services will be able to be delivered on the Sydney Trains network from other major centres like Penrith and Blacktown," he said.
The comments echoed those of former premier Mike Baird who said: "Whether it is busting congestion or providing brand new Metro train lines to reduce crowding on our public transport, these projects will make a huge difference to people's lives."
The timetable changes revealed today assist the operation of the privately run Metro line, which will take over a reconfigured Epping-to-Chatswood line.
However, they will have a complex domino effect on the city's railways as existing services are rerouted, or even cancelled.
Penrith loses, Rhodes wins
Penrith currently enjoys 11 fast trains to the city during the 7:00am-to-8:00am peak-hour period, but a 2018 concept map suggests the western population centre could lose four services with capacity for up to 4,000 passengers.
From 2018 on, Penrith's peak-hour travellers may lose direct access to Town Hall, Wynyard and the North Shore, with train services instead terminating at Central.
Passengers would need to change trains to continue into the city and north, something that could increase journey times and station congestion.
Do you know more? Contact ABC News about this story.
While the western suburbs are set to lose services, the concept timetables show the Northern line will be boosted.
Starting next year, passengers from Normanhurst, Thornleigh, Pennant Hills and Beecroft are re-routed away from a closed Epping-to-Chatswood line.
Two new peak-hour services are also accommodated in the concept timetables.
During peak-hour, five fast trains will depart Epping and service just five stops — Eastwood, West Ryde, Rhodes, Strathfield and Central — supporting high-rise population centres.
Penrith's peak-hour services will terminate at Central under the new plan. ( ABC News: Amanda Hoh )
Central Coast loses services, longer journeys across West
Planning documents suggest Central Coast commuters may also face a shock in 2019 with the end of direct services from Wyong and Gosford to the North Shore line.
Instead of express peak-hour services via Chatswood to the city, it appears Central Coast trains could also be re-routed down the Northern line via Strathfield, with most services commencing from Gosford.
The re-timetabling of peak-hour trains and slower stopping patterns down the Northern, Southern, Inner-West and Western lines is another impact of the Sydney Metro.
For instance, travellers from Liverpool can expect to take up to 10 minutes extra to the CBD.
A rail planning map reinforces this and shows two extra Northern line trains travelling between Strathfield and Central during the morning peak, to as many as 15 per hour in 2019.
Loss of Penrith services to help with demand on Northern line
The ABC contacted Railcorp former general manager and head of timetabling Dr Dick Day, who examined the concept timetables.
He suggested the motivation behind Penrith's modelled loss of services could be to help the Northern Line cope with additional demand, created by re-routed trains.
"A likely reason for terminating Penrith trains at Central is to create additional track space into the City via Strathfield," Dr Day said.
Sydney's train system will be affected by the introduction of the Metro. ( AAP: John Donegan )
Railway consultant Sandy Thomas, who also analysed the Government's documents, said he feared much needed extra capacity would not be delivered in the proposed changes.
"On some lines there are actually proposals for fewer peak hour services from Penrith to St Marys, Epping to the CBD, from Berowra to Hornsby, and from Hornsby to Lindfield," he said.
He says the documents suggest major infrastructure upgrades to signals and tracks are needed if the suggested timetable changes are to run successfully.
"It appears these improvements at Rhodes and elsewhere on the main North line are subject to the completion of extra tracks between Rhodes and North Strathfield.
Both rail experts expected significant alterations would be made to the timetables received by the ABC.
Planner says nothing final but timetable expert disagrees
In an NCAT hearing, senior planner Nikolai Prince said the documents, while conceptual, did represent timetable solutions under development by Transport for NSW. He also suggested impacts on customers were already considered by planners, negating the need for wider consultation.
Transport for NSW was unable to answer specific questions about the proposed changes yesterday, but in a statement it said that future timetables had not been finalised, and it would clarify changes as they were locked in.
"Transport for NSW will not confuse its customers by ruling in and out possibilities for a timetable that is still being worked through," the statement said.
"Options for all lines remain unconfirmed, unless already announced by the NSW Government."
Sorry, this audio has expired Draft timetables reveal proposal to slash peak-hour train services in Western Sydney
In a radio interview on ABC Sydney this morning Transport Minister Andrew Constance criticised the ABC for confusing commuters with a story based on old planning documents.
However, the documents were obtained less than two weeks ago after a ruling by the NCAT found in the ABC's favour for release under public interest considerations.
Timetable expert Dr Day lamented the fact Transport for NSW had failed to release more up-to-date information – as requested by the ABC.
"Actual work on a 2018 timetable would now be highly advanced with hardly any time to alter and produce all the required documentation, before we are faced with the Epping-Chatswood closure.
"So why do they refuse to make real information available?"
He suggested involving passengers in additional consultation before decision making was finalised would be beneficial to timetable outcomes.
A decision by Transport for NSW to block the release of additional documents is currently under appeal by the ABC.
You can read the full concept timetables released to the ABC here. | {
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Welcome to Designs by JuJu!
If you are looking for adorable, affordable and high-quality machine embroidery designs for all ages – you’ve come to the right place! We specialize in embroidery designs that are meant to inspire creation and spread joy. With everything from bright and fun to applique and Redwork designs, you’re sure to find something you love.
Our designs are 100% manually digitized to ensure the highest quality. We have worked hard to make your online shopping experience as convenient as possible with instant download and fantastic monthly specials.
Have fun exploring and creating! | {
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Argos Host Montreal In The Annual Pink Game
The Als hop on VIA Rail and travel to Toronto to take on the Argos in the annual Breast Cancer Awareness Pink Game. Both teams are on a roll, so which roll will continue? You’ll have a better idea in ten minutes. | {
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Director says X-Men: Apocalypse trailer will debut soon
Following the news this morning that the film was due for reshoots, X-Men: Apocalypse director Bryan Singer has taken to Instagram to reveal he and his editor/composer John Ottman (marking the tenth collaboration between the two and their third “X-Men” project together) are hard at work cutting the X-Men: Apolalypse trailer, which he says will be coming soon. In addition, you can see a new image from the film in Singer’s photo along with what appear to be breakdowns of the cuts for the teaser on the wall behind them. Check it out below!
Since the dawn of civilization, he was worshiped as a god. Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant from Marvel’s X-Men universe, amassed the powers of many other mutants, becoming immortal and invincible. Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign. As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction.”
In addition to Fassbender, McAvoy, Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult as Magneto, Professor X, Mystique, and Beast, the film will also see the return of Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, Evan Peters as Quicksilver, Lucas Till as Havok and newcomers Alexandra Shipp as Storm, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Ben Hardy as Angel, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Olivia Munn as Psylocke and Lana Condor as Jubilee. Oscar Isaac is starring as the film’s title antagonist.
Said to be the conclusion of a trilogy started with X-Men: First Class and continued with X-Men: Days of Future Past, the Bryan Singer-directed X-Men: Apocalypse is set for release on May 27, 2016. | {
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Tottenham contacted Real Madrid this week to enquire about Marco Asensio. The reply could not have been more blunt: Asensio is not for sale, Jugones reported - and Diario AS can confirm. General Director at Real Madrid José Ángel Sánchez made it clear that any club who is serious about signing Asensio must honour the the buy-out clause in the player's contract - 700 million euros.
Full screen Marco Asensio - not for sale
Asensio, key to Zidane's new Real Madrid
As far as Zidane is concerned, Asensio is going nowhere. He was the one who showed belief in the winger when he joined from Espanyol in 2016 and he sees him as one of the key components in his new project. In the back offices at the Bernabéu, directors have similar faith in Asensio and are not inclined to sit down and negotiate with any club. Asensio is under contract until 2023.
Tottenham's interest isn't new. Pochettino is a big fan of Asensio and would like him as part of his long-term plan at Spurs. They tried to sign him but were met by the same reply. Nothing has changed since then - luring Asensio away from Madrid is nigh on impossible. Liverpool are among a host of rumoured suitors but the player has stated that he's happy where he is and cannot see himself at any other club. His idea is to triumph at the Bernabéu - with Zidane and Real Madrid.
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Michael Schøt debuterede som standupkomiker i 1999 og er for længst etableret som professionelt navn på scenen, hvor politik og samfundsdebat også er et gennemgående tema. Når han er på turné med sine onemanshows forsøger han løbende at skifte materialet ud fra dag til dag med kommentarer til nye, aktuelle begivenheder. Netop hurtigt skrevne kommentarer og jokes til helt aktuelle emner frem for gennemarbejdede standup-bidder er en klar præmis for Schøtministeriet, som Michael Schøt laver ved siden af standupkarrieren.
“Formatet skal være så nemt som overhovedet muligt, så jeg kan lave det hver uge uden det store udtræk. Mig bag et skrivebord og ét kamera, det er dét. Først ville vi lave det i ét take uden at klippe, men det var ikke nogen god idé, så nu bruger vi i stedet klipningen aktivt og kommenterer den direkte.”
Både i din standup, i Schøtministeriet og i det meste anden satire, du har lavet, er det politiske og samfundsdebatterende et gennemgående træk. Hvor kommer din vedholdende interesse for politik fra?
“Helt typisk for vores velfærdssamfund er min interesse ansporet af en god lærer. Vi snakkede slet ikke politik derhjemme. Min far er rent faktisk vognmand i Slagelse, og min mor er sygeplejerske. Politik var ikke noget, man snakkede om. Men jeg kunne virkelig godt lide at gå i skole, og jeg diskuterede rigtig meget med lærerne. Uanset emnet. Jeg fik at vide i hver eneste skole-hjem-samtale, at jeg skulle holde lidt igen og ikke sætte spørgsmålstegn ved alt. Jeg var meget diskussionslysten og blev kaldt kværulant. Og det var jeg måske også.”
Handlede det også om at sætte spørgsmålstegn ved autoriteter?
“Ja, helt klart. Til konfirmationsforberedelse blev jeg simpelthen smidt ud, fordi jeg insisterede på at få et svar på, hvorfor der ikke var noget om dinosaurer i Bibelen. Hun var virkelig træt i ansigtet, præsten, over alle mine irriterende spørgsmål. Jeg ville bare gerne have en forklaring.”
Havde du nogle bestemte mærkesager, eller ville du bare diskutere?
“Jeg ville bare diskutere. Det var nok i høj grad sporten i debatten, der interesserede mig. I gymnasiet var der en, der spurgte mig: ‘Hvordan er du blevet så god til at diskutere?’ Det var slet ikke faldet mig ind, men det fik til at tænke over, hvad det var, der gjorde mig god. Og jeg kom frem til, at jeg var god til at lytte efter, hvad den anden siger, forstå det og blive på bolden. Og så det greb at ændre perspektivet. Det har virkelig kommet mig til gode som standupkomiker, for det er en ting, man gør virkelig meget i standup – at se noget fra en anden vinkel, at skifte perspektiv.”
“Og så havde jeg en vildt god samfundsfagslærer i gymnasiet. Hun elskede, at jeg stillede alle de spørgsmål. Der fik jeg interessen for historie, samfund og filosofi. Det er egentlig det filosofiske, det principielle, der interesserer mig mest ved politik. Hvordan skal samfundet indrettes? Skal individet eller fællesskabet være udgangspunktet? Den diskussion går jo igen i alle mulige mere konkrete politiske uenigheder. Og det forsøger jeg også at gøre i Schøtministeriet – at finde det mere principielle.”
Men du tager udgangspunkt i noget meget konkret og ugeaktuelt – meget tit noget med Christiansborgpolitikerne …
“Jeg begynder tit med noget meget konkret og forsøger så at slutte på en mere principiel pointe.”
Bliver du aldrig træt af Christiansborgpolitik?
“Egentlig er min personlige præference det internationale, især EU, men det egner den platform sig ikke så godt til. Jeg prøver dog at snige det ind. Men som regel skal der kunne være en dansk vinkel, for at jeg tager det op i Schøtministeriet.”
“Men jo, Christiansborgpolitik er småt. Netop derfor er det vigtigt at finde det store perspektiv. Jeg tager faktisk intet af det, politikerne siger, for pålydende. Og det kan jeg så samtidig godt se problemet i. Jeg hører selv til dem, der synes, at det er irriterende, når de politiske kommentatorer snakker om spillet i stedet for substansen, men man vil kunne indvende, at jeg selv gør noget af det samme.”
Men forskellen er vel, at hvor mange af kommentatorerne i deres retorik tilsyneladende accepterer spillet, så er du jo stærkt kritisk over for enhver form for hykleri eller taktisk spil.
“Jo, men det er stadig den samme mekanik, og derfor forsøger jeg faktisk at nå et andet sted hen fra det udgangspunkt. Jeg ønsker virkelig ikke at bære ved til bål, som hedder politikerlede. Jeg synes jo også, de er irriterende, men det må ikke være for nemt. Så jeg går i stigende grad op i ikke bare at skyde dem ned.” | {
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Rossi Profile Blog Joined February 2011 Australia 59 Posts #1
Around a month ago on the Korean ladder i vsed a \Protoss with the name Firebathero whom i deemed to be a smurf but have now realised this might actually have been the real FBH(as per the details in this post
I thought Teamliquid might be interested in seeing his level of play.
http://drop.sc/175999
http://drop.sc/176000
Hey guys, for those who don't know i am a semi-pro Australian Terran representing Team Gamecom Nv.Around a month ago on the Korean ladder i vsed a \Protoss with the name Firebathero whom i deemed to be a smurf but have now realised this might actually have been the real FBH(as per the details in this post http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=336256) I thought Teamliquid might be interested in seeing his level of play. Aye, Bapa de boopee?
Steveling Profile Blog Joined January 2011 Greece 6397 Posts #2 Oh btw, for all these excited blogs that are about to pop up.
I renamed myself into KTFLASH in europe, so if you play me don't go all giddy about it, rofl. My dick has shrunk to the point where it looks like I have 3 balls.
Rossi Profile Blog Joined February 2011 Australia 59 Posts #3 ^ witty Aye, Bapa de boopee?
mGMUSE Profile Joined October 2010 Singapore 111 Posts #4 nice
daber Profile Joined March 2011 United States 19 Posts #5 oooo can i cast these? imma watch these anyways. This game is killing my gpa
Firesilver Profile Joined December 2010 United Kingdom 1173 Posts Last Edited: 2012-05-10 11:04:20 #6 On May 10 2012 20:02 daber wrote:
oooo can i cast these? imma watch these anyways.
It'd be interesting if these were legit, can anyone confirm?
also, daber, you must stream more!
Edit: 1000th post ^^
It'd be interesting if these were legit, can anyone confirm?also, daber, you must stream more!Edit: 1000th post ^^ Caster at IMBA.tv -- www.twitter.com/IMBAFiresilver -- www.youtube.com/FiresilverTV
MegaFonzie Profile Joined April 2011 Australia 1083 Posts #7 Off topic, but can I ask how you joined the NSP? There's some pretty sick players in that clan! @x5_MegaFonzie
John Madden Profile Blog Joined October 2010 American Samoa 892 Posts #8
On May 10 2012 20:03 Firesilver wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 10 2012 20:02 daber wrote:
oooo can i cast these? imma watch these anyways.
It'd be interesting if these were legit, can anyone confirm?
also, daber, you must stream more!
Edit: 1000th post ^^
It'd be interesting if these were legit, can anyone confirm?also, daber, you must stream more!Edit: 1000th post ^^
When confirmed replays of firebathero are out just run some vintage hotkey analysis on any replays if you really want to know. Good stuff Rossi, hope to see more from both of you guys soon!When confirmed replays of firebathero are out just run some vintage hotkey analysis on any replays if you really want to know. FOOTBALL
OopsOopsBaby Profile Blog Joined June 2010 Singapore 2524 Posts #9 On May 10 2012 19:53 Steveling wrote:
Oh btw, for all these excited blogs that are about to pop up.
I renamed myself into KTFLASH in europe, so if you play me don't go all giddy about it, rofl.
you made yourself look like a fool. you made yourself look like a fool. s3x2-2 xiao3x2+2 bone3+2+2
Ftrunkz Profile Blog Joined April 2007 Australia 2474 Posts #10 On May 10 2012 20:06 MegaFonzie wrote:
Off topic, but can I ask how you joined the NSP? There's some pretty sick players in that clan!
There's a few aus players in korea clans, same way you join any clan, hang out in channel, play games with them, join them if they think you're decent enough.
communication can obviously be a bit of an issue however There's a few aus players in korea clans, same way you join any clan, hang out in channel, play games with them, join them if they think you're decent enough.communication can obviously be a bit of an issue however @NvPinder on twitter | Member of Gamecom Nv | http://www.clan-ta.com | http://www.youtube.com/user/ftrunkz | http://www.twitchtv.com/xghpinder
Drake Profile Joined October 2010 Germany 6134 Posts #11 i dont think koreans would play with real nick until they official play it ? i mean there are SO many with the same nick its frustrating blizzard allows more then 1 person to have the same nickname Nb.Drake / CoL_Drake / Original Joined TL.net Tuesday, 15th of March 2005
Rossi Profile Blog Joined February 2011 Australia 59 Posts #12 On May 10 2012 20:06 MegaFonzie wrote:
Off topic, but can I ask how you joined the NSP? There's some pretty sick players in that clan!
I became very good friends with a member and they asked me to apply :D they're great! I became very good friends with a member and they asked me to apply :D they're great! Aye, Bapa de boopee?
SilverSkyLark Profile Blog Joined April 2008 Philippines 7582 Posts #13 I was expecting Flash in the preview. "If i lost an arm, I would play w3." -IntoTheWow || "Member of Hyuk Hyuk Hyuk cafe. He's the next Jaedong, baby!"
OopsOopsBaby Profile Blog Joined June 2010 Singapore 2524 Posts #14 On May 10 2012 20:26 CoR wrote:
i dont think koreans would play with real nick until they official play it ? i mean there are SO many with the same nick its frustrating blizzard allows more then 1 person to have the same nickname
there is only one fbh with that exact spelling and capitalisation on kr and the man himself admitted it. there is only one fbh with that exact spelling and capitalisation on kr and the man himself admitted it. s3x2-2 xiao3x2+2 bone3+2+2
Azera Profile Blog Joined December 2010 3796 Posts #15 On May 10 2012 19:53 Steveling wrote:
Oh btw, for all these excited blogs that are about to pop up.
I renamed myself into KTFLASH in europe, so if you play me don't go all giddy about it, rofl.
That's not even remotely funny. It's absolutely disgusting. How dare you call yourself a god? You make me sick. That's not even remotely funny. It's absolutely disgusting. How dare you call yourself a god? You make me sick. Check out some great music made by TLers - http://bit.ly/QXYhdb , by intrigue. http://bit.ly/RTjpOR , by ohsea.toc.
OmniEulogy Profile Blog Joined July 2010 Canada 2943 Posts #16 awesome. Can't wait to see a battle between Ace and FBH. lol LiquidDota Staff
Lorch Profile Joined June 2011 Germany 3511 Posts #17 On May 10 2012 20:26 CoR wrote:
i dont think koreans would play with real nick until they official play it ? i mean there are SO many with the same nick its frustrating blizzard allows more then 1 person to have the same nickname
Well the confirmed real firebathero on mc's friendlist had the same ID, I think it's pretty safe to assume it's him, especially the way he played on entombed lets it look like he comes from bw for sure.
I only watched the entombed game thus far, looking really good I love how he doesn't even build a single colossi but tons of obs instead. Thanks for the replays. Well the confirmed real firebathero on mc's friendlist had the same ID, I think it's pretty safe to assume it's him, especially the way he played on entombed lets it look like he comes from bw for sure.I only watched the entombed game thus far, looking really good I love how he doesn't even build a single colossi but tons of obs instead. Thanks for the replays.
nucLeaRTV Profile Joined May 2011 Romania 781 Posts #18 Let's check "Having your own haters means you are famous"
sluggaslamoo Profile Blog Joined November 2009 Australia 4304 Posts #19 Lol go rossi! Come play Android Netrunner - http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=409008
juicy Profile Joined July 2010 Australia 141 Posts #20 Good stuff Rossi :D
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For the first time in nearly 30 years, the United States has chosen to cut its contribution to the Global Environment Facility (GEF). During the Obama administration, this country gave $546 million to the GEF in the year 2014 alone. This assembly, which convenes every four years, received only $273 million from the Trump administration’s funding this year. Don’t bother doing the math; that’s half.
The current administration has openly decreed its stance on climate change in more than one way, despite the surmounting evidence to support climate change. Scientists urge governments to step up their game and protect lives on this planet by continuing to issue research results and evaluations dictating the real life effects of a global crisis. Reporters at Think Progress state that diplomats around the world are weighing in on the U.S. government’s shirking of responsibility. An anonymous diplomat from Chile spoke out to India Climate Dialog journalists, asserting an opinion shared among many concerned officials.
“We cannot allow the U.S. government to renege on its responsibilities just because President Trump refuses to acknowledge them.”
Indeed, Donald Trump has once referred to climate change as a Chinese hoax. He later claimed his remark was a joke, as cited on PolitiFact. But this does highlight the old saying that there is always some truth in jest. Where do Trump and his administration actually weigh in on this devastating issue? His contribution to GEF speaks for itself.
JAKARTA, INDONESIA - APRIL 26: men break apart an old ship in an area which is in the process of reclaiming land from the sea on April 26, 2017 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Jakarta, one of the world's most densely populated cities, is also one of the fastest-sinking cities in the world under the weight of out-of-control development and rising sea levels caused by global warming. Experts say that if nothing is done, parts of Jakarta will sink five metres by the year 2025 so the government is proposing a $40 billion project to tackle the problem by building a 15-mile seawall and 17 artificial islands around Jakarta's northern coastline. The seawall along the coast and across Jakarta Bay began as an immediate solution while President Widodo's administration continues to work on the details of the major project nicknamed Garuda. Increasing floods and severe storms due to rising temperatures and climate change have threatened the mostly poor residents of Jakarta's northern coast with the loss of their homes as reports indicate the problem has been exacerbated by massive overuse of groundwater causing subsidence. Featured image credit: Ed Wray Getty Images
South Asia happens to be a particularly vulnerable region as far as global warming is concerned. Consequences to this region are steep. Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh are at an even more alarming risk if greenhouse emission continue their uphill rise. More than 800 million people live in South Asia. Already in Pakistan, specifically the city of Karachi — the fourth largest city in the entire world — staggering heat waves have forced 20 million people to suffer temperatures toppling 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Dozens have died from heat strokes, states Reuters.
JHARIA, INDIA - FEBRUARY 09: Miners work on repairing a digger at the bottom of an open-cast coal mine in the village of Guhanwadi on February 09, 2012 near Jharia, India. Villagers in India's Eastern State of Jharkhand scavenge coal illegally from open-cast coal mines to earn a few dollars a day. Claiming that decades old underground burning coal seams threatened the homes of villagers, the government has recently relocated over 2300 families to towns like Belgaria. Villagers claim they were promised schools, hospitals and free utilities for two years, which they have not received. As the world's power needs have increased, so has the total global production of coal, nearly doubling over the last 20 years according to the World Coal Association. Featured image credit: Daniel Berehulak Getty Images
These dangerous struggles are nothing new, to be sure. This awareness is why the GEF and the U.N. Green Climate Fund (GCF) are helping lower-income countries adapt and develop their sustainability with the help of wealthy western nations, such as the United States.
In 2017, President Trump asserted his commitments broadly by withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement. Such action resulted in a lash out at the GCF in particular, causing further global criticism early on in regard to the U.S. contributions in global finance. The GCF provides critical aid to coal dependent countries such as India. After announcing the U.S. exit from the Paris agreement, Trump’s version of the White House went on to use its GCF board seat in a grand display of pushing U.S. energy interests aboard.
To simplify, that means the Trump administration has decided to further encourage developing areas such as India to invest more in fossil fuels. These fuels are not clean coal, as the administration would wish everyone to believe, say scientists as well as coal baron, Robert Murray, who outright reject the notion as false. More on that can be found within another article from Think Progress.
It would seem that the Trump administration has successfully put up at least one wall; a boundary separating the U.S. from others who are currently displaying endeavors to priorities international climate devastation. | {
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The DDoS attack on Wikipedia is first of its kind.
The popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia has suffered a DDoS attack over the weekend that crippled its service preventing millions of users from accessing the platform.
On Friday according to Down Detector’s Outage Map, a service that keeps track of online platforms facing connectivity issues, Wikipedia users in the Middle East and Europe were impacted by the outage while some parts of Iran and Russia were also facing connectivity issues.
On Saturday, Wikimedia Foundation acknowledged the DDoS attack and tweeted that “Today, Wikipedia was hit with a malicious attack that has taken it offline in several countries for intermittent periods. The attack is ongoing; our Site Reliability Engineering team is working hard to stop it and restore access to the site.”
However, on Sunday 8th and Monday 9th, the outage map revealed Wikipedia was also facing service disruption in the United States.
In a detailed response to the attack, Wikimedia Foundation said in its blog post that “As one of the world’s most popular sites, Wikipedia sometimes attracts “bad faith” actors. Along with the rest of the web, we operate in an increasingly sophisticated and complex environment where threats are continuously evolving.”
On the other hand, it is still unclear who was behind the DDoS attack and what were their intentions. However, on Twitter, a profile going by the online handle of @UKDrillas claimed responsibility for the attacks.
In one of such tweets, @UKDrillas claimed that they used compromised smart devices to carry out the attack. It is worth mentioning that lately, hackers have been using vulnerable and unauthentic smart devices such as vending machines security cameras, coffee machines, Smart TV, and even Internet-connected cars to conduct DDoS and ransomware attacks.
In a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) the incoming traffic flooding the victim originates from many different sources. This effectively makes it impossible to stop the attack simply by blocking a single source.
At the time of publishing this article; @UKDrillas’s Twitter account was suspended while Wikipedia was still suffering service disruption in most parts of Europe. | {
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Of all the situations that can make a quarterback’s pulse race, third-and-nine at your own 2-yard line ranks high on the list.
Especially when it’s the initial third down of the game. And of the season.
That’s the precise predicament Louisville sophomore Teddy Bridgewater found himself in Sunday afternoon against hated rival Kentucky. Not ideal.
View photos
Given the youth of the quarterback and the high-risk, low-reward down and distance, that might be a give-up down for a lot of offensive coordinators. But Shawn Watson is a Bridgewater believer, and the feeling is mutual. So the call was a pass from the end zone for receiver Damian Copeland.
Bridgewater then executed like the five-star recruiting coup he was billed to be when Louisville snagged him out of South Florida in 2011, beating out powers like LSU, Florida, Miami and Tennessee. He threaded a smart pass to Copeland, who made a nifty catch for 23 yards along the sideline. The largest crowd to ever see a Louisville home game (55,386) roared in response, and the No. 25 Cardinals were on their way to a 99-yard touchdown drive and a thorough beating of the Wildcats.
The final score was 32-14, but it was only that close because Louisville coach Charlie Strong backed off on his friend, embattled Kentucky coach Joker Phillips. Strong removed Bridgewater from the game when it was 32-7 in the third quarter, replacing him with senior Will Stein even though coaching etiquette would easily have allowed for more Bridgewater-led possessions.
Bridgewater sat out the final 19 minutes of the game, which might have kept him from the kind of numbers that get a rising talent more national attention. Even without the stat-padding opportunity, his day was fairly spectacular: 19 completions in 21 attempts for 232 yards. One of his two incompletions was an intentional throw-away and the other was low but hit the receiver’s hands.
[More from Forde: Alabama shows it's back for more with rout of Michigan]
Bridgewater threw with velocity. He threw with touch. He threw on the run. He altered his release point when pressure dictated it. He checked down to second and third receivers. He was unfailingly accurate. He plundered a Kentucky defense that couldn’t stop much of anything until Strong stopped the Cardinals by taking Bridgewater out.
"Teddy was seeing the right looks and making great passes," Stein said. "Those are great numbers."
A year ago at this time, Bridgewater was backing up Stein. It wasn’t until Stein got hurt against Kentucky in Lexington in the third game of the year that Bridgewater moved into the starting lineup, and he was an excitable guy in the pocket. Tough, talented, charismatic – but excitable.
"Last year I tended to play fast, rush things," Bridgewater said. "[The game] has slowed down a lot. Last year I felt I was just playing football. Now I’m playing with a purpose."
View photos
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OTTAWA - Ottawa Senators ( @Senators ) general manager Pierre Dorion announced today that the club has signed defenceman Mark Borowiecki to a two-year contract extension. The contract will carry an average annual value of $1.2 million ($1.2M in both years).
Borowiecki, 28, recorded one goal and two assists in a career high 70 games last season for the Senators. He was limited to only two playoff games after suffering an injury during the second game of the 2017 playoffs against the Boston Bruins.
The Ottawa native led the National Hockey League in both hits (364) and penalty minutes (154) in 2016-17, while missing 12 regular-season games. On Dec. 5, 2016, he equaled an NHL record by recording 14 hits in one game at Pittsburgh.
The Senators' fifth-round pick (139th overall) in the 2008 NHL Draft, and the first Ottawa native ever drafted by the Senators, Borowiecki has recorded four gaoals, 17 points and 436 penalty minutes in 217 career NHL games.
Visit the Senators website: www.ottawasenators.com
Engage with the Senators on Twitter: @Senators
Like the Senators on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ottawasenators
Follow the Senators on Instagram: senators
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Birmingham education authorities buckled to pressure from sectarian hardliners and blocked a Muslim sect from being represented on an interfaith council, it is claimed.
Members of Birmingham's Ahmadiyya Muslim Community were told that in order to be represented on the city's Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) they would have to agree not to identify themselves as Muslims, after a threatened walkout from other Muslim members of the committee.
The Ahmadiyya are accused of apostasy by some other Muslims, who say they do not regard Mohammed as the final prophet. They have faced decades of violent persecution in Pakistan, and in Glasgow an Ahmadi shopkeeper was recently stabbed to death by an Islamic extremist who claimed his victim had "disrespected the Prophet [Mohammad]."
Fareed Ahmad, a member of the Ahmadiyya National Executive Committee, said the Labour-led council had failed to defend religious tolerance.
"SACRE is there to promote inclusion and respect of different faiths and to give in to such pressure undermines what SACRE stands for," he told IBTimes UK.
Emails obtained by IBTimes UK reveal that Muslim members of the city's SACRE committee threatened to walk out if the Ahmadi were admitted as followers of Islam. In one message, Councillor Barry Henley, Chairman of SACRE in Birmingham, said that the body would welcome an Ahmadi representative provided they describe themselves as "Ahmadiyya Community of similar wording and not Ahmadiyya Muslim Community."
He claims that if he allowed the Ahmadiyya to be admitted he would be "breaking the law because the other Muslim representatives would leave."
The authority rejected a new application for membership from the Ahmadiyya submitted in July.
Barrister Neil Addison, who specialises in British law and religion, said the committee had broken the law in excluding the Ahmadi: "It is endorsing sectarianism, we wouldn't allow it with anyone else in the UK, and it is not lawful.
"The Ahmadiyya are becoming subject in Britain to the same kind of discrimination they suffered in Pakistan.
"We are lacking the moral courage to stand for our own principles. The Ahmadiyya are permitted in this country to call themselves what they like and live in peace, which they do," he said.
SACREs include representatives drawn from cities' religious faith communities, who are consulted on how religion is taught to children as part of school syllabuses.
The dispute erupted in 2012, when the Ahmadiyya, whose community has about a thousand members in Birmingham, first applied to sit on SACRE's 'committee A', alongside other faith leaders.
The following year the city changed its SACRE constitution, meaning only candidates chosen by committees representing faith communities would be considered for membership. Members of Birmingham SACRE's Muslim Liaison Committee have allegedly refused to back Ahmadi membership.
The Ahmadiyya submitted a fresh bid in July, only for SACRE to emphasise again that they would require the backing of other Muslim members. "We are caught in a loop, we have said to them we need to find another way to be nominated," said Ahmad.
Ahmad said that it was vital for Birmingham council to take action and defend religious inclusion amid increasing extremism. "We have always said the Ahmadi issue is a sort of canary in the mine. If there are problems with us there will be wider problems," said Ahmad. "We don't want this to set a precedent for [the exclusion] other communities as well," he said.
Who are the Ahmadi Muslims and why are they persecuted? Founded in British controlled India in the late 19th century, the Ahmadiyya take their name from founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who died in 1908. Identifying itself as a Muslim movement and following the teachings of the Koran, it regards Ahmad as the long-awaited mahdi, or Muslim saviour. However, elements of mainstream Islam and orthodox Muslims in Asian countries such as Pakistan reject the notion of Ahmad as mahdi, and Ahmadis in general, regarding the group as heretics and subjecting them to persecution.
Matt Nelson, a reader in politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies said that anti-Ahmadi rhetoric had long been used as a "dog whistle" by Muslim hardliners in Pakistan, where followers of the sect are forbidden by law to call themselves Muslims. "Those groups who want to make a point of saying they are the most pious, they are the most orthodox and so on to rally a constituency as big as possible around themselves, start with the Ahmadiyya and ratchet from there. Under UK law, he said, the anti-Ahmadiyya lobby "would have no leg to stand on when drawing doctrinal boundaries of the type that appear to be emerging in Birmingham." He continued: "we have a law in this country that people can articulate their faith how they like in peaceful ways, no matter what."
The 2014 Trojan Horse scandal saw a plot to introduce an Islamist ethos at several of the city's schools exposed, in which other faiths and Muslim sects were denounced. Parliamentary Secretary of State Lord Nash in the wake of the scandal called for schools to actively promote "mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs."
Labour MP Siobahn McDonagh, a former member of the House of Commons Education Select Committee which investigated the Trojan Horse scandal, said the actions of Birmingham council undermined the message of tolerance at the heart of SACRE.
"The whole point of SACRE as I understand it is to get the widest possible contributions from the faith communities on how religious education is undertaken in our schools," she said. "The idea that you would block a faith or part of a faith is against the whole spirit of the institution quite apart from it being completely out of keeping with British values."
In an emailed statement, Councillor Henley said: "Due to legal issues, it is not possible to comment on claims being made at this time." Birmingham City Council refused to disclose what the legal issues are, but they are believed to be related to a request for judicial intervention previously considered by Birmingham's Ahmadiyya. | {
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The desperate effort to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a cave in Thailand has drawn hundreds of people, including Elon Musk, to lend their expertise, labour and hope to the task.
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In a series of tweets, the technology mogul and Tesla chief executive said his Boring Company — which digs tunnels for advanced transport systems — had advanced ground-penetrating radar, and brainstormed that an air tunnel constructed with soft tubing like a bouncy castle could provide flexible passage out.
He said engineers from The Boring Company and SpaceX companies needed to be on site to appreciate the complexities of evacuation.
A spokesperson told the BBC they were "sending SpaceX/Boring Company people from the US to Thailand today to offer support on the ground".
"Once we confirm what exactly will be helpful to send or do, we will.
"We are getting feedback and guidance from the people on the ground in Chiang Rai to determine the best way for us to assist their efforts."
The Thai Government said Mr Musk's team could help the rescue operation with location tracking, water pumping or battery power.
Tesla chief Elon Musk said he was sending engineers to help in Thailand. ( Reuters: James Glover II )
Tragically, one diver has lost his life in the rescue effort so far, and concern is also mounting that the air inside the cave may not be fit to sustain life for much longer.
It puts the prospect of drilling back in the picture, and rescue teams have thrashed their way through dense forest hundreds of metres above the cave complex, searching for an alternative way.
Western Australian drilling expert Kelvin Brown was part of the successful rescue in 2010 of 33 miners trapped 700 metres below ground in Chile, and said drilling could be used to get the boys out, but there were variables — and also risks.
A military transport helicopter carries a drill machine that could help rescue the boys. ( AP: Sakchai Lalit )
Soft rock an advantage
There are some slight differences between drilling into a mine and a tourist cave — availability of information being one of them.
Mr Brown was able to study data about previous drilling at the Chilean mine to determine how the rigs were going to behave.
"We knew what the formation was, we knew if there were faulted zones, the presence of aquafers," he he told PM.
"I'm not too sure all that information is actually at hand in this Thai scenario.
"But it's all possible, as was proven."
In Thailand, Mr Brown said he thought there was one aspect working in favour of drilling — the softer rock.
"It's most probably some form of limestone, which to a driller is absolute butter and is extremely quick to drill through," he said.
By comparison, the rock at the mine in Chile was volcanic and extremely hard, which caused the drills to deviate.
"But I would expect that in Thailand it would be extremely soft and should be quite quick to drill."
Sorry, this video has expired Thai boys in high spirits as rescuers plan next move.
There is, however, a problem.
"As a driller, I drill to targets; obviously I have to know where that is in space," he said.
"So, I have X, Y and Z — three-dimensional coordinates.
"I'm not too sure they have those, but that would be a must-have."
If those coordinates were known, he said he believed drilling directly to the target zone — where the team is waiting — would be the best option.
"Going to a water-filled cavity probably makes no sense, so I'm assuming you would try to drill directly where they are in an air pocket."
Additional holes could also be drilled to aid the rescue effort.
At the mine in Chile, three holes were drilled: one for food and supplies; a second for communication; and a third to pull the miners out.
"So it makes a bit more sense to me anyway, at least for the sake of safe access, to use a drill hole."
A map shared by a Thai diving website demonstrates the difficult conditions diving rescuers would face. ( Facebook: Digitalay )
How long would it take?
"Doing a double shift, which is drilling two 12-hour shifts — so 24 hours — it really depends on the method, and that will be dictated by the logistics — if you can physically get the right equipment in," Mr Brown said.
He said diamond drilling was common in the region, and that meant it should not be difficult to get a drilling rig into the area at short notice.
But he said while the diamond drill took less power and space, it was also slower than the alternatives.
"That could probably get there anywhere from 10 days, maybe a little bit less because of the limestone being softer," he said.
"The more high-powered rigs, which is what we used in Chile, probably three days."
With the monsoon rains imminent, Mr Brown said he hoped the drilling option was being considered.
International rescuers are hoping to evacuate at least some of the boys before heavy rains hit. ( AP: Sakchai Lalit )
What could go wrong?
Well, it depends on the drilling techniques used.
For one thing, high-pressure air drills are extremely loud.
"You don't want to be in the vicinity when the hammer breaks through," Mr Brown said.
Then there is diamond drilling, which uses a huge column of water and diamond-impregnated drill bits.
"And if it is 1,000 metres of water, that's a very high head of pressure," he said.
"As soon as you break through, that 1km column of water instantly wants to enter into the area.
"So, there most certainly would be some risk if we intersected exactly where they are."
And beyond extreme noise and water pressure, there is the possibility of the people trapped in the cave being hit by rocks.
"If you dislodged the formation — and that's another thing that we don't know too much about the geology: is it unstable, is it fractured — you may actually dislodge boulders as you approach and break through.
"So, there is certainly some risk to that approach."
But Mr Brown said he believed the approach was worth trying.
"To me it looks like a long section that they have available to them," he said.
"You could certainly have, as we did in Copiapo, you could have multiple drills all targeting different areas.
"Certainly in light of what happened in Chile, it's proven it can happen."
Sorry, this video has expired Expert in disaster mental health Sarb Johal says the boys' morale is heartening.
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Pete Buttigieg, the all-but-official Democratic presidential candidate and South Bend mayor, likes to have fun with a common question: How to pronounce his last name. Head over to his campaign website, for example, and you'll be invited to purchase shirts reading BOOT-EDGE-EDGE.
Mayor Pete, as he's known to his fans, has a similar pronunciation guide on the bio of his Twitter page. His husband Chasten, meanwhile, tweeted back in December how to say the tongue-twister of a name. According to Chasten Buttigieg, it can also be pronounced as "Buddha-judge" or "Boot-a-judge."
Options: boot-edge-edge or Buddha-judge or Boot-a-judge or Boo-tuh-judge — Chasten Buttigieg (@Chas10Buttigieg) December 17, 2018
A viral Twitter video last month from "Late Night with Stephen Colbert" staffer Aaron Nemo also helped explain the correct way to pronounce Buttigieg.
how to say pete buttigieg pic.twitter.com/LnE56rfqlK — Aaron Nemo (@aaronnemo) March 25, 2019
Pete Buttigieg is familiar with the confusion. "Does it worry you that nobody with a funny name like yours could ever get elected president?" Peter Sagal, the host of NPR's comedy game show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me," asked Buttigieg back in 2018.
"Around here it's actually an asset," Buttigieg replied. "This is a community, you know, a lot of East European settlement here in South Bend."
The name Buttigieg doesn't actually come from Eastern Europe, but rather Malta, where his father was born. According to an article in The Times of Malta, 76 percent of that country's population shares the same 100 surnames.
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"My surname, Buttigieg (Boot-edge-edge), is very common in my father's country of origin, the tiny island of Malta, and nowhere else," the mayor wrote in a 2016 Medium post.
The Times of Malta said that common Maltese surnames could be divided into three groups reflecting the island's complex history: "Semitic (Arabic and Hebrew), Romance (mainly Italian, Sicilian, Spanish and French), and English (as well as Scottish, Irish and Welsh)."
Most Maltese people have a Semitic last name, linguist Mario Cessar told the paper, such as Abdilla, Borg, Zammit – or Buttigieg.
So there you have it. In case you're wondering, Kirsten Gillibrand's last name is pronounced with a soft-g sound, like "Jill-uh-brand." And Kamala Harris' first name is pronounced like "COMMA-lah." | {
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To the Editor:
I am greatly disappointed that Walker Mills ’15’s opinion piece “Playing it Safe — Too Safe” falls into the same semantic trap that New York Times contributing opinion writer Judith Shulevitz and many other generational pundits have been making in recent editorial comments across news outlets. The current rally that generational pundits make against me and my peers in college today is that we have forsaken freedom of speech and multiple view points for “comfort.” What does this word “comfort” even mean? I’m afraid that it is a product of jargon that is too easily mistranslated by these opinion columnists hoping to pass a deadline. If they delved with any honest intent into the vast discourse of social justice, they would see how far from the mark they really are.
To begin, when students claim a lecture or event is “uncomfortable,” it’s not because the chair cushion is sagging. Nor is it because we simply don’t like the ideas being touted before us. It is because the speakers promoting these ideas do not display an effort to be inclusive in their thoughts.
A speaker’s language may not recognize the differences in gender identity or expression, and thus speak in ways that exclude and marginalize certain groups. Their arguments may not acknowledge the position of power they inherently have when making certain claims. The solutions they offer to whatever discussion at hand many not consider the long history of injustice performed against people of color.
These examples may seem vague, but I am trying to generalize a range of possible situations that have caused dismay across college campuses. To outside observers, make no mistake, these problems are not analogous to me sitting on an uncomfortable lumpy mattress.
When I say your argument makes me uncomfortable, it is because I am greatly concerned that you have not done the requisite thought and research into generating an inclusive thesis that considers as many nuances as necessary to deliver a sound debate.
If you do not believe that skin color, age, religious identity, sexuality, class or (dis)ability have an effect in cultural, political or economic problems that we debate at universities, then it is you who is trying to remain comfortable despite such frightening realities. In this sense, being uncomfortable is the strongest form of rhetoric that our millennial generation wields in the struggle against all forms of oppression.
Joseph DiZoglio ’15
Editors’ note: Comments on this article have been closed due to excessive ad hominem attacks on the author and other commenters. | {
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To find out how high achievers organise their lives we asked seven top business people to run us through their working day – including the bosses of AOL and Ericsson. Introducing the interviews, Tim Dowling discovers that a very early start is the key to success ...
Investigating the bedtimes of high achievers in hopes of divining the secret of success sounds a bit like looking to a novelist's desk placement for the key to good writing. I want my characters to be believable – should I be facing the window? But there is no doubt that once you start examining the daily schedules of CEOs, patterns emerge. Some of the routine is dictated by the job, but a lot of it is the product of outlook and approach. These folks live their lives in a very directed way. How do they manage, day in, day out? And what can we learn from the habits of seven highly effective people?
• First off – and there's no getting around this one, I'm afraid – you have to get up early. Really early: 6am is good, but 5am is better. And CEOs don't hit snooze: most of them claim to leap out of bed in the morning (even though it's basically still night) and more than one said that "life is too exciting" for sleep.
• Business and domestic life are hopelessly blurred. Leisure activities are as rigidly organised as the office diary – nobody lies in on Saturdays; they get up early and exercise – and everybody seems happy to let work follow them home. Quality time with children is timetabled, which might sound a bit ruthless, but at least they are determined to include some. For most of these company heads, the working week starts again on Sunday evening.
• It's clear that none of these people ever gets a chance to do the sudoku in the morning.
• They may be in charge of large international companies, but they are absolute slaves to email. Karen Blackett of MediaCom claims to receive 500 a day. They're emailing first thing in the morning, and last thing at night, and throughout the day. For the modern CEO, dealing with your own email seems to be some kind of touchstone of accessibility. I'm not sure what I'd do if I got 500 emails every day, but I know what I wouldn't do: I wouldn't read them.
• Far from giving you a blueprint for your rise to the top, these routines will probably cause you to reconsider the whole idea of becoming CEO of a major communications conglomerate. For the most part, it sounds horrible. There is no respite at the top of the greasy pole, no finish line at the end of the rat race – it's just more of the same. What's the point of being rich and successful if you have to get up before dawn every day to answer 500 emails? There are so many other options open to you: wage slave, failed artist, cowboy plumber, petty thief, local weirdo. The money isn't good, but the hours are very attractive.
• Interviews by Laura Barnett and Patrick Kingsley
Tim Armstrong - 5-5.15am. Photograph: Jennifer S Altman/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Tim Armstrong, CEO, AOL
How and when does your morning start?
I usually get up at 5 or 5:15am. Historically, I would start sending emails when I got up. But not everyone is on my time schedule, so I have tried to wait until 7am. Before I email, I work out, read, and use our products. By 7am, I usually have questions or feedback about AOL. I am not a big sleeper and never have been. Life is too exciting to sleep. Arianna Huffington is preaching sleep to me all the time, but I will need a DNA transplant to adhere to her advice. She is right, but I just can't do it. I have three kids and my middle daughter (nine) has my sleep DNA, so she gets up and I drink coffee and she tells me about her life.
When you wake up, do you leap out of bed immediately?
Yes.
What time are you at your desk?
My desk starts the minute I leave my house. I have a driver and my commute is a little over an hour. I am very productive in the car.
Do you email throughout the day?
I do most emails in the morning, during the commute, and late at night. When I am at the office I try to listen and learn.
Do you have a secret email address?
No. Do you?
What time do you go home?
Most days around 7pm and I get home at 8 or just after. When I get home, I try to read my two daughters a book. They usually win and get two or three books. I eat dinner with my wife; she is a gourmet cook and her food beats most of the best restaurants in New York. After dinner, I play Nerf hoops with my 11-year-old son – full contact, losers out, and no hanging on the rim.
What time do you go to bed?
Most nights around 11. Can be later if I have a dinner in the city.
How much sleep do you get?
I try to get six hours. I can operate on less, but it isn't ideal.
What is your weekend like?
Friday night is family movie night. Saturday is sports with kids. I am coaching my son's fifth grade basketball team on Saturday and Sunday, and it is my favourite thing all week. Saturday night is date night with my wife and sometimes dinner with friends. Sundays are church, basketball and work, starting at 7pm – calls and emails.
Jayne-Anne Gadhia – 6.20am. Photograph: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO, Virgin Money
How and when does your morning start?
Left to my own devices, which means assuming I don't have to travel, I get up every day at 6.20am. No alarm. That's just when I wake up every morning, weekends too. First thing I do is look at my emails and answer any outstanding. I can't stand having any not done! Then I look at the BBC news website, then Twitter. If that counts as an early start, I do it because I always like to be on top of work so I can enjoy the non-work stuff, like having breakfast with the family and talking to my daughter on the way to school, rather than being distracted by work. So it sort of helps me have a normal life.
What time are you at your desk?
If I'm working in my home city of Edinburgh I'm at my desk by 8.30am, having dropped Amy off at school. I email all the time. It used to drive me mad, but that's now the way I keep on top of things. Multi-tasking has become essential as far as I can see. I do have a separate private email address that fewer people know – but that gets quite busy too these days.
What time do you go home?
I try to be home by 7pm. If I'm away I work until about 10pm – again, that's a way of not letting things encroach on normal life too much. I do work from home in the evening, but usually only in a multi-tasking sort of way. I certainly don't sit at a desk.
When is bedtime?
I try to be in bed by 10.30pm. And I always sleep like a log! I need and get about eight hours a night, unless I'm travelling, when I just get what I can. I rarely feel tired. Life's too exciting! I always get straight out of bed when I wake up. I don't lie there doing my emails.
What is your weekend like?
I love my weekends. I try to run both days before the rest of the family is up. Then being the normal taxi service for children kicks in. We usually have dinner with friends on a Saturday night and then more family stuff on a Sunday, until about 4pm. In the winter I like to be home then, curtains drawn, music on and getting us all ready for the week ahead – homework check, clothes check, scrubbed up – a nice tea, then settle in front of the telly.
Karen Blackett – 5.45am
Karen Blackett, CEO, MediaCom UK
What time do you get up?
At 5.45am three times a week to spend 45 minutes in my garage, which I have turned into a gym. Otherwise, I wake when my son comes into my room – any time between 6.30 and 7am.
When you wake up, do you leap out of bed immediately?
Define "leap" – I'd say I roll out of bed.
What time do you start sending emails?
I quickly scan my emails while my son is taking over my bed and having his milk. Urgent ones I reply to there and then. I flag others to follow up on my commute into work. My early start is due to the need to exercise more to keep fit as I get older, and due to my three-year-old kick-starting my day (literally).
What time are you at your desk?
8.30-9am — it depends on whether my son is at nursery and I do the nursery run, or at home with his nanny.
Do you email throughout the day, or do you have fixed times at which you send messages?
I receive an average of 500 emails a day, so I email throughout the day.
Do you have a secret email address that few people know?
No, I'm accessible to everyone and there's no hierarchy.
What time do you go home?
I try to be home for 6.30pm so that I can spend time with my son before he goes to sleep, read him his bedtime story and put him to bed at 7.30pm. My team know that I'll clock on again once Isaac is settled after 8pm, and reply to emails or take calls. My clients also know that.
What time do you go to bed?
11.30pm.
How much sleep do you get?
Six to seven hours. I'm the mum of a three-year-old: you survive on what you can get! I thoroughly recommend ginseng and David Kirsch vitamins.
What is your weekend like?
Isaac time, peppered with the odd bit of work when he's sleeping.
Hans Vestberg – "Early." Photograph: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Hans Vestberg, CEO, Ericsson
What time do you get up?
It varies, but usually early.
What time do you start sending emails?
No day is similar to another, but usually mail is part of my start of the day. Our company never sleeps: we have business in 180 countries, so there are no real mornings or nights.
Do you email first thing?
I often exercise (running or gym), especially when I am travelling.
What time are you at your desk?
Flexible on time but seldom after 8am.
Do you email only at fixed times?
I read mails throughout the day but answer mails more in the morning and evening.
Do you have a secret email address that few people know?
No, my mail address is open for anyone and I read all my mails by myself.
What time do you go home?
It depends on the day's activities. If I am in Sweden, I try to get home to be with my children. I can do work after that from home.
What time do you go to bed?
Quite late.
How much sleep do you get?
It varies, but enough.
How much do you need?
Not too much.
When you wake up, do you leap out of bed immediately?
Yes.
What is your weekend like?
I spend time with my family and exercise. Of course there's no such thing as a "normal day" – depending on travel schedule and customer meetings, so the answers above are all approximations.
Helena Morrissey – 5am. Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Helena Morrissey, CEO, Newton investment
What time do you get up?
5am, sometimes earlier. I get out of bed straight away and go downstairs to check and send emails on computer and BlackBerry. At 6.30am my children start to get up.
How much sleep do you get?
Five to six hours. This is as much to do with having nine children as having a business job, but I do end up feeling a bit sleep-deprived. There isn't a lot of slack. I put on the washing about twice before I go to work. People make resolutions to do more things, but one of my ambitions for 2013 is to do slightly less. With children, you end up adjusting, and not needing so much sleep. But every now and again, you think: oh, I could do with a proper eight hours.
What time are you at your desk?
About eight. I'm on my BlackBerry all the time.
When do you go home?
Around 6pm. The whole family tends to eat together at about 7.30pm. I work after supper– sending more emails, often to US-based colleagues, or doing two hours of prep for the morning's meetings. I try to get to bed around 10pm, and aim to be asleep by 11pm, but there's usually one child who's awake. With so many there's bound to be one.
What is your weekend like?
On Saturday evening, the whole family tends to sit down and watch a movie. On Sunday mornings, the children do their homework, and I do mine. I spend Sunday evenings preparing the children's schoolbags for the week ahead. It takes a little while, organising that many children, making sure the girls don't go off with the boys' stuff. I have done that occasionally.
Heather Rabbatts – 6am
Heather Rabbatts, non-executive director of the Football Association
What time do you get up?
I am usually up by 6am, but wake earlier. I've always been an early riser. I love that sense of quiet first thing in the morning as the world (well, those of us on GMT) wakes up.
What time do you start sending emails?
By 8am – sometimes earlier, depending on what is on my mind.
Do you email first thing?
If I'm in London, I start the day with a cup of tea and a digestive biscuit. If I'm home in Kent, I feed my two spaniels, have a cup of tea and defend my digestive biscuits from being snaffled by my crafty dogs.
What time are you at your desk?
I'm a bit of a wandering minstrel: my day often begins with breakfast meetings, before I head to my desk.
Do you email throughout the day, or do you have fixed times at which you send messages?
I usually send emails throughout the day and into the evening. My business partners are in New York and LA, so emails/calls extend my working hours.
Do you have a secret email address that few people know?
If I did, I wouldn't say.
What time do you go home?
It varies as I usually have evening engagements.
Do you work from home in the evening?
I try not to work too much from home in the evening, but it depends what's going on.
What time do you go to bed?
I don't have a regular bedtime.
How much sleep do you get?
My sleep patterns vary. I used to be a bad sleeper – ie a virtual insomniac – but I'm getting better with age. I'm always up early, I never need an alarm and am instantly awake.
Do you feel tired?
Who doesn't, sometimes?
What is your weekend like?
I walk the dogs; try to learn to ride my horse, who continually sees tigers lurking behind trees; spend time with my partner and friends. And smile, because life is to be lived!
Vittorio Colao – 6am. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Vittorio Colao, CEO, Vodafone
He gets up at 6am, exercises for 40 minutes then works continuously through the day with constant emails and meetings ("because people need to progress with decisions and logistics, and technology today allows everybody to be always in contact"). He works through until about 10.45pm – with a brief pause for dinner with his family – before going to sleep by 11.30pm. Weekends consist of four hours of exercise, then the remainder is split between time with his wife and children and preparing for the following week's work. | {
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By Rabbi Shaya Cohen, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Zichron Ayeh and founded Priority-1 in 1987 to help at-risk teenagers and their parents and families. According to many experts in the field, one of the most significant predictors of whether an OTD child will ultimately return to Yiddishkeit is the child’s relationship to his or her parents. In this open letter to parents of OTD children, Rabbi Cohen draws on his 30+ years of helping parents of OTD children, as well as his experience in establishing two high schools for “at-risk” boys and girls, to give parents ten tips on how to navigate their new reality.
There are few things as painful as watching your child abandon yiddishkeit R”l. We love our children and it hurts to witness them making terrible decisions. Parents often stay up at night agonizing where they went wrong – alternating between states of denial, anger, grief, and an extreme sense of helplessness. The instinctive reaction is to try to push, pressure, cajole, plead, gaslight, and guilt your child back into the fold. Over the past 30+ years, I have met countless parents facing this challenge, and it is clear to me that none of these approaches work.
It is essential to understand that you are at a pivotal crossroads. One choice is to follow your gut instincts, lash out and potentially ruin your relationship with your child and the chance of them returning. The other option is to take a step back and ask yourself what the Torah expects from you.
Here are ten thoughts to help shed some clarity on how to act in these situations.
1. YOUR CHILD IS NOT INHERENTLY “BAD”
The first thing to understand is that your child is not inherently “bad.” Every neshama in Klal Yisroel is holy and yearns to connect to Hashem. In my personal experience, I have found that many of the people who go off the derech R”l are exceptionally bright, kind, and deeply sensitive individuals. Many were never shown the beauty of Torah and mitzvos. Instead, they were presented with a religion that, from their perspective, forced them to keep a never-ending set of rigid and unbending rules. Some had questions about emunah, but instead of being treated with respect, their questions were shut down, and they were reprimanded for expressing heretical thoughts. Some left because they couldn’t tolerate the perceived hypocrisy or shallowness that they witnessed in their community. And still others felt ignored, stifled, and misunderstood; forced by our chinuch system to contort themselves into molds that they felt did not suit their personality and temperament. Many of these people are victims in one way or another, and it is a grave mistake to respond to their actions by ostracizing them from their family and community.
2. LOVE THEM
When a child goes off-the-derech, they often desperately want to maintain their relationship with you and still actively seek your approval. A therapist involved with this population recently recounted the story of a child who was struggling with Yiddishkeit. She wrote her mother a heartfelt letter, asking to keep the loving relationship that they had previously shared. The next day, her mother called her and told her, “Hashem blessed me with nine wonderful children, [and] now I will have eight” and hung up, permanently cutting the child out of her life. This parent made a colossal mistake.
An off-the-derech child is in a disorienting, angst-filled, and often painful place in his or her life. It is your job as a parent to make them feel that you will always consider them part of your family and that you love them as a human being. They should feel that you love them because of who they are – for their sense of humor, for their kindness, for their creativity, for their honesty – that you love them just because, and that you always want to have a relationship with them. Do not make them feel that you only loved them because they wore certain clothing or because they acted in specific ways.
Even if your child seems to be actively rebelling or trying to distance you from their life, do not react with anger or rejection. Stay loving and do everything in your power to maintain and strengthen your relationship with your child. Their actions may seem cruel and unfeeling, but many times they are – consciously or subconsciously – testing the limits of your relationship. Deep down, they are desperate for your acceptance and love.
Parents sometimes react to this advice with indignation. How can I show my child love when they are actively betraying the Rebono Shel Olam and our entire mesorah? The answer to this is simple. Hashem does not want you to lash out or distance yourself from your child. Chazal teaches us (Yevamos 65b) that just like there is a mitzvah to reprimand wrongdoers if they will listen, so too it is a mitzvah to refrain from giving tochacha if the wrongdoer will not listen. The Chazon Ish (Hilchos Shechita, Siman 2) writes that nowadays, we must draw our estranged children back with thick cords of love.
You may quibble over your halachic requirements, but anyone in this field knows the simple reality. One of the best predictors of whether a child will eventually return or not R”l is their relationship with their parents. By creating a hostile and toxic relationship, you may be ensuring that they will never return R”l. Even if you feel that you are not being true to yourself, embrace your child, love them, and let them know that you will always cherish them for who they are.
It is worth noting that people often err when attempting to reprimand others for their behavior. Musser should not make the other party feel attacked or belittled. Instead, it should make the person feel like a worthy person who has made a mistake. This point is made explicitly by the Shelah in his commentary on Leviticus 19:17 who writes that one must contextualize all reprimands with the preface that the sinner is a good and intelligent person and that his sin is out of character with his otherwise lofty stature.
Additionally, there is a remarkable exchange recorded in the gemara between Rav Yehuda HaNasi and Rabbi Yosi. Although Rabbi Yosi was the son of the great sage Rabbi Elazar, he did not follow in his father’s footsteps, rather he abandoned Yiddishkeit and began living a life of extreme depravity. The gemara records that when Rav Yehuda HaNasi met the wayward Yosi, he did not react by belittling him or screaming at him for his actions. Instead, Rav Yehuda HaNasi treated him like a prince, clothing him in royal garments and giving him semicha and a prestigious position amongst the Sages (Baba Mitzia 85a). Because of Rav Yehuda HaNasi’s wise and patient approach, Rabbi Yosi went on to become one of the greatest Sages in history. Chazal’s attitude is clear, one has far more influence when approaching someone with respect and validation then if one approaches with negativity and anger.
3. THEY ARE NOT BETRAYING YOU
When parents feel anger and rage towards their off-the-derech child, they often feel that their feelings are justified and lishaim shamayim. But it is worth taking a step back and analyzing your feelings. As parents, we all want our children to follow in our footsteps. When they follow a different path, especially one that goes against everything we believe in, it is natural to feel betrayed and hurt. Your child’s rejection of Yiddishkeit stings, and it feels like they are rejecting you and everything you stand for.
But they are not rejecting you. They are struggling to find their way in the world, and are often dealing with enormous anxiety, disillusionment, and internal conflict. Even though your child is acting inappropriately, they are not responsible for your feelings. You must take ownership of your emotions and recognize that it is not your child’s issue that you feel angry and betrayed – those are your own issues and you must work through them yourself. Parents who react with anger and rejection to their off-the-derech child are often simply lashing out over a perceived sense of entitled betrayal. These parents are not standing up for kavod shamayim; they are simply expressing their sense of, “how dare you not follow in my footsteps!”
4. WHAT ABOUT SHIDDUCHIM?
Another reason parents often feel anger towards their off-the-derech child is because they feel that the child is ruining the family name. Parents worry that people will start whispering in shul, and that the child’s actions will lower the family’s standing in the community. They worry that it will make it harder for the child’s siblings to find shidduchim. The response to that is simple. It is exactly this sort of attitude that pushes so many sensitive souls away from Yiddishkeit. Your child will immediately perceive if your anger at his actions are based out of fear of “what the neighbors will think” and not out of genuine concern for him or her and his or her wellbeing in this world and the next. They will see your harsh reactions as those of a “faker” and not those of someone who genuinely cares about doing the ratzon Hashem. They will think that you do not care about them and are only trying to protect your image within the community. This will corrode your relationship and hurt your chances of reaching your child.
Stop for a moment and think about what really matters. Does it really matter what the neighbors think? Hashem is running the world, and your children’s shidduchim have already been decreed before they were born. Trust in Hashem and recognize that the greatest act you can do to secure rachamei shamayim is by showering love on the struggling neshamah that He has entrusted to your care.
Additionally, it is important to remember that you are not the first family with an off-the-derech child, and you will not become a pariah because of your child’s choices. Over the years, I have dealt with so many of the “chashuver” families in our community who were struggling with an off-the-derech child. “Ein bayis asher ein shom mais,” truly applies in our generation, and it is a tragic reality that we need to learn how to properly approach.
5. DON’T KICK YOUR CHILD OUT OF YOUR HOME
Do not kick your child out of your home. It is their home too – and kicking someone out of their home is the ultimate symbol of rejection. Your off-the-derech child should feel welcome in your home. They should feel that you love having them around; that you enjoy their company at the Shabbos table and around the house. They should feel like valuable members of the household and not stigmatized for their struggles. They are part of your family and deserve to be treated with the full love and respect of a family member.
Some parents send their off-the-derech child away out of fear of them influencing the minds of the younger children. But this approach is often misguided and can backfire. Siblings stick together, and by kicking your child out of the house, you may galvanize your other children to sympathize with the off-the-derech child. You will also send a deeply toxic message to all your children; namely, that your love for them is conditional on them following your rules. Children are incredibly perceptive, and they may see the act of kicking their sibling out of the house as a declaration that all your relationships – even with your own children – do not rest on solid bedrock. It is difficult to imagine a more damaging message to send to a child.
If you are truly worried about your younger children being influenced, sit down with your off-the-derech child and have a frank and calm conversation. Discuss your fears and work with them to figure out a plan of action. You will likely be pleasantly surprised at how far your off-the-derech child will be willing to go to avoid influencing the other children. Additionally, your child will appreciate that you respect his or her input, as well as the fact that you consider them part of the fold.
Some parents feel the need to kick their child out because they simply cannot tolerate their child violating halacha in their own home. They cannot stand idly by while their child is michallel Shabbos or walks around dressed immodestly. The pain of these parents is incalculable, but it is worth taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture. What is your ultimate goal? Your child is committing these issurim whether you like it or not, and there is likely nothing you can do to prevent it. Of course, their actions hurt you, but this is exactly your nisayon. Will you simply react, or will you make decisions after calm and careful deliberation of the costs and benefits?
All that can be gained by kicking your child out is permanently hurting your relationship with them. And that is exactly what the yetzer hara wants. Once upon a time, threatening to cut off family ties may have served as a reliable enough source of pressure to ensure proper behavior. Even entirely secular Jews refrained from intermarrying out for fear of being cut out from the family. But those days are long gone. Threatening to cut a child out of the family will do nothing to change their behavior and will destroy any positive influence the parents may have otherwise had on their child. Having your off-the-derech child in your life and building a strong relationship with them based on trust and acceptance is far more impactful in getting them to return than is anything else.
If you truly cannot envision yourself bearing the emotional pain of witnessing your child’s transgressive behavior, sit down with them and discuss it in a mature and loving manner. Do not give them a list of demands, rather let them know how much you would appreciate it if they refrained from various activities while in your presence. If you approach your child with the proper attitude, you will likely be surprised at how much they will bend in order to accommodate your feelings. It is important to remember that your child is going through a complicated and difficult stage in their life and try to be forgiving if they do not live up to your standards. Not every war must be fought to the death, and sometimes the greatest act of parenting is to know when to turn a blind eye and pretend that you did not see something. By adopting a positive chinuch approach, you will yield far better results in changing your child’s behavior.
6. MAKE YOUR OFF-THE-DERECH CHILD FEEL VALIDATED AND UNDERSTOOD
The process of a child abandoning Yiddishkeit is often traumatic for both the parents and the child. The process often involves pain, anger, and confusion, and the parent-child relationship may be deeply compromised by the end of the ordeal. As the parent, it is your job to begin the healing process and start rebuilding the broken bridges. The most effective method to begin this process is by making your child feel validated and appreciated as a human being. Talk to your child about their experiences, and listen intently and empathetically when they talk. If they criticize your parenting style, don’t get defensive or hostile; rather, try to absorb what they are saying. Children who have left Yiddishkeit often have incredible insight into problematic family dynamics, and it is worth taking their opinion seriously. Do not get offended; just listen and connect with them. Let them feel that you value them and, despite their decisions, look at them as worthy human beings who deserve love and respect.
The reality is that many people who have left Yiddishkeit feel that they have been wronged and hurt by various authority figures. The first step in helping your child heal is to validate their feelings. If they felt mistreated by a rebbe or mashgiach, listen with empathy to their points. If they feel mistreated by you, try not to be defensive. Whether or not you feel their criticism is accurate, recognize that what they are telling you is how they experienced it. Apologize for any pain they feel you’ve caused them and commit to doing whatever you can to repair the relationship. Even if you do not agree with their perspective, you can still validate their feelings and let them know that you are sorry for the pain that they are experiencing. Now is not the time to delegitimize their perspective or to try to show them the faults in their logic. Just be caring, real, and let them understand that you are sorry for their pain.
This does not mean that you must pretend that you are not pained by their actions. Be open and honest with them. Let them know that you are saddened by their life choices but still love them for who they are as a person. Your off-the-derech child is still your child and needs to feel that you respect them and view them as a worthy individual. Only once your child feels that you validate them as a human being will they be open to hearing what you have to say.
7. DO NOT LET THEM FEEL THAT YOU GAVE UP ON THEM
Parents sometimes feel that in order to maintain their relationship with their child, they must actively allow or encourage them to commit avairos. This is misguided. Parents have a very fine line to walk. On the one hand, it is often profoundly counterproductive to actively express your pain and sadness about the decisions of your off-the-derech child. Such displays are often viewed as manipulative and rarely help the situation. Most children know that their choices are causing their parents pain – and parents rarely need to say anything for the child to appreciate their position.
On the other hand, passively condoning forbidden actions can also hurt your child. Children are very perceptive and adopting a laissez-faire approach will not fool them. All they will see is that their parents do not expect them ever to improve and have given up on ever getting nachas from them. It can be devastating to a child’s self-image when they feel their parents’ sense of defeat and faux acceptance of their situation. This approach often leaves the child convinced that he is helpless to control his situation and that his parents have given up on him. This realization can be crippling and can deeply hinder any progress the child may be making. Your children should feel that while you love them, you are not ok with their actions. This is not an easy line to walk, and one must carefully find a balance. Parents need to emphasize that they love and respect their child, but they must also make it clear that they do not accept the child’s new way of life.
8. MAKE THEM FEEL COMFORTABLE AROUND YOU
One reason that many off-the-derech people avoid spending time with frum people is that they feel uncomfortable around them. They sense that everyone is walking on eggshells in their presence, and every time they walk into a room, they feel a sense of awkwardness fill the space. When an off-the-derech child interacts with his or her parents, this discomfort is deeply compounded. The child knows that their decisions are causing incredible pain to their parents, and they become deeply attuned to any subtle expression of grief or disappointment that may emanate from their parents. Slowly, the negativity of these interactions builds up, and the child begins avoiding contact with his parents as well as other people from his former life.
The solution to this is simple. Treat your child like a regular person. Yes, your child is causing you tremendous pain, but why is this reality filling the entirety of the relationship? Let your daily interactions resume as usual: eat supper together, laugh, schmooze, and work on building a healthy parent-child relationship. Your child’s frumkeit does not need to be inserted into every interaction you have with them.
It is also worth noting that it is generally not a good idea to debate religion with your child. The complexity of the parent-child dynamic as well as the inherent tension surrounding the topic of Emunah often preclude any ability to have a fruitful conversation. Even if your points are valid, your child has a much better chance of accepting them if they are presented by someone else in a non-threatening environment. Additionally, sometimes bringing in another person to have a three-way meeting with the parents, the child, and the outside party can help reframe the dynamic in a more helpful direction. Find friendly and warm haskafah experts who are willing to talk to your child and use them to engage your child intellectually. If your child brings up haskafah issues, avoid the temptation to participate in long, protracted discussions. Instead, validate them for asking a good question and ask them if they are comfortable talking about these issues with a knowledgeable Rabbi or expert. At Priority-1, we meet with teenagers and adults all the time, and we can have a much more significant impact than parents who try to influence their children alone. As long as you ask respectfully and do not overly pressure your child into meeting a Rav or haskafah expert, most children will be happy to have someone to discuss their questions with in a comfortable environment.
9. ASK YOUR OFF-THE-DERECH CHILD FOR ADVICE REGARDING THE OTHER CHILDREN
I mentioned this earlier, but it is worth revisiting. I often meet parents who are struggling with an off-the-derech child, and one of the pressing issues we discuss is how to protect the younger children from following in their sibling’s path. I always tell parents that the smartest thing that they can do is directly ask their off-the-derech son or daughter for advice. Ask your child, “What can we change in our parenting approach to keep your younger brothers and sisters on the frum path?”
Not only may your child have valuable insights that are worthy of your consideration, asking them for advice is incredibly uplifting. You are showing your child that while you may have made mistakes with them, you are open to change and are interested in their perspective. That act of acknowledgment sends them the message, ‘We respect your opinion and feel that we can learn from you.’ It is incredibly validating and is often the first step in healing the relationship.
10. TAKE THE LONG VIEW
Often parents grow frustrated when their attempts to connect with their child do not result in the child returning to Yiddishkeit. These parents feel that no matter what they do, their child only seems to be drifting further and further away. The answer to these parents is twofold. Firstly, do not base your relationship with the expectation that your child will return. If your relationship is conditional, your child will sense your insincerity and your overtures will fall flat. Just be genuine and loving and do not base your relationship on an implicit attempt to be mikarev your child.
More importantly, have patience. Life is very long, and you never know the impact of your words or actions. Your child was likely struggling with Yiddishkeit for years – long before you were aware anything was wrong, and it is unrealistic to expect the situation to resolve itself quickly.
Think long term – be loving and real and realize that you never know what impact you are having on your child. Life is notoriously unpredictable, and it may take many years before your child is open to reflecting on his or her earlier life choices. When that time of introspection comes, the fact that you stood by your child’s side during his or her most tumultuous stage in life can have an enormous impact on their outlook. It is also worth remembering that even if you are unable to influence your child to return, by staying in your child’s life, you have a strong chance of having a positive impact on your future grandchildren. Be patient, daven, and understand that this process may be a long journey.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC) | {
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Am I the Only One Around Here - Who thinks Men's Health Month should be Manuary?
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- Evakuasi masih berjalan di lokasi kecelakaan Metromini yang tertabrak commuter line di Angke, Jakarta Barat. Petugas mengalami kesulitan karena bodi metromini masih terjepit kereta.Pantauan di lokasi, Minggu (6/12/2015) pukul 11.00 WIB, kondisi metromini tersebut hancur. Bodinya nyaris tak berbentuk lagi. Posisi roda sampai bodi-bodi lainnya berserakan di mana-mana.Petugas masih berusaha melakukan evakuasi dengan cara memotong-motong bodi bus. Untuk sementara, perjalanan commuter line tak bisa melalui lajur tersebut.Metromini tersebut masih berada di bawah peron. Posisinya terjepit dan tidak bisa diangkat.Laporan sementara, ada 13 orang meninggal dunia akibat peristiwa ini. Sekitar 7 orang dalam kondisi kritis. Semua berasal dari penumpang metromini. | {
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Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption The Taliban now control more territory in Afghanistan than at any point since 2001
The Taliban in Afghanistan has rejected calls for a Ramadan ceasefire and attacked the traditional council, or loya jirga, which made the proposal.
The grand assembly is meeting in Kabul this week to discuss peace and called for an immediate ceasefire between the government and militants.
President Ashraf Ghani agreed to a truce provided it was not "one-sided".
But the Taliban rejected the call and accused members of being government allies.
In 2018 the Taliban agreed a three-day ceasefire coinciding with Eid at the end of the holy month of Ramadan - their first since the 2001 US-led invasion.
Speaking at the meeting of the loya jirga - a grand tribal council attended by 3,200 religious leaders, politicians and representatives from across the country - Mr Ghani said: "Let us prove that only Western countries cannot solve this conflict. There is also human civilisation here."
As a goodwill gesture, the president agreed to release 175 Taliban prisoners in response to demands made by the loya jirga.
The militants have been negotiating directly with a US envoy in Qatar since October, as Washington seeks to wind up the longest war in its history, which began in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks.
A potential deal has emerged that would see foreign troops withdraw in return for the insurgents guaranteeing that Afghan territory would not be used as a base by foreign militants.
But there are fears, including among Afghanistan's women, that any US deal with the Taliban could eventually see the militants sweep back into power and strip away rights and freedoms gained since they were toppled in 2001.
The Taliban has shunned direct talks with the Afghan government, calling it "a US-imposed puppet regime". The group has not yet responded to the proposed release of its prisoners nor the demand for a ceasefire.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special peace envoy for Afghanistan, said on Twitter on Friday he had called during talks for the Taliban to lay down its arms. A Taliban spokesman tweeted that the US should end its use of force instead.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Is peace with the Taliban possible?
A US-led military coalition overthrew the Taliban in 2001, for sheltering al-Qaeda. Intense fighting is currently taking place all over the country and the Taliban now controls more territory than at any point since 2001.
Given the continued stalemate with the insurgents, US President Donald Trump is keen to end the war, which, according to US officials, costs about $45bn (£34bn) annually. | {
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Back in January I had to make a critical decision. I had to determine if to separate the Firefox health dashboard (formely known as Platform health) into a backend and frontend projects or to keep it together.
The intent was to make it easier to maintain the project by reducing the complexity of having code that is presentational versus processing code. I also wanted to remove the boilerplate needed for webpack and babel. It was also beneficial to have the liberty of changing packages without worrying of regressing the frontend or the backend. The only disadvantages was to have to do the work and that we might need in the future coordinated changes (or versioned APIs). We did not see the disadvantage of code being duplicated since there wasn’t any (or much — I can’t recall now) shared between the two apps.
Tracking Firefox’s tab close performance
This all came from hitting a very odd production specific issue. I thought this was all caused from the complex webpack configuration the project had. Because we were not making progress determining the root issue I decided to switch to Neutrino. Switching to Neutrino made everything easier, however, it was unclear how to make it work with the original project’s design. The original design had the frontend files being served as static assets of the Koa app. Switching to Neutrino took away webpack headaches since it makes good default configuration options for the project.
Keeping both frontend and backend apps within the same repository complicated the deployment story since there were some Heroku restrictions. I tried using subtrees, however, it still required manual intervention (see explanation). I didn’t know at the time that we could have deployed the backend to Heroku while deploying the frontend to Netlify. This would have allowed to keep both project within the same repository. Alas! We now have two repositories.
If you want to look at the code changes you can see them here. | {
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When I was a kid, the scariest place to be was the movie theater. Pretty ironic to think about now, but from the perspective of a small child, the movie theater was an absolute nightmare land. The images were towering, the sound was ungodly, the darkness entirely enveloping. So, when I was only six years old and was taken to see Chicken Run in theaters not once, but twice, that was a big deal.
But like many, I’d grown up introduced to the claymation capers of Aardman Animation. Most specifically, the delightful short tales of the cheese-loving human and anthropomorphic dog pals Wallace & Gromit, as they cavorted through sticky situations including but not limited to, a pair of uncontrollable robot pants and an evil penguin with a red rubber glove on his head. Seeing Chicken Run, at the time, was an absolute given. It was comfortable to watch something I was already familiar with.
Of course, now, at age 24, I know that there is more to Chicken Run than comfort. Much more than a pair of goofy friends finding themselves in endless-yet-endearing-trouble, Chicken Run is leagues away from the benign comedy stylings of Wallace & Gromit. It really has something to say, something that lures our young minds in with the promise of googly-eyed farm fowl speaking in charming British dialects and then hurls us back into the world with new ideas festering in our minds about the evils of capitalism and labor exploitation.
Among the egg and poultry puns is a film about the power of organized resistance, where the strength is solely in the hands of women who must not only overcome their captors and quite literally seize the means of production but overcome the general uselessness of the men around them. A loose parody of the 1963 World War II epic The Great Escape, about a group of Allied soldiers escaping a German POW camp, Peter Lord and Nick Park‘s 2000 animated feature follows plucky hen heroine Ginger. Determined and daring, she continuously leads the rest of her coop on failed missions to escape their farm.
Then the “flying rooster” Rocky Rhodes lands in their midst and convinces them they can learn to fly, joining the rest of the chickens in the captivity of the respectively dull and conniving Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy. The Tweedys run their farm only caring about one thing, and that’s profit. As long as the chickens are producing goods for them that they can exploit for financial gain, the chickens are kept alive on the farm. As soon as their labor can’t be used for profit, they are sent to the chopping block.
The Tweedys’ farm and their chickens mirror the oft-maligned working environments and practices of our modern-day capitalist society. We’re only valuable to our bosses as long as we can provide them with labor and, therefore, profit. As soon as we aren’t profitable, we’re disposable and replaceable. Thus, this idea of Marxist theory inherent within Chicken Run – the objective of Marxism being the self-emancipation of the working class, i.e. the chickens. German philosopher Karl Marx believed in a socialist revolution in order to bring about control of political power for the proletariat (a fancy word for the working class). This “dictatorship of the proletariat,” as he called it, would give the proletariat public ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange.
The chickens of Chicken Run could even be considered more like prison labor, as their work is entirely unpaid and entirely for-profit. Deviance and attempts to escape, when caught, are punished by solitary confinement. Eventually, however, the deaths of the chickens are considered ever more profitable for the Tweedys than their lives, as the couple embarks on a new business venture in the creation and selling of chicken pot pies. Now, it no longer matters if a chicken can’t produce the necessary labor for the Tweedys: now, their bodies are profitable.
Part of Marxist theory also includes this idea of “seizing the means of production,” means of production being what is used to produce goods, and seizing them as in taking control and using them for the greater good instead of personal gain (as with capitalism). Thus, the chickens’ entire bodies are the Tweedys’ means of producing goods, as well as being the goods themselves. In the end, the chickens’ ultimate way of escape relies entirely on their bodies: hand-powering a plane they built all by themselves. They take their bodies, once only objects of profit, and use them to free and benefit their entire community from the Tweedys’ capitalist control.
But there is even more to the film than indoctrinating in young minds ideas about Marxism and the evils of capitalism. Its entree of themes includes, but is not limited to: death, injustice, exploitation, suppression, resistance, rebellion, the pursuit of freedom, free thought, and, of course, greed. It’s all incredibly dense for a stop-motion animated movie about chickens. (One could even view Rocky as a metaphor for the false promises of The American Dream – but I won’t try getting into that.) The film is packed full of feminist power too, not simply the fact that an entire revolution is organized by women but the stereotypical “woman’s work” of these female chickens (such as their sewing and knitting) is crucial in constructing their mechanism for escape and vital towards the revolution itself.
The men of Chicken Run, on the other hand, are not as favorable. Whether they’re scheming (slippery salesmen rats Nick and Fetcher), deceitful (Fowler and Rocky), or just kinda dumb (Mr. Tweedy), for most of the film, men hinder the women’s progress. Ginger’s persistence, steadfastness, and concern for her coop are perceived by Rocky as “difficult.” But it’s the women of the film – both the chickens and Mrs. Tweedy – who are the ones who know how to get anything done.
I can still feel the sorrow that sank like a lead weight in my stomach when I first experienced one of the film’s very first scenes. Due to her consistent lack of egg production, a poor chicken named Edwina is sent to her death as her feathered friends bear witness in abject horror and dismay. For a G-rated film, it’s an incredibly distressing scene. It deeply upset me as a child, and it upset me as I watched it for probably the 20th time nearly 20 years later. It instilled in me not simply a sadness towards a sympathetic animal character but a desire to see justice done for an exploited and vulnerable class — even if, perhaps, I did not quite realize it at six-years-old.
Chicken Run embodies the very definition of a radical kids’ movie, and if it didn’t make you want to overthrow the powers that be before all your baby teeth fell out, then at the very least, you came away thinking that maybe, just maybe, chickens can fly. | {
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On health care, she argued that Sanders’s “Medicare-for-all” plan would jeopardize the Affordable Care Act and effectively turn over health coverage programs to the states, many of them led by Republican governors.
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“If that’s the kind of ‘revolution’ he’s talking about, I’m worried, folks,” Clinton said, a reference to Sanders's call for "a political revolution."
Clinton’s speech to a few hundred supporters on the campus of Iowa State University was striking in its sharp tone and the breadth of her attacks against Sanders. Her intensified assault came as a new Quinnipiac poll Tuesday showed Sanders overtaking her in Iowa, 49 percent to 44 percent.
Clinton accepted the endorsement here of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and used the occasion to tear into Sanders for his 2005 Senate vote that gave immunity to gun manufacturers. That bill was a major priority for the National Rifle Association.
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Clinton mocked Sanders for claiming that he was voting in line with the interests of his rural state with a deep hunting tradition.
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“He says, ‘Well, I’m from Vermont,’” Clinton said. “Pat Leahy, the other senator from Vermont, voted against immunity for the gun lobby. So, no, that’s not an explanation.”
Sanders has vowed to break up the big banks, but Clinton asserted here that she has stood up to special interests throughout her career, including on Wall Street. She said she went after derivatives and corporate executive compensation, and that she helped influence the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, which passed after she left the Senate to become secretary of state.
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“Don't talk to me about standing up to corporate interests and big powers," Clinton said. "I’ve got the scars to show for it, and I’m proud of every single one of them.”
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Speaking more broadly about the challenges of the presidency, Clinton said she was the only candidate prepared to do all the duties of the office. She spoke movingly about her role in the White House Situation Room during the Osama bin Laden raid, calling it “one of the most tense days of my life.”
Without mentioning Sanders by name, Clinton implicitly suggested he was naïve to think he would be able to implement his ideas, especially with a Republican-controlled Congress.
“This is hard work,” she said. “I wish we could have a Democratic president who could wave a magic wand and say, ‘We shall do this, and we shall do that.’ That ain't the real world we're living in!"
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Clinton appeared to relish laying into Sanders. “We’re getting into that period before the caucus that I kind of call the ‘Let’s get real period,’” she said. “Everybody’s been out there, lots of good energy, I love it. I love the spirited debate on our side.”
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In recent days, Clinton has been highlighting her perceived electability, something her campaign is trumpeting in a television advertisement airing here. Pointing to her longevity in the public eye, she suggested that she was the only Democratic candidate who could withstand the Republican attacks in a general election. | {
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by
Reviewing: ‘War Crimes of the Armed Forces and Security Forces of Ukraine: Torture and Inhumane Treatment’, published on March 1, 2015 by The Foundation for the Study of Democracy, 144 page, in Russian and English, ISBN 978-5-903882-05-2. Online here.
A report issued on March 1, 2015 by the Moscow-based Foundation for the Study of Democracy contains chilling descriptions of the widespread use of torture and other inhumane treatment of prisoners by the Ukrainian army and paramilitary forces and by its Ukraine’s national security police. The report is titled, ‘War Crimes of the Armed Forces and Security Forces of Ukraine: Torture and Inhumane Treatment’. It is 144 pages long, half in Russian and half in English.
The information in the report is the result of interviews with over 200 prisoners released by the Ukrainian side of the war that has raged in eastern Ukraine for the past year. The interviews were conducted by researchers of the Foundation from 25 August 2014 to 20 January 2015.
The Foundation for The Study of Democracy is a civil organization in Russia (Russian-language website here). Its director is Maxim Grigoriev. The report on torture and prisoner abuse was prepared in cooperation with the Russian Public Council for International Cooperation and Public Diplomacy, presided by S. Ordzhonikidze, while assistance was provided by the Russian Peace Foundation (L. Slutsky, Y. Sutormina) and by S. Mamedov, I. Morozov, E. Tarlo, D. Savelyev, A. Chepa and other members of the Committee for Public Support of the Residents of Southeastern Ukraine.
The media tour to Donetsk, eastern Ukraine in mid-April, 2015 in which I participated met with Mr. Grigoriev in Moscow at the outset of our tour.
“Human rights are one of the key issues of concern for our foundation,” Grigoriev explained. As reports of prisoner abuse and torture became widespread last spring and summer, his Foundation decided to investigate the accusations more formally. Its first report was published on November 24 of last year.[1] The second report published on March 1 of this year includes data gathered in the first one.
“It was not difficult to gather information,” Grigoriev explains. “Once the prisoner exchanges began to take place [just prior to the ceasefire of September 5, 2014], any researcher or journalist could speak to those released prisoners who were willing to talk.”
Prisoners who were released beginning last August have reported being subjected to electric shock and cruel beatings lasting multiple days in a row using objects such as iron bars, baseball bats, sticks, rifle butts, bayonet knives and rubber batons. Techniques widely used by the Ukrainian armed forces and security forces include waterboarding, strangling with a garrote and other types of strangulation. In some cases, prisoners were sent to minefields for the purposes of intimidation and were run over with military vehicles, causing death.
Other torture methods included breaking of bones, stabbing and cutting with knives, branding with red-hot objects, and shooting different body parts with small arms. Prisoners were kept for days at freezing temperatures and with no access to food or medical assistance. They were often forced to take psychotropic substances causing agony.
An absolute majority of prisoners are put through mock firing squads and suffered death and rape threats to their families. Women report being raped.
Many of those tortured are not members of the self-defense forces of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR). Those who are members are identified as such in the Foundation’s reports.
Further is an outline of the findings published in the Foundation’s report of March 1, 2015.
The Foundation notes in its report that the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the European Convention on Human Rights prohibits in absolute terms torture, irrespective of other circumstances. Article 3 of the convention reads, ‘No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.’
Moreover, it is assumed in the law of the European Union that ‘the State is responsible for the actions of all of its agencies, such as the police, security forces, other law enforcement officials, and any other State bodies who hold an individual under their control, whether they act under orders, or on their own accord.’
Unlike other clauses of the Convention related to rights, Article 3 makes no provision for derogation (reservations) in the event of a war or any other emergency threatening national security. Article 15 (2) explicitly states that there can be no derogation from Article 3 within the Convention.
The March, 2015 report of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy concludes, “The information collected by the [Foundation] gives grounds to believe that the Ukrainian armed forces (VSU), the National Guard and other military units of the Ministry of the Interior of Ukraine, as well as the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), systematically and on purpose violate the European Convention on Human Rights. The extent to which torture is being used and the fact that this is done systematically prove that torture is an intentional strategy of the said institutions, authorized by their leadership.
“The information gathered provides grounds to conclude that torture and inhumane treatment inflicted by the Security Forces of Ukraine (SBU), the Ukrainian armed forces, the National Guard and other formations within the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, as well as by illegal armed groups such as Right Sector, are routine and are even gaining in scale and becoming systematic.”
Ukrainian as well as international human rights agencies have apparently paid scant attention to the evidence of torture practices in Ukraine. Maxim Grigoriev says he personally gave his two reports to the Ombudsman of Ukraine, Mrs. Valeriya Lutkovska. “She told me that she cannot do anything to stop those practicing torture because it is difficult for her to investigate the allegations.”
What about international agencies? The European Court of Human Rights has received the documentation and it said it would investigate, Grigoriev says.
Human Rights Watch also received the materials and said it would respond. “That was two months ago.”
“Amnesty International said it would use the findings,” he says.
Neither agency has issued a statement on the findings of six months of prisoner testimonials.
An Amnesty International report in July 2014 reported briefly on accusations of torture, saying that it was occurring and that both sides in the conflict were responsible. That implicitly equated the responsibilities of the Ukrainian government with those of rebel forces, whose governing structures, to this day, the governments of Ukraine and the European Union refuse to formally recognize.
A second report by Amnesty, in October 2014, was again brief and again equated the responsibilities of the two sides in the conflict.
Amnesty has issued reports documenting what it calls “war crimes” by one of the extreme-right militias allied with the Kyiv government, the Azov Battalion. One report was issued in September 2014. In December, Amnesty denounced the blockading of humanitarian convoys into eastern Ukraine from Ukraine proper by forces allied to Kyiv.
Human Rights Watch has documented the use of cluster weapons against civilians in eastern Ukraine by Ukrainian armed forces but has published little on the use of torture.
Western media has largely been silent on the subject. A few outlets, such as the UK Telegraph, have probed the extreme-right battalions allied with Kyiv.
Grigoriev rejects drawing an equal sign between the actions of Ukrainian forces and those of the rebels. “That is wrong. Ukraine forces use torture or prisoner abuse fifty to 100 times more than rebel forces, and they are much more cruel.”
Reports of torture and prisoner abuse are widespread in print and online news outlets in Ukraine and Russia. This includes victim testimonies that are video recorded and posted online. When can we expect Western media to report on this, and Western governments to acknowledge what it taking place?
No time soon. A great deal of political, economic and military capital is invested in defeating the rebel movement of eastern Ukraine and weakening and isolating the Russian government and people. ‘Inconvenient truths’ that get in the way of the ‘blame Russia’ narrative for this war are the last thing that is wanted.
Think of the media and government silence last October when Human Rights Watch reported widespread use of cluster weapons by Ukrainian forces. Or the investigation into the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight 17 on July 17, 2014, which is dragging on interminably while unfounded accusations of ‘Russian missiles’ downing the plane continue to run rampant.
During all wars–Vietnam comes to mind–it is the concerted actions of groups like The Foundation for the Study of Democracy which forces the truth about war crimes to come to the fore. Protests, tribunals, gaining the support of social and political organizations such as trade unions and political parties–these are the tried and true methods of human and social rights advocacy that are urgently needed today.
Notes:
[1] ‘War Crimes of the Armed Forces and Security Forces of Ukraine: Torture of the Donbass region’, published by The Foundation for the Study of Democracy, Nov. 24, 2014, 49 pages in English (pdf online here).
* * *
Outline of ‘War crimes of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine: Torture and inhumane treatment’ (March 2015)
Part 1, sub-titled, ‘Methods and circumstances of torture committed by the Ukrainian armed forces and security forces’:
An overwhelming majority of prisoners held by the Ukrainian side are brutally and systematically beaten.
Many of the torture victims report marathon beatings inflicted by the Ukrainian armed forces and security forces.
The captured women are frequently raped.
According to accounts by the victims, the Ukrainian army, the National Guard, various units of the Ministry of the Interior and the Security Service of Ukraine employ a whole range of torture techniques. Many of the victims say that they were stabbed and cut with a knife.
Thus, a large number of victims assert that the torture techniques used include burning skin with the gas burners or burning-hot objects and burning various inscriptions into the skin of the prisoners.
The torture victims indicate that the Ukrainian army and law enforcement bodies systematically employ a torture technique called ‘waterboarding’. Previously, this method was used by the American secret services.
The victims indicate that the Ukrainian armed forces and security forces use other torture techniques as well, for example suffocation with plastic bags, gas masks, etc.
The so-called ‘Banderist garrotte’ is used as a weapon – both for intimidation and torture.
Electric shock is a common torture tool used by the Ukrainian armed forces and divisions of the Ministry of the Interior.
A large number of the people interviewed said that the Ukrainian troops were sending some of the prisoners to minefields. For
Almost everyone says that the Ukrainian army and punishment battalions kneecap and run over feet with military vehicles. A mock firing squad is also a common practice.
The vast majority of people detained by the Ukrainian armed forces and security forces receive threats of murder, torture, and harm to their families during interrogations.
Those detained by the Ukrainian side suffer torture at various stages: directly when taken prisoner, during transportation, after being handed over to this or that unit, under preliminary or principal interrogations, in detention facilities, in courts, etc. When asked to define the entity carrying out the torture, victims name the National Guard, various groups under the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Right Sector, various units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU).
Some of the victims say that they were subjected to excruciating torture right after being wounded or directly in hospitals. Practically everybody attests that medical help is either unavailable or insufficient.
Vast majority of the detainees questioned tell that by means of torture and threats the Ukrainian authorities made them sign confessions stating that they were agents of Russian secret service organisations. Overall majority of civilians captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces could not endure the torture and threats, and signed any accusations relating to them.
A large number of the victims questioned point out specific places where the National Guard and the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been using torture on a massive scale or give code names of the people who subjected them to torture.
Also mentioned frequently are the Mariupol airport where detainees are kept in the industrial cold storage and subjected to torture, and the Kramatorsk airport.
The victims interviewed also state that the Ukrainian side intentionally for long periods of time does not register its detainees and violates the procedure prescribed by law.
Based on the information collected by the Foundation, a clear conclusion can be drawn that most of the torture victims are not members of the Donetsk or Lugansk People’s Republics’ self-defense forces, but civilians. A ‘reason’ for arrest and torture of civilians by the Ukrainian side can be as simple as involvement in anti-Euromaidan rallies, participation in Russian TV shows, expression of your opinion on the Internet, involvement in pro-DPR rallies, participation in the referendum, ‘possession of a telephone number of a Russian journalist’, ‘Caucasian names – Aslan, Uzbek’ in the personal phone contacts, a phone conversation with people from ‘the Donetsk People’s Republic’, ‘receiving medical assistance in the DPR’, etc. The same absurdity and lack of substantial evidence is characteristic of the other accusations.
In a large number of cases the Ukrainian authorities – to be able to exchange prisoners – would arrest citizens who have not committed any offence.
In many cases Ukrainian civilians are also subjected to beatings and death threats to their families.
The Ukrainian armed forces and security forces quite often torture and inject people with psychotropic drugs at the same time.
A number of victims, subjected to torture by the Ukrainian armed forces and security forces, also claim to have been robbed.
Part II, sub-titled ‘Torture and inhuman treatment: Victims’ testimonies’
(This section consists of detailed stories of the people who were subjected to torture by servicemen of the National Guard, the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and the SBU.)
Roger Annis is an editor of The New Cold War: Ukraine and beyond. In mid-April 2015, he joined a four-day reporting visit to the Donetsk People’s Republic. This is his second report of more to come from that visit. His first report was published in Counterpunch on April 21. | {
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Elon Musk Is Only Somewhat Right That Tesla’s Solar & Storage Can Scale To Rebuild Puerto Rico’s Grid
October 14th, 2017 by Michael Barnard
Puerto Rico suffered devastating losses due to Hurricane Maria. Along with a long list of other challenges, the hurricane destroyed the island’s antiquated generation, transmission, and distribution grids. In part, this is due to their dependence on low-resiliency fossil fuels.
But Elon Musk had a very interesting exchange on Twitter recently.
This led to the governor of the territory responding with a tweet of his own suggesting he was very open to this. Whoever Scott Stapf is, excellent tweet.
How realistic is this? Can Tesla really rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical supply system? The answer, as with anything complex, is mixed.
Many of the Indicators are Positive
Is Tesla able to provide a mixture of rooftop solar and utility-scale solar sufficient to provide for all of Puerto Rico’s electricity needs? Yes.
Tesla acquired SolarCity and has built utility-scale, commercial, and residential solar installations around the USA. Puerto Rico had electricity demand of roughly 20 TWh annually prior to Maria. That would require in the range of 11.4 GW of solar capacity, if solar were the only option. Puerto Rico already has both wind and solar farms with a combined capacity of about 340 MW. Wind has a higher capacity factor than solar all else being equal, so the combination generated about 2% of Puerto Rico’s demand in 2016.
SolarCity had an installed base of 2.45 GW of capacity when it was acquired by Tesla, so this is a stretch. Tesla has started production at its solar gigafactory in New York state. This, combined with ongoing purchases from absurdly larger-scale Chinese manufacturers, make the number of solar panels achievable. China installed 3 times the amount Puerto Rico would need in 2016 alone, but it’s China.
As someone pointed out recently, Puerto Rico is an island surrounded by water, so it’s easy to get the requisite solar panels there cheaply. Enough solar generation could be sourced and delivered. Installing it all would require imported labour to bolster the Puerto Ricans, but unions from the USA are already landing members to support the rebuilding, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. This does point to another challenge with replacing the existing structures, which is that unions would also have to agree with both the changes and the labour imports.
Is Puerto Rico well positioned for a strongly solar grid? Yes.
Puerto Rico is in the tropics. Among other things, this means relatively consistent duration of daylight. They don’t have to accommodate long winter nights and short days of generation. And solar energy generates electricity on all but the darkest of days. And the sun shines closer to straight down for much of the day. There are fewer shadows to deal with.
Is Tesla able to provide a mixture of building and grid storage sufficient to provide for all of Puerto Rico’s grid balancing needs with the solar? Eventually, yes.
Being in the tropics reduces the actual need for storage to a day of demand to achieve much greater resilience of electricity than they had prior to Hurricane Maria. After all, when Maria passed, the sun came out again. That amounts to about 55 GWh of battery storage.
Once again, that’s a big number, bigger than anything Tesla has done before. Its largest installation to date is 100 MWh and is only now closing in on completion. However, that ignores the cars. About 210,000 Teslas with an average of about 75 kWh of batteries make for about 16 GWh of batteries. Then there are the Powerwalls, which are a bit of a rounding error, but would be critical in the Puerto Rican context. With the Gigafactory, which will produce its batteries online and on track to achieve 35 GWh a year by end of 2018, including all car demand, this is obviously a limiting factor.
Unlike solar panels, there isn’t another source of Tesla’s grid and home storage that the company can leverage. Tesla is already one of the biggest producers in the world. And the output of the Gigafactory is expected to serve a massive number of new cars rolling off of the line as well as home and grid storage projects all over the world.
Would a solar and storage solution be more resilient in the event of another hurricane? Yes.
Tesla’s new solar tiles have been tested to be able to withstand massive hail better than alternative tiles do, meaning that they would also stand up to objects thrown by hurricane-force winds. Similarly, solar panels in general are typically designed to survive up to 140 mph (225 km/h) winds. And as many analysts including the Department of Energy have pointed out, grid resiliency is not increased by fossil fuels but by renewables.
That said, more has to be done to make solar farms in Puerto Rico capable of dealing with hurricane-force winds. Existing solar farms had minimal to extensive damage during Maria.
Then there are the Less Positive Indicators
Can Tesla have Puerto Rico rezone all necessary land for solar and storage? Maybe.
The island only has about 200 MW of solar energy at present, but that’s sufficient to have governmental thought put into regulation and zoning. Extending this based on emergency needs in the aftermath of Maria is possible. As has been noted, never waste a good crisis.
A megawatt of solar requires about 2.5 acres or one hectare of space. A fair amount of the generation will be on rooftops, but in order to build out solar capacity rapidly, a great deal of it will need to be at utility scale. A working ratio might be 1 MW rooftop to 4 MW utility scale. Puerto Rico already has net metering, so individuals can presumably deal with their requirements. But that suggests that about 23,000 acres or 9,000 hectares have to be set aside for solar generation. For context, that’s about 1% of Puerto Rico’s total land area. It’s significant but achievable.
However, there are existing territorial and extra-territorial actors who have been making a great deal of money off of the expensive fossil fuels previously used to provide 98% of the island’s 20 TWh annual electricity needs. They will be exerting fiscal pressure through all of their myriad channels to ensure that the current model persists and new models don’t emerge. If Musk and Tesla throw their weight behind making Puerto Rico a global case study, it’s likely that this won’t matter, but that likely depends on Musk actually focusing on this sufficiently to drive it forward.
Can Tesla have Puerto Rico institute building codes that are hurricane proof and would allow Tesla solar roofs to work effectively? Probably not.
As Hurricane Irma showed clearly, the right building codes mean that homes and buildings can survive hurricanes. But most homes in Puerto Rico are required to withstand less than Force 3 hurricanes. Ensuring that when homes are rebuilt they are to the new standards of 2011 or greater would mean that solar roofs would still be in place and able to generate electricity when storms pass.
Once again, there will be money and political will arrayed against this, along with competing priorities and an urgent timeline to rebuild basic shelter. Changing codes right now would increase the cost of replacing roofs lost during Maria and delay that process.
It’s certainly possible that individual buildings when rebuilt could be built to withstand another hurricane like Maria, but it’s not required today. And buildings with solar roofs that are built to current standards would suffer just as badly.
Are solar and storage alone a reasonable, efficient, and cost-effective solution for energy for Puerto Rico? No.
Solar by itself has limitations which require larger than necessary amounts of storage to achieve resilience. That’s true of almost any single form of generation. It’s much easier to have a mix of generation. A lot more wind farms would be excellent, targeting roughly the same annual generation from wind as from solar. A bit of biomass electrical generation, especially biomethane with a combined cycle gas plant, would be useful. A lot of demand management and efficiency work would be good. Some tidal and lee side wave energy wouldn’t go amiss. Trying to balance a complete grid with only storage and one type of generation would be foolish when there are alternatives.
Can Tesla provide a complete grid management solution? No.
Puerto Rico’s grid is archaic. The utility and staff have little of the necessary expertise with modern smart grid technologies. The failure of the grid during Hurricane Maria was as attributable to the fragility and age of the generation, transmission, and distribution components as it was to the hurricane itself. Putting in place a much more distributed solar and storage solution requires a substantial rewiring of the distribution and transmission grids, radically different management software and processes, and retrained staff with different skills.
Can Tesla provide all of the legal and regulatory guidance necessary for a completely different model of grid? No.
Puerto Rico has an energy regulator that was only formed in 2014, the Puerto Rico Energy Commission (PERC). It has a monopoly energy provider, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA). Puerto Rico has lagged behind many other jurisdictions in the USA and elsewhere in its adoption of modern approaches which support strong penetration of renewables. Changing the regulatory structure to allow massive solar and storage will likely require legislative and regulatory expertise which Tesla does not have.
One bright note related to this is that Puerto Rico already has net metering in place and could leverage this as part of the transformation.
Can (or will) Tesla pay for this all itself? No.
Tesla is not a charity. As shown above, the amount of solar and storage is an order of magnitude above what it has delivered to date. There is no reason to think that Tesla can, will, or should pay for all of this. A quick demonstration in preparation for a decade or two of transformation? Sure. How about replacing the governor’s mansion with a Tesla solar tile roof and put in a few Powerwalls? That I can see Tesla paying for as part of this effort.
Tesla’s Board of Directors would overrule any attempt to turn Tesla into a charity.
Can Tesla overcome Puerto Rico’s debt? No.
Puerto Rico is over $70 billion in debt, with another $50 billion of pension liabilities. Given that there are only 3.4 million residents, that’s about $21,000 per person in a territory where the average income is about $18,000. A great deal of that debt specifically comes from the badly mismanaged electrical utility, PREPA. Oddly, Puerto Rico’s debt-to-GDP ratio isn’t particularly high at about 68%. How does this compare?
In 2016, United States public debt-to-GDP ratio was at 104.8%. The level of public debt in Japan 2013 was 243.2% of GDP, in China 22.4% and in India 66.7%, according to the IMF, while the public debt-to-GDP ratio at the end of the 2nd quarter of 2016 was at 70.1% of GDP in Germany, 89.1% in the United Kingdom, 98.2% in France and 135.5% in Italy, according to Eurostat.
Puerto Rico’s debt isn’t particularly bad in other words, but it’s GDP has been falling for decades, not rising. A debt-to-GDP ratio like Puerto Rico’s would be fine in a growing economy. Puerto Rico defaulted on $58 million of its debt in 2015. In 2016, Obama signed it into effectively a territorial bankruptcy management system, PROMESA.
Tesla can’t do anything about that. And rebuilding the grid after Maria will be very expensive regardless of what options are chosen. Puerto Rico can’t afford to pay for a new grid regardless. More debt will accrue. Whether it is well managed or not is a challenging question.
And Tesla will be dealing with PROMESA, not the governor of Puerto Rico, in order to get paid.
Can Tesla and Puerto Rico replace the generation and grid in a reasonable time with solar and storage? No.
As the assessment above shows, the amount of solar and storage is an order of magnitude above what Tesla has delivered to date. It’s not reasonable to expect that in a few months the company could replace the electrical system of Puerto Rico.
There’s a lot more to replacing a grid than just solar and storage. Tesla can certainly help Puerto Rico rebuild, but it will be one of many participants in that process. It could easily make a lot of individual residences and office buildings more resilient with rooftop solar and Powerwalls. It could easily double or triple the amount of solar generation Puerto Rico has today. It could easily set up grid storage that would smooth the use of more renewables.
But Puerto Rico needs a lot more than Tesla can provide and limiting the rebuilding of the grid to solar alone would be foolish.
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Reporter Caleb Hannan thought he'd found an interesting idea for a story when he stumbled across a YouTube video about about a "scientifically superior" golf club called the Oracle, invented by a brilliant MIT-credentialed physicist named Dr. V. He set out to find out more about the woman behind the invention, but was met with a swirl of secrets and inconsistencies. As he peeled back the layers, he uncovered a series of complicated truths: Dr. V did not possess the degrees or credentials she'd claimed. Dr. V is a trans woman. And within months of presenting those findings to her, Dr. V committed suicide.
Grantland's piece, "Dr. V's Magical Putter," can be read here. It isn't just a story about the mystery and intrigue surrounding a dubiously magical golf putter, it's a chronological narrative of the author's attempt to untangle the web Dr. V. — Essay Anne Vanderbilt — constructed around her as she reinvented her life, the difficult confrontation that ensued, and ultimately, her death.
Here's the short version:
reporter seeks out the inventor of an allegedly awesome golf club for sports site
inventor is a woman who claims to be a brilliant scientist
inventor insists from the beginning that the reporter only report on the science, not the scientist
reporter tests product and loves it
reporter verifies credentials for fact check
discovers the degrees/credentials don't exist, nor does the person by that name exist prior to the 2000's
reporter eventually determines that that the woman is trans
reporter determines the degrees didn't exist prior under previous name
the credentials and science-related experience that support the golf club's claims are false
reporter lays out falsehoods about degrees and backstory to subject (and one investor) and asks for answers
Months later, reporter learns Dr. V has committed suicide
At first, the story was celebrated for basically being a "good read."
It is well written, and extremely well-reported, but in this case, a bit too reported. That was evident when backlash surfaced on Twitter from members and advocates in the trans community, who, all too aware of the prejudice and violence trans people experience and lengths they must often go to to protect their livelihoods and bodies, took issue with what they felt was a callous disregard for Vanderbilt's privacy regarding her trans status, not to mention numerous problems with the story's structure, tone, and some recurring misgendering.
.
In a piece over at feminist site Shakesville called "Careless, Cruel, and Unaccountable," Melissa McEwen writes:
Hannan distances himself from this tragedy by including in the story the report of a previous attempt at taking her own life made by Dr. V, as if to suggest that her suicide was inevitable.
Further, he catalogs her deception about her educational and professional background alongside the revelation that she is trans, in a way that suggests her failure to reflexively disclose that she is trans as part of any introduction to a new person is a lie, just like so many others she told.
When she does not agree to become the focus of his story, which was meant to be about the science, he pouts and tasks her with the responsibility for his aggressive invasiveness: "Dr. V's initial requests for privacy had seemed reasonable. Now, however, they felt like an attempt to stop me from writing about her or the company she'd founded. But why?" He reports disclosing that Dr. V is a trans woman to one of her investors. He publishes her birth name. He describes the scene of her death. And he concludes the piece by calling it a eulogy.
I think it's important to look at this controversy via the multiple separate issues that suddenly intertwined (and, full disclosure: I worked with Hannan in 2008 for one year at a Village Voice alt-weekly in Nashville).
Issue one is the reporter's job to report. A reporter cannot take at face value any claims a person makes about their background. There's an old saying in journalism: If your mother says she loves you, check it out. Hannan agreed to report on the science, not the scientist in this story, but these things are a bit inextricable. To report on the science, Hannan would have to do more than simply test the golf club. He had to corroborate whether the inventor went to MIT or really worked on top secret projects for the Department of Defense and stealth bombs as she and her inventors had claimed, experiences that were essential to the science behind the product. When those facts didn't check out, Hannan returned to Vanderbilt to verify whether there was, in fact, the formal training that had been advertised to investors and consumers. There's no getting around that. It was a conversation that had to happen. Her evasiveness (and the outsize claims surrounding the product and its inventor) led to his looking further into her identity. There's no way Hannan could've known that the trans identity status was on the table or where it would lead, but as a reporter, he had to clarify facts (even ones that might not appear in the final story).
Issue two is the reporting on the trans status of the subject. This is much clearer: Don't out someone who doesn't want to be out. The end. Everyone has a right to privacy when it comes to their gender identity or sexual orientation, and beyond this, the trans status is not relevant. Hannan should have treated those pieces of information as distinctly different: It is one thing to not wish to disclose gender identity information or sexual orientation, it is another to lie about your education and work experience. Instead, he mixes in that discovery alongside the others, as if they are all the same kind of cover-up, as if part of the scam involving fudged credentials is the hucksterism of transitioning. It is unclear from the story how he addressed the discovery of Vanderbilt's trans status with her privately, how Vanderbilt responded, or what (if anything) was discussed in terms of whether it would be published or not. This is the question I've put to him (which has not been answered as of this piece's runtime).
Issue three: It appears from the story's tone that there was zero ethical concern whatsoever concerning the trans status. This is the sort of stuff that comes up, by the way, in 101 ethics classes: Say you're called to cover the story of a hero who saved a drowning man from an icy river, and in the course of reporting you determine the hero is also gay, and would prefer to remain anonymous for privacy reasons. Do you report on it? The answer, of course, is no, you don't report that detail, because the hero being gay is irrelevant to the story. But real-life scenarios are not so simple.
Vanderbilt's assertion in the piece that Hannan "was about to commit a hate crime" certainly suggests she feared being outed, possibly because that was discussed, or possibly because she simply existed in the world as a trans woman and understood all too well the risks of being discovered. And even if Hannan had no intention of publishing her gender identity, that doesn't clear up the ethical issues in the postmortem outing (and I have an email into Grantland's editors as well asking this as well, which was not returned at this time either). All we know from the story is that Hannan presented her with his discoveries, that she became angry, that he was unable to get through to her, that months went by, that one last email was received, and that days after that, he learned of her suicide. And that Grantland then published the story.
Issue four is in the writing and editing — how the story is framed, specifically, the way that Vanderbilt's trans status is treated as a revelation that's part and parcel of her fabricated education and background. It implies that the act of transitioning is itself a dishonesty or on par with lying, when what it actually reveals is the author's (and/or editor's) biases about the act as intrinsically fake or disingenuous, when it is, in fact, a more honest, genuine identity at long last for the person in question.
One thing is certain: This is a tragic death, it raises questions about the complexity of living trans, of reporting on trans issues, the nature of suicide, and about what it means to be honest in a piece while still respecting the privacy of the subject. Grantland certainly isn't in the business of gotcha journalism. And reporters do not typically go into stories about promising new golf clubs hoping to ruin lives. Investigative reporters go for big fish. Feature writers are looking for good stories.
But this is a fucked up situation — had Vanderbilt not been trans and simply exposed for a fraudulent backstory on a golf putter, any number of results could've come from that. Adding in the trans status and the high risk of that status only makes this thornier and more tragic. Suicide is a personal decision (and there was an earlier attempt in Vanderbilt's life), but it's impossible to know the complex chain of events that lead to it here.
None of this changes the fact that when editors and reporters have the luxury (and privilege) of not being educated about issues foreign to them, this is what can happen — inadvertently contributing to a tragic confluence of events by at bare minimum, not even understanding the risk for tragedy. This story should have been handled with the ultimate care and concern, with the understanding that the very hardship of being trans could impact an individual's way of managing her life and her own past and the extent to which she'd be comfortable disclosing it, or agreeing to ANY part of how that life is discussed in the past tense. It's deeply cynical to think that anyone involved in the assigning or writing or editing of this story expected to out a trans woman who lied about a putter, but the story took a tragic turn that doesn't feel mitigated. And, as someone on Twitter succinctly pointed out, it wasn't just a putter to Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt's life is also more than just an online Grantland piece about that putter. She's more than her product, or her background, or her past, or even her lies. At one point in the story, Hannan asks:
What began as a story about a brilliant woman with a new invention had turned into the tale of a troubled man who had invented a new life for himself. Yet the biggest question remained unanswered: Had Dr. V created a great golf club or merely a great story?
But I'm not so sure that was the biggest question that remained unanswered. I understand why Hannan kept going when he realized there was something sketchy about the putter, but when he realized there was a much more at risk, he might have done more research. Were the real risks of outing a trans person ever acknowledged or weighed? Was that decision to include those details made after the news of her death? Was Vanderbilt ever assured privacy regarding her trans status? Was the possibility of reporting on the subject's fraud, while respectfully divorcing it from her irrelevant gender orientation, ever even considered?
Negative attention is a fact of life for trans people, and that they are already at 25 times the risk for suicide than the general population. Hannan's piece seems to lack this understanding, or any trans awareness at all, an oversight that I think was not malicious, but deeply ignorant. Had he grasped it, his story might've turned out very differently.
Here are current journalistic guidelines from Poynter on reporting on trans issues, and here are tips on how to be an ally to transgender people. | {
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By: Jamie “JAMJAR” Jacobs
Super Smash Con will be a rare opportunity for Smashers of all varieties to experience the many facets of Smash outside of the games themselves. Fans of Smash 64 will have the chance to buy many unique items ranging from posters to overclocked consoles, to listen to the prominent members of the premier 64 podcast, or to replenish their stock of high quality controllers.
The Super Smash Bros. League has commissioned three pieces of art for this historic tournament. Chris “Studstill” Studstill will be on site selling these custom made posters by the head of SSBL Art and Design, Sandy “Tangerine” Tang. “Ready to Fight?” depicts the classic imagery of Dreamland, the primary legal stage across the entirety of 64. “Legalize” is an image of Hyrule Castle, the highly controversial stage that some players wish to see legalized for competition once again. “Champions, SSC Commemorative” depicts the top 4 seeds of this legendary tournament and their main character. These well-crafted pieces of art will be sold at $15, $15 and $20 respectively, or $40 for all three. SSBL members get $5 off. Poster holders will be on hand, while the vendors hope to have a few options for frames. Studstill notes, “It’s not about the sale, or profit. These are at cost. What it’s about is bettering the experience for all players of SSB64.” Tangerine also has a series of websites hosting her other art: Facebook, The Seventh Station, Instagram and Tumblr.
Jim “$$$ Jim $$$” Orris is going to be heading up a panel for some of the prominent Smashers who have appeared on his well-known podcast: The Dream Land. The panelists will be $$$ Jim $$$ himself, Ben “Bacorn” Corn, Joey “KeroKeroppi” Spezoli, Stef “Pidgezero_one” Kischak and Jimmy “Jimmy Joe” McGurl. The goal of this panel will be to drum up interest in our scene as well as inform the masses about the context of some of the most intriguing rivalries. $$$ Jim $$$ wants you to know, “If you’ve ever been interested in watching 64 but don’t know where to start, we’ll help explain the utter insanity that is about to go down at Smash Con!” The panel will be held Friday, 8/12, at 10 A.M. EST.
Andy “Mr. Sir” Vargas, the founder of ENKKO, an initiative to create more sustainable stick parts for our controllers, will have a booth to show off and explain his work. This hard working entrepreneur will be set up near the Smash 64 section of the venue. Mr. Sir will have giveaways, an N64 and CRT to try out his prototypes, a list to pre-order parts and further info on his endeavor. “We are dedicated to providing the best replacement parts for the Nintendo 64 controller. After getting our Kickstarter funded, we were able to re-engineer the parts and replicate the original joystick. Soon we will have the bowl and the gears ready which will endure thorough endurance testing. We also have plans to help out the 64 scene with sponsorships and pot bonuses. All in the works.”
Kris Ianieri, wife of the man behind The Lab in Philadelphia, will be heading up a booth selling some interesting items. They will be offering both overclocked and HDMI modded consoles as well as tons of controllers. The Lab team will be promoting their stream and venue, as well as meeting their long time fans. Their booth is located in the main venue hall, not in the vendors hall. Also of note, The Lab team will be raffling off a high quality Audia Technica E70 earbuds, normally a $399 value, along with having multiple deals for a variety of other headphones or headsets. “We are so excited to meet our viewers in person and get a chance to socialize and play with smashers from all over! We are thrilled to be able to be a part of this and to spread our mission to bring people together through eSports!”
Multi Shine Designs, headed up by Jason Kodiak, will be in attendance selling their multitude of wares. In regards to Smash 64, Multi-Shine Designs specializes in controllers of all colors. W
hile they have many controllers available, their stock will surely sell quickly due to the excitement surrounding this event. They will have a CRT and console to let potential customers try out their controllers, as each player has unique preferences in sticks. Here is a Google doc with a list of their extensive stock. “Multi-Shine Designs strives to change the way players purchase controllers. Our goal is to work with the customer to help them find what works best for them so they can perform to the best of their abilities.”
Dane “The Protagonist” Howard has recently begun a venture of creating uniquely overclocked consoles. Over the past month, he started a venture to create overclocked consoles that are easy to work as standard ones. Included in this set up are a light indicating when the console is in overclocked mode, a single switch to enable the feature and a fan. Consoles will be sold at $90 and in limited numbers, as many of his consoles are already preordered. While he will not have a booth, Protagonist will be around the venue with his wares at the ready, though he notes it is likely easier to hit him up on Facebook. He also encourages any Smasher to bring a broken overclocked console, as he will be repairing them over the weekend for $15. Protagonist is very serious about his endeavor, as he believes, “Operating an OC console should be as simple as a normal console.” | {
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“You get peace of mind not by thinking about it or imagining it, but by quietening and relaxing the restless mind.” ~Remez Sasson
What’s the first thought that goes through your head when you wake up in the morning? Is it deliberate, or is it the default “Oh shi#$, it’s 6:00!”?
If that’s how you start your day, then it’s likely your day will be filled with anxiety and stress. It’s not exactly the most productive mechanism for getting things done.
Questions are quite powerful if used in the right way.
How to Use Morning Power Questions
When you wake up in the morning, you are always asking yourself questions, whether you realize it or not. As you brush your teeth, drink your coffee, or eat your breakfast, thoughts are running through your head. You might be thinking, “Why am I so I tired? Why didn’t I sleep earlier? What am I going to eat?”
These things generally don’t serve any useful purpose, and in some cases, as you can see, are even hurting you. The idea behind using questions is to take conscious control of the direction of your day. So, let me give you a few examples of things that you could ask yourself first thing in the morning:
What do I have to look forward to today?
What’s absolutely perfect about my life?
How can I make today awesome?
What’s the best thing that could happen today?
By asking yourself these kinds of questions, you start to shift the focus of your mind toward all of the things you want to have happen.
One interesting thing to note is that your questions don’t need to have any basis in reality because your brain will answer anything you ask it quite literally. So, if you’re going to be delusional, you might as well make your delusions extremely empowering.
The key to using this effectively, however, is to do it for thirty days in a row. What happens when you do this is that your brain will create a link, known as a neuro-association, between the empowering states you create with your questions and being awake in the morning.
One Question to Ask Yourself Every Morning
For about two weeks now, I’ve been asking myself one question from the moment I wake up: “What am I grateful for?” You’ve heard before that you should start every single day with an attitude of gratitude. This is probably the simplest way to actually do that.
If you ask yourself that question enough days in a row, you will wake up feeling on top of the world every single day. As you start to view your life and the world around you as full of things to be grateful for, you’re going to bring more and more of that into your life.
We all have lots to be grateful for but we often get caught up in all the things that are wrong with our lives. Hopefully this will enable you shift your focus.
Ways to Change Your Morning Routine
I want you to give some consideration to changing up how you start your day. In addition to power questions I encourage you to start your day in a more peaceful, quiet way then you have in the past. I think you’ll find that the impact this will have on you both physically and mentally will quite powerful.
Don’t turn on the computer or TV.
As a blogger, for the last year or so the first thing I would do every single morning is turn on the computer. Even if you are not a blogger you may have a tendency to turn on the computer right when you wake up. Starting your brain off with so much information overload right when you wake up can’t possibly be healthy.
I encourage you to just enjoy your coffee or breakfast for about twenty minutes. Turning on the TV is one of the most insidious things you can do. The news can have such a negative impact on you that you might not even realize it. The news is generally about everything that’s wrong in the world and this is the first thing you become exposed to in the morning.
One thing that we know from years of self-help is that our minds tend to be extremely receptive in the morning. That’s why I encourage you not to turn on the TV if you’ve been doing it.
Listen to music/something uplifting.
I love listening to music and when possible I even use an alarm that actually plays music. I try to find uplifting songs or ones that have peaceful melodies. One of the best times to listen to a self-help tape or program is right when you wake up. Think about how the effect this will have on you if you do this for about thirty days.
If you listen to inspirational/uplifting material right when you wake up, then you will eventually condition that message into your mind and connect it with waking up in the morning.
Meditate.
I think one of the most challenging things about meditating is to free yourself from thought. As somebody with a mind that moves at what feels like a million miles a minute, this isn’t something I’m great at myself. Early in the morning your mind is in a fairly quiet state and even five to ten minutes of deep-centered relaxation/meditation can make a huge difference in your day.
How do you start your morning routine? Is there anything else you’d add to this list?
About Srinivas Rao Srinivas Rao is an avid surfer and personal development blogger at the Skool of Life. He's the editor in Chief of the Flightster Travel Blog and host/co-founder of BlogcastFM, a podcast to help bloggers take their blog to the next level. | {
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Unfortunately, full resolution doesn't mean RAW. In fact, the iOS version of Lightroom doesn't play nice with Adobe's own DNG RAW format like the Android version does. The company says that full-on RAW support for the app is something users have been clamoring for, so maybe it'll arrive in the future. In addition to the new full resolution output, Lightroom mobile for iOS has expanded the use of 3D Touch to include that handy peek and pop image preview in the Camera Roll. If you're looking to take advantage of the new stuff, the update is available in the App Store now for both iPhone and iPad. | {
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For Immediate Release
Statement from Geoffrey J. Neale, chair, Libertarian National Committee, in response to President Barack Obama’s announced plan for minor reforms of NSA mass surveillance:
“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of the rights of its citizens, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. And, make no mistake, our governments — federal, state, and local — have all become injurious to the rights of citizens.
“Barack Obama today delivered a speech that promised next to nothing. He promised that ‘greater safeguards for civil liberties’ will be enacted, and that steps will be taken to rein in the worst of the NSA surveillance abuses.
“But government cannot be reined in. Once it has power, it seeks more. Once it has information, it keeps it — and often tells us that it didn’t keep it (such as the records of gun purchases run through the NICS system) even though it really did — and then it wants more. It is the nature of the beast; everything it thinks it can use, it stuffs into its gaping, insatiable maw.
“There is already a list of ‘safeguards,’ and they are mentioned specifically in the Constitution. If the supreme law of the land is ‘just a piece of paper,’ what other ‘safeguards’ will keep millions of bureaucrats from breaking the law further?
“The only way to limit government intrusion into our lives is to eliminate the functions that have little to do with defending individual rights within our borders. If government were restricted only to acting on its one legitimate function — protecting individual rights — 95 percent of government operations would cease to exist. And Edward Snowden would have had little incentive to break the news on the government’s rampant criminality.
“Edward Snowden should be granted a full pardon and complete immunity from prosecution. The government’s ire should instead be turned toward prosecuting the millions of bureaucrats who have violated both their oaths of office, statute law, and even the Constitution itself.
“A non-interventionist nation at peace with the world doesn’t need a worldwide security apparatus. A nation that doesn’t meddle in conflicts around the world doesn’t need a two-ocean Navy, or thousands of nuclear weapons, or gargantuan stockpiles of chemical and biological agents. A nation that stays out of foreign conflicts is less likely to be a target of terrorists. And a nation like that doesn’t need to spy constantly on its own citizens.” | {
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It may not be the most festive of themes, but at least our holiday gift to you this year is not a tie or socks. It's a free print & play board game called Deepsea Desperation. It's all about Greenpeace against Big Oil, with one player struggling to establish marine reserves in the very territory the other player wants to exploit. Through a mix of strategic lobbying, oil exploration, direct action and reserve creation, one of you will triumph. But beware: If you choose to be oil and get too many blowouts you'll have a deepwater slaughter on your hands, a mock twitter account handling your PR, pictures of dead animals in the paper, billions in damages and all those things that are so bad for your bottom line. And if a species falls extinct, you both lose.
You can download Deepsea Desperation here. Just print out the.pdf (on non-chlorine bleached, 100% recycled paper of course), cut out the counters, find some dice and coins and you're good to go.
Now, at Greenpeace we have many skills, but designing board games isn't one of them. That's why we elected to work with the professional satirists and board game designers Terror Bull Games (One distinguisher between amateur satirists and professionals is the use of terrorbull puns in their company names). Maybe it's just us, but after reading that a copy of their satirical game 'War on Terror' was confiscated by the police during the climate camp protests* we thought they might be sufficiently mischievous.
And they were. One of the great things about working at Greenpeace is that you can pick up the phone, call someone, and sometimes get the response 'We love you guys. Of course we'd like to help'. Which is pretty much what happened. After that it was just about coming up with a great game. We thought about renewable power versus dirty power, and wind farms versus oil rigs. An early version of the game had both players representing oil companies, trying to drill for oil without wrecking the environment -the moral of the story was that it wasn't possible - but it was a little depressing.
The final design is great fun, and gives you the opportunity to play either the daring activists, or the evil oil company. And let's be honest, we all like to let our evil side out every now and then. So here are a few tips for playing.
If you're the oil company you'll need to head straight for deep water. Sure it's risky, but that's where the money is. Set aside those moral scruples and go for the money. Do try and avoid the endangered species though, if any species becomes extinct, the PR backlash could shut you down and it's game over for both sides. If you're playing as Greenpeace you need to protect the ocean by setting up marine reserves. You can slow the oil companies down with direct actions (like occupying their rigs) but it's the creation of marine reserves that will finally end their deep sea drilling ambitions.
Of course this isn't just a game. The world's oil companies really are trying to drill in some of the riskiest and most environmentally sensitive areas in the world. Marine reserves - think national parks at sea - really are the answer. World Park Antarctica is closed to industry because you helped us win the campaign to protect it. There's no reason we can't do the same in the Arctic, where oil companies are licking their lips as, without a trace of irony, they welcome the shrinking of the ice caps due to climate change. See, retreating ice frees up more places they can drill for oil. Unfortunately that will lead to more climate change. You see the problem here. We like to call this humanity's "Stupid Test."
So, this holiday season, invite a few friends over and help us figure out what the future of the planet looks like: an oily eco-disaster that confirms to future generations (if any) that human greed is unstoppable or a pristine marine reserve that protects nature and future fish stocks that our childrens' children will thank us for?
Game on.
Pssst. (If you like the game, why not donate a tweet a day to Greenpeace to say thanks?) | {
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It is with a great pleasure this evening to announce that decision of United States District Court judge Clarke Waddoups striking down key portions of the Utah polygamy law as unconstitutional. The Brown family and counsel have spent years in both the criminal phase of this case and then our challenge to the law itself in federal court. Despite the public statements of professors and experts that we could not prevail in this case, the court has shown that it is the rule of law that governs in this country. As I have previously written, plural families present the same privacy and due process concerns faced by gay and lesbian community over criminalization. With this decision, families like the Browns can now be both plural and legal in the state of Utah. The Court struck down the provision as violating both the free exercise clause of the first amendment as well as the due process clause. The court specifically struck down language criminalizing cohabitation — the provision that is used to prosecute polygamists. The opinion is over 90 pages and constitutes a major constitutional ruling in protection of individual rights.
The decision affects a far greater range of such relationships than the form of polygamy practiced by the Browns. It is a victory not for polygamy but privacy in America. I wish to thank our legal team including our local counsel, Adam Alba, my students like Geoff Turley, my assistant Gina D’Andrea, and the many others who have assisted us through the years. I must also thank Judge Waddoups who showed remarkable principle and integrity in rendering this decision. This law has been challenged dozens of times in state and federal court over the many decades. It took singular courage to be the first court not only in this country but any recorded decision to strike down the criminalization of polygamy. In doing so, Judge Waddoups stood against prejudice and considerable hostility toward plural families. In a single ruling, he reaffirmed the wisdom of our Framers in creating a court with life tenure and independence under our constitutional system. While the Supreme Court is often credited with the recognition of basic rights, it is often forgotten how the true profile of courage is found among those lower court judges who stood against prejudice and anger to follow the rule of law. It will be an honor to defend this decision in any appeal by the State and we are prepared to do so as far as the Supreme Court to protect this legal breakthrough.
My final thanks is to the Brown family which has endured years to threats and investigation to bring this day about. They have secured for plural families the promise of privacy recognized for same-sex couples in Lawrence v. Texas. In recognition of the importance of this civil liberties case (and contrary to the statements of state officials), the Brown have made little reference to the case on their TLC show so not to distract attention from the merits of the case. They have earned this historic victory and both my respect and gratitude.
With this decision, abuse of spouses and children will continue to be prosecuted regardless of whether they occur in monogamous or polygamous families. These protective services will only be strengthened now that many families can openly integrate into society and not fear prosecution merely because of their family structure.
The court struck down that part of the statute that criminalized co-habitation between consenting adults — allowing plural families to step out for the first time in their communities and live their lives openly among their neighbors. What remains of the statute was narrowly construed by the Court to limit future prosecutions to traditional bigamy, i.e. individuals with multiple marriage licenses.
This historic ruling is a hard-won victory that will be defended with equal vigor in the coming months. If the State (as previously stated) intends to fight for this pernicious law on appeal, we will be prepared and honored to defend this ruling. Accordingly, as we argued, the state can only prohibit and prosecute “bigamy in the literal sense—the fraudulent or otherwise impermissible possession of two purportedly valid marriage licenses for the purpose of entering into more than one purportedly legal marriage.”
Kody Brown issued the following statement on the ruling:
The entire Brown family is humbled and grateful for this historical ruling from the court today. Like thousands of other plural families, we have waited many years for this day. While we know that many people do not approve of plural families, it is our family and based on our beliefs. Just as we respect the personal and religious choices of other families, we hope that in time all of our neighbors and fellow citizens will come to respect our own choices as part of this wonderful country of different faiths and beliefs. There are so many families who have waited for so long for this ruling and, on their behalf, we can only say: thank you, Judge Waddoups, for your courageous decision. We want to particularly thank our lead counsel Professor Jonathan Turley who represented us through the criminal investigation and then led the fight against this law. We also want to thank the team of lawyers and students from George Washington, including our local counsel Adam Alba. We are so honored and blessed to have been able to serve as the vehicle for this milestone ruling. Professor Turley has pledged to defend this decision on appeal and we are equally committed to fight to preserve this great victory.
Finally, many have asked what the next step will be. The Utah Attorney General’s office previously stated that they would defend this law on appeal. If that remains their intention, they will have a number of options. They can seek a reconsideration from Judge Waddoups. Such motions are rarely granted in an opinion that has been written with such care as this one. Alternatively, they can go directly to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. They will have to file notice of appeal with the Court and the matter will be put on a briefing schedule. Given the limited trial record, such an appeal could proceed without significant delay if the Utah Attorney General remains committed to an appeal. Once filed, the case will shift from Salt Lake City to Denver Colorado.
For the moment however we are all savoring this great victory that has come after such a long and difficult fight — long before this lawsuit was filed. This struggle began with the approval of the Enabling Act in July 16, 1894 when Congress made the outlawing of polygamy a condition for statehood. Utah has achieved something equally important today: true equality of its citizens regardless of their personal faiths or practices. It is a moment in which all Utahans should take pride and celebrate not in the name of polygamy but of privacy. So congratulations to the Browns and to the people of Utah on a truly momentous day.
Jonathan Turley
Lead Counsel
Here is the opinion: Brown Summary Judgment Decision
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CBS Reporter Claims Right Wing Extremism More Dangerous Than Radical Islam
Before the smoke cleared at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs today a CBS reporter claimed right-wing extremism is more dangerous than radical Islam.
“As we’ve seen more people in this country have been killed by rightwing extremists that radical Islamist extremists.”
Well, except for 9-11… and those 3,000 dead Americans.
That was sort of a big deal at the time.
TRENDING: BREAKING: 'At Least 10 Shots' Reportedly Fired at Police By Louisville Black Lives Matter Rioters — UPDATE... At Least Two Officers Shot (VIDEOS)
As of 8:30 PM Eastern the shooter or motive has not been identified.
Wow!
Video via Young Cons:
For the record – Here is a list of the left-wing shooters we’ve endured over the past several years.
THE LIST:
– Nidal Hasan – Ft Hood Shooter: Registered Democrat and Muslim.
– Aaron Alexis, Navy Yard shooter – black liberal/Obama voter
– Seung-Hui Cho – Virginia Tech shooter: Wrote hate mail to President Bush and to his staff, registered Democrat.
– James Holmes – the “Dark Knight”/Colorado shooter: Registered Democrat, staff worker on the Obama campaign, #Occupy guy,progressive liberal, hated Christians.
– Amy Bishop, the rabid leftist, killed her colleagues in Alabama, Obama supporter.
– Andrew J. Stack, flew plane into IRS building in Texas – Leftist Democrat
– James J. Lee who was the “green activist”/ leftist took hostages at Discovery Channel – progressive liberal Democrat. | {
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Since unveiling La Colombe’s first coffee blends in 1994, it has been a whirlwind ride for the dynamic duo of Todd Carmichael and Jean Philippe Iberti. The coffee has gotten much notice and in the past 18 years, they have opened several cafes in Philadelphia, New York, Washington D.C., Seoul and right here in the West Loop and Wicker Park neighborhoods of Chicago.
Now they have their sights set on Andersonville. They plan on taking over the high profile corner space at 5158 N. Clark (Clark and Foster). There has been no confirmed opening date, but according to a DNA story, La Colombe Torrefaction’s Midwest sales manager Corey Polkow stated that they are hoping to begin serving up coffee in early Fall. He told them, “We just looked at the area, and we felt coffee was a little underserved and wanted to bring coffee to the forefront a little more. It will be an exciting place for us to expose more people in Chicago to what we do.” He also stated that the store will be twice the space of its other Chicago locations with much more seating.
The company is also planning to open a roasting facility in Logan Square. | {
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In a tweet praising Saudi Arabia, which remains at the center of an international controversy over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, President Trump was misleading about the price of oil, falsely claiming the price had fallen to $54 a barrel, when it was "just $82."
Between the lines: There are two major varieties of oil on the market, and Trump used a near-peak price of one to make the near-bottom price of the other seem more dramatic. West Texas Intermediate is indeed $54, but was only at $75 during its recent high in October and hasn't been at $82 since 2014. Brent Crude is currently at $64 a barrel, and was at recent high of about $85 in October. The two are not the same, and the $28 a barrel price swing Trump is praising hasn't happened.
Go deeper: | {
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As I’ve mentioned a couple of days ago, my fiance and I have been spending our time playing Minecraft, with him at the controls, and me as the backseat driver. I’ve also mentioned previously that I wasn’t really into this game because I like having my games’ visuals gorgeous.
Well… we haven’t stopped playing, LOL.
Block by block, we have continued to make various improvements to our mountain-top fortress, and we even dragged a belligerent horse from 4000 blocks away (large biomes are INSANE). We have coordinates to various landmarks written down on the IRL calendar hanging by our IRL doorway. We obsessively preserve our progress by making spare copies of our save game in case of sudden LAVA. It has been awesome, and we’ve been having a really good time.
I think we’ll be playing this particular game for quite a while.
Today, mountain-top fortresses with lava-powered heating systems. Tomorrow, sky bridges. Yeah. | {
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Mary Bowerman
USA TODAY Network
Sarah-Jane Cunningham knew that her Facebook posts about the election were rubbing her family the wrong way, but she didn’t realize the posts would get her uninvited from Thanksgiving dinner.
The 19-year-old said her mother called a week before Thanksgiving and confronted her about the Facebook posts regarding President-elect Donald Trump.
“She asked me if I was going to be disrespectful to my family, and I told her that it could work either way, Cunningham said. "If the things I am saying are disrespectful to Trump supporters, the things they are saying are also disrespectful to me.”
Cunningham's response got her uninvited to her family’s Thanksgiving dinner in Maine. She said that while her mom later called and tried to make things right, it was too late and she plans to hang out with her two cats in Boston on Thanksgiving.
And she won’t be the only one whose political views earned them the a spot on the uninvited list at family Thanksgiving.
On Twitter, Trump and Clinton supporters-alike shared their stories about getting uninvited from Thanksgiving.
Others, who may have wanted a reason to skip dinner, simply said they were dreading the inevitable alcohol-fueled political discussions.
Katelyn Crist, a writer based in Charlotte, N.C., who recently faced criticism after writing about her decision to vote for Trump, tweeted that Trump supporters uninvited to Thanksgiving are welcome at her house.
"We need to get back to a place where we can have civil discourse over a variety of subjects because that’s the we learn and grow," Crist said.
But, for those who are trying to repair relationships with family members they don't agree with, the best strategy may be to avoid hot-button political topics during the holidays, according to Jamie M. Howard, a clinical psychologist at the Anxiety and Mood Disorders Center of the Child Mind Institute in New York City.
“People do get heated on things they feel passionately about,” she said. “When you enter the conversation, don’t enter it trying to change someone’s mind or prove why you are right and they are wrong. At this point, you aren’t going to change anyone’s mind.”
And if you manage to get yourself back on the invite list to dinner, try to use humor to defuse tense political discussions, but also set boundaries and try to keep the conversation from getting personal.
“I would try to pivot the conversation, say something like “we are all reasonable, smart people here, and yet we still don’t agree, but boy this turkey is good;' something to shift the conversation, especially if there is alcohol involved,” she said.
And while you may be on a hot-streak with the politics posts on social media, you might want to cool-it, says James Lomax, a professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine.
Social media gives people the illusion of invulnerability, Lomax said, but what you post today could bite you tomorrow.
“It’s important to remember people read what you say,” he said, adding that especially in this election’s contentious political climate, people are increasingly vulnerable to someone reacting in a volatile way to online posts.
Howard said when families make the decision to discuss politics, they should try to stick to the facts and not personally attack others’ beliefs.
“The history of our country is built on different political parties and people thinking different things,” Howard said. “It pushes us forward, and it’s a good thing people have different opinions than us. If you can stay grounded in that spirit, it is a good thing.”
Or you can also choose to just keep your mouth shut.
"It’s family ... just going to ignore it, and grin and bear it," Cunningham said.
Follow Mary Bowerman on Twitter: @MaryBowerman | {
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I really want to fish for compliments on this meme like everyone else is But I don't have anything interesting enough to brag about
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I made my debut for Aston Villa on 13 January 2001 and, to be frank, it could have been in better circumstances. We were 3-0 down to Liverpool at home when John Gregory decided to beckon me from the bench. I came on with six minutes to go, into a lost cause, and in front of an understandably disgruntled crowd.
Nevertheless, it remains a good memory given it was my first taste of English football, and Premier League football in particular. I also came into a Villa side full of strong personalties such as Paul Merson, David Ginola and Dion Dublin. It was a big occasion and something I was ready for because of the support I had been given before that moment, with few more supportive than someone else who featured for Villa on that Saturday afternoon – Gareth Southgate.
Gareth Southgate looks to lay ghost of Euro 96 penalty shootout to rest Read more
I didn’t get to play much with Gareth at Villa as the start of my time there came as his was ending – he left that summer to join Middlesbrough – and that was a great shame as he was somebody I came to greatly admire. He is a smart guy, a humble guy, a guy who treated the responsibility of being a professional footballer with upmost respect, setting a standard for those around him, including myself.
I looked up to Gareth and he was often the person I would go to for advice. I could talk to him about anything and he always listened and did his best to help. And he stood out – Gareth was not your average footballer and increasingly he is coming across as not your average England manager.
From the outside, at least, it has often felt that England’s undoing at major tournaments is their lack of togetherness and the fear many players have felt going into high-pressurised games. Having been an England player himself, Gareth will be aware of this and it appears he has gone out of his way to avoid the same mistakes now he is in charge. The current side seem to be enjoying their football having been given the backing of their manager to express themselves and, just as importantly, they seem fully united.
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Hence why I can understand Gareth’s decision to make so many changes for the game against Belgium. As he said himself, England are a squad of players and he wants everyone to feel involved, and he made sure of that in Kaliningrad.
It made for a bizarre game, with neither side exactly busting a gut to win, but for both sides the job was done before kick-off so they could afford to experiment. From England’s point of view, it was perhaps a good thing given the incredibly hot conditions they had faced in Nizhny Novgorod against Panama. That would have taken a lot of the players involved so this was a chance for most of them to rest. They should now be fully refreshed before facing Colombia on Tuesday.
It won’t be easy against a team who showed in their win against Poland that they can be a dangerous attacking force. Equally, they were not so impressive in their other group games, against Japan and Senegal, and with James Rodríguez likely to be out with an injury, England should fancy their chance of progressing.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Harry Kane scores England’s winning goal against Tunisia. The attention paid to set plays has benefited the team. Photograph: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images
What’s for sure is that this is England’s time to deliver. They failed spectacularly to do that against Iceland at the last European Championship but there is a big difference now – the manager. He clearly trusts his players to perform and, in turn, that has led to one of the most exciting and expansive England sides I have seen for a very long time.
The system no doubt helps, with England having an overload in midfield that allows them to dominate possession and territory. What looks at times like a 3-3-2-2 formation is certainly innovative and again shows what a unique, thoughtful manager Gareth is.
Colombia scouting report: assessing England’s last-16 opponents | David Hytner Read more
His thoughtful side can also be seen in how good England have been from set pieces at this World Cup. They’ve clearly been working on that aspect of their game with Gareth saying publicly how he feels set-piece deliveries could ultimately make the difference in games of tight margins. And he is right – before the last World Cup Joachim Löw initially didn’t want to practise free-kicks and corners extensively but he was encouraged by his assistant, and doing so ultimately contributed to Germany becoming world champions in Brazil.
Can England become world champions this time around? It cannot be ruled out in what has been a really unpredictable tournament. I tipped Germany to win it, which obviously won’t happen now, and from the sides left I fancy Brazil to go all the way. But no single team has really stood out and, as such, this could be England’s moment. If it is, a huge part of that will be down to the manager. I for one wish him the very best. | {
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The two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan claim to have shot down each others’ aircraft over disputed Kashmir, with Pakistan releasing vision of a captured pilot.
Pakistan and India go head to head in clashes above Kashmir
Australia has urged Pakistan and India to avoid further military action as the conflict in Kashmir between the two nuclear-armed neighbours heats up.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne said she was very concerned by the reports of the escalation in the conflict, with both countries launching air strikes in the past two days.
It comes as Pakistan’s military said it shot down two Indian warplanes in the disputed region of Kashmir and captured a pilot, answering an airstrike a day earlier by Indian fighter jets inside Pakistan and raising tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals to a level unseen in two decades.
One of the busiest sections along the line of control tonight is the 30 kilometer long stretch of highway connecting #Sialkot with #Gujranwala.
Hundreds of armored vehicles, including tanks and heavy artillery, continue to accumulate in the area. pic.twitter.com/ZqKJOr4PR7 — ᴛʜᴇ ɪɴᴛᴇʟ ᴄʀᴀʙ (@IntelCrab) February 27, 2019
Both sides are reportedly massing troops and tanks along the disputed border, with cities undergoing night-time blackouts and air-raid warning tests. Both Pakistan and India have reportedly sent their major warships and submarines to sea, though this is yet to be confirmed.
“If those reports are correct, we would certainly urge both sides to exercise restraint. To avoid further military action, this is a dangerous cycle of escalation,” Senator Payne said during a visit to London.
“I would encourage direct dialogue between both countries to endeavour to resolve these matters in a peaceful way.” Senator Payne said “the cycle of escalation … is very dangerous for all concerned”.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is monitoring the situation in the two countries but no travel advice has been issued for Australians as yet. Senator Payne was in London for a meeting with her counterpart, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, to discuss a post-Brexit free trade deal between the two countries and the shared efforts to promote the international rules based order.
DOGFIGHT OVER KASHMIR
India and Pakistan's warplanes clashed Wednesday morning above Kashmir, a mountainous region claimed by both India and Pakistan since almost immediately after their creation in 1947. Kashmir is split between Pakistan and India and claimed by both in its entirety.
Though Pakistani and Indian troops in Kashmir often trade fire, the latest casualties came a day after tensions escalated sharply following a pre-dawn airstrike and incursion by India that New Delhi said targeted a terrorist training camp in northwestern Pakistan.
The strike Tuesday was India’s first inside Pakistan since the two nations’ 1971 war over territory that later became Bangladesh. Pakistan said Indian warplanes dropped bombs near the Pakistani town of Balakot but there were no casualties.
Wednesday’s clash came as Pakistan engaged in its own airstrike in retaliation, raising tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals to a level unseen in two decades. Pakistan’s military said it shot down two Indian warplanes in the disputed region of Kashmir and captured a pilot.
MOMENT When #IndianAirForce Pilot, Wing Commander Abhi was arrested alive after successful air combat with #PAF within Pakistani territory. pic.twitter.com/kKCyiqFFxW — Pakistan Defence Command (@PDCMDOfficial) February 27, 2019
Within hours Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan went on television urging peace talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying both countries needed to step back from the brink and warning that “miscalculations” could drag their two countries into a war that neither side would benefit from.
During a televised address, Mr Khan asked: “Can we afford any miscalculation with the kind of weapons that we have and you have? ... Let’s sit together to talk to find a solution.”
There was no reply from Modi, but India acknowledged one of its air force planes was “lost” in skirmishes with Pakistan and that its pilot was “missing in action.”
Another video of the Indian pilot captured by the Pakistani army has been released. He is enjoying the tea on the other side of the border. #kashmir #india #pakistan pic.twitter.com/M1BFEGRNci — salaamedia (@salaamedia) February 27, 2019
BREAKING MOMENTS when Indian Pilot Wing Commander Abhi was captured alive,and Pak Army actually acting to protect him from revenge by locals pic.twitter.com/0mhVpfvjTB — Khalid khi (@khalid_pk) February 27, 2019
Pakistan’s military later circulated a video of a man with a mustache who identified himself as the Indian pilot, sipping tea andresponding to questions, mostly by saying, “You know I can’t answer that.”
He appeared in good health as he was questioned about his hometown, his aircraft and his mission. The downing of the Indian aircraft came on a chaotic day that also saw mortar shells fired by Indian troops from across the frontier dividing the two sectors of Kashmir kill six civilians and wound several others. A helicopter crash in the region also killed six Indian air force officials and a civilian on the ground.
Pakistan responded by shutting down its civilian airspace.
ONGOING ESCALATIONS
Pakistan has claimed - without substation yet - that another Indian warplane went down in an Indian-controlled section of the Himalayan region, Pakistan’s army spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said Pakistani troops on the ground captured the Indian pilot whose plane went down on Pakistan’s side of the border. He had said earlier that two pilots were captured, but did not explain the discrepancy.
“We have no intention of escalation, but are fully prepared to do so if forced into that paradigm,” Ghafoor said.
گرفتار ہونے والے بھارتی ونگ کمانڈر کے پاس سے برآمد ہونے والا سامان#PakistanStrikesBack #Pakistan #PakistanAirForce pic.twitter.com/XMhbS8BZSb — Ameer 'TigerAH' Hamza 🇵🇰 (@TigerAH_pk) February 27, 2019
India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesman, Raveesh Kumar, said one of India’s MiG-21 fighter aircraft was missing and India was still “ascertaining” whether its pilot was in Pakistan’s custody.
He said one Pakistani aircraft also was shot down, something Pakistan denied.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad said the country’s air force was carrying out airstrikes Wednesday from within Pakistani airspace across the disputed Kashmir boundary but that this was not in “retaliation to continued Indian belligerence.” Ghafoor, the Pakistani military spokesman, said the strikes were aimed at “avoiding human loss and collateral damage.”
Shelling earlier Wednesday by India hit the village of Kotli in Pakistani- controlled Kashmir, killing six civilians, including children, local police officialMohammad Altaf said.
HELICOPTER FATALITIES
Meanwhile, Indian police said officials recovered seven bodies from the wreckage of the Indian air force chopper that crashed in an Indian-controlled sector of Kashmir, including six Indian airmen and a civilian on the ground.
They gave no cause for the crash.
Graphic Warning 🔞⚠️#Kashmiris in Indian Occupied #Kashmir pelted stones on Indian Army chopper which arrived at the site of #IndianAirForce Mig-21 Jet crash, after the plane was hit by #PAF today but crashed in #Budgam. pic.twitter.com/s7HB5wfGKD — Pakistan Defence Command (@PDCMDOfficial) February 27, 2019
Scene of the crash site in #Budgam. Major flood of military personnel into the area. pic.twitter.com/u1GIRxPY1R — ᴛʜᴇ ɪɴᴛᴇʟ ᴄʀᴀʙ (@IntelCrab) February 27, 2019
Senior police officer Munir Ahmed Khan said the chopper crashed close to an airport in the Budgam area, on the outskirts ofthe region’s main city of Srinagar. The Srinagar airport, which was shut along with two other airports for civilian flights in the region, is also an air force station.
Witnesses said soldiers fired in the air to keep residents away from the crash site.
TROUBLED BORDER
The violence Wednesday marked the most serious escalation of the long-simmering conflict since 1999, when Pakistan’s military sent a ground force into Indian- controlled Kashmir at Kargil. That year also saw an Indian fighter jet shoot down a Pakistani naval aircraft, killing all 16 on board.
Residents on both sides of the de-facto frontier, the so-called Line of Control, said there were exchanges of fire between the two sides through the night into Wednesday morning. Hundreds of villagers fled border towns in both India and Pakistan.
In New Delhi, Indian officials said Wednesday at least five of their soldiers were wounded in firing by Pakistani troops alongthe volatile frontier.
Lt. Col. Devender Anand, an Indian army spokesman, said Pakistani soldiers targeted dozens of Indian military positions across the Line of Control throughout the night. An Indian military statement said that “out of anger and frustration,” Pakistan initiated an “unprovoked cease-fire violation.” The statement said Indian troops “retaliated for effect” and claimed to have destroyed five Pakistani posts. It accused Pakistani soldiers of firing mortars and missiles “from civilian houses, usingvillagers as human shields.”
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, told state-run Pakistan Television he was in touch with his counterparts across the world about the “Indian aggression,” adding that New Delhi had endangered peace in the region by Tuesday’s airstrike inside Pakistan.
India’s external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, said Wednesday her country does not wish to see further escalation of the situation with Pakistan and that it will continue to act with responsibility and restraint.
She said the limited objective of India’s pre-emptive strike inside Pakistan on a terrorist training camp Tuesday was to prevent another terror attack inside India by the Jaish-e-Mohammad extremist group.
The latest wave of tensions between Pakistan and India first erupted after Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing on Indian paramilitary forces onthe Indian side of Kashmir that killed more than 40 troops.
India long has accused Pakistan of cultivating such militant groups to attack it. Pakistan has said it was not involved in that attack and was ready to help New Delhi in the investigations. | {
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EMBED >More News Videos Fire protection van catches fire in Philadelphia on April 30, 2019.
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Action News was there as a fire protection van caught fire in Philadelphia.It happened around 9 a.m. Tuesday at Monument and Stout roads in Wynnefield Heights.Flames were shooting through the Oliver Fire Protection & Security van as it sat in a parking lot causing explosions.Philadelphia firefighters arrived on the scene and got the fire under control.No injuries have been reported. | {
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The reporter, 29, was inside the car in a parking lot in the 700 block of 31st Street when two males approached around 2:30 a.m., according to the reporter. One of them tapped on the driver's side window and told her to get out. | {
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Compartir
VG.- Adiós al carácter vitalicio de la élite de la función pública y fuerte poda de instituciones como las delegaciones del Gobierno y las cámaras de comercio. El Senado italiano aprobó ayer la reforma de la administración, uno de los puntos básicos del programa de Matteo Renzi para llevar adelante la modernización del país.
El ejecutivo confía a la nueva ley, que fue aprobada con 145 votos a favor y 97 en contra, la misión de aligerar y simplificar la enorme burocracia que lastra desde siempre a la sociedad italiana y a la que culpa de ser origen de la gran corrupción existente, así como de entorpecer las inversiones extranjeras. La reforma comprende 15 medidas que tienen en común la aspiración de desterrar la desconfianza del ciudadanos hacia la administración por medio de una mayor transparencia. La entrada en vigor se producirá a partir de septiembre, cuando el Consejo de Ministros apruebe los decretos que desarrollen la legislación aprobada ayer.
Una de las mayores novedades de la reforma afectará a la élite de la administración, ya que los puestos directivos perderán su carácter vitalicio. A partir de ahora, los funcionarios de mayor rango estarán sometidos a una evaluación continua y, si los resultados no son satisfactorios, podrán ser despedidos. Los cargos dirigentes tendrán un límite acotado, ya que serán designados por 4 años, con posibilidad renovación por otros dos. La nueva ley avanza en la lucha contra la corrupción puesto que impone que los funcionarios condenados por el Tribunal de Cuentas renuncien a su puesto además de estar obligados resarcir económicamente por el eventual daño causado al erario público.
Recortar gastos y reorganizar la administración pública es otro de los objetivos. Por este motivo se reducirá el número de delegaciones del Gobierno, que hoy ascienden a 105, tantas como provincias hay en Italia. Al mismo tiempo, también se recortarán las cámaras de comercio que pasarán a ser 60 y deberán tener como requisito contar con un mínimo de 75.000 empresas inscritas. Además, se unificará el número de emergencias que ahora será el 112 para todo el territorio nacional y se reorganizarán las fuerzas armadas con la inclusión del cuerpo forestal dentro del de Carabineros, lo que ya está provocando las protestas de los funcionarios afectados que ayer se manifestaron ante el Senado para expresar su malestar.
La intención del Gobierno de Renzi es que sea el ciudadano común el gran beneficiario de una ley que busca aligerar y hacer más rápidos los trámites burocráticos, hasta ahora un motivo frecuente de quejas por lo farragosos y complicados que resultan. Con esta intención se creará la Oficina Territorial de Gobernación que centrará gran parte de las operaciones. Además se dotará a cada ciudadano de una identidad digital para acceder a la administración pública a través de Internet con una firma electrónica y una contraseña que será única para Sanidad, Hacienda y Motorización. También será posible pagar impuestos y multas de menos de 50 euros a través del teléfono móvil. Las distintas administraciones estarán obligadas a hacer públicas sus cuentas así como a poner sus archivos a disposición de quien lo solicite. | {
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Two different NFL teams released wide receiver Antonio Brown in September, and as you've probably heard, he believes both of those teams owe him money.
About a week and a half ago, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) formally filed grievances on behalf of Brown, seeking about $39.775 million in total from the Oakland Raiders and the New England Patriots -- the two teams that signed him to contracts and released him. The grievances have not yet been scheduled and could be put off until after the season.
What exactly those grievances are and Brown's chances of winning each of them are somewhat complicated, so we thought we'd break it down for you.
Here are the eight specific grievances that were filed and, based on conversations with various sources familiar with the situation, Brown's chances of winning them:
1. Fine appeals with the Raiders: $215,000
Brown's chances of winning this grievance: Decent
The Raiders fined Brown, who was traded to Oakland from Pittsburgh in March, approximately $215,000 for skipping practices and workouts while he was dealing with his much-publicized foot and helmet issues during training camp. The imposition of these fines led to a practice-field feud with general manager Mike Mayock, behavior that ultimately led the Raiders to tell Brown they were voiding the guaranteed money on his contract (more on that later) and setting off the chain of events that culminated in his release the day before the start of the regular season.
The appeal here likely lies in conversations Brown had with Raiders coach Jon Gruden, who is known to be the team's ultimate decision-maker, as opposed to those he had with Mayock. Brown's fine letters came from Mayock, and it was Mayock with whom he had the dispute during practice. But Gruden was in contact with Brown during the same time period.
Antonio Brown was released by the Raiders and Patriots over the past two months. Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
If Brown could, hypothetically, prove that Gruden had told him he wouldn't be fined, then he could argue that Mayock lacked the authority to fine him, since Gruden is the one in charge. It's tough to say how he could prove that absent a recorded phone call (which likely would not be admissible as evidence), but an argument along these lines could muddy the waters enough to convince the Raiders to settle on this issue and forgive at least some, if not all, of the fines.
2. Week 1 salary from the Raiders: $860,294
Brown's chances of winning this grievance: Strong
Brown was on the Raiders' roster at 4 p.m. ET on the Tuesday before the team's Week 1 game, which means they have to pay him for that week. Players get paid in 17 weekly installments during the regular season. One-seventeenth of Brown's scheduled $14.5 million Raiders salary works out to $852,941.18.
He should have the right to collect that money if he hasn't already. Of course, the fine money would have been taken out of that paycheck, so these first two grievances go with each other.
3. Remaining 2019 guaranteed money from his Raiders contract: $13,764,706
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Brown's chances of winning this grievance: Almost zero
The language in Brown's contract with the Raiders (as in most standard NFL player contracts) allows for guaranteed salary to be voided for a variety of reasons, including failure to report or play. Brown missed enough required training camp days to allow the Raiders a strong case to activate the language in his deal that allows them to void his guarantees.
4. 2020 guaranteed money from his Raiders contract: $14.5 million
Brown's chances of winning this grievance: Almost zero
For the same reasons outlined in the paragraph above.
5. Guaranteed 2020 workout bonus from his Raiders contract: $500,000
Brown's chances of winning this grievance: Very slim
The Raiders (with very few exceptions) don't put signing bonuses in their contracts. Brown's Raiders deal had $1 million in bonus money listed officially in the contract as OATSB, which stands for "other amount treated as signing bonus" for salary-cap purposes. But it was actually structured as two separate, fully guaranteed, $500,000 workout bonuses -- one in 2019 and another in 2020.
play 2:04 Antonio Brown's tarnished legacy Jesse Washington and Domonique Foxworth discuss how recent events have impacted how the All-Pro wide receiver will be remembered moving forward
While these are both defined as "fully guaranteed," that really exists only as protection in case the team cuts the player before paying him. Since they are workout bonuses, a player still has to show up to the specified workouts to qualify for them, and Brown did not show up to said workouts in 2019.
The 2020 guarantee disappears just like the base salary guarantee does as a result of the aforementioned contract language that allows the Raiders to void his guarantees.
6. Signing bonus from the Patriots: $9 million
Brown's chances of winning this grievance: Strong
This is where it gets really interesting. The Patriots gave Brown a $9 million signing bonus -- half of which was to be paid on Sept. 23, three days after they ended up cutting him, and the other half in January. They haven't technically paid it yet, and New England will likely argue that it shouldn't have to pay him because of a "representation warranty clause" that claims breach of contract since Brown didn't disclose a situation that would have prevented him from continued availability. That situation would be the civil suit in which his former trainer accused Brown of rape.
Brown and his attorneys will argue a civil suit is not likely to render a player unavailable to play football, that the Patriots could not reasonably assume said suit would result in a suspension and that they cut him only after it was revealed he sent intimidating text messages to a different woman whose accusations surfaced after he'd already played a game for the team.
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Brown will argue the Patriots' reason for cutting him appears to have been those text messages (since they didn't cut him after learning of the civil suit and, in fact, allowed him to play for them), and that the conduct occurred after the team signed him. Therefore, it wouldn't fall under a representation warranty clause, because it wasn't a pre-existing situation at the time of his signing.
The NFLPA knows it doesn't have a strong case to pursue the voided guaranteed salary money from Oakland and New England because of the way those contracts were written. But a signing bonus is considered money earned at the time of signing (hence its name), and the union will fight hard for Brown on this one, if only to avoid setting a precedent that allows other teams a road map for getting out of signing-bonus money with other players in the future.
7. Week 3 salary from the Patriots: $62,500
Brown's chances of winning this grievance: Strong
Brown's 2019 salary with New England was $1 million -- remember, most of the money in his contract was in the form of a signing bonus -- and since he signed after Week 1, his weekly salary is that $1 million divided by 16 (the number of weeks he would have spent on their roster if he had been there the remainder of the season). So his weekly salary from New England was to be $62,500.
Antonio Brown played just one game for the Patriots, catching four passes for 56 yards and a touchdown. Michael Reaves/Getty Images
Since he played for the Patriots in Week 2 -- his only game -- we have to assume they paid him for that week. But he was still on the roster as of Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET in Week 3, and players who are not cut before that time have to be paid for the week. Brown was not released until three days later. He did not play for the Patriots in Week 3, but the rules under which players are paid will likely allow him to collect a salary for that week anyway.
8. Remainder of guaranteed 2019 Patriots salary: $875,000
Brown's chances of winning this grievance: Almost zero
This amount is that $1 million salary minus the Week 2 and Week 3 salaries we already discussed. As with Brown's Raiders deal, his Patriots deal specified that $1 million be fully guaranteed. But the remainder ($875,000) should void in the same way in which the Raiders were able to void the guaranteed salary they owed him.
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It's also worth noting here that Brown has the right to termination pay of up to 25% of his scheduled salary. NFL veterans are allowed to file for termination pay once during their careers, and Brown has not done so before. If a player is on the roster Week 1, he is entitled to 100% of his salary in termination pay. Brown was not on any roster Week 1, since the Raiders released him before 4 p.m. ET that Saturday and the Patriots technically didn't sign him until the following Monday.
Veterans who aren't on Week 1 rosters are entitled to up to 25% of their scheduled salary in termination pay, so it's possible Brown could secure as much as $250,000 in termination pay from New England in addition to what the organization already paid him. All told, it's possible he could end up being owed as much as $408,333.33 in salary and termination pay from the Patriots.
What this all means, and what's next
Brown is likely entitled to his $9 million Patriots signing bonus, the Week 1 Raiders game check ($860,294) and the Week 3 Patriots game check ($62,500). That comes out to at least $9.92 million in salary he could recoup.
Common sense would indicate he could come to some sort of settlement with the Raiders on the fine money (though common sense hasn't exactly ruled throughout this situation), and it's possible he could settle with either or both of these teams on the salary guarantees.
As mentioned earlier, the grievances could be put off until after the season. In the meantime, Brown remains under investigation by the NFL for the accusations made against him by two women. He is free to sign with any team, but if he did, the NFL likely would put him on the commissioner's exempt list until the investigation were complete. | {
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Grand Theft Auto V jetzt als Rockstar Key kaufen.
Als ein junger Straßengauner, ein ehemaliger Bankräuber und ein beängstigender Psychopath sich mit einigen der furchteinflößendsten und durchgeknalltesten Gestalten der Unterwelt, der US-Regierung und der Unterhaltungsindustrie einlassen, müssen sie eine Reihe von gefährlichen Überfällen durchziehen, um in einer skrupellosen Stadt zu überleben, in der sie niemandem vertrauen können – und am allerwenigsten einander.
Grand Theft Auto V für PC bietet Spielern die Möglichkeit, die riesige Welt von Los Santos und Blaine County in Auflösungen von bis zu 4K und darüber hinaus zu erkunden, sowie das Spiel mit einer Bildwiederholrate von 60 Frames pro Sekunde zu erleben.
Das Spiel bietet Spielern eine große Bandbreite von PC-spezifischen Einstellmöglichkeiten, inklusive über 25 separat einstellbaren Optionen für die Texturqualität, Shader, Tesselation, Anti-Aliasing und mehr, sowie umfassende Unterstützung und Anpassbarkeit für die Steuerung mit Maus und Tastatur. Zusätzliche Optionen beinhalten die einstellbare Bevölkerungsdichte, wodurch sich die Anzahl von Fahrzeugen und Fußgängern anpassen lässt, sowie die Unterstützung für Dual- und Triple-Monitor-Setups, 3D-Kompatibilität und Plug-and-Play-Support für Controller.
Grand Theft Auto V beinhaltet auch Grand Theft Auto Online, das dynamische und ständig wachsende „Grand Theft Auto“-Universum mit Online-Gameplay für bis zu 30 Spieler, mit allen Gameplay-Erweiterungen und von Rockstar seit der Veröffentlichung von Grand Theft Auto Online erstellten Inhalten. Arbeite dich in der Hierarchie empor und werde durch den Handel mit Schmuggelware zum CEO deines eigenen kriminellen Imperiums oder gründe einen Motorradclub und beherrsche die Straßen. Ziehe komplexe kooperative Raubüberfälle durch, nimm an extremen, adrenalingeladenen Stuntrennen teil, tritt in einzigartigen Gegner-Modi an oder erstelle deine eigenen Inhalte, um sie mit der gesamten GTA-Community zu spielen und zu teilen.
Die PC-Version von Grand Theft Auto V und Grand Theft Auto Online beinhaltet außerdem die Egoperspektive, die Spielern die Möglichkeit gibt, die unglaublich detaillierte Welt von Los Santos und Blaine County auf eine ganz neue Weise zu erkunden.
Mit Grand Theft Auto V für PC feiert auch der Rockstar Editor sein Debüt, eine umfangreiche Palette kreativer Werkzeuge, mit der schnell und einfach Spielszenen aus Grand Theft Auto V und Grand Theft Auto Online aufgenommen, bearbeitet und mit anderen geteilt werden können. Der Regisseur-Modus des Rockstar Editor erlaubt Spielern, ihre eigenen Szenen zu erstellen und dabei auf prominente Story-Charaktere, Fußgänger und sogar Tiere zurückzugreifen, um ihre Vision zum Leben zu erwecken. Neben erweiterten Kameraeinstellungen und Bearbeitungseffekten wie Zeitraffer und Slow-Motion sowie einer Palette an Kamerafiltern können Spieler außerdem ihre eigene Musik hinzufügen und dabei aus den Tracks des GTAV-Radioprogramms wählen oder dynamisch bestimmen, wie intensiv die Original-Hintergrundmusik eingespielt werden soll. Fertige Videos können direkt aus dem Rockstar Editor auf YouTube oder den Rockstar Social Club hochgeladen werden, um sie einfach mit anderen zu teilen.
Die Soundtrack-Künstler The Alchemist und Oh No kehren als Moderatoren der neuen Radiostation „The Lab FM“ ins Spiel zurück. Der Sender beinhaltet neue und exklusive Musik des Musiker-Duos, basierend auf und inspiriert vom Original-Soundtrack des Spiels. Mithilfe kommt von Gast-Musikern wie Earl Sweatshirt, Freddie Gibbs, Little Dragon, Killer Mike, Sam Herring von Future Islands und weiteren. Spieler können Los Santos und Blaine County außerdem erkunden, während sie ihre eigene Musik via „Self Radio“ genießen – einem neuen Radiosender, der von den Spielern selbst erstellte Playlisten im Programm hat.
BESONDERE INHALTE FÜR BESTEHENDE SPIELER
Alle bestehenden Spieler der Versionen auf PS3™ und Xbox 360 erhalten auf PC Zugang zu einer Vielzahl exklusiver Inhalte, unter anderem zu seltenen Ausführungen klassischer Fahrzeuge der „Grand Theft Auto“-Reihe zum Sammeln, wie dem Dukes, dem Wasserflugzeug Dodo und einem schnelleren, wendigeren Atomic-Luftschiff sowie zu Aktivitäten wie Wildtier-Foto-Herausforderungen, neuen Schießstand-Herausforderungen, neuen Waffen und mehr.
Der Zugang zu exklusiven Inhalten erfordert ein Konto im Rockstar Games Social Club. Details unter rockstargames.de/V/bonuscontent. | {
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Children swearing is one of those things Hollywood goes back and forth on embracing. After all, if you’re making a movie for kids, you want it to sound real, but not so real that it gets slapped with an R rating—destroying your ability to reach your audience—the second time someone gets told to fuck off.
It’s not just that hearing a little kid swear is funny—it’s also authentic. Kids curse, all the time and for a bunch of different reasons: anger, attention, or just to feel grown-up. It’s a major part of how a lot of kids communicate and bond when adults aren’t around, and any movie that respects the teen or pre-teen experience is likely to at least touch on it.
This supercut of kids swearing (uploaded by Vimeo user Avaryl Halley) actually opens with a celebrated kid-swearing moment that contains no actual profanity, the “Fudge” scene from A Christmas Story—which cleverly gets around the whole rating issue by making the viewer think “Fuck” without actually saying it. The clips that follow are a bit less restrained, unleashing a torrent of f-, s-, and in one memorable instance, c-bombs from the mouths of babes.
Most of the clips come from the ‘80s, the golden age of kids telling each other to eat shit and die, but young luminaries like Chloe Moretz and Bobb’e J. Thompson are also on hand to keep the fine tradition of foul-mouthed adolescents alive.
Kids Cursing In Movies Mashup from Avaryl Halley on Vimeo. | {
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The National Firearms Association is deleting questions posted to its Facebook page about why it pulled out of a committee looking at the government's proposed anti-terrorism legislation, and some members are complaining.
On Monday a lawyer for the gun owners' group had been scheduled to appear on a panel regarding concerns about Bill C-51.
Legal experts have raised a number of concerns about the bill's scope, the lack of oversight, and possible threats to privacy regarding clauses to allow information-sharing between government departments.
After a number of witnesses supportive of the bill agreed it needed amendments, the government decided to propose changes to C-51.
The cancellation came as gun owners grow increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress by Bill C-42, changes to the Firearms Act that the government refers to as its "common sense" firearms bill.
Open Media, which was to share its time with the National Firearms Association, distributed a press release ahead of the cancellation that said the two groups were appearing together "to ensure that the concerns of firearms owners about the legislation can be heard."
'No compromise'
Media reports about the cancellation led some members of the gun owners' group to question the reason behind it. That in turn led, according to posts on Facebook, to the firearms association deleting posts that were critical or questioned the decision.
The Facebook page is closed to non-members, but screen captures of the conversation were provided to CBC News.
"So my posts asking why the NFA pulled out of the C-51 debate [keep] getting taken down," one member complained.
"So why is it I spent $400 in fees and donations that I could have used to feed my self and put gas in my car, to an organization that is not transparent to the paying members?"
Another pointed to the organization's "no compromise" motto.
"No compromise. Even when it comes to [answering] its paying members," he wrote.
Directors taking association to court
Sheldon Clare, the president of the National Firearms Association, didn't respond to a request for comment about the Facebook page, nor did he respond to a request for comment about the committee cancellation.
Neither Solomon Friedman, the organization's lawyer, nor Blair Hagen, the group's spokesman, responded to a request for comment.
The tensions may be exacerbated because of a lawsuit among leaders within the organization.
Earlier this month, several members of the group's executive filed a claim in Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench seeking access to the organization's records, among other remedies.
Five of the National Firearms Association directors claim the group hasn't provided audited financial records to its members since 2010 and isn't keeping minutes of its meetings. They also say Clare has made "unfounded" statements about two of them. | {
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Pascal Payet was helped to escape from Grasse jail by four masked accomplices who hijacked a helicopter from Cannes airport earlier on Saturday.
A convicted killer, Payet was serving 30 years when he made his first escape.
While on the run in 2003 he helped three inmates escape Luynes prison and was later jailed for seven more years.
In this latest escape the helicopter hijackers landed on the roof of one of the prison buildings, AFP reported.
Payet and his team then flew to the Mediterranean coast, landing at Brignoles 38 km (24 miles) north-east of Toulon, where they released the pilot unharmed and fled. | {
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By studying how photons travel through a double slit, physicists in Canada have now shown that some photons follow “surreal trajectories” that appear to defy the laws of physics. Upon closer inspection, however, the experiment reveals that the behaviour of these rogue photons can be explained using the principle of quantum entanglement. The work has resolved a 25-year-old debate based on an alternative interpretation of quantum mechanics.
In the conventional interpretation of quantum mechanics, the motion of a particle is defined by a wave function that gives the probability of the particle being at a certain place at a certain time. The uncertainty principle means that a precise measurement of the particle’s position at a specific time will result in a large uncertainty in what its momentum is at that time – and vice versa. As a result, the concept of a trajectory in the sense of a unique path followed by an object does not exist in quantum mechanics.
In 1952 David Bohm came up with an alternative interpretation of quantum mechanics in which a particle follows a trajectory that is guided by a “pilot” wave function. The probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics would arise from the fact that the initial conditions of the particle are unknown – this is built into the pilot wave function. A precise measurement of the position of a Bohmian particle, for example, would alter the wave function such that a simultaneous measurement of the particle’s momentum must lie within the bounds of the uncertainly principle.
Surreal paths
In 1992 Berthold-Georg Englert and colleagues argued that under certain circumstances – such as when a particle passes through a double slit – some Bohmian trajectories defied explanation. Dubbed “surreal trajectories”, their assertion sparked a debate in the quantum-physics community as to the validity of Bohm’s approach to quantum mechanics. Now, Aephraim Steinberg and colleagues at the University of Toronto have measured surreal trajectories and showed that they are consistent with quantum theory.
The team used a technique called “weak measurement” to trace out the set of trajectories taken by photons through a double slit. This technique involved a gentle probing of the direction of motion of the photons to build up an understanding of the possible routes taken by photons through the apparatus. Crucially, each measurement is so gentle that it does not have a significant effect on the pilot wave function. (See “In praise of weakness“).
Their “double-slit” experiment begins with the production of a pair of photons that are entangled in terms of their polarization. Photon-1 is then sent into a polarizing beam splitter, which produces two parallel beams – one with horizontal polarization and the other with vertical polarization.
Tiny shift
The researchers also perform a weak measurement on the transverse velocity of photon-1 after it emerges from the slits. This is done by passing the photon through a calcite crystal, which causes a tiny shift in its polarization, which is proportional to its transverse velocity. Using focusable optics, the team was able to measure the transverse velocity at different locations, as the photons travel over a distance of about 5 m. Using this information, Steinberg and colleagues were able to build up a set of trajectories taken by the photons.
Because photon-1 and photon-2 are entangled, a measurement of the polarization of photon-2 will reveal which slit photon-1 passed through. However, when Steinberg and colleagues looked at the set of photon-1 trajectories that should have passed through the lower slit (according to photon-2’s polarization), they found that some of the trajectories appeared to have taken photon-1 through the upper slit – and vice versa. These are the surreal trajectories predicted by Englert and colleagues.
However, closer examination of the data revealed that this apparent surrealism depended upon where along the trajectory the measurements were made. Indeed, Steinberg and colleagues identified cases in which photon-1 begins on a trajectory from the lower slit, but then swerves upward into a trajectory that appears to be from the upper slit. Using a technique called quantum-state tomography, they were able to monitor the polarization of photon-2 during this swerve, and saw its value rotate from horizontal (indicating the lower slit) to vertical (indicating the upper slit). As a result, a measurement on photon-2 at the end of the trajectory gives the “wrong” slit.
Vivid illustration
Steinberg and colleagues believe that the photon’s swerve is thanks to quantum interference that occurs when they emerge from the slits. As well as resolving the surreal-trajectory problem, the experiment also provides a vivid illustration of how a property of one entangled particle – the polarization of photon-2 – can be affected by the trajectory of its distant partner.
Rainer Kaltenbaek of the University of Vienna describes the work as “a beautiful experiment that challenges our everyday thinking”. He adds that it “illustrates one of the central issues that quantum entanglement poses for Bohmians”.
The experiment is described in Science Advances. | {
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On March 9 KST, an exclusive report by TV Report�stated that the two top stars have fallen in love. It is reported that TV Report spotted Suzy and Lee Dong Wook on a date at Cheongdam-dong.�The two were reportedly very cautious of their surroundings but failed to hide their affection for each other.�
Close affiliates of the stars claim that Lee Dong Wook was attracted to Suzy's cool personality. However, it's stated that Suzy was the first one to express interest in him. In fact, she has named the actor as her ideal type during her appearance on 'Strong Heart' in 2012.�
No official statements are out yet from their labels. Stay tuned!
UPDATE: Both sides (JYP Entertainment and King Kong by Starship) say they are checking to see if the dating news is true or not.
| {
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Despite a strong economy, about 40 percent of American families struggled to meet at least one of their basic needs last year, including paying for food, health care, housing or utilities.
That’s according to an Urban Institute survey of nearly 7,600 adults that found that the difficulties were most prevalent among adults with lower incomes or health issues. But it also revealed that people from all walks of life were running into similar hardships.
The findings issued Tuesday by the nonprofit research organization highlight the financial strains experienced by many Americans in an otherwise strong economy.
The average unemployment rate for 2017 was 4.4 percent, a low that followed years of decline. But having a job doesn’t ensure families will be able to meet their basic needs, said Michael Karpman, one of the study’s authors. Among the households with at least one working adult, more than 30 percent reported hardship.
“Economic growth and low unemployment alone do not ensure everyone can meet their basic needs,” the authors wrote.
Food insecurity was the most common challenge: More than 23 percent of households struggled to feed their family at some point during the year. That was followed by problems paying a family medical bill, reported by about 18 percent. A similar percentage didn’t seek care for a medical need because of the cost.
Additionally, roughly 13 percent of families missed a utility bill payment at some point during the year. And 10 percent of families either didn’t pay the full amount of their rent or mortgage, or they paid it late.
While startling data to some, it comes as no surprise to those Americans who are struggling to get by.
Debra Poppelaars of Nashville, Tennessee, underwent spinal fusion surgery last fall and was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly thereafter. Although she is insured, she owes roughly $19,000 for her portion of the medical bills.
Between disability, a job change and the mounting debt, she hasn’t been able to make ends meet and is now facing bankruptcy.
“It’s very hard at 64 years old, I look back and think I am in this position and I should be able to retire,” she said.
Jerri Wood of Renton, Washington, says she makes choices each month to pay one bill instead of another as she struggles to pay for her health care. Wood has lived for years with a brain tumor that requires regular monitoring and was recently diagnosed with diabetes that she takes insulin to manage.
Rising costs for her care, even with insurance, have her juggling bills to get by — such as paying her cellphone or electricity bill one month and not the next. And she still feels like one of the lucky ones as she is able to survive.
“There is such a need for safety nets, so many people are in this position,” she said.
The Urban Institute survey comes at a time when lawmakers are considering cuts to some safety-net programs, such as Medicaid, SNAP and housing assistance.
The researchers said that lawmakers run the risk of increasing the rate of hardship if they reduce support services.
It is the first study on the subject by the DC-based organization, which looks at economic and social policy issues. The institute plans to conduct the study every year to track the well-being of families as the economy and safety net systems evolve. | {
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Federal investigators are looking into how Boeing's 737 Max plane was certified to fly.
The FBI is also joining the Department of Transportation's inquiry, The Seattle Times reported.
The FBI is joining the Department of Transportation's investigation into the Boeing 737 Max plane, The Seattle Times reported on Wednesday.
People familiar with the matter told reporter Steve Miletich that the investigation is focused on how the plane, which has crashed twice in the past five months, was certified to fly. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao formally requested an audit of the Federal Aviation Administration's certification for the process in a letter sent to the agency on Tuesday.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Separately, the Pentagon's inspector general said on Wednesday that it will investigate a watchdog group's allegations that acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has used his office to promote his former employer, Boeing.
Read the full Seattle Times report here.
More on the investigations into Boeing and its 737 Max plane: | {
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Top 10 questions to ask yourself in order to determine if you are ready to publish.
Posted by laffertyr on Jan 25th, 2014
How do I know if my game is done? What is a game? Okay, you can ignore that last one.
Like many devs, I find it hard to let go after a game is done. When I look at my finished product I still see major flaws and missing parts. How did my great idea turn into this monstrosity of a game? But, we all have to eventually let go and release our games into the wild. So how do we know it is the right time?
Truthfully, it is not like I know; I am only an indie game hobbyist and not a true pro. Vlambeer we need your help! Well for what it's worth, here is my best guess:
Top 10 questions to ask yourself to determine if your game is done:
1)Do you like playing your game?
If you find playing your game is a chore that is a bad sign. If you don't like it, who will? Think about changing some of the fundamental mechanics; make it fun to move the character around the screen. If you didn't pass this check then you have some major work ahead of you. However, if you spend more time playing your game than making it, you pass. Go onto step 2.
2)Do other people like playing your game?
Well of course you like your game, you made it, but do other people like it? Try posting it on some indie game forums. It can take a while to get feedback; I would suggest commenting on other peoples' games while you wait.
3)Are there things you still want to add?
I find the answer to this question is always yes. There is always "stuff" I want to add. However, the real question is, would your game feel incomplete if you didn't include it?
4)If you walk away from your game for a few days, do you still like it?
I like to call this question "Do you really like your game?" Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our game we lose perspective. Take a short break and step away. Your game should still look and feel good when you come back to it.
5)Are there things you still want to fix?
Don't like your animations? Does your UI look like a child drew it with crayon? Your game will never be flawless, get over it. Do these flaws take away from the overall feel of the game? Do the flaws bother you so much that you can't look at them? If that is the case, then fix them.
6)Is the game title interesting?
It is never too late to change the title. But you probably want to change it before the game is released. If people read the title they should want to play the game. Worst title I have ever made: Appteroids. Best title I have ever made: Fred the Killer Unicorn.
7)Have you watched people play your game?
So people said they like playing your game on the forums. That is just because people are generally nice when leaving comments on a computer. Actually, that isn't true, I've read YouTube comments. I find that I get much better feedback when I watch people play my game. If you have to tell them how to move the character around the screen, that should be a red flag.
8)Does your game have any bugs?
No? Are you sure? Are you really sure? Check, double check, and triple check for bugs. Try as hard as you can to break your game. If you just threw your computer into your wall you went too far.
9)Are you ready for the press?
We have made it took the big time! Well not really. Make sure you have all your ducks in a row: screen shots, gameplay video, demo, dev log, website, Twitter, Facebook, and whatever else is out there these days.
10)Are you having a hard time pressing the publish button?
Just do it! We all have to let go sometime.
Want to learn more: Makegames.tumblr.com | {
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You might have missed the ISIS genocide of Christians, Shiites and Yazidis in Iraq-Syria.
The media ignored the tens of thousands of victims.
Obama was president and they did not want to harm him in any way.
IN 2014 VIDEO WAS RELEASED OF ISIS SLAUGHTERING HUNDREDS OF SHIITE YOUTHS IN IRAQ
ISIS committed genocide of Shiites. They filmed it and posted it online.
Shiite Youths BEG FOR MERCY BEFORE THEY WERE MASSACRED BY ISIS—
These photos were posted on an ISIS Twitter account today.
Another mass execution of “rawafidh” – those who reject the caliphate.
Shiites lined up on the ground and shot dead like dogs…
This was posted oin 2014, “Hundreds of dead rawafidh” (Twitter) Hundreds of Shiites were lined up and shot dead.
TRENDING: BREAKING: Multiple Injuries After Car Plows Through Crowd of Trump Supporters in Yorba Linda, California (VIDEO)
The video shows several dump trucks full of young men on their way to slaughter.
Crying young men — Before they were slaughtered by ISIS.
Obama did nothing and media ignored this mass slaughter or told lies to defend ISIS.
In fact, Obama was partying.
In 2014 Barack Obama partied with African dictators while old women and children were dying from thirst on Sinjar Mountain.
An old woman with a walker “flees” up a mountain to escape ISIS.
The Yazidis were fleeing ISIS.
Not all of them escaped.
ISIS slaughtered hundreds, possibly thousands, of Yazidis on Sinjar Mountain.
Between 5,000 to 15,000 innocents were murdered and buried in at least 72 mass graves in Iraq.
Today the liberal media and anti-Trump politicians are outraged that President Trump withdrew 50 US soldiers from northern Iraq.
The liberal media is suddenly worried about a bloodbath.
President Trump announced a ceasefire today.
So where was the media when Obama was in office? | {
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芝浦工業大学と産業技術大学院大学、首都大学東京らが構成する「ベイエリアおもてなしロボット研究会」は2016年1月22日、人が複数のロボットに接触した際の行動履歴を取得できる実験システムを開発したと発表した。
2015年12月の「2015 国際ロボット展」の会場で芝浦工大ならび産技大、都産技研、ロボットサービスイニシアチブによって行われた実験では、3地点のブースを巡るスタンプラリーを用意。参加者がスマートフォンアプリを使ってアンケートに答えるとスタンプが押され、アンケートの結果はもちろん、「どの順番で回ったか」「3カ所を巡るのに必要な時間」といった、間接的な情報も取得することに成功した。
サイネージロボット
利用されたロボットは「コンシェルジュ」や「サイネージロボット」など研究会所属の各機関が独自に開発したものだが、いずれもRTミドルウェアを採用しており、その採用が連携の実現に寄与した。
ロボット間の連携はサービスロボット用に開発された共通基盤「RSNP」によって行われ、得られたデータの運用を容易にしている。実験の際もロボット展で取得したデータを、産技大のサーバで処理するといったフローが取られた。各拠点のロボットがネットワークによってつながっているため、各利用状況をリアルタイムに確認でき、また、利用者の行動履歴や取ったアクションなどの情報も蓄積できるため、得た情報をマーケティングにつなげることも可能だ。
研究会ではネットワークの強化を含めた技術開発を進め、2016年には10数台を商業施設で、2020年には東京オリンピック・パラリンピックの会場周辺で100台規模の実証実験を行う予定としている。 | {
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Jamieson, 30, burst onto the A-League scene in a blaze of glory as a talented teen with Adelaide United in 2008 after earning his spurs with Bolton in the UK.
The former Westfield High Sports School student – which has been the breeding ground for a string of Australian football talent including Harry Kewell, Aaron Mooy, Jason Culina and Mat Ryan – had spent three years in England.
But when he was released by Wanderers, and with the A-League starting to take off, Jamieson returned to play in Oz and made an immediate impact.
CHECK OUT THE FULL FTBL PODCAST FOR MUCH MORE REVEALING CHAT WITH SCOTT
LISTEN TO THE FTBL PODCAST HERE NOW:
His impressive performances saw him make the left back spot his own even though he was just 19, and forced the more experienced Cassio to move further up the pitch instead.
With plaudits pouring in for his debut season, Jamieson's confidence was sky high.
"I had an unbelievable first year – which is a blessing but also a curse," he told the FTBL Podcast.
"I made my Socceroos' debut, I made the Club World Cup, I made the Asian Champions League final, I made the Hyundai A-League final as a 19 year old...and I kind of thought, 'This is the norm.'
"This is normal - you're making Socceroos squads, making finals – albeit not winning them – but had that amazing first year.
"And then I had offers to go to Holland in the second year..."
But there was a hangover to follow swiftly after.
"I turned into a little bit of a dick, to be honest," admits Jamieson. "I got a little bit comfortable and said I wanted to stay and do what I did in the first year at Adelaide.
"But then things just didn't pan out."
A lacklustre second season played out as Jamieson slipped into cruise mode on the heels of his sparkling start: "I struggled for form, I struggled with the expectations a little bit."
He admits complacency had taken its toll.
"I'd say so," he says. "I'm a pretty hard critic on myself but when you're in the midst of this you can't really step out and see what's happening.
"You think you're doing well but when you look back on it, you kind of see the patterns you were feeling were just of being complacent.
"I was never disruptive or anything like that - it was just probably you don't turn up at training or don't train as hard.
"Then on the flip side, you try too hard because of that – and then you just find yourself drowning a little bit..."
CHECK OUT THE FULL FTBL PODCAST FOR MUCH MORE FROM SCOTT
LISTEN TO THE FTBL PODCAST HERE NOW:
But despite the stress it brought, Jamieson still felt in control.
"That was fine, I thought," he says. "I was only 19/20.
"I wish I'd listened to a few people - I had some real strong people trying to push me back overseas at that time.
"Pim Verbeek - because I was in the Socceroos set up - he was trying to help me get to Holland.
"But I just didn't listen to people. I'm open enough to admit that now - it's better to listen to people I've learnt that 100 percent."
FC Groningen in the Eredivisie brought the Sydney-born star over to trial for them – but Jamieson admits he couldn't wait to get back to the Reds and his cushy A-League life.
He adds: "I just want to come back to the A-League and enjoy myself playing at the weekends and playing for the Socceroos and things like that.
"But it didn't pan out like that..."
And he admits it's a common problem among young Aussies coming through the A-League.
"They get comfortable," he says. "People ask me should a player go overseas or stay but an individual case has an individual answer.
"I don't regret anything. If I had my time back, I definitely would have listened to people.
"But individuals have different times when they grow up, when they mature and some are good enough and mature enough to do it at 18 and go and play and stick it out.
"Or some come back and do well and then take the opportunity to go back over. It is what it is.
"You just need to be open and honest enough to know when you've probably done wrong – and be open enough and honest enough to be able to listen and take advice." | {
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Or how Pocket saved my brain from turning to mush.
Many people find that the internet has made it hard to read long articles, papers, or books.
It’s especially hard to stay focussed on an internet-connected device, but even sitting around at home you risk picking up your phone and losing concentration.
I am one of these broken people. Rather than change my nature, which is hard, I’ve instead found a simple technical workaround.
My solution has been to switch everything substantial to audio, and get through articles, books and papers one after another while walking around outside. This way I can:
work through material quickly, by speeding it up to the maximum rate I can absorb; mostly avoid distractions; get exercise, light and sun where I’d otherwise be stuck sitting indoors, and; avoid the RSI, hand, or neck pain that comes from using a phone/laptop for long periods.
This is obviously easy for popular books which are available on Audible (no referral links here — I don’t need to make an extra $2 a month). Get a plan for 24 books a year and each will cost under $10. An absolute bargain.
What about everything else?
Online articles (the easy one)
I use an app called Pocket. It absorbs articles, stores them in your phone, and can read them out to you.
Why Pocket? It’s a well-designed, free app, and after a recent update offers an impressively natural reading voice, using Amazon Polly.
It also handles punctuation, math or footnotes much better than text-to-voice services used to.
For online articles this is straightforward — you install their extension for Chrome and then just click the ‘Save to Pocket’ icon to send it to your phone. (Firefox has Pocket support built right in.)
Then, bring the article up in the app on your phone, click the headset icon to listen, and use the +/- symbols to speed it up or down. More instructions here.
An alternative article saver is Instapaper, but they charge for text-to-voice.
Books that aren’t on Audible
This is common for older or more academic books, and is a touch trickier. You need to:
Get an e-book version of the book. Sometimes you can buy these from the publisher, which you should do if you can. If not, there’s a website that allows you to download an e-book version of almost any title for free. Convert that e-book to a .txt file using this website (easy), or PanDoc (a bit technical). Create a new Google Document. Copy in up to 24,200 words of the book at a time — any longer than that and Pocket will disable text-to-voice. This is roughly a 1h 45m increment. Give it a title like [Book name part 1]. Go to File → ‘Publish to the web’, and publish the Google Doc so that Pocket can see it. Load up the newly published page and click ‘Save to Pocket’ using that Pocket extension. Bring up the article on your phone. Now Pocket can read it to you just like any other article. Un-publish the Google Doc. Go back to step 3 and create a second and third Doc, if your book is longer than 24,200 words long.
Does this sound like a pain in the ass? I understand, but once you’re used to it, this whole process will take only 2-5 minutes each time. I do this about once a week when I need to check out a more obscure book.
Compared to the time taken up by listening itself, we’re talking about a tolerable 3–5% overhead. For me the alternative was just not ‘reading’ any books I couldn’t get on Audible, which was worse.
Academic papers
Listening to an academic paper in Pocket
Sometimes you can find an academic paper published as a normal web page. If it doesn’t require a sign-in you can just click ‘Save to Pocket’ like any normal article and you’re done.
If it requires a special library subscription, the Pocket service probably won’t be able to see the article, so you may need to copy the text into a Google Doc and ‘publish’ it, as described for books above.
(By the way, did you know there’s a website that can give you any academic paper for free?)
All too often though, papers are only available as PDFs. How do we extract just the text, so that we can publish it is a Google Doc?
One option is to copy and paste it out. However, often the footnotes and other formatting quirks require you to do this page by page, column by column, or even paragraph by paragraph. That is a real pain.
Here are some other options I’ve seen suggested:
Open the PDF in Microsoft Word and try to copy it out.
Try pdf2doc.com or pdf2go.com
Use Adobe Reader to export it to doc, docx, or rtf — this feature will require a $2/month subscription to use though.
Using the Linux command line:
Use the command pdftotext from the poppler-utils package
pdftotext input.pdf output.txt
Use the command pdftotext from the poppler-utils package Use Calibre ebook software to convert it to a text format (free), or PDFpenpro for MacOS (not free).
If your PDF is a scanned image rather than text, you would need to use an OCR service, though honestly that’s rarely worth the time cost.
None of these will handle every PDF perfectly — you’ll often get weird characters, formatting, spacing, and so on. (Fortunately though formatting and spacing don’t affect how it’s read out.)
If you’re much faster listening than reading like me, this will be a time saver, even if you have to clean up the text a bit as you copy and paste it out.
It would be good if we could spread the word that every published report should come in a plain text version, as well as a clunky PDF.
What to listen on
If you’re spending hours a day listening to things like me, you may as well get a pair of noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones. Better audio quality and less background noise will allow you to listen to things at a higher speed. Going wireless will limit how much you have to stop and start as you move around. Just be careful to turn off noise-cancelling when cars are around as it’s a safety hazard.
Recommendations here.
Bottom line
Now go out for a walk in the beautiful sunshine and blast through all your articles/papers/books one after another, while they have your full attention.
The technology available for the above has improved a great deal over the last few years — Pocket only got good for reading articles in the last 12 months — and I expect it to keep getting better in future.
I hope this helps, and let me know if you’ve found any better options! | {
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Addison Russell slides to make a backhanded stop, then fires to first base to rob Jose Altuve of a hit in the bottom of the 1st | {
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Don't miss the big Liverpool FC stories by getting our newsletter Sign me up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email
Several of Liverpool’s youngsters are out on loan this season, with the Reds hoping they can gain the real-world experience needed to elevate them to Premier League levels.
Harry Wilson was described as an "exceptional talent" by Argentine legend and his opposition manager, Marcelo Bielsa despite losing 4-1 when he ran out to face Leeds United with Derby County.
Ben Woodburn was used as a substitute for Sheffield United and got into good positions by stretching the QPR defence while Taiwo Awoniyi featured at Gent.
Danny Ings - who will permanently move to Southampton next season - impressed from the bench for the Saints while Shamal George, Adam Bogdan and Allan Rodrigues all missed out for their respective loan sides.
Here’s the pick of the action from Liverpool’s other loan Reds.
(Image: (Photo by Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images))
Ryan Kent and Ovie Ejaria, courtesy of Got The Battle Fever On.
Ryan Kent 6.5
His intensity, determination and pace often lead to him getting into good positions, but he is too frequently wasteful once he gets there to stay in this Rangers team. Needs to improve his final ball and decision making drastically.
Ovie Ejaria 7
Ejaria was fine with a man down, keeping hold of the ball and working very diligently. The problem is that he doesn’t seem to be able to do much else - like Jason Holt and Gedion Zelalem before him, his vision and execution leaves his range of passing too small to excel in the role he plays in, and unless he can improve we should be looking at a better rounded midfielder to fill the spot, or else move him deeper.
Herbie Kane, courtesy of the Doncaster Free Press .
The Doncaster free press gave Herbie Kane a 9 in their player ratings, praising the youngster's performance and calling him a "serious find".
"Sensational debut and first EFL appearance. Composed on the ball, can pick a pass, aggressive in his closing down, likes a tackle - on this evidence he is a serious find." | {
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Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet, predicts a plant-based revolution is coming.
Replacing livestock with growing and harvesting plants will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, he stated. The meat industry, particularly cattle producers, emit significant greenhouse gases.
He named the number one “game-changing” trend of the future as the consumption of plant-based proteins instead of meat.
At the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in Los Angles Schmidt spoke to a room packed with thousands of investors and business executives.
The replacement of meat with plant proteins would also lower the cost of foods in developing countries where food is sometimes scarce. Delivering a pound of meat to the grocery store (raising, slaughtering, and shipping) is a very inefficient and costly process relative to delivering a pound of many protein-based plants. In short, our growing population can be fed more efficiently and less expensively on plant-based proteins.
Schmidt said the world is now ready to better produce synthetic food from plants with the help of computers and data crunching. Technology is able to help researchers and scientists identify the best plant combinations for both palatability and enhanced nutrition.
Google attempted to purchase the plant-protein based startup Impossible Foods for $300 million in July 2015, but the offer was rejected. Impossible Foods are working on producing a meatless burger that is indistinguishable from a meat patty. Their stated mission is to "give people the great taste and nutritional benefits of foods that come from animals without the negative health and environmental impact". | {
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Do you want to see more of this scene featuring Julia ? Log In or Join NOW to get FULL access to this scene and thousands more!
The Girl In The Pink Panties
Runtime: 12:37
This is my favorite video. I just love striptease in stockings and suspender belts and lifting my skirt to show off my panties. Thanks so much to my friend Alan for suggesting this video. I hope you love real striptease as much as I do. | {
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The latest battle in the ongoing war between Uber and Toronto’s taxi industry was won by the latter on Wednesday after the city’s Municipal Licensing and Standards committee voted against recommendations to pave the way for UberX to be regulated.
The recommendations from a staff report suggested creating new rules for UberX that would allow it to operate legally in the city. It was voted down 4-1.
The committee voted in favour of lowering cab fares by $1 plus 10 per cent and tightening existing bylaws to enforce against Uber.
The committee’s decisions still need approval from council, and can be reversed in a vote later this month.
Toronto, like many cities around the world, is struggling to monitor ride-sharing services like Uber. There are concerns the service is skirting local bylaws by using a mobile app to charge riders.
UberX, which has regular drivers transporting people in their private cars, doesn’t have commercial licenses and therefore lack the regulation and oversight of traditional taxi companies. Taxi companies have argued that this puts passenger safety in jeopardy while simultaneously driving traditional cabbies out of business.
Mayor John Tory has said the city needs one bylaw that applies to everyone. | {
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Jemele Hill knows that Scott Perry has wanted to be a general manager for a while, but she doesn't like seeing him go to the dysfunctional franchise that is the Knicks. (1:49)
Jemele 'torn' on whether to be happy for Knicks' potential new GM (1:49)
The New York Knicks have reached an agreement in principle on a deal with Scott Perry to make him the franchise's new general manager, league sources told ESPN.
But consummation of the hiring is pending the Knicks and Sacramento Kings arriving at terms on compensation, league sources said. New York and Sacramento have been wrangling over a financial arrangement to allow Perry to accept a promotion with New York, according to the sources.
Perry is the Kings' vice president of basketball operations. The Kings granted the Knicks permission to meet with Perry, and the two sides sat down in New York on Thursday, league sources said.
Perry would report to Steve Mills, who will be elevated to Knicks president, sources said. Phil Jackson was dismissed as president of basketball operations shortly before the free-agency period.
While Mills will hold ultimate authority in the front office, Perry will be afforded tremendous freedom to operate as he chooses, league sources said. He will be the day-to-day voice running the basketball side.
New York has been searching for a GM who won't push for an overhaul of the front-office staff, league sources said, as well as an executive who can coexist with Mills, who will have ultimate authority.
Days after Perry was dismissed as the Orlando Magic's assistant GM in April, the Kings hired him as the front office's No. 2 to GM Vlade Divac. Perry played a part in selecting Kentucky point guard De'Aaron Fox with the No. 5 overall pick and making a draft-day trade to move back and draft twice more in the first round, selecting North Carolina's Justin Jackson and Duke's Harry Giles.
In free agency, the Kings signed veterans George Hill, Vince Carter and Zach Randolph.
Perry has a front-office history that includes stops in Seattle, Oklahoma City, Detroit, Orlando and Sacramento. He was part of helping GM Joe Dumars build an NBA champion and perennial contender with the Pistons.
On the Knicks front, former Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin pulled his name out of the front-office search last week, a source told The Undefeated's Marc J. Spears.
Sources said the Knicks and Griffin were at odds over Griffin not having full authority on basketball decisions and over his preference to bring in his own staff. No formal contract offer was made.
Since parting ways with Jackson, the Knicks, under Mills, made the decision to sign Atlanta Hawks guard Tim Hardaway Jr. to a four-year, $71 million contract, a move that has been met with shock inside and outside the organization. The club wants to make a commitment to going young, transforming the roster to players in the 25-and-younger range. New York says it wants to build around 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis. | {
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A gruelling and bitter presidential campaign that will reshape American politics for years to come concluded on Monday with a final, fevered dash across the country by two candidates presenting vastly different visions for the nation's future.
At a rally and concert in Philadelphia, Democrat Hillary Clinton stood before a crowd of tens of thousands of people near where the country's founders adopted the Declaration of Independence and framed the vote as a choice between unity and division.
"Throughout our history, generations of Americas just like us have come together to meet the tests of their time," she said. "Tomorrow we face the test of our time."
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The ultimate U.S. election quiz: Test your memory of an unforgettably weird campaign
Read more: On eve of Election Day, Clinton hits the hopeful notes as Trump doubles down on bravado
Read more: We will miss the Obamas when they're gone
Earlier in the day, Republican Donald Trump addressed supporters in the crucial swing state of Florida and delivered a message more combative than hopeful. "You have one magnificent chance to beat the corrupt system and deliver justice," Mr. Trump said. "Do not let this opportunity slip away."
As millions of Americans head to the polls on Tuesday, the lead-ership of the world's most powerful nation hangs in the balance. Mr. Trump has appealed to voters as a brash outsider intent on restoring the past and defeating perceived threats to the country's safety, identity and economy.
Ms. Clinton is the voice of continuity and experience, who aims to keep the country on the course set by President Barack Obama and emphasize its diversity as a strength.
With hours left until Election Day, Ms. Clinton is favoured to win and become the first female president in U.S. history. A final round of major national polls gave her a lead of between three and five percentage points over her rival. Early voting totals in key states also show a surge of participation by Latino voters, potentially lifting Ms. Clinton toward victory. But in a race that has defied expectation from the outset, anything remains possible.
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On Monday, stock markets around the world rallied as investors cheered the likelihood of a win by Ms. Clinton and the end of election-related uncertainty. A day earlier, James Comey, director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, had reaffirmed his decision to conclude, with no charges, the probe into Ms. Clinton's use of a private e-mail server while secretary of state. On Oct. 28, Mr. Comey roiled the final days of the campaign with an unprecedented announcement that his investigators were reviewing a new batch of e-mails.
In Philadelphia on Monday, Bruce Springsteen, the American rock icon, appeared to rapturous cheers from the crowd, opening with a version of his classic anthem Thunder Road. Ms. Clinton has "a vision of America where everyone counts," he said. "That vision is essential to sustain."
Former president Bill Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama exhorted voters in stark terms to get to the polls on Tuesday. "If we stay home or we play around with a protest vote, then Hillary's opponent will win," Ms. Obama said. "End of story."
When he stepped up to the podium, Mr. Obama made a spirited case for Ms. Clinton. "The vicious, crazy attacks, the double standards applied to her – they're like nothing we've ever seen before," he said. But "she doesn't complain and she doesn't buckle." Then Mr. Obama took a swipe at Mr. Trump: "She will deliver, she won't just tweet."
Toward the conclusion of her remarks on Monday night, Ms. Clinton began to look forward. "We have to bridge the divides in our country," she said. "I regret deeply how angry the tone of the campaign became."
After Philadelphia, Ms. Clinton was scheduled to fly to North Carolina for a final rally at midnight as the campaigns raced to use each minute left to reach voters.
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On Monday, Mr. Trump made stops in Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. The final event on his campaign calendar was a late-night rally in Michigan, a state his campaign is attempting to wrest away from Ms. Clinton.
Mr. Trump's path to the presidency remains narrow. To reach the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes, he must hold all of the states currently leaning his way, including Utah, where his rhetoric on refugees and Muslims has alienated Mormon voters. Mr. Trump must also win all of the major swing states: Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio. Then he needs to seize a state or two from Ms. Clinton's camp, such as Pennsylvania or Michigan.
In a positive sign for Ms. Clinton's campaign, several states with early voting have reported record turnout. That includes states such as Florida and Nevada, where the number of Latinos voting has surged in comparison with the same period in 2012.
In recent days, Ms. Clinton has begun to talk about what happens after the election is over, emphasizing the need for healing following a rancorous contest that has left Americans weary and dispirited about the state of their politics.
Her campaign released a final advertisement on Monday set to reach 20 million viewers featuring Ms. Clinton speaking directly to the camera for two minutes. "Is America dark and divisive, or hopeful and inclusive?" she asks. "Everywhere I go people are refusing to be defined by fear and division." | {
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It's from the new episode.
[SPOILER ALERT]: In the episode, she was reading a gossip article about herself. According to the article, she's an out of control party-goer. | {
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It has been a while since U.S. President Barack Obama first came to office amid a fevered pitch of excitement known as "Obama-mania," but apparently he can still make his fans swoon.
A woman standing directly behind Obama during a key speech on the topic of health care in the U.S. began to faint on Monday, prompting the president to abandon the podium and steady her.
“I got you. You’re OK,” Obama told the woman, according to the New York Post, before she was escorted away to receive medical assistance. Obama returned to his speech and quipped, "This is what happens when I talk too long."Classic Barack.
The woman is reportedly Karmel Allison, a pregnant California-based biologist who suffers from Type 1 diabetes.
I'm ok world- just got a little lightheaded.Thanks, @BarackObama for catching me! And good thing this pregnant diabetic is pregnant :) — Karmel Allison (@karmel_a) October 21, 2013
Allison maintains a blog called "Where is my Robot Pancreas?" in which she chronicles her life with diabetes, including a recent post about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) from the perspective of a diabetic (spoiler: she's a fan).
The rest of Obama's speech was a little more scripted. He expressed his dissatisfaction with glitches that have popped up in the online system for signing up for Obamacare. "There's no sugarcoating it. Nobody is more frustrated than I am," he said.
All in all, it was a rather exciting day for Obama, back at work after a 16-day government shutdown. Which was just long enough to make pretty much everyone in the U.S. a little weak in the knees.
Want to know what news is brewing in Canada?
Follow @MRCoutts on Twitter. | {
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OnePlus continues its trend of getting better and better at updates. Earlier this year, it finally released a formalized update plan for its devices, and now it's releasing one of its fastest device updates in recent memory. The OnePlus 6 is being updated to Android 9 Pie.
This release comes just 45 days after Google's release of Android 9 Pie . This might sound pretty slow compared to the millions of users that just got iOS 12 on launch day, but for Android, anything under three months is pretty good! OnePlus' old flagship, the OnePlus 5T, took a whopping five months to get updated from Android 7.1 Nougat to 8.0 Oreo, so this is a big improvement.
The update speed of Android devices is worth paying attention to this release cycle because things are actually different. Android 8.0 Oreo totally revamped the Android update process with Project Treble, a massive undertaking that modularized the OS away from the hardware. With Treble in place with Oreo, the update from Oreo to Pie should be faster and easier. So far we've seen a few signs that it might be working.
For the first time ever, there was a sizable beta program for Android Pie before the actual release. Besides the expected Google Phone release, Essential, Nokia, OnePlus, Oppo, Sony, Vivo, and Xiaomi all released Android P betas for certain models. No one should be surprised that the beta program participants are also the first to release final versions of Android Pie. So far, we've seen Essential release a shocking day-one update, and now OnePlus has managed to hit a personal best. | {
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KABUL (Reuters) - President Ashraf Ghani congratulated Afghanistan’s armed forces in Ghazni on Friday for their victory over Taliban insurgents in the strategically important city after clashes that killed at least 150 soldiers and 95 civilians.
FILE PHOTO: A member of the Afghan security forces stands guard next to damaged army vehicles after a Taliban attack in Ghazni city, Afghanistan August 15, 2018. REUTERS/Mustafa Andaleb
The five-day Taliban siege of Ghazni eased on Wednesday after Afghan officials declared that they had regained complete control of the city by killing hundreds of the militants.
Ghani met officials in the central city on the main highway linking the capital, Kabul, with the south, to assess security. He also met families of the victims and prayed for the dead.
“I am here to help all those who have suffered losses, I am committed to build the city and also do everything to protect Ghazni,” Ghani said.
“Our soldiers have fought bravely and we stand committed to bringing peace,” he said.
The assault on Ghazni exposed the fragile grip Ghani’s Western-backed government has on security and its apparent inability to prevent large-scale militant attacks.
It also came as Ghani’s government and its international partners had been pushing for a ceasefire during next week’s Eid al-Adha holiday.
Thousands of insurgents entered Ghazni after destroying checkpoints, killing dozens of Afghan soldiers and police officers, cutting communications and the highway.
Police retreated after the assailants captured government offices and police headquarters, a senior security official in Kabul said. The insurgents then roamed around the city, destroying shops, forcing civilians to cook for them, and using some as human shields during clashes, the official said.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
Afghan soldiers, backed by U.S. forces, drove the Taliban out of the heavily damaged city after five days of fighting.
‘COMPLEX PROCESS’
Ghani ordered an investigation into the attacks and announced disbursement of $20 million for immediate relief and reconstruction process.
During his visit, two rockets landed inside the city but no one was hurt in the attacks, an interior ministry official said.
Officials in the presidential palace said the devastation and trauma inflicted on Ghazni residents required urgent domestic and international support.
“The five-day war has come to an end but the complex process of rebuilding the city and protecting it from fresh attacks begins now,” said a senior official in Ghani’s office in Kabul.
Afghan forces were on Friday trying to ensure that no Taliban fighters were hiding in the outskirts of the city.
Jens Laerke, spokesman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said explosives had to be cleared to enable aid organizations to safely respond to the humanitarian crisis.
“We do have capacity to actually spot and map where these mines are, but we don’t have the capacity to remove them - that is the responsibility and within capacity of the national government,” Laerke said in Geneva.
International aid organizations said medical supplies, food and water would be provided to thousands of residents and that ambulances were transporting the wounded to hospitals.
“Several wounded civilians were forced to sit inside homes as they could not come to the hospital during the clashes, we are now treating them,” said Saiyed Ahmed, a doctor at the Ghazni provincial hospital. | {
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This couple is not trying to conceive, which is why they chose this infertile day of her cycle to have unprotected sex.
Both photos are taken on the day before she began bleeding – you can see some fresh blood at the os. The first is pre-arousal. The second is taken about an hour later, after both male and female orgasm. You can see a pool of seminal fluid on the bottom. The cervix was much farther back in the vagina during the second photo shoot due to the ballooning of the vagina during arousal.
The sperm retention theory describes the cervical contractions and dipping in and out of the vagina as an evolutionary advantage of female orgasm. This theory posits that the rippling muscle contractions of the uterus and vagina during female orgasm shift the pressure in the uterus also causing the cervix to gape and suck (imagine a turkey baster if you rhythmically squeeze it). If the man has already ejaculated at this point, the dipping, gaping, and sucking movements of the cervix will help draw in the semen that is present in the vagina into the os and uterus (particularly if there is fertile cervical fluid present). If the speculum weren’t opening the vagina, the os would be sitting in a pool of semen.
Some say this theory is a myth. Check out this article about other scientific research on the role of the female orgasm.
Pre-Coitus
Pre-arousal
Some fresh blood at os (she begins menstruation the following day)
Post-Coitus
Lubricated vaginal walls
Pool of seminal fluid below and covering os
Cervix deeper in the vagina than pre-arousal
Photo taken approximately 7 minutes after male and female orgasm | {
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Notes Bruce Ohr took during a November 2016 meeting with former FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page suggest the couple helped devise a work-around.
Did disgraced Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Peter Strzok and his mistress, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, hatch the plan to use former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr as their go-between with Christopher Steele?
Notes Ohr took during a November 2016 meeting with Strzok and Page — and first revealed last week at The Hill in an article by investigative journalist John Solomon — strongly suggest the couple helped devise the work-around necessitated by Steele’s leaking of the anti-Trump dossier to Mother Jones and others.
Steele’s leaks to Mother Jones and Yahoo News in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election broke the terms of his Confidential Human Source (CHS) agreement with the FBI. Steele’s breach of confidentiality led the bureau to inform the former MI6 spy on Nov. 1, 2016, that he “was not to operate to obtain any intelligence whatsoever on behalf of the FBI.” The FBI later terminated Steele as a CHS.
Steele, however, continued to feed the FBI dirt on Trump, by passing “intelligence” to Ohr, whom the FBI then interviewed. Congress got wind of the FBI’s use of Ohr as a conduit for Steele, prompting Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley to demand the bureau turn over to the oversight committee any pertinent documents detailing the relationship and communications between Ohr, Steele, and Fusion GPS, which commissioned Steele’s opposition research against Donald Trump on behalf of the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee. The FBI, however, would only allow an in-camera review of the material by select members of Congress.
Grassley later wrote to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting the documents be declassified. In that letter, Grassley also summarized the information gleaned to date, citing “Numerous FD-302s demonstrating that Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr continued to pass along allegations from Mr. Steele to the FBI after the FBI suspended its formal relationship with Mr. Steele for unauthorized contact with the media, and demonstrating that Mr. Ohr otherwise funneled allegations from Fusion GPS and Mr. Steele to the FBI.”
Grassley’s letter also included the dates on which the FBI had interviewed Ohr about Ohr’s conversations with Steele. Those interviews occurred as follows:
The date of the first FBI interview — Nov. 22, 2016 — proves significant in light of Solomon’s article last week, which disclosed the content of notes Ohr took of a meeting with Strzok and Page the day before the FBI conducted its initial debrief of Ohr.
“Ohr’s notes suggest he met Nov. 21, 2016, with FBI officials that included Strzok, then-FBI attorney Lisa Page and another agent,” Solomon wrote, adding that “Ohr’s notes from that meeting indicate that FBI officials told him they ‘may go back to Chris’ — an apparent reference to Steele — just 20 days after dismissing him.”
Did Ohr, Strzok, and Page devise the work-around to allow Steele to continue to feed the FBI information? The date of Ohr’s meeting with Strzok and Page and Ohr’s first “official” FBI interview the following day make that conclusion extremely likely.
The next questions, then, are: Who was the unnamed third FBI agent present during Ohr’s meeting with Strzok and Page? Does that agent remain employed by the bureau? Or, as both Strzok and Page were for a time, does the agent now work with Special Counsel Robert Mueller?
Ohr will reportedly appear before the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door session on Aug. 28, 2018. He has some explaining to do. | {
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テレビアニメや外国映画の吹き替えなど、日本独自に発展した声優文化の資料を展示する「声優ミュージアム」が８日、東京都渋谷区にオープンした。声優に関する展示施設は世界初で、展示以外にも声優が出演する公演も年５０回ほど開催する。
展示品は、名誉館長を務める声優・大平透（８５）がアニメ「笑ゥせぇるすまん」で喪黒福造役を演じた台本、フランスの俳優アラン・ドロンの吹き替えで知られた故野沢那智さんが使った映画「太陽がいっぱい」の台本など。
ほかに、７９年に放送されたアニメ「機動戦士ガンダム」全４３話分の台本や、サイン入りグッズなど数百点がズラリと並べられている。台本には声優本人が発声のタイミングを書き入れた跡だけでなく、落書きなどがある。
展示室奥には声優の活躍を祈願する「声優神社」を設置。鎮座する“ご神体”は、録音スタジオで、約６万人の声優が声を吹き込んだマイクという。
南沢道義館長によると、亡くなった声優の遺族が引っ越しなどの際、台本やグッズなどを処分してしまうケースがあったほか、台本のタブレット化に伴い、印刷物として残しておく必要性を感じたことからオープンを決めた。所蔵は１０００点を超えているという。ここ数年は、海外にも日本のアニメファンが急増。広報担当者は「外国人向けツアーを企画する旅行会社からの問い合わせが数多く来ています」と話しており、今後、海外からの観光スポットとして注目が高まりそうだ。
入場無料。休館日は日・月曜（９日は開館）、年末年始など。
≪２０～５０代のファン大挙≫館内は２０代から５０代の男女のアニメファンらが訪れてにぎわった。東京都世田谷区の男性（３９）は「自分が生まれる前の作品から、子供の頃に親しんだ物まで幅広く展示してあった。貴重な場所だと思う」と喜んでいた。また４０代の女性会社員は「貴重な品々が目の前に展示されていて、テンションが上がりっぱなし」と話した。 | {
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Per information provided to Soc Takes, the initial franchise expansion fee for USL is now $7 million. This is an increase from their 2017 fee which was $5 million.
This fee increase would apply to teams signing franchise agreements in 2018 and beyond, and would not affect recently announced franchises.
An USL representative did not confirm or deny the report.
More to follow…
Follow Nipun on Twitter: @NipunChopra7.
Support Soc Takes on Patreon for access to patron-only Soc Takes Pod episodes, exclusive written content and tier rewards. Click here to become a patron today. | {
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Find free video streams online and enjoy them on your Android phone or tablet: Mobdro constantly searches the web for the best free video streams and brings them to your device. | {
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Once upon a time, in the deeper reaches of your cable box, you could stumble across a show called “Mystery Science Theater 3000.” The program, which bounced across several networks from 1988 to 1999 and was known to its devotees as MST3K, was about a goofball named Joel, who, having been marooned in space and forced to watch crummy movies like “Teenagers from Outer Space” and “War of the Colossal Beast,” quipped his way through it all with the help of his wisecracking robot pals. The premise was shaky, but the execution was so delightful that the show inspired an industry of riffing on lame pop culture, from “Pop Up Video” to “Talk Soup” to “Chelsea Lately” to everyone live-tweeting the Oscars with zingers like “Nice dress—not!”
A while back, the five members of the MST3K gang, who have toured since 2007 as a live act called Cinematic Titanic, appeared at Broadway’s Best Buy Theatre. Backstage, the performers—who, with their dark shirts and their eerily pale skin, seemed like affable vampires—expressed bewilderment at the avalanche of meta-scorn they had inadvertently touched off. Joel Hodgson, the show’s creator and star, observed, “You can sell an audience on snark, but they’ll get tired of it. Our idea was always just that we’re the perfect companions to watch a bad movie with.”
The group treated that night’s film, a 1974 gem of kung-fu blaxploitation called “East Meets Watts,” as the occasion for a freewheeling variety act, complete with songs and spit takes. As a chop-socky master named Larry Chin and a black stud named—without apparent irony—Stud Brown laid waste to most of the hoods and ’hoods in Los Angeles, the comics pounced on every wayward detail, from the actors’ names (“Alan Tang: the B-movie actor astronauts use”) to the awkwardness of a clinch between an aging cop and a starlet (“If you ever wondered what it would be like to watch your dad make out with a hooker, sit back and enjoy”). Their more than six hundred jokes included the mashups “That Seventies Shogun” and “The Jackson Pollock Five,” and invoked Thomas the Tank Engine, R.E.M. lyrics, the Fonz, bird flu, Lee Harvey Oswald, NASCAR, and Pantene. The rapt, devotional quality of the audience’s laughter made it feel like a Phish concert, only enjoyable.
The group explained backstage that jokes are allotted according to each comedian’s strengths: Hodgson gets the run-on musings, Frank Conniff the screams and non sequiturs, Trace Beaulieu the character impressions, J. Elvis Weinstein the songs and truck sounds. “Also, you do a really good barge,” Mary Jo Pehl told Weinstein. “And when Mary Jo does men it’s hilarious,” Hodgson said. “Like in tonight’s movie, when Aldo Ray”—playing the aging cop—“looks through binoculars at the harbor, and she does his voice-over talking about the boats like a pervert, like, ‘Oh, baby, show Daddy the masts.’ ” Everyone cracked up at Hodgson (imperceptibly) doing Pehl (impeccably) doing Ray (implausibly) as a peeping Tom.
Hodgson noted that when MST3K began, even displaying the silhouettes of Joel and the robots was provocative: “You’d never see anything crawling across the screen except severe storm warnings.” Conniff added, “And now, every movie that’s on basic cable or network, suddenly a character from another show walks across and says, ‘Hey, watch “Two and a Half Men”!’ as you’re trying to watch Fredo get killed on ‘The Godfather.’ Everything got all meta and confused when ‘Snakes on a Plane’ came out”—in 2006—“and it was marketed as a movie you could go make fun of. What happened to the sincerity?”
“There was a big wave of not caring anymore,” Beaulieu said.
When the group started touring, they sought to frame a rationale for Cinematic Titanic’s efforts, something to parallel MST3K’s conceit that scientists were studying the effect of bad movies on Joel’s brain. Weinstein hazily recalled, “We were under the Earth because we’d been abducted, or recruited by some corporate overlord—”
“We were struggling toward some kind of story,” Hodgson interjected. “Because we felt that if people are just talking to a movie for no reason they’re assholes. But it turns out that audiences accept that people can now talk to a movie just because.”
Weinstein said, “Our ‘Why are we doing this?’ turned out to be ‘We do this for a living.’ ”
“And because our audiences provide me with the love that’s so lacking in my life otherwise,” Conniff said.
“From a distance and in a group,” Beaulieu clarified.
Weinstein continued, “There’s no reason to ever quit. I mean, it’s already sad. Look at us—aging, fat, balding.” He threw up his hands cheerfully. “So what the hell.”
On December 30th, after six years, Cinematic Titanic performed its final show; the group finally got sick of it. As Conniff said at the Best Buy Theatre, “It kills my spirit a little to know that I’ve watched ‘Santa Claus Conquers the Martians’ more than I’ve watched ‘Citizen Kane.’ ” ♦ | {
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Maura J. Kiefer is an experienced appellate, land use, civil litigation, and municipal attorney in Massachusetts and Florida.
After serving as an appointed city attorney in Florida for 11 years, and contract appellate attorney with Florida’s Tenth Judicial Circuit, she established AtlanticiLaw and Appeals to serve citizens and small businesses who migrate back and forth between Massachusetts and Florida.
Clients who move to or from Massachusetts and Florida often find themselves in a quandary due to business, litigation or personal matters that require legal attention from both jurisdictions. Attorney Kiefer serves her customer base with advice and counsel in both States for matters involving a range of areas including:
Domestic Relations
Domestic Relations Trusts, Estates and Wills
Trusts, Estates and Wills Local Taxation
Local Taxation Municipal Law
Municipal Law Civil Litigation
Civil Litigation Real Estate
Real Estate Firearms Permits
Firearms Permits Civil and Criminal Appeals
Whether you live in Massachusetts or Florida, there may come a time when you need immediate legal advice concerning matters affecting your business or personal life. Our “iLaw Button” is your ready access to direct and cost-effective legal guidance. Just fill out our simple form and send in your question. You will be contacted within 3 hours in most cases. | {
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Stan Lee needed a real-life superhero to find and return his lost dog. Enter the immortal football legend, Jim Brown, who proved not all heroes wear capes.
Sources close to Stan tell TMZ ... the comic book legend's Mini Pomeranian, Charlotte, went missing last week, though it's unclear how she got loose. In any case, Stan's peeps canvassed the Hollywood Hills neighborhood where he lives and his business partner Keya Morgan posted "Lost Dog" flyers everywhere.
A few days passed, but the posters garnered zero leads ... leaving Stan resigned to the idea Charlotte was gone for good. But, not so fast.
We're told the NFL Hall of Famer and his wife, Monique -- who live about a mile away from Stan -- found Charlotte in their yard ... scared with no collar. The couple sprung into action ... first firing off an email to a bunch of their neighbors, but that fetched no clues.
The Browns were undeterred, and brought Charlotte to a vet, who found a microchip planted near her neck, but, again, no luck there either because the chip wasn't registered.
The Browns then went old school and canvassed several neighborhoods and BAM ... they saw the posters, called the number and just like that, Charlotte was reunited with Stan. | {
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Adobo, silogs, and halo-halo reign supreme in this stretch of the Peninsula known as Little Manila
With the largest concentration of Filipinos in the United States, Daly City is known, informally, as a “Little Manila.” It’s a no-brainer, then, that the city — along with nearby Colma, South San Francisco, and San Bruno — would be home to some of the Bay Area’s finest Filipino fare. These restaurants and bakeries aren’t confined to a single “Chinatown”-like neighborhood; instead, they’re spread across strip malls, in anonymous-looking residential areas, and even on the outskirts of town. Some of the restaurants have been slinging adobo and halo-halo for decades, catering to the Filipino immigrants who settled in the area starting in the late ‘60s, after California’s fair housing law was passed and a major construction boom took place. Others connect with a new generation of Filipino Americans through contemporary versions of classic dishes. These 10 spots are a great place to start, especially for the uninitiated.
Restaurants in this map are listed geographically from North to South, not ranked.
Note: Restaurants on this map are listed geographically. | {
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A new trailer for Automation has made its way to the web. As you may recall, the game allows you to design a vehicle from the ground up with your own chassis, engine and exterior design before attempting to sell the car to the masses as part of your own car company. The game is now officially available for pre-order, which can save you $10 off of the final $30 purchase price. Camshaft Software will even throw in some exclusive content with each pre-order purchase.Automation makes you the head of a new vehicle company in the year 1946. It's your job to turn your startup into a brand that's recognized the world over by producing the best vehicles possible. We couldn't care less about the business end of the prospect, but the thought of designing our own vehicles from the platform on up is enough to get us excited. Hit the jump to check out the trailer and click over to the game's Rocket Hub page for more information. | {
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Premier League chief executive defends new £5.14bn dealDismisses criticism of how windfall will be distributedScudamore: ‘It is up to politicians to raise minimum wage’
Richard Scudamore has dismissed criticism of how the Premier League redistributes its income from broadcasters – insisting it is not clubs’ responsibility to pay stadium staff the living wage.
The Premier League’s chief executive, speaking after the announcement of a record £5.14bn windfall from BT and Sky, said clubs would make individual decisions on how to use the money, and he could make no guarantees over the scale of redistribution or on reducing ticket prices.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether clubs should react to the 70% rise in income by increasing the wages of their lowest-paid employees – with Chelsea the only Premier League club to commit to paying the living wage – Scudamore said: “At the end of the day there’s a thing called the living wage but there’s also a minimum wage, and politicians do have the power to up that minimum wage. That’s entirely for the politicians to do, that’s not for us to do.”
Premier League TV rights grow to £5.1bn but case for redistribution strengthens | Owen Gibson Read more
Asked whether it made him uncomfortable to see clubs paying some players “half-a-million pounds a week” while other members of staff earned below the living wage, Scudamore said: “No, it doesn’t make me uncomfortable.
“The reality is, just like in the film industry, in the pop industry, the talent, the absolute talent, gets paid a disproportionately high amount. That is the reality in any talent industry … The stars that grace the field in the Premier League are world stars, it’s a world market. I don’t set the market rate, it’s set by the world market.”
The total raised from the deal once international rights are taken into account is likely to top £8.5bn over three years from 2016-17, meaning even the bottom club would receive around £99m, while the champions would get £156m.
However, Scudamore said he could not guarantee that the 70% rise in income would necessarily mean a 70% rise in redistribution.
“I’m not guaranteeing anything. I’m not in a position to guarantee – I work for 20 employers. We will sit down and look at what is the proportionate thing we should be doing, and I’m absolutely confident that the clubs will do the right and proportionate thing. But I’m not able to guarantee anything.”
Asked whether clubs should also use the new money to reduce ticket prices because of their status as “staggeringly wealthy” organisations, Scudamore answered: “Staggeringly wealthy in what sense? Not all of them make profits. Clearly, there are revenues but the clubs will have choices as to what they do with those revenues. Will they be investing in making sure grounds stay full? Yes they will. But I can’t guarantee what each individual club will be doing.”
Scudamore earlier said he remained confident that the Premier League “attracts a whole lot of positive feelings about the UK.
“If you go and do any international survey, things like the Premier League, the BBC, the Queen: they are things that people feel are good about the UK. Our own prime minister is quite happy to travel the world and talk about what a good thing the Premier League is. And we’re proud that our clubs and the league is looked at in that way.”
Reacting to Scudamore’s comments about wages, the business secretary Vince Cable told London’s Evening Standard: “There is a lot of money in the sport. You are getting extraordinarily well-paid players. The ordinary fans and ordinary workers around the ground should expect some of the money to come through to them. If companies can afford to pay the living wage, they should.”
Scudamore’s comments were described as “shameful” by Sophie Stephens of Citizens UK, an alliance of civil society organisations who campaign for the introduction of the living wage.
“It’s shameful that the organisation in charge of the UK’s most famous sporting league thinks that clinging to the minimum wage is acceptable,” she said.
“On a day when it was revealed that the Premier League is set to net £113,000 per minute in games from domestic television rights, we’ve called upon Richard Scudamore to show leadership and become a Living Wage employer, supporting their lowest paid members of staff out of in-work poverty. Echoing the words of Prime Minister, David Cameron, and Vince Cable, Business Secretary, ‘Those organisations that can, should pay the living wage’.
“Citizens UK members have been campaigning around the issue of poverty pay in the Premier League since 2011 and believe that many more clubs could follow the example of Chelsea FC, the first premier league club to accredit as a living wage employer. Regular protests, letter writing and even questions at AGMs have been ignored by Tottenham and Arsenal, whilst Manchester City has agreed to pay its directly employed staff the Living Wage, they are still not accredited, meaning the majority of low-paid staff like catering teams and cleaners, who work on contracts, aren’t seeing the benefits.
“Many football clubs do wonderful community work; but surely paying their own staff a wage that is enough to live on, not simply survive would be both an economical and ethical approach to improving the neighbourhoods they are an integral part of?”
Tottenham’s Labour MP David Lammy, who has campaigned for clubs to pay the living wage of £9.15 an hour in London and £7.85 outside, was also highly critical of the Premier League’s chief executive, saying: “He should not just feel uncomfortable, he should feel ashamed. This is conscious greed, plain and simple.”
David Lammy (@DavidLammy) Today Premier League clubs signed a new TV deal worth £5.1 billion. 19/20 of them still refuse to pay Living Wage. http://t.co/sz3f52b526
The shadow minister for London, Sadiq Khan, also said Scudamore’s remarks were “disgraceful” and that clubs should pay the living wage so their lowest-paid staff can “put food on the table and pay the rent”.
The former Tottenham chairman Lord Sugar was among those who felt the deal would largely benefit players and their agents, and also pointed towards the consequences for the England national team.
“It is an amazing amount of money,” he told the BBC. “In one way it is positive for the teams, but I think it is pretty negative for the future of international football for England.
“The more money that is given to the clubs, the more money is spent on players. Anyone who knows the effect of prune juice, it is pretty simple – it goes in one end and comes out the other, and that is exactly what is going to happen with this money.
“A deal is a deal. I suppose the Premier League hierarchy have done a good deal in squeezing the most amount of money out of broadcasters and someone has done a very, very good job so I suppose they are happy. Will they be happy in a year when all the money they have got they have given to players and players’ agents is another story.” | {
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Critics slammed “60 Minutes” for airing an interview Sunday with Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq, with some accusing the influential CBS broadcast news magazine of "normalizing a war criminal."
Gallagher in July was found not guilty of murder and attempted murder in a military court trial that was centered on the killing of an ISIS militant during a 2017 deployment in Iraq. The 40-year-old was convicted of a lesser charge of posing for a photo with an ISIS fighter's corpse.
The "60 Minutes" interview also included a look at Gallagher’s personal life post-trial, which included him working out and showing off his war memorabilia.
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Critics, including Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser to President Obama, took to Twitter to question CBS News for providing Gallagher such a big platform.
What on earth was 60 Minutes thinking? https://t.co/izXTeTTjIy — Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) March 1, 2020
Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher shows 60 Minutes his war memorabilia, including the knife seen in his photo with the dead ISIS fighter. https://t.co/nDZBPHA0ub pic.twitter.com/b86c5oI8Qu — 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 1, 2020
.@60Minutes should consider some type of update, retraction,or, at the very least, an explanation on how this segment actually happened. Normalizing a war criminal is bad enough, but not engaging in basic research is something else. #Gallagher https://t.co/lZVdxfhlVK — Bishop Garrison (@BishopGarrison) March 2, 2020
I think you mean convicted war criminal. Argh—come on guys. What is wrong with you? https://t.co/MhRQp9uMk2 — Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) March 2, 2020
Eddie Gallagher is a war criminal who was so sadistic in his conduct that his fellow Navy SEALs testified against him in open court. He bragged about killing women. He threatened his colleagues if they reported it.
There is no "other side" to this story.#Boycott60Minutes — Charlotte Clymer ️ (@cmclymer) March 2, 2020
Who’s the @60Minutes producer who approved a glowing profile of a violent, murderous war criminal today? Who were the advertisers? — Anil Dash (@anildash) March 1, 2020
The Hill has reached out to "60 Minutes" for comment.
During the interview with correspondent David Martin, Gallagher credited President Trump Donald John TrumpBarr criticizes DOJ in speech declaring all agency power 'is invested in the attorney general' Military leaders asked about using heat ray on protesters outside White House: report Powell warns failure to reach COVID-19 deal could 'scar and damage' economy MORE's support of him, stating he'd be in imprisoned for life otherwise.
"If the president hadn't intervened in any way ... I believe I'd be in prison for life," Gallagher said. | {
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Jennifer Smith, Daily Mail, September 21, 2018
Google employees discussed leveraging their influence over the internet to promote pro-immigration websites after President Trump imposed his controversial travel ban last January, it has been revealed.
In an email chain obtained by The Wall Street Journal, the staff members — who were not named — talked about the ‘importance’ of promoting the websites, such as the ACLU, so that internet users could donate to them.
Their plan did not go into effect after warnings from executives that it was a ‘highly political’ issue which they should not be seen getting in the middle of.
The emails were written on January 29, two days after Trump implemented his ban on travel to the US from seven Middle Eastern and African countries.
They said: ‘I know this would require a full on sprint to make happen, but I think this is the sort of super timely and imperative information that we need as we know that this country and Google, would not exist without immigration.’
One Google employee said they believed the search results afterward Trump’s ban generated ‘islamophobic, algorithmically biased results from search terms Islam, Muslim, Iran’. etc.’
They considered going to similar lengths for ‘Mexico, Hispanic, Latino’, etc.
They suggested an ‘overall idea’ which was to ‘leverage search to highlight important organizations to donate to, current news, etc. to keep people abreast of how they can help as well as the resources available for immigrations [sic] or people traveling.’
They suggested using Highlights — an experimental feature Google has tested which allows certain sites or people to post updates that appear directly in search results.
The employees wanted to implement highlights from the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the American Civil Liberties Union in this case which spearheaded the fight against the ban and raised millions of dollars through donations.
Many were in favor. One public affairs executive said: ‘We’re absolutely in…Anything you need.’
But another warned caution, saying: ‘Very much in favor of Google stepping up, but just have a few questions on this including how partisan we want to be on this.
‘To the extent of my knowledge, we’d be breaching precedent if we only gave Highlights access to organizations that support a certain view of the world in a time of political conflict.
‘Is that accurate? If so, would we be willing to open access to highlights to [organizations] that…actually support the ban?’
Google would not reveal any of the employees or executives’ identities on Friday and did not say whether anyone had faced discipline over it.
A spokesman told DailyMail.com the emails indicated a ‘brainstorming’ session and that it was always fair and equal.
‘These emails were just a brainstorm of ideas, none of which were ever implemented.
‘Google has never manipulated its search results or modified any of its products to promote a particular political ideology — not in the current campaign season, not during the 2016 election, and not in the aftermath of President Trump’s executive order on immigration.
‘Our processes and policies would not have allowed for any manipulation of search results to promote political ideologies,’ the spokesman said.
It was one of many companies which publicly stated its disapproval of the ban and one of its co-founders Sergey Brin has attended anti-Trump rallies on the issue in the past too.
The company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, is also an immigrant. | {
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People have been worrying about the world’s pending overpopulation for more than two centuries. Robert Thomas Malthus sounded the alarm in 1797 with "An Essay on the Principles of the Population," which predicted mass starvation and went on to influence the likes of Charles Darwin and Margaret Sanger. Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book, "The Population Bomb," forecast a similar fate; if the population kept rising unchecked, Earth’s resources would buckle. Many of today’s environmental thinkers, such as broadcaster (and "Planet Earth" narrator) David Attenborough, have called for drastic measures to limit the planet’s population before it’s too late.
But according to the veteran environmental writer Fred Pearce, they’re all wrong. In his latest book, "The Coming Population Crash: And Our Planet's Surprising Future," Pearce argues that the world’s population is peaking. In the next century, we’re heading not for exponential growth, but a slow, steady decline. This, he claims, has the potential to massively change both our society and our planet: Children will become a rare sight, patriarchal thinking will fall by the wayside, and middle-aged culture will replace our predominant youth culture. Furthermore, Pearce explains, the population bust could be the end of our environmental woes. Fewer people making better choices about consumption could lead to a greener, healthier planet.
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Salon called Fred Pearce in his London office to talk about the reasons behind our population peak, the high cost of our aging world, and how TV helped save the planet.
Why write about the population debate now?
I’ve noticed an upsurge in interest in the topic. When I’m giving a lecture on climate change or water, I’ll get a question from somebody that says, "Yes, what about population? If we don’t solve the population problem, then we can’t solve any of these issues." The way that some environmentalists discuss population transfers the blame for global environmental issues onto poor people in countries where they’re still breeding a lot. It becomes a problem of overbreeding Indians or Africans rather than overconsuming Europeans or Americans. It troubled me ethically, and I wondered, "OK, is this true?"
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Well, is it true?
Global environmental problems are not, and will not, be mainly a problem of overbreeding Indians or Africans. First, their birthrates are coming down fast, with Indian women, for instance, having fewer than three children on average today; and even African women have falling fertility. And secondly, because overbreeding -- in the sense of women having more than replacement levels of children -- is almost entirely in countries with a very low per-capita footprint on the planet. For instance, the carbon emissions of one American is the same as that of 20 Indians, 30 Pakistanis, 40 Nigerians and 250 Ethiopians. If, as economists suggest, the world economy will grow by 400 percent by 2050, then no more than a tenth of that will be a result of population growth. The issue is consumption, and that puts the onus right back on the conspicuous consumers to do something about their economic systems, not least before more developing countries follow the same model.
So these worries about overpopulation are unfounded?
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When Paul Ehrlich wrote his famous book ["The Population Bomb"], women were having an average around the world of five or six children; now they’re having an average of 2.6. Fertility rates around the world have halved. That’s not just true in Europe and North America; they’re way below replacement levels in most of East Asia now. Not just China but Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Burma have replacement rates of fertility or below. Around the world, fertility rates have been coming down really sharply. So the population bomb as we’ve conceived it before really isn’t there. There’s still population growth going on, but that’s going to stabilize.
How does feminism play into all this?
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Feminism, I suspect, is as much a consequence of falling fertility as a cause, though I am sure they reinforce each other. If you only need to have two or three children to secure the next generation, that is what women will do. And that gives them more options for a wider role in society. I think the reproductive revolution and the feminist revolution through the second half of the 20th century have gone together. On the one hand, thanks to advances in sanitation and medicine, women no longer need to have five or six children to make sure that two of them will live to adulthood. On the other hand, we've had the push for women’s rights in the workplace. The consequence of that is we now have many more women taking their proper role in society in so many ways, arguably for the first time in millennia.
What are some other factors that led to the population bust?
I'd say the advances in healthcare are the No. 1 factor. But there are cultural factors, too. The spread of ideas about different lifestyles for women outside the home has accelerated all these trends. TV is a huge influence here, probably more so than what we normally regard as education. Urbanization is a factor. When you’re in the countryside, your kids are an economic resource very early. They can help in the fields, they can look after the animals; there are piles of stuff they can do from the age of 4 or 5. Kids are an economic resource, which is why rural families tend to be larger.
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But once you’re in cities, kids are an economic drain for much, much longer. They can’t help out in the fields because you haven’t got any fields. If they’re going to get a job, they’ve got to be educated, and in most countries that costs money. And having done all that, as soon as the kids are an economic resource, they probably leave home and set up on their own anyway. Economics that used to favor having children now favor not having children.
Should we be discouraging women in high-poverty, high-population areas from having children?
In short, no. It won't work and will end up being coercive. By and large, women want to have fewer children, even in high-poverty areas, and provided some basic conditions are met -- access to contraception, obviously -- they will do it. There are numerous examples. They don't need persuading. The holdouts are generally communities with perceived serious "survival issues" like Palestinians in Gaza and ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem, or those where it is in their interests to have more children, like in parts of rural Africa, or where there are overbearing patriarchies that prevent access to contraception. Conversely, encouraging women in low-fertility countries to have more children won’t work without draconian measures. For proof of that, see the failure of the Catholic Church: It ends up encouraging patriarchal social norms that push women toward ultra-low fertility, such as in Italy.
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What do you think that the world will look like in 100 years?
Well, a gradually falling population would in general reduce global environmental threats, depending on consumption patterns. It could go lots of ways. It’ll be a society in which older people have longer lives and much healthier lives, with an average age in the 40s. I think there’s going to be a huge premium on healthier older age.
The aging of the population is clearly going to have a huge effect on our economy. How are we going to pay for it?
We have to harness older people as a resource. Their wisdom and knowledge is a huge resource, whether it is middle-class professionals becoming consultants when they retire, or looking after grandchildren so their own children can work. They are the social glue running things. All of this needs to be harnessed. Yes, the old will have to work longer. Why not? We will need to work harder on medical technology to ensure that the old stay fitter longer. Much of the reproductive revolution happened by keeping young kids from dying. Now we need another revolution to keep the old fitter for longer.
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I think aging will be beneficial, too. The old tend to be less addicted to the ephemeral and disposable. They value things that last. They often value things that don't involve consumption, but "softer" things that bring enjoyment, like families. We need more of that. I think my mantra about being "older, wiser, greener" is a likely outcome.
So, you think the crash is probably going to be a good thing?
Yes, I think declining population can be a good thing so long as it isn't too precipitate. Current fertility rates in parts of Europe could see whole populations basically shrivel up and die. That could be too disruptive. But a "soft landing" could be good.
If chaos theory taught us anything, it’s that societies head off in all kinds of directions we couldn’t predict. Fifty years ago, if we had taken a slightly different path in industrial chemistry and used bromine instead of chlorine, we’d have burned out the entire ozone layer before we knew what the hell was going on, and the world would have been very different. There’s always scary stuff out there that we may not know about. You can’t predict the future. You can just try and plan for it. | {
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Bitcoin, the world's first peer-to-peer digital currency, fell below $3 on Monday. That represents a 90 percent fall since the currency hit its peak in early June.
Supporters argue that Bitcoin has fundamental advantages over conventional currencies. The system is designed to transfer funds without a central authority, freeing Bitcoin users from bank fees and government regulations. The Bitcoin protocol offers robust anonymity, and the protocol guarantees that there will never be more than 21 million Bitcoins in existence, which supporters have argued would give the currency a stable value.
Unfortunately, the currency's value hasn't proven stable in practice. Several waves of media coverage between April and June pushed the currency's value up from less than $1 to more than $30. Soon after it reached a peak, the currency had a series of PR disasters. One Bitcoin user claimed that a half-million dollars worth of Bitcoins were stolen from his PC; he may have fallen victim to Bitcoin-stealing malware. A few days later, the most popular Bitcoin exchange was hacked, forcing a multiday suspension of trading and generating another wave of bad press.
Trading resumed in late June at around $17, and the currency's value has been steadily declining ever since. In August, one of the most popular Bitcoin "banks" claimed it had been hacked, and had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Bitcoins, triggering a fall in value to under $7. Bitcoin fell below $5 in September, and it is now worth less than $3.
So is Bitcoin doomed? The value of Bitcoins is (like any fiat currency) ultimately driven by supply and demand. With dollars, the supply is controlled by the Federal Reserve, and the demand is driven by the size of the US economy. The supply of Bitcoins grows automatically, asymptotically approaching 21 million, and the demand for Bitcoins is driven by the volume of Bitcoin-denominated transactions.
And that's Bitcoin's fundamental challenge: as far as we can tell, the volume of Bitcoin-denominated transactions is tiny. True, there are a few hundred merchants who say they accept Bitcoin, but most of them appear to be small concerns, and almost all of them also accept dollars, euros, or another national currency. They may do only a small fraction of their business in Bitcoins.
And that's not surprising. While Bitcoin doesn't have any formal transaction fees, transacting in Bitcoins carries risks that dealing in dollars or euros does not. If users store Bitcoins on their PCs, there's a risk that malware will gain access to their wallets and steal their funds. Conversely, if they put their Bitcoins in an "e-wallet" service online like MyBitcoin, there's a risk that that service will have a security breach, or that the owners of the service will themselves turn out to be crooks.
There are also risks due to volatility. For example, Bitcoins lost about 15 percent of their value on Monday between 8am and noon on the East Coast. Someone who bought Bitcoins on Monday morning expecting to spend them on Monday afternoon might find that Bitcoin-denominated prices had suddenly risen by 15 percent. The 2 percent transaction fee on credit cards might seem downright reasonable in comparison.
The current value of Bitcoin—just under $3—is still significantly above the April price of around $1. It's theoretically possible that the volume of Bitcoin commerce will grow enough to halt the slide in the currency's value. But the value of a currency is built on its reputation, and five months of bad news and depreciation have done serious damage. Indeed, the mood on Bitcoin forums has turned grim, with Bitcoin fans giving one another pep talks and debating how low the price can fall before the currency is declared dead. It'll be difficult to pull out of that kind of tailspin. | {
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Time is ripe for world’s second-largest economy to cut the ties that bind yuan to the US dollar, expert says | {
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Marmite hater? We're so sorry - Lola's Cupcakes have ruined some perfectly decent chocolate, eggs and butter for you. Should you be a firm supporter of all things Marmite - read on.
The divisive spread has teamed up with Lola's Cupcakes to create one of the more unusual cupcake recipes we've encountered - featuring a salted Marmite caramel centre and Marmite-flavoured frosting.
Anyone who's dipped dark chocolate in a pot of Marmite (we've all experimented, right?) will already be aware of how well these two unlikely flavour companions work together.
Available for £2.75 from Lola stores for the next four weeks, you can try your hand at making your own Marmite cupcakes by using the Recipe App on the Marmite Facebook page or by following the recipe below.
_______________________________________________________
Marmite Cupcake Recipe
Makes 12 cupcakes
Prep Time:
Base: 15mins
Insert: 10mins
Frosting: 15mins
Plus 3 hours to leave Ganache to set
Ingredients
Base
Dark/ bittersweet chocolate chopped 100g
Chopped Butter 175g
Caster Sugar 225g
Eggs 4
Self Raising flour 100g
Cocoa powder 2 ½ tbsp
Insert
Caramel condensed milk 240g
Marmite 80g
Or to make you own caramel condensed milk:
Cold water 60ml
Caster Sugar 165g
Double Cream 125ml
Marmite 80g
Frosting
Butter 120g
Icing Sugar 500g
Milk 1tbsp
Marmite 100g
Ganache
Dark Chocolate 300g
Double cream 300g
_______________________________________________________
Method
Base
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/ Gas mark 4.
2. Put the chocolate and the butter in a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering, over a pan of simmering water. Heat, stirring, until the chocolate melts and you have a smooth glossy mixture. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. Let cool for 10 minutes.
3. Now beat with an electric hand mixer for 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time beating for 10 seconds between each addition. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt into the bowl and beat until blended.
4. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases. Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until well risen and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.
Insert
Mix the condensed caramel and marmite together until fully incorporated.
Or to make you own caramel condensed milk:
1. Put the sugar and the water into a saucepan and put on a medium heat and boil without stirring until it becomes a deep amber colour.
2. Brush down the sides of a pan with a brush dipped in water to prevent crystallisation.
3. Remove from the heat. Whisk in the cream slowly and carefully this may spit, stir in the marmite. Leave to cool.
Make an insertion in the cupcake with an apple corer. Fill with the marmite caramel.
Ganache:
1. Put the chocolate into a large bowl.
2. Heat the cream in a saucepan on a medium heat keep stirring until it starts to boil then add it to the chocolate and stir until all the chocolate has melted and created an emulsion.
3. Best to leave to set for 2 or 3 hours in a cool environment.
Buttercream:
1. Beat the butter until light and fluffy slowly add the icing sugar and beat until it is fully combined and light and airy.
2. Carefully beat in the marmite until it is all mixed in add the milk if it needs softening.
3. Place the buttercream and ganache in 2 separate piping bags and place in another piping bag with a star nozzle. Pipe a dual swirl onto the top of the cupcake.
Let us know how yours turn out in the comments below. | {
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Cameras in phones are ubiquitous. Few of us see the need to carry a dedicated device for taking photos or videos anymore, and digital camera sales have slumped. But how did we get here? Let’s take a look at the history of the camera phone.
Samsung Sharp built the first camera phone
The first cell phone with a built-in camera was manufactured by Samsung and released in South Korea in June of 2000. The SCH-V200 flipped open to reveal a 1.5-inch TFT-LCD, and the built-in digital camera was capable of taking 20 photos at 350,000-pixel resolution, which is 0.35-megapixels, but you had to hook it up to a computer to get your photos. The camera and the phone components were essentially separate devices housed in the same body.
There’s a strong argument that the first real camera phone was produced by Sharp and released in Japan by J-Phone (now SoftBank Mobile) in November of 2000. The J-SH04 could take photos, like the one on the right (from Japanese site Showcase) at 110,000-pixel resolution or 0.11-megapixels. The real difference between it and the Samsung SCH-V200 was the fact that the J-SH04 allowed you to send your photos electronically. Here’s how the BBC reported on it back in 2001, the comments are priceless.
First U.S. camera phone – Sanyo SCP-5300
It was November 2002 before the U.S. adopted the crazy Japanese trend with the Sanyo SCP-5300 on Sprint. It cost $400 and it featured a chunky clamshell design. With a 0.3-megapixel capability, it could capture shots at 640 x 480 pixels. The one pictured on the left comes from this IGN review. The Sanyo SCP-5300 also had a basic flash, white balance control, self-timer, digital zoom, and various filter effects like sepia, black and white, and negative colors.
By the end of 2003, camera phones were really taking off in the U.S. and over 80 million had already been sold worldwide. We even covered the trend by reporting that camera phones rival DVD players sales back in November 2003. The good news for consumers was that quality was rising and prices were dropping.
1.3MP arrives with Audiovox PM8920
Continuing to push the camera phone trend, Sprint released the PM8920 in July of 2004. It was the first phone in the U.S. to feature a 1.3-megapixel camera capable of capturing 1280 x 960 pixel resolution shots. Not only could you share these pictures wirelessly, they were good enough to print as well. It had a dedicated camera button and a decent variety of settings, including a multi-shot option for taking eight quick photos in a row, and the ability to record your own shutter sound. It was available for $150 after rebates ($299 RRP).
By the end of 2004 the camera phone was riding high. Canalys reported that over half of the phones sold worldwide in the first 9 months of 2004 had cameras in them, and two-thirds of all the phones shipped in the third quarter were camera phones. Leading the way was Finnish manufacturer, Nokia.
2MP in the Nokia N90
In 2005 the Nokia N90 landed to take the camera phone to new heights. Not only did it boast a 2MP camera, it also had Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, and an LED flash. It will probably be best remembered for that rotating screen, which gave it a camcorder feel. Here’s our Nokia N90 review from back in the day.
Sony steps it up
The main competitor for Nokia in the camera arms race was Sony Ericsson. Carrying Sony’s Cyber-shot digital camera branding there were quite a few decent releases intended to steal Nokia’s camera phone crown, not least the Sony Ericsson K800i released in 2006. It had a 3.2MP camera with auto-focus, image stabilization, and a Xenon flash. The photo on the right was taken with the Sony Ericsson K790i variant which had the same camera.
Nokia naturally retaliated with models like the 3.2MP N73, but in 2007 the feature phone reached its pinnacle.
5MP in the Nokia N95
Samsung produced the first 5-megapixel camera phone, but the first one to prove really popular was Nokia’s N95. It was a chunky slider packed with features, but none were as impressive as that 5-megapixel camera with the Carl Zeiss lens. It took beautiful photos and it could record video at 30 frames-per-second. In fact, 5MP remained as a high-end standard for several years. Sadly for Nokia the smartphone revolution was just around the corner, and our Nokia N95 review bemoaned the lack of a touchscreen. A good camera would not be enough to keep Nokia on the rise.
To put it in perspective, the original iPhone hit the market a few months after the N95, in June 2007, and it had a 2MP camera with no flash or auto-focus and no video recording capability.
8MP from Samsung
In 2008 the Samsung i8510, also known as the INNOV8, held the first 8MP camera to hit the market, but in design terms Samsung was copying the wrong company. This release looked like part of Nokia’s N range, but these designs were growing steadily less popular. Nokia followed suit with the N86, but it was LG that released the first touchscreen camera phone with an 8MP camera. It was called the LG Renoir.
The race for megapixels continued and Samsung hit 12MP first with the M8910 Pixon12 in 2009. It was soon bested by Nokia’s N8 in 2010 and the 16MP Sony Ericsson S006 at the end of the year.
Smartphones stall the camera’s progress
The race to improve the cameras in phones stalled a bit as smartphones took off. The iPhone proved that there were more important features than the camera. It was also vital for manufacturers to produce slim, attractive devices, and the really powerful camera phones up to that point had all been seriously chunky. Some exasperated commentators also tried to point out that the quality of a camera is about more than just the number of megapixels. This series of photos by Lisa Bettany compares different iPhone models.
3D flop
Both HTC and LG tried to jump on the 3D bandwagon in 2011 and released phones with dual 5MP cameras capable of taking photos or capturing video in stereographic 3D. As it turned out, there was no real demand.
Most manufacturers seemed to be getting the message. The focus was shifting to software features that would offer extra value for people interested in photography.
The rise of software features for cameras
We’ve had Photo Sphere from Google and Panorama mode from Apple. BlackBerry came up with Time Shift and there was the oddly-named Zoe from HTC. We’ve also seen more filters and effects baked into the various mobile platforms, but these are largely things that apps have offered for a long time now. They’re great for people who want to spend the time getting into them, but most of us forget those kinds of novelties pretty quickly. What we really want is good point-and-shoot functionality to capture life in all its spontaneous glory.
Bigger and better
As HTC tries to convince us that a 4-megapixel camera is enough in its HTC One, Nokia is re-igniting the battle with a typically ferocious assault. High-end smartphones, like Sony’s Xperia Z are maxing out at 13-megapixels. Even Samsung’s camera focused S4 variant, the Zoom, only has a 16-megapixel sensor (although the optical zoom is its key feature). The Nokia Lumia 1020 has a 41-megapixel camera in it. This is how it compares to the iPhone 5 (the photo on the left is mislabeled as iPhone 4).
Whether we actually need the cameras in our phones to be too much better than they are now is debatable, but you could say that about a lot of tech. The Chicago Sun-Times publicly sacked photographers and expects iPhone-toting reporters to take their own photos. That may not be the wisest decision, but the fuss it generated was more focused on the skills of the photographer than the equipment. It’s not unusual for a professional photographer to use an iPhone, and it’s far from the most powerful camera phone on the market.
The future for camera phones
The Lumia 1020 looks set to be the best camera phone on the market for some time to come. It’s worth mentioning that Nokia’s first 41-megapixel camera phone was the PureView 808 in early 2012, but because it was stuck on Nokia’s old Symbian smartphone OS (the same one as the N95), sales were nothing special. Windows Phone is a lot better, but it remains to be seen how many people will be tempted in. In any case, you can be certain that the camera phone war is far from over. Things are just heating up, in fact. Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Zoom is coming and the Sony i1 could be a contender later this year.
Editors' Recommendations | {
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