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In the game of merger musical chairs the five biggest health insurers have been playing lately, Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc. hustled to grab the first seats.
The two insurers disclosed their $34.1 billion tie-up after 2 a.m. EDT Friday, as the holiday weekend was beginning and after reports that rivals Anthem Inc. and Cigna Corp. had rekindled talks.
... | {
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After numerous instances over the years of WEEI personalities making offensive comments on air, the Boston radio station will host an all-day mandatory sensitivity Friday, with all live programming suspended from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“Nothing is more important to WEEI than the close-knit and diverse Boston community we call home, and we are actively contributing to its betterment,” WEEI said in a statement. “WEEI is in the process of closely reevaluating our policies and procedures in an effort to ensure that our programming is never intolerant or harmful to our listeners or our city.”
The announcement seems to be a response to WEEI personality Christian Fauria’s use of a stereotypical Asian accent in an impersonation of Tom Brady’s agent Don Yee. Fauria was suspended for the offense, and several WEEI sponsors announced they were breaking off ties to the station.
Fauria’s offensive impression was far from the first instance of crude, distasteful, or discriminatory comments uttered on WEEI’s airwaves. There was the time John Dennis and Gerry Callahan compared an escaped gorilla to an inner-city Metco student. The time Lou Merloni said he was weighing whether to attack protesters with a baseball bat. The time Kirk Minihane questioned whether Adam Jones had fabricated a story of racial abuse from Red Sox fans. The time Minihane called Erin Andrews a “gutless bitch.” The time Alex Reimer called Tom Brady’s 3-year-old daughter “an annoying little pissant.” The times WEEI personalities have callously attacked female journalists such as Charlotte Wilder and Britni de la Cretaz.
We will see what impact, if any, WEEI’s sensitivity training and reevaluation of policies has on the station’s tolerance for these kinds of incidents. | {
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The Chiefs have announced their team to play the Stormers at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton on Friday night, in what will be their last home game before heading on tour for three weeks.
With a number of players returning from injury, the Chiefs coaches have made many changes to their starting line-up and reserve selections.
Jamie Mackintosh returns to start at prop while Brodie Retallick has been cleared to play and is joined in the locking stocks by Matt Symons.
Liam Messam resumes his position at flanker with Liam Squire starting in the No 8 jersey after a solid performance off the bench last week.
James Lowe gets his first start on the wing and Tom Marshall will make his Chiefs debut after earning 42 Super Rugby caps over three seasons at the Crusaders.
Gareth Anscombe makes his long awaited return to rugby at fullback in his first match of the season. Pauliasi Manu, Michael Fitzgerald, Robbie Fruean and Asaeli Tikoirotuma all move to the bench.
The match will mark inspirational Chiefs player Tanerau Latimer's 100th Super Rugby match; an occasion he will mark alongside Stormers captain Jean de Villiers.
Chiefs Coach Dave Rennie said, "Over the last couple of years the Stormers have had the best defensive record in the competition and you saw why against the Crusaders.
"They obviously have a lot of character in their group and they are going to be a tough defensive unit to crack."
Chiefs XV
1. Jamie Mackintosh
2. Mahonri Schwalger
3. Ben Tameifuna
4. Matt Symons
5. Brodie Retallick
6. Liam Messam
7. Tanerau Latimer
8. Liam Squire
9. Tawera Kerr-Barlow
10. Aaron Cruden (C)
11. James Lowe
12. Tom Marshall
13. Charlie Ngatai
14. Tim Nanai-Williams
15. Gareth Anscombe
Replacements
16. Rhys Marshall
17. Pauliasi Manu
18. Josh Hohneck
19. Michael Fitzgerald
20. Tevita Koloamatangi
21. Brad Webber
22. Robbie Fruean
23. Asaeli Tikoirotuma | {
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It's hard to ignore a 6-foot, 8-inch former two-time NBA champion when he's sternly emphasizing shooting, ball handling and defensive techniques from the sidelines.
Former Chicago Bulls power forward Cliff Levingston used to battle guys like Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan day in and day out, and now his focus is on a far younger and less experienced group at his GoodNews Basketball Camps. The camps are sponsored by Strack & Van Til and NIPSCO.
This week, Levingston is making Marquette Catholic High School his classroom.
"The kids are great," Levingston said. "It's fun and exciting to watch them learn throughout the week. You see kids getting better and more confident every day."
Levingston's camps are a week long and his summer is booked with multiple camps in Michigan City and Gary and emphasizes just about every aspect of the game.
"This camp gets really down to the fundamentals," said Taytum Torres, a Portage High School incoming freshman. "I go to a lot of camps and at most of them we just play games. At Coach Cliff's camp we are here to learn and get better by doing drills." | {
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The Andy Warhol Foundation
$100m-worth of Elvises
“EIGHT ELVISES” is a 12-foot painting that has all the virtues of a great Andy Warhol: fame, repetition and the threat of death. The canvas is also awash with the artist's favourite colour, silver, and dates from a vintage Warhol year, 1963. It did not leave the home of Annibale Berlingieri, a Roman collector, for 40 years, but in autumn 2008 it sold for over $100m in a deal brokered by Philippe Ségalot, the French art consultant. That sale was a world record for Warhol and a benchmark that only four other artists—Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning and Gustav Klimt—have ever achieved.
Warhol's oeuvre is huge. It consists of about 10,000 artworks made between 1961, when the artist gave up graphic design, and 1987, when he died suddenly at the age of 58. Most of these are silk-screen paintings portraying anything from Campbell's soup cans to Jackie Kennedy and Mao Zedong, drag queens and commissioning collectors. Warhol also created “disaster paintings” from newspaper clippings, as well as abstract works such as shadows and oxidations. The paintings come in series of various sizes. There are only 20 “Most Wanted Men” canvases, for example, but about 650 “Flower” paintings. Warhol also made sculpture and many experimental films, which contribute greatly to his legacy as an innovator.
The Warhol market is considered the bellwether of post-war and contemporary art for many reasons, including its size and range, its emblematic transactions and the artist's reputation as a trendsetter. Since 2002 Warhol has consistently been one of the three most traded artists. In 2007, at the height of the boom, auction sales of his work added up to $428m, the highest turnover of any artist. In the past two years the figures have dropped steeply and the prolific Picasso has returned to the top spot (see chart 5), but nobody seems too worried. Alberto Mugrabi, whose family owns some 800 Warhol works, notes that “two years ago we were selling ten Warhols a month, now we're selling two a month, but we're selling them for the same price. Either we get our price or we don't sell the painting.” The market appears to agree that prices for the best Warhols are recession-proof. Earlier this month a 1962 work, “200 One Dollar Bills”, sold for $43.8m, the second-highest price for a Warhol at auction.
“Warhol really consists of two markets,” explains Brett Gorvy, co-head of Christie's contemporary-art department. “One market chases ultra-rare, art-historically relevant paintings from the 1960s. The other is a perfect volume market where 24-inch Flowers and single Jackies trade like any other commodity.” Behind Warhol's fine-art market lies an active trade in limited-edition prints and, beyond that, a range of consumer goods that are licensed to use Warhol images. The cover of Madonna's new album of greatest hits features a close-up of the pop star as Warhol's Marilyn Monroe. “One reason why the Warhol market is so vibrant—even if it has receded in this economy—is that there is something incredibly cool about Andy,” says Larry Gagosian, a dealer who is active in the Warhol market. “He feels like a living artist. He is incredibly present in our culture.”
Warhol's importance as a symbol is immense. He is not just famous; he has been a dominant influence on many of the most successful artists today, including Jeff Koons (see article), Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince. He redefined the role of the artist as a “creative director”—more of an architect than a craftsman—who is acutely aware of the media resonance of his art. “In future Warhol will be much more important than Picasso,” says Gerard Faggionato, a London dealer, “because he is more relevant to the younger generation.”
Enigma variations
During Warhol's lifetime and for a good while after his death, the art world could not decide whether the artist was superficial or deep, subversive or conservative, boring or provocative. The lack of consensus contributed to his current market dominance by keeping his ideas in the air.
Warhol's tendency to make more work than his collectors could possibly buy flew in the face of art-world etiquette. But Bruno Bischofberger, a Swiss dealer, notes that “Picasso and Mozart were incredibly prolific. If the production is good, it doesn't matter. It damages the market but not the art. It's irrelevant to the work itself.” Vincent Fremont, an art adviser who worked for Warhol from 1969 until his death, says that “Andy liked quantity. Ten was usually better than one.” Indeed, Warhol was such a shopaholic that when Sotheby's auctioned the contents of his home it took ten days to sell the 10,000 objects.
Warhol's death coincided with a boom in the art market, and his work did well at auctions in 1988 and 1989. However, with the bust in 1990 sales dropped dramatically, and by May 1993 the Warhol market was pronounced all but dead when 16 paintings came up for auction and only two found buyers. Yet in 1996 Warhol's status was propelled upwards by a single sale that harked back to his first solo show. In 1962 Irving Blum, a Los Angeles dealer, had exhibited 32 hand-painted canvases depicting tins of soup, then acquired the entire series for $1,000, paying Warhol in ten monthly instalments. Blum held on to the paintings until 1996 when he sold “32 Campbell's Soup Cans” to the Museum of Modern Art in New York for $15m. In addition to setting a new benchmark price, the sale signalled Warhol's canonisation.
In an oeuvre so vast, what makes one Warhol more valuable than others? Rarity and aesthetic issues such as the quality of the screen, clarity of the figure, intensity of the colour and size of the picture are important, but the deciding factor is subject matter. And the subject most consistently in demand is Marilyn Monroe.
Warhol made his first Marilyn paintings in August 1962, shortly after the actress committed suicide. He started with a series of small solo Marilyns known as the “flavours” and graduated to larger, multiple ones. When a selection of the paintings was exhibited that year, they were pronounced “beautiful, vulgar, heart-breaking” evocations of the “myths of our time”. Two years later Warhol made five more solo Marilyns in a larger size, which are now among the most coveted in the Warhol oeuvre. They are exquisitely rendered and gained extra allure when an unstable member of Warhol's entourage fired a gun at the forehead of “Blue Marilyn,” puncturing the “Red Marilyn” stacked behind it. The damage became the stuff of legend.
Those two paintings are now owned by the two men with the best Warhol collections in private hands. Peter Brant, a Connecticut newsprint magnate, bought the blue version in 1967 for $5,000. “A Cadillac cost $3,500. It was a lot of money back then,” he says. Philippe Niarchos, a Paris-based shipping heir, bought “Red” at Christie's in 1994 for $3.6m, a bargain compared with the $4.1m which it sold for during the 1980s boom. The three other Marilyns in this 1964 series are owned by Samuel I. Newhouse, Doris Ammann and Steven Cohen (who bought his for $80m in 2007).
Many connoisseurs think that Warhol's death-and-disaster paintings, which appropriated newspaper images of car crashes, race riots and electric chairs, are the most significant part of his oeuvre. Their harsh imagery counteracts the artist's reputation as a star-struck commercial painter and distinguishes him from less ambitious Pop artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Tom Wesselmann. In the late 1960s and early 1970s they did not sell easily, but now the auction record for a Warhol, $71.7m, is held by Mr Niarchos's “Green Car Crash,” which depicts a burning car from which one of the passengers has been ejected and freakishly pinned to a lamp-post.
In 1968 Warhol was shot in the chest and nearly died. For several years he produced very little art. When he returned to work, it was to paint one of the world's most famous men, China's Chairman Mao, with a “vigour and momentum previously unseen,” claims Neil Printz, co- author of the artist's catalogue raisonné. The artist's first series of Maos did not sell easily. In the early 1970s few collectors wanted an oversized communist in their living room. However, with the rise of Asian art-buying Maos have been commanding higher prices, such as the $17.4m paid at Christie's for a big blue one by Joseph Lau, the Hong Kong collector. In early 2008 a Chinese collector offered $100m for a “Giant Mao”, but the owner turned it down. There are some 200 Maos in a range of sizes, but only four giants. According to James Mayor, the British dealer who represents the owner, that sum would now be “seriously considered”.
Warhol's international appeal is explained partly by the popular roots and easy intelligibility of his visual style, but it also owes something to the efforts of Mr Bischofberger, the Zurich-based dealer who was the driving force behind the distribution of the artist's work for many years. Mr Bischofberger's knack for placing the work in collections across Europe makes the markets of other American artists look parochial. He was also instrumental in launching three of the best Warhol collections in private hands. The late Thomas Ammann worked for Mr Bischofberger before building up a stellar collection of Warhols for the Schmidheiny family's Daros Foundation. Mr Bischofberger also introduced Warhol's work to Mr Niarchos and Mr Brant, whom he had met as teenagers in St Moritz.
Mr Brant, one of the biggest Warhol collectors anywhere, started buying in 1967 and was a founding shareholder with Mr Bischofberger of Warhol's magazine, Interview. In May 1970 Mr Brant consigned “Soup Can with Peeling Label” to Sotheby's Parke-Bernet. The work sold for a record price of $60,000 to Mr Bischofberger.
When asked how many Warhols he owns today, Mr Brant replies: “I swear to you, I have no idea. It's not about numbers but quality.” He has been trading Warhols for over 40 years, but says that “you need new collectors for competitiveness and creative juices.”
Nowadays the two dealers who drive the Warhol market are Mr Gagosian and Mr Mugrabi. Mr Gagosian started showing Warhol in the 1980s. “Andy was very straightforward in business. We'd have informal conversations over a tuna sandwich,” he says. Mr Gagosian gave Warhol his last New York exhibition before his death and continues to present the artist's works systematically in carefully curated shows with scholarly catalogues.
In spring 2008 Mr Gagosian spent more than $200m on an undisclosed number of Warhols (insiders suggest between 15 and 20) from the Sonnabend estate. He is said to have had the financial backing of Mr Cohen, the buyer of the $80m “Marilyn”, and a Russian oligarch rumoured to be Mikhail Fridman, owner of Alfa Bank. Mr Gagosian has since sold a few of the paintings—a 1965 Campbell's soup can at Art Basel in June and a car-crash painting to Richard Prince, an artist.
To buy, to sell and to keep
The biggest number of Warhols are traded by the Mugrabi family. “I don't know if Warhol is important. All I know is that I love him,” says Mr Mugrabi père, José. During the downturn of the early 1990s he began buying up Warhols that he felt were undervalued, such as portraits of Jackie Kennedy, an important image in Warhol's repertoire. Since then the Mugrabis have been constantly buying and selling and have accumulated some 800 works, including several masterpieces such as “Marilyn Monroe (Twenty Times)”.
Mr Mugrabi and his two sons bid on Warhol at auction with such regularity that they are sometimes accused of manipulation. Art-market insiders, however, prefer the term “support”. As Sandy Heller, a New York-based art consultant, explains, “people with inventory put their money where their mouth is. It's like dollar-averaging in equities. If you see a work going for less than your average cost and you truly believe in an artist, then you buy more.” As Stefan Edlis, a Chicago collector, puts it, “I don't think you can manipulate such large markets, but you can have price leadership.”
Warhol-market insiders are still not sure where “Eight Elvises,” the $100m-plus picture, now hangs. But despite the secrecy at the very top, volume alone probably makes the Warhol market more transparent than that of any other artist, living or dead. The vertical reach of the Warhol brand is so vast that it makes the span of the most successfully diffused fashion house, from eau de cologne to haute couture, seem positively squat by comparison. That seems appropriate for an artist who merged high and low like no other. | {
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A fish processor's healed hand warts has alerted scientists to the herpes-fighting properties of the blue blood of the Tasmanian blacklip abalone.
Researchers have found the abalone from pristine bays along the state's coast contain potent anti-viral properties that chemical engineers and virologists have shown block the herpes virus's entry into cells.
Scientists have discovered the same protein that gives the blood its blue colour also has anti-viral properties.
Adrian Cuthbertson from Marine Biotechnologies Australia, which is working with University of Sydney staff and other researchers, said the potential of the abalone blood in developing a better treatment was a chance discovery.
"Initially we started out looking at the prospect of developing an immune support supplement, and that serendipitously led us to the discovery that it was effective on cold sores," he said.
Mr Cutherbertson said 10 years ago when the company was involved in abalone serum trials relating to cancer treatments, patients reported fewer cases of cold sore breakouts.
"Around the same time we had an employee responsible for loading and unloading abalone shell containers," he said.
"After a month of working with the shellfish, he found the viral warts which had plagued his hands for years disappeared."
Mr Cuthbertson said he then contacted chemical engineers at the University of Sydney and virus researchers at the Westmead Millennium Institute to work on the discovery.
Abalone properties inhibit herpes
Most herpes medication works to manage the symptoms, but the anti-viral properties found in abalone act as a preventative measure.
Professor Fariba Dehghan, director of the university's bioengineering research, said their study showed the particular abalone hemocyanin inhibited the herpes simplex infection.
She said hemocyanins had a primary function of collecting and delivering oxygen to tissues.
"We know once infection occurs the virus integrates itself into a body's nerve cells, where it lays dormant awaiting reactivation," she said
"When awakened it travels back along the nerve tracks to the surface where it takes the form of watery blisters and ulcers on the skin."
Professor Tony Cunningham from Westmead Millennium Institutes said researchers were confident they could develop a therapy to replace current treatments that shorten the disease but do not kill the virus.
"With the information we have now, we are hopeful that we can develop an anti-viral therapy that will prevent or reduce the recurrence of the virus and/or hasten healing of the lesions," he said.
Mr Cuthbertson said there was a potential for a boost to Tasmania's abalone industry when a commercial product was developed.
Sorry, this video has expired Abalone discovery leads to herpes treatment hope ( Richard Baines )
"In terms of the abalone industry for Tasmania, it has the potential to substantially increase the value of it - this is, if you like, the ultimate value-add process," he said.
"We've now got to the stage where there's every possibility that we can develop pharmaceutical drugs from some of the bi-products.
"We would be hopeful that in the next 18 months to two years that we've got some serious interest from pharmaceutical companies."
The anti-viral therapy's form is still unclear and researchers said it was possible it could be a cream, a nasal spray or a tablet.
The researchers said more than 70 per cent of Australians carried the herpes simplex 1 virus.
About 13 per cent carry the herpes simplex 2 virus, which can cause genital herpes. | {
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In Karawal Nagar, Tuesday. (Photo: Gajendra Yadav) In Karawal Nagar, Tuesday. (Photo: Gajendra Yadav)
It was around 1 pm. I stopped to write down the mobile number of a bakery shop whose confectionery items and furniture lay singeing in the middle of a road at Northeast Delhi’s West Karawal Nagar.
A man in his 40s walked up to me and asked: “Who are you? What are you doing here?” I introduced myself as a journalist. “Give me your notebook.” He flipped through it and found nothing suspicious, except several phone numbers and my observation of the locality. “You can’t report from here,” he threatened and consigned my notebook into the burning heap of bakery items.
Amid this, a group of around 50 people surrounded me and the clamour to check my phone grew because they were convinced I had clicked photos of the violence. They thumbed through my recent pictures and found no photo or video of the unrest. But they were not taken in and deleted all my photos and videos before returning the phone to me. “Why have you come here?” “Are you from JNU?”. These questions were asked before the group asked me to leave if I cared for my life.This was a precursor to what I was about to encounter.
Also Read | Divided in violence, united in grief: Families of dead say hate is to blame
I was heading towards my bike parked in a street, around 200 metres from the spot.
As I entered a lane where my bike was parked, another group armed with lathis, rods and stanchions waylaid me. Again some men accused me of clicking pictures. A youth, with his face covered, told me to hand over my phone. Reluctant to part with it, I told him all photos had been deleted. He shouted back: “Phone de.” He then stepped behind me and landed a rod on my thighs twice, which made me unsteady for a moment. Expletives poured in. Some sane voices filtered through the din: “What’s more precious to you: Your phone or life?” I gave the phone to the youth. They cheered and the youth disappeared into the crowd.
Explained: What the Delhi government can/cannot do about the violence
I was spared momentarily until another mob followed me. A man, seemingly in his 50s, removed my spectacles, stepped on them and slapped me twice for “reporting from a Hindu-dominated area”. They checked my press card. “Shivnarayan Rajpurohit, hmm. Hindu ho? Bach gaye.” Not satisfied, they wanted more proof whether I was a real Hindu. “Bolo Jai Shri Ram”. I was silent.
Delhi Police at the violence site near Mauzpur-Babbarpur metro. (Express photo by Amit Mehra) Delhi Police at the violence site near Mauzpur-Babbarpur metro. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)
They ordered me to run for my life. “Ek aur bheed aa rahi hai aapke liye (another crowd is coming for you),” one of them said. Shaking, I scampered to my bike. I rummaged my bag for the bike key. Every minute was precious. “Jaldi karo. Wo log chodenge nahi,” said one of the men from the crowd. Finally, I found the key and blindly set off through unknown lanes to the safety of Pushta Road.
📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines
For all the latest Delhi News, download Indian Express App. | {
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Hello and welcome to the very first DiRT Rally Road Book.
What is a Road Book? Well in terms of rally it’s one of the many documents a co driver carries around with them; it’s not the pace notes but it basically contains all of the information he or she needs for an event to get the car and team where they are going.
That’s what this blog series is going to become, everything you need to know about what we’re doing with DiRT Rally (and just as importantly, what you are doing).
So I hope you were all surprised last week at the announcement of DiRT Rally. It’s safe to say we were all nervous about what you’d think of our hard work just like we are for any game but there was something different about is this time; there was an uncertainty to it all. Usually when we put a game out there we know roughly how well it will sell, what the media might say and how the fans will react. DiRT Rally took us out of our comfort zone and pushed us to be better developers. So far I like to think we’re doing well and I hope you all agree too.
DiRT Rally – Out now on Steam
The most important thing for us at the moment is reading your feedback, watching your videos and putting together a list of what you’d like improving and adding to DiRT Rally over the next few months. To give you a better idea of how we’re using that feedback and what we’re working on next I’ll hand you over to Chief Game Designer, Paul Coleman
“This last week has been incredibly exciting. The positive response DiRT Rally has received has been amazing and we are delighted that you have appreciated the direction we have taken. For many of us in the studio this is the first time we have put a game out in Early Access so getting your feedback together and working out how to act on it has been our key priority. We are still taking stock of the situation but it is already clear that there are some key areas of DiRT Rally that we’d like to improve based on your feedback. Some stuff is pretty easy to tweak but other areas are going to take a bit more work to ensure that we get them right for you.
One of the key areas we are focussing on at this early stage is how our Wheel Settings and Force Feedback are working in DiRT Rally. I’ll be honest, while we had poured a lot of effort into our new physics engine we hadn’t gotten round to unravelling our wheel settings and FFB and many of you have quite rightly noticed that the settings the game have shipped with are more suited to a console racer than a PC Sim. We want to get this right for you but to do it right we need to get under the hood and change the way that we do things. We’ve been reading your feedback, speaking to the fans directly (big thanks to Betta Lines for his time) and we have a decent handle on how to improve things.
Our simulation team are now hard at work removing legacy stuff and adding in elements that you have been asking for. We hope to have more info on how this is progressing in the coming weeks but rest assured the early results are looking extremely positive. This isn’t all we are looking at though. There are plenty of refinements and updates that we are making based on stuff you have been calling out as well as working through any bugs that have crept into the game.”
DiRT Rally Online Events
If you’ve been doing the DiRT Daily events you may have seen the name Kevin Abbring at the top of the leaderboard a lot.
Well, Kevin is a WRC driver for Hyundai and got talking to us just after launch on Twitter. A few people were calling hacks on his times which made us chuckle… This guy does this for a living; the fact he’s beating you all furthers our belief that we’ve built the perfect foundation for DiRT Rally. We won’t lie, he puts in a bit of a cheeky corner cut four minutes in but you can’t deny this is some impressive driving.
To learn more about DiRT Rally’s Online Events take a read of our handy guide.
Suggestion Box
Your feedback and ideas are always welcome so we’ve set up two suggestion boxes to help gather them up, one on the Codemasters Forums and another on the Steam Forums. If you’ve got an idea we’d love to hear it but don’t worry, you don’t need to post in both, just use whichever forum you feel most comfortable with.
Early Access Bug Tracker
We’re still catching up with your feedback and reports from last week and as we go along we’re going to be updating our bug tracker. This is a list of all the known issues in DiRT Rally at the moment and what we’re doing about them.
Over To You
Watching what you guys are doing with our game this week has been without doubt the best part of this whole thing, from the memes posted on our subreddit to the videos, livestreams and leagues we’ve seen cropping up.
I could bombard you with a massive list of links (but I won’t). For now here’s a handy list of stuff that’s worth checking out this week.
That’s it for this week, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with the latest DiRTy Gossip, We’ll be back next week but for now I’ll leave you with our favourite video from the last seven days. | {
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Hashtag Inventor Chris Messina Leaves Google to Join Small Startup NeonMob
Chris Messina, known for bringing the hashtag to social media, has left Google after more than three and a half years.
An advocate of open social Web technologies, Messina had first joined Google to lead developer relations for the short-lived Google Buzz product. In recent years, he had worked on user experience design on the Google+ team. His last day was yesterday.
While Messina has kept a somewhat lower profile while working for Google, he’s famous to some for inventing the hashtag in August 2007, a convention that’s now extremely widely used to link conversations across all sorts of media.
Messina said today that he is taking a job at a small, bootstrapped San Francisco startup called NeonMob, which is trying to create a market for digital art. Messina had found the six-person company online, and become fascinated with their efforts to establish the notion of an online art collection. He’ll be head of community and growth, starting next week.
Update: Here’s Messina’s post. | {
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On the second day of its 2017-18 term the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case likely to determine the balance of power between Republicans and Democrats for decades to come. The Court is considering the issue of partisan gerrymandering — the process of drawing legislative district lines to entrench one party’s political power.
When lawmakers engage in partisan gerrymandering they essentially pick who representatives will be before anyone ever sets foot in a ballot box. This is deeply and imminently important because, in the endless election cycles that dominate American politics, the 2018 midterms are just around the corner. Democrats are emphasizing the need to “win back the House.” Republicans highlight the importance of keeping their majority in Congress.
Despite a bruising 2016 campaign and a deficit of 24 House seats, political markers are giving the Democrats hope. The president’s party usually loses seats in midterms. This is particularly true when it controls both the Senate and the House of Representatives. In addition, President Donald Trump’s approval ratings are, to use a technical word, tanking.
But progressives shouldn’t pop champagne corks just yet. Democrats may not be able to translate their strong support into political victory — and the reason has almost nothing to do with their platform or voters, but has everything to do with the issue of partisan gerrymandering.
Let’s say that in State X, for example, 60 percent of registered voters are Democrats, 10 percent are independents, and 30 percent are Republicans. Not all registered voters turn out, but the current climate indicates that Democrats are more likely to go to the polls this midterm cycle, and independents are likely to lean toward Democratic candidates.
Given these variables, one might predict Democrats will win more than half of the state legislative races. But, if Republicans were in power after the last census, when the district lines were drawn, it is the GOP that will likely be the big winners on November 7.
How? Because when lawmakers draw district lines they tend to want to keep their jobs and help fellow party members keep theirs. They do this by “packing” and “cracking” voters when drawing district lines.
When lawmakers pack voters, it means that they put many of one type of voter in a few districts. Democrats, for example, could win by huge margins in a few districts, but never obtain enough votes to win the majority of districts. | {
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Police have released chilling CCTV footage of what they are describing as a 'hate crime', where a group of men have viciously assaulted a couple from behind.The assault took place on Friday, August 22, 2014, at South Ave. in Springfield, and the victims are reported to have sustained serious injuries after they were assaulted by multiple black males.The police in pursuit of the group shown near the end of the video failed to catch up to them,CCTV footage released by Springfield PD | {
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Pope Francis delivered a powerful environmental message Thursday, decrying the selfishness that is ruining the earth and destroying biodiversity.
In three brief addresses to groups affiliated with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), an agency of the United Nations in Rome, the pope spoke about the need to react to environmental degradation with a change in lifestyles.
“Indigenous peoples are a living cry in favor of hope,” Francis said. “They remind us that human beings have a shared responsibility to care for our ‘common home.’ And if certain decisions made so far have spoiled it, it is never too late to learn the lesson and acquire a new lifestyle.”
“It is a matter of adopting a way of acting that, leaving behind superficial approaches and harmful habits, overcomes atrocious individualism, convulsive consumerism and cold selfishness,” he said.
Francis has distinguished himself for his attention to environmental issues such as global warming and carbon dioxide emissions, becoming the first pope to devote an entire encyclical letter to the care of the environment.
In that 2015 text, called by the Latin title Laudato Si, the pontiff said that the earth “is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth” as “once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish.”
He also denounced a failure to recycle paper and other resources, while calling climate change “a global problem with grave implications” as well as “one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day.” Citing “scientific studies,” the pontiff said that “most global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and others) released mainly as a result of human activity.”
“Every effort to protect and improve our world entails profound changes in lifestyles, models of production and consumption, and the established structures of power which today govern societies,” he said.
In his meeting with IFAD Thursday, the pope said that he wished to represent “the yearnings and needs of the multitude of our brothers and sisters who suffer in the world.”
“I wish we could look at their faces without blushing, because finally their cries have been heard and their concerns heeded,” he said. “They live in precarious situations: their air is flawed, their natural resources depleted, their rivers contaminated, their soil acidified.”
While the pope certainly has a point about the gravity of pollution and its effects in many parts of the world, the solutions currently being proposed do nothing to alleviate these problems.
The pope has thrown his moral weight behind the Paris Climate Accord and other United Nations efforts to curb climate change by decreasing carbon dioxide emissions. These misguided programs do nothing to address the very real problem of air and water pollution, focusing instead exclusively on carbon dioxide, a non-toxic gas necessary for the growth of plant life.
In a landmark 2017 study, the prestigious Lancet journal revealed that pollution-related diseases, not climate change, were responsible for an estimated 9 million premature deaths in 2015, or some 15 times more than from all wars and other forms of violence combined.
Pollution is not only the largest environmental cause of disease and premature death in the world today, the study found, but diseases caused by pollution were responsible for roughly 16 percent of all deaths worldwide — “three times more deaths than from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined and 15 times more than from all wars and other forms of violence.”
While to date there has not been a single documented case of a person being killed by carbon dioxide related “global warming,” real pollution of air, water, and land is killing an average of 25,000 people every day across the globe.
The great tragedy is that the powerful of the world ignore the immense devastation wrought by pollution in favor of an ideologically driven crusade against “global warming.”
“Despite its substantial effects on human health, the economy, and the environment, pollution has been neglected, especially in low-income and middle-income countries, and the health effects of pollution are under-estimated in calculations of the global burden of disease,” the Lancet stated in its study.
This health damage from pollution “has particularly been overlooked in both the international development and the global health agendas,” the report continued.
The highly touted Paris Climate Accord goes on and on about greenhouse gas emissions without ever once mentioning the word “pollution” in the entire 27-page document.
If world leaders truly cared about saving human lives, they would focus on eradicating the immense damage caused by air and water pollution rather than wasting their breath attacking the bogeyman of carbon dioxide.
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome | {
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Trump on the Wall, which deserve each other. Reuters photo.
Given Our National Disgrace's blindly idiotic love of walls, it was only a matter of time before he turned up on an infamous one: Israel's Apartheid Wall. This week, the Trumpster - who once famously claimed, "Walls work - just ask Israel" - appeared twice on the wall in the occupied West Bank that daily afflicts Palestinians, offering an opportunity for new selfies and a bittersweet sliver of comic relief. The new images were a gift from Australian street artist Lushsux - not Banksy as initially rumored, though he worked with him on last year's "Dismaland" - who often trolls celebrities but periodically visits political issues. In an earlier sardonic video titled "What's Up, Palestine," Lushsux filmed piles of garbage before zooming to the Apartheid Wall, where he's scrawled, "Open Borders For Israel."
In one of this week's new images mirroring Trump's farcical visit to the Western Wall, he leans intimately into the wall, with a thought bubble promising, "I'm going to build you a brother." In another, he hugs an IDF watchtower as heart-shaped emojis issue from him alongside the wall's usual angry signs of protest and anguish. Like his lunatic claim that "this beautiful, impenetrable wall will be constructed," both images pay tribute to Trump's persistent belief in stupid, ill-informed, entirely unvetted solutions to complex problems - a belief horribly clear in this week's leaked transcripts of his cringeworthy conversations with Mexican and Australian leaders. Again, he summons the fabulous success of apartheid-torn, internationally despised Israel - "You know, you look at Israel" - to convince Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto of his wisdom in all things. Real quote: "Bibi says the wall works." Oy. Artists and resisters, have at him.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Never Miss a Beat. Get our best delivered to your inbox.
Loving us some colonial totalitarianism. Reuters photo
Meanwhile, on the Palestinian side. AFP/Getty Image | {
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When he looks back at the actions of Russia over time and its dealings with the United States, the general said, “For me the most important thing we can really do is maintain a strong nuclear deterrent.”
The American approach toward Russia, he said, “has got to be some behavior that gets them to the table.”
General Weinstein is among those who have accused the Russians of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987. That pact was the first time the superpowers agreed to reduce their arsenals.
Russia has denied it is in violation of the accord, but the dispute constituted an additional irritant in the deteriorating relations with the Kremlin under Mr. Obama.
President Trump has sent mixed signals about his stance toward Russia and nuclear weapons. While he has expressed admiration for Mr. Putin — and has been fighting accusations by critics that Russia meddled in the American election to help him win — Mr. Trump has asserted that he wants to increase America’s nuclear might.
In December, Mr. Trump said in a Twitter post that the United States must “greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”
On Tuesday in Washington, Christopher Ford, the National Security Council’s senior director for weapons of mass destruction and counterproliferation, offered some further insight into the views of the administration, saying it would re-examine the policy of nuclear disarmament. | {
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FOTO: Facebook
Victor Ponta a refuzat să comenteze, la un post de televiziune, dosarele DNA în care apar nume importante din politică sau afaceri. A spus totuşi că nu înţelege de ce procurorii cer neapărat permisiunea pentru arestarea fostului ministru al transporturilor Dan Şova.
„Mă enervează persistenţa cu care propaganda îi prosteşte pe oameni. S-a împiedicat justiţia în cazul Dan Şova. Nu s-a împiedicat, pentru că toţi parlamentarii pot fi trimişi în judecată fără să se ceară aprobarea Parlamentului. Dacă omul vrea să fie trimis în judecată şi eu vin şi spun: Nu vreau să te trimit în judecată, vreau să te arestez!, sigur că nu înţeleg aceste lucruri, dar nu le pot comenta şi este mai bine să nu le comentez eu”, a declarat premierul la Antena 3.
Premierul a mai spus că imaginea României ca una din cele mai corupte țări ale Uniunii Europene este întreţinută artificial, pentru a fi păstrat mecanismul de supraveghere asupra justiţiei.
Din pacate in Romania nu vom putea progresa cat timp se practica manipularea si minciunile cele mai grosolane si... Posted by Victor Ponta on Sunday, April 19, 2015
„Motivaţia că la noi ai voie să faci nişte lucruri pentru că noi suntem mai răi este o explicaţie gen Monica Macovei: Nouă ne trebuie MCV pentru că suntem răi! Te promovezi în străinătate vorbind de rău şi spunând că românii trebuie trataţi altfel pentru că sunt periculoşi. Am fost în Italia de exemplu şi ştiu că este corupţie, Slavă Domnului, şi în Italia”, a spus Victor Ponta.
Șeful executivului susține că argumentele în baza cărora este păstrat Mecanismul de Cooperare şi Verificare în cazul României sunt valabile şi pentru toate celelalte state ale Uniunii Europene.
Un punct de vedere similar l-a exprimat și ministrul justiției, Robert Cazanciuc, în emisiunea „Imparțial” de la Digi24. | {
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Here's the accused attacker. Her name is Jessica Collins. She's charged with assault. #abc13eyewitness pic.twitter.com/qnVSOywFy3 — Tom Abrahams (@TomAbrahams13) July 16, 2018
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A Conroe woman was arrested and accused of biting off a large piece of an acquaintance's nose and then swallowing it.Jessica Collins, 41, is charged with assault-bodily injury.The woman whom Collins' is accused of attacking told Eyewitness News that she's afraid to leave her bedroom."It's where I feel safe," said the victim, a woman we are identifying as "Tatiana."Tatiana says she went out to a bar on Wednesday night with her next-door neighbor and Collins, who was temporarily staying with the neighbor.She said they returned to her home after the bar, and Collins demanded more alcohol and cigarettes.According to Tatiana, when she told Collins to leave her property, she said the woman jumped on her and pulled her to the ground by her hair.Collins then allegedly bit off a large piece of Tatiana's nose and swallowed it."I didn't have time to react, to push her away," said Tatiana. "I think I was trying to fight back, but I couldn't. All I could remember was the taste of blood in my mouth."She says she passed out several times and didn't realize her nose was injured until she was in the ambulance."I started calling my husband when I was in the ambulance," Tatiana said. "I was screaming, like, 'I don't have a nose. I'm 28 years old and I don't have a nose anymore.'"Doctors told Tatiana that she will need urgent plastic surgery, but she does not have health insurance. The surgery must happen within two weeks or it will become more complicated, doctors say.Friends of Tatiana have established a GoFundMe account to help with the cost of the surgery.Collins was released on bond Monday. | {
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Here's what you need to know...
Serious lifters know the importance of taking a back-off week to promote recovery and accelerate progress. But taking what's called a "contrast week" is even better. Bodybuilding programs often leave out strength work while powerlifting programs often minimize hypertrophy work. The contrast week is where you can fit these missing elements into your program. Contrast weeks can be used to alleviate CNS fatigue, DOMS, or repetitive overuse injuries. As a bonus, they can be a fun mental break. The contrast week is also an opportunity to work on practicing new exercises so they'll be ready to add into your primary training sessions.
Contrast Training Beats Deloading
Deload or "back off" weeks are a commonly accepted feature of traditional programming. The rationale behind the idea of a deload week is supported by Dr. Zatsiorsky's "Two-Factor Theory."
According to the professor: "The immediate effect after a workout is considered a combination of (a) fitness gain prompted by the workout and (b) fatigue. The summation of positive and negative changes determines the final outcome."
Put another way, during extended periods of hard training, your true fitness capacity is "masked" by accumulated fatigue. During a deload, however, fatigue evaporates, allowing your true fitness potential to be expressed.
Typically, deload weeks are regularly scheduled – most commonly every fourth week. Despite this, I've argued against the idea of a planned back off week, since you'll inevitably have unplanned deload weeks due to unexpected illness, injury, and/or outside obligations that always seem to pop up without warning.
One flaw of this approach is that it's probably better to be proactive than reactive. In other words, rather than wait for an injury or illness to bite you in the ass, it's better to deload a bit in a regularly-scheduled manner to prevent these issues from cropping up in the first place.
However, there's be a third approach to the issue: scheduled contrast weeks.
Contrast and Fatigue Specificity
Could it be that the value of a deload week has less to do with a reduction in work and more to do with a change of pace? A break from the tedium? After all, contrast promotes recovery.
Basically, whenever you're doing anything difficult (resistance training, aerobic training, etc.), you prompt recovery by discontinuing the thing that's causing the fatigue in the first place. This discontinuance can be achieved through two different ways:
Stop all activity Start a different activity
There's of course recovery potential in both approaches, but a concept I call "fatigue specificity" argues for the latter approach: Whenever you engage in a specific type of training, the fatigue it generates has a greater impact on subsequent similar activities than it does on subsequent dissimilar activities.
For example, imagine that you bench-pressed 5 sets of 5 with a very heavy barbell on Monday. On Tuesday, you'll do a second workout. Just for fun, rank the following five options, based on how heavily each will be affected by the fatigue from the previously-performed bench press workout:
Barbell Bench Press 5x5 Barbell Bench Press 2x15 Incline Dumbbell Bench Press 1x30 Squat 3x10 5k Run
I've of course ranked these five workouts from most similar to least similar to the 5x5 bench press session. Therefore #1 will be most affected by fatigue, and #5 the least affected.
While it's true that all of these activities ultimately draw from your total energy resources, it's really only the type of energy that's in least abundance that really matters when it comes to physical training. So borrowing from the examples above, bench pressing 5 sets of 5 draws most heavily on the ATP/glycolytic energy system, while a 5k run relies mostly on the aerobic system.
The contrast week can be used as an opportunity to experiment with new things and get out of your comfort zone – a chance to do things that aren't in your formal program. And believe it or not, often something of even greater difficulty can promote recovery, simply because it's different.
Also remember that all programs are "incomplete" – there's always a compromise. Bodybuilding programs don't focus enough on strength, and powerlifting programs might not target hypertrophy sufficiently. Both approaches often neglect other qualities such as mobility and work capacity. The contrast week can be where you fit these missing components into your program.
The contrast week can also be an opportunity to work on developing new exercises that aren't quite ready for inclusion into your normal program. For example, you might want to do kettlebell snatches or barbell power cleans, but you can't really include them into your program because your technique isn't yet stable. The contrast week is where you can work on these skills until they're ready for prime time.
How to Use a Contrast Week for Your Goals
With the idea that "contrast promotes recovery" in mind, let's look at a few different scenarios where the contrast week can be effectively applied:
Repetitive Overuse Injuries: The fewer skills your sport or favorite activity entails, the more likely you are to experience overuse injuries. Olympic lifting, powerlifting, and kettlebell sport are a few such examples.
When implementing a contrast week for these situations, the primary goal is to dramatically reduce or (preferably) even discontinue the movement patterns that you typically use in normal training, particularly those that seem to create problems.
Powerlifters with sore knees should replace squats with more knee-friendly movements such as back extensions and hip thrusts. O-lifters with sore wrists might be advised to avoid racking the bar on their shoulders during contrast weeks, perhaps by subbing heavy pulls for their normal cleans.
In all cases like these, it's not absolutely necessary to reduce volume or intensity. The goal is to avoid your normal repetitive patterns.
DOMS: Post-workout soreness can affect any type of athlete, although it's probably most problematic for athletes with constant novelty in their training (such as CrossFit) and/or significant eccentric loading.
A contrast week for this application would be focused on minimizing eccentric loading as much as possible, along with limiting your activities to well-mastered and/or familiar skills. These activities might include sprinting, bicycling, or doing Prowler work.
CNS Fatigue: Powerlifters and weightlifters are most affected by central nervous system recovery issues. The contrast week solution for them isn't complete rest, but rather contrasting activities such as moderate-load bodybuilding, work-capacity drills such as sled drags, and anything else that might promote recovery such as foam rolling, massage, or getting some solid sleep.
Psychological Tedium: One of the least-understood aspects of serious athletic training is the constant monotony of training. During contrast weeks, take the opportunity to explore or revisit activities that you don't normally have the chance to enjoy. Doing so will reinvigorate you for the next hard phase of regular training.
Psychic Stress: Regularly battling with very heavy weights sets up a "fight or flight" response. Sometimes it feels almost like narrowly escaping a life-or-death event.
These types of experiences take a heavy psychic toll on the mind and body, and this type of stress accumulates. Use the contrast week to recuperate. Focus on low to moderate-load movements that you don't typically do in your regular training. Emphasize fun, low-stress activities.
Contrast Is Superior To "Rest"
You'll notice that no matter what type of accumulated stress(es) you need to recover from, simply implementing a regularly scheduled contrast week will accelerate recovery without setting you back the way a week of complete inactivity might.
Start implementing this strategy on your next training cycle and you'll be happy with the results!
Related: 10 Principles for Better Programming
Related: The Bodybuilder-Powerlifter Hybrid | {
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The European Banking Authority (EBA) will create a taskforce to advise it on whether virtual currencies should be regulated.
The watchdog said that the taskforce will be created before July and have the objective of answering the question of whether virtual currencies "can and ought to be regulated".
The taskforce will analyse the risks to consumers of using virtual currencies "as a means of payments" as well as the risks to regulators in ensuring that the trading of virtual currencies does not impinge on their ability to meet their "anti-money laundering objectives", according to the EBA.
It said the risk of money-laundering activity through the trading of virtual currencies may arise because "the anonymous nature of virtual currencies is conducive to this type of activity".
Other potential risks for "investors from using virtual currencies for speculative purposes or from buying investment products that are based on virtual currencies (e.g ETFs using Bitcoins as an underlying asset); and for societies more widely, as a result of virtual currencies being used for criminal activities, such as the anonymous purchase of illegal goods, including drugs and weapons," will also be investigated by the taskforce, the EBA said in a new report (40-page / 864KB PDF).
The EBA has previously reported on the risk associated with virtual currencies. Consumers risk losing their money by "buying, holding or trading" them, it warned in December. This is because virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, are not specifically regulated within the EU.
It said that consumers lack protection against the insolvency of virtual currency platforms and that they do not have refund rights when they use virtual currencies in transactions, and may also have to pay tax on the assets.
The most commonly cited virtual currency is Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a digital asset with a monetary value but which is currently not recognised as an official currency anywhere in the world. Some retailers accept payment by Bitcoin for goods and services, but most traders, especially in the EU, have not yet put systems in place to accept Bitcoin transactions.
The trading of Bitcoin is not regulated within the UK or broadly across the EU currently, but technology and payments law specialist Angus McFadyen of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, previously said that proposed new EU laws on payment services leave open the possibility of Bitcoin being regulated in future.
Technology law expert Luke Scanlon of Pinsent Masons recently sought to explain whether Bitcoin can be deemed as being "money" or an "asset" and why the answer is important to determining whether and how it could be regulated.
Copyright © 2014, Out-Law.com
Out-Law.com is part of international law firm Pinsent Masons. | {
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MoneroV (XMV): A Fork That Keeps Getting Better and Better
Compared to its predecessor Monero, MoneroV team is dedicated for quick implementations on fixes and enhancements.
This blog won’t focus on discussing what MoneroV is. You can find a lot of MoneroV articles elsewhere. This blog rather will focus on how MoneroV will surpass its predecessor.
Just to recap, MoneroV aims to eliminate current issues facing Monero: infinite supply, scalability problems, and centralization. However, it doesn’t stop there. MoneroV just keeps adding reasonable features and fixes that would truly solve issues, and would, in return, greatly benefits all of its holders.
Their official website monerov.org enlists some of the useful features already implemented (verbatim):
Monero’s Protocol Upgrade & MoneroV
Approximately on the 18th-19th of October (Monero’s version 8 starts from block 1685555), Monero will undergo a network upgrade. MoneroV’s independent network will not tweak its PoW algorithm as of now. Miners, pools, and services do not need to make any changes or download new software to use the MoneroV network which is stable.
We believe the changes introduced in the XMV launch are sufficient to curve potential threats to the network, and miners of all kinds can support the blockchain as it is. Minimum ringsize will remain at 7, with the option to increase when sending XMV’s.
MoneroV is and will remain the leading Cryptonight V7 based blockchain project, with improvements and add-ons we will be introducing in the coming months.
Monero Burning Bug Fix
The burning bug is a situation where a wallet is not providing a warning as it is receiving a ‘burnt’ output. As a result, an attacker could not directly benefit and accumulate coins but can harm the wallets of different organizations. We are glad to update that the Burning bug issue was already addressed and fixed weeks ago.
It is important for the community to be aware that there are no known security bugs or issues with the XMV network that prevents services, exchanges or pools to interact with the blockchain.
DoS/RPC Eppe Bug fix
A pair of denial of service vulnerabilities have been found, one by the Cisco Talos team, and one reported by the Monero team. In addition, a bug was found that could affect the RPC wallet. Both fixes have been pushed to master.
Talos Epee vulnerability release: https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2018/09/epee-levin-vuln.html
Talos Epee deep-dive: https://www.talosintelligence.com/reports/TALOS-2018-0637/
Fixes:
https://github.com/monerov/monerov/commit/045e78f7d1ca3c048593b6424f684e0dd5cae8cd
https://github.com/monerov/monerov/commit/7653689b00fac4d63723b8ce384de7d9d9779fc0
Got Questions?
Join the community telegram room for more information and questions you might have about MoneroV — t.me/monerovxmv | {
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This type of unprovoked attack is extremely unusual, particularly two similar incidents in the north of the city in just over a week. We are obviously investigating the possibility that these are linked. We need to identify the person responsible and I would encourage anyone who may be able to help us do this to contact us as soon as possible. We would also appeal to anyone who may have witnessed the assault to come forward. Reassurance patrols by local Safer Neighbourhoods teams in the Hilsea area are ongoing.” | {
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O ex-diretor de marketing do Banco do Brasil, Henrique Pizzolato, condenado no Mensalão do PT a mais de doze anos de prisão, foi extraditado da Itália para o Brasil e já foi levado para a Penitenciária da Papuda, em Brasília.
Pizzolato desembarcou no Aeroporto Internacional de Guarulhos, em São Paulo, nesta sexta (23), às 6h30 da manhã e chegou a Brasília pouco antes das 9h da manhã.
O correspondente Pedro Vedova viajou no avião que trouxe Pizzolato de Milão, na Itália, para o Brasil. Depois de cancelamentos e recursos, houve mais um atraso: o voo que levava Henrique Pizzolato demoraria 50 minutos para deixar a Itália.
O principal passageiro não aparecia no saguão. Outros duvidaram que ele voltaria. O mistério se desfez no embarque autorizado. Pizzolato se revelava cabisbaixo, resignado. Um dos homens mais procurados voltava ao Brasil.
Ao longo do voo, ele folheou revista, conversou com os agentes e também viu filmes. Pizzolato parecia estar tranquilo. Não se podia chegar muito perto dele, para não causar nenhum tipo de agitação no próprio Pizzolato e também nos outros passageiros do voo.
De tempos em tempos, a médica avaliava a pressão do ex-diretor de marketing. Nenhuma alteração. Pizzolato não usou algema, demorou a encontrar posição para dormir. O sonho italiano acabou na pista de Guarulhos: o único foragido do Mensalão está de volta.
Complexo da Papuda
Do aeroporto de São Paulo, Henrique Pizzolato viajou para Brasília em um jato da Polícia Federal que pousou no aeroporto de Brasília às 8h46 da manhã. Ele desceu do avião escoltado por três policiais e uma médica. De lá, foi para o Instituto Médico Legal. Por volta das 10h, saiu em um comboio para o Complexo da Papuda.
A Papuda fica a 30 quilômetros do centro de Brasília. É o mesmo lugar onde ficaram outros presos do Mensalão. Pizzolato vai ficar no Centro de Detenção Provisória, bloco 5. Lá, as celas têm, pelo menos, seis metros quadrados. Ele pode sair durante duas horas, para banho de sol, todos os dias e vai dividir a cela com dois ou três presos, segundo a Secretaria de Justiça do Distrito Federal. Vai poder receber visitas a partir da próxima sexta-feira (30).
As condições do presídio estiveram no centro do debate do processo de extradição, marcado por um vaivém de decisões. Em outubro, a corte de Bolonha negou a volta de Pizzolato ao Brasil. Em fevereiro, a corte de cassação de Roma autorizou. Em junho, o conselho de estado da Itália suspendeu. E no mês passado, autorizou de vez, depois de se convencer de que a Papuda poderia garantir o respeito aos diretos humanos.
Pizzolato fugiu para a itália em 2013, usando documentos do irmão morto. Queria escapar da cadeia, depois de ser condenado no Mensalão do PT. Na Itália, ele foi preso em fevereiro do ano passado, em Maranello, na casa de um sobrinho.
O advogado de defesa dele diz que Pizzolato está desiludido com a Itália, mas conformado com a extradição.
Pizzolato já cumpriu um ano na cadeia de Modena. A parte cumprida lá será descontada do tempo aqui no Brasil, o que pode levá-lo ao regime semiaberto em junho do ano que vem. A Procuradoria Geral da República quer que Pizzolato pague as despesas da extradição, cerca de R$ 170 mil com viagens, traduções e vídeos dos presídios. E também quer repatriar 113 mil euros apreendidos com Pizzolato. | {
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So I’m sure you’ve heard about a new lacrosse league coming next summer.
The Premier Lacrosse League was announced on Monday, with reports appearing across outlets, and not just in the lacrosse world. Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, and the New York Stock Exchange all got in the action of the new league. We’ve now seen the player pools and heard plenty on how we got to this point. Paul Rabil, who has been the face of the PLL thus far, spoke with me about building a new pro sports entity, why the touring model works, the power of a broadcast partner like NBC, and a whole lot more (Olympic lacrosse anyone??).
The full transcript of our interview is directly below.
DA: I’m going to open with a quote here. This is from the blog post on the Paul Rabil website written by Ryan Flanagan on August 1, 2017. He wrote, “We want to create more revenue streams for players while also giving them a place to build their brand. By increasing the league’s social media presence and streaming games on platforms like Twitter, we can continue to push MLL into the national conversation. We know this is not an overnight process and are aware of how long change can take. That said, Major League Lacrosse was founded in 2001. We have to balance patience with aggression in an open market of opportunity.” Flanagan was an All-American at UNC, a teammate of yours on the Lizards, and he wrote this over a year ago. So, do you think it’s fair to say Flanagan was speaking for players in the league when he said it, and how much do you think that sentiment is responsible for the process that got us here?
PR: To answer your first question. Over the years, Ryan Flanagan and myself, along with other athletes like Kyle Harrison, Kevin Leveille, Chris Passavia, Kyle Hartzell, Tucker Durkin, and Kevin Buchanan began working informally with MLL around ways the players could better understand the construct of the league and add value. This was during the Commissioner [David] Gross era.
Ryan’s blog was essentially a documented piece that disclosed our beliefs on where we felt the league could be with the power of the players. We wanted to have more media distribution. We were interested in league sponsorship strategy and activation with its players. We wanted to understand league marketing strategies. We wanted to learn how we could help this thing grow.
That said, his blog was certainly not the impetus of how we got here today. But, a good find by you nonetheless.
DA: You landed on this touring model. How did you approach the players and say you can still have the feeling of representing a city, or is that really something that will happen down the road?
PR: As entrepreneurs, we challenge ourselves to think objectively, and wanted to explore the best ways we could drive the professional game to growth. We wanted to build with the players first, a network partner second, then solve for any inefficiencies in the current business model.
We looked at data that showed us there are significant challenges for niche team sports to penetrate and appropriately commercialize in city-based markets for a few of reasons.
First is that in a sport like lacrosse – where you have professional teams in fewer than 10 markets – you’re actually ostracizing the access points for fans in every region or city that you’re not in. This is much different than the current NBA, NFL, or MLB, where each has teams in over 30 markets.
Second, there’s an inherent venue challenge. In the major sports, teams own their venues – which gives them a benefit in scheduling, operations, and additional revenue streams like parking, concessions, ticketing, etc. For niche team sports, you’re constantly looking for a venue that fits your model, and often land with minimal scheduling freedom, thus limiting the availability for teams to alter game times, which lowers their market-fit for a network partner.
Third, by adopting a tour-based approach, much like the Final Four, with every game weekend we can pick the optimal pro venue in a target market that will support our game and the best pros. It’s optimizing for the competition, and the experience.
Yes, we know that there’s value to being city-anchored for any sports team, and we’re going to be participating with PLL cities and communities, working with our players in-market to serve those fandoms. But we’re also going to be able to capture the core competitive values of independent teams competing in a major sports season, every year for a PLL championship.
Down the road, as we hit major milestones – with the first being a major network partner like NBC – we’ll start driving attention and revenue. Then as we build, we anticipate an increased rate in audience and participants, which in turn will drive expansion and potentially a reinvigorated city-driven league.
And our players are really excited about where we are now, and where we’re going to be.
DA: I was talking about this with a friend of mine who has three kids. His oldest is 8. He’s a Seattle Seahawks fan, a Clemson fan, and a Washington Nationals fan. When his favorite team is in town, they go see a game, otherwise they watch on TV. It’s a bit like that. You’re favorite team might not be geographically tied to you, but they’re still available.
PR: Yes. And there’s data to support this. Whether it’s LeBron James playing for three different teams or Cristiano Ronaldo moving clubs across countries – both have grown in audience size and helped increase their new team’s revenue. Because of new media, we can watch our favorite athletes from anywhere, anytime.
Over the last decade, when asked, I’ve heard more high school players tell me their club team allegiance over their high school. There is proof of concept that club and organization can supersede your high school or city. That said, we need to do a great job creating our team marks, locker room cultures, and player-coach relationships, so those narratives evolve and develop their own allegiances and rivalries.
DA: Along those lines, let’s look at roster turnover within the PLL. Will there be an effort to keep guys on a team? A tour based model could lend itself to it being a bit easier for guys to flow from team to team. Is there a balance to be struck there?
PR: It’s mission critical we get the competitive elements of a major sports league right, and the first one is team formation. All teams will be independent. They will be operated by their coaching staff and dedicated front office. The PLL will have a full regular season, all-star break, playoffs, and championship. We’ll have trades, a player pool, and waiver wire. Each year there will be a collegiate draft so we get an influx of new players.
Yes, in team sports there is turnover. That’s the case in all team sports. The average life span of an athlete, agnostic to a specific sport, is two and a half to four and a half years. Our job is to provide the right resources to help athlete’s endure in their careers, get behind our superstars, get behind our role players, and introduce a new opportunity for a new generation of players to come.
DA: You mentioned a draft, which is a highlight of every year for any sports league. You can likely pencil in Loyola’s Pat Spencer as the top pick in a pro lacrosse draft right now. What is it about the PLL that will attract a guy like Pat Spencer?
PR: We really believe in our product, the business that we’re building, and the players that are competing in our league. We believe we’re going to continue to attract top talent, including the next group of players in the NCAA. At the core of any athlete’s experience is their competitive nature. They want to compete against the best talent in the world and play for a championship. From a player experience perspective, the stadiums you play in matter, and finally, the way the game is distributed across media.
DA: The player pool is one of the first things everyone wanted to know about. Not just who’s going to be playing, but who’s going to be playing for my team. If I’m a fan who wants to cheer for a particular player or region, what’s going to be my team? There were even some tongue in cheek suggestions that we just do a fantasy draft with the player pool. When do we think fans can expect to hear about where players are going to be?
PR: We’re going to be announcing soon. We’re excited about the continued disclosure of players and on-boarding of PLL coaches. From there, we’ll announce our team formation and strategy. That will lead us into 2019, the collegiate draft, and larger events and partnerships thereafter.
We’re data driven. And as we continue to build, we’ll do so by pulling information from other professional sports leagues, fan bases across sports, anonymous public surveys, and then lean-in creatively with our executives, agencies, and Lacrosse Advisory Board. Working collaboratively is mission critical for us.
DA: I’m happy you mentioned that a coaches announcement is coming soon as well. We’ve seen the player pool, but we haven’t seen any kind of coaches pool. At this point do all the coaches know where they stand and who is in place or is that still in flux?
PR: We have a strategy we’re excited to share with you soon. We’ve been in communication with a lot of folks we think are talented, experienced at all levels, and have the appropriate bandwidth to commit to this position.
DA: And so on a more macro level, just since Monday you’ve been everywhere. We saw Brian Westbrook tweet at the PLL that he wants a lacrosse stick. What sort of response have you been getting from other pro athletes, entrepreneurs, and other people outside of lacrosse?
PR: It’s been fantastic and encouraging. From Brian Westbrook to Steve Nash, Jeremy Lin and Kerri Walsh, to entrepreneurs like Gary Vaynerchuk, Scott Galloway, Erika Nardini, and Ryan Holiday, as well as a host of influencers across industries.
We know how important it is to not only galvanize our lacrosse audience, but also attract net new fans. Hopefully our launch indicates how much we invest in these efforts, and how critically we think about it. I would expect us to continue to deliver on subsequent announcements year-round, while emphasizing and underscoring major moments during the season.
DA: PLL has been everywhere on social media. We’ve seen you on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, we even saw a Reddit account and people were asking you to do an AMA…
PR:...and we are. We’ve been speaking with the Head of Partnerships at Reddit and we’ll be hosting that in the coming weeks.
DA: Can’t wait for that. So, the explosion for the most part has been from PLL as a league, as well as from you and the other standard bearers. Can we expect to start seeing more and more out there from individual players through their social media channels?
PR: Absolutely. A major part of our strategy is going to be investing in the content development and generation of our players. More in the months to come.
DA: I think the cherry on top of all this has been the announcement of the broadcast partnership with NBC. Was that a challenging deal to arrive at? There are other broadcast entities out there and some would have been wanted to put a league like the PLL on television, how did you settle on NBC?
PR: A great media rights partner is table stakes for building a major team sports league. We knew that. And we met with every major network and digital platform around live rights and original programming for the PLL. We’re excited about not only landing with NBC, which is the largest broadcast network in North America having placement in over 110 million homes, but doing so with two of our games on NBC national broadcast, 17 on NBC Sports Network, and 20 on NBC Sports Gold. For the NBC national games, the PLL will become the largest viewed lacrosse game overnight. Previously, the NCAA Final Four championed the most household viewers year over year, but with NBC national numbers and support, we’re anticipating twice the number the Final Four has averaged over the last five years.
Additionally, we’re building collaborative promotional campaigns. There’s going to be lead-in promotion from a NASCAR series event and English Premier League match. There’s going to be discussion and analysis around the league on a weekly basis during the season, living on the suite of NBC networks. That was a big component of our decision.
The final piece was looking at how NBC has helped grow their sports properties over the last decade. From bringing in the NHL, to NASCAR, to the Tour de France, and especially the Premier League, our leadership and players get especially excited to be the next partner.
Let’s not forget, though, there’s also the Olympics. We know there’s been a lot of conversation around lacrosse in the Olympics, and NBC is a major player in the equation. Partnering with them at the professional level helps us join that conversation in the ongoing momentum of efforts to get lacrosse that elusive Olympic bid in the future.
DA: Everyone is still dying to know more. Fans want to know the player pool, the coaches, the rules, everything. But it is late October. The season is a long way away. Other than major announcements we know are coming, what else can we expect from the PLL between November 1 and June 1 that will keep this buzz where it’s at?
PR: We’ve got a lot to unveil, so I would encourage everyone to stay tuned, subscribe to our social media channels, check out our website, and we’ll continue to be in front of you telling our story.
This is an audience that I care a lot about. We all share a common love for the game, and that’s powerful. Remember, we aren’t coming up with a new sport from scratch and pitching it to networks. We have the oldest sport in North America, it has become ubiquitous at the collegiate level, continuing to spawn at the high school level, and is the only team sport in the US over the last 15 years with a growing participatory base. We have a game that has a rabid following with an excellent, savvy audience. From my perspective, it’s the sport of the future that will continue to build, bring in new fans, new participants, and ultimately raise the profile of our athletes and our sport. | {
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Sends you on a quest to save her daughters Kills you in the middle of your quest
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Photo by Kevin McFarland
One of Arkansas' top baseball signees said he will turn down professional baseball and play for the Razorbacks next season.
Outfielder Jordan McFarland (6-foot-4, 225 pounds) of Waterloo, Ill., said he won't sign with the Washington Nationals after he was selected by the organization in the 36th round of the MLB Draft on Saturday.
McFarland was rated the 374th-best prospect in the draft by Baseball America, but fell to the late round because of a high asking price for a signing bonus. McFarland didn't give an exact number for his asking price, but said it would have taken first or second round money to persuade him to skip college.
According to slot values posted on MLB.com, second round picks command a signing bonus of between $920,100 and $1.53 million.
"I set a specific number and several teams that came just didn't reach it," McFarland said. "I stuck to the number I set before the draft came around. I think a lot of people when draft day comes around, they give in to the emotions of draft day and that was something going in that I definitely didn't want to do. I'm glad I didn't."
McFarland was considered one of the nation's top hitters as a senior and was named the 17-and-under national player of the year by Perfect Game USA last December. The right-handed hitter finished his senior season with a .500 batting average, 6 home runs, 31 RBI and 37 stolen bases.
"He's a little raw on the defensive end of things, but he's so strong and athletic, and he has such a passion for hitting that he's always in the cage," said Tony Vitello, Arkansas' hitting coach and recruiting coordinator. "He's pretty polished at the plate. He's a true bat."
McFarland said he expects to play corner outfield at Arkansas. He committed to the Razorbacks prior to his junior year of high school despite offers from other SEC programs.
"Arkansas was my first visit and it just felt special right away," McFarland said. "I took tours at other colleges and it just didn't feel the same."
With McFarland, the Razorbacks will keep at least two signees who were highly-projected by Baseball America. Dominic Fletcher, an outfielder from Cypress, Calif., and Lucas Krull, a left-handed pitcher from Shawnee, Kan., went undrafted despite being ranked among the top 500 prospects by Baseball America.
In addition to McFarland, Arkansas had six signees drafted, including catcher Ben Rortvedt of Verona, Wis., in the second round by the Minnesota Twins, and infielder Cole Stobbe of Omaha, Neb., in the third round by the Philadelphia Phillies.
Drafted players have until July 15 to sign professional contracts or opt for college. | {
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When constructing a train station on the edges of a city, you may be blessed by large amounts of open space to work with – such as the huge Crossrail station built inside an old Victorian dock at Canary Wharf.
But building a station in the centre of town is rather more problematic — such as the Crossrail station at Bond Street. Not only do they have very limited space to work in, but all their deliveries have to cope with the local offices and homes…. and there is a complex tube station sitting right next to the building site.
In order to build a large underground station, they have taken over two plots of land and are digging down, then sideways to create a warren of tunnels underneath Bond Street. Yesterday was a chance to have a look.
What is essentially being constructed are two new station entrances at either end of the future Crossrail platforms, with the Western End bolting onto the existing tube station, which itself is getting an upgrade to cope with the extra passengers.
The 3D image below, courtesy of Crossrail shows the site in detail, and the lower-right box is the Eastern entrance, with the upper-left box being another exit and the route to the Jubilee and Central Lines.
Although essentially the same railway station, the two boxes are being constructed in somewhat different ways.
Starting with the Eastern ticket hall – once the previous occupant had been demolished, piles were driven around 50 metres down into the ground around the site to create a “diaphragm wall”, and then due to the nature of the location, they had to install a couple more temporary walls within the site to support the sides as they dig down.
Three shafts were dug down, and then the soil removed around each floor, leaving a visually distinctive profile. This is all temporary though – eventually all of it will be cut away to reveal a large empty box, into which the station will be fitted.
The intention as you can probably see from the above 3D layout is that the station box will take passengers down to a central corridor, and then they take short side passages to the platform tunnels.
While the main tunnel is being dug by a nice big machine, the side passages are still dug by hand. Well, by conventional digging machines used by humans. Then the tunnels are spray lined with concrete to stop them falling down.
And that is what is going on right now.
In fact, if you count from the bottom on that 3D drawing above, it is the 3rd from bottom side tunnel that is being completed right now. And this is what it looks like.
The large arm is remotely controlled by the man in the protective white overalls, while another chap stood behind controlling the machine back end. Other people handle the deliveries of concrete that come down in containers from the surface by crane.
Concrete is not a particularly pleasant material to get onto your skin, so they have to wear all-body overalls, and a special headpiece with its own air filtration supply to stop them breathing in the concrete dust.
We were off to one side and still had to have dust masks and the usual paraphernalia of subterranean building site visits. Emergency rebreather gas masks are on a wall behind, just in case of a gas leak, or similar oxygen sucking event.
Despite the cold wind chilling the bones at the surface, it was almost uncomfortably warm down below with all the machinery blasting out hot air and the concrete dust around.
These side tunnels have to be done by hand though. Machines will probably never replace humans in these tasks, if only because geology is so inconsistent.
Most of the staff doing the spray concrete work are trained in Illford, where Crossrail have built a tunnel training academy, and where your correspondent got to play with the remote concrete spraying arm last year.
It’s not just a case of spray and go though – you do need to be quite careful to spray enough to stop the tunnel collapsing, but not so much that the concrete takes too long to set and become strong.
The Western Ticket hall is a totally different site, and actually, in places not that dissimilar to how the lower half of the Canary Wharf station was built. On a much smaller scale though.
Again, once the previous incumbent was removed from the site, they put a diaphragm wall all around the edges to form the outer wall, within which the station will be dug out.
Here, they are using an underdigging technique, which works really well, even if it means it looks from the outside as it a building site has absolutely nothing going on. Everything is hidden underground.
First a ground floor concrete slab was laid on the site and piles driven down into the ground to form what will later be the pillars holding up the floors below.
Now, they dig down underneath the concrete slab, which is held up by those piles.
Down one floor, and a thin concrete skin is laid, and on top of that – a much thicker floor slab, typically 75cm thick is formed on top. Now dig down again underneath that floor to reveal the next level down. Hack off the thin concrete skin, and you are left with nice clean roof above your head. The repeat as often as needed. In this case five times.
At the moment, they are at level -2, and as of yesterday were preparing the lay the main concrete floor at one end, while still digging out the London clay at the other. This floor will be structurally sound by the end of the month, which is when they start digging down to level -3.
The whole operation should be completed by around October time – which is when the spray concrete workers from the other ticket hall can come over and start hand digging their side tunnels.
A useful side drawing of the Western ticket hall is below- courtesy of Crossrail. The two circles underneath the station box are the Jubilee Line tunnels, and the two semi-circular portals at the bottom of the Crossrail escalators are the side passages leading to the platforms.
Once the stations are completed, they will be built above ground to the first floor, then developers will put offices on top afterwards. A large ventilation shaft is also being provided at one end.
In the next couple of weeks, the first of the Tunnel Boring Machines that set off from the Royal Oak portal last year will arrive at Bond Street, and drill straight past it.
Once the TBMs have passed, they will leave a train tunnel sized tube behind, which will then be dug out again manually to enlarge it to the correct size for the platforms as well. It’s more work to do it this way than built the larger tunnel first, but a lot less risky. If problems with the platform tunnels occurs, then it delays the TBMs, and that is a bigger problem.
The TBM will stop for a very short rest at the Eastern ticket hall though where a void in the ground is being dug ahead of it so that maintenance engineers can take a look at the cutting head and carry out any repairs.
Building the train tunnel before the platforms also means, rather usefully, that the muck from the platform tunnel widening can be carried away down the new train tunnel, rather than by trucks on the road.
A total of 1.2 kilometres of passenger, service and platform tunnels are being mined here at Bond Street. These are in addition to the train tunnels that will pass through this station.
Oh, you may remember that the waste soil is being taken to build a nature reserve in the Thames estuary. I rather liked this sign on the building site asking them to keep the mud nice and clean for the birds.
Access to the two building sites was thanks to Crossrail and the contractors.
More photos from the visit are available over here. | {
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The Arizona Innovation Challenge, one of the largest business plan competitions in the country, is designed to advance innovation and technology commercialization opportunities in Arizona by assisting early-stage ventures to scale.
The first round application window closes Monday, August 31, 2020 at 5 PM. | {
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Britain prevented the European Union Foreign Affairs Council from adopting the closing statement from the Paris peace conference.
Britain’s action, reported by Haaretz citing European and Israeli diplomats, comes a day after Britain refused to sign the closing statement at the peace conference in Paris. Britain had sent a low-level diplomat to the conference as an observer to indicate its displeasure with the proceedings.
Australia also distanced itself from the closing statement and did not sign it.
The move to approve the statement in the Foreign Affairs Council was brought by France. France’s resolution would have adopted the Paris peace summit’s conclusions, and stated EU’s willingness to award Israel and the Palestinians with economic incentives if they reach a peace treaty.
In an interview published Sunday in the Times of London, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called on Britain to veto any anti-Israel resolutions that could come before the United Nations as a result of the peace conference. | {
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Comeback stories are common in the world of sports. We hear about players coming back from torn ACLs, broken bones and even personal trauma.
Rarely, however, do we hear about an athlete returning from pacemaker surgery.
That's what 91-year-old Sy Perlis overcame to set a new world record in the 90-and-over weightlifting class. The Surprise, Ariz., native recently competed at the National Push-Pull Bench Press and Dead Lift Championships, and his final hoist of 187.5 pounds was good for the record books.
Perlis, a World War II veteran who didn't start lifting until he was 60, dominated the 85-to-90 age group before transitioning into the 90-and-over class. He had to sit out last year after surgery to fix a hernia and implant a pacemaker. Now he works out five days a week.
“It gave me the opportunity to do something to test myself for one thing, and I didn’t have to run around to do it, as you would in some other sports,” Perlis told the Arizona Republic of weightlifting. "I got a lot of satisfaction out of it, and it made me feel good, and it was good for me."
Perlis' hobby hasn't just been beneficial for him, it's also motivated his wife.
"I always say if it weren't for my husband, I'd be at home watching TV and eating bonbons," Joan Perlis, 69, told the Arizona Republic. “He’s my motivator. He makes me work out, too."
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-- Best Way To Boost Bench Press | {
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Households will have two broad options: using a wireless router to farm out the internet connection to other rooms in the house, or using wired connections, which will cost more but will deliver faster and more reliable speeds. We spoke to two Sydney-based network engineers and cablers who gave us the following breakdown on potential costs: NBN box with four high-speed data ports and two voice ports – no cost, provided by NBN Co.
Back-up battery – no cost, provided by NBN Co.
Option 1 – install high-speed internet ports in rooms other than the room with the NBN box. Cat 6 cabling parts and labour $150 - $400 per room plus network configuration $150.
– install high-speed internet ports in rooms other than the room with the NBN box. Cat 6 cabling parts and labour $150 - $400 per room plus network configuration $150. Option 2 – use wireless router attached to NBN box, less speed but enough to wirelessly surf the web on laptop or iPad. Wireless router $100 - $200 for max speed 54 megabits per second, $200 - $400 for max speed 300 megabits per second. Most wireless routers available today are not capable of supporting the full speed - up to 1 gigabit per second - promised by the NBN. The latest generation of routers can theoretically handle up to 300 megabits per second but in real world conditions it will be difficult to reach the 100 megabits per second minimum speeds promised by the network.
But this could change by the time the network is available to most metropolitan customers. In that case, many homes will most likely have all of the equipment they need to make full use of the NBN. But those who do not use wireless LAN and want an internet port in every room of their house will need to pay an electrician to wire up their rooms or run internet cables under their carpets. Louis Park, director of Network Computers in Alexandria, said hype surrounding the cost of NBN-proofing people's homes was over the top. "At the end of the day if you're already using an existing broadband connection you'll have most of the networking equipment already in place and you'll simply reuse that equipment on the NBN," Mr Park said.
"Changing the set-up would be pretty minimal." Electrician Andrew Hardingham, whose business Sydney Electrical and Data specialises in installing network cabling, said the price of running cables into different rooms depended on the type of house. "Some houses are built from concrete, in which case getting cabling around it is pretty difficult," he said. "It could be as little as $150 a point but I would think $250 a point would be right on the money [for most homes]." Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said it was reasonable to expect people to pay to install infrastructure that would give them access at the fastest end of the NBN.
"If you want to watch four internet TV channels in four different rooms, yes, you may have to upgrade and that's no different to, say, if Foxtel came into your home and said: 'Here's your package, now will you like Foxtel in another room?' And you pay more money," he said. Upgrading or buying a wireless router was a good compromise between doing nothing and rewiring a home, he said. "You're not chained to the wall, you can move around your house and get the experience from the NBN," Senator Conroy said. More information: • NBN Co frequently asked questions
Or follow this reporter on Twitter @geerob | {
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Sacramento Republic FC have submitted a bid to be one of the next four MLS expansion teams, but aren't staying idle while they wait to hear if they will be selected.
On Thursday, the club, led by chairman and CEO Kevin Nagle, welcomed Sacramento mayor Darrell Steinberg and more than 100 business and civic leaders, as well as fans, with a "ground-making" event at the location for the new stadium.
The location, at The Railyards section of Sacramento, featured construction equipment getting to work to prepare the site for the construction of the stadium, which has already gained local government approval. This phase one of the project will set the stage for the "groundbreaking," which is tabbed to begin in Spring 2018 with actual construction of the facility.
“As the saying goes: actions speak louder than words,” said Nagle in a statement. “In that spirit, Republic FC and the people of Sacramento are making our strongest statement to date with the start of stadium construction at The Railyards. We believe in our fans, we believe in our stadium plan, and we believe in our destiny as an MLS city. I’m excited to reach this milestone, and know our team and our community are ready to work harder than ever to #BringItHome.”
The stadium plan is projected to cost $245 million, privately financed, with initial capacity for 20,000, to expand to 22,000. The construction project is also expected to kick off a wider redevelopment project of the area, projected to double the size of downtown Sacramento in the process.
Sacramento is one of 12 cities to have formally submitted a bid earlier this year to become an MLS expansion team. The first two teams are expected to be named some time in 2017. | {
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Cyberunions Podcast
Episode 80 It is June and we have been Snowd’en
Download Torrent
Download Ogg
Download Ogg low quality
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Updates/Announcements
Big move big internet
reddit bump welcome new listeners
glocal coop, stephen is now a member
BYI
What is glocal? https//glocal.coop
Labor
Brazil & Turkish Uprises
It started with a call for free transportation.
http://jacobinmag.com/2013/06/a-brazilian-autumn/
Momement to build global solidarity
Tech
Snowden
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/snowdenlessons
Feedback
mjray asking about links to why unions as a service is bad https://friends.mayfirst.org/display/cyberunionsdotorg/822656 | {
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A small molecule currently in clinical trials for treating cancer can suppress HIV-1 in mice, a new study shows (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2015, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1511144112). The compound, known as INK128, likely works against both cancer and HIV-1 because of its mode of action: It inhibits a protein, mTOR, which regulates the transcription of genes.
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who carried out the study believe that, in the case of HIV, INK128 acts in part by blocking the transcription of a surface receptor, CCR5, which the virus latches onto to enter immune cells. They think that INK128 also prevents the transcription of HIV genes after the virus inserts them into the immune cells, making it the first compound to deter HIV in this way.
The Maryland team engineered mice to produce human immune cells and infected the animals with HIV. When exposed to INK128, these mice had lower virus counts and improved immune cell concentrations. “These findings indicate that mTOR inhibitors warrant Phase II proof-of-concept trials,” says pathologist Ferdinando Nicoletti of Italy’s University of Catania, who was not involved with the study.
Older HIV drugs inhibit proteins carried by the virus itself, but new approaches like this one target proteins that belong to an infected immune cell. “We were running out of targets” in HIV to aim drugs at, says Robert C. Gallo, an author on the new study.
Cellular drug targets such as mTOR are attractive to researchers because they mutate less frequently than do viral proteins. Fewer mutations mean a lower likelihood of drug resistance. “Patients with drug-resistant HIV are difficult to treat,” says Alonso Heredia, also a member of the Maryland team. “For these patients, [mTOR inhibitors] could help.”
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President Trump and his eldest daughter Ivanka Trump both donated to Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., a few years ago when she was campaigning for California attorney general.
In 2011 and 2013, then-businessman Trump donated $6,000 to Harris’s campaign and Ivanka Trump donated $2,000 in 2014, the Sacramento Bee reported Monday .
Trump's first donation was in September 2011, just a few months after he started promoting birther conspiracy theories that said then-President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S.
A Harris campaign spokesperson said that Harris donated the $6,000 from Trump in 2015, when she was launching her Senate campaign, to a non-profit advocating for civil and human rights for Central Americans.
Harris became attorney general in California in 2010 and won re-election in 2014. In 2016, she was elected to the Senate, and she announced last month that she would be seeking the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.
Even though Trump was initially a supporter of Harris, the relationship between the two has soured since Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015.
Last week, Harris told The Root that she couldn't "reach any other conclusion," when asked if she believed Trump is racist. | {
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Dave Roberts pulling Rich Hill in Game 2
It’s easy to second guess managerial decision in postseason games, particularly in the World Series, when every decision is crucial. But Dave Roberts’ decision to pull Hill off the mound after he had only thrown 60 pitches really hampered the Dodgers’ bullpen for the remainder of that game and the series.. Roberts does not like his pitchers to go through the same lineup three times unless they have to. It’s become commonplace for managers to have quick hooks during the postseason, but it felt like at times, Roberts had too quick of a hook and that ultimately came back to haunt him.
2. Kenley Jansen blowing a six-out save in Game 2
Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
The World Series taught us that Kenley Jansen is human. Entering the Fall Classic, Jansen and the entire Dodgers’ bullpen were unhittable. However, Jansen was summoned for a six-out save in Game 2 of the World Series but proceeded to blow the save. It was an understandable decision by Roberts to turn to Jansen for the final six outs of the ballgame, but pitchers are creatures of habit and a six-out save can be a daunting task for a closer who is accustomed to only needing to retire three batters. Jansen was fresh prior to his outing in Game 2, but he hung a cutter over the plate that Marwin Gonzalez sent to the stands for the game-tying homerun that sparked the Astros’ comeback.
3. Gorge Springer’s HR in Game 2
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Not only was Springer’s dinger the game-winning home run in extra innings of Game 2, but it sparked his MVP performance for the remainder of the series. Springer entered the game in a bit of a slump, going 3 for his last 30, including an 0 for 4 performance with four strikeouts in Game 1. But boy, did he ever turn it around. Springer finished with eight extra-base hits (three doubles and five home runs) and 29 total bases this World Series, both Fall Classic records. The previous total bases record was 25, held by Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson (1977) and Willie Stargell (1979). Springer’s five home runs also tie a World Series record set by Jackson in 1977- the series that earned him the nickname “Mr. October”-and Chase Utley from 2009. Springer slashed .379/.412/1.000 to help him cruise to MVP honors in the seven-game series.
4. Clayton Kershaw failing to hold a lead in Game 5
Harry How/Getty Images
Kershaw’s postseason struggles are well documented. He’s regarded as one of the best regular season pitchers in baseball history but until he wins a World Series, the questions will follow him. Kershaw had a chance to effectively put an end to those questions about his effectiveness as a postseason pitcher. After he was handed a 4–0 on the road in Game 5 with the series tied 2–2, it appeared Kershaw was primed for his ultimate breakthrough moment. Instead, the 4th inning was his unraveling, as the Astros went on to rally and tie the game on Jose Altuve’s monsterous 3-run home run. Had he held the Astros scoreless or even minimized the damage, the Dodgers may have won the game and ultimately the series. But his inability to shut the door when it mattered most means the doubts about his postseason performance will continue for at least another season.
5. Yu Darvish pitching more than 1 inning in Game 7
Tim Bradbury/Getty
In a crucial Game 7, every pitch and every play matters. It was clear from the onset that Yu Darvish was not prepared to start Game 7. The belief was that he would redeem himself after a terrible outing in Game 3. It turned out that this appearance would be equally as bad, if not worse for Darvish. He gave up a line drive double down the left field line to the game’s leadoff hitter — George Springer — and after 1 inning, had given up two runs, although one was because of a throwing error committed by Cody Bellinger. Dave Roberts should have pulled Darvish right then and there, instead of allowing him to pitch the second inning, where he gave up 3 more runs, including a monstrous 438-foot homer to center field by Springer that put the Astros ahead 5–0. Darvish lacked command in both World Series starts. Between his two starts, he lasted just 3⅓ innings, threw 96 pitches, induced only four swings and misses, and gave up nine runs. Was Game 7 his last game as a Dodger? | {
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This is because your computer can not connect to the telnet server due to the type of windows you are running.Or you might just have to turn all telnet servers on by activating it in settings. Although i would not recommend you do this,as the telent service is a target for all hackers and you are Likely to pick up a virus.For more info or help please email me at [email protected] or [email protected]. | {
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NEW YORK, April 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) announced today that iconic, Grammy®-Award-winning comedy duo Cheech & Chong will launch their own limited-run channel, "Cheech & Chong Radio," for the weekend starting April 20, 2013.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101014/NY82093LOGO)
The celebration of their hilarious career, featuring their classic comedy albums and more, will take over Raw Dog Comedy that weekend and continue as a nightly special through the following week, leading up to "SiriusXM's Town Hall with Cheech and Chong," moderated by Artie Lange, a sit down for an intimate Q&A session with an audience of SiriusXM listeners, as part of the SiriusXM "Town Hall" series.
"SiriusXM's Town Hall with Cheech & Chong" will air on the limited-run "Cheech and Chong Radio" channel 99 on Thursday, April 25 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm ET.
Moderated by Lange, the "Town Hall" special will feature Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong answering questions from the studio audience about the ups and downs of their lifelong partnership, their popular albums and songs, the Cheech and Chong Animated Movie and much more.
"Cheech and Chong are not only one of the top legendary comedy teams of our time, but also created a completely unique sound that broke barriers, challenged the norm and most of all, made us laugh," said Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer, SiriusXM. "Now their legion of fans will get a chance to hear from them directly about their comedy and careers. The 'SiriusXM Town Hall with Cheech and Chong' will be a fitting grand finale to 'Cheech & Chong Radio.'"
The limited-run "Cheech & Chong Radio" will launch on Saturday, April 20 at midnight ET via satellite on Raw Dog Comedy channel 99, as well as via the SiriusXM Internet Radio App for smartphones and other connected devices online at siriusxm.com. "Cheech & Chong Radio" will feature interviews and excerpts from the duo's classic comedy albums including Dave, Sister Mary Elephant, Basketball Jones and Born In East L.A. It will also include The Story of Cheech & Chong, SiriusXM's Sonny Fox's two-hour retrospective interview with the comedians and a vintage, rarely-heard interview by SiriusXM's Ron Bennington. For a full schedule and rebroadcast times, please visit www.siriusxm.com/townhall.
The special is part of SiriusXM's "Town Hall" series, intimate gatherings with iconic musicians, entertainers and figures and a studio audience of SiriusXM listeners. Previous "SiriusXM Town Hall" specials have featured Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Billy Crystal, Tom Petty, Tony Bennett, Quentin Tarantino, Carol Burnett, Taylor Swift, Aerosmith, Coldplay, Ringo Starr, Roger Waters, Juanes, Mel Brooks, Crosby, Stills and Nash and the surviving members of Nirvana.
Cheech & Chong defined an era with their irreverent, satirical, counter-culture, no-holds-barred comedy routines. Their success began on the stand-up comedy circuit leading to nine hit comedy albums and eight hit films, breaking box office records, garnering multiple Grammy nominations and mesmerizing fans. The comedy duo has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, winning the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album with 1973's Los Cochinos. They transitioned to film in 1978 with Up In Smoke, the highest grossing comedy of the year. Cheech and Chong co-wrote and starred in a total of eight feature films together, all directed by Chong. They have recently announced their latest tour.
Artie Lange is the host of The Artie Lange Show on SiriusXM. Lange is best known for his decade on The Howard Stern Show and his successful stand-up comedy career. He co-wrote, produced and starred in the film Beer League and his first book, Too Fat To Fish, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
SiriusXM listeners will have the chance to attend "SiriusXM's Town Hall with Cheech & Chong" on April 25. Listen to Raw Dog Radio or visit www.siriusxm.com/townhall for Official Rules and details. SiriusXM listeners are also invited to submit a question for Cheech & Chong on Twitter by Tweeting @SiriusXM and using the hashtag #SXMTownHall or posting a question on SiriusXM's Facebook page.
After the broadcast, "SiriusXM's Town Hall with Cheech & Chong" will be available on SiriusXM On Demand for subscribers listening via the SiriusXM Internet Radio App for smartphones and other mobile devices or online at siriusxm.com. Visit www.siriusxm.com/ondemand for more information on SiriusXM On Demand.
For more information on SiriusXM, please visit www.siriusxm.com.
About Sirius XM Radio
Sirius XM Radio Inc. is the world's largest radio broadcaster measured by revenue and has 24 million subscribers. SiriusXM creates and broadcasts commercial-free music; premier sports talk and live events; comedy; news; exclusive talk and entertainment; and the most comprehensive Latin music, sports and talk programming in radio. SiriusXM is available in vehicles from every major car company in the U.S., from retailers nationwide, and online at siriusxm.com. SiriusXM programming is also available through the SiriusXM Internet Radio App for Android, Apple, and BlackBerry smartphones and other connected devices. SiriusXM also holds a minority interest in SiriusXM Canada which has more than 2 million subscribers.
On social media, join the SiriusXM community on Facebook, facebook.com/siriusxm, Twitter, twitter.com/siriusxm, Instagram, instagram.com/siriusxm, and YouTube at youtube.com/siriusxm.
This communication contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about future financial and operating results, our plans, objectives, expectations and intentions with respect to future operations, products and services; and other statements identified by words such as "will likely result," "are expected to," "will continue," "is anticipated," "estimated," "believe," "intend," "plan," "projection," "outlook" or words of similar meaning. Such forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our management and are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond our control. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements.
The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements: our competitive position versus other forms of radio and audio services; our dependence upon automakers; general economic conditions; failure of our satellites, which, in most cases, are not insured; our ability to attract and retain subscribers at a profitable level; royalties we pay for music rights: our ability to attract and retain qualified executive officers; the unfavorable outcome of pending or future litigation; rapid technological and industry change; failure of third parties to perform; changes in consumer protection laws and their enforcement; and our substantial indebtedness. Additional factors that could cause our results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012, which is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and available at the SEC's Internet site (http://www.sec.gov). The information set forth herein speaks only as of the date hereof, and we disclaim any intention or obligation to update any forward looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this communication.
P-SIRI
Contact for SiriusXM:
Michelle Dominguez
SiriusXM
212.901.6792
[email protected]
SOURCE Sirius XM Radio | {
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Friends said they were concerned because his wallet and keys were still in his apartment, and he hadn’t taken his car or bike.
“Everyone here is very worried,” said Joshua Jordan, one of his best friends. “Everyone is taking it hard. Every time you check your phone you’re hoping it’s something good, and any moment he’s going to pop up.”
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He said Carl Conyers is a leader on campus. “He’s really an all-around role model; he gives to the community, he’s a focused and driven individual. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree — his parents raised him well. He’s a great influence and a great kid.”
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John Conyers represents Michigan’s 13th district, which includes Detroit. He is the most senior member of Congress; in 2014, he was elected to his 26th term. He’s a founding member and dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the highest-ranking Democrat and a former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
A spokeswoman for Conyers, Shadawn Reddick-Smith, sent a statement Thursday:
“Yesterday, Rep. John Conyers Jr. and his wife Monica Conyers learned of the disappearance of their son, Carl Conyers, who is a student at the University of Houston. Rep. Conyers and his family ask for privacy as they work through this situation of uncertainty and ask that anyone with knowledge of their son’s whereabouts, contact the Houston Police Department immediately.”
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The FBI is also involved in the search, Reddick-Smith said.
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Mike Rosen, a spokesman for the University of Houston, said school officials and campus police are cooperating with Houston police and the family.
“People are upset,” said another close friend, Aarik Charles. “We’re all scared.”
Charles was handing out missing-person fliers Thursday afternoon, and said a prayer vigil would be held later in the day.
Carl Conyers is the president of the Black Business Student Association in the Bauer College of Business at the university, where he is a junior studying marketing, friends said. He helped form a campus organization called Uncommon Colors, a creative outlet for musicians and artists that was designed in hopes of forming friendships across ethnic groups; Charles described it as a way for people to meet people with common interests rather than just sticking with all the groups on campus organized around race, ethnicity and other identities.
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Jordan described Conyers as funny, lighthearted, but focused, knowing when to be serious. He said he helped the black community on campus and in the city.
Jordan didn’t worry when his friend left work at the Bauer School of Business a little early on Monday, and figured he was busy with classes or something when he didn’t show up for work Tuesday. The last time Jordan heard from his friend was Tuesday about 1 p.m. when he responded to a group text about upcoming plans, saying he would be there. On Wednesday, when their boss asked about him, and he realized Conyers’s longtime girlfriend and other friends hadn’t seen him, he started to really worry. “It makes no sense. It just makes no sense,” he said.
On social media, friends and others spread the word and photos of Conyers in hopes of finding him quickly. | {
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Note: This is a GrinGold miner guide, for Bminer refer to this guide.
Hello Everyone! At approximately 16:01 UTC 15/1/2018, the very much hyped MimbleWimble protocol enabled privacy coin Grin coin was launched. Since then, miners all around the world have been asking the same question: “How do I mine some Grins?” and today we’ll be covering some of the basics of mining Grin on Windows 10 with NVIDIA GPUs.
A step by step run down will be given and if you follow them, you should be able to mine just fine and leave with a Grin 😀 on your face.
What is Grin?
In short - Grin is a privacy coin that uses the MimbleWimble protocol and runs on the Cuckoo Proof of Work (PoW) cycle and is designed to be hard on memory, requiring miners to have cards with high memory capacity (eg. Nvidia 1070/1080 with 8gb vram). Also, Cuckoo PoW has 2 modes - c29 which favors GPUs, and c31 which favors ASICs. In this guide we will be focusing on c29 for GPUs as the ASICs have yet to be released.
What do I need to mine Grin?
Hardware
Nvidia Cards: 1070, 1070ti, 1080, 1080ti, 2070, 2080, 2080ti
AMD Cards: 570, 580, Vega56, Vega64
Note that it is not an exhaustive list, but if you have the cards above it should work.
Software
1. Miner tools - See Step 1 below.
2. Overclocking tool - MSI Afterburner works fine to limit power and temperature (this is VERY important to protect your mining cards and optimize returns!)
3. Tested configuration - Power: 65% - 75%, Temp Limit: 70°C, Core: +100, Memory: +300; These are settings that has been stable for myself across 1070ti - 1080tis and where I am, ambient temperature is around 28°C so do adjust your settings lower/higher as needed.
Alright, let’s get started!
Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Grin Mining
Step 1: Downloading a miner
In this guide, I will only be covering GrinGoldMiner (GGM), which has been used since the testnet times to mine, and has been stable for me with no crashes, however do experiment around yourself to see what works. Download here (Reminder: ONLY download from official Github Sources!).
Other miners to choose from (untested by myself at time of writing, but others have used them with varied success rates):
Bminer: Official Miner
MinerBabe: Official Miner
Step 2: Choose a pool!
Note: While it's always tempting to mine at the largest pools, it's a better idea to spread out Grin network's graphrate - try out different pools to distribute the graphrates more evenly! There also appears to be ongoing effort in Grin's official Discord calling for better graphrate distribution.
Check out the list of pools available along with its hashrate distribution here. For the purpose of this guide, I will be sharing my experience with pools I have personally tried:
Grinmint (0% fee) - Pool is smooth and work reported is consistent between client/pool side. Payouts received fine in the form of email payouts (payout guide).
F2pool (3% fee) - Pool is smooth and work reported is consistent between client/pool side. I have received payouts just fine directly to exchanges.
Sparkpool (1% fee) - Pool is smooth and work reported is consistent between client/pool side. I have received my payouts just fine directly to exchanges as well. Grin-Pool.org (0% fee) - Pool is smooth, easy signup and work reported is consistent between client/pool side. Currently pays only via HTTP/HTTPS to grin-wallet (Here's how to set up a Grin wallet on Windows) but I'm pending coins maturity so it will be updated again shortly!
Other pools to consider, which have not been tried yet are pool.btc.com, Luxor Pool, and more over at Mining Pool Stats for Grin-c29.
Step 3: Get set up!
3.1 Virtual Memory in Windows
Before running GGM, you need to increase your Virtual Memory in Windows to at least 7GB x (Number of cards), such that a rig with 2 cards will need at least 14GB - Follow the guide here.
3.2: Stratum Addresses
Once you have downloaded GGM, extract the file and run GrinGoldMinerCLI.exe, which should load up the following window for you after a short period of waiting:
Depending on the mining pool you wish to join, select either [1] or any of the ones from [2 to 5]. Stratum addresses for Sparkpool and F2pool are:
Sparkpool:
Mainland China > grin.sparkpool.com:6666
Asia > grin-asia.sparkpool.com:6666
Europe > grin-eu.sparkpool.com:6666
US > grin-us.sparkpool.com:6666
Source: Sparkpool
F2Pool:
No split between regions > grin29.f2pool.com:13654
Source: F2Pool
For both Sparkpool and F2Pool, select "n" for TLS when prompted in GGM.
3.3: Config in CLI
After selecting your pools (skip to Section 3.4 for F2Pool), a series of instructions will appear and you can follow them. See below:
Enter your email (pool login) - Important to enter a working email as you will be using this to obtain payout on some pools (eg. Grinmint).
Enter your rig name - Any name will do. Just to differentiate your workers if you have multiple.
Enter your pool password - Enter a strong one. You will use it to request for withdrawal on some pools, and it is a good practice to only use strong passwords anyhow!
3.4: Config in CLI for F2Pool
For F2Pool, the configuration process is slightly different. Using your registered account, enter both your username.rigname under “Enter your pool login”, followed by password.
Once you’re done, press enter again and the window should close, and you’ll see a config.xml file appear in the same folder. You’re good to go!
Should you feel that you have entered something wrongly, simply delete the config.xml file and restart the process above.
Step 4: Mining!
Double click on GrinGoldMinerCLI.exe and you should see the following:
If you see the word “CONNECTED”, “ONLINE” and your card has a valid gps (hashrate), you’re mining fine! Log onto each site to check your stats:
GrinMint - Homepage, top left corner - enter your registered email address.
F2Pool - With the account you set up to mine, check under “worker” tab.
SparkPool - Homepage, middle - enter your registered email address.
If you’ve followed all the steps to this point, you’re done with 90% of the work. Just sit back and relax now! DO note that all mined Grins take approximately 24 hours (1440 blocks) to mature, so you’ll have wait a little for them sweet payouts!
The other 10% of the work? Withdrawing them! Each pool/exchange has a slightly different process so that’ll be a separate article - stay tuned!
What is the development like on ASICs for Grin?
Earlier today, David Vorick from Obelisk has just announced their support for Grin Obelisk ASIC miner - the GRN1. Check out the announcement here.
Where can I buy/sell Grin?
You can sell your mined Grin on one of the Grin exchanges. That being said, each pool has their own integration with exchanges to facilitate easy withdrawal. Pick the exchange that has the best volume and best reputation.
Useful links that are related to Grin coin & Grin mining
Grin Wallet Setup Guide: https://github.com/mimblewimble/docs/wiki/Wallet-User-Guide
Grin Wallet Downloads: https://github.com/mimblewimble/grin/releases
Grin Explorer: https://grinscan.net/
Grin Info & Price: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/grin
Grin Official Website: https://grin-tech.org/
Grin Pool Comparison: https://miningpoolstats.stream/grin-c29
Grin Mining/Profit Calculator (Beta): https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/grin/mining_calculator | {
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[box] What is 2channel?
2channel, also known as 2chan and 2ch, is the world’s largest forum. Completely anonymous, this is where Japanese netizens can disregard age, gender, and job title to conduct discussions in a relaxed atmosphere.
Usernames are non-existent, and instead users are assigned temporary, unique IDs to identify who is talking.
You’ll see the letter w used quite frequently, sometimes consecutively (“wwwwwww”). This denotes laughter, much like LOLOLOL. The more w’s, the more they’re laughing![/box] | {
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A trailer for the new VICELAND series Hamilton's Pharmacopeia has been released online.
The seems like it will be absolutely bonkers while also taking a serious look at various drugs. Here is the official synopsis and trailer: | {
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Republican presidential aspirant Mike Huckabee's recent utterances have been downright nasty.
Let's start with his drivel about President Obama and his supposed Kenyan upbringing.
Huckabee began this riff on conservative radio host Steve Malzberg's show by sympathizing with his nonsensical concerns about Obama's eligibility to be the President of the United States: "I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough."
But this ridiculous, fact-free playing to the Birthers' gallery wasn't enough for Huckabee. He went on to descend deeper into the muck.
He added, "If you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather."
Huckabee is so completely wrong here. Obama was not brought up in Kenya. He was raised mainly in Hawaii by his mother and maternal grandparents, and barely met his dad, let alone his paternal grandfather.
And Huckabee's mention of the Mau Mau uprising is race-baiting of the worst sort. Many Americans, especially of a certain age, have a strong association of Kenya with the Mau Mau rebellion, a violent insurrection in the 1950s that killed a number of British and Kenyans. Huckabee's citing of that episode in history is a disgusting attempt to pander to racial prejudices. Besides, he is mistaken about who was responsible for the major share of atrocities during the revolt.
"In 1952, stirred partly by their displacement and partly by British efforts to prohibit traditional Kikuyu customs, a Kikuyu secret society, the Mau Mau, launched a rebellion, attacking white-owned farms and brutally killing perhaps a hundred whites and 1,800 of their African supporters," the New York Times writes in a review of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya." "In retaliation, the British carried out a campaign that, [Harvard University Professor] Caroline Elkins suggests, amounted to genocide."
So, the "British were a bunch of imperialists," even if Obama didn't hear tales about their ruthlessness during his childhood in Kenya due to the simple fact that he was never there.
Huckabee is parroting a narrative popular with other Republicans. Last September, Newt Gingrich, another presidential hopeful, claimed that Obama's "Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior" was the essence of his character. Gingrich was commenting on a vicious Dinesh D'Souza piece about Obama in Forbes magazine, which Gingrich thought to possess "stunning insight," the "most profound insight I have read in the last six years about Barack Obama."
Huckabee further put his foot in his mouth during a recent appearance on Charlie Rose's show. He defended both Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Egypt's ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak. Huckabee's justification of Walker's union-busting may be understandable, if deplorable. But his plea that the Obama Administration should have cut Mubarak some slack since he was a stalwart U.S. ally was dumbfounding.
A few years ago, I had a tiny twinge of regret that I missed attending a Huckabee speech at a conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. But I know now that listening to Mike Huckabee would have been an utter waste of my time.
If you liked this article by Amitabh Pal, the managing editor of The Progressive magazine, please check out his article entitled "Change Continues to Sweep the Middle East."
× Follow Amitabh Pal
Follow Amitabh Pal @amitpal on Twitter. | {
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Sprint (NYSE: S) has not yet announced its final plans for its "Next Generation Network" (NGN) network densification, but elements of it are starting to take shape. According to financial analysts who follow the carrier, the NGN program will include around 70,000 small cells, some unknown number of additional macro cell sites and will likely involve wireless backhaul technology using the 2.5 GHz band.
Sprint said last week that its executives plan to discuss the NGN program on the company's next earnings call, which is scheduled for Aug. 4. The company has declined to discuss specific details of the plan before then.
The aim of the NGN project to enhance coverage and capacity and let Sprint deploy Voice over LTE technology. Sprint has bold plans and high expectations for how it intends improve its network, which it insists is getting better every day. Speaking in late May at Re/code's Code Conference, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said that "you can expect in the next 18 to 24 months--hopefully you'll invite me two years from now--that our network will be ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in every single market." He later clarified that he meant No. 1 or 2 in the United States' major markets, according to CNET.
According to Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche, Sprint plans to deploy around 70,000 small cells and has struck an agreement with wireless infrastructure firm Mobilitie, which will deploy around 20,000 of the small cells. Mobilitie sold 2,300 towers and some distributed antenna systems (DAS) to SBA Communications in 2012, but still focuses heavily on towers, small cells and DAS.
Evercore ISI analysts Jonathan Schildkraut and Justin Ages wrote in a research note on Monday that the capital budget for the NGN project "included up to 70K small cells as well as several thousand macro sites." They added that "our checks have indicated that in one of the iterations of S's NGN plans, the company had proposed a 70K small cell buildout--which was supposedly won by Mobilitie."
A Mobilitie spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
It's unclear how widespread the small cell deployment will be across the country as well as how many macro cell sites will be involved. Sprint might also look to repurpose decommissioned Clearwire sites for CDMA and LTE service, according to analysts.
Although Mobilitie might be deploying many of the small cells involved in Sprint's NGN, the carrier is likely going to be buying gear and small cells from at least three vendors, according to analysts: AirSpan, Nokia (NYSE:NOK) and Samsung. Nokia and Samsung are two of Sprint's vendors for its tri-band "Spark" LTE service and Nokia is a key supplier of 8T8R radios Sprint has been using for macro coverage. Nokia and Samsung representatives did not respond to quests for comment
AirSpan, a privately held wireless company based in Boca Raton, Fla., which formerly developed WiMAX products, has developed an LTE product that uses 2.5 GHz for both radio access as well as backhaul. AirSpan declined to comment.
Because acquiring fiber for backhaul is prohibitively expensive, Sprint is likely going to use wireless backhaul to save money, analysts said. Both BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk and New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin said that Sprint will likely use in-band wireless backhaul solutions using the lower 2.5 GHz spectrum band that would not require line of sight. Piecyk also wrote in a blog post last week that Sprint could "allocate a chunk of the 2.5 GHz spectrum for backhaul alone, known as out-band."
"Wireless backhaul would facilitate speed to deployment and it appears it could also lower your cost of ownership," Piecyk said in an interview.
"If [Sprint parent] SoftBank is committed to making it work, I'm sure ultimately they will," Chaplin said in an interview. "I'm also sure it's going to cost them a lot more and take them a lot longer to get it right than I think they are suggesting at the moment."
Chaplin said that even if Sprint deploys 70,000 small cells, that might not be enough to improve its network as significantly as it has said it will. "I would have thought they needed to build out significantly more than 70,000 small cells," he said. "If the objective is as [SoftBank CEO and Sprint Chairman] Masa[yoshi Son] has described it, which is to build the best network possible in the country, 70,000 small cells seems like a good place to start."
Chaplin noted that Sprint's Network Vision project modernized 38,000 cell sites, and that if Sprint really wants to improve its network, it should aim to expand coverage to the equivalent of 50,000 macro sites. "The plan would be a lot more plausible to me on the surface if it involved getting to 50,000 macro cells for the core EV-DO/LTE network, and on top of that was going to build a dense small cell network," he said. "They really need to be building those macro sites now and they're not."
How much is all of this going to cost? Sprint CFO Joe Euteneuer said on the company's last earnings conference call in May that Sprint expects capital expenditures to be approximately $5 billion for fiscal 2015, which runs until the end of March 2016, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of his remarks.
Euteneuer also said that the company has "$1.4 billion in undrawn availability under our network vendor financing to be utilized towards the purchase of 2.5 GHz network equipment."
Additionally, Euteneuer added that Sprint is aiming to be more cost-efficient than it has in the past with vendors. He said in May that "the initial reads of the RFPs is that we're able to get a lot more done for a lot less along with being able to get favorable financing terms ultimately when we decide on what direction we're going in regards to the final capital program."
Claure said that "we recently issued RFPs to various vendors to gather information on specific solutions and pricing and we're very pleased with the significant potential savings we are seeing compared to our Network Vision pricing."
Analysts at Jefferies said the NGN plan could pressure Sprint's free cash flow. "We see the new network densification plan as stop-gap measure to structural issues that will likely only be fixed by a meaningful investment in low- or mid-band spectrum," they wrote in a research note. "We conservatively estimate the plan will cost an incremental [$1 billion to $2 billion] per year on top of run rate wireless capital spending of [$4 billion to $5 billion] for three years. Sprint may find creative ways to involve vendor financing, but the leverage profile only becomes further troubling."
Chaplin said he remains skeptical of Sprint's ability to execute on plans to improve its network. "If they came out with a plan to create the best network in the world and they told us it was going to cost a fair amount of money but the return on investment was going to be very attractive, that would be plausible," he said.
However, Chaplin added: "If they are telling us it's not going to cost a lot of money it's because they are not willing to spend the money it's going to cost. Not because they've found this magic alchemy."
Related articles:
Report: Sprint starts widespread carrier aggregation deployment in 2.5 GHz band
Analysts: Sprint's network densification plans up in the air, but wireless backhaul could play a key role
Analysts: Sprint's network spending slowing down, but will soon ramp up with densification efforts
Sprint ditches 600 Kbps streaming video speed limit after outcry
Sprint CEO Claure meets with Miami's mayor, providing window into future network plans
Sprint CTO Stephen Bye resigns from company amid new network densification program | {
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The Who is the most influential rock band of the 20th century. Formed in 1964, The Who originally had Roger Daltrey (lead vocalist), Pete... | {
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There's something strange about the oxygen in the atmosphere above Mars' Gale Crater: Its levels fluctuate dramatically as the seasons change. And this mysterious oxygen cycling can't be explained by any known chemistry, a new study found.
Gale Crater is a 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) depression that was created by a meteor crash 3.5 billion to 3.8 billion years ago. NASA's Curiosity rover has been exploring the crater since 2012, when it landed at the foot of Mount Sharp, a giant mountain at the heart of the crater, according to NASA .
For the past three Martian years (over five Earth years), the rover has been breathing in the air above Gale Crater and analyzing the atmosphere using an instrument called the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), which is part of a portable chemistry lab, NASA officials said in a statement .
Related: Photos: Gale Crater on Mars
SAM confirmed that 95% of Mars' atmosphere is made up of carbon dioxide (CO2) and the other 5% is a combination of molecular nitrogen (two nitrogen atoms bound together), molecular oxygen, argon and carbon monoxide. SAM also found that, when CO2 gas freezes at the poles during the Martian winter, the entire planet's air pressure drops. When the CO2 evaporates in the warmer months, the air pressure rises again. Argon and nitrogen predictably rise and fall, depending on how much CO2 is in the air.
But when SAM analyzed the oxygen levels in the crater, the results were mystifying: The oxygen levels rose much higher than expected — as much as 30% of its baseline levels in the spring and summer — and then dropped to levels lower than predicted in the winter.
"We're struggling to explain this," lead author Melissa Trainer, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in the statement. "The fact that the oxygen behavior isn't perfectly repeatable every season makes us think that it's not an issue that has to do with atmospheric dynamics" or any physical processes that happen in the atmosphere such as the breakup of molecules. All of the possible explanations they came up with fell short.
Rather, "it has to be some chemical source and sink that we can't yet account for," she added.
This puzzle is reminiscent of a similar mystery about methane levels in the crater: SAM previously found that the typically indiscernible levels of methane sometimes increase by about 60% in the summer and plummet at other random times, for unknown reasons.
"We're beginning to see this tantalizing correlation between methane and oxygen for a good part of the Mars year," Sushil Atreya, a professor of climate and space sciences and engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, said in the statement. "I think there's something to it." But nobody knows what that "something" is yet, he added.
Both oxygen and methane can be produced biologically (such as by microbes) and geologically (such as by water and rocks), and scientists don't know which process could be producing the elements in excess. However, to the disappointment of alien hunters, it's more likely that the excess oxygen and methane are the results of a geological process, according to the statement. Currently, the most likely source of the excess oxygen is the Martian soil, the team reported. But even if that's the case, they have no idea what in the soil is releasing so much oxygen into the atmosphere.
The findings were published Nov. 12 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets .
Originally published on Live Science . | {
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Environmental and public health advocates blasted the Trump administration Thursday for finalizing its rollback of an Obama-era regulation designed to curb the pollution of waterways nationwide.
"Fifty years after the Cuyahoga River fire that inspired the Clean Water Act, President Trump's administration wants to turn back the clock to the days of poisoned flammable water," declared Abigail Dillen, president of the non-profit legal group Earthjustice. "This is shameful and dangerous."
nothing gets Republicans jazzed up like poisoning baby brains https://t.co/lQidq2YU8e — ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper) September 12, 2019
The Washington Post reported late Wednesday that the Trump administration "plans to scrap the Obama-era definition of what qualifies as 'waters of the United States' under the Clean Water Act, returning the country to standards put in place in 1986."
Robert Irvin, president of American Rivers, told the Post that "the administration wants to go back to an era where we are destroying wetlands heedlessly."
In 2015, under the Obama administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued the Clean Water Rule—also known as Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule—which gave the federal government regulatory authority over many streams and wetlands across the country. Because of various ongoing legal battles involving the 2015 rule, including some cases that relate to the Trump administration's moves to repeal or weaken it, the Obama-era definition of federal waters remains in effect in only 22 states and is temporarily blocked in the other 28 states.
"We want to make sure that we have a definition that once and for all will be the law of the land in all 50 states," EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler told the Post ahead of the administration's official announcement. "What we have today is a patchwork across the country... We need to have a uniform regulatory approach."
"Under President Trump, the EPA is no longer in the business of safeguarding our resources and protecting us from pollution, but is openly working to advance the agenda of those who profit from fouling our water and threatening our health."
— Craig Cox, EWG
EPA Region 6 Administrator Ken McQueen made the announcement Thursday at a Dallas Builders Association event. In a statement, Wheeler explained that "today's Step 1 action fulfills a key promise of President Trump and sets the stage for Step 2—a new WOTUS definition that will provide greater regulatory certainty for farmers, landowners, home builders, and developers nationwide."
Throughout Thursday, advocates for strong water regulations issued scathing critiques of the Trump administration's repeated attacks and ultimate repeal of the 2015 rule.
"Under President Trump, the EPA is no longer in the business of safeguarding our resources and protecting us from pollution, but is openly working to advance the agenda of those who profit from fouling our water and threatening our health," said Craig Cox, senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources at the Environmental Working Group (EWG). Research conducted by Cox and a colleague in 2017 showed that removing the Obama-era protections could endanger the drinking water of about 117 million people nationwide.
Noting that estimated impact on drinking water, Food & Water Watch Action executive director Wenonah Hauter declared that "the only incentive to gut water protections like this is to create a safe haven for agrochemical industrial interests against the wellbeing of public and environmental health."
"Without protections in place, the expansive and insatiable agricultural businesses that run factory farms across our country will not bat an eye when it comes to releasing waste and pollutants into our vital drinking water resources," Hauter warned. "Unfettered profits will be the law of the land now, rather than the protection of the human right to clean and safe water."
"Clean water is essential to all life, but instead of protecting it, the Trump administration is giving Big Polluters another handout," said Marcie Keever, oceans and vessels program director for Friends of the Earth. "Vulnerable communities who already suffer from a lack of access to clean water will be put at even greater risk by this immoral decision."
"The EPA's callous decision," Keever added, "endangers communities and threatens our environment."
"The EPA's callous decision endangers communities and threatens our environment."
—Marcie Keever, Friends of the Earth
Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, accused the administration of "green-lighting the destruction of millions of acres of wetlands" and expressed concerns about the resulting impacts on plants and animals.
"Special-interest polluters are reaping a windfall at the expense of our nation's clean water," Hartl said. "As our wetlands disappear and our streams and rivers are polluted, our nation's wildlife will suffer devastating losses."
In a statement Thursday, the Center for Biological Diversity outlined the Trump administration's anticipated next steps—and their consequences:
Expected to follow closely on the heels of today's "repeal" rulemaking is a second EPA rulemaking—dubbed the "replacement" rule—that is expected to gut remaining protections for more than 50 percent of the nation's wetlands. An analysis by the center estimates that the proposal would cut Clean Water Act protections for more than 3,000 watersheds in the western United States and accelerate the extinction of more than 75 endangered species, from steelhead trout to California tiger salamanders. These rulemakings were prompted by President Donald Trump's Executive Order 13778, which urged the EPA to protect only those waters that have "a relatively permanent surface connection" to a traditionally navigable body of water such as a major river. The executive order followed the legal view of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, which was not adopted by the Supreme Court.
"This administration has shown nothing but disdain for America's natural heritage and the wildlife we cherish," added Hartl. "We'll fight this illegal rollback and every aspect of Trump's incredibly harmful anti-environmental agenda."
Several other advocates also promised Thursday to fight against the Trump EPA's rollback through legal action.
"The Trump administration's wild-eyed attempts to reward polluters... knows no bounds, so it is repealing these important protections without regard for the law or sound science."
—Jon Devine, NRDC
"This repeal is outrageous," said Clean Water Action president and CEO Bob Wendelgass, "but it's just one part of a broad assault on fundamental protections for our water—and we're not going to let the Trump administration win."
Jon Devine, director of federal water policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said the 2015 rule "represented solid science and smart public policy."
"The Trump administration's wild-eyed attempts to reward polluters, however, knows no bounds, so it is repealing these important protections without regard for the law or sound science," Devine added. "This unsubstantiated action is illegal and will certainly be challenged in court."
Dillen vowed that Earthjustice, which is already involved in litigation related to the 2015 rule, "will use the full strength of our nation's bedrock environmental laws to protect communities and the environment."
"This administration's industry-fueled giveaways to dirty special interests," she said, "cannot be allowed to stand." | {
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La 'vieja guardia' de IU Madrid reaparece para atacar el pacto de Alberto Garzón con Podemos
viernes 13 de mayo de 2016 , 00:00h
La alianza entrepara las elecciones generales del 26 de junio ha contado con un amplio respaldo de las bases, pero no de la extinta IU de la Comunidad de Madrid. Cargos públicos y militantes de la desfederada, entre los que se encuentra, han impulsado un manifiesto en el que advierten que el acuerdo con la formación morada supone la, y al que se puede sumar todo el que quiera, se denuncia que un “grupo reducido de Izquierda Unida ha decidido concluir el proyecto que dio vida a esta formación en 1986”. En concreto, apuntan a una” que, en su opinión, “ha contado con la pasividad y complicidad de quien debería velar por la identidad política”.Las consultas celebradas por Izquierda Unida para refrendar la alianza con Podemos es únicamente “el último episodio de una operación de largo alcance que no tiene otra pretensión, como se ha demostrado en los recientes avatares políticos, que, donde las tradiciones de transformación, izquierda y progreso desaparezcan en favor de políticas y programas que no persiguen otra cosa que la ocupación de espacios de poder sin referencias ideológicas o programáticas de ningún tipo”. Así lo afirman los firmantes de este manifiesto que no olvidan la “expulsión de más de 5.000 afiliados y afiliadas a IU de la Comunidad de Madrid”.Unos afiliados que “defendieron la confluencia con dos únicas condiciones:. Unos límites, explican los firmantes, que “resultaron intolerables para los defensores del proceso de desaparición de IU” y que explican que “la expulsión de la federación madrileña de IU no tenía otro objeto que despejar el obstáculo que impedía el progreso de operaciones personales sin contenido político”.Para estos cargos públicos y militantes el acuerdo de Garzón con Iglesias “obedece a la necesidad de actores necesitados de autovaloraciones positivas”, ya que “la arrogancia y ambición de los dirigentes de Podemos empieza a aparecer ante los ojos de sus propios votantes, haciendo desistir a una parte que ya entiende queAsimismo, sostienen que IU busca salvar “el desastroso resultado del 20D”. Para ello, “desprecia la posibilidad de mantener su proyecto histórico en favor de esa opción populista en la que puede ganar algún escaño, perdiendo el espacio político de la izquierda de los cambios”.Los firmantes de este documento ensalzan “una tradición política que durante treinta años ha representado los contenidos y valores de una convergencia de izquierda que siempre se concibió como plural, autónoma de otras fuerzas políticas y basada en acuerdos programáticos” y ven “paradójico que en un momento en que la pluralidad se percibe como un valor político, renuncie a su identidad la fuerza que más reclamó esa pluralidad”.Los excoordinadores de IUCM Ángel Pérez y Gregorio Gordo, así como Miguel Reneses, que fue 'número dos' de IU con Cayo Lara, suscriben un manifiesto en cuyo último párrafo se abre la puerta a no votar a Izquierda Unida en las elecciones generales. “Al firmar este documento, los hombres y mujeres que hemos pertenecido o pertenecemos a Izquierda Unida, nos llamamos a encontrar, en la próxima campaña electoral, propuestas que sean coherentes con la tradición que hemos defendido durante los últimos treinta años”, se afirma al final de este texto. | {
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The Pipinos, the first submarine constructed in Greece, was launched on Monday in the Skaramangas shipyard of western Athens.
The christening of the Pipinos was attended by Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos, Defense Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, Shipping Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, Chairman of the Greek Parliament Evangelos Meimarakis, Minister of Public Order Vasilis Kikilias, Deputy Minister of National Defense Fofi Gennimata and Archbishop Ieronymos.
Samaras used the occasion to exhibit how the government continues to have the will and power to safely lead the country into the post-crisis era.
The Pipinos submarine, a Type 214 diesel-electric vessel, is the first of three submarines commissioned by the Greek Navy to be built in the Abu Dhabi-controlled Hellenic Shipyards.
The Greek submarine was named after Andreas Pipinos (1780-1836), a famous seamen from the island of Hydra. During the Greek War of Independence, Pipinos fought by the side of Constantine Kanaris. He took part in the destruction of the Turkish fleet of Kara Ali in 1822 and in the 1824 battle of Gerontas, in which he was seriously injured while burning the Turkish flagship.
The Pipinos is 65.30 meters long and 7.90 meters wide. Its maximum submerged speed reaches 21 knots. Maximum surface speed is 10 knots.
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It’s the Incomparable Game Show! In a clash of young(ish) versus old(ish), two teams vie for the honor of being the team who wins. Sci-fi questions, confused androids, and a visit from a parallel-universe version of The Incomparable are all part of the story. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you won’t learn a darned thing. Join us, won’t you? | {
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Advertisement Attorney charged in wife's death stepping down from Georgia election board Share Shares Copy Link Copy
A prominent Atlanta attorney accused of fatally shooting his wife has asked the state Senate not to reappoint him to Georgia's elections board. News outlets report that Claud "Tex" McIver made the request in a letter Friday to state Senate leaders, citing the death of his wife, Diane McIver, and the aftermath of her passing. He had served for more than a decade on the panel and helped usher in one of its most controversial provisions requiring voters to show photo identification. Atlanta police have said Tex McIver was riding in a rear seat of an SUV on Sept. 25 when a gun he was holding fired and the bullet hit his wife. The man is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct. He says the shooting was an accident. | {
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“Gone tomorrow, but you’re here for today / catwalking like the world is your runway,” RuPaul declares on the opening verse of “Kitty Girl” -- a fan favorite off her latest album, American. The 6’4” drag icon is certainly making people pay attention: between a hit TV show, two new albums (with a third on its way!) and a biographical TV dramedy with Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams in the works, Mama Ru is serving working girl realness. Hot on the (size-twelve) heels of RuPaul’s Drag Race season nine premiere, the straightforward shapeshifter talked to Billboard about her B-52's breakthrough, her collection of unreleased Lady Gaga tracks, and -- given the patriotic theme of her latest album -- politics: “This election is a reaction to having an African-American president in the White House for the past eight years.”
First off, a condragulations is in order: nearly a million viewers tuned in to the season 9 premiere of Drag Race, making it the most watched episode in the history of the series and doubling last season’s debut. Were you shocked?
No, I wasn’t shocked because we’ve moved over to VH1 which has 93 million homes. It’s a lot more eyeballs that can watch our show. I’ve been out promoting our show for years and years to get people to tune in on Logo, but not a lot of people have Logo. And if they have it, it’s usually one of the most expensive cable packages around, so it was quite a feat. We had great success at Logo, but I knew it was more accessible to people on VH1.
Lady Gaga stopped by for the premiere. She was brilliant. What’s your favorite Gaga song?
You know, I believe it’s the one I did with her called “Fashion.” I love that song. Also, there’s this other one that’s part of this unreleased package that floated around the internet called “Nothing On But The Radio.” I don’t know the story behind it. I have a whole album of b-sides and unreleased Lady Gaga stuff. I don’t know how I got it.
You know, I’m a music freak. I'm sort of like the Underground Railroad of music people. They send me things and I'll send them things because we love music so much.
Lady Gaga seemed genuinely touched seeing the queens recreating her iconic looks. Now that the episode has aired, were there any off-camera moments you wish the audience had seen?
I think the camera pretty much captured the vibe of the room. She was right in her element: she loves dressing up, she loves playing with identities and characters. She relates to that little nerdy kid outcast who finds freedom in performance and taking on different identities. I think the episode really captured how genuinely moved she was.
Last season, you had a similar runway challenge: all the queens wore Madonna-inspired looks. When can we expect The Queen of Pop to be a guest on the show?
Well you know, Madge doesn’t really do that much television. Unless she’s promoting something, and then she does the big shows, like Carpool Karaoke. We always ask. We always ask Cher. We always ask everyone.
Who would be your dream guest?
Well I would certainly love to have Madonna, Cher, Judge Judy and Diana Ross; all of those people have really shaped my view of life, ya know?
You know what’s a funny story about this season? Iman called me and said she was in town, and that her daughter Lexi is a big fan of the show and wanted to stop by the set. She’s 16 now. They came by the set and she brought a friend. They were huge fans. They visited, we took pictures and all that good stuff. After they visited I broke down and cried because when I was that age, I was beyond -- beyond -- obsessed with David Bowie. From the time I was about 14 throughout the rest of my life. To think that David Bowie’s kid was on our set... I didn’t let on to her, but the fact that I’ve lived long enough in my life to have this turnaround to where David Bowie’s kid was obsessed with something I was doing was really crazy. I’ve never told anyone that story actually.
What did you think of Bowie’s Blackstar?
It’s beautiful. It just made me miss the fact that he couldn’t do more. In hearing that album and its jazz undertones, I thought, ‘Oh my god.' I would have loved to hear him do a standards album or a proper jazz vocals album. Even singing some of the jazz standards. I just loved him so much. I still love him so much.
This week’s episode features the B-52's. In 1989, you appeared in their “Love Shack” music video, which was their first Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hit, ultimately peaking at No. 3. How did you land the gig?
Well they had always been aware of us Atlanta kids. Because they had made it out of Athens, Georgia and R.E.M. had made it, we all flocked to the inner city to meet other ‘tribe’ members to emulate that same success. We were in bands and we played the 40 Watt Club in Athens and all that kind of stuff.
They were always aware of us. When we hit New York, they were even more aware of us because we were the talk of the town. We were the Atlanta kids who had come up. Anyways, word got out and a mutual friend came to the club and said that they wanted us -- Lahoma, myself, Lady Bunny and Larry Tee -- they wanted us in their music video.
I believe it was just Lahoma and myself that ended up going up there. We had been, of course, at the club all night. Didn’t go to sleep. We’re in our clothes from the club the night before. We jumped on a bus they had chartered from the city up to near Poughkeepsie where we filmed that. I remember being so exhausted, but we did it!
That was nearly thirty years ago. Any stories from the set?
The big story -- and the Bs always remind me this -- is that they wanted to do a Soul Train line. They couldn’t. It wasn’t going right. So I had to step in and say, ‘Okay, listen. This is how you do a Soul Train line.' It’s like two wheels that are sort of smashing pasta out; it’s like a pasta machine. The two wheels have to be rotating. So when the two people are going down the middle, the line is actually in rotation, so it replenishes the two new people that come down the middle. They were very impressed by the fact that I was able to do that.
There have been several times in my life where I pretend to be, not necessarily a wallflower, but someone who is a conscious observer. I’ll step in and go ‘Okay, this is what needs to happen.’ I guess it’s part of my Scorpio nature. A lot of times, I will sort of downplay that. But sometimes I have to take the reins and say, ‘Okay, here we go. This is what we need to do.’ And that’s what happened and they were very impressed.
Over the years, you’ve had plenty of Hot 100 hitmakers as guests on your show. This season, you have Meghan Trainor and Kesha, and both Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato appeared in the past few years. Do you have any juicy stories you can share?
I had met Ariana Grande several years before because her brother, Frankie, was a big fan of the show. It was right before she had really taken off; she had just released the single “The Way.” She was so young when I met her.
When she finally got on the show, her whole family came; Frankie, her grandmother, her mother. Everybody was there because they were such big fans of the show and she couldn’t have been more lovely.
With Meghan Trainor -- I love songwriters. I’ve always idolized people who can write songs. I just grilled her on her songwriting process. It was the same with Ester Dean when she was on. I’m very fascinated by people who can do that. They were both very forthcoming with their information, which I loved.
Speaking of songwriting, you spoke with hit songwriter Justin Tranter on your podcast, RuPaul: What’s The Tee. You first met him at Diane Warren’s birthday party -- talk about songwriters. Who is your favorite songwriter?
I’d have to say Burt Bacharach and Hal David. I can’t really say because I love them all. I love Ashford & Simpson and I love the Brothers Gibb. They are amazing. In fact, they do tricks in their songs that are so beyond.
There’s a song that they wrote called “Carried Away” that was recorded by Olivia Newton-John. I believe it was a single from her huge album, Physical. The song was written for Barbra Streisand's Guilty album, which is a masterpiece. Barbra passed on the song and it went to Olivia Newton-John. In the song, they do this time-signature change that is mind-blowing. When you hear the song, it just speaks to what masters they are.
Barry released the demos for all of the albums he did for the superstars. You know, they did Barbra, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick and of course Andy Gibb. All of the demos for the albums were released on iTunes and it’s beautiful to hear him singing these songs -- especially the ones where it’s clearly for a woman. But “Carried Away” is part of the package for the Guilty album of the demos.
One of the many things that are great about Drag Race is how it introduces a new, young audience to pieces of pop culture that they may never have learned about. Who is a musician that you want your younger fans to discover?
Well I would love for them to discover all of the Motown stuff: Smokey Robinson, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Stevie Wonder and all of those great writers from back then. Those songwriters really are the architects of modern pop. They’re the architects of what ABBA did and Stock Aitken Waterman, Babyface -- all the hitmakers that came after them. Even Max Martin and Dr. Luke attribute their sound and their success to what happened at Motown.
Let's talk about your new album, American. There’s no pussyfooting: it’s a call to arms in this political climate. Your music is generally playful, so what made you decide to make this bold statement?
It was really from my heart. In years of doing it, you learn to use this instrument -- this heart, mind, body, spirit -- as a way to channel feelings to come through you. And that’s exactly what happened.
I was so disappointed and despondent after the election. The American dream -- the American drive that we stand for -- had been so deluded and tainted by this divisive entity. And that’s exactly what came out of me: this album. I was angry I chronicled my process of being lost and wanting to get away from it all. And then coming back and saying, ‘You know what? I’m back. I’m ready to fight the hard fight.’
The cover art features you in front of a black and white flag. While the visual is striking, I’m assuming there’s a deeper meaning to it.
I saw footage from a rally in Tennessee where they were hyping up the Manchurian Pumpkin. They were interviewing people who pretended that this was really about certain issues when they clearly knew nothing about the issues. You could see right through them. The real issue was: they felt left behind. These people have felt like history is moving beyond them. And it is, by the way: we’re in the 21st century. We have to include all people. This election had really just boiled down to black and white. The message is how the flag -- our red, white and blue -- has turned into something that’s black and white. This election is a reaction to having an African-American president in the White House for the past eight years.
Aside from the title track, it seems that “Call Me Mother” and “Kitty Girl” are favorites among the fandom. What’s your favorite track?
I love them all. My favorite track would have to be “American.” It’s so simple and it’s so heartfelt. I always get this visual of what the video would look like; all these different, beautiful, diverse people marching to Washington to reclaim American values.
Are we going to see that music video?
I’m trying to make it happen. I’m so busy with so many other things, but I’m trying to make it happen. We’ll see!
You have such an expansive discography. Have you considered touring?
I have! I was actually talking to Todrick Hall yesterday about the way he mounts these tours. It’s something I was to do. The thing is: because we’ve had so much success on television, I have to stay close to L.A. and work on that. I do want to do it.
I’m coming out with Essential, Vol. 2 in a couple months. I did Remember Me: Essential, Vol. 1 where I rerecorded stuff I had on Warner Brothers. Vol. 2 will be music I released from the last nine years, so a tour would be perfect with that.
Queer musicians are becoming more and more mainstream. Who do you have your eye on?
Well there’s that kid—what’s his name? He has it spelled weird. Troye Sivan! That’s an interesting storyline. And of course there’s Justin Tranter who’s unapologetically queer and really in the business in a way that wields so much power. It’s amazing to me. I love that. And then they’re all the people that are just open; who don’t have to decide one way or the other what they are. I think that’s the most optimistic ray of light in this whole thing.
If young RuPaul was a contestant on Drag Race, who would have she played in Snatch Game?
The only person I could do is La Toya Jackson. I’m surprised people haven’t done her before because she’s a perfect fit. She has her own vernacular, her own aesthetic -- it would be so good!
If you could give any pop star a drag makeover, who would it be?
Oh, I don’t know! I don’t really give makeovers. One of the things that came out this week in the press is how I get young people tweeting me saying, ‘I wish you could do my makeup for prom’ or ‘I wish you could do my makeup for my wedding.’ And I understand that it’s coming from a loving place and it’s a compliment. But it’s really telling of our culture -- of people who haven’t expanded their perspective on human life on this planet. Usually people who don’t have a broad perspective see gay people as servants -- as people who are there to make them look good. It’s akin to asking a black person to dinner, but only if they’ll serve the food -- and do the dishes! It’s because their experience through television or media or whatever is that of gay people doing make-up, or making them over.
You recently announced that you married your boyfriend of 22 years, Georges LeBar. It was also announced that you're producing a fictional series with J.J. Abrams based on your come up -- your rise from club kid to superstar. Will we see Georges portrayed on the show?
I don't know! Probably not because the show really focuses on the '80s and what New York was like then. I met Georges in the '90s, after I had already become famous.
Do you have any dream casting choices?
I don’t! I think that may be the hardest part of this whole thing -- casting me! I don’t know who’s going to do that, honestly.
RuPaul's Drag Race airs 8 p.m. Fridays on VH1. | {
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One Dollar coin, back
(Image by public) Details DMCA
One Dollar coin, back by public
Look after the dollar and the trillions will look after themselves.
NEW YORK, Cooper Union, May 12, 2013 -- As the most recent debt ceiling deadline drew close, the extraordinary proposal to pay off public debt with a fistful of trillion-dollar coins momentarily gained traction. Pundits pointed out that, to avoid default, the President could unilaterally so order, based on the arguably controlling 14th Amendment mandate that "[t]he validity of the public debt " shall not be questioned." Obama was ultimately obliged to respond. He did so by squelching the idea conclusively enough to reinforce the popular perception of the trillion-dollar coin as an absurd and academic gimmick. This pamphlet construes the episode as an early teaching moment, on which to build.
The trillion-dollar coin proposal gave subtle notice that the government does not issue the nation's paper money; and it drew the nation one notch closer to realizing how, by similarly issuing trillions of dollars in paper and digital money, private banks garnish from the public amazing sums -- sums that operate as a hidden flat tax on the nation as a whole, which under the constitution should be used only for the general welfare, and would be, if those sums were instead issued by the government, the same way that it mints coins. This article proposes to advance the public's education by one more conceptual notch, re paper money. Fractional expansion of the currency through digitized credit accounting is a concept not reached. This focus on cash avoids theories as to banks earning the sums they garnish, by applying expertise in its distributions. Paper money issues wholly automatically, to meet global demands for ready cash.
However, the notch of understanding I propose is not modest. It is the jolting realization that banks routinely perform the trillion-dollar coin trick for themselves, by issuing the nation's paper money as banknotes; so that, in effect, simply deleting the smaller words "Federal Reserve Note" from all new and replacement paper notes would rapidly, dramatically and justifiably retire public debt. I have recorded a lyrical video noting how the words "United States" would then stand proud, true and alone. Treasured Notes, YouTube. Naturally, the public presently takes at face value the Treasury's misleading mantra that "United States Notes serve no function that is not already adequately served by Federal Reserve Notes," which appears three times on its website. Given the grandiose "United States" captions on both sides of every Federal Reserve note, to the bamboozled public this fundamental falsehood seems as true and trite as a tautology.
For the purpose of public education as to the game-changing, debt-dissolving advantages of true United States currency (coin/note/digital) over Federal Reserve currency (note/digital), the trillion dollar coin has been somewhat self-defeating. The immense value per coin, while garnishing headlines, by the same token seems so frivolous that central bankers (and their government minions and economic entourages) are even happy to draw attention to it. Without requiring any explanation, merely citing the trillion-dollar coin is enough to draw ridicule upon those who rationally support the underpinning possibilities of truly public money supplies.
But not all is lost. Through the trillion-dollar coin, the public has implicitly been exposed to the underpinning fact that there is something structurally different about minting coins, versus printing money . The foreclosed trillion-dollar coin debate can now be exploited to explain and explode an ongoing one-dollar "coin-swap" controversy, transforming the public's vague awareness of some key distinction between coins and notes into a concrete realization of the fundamental difference between United States currency and Federal Reserve currency. This message is heavily underscored by underhand anti-coin activism at the Federal Reserve. Why do you think the 1979 Susan B. Anthony dollar was so similar to a quarter that its production soon had to be halted? An ex-Mint chairman's grouse re more recent "barriers" to distribution is at http://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hhrg-112-ba19-wstate-pdiehl-20121129.pdf .
In complete contrast to their perfunctory ridiculing of the trillion-dollar coin concept, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury are so afraid of what the public might learn from the one-dollar coin that for 22 years they have painstakingly mentored a series of 8 GAO reports that grossly understate the financial benefit that would automatically accrue to the government by replacing all one-dollar Federal Reserve notes with one-dollar United States coins. In the GAO reports -- or rather, in regularly attached Treasury and Federal Reserve letters of comments -- what began as a successful strategy of damning the dollar-coin by falsified faint praise, has become falsified direct damning.
In 2012, citing the arbitrary exclusion of seigniorage from CBO budget scores, the seventh GAO coin-swap report (GAO-12-307) contained a section headlined: "Without Counting Seigniorage, Switching To A $1 Coin Would Result In A Net Loss." The word "net" is inappropriate, since it imputes full inclusion. Next time, let the GAO add a section entitled: "Counting All Seigniorage Shows A Net Public Debt Reduction In Excess Of $58 Billion." Make no mistake. The GAO's coin-swap reports represent a hot battleground in a mostly undercover seigniorage war. Come to the front! "O! Ye who love mankind, stand forth!" (Paine, Common Sense.)
In 1989, the Federal Reserve gave the GAO a coin-swap costing model implant that included a trivial concessionary fraction of real seigniorage revenue. Ever since, the GAO has reproduced that tiny slice of the seigniorage pie, which it presents as the whole pie. To the Federal Reserve and Treasury, this once tolerated fleck of truth has grown into a grating and potentially fatal revelatory mistake. It is now far easier for central banking establishmentarians to blithely assert that all seigniorage should forthwith be disregarded in deference to a CBO accounting convention, than to explain decades of brazen suppression of the vastly larger dollar sums obviously at bar.
How could they possibly explain away a 22 year series of 8 reports that forever fails to state the principal amounts by which the public debt is directly reduced through seigniorage, even though it reports interest relief due on such reductions? The principle reductions necessarily come first, and of course dwarf the actually reported consequent interest relief. Explanation is especially difficult in light of government accounting standards promulgated by the GAO itself, which explicitly require a clear statement of both principal and interest gains and losses, in reporting net tax benefits. And both explanation and excuse are quite impossible in light of the interest relief understatement being no less than a factor of six arithmetical error.
In the 1840s, persistent coin-banknote conflicts resulted in a durable Independent Treasury Act under which the Treasury would not deal in banknotes, owing to incorrigible serial lootings of the public fisc by banks. Today, Ye Olde Seigniorage War is in small but significant part being fought over the puny but resilient one-dollar coin. The dollar coin is the private banking monopoly's Achilles heel, for it faithfully and indelibly preserves the structurally different accounting script under which true United States notes might again issue. The distinct and advantageous option of true United States notes is obfuscation-proofed by pragmatically defining Unites States notes as paper money issued per the accounting procedures under which coins are now issued.
I have narrowly targeted this Achilles heel in a litigation now on appeal in the Ninth Circuit, which seeks a finding of misrepresentation re the GAO's purportedly objective coin-swap net benefit estimates. Johnson v. United States Department of the Treasury, No. 12-16775. Links to the filings are under the Treasury menu at commondada.com. Here is paragraph 8 of the complaint, as drafted in January 2012 (since when there have already been another two such GAO reports):
8. Financial Misrepresentations. (i) Coin-Swap Question. A March, 2011 General Accounting Office report (U.S. COINS: Replacing the $1 Note with a $1 Coin Would Provide a Financial Benefit to the Government, GAO-11-281) answered the following question for Hon. Richard Shelby, ranking member, Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, United States Senate: What is the estimated net benefit, if any, to the government of replacing the $1 note with a $1 coin?
(ii) Game-Changing Seigniorage. Answering this question requires costing the seigniorage benefits that automatically readjust when United States currency, coin or note, mixes with and/or replaces Federal Reserve currency. Thus, answering this question on the small scales of coinage implicitly answers it on every scale, including complete conversion of the currency. These benefits are in fact so high that they swamp the benefits that the GAO report instead labors to compute, as follows. Had the face-value seigniorage benefits been properly included in the GAO report, they would have trumpeted the huge and prompt debt reducing advantages of United States currency.
(iii) Model Falsehoods. The 2011 GAO report trustingly adopts a Federal Reserve model which impertinently presumes that the government must operate in debt, and which misrepresents that: (a) when a new $1 coin is put in circulation, the only government benefit is the relief from interest on $1 of debt; and (b) there is no government benefit when a $1 coin replaces a $1 note, because the interest relief from $1 is offset by the loss of interest from $1 in Federal Reserve profits returned to the government. In fact: (a) when a new $1 coin is issued, the government's account is credited with $1; and (b) when a $1 note is replaced by a new $1 coin, the government (when in debt) also obtains relief from interest on 81.5 cents, since the Federal Reserve owns only 18.5% of the debt held by the public.
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Europe's biggest games convention marks 30 years since Space Invaders this week with a homage to the alien shoot-em-up as well as 500 exhibitors showing how far the industry has come since then.
Space Invaders first hit gaming arcades in 1978, setting players the challenge of shooting a swarm of hostile extraterrestials descending at an ever increasing pace - before they destroyed you.
The hugely popular game, released a year after the Star Wars movie, was "revolutionary," according to organisers of the Leipzig GC Games Convention in Germany starting on Wednesday, and changed the nature of video games for ever. | {
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TENAFLY — The engineer for a proposed Bottle King store said the project has "a very simple site plan," meets municipal guidelines for parking, and would improve traffic circulation at the site of the former Kia dealership.
The Planning Board held a special meeting Wednesday on the application for the 13,784-square-foot Bottle King retail liquor store. The hearing will continue this Wednesday.
Engineer Brett Skapinetz said the plan for the new store includes 57 parking spaces, 10 new light fixtures 15 feet in height, 30-foot two-way drive aisles, and a graded drop on the property to make it easier for trucks to make deliveries.
Bottle King, which has been in business for 48 years and bills itself as "the largest New Jersey retailer of wine, beer and spirits," operates 14 stores in New Jersey with locations in Dumont, Glen Rock, Hillsdale, Ramsey, Wayne, Livingston and Glen Ridge.
Skapinetz said the hours of operation for the new store would be 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. from Monday to Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Deliveries to the store would be scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon.
EARLIER:Bottle King store in the works for Tenafly site of former Kia dealership
LOCAL:Man claims New Milford cop assaulted him outside restaurant
The plan calls for a 50-foot flagpole, but the board's planner, David Novak, said the permitted flagpole height is 25 feet. He also noted that signs must be attached to the building, not freestanding. Skapinetz said he would submit a revised site plan.
During public comment, resident Inbal Israeli Miller said delivery trucks exiting the business would go onto Piermont Road and could affect traffic from local schools during the morning.
Ira Weiner and Matthew Capizzi, lawyers representing Tenafly residents concerned about the project, wanted the next meeting rescheduled to a later date to have time to study the revised plan and question the professionals speaking about the application.
Planning Board Chairwoman Mary Beth Wilmit said the next meeting will just feature more witnesses speaking on the plan and will not conclude that day. And those same professionals will be made available for the lawyers to question at a later date.
Ricardo Kaulessar is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ricardokaul | {
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I absolutely love the different cores you meet in Portal 2, they’re only there for what seems like a split second, but they have so much character to them. I refuse to do a comic about combustible lemons, as much as I want to do something Cave Johnson related. Bronne actually just hung up the phone from calling me and yelling about how they killed Bin Laden. If you know Mr. Bruzgo at all, you’d know that he sweats patriotism, so this is like a holiday for him.
HAPPY EXPLOSION DAY.
Here’s the original pic of Rick the Adventure Core:
Also, fact core had a ridiculous moustache:
I’ll go and upload the blanks at some point today, there are a few isolated frames that could be pretty fun.
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Poetry might get a bad rap as a habitual release of teen angst and incoherent wordplay fit for consumption only in neighborhoods called Village, but that’s not all poetry has to offer. Take for instance, these five ballers, whose rip-roaring, bone-shattering, booze-hounding and generally unambigously dangerous lifestyles would make your Sig Tau brothers cry with hiccupy glee…
1. Philip Levine
A bro-et through and through, Philip Levine grew up in the depression and was an amateur boxer and factory worker before making all those poetry bucks. Ploughshares called his work “cocky, defiant, near-brawling,” and it’s rumored that he once got in a fight with John Barrymore in a Los Angeles-club (not John Berryman, his professor at Iowa; John Barrymore, noted Shakespearean actor and Drew Barrymore’s grandpa). When asked if the fight was real, Levine is said to have replied coyly that Barrymore “started it.”
In the Paris Review, he remarked “When I see a fight in the subway, I don’t try to stop it.” No, he tries to keep it going.
2. Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percey Bysshe Shelley, known for calling poets the “unacknowledged legislators of the world” went on to prove that unacknowledged part wrong by being one of the most acknowledged romantic poets in English history. He was expelled from Oxford many centuries before Kerouac made it cool, for publishing a “notorious” pamphlet called The Necessity of Atheism. But it was in his death where Shelley really began to shine. After the 29 year old died at sea, Tory newspaper The Courier, in one of the more tasteful exercises of freedom of the press, remarked, “Shelley, the writer of some infidel poetry, has been drowned, now he knows whether there is God or no.”
Oh, and did we mention when they went to cremate him, the old Son-of-a-Bysshe’s heart wouldn’t burn?
Legend has it, his widow Mary Shelley kept the decaying heart in a desk, presumably with the intentions of placing it inside a hideous, electrified man-beast.
3. Frank O’Hara
When people think of Frank O’Hara, the New York School poet famous for being the original pop-poet (among his most famous works are an epitaph for Billie Holiday and “Lana Turner Has Collapsed”), they don’t generally think “raging man-beast,” but they are wrong. To wit, see that crazy-crimped nose? Dude broke it in a childhood fight. A notoriously accomplished lover (of men), O’Hara, when discussing the technical tools of the poetic trade said, “As for measure and other technical apparatus, that’s just common sense: if you’re going to buy a pair of pants you want them to be tight enough so everyone will want to go to bed with you.” Don’t I know it, brother…
O’Hara was great with a quip: one famous story has Jack Kerouac heckling him from a reading audience, telling him, “You’re killing American poetry.” O’Hara coolly replied, “That’s more than you ever did for it, Jack.”
4. Robert Lowell
Robert Lowell spent most of his life going by the nickname Cal. Why, you ask? Oh, it was after a little Roman emperor by the name of Caligula, aka one of the most ruthless emperors of all time. Apparently, he was a mean little SOB as a child, and the nickname stuck.
Despite being a member of one of the original Boston Brahman families, Lowell was an iconoclast — converting to Catholicism, mainly out of rebellion, before giving religion up altogether. When he attended Kenyon college, Cal (in what he’d later call “a terrible act of youthful callousness”) pitched a tent in his professor, Allen Tate’s yard and lived there for two months. All because Tate told him he couldn’t live with them at the house.
Lowell is also famous for his “raw and the cooked” speech at the National Book Awards in 1960, in which he forsook the measured, tightly metrical work of his predecessors and his early career for the “raw” work of beat generation contemporaries like Ginsberg. And that’s when he invented confessionalism.
5. Ernest Hemingway
No list of awesome poet-bros would be complete without Good ol’ Papa. Ernest Hemingway famously wrote super-extensively about big game hunting, deep sea fishing and bullfighting, but he was also, according to John Walsh, “weirdly accident-prone,” splitting his head open in a Paris toilet, and getting tossed from just about every type of moving vehicle: from a car once, resulting in 57 stitches; from a motorcycle, while evading fire at Normandy. He also got a concussion after slipping on his fishing boat and nearly died alongside his fourth wife, Mary, in a plane crash near Victoria falls.
Not that you need anything else, but the dude’s drinking exploits are so epic he’s got a daiquiri named after him, which you might think was kind of a girly drink until you recall he spent most of his old age on a beach in the Keys.
Oh, and the man literally bathed in alcohol. That’s right, unlike us whiney mortals with our showers, dude took a daily sponge bath in rubbing alcohol, partly to curb his insane taste for booze. | {
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After a four-game losing streak, the Cowboys are on the verge of a completely lost season unless they find some way to get back into the win column. Well, it's the defending NFC champions that are next on the schedule and they offer up a bevy of obstacles for the Cowboys to overcome. However, these aren't the same Seahawks that we've seen in back-to-back Super Bowls, they are having their own set of struggles that could favor the Cowboys and allow them to escape with a victory.
When The Cowboys Have The Ball
Offensively, the Cowboys are going to have some trouble moving the ball against this defense that is in the top of the league in many categories. The one positive for the Cowboys is that they seem to have found some rhythm in the running game and their offensive line has really improved with the addition of La'el Collins to the starting lineup. The Seattle defensive line is a very strong unit but they struggled against the Cowboys last season due to the physical nature of their offensive line. It's roughly the same lineup for Seattle defensively but the addition of Frank Clark has given the Seahawks the same luxury as the Cowboys have with Randy Gregory. The Cowboys will have to continue their stat-busting style of running. The Giants came into last week's contest as the seventh-best rushing defense, they walked away as the 21st ranked rushing defense.
For Dallas, they must get this running game going against the sixth-best rushing defense. Bryan Broaddus and others have expressed their belief in the offensive line being skilled enough to run against any opponent and with Dez Bryant back in the fold, that should bode well for their chances at success. Dallas' offensive line found their groove last week by running Darren McFadden and getting him help with reverses. Bobby Wagner has been a very good player for the Seahawks but getting an extra guy to chip him could create rushing lanes for McFadden to take advantage. Dallas also has PFF's second-rated pass protecting unit behind Cleveland and quick slants to Dez could be exactly what the doctor ordered.
It can't be said enough how much having Dez back will help this offense. Even if Dez is not 100%, the thought is that his presence can still mean a lot for this team both mentally and physically. Bryant can influence this game even if he doesn't lead the receivers. He's their juice and he makes the other receivers around him better and as much as they have struggled in his absence, having Dez back could be the spark that ignites the entire offense.
That being said, the Seattle Seahawks are a tough defense to move the ball on only allowing 294 yards per game which ranks them third in the league. The Cowboys are really going to have to earn it on the field which means they will need to get quarterback Matt Cassel in a comfortable rhythm. One of the best ways to do that is to have success running the football.
When The Cowboys Are On Defense
As good as the Cowboys have been in pass protection, the Seahawks are the exact opposite and rank dead last in PFF's protection ratings with a -44.2. Russell Wilson has also been sacked 31 times which is six more sacks than Colin Kaepernick who is right behind him at 25. As a team Seattle ranks 28th in the league at a measly 214 yards passing per outing. The Cowboys should have plenty of opportunities to get Wilson to the ground and Greg Hardy could be a true force in this game.
The one place where the Seahawks have found success on offense is running the rock with Marshawn Lynch. The Seahawks are averaging 143 yards per game on the ground even though PFF states their in the negative in run blocking. With 'Beast Mode' it doesn't take too much blocking up front with all the power he has in his legs to truck defenders. Last season, the Cowboys found success by bottling up Seattle's running game and spying Wilson. Dallas must follow in the same gameplan as before if they want to stifle Seattle's offense. This is another game that they need for Rolando McClain to be a difference maker. Sometimes you have to match beast with beast and McClain is one mean dude when he puts his mind into it.
If they are able to get adequate pressure on Wilson and bottle up the running game they should finally have the opportunity to get a turnover or two. Wilson has thrown eight touchdowns this season but has also thrown five interceptions. With the lack of protection he's accumulated a 2.5% interception ratio which places him in the top 10 in the category. For all the rushing Seattle has been doing it's only amounted to three rushing touchdowns. The Cowboys have to keep this rushing game in check and make Russell Wilson beat them. Rod Marinelli is going to take his chances that his pass rush can get there before Wilson can make the play. If this season is any indication, he just may be correct in his assessment.
Bottom Line
Though this game doesn't look as winnable without Tony Romo, having Dez Bryant back could help boost their chances. The offense looked a lot better at times last week even though they turned the ball over three times. If they can settle Cassel down and continue to dominate in the run game, they have a good chance to be leading this game on offense. Marinelli must turn the dogs loose against the struggling offensive line of the Seahawks and hope that it can create more opportunities for Dallas' offense. The Cowboys are luckily getting this game in the comfort of their own stadium where the Seahawks have already lost three on the road this season. Dallas desperate for a win will have their hands full with Seattle's opportunistic defense. Yet, this has all the feel of a defensive showdown. The offense that can find the most success against juggernaut fronts will get the victory, give me the Cowboys offensive line over Seattle's any day. | {
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1. INTRODUCTION
Strengths:
Cons:
2. HERO ABILITIES
Summon Wolves
Summons two wolves to fight for Banehallow. Level 2-4 wolves have Critical Strike, and level 4 wolves have permanent invisibility.
Summon Wolves Duration:55s
Cooldown: 30s
Mana cost: 125
Howl
Grants bonus damage to Banehallow and all allied heroes and all units under their control.
Hero Bonus Damage: 20/30/40/50
Unit Bonus Damage: 4/8/12/16
Area of Effect: Global
Duration: 12s
Cooldown: 50/45/40/35s
Mana cost: 50/45/40/35
Feral Impulse
Increases the damage and attack speed of Banehallow and all units under his control.
Bonus Damage: 15%/20%/25%/30%
Bonus Attack Speed: 15%/20%/25%/30%
Radius: 900
Shapeshift
Banehallow assumes his true form, increasing his combat capabilities. During Shapeshift, Banehallow and his wolves move at maximum speed and cannot be slowed.
Bonus Health: 100/200/300
Base Attack Time: 1.5
Critical Strike Chance: 30%
Critical Strike Damage: 1.7×
Day/Night Sight Range: 1800/1800
Duration: 18s
Cooldown: 100/70/40s
Mana cost: 100
Early game
Mid Game
Mid/Late Game
3. SKILL BUILD
Level 1 - Summon wolves
Level 2 - Feral impulse
Level 3 - Summon wolves
Level 4 - Feral impulse
Level 5 - Summon wolves
Level 6 - Shapeshift
Level 7 - Summon wolves
Level 8 - Feral impulse
Level 9 - Feral impulse
Level 10 - Howl
Level 11 - Shapeshift
Level 12 - Howl
Level 13 - Howl
Level 14 - Howl
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Shapeshift
Level 17+ - Stats
4. ITEM BUILD
Starting items
Ring of Basilius, Clarity Potions
Core items
Power Treads, Vladimir's Offering, Black King Bar
Situational Items
Desolator, Basher, Abyssal Blade, Monkey King Bar, Assault Cuirass, Heart of Terrasque, Medallion of Courage
5. CONCLUSION
SK Gaming are recruiting. Find out how you can get involved right here
“Why is this hero so powerful?” - If you've ever played DotA public games, you've most definitely asked yourself this question. To answer it, we need to know why this hero brings so much discussions to the table. Banehallow, the Lycanthrope is basically a jungle/lane carry hero with the ability to get an enormous amount of farm in a very short time.+Very high and fast damage during the mid and late game+Buff for every allied unit+Very easy farming with Summoned Wolves, and the ability to solo kill Roshan early on.-No disable/AOE damage,-Reliant on his ultimate.All in all, this is a really solid hero. If you'd like to feel the power of the almighty wolf in pubs, we will help you to get even more powerful by giving you everything you need to know about this amazing hero.This is a very important skill for Lycan in every aspect of his game. Besides giving you the opportunity to get your farm up without losing any health points when killing neutrals, the wolves come with damage as well: 17-18 on the first level and 43-49 on the fourth level plus an extra critical strike and invisibility which makes you very aggressive from the beginning of the game.This skill is mostly picked first when Lycan is played as a jungle carry, where he farms until he gets his Vladimir's Offering so he can go solo Roshan. The wolves can also be used for their pushing potential, which is great when you want to play aggressively with your team.Lycan has two big abilities that makes the wolves even more powerful: Howl and Feral Impulse. The wolves are able to kill off supporters easily by themselves. They also provide a lot of map awareness and make it hard to gank you as their invisibility can easily spy the other team.One of the biggest AoE damage boosters in Dota 2. Howl is an aggressive buff that gives your team a big advantage in team fights. The low mana cost makes sure that you can always afford this ability. Howl fits extremely well with pushing line-ups, lasting a full 12 seconds, giving you enough time to destroy enemy towers.You can get +50 dmg for you and every allied hero but this ability has quite the big cooldown, so you need to be careful when you cast it. You'll only be able to cast it once in team-fights because of the 35 seconds cooldown.*Notes:-If wolves are summoned during the duration of Howl, they will receive the damage bonus until the duration is up.-Affects all allied player-controlled units, not just those under Lycanthrope's control.If you think that the damage from Wolves and Howl isn't enough than you're absolutely right. Feral Impulse is an insane aura that gives attack speed and damage for everyone around you. Wherever you want to go, jungle or lane, this is the ability you need to have.The fourth level gives you and all the units under your control +30% Bonus Damage, and +30% Attack Speed. The important thing is that creeps don’t get your aura so if you want to play on the lane and focus on killing creeps without pushing, this makes it very easy to last hit.Your whole game is centred around your ultimate. When you use Shapeshift, there is no getting away for your enemies.Basically what happens is that you’re transforming into an unstoppable giant wolf, giving you extra health points, attack speed, critical strike, vision and it boosts your movement speed to maximum speed without the possibility to get slowed by any ability.The usage of Shapeshift is different depending on what stage of the game you're currently in:: Level 1 with 100 seconds cooldown: Getting your sixth level on Lycan will not make you that powerful so don't expect to immediately go on a rampage killing spree, but in similarity to Drow Ranger, you'll be able to output a lot of damage which makes it possible to get your early kills. The cooldown on your first level is pretty high and most of the time you'll use it to get away when the enemy decides to track you down and try to stop you from farming. Be careful when you use it in the early game.: Level 2 with 70 seconds cooldown: Things start to change now. With some items farmed up you gain the ability to kill anyone, either join team fights or look for solo kills. The key thing when playing Lycan is not to get stunned, so pick up a BKB as fast as possible and you'll receive a lot of hate from your enemy team.: Level 3 with 40 seconds cooldown: Time to reign as a king. This is the moment you combine your good items with high levels, making you unstoppable. The ultimate has a low cooldown so it's always there for you if needed, turning you into the big bad wolf Lycan is.Lycan can be played in many ways, but the majority of the players have two different playing styles. The most famous one is jungling him but he can also be played in the lane.Below is the skill build for a jungling Lycan:Using this skill build, it's easy to get your farm up in the jungle. Summoning Wolves and Feral Impulse gives you the ability to kill off neutrals, farming at a fast rate. Once you hit level 8-10 you'll be able to output a lot of dps with your ultimate combined with the wolves making it easy to start killing people off.Time to go a bit deeper in the items you should pick up when jungling Lycan.Most important thing in the early phase is to have enough mana to keep your wolves summoned as they will tank the neutrals for you.The absolute core for Lycan. Vladimir's Offering is absolutely perfect for Lycan giving you life steal, bonus damage, health regeneration and the right amount of mana to keep your wolves up.Once you've got your Core up, it's time to pick up damage items. Desolator is the best cost-efficient item to pick up. Also, a lot of players tend to go for Basher after which is now upgradeable to an Abyssal Blade, giving your Lycan a stun. The next item of choice is picking up an Assault Cuirass for obvious reasons. As in every build, situational items are situational so don't stick to one build but adapt to the game.Most players consider Lycan a very easy hero with not much value in competitive games, this is in fact not true. The competitive usage of the hero is based on how aggressive he can be. Lycan has a lot of pushing potential with Howl and Summoning Wolves and is able to output massive damage against enemy heroes providing the right-click power shoutcasters like to refer to.Once Lycan gets his Core Items, he is a threat to anyone and the Big Bad Wolf song will most definitely play in everyone's head during the game. If you decide picking him up in competitive games, ban heroes like Beastmaster as his ultimate is the perfect counter to a Lycan using his BKB.Check out Lycan in action here Article by: PJPrevious editions: | {
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Dating back to last August, we’ve released a monthly visualization to show the adoption (or lack thereof) of new versions of Android. We post an updated chart with each month’s refreshed Android distribution numbers and they show that since Jelly Bean topped out at just over 60% of the pie and KitKat reached 40%, that it’s been all down hill. Today, Computerworld posted their latest “Android Upgrade Report Card” for Oreo updates in the US and manufacturers outside of Google should be embarrassed by it. Companies like Samsung, LG, Motorola, and HTC are getting sh*ttier at updating their Android phones, just like the data we post monthly shows.
The report card gave Google an “A” because since it’s their operating system and they control their own Pixel and Nexus phones, they can update them pretty quickly. Computerworld’s numbers show Google getting updates to all current flagship phones within 9 days and 18 days for previous-gen flagships. They got dinged a bit for their lack of communication, which makes sense, since this is Google who is terrible at communicating anything.
From there, the next company on the report card is OnePlus with a “D” score. Oh, and by the way, this report card is in order by grade, so that means Google got an “A” and the next best company (OnePlus) could only muster up a “D.” That also means that HTC, Motorola, LG, and yes, Samsung, all received an “F” score.
Another way to look at this would be through how long it took each company to update their current and previous flagships to Oreo, since that’s the point of this.
Let’s take a look:
OnePlus (“D”) : OnePlus 5 – 138 days; OnePlus 3, 3T – 91 days
: OnePlus 5 – 138 days; OnePlus 3, 3T – 91 days HTC (“F”) : U11 – 99 days; HTC 10 – no update
: U11 – 99 days; HTC 10 – no update Motorola (“F”) : Moto Z2 Force – 124 days; Moto Z – no update
: Moto Z2 Force – 124 days; Moto Z – no update LG (“F”) : G6 – no update; G5 – no update
: G6 – no update; G5 – no update Samsung (“F”): S8, Note 8 – no update; S7 – no update
Embarrassing, right?
This morning, I laid out a series of ideas about Android One becoming like the old Google Play Edition program, only this time as a way to reduce the time and resources needed for some of these companies to update their phones. This report card only seems to further my argument. It’s time for companies like HTC, LG, and Motorola to ditch their current update patterns. Maybe it’ll help them sell some phones again.
As for Samsung, well, this is what Samsung does. They want you to continue buying new hardware and don’t seem to care that much about how quickly they update their old devices. For a company that big and with those resources behind it, I’m not sure I’d buy any excuse they want to give for it being this way outside of just not caring.
// Computerworld | {
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This is a guest post from Asher Guthertz. Asher studies film at UC Santa Cruz, but mostly he reads comic books and wishes he was a superhero.
I first discovered Batwoman in the underrated comic book 52. I was ten and I read a lot of comics, but I hadn’t yet discovered any superheroes who were Jewish. I remember reading the issue where Kate Kane celebrates Hanukkah with her girlfriend, Renee Montoya, and being thrilled to see such cool superheroes celebrating a holiday I celebrated. As an openly queer Jewish superhero, Kate Kane has an important place in the DC universe for many people. After her New 52 solo book ended in 2015, she has been a main character in Detective Comics, working with Batman to train the various heroes of Gotham. Now she finally has her own solo series again! To my knowledge, this is the first time the in-continuity Batwoman has ever been written by a woman. Only three issues of Marguerite Bennett and James Tynion IV’s Batwoman have hit the stands, but the series is already pretty damn great.
One of the central preoccupations of the story so far is the question Kane asks in her opening monologue: “What can Batwoman do that Batman can’t?” The series addresses the question by drawing on, but subverting, classic Batman conventions. Julia Pennyworth, for instance, is Alfred’s daughter, and occupies his role, to an extent. She talks in Kate’s ear, offering combat advice and tech support, and in a sweet moment at the end of the first issue, she makes Kate a cocktail. She makes one for herself too, though. While Julia could be the Alfred of Batwoman, she refuses to take on a role of subservience. Julia and Kate continually argue, for example, over who is going to do the dishes. In Julia’s insistence that she is not Kate’s butler, the book reimagines the role of colleague.
Coryana, the mysterious island at the center of Batwoman works as a reimagining of the foreign space in Batman comics. The Batman myth goes that a young Bruce Wayne disappears, often to a vaguely defined location in Asia (the Himalayas, in New 52 continuity) to learn how to be Batman. This origin story, not confined to Batman, is an orientalist myth that the East is filled with hidden knowledges ripe for the taking by white people. Coryana appears so far to be the land where Kate Kane became Batwoman, but there are nuances in Coryana’s representation that differentiate it from a Batman origin land. Bennett and Tynion tell us off the bat that Coryana is in Greece; in this small way they make clear that their mythical island won’t reiterate myths of Asia. Coryana is also filled with a diverse menagerie of criminals, expatriates from different ethnic backgrounds and with different moral codes. Instead of Kate being taught by an ethnic group, she is taught by an occupational one: criminals.
In the Batman myth, the land comes back for revenge. Rhas-Al-Ghul decides to kill Batman; the very people who taught Bruce Wayne are transformed into the villains of the story. In Batwoman though, she is pulled back to the land not at the behest of the people of the island (in fact, no one wants her there) but because of the threat of industrialisation. The Many Arms of Death, the evil company with the bad-ass name that Kate Kane has been on the hunt for, has bought the entire island, and wants to blow it up. The kicker is that from the beginning of the story, the Many Arms of Death have said they want to kill “the most people from the most nations.” Ie., they want to blow up Coryana exactly because of its multi-ethnic population. The villain of Batwoman is landowning white people who want to destroy a racially diverse space. Batwoman has only been around for three issues, and already it has become an interesting reworking of the Batman origin story. I hope that Bennett and Tynion IV are allowed to stay on the book and continue to answer the question: What can Batwoman do that Batman can’t? | {
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In an effort to dodge criticism that he is unqualified to lead NHK, its embattled president, Katsuto Momii, told the Diet Friday the contentious remarks at his first official press conference last week were not the broadcaster’s official views but his own.
“What I said at the press conference are my personal views and will not be reflected in the contents of NHK programs,” Momii said in the Diet after being summoned by the powerful Lower House Budget Committee.
Former communications minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi of the Democratic Party of Japan grilled Momii on his understanding of Articles 1 and 4 of the Broadcasting Law, which requires all broadcasters to present various views.
Momii kicked off a furor last week by seeming to defend the government’s wartime use of sex slaves and making biased assertions on the purpose of NHK’s international broadcasts and the new state secrets law.
In the Diet, Haraguchi argued that the former business executive had no understanding of the articles because his comments reflected an intention to avoid airing diverse viewpoints on such divisive issues as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the war-linked Yasukuni Shine or the much debated state secrets law enacted in December.
Momii’s comments conflicted with NHK’s apparent mandate of neutrality, he said.
“The role of NHK is not to become a mouthpiece for the government but to deliver various views to viewers,” Haraguchi said.
Momii’s summons was issued by the DPJ, but the only thing Momii could say in his defense was that NHK will pursue fair reporting and try to present various views.
Despite the mounting criticism against him, Momii didn’t give the impression that he is taking the matter seriously. Occasionally he would laugh and ask Haraguchi to repeat his questions, apparently because he couldn’t understand them.
Momii started coming under fire on Jan. 25, when he said at his first official press conference of his three-year term that every country used systems similar to the Imperial Japanese military’s “comfort women” system of brothels.
He also said that under his watch, NHK would only report any future visits by Abe to Yasukuni Shrine in a straight manner without analysis, despite the contentious political nature of such visits.
On the state secrecy law, Momii said there is nothing that can be done because it has already been enacted and NHK would only run an analysis piece on the issue whenever deemed necessary.
On Thursday, a member of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) defended Momii’s remarks on the comfort women.
Masashi Nakano, a member of the House of Councilors, expanded on remarks he made Wednesday that drew a connection between Momii’s comments at his first press conference and the sex industries as they exist today in South Korea and China.
“In South Korea, 50,000 women still work in the sex industry,” Nakano said Wednesday during a meeting with other opposition lawmakers. “Why do people keep bringing up what Japan has done (during the war)?” he asked.
On Thursday, Nakano told reporters he made the remarks while discussing with senior officials of other opposition parties how to deal with the aftermath of Momii’s faux pas, and noted these were his “personal opinions.”
Information from Kyodo added | {
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Aaron McGruder, who created the show based on his comic book series, will return to head up the revival as showrunner. "There's a unique opportunity to revisit the world of The Boondocks and do it over again for today," he said, according to Variety. It's crazy how different the times we live in are now – both politically and culturally – more than a decade past the original series and two decades past the original newspaper comic. There's a lot to say and it should be fun."
The new episodes will follow Robert "Granddad" Freeman and his grandsons Huey and Riley. They move to the Maryland suburbs but discover their community has been taken over by Uncle Ruckus and a neo-fascist regime.
HBO Max will arrive next spring, promising a bevy of original series and fan favorite shows. Its streaming exclusives will include Friends, Doctor Who and The Big Bang Theory. | {
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Dec-Feb 2017 Sketchbook 10-11 By Bazzyli Watch
9 Favourites 0 Comments 1K Views
Page 10-11/76
Pictured: Skyiiqura (a type of Gaulbacke)
Pg 10
"Compared to its much larger cousin (who stands at almost 7 ft tall, the skyiiqura stands at just 4 ft, half the height. They make up in speed. At full speed, the beast clocks in at just over 60 mph. Its average though is about 40 mph. This is much faster than the bigger gualbacke, which can only reach speeds of 25 mph. Only the smallest, faster predators eat them.
Huge splayed talons help the beat keep footing as well as defend itself if need be.
The skyiiqura is white on its belly with a dark tinge on its side with a dark grayish blue on top. It was light tan/white spots."
Pg 11
"The most dangerous part of its life is when its a baby. White being able to run, it is somewhat gangly so it is prone to trip if it pushes itself too much. Its rump and tail are covered in quills so even if a predator can catch it, it will usually get a mouthful of quills. Its tail is the real weapon white running, it swings back and forth and can hit like a club.
Large quills cover its long tail so anything that can keep up will run the risk of getting injured by this effective tool.
Skyiiqura (gaulbacke)
Class: Mammal Group: Huge herds (20+) lead male but bulk of herd is female with smaller (7-9) herds of males
Live Birth: 2-3 like its larger cousin, this creature is rather dull with low saturation hues, but glows on head, tuffs, and tail
The feet and beak are dark gray, almost black"
*Please note that this is a sketchbook and there will be flaws and errors in the writing. I am not overally concerned on how the writing flows when I am creating the entries.
IMAGE DETAILS Image size 3661x2984px 13.83 MB Show More
Published : May 9, 2017 | {
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A Wells Fargo bank logo is pictured on a building in North Miami, Florida March 19, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co said on Wednesday it plans to increase minimum wage to between $15 and $20 per hour for most of its U.S. markets, joining other Wall Street banks that have raised hourly pay in recent years.
The pay hikes, which will take effect by the end of 2020, will increase the wages for more than 20,000 U.S.-based employees and will be based on employee location. (reut.rs/3cvH0DU)
In recent years, Wells Fargo has increased its minimum hourly base pay in the U.S. by 32%, most recently to $15 in March 2018, the company said.
Employees working in the cities of New York or San Francisco will receive a minimum hourly pay rate of $20, while employees in Charlotte or Des Moines will receive a minimum of $16 per hour, according to the company.
Last year, Bank of America Corp said it would raise its minimum wage to $20 per hour over a two-year period.
JPMorgan Chase & Co has been raising hourly wages to between $15 and $18, but has fielded criticism from U.S. lawmakers that it should raise it further.
The announcement from Wells Fargo comes a week before Chief Executive Officer Charles Scharf is scheduled to testify before the U.S. Congress over measures the bank taken related to its sales scandal. | {
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El Partido Popular ha solicitado al Juzgado de Instrucción número 5 de la Audiencia Nacional, que investiga el caso Bárcenas, que no sea este tribunal el que juzgue el caso, sino la Audiencia Provincial, ya que la cantidad supuestamente defraudada por la formación política apenas alcanza los 1,7 millones de euros, un montante que para el PP no tiene una “grave repercusión en la economía nacional”.
El recurrente recuerda que la ley exige esta condición para que sea la Audiencia Nacional la que se haga cargo del caso o que el delito se haya cometido en multitud de provincias de España, extremo que a juicio de los populares tampoco se ha producido en este caso. La formación, argumentan, “es un partido político cuyo domicilio fiscal se encuentra en Madrid”, al igual que los de Luis Bárcenas y Álvaro Lapuerta.
Para justificar que el montante de 1,7 millones de euros no es suficiente para que se encargue la Audiencia Nacional, el PP pone como ejemplo otros casos que investigan cantidades claramente superiores a los dos millones de euros, como el de Rodrigo Rato, que instruye el Juzgado número 31 de Madrid, o el de Neymar, donde el juez rastrea un fraude que sobrepasaría los 12 millones de euros y que investiga el Juzgado número 22 de Barcelona tras ser rechazado por la Audiencia Nacional.
El extesorero, Álvaro Lapuerta. (EFE)
En el caso Bárcenas, considera el PP, “es una perogrullada remarcar que su impacto grave en la economía nacional o en la seguridad del tráfico mercantil es inexistente, pero es que tampoco puede soportarse (ni lo hacen las acusaciones) que las mismas hayan afectado a una pluralidad de personas en el territorio de más de una audiencia”.
Por otro lado, el escrito rechaza las responsabilidades civiles acordadas por el Juzgado tras solicitarlo las acusaciones populares (1,2 millones por no abonar el PP el Impuesto de Sociedades de 2008 y un millón por no hacerlo Unifica en 2007). Defiende que ni la Fiscalía ni la Abogacía del Estado las han solicitado porque entienden que “las donaciones (que son la base del supuesto delito que se le atribuye a la formación) se encuentran exentas de tributar” por el mencionado impuesto.
Además, argumenta que el Tribunal Supremo considera que el delito de malversación está afectado por la doctrina Atutxa, que entiende que este tipo penal afecta a intereses colectivos y sociales y que, por lo tanto, la acusación popular puede solicitar la apertura de juicio oral. Sin embargo, según el mismo tribunal (STS 4/2015) –continúa el PP–, el delito fiscal (que es el que se dirime en este caso) no ataca intereses colectivos y, por lo tanto, la acusación popular no puede solicitar la apertura de juicio. “El delito contra la Hacienda Pública carece de suficiente entidad en su afectación a intereses colectivos como para habilitar dicha doctrina”, resume el PP.
Este delito, continúa, “debe caer necesariamente en el ámbito de la doctrina Botín”, que se estableció en el Juzgado Central Numero 3 de la Audiencia Nacional, en un caso que investigaba presuntos delitos fiscales cometidos por el Santander, donde se rechazó a la acusación popular al considerar que el delito contra la Hacienda Pública no puede ser perseguido únicamente por ésta.
El escrito del PP argumenta también que en el caso Bárcenas no existe delito fiscal en relación con el Impuesto de Sociedades. Afirma que la Agencia Tributaria no lo considera delito y que eso debería ser suficiente, pero también arguye que la Intervención General del Estado ha constatado “la falta de fiabilidad” de los papeles de Bárcenas.
“No es posible imputar la existencia de un delito fiscal fundado en las fotocopias publicadas por el diario El País, que no merecen ninguna credibilidad (como han reconocido los informes de la Intervención) y no constituyen en absoluto prueba de la existencia de donaciones ilegales”, remarca el PP. | {
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Getty Images
Raiders broadcaster Greg Papa unleashed a Trump-tax-returns-level tease on Thursday, claiming on his weekday radio show that the Raiders “are talking to a certain running back” but that “I’ll have to hold this for tomorrow.”
It didn’t hold.
“He did not even play in the NFL last year,” Papa added. “I’ll leave it there. Chew on that.”
People did more than chew. They acted. ESPN uncovered that the unnamed running back was/is Marshawn Lynch. Which now gives the Seahawks a position of strength.
If Lynch had simply unretired with no hint that he has a team in mind, the Seahawks may have simply released him. Instead, they now have reason to try to get something from the Raiders.
The Seahawks also have reason to squeeze the Raiders, since the admission that the team is “talking to” Lynch means that, absence advance permission from the Seahawks, the Raiders are tampering with Lynch. And that fact that Papa is employed by the Raiders would make it very easy for the league to require that he disclose what he knows within the confines of a tampering investigation. (If Papa had no connection to the team, the NFL would have no authority over him.)
So, basically, Papa’s report has created a complication that the Raiders surely didn’t want. And it could keep them from getting the player they apparently need — without having to give something up for him. | {
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Blink and you'll miss it – the first Los Angeles derby of the LAFC era has come and gone.
While Los Angeles Football Club will not see their first team take the field until the 2018 MLS season, their academy's Under-12 side (pictured above) make their US Soccer Development Academy (USSDA) debut when the 2016-17 season opened this weekend, and the games came against none other than their city rivals, the LA Galaxy:
Our U12s start their season in the first So Cal MLS derby match against @LAFCAcademy. Kickoff at Cal St. LA at 9 and 10:30am. — LA Galaxy Academy (@LAGalaxyAcademy) September 3, 2016
The first game ended in a 3-3 tie, but the second produced a winner – and it was LAFC who struck the first blow:
And – it being the first L.A. derby, so to speak – the fans were out in force to cheer their boys to victory:
@LAFC supporters are the BEST! Showed up to support our @LAFCAcademy #u12 boys in their season opener vs LAGalaxy. pic.twitter.com/ChlAar87wO — Jana Carter (@janamish) September 3, 2016
No doubt they went home happy. And it's likely the LAFC front office did, too, having seen the first tangible result after a making a big push to get their academy started and establish a presence in the L.A. youth soccer scene. | {
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We live in a society where people find it more difficult than ever when others express an opinion that goes against their accepted way of thinking.
Claire Fox, author of I Find That Offensive!, uses the term ‘Generation Snowflake’ to describe the new fragile, thin-skinned breed who believe it’s their right to be protected from anything they might find unpalatable.
She says that in today’s public discourse, people can’t cope with conflicting views, let alone criticism.
It’s no wonder then that I struggled to give a forthright view on a subject as sensitive as rape on Brendan O’Connor’s Cutting Edge last Wednesday.
I was conscious that for years women have been disbelieved, blamed, shamed, shrugged off and silenced in the wake of sexual assault.
And happy that men have been forced to look at their own behaviour when it comes to sexual consent.
So was it really the time to point out the obvious? To address the one thing we still can’t bring ourselves to discuss? Women’s drinking and the role it plays in putting them at risk of rape.
In the run-up to the show, the horrific case of a 23-year-old student of Stanford University had been in the news and gone viral.
She was raped behind a dumpster by a man she had met at a fraternity party. She was very drunk to the point that she was unconscious when her attacker was found on top of her by two passers-by. He subsequently received a mere six-month sentence.
We have a long way to go when it comes to adequate sentencing; there is no doubt she is the victim, and rape — under any circumstance — is inexcusable. But the role of alcohol was unmentionable. In fact we were explicitly told by some commentators to steer clear. Why?
I explained on the show that, given Ireland’s own disturbing figures, it is important to start a conversation.
Alcohol is a factor in eight out of every 10 rapes and sexual assaults in Ireland. As part of the battle, we need to arm women — the most at-risk category — with the facts. If they drink alcohol to the point of oblivion they are putting themselves at risk of an attack — and it makes getting justice afterwards even more difficult.
My comments caused uproar and I was accused of victim-shaming. I would point those people to a major advertisement campaign which has run on Irish television.
It warns pedestrians who are “a little worse for wear” that they are putting themselves “in harm’s way”.
Initiated by the Road Safety Authority (RSA), the ‘Drunken Pedestrian’ commercial aims to reduce the number of pedestrians killed on Irish roads — two-thirds of whom had consumed alcohol.
The RSA explained that when you are drunk “awareness of your surroundings” is impaired, making you “as exposed as you can be” to danger.
And here is the clincher: it only targets men aged between 17 and 24, and 50-plus. Interestingly, it hasn’t been met with hysteria or decries of sexism.
No one has accused the RSA of saying pedestrians are “asking for it”, and, what’s more, the initiative has proven successful.
Last year, Ireland saw a 19pc drop in deaths of vulnerable road users, which includes pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists. That’s almost two in every 10 families who still have their loved ones thanks to raised awareness.
So why can’t we have the same calm, measured approach when it comes to warning another ‘at-risk’ category about the dangers of alcohol and rape?
Perhaps the reason is that, unlike sexual assault, road deaths and other crimes are not tied up with shame.
But the irony is that by keeping silent on women’s drinking you are inadvertently implying that there is something to be ashamed of if a woman drinks and gets raped.
No one deserves that. No matter what she drinks, what she wears or where she goes at night: rape is rape.
It may be difficult and messy to confront our own role in the prevention of rape, but there is strength in it.
When a rape happens, a woman also needs the best chance if she wants justice. In Ireland, of those who report rape, there is a 1-2pc conviction rate. If you drink to excess, it can hinder your ability to remember the attack and give evidence in court. The justice system want you to know this.
Director of Public Prosecutions Claire Loftus came out in 2014 to address the problem of such a low conviction rate in rape cases. She said that there were usually no other witnesses to the event, and memories may be impaired due to alcohol consumption and other factors. “Thus, it is often one person’s word against another’s,” she said.
The head of the Rape Crisis Centre also wants you to know about the risk of alcohol and rape.
Following the debate on Brendan O’Connor’s show — while reiterating that we must not blame the victim — Cliona Sadlier, of Rape Crisis Network Ireland, said: “Our position would be — because of the prevalence of sexual violence —we have to talk about alcohol’s role. It is unavoidable.”
And the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin wants you to know how big a role alcohol plays.
In 2012, more than seven in 10 alleged victims of sexual assault who attended the unit had consumed the equivalent of six pints of beer, or 12 units of alcohol, in the 12 hours before the attack.
The Department of Health says that women should not drink more than 11 units of alcohol over the course of a week.
On the international front, America’s top criminal profiler John Douglas has said the number one thing that will keep you safe from harm — more than any weapon, martial arts expertise or physical strength — is an awareness of your surroundings.
Even Jeff Cooper, the creator of the modern technique of handgun shooting, was wise enough to know that “safety is something that happens between your ears, not something you hold in your hands”.
You can listen to the online hysteria, or you can listen to the people on the front line who are dealing every day with the reality of the fallout of rape.
Being aware of your drinking habits won’t give you any guarantees that you won’t become another statistic. But it sure as hell will give you a better fighting chance.
Online Editors | {
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Story highlights Palestinian president, Pope Francis meet at Vatican
Palestinians open state embassy in Vatican City
(CNN) Pope Francis and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Saturday to open a Palestinian embassy in Vatican City.
"We are very grateful about the role that the Holy See has played for a just and lasting peace in the Holy Land, and for having opened an embassy of Palestine in the Vatican for first time," Abbas said, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA
"We are proud to be the birthplace of Christianity and about having one of the oldest Christian communities in the world."
Pope Francis, right, meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a private audience at the Vatican.
Issa Kassissieh, the Palestinian ambassador to the Holy See, called the move "a significant achievement for the Palestinian people," WAFA said.
Israel has yet to respond to news of the opening.
Read More | {
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GOP aborts House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's plan for revive Republican brand
GOP aborts House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's plan for revive Republican brand
I'd like to focus our attention on what lies beyond these fiscal debates. Over the next two years, the House Majority will pursue an agenda based on a shared vision of creating the conditions for health, happiness and prosperity for more Americans and their families. And to restrain Washington from interfering in those pursuits.
@GOPLeader via web Today, the House will vote to require the President to put forward his plan to balance the budget. #RequireAPlan
On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor kicked off yet another one of his efforts to reinvent the Republican Party, telling fellow Republicans that budget issues are important, but that it is time for the GOP to start talking about other things.That actually made some sense: Republicans really do need to move on from being the party that doesn't want to do anything but cut spending. But that was Tuesday. Now it's Wednesday and:Heckuva rebirth you got going on there, Eric. It was nice while it lasted, I guess. | {
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Intel is again trying to spin mediocrity with a new Atom C3000, Xeon D-1500, and XMM7560 LTE modem. There are a few other bits announced too, one of which may actually work right, more on that in a bit.
Once again SemiAccurate was not embargoed on this material, a bonus for our readers. Everyone else has to wait until the 21st at 6am PST. Unfortunately Intel is harming their image once again by not actually giving out specs on their new tech, they want the press to write-up that it is great without actually knowing what it is. This messaging strategy should tell you everything you need to know about the strength of the product line.
Lets start out with the new CPUs, the Atom C3000 family and the Xeon D-1500 family. As SemiAccurate exclusively told you months ago, the Atom line is not dead. Dying in mass quantities in the field while being covered up by Intel, sure, but the line is still ongoing. Why they are still continuing with it is beyond us, ARM devices in the same performance and power bands are much more efficient, cost less, and don’t come with other handcuffs. This line is DOA but still being made.
The Xeon D-1500 line has a bit more to it but it is eating the lunch of the mainstream Xeon lines. These chips fit a workload that needs more I/O than compute, essentially replacing two of the larger Xeons with one socket of the D line. Intel my be making decent margins on this product but when you are replacing two of their highest margin products with one having OK margins, it isn’t a win. Facebook was one big Xeon-D customer and we expect them to buy more this time. And less big Xeons.
Things get humorous when you look at the modems specifically the XMM7560 Intel just announced. Intel is claiming it is the first one “manufactured in Intel technology”, IE it is on Intel’s 14nm process. Please note Qualcomm is on 10nm at Samsung and is actually shipping products in quantity. Intel did not put a release date on their slides.
Why do we call this humorous? Because one of the four main headings for their brief is “Comprehensive Feature Set”. Under that are two bullets the important one is, “Complete Feature”. Why is this important? It goes to show what SemiAccurate has been saying for years now, Intel has not made a fully functional modem to date. While Intel may claim this one is “Complete Feature”, they have made the same claims for the last 4-5 generations and have not met that low bar once. Don’t hold your breath here.
The rest is pretty simple and par for the course, GbLTE, 5x CA, and support for 35 bands. That last one is up from the 30+ they announced last year at MWC but it is still far below what Qualcomm offers. Intel is finally able to offer 4×4 MIMO and 256-QAM downlink with 64-QAM uplinks but again it will be interesting to see if it actually works. The last point is “Provision of the latest interference management concepts”, whatever that means. Given Intel’s performance in the latest iPhone, it can’t hurt.
Last up are two networking adapters, the Intel QuickAssist Adapter and Intel Ethernet Network Adapter XXV710. These are yawners, the QuickAssist adapter is based on a good idea with a broken implementation. Hint: look at the spec sheet on ROCE and then try it out. Intel says they are not going to fix this ‘minor’ issue which could explain the recent sales spike at Mellanox and some seriously cheesed off customers. The Ethernet adapter is just that, Ethernet. Neither is going to set the world on fire but at least half the offerings actually work right this time.
So that is what Intel is announcing tomorrow, two server families, one modem, and two adapter cards. The Atom is ignorable now that Intel is slashing MDF funding it will have to sell on merit. We actually feel sorry for the good Intel salespersonnel on this one. The Xeon D-1500 is a decent part aimed at specific workloads but it destroys Intel margins on the lucrative stuff. The modems are promised to work right this time, like the last several, and be “Complete Feature”, again like the last several. If you want a cheap modem, there are better options out there. The adapters are 50% functional, 50% boring, yay? Look for tame sites to rave about them for ad money as usual.S|A | {
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MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Two new polls demonstrate that GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate Judge Roy Moore remains unaffected entirely by smears in the Washington Post against him, and his lead before the Post piece on Thursday afternoon remains intact.
One of the polls, which were both provided by the pollster to Breitbart News exclusively on Saturday evening, was conducted on Thursday morning before the publication of the Post piece that afternoon. The second one was conducted on Saturday evening. Together, they show Judge Moore’s lead over Democrat Doug Jones has been virtually unaffected since the Post story came out.
The first survey, which was conducted entirely before noon local time on Thursday, shows Moore leading Jones by 50 percent to 39.2 percent with 10.8 percent undecided. That survey of 1,354 likely voters in the upcoming Dec. 12 special election has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.
The second survey, conducted Saturday evening—two days after the Post piece hit, roiling Alabama’s political scene—shows Moore and Jones with about the exact same percentages as before. Moore’s position in this second poll is 49.8 percent—meaning he only dropped 0.2 percent since the story hit—and Jones has only picked up 0.4 percent to reach 39.6 percent total. The second survey, which polled 1,536 likely voters with a margin of error of 3.3 percent, has 10.5 percent as undecided.
“The polling between Thursday morning and Saturday showed far less movement than I originally expected,” pollster John Wahl told Breitbart News. “The controversy surrounding the Washington Post article seems to have galvanized the support of both candidates, but not changed the actual percentages in a significant manner. The Moore campaign has already weathered a considerable amount of political attacks during this campaign season, and I expect most of his lightest support to have blown off during these attacks. His current support level is holding fairly steady.”
Wahl is a local Alabama pollster, based in the state, and is regarded for his accuracy in the state. The pollster’s firm, WT&S Consulting, did some work for Moore’s campaign in the primary and runoff—but these polls, Breitbart News has confirmed, were not commissioned by Moore’s campaign and were conducted independently. That said, WT&S Consulting nailed the runoff numbers accurately. Its last poll, the day before the runoff election, showed Moore crushing establishment-backed appointed Sen. Luther Strange 54.3 percent to 45.7 percent—an 8.6 percent gap. The final election results were 54.6 percent for Moore to 45.4 percent for Strange—or a 9.2 percent gap.
“The voters of Alabama know Roy Moore and what he stands for. Alabama is also a very red state where any Republican candidate is going to have a very high floor to start with,” Wahl told Breitbart News. “So far it seems the people of Alabama believe Roy Moore is more credible than the Washington Post.”
These polls come after reports from a number of news outlets—including a local ABC News affiliate, national NBC News, CNN, and others—have trouble finding anyone in Alabama who actually believes the Washington Post story. | {
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Hector Xtravaganza, the legendary ballroom voguer and HIV activist, was memorialized in an event on Saturday at El Museo Del Barrio, a museum of predominantly Puerto Rican art near East Harlem.
At the event, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio sent a message officially declaring March 9, 2019 as Hector Xtravaganza Day. The proclamation read, “Today I am pleased to join in paying tribute to this trailblazing New Yorker who exemplified the boundless creativity, diversity, inclusivity and spirit of generosity of our great city.”
The announcement was met with a standing ovation by attendees including transgender Pose actress Dominique Jackson, longtime NYC musician Kevin Aviance and Paris is Burning director Jennie Livingston, according to Out.com.
Xtravaganza passed away at age 60 last December. The gay Puerto Rican founded the all-Latinx House of Xtravaganza in 1982. The house has become one of the best known in New York’s underground ballroom scene, a largely queer, black and Latinx community known for its surrogate families and flamboyant dance and fashion competitions.
Related: Frank Ocean threw a “Paris Is Burning” themed 30th birthday party & it was everything
Xtravaganza was also HIV-positive and worked as a longtime HIV educator. POZ magazine wrote of him:
“[Xtravaganza] spent much of his life educating LGBT people of color about HIV and AIDS through the house and ball scene in New York City. He has mentored and counseled generations of queer young people in the art of voguing and how to negotiate safer sex. Hector has participated in GMHC’s House of Latex Ball since its inception in 1990; the event raises HIV awareness and is the largest of its kind. He also regularly volunteers for GMHC and other community-based organizations.”
Xtravaganza ruled as the father and (eventually) the grandfather of the house, providing shelter, financial assistance and mentorship to his chosen children.
He also served as a consultant for TV creator Ryan Murphy’s Pose, a trans-inclusive series about NYC’s 1980s ballroom scene. Its initial episodes featured other Xtravaganza family members. The house continues to educate and entertain people worldwide. | {
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The shock announcement of an ambitious and wide-ranging climate deal between the United States and China is leaving one vociferous group of politicians red-faced: those that have always used China as an excuse for delaying climate action.
The announcement between the two biggest emitters deals a blow to the oft-stated rhetoric that the US must wait for China before bringing domestic climate legislation. And vice versa: China has long used US inaction as an excuse too.
Not anymore. | {
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A lot of people ask me where they can get good-quality images, so I thought it would be good to have one post that I could bookmark and send out to people. I mentioned before that I use iStockphoto.com the most (as well as more expensive sites — though I do that much less now — and high-quality photo discs from Japan). A few people gave links to their favorite free or inexpensive sites as well. Below, then, are links to both inexpensive sites and sites offering free images in searchable databases (but check terms of use). The quality ranges from "excellent" to "not too bad." If you can suggest some other sites which have worked well for you (free or inexpensive "but good"), please let me know and I'll add them below after I check them out. The sites below are not necessarily in order of quality, though iStock is my favorite. (Updated August 22, 2006)
Inexpensive (but good)
(1) iStockphoto.com
One dollar for low-rez images and two-three dollars for higher-rez images. This is my favorite site.
(2) Dreams Time
About one dollar for high-rez images for members.
(3) Shutterstock
750 royalty-free downloads per month for $139 (US) subscription.
(4) Fotolia
One or two bucks an image.
(5) Japanese Streets
Excellent source for Japanese fashion, street scenes, people, and much more from right here in Osaka. About $1.50 per pic via paypal.
(6) Photocase. A German site (English and German versions). Low-cost download options.
(7) Stockxpert. Great pricing and great images. Easy-to-use site. Uses credit system.
(8) ShutterMap.com. From $1USD to $4USD for high-rez.
(9) Creative Express (Getty Images). With Getty's Creative Express you can buy one-month or one-year subscriptions and download up to 50 stunning images a day. The Express catalog has 75,000 great Getty images. The license works differently for subscription, but this may be a wonderful option for the right project (check out the FAQ). I will be using this for certain.
Free (but not bad)
(1) Morgue File
Providing "...free image reference material for use in all creative pursuits.
(2) Flickr's Creative Commons pool
Search the myriad photos people are sharing on flickr by the type of CC license.
(3) Image*After
From their site: "Image*After is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture...and use it in your own work, either personal or commercial."
(4) Stock.xchng
Close to 200,000 photos. Some gems in there if you look.
(5) Everystockphoto. Indexing over 283,000 free photos.
(6) Studio.25: Digital Resource Bank.
(7) Freepixels. About 2000 photos.
(8) The Photoshop tutorial blog. This cool blog has a laundry list of free photo sites.
(9) Robin Good has a good page dedicated to helping you find good images.
Fonts (free or cheap)
(1) 1001 Fonts.com. A lot of free fonts. You get what you pay for, but many are pretty good. Find by most popular, highest rated. Articles, message board, etc.
(2) 1001freefonts.com. 4000 fonts for $9.95 (download).
(3) iFree. This Australian site links to free stuff in Australia and worldwide, like fonts, freeware, etc.
(4) Indezine on fonts. There are so many font sites out there, I trust the folks at Indezine to narrow it down. They list about ten.
(5) HighFonts.com. Database of about 3000 free fonts.
("Elvis" image from iStockphoto.com)
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The columnist Mike Royko once wrote, "Hating the Yankees is as American as pizza pie, unwed mothers and cheating on your income tax."
White Sox owner Bill Veeck once said, "Hating the Yankees isn't part of my act. It is one of those exquisite times when life and art are in perfect conjunction."
Graig Nettles, the longtime third baseman for the Yankees in the 1970s and early '80s, summed his career up like this: "When I was a little boy, I wanted to be a baseball player and join a circus. With the Yankees, I've accomplished both."
The New York Yankees have finished one-fifth of their schedule, and this much is obvious: The 2015 Yankees are not a circus act.
Before the season, I thought there was a good chance that would happen. The return of Alex Rodriguez would surely turn into a three-ring showstopper, complete with comedy, tragedy and plenty of opportunity for satire; the lineup was too old, and the starting rotation too injury-prone; we would be subject to countless "the Yankees miss Jeter" columns that would drive us to drink like Don Draper, if not for the fact that the Yankees would likely be stewing in their own misery.
Instead of being a distracting sideshow, Alex Rodriguez has been a slugger in the middle of the lineup for the red-hot Yankees. Jonathan Dyer/USA TODAY Sports
Instead, while there is no joy in Mudville, there is plenty of it in the Bronx. After hammering the Rays 11-5 on Monday in a five-homer outburst that included Rodriguez's eighth, the Yankees are 21-12 and owners of the best record in the American League. Maybe you dreamed of an under .500 season; maybe you dreamed of Rodriguez getting released in July, the Yankees finally just eating his contract; maybe you dreamed of Joe Girardi losing his cool one evening and going on a Hal McRae-like rant in his postgame interview.
Instead, it's your worst nightmare. The Yankees are good. They're not going away, especially in what's shaping up to be a mediocre AL East. This isn't the year we get to bury the Yankees. This is a Stephen King novel come to life, and the Yankees are once again the bad guys ... only they're disguised as the good guys.
That's right. I'm going to say it, and I rewrote this sentence 49 times because it's hard to admit: This team is likable, fun to watch and giving us a story much more interesting than an aging, broken-down team on its way to 85 or 90 losses.
It starts with Rodriguez, the onetime golden child -- so long ago, of course -- turned pariah seeking his moment of redemption. I don't know if he'll get that; he remains, after all, the most disliked player in the game. But he is hitting .250/.360/.558, has knocked in 20 runs, is saying all that right things and has sort of become the anchor of the lineup.
Then again, maybe it starts with the top of the order, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner. Ellsbury sat out Monday, but he is hitting .341/.415/.397; Gardner hit a three-run homer in the sixth Monday and is batting .308/.385/.462. At a time when many teams are struggling to get production from the top of their order, the Yankees are second in the majors in OBP from the leadoff spot and fifth in OBP from the No. 2 spot. Combine the two, and they're first with a .394 OBP, with only six other teams above .350.
Or maybe it starts with Michael Pineda, the new ace, who is 5-0 with a 2.72 ERA and the "You're Making It Up" strikeout-to-walk ratio of 54-to-3 in seven starts. The Yankees entered the night ranked second to the Nationals in FanGraphs' version of WAR from starting pitchers. CC Sabathia even won his first game Monday by throwing six strong innings before tiring and giving up two home runs in the seventh. He's not the Sabathia of old, but maybe he's an above-average, back-of-the-rotation innings-eater.
Perhaps it has to start with the towering bullpen duo of 6-foot-8 Dellin Betances and 6-foot-7 Andrew Miller, who have yet to allow an earned run in 35 innings while striking out 56 and allowing a meager 11 hits. They're good, they're intimidating and with teams more reliant than ever on bullpens, it's game over when Girardi turns to those two.
Yes, the Yankees are old and potentially brittle. Mark Teixeira isn't going to slug .615 all season, and I assume Pineda will walk a batter or two again before the end of the season. The rotation could be a problem if Sabathia's ERA remains over 5.00 and Masahiro Tanaka's elbow gives when he returns from the DL. Girardi has to be careful not to overuse Betances and Miller, and the Yanks haven't received much offense from shortstop and second base.
But in a flawed division, the Yankees appear to be the least flawed team right now. According to FanGraphs, the Yankees' odds of winning the division are at 54 percent.
Back in April, Derek Jeter said of baseball, "I don't miss it at all."
After last year's worldwide retirement tour, nobody is missing Jeter, either -- least of all, his former team. | {
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The Kandahar deployment showcased Canada’s role in the world as the Conservatives saw it: leading rather than “carping from the sidelines” and standing alongside allies in the fight of the good against the evil. As the mission claimed more Canadian casualties, allies who failed to come to the aid of those deployed in the more dangerous regions of Afghanistan — especially continental Europeans — were seen as shirking their duties. This coloured the view of NATO more generally: due to its failure to share risks and burdens of the Afghan deployment, PM Harper said, NATO might be failing the test it set itself. Adding fuel to the fire was NATO’s delayed response to a Canadian request for the use of AWACS planes: due to an internal dispute over funding, a NATO official told us, these assets were not immediately available for the Canadian Forces operating in southern Afghanistan. | {
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JAIPUR: In what is seen as a bid to woo traditional BJP supporters, chief minister
on Saturday claimed Congress to be the true '
' unlike BJP which used cows only for votes.
"In Hindu religion, cow is considered as mother, but BJP plays politics in the name of cows. Congress does what it says. BJP hijacked Congress icons. Congress is the true 'gau bhakt'," he said while speaking to media on the sidelines of 'Gauraksha Sammelan', the first of its kind organised by the Congress government in Jaipur on Saturday.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot interacts with gaushala directors and representatives during the first state-level ‘Gauraksha Sammelan’ held at Jaipur Exhibiton and Convention Centre in the city on Saturday.
Held ahead of the
polls, the meeting is seen as the Congress party's attempt to reach out to traditional BJP voters over the sensitive issue, with the state witnessing several incidents of violence related to cows.
At the convention, Gehlot tried to reach out to representatives of about 3,000 registered gaushalas.
In his address, Gehlot said he had extended the popular 'free medicine scheme' for livestock in his previous tenure claiming that 'cow protection is part of our cultural legacy'.
‘Happy that BJP government didn’t shut gaupalan directorate’
Refuting BJP’s charges of his government resorting to populism and freebies, he said it was part of social security and culture. The chief minister also took credit for setting up the gaupalan directorate during his previous tenure which the BJP government converted into a department.
“I am happy that the previous BJP government which discontinued many of our welfare schemes had not shut down the gaupalan directorate but only changed it into a department,” he said. The grant of Rs 32 for an adult cow and Rs 16 for a semiadult cow, which he reminded was introduced by his government, would be increased. However, he did not announce the quantum of increase.
The scope for enhancement will be examined and announced later, he said.
He also said the decision to convert meadows (gauchar land) and pasture land for other use would be examined.
“Our ancestors’ decision not to use ‘gauchar’ land and pasture land for any other purpose is testimony of their vision to protect the livestock and environment,” he said. He assured that if any changes have been made to this provision, it would also be examined. The representatives of gaushalas demanded an allocation of at least 20 acres of gauchar land to each cow shelter and increasing the grant to guashalas as the present grant was very meagre.
They also suggested including the development of pasture land under the NREGA and amending rules of using MP and MLA funds for gaushalas. Some also demanded free power and water connection to gaushalas. | {
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Дискуссии по китайскому газовому контракту все не утихают, поэтому несколько универсальных вопросов к тем, кто сейчас рвет глотки, рассказывая, как газовая сделка с Китаем якобы «выгодна» для России. Вопросы такие.
1. Вы рассказываете, что подписанный контракт на поставку 38 млрд кубометров российского газа в год — великий прорыв, сокрушительная геополитическая победа России. Девять месяцев назад Туркменистан подписал с Китаем контракт на куда больший объем — 65 млрд кубометров начиная с 2020 года (ссылка). Кто в этой ситуации более мощный геополитический победитель?
2. Какая спешка вводить в строй Чаяндинское и Ковыктинское газовые месторождения в Восточной Сибири? Недавно решили отказаться от разработки Штокмановского месторождения в Баренцевом море, которое расположено намного ближе к рынкам сбыта, там не надо строить газопровод длиной в 4 тысячи километров, а себестоимость добычи газа оценивалась в 50 долл. за тысячу кубометров — сказали, это невыгодно, поэтому разработку Штокмана надо отложить на неопределенный период, сегодня она заморожена. На Чаяндинском месторождении еще четыре года назад – до того, как была названа цифра общих инвестиций в проект – себестоимость добычи оценивалась свыше 80 долл. за тысячу кубометров. Тут, значит, нормальная экономика, да? При ценах продажи газа Китаю чуть ниже чем в Европе и примерно на 200 долларов ниже чем в Азии?
3. Упущенная выгода России от продажи газа по ценам примерно на 200 долларов за тысячу кубометров ниже, чем в Японии, составит до 8 млрд долларов в год. За 30 лет – 240 млрд долларов. За чей счет такие щедрые подарки? Частный «Новатэк» Геннадия Тимченко параллельно продал газ китайцам с привязкой к японским ценам индексам. Государственный «Газпром» — по заниженной цене. Не есть ли это национализация убытков в чистом виде, тем более что убытки планируется компенсировать за счет налоговых льгот?
4. У сторонников проекта при анализе его экономики наблюдается очевидный крен в сторону чрезмерного оптимизма по оценке издержек. Причем этим грешат не только заведомо оголтелые прокремлевские типажи, но и вполне нейтральные комментаторы — вот как Леонид Бершидский в Форбсе, который насчитал там для проекта целую положительную чистую приведенную стоимость.
Удивительно, что при этом Бершидский приводит оценки издержек, которые иначе как ультраоптимистическими назвать нельзя. Он берет за окончательную цифру себестоимости добычи на Чаяндинском месторождении цифру в 80 долларов за тысячу кубов, которая озвучивалась 4 года назад, еще до того как «Газпром» назвал первые прикидки реальной стоимости проекта (это произошло в 2012 году). Даже несведущему человеку ясно, что цифру в $80 ни в коем разе нельзя брать за точку отсчета при оценке себестоимости добычи, это давно уже несуществующая минимальная оценка из прошлого, хорошо если себестоимость уложится в $100 теперь.
Далее, Бершидский берет за ориентир для оценки стоимости транспортировки газа в Китай… цифру в $73,1 «как по трубопроводу Ямбург-Баумгартен». Ну это верх эквилибристики – сравнить стоимость транспортировки газа по абсолютно необустроенной сложной восточносибирской местности, где нет никакой инфраструктуры, достаточных энергомощностей, транспортных коммуникаций (дорог, чтоб трубы и другие грузы подвезти — многие грузы придется доставлять по воздуху), с газопроводом, проходящим по самой разработанной в мире и наполненной разнообразной инфраструктурой местности, расположенной между Западной Сибирью и Австрией. Здесь трудно сказать, сколько будет, но явно не $70 за тысячу кубов, а скорее вдвое больше (с учетом разницы в капитальных и операционных затратах), что делает экономику контракта пороговой, как уже подробно говорилось.
Так что, оценивая будущие затраты на транспортировку газа в Китай, давайте реально их оценивать, а не прыгать на каких-то не имеющих отношения к реальности розовых оптимистических цифрах, как, скажем, делает Бершидский.
5. Отдельным аргументом, когда больше нечего сказать, становятся «рабочие места». Так вот: на пике строительства первой очереди газопровода «Сила Сибири» общее число создаваемых рабочих мест составит всего лишь какие-то 11,7 тысяч человек, и это будут не новые рабочие места, а переброшенные из других регионов сотрудники подрядных трубопроводостроительных компаний (скорее всего, принадлежащих Ротенбергу), которые сейчас строят другие газопроводы, но скоро их построят, поэтому рабочих нужно будет перебрасывать на новые проекты. Как показывает опыт строительства ВСТО, местную рабочую силу при строительстве нефтегазовой инфраструктуры в Восточной Сибири и на Дальнем Востоке использовать нельзя, так как там нет людей с достаточной квалификацией.
Что такое 11,7 тысяч рабочих мест? Это меньше, чем, скажем, в аэропорту Домодедово работает. Численность постоянно занятых на эксплуатации газопровода – 3 тысячи человек. Какие там рабочие места, вы о чем???
В итоге получаем: упущенная выгода огромная, прибыли нет, рабочих мест кот наплакал, спешка при вводе новых месторождений совершенно неуместная, да еще и по части великих геополитических побед нас Туркменистан примерно вдвое обогнал. Плюсы-то где?
Что надо было делать в этой ситуации? Да ничего. Отложить разработку этих крайне удаленных от рынков месторождений, как отложили Штокман. А к Штокману вернуться, кстати, производить на его базе сжиженный газ, поставлять на мировой рынок по приличным ценам, а не по таким, по которым мы договорились с Китаем. Работать с Японией, заполнять огромную нишу, которая у них на газовом рынке открывается после закрытия АЭС. Создать конкуренцию за российский газ между Японией и Китаем, вот что надо было делать. А китайцы пришли бы к нам, когда готовы были бы нормально платить.
И последнее, для справки. Пока что будущая экономика поставок газа в Китай это все обещалки, а вот вам реальные цифры, на которые уже можно посмотреть и пощупать — данные «Роснефти» об экспорте нефти в Китай. Годовой отчет за 2013 год открываем здесь.
Для начала открываем табличку на стр.26 — средние цены реализации нефти на экспорт, и видим, что в Азию (а это преимущественно Китай) «Роснефть» продает нефть по цене примерно $10 за баррель ниже, чем в Европу. Прям сверху таблички там.
Но это не все еще, потому что по трубе ВСТО Россия экспортирует более качественную нефть Espo, которая не смешивается с сернистой поволжской нефтью и не превращается в сернистую нефть Urals, которую мы продаем в Европу. Премия нефти сорта Espo к сорту Urals — грубо говоря, $2 на баррель. Так что мы в Азию нефть должны продавать дороже на $2 за баррель, а не дешевле на $10. Итого упущенная выгода — $12 за баррель.
Но и это еще не все: в том же самом отчете «Роснефти» открываем табличку на стр.15 (про стоимость транспортировки нефти на экспорт по разным направлениям) и видим, что транспортировка нефти в Китай по ВСТО стоит примерно на $2 за баррель дороже, чем по европейскому направлению (Приморск, Новороссийск, Германия).
Итого минимум $14 за баррель упущенной выгоды. Открываем страничку 25 отчета «Роснефти» и видим, что объем экспорта нефти в Азию в 2013 году = 176 млн баррелей.
$14 за баррелей умножить на 176 млн баррелей = упущенная выгода от продажи нефти в Китай в 2013 году равняется 2,5 млрд долларов. Только за один год. А за 30 лет?!...
Вот когда вам будут красивые перспективы рисовать про экономику китайского газового контракта, вы им тычьте под нос вот эту экономику контракта нефтяного. Пока что материального больше ничего в качестве примера нет, все одни кремлевские сказки. | {
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Der Hamburger Justizsenator Till Steffen hat ein Konzept zur Anpassung des Urheberrechtsgesetzes vorgestellt, mit dem Nutzungsfreiheiten ausdrücklich gewürdigt und eine neue Balance hergestellt werden soll. Seine Partei wolle den Ausgleich zwischen den berechtigten Interessen der Kreativen, der Verwerter und der Werknutzenden "zum Programm machen", sagte der Rechtspolitiker bei einem Pressegespräch grüner netzaffiner Politiker der Bundes-, Länder- und EU-Ebene am heutigen Freitag in Berlin. Steffen hat dazu ein 20-seitiges Diskussionspapier vorgelegt. Darin heißt es gleich zu Beginn: "Das Urheberrecht steckt in einer Krise." Es gebe einen "grundlegenden Akzeptanzverlust bei einer ganzen Generation". Darauf müsse die Politik reagieren.
In der bisherigen Entwicklung des Urheberrechts sind dem Vorstoß zufolge die mit der Digitaltechnik und dem Internet neu entstandenen Nutzungserwartungen weitgehend unberücksichtigt geblieben. Stattdessen habe die Tendenz vorgeherrscht, Mechanismen zum Schutz des Urhebers und der Verwerter weiter auszubauen. Im Interesse der Allgemeinheit seien zwar die exklusiven Rechte der Kreativen und die darauf aufbauenden "verwandten" Schutzbestimmungen teils durch Bestimmungen etwa zur Privatkopie oder zur Zitierfreiheit etwas eingeschränkt worden. Diese "Schranken" dürften aber nicht mehr als reine "Ausnahmen" im Sinne einer Rücknahme urheberrechtlichen Schutzes angesehen werden. Vielmehr müssten daraus Bestimmungen werden, die von vornherein den Inhalt und Grenzen des Urheberrechts festlegten.
Mit der Initiative soll schon in den Titel des Urheberrechtsgesetzes der neue Kernbestandteil der "Nutzungsfreiheiten" mit aufgenommen werden. Paragraphen 1 und Paragraph 11 (Genereller Schutz für die Urheber) müssten vorsehen, dass auch den Bedürfnissen der Werknutzenden an der Teilnahme am kulturellen und geistigen Leben Rechnung zu tragen sei. Weiter setzt sich das Papier für eine Stärkung der Bestimmungen zur Privatkopie ein. Ein entsprechendes Recht soll etwa gegen Systeme zum digitalen Rechtekontrollmanagement (DRM) durchsetzbar werden. Generell, betonte Steffen, wolle man den "nicht-kommerziellen Austausch" geschützter Werke über das Internet "von der Verfolgung freistellen".
Ferner schlägt das Papier vor, den bisher "umfassenden rechtlichen Schutz für einfache Alltagsfotografien" zu reduzieren. Es solle etwa möglich werden, für eine Online-Auktion ein digitale Hersteller-Foto zu verwenden, führte der Politiker der Hamburger Grünen Alternativen Liste aus. Auch das "Abmahnunwesen" müsse stärker eingedämmt werden. So solle die erste Unterlassungserklärung im privaten Bereich nicht mehr gebührenpflichtig sein. Prinzipiell sei eine Debatte über die Länge des Urheberrechtsschutzes zu führen. Die bisherige Dauer von 70 Jahren nach dem Tod des Künstlers hält Steffen bei vielen Werkarten nicht mehr für zeit- und sinngemäß.
Der Justizsenator unterstrich auch, dass der Gesetzgeber für eine "angemessene Vergütung der Urheber" zu sorgen habe. Man müsse etwa auch die Entwicklungspotenziale der Kreativwirtschaft für Städte und Kommunen im Auge behalten. Hier haben sich laut Steffen "Pauschalmodelle" wie die Abgabe fürs private Kopieren auf Geräte und Leermedien häufig als praktikabel herausgestellt. Es werde dagegen nicht gelingen, den Werkschöpfern neue Einnahmequellen zu erschließen, "indem man einzelnen Nutzern hinterher steigt".
Konkret bezieht sich das Papier hier auch auf die Einführung einer "flächendeckenden Pauschalabgabe" in Form der von den Grünen geförderten "Kulturflatrate". Denkbar sei auch ein Ansatz bei der vom Nutzer abgerufenen Datenmenge, heißt es. Dieser sei "unabhängig vom konkreten Inhalt" auszugestalten. Fertig entwickelt sei diese Idee aber noch nicht. Die von Zeitungs- und Zeitschriftenverlegern angestoßene Debatte über ein gesondertes "Leistungsschutzrecht" fürs Internet kommt Steffen zufolge dagegen "zum falschen Moment". Zunächst müsse eine grundsätzliche Balance im Urheberrecht hergestellt werden. Wer derzeit dagegen auf die bestehenden Schutzrechte "noch obendrauf legt", könnte eine neue Abmahnwelle hervorrufen, gegenüber der sich die gegenwärtige als "laues Lüftchen" herausstellen dürfte.
Die Vorschläge will Steffen im Juni auf der Justizministerkonferenz ins Gespräch bringen, deren Vorsitz derzeit Hamburg innehat. Dem könnten sich konkrete Gesetzesvorschläge über den Bundesrat anschließen. Parallel dazu wollen Steffens Kollegen wie der netzpolitische Sprecher der Grünen im Bundestag, Konstantin von Notz, und der grüne EU-Abgeordnete Jan Philipp Albrecht auf eine grundlegende Reform des Urheberrechts drängen. (jk) | {
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Luonnonsuojelija, ornitologi Pentti Linkola, 87, on kuollut. Asian vahvistaa Ylelle Linkolan tytär Leena Linkola, mutta hän ei halua kommentoida asiaa enempää.
Pentti Linkola syntyi Helsingissä 7. joulukuuta 1932. Hän oli tunnettu syväekologisen ajattelusuuntauksen edustaja ja ammattikalastaja. Linkola perusti vuonna 1995 Luonnonperintösäätiön, joka ostaa Suomen vanhoja metsiä suojeltaviksi. Linkola asui Sääksmäen Ritvalassa.
Valokuvaaja Juha Metso kuvasi Pentti Linkolan marraskuussa 2015. Juha Metso / AOP
Linkola valmistui ylioppilaaksi vuonna 1950 Helsingin Suomalaisesta Yhteiskoulusta, minkä jälkeen hän opiskeli Helsingin yliopistossa vuoden eläin- ja kasvitiedettä. Vuosina 1952–1959 Linkola työskenteli vapaana luonnontutkijana. Vuonna 1959 hän ryhtyi ammattikalastajaksi ja kalasti sekä merellä että järvillä.
Linkolan ensimmäinen poliittinen julkaisu oli omakustannepamfletti Isänmaan ja ihmisen puolesta mutta ei ketään vastaan (1960), jossa hän kehotti aseistakieltäytymiseen.
Linkola oli yksi Suomen lintutieteen pioneereista. Hänen ensimmäinen ornitologinen julkaisunsa oli Olavi Hildénin kanssa koottu Suuri Lintukirja (1955). Linkola oli myös yksi 1960-luvulla ilmestyneen Pohjolan linnut värikuvin -teoksen tekijöistä. Hän tutki lintuja pitkään ja hänet muun muassa palkittiin vuonna 1974 vuoden rengastajana.
Ensimmäinen kirjamuotoinen kannanotto luonnonsuojelun puolesta oli esseekokoelma Unelmat paremmasta maailmasta, joka ilmestyi vuonna 1971. Vuonna 1983 Linkola palkittiin Eino Leinon palkinnolla teoksestaan Toisinajattelijan päiväkirja (1979) ja vuonna 1990 Lauri Jäntin palkinnolla teoksesta Johdatus 1990-luvun ajatteluun (1989).
Linkola tunnettiin jyrkistä näkemyksistään ihmisen ja luonnon suhteesta. Hänen ajattelunsa ydinsanoma oli, että ihminen ajaa maapalloa kohti katastrofia ja loppumme on lähellä. Keskeisintä hänen mielestään oli väestöräjähdyksen estäminen sekä luonnon kuormituksen vähentäminen. Linkola kertoi ihannoineensa muun muassa diktatuuria, kommunismia ja natsi-Saksaa.
Tiettävästi viimeisessä haastattelussaan Kulttuuritoimitus-verkkojulkaisulle (siirryt toiseen palveluun) Linkola kommentoi ajankohtaista koronaviruspandemiaa näin:
– Koronavirus voi hieman jarruttaa maapallon tuhoa, mutta kun se on saatu lannistettua, jatkuu sama elämäntapa. Niin kauan kuin taloudellinen edistys ja kehitys ovat ihmisen keskeisiä tavoitteita, on maapallon pelastaminen menetetty, Linkola sanoi.
Linkola oli naimisissa kerran, vuosina 1961–1975, ja hänellä oli tästä liitosta kaksi lasta.
Linkola tarkasti linnunpönttöä marraskuussa 2015. Juha Metso / AOP
"Hän inhosi vanhenemista"
Toimittaja ja tietokirjailija Riitta Kylänpää pääsi harvinaisen lähelle Pentti Linkolaa. Kylänpää kirjoitti Linkolasta elämäkerran ja työ palkittiin Tieto-Finlandialla vuonna 2017.
Riitta Kylänpää kirjoitti teoksen Pentti Linkola – ihminen ja legenda. Ari Heinonen / Siltala
– Ensin tietysti vähän jännitin, kun en tiennyt, että mitä voi kysyä ja miten lähelle häntä voi mennä. Pikkuhiljaa suhde muuttui hyvin luottamukselliseksi. Hän oli hyvin avoin, mutta vanha mies, oman sukupolvensa kasvatti, arasteli hieman puhua naisasioistaan. Mutta puhui sitten niistäkin.
Kylänpää pitää Pentti Linkolaa poikkeuksellisena ihmisenä. Hän ei keksi ketään toista, joka seisoisi niin jykevästi kaikissa mahdollisissa tilanteissa omien mielipiteidensä takana.
Maailmankuva oli varma ja ehdoton. Kylänpää kertoo yllättyneensä, että julman miehen maineessa ollut Linkola oli kuitenkin äärettömän sydämellinen ihminen.
– Mietin jopa kerran, että jos minulle tulisi vaikeita hetkiä, niin kenelle uskoutuisin. Olisi hyvinkin voinut olla, että se olisi ollut Pentti Linkola. Hänellä oli sellaista ymmärrystä ja herkkyyttä kuunnella toista ihmistä. Samalla tavalla kuin hän kuunteli luontoa, niin sitä herkkyyttä oli hänessä eri suuntiin.
Riitta Kylänpää on kirjan julkaisemisen jälkeen ollut Linkolaan yhteydessä aina silloin tällöin. Viime aikoina Linkola oli jo huonossa kunnossa, mutta halusi säilyttää oman itsenäisyytensä.
– Hän inhosi vanhenemista, koska ruumiin voimat vähenivät ja hänelle se ruumiin kunto oli ollut se kaiken a ja o. Silloin kun hän vihreille laati ehdotustaan puolueohjelmaksi, niin siinäkin hän korosti ruumiillisen kunnon merkitystä. Ja ruumiilla tekemisen tärkeyttä.
Kylänpää sanoo Linkolan rakastaneen metsiä koko sydämestään, koko kehollaan.
– Luulen, että se työ minkä hän teki vanhojen metsien puolesta, niin siellä hänen perintönsä humisee honkien latvoissa.
Haavisto: "Luonnonsuojeluasioissa löytyi aina yksimielisyys"
Ulkoministeri Pekka Haavisto (vihr.) kertoo uutisen Linkolan poislähdöstä pysäyttäneen.
Haavisto sanoo saaneensa aikanaan ympäristöherätyksen lukemalla Linkolan kirjoittamaa Unelmat paremmasta maailmasta -kirjaa, joka on kannanotto luonnonsuojelun puolesta.
– Hän on vaikuttanut monen sukupolven ajatteluun ja ehkä se ehdottomuus luonnon puolesta on myöskin sellainen hänen perintönsä.
Ulkoministeri Pekka Haavisto (vihr.) kertoo uutisen Pentti Linkolan poislähdöstä pysäyttäneen. Jari Kovalainen / Yle
Haavisto tituleeraa Pentti Linkolaa suomalaisen luonnonsuojelun grand old maniksi, merkittäväksi henkilöksi. Vihreässä liikkeessä Linkola oli yksi alullepanijoita, mutta nopeasti syntyi myös linjaristiriitoja.
– Hän ei ollut kovin sosiaalinen, ihmisrakas tai ihmisoikeuksia puolustava. Hän näki pikemmin ihmisen kuormana maapallolle ja tässä tietysti näkyi myös linjaerimielisyydet.
Haavisto alleviivaa, että luonnonsuojeluasioissa kuitenkin löytyi aina yksimielisyys.
– Uskon, että hän jättää sen perinnön, että jokainen voi tehdä jotain luonnonsuojelun eteen.
Ympäristö- ja ilmastoministeri Krista Mikkonen (vihr.) kommentoi Linkolan kuolemaa Twitterissä.
Luin suru-uutisesta linturetkellä luonnonsuojelualueella. Se ikäänkuin alleviivasi Linkolan merkittävää työtä luonnonsuojelun ja lintuseurannan eteen. Hyvä tapa kunnioittaa Linkolan muistoa on tukea luonnonperintösäätiön työtä. Osanottoni läheisille.https://t.co/moZwwIJzwF — Krista Mikkonen (@MikkonenKrista) 5. huhtikuuta 2020
Lue myös:
Pentti Linkola ja puoli vuosisataa radikaalia sanomaa luonnon puolesta
Pentti Linkola – suomalaisen luonnon suorapuheinen sankari on poissa
Sielun peili: Pentti Linkola
Persona non grata: Pentti Linkola | {
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How To Get Online Super value Day Shopping Offers, Terms & Conditions Apply | {
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Rangers prospect Filip Chytil has been invited to play for Team Czech Republic in the 2018 World JuniorChampionships.
New York Rangers prospect Filip Chytil has been playing well for the Hartford Wolf Pack. As the upcoming World Junior Championships in Buffalo, NY are getting closer, team Czech Republic has invited Chytil to join their team. While there’s been no official response, the New York Post‘s Larry Brooks hears from sources that the Rangers will allow Chytil to participate in the tournament.
Rangers expected to let Filip Chytil go, but not for long. https://t.co/XcbMfB9cTq via @nypostsports — Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) November 24, 2017
Chytil would rejoin the Wolf Pack after the tournament, enabling the Rangers to call him up to New York if they chose as opposed to sending him back to the Czech Republic and losing that advantage.
The 21st overall pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. Chytil had an excellent training camp and made the Rangers roster. But he was sent down to Hartford after just three NHL games, as the Rangers felt he would fit better in the AHL, where he’d be under less pressure and able to more easily acclimate himself to the North American style of hockey.
In nine games played in Hartford, he has five goals and six assists for 11 points. He has been out of the Wolf Pack lineup a few times due to injury but has been productive when on the ice.
Filip Chytil returned to Hartford's lineup on Saturday, scored twice, and played a great all-around game. I put together some video for you. https://t.co/wvFTjCGEaT — Adam Herman (@AdamZHerman) November 21, 2017
The International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships are being Held in Buffalo, NY at three different locations: the Key Bank Center, Harborcenter, and New Era Field. The tournament runs from Dec. 26-Jan. 5.
The World Championships consists of teams from the United States Canada, Denmark, Slovakia, Finland, Russia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Belarus. | {
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The mass shooting in Orlando by a man who pledged allegiance to the terrorist Islamic State has reignited a debate in Washington over suspected terrorists’ access to guns in the U.S. But we find fault with some of the claims made by both sides in the debate:
A Republican senator said known or suspected terrorists “cannot just walk in and buy a firearm” at a gun store. Not that same day, but 91 percent of individuals on terrorist watch lists who have attempted to buy a firearm or explosives since 2004 were able to complete the sale — typically in three days.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch declined — twice — to say how many Americans are on terrorist watch lists, claiming “we don’t provide those exact numbers” or even a range. That’s false. Federal officials have told Congress that the number of U.S. citizens and legal residents on watch lists currently ranges from 5,000 to 15,000.
Donald Trump said a Florida gun store owner “reported” Omar Mateen to the FBI weeks before the Orlando shooting when Mateen attempted to buy body armor and bulk ammunition, but that “authorities didn’t act on it.” A gun store did report the suspicious activity, but was unable to provide the FBI with his name or other information about him.
Gun Sales to Suspected Terrorists
In December, the Senate defeated an amendment offered by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California that would have allowed the attorney general to block the sale of weapons or explosives to individuals on terrorist databases if the attorney general had reason to believe that the weapons would be used in connection with terrorism. But the mass shooting in Orlando by Omar Mateen in the name of the terrorist Islamic State has reopened that debate.
After the Orlando shooting, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut spoke on the Senate floor for nearly 15 hours, in an attempt to get the Senate to take up gun-control legislation — including a revised version of the Feinstein amendment.
Language was added to the Feinstein amendment to include anyone who has been the subject of a federal terrorism investigation in the past five years. That’s because the FBI investigated Mateen for terrorism ties in 2013 and 2014, but closed those investigations without taking action. Mateen purchased the guns used in the attack in June.
The Senate was expected to take up Feinstein’s amendment June 20 during its consideration of the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Justice and other related agencies.
On June 16, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviewed Sen. James Lankford, who voted against Feinstein’s amendment last year. Wolf asked Lankford, of Oklahoma, if he would vote for legislation that “would prevent those on the terror watch list from getting a gun.” Lankford said known or suspected terrorists “cannot just walk in and buy a firearm” at a gun store.
Lankford, June 16: If someone is known or suspected as a terrorist, they cannot just walk in and buy a firearm. They have a long waiting period that actually kicks in that the system itself will kick them out. The FBI is pinged on that, and they get some options to be able to deal with. So it is already current law. So there’s a lot of pushback to say all these known terrorists can just walk in and buy a gun at a gun store. That is not correct. They are already held back and already cannot walk in and buy a gun in a gun store right now.
Lankford’s response is misleading. The FBI has limited options in dealing with individuals on a terrorist watch list who want to buy a weapon or explosives, and while the sale or transfer may not happen immediately, it can happen after 72 hours.
Here’s how the National Instant Criminal Background Check System works: A prospective gun buyer who tries to buy a gun from a licensed firearms dealers fills out an application that is checked against a variety of databases to determine if the applicant is legally permitted to buy a gun. Those databases contain criminal records and court records (such as warrants and protection orders), as well as immigration and naturalization records if the applicant is not a U.S. citizen.
An FBI spokesman told us that a weapons sale or transfer can be approved in less than an hour if the background search turns up no evidence that the applicant is prohibited from owning a gun. But if the name of the applicant matches any of those in the databases, then the gun purchase can be delayed for up to 72 hours — giving NICS examiners at an FBI office in West Virginia time to review the case and determine if the person is indeed prohibited from purchasing a weapon.
An application can be denied, for example, if the person is a convicted felon or fugitive, or if the person is living in the U.S. illegally or has been convicted of a domestic violence offense.
In February 2004, the Department of Justice began checking prospective gun buyers against what the FBI calls the Known or Suspected Terrorist File — which includes the Terrorist Screening Database, commonly referred to as the FBI’s terrorist watch list, as explained in a May 2013 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. A match in the terrorist database triggers an automatic 72-hour delay, even if there are no other so-called “prohibiting factors.”
It may be, for example, that the FBI has disqualifying information on that individual that is not entered in the NICS databases.
CRS, May 1, 2013: During a delay, NICS staff contacts immediately the FBI Headquarters’ Counterterrorism Division and FBI Special Agents in the field, and a coordinated effort is made to research possibly unknown prohibiting factors. If no prohibiting factors are uncovered within this three-day period, firearms dealers may proceed with the transaction at their discretion. However, FBI counterterrorism officials continue to work the case for up to 90 days in case disposition information is returned that permits a final determination.
So Lankford is correct that the “FBI is pinged” whenever an individual on a terrorist watch list tries to buy a gun. But the sale can proceed after three days — and that’s exactly what has happened in the vast majority of cases, as we mentioned earlier.
Since the National Instant Criminal Background Check System began checking prospective gun buyers against terrorist watch list records in February 2004, “individuals on the terrorist watch list were involved in firearm or explosives background checks 2,477 times, of which 2,265 (about 91 percent) of the transactions were allowed to proceed and 212 were denied,” according to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. (See GAO chart below for more details.)
By law, all identifying information about the buyer in cases like this must be destroyed in 90 days, except for the transaction number and date. But the CRS says “it is unknown what happens to the information generated by NICS-related terrorist watchlist hits that are passed on to the FBI Counterterrorism Division and investigative personnel in the field.” It is possible that that information is “recorded and stored electronically in the FBI’s investigative case files.”
An FBI spokesman told us that the FBI can open an investigation if there is probable cause. FBI guidelines say a preliminary investigation may be opened “on the basis of any ‘allegation or information’ indicative of possible criminal activity or threats to the national security.”
We take no position on Feinstein’s amendment. But Lankford isn’t telling the whole story when he says that individuals on a terrorist watch list “cannot just walk in and buy a firearm” at a gun store. They can after a three-day wait, and nine out of 10 of those who have tried have done so.
https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/df085bfe-d140-4c22-93b5-c9aa91fdd008
Americans on the Terrorist Watch List
On ABC’s “This Week,” U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch declined — twice — to say how many Americans are on the terrorist watch list, claiming “we don’t provide those exact numbers” or even a range. That’s false. Federal officials have told Congress that the number of “U.S. persons” on terrorist watch lists ranges from 5,000 to 15,000.
Lynch made her remarks when asked about Feinstein’s amendment by “This Week” host Jonathan Karl.
Karl, June 19: The Justice Department has come out in favor of this idea of the no-fly, no-buy. If you’re on the terrorist watch list, the no-fly list, you shouldn’t be able to buy a gun. How many Americans are on the terrorist watch list? Lynch: You know, we don’t provide those exact numbers. Karl: Can you give me a range? I mean, what are we talking about here? Lynch: Well, as I said we don’t provide those exact numbers.
As we have written before, there are multiple databases that contain the names of suspected or known terrorists. The largest is the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE. The National Counterterrorism Center maintains TIDE, which the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in a 2013 report referred to as the government’s “central repository” of international terrorists and suspected terrorists. The number on that list stood at 1.1 million as of December 2013, including 25,000 “U.S. persons” (that is, citizens and legal permanent residents), according to an NCTC fact sheet.
As of June 17, the total number of names on the TIDE list had grown to 1.5 million names, although the number of U.S. persons shrunk to “fewer than 15,000,” according to Feinstein’s office.
The FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center separately maintains the Terrorist Screening Database, which is commonly referred to as the Terrorist Watchlist. The FBI told Feinstein’s office that there are about 1 million records in the TSDB, and about 0.5 percent of those — or fewer than 5,000 records — are of U.S. persons. The watch list includes about 81,000 names on the so-called no-fly list, including fewer than 1,000 names of U.S. persons.
The senator’s office said the data were obtained from “the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to Congressional questions.” The NCTC is within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, but the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center is in the department headed by Lynch.
So Lynch was wrong when she said “we don’t provide those exact numbers” or even a range.
https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/b7ace6fb-6deb-458d-820d-d0273095d4de
What Gun Store ‘Reported’ About Mateen
Donald Trump left out important facts when he said a gun store owner “reported” Omar Mateen to the FBI weeks before the Orlando shooting due to suspicious behavior while Mateen was trying to buy body armor and bulk ammunition, but that “authorities didn’t act on it.” A gun store did report the suspicious activity, but was unable to provide the FBI with Mateen’s name or other information about him. And so the FBI said that due to a lack of information, it was “unable to conduct any meaningful investigative follow up.”
Trump raised the issue on two Sunday shows on June 19. One instance came on ABC’s “This Week” in an interview with Jonathan Karl.
Trump, June 19: He [Mateen] was a bad dude. I mean look, will somebody slip through? Yes. You have a problem. You have to report these people. And everybody knew this guy had a problem. Now, in one case they did report it. I guess the gun store owner reported him and the authorities didn’t act on it. What a shame. Karl: So what does that say to you? Trump: It says very sad, that’s what it says. I mean to me, it says very sad. But they actually did report him and the authorities didn’t act. And I think it’s very unusual. And I’m a big fan of the FBI, but they had a little bit of a bad day.
Trump reiterated the point in a CBS “Face the Nation” interview with John Dickerson.
Dickerson, June 19: What Donald Trump policy would have kept this from happening? Trump: Well, we have to report. Look, the big thing that we’re missing here is that people have to report when they see somebody. This man [Mateen] was pretty much unhinged. I mean, you look at his record. You look at what happened. And, actually, I guess it was the gun store that did report, and reported him when he went in to buy all sorts of body armor and other things. He reported him to the authorities, law enforcement. And it — very sadly, nothing was done. Dickerson: But the … Trump: It could have been prevented. He was excellent in what he did, but, unfortunately, nobody took advantage of it.
In a June 16 interview on ABC News, Robert Abell, a co-owner of Lotus Gunworks in Jensen Beach, Florida, said a man later identified as Orlando nightclub shooter Mateen came into his store several weeks before the mass shooting and attempted to buy high-grade body armor and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
Abell said a store salesman found Mateen’s behavior “very suspicious” due to odd questions about the body armor — which the store did not carry — and a subsequent cell phone conversation Mateen held in a “foreign language.” The salesman denied Mateen’s request for ammunition — Abell said he wanted bulk ammunition only — and after Mateen left, the store called the local FBI office in West Palm Beach and reported the incident.
”Something in his gut told him it was wrong,” Abell said of the employee, according to a New York Times report.
But Abell said they weren’t able to provide Mateen’s name, because no sale was made, and the surveillance footage they had was grainy, ABC News reported.
“We had no link, no contact, didn’t know who he was,” Abell said. “But we did contact authorities and let them know we just had a suspicious person that was in here.”
Abell said there was a follow-up conversation with agents, but he said the FBI never visited the store or investigated further, ABC News reported.
According to a statement from the FBI on June 17, the store operators were “unable to collect any information about him, to include name, date of birth, charge card, telephonic information, or e-mail address.”
“Unfortunately, given the lack of information about this individual, FBI agents were unable to conduct any meaningful investigative follow up,” the FBI statement said.
Abell said it wasn’t until after the deadly attack in the Orlando nightclub that a store employee recognized that the man who had entered the store that day was Mateen.
”And here’s a prime example of trying to do the right thing, and we got so close to it,” Abell said. “But unfortunately, he slipped through the cracks, and this is where we’re at.”
On ABC’s “This Week,” Karl asked U.S. Attorney General Lynch if the FBI did enough to follow-up on the gun store’s tip.
Lynch said that “because Mateen didn’t make a purchase, there was no record, there was no identifying information. But [the gun store employee] did provide that information. And that’s exactly what he was supposed to have done. And we appreciate that.”
Karl then asked if the FBI did anything with that information.
“Well,” Lynch said, “at the time, there was no identifying information on that and in fact, it wasn’t until these tragic events of last weekend that the gun shop owner realized, oh my goodness, that was the man that came in and, in fact, provided that information that allowed us to connect those dots.”
https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/5de0817a-5b33-458c-a145-7f5065f43e72 | {
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This summer’s box office heroes may be manly, crime-fighting muscle masses of “Iron Man III,” “Man of Steel” and “The Wolverine” – but on children’s television, the pressure is on a 12-year-old boy donning white thigh-high boots, with a purple skirt and cape to match.
He’s got a she-cret, and her name is SheZow.
“SheZow” is children’s network the Hub’s latest animated TV project, premiering in the United States June 1. The show’s main character is a boy named Guy who, with the help of a new wardrobe, power ring and the magic words “You go, girl!” transforms into a girl to battle evil.
"When I first heard about the show, my reaction was 'Are you out of your minds?'" Margaret Loesch, chief executive of the Hub, tells the Los Angeles Times. "Then I looked at it and I thought, 'This is just funny.'"
It’s no laughing matter in the world of competitive children’s television traditionally dominated by Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network.
The Hub, owned by toy-making giant Hasbro and Discovery Communications Inc., needs a hero: although it has found concentrated success in shows such as “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,” “Transformers Prime” and “G.I. Joe: Renegades,” Loesch has high hopes for the gender-bending superhero to boost the network’s competitive edge.
Also see: Ken Tada and Joni Eareckson's inspirational love story
But before Guy and her superpowers have had the chance to win over the Hub’s target audience – children ages 6-11 – the show’s main character is facing some heavy resistance.
“Nothing says ‘child-appropriate material’ quite like gender-bending underage superheroes,” quips Ben Shapiro, editor of Breitbart News. He also called “SheZow” as a “soon-to-be-dud,” even though the show has already been running on Australian television since December.
But Shapiro isn’t the only one with concerns about what some are labelling as television’s first transsexual superhero: many television fans took to Twitter to take part in the cloud of controversy around “SheZow” and its impressionable target audience.
“The difference between #Bugsbunny crossdressing 20 years ago and #SheZow is Bugs didn’t have a hidden agenda. This one does,” tweets user @annamaquino.
User @CameronC_Scott agrees. “This is wrong on many levels. You all ought to be ashamed.”
While others are hailing the show for its groundbreaking support for LGBT rights, one children’s psychologist said kids may not even notice what all the fuss is about.
Sally Ann Graham, a child psychologist, tells News 12 Long Island that parents shouldn’t worry about the cross-dressing appearance of the Hub’s new hero because many kids might just see the show as pure entertainment and pure costume.
Also see: Fraternal twins suffer extremely rare strokes just months apart
In an e-mail statement to Yahoo! Shine Canada, The Hub explicitly denied featuring a transsexual character on its latest show, and rather pointed to inspirational characters like Disney’s Mulan, a girl who dressed up as a male warrior to save her family.
“SheZow” writer and executive producer Obie Scott Wade says creating the show was never about divisive entertainment.
“I set out to create a comedy in ‘SheZow,’ not a political statement,” he explains in an e-mail statement to Yahoo! Shine Canada. “While the character of Guy does learn many things about himself by becoming ‘SheZow,’ the main focus is on responsibility and less on gender.”
Despite what the recent commotion might indicate, “SheZow” wouldn’t be the first place a transsexual or cross-dressing animated character appeared on television. The popular “Ranma 1/2” was just one Anime series to feature a gender-swapping character (the main character turned into a female when doused with cold water and back to a male if immersed in hot water). Several fandoms on the blogging site Tumblr have also taken to the trend of creating gender-swapped versions of their favourite movie stars.
The Hub has offered its American fans a free sneak-peek to reel them in the new series: the first episode is available here. | {
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EDMONTON, AB - The Edmonton Oilers have announced details for the 2018 Rookie Camp, including the roster, practice schedule and games on Sept. 9 @ Calgary, Sept. 11 vs. a MacEwan-NAIT All-Star Team and on Sept. 12 vs. Calgary in Red Deer, AB.
The Oilers Rookie Camp will open on Thursday, September 6 with medicals and fitness testing at Rogers Place.
Edmonton's rookie roster features 27 players (three goaltenders, nine defencemen and 15 forwards).
This roster includes 14 NHL draft picks, including 2018 first round pick Evan Bouchard (10th overall), 2018 second round picks Ryan McLeod (40th) and Olivier Rodrigue (62nd), as well as 2017 first round pick Kailer Yamamoto (22nd overall), 2016 second round pick Tyler Benson (32nd overall) and 2017 third round selections Stuart Skinner (78th overall) and Dmitri Samorukov (84th overall).
View the full roster HERE. | {
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This fall, Tatyana will be training dancers from the Faubourg Theater Ballet Arts Academy, a small but notable school in Hanover Park, Ill., for an international competition. Each dancer will perform two to three ballet variations, requiring a different costume for each. I asked Michele Welsh, whose daughter Elisabeth is one of Tatyana’s students, if she notices a change in Elizabeth’s dancing when she practices with a tutu, “It makes all the difference,” she says, “she becomes the character.”
On the day I visit, Tatyana’s students are giddy with excitement. They gasp as she brings out each piece. “This one is my favorite!” says Julianne Pankau. Only to change her mind once Tatyana brings out another.
Though it had been more than a decade since I had danced with Tatyana, her students’ enthusiasm reminded me of the feeling that the “Raymonda” tutu gave me. I was proud to wear that blue dress — a privilege I had earned only after dedicating years to ballet.
I wondered if Tatyana’s current students also recognized how rare it was to be outfitted in costumes like these. One student, Michelle Zhang, put on a traditional folk dance costume. “I feel like one of those Russian dolls,” she said. “This looks exactly like one.” | {
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Well hi again everybody, and welcome to another edition of Dollar Blog Night! This is a passion project of mine, one that I intend to be a clear, concise, and entertaining fan perspective on Cleveland Indians baseball. Everyone loves Dollar Dog Night at Progressive field, so why wouldn’t you want to remind yourself of it by reading thought provoking Tribe articles?! I would like to get out about one article a week depending on the Tribe’s activity. These stories are intended to be topical, although at times I’ll get nostalgic about years gone by. If you enjoy what you read here, tell a friend so they can enjoy as well! So again, welcome, and enjoy my two sense.
Let me start you off with a what if this time. One year ago this week, the Miami Marlins, as part of their fire sale, dealt promising young outfielder Christian Yelich to the Milwaukee Brewers for top outfield prospect Lewis Brinson, and three other lesser named prospects in OF Monte Harrison, INF Isan Diaz, and RHP Jordan Yamamoto. But what if Derek Jeter instead answered the phone when a 216 number rang into Marlins HQ, and Yeli was headed to the land. Well, things would be a lot different right now in Tribe town.
This guy could be our Right Fielder…
Photo Courtesy of sbnation.com
By no means am I arguing that Christian Yelich would have carried the Tribe on his back to a deep postseason run in 2018. That’s a completely unfair expectation on one player in a team-oriented sport such as baseball. But his bat sure couldn’t have hurt in a top-heavy Tribe lineup. Last year, en route to winning the Senior Circuit’s MVP, Yelich hit 36 dingers, batted .326, drove in 110 runs, and had a real shot at winning the triple crown in the Brew Crew’s game 163. By all measures, his 7.6 WAR season was incredible. However, with how cold the other key bats in the Tribe’s lineup seemed to go once the calendar turned to October, the 2018 squad didn’t stand much chance against the defending World Champs. This year and beyond is what I’d like to focus on.
As we all know, the Indians outfield is not pretty to look at right now: featuring such boppers as Leonys Martin (who nearly died last August) and a potpourri of young guys including Greg Allen, Tyler Naquin, and Jordan Luplow. But what if you threw Yelich’s left handed stick in right field? I would sure be feeling better about the state of our Tribe. A lineup like this isn’t incredible, but it would be better than what we have now. (speculative of course)
SS Lindor 2B Kipnis 3B Ramirez RF Yelich 1B Bauers DH Santana LF Luplow/Naquin/Allen Catcher CF Martin
Even more importantly though, Yelich’s was owed $43.25 million over 4 seasons starting at the beginning of 2018 with an option for 2022. At such a reasonable price, the front office could have gone out and supplemented the bullpen and added another outfield or infield piece with the money they’ve saved in trades this offseason. Combine this with a dynamite starting rotation and add a few more bullpen arms and you can stand with the big boys of the AL. The prospect of such a deal hurts even more when you look at what the Marlins took for Yelich in the deal that was made. Let’s break it down.
Brinson, in 406 MLB plate appearances last year hit .199, with 42 RBI’S and 11 homers. This -0.2 WAR season out of the former 1st round pick and top prospect was hardly encouraging. Monte Harrison, a former 2nd rounder and top 100 prospect hasn’t cracked AA yet and hit .240 in a full campaign. Isan Diaz has reached AAA but had an OPS of .739 for the year. Jordan Yamamoto only pitched in 13 games during the 2018 season.
This has hardly been an impressive haul for the fins, and one that I believe the Tribe could have matched. Could a package including some combination of Francisco Mejia, Nolan Jones, Yu Chang, or even Danny Salazar have done the trick? I can’t answer that. But boy would things be different if it had.
The Tribe have caught a great deal of flack for their inactivity this offseason, and for all my previous defenses of the front office, even I see where this is coming from. It’s frustrating when your team has two glaring holes and seems to be doing nothing to fix them. However, the more I look at the way things stand, the more I begin to realize that some of these holes could have been avoided with a little more activity during the 2017-18 offseason.
Photo Courtesy of the Athletic
Would it have been worth it to jettison some promising assets for Yelich or another young outfielder? Should there have been some more moves made for bullpen help in the offseason rather than at the trade deadline? I can’t answer these questions either. But the more I think about the Tribe’s current quandary, the more I wonder what would have happened had Chris Antonetti not aimed to be the most boring man at last off-season’s winter meetings. Oftentimes once serious problems arise in a situation, it becomes too late to fix them. The Tribe will be favored in the central this year: with some big moves (that don’t appear to be coming) and some luck, they could still possibly contend for a title that is 71 years overdue. But maybe the Indians should have got ahead of their roster problems a year early rather than a year too late. Here I sit though, with a foot of snow on the ground in Northeast Ohio, one month from pitchers and catchers reporting, wondering: What If.
Remember Cleveland, Always Believe,
-Frank Sobnosky. @polishthunder31 on twitter.
Stats Courtesy of the great folks at Baseball Reference.
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The United States is facing a growing resistance against its anti-Iran policies because of American economic war with other nations, says a commentator.
Mostafa Khoshcheshm, political commentator, told Press TV on Wednesday that "the whole world is standing against the United States."
"The US is at war with China. It is at economic war with Europe somehow with Turkey and it is imposing an increasing number of sanctions on Russia."
“So, antagonistic powers are growing against the United States and this president (Donald Trump).” | {
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➥ Take your hip-hop beats and rap vocal mixes to the next level
I’m writing you from the paradisiacal but currently flooded Boulder, CO.
However, there’s another flood and it’s just for you and it’s on YouTube: all these new mixing tutorials from The Pro Audio Files.
As a supplement to Mixing Rap Vocals, Matthew Weiss has been dropping some bite-sized but highly potent mixing tutorials lately. I wanted to share the latest one with you: how you can use clipping to bring out your kick drum(s) in a hip-hop context.
A few months back, Matthew showed you how to make your 808s hit hard, but now we’re zooming way in on some of the ways clipping can make your kick drum stand out in the mix in a totally different stylistic context.
ADVERTISEMENT
If you have any questions about anything discussed in these videos, we monitor the YouTube comments and are more than happy to give individually tailored answers to all your questions. So by all means, make it rain.
Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest tutorials.
—
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Dan Comerchero I'm Dan, Founder of The Pro Audio Files and Quiztones ear training apps. Connect with me on Instagram here | {
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Last summer 2014, Diplo placed a ban on Kandi on his Mad Decent Block Party tour that left ravers in an uproar. After a series of 20 hospitalizations and one death at the Maryland event at Merriweather Post Pavillion, the ban on kandi was placed to rid the mini-fest of anything that was considered drug-relate to steer away the stigma of drugs and rave culture.
After the 2015 dates for Mad Decent were released, dance music fans began to notice that once again, Kandi will not be allowed this year. The ban on rave gear also includes favorites like LED Gloves, LED microlights, pacifiers, stuffed animals or dolls, totems, posters, e-cigs, and selfie sticks.
Despite the controversy, Mad Decent Block Party certainly won't disappoint. Like Diplo said, it's all about the music. For more information or to buy tickets visit | {
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Colorado Springs Attorneys
Practicing Family Law, Estate Planning & Probate
At the Law Office of Greg Quimby, P.C., we understand the importance of family. In every case we handle, protecting our clients and their loved ones is our highest priority. We have maintained a consistent passion for providing family-focused, cost-effective, and results-driven representation since our firm was founded in 1998.
When you choose the Law Office of Greg Quimby, P.C. to handle your family law, divorce, estate planning, or probate case, you are not simply getting the representation of one attorney – you are getting an entire team that is dedicated to helping you succeed. Our team is led by Attorney Greg Quimby and his daughter, Attorney Erica Vasconcellos. This father-daughter duo has instilled in our firm the family values that inform our approach to the practice of law. Your case will also benefit from the knowledge, energy, and resources of experienced paralegals and legal assistants.
Our team of family advocates is focused on your immediate and future needs. Whether you are filing for divorce, drafting a will, or adopting your stepchild, our Colorado Springs lawyers are here for you every step of the way. | {
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Copyright Mitzub'ixi Quq Chi'j, 2016-2019
Do not paste, but [Re]Think our message for all undergraduate students!!!
| {
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Deadline: November 11, 2016 | Apply here
[Oops, the opportunity has already expired. Sign up to AlphaGamma weekly newsletters to stay ahead of the game]
Dates: WAY Session 1: Dec 27, 2016 – Jan 16, 2017
WAY Session 2: Jan 19, 2017 – Feb 10, 2017
Prices: Application Fee: KRW 100,000,-
Tuition Fee: KRW 1,600,000,- for one session
Eligibility: WAY is open to all students currently enrolled in an accredited college or university
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Winter Abroad at Yonsei University
Yonsei University offers a 6-week winter program at its Sinchon campus for international students who would like to enjoy the winter in Seoul.
The winter program is composed of two separate 3-week sessions, with intensive morning coursework and unique afternoon Korean language and Taekwondo classes.
At the weekend, students can enjoy Korean winter activities. It will be an excellent opportunity to catch up with your coursework, meeting professors in an intimate setting, and to enjoy the companionship of students from all over the world.
About Yonsei University
The oldest private university in Korea, Yonsei University was first established in 1885 by Christian missionaries. The mission is to educate leaders who will contribute to humanity in the spirit of “truth and freedom.” The 300,000 Yonsei alumni who take this calling to the heart can be found manifesting this proud spirit from leadership positions around the world.
Yonsei’s main campus is ensconced in a spacious, picturesque and natural setting located minutes away from the economic, political, and cultural centres of Seoul’s metropolitan downtown.
Yonsei has 3,500 eminent faculty members who are conducting cutting-edge research across all academic disciplines. There are 21 graduate schools, 22 colleges and 120 subsidiary institutions hosting a selective pool of students from around the world.
Courses and classes
In order to complete a full semester’s work in only three weeks, WAY courses are highly intensive and fast paced. Classes meet for 150 minutes each day, five days a week (Mon – Fri), for 3 weeks (45 in-class hours per course).
Korean Language/Taekwondo classes meet for 60 minutes each day, four days a week (Mon – Thur), for 3 weeks (15 in-class hours per course).
Course requirements include a mid-term examination, a final examination, and often a term paper, although the choice remains up to individual professors.
Yonsei University has a strict attendance policy: any student who is absent from a course for more than 1/3 of the program will be issued an “F” regardless of their achievement in the course.
Coursed available
Contemporary Arts
East Asian International Relations
Eastern Civilization
Financial Accounting
Introductory Psychology
Principles of Microeconomics
Social Psychology
Strategic Management
Entrepreneurship and Strategy
Korean Development
Modern Korean Literature
Modern Korean History
Korean Economy
Korean Language
Taekwondo
Life on Campus
Yonsei University campus offers a number of attractions for students and professors.
Sport facilities
Basketball Court & Basketball Club
Football field & American Football Club & Football Club
Tennis courts
Judo dojo & Judo Club
Taekwondo dojo & Taekwondo Club
Rugby Club, Baseball Club, Administration Athletic Club
Libraries
Central Library & Yonsei-Samsung Library
The Library’s collections include more than 1.8 million printed works and 16,000 serials. A variety of electronic resources, including 200 academic databases, 53,000 e-journals, and 42,000 e-books can be accessed both on and off campus.
Student Union Building
Bookstore, Shoe Repair Shop, Barber Shop, Optical Shop, Photo Shop
Post Office
Wooribank
Travel Agency
Two snack and lunch areas, Cafeteria
Student Health Dispensary
Global Lounge
Student Club Offices
Small Theater
For more business and career opportunities, check our opportunities section and subscribe to our weekly newsletters. | {
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Steam is now available for iPad. Previously only available for iPhione through the App Store, you can now add it to your Apple-branded tablet. You go on with your badass large screen, there iPad. Thanks
PCgamesN. | {
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【4月20日 AFP】2016 年の「世界報道写真（World Press Photo）」のコンテストで大賞に選ばれた写真を撮影したフリーランスカメラマンが、賞を受け取るために、ハンガリーの首都ブダペスト（Budapest）の自宅からオランダの首都アムステルダム（Amsterdam）へ、徒歩で約1000マイル（約1600キロ）の旅をしている。
オーストラリア人のフリーランスカメラマン、ウォーレン・リチャードソン（Warren Richardson）氏（47）はAFPの取材に対し「このような旅をしたいといつも思っていた。でも、シリアなどから避難する難民たちと一緒に過ごしていたから、（この旅は）特別な意味を持っている」と語った。
リチャードソン氏は、国境沿いに設置された有刺鉄線の下から赤ちゃんを渡す難民の男性を月明かりの下で撮影した写真で同コンテストの大賞に選ばれた。
2月半ばに、ブダペストからアムステルダムに向かう徒歩の旅に出発したリチャードソン氏は、1500キロ以上を歩いた後、アムステルダムに21日に到着する予定。道中は、道路脇にテントを張りそこで眠り、太陽や星、見知らぬ人の親切だけを道案内にした。
リチャードソン氏が持参したのはバックパックとテント、寝袋、そして頼りになるカメラのみで、事実上、現金も持たずに旅をしてきた。
24日にアムステルダムで開かれる招待者限定の授賞式で、リチャードソン氏はオランダのウィレム・アレクサンダー（Willem-Alexander）国王の弟にあたるコンスタンティン王子（Prince Constantijn）から、賞と賞金1万ユーロ（約120万円）を授与される予定だ。
なぜ徒歩で旅をすることを決めたのかとの質問に、リチャードソン氏は「謙遜であることを教えてくれるし、それに道中素晴らしい人たちに会えるからだ」と語った。
この賞では、フランス通信（AFP）も、シリアの首都ダマスカス（Damascus）の近郊ドゥマ（Douma）の空爆直後の光景を撮影した写真での「スポットニュース」組写真部門1位を含め、4賞を獲得している。(c)AFP/Jan HENNOP | {
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We have a existing news 🤩 , Neutralinojs cloud preview version is released!. Today I am going to show you how to run neutralino cloud on AWS EC2.
One of my previous article said about an experiment that gives full access to virtual machine to frond end users. So we have developed something more and released v1.0.4-alpha with the features as per below.
Blacklisting specific functions
Two modes — desktop and cloud
Jumping In to the Game..
So very first.. If you don’t have an AWS account and you are an undergraduate, simply apply AWS Educate and get free credits 😍.
Creating an EC2 instance
Create an instance using a fresh Ubuntu image because neutralinojs supports Linux.
Connect with PuTTY
Use PuTTY ssh client if you are using windows otherwise use ssh command on Linux.
Exposing port to outside
Default port of neutralino is 8080 (You can set another by editing settings.json ). Then we need to add inbound TCP rule in AWS.
Click instance -> select security group -> edit inbound rules -> Add rule
So now anybody from outside has access to 8080 port
Setting up neutralinojs
ssh into instance and continue with these commands.
Download and extract Neutralinojs-v1.0.4-cloud.zip
unzip Neutralinojs-v1.0.4-cloud.zip wget https://github.com/neutralinojs/neutralinojs/releases/download/v1.0.4-alpha/Neutralinojs-v1.0.4-cloud.zip unzip Neutralinojs-v1.0.4-cloud.zip
Start neutralinojs
chmod 770 neutralino
./neutralino
Go ahead and open your browser, type <public dns or public ip> :8080/myapp
Cloud configuration
See app/settings.json configuration file
{
"appname" : "myapp",
"appport" : "8080",
"mode" : "cloud",
"cloud" : {
"blacklist" : ["os.runCommand"]
}
}
mode is set in to cloud. it will disable self killing feature(Removing neutralino server process when browser is closed) and it will check blacklist per each os native call.
Testing blacklist
Open console and play with this snippet
Neutralino.os.getEnvar('USER', (e)=>{console.log(e)}, ()=>{})
Obviously this one will return ubuntu 😋
Hm.. play with this too
Neutralino.os.runCommand('ls', (e)=>{console.log(e)}, ()=>{})
No you can’t 😎 it gives this response
{
error: "Cloud permission error!"
}
This is because we added os.runCommand to blacklist
Usage of neutralino cloud
If you want to take control of your virtual machines or bare metal servers or even your computer inside a private network give a try with neutralinojs cloud.
Also for controlling your devices withing a private network using mobile app. cool! you can use neutralinojs easily.
I’ll come with another article and show you cool scenario to apply neutralinojs cloud 😎.
Conclusion
Neutralinojs is still under development process and all releases are unstable. We are planning to develop macos implementation too. Thus there are few issues with Linux version too.
Give us a star! 😍 support us..
Happy coding!! | {
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The Nintendo Switch launched as a closed system without a preloaded web browser, which means hackers are definitely trying to find a way to jailbreak the device. Two hackers — @liveoverflow and @qwertyoruiopz — have published their work to break into the Switch and execute their own code. Their entire effort hinges on an unpatched WebKit exploit. Yes, you read that right. WebKit. Switch. Huh?
The Switch supports Wi-Fi and relies on WebKit to load “captive portal” webpages that give you access to public networks. Those captive portals are what you see when you try to log onto airplane Wi-Fi or a Starbucks network; they require some sort of login or acceptance of terms.
Given that this is the one clear place the Switch redirects to an external webpage, these hackers recognized it as an area rife for poking around. They found that the Switch is running an outdated version of WebKit with an already publicly disclosed vulnerability, which only requires them to compromise that captive portal page to execute their own code.
What’s really worth keeping in mind here is that Nintendo could have avoided this attack by just keeping up with Apple’s security updates. The company already patched this particular bug, but Nintendo built the Switch with the vulnerable WebKit version.
The attack shouldn’t scare you too much because if a hacker were able to compromise a Switch, they wouldn’t really gain much in the form of data. Still, they could theoretically turn it into a surveillance device. As @qwertyoruiopz emphasizes on his Twitter, this exploit is merely a proof of concept that requires more research. Maybe one day soon you’ll be able to jailbreak your Switch and use it like the Android gaming tablet you’ve always wanted. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
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