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One part of Indiana's HB 1284 removes all fees associated with the cost of obtaining a handgun license, in addition to removing some prohibitions on guns at schools and providing immunity and court costs for justified use of force in certain instances.
The Indiana House voted for the bill by 64-17, while the Senate approved it by 37-7. The Governor made a statement about the bill's removal of licensing fees, saying,
"Removing any and all barriers for lawful carry in our state is significant for the many Hoosier gun owners who want to protect themselves and others.”
This bill makes Indiana the first state to offer a permit without a fee of any kind, and one of only eight requiring a permit that requires no training of any kind. The permit is available only to Indiana residents, but the state has reciprocity agreements with 32 other states.
The bill was signed with many lawmakers in attendance on April 26th by Gov. Eric Holcomb to expand Indiana’s Stand Your Ground law and was announced at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting. While Current laws dictate that a person defending themselves, another person or their property with a gun cannot be held criminally liable, this legislation now extends those protections to civil courts.
The license fee removal takes place on July 1st, 2020, however, a fee still exists for those applying for a lifetime license of $50 for a new lifetime license, or $40 for converting from a five-year license to a lifetime license.
The bill also changes current four-year licenses to five-year licenses.
Another existing law change pertains to churches that are on school property, removing the right to ban guns from the school's oversight and giving it to the churches themselves.
HB 1284 was sponsored in the House by Rep. Jim Lucas and was co-authored by Rep. Christy Stutzman, Rep. Ben Smaltz, and Rep. Terry Goodin.
It was sponsored in the Senate by Sen. James Tomes, Sen. Mark Messmer, Sen. Chris Garten, Sen. Blake Doriot, Sen. Jon Ford, Sen. Erin Houchin, Sen. Aaron Freeman, Sen. Eric Koch, Sen. Mike Bohacek, Sen. Linda Rogers, Sen. Dennis Kruse, Sen. John Crane, and Sen. Jeff Raatz. | {
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During a brief Q-and-A with reporters at the White House on Tuesday, President Trump was asked to respond to British Prime Minister Theresa May’s claim that Russia was responsible for the poisoning and attempted murder of a former spy and his daughter on British soil.
Trump went to great lengths to avoid pinning blame on the Putin regime, saying, “we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be” — but only if “we agree” with the facts.
“As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be,” he said.
Facts are not typically things that are open for agreement or disagreement — they just are. But five words Trump used in his statement — “if we agree with them” — leave open the possibility that the White House may not ultimately “agree” with May that the poisoning was “an unlawful use of force” by the Putin regime.
Trump’s comments came a day after Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders bent over backward during a White House briefing to avoid pinning blame for the attack on Russia.
“Look, we’ve been monitoring the incident closely — take it very seriously,” she said. “The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against UK citizen on UK soil is an outrage. The attack was reckless, indiscriminate, and irresponsible.”
But as a reporter noted, Sanders never mentioned Russia at all while she read a statement condemning the attack.
“Right now, we are standing with our UK allies — I think they are still working through some of the details of that,” Sanders said, prompting the reporter to point out that May had already told members of parliament it is “highly likely” Russia was behind the attack.
“Like I just said, we stand with our ally and we certainly fully support them and are ready if we can be of any assistance of them,” Sanders reiterated, before moving on to another question.
Trump’s Q-and-A with reporters came on the heels of his firing of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — a move that was announced just hours after Tillerson broke with the administration’s line and condemned Russia for the attack.
As he’s now doing with regard to the poisoning, Trump has repeatedly refused to condemn Russia for meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Asked about what lessons he has learned about Russian interference during a news conference last Tuesday, Trump responded by questioning the U.S. intelligence community’s consensus conclusion — including ones offered publicly by his hand-picked officials — that the Putin regime was behind hacks and influence operations meant to help him win the presidency.
“Probably there was meddling from other countries, maybe other individuals,” he said, echoing the infamous comment he made during one of the presidential debates about how a “guy sitting on his bed who weighs 400 pounds” may have been responsible for Democratic hacks, not Russia.
During a subsequent interview with MSNBC, Russian President Vladimir Putin used Trump’s talking point to deny Russian involvement, saying whoever was responsible for the hacks might “actually [be] working for some kind of American company. Perhaps one of them used to work for one of the candidates. I have no idea, these are not my problems.” | {
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Build stability: 4 out of the last 5 builds failed.
20 | {
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If your girlfriend cheats on you Dont give her another chance, it will never be the same
254,034 shares | {
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The man raped the girl when she was sleeping. (Representational)
A man allegedly raped his 8-year-old relative in a village in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, the police said today.
The accused, a resident of Sarkanda village of Mau district in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested on Tuesday evening, they said.
The incident took place on Saturday in Gorakhpur's Sikriganj area when the accused came to the girl's house for some work and allegedly raped her when she was sleeping, Superintendent of Police (south) Vipul Kumar Srivastava said.
Before raping the girl, the accused stuffed her mouth with a cloth and tied her legs and hands, he said.
On Sunday, the girl's family took her to the hospital and later filed an FIR against the accused in Sikriganj police station, the SP said.
The girl is undergoing treatment and is stated to be stable, he added.
The accused has been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the officer said. | {
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We proudly announce General Availability (GA) of MySQL 5.7. Download now! MySQL 5.7.9 is an extremely exciting new version of the world’s most popular open source database that is 3x faster than MySQL 5.6, while also improving usability, manageability, and security. Some key enhancements include:
Performance & Scalability: Improved InnoDB scalability and temporary table performance, enabling faster online and bulk load operations, and more. JSON Support: With the newly added JSON support in MySQL , you can now combine the flexibility of NoSQL with the strength of a relational database. Replication improvements for increased availability and performance. They include multi-source replication, multi-threaded slave enhancements, online GTIDs, and enhanced semi-sync replication. Performance Schema delivering much better insights. We’ve added numerous new monitoring capabilities, reduced the footprint and overhead, and significantly improved ease of use with the new SYS Schema. Security: We are fulfilling “secure by default” requirements and many new MySQL 5.7 features will help users keep their database secure. Optimizer: We have rewritten large parts of the parser, optimizer, and cost model. This has improved maintainability, extendability, and performance. GIS: Completely new in MySQL 5.7 and including InnoDB spatial indexes, use of Boost.Geometry, along with increased completeness and standard compliance.
The above represents some of the highlights and I encourage you to further drill into the complete series of Milestone blog posts—5.7.1, 5.7.2, 5.7.3, 5.7.4, 5.7.5, 5.7.6, 5.7.7, 5.7.8 —and even further down in to the individual worklogs with their specifications and implementation details. Or perhaps you prefer to just look at the source code at github.com/mysql. We have implemented 365 worklogs, added 1007 MTR tests, and fixed 2812 5.7-specific bugs in 5.7. It might all be a bit overwhelming, so this “little” guide might be useful.
A big THANK YOU to everyone in the development team that made this happen! By development I mean everyone: requirements, design, coding, reviewing, testing, bug fixing, documentation, release, and lab support. A real team effort. A big THANK YOU to the overall MySQL community providing bugs, feedback, and contributions! A world wide effort.
Adding JSON Support to MySQL
With the newly added JSON support in MySQL, you can now combine the flexibility of NoSQL with the strength of a relational database.
We have developed a JSON datatype and a binary storage format that allows the server to efficiently store, retrieve and search JSON data (WL#8132) . This work enhances CREATE TABLE and ALTER TABLE so that they can create JSON columns, and it extends the Field class to allow INSERT to and SELECT from JSON typed fields.
We have introduced a set of server side, built-in JSON functions (WL#7909). This work lets users construct JSON data values from other relational data, extract relational data from JSON data values, introspect the structure of JSON values and text (validity, length, depth, keys), search within, and manipulate JSON data.
We have introduced the JSON comparator, similar to the DATE/TIME/DATETIME comparator, which allow comparisons of JSON scalars vs SQL constants, and JSON scalars vs JSON scalars (WL#8249). The comparator relies on the DOM support added in the scope of WL#7909. The comparator converts the SQL constant to a JSON scalar and then compares the values.
We have implemented ordering of scalar JSON values (WL#8539), i.e. a function that produces the sorting keys that the internal filesort function needs in order to properly sort JSON values. When ordering scalar JSON values with ORDER BY , they will be returned in the order defined by the JSON comparator in WL#8249.
We have implemented a expression analyzer for generated columns (WL#8170). This work allows our range and ref optimizers to find opportunities to use any indexes defined over generated columns. One intended use case for this feature is to allow the creation and automatic use of indexes on JSON Documents.
We have added inline JSON path expressions in SQL queries (WL#8607). MySQL now executes queries like: SELECT … FROM t1 WHERE t1.json_field->”$.path.to[0].key”= 123;
Generated Columns & Indexable Virtual Columns
We first implemented Generated Columns (WL#411, WL#8114). The values for such columns, unlike a regular field’s value, aren’t set by the user but instead computed by the server when the row is created or updated, using the expression specified by the user as part of the table definition. Generated columns can either be materialized (stored) or non-materialized (virtual). See Evgeny Potemkin’s article “Generated Columns in MySQL 5.7.5“.
We then implemented support for the creation of secondary indexes on non-materialized virtual columns, as well as the usage of these indexes for fast computed-value retrieval and searches (WL#8149, WL#8227, WL#8481) .
The non-materialized virtual columns were designed in such way that they are not present in actual InnoDB index records, but their metadata is registered with InnoDB system tables and metadata caches. Virtual columns provide flexibility and space savings for the table, and more importantly, adding/dropping such columns does not require a table rebuild. These behaviors make it a much better choice for storing and processing non-relational data such as JSON. However, since the columns themselves are not materialized, a scan and search could be slower than on regular (materialized) columns. However, the virtual column value is materialized in the secondary index, thus making it much easier for value searches and processing. Thus this work greatly increases the practical value of virtual columns. With this work, creating an index on virtual generated columns also becomes an ONLINE operation.
Performance & Scalability
Performance and scalability is a priority for MySQL, learning from community feedback and taking into account trends and developments in computer hardware and its architecture. So far in 5.7 we have delivered impressive read-only (RO) scalability results with InnoDB and significantly sped up the connection handling in the server layer. We are also making good progress on InnoDB read-write (RW) scalability, improved internal operations (faster and more stable flushing/purging), and fast bulk data loads.
InnoDB Read-Only Scalability. We have improved the performance for Read-Only (RO) and Read-Mostly workloads. We have significantly improved how InnoDB handles RO transactions (WL#6047, WL#6899, WL#6906, WL#6578). We have also removed server layer contentions related to Meta Data Locking (MDL) and removed the use of THR_LOCK locks for InnoDB (WL#7304, WL#7305, WL#7306, WL#6671). After WL#6671, the LOCK_grant lock then became more visible as the next scalability bottleneck in some workloads; for example, the single table InnoDB POINT_SELECT Sysbench tests (see also Bug#72829). This has now been fixed by partitioning the LOCK_grant lock (see WL#8355). Finally we have removed bottlenecks around LOCK_plugin and THR_LOCK_lock in workloads which involve the creation of internal memory based temporary tables; for example, like Sysbench’s SELECT_DISTINCT test for InnoDB. There is no real reason why we should acquire these locks for internal temporary tables, so we removed this unnecessary overhead (see WL#8356). See also Dimitri Kravtchuk’s articles “MySQL Performance: reaching 500K QPS with MySQL 5.7“, “MySQL 5.7 : Over 1M QPS with InnoDB Memcached Plugin“, Sunny Bains’ article “Transaction life cycle improvements in 5.7.3“, and Jimmy Yang’s article “MySQL 5.7.3: Deep dive into 1mil QPS with InnoDB Memcached“.
InnoDB Read-Write Scalability. We have also improved the performance of Read-Write (RW) workloads. We have removed the “index lock contention” in InnoDB (WL#6363, WL#6326). The index lock that was used to protect the entire index tree structure is now replaced by more fine grained “block locks” in the tree. See Yasufumi Kinoshita’s article “MySQL-5.7 improves DML oriented workloads“.
InnoDB Faster & Parallel Flushing. We have reduced the number of pages scanned when doing flush list batches, speeding up page flushing (WL#7047). The time complexity of a scan is reduced from O(n*n) to O(n). We have also implemented parallel flushing by having multiple page_cleaner threads (WL#6642). This gives improved scalability and throughput on multi-core systems and avoids flushing becoming the bottleneck. Finally, we have improved the adaptive flushing algorithm and related mechanisms in order to achieve more consistent or smooth throughput (see WL#7868).
Speeding up Connection Handling. In some application scenarios (e.g. PHP applications) client connections have very short life spans, perhaps only executing a single query. This means that the time spent processing connects and disconnects can have a large impact on the overall performance. In 5.7 we have offloaded thread initialization and network initialization to a worker thread (WL#6606) and more than doubled MySQL’s ability to do high frequency connect/disconnect cycles, from 26K to 56K connect/disconnect cycles per second. See also Jon Olav Hauglid’s article “Improving connect/disconnect performance“.
Bulk Data Load Improvements. Bulk Load for Create Index (WL#7277). This work implements bulk sorted index builds, thus making CREATE INDEX operations much faster. Prior to this work InnoDB looped through the base table and created one index record at a time for each record in the base table. After this work InnoDB reads many records from the base table, sorts the records using the index key, and then creates a chunked set of index records in one single bulk operation.
Online Operations
“Always ON” properties are essential to state of the art web solutions. It is important for DBAs or DevOps to be able to tune and extend their production systems without interrupting service. Thus, we continue to ensure that MySQL is leading in this area. In 5.7 we have delivered the following:
We have provided a way to enable GTIDs online (WL#7083), so that reads and writes are allowed during the procedure, servers do not need to synchronize, and no restarts are necessary. Prior to this work, the user had to stop all updates, synchronize all servers, and then restart all of them simultaneously. This previously meant that enabling GTIDs implied several minutes of planned downtime. See Sven Sandberg’s article “Enabling Global Transaction Identifiers Without Downtime in MySQL 5.7.6“.
We have added the capability to change the value of innodb_buffer_pool_size dynamically (WL#6117). This provides the ability to tune the buffer pool size—without incurring any downtime—as your database usage patterns evolve over time. See Yasufumi Kinoshita’s article “Resizing the InnoDB Buffer Pool Online“.
We have implemented automatic truncation of UNDO logs when separate UNDO tablespaces have been configured (WL#6965). InnoDB operates with several UNDO tablespaces that are periodically truncated, one at a time. While one UNDO tablespace is being truncated, the other UNDO tablespaces will still be available to service transaction management and ensure minimal impact on transaction processing. The purpose of this work is to avoid ever growing UNDO log file sizes that could occur in some usage scenarios. See also Bug#1287 reported by Scott Ellsworth.
We have added support for online ALTER TABLE RENAME INDEX (WL#6752, WL#6555) and enlarge VARCHAR column size operations (WL#6554).
We have made the slave options --replicate-* settable via the new CHANGE REPLICATION FILTER command (WL#7057). These options can now be changed dynamically while the server is running, enabling users to modify replication filtering rules without requiring a server stop and restart. This work originates in a contribution from Davi Arnaut (Bug#67362). See also Venkatesh Duggirala’s article “Making MySQL Slave Replication Filters Dynamic“.
And we have made it possible to issue CHANGE MASTER without stopping replication (WL#6120). In order to add/alter an option using the CANGE MASTER TO command, it was previously necessary to issue a STOP SLAVE command before the CHANGE MASTER TO command. This work relaxes that constraint. See also Shivji Jha’s article “Change master without stopping slave altogether“.
Optimizer Improvements
Many exciting things are going on in the optimizer area, such as the new Cost Model work, a new and improved parser, a layered optimizer architecture, and a new GIS implementation. In addition we have implemented the following set of feature requests:
Query Rewrite Plugins (WL#7589) : We have implemented a Query Rewrite Plugin, as well as a framework (APIs) for people to write their own custom query rewrite plugins. A query rewrite plugin specifies how certain queries that arrive at the server should be rewritten before they are processed and executed by the server. One usage is to enforce/prevent a certain query plan by adding hints to a query. Our query rewrite plugin is a superb tool for handling such problematic queries when users cannot rewrite the query within the application itself, e.g. because it originates from an external tool (like an Object Relational Mapping tool such as Hibernate) or from some other 3rd party application. See also Martin Hansson’s article “Write Yourself a Query Rewrite Plugin: Part 1” and “Part 2“.
Process subqueries in FROM clause in the same way as view (WL#5275) : We have to a large extent unified the handling of derived tables and views. Until now, subqueries in the FROM clause (derived tables) were unconditionally materialized, while views created from the same query expressions were sometimes materialized and sometimes merged into the outer query. This behavior, beside being inconsistent, can lead to a serious performance penalty. This work fixes Bug#59203, Bug#67631, and Bug#1275.
Make switching of index due to small limit cost-based (WL#6986) : We have made the decision in make_join_select() of whether to switch to a new index in order to support "ORDER BY ... LIMIT N" cost-based. This work fixes Bug#73837.
Improved “IN queries” With Row Value Expressions to Be Executed Using Range Scans (WL#7019) : We removed the previous requirement on rewriting the WHERE condition into its equivalent AND/OR form. See Bug#31188 reported by Mark Callaghan and Bug#16247 reported by Domas Mituzas. See also Martin Hansson’s article “Range access: now in an IN predicate near you“.
“UNION ALL” No Longer Creates a Temporary Table (WL#1763) : In 5.7 the optimizer avoids creating a temporary table for the result of UNION ALL queries when there is no need for it, i.e. when there is no top-level ORDER BY clause. This reduces the need for disk space and disk I/O when executing large unions, and perhaps even more important, the client will get the first rows immediately. See Bug#50674 reported by Mark Callaghan. See also Norvald H. Ryeng’s article “State of the UNION“.
Non-Sorted Fields in the Sort Buffer are Now Compacted (WL#1509) : This optimization is about better utilizing the sort buffer, thus avoiding/reducing the need to go to disk while sorting. The user benefit is increased query performance.
EXPLAIN for Running Queries (WL#6369) : This feature is useful if you are running a statement in one session that is taking a long time to complete; using EXPLAIN FOR CONNECTION in another session may yield useful information about the cause of the delay and thus help you optimize your schema and statements.
JSON EXPLAIN (WL#6510) : We have enhanced the JSON EXPLAIN output by printing the total query cost, the cost per table, and the amount of data processed. This will make it easier for a user to see the difference between good and bad execution plans. See also Øystein Grøvlen’s article “MySQL EXPLAIN Explained“.
Make use of Condition Filtering in the Optimizer (WL#6635) . This work improves join ordering (part of the Cost Model work). We are getting a much better prefix rows estimate by taking into account not only conditions that are used by the chosen access method but all other relevant conditions as well. See also “A New Dimension to MySQL Query Optimization” part1 and part2 by Jørgen Løland.
Improved ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY SQL Mode (WL#2489) : We have improved the behavior of the ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY SQL mode and also enabled it by default in 5.7.5+. This work makes the SQL mode far less strict about selected/order expressions because the server now properly recognizes functional dependencies. This work addresses many user complaints, such as those described in Roland Bouman’s article “Debunking GROUP BY myths” and Bug#51058. See also Guilhem Bichot’s article “MySQL 5.7: only_full_group_by Improved, Recognizing Functional Dependencies, Enabled by Default!“.
Parser Refactoring
We are in the process of refactoring the SQL parser in an incremental way. The old parser had critical limitations because of its grammar complexity and top-down parsing style which lead to poor maintainability and extensibility. So far we have done a lot of preparatory work (WL#5967, WL#7199), refactored the SELECT statement (WL#7200), the SET statement (WL#7203), the INSERT/REPLACE statement (WL#7201), the DELETE statement (WL#7202), and the UPDATE statement (WL#8062). We plan to rewrite the entire parser. See the article by Gleb Shchepa “SQL parser refactoring in 5.7.4 LAB release“.
Optimizer Hints
We have added parser rules to support a new hint syntax for optimizer hints (WL#8016). Hints can now be specified directly after the SELECT|INSERT|REPLACE|UPDATE|DELETE keywords in an SQL statement, and they must be enclosed in /*+ */ style comments. Not only does this provide the end-user with a more consistent and easy to use method of managing hints, but the internal refactoring done makes it far easier to add Server side support for additional hints moving forward (see WL#8241 and WL#8243 below). We have also implemented the general infrastructure (WL#8017) common to all hints given the new syntax (see WL#8016). This includes: 1. a data structure for associating hints with the relevant query block during parsing 2. utility functions for resolving the names of database objects (e.g. table names, index names, etc.) and associating the hints with the relevant objects 3. a data structure that the Optimizer can use to look up hints within the current query.
We have added new “index level hints” that allow the user to control which indexes should be candidates for index condition pushdown (ICP), multi-range read (MMR), and range optimization (WL#8243). We have also added new hints that allow the user to influence the Optimizer as it decides whether to use join buffering or batched key access during the execution of the query against the given set of tables (WL#8241).
We have also added hints for controlling subquery execution strategies (WL#8244) . This includes whether or not to use semi-join, which semi-join strategy to use, and, in case semi-join is not used, whether to use subquery materialization or the in-to-exists transformation. This work uses the new syntax and infrastructure for hints provided by WL#8016 and WL#8017. Note that this work makes it possible to prevent any specific semi-join strategy, including the Duplicate Weed-out strategy which cannot be turned off using --optimizer_switch .
Optimizer Refactoring
Previously the phases of parsing, optimizing, and execution were all intermixed. Almost every module was spread over different parts and sections of the optimizer. As a consequence, the cost of maintaining the codebase was high and extensibility poor. We started out on an optimizer refactoring project with the goal of a clear separation of these phases. With a refactored code base, the optimizer will be able to evolve much faster. For example, we see this as a prerequisite for improving our Prepared Statements. See WL#6016, WL#6042, WL#7082, WL#7540, and WL#7870. See also Guilhem Bichot’s article “Re-factoring some internals of prepared statements in 5.7“.
Work towards a New Cost Model
The motivation and outline of our Cost Model project is described in Jørgen Løland’s article “The MySQL Optimizer Cost Model Project“. In 5.7 we delivered on improved DBT-3 performance due to “conditioning filtering” (part1 and part2) and “accurate InnoDB statistics”. In addition we have laid the ground work for much of the other goals, e.g. by code refactoring, user controllable cost constants, and taking into account whether data is on disk or in memory.
We started to refactor the existing cost model code and to remove hard-coded constants. This make the code more maintainable and make it possible to tune and configure the cost model for your particular hardware configuration, as well as laying the groundwork for storage engines to provide costs that factor in whether the data requested resides in memory or on disk. We have done preparatory infrastructure work and removed hard coded cost constants. These are now replaced by configurable cost values that can be changed by the user, without touching the source code, and that can be adjusted by the server administrator. (WL#7182, WL#7209, WL#7338, WL#5869, WL#6068, WL#7339, WL#7276, WL#7315, WL#7316, WL#7168).
We have extended the optimizer cost model to use the estimates from the storage engines about approximately how much of a table’s rows and indexes are present in memory (WL#7340). The optimizer will then use different cost constants for calculating the cost of accessing data that is in memory and data that needs to be read from disk. In the initial implementation, these two cost constants have the same default value but can be changed by the server administrator to make the optimizer use different costs for data in a memory buffer versus data needed to be read from disk. Note that currently, the estimates about whether data is in memory or needs to be read from disk is just based on heuristics. The accuracy of these estimates will be greatly improved when support for these estimates are implemented by the individual storage engines.
Page Compression
We have implemented Transparent page compression at the InnoDB layer (WL#7696). The feature works on any OS/file system combination that supports sparse files and has “punch hole” support (e.g. the FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE flag to fallocate ). The high level idea is rather simple—given a 16K page we compress it using your favorite compression algorithm and write out only the compressed data. After writing out the data we “punch a hole” to release the unused part of the original 16K block back to the file system.
InnoDB Fulltext Search
We introduced InnoDB Fulltext Search in 5.6. We have now added greater flexibility and further optimizations. For example, fulltext indexes in InnoDB now support an external parser just like MyISAM (WL#6943). The plugin can either replace the built-in parser or it can act as a front-end for it. See also Feature requests from Daniel van Eeden (Bug#68816) and Hartmut Holzgraefe (Bug#70400). We have also implemented optimizer hints that are passed down to InnoDB about a query so that InnoDB may skip part of the full text search processing, e.g. not to compute the ranking values if they are not needed (WL#7123). See Shaohua Wang’s article “InnoDB supports plugin parser in fulltext index” and Matt Lord’s article “Rankings with InnoDB Full-Text Search“.
We have also implemented CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) support for InnoDB Full-Text Search (WL#6607) : This work provides a default fulltext parser for CJK (N-GRAM support) and an alternative plugin which provides MeCab support for Japanese. Users can also implement their own pluggable fulltext parser for CJK using the pluggable parser support. See also Shaohua Wang’s two articles “InnoDB Full-Text : N-gram Parser” and “InnoDB Full-Text: MeCab Parser“.
Performance Schema
Monitoring is important to our users and customers, and essential to any data management system. Our goal is to be “best in class” in this space. At the core of our monitoring strategy we have Performance Schema, which was first introduced in MySQL 5.5. Performance Schema is a specialized MySQL Storage Engine built for the special purpose of storing dynamically created events, and at the same time providing a uniform well known SQL interface to events and their configuration. In 5.7 we continue to extend and enhance our monitoring, utilizing the Performance Schema infrastructure. We have instrumented Metadata Locking (WL#5879), Transactions (WL#5864), Memory Usage (WL#3249, WL#7777), Stored Programs (WL#5766), and Prepared Statements (WL#5768).
We have exposed SHOW SLAVE STATUS information (WL#3656) and user variables (WL#6884) in Performance Schema. We also expose the GLOBAL and SESSION level STATUS and VARIABLES (WL#6629) while preserving the corresponding SHOW STATUS and SHOW VARIABLES commands for backward compatibility. We have also enabled progress reporting for long running operations (WL#5889) .
We have changed the way performance schema does memory allocations (WL#5889) . Previously, the Performance Schema allocated all of the memory it needs up front when the server starts. We are now automatically scaling the memory consumption to match the actual server load, thus reducing overhead (WL#7802). We have also reduced memory usage by refactoring Performance Schema’s internal buffers so that the memory overhead for the table instrumentation scales better when the number of tables in the database is large (WL#7698) .
We have improved ease-of-use by allowing user/host exclusion (WL#7800) . To allow this, a new column named ENABLED has been added to the setup_actors table to provide users with the ability to specify exclusion as well as inclusion rules. We have made the two entities related to Query Text Length—SQL text and digest—configurable (WL#7270). The default for both remains at 1024 bytes.
We now expose information about connection types via standard interfaces—the PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA.THREADS table, the Audit log API, the Audit log file, and the General Query Log (WL#7729). Until now MySQL has not provided DBA visibility into the types of connections being established and used; e.g. to distinguish SSL connections from unencrypted TCP/IP connections, or socket, shared memory or named pipe connections.
We can now turn the history ON or OFF on a per thread basis (WL#7795) . Until now, global consumer flags have been used to control whether or not to log history events. These flags are global to the server, so that the collection of historical data for different threads was all or nothing. With this feature, the DBA can now specify which sessions, accounts, users, and hosts for which they wish to collect historical data, separately from turning the instrumentation ON or OFF. This allows the DBA to control more precisely what events are logged in the history tables, thus decreasing the runtime overhead when historical data is needed only for a subset of the instrumented sessions, as well as reducing unwanted noise in the Performance Schema tables— events_waits_history_long, events_stages_history_long, events_statements_history_long, events_transactions_history_long —which facilitate troubleshooting on busy servers (that also generate a lot of events).
See also Mayank Prasad’s articles “Performance Schema implementation Internals: Registering instruments“, “MySQL Performance Schema : Prepared Statements Instrumentation“, “MySQL Performance Schema: Instrumentation Exceptions“, and “MySQL Statement Digests“.
SYS Schema
We have integrated the SYS Schema (formerly ps_helper) within the MySQL Server by default (WL#8159). The MySQL SYS schema project has become increasingly popular within our user base over the last year. Many DBAs and developers within our user base noted that it brought some needed simplicity to configuring and querying the Performance Schema, integrating it with Information_Schema, and more. For example, see a community post here. See also Mark Leith’s article “The MySQL SYS Schema in MySQL 5.7.7“.
Fabric Support
Oracle announced GA for MySQL Fabric on May 27, 2014. The Server team is working on some features to improve sharding, failover, and management of server farms.
We have implemented a new server method for clearing session state (WL#6797). It is now possible for a client to do a reset of the existing connection, i.e. to clean the existing session context and free up resources.
We have added a new server method to bring servers off line (WL#3836). The intended usage is for upgrades and other maintenance purposes. Setting the server to offline mode will gracefully disconnect all connected clients except those with the SUPER privilege. “Super” users are allowed to connect and manage the system while in offline mode.
We have added a server flag to detect that a new transaction has started (WL#6631). A new system variable called session_track_transaction_state has been introduced. In a load-balanced setup, it is necessary to know when a statement resulted in the start of a new transaction, which would then allow connectors to switch to using a different connection from the connection pool. The critical case to detect is when the transaction is “fresh” and does not have any reads or writes attached to it yet. This is the only case where a connector can switch to using a different connection. If a statement starts a new transaction and starts adding reads or writes to it, it is not possible to move the connection since it would imply a necessary ROLLBACK .
We introduce a general synchronization mechanism based on DBA/Application defined tokens (WL#6940, WL#8161). A user with the SUPER privilege can set global tokens in a server (for example some ID) and clients can set session tokens. Before executing a query the session token is compared with the global token and an error generated when there is a discrepancy between the two.
Secure by Default
MySQL 5.7 aims to be the most secure MySQL Server release ever, and that means some significant changes around SSL/TLS and work to secure deployments overall.
MySQL deployments are now secure by default (WL#6962). The installation process creates only a single root account, root@localhost, automatically generates a random password for this account, and marks the password as expired. The MySQL administrator must then connect as root using the generated random password and use the SET PASSWORD command to set a new password . The installation process also creates a disabled user account to own the sys schema objects, but this account cannot be used for logging in unless specifically enabled by the administrator and has credentials set in such a way that even if it was enabled nobody could log in with it unless they change the password.
The installation process creates no anonymous user accounts, no test database, and no demo related files by default (WL#6977, WL#6973, WL#7787). The test database and the demo related files is included as a separate package.
We have simplified the server bootstrap process and removed the need for the mysql_install_db script (WL#7307). Simply specifying --initialize on the server command line is now enough to create a database directory if it’s absent, and then initialize it. The --initialize option also creates the user with a strong random and expired password.
We have restricted the scope of the FILE privilege to a secure default value for --secure-file-priv (WL#6782). The server will also warn users of insecure configurations for --secure-file-priv at start-up time.
We have redefined the client --ssl option to imply enforced encryption (WL#6791). Before, when a MySQL client specified the --ssl option a connection could still happen without encryption being enforced. Now if specified, and no SSL connection is available, the connection will instead fail. We have also added SSL support for mysqlbinlog (WL#7198).
We provide a “best effort” SSL setup process during installation. If successful, the MySQL server configuration file is also modified to reference the newly generated SSL certs and keys (WL#7706). We ensure the use of SSL whenever it has been enabled within the Server (WL#7712). If none of the SSL options are specified, the libmysql client will attempt an SSL connection if it is supported by the Server. If an SSL connection is not possible, however, then libmysql client will fall back to an unencrypted connection. See also Todd Farmer’s article “SSL/TLS in MySQL 5.7” and “Implications of TLS plans for third-party products“.
We have added the --require_secure_transport server option, which causes the MySQL Server to refuse any TCP/IP connection not using SSL (WL#7709). Before this work, the MySQL Server had only provided a mechanism to require SSL for individual user accounts using the REQUIRE SSL clause in various account management statements.
We have changed the default value of sql_mode to include NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER (WL#8326) . This is to prevent the GRANT statement from unintentionally and automatically creating new user accounts without any authentication information having been specified/provided.
Security Features
In addition to “secure by default” installations we we have added many features that help users keep their database instances free from unintended use. This includes better data encryption, better password handling, better transport layer security, and more.
We now support multiple AES Encryption modes (WL#6781). We have enhanced the security strength of our Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption/decryption functions— AES_ENCRYPT() and AES_DECRYPT() —by adding support for larger key sizes and different block modes. See also Georgi Kodinov’s article “Understand and satisfy your AES encryption needs with 5.6.17“.
We have added a timestamp field to the mysql.user table on the last time the password was changed (WL#7131). This work provides the means for implementing password rotation policies. See Todd Farmer’s article “Implementing a password policy in MySQL“.
We have made it possible to enable (unlock) or disable (lock) a user account (login permission) by extending the CREATE USER and ALTER USER commands (WL#6054). See Todd Farmer’s article “Building a better CREATE USER command“.
We have extended the built-in authentication plugins to support proxy users (WL#7724). MySQL had an existing concept of proxy users which can support a major use case that is typically met by SQL Roles: the ability to abstract user credentials/identity from the privileges assigned. This allows multiple users—identified, logged, and audited in a distinct manner—to share a single set of managed privileges. For deployments with many users having identical privileges, this can provide major operational benefits, but until now, proxy users could only be leveraged by external authentication plugins. This work removes that previous limitation. See Todd Farmer’s article “Emulating roles with expanded proxy user support in 5.7.7“.
We have increased the maximum length of MySQL user names from 16 to 32 characters (WL#2284).
We have implemented the IF [NOT] EXISTS clause in CREATE USER and DROP USER statements (WL#8540). This will allow for distribution of accounts using replication without triggering replication failures in the event of (intentionally) non-synchronized accounts within the replication group. It also simplifies user scripting of account management operations. See also: the feature request in Bug#15287.
InnoDB Native Partitioning
We have added native partitioning support to InnoDB (WL#6035). Until now, partitioning support for InnoDB has relied on the ha_partition handler, which created a new handler for each partition, which in turn wasted a lot of resources when using many partitions. By supporting native partitioning within InnoDB one can use far fewer overall resources (see also: bug#62536, bug#37252, and bug#70641). InnoDB native partitioning also paves the way for better overall partitioning. That would include things such as parallel query processing, improved partition pruning (due to more accurate index statistics), foreign key support, global secondary indexes, and full-text searches on partitioned tables. As part of this work have also separated the partitioning specific parts of the handler class into its own partitioning interface (WL#4807). This is refactoring done to modularize and decouple the partitioning engine from the rest of the server code base.
Furthermore, we have added support for Index Condition Pushdown (ICP) for partitioned tables (WL#7231, motivated by Bug#70001). We have added support for the [{WITH| WITHOUT} VALIDATION] clause to the EXCHANGE PARTITION command (WL#5630, motivated by Bug#57708). We have added support for transportable tablespaces for partitioned InnoDB tables (WL#6867, WL#6868). See also Mattias Jonsson’s article “MySQL 5.7.4 now supports Transportable Tablespaces for InnoDB Partitions“.
InnoDB General Tablespaces
We have added the ability for InnoDB to create a general tablespace using the CREATE TABLESPACE syntax (WL#6205, WL#8109). This work gives the user the freedom to choose their own mapping between tables and tablespaces, i.e. which tablespaces to create and what tables they should contain. This provides the means for doing things such as grouping all tables for a given user or customer within a single tablespace, and thus having all of their data within a single file on the filesystem. We have also implemented meta data locking (MDL) for general tablespaces (WL#7957). This is specifically needed for the new general tablespaces in InnoDB, and for the already existing NDB Cluster general tablespaces.
InnoDB Temporary Table Performance
One of the goals of 5.7 is to optimize for better performance for normal SQL temporary tables. First, we made temp table creation and removal a more light-weight operation by avoiding the unnecessary step of persisting temp table metadata to disk. We moved temp tables to a separate tablespace (WL#6560) so that the recovery process for temp tables becomes a single stateless step by simply re-creating it at start-up. We removed unnecessary persistence for temp tables (WL#6469). Temp tables are only visible within the connection/session in which they were created, and they are bound by the lifetime of the server. We optimized DML for Temp Tables (WL#6470) by removing unnecessary UNDO and REDO logging, change buffering, and locking. We added an additional type of UNDO log (WL#6915), one that is not REDO logged and resides in a new separate temp tablespace. These non-redo-logged UNDO logs are not required during recovery and are only used for rollback operations.
Second, we made a special type of temporary tables which we call “intrinsic temporary tables” (WL#7682, WL#6711). An intrinsic temporary table is like a normal temporary table but with relaxed ACID and MVCC semantics. The purpose is to support internal use cases where internal modules such as the optimizer demand light-weight and ultra-fast tables for quick intermediate operations. We then made the optimizer capable of using InnoDB “intrinsic temporary tables” for internal storage (WL#6711). Finally, we made InnoDB the default engine used for the internal temporary tables (WL#6737). See Krunal Bauskar’s article “MySQL 5.7: InnoDB Intrinsic Tables“.
Buffer Pool—Dump and Load
We have improved both the buffer pool dump and load scenarios (WL#6504). It is now possible to dump only the hottest N% of the pages from each buffer pool. The load operation is also made less disruptive to user activity because the load now happens in the background while continuing to serve clients; while also attempting not to be too aggressive and taking too much IO capacity away from servicing new client requests. See also Tony Darnell’s article “MySQL Dumping and Reloading the InnoDB Buffer Pool”.
We have also changed the server to use the buffer pool dump and load feature by default and changed the default percentage to 25% (WL#8317). This offers a good default balance between 1. supporting a “hot” working data set and 2. shutdown and startup times.
Tools
The Server comes with a set of utility programs or scripts (tools). The general direction is to improve and add more tools. We also want to move away from “scripts” and over to C/C++ to improve on portability and cover more usage scenarios (one cannot run scripts in all environments).
We have implemented a new MySQL Server utility called mysqlpump, inspired by — but not 100% compatible with — mysqldump (WL#7755). The main feature of this new tool is the ability to parallelize backup and restore operations. (The existing mysqldump will continue to be supported.)
We have significantly extended the innochecksum utility’s functionality (WL#6045). It is now possible to specify the checksum algorithm ( innodb/crc32/none ), rewrite the current checksum using the specified algorithm, rewrite the checksum even if the current checksum is invalid, and specify the maximum checksum mismatch allowed before terminating the program. innochecksum can also now operate on multiple tablespace files and on multiple files in the same tablespace. See Anil Toshniwal’s article “Improving Innochecksum“.
We have rewritten the mysql_upgrade tool (WL#7308), which fixes many reported bugs while also making mysql_upgrade more robust and easier to maintain. For example, this work fixes Bug#65288 reported by Nicholas Bamber and Bug#71579 reported by Florian Weimer.
We have added SSL options and support for the mysqlbinlog client program (WL#7198), allowing system administrators to perform remote binlog queries ( --read-from-remote-server ) over secure connections. This was previously the last remaining MySQL client program without SSL support.
We have converted mysql_secure_installation script to C/C++ (WL#6441). This program can now connect to the server directly and execute the specified commands using the C API (libmysql). This removes the need for storing the user supplied password in a temporary option file on the filesystem.
We started out with converting the mysql_install_db script to C/C++ (WL#7688), to make the program usable on all platforms—particularly on Windows—while also redesigning the program to provide a better user experience, cover more functionality, and improve security. Later in the 5.7 cycle we decided to fold this functionality into the server itself (see WL#7307). The mysql_install_db program is in 5.7, it can be used but is no longer needed, and we plan to remove it in a future release.
Community Contributions
Server-side statement timeouts (WL#6936) : This work is based on a contribution submitted by Davi Arnaut (Bug#68252). The work implements a server-side time limit for the execution of top-level read-only SELECT statements. After the specified amount of time, the statement will be aborted without affecting the session (connection) or the transaction contexts. See Praveen Hulakund’s article “Server-side SELECT statement timeouts“.
Multiple User Level Locks : Allow multiple locks in GET_LOCK() (WL#1159). User-level locks are often used to organize mutual exclusion when accessing some resource in cases when table or row-level locks are not appropriate. This work allows for multiple user level locks per connection. The work is based on a contribution by Konstantin Osipov (Bug#67806). See Dmitry Lenev’s article “The Story of One Contribution“.
Triggers
BEFORE Triggers Are Not Processed for NOT NULL Columns (WL#6030) : This work ensures that we check column constraints at the end of the SQL statement. This is in compliance with the SQL standard. In 5.6 and earlier, MySQL checks the column constraints too soon. See Bug#6295 reported by Peter Gulutzan, and Dmitry Shulga’s article “BEFORE triggers and NOT NULL columns in MySQL“.
Multiple Triggers Per Table (WL#3253) : This work provides the ability to have more than one trigger for every action ( INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ) and timing ( BEFORE or AFTER ). This is in accordance with the SQL standard. See Dmitry Shulga’s article “Support for multiple triggers per table for the same value of action/timing“.
IGNORE Clause
Define and Reimplement IGNORE (WL#6614) : This work properly defines the meaning and handling of the IGNORE clause, a MySQL extension to the SQL standard. It reimplements IGNORE so that it is consistent across all supported SQL statements while also making it much easier to maintain. See also Bug#30191, Bug#49539, Bug#55421, Bug#54543, Bug#54106, Bug#49534, Bug#47788, Bug#46539, and Bug#46425. See also Abhishek Ranjan’s article “Improvements to the MySQL IGNORE Implementation“.
STRICT Mode
Define and Reimplement STRICT Mode (WL#6891) : We have made STRICT MODE behaviour consistent across all supported SQL statements. We have also made STRICT MODE the default for all transactional storage engines (WL#7764). The IGNORE clause downgrades errors to warnings to allow statements to skip row(s) which would have otherwise have caused the entire statement to abort. STRICT MODE does just the opposite—it upgrades warnings to errors. Similar to IGNORE , STRICT MODE has not previously been clearly and consistently defined, thus the implementation has been the source of many bugs like Bug#42910, Bug#5929, Bug#43880, Bug#48637, Bug#5912, and Bug#5913. See also Abhishek Ranjan’s article “Improvements to STRICT MODE in MySQL“.
Error Reporting & Logging
Introduce a separate error code range for 5.7 (WL#8206) : This work implements a separate range of numbers for new server error messages introduced in 5.7. These codes are currently numbered consecutively, starting at 1000. We also have a second range of error codes used by the client, starting at 2000. The problem is that the first range of codes is currently up to 1974 which means that the two ranges would soon overlap, making it hard to differentiate between server and client errors. The new 5.7 server error codes will now instead start at 3000.
Error Reporting — Stacked Diagnostic Areas (WL#6406) : This work implements support for stacked diagnostic areas as defined by the SQL standard. The GET DIAGNOSTICS statement has been extended to support GET [STACKED] DIAGNOSTICS .
Error Reporting — Most Statements Should Clear the Diagnostic Area (WL#5928) : This work makes MySQL follow the SQL standard with respect to clearing the diagnostic area. This work fixes bugs like Bug#35296, Bug#43012, and Bug#49634.
Error Logging — Allow Control of Verbosity (WL#6661, WL#6755) : This work gives the DBA control of how verbose the MySQL Server should be when writing to the error log ( ERROR/WARNING/NOTE ). This work also changes the timestamp format printed to a more standard format (UTC timestamp) and converts the existing fprintf(stderr, …) in the server layer to use the new internal error logging API.
Add Native Support for Syslog on Unixoid Platforms (WL#7793) : This work adds full support for logging server output to the system’s native syslog facility. See also Bug#55370 reported by Kyle Joiner and later enhanced by Simon Mudd and Marc Alff. See Tatiana’s article “Logging with MySQL: Error-Logging to Syslog & EventLog“.
MySQL Client
Log Interactive Commands to Syslog (WL#6788) : This work introduces a new client option, --syslog , which enables/disables the logging of attributes like sudo_user (or user), mysql_user, connection_id, db_server, DB, and query entered in an interactive session. This has been requested by some users due to auditing compliance requirements, i.e. requirements to log all interactive commands entered at the mysql command-line prompt to syslog.
Client Side Protocol Tracing (WL#6226) : This work creates hooks inside the client library code which allows tracing of protocol events such as sending packets to the server, receiving server replies, and authentication handshakes. This provides a mechanism for collecting performance data about the client-server connections, from the client’s perspective.
Client-Server Protocol
Extend mysql_real_escape_string() to be aware of the string type it’s escaping for (WL#8077) : We have added an argument of a “quote type” to the function mysql_real_escape_string_quote() . This provides the means to explicitly distinguish between single-quoted and double-quoted strings. This breaks the ABI, so it will not be backported to 5.6.
Extending the Protocol’s OK Packet (WL#4797) : This work extends the client-server protocol’s OK packet to allow the server to send additional information, e.g. server state changes. By default the server now sends information about the effect of SET character_set and USE database commands. This avoids situations like, for example, after SET NAMES big5 the server assumes that the client will send big5 encoded data, while the client character set is still using latin1.
Flag for Session-Specific State (WL#6885) : This work makes it possible for the client to tell the server that it wants notification about session state changes. One possible usage for this feature is to be able to detect if it is possible to migrate a user session context to another physical connection within a load balanced or clustered environment.
GIS: InnoDB Spatial Indexes
We have implemented spatial (R-tree) indexing within InnoDB (WL#6968, WL#6968, WL#6745) : InnoDB spatial indexes can be used with all existing syntax that has been developed for MyISAM spatial indexes. In addition, InnoDB spatial indexes support full transactional, ACID, and MVCC properties (as well as isolation levels). It employs predicate locks to prevent phantom scenarios (WL#6609). We have added a new InnoDB internal datatype called DATA_GEOMETRY , and we map all MySQL GEOMETRY datatypes to this new internal datatype (WL#6455). We have also extended CHECK TABLE so that it is able to determine whether any spatial indexes are valid (WL#7740). It now checks for a valid R-tree structure and ensures that the entry count matches up with the clustered index. See also Jimmy Yang’s article “InnoDB Spatial Indexes in 5.7.4 LAB release“.
GIS: Geometry Functions & Formats
After a careful evaluation of various open source geometry engines, we decided to replace our original GIS algorithms with Boost.Geometry. For those that build MySQL from source, it’s important to read about the new CMake options we added in the process. Changing the geometry engine is not a simple task, so a lot of the GIS effort has gone into this work (WL#7220, WL#7221, WL#7224, WL#7225, WL#7236, WL#7280, WL#7420, WL#7929). In the process, we’ve also fixed a number of bugs and added support for many additional SQL/MM standard spatial operations.
As part of the increased GIS effort, we’ve started cleaning up the name space for GIS functions. With the exception of the constructor functions that have the same names as the data types (Point, LineString, Polygon, MultiPoint, MultiLineString, MultiPolygon and
GeometryCollection) and functions that do calculations on minimum bounding rectangles
(MBRs), all spatial functions now have names prefixed by the standard “ST_” (spatio-temporal) convention, and function names without that prefix have been deprecated (WL#8055).
Support for two new import and export formats, GeoJSON and geohash, has been added. These come in addition to the existing WKT and WKB support. The new GeoJSON functions ST_AsGeoJSON and ST_GeomFromGeoJSON will encode and decode GeoJSON documents (WL#7444). The new geohash ST_Geohash , ST_LongFromGeohash , ST_LatFromGeohash and ST_PointFromGeohash will do the same for geohash representation of points (WL#7928).
We’ve also added various other helper functions (WL#8034): ST_Distance_Sphere, ST_MakeEnvelope, ST_IsValid, ST_Validate and ST_Simplify. Among these, ST_Distance_Sphere may be the most exciting one. While GIS support in MySQL still only uses a flat 2d plane, ST_Distance_Sphere will calculate distance between two points (or multipoints) on a sphere with a given radius. Two new MBR functions have also been added: MBRCoveredBy and MBRCovers (WL#7541). Since the MBR functions do calculations on MBRs instead of exact shapes, the calculations are faster than the corresponding ST_ functions.
To see how it all fits together, have a look at Matt Lord’s article, “MySQL 5.7 and GIS, an Example.
Multi-Source Replication
We have implemented Multi-Source Replication (WL#1697). It allows a slave to replicate from multiple sources/masters, but without any additional conflict detection and resolution. One use case is to commission a “fan in slave” for data aggregation or backups. This version takes into consideration the great feedback we got from the community when we first released this via MySQL Labs some time ago. See Shivji Jha’s article “MySQL-5.7.6: Introducing Multi-source replication“.
Replication — Multi-Threaded Slaves (MTS)
We have implemeted intra-schema multi-threaded slaves (WL#6314). With this implementation ( --slave-parallel-type=LOGICAL-CLOCK ) the slave will be able to apply transactions in parallel, even within a single database or schema, as long as they have a disjoint read and write set. See also Rohit’s article “MySQL 5.7 Enhanced MTS: configuring slave for Intra-database parallelization“.
We have also implemented ordered commits (Sequential Consistency) (WL#6813). This ensures that the commits by slave applier threads running in parallel will be done in the same order as they were on the master. This also means that the slave will never externalize a database state which was never externalized by the master. This is a requirement when the applications reading from the slave must observe the same set of states that existed on the master due to some application enforced constraint. This has become a necessity after WL#6314, which enables multiple transactions to be executed in parallel by the slave threads, some of which may be modifying a single database.
We have allowed multi-threaded replication slave servers to automatically retry a transaction after a temporary failure (WL#6964). Before this, only non-MTS replication slave servers attempted to retry a transaction after a temporary failure. See Bug#68465 reported by Yoshinori Matsunobu. Finally, we have improved the performance of Multi-Threaded Slaves (MTS) by using a more precise algorithm to determine which transactions are non-conflicting (WL#7165). This allows more transactions to execute in parallel when using --slave-parallel-type=LOGICAL_CLOCK , thus greatly improving the overall replication performance.
Semi-Sync Replication
We have implemented an option to make the master wait for N slaves to acknowledge back, instead of just one, when semi-sync is enabled (WL#7169). Choosing to wait for N slaves (N > 1), adds resiliency to consecutive failures. It also improves transaction durability, as one transaction gets persisted in more than two servers before the results are externalized on the master. Furthermore, we now externalize transactions only after ACK is received (WL#6355). This allows for true lossless failovers when using semi-sync replication. If the master crashes, the slave is still ensured to be up to date. The implementation makes the master wait for the ACK after preparing within the storage engine and writing to the binary log, but before committing to the storage engine. See also Libing Song’s article “Loss-less Semi-Synchronous Replication on MySQL 5.7.2“. Finally, we have reduced semi-sync delays by using separate threads to send and receive semi-sync acknowledgements (WL#6630). So event and ACK streams can now be sent and received simultaneously.
Replication — GTID
As mentioned earlier we have provided a way to enable GTIDs online (WL#7083), so that reads and writes are allowed during the procedure, and servers do not need to synchronize. Prior to this work, the user had to stop all updates, synchronize all servers, and then restart all of them simultaneously. In addition we are now ensuring that similar events are generated regardless of the current value for GTID_MODE (WL#7592). Without ensuring this consistent behavior, there were cases where you could potentially lose GTID_EXECUTED and GTID_PURGED values (see the details in the WorkLog entry). (This was originally part of WL#7083). See also Sven Sandberg’s article “Enabling Global Transaction Identifiers Without Downtime in MySQL 5.7.6“.
Finally, we have implemented protocol support for GTIDs to allow clients to be GTID aware. We have implemented a mechanism to collect the necessary set of GTIDs to be sent over the wire in the response packet (WL#6972). We have added a tracker to the response packet of the MySQL protocol (WL#6128). This is done to be able to pass the connector information about the session state collected which can then be used to implement session consistency.
Replication — Refactoring
We have created stable interfaces useful for MySQL Group Replication and other server plugins (WL#8007 and WL#8202). Server plugins can now be informed of server events in the form of server callbacks. We have also separated out the deserialization of events in a MySQL replication stream into the a separate module (WL#7440). The goal of this refactoring is to break the dependencies between the server core and the replication framework.
Other Replication Features
Non-Blocking SHOW SLAVE STATUS (WL#6402) : This work adds a non-blocking option to SHOW SLAVE STATUS . The new option makes SHOW SLAVE STATUS non-blocking when run in parallel with STOP SLAVE (stopping the slave may take a long time to complete when it is waiting for an SQL thread to finish applying large events).
(WL#6402) : This work adds a non-blocking option to . The new option makes non-blocking when run in parallel with (stopping the slave may take a long time to complete when it is waiting for an SQL thread to finish applying large events). Add Idempotent Mode to mysqlbinlog (WL#6403) : This work provides an idempotent mode of operation for the mysql server. In this mode the server will ignore errors while applying ROW based events from a binlog file. This mode is useful when a DBA wants to replay binlogs using mysqlbinlog, but against a MySQL server which may not contain all of the data, so suppressing expected duplicate-key and no-key-found errors can be very useful.
Add a Rewrite-DB Option to mysqlbinlog for ROW Events (WL#6404) : This work adds support for a rewrite-db option to mysqlbinlog, so that a ROW based events can be applied to a different database/schema. I.E. replace “from_db” with “to_db” when reading a ROW based event from the binlog.
Binlog_sender: Do Not Reallocate (WL#7299) : This work implements an optimization on the dump thread that removes unnecessary reallocation of the send buffer. The user visible effect is that CPU usage will be lessened for each dump thread that the master spawns. See also Bug#31932 reported by Mark Callaghan.
Move Status Variables to Replication Performance Schema Tables (WL#7817) : This work moves replication system variables to Performance Schema tables so that they can be monitored per-source and not simply as global variables. This work was a requirement for Multi-source Replication.
Make Master-Slave Syncing Option Independent of the Slave Threads (WL#7796) : This work adds a new SQL function WAIT_FOR_EXECUTED_GTID_SET which makes the master-slave syncing option independent of the slave threads. If the slave thread is not running the WAIT_FOR_EXECUTED_GTID_SET(GTID_SET [, TIMEOUT]) function, then keep waiting until success (0) or timeout (1).
which makes the master-slave syncing option independent of the slave threads. If the slave thread is not running the function, then keep waiting until success (0) or timeout (1). Optimize GTIDs for Passive Slaves — Store GTIDs in a Table (WL#6559) : This work adds the option of storing GTIDs in a table instead of in the binary log. The use case may be a slave that is only used for read scale-out and is never going to become a master, thus it may not have any use for the transactions in the binary log, but it may have a use for the related GTID features (e.g. to initiate a fail over to another new master).
Waiting for More Transactions to Enter Binlog Group Commit (BGC) Queues (WL#7742) : This work adds two new options to introduce an artificial delay to make the binary log group commit procedure pause: --binlog_group_commit_sync_delay and --binlog_group_commit_sync_no_delay_count . This increases the likelihood that more transactions are flushed and synced together to disk, thus reducing the overall time spent in creating a group of transactions (the bigger the groups the less number of sync operations). With the correct tuning, this can make the slave perform several times faster without compromising the master’s throughput.
and . This increases the likelihood that more transactions are flushed and synced together to disk, thus reducing the overall time spent in creating a group of transactions (the bigger the groups the less number of sync operations). With the correct tuning, this can make the slave perform several times faster without compromising the master’s throughput. Binlogging XA-prepared transactions (WL#6860) : We have added full support for XA-transactions within replication. An XA-transaction allows the client to participate in a two-phase commit protocol. The state of the XA-transaction being prepared is persisted in the database; this means that a prepared XA-transaction will survive client reconnects and server restarts. This work fixes Bug#12161.
Other Improvements
InnoDB: Make ROW_FORMAT=DYNAMIC the default (WL#8307): This work introduces a new global variable innodb_default_row_format for specifying the default ROW_FORMAT. It will be DYNAMIC by default. Allowed values are REDUNDANT, COMPACT, and DYNAMIC.
PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA, ADD COLUMN THREADS.THREAD_OS_ID (WL#8853): This work exposes the “TID”, or thread/task identifier, as defined by the underlying
operating system. For example with Linux, this corresponds to gettid().
Progress Reporting in Sys Schema (WL#8460): This work adds progress reporting of long running transactions in the sys schema, by putting the percentage completed for stages that track work estimates / completed, in to the processlist / session views.
REPORT FOR SUPPORT (WL#7804): This works implements a procedure in the sys schema that will allow the DBA to easily collect diagnostics data from a MySQL instance to investigate and report.
InnoDB: Implement Information_Schema.Files (WL#7943): This work provides data for the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.FILES table, for all of the InnoDB datafiles that are in its internal cache. The INFORMATION_SCHEMA.FILES table contains fields to describe a tablespace file, including some statistical details. See also Bug#76182 reported by Marco Tusa.
Make InnoDB fill factor settable (WL#6747) : This work makes the merge_threshold settable per index. Until now it has been fixed at 50%. If the amount of data within the page falls below the merge_threshold , e.g. when deleting a row or shortening it via an UPDATE, InnoDB will attempt to merge it with a neighbor page. This offers a way to decrease InnoDB’s overall disk footprint, at the expense of some additional work due to the additional page merges.
Support for 32k and 64k pages (WL#5757) : This work adds support for 32k and 64k page sizes (the default remains 16k). Bigger page sizes will help to improve compression ratios (the bigger the page size, the more redundant bits), thus offering much improved data compression in conjunction with the new transparent page compression. Furthermore, bigger page sizes allow more “on page” or “inline” storage of BLOBs and large VARCHAR/TEXT fields, thus improving I/O performance when such fields are used.
High Priority Transactions in InnoDB (WL#6835) : This work implements high priority transactions within InnoDB, i.e. transactions that shall never be chosen to be aborted in a deadlock scenario. The motivation is to better support MySQL Group Replication, where a transaction cannot be aborted in one replica and committed in another.
ENSURE 5.7 SUPPORTS SMOOTH LIVE UPGRADE FROM 5.6 (WL#8350) : This work ensures a smooth upgrade fom 5.6 to 5.7 without having to specify --skip-grant-tables as part of an intermediate step.
Move the plugin and servers tables from MyISAM to transactional storage (WL#7160) : This work makes InnoDB the default storage engine used for the plugin and server system tables (MyISAM remains optional).
DTrace Support (WL#7894) : We have added full Dtrace support to MySQL in the Server 5.6+ packages we ship for Oracle Linux 6+.
Update_time for InnoDB Tables (WL#6658) : This work implements in-memory maintenance of UPDATE_TIME for InnoDB tables. This functionality was previously missing in InnoDB and people have been asking for it, see Bug#2681 reported by Phil Sladen.
TRUNCATE TABLE Statement Becomes Atomic (WL#6501) : This work makes the internal InnoDB TRUNCATE TABLE statement atomic by reinitializing the original table-space header with the same space id and then physically truncating its .ibd file during the truncation of a single table tablespace.
Proper Connection ID Handling (WL#7293) : This work avoids the attempted reuse of any connection IDs that are still being used. See also Bug#44167 reported by Jan Kneschke.
GB 18030 Chinese Character Set Support (WL#4024) : This work adds the MySQL character set GB18030, which supports the China National Standard GB 18030 character set.
Provide an option to reject creation of user tables for a list of storage engines (WL#8594) — This work by Thayumanavar Sachithanantha provides a command-line option called --disabled-storage-engines which provides the means for a DBA to supply a list of storage engines to be disallowed, thus preventing users from using any particular storage engine (by mistake). This is done to support the use case where the customer has a policy to prevent the usage of, for example, MyISAM within their environment.
Super-read-only that also blocks SUPER users (WL#6799) — This work by Todd Farmer introduces a new option, --super_read_only , which supplements the --read_only option. When --super_read_only is set to ON (which also automatically sets --read_only to ON) then the server also becomes READ-ONLY for admin users with the SUPER privilege.
For a description of deprecations and removals, see here. For a description of changes we made to system defaults, see here.
That’s it for now, and thank you for using MySQL! | {
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http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons
Cool Forgotten Weapons merchandise! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forgotten-weapons
Basically nothing is known about this rifle in terms of who created it or when - but it is a pretty interesting example of an attempt to convert a bolt action rifle to semiautomatic. This rifle began life as a standard Dutch Mannlicher rifle. The conversion was done here be splicing a Lewis Gun gas piston/op rod to the side of the barrel, and then modifying the bolt to work like a Lewis bolt, with a fixed firing pin and rotating cam in the bolt body. To top it off, the gas piston is driven not by a drilled gas port, but rather by a gas trap extension on the muzzle.
The bolt conversion work seems to have been done pretty well, but the receiver extension could hardly be any more crude. It cracked and broke off the original receiver at some point, and has been poorly welded back in place (mostly).
Thanks to the Dutch National Military Museum for allowing me access to film this rifle! Check them out at: https://www.nmm.nl | {
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Cape Town’s city council scrapped plans to hire a desalination barge to supplement water supply after good winter rains helped ease the worst drought on record.
The city will continue to implement other projects to ensure taps don’t run dry, including curtailing usage by reducing the water pressure and tapping underground aquifers, said Xanthea Limberg, the mayoral committee member for water and waste services.
“Although dam levels have improved, we need to be sure that we can safely navigate the summer of 2019 and this will only be possible once we know where we stand at the end of this winter rainfall season,” she said in an emailed response to questions.
The six main dams supplying Cape Town are at 39.1% of capacity, compared with 23% a year ago, the city said on its website on Tuesday.
At this stage in 2014, the dams were more than 90% full. While the authorities warned earlier this year that they may be forced to switch off the taps and residents would have to collect a daily ration from distribution points, that risk has abated.
The city has commissioned three temporary small-scale desalination plants, which are nearing completion, to augment the water supply and is weighing whether to build permanent desalination and recycling facilities that will have much bigger output.
“Much experience has been gained over the past year through the development of the various projects,” Limberg said.
“Temporary desalination and re-use should not be pursued further as emergency solutions, as this is not affordable and rarely provides the promised volumes of water. For future resilience, permanent desalination and water re-use are recommended as alternative sources of water to add to ground and surface water supply sources.”
* Sign up to Fin24's top news in your inbox: SUBSCRIBE TO FIN24 NEWSLETTER | {
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A Queensland academic has criticised Education Queensland's decision to remove home economics from its senior syllabus from the end of next year.
CQUniversity home economics lecturer Jay Deagon said home economics was unique in that it was hands-on and focused on the wellbeing of individuals and families in their everyday life.
Key points: Home economics will be removed from senior syllabus at the end of 2018
Home economics will be removed from senior syllabus at the end of 2018 Subject will be replaced by food and nutrition unit
Subject will be replaced by food and nutrition unit Critics are concerned students will not be taught valuable practical skills
"I fear we are losing a grip on what is important for the youth of Australia to know and do," Dr Deagon said.
From 2019, senior students will no longer be able to study the subject.
Instead, it will be replaced by a food and nutrition unit, due to new tertiary entrance qualifications.
"We are heading more and more towards teaching 'subjects', not 'humans'," Dr Deagon said.
She said she was concerned students were not getting exposure to the multiple disciplines available, and this would impact on their passions.
England and Ireland removed home economics from their curriculum a few years ago and were now reinstating it because of the obesity crisis there, she said.
"They've seen that it was quite a considerable mistake to take home economics out of their curriculum," Dr Deagon said.
Change inevitable for 21st century learners
Maria Learmonth teaches senior home economics at Emmaus College in Rockhampton, central Queensland, and is philosophical about the change.
"I think change is inevitable," she said.
"We have 21st century learners and they will be flexible and resilient enough to manage it all."
Although students will have the choice of hospitality or fashion design, the change means the demise of what makes home economics unique.
"The individuals, families and communities aspect of the subject won't be encompassed by either of those," Ms Learmonth said.
Emmaus College Year 11 students Flynn Phelan, Rebecca Carter, Mikaly Smith and Rebekah Gleeson-Cherry, with teacher Maria Learmonth. ( ABC Capricornia: Inga Stünzner )
"We think that aspect is so important because it's about families, it's about relationships, it's about communication and conflict resolution, it's about values that we have in family life.
"We know that families are the central unit of our society, so we currently embed some of that information into the food units and into the textiles units, so we do look at the family and the role it plays when we teach food and textiles."
Students get a lot out of subject
Year 11 Emmaus College students Flynn Phelan, Mikaly Smith, Rebekah Gleeson-Cherry and Rebecca Carter will be among the last of Queensland's senior students to take home economics as a subject.
"I like the textiles more than the cooking, but the families and relationships bringing down generations of cooking and the sewing kind of just brings us all together," Rebekah said.
Mikaly said she liked home economics because students got to look at sewing and food and how it worked with the family.
"We get to do hands-on work, so we get to cook food as well as learn to make different things with sewing," she said.
For Rebecca, home economics meant learning about other people.
"I like home economics because you can learn about all the different cultures and how they respect their food, and what's special to them with all the textiles and what they do differently," she said.
As for Flynn, "What I like about home economics is that we experience different amounts of cooking and what we do is different to everything else."
"Plus you get to eat what you cook," he said | {
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Fabricio Werdum did it again.
The first man to submit Fedor Emelianenko, "Vai Cavalo" became the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion by tapping Cain Velasquez with a guillotine choke Saturday night in Mexico City, but don’t say he did that because Velasquez wasn’t ready for the altitude.
Right after the fight, Velasquez said he had no excuses for his loss, but traveling to Mexico City just two weeks before the fight "maybe wasn’t enough". Speaking with MMAFighting.com, Werdum’s coach Rafael Cordeiro said the new champion beats Velasquez everywhere.
"Werdum fights Cain Velasquez 10 times, he wins 10 times," Cordeiro said. "I think people should stop finding explanations for results. If you lost, you lost, go back to the gym and train. It’s a sport. Got a bad result? Train harder. The altitude was the same for everyone.
"The fight was announced and everybody knew they would have to deal with altitude, so go there one month earlier. But even if you go there one month before, that’s now a guarantee that you’re going to win. You have to be prepared to fight. We always believed in Werdum, and today he proved he’s the best fighter on the planet."
Werdum moved his entire camp to Mexico 35 days before UFC 188, and the final month of his camp was entirely dedicated to acclimate to high altitude.
"We trained hard for that. Our camp started two years ago, when they first booked the fight," Cordeiro said. "We went to Mexico early to work on his cardio, but the technical training was basically done when we got there. We just had to adapt to the altitude and work on his cardio."
"Vai Cavalo" was a heavy underdog against Velasquez, but like when he beat Fedor Emelianenko and Travis Browne, being doubted was motivating.
"That keeps you motivated. You want to prove them wrong," Cordeiro said. "But the important is that we believe in our work, our families believe in our work. People doubt because they don’t follow your work every day, so they have no information on what you are doing. We talk because we know, we see what the athlete is doing every day."
The only man in the history to beat former PRIDE and UFC champions Fedor Emelianenko, Cain Velasquez and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Werdum could be considered the best heavyweight of all time. Cordeiro won’t call him that, though.
"I would be too cocky if I call him the best of all time, but I can say Werdum beat all the heavyweight myths," he said. "He beat Fedor, he beat ‘Minotauro’, and he beat Cain. They are legends of the sport, and Werdum beat them all. He submitted the three best heavyweights in the history, and he’s at the top of the world today."
Werdum could have the chance to avenge his last UFC loss if the promotion matches him up against Junior dos Santos for his first title defense, but the Kings MMA head coach believes "Cigano" and the other heavyweight contenders should fight each other to determine the next in line.
"Werdum is in a good position to wait right now," Cordeiro said. "I believe these guys will have to fight each other to see who’s the No. 1 contender. Werdum earned this, he fought the best in the division to get there. Now they will have to fight each other. We will wait for the UFC to make the call." | {
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When Horry County Police Officer CJ Mullinax responded to a call from a Hardee’s about a homeless man "asking for scraps," he didn't remove the man from the restaurant. Instead, the South Carolina cop pulled out his wallet and offered to buy the stranger a meal.
"[He] handled the situation amazingly!" employee Victoria Paige Summer posted on Facebook Saturday, along with a 20-second clip of the cop standing next to the man at the register.
Employees at the fast food joint near Hwy. 17 had been feeding the man for days. But Summer believes a disgruntled customer decided to call 911 on Saturday to complain.
Both employees and customers were shocked to hear Mullinax ask the man if he was hungry — and point to the menu with a grin.
"I was thrilled that the officer had so much compassion so I thought I should take a video," Summer told WMBF.
GEORGIA POLICE OFFICER GOES VIRAL SINGING WITH STRANGERS, SPREADING POSITIVITY WITH #HUGACOP CAMPAIGN
The video of the Horry County cop's kind act has been viewed nearly 90,000 times as of Tuesday evening. Dozens of people commented on the post, applauding the officer for not kicking the man out.
"Nice to read such a good story! Kudos to the officer!" one Facebook user commented.
"People forget that the police are there to not only protect but also to serve," another added.
"He was begging for scraps, not money...God bless him for being willing to feed his fellow man!" a woman replied.
A Myrtle Beach resident said he recognized the homeless man on the video, identifying him as a veteran named Donald.
KENTUCKY PIZZA DRIVER RESCUES TWO PEOPLE FROM BURNING HOUSE
"He served in the Army from 1978-1981 then got out, worked in construction and then hit a wall which brought him to a point in his life that walked him down the road to homelessness.... his family doesn’t talk to him and he’s the nicest guy," the local said.
This isn't the first time Mullinax has been praised for doing a good deed. In 2015, he was seen on a viral video throwing a football around with a group of neighborhood kids, WMBF reports.
"That’s good ol Mullinax," one resident said.
"He's a good officer ... always has been," another echoed. | {
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i still love these two sm | {
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NOTE: This article has been edited from a previous version.
Rumours have swirled for years about the province taking over the TTC, or possibly just the subway.
Mayor Rob Ford’s administration has floated the idea as a way of lifting the financial burden of transit off the city. But the province said Tuesday it has no interest in pursuing it — especially with a huge deficit and an election coming. (For more, see GT5.)
Turning transit over to the province has both pros and cons for Toronto taxpayers and transit riders, according to experts. A look at both sides:
What would riders lose?
• Service: Former mayor David Miller argued that taking control of the TTC out of the city’s hands could dilute service for Torontonians as the province tries to smooth out the inequities among those served by regional transit systems that have meandering routes, regular fare increases and sparse frequencies.
• Accountability: Giving the subways over to the province might not make much difference to riders, but when it comes to buses and streetcars, you could be giving the responsibility to a bureaucrat living in a different city with no accountability to the Toronto electorate, said public transit advocate Matthew Blackett, publisher of Spacing magazine.
“If you turn control over to someone who potentially doesn’t live here, doesn’t represent here, then you have people making decisions they’re not accountable for,” he said.
Uploading only subways to the province would be a mistake, said Ryerson professor emeritus Jim Mars. “Almost all buses and streetcars pass through subway stations, allowing an inexpensive, if occasionally slow, trip for any passenger throughout (the city of Toronto). To upload only the subways would put this system at risk,” he said.
What’s in it for Toronto?
Money: The province used to give the city money to operate the TTC, but that has dried up. This year, Toronto expects to provide a $429 million subsidy to bolster the farebox — $1 million less than in 2010.
“TTC has become a monster — an uncontrollable, very expensive monster who is looking to grow larger tentacles, and we can’t afford to feed that monster anymore,” said Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti. Letting the province run transit would free up the city to focus on “grassroots services,” he said.
More subways, less congestion: “It makes sense we look at a system that brings people in and out of the city in a fast, effective way and build new subways that would accommodate the GTA,” said Mammoliti.
Better maintenance and expansion: The TTC needs to be better maintained and to grow, said Patrice Dutil, assistant professor of politics and public administration at Ryerson University.
“There’s an area at Lawrence that’s been marked off for a decade for an elevator. We have little old ladies walking down 60 stairs. Why is that? It’s amazing how the business community puts up with King Station. It’s an abomination.”
Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...
Presto: The TTC needs to be better integrated with regional transit, starting with implementing the Presto fare card, says chair Karen Stintz. Even Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion has repeated what provincial officials have quietly begun to admit: Without the TTC, Presto doesn’t work because most regional commuters take the TTC for part of the way. | {
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San Francisco police exclusively targeted black residents during undercover drug arrests as part of a pattern of racial profiling, according to a new lawsuit.
Police in the California city, where only 6% of the population is black, worked with federal authorities to arrest 37 people, all of whom were black, for selling small amounts of drugs, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California said in a complaint announced on Thursday. During the operations, one undercover officer was caught on camera declining to buy drugs from an Asian woman and waiting to buy from a black woman, who was later prosecuted.
The suit focused on San Francisco police collaborations with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and federal prosecutors in 2013 and 2014, but the ACLU has alleged that the discriminatory policing and harassment of black people in the city has continued.
“We’ve seen time and time again how racial bias has infected the San Francisco police department’s ability to administer equal enforcement of the law,” Novella Coleman, an ACLU staff attorney, said in an interview.
The allegations are striking given how rapidly the African American population has declined in San Francisco, a city that has a serious housing crisis amid a booming tech economy. The city and state have also developed a huge marijuana industry while reports over the years have repeatedly shown that black residents in San Francisco are disproportionately targeted for marijuana and other drug arrests.
In one video included in the complaint, an officer involved in the undercover operations was caught saying “fucking BMs”, an apparent reference to the police code for “black males”, while surveillance footage zoomed in on a group of black people. An undercover officer also approached a black woman to buy drugs and told the woman that he had purposefully avoided buying from an “Asian chick”, the suit said.
In the Tenderloin, the neighborhood where the arrests occurred, surveys have suggested that only half of the people who sell drugs are black, the ACLU said.
A federal public defender representing some of the accused people later argued in court that the police department had singled out black people, leading a district judge to conclude there was “substantial evidence suggestive of racially selective enforcement”.
By then, however, many of the defendants had already pleaded guilty.
The federal prosecutors, who were pursuing charges with one-year mandatory minimum sentences and potentially stiffer sentences, opposed attorneys’ efforts to uncover further evidence about the operations and eventually dismissed the remaining cases.
Some of the plaintiffs’ lives were derailed by the prosecution, said Coleman, adding: “There’s that sense of uncertainty about interacting with law enforcement, and the fear of being in San Francisco and the Tenderloin.”
The ACLU was not aware of any involved officers facing disciplinary action, and one was promoted, she said.
Despite a judge’s assertion of racial bias and the recorded comments of officers, the city of San Francisco has continued to defend its actions. The police department “did not engage in selective enforcement”, John Coté, the spokesman for the city attorney, said in an email Thursday. “The evidence will show that San Francisco police acted in accordance with federal directives.”
The statement also said the police department “prides itself on being one of the most diverse, forward-thinking and transparent law enforcement agencies in the country”.
The police agency in recent years, however, attracted national scrutiny for a scandal involving racist and homophobic text messages sent by officers. A 2016 justice department review also found “institutional bias” against people of color. The city’s police chief was further pushed to resign in 2016 after a high-profile killing of a black woman, which followed numerous controversial killings by police.
The ACLU suit was announced the same day a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that officers involved in southern California drug enforcement efforts have stopped and searched thousands of Latino drivers without uncovering any drugs. | {
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This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – The work is bold, colorful and brash. “Elleone” is his brand, but the artist is 9th Ward born and raised, Lionel Milton, and he’s designed and painted for some of the biggest brands in the world.
Milton: “It’s kinda funny that being such a small guy, and I just draw and paint that bigger companies have come to me, ya know kinda want my style to go with their products so, it’s kinda fun.”
LBJ: “They want your flavor.”
Milton: “Yes! It’s kinda it’s fun!”
Lionel’s doing Elleone clothing, puzzles, ice cream boxes, a Mardi Brah app, iron-ons, and his work is now 3D paintings.
Milton says, “I worked with ESPN when they were here a few years ago during the Super Bowl, and they shook back and said they want to do a project with me. Post No Bills out of South Carolina with Doreen and all, they shook back about a year later and we started doing 3D paintings and it’s been phenomenal.”
While Lionel has worked with a ton of national brands, he credits his independent yearly Mardi Gras poster as his most rewarding.
“I would say my Mardi Gras poster has been the most rewarding because it’s an independent project that I kicked off, didn’t know nothin’ about distribution, or printing or any of that kinda stuff. To get into the business, and doing that and be independent, and keep getting that independent, ya know?”
LBJ: “Independent Money.”
Milton: “Yeah.”
In the art world, there the beauty of the work, and the business of selling it. Lionel got his business inspiration from an unlikely source, the world of hip hop.
“The way I dress I saw Russell Simmons and he didn’t wear a suit and tie. I can be smart and not have a suit and tie. When I got my distribution deal, I thought about what Master P did when he said 85-15, I do all the stuff with relativity. And I thought about distribution when I listen to Biggie. ‘Don’t forget the publishing or punish them’. Big Poppa publishing, I started my own publishing company. So those little kinda vignettes, those little jewels that hip hop dropped, maybe it was or wasn’t to send a message, clearly sent a message to me that you can get your money off of your creativity.” | {
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Dating Discussion Bingo [Aug. 8th, 2007|03:06 pm] Jeff's LiveJournal
Inspired by this discussion at Pandagon and countless others like it, I've drafted a bingo card for dating discussions. (For those of you not familiar with the concept, it goes like this: you mark off a space when someone in the discussion makes this point, and the first to get five in a row "wins." For particularly trite conversations, players can agree that the first to "blackout" the entire board wins. Basically, it's a way to mock people that drop by with tired arguments that everyone's heard before.)
Women are only attracted to money and power Pick-up artists just teach men to be confident Men have to do all the work in dating! Everyone knows it's just a game It worked for cavemen! You just don't like sex! Don't date "Western" women! Women use sex as a bargaining chip! "Nice guys" finish last Women don't risk being rejected like men do Real women don't have any problem with this Women don't know what they want! FREE LOVE
Women objectify men too! How can I hate women if I'm attracted to them?
Dating is just another name for prostitution If we didn't act this way, nobody would get laid! Women are attracted to jerks Women have all the power in relationships Women want "alpha males" Women can get sex whenever they want! It's feminism's fault! I would love it if women treated me that way! If she had a problem with it, she'd say so We're "hard-wired" to act this way
Any ideas for ones I missed for card #2? | {
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Hard-drive giant Western Digital’s planned acquisition of SanDisk is just the latest of several deals that could reduce the number of companies making storage gear. Will this trend eliminate choices and let manufacturers raise prices?
No, according to analyst Jim Handy of Objective Analysis. Buying hard drives and flash won’t get harder or more expensive, precisely because selling them will remain a cut-throat business for the foreseeable future, he said.
The proposed $19 billion buyout, expected to close in the third quarter of next year, came less than two weeks after another big storage-related deal in which Dell plans to buy EMC for $67 billion. Storage silicon maker PMC-Sierra is still weighing multiple offers. And Western Digital has already helped to drive consolidation by buying Hitachi GST in 2011.
But Western Digital isn’t buying SanDisk to become a bigger, more efficient maker of HDDs (hard disk drives). Instead, it wants SanDisk’s core flash storage business to complement its own spinning disks. The three big suppliers of hard drives—Western, Seagate and Toshiba—will still be standing if the deal goes through.
Despite fast-growing demand for solid-state storage for some applications, hard disks aren’t going away. Far from it, as cloud service providers like Amazon and Google try to keep up with the exploding amounts of data their customers need. HDDs offer the best mix of speed and cost for storing much of that information. While SSDs are replacing some enterprise HDDs, high-capacity hard drives in PCs and online storage are not threatened by flash, Handy says.
And the disk and flash businesses are going to keep punishing sellers while rewarding buyers, according to Handy. That’s because both are largely commodity products that require huge investments in manufacturing capacity.
Once vendors have poured all that money into tooling for a particular product, they each have an interest in getting as many units as possible out of those investments. And despite overall demand for storage growing more than 40 percent per year, manufacturers are building out the capacity to feed that demand well in advance.
That leaves just one way for each to move the maximum number of HDDs or SSDs: Steal market share from rivals. Each cuts prices or keeps them low to win those sales, and buyers win, Handy said. In other words, competition still works.
Dell’s acquisition of EMC will give storage makers one less big customer they can win over, but that won’t reshape the business, either. “There’s still a very broad field of people buying hard drives,” Handy said. That includes PC makers, server vendors, telecom equipment manufacturers, and companies like Facebook that build their own systems. “For any two of those companies to merge is not going to make that big of a difference.” | {
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am I the only one around here Who thinks jacking off into a sock is painful ?
132 shares | {
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One of the enduring myths of our era is that Albertans (or Canadians, or whomever) don’t like negative political advertising, and therefore that political attack ads won’t work here.
Now that Alberta’s New Democratic Party has published a website attacking Opposition Leader Jason Kenney’s record as a federal Conservative MP, cabinet minster and lifelong social conservative activist, with digital advertising spots on the same theme, we are bound to hear that notion repeated a lot.
“Mr. Kenney has spent his entire public life trying to impose his personal beliefs on people,” Transportation Minister and former NDP leader Brian Mason told a news conference called by the party in an Edmonton hotel yesterday afternoon to introduce the website and campaign.
“He has bragged about his work to stop same-sex couples from visiting their dying loved ones in hospital, and he has described his efforts in Ottawa to restrict women’s reproductive rights his ‘most distinct privilege,’” said Mr. Mason.
Within minutes, plenty of people on social media – not all of them supporters of Mr. Kenney’s party – were grumping about the negativity inherent in what the NDP news release called the “detailed and fact-based account of Mr. Kenney’s long career as a politician who works against the interests of everyday people, choosing instead to serve anti-abortion activists, anti LGBTQ groups and other special interests.”
You can judge for yourself by visiting TheTruthAboutJasonKenney.ca. There are footnotes – well, hyperlinks, which are the footnotes of the Internet era – so the NDP can say they’ve backed up everything they say with verifiable facts.
As to the notion that political attack advertising won’t work in Canada because Canadians don’t like it, that is far less certain. The record of political negativity, as they say, is ambiguous, but the prevalence of negative advertising in places a lot like our Alberta is not.
According to Oxford Research Encyclopedias, while only 10 per cent of the advertisements aired during the 1960 U.S. presidential campaign went negative, in 2012 only about 14 per cent did not! There’s a reason for that and the reason is they work.
In other words, the prevailing wisdom contains a kernel of truth – most folks don’t much like negative political advertisements – but you simply cannot conclude from that they aren’t effective. Their prevalence in U.S. politics, their growing influence in Canada, and their arrival in Alberta 11 years ago prove they do.
From Democrat Lyndon Johnson’s apocalyptic “Daisy” ad in 1964 attacking Republican Barry Goldwater, to Republican George H.W. Bush’s unsavoury “Willie Horton” spot in 1988 attacking Democrat Michael Dukakis, to Conservative Stephen Harper’s successful effort in 2009 to plant the thought the brainy Liberal Michael Ignatieff was “just visiting,” done right, they get results.
There’s another piece of conventional wisdom that attack ads that mock a politician’s appearance or circumstances will flop, but those that attack a politician’s record are more likely to succeed. Having watched U.S. President Donald Trump campaign, it’s hard to feel confident even that is still true. If that’s the case, though, the NDP’s Truth-About-Jason campaign is safely on the side of the political angels.
Of course, no matter how good an attack ad is, such campaigns are not a silver bullet that can wipe out a 20-per-cent lead in the polls. For that to happen, the leading politician has to meet his or her opponent halfway, as did the hapless B.C. NDP leader Adrian Dix in 2013 when he countered then-premier Christy Clark’s attack ads with sunshine and bumbling.
Despite Mr. Kenney’s dismissive response yesterday, I don’t think the Alberta NDP can count on the United Conservative Party to stick to the high road the way Mr. Dix did in the event the NDP campaign starts to get traction.
The UCP cleverly announced some campaign finance proposals yesterday to distract from Mr. Mason’s presser. Ideas like a ban on MLAs crossing the floor of the Legislature, bound to appeal to the UCP’s red-meat Wildrose Party base, are pretty blatantly unconstitutional, but we’ll deal with them in more detail another day.
In the mean time, the NDP’s duly footnoted truths about Mr. Kenney does provide an opportunity for Albertans to compare him less than favourably with Premier Rachel Notley, who personally polls more positively than Mr. Kenney does.
“Given that the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour,” Mr. Mason said yesterday, “Albertans deserve to know these and other truths about Mr. Kenney before they choose their next premier.”
“Mr. Kenney cares about privatizing health care, chipping away at women’s rights, and giving the richest 1 per cent of Albertans a tax cut they don’t need,” he said. “Rachel Notley cares about defending our hospitals, diversifying the economy, and treating every Albertan with dignity and respect.”
Mr. Mason will retire from his long career in Alberta politics after the election expected to be called any day now. If there’s any backsplash from the negativity unveiled yesterday, I doubt if the old New Democrat warhorse will much care if any of it lands on him.
Call it the realpolitik of real politics: Attack ads work, and sometimes they’re necessary. | {
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One of Canada's leading "natural" frozen food manufacturers is recalling more than 73,000 cases of product over concerns that organic spinach used may pose a listeria risk.
Amy's Kitchen has voluntarily recalled a number of products distributed across the U.S. and Canada.
Consuming listeria can lead to the illness listeriosis, which can cause a high fever, severe headache, a stiff neck and nausea. Listeriosis can also lead to premature delivery or miscarriage in pregnant women and can be a serious illness for those with weakened immune systems.
There have been no illnesses reported.
The following products are affected by the recall:
Click here to see the full list.
Note: Amy's brand has issued a correction to its original recall to correctly identify the best before dates on three recalled products: | {
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The Nokia Lumia 900 is currently an exclusive to AT&T, but earlier rumors this year suggested that AT&T would only be getting the exclusive for 45 days before the handset makes its way onto other carriers. Assuming the T-Mobile store rep that spoke to Andrew Bares at WMPoweruser is to be believed, it looks like T-Mobile could very well be getting the Nokia Lumia 900 this summer. However if that were the case, LTE would obviously be a no-go for T-Mobile subscribers as the carrier has yet to get its LTE network up and running. Also for those who might remember, the earlier rumors have also suggested that non-AT&T versions of the device could also see a 12MP camera which will be an upgrade over the current 8MP. We will be taking this information with a grain of salt for now, but are any T-Mobile subscribers out there possibly looking forward to getting their hands on the Nokia Lumia 900? Perhaps the magenta-colored Nokia Lumia 900 spotted at a Microsoft store could be an indication of what’s to come.
Advertising
Filed in . Read more about Lumia 900, Nokia and T-Mobile. | {
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The government on Sunday approved Defense Minister Ehud Barak's demand to operate a national economy emergency system in the Gaza vicinity communities and draft about 6,700 Israel Defense Forces reserve soldiers.
The reservists will be called up ahead of the possibility of expanding the military operation in the Gaza Strip, subject to the approval of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. A national economy emergency system was not operated during the Second Lebanon War.
Home Front Rockets land east of Ashdod Shmulik Hadad Rocket range extended: Palestinian gunmen respond to IDF operation in Gaza by firing three rockets beyond Ashkelon area, some 40 km away from Strip. Building in moshav near Ashdod; air raid siren sounds in Yavne area Rockets land east of Ashdod
Barak asked the government to approve the call up of thousands of reserve soldiers ahead of an expansion of the military operation in the Gaza Strip. The defense minister told the cabinet that the reserve forces would only be used for the reinforcement of a ground operation, if and when it should take place.
"Ahead of the continuance of planned operational activity, we need to draft some 7,000 reserve soldiers with emergency orders," Barak said.
The IDF has recruited some 2,000 reservists so far, in additional to the regular units sent to the Gaza border.
The army has also begun mobilizing tanks and reinforcement infantry troops to the Gaza region in the event a ground incursion is ordered. In an interview with the British SKY network, the defense minister said that ground forces would indeed enter the Strip if the move was deemed necessary by Jerusalem.
Barak did not declare outright that there would be a ground offensive, but said that he could not presume to guess what Hamas' next move would be and therefore was preparing the military for any contingency.
According to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, "This will be a long and difficult war which will be very painful. The expectation that we will be able to hit hundreds of terrorists a day cannot be realized."
The prime minister added that "Israel will need a lot of patience and stamina in the home front. The most important thing is not to involve politics in this process. We must not involve arguments and propaganda. The State of Israel must remain united in its war on terror. That's what we need in order to succeed."
Olmert said at the start of the meeting that "the State of Israel has launched a military operation in order to restore a state of calm for the south's residents, who have been suffering unrest and a disruption to their lives, which have prevented them from leading a normal and peaceful life which any person deserves and needs."
According to the prime minister, "This is not a simple situation, but we will deal with it with careful consideration, patiently and firmly in order to reach the desired results."
Addressing the situation in the home front, Olmert said, "While the army units are in a conflict with the enemy, the home front has become the target of attacks in recent years, in a way which overclouds the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
"The patience, determination and stamina of the people in the home front will eventually determine our ability to complete the mission as has been determined by us and as we believe should be reached."
According to Olmert, "the government invested many resources in handling the home front over the past few years. I would like to take advantage of this situation to ask the cabinet members to exert any efforts in the coming days to provide essential services due to the situation created in the south, which may last longer than expected at this time."
The prime minister added that he hopes "all offices open call centers for the offices in the south and in the region. There are many communities beyond the rocket range which have been hit now, and this requires a special preparation by all government offices."
Barak: IDF to extend operation as needed
The government also approved the special situation in the Gaza vicinity communities. Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin said during the meeting, "The level of shock among Hamas' leadership is high. Nonetheless, they view the attack as a first step and are looking for a response. Hamas will respond and will even try to surprise us."
Diskin added that "a significant part of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip is content with the damage caused to Hamas, which has harmed and is harming civilians."
A senior defense official said in response to ministers' questions that "we must also prepare for the possibility of a ground operation in Gaza."
An IDF source said that "the second wave of the jets' attack yesterday hit dozens of underground launching pads used to fire rockets from Gaza. We estimate that 50% of them were damaged.
"This is one of the reasons for today's weak rocket fire. This doesn't mean that Hamas no longer possesses the ability to launch thousands of missiles, and this ability will be realized later on."
Defense Minister Barak and IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ahskenazi convened before the cabinet meeting. Barak said after the briefing, "So far we have reached good results in the operational area. We must know that it won't be short, it won’t be easy and we'll have to face whatever the future holds."
Before entering the cabinet meeting, Barak said that the Hanukkah vacation would be extended in Gaza vicinity schools.
"We have decided to extend the children's Hanukkah vacation and they won't be returning to school," said Barak. He added that "the IDF will deepen and extend the operation as much as needed. "We are embracing the Gaza vicinity residents from here for their stamina, while declaring a special situation in the home front."
Science, Culture and Sports Minister Raleb Majadele (Labor) informed the Government Secretariat that he would not take part in the weekly cabinet meeting, and called on the government to stop the escalation in the south and on Hamas to stop firing rockets on Israel.
According to the minister, "Extending the operation may lead to the collapse of the diplomatic process with the Palestinians and the Arab world."
Deputy Prime Minister and Shas Chairman Eli Yishai said in response, "It's a shame that he didn't boycott the cabinet and Knesset meetings during the eight years when Palestinians fired rockets and mortar shells. If that's his opinion, he should not run for Knesset in the upcoming elections." | {
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All modern laptops have a gpu integrated into their processor (the igpu), some models also have a more powerful dedicated gpu (dgpu), this is called switchable graphics.By default all apps will run on the more energy efficient igpu and the OS can choose to switch to the dgpu when more gpu-power is necessary, trading battery time for graphics performance. On most laptops the default gpu can be changed to the dgpu so that everything will always run on the dgpu.
Linux support for switchable graphics currently is not very good. E.g. on many laptops some of the external connectors are only connected to the dgpu and to be able to use those external connectors without issues users need to change the default gpu to the dgpu, resulting in a hot running laptop and the battery draining much faster.
So I will be working on improving switchable graphics support under Linux, allowing the igpu to be used as default, allowing maximum batter life, while keeping everthing working normally. Specifically the following should all work: external outputs, suspend / resume (including suspend/resume with external monitors connected / while docked) and suspending the dgpu when not used.
Some fixes for this have already landed in Fedora 24, if you've a laptop with switchable graphics, please give Fedora 24 a try. Make sure you've all updates installed, and that you're running a 4.6.x kernel (from updates-testing). Then everything should just work, specifically recently I've fixed several issues with external connectors which are only connected to the dgpu, including the dgpu not suspending after a monitor is unplugged from the external connector.
If you're still having issues using Fedora 24 (with the default open source drivers) on a laptop with switchable graphics, please file a bug and put me in the Cc, or if you already have a bug open, just put me in the Cc.
One known issue is that plymouth (the boot splash screen) in Fedora 24 does not Work well with switchable-graphics, in some cases you may
get a black screen instead of the boot splash until the graphical login manager shows. This is esp. a problem if you've a crypted disk, because the dialog asking for the disk-crypt password will not show. You can press ESC to drop to text mode as a workaround. This is fixed in the Rawhide / Fedora 25 plymouth packages, but the changes are too invasive for an update. An alternative workaround is manually installing the F25 plymouth on F24.
A secondary goal of my work on this is to allow people to run graphically demanding programs on the dgpu by starting them with "DRI_PRIME=1 program", note that since we do not support dynamic reclocking of nvidia GPUs this will not always result in a performance improvement. Again if you're using this and it does not work properly, please file a bug and put me in the Cc. | {
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Gumby has surrendered.
San Diego police say the man accused of trying to rob a convenience store last week dressed as the famous claymation character turned himself in Tuesday, with an alleged accomplice.
Detective Gary Hassen tells the San Diego Union-Tribune that two men voluntarily went to police headquarters. He says one of the men brought the Gumby suit and turned it in as well.
Police say a man dressed in a Gumby costume and an accomplice went into a 7-Eleven in Rancho Penasquitos on Labour Day and told the clerk it was a robbery.
The clerk thought it was a prank and dismissed him. Both then left the store.
Surveillance video shows the clumsy would-be robber struggling to keep the green suit on as he walked out the door. | {
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Many American and Western patriots view financier and George Soros as almost the devil incarnate.
An inveterate funder of leftist causes around the world, and paymaster of the US Democratic Party, Soros is often seen as the puppet master of the Obama Administration and responsible for many of the problems that beset the West.
While I have no doubt that Soros is every bit as malevolent as his opponents paint him, I think it is dangerous to assume that he is at the top of the of the anti American food chain.
It is important to know if Barack Obama works for George Soros, but even more vital to understand who George Soros may work for.
There is no doubt that Soros has heavily promoted communist and socialist causes in several countries. Is that because Soros hates America so much, that he is willing fund its enemies? Or is it because Soros himself is part of a very much alive, but low profile communist apparatus?
Let’s look at that possibility.
Commentators have pointed out that in order for George Soros to have achieved what he did in his early days, he must have been favored by the communists. The following observations have been made by prominent Czech former dissident leader Petr Cibulka .
George Soros as a young man traded currencies on the black market during the Nazi occupation of Hungary. Soros lived there until 1946 when he left the country as it was under Soviet occupation and he, without money and at age of 16, ended up in London, U.K. in 1947. According to claims Soros has made, he left his native Hungary because of the Soviet occupation. Simply said, this must be explained to the American public because these facts are not possible to be true under any normal circumstances. Soros admits to trade currencies on the black market, but that was always punishable by death during the Nazi era in any occupied country. Also what is important is the allegation that the Soros family collaborated with the Hungarian Nazi regime during WW2. That would make the whole family [no doubt] a target of reprisals from the victims of the Nazi regime and the occupying Soviet forces would treat Soros’ family very harshly [most of the high level Nazi collaborators were hanged]. The only way out of this would be an agreement to co-operate with the GRU Soviet [Russian] military intelligence or perhaps also with the NKVD [later KGB] espionage. Young George was able to leave the country, he was able to make it through countless Red Army check points, without a passport that would be valid, without a Soviet approved permit to leave the country, without money and without any outside help. Soros was not only able to “pass through” these check points, but he was able to cross the border to Austria, where the Red Army was also present at the time, and Soros was able to get through the Red Army check points in Austria and “defect” to the West all the way to London, U.K. Un-parallel achievement and because of my personal experiences as a political refugee who had to go through some difficulties escaping the communist oppression, I know what I’m talking about. I don’t know how this Soros’ “life story” sounds to anybody, but this is impossible to happen unless George had a permit and proper Soviet approved passport, because if he was so brave to try to run these check points, he would’ve been shot dead on the spot by the communists. His stay in the U.K. and his 1947 enrollment to London School of Economics, and to be able financially to support himself during that time, with no mentioned substantial help or financial backing and to be able to graduate in 1952 at that young age, this all gives me chills where I missed my own opportunities and how come I wasn’t able to be so “fortunate” and to have such “miraculous achievements” in my life. Soros, after a brief period of working in financial services in Britain, was able to start his own financial institution. What an achievement again. No money at all from the beginning and after just a few years he’s got his own financial company. That requires starting capital, these expensive ventures don’t come easy, these are not hamburger stands, but virtual banks with lots of money inside – who supplied the money to Soros or has he won a huge jackpot in Britain?
In his “Opening the Soviet System” Soros recollects about his 1989 Prague meeting with communist Czechoslovakian leader Marian Calfa, and says the following:
Together with Prince Karel Schwartzenberg we went to see Marian Calfa, who was then acting president. It was meant to be a courtesy visit but it turned into a moving occasion. Calfa opened his heart. He said that the last three weeks had really shaken his view of the world. He had not realized how far out of touch his party was with reality. He had had an intimate conversation with Jiri Dienstbier, the former political prisoner and newly-appointed Foreign Minister, and that is when he found out that dissidents’ children had been regularly denied the right to be educated in Czechoslovakia. (Dienstbier’s daughter had managed to get to Switzerland.) He was deeply ashamed and determined to establish democracy in Czechoslovakia. We all agreed that it was imperative to have Vaclav Havel elected president by the present rubber-stamp parliament; to organize a plebiscite would delay matters and create uncertainties. Havel as president would consolidate the “gentle revolution.” Unfortunately, the leaders of the party do not agree with me but, as acting president, I have certain prerogatives and I intend to use them,’ he said. He sounded genuine and we were impressed. It was an unbelievable situation: the head of an apparatus of repression which only a few weeks ago hit students on the head voluntarily abdicating in favor of a dissident without an organization who would have trouble winning a plebiscite.
According to Cibulka and Allan, Calfa was never a president, but a Prime Minister. He changed positions after he was for some years the Deputy PM in communist Czechoslovakia. The authors also make some interesting claims about Dienstbier:
Jiri Dienstbier – during the 1950’s and 1960’s, alleged KGB or directly GRU cadre, as communist journalist he was able to travel around the World during the communist era in Czechoslovakia. Between 1958-69, he worked as foreign political commentator and editor for Czechoslovak [communist] Radio. Between 1964-67, Dienstbier was the CZ Radio correspondent for the Far East and was in Jakarta, Indonesia at the time when there was [thank God unsuccessful] a communist coup. In 1968-69, he worked as foreign correspondent in the United States, possibly for communist party newspaper Red Right [Rude Pravo]. A CPCZ member since 1958 till 1970, Dienstbier is a founding member of Charter 77, a speaker of Charter 77 in 1979 and later in 1985. After the “collapse of communism” in Czechoslovakia, he became Czechoslovak Government’s Deputy Prime Minister in a government of PM Marian Calfa and Dienstbier later became CZ Foreign Minister. While in his post as Foreign Minister, Dienstbier was involved in various scandals regarding appointing various “former” communists and STB agents [STB foreign espionage section mostly] as Czechoslovak Ambassadors around the World.
Cibulka also comments on Soros’ later ties to communist regimes and movements:
Circa 1978, Frantisek Janouch, “former” Czech communist and nuclear physicist, and George Soros were key financial backers of the Charter 77 Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. It was asserted that the foundation was an “anti-communist” group, however it was sending funds to communist Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel and company. Janouch claims that Soros supplied 1/3 of the total amount of these funds. On Dec. 14, 1989, Soros was present at the meeting in Prague on December 14, 1989 where he, Janouch, Karel Jan Schwartzenberg (later to become Vaclav Havel’s Chief of Staff) met with Czechoslovak newly appointed Prime Minister, a communist and allegedly KGB and STB agent, Marian Calfa. Calfa thanked Soros for everything he had done for Czechoslovakia. Soros was also the main financial contributor to the Polish Labor Union called Solidarity. Its leadership had to be made up of members of the Communist Party, or of communist agents. It is strange that Soros was allowed to set up his Open Society Institutions in the communist Hungary in 1984 and later in the Soviet Union in 1987. Such ventures were only possible for communists or communist agents and not for an American businessmen like Soros. The agreement between Soros and the communist government in Hungary had to be approved by the Communist Party General Secretary Janosz Kadar. Kadar was during the 1950s personally involved in torture and murders of anti-communist opposition members in Hungary.
Soros’ involvement in South Africa, followed a similar pattern.
Soros has been involved in financing organizations in South Africa since 1979, though most of the money he made came from his British Pound scheme in 1992. Much of the money went into communist dominated South African Unions and also to Cape Town University where Soros financed people who are today involved in the African National Congress/South African Communist Party government.
In 1986, Soros attempted to set up his Open Society Foundation in communist China.
I went to China [in 1986 – ed. note] with Liang Heng, who became my personal representative, and set up a foundation on the Hungarian model with Chen Yizi’s institute as my partner. Boo Tung, Communist party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang’s principal secretary, cut through the red tape and approved the foundation on the spot. Both he and the foundation got into a lot of trouble as a consequence because his political enemies tried to use the foundation as a vehicle for attacking him. They prepared an elaborate dossier which claimed that I was a CIA agent and anti-Communist conspirator. Boo Tung counter-attacked and presented voluminous information about my other foundations to prove my good faith. That was not too difficult because I had always been very open about my intentions and by 1987 I had also established a foundation in Moscow. Nevertheless, some high party council decided to liquidate the foundation and refund the money. It took the personal intervention of Zhao Ziyang to rescind the decision. He arranged for Chen Yizi to resign as co-chairman and for the International Cultural Exchange Center, whose chairman turned out to be a high official in the security service, to take over as our host organization.
Cibulka asks exactly how George Soros, could prove, as an American citizen and therefore enemy of the communists, that he was NOT a CIA spy and anti-communist?
How is it possible, that the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party fixed the problem for Soros – “this wouldn’t happen unless (UNLESS) Soros is a communist agent himself and is involved in communist operations – otherwise they would never allow Soros inside the country nor would they allow him to open as much as a hot dog stand in a Beijing (or Moscow).”
All of this is circumstantial. There is no smoking gun that Soros was ever recruited by the Soviets or Chinese, only a pattern of association that should raise alarm bells.
It is bad enough that George Soros spends vast sums backing enemies of American Western freedom.
Even worse would be to find that Soros is part of an East vs West war, that most Westerners thought died in the dawn of the 1990s.
Who does George Soros work for? Himself , or as yet unidentified masters?
The answer to that question, is vital to the future of the West.
For our KeyWiki file on George Soros, go here | {
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An SD-card image of a RetroPie installation was recently made available. This post describes the individual steps taken in order to create such an image. While it serves me to ensure that no steps are forgotten during future updates, this post provides also an insight into the individual steps for people with interest in this topic.
As always, you are invited to make suggestions or comments to further improve the RetroPie Image! Especially the set of packages to be removed can still be optimized I think.
And here it is, the step-by-step recipe for creating the RetroPie Image:
Download and copy the Raspbian image on SD card The raspi-config script automatically starts on first boot. From here, expand the root file system Then reboot Login as user “pi” and run sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y git dialog Fetch the latest version of the RetroPie Setup Script with cd git clone git://github.com/petrockblog/RetroPie-Setup Start the RetroPie Script cd RetroPie-Setup sudo ./retropie_setup.sh Select “binaries-based installation” in RetroPie Script and press ENTER Check message dialogs at the end of binaries-based installation. Select “Setup” in RetroPie Script and press ENTER Set EmulationStation to start on boot. Set SNESDev to start on boot and to poll the button and game pads. (There are reports that game pad configurations override keyboard settings, so that the settings for game pads are not set as default anymore. If you want to use a joystick or game pad, you have to manually configure it.) Enable splashscreen on boot. Install and configure SAMBA. Install USB-ROM-Copy service. Install GPIO gamepad drivers (added 04.05.2013) Exit the RetroPie Setup Script and run sudo raspi-config Set overclock to preset ‘Medium’The following steps are only needed, if you want to create an SD card image yourself. I post them here to make the generation of the RetroPie image more transparent: Reboot Configure EmulationStation game pad input Testing of all emulators with at least one ROM Exit Emulation Station Remove unnecessary packages via cd chmod +x ./RetroPie-Setup/tools/prepareSDCardimage.sh sudo ./RetroPie-Setup/tools/prepareSDCardimage.sh Please note that the dd command, which is also used in the following, is a very powerful command that is able to break your system! If you are unsure about it, you can have a look at this article, that explains its use for RPi SD card handling. But now the explanation of the next step:
Shutdown the RPi, use another computer to create an SD-card image, e.g., with dd if=/dev/disk3 bs=2m of=RetroPieImage_verX.img Compress the image into ZIP format with zip -9 RetroPieImage_verX.zip RetroPieImage_verX.img Create SHA1 checksum with shasum RetroPieImage_verX.zip (Upload the image.)
And that’s it. | {
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Guest post by Joe Hoft
Lieutenant Colonel Tony Shaffer (ret.) went on with Hannity on Fox News to discuss the latest leaks by Wikileaks.
Shaffer told Hannity former NSA operatives who were fed up with the Clintons are the ones who hacked into the DNC and gave the hacked Podesta emails to WikiLeaks. The Democrats do not want to talk about this and it is probably why the DNC refused to allow the FBI to look at it’s hacked server. Shaffer said:
Tony Shaffer: Sean, we did it. Not me, but our guys, former members of NSA, retired intelligence officers used these tools to break in there and get the information out. That’s what the Democrats don’t want to talk about because it doesn’t fit their narrative.
Via Hannity:
TRENDING: FOX News Panel Melts Down After Newt Gingrich Correctly Calls Out Lawless Soros-Funded District Attorneys (VIDEO)
Hannity said it was worse than any spy novel he can think of.
Hat tip William H | {
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It was heavily speculated and reported that the WrestleMania 35 main event had a botched ending, and now Fightful is reporting that the referee for the match has been punished. While he doesn’t have any heat backstage, Rod Zapata was pulled aside by Vince McMahon during Monday Night RAW and was fined for the error. McMahon said that he should’ve waited until Ronda Rousey‘s shoulders were down to count and that if there was an error it’d be on the performers at that point.
Additionally, there was an issue in the tag match between Aleister Black & Ricochet and Chad Gable & Bobby Roode. Referee Dan Engler was also fined due to a spot being messed up. It wasn’t a big issue, but McMahon is trying to set an example going forward.
RELATED: Bret Hart And Ronda Rousey Meet For The First Time | {
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Rand Paul to visit Reagan Library, Silicon Valley
Catalina Camia | USA TODAY
Sen. Rand Paul sure is making the rounds to some very high-profile places as he considers a 2016 presidential bid.
The Kentucky senator, a Tea Party favorite, has sold out a forum being held this Friday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Paul will start his California swing on Thursday in Silicon Valley, where he'll visit with executives at Google, Facebook and eBay, and deliver a speech at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Paul will hawk his book, Government Bullies: How Everyday Americans are Being Harassed, Abused, and Imprisoned by the Feds, at the Reagan Library event May 31. (Don't forget: Paul is a libertarian in the mold of his father, former Texas congressman Ron Paul, and frequently criticizes what he views as the overreach of the federal government.)
His free-market ideas play well in the tech world. Paul wrote The Technology Revolution, a four-page manifesto that argues the Internet works best without government intrusion. Paul's senior strategist, Doug Stafford, told Mashable that the senator believes "a healthy and vibrant tech sector is vital to U.S. competitiveness in the global economy."
There's no mistaking that potential White House hopefuls see Silicon Valley as a place to cultivate new friends and raise campaign cash. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican who might also run in 2016, held a fundraiser this year for his state re-election campaign at the home of Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook co-founder and CEO.
Paul already has visited the early presidential states of Iowa and New Hampshire as he introduces himself to key conservatives and potential campaign donors outside Kentucky.
Follow Catalina Camia on Twitter at @ccamia. | {
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SASKATOON, Saskatchewan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. (“CanniMed” or the “Company”) (TSX: CMED) today announced that it has been notified by the Toronto Stock Exchange (the "TSX") that the TSX will, in accordance with the practice of the TSX in connection with similar rights plans, defer consideration of the acceptance of the Company's previously announced Shareholder Rights Plan (the "Rights Plan") until such time as (i) the TSX is satisfied that the Ontario Securities Commission will not intervene pursuant to National Policy 62-202 - Take-Over Bids - Defensive Tactics, and (ii) the Rights Plan has been ratified by shareholders by May 28, 2018.
Even though the TSX has deferred its review of the Rights Plan, the Rights Plan remains in effect. The TSX normally defers acceptance of shareholder rights plans adopted in response to a specific take-over bid. The Rights Plan was adopted on November 28, 2017 following the announcement of an unsolicited hostile bid (the “Hostile Bid”) by Aurora Cannabis Inc. for all the common shares of CanniMed.
A full copy of the Rights Plan is available at www.sedar.com
Shareholders with questions about the Rights Plan or other matters relating to their CanniMed shares and the Hostile bid are encouraged to call Kingsdale Advisors, the Company’s strategic shareholder and communications advisor, at 1-888-518-1554 or [email protected].
About CanniMed Therapeutics Inc.
CanniMed is a Canadian-based, international plant biopharmaceutical company and a leader in the Canadian medical cannabis industry, with 16 years of pharmaceutical cannabis cultivation experience, state-of-the-art, GMP-compliant production process and world class research and development platforms with a wide range of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis products. In addition, the Company has an active plant biotechnology research and product development program focused on the production of plant-based materials for pharmaceutical, agricultural and environmental applications.
The Company, through its subsidiaries, was the first producer to be licensed under the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, the predecessor to the current Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations. It was the sole supplier to Health Canada under the former medical marijuana system for 13 years, and has been producing safe and consistent medical marijuana for thousands of Canadian patients, with no incident of product diversion or recalls.
For more information, please visit our websites: www.cannimed.ca (patients) and www.cannimedtherapeutics.com (investors). | {
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'11/8/16': Film Review | Hamptons 2017
Producer Jeff Deutchman deployed documentary crews around the U.S. on Election Day and curated the results into a 16-strand composite portrait.
Aiming for a snapshot of the American electorate during the final countdown of a very, very long presidential race, producer Jeff Deutchman comes far closer than he did with his more off-the-cuff, Obama-celebratory 11/4/08. The documentary 11/8/16 compiles Election Day portraits of 16 subjects, captured by 18 filmmakers, into a mosaic that's not so much revelatory as humanizing.
The huge political and social divide is in full evidence, but the strength of the doc is that it shows that those sides aren't as monolithic as the red and blue blocks on electoral maps suggest. The willingness of the average American, whether on one of the coasts or in the country's vast middle, to hear opposing viewpoints remains seriously in doubt, but the film offers an opportunity to do just that, showcasing sincere, well-meaning Americans who occupy various points on the political spectrum. Some are better informed than others. A number of the subjects express a lot of the same ideas, half-baked and otherwise, as do cable pundits, but their ground-level view adds context and immediacy in a way that professional blatherers can't.
Competing in the Hamptons and slated for a November theatrical release, the film isn't headed for a box-office landslide. Given the almost daily dramas associated with the Trump administration, the last hours of the race might feel like ancient history to potential viewers, too painful for some and beside the point for others. Yet Deutchman and his team of directors — who include Alison Klayman (Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry), Martha Shane (After Tiller) and Bassam Tariq (These Birds Walk) — tap into the ballot-box suspense, anticipation and, in some cases, indifference, from intriguing angles.
Dividing the day into morning, afternoon and night, 11/8/16 wisely eschews a music score as it moves among its various locations, and offers only one piece of scene-setting information: A title card explains that as the day began, the latest polls gave Donald Trump a 7 percent to 29 percent chance of winning.
Among the subjects are a Sikh cabbie in Queens, a West Virginia coal miner, a military veteran in Miami, a community organizer in San Jose, California, a Clinton campaign employee, a supporter of third-party candidate Evan McMullin in Utah, and a Kent State student.
Most entertaining, in an unsettling way, are the interactions between a Massachusetts couple who run a small business while raising their young sons. He proudly wears a Make America Great Again cap. She voted for Trump with reservations, constantly questions her husband's optimistic assumptions and, in the closest thing the film has to a refrain, repeatedly tells him to "take off that stupid hat."
Most compelling is the Alabama man, Anthony Ray Hinton, who was exonerated after 30 years on death row and whose opportunity to vote has special meaning for him. The restoration of voting rights is not automatic for exonerated felons, and the details of Hinton's victory aren't spelled out. But suffice it to say that he wears his "I Voted" sticker on his forehead all day long. More than that, his philosophical but practical musings on race and power in the United States are exceptionally potent.
The film includes several exchanges on the racial divide, including a neighborhood conversation between a local politico and a few of her fellow black Chicagoans parsing the troubling legacy of the Bill Clinton administration for African-Americans. In hipster Kingston, New York, a white artist proves insistently optimistic about Hillary Clinton's chances as the evening wears on, while his wife voices dark concerns. Earlier in the day he listens to a black neighbor explaining why he chooses not to vote.
Trump supporters talk economics, Clinton backers talk gender and accomplishments, and those standing outside the system deliver some of the film's most cogent arguments. They include Vermont organic farmer Boots Wardinski, a Liberty Union Party candidate for lieutenant governor who notes that being truly committed to strong principles is the antidote to getting elected. The diehard environmentalist received 2 percent of the state's vote, and viewed the presidential race as immaterial.
Another outsider, a self-described "houseless" Honolulu man, living in a tent, can't vote because of his prison record. His ignorance of the presidential campaigns and wall-to-wall media coverage looks like a kind of bliss, heightened by the island setting.
But issues are well past the point of arguing — at least in terms of voter turnout — during the hours captured by the filmmakers. Journalists' reluctant discernment of the ballot-box upset is its own subject. At Philadelphia public radio station WHYY and in the newsroom of the Los Angeles Times, journalists who'd drunk the same pollster Kool-Aid as most Americans prepare to report on the election of the country's first female president. They meet the surprising results with no blatant emotion, calmly changing gear — and headlines.
Elsewhere the film tracks shock, elation, despair. In San Jose, community organizer Jesus, himself a Dreamer whose citizenship is on the line under a Trump administration, tries to soothe neighbors' deportation fears. A pall settles over New York City's Javits Center, where Clinton supporters have gathered, expecting to celebrate.
The film is sensitive to the us-vs.-them factor. Watching news coverage of the election results, West Virginia miner Eric Hayhurst bristles at news anchors' use of the phrase "rural areas," interpreting it as code for "uneducated." Had he heard it, he might have felt the same way about WHYY reporter Dave Davies' end-of-night, off-the-air remark: "Wow. There's anger out there in the hinterlands."
Whether or not Election Day is far enough in the rearview mirror for Americans to examine it objectively, Deutchman's doc aims a spotlight on what should already be obvious: Voters equate self-interest with national interest, and there are perceived, if not non-negotiable, conflicts between various groups' goals. But the key takeaway from his film, in which Bernie Sanders' name is never mentioned, may be that that this huge, complicated country deserves more options than the two-party system affords.
Distributor: The Orchard
Production companies: The Orchard, Cinetic
Curator/producer: Jeff Deutchman
Directors: Duane Andersen, Don Argott, Yung Chang, Garth Donovan, Petra Epperlein, Vikram Gandhi, Raul Gasteazoro, Jamie Gonçalves, Andrew Beck Grace, Alma Har'el, Sheena M. Joyce, Daniel Junge, Alison Klayman, Ciara Lacy, Martha Shane, Elaine McMillion Sheldon, Bassam Tariq, Michael Tucker
Executive producers: Dana O'Keefe, Paul Davidson, Danielle DiGiacomo, Brad Navin
Directors of photography: Gustavo Acosta, Don Argott, Yung Chang, Tacara Donaldson, Garth Donovan, Petra Epperlein, Raul Gasteazoro, Jamie Gonçalves, Andrew Beck Grace, Chapin Hall, Alma Har'el, Alison Klayman, Jed Alan Klemow, Tyler McPherron, Elaine McMillion Sheldon, Skyler Sorenson, Bassam Tariq, Casey Unterman
Editors: Jon Lefkovitz, Martha Shane
Venue: Hamptons International Film Festival (Documentary Competition)
No rating, 104 minutes | {
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Broadway-bound Glee star Jane Lynch recently appeared on Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman’s web series Gwissues to talk all about the fear and excitement surrounding her Main Stem musical debut in Annie.
“I'm scared,” Lynch confided in Bragman. “It's like jumping off a cliff and I'm also exhilarated. I haven't felt this way in a long time, you know, about doing some work that actually kind of terrifies me and also excites me at the same time…I’ve never done a musical.”
She may not have done a musical before, but thanks to Glee, Lynch has more than enough experience instilling fear in pint-sized actors singing showtunes. The TV and film star also has an impressive New York stage credit already under her belt, the long-running off-Broadway hit Love, Loss, and What I Wore.
“I did Nora Ephron's Love, Loss, and What I Wore a couple years ago, and that was a reading where you're sitting on your butt the whole time, you know, reading from a script,” Lynch said. “I'm playing Miss Hannigan in Annie, taking over for Katie Finneran—huge shoes to fill. She's an amazing, amazing actress. And ironically, I took over for her on Love, Loss, and What I Wore, too. So, I'm kind of following Katie Finneran around on Broadway.”
They may be huge shoes to fill, but we are sure confident Lynch is just the right actress to fill ‘em. Jane Lynch begins performances at Annie on May 16 at the Palace Theatre, and continues through July 14.
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Cross-Cultural Study into Humour
Questionnaire for my PIP regarding the depiction of societal issues through humorous forms of media in Western and Asian cultures.Thank you for taking the time to fill this out!
* Required | {
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Andy Cole wants to see Karim Benzema at Manchester United – but believes a move to Old Trafford may be too big a step up for 'baby' Harry Kane.
The former Manchester United striker, who plundered 102 goals for the club, thinks Real Madrid's Benzema, 27, has the experience which will allow him to succeed on the big stage.
However, he says 21-year-old Kane, who hit 31 goals for Tottenham Hotspur last season, needs more games under his belt.
Andy Cole wants to see Karim Benzema leading the line at his former club Manchester United next season
Tottenham striker Harry Kane has also been linked with United but Cole is less keen on a bid for the youngster
Cole played for a United's Legends side against Bayern Munich on a return to Old Trafford on Sunday
Cole, 43, also called on manager Louis van Gaal to ditch his methodical philosophy and play a more entertaining brand of football.
United are set for a big summer in the transfer market and have been linked with a £30million swoop for Benzema, a Champions League winner who has 77 France caps.
And Cole, who also reckons the club should lodge a cheeky £60m offer for Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero, thinks he would be the perfect fit.
'I like him,' Cole said of Benzema. 'He's a very good player and played at the highest level for years.
'He's done it at international level and (you) look at that and say that could definitely work, him and (Wayne) Rooney.'
Benzema chases down a ball in the Champions League semis - and Cole says his experience would be vital
Wayne Rooney could partner the Frenchman in attack as part of a new-look side at Old Trafford next season
Cole also feels United should submit a cheeky bid for Manchester City and Argentina striker Sergio Aguero
Cole, the second-highest goalscorer in Barclays Premier League history, called on Van Gaal, armed with a £150m kitty, to bring the world's elite to Old Trafford this summer.
'That's what the fans want,' he said. 'If Man United have got £100-200m to spend and there's talk of (Gareth) Bale, then that's what the fans want to see, that's the X-Factor, for people to say "wow". Man United has always been that kind of club, (you) always want big name players to come here and fans get buoyant about it.'
As revealed by Sportsmail, United are keen on Kane but Cole, who starred in Sunday's 4-2 Legends victory over Bayern Munich in a game that raised more than £800,000 for the Manchester United Foundation, thinks he should stay put.
Benzema has been linked with a £30m move to United as Rafa Benitez revamps Real Madrid this summer
Louis van Gaal is expected to spend big once again in the summer transfer window to strengthen his squad
'He's had a brilliant first season,' he said. 'But then can he come to Man United, and if it is true for £40m, and bring to Man United what Man United need?
'Whoever comes to Man United as a centre forward is going to be under a hell of a lot of pressure.
'They need to get somewhere and if I was being cheeky, I would say I'd give you £60m for Aguero because Aguero, fit, is the best centre forward in the Premier League.'
Cole, who won a Champions League medal with United and spent six glittering years at the club, believes Kane may suffer from second-season syndrome.
Cole feels that Kane had everything going for him this season and that trend may not continue for him
The 21-year-old won the PFA Young Player of the Year award for his breakthrough season with Tottenham
'I think the kid (Kane) is talented,' he said. 'We have to be honest. He's had half a season where everything went for him. Penalties at the keeper and rebounds are coming straight to his feet.
'He's scored some goals but to take that leap - because your second season in the Premier League is always tough - to leave Tottenham and come to Man United and for Man United to pin all their hopes on him, for the money and if it did happen, that's a hell of a lot of pressure.
'Man United need to compete in Europe and the championship as well. He's a baby, still learning his trade.'
Kane was labelled as a 'baby' by Cole and he feels the striker may not be able to handle the pressure at United
The former United striker is still the Premier League's second-highest all-time top scorer
United, who finished fourth last season, scored 62 goals – their second-lowest total in Premier League history.
And Cole, who believes the fear factor has left Old Trafford, wants that to change.
'The way they played this season, it's not a typical Man United,' he said.
The United Legends side, featuring Cole, helped to raise over £800,000 for the Manchester United Foundation
Cole would like to see United play attacking football like the teams led by former boss Sir Alex Ferguson
'It's not Sir Alex Ferguson and galvanising football where you had to attack because he and the fans would let you know you're not attacking.
'The history of the football club is about style. It's about attacking teams. If you go 1-0 up then you keep attacking teams and win by five. That's what the manager wanted when I played. He wanted to punish teams when they came to Old Trafford. | {
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MANILA, Philippines — Toronto Raptors point guard Cory Joseph led Canada to a 77-69 win over Turkey on the opening day of the FIBA Olympic basketball qualifying tournament.
Joseph led the Canadian attack Tuesday with 21 points, five assists and three rebounds.
The No. 8-ranked Turks pulled within five late in the second quarter but Joseph and Tristan Thompson of the Cleveland Cavaliers quashed the momentum as 26th-ranked Canada entered halftime with a 39-30 lead.
Canada outshot Turkey from the floor, hitting 42 per cent of field-goal attempts and 37 per cent from three-point territory. The Canadians also posted a stellar 83 per cent rating from the free-throw line.
"Obviously they’re a very good basketball nation and it was a hard fought win," said Canadian coach Jay Triano.
Thompson and Phil Scrubb each scored 10 points for Canada while Sinan Guler led Turkey with 14 points.
"It was a good win, we fought hard," said Joseph. "We still have a lot to work on, but ultimately we got the job done, we’ve just got to keep on continuing to build throughout the tournament and try to get to our end goal."
A win over Senegal on Wednesday will secure Canada a spot in the semifinals.
"Bottom line is it was a win and it helps us with what our goal is, so we’ve got to turn around, play again tomorrow, and we have to keep getting better," said Triano.
The top two teams from each group in the preliminary round will move on to the semifinal crossover games. Those teams will then compete in the finals, with the champion qualifying for Rio. France, New Zealand and the Philippines make up Group B.
France rallied from a 10-point deficit to beat the Philippines 93-84 on Tuesday. | {
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Witnesses at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on Sunday when a shooting broke out on the last day of the event described a chaotic scene filled with panic and uncertainty.
The band Tin Man was just starting an encore when shots rang out.
Jack van Breen, the lead singer of Tin Man, said he saw a man wearing a green shirt and grayish handkerchief around his neck going into the food area with what he said looked like an assault rifle.
Van Breen, who dove under the stage with members of his band, said he heard someone shout, “Why are you doing this?”
2020 DEMS SPEAK OUT ON GUN VIOLENCE
“Because I’m really angry,” he heard someone reply.
Evenny Reyes of Gilroy, 13, said she was just about to leave the festival with friends and relatives just before the shooting took place.
Reyes said she didn’t run from the scene because the gunshots sounded like fireworks. “It was like the movies — everyone was crying, people were screaming,” she told the Mercury News.
The teen described seeing a shooting victim with a bandana wrapped around his leg.
“There was a little kid hurt on the ground,” she added, “People were throwing tables and cutting fences to get out.”
Natalie Martinez, also a Gilroy resident, said she had gone to get food and separated from her two daughters. “I ran to find the girls … and we basically ran into each other,” she said.
“I thought, we’re open prey. It was awful.”
Authorities said three people were killed and about 15 were injured in the shooting. The gunman was engaged in under a minute by police and was fatally shot. Federal authorities are assisting local law enforcement in the investigation.
Taylor Pellegrini, 25, said she was sitting near the food court with her boyfriend and two friends when she heard what sounded like firecrackers.
“People were yelling ‘active shooter, active shooter,’ and some people tripped and stayed on the ground so bullets didn’t hit them,” she told the LA Times. “People were under tables and dropping their phones and whatever they had in their hands.”
She was able to get out of the venue quickly because she and her friends were close to the exit.
Pellegrini said security seemed weak at the local three-day festival, which was at its final day on Sunday. Her bag was checked at the entrance, she said, but one of her friend’s was not.
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“I feel really scared,” she said. “It makes me not want to go anywhere anymore.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | {
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - About 47 million people - one in five American adults - are expected to bet a combined $8.5 billion on “March Madness,” the annual men’s college basketball tournament, a new report said on Monday.
Mar 17, 2019; Nashville, TN, USA; General view of pyrotechnics in the arena prior to the championship game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Auburn Tigers in the SEC conference tournament at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports
A plurality of bettors - 29 percent - favor Duke University’s Blue Devils to win, according to a report from the American Gaming Association (AGA), a casino industry group.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s tournament to determine the Division I men’s basketball champions begins on Tuesday and ends April 8 in Minneapolis.
This year is the first time the tournament will be held since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in May 2018 allowed states to legalize, regulate and tax sports betting.
Eight states now offer legal sports wagers, including Nevada, which was never subject to a ban.
More than $5.9 billion has been bet on sports in those eight states since the court decision, the AGA said in its report.
As the nascent legal U.S. sports betting industry expands, major events like the NCAA’s March Madness are providing first glimpses of how many betters may want to move from illegal to legal wagering, and how much money casinos, racetracks and bookmakers stand to make in the years to come.
Forecasts had suggested Americans would wager $325 million this year on another traditionally huge betting event, the Super Bowl.
But the two biggest state markets so far - Nevada and New Jersey - fell short. Nevada handled just $146 million of legal bets, an 8 percent drop from the previous year’s record $159 million.
A report from Eilers & Krejcik gaming analysts on Friday estimated that if all 50 U.S. states had legal online sports betting, sportsbooks would handle $15.2 billion of total wagers just for March Madness alone, grossing about $1.2 billion of revenue.
By March of 2023, as many as 39 states could have legal sports betting, Eilers & Krejcik found.
As for this year, March Madness will likely generate $4.6 billion of wagers from 40 million people betting with friends and colleagues through a total 149 million brackets, the AGA said.
The remaining $3.9 billion of wagers will come mostly by way of illegal offshore websites and bookies, though 4.1 million people will also place legal bets through licensed casinos and sportsbook operators.
“These results indicate there’s still work to do to eradicate the vast illegal sports betting market in this country,” said AGA Chief Executive Officer Bill Miller in a statement. | {
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I realised she or he was being sarcastic, I just played along.👍😁
I replied to this comment now because I've spent a lot of time on YouTube and did not see it.😕 | {
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Somewhere along the way, someone told you to force quit apps on your iPhone and iPad to improve performance and save battery life.
Stop doing that.
We've all done this at one point or another because we learned it's a good idea to close applications that are hogging system resources on slow-running computers. When too many apps are running at once, it can make a perfectly good system feel like it's trudging through thick mud.
Apple's iOS, which powers iPhones and iPads, doesn't work like a traditional computer operating system. Closing apps doesn't help your performance or improve battery life.
In fact, according to the developer and Apple watcher John Gruber, it's doing the opposite.
Gruber recently explained that apps running on an iPhone or iPad are frozen in state when they're not being used, which means they aren't taking up system resources as much as, say, an app on a computer might be if it were just minimized to your system tray. The apps stay frozen and don't suck battery life.
The act of closing and reopening takes up more resources, he said:
[IOS] is so good at this that unfreezing a frozen app takes up way less CPU (and energy) than relaunching an app that had been force quit. Not only does force quitting your apps not help, it actually hurts. Your battery life will be worse and it will take much longer to switch apps if you force quit apps in the background.
Gruber points to an email to an Apple customer from Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi, who said he doesn't close apps and that doing so doesn't save battery life.
There you go, myth busted. | {
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This economy may be perilously close to recession. That was the message of the second-quarter real GDP report and its meager 1.2 percent growth rate.
Over the past year, real GDP has slipped to a paltry 1.2 percent. Business investment continues to fall. Building and factory construction has dropped sharply. Productivity is flat. The profits recession is still in force.
And what's the Hillary Clinton plan? Tax us into prosperity.
In her own words at the DNC on Thursday night, this is the fix: "Wall Street, corporations, and the super-rich are going to start paying their fair share of taxes." Why? "Not because we resent success. [!] Because when more than 90 percent of gains have gone to the top 1 percent, that's where the money is."
Let me get this right. In order to spur growth, Hillary intends to raise taxes on individuals, businesses, capital gains, stock trading and firms that move overseas (which they do because the U.S. has the most uncompetitive tax system in the corporate world). In addition, Hillary's door is open for a carbon tax, higher payroll taxes, and a gun tax of 25 percent.
She also argued in Philadelphia that the economy is not working the way it should because our democracy isn't working the way it should.
Huh?
What she's getting at is appointing Supreme Court justices who "will get money out of politics" and passing "a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United."
Citizens United removed spending limits for super-PACs. And yet those mean and nasty super-PACs have thus far benefited from pro-Hillary hedge-fund contributions to the tune of $48.5 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, has received only $19,000 from hedge funds.
Get it? Citizens United, according to Hillary, is the source of our weak recovery and must be overturned. Meanwhile, she is the big beneficiary of the Supreme Court decision to allow unlimited political donations. | {
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The aim of EasyFeedback is to promote feedback between consumers and businesses in order to help resolve two issues that come up again and again:
1. Communication problems between people.
2. Human beings’ ambition to improve things.
Feedback aims to transform things; because it helps companies achieve excellence in customer service, and it promotes creativity to improve products, services, business processes and in this way improve the world.
EasyFeedback.com acts as a private trusted third party between customers, the company’s management and its employees. It makes it easier to express, manage and reward useful feedback and to generate transparency, trust and satisfaction.
Easy Feedback Token “EFT” was created to reward people who use EasyFeedback.com to communicate useful feedback to improve the products, services and processes of companies and institutions.
Easy Feedback has been involved in the feedback market since 2015, incorporating innovative concepts and technologies that encourage the solution of feedback problems. In 2018 our project took a disruptive turn when it was able to incorporate blockchain philosophy and technology into the feedback market and that’s why we are launching a Token that makes it possible.
Easy Feedback Token will allow us to value and reward people who give meaningful feedback to companies and institutions. It’s feedback that transmits knowledge. Therefore, Easy Feedback tokens “EFTs” will be offered as a reward for:
1. The ideas that consumers may put forward as suggestions to companies and institutions for improving their products, services and processes.
2. The dissatisfaction we communicate to a company as a claim or complaint about its products, services and processes regardless of the company’s response to us.
3. The appreciation for a job well done by the people in a company or institution who were able to offer an excellent service.
“EFTs” can be exchanged for products, services, cryptocurrencies or money at market price or accumulated as an investment.
More information at www.EasyFeedbackToken.io/en/ | {
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Looking to avoid a messy Democratic convention this summer, people close to likely nominee Hillary Clinton predict she will give Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders much of what he wants on the party’s platform. But at least for now, the Sanders forces are itching for a fight.
Already, Mr. Sanders has accused the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee of stacking convention committees in favor of the former secretary of state and has threatened a floor fight if he isn’t treated fairly.
... | {
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NEW YORK -- Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is launching a new, nationwide push to lock in women voters this weekend, in an effort to capitalize on startling and troubling claims being made about her opponent, Donald Trump.
The campaign will put on hundreds of events on Saturday and Sunday to contact women voters and commit them to vote, according to a press release, like “women-to-women phone banks” and canvasses. In four cities in Colorado, female Clinton supporters will gather for “organizing launch” events while, across many other battleground states, female surrogates like Anne Holton, Sen. Kristin Gillibrand and actress Connie Britton will get out the vote.
The move comes after the Washington Post released a recording of Donald Trump making lewd remarks about women, and multiple women have come forward to accuse the Republican nominee of making unwanted sexual advances toward them.
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“This week has further shown just how high the stakes are for women in this election,” said Mini Timmaraju, the Clinton campaign’s women’s vote director. “Our campaign is mobilizing women disgusted by Trump to organize their communities and get out the vote for Clinton, either during early voting or on Election Day.”
Clinton, who is expected to be in New York over the weekend to prepare for the upcoming debate, said on Friday that she takes “absolutely no satisfaction in what is happening on the other side” with Trump.
“This election is incredibly painful,” she said at an impromptu stop at a field office in Seattle. “I am not at all happy about that because it hurts our country. It hurts our democracy. It sends terrible messages to so many people, here at home and around the world.”
Clinton told her supporters at a fundraiser earlier Friday that the “disturbing stories” about Trump “keep coming.”
The Clinton campaign’s stepped-up courtship of women voters also follows a speech by Michelle Obama in New Hampshire on Thursday, in which she spoke out forcefully against Trump. Clinton’s team quickly recognized the power of Obama’s words and sent out a text message to supporters soliciting low-dollar donations. A new tool designed by the campaign will allow phone-banking volunteers to join the “FLOTUS call team” this weekend.
“The speech that she gave, I think put into words what so many people are feeling,” Clinton told Ellen DeGeneres in an appearance on her show on Thursday. “And not just women and girls -- men and boys.”
The effort will extend to Republican women too, according to the campaign. The Trump tape, specifically, has led Clinton’s close aides to believe that many voters might now reconsider their vote for Trump and switch their support to Clinton, and she has made a concerted effort in recent days to speak directly to Independents and Republicans.
“I am tired of all the divisions and the barriers,” Clinton said Wednesday at a rally in Pueblo, Colo. “I want to bring people together across our party lines... I want to be the president, yes, for Democrats but also Republicans and Independents.” | {
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This week, the House Judiciary Committee voted to pass the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or the MORE Act, to decriminalize weed at the federal level.
As lawmakers in the Capitol debated this move, all around them in the District of Columbia, the herb in question was circulating widely, being “gifted” and enjoyed freely, if not for free, and perfectly legal.
This contradiction between local and federal law is precisely why the MORE Act was drafted. Right now, federally, marijuana is a highly restricted Schedule 1 substance, making research on the drug hard to conduct even as its use spreads widely and law enforcement efforts become ever more difficult to justify. If the bill does becomes law—and that’s a big if—cannabis would be reclassified as unrestricted and people who’ve been charged or convicted of certain marijuana-related crimes as of the act’s passage would not face criminal penalties and could have their records expunged.
It would also allow the federal government to catch up with much of the country and raise a bunch of money. Medical marijuana is legal in 33 states and it’s legal for recreational use in 11 states, along with DC. As states increasingly decriminalize and legalize marijuana, the federal classification seems not only anachronistic—and like a missed taxation opportunity for a strapped government already taking cash from state cannabis businesses—but downright absurd.
The split between authorities has given rise to a ridiculous patchwork of conflicting laws around the country and spawned kooky legal weed schemes like the one in DC, which must accommodate certain unique federal restrictions because of the district’s status as the capital.
It is legal to smoke, grow, and carry limited quantities of marijuana in DC. But the federal government has been “a constant thorn in the side of the city.” Every year, an amendment is added to mandatory legislation that prevents DC from spending funds to tax and regulate pot. So it is not technically legal to sell weed locally, leading to an interesting workaround for cannabis transactions.
Instead of selling, local purveyors offer marijuana as a gift in addition to a lighter, say, or a sweatshirt, or cookies, or even legal services. There are guides on navigating these transactions, written for discerning local “gentleman tokers” and for tourists unsure of how to partake.
One district criminal defense attorney, who goes by the moniker “Lonny the Street Lawyer,” markets his legal practice with marijuana gifts, for example. He sells cards for redeemable legal services. They come with a gift—weed. The “marketing” attracts customers who probably won’t use the services being guaranteed by the cards but definitely do want to consume the cannabis gifted with them.
Still, anyone in possession of cannabis on federal land in the district is subject to prosecution even if DC metropolitan police are indifferent to weed and couldn’t charge this as a crime.
Some in the federal government want to see these conflicts in the marijuana laws, and the vast array of problems and losses they cause, resolved. ”For far too long, we have treated marijuana as a criminal justice problem instead of a matter of personal choice and public health. Whatever one’s views on the use of marijuana for recreational or medicinal purposes, arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating users at the federal level is unwise and unjust,” House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler said in his opening statement on the MORE Act on Nov. 20.
Now that it’s passed a committee vote, the bill will go to the full House for further consideration. If approved again, it would move on to a Senate vote. In the interim, as the wheels of government slowly roll forward—and possibly reach a grinding halt in the Republican-held Senate—the marijuana business will keep booming and the people will keep consuming. | {
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The Department of Homeland Security’s new policies on deportation have sown fear and confusion among undocumented immigrants. Ira Glass and Lilly Sullivan go to Chicago and meet a family trying to navigate the situation. No one knows what to expect. (12 minutes) | {
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Things are getting stranger and stranger. If you would have told someone ten years ago that Dennis Rodman would one day be helping to negotiate peace between North Korea and President Donald Trump, they would have assumed you were describing some weird movie cooked up in the mind of Mike Judge or the South Park guys. But in this timeline it’s an actual news story.
Everything about the last few years has been weird. The mass media’s behavior has been weird, Russiagate was weird, Ukrainegate is weird, a former presidential candidate accusing a current presidential candidate of working for the Kremlin was weird, people constantly accusing strangers on the internet of being Russian agents is weird, factions of the US government constantly leaking information against other factions of the US government is weird, the DNC getting caught rigging their primary was weird, Hillary Clinton losing the election was weird, the Skripal poisoning was weird, US government officials openly tweeting about their Venezuela coup is weird, the breakdown of the entire mainstream Syria narrative is weird, Assange’s arrest was weird, the campaign to censor the internet is weird, and this is just stuff off the top of my head from the areas I’ve been looking at in my own narrow spectrum of focus. Anyone else could list dozens of other weird new developments from their own slice of the information pie.
I often hear people in my line of work saying “Man, we’re going to look back on all this crazy shit and think about how absolutely weird it was!”
No we won’t. Because it’s only going to get weirder.
It’s only going to get weirder, because that’s what it looks like when old patterns start to fall away.
The human mind is conditioned to look for patterns in order to establish a baseline of normal expectations upon which to plan out future actions. This perceptual framework exists to give us safety and security, so disruptions in the patterns upon which it is based often feel weird, threatening, and scary. They make us feel insecure, because our cognitive tool for staying in control of our wellbeing has a glitch in it.
When you’re talking about a species that has been consistently patterned towards its own destruction, though, a disruption of patterns is a good thing. Our ecocidal, warmongering tendencies have brought us to a point that now has us staring down the barrel of our own extinction, and that is where we are surely headed if we continue patterning along the behavioral trajectory that we have been on. Only a drastic change of patterns can change that trajectory. And we are seeing a change of patterns.
Sure it’s sloppy as hell. Pattern disruption always is. Show me someone who recovered from a severe addiction to hard drugs who enjoyed a smooth, easy transition into sobriety with no major changes in their life besides the absence of substance abuse. Show me someone who left an abusive long term relationship whose life wasn’t drastically upended by it. People see safety in patterns, even unhealthy patterns, and they build their own patterns on the patterns of those in their lives. When any of those patterns disappear for anyone involved, it can feel unsafe for many people around them.
When patterns first start vanishing, it can look like things are getting worse. Because a disappeared pattern is an absence of something and not a thing in itself, people don’t see it, because the human mind is naturally drawn toward things and not the absence of things. So their attention will be drawn toward whatever things start to happen in the absence of the old pattern, which won’t necessarily be a pleasant or attractive thing, and they’ll say “Oh no! Things are getting worse now!” No they’re not. An unhealthy pattern disappeared, and in its absence something unappealing fell into place for a bit. But the absence of the old unhealthy pattern is a good thing, and in the long run will lead to good results, in the same way that leaving an abusive marriage may lead to financial hardship and stress in the short term but will lead to thriving in the long term.
I have become convinced in my personal life that humans are far more capable of breaking patterns than they realize. There’s an intelligence running things below the loud thinky noises of our inner narrative generators which most of us aren’t aware of, but which I’m convinced is disappearing old behavior patterns in our species, both collectively and individually.
We’re all mentally aware that things need to change away from the patterns we’ve been collectively engaged in, but we’ve been unable to bring about those changes in patterning because our efforts to do so arise from the same conditioning patterns that got us into this mess in the first place. Our patterns have led us to violent revolutions, but those just lead to governments which end up perpetuating the same old patterns we were trying to end. Our patterns have led to nonviolent political movements, but those end up being co-opted and their energy fed into the same collective patterning. Despite being told in movement after movement that the real enemy is the King or the Emperor or the aristocracy or the Jews or the Communists, over and over again the real enemy behind the curtain has ended up being our own conditioned tendency to keep repeating the same collective behavior patterns.
That’s what seems to be evaporating. Not because anyone came up with the Ultimate Political Ideology in their thinky brains, not because some clever revolutionary came up with the Ultimate Plan for Toppling the Status Quo, not because some adept killers killed those in power and replaced them with themselves, but because this mysterious guiding intelligence running the scenes far below the level of verbal thought has been disappearing our patterns in a way we don’t notice because we’re not conditioned to notice absences.
The observation of the obvious fact that humankind is deeply conditioned is what has led to philosophical debates throughout the ages of the existence of free will. How can a species so beholden to its preconditioned patterning have freedom of choice in its actions? In my experience the answer is that there is something at play within each of us which provides the potential to discard old patternings. We don’t have any free will as to how a given conditioned behavior pattern will play out as long as we’re still holding them, but there is something in all of us which is capable of opening the door to relinquishing a mental habit altogether. This is the only extent to which free will may be said to exist.
Sometimes I wonder if the world as we knew it really did end in December 2012 as so many mystics, psychics and psychonauts predicted. Not in a nuclear holocaust or giant meteor obviously, but in the beginning of an unravelling of the glue that holds human behavior patterns in place. There certainly hasn’t been a normal US presidential election since that date, and there doesn’t seem to be one on the horizon in the foreseeable future. Things have been getting stranger and stranger ever since, and this trend appears to be accelerating rather than slowing down.
Things are weird, and they’re only going to keep getting weirder. Buckle up, buttercup.
______________________________
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Ilhan Omar, in an interview on CBS This Morning, insisted she does not regret any of her past anti-Semitic remarks, implying that it’s the interpretation of others that is the problem.
The Minnesota Representative took part in an interview with the rest of the ‘squad,’ a group of Democrats – She, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley – who have marched in lockstep to an anti-Semitic, anti-American drumbeat since assuming office in January.
“Oftentimes there are things that you might say might not hold weight for you, but to someone else, the way that we hear and consume information is very different than how the next person might,” Omar claimed.
Should Omar Apologize for Her Comments? Yes, they were vile. No, she has a point. Your email By voting, you agree to receive email communication from The Political Insider. Click HERE for more information. Vote By voting, you agree to receive email communication from The Political Insider. Click HERE for more information.
Interviewer Gayle King interjected, “So you don’t regret your words either?”
“I do not,” she replied adding, “but I have gotten the – I’m grateful for the opportunity to really learn how my words made people feel and have taken every single opportunity I’ve gotten to make sure that people understood that I apologize for it.”
Rough translation – I’m sorry my vile comments offended, but that’s on you America.
CBS’s Gayle King asks Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) if she regrets her anti-Semitic remarks Omar responds: “I do not…” pic.twitter.com/1aiVasWdey — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 17, 2019
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King chimed in once more, giving Omar yet another opportunity to express remorse or possibly apologize. She inquired as to whether or not the lawmaker would like to make it “clear that you’re not anti-Semitic.”
“Oh certainly not,” Omar smiled.
“Would you like to make that clear?” King pressed.
“Yes, nothing I said, at least to me, was meant for that purpose,” Omar replied.
Again, she’s trying to say it’s those idiot Americans who simply didn’t understand what she was saying.
Here Are the Anti-Semitic Comments/Actions She Does Not Regret
Tweeted “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”
Said that Jewish lawmakers “have allegiance to a foreign country” regarding their support for Israel.
Badgered a Jewish diplomat in defense of a Venezuelan dictator, then blatantly lied on the record about his statements.
Tweeted that US support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins” and when she was asked what she meant, she responded “AIPAC!”
Is a big supporter of the anti-Semitic BDS movement.
Traveled with “a radical anti-American and anti-Israel organization” that sides with countries who are foes to the United States.
Why Would She Regret Them?
Why would she regret these things? She’s never been held accountable. She’s never been rebuked by name by her peers. She still holds a position on the Foreign Affairs Committee. And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi consistently defends her bigoted talk.
President Trump responded to Omar’s consistently anti-Semitic comments by calling on her to resign from Congress.
President Trump on anti-Semitic Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) “Her lame apology, and that’s what it was, it was lame, and she didn’t mean a word of it, was just not appropriate. I think she should resign from Congress.” pic.twitter.com/ZLFwDOttqa — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) February 12, 2019
Instead, Democrats and Pelosi have rushed to her defense time and again. The Speaker has become an enabler of Omar, much to the detriment of the rest of Congress and America.
Furthermore, Pelosi actually provided the blueprint that Omar used in refusing to accept regret for her comments.
“I think she has a different experience in the use of words, doesn’t understand that some of them are fraught with meaning, that she didn’t realize,” Pelosi has claimed.
That’s exactly what Omar repeated in this latest interview – that she doesn’t understand her words and how they might be interpreted. So long as the Democrat party continues to prop her up and provide her with excuses, Omar will never apologize or express remorse. | {
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not sure if happy to be single Or in denial
352 shares | {
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It’s become something of a cliché at this point to quip that we are living in the darkest of a series of possible timelines. Moving beyond this idea’s (arguably well-justified) cynicism, I think this trend is indicative of a renewed impulse toward collective reflection on our recent history and the choices that have led us to our current political moment.
It was this thought that kept coming to mind this week in my work curating games writing, and I think this is due to both the quality and quantity of writing I have found that reflects on the historicity of games, be it through the legacy of past feminist icons, archaeology, or even just some tired old tropes in the medium that really need to be put out to pasture.
This Week in Videogame Blogging is a roundup highlighting the most important critical writing on games from the past seven days.
Yesteryear’s Heroines
Two authors this week note the enduring legacy of women and feminist cultures and icons from the 90s. These legacies have continuing positive implications for games, both in game worlds and in the industry.
The Riot Grrrl spirit comes to video games • Eurogamer.net
Emily Gera traces parallels between the 90’s Riot Grrrl scene in punk music and contemporary indie DIY efforts to get girls and women involved in making games.
I Keep Playing ‘Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’ Because it Reminds me of Xena – Waypoint
Danielle Riendeau celebrates Kassandra’s queer lineage and traces it back to 90s TV.
“Odyssey, benefitting from one of the only good things of our era, lets you play Kassandra as queer as you like, if you prefer a lady (or dude, she can be straight, pan, bi, or queer!) in every port. As far as I can tell, there’s no Gabrielle stand-in, which is kind of sad, but so many other elements of Kassandra’s character and the tone of the world positively scream Xena.”
Digging into Games
Games are doubly preoccupied with history, firstly in their representation (or misrepresentation) of cultural practices of the past, and secondly as material artifacts which are themselves historical. These three standout articles approach this topic from different angles.
Traps, treasure and ancient tomb raiders • Eurogamer.net
Philip Boyes traces the historical precedent for the trope of the treasure-filled, booby-trapped tomb in games.
Atari: Game Over Featuring an Interview with Andrew Reinhard | Unwinnable
Megan Condis interviews Andrew Reinhard about the relationship between games and media archaeology, excavating Atari games in the desert, and the ethics of “archaeologist” characters in games.
History in Color | Unwinnable
Justin Reeve contrasts the depiction of Greek and Egyptian statues in the most recent two Assassin’s Creed games to chart the trajectory of orientalist cultural assumptions in the medium.
“Why does it matter that Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey has taken this different approach to Greek polychromy? Turning its back on the orientalist ideas which crept into Assassin’s Creed: Origins, Ubisoft has chosen to present the public with a more nuanced perspective on the past. Blurring the boundaries between the cultural traditions of Greece and Egypt, this perspective helps to put the myth of an opposition between Western restraint and Eastern extravagance to rest.”
Power Shift
I continue to read with interest about the particular ways in which games privilege power fantasies–often male, almost always individual. This week’s three authors showcased here find each find ways to poke holes in these frameworks in favour of a more critical approach.
“The aim is clearly to pull us into the game’s scenario by making us invest in decisions and outcomes, but the dynamic it creates interests me for another reason. Specifically, it mirrors an everyday experience in neoliberalized societies of facing myriad choices that demand our attention and make us fully accountable for our circumstances.”
From Margin to Centre
The ongoing project to decentre the straight, white, able-bodied male focus in games sees fruitful results this week with articles that look at language, queer masculine sexuality, and accessibility.
“A beat-em-up sex game could easily be about kink and nothing more, but Strange Flesh is, at its core, a game about making someone happy. With copious penis. Isn’t that just lovely?”
Taking out the Trash
It’s well-past time to get rid of more than a little exclusionary baggage in games and games culture. These three authors identify some great starting points.
Tomb Raider’s grisly death animations are outdated – Polygon
Mark Brown breaks down Tomb Raider‘s recent history of violent death scenes, framing it as an anachronism of design propped up by misogynist underpinnings of exploiting and “protecting” the female body (Content Notification: graphic violence).
Discord is a safe space for white supremacists.
April Glaser investigates how Discord abets and shelters hate groups, and creates an ideal environment for the indoctrination of impressionable players (Content Notification: reporting on/screenshots of white supremacist rhetoric).
Games really need to fall out of love with Lovecraft • Eurogamer.net
Sam Greer implores games to untether themselves from the racist, misogynist legacy of H.P. Lovecraft.
“The half-breed monsters that embody the very essence of Lovecraft’s revulsion, the troubled white male heroes that contain his arrogance and his gross simplification of mental illness are recreated in video games with no subversion, no critical thinking. In doing so they are breathing life, again and again, into Lovecraft’s hate.”
Narratives
Two very different articles this week tell very different stories about the storytelling process in games.
“The Nightmare Was Always the Same,” by Ed Smith – Bullet Points Monthly
Ed Smith meditates on nightmares, dream work, recovery, and guilt by way of Max Payne.
Let’s Place: The Forest With No Trees – Haywire Magazine
Daria Kalugina treks through nature landscapes in games and reflects on how they frame narratives and guide players.
“The landscape I’m placed in is not just a decoration – it responds to the story I play, absorbing its tension. It provides ground for the narrative and presents the constraints of the mechanics. It teaches me how gravity works, what the limits of my abilities are, whether I can swim in this water or will drown instantly.”
Just for Fun
It was inevitable that I was going to find a way to work Mario Party into this week’s roundup somehow.
We Debate Whether Super Mario Party Is Actually Evil (And Whether That’s Bad) | Kotaku
Cecilia D’Anastasio and the Kotaku Editors probe the saccharine agon of Super Mario Party, and in doing so take me back to a very real place in the late 90s when I had burned a hole into my hand with a Nintendo 64 controller.
“You lured me into your home with breakfast foods and then forced me to play Mario Party, a game where you don’t win so much as you run through a series of randomized gauntlets and pray to god that you don’t fall into an open manhole, of which there are a thousand. (I did not win.)”
Plugs
Ways to support our Work – I Need Diverse Games
I Need Diverse Games needs your help! Read on to find out how to support the awesome stuff they do. | {
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I picked up Tempest in a Teacup after stumbling onto this piece of art. To be honest, this is within the top 5 best Zutara artworks I've ever lain my eyes on - and trust me, I've been a part of the ATLA bubble for... a long, long time.
Anyway, I flipping love it! | {
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Thousands of years ago, sailors would spread seawater in flat beds aboard ship to let the sun evaporate it to separate out the salt. The same principle is behind a modern Israeli technology that relies on sun power to distill clean water for drinking and agriculture.
“About 97 percent of the world’s water is saltwater or polluted water,” says Shimmy Zimels, CEO of Jerusalem-based SunDwater. That is why some 750 million people in 45 countries need to drill expensive wells, buy bottled water or even use contaminated water despite the huge health risks.
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SunDwater’s solar-powered distiller, about to hit the market, is targeted at these populations — particularly in Africa, South America and parts of Asia. It’s a “green,” low-cost, low-maintenance system that converts dirty or salty water into potable water without any need for infrastructure or an external energy source.
The water is pumped into the unit, which is outfitted with a four-square-meter (43-square-foot) round photovoltaic dish that concentrates the sunbeams for fast evaporation. The water vapor flows into a cylinder where it gets condensed back into freshwater.
Replicating nature
The device was invented by Zimels’ childhood friend, product developer Shimon Ben-Dor, during the Israeli drought of 2009. A pre-market operational unit, set up in a sunny industrial park not far from the Dead Sea, produces 400 liters of clean water per day — five times the rate of similar systems. Several units could be linked to create a water farm, and a much larger version also is planned.
Sunlight is concentrated on the SunDwater dish so it doesn’t need a large footprint.
“This concept took several directions before Shimon decided to try getting heated water to evaporate and go back to its original molecular structure, which is what happens when it rains and the water evaporates up to the clouds,” Zimels tells ISRAEL21c. “His concept was to replicate what nature does.”
New water is constantly pumped back into the closed system as the water evaporates, Zimels adds. “There is no need for electricity. We are just using nature to improve nature itself, not creating new environmental problems.”
While in Israel the chronic shortage of freshwater has mostly been addressed with desalination plants, this expensive solution is not practical for larger countries with spread-out populations.
Accordingly, customers in India, Madagascar, Nigeria and other African countries have expressed interest in the product. SunDwater is working with WaterWays, an Israeli water consultancy for rural regions, to get the technology to areas of need in the most efficient manner.
“We believe in the long run the unit could be manufactured in the country where it will be installed, offering an added financial advantage to those countries,” says Zimels. SunDwater would provide installation and training for local operators.
“Now we need capital to start building the whole supply chain, to train the communities in need how to operate the unit and to continue the development and improvement of our solution.”
*Image via Shutterstock.com | {
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Marc-Edouard Vlasic didn't forget.
News broke Thursday morning that St. Louis Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist would have a hearing with the NHL's Department of Player Safety after boarding Boston Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday. The Blues eliminated the Sharks in the Western Conference finals in six games, and the San Jose defenseman invoked St. Louis forward Ivan Barbashev's high hit on Sharks center Tomas Hertl in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals in tweets to a pair of NHL insiders.
🤔 🤔 like Hertl — Marc-Édouard Vlasic (@Vlasic44) May 30, 2019
🤔🤔 like Hertl — Marc-Édouard Vlasic (@Vlasic44) May 30, 2019
A few hours later, Vlasic replied with the same message to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston's tweet from Gary Bettman's pre-Cup Final press conference. The tweet in question quoted Bettman's remarks on Timo Meier's uncalled hand pass that led to the Sharks' controversial overtime-winning goal in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals.
🤔🤔like Hertl — Marc-Édouard Vlasic (@Vlasic44) May 30, 2019
Unlike Grzelcyk, Hertl was not boarded on the hit in question back in the conference final. He was, however, hit in the head by Barbashev in the neutral zone when he didn't have the puck. Hertl continued to play in Game 5 but did not suit up for the third period. The Czech forward confirmed to reporters at the Sharks' end-of-season media availability that he sustained a head injury, and did not play in San Jose's season-ending Game 6.
Unlike Sundqvist, who the NHL announced was suspended for Saturday's Game 3 in St. Louis in a press release right around the start of Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night, Barbashev did not face any supplemental discipline. He wasn't penalized in the game and didn't face a hearing, either, and a source told ESPN's Greg Wyshynski earlier this month that the Department of Player Safety couldn't easily establish "that Hertl's head was the main point of contact ... considering that Barbashev also connected with Hertl's arms and shoulder." Barbashev scored an empty-net goal against the Sharks in Game 6, the final tally in St. Louis' conference-clinching win.
Minutes after the Sundqvist announcement, NBC Sports California analyst Jamie Baker shared one of Vlasic's tweets and voiced his displeasure with the Department of Player Safety.
Dear Player Safety. Shame on you! And you know it! And so do we! From many many ex-players! https://t.co/NMqvUsUG7J — Jamie Baker (@Bakes_Jamie13) May 31, 2019
I just want consistency and no hypocrisy which is unfortunately happening. The league has done a good job eliminating head shots but this years playoffs “Players Safety” has taken a step backwards. I’m not stepping out of bounds here either! https://t.co/2H2pl9eNPv — Jamie Baker (@Bakes_Jamie13) May 31, 2019
[RELATED: After scoring big goal in playoffs, what's next for Dylan Gambrell?]
The Sharks felt Hertl's absence when their season ended in Game 6 of the Western Conference final. If Vlasic's tweets are any indication, they won't forget it heading into the summer, either. | {
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With only moments to go before tonight’s Democratic debate, Bernie Sanders has finally dropped his universal health care plan. Exciting! I imagine that Team Clinton is poring over it pretty carefully right about now. Here’s what he says it does:
Bernie’s plan will cover the entire continuum of health care, from inpatient to outpatient care; preventive to emergency care; primary care to specialty care, including long-term and palliative care; vision, hearing and oral health care; mental health and substance abuse services; as well as prescription medications, medical equipment, supplies, diagnostics and treatments…As a patient, all you need to do is go to the doctor and show your insurance card. Bernie’s plan means no more copays, no more deductibles and no more fighting with insurance companies when they fail to pay for charges. ….Under this plan, a family of four earning $50,000 would pay just $466 per year to the single-payer program, amounting to a savings of over $5,800 for that family each year.
Well, that sure sounds good. And I’m all in favor of universal health care. But I’m also curious about how he’s going to provide comprehensive care like this with no payment by patients at all and at such a low cost. Here are his basic claims:
He will raise $630 billion by increasing the employer part of the payroll tax by 6.2 percent.
He will raise $220 billion via a 2.2 percent progressive income tax on everyone (he calls it a “premium”).
He will raise $548 billion in various taxes on the rich along with the end of current tax breaks that subsidize health care.
That’s a total of $1.4 trillion.
Current public spending on health care (mostly Medicare and Medicaid) runs around $1.2 trillion.
This means that Sanders is figuring that under his plan total national health care spending will be about $2.6 trillion.
This is considerably less than the $3 trillion we spend now, and Sanders also says his plan will keep spending growth down. This accounts for his claim that his plan will reduce total national spending on health care by $6 trillion over 10 years.
So is this credible? It’s close. His taxes will probably raise about what he says. I’m not sure that he can reduce spending as dramatically as he hopes, but he can probably reduce it some. In other words, his sums might not add up perfectly, but they’re pretty close.
If there’s anything to criticize, it’s his statement that the average family of four will pay only $466 per year. The problem here is that while his payroll tax might come from employers, it will end up being paid for by workers—just as existing employer health plans are ultimately paid for by workers. That would cost his family of four about $3,100, putting their total at around $3,600. And if you figure that Sanders is being optimistic about cost savings and will probably need to raise taxes more than he says, our family’s total bill probably clocks in at around $4,000.
That’s still not bad. An average family pays a whole lot more than that right now via employer health coverage and copays. There’s a wee bit of smoke and mirrors here—counting employer plans when he talks about savings but not counting employer taxes when he talks about costs—but that’s a small thing. Overall, his numbers are pretty honest.
As for the details of exactly how the plan would work, I don’t know. The document on Sanders’ website doesn’t say much about that. I assume there’s another document somewhere, or maybe more to come. Stay tuned. | {
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National Space Council's Scott Pace: “It’s a new challenge understanding how to asses those capabilities.”
WASHINGTON — There are at least 30 companies today that are operating Earth observation satellites or have announced their intentions to do so. “Not all will make it,” noted Jeff Tarr, former CEO of DigitalGlobe.
The ones that do break out of the pack will be partly due to government contracts. The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency is a giant buyer of commercial data. In the coming months, the responsibility for the procurement of satellite imagery will be taken over by the National Reconnaissance Office.
Whether it’s NGA or NRO, there are still questions on how government agencies should buy remote sensing data given the growing population of providers and diversity of products.
“It’s a new challenge understanding how to asses those capabilities,” said Scott Pace, executive secretary of the National Space Council, an interagency panel chaired by Vice President Mike Pence.
The market has changed from one that supplied mostly raw data to one that provides “higher value added products,” Pace said this week at a Hudson Institute event. The government sees this as a “geospatial information technology issue,” he said. Remote sensing satellite companies that don’t move up the value chain may end up with “fewer buyers.”
The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces in its mark of the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act asks intelligence agencies to explain their buying strategy. “The acquisition of commercial imagery should take advantage of a broad swath of U.S. industry capabilities by contracting with several providers to leverage high-resolution providers, global coverage, high revisit rates and cost-effective services that are rapidly emerging within industry,” said the subcommittee bill.
Officials are working on a plan to transition commercial imagery acquisition from NGA to NRO in fiscal year 2019. The committee wants the directors of both agencies to brief defense and intelligence committees on the details by August 1. The bill calls for an “open and fair competitive acquisition process to leverage industry capabilities, including but not limited to plans following the EnhancedView contract.”
EnhancedView is the NGA’s commercial imagery program. The agency in 2010 awarded DigitalGlobe and GeoEye $3.5 billion and $3.8 billion contracts respectively in a 10-year deal. DigitalGlobe acquired GeoEye in 2012 and now is the primary supplier of imagery to NGA.
NRO Director Betty Sapp broke the news about EnhancedView last month at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. “NRO and NGA are working together to make sure that transfer is seamless,” she said. “The potential gain for the future is huge. We see a real opportunity for synergy in operations, acquisition and delivery timelines.”
NGA Director Robert Cardillo told reporters last week at the GEOINT Symposium in Tampa, Fla.: “We are in discussion about making that transition.”
Regardless of which agency gets to oversee or sign off on contracts, “What’s not changing is my functional management role, my responsibility to present data,” Cardillo said.
There are two years left in the DigitalGlobe’s EnhancedView contract. “It comes up for renewal in August,” said Cardillo. “We need to figure out the mechanics of such a change if we decide it’s in our interest to make that move,” he said of the transfer to the NRO. Although the NRO would execute the contract, “it would still be under my responsibly to document the needs against which that contract will operate.”
The upside of turning this job over to the NRO? “Betty could create some synergy between the processing of commercial and government imagery, storage, transport, make it a truly unified architecture,” said Cardillo.
DigitalGlobe’s Chief Technology Officer Walter Scott told SpaceNews that the company is not concerned about the looming changes. “We work well with both organizations,” he said of NGA and NRO. “We’re happy to serve the U.S. government.”
“Which agency is in charge is less important than the mission,” he said. “We’re confident that the demand for what we provide will continue.”
The fact that NRO is “embracing commercial” is good news for the industry, said Scott. “It enables NRO to do leading edge things. You have seen this happen in other industries. Any technology that matures allows government agencies to push things for which there is no commercial market.”
If and when the NRO solicits competitive bids for a new EnhancedView contract, DigitalGlobe will face tough competition from companies like Airbus and Planet. “We believe we’re uniquely situated,” said Scott. “There isn’t anybody that can deliver the resolution, the accuracy and capacity that we deliver.”
There are more companies in the remote sensing business, “but I don’t see direct competitors. I see complements, players in the industry in places that may not have been served,” said Scott. “There are lower resolution, higher frequency players, others focused on analytics,” he added. “Early players may have to be highly vertically integrated as the industry matures. It’s possible to not have to carry all the load and focus on specific things a company does well.”
DigitalGlobe is building a new Worldview Legion constellation that is scheduled to launch in 2021. “It will give us more high demand capacity in parts the world where most people live, and ensures continuity of services as Worldview 1 and 2 reach their end of life in the next decade.”
A Planet spokeswoman said the company “will pursue business opportunities where we know our unique capabilities can deliver value.”
Cardillo said competition is welcome. “I love all these companies,” he said of the new crop of small satellite startups, each trying to find its niche. NGA doesn’t want to “drive” the market, he said. “I want the market to work. But the government shouldn’t be their first customer. We should be their second customer.” | {
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Many Hezbollah fighters believe their Iranian supervisor in Syria views them as easily replaceable Arab cannon fodder, and the resultant tension is generating disillusionment about Tehran's claims of pan-Shiite unity.
The deteriorating relations between Hezbollah and Syrian regime fighters are no longer secret. Lebanese social media platforms affiliated with Shiite supporters of Hezbollah are replete with mockery of the Syrian army's incompetence, corruption, clumsiness, cowardice, and lack of resources. Bashar al-Assad's forces are often blamed for causing Hezbollah losses or hampering operations against the rebels. While this trend has seemingly inflated egos among the group's core supporters back home, it also suggests that political and military alliances are more complicated on the ground in Syria.
Relations between Hezbollah fighters and their commanders in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are similarly complicated, but much more problematic to discuss publicly. Hezbollah remains Iran's most skilled militia, but anecdotal accounts indicate that it may no longer enjoy its privileged status with Tehran, at least in terms of how its forces are treated on the battlefield. The war in Syria has uncovered Iran's true expansionist intentions, along with a Persian arrogance toward Arab Shiites that Hezbollah fighters are not used to.
To get a better sense of how the group's members perceive these dynamics, this article draws on author interviews with a large number of Hezbollah fighters and commanders. Although there is no way to tell how representative their views are, the high level of agreement they express on certain issues is telling. In particular, they tend to blame IRGC-Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani for the deteriorating relations.
THE SOLEIMANI EFFECT
After Soleimani was dispatched to Syria in the early days of the war, the Hezbollah-Iran dynamic changed quickly. The group's commanders had already been working under the IRGC's supervision for years, but Soleimani reportedly began micromanaging their military operations to an unprecedented degree. This shift, coupled with Soleimani's strict command over the consolidated Iraqi, Afghani, and Pakistani Shiite militias fighting in Syria, highlighted the complex relations between Persian and Arab Shiites. Frequent appeals to sectarian identity had brought all Shiite militias under the IRGC flag during the course of the war, but this unity has since been challenged by deep-rooted Persian-Arab tensions. Those who have fought under Soleimani tend to remark on this tension; as one Hezbollah fighter told the author in December, "It was clear to many of us that [Soleimani's] priority was to protect the Iranians, and that [Hezbollah fighters] and all non-Iranian Shiites could be sacrificed."
Similarly, a number of other fighters have complained of being abandoned by their Iranian and Iraqi Shiite allies on the battlefield. Such incidents apparently led to many losses among Hezbollah's ranks, and some fighters subsequently refused to fight under Iranian commanders. Likewise, many interviewees complained about the "stingy" and "arrogant" manner in which Iranians treat Arab fighters. As one fighter put it, "Sometimes I feel I'm fighting alongside strangers who do not care if I am dead...We should ask ourselves why we couldn't accomplish anything in Syria, although we have advanced weapons, while the old Hezbollah generation achieved so much with more traditional weapons. We are fighting in the wrong land."
Soleimani seems to have little tolerance for such criticism. According to one commander, "When complaints increased and the Hezbollah leadership stalled Soleimani's requests to send more fighters to Aleppo, he cut salaries for three months, or until Hezbollah did what he asked." Yet while most of the interviewees dislike him and his apparent disdain toward Arabs, they do respect and fear him, with the understanding that the relationship is now a boss-employee situation rather than a partnership. As a result, many veteran fighters have come to believe that the notion of a "unified Shiite identity" is a fiction, and they are returning home as disillusioned Lebanese Arabs rather than victorious pan-Shiite warriors.
THE NEW HEZBOLLAH FIGHTER?
Although Hezbollah's leadership has sought to link the Syria war to grander goals -- namely, the longstanding posture of "resistance" toward Israel, and the more recent call to defeat takfiri (heretical) Sunni Islamist groups such as the Islamic State -- many fighters are unconvinced. They are cynical about this rhetoric because most of their battles have been aimed at propping up the Assad regime, not fighting the Islamic State. Many fighters also believe that they are paying all the costs while Iranians are reaping the benefits. As a result, significant numbers of veterans have been leaving Hezbollah, making room for a new and rather different crop of younger fighters.
According to some members who have taken leave from the war or quit entirely, the newcomers are not joining the fight for reasons of ideology or self-realization. They are there to collect a salary or secure their future -- they are not particularly concerned about Hezbollah's broader mission, and they tend to follow Iranian orders without complaining.
At the same time, however, the newcomers are apparently less loyal than their predecessors, and less well trained. According to Lebanese media reports, new fighters do not get more than a month or two of training before being thrown into battle. Previously, Hezbollah spent decades screening and preparing its fighters. The group's leaders picked the creme-de-la-creme of young Shiites to join their ranks because they wanted loyal and trustworthy men. Today, Hezbollah's army in Syria is full of unreliable young fighters who have no real moral compass.
REPERCUSSIONS IN LEBANON
The changes within Hezbollah's fighting force are reflecting gravely on the Shiite community back home. Given the war's general unpopularity and severe economic effects, Lebanese Shiites have become more isolated. They are also struggling to deal with returning fighters who often have a deleterious effect on their hometowns, whether by behaving aggressively, attempting to dictate local lifestyles, or generally instilling chaos. Government statistics are showing historically high rates of drug use, small crime, and unemployment, especially in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiya, a Hezbollah stronghold. Even more disturbing is the absence of serious measures to counter these social problems. Lebanese authorities are not allowed to do anything in Dahiya without Hezbollah's cooperation, but the group has seemingly done little to address the problems itself. In short, while many Shiites still view Hezbollah as their only protector and provider, they have not felt well protected or provided for in quite some time.
Hezbollah cannot keep absorbing these blows to its image for long, but Iran and Soleimani do not seem bothered by the situation, regarding it as Hezbollah's problem. Whenever the group's fighters leave Syria, they are immediately replaced by Iraqi Shiites who do not have the same domestic concerns about preserving the "resistance" against Israel. The fact that Tehran and Hezbollah sometimes differ in priorities and methods is hardly breaking news; among other past instances, Iranian leaders were less than thrilled about Hezbollah's decision to launch a war with Israel in 2006. Likewise, Hezbollah fighters are not the only proxies that have chafed at Iranian arrogance; for example, captured Iraqi militants interrogated by U.S. authorities reportedly criticized their condescending Iranian trainers and advisors. Yet Iran's Iraqi allies continue to soldier on in Syria even as Hezbollah veterans increasingly quit the field, so the current tensions should not be downplayed.
Several factors may help explain this trend -- Hezbollah's drastic rhetorical shift from "resisting Israel" to "fighting Sunnis," the ever-worsening shortage of social services in Lebanon, the failure to achieve the promised "divine victory," and the "bossy" attitude of the group's supposed Iranian partners. Whatever the case, Hezbollah has lost some of its "sacredness" in Lebanon -- for many Shiites, pursuing an alternative identity, narrative, or way of life is no longer viewed as futile.
One thing that could revive Shiite public support for Hezbollah at home is a confrontation with Israel. Although open war is not in the cards at the moment, post-Aleppo military operations in Syria have brought Hezbollah forces back to Lebanon's borders, creating an opportunity for renewed anti-Israel rhetoric and provocations.
Alternatively, if Washington turns up the heat on Hezbollah amid increasing U.S.-Iranian tensions, the group may try to cast itself as a victim in order to regain public support. America's interests would therefore be better served if its future actions against Hezbollah include a plan for exploiting the fissures and contradictions within the Shiite community (e.g., by creating economic and employment alternatives for potential recruits). Otherwise, Hezbollah will no doubt use any confrontation to bring the Shiites back to their sectarian base.
Hanin Ghaddar, a veteran Lebanese journalist and researcher, is the Friedmann Visiting Fellow at The Washington Institute. | {
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There have been moves across the country to mark Tubman's role in the movement to abolish slavery. A new park and museum about her life opened in Dorchester County in March and there are plans to place a statue of her on the State House grounds in Annapolis. | {
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Peak Oil Peak Oil: An Update By Ryan McGreal
Published February 26, 2007
RTH hasn't published much about the peak oil hypothesis recently; not because we've given up on the theory, but because not much has happened recently to cause us to revise our assessment of the situation.
The Oil Drum just analyzed the latest data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), and their graph of total world production is instructive:
EIA World Oil Production, 1980 - 2007 (Source: The Oil Drum)
After two decades of almost continuous growth, global oil production has been stagnant around 84 million barrels a day for the past two years. This, of course, is exactly consistent with the peak oil hypothesis, which predicts that supply constraints will force up prices, destroying growth in demand.
It will be some years before we can tell for certain, but it is entirely possible that we're in the middle of peak oil right now. That's certainly consistent with the predictions of Kenneth Deffeyes, Colin Campbell, Matthew Simmons, and other geologists and oil industry analysts.
This hasn't stopped the peak oil deniers from continuing to press their suit. Vaclav Smil, an instructor at the University of Manitoba, recently wrote an article for TCS Daily, a right-wing web magazine, that manages to obfuscate mightily on the matter.
Proving that you can demonstrate any trend if you pick the right start and end dates, Smil argued that a modest recent increase was evidence that the peak oilers are wrong, even as OPEC cut its production. (Of course, he fails to consider that perhaps OPEC cut its production because it cannot continue to expand it.)
He crowed about the fact that oil prices dropped from over $70 a barrel in July 2006 to $55 in December. As I write this, Bloomberg reports that futures are trading for $61 a barrel.
He also took Saudi Aramco at its word that it can increase production to 11 million BPD by 2011, even though the company already admitted that it cannot entirely offset declines in its Ghawar oilfield.
Flat production is flat production. Despite the very high prices and widespread demand destruction, especially in poorer countries, oil producers have not brought more supply on-stream. That's just bizarre, unless the oil producers can't bring more supply on-stream.
Some of the biggest producers - Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and the North Sea - are past their production peaks and declining inexorably. The smaller producers can barely replace those declines, let alone produce a net increase.
Are we really to believe that OPEC simply cut their production because they like pricing their customers out of the market?
Ryan McGreal, the editor of Raise the Hammer, lives in Hamilton with his family and works as a programmer, writer and consultant. Ryan volunteers with Hamilton Light Rail, a citizen group dedicated to bringing light rail transit to Hamilton. Ryan wrote a city affairs column in Hamilton Magazine, and several of his articles have been published in the Hamilton Spectator. His articles have also been published in The Walrus, HuffPost and Behind the Numbers. He maintains a personal website, has been known to share passing thoughts on Twitter and Facebook, and posts the occasional cat photo on Instagram.
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FLORENCE — For decades scholars have labored to find a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, believed by many to be hidden behind a fresco by Giorgio Vasari in the Palazzo Vecchio here. Now — thanks to an unusual marriage of art history and nuclear physics, partly arranged by an unassuming freelance photographer — the quest may soon be over.
Better yet, it may end with a photographic image of the lost mural.
The complex tale begins in the 1970s, when the Florentine art historian Maurizio Seracini became convinced that the mural, “The Battle of Anghiari,” hailed by some in Leonardo’s era as his finest work, was lurking behind the wall-sized Vasari in the Hall of Five Hundred, for centuries the seat of Florence’s government.
With its violent, bucking horses and bloodthirsty soldiers brandishing swords in the scrum of warfare, “The Battle of Anghiari,” which Leonardo began in 1505 and appears to have abandoned the following year, was hailed as a triumph and copied by many artists until it mysteriously disappeared sometime in the mid-16th century. (A well-known Rubens drawing in the Louvre was inspired by an anonymous copy of the wall-size battle scene.)
A combination of historical sleuthing and scientific analysis led Mr. Seracini to venture that Vasari covered Leonardo’s oil painting with a protective wall, then painted his own fresco on top, where it remains today. (Vasari was commissioned to create the fresco in 1563 by members of the Medici family, who had returned to power after an interlude of republican government.) | {
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A world away, Liam Hendriks had to do something to help everyone affected by the ravaging fires back home in Australia.
The Oakland Athletics reliever campaigned on social media to do his part for the cause, no matter he grew up on the country's West Coast in Perth where the massive bush fires haven't been as devastating. He made a quick visit this offseason.
On Instagram, Hendriks encouraged contributions to Red Cross Australia. While he fully supported everyone rescuing koala bears and other animals from the flames, he also wanted to make sure the people affected received necessary support.
“Nothing is ever enough but the response was always positive, which is highly unusual for social media regardless of the tack you're taking," Hendriks said before a recent spring training workout. “We got a decent chunk of change that we sent over there. Hopefully it helps make a difference, but at the end of the day there's only so much we can do from over here. The awareness is the biggest part we're trying to raise."
Nobody is surprised to see Hendriks helping out. Everything he does is with a passion and care — known well for his thoughtful work off the field as much as his intensity on it.
Hendriks' reliability in the ninth inning has earned him a solid reputation, too. But you won't hear Hendriks say it. He plans to earn the job again.
“I don't want to be complacent,” he said. “Going out there and making sure I put everything on the line every night is a big thing for me.”
The Oakland closer received a nice raise when he signed a $5.3 million, one-year contract last month to avoid salary arbitration.
The 31-year-old Hendriks is approaching this season as if he has everything to prove once again. He plans to take the mound each opportunity he gets exhibiting the confidence that he can and will repeat what he did last season.
The right-hander, a former opener for the A's, went 4-4 with a 1.80 ERA and 25 saves over a career-high 75 appearances spanning 85 innings.
“I don't want to dwell too much on last year because I don't want to rest on my laurels. I don't want to go out there and be like, ‘Oh, I had my good year, I can ride that wave as long as I can,’” Hendriks said. “I want to go out there and prove that it wasn't a fluke. I want to go out there and prove that no matter what happened last year I still need to win the job this year. I don't want to be gifted anything. I don't want to be given anything, I want to go out there and make sure that in spring training I prove that I want this role, I want this job and I'm going to run away with it and prove to everybody why I want it.”
Hendriks became a key piece for A’s manager Bob Melvin late in games last season as Oakland earned the AL's top wild card before losing to Tampa Bay.
Considering his topsy-turvy history, Melvin is hardly surprised by Hendriks' focus.
He got designated for assignment on June 25, 2018 — and has been through that almost a half-dozen times now — before starting Oakland's 7-2 wild-card loss at Yankee Stadium just more than three months later.
“You would expect that from somebody that's been through the trials and tribulations that he's been over his career, so I think it is more about him not relaxing at all,” Melvin said. “He wants to be pushed, he wants to earn everything that he gets. He's come a long way. He had as dominant a year really as anybody in baseball.”
He has learned from other times when he thought things were going smoothly, saying, “I don't like feeling like I've got it in the bag because as soon as I do something's always going to pop up,” Hendriks said.
“I dealt with certain things very poorly in the past and my mindset to get over that was expect the worst and hope for the best,” he said. “Expect the worst and if something good happens you're able to handle it, rather than expecting things and if they didn't come to fruition, falling out a rabbit hole and being kind of self-deprecating and all that.”
Starter Mike Fiers appreciates Hendriks' determination and focus to again show why he is fit to be the ninth-inning option.
“Everyone has their ups and downs, and that's similar to how I am. I don't want to just sit back and be like ‘Listen, I’ve got the job,'" Fiers said. “You have that mindset to also prove to your teammates. You can't just go in there and give it up in spring training. You want to put your teammates at ease that you're working hard and you're getting the job done and that you're ready to go when Day 1 comes. We've got a lot of guys here that will hold you accountable. This team plays the game hard, no one's trying to lose but no one's trying to not work either. You don't put in the work and people notice that, on any team. So that's good to have that mindset where he's trying to win the job. It's awesome to hear that.”
The approach might seem simple — just go out each day to show your worth.
“It feels right,” Hendriks said. “You pick it up and take it.” | {
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Subtests & Sub-benchmarks in Go1.7
Table-driven benchmarking
In Go1.7, `testing` package will supports subtests and sub-benchmarks. With this feature, you can define tests/benchmarks in a test/benchmark function. It’s easy to create hierarchical tests or table-driven sub-benchmarks. It also provides a way to share common setup and tear-down code.
This feature may have less benefits on tests because normally table-driven tests is enough. It will improve your benchmarks codes a lot.
Let me show some sample codes. For example, when you want to take benchmark of function `Foo` with different configuration, before Go1.7, you need to prepare functions for each configuration.
// you need to prepare functions for each bench mark setting
func BenchmarkFoo1(b *testing.B) { benchFoo(b, 1) }
func BenchmarkFoo10(b *testing.B) { benchFoo(b, 10) }
func BenchmarkFoo100(b *testing.B) { benchFoo(b, 100) } // helper function to run Foo with different config
func benchFoo(b *testing.B, config int) {
for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
Foo(base)
}
If you use Sub-benchmarks feature in Go1.7, you can write this benchmark like the following.
func BenchmarkFoo(b *testing.B) {
cases := []struct {
Config int
}{
{Config: 1},
{Config: 10},
{Config: 100},
} for _, bc := range cases {
b.Run(fmt.Sprintf(“%d”, bc.Config), func(b *testing.B) { benchFoo(b, bc.Base) })
}
}
You can use table-driven approach! It’s simple and easy to read (Benchmark name will be Top level function name + first argument of `Run` method. e.g., `BenchmarkFoo/1`, `BenchmarkFoo/2`… )
If you check standard library changes in Go1.7, you can see it benefits from sub-benchmarks a lot. The followings are some of examples, | {
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Toronto police are investigating after a person allegedly sprayed an unknown substance on a TTC bus.
Emergency crews were called to the scene on Jane Street and Eddystone Avenue, near Finch, just after 8 a.m. on Tuesday.
Police said passengers on the bus complained about breathing problems and one person is complaining about a burning sensation in their chest.
Authorities are searching for the suspect.
No further details have been confirmed at this time.
This comes a few days after a man allegedly approached two passengers on the Spadina subway line and sprayed them with an unknown substance.
One of the victims was taken to an area hospital suffering from redness and irritation to the eyes.
That suspect is still at large. Police say he is considered violent and dangerous.
He is described as being six-feet tall, wearing a black leather jacket, grey hoodie, black pants, dark shoes with white laces. He was carrying a small spray bottle. | {
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When she first got into the field in the mid-1970s, Julia Heiman received all manner of responses when she told people she was a sex researcher.
"It varied from people wanting to talk to me for forever and about everything to people being very put off and feeling like that just wasn't the right thing to do, or being embarrassed," recalls Heiman, now director of the famed Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University in Bloomington. Often, she adds, they asked questions that science could not yet answer.
As a doctoral student at Stony Brook University, she studied the way people physically experience different states of emotion. But as Masters and Johnson published their groundbreaking books on sexual response and dysfunction, she shifted her focus, eventually researching the way treatment for sexual problems can improve relationships inside and outside the bedroom.
She taught at the University of Washington for 23 years; as her career progressed, she found that the most ardent philosophical resistance -- and often the biggest roadblock to research funding -- came from people who "didn't think that something like this should be studied," she says. "They were afraid -- and this is not a silly concern -- that if we studied it, it would some how spoil it."
But her experience has been the opposite. Heiman, now 62, found that "if you did a really careful job of it, it would reveal more complexities and surprises and maybe even challenge ideas that we had."
When she arrived at the Kinsey Institute in 2004, she and her colleagues worked to broaden its research focus. Scientists associated with the lab are now studying stress responses in women with post-partum depression, mistakes made by condom users, the impact condoms have on sexual sensitivity and the way hormone levels vary among women in different parts of the world. Some of the studies add to our general knowledge of human sexuality while others may have immediate applicability. The research on condom sensitivity, for instance, may help manufacturers produce a product more people will be willing to use.
Heiman herself is in the process of publishing results from a multi-year study looking at the relationship satisfaction of men and women from five countries who've been married more than 20 years. In men she found that a number of factors could predict relationship satisfaction, including health, sexual functioning and intimacies like kissing and cuddling. In women, only sexual functioning -- level of desire, frequency of arousal and orgasm -- seemed to predict satisfaction. That, Heiman says, "was really different from what we expected."
The institute is also studying sexually aggressive young men in the hopes that understanding them "might help us propose some new ideas on the prevention of sexual violence."
Sexual violence is among the main areas where Heiman would like to see more research dollars directed. She'd also like to see sex research, which has boomed during her three decades in the field, further our comprehension of how couples form and stay together and the role sex plays in that process.
To this day, people still ask Heiman questions that sex researchers have not yet solved, like what factors shape sexual identity and how sexual activity affects our overall health. "There's a lot more we need to understand," she says.
And if we did understand more, she adds, "I think we'd be better off as a culture and take better care of one another." | {
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Ain’t No Party Like This Tea Party
New Yorker hosts a Thursday tea party in Bryant Park
NEW YORK–This city is known for its fast pace of life, and New Yorkers are constantly on the move. However, one woman has made a point of taking a pause and getting to know her neighbors.
Five years ago, Liz Gannon-Graydon would go with her children to Broadway in Bryant Park on Thursdays. On a Thursday evening during the summer, the former teacher was in the park with her kids and friends. Some of the group walked to a nearby kiosk for coffee, but Gannon-Graydon wasn’t interested. One pal mentioned she was more of a tea drinker, and Gannon-Graydon said she was as well.
However, the friend said she really only enjoyed drinking tea out of a proper teacup. From that point, an idea was born.
At first, it started off as a small operation. Gannon-Graydon would bring a couple of china teacups that belonged to her mother and grandmother, and decided to grab a few extra cups in case people stopped by. Then she thought she’d also bring a nice tablecloth.
“That was how it started almost accidentally as a way to just kind of have a nice tea party in the park,” she told The Epoch Times.
For the last five years from the first week of March through the Christmas season, she has been hosting a free tea party in Bryant Park on Thursdays from noon until nightfall, weather permitting. However, this isn’t some minor operation.
To prepare, Gannon-Graydon wakes up at 5 a.m., and starts making seasonal baked goods, which she and friends pack along with about 35 teacups and saucers, tablecloths, napkins, sandwiches, and of course, tea leaves. She then travels from her home on Long Island into the city. When arriving in Bryant Park, she corrals some tables and chairs and sets up.
Around the same time she started her tea party in Bryant Park, her father was slipping deeper into Alzheimer’s. However, it was something he had said when she was a child that stuck with her.
“My dad had been a college professor and a civil rights activist in the 60s, and my first memory of the world was the assassination of Martin Luther King [Jr.],” she said.
“I was four years old, and I didn’t understand it, and was asking my dad to kind of explain how that could happen, and he said ‘Liz, there are things we are never going to understand, but the work that Martin left undone was the work of creating the beloved community.’ And he said ‘That’s your job. You’re here to create beloved community.'”
Gannon-Graydon tries to create that sense of fellowship with her tea parties. She sets up the gathering with the idea that everyone and anyone is welcome. There are about 15 regulars, but anyone who walks by is also offered an invitation. If they make eye contact with her, she asks them to sit down.
The only people who passed by and she did not ask to join are Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, because she didn’t want anyone to think the invitation had anything to do with their celebrity status.
Perfect Strangers
She usually starts off with an icebreaking question to connect with the strangers that stop by. The conversation varies from topic to topic depending on the day and who shows up, and she tries not to steer the discussion. Guests include teenagers, professionals, the homeless, and tourists.
“For me, it’s about connecting with people at the level of their stories, and what they want to share,” Gannon-Graydon explained.
She vividly remembers a woman last year, who was seeking money and may have been homeless, stroll past the tea party. The hostess doesn’t carry any cash when she comes into the city, but she invited the woman to join them.
The stranger started to cry, and told the group about how she used to have tea parties with her grandmother with teacups just like Gannon-Graydon’s. The woman returns to the party every now and then.
Another regular is an 80-year-old who plays piano in the park. When he sat down at the tea party, the attendees learned that he was the first African-American to work at a New York advertising agency.
Beauty
Dave, one of her regulars, recently told Gannon-Graydon why he comes to the tea party every week: “Because there are very few places that an adult can come and just feel unconditionally loved, and when I come to your table I just feel unconditionally loved,” he said.
The tea party fosters a sense of community, even amongst strangers in the nation’s largest city. It’s a place where people can sit and enjoy each other’s company without any other agenda. Also, the aesthetic aspect of using real china and going all out with tablecloths and baked goods is therapeutic.
“I think the beauty matters. I think sometimes in the city we can get stuck … there’s a lot of kind of negative or ugliness going on, and the fact that we take our time to really make it beautiful, I think matters to people,” she explained.
Seeing the smiles on people’s faces and the sense of connection is incredibly gratifying for Gannon-Graydon, who just wants everyone to know they are welcome.
“I’m a native New Yorker, and I feel like people have this vision of what New York is, but I find New Yorkers are really warm, beautiful people if you get them to slow down enough to connect with one another … that’s what I try to do.” | {
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Image copyright Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Image caption Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained in Iran since April 2016
A British-Iranian mother detained in Iran has begun a new hunger strike.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was jailed for five years in 2016 after being convicted of spying, which she denies.
Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who is joining her in refusing food, said she wanted her unconditional release.
It comes amid growing tensions between the UK and Iran, after Britain said the Iranian regime was "almost certainly" responsible for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
Iran has denied being behind Thursday's explosions but the UK Foreign Office said "no other state or non-state actor could plausibly have been responsible".
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt urged Iran to "do the right thing" and release Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
"Our message to Iran is whatever the disagreements you may have with the United Kingdom, there is an innocent woman at the heart of this," he said.
Mr Ratcliffe said he had received a phone call from his wife to tell him she had informed the Iranian judiciary that she had begun a hunger strike - although she would still drink water - to protest against her "unfair imprisonment".
He added that his wife sounded "nervous but calm".
"Her demand from the strike, she said, is for unconditional release.
"She has long been eligible for it. I do not know the response from the Iranian authorities," he said.
He said his wife had made the decision following the fifth birthday of their daughter, Gabriella.
Gabriella has not been allowed to leave Iran following her mother's arrest and is living with her maternal grandparents.
"Nazanin had vowed that if we passed Gabriella's fifth birthday with her still inside, then she would do something - to mark to both governments - that enough is enough," Mr Ratcliffe said.
"This really has gone on too long."
Image copyright Free Nazanin Image caption Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe saw her daughter, Gabriella, during a temporary release from prison in August last year
Friends and family gathered outside the Iranian embassy in London on Saturday, singing Happy Birthday via a video call to Gabriella, who celebrated her birthday on 11 June, and sharing a unicorn-shaped birthday cake.
As he began his own hunger strike, Mr Ratcliffe said: "I said that if she did it again I would stand in solidarity with her.
"A hunger strike in prison, nobody gets to see it - a hunger strike here is much more public. I will keep her story public."
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe previously undertook a three-day hunger strike in protest at being denied specialist medical care.
The next UK prime minister should make it their top priority to "protect British citizens from unfair imprisonment, from torture", said Mr Ratcliffe.
'Heart-breaking'
Mr Ratcliffe has urged the Iranian authorities to allow British embassy officials to visit her to check on her health during her hunger strike.
He said that if she was not freed within the next few weeks, he wanted the Iranians to grant a visa so he could visit her himself.
The 40-year-old aid worker was arrested at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport in April 2016 and has always maintained the visit was to introduce her daughter, Gabriella, to her relatives.
She is serving a five-year sentence in Tehran's Evin Prison.
Mr Hunt granted Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe diplomatic protection in March, but Tehran refuses to acknowledge her dual nationality.
Amnesty International UK's director Kate Allen said her plight was "truly heart-breaking".
"Nazanin is a prisoner of conscience, unfairly jailed after a sham trial and subjected to all manner of torments - including months in solitary confinement and endless game-playing over whether she would receive vital medical care," she said. | {
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At least nine people were arrested Thursday night related to protests at the University of California, Berkeley, over an appearance by former Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro.
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said the security measures could cost $600,000. Mogulof called the speech "a successful event" and said the university was committed to hosting speakers like Shapiro in the future.
The evening did have its share of hiccups. Police said three arrests were weapons-related. Among them:
-- Hannah Benjamin, 20, was arrested for battery on a police officer and carrying a banned weapon.
-- Sarah Roark, 44, was taken into custody for carrying a banned weapon.
The arrests were announced on the police Twitter account.
The demonstrators, however, were largely peaceful. Some chanted against fascism, white supremacists and President Donald Trump. Others were holed up inside a student building, waving signs protesting the university's decision to allow Shapiro on campus.
Inside the hall, Shapiro addressed a friendly crowd. He encouraged people to hold civil discussions with people who have different opinions, saying that's what America is all about. He condemned white supremacists as "a very small select group of absolutely terrible people who believe absolutely terrible things."
The campus and surrounding Berkeley streets were under tight security after a series of previous events turned violent.
City and campus officials anticipated protests against Shapiro, and prepared for possible violence with a variety of new strategies and tightened security. It was not immediately clear whether the people arrested Thursday were protesters.
The Berkeley College Republicans invited right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos to speak last February, but the event was abruptly canceled when masked left-wing anarchists rioted outside the event to shut it down.
A planned speech by author Ann Coulter was canceled in April.
Police with riot gear surrounded the plaza outside Zellerbach Hall, where Shapiro spoke.
For the first time in two decades, officers were armed with pepper spray after the city council modified a 1997 ban at an emergency meeting this week.
"We have seen extremists on the left and right in our city," said Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, a Democrat who backed the police request to use pepper spray. "We need to make sure violence is not allowed."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | {
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Yo ho ho! Need we say more? Read on…
Pieces of Hate
Avast ye! Rabid Jack is back, and he’s launching an attack on Mos Le’Harmless complete with zombie pirates, leviathans, and puns that’ll make you say garrr! So batten down the hatches, mateys, because it’s time to conclude our Fifth Age pirate quest line with an anchor-dropping finARRRle! Here’s what you’ll need:
81 Construction
82 Firemaking
83 Agility
85 Thieving
110 combat (recommended)
Completion of Gertrude’s Cat
Completion of A Clockwork Syringe
If you’re ready to weigh anchor, chat to that landlubber Postie Pete by any Player Owned House portal. Savvy? Now, let’s send ‘em down to Davy Jones’ Locker—no parley!
Player Gallery
Player Gallery is back to celebrate the release of Pieces of Hate, and we want to see your ARRRT!
Send us your pirate-themed artwork for a chance to win prizes worth of a pirate’s treasure:
Top ten: a month of free membership
Third place: a month of free membership and three bonds
Second place: a month of free membership, three bonds, and 400 RuneCoins.
First place: a month of free membership, three bonds, 400 RuneCoins, and a unique, 3D-printed, hand-painted figurine of the newly graphically updated Barrelchest!
Let your creativity set sail! Post your artwork on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram using #ARRRtGallery, or send it over to us at [email protected]. Check out all details on this forum thread.
Patch Notes
You can find this week's patch notes here.
Enjoy!
What do pirates say when they step on Lego? Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!
The RuneScape Team
LootScape!
Tune in for our live streams every month to get in-game goodies!
Just connect your RuneScape account to your Twitch account and tune into one of our Tuesday, Friday or Sunday live streams to get your free stuff!
The LootScape item for March is an additional Clue Scroll based on your level, with a small chance to upgrade any Elite Scroll received to a Master Scroll. Tasty!
Live Streams
Each week we live stream Q&As, in-game events and more. Watch our streams and find out more information about our streams over on our Twitch channel. Check our YouTube channel, too, for recap videos of streams you may have missed.
Tuesday, March 20th | 17:00 UTC (Game Time) | March Mobile Showcase
Join our JMods for a Mobile showcase. We’ll be showing gameplay, completing challenges and giving you a sneak peek of what you can expect from RS Mobile. Watch live on Twitch and YouTube—be sure not to miss it!
LootScape will be enabled, and the item for March—an additional Clue Scroll based on your level—will be a guaranteed drop.
Sunday, March 25th | 19:00 UTC (Game Time) | PvM with Mod Lee
Join our resident PvM expert with another mass this Sunday!
LootScape will be enabled, and the item for March—an additional Clue Scroll based on your level—will be a guaranteed drop.
Community Events
The Pink Skirt Events team is comprised of Pmods hosting community events on a weekly basis. Here's what's on the agenda for this week:
Monday 19th March
Kalphite Queen Mass
Town Square Q&A: Europe
Tuesday 20th March
Hide & Seek
Wednesday 21st March
Corporeal Beast Mass
Fish Flingers
Gregorovic Boss Mass
Thursday 22nd March
Twin Furies Boss Mass
Friday 23rd March
Nex Boss Mass
Saturday 24th March
Town Square Q&A: USA
General Graardor Hardmode Boss Mass
Cabbage Facepunch Bonanza
Penguin v500 celebration
Helwyr Boss Mass
Sunday 25th March
Town Square Q&A: Australia
Mega Duck Hunt
For more info on this week's upcoming community events and how to get involved, check out the Pink Skirts Events' thread. | {
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President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday appealed to the 260,000 Filipinos in Kuwait to come home. Joey Dalumpines, Malacañang Photo
SINGAPORE - President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday appealed to the 260,000 Filipinos in Kuwait to come home.
This, amid rising tensions between the Philippines and Kuwait over the controversial rescue operations of distressed Filipino domestic workers in the Gulf state which angered the Kuwaiti government.
“I now appeal to your sense of patriotism. Come home. Tutal marami nang trabaho sa Pilipinas,” Duterte said in his speech before the Filipino community here.
It was the first time the president addressed the issue after the Kuwaiti government expelled Philippine ambassador Renato Villa, a move which the Philippine government called inconsistent with the assurances given by its envoy in Manila.
In the same speech, Duterte announced his plan to pull out Filipino workers in the Gulf state, given the supposed poor treatment of domestic workers there.
“Ang sabihin ko na lang sa kanila, and I plead na may total ban na sa deployment. Ayaw ko na silang papuntahin because apparently parang ayaw ninyo ang Pilipino,” he said.
“Just help us. I will look for money at kukunin ko lahat, lahat ng trabahanteng Pilipinong nasa… bahala na mag-utang ako kung anong gawin ko.”
Duterte said he intends to resume talks with Kuwait once he is able to pull them out.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano on Saturday said the Philippines remains in talks with Kuwait, but asserted that the Philippines' rescue of distressed Filipino workers was a "rightful exercise" of government's duty to protect its citizens overseas.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III earlier said Duterte was surprised with Kuwait's decision to expel Villa following the release of a video showing Philippine embassy officials rescuing distressed Filipino workers in Kuwait.
The Philippines apologized for the incident, which Kuwait viewed as a violation of its sovereignty. Manila also assured the Gulf state that it "will follow their laws."
The Philippines earlier banned the deployment of Filipino workers to the Gulf state and started repatriating those who would like to come home following reported abuses and deaths of Philippine citizens there, most recently domestic worker Joanna Demafelis.
Demafelis' death had angered Duterte, saying he was willing to take "drastic steps" to make sure no other Filipino worker would end up dead in the Gulf state or any other Arab nation. | {
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I feel bad turning someone down for a second date so I accept and sabotage the date so they won't want a third.
128 shares | {
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Longtime mixed martial arts referee Mario Yamasaki stands behind his decision during the Michael Chiesa vs. Kevin Lee lightweight bout at UFC Fight Night 112 in June despite Chiesa’s criticism.
Lee locked in a rear-naked choke late in the first round, and Yamasaki stopped the contest before Chiesa tapped. “Maverick" appealed with the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission (OSAC), but they denied his request to overturn the loss to a no-contest.
"I saw the moment he went out,” Yamasaki told MMA Fighting. "He can complain, but there’s no other way. The athletic commission already reviewed it, there’s nothing more to say. … (The commission) contacted me, I explained what I saw and he explains what he saw and felt. They watched the fight in slow motion and didn’t find anything wrong.
"It would have been a lot easier to let him go out longer, but my job is to defend his integrity when he's no longer doing it for himself."
Upset with the loss that snapped a three-fight winning streak in the UFC, Chiesa challenged Yamasaki to a grappling match during the upcoming Onnit Invitational on Sept. 30.
“I would like to test his fifth degree black belt in a friendly grappling match and let’s see if he’s what he says he is,” Chiesa told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. "And I’m not saying it in a hostile way, I’m saying, ‘hey, if you’re a fifth degree black belt, you should back up for the decisions you made.’ As a martial artist myself, that’s my open challenge to him, to headline Onnit Invitational on Sept. 30.”
Yamasaki questions the UFC fighter’s intentions with the challenge. Yet, he responded with another suggestion.
"I’m 53 years old, I don’t train anymore, how am I going to do this?” Yamasaki said. "And what’s the point of him fighting me? What would that change? What does he want to prove? It’s childish. Even if he catches me or if I catch him, that won’t change anything that happened in his fight. What is he trying to prove?”
"If he gives me some time to train, I’d grapple with him,” he added. "Tell him to come to my academy, no problem. I have 10 academies in the United States, he can come any time he wants.”
Asked about the Sept. 30 date, Yamasaki says Chiesa just wants media attention.
"What is he trying to prove? That’s what I wanna know,” the referee said. "What would that change? He wants media, and he already had media." | {
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厚生労働省と独立行政法人医薬品医療機器総合機構（PMDA）は3月下旬から、患者や家族からの医薬品副作用の報告を募集している。両者はリリースで、
「販売開始前に医薬品の全ての副作用を把握することは難しいため、患者の皆様からの副作用情報が医薬品の安全対策に役立つと考えている」
としている。
対象になる医薬品は、国内で製造販売されている医療用医薬品、要指導医薬品及び一般用医薬品。報告はウェブサイトまたは郵送で受け付けている。
報告が多かったのは「ワクチン類」「精神神経用剤」
| {
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Odisha Christian NGO found indulged in Sexual Abuse
Police have arrested NGO managing director Fayaz Rahman and one of his associate Udit Lima in forceful conversion and child trafficking case
Samanwaya Nanda from Odisha
The real face of Christian organisations working in the name of service and humanity is once again exposed when Good News India, a Christian NGO found indulged in various nefarious activities while running shelter home in Beltikiri village under Sadar police limits of Dhenkanal District in Odisha.
Allegations of sexual exploitation were first made by the inmates of this Dream Shelter home; later it was revealed that conversions and child trafficking were also taking place. Widespread protests have been started across the State demanding strict action against those who are involved in this. Police have arrested Fayaz Rehman, the managing director of Good News India, Simanchal Nayak, in charge of the Dream Centre Shelter and one of his associate Udit Lima in this case.
The interesting fact is that this shelter home was running illegally. The woman and Child welfare minister Prafulla Samal confirmed this.
“The shelter home is unregistered and running illegally. Strict action will be taken against the authorities of the shelter home,” he said.
“The shelter home has some 22 to 26 branches in several districts of the state. The District Collectors have been directed to investigate those and shut them down. The officials have also been directed to shift the inmates of those shelter homes to other institutions,” added Samal.
Apart from inmates of the shelter home, the cook also alleged sexual exploitation by owner Fayaz Rahman, and he reveals foreigners used to come to the shelter home regularly.
“I have seen the owner Rahman Sahab hug and kissed the girls. He often visits and hugs the girls tightly. Foreigners also come to the shelter home when there is a big function. They too get cosy with the girls. I have been seeing all this for two years”, the cook Pitabas Digal said.
Apart from Digal’s scandalous revelation, a confidential email from one Pramod Roul to all the directors of GNI shelter homes across the State has spilled even dirtier secrets. Pramod Roul is said to be internal auditor of Good News India.
The email strictly instructs the directors to be prepared for visits and checks from Child Welfare Committee , District Child Protection Unit and the police. The email lists some of the following shocking things:
Children should tell that they get chicken, fish and egg every week. They should also tell that food is tasty and enjoyable. The children should say that they are well taken care of when they fall sick.
Regarding the intimacy of pastor with kids, children should say that pastor sits with us, asks us about studies, etc. When asked if the pastor kisses and hugs them, the children need to entirely refuse this.
Children should not elaborate on any past incident. Children need to tell that they do not know anything about baptism program.
Two inmates of shelter home had been sent to their home after the made allegation of sexual exploitation. Police recorded their statement. When Police started investigating into the case, some children were found missing. According to police sources, they might have been trafficked to some other state.
This NGO was also converting the children to Christianity. Some videos and photos of the conversion and duban process were found and were gone viral in social media. In these videos and photo Fayaz Rahman can be seen in converting children and other people. The children are from low-income families. So Fayaz Rahman used to baptise them before taking them into the shelter home.
Following sexual exploitation allegation a, BJP Mahila Morcha team visited the spot and talked to local people and administration. After visiting the shelter home State BJP Mahila Morcha president, Pravati Parida alleged that the NGO was indulged in forcible conversion under the patronage of State Government. | {
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One fact about our time is becoming increasingly well-known. No matter how far you travel, no matter in which direction you point, there is nowhere on Earth that remains free from the traces of human activity. The chemical and biological signatures of our species are everywhere. Transported around the globe by fierce atmospheric winds, relentless ocean currents, and the capacious cargo-holds of millions of fossil-fuel-powered vehicles, nowhere on Earth is free from humanity’s imprint. Pristine nature has permanently blinked out of existence.
These planetary changes have been characterized by geographers, geologists, and climate scientists as the end of one geological epoch, the Holocene, and the start of the next, the Anthropocene. In this newly designated ‘human age’, our species’ impact on the oceans, the land, and the atmosphere has become an inescapable feature of the earth. This idea that humanity has forced a geological transition is capturing people’s attention not just because changes in epochs are rare. It is attracting notice because our species is gripped by the idea that we possess planetary powers.
A second fact about our age is much less widely appreciated. We are changing how the planet works. It is not just that human activities have stained every corner of the planet. The simultaneous arrival of a range of powerful new technologies is starting to signal a potential takeover of Earth’s most basic operations by its most audacious species. From this time forward, technologies such as the gene-editing technique CRISPR and climate engineering will transform an already tainted planet into an increasingly synthetic whole.
This February, when the entomologist Ruth Mueller pried open a container of genetically modified mosquitoes in a high-security lab in the Italian town of Terni, she wasn’t just experimenting with a powerful new tool in biotechnology. She was implementing a change to the Mendelian laws of inheritance that govern all life on Earth.
The mosquitoes she released, each of them carrying a CRISPR-enabled ‘gene drive’ designed to spread through a group of mosquitoes, would test whether humans could successfully force a trait through the whole of a free-living population. The lab in which Mueller works has been carefully designed so that, for now, the change takes place on a limited scale and securely indoors. But gene drives can theoretically spread themselves unaided to any corner of the globe in which populations of interbreeding mosquitoes live. They change the genetic rules wherever they travel.
If the question is ‘How much does your research amend the planetary rules?’ the Mueller lab has plenty of company.
Early this summer, a research team from Harvard University will conduct the first field test of geoengineering the climate. They plan to use a high-altitude balloon to place reflective particles into the stratosphere above the arid landscapes of the US southwest. There they will examine how effectively the particles beat back incoming solar energy. Scaled up appropriately, the technology could in future be used to rewrite the planetary rules in a way that echoes the changes wrought by gene drives.
Anthropogenic climate change has already altered how heat moves through the system. As devastating as this is, up till now, climate change has never been a matter of intentional planning and design. Our species has never before attempted to calibrate what the sun will deliver. This thermal quotient has been baked into the physics of the solar system. Should a large-scale deployment of reflective particles into the stratosphere eventually happen, it will rewrite this equation in our own hand.
Technologies such as gene drives and climate engineering go a quantum leap beyond what stratigraphers were noting when they recommended renaming this epoch the Anthropocene. Accidental changes are entirely different from deliberate ones. David Keith, one of the researchers in the Harvard climate-engineering project, points out the huge difference between deliberately engineering something and simply making a mess. In the former, the sense of responsibility is much higher. Think of why murder is so much worse than manslaughter.
Unlike habitat destruction, carbon emissions, and other signatures of the Anthropocene epoch, the technologies being tested today are designed for consciously taking control of some of the key physical processes that shape our world. The bedrock laws of nature don’t disappear, of course, but they become subject to a deeper kind of manipulation. You could think of these as not simply ‘cosmetic’ changes but ‘metabolic’ ones. Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, and the conventions of atmospheric physics become subject to a delicate kind of renegotiation.
The crossing of this line represents radically new territory for both our species and for the planet. Nature itself will be shaped by processes redesigned and ‘improved’ by geneticists and engineers. We should call this transition the beginning of a ‘synthetic age’, a time in which background constants are increasingly replaced by artificial and ‘improved’ versions of themselves. This remaking of the metabolism of the earth strikes at the very core of how we understand our surroundings and our role in them.
Researchers, politicians, and people of all nations will split on the wisdom of crossing these thresholds. They are no doubt exciting prospects to some. But they are absolutely terrifying ones to others. Technologies this consequential must be subject to the fullest and most inclusive public scrutiny possible.
An Anthropocene epoch requires one kind of psychological adjustment. A synthetic age demands something considerably more.
The Synthetic Age: Outdesigning Evolution, Resurrecting Species, and Reengineering Our World by Christopher J Preston is published via The MIT Press.
Christopher Preston
This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons.
Image Credit: pattara puttiwong / Shutterstock.com | {
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The Chancellor Of The Exchequer Philip Hammond is expected to announce a commemorative Brexit 50p coin today that will depict two small children fighting over a dead rat for lunch by frantically stabbing each other in the eye with the reinforced corners of their blue passports.
According to government sources, the new coin will enter circulation on 31st March 2019 – the day that the United Kingdom officially sort of leaves the European Union.
One source said, ‘It was a tough choice, and we had to whittle down a number of ideas until a panel selected the winning design.’
‘Second place was Jacob Rees-Mogg getting a rim job from a gathering of Question Time audience members from Barnsley, while not far behind that was a diabetes suffering sprawled out on the pavement after being forced to inject themselves with Vimto.’
‘The whole exercise is pretty pointless anyway, because by the time that the new coins are minted 50p will be worth around 19p.’
However, a number of Brexiteers have expressed outrage at the new design.
Roger Fuch-Weet said, ‘I have wrote to the Bank of England on fifteen separate occasions now to suggest unicorns.’
‘That could be on the front, with the back of the coin showing a load of war graves and an engraving of Jean-Claude Juncker to prove that our Brexit Bill has been paid in full. Because obviously that’s how economics works.’
Chancellor Hammond’s Budget speech will have a number of surprises today, including an expected £200bn Stop Brexit Fund according to Leave.EU’s Facebook page.
An update this morning said, ‘So now the Remoaner Chancellor will spend £200bn of taxpayers’ cash trying to stop Brexit.’
‘You all know it is true because we have used big, bold and colourful text that has very short, simple words superimposed over his face.’ | {
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You don't have to be a doctor to know that eating hundreds of strips of bacon at a time can't possibly be good for your health. A reporter for Japan's Rocket News 24 obviously didn't get that memo. Because he ordered a burger from Burger King with 1,050 slices on top.
You see, the fast food franchise is currently running a promotion that lets you tack on 15 strips of back for about $1.25 Or, in this case, over a thousand for about $90. The greasy, glistening burger must have been quite physically taxing because by the time he (spoiler alert) gave up, he was glowing with sweat and had only demolished about half of it. Then again, in this case, "half" is about five hundred slices of bacon.
If you're in Japan, you can order one of these, too. That is, if your arteries can take the punishment. [RocketNews24 via Geekologie] | {
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Ever wondered where the Queen of Sheba got her gold from? Sudan and Ethiopia are both in the region of what was the kingdom of Sheba, and both have ancient mines. In fact, the Asosa zone of Ethiopia could contain the oldest gold mine in the world at 6000 years old. Some geologists have argued that this zone is still rich with the precious metal. But whether this is the region where the Queen of Sheba sourced her gold remains speculation. In a region where prospects for gold deposits still abound, where does one start a search for an ancient gold mine? Well, a good prospect was found during a 2012 excavation in Ethiopia, when a team of British archaeologists may very well have found the answer.
The Queen of Sheba is famous in Biblical legend as the ruler who visited Jerusalem with loads of gold in order to impress King Solomon. Little else is known about her but the tale of her love affair with King Solomon inspired later mystical medieval literature in which she is described as possessing divine wisdom. She was also depicted in Turkish and Persian art and was featured in Handel's oratorio Solomon. She is also mentioned in various treatises in the Kabbala and her story was later the subject of Hollywood movies such as Solomon and Sheba of 1959. The legend states that she taunted the king with riddles and that he wooed her in return. Their child, Menelik, was the ancestor of the kings of Abyssinia.
Sheba was an ancient realm that existed during the 8 th Century BC. It lasted for a thousand years and included what is now modern Ethiopia and Yemen. The realm traded in incense and prospered because of its links with Jerusalem and the Roman Empire. Its famous Queen is mentioned both in The Koran and The Bible, which mentions that the Queen of Sheba arrived in Jerusalem “with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold and precious stones ... Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices.”
The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba by Apollonio di Giovanni ( Wikimedia Commons ). Note: Racial depictions are not accurate as the Queen of Sheba.
The Biblical stories of Sheba were written in the Iron Age. Several figures in the Bible are referred to as Sheba, one of them being a descendant of Noah’s son Shem. However, the name Sheba is actually a derivation of the Arabic ‘Shaba’, also known as the Sabaean kingdom. The story of its famous Queen appears in the Biblical book of Kings . Its capital was the city of Marib but the kingdom declined after a long civil war between numerous dynasties who each claimed the throne.
In 2012, a team of British archaeologists discovered an enormous gold mine in northern Ethiopia, along with a nearby battlefield and the ruins of a temple. The site is located on the high Gheralta plateau and the archaeologists knew it was once part of the realm of Sheba from the 20ft stone stele carved with the image of the sun and crescent moon – the emblem of Sheba.
Landscape in Gheralta Massif, Tigray Region, Ethiopia ( Wikimedia Commons )
“One of the things I've always loved about archaeology is the way it can tie up with legends and myths” archaeologist Louise Schofield told The Guardian shortly after the discovery. “The fact that we might have the Queen of Sheba's mines is extraordinary.”
Despite being warned the rock was the home of an enormous cobra, Schofield crawled beneath it where she discovered an inscription in Sabaean, an ancient language that would once have been spoken by the Queen of Sheba herself. On a mound nearby, the archaeologists discovered the ruins of an ancient temple that may have been dedicated to the moon god of Sheba. The team also discovered human bones on the site of an ancient battlefield nearby.
The ancient mine is believed to have once belonged to the Queen of Sheba. It was situated on a hilltop and entered by a shaft which is buried some 4 feet below the surface. The archaeologists found a human skull in the entrance, where chisel marks are still visible.
It may indeed once have supplied the Queen of Sheba’s treasure house.
Featured image: The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, painting by Edward Poynter, 1890, Art Gallery of New South Wales ( Wikimedia Commons )
By Robin Whitlock | {
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Image caption Operation Elveden is being run alongside two other inquiries
A public official arrested as part of the police investigation into alleged corrupt payments by journalists for information has been released on bail.
The woman, aged 45, was arrested at her home in Malton, North Yorkshire, at about 07:10 BST on Thursday.
Scotland Yard said she had been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office and of conspiracy to cause such misconduct.
She has been bailed to return to a police station in January 2014.
It brings the total number of arrests under Operation Elveden to 77.
Scotland Yard refused to reveal details of the woman's job.
Operation Elveden is being run alongside two other inquiries.
Operation Weeting is looking at alleged phone hacking and Operation Tuleta is focused on computer hacking and other alleged privacy breaches.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has also made three arrests under inquiries linked to the investigations. | {
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MANILA, Philippines — Police arrested a woman after she was caught flushing stolen cash worth P80,000 down a toilet in a condominium in Manila.
In a report, Manila Police District’s Crime and Investigation Detection Unit (CIDU) arrested Arcelie Dela Cruz, 37, of Isabela City on Sunday at around 1:30 p.m.
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Dela Cruz’s arrest came after victim Michael Ti reported to police that he lost his money placed inside the pocket of his denim pants which he hung on his bedroom door in his condominium unit in Binondo, Manila.
When Ti asked his househelpers about his money, he saw Dela Cruz was acting strangely and rushed to their comfort room.
Ti then witnessed that the suspect flushed down the money down the toilet bowl which led him to report Dela Cruz to the staff.
Dela Cruz was brought to Crimes Against Property Investigation Section-CIDU for proper disposition and filing of appropriate charges. /je
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A leopard entered a couple's hotel room in Nainital.
Highlights Leopard smashed window pane to get into hotel room
Room was occupied by Meerut couple vacationing in Nainital
As the leopard walked into the washroom, the couple locked it in
Imagine being locked inside a hotel room with a leopard for company.A couple from Meerut vacationing in the sylvan surroundings of Nainital was chilled to the bones when they found a leopard pacing about their room early in the morning.The big cat smashed the window pane to get into the room as Mr. Sumit Rathore and his wife Ms. Shivani cowered behind the bed to escape its notice.As the animal leisurely walked into the washroom, Mr. Sumit plucked some courage and bolted the door from outside and locked in the big cat and raised an alarm, Ranger Pramod Tiwari said.A forest department team arrived with a cage and tranquiliser gun to trap the leopard but it jumped out of the washroom ventilator and vanished in the nearby forest, he said.Apparently, the one-and-half-year-old leopard had sought refuge in the hotel room after being chased by wild dogs, the ranger said.The hotel where the incident took place is located in Tallital area.Earlier this month, a black Himalayan bear was spotted roaming the streets of Nainital in the wee hours.It broke the window pane of a hotel room where some tourists were staying leaving them aghast.After an alarm was raised, it walked down the lanes, descended into the lake and swam across it, before disappearing into the Ayarpatta jungle. | {
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Several years ago, my neck suddenly went bonkers—bone spurs and a long-lurking arthritic problem probably exacerbated by too many hours spent hunching over a new laptop. On a subjective scale of zero to 10 (unfortunately, there is no simple objective test for pain), even the slightest wrong move—turning my head too fast or picking up a pen from the floor—would send my pain zooming from a zero to a gasping 10.
Sitting in a restaurant was agony if the table was too high; it forced my arms and shoulders up. So was sitting in... | {
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Celebrities including Katy Perry, Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore have confirmed they will take part in the forthcoming Women's March on Washington. The protest will take place on 21 January, one day after Donald Trump is inaugurated into the White House.
Supporting women's rights, around 200,000 protesters are expected to march in the streets of Washington DC in a campaign against the president-elect. According to the Associated Press, Avengers actress Johansson said she would be attending to "make my voice heard and stand up for what I believe in" and criticised Trump's administration for "attacking" women's reproductive rights with its stance against abortion and Planned Parenthood.
Organisers announced that Ugly Betty star America Ferrera will chair the "artists' table". The actress added in a statement: "Since the election, so many fear that their voices will go unheard. As artists, women, and most importantly dedicated Americans, it is critical that we stand together in solidarity for the protection, dignity and rights of our communities."
A host of other celebrities are expected to take part, including Cher, Amy Schumer, Frances McDormand, Olivia Wilde, Jessica Chastain, Patricia Arquette, Debra Messing, Uzo Aduba and Zendaya. Comedian and talk show host Chelsea Handler will lead a similar march in Park City, Utah where the Sundance Film Festival is set to take place, while more than 100 protests are scheduled around the world.
The Women's March is expected to be the biggest campaign and will take place near the US Capitol building.
Explaining their intentions with the march, organisers said: "In the spirit of democracy and honouring the champions of human rights, dignity, and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore. The Women's March on Washington will send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women's rights are human rights."
Many celebrities have spoken out against Trump, 70, during and since the US presidential election in November. The Republican president-elect is said to have struggled finding performers for his inauguration on 20 January but former America's Got Talent contestant Jackie Evancho is confirmed to sing the US national anthem. | {
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Its happening: electric cars are hitting the race track Electrics are threats to the racecars in the unlimited class, which has no restrictions other than safety
Rod Millen flips down the visor on his helmet, inches toward the flagman, and sights down the strip of tarmac that leads to the starting line. The road ahead bends right—the first of 156 turns over the next 12.42 miles—and climbs quickly out of sight. The finish line is the 14,110-foot summit of Colorado's Pikes Peak, an unforgiving mountain that's tempted racecar drivers with both glory and disaster for the past 91 years. Millen has won the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb nine times, and he set the course record in 1994. His son, Rhys, set another record last year, reaching the summit in a scorching 9 minutes and 46 seconds; Millen thinks he can beat it.
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Rod Millen
Race veteran Rod Millen piloted Toyota's EV. "Right foot on the go pedal, left foot on the brake, no shifting, and no lag in power and torque. You can focus more on what you're doing," he says. "On the other hand, the whole car weighs a lot more than a gas car would."
He gets the green flag and rolls onto the throttle. For a split-second, Millen feels the rear tires struggle for traction, and then the 563-horsepower vehicle launches toward the first corner, wailing like a one-car police pursuit. Its 120-decibel siren is the only clue that spectators will have of Millen's approach, because this year his racecar, the Toyota TMG EV P002, is almost silent. For the first time in his career, Rod Millen is racing up Pikes Peak in an electric car.
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The vehicles engineered to conquer races have historically been the fastest, most powerful, most advanced cars on any road. For decades, racecars served as laboratories where new technology would succeed or fail, and successes often filtered down to production models. But to maintain the suspense of a close competition, modern races, from the circle tracks of the South to the Formula One circuit in Shanghai, now enforce strict rules. And so rather than innovate, engineers have become preoccupied with exploiting tiny loopholes.
As a result, today's production cars are often more advanced than their racing counterparts. A Ferrari 458 Italia offers a traction-control system that's illegal in Fernando Alonso's Ferrari Formula One car, and the Toyota Camry NASCAR racer thundering along the high bank of Daytona can't use the overhead cams and variable valve timing found in every showroom model. No Porsche racer ever built can match the powertrain sophistication of the forthcoming 918 Spyder.
Fortunately, there's one competition where rules haven't stifled innovation. At the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, the speed lab is alive and well, and the most rapid developments are happening in the electric class. Advances in power management, torque vectoring, and even high-speed charging are tested on the mountain and improved upon each year. And, unlike most of the big-money forms of racing, some of what's learned above the Colorado tree line could actually make its way into garages.
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Toyota’s TMG EV P002
The fastest electric car at Pikes Peak in 2012. This year, it returned with more power.
Chip Kalback
Until a few years ago, the electric class was little more than a novelty; Joe Ball's Sears electric car took more than half an hour to reach the summit in 1981. But now electrics are legitimate threats to the racecars in the unlimited class, which has no restrictions other than safety. In 2012, Toyota's electric car clocked the fastest overall time on the top section of the mountain, reflecting its twin motors' advantage at high altitude, where the internal-combustion cars lose about 30 percent of their power to the thin air. Most agree that it's only a matter of time before Pikes Peak is ruled by electricity rather than gasoline.
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The electric power made me feel more at one with the car. it's just linear power, like a roller coaster accelerating.This year, Mitsubishi fielded two 536-horsepower, all-wheel-drive MiEV Evolution II cars. Stunt driver and professional racer Greg Tracy piloted one of them to qualifying times that extrapolated to a top-three finish—not just in the electric class, but overall. "The electric power made me feel more at one with the car," says Tracy. "With a gas car, you're always shifting gears and thinking about the power band. With this, it's just linear power, like a rollercoaster accelerating. Once you remove those extra stimuli, it allows you to concentrate on getting through that corner as fast as you can. And the ability to have as much power on the last turn as you do on the first is mind-boggling."
The MiEV's other advantages include instant four-wheel torque vectoring and regenerative braking—which, in race conditions, means that the electric motors can act as a second set of brakes to help keep the conventional pads and rotors from overheating. "I had to adjust to the car's capabilities," Tracy says. "Every practice run, I got faster." Mitsubishi's Lancer Evo production car is famous for its torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system, which endows the sedan with physics-defying agility. In gas-powered cars, such systems are purely mechanical, but Mitsubishi's electric racers promise even quicker reactions by varying the speeds of each wheel's individual motor.
But electric racers still face one daunting handicap: weight. Batteries now have the capacity to send cars to the summit, but because they can't match the energy density of gasoline, cars need a larger pack. "Battery weight is the most important problem that electric vehicles face in the future," says Naonobu Tajima, chief engineer for the Monster Sport E-Runner fielded by Team APEV. "Our racecar weighs in at 140 to 150 percent of the weight of the unlimited-class race cars. With 156 corners, corner speed and agility is crucial, so weight reduction plays a great part in competition." It also remains a central challenge for production models: Decreasing the weight of electric vehicles would increase their range significantly.
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600hp
An electric motor at each rear wheel provides nearly 600 hp and 900 lb-ft of torque in full race mode; they can also act as brakes.
Chip Kalback
A few weeks before the race in June, Toyota agrees to let me drive its one and only electric racecar at Toyota Racing Development (TRD) facility in Salisbury, North Carolina. "Normally, race programs are secretive," says Steve Wickham, TRD's vice president of chassis development. "But we can show you this because at Pikes Peak there are no rules"—and thus no rule-bending secrets.
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Wickham's résumé includes high-profile series such as Formula One and NASCAR, and he seems like the kind of guy who is generally compelled to wring more speed out of whatever wheeled object he encounters. His kids have the fastest electric Razor dirt bikes in the neighborhood since Dad upgraded them to 48 volts from the factory 36. He sees no reason why the EV P002 shouldn't be the fastest electric car up the mountain.
Based on a Radical SR8 chassis, Toyota's electric car weighs 2,500 pounds and will produce about 563 horsepower and 900 lb-ft of torque on the day of the race. Until then, Millen will practice with about 15 percent less power because that full-throttle run will cook the motors in the process. Even with perhaps 500 horsepower available, the EV P002 has a power-to-weight ratio at the crazy, Bugatti Veyron end of the spectrum. And a Veyron doesn't offer maximum torque at zero rpm, one of the most noticeable performance benefits of electric motors.
As I putter over to an access road on TRD property, Wickham reminds me of my unique opportunity to derail the entire Toyota Pikes Peak effort. "We have one set of wings, so don't hit those on anything," he says. "And the brakes are carbon, so they won't really work because they're not hot. Be careful—it's only priceless." It's actually a couple of million dollars in development and parts. Still, no pressure.
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Brake-cooling ducts
Brake-cooling ducts highlight one of the challenges of Pikes Peak—keeping brakes from overheating in the thin air.
Chip Kalback
I line up at one end of the road, sight the cul de sac at the far side, and squeeze down the throttle. What follows is extreme cognitive dissonance. The shove in the back and the sensation of warping from one place to another is accompanied by only a high-pitched whirr from the motors, along with wind noise and the sound of road grit spiking off the underside of the fenders. I've probably experienced this type of acceleration before, but any other car with thrust like this would be wailing out a mechanical cacophony of intake gurgle, exhaust boom, and turbocharger whine. In the EV P002, one moment you're sitting still and the next you'd better hit the brakes because you're running out of road. Tracy says that electric racecars are initially disconcerting because the brain is expecting aural cues that just aren't there. I know what he means. It's like miniaturizing myself and strapping into the slot car I raced as a kid.
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I take a few progressively faster runs before returning Wickham's car while it's still in one piece. If this is a taste of the electric future, then it is bright indeed.
Race day at Pikes Peak started out sunny and clear. The gas-powered cars in the unlimited class surge up the mountain first, and World Rally champion Sébastien Loeb makes it to the summit in a 875-horsepower Peugeot in 8 minutes and 13 seconds—a new record. But the weather has shifted by the time the electric vehicles line up. There are reports of sleet high up on the mountain. With a mix of dry and wet pavement, the electric teams aren't even sure which tires to use.
"I can't tell you how many times I've raced on Pikes Peak and it's been beautiful during practice and then different on race day," Millen says. While his practice times extrapolate to a mid-nine-minute run, his race time is about 45 seconds slower. "We were only a few seconds off the quickest time, but Mother Nature dumped on us," Millen says. "We got rained on; the unlimited guys didn't. It's a crapshoot."
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Diagnostics
Engineers monitor diagnostic data such as battery temperature and brake pressure.
Chip Kalback
Tracy, in the all-wheel-drive Mitsubishi, finishes less than a second ahead of Millen. They come in third and fourth place among the electrics, respectively. Tracy is impressed by the times, given the circumstances. "You take one of the most dangerous races in the world and make it wet," he says. "To pull up to the line in those conditions and run 10:23 is unbelievable." Using hand-grooved slick tires on the Monster Sport E-Runner, Nobuhiro Tajima (Naonobu's brother) wins the electric class with a time of 9:46, the first sub-10-minute run of the electric era.
In 12 months, these electric cars have sliced another minute off their record. What will the times be like in five years?Though frustrating, the weather didn't dampen optimism that technological progress in the electric class would soon eclipse that of the unlimited. "In 12 months, these electric cars have sliced another minute off their record," Millen says. "What will the times be like in the next five years? I predict this is going to get pretty damn interesting." Naonobu Tajima thinks an electric car will dominate Pikes Peak in just three years. That milestone has already been passed in the motorcycle class, where this year a Lightning Electric SuperBike finished 21 seconds ahead of the second-place Ducati Multistrada—the fastest of the gas bikes.
In the meantime, electric racecars have already proved that eco-friendly vehicles can be capable of brutal, old-fashioned speed. "Most people have no clue when they see a Leaf that there is this potential for performance," Tracy says. The teams are poised to overcome other hurdles to widespread adoption too. For example, Toyota figured out how to charge the EV P002's battery—at 42kWh, nearly 10 times larger than a Prius Plug-in's—in just an hour and a half. "The car morphed from a test bed for powertrains to a test bed for high-speed charging strategies," Wickham says.
Though internal-combustion vehicles enjoyed a century-long technological head start, electric cars now loom ever larger in their rearview mirrors, both on and off the mountain. "Can you imagine if we took half the weight out of our car with new battery technology?" Wickham asks. "It would be unbeatable."
Steering Wheel
Via the steering wheel, a driver can choose different torque and traction maps to suit road conditions.
Chip Kalback
Ezra Dyer has won multiple International Automotive Media awards for his coverage of car technology. This article originally appeared in the October 2013 issue of
Popular Science.
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Making Yogurt at Home in Mason Jars
One of the most versatile, extremely-healthy super foods that is very easy to make is good old fashioned yogurt. Yogurt makers are very affordable, and do take a little of guess work out of it, but making at home with nothing more than mason jars is simple.
Health Benefits of Homemade Yogurt
Boosts the Immune System
Loaded with protein
Lowers the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Helps with digestion, specifically with lowering chance of colon cancer, IBS, constipation, diarrhea and lactose intolerance
Increases bone density
Lowers risk of Osteoporosis
Reduces high blood pressure
Supports weight loss and increases fat loss
Regulates moods
Reduces bad cholesterol
How to Make Yogurt using Mason Jars
Most of us think of yogurt as something we have at breakfast with some granola or fruit, but it is used extensively in many culture’s cuisines. One of the best foods for digestion, yogurt offers more health benefits than meets the eye.
What you will need:
This is very simple, and very cheap. You will need 4 mason jars, quart sized, large stock pot, thermometer, milk, starter yogurt, large cooler.
Process:
Fill the mason jars with milk (don’t use skin or reduced fat), approximately 2 inches from the top
Place the mason jars in a large stock pot.
Fill the stockpot up with water, up to about 3 inches from the top edge of the mason jars (don’t have to be exact on this)
Place a thermometer in one of the mason jars filled with milk.
Bring the stockpot to a boil, and then reduce heat so that the water is simmering, and wait until the thermometer reads 180ºF (a little skin will develop on the top of the milk at this point)
While wearing an oven mit, remove the mason jars now and place them on a counter or table, and loosely cover them so that no dust or anything from the air can get into them. Keep a thermometer in one of the jars.
Let them cool (will take perhaps up to an hour) to 110ºF to 115ºF.
Once they have cooled to this temperature, mix in 2 Tablespoons of normal yogurt that works as the starter yogurt. Mix in thoroughly and screw on the caps loosely.
Two options for incubation: you will need to let them rest, with no disturbance for about 8 to 12 hours. Three suggestions that work well for this: You can have a slow cooker ready that you poured in a tea kettle full of hot water into, and place the mason jars in there and put the lid on the slow cooker. You never turn on the slow cooker during this time. Cover the slowcooker with a towel to better insulate it. -or- if you have a good cooler, you can add some very warm water in the cooler and then add the mason jars and secure the cover. With a cooler, you might have to add hot water about half way through to keep the temperature up. -or- place the mason jars in an oven, turn the light on, and close the door
However you store, you will just need a method where you can store the jars at 110ºF to 120ºF for 8-12 hours undisturbed.
Secure the lids and place in the fridge, will be good for about 2 weeks.
Homemade Yogurt Serving Suggestions
Add a little vanilla or sugar when you add the starter yogurt for added flavor
Add a little powdered milk when adding the starter yogurt to make a thicker yogurt
After you make the yogurt as per the instructions above, you can take a sauce pan, place a strainer on top of that, line it with paper towels or coffee filters, pour the yogurt into that and put in the fridge for several hours. This will strain out the whey, giving you a very thick yogurt. The whey is excellent for cooking.
Enjoy with granola, fruit, honey, or maple syrup
Homemade Yogurt Video
A similar process, but in this video she heats up the milk separately, and then adds to the mason jars, whereas our recipe calls for adding the milk to the jars before heating. Both methods work easily as well, all a matter of preference.
Recommended Reading
Ashley English provides a feast of information for dairy-loving foodies! She guides readers through all the essentials in four topic-specific sections: Butter & Ghee, Cultured Dairy Products, Cheese, and Ice Cream. Each primer offers need-to-know facts with gorgeous photos, troubleshooting tips, profiles, and Ashley’s own roster of recipes for making such dairy staples as butter, sour cream, and cheese from scratch-as well as 10 seasonal dishes from Chilled Cucumber Yogurt Soup to traditional Mac & Cheese.
Greek yogurt has quickly become America’s favorite health food, its tangy, luscious taste going far beyond a typical breakfast or simple snack. Thanks to its health benefits, this power food has become a staple. Greek yogurt’s protein quantity builds muscles and regulates metabolism and the probiotics help maintain a healthy digestive tract and boost the immune system. Greek yogurt is also an excellent source of calcium and very low in sodium-and it’s lactose-intolerant friendly, too! Why wouldn’t you want it in every meal?
The internationally acclaimed The Book of Yogurt offers more than 300 flavor-packed recipes ranging from hearty peasant fare to elegant creations. Sonia Uvezian, an Armenian born and raised in Lebanon, expands yogurt beyond the narrow limitations of desserts and snack food and incorporates it into an impressive array of international dishes, among them South American Pumpkin Soup, Balkan Moussaka, Russian Beef Stroganov, and Caribbean Papaya Frappé. Also included is a section on making yogurt, along with outstanding recipes for frozen yogurt.
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Christopher Pyne in the red on student outcomes in independent public schools
Updated
There's a long standing belief that student outcomes can be improved by giving public schools the authority to choose staff, manage budgets and exert control over the curriculum.
In Western Australia, a third of all public school boards and principals have these powers. Those schools are known as 'independent public schools' (IPS).
Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne wants public schools across the country to follow the WA model. On a recent episode of Q&A, Mr Pyne claimed the move to independent public schools is improving student outcomes:
Wendy Harmer: It is not improving student outcomes.
Judith Sloan: It is, Wendy.
Christopher Pyne: It is in Western Australia.
Mr Pyne also said: "All international evidence points to the fact that the more autonomous a school, the better the outcomes for students."
The claim: Christopher Pyne says independent public schools are improving student outcomes in Western Australia.
Christopher Pyne says independent public schools are improving student outcomes in Western Australia. The verdict: There has been no measured improvement in student outcomes in WA's independent public schools. Mr Pyne's claims are unsubstantiated.
The Federal Government has promised to make 25 per cent of public schools 'independent' by 2017. It's offering $70 million in funding to make this happen.
ABC Fact Check takes a look at the international evidence and whether the move to an 'independent public school' system in Western Australia has created better student outcomes.
Independent public schools in WA
The Independent Public Schools Initiative was launched by the West Australian Government in 2010. The schools have more power to hire staff, manage the budget and shape the curriculum. Unlike private schools, independent public schools cannot charge fees and must accept all student enrolments.
Last year, the WA Education Department commissioned a comprehensive evaluation of its independent public school initiative. The wide ranging report, by the University of Melbourne, contains academic achievement data and charts the perceptions of school principals, teachers, parents, board members and P&C associations. The report said: "In this early phase of the IPS development there is little evidence of change to student outcomes such as enrolment or student achievements."
The evaluation, handed down in May this year, was led by Professor Janet Clinton from the university's Graduate School of Education. "There was no hard evidence of any change to attendance, suspensions, or academic achievement," Professor Clinton said.
Professor John Hattie, who also worked on the evaluation, told Fact Check academic achievement was measured against:
NAPLAN scores
Western Australian Monitoring Standards in Education for Science and Environment
Year 12 Australian Tertiary Admission Rank
Professor Hattie said when interpreting NAPLAN scores it was important to note that before joining the initiative the schools involved had better academic results than other public schools. But they made "no improvement under the 'independent' model", he said. Professor Clinton said classroom teaching needed to be improved to achieve better student outcomes.
Despite the strong empirical data indicating no improvement in student outcomes, interviews conducted with school principals as part of the evaluation found the vast majority believed there had been academic improvement. The report also found the majority of independent public schools reported a more "motivated, energised and engaged" school community.
Peter Titmanis from the WA Education Department said: "Given the initiative was launched in 2010 with 34 schools, with other schools joining in subsequent years, it would be unrealistic to expect to see major leaps in NAPLAN results in such a short space of time."
In a statement to Fact Check, Mr Pyne said: "Anyone visiting Western Australian Independent Public Schools would be astonished at the transformative power of school autonomy. I have visited them and can tell you first hand that the outcomes for students in all aspects of their school has dramatically improved. The work the Western Australian Government is doing will set their state up for excellence in education for decades to come."
International evidence
Many countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, have granted high levels of autonomy to public schools over the past decade. Closer to home, the state of Victoria moved to an 'autonomous' public school system more than two decades ago. Victoria's Education Department says its current public schools system is among the most devolved or 'autonomous' in the world.
A recent Grattan's Institute report by Ben Jensen titled 'The myth of markets in school education' says: "Despite this, Victoria's performance on national and international assessments is not significantly different from NSW, where autonomy is much lower. Scores in NAPLAN follow similar trends."
"The level of autonomy in a country's schools is not consistent with how well they perform internationally," it says.
Consecutive reports by Stanford University's Centre for Research on Educational Outcomes have shown students from "charter schools" in the United States, which are privately run, publicly funded schools, underperform when compared to equivalent students in traditional public schools.
Mr Pyne's office pointed Fact Check to a 2010 OECD report which says: "In countries where schools have greater autonomy over what is taught and how students are assessed, students tend to perform better."
The international picture is ambiguous.
The verdict
There has been no measured improvement in student outcomes in WA independent public schools. "All international evidence" does not point to the fact that the more autonomous a school, the better the outcomes for students.
Mr Pyne's claims are unsubstantiated
Sources
Topics: education, public-schools, federal-government, liberals, wa, perth-6000, vic, australia
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The map shows the main developments in the conflict between Turkey and the Kurds of the PKK (Kurdistan Worker’s Party) of the period from the 1st of November to the 31st of December 2016 in Turkey and northern Syria and Iraq.
Click on map to see full details
The insurgency of the Kurdish PKK and its armed wing HPG (Hêzên Parastina Gel, People’s Defence Force, in Turkey) has intensified throughout 2016 in southeastern Turkey, causing a tightening of the Turkish government’s military and administrative repression. They regained control of cities like Cizre, Nusaybin, Sirnak or Diyarbakir at the price of major destruction. Many mountainous and rural areas, however, are under de facto control of the insurgency.
Another Kurdish separatist group, the TAK (Kurdistan Freedom Falcons), with unconventional methods of action (suicide attacks, car bombs), intensified their actions and committed several attacks against the Turkish security forces, including December 10 bombing in Istanbul, which left 45 dead (it is worth noting that neither the PKK, nor the TAK target civilians).
In Iraq, Turkey has good relations with the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which is dominated by the PDK (Kurdistan Democratic Party) that is opposed to the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which supports the PKK). Turkey has set up several military bases to intervene more effectively against the PKK’s bases in the mountains of northern Iraqi Kurdistan (MDZ). More recently, the Turks obtained from the KRG the departure of PKK-linked YBS (a Yazidi militia) from the city of Sinjar (although they still control the region).
In Syria, the YPG are controlling a large area in northern Syria together with the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), considered by Turkey as an extension of the PKK (which is indeed the case).
The Turks regularly bombard YPG positions along the border. Since the summer of 2016, Turkey has supported a military operation (“Euphrates Shield”) in the Aleppo governorate of Syria, whose objective is to expel “terrorists” from this area.
This has led Turkey not only to attack the Islamic state, but also the SDF present in the region of Manbij, with the aim of preventing the territorial unification of the three Syrian Kurdish cantons, thereby keeping Afrin, which is the most westwards of the cantons, isolated from the rest of Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan).
* * *
La carte présente le développement du conflit entre la Turquie et les Kurdes du PKK (le Parti des Travailleurs du Kurdistan) et ses ramifications régionales, entre le 1er novembre et le 31 décembre 2016, en Turquie et dans le nord de la Syrie et de l’Irak.
L’insurrection du PKK et de ses bras armés, le HPG notamment (Hêzên Parastina Gel, Force de Défense du Peuple, en Turquie), s’est accentuée tout au long de l’année 2016 dans le sud-est de la Turquie provoquant un durcissement de la répression militaire et administrative du gouvernement turc et la reprise en main de villes comme Cizre, Nusaybin, Sirnak ou Diyarbakir au prix de destructions importantes. De nombreuses zones montagneuses et rurales sont toutefois sous le contrôle de facto de l’insurrection.
Un autre groupe séparatiste kurde, les TAK (Kurdistan Freedom Falcons), aux méthodes d’action non conventionnelles (attaques suicides, voitures piégées), ont accentué leurs actions et ont commis plusieurs attentats contre les forces de sécurité turques, dont celui d’Istanbul, le 10 décembre 2016, qui a fait 45 morts (il est à noter que ni le PKK, ni le TAK ne s’en prennent aux civils).
En Iraq, la Turquie a de bonnes relations avec le Gouvernement Régional du Kurdistan autonome (KRG) dominé par le PDK (Parti démocratique du Kurdistan, en opposition avec l’UPK, l’Union patriotique du Kurdistan qui soutient le PKK), et a installé plusieurs bases militaires afin de pouvoir intervenir plus efficacement contre les bases arrière du PKK dans les montagnes du nord du Kurdistan iraquien. Plus récemment, les turcs ont obtenu du KRG le départ de la région de Sinjar des Yazidis du YBS, aussi liés au PKK (qui continue néanmoins de contrôler la région).
En Syrie, en revanche, le YPG, qui contrôle avec les SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) une large zone dans le nord du pays, et qui profite de l’appui américain, est considéré par la Turquie comme une extension du PKK (c’est effectivement le cas).
Les Turcs bombardent régulièrement les troupes kurdes le long de la frontière syrienne. Depuis l’été 2016, la Turquie mène une opération militaire dans le gouvernorat d’Alep en Syrie (« Euphrates Shield »), dont l’objectif est d’expulser les « terroristes » (kurdes) de la zone.
Ceci a conduit la Turquie à s’attaquer à l’État islamique, mais aussi aux SDF, présents dans la région de Manbij, avec pour objectif d’empêcher l’unification territoriale des trois cantons kurdes de Syrie, le canton d’Afrine, le plus à l’ouest, restant ainsi isolé du reste du Rojava (le Kurdistan syrien). | {
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As it turns out, the only player who could stop the Premier League’s hottest forward from scoring is on his own team.
Just over an hour into Sunday’s match between the Premier League’s top two teams, Tottenham, already up 2–0 over first-place Manchester City, were awarded a penalty.
Based on recent performances, Spurs fans might have expected the kick to be taken by South Korean forward Son Heung-min, he of the five-goals-in-three-games streak. Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino had quipped that Son was “on fire” heading into this match, and he had already been involved in both Spurs goals of the day.
Son definitely thought he should be taking the penalty, too — but instead, it was Argentine midfielder Erik Lamela who grabbed the ball and brushed aside Son’s petulant attempt to wrestle it away. Lamela missed, but Tottenham won — the two teammates hugged at the whistle, and afterward Pochettino played down the brief scuffle: “That’s always better than nobody wanting the ball.”
No one wanted it more than Son in Tottenham’s win. It was a telling moment for a player who represents a new kind of Korean footballer. Son is not only stereotypically industrious and hard-working, but he’s also a confident, even brazen, shooter — and unafraid, as Lamela found out, to thrust himself in the middle of the action. Manchester City were put on notice from the start: Deployed down the center instead of his usual left wing, Son was impossible to miss. If he wasn’t nutmegging fullbacks and firing off dangerous shots, he was relentlessly chasing down City’s back line to regain possession. Son’s disruptive presence in the box helped pressure City into an early own goal and he later feathered a through ball for Dele Alli’s first-half tally.
Son left to a standing ovation from the home crowd when he was subbed in the 90th minute. The victory is a signature win for Spurs, and puts them firmly in this season’s title race.
Sunday was the biggest stage Son has ever played on in his club career, and he delivered. In his second season in England, after five years in the German Bundesliga, he has begun to live up to his £22 million price tag — the highest fee ever paid for an Asian footballer. The 24-year-old forward is all about high volume and high activity — he was among the league leaders in dribbles, take-ons, and shots heading into Sunday — with equal parts persistence and panache. Son is fast, instinctive, and predatory. Where other attackers dawdle, he is unfailingly direct, pouncing on opportunities to force defenders into worried retreat. Give him an invitation to shoot, and he will gladly oblige — with either foot, from any distance. “Bold and daring, this is how I like to try to play,” said Son upon his Tottenham introduction last summer. It’s as if Pochettino built him in a Spurs lab.
German football legend Franz Beckenbauer once said of Son: “He not only scores goals, but also makes beautiful goals.” (Middlesbrough recently bore witness.) In the absence of injured striker Harry Kane, Son has emerged from a reserve role to become Spurs’ main weapon.
For Korean soccer, Son’s star turn is a breakthrough. He is far and away Korea’s most exciting, creative player today — and, with all due respect to Cha Bum-kun, possibly of all time. It is, however, Son’s Korean passport that could cut his European career short.
Son turned 10 in the magical summer that South Korea announced itself to the footballing world, when the national side made a highly improbable run to the semifinals of the 2002 World Cup. At the time, all but two of the 23 players on the Korean national team played professionally in Asia (read: in total anonymity). But after Korea’s fourth-place finish, its best players soon became desirable to European clubs. All of a sudden, Korea was exporting soccer talent.
The most celebrated of the ’02 alums was the midfielder Park Ji-sung, who at age 22 followed ex-Korea manager Guus Hiddink to PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and then went on to have a decorated seven-year stint with Manchester United. Not only was Park the archetypal Korean player of his generation — selfless and dogged, among other mildly patronizing adjectives — but also, in his European glory, an outlier. The vast majority of his peers were failures in Europe, landing overseas in their 20s and struggling to adapt to life both on and off the pitch.
By the time Son came of age, Park had planted the flag for Korean soccer on the continent and the Korea Football Association began to encourage younger players to explore their options abroad. (Son has called Park an “inspiration.”) But while some of his Korean predecessors seemed content just to get a taste of European life before returning to the K League (Lee Dong-gook springs to mind), Son was always driven, in his words, “to play against the best players and the best teams.” From the moment he departed the FC Seoul youth academy for Germany as a 16-year-old, his career has been led by that ambition: At 18, he became Hamburg’s youngest-ever goal scorer; two seasons later, he moved to Bayer Leverkusen for the chance to play in the Champions League; 27 mostly spectacular goals after that, he joined an exciting, ascendant Tottenham team.
Son’s first year in the Premier League was uneven and injury-plagued as he struggled to break into the Spurs side; he was reportedly on the verge of leaving the club in the summer, but Pochettino resisted. Now, in only 360 minutes of playing time in the league, he has already matched his four-goal haul from last season.
Of the eight Korean internationals playing in Europe’s top four leagues — three in the Premier League, and five in the Bundesliga — Son is the breakout star. Notwithstanding his talent and well-drilled technical prowess (his ex-pro father heads a soccer academy), Son has benefited immeasurably from his footballing education abroad. When he left the Bundesliga, he was nearly fluent in German; in just over a season in England, “Sonny” has already been branded by teammates as Tottenham’s funniest player (check the team’s YouTube channel for more proof). Son, Korean football’s new avatar, has spent a third of his life in Europe. For ’90s babies like Son and the two Korean “prodigies” in Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy, the journey is the destination.
As Son and a new generation of Korean players cut their teeth in high-profile European leagues, the South Korean national team has floundered. After a disappointing early exit in the 2014 World Cup, they fell to no. 69 in the FIFA World Rankings, their lowest ranking since the table was introduced in 1992 (they’re currently no. 47). The 2002 team was characterized by a collective will; the overseas stars of the current team, including Son and Swansea City midfielder Ki Sung-yueng, have inevitably developed more individualistic qualities — the kind that might compel one to try to steal the ball off of a teammate to take a penalty.
Those tendencies aren’t easy to leave behind in Europe. After reacting angrily to being subbed in a World Cup qualifier against China in September, Son was reprimanded by Uli Stielike, the German coach of South Korea. “Unless he gets his act together and changes his attitude, I will have to think about the rest of the team as the coach,” Stielike was quoted as saying. He added, ominously: “All players have to be careful.”
It isn’t only his national coach that Son needs to worry about. Further complicating matters, as is the case with all Korean-born athletes, is the camouflaged elephant in the room. With mandatory military service looming in the distance — Son is required by law to enlist for at least 21 months by the time he turns 28 in four years — his professional livelihood is actually dependent on the national team’s success. Korean athletes who win any medal in the Olympics or a gold in the Asian Games can earn exemptions from conscription. (MLB stars Shin-Soo Choo and Jung Ho Kang earned theirs as part of the 2010 Asian Games winners in baseball.) The Korean government has also doled out one-time exceptions: The entire 2002 World Cup squad was excused, as was the third-place 2006 World Baseball Classic team.
The cruel irony is this: Had Son not been so focused on his European career, he might already be exempt. He turned down a chance to play for the bronze-winning 2012 Olympic squad so as not to disrupt his training for Hamburg. Two years later, Leverkusen were loath to allow their rising star to play in the 2014 Asian Games, where the Korean team won gold. Son finally did represent his country with a chance to gain an exemption in the Rio Olympics this past summer; the Koreans sputtered out medal-less in the quarterfinals.
As it stands, Son has only two tournaments left to grab a medal — the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and, cutting it extremely close, possibly the 2020 Tokyo Games — and thus avoid having his career derailed in its prime. (We’ll go ahead and assume that Korea will not make the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup.) Should Son fail, he could seek a special overseas deferment — as did former Arsenal bust Park Chu-young when he was granted a 10-year postponement in 2012 — but he’d then risk indelibly harming his reputation back home. Intense public criticism compelled Park to face the media and apologize. (Later that summer, all was rendered moot when he won bronze in London.)
The bigger Son gets, the more his pending conscription will become a story. It’s already being discussed in the English tabloids, some of whom are even forecasting that next year’s Korean presidential race could play a factor — potential candidate Nam Kyung-pil has spoken in favor of an all-volunteer military. (For their part on this issue, Korean media are mostly reporting on how closely the English media are covering it.) Son himself has stayed mum about the timing of his potential military service, but the questions will surely keep coming.
Four years is a long time; in football, it’s an eternity. Son is famously streaky. Still, here in the present, with tens of thousands of Spurs fans applauding him off the pitch and countless more around the world being introduced to him with each eye-opening goal, it’s hard to imagine Son serving his country any better than he is right now. | {
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Condo owners at a Toronto highrise are suing several former members of their board for $800,000, alleging those members conspired to divert hundreds of thousands of dollars from the building's operating budget for their own benefit.
The owners claim the building is deeply in debt, and they've been hit with a $750,000 special assessment.
The lawsuit, filed by owners at Five Condos on St Joseph Street, alleges a group of individuals posed as condo owners, forged ballots and managed to take control of their condo board in 2016. The owners are suing for $700,000, plus $100,000 in punitive damages.
They were turfed in 2017 after a CBC Toronto investigation revealed some members of the group had allegedly infiltrated the boards of as many as 12 other condominiums.
Condominiums often have multi-million-dollar budgets and it's up to their condo boards to decide how that money is spent.
Once elected, the lawsuit alleges, "the group would use their position of trust and power, authority and discretion to access the operating budgets of the condo corporations to bind the condo corporations to contracts with businesses that they, or their associates, controlled in order to insidiously divert funds for their own benefit."
For instance, the board signed energy contracts that forced residents at Five Condos to pay three times the market rate for hydro. Some members of the board allegedly received commissions or "kickbacks" from the contracts. The allegations have yet to be tested in court.
Condo owners at Five have been hit with a $750,000 assessment to cover money they allege was diverted by their former board. (Google Maps)
The men and women resigned from at least two condo boards: Five Condos and L Tower on the Esplanade, after the CBC Toronto investigation.
The lawsuit alleges a "trail of false invoices, pricing inflation schemes and self payments" has since been uncovered.
The group allegedly billed residents at The Five double the cost for security, concierge and property management services, keeping half the money for themselves. In other cases, condo owners were allegedly billed for services that were never provided.
Some condo owners worry their units have been devalued as they struggle to repair the building's finances. The owners say they've had an audit conducted, which has revealed the Five Condos operating budget account and reserve funds were depleted, leaving the group with $600,000 in unpaid bills.
Ryan Kerr, who owns a unit at Five Condos, says "security hadn't been paid, the cleaners hadn't been paid and we had minus 800 dollars in our bank accounts."
Kerr also says the building was about to lose its insurance, water and hydro because those bills hadn't been paid, either.
Special assessment
"We had to scramble to come up with some money quickly," he added. Condo owners have since been hit with a special assessment, meaning they have to collectively pay $750 000 to make up for the losses. There are 539 units in the 48- storey condo tower.
The individuals being sued include Darryl McGregor, Ray Blanchard, George Lazcko and Anastasia Mustafina. Some of them also allegedly infiltrated boards at the L Tower, The Icon on Wellington Street West and the Element condos on Blue Jays Way.
Residents of at least three of those condos have filed formal complaints with the Toronto Police financial crimes unit alleging similar losses and mismanagement. CBC Toronto has learned that police have launched a criminal investigation.
None of the defendants has filed a statement of defence yet, and none could be reached by CBC Toronto for comment regarding the lawsuit. | {
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Image copyright iStock
Five new medical schools are to be created in England as part of the government's expansion of training places.
The schools will open in Sunderland, Lancashire, Lincoln, Canterbury and Chelmsford over the next three years.
Places at existing schools are also being increased as part of the government's commitment to increase student places by 25%.
It will mean by 2020 there will be 1,500 more students each year.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the new schools were being targeted at parts of the country where it "can be hard to recruit and attract new doctors".
Overall 90% of the new places will be outside London.
"It will help us deal with the challenges of having around one million more over 75s in ten years' time," added Mr Hunt.
The expansion was announced two years ago in response to the growing pressures on the frontline, and the ageing population.
But ministers are now setting out the detail of how the increase is being phased in.
Some 630 of the 1,500 new places will start this September, with the rest to follow in 2019 and 2020.
Of the new schools, only the Anglia Ruskin University site in Chelmsford will start taking students this year.
The British Medical Association welcomed the move, but pointed out it would still be another five or six years before the extra doctors were working in the NHS. | {
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Between Sludge Pond and Old Growth:
A Look at Glaring Oversights in the Proposal for New Federal Prison in Eastern Kentucky
by Jordan E. Mazurek / Prison Ecology Project
Early Kentucky twilight trickles through the canopies of towering trees, softly illuminating the post-dawn fog as we fill our lungs, gulp after gulp, with the cool, sweet air of one of the last vestiges of old-growth forest in the country. Each step up a path so unobtrusive that only our guide can see it takes us further into the heart of the Lilley Cornett Woods. Clear cutting for logging, coal mining and mountaintop removal have, at one point or another, decimated nearly every last inch of forest in Kentucky.
But not here.
The thickness of each trunk whispers of how, centuries ago, its seedling first tasted the sweetness of the soil as it shot out the roots that we now step, and gently stumble, over. A bastion of biodiversity, this small, sacred patch of old-growth, 252-acres in total, greets us at every twist and turn by American Beeches, Eastern Hemlocks, Chestnut Oaks, Hickories, and over a hundred more species of trees. Within their shadows 530 species of flowering plants bloom, above our heads over 700 breeding pairs of birds find refuge in the dense branches, extending over every ridge and into every valley a dense network of flora and fauna thrives.
Unfortunately, we are not here to solely soak in this woods wonder, but are working as part of the Prison Ecology Project to figure out how to protect it. The Lilley Cornett, maintained by Eastern Kentucky University and owned by the Department of the Interior, is the longest preserved of only three old-growth forests left in Kentucky, and danger is literally on the horizon. “A couple miles as-the-crow-flies to the east”, as our guide puts it, a very flat yet devastatingly traumatic scar is scorched across the earth where a mountain once stood.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons calls this mountaintop removal scar “the Roxana site” and is desperate to rip it open anew by tearing from the ground over 3.8 million cubic yards of earth, extending the boundaries of the scar across 700 acres, so that it may construct one more crown jewel in the bloated war chest of mass incarceration. At a price tag of several hundred million dollars it would be the 6th federal prison in Eastern Kentucky alone, all to ‘alleviate overcrowding’ in a prison system that cages over 2.2 million people nationally, with another 5 million under state surveillance via probation or parole. It is telling that the Bureau of Prisons does not bring up decarceration as a possibility, instead advancing yet another environmentally and socially disastrous prison construction project.
Attempting to get ahead of the environmentally disastrous part of it, in July the BOP released its final 800+ page Environmental Impact Statement complete with public comments on the preferred Roxana site and the alternate Payne Gap site, amounting to little more than a bureaucratic footnote to smooth over construction and provide the illusion of public participation. The Prison Ecology Project, working through the Human Rights Defense Center, submitted a 21 page public comment, signed by 23 organizations and individuals including three professors from Eastern Kentucky University’s School of Justice Studies, on the original EIS draft detailing the documents significant shortcomings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the BOP largely ignored the concerns we raised and altered virtually nothing of substance between the draft and final EIS (check out the August 31st letter we sent to the BOP in regards to that). Worse though, the final EIS perpetuates two glaring omissions, the extent of which has only come to light after our visit to Letcher County and follow up research.
The first omission is that the Lilley Cornett Woods, “a couple miles as-the-crow-flies” from the Roxana site, is entirely absent from the final EIS save for one footnote on our very own public comment. At the time of writing the original public comment we did not realize just how close the Lilley Cornett Woods was to the Roxana site, nor did we realize the environmental significance of its old-growth status. The final EIS gives no mention as to how the massive construction project, extended periods of heavy machinery use (both on site and on the surrounding roads for transportation), the eventual 24/7 flood lighting on the property, extensive noise pollution from the construction and proposed firing range, the impact of 4 million gallons of permitted daily water use (water which must come from somewhere), and copious amounts of raw sewage, might impact the delicate ecosystem of the Lilley Cornett Woods that has, up until this point, been able to escape our society’s voracious environmental destruction. Within two miles of the proposed site it is unequivocal that the networks of flora and fauna extending out from the Lilley Cornett will be harmed by its construction and continued operation.
The second glaring omission and outright falsity maintained by the BOP in the EIS will undoubtedly result in extensive environmental harm and victimization to the potential prisoners themselves (not to mention guards and other prison staff). In response to our original public comment indicating that the BOP has done nothing to address the health impact on prisoners of ongoing mining activity and apparent coal slurry storage in the area, the BOP maintained that they expected no health impacts since the “proposed project is not located near coal mining waste facilities [and] [t]here are no active coal mines on either of the proposed [Roxana or Payne Gap] sites,” further claiming “no [coal] slurry ponds are located within Letcher County,” providing a link to the EPA’s coal ash impoundment regulation website as evidence.
The only misleading ‘truth’ in these claims is that there are no active mines literally on the proposed sites. Let it be noted that there are no active mines literally on the majority of land in Eastern Kentucky, but somehow that doesn’t stop the region from having some of the highest lung cancer rates correlated to some of the highest coal production numbers. Exploring the Kentucky Division of Mine Permits Surface Mining GIS map quickly reveals that there is an active surface mine under two miles to the northeast of the Roxana site, and additionally an active underground mine a half-mile due south of the Roxana site. Both mines are operated by Enterprise Mining Company LLC (a subsidiary of coal giant Alpha Natural Resources Inc.) and neither are mentioned in the final EIS despite the fact that:
“Numerous studies have indicated that communities hosting coal mining in general, and mountaintop removal mining in particular, are susceptible to increased health hazards. For example, a 2011 study of Appalachian localities found that even after controlling for socioeconomic factors, residents of counties with mountaintop removal mining suffered significantly higher rates of poor physical and mental health than other Appalachian communities. Another study concluded that chronic cardiovascular disease mortality is more prevalent in mountaintop removal areas. A water-quality study published in 2011 found increased concentrations of selenium, sulfate, magnesium and other inorganic solutes in rivers downstream from active and reclaimed mining sites. And a 2010 study of coal mining counties in West Virginia found that, even after controlling for cigarette smoking, cancer mortality rates increased for residents who lived near mining operations.” from the HRDC Response to Proposed USP/FPC Letcher County Final EIS, pg. 9
The BOP’s false claims are further brought to light by data from the Kentucky Division of Mining and information collected by Washington State University graduate student Pierce Greenberg. These sources show that the active surface mine operated by Enterprise Mining due northeast of the Roxana Site is also home to an active coal slurry impoundment that has been operating since at least 1979. Thus, the BOP’s claim that there are no coal slurry ponds in Letcher County is categorically false (the data indicates there are at least 3). Further, the BOP tries to back up this claim by referencing the EPA website, but the EPA doesn’t regulate coal slurry impoundments. That job falls jointly to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (Department of Labor) and the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation (Department of the Interior), along with state regulatory agencies. Greenberg, who studies coal impoundments and the communities near them, obtained the impoundment data through public records requests to MSHA and the Kentucky Department of Natural Resources.
The oldest active impoundments in the country date back at least four decades and in order to qualify as MSHA-class they must contain 6.5 million gallons of coal slurry mixture at minimum, while the notorious Brushy Fork Impoundment in West Virginia recently received a permit to hold more than 8 billion gallons. Having been in operation for at least 40 years it’s safe to assume that the aging impoundment near Roxana is holding a significantly larger amount of coal waste than the 6.5 million gallon minimum. The potential negative impact of the active surface and underground mine and coal slurry impoundment on the health of prisoners (to be read: environmental victims), again, is left unaddressed and ignored by the BOP’s final EIS. Given that our system of mass incarceration is overwhelmingly used at a vastly disproportionate rate to discipline and cage black and brown bodies, the unwillingness of the BOP to even account for these environmental hazards is indicative of institutional environmental racism that has the potential to cause serious harm and possible premature death to prisoners.
Those seedlings in the Lilley Cornett Woods that tasted the earth for the first time so many centuries ago whisper of unrealized worlds, paths down which our society might have walked that was in balance with the environment. The scar scorched across the earth at the Roxana site, however, screams of the destructive path we are still on as it threatens to grow even larger, devouring and threatening the surrounding environment, the Lilley Cornett Woods and the delicate network of flora and fauna it supports, and the very lives of our (overwhelmingly black and brown) brothers who will be caged there. We must not let this be the path we continue to walk. We must take a stand against the Bureau of Prisons and demonstrate how our continued reliance on mass incarceration, the New Jim Crow, both destroys the environment and people’s lives. When it comes to the proposed prison in Letcher County, we have no choice. We must shut it down. | {
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You know you are in a pickle when your website doesn’t rank well on search engines! When there is a dip in your search engine rankings, your sales suffer. But, don’t worry, you can always hire assistance from a trustworthy SEO company in your area and solve the problem. Thinking about which firm to turn to? Well, if you’re a resident in Florida, we got you covered.
Here is a list of Florida SEO Companies that you should check out in case your business is dealing with SEO crisis-
Tampa SEO Services Expert Tampa SEO Agency Best Local SEO Company The Miami SEO Company SEO Mavericks
So, these are some top companies offering SEO Services in Florida. These SEO companies have a minimum rating of 4.9 stars according to their customer reviews. So, if ratings are your trust factor, you should check out the SEO services in Florida that these companies have to offer.
Tips to Hire the Best and Trustworthy SEO Company-
Some of the most famous SEO companies are Tampa SEO Services Expert and Tampa SEO. But, if you want to explore more options before going into business with any of them, here’s what can help you track the best SEO company suitable for your business-
Your Desired Goal-
It is very important that you figure out your desired goal and what you’re looking for before you start the search. You need to have a well-defined goal which includes the desired revenue generation, promotion, figures of traffic that you aim to achieve on your website, etc. Having your goal set not only helps you but also helps the SEO companies in offering you the right service that you need.
Once your goal is set, you select the right company for the task. It is always wise to stick to the headings and meta descriptions of the results and see if you find what you’re looking for.
Word of Mouth-
While looking for an SEO consultant, it is always wise to refer to personal recommendations because they add to the goodwill and trust factor of the company. Personal recommendations have a sense of assurance of good performance and secured working.
Local Business Rankings-
It is very important to not fall for the local business rankings on the search engines. Do not simply go for a company that’s ranked first on the local business rankings because it just might be the oldest firm in the area justifying the rank. It has nothing to do with the SEO services the company has to offer. Therefore, always look for testimonials and client reviews to choose a trustworthy firm.
Location-
Another tip is to not be very strict on a location; otherwise you would miss out on some SEO opportunities of good potential. Just because a firm is not in your geographical area, it does not mean that you cannot communicate with them. If it is a highly recommended company, you can contact them for some remote SEO guidance. Most of the SEO work carried out is virtual anyway, so the firm needn’t be in the same physical location as you to get your work done.
Research-
Investing in an SEO firm is not something to be taken lightly. Proper SEO management can do wonders for your business, and the wrong choice can make it fall apart. Therefore, it is important to do your homework before selecting a company. You can do a thorough review check of the company, go through its background, look at its ratings and success cases, and also go through some reliable blogs posting about SEO management. While doing your research, always keep your eyes open because you just might find the right SEO company in places you weren’t looking for.
So, these were some tips and tricks laid out for you which can help you in making an informed decision while choosing the trustworthy SEO company offering just the SEO services you need to boost the sales and reputation of your business in Florida. Now you can smoothly improve your business’ search engine rank and increase its sales without worrying about it. | {
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Cryptocurrency stealers that replace a wallet address in the clipboard are no longer limited to Windows or shady Android app stores
For security reasons, addresses of online cryptocurrency wallets are composed of long strings of characters. Instead of typing them, users tend to copy and paste the addresses using the clipboard. A type of malware, known as a “clipper”, takes advantage of this. It intercepts the content of the clipboard and replaces it surreptitiously with what the attacker wants to subvert. In the case of a cryptocurrency transaction, the affected user might end up with the copied wallet address quietly switched to one belonging to the attacker.
This dangerous form of malware first made its rounds in 2017 on the Windows platform and was spotted in shady Android app stores in the summer of 2018. In February 2019, we discovered a malicious clipper on Google Play, the official Android app store.
Although relatively new, cryptocurrency stealers that rely on altering the clipboard’s content can be considered established malware. ESET researchers even discovered one hosted on download.cnet.com, one of the most popular software-hosting sites in the world. In August 2018, the first Android clipper was discovered being sold on underground hacking forums and since then, this malware has been detected in several shady app stores.
Copy&Steal
The clipper we found lurking in the Google Play store, detected by ESET security solutions as Android/Clipper.C, impersonates a legitimate service called MetaMask. The malware’s primary purpose is to steal the victim’s credentials and private keys to gain control over the victim’s Ethereum funds. However, it can also replace a Bitcoin or Ethereum wallet address copied to the clipboard with one belonging to the attacker.
We spotted Android/Clipper.C shortly after it had been introduced at the official Android store, which was on February 1, 2019. We reported the discovery to the Google Play security team, who removed the app from the Store.
This attack targets users who want to use the mobile version of the MetaMask service, which is designed to run Ethereum decentralized apps in a browser, without having to run a full Ethereum node. However, the service currently does not offer a mobile app – only add-ons for desktop browsers such as Chrome and Firefox.
Several malicious apps have been caught previously on Google Play impersonating MetaMask. However, they merely phished for sensitive information with the goal of accessing the victims’ cryptocurrency funds.
Security tips
This first appearance of clipper malware on Google Play serves as another imperative for Android users to stick with the best practices for mobile security.
To stay safe from clippers and other Android malware, we advise you to:
Keep your Android device updated and use a reliable mobile security solution
Stick to the official Google Play store when downloading apps…
…however, always check the official website of the app developer or service provider for the link to the official app. If there is not one, consider it a red flag and be extremely cautious to any result of your Google Play search
Double-check every step in all transactions that involve anything valuable, from sensitive information to money. When using the clipboard, always check if what you pasted is what you intended to enter.
Indicators of Compromise (IoCs)
Package Name Hash com.lemon.metamask 24D7783AAF34884677A601D487473F88
BTC address: 17M66AG2uQ5YZLFEMKGpzbzh4F1EsFWkmA
ETH address: 0xfbbb2EF692B5101f16d3632f836461904C761965 | {
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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II with the Duke of Edinburgh during the State Opening of Parliament in London | Arthur Edwards/AFP via Getty Images UK parliament to lose ‘itchy’ wigs Move intended to ‘convey to the public a marginally less stuffy and forbidding image of this chamber.’
Clerks in the U.K. parliament will no longer have to wear wigs and formal dress, it was announced Monday, ending a 300-year-old custom.
The move to "convey to the public a marginally less stuffy and forbidding image of this chamber at work" was unveiled by the parliament's speaker, John Bercow. He said that as well as losing the wigs, clerks would not have to wear a wing collar and white tie in the chamber. They will, however, still have to wear a gown.
Bercow said the changes represented the "overwhelming view" of clerks, who advise on conduct during parliamentary proceedings. Clerks had complained that the wigs were "itchy," the Telegraph reported. But Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Conservative MP, said: "That’s feeble. They must have been itchy for centuries."
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In response to the massive amount of criticism Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has received after calling the terrorist attacks on 9/11 “something some people did,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said the backlash “is an incitement of violence.”
“The levels which Republicans and conservative groups, whether they are official party apparatuses, sending out emails calling me and others domestic terrorists or whether it’s Ruppert Murdoch and the New York Post printing on the front page to circulate all around New York City an image that is incredibly upsetting and triggering for New Yorkers that were actually there and were actually in the radius that woke up one morning or were in there schools and didn’t know if they were going to see their parents at the end of the day,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters.
“We are getting to the level where this is an incitement of violence against progressive women of color and if they can’t figure out how to get it back to policy, we need to call it out for what it is because this is not normal,” she added.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) also defended Omar on MSNBC Thursday.
“This is just pure racist act by many of those, hateful acts by those because she does speak truth when she talks about different issues they don’t disagree with. I’m outraged. And I’m really outraged because as a person that has gotten direct death threats myself, I know that her life is put in more danger and I see her not just my sister and colleague, but as a mother of three,” Tlaib said.
AOC on NY Post/Ilhan Omar front page: “We are getting to the level where this is an incitement of violence against progressive women of color and if they can’t figure out how to get it back to policy, we need to call it out for what it is because this is not normal.” pic.twitter.com/Zxad5H4I8n — Jason Donner (@jason_donner) April 11, 2019
Ilhan Omar recently made comments trivializing the attacks on 9/11. Owen Shroyer exposes her attempt to make Americans forget what really happened.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today! | {
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On Sunday, the 5th of April 2015, the participants of the International Gathering of Anarchist Radios that is taking place in Ljubljana, Slovenia (2-5 April), will do a 4 hour live radio broadcast that can be listen to through an online stream.
The broadcast will be done from Ljubljana based independent Radio Student.
You can tune in and listen to the broadcast through direct link to the live stream.
There will be a range of topics covered during the broadcast. The participants from Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Austria, Italy, Germany and France will present their radio projects, the gathering itself and the activities of the anarchist, antiauthoritarian and wider social movements on the local level. They will talk about current issues such as the hunger strike in prisons and a struggle against the state and capital in Greece, police raids on social centers and repression in Spain, experiences with the Blockupy protests and mobilization against the G7 meeting in Germany etc. They will announce some of the future events of the international anarchist movement: bookfairs, protests, workshops and meetings. During the broadcast also people from other parts of Europe and the Americas that couldn’t attend the meeting itself will join us through the radio frequencies to share their ideas, proposals and informations. The broadcast is still in the preparation (mainly it will be prepared during the gathering) but you can expect interesting discussions and a lot of first-hand informations.
Help us spread the information about the online radio broadcast that will be done this Sunday. Please share this informations with your comrades and all those interested through your channels of communication!
If you want to share some of the informations through the broadcast on Sunday or ask or propose anything else, please contact us:
E-mail : crnaluknja[at]radiostudent.si
The process is open, so feel free to join us! | {
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John Kasich is either “delusional” or “grandiose.” Those are the only two explanations for why he continues campaigning despite having no possibility of winning, Charles Krauthammer said tonight.
“The fight between the establishment, the anti-establishment, is over,” Krauthammer said on Friday’s Special Report. “The anti-establishment has won in the form of Cruz and Trump. Now the question is which of the two will it be? It’s not going to be Kasich, there’s no way you reach down to the third in line.”
“So what is he thinking?” Bret Baier asked.
“I don’t know, it is delusional or it’s grandiose,” Krauthammer replied. “Or he thinks, there is one scenario, perhaps he does well in his area and denies Trump sweeping successes in those states. So that it keeps the Trump number down. But in that case he should be staying out of states where Cruz has the only chance of prevailing – meaning Utah, Arizona, et cetera.”
“Otherwise he is a spoiler,” he concluded. “Or he’s a stalking horse for electing Trump.” | {
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Органы следствия сегодня попросили отправить обратно в камеру блогера Руслана Соколовского, который ловил покемонов в Храме-на-Крови. Он находится под домашним арестом и хотел выйти под подписку, но в суде представители следствия заявили, что парень нарушал режим домашнего ареста и у них есть доказательства, передаёт корреспондент E1.RU.
Прокурор попросил предоставить эти доказательства в суд. Заседание перенесли на завтра – если следствие подтвердит свои слова, Соколовскому могут изменить меру пресечения и перевести снова в СИЗО. Самого блогера сегодня в зал суда не приводили. | {
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Toronto FC set the stage for a possible player acquisition Wednesday, making a deal with expansion FC Cincinnati for first position in Major League Soccer's allocation order.
Toronto also acquired US$250,000 in allocation money ($150,000 in general allocation money and $100,000 in targeted allocation money), sending defender Nick Hagglund and Toronto's 24th position in the allocation order in exchange.
"This deal gives us flexibility on our budget both in the short- and long-term, " Toronto GM Ali Curtis said in a statement. "In addition, the No. 1 allocation ranking gives us the option of acquiring another player and/or asset either during this transfer window or in the summer."
Major League Soccer uses the allocation process as its way of acquiring select U.S. internationals, elite youth U.S. internationals or former MLS players returning to the league after joining a non-MLS club for a transfer fee greater than $500,000.
The allocation ranking is set by taking the reverse order of the club's standings at the end of each MLS Season, with the expansion clubs at the top of the order.
Once the club uses its allocation ranking to acquire a player, it drops to the bottom of the list. Teams can trade rankings, provided that part of the compensation received in return is the other club's ranking.
Toronto made a similar deal in December with San Jose, jumping to No. 2 in the allocation ranking order in exchange for US$75,000 in general allocation money, $75,000 in targeted allocation money and the No. 6 allocation spot.
Toronto subsequently sent a second-round pick to FC Cincinnati to move up one spot to the top of the allocation ranking. It then used the allocation process to sign former MLS defender of the year Laurent Ciman, who had left the league to play in France.
The 26-year-old Hagglund, a Cincinnati native, has been with Toronto since being taken in the first round (10th overall) in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft. In five seasons with Toronto, Hagglund made a combined 115 appearances with six goals and six assists.
A popular member of the Toronto team, Hagglund saw action in 20 games last season with 15 starts. A force in the air, he had three goals in 2018.
Hagglund scored one of the biggest goals in club history in the 2016 playoffs against the Montreal Impact. His headed goal with 22 minutes remaining in regulation time tied up the Eastern Conference final at 5-5 aggregate, sending it to extra time where goals by Benoit Cheyrou and Tosaint Ricketts sealed the Toronto win.
Toronto is well-stocked at centre back with Ciman, Drew Moor, Chris Mavinga and Eriq Zavaleta with fullbacks Gregory van der Wiel and Justin Morrow also available as cover.
It has other needs.
TFC was left a hole in its midfield with the recent departure of Spanish playmaker Victor Vazquez to a club in Qatar. The club is also short on depth up front behind star forwards Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore.
The team is currently training in California.
___
Follow @NeilMDavidson on Twitter | {
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OBETZ, Ohio – Hector Jimenez began the 2015 season without a defined role for Columbus Crew SC.
Brought in as a winger at the start of 2014, Jimenez played all over the midfield in his first season in Columbus, and ended the season as a replacement right back. In the team’s preseason matches this year, he played in several different positions, including central midfield.
In the first weeks of the season, Jimenez was the first man off the bench, regularly coming into matches as a substitute and making six appearances – including five off the bench – in the first eight games of the season.
But when starting fullback Hernan Grana and the team cut ties so the player could return to Argentina two weeks ago, Jimenez slotted into the starting lineup, going the full 90 in Crew SC’s last two matches – including an excellent performance in the club’s 3-2 win against the Seattle Sounders on May 9.
Jimenez says his ability to slot into the role is a testament to the depth in Columbus.
“At the end of last year, we didn’t have the depth that we have this year,” he said. “It’s a position where someone has to step up, and right now I’m lucky enough to be playing.”
And even when he was acting as a utility player, Jimenez says he never lost faith that he’d be back on the field in a bigger role.
“At the end of the day, I’m here for the team,” he said. “If that’s the role I have to play, I’m OK with it.…The coaching staff gives everyone confidence, and they talk to you and encourage you to strive in that situation.”
Accustomed to playing in a more attacking role, Jimenez admitted he’s had some work to do in adjusting to right back, particularly with his positioning and defensive game. But he’s working at it, and says he’s getting plenty of support from head coach Gregg Berhalter and Crew SC staff and teammates.
“When you’re in the backline, you’re some of the last players back,” he said. “It’s a little tough to manage that. But watching video with [assistant coach Josh] Wolff and Gregg and the coaching staff makes it a lot easier to know where to be, and having [center back and captain Michael Parkhurst] back there, such an experienced player, makes things a lot easier.”
Berhalter said Jimenez is still learning, but is happy with his progression.
“I think [Jimenez] has done well,” he said. “It’s obviously a work in progress, and we’re working with him, as we do with all the defenders, on his one-on-one defending and getting good opportunities to challenge themselves defensively.”
The Crew SC boss often says that different players interpret each of the 11 positions differently, and said Jimenez’s offensive game makes him a different player than Grana, changing the way the team’s offense flows.
Save of the Week update: Crew SC's Steve Clark leads by a nose
“Hector, offensively, is very good,” Berhalter said. “He’s very good at passing and movement off the ball. He interprets it more with his off-the-ball movements and getting into spaces where Hernan, a lot of it was on-the-ball. So they’re different in that respect.”
While Jimenez has played well since Grana’s departure, Berhalter said there are still several options for that position, including Chad Barson and Chris Klute. Jimenez agreed, saying he’s not taking the spot for granted, and will be working harder than ever to stay on the field.
“We have everyone competing for that spot, so you have to show up every day and compete,” he said. “At the end of the day, you have to make it difficult for the coaches to decide.” | {
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Kenneth Heiner-Moller makes his home debut as Canadian women’s soccer coach on June 10 against Olympic champion Germany. And the 47-year-old Dane is bringing his big guns to Hamilton’s Tim Hortons Field.
In addition to captain Christine Sinclair and her 267 caps, Heiner-Moller has summoned four others who have a century or more national team appearances: goalkeeper Erin McLeod (116) and midfielders Desiree Scott (133), Sophie Schmidt (169) and Diana Matheson (194).
Defenders Kadeisha Buchanan (76), Ashley Lawrence (61) and Allysha Chapman (51), midfielder Jessie Fleming (52) and goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe (50) all have 50 or more caps.
The new face, at least to the public, is Heiner-Moller, who was an assistant to John Herdman when the Canadian women won bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He was elevated to the top job in January when Herdman took charge of the Canadian men’s program.
A bundle of energy with the gift of the gab, the stylish Herdman is hard to miss on the sidelines. Heiner-Moller is more laid-back.
“I don’t mind the spotlight but I don’t need it,” he said in an interview.
Teenagers on the 20-woman roster are 17-year-old Julia Grosso, 18-year-old Emma Regan and 19-year-old Deanne Rose. Regan and Gross are both from the Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite program while Rose, who already has 33 caps, plays for the University of Florida.
The Vancouver-based Heiner-Moller elected to leave 17-year-old striker Jordyn Huitema with the under-17 squad, which is preparing for the June 6 resumption of the CONCACAF women’s under-17 championship.
The original tournament was suspended April 22, due to security concerns in the host country of Nicaragua. The IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., will host the remaining matches with Canada 1-0-0 after a 3-0 victory over Bermuda in Nicaragua.
Other than Huitema, Heiner-Moller said he got everyone he wanted.
Labbe gets the call despite a lack of playing time after being denied a chance to play for a Calgary men’s team in the PDL by league officials. She expects to join a European team in the near future.
“I hope so,” said Heiner-Moller. “I don’t think that players on this level can go without match minutes for a longer period of time and Steph knows that I think this.”
Canada is 1-5-0 all-time against Germany. The lone win came at the 2016 Rio Olympics when Canada scored a 2-1 upset in preliminary play. Germany had its revenge in the semifinal, winning 2-0.
The Germans went on to defeat Sweden 2-1 in the final while Canada beat Brazil by the same score for the bronze.
The most recent FIFA rankings in March saw Canada rise to No. 4, matching its all-time high achieved in the wake of Rio. The U.S. ranks No. 1, with England second.
Germany dropped to No. 3, falling out of the top two for the first time since June 2009, after finishing last in March in the SheBelieves Cup where the Germans lost 3-0 to France, 1-0 to the U.S. and drew 2-2 with England.
In the aftermath of that poor performance, Steffi Jones was dismissed as Germany coach and Horst Hrubesch was named interim coach. Hrubesch led the German men to a silver medal at the Rio Olympics.
Germany is coming off 4-0 World Cup qualifying wins over Slovenia and the Czech Republic in April.
“It’a hungry team,” said Heiner-Moller.
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Hrubesch, a former German international forward, has a coaching resume that stretches more than 30 years,
“He knows what he’s doing. He’s a great coach,” Heiner-Moller said. “He’s definitely sparked some new energy into this German side, bringing in some more untested players but definitely hungry players. And they’ll be ready.”
Canada will have some intel on the opposition. McLeod, Schmidt and defender Shannon Woeller all play professionally in Germany.
Germany scored in the 86th minute to beat Canada 2-1 the last time they met, at a friendly in Erfurt, Germany.
Canada last played in April when it lost 1-0 to France in a friendly in Rennes. The teams is 3-2-0 under Heiner-Moller, who has spent recent months building relationships with the likes of Portland, Olympique Lyonnais and Paris Saint-Germain, home to Sinclair, Buchanan and Lawrence, respectively.
The Canadian women are gearing up for the CONCACAF Women’s Championship in October, which serves as a World Cup qualifier.
The Hamilton game is the first home match for Heiner-Moller since taking over the women’s team, from John Herdman in January. It’s also the first match for the women at Tim Hortons Field since a 1-0 loss to England in a friendly ahead of the 2015 Women’s World Cup Canada.
Canada Roster
Goalkeepers: Stephanie Labbe, Stony Plain, Alta., unattached; Erin McLeod, St. Albert, Alta., USV Jena (Germany).
Defenders: Lindsay Agnew, Kingston, Ont.; Houston Dash (NWSL); Allysha Chapman, Courtice, Ont.. Houston Dash (NWSL); Ashley Lawrence, Caledon, Ont.. Paris Saint-Germain (France); Emma Regan, North Vancouver, Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite; Shannon Woeller, Vancouver, USV Jena (Germany); Shelina Zadorsky, London, Ont., Orlando Pride (NWSL); Kadeisha Buchanan, Brampton, Ont.; Olympique Lyonnais (France).
Midfielders: Rebecca Quinn, Toronto, Washington Spirit (NWSL); Desiree Scott, Winnipeg, Utah Royals FC (NWSL); Sophie Schmidt, Abbotsford, B.C., FFC Frankfurt (Germany); Jessie Fleming, London, Ont., UCLA (NCAA); Diana Matheson, Oakville, Ont., Utah Royals FC (NWSL); Julia Grosso, Vancouver, Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite.
Forwards: Christine Sinclair, Burnaby, B.C., Portland Thorns (NWSL); Deanne Rose, Alliston, Ont., University of Florida Gators (NCAA); Janine Beckie, Highlands Ranch, Colo., Sky Blue FC (NWSL); Adriana Leon, King City, Ont., Sky Blue FC (NWSL); Nichelle Prince, Ajax, Ont., Houston Dash (NWSL).
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lucknow
Updated: Jun 07, 2019 14:20 IST
Ravindra Kumar, an IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre who first conquered Mount Everest in 2013, scaled the world’s highest peak again on May 23 this year.
Presently posted as private secretary in the ministry of drinking water and sanitation, Government of India, Kumar said that this expedition was different from the last one as it was dedicated to a cause—‘Swachh Ganga Swachh Bharat Everest Abhiyaan 2019’.
Kumar said he scaled the mountain again to give a call to people of India from the top of the world towards the urgent need of controlling water pollution, saving rivers and other sources of water and ensuring availability of clean water to all.
On Thursday, Kumar also met chief minister Yogi Adityanath and handed to him a book on his previous journey to Mount Everest, authored by him.
Kumar claimed to be the first and only IAS officer of India, who has climbed the Mt Everest.
His first conquest of Everest in 2013 from Nepal (south) route was inspired by Sikkim earthquake of 2011, when mountaineers were called for search and rescue mission . His second Everest expedition in 2015 was organised to spread awareness about importance of sanitation through ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, which was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
During that expedition, he faced Nepal earthquake and avalanche at Everest Base Camp on April 25, 2015, which caused huge damage to life and property, but in spite of endangering his own life in the process he claims to have saved many lives. With this year’s successful climb from China (North) route, he has became one of the few distinguished Indians, who has scaled Everest from both Nepal and China route, which are two major routes for climbing the Everest.
He said through 2019 Everest expedition, he targeted water sector and urged people from the highest point of Himalayas, the source of major rivers of India, to save water at their personal level. | {
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